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Polytechnics in Nigeria are conventional institutions where academic board records are being managed in paper form. It has been observed that accessing these academic board records is difficult due to factors associated with the absence of preservation techniques and lack of clear-cut conservation practices. This study, therefore, aims to examine the preservation techniques and conservation practices adopted for the management of academic board records in polytechnics in South-West Nigeria.

This study adopted a qualitative method with the population comprising 54 records management personnel enumerated in the four selected polytechnics in South-West Nigeria. Triangulation method (questionnaire, interview and observation checklist) was used for data collection. The responses were analysed with descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Findings revealed that photocopying, binding and use of insecticides were the most rated preservation techniques adopted. The security and shelving of academic board records to allow for free flow of air were the most available conservation practices, whereas staff training was not adequately available. The topmost rated constraints were non-challant attitude of personnel in-charge, insufficient funds and inadequate infrastructure.

This study concluded that preservation and conservation practices are vital in the management of academic board records in polytechnics in South-West Nigeria. For efficient and effective management of academic board records, modern-day preservation and conservation practices need to be adopted.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how preservation and conservation practices adopted for the management of academic board records in Nigerian polytechnics.

The purpose of this study is to outline the process, procedures and techniques used for digitization and digital preservation of theses and dissertations (TDs) collection at the Central Library of Quaid-I-Azam University, Pakistan.

Since the phenomenon under investigation is exploratory in nature, a case study qualitative paradigm was used to conduct this study.

The findings of the study offer a brief overview of the cost-effective solution that leveraged in-house expertise for the digital preservation of TDs. This led to the establishment of a knowledge repository hosting a substantial collection of approximately 25,857 electronic theses and dissertations, accessible online since August 2023. This project digitally preserved approximately 9,387 TDs on CDs/DVDs, and scanned about 15,000 print TDs, comprising around 1,399,244 pages. The cost incurred per page, including labor and rent of a photocopy machine, was just Rs 0.548 making it a cost-effective technique. The total cost incurred for this process was just 0.768m Pakistani rupees (equivalent to $2,509.55). The findings revealed key challenges, including administrative, financial, technical and copyright issues, that impede the effective execution of the project.

This case study is limited to one Pakistani public sector university library. This case study holds significance in terms of practical insights and implications for academic institutions and library administrators in other developing countries like Pakistan, which have similar economic, social and technical circumstances.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first-ever study conducted to elucidate the cost-effective strategy adopted for digitally preserved TDs without additional financial and human resources while creating a knowledge repository.

Commercial buildings, which include office buildings, are one of the three major energy-consuming sectors, alongside industrial and transportation sectors. The vast increase in the number of buildings is a positive sign of the rapid development of Malaysia. However, most Malaysian government office buildings tend to consume energy inefficiently due to lack of energy optimization. Most of the previous studies focused on the performance of green buildings in fulfilling the green development guidelines. As such, it is essential to study the energy performance of existing government office buildings that were constructed before most energy-efficient standards were implemented to mitigate energy wastage due to the lack of energy optimization. This study aims to analyse the energy performance of existing non-green Malaysian government office buildings and the factors that influence building energy consumption, as well as to evaluate the efficacy of the existing energy conservation measures.

This study was conducted by a literature review and case study. The chosen buildings are six government office building blocks located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. In this study, a literature review has been conducted on the common factors affecting energy consumption in office buildings. The energy consumption data of the buildings were collected to calculate the building energy intensity (BEI). The BEI was compared to the MS1525:2019 and GBI benchmarks to evaluate energy performance. SketchUp software was utilized to illustrate the solar radiation and sun path diagram of the case study buildings. Finally, recommendations were derived for retrofit strategies based on non-design factors and passive design factors.

In typical government office buildings, the air-conditioning system consumed the most energy at 65.5%, followed by lighting system at 22.6%, and the remaining 11.9% was contributed by office appliances. The energy performance of the case study buildings is considered as satisfactory as the BEI did not exceed the MS1525:2019 benchmark of 200 kWh/m2/year. The E Block recorded the highest BEI of 183.12 kWh/m2/year in 2020 due to its north-east orientation which is exposed to the most solar radiation. Besides, E Block consists of rooms that can accommodate large number of occupants. As such, non-design factors which include higher occupancy rate and higher cooling demand due to high outdoor temperature leads to higher energy consumption. By considering passive design features such as building orientation and building envelope thermal properties, energy consumption can be reduced significantly.

This study provided a comprehensive insight into the energy performance of Malaysian government office buildings, which were constructed before the energy-efficient standards being introduced. By calculating the BEI of six government office buildings, it is found that the energy performance of the case study buildings fulfils the MS1525 benchmark, and that all their BEIs are below 200 kWh/m2/year. Malaysia's hot and humid climate significantly affects a building's cooling load, and it is found the air-conditioning system is the major energy consumer of Malaysian government office buildings. This study discusses the efficacy of the energy-saving measures implemented in the case study buildings to optimize energy consumption. Recommendations were derived based on the non-design factors and passive design factors that affected the energy consumption of the case study building. It is envisioned that this study can provide practical strategies for retrofit interventions to reduce energy consumption in Malaysian office buildings as well as for office buildings that are in a similar climate.

This study aims to identify the librarians’ readiness to leverage artificial intelligence for sustainable competence development and smart library services.

This study used a quantitative research design for addressing the objectives. The population consisted of librarians from the public and private sector universities of Pakistan. The data were analyzed by using Smart PLS software.

The analysis consisted of two major parts: first the assessment of measurement model and second the structural equation modeling analysis. A significant positive impact of AI adoption was found on the implementation smart library services. Findings revealed that behavioral intention motivated librarians to adopt AI tools in university libraries for the delivery of smart library services.

We applied quantitative method to carry out the study while future authors may conduct a systematic literature review on the same topic for offering a broader outlook.

It has provided practical contributions by providing a baseline for management bodies to construct policies for the successful adoption of AI in libraries for sustainable competence development of practicing librarians and implementation of smart library services.

The study has social implications too as AI integrated library services prove fruitful for society and digitally skilled librarians play a vital role for the promotion of reading and research culture in society.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on librarians’ readiness to leverage artificial intelligence for the enhancement of digital literacy skills, sustainable competence development and smart library services in the context of Pakistan.

Gillette’s historically successful “razor and blade” business model (RBM) has been a promising benchmark for multiple businesses across diverse industries worldwide in the past several decades. The extant literature deals with very few nuances of this business model notwithstanding the fact that there are several variants of this business model being put to practical use by firms in diverse industries in grossly metaphorically equivalent situations.

This study adopts the 2 × 2 truth table framework from the domains of mathematical logic and combinatorics in fleshing out all possible (four logical possibilities) variants of the razor and blade business model for further analysis. This application presents four mutually exclusive yet collectively exhaustive possibilities on any chosen dimension. Two major dimensions (viz., provision of subsidy and intra- or extra-firm involvement in the making of razors or blades or both) form part of the discussion in this paper. In addition, this study synthesizes and streamlines entrepreneurial wisdom from multiple intra-industry and inter-industry benchmarks in terms of real-time firms explicitly or implicitly adopting several variants of the RBM that suit their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of evolution in situations that are grossly reflective of the metaphorically equivalent scenario of razor and recurrent blades. Inductive method of research is carried out with real-time cases from diverse industries with a pivotally common pattern of razor and blade model in some form or the other.

Several new variants of the razor and blade model (much beyond what the extant literature explicitly projects) have been discovered from the multiple metaphorically equivalent cases of RBM across industries. All of these expand the portfolio of options that relevant entrepreneurial firms can explore and exploit the best possible option chosen from them, given their unique context and idiosyncratic trajectory of growth.

This study has enriched the literature by presenting and analyzing a more inclusive or perhaps comprehensive palette of explicit choices in the form of several variants of the RBM for the relevant entrepreneurial firms to choose from. Future research can undertake the task of comparing these variants of RBM with those of upcoming servitization business models such as guaranteed availability, subscription and performance-based contracting and exploring the prospects of diverse combinations.

Smart entrepreneurial firms identify and adopt inspiring benchmarks (like razor and blade model whenever appropriate) duly tweaked and blended into a gestalt benchmark for optimal profits and attractive market shares. They target diverse market segments for tied-goods with different variants or combinations of the relevant benchmarks in the form of variegated customer value propositions (CVPs) that have unique and enticing appeal to the respective market segments.

Value-sensitive customers on the rise globally choose the option that best suits them from among multiple alternatives offered by competing firms in the market. As long as the ratio of utility to price of such an offer is among the highest, even a no-frills CVP may be most appealing to one market segment while a plush CVP may be tempting to yet another market segment simultaneously. While professional business firms embrace resource leverage practices consciously, amateur customers do so subconsciously. Each party subliminally desires to have the maximum bang-to-buck ratio as the optimal return on investment, given their priorities ceteris paribus.

Prior studies on the RBM have explicitly captured only a few variants of the razor and blade model. This study is perhaps the first of its kind that ferrets out many other variants (more than ten) of the razor and blade model with due simplification and exemplification, justification and demystification.

Intellectual property (IP) theft is an increasing threat that can lead to large financial losses and reputational harm. These attacks are typically noticed only after the IP is stolen, which is usually too late. This paper aims to investigate the psychological profile and the socio-technical events that statistically predict the likelihood of an IP threat.

This paper analyses 86 IP theft cases found in court documents. Two novel analyses are conducted. The research uses LLMs to analyse the personality of these insiders, which is followed by an investigation of the pathways to the attack using behaviour sequence analysis (BSA).

These IP theft insiders scored significantly higher on measures of Machiavellianism compared to the normal population. Socio-technical variables, including IP theft via photographs, travelling overseas, approaching multiple organisations and delivering presentations, were identified. Contrary to previous assumptions that there is a single pathway to an attack, the authors found that multiple, complex pathways lead to an attack (sometimes multiple attacks). This work, therefore, provides a new framework for considering critical pathways to insider attacks.

These findings reveal that IP theft insiders may come across as charming, star employees rather than the stereotype of disgruntled employees. Moreover, organisations’ policies may need to consider that IP theft occurs via non-linear and multiple pathways. This means that sequences of events need to be considered in detecting these attacks instead of anomalies outright. The authors also argue that there may be a case for “continuous evaluation” to detect insider activity.

This paper offers a new framework for understanding and studying insider threats. Instead of a single critical pathway, this work demonstrates the need to consider multiple interconnected pathways. It elucidates the importance of a multidisciplinary approach and provides opportunities to reconsider current practices in detection and prevention.

The objective of this work is to demonstrate how the use of a business process management (BPM) methodology reinforced with the use of lean manufacturing (LM) tools and practices enhances information and documentation flows.

For this purpose, a case study on a large wind blade manufacturing company is described, in which BPM and LM were combined to improve information and documentation flows associated to the process of quality inspections and quality controls.

The joint use of BPM and LM strongly contributed to the improvement of information and documentation flows. The BPM lifecycle can be used to guide the entire improvement process, while LM tools can be used to act at specific points with an emphasis in the process analysis and implementation phases. Thus, LM complements a BPM approach leading to significant process improvements.

The results show that LM can be used to support some phases of the BPM lifecycle. Furthermore, LM can contribute to identify lean waste in information and documentation flows associated to quality management processes and help in the selection of methods and tools to support process improvements.

This study is one of the first reporting the use of LM tools and practices as complementary to the BPM methodology to support the improvement of information and documentation flows associated to quality management in a large manufacturing company. This research enriches the literature by presenting empirical evidence that these two continuous improvement approaches are not incompatible in their objectives and visions and can complement each other.

This paper aims to examine how Sweden, as a member state of the European Union (EU), has implemented the EU Directive on Public Access to Environmental Information (AEI directive) in the context of the principles of good administration.

This paper adopts the EU law methodology, as this paper mainly examines the implementation of the EU AEI directive by the member states and, as an EU member state, how Sweden used procedural autonomy to implement the EU directive at the national level. The EU law methodology further guides how national laws are to be interpreted considering obligations under the EU law. This paper further applies a comparative review to determine the differences in the approaches used by the AEI directive and relevant Swedish national laws to facilitate access to environmental information.

Despite Sweden used a minimalist approach rather than maximal harmonization while implementing the AEI directive at the national level, the Swedish model of the accessibility and availability of environmental information is fully compliant with the principles of good administration. The Swedish approach has an enormous effect on promoting access to environmental information as an integral part of good governance and fundamental rights.

It was not possible to perform a comparative review of court cases on relevant issues from different EU member states.

Access to environmental information could be a tool for environmental democracy and sustainable development.

Access to environmental information could contribute to more public engagement and participation in environmental decision making and hence could make developmental projects more inclusive to meet societal objectives.

This study makes a unique contribution by evaluating access to environmental information in the context of the principles of good administration under EU law.

Despite their centrality to organizing – acknowledged by several theorists – unplanned conversations are often marginalized in organizational theory. To remedy this oversight, we recenter attention on this understudied aspect of organizing. We draw on the affordances perspective to elaborate on the spatial and temporal factors influencing unplanned conversations.

This conceptual paper integrates multidisciplinary literature on unplanned conversations to identify a range of spatiotemporal factors influencing unplanned conversations. Our approach emphasizes how various situational factors afford or hinder opportunities for unplanned conversations among organizational members.

Unplanned conversations were precisely defined as opportunistic or spontaneous conversations, characterized by the absence of pre-planning, that can be work or non-work-related. Then, the characteristics of unplanned conversations (emergent, episodic and brief, interrelated, convenient, and improvisational) were outlined, indicating their distinct organizing and structuring capabilities. The spatial (i.e. spatial proximity, visibility, legitimacy, and psychological safety) and temporal (i.e. work time pressure, work history, work expertise, and work routineness) factors identified in the study both afford and constrain individuals’ unplanned conversations. The empirically testable propositions offered in the study have significant theoretical and practical implications.

This study enriches our understanding of unplanned conversations by offering a precise conceptual definition, outlining their essential characteristics, and underscoring their theoretical and practical significance in organizing. The study highlights the need for organizations to consider the spatiotemporal factors that influence unplanned conversations.

As social infrastructures, public libraries are increasingly recognised as providing more than access to books and information; librarians’ work is importantly centred around practices of care. However, the ways in which they provide care is poorly researched, let alone conceptualised. This paper explores how this important part of librarians’ daily work is practiced through the lens of infrastructuring.

The paper first theoretically discusses the concepts of social infrastructuring, care and tinkering. Then, it turns to ethnographic research conducted in the public library networks of three European cities: Vienna (Austria), Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Malmö (Sweden). The paper comprises empirical materials from all three countries and unpacks 16 librarians’ daily working routines of care through participant observations.

The empirical analysis resulted in three modes of social infrastructuring in public libraries: (1) maintaining, (2) building connections and (3) drawing boundaries. Practices of care are prominent in each of these infrastructuring modes: librarians infrastructure the library with and via their care practices. Whilst care practices are difficult to quantify and verbalise, they are valuable for library patrons. By using the concept of tinkering, the article conceptualises librarians’ infrastructuring enactments as crucial community-building aspects of libraries.

By focusing on the enactment of social infrastructuring, the paper goes beyond a descriptive approach to understanding public libraries as important social infrastructures. Rather, the paper unpacks how libraries come into being as infrastructuring agencies by highlighting what librarians do and say. Our international study articulates the importance of care practices in public libraries across different national contexts.