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This article describes the development and initial experiences of Design Your Life, a new design approach implementing user-initiated design of technological environments that support autistic young adults to live independently.

This article makes use of a phenomenological Research-through-Design approach. Investigation of possible ways in which a set of four guiding principles could be applied into a design toolkit for autistic young adults and their caregivers by means of three design case studies was conducted. Promising methods from the design practice and literature were applied and contrasted with the lived experiences and practical contexts of autistic young adults and their caregivers.

This exploratory research yielded several important insights for the design direction of Design Your Life. Reflecting on how the guiding principles played out in practice it was noted that: the case studies showed that stakeholders appreciate the approach. The design principles applied cannot be used without the help of a sparring partner. This suggests that caregivers may be trained in design-thinking to fulfil this role. The Design Your Life method will be iteratively developed, refined and validated in practice.

The presented approach puts design tools in the hands of the people who will use the technology. Furthermore, the approach sees technologies as empowering interventions by which a person can strengthen their own living environment. According to this article, this approach is new for this application. It provides valuable perspectives and considerations for autistic people, caregivers, researchers and policy makers.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify that while integrated project delivery (IPD) methods can be momenta for restructuring architectural practice, they do not predetermine specific patterns of restructuration for the roles, responsibilities and services of architects.

This paper is based on a multiple case study design; two IPD projects were theoretically sampled and studied. The data collection methods included semi-structured interviews and observations. An inductive data analysis approach was applied to frame the phenomena, conduct cross-case comparisons and develop propositions.

While IPD implementations set expectations for new structures for practices, it is the project participants’ situated decisions that lead to the restructuration of some dimensions of architectural practice. The dimensions in this study included team formation, design leadership and collaboration and architectural services. IPD project participants locally changed and redefined conventional roles, responsibilities and project artifacts (e.g. drawings and models) that concerned design development and coordination.

IPD context, by itself, does not predetermine a fixed pattern of change in establishing designers’ roles, responsibilities and services because restructuration is highly negotiated amongst the IPD parties and can lead to different responses to this contractual setting. Contracts set expectations for collaborative behavior, but the fulfillment of these expectations is situated and emerging as project participants negotiate to develop practices.

While IPD research and guidelines aim to provide recipes for IPD implementation, this study contributes to the body of knowledge by clarifying that IPD is a context in which unprecedented ways of practice restructuration could emerge.

The paper seeks to investigate how the information assurance (IA) efforts of organisations should be aligned with their business strategy. From this analysis, a conceptual model of alignment is presented. This framework shows several organisational factors that can influence alignment.

A number of published works on alignment are discussed in order to develop a conceptual model of IA fit. In addition, Venkatraman's six perspectives of alignment are used as a framework to suggest future research in this area.

The paper presents a definition of information assurance and proposes various reasons why IA is a strategic issue and should be aligned with both IT and corporate strategy. From the literature, a conceptual model illustrating the variables that can influence alignment is presented.

A clear conceptualisation of alignment is needed. Six potential research models and associated research questions are proposed.

The paper concludes with a number of management and research implications. In looking at the implications for managers, it is argued that any alignment framework should include adequate metrics for checking the strategic fit on a continuous basis.

This paper is an initial attempt to fulfil an identified gap in the literature, namely the lack of research undertaken on IA and corporate strategy alignment. It offers practical help for management so that they can improve the fit between IA and business strategy. It also offers several avenues of potential future research using Venkatraman's six perspectives of fit.

The purpose of this study is to provide a better understanding of customer brand engagement (CBE) by proposing and empirically testing a model of antecedents and consequences of CBE for user-initiated online brand communities (OBCs).

The model is tested using a sample of 584 participants in two relevant OBCs created and managed by brand fans. Specifically, data were collected from two communities in the photography products category: Nikonistas and Canonistas.

The results indicate that community and brand identification positively and significantly influence CBE. Furthermore, the supporting role of OBCs’ moderators facilitates CBE and moderates the influence of community identification on CBE. Regarding the outcomes of CBE, the results show that higher levels of engagement are positively, directly and significantly associated with favorable intentions towards the brand and the community. These effects are then mediated by brand affective commitment.

The study has been conducted in two Spanish OBCs of two specific high-involvement products category: it is cross-sectional and focuses on a limited number of antecedents and consequences.

Evidence from this research supports and emphasizes the potential that these platforms have for brand management such that firms’ resources could be best allocated on those elements that lead to superior CBE.

The study endorses the role of CBE in fostering brand and community-related favorable outcomes in the context of user-initiated OBCs. It shed lights on the potential that these online platforms have for brands and on the role that brand management should play in digital contexts that are outside the direct control of the company.

User‐initiated innovation is a significant source of new industrial products in certain industries. Recent investigations have been concerned primarily with the identification of user‐innovators and their usefulness to the manufacturers who eventually make and/or market the new product or process generally. The extension of thought to include the activities of customers in the initiation of the industrial innovative process has been based upon the assumption that the firm which initiates the user‐based innovation will play no more than a small role in its commercial exploitation. This article presents a case study of a company, British Aerospace, which has deliberately attempted to exploit commercially some of the innovations developed internally for its own use. The article goes on to suggest an extension to the “customer‐active paradigm” of innovation research to include such pro‐active behaviour.

To describe the introduction of a collaborative, user‐initiated, unmediated, interlibrary loan service for returnables between initially three and then all eight universities in Hong Kong.

Historical narrative combined with user and staff evaluation.

The introduction of the service has been a great success.

This article describes in detail the introduction of a service that will be of interest and relevance to many other libraries facing declining budgets and the need to share resources in an efficient and effective way.

This paper is based on Interlibrary Loan Services in New Zealand: An Environmental Scan and National Survey, a research report produced by the School of Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. The paper aims to summarise these recent research findings that identify trends in interloan in New Zealand. Additional information is offered to confirm trends or as evidence of divergence from the research results.

This article measures the current state of interloan and considers how it may develop in the future.

The paper concentrates on five major themes. They are: a state of change; user‐initiated interloans; satisfaction levels; co‐operative resource sharing; and the advantages of the New Zealand model of interloan.

The research report is a beginning. Ongoing data gathering is underway to help identify interloan trends and determine future service directions.

The traditional model of interloan is changing and affected by several factors. Its ongoing health is underpinned by three significant characteristics: a national interloan system (Te Puna Interloan), a strong National Bibliographic Database and National Union Catalogue, and the key role of the National Library of New Zealand.

The research report provides a building block for an ongoing longitudinal study of interloan in New Zealand, plus a base for ongoing discussion and debate.

The purpose of this article is to provide an update on matters pertinent to ILDS readers.

This article provides a discursive discussion on the future of resource sharing.

The future of resource sharing is a topic of at least three separate discussions in Australia and the USA. The business, technological, and organizational environments are changing. National libraries, bibliographic utilities, and informal groups of individuals are exploring the implications of these trends on resource sharing. This column identifies common trends and speculates on the future of resource sharing.

This article provides insights into matters of importance to ILDS readers from an experienced figure in the US interlending and document supply scene.

This paper draws on research conducted after the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia, where more than 100,000 houses were built by various agencies following the massive disaster. The research reveals that the residents in Aceh rarely see their reconstruction houses as ‘complete’ and modify these houses to suit their personal needs and aspirations. The relationships between the global and regional forces that drive reconstruction agency housing procurement and production are explored, and compared with the outcomes of user-initiated modifications to the houses. From the hundreds of houses reviewed, here four houses are discussed in detail, built by the Asian Development Bank, representing a global paradigm, and Bank Mandiri, representing a regional paradigm. These houses were modified and extended to varying degrees by their residents, exemplifying the ways in which reconstruction agencies, perhaps inadvertently, empowered residents by enabling them to improve their own housing. The outcomes of this transformation process underscore the advantages of a hybrid between global and regional styles, and the desire of the reconstruction housing residents to recapture some of the local housing culture and reflect regional housing characteristics.

This study aims to determine how to influence the customer journey of mobile food ordering applications (MFOAs) users. It researches how available information could influence customers’ intention to use MFOAs platforms in the prepurchase stage and explores the potential of personalized information to improve customer satisfaction with these services in the postpurchase stage.

This research followed a mixed design, combining qualitative (focus groups) and quantitative (online survey) research and using both content analysis and partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Two types of available information (firm-generated information and online customer reviews) had a positive influence on the behavioral intention to use MFOAs. Additionally, findings showed that different web personalization strategies, namely, content personalization, functional personalization and system-driven personalization, were useful tools to create customer satisfaction with this type of platform.

The study discusses limitations regarding the sample and sampling process, indicator variables and measures.

The present research provides actionable insights for online food delivery providers.

This study addresses a research gap in the literature and provides a novel and richer understanding of customer behavior toward mobile food delivery platforms. Also, it adds to the personalization research by identifying and testing a range of web personalization strategies.