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The paper aims to explore the roles and impact of design in incubating and accelerating social enterprises. It aims to understand design’s influence on social enterprise ecosystems and in improving outcomes for social enterprises.

The study used an exploratory, qualitative approach, using case studies and interviews. The comparative case-study methodology was applied to evaluate the influence of design on the development of social enterprises in the UK and South Korea and identify critical issues in their utilisation of design. Empirical data included: in-depth case studies of design utilisation practices (UK = 6; South Korea = 15) and design applications (UK = 2; South Korea = 2) for the growth of social enterprise and its ecosystem; 27 social enterprise/design experts (UK = 17; South Korea = 10); and 22 social enterprises (UK = 12; South Korea = 10). Content and thematic analysis were used to synthesise the findings.

Findings demonstrate the differing influences of design on social enterprise, from improving products/services and business models to enhancing social enterprise ecosystem support and networks. Future directions are suggested for applying design for social enterprise growth, business stage development and systematising interactions between the social enterprise and design sectors.

The research is based on case studies from only two countries. Further, the adoption of working definitions of social enterprise in the countries may result in the research underestimating the heterogeneity of social enterprise.

The findings contribute to optimising efficient ecosystem development to improve social enterprise competitiveness and innovation.

This paper establishes a research foundation on design for social enterprise, offering theoretical and practical insights into its impact on growth.

The purpose of this study is to explore the Twitter use of public libraries during the early period of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic to evaluate the focus of Twitter communication.

A total of 57 active, public library Twitter accounts were used for data collection and analysis. The tweets examined were a combination of original tweets (n = 1,465) and retweets (n = 516) posted from other Twitter accounts on the public libraries’ Twitter feeds. A content analysis scheme was developed to analyse topical aspects of the tweets.

The most frequent tweets were about library events, programmes and activities. However, there was a relatively low focus on sharing community information and addressing information related to the pandemic. The study suggests that public libraries could use Twitter to provide library resources and services to their patrons, whilst also acting as a virtual community centre safely keeping patrons engaged in the face of a global pandemic. By doing so, Twitter could be used as an integral part of promoting the mission of public libraries.

The study examined a limited number of public libraries’ Twitter posts. Whilst the study carried out a random sampling of 10% of public libraries from the five states that had the highest COVID-19 cases in the month of April 2020, the study only examined tweets of 57 public libraries being active in posting. Thus, the findings of the study are not for generalizing.

The content scheme includes content types regarding library services and community information. The content category scheme is general to reflect themes of content during a normal time and any emergency. Thus, this framework could be helpful for the content development of public libraries in planning social media use.

The study used a new content analysis framework to examine both original tweets and retweets for information sharing of library services and community information. The approach of content analysis is distinctive to examine libraries’ communication trends on social media not only in normal times but also in times of crisis as well. The study also incorporated additional measures to assess Twitter practices including hashtags.

The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which digital library projects incorporated reference services to increase the value of the collections and support the use of information.

After defining digital library service types, the study surveyed 60 digital collections/projects from the Digital Initiatives Database (DID) and analyzed what types of services have been offered and how they varied.

Findings showed that digital collections scored high marks in offering services in two areas – search and digital reference; however, the findings also revealed that they have been limited in giving valuable information services in other areas.

The study shows that the current practice of digital initiatives needs to integrate various services not only to help users find information, but also to instruct users to better utilize the library and its other services.

This chapter reviews published studies of the use of pictorial information. Examining image user studies surfaces several research questions often addressed by this body of work, as well as some frequently encountered problems. These questions and problems organize this survey of the literature. Image user studies were included in two valuable reviews of digital image research and development, published by Christie Stephenson and Corinne Jörgensen in 1999 (Jörgensen, 1999; Stephenson, 1999). This overview considers research since that time, focusing on assessment that was not targeted at a single system or service. While attempting to incorporate some interesting research from the information and educational technology communities, this discussion of image delivery as an aspect of digital library development limits coverage of those important literatures.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze technology-related librarian advertisements to examine the changing role of the systems librarian in today’s modern, technology-filled libraries.

The authors examined 70 advertisements for technology-focused librarians posted on ALA’s JobList in 2014. The ads were examined for area of focus and required knowledge and experiences.

The ads revealed three main areas of focus: traditional systems, digital initiatives, and web services. In addition to traditional computer and library systems skills, employers were seeking candidates with project management, digital collection, customer service, technology implementation, and problem solving skills and experience.

This study highlights how the adoption and expansion of library technology has altered the roles and responsibilities of systems librarians. Instead of solely focusing on maintaining library databases and ILSs, technology librarians have branched out and become more integrated within the library.

This study has implications for those entering the library field and LIS programs, as well as gaining insight into the expanding role of technology librarians today’s library.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the high learning ability associated with innovative firms enables these firms to conduct a broad knowledge search based on a knowledge transfer perspective. This paper further shows that knowledge tacitness and relationship between knowledge senders and receivers will accentuate this positive relationship.

To test the proposed model, a pooled panel data set based on 102 Korean firms that participated in three waves of National Korean Innovation Surveys conducted in 2002, 2005, and 2008 is constructed. Since the independent variables are lagged in the analysis, the panel data comprised 204 firm-year observations of the 102 firms. Generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the effect of innovation on knowledge search breadth.

The authors found that absorptive capacity mediated the relationship between innovation and knowledge search breadth. This mediating relationship was stronger when a firm is not affiliated with any business group and operates in the high-technology industry.

This paper showed that innovation is not only a consequence of knowledge search as found in existing literature, but also is a precursor to knowledge search.

This paper developed a novel theoretical model on innovation and knowledge search that highlights a virtuous cycle between innovation and knowledge search. Methodologically, the pooled panel data controlled for lagged effect and enhanced efficiency of econometric models, thus offered several advantages over cross-sectional data.

This paper proposes a framework to facilitate description of national financial accounting systems. Its first element, broad aims, identifies the fundamental purpose of national financial accounting systems as being to effect a macro‐user or micro‐user orientation. From this emerges the second element, institutional environment, which describes the nature of regimes put in place to effect regulation. This influences the third element, the specific accounting rules and practices adopted. Aspects of international practice relating to each of these three elements are illustrated. The pedagogical benefits of the framework are demonstrated. The standard vocabulary and the structured format of the framework is used to describe, in capsule form, the national financial accounting systems of Korea and Indonesia. The framework seems likely to enhance understanding of the similarities and differences in national financial accounting systems and to contribute useful insights to international accounting matters.