Search results

1 – 10 of over 235000
Book part
Publication date: 20 July 2005

Lilia Pavlovsky

It has been suggested that “space and artifacts constitute systems of communication which organizations build up within themselves” (Gagliardi, 1992a, b, p. vi) and reflect the…

Abstract

It has been suggested that “space and artifacts constitute systems of communication which organizations build up within themselves” (Gagliardi, 1992a, b, p. vi) and reflect the cultural life within that organization. This is a study of how the “landscape” of a public library (“Library X”), as an information retrieval system, relates to the values of the people who created it. The efforts here are geared towards understanding the physical instantiation of institutional culture and, more specifically, institutional values as they are reflected through the artifact.

Details

Advances in Library Administration and Organization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-338-9

Article
Publication date: 15 May 2021

Kathleen Campana

This study aims to offer insights into the presence and nature of an information environment provided for young children to support their learning and explore how an information

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to offer insights into the presence and nature of an information environment provided for young children to support their learning and explore how an information environment for young children can be characterized.

Design/methodology/approach

Observations of video-recorded public library storytimes were used to investigate the presence and nature of an information environment for young children’s learning.

Findings

The observations revealed that storytimes provide a rich, multimodal information environment where information is shared with young children and they are encouraged to interact with it in a variety of ways. The storytime participants take on several different roles that help to foster and sustain the information environment.

Originality/value

This study tests the applicability of Eisenberg and Small’s (1993) information-based education framework for exploring an information environment and recommends revisions to improve the framework’s effectiveness for characterizing information environments for young children.

Details

Information and Learning Sciences, vol. 122 no. 5/6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2007

Katja Rajaniemi

Adjusting a company to its competitive environment is often done without proper knowledge of the competitive environment. This paper seeks to describe methods and tools that could…

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Abstract

Purpose

Adjusting a company to its competitive environment is often done without proper knowledge of the competitive environment. This paper seeks to describe methods and tools that could be used to improve internet‐based scanning of the competitive environment. In addition, the paper aims to describe an example where such methods and tools are used.

Design/methodology/approach

Existing literature on environmental scanning, competitive intelligence, and benchmarking is reviewed to brief the theoretical background, and to find new ideas to improve scanning of the competitive environment. Using theory‐building approach, the research is based on constructive methodology. The construction is done in ABB Corporate Research, in the Business Technology Portals Project.

Findings

Experts scan the environment using the advanced tools, interviews and knowledge sharing, and managers mainly scan by discussing with other people. Modern search engines can be used to build advanced tools that enhance competitive environment scanning and benchmarking on screening level. Search engines acquire and analyze information from the internet, e.g. from news, company, internet pages, patents, and databases. The methods reduce the time needed for acquiring information, enabling people to concentrate on analyzing the information.

Research limitations/implications

For researchers, the paper provides a literature review of the topic with an innovative construction.

Practical implications

For practitioners, the paper provides an example of framework, methods and tools that can be used to scan the competitive environment.

Originality/value

The theoretical background has been innovatively applied to construct and to deploy very pragmatic tools that enhance scanning the competitive environment.

Details

Benchmarking: An International Journal, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-5771

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 March 2016

Sonja Spiranec, Mihaela Banek Zorica and Denis Kos

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the theoretical and pragmatic positioning of critical information literacy by interpreting it in the light of…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to make a contribution to the theoretical and pragmatic positioning of critical information literacy by interpreting it in the light of epistemological shifts brought about by Web 2.0. Epistemological shifts are elaborated from educational and institutional perspectives as well as from that of scientific research.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper brings a theoretical analysis drawing on relevant literature for the purpose of identifying the grounds for the mapping of concepts associated with critical information literacy and participatory information environments. Based on descriptive analysis, the paper clarifies distinctions between/participatory/and /information bank/environments and identifies correlations existing between CIL and participatory information environments.

Findings

There are conceptual disagreements between IL as it was defined and perceived by Zurkowski and how it has to be perceived in the context of contemporary participatory information environments. Current environments are congruent with the core principles and values of critical information literacy and call for the reshaping of IL by introducing into it critical and transformative elements. Not technological aspects of Web 2.0 are crucial in this regard, but epistemological shifts.

Practical implications

Owing to the fact that Web 2.0 and critical information literacy share many similar features, information environments based on participatory technologies and services provide a context ideally suited for the application of the principles of CIL.

Social implications

The paper highlights the correlating dimensions between Web 2.0 and critical information literacy and proposes that Web 2.0 makes necessary a more critical outlook on information literacy.

Originality/value

The paper highlights the correlating dimensions between Web 2.0 and critical information literacy, indicates specific differences between information literacy and critical information literacy and closes with the conclusion that Web 2.0 makes necessary a more critical outlook on information literacy.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 72 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1999

Chern Li Liew and Schubert Foo

The recent unprecedented growth of information in digital form advocates the need for better ways to interact with this vast amount of richly‐conveyed information. This paper…

Abstract

The recent unprecedented growth of information in digital form advocates the need for better ways to interact with this vast amount of richly‐conveyed information. This paper reviews and analyses the design considerations of an advanced information environment for users to interact in novel manners with online documents such as electronic journals. The interaction environment is also intended to support value‐adding of electronic documents. The design is inspired by analyses of user requirements in interacting with information, by advances in the electronic information world, and by innovations in human‐computer interaction. These led to the derivation and proposal of a set of properties in both the interaction environment and the information objects within the environment. The environment is a visually‐rich, interactive information environment based on user‐controlled malleability and integration with various interaction tools. The information objects within the environment are fractionally structured, contextualized and explicable, queriable and navigable at multiple levels of granularity, and associated with layers of additional information and metadata.

Details

Aslib Proceedings, vol. 51 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0001-253X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 April 2008

Charles O. Omekwu

This paper aims to explore the traditional and emerging roles of cataloguing professionals in a global network information environment. That exploration becomes even more critical…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore the traditional and emerging roles of cataloguing professionals in a global network information environment. That exploration becomes even more critical in view of migration of information resources into digital, electronic and virtual domains.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory research design was adopted. The method was to first examine current issues in library and information practice with specific focus on digital technology, the electronic environment, automation, networking, the internet, cyberspace and virtual libraries. The next approach was to examine the challenges of operating in a globalized information environment.

Findings

Cataloguers have key roles in knowledge segmentation, identification, organization and authentication. They are vital as content and system managers, software specialists and information retrieval system designers. In all, more than 23 roles are articulated for forward‐looking cataloguing professionals.

Originality/value

The paper's originality lies in its argument that roles are correlates of competencies and that as the practice of knowledge organization migrates to a dominantly global information network environment, cataloguers must upgrade their competencies in order to effectively operate in the emerging environment.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2001

Chern Li Liew, Schubert Foo and K.R. Chennupati

In this paper, we present a proposed information environment (PROPIE) for enhanced interaction and value‐adding of electronic documents (e‐documents). The design of PROPIE was…

Abstract

In this paper, we present a proposed information environment (PROPIE) for enhanced interaction and value‐adding of electronic documents (e‐documents). The design of PROPIE was based on a thorough user needs and requirements assessment in interacting with information through well‐documented findings, and a focus group with twelve participants to elicit features that were deemed desirable in future interactions. The design was also based on an earlier work which reviewed the advancements in various user interface (UI) technologies, visualisation and interactive techniques, and a consideration of novel information structuring and organisation techniques that pose important implications for the design of more advanced UIs. Providing a suite of novel features and interactive tools that can be flexibly combined, PROPIE allows users to apply multiple novel ways to query intuitively and navigate information in an e‐document. The querying and browsing processes in PROPIE are supported by various interactive and visualisation techniques. Users work within a visually sovereign, integrated environment for information gathering and organising, based on navigable, fractional information objects that are also affiliated with rich metadata and additional layers of value‐adding information. A set of interface mock‐ups was developed to demonstrate the potential of the environment in supporting the design of a new generation of electronic journals (e‐journals). We report here empirical results from a study conducted to obtain representative users‘ feedback with regard to using PROPIE for interacting with e‐journals. Twenty‐two participants from a variety of academic backgrounds participated in the evaluation. Overall, PROPIE was found to have the potential both for enhancing the user’s interaction with information captured within e‐journals and for adding value to e‐documents in various ways.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 57 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 June 2019

Olesya Lobanova, Abhijit Barua, Suchismita Mishra and Arun J. Prakash

The purpose of this study is to explain the poor informativeness of earnings in dual-class firms by examining the quality of earnings and the information environment.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explain the poor informativeness of earnings in dual-class firms by examining the quality of earnings and the information environment.

Design/methodology/approach

The earnings informativeness, earnings quality and information environment of dual-class firms are compared with a matched sample of single-class firms. The authors have performed the returns-earnings association tests, examine the quality of earnings by using proxies for discretionary accruals, and examine the information environment by employing four empirical constructs: the analyst forecast dispersion, absolute forecast errors, Amihud’s (2002) illiquidity measure, and the bid-ask spread.

Findings

The results show that the quality of earnings is better while the quality of the information environment is worse in dual-class firms compared to single-class firms. Overall, the results suggest that an inferior information environment is a plausible explanation for the low informativeness of dual-class firms’ earnings.

Research limitations/implications

The results provide empirical support for Dechow et al. (2010) that the use of the earnings-returns association measure to draw conclusions about the quality of earnings is not appropriate in the presence of a poor information environment.

Originality/value

This is the first study to empirically show that low earnings informativeness in dual-class firms can be explained by the inferior quality of the information environment.

Details

Review of Accounting and Finance, vol. 18 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1475-7702

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 9 January 2012

Xue Zhang, Shaheen Majid and Schubert Foo

The external environment is becoming more uncertain and volatile. To be successful and retain competitiveness, organisations have to regularly detect external signals…

Abstract

The external environment is becoming more uncertain and volatile. To be successful and retain competitiveness, organisations have to regularly detect external signals, systematically process and use such information. Environmental scanning is an effective way for organisations to adapt to their external environment by overcoming threats and grasping opportunities. However, some organisations may not be able to conduct environmental scanning due to lack of resources or adequately trained personnel. To satisfy their needs of environmental knowledge, they may have to outsource for such kind of information services, provide training for their existing staff, or hire specialised business information professional. As there is a degree of overlap between information management and environment scanning activities, some of the competencies covered by current LIS programs in Asia would be useful for undertaking environmental scanning activities. Nevertheless, information professionals still need an additional set of competencies to effectively provide this service. For example, LIS professionals would need a basic understanding of business and marketing principles to effectively understand and meet the information needs of their clients; improve their knowledge of various kinds of specialised business information sources and planning. This chapter first introduces the concept of external environment, the definition and process of environment scanning, and how environmental intelligence could be used for strategic planning and organisational learning. Then it discusses the role of environmental scanning as an emerging discipline for LIS education, covering topics as environmental scanning based information services and competencies required for conducting environmental scanning. Finally, it provides an overview of efforts have been made by LIS education programs in Asia in imparting new skills to their graduates for undertaking environmental scanning activities.

Details

Library and Information Science Trends and Research: Asia-Oceania
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-470-2

Article
Publication date: 7 December 2021

Wenhui Tian, Yanjun Li and Linzhu Li

The paper aims to clarify the influence of different picture contents on consumer's willingness to click pictures when shopping for agricultural products online and examine the…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to clarify the influence of different picture contents on consumer's willingness to click pictures when shopping for agricultural products online and examine the intermediary mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper opted for an empirical study based on the cue utilization theory and information processing theory, including three experiments to test the existence, intermediary mechanism and boundary conditions of the impact of online picture contents of agricultural products on consumers' clicking intention.

Findings

The paper provides empirical insights about the influence of picture contents on consumer's willingness to click when shopping for agricultural products online. The picture of product's production environment or grower on the search result page can effectively improve consumer's willingness to click the product under dual systemic information processing modes. Compared with product pictures, pictures displaying products and production environment can stimulate more cognitive system processing, and pictures displaying products and its growers can stimulate more emotional system processing, both resulting in higher click intention. However, the above effects only exist in the context of non-branded agricultural products.

Originality/value

The research results not only provide practical guidance for merchants, but also fill the gap in the research on the impact of picture contents on consumers in the field of agricultural products in online marketing.

Details

Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-7480

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 235000