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The purpose of this paper is to explore themes eventuating from the user-generated content posted by users on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency.

An information classification framework was used to classify user-generated content posted by users including all of the content posted during a six month period (January to June 2015). The posts were read and analysed thematically to determine the overarching themes evident across the entire collection of user posts.

The results of the analysis demonstrate that the key themes that eventuate from the user-generated content posted are “Self-preparedness”, “Emergency signalling solutions”, “Unsurpassable companion”, “Aftermath of an emergency”, and “Gratitude towards emergency management staff”. Major user-generated content identified among these themes are status-update, criticism, recommendation, and request.

This study contributes to theory on the development of key themes from user-generated content posted by users on a public social networking site. An analysis of user-generated content identified in this study implies that, Facebook is primarily used for information dissemination, coordination and collaboration, and information seeking in the context of emergency management. Users may gain the benefits of identity construction and social provisions, whereas social conflict is a potential detrimental implication. Other user costs include lack of social support by stakeholders, investment in social infrastructure and additional work force required to alleviate the technological, organisational, and social barriers in communication among stakeholders in emergency management. A collective activity system built upon the Activity Theory was used as a lens to describe users’ activity of posting content on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency.

By analysing the findings, administrators and policy makers of emergency management could identify the extent to which the core principles of disaster recovery are accomplished using public social networking sites. These are achieved in relation to: pre-disaster recovery planning; partnership and inclusiveness; public information messaging; unity of effort; and, psychological recovery to maximise the success of recovery in a disaster. Furthermore, a core principle which evoked a mixed response was timeliness and flexibility.

Previous studies have examined the role of social networking sites in disastrous situations, but to date there has been very little research into determining themes found in user-generated content posted on the Facebook page of an emergency management agency. Hence, this study addresses the gap in literature by conducting a thematic analysis of user-generated content posted on the Facebook page of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Federal government agencies increasingly use electronic bulletin board technology as a means of providing access to and dissemination of electronic government information. This paper identifies and analyzes existing government bulletin boards (BBSs). It also assesses the types of information available to information users on the BBSs as well as the cost and technological access issues involved in federal agency use of BBSs. Furthermore, the paper presents a typology of bulletin boards. Finally, it discusses information policy implications resulting from BBS development, especially with regard to access and dissemination of electronic government information. These “new” access mechanisms are often‐times difficult to use, are poorly deployed and operated, and may serve to limit access to some types of government information.

The U.S. government has been proactively seeking solutions to the growing concern with issues relating to global change through several initiatives. A major global change initiative in 1993 supported by both President Clinton and Vice President Gore was announced with the release of the U.S. Climate Change Action Plan. The objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. At that time, President Clinton also committed his administration to begin actively working on negotiations of international agreements on desertification and forestry. President Clinton's Earth Day announcement on 21 April 1993 stated,

The paper aims to propose a user-centred collaborative framework for providing integrated information services (IIS) to corporate users in China. The framework is conceptualized based on a literature review of IIS models and a case study. The authors provide suggestions with regard to the implementation of effective and efficient information services for corporate users based on the proposed framework.

This paper reviews the efforts of investigating appropriate models for integrated information services (IIS) and proposes a user-centred collaborative framework for providing IIS for corporate users. It is organized as follows: first is an overview through a review of the related literature of the current status of information resource services in China. Then, a case study of IIS in Hubei Province is analysed. Next, a user-centred collaborative IIS framework is presented that aims to address the needs of corporate users. The paper concludes with a summary and suggestions for future study to build effective and efficient IIS systems.

Through an exploratory survey conducted in 2009, it was discovered that, in general, corporate users need all kinds of information, not only scientific publications but also business and market information. Their channel to obtain needed information was mainly the Internet. Books and domain-specific databases were also used by most of the participants. The major challenges for corporate users to obtain needed information included the high cost of purchasing or leasing desired information resources, the low quality of information on the Internet, limited information workers or their skills and the quality of high-level information services.

The survey served as a tool to gather primitive information on user needs. It was an incomplete, unsystematic exploration. However, the authors could still gain some insights on the users’ information needs and directions for future IIS. The results showed that Hubei Science and Technology Information Sharing Service, which was an implementation of the agency collaboration-based IIS model, satisfied the needs of less than 30 per cent of the participants. It has much room for improvement.

This paper proposes a user-centred collaborative integrated information services (UCIIS) framework. The UCIIS framework takes the idea of the user-centred integrated information service (IIS) model that the construction of IIS should start from understanding the users of the services, but it also takes important characteristics from the agency collaboration-based IIS model.

The discussion in this paper is basically on the macro level, leaving a lot of interesting future work to design, develop and evaluate IIS systems based on the proposed framework. Specifically, interest is in developing user models through systematic and comprehensive investigation of corporate information users’ needs, and examining current library and information science curricula to produce qualified information professionals who can carry out user experience studies, and high-level knowledge discovery tasks using various advanced computational technologies.

Transportation infrastructure asset management has long been an active but challenging problem for agencies, which urges to maintain a good state of their assets but faces budgetary limitations. Managing a network of transportation infrastructure assets, especially when the number is large, is a multifaceted challenge. This paper aims to develop a life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) based transportation infrastructure asset management analytical framework to study the impacts of a few key parameters/factors on deterioration and life-cycle cost. Using the bridge as an example infrastructure type, the framework incorporates an optimization model for optimizing maintenance, repair, rehabilitation (MR&R) and replacement decisions in a finite planning horizon.

The analytical framework is further developed through a series of model variations, scenario and sensitivity analysis, simulation processes and numerical experiments to show the impacts of various parameters/factors and draw managerial insights. One notable analysis is to explicitly model the epistemic uncertainties of infrastructure deterioration models, which have been overlooked in previous research. The proposed methodology can be adapted to different types of assets for solving general asset management and capital planning problems.

The experiments and case studies revealed several findings. First, the authors showed the importance of the deterioration model parameter (i.e. Markov transition probability). Inaccurate information of p will lead to suboptimal solutions and results in excessive total cost. Second, both agency cost and user cost of a single facility will have significant impacts on the system cost and correlation between them also influences the system cost. Third, the optimal budget can be found and the system cost is tolerant to budge variations within a certain range. Four, the model minimizes the total cost by optimizing the allocation of funds to bridges weighing the trade-off between user and agency costs.

On the path forward to develop the next generation of bridge management systems methodologies, the authors make an exploration of incorporating the epistemic uncertainties of the stochastic deterioration models into bridge MR&R capital planning and decision-making. The authors propose an optimization approach that does not only incorporate the inherent stochasticity of bridge deterioration but also considers the epistemic uncertainties and variances of the model parameters of Markovian transition probabilities due to data errors or modeling processes.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a greater understanding of non-profit organization (NPO) management control systems (MCS) and accountability in organizations providing support service for capacity constrained service users. Specifically, the paper examines the role of MCS and accountability in supporting mission realization in NPOs providing services to people with intellectual disabilities and reflects on this in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The research comprised a case study of four NPOs providing services to people with intellectual disabilities in Ireland conducted prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The study probed management's perceptions of stakeholders and examined the manner in which the design and use of MCS and accountability processes supported mission realization.

Service users were regarded as the least powerful stakeholder and consequently the least attended to in terms of MCS and accountability processes. The absence of relational and dialogical accountability with service users is not only central to maintaining this power asymmetry but also poses a threat to mission realization. These deficits can be addressed through the integration and monitoring of internal advocacy activities into MCS and accountability processes, which, on reflection, may also mitigate some of the negative consequences for service users of isolation from external support networks in times of crisis.

This research has opened up an area for enquiry – internal advocacy – heretofore not addressed in the management accounting literature, opening up a novel vein for future research. Such research could further examine the role of internal advocacy, drawing from and adding to the research in other support service domains. A number of objectives and questions might be considered: (1) probing the level of management recognition of the role of direct engagement in advocacy activities in supporting service user agency; (2) identifying with service users and management the nature and attributes of effective advocacy activities and practices; (3) questioning how such advocacy activities and practices might be reflected in MCS; (4) identifying what service user stakeholders regard as effective accountability to them in relation to their needs and objectives; and (5) assessing the impact on service user experience and on NPO mission realization of internal advocacy activities and the monitoring and review thereof through MCS. These suggestions for future research draw attention to aspects of support service delivery that have the potential to be profoundly influential on service outcomes.

A performance management model reflecting the identified need to incorporate internal advocacy mechanisms into organizational management control systems is proposed in an effort to increase accountability of NPOs to their core mission stakeholder – service users. This model may be of value to NPO management as they move from a medical-model of care to a rights-based model for service delivery in care settings.

The paper reflects the importance of listening to the voice of vulnerable service users in NPO care settings and proposes a mechanism for embedding internal advocacy in formal management control systems and accountability processes.

In proposing an “agency” supportive relational and dialogical accountability logic for such organizations, underpinned by “internal advocacy”, this research provides theoretical and practical insights for accountability processes and the design of MCS. The findings contribute empirically, not just to the NPO management and MCS literature but also to understanding the relational interaction of service users with service organizations, and what this means in supporting service user objectives and realization of organizational mission.

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual and empirical analysis of the rationale and enactment of consumer discourses in reformed British welfare administration, through a focus on consumption and the service interaction. The paper aims to explore how administrators use these discourses to manage consumption in particular ways in order to promote individual enterprise and employability, and analyse the pivotal role of front‐line workers in these efforts.

The paper draws from range of data sources collected in a case study of Jobcentre Plus, including analysis of public and internal documents, observation of six public offices and interviews with 13 front‐line staff.

Images of customer sovereignty are used alongside heightened control to try to shape claimants' motivation and capacity for work. Front‐line staff, mainly endorse reformed structures, but their view of claimants is complex, departing from the images fostered by administrators.

The paper highlights the importance of context‐specific understanding of deployment of consumer discourses in public sector, but interview data are exploratory and further research is needed.

The paper highlights complexities inherent in customer orientation in welfare administration and the pivotal role of front‐line in reforms.

The paper provides a distinctive approach to analysis of customer concept in public sector reform, through focus on consumption and the service interaction.

This article will explore many of the challenges facing the future of effective user involvement as we prepare ourselves for a new government drug strategy and National Treatment Agency era, which on first viewing appears to have turned its back on a movement that it has long paid lip service to as a valued and respected partner and component of effective drug treatment. The tone of this article is intentionally opinionated and provocative and is based on 10 years experience of being an illicit drug user (although admittedly never a service user) working in the harm reduction and user involvement field as a coalface worker, strategic co‐ordinator and presently, manager of a national charity. If this piece polarises opinion and stimulates debate then it has been successful; user involvement used to be dictated by personal politics and passion, not a pension, and in order to survive, it may need to rediscover that.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the efficiency and satisfaction of electronic records management systems (ERMS), which has been of interest to archivists and records managers, in electronic government (e‐government) agencies in Taiwan.

Using the measures from information systems (ISs) success model, this study applies data envelopment analysis to measure the relative efficiency and satisfaction in different types of e‐government agencies. After conducting a large‐scale survey of e‐government agencies in Taiwan, a matrix of efficiency and satisfaction is developed.

Research results show that the efficiency of ERMS in central agencies exceeds that in local agencies, and the efficiency in upper level agencies exceeds that in lower level agencies. The efficiency in business agencies exceeds that in administration agencies and public schools. Additionally, ERMS user's satisfaction in e‐government agencies is linearly related to ERMS efficiency.

Owing to the budget limits, only a one‐shot survey is conducted, thus the comparison between ex‐ante and ex‐post measurement could not be performed.

The business‐related reasons are more critical in implementing ERMS than the compliance‐related ones.

This paper proposes a mathematical modeling tool for assessing ISs in e‐government.