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The purpose of this study is to examine the interplay between the curatorial practices of consumers as collectors and the materiality of the collected objects. In particular, this study explores how the material substances of collected objects shapes curatorial practices and how the ongoing use of the collected objects challenges curatorial practices.

Taking advantage of the publicization of once-private collections on social media, we collect 111 YouTube videos created by plastic shoe aficionados. Drawing from visual anthropology and theorizations of materiality, we analyze consumer interactions with the objects they collect.

This study’s findings elucidate consumers’ interactions with the material substances of the objects they collect and demonstrate how these interactions shape the ways in which consumers curate their collections, including how they wear, care for, catalog, and display the collected objects.

Our findings have implications for theorization on consumer collections, consumer identity, and consumer participation in brand communities and are relevant for consumer researchers who study the interactions and relationships between consumers and consumption objects.

This study is the first to re-examine consumers as collectors to extend and update consumer research on the curatorial practices of physical, wearable collectibles. This study sets the foundations for further research to advance our understanding of consumers as collectors as well as to illuminate other theories and aspects of consumer research that consider consumer–object interactions.

This paper aims to utilize data collected at the national, state, and local level to analyze our library instruction (LI) program with the goal of designing a program to best suit student needs.

The collection and analysis of national, state, and local economic and computer access and usage statistics was carried out.

Although most incoming freshmen at East Tennessee State University have access to computers and can perform basic computer functions, they do not have the skill set necessary to do college‐level research.

Sherrod Library needs to continue providing traditional LI classes. Furthermore, new ways to train incoming freshmen in research methods need to be developed.

The use of national, state, and local economic and computer access and usage statistics to create a profile of our students in order to assess LI and outreach programs.

The debate on public sector reform continues to be focused on policy, restructuring and targets rather than on the practical aspects of a new public framework that will support providers to implement change and transform public services. The challenge for government, as it has been since 1997, is how to create the conditions for innovation and service transformation. It is no longer enough to develop business models that will organise services more efficiently; public sector reform also requires an energising of people and democratic relationships. A reliance in government on centralised change levers and a faith in systems rather than people has led to modernisation becoming a technical process, detached from regional and local energies. The divide between national and local stakeholders has resulted in good policies being driven by a lack of concern for relationships across the public system, particularly between central and local players. It is government that sets the scene for reform through its policy, funding and performance management, yet too often Whitehall and politicians take themselves ‘out‐of‐the‐frame’ when conducting analysis. This article argues that modernisation levers are contested by many stakeholders, that government and its administration are critical stakeholders and that it is time to reconnect the local with the national in transformation.

Current U. V. processing equipment incorporates multiple power levels and bulbs of differing spectral outputs. This paper investigates the cure responses of different types of inks and coatings when power levels and spectra are varied. The results show that accelerated curing rates and enhanced physical properties can be achieved with careful selection of power levels and spectra.

The fear of receiving a bid protest is said to affect acquisition strategies, yet it has not been empirically explored. Based on the Public Value Framework and interviews with contracting personnel, this research tests a model of antecedents to and consequences of the fear of a protest. Survey data was obtained from a sample of 350 contracting personnel. The fear of protest is mitigated by having sufficient procurement lead time and by source selection experience, and increased by protest risk. Fear of protest increases compromised technical evaluations, added procurement lead time, and transaction costs, while it decreases contracting officer authority and is associated with source selection method inappropriateness. Compromised technical evaluations, in turn, decrease contractor performance while contracting officer authority increases contractor performance. Thus, findings suggest that, indeed, the tail is wagging the dog. The research concludes with several managerial implications, study limitations and future research directions.

The purpose of this study is to better understand the effectiveness of buyers’ defensive measures to thwart bid protests in government procurements.

A sample of 240 sourcing professionals concerning government source selections is used to analyze a logistic regression model exploring 6 antecedents of bid protests.

This research implicates the importance of oral presentations of offers, the type of value procured (i.e. services), protest experience, the quantity of document revisions, transaction costs and cost reimbursement contracts in receiving a bid protest.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to explore sourcing strategy decisions that can contribute to the receipt of a bid protest. It adds clarity to an understudied market of business – the public sector.

Small businesses are critical to economic health and encouraged in government spending by set-asides – annual small business sourcing goals that often are not attained. Little research has explored the negative and risky stigmas associated with small business sourcing.

This research explores reduced transaction costs of small business sourcing to government buyers. A survey of 350 government source selections reveals lower transaction costs derived from lower perceived risk of receiving a bid protest and via more efficient source selection processes.

Contrary to common bias, the performance level of small businesses is no less than that of large business. Thus, small businesses engender lower transaction costs for correcting supplier’s performance. On the basis of these findings, managerial and theoretical implications are discussed.

Results of an in‐depth study of the electronic publishing (EP) industry, with particular emphasis on the consumer marketplace, are presented. EP was defined as the use of electronic media to deliver information to users in electronic form or from electronic sources. EP is contrasted to electronic‐aided publishing, which is the use of electronic means to format and produce a conventional information product. An “information chain” model of the information flows between publishers (or producers) and users was helpful in understanding the boundaries of EP and defining its markets. Following a review of the conventional publishing industry, a model of the forces driving the EP industry was derived. Although technology is the strongest driving force, it is by no means the only one; the others are economics, demographics, social trends, government policies, applications growth, and industry trends. Each of these forces is described in detail in a “cause and effect” scenario, from which keys to success in the EP marketplace are derived. Although there is some turmoil in the industry, with new services continuing to appear and disappear, the overall picture is one of optimism. EP should be a significant part of consumers' lives by the end of the decade.

Sponsored by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) (1), the World Travel & Tourism Environment Research Centre (WTTERC) is an independent research unit launched in September 1991 by the Hon. Michael Howard Q.C, M.P, then UK Secretary of State for Employment. The initiative reflects the growing concern within the travel and tourism industry to manage its environmental impacts and maximise its potential to bring about environmental improvement. Based within Oxford Brookes University and with a global remit, WTTERC aims to “monitor assess and communicate effective environment strategies, objectives and programmes for world travel and tourism”.