bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Is director independence merely a box ticking exercise? A study of independence determinations in Irish listed companies
Authors: Mulgrew Mark , Lynn Theo , Rice Susan
Published: April 2014

Purpose

–The purpose of this study is to establish whether Irish listed firms comply with the substance of corporate governance guidance rather than the letter of the rule in the determination of director independence. The paper examines non-executive director independence from three perspectives: the first is from the viewpoint of the sample firms, the second from that given in corporate governance guidance when applied to the sample firms, and the third based on extensive financial statement analysis, prior research and prior literature. By exploring multiple perspectives of director independence, disparities in the interpretation of non-executive director independence can be identified.

Design/methodology/approach

–Descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistical analysis are used to examine for differences between multiple perspectives of non-executive director independence.

Findings

–The study identified significant disparities in the interpretation of independence by Irish listed firms. This may be explained by a misunderstanding of what director independence means, a deliberate choice to ignore pre-existing norms regarding NED independence or the desire to exceed such norms. The findings suggest Irish financial institutions exhibit higher levels of NED independence than the remaining sample firms explained in part by linkages with the institutions themselves. Findings suggest a lack of adequate oversight in the sample firms, which could ultimately lead to greater agency costs for shareholders.

Practical implications

–Policymakers and other stakeholders valuing director independence may need to reassess guidelines for interpreting director independence and related reporting, policies regarding adherence to such guidelines and associated director training requirements.

Originality/value

–This study is timely, topical and the first of its kind in relation to Irish listed firms and provides evidence into the lack of compliance within Irish listed companies with best practice guidance. The findings clearly identify a notable lack in a consistent means of interpretation in the sample firms as to what non-executive independence is and why it is an important part of good corporate governance. The paper provides a basis for future research. Such research may include studies of firm motivation in interpretation choice and comparative studies with other jurisdictions.
Internationalization and relationship marketing: an introduction
Authors: Khojastehpour Morteza , Johns Raechel
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– This paper aims to integrate the concepts of the internationalization process and relationship marketing (RM). It identifies two stages for internationalization (pre-internationalization and post-internationalization) and assigns RM components for each step.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study undertakes a review and synthesis of the extant literature examining internationalization and RM. It then identifies two stages of the internationalization process and its steps, associated with RM components.

Findings

– The study highlights that each step in the internationalization process requires appropriate RM component to be implemented successfully.

Practical implications

– Findings of this study highlight the importance of managing internationalization for firms intending to enter to foreign market and identify the issues that need to be understood, if firms are to effectively manage their internationalization strategy.

Originality/value

– The paper is the first to integrate the concepts of internationalization and RM and to identify the factors that make managing these two types of firm's strategy.
Barriers to well-being for Aboriginal gender-diverse people: results from the Trans PULSE Project in Ontario, Canada
Authors: I. Scheim Ayden , Jackson Randy , James Liz , Sharp Dopler T. , Pyne Jake , R. Bauer Greta
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Despite health inequities experienced by Aboriginal and transgender (trans) communities, little research has explored the well-being of Aboriginal trans (gender-diverse) people. This paper aims to describe barriers to well-being in a sample of Aboriginal gender-diverse people in Ontario, Canada.

Design/methodology/approach

– In 2009-2010, 433 trans people in Canada's most populous province participated in a multi-mode health survey. In all, 32 participants identified as First Nations, Métis, or Inuit (Aboriginal); unweighted frequencies were calculated to describe their characteristics.

Findings

– Participants expressed diverse gender identities; 44 per cent identified with the pan-Aboriginal term two-spirit. High levels of poverty (47 per cent), homelessness or underhousing (34 per cent), and ever having to move due to being trans (67 per cent) were reported. In all, 61 per cent reported at least one past-year unmet health care need. Most participants had experienced violence due to being trans (73 per cent) and had ever seriously considered suicide (76 per cent). One-fifth had been incarcerated while presenting in their felt gender. Aboriginal spirituality was practiced by 44 per cent, and 19 per cent had seen an Aboriginal Elder for mental health support.

Research limitations/implications

– Action is needed to address the social determinants of health among Aboriginal gender-diverse people. Using principles of self-determination, there is a need to increase access to health and community supports, including integration of traditional culture and healing practices. Larger study samples and qualitative research are required.

Originality/value

– These first published data regarding the health of Aboriginal gender-diverse Ontarians illustrate both their heterogeneity and all-too-common experiences of individual and systemic discrimination, and barriers to care. Results highlight potential impacts of colonialism and social exclusion, and suggest priorities for ameliorative action.
Hays Challenge draws graduates to a career in recruitment
Authors: Cullens James , J. Waters Richard
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Reveals how the Hays Challenge, a serious game developed to respond to key business objectives for the attraction of graduate recruits, was developed and implemented.

Design/methodology/approach

– Describes how a recruitment-orientated serious game was developed and implemented at Hays plc. Applied research was conducted through a series of focus groups that informed the design process.

Findings

– Reveals that more than 40,000 players from 190 countries have played the Hays Challenge. Within the UK business 73 percent of the most recent graduate applicants have played the Hays Challenge.

Practical implications

– Explains that anecdotal information from the internal-recruiting teams suggests that there has been an improvement in the quality of applicants and that their knowledge about recruitment consultancies is much more evident.

Social implications

– Describes an interesting and attractive way of providing information about careers in recruitment to today's internet-savvy young people.

Originality/value

– Fills a gap in the relatively limited published research into how serious gaming can be used in the attraction and initial self-selection stage of the recruitment process. Adds further insight for practitioners into this area and demonstrates some of the benefits of adopting such an approach.
Touch transforms the culture at HC-One
Authors: Rose Owen , Pollitt David
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Observes how a learning program helped a new business created following the collapse of UK care-home company Southern Cross to deal with a legacy of poor management and damaged morale and their inevitable consequences for service quality.

Design/methodology/approach

– Explains the reasons for the introduction of the Touch learning program, the form it takes and the results it has achieved.

Findings

– Reveals that 24 bespoke courses have been created for the 15,000-strong workforce. There have been 250,000 course completions, taking around 228,000 hours in total. Around £4 million has been saved on training in the first year of the program.

Practical implications

– Describes how an effective communication program helped to secure support for e-learning among a workforce that had previously been less tech-savvy than the average.

Social implications

– Highlights the particular advantages of the training program for a dispersed workforce where regulatory compliance is an important issue.

Originality/value

– Provides the inside story of how a training program helped to transform organizational culture and individual performance.
Melding a multi-generational workforce
Authors: Wesolowski Peter
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Focuses on the potential advantages and pitfalls of a multi-generational workforce.

Design/methodology/approach

– Focuses on the potential advantages and pitfalls of a multi-generational workforce.

Findings

– Argues that younger people are often more technologically “savvy” than older employees and more at ease with open communication but that older employees also have a wealth of experience they can pass on to their younger colleagues.

Practical implications

– Demonstrates how organizations can use communication technology itself to bring the generations together.

Social implications

– Highlights how demographic factors are changing the nature of the workforce and moving the emphasis towards life satisfaction rather than simply career success.

Originality/value

– Reveals how new technology can help to solve some of the problems that the technology itself creates.
Beyond “halo”: the identification and implications of differential brand effects across global markets
Authors: D. Raggio Randle , P. Leone Robert , C. Black William
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether brands impact consumer evaluations in ways other than a consistent halo and the degree to which consumers use both overall brand information along with detailed attribute-specific information to construct their evaluations.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors decompose consumer evaluations of brand benefits into overall brand and detailed attribute-specific sources through a standard CFA approach. Data cover 55 brands in four product categories sold in nine global markets.

Findings

– Halo effects are rare in global CPG markets. The authors identify the presence of differential brand effects in eight of nine global markets tested. Application of an extended model to a market where several competing family brands are present demonstrates the ability of the model to identify relationships among brand offerings within a family brand and to differentiate between family brand sets.

Research limitations/implications

– The finding of differential effects calls into question the assumption of a consistent brand effect assumed in past research; future models should accommodate differential effects.

Practical implications

– The ability to decompose consumer brand-benefit beliefs into overall brand and detailed attribute-specific sources provides managers with insights into which latent mental sources consumers use to construct their brand beliefs. As such, the methodology provides useful descriptive and diagnostic measures concerning the sources of suspicious, interesting, or worrisome consumer brand beliefs as well as a means to determine if their branding, positioning and/or messaging is having the desired impact on consumer evaluations so that they can make and evaluate required changes.

Originality/value

– A significant contribution of this research is the finding that many times the brand source differentially impacts consumers' evaluations of brand-benefits, a finding that is contrary to a consistent halo effect that is assumed in prior models.
Privacy concern and online transactions: the impact of internet self-efficacy and internet involvement
Authors: H. Akhter Syed
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– This study aims to examine the effects of internet self-efficacy and internet involvement on privacy concern and the effect of privacy concern on the frequency of online transactions. The study also seeks to examine the direct effect of internet self-efficacy and internet involvement on the frequency of online transactions.

Design/methodology/approach

– A structural equation model was developed to test the hypotheses. The model was tested using the LISREL 8.8 software and both structural and measurement parameters were estimated.

Findings

– Findings suggest that internet self-efficacy and internet involvement affect privacy concern negatively; and privacy concern, in turn, affects frequency of online transactions negatively. Findings also indicate that the direct effect of internet self-efficacy and internet involvement on the frequency of online transactions is positive. All parameters are significant and in the hypothesized direction.

Practical implications

– Findings highlight the significance of internet self-efficacy and internet involvement in explaining both privacy concern and online transactions. The negative impact of privacy concern shows strategically why businesses should take measures to protect privacy of consumers and assure them that the information they provide is protected and secure.

Originality/value

– This research contributes to the debate on privacy concern and adds to the growing body of literature on the impact of privacy concern on online transactions. Both antecedents and consequence of privacy concern are examined in the study.
Design and behaviour of R.C. beams to ACI318-and-SBC304; and EC2 codes when subjected to asymmetric loading
Authors: E. Alluqmani Ayed
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Reinforced concrete (R.C.) beams are part of the structure so their design depends on the structural code and its requirements. In this paper, two simply supported R.C. beams were designed in terms of flexural and shear strength design requirements and investigated in terms of deflections and crack widths, when subjected to two asymmetric concentrated loadings, where one load is double the other one. Both beams had dimensions of 3,500 mm length, 200 mm width, and 300 mm height. The first beam (beam B1) was designed according to the combination of the structural requirements of American and Saudi building codes (ACI318-and-SBC304), while the second beam (beam B2) was designed according to the structural requirements of Eurocode (EC2). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– The design of ultimate capacity (section capacity) to design both flexure and shear capacity according to the design provisions in EC2 code deals with the Ultimate Limit State Design Approach, while it deals with the Ultimate Strength Design Approach according to the design provisions in both ACI318 and SBC304 codes. In the serviceability (mid-span deflection and flexural crack width) check, the three codes deal with the Serviceability Limit State Design Approach.

Findings

– The laboratory behaviour of both test beams was as expected in flexure and failed in shear, but there was more shear cracks in the left shear span for both beams. This refers to the left applied loading and the spacing of shear links, where the failure occurred at the higher loading points. Perhaps, if the number of links was increased in the left side of the beam during the manufacture and reinforcing of the beam, the failure loading will be delayed and the diagonal cracks will be decreased.

Originality/value

– From this study, it was concluded that: the ACI318 and SBC304 design approaches are safer than the EC2 design approach. The EC2 design approach is more economic than the ACI318 and SBC304 design approaches. The structural behaviour of both test beams was as expected in flexure but both beams failed in shear. The shear failure was in the left side of both test beams which was referred to a high loading point. Diagonal cracks followed the applied loading until both beams reached to the failure.
Responses to other similar customers in a service setting – analyzing the moderating role of perceived performance risk
Authors: Dorothea Brack Anna , Benkenstein Martin
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to identify the effect of similarity in a customer-to-customer-relationship and of perceived performance risk as a boundary condition in a service setting.

Design/methodology/approach

– Following theoretical methodology, hypotheses were developed in order to analyze the effect of similarity as well as perceived performance risk. An experimental scenario-based design was used to manipulate similarity and performance risk and to test the hypotheses.

Findings

– The analysis reveals that similarity is an important dimension in the customer-to-customer-relationship. Positive similarity effects are shown in relation to subjects' willingness to interact with present customers, joining and recommending a service provider, and subjects' evaluation of the service provider. A mediating effect of positive emotions (joy and interest) on the link between similarity and willingness to interact with customers present is shown. Performance risk is also discovered as a boundary condition under which the predicted relationships are weakened.

Practical implications

– This study suggests that similarity in the customer-to-customer-relationship leads to positive effects. If managers take this into account, their business may benefit from these positive effects. The study offers suggestions on how to “manage” customers' similarity.

Originality/value

– As this study is one of the first empirical studies to concentrate on the effect of similarity in a customer-to-customer-relationship, it is meaningful. Moreover significant effects are shown; further research ideas are developed and management implications are proposed.
How commitment to fellow customers affects the customer-firm relationship and customer citizenship behavior
Authors: Curth Susanne , Uhrich Sebastian , Benkenstein Martin
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to analyze how affective commitment to fellow customers influences a customer's affective commitment to the service provider and customer citizenship behavior (CCB). In addition, the paper seeks to examine the moderating role of a customer's calculative commitment to the service organization.

Design/methodology/approach

– The study used a large-scale survey among customers of a health club and a scenario-based experiment to test the hypotheses.

Findings

– Both empirical studies provide evidence that affective commitment to fellow customers has positive consequences for the customer-firm-relationship. The findings suggest that commitment to fellow customers and commitment to the service organization influence very specific facets of customer citizenship behavior. In addition, the study found preliminary support for the moderating role of calculative commitment. Affective commitment to fellow customers showed the strongest effect on affective commitment to the provider in customer-firm relationships characterized by high (versus low) calculative commitment.

Practical implications

– The results of this research have a number of managerial implications. This study suggests measures to strengthen customer-firm-relationships, e.g. generating intensive exchange among customers or attraction of consumer pairs. Providing customers with platforms of valuable relationships to multiplex ties can be a competitive advantage for service providers.

Originality/value

– This article is the first that highlights the role of other customers as a target of customer commitment and how this commitment affects both the customer's relationship to the service provider and his or her customer citizenship behavior. The present study therefore broadens our knowledge of how bonding among customers influences consumer behavior in service settings.
Healthcare branding: developing emotionally based consumer brand relationships
Authors: Kemp Elyria , Jillapalli Ravi , Becerra Enrique
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Brands can imbue unique meaning to consumers, and such meaning and personal experience with a brand can create an emotional connection and relationship between the consumer and the brand. Just as many service providers have adopted branding strategies, marketers are branding the health care service experience. Health care is an intimate service experience and emotions play an integral role in health care decision making. The purpose of this paper is to examine how emotional or affect-based consumer brand relationships are developed for health care organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

– Empirical evidence from both depth interviews and data garnered from 322 surveys were integrated into a conceptual model. The model was tested using structural equation modeling.

Findings

– Results indicate that trust, referent influence and corporate social responsibility are key variables in establishing affective commitment in consumer brand relationships in a health care context. Once affective commitment is achieved, consumers may come to identify with the health care provider's brand and a self-brand connection is formed. When such a phenomenon takes place, consumers can serve as advocates for the brand by actively promoting it via word-of-mouth.

Practical implications

– The findings provide insight for marketing managers in developing successful branding strategies for health care organizations.

Originality/value

– This research examines the advantages of cultivating meaningful brand connections and relationships with consumers in a health care context.
Value creation through knowledge management in franchising: a multi-level conceptual framework
Authors: Weaven Scott , Grace Debra , Dant Rajiv , R. Brown James
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present an integrative systems model of knowledge management (KM) across the franchisor-franchisee-customer triad. The conceptual development of this paper focuses on the areas of knowledge development, knowledge transfer and knowledge use within the context of dyadic monitoring, and key relational outcomes (partner congruence, relationship quality, perceived conflict, opportunism), and performance results (franchisor, franchisee and customer welfare).

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper critically reviews the relevant literatures in order to address three conceptual goals exemplified by the following research questions. How does knowledge development and organizational learning effectively facilitate knowledge transfer and knowledge usage in franchise systems? What role does monitoring play in the relationship between the knowledge management processes and the welfare of franchisors and franchisees? How does the process of knowledge management (development, synthesis, transfer, usage) influence franchisor, franchisee and customer welfare?

Findings

– An extensive review of the literature results in ten key research propositions being offered and these are graphically presented in the conceptual model in Figure 1. This model represents a multi-level perspective of KM which provides a solid platform for future empirical studies and further academic discussion.

Originality/value

– This paper makes two key contributions. First, through adopting an integrative KM perspective it draws attention to many (as yet) unanswered questions concerning the franchise relationship. Second, it re-positions KM research beyond consideration at a singular (firm, employee, supplier or customer) level by focusing on intra-firm and firm-customer linkages in the value creation process.
The smart leader: examining the relationship between intelligence and leader development behavior
Authors: A. Blair Carrie , Allen Gorman Charles , Helland Katherine , Delise Lisa
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between intelligence and behavior during leader development.

Design/methodology/approach

– As part of a leader development program, a variety of measures are collected, including measures of intelligence and measures of performance (e.g. assessment center performance, a 360-degree appraisal). The participants are given performance feedback from a variety of sources then asked to form developmental goals. The goals are examined for goal quality and goal-feedback correspondence, and examined in relation to intelligence.

Findings

– Intelligence was positively related to goal-feedback correspondence. Intelligence was also related to goal quality after controlling for variance attributed to professional discipline.

Research limitations/implications

– Personality, gender, age, and other variables were not included in this study. Other factors, such as the cultures of the organizations from which the individuals hailed, were also not included. Moreover, the conclusions were based on the behaviors exhibited in one leader development program. Future research should address these limitations.

Practical implications

– Leader development is expensive and is becoming more popular. The results of this research could help organizations better determine who is likely to benefit from the investment in leader development.

Originality/value

– In addition, a unique method is presented in the study for measuring leader development behavior based on goal quality and goal-feedback correspondence. Generalizability theory is applied in order to determine the reliability of the measures.
Validation of γ-irradiation in controlling microorganisms in fish
Authors: Acharjee Mrityunjoy , Ahmed Estiak , Kishore Munshi Saurab , Noor Rashed
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– With a previous throughput of sea fish contamination with microorganisms, the present study extended the array of such spoilage over four other fish samples including Pseudapocryptes elongates, Scomberomorus cavalla, Xenentodon cancila and Otolithoides pama, evaluated the reductive impact of irradiation, and further validated the irradiation methodology in controlling the microbial quality of the sea fish samples. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– Twelve samples of each sea fish were collected from super shops in Dhaka city and a portion of each sample was subjected to γ-irradiation at a dose of 3 kilo gray (kGy). Then, both non-irradiated and irradiated samples were tested for the presence of pathogenic bacteria though culture on different specific media followed by biochemical identification. Drug resistance among the pathogens was also investigated.

Findings

– Most of the non-irradiated samples were observed to harbor huge bacteria and fungi (1.3×102-1.5×107 cfu/g or cfu/ml) including the fecal coliforms ranging up to 105 cfu/g or cfu/ml, leading to an elevated threat to public health. Besides, the isolates were found to be resistant against single or multiple antibiotics, which further brought treatment complications during the possible disease outbreaks. However, the pathogenic load was significantly reduced after applying 3 kGy dose of γ-irradiation on the samples in consistent to the previous work using different fish samples.

Research limitations/implications

– A similar type of work has already been published by the group using different samples this year in the Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Sciences, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 2420-2430. However, even being an increment of the previous work, the present work deals with extended array of sea fish samples with an objective of controlling food safety.

Practical implications

– The present work further confirms and assists the knowledge of food protection and the identification of spoiling bacteria and fungi by applying replicable methods projects of the novelty and practical outcome of the work.

Originality/value

– The reduction of pathogenic load revealed the efficacy of γ-irradiation as a mean of preserving fish quality. Besides, the study quantified the contaminating microorganisms as well as identified the drug-resistant bacteria among sea fish samples. Traditional but standard cultural and biochemical tests, demonstration of drug resistance among the isolated microorganisms from fish samples and finally the microbial elimination by irradiation might contribute to the existing knowledge on major sea fish.
Determination of minerals by ICP-AES in indigenous vegetables from Southwest Nigeria
Authors: Oyenike Babalola Sadiat , Aishat Akinwande Bolanle
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– It is very pertinent to determine the nutritional value of indigenous leafy-vegetables to establish their potentials in ensuring adequate nutrition and food security. One of the ways to promote fresh produce is through nutritional information. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– Simultaneous multi-element analysis of eight indigenous (with underutilized) vegetables commonly found in the Southwest Nigeria was done by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Wild-grown vegetables were harvested from the National Horticultural Research Institute orchard, in Southwest Nigeria. The contents of investigated quantity minerals as well as trace and heavy metals were determined.

Findings

– In all the vegetables, potassium was discovered as the most abundant quantity mineral present with range of 4.364 mg/g inVernonia amygdalinato 78.218 mg/g inSenecio biafrae(an underutilized vegetable). This was followed by calcium ranging from 3.351 mg/g (Vernonia amygdalina) to 9.914 mg/g (Solanum macrocarpon). Lead had the least content among the heavy metals with range of value from below the detection limit of the method used to 0.05 μg/g.

Practical implications

– The results obtained for the mineral profile provide useful information that could sensitize the people on the need for their consumption. This can be a good opportunity to enhance micronutrient supply of the diet of low-income earners which form majority of the society.

Originality/value

– Findings from this study indicate that the indigenous vegetables that are not formally cultivated could be important in improving micronutrient deficiency of low-income earners.
Mobile phones in Africa: opportunities and challenges for academic librarians
Authors: Bolton Palumbo Laura
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– Lack of internet access and availability of computers in Africa has hindered learning and teaching there. However, the growing prevalence of mobile phones in Africa and elsewhere has created a way for information to be quickly and easily disseminated in areas where access to the internet and computers are limited. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– Mobile phones in Africa are currently being used to share information relating to agriculture, health, and finance. This paper will examine these current uses, investigate the current and future use of mobile phones by academic libraries and in education in Africa, and discuss how mobile phones might be leveraged to further education and information dissemination through academic libraries.

Findings

– Limited access to electricity, computers, and the internet has prevented technological growth in Africa in the past, but innovative uses of mobile phones have provided an alternate avenue of progress. More still needs to be done so that this technology is accessible by all, such as training in basic adult literacy and English as a second language. African librarians should adopt mobile phone technologies as an integral part of their service, and employ them particularly in the areas of text reference, information literacy, and outreach.

Originality/value

– Librarians around the world are at a critical time, when the rapid developments brought about by the internet and mobile phones must be sought as a way to enhance library services. African librarians are in a unique position to utilize mobile phones to create new avenues of information sharing and instruction.
Implementing discipline-specific searches in EBSCO Discovery Service
Authors: Fu Li , Thomes Cynthia
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– This paper discusses how University of Maryland University College (UMUC) librarians customized EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to allow for searching across librarian-selected sets of discipline-specific databases. Discipline-specific searching results in a smaller and more relevant set of search results, which can make research more efficient and effective.

Design/methodology/approach

– This paper describes the collaboration between systems and reference and instruction librarians to develop, test, launch, promote, and assess discipline-specific searching in EDS in support of effective teaching and learning.

Findings

– Customization of a discovery tool to allow researchers to run searches across pre-selected sets of discipline-specific databases is beneficial to the researchers since it enables them to find a smaller and more relevant set of search results than they would otherwise receive if they searched across all databases available in the discovery tool.

Originality/value

– This paper provides detailed instructions regarding customization of EDS to allow for discipline-specific searching and discusses ways in which this enhancement can be brought to researchers' attention during reference and instruction interactions. This paper should be of interest to technical librarians as well as to reference and instruction librarians.
Just why do we need school libraries? Some ideas from students
Authors: Kenneth Shenton Andrew
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The paper aims to explore the purposes of school libraries as they are viewed by teenagers attending a high school in northern England.

Design/methodology/approach

– The work is based on qualitative data contributed by 245 youngsters. Their material was coded inductively and frequency counts were generated in order to determine the balance of the data in relation to individual themes.

Findings

– Typically, the school library was understood as an area that made available books either for pleasure reading or academic purposes. No participant referred either to the work of librarians or to the value of libraries in enabling the user to find information in support of personal interests.

Research limitations/implications

– The research took place in only one school and it may well have been the case that many students who were apathetic towards school libraries simply declined the opportunity to participate in the work.

Practical implications

– Although the attitudes of the young people who contributed data were to an overwhelming degree constructive, key gaps were evident in their awareness of the potential of a school library. These are best rectified by managers developing their facility in such a way that it serves to demonstrate effectively to students the roles that the school library can play in a diversity of situations.

Originality/value

– Much of the published literature dealing with the purposes of school libraries and the prerequisites necessary to ensure their effectiveness pays little regard to the ideas of young people themselves. This paper goes some way towards remedying the deficiency.
Faculty adoption and usage behaviour of open access scholarly communication in health science universities
Authors: Tandi Lwoga Edda , Questier Frederik
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The study seeks to investigate factors that affect the adoption and use of open access in Tanzanian health sciences universities.

Design/methodology/approach

– Based on a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, 415 faculty members were selected through a stratified random sampling from a population of 679 in all eight health sciences universities in Tanzania. The response rate was 71.1 per cent.

Findings

– Based on the social exchange theory (SET), and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), the study developed a model suitable for assessing open access adoption and usage in academic institutions. The study found that facilitating conditions, extrinsic benefits (professional recognition), behavioural intention and individual characteristics (professional rank, technical skills and number of publications) predicted actual usage of open access. Other factors related to contextual factors (attitude, and open access culture), and extrinsic benefits (academic reward, accessibility and preservation) determined behavioural intention to use open access. Fear to violate publisher's copyright policies and effort expectancy however de-motivated faculty to adopt open access, while copyright concerns inhibited faculty's actual usage of open access.

Originality/value

– This is the first comprehensive study focusing on the health sciences faculty's open access adoption and usage behaviour in Africa, and Tanzania in particular, and reveals findings that are useful for planning and implementing open access initiatives in other institutions with similar conditions.
Collaboration between rural school and public youth services librarians
Authors: Smith Daniella
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this article is to determine the types of collaborative activities public youth services and school librarians in rural locations engage in and to ascertain whether there are methods that youth service librarians believe can be employed to improve collaborative activities with public school librarians.

Design/methodology/approach

– A mixed method design was implemented with an online self-administered survey. The survey contained open and closed-ended questions.

Findings

– The findings indicate that many public librarians serving youth in rural locations find it important to collaborate with school librarians. Yet, they struggle to build strong collaborative relationships. Factors such as time, a lack of school librarian administrative support, and a lack of understanding about the roles of school librarians and public librarians, are collaborative barriers.

Research limitations/implications

– The study was limited to a purposive sample of 80 public librarians serving youth in rural areas in the United States.

Practical implications

– Librarianship training programs can help school librarians and youth services librarians learn how to form collaborative partnerships through mentorship programs, requiring pre-service school and youth services librarians to collaborate on projects, and educating them about the similarities in their goals. School and public librarians can also benefit from training to teach them how to build community partnerships.

Originality/value

– The results provide evidence that public librarians serving youth in rural areas favor building stronger collaborative relationships with school librarians. Building these relationships can improve the quality of education for youth in these locations. This article also includes proposed strategies for improving these relationships.
Special library in teacher training and information literacy
Authors: Chua May
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– This paper aims to examine the underemphasized importance of libraries in cultivating information literacy habits in teacher trainees that in turn generate the multiplier effects of inculcating positive habits of information literacy of children in schools.

Design/methodology/approach

– By using Singapore's National Institute of Education (NIE) Library as a case study, this paper provides an overview of its institutional and cultural dynamics that create a favorable environment to cultivate information literacy in trainee teachers.

Findings

– NIE Library's unique embeddedness in the public education system and education research system allows it to provide world-class information literacy support for teacher trainees.

Originality/value

– Provides a description of how special libraries are vital in supporting a nation-wide effort in information literacy through the support of teacher trainee and education researchers.
Web tutorials workflows
Authors: Kathryn Nichols Hess Amanda
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– This article examines a structured redesign of one academic library's offering of its online learning objects. This process considered both improving the online learning objects and developing a feasible workflow process for librarians. The findings for both processes are discussed.

Design/methodology/approach

– The scholarship on online library learning objects and web tutorials, beginning with Dewald's seminal study, was examined for trends, patterns, and best practices. From this research, informal interviews were conducted with library faculty members. Once this information had been collected, other public university libraries in the state of Michigan – 14 in all – were considered in terms of if, and how, they offered online learning objects and web tutorials. These three areas of inquiry provide a foundation for the best practices and workflows developed.

Findings

– Based on the scholarship, librarian feedback, and informal assessment of other public university libraries' practices, best practices were developed for web tutorial evaluation and creation. These best practices are to make online learning content: maintainable, available, geared at users, informative, and customizable. Workflows for librarians around these best practices were developed. Also, using these best practices, the library redesigned its tutorials web page and employed a different content management tool, which benefitted both librarians and users with increased interactivity and ease of use.

Originality/value

– This article shares best practices and library workflows for online learning objects in ways that are not commonly addressed in the literature. It also considers the library's online instructional presence from the perspectives of both user and librarian, and works to develop structures in which both can function effectively. This article is also of value because of the practical implications it offers to library professionals.
Deciphering men: reading the masculine inModern Family
Authors: Buchbinder David
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The growing public anxiety towards the end of the twentieth century that men were “in crisis” was articulated in popular-cultural texts. The purpose of this paper is to examine the TV family sitcomModern Family, in order to explore the ways that it constructs the masculine post-9/11.

Design/methodology/approach

– The approach used is that of cultural studies, a field which draws together theorisation and analytical methods from a variety of disciplines.

Findings

– Despite the variety of family structures represented in the seriesModern Family, its narratives continue to foster traditional notions of patriarchal power. However, the presence of alternate versions of “family” and “masculinity” suggests an awareness of other possibilities.

Practical implications

– This paper may model to its readers a way of approaching and analysing other popular-cultural texts for their representations of masculinity.

Social implications

– An understanding of the dynamics of masculinity and its alternative forms of masculinity may be likely to have a material impact in the social sphere.

Originality/value

– By drawing together theory and analytical approaches from a variety of relevant disciplines, the paper demonstrates that, in the wake of the events of 9/11, there are twin impulses simultaneously to adhere to a familiar, dominant notion of masculinity, yet to propose alternate forms of the masculine.
Masculinist method: a cautionary tale
Authors: Kaufmann Jodi
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– This is a cautionary tale. In previous research on male-to-female transsexuals, the author's analysis was too knowing, detached, and full of authorial superiority. In other words, it was too masculine. The paper aims to discuss theses issues.

Design/methodology/approach

– In this paper, the author brings to the fore the deleterious effects of the masculinist method. The author then writes a palinode in order to allow masculinity and male to be performed and un/tethered differently by and on different bodies and different subjects.

Findings

– The paper concludes with a discussion of how a masculinist method emerged and its consequences.

Originality/value

– This is a revised look at the author's previous work on the subject.
Across intergenerational masculinities: straight divisions, gay multiplications
Authors: Davis Ian , Vicars Mark
Published: April 2014

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to present two examples how stories and storying can be utilised to excavate forgotten points and junctures that result as fundamental episodes in the forming of the subjective selves. Writing in-between masculinity and queerness both stories trace the experience of two boys through accounts of initiation and subjection.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using autobiography as a method, in concert with Deleuzian-Guattarian notions of becoming and becoming other the paper explores how the discovery of subjective difference informs how the work of identity making and survival take place.

Findings

– What is uncovered in the process of the paper is how we learn the disguises needed for survival through an early encounter away from the dominating and into the dominated. In this process of becoming other strategies are designed to disguise difference and avoid detection.

Social implications

– The gaps and fissures that exist between intergenerational positions in conjunction with the straight/gay sexuality binary provide the environment within which the paper operates. Through personal biography the paper investigates how this structure informs the subjective positionality and the identity construction.

Originality/value

– The openness of the writing found in both of these accounts, although clearly a narrative construction, are also akin to a stream of remembering or spontaneous prose writing. The accounts themselves are not heavily edited; they have not been figured and refigured to produce pleasing literary effects. Instead they remain raw utilising narrative tropes such as flash-back and dramaturgy simply as conduits to memory. The tropes that are employed could be read as defensive or distancing mechanism, a protection against the capacity of the unfolding lived experience to disturb and disrupt.
Neural basis of new clinical vestibular tests: otolithic neural responses to sound and vibration
Authors: Curthoys Ian S , Vulovic Vedran , Burgess Ann M , Manzari Leonardo , Sokolic Ljiljana , Pogson Jacob , Robins Mike , Mezey Laura E , Goonetilleke Samanthi , Cornell Elaine D , MacDougall Hamish G
Published: April 2014

Extracellular single neuron recording and labelling studies of primary vestibular afferents in Scarpa's ganglion have shown that guinea‐pig otolithic afferents with irregular resting discharge are preferentially activated by 500 Hz bone‐conducted vibration (BCV) and many also by 500 Hz air‐conducted sound (ACS) at low threshold and high sensitivity. Very few afferent neurons from any semicircular canal are activated by these stimuli and then only at high intensity. Tracing the origin of the activated neurons shows that these sensitive otolithic afferents originate mainly from a specialized region, the striola, of both the utricular and saccular maculae. This same 500 Hz BCV elicits vestibular‐dependent eye movements in alert guinea‐pigs and in healthy humans. These stimuli evoke myogenic potentials, vestibular‐evoked myogenic potentials (VEMPs), which are used to test the function of the utricular and saccular maculae in human patients. Although utricular and saccular afferents can both be activated by BCV and ACS, the differential projection of utricular and saccular afferents to different muscle groups allows for differentiation of the function of these two sensory regions. The basic neural data support the conclusion that in human patients in response to brief 500 Hz BCV delivered to Fz (the midline of the forehead at the hairline), the cervical VEMP indicates predominantly saccular function and the ocular VEMP indicates predominantly utricular function. The neural, anatomical and behavioural evidence underpins clinical tests of otolith function in humans using sound and vibration.