Acquisition Of Information Resources Research Articles

External environment uncertainty, key resources acquisition, and corporate technological innovation

AbstractThis study investigates the impact of external environmental uncertainty on technological innovation from the perspective of key resource acquisition. Using data from A‐share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2008 to 2019, we empirically test the relationship between external environmental uncertainty faced by firms and technological innovation input and output. Our findings reveal that external environmental uncertainty has a negative impact on the input and output of corporate technological innovation. In addition, key resource acquisition, namely, capital resource acquisition and information resource acquisition, plays a mediating role in this relationship. As an asset for obtaining resources, corporate social capital is a crucial means for firms to obtain external resources. This study further incorporates corporate social capital into the analysis, which shows that corporate social capital plays a positive moderating role in the impact of external environmental uncertainty on corporate technological innovation. Furthermore, research shows that compared with nonhigh‐tech industry firms, the technological innovation of high‐tech industry firms is more sensitive to external environmental uncertainty.

Promotion of Information Services and Resources in University Libraries

This research aimed to identify how libraries promote their services and resources for awareness creation among library patrons and the role of the library staff in creating this awareness among users about information services and resources. The study was undertaken through a questionnaire-based survey. Data collection procedures were completed in two phases. In the first round, the data were collected from 13 in-charge librarians/ marketing officers and in the second round, data were collected from 243 library users. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results demonstrate that planning and implementing promotional activities provide a chance to evaluate the utilization of information resources and services. Promotional activities not only create awareness but also justify the budget spent on the acquisition of information resources.

Challenges that Affect the Utilization of KLISC’s Resources and Services at University of Nairobi

It is not feasible for a library to hold or acquire a full collection of information resources which may be required by its patrons. To deal with this issue, library cooperation was adopted, for instance, interlibrary loaning, document delivery and library network, formed to build the acquiring capacity of cooperating institutions to grow the accessibility of information resources and offer computerized services. In Kenya, there is KLISC which has carried out commendable activities to support research in Kenya. KLISC has done admirable exercises to support research in Kenya. These exercises incorporate collaborative acquisition of information resources, ICT training of information experts and the preparation of researchers to improve their abilities in retrieving information. Despite the activities and services that KLISC provide, its resources are yet to be appreciated by a majority of the users of the member institutions. Also, not all information providers and institutions of higher learning are members. Kenya has over 600 institutions but only 112 are KLISC members as of 2018 and the numbers keep reducing. The study therefore tried to identify the challenges that the KLISC members face that could be affecting utilization of the electronic resources, members pulling out and also discouraging other institutions from joining. The study found out that KLISC members experienced the following challenges; slow internet connectivity, information illiteracy, lack of searching skills, low awareness levels, slow downloading speed, unfriendly platforms, password requirements for some databases, poor ICT infrastructure, poor ICT skills for both users and staff, delays in releasing of funds by the management, and slow communication from the publishers. KLISC itself faces the following challenges: members do not efficiently communicate about their information needs, lack of sponsorship since INASP pulled out, delay by KLISC’s members to pay their annual subscription fee, and the management team is overwhelmed by work. The study therefore recommended the following: Institutions should invest more on ICT infrastructure, KLISC should come up with a way of ensuring relevancy, KLISC should stand on its own as an institution and acquire its own offices and employ staff who will just be working for KLISC, KLISC should create a mini-consortium to cater for research institutions and also other specialized fields in different institutions in Kenya, KLISC should come up with a way of dealing with individual defaulters in a way that does not affect the other members, the publishers should improve the interfaces of their databases to make them user friendly and easy to navigate, and the publishers should also ensure fast communications with the institutions.

Venture capital network and the M&A performance of listed companies

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss how venture capital institutions can use their syndicated investment network to help listed companies to achieve better performance in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities.Design/methodology/approachThis paper builds a fixed effect unbalanced panel regression model to study the impact of venture capital network on the M&A performance of listed companies.FindingsEvidence indicated that the stronger the information resource acquisition ability of venture capital institutions in the network, the better the listed company's M&A performance supported; the stronger the information resource control ability of venture capital institutions in the network, the better the listed company's M&A performance supported; the higher the participation of venture capital institutions, the more significant the positive impact of information resource acquisition and information resource control abilities on M&A performance in the network.Research limitations/implicationsThe data in this paper are from China's Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), other markets may be considered in the future research studies.Practical implicationsThe research conclusions of this paper affirm the positive role played by venture capital institutions through syndicated investment in eliminating information asymmetry in M&A of invested companies. The information resource acquisition and control abilities and participation degree of the venture capital network have positively promoted the M&A performance of the invested enterprises.Originality/valueThe conclusions of this paper not only provide useful supplements to existing research literature on venture capital network functions and corporate M&A but also have certain guiding value for venture capital institutions and start-ups to better use venture capital practices to improve their capabilities and performance.

How user-driven innovation and employee intrapreneurship promote platform enterprise performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of user-driven innovation (UDI) and employee intrapreneurship (EI) on the innovation performance of platform enterprises through the mediating role of market intelligence responsiveness (MIR) and the moderating role of knowledge and information resource acquisition (KRA and IRA, respectively) between MIR and innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 167 platform enterprises in northern, eastern and southern China with survey questionnaires. Participants were mainly middle and senior managers with a comprehensive grasp of the enterprises' information.FindingsThe results indicated that both UDI and EI, particularly synergy, positively influenced the innovation performance of platform enterprises. Furthermore, higher innovation performance resulted from high congruence between UDI and EI, and the innovation performance of enterprises increased when UDI and EI shifted from being incongruent to congruent. Lastly, MIR played a mediating role in this relationship, and both KRA and IRA played a positive moderating role between MIR and innovation performance.Practical implicationsPlatform enterprises should pay attention to external users and internal employees to achieve their development goals and establish tripartite cooperative relationships involving firms, employees and users. Enabling platform enterprises to develop continually and in a healthy way requires the integration and utilization of all types of resources.Originality/valueThis was an empirical study on the impact mechanism of employees and users on the innovation performance of platform enterprises in China.

Exploring the Application of Information and Communication Technologies in the Acquisition of Information Resources in Three Academic Libraries in North-West Nigeria: Preliminary Findings

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) incursion has brought a lot of changes to libraries activities. ICTs are used to manage libraries more efficiently and in meeting customers’ demands more appropriately at the right time. Despite the contribution of ICTs to library and information work, many libraries are yet to adopt these technologies especially in the acquisitions of library materials. This study was carried out in three selected university libraries in North West Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to: determine the influence of performance expectancy on academic librarians’ intention to use ICT for acquisition; establish the influence of effort expectancy on academic librarians’ intention to use ICT for acquisition; find out the extent of social influence and facilitating conditions on academic librarians’ intention to use ICT for acquisition and lastly to proffer recommendations. This study adopted a positivistic approach and used a questionnaire administered to 224 librarians to collect data in the three selected libraries. The study is guided by the Unified Theory Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) developed by Venkatesh. Findings from the study reveals that academic librarians are supportive on the use of ICT in their work; ICTs are significantly important, trainings were organized mainly for librarians on general use of ICT not only on acquisition, but also on the general issues related to library activities; librarians also have the knowledge necessary to use ICT for acquisition in their libraries. The study recommends among others that the parent universities should increase the funding of their libraries with adequate supervision, so that such funds are well utilized for ICTs application; university libraries should continually sponsor their academic staff on modern computerized ways of using ICTs to source for materials and the acquisition of information resources in academic libraries should be given all the seriousness it deserves by enacting legislation to allocate a reasonable percentage of the university’s budget to it.

Digital Library and Intellectual Issues—Issues in Copyright and Intellectual Property

The study aims at identifying the concept of digital library, it also tries to shed the light on the most significant intellectual issues by presenting its definition, development, functions (selection and acquisition of information resources from the web, sources indexing, communication and management of intellectual property rights, production of electronic resources and its availability, and digital resources maintaining), characteristics, and the purpose of turning into digital library, passed by the proposed stages of digital library transition, Types of Intellectual Property (Copyright, Patents, Trademarks, Commercial Secrets), it also discusses copyrights and intellectual property, the problems and challenges of digital library, and finally the future of digital library. Many researchers agree that the main objective of the digital library is to accomplish all the functions of the traditional library, but in the form of electronic digital libraries which are only an extension for jobs that are performed and the resources that are accessible in digital library. The study concluded that digital libraries emerged as an obligatory result of revolution of the third millennium which is called the communications revolution, as libraries are able to prove that they are able to stand and cope with all the modern technology, where there is no conflict between the new and modern trends in libraries issue, but it also benefits from both of them concerning their evolution instruments in service for beneficiaries in every time and place.

Status of collection in agricultural libraries of Northern India with an overview of the trend in acquisition

PurposeThis paper of this study is to attempt to explore the status of collection in agricultural libraries of Northern India and assess the magnitude of impact of the advent of electronic information resources (EIRs) on the contemporary acquisition.Design/methodology/approachWhile adhering to the survey method, the questionnaire was used as a data collection tool to collect data from university librarians. Telephonic interaction and e-mail correspondence were also used to clear doubts, remove ambiguities and obtain data of higher significance from the respondents.FindingsThe majority of the agricultural libraries in Northern India have a sound collection of information resources in the print form, which may continue to act as a source of attraction for users in the future for a long time to come. Yet, the acquisition of information resources in the print form across the studied libraries continues at routine pace, and as such the advent of e-resources seems to have not yet laid any prominent impact on acquisition of resources in print form. E-Books have not yet been fully incorporated into the library collection and that e-journal collection “CeRA” (Consortium for Electronic Resources in Agriculture) seems to gratify the needs of users of these libraries, as no additional e-journals are seen to be subscribed to at present.Research limitations/implicationsOnly seven agricultural libraries have been taken as a sample. Moreover, the work is confined to only two aspects, i.e. current status and the impact of EIRs on acquisition of information resources. Other aspects like those of collection development, storage and accommodation, preservation, library functionality and library services need to also be studied.Originality/valueThis is first work of its nature in Northern India with agricultural libraries as their domain. The findings will help the librarians and the library advisory committees decide on logical grounds about the proportion at which the print and electronic forms of information resources need to be acquired.

Status of Collection in Agricultural Libraries of North India with an Overview of the Trend in Acquisition

Purpose: This paper is an attempt to explore the status of collection in Agricultural libraries of North India and assess the impact of the advent of Electronic Information Resources (EIRs) on acquisition. Design/Methodology/Approach: A questionnaire was used as data collection tool to collect data from the University Librarians. Telephonic interaction and e-mail correspondence was also used to clear doubts, remove ambiguities and obtain data from the respondents. Findings: The majority of the agricultural libraries in north India have a sound collection of information resources in print form, which may continue to act as a source of attraction for users in future for a long time to come. Yet the acquisition of information resources in print form across the studied libraries continues at routine pace, and as such the advent of e-resources seems to have not yet had any prominent impact on acquisition of resources in print form. E-Books have not yet been fully incorporated into the library collection and the e-journal collection 'CeRA' seems to meet the needs of users, as no additional e-journals are seen to be subscribed. Research Limitations: Only seven agricultural libraries have been taken as a sample. Moreover, the work is confined to only 2 aspects i.e. current status and the impact of EIRs on acquisition of information resources. Other aspects like that of collection development; storage and accommodation; preservation; library functionality and library services need to be studied as well. Originality/Value - This is the first work of its nature in north India and the findings should help librarians to decide on print and electronic forms of information resources that need to be acquired.

The assessment of work on the acquisition of information resources for an organization

This paper proposes a system of indicators that show the efficiency of information-resource acquisition for organizations based on an analysis of the existing approaches to the assessment of information resources and decomposition of the concept of work efficiency.

La Gestión de la colección en las bibliotecas universitarias españolas. Planes y normativas (II): la adquisición

This article presents the second part of an investigative work dedicated to study collection management in Spanish university libraries through an analysis of the plans and regulations elaborated by these libraries. The first part was entitled: Collection management in Spanish university libraries. Plans and regulations (I): selection. In the present work thirty texts are studied which regulate the acquisition of information resources at Spanish university libraries. These documents describe acquisitions as part of collection management and special attention is focused on their structure and contents, as well as on their concept and objectives. Secondly the study delves into the acquisitions procedure. It appears differentiated from selection, but at the same time, related to it. It is structured and standardized, and includes donations. Although principally linked to print publications, the results nonetheless are presented within the context of a hybrid library.

Use of digital media and demand for digitized contents in higher education sector of Pakistan

The use of digital media is on rise around the world and same phenomenon is emerging in Pakistan. The study was intended to explore the use of digital media and demand for digitized contents in higher education sector of Pakistan. The research questions were answered by a comprehensive literature review along with semi-structured in-depth interviews of 25 library experts. The findings conferred that the use of digital media in higher education is on rise and demand for digitized contents is growing increasingly. The findings of the study made a good case for the libraries to focus more on acquisition of information resources in digital formats as well as initiate digitization initiatives.

Use of digital media and demand for digitized contents in higher education sector of Pakistan

The use of digital media is on rise around the world and same phenomenon is emerging in Pakistan. The study was intended to explore the use of digital media and demand for digitized contents in higher education sector of Pakistan. The research questions were answered by a comprehensive literature review along with semi-structured in-depth interviews of 25 library experts. The findings conferred that the use of digital media in higher education is on rise and demand for digitized contents is growing increasingly. The findings of the study made a good case for the libraries to focus more on acquisition of information resources in digital formats as well as initiate digitization initiatives.