The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the management of the TSL industry : a Polish example

Purpose: The aim of the article is to analyse the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Polish enterprises from the TSL sector. Design/Methodology/Approach: The first stage of research, based on the method of analysis and criticism of the literature, will be prepared in the area of the subject taken, including relations between the main concepts. This stage is auxiliary and constitutes a starting point for further research. The essential data source about the article’s description were reports published by the Statistical Office. The method of literature analysis in terms of TSL sector as well as report analysis and own observations will be used. Findings: The results of conducted analysis show that today’s information and communication technologies (ICT) have revolutionized the way of working, transformed the economy and irreversible affected human activity in the information society. Practical Implications: Research results may be used by TSL sector enterprises and as teaching material at higher education facilities. The article brings a number of valuable information that can be the base material and reference to further research, programs and studies. It may be useful for practitioners and analytics of transport industry to broaden applications of ICT solutions. Originality/value: The results of the analysis and theoretical considerations in this article complement the current research in the field of information and communication technologies, and may become a valuable resource of knowledge and a set of specimens that can be useful in developing dissertations in the field of management.peer-reviewe

Road transport development : a bibliometric analysis of scientific discourse

PURPOSE: The aim of the research resulting in this article is to identify the stages of evolution of the concept of transport, as well as to forecast further developments in this area of science. On this basis, a network of co-cited key words in the field of road transport was developed.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: A bibliometric analysis of the literature on road transport was carried out. The data source was the international interdisciplinary database Scopus. The time span of the analysis was 2000-2022. A co-occurrence network analysis of road transport keywords was performed using VOSviewer version 1.6.19.FINDINGS: The results obtained are related to the extraction of cognitive knowledge about the preferred directions of development of the analysed category - road transport. Based on the analysis, the evolution of the number of published works on road transport between 2000 and 2022 and the countries with the highest number of publications in the area under study are presented. In addition, a co-occurrence network of road transport keywords was constructed using the VosViewer tool.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The results developed will be used to identify effective pathways and research gaps for the road transport category. The identification of sources with the highest productivity and citations can be used by potential publication authors to adopt an appropriate publishing strategy.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: There are now many publications that preface the bibliometric analysis of the road transport literature. This article provides an up-to-date, comprehensive analysis of this field and enriches the understanding of its existing patterns and trends.peer-reviewe

Rural tourism development : a network perspective

How can economic development of tourism contribute to the presevation of qualities in rural areas? How can tourism innovations be generated? How can policy-makers effectively influence economic development? This book explores sense and non-sense of interactive approaches to rural tourism development. It confronts - often optimistic - theoretical ideas with pratices in four regions in the Netherlands and France.</p

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

The influence of standardisation and regulation on the development of intelligent networks

In today’s global economy a flexible and responsive telecommunications infrastructure is essential to the maintenance and development of a country’s economy. Within a free market, such an infrastructure depends upon the use of common standards; either imposed as a consequence of regulation or evolved through the operation of the market. This thesis investigates the influence of regulation and standardisation on Intelligent Network telecommunications technology by addressing the hypothesis: Tight architecture-based regulation is inappropriate for a rapidly changing telecommunications environment, since that environment is continually challenging and redefining the boundaries of technological change. The multi-method approach adopted is based upon triangulation to identify multiple viewpoints. A Stakeholder Analysis was employed to help categorise those with an interest in Intelligent Networks and provide a basis for data collection. The primary data was gathered using a combination of surveys and interviews. The thesis illustrates a wide range of original research. A unique analysis framework was constructed to identify a number of factors, including technical and commercial influences and their impact on the choice of IN architecture and the implementation of regulations. This framework offers a new perspective with which to view IN architectures; leading to the development and implementation of alternative IN architecture models. A number of these architectures have been constructed, together with some novel services, to demonstrate what could be achieved by employing flexible, less detailed standards, or making use of proprietary protocols. The research concludes that tight regulation is not appropriate for Intelligent Network technology. Instead, encouragement for implementation and interconnection is better shaped through the development and adoption of de-jure standards

Information flows for African communities and their environments: An analysis of roles of geographical information in processes of decision making.

The identification of roles that geographical information can play in environmental decision making of, and for, African communities is the objective of this thesis. The hypothesis of this paper is as follows. Geographical information of Africa functions to reproduce and sustain environmental and socio-economic problems in the continent while maintaining various interests of research and decision making communities although such information are supposed to be used for the solution of those problems. The study also contends that emerging communication networks being most prominently actualised as the Internet have a potential to enable local communities to change the use / abuse of information about themselves and their environments. The analysis of current information flows via the concept of 'power' of Michael Foucault and according to the concept of simulation' of Jean Baudrillard suggests the need for examination of conventional information flows as alternatives to the status quo of decision making proces. Flows of scientific information arc self-perpetuating. They go through research communities collecting information from fields and decision making communities. Scientific suggestions are converted into agendas and actions. Imposed decisions resulting from these flows affect local communities and their enviroments. Research communities study such effects, and information flows repeat the process against and again Although individuals of the three types of communities - scientists, decision makers and local communities - may want "improvements" of some sort, institutions do not need any radical change. They only need a continuation of the self-perpetuation of the information flows for their survival. This phenomenon is termed the 'dynamic immobility' of the Foucauldian structure. A second feature of the information flows critically examined concerns the manipulation of the information by those 'producing' it. It is argued that the flows of geographical information on Africa delivered to the public by the mass media as news and reports contributes to the critical mass for implosion of meaning'. In such circumstances, the significance of African events such as famines and droughts themselves disappear, and only the illusion of a simplified and allegorised combination of tragedies and of humunitarian efforts are produced and circulated. The mass media do not simply provide information collected from the field to the public hut rather produce material to entertain and please the public by utilising various proper nouns such as placenames picked up from the fields in Africa. Just as scientific hypotheses are academic consumables for decision making communities in the Foucauldian sense, news and reports are humanitarian consumables for the public in the Baudrillardian sense. Individuals in African communities and those concerned with these communities need alternative information flows to verify and modify conventional decision making processes, Geographical information, not as an institutional tool for self-perpetuating production of policies and actions but as a process in which one individual informs his / her circumstance to another, can become an effective method to break out the status quo. The possibility of developing alternative information flows is considered using the case of Zapatista action in Mexico as reference. Findings from the analysis of the Zapatista case form a foundation for the development of methods of generating alternative information flows. The discussion of such methods includes an investigation of telematics in Africa Infrastructures for telecommunication with special reference to Internet connectivity of African countries and approaches to create geo-informatic products as interfaces for different perceptions held by the diverse communities in and around Africa need to be examined in this context Many African countries are, in fact, deeply involved in attempts to enhance Internet connectivity. It is also possible for individuals to process geographical data, the availability of which through the Internet is rapidly expanding, to check critically information circulating in the conventional decision making processes

Union Catalogs at the Crossroad

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Library of Estonia organized a Conference on Union Catalogs which took place in Tallinn, in the National Library of Estonia on October 17-19, 2002. The Conference presented and discussed analytical papers dealing with various aspects of designing and implementing union catalogs and shared cataloging systems as revealed through the experiences of Eastern European, Baltic and South African research libraries. Here you can find the texts of the conference papers and the list of contributors and participants