How small business advisory program delivery methods (collective learning, tailored, and practice-based approaches) affect learning and innovation

Past studies relate small business advisory program effectiveness to advisory characteristics such as advisory intensity and scope. We contribute to existing literature by seeking to identify the impact of different advisory program methods of delivery on learning and subsequent firm innovation behavior. Our research is based on a survey of 257 Australian firms completing small business advisory programs in the three years preceding the research. We explore the range of small business advisory program delivery methods in which our surveyed firms participated and, with reference to the literature on organizational learning and innovation, we analyze predictors of firms' learning ability and innovativeness based on the identified delivery methods. First, we found that business advisory programs that involved high levels of collective learning and tailored approaches enhanced firms' perceptions of their learning of critical skills or capabilities. We also found that small business advisory programs that were delivered by using practice-based approaches enhanced firms' subsequent organizational innovation. We verified this finding by testing whether firms that have participated in small business advisory services subsequently demonstrate improved behavior in terms of organizational innovativeness, when compared with matched firms that have not participated in an advisory program.

Public relations and engagement : theoretical imperatives of a multidimensional concept

Engagement has emerged as important concept in public relations, as stakeholders challenge the discourse of organizational primacy and organizations prioritize the need for authentic stakeholder involvement. As a multidimensional concept, engagement offers a foundation for building organizational relationships, and provides a means to facilitate community–organization interaction. This special issue on engagement and public relations presents a body of work that both explicates and expands the theoretical foundations of engagement, and contributes to scholarly understanding of its contexts, processes, and outcomes.

Novel approaches for SER spectroscopic analysis of protein cofactors

Biomimetic systems employed for biotechnological applications i.e. as biosensors or bio fuel cells, require initial formation of conducting support/protein complexes with controlled properties. The specific interaction of the protein with the support determines important qualities of the device such as electrical communication, long-term stability and catalytic efficiency. In this respect the system parameters have to be chosen in a way that high protein loading on the support is achieved while protein denaturation upon adsorption is prevented. The conditions on the surface have to be adjusted in such a way that the desired surface reaction of the protein i.e. electron transfer to either the electrode or a second redox partner, is still guaranteed. Hence the choice of support, its functionlisation as well as the right adjustment of solution parameters play a crucial role in the rational design of these support/protein constructs.