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This paper contributes to budgeting-related literature by investigating whether the participation of operational managers in budgeting, and budget-based evaluations and the rewarding of operational managers, significantly mediate the relationship between budget use for operational management and the perceived usefulness of the budget.

The paper is based on data gathered from a survey of Czech medium- and large-sized companies from the manufacturing sector. The hypothesised relationships are tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

Overall usefulness of the budget, as perceived by principals (top managers), is positively influenced by the scope of budget use, but, more importantly, the positive mediating effects of participative budgeting and budget-based evaluation and rewarding on this relationship are significant and strong.

The subjective perceptions of respondents were investigated with the understanding that they may not represent actual situations in their organisations. Companies with well-functioning budgeting systems were more likely to take part in the research. Regarding satisfaction, the authors studied the perceived usefulness of the budget. Only medium- and large-sized manufacturing companies located in a post-communist country were analysed and generalisations should, therefore, be taken with caution.

The results in the studied sample indicate that satisfaction with budgeting is positively correlated with the rewarding and evaluation of operational managers, and with enabling the participation of operational managers in preparing and updating their budgets.

This research contributes to prior literature on budgeting by investigating the mediating effects of the participation of operational managers in budgeting, and the budget-based evaluation and rewarding of operational managers on the perceived usefulness of the budget by principals in an integrated model using the PLS-SEM approach.

In this article, the authors draw-upon an extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and propose a research model involving performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating conditions (FC) and competitive pressure (CP) as potential salient factors explaining the adoption of digitalization in European SMEs. The authors also postulate that there may be cross-cultural differences, thereby leading us to include the country as a moderator in the model.

The authors validate this model with a cross-cultural sample involving 188 owner-managers from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and through the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) techniques as well as multi-group analysis.

The results using the study’s global dataset indicate that PE, FC and CP significantly affect owner-managers intentions toward digitalization in SMEs. The authors’ application of the multi-group analysis also suggests that although the two countries differ in digitalization adoption intention, the differences are statistically insignificant. In the conclusion, the authors highlight several implications these findings have for theory and practice.

The authors recommend that the providers of emerging digital technologies should improve on the performance features of those technologies and ensure they are relevant to the SMEs. By doing so, the adoption of digitalization will grow, because owner-managers of SMEs will have the confidence that adopting such technologies will improve their operations. Second, SMEs are required to provide adequate organizational and technical infrastructure to support digitalization adoption.

Aside from being among the few attempts to extend the explanatory power of UTAUT with PE, EE, FC and CP in investigating digitalization adoption in SMEs context, this study also validates its model with rigorous methodological approach as well as three datasets (global, Czech Republic and Slovakia) thereby strengthening the validity of the results.

Social media marketing (SMMT) is explored in the light of value creation (VC) and firms' sustainability performance. This research deals with the influence of both value co-creation (VCCR) and value co-destruction (VCDE) on SMMT and firm sustainability.

A quantitative approach is employed in this research. By means of structural equation modeling (SEM), specifically, PLS (partial least squares)-SEM, consumers' responses are analyzed.

The result confirms that SMMT influences firms' sustainability performance. Additionally, the study established a relationship between SMMT and VCCR and SMMT and VCDE. The study further showed that VCCR contributes to sustainability. Concerning the indirect relationships, the study indicates that VCDE influenced SMMT and sustainability performance.

A theoretical basis for studying both VCCR and VCDE is provided. The current study especially encourages further study into VCDE.

This work informs businesses about using SMMT to enhance sustainability performance. This work also warns about the reality of VCDE when using SMMT.

This research empirically explores SMMT and firm sustainability performance (SPFM) and also has a model that includes both VCCR and VCDE.

A simple interaction‐potential model has been established to calculate the higher order elastic constants of intermetallic YbAl2 in the temperature range from 10‐300K. Temperature dependent second and third order elastic constants are used for the determination of the ultrasonic attenuation, velocity, Grüneisen numbers, Acoustic‐coupling constants, and thermal relaxation time at the different temperatures. Temperature dependency of the ultrasonic properties of YbAl2 is similar at low temperatures to that of pure metals and the low carrier heavy fermion systems ‐ LaSb, YbAs and YbP having simple NaCl‐type structures. Thermal energy density makes significant contribution to the total attenuation in the compound at the higher temperatures from 100‐300K. Effect of the magnetic field on the ultrasonic attenuation is also evaluated using the magneto resistance data. At 100K, the effect of the magnetic field becomes insignificant. The attenuation decreases with the field at 3K to 50K.

This paper aims to present the results of interviews conducted with public library directors and academic Chief Librarians on various topics connected with library quality in order to determine the library culture in those libraries.

Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with ten library directors.

These interviews represent some of the findings of the project “Evaluation of library and information services: public and academic libraries”. The project investigates library culture in Croatian public and academic libraries and their preparedness for the introduction performance measurement activities. The interviews reveal that library culture has changed positively over the last few years and that library leaders now have a positive attitude towards quality and evaluation activities.

The findings from the interviews with ten library directors form only a small part of the results of a much larger and comprehensive data gathering exercise (including survey and statistical data).

Library culture in Croatian libraries is a relatively new concept and as such has not been actively developed and/or created. This article brings the newest update on views, opinions and atmosphere in Croatian public and academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of the customer satisfaction survey of the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek Library. The purpose of the survey was to determine the level of satisfaction among two customer groups: students and faculty.

The methodology utilised was a five‐page satisfaction questionnaire.

This paper presents the findings of the first customer satisfaction survey of the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek Library. The satisfaction data are collected as a part of a wider library evaluation program and present the first step in future continuous measurement of customers’ expectations and their satisfaction.

The structure and the size of the sample do not secure the representativeness. Among the student population, the paper was distributed only to those who visited the library, which, in a way, reduces the validity of the sample (those who are dissatisfied with library services may avoid the library). Among the faculty, the survey was distributed via e‐mail, but some faculty members do not check their e‐mail accounts regularly (or not at all).

This is the first measurement of customer satisfaction for the Faculty of Philosophy in Osijek Library. Furthermore, there are only a few similar papers that report on research in Croatian libraries in international literature.

In the context of a profound digital transformation, the need for social interactivity is becoming fundamental for consumers on e-commerce sites. It allows them to interact with the company in the same way as with salespeople in physical stores. Among the different existing virtual agents used by companies to offer online solid interaction, this study focuses on virtual recommendation agents (VRAs). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of VRA on consumers’ psychological states and online impulse buying.

An experimental website was designed for this study. After interacting with VRA, respondents had to take part in a survey. The questionnaire included measures of perception of the VRA, perceived enjoyment, online impulse buying and perceived risk. Structural equation modelling was used to test the research model.

The results confirm the positive influence of the VRA on perceived enjoyment, which is positively associated with online impulse buying. The effect of the VRA’s presence on perceived enjoyment is moderated by gender.

Only one product category was studied, for which the advice of VRAs is undoubtedly essential. However, this could also be valid for other products, such as technological products, where the consumer’s level of expertise may be low. Hence, the authors propose to extend this study to various products for a better generalization of the results.

This study provides practitioners with relevant findings on the efficiency of VRAs and offers them guidelines to design more interactive commercial websites with higher levels of social interactions. Such interactions should reduce perceived risks and make visitors more confident. This can encourage more traffic and sales, which implies growth in incomes and revenues.

Through this technology, VRAs can create more humanized links between consumers and companies.

Working on VRAs is original as they represent the technology that can replace salespeople. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to test the impact of VRA on online impulse buying. By examining the VRA’s set of fundamental capabilities, this study contributes to existing research on how companies should integrate digital technologies in their sales interactions with consumers, which to date has focused on other sales channels such as social media platforms.