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This paper shows how new technologies open up significant research and development opportunities for the PR industry. It reviews public relations evaluation methodologies that can progress from evaluating media coverage of small numbers of “messages” to the development of systems for analysis of both objective and subjective texts. Applications include internal, external, research and media content. The paper looks to the next generation of analysis using International Standards Organisation (SGML) and web‐based technologies such as NewsML and XTM (both XML derivatives) in the processes of content and analysis, particularly as it can be applied to themes and topic analysis. The paper makes public for the first time the concept of corporate superthemes.

Inconsistent research output makes critical literature reviews crucial tools for assessing and developing the knowledge base within a research field. Literature reviews in the field of supply chain management (SCM) are often considerably less stringently presented than other empirical research. Replicability of the research and traceability of the arguments and conclusions call for more transparent and systematic procedures. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the importance of literature reviews in SCM.

Literature reviews are defined as primarily qualitative synthesis. Content analysis is introduced and applied for reviewing 22 literature reviews of seven sub‐fields of SCM, published in English‐speaking peer‐reviewed journals between 2000 and 2009. A descriptive evaluation of the literature body is followed by a content analysis on the basis of a specific pattern of analytic categories derived from a typical research process.

Each paper was assessed for the aim of research, the method of data gathering, the method of data analysis, and quality measures. While some papers provide information on all of these categories, many fail to provide all the information. This questions the quality of the literature review process and the findings presented in respective papers.

While 22 literature reviews are taken into account in this paper as the basis of the empirical analysis, this allows for assessing the range of procedures applied in previous literature reviews and for pointing to their strengths and shortcomings.

The findings and subsequent methodological discussions aim at providing practical guidance for SCM researchers on how to use content analysis for conducting literature reviews.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate structured content analysis (SCA) in leadership research by examining and contrasting it with traditional content analysis (TCA) and case survey methodology. SCA is presented as a variation of TCA, and is characterized as one that is more likely to be used by leadership researchers because of its more quantitative bent than TCA, but yet does not lose its capability to investigate inherently qualitative processes of leadership.

The paper systematically compares features of SCA as proposed by the seminal authors to the more sophisticated SCA proposed here. This is accomplished by clarifying and strengthening some of the inadequacies of SCA as initially conceptualized. The new SCA is first described in terms of its components and typical procedures. Using relevant leadership literature, the paper: clarifies the selection of data sources used in such analyses to enhance and verify source validity; identifies additional means to establish and verify reliability, in addition to that of inter‐coder (reproducibility) and stability (test‐retest) reliability; provides a systematic comparison of traditional TCA to the newer SCA; and illustrates the use of this method with a sample study.

While possessing all important advantages of traditional content analysis, this form of content analysis (new SCA) holds others, such as increased opportunity for estimating scale reliability and validity. Thus, the more quantitative nature of SCA is likely to be more suited to the higher standards for rigor of traditional leadership researchers using purely quantitative approaches.

Text source selection may still suffer from human fallibilities and judgment errors. SCA may also be restricted to the study of leadership through leadership communication in speeches, debates, letters, etc. However, these may constitute a significant portion of what leaders do, especially those at the top of their organizations.

The paper enriches the original SCA and refocuses it for the specific purpose of leadership research. Specifically, it identifies seven ways in which the original conceptualization can be strengthened to make it more amenable for today's leadership researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the level of discrepancy in the valuation process adopted by valuers in the study area with a view to provide solution.

The study is based on both structured questionnaire and content analysis of valuation reports. In total, 185 (41 percent) structured questionnaires were randomly distributed to practicing estate surveying firms; out of 450 firms in Lagos, 173 were retrieved and used for analysis. However, the content analysis was based on 54 valuation reports on plants and equipment to investigate the extent of compliance to valuation process, standard and best practices among practitioners.

The findings from the study show that most of the practitioners lack the expertise to carry out plant and machinery (P&M) valuation, and there is evidence of poor application of methodology and lack of adherence to standards.

The findings from this study will reinforce the need for specialization and enforcement of standard in plant and equipment valuation practice, which will enthrone consistency, uniformity and reliability.

This study is the first to deal with methodology lapses in plant and equipment valuation in the study area. Ashaolu (2016) worked on the inter-disciplinary nature of plant and equipment valuation, whereas Otegbulu and Babawale (2011) worked on valuer’s perception or potential sources of inaccuracy in P&M valuation in Nigeria.

Knowledge management as a key top executive function has not been sufficiently explored in the leadership literature. This study seeks to examine the role of top executives in knowledge management by first building theoretical hypotheses and subsequently testing them. Hypotheses are developed through the integration of the knowledge management and leadership literatures and tested using CEO interviews published in Harvard Business Review.

Using the method of structured content analysis developed by Jauch et al., this study uses these HBR interviews and develops questionnaire instruments through which data are collected from respondents in a structured fashion. This innovative method involves the distribution of these published interviews with top executives of organizations (such as CEOs) to multiple groups of respondents, who then carefully read the interviews and responded to the structured questions developed for the purpose of assessing the relevant constructs in the study. Such structured content analysis allows for both the assessment of inter‐rater reliability and testing the theoretical relationships identified in the theory‐building stage.

The major hypotheses, relating cause‐effect beliefs held by the CEOs and their knowledge management practices to performance measures and leadership perceptions, were supported.

The CEOs included in the study were not randomly chosen but chosen from a set of interviews (acquired) from a published source. The use of acquired interviews may also be the reason for not finding stronger relationships across the variables being examined here.

The paper has studied the importance of information acquisition, information use, and more generally information and knowledge management as key leader functions or behaviors. Overall, the findings and the framework used here point to the importance of the role of leaders (top executives) in information and knowledge management.

This is a seminal investigation of knowledge leadership by top executives. Such work has not existed in the literature to date, except in the qualitative mode.

The purpose of this paper is to give an up‐to‐date and structured insight into the most recent literature on humanitarian logistics, and suggest trends for future research based on the gaps identified through structured content analysis.

The authors use a quantitative and qualitative content analysis process to analyse the characteristics of the existing literature, identifying the most studied topics in six structural dimensions, and presenting gaps and recommendations for further research.

It was found that existing humanitarian logistics research shows too little interest in continuous humanitarian aid operations, in slow onset disasters and man‐made catastrophes. While several papers address different phases of disasters, very few focus particularly on the reconstruction following a disaster. Empirical research is underrepresented in the existing literature as well.

While five of the authors’ structural dimensions are inspired by previous reviews, the sixth dimension (situational factors) is derived from a theoretical framework which the authors developed and which has never been tested before. The validity of the study could therefore be increased by testing this framework.

The authors analyse the broadest set of papers (174) ever covered in previous literature reviews on humanitarian logistics. A quantitative analysis of the papers was conducted in order to analyse the situational factors which have mostly been studied so far in literature. This paper is also the first in humanitarian logistics to use content analysis as the main methodology to analyse literature in a structured way, which is of particular value to the academic community as well as practitioners.

Enterprise content management (ECM) is an important topic in information management, but researchers have long had difficulty developing a consistent definition. The purpose of this paper is to analyze ECM case reports from practice to identify ECM’s objectives, processes and technologies and to provide a foundation on which ECM can be conceptualized and defined.

This paper assembles more than 1,200 case reports on industrial ECM implementations in order to characterize the ECM concept from a practitioner’s viewpoint. The paper provides a descriptive overview and historical examination of ECM implementations over time and across countries and industries, grounded in a structured content analysis.

Even though the case reports share some commonalities, their ECM projects differ considerably in terms of their objectives, processes and technologies, and vary widely across countries and industries. In addition, ECM implementations are much broader today than they once were, so the scope and boundaries of the ECM concept are increasingly blurred in practice.

While several researchers have characterized the ECM concept based on literature reviews, only a few have approached the definition problem from a practical viewpoint. This paper provides a foundation from which to evaluate how well researchers’ conceptualizations of ECM match current business practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured overview of so‐called business process improvement (BPI) approaches and their contribution to the actual act of improving. Even though a lot is said about BPI, there is still a lack of supporting the act of improving the process. Most approaches concentrate on what needs to be done before and after the improvement act, but the act of improving itself still seems to be a black box.

This paper is mainly based on a review of literature that deals with the term “Business Process Improvement”. The analysis of the literature is supported by qualitative content analysis. The structure of the evaluation follows the mandatory elements of a method (MEM).

A lot of literature and consulting approaches deal with the restructuring and improvement of business processes. The author finds that even so‐called BPI approaches do not describe the act of improvement itself. And if they do, they lack a methodological structure that can be reused.

To constrain the complexity of this research at this first stage of investigation only the search criterion “business process improvement” was used in the database search (EBSCO and Emerald).

The paper is valuable for academics and practitioners because the impact of BPI on organizational performance is high. Its originality is in the structured evaluation of so‐called BPI approaches according to the MEM, which so far no one has investigated.

This paper explores content and media evaluation applications for public relations research, and identifies the difference between advertising measures of value and public relations value. In discussing this concept, it also seeks to offer research which shows that press as well as the broader activities of public relations have a powerful ally in semiotics and reception analysis, one that can aid understanding of work in all aspects of PR practice. It argues that public relations is effective when it works in the cultural context and that measurement, research and evaluation have to feed from robust methodologies to be at their most effective.

This study aims to propose a longitudinal analysis of motivations for Integrated Reporting (IR) adoption, internal changes, the benefits of IR implementation and compliance challenges.

The authors analyse a longitudinal case study of an Italian-listed company (Eni) participating in the IR-Pilot Programme (PP) and covering 10 years of IR adoption. The analysis was based on a mixed-method approach that included semi-structured interviews, content analysis of annual reports and triangulation with other data sources. Results are discussed regarding institutional theory, legitimacy theory and diffusion of innovation theory.

The study suggests that motivations for adopting IR change over time and participation in the IR-PP helps Eni acquire a comprehensive and substantial integrated view of value creation over time, makes integrated culture a key factor for strategic business sustainability and confirms the readiness of early adopters to comply with the non-financial Directive (NFD).

This study, among the few longitudinal case studies, provides organisations, regulators and academics with insights into the motivations driving the successful adoption and implementation of IR and the NFD. The results may help companies consider one of the tools currently deemed to bring sustainability into action and participation in pilot groups.