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This study develops models capable of finding empirical relations between social factors in practitioners’ private lives, that is to say, extra-organizational or external factors to the work environment that affect the career promotion of female professionals in public relations. The aim is to analyse some gender issues at a global level by exploring the Latin American subcontinent, where there is an accepted lack of knowledge. With that purpose, the focus is on the public relations practitioners’ care responsibilities (such as living with children or dependents) and if these responsibilities influence their opportunities for career development in Latin American countries. Quantitative data from 803 Latin American practitioners representing 18 countries were analysed through predictive multivariable analysis with data mining techniques, using hierarchical decision trees. The applied statistical method is valid to explain some of the extra-organizational factors that affect female career promotion in public relations and can be used for other studies. Results empirically found that family dependency and caring responsibilities affect the career opportunities of women, and that family responsibilities do not affect men’s chances to career promotion. Therefore, the predictive analysis statistically proves that gender can be a determinant factor for career promotion in these circumstances.

Knowing why some faculty members are more scholarly productive than others and what factors influence research productivity in an institution is essential to guiding research productivity improvement efforts. This study explored the research productivity and perceived research barriers to conducting research by the business faculty members at the Kuwait University (KU) as well as the influence of their individual characteristics on the reported productivity and barriers. The reported business research productivity tends to be low. Barriers related to research efficacy, physical and information resources, fiscal resources, and time reportedly challenge research productivity. However, the individual characteristics of gender, age, nationality, academic rank, experience at HE, time spent on research, and time spent on teaching variably influence the reported research productivity and perceived research barriers. These findings as well as their implications and limitations are further discussed in the paper.

Knowing why some faculty members are more scholarly productive than others and what factors influence research productivity in an institution is essential to guiding research productivity improvement efforts. This study explored the research productivity and perceived research barriers to conducting research by the business faculty members at the Kuwait University (KU) as well as the influence of their individual characteristics on the reported productivity and barriers. The reported business research productivity tends to be low. Barriers related to research efficacy, physical and information resources, fiscal resources, and time reportedly challenge research productivity. However, the individual characteristics of gender, age, nationality, academic rank, experience at HE, time spent on research, and time spent on teaching variably influence the reported research productivity and perceived research barriers. These findings as well as their implications and limitations are further discussed in the paper.

Aim/Purpose: This study investigates the research profile of the papers published in Interdisciplinary Journal of Information, Knowledge, and Management (IJIKM) to provide silhouette information of the journal for the editorial team, researchers, and the audience of the journal. Background: Information and knowledge management is an interdisciplinary subject. IJIKM defines intersections of multiple disciplinary research communities for the interdisciplinary subject. Methodology: A quantitative study of categorical content analysis was used for a thematic analysis of IJIKM. One hundred fifty nine (159) papers published since the inauguration of the journal in 2006 were coded and analyzed. Contribution: The study provides synopsized information about the interdisciplinary research profile of IJIKM, and adds value to the literature of information and knowledge management. Findings: The analysis reveals that IJIKM disseminates research papers with a wide range of research themes. Among the research themes, Organizational issues of knowledge/information management, Knowledge management systems/tools, Information/knowledge sharing, Technology for knowledge/information management, Information/knowledge application represent the five main research streams of IJIKM. The total number of papers on organizational issues of knowledge/information management increased from 16% to 28% during the past 6 years. Statistical method was the most common research methodology, and summarization was the most common research design applied in the papers of IJIKM. The paper also presents other patterns of participant countries, keywords frequencies, and reference citations. Recommendations for Practitioners: Innovation is the key to information and knowledge management. Practitioners of information and knowledge management can share best practices with external sectors. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can identify opportunities of cross-disciplinary research projects that involve experts in business, education, government, healthcare, technology, and psychology to advance knowledge in information and knowledge management. Impact on Society: Information and knowledge management is still a developing field, and readers of this paper can gain more understanding of the dissemination of the literature of information and knowledge management involved in all relevant disciplines. Future Research: A longitudinal study could follow up in the future to provide updated and comparative information of the research profile of the journal.