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Asymmetries in information, where sellers have more information than buyers about product qualities, may prevent firms from supplying some goods and services despite the fact that consumers are willing to pay adequately for them. The frequency and importance of such market failures is growing with the increase in buyers’ interest in unobservable qualities (attributes) of products, including the nature of their production processes. Certification by credible third parties may reduce the frequency and mitigate consequences of market failures. Certification creates a variety of challenges for both marketers and regulators. In this paper, we examine the emergence of alternative domestic and international regulatory regimes for certifying some qualities of products and services. We explore the implications of these regimes and country and product characteristics to the formulation of international marketing strategies. We illustrate our findings through a case study of the forest products industry.

Teacher education reform in the United States has been an ongoing theme over the past 100 years, particularly since A Nation at Risk in the 1980s, when education became increasingly politicized and less of a public good with which the American public did not tinker. These reforms have four different themes: (1) strengthening the clinical component of teacher education, (2) preparing educators with the tools needed for equity and social justice, (3) participating in heightened accountability demands, and (4) expanding alternative certification. This chapter explores these four strands of reform and concludes they are colliding forces in which the country pours time, resources, and energy. Ongoing collisions on the reform landscape produce increasingly negative consequences for teacher education, teacher recruitment, and retention and America's public schools.

This chapter explores the increasing use of Scrum, a project management framework used in software development, in libraries. This conceptual piece examines the advantages and disadvantages for a library profession to obtain training and professional certification for implementing Scrum.

Beginning with a brief literature review that surveys the use of Scrum and related frameworks in libraries, this chapter then provides a brief explanation of Scrum, the role of the ScrumMaster, and the certification process. An examination of the difficulties of project management in libraries leads to a discussion of the advantages of ScrumMaster certification for the library organization and the library professional, with caveats and alternatives.

Scrum offers lightweight methods to bring project management expertise to libraries lacking formal project management training. ScrumMaster certification is a quick and easy way to learn and implement the process, while offering professional advantages.

While the library literature has case studies of library professionals using Scrum and related Agile software development methodologies, this chapter looks at the ScrumMaster role in particular, the certification process, and the advantages for the organization and the professional.

The main purpose of this study was to assess constraints and determinants of pineapple farmers' choice of certification schemes in Ghana.

A multistage sampling method was used to solicit data from 345 pineapple farmers from Eastern and Central regions of Ghana. Analytical techniques including descriptive statistics, four-point Likert scale index and multinomial logistic regression model (MNL) were used to analyze the data.

The four-point scale index shows that high renewal fee for certification schemes is the most important constraint facing certified farmers before high labor cost of production. The MNL model shows that both off-farm income and age negatively influenced farmers' choice of GlobalG.A.P scheme. However, household size had significant positive influence on farmers' choice of GlobalG.A.P and Organic schemes. Likewise, formal education had significant positive relationship with the choice of Fairtrade and Organic certification schemes while farming experience positively influenced organic scheme choice. On the other hand, premium price and extension services positively influenced the likelihood of choosing all the three certification schemes. Lastly, regional dummy only negatively influences the choice of organic certification schemes.

This study contributes to the literature on certification schemes adopted by smallholder by analyzing the determinants and constraints of choice of scheme(s).

The study brings to bear the issues confronting smallholder pineapple farmers in the employment of certification schemes in developing countries, specifically Ghana.

The geosocial divide that separates many rural regions of Alaska continues to present considerable challenges, such as those that have long plagued the Yukon-Kuskokwim region with cultural and value conflicts. Lack of empirical data and improper identification of the root causes of the ongoing socio-political, cultural and economic disparities between rural Alaska and the rest of the country contribute to the general misconceptions of the turbulent nature of life on the tundra today. In this isolated region, the state has built dozens of schools that largely employ non-Natives. Teacher certification requirements have largely alienated Alaska Natives from pursuing careers in their home villages due to cost, lack of access, lack of student support and irrelevant curriculum. Despite rigorous standards and extraordinary funding opportunities, the current model has traditionally underperformed against both state and national norms.

This research targets a project that re-conceptualizes the teacher certification pipeline for remote Alaska Native villages via the utilisation of a competency-based bilingual curriculum, mentoring and interactive learning delivered via hybrid and online formats. The Native Teacher Certification Pathway proposed will be significant both in its local impact on unemployed adults and Yupik youth, and globally as a site for innovation in the application, delivery and assessment of evidence-based student support activities and programmes. Leveraging place, identity, language and values make learning incredibly powerful, increases efficacy and creates a true impact. Universities and business programmes that are sensitive to this fact and tailor their programmes appropriately will likely see a greater return on their investment.

This study expands the isomorphic logic on the participatory guarantee system (PGS) alternative certification method, which aims to level the supply chain sustainability field to determine how the alignment of disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders (e.g. small/applicant farmers, local organizations, consumers and volunteer auditors) might neutralize the negative effects of stakeholder heterogeneity (SH) on PGS recognition.

The sample comprised 113 multilateral matching questionnaires collected from disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders participating in the PGS activities of the Green Conservation Label managed by Taiwan's Tse-Xin Organic Agriculture Foundation (TOAF). This study adopted hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses.

Stakeholder alignment, external community (EC) constructs, similar backgrounds (SBs) and value congruence (VC) diminish the negative effects of SH on PGS recognition.

PGS is an agrifood supply chain social movement designed to allow underprivileged actors to enact solutions collectively to address social inequities and ecological problems through fair procedures, collective assignments and collaborative intentionality. PGS members who leverage VC, SB and EC will have a greater chance of successfully overcoming their institutional disadvantages.

Based on the PGS activities initiated by disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders, this study transformed isomorphic logics, including coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphisms, into a mechanism with which individuals can build a governance structure that helps disadvantaged agrifood stakeholders develop alternative institutions by pooling their resources.

This paper aims to analyse the aspects of the demonstration process of Indonesia's regulation on nickel export restriction for its eligibility to be excluded from Article XI:1 GATT. It also analyses the possibility of the use of an environmental approach in the demonstration process and for an alternative measure in its implementation.

The paper uses a normative research method in conducting its analysis. It analyses Indonesia's nickel export restriction policy based on the European Union's claim regarding quantitative restriction, with the international trade governance in the WTO framework, and certain international trade principles. The study also involves certain WTO jurisprudence to give a comprehensive analysis to the case.

This paper finds that Indonesia still needs to provide a complete and comprehensive demonstration to prove its eligibility for exclusion from Article XI:1. Demonstrating merely based on an economic approach is inadequate to convince the panel in Indonesia – measure relating to raw material for justification under Article XI:2. This study further finds that both parties generally focus on the economic aspect, which leaves room for conflict of interest. Other aspects with a lower probability of conflict of interest, such as the environmental approach, could be an alternative for the implementation.

This paper fulfils the need to provide a scientific analysis of the application of Indonesia's nickel export restriction policy, including its proceedings in WTO's dispute settlement body, which is essential for international trade governance enforcement.

Policymakers have focused on improving STEM outcomes for US high school students for over 50 years. Much of this focus has centered on improving the quality of STEM teachers, particularly in poor and minority schools. Few, if any, of these efforts have considered the importance of the content knowledge of those providing instructional leadership in schools – namely, principals and assistant principals. This chapter examines the percentage of school leaders with teacher certification in mathematics or science and the degree to which teacher and school leader turnover interrupts the leadership–teacher relationships. The study concludes relatively few school leaders have the content knowledge to provide deep instructional leadership. Moreover, the study finds combined teacher and school leader turnover greatly diminishes the sustained relationships between instructional leaders and teachers, particularly in lower-performing schools.

This chapter traces the career trajectories of the teachHOUSTON science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers since the inception of the program. It asks whether the National Science Foundation (NSF) investment of millions of dollars in STEM education produced more STEM teachers of high quality for the diverse, urban area. The chapter is filled with descriptive statistics and stories. Two major findings are that the teachHOUSTON program produced double-digit physics teachers when the Greater Houston area had not had a freshly prepared physics teacher in over a decade. Additionally, teachHOUSTON graduates have distinguished themselves by being named recipients of several awards such as beginning teacher of the year awards, district teacher of the year awards, among other distinctions. teachHOUSTON alumni are also serving in a variety of leadership capacities for high-need public school districts. The chapter ends with a discussion of the program's strengths as well as the areas in which it continues to grow. Three new NSF grants allow for continued improvement and transition this work into two additional books proposed in this three-volume series.

For decades, special education has been plagued by shortages of fully qualified teachers. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was designed to address the problem of teacher shortage by easing entry and promoting alternative routes (ARs). However, the law was not specific to special education, and the logic on which it is based fits the special education context poorly. Nonetheless, ARs have proliferated in special education. In this chapter, we consider the impact of NCLB generally and AR preparation specifically on special education teacher (SET) shortages. We describe the population of SETs, review research on special education ARs, and consider the problem of diversifying the workforce. We also review research on teacher attrition and policies designed to reduce it.