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Existing performance assessment frameworks, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), struggle to incorporate diverse voices and representations of heterogeneous contexts. Cities, in particular, present a challenging context for sustainability performance assessment as they pursue new forms of governance based on the multiplicity of actors and inter-organisational collaboration. This study explores how sustainability performance accounts are created at the urban level within collaborative forms of governance and amidst the plethora of available devices for performance assessment.

This study adopts a case study approach. Qualitative methods are mobilised to study a large European project focused on the urban transition to a circular economy in six participating cities. The construction of sustainability performance accounts is studied via the Actor-Network Theory lens.

The study highlights that when it comes to sustainability assessment in city initiatives, existing performance assessment devices are adapted and modified to fit local needs and other sources of performance information are spontaneously mobilised to address the different dimensions of sustainability.

This study contributes to the public sector accounting literature by explaining the process of modifying existing devices for performance assessment to allow for the co-creation of accounts and by illuminating the spontaneous way in which performance information is generated and combined.

This paper aims to propose an innovative method for deploying a personalized instructor-created software-aided assessment system, that will disrupt traditional learning environments by allowing students to confidentially and with indirect supervision from the instructor, assess their knowledge and ability to achieve the course outcomes.

Through empirical evaluation in real-world educational settings, the authors examine the impact of augmenting human activity in the classroom with an innovative software platform to transform the learning process.

Findings indicate that this software-aided assessment system effectively augments human interactivity by providing timely instructor-designed feedback to increase knowledge retention and skillsets.

This study has shown that incorporating disruptive innovation through the use of software-aided assessment systems increases the effectiveness of the faculty in the classroom and enhances student learning and retention. Thus, a transformative software-aided assessment system design that incorporates artificial intelligence into the learning pathway should be pursued. These software-aided assessments are disruptive innovation as they are formative, frequent and require little direct involvement from the instructor.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to incorporate artificial intelligence into the assessment process by analyzing results of pilot programs at several universities. The results demonstrate how using software-aided transformative assessments in various courses have helped instructors assess students’ preparedness and track their learning progress. These software-aided systems are the first step in bringing disruptive innovation to the classroom as these software-aided assessment instruments rapidly assess learners’ knowledge and skills based on short, easily created, multiple-choice tests, with little direct engagement from the faculty.

The current literature on school teacher-created summative assessment lacks a clear consensus regarding its definition and key principles. The purpose of this research was therefore to arrive at a cohesive understanding of what constitutes effective summative assessment.

Conducting a systematic literature review of 95 studies, this research adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The objective was to identify the core principles governing effective teacher-created summative assessments.

The study identified five key principles defining effective summative assessment creation: validity, reliability, fairness, authenticity and flexibility.

The expansiveness of education research is such that not all relevant studies may have been identified, particularly outside of mainstream databases. This study considered only the school environment, so contextual limitations will exist.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study contributes original insights by proposing a holistic definition that can facilitate consensus-building in further research. The assimilation of core principles guided the development of quality indicators beneficial for teacher practice. The comprehensive definition, key principles and quality indicators offer a unique perspective on summative assessment discourse.

This paper aims to contribute to existing academic work and business practice by presenting original empirical findings and by providing insights into priority setting on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in organizations. From an academic viewpoint, it not only adds to previous work on the topic of SDG materiality (e.g. Van Tulder and Lucht, 2019) but also aims to contribute new insights into the steps that are crucial and influence the adoption of the SDGs in materiality assessments. It may also add to the literature by providing new knowledge on the strategic considerations that organizations may make and institutional dynamics that encourage organizations to implement the SDG materiality method.

By executing a national survey research in Belgium through a collaboration between academics of Antwerp Management School, Louvain School of Management (UCLouvain) and the University of Antwerp, and supported by Belgium’s Federal Institute of Sustainable Development, the authors have obtained several insights into the SDG landscape in Belgium for various types of organizations, including companies, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and educational institutions. This research builds further on a first national survey (SDG Barometer Belgium, 2018) on the adoption and implementation of the SDGs. However, an important aim of this research is to shift the emphasis to more prominent new elements, such as whether or not organizations use the SDGs in materiality assessments. While the main part of the data for this research were collected through an online questionnaire, document analyses were conducted based on the sustainability reports of BEL 20 companies, the benchmark stock market index of Euronext Brussels consisting of 20 companies traded at the Brussels Stock Exchange, and seven interviews were held to obtain additional insights.

A total of 386 organizations across sectors responded to the question “Does your organization perform a materiality analysis”, of which 210 organizations completed the question “Does your organization align the materiality analysis with the SDGs,”after an “exit route” based on a positive answer to the first question. When diving into the survey results, the authors see that no more than 12% of the 210 organizations performing a materiality analysis align their materiality analysis with the SDGs, while 14% indicate that they do not account for the SDGs at all in their materiality analyses. The results show that 41% of the organizations take into account the SDGs to a certain degree when performing their materiality analysis. Speculating on an explanation for these results, it may be the case that organizations do not yet think about coupling the SDGs to their materiality assessment, experience difficulties in practice or generally lack the knowledge for relating the SDGs to the sustainability topics that are relevant to them. This seems in line with other research (e.g. Van Tulder and Lucht, 2019), as the results of this study indicate that it seems to be difficult for organizations to relate the SDGs to the existing sustainability priorities or materiality analyses of companies.

The real contribution of this paper essentially lies in the description of the Janssen Pharmaceuticals case. The company recognized that today’s internally focused approach to goal setting is not enough to address global challenges. Hence, looking at what is needed externally from a global perspective, taking into account sustainability thresholds and setting ambitions accordingly, is needed to bridge the gap between current performance and required performance. From the Janssen Pharmaceuticals case, the authors learned that external stakeholders are an extremely useful source of information to address the required performance by using the SDG framework. For sure, SDG materiality analyses are still in an early phase of development and knowledge on how to conduct such an analysis may be lacking. Future efforts – or the lack thereof – may indicate whether or not companies consider such analyses as sufficiently relevant. Although the uptake of the SDGs is in progress, it remains to be seen which, if any, materiality method will eventually turn out as a new dominant way of defining material issues. The findings presented in this study hopefully serve as a basis for further investigation of the topic.

Businesses are increasingly vulnerable and exposed to physical climate change risks, which can cascade through local, national and international supply chains. Currently, few methodologies can capture how physical risks impact businesses via the supply chains, yet outside the business literature, methodologies such as sustainability assessments can assess cascading impacts.

Adopting a scoping review framework by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR), this paper reviews 27 articles that assess climate risk in supply chains.

The literature on supply chain risks of climate change using quantitative techniques is limited. Our review confirms that no research adopts sustainability assessment methods to assess climate risk at a business-level.

Alongside the need to quantify physical risks to businesses is the growing awareness that climate change impacts traverse global supply chains. We review the state of the literature on methodological approaches and identify the opportunities for researchers to use sustainability assessment methods to assess climate risk in the supply chains of an individual business.

In the Netherlands, thesis assessment quality is a growing concern for the national accreditation organization due to increasing student numbers and supervisor workload. However, the accreditation framework lacks guidance on how to meet quality standards. This study aims to address these issues by sharing our experience, identifying problems and proposing guidelines for quality assurance for a thesis assessment system.

This study has two parts. The first part is a narrative literature review conducted to derive guidelines for thesis assessment based on observations made at four Dutch universities. The second part is a case study conducted in one bachelor’s psychology-related program, where the assessment practitioners and the vice program director analyzed the assessment documents based on the guidelines developed from the literature review.

The findings of this study include a list of guidelines based on the four standards. The case study results showed that the program meets most of the guidelines, as it has a comprehensive set of thesis learning outcomes, peer coaching for novice supervisors, clear and complete assessment information and procedures for both examiners and students, and a concise assessment form.

This study is original in that it demonstrates how to holistically ensure the quality of thesis assessments by considering the context of the program and paying more attention to validity (e.g. program curriculum and assessment design), transparency (e.g. integrating assessment into the supervision process) and the assessment expertise of teaching staff.

The main purpose of this paper is twofold: to present a proposal for a model of educational quality management system within a process approach context for technical universities, and a conceptual model of a performance measurement system (PMS) towards the assessment of the quality level of management, core and support processes.

The paper encompasses two main parts: a theoretical portion and a case study. Within the theoretical background, the authors discuss the issue of educational quality management supported on a process approach perspective as well as performance measurement system in high education (HE). The case study reports the development of the concept of performance measurement system for technical universities.

The proposed system of educational quality management supported on a process approach, together with a conceptual model of the performance measurement system, can be implemented in every technical university. The identification of processes in the education quality management system permitted the development of the PMS. The model covers 32 key performance indicators (KPIs) for management processes, 39 for core processes and 19 for supporting ones.

The proposed performance measurement system is limited in its focus on educational processes and support of these processes. The evaluation of scientific and research activity and aspects related to financial resources is not pursued.

Elaboration of a conceptual model of a performance measurement system towards the assessment of the quality level of management, core and support processes is dedicated to technical universities.

Globally, higher education institutions have become reliant on a quality assurance (QA) system over the past four decades. QA is considered to be one of the most important drivers of continuous improvement and an essential tool for promoting excellence in teaching, learning, and research. It provides a framework for establishing and maintaining standards, and for assuring stakeholders that programs and services meet or exceed these standards. Despite the wide range of quality assurance models available to higher education institutions, there remains considerable debate over which model is the most effective, as well as what criteria should be used for evaluating the effectiveness of these models. Universities in the Middle East have tried to adopt different models of QA that can meet their needs and expectations and provide a framework for continuous improvement. A major objective of this book is to provide an overview account of the QA process as implemented in the higher education systems of a number of Middle East countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This book lays out essential theoretical and practical insights into the role of QA policies and practices in higher education in the Middle East countries and builds upon this idea to provide a blueprint for future academic leaders in these countries and other Middle Eastern countries to enhance their QA policies and practices and drive higher education in those countries forward.

The purpose of this study is to generate knowledge about assessment methods in blended business education, which have become increasingly important to establish sustainable assessment practices that support knowledge acquisition for undergraduate students in business administration at a Colombian university.

For the analysis, a two groups comparison was performed using a nonequivalent control group design with a sample of 420 students. As this study wants to find insights to improve the knowledge on assessment topics in marketing research (MR) education, it was focused on the students from the business administration program. This study also uses individual scores from the state test as prior cognitive scores and the high school classification provided by the National Ministry of Education in Colombia (2012).

It was found that the variables that best predict performance on the MR course examinations were the mathematics skills and reading comprehension scores on the state test. The study also showed a better performance of female students on both assessment methods. There were no significant differences between the assessment methods or among the high school levels.

One of the limitations of this study is the limited number of items on the tests. Additionally, the authors recommend conducting an analysis of the differences between the testing items to provide a detailed explanation of students’ performance when comparing computer-based testing and paper-and-pencil testing.

Further design of teaching material and assessments online and offline, based on local and regional marketing problems, is suggested. As the current text and readings are more oriented to the English-speaking contexts, most of the problems presented are oriented to multinational companies and brands.

Insights into the skills required for future jobs provide valuable guidance (World Economic Forum, 2020). Essential skills for emerging roles, like data scientists, can find robust support within the MR course. To further enrich in-class and online exercises with Excel and SPSS, Colombian educators can leverage data sets obtained from sources like the national statistics office and international market intelligence databases available through the university’s library, including Passport and Statista. Engaging with authentic data sets provides students with a more profound understanding of practical applications in MR.

This approach facilitates the identification of key variables, such as assessment and cognitive abilities in math and reading, which predict students’ knowledge acquisition in MR. It not only offers insights into the relevant factors influencing learning in MR but also provides valuable feedback. Additionally, it suggests potential avenues for future research in this field.