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Within the agri-food sectors of Western countries, there is an increasing interest in alternative food, i.e., organic, local and regional food, artisanal food, short-supply chains, slow food etc. Innovation in food processing is a significant element both in alternative food and conventional food strategies. Alternatives are based on competition on qualities rather than price. A main question in this chapter is to address how alternative qualities are embedded into food products? This question is explored using a study of two alternative cases within the dairy sectors of Norway and Wales. A model of the different modes of designed qualities of food is developed and discussed to explore the complex issue of quality. We find space and technology especially relevant as dimensions of qualities. Our conclusion is that there is a need to nuance the discussion about quality and food. Firms may develop as hybrids within a conventional vs. alternative perspective, and a strong emphasis on the conventional and alternative as a dichotomy tends to give a static and restrictive perspective.

This chapter addresses quality management (QM) content on the process quality management (PQM) level in the high-technology industry of semiconductor manufacturing. Identifying critical components of a manufacturing or service process and improving them to ensure superior quality at economic costs is the overall goal of PQM. Deming was a prominent proponent of PQM as a means to optimize the performance of a product or process. In optimizing the performance of a product or process, good design practices require the evaluation of designs from a process perspective. Advanced design techniques, namely design of experiments (DOEs), are cornerstone to the optimization process, to design management, and in turn to PQM. This chapter investigates the use of DOEs in the manufacture of semiconductors. Specifically, two underlying assumptions impact operations managers using DOEs: solution differences/similarities in underlying DOE optimization methods and marginal rates of substitution. Perhaps unknown to the user, DOE optimization techniques carry strong assumptions regarding these characteristics. This chapter investigates two commonly used DOE optimization approaches applied to the operational control of semiconductor wafer production, and demonstrates that each method contains assumptions about these characteristics, which are not intuitively evident to a user.

The present study discusses the benefits and importance of sociotechnical thinking for the integration of industry 4.0 (I4.0), and their subsequent usefulness in analyzing the value-added activities and related quality issues, and their implications in the quality 4.0 (Q4.0), product-service systems (PSS) in the organization level/complex systems in the era of I4.0. I4.0 pushed the traditional manufacturing models toward product-service systems; for this transition, social and economic factors influence more, and technological advancements are going more rapidly than the social developments needed for the transition. The integration of social-technical system perspective with I4.0 technologies adoption would improve the value cocreation of PSS. The balance among the sociotechnical systems theory (STST) and I4.0 technologies are necessary for production and logistics organizations. This can be attained by sociotechnical systems thinking because it gives a comprehensive overview for integrating I4.0 and related quality issues in the production and logistics service systems.

This chapter unpacks ‘design thinking’ as it relates to educational design, and highlights how developments in the field of Learning Design may be of assistance to educators. Design is defined as a creative, scientific, and complex process, underpinned by several design thinking qualities. Teaching, it is argued, should be positioned as a design science, based on its nature, practice, and intentions. Learning to design is characterized as a challenging pursuit that is supported through practice, refection, examples, and expert guidance. Based on the literature, the pursuit of designing for learning is explained as a process involving the creation of accessible and aligned designs that cater to students in order to achieve desired learning outcomes. Educational design models by Laurillard, Siemens, and Conole are contrasted and evaluated in order to critically reflect on the general utility of such models. The field of Learning Design is introduced as a discipline area that aims to help educators develop and share great teaching ideas. Six approaches that support the description and sharing of learning designs are briefly described (technical standards, pattern descriptions, visualizations, visualization tools, pedagogical planners, and the Learning Activity Management System) so as to illustrate how the Learning Design field has evolved and how educators can capitalize upon it. Directions forward are recommended, which center around reflection, collaboration, and a design orientation.

The overall aim of this chapter is to focus on the process of, and issues warranting consideration for, the evaluation of educational interventions. In particular, to outline some key considerations for educators to follow when assessing the evidence-base for interventions they might be considering for use in their practice. Also, important considerations for those wishing to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention they have initiated, as well as a useful checklist which summarises this all. Recognising that some readers of this chapter might be practitioners rather than researchers, it has been written with the practitioner in mind in, hopefully, a simple and practical way. There are, however, further opportunities for additional reading and resources signposted throughout for those who wish to read up on any of these areas more. In addition to those cited throughout and referenced in the Reference List at the end. There is also a section that provides the author’s Additional Recommended Readings and Resources to follow-up on. Readers might also want to refer to Chapter 3 in this book which discusses Single versus Multiple PPI approaches.

Ensuring that young children with severe and multiple disabilities are active participants in all aspects of their lives and that they make meaningful progress toward valued life outcomes can be a daunting endeavor for families and early educators. In this chapter, we describe evidence-based strategies that can be harnessed to ensure that each child is provided with high-quality inclusive education. Initially, we lay the foundation for the chapter by asserting shared assumptions fundamental to early childhood/early childhood special education practices with topics including strengths-based approach, self-determination, all does mean all, and play as a right for all children. Next, components of a high-quality inclusive program for young children designed to support access, participation, and meaningful progress are described. These components include the following: (1) collaborative teaming; (2) family–professional partnerships; (3) authentic assessment linked to meaningful outcomes; (4) discipline-free, functional outcomes or goals; (5) responsive, developmentally appropriate environments; and (6) levels of instructional support (e.g. universal design for learning (UDL), differentiation, and individualization). A vignette is used to further illustrate how to apply the practices discussed.

This study is set out to assess the country of origin effect on Turkish consumption practices in order to provide a richer context for its formation process.

The research is exploratory and interpretative in nature. It follows a qualitative design with in-depth analysis of consumption experiences by utilizing semi-structured interviews.

The research shows that country of origin effect is product specific, and when it exists, it has an essential effect on product evaluations. It reveals that the country of origin effect is intrinsically constituted with the individual perceptions of and attitudes toward brands, countries, and past experiences, and it is extrinsically constituted with socially created perceptions by media, marketplace myths, and popularity.

This research investigated country of origin effect in a specific context of a developing country with a qualitative methodology. Unlike the existing literature, this study analyzes consumers’ actual purchase decisions in different product categories. Country of origin effect is found to be formed by individual and societal factors.

The United Nations (UN) sustainable development goals (SDGs) that became effective at the commencement of January 2016 constitute a global community agreement calling for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. This chapter looks at the nexus between real estate (RE) and SDGs by investigating the extent to which Ghana's RE sector incorporates, especially, environmental sustainability principles from the design and construction stages to occupation, operation and activities aimed at helping to solve the problem of climate change, thereby, contributing to achieving the SDGs. The chapter is theoretical and, therefore, heavily reliant on critical review of relevant extant literature. The chapter has shown that RE cuts across virtually all the sectors that contribute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which over the years have generally been increasing. Only a few buildings in both the private and public sectors (six located in three of the 16 administrative regions in the country) are officially classified as green based on three sustainability-rating systems currently used in the country, which suggests that the uptake of green building technologies (GBTs) is rather low leading to the conclusion that at the moment, the RE sector is not contributing much towards the attainment of the SDGs. However, it may be the case that there are buildings, which are sustainable in one form or the other, but because they have not been officially certified, they are not regarded as green – employing the services of the sustainability-rating agencies to certify buildings involve significant costs that might serve as a barrier in accessing their services. Thus, there is the need for country-wide, large-scale studies that systematically investigate the uptake of GBTs in the private and public RE sectors (not necessarily based on using the rating systems) as that may reveal the actual uptake of GBTs and what can be done policy-wise based on the outcomes of such studies.