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In this paper, the authors adopt the theory of the circular economy to study the transitions that take place in three case studies in Mexico and Ecuador. The work is aimed to systematize a circular economy assessment tool that fosters opportunities for improvement in business practices.

The methodology is based on a descriptive quantitative analysis, where a checklist is made with 91 items and nine study variables. This is from the study of the bibliography and business practice. Furthermore, the neural network method is used in a case study to predict the level of circular economy and the importance of each variable according to the sensitivity by the Lek’s profile method.

It is based on a descriptive quantitative analysis, where a checklist with 91 items and nine study variables is made, defined from a bibliographic study and business practice. Furthermore, the neural network method is used in a case study to predict the level of circular economy and the importance of each variable based on sensitivity.

The application of the tool requires prior knowledge of the circular economy approach, which is why specialized personnel are needed for its application. This makes research more expensive in time and human resources.

The practical and methodological contribution of this work lies in the feasibility of the tool that favors the definition of improvement actions for the implementation contribution to the circular economy in business practices.

The social contribution is framed in the gradual transition to circular economy approaches in underdeveloped countries.

The use of the neural network method to predict the level of circular economy in a case study allows making decisions in a predictive way. This encourages the development of the circular economy according to the context needs.

En este trabajo adoptamos la teoría de la economía circular para estudiar las transiciones que ocurren en tres casos de estudio en México y Ecuador. El trabajo tiene como objetivo sistematizar una herramienta de evaluación de la economía circular que fomente oportunidades de mejora en las prácticas empresariales.

La metodología se basa en un análisis cuantitativo descriptivo, donde se elabora un checklist con 91 ítems y nueve variables de estudio. Esto a partir del estudio de la bibliografía y la práctica empresarial. Además, el método de la red neuronal se utiliza en un estudio de caso para predecir el nivel de economía circular y la importancia de cada variable según la sensibilidad utilizando el método Lekprofile.

Los resultados muestran que la herramienta es aplicable a diferentes contextos y simultáneamente permite la evaluación de la economía circular de forma holística. Además, la herramienta se puede vincular a técnicas predictivas, como el método de red neuronal. Esto se demostró en un estudio de caso.

en el uso del método de redes neuronales para predecir el nivel de economía circular en un caso de estudio. Esto permite la capacidad de tomar decisiones de forma predictiva y esto incentiva el desarrollo de la economía circular según la necesidad del contexto.

Las limitaciones se centran en la necesidad de conocer el tema de la economía circular para la aplicación de la herramienta. Por lo tanto, se necesita capacitación antes de comenzar un nuevo estudio. Esto encarece la investigación en tiempo y recursos humanos.

El aporte práctico y metodológico de este trabajo radica en la viabilidad de la herramienta que favorece la definición de acciones de mejora para la contribución de la implementación a la economía circular en las prácticas empresariales.

La contribución social es parte de la transición gradual a enfoques de economía circular en países subdesarrollados.

As costs around the world continue to rise for education, institutions must become innovative in the ways they teach and grow students. To do this effectively, professors and administrative staff should push toward the utilization of Open Source Software (OSS) and virtual tools to enhance or supplement currently available tools. In developing countries, OSS applications would allow students the ability to learn critical technological skills for success at small fraction of the cost. OSS also provides faculty members the ability to dissect source code and prepare students for low-level software development. It is critical that all institutions look at alternatives in providing training and delivering educational material regardless of limitations going forward as the world continues to be more global due to the increased use of technologies everywhere. Doing this could provide a means of shortening the education gap in many countries. Through reviewing the available technology, possible implementations of these technologies, and the application of these items in graduate coursework could provide a starting point in integrating these tools into academia. When administrators or faculty debate the possibilities of OSS, gaming, and simulation tools, this applied research provides a guide for changing the ability to develop students that will be competitive on a global level.

Incentives are effective at enhancing productivity, but research also suggests that performance incentives can have “unintended negative consequences” including increases in hazard/injuries, increases in errors, and reduction in cooperation, prosocial behaviors, and creativity. Relatively overlooked is whether, when, and how incentives can be designed to prevent such negative consequences. The authors review literature in several disciplines (construction, healthcare delivery, economics, psychology, and [some] management) on this issue. This chapter, in toto, sheds a generally positive light and suggests that, beyond productivity, incentives can be used to improve other outcomes such as safety, quality, prosocial behaviors, and creativity, particularly when the incentives are thoughtfully designed. The review concludes with several potential fruitful areas for future research such as investigations of incentive-effect duration.

The purpose of this paper is to examine why, despite the advantages they might gain by participating in regulation of teaching by law, Israeli teachers’ unions leaders abandoned the opportunity to obtain the right of regulation and instead preferred an ambiguous role.

This is a policy research study, involving documentary analysis, focusing on one specific bill and data from interviews with teachers’ union leaders and officials who participated in discussions on the bill, and/or in crucial negotiations concerning teaching regulation.

It was found that unions’ leaders preferred to leave the licensing process for teaching as an open-ended and constantly negotiable issue with their employer rather than assuming the role of gatekeeper, understanding that this gave them more space and power to maneuvre in future struggles. Consequently, only the Education Ministry determines who becomes a teacher.

These findings can inform educational policy makers and stakeholders, by giving them a glimpse into policy considerations. New knowledge is offered for the development of theory concerning teaching profession regulation and involvement of the teacher unions in these processes.

Policy makers may re-evaluate their interests as stakeholders in the education system, when they try to shape the profession through regulation of those who seek to become teachers.

The research sheds light on a hidden part of the policy-making puzzle that most studies do not explore and educational leaders prefer not to discuss especially when there is no proof of achievement, nor a public crisis.

This paper examines the ethical tensions in social entrepreneurship (SE) research by focusing on the ethical consequences of obtaining ethics approval in a university in the developed world while executing fieldwork for data collection in a developing country. It aims to offer insight into ethical research practice to protect vulnerable research participants from being further silenced and marginalised by the dominant social order that developed world universities embody.

The ethical tensions are described through narratives drawn from a Filipino Ph.D. candidate's experience. The candidate obtained ethics approval from the university in New Zealand and collected interview data from social enterprise beneficiaries in the Philippines. A critical reflexive lens carves a space for a deepened understanding of these ethical tensions.

This paper offers critical insights into ethical SE research involving participants from vulnerable communities. These insights suggest that closer consideration needs to be given to contextual sensitivity, particularly on the part of researchers and research ethics committees, in crafting ethical data collection protocols. Findings also show how it is important for the indigenous researcher to filter ethical protocols through their local knowledge.

The paper uses critical reflexivity to examine ethical tensions in SE research involving vulnerable beneficiaries. It offers insights into ethical research procedures and practices that engender mindfulness of the contextual and relational aspects of doing SE research in the developing world.

This paper aims to present the concepts of two different ways of generating a dynamic structure of the urban system to further allow in understanding specific urban behavior facing against flood and further evaluate the potential effect of specific resilience strategies aiming to decrease the exposure and vulnerability of the system.

Two system dynamics model structures are presented in form of Casual Loop Diagrams.

The main differences among the tow approaches are the time horizon and the approach that regulates the assessment of the resilience through a dynamic composite indicator: the first model refers to baseline at initial simulation time; the second model is focused on the ratio service supply to demand.

Within the approach, the purpose is to properly and efficiently evaluate the effect of different Flood Risk Management strategies, i.e. prevention, defence, mitigation, preparation and recovery for consistent and resilient flood governance plans with different type of resilience scenarios.

The need for such tool is underlined by a lack on the assessment of urban resilience to flood as whole, considering the physical and social dimensions and the complex interaction among their main components. There are several assessment tools based on an indicator approach that have been proposed to meet this need. Nevertheless, indicator-based approach has the limitation to exclude the complexity of the system and its systemic interaction in terms of feedbacks’ effects among the identified components or variables selected for the system description. This peculiarity can be provided by System Dynamics modeling.