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This paper aims to introduce a web-based pilot system for minimizing the ripple effect (i.e. spreading of the negative impact of an exceptional event along the supply chain from its original position) caused by operational risks in the context of make-to-order supply chains.

The study employs a design science research methodology, which covers three major stages: system requirements identification, business process design and the implementation and evaluation of a web-based pilot system.

The developed system has the potential to significantly reduce the negative impact of the ripple effect caused by operational risks in a make-to-order supply chain in terms of material shortages, late deliveries and subsequent additional costs associated with expediting measures when a customer order is running late.

The system presented in this paper is a prototype that needs to be further developed and tested in the future.

This paper provides integrated business processes and useful guidelines for supply chain managers and information system developers in dealing with the ripple effect in the supply chain.

In contrast to prior studies that have focused on investigating the impact of the ripple effect on the supply chain caused by natural or man-made disasters, this research attempts to offer a novel approach to address the research problem (i.e. the ripple effect caused by operational risks such as delays) directly from the design science perspective.

Since 2009, different challenge-based learning (CBL) activities have been implemented at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), with a shared objective: provide the students a learning experience that covers the acquisition of technical knowledge, soft skills, and other generic competences, while bringing them closer to the current technologies and industry. The shared background of these activities is the participation of Master's students of aerospace engineering in the preliminary design of a space mission. During the 18/19 academic year, the UPM participated in the 2018 ESA Concurrent Engineering Challenge (ESA CEC), where the students complemented their technical knowledge with dedicated training in Concurrent Engineering and learnt how ESA assesses the feasibility of real space missions. This experience further motivated the organization of the UPM CEC, which was first executed in the 19/20 academic year (and is expected to be carried out in future courses). After a decade implementing CBL, different research methodologies and instruments have been used to evaluate its impact on different aspects of the learning process. In this chapter, we describe the main CBL activities performed, focusing on the instruments used to evaluate them. We draw attention to the main advantages and disadvantages of implementing CBL from a learning perspective, as well as the associated impact in the student's motivation and student–teacher relationship. In many cases, different teaching scenarios are assessed, thus making it possible to compare CBL against traditional methods.

This study aims to examine the features of training evaluation process in Russian manufacturing companies. On the basis of three assumptions regarding the differences in group of employees involved in training, duration and costs of a training program, the authors tried to find out the peculiarities of training evaluation tools and levels in Russian manufacturing companies.

The HR professionals from 24 Russian manufacturing companies completed the author’s online questionnaire.

The results revealed that the respondents perceived training evaluation as highly important, but their satisfaction level toward existing evaluation was low. The most significant training evaluation goal was recognized as raising the efficiency of training process and the most widely used training evaluation model was Kirkpatrick’s, with focus on the reaction level. It was confirmed that training evaluation tools used in Russian manufacturing enterprises differed among the employee groups and different levels of training evaluation depended on duration and cost of the training program.

This is the first study which focuses on current training evaluation processes and gaps in Russian manufacturing companies. The recommendations proposed by the authors could be used by an HR team to improve training evaluation depending on employee group involved in training, duration and costs of the training program.

While there is some agreement on the usefulness of systems and complexity approaches to tackle the sustainability challenges facing the organisations and governments in the twenty-first century, less is clear regarding the way such approaches can inspire new ways of governance for sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to progress ongoing research using the Viable System Model (VSM) as a meta-language to facilitate long-term sustainability in business, communities and societies, using the “Methodology to support self-transformation”, by focusing on ways of learning about governance for sustainability.

It summarises core self-governance challenges for long-term sustainability, and the organisational capabilities required to face them, at the “Framework for Assessing Sustainable Governance”. This tool is then used to analyse capabilities for governance for sustainability at three real situations where the mentioned Methodology inspired bottom up processes of self-organisation. It analyses the transformations decided from each organisation, in terms of capabilities for sustainable governance, using the suggested Framework.

Core technical lessons learned from using the framework are discussed, include the usefulness of using a unified language and tool when studying governance for sustainability in differing types and scales of case study organisations.

As with other exploratory research, it reckons the convenience for further development and testing of the proposed tools to improve their reliability and robustness.

A final conclusion suggests that the suggested tools offer a useful heuristic path to learn about governance for sustainability, from a VSM perspective; the learning from each organisational self-transformation regarding governance for sustainability is insightful for policy and strategy design and evaluation; in particular the possibility of comparing situations from different scales and types of organisations.

There is very little coherence in the governance literature and the field of governance for sustainability is an emerging field. This piece of exploratory research is valuable as it presents an effective tool to learn about governance for sustainability, based in the “Methodology for Self-Transformation”; and offers reflexions on applications of the methodology and the tool, that contribute to clarify the meaning of governance for sustainability in practice, in organisations from different scales and types.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the organization and design of a real-life digital collection for the field of Book Arts. This paper also examines the challenges in building digital libraries for visual domains with specialized user pools.

A qualitative study was conducted. An online survey asked participants from the field of Book Arts to provide free-text descriptions of randomized visual representatives taken from the collection using open-ended question and answer boxes. Themes extracted from the survey were coded and presented using basic statistical measures.

The results of this study identified a set of specialized access points for items that were selected as being significant for Book Arts and perhaps other areas in the Fine Arts. Results informed retrieval of visual information for this domain along with user interface design and evaluation strategies. In addition, the survey used in this study demonstrated the ability to collect longer, more in-depth answers and category terms alike from the participants.

This study was necessary for the practical purpose of organizing a digital collection of the Book Arts, a unique collection. While similar studies have been conducted, even for collections deemed to be from the “Fine Arts”, previous studies do not agree on what is important for organizing digital collections including varying opinions of certain bibliographic access points and visual representation.

This article presents practical guidelines for the design of interactive software for children with autism. Many existing software design techniques rely on social interaction and so are not appropriate for this group, and little practical guidance is available. The guidelines presented are based on research experiences during the development of an interactive software game called TouchStory, which was designed to promote an understanding of narrative structure while adapting to the learning needs of individual children with autism. Our results indicate that some children with autism were actively engaged in self‐directed, curiosity‐driven learning, and found TouchStory enjoyable, even after repeated exposures on as many as 20 occasions. The guidelines are not limited to the appearance and behaviour of the software system, and may be fundamental to the research questions asked and the approach adopted. They provide a useful basis for furthering our understanding of the provision of assistive technology for children with autism.

Prostate and colorectal cancer (CRC) rates are disproportionately high among African‐American men. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of an intervention in which barbers were trained to educate clients about early detection for prostate and CRC.

Working with an advisory panel of local barbers, cancer survivors and clients, educational materials are developed and pilot tested through use of focus groups and cognitive response interviews.

The advisory panel, focus groups, and interviews provide key recommendations for core content, intervention structure, and evaluation strategies. The men suggest a variety of things they want to know about prostate cancer, however the perceived need for CRC information is much broader, suggesting a knowledge gap. The men prefer print materials that are brief, use graphics of real African‐American men, and provide a telephone number they can call for additional information.

Community involvement is key in developing a well‐accepted and culturally‐relevant intervention.

The paper usefully describes the process of developing and pilot testing educational materials for use in an intervention in which barbers would be trained as community health advisors, to educate their clients about CRC screening and informed decision making for prostate cancer screening.

Agricultural cooperatives have been able to become a strong and consolidated organizational form, although the new challenges of globalization and trade liberalization require changes in the strategic approach. The requirements of the distribution companies, consumers and government about the concentration of demand, traceability, food safety and respect for the environment had led to a thorough reorganization of agricultural food systems. So it is necessary to undertake a strategic review of horticultural cooperatives in order to conduct a strategic assessment and hence identify the strategic actions to be followed in the coming years. This paper seeks to address these issues.

An empirical study has been carried out during the first half of 2011 consisting in the application of the Delphi method and sending a questionnaire to experts whose purpose was to gain a view of the strategic situation of horticultural cooperatives in Spain. The Delphi method is a projection technique of the qualitative and subjective type which is appropriate for studies where there is little information on the subject to be analysed, and also for exploratory studies, as it is the case study of examining the role of agricultural cooperatives in coming out of the crisis of Mediterranean agriculture.

The performed Delphi analysis revealed that Mediterranean agriculture suffers from a severe crisis for which the solutions are hard to find, although the existence of the agricultural cooperatives and certain specific forms of performance and financing can partly improve the described situation. The application of the SWOT analysis based on the opinions of the experts provided sufficient detailed insights of the actual situation of the cooperatives. Thus, from the Delphi SWOT applied to Mediterranean agriculture and agricultural cooperatives, the authors can make some important assessments which are included in their paper.

It is a forward‐looking analysis that tries to give measures to the sector, but measures that come from the sector, in order to face the Mediterranean agriculture crisis.

This cooperative alliance between a university and a nonprofit, private organization was initiated with the goal of developing capacity building measures for improving medical health and welfare in the rural village of Ocoroni in Northern Sinaloa, Mexico. Drawing from the literature on organization development and action research, it provides a detailed overview of the design and implementation of the work which was involved in this collaborative partnership. The outcomes are presented and with accomplishments noted, indicating that the initiative had a positive impact for the local community in Ocoroni, while simultaneously providing research opportunities and cross-cultural learning for faculty, graduate students, healthcare practitioners, volunteers, residents from the village and others who were involved the project.