Common waters and private lands: Distributional impacts of floodplain aquaculture in Bangladesh

Aquaculture continues to diversify and develop rapidly in Bangladesh. A major change has taken place in parts of Bangladesh due to the growth of floodplain aquaculture (FPA) projects. FPA involves the enclosure by the landholders of parts of the floodplain through the creation of embankments and sluice gates. The enclosed water body is stocked with fish seed and the benefits are distributed amongst those who own land in the impounded area. This study has found that FPA tends to exclude a large number of poor households and adversely affects them through the attenuation of their common property rights over the floodplains, besides skewing the distribution of benefits amongst those who directly benefit from it. They have been further marginalised in project institutions that are captured by rural elites. This paper suggests a more precautionary approach to the growth of the FPA and compensation to, or inclusion of the losers.     

Faltering fisheries and ascendant aquaculture: Implications for food and nutrition security in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made considerable progress against human development indicators in recent years, but malnutrition resulting from poor dietary diversity and low micronutrient intakes remains entrenched. Fish is central to the Bangladeshi diet and small fish species are an important micronutrient source. Although fish consumption per capita has increased in recent years as a result of rapid expansion of aquaculture, it is likely that consumption of fish from capture fisheries (including small indigenous species particularly rich in micronutrients), has declined. This paper evaluates data on fish consumption collected in Bangladesh by the International Food Policy Research Institute in 1996/7 and 2006/7 to assess changing patterns of fish consumption and their implications for food and nutrition security. This analysis indicates that growth of aquaculture has been positive, mitigating a sharp reduction in the quantity of fish consumed from capture fisheries and smoothing out seasonal variability in consumption. However, increased availability of fish from aquaculture may not have fully compensated for the loss of fish from capture fisheries in terms of dietary diversity, micronutrient intakes and food and nutrition security, particularly for the poorest consumers. A range of approaches are recommended to sustain and enhance the contributions capture fisheries and aquaculture make to food and nutrition security in Bangladesh     

Towards a sustainable fashion retail supply chain in Europe: Organisation and performance

Sustainability issues are particularly sensitive to the fashion supply chain, given current fierce competition, intensive resource use, and the exposure of penurious labour conditions in some regions.In this paper, we discuss how the sustainability movement is impacting the fashion retail supply chain organisation and its performance. We carried out a study with stakeholders of the fashion industry and we report on their views. We elaborate on the challenges and conflicts of the different dimensions of sustainability, and we discuss how to leverage both the internal and external organisations in the European supply chain.     

Towards a Model for Teacher Development in Technology Education: From Research to Practice

This paper reports on a series of interventions in New Zealand schools in order to enhance the teaching of, and learning in, technology as a new learning area. It details the way in which researchers worked with teachers to introduce technological activities into the classroom, the teachers' reflections on this process and the subsequent development of activities. These activities were undertaken in 14 classrooms (8 primary and 6 secondary).The research took into account past experiences of school-based teacher development and recommendations related to teacher change. Extensive use was made of case-studies from earlier phases of the research, and of the draft technology curriculum, in order to develop teachers' concepts of technology and technology education. Teachers then worked from these concepts to develop technological activities and classroom strategies. The paper also introduces a model that outlines factors contributing to school technological literacy, and suggests that teacher development models will need to allow teachers to develop technological knowledge and an understanding of technological practice, as well as concepts of technology and technology education, if they are to become effective in the teaching of technology.     

From products to services and back again: Towards a new service procurement logic

This paper explores patterns in the process of buying complex services. While there is currently hype about a service-dominant logic, there are also indications of a diametrically opposed logic implying the objectification of services; a goods-dominant logic. This paper investigates how buyers of different kinds of services relate to these logics and how the degree of objectification of services varies during different stages of the procurement process. By highlighting the buyers' perspectives and how services are transformed over time, the paper expands on the current knowledge of service-dominant logic. The paper is based on individual and focus group interviews with buyers at eighteen large industrial firms.     

A strategic-tactical model for the supply chain design in the delocalization context: Mathematical formulation and a case study

In this paper, we propose a mathematical model for the design of supply chains in the delocalization context. Our main objective is to develop a strategic-tactical supply chain design model that integrates all the relevant components that characterize the delocalization problem. We adopt the activity based approach to model the problem and we focus on the logistic decisions of activity location, technology choice, supplier selection, etc., and the financial decisions of transfer pricing, transportation costs allocation, etc. The mathematical formulation is illustrated by a case study from the automotive sector. A comparison between the model solution and the real decisions is used to prove the applicability and the utility of the proposed model.     

Towards a differentiated modeling of origin effects in hedonic analysis: An application to auction prices of specialty coffee

Origin matters. This has been shown by numerous studies using either discrete choice or hedonic approaches to derive implicit prices for origin as a product attribute. In most of the hedonic studies, intercept dummies were introduced for specific regional origins and statistically significant coefficients of those variables were seen as an indication of either a superior or inferior reputation, compared to products from other origins. We argue that hedonic pricing models of this type may be too simple to detect the true origin effects if assessments of a product’s sensory quality are available and interact with prior beliefs about reputation. Based on a supply-and-demand framework to explain auction prices, a reduced-form hedonic pricing model is suggested that includes intercept- as well as slope-dummy effects of the regional origin. Because reputation and the objective product quality are particularly important for markets of differentiated, high-quality foods and beverages, we analyze electronic auction markets for specialty coffees. The findings for the Cup of Excellence data reveal that it is important to distinguish reputation, sensory quality, and their interaction as determinants of coffee auction prices, as well as varying origin impacts across market segments.