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The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on the preceding article describing changing patterns in the provision and take-up of accommodation services for adults with learning disabilities in Ireland, in the context of the types of reductions in funding that have been apparent internationally for some time.

The commentary examines some of the implications and discusses some of the underlying quality of life issues implicit in the data presented. It also explores the tensions between owning one’s home and receiving specialist support and examines what supported living might enable services to achieve.

The paper concludes that the nature of economic policy and professional practice, alike, have implications for the quality of home life enjoyed by adults with learning disabilities; and that the interplay between them is more complex than is often allowed.

These issues are not new, but frustratingly enduring. Their fresh consideration might assist the urgent need to achieve a more coherent narrative capable of consistent application for present and future generations.

This paper aims to examine impediments to the adoption of sustainable water-efficient technological innovation in agriculture. Farming is the largest water consumer and food production expansion in response to global population growth, combined with increasing droughts from climate change, threatens water and food insecurity for many countries. Yet, climate smart agriculture (CSA) innovation adoption has been slow, and in this regard, governments and the agricultural sector are not fulfilling their social responsibility and sustainability obligations.

Barriers to water-efficient drip irrigation (DI) adoption in Australia were investigated via 46 depth interviews with agricultural stakeholders and a survey of 148 farmers.

While DI water efficiency is recognised, this is not the key determinant of farmers’ irrigation method selection. Complex interrelationships between internal and external barriers impede DI adoption are identified. These include costs, satisfaction with alternative irrigation methods, farmer characteristics that determine the suitability of the innovation and the extent it is incremental or radical, plus various multidimensional risks. Government support of alternative, less water-efficient irrigation methods is also a critical barrier.

A conceptual framework for understanding barriers to sustainability oriented innovation adoption is presented. Its insights should be applicable to researchers and practitioners concerned with understanding and improving the adoption of socially responsible and sustainable innovation in a wide range of contexts. Recommendations for overcoming such adoption barriers are discussed in relation to the research focus of water-efficient agriculture and encouraging uptake of DI.

Outlines the origin, vision, guiding principles and strategic intents of the Multinational Alliance for the Advancement of Organizational Excellence (MAAOE). Describes how MAAOE brings together leaders from many disciplines who are bonded together by a shared desire to investigate, create, disseminate and apply the multidisciplinary and multicultural knowledge necessary to assist organizations in their quest for excellence.

The paper attempts to synthesise the features of the model for quality management in education based on the approaches spelt out in four well‐articulated methodologies for the practice of quality in higher education. Each methodology contributes to different views of education from the learners’ and the institution's perspectives, providing elements for the model. The thrust of the model is a “transformative” approach to bring about a fundamental change in students’ understanding. In the opinion of the authors the four approaches lend themselves to be synergistically combined to form the elements of the model, which establishes the basis for quality in education in universities. This provides a prima facie validity for the synthesis of a model. A more comprehensive specification for a model for quality could be developed based on an extensive study of educational research literature.

This paper examines how the Australian Quality Council and the European Foundation for Quality Management address issues of access and corporate responsibility through their respective devices, namely the Australian Business Excellence Framework and the EFQM Excellence Model. It then examines the impact of the UK and Australian Disability Discrimination Legislation in light of UK and Australian studies on the provision of services for the hearing impaired by call centres.