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This chapter explores ethical issues related to the use of drama-based methods in child and youth-focussed research projects. It begins by outlining some of the reasons for utilising drama-based research methods in projects that examine children’s perspectives and lived experiences. The chapter proceeds to discuss specific methods of drama-based inquiry including ethnodrama, ethnotheatre, reader’s theatre, play-building, devised theatre and collective creation. The sections draw on examples from recent drama-based research projects to highlight some of the key ethical considerations in drama-based research with children and young people, including specific issues surrounding representation, transparency, physical risks, power dynamics, consent, confidentiality, anonymity and reciprocity. The author shares her experiences of navigating some of the tricky ethical challenges involved in a recent participatory play-building project in Canada, providing some suggestions to help researchers in the field become better prepared to use and assess these methods and approaches in research with children and young people.

A case‐based research approach is used to illustrate the power of modeling manufacturing performance measures and to help develop insights into the nature and problems evident when attempting to use simulation across different enterprise sectors. The research methodology used considered three specific companies, each with distinctive characteristics and attributes; a small to medium enterprise (SME), a medium to large enterprise (MLE) and a large enterprise (LE). From a cross‐case analysis of the use of discrete‐event simulation when applied in these instances, the research attempts to develop policy implications that will provide a better understanding of how simulation studies should be approached across different manufacturing enterprises and how simulation can help organizations achieve organizational excellence.

A recurring problem in the service quality literature is measurement – knowing which quality aspects should be measured and in what ways. This article aims to assess service quality measurement by focusing on general practice appointment systems.

The authors use a case study, integrating qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews with stakeholders as well as data regarding appointment systems' temporal aspects.

This study offers insights into service quality's subjective and context‐dependent nature, as reflected in primary healthcare stakeholder perceptions and service quality's objective and quantifiable aspects, revealing its dynamic, process‐based nature.

The empirical approach to service quality measurement did not focus on all general practice service quality aspects, but instead focused on patient appointments with healthcare professionals. Broader applications to include other service quality aspects should be addressed by research.

Using one approach, service operators could have a tool for obtaining a more complex and richer service quality picture, leading to a better understanding of the relationship between service delivery and its evaluations by different stakeholders.

The service quality measurement method offers innovative insights into different theoretical abstractions, constructively challenges both measurement and service quality, whilst moving beyond managerial and user‐based approaches, and is highly relevant to contemporary organisation practice.

The purpose of this paper is to accurately model the existing manufacturing processes of a family‐owned small to medium‐sized enterprise (SME). The study was undertaken to provide the SME with information, so that potential improvements within the production facilities could be identified thereby leading to insights into potential savings, and waste elimination. Ultimately the research attempts to demonstrate that small businesses can benefit from adopting simulation as a decision‐making tool as part of their change management initiatives.

The research methodology is a case‐based simulation study of the production facilities of a SME. A base model and successive experimental models were developed to test various production scenarios.

The experiments demonstrated how simulation could contribute and assist in the implementation of TQM and change management philosophies within a SME environment. The initial models identified problems in the real system and the latter models showed how further improvements can be achieved, defects reduced and lead to the enhancement of the productivity. Therefore, in this way simulation assisted in the implementation of some of the fundamental principles of TQM philosophy.

The study is limited in that it is based on one case study and therefore, a further study that would include several case studies with cross section analysis is recommended. Furthermore, research that uses cases from both the manufacturing and the service sector is recommended in order to fully document the unique and valuable role of simulation in the execution of TQM and BPR management philosophies in the SME context.

To provide the reader with an appreciation of the present trends in the UK automotive supply industry as they affect the first and second tier supply chain and aims to give researchers an insight into the complex interaction between suppliers and their customers.

Literature review which is divided into the sub‐sections of strategy, structure, processes and co‐ordination required within the manufacturing environment, to identify the influence of synchronous supply as it affects these main areas of operations management.

Through the use of examples from previous papers written on automotive and related supply industry operating methods, and to date Grounded Theory forming a pilot study to empirical research for this research, it concludes that synchronous supply can provide the lead for an efficient automotive supply chain.

The concept of synchronous supply presents a challenging research framework for supplier operating strategy, structuring processes and co‐ordination between the vehicle manufacturer (VM) and the whole supply chain.

A useful source of information for VMs and their first tier suppliers to understand more about synchronous supply and its affect on the supply chain.

This paper presents the concept of synchronous supply as a challenging framework for supplier operating strategy, structuring processes and co‐ordination between the VM and the whole supply chain.

Can children give their informed consent to participate in a research study, or can they only provide assent? This chapter explores this tricky question by drawing on three stages of a longitudinal ethnography within a multi-ethnic school in the north of England. Illustrative examples are used to show how the ability to give consent is not based on age alone, but rather on children’s experiences and confidence, the type of research conducted, and the researcher’s own expertise in communicating with children. The chapter provides examples of children’s active and ongoing negotiation of consent and through their choice to withdraw consent, ‘correct’ the researcher’s interpretations, actively produce their own written field notes and reflect on data collected as part of fieldwork. To facilitate consent, children were given time and space to familiarise themselves with the researcher and the study. Actively involving children in all stages of the study highlighted the importance of familiarisation and participation to the processes of informed consent to ensure children’s ongoing and meaningful involvement in the research.

Purpose – Studies have described how migrants progressively transform extraneous spaces into familiar, meaningful environments, turning them into ‘homes’. However, in some contexts the opposite process occurs: what once felt like home becomes alien, unrecognizable and extraneous. Building on ethnographic vignettes on the everyday life of immobile young Eritreans, this chapter explores the paradox of ‘not feeling at home’ while being physically there.

Methodology – The chapter builds on three months’ ethnographic fieldwork in Eritrea and extended participant observation among Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia, Sudan and Italy from 2012 to 2014.

Findings – I show how the youth, in a pervasive context of migration culture, articulate a sense of belonging towards what they imagine as the ‘outside world’, while being unable to make sense of their lives in their own homeland. Using the notions of ‘estrangement’ and home-unmaking, it is possible to account for the feelings of those living in conditions of protracted crisis and explore the subjective worlds of prospective refugees.

Originality/Value – The chapter’s originality lies in the uniqueness of the ethnographic material and in the innovative approach to the debate on home-making and refugee studies. Instead of considering refugees’ home-making processes in other countries, this chapter analyses the experience of losing home without moving. By using the concept of estrangement, it investigates the manifold meanings of immobility while adding to the theoretical discussion on home-making/unmaking processes. Moreover, it contributes to the empirical investigation of determinants of asylum flows by investigating the case of Eritrea, a major refugee-producing country.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a research exploring the important strategic elements and their prioritisation for e-retailers’ home delivery logistics process efficacy improvement.

The research was completed through focus group, survey and importance-performance analysis.

The research identified, confirmed and prioritised a set of explicitly important strategic elements currently deemed important by e-retailers for ensuring the efficacy of their home delivery logistics process in Chinese marketplace, and also referential to the other similar emerging marketplaces.

The research contributes positively to the enrichment of the theoretical knowledge pool of e-retailers’ logistics performance improvement.

The research findings guide/inform the strategy development and implementation for e-retailers entering and/or operating in Chinese marketplace. And the findings can also be referential to the e-retail strategy development for entering and operating in other emerging markets similar to China’s. This point is particularly meaningful for those e-retailers that want to expand the outreaching and increase the popularity of their businesses in the global marketplace.

Corresponding to the much needed further research on e-retailing home delivery performance improvement, the research provides findings that add substantial new insights into the field, with a particular focus on China, as one of the emerging developing marketplaces.

A case‐based research approach is used to illustrate the power of modelling manufacturing performance measures and to help develop insights into the nature and problems evident when attempting to use simulation across different enterprise sectors. The research methodology used considered three specific companies, each with distinctive characteristics and attributes; a small to medium enterprise, a medium to large enterprise and a large enterprise. From a cross‐case analysis of the use of discreet‐event (DE) simulation when applied in these instances, the research attempts to develop policy implications that will provide a better understanding of how simulation studies should be approached across different manufacturing enterprises.