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The purpose of this paper is to present a brief summary of quality and contractual aspects for the improvement of the warranty management. Together with this, the present work will show also some of the best practices followed by companies in order to manage properly those kinds of issues related to warranty, as well as some indications to assess the implementation degree of such practices in the whole organization. Basically, the global objective of the study is to present to the reader and in few words the importance of taking into account legal and quality aspects, when a company offers a technical service for the warranty assistance of any of its products, together with the maturity level that this company achieves applying some best practices currently available.

The study starts by mentioning some antecedents related to warranty, in order to summarize a reference framework, proposed for proper warranty management, and how the information exchange should be performed among the different departments of a generic company. Then, it will be suggested how to apply this according to a strategic management which is divided in phases, taken from the product life cycle concept: Front‐end, Design and Development, Production, Marketing, and Post‐sale Support. These phases are included in three higher stages considered as Pre‐Launch stage, Launch and Post‐Launch stage, where different decisions play important roles. Afterwards, it will be shown how warranty management is viewed from the contract and legal point of view, in order to link the above mentioned topics on generic management, with those best practices currently presented in actual markets. Finally, once analysed, all those aspects related to best practices and its application on the reference framework, it is required now to quantify how a company manages the warranty assistances by a maturity assessment on warranty management.

The paper observes what today's companies are doing in this field, that is, their best practices in warranty management covering the quality and contractual aspects already mentioned, in order to round off the development of a completed framework for such management.

The paper presents a review, a framework and a practical application of the framework for the management of warranty contracts, including a maturity assessment or evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to present Zeuss, a software-based tool designed to improve grammar learning process in elementary school children. Despite efforts by the Colombian Government, the results of the final high school test indicate that students have major deficiencies with language, grammar and reading comprehension. Several difficulties have been evidenced in activities like writing essays or understanding academic papers. Among the reasons that may lead to these results include outdated courses, overcrowded classrooms and lack of interest.

A diagnostic test is performed on third-grade elementary school students to assess the current grammar knowledge and identify areas for improvement. The test results are used to design a software-based tool called Zeuss. The authors include playful activities inspired by several pedagogic exercises found in the literature and personalization so that interaction is tailored to specific user preferences and tastes.

Zeuss has been tested with third-grade students of the Gimnasio Campestre San Francisco de Sales elementary school in Bogotá, Colombia. The results show that using the tool leads to an overall improvement in the grammar construction learning process.

Zeuss aims at improving the learning process in elementary schools helping teachers to overcome several limitations like overcrowded classrooms and outdated pedagogic strategies. Zeuss focuses specifically on the grammar learning process.

Zeuss features updated pedagogical strategies, playful activities and a personalization model to tailor the learning process and help in context. It also allows teachers to track individual and classroom progress.

The main goal of this investigation is to analyze the implementation of a forced blended-learning program in social sciences higher education in a post-pandemic COVID-19 context. To reach that target, the authors suggest two specific objectives (S.O.): S.O.1 To analyze the motivation, the resources and the learning effectiveness of the program. S.O.2 To establish the differences emerged between the participants.

The blended-learning program selected was based on the flipped-classroom model (Krasulia, 2017). The implementation consisted of a 20-min flipped classroom to flexibly follow the theoretical contents through self-elaborated videos uploaded on YouTube and adapted to all kinds of devices, two online theoretical hours driven by the teacher on the Zoom application per week with the whole group to augment explanations and solve doubts and two hours of face-to-face interaction to work cooperatively in small groups of 4–5 students per week. During these practical lessons, the students completed exercises, research reports, oral presentations and a gamification quiz developed each week through the Socrative application to keep the students engaged.

All the participants agree in very positively valuating the small-group seminars and the teacher's role in the process. This is surely caused because of the pandemic fatigue and the restrictions (Mali and Lim, 2021) that were running during the fall semester of year 2020/2021 when in Spain lived the in-between of the second and third wave of SARS-CoV2. So, as educators and investigators, the authors encourage teachers to incorporate face-to-face interaction elements in forced blended-learning programs, to include seminars in small groups to work cooperatively and to provide the students support and a quick resolution of doubts.

This study provides a significant value in support of a number of studies cited in the study. The study highlights the need for a standardised application of active methods in a standardised way.

Taking as reference a sample of around a hundred biographical materials on entrepreneurs in Mexico and Colombia, the purpose of this chapter is dual. Both to show the relevance and varied modalities that the biographical approach has enjoyed in business history research since the 1990s, and to display the intrinsic potential this modality of scholarship entails for entrepreneurship endeavors. In particular, it discusses the prospects to incorporate this body of empirical works into the large Latin American audience attending undergraduate, graduate and executive education programs in business, economic history and related fields. The chapter is organized into three sections. The first two are devoted to illustrate relevant patterns in the entrepreneurial trajectory of individuals and entrepreneurial families studied in each of the two countries under consideration. The last section identifies some conceptual issues that may impact current debates on Latin American business development as exemplified in recent business and economic history journal venues and scholarly conferences.

The authors analyze the relationship between different consumer attitudinal variables and a number of variables related to consumer perception of the store and purchasing behavior, in assortments composed exclusively of private labels (PLs).

The authors developed an experiment based on an online survey to test the hypotheses formulated. The model’s causal relationships are established using structural equations.

The image of stores that only offer their own brand is mainly configured by price consciousness and the attitude toward the private label. The private label purchase intention is strongly influenced by the store image and a favorable attitude toward the brand, and loyalty strategies should be aimed at securing a clear perception of providing real value.

For retailers who only offer their own brands, an assortment with price-competitive PLs is key to the strategy of differentiating them from other retailers. It is reasonable to assume that, if retailers have a favorable image, customers transfer this brand value to their PLs and trust them. Customer loyalty strategies of these retailers should be aimed at ensuring that consumers clearly perceive that their assortment provides real value and that, although it is limited in terms of number of brands, it can meet all their needs.

This research represents a significant contribution to brand management literature because, includes, together with loyalty to the store, its image and the PL purchase intention as consumer response variables. Another differentiating feature is the methodology used. Estimation of the structural equation model permits the simultaneous estimation of the relationships between the variables.

Analizamos la relación entre diferentes variables actitudinales de los consumidores y un número de variables relativas a la percepción de los consumidores con respecto al establecimiento y el comportamiento de compra, todo ello en surtidos compuestos exclusivamente por marcas de distribuidor.

Desarrollamos un experimento online, basado en una encuesta, para testar las hipótesis planteadas. Utilizamos ecuaciones estructurales para determiner las relaciones causales del modelo.

La imagen de los establecimientos que ofrecen exclusivamente su propia marca se configura, principalmente, por la conciencia de precio y por la actitud de los consumidores hacia la marca privada. La intención de compra de la marca de distribuidor está fuertemente influenciada por la imagen del establecimiento y por una actitud favorable hacia dicha marca, por lo que las estrategias de fidelización de clientes deberían estar orientadas a asegurar una clara percepción de proporcionar valor real a los consumidores.

Para los minoristas que ofertan exclusivamente sus propias marcas, un surtido con marcas de distribuidor muy competitivas en precio es fundamental en su estrategia de diferenciación de sus competidores. Además, es razonable suponer que si los minoristas cuentan con una imagen favorable, los consumidores trasladarán este valor de marca a sus propias marcas propias y confiarán en ellas. Las estrategias de fidelización de este tipo de minoristas deberían ir enfocadas a asegurarse de que los consumidores perciben claramente el valor real que aporta su surtido y que, aunque limitado en términos de número de marcas y alternativas, les permite cubrir todas sus necesidades.

Esta investigación supone una significativa contribución a la literatura sobre gestión de marcas al incluir, conjuntamente con la lealtad al establecimiento, su imagen y la intención de compra de la marca de distribuidor como variables respuesta del consumidor. Otro elemento diferenciador es la metodología empleada, ya que la estimación del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales permite la estimación simultánea de las relaciones entre las distintas variables.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze potentially significant differences in a series of relevant characteristics of universities’ technology transfer offices (TTOs). To this end, TTOs have been classified by the function of their resources assigned to the enhancement of university entrepreneurship. The factors analyzed are the number of academic spin-offs created with the support of TTOs as well as the TTOs’ age, experience, professionalization and relational capital.

The authors have performed a hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis to identify the groups of TTOs with homogeneous behavior and features. This multivariate technique allows determining whether it is possible to identify some differentiated conglomerates of TTOs.

The results of the cluster analysis allow concluding that the number of academic spin-offs created with the support of TTOs, the age and degree of professionalization of these TTOs, the experiences of their employees in matters related to entrepreneurship and their relationships with market actors explain the different levels of commitment of TTOs toward the enhancement of university entrepreneurship. In contrast with the expected results, the relationship between TTOs and academic actors does not seem to explain such differences.

This research contributes to the identification of the particular design characteristics that TTOs should exhibit to promote the entrepreneurial performance of universities, offering important recommendations to academic institutions regarding the efficient design of TTOs to manage university ambidexterity and to build TTOs’ entrepreneurial identity.

This chapter aims to reflect upon the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and human rights. We argue that although CSR is a good attempt to propose better practices for managerial decisions, a human rights perspective enriches this vision. Therefore, the authors will define the meaning of a human rights perspective for business activities and, specifically, for CSR. The authors apply the idea of res extra commercium to human rights and CSR. As a first step, both factors need to be identified as moral absolutes. Essentially, businesses should start by identifying areas of human activity that are off limits.

The focus of special education around the globe may be to provide specialized instruction to meet unique needs of children to help them achieve their full potential. However, each country around the globe may also have its own unique issues, barriers, legal frames, policies, and practices, as well as a history of its origin and evolution of policies and practices that govern special education in that country. This chapter describes how special education in Spain originated and evolved to its current state. It includes the following chapter sections: origins of special education in Spain; legislative acts; prevalence and incidence of various recognized disability areas; an overview of Spain’s education system including special needs education; current assessment and intervention practices; teacher education practices; family involvement considerations; and future challenges to special education.