Search results

The purpose of this contribution is to demonstrate the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in integrating advanced and emerging digital techniques in the appropriate and sustainable documentation of heritage sites in Latin America. Existing collaboration between the Universidad del Externado de Colombia, the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History and the Carleton Immersive Media Studio of Carleton University in Ottawa (Canada) have been sued to demonstrate the importance of this approach. The described collaboration allowed a team of students, researchers, government experts and educators to document selected pilot areas of the remarkable UNESCO World Heritage Sites of National Archeological Park of Tierradentro (UNESCO, 1995) and San Agustín Archaeological Park (UNESCO, 1995). The sophisticated digital recording techniques described, such as 3D scanning, aerial and ground photogrammetry techniques, were used to capture the site's current physical condition, emphasizing the pressing need to conserve the threatened mural paintings (Tierraadentro) and carved rock phases (San Agustin). This contribution also underlines the importance of developing the training of emerging professionals from Colombia in adopting these techniques to make their documentation more accurate, reliable and sustainable in the long term. The project's conclusions demonstrate that it is crucial to integrate emerging documentation techniques into the sustainable approach to conservation of these two important UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The approach presented in this contribution makes technology more accessible to the conservation specialist in Latin America. It provides a comprehensive capacity building program that involves teaching about theory and practice, using two important UNESCO World Heritage Sites located in Colombia. It is also relevant to the interdisciplinary and institutional collaboration between two universities in the North/South areas of the continent and a government institution that effectively collaborates to provide training to emerging professionals.

The contribution summarizes the opportunities and limitations of adopting technology to make the documentation process for conservation more sustainable in low-income economies and provides a framework to implement future strategies in South America.

The paper raises a discussion on how the concept of sustainability of adopting new technologies in the context of Latin American countries can assist in optimizing the conservation of decorated surfaces in important UNESCO World Heritage Sites by involving capacity building of emerging professionals.

This study aims to analyze and compare students’ perceived mastery of their reasoning-for-complexity competency (sometimes called complex thinking or complex reasoning) and its sub-competencies in entrepreneurship and engineering programs in a higher education institution. The objective of this analysis was to prove that entrepreneurship is a valid discipline for developing scientific thinking in its training programs, on par with its development in STEM areas, particularly engineering education.

This study used a descriptive, cross-sectional analysis of the responses of 230 students of entrepreneurship and engineering at a private university in Mexico concerning their perceived achievement of reasoning-for-complexity competency and its sub-competencies (systemic thinking, critical thinking and scientific thinking). This study used a structured questionnaire instrument. This study compared the differences between the means of two independent groups, validated through a statistical Student’s t-test.

The results indicated that reasoning for complexity is a relevant component in entrepreneurship and engineering education. Students perceived mastery of scientific thinking sub-competency higher in entrepreneurship than in engineering, particularly regarding skills and attitudes. The results for critical and systemic thinking showed no significant differences.

This study suggests that developing scientific thinking in entrepreneurship training could strengthen the capacities and skills of students in educational institutions in countries like Mexico. Furthermore, entrepreneurship with the scientific method in the training processes may enable students to approach complex scenarios and devise scientifically validated solutions.

By addressing scientific thinking as a sub-competency of reasoning-for-complexity in entrepreneurship education, this paper advances the concept that scientific thinking can be a strength in entrepreneurship education. This study provides a basis for scaling the reasoning-for-complexity competency, especially scientific thinking in various disciplines, particularly in a cross-disciplinary setting like entrepreneurship education.

The purpose of this paper is to design and to implement an oral health educational strategy that targeted an older population residing in three social protection centers (SPC) in Villavicencio, Colombia.

The first phase consisted in determining the oral health of older citizens in the SPC. To do this, the research group gathered patients’ personal information and indices. The second phase consisted in the development of an educational strategy based on the population’s requirements. The educational strategy, focusing on oral hygiene and denture care, was implemented for the older people and their caregivers. The third and final phase consisted in the research group measuring the effect of the designed strategy by repeating oral diagnoses for the older people six months after strategy implementation.

The results of the assessment indicated that implementing a strategy to strengthen oral hygiene care was positive, given that statistically significant reductions were observed in the soft plaque index and the Gingival Index (p<0.05).

As a result of the complexity of the population, the data obtained after the strategy was implemented were significantly reduced. However, these results indicate that an educational strategy can have an effect on this type of population.

Implementing a strategy that promotes oral hygiene education and brushing skills, fosters good oral behavior and helps the older people in SPC to remember the information taught, thus contributing to their oral hygiene.

The purpose of this paper is to identify a useful taxonomy of frugal innovation (FI) applied to women-led family businesses in rural communities in Oaxaca, Mexico when confronted with disruptive situations such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, thus achieving a greater understanding of FI in this context to provide these businesses with strategies that allow them to face crises more effectively.

The study was cross-sectional and quantitative. A scale was developed and applied to 160 family businesses run by women and located in four rural communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. A review of the literature from the period of 2018–2024 made it possible to identify the essential characteristics of FI.

Through an exploratory factorial analysis, four types of FIs were identified: new production and marketing models, new methods of operation, new financing methods and new organizational methods. Using a discriminant analysis to establish the functionality of the identified FIs, the authors found that shifting to new financing and organizational methods was more important for the survival of family businesses in times of crisis.

This study highlights the forms of FI that develop in small family businesses led by women; this is important for the survival of the family and the business. The research highlights innovation challenges and opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the global south.

Although studies have shown that electronic media exposure can negatively affect infants’ and young children’s language development, exposure to these forms of media is increasing in North America. To better understand the types of electronic media exposure and their potential effects, we utilized naturalistic daylong recordings collected in the homes of bilingual Spanish–English infants of Latinx descent (n = 37). The present study examines contextual aspects of electronic media exposure, and the effects of electronic media on two types of parent–infant social interactions associated with child language development: parentese (a style of infant-directed speech distinguished by its higher pitch, slower tempo, and exaggerated intonation) and parent–infant turn-taking. Using Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA), two daylong audio recordings were collected from each family. These recordings were manually annotated for electronic media type, directedness, language, parental support, parentese, and turn-taking. Our results showed that the infants in our study experienced exposure to many different forms of electronic media, in both English and Spanish, and that the programming was predominantly adult-directed rather than child-directed. While both parentese and turn-taking were reduced in the presence of electronic media, the strength of these effects was modulated by electronic media sources, demonstrating that various devices differentially affect parental language input. These results provide a glimpse into what types of media young bilingual Spanish–English learning infants are experiencing and can help researchers design language interventions that are inclusive and relevant for families from these populations.

Building on Guimarães et al. (2019) study and using the modeling of structural equations, the objective of this paper was to elaborate constructs whose variables would enable the characterization and distinction of individuals among these different groups of consumers and to provide insights into their transition between them.

The constructs were validated by the average variance extracted adaptive (AVEADP) index. The transition between consumer groups is explained and encouraged by advances in their conceptual and perceptual knowledge. Thus, regular consumers should be addressed with messages aimed primarily for the social aspect of consumption; enthusiasts, by reinforcing simple to moderate aspects commonly used as product purchase criteria and experts, attracted by the emphasis on complex criteria related to specialty coffee's conceptual and perceptual knowledge, highlighting their influence on the beverage's sensory profile.

Those results enabled a better understanding of these consumers and can guide the marketing strategies of different actors in this market.

Important attempts to understand and characterize Brazilian specialty coffee consumers were conducted by Guimarães et al. (2019) and Ramírez-Correa et al. (2020). However, further studies are needed to differentiate different specialty coffee consumer groups and enhance the market applicability of those studies results. In addition, despite its importance, there is a paucity of public domain studies about the national consumption of specialty coffees, being the results of this work important for the wide dissemination of such information.

Challenge-based learning (CBL) is a didactic technique that aims to increase the knowledge and skills development of higher education students. The different situations that humanity faces make educational models evolve and adapt to reality and force faculty to be increasingly prepared and open to face current problems. The Tecnológico de Monterrey, the highest ranked private university in Mexico and the 155th in the world (QS World University Rankings, 2021), has implemented the Tec21 Educational Model based on four fundamental pillars: (1) CBL; (2) flexibility; (3) inspiring faculty; and (4) integrated and memorable education experiences. In this chapter, we describe the experience of implementing this education model. Our conclusions so far are that students acquire more knowledge in CBL classes than in face-to-face classes; however, faculty require an adequate training program, and there must be a prior design of the competency assessment instruments. Testing of various assessment instruments found that checklists and rubrics are the most accepted, appropriate, objective, and transparent in CBL courses, based on faculty and students' surveys. Finally, in the opinion of employers, students educated with CBL as a didactic technique have greater acceptance in the working world.

This study aims to analyze which collective actions (cooperation, coordination and collaboration), present in the supply chain of artisanal products, generate positive effects in terms of social gains.

The authors conduct multiple case studies in the supply chain of seven artisanal agroindustries in the Distrito Federal, Brazil. The data were collected through interviews, documental analysis and direct observation. The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique proposed by Bardin (1977). With priori and a posteriori analytical categories, it was possible to conduct: a detailed analysis of the current situation of artisanal agroindustries regarding collective actions from the perspective of supplier/supplier and supplier/client and a detailed analysis for the possible effects of collective actions that impact the supply chain and the indicators of social sustainability of artisanal agroindustries.

The results indicate that cooperation and collaboration have contributed positively in the transactions of the products of the artisanal agroindustries, reflecting in social gains for the producing families. In this context, some collective actions can be highlighted as follows: the collective commercial spaces, the demonstration spaces of the artisan products in the clients’ environment, the prospecting of improvements from the final consumers, the face-to-face meetings with the suppliers, the product dissemination by the customer, the joint marketing actions and the rationalization of transportation logistics.

The study used a qualitative approach and findings and discussion are inherently interpretative and cannot be generalized.

This study can contribute to researchers and practitioners interested in collective actions contributing to the incrementation of social responsibility in agri-food supply chains.

Understanding how the collective actions support the inclusion of smallholding and artisanal producers in agri-food supply chains can help policymakers and managers to implement initiatives related to social responsibility, which can be measured using social indicators. This creates a social benefit through rural growth and economic development, generation of income and social productive inclusion of the artisanal producers in larger agri-food supply chains.

For the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper approaching collective actions as the main source of incrementation of social benefits, which can measure the incrementation of social responsibility in agri-food supply chains.

The provision of online information through the use of digital platforms (websites and social networks) can be helpful for public sector organisations to promote transparency and accountability, thereby bringing it closer to citizens, more accessible and with higher added value for society. Whereas the call for government transparency is manifest and seems to be equal for all parts of government, this paper investigates whether small government entities are able to cope with this demand. In addition, the drivers of digital platforms are investigated in the context of Portuguese parishes.

The paper follows a quantitative research approach based on an original data set with more than 3,000 observations collected in two different time periods (2015 and 2020), which looks at the parishes’ use of website and Facebook.

Findings show that about half of Portuguese parishes, which are mostly small entities with on average fewer than 3,500 inhabitants, have an institutional website, whereas almost three out of four have Facebook. The empirical analyses reveal that a lack of organisational capacity of small entities can be an obstacle for the use of an institutional website and of Facebook. Furthermore, factors from the provider side (e.g. being part of a merger, participation in previous elections) and the user side (e.g. having access to broadband internet) are also found to have an influence on the adoption, use, and dropping of a digital platform.

The use of an original data set with more than 3,000 observations, and the research of the influence of size as a proxy of organisational capacity on the presence of parishes on the internet and Facebook, are innovative elements of this paper. In addition, this study adds to the knowledge about the influence of organisational, political, and socio-demographic characteristics on the use of digital platforms by small government entities.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-04-2023-0171