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This paper aims to explore the interdisciplinary nature of coordination challenges in the logistic response to food safety incidents while distinguishing the food supply chain positions involved.

This adopts an exploratory qualitative research approach over a period of 11 years. Multiple research periods generated 38 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups. All data is analysed by a thematic analysis.

The authors identified four key coordination challenges in the logistics response to food safety incidents: first, information quality (sharing information and the applied technology) appears to be seen as the biggest challenge for the response; second, more emphasis on external coordination focus is required; third, more extensive emphasis is needed on the proactive phase in the logistic response; fourth, a distinct difference exists in the position’s views on coordination in the food supply chain. Furthermore, the data supports the interdisciplinary nature as disciplines such as operations management, strategy and organisation but also food safety and risk management, have to work together to align a rapid response, depending on the incident’s specifics.

The paper shows the need for comprehensively reviewing and elaborating on the research gap in coordination decisions for the logistic response to food safety incidents while using the views of the different supply chain positions. The empirical data indicates the interdisciplinary nature of these coordination decisions, supporting the need for more attention to the interdisciplinary food research agenda. The findings also indicate the need for more attention to organisational learning, and an open and active debate on exploratory qualitative research approaches over a long period of time, as this is not widely used in supply chain management studies.

The results of this paper do not present a managerial blueprint but can be helpful for practitioners dealing with aspects of decision-making by the food supply chain positions. The findings help practitioners to systematically go through all phases of the decision-making process for designing an effective logistic response to food safety incidents. Furthermore, the results provide insight into the distinct differences in views of the supply chain positions on the coordination decision-making process, which is helpful for managers to better understand in what phase(s) and why other positions might make different decisions.

The findings add value for the general public, as an effective logistic response contributes to consumer’s trust in food safety by creating more transparency in the decisions made during a food safety incident. As food sources are and will remain essential for human existence, the need to contribute to knowledge related to aspects of food safety is evident because it will be impossible to prevent all food safety incidents.

As the main contribution, this study provides a systematic and interdisciplinary understanding of the coordination decision-making process for the logistic response to food safety incidents while distinguishing the views of the supply chain positions.

This chapter looks at how various scholars have attempted to structure the “infinite field” by defining the appropriate theory and methods. These efforts have centered on a conception of what it would take to make comparative education a “science,” and how one could achieve “objective knowledge.” While these concerns were important for comparative educationists throughout the nineteenth century, who mostly favored a historical approach, the debate became more heated and more urgent in the 1960s when a number of key players published competing positions. This coincided with a time when the claim to a basis in science was being used to introduce a range of new subjects to higher education and establish disciplines like sociology on a firm institutional footing. Subsequently some of the heat went out of the debate about theory and method. A number of possible causes can be identified, including (i) that it became apparent comparative education was not going to achieve disciplinary status on a par with sociology; (ii) de facto comparative educationists handed the palm to Bereday, and carried on doing comparative education as he had described it; and (iii) the appetite for global theorizing waned to be replaced by partial theories, many of them based on general concerns for social justice and drawing on a broadly Marxist definition of “science.” The chapter concludes with reflections on the fact that healthy debate about methodology and theory can drive the development of the field, and that in the absence of explicit debate there is the danger that certain assumptions, especially assumptions that do not recognize the importance of context, can come to dominate the field by stealth.

A critical response to the present stage in the development of management education is presented. The concept of competence is evaluated and its utility assessed. In particular, the use of the term by the Management Charter Initiative (MCI) is thrown into critical focus and found to be pragmatically and conceptually flawed. Emphasizes the importance of addressing the approach actually adopted by the MCI and other agencies in the “reform” of vocational qualifications and argues that the MCI has been incorrectly criticized for attempting to impose a simplistic model of management. Considers the implications and argues that management educators and developers are faced with a dominant concept of “competence” which they find difficult to realize in their educational practice. Subjects the concept of competence to conceptual analysis in order to bring into focus the key analytical elements implicit in the term, assesses the MCI approach and offers alternative approaches which place the emphasis on those issues which are critical for achieving consensually desired enhancements in management education and development.

The purpose of this article is to provide an interview with the former web analytics guru, Marshall Sponder.

The paper provides an interview with Marshall Sponder, author of Social Media Analytics.

This special issue concludes with an interview with web analytics guru, Marshall Sponder. For over a decade, Marshall has been at the forefront of this growing field, influencing and advising large companies on how to determine ROI from their web‐based activity. His book, Social Media Analytics, proffers strategies for getting the most out of social media, as well as predicting the direction this field is likely to take in future, something Sponder is perfectly placed to do. In this interview he discusses at length the importance of a tactical approach to social media, the tools needed for measuring ROI, and emerging trends in social media.

The interview provides an insightful look at the emerging trends in social media analytics from the leading analyst in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the initial validation of a new method, called the “Meaning of the Child Interview” (MotC), to assess the psychological meaning all children have for their parents, but which in cases of risk, submerge or distort the child’s identity. The MotC analyses parental discourse using a method developed from the discourse analysis used to classify the Adult Attachment Interview together with patterns derived from the infant CARE-Index, a procedure that evaluates face-to-face parent-child interaction. This allows the MotC to illuminate how the parent’s thinking influences the developing relationship between parent and child.

Parents are interviewed using the Parent Development Interview (PDI), or an equivalent, and then the interview transcript is classified using the MotC system. The coding method was developed from interviews drawn from the first author’s work with children and families in the family court system, and then tested with a sample of 85 mothers and fathers, 62 of whom were parents drawn from an “at risk” context. The parents were also videoed in a short free play interaction, using the CARE-Index.

The study found a strong correspondence between the levels of risk as assessed by the MotC patterns of parental representation of care giving, the risk to the parent-child relationship observed using the CARE-Index. There was also corroboration of the patterns of interaction identified by the MotC.

The results of the study provide good evidence for the Meaning of the Child as an identifiable construct, and as an assessment tool to identify and assess the nature of “at risk” parent-child relationships. MotC was developed in a clinical setting within the Family Court justice system, and is designed to offer assistance to child protection and mental health practitioners deciding how to intervene in particular parent-child relationships.

The aim of this paper is to aid the DIY artist in moving towards sustainability through the use of new technologies, which will be achieved by defining DIY music culture, identifying the creative and business needs of an artist as well as establishing a model for artists to be self‐sufficient.

The research methodology consisted of a mixture of unstructured interviews, such as e‐mail, telephone and face‐to‐face. A total of 15 interviews were conducted with DIY artists from local music scenes around the UK.

The DIY musicology model is a foundation for the DIY artist to be self‐sufficient through the three main perspectives: artistic process, managerial process and information systems.

Many artists and managers continue in their struggle to be independently sustainable, therefore it is necessary to continue this research on a wider scale.

By gaining a more in‐depth understanding of the sub‐sectors within the music industries, artists and managers can understand more about how to manage their own creative activities or projects.

Through a strong DIY ethic, with an emphasis on creativity and self‐management, a clear understanding of local music scenes helps to identify one of the key sub‐sectors of the music industries as well as demonstrate that sub‐cultures have value.

The paper discusses issues of sustainability within local music scenes from the perspective of the DIY artist, which is a new area of academic research.