Now showing 1 - 10 of 48
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    Item type:Publication,
    Beyond the Counter: A Systemic Mapping of Nanostore Identities in Traditional, Informal Retail Through Multi-Dimensional Archetypes
    (MDPI AG, 2025)
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    Vilalta-Perdomo, Eliseo
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    Mejía-Argueta, Christopher
    This study examines the identity of nanostores—micro, independent grocery retailers—through a systemic, stakeholder-informed lens to promote their survivability and competitiveness. Moving beyond traditional operational descriptions, it introduces a multidimensional framework that examines what nanostores do (X), how they do it (Y), and why they matter (Z), which is complemented by the use of the TASCOI tool to produce identity statements. Based on survey data collection and a thematic analysis of nanostore stakeholder responses in Mexico City, the research categorises identity statements into six 2 × 2 matrices across four dimensions: operational, functional, relational, and adaptive. This analysis yields twenty-four archetypes that capture the diversity, complexity, and adaptability of nanostores. The findings reveal that nanostores are not a homogeneous category. They simultaneously exhibit characteristics of multiple archetypes, blending retail function, social embeddedness, and entrepreneurial adaptation. This study contributes to the nanostore and micro-enterprise literature by operationalising identity description and offers practical insights for supporting diverse shop types through context-sensitive policy and business strategies. While this study ensures internal validity and reliability through systematic coding and stakeholder feedback, it acknowledges limitations in its generalisability. Future research may build on this work through comparative studies, longitudinal tracking, and direct engagement with nanostore owners and their communities to further understand the dynamics of their identity and their resilience in evolving retail landscapes. ©The authors ©Systems ©MDPI.
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    Item type:Publication,
    Challenge-Based Learning for Active Learning in Industrial Engineering Education
    (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2025)
    Palma-Mendoza, Jaime A.
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    Arana-Solares, Ivan A.
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    Franco-Herrera, Froylan
    This chapter delves into the design of active learning activities for competence development in industrial engineering students through challenge-based learning (CBL). A learning challenge, as a purposeful experience, is proposed to expose students to real-world situations through experiential learning (EL). Around a challenge, tutors and students collaborate with an organization as an educational partner to develop alternative solutions in line with their intended learning outcomes. A case study is presented to exemplify the development of active learning activities within a CBL and EL framework that supports authentic assessment (AA) in a group of industrial engineering aggregated courses at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. The learning challenge provides promising results for the satisfactory development of student competences and the AA of their learning outcomes. However, limitations do exist concerning difficulties in the design and implementation process, which require further work. ©The authors ©Emerald.
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    Item type:Publication,
    What Active Learning and Authentic Assessment in Higher Education Can Do for the World
    (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2025)
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    Vilalta-Perdomo, Eliseo
    This chapter examines how active learning and authentic assessment can impact learners, society and the world. It advocates for extending traditional classroom pedagogies to real-world experiences, where students can become knowledge producers and problem solvers. In today's higher education, it is essential to equip students with skills to address contemporary challenges. Active learning fosters reflective and practical growth, while authentic assessment encourages engagement with realistic issues, self-directed learning and critical thinking. By placing students in real-world scenarios, these approaches enhance their learning outcome development and foster meaningful contributions to communities and society. This is a shift in learning from classroom spaces to real-world environments. Accordingly, this type of learning supports novel productive interactions for societal impact and community support beyond traditional academic mechanisms. This chapter discusses these concepts in light of the ideas presented in this book in previous sections. Overall, the different uses and applications of active learning for authentic assessment illustrate the link of active pedagogies with realistic learning scenarios and the production of a positive impact on learners and society. Future work could explore the long-term possibilities of these approaches on society and communities, investigating how these could be adapted across disciplines or scaled to larger educational contexts. ©The authors ©Emerald Publishing Limited.
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    Declaring Worldviews in SSM for Sustainability & Community Learning
    (Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2026-01-08)
    Miles W. Weaver
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    Rebecca J. M. Herron
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    Kamila Pokorna
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    Eliseo Vilalta-Perdomo
    <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> For over fifty years, Soft Systems ideas and the Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) have played a pivotal role in understanding various problem situations and initiating action. Often tackling the grandest challenges of our time, SSM will retain continued relevance in helping decision-makers address sustainability challenges within organisations and their communities. In this paper, we are concerned with the <jats:italic>meaningful co-creation of sustainable value through community-based learning using SSM.</jats:italic> More specifically, recognising that a sustainability paradigm, characterised by the <jats:italic>need to create a just and safe space for humanity to thrive within the means of a living planet</jats:italic> (as called for by Raworth, 2017), is often marginalised or overlooked. This paradigm presents us with an ethical imperative, complex and messy challenges/issues, and a set of ideals (articulated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) that are significantly off track. This paper employs a variation of the Delphi method, drawing on the authors’ collective interest and experience in applying SSM in communities, to propose a double-loop learning cycle to explore the underlying assumptions of our worldviews and mental models within communities. We suggest that an SSM learning cycle can be enhanced by initiating conversations on relevant <jats:italic>models for sustainability</jats:italic> (such as Doughnut Economics, UN SDGs, and the principles for a Circular Economy), to find common ground for triggering new learning. This idea is contextualised and proposed as the <jats:italic>value(s)-action gap</jats:italic> phenomenon, which can help explain the difference between an individual, an organisation, and/or a community's <jats:italic>intention(s)</jats:italic> and their actual <jats:italic>action(s).</jats:italic> In doing so, find common ground, shift to higher levels of systems consciousness from an ego-centric to an ecosystem level of awareness, engage communities, and take an intergenerational perspective. We suggest that incorporating a double-loop learning cycle into SSM can support organisations and their communities in putting shared values into meaningful action. </jats:p>
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    Defining Nanostores: Cybernetic Insights on Independent Grocery Micro-Retailers’ Identity and Transformations
    (MDPI, 2025)
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    Vilalta-Perdomo, Eliseo
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    Herron, Rebecca Michell
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    Mejía-Argueta, Christopher
    Nanostores—micro, independent grocery retailers—are often defined overlooking their socioeconomic roles and relational significance in favour of their primary functional aspects. To close this gap, this study adopts a systemic perspective to examine how multiple stakeholders (owners, customers, and suppliers) shape nanostore identity. Accordingly, this study proposes a framework of X-Y-Z identity statements, along with the use of the TASCOI tool, to examine nanostore descriptions and map their roles, expectations, and transformation processes. This systemic framework, rooted in management cybernetics, enabled the collection and analysis of 168 survey responses from 34 stores in Mexico City. The results show that nanostore identities are varied and context-dependent, operating as grocery stores, family projects, community anchors, economic lifelines, and competitors. This diversity influences stakeholder engagement, resource utilisation, and operational decisions. Overall, this study provides a transferable framework for analysing micro-business identity and transformation, with implications for problem-solving, decision-making, and policy development. Future research should address the current limitations of this study, including its geographical cross-sectional design, limited sampling method, reliance on self-reported perceptions, and lack of generalisability to other populations. Future work will involve exploring other urban contexts, utilising longitudinal data, expanding the sample, and adopting a participatory research approach to gain a deeper understanding of identity dynamics and their implications for nanostore resilience and survivability. ©The authors ©MDPI ©Systems.
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    Item type:Publication,
    Introduction to Active Learning and Authentic Assessment: Concepts and Applications
    (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2025)
    Vilalta-Perdomo, Eliseo
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    Scroccaro, Alessandra
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    Michel-Villarreal, Rosario
    This chapter describes the intentions and content of this handbook. This chapter also introduces the two main concepts addressed in this handbook: “Active learning” and “authentic assessment.” Concerning the latter concept, this chapter suggests a spectrum of authentic assessment, linked to different active learning approaches, from approaches highly immersive with real-world tasks to approaches with more simulated or contrived environments. This spectrum may help module designers identify which kind of active learning approach for authentic assessment would work better, considering the constraints, under which the module will operate, and the resources available. ©The authors ©Emerald.
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    Item type:Publication,
    The Emerald Handbook of Active Learning For Authentic Assessment
    (Emerald Publishing Limited, 2025)
    Vilalta-Perdomo, Eliseo
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    Scroccaro, Alessandra
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    Michel-Villarreal, Rosario
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    Eliseo Vilalta-Perdomo
    Written by teachers for educators and researchers, The Emerald Handbook of Active Learning For Authentic Assessment presents a series of insights that teachers may use to conceive, design, execute, and develop active learning experiences for authentic assessment that will enrich students’ learning experiences. ©The authors ©Emerald.
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    Implementation of a Challenge-Based Learning Model for Higher Education Under a Modular Education System: A Case Study
    (IEEE, 2024)
    Da Silva-Ovando, Agatha Clarice
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    Olivares Quintana, Oscar Saúl
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    Chong, Mario
    As student profiles and industry expectations modify, universities must advance learning methodologies to deliver more suitable graduates to the labor market. The Universidad Privada Boliviana (UPB) has developed experiential learning practices by implementing challenge-based learning (CBL) to enrich undergraduate curricula. One example of the CBL experiences was developed by the Taquiña Brewery, one of the five breweries of the Cervecería Boliviana Nacional (CBN), for the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department of the UPB between 2018 and 2019. As a result, students widely accepted the methodology, and academics from all disciplines in the university were trained to replicate CBL experiences in their classrooms. Moreover, the CBN found the opportunity to hire new talent, receive a fresh perspective on recurrent operational issues, and find new ideas based on theoretical concepts. This work exemplifies innovative approaches to enhance teaching and learning in supply chain management and logistics education. ©The authors ©IEEE.
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    Item type:Publication,
    Going beyond traditional approaches on industrial engineering education
    (IEEE, 2020)
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    Mejia-Argueta, Christopher
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    Da Silva-Ovando, Agatha Clarice
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    Garay-Rondero, Claudia Lizette
    This Research-to-Practice full paper refers to academic perspectives on educational innovation for industrial engineering education. Two common views prevail in educational innovation that turn into different results. One view refers to the use of pedagogical approaches to improve in-classroom students' learning. This is an operational perspective about teaching activities, instructional facilitation and the use of academic resources. The second view refers to educational value creation for students, educational partners, society and to improve the academic positioning of universities. However, both views complement each other and can articulate a holistic approach on educational innovation. To proceed in this direction, this work unfolds in three parts. First, a literature review illustrates the differences between the two complementary views. Second, a conceptual framework is provided to connect the two perspectives and guide further educational innovation efforts. Third, a descriptive and exploratory application case is offered to exemplify the framework at the MIT Supply Chain and Logistics Excellence (SCALE) Latin America Network for industrial engineering education. This work contributes to educational practice with a tool to reflect upon innovation efforts, identify instances and align initiatives with intended educational purposes. ©The authors, IEEE.
    Scopus© Citations 12  3
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    Item type:Publication,
    Business Decision-Making and Complex Thinking: A Bibliometric Study
    (MDPI, 2023)
    Pacheco-Velázquez, Ernesto Armando
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    Vázquez-Parra, José Carlos
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    Cruz-Sandoval, Marco
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    Carlos-Arroyo, Martina
    Complex thinking is an important tool for effective decision-making, as it helps people to better understand uncertain situations by considering the multiple variables and relationships involved in a situation, thus being able to identify patterns and connections that would not otherwise be evident. This article presents the results of a bibliometric study to identify academic publications that consider the correlation between decision-making in the business area and complex thinking competency and its sub-competencies. The intention was to have a theoretical horizon that provides a complete overview of the current academic situation regarding the correlation of both professional skills to identify areas of opportunity for new studies. Methodologically, we conducted a literature review using Scopus and Web of Science databases under the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) protocol from which a sample of 339 articles related to both topics was obtained. R, Rstudio, and Bibliometrix were used for the quantitative analysis of the data. The results showed an academic tendency to associate decision-making in business with critical thinking, paying little attention to the other sub-competencies of complex thinking. Furthermore, we found a concentration of research in specific universities and countries, repeating a tendency to study only a few sub-competencies. Overall, this work sheds light on the broad opportunity to link the complex thinking macro-competency with decision-making in business, to provide more extraordinary skills and tools to future professionals. ©IEEE, The authors.
    Scopus© Citations 15  7