This book guides readers through the broad field of generic and industry-specific management system standards, as well as through the arsenal of tools that are needed to effectively implement them. It covers a wide spectrum, from the classic standard ISO 9001 for quality management to standards for environmental safety, information security, energy efficiency, business continuity, laboratory management, etc. A dedicated chapter addresses international management standards for compliance, anti-bribery and social responsibility management. In turn, a major portion of the book focuses on relevant tools that students and practitioners need to be familiar with: 8D reports, acceptance sampling, failure tree analysis, FMEA, control charts, correlation analysis, designing experiments, estimating parameters and confidence intervals, event tree analysis, HAZOP, Ishikawa diagrams, Monte Carlo simulation, regression analysis, reliability theory, data sampling and surveys, testing hypotheses, and much more. An overview of the necessary mathematical concepts is also provided to help readers understand the technicalities of the tools discussed. A down-to-earth yet thorough approach is employed throughout the book to help practitioners and management students alike easily grasp the various topics.

Cutting through the clutter of management and leadership books, Manager vs. Leader: Untying the Gordian Knot works to differentiate the terms manager and leader. With these terms often used synonymously, misunderstanding leads to confusion and failed expectations at all levels of an organization. Providing both academic and practical organizational examples, this book challenges readers with ranging experience and knowledge to explore management and leadership in a new and comprehensive way. Enabling readers to better understand the nuances between leading and managing, this book provides historical context while guiding readers in understanding the impact each role has within an organization. Through brief explorations into Organization Development and Transformation, this book works through the state of the leadership concept and provides insights into future challenges for managers and leaders. Armed with historical context, a foundation to explore the terms manager and leader, and an open mind, readers will be able to more effectively manage expectations and interact with others whether professionally or personally.

Founders and Organizational Development: The Etiology and Theory of Founder's Syndrome is designed to help today's researchers, faculty, students and practitioners become familiar with the etiology and dynamics of Founder's Syndrome as an organizational condition challenging nonprofit/nongovernmental, social enterprise, and for-profit and publicly traded organizations. The book uses applied social and psychological theories and concepts to peel away the layers of an organizational enigma, revealing three causes of Founder's Syndrome and insight into the power and privileges assumed by founders who engage in undesirable and self-destructive behaviors leading to their termination; going from hero status to antihero. Researchers, instructors, students, and practitioners will find thought-provoking case studies from the real world of organization development practice. Segments from interviews during interventions reveal the type of emotional turmoil experienced in organizations where founder's syndrome is present. Insight is provided into accounts of well-known founders who were terminated or forced to resign. The unique features of this book include: integrating theory into practice, describing a new theory about the psychological reaction of founder's syndrome victims, prevention ideas when designing new organizations, strategies for intervention, using content based on research and organization development consultation experiences, and, integrating feedback from students who have launched organizations.

This book highlights the challenges faced by renewable energy enterprises (REEs) in emerging markets, by reflecting on the enterprises' own stories and experiences. Research into REEs has focused largely on successful businesses and business models, and developed markets. With significant opportunities for renewable energy enterprise in emerging markets, this book presents a unique business-level perspective. It highlights the key barriers and outlines the strategic and operational solutions for success articulated by the entrepreneurs themselves. The research draws on interviews with entrepreneurs in twenty-eight emerging markets, including Barbados, Cambodia, Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. The book concludes by summarising the key solutions for success and illustrating how successful REEs put them into practice. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of renewable energy, sustainable business and the sustainability agenda in emerging markets.

Although collaborations for local and regional economic development have been popular in recent years, it is not yet wholly clear when or how such efforts bring successful outcomes. Using an integrative conceptual framework for collaborative governance, this innovative collection provides a systematic and interdisciplinary analysis of real-world collaborative networks for local and regional economic development. Focusing on a wide range collaborative economic development in diverse cities and regions in USA, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, and South Korea, the chapters explore what forces motivate the emergence of collaborative economic development efforts. Each chapter explores the factors which contribute to or hinder collaborative governance efforts for economic development and identifies lessons for overcoming challenges to creating communities that are economically resilient, environmentally sustainable and politically engaged in the era of globalization. By focusing on collaborative governance and its implications for the ability of policies to meet the challenges of the 21st century, it provides lessons for researchers in public management, urban planning/development, public policy, and political science, as well as practitioners interested in promoting local economic development.

This book hopes to stimulate discussion about how entrepreneurship and innovation contribute to growing inequalities in territories. This will help bridge the gap between research and practice on the role of territory dynamics and regional development. The book begins by examining the growing inequality in regions, which has resulted in lagging economic development. The need to shift current economic policy towards spatial inequality through harnessing the innovative capabilities of regions is examined. The book puts forth a case for reversing the inequality that is evident in lagging regions as a way to reinvigorate territories. The book should appeal to researchers, policy makers, business leaders and the general public interested in territorial dynamics and development.

Whilst there has been an increased interest in minorities and their contribution to society, the literature on minorities and under-represented communities is still weak. This edited volume discusses entrepreneurship in the context of minorities and the role they play in society. The book looks at under-represented communities such as LGBTQ+, disadvantaged, ethnic minority, religious entrepreneurs, medically limited, indigenous, refugees, young/old and other socio-economic segments. It provides a holistic, comprehensive overview of how diversity in entrepreneurship facilitates increased levels of innovation. The book will be amongst the first to take a broad perspective of minority entrepreneurs.

Data is a must-have for any business looking to thrive. So is having leadership who 'get' data and use it to support their decision-making. But how do you embed the use of data and analytics across your organisation so they truly support every process end-to-end? Becoming data literate in this way is a journey that involves vision, strategy, value creation, culture and data foundations. With an evidence-based framework to guide you, this book lays out a roadmap to ensure you get where you need to go.

This book presents an in-depth study of how the drive to optimize organizational performance can be significantly improved by investigating the causal relationships between profitability, productivity, and sustainability (PPS). This is presented through an assessment of a triple combined therapy that studies the interplay between Organizational DNA, Strategic Alignments for Value, and their implications for Sustainability. Through this approach, this volume seeks to answer critical mind-searching questions and provide useful guides as to how some firms are able to sustainably create higher value or wealth, especially through corporate entrepreneurship, or via the creation of new business models than others. In tackling the three elements of profitability, productivity, and sustainability, this book also provides greater insight through an in-depth study of the pervasively unresolved and disturbing issues surrounding the prospects of increasing the chances of success for entrepreneurial start-off ventures, making it of value to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of organizational studies, strategy, and sustainability.

This book contains a collection of scientific chapters addressing the emerging trends in IT and telecommunications, as well as the issues that accompany them in business. It addresses issues in cyber applications, ICT solutions and innovative cyber know-how, and demonstrates how high-tech IT communications resources can be used to improve business production, sales and service strategies, supply chains and logistics. The book is based on articles from ICCMIT'20, extending their approach to specific chapters. The chapters cover issues such as financial management, technological upgrades, Industry 4.0 and the trend towards sustainable development. It utilizes examples of technologically advanced enterprises developing under Industry 4.0 assumptions at the stage of digital transformation, which integrate digital technologies and business processes. In addition, this book discusses issues related to cyber risk management and the implementation of a number of safeguards for digitized enterprises. Enterprises that orient themselves towards technological innovations find that they can reach customers faster, are more effectively managed and can achieve a competitive advantage over other businesses. This book will be a great aid to professionals in such companies, both in IT departments and in the management team.

This book offers a practical insight to leaders who need to make good decisions in risky and important situations. The authors describe a process for making risk-intelligent decisions, explaining complex ideas simply, and mapping a route through the myriad interrelated influences when groups make decisions that matter. The approach puts the decision maker-you-at the center and explains how you can think and act differently to make better decisions more of the time. The book shows how to Determine the appropriate level of risk Make decisions in uncertain and turbulent conditions Understand how risks are perceived to identify them accurately Develop new behaviors to improve decision-making Making Risky and Important Decisions: A Leader's Guide builds on earlier ground-breaking publications from these two recognized thought leaders. Their first book together, Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude, brought together the language of risk and risk-taking with the language of emotional intelligence and emotional literacy. Managing Group Risk Attitude followed, and focused on decision-making groups, creating new insights and frameworks. Both books are positioned as specialist textbooks, despite their relevance to real-world situations. A Short Guide to Risk Appetite brought together the concepts of risk appetite and risk attitude into one place for the first time, cutting through confusing terminology and confused thinking to create a practical way of understanding "how much risk is too much risk." This latest installment from Ruth Murray-Webster and David Hillson takes the breadth of their previous work, adds new insights and thinking, and distills it into a highly usable guide for hard-pressed leaders.

Going beyond the why and what of purpose-led business, this book sets out an innovative business model of how to lead and operate a company to deliver its purpose. Western capitalism is in crisis due to the growing disconnect between business and society, and there are growing calls for a shift from the primacy of shareholder value to the primacy of purpose. But there is a paucity of codified best practice for how CEOs should go about making this shift. Enter Alan Barlow: a CEO practitioner who demonstrates with analytical rigor and evidence-based argument a business model for how CEOs can actually deliver a purpose-defined company that yields both bigger benefits for society and bigger profits for the business. Current and aspiring business leaders and executives will benefit from not only this new business model but also a fully documented route map for monitoring and reviewing successful impact, and highly focused non-financial and financial metrics for benchmarking. Completing the loop for 'company purpose' means that business can become a force for good for society.

The Frugal Innovation and Bottom of the Pyramid Markets series comprises four volumes, covering theoretical perspectives, themes and various aspects of interest across four key geographical regions where BOP markets are located - South America, Asia, Africa and more engineered countries. BOP always addresses the poorest people or socioeconomic order or groups within a country, society, region or continent, thus, this series contributes a profound understanding of BOP markets across the most important geographical areas around the world and presents valuable insights on how the private sector can work together with other stakeholders to develop and operationalize economically viable business models in BOP markets, all the while contributing to sustainable development. Private actors such as multinationals, SMEs and entrepreneurs have a critical role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals agenda as laid down by United Nations in September 2015. Yet, BOP markets face unique challenges and the private sector alone cannot orchestrate sustainable value creation activities. Each volume presents several theoretical strands that highlight the diverse approaches and solutions to developing BOP markets further. Frugal, reverse and inclusive innovations can foster (sustainable) development and provide new business models and value streams that other countries can also benefit from. A variety of stylistic elements, such as research work, interviews and roundtable discussions, offer a wide and vivid impression of ongoing challenges and fruitful solutions.

Corporate governance is not just about models of best practice organisation or prescriptions following laws or social conventions. Corporate governance is also about persons of power seeking performance, and they do so in ways that transcend structures and pre-conceived notions of the structural set-up of the business. This book emphasises the decision-making dimensions of corporate governance, placing it right in the messy middle of the ever-changing world of capitalism, focussing on the interplay between professional managers and shareholders. This book aims to bring together several fresh perspectives on the development of capitalism seen through the lens of corporate governance. It illustrates the role of intentionality and persons, both as a method with which to understand processes of change, but also as a principle with which to seek a deeper understanding of the corporate governance choices made. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of corporate governance and entrepreneurship, as well as practitioners and other audience interested in the evolution of capitalism and corporate culture.

Going beyond the why and what of purpose-led business, this book sets out an innovative business model of how to lead and operate a company to deliver its purpose. Western capitalism is in crisis due to the growing disconnect between business and society, and there are growing calls for a shift from the primacy of shareholder value to the primacy of purpose. But there is a paucity of codified best practice for how CEOs should go about making this shift. Enter Alan Barlow: a CEO practitioner who demonstrates with analytical rigor and evidence-based argument a business model for how CEOs can actually deliver a purpose-defined company that yields both bigger benefits for society and bigger profits for the business. Current and aspiring business leaders and executives will benefit from not only this new business model but also a fully documented route map for monitoring and reviewing successful impact, and highly focused non-financial and financial metrics for benchmarking. Completing the loop for 'company purpose' means that business can become a force for good for society.

The Frugal Innovation and Bottom of the Pyramid Markets series comprises four volumes, covering theoretical perspectives, themes and various aspects of interest across four key geographical regions where BOP markets are located - South America, Asia, Africa and more engineered countries. BOP always addresses the poorest people or socioeconomic order or groups within a country, society, region or continent, thus, this series contributes a profound understanding of BOP markets across the most important geographical areas around the world and presents valuable insights on how the private sector can work together with other stakeholders to develop and operationalize economically viable business models in BOP markets, all the while contributing to sustainable development. Private actors such as multinationals, SMEs and entrepreneurs have a critical role to play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals agenda as laid down by United Nations in September 2015. Yet, BOP markets face unique challenges and the private sector alone cannot orchestrate sustainable value creation activities. Each volume presents several theoretical strands that highlight the diverse approaches and solutions to developing BOP markets further. Frugal, reverse and inclusive innovations can foster (sustainable) development and provide new business models and value streams that other countries can also benefit from. A variety of stylistic elements, such as research work, interviews and roundtable discussions, offer a wide and vivid impression of ongoing challenges and fruitful solutions.

Crowdfunding is emerging as a new source of financing for creativity and innovation. It promotes the launching and scaling of new projects for different types of creators by providing networked platforms and handy digital tools. This book provides insight into crowdfunding and how crowdfunding contributes to our communities and society. The book includes an overview of existing discussions across different disciplines, i.e. entrepreneurship, information systems, marketing, and correlates the literature to the best crowdfunding practices. The book begins with origins, basic notions, and antecedents of crowdfunding. In the main parts, it demonstrates the five distinguished facets of crowdfunding: Creativity, diversity, balance, connection, and change. It also addresses the drawbacks of crowdfunding and subsequent outcomes of crowdfunding success. Finally, it provides a perspective on the future of crowdfunding.

This book features papers from CEPE-IACAP 2015, a joint international conference focused on the philosophy of computing. Inside, readers will discover essays that explore current issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind, logic, and philosophy of science from the lens of computation. Coverage also examines applied issues related to ethical, social, and political interest. The contributors first explore how computation has changed philosophical inquiry. Computers are now capable of joining humans in exploring foundational issues. Thus, we can ponder machine-generated explanation, thought, agency, and other quite fascinating concepts. The papers are also concerned with normative aspects of the computer and information technology revolution. They examine technology-specific analyses of key challenges, from Big Data to autonomous robots to expert systems for infrastructure control and financial services. The virtue of a collection that ranges over philosophical questions, such as this one does, lies in the prospects for a more integrated understanding of issues. These are early days in the partnership between philosophy and information technology. Philosophers and researchers are still sorting out many foundational issues. They will need to deploy all of the tools of philosophy to establish this foundation. This volume admirably showcases those tools in the hands of some excellent scholars.

This book is a self-contained, practical introduction how to use FeatureIDE for modeling and implementing variable systems. In particular, readers learn how to analyze domains using feature models, specify requirements in form of configurations, and how to generate code based on conditional compilation and feature-oriented programming. Given the interactive style of the book, readers can directly try out the open-source development environment. All code examples are available in the standard distribution on GitHub and can immediately been used for individual modifications. Each part of the book is presented as a step-by-step tutorial and additionally illustrated using an ongoing example of elevator control software written in Java. Written by the core development team of FeatureIDE, this book is suitable for students using a tool for deepening the theoretical foundations of variability modeling and implementation, and as a reference for practitioners needing a stable and scalable tool for industrial applications. FeatureIDE is the most used open-source tool for feature modeling and has been continuously improved since 2004. The success of FeatureIDE is due to being a vehicle for cutting-edge product-line research by still providing an easy-to-use and seamless integration into Eclipse.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses are especially vulnerable. This is one of the first books that explicitly examines the linkage between crisis and entrepreneurship with a specific focus on small businesses. The book adopts a holistic approach and outlines strategies that small business owners can utilize as well as business opportunities that are available in these new market conditions. It also provides a comparative analysis of the current and future market conditions to enable a better understanding of how institutional structures can facilitate or hinder growth. The book also goes on to explain why and how creativity and innovation can help to mitigate the impact of such a crisis on business and highlights why business continuity is especially crucial to family-owned businesses. This timely publication will help to guide small business owners and entrepreneurs to maintain business continuity and build up their resilience in a challenging business climate.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, small businesses are especially vulnerable. This is one of the first books that explicitly examines the linkage between crisis and entrepreneurship with a specific focus on small businesses. The book adopts a holistic approach and outlines strategies that small business owners can utilize as well as business opportunities that are available in these new market conditions. It also provides a comparative analysis of the current and future market conditions to enable a better understanding of how institutional structures can facilitate or hinder growth. The book also goes on to explain why and how creativity and innovation can help to mitigate the impact of such a crisis on business and highlights why business continuity is especially crucial to family-owned businesses. This timely publication will help to guide small business owners and entrepreneurs to maintain business continuity and build up their resilience in a challenging business climate.

Quality and standardisation in e-learning have become crucial success factors for organisations in learning, education and training: E-Learning has changed from an early adopter stage to an integrated part of learning scenarios leading to major changes in educational organisations towards quality orientation.

For building a knowledge society, it is critically important to thoroughly understand quality and standards in e-learning. The handbook provides a cross-national perspective on these issues and draws a clear picture of the situation in quality development and standardisation. It covers topics of a rather foundational nature in quality and standardisation research as well as descriptions of quality approaches, instruments, standards, experiences and best practices. The Handbook is directed to learners, professionals, researchers and policy makers people creating the next generation of learning. "

Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-1940 is a history of the gendered corporation, a study that examines how ideas and ideals about domesticity and the cultures of sewing and embroidery, being gender-specific, shaped the US-headquartered Singer Sewing Machine Company's operations around the world. In contrast to production-driven and culture-neutral analyses of the multinational enterprise, this book focuses on both the supply and the demand side to argue that consumers and the cultural worlds of those-mainly women-using the sewing machine for personal purposes or for the market shaped corporate organization. This book is a global history of Singer, but it also focuses on the cases of Spain and Mexico to highlight nations where the sewing machine multinational never established manufacturing operations. Casa Singer was a mostly profitable and a long-term selling and marketing operation in both countries. Gendered Capitalism demonstrates that local Spanish and Mexican agents, both men and women, developed and expanded Singer's selling system to the extent that the multinational company was seen as domestic, both in the location sense, and because of its focus on the private sphere of the home. By bringing the cases of Spain and Mexico, and the cultural, everyday realm of practices related to sewing and embroidery that the sewing machine was part of, to the center of the study of international business, Gendered Capitalism further reveals the layers of complexities and multitudes that conform the history of global capitalism. This book will be of interest to readers and scholars in the fields of business history, economic cultural history, management studies, international business, women's history, gender studies, and the history of technology.

Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-1940 is a history of the gendered corporation, a study that examines how ideas and ideals about domesticity and the cultures of sewing and embroidery, being gender-specific, shaped the US-headquartered Singer Sewing Machine Company's operations around the world. In contrast to production-driven and culture-neutral analyses of the multinational enterprise, this book focuses on both the supply and the demand side to argue that consumers and the cultural worlds of those-mainly women-using the sewing machine for personal purposes or for the market shaped corporate organization. This book is a global history of Singer, but it also focuses on the cases of Spain and Mexico to highlight nations where the sewing machine multinational never established manufacturing operations. Casa Singer was a mostly profitable and a long-term selling and marketing operation in both countries. Gendered Capitalism demonstrates that local Spanish and Mexican agents, both men and women, developed and expanded Singer's selling system to the extent that the multinational company was seen as domestic, both in the location sense, and because of its focus on the private sphere of the home. By bringing the cases of Spain and Mexico, and the cultural, everyday realm of practices related to sewing and embroidery that the sewing machine was part of, to the center of the study of international business, Gendered Capitalism further reveals the layers of complexities and multitudes that conform the history of global capitalism. This book will be of interest to readers and scholars in the fields of business history, economic cultural history, management studies, international business, women's history, gender studies, and the history of technology.

* Provides a concise, accessible and practice-led alternative to the existing theory-heavy and long Innovation and Entrepreneurship textbooks, whilst offering more depth than the plethora of 'how to' guides available * Provides a theoretical foundation to relevant best practice * Designed to support the Senior Leader Master's Degree Apprenticeship available at universities across the UK, as well as broader postgraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship modules.