Claudio Ciborra was one of the most innovative thinkers in the field of information systems. This book explains the intellectual contribution of Ciborras work in a substantial introductory chapter, contains the most significant of his articles, and provides a sample of research that draws from his ideas.

This book explores the importance of entrepreneurs in driving economic growth as the world economy grows and becomes more integrated and more challenging. It examines the situation in both advanced and developing countries and shows how the entrepreneurial orientation of the founders of small and medium sized enterprises has resulted in phenomenal growth, often fuelled by innovation and new technologies. It contrasts the experiences of Chinese family business in China and among the overseas Chinese with the experiences of family businesses in the United States and Europe. One important conclusion is that there has been a noticeable fall in entrepreneurial proclivity in the advanced economies, in contrast to the position in emerging economies.

The development of entrepreneurial abilities in people with dyslexia is a subject of great interest. It has gained increasing importance in economically difficult times because of its potential for the development of new business opportunities. This book brings together contributions from researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs with dyslexia, investigating this subject from many perspectives. Is there something different in the profile of a person with dyslexia that supports the development of entrepreneurship? This book aims to draw out key themes which can be used in education to motivate, mentor, and create the business leaders of tomorrow. It offers a fundamental text for this area of study with a comprehensive, international examination of its topic. It includes views by new and established international writers and researchers, providing up-to-date perspectives on entrepreneurship, dyslexia, and education. It is accessible to read, to understand, and to learn from, and is suitable for recommended reading for graduate and postgraduate students. The diverse views and perspectives demonstrated in this book make it as relevant as possible for a wide group of readers. It informs study in the fields of business and dyslexia, and will be of interest to educators, researchers, and to anyone interested in the overlap of entrepreneurship and dyslexia.

The digital economy, broadly defined as the economy operating on the basis of interconnectivity between people and businesses, has gradually spread over the world. Although a global phenomenon, the digital economy plays out in local economic, political, and regulatory contexts. The problems thus created by the digital economy may be approached differently depending on the context. This edited collection brings together leading scholars based in Asia to detail how their respective jurisdictions respond to the competition law problems evolving out of the deployment of the digital economy. This book is timely, because it will show to what extent new competition law regimes or those with a history of lax enforcement can respond to these new developments in the economy. Academics in law and business strategies with an interest in competition law, both in Asia and more broadly, will find the insights in this edited collection invaluable. Further, this volume will be a key resource for scholars, practitioners and students.

This book discusses the main techniques and newest trends to manage and optimize the production and service systems. The book begins by examining the three main levels of decision systems in production: the long term (strategic), the middle term (tactical) and short term (operational). It also considers online management as a new level (a sub level of the short term). As each level encounters specific problems, appropriate approaches to deal with these are introduced and explained. These problems include the line design, the line balancing optimization, the physical layout of the production or service system, the forecasting optimization, the inventory management, the scheduling etc. Metaheuristics for Production Systems then explores logistic optimization from two different perspectives: internal (production management), addressing issues of scheduling, layout and line designs, and external (supply chain management) focusing on transportation optimization, supply chain evaluation, and location of production. The book also looks at NP-hard problems that are common in production management. These complex configurations may mean that optimal solutions may not be reached due to variables, but the authors help provide a good solution for such problems. The effective new results and solutions offered in this book should appeal to researchers, managers, and engineers in the production and service industries.

This book captures a range of important developments that have occurred in Information Systems over the last forty years, with a particular focus on India and the developing world. Over this time, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Information Systems (IS) have come to play a critical role in supporting, complementing and automating managerial decisions, shaping and transforming industries, and contributing to deep societal and economic change. This volume examines a range of topics for those interested in the adoption and use of these technologies across varied situations. It combines empirical studies on the application and impact of IS with commentaries, debates and insights on the transformative role that IT and the IT industry have played, and continue to play, within India as well as globally. The book draws attention to issues and challenges that organizations grapple with in tech-enabled environments, and provides insights on the role of automation and computational techniques. It explores the global impact of the technology revolution on economic growth and development, electronic globalization, and the wider opportunities and challenges of a hi-tech world. The chapters cover various themes such as e-government in India, internet-based distribution systems, internet banking, and use of collaborative IT tools and functions to support virtual teams in the software industry and the business process outsourcing industry. Other chapters focus on methodological advances, such as systems thinking which finds applications in organizational decision-making, and the use of fuzzy logic. This volume will interest professionals and scholars of information technology and information systems, computer studies, IT systems, economics, and business and management studies.

Designed as a companion to The Economist Style Guide, the best-selling guide to writing style, The Economist Numbers Guide is invaluable for everyone who has to work with numbers, which in today's commercially focussed world means most managers. In addition to general advice on basic numeracy, the guide points out common errors and explains the recognised techniques for solving financial problems, analysing information of any kind, forecasting and effective decision making. Over 100 charts, graphs, tables and feature boxes highlight key points, and great emphasis is put on the all-important aspect of how you present and communicate numerical information effectively and honestly. At the back of the book is an extensive A-Z dictionary of terms covering everything from amortisation to zero-sum game. Whatever your business, whatever your management role, for anyone who needs a good head for figures The Economist Numbers Guide will prove invaluable.

China and India have in recent years seen a change in leadership, with each wanting to make an impact on their respective societies by bringing about significant changes in governance. This book looks at the impact of major institutional disruptions on large-, medium- and small-sized enterprises in China and India. The book endeavours to systematically assess the impact of major institutional policy changes that seek to transform and overhaul the status quo at institutional, social and business levels. It also provides a holistic understanding of the impact of a major and turbulent policy shift on Asia's two giant economies. This book is a must-read for those interested in gaining insights into the two dominant powers in Asia.

Entrepreneurial Complexity: Methods and Applications deals with theoretical and practical results of Entrepreneurial Sciences and Management (ESM), emphasising qualitative and quantitative methods. ESM has been a modern and exciting research field in which methods from various disciplines have been applied. However, the existing body of literature lacks the proper use of mathematical and formal models; individuals who perform research in this broad interdisciplinary area have been trained differently. In particular, they are not used to solving business-oriented problems mathematically. This book utilises formal techniques in ESM as an advantage for developing theories and models which are falsifiable. Features Discusses methods for defining and measuring complexity in entrepreneurial sciences Summarises new technologies and innovation-based techniques in entrepreneurial sciences Outlines new formal methods and complexity-models for entrepreneurship To date no book has been dedicated exclusively to use formal models in Entrepreneurial Sciences and Management

China and India have in recent years seen a change in leadership, with each wanting to make an impact on their respective societies by bringing about significant changes in governance. This book looks at the impact of major institutional disruptions on large-, medium- and small-sized enterprises in China and India. The book endeavours to systematically assess the impact of major institutional policy changes that seek to transform and overhaul the status quo at institutional, social and business levels. It also provides a holistic understanding of the impact of a major and turbulent policy shift on Asia's two giant economies. This book is a must-read for those interested in gaining insights into the two dominant powers in Asia.

In a world where entrepreneurial success often seems deceptively accessible, it is not always clear what makes a person entrepreneurial. In this book, Dimo Dimov offers a reflective insight into the entrepreneurial journey, striking up a conversation about entrepreneurship in order to challenge and untangle existing preconceptions. A discussion of challenges and tensions such as idea versus opportunity, genius versus lunatic, and skill versus luck forms the foundation of the book, while the second part offers actions and considerations which can help the reader to seek opportunities in a fractious environment. The final part of the text focuses on the collective spirit in entrepreneurship, arising from the interplay between participation and outcomes. The author brings a succinct diversity to the field, making this book essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students on entrepreneurship courses, as well as scholars, researchers, and practitioners looking for a new perspective on entrepreneurship.

The separation between ownership and control has become common practice over the last century, in most medium and large firms across the world. Throughout the twentieth century, the theory of the firm and the theory of industrial organization developed parallel and complementary views on managerial firms. This book offers a comprehensive exposition of this debate. In its survey of strategic delegation in oligopoly games, An Economic Theory of Managerial Firms is able to offer a reinterpretation of a range of standard results in the light of the fact that the control of firms is generally not in the hand of its owners. The theoretical models are supported by a wealth of real-world examples, in order to provide a study of strategic delegation that is far more in-depth than has previously been found in the literature on industrial organization. In this volume, analysis is extended in several directions to cover applications concerning the role of: managerial firms in mixed market; collusion and mergers; divisionalization and vertical relations; technical progress; product differentiation; international trade; environmental issues; and the intertemporal growth of firms. This book is of great interest to those who study industrial economics, organizational studies and industrial studies.

What is the role of culture in the innovation dynamic of small firms within the context of their territorial environments? How do shared values, beliefs and practices underpin the knowledge production process that leads to innovation? In what way do symbolic aspects of social life shape European SMEs' innovation processes? This volume gives an extensive insight into the complex links between culture and innovation in one of the key agents of economic life: SMEs and micro firms. The chapters employ different analytical and methodological strategies in regions of Europe to identify dimensions of culture, especially values, norms, skills and institutions, and to scrutinize which specific components of culture are relevant to firm innovation and to the more general dynamics of regional innovation. The original research presented shows how small firms learn, interact, compete and collaborate with other key agents of the innovation system. Taken as a whole, the volume points the way towards a more comprehensive framework for understanding the nature of innovation in SMEs and micro firms. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of European Planning Studies.

The book illustrates the inter-relationship between several data management, analytics and decision support techniques and methods commonly adopted in Cybersecurity-oriented frameworks. The recent advent of Big Data paradigms and the use of data science methods, has resulted in a higher demand for effective data-driven models that support decision-making at a strategic level. This motivates the need for defining novel data analytics and decision support approaches in a myriad of real-life scenarios and problems, with Cybersecurity-related domains being no exception. This contributed volume comprises nine chapters, written by leading international researchers, covering a compilation of recent advances in Cybersecurity-related applications of data analytics and decision support approaches. In addition to theoretical studies and overviews of existing relevant literature, this book comprises a selection of application-oriented research contributions. The investigations undertaken across these chapters focus on diverse and critical Cybersecurity problems, such as Intrusion Detection, Insider Threats, Insider Threats, Collusion Detection, Run-Time Malware Detection, Intrusion Detection, E-Learning, Online Examinations, Cybersecurity noisy data removal, Secure Smart Power Systems, Security Visualization and Monitoring. Researchers and professionals alike will find the chapters an essential read for further research on the topic.

The world changes like the patterns in a kaleidoscope: trends expand, contract, break up, melt, disintegrate and disappear, while others are formed. Change - as opposed to stasis - is our normal condition, the only certainty in our lives, hence the need to create tools that provide organizations with the means to tackle change and navigate complexity. We must accept the reality of constant change and be prepared for a heavy shift in perspective: interconnection versus separation, acceleration versus linearity and discontinuity versus continuity. Anticipating the future requires more than the traditional predictive models (forecasting) based on the forward projection of past experiences. Advanced methods use anticipation logic (foresight) and build probable scenarios taking into account weak signals, emerging trends, coexisting presents and potential paths of evolution. Corporate foresight is fundamental to interpret and lead change. The two cornerstones of foresight are organization and management. As concerns organization, the authors advocate the separation of research (oriented to the market of tomorrow) from development (oriented to the market of today), the establishment of a foresight unit and the concentration of research activities mainly on the acquisition and recombination of external know-how. As regards management, after an overview of state-of-the-art literature on forecasting methods, the authors propose the implementation of a "future coverage" methodology, which enables companies to measure and verify the consistency between trends, strategic vision and offered products. These organizational and managing tools are then tested in a case study: the Italian company Eurotech SpA, a leader in the ICT sector.

This book utilizes historical evidence to describe the development of the Toyota Production System (TPS). The development of TPS typifies the transformation of production control in interchangeable industries in the twentieth century. Much of the extensive literature available on TPS has been geared toward describing TPS from a number of different perspectives. Many researchers consider TPS distinct from American mass-production systems. Although TPS (and, more generally, the production control systems in the Japanese assembly industry) has differentiated itself from similar US production systems, the evolution of TPS is largely attributable to attempts to learn from, imitate, and modify pre-World War II US production methods. Through these efforts, TPS has achieved levels of efficiency in Japan comparable to those of US production systems. Additionally, a reliance on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in relation to production control has facilitated the development of TPS. The literature on TPS, however, has largely ignored the vital relationship between ICT and production control due to an inordinate focus on "Kanban." Kanban translates to "signboard" in Japanese but is used to refer to an organic linkage between work in preceding and subsequent production processes. This book sheds light on the development of a fully digitalized Bill of Materials (BOM) at Toyota, behind its Kanban and production control.

This book offers a fresh method of assessing and managing risks in SMEs, by adopting a multidisciplinary approach. In small and medium companies, the risk management process cannot be often formalised and procedures are usually integrated unconsciously into the decision-making process. Therefore, to enhance the flexibility of these companies, increase their market share and allow them to grow and manage risks more effectively, the first step is to improve the way decisions are made. Consequently, it is fundamental for those companies to improve the awareness about the way reasonable decisions are made, which can be achieved only through a proper knowledge and the definition of the Risk Appetite Framework. Therefore, by improving knowledge, the risk appetite and awareness in the decision making, companies will implicitly start developing a risk consciousness, which can be translated into a sound risk approach. SMEs need to understand the importance of an effective internal control system. Hence, the central point is the necessity to start reconsidering the company as a unique entity, by adopting a holistic approach. The book explores whether small and medium companies should adopt a formalised risk management process and, more importantly, the role that the development of an appropriate risk mindfulness and approach to expand existing functions plays in these entities. It suggests an appropriate way of thinking about risk, starting with the amalgamation of both past and present theories, and enabling SMEs to find a solution to improve the effectiveness of their risk management strategies.

This book illustrates the role of software architecture and its application in business. The author describes enterprise architecture along with business architecture to show the role of software architecture in both areas. The place of software architecture in business is outlined from many perspectives in this context. The book outlines quality attributes and how managers can use software architecture to build high quality products. Topics include business software architecture, dealing with qualities, achieving quality attributes, managing business qualities, software product line, Internet of Things (IOT), and Service Oriented Business Architecture. The book is intended to benefit students, researchers, software architects, and business architects. Provides quick and easy access to all the important aspects of software architecture in business; Highlights a wide variety of concepts of software architecture in a straightforward manner, for students, practitioners, or architects; Presents different applications of software architecture in business.

"Performance begins with focusing on outcomes instead of activities. In my experience, most people in most organizations most of the time do the reverse. They concentrate their efforts on the pursuit of activities instead of outcomes. As a result, they rarely set or achieve performance results that matter."

Today's performance challenges demand outcomes—both financial and nonfinancial—that must simultaneously benefit customers, shareholders, employees, and management. Therein lies a cycle of sustainable performance that functions as a framework to ensure your organization's goals are set, met, and balanced for today's business world.

Make Success Measurable! enables you to avoid activity-based goals that can go on indefinitely, and articulate aggressive outcome-based goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

This is a how-to book, emphasizing outcomes as opposed to actions in setting goals. You'll learn how to: Set goals that matter to customers, shareholders, and funders. Set nonfinancial as well as financial goals and link them together. Understand and use outcome-based goals that support success while avoiding activity-based goals that produce failure. Select and use management disciplines needed to achieve your goals. Smith provides the what's and why's behind today's performance challenges and shows how to convert them into measurable concrete achievements.

Using an innovative approach, Smith divides each chapter into an explanatory Mindbook section and a practice Workbook section. The Mindbook sections provide descriptions and explain key concepts, frameworks, tools, and techniques. They seek to build your intellectual understanding of how to set and achieve the performance goals that matter.

The Workbook sections include detailed examples and exercises that you and your colleagues can use to practice the concepts, tools, and techniques put forth in the Mindbook section. Workbook exercises allow you to convert understanding into action—and action into results! "Doug Smith's work on performance and measurement has been an invaluable management resource for us. We believe that if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. Thanks to Doug, we can focus on the right measures to drive performance against today's many new and different challenges throughout our enterprise."—Leon Gorman, President, L.L. Bean, Inc.

"Make Success Measurable! is a practical and powerful step-by-step guide to setting and achieving the goals we all need to accomplish in a constantly changing and challenging world."—Charles Dolan, Chairman, Cablevision Systems Corporation.

"No one writes as clearly about today's key management issues as Doug Smith. Whether you're in a small eCommerce startup or a large, already established organization, the frameworks, tools, techniques, and exercises contained in this book are the only things you'll need to manage the performance that matters to your customers, your people, and your shareholders."—Steve Goldstein, CEO, eChores and former CEO, American Express Bank.

"Achieving results that matter—to donors and clients—is the true measure of success for any nonprofit organization. This book provides a thoughtful and extremely practical guide for setting goals and effectively meeting them. It is an absolutely indispensable tool for leaders and a model for good management."—Jenna Dorn, President, National Museum of Health.

This book shows the patterns of the fuzzy front end of innovation and how it can be managed successfully. Topics in this book cover traditional instruments and processes such as technology monitoring, market-oriented research management, lead-user developments, but also modern approaches such as frontloading, user community-driven innovation, crowdsourcing, anthropological expeditions, technological listening posts in global R&D settings, cross-industry innovation processes, open innovation, and IP cycle management. Contributions are based on latest research and cases studies on this new paradigm. The authors investigate this phenomenon, linking the practice of the early innovation phase to the established body of innovation research. Conceptional articles complement case studies to provide the reader with insight on managing the fuzzy front end of innovation.Lessons learned with success factors and checklists complement each chapter. "

Structuring, or, as it is referred to in the title of this book, the art of structuring, is one of the core elements in the discipline of Information Systems. While the world is becoming increasingly complex, and a growing number of disciplines are evolving to help make it a better place, structure is what is needed in order to understand and combine the various perspectives and approaches involved. Structure is the essential component that allows us to bridge the gaps between these different worlds, and offers a medium for communication and exchange. The contributions in this book build these bridges, which are vital in order to communicate between different worlds of thought and methodology - be it between Information Systems (IS) research and practice, or between IS research and other research disciplines. They describe how structuring can be and should be done so as to foster communication and collaboration. The topics covered reflect various layers of structure that can serve as bridges: models, processes, data, organizations, and technologies. In turn, these aspects are complemented by visionary outlooks on how structure influences the field.

This book provides a conceptual framework for systemic flexibility and business agility, drawing on a basis of research/case applications in various types of flexibility and agility in business. The selected papers address a variety of issues concerning the theme of systemic flexibility and business agility and are organized into following five parts: (i) Systemic and Strategic Flexibility; (ii) Information and Business Agility; (iii) Flexibility, Innovation and Business Excellence; (iv) Flexibility in Value and Supply Chains; and(v) Financial Flexibility and Mergers & Acquisitions. Flexibility and agility in business are emerging as key dimensions of business excellence that encompass the requirements of both choice and speed. The two concepts, flexibility and agility, have been used in multiple ways and often interchangeably, both in literature and in practice. The growing need for flexibility/agility in business can be seen from reactive as well as proactive perspectives. A business enterprise is expected to possess reactive flexibility/ agility (as adaptability and responsiveness) in order to cope with the changing and uncertain business environment. It may also endeavor to intentionally generate flexibility/agility as a strategic change in a variety of ways, such as leadership change, reengineering, innovation in products and processes, use of information and communication technology, and learning orientation.

When Innovation is considered one of the key drivers of corporate success, why do organisations struggle to implement it? Research suggests that innovations fail due to a lack of acceptance by employees; therefore an understanding of potential adopters and the factors influencing their decisions is essential. Despite much research on adoption of innovation by an organization, very little is known about its acceptance by individuals within it. Managing Innovation Adoption is about managing technological innovation implementation at work in an effective way by presenting a new theoretical framework. Based on the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the technology acceptance model (TAM) and other conceptual frameworks, Dr Talukder's enhanced model combines factors from existing and original models to create a coherent new model. The data collected proves that it can be used to assist a broader understanding of how people in an organization adopt and use innovations. As well as contributing to academic knowledge, the author's discoveries have practical implications for organizations, managers, administrators and employees.

The emergence of China as a major world economy is of great importance to the global political economy and to international business. There has been much research on the macro level of institutional reform but little detailed work on the grassroots level of entrepreneurship in China. This innovative book addresses this gap by investigating how an economic system dominated by central plans, communist ideologies and suppressing bureaucracies could generate such energy from the bottom of society, fuelling the country's economic growth. Keming Yang's theory of entrepreneurship is based on two interrelated concepts: double entrepreneurship and institutional holes. He argues that the two concepts bridge a gap between the neo-classical institutionalism of economic development and entrepreneurship studies that emphasize individual choice. The rigorous theoretical framework is supported by substantial empirical research, offering statistical analyses of survey data as well as detailed case studies. This timely book will appeal to an interdisciplinary readership in sociology, economics, business studies and Chinese and Asian Studies.

For over a century, creativity has unfolded as a valuable field of knowledge. Emerging from disciplines like psychology, management and education, the field of creativity is making strides in others including the arts and engineering. Research and education in this field helped it establish an identity as evidenced by a growing number of courses and specialised journals. However, this progress has come with a price. In a domain like management, institutionalisation of creativity in learning, research and practice has left creativity subordinated to concerns with standardisation, employability and economic growth. Values like personal fulfilment, uncertainty, improvement and connectedness which could characterise systemic views on creativity need to be rescued to promote more and inclusive dialogue between creativity stakeholders. The author aims to recover the importance of creativity as a systemic phenomenon and explores how applied systems thinking, or AST, can further support creativity. This demonstrates how creative efforts could be directed to improve quality of life for individuals as well as their environments. The book uses the systems idea as an enquiring device to bring together different actors to promote refl ection and action about creative possibilities. The chapters offer conceptualisations, applications and refl ections of systems ideas to help readers make sense of the field of creativity in academia and elsewhere. Complemented by the author's own personal, conceptual and practical journey, the insights of the book will act as a vital toolkit for management researchers, career-driven students, practitioners and all creators to define and pursue creative ideas and thrive through their journeys to benefit themselves, other people and organisations.