Drawing on research conducted over the last 3 years in Cornwall, UK, this new book explores the impact of the EU/BT funded introduction of fibre broadband on rural SMEs. Including a qualitative methodology and in depth focus groups with over 200 companies, The Impact of Fibre Connectivity on SMEs provides a detailed, in depth, analysis to challenge conventionally held beliefs in the value of subsidy and policy pressure in the deployment of such projects. With focus on regional development in the UK as well as exploration of the wider EU context, the book presents a genuine insight into the technology adoption and technology provision.

Create a Business that Runs Itself Going from small business to successful startup to scalable growth takes more than just good luck, it takes a system. Over the last 34 years franchising consultant and growth expert Mark Siebert has been sought out by more than 70,000 executives looking to expanding their company. Out of those 70,000 only 5,000 had the right systems in place to go from successful to scalable. What do these companies have in common? 1. They are good at what they do. Being good at the core of your business that you continue to see a healthy return on your investment. 2. They have a system in place and a manual on hand. Their process is documented and routinely integrated into every aspect of their business, so if someone follows the system the business can virtually run itself.

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.

Companies across all industries are leveraging digital technologies to transform outdated processes and build new business models to compete in the information age. For all the publicity and hype, successful digital transformation has proven to be elusive. Numerous studies have found more than half of all digital transformation efforts fail. Digitally Deaf explores the obstacles and inhibitors that derail transformation efforts and outlines the steps organizations should take to establish an environment for success. Written by a highly experienced CIO, Digitally Deaf illustrates symptoms and underlying issues through the author's experiences at large, Fortune 250 organizations. Digitally Deaf establishes a framework for digital transformation execution beginning with the development of a common definition and language for transformation. Learn the roles of the board of directors and leadership in establishing the appropriate messaging, governance, and organizational structure to drive digital efforts. Realize how digital transformation efforts amplify common problems encountered in typical technology projects. Discover how the IT organization must transform to enable the agility needed to fuel new digital business models. Finally, learn to spot the symptoms of issues that undermine transformation success and how to address them. "On the topic of digital transformation, Steve addresses the mind set shift that is needed to be successful, leveraging relatable examples across multiple industries. Digitally Deaf offers a very relevant perspective on what it takes to move a traditional organization into the digital age." Boris Sherman, CTO Tailored Brands "Stone, as a former CIO, accurately outlines the challenges associated with new technologies and the benefits of implementing a digital-first culture. This book helps business and technology leaders understand the landscape and how to embrace digital to create new sources of value in their organizations." Jonathan Brassington, Head, Capgemini Invent North America

"Unprecedented" is the adjective most often ascribed to everything about Donald Trump. Trump @ Work is about the unprecedented impact that Donald Trump and his Presidency and style has had on attitudes and perceptions of leadership and management. This book brings a unique perspective about what has changed and what has not changed through humorous and true "bullets" and observations. Why do some leaders get fired for things that other leaders boast about? In spite of controversy, why do some initiatives still get implemented? Is implementation all that matters? Is empathy and credibility still critical to success? Why aren't there any instruction manuals about how to navigate the new workplace? These are not questions raised by just a few. These are questions everyone in the workplace is asking. Trump @ Work explores these questions and many more. It reveals how the rules of the game have changed for everyone seeking success or at least, to survive. It's hard enough to keep up with leadership and management trends. Donald Trump is making it more difficult, not intentionally, not through the tweets he writes, but by how he is challenging the long existing norms. Who knew that tweeting would become an established way of communicating to an organization? Who knew that in spite of constant searing criticism, one can disregard it and continue to follow an agenda? Who knew that preaching to supporters and ignoring naysayers is a way to manage? Whether you appreciate Donald Trump or not, he has had an impact on the thinking about leadership and management and the author precisely explores that impact in this book.

This book provides the interplay between digital transformation, industry 4.0 technologies, and sustainable supply chain performance. The book mainly focuses on presenting case studies and empirical studies demonstrating how the industry 4.0 technologies interact with the conventional manufacturing practices such as lean manufacturing, circular economy practices, total quality management, and maintenance management, while achieving enhanced sustainable supply chain performance. The book guides the practitioners to consider the status of conventional supply chains in their organisations while designing industry 4.0 systems. This book is a useful resource for researchers and academicians to understand the interplay between existing technologies, industry 4.0 technologies, and sustainable performance in the digital transformation journey.

Computational intelligence has a long history of applications to business - expert systems have been used for decision support in management, neural networks and fuzzy logic have been used in process control, a variety of techniques have been used in forecasting and data mining has become a core component of customer relationship management in marketing. While there is literature on this field, it is spread over many disciplines and in many different publications, making it difficult to find the pertinent information in one source. ""Business Applications and Computational Intelligence"" addresses the need for a compact overview of the diversity of applications in a number of business disciplines, and consists of chapters written by leading international researchers. Chapters cover most fields of business, including: marketing, data mining, e-commerce, production and operations, finance, decision-making, and general management. ""Business Applications and Computational Intelligence"" provides a comprehensive review of research into computational intelligence applications in business, creating a powerful guide for both newcomers and experienced researchers.

"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.

To whom does a father, retiring from his life as a successful entrepreneur, pass control of the business he has built? Once it would always have been his eldest son, but increasingly women are becoming involved in family firms having risen to positions of influence and leadership. Using revealing case studies from the daughters who succeeded their entrepreneur fathers in a wide variety of challenging situations, cultures and continents, Father-Daughter Succession in Family Business discusses the changes which have led to daughters gaining influence in more and more family businesses. It looks at the tensions this succession can produce between old notions of how men and women should behave, and the new style of leadership that often comes about when a woman takes the helm. This book will help consultants, business educators, and researchers, as well as those who are themselves involved in significant family managed enterprises to better understand why it can no longer be assumed in any part of the World that the first born son will take over the reins of the family business.

Find out how you can use your talents as an educator to make extra money on the side! In this helpful book, top Instagram influencers share how they've had success with selling lesson plans, handouts, t-shirts, and more, while maintaining careers as teachers and school leaders. You'll hear from these inspiring educators: Lisa Dunnigan and Tosha Wright @thewrightstuffchics Jen Jones @hellojenjones Michelle Ferre @pocketfulofprimary Kisha Mitchell @bethelightinc Bryce Sizemore @theteachingtexan Kristen Donegan @easyteachingtools Cynthia Frias @followsocialone Kayse Morris @kaysemorris Eric Crouch @adventureswithmrc If you've always dreamed of having a side hustle but weren't sure you had the time or the know-how, this is the book for you. Each chapter offers tons of practical tips to help you get started, along with humorous anecdotes and words of wisdom to keep you motivated on your journey.

Improve clinical performance and demonstrate value to health care purchasers and insurers by becoming a "data detective" within your organization. Health Data Quest is the practical guide to the most current and promising emerging measurement tools, and provides guidance for effectively and efficiently finding, interpreting, presenting, and using data.

This much-needed book is filled with the essential information, instructive models, and useful tools managers and executives need to create a program that can clearly demonstrate how a health care organization offers quality care in a cost-effective manner, including how to build a data warehouse.

When this book was originally published in 1988, this book was the first to include a large number of reports on British and US companies' experience with computers in company training in such areas as banking, finance, insurance, manufacturing, IT, the retail industry, transport, telecommunications and energy. It provided a critical analysis of the situation and discusses company experiences, development, testing and implementation as well as cost-effectiveness and future trends.

Originally published in 1976, this book discusses the management skills needed to evaluate, implement and control computer-based operation. Every chapter contains detailed check lists which guide the reader to formulate policies to deal with real situations. It provides a practical look at an indispensable tool of management, with a set of guidelines to help get the most out of the available technology.

This book, originally published in 1984, established the need for a strategic managerial response to the new technology, which relies on an understanding of the real effects of technology - on organisational structure, manageemnt style and employee relations. It assesses the impact of the new information technology on manufacturing systems, employment levels and types, industrial relations and finally on marketing and external relationships.

The emergence of new platform business models, notably the sharing economy, is impacting the economy in various ways, altering the structure of many industries, and raising a number of economic and political issues. This book investigates the widespread influence of the sharing economy on businesses and society, as well as examining its underpinning economic principles and development. This volume presents an exhaustive review of the existing knowledge on the sharing economy and addresses several major areas of concern for incumbent businesses. It also explains the business models for those who are interested in embarking on their own ventures and provides an excellent source for further research. It takes an in-depth look at controversial labour policies, such as using labour as self-employed contractors or using regulatory grey areas to expand in markets. It is highly multidisciplinary, establishing links between economics, finance, marketing and consumer behaviour. This contribution on the sharing economy will enable researchers and graduate and doctoral students to expand and improve their understanding of this topic and identify new research problems in all of these areas. The book will also appeal to policy makers, regional and local government decision makers, and those interested in labour markets transformation.

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 provides a historical inquiry into the quantification of needs in humanitarian assistance. Needs are increasingly seen as the lowest common denominator of humanity. Standard definitions of basic needs, however, set a minimalist version of humanity - both in the sense that they are narrow in what they compare, and that they set a low bar for satisfaction. The book argues that we cannot understand humanitarian governance if we do not understand how humanitarian agencies made human suffering commensurable across borders in the first place. The book identifies four basic elements of needs: As a concept, as a system of classification and triage, as a material apparatus, and as a set of standards. Drawing on a range of archival sources, including the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), and the Sphere Project, the book traces the concept of needs from its emergence in the 1960s right through to the present day, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's call for "evidence-based humanitarianism." Finally, the book assesses how the international governmentality of needs has played out in a recent humanitarian crisis, drawing on field research on Central African refugees in the Cameroonian borderland in 2014-2016. This important historical inquiry into the universal nature of human suffering will be an important read for humanitarian researchers and practitioners, as well as readers with an interest in international history and development.

ECMI, the European Consortium for Mathematics in Industry, is the European brand associated with applied mathematics for industry and organizes highly successful biannual conferences. In this series, the ECMI 2010, the 16th European Conference on Mathematics for Industry, was held in the historic city hall of Wuppertal in Germany. It covered the mathematics of a wide range of applications and methods, from circuit and electromagnetic device simulation to model order reduction for chip design, uncertainties and stochastics, production, fluids, life and environmental sciences, and dedicated and versatile methods.

These proceedings of ECMI 2010 emphasize mathematics as an innovation enabler for industry and business, and as an absolutely essential pre-requiste for Europe on its way to becoming the leading knowledge-based economy in the world.

Customers are increasingly seeking "low-cost, high-quality" or what is known as frugal products that meet the buyer's needs while reducing the associated cost of ownership. This book examines the developing principles and theories of frugal innovations across the globe. The authors identify frugal innovation (FI) using a multi-method approach to data analysis. They argue that the concept of frugality as a societal/ethical value has undergone several changes and propose a differentiated model of frugal innovations. They address frugal innovations that have never been accessible to the public. Hands-on case studies across various industry sectors and countries, supported by theory, provide multiple learning opportunities. The authors explore the relationship between FI and digitalisation and technology, and discuss how FI can be applied in the context of contemporary issues such as food security. Further, they articulate the mechanisms by which FI beliefs and values can be incorporated into organisational culture. The final chapters address both ethical and controversial views of frugal innovation. The book is a valuable resource for students in business courses, for industry professionals wanting to improve their triple bottom line, and for educators wanting to influence and change the mindsets of the younger generations to effectively deal with today's and tomorrow's challenges.

Interest in generally expanding the understanding of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially understanding their strategies and operations to enter international markets, is growing rapidly among researchers and academics globally. Government officials, regional and economic specialists, and international trade advisers are directly involved in assisting small and medium-sized enterprises in developing their international marketing expertise. Motivating SMEs to Cooperate and Internationalize consists of research studies, cases, and experiences obtained by researchers and academics from managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Europe as they worked closely with managers on issues and problems leading to internationalization of enterprises. This book will map not only the attempts of small and medium-sized enterprises in Northern Europe to enter foreign markets, but also to understand how researchers and academics can help small and medium-sized Northern European enterprisers achieve their objectives. This compilation of approaches, perspectives, and experiences will serve as a resource tool for researchers and academics active in international management training programs worldwide and help illustrate how to close the gap between publishing results of their findings and efforts to disseminate their findings among managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in their domains. This book is the first attempt to integrate results of research studies and practices as an illustration of how knowledge of small and medium-sized enterprises has evolved since the 1980s with the contributions of individual researchers and academics in Northern Europe. It will be of relevance to academics and researchers interested in working closely with small and medium-sized enterprises to meet their goals in entering international markets.

European venture capital (VC) funds have historically underperformed their US counterparts. This has resulted in reduced investment into European VC by the traditional institutional investors. This book investigates the factors that give rise to the performance difference. It is based on the author's research at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow which involved a qualitative study of some 64 VC firms in the UK, continental Europe and the US, supplemented by 40 interviews with other stakeholders, including limited partner investors, corporate venturers, entrepreneurs and advisors. Readers will gain an in-depth understanding of the various structural, operational and wider environmental factors that impact on the performance difference between UK/European and US VC funds. The study is unique in that it provides, for the first time, a holistic and extensive analysis of the entire investment process from sourcing deals to exiting deals specifically contrasting Europe and the US in terms of the variables pertaining to the investment process and the impact on the fund performance. Factors impacting on the performance differential are structural, resulting from characteristics of the funds themselves, operational such as the investment practices of the VC firms which manage the funds and environmental such as culture and attitude to risk and the wider ecosystem in which the funds operate. These factors are set out clearly for the reader. The characteristics of the better performing funds in Europe and the US are also investigated. The book is aimed at academics who are researching venture capital fund performance and investment practices and also at practitioners, advisors and policymakers who want to learn about best VC investment practices. Whilst the book is focused on European and US VC investing, the best practices are also pertinent for VC firms and funds setting up in other geographies, particularly in emerging markets. To this end, best practice guidelines based on the research are included.

The digital business world is undergoing phenomenal and sometimes turbulent changes. The digital economy has also seen the rise of entirely new businesses. Traditional 'bricks and mortar' businesses are scrambling to become e-commerce businesses simply to survive in this new era. Whether in original economy or digital, IT investment is important in all businesses. Managing Information Communication Technology Investments in Successful Enterprises reports accounting and other information about business processes to assess performance. Managing Information Communication Technology Investments in Successful Enterprises discusses the impact of the IT revolution on the accounting function, and indicates the process of IT investment and its advantages and limitations. This publication is a revolutionary explanation of the purpose of IT investment and its role in organizations.

This volume explores from a legal perspective, how blockchain works. Perhaps more than ever before, this new technology requires us to take a multidisciplinary approach. The contributing authors, which include distinguished academics, public officials from important national authorities, and market operators, discuss and demonstrate how this technology can be a driver of innovation and yield positive effects in our societies, legal systems and economic/financial system. In particular, they present critical analyses of the potential benefits and legal risks of distributed ledger technology, while also assessing the opportunities offered by blockchain, and possible modes of regulating it. Accordingly, the discussions chiefly focus on the law and governance of blockchain, and thus on the paradigm shift that this technology can bring about.

In this monograph, a new process modelling approach for the public sector is described: the PICTURE method. The approach takes into account the specific characteristics of public administrations. Hence several advantages are derived: increased modelling speed, improved user acceptance and enhanced analysis capabilities.