With AI, cryptocurrency, and more in the news, it seems that being an entrepreneur means being in IT, but humanities graduates are launching new businesses every day, turning a profit and having social impact. This book explores how a humanities background can enable entrepreneurs to thrive. Across all levels of education, students are given the message that to change the world - or make money - the arts and humanities are not the subjects to study. At the same time, discussions of innovation and entrepreneurship highlight the importance of essential skills, such as critical thinking, storytelling, cultural awareness, and ethical decision-making. Here's the disconnect: the subjects that help to develop these vital skills are derided at critical points in any aspiring entrepreneur's education. This collection of perspectives from entrepreneurs in a range of fields and humanities educators illustrates what individuals, and the wider world, are missing when humanities are overlooked as a source of inspiration and success in business. Featuring a foreword by Sensemaking author Christian Madsbjerg, this is a thought-provoking guide for aspiring entrepreneurs in all sectors, and for educators, a window on the practical value of the humanities in an ever more mechanized world._

This is one of the first books of its kind to highlight family firms in a Latin American context, helping students to understand the distinctive nature and challenges of Latin American family businesses and how these issues compare to family businesses around the world. Building on their experience in teaching, research, speaking, and consulting on the subject of family firms in Latin America, the editors explain the need to implement and adapt traditional frameworks in the changing Latin American reality. Each section provides background on the most important topics in the management of family firms, including strategy, entrepreneurship, and performance, followed by illustrative cases and a discussion of how this knowledge is similar to or different from other parts of the world. The book's clear writing and in-depth approach will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students of international business, business in Latin America, and family business.

This open access book provides an overview of the dissertations of the five nominees for the Ernst Denert Award for Software Engineering in 2019. The prize, kindly sponsored by the Gerlind & Ernst Denert Stiftung, is awarded for excellent work within the discipline of Software Engineering, which includes methods, tools and procedures for better and efficient development of high quality software. An essential requirement for the nominated work is its applicability and usability in industrial practice. The book contains five papers describing the works by Sebastian Baltes (U Trier) on Software Developers'Work Habits and Expertise, Timo Greifenberg's thesis on Artefaktbasierte Analyse modellgetriebener Softwareentwicklungsprojekte, Marco Konersmann's (U Duisburg-Essen) work on Explicitly Integrated Architecture, Marija Selakovic's (TU Darmstadt) research about Actionable Program Analyses for Improving Software Performance, and Johannes Spath's (Paderborn U) thesis on Synchronized Pushdown Systems for Pointer and Data-Flow Analysis - which actually won the award. The chapters describe key findings of the respective works, show their relevance and applicability to practice and industrial software engineering projects, and provide additional information and findings that have only been discovered afterwards, e.g. when applying the results in industry. This way, the book is not only interesting to other researchers, but also to industrial software professionals who would like to learn about the application of state-of-the-art methods in their daily work.

After more than 30 years of reformations in agriculture, manufacturing and trade and industry, China's economy has grown to become the second largest in the world. This book examines the contributions of dynamic entrepreneurs to the economic development of mainland China and Hong Kong - an analysis that is largely lacking in existing studies China's economic stronghold. This book adopts theories of entrepreneurship and market processes as major analytical frameworks to conclude that entrepreneurship is the true engine of growth in mainland China and Hong Kong. Chinese Entrepreneurship focuses on the knowledge drivers and systemic challenges of these businesses to examine how entrepreneurs under uncertainty identify and pursue profit opportunities, and how their efforts have enhanced China's economic dynamics. This book offers vital insight to students, teachers and researchers of Chinese business and economics, along with Chinese culture and expanding economies.

This volume provides a rigorous examination of key issues relating to employment in small businesses. These include an anlysis of the true extent of job crreation provided by small firms, the rleative quality of jobs in small firms, the growth of self-employment during the 1980s and the way in which the small firm interacts with its local labour markets. These issues are examined in an international context, wth comparative examples from the USA, the UK and Europe.

When originally published in 1986, this book was one of the first to deal solely with the urban and regional incidence and development implications of new firm formation in particular EU countries. It reviews the extent of and reasons for geographical variation in numbers of new firms, examines the nature of such firms and assesses the regional impact and policy implications in various EC countries.

This book, originally published in 1989, studies both the growth and the barriers to growth of small firms. It examines market and industrial structures, also the role of investment institutions and their handling of small business accounts. There are chapters on management attitudes and ability considered as a potential barrier to development, and other problems such as lack of finance and of a suitably qualified workforce. The book stresses the importance of communicating the latest advances in technology to small firms, and urges the need to re-think government tax and procurement policies.

Originally published in 1989, this book analyses the economic and political position of the small firm in the 1980s, and in particular the relationship between small and large firms in an advanced capitalist economy. Focusing on the printing and clothing industries, it examines the industrial relation practices in these two contrasting sectors and shows that apparent industrial relations harmony - for example, the lack of strikes - should be put down to the powerlessness of the workforce rather than to contentment.

This book, originally published in 1982, review the resurrection of the small firm, partly by a multi-disciplined examination of the existing literature on small and new firms and partly by reporting the results of a study of firms new (in the early 1980s) to the North East of England. Part 1 deals with the role of small firms as sources of potential or actual competition, and their role in research and innovation. In Part 2 the theoretical foundations for the study of entrepreneurs and their new firms are laid, using concepts from a cross-section of the social sciences. Part 3 tests some of the theories outlined in Part 2 and reviews the problems which the entrepreneurs faced in starting and developing their business and the impact which such businesses had upon the local economy. Part 4 reviews the lessons of the preceding parts in the context of the regional and national economy of the UK.

This study, originally published in 1987, addresses the question of small firm performance. Drawing on an extensive database containing financial, employment and ownership data for several thousand small firms, the book examines whether small firms do actually provide jobs, whether they grow and why small firms fail. Guidance is given on how to spot the signs of impending failure in a small business, which is of use to accountants small business PR actioners and government grant providers.

This book, originally published in 1996, develops a model of information gathering for small businesses. Whilst all small business owners gather and process some information, the quality and types of information gathered is limited. Size and resource constraints force small business owners to make difficult decisions related to the research that they conduct. The model developed in this book is tested in part through a study of the information gathering practices of small owners/managers in the landscaping industry in Wisconsin, USA.

This book takes its reader on a journey through Apache Giraph, a popular distributed graph processing platform designed to bring the power of big data processing to graph data. Designed as a step-by-step self-study guide for everyone interested in large-scale graph processing, it describes the fundamental abstractions of the system, its programming models and various techniques for using the system to process graph data at scale, including the implementation of several popular and advanced graph analytics algorithms. The book is organized as follows: Chapter 1 starts by providing a general background of the big data phenomenon and a general introduction to the Apache Giraph system, its abstraction, programming model and design architecture. Next, chapter 2 focuses on Giraph as a platform and how to use it. Based on a sample job, even more advanced topics like monitoring the Giraph application lifecycle and different methods for monitoring Giraph jobs are explained. Chapter 3 then provides an introduction to Giraph programming, introduces the basic Giraph graph model and explains how to write Giraph programs. In turn, Chapter 4 discusses in detail the implementation of some popular graph algorithms including PageRank, connected components, shortest paths and triangle closing. Chapter 5 focuses on advanced Giraph programming, discussing common Giraph algorithmic optimizations, tunable Giraph configurations that determine the system's utilization of the underlying resources, and how to write a custom graph input and output format. Lastly, chapter 6 highlights two systems that have been introduced to tackle the challenge of large scale graph processing, GraphX and GraphLab, and explains the main commonalities and differences between these systems and Apache Giraph. This book serves as an essential reference guide for students, researchers and practitioners in the domain of large scale graph processing. It offers step-by-step guidance, with several code examples and the complete source code available in the related github repository. Students will find a comprehensive introduction to and hands-on practice with tackling large scale graph processing problems using the Apache Giraph system, while researchers will discover thorough coverage of the emerging and ongoing advancements in big graph processing systems.

Why do the Dutch continue to play a central role in the global production, sales, and distribution of flowers? What are the origin and history of the bulb and flower industry in the Netherlands? How are Artificial Intelligence (AI), complex algorithms, and modern distribution systems ensuring that fresh flowers reach their destination on time? This very entertaining and informative book introduces readers to the global flower business, and highlights the surprising factors that helped the Dutch become global leaders on the flower markets. The book reveals the complexity of the flower markets in terms of their ability to produce, transport, and deliver fresh flowers on a global scale. In addition, it explores how information advantage is created by blending business with technology, from robotized glasshouses to the use of AI-driven algorithms for flower production and distribution. In closing, the book presents lessons learned regarding the circular and digital transformation of the high-speed flower business and markets in order to deliver sustainable value for customers. Combining the light beauty of flowers with the harsh language of the digital universe is a masterfully executed task in this book, organized as a bouquet of algorithms, data science, and digital platforms. Mandatory reading for all those interested in the flower business as well as for those who want to know more about the perfume emanating from digital systems. Eduardo Diniz Professor and Head of the Technology and Data Science Department, Escola de Administracao de Empresas de Sao Paulo, Fundacao Getulio Vargas, Sao Paulo, Brazil This unique book leads you through the bulb fields and auctions of the Netherlands, through history, logistics, auction design, and Internet technology, to draw lessons in business management from the study of flowers. With beautiful illustrations. A tour de force. John Kay Economist, Author of Radical Uncertainty and Greed is Dead, and Fellow, St. John's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom If you want to understand the impact of information and technology on a fascinat- ing industry, this book is a must-read. The author explains in a highly intriguing way how innovations propelled the flower industry from the sixteenth century till today. Whether you are working in the flower industry, a business student, academic, or just intrigued by the business behind flowers, you will enjoy this book! Martin Mocker Professor of Information Systems, ESB Business School, Reutlingen University, Reutlingen, Germany. Research Affiliate, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research, Cambridge, USA

Islamic Macroeconomics proposes an Islamic model that offers significant prospects for economic growth and durable macroeconomic stability, and which is immune to the defects of the economic models prevailing both in developed and developing countries. An Islamic model advocates a limited government confined to its natural duties of defence, justice, education, health, infrastructure, regulation, and welfare of the vulnerable population. It prohibits interest-based debt and money, and requires full liberalization of all markets including labor, financial, commodity, trade, and foreign exchange markets. The government should be Sharia-compliant in its taxation power and regulatory intervention; it ought to reduce unproductive spending in favor of productive spending. This book is essential reading for students and academics of Islamic economics and finance, economists, practitioners, and researchers.

Recent decades have seen a significant transformation of the not-for-profit (NFP) sector. This includes rise in the number of organisations and people employed, shift from charities and philanthropic agencies to hybrid social enterprise business models, competing stakeholder interests and increasing expectations regarding accountability and transparency. The role of NFPs has also become more complex - they not only serve the disadvantaged and fulfil social needs but also actively advocate for and implement public policies and promote social and economic inclusion. The growth and complexity has brought with it a need for innovative and entrepreneurial approaches to leadership that stems from an in-depth understanding of the changing nonprofit landscape. Addressing this need, for Not for Profits and Social Enterprises will help readers navigate extant challenges by drawing on conceptual literature, both theoretical and empirical and emphasising practical real world experience through case studies and vignettes The key aim of this book is to help existing and future NFP leaders at all organisational levels to support their organisations and employees and in turn clients and communities, through theoretical insights and practical approaches by focusing on transformational leadership aspects for contemporary Not for Profits. for Not for Profits and Social Enterprises is key reading for researchers, academics and policy makers in the areas of Non-profit Management, Leadership, Public Sector Management and Charity Management as well as related disciplines such as Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship.

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.

This book, originally published in 1987, evaluates the human and managerial implications of new office information technology, based on the actual experiences of organisations using the new technology. A variety of issues are examined including those centred on the role of the manger, producitivity, unemployment, physical and mental health. Major emphasis is placed on describing and discussing the implementation of new technology and ways of utilization which maximise benefits.

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.

The knowledge economy is a notion that has been used, since the end of the last decade, to describe a new economic order perceived by scholars and practitioners. The authors argue that this order, triggered by new information and communication technologies, has resulted in a different set of challenges for effective management of the contemporary firm. Knowledge will play an important role in managing these challenges, with the onus being on new hardware and software as much as how businesses can be organised with regard to relationships with customers and suppliers. This book shows how 'intelligent management will be key to how internal operations can be organised in order to take advantage of opportunities brought about by new technologies. This change in management is discussed throughout the book from a wide array of perspectives ranging from contextual and philosophical aspects, through tools and methods to case studies concerning the organization of business, its management and application in the knowledge economy. Intelligent Management in the Knowledge Economy will be of great interest to academics and researchers of management - knowledge management in particular - ICT and organisational studies. Business practitioners will also find much to engage them within this book.

The three volumes of Interest Rate Modeling present a comprehensive and up-to-date treatment of techniques and models used in the pricing and risk management of fixed income securities. Written by two leading practitioners and seasoned industry veterans, this unique series combines finance theory, numerical methods, and approximation techniques to provide the reader with an integrated approach to the process of designing and implementing industrial-strength models for fixed income security valuation and hedging. Aiming to bridge the gap between advanced theoretical models and real-life trading applications, the pragmatic, yet rigorous, approach taken in this book will appeal to students, academics, and professionals working in quantitative finance. Volume I provides the theoretical and computational foundations for the series, emphasizing the construction of efficient grid- and simulation-based methods for contingent claims pricing. The second part of Volume I is dedicated to local-stochastic volatility modeling and to the construction of vanilla models for individual swap and Libor rates. Although the focus is eventually turned toward fixed income securities, much of the material in this volume applies to generic financial markets and will be of interest to anybody working in the general area of asset pricing.

This book outlines an integrative framework for business-model innovation in the paradigm of the Internet of Things. It elaborates several tools and methodologies for the quantitative, qualitative, analytical and effectual evaluation, and analyzes their applicability and efficiency for several phases of the business-model innovation process. As such, it provides guidance to managers, decision-makers and entrepreneurs on how to systematically employ the business-model concept with the aim of achieving sustainable competitive advantages. For researchers the book introduces cases and examples for successful business-model innovation and presents an integrated approach to the methods and tools applied.

This book undertakes to marry the concepts of "Concept Mapping" with a "Design Thinking" approach in the context of business analysis. While in the past a lot of attention has been paid to the business process side, this book now focusses information quality and valuation, master data and hierarchy management, business rules automation and business semantics as examples for business innovation opportunities. The book shows how to take "Business Concept Maps" further as information models for new IT paradigms. In a way this books redefines and extends business analysis towards solutions that can be described as business synthesis or business development. Business modellers, analysts and controllers, as well as enterprise information architects, will benefit from the intuitive modelling and designing approach presented in this book.Thepragmatic and agile methodspresented can be directly applied to improve the wayorganizations manage their business concepts and their relationships.

"This book is a great contribution to the information management community. It combines a theoretical foundation with practical methods for dealing with important problems. This is rare and very useful. Conceptual models that communicate business reality effectively require some degree of creative imagination. As such, they combine the results of business analysis with communication design, as is extensively covered in this book."

Dr. Malcolm Chisholm, President at AskGet.com Inc.

Truly understanding business requirements has always been a major stumbling block in business intelligence (BI) projects. In this book, Thomas Frisendal introduces a powerful technique business concept mapping that creates a virtual mind-meld between business users and business analysts. Frisendal does a wonderful explaining and demonstrating how this tool can improve the outcome of BI and other development projects ."

Wayne Eckerson, executive director, BI Leadership Forum

"

This book has two main goals: to define data science through the work of data scientists and their results, namely data products, while simultaneously providing the reader with relevant lessons learned from applied data science projects at the intersection of academia and industry. As such, it is not a replacement for a classical textbook (i.e., it does not elaborate on fundamentals of methods and principles described elsewhere), but systematically highlights the connection between theory, on the one hand, and its application in specific use cases, on the other. With these goals in mind, the book is divided into three parts: Part I pays tribute to the interdisciplinary nature of data science and provides a common understanding of data science terminology for readers with different backgrounds. These six chapters are geared towards drawing a consistent picture of data science and were predominantly written by the editors themselves. Part II then broadens the spectrum by presenting views and insights from diverse authors - some from academia and some from industry, ranging from financial to health and from manufacturing to e-commerce. Each of these chapters describes a fundamental principle, method or tool in data science by analyzing specific use cases and drawing concrete conclusions from them. The case studies presented, and the methods and tools applied, represent the nuts and bolts of data science. Finally, Part III was again written from the perspective of the editors and summarizes the lessons learned that have been distilled from the case studies in Part II. The section can be viewed as a meta-study on data science across a broad range of domains, viewpoints and fields. Moreover, it provides answers to the question of what the mission-critical factors for success in different data science undertakings are. The book targets professionals as well as students of data science: first, practicing data scientists in industry and academia who want to broaden their scope and expand their knowledge by drawing on the authors' combined experience. Second, decision makers in businesses who face the challenge of creating or implementing a data-driven strategy and who want to learn from success stories spanning a range of industries. Third, students of data science who want to understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of data science, vetted by real-world case studies at the intersection of academia and industry.

Social Mobility for the 21st Century addresses experiences of social mobility, and the detailed processes through which entrenched, intergenerationally transmitted privilege is reproduced. Contributions include (but are not limited to) family relationships, students' encounters with higher education, narratives of work careers, and 'mobility identities'. The book intends to challenge both the framework of the more traditional approach, and the politicisation of mobility which casts 'mobility' as a possession, a commodity or a character trait, and threatens to castigate the 'non-mobile' as carrying a personal responsibility for their situation. This book presents critical analyses of routes into social mobility, the experience of social mobility, and the political and social implications of social mobility's 'panacea' status. Drawing on the work of established scholars and more recent entrants, the chapters offer a fresh look at social mobility, opening up the topic to a wider readership among the profession and beyond, and stimulating further debate. This book will appeal to higher level students and scholars of sociology alike, as well as having a broad cross-disciplinary appeal.

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the many factors that influence the internationalisation of SMEs into China. SMEs represent more than 50 percent of the economic activity and employment in China. This book explores the experiences of SMEs that have internationalised to China from Australia. Australian SMEs are at the forefront of foreign SMEs in China with over 5000 Australian SMEs currently operating in China and a long history of association. The book is unique in that it presents a multidisciplinary perspective of the subject, considering seven different discipline perspectives (internationalisation, innovation, entrepreneurship, networks, resources, human resource management and barriers and liabilities). This makes the book one of the most comprehensive treatments of internationalisation to China so far. Each chapter in the book deals with a different perspective and includes own separate analysis. The chapters commence with a consideration of the current knowledge on internationalising to China for each perspective, analyse the interviews of representatives of 35 SMEs operating in China and then draw conclusions which are relevant to students, scholars and professionals. Each chapter includes extensive examples from the interviews. This integrated book is particularly useful for small business owners, international business management consultants, instructors and students.