Recent decades have seen substantial growth in the range of assistance programmes for SMEs and entrepreneurs across the world. Once regarded as peripheral to the economy and public policy, the role of small firms and of entrepreneurship is now recognized as of key importance in the economic growth and development strategies of many nations. The range of interventions and support focused on promoting SMEs and entrepreneurship is substantial and expanding, so Government, SMEs and Entrepreneurship Development asks 'what are some of the main policy instruments being used, and how effective are they?' It considers policies in different countries, examines key interventions and tools used to promote entrepreneurship and SME development and concludes with contributions on how to best evaluate their effectiveness. The contributor chapters by academics and practitioners from businesses, enterprise development agencies and governments, are empirical or evidence-based and use both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Drawing on experience from a wide range of both developed and emerging countries and economies, the contributions focus on the broad strategies that different governments and communities have adopted to foster entrepreneurship and SMEs; the policy tools and instruments that can be used to promote small business and entrepreneurship; and on the outcomes of policy instruments and the methods used to evaluate interventions. Their findings will help researchers, policy-makers, economic development officers, civil servants, elected officials, and business associations to better understand the issues in this important field.

This book can help overcome the widely observed math-phobia and math-aversion among undergraduate students in these subjects. The book can also help them understand why they have to learn different mathematical techniques, how they can be applied, and how they will equip the students in their further studies. The book provides a thorough but lucid exposition of most of the mathematical techniques applied in the fields of economics, business and finance. The book deals with topics right from high school mathematics to relatively advanced areas of integral calculus covering in the middle the topics of linear algebra; differential calculus; classical optimization; linear and nonlinear programming; and game theory. Though the book directly caters to the needs of undergraduate students in economics, business and finance, graduate students in these subjects will also definitely find the book an invaluable tool as a supplementary reading. The website of the book - ww.emeacollege.ac.in/bmebf - provides supplementary materials and further readings on chapters on difference equation, differential equations, elements of Mathematica (R), and graphics in Mathematica (R), . It also provides materials on the applications of Mathematica (R), as well as teacher and student manuals.

The Internet challenges many basic assumptions about the structure of business processes, channels of distribution, product marketing, competitiveness and resource management. It places new demands on organizations and those determining strategy and direction. There are tools and concepts that can enable managers to face these challenges and give them some appreciation of the consequences of this new technology. In this text, Dick Stroud looks at the business implications of the Internet at a strategic level. Without going into technical details, he looks at what is driving the development of the Internet and how it might impact on a number of aspects of an organization's operations. He then defines strategies that can be adopted and outlines the benefits and weaknesses of each, providing the diagnostic tools to enable managers to make decisions about their own businesses.

In this book, the author traces the origin of the present information technology revolution, the technological features that underlie its impact, the organizations, and the companies and technologies which are governing current and future growth. It explains how the technology works, how it fits together, how the industry is structured and what the future might bring.

Leadership has never been more important to the cultural industries. The arts, together with museums and heritage sites, play a vital part in keeping economies going, and, more importantly, in making life worth living. People in the sector face a constant challenge to find support for their organizations and to promote the value of culture. Leadership and management skills are needed to meet the mission of creative arts and cultural organizations, and to generate the income that underpins success. The problem is, where can you learn these essential skills? The Cultural Leadership Handbook written by Robert Hewison and John Holden, both prime movers in pioneering cultural leadership programmes, defines the specific challenges in the cultural sector and enables arts leaders to move from 'just' administration to becoming cultural entrepreneurs, turning good ideas into good business. This book is intended for anyone with a professional or academic interest anywhere in the cultural sector, anywhere in the world. It will give you the edge, enabling to you to show creative leadership at any level in a cultural organization, regardless of whether your particular interest is the performing arts, museums and art galleries, heritage, publishing, films, broadcasting or new media.

The most important theme of the discourse on sustainable development and sustainability challenges concerns the relationship between innovation and sustainability. This book represents a realistic critical overview of the state of affairs of sustainable innovations, offering an accessible and comprehensive diagnostic point of reference for both the academic and practitioner worlds. In order for sustainable innovation to truly become mainstream practice in business it is necessary to find out how organizations can strategically and efficiently accommodate sustainability and innovation in such a manner that they accomplish value capturing (for firms, stakeholders, and for society), not merely creating a return on the social responsibility agenda. Addressing this challenge, the book draws together research from a range of perspectives in order to understand the potential shifts and barriers, benefits, and outcomes from all angles: inception, strategic process, and impact for companies and society. The book also delivers insights of (open) innovation in public sector organizations, which is not so much a process of invention as it is one of adoption and diffusion. It examines how the environmental pillar of the triple bottom line in private firms is often a by-product of thinking about the economic pillar, where cost reductions may be achieved through process innovation in terms of eliminating waste and reducing energy consumption. The impact of open innovation on process innovation, and sustainable process innovation in particular, is an underexplored area but is examined in this book. It also considers the role of the individual entrepreneur in bringing about sustainable innovation; entrepreneurs, their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the innovation ecosystems they build play a significant role in generating sustainable innovations where these smaller organizations are much more flexible than large organizations in targeting societal needs and challenges. The readership will incorporate PhD students and postgraduate researchers, as well as practitioners from organizational advisory fields.

Ideas are the fuel of industry and the entertainment business. Likewise, manufacturers receive suggestions for new products or improvements to existing products, and retailers frequently receive ideas for new marketing campaigns. Many ideas are not new and may be used by anyone without the risk of incurring any legal liability, but some ideas are novel and valuable. If the originator of a potentially useful idea does not have the financial resources to exploit the idea, he or she may submit it to another, with the expectation of receiving compensation if the idea is used. Although an extensive body of intellectual property law exists to protect the rights of inventors, authors, and businesses that own valuable brands or confidential proprietary information, raw ideas receive no protection. Nevertheless, the originator of a potentially useful and marketable idea is not without legal recourse. The courts have developed, through a long line of common law precedents, legal protection for novel and concrete ideas under certain circumstances. The originator of an idea can rely on contract law, whereby the recipient may expressly or impliedly agree to pay for the idea. Alternatively, if the idea is disclosed in confidence, its unauthorized use by the recipient allows the originator of the idea to recover compensation. Finally, some courts have treated the ownership of ideas as quasi-property rights.

The research presented in this book discusses how to efficiently retrieve track and trace information for an item of interest that took a certain path through a complex network of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. To this end, a super-ordinate system called "Discovery Service" is designed that has to handle large amounts of data, high insert-rates, and a high number of queries that are submitted to the discovery service. An example that is used throughout this book is the European pharmaceutical supply chain, which faces the challenge that more and more counterfeit medicinal products are being introduced. Between October and December 2008, more than 34 million fake drug pills were detected at customs control at the borders of the European Union. These fake drugs can put lives in danger as they were supposed to fight cancer, take effect as painkiller or antibiotics, among others. The concepts described in this book can be adopted for supply chain management use cases other than track and trace, such as recall, supply chain optimization, or supply chain analytics.

Over the past two decades, many advances have been made in the decision support system (DSS) field. They range from progress in fundamental concepts, to improved techniques and methods, to widespread use of commercial software for DSS development. Still, the depth and breadth of the DSS field continues to grow, fueled by the need to better support decision making in a world that is increasingly complex in terms of volume, diversity, and interconnectedness of the knowledge on which decisions can be based. This continuing growth is facilitated by increasing computer power and decreasing per-unit computing costs. But, it is spearheaded by the multifaceted efforts of DSS researchers. The collective work of these researchers runs from the speculative to the normative to the descriptive. It includes analysis of what the field needs, designs of means for meeting recognized needs, and implementations for study. It encompasses theoretical, empirical, and applied orientations. It is concerned with the invention of concepts, frameworks, models, and languages for giving varied, helpful perspectives. It involves the discovery of principles, methods, and techniques for expeditious construction of successful DSSs. It aims to create computer-based tools that facilitate DSS development. It assesses DSS efficacy by observing systems, their developers, and their users. This growing body of research continues to be fleshed out and take shape on a strong, but still-developing, skeletal foundation.

The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the design of computer and communication systems that can aid the management process. 1.1 Historical Overview We propose that Decision Support System can be considered as a design conception conceived within the computer industry to facilitate the use of computer technology in organisations (Keen, 1991). This framework, built during the late 1970s, offers computer and communication technology as support to the decision process which constitutes, in this view, the core of the management process. The DSS framework offers the following capabilities: * Access: ease of use, wide variety of data, analysis and modelling capacity. * Technological: software gel)eration tools. * Development modes: interactive and evolutionary. Within this perspective, computer and communication technologies are seen as an amplification of the human data processing capabilities which limit the decision process. Thus, the human being is understood metaphorically as a data processing machine. Mental processes are associated with the manipulation of symbols aOO human communication to signal transmission.

Business information systems and business information technology are integral aspects of modern business, and managers in these areas are now expected to have knowledge of human and managerial issues, as well as technical ones. This concise and readable book is a level-by-level primer that addresses the core subjects in business information systems and business information technology to enhance students' understanding of the key areas. Each chapter begins with a case study and features at the end: a summary of major points, glossary of terms, suggested further reading and student activities. Some areas covered include: Different functional areas of business, including accounting, HRM and marketing Development and implementation of information systems Methods to support the analysis and design of policy and practice Strategic management to align information technology with organizational needs Covering the subject matter in a highly accessible manner, this is an ideal text for both undergraduate and masters students on business information systems, business information technology and business information management courses. This text is supplemented with over 900 detailed powerpoint slides for instructors, accessible via the Routledge Instructor Resource page at http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/instructordownload/

Software product lines represent perhaps the most exciting paradigm shift in software development since the advent of high-level programming languages. Nowhere else in software engineering have we seen such breathtaking improvements in cost, quality, time to market, and developer productivity, often registering in the order-of-magnitude range. Here, the authors combine academic research results with real-world industrial experiences, thus presenting a broad view on product line engineering so that both managers and technical specialists will benefit from exposure to this work. They capture the wealth of knowledge that eight companies have gathered during the introduction of the software product line engineering approach in their daily practice.

Global Enterprise Transitions: Managing the Process addresses the importance of information technology management and issues in operating information systems in the global dynamic business environment. This book embraces discussions of the global information technology theory, frameworks and IT architecture, discovery of global knowledge management, improvement of the global information systems development methodologies, and applications of the latest technologies such as mobile technology and web services in the global information systems development and operations.

This book provides a coherent overview of the most important modelling-related security techniques available today, and demonstrates how to combine them. Further, it describes an integrated set of systematic practices that can be used to achieve increased security for software from the outset, and combines practical ways of working with practical ways of distilling, managing, and making security knowledge operational. The book addresses three main topics: (1) security requirements engineering, including security risk management, major activities, asset identification, security risk analysis and defining security requirements; (2) secure software system modelling, including modelling of context and protected assets, security risks, and decisions regarding security risk treatment using various modelling languages; and (3) secure system development, including effective approaches, pattern-driven development, and model-driven security. The primary target audience of this book is graduate students studying cyber security, software engineering and system security engineering. The book will also benefit practitioners interested in learning about the need to consider the decisions behind secure software systems. Overall it offers the ideal basis for educating future generations of security experts.

The Remote Work Handbook: The Definitive Guide for Operationalizing Remote Work as a Competitive Business Strategy is for readers seeking to leverage the business benefits of a flexible, remote workforce. It is a practical guide for building and implementing remote work at any size organization. C-suite executives, operation leaders, business owners, or entrepreneurs who recognize the workplace is changing can use it to re-tool their operations for a strategic business advantage. Mari Anne Snow, the author, is a recognized remote work expert with over 20 years of experience leading remote teams and has re-written the rules of leadership to unlock the potential in remote and distributed teams. In this book, she shares all her secrets. The book explores the untapped potential of remote teams and lays out the business case for adopting a new, flexible workplace model to build organizational resilience and a competitive edge. It takes the reader through the step-by-step process of constructing a remote work operating model, staging an implementation, then institutionalizing and sustaining the change. It includes down-to-earth professional and personal stories that alert the reader to the top priorities and operational realities they will face as they craft their own implementation plan for operationalizing remote work at their company.

This proceedings volume brings together the results of a corporate discussion on research, academic teaching and education in the field of business and economics in the context of globalization. The contributions examine leadership and sustainability, quality and governance and the internationalization of higher education. With a particular focus on business education and business schools, the book discusses the labor market and modernization as well as contemporary trends and challenges. By including both academic papers and contributions from industry, it forges research links between academia, business and industry.

Advanced Topics in Global Information Management is a series of books that examine global information management (GIM), and its research and implications. GIM research continues to progress, with some scholars pushing the boundaries of thinking and others challenging the status quo. ""Advanced Topics in Global Information Management, Volume 5"" is a part of this series. ""Advanced Topics in Global Information Management, Volume 5"" discusses how many businesses exist in a global environment. Whether they are large or small companies, they may have suppliers or customers that reside in different geographical locations. The ability to function in this global environment has been facilitated by the use of information technology. Through research projects, this book addresses the ability of both large and small business, and government, from the national level to local level, to function in altered environments by using information technology. In all of these situations, both businesses and governments must be able to function and respond to various stakeholders by adopting the appropriate, and necessary, cultural perspective.

Presented are innovative teaching and learning techniques for the teaching of knowledge-based paradigms. The main knowledge-based intelligent paradigms are expert systems, artificial neural networks, fuzzy systems and evolutionary computing. Expert systems are designed to mimic the performance of biological systems. Artificial neural networks can mimic the biological information processing mechanism in a very limited sense. Evolutionary computing algorithms are used for optimization applications, and fuzzy logic provides a basis for representing uncertain and imprecise knowledge.

"[A] valuable addition[s] to the stock of material available for fledgling social scientists. Lewis-Bec?s book is best for early nurture. . . "

--Eric Tanenbaum in ESRC Data Archive Bulletin

"This book, I predict, will turn the statistics-shy into eager practitioners, and skillful ones to boot. . . . It?s a masterpiece of clarity and appliedness, written in a refreshing and engaging style. Not only is a lot of ground covered--as much as can be packed into a first-semester course in data analysis--but the author also grapples with issues of statistical theory (specification error, collinearity, least-squares estimation)."

--Helmet Norpoth, SUNY at Stony Brook

"This is a very fine book that will make an excellent addition to the Sage quantitative application series. It does a nice job of illustrating how data analysis is conducted by taking a simple, easy-to-motivate example and following it through the entire gamut of data analysis steps."

--Herbert Weisberg, The Ohio State University

Written at a level appropriate for the advanced undergraduate course on data analysis, this accessible volume introduces the reader to the "art" of data analysis from data-gathering to multiple regression in which a dependent variable is influenced by several independent variables. The book focuses on the interpretation of a statistical result, in particular those that come from nonexperimental social research. Using a consistent data set throughout the book in order to illustrate the various analytic techniques, the author covers such topics as univariate statistics, measures of association, the statistical significance of the relationship between two variables, and simple regression where the dependent variable is influenced by a single independent variable. The last chapter offers analysis recommendations. Data Analysis will provide social science researchers with the tools to select and evaluate statistical tests appropriate for their particular research question.

Here's a broad, integrated view of existing communications technologies available world-wide -- including the Internet and Web, digital mobile telephony, ISDN, SMDS, frame relay, and ATM -- from a practical business perspective. Covering both private and public networks, the book offers a basic explanation of a wide range of technologies and describes their underlying principles and features, as well as the factors that differentiate them. The guide also showcases typical applications, exposes inherent limitations, explains pricing and methods of comparison, and discusses security pitfalls and protection systems.

Charged with ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and delivery of all forms of an entity's information, Information Assurance (IA) professionals require a fundamental understanding of a wide range of specializations, including digital forensics, fraud examination, systems engineering, security risk management, privacy, and compliance. Establishing this understanding and keeping it up to date requires a resource with coverage as diverse as the field it covers. Filling this need, the Encyclopedia of Information Assurance presents an up-to-date collection of peer-reviewed articles and references written by authorities in their fields. From risk management and privacy to auditing and compliance, the encyclopedia's four volumes provide comprehensive coverage of the key topics related to information assurance. This complete IA resource: Supplies the understanding needed to help prevent the misuse of sensitive information Explains how to maintain the integrity of critical systems Details effective tools, techniques, and methods for protecting personal and corporate data against the latest threats Provides valuable examples, case studies, and discussions on how to address common and emerging IA challenges Placing the wisdom of leading researchers and practitioners at your fingertips, this authoritative reference provides the knowledge and insight needed to avoid common pitfalls and stay one step ahead of evolving threats. Also Available OnlineThis Taylor & Francis encyclopedia is also available through online subscription, offering a variety of extra benefits for researchers, students, and librarians, including: Citation tracking and alerts Active reference linking Saved searches and marked lists HTML and PDF format options Contact Taylor and Francis for more information or to inquire about subscription options and print/online combination packages. US: (Tel) 1.888.318.2367; (E-mail) [email protected] International: (Tel) +44 (0) 20 7017 6062; (E-mail) [email protected]

This is a compilation of papers presented at the Information System Concepts conference in Marburg, Germany. The special focus is consolidation and harmonisation of the numerous and widely diverging views in the field of information systems. This issue has become a hot topic, as many leading information system researchers and practitioners come to realise the importance of better communication among the members of the information systems community, and of a better scientific foundation of this rapidly evolving field.

Current database technology and computer hardware allow us to gather, store, access, and manipulate massive volumes of raw data in an efficient and inexpensive manner. In addition, the amount of data collected and warehoused in all industries is growing every year at a phenomenal rate. Nevertheless, our ability to discover critical, non-obvious nuggets of useful information in data that could influence or help in the decision making process, is still limited. Knowledge discovery (KDD) and Data Mining (DM) is a new, multidisciplinary field that focuses on the overall process of information discovery from large volumes of data. The field combines database concepts and theory, machine learning, pattern recognition, statistics, artificial intelligence, uncertainty management, and high-performance computing. To remain competitive, businesses must apply data mining techniques such as classification, prediction, and clustering using tools such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, and decision trees to facilitate making strategic decisions on a daily basis. Knowledge Discovery for Business Information Systems contains a collection of 16 high quality articles written by experts in the KDD and DM field from the following countries: Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Hong Kong), Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, Singapore and USA.

Data mining is the process of extracting hidden patterns from data, and it's commonly used in business, bioinformatics, counter-terrorism, and, increasingly, in professional sports. First popularized in Michael Lewis' best-selling Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game, it is has become an intrinsic part of all professional sports the world over, from baseball to cricket to soccer. While an industry has developed based on statistical analysis services for any given sport, or even for betting behavior analysis on these sports, no research-level book has considered the subject in any detail until now. Sports Data Mining brings together in one place the state of the art as it concerns an international array of sports: baseball, football, basketball, soccer, greyhound racing are all covered, and the authors (including Hsinchun Chen, one of the most esteemed and well-known experts in data mining in the world) present the latest research, developments, software available, and applications for each sport. They even examine the hidden patterns in gaming and wagering, along with the most common systems for wager analysis.

This book examines the requirements, risks, and solutions to improve the security and quality of complex cyber-physical systems (C-CPS), such as production systems, power plants, and airplanes, in order to ascertain whether it is possible to protect engineering organizations against cyber threats and to ensure engineering project quality. The book consists of three parts that logically build upon each other. Part I "Product Engineering of Complex Cyber-Physical Systems" discusses the structure and behavior of engineering organizations producing complex cyber-physical systems, providing insights into processes and engineering activities, and highlighting the requirements and border conditions for secure and high-quality engineering. Part II "Engineering Quality Improvement" addresses quality improvements with a focus on engineering data generation, exchange, aggregation, and use within an engineering organization, and the need for proper data modeling and engineering-result validation. Lastly, Part III "Engineering Security Improvement" considers security aspects concerning C-CPS engineering, including engineering organizations' security assessments and engineering data management, security concepts and technologies that may be leveraged to mitigate the manipulation of engineering data, as well as design and run-time aspects of secure complex cyber-physical systems. The book is intended for several target groups: it enables computer scientists to identify research issues related to the development of new methods, architectures, and technologies for improving quality and security in multi-disciplinary engineering, pushing forward the current state of the art. It also allows researchers involved in the engineering of C-CPS to gain a better understanding of the challenges and requirements of multi-disciplinary engineering that will guide them in their future research and development activities. Lastly, it offers practicing engineers and managers with engineering backgrounds insights into the benefits and limitations of applicable methods, architectures, and technologies for selected use cases.