Innovation, agility, and coordination are paramount in the support of value in the global knowledge economy. Therefore, the long-term success of a company is increasingly dependent on its underlying resilience and agility. ""Knowledge Reuse and Agile Processes"" addresses flexibility of both business and information systems through component technology at the nexus of three seemingly unrelated disciplines: service-oriented architecture, knowledge management, and business process management. Providing practitioners and academicians with timely, compelling research on agile, adaptive processes and information systems, this premier reference source will enhance the collection of every reference library.

This book examines how fuzzy methods can be employed to manage service levels in business and IT alignment. It starts by mapping the dependencies of service level agreements, coming up with gradual and bi-polar concepts to eventually classify the level of coupling by intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The second part presents an approach to analyze the impact of service failures using intuitionistic fuzzy methods (IFSFIA). Lastly, the third part of the book extends the concept towards business and IT-aligned service-level engineering and provides two use cases.

Like the first edition,Competing in the Information Age: Align in the Sand, Second Edition, synthesizes for practicing managers the compelling, recent work in this area, with themes that focus on the continuous transformation in business, the adoption of information intensive management practices, the improvement of information processing, and the alignment of business strategy and information technology strategy. Information technology management is now considered a core competency among managers. Rapid advancements in technology, dynamic markets, and the changing business environment have created increased demand for professionals who can manage and deliver information systems. Information systems professionalsChief Information Officers, Chief Knowledge Officers, as well as CFOs and CEOsare required to lead and evolve information resources while partnering with corporate management. This book shows IT professionals how to help their organizations achieve success through alignment and deployment of business and IT strategies.

Stress is defined as a feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize. It can occur due to environmental issues, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, for example, persistent worry about familial problems. While the acute response to life-threatening circumstances can be life-saving, research reveals that the body's stress response is largely similar when it reacts to less threatening but chronically present stressors such as work overload, deadline pressures and family conflicts. It is proffered that chronic activation of stress response in the body can lead to several pathological changes such as elevated blood pressure, clogging of blood vessels, anxiety, depression, and addiction. Organizational Stress Around the World: Research and Practice aims to present a sound theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the evolving and changing nature of stress in contemporary organizations. It presents research that expands theory and practice by addressing real-world issues, across cultures and by providing multiple perspectives on organizational stress and research relevant to different occupational settings and cultures. Personal, occupational, organizational, and societal issues relevant to stress identification along with management techniques/approach to confront stress and its associated problems at individual and organizational level are also explored. It will be of value to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students interested in stress management research.

Foundations of Social Entrepreneurship presents definitions of social entrepreneurship, explains its benefits and challenges, describes the components of an ecosystem of support, and presents practical tools to approach social entrepreneurial projects. It is designed to be easily approachable by anyone without prior in-depth knowledge of the subject. The book is divided into two parts; the first provides readers with theoretical foundations to understand the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, its different interpretations, the context in which it developed, and its socio-economic function. The second part of the book covers what it takes to create and manage a social entrepreneurial initiative. Pedagogical features are incorporated throughout to aid learning. They include summary tables, international case studies of social entrepreneurs from both developed and emerging economies, as well as suggested exercises and examples of how the tools presented are used in practice. Truly global in its scope, with a strong emphasis on combining theory with practice, this text should be core reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Social Entrepreneurship, Enterprise, and Responsible Business. Online resources include links to resources, chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides and instructor's manual.

This handbook brings together a variety of approaches to the uses of big data in multiple fields, primarily science, medicine, and business. This single resource features contributions from researchers around the world from a variety of fields, where they share their findings and experience. This book is intended to help spur further innovation in big data. The research is presented in a way that allows readers, regardless of their field of study, to learn from how applications have proven successful and how similar applications could be used in their own field. Contributions stem from researchers in fields such as physics, biology, energy, healthcare, and business. The contributors also discuss important topics such as fraud detection, privacy implications, legal perspectives, and ethical handling of big data.

Foundations of Social Entrepreneurship presents definitions of social entrepreneurship, explains its benefits and challenges, describes the components of an ecosystem of support, and presents practical tools to approach social entrepreneurial projects. It is designed to be easily approachable by anyone without prior in-depth knowledge of the subject. The book is divided into two parts; the first provides readers with theoretical foundations to understand the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship, its different interpretations, the context in which it developed, and its socio-economic function. The second part of the book covers what it takes to create and manage a social entrepreneurial initiative. Pedagogical features are incorporated throughout to aid learning. They include summary tables, international case studies of social entrepreneurs from both developed and emerging economies, as well as suggested exercises and examples of how the tools presented are used in practice. Truly global in its scope, with a strong emphasis on combining theory with practice, this text should be core reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying Social Entrepreneurship, Enterprise, and Responsible Business. Online resources include links to resources, chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides and instructor's manual.

As the global economy turns more and more service oriented, Information Technology-Enabled Services (ITeS) require greater understanding. Increasing numbers and varieties of services are provided through IT. Furthermore, IT enables the creation of new services in diverse fields previously untouched. Because of the catalyzing nature of internet technology, ITeS today has become more than "Outsourcing" of services. This book illustrates the enabling nature of ITeS with its entailment of IT, thus contributing to the betterment of humanity. The scope of this book is not only for academia but also for business persons, government practitioners and readers from daily lives. Authors from a variety of nations and regions with various backgrounds provide insightful theories, research, findings and practices in various fields such as commerce, finance, medical services, government and education. This book opens up a new horizon with the application of Internet-based practices in business, government and in daily lives. Information Technology-Enabled Services works as a navigator for those who sail to the new horizon of service oriented economies.

Exploring the interplay of politics and commerce in one of the most dynamic periods of British history, this book traces the fortunes of the India and Eastern Trading Company Limited, established in 1906 to finance a jute plantation in Assam, north-east India. In a watershed period for commercial culture, as family capitalism and industrial economics gave way to a predominance of speculative investment and the marketing of ideas, analysis of this London-registered company and its international management forms a lens through which to view the broader socio-political and economic environment of the late-Victorian period to the interwar. Mapping the eclectic bonds that created a network of association between a multinational cast of merchants, company promoters, mining engineers, politicians and industrialists, reveals the multiplicity of strands which coalesced to create one share company. By examining their responses to the opportunities created by colonialism: to enabling legislations and set-backs, to competition and collaboration, internationalism versus rising nationalism, an important era in British history is examined from an entirely fresh perspective. The history of the India and Eastern Trading Company Limited is a tale of cloaked agendas, of land speculation under the guise of colonial agriculture, of German and Russian interests embedded in British-empire prospects, which exposes the intrigues of some of the most infamous imperialists of the era; figures who were the subject of intense academic scrutiny throughout the twentieth century and remain at the forefront of impassioned debate in the twenty first.

The figure of the entrepreneur has become a relevant factor that explains the process of growth and economic development. Rising unemployment rates have generated among institutional and private agents, a significant interest in promoting entrepreneurship as a formula to eradicate this social scourge of unemployment. Active policies that favor business culture and initiative are being promoted in all areas. In the university world, academic research has multiplied the work on entrepreneurship, a term that includes a triple meaning: the figure of the entrepreneur, the business function and the creation of companies. This versatile meaning must be based on a consistent theory about the company and the entrepreneur. This book presents specific cases of companies and entrepreneurs that have had their role throughout the history of Spain. The intention is to show the techniques and learning acquired by those agents, which have allowed a considerable advance in the knowledge of the structure and business development. This book brings together the research carried out by its authors with primary sources and makes it accessible to a wide audience-Spanish and Latin American-and will be of value to researchers, academics, and students with an interest in Spanish entrepreneurship, business, and management history.

This book analyses quantitative open source software (OSS) reliability assessment and its applications, focusing on three major topic areas: the Fundamentals of OSS Quality/Reliability Measurement and Assessment; the Practical Applications of OSS Reliability Modelling; and Recent Developments in OSS Reliability Modelling. Offering an ideal reference guide for graduate students and researchers in reliability for open source software (OSS) and modelling, the book introduces several methods of reliability assessment for OSS including component-oriented reliability analysis based on analytic hierarchy process (AHP), analytic network process (ANP), and non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) models, the stochastic differential equation models and hazard rate models. These measurement and management technologies are essential to producing and maintaining quality/reliable systems using OSS.

Foundations of Family Resource Management uses the lenses of consumer science, management, and economics, and beyond to help students make intelligent decisions about resources, time, and energies at the individual and family level. It has a strong interdisciplinary, global, and multicultural focus. This sixth edition brings in new material on millennials, delayed marriage, household composition, neuroscience, behavioral economics, sustainable consumption, technology, and handling crises. It has been updated in line with the latest census data and academic literature. The text contains lots of features to support student learning, including chapter summaries, "Did You Know?" questions, glossary of key terms, examples and cases, critical thinking activities, and review questions for discussion and reflection. Lecture slides and an instructor manual are available as digital supplements. This textbook meets the standards and criteria for the Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) designation of the National Council on Family Relations (NCFR) and will be suitable for resource management courses in family and consumer science, human ecology, and human environmental science programs.

Multicriteria analysis is a rapidly growing aspect of operations research and management science, with numerous practical applications in a wide range of fields. This book presents all the recent advances in multicriteria analysis, including multicriteria optimization, goal programming, outranking methods, and disaggregation techniques. The latest developments on robustness analysis, preference elicitation, and decision making when faced with incomplete information, are also discussed, together with applications in business performance evaluation, finance, and marketing. Finally, the interactions of multicriteria analysis with other disciplines are also explored, including among others data mining, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary methods.

There are two types of readers that will find this book useful: those who have an interest in the Metadatabase model as an integration technology, and those who also seek a general discussion on information system analysis and design. To this end, a general conceptual framework on enterprise integration and modeling is provided in the first chapter, and is used to tie together all of the remaining chapters of the book. The next two chapters present some basics and examples of systems analysis and design for enterprise modeling; which serve the purposes of general discussion on the subject as well as illustrating the modeling methods particular to the Metadatabase approach. The particular methods are discussed fully in Chapter 4. An overview of the Metadatabase Model is provided in Chapter 5 and illustrated with a paper demonstration' of a basic Metadatabase prototype in Chapter 6. The main technical elements of the model are presented in Chapters 7-9. The model is then applied to manufacturing in Chapter 10, where a core information model for implementing the Metadatabase approach to integration is also included. Chapter 11 extends the Metadatabase technology into the realm of information visualization. The new user interface model developed can be applied to integrate the traditional management of information in an enterprise with new cyberspace applications such as electronic commerce. The Metadatabase model of enterprise information integration (for multiple systems) has been developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute under the sponsorships of Alcoa, Digital, GE, GM, and IBM (from 1986-1995 through the Computer-Integrated Manufacturing and the Adaptive Integrated ManufacturingEnterprises programs), the National Science Foundation (since 1991), Samsung (since 1995), and U.S. Army (since 1995). The technology is being developed into a product for Samsung and the Army. This is the first expository book on the topic.

The hunt for new forms of value generation is shaping the future of economic and financial interactions, leading to the emergence of innovative business models and technological enablers. Other than challenging our time and space limits, such technological advancements, in some cases, have allowed the generation of value at nearly zero marginal cost. Inevitably, emergent tech solutions are fundamental game changers in digital and conventional finance. In this regard, the book fleshes out the core developments and trending fintech 2.0 solutions that pause challenges and bring opportunities for businesses and economies. It comprises nine main chapters with collective insights and interdisciplinary perspectives covering the business, tech, and regulatory layers of financial technologies and decentralized finance. Besides, the book illustrates how to leverage these state-of-the-art technologies for the evolving digital and decentralized finance world. The book targets a broad audience of researchers, academia, industry professionals, fintech enthusiasts, and the general business audience with timely data and up-to-date cases.

This book explores the premise that organizations are significantly influenced by their inter-organizational relationships; moreover, these relationships may generate important externalities, both positive and negative, impacting the environment at several levels. The advent of the Internet era, on the other hand, has resulted in disruptive changes in traditional inter-organizational networks, and some completely new inter-organizational settings are now arising. In its first part the book reviews the most commonly cited theories explaining inter-organizational phenomena: transaction costs economics, agency theory, resource dependence theory, game theories, collaborative networks theory, institutional theories, organizational ecology, resource-based / relational-based view of the firm, and knowledge network / social network theories. In Part II it thoroughly reviews the literature on a number of key IT-enabled inter-organizational systems currently on the rise, such as virtual organizations, e-intermediators and e-marketplaces. Lastly, Part III presents the case of the Yoox Group, a leading firm offering e-commerce services for fashion and design products. A framework is proposed for systematically linking the different possible types of inter-organizational relationships to specific, suitable sets of theories. The range of possible inter-organizational relationships is described on the basis of three pairs of opposites: conformism-breach, exploitation-exploration, and cooperation-competition. This results in a model that makes it possible to combine different theories in order to study the effects of inter-organizational ambidexterity and dynamism on performance.

This book draws new attention to domain-specific conceptual modeling by presenting the work of thought leaders who have designed and deployed specific modeling methods. It provides hands-on guidance on how to build models in a particular domain, such as requirements engineering, business process modeling or enterprise architecture. In addition to these results, it also puts forward ideas for future developments. All this is enriched with exercises, case studies, detailed references and further related information. All domain-specific methods described in this volume also have a tool implementation within the OMiLAB Collaborative Environment - a dedicated research and experimentation space for modeling method engineering at the University of Vienna, Austria - making these advances accessible to a wider community of further developers and users. The collection of works presented here will benefit experts and practitioners from academia and industry alike, including members of the conceptual modeling community as well as lecturers and students.

Many recent advances in modelling within the applied sciences and engineering have focused on the increasing importance of sensitivity analyses. For a given physical, financial or environmental model, increased emphasis is now placed on assessing the consequences of changes in model outputs that result from small changes or errors in both the hypotheses and parameters. The approach proposed in this book is entirely new and features two main characteristics. Even when extremely small, errors possess biases and variances. The methods presented here are able, thanks to a specific differential calculus, to provide information about the correlation between errors in different parameters of the model, as well as information about the biases introduced by non-linearity. The approach makes use of very powerful mathematical tools (Dirichlet forms), which allow one to deal with errors in infinite dimensional spaces, such as spaces of functions or stochastic processes. The method is therefore applicable to non-elementary models along the lines of those encountered in modern physics and finance. This text has been drawn from presentations of research done over the past ten years and that is still ongoing. The work was presented in conjunction with a course taught jointly at the Universities of Paris 1 and Paris 6. The book is intended for students, researchers and engineers with good knowledge in probability theory.

Enterprise Modelling (EM) methods are frequently used by entrepreneurs as an analysis tool for describing and redesigning their businesses. The resulting product, an enterprise model, is commonly used as a blueprint for reconstructing organizations and such effort is often a part of business process re-engineering and improvement initiatives.

Automating Business Modelling describes different techniques of providing automated support for enterprise modelling methods and introduces universally used approaches. A running example of a business modelling method is included; providing a framework and detailed explanation as to how to construct automated support for modelling, allowing readers to follow the method to create similar support.

Suitable for senior undergraduates and postgraduates of Business Studies, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, practitioners in the fields of Knowledge Management, Enterprise Modelling and Software Engineering, this book offers insight and know-how to both student and professional.

Der Sammelband vereinigt Beitrage von uber 50 Autorinnen und Autoren aus Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Informatik und Mathematik zu aktuellen und grund--legenden Problemen und Losungsansatzen der intelligenten Entscheidungs--unterstutzung in Unternehmen und erscheint zum 65. Geburtstag von Hermann Gehring, Professor fur Wirtschaftsinformatik an der FernUniversitat in Hagen.

This book addresses action research (AR), one of the main research methodologies used for academia-industry research collaborations. It elaborates on how to find the right research activities and how to distinguish them from non-significant ones. Further, it details how to glean lessons from the research results, no matter whether they are positive or negative. Lastly, it shows how companies can evolve and build talents while expanding their product portfolio. The book's structure is based on that of AR projects; it sequentially covers and discusses each phase of the project. Each chapter shares new insights into AR and provides the reader with a better understanding of how to apply it. In addition, each chapter includes a number of practical use cases or examples. Taken together, the chapters cover the entire software lifecycle: from problem diagnosis to project (or action) planning and execution, to documenting and disseminating results, including validity assessments for AR studies. The goal of this book is to help everyone interested in industry-academia collaborations to conduct joint research. It is for students of software engineering who need to learn about how to set up an evaluation, how to run a project, and how to document the results. It is for all academics who aren't afraid to step out of their comfort zone and enter industry. It is for industrial researchers who know that they want to do more than just develop software blindly. And finally, it is for stakeholders who want to learn how to manage industrial research projects and how to set up guidelines for their own role and expectations.

Overcome math anxiety and confidently master key mathematical concepts and their business applications with Brechner's CONTEMPORARY MATHEMATICS FOR BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS, 6th Edition, International Edition. This book's unique modular approach invites readers into a successful, interactive learning experience with numerous real business examples and integrated CengageNOW with MathCue (TM) learning technology. Step-by-step instructions, worked-out problems, and engaging learning features help readers progress one topic at a time without being intimidated or overwhelmed. Thousands of exercises offer practice with Excel (R), common business scenarios, and calculators. The accompanying MathCue tutorial software provides additional step-by-step solutions for more than 15,000 questions to further ensure targeted assistance in areas where readers may struggle. The CONTEMPORARY MATHEMATICS FOR BUSINESS AND CONSUMERS, 6th Edition, International Edition text and software provide the support and confidence for success in business math today.

Information technology has had a major impact on individuals, organizations and society over the past 50 years. There are few organizations that can afford to ignore IT and few individuals who would prefer to be without it. As managerial tasks become more complex, so the nature of the required information systems (IS) changes - from structured, routine support to ad hoc, complex enquiries at the highest levels of management. Global Information Systems aims to present the many complex and inter-related issues associated with culture in the management of information systems.
The editors have selected a wide range of contemporary articles from leading experts in North America and Europe that represent a wide variety of different national and cultural environments. They offer valid explanations for, rather than simply pointing out cultural differences in articles that cover a variety of national cultures, including: China, Egypt, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Jamaica, Peru South Korea, Kuwait, Mexico, Singapore, Sweden, the United Arab Emirate, the UK, and the US.
* Provides students with insight into managing global firms and IT workforce
* Contributions are carefully selected from universities of world renown and is supported by helpful introductions for each paper
* Reflects current trends and debates around Global IS

* First new guide on franchising in over 10 years * Employs proprietary dataset for a research-backed and practical approach * Enables students to prepare their own feasibility analyses and growth strategies to enter this booming sector

Everyone in an organization, from cleaner to CEO, has expert knowledge. Yet only a fraction of it can be codified and expressed explicitly as facts and rules. A little more is visible implicitly as accepted procedures, but even this is only the beginning. Submerged beneath the explicit and implicit levels is a vast iceberg of tacit knowledge that cannot be reliably accessed by traditional analytical approaches. And yet, without it, organizational learning means little.

Interweaving theory with practical guidance, this book looks at the importance of tacit knowledge and shows how it is now being put in motion through groundbreaking analogical thinking methods. Chief among these is the Dialogue Seminar, developed by the editors, in which learning is seen as arising from encounters with differences.

There can be no consensus on the value of corporate knowledge until what is meant by that knowledge is discussed and defined. Based on two decades of research and a host of practical cases, this book offers a way forward.

"Goranzon argues that the question of whether machines can think is not the right question to ask. The more important question, he believes, is the impact of automation on work and human skills, and he is looking for a way of describing skills that allows us to discuss this question."
--Janet Vaux, "New Scientist"

"A Swedish initiave to rethink the relationship between learning and work."
--Rolf Hughes, "The Times Higher Education"