The authors bring a dual perspective--that of a practicing consultant and that of a professor of economics--to the complex strategic questions facing managers and corporate leaders who want their firms to get the most out of their investments in information technology. The information economy is built upon the myriad and sometimes unforeseen ways in which information technologies have become engines of productivity in themselves, rather than just fancy adjuncts. In explaining the rise of the information economy, the authors provide not only valuable context often missing from today's discussions but also a thorough understanding of the origination, development, and diffusion process of innovations. They also examine prevailing practices and implications for the future, including the potential pitfalls common to some information technology strategies. Relying on an underpinning of economic theory combined with heavy empirical analysis, Kudyba and Diwan describe the true nature of the information economy, paying as much attention to its particularities as to its more profound implications. How is information technology being implemented across industry sectors, and how can it be harnessed to improve overall firm-level productivity? How have innovations in high technology impacted e-commerce? Which e-commerce strategies prevail, and what can be expected of them? How can traditional economic theory help managers evaluate such in-vogue strategies as customer relationship management, market exchanges, and supply chain management? The authors answer these questions and more, including one of the most vexing in the short history of e-commerce: What led to the demise of so many technology stocksand dot-coms following the spring 2000 Nasdaq plunge, and what are the longer-term prospects for e-business?

An idea is the first step in the process of creating a business. Most ideas, no matter how brilliant they may seem, never actually end up becoming a business. This book explains how to: Look for new small business ideas. Evaluate ideas for their commercial potential. Unlock the strategies that turn an idea into a business. English's focus is on finding the seed of an idea and the process of developing it into a genuine business opportunity. He includes practical diagnostic 'reality tests' developed in his small business workshops. He also includes an analysis of changes in the Australian small business environment as result of Covid-19. The practical, slim volume is ideal for any budding entrepreneur looking for guidance on how to evaluate a business opportunity and build a commercial strategy around it. It will also be an ideal secondary reading for books on entrepreneurship and small business courses.

In Principles of Marketology, Volume 1: Theory , Aghazadeh explores the definition, origins and framework of a new methodology for helping organizations better understand their market and competition.

This book addresses and examines the impacts of applications and services for data management and analysis, such as infrastructure, platforms, software, and business processes, on both academia and industry. The chapters cover effective approaches in dealing with the inherent complexity and increasing demands of big data management from an applications perspective. Various case studies included have been reported by data analysis experts who work closely with their clients in such fields as education, banking, and telecommunications. Understanding how data management has been adapted to these applications will help students, instructors and professionals in the field. Application areas also include the fields of social network analysis, bioinformatics, and the oil and gas industries.

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

Is the Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) knowledge management's killer app? Leading expert Joseph M. Firestone, the first author to formulate the idea of the Enterprise Knowledge Portal, breaks new ground and looks to the future with a practical, but comprehensive approach to enterprise portals and their relationship to knowledge management. Providing a clear and novel overview, Firestone tackles a wide range of topics ranging from functional EIP applications, estimating costs and benefits of EIPs, variations in EIP technical architecture, the role of intelligent agents, the nature of knowledge management, portal product/solution segmentation, portal product case studies, to the future of the EIP space.
'Enterprise Information Portals and Knowledge Management' is the book on portals you've been waiting for. It is the only book that thoroughly considers, explores, and analyzes:
* The EIP orientation, outlook and evolution
* A new methodology for estimating EIP benefits and costs
* EIP and Enterprise Knowledge Portals (EKP) architecture
* The approaching role of software agents in EIPs and EKPs
* The current and future contribution of EIP and EKP solutions to Knowledge Management
* The role of XML in portal architecture
* A comprehensive, multi-dimensional, and forward-looking segmentation of EIP products accompanied by portal product case studies
* Where EIP sector companies are headed and the pathways they will follow to get there
* Comprehensive approach to enterprise portals and their relationship to knowledge management
* Groundbreaking author, Firestone was the first to formulate the idea of the Enterprise Knowledge Portal
* Tackles a widerange of topics from functional EIP applications, estimating costs and benefits of EIPs, variations in EIP technical architecture, the role of intelligent agents, the nature of knowledge management, portal product/solution segmentation, portal product case studies, to the future of the EIP space

Extensive research conducted by the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, has yielded valuable insights on why and how design thinking works. The participating researchers have identified metrics, developed models, and conducted studies, which are featured in this book, and in the previous volumes of this series. This volume provides readers with tools to bridge the gap between research and practice in design thinking with varied real world examples. Several different approaches to design thinking are presented in this volume. Acquired frameworks are leveraged to understand design thinking team dynamics. The contributing authors lead the reader through new approaches and application fields and show that design thinking can tap the potential of digital technologies in a human-centered way. It also presents new ideas in neurodesign from Stanford University and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, inviting the reader to consider newly developed methods and how these insights can be applied to different domains. Design thinking can be learned. It has a methodology that can be observed across multiple settings and accordingly, the reader can adopt new frameworks to modify and update existing practice. The research outcomes compiled in this book are intended to inform and provide inspiration for all those seeking to drive innovation - be they experienced design thinkers or newcomers.

What Makes this Book Unique? No crystal ball is required to safely predict, that in the future - even more than in the past - mastered innovativeness will be a primary criterion distinguishing s- cessful from unsuccessful companies. At the latest since Michael Porter's study on the competitiveness of nations, the same criterion holds even for the evaluation of entire countries and national economies. Despite the innumerable number of p- lications and recommendations on innovation, competitive innovativeness is still a rare competency. The latest publication of UNICE - the European Industry - ganization representing 20 million large, midsize and small companies - speaks a clear language: Europe qualifies to roughly 60% (70%) of the innovation strength of the US (Japan). The record unemployment in many EU countries does not c- tradict this message. A main reason may be given by the fact that becoming an innovative organi- tion means increased openness towards the new and more tolerance towards risks and failures, both challenging the inherently difficult management art of cultural change. Further, lacking innovativeness is often related to legal and fiscal barriers which rather hinder than foster innovative activities. Yet another reason to explain Europe's notorious innovation gap refers to insufficient financial R&D resources on the company as well as on the national level. As a result, for example, hi- ranking decisions on the level of the European Commission are taken to increase R&D expenditures in the European Union from roughly 2% to 3% of GNP.

This book takes an in-depth look at consumer behavior in the context of multichannel commerce and explores how the convergence of physical and electronic channels influences consumer decision-making in a multichannel environment. In this regard, it goes far beyond explaining choices between online and offline sales channels, instead providing insights into how the interplay between different channel types is valued by different consumer types and for different products. The book extends previous conceptualizations of multichannel commerce to reflect and incorporate recent technological advances. The results provide valuable guidelines on how, why and when multichannel integration services can be exploited by classical retailers, helping them to compete with their purely online competitors on the internet.

'E-business Implementation' is written as a complete guide to successful e-business delivery, from both a project management and a detailed technological perspective.
E-business provides a powerful mechanism for organizations to increase productivity and lower costs. However, in order to utilise these considerable benefits, companies must ensure their e-business is implemented correctly and is appropriate to their market segment.
'E-business Implementation' provides a comprehensive guide to successful implementation and is divided into three parts:
* Part one begins with a project management structure designed to deliver successful e-business functionality within time and budget, while avoiding the high failure rates common to many technology projects.
* Part two details key concepts, technologies, products, vendors, benefits, limitations, and high-level design architectures for e-business, in a phased and risk-managed approach. These include publishing through the Internet and Intranets, portals and content management systems, transacting using e-commerce, integrating internal enterprise applications, integrating with external partners and suppliers, and responding in real-time to changing levels of demand through dynamic e-business and web services.
* Part three details a set of critical foundation technologies that must be implemented correctly for the e-business initiative to be successful. These technologies include e-business development languages such as Java, XML and .Net, hardware platforms and their operating systems, security and networking systems, the Internet Domain Name System, and Open Source technologies.
An invaluable and in-depth guide forbusinesses and IT professionals implementing and integrating e-business technologies and for trouble shooting existing e-business systems.A holistic approach to the latest issues facing e-business in the modern economy.Provides detailed information on Project Management, Intranets, Portals, Content Management, Transactional e-commerce, Application Server EAI, Hub and Spoke EAI, Message Bus EAI, Extended EAI, Business Process Integration (BPI), Real Time Business Intelligence, Web Services (SOAP, WSDL, UDDI), Java, XML, .Net, Hardware and Operating Systems, Security, Networking Systems, DNS and Open Source technologies.

Roger E. Walters has written a timely and helpful analysis of the recent boom in application software development, and he addresses the needs and concerns of executives responsible for obtaining and updating these systems. This nontechnical treatment sets out a step-by-step approach describing how non-data processing personnel can control and manage the development and installation of relevent new information systems. Using a management perspective, Walters analyzes factors including risk management, personnel shortages, computer literacy, project management, and system maintenance, all of which are critical for the success of the information system and the organization which relies on it.

The last two decades have seen a shift towards service-based value in a process referred to as servitization. Manufacturers have been challenged to create relevant knowledge and adapt to this change. This book has two key purposes. First of all, the authors examine the theoretical underpinnings of knowledge management and servitization, before proposing a conceptual model for knowledge co-creation and organizational knowledge management processes. Then, the model is tested through a series of case studies from Japan and Malaysia, providing insight into experiences of business transformation from produce-centric to service-centric in developed and developing Asian economies. This book will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners in servitization, knowledge creation and knowledge management, especially those interested in Asian economies.

th This volume contains papers presented during 13 International Conference on Inf- mation Systems Development - Advances in Theory, Practice and Education (ISD'2004), held in Vilnius, Lithuania, September 9-11, 2004. The intended audience for this book comprises researchers and practitioners interested in current trends in the InformationS- tems Development (ISD) ?eld. Papers cover a wide range of topics: ISD methodologies, methodengineering,businessandISmodelling,websystemsengineering,databaserelated issues, informationanalysisanddatamining,qualityassessment, costingmethods,security issues, impact of organizational environment, and motivation and job satisfaction among IS developers. The selection of papers was carried out by the International Program C- mittee. All papers were reviewed in advance by three reviewers and evaluated according to their relevance, originality and presentation quality. Papers were evaluated only on their own merits, independent of other submissions. Out of 117 submissions Program Comm- tee selected 75 research papers to be presented at the Conference. 39 best papers and 5 papers presented by invited speakers are published in this volume. th The13 InternationalConferenceonInformationSystemsDevelopmentcontinuesthe tradition started with the ? rst Polish-Scandinavian Seminar on Current Trends in Infor- tion Systems Development Methodologies, held in Gdansk, Poland in 1988. Through the years this seminar has evolved into one of most prestigious conferences in the ?eld. ISD Conferenceprovidesan internationalforumfor the exchangeof ideasbetween the research community and practitioners and offers a venue where ISD related educational issues are discussed. ISD progresses rapidly, continually creating new challenges for the professionals - volved. New concepts and approaches emerge in research as well as in practice.

This book contains practical experiences, knowledge, and insights in the evolution, formulation, and implementation of strategies and models for flexibility, innovation, and sustainable business. The book discussed the increasing significance of a flexible approach by businesses as much as possible in every area of their work-from employment policies to supply chain management (SCM). It further links this flexible approach to a sustainability strategy, which is necessary to be competitive today and in the future. This business approach is necessary to create long-term value by considering how a given organization operates in the ecological, social, and economic environment. This is linked to the next theme of the book-innovation-which is fundamental for a business to improve its processes, develop new and improved products and services for the market, increase its efficiency, and, most importantly, get better profitability. The book also delves into another buzz word in business-analytics. Companies have widely embraced the use of analytics to streamline operations and improve processes. The book explores all these critical emerging areas through the chapters in its five sections and is invaluable for management students and researchers, practicing business managers, consultants, professional institutions, and government and corporate organizations.

This open access book discusses the most modern approach to auditing complex digital systems and technologies. It combines proven auditing approaches, advanced programming techniques and complex application areas, and covers the latest findings on theory and practice in this rapidly developing field. Especially for those who want to learn more about novel approaches to testing complex information systems and related technologies, such as blockchain and self-learning systems, the book will be a valuable resource. It is aimed at students and practitioners who are interested in contemporary technology and managerial implications.

An impressive collection of the latest cutting-edge work in the dynamic field of intellectual capital. Experts from around the world discuss the current state of affairs from a variety of perspectives, providing a cross-disciplinary view of the field. All contributors presented their research at the top global conference in this field - the World Congress on Intellectual Capital. The underlying theme of the book is to explain how an organization can identify, measure, manage, leverage and act upon its collective intelligence towards the pursuit of sustainable innovation. The book is divided into three main parts which first establish a foundation of literature, then examine various measurement approaches and finally conclude with a variety of applications."This collection of papers from the conference is special for its seminal research, strategic visions, and thought-provoking discussions. Make sure this book has a place in your library!"Dr. Jac Fitz-enz, Founder and Chairman, Saratoga Institute

As global enterprise grows increasingly reliant on electronic data, processes, and procedures, studies of the management of organizational knowledge are emerging at the forefront of critical research. Current Issues in Knowledge Management combines cutting-edge research on the cultural, technical, organizational, and human issues surrounding the creation, capture, transfer, and use of knowledge in today's organizations. Providing foremost information on topics such as organizational memory, knowledge management in enterprises, enablers and inhibitors of knowledge sharing and transfer, and emerging technologies of knowledge management, this estimable reference offers vital research information to practitioners and scholars in a variety of settings.

This book describes the fundamentals of Supply Chain Management in clear and concise terms. It explains why in the near future real competition is going to be between supply chains and what the consequences will be. Managers and decision-makers will be able to build on their business's competitive advantage with the essentials provided in this work. The focus here is upon what you really need to know in order to optimally manage your processes in procurement, manufacturing, warehousing and logistics. In addition to a wealth of illustrations and examples, valuable suggestions for further expansive reading are included. Essential insights are provided into how to analyse and evaluate the supply chain, based upon key aspects from research and practice, which helps readers to initiate their own optimisation processes.

This book focuses on the contribution of Information Technology (IT) and Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) in shaping the current and future global economic scenario, with a special focus on Asia, and taking into account the three broad macroeconomic dimensions - growth, sustainability and governance mechanisms. The last two decades have witnessed a structural shift in the world economy due to the tremendous growth in gross domestic product share for the service sector; in fact, service has emerged as the dominant sector and the main driver of GDP growth. This is mainly attributable to the spectacular success of the IT sector in the new knowledge economy. Tradability, technology and transportability - the three T's - govern productivity growth in today's services. Growing Asian economies such as India, China and Vietnam, using their demographic advantages, have been reaping the benefits of this boom. The book's content focuses on recent debates and discussions concerning the issue of long-term sustainability and governance, especially in India, as these companies are facing continuous challenges in terms of international competition, salary inflation, health hazards, scarcity of talent, employee attrition, security concerns, global slowdown and many other technology-related issues. The book further highlights how the increased application of IT-based products and services is resulting in harsh inequalities concerning income distribution in many developing countries of Asia, mainly because of its labor shedding nature, and hence might be detrimental to sustainable development, if suitable policy measures are not implemented to counter these effects. The book provides a wealth of information for researchers, graduate students and political scientists alike, as well as thought-provoking insights for social scientists, policymakers and government officials. It also offers a valuable source of data for business and management professionals, and for members of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

This handbook distils the wealth of expertise and knowledge from a large community of researchers and industrial practitioners in Software Product Lines (SPLs) gained through extensive and rigorous theoretical, empirical, and applied research. It is a timely compilation of well-established and cutting-edge approaches that can be leveraged by those facing the prevailing and daunting challenge of re-engineering their systems into SPLs. The selection of chapters provides readers with a wide and diverse perspective that reflects the complementary and varied expertise of the chapter authors. This perspective covers the re-engineering processes, from planning to execution. SPLs are families of systems that share common assets, allowing a disciplined software reuse. The adoption of SPL practices has shown to enable significant technical and economic benefits for the companies that employ them. However, successful SPLs rarely start from scratch, but instead, they usually start from a set of existing systems that must undergo well-defined re-engineering processes to unleash new levels of productivity and competitiveness. Practitioners will benefit from the lessons learned by the community, captured in the array of methodological and technological alternatives presented in the chapters of the handbook, and will gain the confidence for undertaking their own re-engineering challenges. Researchers and educators will find a valuable single-entry point to quickly become familiar with the state-of-the-art on the topic and the open research opportunities; including undergraduate, graduate students, and R&D engineers who want to have a comprehensive understanding of techniques in reverse engineering and re-engineering of variability-rich software systems.

'Stats Means Business' is an introductory textbook aimed at Business Studies students who require guidance in the area of statistics. It minimizes technical language, provides clear definition of key terms, and gives emphasis to interpretation rather than technique.
'Stats Means Business' enables readers to:
* appreciate the importance of statistical analysis in business
* understand statistical techniques
* develop judgment in the selection of appropriate statistical techniques
* interpret the results of statistical analysis
There is an overwhelming need for successful managers to be able to deal competently with numerical information and this text is developed with this in mind by providing worked examples and review questions which are rooted in viable business contexts.
Each chapter includes guidance on using Excel and Minitab to produce the analysis described and explained in the chapter. The start of every chapter identifies aims and summarizes content and each is written in an accessible style. Model solutions are provided for three problems in each chapter and further solutions are available on a web site to accompany the book.
The book is suitable for first year undergraduate courses, MBA Programmes and anyone who needs support and guidance in the area of statistics.
Minimizes jargon and provides a clear definition of terms
Worked examples and review questions are included to consolidate learning
A web site providing additional support material accompanies the book and can be found at http: //www.bh/com/manuals

This book focuses on the issues and challenges posed by COVID-19, proposing ways to deal with the supposed 'new normal' which the pandemic has introduced in the functioning of business, society, and environment. Among the issues discussed are employee well-being and mental health, impact of changes in education sector, marketing, selling and distribution of goods, change in business model for SME, impact on travel and personal grooming sector, consumer preferences, performance impact of intellectual capital, performance of banks-pre merger, and so on. Focus is on presenting strong research results backed by statistical analysis using different tools. There are managerial solutions to the problems being faced by businesses and firms. The presentations would throw great insights on how businesses have coped during pandemic times in a developing economy like India.

Within a scenario of globalised markets, where the capacity to efficiently cooperate with other firms starts to become essential in order to remain in the market in an economically, socially and environmentally cost-effective manner, it can be seen how the most innovative enterprises are beginning to redesign their business model to become interoperable. This goal of interoperability is essential, not only from the perspective of the individual enterprise but also in the new business structures that are now emerging, such as supply chains, virtual enterprises, interconnected organisations or extended enterprises, as well as in mergers and acquisitions. Composed of over 40 papers, Enterprise Interoperability V ranges from academic research through case studies to industrial and administrative experience of interoperability. The international nature of the authorship contnues to broaden. Many of the papers have examples and illustrations calculated to deepen understanding and generate new ideas. The I-ESA'12 Conference from which this book is drawn was organized by Polytechnic University of Valencia, on behalf INTERVAL, and the European Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability (INTEROP-VLab) and sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). A concise reference to the state of the art in systems interoperability, Enterprise Interoperability V will be of great value to engineers and computer scientists working in manufacturing and other process industries and to software engineers and electronic and manufacturing engineers working in the academic environment.

'Delivering Business Value from IT' is focused on the evaluation issue in IT and how IT evaluation can proceed across the life-cycle of any IT investment and be linked positively to improving business performance.
Chapters 1,2 and 3 detail an approach to IT evaluation whilst chapters 4 and 5 build on these by showing two distinctive approaches to linking IT to business performance. The remaining three chapters deal with a range of evaluation issues emerging as important - specifically Internet evaluation, Y2K and beyond, EMU, quality outsourcing, infrastructure, role of benchmarking, and cost of ownership issues that practitioners regularly encounter.
A 'Computer Weekly' Professional Series book
Contains high visibility case studies including Safeway, Unipart, Hewlett Packard, Morgan Stanley, CNN, BP Exploration, British Aerospace, and Royal and Sun Alliance.

This book systematizes the concepts of business relationships and network embeddedness, taking a new approach to internationalization, relevant for the global economy. It reflects the growing importance of network internationalization theory and explores the impact of embeddedness in domestic and foreign relationships on a company's performance. The author questions the validity of the distinction between domestic and foreign activity of companies and demonstrates that in the B2B market, there are actually no exclusively domestic companies which are not directly or indirectly connected with foreign entities. Chapters cover both small to medium sized enterprises and large multinational corporations, presenting a qualitative analysis of over 400 companies including case studies from the IT and furniture industries. This informative study will provide useful insight for academics and students of business and management, international business and organization studies.