This book offers a comprehensive and readable introduction to modern business and data analytics. It is based on the use of Excel, a tool that virtually all students and professionals have access to. The explanations are focused on understanding the techniques and their proper application, and are supplemented by a wealth of in-chapter and end-of-chapter exercises. In addition to the general statistical methods, the book also includes Monte Carlo simulation and optimization. The second edition has been thoroughly revised: new topics, exercises and examples have been added, and the readability has been further improved. The book is primarily intended for students in business, economics and government, as well as professionals, who need a more rigorous introduction to business and data analytics - yet also need to learn the topic quickly and without overly academic explanations.

Modern businesses generate huge volumes of accounting data on a daily basis. The recent advancements in information technology have given organizations the ability to capture and store data in an efficient and effective manner. However, there is a widening gap between this data storage and usage of the data. Business intelligence techniques can help an organization obtain and process relevant accounting data quickly and cost efficiently. Such techniques include: query and reporting tools, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, text mining, data mining, and visualization. Business Intelligence Techniques is a compilation of chapters written by experts in the various areas. While these chapters stand on their own, taken together they provide a comprehensive overview of how to exploit accounting data in the business environment.

This book is about turning data into smart decisions, knowledge into wisdom and business into business intelligence and insight. It explores diverse paradigms, methodologies, models, tools and techniques of the emerging knowledge domain of digitalized business analytics applications. The book covers almost every crucial aspect of applied artificial intelligence in business, smart mobile and digital services in business administration, marketing, accounting, logistics, finance and IT management. This book aids researchers, practitioners and decisions makers to gain enough knowledge and insight on how to effectively leverage data into competitive intelligence.

"Service Level Agreements for Cloud Computing" provides a unique combination of business-driven application scenarios and advanced research in the area of service-level agreements for Clouds and service-oriented infrastructures. Current state-of-the-art research findings are presented in this book, as well as business-ready solutions applicable to Cloud infrastructures or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) environments. "Service Level Agreements for Cloud Computing" contributes to the various levels of service-level management from the infrastructure over the software to the business layer, including horizontal aspects like service monitoring. This book provides readers with essential information on how to deploy and manage Cloud infrastructures. Case studies are presented at the end of most chapters. "Service Level Agreements for Cloud Computing" is designed as a reference book for high-end practitioners working in cloud computing, distributed systems and IT services. Advanced-level students focused on computer science will also find this book valuable as a secondary text book or reference.

There is little doubt that cyber-space has become the battle space for confrontations. However, to conduct cyber operations, a new armory of weapons needs to be employed. No matter how many, or how sophisticated an aggressor's kinetic weapons are, they are useless in cyber-space. This book looks at the milieu of the cyber weapons industry, as well as the belligerents who use cyber weapons. It discusses what distinguishes these hardware devices and software programs from computer science in general. It does this by focusing on specific aspects of the topic-contextual issues of why cyber-space is the new battleground, defensive cyber weapons, offensive cyber weapons, dual-use weapons, and the implications these weapons systems have for practice. Contrary to popular opinion, the use of cyber weapons is not limited to nation states; though this is where the bulk of news reporting focuses. The reality is that there isn't a sector of the political-economy that is immune to cyber skirmishes. So, this book looks at cyber weapons not only by national security agencies and the military, but also by law enforcement, and the business sector-the latter includes administrations termed non-government organisations (NGOs). This book offers study material suitable for a wide-ranging audience-students, professionals, researchers, policy officers, and ICT specialists.

Artificial intelligence - and social responsibility. Two topics that are at the top of the business agenda. This book discusses in theory and practice how both topics influence each other. In addition to impulses from the current often controversial scientific discussion, it presents case studies from companies dealing with the specific challenges of artificial intelligence. Particular emphasis is placed on the opportunities that artificial intelligence (AI) offers for companies from different industries. The book shows how dealing with the tension between AI and challenges caused by new corporate social responsibility creates strategic opportunities and also innovation opportunities. It highlights the active involvement of stakeholders in the design process, which is meant to build trust among customers and the public and thus contributes to the innovation and acceptance of artificial intelligence. The book is aimed at researchers and practitioners in the fields of corporate social responsibility as well as artificial intelligence and digitalization. The chapter "Exploring AI with purpose" is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Value-creation in Middle Market Private Equity by John A. Lanier holistically examines the ecosystem relationships between middle market private equity firms and their portfolio companies. Small business is the job creating engine in the US economy, and consequently is a prime target market for private equity investment. Indeed, private equity backs over six of each 100 private sector jobs. Both the small businesses in which private equity firms invest, and the private equity firms making the investments, face inter- and intra-company fiduciary leadership challenges while implementing formulated strategy. The architecture of each private equity firm-portfolio company relationship must be uniquely crafted to capitalize on the projected return on investment that is memorialized in the investment thesis. Given the leveraged capital structure of portfolio companies, the cost of a misstep is problematic. Individual private equity professionals are typically members of multiple investment teams for the firm. Not only may each investment team have its own unique leadership style, but its diverse members have to assimilate styles for each team in which they participate relative to a specific portfolio company. Acquisitions and their subsequent integrations add exponential complexity for both private equity investment and portfolio company leadership teams; indeed, cultural integration ranks among the most chronic acquisition obstacles. Accordingly, the stakeholders of private equity transactions do well to embrace leadership best practices in applying value-creation toolbox best practices. The perspectives of both the private equity investment team and the portfolio company leadership team are within the scope of these chapters.

This book addresses the concept of organizing which is centered around collective learning and on the organization paradigm. It presents a theory of organizational learning based on a model of memory, explaining processes and dynamics through which memory is built and updated.

This open access book covers the use of data science, including advanced machine learning, big data analytics, Semantic Web technologies, natural language processing, social media analysis, time series analysis, among others, for applications in economics and finance. In addition, it shows some successful applications of advanced data science solutions used to extract new knowledge from data in order to improve economic forecasting models. The book starts with an introduction on the use of data science technologies in economics and finance and is followed by thirteen chapters showing success stories of the application of specific data science methodologies, touching on particular topics related to novel big data sources and technologies for economic analysis (e.g. social media and news); big data models leveraging on supervised/unsupervised (deep) machine learning; natural language processing to build economic and financial indicators; and forecasting and nowcasting of economic variables through time series analysis. This book is relevant to all stakeholders involved in digital and data-intensive research in economics and finance, helping them to understand the main opportunities and challenges, become familiar with the latest methodological findings, and learn how to use and evaluate the performances of novel tools and frameworks. It primarily targets data scientists and business analysts exploiting data science technologies, and it will also be a useful resource to research students in disciplines and courses related to these topics. Overall, readers will learn modern and effective data science solutions to create tangible innovations for economic and financial applications.

This book helps marketing decision makers in allocating their budget to diverse communication channels and different business units in an ROI-optimal way, and to adapt it in an agile manner. The optimal allocation of resources in marketing is not very complex in theory, but in practice a variety of questions arise, for example: How do you find the optimal mix, even across brands and product lines, and how do you adjust it dynamically? What is the right balance between image and performance marketing? How do you tackle strategic data management and other organizational challenges? The authors guide the reader through the entire process from data collection to marketing mix modeling and campaign tracking to tool selection. The book strikes the right balance between theoretical sophistication and necessary pragmatism, with numerous concrete recommendations for decision makers.

This book offers state-of-the-art descriptions of intelligent service innovations in industry, supported by novel scientific approaches. It gathers findings presented at the 3rd Intelligent Services Summit, which took place in Zurich in September 2020, and chiefly focused on the design and application of Digital Twin as an enabler for business development in the field of smart services. Divided into three parts, the book addresses the challenges involved in the successful development and implementation of smart services for industry and science, ranging from data management to product design and lifecycle management. The four main aspects covered are industrial challenges, value system design (how to integrate resources into service ecosystems to create value), value creation through value proposition (how to create value for ecosystem actors), and value capture (how to create value for ecosystem businesses). Given its scope, the book offers an essential guide for practitioners and advanced students alike.

This book addresses many of the gaps in how industry and academia are currently tackling problems associated with big data. It introduces novel concepts, describes the end-to-end process, and connects the various pieces of the puzzle to offer a holistic view. In addition, it explains important concepts for a wide audience, using accessible language, diagrams, examples and analogies to do so. The book is intended for readers working in industry who want to expand their knowledge or pursue a related degree, and employs an industry-centered perspective.

Within Entrepreneurship Education, Team Academy (TA) is seen by some as an innovative pedagogical model that enhances social connectivity, as well as experiential, student-centred, and team-based learning. It also creates spaces for transformative learning to occur. This fourth book of the Routledge Focus on Team Academy book series the TA model is examined outside of the traditional TA-based settings (industry, schools, communities of practice, etc.) in different countries (Brazil, Japan, UK, Finland, Argentina, Tanzania, Spain, etc.). The legacy that this has left in learners and practitioners who have engaged with the model is also explored. This book is aimed at academics, practitioners, and learners engaged in the Team Academy methodology, pedagogy and model, as well as those interested in the area of entrepreneurial team learning. Readers will be inspired to innovate in their delivery methodologies and to explore learning-by-doing approaches to creating value. The book also aims to challenge the discourse around entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activities, offering insights, research, stories, and experiences from those learning and working in the Team Academy approach.

In H2H Marketing the authors focus on redefining the role of marketing by reorienting the mindset of decision-makers and integrating the concepts of Design Thinking, Service-Dominant Logic and Digitalization. It's not just technological advances that have made it necessary to revisit the way everybody thinks about marketing; customers and marketers as human decision-makers are changing, too. Therefore, having the right mindset, the right management approach and highly dynamic implementation processes is key to creating innovative and meaningful value propositions for all stakeholders. This book is essential reading for the following groups: Executives who want to bring new meaning to their lives and organizations Managers who need inspirations and evidence for their daily work in order to handle the change management needed in response to the driving forces of technology, society and ecology Professors, trainers and coaches who want to apply the latest marketing principles Students and trainees who want to prepare for the future Customers of any kind who need to distinguish between leading companies Employees of suppliers and partners who want to help their firms stand out. The authors review the status quo of marketing and outline its evolution to the new H2H Marketing. In turn, they demonstrate the new marketing paradigm with the H2H Marketing Model, which incorporates Design Thinking, Service-Dominant Logic and the latest innovations in Digitalization. With the new H2H Mindset, Trust and Brand Management and the evolution of the operative Marketing Mix to the updated, dynamic and iterative H2H Process, they offer a way for marketing to find meaning in a troubled world.

The International Conference on Informatics and Management Science (IMS) 2012 will be held on November 16-19, 2012, in Chongqing, China, which is organized by Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanyang Technological University, University of Michigan, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, and sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Theobjective of IMS 2012 is to facilitate an exchange of information on best practices for the latest research advances in a range of areas. "Informatics and Management Science "contains over 600 contributions to suggest and inspire solutions and methods drawing from multiple disciplines including:

Computer Science

Communications and Electrical Engineering

Management Science

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Communications and Electrical Engineering

Management Science

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Management Science

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

Communications and Electrical Engineering

Management Science

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Management Science

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

Management Science

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

Service Science

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence"

As the most comprehensive reference work dealing with decision support systems (DSS), this book is essential for the library of every DSS practitioner, researcher, and educator. Written by an international array of DSS luminaries, its more than 70 chapters approach decision support systems from a wide variety of perspectives ranging from classic foundations to cutting-edge thought, informative to provocative, theoretical to practical, historical to futuristic, human to technological, and operational to strategic. The chapters are conveniently organized into 10 major sections: foundations of decision support systems, DSS fundamentals, multiparticipant DSSs, intelligent DSSs, effects of decision support, time and space issues, scopes of decision support, developing and managing decision support systems, cases and applications, and decision support horizons. Novices and experts alike will refer to the authoritative and stimulating content again and again for years to come.

This book highlights the opportunities and risks of digitalization and digital transformation for our global economy at both the micro and macro level. Experts from various fields, presenting both scientific and practice-oriented perspectives, identify and critically analyse areas of tension and development potential in connection with new business models and sustainability efforts in our society. It is divided into four parts, the first of which highlights new technological advances in areas such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies and fintechs, and discusses the challenges they pose for public regulation. The second part illustrates digitalization's effects on and potential advantages for public welfare, focusing on key areas such as education, health and smart cities. The third part focuses on challenges for corporate and public management, particularly for leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility, while the fourth part discusses new dimensions for analysis based on big data. The contributions gathered here are partly an outcome of the International Conference on Digitalization, Digital Transformation and Sustainability held in Budapest in October 2020 and generously supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.

This book includes high-quality research papers presented at 20th International Conference on Informatics in Economy (IE 2021), which is held in Bucharest, Romania during May 2021. The book covers research results in business informatics and related computer science topics, such as IoT, mobile-embedded and multimedia solutions, e-society, enterprise and business solutions, databases and big data, artificial intelligence, data-mining and machine learning, quantitative economics.

This write-in workbook is an invaluable resource to help students improve their Maths and English skills and help prepare for Level 1 and Level 2 Functional Skills exams. The real-life questions are all written in a Plumbing context to help students find essential Maths and English theory understandable, engaging and achievable. Written by Gary Taylor, lecturer with a wealth of experience in the Construction Multi-Skills and Plumbing industries, this workbook is an effective resource to support Maths and English learning in the classroom, at work and for personal study at home.

This book discusses the application of data systems and data-driven infrastructure in existing industrial systems in order to optimize workflow, utilize hidden potential, and make existing systems free from vulnerabilities. The book discusses application of data in the health sector, public transportation, the financial institutions, and in battling natural disasters, among others. Topics include real-time applications in the current big data perspective; improving security in IoT devices; data backup techniques for systems; artificial intelligence-based outlier prediction; machine learning in OpenFlow Network; and application of deep learning in blockchain enabled applications. This book is intended for a variety of readers from professional industries, organizations, and students.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th European Lean Educator Conference ELEC 2022, which took place in Galway, Ireland, in November 2022; the event was sponsored by IFIP WG 5.7. The 28 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the proceedings. They are organized in the following thematic sections: Lean & People; Lean in Healthcare; Lean 4.0; Lean in Manufacturing; Lean Learning in the Digital Era; Lean, Green & Sustainability; and Lean in Services.

This book explores the philanthropy of Brazilian elites during a key period in recent Brazilian history, from Workers Party president Lula's last term in office through to the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. Against this backdrop of political upheaval, the book asks what philanthropy can reveal about the role of corporate and wealth elites in upholding the structures of socioeconomic inequality that continue to define Brazilian society. The book argues that around the world the private sector's growing engagement in international development has led to the emergence of a global philanthropic project centred on practices of "philanthrocapitalism" and "social finance," which ultimately seeks to legitimise global capitalism and the elite interests it serves. Drawing on an in-depth and wide-ranging ethnographic study among philanthropists and their advisors in over 30 Brazilian foundations and intermediary organisations, the book combines a structural critique of the capitalist ideologies underlying philanthropic practice with a robust exploration into the ways in which wealthy Brazilians appropriate philanthropy directly to legitimise elite reproduction and the accumulation of wealth. Researchers across Latin American studies, development studies and the anthropology of development will find this book a timely contribution to the under-researched areas of elite studies and the study of philanthropy.

This book discusses the effective use of modern ICT solutions for business needs, including the efficient use of IT resources, decision support systems, business intelligence, data mining and advanced data processing algorithms, as well as the processing of large datasets (inter alia social networking such as Twitter and Facebook, etc.). The ability to generate, record and process qualitative and quantitative data, including in the area of big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing offers a real prospect of significant improvements for business, as well as the operation of a company within Industry 4.0. The book presents new ideas, approaches, solutions and algorithms in the area of knowledge representation, management and processing, quantitative and qualitative data processing (including sentiment analysis), problems of simulation performance, and the use of advanced signal processing to increase the speed of computation. The solutions presented are also aimed at the effective use of business process modeling and notation (BPMN), business process semantization and investment project portfolio selection. It is a valuable resource for researchers, data analysts, entrepreneurs and IT professionals alike, and the research findings presented make it possible to reduce costs, increase the accuracy of investment, optimize resources and streamline operations and marketing.

This book discusses understand cybersecurity management in decentralized finance (DeFi). It commences with introducing fundamentals of DeFi and cybersecurity to readers. It emphasizes on the importance of cybersecurity for decentralized finance by illustrating recent cyber breaches, attacks, and financial losses. The book delves into understanding cyber threats and adversaries who can exploit those threats. It advances with cybersecurity threat, vulnerability, and risk management in DeFi. The book helps readers understand cyber threat landscape comprising different threat categories for that can exploit different types of vulnerabilities identified in DeFi. It puts forward prominent threat modelling strategies by focusing on attackers, assets, and software. The book includes the popular blockchains that support DeFi include Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Cardano, Avalanche, Polygon, among others. With so much monetary value associated with all these technologies, the perpetrators are always lured to breach security by exploiting the vulnerabilities that exist in these technologies. For simplicity and clarity, all vulnerabilities are classified into different categories: arithmetic bugs, re-Entrancy attack, race conditions, exception handling, using a weak random generator, timestamp dependency, transaction-ordering dependence and front running, vulnerable libraries, wrong initial assumptions, denial of service, flash loan attacks, and vampire Since decentralized finance infrastructures are the worst affected by cyber-attacks, it is imperative to understand various security issues in different components of DeFi infrastructures and proposes measures to secure all components of DeFi infrastructures. It brings the detailed cybersecurity policies and strategies that can be used to secure financial institutions. Finally, the book provides recommendations to secure DeFi infrastructures from cyber-attacks.