Organizations today are being challenged to make sense of changes in environments that, now more than ever, are described as VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous). They are also being driven to understand how the future will evolve and what impact it will have not only on the organizations themselves, but also on industries and societies. In recent decades a field has emerged to support organizations in addressing these challenges: strategic foresight. This book is a comprehensive introduction to strategic foresight. It presents a history of the field and explains the main principles in thinking about the future. The book describes how organizations can apply strategic foresight, and explains how it relates to other fields such as strategy, innovation and leadership, highlighting the relevance of strategic foresight not only for organizations but also for individuals, particularly managers and leaders. Grounded in the theoretical foundations of strategic foresight, the book reflects the latest academic research and explores practical applications in different contexts. It draws on more than two decades of experience that the author has in the field as a researcher, a consultant and in the corporate context. This is essential reading for managers and leaders of public and private organizations who want to establish strategic foresight practices, as well as students of foresight and managers in the fields of innovation, research & development and marketing.

This book develops insights of digitalization and the future of financial services to originate an innovative approach to financial field, in order to underpin research and practice in the wide area of digital finance. The aim of this book is to extend our understandings on how digitalization and the future of financial services can be helpful in different business circumstances in many cross-functional financial areas, such as financial markets, financial risk management, financial technologies, investment finance, etc. Thus, the book aims at addressing the relevance of digital finance for different players, highlighting differences in tools and processes as well as identifying innovative practices in financial digitalization. This can result in some novel theoretical and practical insights that can foster financial players, in order to proactively explore and exploit opportunities in financial digitalization and offset financial risks and increase efficiency.

This book readdresses fundamental issues in knowledge management, leading to a new area of study: knowledge processes. McInerney 's and Day 's superb authors from various disciplines offer new and exciting views on knowledge acquisition, generation, sharing and management in a post-industrial environment. Their contributions discuss problems of knowledge acquisition, handling, and learning from a variety of perspectives.

Over the past decade, diverse organizations have been turning to open source software for their technological needs, in both internal processes management and public interaction. Turning the data generated by organizations ranging from universities to large corporations into usable information has plagued users for years, making open source solutions one of the primary goals of these institutions. Open Source Solutions for Knowledge Management and Technological Ecosystems addresses the issues surrounding the search for each organization's unique data management needs, defining the tools necessary to fulfill them within their technological ecosystem, along with the selection, interoperability, and integration of these tools. This book is ideal for managers, business professionals, software engineers, information technology professionals, and students of business and IT.

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.

This book closes the gap between information technologies and management decision making. It treats currently relevant topics in information technology--knowledge-based expert systems, graphic-user interface, fuzzy logic, neural networks, data storage, client server, and integration of heterogeneous databases--by using examples and, more importantly, by relating these methods to the needs of the decision maker by taking into account the individual's decision style. The authors provide a solid basis for determining how decision makers use and access information that becomes part of the design of information systems. Integrating the decision maker into the design results in a more intelligent information system because the focus is on the outcome rather than on the methodology or computer power used.

Information and communication technology, in particular artificial intelligence, can be used to support economy and commerce using digital means. This book is about agents and multi-agent distributed systems applied to digital economy and e-commerce to meet, improve, and overcome challenges in the digital economy and e-commerce sphere. Agent and multi-agent solutions are applied in implementing real-life, exciting developments associated with the need to eliminate problems of distributed systems. The book presents solutions for both technology and applications, illustrating the possible uses of agents in the enterprise domain, covering design and analytic methods, needed to provide a solid foundation required for practical systems. More specifically, the book provides solutions for the digital economy, e-sourcing clusters in network economy, and knowledge exchange between agents applicable to online trading agents, and security solutions to both digital economy and e-commerce. Furthermore, it offers solutions for e-commerce, such as, mapping and alignment of ontologies for business, negotiation, automated auctions, recommender systems to support traders in business activities, and game simulations.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL or 3BL) was coined as a wide and inspiring approach for businesses aimed at understanding how to create, track and manage economic, social, and environmental value added. The sustainability sector is strongly increasing its relevance among academics and practitioners, and the market opportunities associated with the Sustainable Development Goals are estimated in over $ 12 trillion per year by 2030. Although this is a promising context, a recent article suggested a rethinking of the TBL, arguing that sustainability goals' value should not be assessed in terms of profit and loss, but of people wellbeing and planet health, looking for a societal profit. Technology plays a crucial role in our society. Respectively, the Agenda 21 and the Paris Agreement consider technology to be essential in the pursue of the sustainable development and the achievement of the SDGs. Adding to this, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital solution in several field, from the way of working to the way of buying and consuming. Companies are becoming more aware of the responsibility they have with the environmental and human context, and people are looking for a work reflecting their values and purposes to motive them. This book aims to contribute to the understanding on the role of technology and its emerging and innovative solutions in the achievement of a sustainable development while making profit. It will be of value to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of strategic management, entrepreneurship, management of technology and innovation, and sustainable development.

This book brings together valuable insights about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business environment from an Asian perspective. While some businesses in Asia have been swift to embrace the new normal, others have found the disruption to the traditional way of doing business challenging. Businesses are striving to respond, adapt, and thrive under the shadow of the unprecedented upheaval to the business environment that has forced them to rethink their strategies, processes, and operating models. There seems to be a consensus among business scholars and stakeholders that the continuous embrace of change and transformation of business models will assist businesses to sustain a long-term competitive advantage. The chapters in this book explore shifts in business innovation and strategies linked to the "new normal" of doing business during the pandemic, bringing to light issues, challenges, and opportunities that firms can expect to face in their need to ensure sustainability post-pandemic and beyond.

This book explores the novel uses and potentials of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) under big data. These areas are of widespread interest to researchers and practitioners alike. Considering the vast literature on DEA, one could say that DEA has been and continues to be, a widely used technique both in performance and productivity measurement, having covered a plethora of challenges and debates within the modelling framework.

This book describes the trends in digital innovation that are of most importance for businesses and explores the key challenges. The book is in three parts, the first of which focuses on developments in digital systems. Here, the ever-growing relevance of big data, cloud computing, and mobile services for business is discussed, and detailed consideration is given to the importance of social listening for understanding user behavior and needs and the implications of IT consumerization. In the second part, trends in digital management are examined, with chapters devoted to work practice, digital business identity as well as branding and governance. The final part of the book presents and reviews case studies of digital innovation at the global level that provide a benchmark of best practices, with inclusion of instructive fact sheets. While the book offers academic coverage of the digital transformation of business organizations and the associated challenges, it also describes concrete, real-world issues in clear, easy-to-understand language and will serve as a toolbox for managers that can be readily consulted. The text is supported by informative illustrations and tables, and practitioners will also benefit from the reported case studies and highlighted insights and recommendations.

This book contains selected papers presented at the seventh Conference on Working Group 3.7 of the Internation Federation for Information Processing. The focus of Working Froup 3.7 is on ITEM: Information Technology in Educational Management. The event toook place in Hamamatsu, Japan, and enabled the exchange of findings and ideas between researchers in educational management and information technology, policy-makers in the field of education, developers of ITEM systems, and vendors. The overall goal of the conference was to demonstrate and explore directions for developing and improving all types of educational institutions through ITEM.

Contributions to this conference hailed from all over the world. The papers in this volume investigate how ITEM can support and improve educational practice at the level of instruction as well as at the institutional level, an analysis of the history of ITEM as a field of study and practice, results of researcdh on how training can promote the implementation of ITEM systems, and theoretical analyses of the conditions under which ITEM will have the strongest impact. Moreover, all sectors of educational systems (from schools to universities) are represented by the various chapters of this book.

This book describes how manufacturing enterprises, by reinforcing their existing monitoring and control of manufacturing processes, can successfully face the ever-increasing pressure from internal and external environments to maintain their competitive advantage. Numerous performance measurement systems have been elaborated to satisfy these requirements, stressing the importance of financial and operational metrics. It also highlights the fact that research on generating and linking financial and operational metrics, especially in real-time, has not garnered sufficient attention to date. The book follows an approach that integrates enterprises across different levels and departments. By computing and linking the financial and operational metrics in real-time, the book demonstrates how to provide a comprehensive view of an entire enterprise.

Management of supply chains has been evolving rapidly over the last few years due to the inception of Industry 4.0, where businesses adopt automation technologies and data exchanges leading to dynamic and interconnected supply chain systems. Emphasizing on analytical approaches such as predictive and prescriptive modeling, this book presents state-of-the-art original research work dealing with advanced analytical models for the design, planning, and operation of the supply chain to provide faster and smarter decisions in the era of digitization. In particular, the book integrates machine learning and operations research models for faster and smarter decisions, presents prescriptive analytics models for strategic, tactical, and operational decision making in the supply chain, and addresses recent challenges such as sustainability in the supply chain, supply chain visibility, and supply chain digitalization. Key concepts are illustrated using real-life case studies, making the book a valuable reference for researchers, technical professionals, and students.

Mapping Motivation for Leadership, co-written with Jane Thomas, is the fourth of a series of seven books that are all linked to the author's Motivational Map toolkit. Each book builds on a different aspect of personal, team and organisational development. This is a practical guide to leadership in the 21st century and builds on the '4+1' model outlined in the author's original book Mapping Motivation: Unlocking the Key to Employee Energy and Engagement. There is an increasing body of evidence, that the single most important aspect of being a leader relates to managing emotions effectively, and this management goes way beyond simply 'understanding' emotional intelligence; it is in fact a practice and one that is intimately connected with personal development and growth, and with energy. Energy, as Mapping Motivation made clear, is synonymous with motivation. The effective leaders of tomorrow will be those who understand their motivators, who regularly measure their motivators, sustain and replenish and maximise their motivators, and who do the same for their employees. Clearly, there is a link here with the book on engagement, for leaders who do so will engage their employees. However, this book not only covers the motivational side of leadership, but also explores in detail the skill sets necessary in the '4+1' model: thinking skills, action skills, team skills and motivational skills plus that indefinable 'something' that is a commitment to personal development, so that we as leaders are not trying to solve today's problems with yesterday's training as our only internal resource.

This book covers a broad range of topics related to digitalization. Specifically, it views digitalization across different organizational levels, such as the level of individuals, teams, processes, firms, and ecosystems. It includes a collection of recent research and reflections on the topic that helps to understand the technological foundations of digitalization and its impacts. It also reflects on the process of digitalization and how it changes established ways of working, collaborating, and coordinating. With this book, the editors and authors honor Professor Dr. Armin Heinzl for his enormous and ongoing contributions to information systems research, education, and practice.

This proceedings volume highlights cutting-edge approaches for contemporary issues evolved in strategic marketing and the integration of theory and practice. It focuses on strategic research and innovative activities in marketing that can be used in everyday operations. The contributions have been divided into eight sections, grouping emerging marketing technologies together in a close examination of practices, problems and trends. The first section examines management challenges which influence societies, cultures, networks, organizations, teams, and individuals. It emphasizes ways business processes foster innovation and facilitate management transitions from dominant structures to more evolutionary, developmental paradigms. The second section discusses the benefits and guidelines to implementation of green marketing strategies. The following section pursues new perspectives of the role of location in marketing and its impact on consumer well-being. The next section explores the impacts of user generated content (UGC) on marketing theories and practice, which is followed by a section identifying how market-based assets can contribute to a sustainable competitive advantage. The sixth section covers understanding consumer perception to make marketing decisions. The final sections promote the use of business informatics and modeling in marketing and also the development of integrating information management in ways that change how people use information to engage in knowledge focused activities. The papers from the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing (IC-SIM 2017) have been written by scientists, researchers, practitioners and students that demonstrate a special orientation in strategic marketing, all of whom aspire to be ahead of the curve based on the pillars of innovation. This proceedings volume shares their recent contributions to the field and showcases their exchange of insights on strategic issues in the science of innovation marketing.

The term "sustainability" has entered the lexicon of many academic disciplines and fields of professional practice, but to date does not appear to have been seriously consid ered within the systems community unless, perhaps, under other guises. Within the wider community there is no consensus around what sustainability means with some authors identifying 70 to 100 definitions of the term. Some see sustainability as the precise and quantifiable outcomes of biological systems whilst others see it in terms of processes rele vant to personal and organizational change with the potential to effect changes in our rela tionships with out environments. Internationally it has been increasingly used in relation to the term "sustainable development"--a term popularised by the Brundland Commis of definitions sion's report in 1987 entitled "Our Common Future. " Despite this diversity and polarised perception on its utility, unlike many other popular terms, it has not had its time and subsided quietly from our language. It is therefore timely for the systems com munity to explore the relationship between systems and sustainability in a range of con texts. Participants in this, the 5th International Conference of the United Kingdom Systems Society (UKSS), have been invited to reflect critically on the contribution of sys tems thinking and action to sustainability-to the sustainability of personal relationships, the organizations in which live and work, and our "natural" environment."

This volume presents techniques and theories drawn from mathematics, statistics, computer science, and information science to analyze problems in business, economics, finance, insurance, and related fields. The authors present proposals for solutions to common problems in related fields. To this end, they are showing the use of mathematical, statistical, and actuarial modeling, and concepts from data science to construct and apply appropriate models with real-life data, and employ the design and implementation of computer algorithms to evaluate decision-making processes. This book is unique as it associates data science - data-scientists coming from different backgrounds - with some basic and advanced concepts and tools used in econometrics, operational research, and actuarial sciences. It, therefore, is a must-read for scholars, students, and practitioners interested in a better understanding of the techniques and theories of these fields.

The intention behind this book is to illustrate the deep relation among human behavior, data-centric science, and social design. In fact, these three issues have been independently developing in different fields, although they are, of course, deeply interrelated to one another. Specifically, fundamental understanding of human behavior should be employed for investigating our human society and designing social systems. Insights and both quantitative and qualitative understandings of collective human behavior are quite useful when social systems are designed. Fundamental principles of human behavior, theoretical models of human behavior, and information cascades are addressed as aspects of human behavior. Data-driven investigation of human nature, social behavior, and societal systems are developed as aspects of data-centric science. As design aspects, how to design social systems from heterogeneous memberships is explained. There is also discussion of these three aspects-human behavior, data-centric science, and social design-independently and with regard to the relationships among them.

This book introduces readers to state-of-the-art cases and tools for managing innovation in today's rapidly changing business environment. It provides a wealth of methodological knowhow and guidance on practical applications, as well as case studies that reveal various challenges in technology and innovation management. Written by a mix of academic scholars and practitioners, the respective chapters present tools and approaches for the early detection of emerging fields of innovation, as well as relevant processes and resources. The contributing authors hail from leading innovative companies including Google, Amazon, Intel, Daimler-Benz, and NASA.

A unique core text that provides both a framework and roadmap for lecturers designing a teaching programme as well as the core text for them to use with their students Fully updated with a new chapter on climate change education, along with coverage of many rising topics such as risk and resilience, blockchain, AI, and social justice issues The roadmap can also be used by lecturers that need to embed Sustainable Development Goals into their teaching on a range of business and management programmes, including marketing, HR, Economics, Operations Management and financial reporting Supported by a teacher's manual and PowerPoint slides

Chapters of this book offer a careful selection of the best contributions to the Italian Association for Information Systems (ItAIS) Annual Conference, that took place in Venice, San Servolo Island, in October 2007. The main goal of this book is to disseminate academic knowledge, both theoretical and pragmatic, in the information systems community. Recognizing the relevance of many different disciplines, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach to the subject of information systems, thus providing a comprehensive and current coverage of this important area.

ItAIS (http: //www.itais.org) is the Italian chapter of the Association for Information Systems (http: //www.aisnet.org). It was established in 2003 and has since been promoting the exchange of ideas, experience and knowledge among both academics and professionals committed to the development, management, organization and use of information systems.

The topics in this book cover a broad range of research interests: from business engineering and its application in corporate and business networking contexts to design science research as well as applied topics, where those research methods have been employed for modeling, data warehousing, information systems management, enterprise architecture management, management of large and complex projects, and enterprise transformation. The book is a Festschrift for Robert Winter in order to appreciate his work and to honor him as a personality with a high reputation in the information systems community. To this end, many professional colleagues or long-time companions both from the Institute of Information Management at the University of St. Gallen as well as from the international research community dedicated articles on topics related to Robert's research. They reflect his ambition to uncompromisingly conduct high-class research that fuels the research community and at the same time contributes to improved industrial practice. The book is organized in three major parts: Part I "Business Engineering and Beyond" focuses on the methodology strongly shaped by Robert in St. Gallen with a focus on research being applied in corporate contexts. Part II "Design Science Research" spans from reflections on the practice of design science research to perspectives on design science research methodologies and eventually up to considerations to teach design science research methodology. Part III "Applied Fields" combines various applications of design science and related research methodologies with practical problems and future research topics.

"There are currently 3.5 billion mobile phones in the world and mobile information technologies permeate all aspects of life. This book explores how mobile technologies and information work shape each other. Most writings do not consider how information work increasingly relies on mobile services; this book seeks to address this imbalance"--