This book is intended to spark a discourse on, and contribute to finding a clear consensus in, the debate between conceptualizing a knowledge strategy and planning a knowledge strategy. It explores the complex relationship between the notions of knowledge and strategy in the business context, one that is of practical importance to companies. After reviewing the extant literature, the book shows how the concept of knowledge strategies can be seen as a new perspective for exploring business strategies. It proposes a new approach that clarifies how planned and emergent knowledge strategies allow companies to make projections into the uncertain and unpredictable future that dominates today's economy.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of enterprise architecture management with a specific focus on the business aspects. While recent approaches to enterprise architecture management have dealt mainly with aspects of information technology, this book covers all areas of business architecture from business motivation and models to business execution. The book provides examples of how architectural thinking can be applied in these areas, thus combining different perspectives into a consistent whole. In-depth experiences from end-user organizations help readers to understand the abstract concepts of business architecture management and to form blueprints for their own professional approach. Business architecture professionals, researchers, and others working in the field of strategic business management will benefit from this comprehensive volume and its hands-on examples of successful business architecture management practices.

Contributing pioneering new research, this innovative book proposes new ways and directions in which to extend the influential 'business networks perspective' approach to doing business. While previous research has focused upon relationships with customers and suppliers, the authors argue that there is a need to expand the outlook to include other stakeholders. Taking a stand in a broad management perspective, chapters relate contemporary issues within industrial and international marketing, product innovation, and information systems. Challenging existing views and proposing elaborate alternatives; this volume examines a range of examples that have inspired researchers to extend the business network. To provide further understanding, Extending the Business Network Approach relates current and new research to territories, technologies and terms to reveal novel insights, and to encourage further directions for research.

This book focuses on the core theoretical concept of "Ma thinking" - an idea that serves as springboard for the thoughts and actions of distinguished practitioners, innovators, and researchers. The theoretical and practical importance of the Ma concept in new innovation activities lies in the thinking and activities of the leading practitioners. However, there is little academic research clarifying these characteristic dynamic transition mechanisms and the synthesis of diverse paradoxes through recursive activities between formal and informal organizations to achieve integration of dissimilar knowledge.

This edited collection surveys and analyses the multidimensional problem of Hubris syndrome, and its deleterious effect on leadership within organisations. The study develops an extended metaphor of the social and political ill of Hubris as a virulent, communicable disease of dysfunctional leadership, illustrating its ubiquity and potential for serious harm. Taking a biological perspective to understand the possible underlying mechanisms as well as the environments in which hubris has been found to thrive, contributors emphasise the notion of prevention over cure. Divided into three sections, The Leadership Hubris Epidemic examines psychological, neuroendocrinological and neuropsychological approaches to the biology of Hubris, explores factors that encourage or inhibit its growth, and finally provides methods for preventing or retarding its development. This book has huge interdisciplinary appeal and scholars of biology, psychology, sociology, management, and politics will find the topic extremely useful, as well as anyone who is interested in the structure and governance of organisations.

"Development Connections" takes stock of recent advances in what is broadly known as Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)--cell phones, computers, and related Internet applications, as well as software advances that aim at improving the welfare of societies by empowering them. It is a comparative look at Latin America and ICTs in relation to the rest of the world and other countries in the region and the trends for widespread use of ICTs. In turn, the authors seek to discover how information and telecommunication technologies affect both the public and private sectors of the region and how they can optimize ICT returns to society. Projects focus on the use of ICTs for education, health, finance, environment, and labor. ICT trends are crucial to policy makers and ICT development is critical to the future of the region.

This book concretely defines the concept of learning agility and offers a business case for why organizations of all types should concentrate on building and sustaining this approach. It provides readers with a holistic approach towards the topic, and helps leaders leverage the learning agility of individual employees to sustain a learning-agile workplace culture. Synthesizing academic research and practical approaches, this book takes leaders through ways to interview and assess potential employees for learning agility, develop and foster an environment for learning agility, and measure the results of a learning agile workplace. The authors present an innovative learning agility assessment which has been developed, tested, and implemented by clients and outline metrics which can measure the results of a learning agile workforce. This little-understood but highly advantageous approach is crucial for leaders to understand if they wish to deliver results and impact their organizations' bottom line.

Organisationen im Wandel der Markte: A.-W. Scheer, R. Borowsky, U. Markus: Neue Markte, neue Medien, neue Methoden - Roadmap zur agilen Organisation; B. Anderer, K. Knue: Sichere Transaktionen in Electronic Banking und Electronic Commerce; D. Budaus: Public Private Partnership als innovative Organisationsform; U. Dalkmann, F. Karbenn: Energieabrechnug im Wandel - Der Weg zum Kunden uber leistungsfahigen 'Customer Service'; E. Frese: Von der Planwirtschaft zur Marktwirtschaft - auch in der Unternehmung?; P. Neef, M. Moeller: Erfolg im Netz; E. Rauch: Bankenfusionen.- Methoden der Organisationsentwicklung: P. Hintermann, W. Hoffmann, C.-P. Koch: Prozessorientiertes Informationssystem als Voraussetzung fur eine erfolgreiche Unternehmensintegration; M. Lapp: Intranet - Internes Internet; R. Minz: IT als Managementaufgabe begreifen; A. Muller: Vom Geschaftsprozessdesign zum prozessorientierten Managementsystem; S. Neumann, G. Fenk, B. Fluegge, J.T. Finerty: Knowledge Management Systems - optimaler Einsatz des 'Produktionsfaktors Wissen'; M. Pastowsky, F. Hausen-Mabilon: Gestaltung von Kommunikationsprozessen im Entwicklungsbereich: Rahmenbedingungen, Vorgehen und Beispiele; A. Poscay: Mit neuen Medien zu einem effizienten Beratungsnetzwerk.- M. Reiss Wandel im Management des Wandels; J. Hagemeyer, R. Rolles, Y. Schmidt, J. Bachmann, A. Haas: Dynamische Prozesse durch workflow-zentrierte Geschaftsprozessoptimierung: Herausforderungen in der Praxis; J. Schweitzer, H. Baltes, K. Merschjahn, G. Schneider: Professionelle Telekooperation fur das Teammanagement in virtuellen Unternehmen; H.-G. Servatius: Vom Reengineering zum Wissensmanagement.- Anforderungen an das Controlling: J. Fiedler, G. Barzel, K. Vernau: Kosten- und Leistungsrechnung als Steuerungsinstrument - flachendeckende und zugige Einfuhrung in einer deutschen Grossstadt; H. Frei: Mit Qualitatscontrolling auf dem Weg zum European Quality Award (EQA); O. Froehling: Controlling goes Multimedia; P. Hirschmann: Prozesskostenrechnerische Bewertung von Dienstleistungen zur Verbesserung der innerbetrieblichen Leistungsverrechnung; P. Horvath: Mit Balanced Scorecard Strategien erfolgreich umsetzen; R. Mahnkopf: Neues Kommunales Rechnungswesen - eine neue Methode fur ein anspruchsvolles Verwaltungsinformationssystem; R. Moser: Neue Perspektiven durch die Istkostenrechnung; H. Neukam: Neues Controlling durch integrierte Standardsoftware; K. Vikas: Trends und neue Entwicklungen im Controlling; A. Hoffmann, K. Wolf: Wertorientiertes Management auch fur Informatik Investitionen?; J. Zinkernagel: Prozesscontrolling im Entwicklungsprozess eines Automobilzulieferers; W. Kraemer, F. Milius, V. Zimmermann: Elektronische Bildungsmarkte fur ein integriertes Wissens- und Qualitatsmanagement.

Written for financial and management executives, this volume provides a comprehensive and detailed examination of the restructuring of American business which has resulted from a spate of large-scale mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and buyouts. As Alkhafaji notes at the outset, mergers and acquisitions are not new to the American business scene. However, the huge dollar value of recent transactions, such as the RJR/Nabisco buyout and the fact that large corporations once thought to be safe from takeover attempts are now potential targets, has given the process heightened impact. Alkhafaji explores the reasons for the increasing popularity of takeovers, mergers, and buyouts; who benefits from and who is affected by these strategies; who loses and who wins in the process; the international aspects of corporate restructuring; and the future implications for financial and senior managers.

In addition to examining the impact of corporate restructuring on the economy, the corporation, and the individual employee, Alkhafaji provides a wealth of practical information for the executive involved in the buyout process. He explains the various characteristics of companies that prompt merger and takeover actions, provides a rationale for the rapid increase in such activities, presents strategies that management should use before, during, and after the buyout, offers a comprehensive guide to what is involved in the restructuring process, and discusses the stages of mergers, takeovers, and buyouts to help managers understand the process better. The author also shows why buyouts have now become popular in the international marketplace. An extensive review of the available literature includes many illustrative realworld examples, and the author's own empirical studies are included to demonstrate management perceptions toward different aspects of the restructuring process. Both current and future managers will find this book enlightening and provocative reading.

Transformation and change are not the same. Innovations like TQM, reengineering, the learning organization, and benchmarking are certainly changes, but they require the fundamental revisions that can only be found in true organizational transformations--that is, in leadership style and organizational culture. Dr. Alkhafaji makes clear that change must be planned and have a clear purpose, and that managers must develop the special skills that are needed to prepare their organizations for change. His book presents a framework to assess corporate performance and thus to enhance long-term competitive advantage. It takes another look at the buzzwords and trends in light of the organizational transformation concept. Real world examples support theoretical research into strategic developments in global environments, laying out the essential components of transformation and the massive administrative changes required to implement it. The result is an important presentation of a crucial topic and an essential management-oriented guide.

Among the several themes that Dr. Alkhafaji discusses are the current challenges to any business created by global competition, changing technology, environmental demands, and demographic shifts. He points out that organizations must continually improve the quality of their products and services, and that to do so, often requires massive change--transformations in the organization itself. He shows that these are not one-time events but ongoing revisions that require constant strategic management. To illustrate his argument he covers TQM, reengineering and other innovations and approaches, and shows clearly how they all require a deep, pervasive commitment to true organizational alteration. Dr. Alkhafaji examines leadership style, organizational culture, and specific topics such as building effective teams, the technical and personal competencies that need to be identified before teams can be selected, and the implication of restructuring for corporate performance. Also examined in the new light of organizational transformation are mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and the effect that globalization is having on today's organizations.

Volberda, Morgan and Reinmoeller have joined with Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson to develop a truly landmark strategic management textbook that is ideally suited for courses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as other global markets. With a new process perspective to supplement the text's trademark integrated approach, Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization provides the most comprehensive and thorough coverage of strategic management now available in the market. Whilst maintaining the strengths and hallmark features of the original work, this new strategy text has been specially prepared to match the modern EMEA curriculum with boosted coverage of implementation issues, analysis of how firms use strategic management tools, techniques and concepts, a balanced emphasis on economics and resource-based perspectives and expanded coverage of comparative governance and organizational renewal. Strategic Management has been shortlisted for the 2011/12 CMI Management Book of the Year awards in the ebook and Management and Leadership Textbook categories. More information about the CMI and the competition can be found here http://yearbook.managers.org.uk/index5.htm.

Instead of thinking about education as the mastery of a body of knowledge where the subject matter becomes the focus of our attention, The Gamification of Higher Education encourages us to think of it as a process that draws out the best in individuals and prepares them for happy, productive, and successful lives.

Demystifying Talent Management questions the explanation of talent, that anyone who has 'more' has a talent, and demonstrates how the term 'talent' has become an empty signifier. The book asks if talent exists at all, and reflects on what the consequences for talent management within business and sports would be if this were the case.

This book describes how non-profit organisations (NPOs) communicate what they constitute, signal success and display sustainability in order to convince stakeholders to provide essential resources. Reports on intellectual capital offer a worthwhile approach. Based on empirical research, the book highlights the essential resources for NPOs and on the demand imposed on organisations, as well as the dependencies of those resources and demands. This insight helps NPOs to provide necessary information while keeping the disclosure to a minimum and thus not giving away possible competitive advantages. Further, the status-quo of IC disclosure in Germany is presented and a theoretical framework for the motivation for NPOs to disclose information on their IC is presented. Researchers will find these findings a solid foundation for further research. Finally, a framework for the disclosure of intellectual capital is provided to support practitioners.

Big business is often painted as the villain when it comes to the environment or social wellbeing. There is certainly good evidence of what some businesses have done wrong in the past. But times are changing. Leading businesses are often now the visionaries: leaders in the fight against climate change, protectors of human rights and supporters of international development.
"Big Business, Big Responsibilities" shares the inside track on why some of the world's best known brands are doing this not as philanthropy but as a core part of business strategy: protecting the environmental systems they depend on, building consumer trust and creating new markets to ensure long term success.
This book describes the surprising speed with which business is recognizing that it will thrive best in societies that succeed and identifies the major challenges that still need to be overcome for business to make its full contribution.

This edited collection explores the challenges and opportunities presented by the transition to a low carbon economy, and outlines the different approaches taken to ensure the sustainability of such a transition. Chapters explore the nature of the transformation from a 'brown' to 'green' economy, the importance of effective carbon measurement and management methodologies, the use of behaviour economics, and the application of a growth-enabling approach. Offering valuable insights into how various stakeholders respond to the challenges of green growth and focusing in particular on the support of universities, The Low Carbon Economy covers themes of leadership, systems approach, stakeholder management, and collaborative action. This comprehensive study provides readers with constructive ideas for maximising the opportunities of transitioning to a low carbon economy, and will serve as a useful tool for practitioners and academics interested in sustainability.

Highlights include a reflection on forty years of collaboration and provides an inside perspective on collegial partnerships; the first recipients of the Pasmore-Woodman Award (AOM 2015) consider personal recollections as well as general principles about successful academic partnerships; one of the first women in the field provides a perspective on the interdependence of research and practice through a gender lens; while reflecting on the role of women in ODC across a fifty-year time period; strategies for managing changes in the research question when conducting field-based action research advances our understanding of evidence-based practice through the application of theory; Dialogic OD, a relatively new perspective in the field, is explored by discussing a case in which 'social space' serves as 'transitional space' and the ODC practitioner is provided a theoretically informed set of principles that can be applied and evaluated across contexts; the nature and role of organization identity shades new insights about the potential impact of organization development work on company culture and effectiveness; the challenges of integrating business strategy and organization development in the fast changing newspaper industry.

Chris Termeer is said to be one of the few people that can clearly explain the vast complexities of the oil and natural gas industry in non-technical language for an average person. His book, Fundamentals of Investing in Oil and Gas, uses 250 + detailed pictures, graphs, and necessary visual illustrations, combined with thorough, comprehensive descriptions and details to aid the reader.

This book presents readers with the opportunity to fundamentally re-evaluate the processes of innovation and entrepreneurship, and to rethink how they might best be stimulated and fostered within our organizations and communities. The fundamental thesis of the book is that the entrepreneurial process is not a linear progression from novel idea to successful innovation, but is an iterative series of experiments, where progress depends on the persistence and resilience of the individuals involved, and their ability and to learn from failure as well as success. From this premise, the authors argue that the ideal environment for new venture creation is a form of "experimental laboratory," a community of innovators where ideas are generated, shared, and refined; experiments are encouraged; and which in itself serves as a test environment for those ideas and experiments. This environment is quite different from the traditional "incubator," which may impose the disciplines of the established firm too early in the development of the new venture. Featuring case examples of start-ups across a wide spectrum of industries, from Wikipedia to Ryanair, the authors explore the qualities of successful innovation, including a high tolerance of risk and unpredictability and commitment to building knowledge enterprises that value intangible assets. This volume is a clarion call to those in academia, enterprise, and government who seek to work together to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, with a stark message for academic institutions: engage or be left behind.

For many years companies have been investing in enterprise systems and IT initiatives but they are now struggling to achieve the desired results. It takes a long time to make the best of your enterprise systems so businesses must stop looking for the next technology 'silver bullet' and instead maximize the value of existing IT investments

The Handbook of Experiential Learning In International Business is a one-stop source for international managers, business educators and trainers who seek to either select and use an existing experiential learning project, or develop new projects and exercises of this kind.