The dynamic economic climate invites participants who are grounded in strategic financial management and infrastructure development. Thus, a lack of sufficient infrastructure, in both quality and quantity, often disqualifies developing countries from being key players in the global economy and influences other socioeconomic problems like unemployment, quality of work life, and quality of life. Handbook of Research on Strategic Business Infrastructure Development and Contemporary Issues in Finance discusses the efficiency of good infrastructure and its impact on socioeconomic growth and socioeconomic development in general and addresses contemporary aspects of the strategic financial management essential for accomplishing the objective of wealth maximization in today's challenging and competitive economy. This book is an essential research work for policy makers, government workers and NGO employees, as well as academicians and researchers in the fields of business, finance, marketing, management, accounting, MIS, public administration, economics, and law.

This groundbreaking book investigates the religious issues that businesses confront as they expand their global activity and proposes that corporations can become instruments of peace. Timothy Fort discusses the newly emerging idea of "peace through commerce," and he argues powerfully that today's businesses have the capacity to foster both peace and religious harmony. Fort asks and answers important questions: How might businesses integrate spirituality into corporate affairs? How can spirituality contribute to the production of high-quality goods and services? What can be done to promote a spiritual connection between employees and their work? Can this be done without provoking religious animosities? What business practices might encourage an atmosphere in which constructive dialogue among spiritual traditions could proceed? The author concludes that by implementing the peaceful practices advocated by religions at their best, businesses can both nurture religious harmony and strengthen their communities.

The rapid pace of technological change and globalization of products, competition and services have conspired to place a new premium on innovation for firms across the world. Although many variables influence creativity and innovation, the effective leadership of creative teams has proved especially important. This timely Handbook presents the state of the art for what leaders must do to lead creative teams and how they should do it. Handbook of Research on Leadership and Creativity is divided into three major sections. The first section on leadership functions identifies key activities that must be executed by leaders if creative efforts are to prove successful. The next section explains creative leadership using available theoretical models, examining the effects of leader behaviors on follower creativity. The final section investigates specific domains where organizations seek creativity. It covers the creative domains of research and development as well as military and academia, which have not traditionally been viewed as domains where creative leadership is critical. This comprehensive Handbook makes a significant contribution to the literature on creativity and innovation and will be welcomed as an accessible yet authoritative text by students, teachers and researchers alike. Contributors: S. Acar, R. Bathurst, L. Bennich-Bjoerkman, A. Carmeli, S. Connelly, D. De Paoli, D.C. Derrick, T.L. Friedrich, S. Hemlin, C. Higgs, S.T. Hunter, S.G. Isaksen, K.S. Jaussi, B.S. Jayne, R.K. Kazanjian, J. Kratzer, G.S. Ligon, J.B. Lovelace, M. Mance, S.E. Markham, T. McIntosh, I. Michelfelder, T.J. Mulhearn, B.H. Neely, C.L.K. Olsson, G. Puccio, R. Reiter-Palmon, A. Ropo, K. Rosing, R.P. Royston, J.B. Schmidt, L.M. Steele, J.P. Stephens, E.M. Todd, D. van Knippenberg, L.L. Watts, J. Witt Smith, S. Zaccaro, M. Zhong

Emerging technologies create challenges for traditional regulatory approaches. The contributors to this book - leading scholars in law, innovation, and technology - address the need for new governance methods and models. The unique characteristics of emerging technologies - their diverse applications, the myriad concerns raised by new technologies, the need for public engagement, and the issue of effective coordination between governance players - create the need for new governance approaches. The authors identify innovative new methods of governance, taking into account an environment where changes in technologies can out-pace the corresponding regulatory frameworks. Scholars of technology, science and innovation will find this book to be an enlightening read, as will lawyers, policymakers and think-tanks working within the emerging technologies arena. Contributors: J.W. Abbott, K.W. Abbott, B. Allenby, M. Baram, D.M. Bowman, J. Kuzma, P.H. Lindoe, R.A. Lindor, T.F. Malloy, G.N. Mandel, G.E. Marchant, M. Masterton, L. Paddock, J. Paterson, M.A. Saner, W. Wallach

Advance reviews of "Certain to Win" "Certain to Win" Sun Tzus prognosis for generals who follow his advice] develops the strategy of the late US Air Force Colonel John R. Boyd for the world of business. Robert Coram's monumental biography, "Boyd, the Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War," rekindled interest in this obscure pilot and documented his influence on military matters ranging from the design of the F-15 and F-16 fighters to the planning for Operation Desert Storm to the execution of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unfortunately Boyd's written legacy, consisting of a single paper and a four-set cycle of briefings, addresses strategy only in war. All Boyds briefings are available on " Defense and the National Interest."] Boyd and Business Boyd did study business. He read everything he could find on the Toyota Production System and came to consider it as an implementation of ideas similar to his own. He took business into account when he formulated the final version of his "OODA loop" and in his last major briefing, "Conceptual Spiral," on science and technology. He read and commented on early versions of this manuscript, but he never wrote on how business could operate more profitably by using his ideas. Other writers and business strategists have taken up the challenge, introducing Boyd's concepts and suggesting applications to business. Keith Hammonds, in the magazine "Fast Company," George Stalk and Tom Hout in "Competing Against Time," and Tom Peters most recently in "Re-imagine " have described the OODA loop and its effects on competitors. They made significan

Consumer behavior is becoming increasingly complex in the current global market. A broader understanding of the psychologically-driven motivation of consumers and characteristics of the consumer decision-making process is vital for effective customer engagement in the global economy. The Handbook of Research on Leveraging Consumer Psychology for Effective Customer Engagement provides current research on topics relevant to consumer beliefs, feelings, attitudes, and intentions and how best to utilize this research improving consumer appeal and relationships. Emphasizing critical topics in the field of consumer behavior research, this publication is a comprehensive resource for marketing professionals, managers, retailers, advertising executives, scholars, and graduate-level students in marketing, psychology, and MBA programs.

This book is a pioneering work that maps out the ideological evolution of HRM research and practices, with a particular focus on our contemporary era of multinational corporations. It explores the ideological evolution of Human Resource Management (HRM) from the 1950s to the present day and maps out the development of HRM research and practices from a Critical Theory perspective. Its findings open up avenues for metatheoretical development within the HRM research field and provide employees under modern capitalism with emancipatory awareness. Both the theoretical framework and the empirical findings of this study will be of interest to HRM researchers as well as management researchers of all epistemological backgrounds, particularly those working within Critical Management Studies. This work will also appeal to teachers and students, and it could serve as a textbook for a number of postgraduate level courses, including Organization Theory, Critical Management Studies, Human Resource Management, Business History, Sociology of Management, and Critical Theory.

Africa is commonly perceived as a global growth region and a continent on the move, with a huge demand for managerial skills to ensure sustainable economic growth. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges to management education development in Africa, it is important to understand the diverse cultures, histories and contexts underlying the 54 member states. With this is mind, this book explores the future of management education, considering the differing scenarios for change and the practical realities of developing management education in VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environments. This is the second of two volumes, written with strong support from the EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) and the GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council), aimed at understanding and examining the challenges of developing management education across Africa. The authors, through a fine-tuned, face-to-face interview process, explore the perspectives and interactions between management educators and other business and government stakeholders as they look to the future of management education in Africa.

CEO EXCELLENCE, by McKinsey senior partners Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller and Vikram Malhotra is a unique and timely business book which will draw on 25 years of research and interviews with top leaders of some of the world's most respected companies. The resulting book will demonstrate that while the role of CEO is unique within every organisation, it is surprisingly similar across companies even in disparate industries. Furthermore, the best CEOs approach their role with distinct mindsets and practices. This book is about truly world class leadership, showing how the best CEOs think, adapt and approach challenges (never more relevant than in this extraordinary time). It will show why a brilliant CEO can have such an immense impact, and demonstrate how to model yourself and your performance on the very best - so that your turn to lead comes sooner, and is more successful.

This ground-breaking book specifically focuses on the leadership of innovation and entrepreneurship in healthcare by providing a detailed step-by-step framework for effective leadership in the challenging and dynamic healthcare environment. Taking a fresh approach, it utilizes resources within healthcare organizations and the creative abilities of their people to provide a long-term solution to address key global issues, including the aging population, rising costs and long waiting lists, together with the challenges of staff recruitment and retention. Claudine Kearney offers in-depth insights into what is required to achieve success in the development of innovation. Chapters also demonstrate how to lead innovation, entrepreneurship and design thinking in healthcare as well as how to achieve results with a future oriented mindset. Visionary in its approach, the book examines both internal and external healthcare environment, addressing the key elements such as organizational strategy, culture and structure to overcome challenges. It also provides a thought-provoking analysis on the significant global challenges experienced within healthcare following the Covid-19 pandemic. Highlighting key learning points, this book will be an excellent resource for postgraduate students and scholars with a specific focus on medical and scientific innovations as well as those responsible for management within healthcare.

Economic and business growth is driven by the continuous re-evaluation and optimization of current policies and practices. By implementing more effective procedures, businesses can increase their levels of competitiveness. Factors Affecting Firm Competitiveness and Performance in the Modern Business World is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the most appropriate measures and initiatives for firms to become more competitive within various sectors. Incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives through theoretical foundations and real-world case studies, this book is ideally designed for professionals, practitioners, upper-level students, policy makers, and managers interested in the optimization of business performance.

This book examines key aspects of the increasingly important phenomenon of reshoring - the decision of companies to reverse offshoring by bringing manufacturing back from overseas. The aim is to equip readers with a full understanding of the current extent of reshoring, its drivers, and the associated opportunities and challenges. The impact of governments' economic policies on the location choices of entrepreneurs in an era of globalization is carefully analyzed, drawing on experiences in the United States and Italy, where contrasting encouragement is provided for reshoring decisions. The effect on reshoring of recent developments regarding technology, the environment, and other factors is assessed in depth, and readers will also find close scrutiny of the relationship between reshoring and manufacturing performance. The book will be of interest to all academics, researchers, and practitioners with an interest in the manufacturing industry and will be an excellent teaching aid for a variety of courses in different disciplines at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

The challenges facing a solo entrepreneur when calamity strikes are unique in the realm of disaster planning, and the only effective strategy for preventing a business failure after an unexpected major setback is to have a clearly thought-out emergency backup plan. This book guides you to being 100 percent ready for the worst-case scenario. Disasters are sudden, calamitous events that can bring about great loss and failure to a business. Some disasters can be prevented through good judgment and careful planning; others-whether "acts of God" such as flood or fire or a personal health crisis-cannot be. What will happen if the one person responsible for the day-to-day operations of a solo entrepreneurship is suddenly incapacitated and unable to manage the business? In cases of small businesses that do not have a clear backup or disaster recovery plan, the outcome is often the total failure of the business. This book is both a wakeup call and an action plan for small business owners. It will guide readers toward creating a backup system that will enable a business to "run itself" without the immediate presence of its owner-for a week, a month, or even longer. The author presents a tested strategy that has its roots in preparing for natural disasters, and replaces the all-too-common refusal to believe that bad things can and do happen with hard facts and realism. Clearly, solopreneurs cannot afford to take risks of failure when it comes to their businesses-the most important thing in their lives aside from family and health. Asks a critical question: "How prepared is the average solopreneur to withstand a sudden crisis, like a serious medical emergency?", addresses the likely consequences of being unprepared, and provides a practical strategy for building an emergency backup plan Presents guidance for choosing a person or team of people to immediately step in and manage the business during a crisis Stresses the importance of building a comprehensive communication plan that serves to keep people informed on a daily basis Offers information for keeping computers and other vital equipment in good working order and protected from cyber attacks

Technological advances in the last five years have allowed organizations to use Business Analytics to provide insights, increase understanding and it is hoped, gain the elusive 'competitive edge'. The rapid development of Business Analytics is impacting all enterprise competences profoundly and classical business professions are being redefined by a much deeper interplay between business and information systems.As computing capabilities for analysis has moved outside the IT glass-house and into the sphere of individual workers, they are no longer the exclusive domain of IT professionals but rather accessible to all employees. Complex open-source data analytics packages and client-level visualization tools deployed in desktops and laptops equip virtually any end-user with the instruments to carry out significant analytical tasks. All the while, the drive to improve 'customer experience' has heightened the demand for data involving customers, providers and entire ecosystems.In response to the proliferation of Business Analytics, a new Center and Masters of Science Program was introduced at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The Center collaborates with over 40 different external partner organizations in Asia-Pacific with which all MSBA students undertake individual projects. Business Analytics: Progress on Applications in Asia Pacific provides a useful picture of the maturity of the Business Analytics domain in Asia Pacific. For more information about the Business Analytics Center at NUS, visit the website at: msba.nus.edu/

This book explores the conditions for growth that can create value for shareholders, focusing on the main strategies adopted by firms including horizontal expansion, vertical integration and product diversification. To evaluate whether or not a particular growth strategy is successful, the author examines the economic fundamentals of each strategy and presents analytical models of both internal development and external acquisition. He moves on to present four case studies of successful companies to highlight how a firm chooses and implements a defined growth strategy. This stimulating integrated analysis will appeal to researchers and students in business administration as well as managers, entrepreneurs and consultants involved in strategic management.

This proceedings volume presents the latest on the theoretical approach of the contemporary issues evolved in strategic marketing and the integration of theory and practice. It highlights strategic research and innovative activities in marketing. The contributed chapters are concerned with using modern qualitative and quantitative techniques based on information technology used to manage and analyze business data, to discover hidden knowledge and to introduce intelligence into marketing processes. This allows for a focus on innovative applications in all aspects of marketing, of computerized technologies related to data analytics, predictive analytics and modeling, business intelligence and knowledge engineering, in order to demonstrate new ways of uncovering hidden knowledge and supporting marketing decisions with evidence-based intelligent tools. The chapters from the proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing 2016 cover areas such as social media marketing innovation, sustainable marketing, customer satisfaction strategies, customer relationship management, marketing research and analytics. The papers 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.

There is a high demand in our society to adopt emerging technologies in all aspects of business and economic activity. As traditional business practices and economic activity are occurring in a global context, new areas of economic development are being recognized as the key enablers of wealth and income production. International Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship: An Information Technology Perspective discusses innovative solutions to research problems and high performance systems while emphasizing the role of IT and management for sustainable development. This book brings together academics, researchers, entrepreneurs, policy makers and government officers aiming to contribute to the debate of technology related to international business and strategic management.

Innovation is a high-risk endeavor and success is dependent upon a firm's understanding of customer needs. A company's initial resistance to adopting innovation is mitigated with a solid foundation of customer trust in the firm. This book uniquely combines the work of scholars and practitioners to examine how trust and customer-centricity impacts every phase of the innovation journey. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the contributions in this collection consider different aspects of innovating for trust. Beginning with the notion of trust itself, authors examine the importance of trust in futures thinking, business model innovation, service design, co-creation, the innovative organization and self-service technologies. The book also contains a valuable collection of case studies based upon innovation with major service providers, which supports the final emphasis on the importance of trust in commercializing innovations. Practical and engaging, Innovating for Trust will appeal to enlightened business managers aiming to build and maintain customer trust, as well as students and researchers of innovation, trust and strategy. Contributors include: T.W. Andreassen, K. Bentsen, J. Blomkvist, D. Chasanidou, S. Clatworthy, M. Filho, A. Fjuk, A. Folstad, J. Gloppen, D. Groenquist, R. Halvorsrud, W. Haukedal, T. Hillestad, M.T. Hossain, S. Jorgensen, A. Karahasanovic, T. Kobbeltvedt, P. Kristensson, S. Kurtmollaiev, K. Kvale, L. Lervik-Olsen, M. Luders, H. Nysveen, P.E. Pedersen, T. Saebi, S.E.R. Skard, B.A. Solem, C. Tepfers, H. Thorbjornsen, L.J. Tynes Pedersen, B. Yttri

Social media is becoming the fastest way to communicate ideas and values. Are you using this ever-changing media to effectively communicate your messages? In "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask...," author and public relations professional Hilary JM Topper, MPA provides an understanding of social media.

Designed for marketing professionals, small business owners, and non-profit organization executives, "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask..." is filled with detailed, how-to information on the sometimes complicated online world. Guiding readers through the importance of implementing social media tactics into their marketing mix to increase awareness and maintain visibility, this guide: Describes how to use social media sites, blogs, and microblogs Reviews more than a dozen social networking sites Provides an understanding of the importance of podcasts and video podcasts Discusses what it means to "Go Viral" Gives suggestions for handling crisis situations via the Web "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask..." highlights the power of consumer-generated media and how it can be used effectively to help grow your business.

The international tourism industry has seen increased growth in the past few years as millions of individuals continue to travel worldwide. As one of the world's largest economic sectors, creating jobs, driving exports, and generating prosperity worldwide, hospitality and tourism management needs to continually be explored in order to update best business models and practice. Strategic Business Models to Support Demand, Supply, and Destination Management in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry is an essential reference source that emphasizes emergent and innovative aspects and new challenges and issues within the industry with a particular focus on demand, supply, and destination management. Featuring research on topics such as circular economy, consumer behavior, and social networking, this book is ideally designed for business professionals, executives, hotel managers, event coordinators, restaurateurs, travel agents, tour directors, policymakers, government officials, industry professionals, researchers, students, and academicians.