Modern warehouses are capitalizing on cutting-edge technologies, new operating models and innovative practices to maximize their role in the wider supply chain. Understand how to successfully manage these warehouses with this bestselling guide. The fourth edition of Warehouse Management is fully updated to include up to date information across the board. The latest technologies in warehousing, such as robotics, cobots and AI, are explained and their impact is situated alongside discussions on the future of warehousing. There are new case studies from companies who have achieved improvements and cost savings through the introduction of new technology and equipment, leaner processes and environmental initiatives. Gwynne Richards provides expert advice with clear and easy to grasp solutions. Warehouse Management guides the reader through all aspects of successfully managing a warehouse, its operations and distribution. This bestselling book covers an extensive range of key topics from defining the modern warehouse, detailing management processes, strategies and practices to outlining how to tackle environmental challenges to ensure a sustainable supply chain. With practical insights into how to improve operating costs, increase efficiency and reduce costs, this is a must read for optimizing warehouse performance. New and updated online resources include PowerPoint slides and a bonus chapter on outsourcing.

* Goes beyond branding theory to provide real-world solutions for beleaguered fashion retailers * Covers the full spectrum of fashion brands, from mass market to luxury * Co-authored by a consultant with 30 years' experience in fashion and interior design, and a postdoctoral researcher at the renowned Sorbonne

* Goes beyond branding theory to provide real-world solutions for beleaguered fashion retailers * Covers the full spectrum of fashion brands, from mass market to luxury * Co-authored by a consultant with 30 years' experience in fashion and interior design, and a postdoctoral researcher at the renowned Sorbonne

The retail trade has undergone tremendous changes over the course of the 20th century in the United States, and media narratives have reflected these changes. Media Representations of Retail Work in America explores representations of retail workers in popular media. Offering close readings of various texts including films, television shows, advertisements, and internet memes, Brittany Clark traces the development of the trade as a career opportunity that required a distinct set of skills in the early twentieth century until today, when the job has been deskilled and retail workers struggle with low pay and lack of benefits.

In the world of e-commerce, security has quickly become of paramount importance. This unique book provides an in-depth understanding of basic security problems and relevant e-commerce solutions. From designing secure Web, e-commerce, and mobile commerce applications to securing internal networks to providing secure employee/user authentication, this cutting-edge book gives professionals the tools they need to solve their e-commerce security problems.

This volume undertakes the important task of envisioning a regional history of Asia based on its unique internal characteristics, going beyond the usual West/non-West dichotomy. The "regional trade zone of modern Asia" was debated in the 1980s. Since then, Japanese historians of the socioeconomic history of Asia have explored how the traditional trade relations that had developed over the centuries in Asia responded to the so-called Western impacts in the mid-nineteenth century, including the opening of ports and tariff reduction under free trade regimes and the advance in transportation technology. Against this academic background, the four chapters in this volume examine how overseas Chinese, some of the key actors in regional and local trade, dealt with their Western counterparts, and how Asian commodities penetrated other parts of the world through the newly created web of global commerce. The book reviews discuss theoretical issues to explore various connections among and comparisons of the economies in the region. This volume provides readers with critical insights into the Asian region in the past and present by investigating the long-term trajectory of its linkages to the global economy.

Highlighting an important emerging trend in FDI to Africa, this book consists of important contributions focusing on an increase in trade and investment between African countries. An area that until now has received little attention, this volume aims to define the key issues and explores the challenges and outcomes that have characterized Africa-to-Africa internationalization, providing guidance on directions for future research. Africa-to-Africa Internationalization includes both conceptual and empirical contributions, illustrating the practical issues in intra-African trade and investment. Providing readers with a deep sense of the realities and challenges of cross-border investments within the region, the cases included in the book are useful pedagogical materials for faculty members interested in teaching international business in the African context.

Companies and policy makers are prioritizing environmental, social, and governance goals as part of their strategies. Academic research has started to focus on these issues, but many important matters require deeper investigation and reflection, especially in specific sectors. This book focuses on the sustainability issues within the retailing and services sectors. Starting the discussion around research-knowledge on CSR, the authors discuss the strategic aspects of managing sustainability in retailing and service companies and offer recommendations to effectively manage the marketing levers for sustainability. Readers will benefit from an in-depth analysis of the social responsibility practices of major retailers and their strategies. The authors also take an inside view of CSR by studying the angles of employee perception and job satisfaction, financial performance, and the more recent impact of COVID-19. Using this approach, they highlight the system of relationships existing between stakeholder-related concepts and organizational factors and how they affect sustainability strategy.

This book presents a series of studies analyzing critical factors that promote and constrain textile & clothing (T&C) production and trade in the Belt & Road (B&R) countries, and forces that drive the restructuring and transforming of global T&C supply chain and operations in the B&R context. The book also offers insights into the challenges and opportunities for T&C manufacturing in B&R countries through interviews with T&C experts, and also examines how Hong Kong can strengthen its "super-connector" role by facilitating sustainable trade and development in the T&C industries, as well as discussion on the impact of global trade wars on T&C trade. In the studies presented in this book, they offer topics ranging from the macro-economy, international business environment and strategies, logistics and supply chain, policy changes, to sustainability. The studies offer descriptive, theoretical and empirical analyses that explore T&C business and management related opportunities and challenges that are derived from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Econometric analysis with the gravity model is applied to T&C trade and extended to cover other areas that have not been considered in previous studies, such as production costs, export supply chain costs, technologies, demographical factors, and factors related to the business environment and policies, including qualitative variables. Studies using in-depth interviews and linear regression analysis are also present to explore new factors for T&C trade and production relocation to B&R countries.

* Designed as a core textbook for a broad range of essential Marketing courses and modules, with textbook pedagogy included throughout to aid understanding and cement learning. * Uniquely practical and applied in its approach with an emphasis on employability, with a 25,000-word running case study embedded within each chapter, which enables students to 'progress' through a 'marketing career' by applying their newly learned knowledge into realistic and modern context. * Unlike the competition in the area, this is a concise textbook, which is user-friendly for a wide, international readership.

Though Amazon.com started off delivering books through the mail, its visionary founder, Jeff Bezos, was never content with being just a bookseller. He wanted Amazon to become `the everything store', offering limitless selection and seductive convenience at disruptively low prices. To achieve that end, he developed a corporate culture of relentless ambition and secrecy that's never been cracked. Until now...

Jeff Bezos stands out for his relentless pursuit of new markets, leading Amazon into risky new ventures like the Kindle and cloud computing, and transforming retail in the same way that Henry Ford revolutionized manufacturing.

The fascinating journey from humble start-up to the web's biggest retailer demonstrates how Bezos's determination to make his dream a reality has also, for better or for worse, changed the way we live our lives today.

* Designed as a core textbook for a broad range of essential Marketing courses and modules, with textbook pedagogy included throughout to aid understanding and cement learning. * Uniquely practical and applied in its approach with an emphasis on employability, with a 25,000-word running case study embedded within each chapter, which enables students to 'progress' through a 'marketing career' by applying their newly learned knowledge into realistic and modern context. * Unlike the competition in the area, this is a concise textbook, which is user-friendly for a wide, international readership.

Trade and the Environment presents the most important published articles and papers which are essential to an understanding of the complex interrelationship between trade and the environment - an area which reflects the increasing concern about the protection of the earth's environment and natural resources. The book examines the subject from three perspectives. The first section offers an economic analysis of the trade and environment relationship, including the problems of cost and the methodological approaches to analyses of trade and environment; and exploration of how international and national trade and environment policies affect each other and an investigation of how firms and corporations adjust their strategies to respond to environmental regulation. The second section, which is devoted to the legal aspects of the conflict between trade and environmental policies, explores the implications of existing international trade agreements for good environmental practice and investigates the effects of national environmental laws on international trade. The final section is concerned with government policy and the way in which national governments construct international 'regimes' which affect the interplay between trade liberators and environmental regulators. Trade and the Environment provides a clear insight into an area of current concern and points to future issues in the rapidly emerging trade and environment regime.

The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry is dominated by major Western brands. The dominance of such major brands extends to burgeoning Asian markets. These conglomerates often rely on packaging as a strategic tool to entice Asian consumers. This book illustrates how packaging as a marketing tool is more than simply changing the label or translating the brand into vernacular language. It examines how different packaging elements (e.g. information, imagery, packaging type) can help to communicate product values to Asian consumers. Drawing upon rich knowledge of the Asian CPG markets with extensive findings from fieldworks in the key Asian markets, this book explains how Western brands are localising their packaging design in Asian markets. It provides invaluable insight into how major Western CPG brands have relied heavily on their packaging strategies to compete not only against domestic brands but also against other foreign brands. The book includes in-depth interviews with brand managers of several major Western CPG brands and retailers, and sheds light on emerging trends of CPG packaging in Asia.

New digital devices enable consumers to ubiquitously access the Internet and inspire them to switch between online and offline channels when shopping - a phenomenon extant research on consumer behavior terms cross-channel shopping. This considerable change in consumer behavior offers great potential for retailers worldwide to strengthen their competitiveness. Today, retail incumbents aspire to integrate their channels to offer compelling switching opportunities among all online and offline channels - an approach we coin cross-channel management. However, addressing cross-channel shoppers may entail a rise in business model complexity which can only be tackled by installing a firm-wide strategic change process. Set against this transformative background, this book offers insight into how firms can overcome said inertia and successfully transform their current channel specific business model to a much more integrated system of online and offline channels. With the help of 71 interviews with top and middle managers in retailing, this book derives a variety of recommendations in the field of cross-channel management for retailers and manufacturers.

Offering a holistic approach to positive luxury, this comprehensive book provides a novel framework grounded in the new paradigm of Transformative Luxury Research (TLR) stream. TLR helps luxury businesses and researchers develop in-depth knowledge about the mechanisms and factors that shape the future of positive luxury thinking and doing while promoting collective and individual well-being outcomes, social justice, eco-friendly practices, and sustainable growth, involving various stakeholders, communities, and institutions across developed and developing countries. Through a wide range of empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions, examining the social, environmental, organizational, political, and cultural issues in responsible luxury marketing, this book explores the relationship between luxury consumption, production, and well-being outcomes. It offers a comprehensive overview of how luxury businesses can transform their practices and thus play an active role in promoting positive luxury within the industry and beyond along with enhancing their competitiveness, innovation, and profitability. The idea of well-being outcomes and sustainable growth, as applied in the TLR agenda, calls for synergistic theoretical and practical approaches. The content of this book, through different exciting chapters, will generate novel ideas to promote positive luxury business models leading luxury firms to transform their practices by advancing the current understanding of ethical and responsible business practices, which contribute to individual and collective well-being within the luxury field.

In The Online Customer, Yinghui Yang details how data mining and marketing approaches can be used to study marketing problems. The book uses a vast dataset of web transactions from the largest internet retailers, including Amazon.com. In particular, she deftly shows how to integrate and compare statistical methods from marketing and data mining research. The book comprises two parts. The first part focuses on using behavior patterns for customer segmentation. It advances data mining theory by presenting a novel pattern-based clustering approach to customer segmentation and valuation. The second part of the book explores how free shipping impacts purchase behavior online. It illuminates the importance of shipping policies in a competitive setting. With complete documentation and methodology, this book is a valuable reference that business and Internet Studies scholars can build upon.

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 with a Retail context to help students find essential Maths and English theory understandable, engaging and achievable. Written by Carole Vella, a lecturer with a wealth of experience in the Retail and Business Administration industry, this workbook is an invaluable resource to support Maths and English learning in the classroom, at work and for personal study at home.

Interest in Financial Services Marketing has grown hugely over the last few decades, particularly since the financial crisis, which scarred the industry and its relationship with customers. It reflects the importance of the financial services industry to the economies of every nation and the realisation that the consumption and marketing of financial services differs from that of tangible goods and indeed many other intangible services. This book is therefore a timely and much needed comprehensive compendium that reflects the development and maturation of the research domain, and pulls together, in a single volume, the current state of thinking and debate. The events associated with the financial crisis have highlighted that there is a need for banks and other financial institutions to understand how to rebuild trust and confidence, improve relationships and derive value from the marketing process. Edited by an international team of experts, this book will provide the latest thinking on how to manage such challenges and will be vital reading for students and lecturers in financial services marketing, policy makers and practitioners.

This book analyzes the food revolution that has occurred in Russia since the late 1980s, documenting the transformation in systems of production, supply, distribution, and consumption. It examines the dominant actors in the food system; explores how the state regulates food; considers changes in patterns of food trade interactions with other states; and discusses how all this and changing habits of consumption have impacted consumers. It contrasts the grim food situation of 1980s and 1990s with the much better food situation that prevails at present and sets the food revolution in the context of the wider consumer revolution, which has affected fashion, consumer electronics, and other sectors of the economy.

The ability to collaborate, particularly in new manufacturing technology development, is becoming a corporate competence that will determine which companies survive in the next decade. With the advent of the telecommunications and information infrastructure realized in the 1990s, companies that can effectively collaborate to get new technologies applied will stand a greater chance of remaining competitive in today's market.

Collaborative R&D offers the methods and metrics for developing collaborative technology programs and partnerships, both within the industry and between major competitors. R&D experts Allen and Jarman provide a complete map for collaboration, taken from their collective years of experience in creating, promoting, and managing many collaborative R&D initiatives over the past decade. They include the guidelines for determining what technology development areas are appropriate for collaboration, and what ingredients need to be in place for it to be successful.

The authors' experiences are detailed in a format that walks the reader through the process of identifying, starting, and managing collaborative R&D programs. Having developed these programs with companies like Ford, Texas Instruments, Boeing, AT&T, and Kodak, Allen and Jarman include numerous real-world examples, which show how to choose collaborative partners, how to use the government in establishing R&D programs, successful management techniques, means of addressing intellectual property, and how to address accounting concerns.

The book also illustrates the significant benefits of collaborative R&D, helping managers and technology professionals realize its value by enabling them to make the most knowledgeable decisions and take the best actions possible, in any given situation. Among some of the benefits that have resulted from the authors' collaborative programs:

• Pratt & Whitney developed software tools that enabled them to keep one of their plants from closing.
• Ford reduced a two-week design process to four hours.
• An acceleration by at least a year in 32 key Printed Wiring Board research tasks resulted in research savings of about $35.5 million.

  Collaborative R&D is valuable reading for any business that plans to thrive in a new global economy where all available financial and human assets will need to be leveraged for the greatest return—and with minimal risk.

  "R&D means innovation, productivity, and growth—the three things our economy needs the most. This important new book explains how and why the R&D revolution is transforming American industry, a theme everyone who cares about the future of our economy should understand." —Jerry Jasinowski, President, National Association of Manufacturers.

  "Allen and Jarman provide the definitive pathway to competitive advantage through collaborative R&D, the new tool for cost-effective innovation in the twenty-first century." —Leo Reddy, President, National Coalition for Advanced Manufacturing.

  "Collaboration among companies is very new in American industry. Most companies are still striving to have their own employees collaborate with each other. This book portrays the strength and power of intercompany collaboration." —Jack E. Swindle, Senior Vice President, Texas Instruments.

  "This is a must read for any entrepreneur thinking of becoming involved in cross-organizational collaboration, for any corporate executive concerned about how cross-organizational R&D collaboration will help his company to remain competitive in the future, and for any manager who is responsible for managing people involved in cross-organizational collaborative efforts." —Dr. Ann Majchrzak, Professor of Information Systems, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

  "Collaborative R&D is mandatory reading for any enterprise leader looking to expand and leverage market influence." —Mike McEvoy, Vice President, Advanced Engineering and Design Center, Baxter Healthcare Corporation.

This book provides a solid overview of trade and business opportunities in the Pacific Alliance, focusing on the key drivers of economic growth and development in Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico. It addresses the political, economic, and social benefits that accrue when commerce and markets are made freer, and implications this poses for American businesses. Further, it surveys how key economies of Latin America have learned from past failures and are poised to capitalize on them in the future. It will offer a detailed understanding for business scholars, practitioners, and entrepreneurs looking to explore new business ventures in dynamic trade union.