After a decade of treating the topic of e-commerce with awe and confusion, we can now step back and analyze the subject more objectively. From launching an electronic storefront to managing complex supply chain operations, most companies have ventured into e-commerce; but even the best-run bricks-and-mortar enterprises have run into snags in the virtual world. Even mighty Wal-Mart, for example, took its website through several redesigns and sales strategies, and Borders eventually outsourced its Internet sales activites to rival, Amazon. Despite the horror stories of abysmal customer service, lost information, catastrophic meltdowns, and the excesses of the dot.com boom, the Internet is now an essential tool and medium for conducting business. Today, the key question is not whether your firm should invest in e-commerce, but how you can do so most profitably. In Implementing E-Commerce Strategies, Marc Epstein goes beyond the hype to focus on the practical angles of designing, executing, and successfully managing an e-commerce strategy that works for your company. While many books have addressed the "what" and "why" of e-commerce, Epstein zeroes in on the elusive "how." Showcasing the experiences of 32 companies (both successes and failures) in a wide variety of industries, he explores such issues as: Corporate culture and strong leadership from the executive suite Integrating e-commerce into corporate strategy Aligning goals, accountabilities, and performance metrics to support e-commerce initiatives Building systems that can measure the value of your e-commerce investments. No business can avoid e-commerce--and its capacity for creating spectacular opportunities or wasting precioustime and resources. How your firm handles these challenges may very well determine whether or not it will survive.

In complex business-to-business sales processes, buyers are rewriting the rules. Today's instantaneous access to an online array of information and resources from brochures to portals to Web 2.0 social media - means buyers can quietly self-educate and autonomously direct the pace, direction, and timing of the purchase (not sales) cycle. For companies accustomed to relying on trained sales professionals to act as trusted advisors and guide buyers through a defined, structured process from the very inception of the sales opportunity - these changes are potentially disruptive on a massive scale. In this virtual marketing environment, a savvy sales rep can no longer read the room. Today, B2B marketers must decode a buyer s digital body language to understand the roles, information needs, timing, and buying intentions of its largely faceless and elusive target market. In this thoughtful and groundbreaking book, Steven Woods helps B2B marketing professionals understand the new dynamics of marketing complex products and services. He walks through the new tools available to buyers, how to read digital body language, and how to respond most effectively to maximize the volume and quality of leads. Woods shows that, by embracing the concept of digital body language, marketers can re-engage with sales colleagues on a more strategic level and increase their value to the enterprise.

This book explores the impact of design science and design thinking on tourism planning, gathering contributions from leading authorities in the field of tourism research and providing a comprehensive and interconnected panorama of cutting-edge results that influence the current and future design of tourist destinations. The book builds on recent findings in psychology, geography and urban and regional planning, as well as from economics, marketing and communications, and explores the opportunities arising from recent advances in the Internet and related technologies like memory, storage, RFID, GIS, mobile and social media in the context of collecting and analyzing traveler-related data. It presents a broad range of insights and cases on how modern design approaches can be used to develop new and better touristic experiences, and how they enable the tourism industry to track and communicate with visitors in a more meaningful way and more effectively manage visitor experiences.

The continued advancement of globalization, increases in internet connectivity, compatibility of international payment systems, and adaptability of logistics and shipping processes have combined to contribute to the rapid growth of the cross-border e-commerce market. Due to these advancements and the ubiquitous presence of smartphones, consumer use of cross-border e-commerce is increasingly simplified, and thus, sellers are hardly restricted to a specific country in terms of promoting, selling, and shipping goods worldwide. The burgeoning opportunities, habits, and trends of shopping on cross-border e-commerce platforms have expedited the prospect of becoming a presence in the global market. This is true for enterprises of all sizes, especially for small? and medium?sized enterprises (SMEs) that want to add their footprint in the international market for the first time. Like any other industry, cross-border e-commerce has its specific economics and driving forces, but has different scopes, challenges, and trends due to the geographic and cultural expanse of relevant environments. Cross-Border E-Commerce Marketing and Management was conceptualized by identifying the scope of new complementary information with a comprehensive understanding of the issues and potential of cross-border e-commerce businesses. The authors believe that this book will not only fill the void in the current research but will also provide far-sighted vision and strategies, as it covers big data, artificial intelligence, IoT, supply chain management, and more. This book provides the necessary knowledge to managers to compete with the competitive market structure and ultimately contribute to the sustainable economic growth of a country. It works as a guideline for existing cross-border e-commerce managers to formulate individual strategies that combine to optimize the industry while keeping the enterprise competitive. This book is useful in both developed and developing country contexts. This publication is an ideal resource for academicians, policy makers, stakeholders, and cross-border e-commerce managers, especially from SMEs.

Recently, e-business applications have evolved beyond business transactions and services to include customer relationship management (CRM), mobile computing, Web mining, e-healthcare, social networking, and Web 2.0. As e-business continues to create new business models and technologies, researchers, higher education faculty, and practitioners are in great need of appropriate reference resources to enhance their understanding of all aspects of e-business technologies and management.""Emergent Strategies for E-Business Processes, Services and Implications: Advancing Corporate Frameworks"" is an authoritative collection of original, in-depth, and innovative research articles on e-business concepts, models, processes, services, and applications. This book presents an integrated view of emerging issues and technologies addressed by renowned scholars, providing researchers and practitioners with the state-of the-art reference for future research and practices on a wide range of topics including e-CRM, e-business model, multi-channel management, e-health, m-commerce adoption, offshore outsourcing, and e-business innovation.

This is a rich theoretical and empirical study concerning international public relations on the web for head of state English web sites for developing countries. There is no other research in this area that comes close to the depth with which this topic is addressed in this study. In this regard, its contribution is very significant. Highly original, this study breaks new ground and may very well contribute to a new field in international public relations on the internet. "This book is highly recommended for public relations, communications, and international relations scholars ... [it] not only provides scholars with new areas of theoretical development to explore, it also provides practitioners with a blueprint for future practice." - Dr. Patricia A. Curtin, Professor, Endowed Chair of Public Relations, School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Oregon

Implementing e-government services can give governments a competitive advantage by reducing operational and management costs, increasing transparency, and fulfilling their commitment to good governance. Yet, advances in e-government technologies and their applications present complex managerial and technological challenges. E-Government Service Maturity and Development: Cultural, Organizational and Technological Perspectives discusses important concepts for public administration reformation, taking into account the complex social, administrative, cultural, and legal problems of implementing modern digital systems. The book helps define empirical studies and methodologies for e-government research and identifies factors affecting the development and proliferation of e-government. Researchers and practitioners will gain an understanding of managing e-government; meeting their strategies and objectives; building trust, confidence, and security; providing interactivity and community; developing personalized experiences and content; increasing service selection; and other issues essential to adopting, implementing, and sustaining e-government.

This book presents detailed case studies of the first commercial internet digital currency systems developed between 1996 and 2004. Transactions completed with the new technology circumvented all US financial regulations, an opening that transnational criminals exploited. Mullan explains how an entire industry of companies, agents, and participants turned a blind eye to crimes being committed in this unsupervised environment. He then tracks the subsequent changes made to US regulations that now prevent such unlicensed activity, illustrating the importance of supervising products and industries that arise from new disruptive technology. This book distills hundreds of hours of interviews with the creators and operators of early digital currency businesses to create detailed case studies of their practices.

This book identifies and discusses the main challenges facing digital business innovation and the emerging trends and practices that will define its future. The book is divided into three sections covering trends in digital systems, digital management, and digital innovation. The opening chapters consider the issues associated with machine intelligence, wearable technology, digital currencies, and distributed ledgers as their relevance for business grows. Furthermore, the strategic role of data visualization and trends in digital security are extensively discussed. The subsequent section on digital management focuses on the impact of neuroscience on the management of information systems, the role of IT ambidexterity in managing digital transformation, and the way in which IT alignment is being reconfigured by digital business. Finally, examples of digital innovation in practice at the global level are presented and reviewed. The book will appeal to both practitioners and academics. The text is supported by informative illustrations and case studies, so that practitioners can use the book as a toolbox that enables easy understanding and assists in exploiting business opportunities involving digital business innovation.

This book combines the analytic principles of digital business and data science with business practice and big data. The interdisciplinary, contributed volume provides an interface between the main disciplines of engineering and technology and business administration. Written for managers, engineers and researchers who want to understand big data and develop new skills that are necessary in the digital business, it not only discusses the latest research, but also presents case studies demonstrating the successful application of data in the digital business.

Strategies and Policies in Digital Convergence is the authoritative reference source describing issues in business strategy and public policy rising from digital convergence. Cutting-edge descriptions of mobile communications, broadband networks, and digital multimedia broadcast services are provided. This Premier Reference Source presents new business opportunities generated by digital convergence, and raises governance issues caused by this union. It provides a comprehensive overview of the technological aspects of digital convergence and the resulting business strategies and public policies.

This book combines the three dimensions of technology, society and economy to explore the advent of today's cloud ecosystems as successors to older service ecosystems based on networks. Further, it describes the shifting of services to the cloud as a long-term trend that is still progressing rapidly.The book adopts a comprehensive perspective on the key success factors for the technology - compelling business models and ecosystems including private, public and national organizations. The authors explore the evolution of service ecosystems, describe the similarities and differences, and analyze the way they have created and changed industries. Lastly, based on the current status of cloud computing and related technologies like virtualization, the internet of things, fog computing, big data and analytics, cognitive computing and blockchain, the authors provide a revealing outlook on the possibilities of future technologies, the future of the internet, and the potential impacts on business and society.

This book explores a wide range of emerging cultural, heritage, and other tourism issues that will shape the future of hospitality and tourism research and practice in the digital and innovation era. It offers stimulating new perspectives in the fields of tourism, travel, hospitality, culture and heritage, leisure, and sports within the context of a knowledge society and smart economy. A central theme is the need to adopt a more holistic approach to tourism development that is aligned with principles of sustainability; at the same time, the book critically reassesses the common emphasis on innovation as a tool for growth-led and market-oriented development. In turn, fresh approaches to innovation practices underpinned by ethics and sustainability are encouraged, and opportunities for the exploration of new research avenues and projects on innovation in tourism are highlighted. Based on the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT) and edited in collaboration with IACuDiT, the book will appeal to a broad readership encompassing academia, industry, government, and other organizations.

What do brands like Apple, Diesel, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Virgin have in common and what differentiates them from other brands? These brands are able to maintain a relationship with their clients that goes beyond brand loyalty. This gives a complete analysis of lifestyle brands that inspire, guide, and motivate beyond product benefits alone.

E-supply chain is the use of information technology, electronic means, or cyberspace to bring together widely dispersed suppliers and buyers, to enhance coordination and knowledge sharing, and to manage upstream and downstream value chain channels. ""E-Supply Chain Technologies and Management"" offers the most comprehensive analysis of the concepts, models, and IT infrastructures of electronic supply chains. This Premier Reference Source provides a broad understanding of issues pertaining to the use of emerging information technologies and their impact on supply chain flexibility and management. Professionals, researchers, and practitioners who want to explore the concepts and principles of e-supply chain, or want to apply various e-supply chain models and systems to solve business problems, will find this reference book to be an indispensable tool.

Mobile commerce, or M-commerce, is booming as many utilize their mobile devices to complete transactions ranging from personal shopping to managing and organizing business operations. The emergence of new technologies such as money sharing and transactional applications have revolutionized the way we do business. Wholeheartedly adopted by both the business world and consumers, mobile commerce has taken its seat at the head of the mobile app economy.Securing Transactions and Payment Systems for M-Commerce seeks to present, analyze, and illustrate the challenges and rewards of developing and producing mobile commerce applications. It will also review the integral role M-commerce plays in global business. As consumers' perceptions are taken into account, the authors approach this burgeoning topic from all perspectives. This reference publication is a valuable resource for programmers, technology and content developers, students and instructors in the field of ICT, business professionals, and mobile app developers.

This book accomplishes an analysis of critical aspects of managerial implications on the business with information. The business dealing with information is spreading in the service market; and, an efficient management of informational processes, in order to perform successful business with them, is now crucial. Besides, economical/business, technological or any other kind of information, organized in a variety of forms, can be considered as an 'informational product'. Thus, creating a business value out of information is challenging but vital, especially in the modern digital age. Accordingly, the book covers the methods and technologies to capture, integrate, analyze, mine, interpret and visualize information out of distributed data, which in turn can help to manage information competently. This volume explores the challenges being faced and opportunities to look out for in this research area, while discussing different aspects of this subject. The book will be of interest to those working in or are interested in joining interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work in the areas of information management, service management, and service business. It will also be of use to young generation researchers by giving them an overview on different aspects of doing business with information. While introducing them to both technical and non-technical details, as well as economic aspects, the book will also be extremely informative for professionals who want to understand and realize the potential of using the cutting-edge managerial technologies for doing successful business with information/ services.

In this volume, the authors apply insights from a variety of perspectives to explore the alignment among strategy, organization design, process and human resource management, and e-business practices on developing successful social networking programs-with particular regard to applying such initiatives against the backdrop of the global financial crisis and challenges to traditional business models. Showcasing in-depth case studies, the authors present emerging approaches to analyze the impact of investment in social networking sites, aligning internal resources, and measuring effects on positioning, branding, and new business creation. The fact that a growing proportion of the world population has a relationship with social networking sites could prove very valuable for companies. The question is whether this represents a business opportunity, whether companies know how to make the most of it and if they will make the necessary efforts to adapt to these new platforms. In the modern world, social networking sites have enormous potential for large as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); most companies are aware of the need for a presence on social networking sites, but at present their e-business strategies are part of their medium and long-term strategic planning and only a small percentage have been put into practice. In short, this book attempts to answer the following questions: Is there a business opportunity for companies on social networking sites? Do they know how to make the most of it? Are they willing to make the necessary effort to adapt? Can e-business strategies contribute to company creation and the success of already existing businesses? And if so, how?

This book presents and discusses the state of the art and future trends in software engineering education, with a focus on agile methods and their budgetary implications. It introduces new and innovative methods, models and frameworks to focus the training towards the industry's requirements. The range of topics covered includes education models for software engineering, development of the software engineering discipline, innovation and evaluation of software engineering education, curricula for software engineering education, requirements and cultivation of outstanding software engineers for the future and cooperation models for industry and software engineering education.