As the developed world continues to become more digitized, lesser developed areas are starting to see more technological advancements being integrated into their society. These advancements are creating opportunities to improve both the economy and the lives of people within these areas. Information Technology Integration for Socio-Economic Development features theoretical concepts and best practices in the implementation of new technologies within developing areas around the world. Highlighting empirical research on the application of information technologies to bridge the digital divide within different countries, the book is ideally suited for technology developers, managers, and policy makers.

An emerging area of study in today's society is the increasing number of crowdfunding platforms across the world. Crowdfunding plays an integral role in global economic development as they are continuing to multiply throughout various professional disciplines. Empirical research is needed that covers the recent growth of crowdfunding projects and assists researchers and experts in providing knowledge on the economic impact of this trend. Multidisciplinary Approaches to Crowdfunding Platforms is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the emerging programs of crowdfunding in the global digital economy and its numerous applications in professional industries. While highlighting topics such as digital entrepreneurship, business intelligence, and e-commerce, this publication explores the latest findings as well as the risks and limitations of crowdfunding. This book is ideally designed for researchers, managers, practitioners, economists, academicians, instructors, sociologists, developers, consultants, policymakers, and students seeking developing research on crowdfunding platforms and the latest trends in various disciplines.

One of the great successes of the law and economics movement has been the use of economic models to explain the structure and function of broad areas of law. The original contributions to this volume epitomize that tradition, offering state-of-the-art research on the many facets of economic modeling in law.The contributors employ a variety of economic methodologies to explore a wide range of topics, including torts, contracts, property, crime, employment, the environment, and legal procedure. This depth and breadth of scholarship reflect the continuing vitality of the economic approach to law, offering an illuminating look into the future of the field and providing inspiration and guidance for the next generation of theorists. This timely volume will appeal to students, professors and researchers in both law and economics, particularly those with an interest in the theoretical and practical intersections of the two fields. Contributors: L. Anderlini, M. Baker, F. Baumann, J. De Mot, B. Deporter, D. Dharmapala, W. Emons, L. Felli, C. Fluet, T. Friehe, N. Garoupa, Z. Grossman, S. Izmalkov, C. Landeo, R. McAdams, T. Miceli, M.Nikitin, J. Pincus, A. Postlewaite, R. Rabon, G. Ramello, K. Segerson, P. Shapiro, T. Tsvetanov, T. Ulen, N. Westelius, A. Wickelgren

We are, undoubtedly, in a time where we need to be determined to succeed. We are all aware of the challenges that we face through globalisation, an unparalleled pace of change, all of the factors that have provided the script for seemingly endless versions of 'Shift Happens'youtube videos and its companion pieces. I have argued elsewhere that people who say that recession will last for some notional period of time are simply misleading us. If we, as a nation, are not competitive there will be no end to recession; it will become decline. In the short term, we need to be determined to succeed in other ways. We cannot accept a situation where we have high levels of youth unemployment whilst facing skills shortages and having vacancies that we cannot fill. We need people who are highly (and appropriately) skilled: that is why this book is so valuable. (David Cameron)

Although maintaining assets is now recognized as a significant engineering function, attention has usually been focused, particularly in the developing countries, on the acquisition of assets. "Maintenance Standardization for Capital AssetS" explores maintenance management systems, stressing the need for manufacturers and maintenance engineers to develop a maintenance policy and systems as early as the design stage, and suggests ways to approach this need. Also included are strategies for developing countries and their donors to organize systems which can minimize failures and predict maintenance problems.

China's long-term economic success is driven by new firms, new sectors and new business practices. This book explores the establishment of new private firms and listed companies, the development of knowledge industries, in particular the IT and banking sectors and the co-evolution of public governance and business institutions. The contributors discuss the role of local institutions in coordinating business activities and unleashing entrepreneurship, arguing that the sudden growth of new firms and industries is facilitated by changes in business behaviour and institutions. Initial private exchange and investment in an environment of ill-functioning markets are shown to depend on local networks and local business culture which, in turn, rely on local tax regimes setting incentives for inherited bureaucracies to engage in economic transformation. Finally, the book establishes local institutions and local governance as crucial dimensions of China's emerging business system. Contributing to the theory of endogenous institutional change, The Chinese Economy in the 21st Century will be of great appeal to academics and students interested in management, comparative business systems, transition economics, evolutionary economics, Chinese studies and Asian studies.

In today's environment, success in delivering projects is not based on a company having the best delivery framework or a project having the best plan or risk log, but rather on the skills of the people who are planning, managing and delivering on the work of that project. It is no longer sufficient to just have fundamental project management skills; resources also need to possess an augmented set of "soft" or consultative skills. This book focuses on the evolving competencies needed for project managers in the current environment. It proposes a framework called the "Consultative Project Management Competency Model" which outlines 25 essential competencies. Each competency is described with examples and proficiency differentiation for levels of experience. This book also defines a holistic approach for improving project management competencies of individuals or an entire organization.

The geography of networks and R&D collaborations, in particular the spatial dimension of interactions between organisations performing joint R&D, have attracted a burst of attention in the last decade, both in the scientific study of the networks and in the policy sector. The volume is intended to bring together a selection of articles providing novel theoretical and empirical insights into the geographical dynamics of such networks and R&D collaborations, using new, systematic data sources and employing cutting-edge spatial analysis and spatial econometric techniques. It comprises a section on analytic advances and methodology and two thematic sections on structure and spatial characteristics of R&D networks and the impact of R&D networks and policy implications. The edited volume provides a collection of high-level research contributions with an aim to contribute to the recent debate in economic geography and regional science on how the structure of formal and informal networks modifies and influences the spatial and temporal diffusion of knowledge.

WAhrend das VerstAndnis, die Bearbeitung und die LAsung von existierenden Umweltproblemen sowie die Vermeidung neuer Probleme immer schwieriger werden, werden im gleichen Zuge die finanziellen Ressourcen immer knapper. Deshalb stellt sich die Frage nach dem Erfolg von MaAnahmen und nach den MAglichkeiten ihrer Steuerung und Verbesserung umso dringender. Die Erfolgskontrolle stellt eine Schnittstelle zwischen den Umweltnatur- und den Umweltsozialwissenschaften dar. So werden zu ihrer DurchfA1/4hrung einerseits ein detailliertes SystemverstAndnis von Problem und MaAnahme vorausgesetzt, andererseits sind die Formulierung von Zielen, die Ableitung geeigneter Erfolgskriterien und deren Bewertung eindeutig gesellschaftliche Prozesse. Aufgabe der Erfolgskontrolle ist es, diese Aspekte zu verbinden bzw. die Grundlagen hierfA1/4r zu schaffen. Erfolgskontrollen von umweltrelevanten AktivitAten spielen sowohl in Unternehmen als auch in staatlichen Institutionen eine wichtige Rolle.

This book addresses information technologies recently applied in the field of construction safety. Combining case studies, literature reviews and interviews to study the issue, it presents cutting-edge applications of various information technologies (ITs) in construction in different parts of the world, together with a wealth of figures, tables and examples. Though primarily intended for researchers and experts in the field, the book will also benefit graduate students.

The three volumes comprising the "Handbook of Natural Resource and Energy Economics" examine the current theory, and sample current application methods for natural resource and energy economics. Volumes 1 & 2 deal with the economics of environmental and renewable resources, and are divided into six parts. The first deals with basic concepts, and subsequent sections are concerned with ethics and environmental topics. Volume 3 deals primarily with non-renewable resources. It analyzes the economics of energy and minerals and includes chapters on the economics of environmental policy. For more information on the Handbooks in Economics series, please see our home page on http: //www.elsevier.nl/locate/hes

The Housing Outlook discusses the major factors affecting housing activity, housing demand, supply responses, and housing costs. This book: establishes benchmarks for evaluating national housing performance; suggests goals for public policy; and provides a core of information for both the public and private sectors on decisions affecting housing. The authors examine housing demand and changes in inventory over the decade, and isolates the specific effects of new construction, rehabilitation and conversion, and losses on the decrease of the housing supply.

On October 30, 1990, Germany was formally reunified through an extension of the legal, political, and economic structures of West Germany into the former German Democratic Republic. For East Germans this transformation has been a challenging process. Former values, orientations, and standards have been subject to severe scrutiny as reunification has affected virtually every area of life.

Staab analyzes the development from the divided to the unified Germany and asks to what extent East Germans have adopted a national identity in line with that of the West Germans. He examines such identity markers as attitudes toward territory, economics, ethnicity, mass culture, and civic-political activity. Identifying a significant range of commonalities, he also finds striking features of mutually exclusive areas working to prevent a shared national identity. Scholars and other researchers dealing with German politics and contemporary history, political sociology, and nationalism will be interested in this book.

Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume X features the revolutionary work of economic theory from Scottish economist and philosopher ADAM SMITH (1723-1790), still the basis of much of today's understanding of how the global economy works. Smith's proposals of rules governing labor and supply and demand remain powerfully influential, and his defense for free-market capitalism continues to garner something akin to religious devotion among some market watchers.

100 tips of ways to fix simple ailments of the board of directors.

This international bestseller, which foreshadowed a market crash, explains why it could happen again if we don?t act now. Fractal geometry is the mathematics of roughness: how to reduce the outline of a jagged leaf or static in a computer connection to a few simple mathematical properties. With his fractal tools, Mandelbrot has got to the bottom of how financial markets really work. He finds they have a shifting sense of time and wild behaviour that makes them volatile, dangerous - and beautiful. In his models, the complex gyrations of the FTSE 100 and exchange rates can be reduced to straightforward formulae that yield a much more accurate description of the risks involved.

Welfare economics is a branch of economics using microeconomic techniques to simultaneously determine the efficiency of the overall economy and the income distribution consequences associated with it. As a British economist best known for his work in many fields and particularly in welfare economics, Pigou attended the prestigious Harrow School and was a graduate of King's College, Cambridge, where he studied under Alfred Marshall, famously known as the creator of "The Marshall Plan." Here in The Economics of Welfare, Pigou asserts that individuals are the best judges of their own welfare, that people will prefer greater welfare to less welfare, and that welfare can be adequately measured either in monetary terms or as a relative preference. Scholars and students of both economics and welfare policy will find Pigou's work a significant contribution to current debates on welfare policy directions. Included in Volume I: "Welfare and The National Dividend" and "The Size of The National Dividend and The Distribution of Resources Among Different Uses" ALSO AVAILABLE AT COSIMO CLASSICS: The Economics of Welfare: Volume II

This book examines the characteristics of sustainable remote health workforces and how management practices influence workforce sustainability in remote regions. It introduces the Integrated Human Resource Management (HRM) Framework for sustainable remote health workforces, providing a contemporary approach to remote health workforce sustainability. The book particularly focuses on the influence of localised management practices on workforce sustainability. For geographically remote managers, the book offers evidence-based information for developing effective management practices drawn from three separate, yet related research studies. This book will be of interest to managers and aspiring managers, working or planning to work in geographically remote regions across the globe. The book provides insight into the human resource management challenges for remote managers, and provides resources and practical management tools as well as suggestions about how managers can create their own localised management practices.

Like many other cities in the United States, Grand Rapids, Michigan has struggled with redeveloping its economic identity after the devastation of the Great Recession of 2008. "Last Chance Mile: The Reinvention of an" "American Community "demonstrates how Grand Rapids has been redefined as a hub for the greatest scientific minds in the world by developing what has come to be called the "Medical Mile."

The Medical Mile is cluster of prosperity that is anchored by a world-renowned research institute, a major healthcare organization, a Big Ten medical school, an allied health professions program at a nearby university, and an entrepreneurial incubator where new medical device and life sciences businesses are being born. None of this existed until a $1 billion donation from Jay Andel changed not only the way the world views Grand Rapids, but how the community views itself.

It has been a long journey of self-discovery for Grand Rapids that could serve as inspiration for other American communities.

The major purpose of this book is to clarify the importance of non-technological factors in innovation to cope with contemporary complex societal issues while critically reconsidering the relations between science, technology, innovation (STI), and society. For a few decades now, innovation-mainly derived from technological advancement-has been considered a driving force of economic and societal development and prosperity. With that in mind, the following questions are dealt with in this book: What are the non-technological sources of innovation? What can the progress of STI bring to humankind? What roles will society be expected to play in the new model of innovation? The authors argue that the majority of so-called technological innovations are actually socio-technical innovations, requiring huge resources for financing activities, adapting regulations, designing adequate policy frames, and shaping new uses and new users while having the appropriate interaction with society. This book gathers multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches in innovation that go beyond technology and take into account the inter-relations with social and human phenomena. Illustrated by carefully chosen examples and based on broad and well-informed analyses, it is highly recommended to readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date integrated overview of innovation in its non-technological dimensions.