Unlike other economies, family businesses in China are greatly affected by the derived Confucian culture, excessive marketization, as well as the seemingly endless institutional supervision by a transitional Chinese government. China has a strong historical legacy, devoted to patriarchal values and strong family-centered traditions. This volume explores the social foundations and historical legacies of families, business families, and family businesses in China. It begins with an overview of a household, family, and clan in ancient China before an examination of the economic, social, and cultural functions that the family system served in Ancient China as well as the four unique features that distinguish the family system in ancient China from those in western societies. It later discusses the evolution of the family system and the rise of family business before the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. Finally, it evaluates the family system before and after the "Open-up and Reform" in 1978. This interdisciplinary work, incorporating sociological, anthropological, and institutional contexts pertaining to China, offers researchers the first advanced perspective of the development of family firms in China.

It's Not Just Business is designed to give you the edge you need to navigate the complex business world and the equally complex people who reside there. Business is about human nature, goals and emotion, with all of the quirks and flaws; and it is about forgiving people for being human, and business for being compromised of people. Loaded with practical advice that you can instantly put to use, subjects include business politics, ego, negotiations, group dynamics, game theory, prisoner's dilemma, perception issues, managing and being managed and personal balance and survival.

This book shows an innovative way for managers to gain a better understanding of emotions in teams and organizational units and thus positively influence agile development in the context of digital transformation of companies. Digitalization does not just lead to technical changes. It dramatically changes the way employees work with each other as well as how executives play their roles. In an agile working environment, middle management in particular loses power, influence, and relevance, and customer relationships are subject to greater affectivity. The result is an increased emotionalization of the actors, which should be recognized and understood prior to designing the emotional landscape of the organization and to developing and implementing successful business models. The author introduces various conventional and AI-based instruments based on current research for handling emotions, supported by practical concepts.

This book focuses on leadership as a visual discourse and explores the construction of this discourse within the context of Bedouin Arabia, and the Middle East more broadly. In it, the author considers business and organisational leadership from an aesthetic perspective and in the context of various geographical and historical settings. The book examines the work of a variety of artists, and examines how public representations of business and political figures are used as a tool of leadership. Using a Foucauldian perspective, the book explores the interconnected concepts of power and knowledge, examining how visual images are used in the Middle Eastern context for leaders to communicate with their followers and the public. The Bedouin business world provides a unique opportunity for the researcher to examine the interplay between culture, management and politics. The book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of aesthetics, leadership, management, culture, and the Middle East more broadly.

****The Listening Leader has been officially shortlisted in the 'Leading the Team' category for The Business Book Awards 2018, as announced on 17th January 2018.****
 
DISCOVER THE ART OF COMMUNICATIVE LEADERSHIP: HOW TO REALLY LISTEN SO YOU CAN WIN AND HOLD THE TRUST OF YOUR STAKEHOLDERS.

Leaders often say ‘I communicate’ when, in fact, they mean ‘I tell’. Yet being able to really listen is the key to growth and results. The Listening Leader provides a clear framework for taking action to implement a communicative leadership style

By actively listening to your organisation and external stakeholders you will be able to better navigate today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) economy and digitally transparent world; make a genuine difference to the performance of your organization;  better respond to the expectations and needs of their stakeholders and dramatically increase your competitiveness in the market. 

BECOME A GREAT LEADER, IMPROVE YOUR PERFORMANCE AND SUCCEED IN BUSINESS BY COMMUNICATING AND LISTENING MORE EFFECTIVELY.
 
"If everything seems going too fast, it’s all too hard, then grab this book, go off to a quiet corner, read some and you’ll feel calmer: it reconnects the decent ones among us to things we always knew, but here is the hugely powerful evidence we’ve been right, and the clear ways we can do it even better. Let’s hope the bad guys don’t get anywhere near a copy." Anne Scoular, Former diplomat and international banker; psychologist and writer; Co-Founder of Meyler Campbell

"It might be an inconvenient truth for some: successful leaders have to be more than great managers. Communicative leadership, as shown in this excellent book, leads you there." Joachim Faber, Chairman Deutsche Börse AG (German Stock Exchange).

This book examines the ways in which value is created in the digital economy from a social networks and service ecosystems perspective. Focusing on innovation, this project explores analytics, Big Data, and privacy with respect to service management and value creation. It debunks these technology-centric buzzwords by relating cross-disciplinary research topics from seminal sociology, business, management, marketing, information systems, organizational, and technology theory under the common theme of plasticity, which is the ability of a system to take and retain form. A keen understanding of plasticity is the route to success in the digital economy. This book, aimed at academics, graduate students and practitioners in fields related to innovation, service research, and strategic management, offers a holistic perspective on innovation that is informed by scholarly research from multiple disciplines.

How did an American immigrant without a college education go from Venice Beach T-shirt vendor to television's most successful producer? How did a timid pastor's son surmount a paralysing fear of public speaking to sell out Yankee Stadium, twice? How did the city of Tokyo create a PowerPoint stunning enough to win them the chance to host the Olympics?

They told brilliant stories.

Whether your goal is to sell, educate, fundraise or entertain, your story is your most valuable asset: 'a strategic tool with irresistible power', according to the New York Times. Stories inspire; they persuade; they galvanize movements and actuate global change. A well-told story hits you like a punch to the gut; it triggers the light-bulb moment, the 'aha' that illuminates the path to innovation. Radical transformation can occur in an instant, with a single sentence; The Storyteller's Secret teaches you how to craft your most powerful delivery ever.

In his hugely attended Talk Like TED events, bestselling author and communications guru Carmine Gallo found, again and again, that audiences wanted to discover the keys to telling a powerful story. The Storyteller's Secret unlocks the answer in fifty lessons from visionary leaders - each of whom cites storytelling as a crucial ingredient in success. A good story can spark action and passion; it can revolutionize the way people think and spur them to chase their dreams. Isn't it time you shared yours?

Addressing a need for innovative solutions to challenges facing organisations today, this book explores the concept of Knowledge Risk Management (KRM), outlining how this new approach can be implemented in the banking sector. The author proposes the first knowledge risk framework that is specific to cooperative banks, which aims to improve the accuracy of risk assessment procedures by combining a conventional risk management approach with knowledge management tools and techniques. Including empirical data taken from interviews with employees in the banking sector, this book provides banks with a valuable tool for tackling potentially damaging knowledge-related risks, making it an essential read for those researching risk management and banking.

"The Coachable Leader" speaks to executives who are serious and willing to reflect upon, refine, and possibly reconstitute their leadership practices. If you want to be one of those people, it's imperative that you remain coachable so you can gain insights on how to encourage positive behaviors and avoid executive actions that sabotage mutual success.

Use this book to seize your opportunity to become an exceptional leader. Through its clearly outlined chapters, complete with real-life business examples and comprehensive graphics, you'll learn how to balance the seven fundamentals for effective leadership development: collaborative convincement, emotional strength, integrative ethics, provident power, interactive influence, team forbearance, systems discernment.

With these foundational concepts, you'll discover how to initiate a more cooperative and collaborative approach to leadership. As you seek to become a coachable leader, you'll develop skills, techniques, and tools to inspire and accomplish tangible, bottomline results. Achieve a more balanced approach to reaching your goals with "The Coachable Leader "

While characteristically 'Austrian' themes such as entrepreneurship, economic calculation, tacit knowledge and the temporal structure of capital are clearly relevant to the business firm, Austrian economists have said relatively little about management, organization, and strategy. This innovative book features 12 chapters that all seek to advance the understanding of these issues by drawing on Austrian ideas. Building on existing research in transaction cost economics, agency theory, evolutionary economics and the resource-based theory of the firm, the authors cover a wide range of theoretical and applied topics. These include knowledge management, authority and hierarchy, modularity, corporate restructuring, telecommunications regulation and competitive advantage. They clearly show how Austrian ideas can usefully engage, challenge and extend more mainstream perspectives on economic organization. There are many books on Austrian economics and many more on the theory of the firm, but virtually none that integrate these two bodies of literature. Scholars of Austrian economics and academics interested in strategy, organization and the theory of the firm will draw great value from this insightful book.

How well do governments do in converting the resources they take from us, like taxes, into services that improve the well-being of individuals, groups, and society as a whole? In other words: how well do they perform?
This question has become increasingly prominent in public debates over the past couple of decades, especially in the developed world but also in developing countries. As the state has grown during the second half of the 20th century, so pressures to justify its role in producing public services have also increased. Governments across the world have implemented all sorts of policies aimed at improving performance.
But how much do we know about what actually improves performance of public organisations and services? On what theories, explicit or more often implicit, are these policies based? The answer is: too much and too little. There are dozens of theories, models, assumptions, and prescriptions about 'what works' in improving performance. But there's been very little attempt to 'join up' theories about performance and make some sense of the evidence we have within a coherent theoretical framework.
This ground-breaking book sets out to begin to fill this gap by creatively synthesising the various fragments and insights about performance into a framework for systematically exploring and understanding how public sector performance is shaped. It focuses on three key aspects: the external 'performance regime' that drives performance of public agencies; the multiple dimensions that drive performance from within; and the competing public values that frame both of these and shape what public expects from public services.

This fresh and insightful examination of modern leadership and management issues uses the surprisingly relevant stories of King Arthur and Camelot to illustrate the do's and don'ts of achieving success. The many examples of popular movies, television shows, books, comics, and theatrical plays based upon the character of King Arthur or stories of Camelot provide proof of how firmly rooted they are in mainstream culture. Accordingly, King Arthur and Camelot provide a perfect vehicle to communicate important leadership and management concepts that are completely applicable to today's institutions-lessons that the author appropriately terms "Camelot wisdom," as opposed to "conventional wisdom." Camelot, Inc.: Leadership and Management Insights from King Arthur and the Round Table traces Arthur's evolution from awkward youth to compassionate King to tired ruler, explaining how he learned, developed his leadership philosophy, established a vision and mission, created success, communicated, and failed to confront issues, leading to his decline. This unprecedented examination of Arthur's life illuminates many of today's most pressing leadership challenges, including retaining knowledge; developing coherent plans and proposals; building internal and external advocacy; performing effective negotiation, team building, and success planning; maintaining ethical standards, innovation, and flexibility; and moving from vision to execution. Contains 130 quotes from The Once and Future King, Le Morte D'Arthur, and other Arthur stories Provides instruction on many valuable business skills such as setting goals and objectives, planning strategy, assessing results, preparing for the unexpected, and working in teams