Socially enhanced Services Computing deals with a novel and exciting new field at the intersection between Social Computing, Service-oriented Computing, Crowd Computing, and Cloud Computing. The present work presents a collection of selected papers by the editors of this volume, which they feel will help the reader in understanding this field. The approach discussed allows for a seamless integration of people into trusted dynamic compositions of Human-provided Services and Software-based services, thus empowering new interaction models and processes in massive collaboration scenarios in a Future Internet.

In many decision problems, e.g. from the area of production and logistics manage ment, the evaluation of alternatives and the determination of an optimal or at least suboptimal solution is an important but dif?cult task. For most such problems no ef?cient algorithm is known and classical approaches of Operations Research like Mixed Integer Linear Programming or Dynamic Pro gramming are often of limited use due to excessive computation time. Therefore, dedicated heuristic solution approaches have been developed which aim at providing good solutions in reasonable time for a given problem. However, such methods have two major drawbacks: First, they are tailored to a speci?c prob lem and their adaption to other problems is dif?cult and in many cases even impos sible. Second, they are typically designed to "build" one single solution in the most effective way, whereas most decision problems have a vast number of feasible solu tions. Hence usually the chances are high that there exist better ones. To overcome these limitations, problem independent search strategies, in particular metaheuris tics, have been proposed. This book provides an elementary step by step introduction to metaheuristics focusing on the search concepts they are based on. The ?rst part demonstrates un derlying concepts of search strategies using a simple example optimization problem.

Many of the initial developments towards the Internet of Things have focused on the combination of Auto-ID and networked infrastructures in business-to-business logistics and product lifecycle applications. However, the Internet of Things is more than a business tool for managing business processes more efficiently and more effectively - it will also enable a more convenient way of life.Since the term Internet of Things first came to attention when the Auto-ID Center launched their initial vision for the EPC network for automatically identifying and tracing the flow of goods within supply-chains, increasing numbers of researchers and practitioners have further developed this vision. The authors in this book provide a research perspective on current and future developments in the Internet of Things. The different chapters cover a broad range of topics from system design aspects and core architectural approaches to end-user participation, business perspectives and applications.

This book is a contribution to contemporary debates on social research with a unique focus on the relationship between methods and the crafting of knowledge. Nine experienced researchers from different disciplines have come together to explore what really matters to them in the process of doing qualitative research.

This book is a contribution to contemporary debates on social research with a unique focus on the relationship between methods and the crafting of knowledge. Nine experienced researchers from different disciplines have come together to explore what really matters to them in the process of doing qualitative research.

This is the first book to report the details of the current status of interfirm relationships in Japan. Based on a unique data set of firms, the authors describe the characteristics of interfirm transactions in a manner unprecedented in the literature. Special emphasis is placed on the nature of payment/collection between firms. Payment for interfirm transactions is usually made on account, or by payment after delivery, rather than by immediate payment. Thus, most interfirm transactions are accompanied by a provision of credit (i.e., lending/borrowing) from a seller to a buyer, referred to as trade credit. Although trade credit is used all around the world and accounts for a large portion of firms' balance sheets, researchers, lacking detailed data, have long encountered serious difficulty in clarifying how and why firms use trade credit. In this work the authors use a huge, unique data set of about 380,000 firms in Japan during the 2007-2010 period. To grasp the entirety of this enormous data set, which is tantamount to a picture of all firms currently operating in Japan, this brief summarizes descriptive statistics and conducts univariate analyses of the data. Also provided is the legal background of trade credit practice in Japan from the "law and economics" perspective. In this manner, the book furnishes vital information that can be used as a reference for future theoretical and empirical analyses of trade credit and interfirm relationships.

Managing Supply Chain Risk and Vulnerability, a book that both practitioners and students can use to better understand and manage supply chain risk, presents topics on decision making related to supply chain risk. Leading academic researchers, as well as practitioners, have contributed chapters focusing on developing an overall understanding of risk and its relationship to supply chain performance; investigating the relationship between response time and disruption impact; assessing and prioritizing risks; and assessing supply chain resilience. Supply chain managers will find Managing Supply Chain Risk and Vulnerability a useful tool box for methods they can employ to better mitigate and manage supply chain risk. On the academic side, the book can be used to teach senior undergraduate students, as well as graduate-level students. Additionally, researchers may use the text as a reference in the area of supply chain risk and vulnerability.

To meet and adapt to the current and future trends and issues in technology and society, the science committee of The German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP) continues to define future topics for production technology. These themes represent not only the key focus for the scientific work of the WGP, but also the central themes of the first annual conference in June 2011, whose paper is publically available in this volume. Such themes, including electric mobility, medical technology, lightweight construction, and resource efficiency, as well as mass production ability have all been identified as future, large-scale, and long-term drivers of change. Future trends influence changes sustainably and fundamentally; they permeate society, technology, economics, and value systems and have an effect in virtually all areas of life. The WGP has, as part of its research, established for itself the goal of not only observing these emerging changes, but also of supervising and influencing their development in order to ensure steady progress, secure sustainability, and shape the future.

This book contains extended and revised versions of a set of selected papers from two workshops organized by the Euro Working Group on Decision Support Systems (EWG-DSS), which were held in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Rome, Italy, in May and July 2013. From a total of 45 submissions, 15 papers were accepted for publication in this edition after being reviewed by at least three internationally known experts from the EWG-DSS Program Committee and external invited reviewers. The selected papers are representative of current research activities in the area of operational research and decision support systems, focusing on topics such as decision-making using social networks and Web resources; spatio-temporal Web-based decision making; group support systems; technical, legal, and social aspects of decision making; knowledge management and decision support systems; business intelligence and data warehousing; and negotiation support systems.

Development projects that span different disciplines and groups often face problems in establishing a shared understanding of the project's purpose, deliverables, and direction. Creating Shared Understanding in Product Development Teams: How to 'Build the Beginning' uses research-based cases from TC Electronic, The Red Cross, Daimler AG, and Copenhagen Living Lab to demonstrate one approach to this problem complex. It shows how prototyping specific physical artifacts can function as drivers and focal points for creating the much needed shared understanding. Encompassing both the participant's and the facilitator's point of view, Creating Shared Understanding in Product Development Teams: How to 'Build the Beginning' provides both practical examples and theoretical explanation for the process of creating shared understanding. This book provides a toolbox and a practical guide for planning, executing, and facilitating workshops. The result is a clear outline of how to facilitate the creation of physical artifacts that enables and stimulates communication between team members, users, and stakeholders in order to create shared understanding of projects

Lean Organization for Excellence describes the right way to implement lean thinking inside both manufacturing and service industries. After explaining the origins of the concept and discussing 'wastes' and value added, the book aims to set out a precise path of action. To this end, the so-called Hoshin Kanri method of defining business objectives and targets is explained, and a Value Stream Mapping tool that serves to identify all wastes is described. Subsequent chapters cover each of the TPS (Toyota Production System) tools, from 5S to SMED, and special attention is devoted to the Ducati case study, in which tools such as 5S and Kanban are applied. Lean metrics and the innovative Value Stream Accounting are discussed, and the closing chapter focuses on Lean Office for the service industry. Each chapter includes illustrations and tables relating to practical cases concerning the subject under consideration, based on real consultancy experiences.

Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing presents a focused collection of quality chapters on state-of-the-art research efforts in the areas of enterprise networks and logistics, as well as their practical applications towards agile manufacturing. With the increasing decentralisation of manufacturing systems and outsourcing of processes, more robust and practical approaches and systems are needed to support agile manufacturing operations. Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing consists of two major sections: the first presents a broad-based review of the key areas of research in enterprise networks and logistics; the second focuses on an in-depth treatment of a particular methodology or system relevant to the book title. Examples include: * sustainable green supply chain; * value creation and supplier selection; * extended enterprise network management; * reverse logistics; and * innovative supply chain systems. The authors take into account the need to pose intellectual challenges while retaining a balanced approach in terms of scope versus depth and theory versus applications. Enterprise Networks and Logistics for Agile Manufacturing can be beneficial to academic researchers, practicing engineers and managers, and graduate students with an interest in any manufacturing sectors. It can enable them to better understand the present state and future trends of research in this important area, in order to position themselves strategically for future challenges as we enter the era of agile and distributed manufacturing.

Environmental awareness is driven mainly by the scarcity of natural resources and by more strict legal regulations. The modern enterprise policy should look at the relations between economic actions and ecological consequences. Ecoproduction is a new business approach which focuses on the most efficient and productive use of raw materials and natural resources in order to minimize footprints on the natural environment. This book aims to provide the state- of- the- art as well as new ideas of the environmental conscious operations management. The contributors present in the individual chapters problems related to: eco-friendly production technologies; recycling and waste reduction. Scope of topics discussed in this book covers also pollution prevention, energy efficiency. The authors describe problems of information management in complex systems

The challenges associated with the struggles for attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and objectives are as diverse and complex as the variety of human societies, national conditions and natural ecosystems worldwide. Despite decades of economic growth and technological advances, our world is plagued by poverty, hunger, disease, conflicts and inequality, and many societies are under the strain of environmental changes and governance failure. Such global-scale challenges call for the SDGs to be translated beyond bold concepts and aspirational targets into concrete programs and feasible plans that are substantively valuable, locally acceptable, pragmatic and operationally implementable. In the pursuit of the SDGs, positive results are far from guaranteed. Success is uncertain. Instead, the path forward requires difficult learning, experimentation and adaptation by multiple stakeholders. Loss and sacrifice are foreseeable and often inevitable. This important book captures the lessons from ongoing struggles and the early successes. Productive failures and emerging practices are identified, analyzed and promulgated for interdisciplinary learning by, and for the inspiration of, like-minded individuals, organizations, communities and nations worldwide. They can also inform and enrich the curricula in universities, training institutions and schools to prepare future generations of citizens, leaders and activists with the ethos and values of sustainability and social responsibility. The book offers a platform for academics, practitioners and concerned global citizens to identify pathways forward on the immense challenges of sustainability.

Operational Research (OR) deals with the use of advanced analytical methods to support better decision-making. It is multidisciplinary with strong links to management science, decision science, computer science and many application areas such as engineering, manufacturing, commerce and healthcare. In the study of emergent behaviour in complex adaptive systems, Agent-based Modelling & Simulation (ABMS) is being used in many different domains such as healthcare, energy, evacuation, commerce, manufacturing and defense. This collection of articles presents a convenient introduction to ABMS with papers ranging from contemporary views to representative case studies. The OR Essentials series presents a unique cross-section of high quality research work fundamental to understanding contemporary issues and research across a range of Operational Research (OR) topics. It brings together some of the best research papers from the esteemed Operational Research Society and its associated journals, also published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Stereolithography: Materials, Processes and Applications will focus on recent advances in stereolithography covering aspects related to the most recent advances in the field, in terms of fabrication processes (two-photon polymerization, micro-stereolithography, infrared stereolithography and stereo-thermal-lithography), materials (novel resins, hydrogels for medical applications and highly reinforced resins with ceramics and metals), computer simulation and applications.

Modern freight forwarding companies attempt to cooperate with each other to increase their efficiency. Xin Wang studies the new operational transportation planning problems that arise in the context of cooperation in both static and dynamic scenarios. To achieve the cost-savings embedded in cooperation, novel planning approaches that can help forwarders obtaining high-quality solutions are proposed. Computational studies show considerable benefits that can be achieved through cooperation.

There is one major factor that explains business actions that has thus far escaped thorough exploration. That factor is clout, or as it is more broadly understood, power. Those with clout in the business organizations make the decisions and influence what the business does. Yet the origins and uses of clout are hidden. Everyone wants to know more about this inner world as clout is still largely unrecognized in studies of corporate culture. With Clout, the first researched-based book on the topic, Bolland fills this void. He systematically analyses the subject and answers the many questions about this aspect of business life, including exploring what organization clout is, how it has evolved, how it is manifested, how it is used and how it relates to other aspects of business organizations. Readers will be able to apply findings to their own career, and students will gain a tested framework for understanding the importance of this subject.

Risk analysis is crucial in stochastic supply chain models. Over the past few years, the pace has quickened for research attempting to explore risk analysis issues in supply chain management problems, while the majority of recent papers focus on conceptual framework or computational numerical analysis. Pioneered by Nobel laureate Markowitz in the 1950s, the mean-risk (MR) formulation became a fundamental theory for risk management in finance. Despite the significance and popularity of MR-related approaches in finance, their applications in studying multi-echelon supply chain management problems have only been seriously explored in recent years. While the MR approach has already been shown to be useful in conducting risk analysis in stochastic supply chain models, there is no comprehensive reference source that provides the state-of-the-art findings on this important model for supply chain management. Thus it is significant to have a book that reviews and extends the MR related works for supply chain risk analysis. This book is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the topic, offers a timely review of various related areas, and explains why the MR approach is important for conducting supply chain risk analysis. Chapter 2 examines the single period inventory model with the mean-variance and mean-semi-deviation approaches. Extensive discussions on the efficient frontiers are also reported. Chapter 3 explores the infinite horizon multi-period inventory model with a mean-variance approach. Chapter 4 investigates the supply chain coordination problem with a versatile target sales rebate contract and a risk averse retailer possessing the mean-variance optimization objective. Chapter 5 concludes the book and discusses various promising future research directions and extensions. Every chapter can be taken as a self-contained article, and the notation within each chapter is consistently employed.

The Crisis-Prone Society offers preventative measures that can be taken by business professionals and scholars alike to alleviate the growing potential for crises today. These measures are distilled by close analysis of our recent social history of disasters.

The aim of this book is to present qualitative and qualitative aspects of logistics operations and supply chain management which help to implement the sustainable policy principles in the companies and public sector s institutions. Authors in individual chapters address the issues related to reverse network configuration, forward and reverse supply chain integration, CO2 reduction in transportation, improvement of the production operations and management of the recovery activities. Some best practices from different countries and industries are presented. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners wishing to deepen their knowledge in the field of logistics operations and management with regard to sustainability issues."

The aim of this book is to present qualitative and qualitative aspects of logistics operations and supply chain management which help to implement the sustainable policy principles in the companies and public sector sinstitutions. Authors in individual chaptersaddress the issues related to reverse network configuration, forward and reverse supply chain integration, CO2 reduction in transportation, improvement of the production operations and management of the recovery activities. Some best practices from different countries and industries are presented. This book will be valuable to both academics and practitioners wishing to deepen their knowledge in the field of logistics operations and management with regard to sustainability issues."