Managers and executives know the importance of integrating business strategy and IT strategy for competitive advantage. Via numerous real-world examples and anecdotes, this book investigates myriad issues regarding the application of business strategy and IT strategy. Specifically, it focuses on how business/IT alignment is assessed, the factors that aid or hinder its integration, a maturity assessment and way in which managers can implement strategic information systems within their firms using various constructs and models. Strategic Information Technology: Opportunities for Competitive Advantage provides managers with an understanding and appreciation for the development of business and information technologies strategies to yield competitive advantage.

This book focuses on database law (a branch of intellectual property law) and further explores the legal protection currently available for data and data-related products in India. It offers a comparative study of the position of copyright law in protecting databases in the US and EU, while also presenting responses from the Indian database industry and its aspirations regarding the role of copyright law in database protection. India is undoubtedly leading the way as a knowledge economy. Its strengths are its information technology capability and its knowledge society, as well as its booming database industry - aspects that also necessitate the study of the role of law, as well as the protection of data and databases, in India. This book examines the growing importance of copyright law for protecting databases as well as for ensuring access in information societies. The book concludes with a discussion of key principles to be kept in mind in the context of drafting legal regimes for databases in India that will both benefit the database industry and ensure accessibility.

This book presents a comprehensive review for Knowledge Engineering tools and techniques that can be used in Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling. KE tools can be used to aid in the acquisition of knowledge and in the construction of domain models, which this book will illustrate. AI planning engines require a domain model which captures knowledge about how a particular domain works - e.g. the objects it contains and the available actions that can be used. However, encoding a planning domain model is not a straightforward task - a domain expert may be needed for their insight into the domain but this information must then be encoded in a suitable representation language. The development of such domain models is both time-consuming and error-prone. Due to these challenges, researchers have developed a number of automated tools and techniques to aid in the capture and representation of knowledge. This book targets researchers and professionals working in knowledge engineering, artificial intelligence and software engineering. Advanced-level students studying AI will also be interested in this book.

This book presents selected papers on Business Management and Technology, focusing on recent research in Business, Optimization, Technology, and Global Issues. Organized in four broad tracks, papers examine Management Challenges in Today's Industry, especially concerning changes in customer demands; Optimization Challenges in Today's Business, looking at efficiency and effectiveness in providing goods and services at affordable prices; Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism; and Technological Challenges in the Era of Globalization. The book covers both production systems and service systems, including the growing area of Information Technology, and also looks at the quality of work life in various sectors of business. It presents a balanced blend of theoretical and practical papers.

This book provides a conceptual 'Flexibility in Resource Management' framework supported by research/case applications in various related areas. It links and integrates the flexibility aspect with resource management to offer a fresh perspective, since flexibility in different levels of resource management is emerging as a key concern -- a business enterprise needs to have reactive flexibility (as adaptiveness and responsiveness) to cope with the changing and uncertain business environment. It may also endeavor to intentionally create flexibility by way of leadership change, re-engineering, innovation in products and processes, use of information and communication technology, and so on. The selected papers discussing a variety of issues concerning flexibility in resource management, are organized into following four parts: flexibility and innovation; flexibility in organizational management; operations and technology management; and financial and risk management. In addition to addressing the organizational needs of corporate bodies spread across the globe, the book serves as a useful reference resource for a variety of audiences including management students, researchers, business managers, consultants and professional institutes.

This book highlights innovative solutions together with various techniques and methods that can help support the manufacturing sector to excel in economic, social, and environmental terms in networked business environments. The book also furthers understanding of sustainable manufacturing from the perspective of value creation in manufacturing networks, by capitalizing on the outcomes of the European 'Sustainable Value Creation in Manufacturing Networks' project. New dynamics and uncertainties in modern markets call for innovative solutions in the global manufacturing sector. While the manufacturing sector is traditionally driven by technology, it also requires other managerial and organizational solutions in terms of network governance, business models, sustainable solution development for products and services, performance management portals, etc., which can provide major competitive advantages for companies. At the same time, the manufacturing industry is subject to a change process, where business networks play a major role in value-creating processes. By far the biggest challenge in this context is making value creation a sustainable process where economic, social, and environmental demands are met. Managing product and service-related business operations in manufacturing networks thus brings different challenges that cannot purely be resolved using traditional methods, and techniques. This book is an outcome of a European project funded by the European Commission, and performed by a dedicated R&D consortium comprised of some leading Research institutions and Industrial partners.

This book describes how a deeper knowledge and understanding of cultural differences represents a meaningful and useful tool for management of companies, and in particular SMEs, in the People's Republic of China. After introductory chapters on the internationalization of SMEs and the role played by management in this process, the authors explore the implications of academic discourses on culture and its dimensions for company management. The influence of Chinese cultural roots and the country's current cultural environment on management is then examined, with provision of guidance on response to the identified challenges. A key feature of the book is the presentation of important recent fieldwork in the main economic regions of China. This research further clarifies how business culture and cultural differences impact on company activities in China and casts light on various aspects of the adaptive capability of SMEs within the country, highlighting the value of cultural awareness and intelligence. The book will be of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

This book analyses the role of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Business Intelligence (BI) systems in improving information quality through an empirical analysis carried out in Italy. The study begins with a detailed examination of ERP features that highlights the advantages and disadvantages of ERP adoption. Critical success factors for ERP implementation and post-implementation are then discussed, along with the capabilities of ERP in driving the alignment between management accounting and financial accounting information.The study goes on to illustrate the features of BI systems and to summarize companies' needs for BI. Critical success factors for BI implementation are then presented, along with the BI maturity model and lifecycle. The focus of the research entails a detailed empirical analysis in the Italian setting designed to investigate the role played by ERP and BI systems in reducing information overload/underload and improving information quality by influencing the features of information flow. The practical and theoretical implications of the study are discussed and future avenues of research are suggested. This book will be of value for all those who have an interest in the capacities of ERP and BI systems to enhance business information quality.

With the proper management, knowledge-based resources (human capital, relational capital, structural capital) aim to contribute to the creation of a competitive advantage not only for companies and institutions, but also for nations and economic regions. Intellectual Capital Strategy Management for Knowledge-Based Organizations brings together new perspectives on the knowledge-based view of strategy management as it considers the role of companies, organisations, and nations in the storage and measurement of their knowledge. This book is useful for industry leaders, practitioners, academics and scholars interested in emerging aspects of knowledge management and industry services.

Uncovering the best methods for conducting and writing about research is vital to members of the academic community, especially to those just beginning their careers. In this regard, graduate and post-graduate degree programs are crucial in ensuring that future academic and professional progress will continue. Contemporary Approaches to Dissertation Development and Research Methods is a pivotal reference source that focuses on current models used for doctoral dissertations and how these techniques impact future research and knowledge in various scholarly fields. Featuring innovative perspectives on the design and function of doctoral programs, this book is ideally designed for practitioners, researchers, and academicians.

The study of Management Science, or Operations Research, looks at how mathematically-based models are used to generate optimal solutions for business problems. This text provides a brief introduction to these models and gives a concise and balanced view of the most widely used applications. The book shows how managers can use scientific ideas and methods to solve business problems, describing a range of examples in everyday use. Giving students plenty of practice and worked examples of a range of quantitative techniques, the text avoids formal proofs and derivations, concentrating instead on applications in a business context. Where software can assist managers in decision-making, Excel is the package that is most regularly used and therefore examples are given in this format.

This book provides a practical approach to designing and implementing a Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy. The book explains how to design KM strategy so as to align business goals with KM objectives. The book also presents an approach for implementing KM strategy so as to make it sustainable. It covers all basic KM concepts, components of KM and the steps that are required for designing a KM strategy. As a result, the book can be used by beginners as well as practitioners. Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers. Knowledge is considered to be the learning that results from experience and is embedded within individuals. Sometimes the knowledge is gained through critical thinking, watching others, and observing results of others. These observations then form a pattern which is converted in a 'generic form' to knowledge. This implies that knowledge can be formed only after data (which is generated through experience or observation) is grouped into information and then this information pattern is made generic wisdom. However, dissemination and acceptance of this knowledge becomes a key factor in knowledge management. The knowledge pyramid represents the usual concept of knowledge transformations, where data is transformed into information, and information is transformed into knowledge. Many organizations have struggled to manage knowledge and translate it into business benefits. This book is an attempt to show them how it can be done.

This book focuses on the cultural challenges often faced by international managers and global business operations. In the last few decades, the world has witnessed unprecedented economic turmoil, volatility, and uncertainty which has altered the political dynamics and sociocultural landscape around the globe and directly or indirectly affected international business activities. Further, new markets have opened up in every corner of the world. Brazil, Russia, India, and China, collectively known as BRIC, are strong emerging economic powers similar to the once captivated 'Asian Tigers' such as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan which rose decades ago. The emergence of these markets has heightened both the opportunities and challenges for national and international businesses. Multinational firms are gradually expanding in the emerging markets and are expected to become giants in the foreseeable future. As they expand, they also need to assume increasing social responsibilities in a global context, and it is important that the ways business is conducted are developed accordingly. As such, understanding the practices, challenges, and strategies that companies have developed is critical to global firm's success. Against this background, the book highlights the importance of understanding cultural elements when managing multicultural human behaviors in the workplace. Based on conceptual and empirical work, it pushes the frontiers of knowledge of this emerging field in international business setup and management, and explores how globalization is changing the way in which multinational firms formulate their business strategies. "The editors of this text bring a wealth of expertise in this area, as is evidenced by their choice of topics, and the strength of the experts they have invited to contribute to the book. The combined chapters provide both strategic guidance as well as a focus on operational concerns that may arise in international business including expatriation and human resource mobility. The authors not only correctly identify the oncoming challenges, but also present evidence regarding the likely solutions such as culture and innovation and global change management. Overall, this book will be a tremendous resource for scholars in the international business field, but I believe the audience will be much wider. The international team of editors and authors bring a wide range of perspective as well as real-world contextual knowledge that will be useful for scholars and practitioners who seek to leverage culture and human capital to advance international business and drive the global economy. I applaud the editors for their vision and leadership in guiding us through one of the most challenging contemporary research areas and through one of the most pressing challenges of our day." -Dr. Richard L. Griffith, Executive Director, Institute for Cross Cultural Management, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA

This book examines key aspects of the increasingly important phenomenon of reshoring - the decision of companies to reverse offshoring by bringing manufacturing back from overseas. The aim is to equip readers with a full understanding of the current extent of reshoring, its drivers, and the associated opportunities and challenges. The impact of governments' economic policies on the location choices of entrepreneurs in an era of globalization is carefully analyzed, drawing on experiences in the United States and Italy, where contrasting encouragement is provided for reshoring decisions. The effect on reshoring of recent developments regarding technology, the environment, and other factors is assessed in depth, and readers will also find close scrutiny of the relationship between reshoring and manufacturing performance. The book will be of interest to all academics, researchers, and practitioners with an interest in the manufacturing industry and will be an excellent teaching aid for a variety of courses in different disciplines at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Asia is a continent of contradictions and boundaries; it offers exciting business opportunities, but is also characterized by unpredictability and conflict. While flexibility and creativity are in the DNA of many startups in China, major players like Xiaomi and Alibaba have also emerged as global giants, challenging established global competitors. The authors of this book show that these companies are crossing various boundaries - between cultures, mindsets, and perspectives. At the same time, Western companies entering Asian markets face challenges that are very different from those on their home turf. This book addresses the needs of current and future managers doing business in Asia, who need to understand the individual, social and business challenges that can arise from crossing boundaries. The respective case studies provide essential insights on how several Asian companies have made impressive strides towards becoming established players; how the revival of local brands and growing pride in local products has become a major challenge for global competition; how the need to actively practice corporate social responsibility in Asian markets is currently challenging many companies; and how the need for individual and team coaching among the members of management to support a company's development has grown tremendously, calling for new solutions.

Businesses must constantly adapt to a dynamically changing environment that requires choosing an adaptive and dynamic information architecture that has the flexibility to support both changes in the business environment and changes in technology. In general, information systems reengineering has the objective of extracting the contents, data structures, and flow of data and process contained within existing legacy systems in order to reconstitute them into a new form for subsequent implementation. Information Systems Reengineering for Modern Business Systems: ERP, Supply Chain and E-Commerce Management Solutions covers different techniques that could be used in industry in order to reengineer business processes and legacy systems into more flexible systems capable of supporting modern trends such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), supply chain management systems and e-commerce. This reference book also covers other issues related to the reengineering of legacy systems, which include risk management and obsolescence management of requirements.

This book highlights the concept and applications of Remanufactured Fashion. The first book on this subject, it covers reverse logistics, exemplars, and case studies of remanufactured fashion design. Textile waste is a major issue for all countries, and converting that waste into useful products offers a sensible solution. Remanufactured Fashion is one such sustainable waste management strategy. It involves the conversion of discarded garments into useful retail products, without which they would be dumped at landfills, posing a number of environmental issues. Remanufacturing recovers a product's inherent value once that product no longer fulfills the user's desired needs. The application and use of discarded clothing in remanufacturing processes could greatly reduce the percentage of clothing waste (and mitigate related waste management issues), while also contributing to resource conservation. There has been scant research investigating what is actually involved in the fashion remanufacturing process and how the process could be up-scaled to the mass market in order to achieve greater environmental gains. This book addresses that gap in the literature and examines all aspects pertaining to the concept and applications of Remanufactured Fashion.

This book bridges two essential aspects of assessing and achieving business excellence in 21st-century organizations. The author argues that transnational companies face a twofold challenge: managing global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams on the one hand; and interacting and collaborating across boundaries using global communication technologies, on the other. The author also argues that this dual challenge calls for the creation of a business excellence program that fits and thrives within these multicultural environments. In response, he reviews corporate practices in quality management and business excellence frameworks that have been extensively used on a transnational scale to drive organizational performance. The book approaches quality management as an element that is no longer a choice, but has now become a necessity if companies want to compete in highly globalized environments.

The world of corporate management benefits when organizations realize the profitability, reliability, and flexibility obtained through IT standardization. Toward Corporate IT Standardization Management: Frameworks and Solutions details the IT standards conceptual model through insightful case studies that illustrate the factors affecting the performance of business processes. By offering organizations the opportunity to enhance process performance through IT standardization, this reference work demonstrates the effectiveness of IT standards, and the applicable techniques for implementation and management of such practices. This book features information useful to educators and students in the fields of Information Systems, IT-Management, Business Studies, and Economics, as well as IT practitioners and IS Managers.

The globalised advancements of the business and technological markets in Asia continue to have an international and interdisciplinary effect on economies around the world. Business, Technology, and Knowledge Management in Asia: Trends and Innovations highlights the efforts and developments in the fields of Asian studies as well as its potential role in IT and management within the constant growing business market. This book is a comprehensive collection of research that is useful for policymakers, government officials, academicians, and students alike.

The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations is the first book to teach storytelling as a powerful and formal discipline for organizational change and knowledge management. The book explains how organizations can use certain types of stories ("springboard" stories) to communicate new or envisioned strategies, structures, identities, goals, and values to employees, partners and even customers. Readers will learn techniques by which they can help their organizations become more unified, responsive, and intelligent. Storytelling is a management technique championed by gurus including Peter Senge, Tom Peters and Larry Prusak. Now Stephen Denning, an innovator in the new discipline of organizational storytelling, teaches how to use stories to address challenges fundamental to success in today's information economy.

Understanding the adoption, diffusion, and transfer of technology in the marketplace is vital for the success of any organization. Knowledge and Technology Adoption, Diffusion, and Transfer: International Perspectives is filled with original scientific and quality research articles on management information systems, technology diffusion, and business systems application aspects of e-commerce, e-government, and mobile application. As a forum of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue, it addresses research on all aspects of innovation diffusion in the field of business computing technologies and their past, present, and future use. This title serves as a vital source of information for researchers and practitioners alike.

This book treats intellectual capital, smart technologies, and digitalization processes as levers of corporate competitiveness and global value creation. This book is based on theoretical and practical research output from the STEDIC SIDREA Group. It uses several methodologies to discover features and pillars on intellectual capital such as human capital, relational capital, and structural capital as well as smart technologies such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, big data, and digitalization.

As the growing relationship between individuals and technology continue to play a vital role in our society and work place, the progress and execution of information technology communication systems is important in maintaining our current way of life. Knowledge and Technological Development Effects on Organizational and Social Structures provides a wide ranging discussion on the exchanging of research ideas and practices in an effort to bring together the social and technical aspects within organizations and society. This collection focuses on new ideas and studies for research, students, and practitioners.