This book proposes essential methods, models, and case studies for Sustainable Logistics and Production in Industry 4.0. In addition to identifying and discussing various challenges and future prospects, it also features numerous case studies and quantitative research from different sectors. The authors (which include academics and managers) present insightful tips on the technical, organizational and social aspects of implementing Sustainable Logistics and Production in Industry 4.0. In today's world, changes are coming faster and more unpredictably. Production is becoming more automated, computerized and complex. In short, Industry 4.0 is creating many new opportunities, but at the same time several new challenges. This book offers a valuable resource for all academics and practitioners who want to deepen their knowledge of Sustainable Logistics and Production in Industry 4.0.

This book addresses reliability, maintenance, risk, and safety issues of industrial systems with applications of the latest decision-making techniques. Thus, this book presents chapters that apply advanced tools, techniques, and computing models for optimizing the performance of industrial and manufacturing systems, along with other complex engineering equipment. Computing techniques like data analytics, failure mode and effects analysis, fuzzy set theory, petri-net, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM), and soft computing are used for solving problems of reliability, risk, and safety related issues.

This book provides a detailed theoretical background of Logistics 4.0 using real-world examples and case studies and proposes a methodological framework to understand the technological revolutions happening in the present day from the perspective of logistics management. With the fourth industrial revolution, new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 3D printers and the Internet of Things started to take greater prominence in the world of business. One of the sectors most affected by changes brought on by this Industry 4.0 is logistics, which has given rise to the concept of Logistics 4.0. Covering a wide range of topics on Logistics 4.0, such as warehousing, big data, 3D printing, robotics and cloud computing, this book would be a valuable read for those involved in logistics management, academics and students in the areas of supply chain management, logistics, industry 4, and big data. .

This book focuses on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models on supply chain operations in industry 4.0. The chapters illustrate the AI and ML models for all functional areas of operations in SCM. The book also includes examples using ML models like handling supply-to-demand imbalances, triggering automated responses, and reinforcing customer relationships. It describes the evolution of blockchain technology coupled with the ability to automate business logic for the transparency of goods, infrastructure, products, and licenses in software. The book also includes case studies that provide a problem statement and industry overcome by applying ML and AI technologies. This book is suitable for undergraduates, postgraduates, industrial professionals, business executives, entrepreneurs, and freelancers to encourage practical learning on AI and ML algorithms in SCM 4.0. Additionally, this book will provide computer science and information system professionals with the latest technologies embedded in the corporate world.

This book explores the undeveloped potential of video-ethnography to study the material, embodied and sensory dimensions of workplace practices. With the growing interest in sociomateriality and the development of research on the embodied and sensory dimensions of organizational practices, some methodological challenges of this type of research need to be addressed. The main purpose of this book is to present various forms of video-ethnography that make organizational phenomena visible and help better appreciate the organizing properties of bodies, affects, senses and spaces in workplace practices. To do so, illustrative cases based on video-ethnography was discussed to understand how experiential and unspoken ways of knowing produced through a video-based approach can be made meaningful and relevant to study the material, embodied and sensory dimension of work practices. This book is addressed to researchers and students in social sciences and organizational studies and offers a methodological reflection on how to study the material, embodied, and sensory dimensions of organizational life.

This book features a selection of extended papers presented at the 8th IFIP WG 12.6 International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence for Knowledge Management, AI4KM 2021, held in Yokohama, Japan, in January 2021, in the framework of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI 2020.*The 14 revised and extended papers presented together with an invited talk were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in this volume. They present new research and innovative aspects in the field of knowledge management and discuss methodological, technical and organizational aspects of artificial intelligence used for knowledge management. *The workshop was held virtually.

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.

Information security cannot be effectively managed unless secure methods and standards are integrated into all phases of the information security life cycle. And, although the international community has been aggressively engaged in developing security standards for network and information security worldwide, there are few textbooks available that provide clear guidance on how to properly apply the new standards in conducting security audits and creating risk-driven information security programs.

An authoritative and practical classroom resource, Information Security Management: Concepts and Practice provides a general overview of security auditing before examining the various elements of the information security life cycle. It explains the ISO 17799 standard and walks readers through the steps of conducting a nominal security audit that conforms to the standard. The text also provides detailed guidance for conducting an in-depth technical security audit leading to certification against the 27001 standard. Topics addressed include cyber security, security risk assessments, privacy rights, HIPAA, SOX, intrusion detection systems, security testing activities, cyber terrorism, and vulnerability assessments.

This self-contained text is filled with review questions, workshops, and real-world examples that illustrate effective implementation and security auditing methodologies. It also includes a detailed security auditing methodology students can use to devise and implement effective risk-driven security programs that touch all phases of a computing environment—including the sequential stages needed to maintain virtually air-tight IS management systems that conform to the latest ISO standards.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Introduction to Information Security Management

Why Information Security Matters

Information Sensitivity Classification

Information Security Governance

The Computing Environment

Security of Various Components in the Computing

Environment

Security Interdependence

CIA Triad

Security Goals versus Business Goals

The Security Star

Parker’s View of Information Security

What Is Information Security Management?

Defense-In-Depth Security

Security Controls

The NSA Triad for Security Assessment

Introduction to Management Concepts

Brief History of Management

Traditional Management Skills and Security Literacy

Managerial Skills

Redefining Mintzberg’s Managerial Roles

Strategic Management Concepts

IS Security Management Activities

Do We Really Need an Independent Information Security Functional Unit?

The Information Security Management Cycle

IS Security Management versus Functional Management

The Information Security Life Cycle

Security Planning in the SLC

Security Analysis

Security Design

Security Implementation

Security Review

Continual Security

SECURITY PLAN

Security Plan

SP Development Guidelines

SP Methodology

Security Policy

Security Policy, Standards, and Guidelines

Security Policy Methodologies

Business Continuity Planning

Business Disruptions

Business Continuity

Disaster Recovery

Responding to Business Disruptions

Developing a BCP

SECURITY ANALYSIS

Security Risk Management

The Risk Management Life Cycle

The Preparation Effort for Risk Management

A Sustainable Security Culture

Information Needed to Manage Risks

Factors Affecting Security Risk

The ALE Risk Methodology

Operational, Functional, and Strategic Risks

Operational Risk Management: Case of the Naval Safety Center

The ABLE Methodology

Continual Security: Integrated Fault-Event Analysis and Response Framework (IFEAR)

IFEAR Methodology

Fault Tree Analysis

Event Tree Analysis

FTA-ETA Integration

Risk Management

|Simulation and Sensitivity Analysis

Active Security Assessment

Standards for Active Security Assessment

Limits of Active Security Assessment

Can You Hack Your Own System?

Ethical Hacking of a Computing Environment

Ethics in Ethical Hacking

ASA through Penetration Testing

Strategies for Active Security Assessment

Guidelines and Terms between Testers and the Organization

The Active Security Assessment Project

System Availability

Computer Clustering

Review of Cluster Concepts

Types of Clusters

Web Site Availability

Application Centers No Longer the Only Sound Implementation

Computation of Availability in High-Availability Cluster

Related Availability Definitions

How to Obtain Higher Availability: The Cisco Process Nines’ Availability

Common Configurations for Clusters

Self-Healing and Availability

SECURITY DESIGN

Nominal Security Enhancement Design Based on ISO/IEC 27002

History of the ISO/IEC 27002

ISO/IEC 27002

How to Use the ISO/IEC 27002 to Enhance Security

Measurement and Implementations

Strategies to Enhance the ISO/IEC 27002-Based Security Posture

Comparing the ISO/IEC 27002-Based Security Posture Enhancement Strategies

Technical Security Enhancement Based on ISO/IEC 27001

How Organizations Interact with the Standards

General ISMS Framework

The ISMS Model

The Process Approach Ensures the Continual Improvement of the ISMS

Development of the Information Security Management System

Design of the ISMS

Security Inventory Needs

The Integration of ISMS Subsystems

Self-Assessment for Compliance

Revisiting ISMS Scoping

SECURITY IMPLEMENTATION

Security Solutions

Security Solutions

The NIST Security Solution Taxonomy

The ISO Security Solution Taxonomy

The Common Criteria

The Birth of the Common Criteria

Common Uses of the CC

The CC Document

The CC Security Approach

Information Resource Evaluation Methodology

CC Security Evaluation Programs

The American Model of CC Evaluation Programs

A National Model

Some Other CC Evaluation Requirements

Minicase

SECURITY REVIEW

Security Review through Security Audit

Security Audit Means Different Things to Different People

Some Security Audit Activities

Our Definition of Security Audit

Main Features in Security Audit

Application Audit

How Does Security Audit Relate to the Corporate Security Policy?

Structure of a Security Audit

Security Audit versus IT Auditing

Applicable Security-Related Standards

Security Audit Grades

Privacy Rights, Information Technology, and HIPAA

The Problem of Privacy

The Meaning of Privacy

HIPAA

Regulatory Standards: The Privacy Rule

The HIPAA Security Rule

Administrative Safeguards

NIST on HIPAA

Conducting Effective Risk Analysis

CONTINUAL SECURITY

The Sarbanes–Oxley Act and IT Compliance

Methods of Doing Business

Background of the SarbanesOxley Act

SarbanesOxley Act of 2002

Major Provisions of SO

Management Assessment of Internal Controls and IT

Compliance

IT Compliance

International Responses

Advantages to SOX Compliance

Foreign Whistleblowers and SOX

Reconciling SOX and European Conflicting Standards

EU Corporate Governance Initiatives

E.U.’s Eighth Directive

Planning IT Management for SOX: Delayed SOX Impact

Cyberterrorism and Homeland Security

Security Economic Intelligence

Homeland Security

Cyberterrorism in the Literature

Cyberterrorism in the Real World: The FBI Perspective

U.S. Legislative Enactments and Proposed Programs

U.S. Criminal Statutes Affecting the Internet

Statutes and Executive Orders Concerned with Cyberterrorism

International Initiatives

Individual European State Approaches to Security and Counterterrorism

Other International Efforts

Index

Each chapter begins with an Introduction and concludes with a Summary, Review Questions, Workshops, and References

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 focuses on enhancing management theories of Knowledge-Intensive Organizations (KIOs), analyzing academic and research institutions and multilateral agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO). The first part of the book discusses the trusteeship norms of academic KIOs and institutional barriers that generate bias in selecting the research agenda. The author then discusses how moral stakeholders affect a legitimate research scope, and research policies and academic KIOs address the issues. Finally, the book addresses how to control private incentives that stem from ownership components as well as ways to build alliance and governance mechanisms for this purpose. This work provides researchers with a discussion of the broader impacts of addressing global common goods from responsible KIO perspectives.

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 shows how the systems approach is employed by scientists in various countries to solve specific problems concerning railway transport. In particular, the book describes the experiences of scientists from Romania, Germany, the Czech Republic, the UK, Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. For many of these countries there is a problem with the historical differences between the railways. In particular, there are railways with different rail gauges, with different signaling and communication systems, with different energy supplies and, finally, with different political systems, which are reflected in the different approaches to the management of railway economies. The book's content is divided into two main parts, the first of which provides a systematic analysis of individual means of providing and maintaining rail transport. In turn, the second part addresses infrastructure and management development, with particular attention to security issues. Though primarily written for professionals involved in various problems concerning railway transport, the book will also benefit manufacturers, railway technical staff, managers, and students with transport specialties, as well as a wide range of readers interested in learning more about the current state of transport in different countries.

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

A new wave of digital technologies has impacted the business world like a tsunami. But after a first phase characterized by hype and unrealistic expectations, there is now a shared need for a better understanding of how to create real and sustainable value by adopting these technologies. This book suggests a pragmatic approach to value creation by embracing the post-digital mindset: a more mature attitude toward digital innovation focused on putting these technologies at work rather than marveling at them. After the illustration of a post-digital manifesto, the book explores all the key topics and tools that are relevant for the decision makers in this context.

This book offers a political analysis and sociological critique of the UK government's response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, interpreting the inadequacies of government policy with regard to COVID-19 as the results of neoliberal ideology, the protection of corporate interests, Brexit nationalism, and the peculiarities of a British model of capitalism based on international trade and labour market precarity. Arguing that institutionalised corporate-capitalist control of state and science generates new and growing public health risks, and that consumer-driven individualism has eroded community life and the protections this might offer against pandemics, it contends that the UK government's catastrophic response to the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of peculiarly British socioeconomic and political phenomena. The Pandemic in Britain will appeal to scholars of sociology, philosophy and politics with interests in the COVID-19 pandemic as well as neoliberal ideology and its manifestation in political life.

This book offers a political analysis and sociological critique of the UK government's response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, interpreting the inadequacies of government policy with regard to COVID-19 as the results of neoliberal ideology, the protection of corporate interests, Brexit nationalism, and the peculiarities of a British model of capitalism based on international trade and labour market precarity. Arguing that institutionalised corporate-capitalist control of state and science generates new and growing public health risks, and that consumer-driven individualism has eroded community life and the protections this might offer against pandemics, it contends that the UK government's catastrophic response to the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of peculiarly British socioeconomic and political phenomena. The Pandemic in Britain will appeal to scholars of sociology, philosophy and politics with interests in the COVID-19 pandemic as well as neoliberal ideology and its manifestation in political life.

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of sustainability and responsibility. They are challenged to develop a holistic approach to value creation that reconciles economic, social, and environmental goals. This book describes how knowledge can facilitate this process and amplifies the idea of knowledge management to strategically serve multiple stakeholders in a sustainable and responsible way. In particular, the book introduces the concept of the "Need Knowledge-Driven Organization." It builds on mature research on organizational purpose, stakeholder theory, and phronesis, and advances the concept of "needs." This provides a new lens for understanding the sustainable and responsible business case: First, people are motivated by their needs, and organizations represent social structures that facilitate the satisfaction of shared needs. Second, needs reflect and combine social, environmental, and economic concerns, making sustainability and responsibility more realizable for practitioners. And third, needs provide a reference point for holistic value creation and can thus align knowledge processes and structures in organizations.

The aim of this book is to offer up-to-date insights into the challenges for international firms represented by managing their marketing mix in "distant" countries, especially considering the role played by cultural distance. Building on the famous McCarthy's "4Ps," and on the concept of "cultural distance," the book outlines some key challenges and opportunities for firms that manage international marketing policies about "product," "price," "place," and "promotion" in culturally distant markets. At the same time, the book looks at extant conceptualizations and approaches considering the evolving environmental forces, which are contributing to further challenges for firms that are confronted with changing economic and social scenarios. Indeed, markets and societies are increasingly affected by multiculturalism, and new patterns in consumers' behaviors have emerged due to the proliferation of digital technologies and, more recently, due to several market disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. How do firms manage culturally distant and increasingly evolving cultural environments is a relevant topic worthy of discussion from both a theoretical perspective and a practice-based approach, through the analysis of real-world case studies. Researchers of cross-cultural marketing and practitioners intending to get acquainted with the latest research on the topic would particularly benefit from this book.

This book offers cutting-edge knowledge on various design and product development related technologies, and applications of these technologies in fashion. Further, it envisions the future of these technologies when designing and engineering apparel-related products. Demonstrating how theory turns into practice, this volume presents the analysis of cases representing a successful collaboration between innovative technology and fashion. These current examples of industry and consumer cases with the use of various technologies will allow readers to fully connect how the industry currently implements these technologies into product design and development process as well as communicating with consumers. This text will serve as a valuable resource to researchers and educators in the fields of supply chain management, branding, marketing, fashion studies, textiles, and product design.

This book reviews the past 116 Japanese outbound acquisitions in three decades and determines success and failure, with the goal of explaining what works. Dr. Matsumoto emphasizes that such acquisitions are part of a long-term strategy and should not be judged based short-term gains and losses, especially short-term changes in company stock prices. The book also highlights common pitfalls hidden within the expected benefits of these overseas acquisitions. Dr. Matsumoto provides valuable insights for executives, corporate managers working on strategy, finance and overseas development, practitioners, researchers and MBA students trying to succeed in cross border merger and acquisitions using 16 case studies and careful investigation.

"Freemium Economics" presents a practical, instructive approach to successfully implementing the freemium model into your software products by building analytics into product design from the earliest stages of development.

Your freemium product generates vast volumes of data, but using that data to maximize conversion, boost retention, and deliver revenue can be challenging if you don't fully understand the impact that small changes can have on revenue. In this book, author Eric Seufert provides clear guidelines for using data and analytics through all stages of development to optimize your implementation of the freemium model. "Freemium Economics" de-mystifies the freemium model through an exploration of its core, data-oriented tenets, so that you can apply it methodically rather than hoping that conversion and revenue will naturally follow product launch.

By reading "Freemium Economics," you will: Learn how to apply data science and big data principles in freemium product design and development to maximize conversion, boost retention, and deliver revenue Gain a broad introduction to the conceptual economic pillars of freemium and a complete understanding of the unique approaches needed to acquire users and convert them from free to paying customers Get practical tips and analytical guidance to successfully implement the freemium model Understand the metrics and infrastructure required to measure the success of a freemium product and improve it post-launch Includes a detailed explanation of the lifetime customer value (LCV) calculation and step-by-step instructions for implementing key performance indicators in a simple, universally-accessible tool like Excel

Knowledge integration - the purposeful combination of specialized and complementary knowledge to achieve specific tasks - is becoming increasingly important for organizations facing rapidly changing institutional environments, globalized markets, and fast-paced technological developments. The need for knowledge integration is driven by knowledge specialization and its geographic and organizational distribution in the global economy. The increasing complexity and relevance of the knowledge integration problem is apparent in emerging new fields of research, such as open innovation, or the merging of existing ones, e.g. organizational learning and strategy. In global competition, the successful management of knowledge integration underpins firms' ability to innovate, generate profit, grow and, ultimately, survive. This book provides conceptual contributions as well as empirical studies that examine knowledge integration essentially as a 'boundary' problem. Knowledge integration becomes a problem when boundaries between knowledge fields, and the institutions that preside over those fields, are not clear, or become fluid and contestable. This fluidity, and the competitive pressures this fluidity generates, are persistent and permanent features of the world we live in. This book puts forward a consistent set of ideas, methods and tools useful to interpret, analyze and act upon the processes of knowledge integration across boundaries.

Organizational Learning in Asia: Issues and Challenges addresses important and pressing questions on organizational learning in Asia in both domestic and foreign firms-those that have been forgotten in the mainstream literature or that remain unasked and unanswered. Three sets of questions are especially salient. First, how can firms operating in, or from, Asia detect, respect, recognize, and honor different cultural stances on suggestion-giving, knowledge sharing, and standardization while also challenging accepted wisdom, avoiding risks and mistakes, and voicing disagreement? Second, how can such firms facilitate local experimentation and innovation by providing a common knowledge platform in a non-totalitarian manner? Finally, how can such forums promote 'reverse' knowledge transfer from subsidiary to headquarters and across subsidiaries in different nations by avoiding ethnocentricity, cultivating local talent, and building a group of 'communities of practice' across cultural and status boundaries?

In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, corporate collapses, accounting scandals and concerns around competition and auditor choice, the European Commission (EC) promoted the preparation of various reports on audit policy to support a harmonisation process of European auditing regulation. Consequently, the European Union Audit Regulation and Directive was implemented from 2016. This book provides a timely picture of the audit sector and how it responds to regulatory and technological challenges. It analyses the impact of EU reforms on audit practices by comparing the U.K. and Italy, which, representing two very different regulatory and cultural contexts, will offer insight into how the efforts at standardising audit regulation may lead to very different organisational firm responses within Europe. It addresses issues relating to public policy work and the concerns faced by the market for audit and assurance services, in promoting audit quality, better communication about the role of the auditor, capital market stability and confidence, and auditor independence. Moreover, it highlights what the future of auditing might look like in the EU particularly after the U.K. has left, and how meeting public expectations will continue to be a struggle for the accounting profession given the many problems ahead. The book encourages a deeper awareness of the challenges faced by those that monitor and certify the financial statements of the world's largest public companies and contributes to the general understanding of this controversial industry. It will serve as a useful guide to the recent EU audit reforms, not only for academics, and research students but also to regulators, policymakers, standard setters, industry professionals, and business executives worldwide.

With more than 14,000 business schools worldwide, what is included in their curricula matters for how the economy and the corporate system are managed. Business schools should be subject to scholarly inquiries and critical reflection. While many studies of business schools examine its general role in the tertiary education system and in society more broadly, this volume examines how one specific theoretical perspective and a normative model derived therefrom were developed and gradually appropriated within the business school setting. This volume demonstrates that agency theory, based on a daring conjecture that firms can be construed as bundles of contacts, rose to prominence in the business school context. It examines how the elementary proposition of agency theory, that the firm is to be considered theoretically and practically as a "nexus of contracts," was never consistent with corporate law and contract law, and it was empirically unsubstantiated. Business schools are under pressure to teach not only practically useful theories and models, but also theories that are also scientifically qualified. Despite having this ambition, certain theories are widely taught despite failing to live up to such declared ambitions, which means that business schools may be criticized for including theories on ambiguous grounds in the curricula. This book examines how business schools seek to honour the ambition to teach both scientifically verified theories and practically useful concepts and models, and how the tensions derived from this duality may be problematic to handle. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and advanced students in the fields of management education, organizational studies, and legal theory.