This book explores the nature and uniqueness of leadership in Iceland within a business and economic context. Starting with an analysis of Iceland's geographical location, historical development and societal culture, the authors critically examine the major elements of the Icelandic business environment from an individual to a global level, and from economic prosperity to financial collapse. They particularly focus on leadership and human resource management within this unique societal culture and discuss the specific issues that are unique to Iceland, i.e. entrepreneurship, gender egalitarianism, equality, low power-distance, reflecting on, and orienting within contemporary leadership theories. The book covers a variety of analytical methods and cases, providing a unique introduction to leadership in Iceland, and opening avenues for further research into this relatively new phenomenon.

This book assesses Chinese acquisitions in developed countries, evaluates the drivers and opportunities and, above all, explores the major operational challenges. It discusses topics such as cross-cultural issues, integration strategies, risk and resilience, the influence of emerging technologies, servitization, impacts on reshoring, corporate social responsibility, branding strategies, knowledge management, and transfer of best practices. While emerging market multinational corporations' (EMNCs) use of mergers and acquisitions as a strategic vehicle has received considerable attention, much less is known about their post-entry activities, such as the implementation of post-acquisition and integration strategies. It can be expected that, compared with their Western counterparts, EMNCs will face radically different challenges that may undermine the success of their products, brands and marketing. Addressing these issues by means of a case study approach, this book is an ideal teaching resource for a variety of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. It also appeals to academics, researchers, and practitioners with a keen interest in manufacturing industry.

This book gives a thorough and systematic introduction to the latest research results on hesitant fuzzy and its extensions decision making theory. It includes five chapters: Hesitant Fuzzy Set and its Extensions, Distance Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, Similarity Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, Entropy Measures for Hesitant Fuzzy Sets and Their Extensions, and Application of Information Measures in Multiple Criteria Decision Making. These methodologies are also implemented in various fields such as decision making, medical diagnosis, cluster analysis, environmental management, etc. This book is suitable for the engineers, technicians, and researchers in the fields of fuzzy mathematics, operations research, information science and management science and engineering, etc. It can also be used as a textbook for postgraduate and senior-year undergraduate students of the relevant professional institutions of higher learning.

The main target of this book is to raise the awareness about social networking systems design, implementation, security requirements, and approaches. The book entails related issues including computing, engineering, security, management, and organization policy. It interprets the design, implementation and security threats in the social networks and offers some solutions in this concern. It clarifies the authentication concept between servers to identity users. Most of the models that focus on protecting users' information are also included. This book introduces the Human-Interactive Security Protocols (HISPs) efficiently. Presenting different types of the social networking systems including the internet and mobile devices is one of the main targets of this book. This book includes the social network performance evaluation metrics. It compares various models and approaches used in the design of the social networks. This book includes various applications for the use of the social networks in the healthcare, e-commerce, crisis management, and academic applications. The book provides an extensive background for the development of social network science and its challenges. This book discusses the social networks integration to offer online services, such as instant messaging, email, file sharing, transferring patients' medical reports/images, location-based recommendations and many other functions. This book provides users, designers, engineers and managers with the valuable knowledge to build a better secured information transfer over the social networks. The book gathers remarkable materials from an international experts' panel to guide the readers during the analysis, design, implementation and security achievement for the social network systems. In this book, theories, practical guidance, and challenges are included to inspire designers and researchers. The book guides the engineers, designers, and researchers to exploit the intrinsic design of the social network systems.

This book is open access under a CC BY NC ND license. It addresses the most recent developments in cloud computing such as HPC in the Cloud, heterogeneous cloud, self-organising and self-management, and discusses the business implications of cloud computing adoption. Establishing the need for a new architecture for cloud computing, it discusses a novel cloud management and delivery architecture based on the principles of self-organisation and self-management. This focus shifts the deployment and optimisation effort from the consumer to the software stack running on the cloud infrastructure. It also outlines validation challenges and introduces a novel generalised extensible simulation framework to illustrate the effectiveness, performance and scalability of self-organising and self-managing delivery models on hyperscale cloud infrastructures. It concludes with a number of potential use cases for self-organising, self-managing clouds and the impact on those businesses.

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.

This is the first book to introduce the major quantitative tools in risk management taking financial investments and logistics planning as the background: optimization and stochastic programming. Contained here are the fundamentals of portfolio selection theory from the point of view of risk control, and methods for risk control with new and popular risk measures such as VaR (Value-at-Risk) and CVaR (Conditional VaR). The book also introduces a new theory for risk management in more general investment situations such as flexible investment decisions, providing an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the interrelations between these fields of research. Basic concepts of stochastic programming are introduced, and their applications to risk management in inventory distribution and network design are covered as well. Illustrated by carefully chosen examples and supported by extensive data analyses, this book is highly recommended to readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date integrated overview of the ever-expanding theoretical and quantitative fields of risk management in financial investment and logistics planning.

This book features both cutting-edge contributions on managing knowledge in transformational contexts and a selection of real-world case studies. It analyzes how the disruptive power of digitization is becoming a major challenge for knowledge-based value creation worldwide, and subsequently examines the changes in how we manage information and knowledge, communicate, collaborate, learn and decide within and across organizations. The book highlights the opportunities provided by disruptive renewal, while also stressing the need for knowledge workers and organizations to transform governance, leadership and work organization. Emerging new business models and digitally enabled co-creation are presented as drivers that can help establish new ways of managing knowledge. In turn, a number of carefully selected and interpreted case studies provide a link to practice in organizations.

This book highlights storytelling as a concrete and viable method which can be used in various operational fields in organizations: from change management to project management and knowledge management, it presents employees' stories on past projects and the diverse, essential aspects of corporate culture they reveal, in an easy-to-comprehend and entertaining fashion. These stories focus on specific but generic experiences which can be adapted and exploited by the reader to ultimately tap into hidden knowledge and increase transparency during daily routines in his or her own organization. Knowledge managers, coaches, and strategists alike will find a 'real-life' connection through these stories, helping them improve their own storytelling methods. The book also provides exhaustive information on the latest storytelling methods and strategies. The adaptations Thier has made to bring learning histories to corporate settings accelerates the capture, flow, and application of organizational knowledge that speeds up changes to improve operations! George Roth (Principal Research Associate at MIT Sloan School of Management, Boston, United States)

This book focuses on understanding the status quo of sustainable practices in industry operations from an emerging economy perspective, presenting various practices in India. In order to offer a balance between theory and practice, it provides guidelines for applying models to achieve the goal of sustainability in this competitive environment. The chapters include theoretical perspectives, models and empirical evidence on sustainable practices from Indian industries. The book also presents a scholarly perspective on sustainable operations from various researchers and practitioners in India for a global audience in academia and industry.

This book discussing in detail the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) of the global economy using the comprehensive Multi-Regional Input-Output (MRIO) technique. The content is presented in two parts, the first of which offers an introduction to social accounting and how it has been developed over the past few years with details on the methodologies and databases used. The second part of the book describes the footprints of the social accounts that have the highest impact on people's well-being (employment, income, working conditions,and inequality) and how they are linked to international trade. The need for reporting on such indicators falls within the purview of corporate/national social responsibility (part of the Triple Bottom Line). The book offers a valuable contribution to the literature for researchers and students engaged in the social sciences, human rights, and the implications of international trade on labour in developing countries.iv>

Drawing upon the timeless wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, a philosophical-spiritual world classic, this professional book highlights the spiritual and moral dimensions of management using an inside-out leadership development approach. It interprets the Bhagavad Gita's teachings on the personality types and psychological makeup of managers and employees; self-knowledge and self-mastery; and the leadership concepts of vision, motivation, and empowerment. This book covers topics such as training of the mind, ethical leadership, communication, stress management, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Collectively, the enclosed contributions provide managers with an enhanced outlook on management functions such as leading, planning, organizing, and controlling in today's organizations, particularly those run by knowledge workers. Management research in the 20th century has mainly focused on the industrial paradigm characterized by a hierarchical structure of authority and responsibility with an individualistic focus on the personality of the manager. However, this traditional paradigm cannot solve many of the problems that confront leaders and mangers today. Recent studies have shown that values traditionally associated with spirituality-such as integrity, honesty, trust, kindness, caring, fairness, and humility-have a demonstrable effect on managerial effectiveness and success. Although traditionally interpreted as a religious-spiritual text, the Bhagavad Gita teaches these values which can be extrapolated and applied to practical management lessons in today's corporate boardrooms. Applying the text of the Bhagavad Gita to the context of management, this book views the manager as an "enlightened sage" who operates from higher stance, guided by self-knowledge and self-mastery. It demonstrates how character is the key ingredient for effective management and leadership. This book is therefore applicable to all managers, from first-line to CEOs, in their management and leadership roles in organizations.

Change is a crucial and inescapable process for many organisations. It remains a constant challenge for managers and many change management initiatives fail. Burns and Stalker's seminal text on managing change, The Management of Innovation, has often been used as a basis for research in mainstream management journals and has been represented as an important theory in popular and long-established management textbooks. The issues raised in that book are still being grappled with by academics and practitioners today. Miriam Green provides a critical analysis of the mainstream construction of knowledge on change management through an examination of representations of that text. The main thesis of her book is that this literature, though valuable, does not provide a full picture. Its objectivist approach ignores the role of other factors raised in the original study. These factors include the effects of power, politics, resistance and employee influence on the outcomes of managerial change strategies and on other organisational processes, with important consequences for the understanding of change initiatives by both academics and practitioners. This is part of an ongoing debate in management studies and more widely in the social sciences about theoretical approaches and research methods. The originality of this book lies in its in-depth comparison of an entire monograph on organisations facing technological and commercial change, with an equally in-depth analysis of the ways this work has been represented and used as a basis for teaching and research. It highlights the limitations of the exclusive use of one approach to explain the complications arising from organisational change. It challenges the scientific justification offered for that approach and supports arguments for more inclusive and sustainable scholarship, of greater relevance to academics, managers and other organisational stakeholders.

This unique book helps business executives to improve their company's business performance by showing how to build an effective and future-proof distribution channel, and adopt effective commercial policies and value-based pricing strategies. For the first time, an ex-McKinsey consultant and general manager reveals the methodology adopted by successful Fortune 100 multinationals, offering readers a concise, informative and pragmatic guide to the core principles, with an abundance of concrete examples and visual frameworks. Every good business manager needs to have a microscope on one eye and a telescope on the other eye - this practical, easy to follow book, anchored in solid analytic principles, allows for fast and solid transitions between diagnosis, long-term strategic thinking, and short-term execution. Bruno Barcelos, General Manager Sandoz, a Novartis Company

This book describes different approaches for solving industrial problems like product design, process optimization, quality enhancement, productivity improvement and cost minimization. Several optimization techniques are described. The book covers case studies on the applications of classical as well as evolutionary and swarm optimization tools for solving industrial issues. The content is very helpful for industry personnel, particularly engineers from the Operation, R&D and Quality Assurance sectors, and also the academic researchers of different engineering and/or business administration background.

This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management, IC3K 2016, held in Porto, Portugal, in November 2016.The 18 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 186 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on knowledge discovery and information retrieval; knowledge engineering and ontology development; and knowledge management and information sharing.

This book demonstrates how traditional knowledge can be connected to the modern world. Human knowledge of housing, health and agriculture dates back thousands of years, with old wisdom developing and becoming modern. But in the past few decades, global communities have increasingly become aware that some of this valuable knowledge has fallen by the wayside. This has sparked systematic efforts at the local, national and global levels to connect this neglected knowledge to the modern world. It discusses the origin of the topic, its importance, recent developments in India and abroad, and what is being done and still needs to be done in order to preserve India's traditional knowledge. The discussions address a broad range of fields and organizations: from Basmati rice to Ayurvedic cosmetics; from traditional irrigation and folk music to modern drug discovery and climate change adaptation; and from the Biodiversity Convention to the WHO, WTO and WIPO.

This book presents open optimization problems in graph theory and networks. Each chapter reflects developments in theory and applications based on Gregory Gutin's fundamental contributions to advanced methods and techniques in combinatorial optimization. Researchers, students, and engineers in computer science, big data, applied mathematics, operations research, algorithm design, artificial intelligence, software engineering, data analysis, industrial and systems engineering will benefit from the state-of-the-art results presented in modern graph theory and its applications to the design of efficient algorithms for optimization problems. Topics covered in this work include: * Algorithmic aspects of problems with disjoint cycles in graphs * Graphs where maximal cliques and stable sets intersect * The maximum independent set problem with special classes * A general technique for heuristic algorithms for optimization problems * The network design problem with cut constraints * Algorithms for computing the frustration index of a signed graph * A heuristic approach for studying the patrol problem on a graph * Minimum possible sum and product of the proper connection number * Structural and algorithmic results on branchings in digraphs * Improved upper bounds for Korkel--Ghosh benchmark SPLP instances

In a business world of uncertain budgets, relentless technology changes, scarce management talent, and intense production demands, theory is good, but practice sells. The Effective CIO: How to Achieve Outstanding Success through Strategic Alignment, Financial Management, and IT Governance is all about practice, successfully delivering the nuts-and-bolts for effective governance execution. It helps to dissolve the negative image many CIOs have as remote, purely rational decision machines, while demonstrating how to improve quality and throughput in your business. This authoritative text includes governance checklists, sample IT controls, merger and acquisition recommendations, and a detailed framework for IT policies. Authored by two highly regarded IT management experts, the book provides not only a survey of existing strategies, but also includes detailed problem-solving ideas, such as how to structure optimal IT and telecom contracts with suppliers, the implications of SOP-98, and accounting for software costs. The book seamlessly brings together two perspectives - that of a working CIO who must cope with day-to-day pressures for results, and that of an IT audit consultant with a special focus on governance and internal control. Unlike many other CIO-related books that merely discuss strategies, The Effective CIO includes easy-to-follow guidelines and governance principles that can be implemented immediately.

This book describes how a model for optimizing the energy supply system in Germany can be implemented. It focuses on the open energy modeling framework (Oemof) program for modeling energy supply systems. The individual elements of Oemof are described, as well as the model's structure. The technical components of Oemof are subsequently demonstrated in mathematical calculations, along with sufficient Python code to begin basic modeling. The book will appeal to anyone with an interest in optimization models for energy supply systems, or in the mathematical description of the technical components of such systems in practical implementation, using a real example, Oemof. Thermodynamic descriptions of combustion are provided, so that readers can focus on modeling aspects. Researchers and practitioners will also find the book useful, as it expands on their knowledge of the technical components of energy supply systems, supported with detailed mathematical calculations.

According to Peter Drucker the most important challenge of management in the 21st century will be to increase knowledge worker productivity substantially. This book presents tried and tested methods, and concrete suggestions to analyse and design effective knowledge work. Each topic is accompanied by a self diagnosis allowing the reader to assess their own situation. The authors include case studies to provide inspiration as to the 'next practices' for shaping the future of knowledge work. Amongst others, the book addresses the following questions: What is knowledge work? What are strategies and methods for increasing productivity, quality, effectiveness and value of knowledge work? Can knowledge workers be managed, and if yes, how? How should ICT support be selected and utilised to best effect? What are adequate methods for measuring performance of knowledge workers? This book bridges the gap between research and practice, presenting the current state of management concepts and research on knowledge work, and providing many best practice examples, and will appeal to management educators, students, trainers, HR professionals, consultants, and knowledge workers themselves.

Relevance drives our actions and channels our attention; it shapes how we make sense of the world and communicate with each other. Irrelevance spreads a twilight which blurs the line between information we do not want to access and information we cannot access. In disciplines as diverse as philosophy, sociology, the information sciences and linguistics, "relevance" has been proposed as a key concept. This book is the first to bring together the often unrelated traditions. Researchers from different fields discuss relevance and relate it to the challenges of "irrelevance", which have so far been neglected despite their significance for our chances of making well-informed decisions and understanding others. The contributions focus on theoretical and conceptual questions, on specific factors and fields, and on practical and political implications of relevance and irrelevance as forces which are even stronger when they remain in the background.

This book outlines the structure and activities of companies in the European aviation industry. The focus is on the design, production and maintenance of components, assemblies, engines and the aircraft itself. In contrast to other industries, the technical aviation industry is subject to many specifics, since its activities are highly regulated by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the National Aviation Authorities and by the aviation industry standard EN 9100. These regulations can influence the companies' organization, personnel qualification, quality management systems, as well as the provision of products and services. This book gives the reader a deeper, up-to-date insight into today's quality and safety requirements for the modern aviation industry. Aviation-specific interfaces and procedures are looked at from both the aviation legislation standpoint as well as from a practical operational perspective.

Crises come in many shapes and sizes, including media blunders, social media activism, extortion, product tampering, security issues, natural disasters, accidents, and negligence - just to name a few. For organizations, crises are pervasive, challenging, and catastrophic, as well as opportunities for organizations to thrive and emerge stronger. Despite the proliferation of research and books related to crisis communication, the voice that is often lost is that of the stakeholder. Yet, as both a public relations and management function, stakeholders are central to the success and failure of organizations responding to and managing crises in a cross-platform and global environment. This core textbook provides a comprehensive and research-driven introduction to crisis communication, critical factors influencing crisis response, and what we know about predicting stakeholder responses to crises. Incorporated into each chapter are global case studies, ethical challenges, and practitioner considerations. Online resources include an extensive set of multimedia materials ranging from podcast mini-lectures to in-class exercises, and simulation-based activities for skills development (https://audralawson.com/resources/crisis-communication-managing-stakeholder-relationships/). Demonstrating the connection between theory, decision-making, and strategy development in a crisis context, this is a vital text for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Communications, Public Relations, Marketing, and Strategic Management.

This book analyzes the underlying theoretical principles of multi-objective linear programming problems with multi-choice parameters. It studies transportation problems on the same domain with extension to fuzzy stochastic criteria, and offers insights into sensitivity analysis through symmetric duality and complementarity using non-convex programming. These analytical presentations provide ample scope for researchers to contemplate real-world problems with an innovative vision. The formulation, analysis and solution procedures on inventory control models in the book use both deterministic and fuzzy parameters, and provide novel optimal inventory policies. The book discusses a wide range of optimal operational techniques for policy makers, government and private agencies in the fields of e-governance and agricultural crop insurance, which are crucial for developing countries. The recommendations address the gaps and remedies in various schemes that influence decision-making in the context of the economic development of such countries.