Software and systems quality is playing an increasingly important role in the growth of almost all profit and non-profit organisations. Quality is vital to the success of enterprises in their markets. Most small trade and repair businesses use software systems in their administration and marketing processes. Every doctor's surgery is managing its patients using software. Banking is no longer conceivable without software. Aircraft, trucks and cars use more and more software to handle their increasingly complex technical systems. Innovation, competition and cost pressure are always present in on-going business decisions. The question facing all these organisations is how to achieve the right quality of their software-based systems and products; how to get the required level of quality, a level that the market will reward, a level that mitigates the organisation's risks and a level that the organisation is willing to pay for. Although a number of good practices are in place, there is still room for huge improvements. Thus, let us take a look into the two worlds of "Embedded systems" and "ICT systems" and let us learn from both worlds, from overlaps and individual solutions. The next step for industrialisation in the software industry is required now. Hence, three pillars will be focused in this book: (1) a fundamental notion of right software and systems quality (RiSSQ); (2) portfolio management, quality governance, quality management, and quality engineering as holistic approach over the three layers of an enterprise, i.e. strategic, tactical, and operational layer; and (3) an industrialisation framework for implementing our approach.

The aim of this book is to investigate the discursive power of two original, theoretical lenses when applied to real outsourcing arrangements and phenomena. The Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) and Foucauldian perspectives are brought to bear on five outsourcing relationships in order to test the application of these discourses to rich qualitative data over the outsourcing contractual life-cycle. This will be the first study illustrating the relevance of Foucauldian concepts of governmentality, discourse and power relations to the study of outsourcing arrangements, and will also incorporate the perspectives of both client and supplier organizations. Using discourse analysis, the objective is to critically deconstruct and provide fresh insight into the normative 'outsourcing' discourse that has grown up around global sourcing practices over the last 30 years.

Whilst there has been an increased interest in minorities and their contribution to society, the literature on minorities and under-represented communities is still weak. This edited volume discusses entrepreneurship in the context of minorities and the role they play in society. The book looks at under-represented communities such as LGBTQ+, disadvantaged, ethnic minority, religious entrepreneurs, medically limited, indigenous, refugees, young/old and other socio-economic segments. It provides a holistic, comprehensive overview of how diversity in entrepreneurship facilitates increased levels of innovation. The book will be amongst the first to take a broad perspective of minority entrepreneurs.

Cutting through the clutter of management and leadership books, Manager vs. Leader: Untying the Gordian Knot works to differentiate the terms manager and leader. With these terms often used synonymously, misunderstanding leads to confusion and failed expectations at all levels of an organization. Providing both academic and practical organizational examples, this book challenges readers with ranging experience and knowledge to explore management and leadership in a new and comprehensive way. Enabling readers to better understand the nuances between leading and managing, this book provides historical context while guiding readers in understanding the impact each role has within an organization. Through brief explorations into Organization Development and Transformation, this book works through the state of the leadership concept and provides insights into future challenges for managers and leaders. Armed with historical context, a foundation to explore the terms manager and leader, and an open mind, readers will be able to more effectively manage expectations and interact with others whether professionally or personally.

This book highlights the challenges faced by renewable energy enterprises (REEs) in emerging markets, by reflecting on the enterprises' own stories and experiences. Research into REEs has focused largely on successful businesses and business models, and developed markets. With significant opportunities for renewable energy enterprise in emerging markets, this book presents a unique business-level perspective. It highlights the key barriers and outlines the strategic and operational solutions for success articulated by the entrepreneurs themselves. The research draws on interviews with entrepreneurs in twenty-eight emerging markets, including Barbados, Cambodia, Chile, Ghana, Indonesia, India, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. The book concludes by summarising the key solutions for success and illustrating how successful REEs put them into practice. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of renewable energy, sustainable business and the sustainability agenda in emerging markets.

The Middle East was the region least impacted in the 2008 crisis, has investment systems markedly different to the West, is largely governed by Islamic Shari'a, and has varying forms of governance and institutional organization, which are not understood by many, nor how these systems shape entrepreneurial and industrial development. While the Middle East as a region has seen a small growth in entrepreneurship for women, and business scholarship on the Middle East has grown, there is no text in English that has brought critical insights from the Middle East together in a single volume. In examining women's entrepreneurship in the Middle East, this book aims to challenge Global North assumptions about the disempowering impacts of Islamic Shari'a and governance. Referring to the constraints of Islam on women's subjectivity and agency greatly misunderstands religious identity, of both men and women, and the way in which public administration and private sector institutions are organized in very different ways to Western regions. This timely text expands and adds new insights to the theorizations of women's entrepreneurship in the Middle East, through unravelling spatialized themes, and incorporates contemporary themes including: an Islamic science reading of women, work and venturing; changing families and entrepreneurship development; women managing social crises; Islamization, governance and women; Islamic feminist activisms and entrepreneurship; representations of women's entrepreneurship on social media; and women's collectives leading entrepreneurship via Facebook entrepreneurship. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of entrepreneurship, gender, work and organizations.

This book presents the concept of a fuzzy-based recommender system for user account privacy settings that can be used for citizen participation on online political platforms. The elaborated components are exemplarily based on the needs of a political platform implemented during the presidential election in Ecuador. The book readdresses the issue of privacy paradox demonstrating that, indeed, users' actual decisions of being private in most cases diverge with their initial privacy intentions. The two concepts presented in the book - the citizen privacy profile framework and the prototype fuzzy-based privacy settings recommender system - can be adapted by different organizations such as government institutions, NGOs, or private online service providers to meet their specific needs. The book will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the areas of usage modeling, privacy, system design, and for service providers in eDemocracy.

Modern Actuarial Risk Theory contains what every actuary needs to know about non-life insurance mathematics. It starts with the standard material like utility theory, individual and collective model and basic ruin theory. Other topics are risk measures and premium principles, bonus-malus systems, ordering of risks and credibility theory. It also contains some chapters about Generalized Linear Models, applied to rating and IBNR problems. As to the level of the mathematics, the book would fit in a bachelors or masters program in quantitative economics or mathematical statistics. This second and much expanded edition emphasizes the implementation of these techniques through the use of R. This free but incredibly powerful software is rapidly developing into the de facto standard for statistical computation, not just in academic circles but also in practice. With R, one can do simulations, find maximum likelihood estimators, compute distributions by inverting transforms, and much more.

Buying decision making is a complicated process, in which a consumer's decision is under the influence of others. The buyer's decision making is directed in such a way that they must act as a consumer in society. Media and family are key socializing agents for adolescents. Moreover, changes in the socio-cultural environment in India necessitate that adolescents' influence in family's buying decision making should be investigated. In comparison to Western society, Indian society is quite different when compared in terms of family composition and structure, behavior, values and norms which impact adolescents' buying decision making. Adolescents, Family and Consumer Behaviour studies the role of consumer socialization agents for adolescents, examining socio-economic factors that influence adolescents' buying decision making in Indian urban families. It aims to discover the influence tactics that adolescents employ and to qualitatively analyse how marketers in turn influence adolescents. It addresses the topics with regard to strategic management and marketing and will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of management, entrepreneurship, small business management, and human resource management.

This book develops a novel industry emergence framework to explain the features, interaction, and synchronization of key elements for the birth and growth of new industries. Organized around seven elements-firm strategy, technology, investment, supply networks, production, markets, and government-Theyel's framework provides inventors, managers, investors, scholars, and policymakers with a comprehensive understanding of how industries emerge, helping them to be more successful at influencing the birth and growth of new industries. Understanding industry emergence is important because new industries can offer the advancement of technology, improvements in human health and the environment, growth of firms, creation of jobs, and economic development. With learning objectives, theory, tools, case studies, and end-of-chapter questions, Industry Emergence will be a useful resource for students and professionals in engineering, science, business, and policy.

Governments in developed and developing economies have increasingly turned to entrepreneurship and small businesses for economic growth, dynamism and economic and social inclusion. Policies seeking to encourage, support or otherwise influence these forms of economic activity are varied but virtually omnipresent, recommended by organisations such as the OECD and World Bank and implemented by governments of many political ideologies. With a range of activities across government labelled as enterprise policy, it is vital to unpick the different policies, initiatives and interventions and to understand their development in order to subject them to scrutiny and evaluate the actions taken in the name of enterprise. This book provides the first in-depth, historical analysis of enterprise policy in the United Kingdom. Successive UK governments have been particularly active, with the number of initiatives estimated recently at 3000 and expenditure reaching as high as GBP12bn, yet facing continuous criticisms for its use, value or relevance. This historical study of UK enterprise policy represents a case study of different forms of enterprise policy and how they have developed, or failed to develop, over time, contributing to understanding of government, small business and entrepreneurship. It will be of value to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students interested in the history of small business and entrepreneurship as well as standing as a history of a specific policy area and the ways in which policies involving many different areas of government develop over time.

The book is distinct as it critically revisits what is 'social' in an enterprise without being limited by theoretical definitions Each chapter includes several case examples from international and well-renowned organizations to depict the dimensions and dilemmas a social enterprise can assume in practice It adopts a pragmatic hands-on community-based approach to drive in the message of social entrepreneurship Online resources include chapter by chapter PowerPoints slides, a video overview and additional case studies.

This book offers a practical insight to leaders who need to make good decisions in risky and important situations. The authors describe a process for making risk-intelligent decisions, explaining complex ideas simply, and mapping a route through the myriad interrelated influences when groups make decisions that matter. The approach puts the decision maker-you-at the center and explains how you can think and act differently to make better decisions more of the time. The book shows how to Determine the appropriate level of risk Make decisions in uncertain and turbulent conditions Understand how risks are perceived to identify them accurately Develop new behaviors to improve decision-making Making Risky and Important Decisions: A Leader's Guide builds on earlier ground-breaking publications from these two recognized thought leaders. Their first book together, Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude, brought together the language of risk and risk-taking with the language of emotional intelligence and emotional literacy. Managing Group Risk Attitude followed, and focused on decision-making groups, creating new insights and frameworks. Both books are positioned as specialist textbooks, despite their relevance to real-world situations. A Short Guide to Risk Appetite brought together the concepts of risk appetite and risk attitude into one place for the first time, cutting through confusing terminology and confused thinking to create a practical way of understanding "how much risk is too much risk." This latest installment from Ruth Murray-Webster and David Hillson takes the breadth of their previous work, adds new insights and thinking, and distills it into a highly usable guide for hard-pressed leaders.

The emergence of new platform business models, notably the sharing economy, is impacting the economy in various ways, altering the structure of many industries, and raising a number of economic and political issues. This book investigates the widespread influence of the sharing economy on businesses and society, as well as examining its underpinning economic principles and development. This volume presents an exhaustive review of the existing knowledge on the sharing economy and addresses several major areas of concern for incumbent businesses. It also explains the business models for those who are interested in embarking on their own ventures and provides an excellent source for further research. It takes an in-depth look at controversial labour policies, such as using labour as self-employed contractors or using regulatory grey areas to expand in markets. It is highly multidisciplinary, establishing links between economics, finance, marketing and consumer behaviour. This contribution on the sharing economy will enable researchers and graduate and doctoral students to expand and improve their understanding of this topic and identify new research problems in all of these areas. The book will also appeal to policy makers, regional and local government decision makers, and those interested in labour markets transformation.

For all professionals and students who want to improve their prospects in business, this book prepares and positions them to build dream careers, giving them the education and guidance required to develop vital soft skills, and work remotely and independently. After establishing a foundation for solid professional communications on a personal level, it quickly opens doors to business insights and opportunities that are exciting, inspiring, and highly sustainable. Immersing readers into the key realms of business success and exploring the full spectrum of essential communications practices, they gain knowledge and trade skills of immense value, including: * The basics of positive, proactive, strategic communications for individuals and organizations * What it means to be a PR expert in the creative industry and to do great work * An introduction to essential business imperatives, with high-level instruction on creativity, strategy, leadership, management, marketing, and much more * Customer service and all it entails * Extensive exploration of the PR toolset and its application in real-world marketing scenarios This book brings home all instruction with sophisticated questions and challenges, ensuring readers have every opportunity to comprehend and grow, step by step.

For all professionals and students who want to improve their prospects in business, this book prepares and positions them to build dream careers, giving them the education and guidance required to develop vital soft skills, and work remotely and independently. After establishing a foundation for solid professional communications on a personal level, it quickly opens doors to business insights and opportunities that are exciting, inspiring, and highly sustainable. Immersing readers into the key realms of business success and exploring the full spectrum of essential communications practices, they gain knowledge and trade skills of immense value, including: * The basics of positive, proactive, strategic communications for individuals and organizations * What it means to be a PR expert in the creative industry and to do great work * An introduction to essential business imperatives, with high-level instruction on creativity, strategy, leadership, management, marketing, and much more * Customer service and all it entails * Extensive exploration of the PR toolset and its application in real-world marketing scenarios This book brings home all instruction with sophisticated questions and challenges, ensuring readers have every opportunity to comprehend and grow, step by step.

Plastics have occupied an important place in the modern medical industry. It has substituted traditional devices and products made of metal, other materials, and ceramics. Over recent years, increased reliance on transparent plastic pharmaceutical and medical products has produced remarkable breakthroughs that improve medical attention delivery and allow it to be more comfortable for the masses to live better and longer lives. The purpose of this handbook is to provide a strategic perspective on the market to identify opportunities for growth and promising niches in the medical plastics market. It also helps in analyzing emerging trends in medical plastics to facilitate new product development. The medical plastics market is a new field with a broad scope and unending opportunities for manufacturers and suppliers and medical practitioners from healthcare. With a combination of the right material and technology, it has a lot to offer to the patients with affordable pricing. By keeping the worth of the medical plastics market in mind, we have set some objectives. This book identifies growth factors in the medical plastics market and analyzes critical factors of success to compete. The author presents background on the medical plastics market by its usage, products, processes, and innovation. He also reviews existing studies on the medical plastics market for topics like market size, market growth, segment growth, and geographic markets.

Plastics have occupied an important place in the modern medical industry. It has substituted traditional devices and products made of metal, other materials, and ceramics. Over recent years, increased reliance on transparent plastic pharmaceutical and medical products has produced remarkable breakthroughs that improve medical attention delivery and allow it to be more comfortable for the masses to live better and longer lives. The purpose of this handbook is to provide a strategic perspective on the market to identify opportunities for growth and promising niches in the medical plastics market. It also helps in analyzing emerging trends in medical plastics to facilitate new product development. The medical plastics market is a new field with a broad scope and unending opportunities for manufacturers and suppliers and medical practitioners from healthcare. With a combination of the right material and technology, it has a lot to offer to the patients with affordable pricing. By keeping the worth of the medical plastics market in mind, we have set some objectives. This book identifies growth factors in the medical plastics market and analyzes critical factors of success to compete. The author presents background on the medical plastics market by its usage, products, processes, and innovation. He also reviews existing studies on the medical plastics market for topics like market size, market growth, segment growth, and geographic markets.

This book provides specialists and executives with a clear, yet practical set of recommendations to meet the challenges of digital transformation and ensure long-term success as a leader in a primarily digital business world. The authors describe the fundamental principles of digitization and its economic opportunities and risks, integrating them into a framework of classic and new management methods. The book also explores how increasing digitization - not only of communication, but of complete value chains - has led to a need to establish a digital business leadership. Digitization is changing people and markets: it causes the upheaval of entire industries, creates new digital-centric companies, and forces established companies to cope with the transformation activities associated with these digitization processes. New approaches and methods have to be learned, tried and tested patterns of thinking have to be explored, and last but not least, innovation activities have to be understood as continuous necessities. At the same time, digital business offers considerable opportunities for renewing competitive advantages, improving existing process structures and realigning products, services and business models.

This book analyzes the effects of the latest technological advances in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) on business operations and strategies. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the contributions examine new developments that change the rules of traditional management. The chapters focus mainly on blockchain technologies and digital business in the "Industry 4.0" context, covering such topics as accounting, digitalization and use of AI in business operations and cybercrime. Intended for academics, blockchain experts, students and practitioners, the book helps business strategists design a path for future opportunities.

Information resource management is too often seen as a domain dominated by technology, or, at best, one in which human considerations are secondary to and dependent on technological systems. Socio-Technical and Human Cognition Elements of Information Systems brings together chapters from Europe, Australasia, Canada and the Americas, all drawn together by the common theme of the book. It will present information management not as technology influenced by people, but as fundamentally a people-centred domain.

Going beyond the why and what of purpose-led business, this book sets out an innovative business model of how to lead and operate a company to deliver its purpose. Western capitalism is in crisis due to the growing disconnect between business and society, and there are growing calls for a shift from the primacy of shareholder value to the primacy of purpose. But there is a paucity of codified best practice for how CEOs should go about making this shift. Enter Alan Barlow: a CEO practitioner who demonstrates with analytical rigor and evidence-based argument a business model for how CEOs can actually deliver a purpose-defined company that yields both bigger benefits for society and bigger profits for the business. Current and aspiring business leaders and executives will benefit from not only this new business model but also a fully documented route map for monitoring and reviewing successful impact, and highly focused non-financial and financial metrics for benchmarking. Completing the loop for 'company purpose' means that business can become a force for good for society.

Going beyond the why and what of purpose-led business, this book sets out an innovative business model of how to lead and operate a company to deliver its purpose. Western capitalism is in crisis due to the growing disconnect between business and society, and there are growing calls for a shift from the primacy of shareholder value to the primacy of purpose. But there is a paucity of codified best practice for how CEOs should go about making this shift. Enter Alan Barlow: a CEO practitioner who demonstrates with analytical rigor and evidence-based argument a business model for how CEOs can actually deliver a purpose-defined company that yields both bigger benefits for society and bigger profits for the business. Current and aspiring business leaders and executives will benefit from not only this new business model but also a fully documented route map for monitoring and reviewing successful impact, and highly focused non-financial and financial metrics for benchmarking. Completing the loop for 'company purpose' means that business can become a force for good for society.

Corporate governance is not just about models of best practice organisation or prescriptions following laws or social conventions. Corporate governance is also about persons of power seeking performance, and they do so in ways that transcend structures and pre-conceived notions of the structural set-up of the business. This book emphasises the decision-making dimensions of corporate governance, placing it right in the messy middle of the ever-changing world of capitalism, focussing on the interplay between professional managers and shareholders. This book aims to bring together several fresh perspectives on the development of capitalism seen through the lens of corporate governance. It illustrates the role of intentionality and persons, both as a method with which to understand processes of change, but also as a principle with which to seek a deeper understanding of the corporate governance choices made. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of corporate governance and entrepreneurship, as well as practitioners and other audience interested in the evolution of capitalism and corporate culture.

Written for first-time buyers who have never owned a property or had a mortgage, rather than buy-to-let investors. Provides a holistic view of the property purchase process, and examines several key aspects: property, mortgages, and legal considerations. Written by academics who have extensive practical experience in property and mortgages.