The International Conference on Informatics and Management Science (IMS) 2012 will be held on November 16-19, 2012, in Chongqing, China, which is organized by Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Nanyang Technological University, University of Michigan, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, and sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). The objective of IMS 2012 is to facilitate an exchange of information on best practices for the latest research advances in a range of areas. Informatics and Management Science contains over 600 contributions to suggest and inspire solutions and methods drawing from multiple disciplines including: * Computer Science * Communications and Electrical Engineering * Management Science * Service Science * Business Intelligence

* Provides tailored guidance for entrepreneurs who are also life partners, and women entrepreneurs, based on the authors' decades of successful experience * Covers such important issues for all entrepreneurs as risk tolerance and mitigation, infrastructure scaling, and exit strategy * Offers insights on trends and opportunities for entrepreneurs in a post-COVID19 world

This book focusses on various options of taking up ventures for starting entrepreneurship in small/large scale in the field of renewable energy technologies. The book covers the fundamentals of entrepreneurship, renewable energy resources, their technologies involved and applications along with financial evaluations. The book will cater to the needs of students, researchers, various stakeholders, entrepreneurs etc. by providing valuable information on renewable energy technologies and their applications in developing entrepreneurship and establishing enterprise at individual level, specifically focusing on low carbon technology for sustenance of environment which is becoming increasingly important.

Israeli national neoliberalism has promoted innovation policies leading to an ostensible paradox: At the center is a startup nation with a vibrant and successful high-tech entrepreneurial ecosystem, accumulating resources and enabling constant growth. At the geographical and social periphery, there has emerged a parallel society with often-marginalized groups not able to keep up. In one of the most unequal countries with a high rate of poverty, entrepreneurial heroes are celebrated at the center, promoting a myth that all could be self-made successes. At the periphery, entrepreneurs are struggling to survive, often pushed into precarious working and living conditions. Applying critical theory discourse, this book illustrates how neoliberalism and entrepreneurship are intertwined and how the startup nation has evolved in Israel. It explores how national neoliberal state policies have targeted technological innovation as a tool to obtain a competitive advantage in the international arena rather than aiming at increasing economic achievements and well-being for all. It will demonstrate that the Israeli entrepreneurship scene exemplifies the existence of parallel entrepreneurial societal spaces, analyze the positionality of entrepreneurs belonging to a variety of groups that characterize Israeli society, and uncover structural disadvantages and related levels of precarity as well as existing links between entrepreneurial advantages and disadvantages, mobility and varying degrees of social marginality. Dark Sides of the Startup Nation sheds light onto the problematic and sometimes contradictory myth that entrepreneurship is meritocratic and that neoliberal capitalism provides everyone with equal opportunities to succeed. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, policy makers and students in the fields of entrepreneurship and small business management, responsibility and business ethics, and technology and innovation.

Includes global case studies of organizations in the cultural sector to facilitate translation of theory into practice Author team combines academic and practitioner expertise Unique combination of fundraising and creative/cultural industries

Sustainable development is based on the idea that societies should advance without compromising their future development requirements. This book explores how the application of data analytics and digital technologies can ensure that development changes are executed on the basis of factual data and information. It addresses how innovations that rely on digital technologies can support sustainable development across all sectors and all social, economic, and environmental aspects and help us achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The book also highlights techniques, processes, models, tools, and practices used to achieve sustainable development through data analysis. The various topics covered in this book are critically evaluated, not only theoretically, but also from an application perspective. It will be of interest to researchers and students, especially those in the fields of applied data analytics, business intelligence and knowledge management.

Who will lead your organization into the future? Have you created the systems to properly implement required succession transitions? Have you put the financial tools in place to fund the transition? Do you want a plan that connects with your personal and company core values? When do you include timely planning related to strategy and talent issues? What are the appropriate communication strategies for sharing your plan? What legal issues need consideration related to the strategy, financial, and people aspects of succession? So, what is preventing you from starting this effort tomorrow? Small and family businesses are the bedrock of all businesses. More people are employed by small and family-owned businesses than by all multinational companies combined. Yet the research on small and family businesses is bleak: fewer than one-third of small business owners in the United States can afford to retire. Only 40% of small businesses have a workable disaster plan in case of the sudden death or disability of the owner, and only 42% of small businesses in the United States have a succession plan. Fewer than 11% of family-owned businesses make it to the third generation beyond the founder. Lack of succession planning is the second most common reason for small business failure. Many organizations often wonder where to start and what to do. Succession Planning for Small and Family Businesses: Navigating Successful Transitions presents a comprehensive approach to guiding such efforts. Small and family-owned businesses rarely employ first-rate, well-qualified talent in human resources. More typically, business owners must be jacks-of-all-trades and serve as their own accountants, lawyers, business consultants, marketing experts, and HR wizards. Unfortunately, that does not always work well when business owners embark on planning for retirement or business exits. To help business owners avert problems, this book advises on some of the management, tax and financial, legal, and psychological issues that should be considered when planning retirement or other exits from the business. This comprehensive approach is unique when compared to the books, articles, and other literature that currently exist on the market. This book takes on a bold and integrated approach. Relevant research combined with the rich experiences of the authors connects this thorough, evidence-based approach to action-based approaches for the reader.

This book examines returns on experience and managerial practices to generate deeper collaboration, intensify co-creation, support start-ups and established companies to explore, develop, and accelerate their projects thanks to open labs (living labs, fab labs, coworking spaces, "third spaces", etc.). Open labs are the beatbox to create a rhythm in ecosystems and make all stakeholders move forward, faster, together. This book proposes a framework to understand how open labs, innovation hubs, and collaborative spaces contribute to ecosystems. The book looks beyond the short-term effects of open labs and identifies four main dimensions: communities, physical spaces, events, and portfolios of services offered to private businesses, entrepreneurs, and start-ups, established companies, or public institutions. Drawing on extensive field research lasting over five years, with more than 40 cases and more than 200 interviews plus direct observation within different environments, this edited book investigates how managers run these labs, and how "users" or "clients" evolve when benefitting from their services. All chapters analyse how an actual management impacts the dynamics of communities, how it shapes the co-evolution between open labs and their ecosystems, and how the management of the physical space impacts the mission of the lab and its role in the ecosystem. Open Labs and Innovation Research is written for scholars and researchers in the fields of innovation studies and management science. This book can also inform teaching, public policymaking, and professional practice.

Electronic payment is the economic backbone of all e-commerce transactions. This book covers the major subjects related to e-payment such as, for example, public key infrastructure, smart cards, payment agents, digital cash, SET protocols, and micro-payment. Its first part covers the infrastructure for secure e-payment over the Internet, whereas in the second part a variety of e-payment methods and systems are described. This edited volume offers a well-written and sound technical overview of the state of the art in e-payment for e-business developers, graduate students, and consultants. It is also ideally suited for classes and training courses in e-commerce or e-payment.

This book mainly focuses on the innovations in intelligent transportation infrastructure and management. The content of the book is selected in such a way that it will cover a wide range of areas to integrate advanced technologies and provide best and innovative solution to problems faced by the rapidly growing transportation sector. The topics of the book primarily address the needs of the students in civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering. It is equally useful as reference material for innovators, inventors, practitioners, and policymaker for an innovative and classified solution in the field of transportation and infrastructure management. Looking at the global electric and hybrid vehicles market, the book focuses on and discuss recent developments in electric mobility across the globe. In this edition, we try to feature toward an update on the performance and costs of batteries which is the current demand of the consumers. The book inspires researchers, innovators, industry experts, and policymakers to consider the solutions into the practice.

* Describes the principles of capitalism and how they can be used in the space industry to maximize creation of value for humanity. * Develops pragmatic criteria for readers to use in assessing value to humanity of initiatives and business decisions in the space industry. * Describes the world's greatest problems and how space systems may help address them with emphasis placed on how the space industry supports sustainability of humanity and the planet. * Provides all of the above in an integrated format that is accessible to readers, whether coming from technical, business, or policy backgrounds.

Trust and Digital Business: Theory and Practice brings together the theory and practice of trust and digital business. The book offers a look at the current state, including a comprehensive overview of both research and practical applications of trust in business. Readers will gain from this book in the following areas: knowledge across disciplines on trust in business, theoretical underpinnings of trust and how it sustains itself through digital dissemination, and empirically validated practice regarding trust and its related concepts. The international team of authors from seven countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Malaysia, Poland, Turkey, and the U.S.) ensures the diversity and quality of the content. The intended audiences of this book are professionals, scholars, and students.

The book discusses major technical advances and research findings in the field of machine intelligence in medical image analysis. It examines the latest technologies and that have been implemented in clinical practice, such as computational intelligence in computer-aided diagnosis, biological image analysis, and computer-aided surgery and therapy. This book provides insights into the basic science involved in processing, analysing, and utilising all aspects of advanced computational intelligence in medical decision-making based on medical imaging.

This book introduces readers and students to the entrepreneurial process. It is important as evidence has suggested that the probability of entrepreneurs' success enhances when they thoroughly appreciate the components of the entrepreneurial process as well as how to effectively use them. The fact that nearly 33 percent of new firms fail within the first two years while twenty percent fail within four to five years of their existence makes it evident that while many people are highly motivated to start new firms, motivation alone is not sufficient, rather it should be coupled with relevant information, a strong business idea, a well-crafted business plan, and sound execution to maximize chances for success. This work offers an insightful and a practical guide to the process of launching and growing an entrepreneurial organisation with success. It will therefore serve as an important resource to students of Entreprenuership and to anyone interested in the field, academically or practically.

In an intensely competitive global economy marked by the rapid emergence of new players, products, and services, there's more pressure than ever on information services organizations to provide low-cost, rapidly developed systems to meet the complex, changing needs of their companies. These greater expectations come at a time when the usefulness of current information systems has been severely questioned and the ability of IS organizations to respond more effectively has been hampered by sharp reductions in money and manpower. This latest volume in the groundbreaking Ernst & Young Information Management Series demonstrates how IS managers and other key personnel can create a more productive IS environment by applying the principles of "development effectiveness" to information technology strategies. Development Effectiveness shows how this new cost-effective approach ultimately wins the support of even the most resistant IS personnel. It allows for a successful transition from the current problematic state of most IS organizations to a desired future state in which IS becomes a full partner in helping users meet today's business challenges. Development Effectiveness first details the problems common to IS environments and it also highlights the leading practices of those organizations that are setting new standards for information systems development performance. Development Effectiveness helps lay the foundation for making IS organizations more productive. The book shows how TQM and business process reengineering can be applied within IS and how TQM and organizational change management principles support an appropriate planning framework. It also discusses the process of designing ahigh-performance IS development organization that gets essential work done while providing enough flexibility to meet changing work needs. The book tackles two of the thorniest obstacles to an effective transition - the strong resistance to change within the organization and the hard task of justifying the costs of the new IS environment. Without blinking, it offers surefire methods designed to overcome barriers to change and management techniques to help sustain change initiatives. Development Effectiveness describes the overall transition framework - preparing for, planning, and managing actual transition projects. It provides an organization with the tools to assess its current position and its readiness and ability to change, as well as a model that incorporates the essential features of an effective and continuously improving development environment. Development Effectiveness doesn't provide any easy answers or "silver bullets". What it does offer today's IS organization is a solid, realistic framework for ensuring that companies are constantly armed with the information they need to prevail in a rapidly changing global environment.

This book examines the interplay between IT solutions and specific management methods in organizations. In particular, it assesses the impact of IT reliability on factors like employees' commitment and organizational performance. After developing the necessary theoretical foundation, the book presents a framework for aligning IT solutions with a number of specific management methods in organizations. In addition, it demonstrates the extent to which IT reliability can be an indicator for this alignment, and discusses the impact on employees' commitment and organizational performance under various management methods. Case studies from organizations in Switzerland and Poland help to illustrate the findings. In closing, the book presents roadmaps for improving IT and business alignment so as to achieve higher commitment and better results.

Grain boundaries are important structural components of polycrystalline materials used in the vast majority of technical applications. Because grain boundaries form a continuous network throughout such materials, their properties may limit their practical use. One of the serious phenomena which evoke these limitations is the grain boundary segregation of impurities. It results in the loss of grain boundary cohesion and consequently, in brittle fracture of the materials. The current book deals with fundamentals of grain boundary segregation in metallic materials and its relationship to the grain boundary structure, classification and other materials properties.

This publication is in collaboration with the University of Buckingham and is the result of a combined research and review process carried out by the three Editors who belongs to the University of Ferrara, Italy, the University of Buckingham, UK and Swansea University, UK. The book deepens the debate about the lean enterprise from both an academic and a professional management perspective. It thus provides the reader with a sound understanding of the modern lean enterprise and its current evolution. A range of innovative topics are covered, with individual chapters addressing the combinations of lean with hoshin kanri, green management, IT, organizational learning, flow accounting, system thinking, problem solving, internationalization aspects, luxury industry, and product innovation. Since the term "lean" first entered contemporary operations management language in 1990 to describe a set of practices proven to deliver superior performance over mass production systems, the lean approach to waste reduction and value generation has moved from vehicle production to other manufacturing sectors. It has reshaped the support functions of manufacturing businesses and has evolved from private industry into the public sector. Lean thinking is now a dominant model of operations management and has brought with it a new language and toolbox.

Written primarily for information systems managers, systems analysts, and end users who interface with them, this volume explores the group approach to decision support systems. As Thierauf points out, group decision making enhances the effectiveness of overall organizational decision making by eliminating some of the shortcomings--particularly the potential for uncorrected error--of individual decision making. When the collective expertise of the group is combined with the objective findings from a computerized mode of operation designed to help the decision making process, group decision support systems are the result. Thierauf explains the principles of group decision support systems, demonstrates their practical applications, and describes methods that can be used to design effective group decision support systems.

The book begins by presenting the underlying framework for group decision support systems and examining the characteristics of decision making in the group environment. There follows two chapters which offer a comprehensive treatment of the hardware and software necessary and one devoted to work redesign and the development of group decision support systems. The final section addresses the applications of group decision support systems to strategic planning, marketing, manufacturing, accounting, and personnel. Numerous figures illustrate points made in the text. An important contribution to the MIS literature, this book both delineates the need for more widespread use of group decision support systems and clearly explains how to implement such systems in every area of business operations.

This book intends to theoretically conceptualize and empirically investigate upcoming and established practices of community-based initiatives in various countries in which both citizens and governments join efforts and capacities to solve wicked issues. It aims to include and compare cases from various countries, departing from the notion that community-based initiatives take place in an institutional context of governmental structures, rules, procedures, regulations, and routines. This leads to government involvement in these initiatives and sharing the public space. Furthermore, the editors take into account what kind of leadership roles, knowledge, and resources are present and how they evolve in this collaborative or coordinative effort, which in turn can enhance the capacities of community-based initiatives. This book joins excellent researchers from renowned universities all over the world, aiming for a balance between upcoming scholars and renowned scholars in the field of community-based initiatives and governance capacity. Contributors were carefully selected on the basis of their experience in the field of community-based initiatives, citizens' engagement and governance capacity approaches. Aimed at researchers and academics, this volume will be of interest to those in the fields of business, economics, public administration, political science, social enterprise, sociology and third sector studies.

* Provides tailored guidance for entrepreneurs who are also life partners, and women entrepreneurs, based on the authors' decades of successful experience * Covers such important issues for all entrepreneurs as risk tolerance and mitigation, infrastructure scaling, and exit strategy * Offers insights on trends and opportunities for entrepreneurs in a post-COVID19 world

1) This is a comprehensive book on creative industries in India. 2) The book contains essays with recent data and multiple crucial case studies from across India. 3) This book will be of interest to departments of development studies, South Asian studies and cultural studies across UK.

The actionable guide for driving organizational innovation through better IT strategy With rare insight, expert technology strategist Peter High emphasizes the acute need for IT strategy to be developed not in a vacuum, but in concert with the broader organizational strategy. This approach focuses the development of technology tools and strategies in a way that is comprehensive in nature and designed with the concept of value in mind. The role of CIO is no longer "just" to manage IT strategy instead, the successful executive will be firmly in tune with corporate strategy and a driver of a technology strategy that is woven into overall business objectives at the enterprise and business unit levels. High makes use of case examples from leading companies to illustrate the various ways that IT infrastructure strategy can be developed, not just to fall in line with business strategy, but to actually drive that strategy in a meaningful way. His ideas are designed to provide real, actionable steps for CIOs that both increase the executive's value to the organization and unite business and IT in a manner that produces highly-successful outcomes. * Formulate clearer and better IT strategic plans * Weave IT strategy into business strategy at the corporate and business unit levels * Craft an infrastructure that aligns with C-suite strategy * Close the gap that exists between IT leaders and business leaders While function, innovation, and design remain key elements to the development and management of IT infrastructure and operations, CIOs must now think beyond their primary purview and recognize the value their strategies and initiatives will create for the organization. With Implementing World Class IT Strategy, the roadmap to strategic IT excellence awaits.

For one-semester courses in Introduction to Business Statistics. The gold standard in learning Microsoft Excelfor business statistics Statistics for Managers Using Microsoft (R) Excel (R), 9th Edition, Global Edition helps students develop the knowledge of Excel needed in future careers. The authors present statistics in the context of specific business fields, and now include a full chapter on business analytics. Guided by principles set forth by ASA's Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction (GAISE) reports and the authors' diverse teaching experiences, the text continues to innovate and improve the way this course is taught to students. Current data throughout gives students valuable practice analysing the types of data they will see in their professions, and the authors' friendly writing style includes tips and learning aids throughout.

Features: Discusses simple interest and its application to promissory notes/treasury bills. Discusses compound interest with applications to present and future values. Introduces the banking field including loans, annuities, and the spot/forward FX market. Discusses trade discounts and markups/markdowns Introduces the insurance field and the role of the actuary Introduces the fields of data analytics and operations research Discusses business metrics and problem solving Introduces matrices and their applications Discusses calculus and its applications Discusses basic financial statements such as balance sheet, profit and loss and cash account. Reviews a selection of software to support business mathematics