For businesses large and small, investment in digital technologies is now a priority essential for success. Digitizing Government provides practical advice for understanding and implementing digital transformation to increase business value and improve client engagement, and features case studies from the private and public sectors.

Never has the need for church planting been more acute or more necessary. The world around us is beset with problems of every kind-political, social, economic, racial, and moral. The list is endless, and the difficulties are systemic and entrenched. The best minds, institutions, and efforts are being marshaled to address these problems, but are we getting to the root issues? Could it be that the solutions lie elsewhere? Indeed, the greatest reformer to ever live told us the hope we need comes from the church. Yes, the church, as anemic and as irrelevant as it may seem to some (or many). Jesus said of the community He would birth, "You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13-14). The church, in all its forms, from small to big, whether found in the countryside or in megacities is God's redeeming force for society, for culture, and for the nations. The church is God's secret weapon and His change agent for the world. He's all in on the church. As such the church is God's organizational servant on the earth. It's to be an enterprise of the highest quality. It's to sparkle with kingdom power, love, and truth. As Ephesians 3:10 states, "[God's] intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms." For such a task, outstanding leaders are needed. Great leaders are not just for the arenas of business, politics, or the military. The church must also focus on recruiting, training, and deploying the best. As the leader goes, so goes the organization. This book assists in the great endeavor of planting churches. It gives church planters a biblical and conceptual framework so they can be armed with a map for how to go about establishing new works. This framework is rooted in the humble yet glorious, small yet significant, quiet yet powerful ways of Jesus.

European venture capital (VC) funds have historically underperformed their US counterparts. This has resulted in reduced investment into European VC by the traditional institutional investors. This book investigates the factors that give rise to the performance difference. It is based on the author's research at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow which involved a qualitative study of some 64 VC firms in the UK, continental Europe and the US, supplemented by 40 interviews with other stakeholders, including limited partner investors, corporate venturers, entrepreneurs and advisors. Readers will gain an in-depth understanding of the various structural, operational and wider environmental factors that impact on the performance difference between UK/European and US VC funds. The study is unique in that it provides, for the first time, a holistic and extensive analysis of the entire investment process from sourcing deals to exiting deals specifically contrasting Europe and the US in terms of the variables pertaining to the investment process and the impact on the fund performance. Factors impacting on the performance differential are structural, resulting from characteristics of the funds themselves, operational such as the investment practices of the VC firms which manage the funds and environmental such as culture and attitude to risk and the wider ecosystem in which the funds operate. These factors are set out clearly for the reader. The characteristics of the better performing funds in Europe and the US are also investigated. The book is aimed at academics who are researching venture capital fund performance and investment practices and also at practitioners, advisors and policymakers who want to learn about best VC investment practices. Whilst the book is focused on European and US VC investing, the best practices are also pertinent for VC firms and funds setting up in other geographies, particularly in emerging markets. To this end, best practice guidelines based on the research are included.

Although collaborations for local and regional economic development have been popular in recent years, it is not yet wholly clear when or how such efforts bring successful outcomes. Using an integrative conceptual framework for collaborative governance, this innovative collection provides a systematic and interdisciplinary analysis of real-world collaborative networks for local and regional economic development. Focusing on a wide range collaborative economic development in diverse cities and regions in USA, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, and South Korea, the chapters explore what forces motivate the emergence of collaborative economic development efforts. Each chapter explores the factors which contribute to or hinder collaborative governance efforts for economic development and identifies lessons for overcoming challenges to creating communities that are economically resilient, environmentally sustainable and politically engaged in the era of globalization. By focusing on collaborative governance and its implications for the ability of policies to meet the challenges of the 21st century, it provides lessons for researchers in public management, urban planning/development, public policy, and political science, as well as practitioners interested in promoting local economic development.

Founders and Organizational Development: The Etiology and Theory of Founder's Syndrome is designed to help today's researchers, faculty, students and practitioners become familiar with the etiology and dynamics of Founder's Syndrome as an organizational condition challenging nonprofit/nongovernmental, social enterprise, and for-profit and publicly traded organizations. The book uses applied social and psychological theories and concepts to peel away the layers of an organizational enigma, revealing three causes of Founder's Syndrome and insight into the power and privileges assumed by founders who engage in undesirable and self-destructive behaviors leading to their termination; going from hero status to antihero. Researchers, instructors, students, and practitioners will find thought-provoking case studies from the real world of organization development practice. Segments from interviews during interventions reveal the type of emotional turmoil experienced in organizations where founder's syndrome is present. Insight is provided into accounts of well-known founders who were terminated or forced to resign. The unique features of this book include: integrating theory into practice, describing a new theory about the psychological reaction of founder's syndrome victims, prevention ideas when designing new organizations, strategies for intervention, using content based on research and organization development consultation experiences, and, integrating feedback from students who have launched organizations.

This book contains a collection of scientific chapters addressing the emerging trends in IT and telecommunications, as well as the issues that accompany them in business. It addresses issues in cyber applications, ICT solutions and innovative cyber know-how, and demonstrates how high-tech IT communications resources can be used to improve business production, sales and service strategies, supply chains and logistics. The book is based on articles from ICCMIT'20, extending their approach to specific chapters. The chapters cover issues such as financial management, technological upgrades, Industry 4.0 and the trend towards sustainable development. It utilizes examples of technologically advanced enterprises developing under Industry 4.0 assumptions at the stage of digital transformation, which integrate digital technologies and business processes. In addition, this book discusses issues related to cyber risk management and the implementation of a number of safeguards for digitized enterprises. Enterprises that orient themselves towards technological innovations find that they can reach customers faster, are more effectively managed and can achieve a competitive advantage over other businesses. This book will be a great aid to professionals in such companies, both in IT departments and in the management team.

Due to automation, nearly half of the jobs will vanish over the next two decades in the US. However, the problem is not confined to any particular country. Management educators in higher education are faced with two fundamental questions: (a) how we prepare our students for new required technology competencies when conducting international business and (b) how we work with new technologies to prepare our students. While the next generation of employees requires competencies in working with artificial intelligence relying on data analytics, the emergence of artificial intelligence and new technologies in augmenting teaching is changing the nature of higher education across the globe. Management Education and Automation explores international management education in light of exponential development of artificial intelligence, big data, demographic shifts, expansion of robotic utilization in many economic sectors, aging populations and negative population growth in developed economies, multipolar international political systems, migration patterns, and fundamental shifts in individual and social interactions via digital media. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest to researchers, academics, policymakers, and students in the fields of international business and management, globalization, management education, and management of technology and innovation.

This book presents an in-depth study of how the drive to optimize organizational performance can be significantly improved by investigating the causal relationships between profitability, productivity, and sustainability (PPS). This is presented through an assessment of a triple combined therapy that studies the interplay between Organizational DNA, Strategic Alignments for Value, and their implications for Sustainability. Through this approach, this volume seeks to answer critical mind-searching questions and provide useful guides as to how some firms are able to sustainably create higher value or wealth, especially through corporate entrepreneurship, or via the creation of new business models than others. In tackling the three elements of profitability, productivity, and sustainability, this book also provides greater insight through an in-depth study of the pervasively unresolved and disturbing issues surrounding the prospects of increasing the chances of success for entrepreneurial start-off ventures, making it of value to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of organizational studies, strategy, and sustainability.

This innovative book takes seriously the ordinary activities of entrepreneurship and maps out new pathways for scholars to understand the nature, properties, and implications of studying practices for entrepreneurship studies. Entrepreneurship is neither an art nor a science, but a bundle of practices, as Peter Drucker once observed. Curiously however, academic research on entrepreneurship mostly abstracts away from practical activity. In contrast, Entrepreneurship As Practice takes ordinary activities of entrepreneurship seriously by mapping out new pathways for scholars to consider the everyday practices through which entrepreneurship occurs. Each chapter draws on contemporary theories of practice to illuminate the nature, properties, and implications of studying the practices of entrepreneurship. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.

* Provides a step-by-step guide for completing a successful student consulting project, which should be essential reading for specific experiential Business Consulting modules, as well as recommended reading for students studying Small Business Management and Strategic Management at postgraduate and MBA level. * Fully updated 6th edition, including new tools and resources, new real-life examples, material on technologies and remote working, and a focus on student employability. * Promotes a conceptual understanding of the consulting process.

* Provides a step-by-step guide for completing a successful student consulting project, which should be essential reading for specific experiential Business Consulting modules, as well as recommended reading for students studying Small Business Management and Strategic Management at postgraduate and MBA level. * Fully updated 6th edition, including new tools and resources, new real-life examples, material on technologies and remote working, and a focus on student employability. * Promotes a conceptual understanding of the consulting process.

This book examines current topics and trends in strategic auditing, accounting and finance in digital transformation both from a theoretical and practical perspective. It covers areas such as internal control, corporate governance, enterprise risk management, sustainability and competition. The contributors of this volume emphasize how strategic approaches in this area help companies in achieving targets. The contributions illustrate how by providing good governance, reliable financial reporting, and accountability, businesses can win a competitive advantage. It further discusses how new technological developments like artificial intelligence (AI), cybersystems, network technologies, financial mobility and smart applications, will shape the future of accounting and auditing for firms.

This book develops an IT strategy for cloud computing that helps businesses evaluate their readiness for cloud services and calculate the ROI. The framework provided helps reduce risks involved in transitioning from traditional "on site" IT strategy to virtual "cloud computing." Since the advent of cloud computing, many organizations have made substantial gains implementing this innovation. Cloud computing allows companies to focus more on their core competencies, as IT enablement is taken care of through cloud services. Cloud Computing and ROI includes case studies covering retail, automobile and food processing industries. Each of these case studies have successfully implemented the cloud computing framework and their strategies are explained. As cloud computing may not be ideal for all businesses, criteria are also offered to help determine if this strategy should be adopted.

This volume provides an in-depth, qualitative exploration of familial entrepreneurship as an innovative employment model, being established by families in response to difficulties faced by individuals with developmental disabilities in entering the labor market. Drawing on rich qualitative data collected via research with families, this volume explores how and why familial entrepreneurs in the United States have chosen to develop businesses to employ their loved ones. Chapters offer close analysis of the challenges and opportunities associated with familial entrepreneurship and highlight the ways in which this practice supports people with developmental disabilities by providing opportunities for skill development, social interaction, and participation in meaningful activity. Recognizing familial entrepreneurship as a new and distinct hybrid employment model, the text goes on to consider how curricula, policy, and state services might better support families and underpin this form of inclusive work. The volume provides important conclusions that contribute to the fields of Disability Studies, Entrepreneurship, Inclusive Education, Adult Education, Exceptional Student Education, Transition, and Vocational Rehabilitation. It is a key reading for scholars in these fields and across Education more widely.

This book focuses on three core knowledge requirements for effective and thorough data analysis for solving business problems. These are a foundational understanding of: 1. statistical, econometric, and machine learning techniques; 2. data handling capabilities; 3. at least one programming language. Practical in orientation, the volume offers illustrative case studies throughout and examples using Python in the context of Jupyter notebooks. Covered topics include demand measurement and forecasting, predictive modeling, pricing analytics, customer satisfaction assessment, market and advertising research, and new product development and research. This volume will be useful to business data analysts, data scientists, and market research professionals, as well as aspiring practitioners in business data analytics. It can also be used in colleges and universities offering courses and certifications in business data analytics, data science, and market research.

We recognize knowledge management as a socio-technical phenomenon where the basic social constructs such as person, team, and organization require support from information communication technology applications. In an era of business transition, the effective management of knowledge is proposed as a strategy that effectively utilizes organizational intangible assets. ""Knowledge Management Strategies"" provides practical guidelines for the implementation of knowledge management strategies through the discussion of specific technologies and taxonomies of knowledge management applications. A critical mass of some of the most sough-after research of our information technology and business world, this book proves an essential addition to every reference library collection.

Ways in which poverty can be reduced in both countries and regions through business, entrepreneurship and government has been a hot issue for researchers and policymakers in recent years. Governments can play an important role in helping the poor people by non-profit organizations and others that help to seed business among the poor. Businesses increasingly also see the large number of people in severe poverty not only as an issue for social concern, but also as a potentially large untapped market of consumers for goods and services. Some scholars have called for poverty reduction through entrepreneurship owing to the fact that it can be an efficient path to also change the poor's attitudes and behaviours from a passive mode, to a more active mode towards poverty reduction economically and socially. In addition, the sharing economy brings opportunities where everyone is a micro-entrepreneur. There is a recognition that these types of entrepreneurship above could offer the greatest single potential means to move individuals out of poverty in the nations and regions in the next 5-10 years. This book provides new and valuable analyses of poverty and business, entrepreneurship and innovation in current nations and regions including developing and developed countries. As business, entrepreneurship and innovation can help to generate greater business activity in settings of severe poverty, they will help to solve poverty, as individuals in severe poverty are able to both generate greater incomes and accumulate greater assets as they participate with large firms in those activities. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Entrepreneurship & Regional Development.

The increasing importance of industrial services and rapid digitalization towards smart and remote services pose opportunities as well as challenges to the manufacturing sector. This book provides a holistic understanding of industrial service management and guides companies into building capabilities and management practices for smart and remote services. By combining insights from research and practice, it offers a unique perspective on the core and enabling activities of manufacturing companies for growth in the service business. In essence, the first part covers action-based research findings regarding service strategy, organizational design, service innovation, service sales, services operations, and customer relationship management together with insights into value networks. The second part introduces outstanding practices from leading manufacturing companies in industrial and smart services. The book concludes with a summary of key messages and recommendations to navigate the landscape of industrial and smart service management successfully.

This book provides a set of integrated frameworks-capital, systems, and objects-that transcend managerial or technology hype by focusing on the long-term fundamentals that sustain organizational success, and it contains cases from South East Asia to elaborate this concept. Many organizations are currently addressing two important transformational issues: ecological sustainability and digitization. Sustainability is a goal, an end, and digitization is a process, a means to achieve a goal. This book introduces a flexible model that can be applied to current and future organizational challenges, including sustainability and digitization, because the fundamentals are constant. This book is designed to serve two purposes for the readers: first, to present three conceptual foundations for designing and operating organizations (capital, systems, and objects (section 1)); and second, to provide a reference source for implementing these ideas in your organization (sections 2 and 3). The first section of the book, chapters 1 through 7, sets forth the conceptual foundations. The chapters mix concepts and practical examples to give a new way of thinking about the setting in which one may work many days each year. The second section provides details and associated examples of every one of the thirty-six forms of capital conversion. It also illustrates how the five foundational systems support capital conversion in a variety of ways. Finally, the third section is about measuring capital and systems. The book covers measurement of all types of capital and systems performance and has been written for current and future organizational leaders to change the game and play it more effectively. The book will thus resonate with students of organizational behaviour and leadership strategy, organizational leaders, industry experts, and general readers.

Stress is defined as a feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize. It can occur due to environmental issues, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, for example, persistent worry about familial problems. While the acute response to life-threatening circumstances can be life-saving, research reveals that the body's stress response is largely similar when it reacts to less threatening but chronically present stressors such as work overload, deadline pressures and family conflicts. It is proffered that chronic activation of stress response in the body can lead to several pathological changes such as elevated blood pressure, clogging of blood vessels, anxiety, depression, and addiction. Organizational Stress Around the World: Research and Practice aims to present a sound theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the evolving and changing nature of stress in contemporary organizations. It presents research that expands theory and practice by addressing real-world issues, across cultures and by providing multiple perspectives on organizational stress and research relevant to different occupational settings and cultures. Personal, occupational, organizational, and societal issues relevant to stress identification along with management techniques/approach to confront stress and its associated problems at individual and organizational level are also explored. It will be of value to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students interested in stress management research.

* Provides a concise, accessible and practice-led alternative to the existing theory-heavy and long Innovation and Entrepreneurship textbooks, whilst offering more depth than the plethora of 'how to' guides available * Provides a theoretical foundation to relevant best practice * Designed to support the Senior Leader Master's Degree Apprenticeship available at universities across the UK, as well as broader postgraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship modules.

This volume presents work from the IFIP TC 8 WG 8.9 International Conference on the Research and Practical Issues of Enterprise Information Systems (CONFENIS 2007). Enterprise information systems (EIS) have become increasingly popular. EIS integrate and support business processes across functional boundaries in a supply chain environment. In recent years, more and more enterprises world-wide have adopted EIS such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for running their businesses.

This book presents selected examples of digitalization in the age of digital change. It is divided into two sections: "Digital Innovation," which features new technologies that stimulate and enable new business opportunities; and "Digital Business Transformation," comprising business and management concepts that employ specific technological solutions for their practical implementation. Combining new insights from research, teaching and management, including digital transformation, e-business, knowledge representation, human-computer interaction, and business optimization, the book highlights the breadth of research as well as its meaningful and relevant transfer into practice. It is intended for academics seeking inspiration, as well as for leaders wanting to tap the potential of the latest trends to take society and their business to the next level.

This book hopes to stimulate discussion about how entrepreneurship and innovation contribute to growing inequalities in territories. This will help bridge the gap between research and practice on the role of territory dynamics and regional development. The book begins by examining the growing inequality in regions, which has resulted in lagging economic development. The need to shift current economic policy towards spatial inequality through harnessing the innovative capabilities of regions is examined. The book puts forth a case for reversing the inequality that is evident in lagging regions as a way to reinvigorate territories. The book should appeal to researchers, policy makers, business leaders and the general public interested in territorial dynamics and development.

The highly competitive and globalized software market is creating pressure on software companies. Given the current boundary conditions, it is critical to continuously increase time-to-market and reduce development costs. In parallel, driven by private life experiences with mobile computing devices, the World Wide Web and software-based services, peoples general expectations with regards to software are growing. They expect software that is simple and joyful to use. In the light of the changes that have taken place in recent years, software companies need to fundamentally reconsider the way they develop and deliver software to their customers.

This book introduces fundamentals, trends and best practices in the software industry from a threefold perspective which equally takes into account design, management, and development of software. It demonstrates how cross-functional integration can be leveraged by software companies to successfully build software for people. Professionals from business and academia give an overview on state-of-the-art knowledge and report on key insights from their real-life experience. They provide guidance and hands-on recommendation on how to create winning products. This combined perspective fosters the transfer of knowledge between research and practice and offers a high practical value for both sides.

The book targets both, practitioners and academics looking for successfully building software in the future. It is directed at Managing Directors of software companies, Software Project Managers, Product Managers and Designers, Software Developers as well as academics and students in the area of Software and Information Systems Engineering, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and Innovation Management. "