This book provides an in-depth analysis of industrial consultancy on a variety of issues and aspects including operations and services. This book: Looks at both individual-level consultancy and consultancy for firms, companies, or institutions. Uses observations, examples, and case studies to bring together key themes: consulting approach; production operations vs. services consulting; location and facilities criteria; human-machine interaction; lead time objective; outsourcing decisions and management; and infrastructure influence along with consultancy objectives, strategic considerations, and conflict resolution. Presents a comprehensive understanding of industrial consultancy and services offered to a wide range of industries, across type, size, and scale, including manufacturing, pharmaceutical, fabrication, and transformer industries. The first of its kind, this book will be a useful resource for industry and management professionals as well as scholars and researchers of business management, business economics, operations, entrepreneurship and organizational behaviour, and engineering.

Extensive research conducted by the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, has yielded valuable insights on why and how design thinking works. The participating researchers have identified metrics, developed models, and conducted studies, which are featured in this book, and in the previous volumes of this series. This volume provides readers with tools to bridge the gap between research and practice in design thinking with varied real world examples. Several different approaches to design thinking are presented in this volume. Acquired frameworks are leveraged to understand design thinking team dynamics. The contributing authors lead the reader through new approaches and application fields and show that design thinking can tap the potential of digital technologies in a human-centered way. In a final section, new ideas in neurodesign at Stanford University and at Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam are elaborated upon thereby challenging the reader to consider newly developed methodologies and provide discussion of how these insights can be applied to various sectors. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the mechanisms underlying design thinking at the individual and team levels. Design thinking can be learned. It has a methodology that can be observed across multiple settings and accordingly, the reader can adopt new frameworks to modify and update existing practice. The research outcomes compiled in this book are intended to inform and provide inspiration for all those seeking to drive innovation - be they experienced design thinkers or newcomers.

This book discusses recent theoretical developments in agglomerative hierarchical clustering. The general understanding of agglomerative hierarchical clustering is that its theory was completed long ago and there is no room for further methodological studies, at least in its fundamental structure. This book has been planned counter to that view: it will show that there are possibilities for further theoretical studies and they will be not only for methodological interests but also for usefulness in real applications. When compared with traditional textbooks, the present book has several notable features. First, standard linkage methods and agglomerative procedure are described by a general algorithm in which dendrogram output is expressed by a recursive subprogram. That subprogram describes an abstract tree structure, which is used for a two-stage linkage method for a greater number of objects. A fundamental theorem for single linkage using a fuzzy graph is proved, which uncovers several theoretical features of single linkage. Other theoretical properties such as dendrogram reversals are discussed. New methods using positive-definite kernels are considered, and some properties of the Ward method using kernels are studied. Overall, theoretical features are discussed, but the results are useful as well for application-oriented users of agglomerative clustering.

Causal analytics methods can revolutionize the use of data to make effective decisions by revealing how different choices affect probabilities of various outcomes. This book presents and illustrates models, algorithms, principles, and software for deriving causal models from data and for using them to optimize decisions with uncertain outcomes. It discusses how to describe and summarize situations; detect changes; evaluate effects of policies or interventions; learn what works best under different conditions; predict values of as-yet unobserved quantities from available data; and identify the most likely explanations for observed outcomes, including surprises and anomalies. The book resents practical techniques for causal modeling and analytics that practitioners can apply to improve understanding of how choices affect probabilities of consequences and, based on this understanding, to recommend choices that are more likely to accomplish their intended objectives.The book begins with a survey of modern analytics methods, focusing mainly on techniques useful for decision, risk, and policy analysis. Chapter 2 introduces free in-browser software, including the Causal Analytics Toolkit (CAT) software, to enable readers to perform the analyses described and to apply modern analytics methods easily to their own data sets. Chapters 3 through 11 show how to apply causal analytics and risk analytics to practical risk analysis challenges, mainly related to public and occupational health risks from pathogens in food or from pollutants in air. Chapters 12 through 15 turn to broader questions of how to improve risk management decision-making by individuals, groups, organizations, institutions, and multi-generation societies with different cultures and norms for cooperation. These chapters examine organizational learning, community resilience, societal risk management, and intergenerational collaboration and justice in managing risks.

It is now widely recognized that in regions like Africa, for economic and other reasons, the public sector has had to disengage and divest from many areas of the economy and allow private enterprise, especially scalable start-ups and new ventures, to enter and flourish if economic development and employment are to grow. There is, however, a training and education gap since entrepreneurship is rarely taught formally at African universities and, when it is, it is often approached from a Western perspective which may not be appropriate given that African environments are significantly different from most Western ones in terms of economic infrastructure and political considerations. This book allows readers to understand the African entrepreneurial context by guiding them through the principal stages in the life of a new venture, and offers approaches, both Western and indigenous, that can inform their entrepreneurial actions. It concludes by examining some specialized topics, including female, youth, and social entrepreneurship, as well as real estate and technology. Exercises throughout the book will enable readers to evaluate their motivations and preparedness for entrepreneurship and learn how to communicate a new venture's key features to potential stakeholders. By focusing on the distinctive features of entrepreneurship in the African context, and taking a conversational tone, this is an informative and practical text that will be useful for students of Global Entrepreneurship and Business as well as actual and prospective entrepreneurs in the private, non-profit, and public sectors.

This book guides readers through the broad field of generic and industry-specific management system standards, as well as through the arsenal of tools that are needed to effectively implement them. It covers a wide spectrum, from the classic standard ISO 9001 for quality management to standards for environmental safety, information security, energy efficiency, business continuity, laboratory management, etc. A dedicated chapter addresses international management standards for compliance, anti-bribery and social responsibility management. In turn, a major portion of the book focuses on relevant tools that students and practitioners need to be familiar with: 8D reports, acceptance sampling, failure tree analysis, FMEA, control charts, correlation analysis, designing experiments, estimating parameters and confidence intervals, event tree analysis, HAZOP, Ishikawa diagrams, Monte Carlo simulation, regression analysis, reliability theory, data sampling and surveys, testing hypotheses, and much more. An overview of the necessary mathematical concepts is also provided to help readers understand the technicalities of the tools discussed. A down-to-earth yet thorough approach is employed throughout the book to help practitioners and management students alike easily grasp the various topics.

This book features papers from CEPE-IACAP 2015, a joint international conference focused on the philosophy of computing. Inside, readers will discover essays that explore current issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind, logic, and philosophy of science from the lens of computation. Coverage also examines applied issues related to ethical, social, and political interest. The contributors first explore how computation has changed philosophical inquiry. Computers are now capable of joining humans in exploring foundational issues. Thus, we can ponder machine-generated explanation, thought, agency, and other quite fascinating concepts. The papers are also concerned with normative aspects of the computer and information technology revolution. They examine technology-specific analyses of key challenges, from Big Data to autonomous robots to expert systems for infrastructure control and financial services. The virtue of a collection that ranges over philosophical questions, such as this one does, lies in the prospects for a more integrated understanding of issues. These are early days in the partnership between philosophy and information technology. Philosophers and researchers are still sorting out many foundational issues. They will need to deploy all of the tools of philosophy to establish this foundation. This volume admirably showcases those tools in the hands of some excellent scholars.

This book is a self-contained, practical introduction how to use FeatureIDE for modeling and implementing variable systems. In particular, readers learn how to analyze domains using feature models, specify requirements in form of configurations, and how to generate code based on conditional compilation and feature-oriented programming. Given the interactive style of the book, readers can directly try out the open-source development environment. All code examples are available in the standard distribution on GitHub and can immediately been used for individual modifications. Each part of the book is presented as a step-by-step tutorial and additionally illustrated using an ongoing example of elevator control software written in Java. Written by the core development team of FeatureIDE, this book is suitable for students using a tool for deepening the theoretical foundations of variability modeling and implementation, and as a reference for practitioners needing a stable and scalable tool for industrial applications. FeatureIDE is the most used open-source tool for feature modeling and has been continuously improved since 2004. The success of FeatureIDE is due to being a vehicle for cutting-edge product-line research by still providing an easy-to-use and seamless integration into Eclipse.

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.

This handbook is a comprehensive and up to date work of reference that offers a survey of the state of financial geography. With Brexit, a global recession triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as new financial technology threatening and promising to revolutionize finance, the map of the financial world is in a state of transformation, with major implications for development. With these developments in the background, this handbook builds on this unprecedented momentum and responds to these epochal challenges, offering a comprehensive guide to financial geography. Financial geography is concerned with the study of money and finance in space and time, and their impacts on economy, society and nature. The book consists of 29 chapters organized in six sections: theoretical perspectives on financial geography, financial assets and markets, investors, intermediation, regulation and governance, and finance, development and the environment. Each chapter provides a balanced overview of current knowledge, identifying issues and discussing relevant debates. Written in an analytical and engaging style by authors based on six continents from a wide range of disciplines, the work also offers reflections on where the research agenda is likely to advance in the future. The book's key audience will primarily be students and researchers in geography, urban studies, global studies and planning, more or less familiar with financial geography, who seek access to a state-of-the art survey of this area. It will also be useful for students and researchers in other disciplines, such as finance and economics, history, sociology, anthropology, politics, business studies, environmental studies and other social sciences, who seek convenient access to financial geography as a new and relatively unfamiliar area. Finally, it will be a valuable resource for practitioners in the public and private sector, including business consultants and policy-makers, who look for alternative approaches to understanding money and finance.

Quality and standardisation in e-learning have become crucial success factors for organisations in learning, education and training: E-Learning has changed from an early adopter stage to an integrated part of learning scenarios leading to major changes in educational organisations towards quality orientation.

For building a knowledge society, it is critically important to thoroughly understand quality and standards in e-learning. The handbook provides a cross-national perspective on these issues and draws a clear picture of the situation in quality development and standardisation. It covers topics of a rather foundational nature in quality and standardisation research as well as descriptions of quality approaches, instruments, standards, experiences and best practices. The Handbook is directed to learners, professionals, researchers and policy makers people creating the next generation of learning. "

Information technology strategies are critical to business as they can deliver not only effective business operations, but also competitively differentiated products and services for firms. Yet many business and government enterprises have found their IT organizations to be misaligned with business strategies, or even worse, so dysfunctional that business values are actually destroyed instead of added. Information Technology Strategy and Management: Best Practices describes the principles and methodologies for crafting and executing a successful business-aligned IT strategy to provide businesses with value delivery. This book dispenses best practices in holistic management of businesses, people, and systems for IT strategy to researcher, educators, students, and IT professionals.

The impact of the global financial crisis is still being felt today and the deeply unethical behaviour of the top level leaders at those economic and financial organizations, that were at the heart of the crisis, has served to highlight the importance of integrity, and in particular the need for servant leadership, if we are to avoid another major catastrophe in the management of both commercial and non-profit organizations. Servant leadership has many features in common with transformational leadership but is primarily focused on caring about employees and their personal development. Ethical behaviour is one of the most important components of successful leadership yet this remains insufficiently investigated, especially from an interdisciplinary perspective. With the help of theory, empirical analysis and the relevant methodological apparatus, the authors fill the gap in the analysis of integrity and its impact on leadership and locate the significant factors which affect integrity in general. They develop and assess the forces that impact Servant Leadership style, as well as the ability to engender trust. As a starting point they make two assumptions: An important element in leading is the ethical dimension of leadership; The ratio of factors that affect leading and the servant leadership style is complex, but the integrity of leaders is the most important among them. The authors examine four integrated scientific areas: ethics and business ethics, human resource management and psychology and focus on the analysis of the process of leadership and the factors within that process of leading that influence its success and its ethical dimension.

Filling a gap in the current literature, this book addresses the social approach to the design and use of innovative business models in the digital economy. It focuses on three areas that are of increasing importance to businesses and industry today: social issues and sustainability; digitization; and new economic business models, specifically the sharing and circular economies. The authors aim to solve current scientific concerns around the conceptualization and operationalization of social business models, addressing management intentions and the impact of these models on society. Based on observation of social phenomena and the authors' research and practical experience, the book highlights best practices for designing and assessing social business models.

Action Research for Professional Selling by Peter McDonnell and Jean McNiff is for people working, or hoping to work in sales, who wish to improve their capacity for selling, and who may be involved in providing or participating in a structured sales training programme. It provides a basis for professional selling that connects the sales process to different philosophical models for understanding human interactions and contains much practical advice for selling in a tough economic environment. Action research is used across the professions as a powerful methodology for improving performance and outcomes and will enable sales practitioners to generate their practical theories of selling. The book answers calls for evidence-based practice in sales education, placing special emphasis on the strength of a values-based approach over the outmoded manipulative models of the past (many of which are still in evidence). It is essential to develop your understanding of what you are doing, and be able to explain it, and the book shows you how to do this through researching your practice in action. It focuses seriously on selling as a field of research offering an innovative, practical approach to selling, underpinned by strong theoretical and philosophical frameworks.

The Covid-19 pandemic has induced a crisis grasping the world abruptly, simultaneously, and swiftly. As a critical juncture, it ignited a change of era for international business. This book illustrates how governments have dealt with the pandemic and the consequent impacts on international business. It also explores the disrupted operations and responses of businesses as their worldwide interconnectivity has been seriously threatened. The book discourses multidirectional aspects of the effects of Covid-19 on international business, ranging from the juxtaposing forces disrupting globalization and installing a change of era through decoupling of technological, production and knowledge flows to its stimulating aspects to the strategic response on business, industry and state level. The book contains thirty chapters that offer a multidimensional interpretation of impacts of Covid-19 on international business theory and practice. Employing the latest state of knowledge on the topic, the book is aimed at international business audience - scholars, students and managers who need to understand better the nature, scope and scale of the impacts of the pandemic on international business.

The Psychology of Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives is an update of the earlier landmark volume in the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Organizational Frontiers Series. This new book takes stock of the advances in the field of the psychology of entrepreneurship with all new chapters and presents the latest findings on traditional topics, such as cognition, motivation, affect, personality, and action. The Psychology of Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives compiles research of the most prolific scholars in the field to produce an overview of the most important psychological topics relevant to entrepreneurship. It includes novel insights into topics such as entrepreneurial cognition, intrapreneurship and innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial competencies, action theory, entrepreneurship training, and the process of entrepreneurship. Additionally, the updated volume presents new topics that have become more and more important in entrepreneurship research. These topics include affect, clinical psychology and disorders, biological correlates of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial teams, culture, identity, starting capital, failure and exit, contextual factors, age and demographic change, evidence-based entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs' well-being. With a collection of authors comprising experts who have developed the field over the last decade, The Psychology of Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives is vital to all students, scholars, and instructors interested in staying abreast of the most current, novel research and insights into the psychology of entrepreneurship.

The Psychology of Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives is an update of the earlier landmark volume in the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology Organizational Frontiers Series. This new book takes stock of the advances in the field of the psychology of entrepreneurship with all new chapters and presents the latest findings on traditional topics, such as cognition, motivation, affect, personality, and action. The Psychology of Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives compiles research of the most prolific scholars in the field to produce an overview of the most important psychological topics relevant to entrepreneurship. It includes novel insights into topics such as entrepreneurial cognition, intrapreneurship and innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial competencies, action theory, entrepreneurship training, and the process of entrepreneurship. Additionally, the updated volume presents new topics that have become more and more important in entrepreneurship research. These topics include affect, clinical psychology and disorders, biological correlates of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial teams, culture, identity, starting capital, failure and exit, contextual factors, age and demographic change, evidence-based entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurs' well-being. With a collection of authors comprising experts who have developed the field over the last decade, The Psychology of Entrepreneurship: New Perspectives is vital to all students, scholars, and instructors interested in staying abreast of the most current, novel research and insights into the psychology of entrepreneurship.

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.

Based on a review of the literature and several in-depth case studies, this book suggests a strategy-as-practice framework for succession and explores leadership logic, trust and followership. This book takes the reader through the key stages and disciplines required for effective top-level succession. Corporations, growing entrepreneurial companies and family owners all must manage strong group dynamics and individual needs in a succession transition. This book includes a wide range of global client cases, including public sector organizations, corporations, entrepreneurial firms and family owners. Based on rigorous research and written in an accessible style with a focus on practical needs, readers will also be able to combine this analysis within disciplines of governance, leadership, strategy and organizational development. This book will be of interest to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners as well as executives at the top levels of businesses.

Claudio Ciborra was one of the most innovative thinkers in the field of information systems. This book explains the intellectual contribution of Ciborras work in a substantial introductory chapter, contains the most significant of his articles, and provides a sample of research that draws from his ideas.

This book explores the importance of entrepreneurs in driving economic growth as the world economy grows and becomes more integrated and more challenging. It examines the situation in both advanced and developing countries and shows how the entrepreneurial orientation of the founders of small and medium sized enterprises has resulted in phenomenal growth, often fuelled by innovation and new technologies. It contrasts the experiences of Chinese family business in China and among the overseas Chinese with the experiences of family businesses in the United States and Europe. One important conclusion is that there has been a noticeable fall in entrepreneurial proclivity in the advanced economies, in contrast to the position in emerging economies.

The development of entrepreneurial abilities in people with dyslexia is a subject of great interest. It has gained increasing importance in economically difficult times because of its potential for the development of new business opportunities. This book brings together contributions from researchers, educators, and entrepreneurs with dyslexia, investigating this subject from many perspectives. Is there something different in the profile of a person with dyslexia that supports the development of entrepreneurship? This book aims to draw out key themes which can be used in education to motivate, mentor, and create the business leaders of tomorrow. It offers a fundamental text for this area of study with a comprehensive, international examination of its topic. It includes views by new and established international writers and researchers, providing up-to-date perspectives on entrepreneurship, dyslexia, and education. It is accessible to read, to understand, and to learn from, and is suitable for recommended reading for graduate and postgraduate students. The diverse views and perspectives demonstrated in this book make it as relevant as possible for a wide group of readers. It informs study in the fields of business and dyslexia, and will be of interest to educators, researchers, and to anyone interested in the overlap of entrepreneurship and dyslexia.

The digital economy, broadly defined as the economy operating on the basis of interconnectivity between people and businesses, has gradually spread over the world. Although a global phenomenon, the digital economy plays out in local economic, political, and regulatory contexts. The problems thus created by the digital economy may be approached differently depending on the context. This edited collection brings together leading scholars based in Asia to detail how their respective jurisdictions respond to the competition law problems evolving out of the deployment of the digital economy. This book is timely, because it will show to what extent new competition law regimes or those with a history of lax enforcement can respond to these new developments in the economy. Academics in law and business strategies with an interest in competition law, both in Asia and more broadly, will find the insights in this edited collection invaluable. Further, this volume will be a key resource for scholars, practitioners and students.

This book discusses the main techniques and newest trends to manage and optimize the production and service systems. The book begins by examining the three main levels of decision systems in production: the long term (strategic), the middle term (tactical) and short term (operational). It also considers online management as a new level (a sub level of the short term). As each level encounters specific problems, appropriate approaches to deal with these are introduced and explained. These problems include the line design, the line balancing optimization, the physical layout of the production or service system, the forecasting optimization, the inventory management, the scheduling etc. Metaheuristics for Production Systems then explores logistic optimization from two different perspectives: internal (production management), addressing issues of scheduling, layout and line designs, and external (supply chain management) focusing on transportation optimization, supply chain evaluation, and location of production. The book also looks at NP-hard problems that are common in production management. These complex configurations may mean that optimal solutions may not be reached due to variables, but the authors help provide a good solution for such problems. The effective new results and solutions offered in this book should appeal to researchers, managers, and engineers in the production and service industries.