The modern consumer is no longer attracted by single-minded, predictable and one-benefit-focused brand promises. The old-fashioned FMCG communication strategies based on television, radio and print with constant repetition have become outdated. From Great to Gone shows that what's needed are 'Lego' strategies, whereby the marketing and communication strategies are built up by many key facets (like building blocks) and delivered to the consumer through a mix of various touch points. Most importantly, you need to leave consumers to put all of that together themselves. There are major internal and external hurdles to transforming FMCGs successfully into FICGs - Fast Innovating Consumer Goods. It requires new brand strategies and flatter, more top-down than bottom-up, decision-making organisations and a 21st-century model for advertising agencies. Externally these companies need a new route to market through transformation of their old retail dependencies. Changes are also required in all communication delivery, reflecting modern consumers' connectivity and unlimited access to information. In the book the authors showcase what the winners of the 21st century have in common that has enabled them to become FICGs. New, unimagined models continue emerge, to which, with the authors' guidance producers and retailers may develop their own sustainable responses.

Statistics for Business explains the fundamentals of statistical analysis in a lucid, pragmatic way. A thorough knowledge of statistics is essential for decision making in all corners of business and management. By collecting, organizing and analyzing statistical data you can express what you know, benchmark your current situation, and estimate future outcomes. Based entirely on Microsoft Excel, this book covers a spectrum of statistic fundamentals from basic principles, to probability, sampling, hypothesis testing, forecasting, statistical process control and six-sigma management. This second edition is packed with features to aid understanding and help ensure that every aspect of your knowledge of statistics is applicable to practice, including: Icebreakers introducing each chapter that relate statistics to the real world, drawn from management and hospitality situations Detailed worked examples in each chapter Over 140 case-exercises complete with objective, situation, requirements, and answers A complete glossary of key terminology and formulas, mathematical relationships, and Excel relationships and functions A brand new companion website containing slides, worked-out-solutions to the case-exercises, and a test bank [coming soon] With a clear and accessible style this book makes statistics easier to understand. It is ideal for business, management, tourism and hospitality students who want to learn how to apply statistics to the real world.

The purpose of this book is to introduce novice researchers to the tools of meta-analysis and meta-regression analysis and to summarize the state of the art for existing practitioners. Meta-regression analysis addresses the rising "Tower of Babel" that current economics and business research has become. Meta-analysis is the statistical analysis of previously published, or reported, research findings on a given hypothesis, empirical effect, phenomenon, or policy intervention. It is a systematic review of all the relevant scientific knowledge on a specific subject and is an essential part of the evidence-based practice movement in medicine, education and the social sciences. However, research in economics and business is often fundamentally different from what is found in the sciences and thereby requires different methods for its synthesis-meta-regression analysis. This book develops, summarizes, and applies these meta-analytic methods.

There is more to setting up a successful business than just a good idea. Creating a Business examines concisely all the relevant aspects: the excitement and satisfaction that business entails, the challenges that face the entrepreneur, the risks that lie in wait. The textbook is organized around a practical example: a company setting out to launch a new line of clothing. Aspects of setting up a business, including management, marketing, legislation, and financial management are examined. Including pedagogical features, such as end-of-chapter questions and illustrations, Creating a Business will interest students of small business and entrepreneurship.

TC8 is one of IFIP's most active committees. This book focusses on information systems support for organisations looking particularly at business process reengineering, co-operation between organisations and support for improved work flow in organisations. These are topical subjects and will appeal to both business and research communities.

Directors and government ministers across the world are increasingly being held accountable for failed IT systems, data loss and poor decisions about their organisation's data. The answer lies in IT professionals working in parallel with their governing body to create an environment where information and information systems can be accessed and used by the appropriate stakeholders. Written in two halves, this valuable book is designed to bridge the gap between the governing body and CIOs/ IT managers. It will help them to create a safe and robust governance framework for their organisation by applying the principles of the ISO IT Governance Standard 38500 on directing, evaluating and monitoring IT activity. A practical approach to best practices in IT governance Shows how to govern, protect and manage information and technology assets Reduces the risk involved in delivering business information systems Written by a leader of the group that developed the ISO/IEC 38500 standard

This book provides a first-hand account of business analytics and its implementation, and an account of the brief theoretical framework underpinning each component of business analytics. The themes of the book include (1) learning the contours and boundaries of business analytics which are in scope; (2) understanding the organization design aspects of an analytical organization; (3) providing knowledge on the domain focus of developing business activities for financial impact in functional analysis; and (4) deriving a whole gamut of business use cases in a variety of situations to apply the techniques. The book gives a complete, insightful understanding of developing and implementing analytical solution.

This book describes the intrinsic factors of IT Operation and its set-up during the software implementation phase. Based on the author's long-term experience in managing IT for more than 100 clients over nearly 25 years, the book examines the needed knowledge and execution management capabilities to implement and run IT environments successfully for all sizes of enterprises. Many real-world examples provide insight into typical IT challenges and recipes to turn common pitfalls of implementation and operation into best practices. In order to dominate information technology and not be dominated by it, readers will understand how to identify the most common risk factors during implementations and how to initiate successful risk-mitigation measures. The goal of this book is to arm the reader to completely prevent The 5 Pitfalls of Software Implementation by using the right programmatic design and execution. After an introduction to the book, individual chapters examine the vision of a Perfect IT and how Design Thinking and innovation contributes to it. The core chapters conveys The Five Pitfalls of Software Implementation, including Underestimation of System Performance Issues, Weak Program Governance and Leadership, and Operational Un-Readiness. The challenges surrounding implementations of cloud applications, are presented separately. Final chapters describe the preparation of the IT Operation along with a number of dos and don'ts (i.e. 'Best Practices' and 'Worst Practices'). The book concludes by presenting some Digital Strategies of companies, to dominate information technology.

The challenges and opportunities that are presented to both small and medium-sized enterprises have changed dramatically in recent decades as the world's economy becomes more globalised. The policies of open borders, a decrease in protectionism and the demise of the nation-state, have enabled small and large firms to engage in international activity from the outset. Understanding the Born Global Firm, combines the many different theoretical perspectives on born globals that have been previously researched, providing a unified framework to connect the antecedents, types and outcomes of entrepreneurial activities pursued by such new ventures. A central case study of an international fashion firm which operates in over nine countries, runs through the text, highlighting the formation and success of born globals and the importance of cultural competence. This book will be invaluable to post-graduate students in the field of international business; entrepreneurship; ethnic entrepreneurs; global entrepreneurship, and international networks.

Finance Mathematics is devoted to financial markets both with discrete and continuous time, exploring how to make the transition from discrete to continuous time in option pricing. This book features a detailed dynamic model of financial markets with discrete time, for application in real-world environments, along with Martingale measures and martingale criterion and the proven absence of arbitrage. With a focus on portfolio optimization, fair pricing, investment risk, and self-finance, the authors provide numerical methods for solutions and practical financial models, enabling you to solve problems both from mathematical and from financial point of view.

'Managing Information' describes how successful organizations make best use of information and knowledge - the key resources in business. It explains why information technology is essential for the management of business processes, and should be central to any business strategy. This updated edition provides a compelling rationale for organizations to use appropriate systems, and for individuals to acquire the skills to manage and use the systems. It describes how computer systems continue to evolve to meet business needs, and provides examples and exercises to help readers develop their skills. There is a new emphasis on the Internet - how to use it to keep up to date with the latest business issues, and how teams can communicate and collaborate with intranets. All of the most common sub-systems are described and explained, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Business-to-Business (B2B), Business-to-Consumer (B2C), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). The latest developments are described, including services available through the Internet from Application Service Providers (ASP), collaborative commerce and Business Process Management (BPM). There are introductory and more advanced computer exercises to consolidate learning and demonstrate how to acquire, store, organize and present information, using Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Explorer.

Deconstruct the history of patterns of innovation in business and connect them to existing and failed attempts in management consultancies, engineering, web technologies and academic institutions. This book shows you how to create an optimal environment at work for growth and innovation. Many large-scale organizations eventually invest in research and innovation as a dedicated part of their businesses. In doing so, they are faced with two choices: build their own practice of innovation or enact patterns of innovation created before them, ones they perceived as "tried and tested." In this book, you will see how patterns of innovation touch many aspects of a worker's life: from how their work is presented to others, job titles, working environment, and expectations around output. Every chapter will offer a history of these patterns and examples of how they have succeeded and failed within organizations. What You Will Learn Identify how innovation is named and highlighted in organizations Reveal ways to champion innovation to clients and the outside world, from trade shows and conferences inside the office Uncover ways companies acquire innovation, including incubators or mergers Discover the conditions for innovation to happen every day, including office layouts, time management, communication structures, and expectation management Who This Book Is ForTech start-up/scale-up founders, management consultants, managing directors, innovation managers and heads of R&D, academic researchers, interior designers, and architects

Small businesses make up some 90-95 percent of all global firms. Many undervalue the importance of information and communication technology (ICT). Within the small business segment there can be significant differences amongst the avid early adopters of ICT and the laggards. Research on early adopters tends be more prevalent as they are perceived to have a more interesting and positive story. However, late adopters and 'laggards' also have their own interesting stories that are under-reported. Small Business and Effective ICT draws on research undertaken over several years and documents the adoption/use of ICT across 'better' users of ICT (Leaders), typical ICT users (Operationals) and late adopters (Laggards). The findings are presented using a re-formulation of the LIASE framework which addresses a number of areas that include ICT literacy (L), information content/communication (I), Access (A), Infrastructure (I), Support (S) and Evaluation (E). Some 60 businesses were investigated in Australia and the UK, with each business presented as a concise vignette. The vignettes serve to show that small businesses are not as conservative in their use of ICT as the literature suggests, with examples of innovative uses of ICT in small businesses provided. Lessons for the effective use of ICT by small businesses are presented. The research design, methods adopted, presentation of findings through the vignettes, and 'take away' lessons have been written in manner to appeal to a broad range of readers including academics, researchers, students and policy makers in the discipline.

Information technology has come to play an important role in organizations over the last few decades. Though it began as an entity dealt with by specialists, IT has evolved to become an everyday tool with both operational and strategic impacts. Most modern organizations have adopted different forms of IT, and become dependent on their computer-based information systems and their peripherals for everyday operations. Information technology offers opportunities to increase efficiency, customer value, and competitiveness. Given the financial investment in IT required by organizations to remain competitive, IT has become a resource that needs to be managed. Management and Information Technology evaluates organizations' utilization of IT including knowledge management and e-learning, accounting, and business relationships. Presenting theories to help the reader understand the varying roles IT can occupy in different organizations, this volume illustrates the ways in which IT has become a key strategic tool.

This open access book explores the global challenges and experiences related to digital entrepreneurial activities, using carefully selected examples from leading companies and economies that shape world business today and tomorrow. Digital entrepreneurship and the companies steering it have an enormous global impact; they promise to transform the business world and change the way we communicate with each other. These companies use digitalization and artificial intelligence to enhance the quality of decisions and augment their business and customer operations. This book demonstrates how cloud services are continuing to evolve; how cryptocurrencies are traded in the banking industry; how platforms are created to commercialize business, and how, taken together, these developments provide new opportunities in the digitalized era. Further, it discusses a wide range of digital factors changing the way businesses operate, including artificial intelligence, chatbots, voice search, augmented and virtual reality, as well as cyber threats and data privacy management. "Digitalization mirrors the Industrial Revolution's impact. This book provides a complement of perspectives on the opportunities emanating from such a deep seated change in our economy. It is a comprehensive collection of thought leadership mapped into a very useful framework. Scholars, digital entrepreneurs and practitioners will benefit from this timely work." Gina O'Connor, Professor of Innovation Management at Babson College, USA "This book defines and delineates the requirements for companies to enable their businesses to succeed in a post-COVID19 world. This book deftly examines how to accomplish and achieve digital entrepreneurship by leveraging cloud computing, AI, IoT and other critical technologies. This is truly a unique "must-read" book because it goes beyond theory and provides practical examples." Charlie Isaacs, CTO of Customer Connection at Salesforce.com, USA "This book provides digital entrepreneurs useful guidance identifying, validating and building their venture. The international authors developed new perspectives on digital entrepreneurship that can support to create impact ventures." Felix Staeritz, CEO FoundersLane, Member of the World Economic Forum Digital Leaders Board and bestselling author of FightBack, Germany

It. is well known that t.he introduction of a new technology in one organization not always produces the intended benefits (Levine, 1994). In many cases, either the receivers do not reach the intended level of use or simply the technology is rejected because it does not match with the expectations (true or false) and the accepted psychological effort to use it. The case of formal methods is a paradigmatic example of continual failures. The published cases with problems or failures only constitute the visible part of a large iceberg of adoption cases. It. is difficult to get companies to openly express the problems they had; however, from the experience of the author, failure cases are very common and they include any type of company. Many reasons to explain the failures (and in some cases the successes) could be postulated; however, the experiences are not structured enough and it is difficult to extract from them useful guidelines for avoiding future problems. Generally speaking, there is a trend to find the root of the problems in the technol ogy itself and in its adequacy with the preexistent technological context. Technocratic technology transfer models describe the problems in terms of these aspects. Although it is true that those factors limit the probability of success, there is another source of explanations linked to the individuals and working teams and how they perceive the technology."

This new volume in the "Advances in Management Information Systems" series presents the latest cutting-edge knowledge in IT outsourcing. As part of the growing business trend to outsourcing various operations, IT outsourcing both determines the governance of a vital organizational function and influences the processes of exploitation and exploration in all other functions of an enterprise. In keeping with the mission of the "AMIS" series, the editors of this volume have framed the domain of research and practice broadly. "Information Technology Outsourcing" provides leading edge research on both the variety of decisions regarding the outsourcing of IS services and the management of the relationship with service suppliers.

Increasingly, information technology governance is being considered an integral part of corporate governance. There has been a rapid increase in awareness and adoption of IT governance as well as the desire to conform to national governance requirements to ensure that IT is aligned with the objectives of the organization. Information Technology Governance and Service Management: Frameworks and Adaptations provides an in-depth view into the critical contribution of IT service management to IT governance, and the strategic and tactical value provided by effective service management. A must-have resource for academics, students, and practitioners in fields affected by IT in organizations, this work gathers authoritative perspectives on the state of research on organizational challenges and benefits in current IT governance frameworks, adoption, and incorporation.

Dear readers, Although it is well-known that confidentiality, integrity and availability are high level objectives of information security, much of the attention in the security arena has been devoted to the confidentiality and availability aspects of security. IFIP TC-ll Working Group 11. 5 has been charged with exploring the area of the integrity objective within information security and the relationship between integrity in information systems and the overall internal control systems that are established in organizations to support the corporate governance codes. In this collection you will not only find the papers that have been presented during the first working conference dedicated to the subject (section A) but also some of the papers that have formed the basis for the current activities of this working group (section B). Finally some information about IFIP TC-ll and its working groups is included (section C). This first working conference is the start for an ongoing dialog between the information security specialists and the internal control specialists so that both may work more effectively together to assist in creating effective business systems in the future."

Innovation manifests itself as a key driver of improved productivity and sustainable growth in today's global economic landscape. This book * brings together perspectives and case studies from across the world; * discusses frameworks and actual conditions required for innovation; and * examines a variety of themes, such as technology innovation, research & development, team and human resource management, product and process creativity and entrepreneurship development to augment strategic and competitive advantage. It will prove essential to those in business and management, entrepreneurship, economics and development studies, particularly those interested in innovation, strategic planning and business leadership.

As technology continues to revolutionise today's economy, Big Data, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency are rapidly transforming themselves into mainstream functions within the financial services industry. This book examines each concept individually, analysing the opportunities and challenges they bring and exploring the potential for future development. The authors further evaluate the fusion of these three important products of the FinTech revolution, illustrating their combined influence on the digital economy. Providing a comprehensive analysis of three innovative technologies, this timely book will appeal to scholars researching innovation in the finance industry and financial services technology more specifically.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of organizational diversity management, intended to help readers implement effective strategies and maximize the value of organizational diversity. Written by experts from a range of disciplines, it presents cutting-edge research and best practices in this field. Further, it addresses the challenges that organizations face in order to successfully manage organizational diversity and presents the application of theoretical concepts. Individual chapters explore topics including workforce diversity, knowledge management, innovation and change, and decision-making. Providing an invaluable resource for students and researchers in the fields of human resource management, industrial engineering and international business, the book will also benefit human resource managers, engineers and economists.

Organizations today have access to vast stores of data that come in a wide variety of forms and may be stored in places ranging from file cabinets to databases, and from library shelves to the Internet. The enormous growth in the quantity of data, however, has brought with it growing problems with the quality of information, further complicated by the struggles many organizations are experiencing as they try to improve their systems for knowledge management and organizational memory. Failure to manage information properly, or inaccurate data, costs businesses billions of dollars each year. This volume presents cutting-edge research on information quality. Part I seeks to understand how data can be measured and evaluated for quality. Part II deals with the problem of ensuring quality while processing data into information a company can use. Part III presents case studies, while Part IV explores organizational issues related to information quality. Part V addresses issues in information quality education.

A new analytical approach to small firms' cases, which * Uses rich primary source data on modern small businesses * Combines business strategy and industrial organization * Presents detailed Profiles on diverse small businesses * Shows how successful small businesses achieve competitive advantage * Considers both extended rivalry and financial structure * Shows how to `ground' small business theory in reality Profiles in Small Businesses has a companion volume Small Business Enterprise by Gavin Reid (also published by Routledge, Hb: 0-415-05681-0: GBP45.00) which contains a full analysis (ranging from econometrics to the ethics of competition) of the larger sample of small businesses from which the Profiles are drawn.

Full of valuable tips, techniques, illustrative real-world examples, exhibits, and best practices, this handy and concise paperback will help you stay up to date on the newest thinking, strategies, developments, and technologies in licensing intellectual property.

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