Web services and service oriented environments are key enablers for the migration of entertainment, business, sociability, science and health-care from the physical world to the virtual world. The result of this on-going migration is a new place very much different from the physical world, one where interconnected services interact with human users, sensors and embedded devices. Yet for this vision to become reality, trust needs to be addressed as members of the global e-society r- ularly today deal with the question whether they can trust other, unknown parties. Trust is a vital component of internet-based interactions and service-oriented en- ronment, but all too often it is assumed to be an implicit property that exists in the background rather than being an explicit property that is well-de ned and quant- able. While providing trust is challenging in existing computing systems, providing trust in service oriented environments is much more complex due to the dynamic and adaptable nature of these environment which are often large scale and across domains. To date the problem of trust for service oriented environments has been largely unexplored. This book represents the rst comprehensivecoverageof the principles, methods and systems for trust management and evaluation in service oriented environments

Struggling to apply Lean effectively in your office environment? Office Lean is a book for anyone who wants to apply Lean better in contexts where the work is both intangible and complex. it explains in simple terms, what Lean is -- and what Lean isn't -- enabling office professionals to understand how it can be successfully applied to their complex office-based work environments. Contrary to popular opinion, Lean is not only for mass manufacturing or healthcare. It applies just as much to the digital world of "knowledge work" industries such as banking and financial services, software development, and government. But the fundamental concepts, straight from the factory floor, need a fair amount of translation to be effectively applied in cube farms. Overturning the common perception that Lean is about imposing rigid rules, or simply eliminating waste in the name of "efficiency", Eakin presents Lean as a dynamic, flexible, people-centric philosophy that delivers outstanding business results by improving employee engagement and customer experience. Office Lean helps Lean practitioners (leaders/managers and coaches/consultants) working in professional office environments access the amazing, transformative results Lean can bring to their specific domains. It combines clear explanations of the core concepts of the Lean philosophy with relevant, practical examples from the fields of accounting, finance, insurance, IT and government.

Examining the implications of recent important developments, the primary aim of this book is to bridge the gaps in existing literature on India-Pakistan economic engagement and to examine various aspects of the trade normalization process. The book includes familiar themes of India-Pakistan bilateral trade in goods and services, providing new insights into the potential for trade and the challenges involved in realizing it. The respective chapters examine the current trade trends and identify the possible sectors for bilateral FDI flows between the two countries, which could help forge deeper economic ties between them. In light of India’s changed investment policy, this analysis is pertinent for investors and policy-makers alike. The book also includes chapters on a variety of unconventional subjects, such as estimating the levels of informal trade, an analysis of a trade perception survey and identifying trade potential using a CGE modeling approach. Further, a number of sectors have been identified for in-depth analysis, including sports goods, healthcare and energy. These sector-based analyses reflect the gap between current levels of trade in the selected industries and the possible trade potential. The studies identify key tradable commodities in the health and sports industries, as well as opportunities for trading in energy. The book thus provides readers with a deep understanding of the process of normalizing economic relations and enhancing bilateral trade at the micro and macro levels, on the basis of which the authors subsequently provide recommendations for policymakers.

The Practical Guide to Understanding and Raising Hotel Profitability offers a comprehensive, easy-to-follow breakdown of how to understand profit and loss accounts for hotels. It offers practical advice on how to maximise the profits of this customer-facing business and improve performance results. Chapters cover every aspect of the profit and loss account including marketing, accommodation, food and beverage sales, quality, budgeting, event sales, and all the corresponding costs involved. It explains all the relevant KPIs and industry quirks within the profit and loss document as well as industry benchmarks to equip the reader with the skills to attend high level meetings, complete finance-based assignments and ultimately run their own business. Valuable tips from leading professionals within the industry are included throughout, giving advice on how to improve hotels' financial results and positively influence net profit through everyday actions. Packed full of practical case studies and written in an easy-to-read-style, this book is essential reading for hospitality students and current hospitality and hotel managers.

The Practical Guide to Understanding and Raising Hotel Profitability offers a comprehensive, easy-to-follow breakdown of how to understand profit and loss accounts for hotels. It offers practical advice on how to maximise the profits of this customer-facing business and improve performance results. Chapters cover every aspect of the profit and loss account including marketing, accommodation, food and beverage sales, quality, budgeting, event sales, and all the corresponding costs involved. It explains all the relevant KPIs and industry quirks within the profit and loss document as well as industry benchmarks to equip the reader with the skills to attend high level meetings, complete finance-based assignments and ultimately run their own business. Valuable tips from leading professionals within the industry are included throughout, giving advice on how to improve hotels' financial results and positively influence net profit through everyday actions. Packed full of practical case studies and written in an easy-to-read-style, this book is essential reading for hospitality students and current hospitality and hotel managers.

In a world moving towards services, driving service productivity is a central challenge for leaders and members of all types of organisations: for service businesses there is a clear need to be "productive", but it is far less clear what this exactly means. In this book, we invite you on a journey that explores the ways, tools and options for driving service productivity. We take an innovator's perspectives and look at the tricky challenge of service productivity as a landscape of options for designing the future of services. Case examples, from the airport, hotel, healthcare, and professional service industry, offer insights in the methods used and approaches taken in business practice. Research results provide food for thought and valuable advice on the path towards superior service productivity. Throughout the book we also listen to the views and advices of interviewed experts from academia as well as business practice on how to drive service productivity. A forecast on how service productivity and service innovation might evolve in the future provides us - and hopefully you as a reader - with the necessary food for thought to develop our own understanding of driving service productivity in different business settings. Overall, this book is not a traditional "academic product" that summarises the views of a few, but a co-created offering that profited enormously from the contributions of so many.

This book presents current research on boundary spanning elements. The editors bring together extant knowledge in the field and present a uniform narrative. Previous studies have often been disseminated across several academic disciplines like services marketing, personal selling and sales management etc. and this monograph aggregates studies dealing with boundary spanning elements or has boundary spanning elements related to the marketing function as the main empirical platform under a uniform theoretical perspective. Each chapter in the book deals with an important research theme and synthesizes studies in relation to boundary spanning elements.

This book presents latest research on the evolution of consumer services, as these services continue to become a larger part of the economy in the world. Four core focal points lead the central message of the book: first, the convergence of back and front offices; second, placing the client as a fundamental input of services production and delivery process, and 'industrializing' the customers' role to combine efficiency and experience; third, the constitution and role of inputs necessary for the configuration, production and delivery of the service, with the crucial role of 'operationalizing' the customers' experience; and fourth, the adoption of new technologies and the appropriate transfer of manufacturing managerial practices through service industrialization. This is a special volume of articles based on solid research and analysis, including conceptualization of the important issues, as well as recommendations for managers. It presents case histories and managerial practices in some key sectors, such as financial services, health care, tourism/hospitality, entertainment and media, online services and home and personal services

This book presents an overview of different institutional arrangements for tourism, biodiversity conservation and rural poverty reduction in eastern and southern Africa. These approaches range from conservancies in Namibia, community-based organizations in Botswana, conservation enterprises in Kenya, private game reserves in South Africa, to sport hunting in Uganda and transfrontier conservation areas. The book presents a comparative analysis of these arrangements and highlights that most arrangements emerged in the 1990s through either a decentralized or centralized change trajectory that was sponsored by donors. They aim to address some of the challenges of the 'fortress' types of conservation by combining principles of community-based natural resource management with a neoliberal approach to conservation, evident in the use of tourism as the main mechanism for accruing benefits from wildlife. The book illustrates the empirical relevance of these novel arrangements by presenting their growth in numbers and discuss how these arrangements differ in their form. With respect to the conservation and development impacts of these arrangements, we show that they have secured large amounts of land for conservation, but also generated governance challenges and disputes on tourism benefit sharing, affecting the stability of these arrangements to generate socioeconomic and conservation benefits.

Learn how to cultivate the most incredible customer experiences on earth through this essential guide by Colin Cowie, distinguished purveyor of unforgettable "wow" events for the world's most demanding clients. If you're searching for ways to ensure your customers walk away from your company with a smile on their face and a plan to return, you found it. And any business organization can adapt the tools and techniques in this book. Colin Cowie, one of the world's most sought-after event planners, shares the hard-won and hard-nosed advice he has learned through entertaining and engaging stories and examples. He gives readers the indisputable blueprint for creating a customer-service culture that anyone can tailor to their own needs, whether you're a shopkeeper, corporate marketing director, or budding event planner. Upon coming to the United States from South Africa with $400 in his pocket, Colin built his highly successful catering and event-planning business from the ground up to become event planner to the most respected tastemakers and personalities in the world-including Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez, Ryan Seacrest, and Kim Kardashian, to name a few. In this book, you will: Learn how to formulate your own vision, mission statements, and guiding principles, and effectively communicate them to your team. Learn how you can align your vision with your essential mission statement. Discover the core values, including service and accountability, that fuel Colin's customer-care ethos, and how you can apply those values to your own business. Have a renewed understanding of how vitally important it is that you take good care of the people who work for you so they, in turn, can care for your customers. Become armed to inspire and empower your team. Be guided to create your own "bible" of scripts, protocols, and procedures that will streamline customer-care situations while making every customer feel like their individual desires are being taken care of. Learn how to use every complaint as an opportunity, as well as why you should be more afraid of a client who doesn't complain when something goes wrong versus one who does.

This book explores the different ways in which human-factors engineering influences organizations' and enterprises' well-being and competitiveness. It covers a wealth of interrelated topics such as service engineering, service science, human-computer interaction, service usability, attitude and opinion assessment, servicescape design and evaluation, and training for service delivery. Further topics include service systems modeling, anthropology in service science, and customer experience, as well as ethical issues and the impact of an aging society. Based on the AHFE 2017 International Conference on The Human Side of Service Engineering, held on July 17-21, 2017, in Los Angeles, California, USA, the book provides readers with a comprehensive, general view of current research and challenges in the important field of service engineering. It also provides practical insights into the development of services for different kinds of organizations, including health care organizations, aviation providers, manpower allocation, hospitality and entertainment, as well as banking and financial institutions.

In this funny, frank, and tender new memoir, the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "A Homemade Life" and the blog Orangette recounts how opening a pizza restaurant sparked the first crisis of her young marriage.
When Molly Wizenberg married Brandon Pettit, she vowed to support him and work with him to make their hopes and dreams come true. Even when Brandon's enthusiasms--building a boat, constructing a violin, and opening an ice cream shop--turned out to be nothing more than passing ideas, Molly stayed by his side, supportive and optimistic.
So when Brandon decided to open a pizza restaurant, Molly was certain it would join the boat, the violin, and the ice cream shop on his list of abandoned projects. Before she knew it, he'd signed a lease on a space. The restaurant, Delancey, was going to be a reality, and all of Molly's assumptions about her married life were about to change.
The two partners gutted and renovated the space, built their own furniture, hired staff, and passed health inspections. When their restaurant turned out to be a success, Molly tried her best to convince herself she was happy in their new life. But that was before Halloween night, when she was forced to admit she hadn't been honest with herself or Brandon.
With twenty new home kitchen recipes and evocative photos by Molly, "Delancey" is a moving and honest account of how two young people learned to give in and let go in order to strengthen their bond and receive something more.

A striking aspect of India's recent growth has been the dynamism of its services sector. In 2010, it accounted for 57 percent of the country's GDP and 25 percent of its total employment. The results do not conform to the growth experience of currently industrialized countries or other developing economies. Is the increasing share of the service sector in India's total output simply notional, as several activities that were earlier classified in the industrial sector are now subsumed in services' value added, or because the relative price of services has increased over time? No. The sector's growth is real - it is linked to household final demand, policy reforms and increased service exports. Is this service-led growth process sustainable? That remains an open question because the service sector is highly heterogeneous, ranging from software services and business process outsourcing to wholesale and retail trade and personal services. These subsectors vary considerably in the context of different economic characteristics that are important for development.

Coverage – offers unrivalled coverage, where no other book offers such breath of topics covered placing events within the wider business/management discourse. It therefore offers an excellent, complete and full general introductory Events Management textbook that can be used throughout the degree, known to students as ‘the events management bible’. Thoroughly revised and updated with one new chapter on events and social sciences and new content on: technology (esports, virtual events, Ai, VR, AR, social media marketing and management and advances in box office and ticketing); crowd management, business ethics, stakeholder management and sustainability. New case studies throughout that show real life applications and highlight issues with planning events of all types and scales in a range of geographical regions. New additional online resources including: PPT’s, additional case studies, links to video land websites and further discussion questions

This book aims to explore the social and cultural issues within the economic changes that have given rise to service work. Written by specialists in their respective fields, this book draws together authors from interdisciplinary areas that are carrying out significant research into gender and service work within an international context.

Tourism and hospitality industry is facing a substantial amount of opportunities and challenges due to the globalization. The Third International Conference on Tourism and Hospitality between China and Spain (ICTCHS) provides a unique global forum for academics, thought leaders and key industry practitioners from diverse backgrounds and interests to meet, discuss and debate critical issues that will affect the future direction of tourism and hospitality research and practice.

Selling and delivering a project to a satisfied client, and making a profit, is a complex task. Project manager and author Robin Hornby believes this has been neglected by current standards and is poorly understood by professionals in the field. Commercial Project Management aims to rectify this deficiency. As a unique 'how-to' guide for project and business managers, it offers practical guidance, and a wealth of explanatory illustrations, useful techniques, proven checklists, real life examples, and case stories. It will give project managers a needed confidence boost and a head start in their demanding role as they go 'on contract'. At the heart of Robin's approach is a vendor sales and delivery lifecycle that provides a framework for business control of projects. Unique elements include the integration of buyer and vendor project lifecycles, the recasting of project management as a cyclic set of functions to lead the work of the project, and the elevation of risk assessment from a project toolkit to a fundamental control process. Beyond project management, the book proposes a comprehensive template for the firm whose business is delivering projects. This is a how-to book for project and business managers working in a commercial environment looking for practical guidance on conducting their projects and organizing their firm.

Full-colour road atlas of Wales, with extended coverage into England and including all the major routes into the country. The detailed road mapping also includes Liverpool, Warrington, Nantwich, Shrewsbury, Hereford, Bristol and Severn River Crossings. Published at a clear 2.5 miles to 1 inch the following features are shown on the road mapping: Motorways open with full junction detail, motorways under construction and proposed, motorway service areas, primary routes and destinations, A and B roads, selected minor roads, gradients 1:5 and steeper, tolls, mileages, national and county boundaries, spot heights and hill shading Selected places of interest, tourist information centres and golf courses National Park boundaries for Snowdonia, Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire Coast Also included are 21 city, town, airport, or port plans for; Aberystwyth; Bangor; Cardiff; Caernarfon; Carmarthen; Chester; Colwyn Bay; Hereford; Llandudno; Llanelli; Merthyr Tydfil; Newport; Prestatyn; Rhyl Shrewsbury; Swansea; Wrexham; Cardiff International Airport; Holyhead Port; and Pembroke Dock. Two separate indexes provide extensive coverage of cities, towns, hamlets, and places of interest within Wales. Corresponding map symbols alongside each entry make for easy identification.

The service sector in most advanced economies accounts for up to seventy percent of employment and GDP and, given its growing importance, has received much research attention over the last two decades. However, not very much attention has been paid to the relationship between this sector and both its territorial impact and regional effects. The main objective of this book is to offer a comprehensive approach to these aspects, focusing particularly on the location factors of service industries and the importance of some specific services, such as business services and knowledge and information services. The contributions have been prepared by well-known experts in the field from a wide number of countries. The focus of all contributions is not only on theoretical aspects, but also provides empirical analyses on specific countries and topics such as the geographical concentration, globalization impacts, foreign direct investments, and innovation.

Historical research on the Olympic Movement is highly valuable as it displays processes of continuity and transformation by which knowledge building processes on the Olympic Movement, its structure and on Olympic sport can be expanded. The Olympic Movement can be addressed from multidisciplinary perspectives, including management, sociology, education, philosophy and history. This comprehensive collection examines the multifaceted profile of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement and presents new insights drawn from a variety of research projects. Historical and political dimensions of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement are addressed, along with educational, ethical, commercial and sociological perspectives. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of the History of Sport.

Dieses essential startet mit einer kleinen Geschichte zum Thema Geld und zeigt anschließend das Dilemma zwischen Risiko und Ertrag auf, mit dem jeder Finanzberater konfrontiert ist. Anschließend erläutern die Autoren in einem interdisziplinären Dialog, wie Theorien aus der modernen Physik und Psychologie neue Impulse für die Finanzberatung liefern. Die vorgestellten Perspektiven fördern eine andere Haltung und ein neues Denken: Das Geheimnis des Geldanlegens liegt in einer stabilen und kohärenten Beziehung zwischen Anleger und Anlageberater. Gerade der Zwiespalt zwischen Unsicherheit im Risiko und Ertragsunsicherheit führt zum gemeinsamen Anlageerfolg, weil er einen unumgänglichen, aber gewinnbringenden Dialog in der Finanzberatung auslösen kann.

A service economy era is coming! As the basic discipline of service dominant era, service science mainly studies common rules of service activities, aiming to provide theoretical bases for creating service value in the new era. The book, which integrates knowledge of service management, operational management, logistics and supply chain management, constructs a research system for this emerging discipline. Service science research system constitutes service philosophy, resource allocation, operational management and service technology. Many cases about China's service enterprises are incorporated in the book, in the hope of providing readers an insight into not only service science but also the development of China's service economy.

Though their primary concern, organizations in the creative industries don't only succeed or fail based on the exercise of their creative resources. Their fortunes also depend on their understanding and approach to the problem of competition. In Strategic Analysis: A creative and cultural industries perspective, Jonathan Gander offers a much needed introduction to how the practice of strategic thinking and analysis can be applied to this diverse and dynamic field. The book employs a range of competitive scenarios and case studies in which to practically apply a recommended set of analytical frameworks and examine the strategic challenge facing the enterprise and the wider sector. This concise and practical text focuses on providing a clear series of steps through which to identify and tackle strategic issues facing an enterprise, making it perfect reading for students and practitioners in the creative sector who seek a strategic understanding of the competition they are involved in.

This book discusses the mutual relationship between service and sustainability. It covers methodologies and approaches and describes measurements and tools that can promote sustainability on the service market. Lastly, it presents the different applications of sustainability, together with examples of sustainable services. Environmental concerns have become integral to any decision-making process in the design and implementation of goods and services. With the increasing dominance of the service sector, and as service systems become more complex and interdisciplinary, the focus must move from the exchange of products to that of services. Newly created services should thus aim to incorporate sustainability into their designs while viewing sustainability as a service in its own right. Integrating sustainability in the service design and development process is essential to improving the sustainability of our society and preserving the environment. Moreover, doing so shifts the service boundaries from values that are focused only on personal, local, and current needs and economic profit to those that are broader and more future oriented, ultimately placing greater social and environmental responsibility on all stakeholders. In addition, it advances the current state-of-the-art in sustainable development and service design and contributes to improving the quality of life on a global scale.

Foundations for Efficient Web Service Selection describes the foundational framework for efficient Web service selection. It lays out a theoretical underpinning for the design of models and algorithms for searching and optimizing access to Web services. Excerpts from Prof. Fabio Casati's foreword: " This excellent book looks at the search problem from a broader perspective. Instead of narrowing down on a specific aspect or subproblem of service search, it dissects and analyzes the fundamental problems in search and presents concrete, applicable solutions as well as the theoretical foundations behind them...One aspect I found particularly significant in the book is the mind shift it generates from thinking about service modeling for the sake of supporting deployment or invocation to modeling for supporting search. This design for search approach is exactly what we do when we design databases because search is what we worry about in that case, and there is no reason why this shouldn't be the case for services if we want services to be searchable with a similar effectiveness."