This book discusses important topics for engineering and managing software startups, such as how technical and business aspects are related, which complications may arise and how they can be dealt with. It also addresses the use of scientific, engineering, and managerial approaches to successfully develop software products in startup companies. The book covers a wide range of software startup phenomena, and includes the knowledge, skills, and capabilities required for startup product development; team capacity and team roles; technical debt; minimal viable products; startup metrics; common pitfalls and patterns observed; as well as lessons learned from startups in Finland, Norway, Brazil, Russia and USA. All results are based on empirical findings, and the claims are backed by evidence and concrete observations, measurements and experiments from qualitative and quantitative research, as is common in empirical software engineering. The book helps entrepreneurs and practitioners to become aware of various phenomena, challenges, and practices that occur in real-world startups, and provides insights based on sound research methodologies presented in a simple and easy-to-read manner. It also allows students in business and engineering programs to learn about the important engineering concepts and technical building blocks of a software startup. It is also suitable for researchers at different levels in areas such as software and systems engineering, or information systems who are studying advanced topics related to software business.

Forecasting is one of the most important activities that form the basis for strategic, tactical, and operational decisions in all business organizations. Recently, neural networks have emerged as an important tool for business forecasting. There are considerable interests and applications in forecasting using neural networks. Neural Networks in Business Forecasting provides for researchers and practitioners some recent advances in applying neural networks to business forecasting. A number of case studies demonstrating the innovative or successful applications of neural networks to many areas of business as well as methods to improve neural network forecasting performance are presented.

There have arisen, in various settings, unmistakable calls for involvement of psychological factors in IT work, notably in development and deployment of information systems. Managing Psychological Factors in Information Systems Work: An Orientaion to Emotional Intelligence "pulls together" areas of existing involvement, to suggest yet new areas and to present an initial, and coherent vision and framework for, essentially, extending and humanizing the sphere of IT work. It may be indeed noteworthy that, while the Industrial Revolution may have moved the human person into intellectual predominance, the IT Revolution, with its recent calls for addressing and involving the "whole person," may indeed be initiating a re-centering of the human being in his/her essential core, giving rise to new consciousness, new vision and new, empowering experiences. May this book encourage the first few steps along a new and vivifying path!

Media Relations Handbook for Government, Associations, Nonprofits, and Elected Officials, 2e, by Bradford Fitch, Editor: Jack Holt. The Media Relations Handbook is called "the big blue book" on Capitol Hill.

Human communication is a constant, continuous, and dynamic phenomenon. You cannot not-communicate nor can you un-communicate. For an individual entity, there is only ONE communication. Not multiple, not varieties, only one. That one communication is the culmination of all that has been communicated by the entity until the "now" in time. You cannot go back and un-communicate something. You can only begin from the "now" to create the intended outcome. That outcome is always a negotiation with the receiver/audience/community to cultivate an agreed understanding.

For a communication professional, understanding this fact is essential. No matter where you work, someone has been communicating something before you began. You cannot un-communicate it. You cannot create a new beginning; but you can begin now to create a new outcome. Research continues into the changes in communication wrought by the Internet and public expectations that are experiencing mercurial change.

As best practices are now being developed, the Media Relations Handbook 2e can give you guidance and ideas that will spark your innovation.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Foreword
Ch. 1 First Steps
Ch. 2 Tools of the Craft
Ch. 3 Developing a Message and Communication Plan
Ch. 4 Interacting with Reporters
Ch. 5 Overview of the Media: Print, Radio, TV, and the Internet
Ch. 6 Online Communication
Ch. 7 Dealing With the Principal
Ch. 8 Interview Preparation
Ch. 9 Internal Issues: Experts, Policy, Numbers, Leaks, Lawyers, and Language
Ch. 10 How to Interact with Congressional Campaign Operations
Ch. 11 Communication in a Federal Agency
Ch. 12 Crisis Communication in Public Affairs
Ch. 13 Honest Spin: Ethics in Public Affairs
Appendices
Glossary
Epilogue
Index

For Complete Table of Contents, see MediaRelationsHandbook.com

This book addresses the question of how competition authorities assess mergers in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector so as to promote competition in innovation. A closer look at the question reveals that it is far more complex and difficult to answer for the ICT, telecommunications and multi-sided platform (MSP) economy than for more traditional sectors of the economy. This has led many scholars to re-think and question whether the current merger control framework is suitable for the ICT sector, which is often also referred to as the new economy. The book pursues an interdisciplinary approach combining insights from law, economics and corporate strategy. Further, it has a comparative dimension, as it discusses the practices of the US, the EU and, wherever relevant, of other competition authorities from around the globe. Considering that the research was conducted in the EU, the practices of the European Commission remain a key aspect of the content.Considering its normative dimension, the book concentrates on the substantive aspects of merger control. To facilitate a better understanding of the most important points, the book also offers a brief overview of the procedural aspects of merger control in the EU, the US and the UK, and discusses recent amendments to Austrian and German law regarding the notification threshold. Given its scope, the book offers an invaluable guide for competition law scholars, practitioners in the field, and competition authorities worldwide.

'Essential for any leader in any industry' - Kim Scott, bestselling author of Radical Candor Working Backwards gives an insider's account of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership and best practices from two long-time, top-level Amazon executives. Colin Bryar and Bill Carr joined Amazon in the late 90s. Their time at the company covered a period of unmatched innovation that brought products and services - including Kindle, Amazon Prime, Amazon Echo and Alexa, and Amazon Web Services - to life. Through the story of these innovations they reveal the principles and practices that drive Amazon's success. Through their wealth of experience they offer unprecedented access to the 'Amazon way' as it was refined, articulated and proven to be repeatable, scalable and adaptable. Working Backwards shows how success is not achieved by the genius of any single leader, but rather through commitment to and execution of a set of well-defined, rigorously executed principles and practices that you can apply at your own company, no matter the size. 'Working Backwards should be read by anyone interested in the real thing - the principles, processes and practices of twenty-first-century management and leadership' - Forbes 'Gives us the story as it developed at the time - and that is probably worth the cover price of the book in itself' - Financial Times

Research and statistics support the view that current programmes are failing to keep women in the ICT field. Currently, there exist very few solutions to this growing problem. Women in IT in the New Social Era: A Critical Evidence-Based Review of Gender Inequality and the Potential for Change aims to bring this topic to the forefront of discussion about what can be done to correct this lopsided gender distribution. This reference work will be an essential guide for government professionals, students, and researchers in the ICT field looking to develop a solution to equalise the retention rate of women in these related fields.

This book studies the motivation of crowdworkers to find out how to attract more people and reach a higher quality of outcomes. The book first proposes a taxonomy for studying the motivation of crowdworkers including the potential influencing factors, different types of motivation, and possible consequences and outcomes related to the motivation. Next, the CWMS questionnaire, an instrument for measuring the underlying motivation of crowdworkers is developed. It considers different dimensions of motivation suggested by the Self-Determination Theory of motivation which is a well-established and empirically validated psychological theory used in various domains. This instrument can be used to study the effect of platform and user characteristics on the general motivation of crowdworkers. Later, the task-specific motivation of crowdworkers is studied in detail: Influencing factors are investigated, subjective methods for measuring them are evaluated, a model for predicting worker's decision on taking a task is proposed, the relative importance of different factors for two populations of crowdworkers is studied, and finally, a model for predicting the expected workload (as one of the major influencing factors) given the task design is proposed.

Technology is continuously advancing and changing the way aspects of business are performed. The implementation of mobile business transactions to acquire various types of goods has changed the landscape of consumerism. Apps Management and E-Commerce Transactions in Real-Time is a timely research publication that features the latest scholarly trends, issues, and implications of the use of a new technological forum in electronic buying and selling. Including extensive coverage on a number of topics and perspectives such as social networks, customer satisfaction, and cloud computing, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academicians, and students seeking current research on mobile solutions in business deals.

Theo S. Eicher and Thomas Strobel present an industry-level account of the recent changes in German productivity growth and compare the trends to Europe and the US. The specific focus is on how differential investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) affected the economic performance of these economies. Not all industrialized countries shared the economic fortunes that ICT presented to the US economy. While the US experienced successive accelerations in its trend growth in 1995 and again in 2000, Germany experienced dual reductions in labor productivity growth. Some European economies fared better and others even worse than Germany. Since productivity is the ultimate determinant of living standards, the authors examine the sources of these productivity differentials. They also present a new German growth accounting database that utilizes unique ICT investment data, sourced directly from the industries, to place their findings into an international context. This book is targeted at economists and policymakers alike, and is designed to provide clear guidance for those interested in industrial policy and statistical account methods.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google are the four most influential companies on the planet. Just about everyone thinks they know how they got there. Just about everyone is wrong.

For all that’s been written about the Four over the last two decades, no one has captured their power and staggering success as insightfully as Scott Galloway.

Instead of buying the myths these compa­nies broadcast, Galloway asks fundamental questions. How did the Four infiltrate our lives so completely that they’re almost impossible to avoid (or boycott)? Why does the stock market forgive them for sins that would destroy other firms? And as they race to become the world’s first trillion-dollar company, can anyone chal­lenge them?

In the same irreverent style that has made him one of the world’s most celebrated business professors, Galloway deconstructs the strategies of the Four that lurk beneath their shiny veneers. He shows how they manipulate the fundamental emotional needs that have driven us since our ancestors lived in caves, at a speed and scope others can’t match. And he reveals how you can apply the lessons of their ascent to your own business or career.

Whether you want to compete with them, do business with them, or simply live in the world they dominate, you need to understand the Four.

In the digital era, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and blockchain have revolutionized various ways of people's daily lives and brought many opportunities and challenges to the industries. With the increasing demand for talents in the fintech realm, this book serves as a good guide for practitioners who are seeking to understand the basics of fintech and applications of different technologies. This book covers important knowledge in statistics, quantitative methods, and financial innovation to lay the foundation for fintech. It is especially useful for people who are relatively new to this area and would like to become professionals in fintech.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

Dozens of cases worldwide continue to challenge Microsoft Corporation's superdominance of the global digital network economy, focusing in particular on the multi-tying practices that leverage Microsoft's market power into adjacent markets and reinforce its dominance. This is the first book to analyze this international line of cases, detailing both grounds for legal action (including unfair competition, restriction of consumers' freedom of choice, abusive pricing) as well as Microsoft's defenses and administrative settlements. The author also demonstrates the serious economic repercussions of Microsoft's monopoly, such as accumulation of inefficiency and stifling of innovation in this crucial sector of twenty-first century economy and society.Through an in-depth analysis of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) case - which led to a December 2005 decision, currently under appeal at the Seoul High Court, condemning three fundamental tying practices embedded in Microsoft's global business strategy - the author clearly establishes the precise nature of Microsoft's anticompetitive practices, complete with clear technical descriptions of the underlying applications and digital media systems. The discussion develops valuable guidelines on such core issues as the following: network effect, tipping effect, and lock-in effect; separability of Microsoft's tied and tying products; forced purchase by consumers of multiple tied products; Microsoft's reinforcement of market entry barriers; Microsoft's "normal business practice" defense; and cumulative damage to consumers' interests.The book's ultimate legal and economic assessment clarifies ways in which government competition authorities can select from globally available options on a case-by-case basis, enforce re-pricing measures, avoid belated remedies, and continuously monitor new types of anticompetitive conduct.In its analytic rigor, focus on important economic issues, and its unwavering commitment to fair competition, this book will be of immeasurable value to practitioners and policymakers at every level concerned with the digital network economy, now and in the years to come.

This book provides extensive, comprehensive biographical information on one of technology's most important innovators-Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was a visionary entrepreneur who contributed immeasurably to information technology, changing not only the way we do business but also the way we communicate and share information. His company, Apple, founded in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, eventually launched the Macintosh computer in 1984, with a graphical user interface that competed with the early versions of Microsoft Windows. This reference biography sheds light on Jobs's departure from Apple in 1985, his extraordinary comeback in 1997, and his innovations in the meantime, which included the founding of the computer animation company Pixar. Jobs and Apple went on to launch the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, and the iPad. Author Michael Becraft has distilled the vast literature on Jobs into a concise but vivid portrait of the man, his vision, the controversies that have swirled around him, and his lasting impact on business, culture, and society. Arranged chronologically, the book includes extensive primary sources and is written to be accessible to a wide range of readers. Additionally, it incorporates images that heighten reader engagement, provides a timeline for referencing Jobs's achievements across his lifetime, and supplies an extensive bibliography for those seeking original source documents. Provides detailed biographical information that benefits and appeals to a wide audience Includes not only praise for Jobs but criticism to offer a balanced portrait Incorporates information from Jobs's speeches and writings Includes charts and graphs related to home computing and Apple in comparison to competitors