The Indian software industry has rapidly grown over the past decade, and most of this growth has been derived from exports to the US market. This book deals with business models, particularly the way the unique software model in India has evolved. It focuses on manpower resources in the software industry and knowledge diffusion through job switching, and the resulting impacts on business strategy.

This book is the first part of Applications and Trends in Fintech, which serves as a comprehensive guide to the advanced topics in fintech, including the deep learning and natural language processing algorithms, blockchain design thinking, token economics, cybersecurity, cloud computing and quantum computing, compliance and risk management, and global fintech trends. Readers will gain knowledge about the applications of fintech in finance and its latest developments as well as trends.This fourth volume covers the foundation of fintech, which is ethics and governance, and advanced topics in two of the most important technologies, artificial intelligence and blockchain. Together with the second part in applications and trends (fifth volume), these two books will deepen readers' understanding of the fintech fundamentals covered in previous volumes through various applications and analysis of impacts and trends.Bundle set: Global Fintech Institute-Chartered Fintech Professional Set I

This is the first book that sheds light on global game industries and cultural policy. The scope covers the emerging and converging theory and models on cultural industries and its development, and their connection to national cultural policy and globalization. The primary focus of the book is on Asian cultural policy and industries while there are implicit comparisons throughout the book to compare Asia to other global markets. This book is aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students and faculty members in programs addressing cultural policy and digital games. It will also be of interest to those within the cultural policy community and to digital games professionals.

From dial-up to wi-fi, an engaging cultural history of the commercial web industry In the 1990s, the World Wide Web helped transform the Internet from the domain of computer scientists to a playground for mass audiences. As URLs leapt off computer screens and onto cereal boxes, billboards, and film trailers, the web changed the way many Americans experienced media, socialized, and interacted with brands. Businesses rushed online to set up corporate "home pages" and as a result, a new cultural industry was born: web design. For today's internet users who are more familiar sharing social media posts than collecting hotlists of cool sites, the early web may seem primitive, clunky, and graphically inferior. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, this pre-crash era was dubbed "Web 1.0," a retronym meant to distinguish the early web from the social, user-centered, and participatory values that were embodied in the internet industry's resurgence as "Web 2.0" in the 21st century. Tracking shifts in the rules of "good web design," Ankerson reimagines speculation and design as a series of contests and collaborations to conceive the boundaries of a new digitally networked future. What was it like to go online and "surf the Web" in the 1990s? How and why did the look and feel of the web change over time? How do new design paradigms like user-experience design (UX) gain traction? Bringing together media studies, internet studies, and design theory, Dot-com Design traces the shifts in, and struggles over, the web's production, aesthetics, and design to provide a comprehensive look at the evolution of the web industry and into the vast internet we browse today.

Currently, most organizations are dependent on IS/ICT in order to support their business strategies. IS/ICT can promote the implementation of strategies and enhancers of optimization of the various aspects of the business. In market enterprises and social organizations, digital economy and ICTs are important tools that can empower social entrepreneurship initiatives to develop, fund, and implement new and innovative solutions to social, cultural, and environmental problems. The Handbook of Research on Multidisciplinary Approaches to Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and ICTs is an essential reference source that discusses the digitalization techniques of the modern workforce as well as important tools empowering social entrepreneurship initiatives. Featuring research on topics such as agile business analysis, multicultural workforce, and human resource management, this book is ideally designed for business managers, entrepreneurs, IT consultants, researchers, industry professionals, human resource consultants, academicians, and students.

Can the internet fundamentally challenge non-free regimes? The role that social networking played in political change in the Middle East and beyond raises important questions about the ability of authoritarian leaders to control the information sphere and their subjects. Revolution Stalled goes beyond the idea of "virtual " politics to study five key components in the relationship between the online sphere and society: content, community, catalysts, control, and co-optation. This analysis of the contemporary Russian internet, written by a scholar with in-depth knowledge of both the post-Soviet media and media theory, illuminates how and when online activity can spark political action. This book argues that there are critical pre-conditions that help the internet to challenge non-free states. For example, Russian leaders became vulnerable to online protest movements and online social entrepreneurs when they failed to control the internet as effectively as they control traditional media. At the same time, Russia experienced explosive growth in online audiences, tipping the balance of control away from state-run television and toward the more open online sphere. Drawing upon studies of small-scale protests involving health issues and children with disabilities, Oates provides compelling evidence of the way Russians are translating individual grievances into rising political awareness and efficacy via the online sphere. The Russian state is struggling to change its information and control strategy in response to new types of information dissemination, networking, and protest. At the same time, this new environment has transformed a state strategy of co-opted elections into a powerful catalyst for protest and demands for rights. While the revolution remains stalled, Oates shows how a new and changing generation of internet users is transforming the public sphere in Russia.

An all-inclusive survey of the fundamentals of parallel and distributed computing. The use of parallel and distributed computing has increased dramatically over the past few years, giving rise to a variety of projects, implementations, and buzzwords surrounding the subject. Although the areas of parallel and distributed computing have traditionally evolved separately, these models have overlapping goals and characteristics. Parallel and Distributed Computing surveys the models and paradigms in this converging area of parallel and distributed computing and considers the diverse approaches within a common text. Covering a comprehensive set of models and paradigms, the material also skims lightly over more specific details and serves as both an introduction and a survey. Novice readers will be able to quickly grasp a balanced overview with the review of central concepts, problems, and ideas, while the more experienced researcher will appreciate the specific comparisons between models, the coherency of the parallel and distributed computing field, and the discussion of less well-known proposals. Other topics covered include:

• Data parallelism
• Shared-memory programming
• Message passing
• Client/server computing
• Code mobility
• Coordination, object-oriented, high-level, and abstract models
• And much more

Parallel and Distributed Computing is a perfect tool for students and can be used as a foundation for parallel and distributed computing courses. Application developers will find this book helpful to get an overview before choosing a particular programming style to study in depth, and researchers and programmers will appreciate the wealth of information concerning the various areas of parallel and distributed computing.

This book provides valuable insights into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) through a comprehensive examination of Vision 2030, an ambitious economic plan by the KSA to reinvent and diversify its economy from a heavy dependence on hydrocarbon to knowledge-based resources. Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia: Vision 2030 discusses how this initiative will assist the government in achieving its envisioned goals by creating a culture of research, innovation and entrepreneurship. It studies the current state of the field as well as new policies and reforms in Saudi Arabia which encompass education systems, ICT infrastructure and a vibrant innovation landscape that includes academia, the public and private sectors and civil society. The authors present a number of real-life case studies as a model of inspiration for cross-sector development. The book provides a source of inspiration for other nations in studying the KSA's determined and ambitious plans as a country in a transitioning journey, from a natural resources-based economy towards a knowledge-based country with considerable diversification in all sectors. This book is a useful reference for students, researchers and policy and decision-makers in understanding Saudi innovation and the economic diversification ecosystem.

This seminal study explores the significant changes in the global IT industry as production has shifted from the developed world to massive sites in the developing world that house hundreds of thousands of workers in appalling low-wage conditions to minimize labor costs. Yet little is known about this phenomenon as the major contract manufacturers deliberately hide their names from the public on behalf of brand-name customers such as Apple. In short, the authors argue, globalization is not always helping the IT workers of the world, many of whom are working in unbearable factory conditions. From Silicon Valley to Shenzhen traces the development of the new networks of globalized mass production in the IT industry and the reorganization of work since the 1990s, capturing the systemic nature of an industry-wide restructuring of production and work in the global context. Their wide-ranging and detailed analysis makes an important contribution to ongoing academic and political debates on the globalization of production, especially by taking these debates beyond narrow perspectives of determining criteria of "success" for participation in global production networks. Rather, they emphasize the changing nature of work, employment relations, and labor policies and their implications for the possibilities of sustainable economic and social development.

The emergence of new platform business models, notably the sharing economy, is impacting the economy in various ways, altering the structure of many industries, and raising a number of economic and political issues. This book investigates the widespread influence of the sharing economy on businesses and society, as well as examining its underpinning economic principles and development. This volume presents an exhaustive review of the existing knowledge on the sharing economy and addresses several major areas of concern for incumbent businesses. It also explains the business models for those who are interested in embarking on their own ventures and provides an excellent source for further research. It takes an in-depth look at controversial labour policies, such as using labour as self-employed contractors or using regulatory grey areas to expand in markets. It is highly multidisciplinary, establishing links between economics, finance, marketing and consumer behaviour. This contribution on the sharing economy will enable researchers and graduate and doctoral students to expand and improve their understanding of this topic and identify new research problems in all of these areas. The book will also appeal to policy makers, regional and local government decision makers, and those interested in labour markets transformation.

The near-ubiquitous spread of ICT offers unprecedented opportunities for social and economic agents, reshapes social and economic structures and drives the emergence of socioeconomic networks. This book contributes to the growing body of literature and present state of knowledge, offering the reader broad evidence on how new information and communication technologies impact women's economic and social empowerment and hence have an impact on overall welfare creation. More specifically, it concentrates on demonstrating how ICT may become "empowering technologies" through their implementation. The book is designed to provide deep insight into the theoretical and empirical evidence on ICT as a significant driver of women`s social and economic development. Special focus is given to examining the following broad topics: channels of ICT impact on women's development; the role of ICT in enhancing women's active participation in formal labor markets; examples of how ICT encourages education, skills development, institutions development et alia, and thus contributes to women's social and economic empowerment, as well as case-based evidence on ICT's role in fostering women's equality. The primary audience for the book will be scholars and academic professionals from a wide variety of disciplines but mainly those who are concerned with addressing the issues of economic development and growth, social development, the role of technology progress in the context of broadly defined socioeconomic progress. Chapters 1 and 3 of this book are available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. They have been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

"Uberization," "digitalization," "platform economy," "gig economy," and "sharing economy" are some of the buzzwords that characterize the current intense discussions about the development of the economy and work around the world, among both experts and laypersons. Immense changes in the ways goods are manufactured, business is done, work tasks are performed, education is accomplished, and so on, are clearly underway. This also means that demand for careful, first-rate social scientific analyses of the phenomena in question is rapidly growing. This edited volume gathers distinguished researchers from economics, business studies, organization studies, medicine, social psychology, occupational health, pedagogics, and sociology to put particular work in both public and private sectors and education in both academic and vocational settings at the focus of the emerging digitalized platform economy. The authors anchor their analyses and conceptual and theoretical work in distinctive empirical developments that are taking place in one of the leading countries of digitalization processes: Finland. Finnish case studies reflect general global developments and show their particular, context-related actualization in multiple ways. This double exposure enables the authors of this multi- and interdisciplinary volume to advance conceptualization and theorization of the key phenomena in digitalizing platform societies in novel, creative, and groundbreaking directions. This book will without doubt be of great value to academic researchers and students in the fields of economics, business studies, work studies, social sciences, education, technology, digitalization, platforms, occupational health, entrepreneurship, and professions.

With recent advances in IT in areas such as AI and IoT, collaboration systems such as business chat, cloud services, conferencing systems, and unified communications are rapidly becoming widely used as new IT applications in global corporations' strategic activities. Through in-depth longitudinal studies of global corporations, the book presents a new theoretical framework and implications for IT-enabled dynamic capabilities using collaboration systems from the perspective of micro strategy theory and organization theory. The content of the book is based on longitudinal analyses that employ various qualitative research methods including ethnography, participant observation, action research and in-depth case studies of global corporations in Europe, the United States and Asia that actively use collaboration systems. It presents a new concept of micro dynamism whereby dynamic "IT-enabled knowledge communities" such as "IT-enabled communities of practice" and "IT-enabled strategic communities" create "IT-enabled dynamic capabilities" through the integration of four research streams - an information systems view, micro strategy view, micro organization view and knowledge-based view. The book demonstrates that collaboration systems create, maintain and develop "IT-enabled knowledge communities" within companies and are strategic IT applications for enhancing the competitiveness of companies in the ongoing creation of new innovation and the realization of sustainable growth in a 21st century knowledge-based society. This book is primarily written for academics, researchers and graduate students, but will also offer practical implications for business leaders and managers. Its use is anticipated not only in business and management schools, graduate schools and university education environments around the world but also in the broad business environment including management and leadership development training.

This book explores the strategic decisions made by organizations when implementing cybersecurity controls and leveraging economic models and theories from the economics of information security and risk-management frameworks. Based on unique and distinct research completed within the field of risk-management and information security, this book provides insight into organizational risk-management processes utilized in determining cybersecurity investments. It describes how theoretical models and frameworks rely on either specific scenarios or controlled conditions and how decisions on cybersecurity spending within organizations-specifically, the funding available in comparison to the recommended security measures necessary for compliance-vary depending on stakeholders. As the trade-off between the costs of implementing a security measure and the benefit derived from the implementation of security controls is not easily measured, a business leader's decision to fund security measures may be biased. The author presents an innovative approach to assess cybersecurity initiatives with a risk-management perspective and leverages a data-centric focus on the evolution of cyber-attacks. This book is ideal for business school students and technology professionals with an interest in risk management.

This practical text offers a research-based account of the technical communication profession and its practice, outlining emergent touchpoints of this fast-changing field while highlighting its diversity. Through research on the history and the globalization of technical communication and up-to-date industry analysis, including first-hand narratives from industry practitioners, this book brings together common threads through the industry, suggests future trends, and points toward strategic routes for development. Vignettes from the workplace and examples of industry practice provide tangible insights into the different paths and realities of the field, furnishing readers with a range of entry routes and potential career sectors, workplace communities, daily activities, and futures. This approach is central to helping readers understand the diverse competencies of technical communicators in the modern, globalized economy. The Profession and Practice of Technical Communication provides essential guidance for students, early professionals, and lateral entrants to the profession and can be used as a textbook for technical communication courses.

Cutting through the confusion around the nature and implications of digitalization, this book explores the rise of the new digital networks, how they affect traditional infrastructure, and how they will eventually need to be regulated. The authors examine how digitalization affects infrastructures in telecommunications, transport, and energy, and how digital platforms establish themselves as a new network on top of and in addition to traditional ones. Complex concepts are introduced through short and colorful stories about the founders of the most popular platforms (Google, Facebook, Skype, Uber, etc.) and how they grew to positions of power, drawing parallels with century-old traditional network industries' monopoly power (AT&T, General Electric, etc.). The authors argue that these digital platforms strongly interfere with traditional infrastructures that are heavily regulated and provide essential services for society - meaning that digital platforms should be considered as a new and much more powerful type of infrastructure and will require regulation accordingly. A global audience of policy makers, public authorities, consultants, lawyers, students, and academics, as well as anyone with an interest in these digital platforms, will find this book enlightening and essential reading.

Cutting through the confusion around the nature and implications of digitalization, this book explores the rise of the new digital networks, how they affect traditional infrastructure, and how they will eventually need to be regulated. The authors examine how digitalization affects infrastructures in telecommunications, transport, and energy, and how digital platforms establish themselves as a new network on top of and in addition to traditional ones. Complex concepts are introduced through short and colorful stories about the founders of the most popular platforms (Google, Facebook, Skype, Uber, etc.) and how they grew to positions of power, drawing parallels with century-old traditional network industries' monopoly power (AT&T, General Electric, etc.). The authors argue that these digital platforms strongly interfere with traditional infrastructures that are heavily regulated and provide essential services for society - meaning that digital platforms should be considered as a new and much more powerful type of infrastructure and will require regulation accordingly. A global audience of policy makers, public authorities, consultants, lawyers, students, and academics, as well as anyone with an interest in these digital platforms, will find this book enlightening and essential reading.

The IT revolution has affected the entire world by producing an Internet-based, digital economy in which geographical distance and borders have become less of an obstacle to global trade. Thanks to IT, developing countries in every region of the world have the opportunity to break out of the mould of raw material supplier to the developed nations and experience unprecedented growth in the Internet economy as producers too. The challenges faced by developing countries in harnessing the full potential of IT are not really very different from those that confronted the US in its journey toward an Internet economy. The responses, however, need not necessarily be the same for two reasons. First, it pays to learn from the mistakes of others. Secondly, the cultural differences between nations demands localization of the change management process that any IT deployment requires. This volume discusses the possible pitfalls and triumphs involved when implementing this entity into the structure of a developing country.

Innovative as it is, the blockchain technology is getting more and more attention and an increasing number of applications have emerged. This book elaborates on both the design thinking ideas and technical details in blockchain and smart contracts to help readers delve into the conceptual framework and understand why blockchain is designed as such and how it makes the current system decentralised yet effective. Having this understanding lays the ground for further analysis of blockchain-based solutions and innovative fintech applications.Topics covered in this book include blockchain structure, blockchain ecosystem, design thinking for blockchain, smart contract, fintech and financial services, solution-based problem solving, fintech valuation, and current issues faced such as privacy protection and solution selection, with the aid of real-life examples and hands-on exercises.Blockchain and Smart Contracts serves as a valuable guide for researchers and practitioners who have interests in the blockchain, smart contract, fintech innovation and applications, design thinking, and technical details. This book is particularly written for anyone who has no technical background and is searching for an initiation into the deep end of blockchain. Those with business, finance and economic interests will find this interesting and easy to digest.

Innovative as it is, the blockchain technology is getting more and more attention and an increasing number of applications have emerged. This book elaborates on both the design thinking ideas and technical details in blockchain and smart contracts to help readers delve into the conceptual framework and understand why blockchain is designed as such and how it makes the current system decentralised yet effective. Having this understanding lays the ground for further analysis of blockchain-based solutions and innovative fintech applications.Topics covered in this book include blockchain structure, blockchain ecosystem, design thinking for blockchain, smart contract, fintech and financial services, solution-based problem solving, fintech valuation, and current issues faced such as privacy protection and solution selection, with the aid of real-life examples and hands-on exercises.Blockchain and Smart Contracts serves as a valuable guide for researchers and practitioners who have interests in the blockchain, smart contract, fintech innovation and applications, design thinking, and technical details. This book is particularly written for anyone who has no technical background and is searching for an initiation into the deep end of blockchain. Those with business, finance and economic interests will find this interesting and easy to digest.

This book investigates the life, working conditions, and urban experiences of support service workers, such as janitors, security guards, culinary workers and carpool drivers, in the information technology (IT) sector of India. Largely omitted from academic discourse, support service workers are crucial to the Indian IT industry. Drawing on interviews with such workers in seven Indian cities with a large concentration of software service companies, this volume: Uses quantitative and qualitative analyses to map and assess workers' responses to migration from rural occupations to a modern urban employment setting; Explores the everyday grind of migrant workers in the context of the homogenizing effects of globalization in an alienating urban environment and discusses how their dislodgment from the structures of rural life - gender and caste roles - has placed them in a space of contestation between traditions and the opportunities and challenges offered by digital society in the form of freedom, individualism, flexibility and innovation; Traces the evolution of new areas of class, and identity formations, as well as the hegemonic relations within that ethos imposed by contractors and corporations. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of sociology and social anthropology, urban studies, development studies, labour studies, social exclusion and South Asian studies.

As digital transformations continue to accelerate in the world, discourses of big data have come to dominate in a number of fields, from politics and economics, to media and education. But how can we really understand the digital world when so much of the writing through which we grapple with it remains deeply problematic? In a compelling new work of feminist critical theory, Bassett, Kember and O'Riordan scrutinise many of the assumptions of a masculinist digital world, highlighting the tendency of digital humanities scholarship to venerate and essentialise technical forms, and to adopt gendered writing and citation practices. Contesting these writings, practices and politics, the authors foreground feminist traditions and contributions to the field, offering alternative modes of knowledge production, and a radically different, poetic writing style. Through this prism, Furious brings into focus themes including the automation of home and domestic work, the Anthropocene, and intersectional feminist technofutures.