This contributed volume explores and reveals the new developments, dynamics and recommendations for entrepreneurship education in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Presenting papers by respected experts in the field, it shares essential insights on the status quo of entrepreneurial education and training programs, the characteristics and motivations of early stage entrepreneurs, and the regional framework conditions in MENA. The book closes with a bibliometric perspective on the trends in the entrepreneurship research and education being developed in MENA.

This book provides essential insights into Chinese consumer behaviors in the growing and dynamic fashion market. With increasing consumer purchasing power, readily accessible global brands, heavy application of digital technology and social media, as well as growing awareness of environmental issues, the Chinese fashion industry faces great opportunities and challenges at the same time. The contributing authors provide observations and address issues related to middle class fashion consumption, sustainable apparel consumption, technology application in fashion retailing, and the select traditional and new industry segments in the context of China's recent and massive economic boom. As such, the book offers an invaluable reference guide for all academics and practitioners interested in the Chinese fashion market.

This book provides a systematic framework for effectively creating value through engineering in global business networks, and contributes to an increasingly important branch of engineering operations. By updating the traditional disciplines of engineering and operations management and addressing challenges and opportunities in building global network capabilities, this study offers a contemporary guide for developing effective industrial policies to enhance the global competitiveness of engineering sectors, which will be extremely useful to engineering companies and policy-makers. Themes discussed include main trends and driving forces, state-of-the-art knowledge in relevant subject areas, new technologies and leading practice. This timely book will help researchers, managers and students to gain an overall understanding of the pioneering research occurring in this field and it will enable companies to benefit from global engineering networks.

The entertainment industry has long been dominated by legendary screenwriter William Goldman's "Nobody-Knows-Anything" mantra, which argues that success is the result of managerial intuition and instinct. This book builds the case that combining such intuition with data analytics and rigorous scholarly knowledge provides a source of sustainable competitive advantage - the same recipe for success that is behind the rise of firms such as Netflix and Spotify, but has also fueled Disney's recent success. Unlocking a large repertoire of scientific studies by business scholars and entertainment economists, the authors identify essential factors, mechanisms, and methods that help a new entertainment product succeed. The book thus offers a timely alternative to "Nobody-Knows" decision-making in the digital era: while coupling a good idea with smart data analytics and entertainment theory cannot guarantee a hit, it systematically and substantially increases the probability of success in the entertainment industry. Entertainment Science is poised to inspire fresh new thinking among managers, students of entertainment, and scholars alike. Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and Mark B. Houston - two of our finest scholars in the area of entertainment marketing - have produced a definitive research-based compendium that cuts across various branches of the arts to explain the phenomena that provide consumption experiences to capture the hearts and minds of audiences. Morris B. Holbrook, W. T. Dillard Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Columbia University Entertainment Science is a must-read for everyone working in the entertainment industry today, where the impact of digital and the use of big data can't be ignored anymore. Hennig-Thurau and Houston are the scientific frontrunners of knowledge that the industry urgently needs. Michael Koelmel, media entrepreneur and Honorary Professor of Media Economics at University of Leipzig Entertainment Science's winning combination of creativity, theory, and data analytics offers managers in the creative industries and beyond a novel, compelling, and comprehensive approach to support their decision-making. This ground-breaking book marks the dawn of a new Golden Age of fruitful conversation between entertainment scholars, managers, and artists. Allegre Hadida, Associate Professor in Strategy, University of Cambridge

This book reflects the current thinking and research on how consumers' perception of product risks and benefits affects their behavior. It provides the scientific, regulatory and industrial research community with a conceptual and methodological reference point for studies on consumer behavior and marketing. The contributions address various aspects of consumer psychology and behavior, risk perception and communication, marketing research strategies, as well as consumer product regulation. The book is divided into 4 parts: Product risks; Perception of product risks and benefits; Consumer behavior; Regulation and responsibility.

This book encapsulates the 'New Normal Policy' which has changed the regional policy between China and the African continent. This volume emphasises China's role in Africa as a collaborator in an attempt to fulfil the Beijing consensus in emerging countries. The contextual research encompasses how one can comprehend the influence of the Chinese model in Africa and her diplomatic relations with the continent. China and Africa: A New Paradigm of Global Business endeavours to define whether or not the Washington model has become weathered, and the Beijing consensus more relevant in this specific continent.

Over the last years, "Creating Shared Value" has become a much discussed concept in business practice as well as in management theory and especially in the context of corporate social responsibility. This book offers a contribution to the current academic discussions on the well-received article of Michael Porter and Marc Kramer in Harvard Business Review in 2011. In the light of the increasing references to the shared value concept, it develops a critical discussion on its fundamentals and its implications for the relationship between economy and society. By that, the book seeks to shed light on the understanding of the role and the nature of the firm in a globalized economy. The result is a collection of interdisciplinary academic reviews which offer interdisciplinary reflections on "Creating Shared Value" to illuminate theoretical, conceptual and practical challenges of the topic. Within the fields of Business Ethics, Theory of the Firm, Management and Philosophy, researcher, students and practitioners will be given a deeper insight on how to approach to the concept in a conceptional and philosophical way.

This book discusses the contemporary trade dynamics necessary for companies to grow competitively in the global marketplace, extending the conceptual and analytical foundations of international trade and economy in North America. This book examines the growth of international trade in North America during the pre-and post-North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and analyzes the complexities that occurred when the economic recession struck the global markets. It outlines applied tools and techniques for business projects to thrive in the competitive marketplace, and serves as a learning post and a think tank for students, researchers, and business managers operating in a global landscape.

This edited collection explores the variations of mentoring in India in comparison to western models, providing rich contextual interpretation and paving the way for a greater understanding of mentoring as a phenomenon. With India having the world's largest youth population, its longstanding mentoring tradition is increasingly being replaced by emerging mentoring models in which younger generations are constantly exposed to both Indian and western influences. Paying particular attention to formal and informal mentoring models, the contributions cover the corporate sector, higher education, the developmental sector and venture capitalist-enabled entrepreneurial mentoring. Offering a uniquely non-western perspective, this innovative study also showcases both mentor and protege perceptions of mentoring, and will be of great appeal to both practitioners and scholars of leadership.

Evaluating the ways in which we construe consumer choice, this book examines the psychology, methods and realities of the role it plays for today's consumer. Confronted by competing brands and products, services, and e-tailed opportunities that are but a click away, how does the consumer choose among them to achieve the particular array of goods to suit their lifestyle? Consumer researchers often seek to explain consumer choice by attributing it to beliefs, desires, attitudes, and intentions in the absence of any theoretical justification. Perspectives on Consumer Choice is the outcome of a research program that employs cognitive explanations in a responsible and disciplined way to genuinely elucidate consumer choice in social scientific terms. Employing a reasoned approach to understanding consumption, this book builds upon theoretical and empirical research in economic psychology, behavioral economics and philosophy as well as marketing and consumer research.

This book deals with problems related to the evaluation of customer satisfaction in very different contexts and ways. Often satisfaction about a product or service is investigated through suitable surveys which try to capture the satisfaction about several partial aspects which characterize the perceived quality of that product or service. This book presents a series of statistical techniques adopted to analyze data from real situations where customer satisfaction surveys were performed. The aim is to give a simple guide of the variety of analysis that can be performed when analyzing data from sample surveys: starting from latent variable models to heterogeneity in satisfaction and also introducing some testing methods for comparing different customers. The book also discusses the construction of composite indicators including different benchmarks of satisfaction. Finally, some rank-based procedures for analyzing survey data are also shown.

This book offers the first comprehensive exploration of frequent flyer programs. By combining academic research with extensive insights and examples from the actual business world, it explores the key drivers and strategies of airline loyalty marketing today in an unprecedented manner. Strategy in Airline Loyalty also explores how the programs have evolved over time from marketing programs to financial powerhouses, identifying both the catalysts for change, as well as the strategic options and underlying trade-offs available to airlines. Covering diverse angles ranging from behavioral economics, to accounting, and structural design, the book reviews every core aspect of frequent flyer programs and offers extensive frameworks and definitions. The book provides a useful and complete reference for researchers, and helps those interested in frequent flyer programs to develop a better understanding of their past, present and future.

Contributing to academic discussions on entrepreneurship and gender in Africa, this book provides coverage of recent trends and an exploration of the evolution of female entrepreneurship over time. This innovative new text, written from an African woman's perspective, fills a gap in the current literature on this topic and places important focus on the role of female entrepreneurship in Africa's development as a continent. Focussing on key issues such as social feminism and the capability approach, the author addresses the possibility of a potential overlap between social entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship in Africa. Insightful accounts of women from countries such as South Africa, Namibia and Ghana, along with theoretical research into the further development and advancement of female entrepreneurs, make this book an important must-read for those interested in entrepreneurship and gender in Africa.

This book analyzes the evolution of marketing and the ways in which marketing actions can be rendered more effective, before setting out a new approach to marketing, termed The Extra Step (TES) in recognition of the importance that it attributes to the final extra step in enhancing the effectiveness of marketing efforts. Readers will find clear description of the pathway from purchase to loyalty and the various means of developing customer loyalty. It is explained how the TES approach goes one step further by considering the consumer as a partner whose involvement during the production and fine tuning phase of products and services can help to increase the efficiency of customer loyalty actions implemented by companies. The theoretical analysis is supported by observations and empirical evidence relating to the concepts and benefits of the TES approach. These examples concern firms in Italy, Europe, and the United States, including insurance agencies, pharmaceutical companies and pharmacies, and food distribution companies. The TES approach is of wide relevance and especially valid for the service sector.

This publication provides an unparalleled comparative analysis of two "hot topics" in the field of antitrust and unfair competition law with regard to a number of key countries. The first part of the book examines the prohibition of abuse of a dominant position and globalization in relation to two broad questions: first, whether there is consistency between the approaches of different jurisdictions to the notion of abuse, and, second, whether there are too many restrictions on legal rights and business opportunities resulting from the prohibition of abuse of dominance. The international report drafted by Professor Pinar Akman reveals that there are as many similarities as differences between the approaches of the twenty-one jurisdictions studied and presented in this book. This is an invitation to read the excellent international report as well as the reports on specific jurisdictions in order to grasp the variety of arguments and approaches of this antitrust area, which may, on the surface, appear alike. The second part gathers contributions on the question of protection and disclosure of trade secrets and know-how from various jurisdictions. The need for adequate protection of trade secrets has increased due to digitalization and the ease with which large volumes of misappropriated information can be reproduced. The comprehensive international report, prepared by Henrik Bengtsson, brings together these reflections by comparing various national positions. The book also discusses the resolutions passed by the General Assembly of the International League of Competition Law (LIDC) following a debate on each of these topics, and includes proposed solutions and recommendations.

This book offers a critical analysis of recent developments in the automotive industry of East-Central Europe (ECE). Economists, industry specialists and national governments have considered the rapid development of the automotive industry in ECE in the past twenty years an unqualified success. This rapid growth has been based on large inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Western Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea, and it significantly contributed to GDP growth, created thousands of new jobs, and completely transformed the previously existing automotive industry in the region. This volume offers an analysis that goes beyond uncritical celebratory accounts of this rapid growth. It is based on original, detailed firm-level research conducted by the author in Czechia and Slovakia between 2009 and 2015 that covered assembly firms and the networks of component suppliers. Theoretically and conceptually, the analysis will draw on the global production networks and global value chains perspectives. Drawing on the original empirical data and on additional available information, this volume concentrates on several important questions related to the development of the automotive industry in ECE in the 2000s:* The role of FDI in the rapid development of the automotive industry after 1990 and particularly in the 2000s.* The upgrading of the automotive industry in East-Central Europe through FDI* The position of ECE in the automotive industry research and development (R&D)* The effects of the 2008-2009 economic crisis in the automotive industry of ECE.* The role of state in the rapid development of the automotive industry in ECE in the 1990s and 2000s.* The effects of FDI on domestic firms in the form of linkages between foreign-owned and domestic firms and spillovers from foreign-owned to domestic firms.

Explaining the determinants of China and India's development cooperation in Africa cannot be achieved in simple terms. After collecting over 1000 development cooperation projects by China and India in Africa using AidData, this book applies the method of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to understand the motives behind their development cooperation. Mthembu posits that neither China nor India were solely motivated by one causal factor, whether strategic, economic or humanitarian interests or the size of their diaspora in Africa. China and India are driven by multiple and conjunctural factors in providing more development cooperation to some countries than others on the African continent. Only when some of these respective causal factors are combined is it evident that both countries disbursed high levels of development cooperation to some African countries.

This book focuses on topics such as the cultural specificity of Arab family businesses with regard to shaping their governance and management; the influence that specific values in the Arab world could exert on the management of family businesses; how spiritual and religious values influence business in Arab family firms; and the role of emotions in the management of family firms in the Arab World. Presenting a collection of contributions addressing management, finance, strategy and succession in Arab Family businesses, this book constitutes a novel and unique contribution to the research field of family businesses.

The purpose of this book is to present a comprehensive review of the latest research and development trends at the international level for modeling and optimization of the supplier selection process for different industrial sectors. It is targeted to serve two audiences: the MBA and PhD student interested in procurement, and the practitioner who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of procurement analysis with multi-criteria based decision tools to avoid upstream risks to get better supply chain visibility. The book is expected to serve as a ready reference for supplier selection criteria and various multi-criteria based supplier's evaluation methods for forward, reverse and mass customized supply chain. This book encompasses several criteria, methods for supplier selection in a systematic way based on extensive literature review from 1998 to 2012. It provides several case studies and some useful links which can serve as a starting point for interested researchers. In the appendix several computer code written in MatLab and VB.NET is also included for the interested reader. Lucid explosion of various techniques used to select and evaluate suppliers is one of the unique characteristic of this book. Moreover, this book gives in depth analysis of selection and evaluation of suppliers for traditional supply chain, closed loop supply chain, supply chain for customized product, green supply chain, sustainable supply chain and also depicts methods for supply base reduction and selection of large number of suppliers.

This book focuses on the economic and political relationships between Russia and Europe, which are currently characterized by the existence and escalation of contradictions. On the one hand, the common history and geographical proximity of Russia and Europe have naturally produced a close interdependence; on the other, current global political affairs and opposing positions continue to hinder the development of common economic relationships in Russia and Europe. This contributed volume describes integration processes in Russia and Europe to illustrate best practice examples and demonstrates how both parties have increasingly come to understand the importance of international cooperation, highlighting economic, legal, philosophical, political and sociological aspects.

This book investigates how strategic marketing is influencing organizations' innovation performance. It presents a structured study conducted on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to identify the correlation between innovation and strategic marketing in both Indian manufacturing and service organizations. Strategic marketing, which achieves excellence in organizations, is at the heart of improving productivity, profitability and market sustainability, while also supplying organizations a much sought-after competitive advantage. It has been observed that strategic marketing can significantly help any manufacturing firm to attain the required level of growth, and can specifically be used by Indian firms as a means of deriving differential advantages. Indian organizations that pursue more traditional approaches to strategy are now feeling the intense market pressure to modify their policy with respect to quality. The result has been a shift to 'Strategy with Innovation'. As market competition has again increased, providing quality products and services alone is no longer sufficient; companies are additionally expected to provide products with a touch of innovation to attract customers. This calls for innovation in terms of products, processes, technologies, systems and practically every other area of an organization, which can only be achieved by combining strategies and innovation. This book identifies the variables of strategic marketing that can help companies significantly boost their innovation performance, making it a valuable resource for students, researchers, professionals and policymakers alike.

Speed, social change, historical inheritance and cultural gaps are key factors which have significant impact on global collaboration and global sourcing. The author explains how working in virtual teams in a global, multicultural environment requires a significant amount of organizational and behavioral change of people and organizations. Understanding cultural differences in working styles is important for successful global project management. Major theories of international management, company internationalization, cultural dimensions and distances will be discussed to develop cross-cultural competencies and conflict management styles for international project managers. They will understand modern theories and methods of international management and will be able to apply these to practical project management problems. They understand the benefits and challenges of international cooperation and know how to identify modes of cooperation that are relevant to the needs of international teams.

This volume uses cutting-edge theory and empirical analysis of channels of international interaction to build new knowledge about strategies of entrepreneurs, domestic and multinational firms, governments, and international organizations facing increasing globalization. The ongoing process of globalization implies the continuing expansion and intensification of economic, political, social, cultural and judicial relations across borders. It is furthered by reductions in transportation and communication costs, the rise of new information technologies, such as the internet, and liberalizations in the markets for goods, services, labor, capital, and technology. Globalization presents new opportunities to some, but risks and threats to others. The volume presents new research and findings by leading scholars on international trade, labor markets, financial markets, economic integration, political science, law, management, the humanities, developing countries, and international relations.

This book offers a cultural studies approach to marketing and advertising and shows readers how scholars from different academic disciplines make sense of marketing's role in American culture and society. It is written in an accessible style and has numerous drawings by the author to give it more visual interest.

This book addresses the increasing prominence of family-owned business groups and their potential to influence growth and development in the global economy. Family businesses are not necessarily converging towards unitary models of corporate governance or organizational designs, but remain heterogeneous in a global economy. Empirical evidence on the developmental effects of family-owned business groups is fragmented and inconclusive: are there tangible differences between family-owned business groups in emerging economies and developed countries? Are there important variations across and between industries? How have geopolitical circumstances shaped their activities? In this book, the author seeks alternative, pluralistic, and cross-disciplinary approaches through economic, management, and organizational perspectives. This book provides readers with a core understanding of how both corporate governance and business strategy are shaped by the institutional frameworks of markets, as well as knowledge into how institutional context shapes the governance and strategies of family business groups. It is an invaluable reference tool for scholars and students in the social sciences, as well as professionals involved in strategic management issues within a knowledge management context.