This book highlights innovative solutions together with various techniques and methods that can help support the manufacturing sector to excel in economic, social, and environmental terms in networked business environments. The book also furthers understanding of sustainable manufacturing from the perspective of value creation in manufacturing networks, by capitalizing on the outcomes of the European 'Sustainable Value Creation in Manufacturing Networks' project. New dynamics and uncertainties in modern markets call for innovative solutions in the global manufacturing sector. While the manufacturing sector is traditionally driven by technology, it also requires other managerial and organizational solutions in terms of network governance, business models, sustainable solution development for products and services, performance management portals, etc., which can provide major competitive advantages for companies. At the same time, the manufacturing industry is subject to a change process, where business networks play a major role in value-creating processes. By far the biggest challenge in this context is making value creation a sustainable process where economic, social, and environmental demands are met. Managing product and service-related business operations in manufacturing networks thus brings different challenges that cannot purely be resolved using traditional methods, and techniques. This book is an outcome of a European project funded by the European Commission, and performed by a dedicated R&D consortium comprised of some leading Research institutions and Industrial partners.

This book focuses on the cultural challenges often faced by international managers and global business operations. In the last few decades, the world has witnessed unprecedented economic turmoil, volatility, and uncertainty which has altered the political dynamics and sociocultural landscape around the globe and directly or indirectly affected international business activities. Further, new markets have opened up in every corner of the world. Brazil, Russia, India, and China, collectively known as BRIC, are strong emerging economic powers similar to the once captivated 'Asian Tigers' such as Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan which rose decades ago. The emergence of these markets has heightened both the opportunities and challenges for national and international businesses. Multinational firms are gradually expanding in the emerging markets and are expected to become giants in the foreseeable future. As they expand, they also need to assume increasing social responsibilities in a global context, and it is important that the ways business is conducted are developed accordingly. As such, understanding the practices, challenges, and strategies that companies have developed is critical to global firm's success. Against this background, the book highlights the importance of understanding cultural elements when managing multicultural human behaviors in the workplace. Based on conceptual and empirical work, it pushes the frontiers of knowledge of this emerging field in international business setup and management, and explores how globalization is changing the way in which multinational firms formulate their business strategies. "The editors of this text bring a wealth of expertise in this area, as is evidenced by their choice of topics, and the strength of the experts they have invited to contribute to the book. The combined chapters provide both strategic guidance as well as a focus on operational concerns that may arise in international business including expatriation and human resource mobility. The authors not only correctly identify the oncoming challenges, but also present evidence regarding the likely solutions such as culture and innovation and global change management. Overall, this book will be a tremendous resource for scholars in the international business field, but I believe the audience will be much wider. The international team of editors and authors bring a wide range of perspective as well as real-world contextual knowledge that will be useful for scholars and practitioners who seek to leverage culture and human capital to advance international business and drive the global economy. I applaud the editors for their vision and leadership in guiding us through one of the most challenging contemporary research areas and through one of the most pressing challenges of our day." -Dr. Richard L. Griffith, Executive Director, Institute for Cross Cultural Management, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA

This book provides a synthesis of research perspectives on customer engagement through a collection of chapters from thought leaders. It identifies cutting-edge metrics for capturing and measuring customer engagement and highlights best practices in implementing customer engagement marketing strategies. Responding to the rapidly changing business landscape where consumers are more connected, accessible, and informed than ever before, many firms are investing in customer engagement marketing. The book will appeal to academics, practitioners, consultants, and managers looking to improve customer engagement.

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.

This book examines the dilemma of overdependence on tourism in Caribbean countries and territories, and the need for a resilient path to address the industry's vulnerability in the face of natural disasters. The chapters in the book question how tourism resilience is understood and practiced in Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) and the factors that inform, undermine, or indeed redefine the sustainable resilience agenda for these territories. With its overreliance on tourism and vulnerability to climate, the Caribbean region finds itself susceptible and in need of an innovative approach in order to survive economically. Contributors to this volume touch on all three sustainability pillars and spanning across many tourism sector considerations, such as product development, stakeholder management, hotel management, marketing and entrepreneurship. By spanning the geography of the Anglophone and Spanish Caribbean this book offers a smorgasbord of conceptual and applied perspectives to researchers in the area of tourism resilience in SIDS. It also presents strategic considerations to public and private sector practitioners in implementing measures to strengthen the competitive positioning of their destinations as they contend with the dynamism of the external and internal environments.

This book begins with a review of basic results in optimal search for a stationary target. It then develops the theory of optimal search for a moving target, providing algorithms for computing optimal plans and examples of their use. Next it develops methods for computing optimal search plans involving multiple targets and multiple searchers with realistic operational constraints on search movement. These results assume that the target does not react to the search. In the final chapter there is a brief overview of mostly military problems where the target tries to avoid being found as well as rescue or rendezvous problems where the target and the searcher cooperate. Larry Stone wrote his definitive book Theory of Optimal Search in 1975, dealing almost exclusively with the stationary target search problem. Since then the theory has advanced to encompass search for targets that move even as the search proceeds, and computers have developed sufficient capability to employ the improved theory. In this book, Stone joins Royset and Washburn to document and explain this expanded theory of search. The problem of how to search for moving targets arises every day in military, rescue, law enforcement, and border patrol operations.

India is still perceived by some as a developing country that has yet to create world-class products of its own. However, this book shows that in recent years India has emerged as a lead market for frugality-driven innovations that are affordable, robust and successful even outside its geographic boundaries. Many global companies have recognized these changes and are ramping up their local R&D capabilities. At the same time, several Indian firms are venturing out to international shores and gaining access to new markets. Using a top-down approach, the book takes a closer look at systems of innovation at work and presents examples of successful, corporate innovations in multiple industries and their contextual conditions.

With the goal of perfecting the national governance system and raising the country's governance capability, this book systematically analyzes the characteristics and trajectory of China's economic expansion and structural adjustment, while also assessing a variety of short-term debt and long-term economic performance and financial risks. In addition to discussing the market-oriented reform process at the stage of economic development, institutional and structural characteristics, it presents research on the country as a whole, its residents, non-financial corporations, financial institutions and central banks, the central government, local government, and other external sectors. On the basis of extensive data, the book analyzes the national and sectoral balance sheets in China and explores a number of major issues the country is currently facing, such as sustainable development, government restructuring, local debt, welfare reform, openness and stability of the financial system, etc., as well as suitable policy measures and institutional arrangements for addressing them.

Motigraphics is the natural complement to demographics and psychographics - the completion of a triad. For consumers, because motives are the most important dimension of human behavior, motives lead directly to decisions, and decisions lead directly to purchasing behavior. Demographics and psychographics tell us the what, when, where, and how of consumer behavior; but motigraphics tells us why consumers do what they do.

Dr. Maddock maintains that academic psychology has failed to provide a formal approach to motivation; thus, marketers have never been able to get a firm grasp on why consumers prefer what they do, why they cancel and don't renew, and what factors enter into their decision making at the point of sale. With Motigraphics we can now measure and compute motives, and the strength of motivation allows us to determine how much equity a brand Motigraphics allows us to describe customer loyalty in terms of a quantitative motivational profile and scale. Not only does Dr. Maddock show how to measure motives, he also helps us assess the amount of emotion involved in a product or service. Since most consumer decisions are based on emotion, not reason, the importance of Dr. Maddock's book for psychologists, marketers, and advertising and sales professionals is self-evident and inestimable.

This book examines key aspects of the increasingly important phenomenon of reshoring - the decision of companies to reverse offshoring by bringing manufacturing back from overseas. The aim is to equip readers with a full understanding of the current extent of reshoring, its drivers, and the associated opportunities and challenges. The impact of governments' economic policies on the location choices of entrepreneurs in an era of globalization is carefully analyzed, drawing on experiences in the United States and Italy, where contrasting encouragement is provided for reshoring decisions. The effect on reshoring of recent developments regarding technology, the environment, and other factors is assessed in depth, and readers will also find close scrutiny of the relationship between reshoring and manufacturing performance. The book will be of interest to all academics, researchers, and practitioners with an interest in the manufacturing industry and will be an excellent teaching aid for a variety of courses in different disciplines at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

This book bridges two essential aspects of assessing and achieving business excellence in 21st-century organizations. The author argues that transnational companies face a twofold challenge: managing global knowledge networks and multicultural project teams on the one hand; and interacting and collaborating across boundaries using global communication technologies, on the other. The author also argues that this dual challenge calls for the creation of a business excellence program that fits and thrives within these multicultural environments. In response, he reviews corporate practices in quality management and business excellence frameworks that have been extensively used on a transnational scale to drive organizational performance. The book approaches quality management as an element that is no longer a choice, but has now become a necessity if companies want to compete in highly globalized environments.

Connected customers, using a wide range of devices such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops have ushered in a new era of consumerism. Now more than ever, this change has prodded marketing departments to work with their various IT departments and technologists to expand consumers' access to content. In order to remain competitive, marketers must integrate marketing campaigns across these different devices and become proficient in using technology. Innovations in Technology and Marketing for the Connected Consumer is a pivotal reference source that develops new insights into applications of technology in marketing and explores effective ways to reach consumers through a wide range of devices. While highlighting topics such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, this publication explores practices of technology-empowered digital marketing as well as the methods of applying practices to less developed countries. This book is ideally designed for marketers, managers, advertisers, branding teams, application developers, IT specialists, academicians, researchers, and students.

This proceedings volume explores the concept of civil society as an engine for economic and social well-being. Featuring contributions from the 2017 Griffiths School of Management and IT Annual Conference on Business, Entrepreneurship and Ethics (GMSAC) held in Oradea, Romania, this volume provides different perspectives, emerging studies and trends that are crucial to the further understanding of the interconnection of civil society, economic development and social stability. The enclosed contributions address key topics such as a) the ways in which national, regional and local governments are best equipped to support economic and social development, b) how government, business and non-profit sectors can support economic and social stability and c) the ways in which growing economies' active societies can strengthen civil society. Research and practice have proven that there is a great potential for civil society organizations to support socio-economic well-being, both directly and indirectly. As a result, the interplay between civil society, economics and social well-being is highly relevant to current business and economic research and is a topic of discussion by academics and practitioners in the government, business and non-profit sectors. This volume showcases some of the current research, cases and discussions in this area from an interdisciplinary, global perspective. Featuring contributions exploring timely subjects such as consumer behavior, the hospitality industry, education, corporate social responsibility (CSR), banking, health care, and semiotics, this book is appropriate for researchers, academics and policy makers in economic and social development, business ethics and sustainability.

This proceedings volume provides current research on emerging issues in business, economics and finance in the global economy with particular emphasis on Eastern Europe. Featuring selected papers from the 2017 International Economics Conference in Sibiu (IECS) organized by the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania, the contributing chapters consider new business models, theories, practices and instruments from advanced and emerging economies in the context of recent global trends. After over 20 years of increasing openness and liberation of the world economy, recent events in regions such as Europe, USA and Asia have created challenges to the idea of globalization and integration. There is a delay between the real-world economic changes and the reflection of such changes in the economic research literature. The 2017 IECS conference and the enclosed papers aim to fill this gap in the study of globalization, covering diverse topics such as business administration, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, finance, accounting, tourism and business informatics.

In a world with a seemingly infinite amount of content and scores of methods for consuming that content, marketing communication today is about appealing to individuals, person by person. Effectively appealing to customers requires delivery of brand experiences built on relevance and recognition of context. Just as in any conversation, delivering relevance in context requires understanding the person one is speaking with and shared environment.Wheeler answers the biggest question facing digital marketers today: 'with an ever expanding array of digital touch points at one's disposal, how does one deliver content and experiences around one's brand that build relationships and drives results?' The quick answer to this is 'through the application of data and analytics to drive highly relevant, contextual targeted content and adaptive experience', but since this answer is not as easy to achieve as it is to say, Architecting Experience has been designed to help readers develop the understanding of marketing data, technology and analytics required to make this happen.

This book aims to provide insight into the fields of business and leadership by examining the role of ethics in these areas. The papers in this book derive from the 2014 Annual Griffiths School of Management International Conference, organized by Emanuel University of Oradea, Romania, where academics and practitioners interacted and discussed current insights and research in the different dimensions of business ethics and leadership. This resulting book offers empirical and theological research on ethics, business and leadership from a transdisciplinary and knowledge- based context. Since the financial crisis in 2008, the debate on business ethics and leadership has dominated the public sphere at all levels of interest, from grassroots to the elites in educational institutions, governments, businesses and NGOs. Naturally, constructive and transdisciplinary discussions need to take place, with due consideration for the specific context of each situation, so that propositions upon which to build the future can be formulated. These discussions unfold in an ever more intricate world of business, powered by ever more pervasive and intelligent technology and scientific development, all brought together by globalization. In this world, organizations are faced with new and more complex ethical issues in their pursuit to serve clients, gain profits, motivate employees, collaborate with partners and act responsibly towards society and the environment. A wise approach to changing the future is to understand the mistakes of the past, because one must always learn how to overcome past mistakes in order to develop a better future. But a necessary approach to building a better future is looking at the world through a transdisciplinary mindset. This allows us to see the world as a complex whole; it fosters creative interaction between fields of knowledge; it opens doors for knowledge and innovation flows across disciplines; and it allows the tackling of complex problems and situations. Given the current context of our world, this is an approach that we ought to pursue. Featuring contributions from academics, researchers, scholars and practitioners from across the globe, this book will be of great interest for students and practitioners in the fields of business, leadership and ethics.

This book offers a collection of studies on regional integration and the dynamic business environment in East Asia. The papers included, originally presented at the 2014 Asia Pacific Business Conference on "Free Trade Agreements and Regional Integration in East Asia," examine the challenges and dynamics in the increasingly integrated East Asian markets and outline a new paradigm for doing international business in the region. The papers address diverse areas related to regional integration, financial markets, investment, trade and capital flow, sustainability, accounting and auditing issues, exchange rates, strategies and the regional business environment. The book provides a valuable resource for practitioners, policy-makers and students who are interested in understanding the vibrant aspects of business in today's East Asia.

This proceedings volume presents new methods and applications in applied economics with special interest in advanced cross-section data estimation methodology. Featuring select contributions from the 2019 International Conference on Applied Economics (ICOAE 2019) held in Milan, Italy, this book explores areas such as applied macroeconomics, applied microeconomics, applied financial economics, applied international economics, applied agricultural economics, applied marketing and applied managerial economics. International Conference on Applied Economics (ICOAE) is an annual conference that started in 2008, designed to bring together economists from different fields of applied economic research, in order to share methods and ideas. Applied economics is a rapidly growing field of economics that combines economic theory with econometrics, to analyze economic problems of the real world, usually with economic policy interest. In addition, there is growing interest in the field of applied economics for cross-section data estimation methods, tests and techniques. This volume makes a contribution in the field of applied economic research by presenting the most current research. Featuring country specific studies, this book is of interest to academics, students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in applied economics, econometrics and economic policy.

This proceedings volume provides a multifaceted perspective on current challenges and opportunities that organizations face in their efforts to develop and grow in an ever more complex environment. Featuring selected contributions from the 2019 Griffiths School of Management Annual Conference (GSMAC) on Business, Entrepreneurship and Ethics, this book focuses on the role of creativity, technology and ethics in facilitating the transformation organizations need in order to be ready for the future and succeed. Growth and development have always been imperative for people, organizations, and societies and a relevant topic in the management sciences. Globalization, along with dramatic changes in social, cultural, and technological progress, are the main factors that determine the current conditions for development, putting forth a new set of challenges and opportunities that are putting pressure on organisations to adapt. Although technology and creativity seem to be the mantra for success in this new context, issues around the ethics of these two factors also seem to be crucial to the sustainability of growth in organizations. Featuring contributions on topics such as academic marketing, technology in healthcare organizations, ethical issues in hospitality, artificial intelligence and data mining, this book provides research and tools for students, professors, practitioners and policy makers in the fields of business, management, public administration and sociology.

This book deals with leadership trends in the next decade and beyond. It critically examines how knowledge management can be used to address emerging societal and business issues, such as sustaining complex product quality, controlling automation generated unemployment, increasing cyber insecurity in virtual workforce environment, and unstable government and market trends. These issues require unique leadership qualities to be effective in extremely challenging business and socio-political environments. Included among the topics explored by the authors in this book are: investment for the development of diverse human capital, use of data analytics for performance improvement, declining demographic dividends in population deficient areas, and globally increasing women and minority education and employment. Scholars in business and economics, and managers in industry and government will find this book to be a valuable resource in exploring new directions for the future development of leadership.

This collection of expert articles highlights the standards and practices concerning sustainability reporting among companies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Due to the growing interest in corporate social responsibility issues, sustainability reporting has become increasingly common among businesses that claim to adhere to certain social, environmental and economic standards. While it can be observed that sustainability reporting is widely practiced in Western and Northern European countries, only few studies have been conducted on this topic in the CEE region. Drawing on a major empirical study involving researchers from 10 different CEE countries, this book addresses the status quo of sustainability reporting, outlines future prospects and provides essential recommendations for practitioners.

This book discusses the connection between fast fashion brands and customer-centric sustainability. It highlights what consumers can do with fast fashion and the important aspects that need to be addressed to make fast fashion sustainable. Fast fashion is an inevitable element in today's fashion business cycle and its adverse impacts on sustainable fashion are a major issue.

This book discusses the role historical events played in determining the pattern of growth of Indian manufacturing. Two important historical events significantly influenced the course of Indian manufacturing from the 15th century AD. The first was the arrival of European merchants via sea route pioneered by Vasco-da-Gamma in 1498 and the other was the dawn of the Mughal Empire in 1526. The book explores how these two events provided the appropriate stimulus for the emergence of traditional flexible manufacturing in India and how they played a vital role in the pattern of growth of the Indian manufacturing: The Mughal Empire created an integrated economy of continental size whereas European trading companies expanded the commercial connectivity of the Indian economy and South East Asia. It further investigates how the circumstances created by the colonial administration, factor endowment and market conditions created the complex forms of manufacturing enterprises that India inherited at the time of independence. It is a valuable resource for students of history, economic history, business history and the history of technology.