Global Business Intelligence refers to an organization's ability to gather, process and analyze pertinent international information in order to make optimal business decisions in a timely manner. With a challenging economic and geopolitical environment, companies and executives need to be adept at information gathering in order to manage emerging challenges and gain competitive advantages. This book Global Business Intelligence assembles a cast of international experts and thought leaders and explores the implications of business intelligence on contemporary management. Global Business Intelligence will be a key resource for researchers, academics, students and policy makers alike in the fields of International Business & Management, Business Strategy, and Geopolitics as well as related disciplines like Political Science, Economics, and Geography.

This is a book on how and why workers come together. Almost coincident with its inception, worker organisation is a central and enduring element of capitalism. In the 19th and 20th centuries' mobilisation by workers played a substantial role in reshaping critical elements of these societies in Europe, North America, Australasia and elsewhere including the introduction of minimum labour standards (living wage rates, maximum hours etc), workplace safety and compensation laws and the rise of welfare state more generally. Notwithstanding setbacks in recent decades, worker organisation represents a pivotal countervailing force to moderate the excesses of capitalism and is likely to become even more influential as the social consequences of rising global inequality become more manifest. Indeed, instability and periodic shifts in the respective influence of capital and labour are endemic to capitalism. As formal institutions have declined in some countries or unions outlawed and severely repressed in others, there has been growing recognition of informal strike activity by workers and wider alliances between unions and community organisations in others. While such developments are seen as new they aren't. Indeed, understanding of worker organisation is often ahistorical and even those understandings informed by historical research are, this book will argue, in need of revision. This book provides a new perspective on and new insights into how and why workers organise, and what shapes this organisation. The Origins of Worker Mobilisation will be key reading for scholars, academics and policy makers the fields of industrial relations, HRM, labour economics, labour history and related disciplines.

This book presents work on healthcare management and engineering using optimization and simulation methods and techniques. Specific topics covered in the contributed chapters include discrete-event simulation, patient admission scheduling, simulation-based emergency department control systems, patient transportation, cost function networks, hospital bed management, and operating theater scheduling. The content will be valuable for researchers and postgraduate students in computer science, information technology, industrial engineering, and applied mathematics.

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has recently attracted considerable attention from both research and industrial communities. Numerous papers have been published regarding solving the resource- allocation problems in NFV, from various perspectives, considering different constraints, and adopting a range of techniques. However, it is difficult to get a clear impression of how to understand and classify different kinds of resource allocation problems in NFV and how to design solutions to solve these problems efficiently. This book addresses these concerns by offering a comprehensive overview and explanation of different resource allocation problems in NFV and presenting efficient solutions to solve them. It covers resource allocation problems in NFV, including an introduction to NFV and QoS parameters modelling as well as related problem definition, formulation and the respective state-of-the-art algorithms. This book allows readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of and deep insights into the resource allocation problems in NFV. It does so by exploring (1) the working principle and architecture of NFV, (2) how to model the Quality of Service (QoS) parameters in NFV services, (3) definition, formulation and analysis of different kinds of resource allocation problems in various NFV scenarios, (4) solutions for solving the resource allocation problem in NFV, and (5) possible future work in the respective area.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, and regular corporate scandals, there has been a growing concern with the moral and ethical foundations of business. Often these concerns are limited to narrow accounts of governance codes, regulatory procedures or behaviour incentives, which are often characterized by neoliberal bias underpinned by western masculine logics. This book challenges these limited accounts of ethics and responsibility. It looks at the writing of Gayatri C. Spivak who takes globally networked markets, people and ideas and provides tools to rethink subjectivity, ethics and corporate governance. Eschewing strict hierarchical notions of authority and identity, Spivak's work invites us to consider who speaks for whom and for what in organizational contexts. Relationality is also to be found in the radical politics and feminist ethics of Judith Butler who continues to draw on and develop her account of performativity to interpret contemporary organizations, management and work. While popular accounts of corporate ethics often concern themselves with the aims and actions of those at the top of organizations, Lauren Berlant focuses on the struggles of those at the bottom of the new social structures created by contemporary forms of capital. Finally, the book also considers ecological challenges through the work of Val Plumwood, who spent a lifetime considering the threats and responsibilities we face in environmental terms, and developed a feminist ecological philosophy for understanding social and species differences. This book will be relevant to students and researchers across business and management, organizational studies, critical management studies, gender studies and sociology.

This open access book demonstrates all the steps required to design heuristic algorithms for difficult optimization. The classic problem of the travelling salesman is used as a common thread to illustrate all the techniques discussed. This problem is ideal for introducing readers to the subject because it is very intuitive and its solutions can be graphically represented. The book features a wealth of illustrations that allow the concepts to be understood at a glance. The book approaches the main metaheuristics from a new angle, deconstructing them into a few key concepts presented in separate chapters: construction, improvement, decomposition, randomization and learning methods. Each metaheuristic can then be presented in simplified form as a combination of these concepts. This approach avoids giving the impression that metaheuristics is a non-formal discipline, a kind of cloud sculpture. Moreover, it provides concrete applications of the travelling salesman problem, which illustrate in just a few lines of code how to design a new heuristic and remove all ambiguities left by a general framework. Two chapters reviewing the basics of combinatorial optimization and complexity theory make the book self-contained. As such, even readers with a very limited background in the field will be able to follow all the content.

The proceedings focus on selected aspects of the current and upcoming trends in transportation, logistics and decision-making. In detail the included scientific papers analyze the problem of Decision Making under Uncertainty, Stochastic Optimization, Transportation, Logistics and Intelligent Business. The variety of the papers delivers added value for both scholars and practitioners. This book is the documentation of the symposium "The Sixth International Forum on Decision Sciences", which took place in Jinan, Shandong province, China.

social network analysis has been an established eld since the 1950s; in computer and information sciences, in biology, and of course in mathematics (graph theory) networks are central representations of objects and methods (De Nooy, forthc- ing). More detailed bibliometric studies have examined the individual, cognitive, and institutional composition of complex network theory (Morris and Yen 2004), and social network theory (Otte and Rousseau 2002). Among the more impor- .. tant pieces of literature are Borner et al. (2007), Bornholdt and Schuster (2003), Buchanan (2002), Dorogovtsev and Mendes (2003), Otte and Rousseau (2002), Newman (2003), and Watts (1999, 2004). Of these, Borner .. et al. (2007) stand out because they have most recently re-examined network science, considering it as a possible innovation in information science. All the reviews mentioned include efforts to build bridges between different scienti c disciplines and specialties. In this book we draw particular attention to the link between evolutionary economics and statistical physics. Despite this impressive development, claims that an entirely new science has been created (Barabasi ' 2002) have nevertheless been the subject of criticism. - depth analyses of a subset of "complex networks" contributions (1991-2003) have shown that the notion of "complex networks" was already prevalent in a number of different elds before it became practically a "brand name" or the popular label for a new specialty area in physics, or a new cross-disciplinary paradigm.

This book offers a collection of cutting-edge research on the Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ). Introduced by Genrich Altshuller in 1956, TRIZ has since been used by engineers, inventors and creators as an essential structured innovation method at businesses and organizations around the globe. The chapters of this book showcase work by selected authors from the 'TRIZ Future' conferences, which are organized by the European TRIZ Association (ETRIA). The chapters reflect an international mix of new ideas on TRIZ and knowledge-based innovation, highlight recent advances in the TRIZ community, and provide examples of successful collaboration between industry and academia. The book first introduces the reader to recent methodological innovations, then provides an overview of established and new TRIZ tools, followed by a collection of case studies and examples of TRIZ implementation in various scientific and social contexts.

This book covers recent advances in efficiency evaluations, most notably Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) methods. It introduces the underlying theories, shows how to make the relevant calculations and discusses applications. The aim is to make the reader aware of the pros and cons of the different methods and to show how to use these methods in both standard and non-standard cases. Several software packages have been developed to solve some of the most common DEA and SFA models. This book relies on R, a free, open source software environment for statistical computing and graphics. This enables the reader to solve not only standard problems, but also many other problem variants. Using R, one can focus on understanding the context and developing a good model. One is not restricted to predefined model variants and to a one-size-fits-all approach. To facilitate the use of R, the authors have developed an R package called Benchmarking, which implements the main methods within both DEA and SFA. The book uses mathematical formulations of models and assumptions, but it de-emphasizes the formal proofs - in part by placing them in appendices -- or by referring to the original sources. Moreover, the book emphasizes the usage of the theories and the interpretations of the mathematical formulations. It includes a series of small examples, graphical illustrations, simple extensions and questions to think about. Also, it combines the formal models with less formal economic and organizational thinking. Last but not least it discusses some larger applications with significant practical impacts, including the design of benchmarking-based regulations of energy companies in different European countries, and the development of merger control programs for competition authorities.

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.

There is a growing need in major industries such as airline, trucking, financial engineering, etc. to solve very large linear and integer linear optimization problems. Because of the dramatic increase in computing power, it is now possible to solve these problems. Along with the increase in computer power, the mathematical programming community has developed better and more powerful algorithms to solve very large problems. These algorithms are of interest to many researchers in the areas of operations research/management science, computer science, and engineering. In this book, Kipp Martin has systematically provided users with a unified treatment of the algorithms and the implementation of the algorithms that are important in solving large problems. Parts I and II of Large Scale Linear and Integer Programming provide an introduction to linear optimization using two simple but unifying ideas-projection and inverse projection. The ideas of projection and inverse projection are also extended to integer linear optimization. With the projection-inverse projection approach, theoretical results in integer linear optimization become much more analogous to their linear optimization counterparts. Hence, with an understanding of these two concepts, the reader is equipped to understand fundamental theorems in an intuitive way. Part III presents the most important algorithms that are used in commercial software for solving real-world problems. Part IV shows how to take advantage of the special structure in very large scale applications through decomposition. Part V describes how to take advantage of special structureby modifying and enhancing the algorithms developed in Part III. This sectioncontains a discussion of the current research in linear and integer linear programming. The author also shows in Part V how to take different problem formulations and appropriately modify' them so that the algorithms from Part III are more efficient. Again, the projection and inverse projection concepts are used in Part V to present the current research in linear and integer linear optimization in a very unified way. While the book is written for a mathematically mature audience, no prior knowledge of linear or integer linear optimization is assumed. The audience is upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students in computer science, applied mathematics, industrial engineering and operations research/management science. Course work in linear algebra and analysis is sufficient background.

This book covers a selection of fundamental topics of traffic engineering useful for highways facilities design and control. The treatment is concise but it does not neglect to examine the most recent and crucial theoretical aspects which are at the root of numerous highway engineering applications, like, for instance, the essential aspects of highways traffic stream reliability calculation and automated highway systems control. In order to make these topics easy to follow, several illustrative worked examples of applications are provided in great detail. An intuitive and discursive, rather than formal, style has been adopted throughout the contents. As such, the book offers up-to-date and practical knowledge on several aspects of traffic engineering, which is of interest to a wide audience including students, researchers as well as transportation planners, public transport specialists, city planners and decision-makers.

The book begins with an introduction to software reliability, models and techniques. The book is an informative book covering the strategies needed to assess software failure behaviour and its quality, as well as the application of optimization tools for major managerial decisions related to the software development process. It features a broad range of topics including software reliability assessment and apportionment, optimal allocation and selection decisions and upgradations problems. It moves through a variety of problems related to the evolving field of optimization of software reliability engineering, including software release time, resource allocating, budget planning and warranty models, which are each explored in depth in dedicated chapters. This book provides a comprehensive insight into present-day practices in software reliability engineering, making it relevant to students, researchers, academics and practising consultants and engineers.

This book offers an essential review of central theories, current research and applications in the field of numerical representations of ordered structures. It is intended as a tribute to Professor Ghanshyam B. Mehta, one of the leading specialists on the numerical representability of ordered structures, and covers related applications to utility theory, mathematical economics, social choice theory and decision-making. Taken together, the carefully selected contributions provide readers with an authoritative review of this research field, as well as the knowledge they need to apply the theories and methods in their own work.

This textbook introduces systems science as an entry point to present a basic introduction to research models and methods in management science (operation research). This textbook selects the classic quantitative models and methods as well as rich cases and detailed examples, which are suitable for students with a certain management and economics knowledge for further study, and helps to develop the abilities of using the basic models in real life.

Dynamic game theory serves the purpose of including strategic interaction in decision making and is therefore often applied to economic problems. This book presents the state-of-the-art and directions for future research in dynamic game theory related to economics. It was initiated by contributors to the 12th Viennese Workshop on Optimal Control, Dynamic Games and Nonlinear Dynamics and combines a selection of papers from the workshop with invited papers of high quality.

This cross-disciplinary business book develops insight into the management of businesses operating in various economic sectors that take a proactive approach to the triple dimension of sustainability (economic, social and environmental), positioning itself as a key reference for both academics and practitioners in the wide area of business management. The concept of sustainability is today at the heart of international policies and debate, and plays a key role in deep changes to the organizational models of companies operating in a wide range of sectors of economic activity. In particular, this book aims to gain a deeper understanding of how stakeholder engagement can contribute to value co-creation both in the company and along the supply chain, and what distinguishes the differing involvement of stakeholders, in particular between public involvement and stakeholder participation. Each chapter of this book presents different modalities of stakeholder involvement and develops the concept of value co-creation from organizational and marketing perspectives. This book is recommended reading for those interested in the fields of stakeholder engagement and theory, sustainability, business studies, and sustainable development.

This book introduces readers to essential technology assessment and forecasting tools, demonstrating their use on the basis of multiple cases. As organizations in the high-tech industry need to be able to assess emerging technologies, the book presents cases in which formal decision-making models are developed, providing a framework for decision-making in the context of technology acquisition and development. Applications of different technology forecasting tools are also discussed for a range of technologies and sectors, providing a guide to keep R&D organizations abreast of technological trends that affect their business. As such, the book offers a valuable the theoretical and practical reference guide for R&D managers responsible for emerging and future technologies.

Executives' morality and ethics became major research topics following recent business scandals, but the research missed a major explanation of executives' immorality: career advancement by "jumping" between firms that causes ignorance of job-pertinent tacit local knowledge, tempting "jumpers" to covertly conceal this ignorance. Generating distrust and ignorance cycles and mismanagement, this choice bars performance-based career advancement and encourages immoral careerism, advancing by immoral subterfuges. Such careerism is a known managerial malady, but explaining its emergence proved challenging as managerial ignorance is covertly concealed as a dark secret on organizations' dark side by conspiracies of silence. Managerially educated and experienced, Dr. Shapira achieved a breakthrough by a 5-year semi-native anthropological study of five "jumper"-managed automatic processing plants and their parent firms. This book untangles common ignorance and immoral careerism, concealed as dark secrets by executives who "rode" on the successes of mid-level "jumpers" who high-morally risked their authority and power by admitting ignorance and trustfully learned local tacit knowledge. The opposite choice tendencies accorded power, authority, and status rankings, which made practicing immorality easier the higher one's position, suggesting that the common "jumping" between managerial careers nurtures immoral executives similar to those exposed in the recent business scandals.

Conservation and balance laws on networks have been the subject of much research interest given their wide range of applications to real-world processes, particularly traffic flow. This open access monograph is the first to investigate different types of control problems for conservation laws that arise in the modeling of vehicular traffic. Four types of control problems are discussed - boundary, decentralized, distributed, and Lagrangian control - corresponding to, respectively, entrance points and tolls, traffic signals at junctions, variable speed limits, and the use of autonomy and communication. Because conservation laws are strictly connected to Hamilton-Jacobi equations, control of the latter is also considered. An appendix reviewing the general theory of initial-boundary value problems for balance laws is included, as well as an appendix illustrating the main concepts in the theory of conservation laws on networks.

Interest in the phenomenon known as "lean" has grown significantly in recent years. This is the first volume to provide an academically rigorous overview of the field of lean management, introducing the reader to the application of lean in diverse application areas, from the production floor to sales and marketing, from the automobile industry to academic institutions. The volume collects contributions from well-known lean experts and up-and-coming scholars from around the world. The chapters provide a detailed description of lean management across the manufacturing enterprise (supply chain, accounting, production, sales, IT etc.), and offer important perspectives for applying lean across different industries (construction, healthcare, logistics). The contributors address challenges and opportunities for future development in each of the lean application areas, concluding most chapters with a short case study to illustrate current best practice. The book is divided into three parts: The Lean Enterprise Lean across Industries A Lean World. This handbook is an excellent resource for business and management students as well as any academics, scholars, practitioners, and consultants interested in the "lean world."

This book starts from the relationship between urban built environment and travel behavior and focuses on analyzing the origin of traffic phenomena behind the data through multi-source traffic big data, which makes the book unique and different from the previous data-driven traffic big data analysis literature. This book focuses on understanding, estimating, predicting, and optimizing mobility patterns. Readers can find multi-source traffic big data processing methods, related statistical analysis models, and practical case applications from this book. This book bridges the gap between traffic big data, statistical analysis models, and mobility pattern analysis with a systematic investigation of traffic big data's impact on mobility patterns and urban planning.

Standards have become widespread regulatory tools that are set to promote global trade, innovation, efficiency, and quality. They contribute significantly to the creation of safe, reliable, and high quality services and technologies to ensure human health, environmental protection, or information security. Yet intentional deviations from standards by organizations are often reported in many sectors, which can either contribute to or challenge the measures of safety and quality they are designed to safeguard. Why then, despite all potential consequences, do organizations choose to deviate from standards in one way or another? This book uses structuration theory - covering aspects of both structure and agency - to explore the organizational conditions and contradictions under which different types of deviance occur. It provides empirical explanations for deviance in organizations that go beyond an understanding of individual misbehaviour where mainly a single person is held responsible. Case studies of software-developing organizations illustrate insightful generalizations on standards as a mechanism of sensemaking, resource allocation, and sanctioning, and provide ground to re-think corporate responsibility when deviating from standards in the 'audit society'.

This book presents comprehensive state-of-the-art theoretical analysis of the fundamental Newtonian and Newtonian-related approaches to solving optimization and variational problems. A central focus is the relationship between the basic Newton scheme for a given problem and algorithms that also enjoy fast local convergence. The authors develop general perturbed Newtonian frameworks that preserve fast convergence and consider specific algorithms as particular cases within those frameworks, i.e., as perturbations of the associated basic Newton iterations. This approach yields a set of tools for the unified treatment of various algorithms, including some not of the Newton type per se. Among the new subjects addressed is the class of degenerate problems. In particular, the phenomenon of attraction of Newton iterates to critical Lagrange multipliers and its consequences as well as stabilized Newton methods for variational problems and stabilized sequential quadratic programming for optimization. This volume will be useful to researchers and graduate students in the fields of optimization and variational analysis.