Digitalisation will be a leapfrog that will help organisations in Africa to jump ahead in the fourth industrial revolution.

Digitalisation, if implemented correctly, has the power to transform organisations. This book is devoted to enabling users to understand how their organisations can digitalise operations. The authors use simple, lucid, non-technical language to explain how organisations can implement digitalisation in their operations.

They explain the process of digitalisation, using practical case studies, and help the readers understand the highly technical concept in a simple manner. They also categorise the topics of digitalisation by explaining how it can be implemented in manufacturing, service, SMEs and LEs.

Project Management for Engineering, Business and Technology is a highly regarded textbook that addresses project management across all industries. First covering the essential background, from origins and philosophy to methodology, the bulk of the book is dedicated to concepts and techniques for practical application. Coverage includes project initiation and proposals, scope and task definition, scheduling, budgeting, risk analysis, control, project selection and portfolio management, program management, project organization, and all-important "people" aspects—project leadership, team building, conflict resolution, and stress management.

The systems development cycle is used as a framework to discuss project management in a variety of situations, making this the go-to book for managing virtually any kind of project, program, or task force. The authors focus on the ultimate purpose of project management—to unify and integrate the interests, resources and work efforts of many stakeholders, as well as the planning, scheduling, and budgeting needed to accomplish overall project goals.

This sixth edition features:

• updates throughout to cover the latest developments in project management methodologies;
• a new chapter on project procurement management and contracts;
• an expansion of case study coverage throughout, including those on the topic of sustainability and climate change, as well as cases and examples from across the globe, including India, Africa, Asia, and Australia; and
• extensive instructor support materials, including an instructor’s manual, PowerPoint slides, answers to chapter review questions and a test bank of questions.

Taking a technical yet accessible approach, this book is an ideal resource and reference for all advanced undergraduate and graduate students in project management courses, as well as for practicing project managers across all industry sectors.

The Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management offers a comprehensive and timely analysis of the nature and importance of innovation and the strategies and practices that can be used to improve organizational benefits from innovation. Innovation is centrally important for business and national competitiveness, and for the quality and standard of living around the world, but it does not happen by itself. For innovation to succeed, it needs to be properly managed. With contributions from 49 world-leading scholars, the Handbook explores the many sources of innovation, the broader social, economic, and technological contexts that encourage and constrain it, and the cutting-edge strategies and practices of innovation management. The book addresses the traditional concerns of innovation management-such as managing R&D, intellectual property, and creativity, and the contributions of science and marketing-but substantially extends traditional areas of interest. In this new volume, chapters examine emerging topics including design, social networks, open and social innovation, and innovation in business models, ecosystems, services, and platforms. The book explores the importance of innovation management for environmental sustainability, and its evolving nature and practice in Asia. Written in an accessible style, and with carefully selected bibliographies and a comprehensive index, the Handbook offers a uniquely authoritative and wide-ranging source of knowledge about innovation management. Each chapter identifies key issues and reviews the most important research findings. Future research questions are identified. The Handbook will be invaluable for students and faculty studying, researching, and teaching innovation, and for managers seeking to improve innovation outcomes in their organizations.

Every company can point to a growth strategy. Far fewer, however, systematically implement them; instead, they spend their time on incremental innovations, or rely on acquisitions. Still, organic, internal growth, accomplished through product line renewal and new service development, is essential to the long-term vitality of corporations across all industries. The FASTPATH to Growth takes on the challenge large corporations have in generating internal innovation-developing new product lines that address new market applications and provide the corporation with new streams of revenue. It integrates the key disciplines-new product strategy, user research, concept development and prototyping, market testing, and business modeling-needed for enterprise growth. The book illustrates its framework with in-depth examples of companies that have leveraged their core technologies to new markets and new types of uses in order to generate impressive results, including IBM, Honda, and Mars. Many of these examples contain templates that readers can use in their own projects. The book ends by addressing the human side of new market applications, providing advice on what executives and innovation team leaders must do to execute the steps of Meyers framework for new market applications development. This comprehensive management guide should appeal to practitioners in research and development, new business development strategists, and product managers, along with students in engineering management, innovation management, and corporate strategy courses that focus on technology industries.

Massive technological change has been impacting universities and university libraries in recent years. Such change has manifested in technological developments impacting all areas of academic library activity, including systems, services, collections, the physical library environment, marketing, and support for university teaching, learning, research, and administration. Many books and papers have examined these changes from a technical perspective. However, there is little substantive reflection on what technological change means, and how best to get out in front of it, for the academic library. Technology, Change and the Academic Library systematically reflects on technological innovation, the successes, failures and lessons learned, the nature, process and culture of change, and key aspects including impacts on library staff and users, roles and responsibilities, and skills and capabilities. The book takes an international perspective on the massive change currently affecting academic libraries. The title gives an overview and literature review, considers technological innovation and change management, future technologies and future change, and provides information on further reading. Case studies describe the rationale, aims, and objectives for particular technological innovations, and consider methods, outcomes, and recommendations for the future. Finally, the book reflects back on how technological change can best be wrought in academic libraries.

This book focuses specifically on the environmental issues related to the air pollution control and design. It is divided into four parts: (1) Fundamentals of air pollution control, (2) fundamentals of energy utilization, (3) gaseous control and design, and (4) particulate control and design, each consisting of four to six chapters. The topics covered in this book not only introduce the basic concepts of air pollution control and design but also address the fundamentals of energy utilization in the context of good engineering practice and policy instruments. It also features several innovative technologies and integrated methodologies relating to gaseous and particulate matter control and design. To facilitate technology integration and meet the need for comprehensive information on sustainable development, the book discusses a wide range of areas concerning the principles, applications, and assessment of air pollution control and design and thermodynamics, heat transfer, advanced combustion and renewable energy for energy utilization. It also features regulations and policy instruments adopted around the globe as well as several case studies. Presenting the emerging challenges, new concepts, innovative methodologies, and resolving strategies, as well as illustrative and inspiring case studies, it appeals to a wide range of readers, such as researchers, graduate students, engineers, policy makers, and entrepreneurs.

Digital technology has transformed business and management methodology in the modern era. As technologies continue to evolve and change, designing a platform for business architecture requires flexibility and practicality. Organizational Leadership for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides the latest research on the approaches to dealing successfully with newly emerging digital technologies and the dynamic complexity leaders are facing now and in the future. While highlighting topics, such as business architecture, interactive planning, and strategic capital, this book explores the implications of technologies on business and leadership as well as the development of leadership methods and applications. This book is an important resource for professionals, practitioners, upper-level students, and managers seeking current research on leadership and business advancement in the digital era.

Unlike other books available on the market, this combines rigorous academic theory with practical insights, making it both suitable for students and practitioners at the intersection between digital transformation, marketing and strategy implementation; Provides insights from contributors from GE, Volvo, Adobe, Siemens, DHL, Thales and other companies known for their exceptional abilities to drive profits via digital transformation; Practical steps to drive profits via digital strategy implementation both internally as well as externally (via-a-vis customers).

The field of strategy science has grown in both the diversity of issues it addresses and the increasingly interdisciplinary approaches it adopts in understanding the nature and significance of problems that are continuously emerging in the world of human endeavor. These newer kinds of challenges and opportunities arise in all forms of organizations, encompassing private and public enterprises, and with strategies that experiment with breaking the traditional molds and contours. The field of strategy science is also, perhaps inevitably, being impacted by the proliferation of hybrid organizations such as strategic alliances, the upsurge of approaches that go beyond the customary emphasis on competitiveness and profit making, and the intermixing of time-honored categories of activities such as business, industry, commerce, trade, government, the professions, and so on. The blurring of the boundaries between various areas and types of human activities points to a need for academic research to address the consequential developments in strategic issues. Hence, research and thinking about the nature of issues to be tackled by strategy science should also cultivate requisite variety in issues recognized for research inquiry, including the conceptual foundations of strategy and strategy making, and the examination of the critical roles of strategy makers, strategic thinking, time and temporalities, business and other goal choices, diversity in organizing modes for strategy implementation, and the complexities of managing strategy, to name a few. This book series on Research in Strategy Science aims to provide an outlet for ideas and issues that publications in the field do not provide, either expressly or adequately, especially as regards the comprehensive coverage deserved by certain emerging areas of interest. The topics of the volumes in the series will keep in view this objective to expand the research areas and theoretical approaches routinely found in strategy science, the better to permit expanded and expansive treatments of promising issues that may not sufficiently align with the usual research coverage of publications in the field. Time Issues in Strategy and Organization contains contributions by leading scholars on time issues in the field of strategy science research. The 8 chapters in this volume cover the topics of future orientation in strategy making, time conceptualizations in interorganizational relationships, real-time management in the digital economy, spatio-temporal aspect of strategic leadership, a systemic-cognitive perspective on organizational temporality, ecosystem types and the timing of open innovation strategies, and the temporalities of strategic risk behavior and partner opportunism in strategic alliances. The chapters collectively present a wide-ranging review of the noteworthy research perspectives on the temporal issues in strategy and organization.

The series, Contemporary Perspectives on Data Mining, is composed of blind refereed scholarly research methods and applications of data mining. This series will be targeted both at the academic community, as well as the business practitioner. Data mining seeks to discover knowledge from vast amounts of data with the use of statistical and mathematical techniques. The knowledge is extracted from this data by examining the patterns of the data, whether they be associations of groups or things, predictions, sequential relationships between time order events or natural groups. Data mining applications are in marketing (customer loyalty, identifying profitable customers, instore promotions, e-commerce populations); in business (teaching data mining, efficiency of the Chinese automobile industry, moderate asset allocation funds); and techniques (veterinary predictive models, data integrity in the cloud, irregular pattern detection in a mobility network and road safety modeling.)

This book provides a comprehensive, step-by-step approach to organic process research and development in the pharmaceutical, fine
chemical, and agricultural chemical industries. Process R&D describes the steps taken, following synthesis and evaluation, to bring key
compounds to market in a cost-effective manner. More people are being hired for work in this area as increasing numbers of drug candidates are
identified through combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening. The book is directed to industrial (primarily organic) chemists, and
academicians (particularly those involved in a growing number of start-up companies) and students who need insight into industrial process R&D. Current books do not describe hands-on, step-by-step, approaches to solving process development problems, including route, reagent,
and solvent selection; optimising catalytic reactions; chiral syntheses; and "green chemistry." "Practical Process Research and Development" will be a valuable resource for researchers, managers, and graduate students.
* Provides insights into generating rugged, practical, cost-effective processes for the chemical preparation of "small molecules"
* Breaks down process optimization into route, reagent and solvent selection, development of reaction conditions, workup, crystallizations and more
* Includes over 100 tips for rapid process development
* Presents guidelines for implementing and troubleshooting processes

Social networking has emerged as a predominant form of communication and human interaction. Businesses have also adopted social networks as a means for interacting with consumers and conducting business activities. As a result of this widespread adoption, it is imperative for businesses to leverage social technologies to stay competitive in the global economy. Integrating Social Media into Business Practice, Applications, Management, and Models provides the most up-to-date research findings and future directions for customer relationship management in contemporary enterprises. Covering a wide range of topics such as management issues, innovative ideas, state-of-the-art business applications, and evaluation of social media products and services, this comprehensive publication is a useful reference for researchers, instructors, and social media managers, as well as students in various e-commerce and business programs.

Grounded Innovation: Strategies for Creating Digital Products focuses on the innovation processes and technical properties of digital products. Drawing on case studies, the book looks at systematic ways to ground innovation in both technology and human needs, and it explores how digital products have become integrated in the real world. It provides guidelines to innovation in a new technical environment, including prototyping and testing, within the cultural or financial parameters of a business. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 discusses the history and the basic properties of digital products; the different approaches to innovation; the concept of grounded innovation; and concepts and processes that are important for creating successful innovations such as inquiry, invention, and prototyping. Part 2 demonstrates how the basic properties of digital products can be used as raw material for new innovations, including interaction, networking, sensing, and proactivity. There is also a discussion on recent technology, such as rapid prototyping and mobile mash-ups. A wide variety of examples show how novel technical and conceptual innovations became commercial breakthroughs. Grounded Innovation is ideal for product designers, interaction designers, and design-oriented engineers. It will also be a valuable resource for anyone interested in understanding how digital products are created and in a general approach to information technology.

Technology-based firms continue to compete primarily on innovation, and are continuously required to present new solutions to an exacting market. As technological complexity and specialization intensifies, firms increasingly need to integrate and co-ordinate knowledge by means of project groups, diversified organizations, inter-organizational partnerships, and strategic alliances. Innovation processes have progressively become interdisciplinary, collaborative, inter-organizational, and international, and a firm's ability to synthesize knowledge across disciplines, organizations, and geographical locations has a major influence on its viability and success.
This book demonstrates how knowledge integration is crucial in facilitating innovation within modern firms. It provides original, detailed empirical studies of prerequisites, mechanisms, and outcomes of knowledge integration processes on several organizational levels, from key individuals, projects, and internal organizations, to collaboration between firms. It stresses the need to understand knowledge integration as a multi-level phenomenon, which requires a broad repertoire of organizational and technical means. It further clarifies the need for strong internal capabilities for exploiting external knowledge, reveals how costs of knowledge integration affect outcomes and strategic decisions, and discusses the managerial implications of fostering knowledge integration, providing practical guidance and support for managers of knowledge integration in high-technology enterprises.

This textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the essential issues in effective entrepreneurial management. It first introduces readers to the fundamentals of entrepreneurial management, the nature of entrepreneurial managers and business planning, before exploring the specific topics of creativity and innovation, risk management, entrepreneurial marketing and organization as well as financing. The authors then move to contemporary topics such as entrepreneurial growth strategies, e-commerce challenges, ethical and socially responsible entrepreneurial management, franchising, and managing entrepreneurial family ventures. Each chapter provides a case study and several practice-based examples to help explain the concepts. By providing a truly international approach, this text offers ample theoretical and empirical insights into entrepreneurship and small business management. It is a valuable and up-to-date resource for teachers and students of entrepreneurship.

Innovation in product design starts with materials. Developing successful commercial products demands a sound understanding of the materials that go into those products their uses, their costs, their lifetime performance. However, the valuable knowledge of materials engineers is often not fully leveraged in the creative phase of the product design cycle. Gessinger seeks to bridge this gap that exists in many companies.

Written from the bottom-up perspective of the engineer or scientist on a product design team, Materials and Innovative Product Design introduces business, economics and strategic product development to the materials specialist and demystifies materials selection for other members of the design team and manufacturing management. Using case studies from innovative organizations, such as ABB, and successful start-ups, such as NDC, Day4Energy, and Metoxit, Gessinger illustrates how the integration of different engineering and business disciplines can power innovation in the design process. By addressing the real world needs of innovators, this book allows the reader to unlock the potential of the new material types that have been changing the face of product design and deploy an integrated business approach to materials selection and the design process.
Allows engineers to develop a fuller understanding of economics and business objectives in order to contribute more effectively to innovative product design

Introduces the business opportunities and practical challenges of deploying new material types to design and manufacturing management

Illustrates how to harness the power of R&D within the design cycle through case studies of innovative and successful organizations that have brought new materials technologies to known markets and known materials to new markets "

Cultural proximity consists in shared language, codes ,and norms of communication and exchange between actors. It is generally considered important for organizations, enhancing communication and facilitation interaction between actors. In such situation, diversity is often seen as a source of richness and originality. However, high levels of proximity might create some risk, leading to lock-in and inertia, with a negative impact on the innovativeness of the organization. While the role of cultural proximity is subject to much debate within organizations studies, a comprehensive understanding of cultural proximity remains elusive. This book explores the organizational implications of the concept of cultural proximity, delving into the managerial challenges posed by diversities and similarities in culture within a business environment using different levels of analysis. The key messages of the present book, grounded on original empirical evidence, can be summarized as follows: cultural proximity is a key factor for managing innovation in present times; innovation requires a deliberate orchestration of the dichotomy between cultural proximity/cultural diversity; there are specific circumstances where proximity can be beneficial for managers and entrepreneurs. The book will be of value to researchers, academics, managers, and students in the fields of management science, human resource management, innovation studies, and organizational studies.

This book explores categories of applications and driving factors surrounding the Smart City phenomenon. The contributing authors provide perspective on the Smart Cities, covering numerous applications and classes of applications. The book uses a top-down exploration of the driving factors in Smart Cities, by including focal areas including "Smart Healthcare," "Public Safety & Policy Issues," and "Science, Technology, & Innovation." Contributors have direct and substantive experience with important aspects of Smart Cities and discuss issues with technologies & standards, roadblocks to implementation, innovations that create new opportunities, and other factors relevant to emerging Smart City infrastructures. Features an exploration of Smart City issues and solutions from a variety of stakeholders in the evolving field Presents conversational, nuanced, and forward thinking perspectives on Smart Cities, their implications, limitations, obstacles, and opportunities Includes contributions from industry insiders who have direct, relevant experience with their respective subjects as well as positioning and corporate stature