This pioneering collection seeks to understand why and how some digital enterprises in Africa progress while others firms either stagnate or regress. Using a range of detailed case studies, it addresses the challenges and barriers that are in place and how some outstanding digital firms deal with operating in a hostile business environment. While digital platforms have created equal access for small businesses, many digital entrepreneurs in Africa continue to struggle with local environments replete with corruption, and other economic inefficiencies. The contributions move the debate forward by addressing the challenges, opportunities, and prospects of digital enterprise in Africa. Placing special emphasis on how African new entrant digital firms are shaping the landscape and forging a new beginning for Africa, this book offers entrepreneurial perspectives to both researchers and policy-makers seeking to support and stimulate entrepreneurship in the new era.

The focus of this text is placed on designing General Linear Models (regression models) to test research hypotheses. The authors illustrate and discuss General Linear Models specifically designed to statistically test research hypotheses that deal with the differences among group means, relationships between continuous variables, analysis of covariance, interaction effects, nonlinear relationships, and repeated measures. Many of the chapters contain sections entitled "General Hypothesis" and "Applied Hypothesis." The General Hypothesis sections are designed to provide the readers with "road maps" regarding how to conduct the various analyses presented in the text. The Applied Hypothesis sections illustrate how the various analyses are conducted with Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Windows and how the outputs should be interpreted to test the hypotheses. Throughout the text, the authors stress the importance of designing regression models that precisely reflect the null and research hypotheses.

In most discussions about the knowledge-based economy, innovation is associated or even equated with technology, while culture's influence is ignored. Innovation is however embedded in cultural and social contexts, and neglecting these crucial contexts may impede an innovation's diffusion-and eventual success. This book places culture at the center of discussions on innovation, beginning with a comprehensive introduction to innovation's various forms, including the history, sociology, and economics of innovation. Insights from marketing and psychology are integrated into a complexity theory framework, which are then utilized to evaluate case studies of organizations experiencing repeated innovation successes. The sometimes fraught relationship of firms to creativity is discussed, and a new model for to calculating the creativity of an economy is presented.

This volume presents a selection of the Proceedings of the Workshop on Anticipation, Agency and Complexity held in Trento (Italy) on April 2017. The contributions contained in the book brilliantly revolve around three core concepts: agency, complexity and anticipation, giving precious insights to further define the discipline of anticipation. In a world that moves increasingly fast, constantly on the verge of disruptive events, more and more scholars and practitioners in any field feel in need of new approaches to make sense of the complexity and uncertainty that the future seems to bear. The theory of anticipation tries to describe how possible futures are intrinsically intertwined with the present.

Category management is one of the biggest contributors of commercial value in the area of procurement and supply chain. With a proven track record of successful delivery since the early 1990s, it helps organisations gather and analyse key data about their procurement spend before subsequently creating and delivering value-adding strategies that change the value proposition from supply chains. The aim of category management is to find long-term breakthrough strategies that help lift an organisation's commercial performance to a new level. Because of its strategic long-term orientation and complex execution, category management has long been the preserve of commercial consulting companies - in effect a 'black box' toolkit shrouded in expensive methodologies. This practical handbook lifts the lid on category management by providing readers with a step-by-step process and established toolkit that allows them a 'do-it-yourself' approach. Each activity is presented as a simple tool or technique for practitioners to apply to their own organisations. To support each activity, easy-to- use templates and checklists have been provided, together with simple but practical hints and tips for implementation. This handbook is a 'must read' for all procurement and supplychain managers looking to find significant improvements in their organisations. Its practical approach cuts through long-winded consultant-speak and provides an easy-to-use practical toolkit for everyday application.

Contributing to recent debate on the emergence of digital and agile work, this book explores the implications for labour and employment relations within and beyond organizational boundaries. Taking a multidisciplinary approach to the key issues and challenges of digitalization, this collection covers topics such as the gig economy, crowdworking and Industry 4.0. Theory and analysis are combined as the authors examine the impact of digital and smart work on organization, HRM and labour law. With comprehensive empirical evidence for those interested in understanding the more complex trajectories of today's transforming work relationships, this book will not only appeal to students and academics but also to policy-makers, trade unionists and employers' organizations.

This book examines the digitalization of longstanding problems of technological advance that produce inequalities and automated governance, which relieves subjects of agency and critical thought, and prompts a need to weaponize thoughtfulness against technocratic designs. The book situates digital-era problems relative to those of previous sociotechnical milieux and argues that technical advance perennially embeds corrosive effects on social relations and relations of production, recognizing variation across contexts and relative to entrenched societal hierarchies of race and other axes of difference and their intersections. Societal tolerance, despite abundant evidence for harmful effects of digital technologies, requires attention. The book explains blindness to social injustice by technocratic thinking delivered through education as well as truths embraced in the data sciences coupled with governance in universities and the private sector that protect these truths from critique. Institutional inertia suggests benefits of communitarianism, which strives for change emanating from civil society. Scaling postcapitalist communitarian values through communitybased peer production presents opportunities. However, enduring problems require critical reflection, continual revision of strategies, and active participation among diverse community citizens. This book is written with critical geographic sensibilities for an interdisciplinary audience of scholars and graduate and undergraduate students in the social sciences, humanities, and data sciences.

Originally published in 1989 this book gives an overview of the empirical work on new technology objectives, together with an analysis of management strategies for adoption at the corporate, technological and people levels. It also reviews previous work on the extent to which staff at different levels, and from different specialism, are involved in decision-making, as well as the adoption process more generally. The book looks at different approaches to analysing organizational contexts and provides a framework for studying the stages of the adoption process. The book includes case studies - two in financial services and two in engineering contexts.

Originally published in 1993 this book presents the findings of 14 teams involved in a research initiative to examine the initiation and resonse to innovation in firms. It draws together the many strands which were discovered to influence the successful generation and adoption of new technologies. The core issues in technology management are looked at, including skills and expertise, markets and marketing, finance and the issue of technology collaboration both on a domestic and international basis. Technology is shown to be at the very heart of corporate strategy and policy formation.

Originally published in 1967 and the result of extensive interviews and case studies, this book examines the implications of technical change. Although focussed on the early introduction of computers the kinds of problems discussed in this book are found in technical change more widely and the book therefore continues to have enduring relevance. The book is divided into three parts - an attitude survey of the administrative staff in departments affected by the introduction of computers, a study of the mechanisms of change and a second survey and re-examination of departmental organisation and work flow.

Managing Emerging Technologies for Socio-Economic Impact is an important contribution to both the literature and practice of managing emerging technology. Importantly, this book not only considers the economic impact but also the wider societal impact and benefit. It is recommended reading for all those who aspire to steward emergent technologies into reality.' - Martin Curley, Vice President, Director, Intel Labs Europe, Intel Corporation'This book offers a series of fascinating studies about the emergence of new technologies in different eco-systems of university-industry-government relations.' - Loet Leydesdorff, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 'The chapters in this exciting new book explore the ways in which new technologies emerge, develop and are then commercialized. The chapters, many of which are by exciting young European scholars, are both theoretically and empirically sophisticated. If the reader is interested in how emerging technologies create socio-economic impact, this book will provide them with unique new insights. I recommend the book to all readers.'- Martin Kenney, University of California, Davis, US The development of emerging technologies demands a rapidly expanding knowledge base and intensive collaboration across organizational, institutional and cultural borders. This book is the first of its kind to focus on the management of key emerging technologies and their social and economic impact in Europe. Split into four parts, across 17 chapters, the scholars offer multiple levels of analysis concerning the management of emerging technologies across various sectors ranging from nanotechnology, renewable energy and cloud computing to synthetic biology and particle therapy for cancer. They present their research findings in critical areas including: - organizational capabilities for technological innovation in key enabling technologies - collaboration and networking to shape their emergence and progression - strategic challenges for policy makers who influence the sustainable and responsible development of emerging technologies - how such technologies affect work and communication practices in a variety of organizational settings. This book is a must-read for innovation practitioners, academics and policy makers who take interest in the on going debate about how to shape innovation policy and manage emerging technologies. Contributors: A. Alexiou, D.G. Assimakopoulos, A. Carafa, D. Cotta, J.P. Damijan, E. Dolgova, R. Dombrovski, D. van Doren, M. Drenkovska, P. Durgam, A. Es-Sajjade, B. Gao, S. Khanagha, J.P. Madiedo, N. Maya, I. Oshri, D. Pacauskas, K. Pandza, A. Parker, M. Pero, T. Reiss, M. Rossi, F. Salvador, B. Schrempf, J. Sidhu, H.W. Volberda, T.A Wilkins, M. Wolf

Originally published in 1992, this study looks at the ways in which company and campus can co-operate to spread the risk and cost of research. It analyses joint ventures in an international context, focusing particularly on the USA, France and Japan, comparing their management strategies with the UK in a variety of industries. It discusses issues such as the brain drain and the growth of science parks, looking at the most succesful industrial policies. With its focus on technology transfer, joint ventures and strategic management this book will appeal to the practising manager as well as the academic.

Accomplishing sustainability in the agribusiness sector is a significant, yet time-sensitive, challenge, especially when balanced with the need to grow sufficient quantity and quality of food to keep the growing global population healthy. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods, this book explores the extent to which the agribusiness sector is already evolving to become sustainable and the ways in which innovation in the industry can help address sustainable development goals, particularly around zero hunger, gender equality, decent work, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. The contributors to this volume address the following key questions: What are the drivers and barriers for the agribusiness sector to become sustainable? Which business models best facilitate the implementation of sustainable goals? How can we measure the extent to which the agribusiness sector is becoming more sustainable? How can the agribusiness sector leverage recent technological advancements to achieve its sustainability goals? The analysis of the sustainability challenges for the sector ranges across various facets of the industry including employment, pre-production industries, agriculture, food processing, distribution, and trade. This book will be of significant interest to readers in agribusiness, innovation management, and sustainability.

This book introduces students to business process management, an approach that aims to align the organization's business processes with the demands of the marketplace. Processes serve as a coordination mechanism, and the aim of business process management is to improve the organization's effectiveness and efficiency in adapting to change, and maintaining competitive advantage. In Business Process Management, Kumar argues for the value of looking at businesses as a collection of processes that cut across departments, and for breaking down functional silos. The book provides an overview of the basic concepts in this field before moving on to more advanced topics such as process verification, flexible processes, process security and evaluation, resource assignment, and social networks. One chapter of the book is also devoted to process analytics. The book concludes with an examination of the future directions of the discipline. Blending a strong grounding in current research with a focus on concepts and tools, Business Process Management is an accessible textbook full of practical examples and cases that will appeal to upper level students.

This study is about the macroeconomic effects of positive externalities or industrial spillovers around advanced production. The case explored is the "technology di- dend" around Swedish aircraft industry, and in particular around the aircraft ma- facturer Saab, and the major industrial project of the JAS 39 Gripen multirole combat aircraft. The project is partly an updating of my book (in Swedish) Technology 1 Generator or a National Presige Project from 1995, but extends the analysis in s- eral directions. The study includes a chapter on spillovers from advanced production in an industrially developing economy, South Africa, that has acquired the JAS 39 Gripen for its Air Force. There is also a chapter in which the results for Sweden are discussed in the wider context of advanced public procurement in Europe. The text has been organized such that the main chapters have been written for academic readers. Two supplements include the technical details of data collection, mathematical models, and calculation methods. The first chapter is brief and focused on the results. It has the character of an extended executive summary. The second chapter summarizes the entire story; problems, results, and methods. This project would not have been possible without the generous support of a number of people. First of all great thanks go to all those people with crowded calendars in Swedish industrial firms that have set aside time to respond to my questions. Most of them have been listed at the end of the book.

Due to increasing global demand for software applications, the fundamental question of how to develop software collaboratively and most efficiently on a global scale is raised. Today, especially managing requirements traceability from elicitation to implementation constitutes a major issue. Therefore, this work aims at managing traces between different kinds of artifacts and stakeholders more effectively and efficiently in distributed collaborative software development environments. The overall contribution involves designing a novel solution approach, including conceptual, methodological, and tool-based components. Its applicability and utility are evaluated both analytically and empirically, eventually in the form of an experimental setting with 17 replicated development teams.

This book proposes that organizational policies are what ensure the institutionalization and sustainability of futures thinking in organizations. It presents several case studies from corporations and other institutions that describe effective use of foresight methods and internal policies to respond to rapid change. The case studies address changing trends in technology, globalization and/or workforce diversity, and the impact on the economic and political well-being of the organization. The editors also develop an organizational capability maturity model for futures thinking as well as providing questions for discussion that promote critical review of each case chapter. This book will inform scholars and organizational leaders how best to utilize foresight methodologies and organizational policies to sustain successful management strategies within futures thinking organizations. Chapter 9 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

1. Focuses on blockchain technologies used specifically in Society 5.0. 2. Provides applications of blockchain technologies in decision modelling for supply chain. 3. Addresses the issues of supply chain management in Society 5.0. 4. Discusses the impacts and the responses of implementing Society 5.0 in supply chain. 5. Explores new studies and tools that aim to integrate digital technologies with human aspect of supply chain.

New product development is not just about creating successful new products. It is about creating new products that will help companies succeed in the global economy. It is also about eliminating products that no longer contribute to the success of the firm. This book presents a blend of cases, original survey research, and theory, to show the principles used by successful firms in developing new products and pruning those that hold the company back.

Provides the reader with a real-life holistic view of what is actually required to make it happen and deliver successful business growth. Other books on innovation are written by academics and consultants, people who sit on the side lines and observe. This book is unique in that it is written from the perspective of two professionals who have led, founded and grown multiple businesses over the last 30 years, and so know the practical reality of what works and what doesn't. Includes case studies of leading organizations, such as: As the book contains contributions from senior leaders in Google, BCG, Google, Hexcel, Johnson Matthey, Kennametal, Naluri, IE University, Amcor, Quaker Houghton, Novartis, CeramTec, Alvarez & Marsal.

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the many factors that influence the internationalisation of SMEs into China. SMEs represent more than 50 percent of the economic activity and employment in China. This book explores the experiences of SMEs that have internationalised to China from Australia. Australian SMEs are at the forefront of foreign SMEs in China with over 5000 Australian SMEs currently operating in China and a long history of association. The book is unique in that it presents a multidisciplinary perspective of the subject, considering seven different discipline perspectives (internationalisation, innovation, entrepreneurship, networks, resources, human resource management and barriers and liabilities). This makes the book one of the most comprehensive treatments of internationalisation to China so far. Each chapter in the book deals with a different perspective and includes own separate analysis. The chapters commence with a consideration of the current knowledge on internationalising to China for each perspective, analyse the interviews of representatives of 35 SMEs operating in China and then draw conclusions which are relevant to students, scholars and professionals. Each chapter includes extensive examples from the interviews. This integrated book is particularly useful for small business owners, international business management consultants, instructors and students.

A myriad of security vulnerabilities in the software and hardware we use today can be exploited by an attacker, any attacker. The knowledge necessary to successfully intercept your data and voice links and bug your computers is widespread and not limited to the intelligence apparatus. Consequently, the knowledge required can - at least in part - also easily be accessed by criminals trying to 'transfer your wealth' and competitors looking for your trade secrets. The temptation to use these easily accessible resources to the disadvantage of a rival company grows as global competition gets fiercer. Corporate espionage is nothing new, but since the dawn of the Internet Age the rules have changed. It is no longer necessary to be on-site to steal proprietary information. Cyberattacks today are cheap and attackers run a very low risk of getting caught, as attacks can be executed from anywhere in the world - an ideal breeding ground for criminal activities - and the consequences can be disastrous. In Understanding Cyber Risk: Protecting your Corporate Assets the author provides a wealth of real world examples from diverse industries from all over the world on how company assets are attacked via the cyber world. The cases clearly show that every organization can fall victim to a cyberattack, regardless of the size or country of origin. He also offers specific advice on how to protect core assets and company secrets. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in cyber security, and the use of cyberattacks in corporate espionage.

Written specifically for information systems (IS) and computing students and providing everything they need to know about executing a research project, this best-selling textbook introduces key quantitative and qualitative research methods, makes sense of underlying philosophies, and helps readers navigate and assess existing academic papers. Packed with examples from the IS and computing disciplines, definitions, evaluation guides and further reading suggestions, this fully updated second edition of Research Information Systems and Computing supports students of all levels in bridging the gap between theory and practice.

This book is essential reading for electronic consumer-product manufacturers doing business in the European marketplace. Compliance with directives and procedures can be a complex and confusing process, resulting in wasted money and effort. With the help of the CE Marking Handbook, engineers and managers can more easily identify which rules apply to them and pinpoint what they need to do to comply. Dave Lohbeck was formerly the Manager for Seminars and Training at TUV Rhineland, the largest German testing and certification agency. He has worked for many years as an engineer, including nine years in the field of European safety and EMC compliance.
A once complicated topic is made clear as the author addresses the confusion surrounding CE Marking. Lohbeck offers guidance on both legal and design issues. This book includes a step-by-step design guide aimed at both novice and experienced exporters. With its help, engineers and managers can easily identify which rules apply to their products and pinpoint what they need to do to comply. The information presented here is backed up with facts and examples. Many have been misled, unfortunately, but this book presents the real meaning of CE Marking.
Shows design engineers how to comply with CE requirements for product conformity
Explains legal and technical issues concisely and logically
Presents and illuminates US and EU differences