Faced with chaotic environments, it is not possible to make totally efficient forecasts, especially when it is necessary to analyze events with multiple variables and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) constantly face events that escape the laws of the market. The handling that has been given to the crisis caused by the coronavirus has been trial and error, and the economic, social, and environmental results remain to be seen. The markets and the world are chaotic. With the markets in chaos due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to look at the methods used in these environments to promote business success. The Handbook of Research on Management Techniques and Sustainability Strategies for Handling Disruptive Situations in Corporate Settings elaborates on the skills, techniques, and tools that are more useful for these environments and identifies what makes companies that work well in organizational chaos and in chaotic economic environments perform better than companies that are well organized. Covering topics such as strategic management, multidimensional chaos approach, and the global unstable market, this book is essential for managers, executives, academicians, policymakers, entrepreneurs, researchers, undergraduate and graduate business students, and any person interested in state-of-the-art business issues.

Project management tools can be used as an alternative to improve and strengthen a company's position in the market. However, the management of projects has been in constant transformation. Elements such as time, cost, and scope, on which it is based, have been complemented with other trends, such as the project team, change management, knowledge management, good negotiation practices, management of stakeholders, sustainability, etc. In order to improve the competitiveness of their company and increase earned value, managers must remain up to date on these latest transformations and best practices. The Handbook of Research on Project Management Strategies and Tools for Organizational Success is a pivotal reference source that analyzes and disseminates new trends that will allow managers to improve their skills and strengthen the performance of their companies through obtaining better results in the projects undertaken. While highlighting topics such as market growth, risk management, and value creation, this book is ideally designed for project managers, managers, business professionals, entrepreneurs, academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on improving the competitiveness of companies as well as increasing their earned value.

This book discusses how UNIDROIT principles are viewed and interpreted in different countries, presenting various perspectives and practical lessons learned. It also offers a detailed analysis of the use of the UNIDROIT principles to interpret and supplement domestic contract law. Written by experts in the field, it provides insights into how the principles are being used and applied in their respective countries. The findings are also summarized in a General Report that was presented at the 20th IACL General Congress in Fukuoka, Japan.

The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. Sales originating at online channels have been steadily increasing, and even for sales transacted at brick-and-mortar channels, a much larger fraction of sales is affected by online channels in different touch points during the customer journey. Shopper behavior and expectations have been evolving along with the growth of digital channels, challenging retailers to redesign their fulfillment and execution processes, to better serve their customers. This edited book examines the challenges and opportunities arising from the shift towards omni- channel retail. We examine these issues through the lenses of operations management, emphasizing the supply chain transformations associated with fulfilling an omni-channel demand. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, "Omni-channel business models", we present four studies that explore how retailers are adjusting their fundamental business models to the new omni-channel landscape. The second part, "Data-driven decisions in an omni-channel world", includes five chapters that study the evolving data opportunities enabled by omni-channel retail and present specific examples of data-driven analyses. Finally, in the third part, "Case studies in Omni-channel retailing", we include four studies that provide a deep dive into how specific industries, companies and markets are navigating the omni-channel world. Ultimately, this book introduces the reader to the fundamentals of operations in an omni-channel context and highlights the different innovative research ideas on the topic using a variety of methodologies.

Demand response (DR) describes controlled changes in the power consumption of an electric load to better match the power demand with the supply. This helps with increasing the share of intermittent renewables like solar and wind, thus ensuring use of the generated clean power and reducing the need for storage capacity. This book conveys the principles, implementation and applications of demand response. Chapters cover an overview of industrial DR strategies, cybersecurity, DR of industrial customers, price-based demand response, EV, transactive energy, DR with residential appliances, use of machine learning and neural networks, measurement and verification, and case studies in the Aran Islands, as well as a use case of AI and NN in energy consumption markets. The chapters have been written by an international team of highly qualified experts from academia as well as industry, ensuring a balanced and practically oriented insight. Readers will be able to develop and apply DR strategies to their respective systems. Industrial Demand Response: Methods, best practices, case studies, and applications is a valuable resource for researchers involved with regional as well as industrial power systems, power system engineers, experts at grid operators and advanced students.

This book presents a solid theoretical foundation of the modern mitigation technologies employed in the power quality arena, and provides an overview of the most recent challenges in this field. The book introduces the advanced concepts associated with power quality to engineers and students. It will make an excellent reference for facility electrical power engineers and maintenance technicians.

This book discusses how UNIDROIT principles are viewed and interpreted in different countries, presenting various perspectives and practical lessons learned. It also offers a detailed analysis of the use of the UNIDROIT principles to interpret and supplement domestic contract law. Written by experts in the field, it provides insights into how the principles are being used and applied in their respective countries. The findings are also summarized in a General Report that was presented at the 20th IACL General Congress in Fukuoka, Japan.

The world of retailing has changed dramatically in the past decade. Sales originating at online channels have been steadily increasing, and even for sales transacted at brick-and-mortar channels, a much larger fraction of sales is affected by online channels in different touch points during the customer journey. Shopper behavior and expectations have been evolving along with the growth of digital channels, challenging retailers to redesign their fulfillment and execution processes, to better serve their customers. This edited book examines the challenges and opportunities arising from the shift towards omni- channel retail. We examine these issues through the lenses of operations management, emphasizing the supply chain transformations associated with fulfilling an omni-channel demand. The book is divided into three parts. In the first part, "Omni-channel business models", we present four studies that explore how retailers are adjusting their fundamental business models to the new omni-channel landscape. The second part, "Data-driven decisions in an omni-channel world", includes five chapters that study the evolving data opportunities enabled by omni-channel retail and present specific examples of data-driven analyses. Finally, in the third part, "Case studies in Omni-channel retailing", we include four studies that provide a deep dive into how specific industries, companies and markets are navigating the omni-channel world. Ultimately, this book introduces the reader to the fundamentals of operations in an omni-channel context and highlights the different innovative research ideas on the topic using a variety of methodologies.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 3 rd International ICST Conference on IT Revolutions, held in Cordoba, Spain in March 2011. The 20 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. They are grouped in topical sections on eGreen energy, smart buildings, health and ambient assisted living, smart environments and user experience, grid and cloud computing, eLearning.

This book presents a solid theoretical foundation of the modern mitigation technologies employed in the power quality arena, and provides an overview of the most recent challenges in this field. The book introduces the advanced concepts associated with power quality to engineers and students. It will make an excellent reference for facility electrical power engineers and maintenance technicians.

The agent paradigm has been a subject of research for the last years, and the purpose of this book is to present current status of this technology by looking at its application in different domains, such as electronic markets, e-tourism, ambience intelligence, and complex system analysis.
It starts by discussing software engineering issues for the development of multi-agent systems, how much it costs to build a multi-agent system, and which methods and tools are currently available. Next chapters present some of the most relevant aspects that are considered for the development of multi-agent systems: ubiquitous computing, learning and planning, trust and security, electronic institutions and swarm intelligence. Last chapters focus on concrete applications of physical agents and e-tourism applications, to illustrate how to integrate the previously discussed aspects.
The book is written by researchers with experience in technology transfer, and therefore it is oriented to practice. It intends to show how relevant features of agent technology can be applied in new services and environments. In this sense, it tries to assess the maturity of this technology and identifies issues for further research.

This volume contains a collection of papers that provides a unique, novel and up-to-date overview of how software agents technology is being applied in very diverse problems in health care, ranging from community care to management of organ transplants. It also provides an introductory survey that highlights the main issues to be taken into account when deploying agents in the health care area.

The intended audience includes graduate and postgraduate students specializing in artificial intelligence and researchers interested in the application of new technologies.

Energy Smart Appliances Enables designers and manufacturers to manage real-world energy performance and expectations by covering a range of potential scenarios and challenges Energy Smart Appliances provides utilities and appliance manufacturers, and designers with new approaches to better understand real-world performance, assess actual energy benefits, and tailor each technology to the needs of their customers. With contributions from a fully international group of experts, including heads of prestigious research organizations and leading universities, and innovation managers of the main appliance manufacturers, Energy Smart Appliances includes discussion on: Enabling technologies for energy smart appliances, covering IoT devices and technology and active energy efficiency measures in residential environments Smart home and appliances, answering questions like ‘Where are we heading in terms of the overall smart homes’ future?’ and ‘What’s the energy impact from smart home devices?’ Demand-side management and demand response, covering overall system/ appliances readiness and ideal energy management scenario to drive demand response Energy smart appliances’ best practices and success stories, including refrigerators, washers, dryers, and more With practical coverage of a wide range of potential scenarios and existing and future challenges, Energy Smart Appliances is an essential learning resource for electrical engineering professionals, equipment manufacturers, and designers, along with postgraduate electrical engineering students and researchers in related fields and programs of study.

As renewable energy sources have reached grid parity in many countries, the key to further growth of the share of renewables in the power mix is their integration with the power system. This requires a number of technical developments, for example in power electronics, to meet the need for increased flexibility and rapid dispatch. This book explores the new approaches to meet these challenges, such as increasing interconnection capacity among geographical areas, hybridization of different distributed energy resources and building up demand response capabilities. Topics covered include power grid as part of a 100% renewable energy system; international requirements for large integration of renewable energy sources; nowcasting and short-term wind forecasting for wind energy management; solutions and active measures for wind power integration; grid Integration of large-scale PV plants; extensive use of renewable energy resources: needs, conditions and enabling technologies; DC distribution systems and microgrids; distributed energy resources integration and demand response; stochastic demand modelling; and distributed micro-storage systems at residential level in smart communities with high penetration of photovoltaic generation. This book is essential reading for researchers involved with clean energy generation and power systems.