This collection addresses human rights and development for researchers, policymakers and activists at a time of major challenges. 'Critical issues' in the title signifies both the urgency of the issues and the need for critical rethinking. After exploring the overarching issues of development and economic theory, gender, climate change and disability, the book focuses on issues of technology and trade, education and information, water and sanitation, and work, health, housing and food. The chapters then examine how to operationalize human rights in development through accountability, the right to development, indicators and the Sustainable Development Goals. The conclusion proposes international standards and social mobilization for human rights and sustainable development as normative and policy-oriented tools for addressing the climate emergency, the coronavirus pandemic, social inequality, racial injustice, and the rise of populist authoritarianism and for advancing social justice and the equal value of all human beings. This book is of interest to students of development and human rights studies, international relations, international law and contemporary social issues, as well as professionals working at government, intergovernmental and civil society organizations dealing with these issues.

This book discusses the socialization of business as a corporate philosophy to understand customers and stakeholders in order to motivate co-creating value-based business performance. Reviewing a wide range of literature, it analyzes emerging theories of agility in business, corporate social responsibility, social learning, and value co-creation. Divided into 5 sections, this volume deliberates upon critical success factors of firms, which include diversity and cross-functionality by managing the triple and quadruple bottom-line. It argues that timely deployment of streamlined crowd-based marketing strategies in chaotic markets enhance the effects of social innovation and reduce growing complexities in global and regional markets. Presenting new insights on developing agile business models using both aggressive (crowd-driven) and defensive (competitive) marketing strategies in the agile business models, this edited work discusses how contemporary businesses adapt to agile strategies and integrate people, profit, and corporate citizenship behavior.

This book distinctively presents nine thematic discussions with real examples of small and large companies across the geographic destinations. Among many points of interest crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, decision-processes, technology, leadership, consumer behavior, crowd-based services designing, future perspectives in the context of crowd-based business modelling, and collective intelligence are central to the discussions in the book. This book argues that crowd is the pivot of marketing. It fills the knowledge gap in people-led enterprises by integrating the customer ideation process and developing crowd-based business models to achieve performance with purpose. This book proposes crowd-based business strategies in the emerging markets and significantly contributes to the existing literature.

Marketing Decision Making and the Management of Pricing: Successful Business Tools provides the latest research studies, market analysis, and best practices utilised in emerging markets to gain competitive advantage and market leadership. This reference source is useful for corporate managers, undergraduate and graduate students, and research scholars intending to increase their knowledge on pricing strategy and profit management. This book is part of the Advances in Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and E-Services series collection.

Trends in cleaner business decisions have resulted in sustainable business models involving society, stakeholders, and consumers. Sustainable choices of companies create competitive differentiations that enable consumers to weigh social values and shift loyalties in the competitive marketplace. This book focuses on sustainability as the pivot of marketing and argues that commitment to sustainability in business not only equips companies to have greater social impact but also inspires an emotional response in consumers that aids companies in growing their image, brands, and socio-political reputations. Exploring topics such as the circular economy, sustainable logistics, eco-innovation, conscious consumption, and social entrepreneurship, the chapters discuss sustainable practices in emerging markets and co-creation between corporations and consumers. This book offers researchers innovative concepts on sustainable business modelling.

Increased competition in the global marketplace has created enormous pressure on system implementation, particularly in the field of marketing. Systems Thinking and Process Dynamics for Marketing Systems: Technologies and Applications for Decision Management describes a holistic approach to monitoring, evaluating, and applying appropriate marketing strategies, and understanding the competition and its future implication on the business of a company. As complexities multiply, the scientific concept of systems thinking and analyzing process dynamics explained in this publication allows marketing firms succeed. The critical issues facing firms today are presented in a thoroughly modern context, laying the foundation for a bright future.

This book consists of peer-reviewed proceedings from the International Conference on Innovations in Mechanical Engineering (ICIME 2020). The contents cover latest research in all major areas of mechanical engineering, and are broadly divided into five parts: (i) thermal engineering, (ii) design and optimization, (iii) production and industrial engineering, (iv) materials science and metallurgy, and (v) multidisciplinary topics. Different aspects of designing, modeling, manufacturing, optimizing, and processing are discussed in the context of emerging applications. Given the range of topics covered, this book can be useful for students, researchers as well as professionals.

This book will provide current understandings about two ubiquitously expressed metabotropic GPCRs, G-coupled purinoreceptor type 2 (P2Y) and Takeda G-protein-coupled bile acid receptor 5 (TGR5). G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) are the largest family of proteins implicated in majority of cellular responses. The two receptor sub-families play a central role in many physiological functions as well as in many pathological conditions. This book offers up-to-date information on the physiological functions, signaling pathways and regulatory mechanisms of P2Y and TGR5 receptors. In addition, this book provides a comprehensive overview about the abnormalities of P2Y/TGR5 receptors and their contribution in the development and progression of pathological conditions. It also covers the currently available natural, chemical and pharmacological agents targeting these two receptor families and their therapeutic implications in P2Y and TGR5 associated disorders. This book is a valuable source for beginners and researchers to follow the rapidly progressing field of these two GPCR subfamily members.

Sustainable Growth in Global Markets provides a comprehensive introduction to the concept of market and business management outside the domestic market. It covers complex elements of market management, analysing behavioural theories such as theory of comparative advantage, theories of macro and micro marketing economics, socio-cultural theories, and various contemporary concepts of international business management. The book puts forward a broad foundation of the subject beginning with a discussion of the concept of market dynamics and followed by an analysis of the changing behaviour of markets and its components. The core discussion focuses upon the ability to do business in international markets, putting forward critical insights on the significance of leadership, building consumer value through innovation, tracking the external environment for organizational change as well as important emerging trends towards building an innovative venture.

This book provides an introduction to the concept of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial business management. It covers many elements of the entrepreneurial management discipline including choosing a business, organizing, financing, marketing, developing an offering that the market will value, and growing the business in all its dimensions.

This book endorses entrepreneurial philosophies and develops a conceptual thinking for redefining organizational design to achieve operational efficiencies. It aims at bridging entrepreneurial theories with strategies in practice. The book discusses entrepreneurial business modeling by mapping the entrepreneurial mindset and analyzing cognitive inputs to drive entrepreneurial efficiencies. This book also discusses effectiveness of marketing strategies, causes, and effects of marketing strategies on entrepreneurial performance, organizational design practices, and design-to-market concept in the context of contemporary organizational and operational designs.

The social media and spread of communication through various social networks form the communication grapevine. This is an emerging informal channel of business communication and a critical element in building the posture of a firm in a competitive marketplace. The grapevine effect is contributed to by the social media through word-of-mouth that stretches throughout the market irrespective of the various measures taken by firms to build their brand and competitive posture. This volume categorically reviews the theories of communication, best practices in social media and previous research, and analyzes the corporate involvement towards strategic and tactical stewardship in serving customer-centric business requirements. There are many types of grapevines that are developed in various niches which stem from emotion, sensitivity, personality, assumptions, experiences, and social conventions. Through an examination of this functional phenomenon of the grapevines and their effect, and by citing examples of various companies, "Managing Social Media and Consumerism" discusses the best ways to define a social media plan.

In an ever-expanding economic world, the need for new businesses with the ability to create and evolve simultaneously is paramount to ensure success. Hybrid business models are essential to foster growth and promote prosperity. Start-Up Enterprises and Contemporary Innovation Strategies in the Global Marketplace is a critical scholarly resource that examines the relationship between worldwide industry and the need for up-to-date technologies and methods to support such an inclusive market. Featuring coverage on a diverse range of topics such as corporate social responsibility, collaborator empowerment, and start-up enterprise ecosystems, this book is geared toward managers, researchers, and students seeking current research on the interaction between modernization and the expansion of markets to accommodate worldwide industry.

The use of water for industrial purposes is of foremost importance. It is used as a coolant and industrial activities dealing with power generation, steel and iron, paper and pulp and oil require very large amounts of water. The industry, therefore, resorts to large scale abstraction of water from natural water bodies. This water is often treated with chemicals to combat operational problems like biofouling and corrosion. Such withdrawal and subsequent discharge of large amounts of water have the potential to impart significant impact on the recipient water body. The organisms drawn along with the cooling water, as well as those residing at the discharge zone, are subjected to a combination of mechanical, thermal and chemical stress on a continuous basis.

The discussion in this book provides an introduction to the concept of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial business management. The author covers many elements of the entrepreneurial management discipline including choosing a business, organizing, financing, marketing, developing an offering that the market will value, and growing a business.

Globalization has pushed the use of technology in business with advancing information and communication technology becoming a key factor in the future development of the retailing industry. Technology applications have significantly contributed to the exponential growth and profits of retailing institutions worldwide. ""Information Communication Technologies and Globalization of Retailing Applications"" critically examines the synergy of technology use and conventional wisdom in retailing and explores contemporary changes determining higher customer value. Discussions in this book encompass strategy implications for managers to optimize their advantage in retailing through the application of ICT, bridging the customer-technology gap.

This book discusses the analysis of consumer behavior as a fundamental tool to build agility in business models and strategies. Exploring recent scientific developments in neurobehavioral research, this book argues that the development of agile marketing strategies requires an examination of neurobehavioral experiences in visual merchandising, shopping, and consumption, and an understanding cognitive synchronization with emotions, such as eye movements, gestures, verbal manifestation, and encoding behavior among consumers. The author discusses possible approaches to measure neuro-responses during a consumer's shopping experience, both in-store and online. Such approaches will help firms to understand real-time neurobehavioral effects and improve the marketing capabilities of the firm accordingly. Discussing new strategies suitable to co-create agile business models in association with the market players and consumers, this interdisciplinary work engages scholarship on business agility, consumer behavior, social intervention, collective intelligence, decision-making, and stakeholder values.

This book covers computer vision-based applications in digital healthcare industry 4.0, including different computer vision techniques, image classification, image segmentations, and object detection. Various application case studies from domains such as science, engineering, and social networking are introduced, along with their architecture and how they leverage various technologies, such as edge computing and cloud computing. It also covers applications of computer vision in tumor detection, cancer detection, combating COVID-19, and patient monitoring. Features: Provides a state-of-the-art computer vision application in the digital health care industry Reviews advances in computer vision and data science technologies for analyzing information on human function and disability Includes practical implementation of computer vision application using recent tools and software Explores computer vision-enabled medical/clinical data security in the cloud Includes case studies from the leading computer vision integrated vendors like Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google This book is aimed at researchers and graduate students in bioengineering, intelligent systems, and computer science and engineering.

A comprehensive survey of Open RAN technology and its ecosystem In Open RAN: The Definitive Guide, a team of distinguished industry leaders deliver an authoritative guide to all four principles of the Open RAN vision: openness, virtualization, intelligence, and interoperability. Written by the industry experts currently defining the specifications, building the systems, and testing and deploying the networks, the book covers O-RAN architecture, the fronthaul interface, security, cloudification, virtualization, intelligence, certification, badging, and standardization. This critical reference on Open RAN explains how and why an open and disaggregated, intelligent, and fully virtualized network is the way networks should be designed and deployed moving forward. Readers will also find: A thorough introduction to contributions from key industry players, including AT&T, Telefonica, Mavenir, VMWare, Google and VIAVI Comprehensive explorations of Open X-Haul transport networks and other unique 5G capabilities Practical discussions of the four pillars of O-RAN architecture: openness, virtualization, intelligence, and interoperability Comprehensive treatments of how smaller vendors can introduce their own services and customize the network Perfect for executives, engineers, product managers, and marketing professionals in the telecom industry, Open RAN: The Definitive Guide will also benefit graduate students, researchers, and engineers in government agencies with involvement in the wireless and telecom industries.

This book critically examines the evolution of marketing scholarship over generations from Marketing 1.0 to 4.0. It argues that most firms look to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace by driving tactical moves, inculcating small cost-effective changes in marketing approaches. Often, strategic choices of companies lean towards developing competitive differentiations that enable consumers to realize the value of money, causing loyalty shifts in the competitive marketplace. The book focuses on the consumer as the pivot of marketing and argues that the consumer serves as a bidirectional channel during pre-and post-purchase period. It explains how consumer affections sentimentally and emotionally help in growing the brands and companies over generations. This book significantly contributes to the existing literature and serves as a learning post and a think tank for students, researchers, and business managers.

This edited volume brings together research on symbiotic themes of entrepreneurship, resource planning, and regional development and their impact on global-local business imperatives. Discussions in this volume critically analyze the convergence of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, business practices, public policies, political ideologies, and consumer values for improving the global-local business paradigm to support regional development. This book also delves into contemporary entrepreneurship models, converging business strategies towards entrepreneurial and industrial alliance in manufacturing, services, and marketing organizations. It contemplates the development of new business models and hybrid entrepreneurial perspectives to match the changing priorities of regional economic development in developing countries. This volume offers scholars new entrepreneurial visions and business perspectives of industries in emerging markets, while presenting a more integrated view to enable companies to innovate for long-term profitability and sustainability.