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This book presents the proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021), held online on June 13-18, 2021. By highlighting the latest theories and models, as well as cutting-edge technologies and applications, and by combining findings from a range of disciplines including engineering, design, robotics, healthcare, management, computer science, human biology and behavioral science, it provides researchers and practitioners alike with a comprehensive, timely guide on human factors and ergonomics. It also offers an excellent source of innovative ideas to stimulate future discussions and developments aimed at applying knowledge and techniques to optimize system performance, while at the same time promoting the health, safety and wellbeing of individuals. The proceedings include papers from researchers and practitioners, scientists and physicians, institutional leaders, managers and policy makers that contribute to constructing the Human Factors andErgonomics approach across a variety of methodologies, domains and productive sectors. This volume includes papers addressing the following topics: Activity Theories for Work Analysis and Design (ATWAD), Organisation design and management (ODAM), Ergonomic Work Analysis and Training (EWAT), Systems HF/E, HF/E Education and Professional Certification Development.

This proceedings volume presents a selection of the best papers from the 14th International Conference on Business Excellence, Business Revolution in the Digital Era (ICBE 2020), held in Bucharest, Romania. The respective papers share the latest findings and perspectives on innovation in a turbulent business environment, and on improvements in economic, societal and technological structures and processes to help reach major sustainability goals.

The digital transformation is impacting various aspects of how we live and work. Due to the pervasive effects of the digital revolution on firms and societies, both scholars and practitioners are interested in better understanding the key mechanisms behind the related challenges. This book presents a collection of research papers focusing on the relationships between technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence, social media, and the Internet of Things) and behaviours (e.g. social learning, knowledge sharing, and decision-making). Moreover, it provides insights into how the digital transformation may improve quality of personal life and work life within public and private organisations. The plurality of views offered makes this book particularly relevant for practitioners, companies, scientists, and governments. It gathers a selection of the best papers - original double-blind peer-reviewed contributions - presented at the annual conference of the Italian chapter of theAIS which was held in Naples, Italy, in September 2019.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2021 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: How does the use of heuristics by entrepreneurs in their long-term strategic decision-making influence firm performance? This research proposal suggests a positive relationship between the use of heuristics in decision-making and entrepreneurial firm performance. Consequently, the findings of this study could have important implications for the academic area concerned with heuristics. These findings could also provide meaningful implications for the success and sustainability of entrepreneurial firms that are currently facing substantial challenges. Moreover, this study provides valuable information for entrepreneurial and strategic decision-making, and, given the economic importance of entrepreneurial activity, strongly benefits society as a whole. To answer the research question at hand, this paper is structured as follows. Firstly, the literature review will incorporate existing research on strategic decision-making, heuristics, and the research gap, after which the proposed hypothesis will be derived. Secondly, the methodology and research design will be outlined. This section is followed by a description of how to execute the data analysis of the research model. Afterwards, this paper outlines potential findings and contributions in terms of theoretical and practical implications. Moreover, possible limitations will be examined, and an outlook for future research will be provided. Lastly, a brief conclusion will be given.

This book showcases selected conference papers addressing the sustainable future of ASEAN from the perspectives of science and technology disciplines. In addressing the 17 Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) envisioned by the United Nations in the domains of environment, health and well-being, posing potential means of reducing inequalities globally, the authors target specific issues and challenges confronting the fast-growing region of ASEAN and present suggestions for co-operation and commitment from governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and society at large, in line with the ASEAN Vision 2020. Papers are selected from the 3rd International Conference on the Future of ASEAN (ICoFA) 2019, organised by Universiti Teknologi MARA in Malaysia, whose conference theme “Charting the Sustainable Future of ASEAN” enables intellectual discourse on sustainability issues from science and technology, as well as business and the social sciences. The selection of papersis published in two books, comprised of scholarly and practical insights on sustainability in ASEAN. This book from science and technology scholars is of interest to researchers and policymakers interested in sustainability developments in the ASEAN region.

This book contains the best papers on tourism sustainability, economics and management presented at the 10th Tourism Outlook Conference, held in Sri Lanka from 19 to 21 October 2017 and the 11th Tourism Outlook Conference held in Eskişehir, Turkey from 3-5 October 2018. The papers provide a distinctly multidisciplinary perspective that brings together experts in the fields of management, economics and tourism to develop and disseminate solutions to emerging issues and challenges related to sustainable tourism and community development.The book provides a platform for cross-disciplinary dialogues that integrate different research and knowledge from diverse geographical, sectoral, and institutional perspectives. Through this approach, readers gain new perspectives to expand their skills and advance their studies and applications in the sustainable development of tourism resources and destinations, especially in developing world contexts.

This book provides a scholarly forum for researchers both in academia and industry from a wide range of application areas of smart cities and smart technologies to share their research findings. This book presents contributions on emerging approaches and case studies including future technological trends and challenges. This book is intended for researchers and companies in several areas such as transportation, computer science, and electrical engineering, among others. The book is composed of extended versions of selected papers from the 1st International Conference on Smart Cities and Smart Technologies (MIC-Smart 2019), 7-9 June 2019 Istanbul Turkey.Presents research from a wide range of application areas into smart cities and smart technologies;Includes topics such as smart devices, smart grid, and smart transportation and vehicles;Composed of extended versions of selected papers from the 1st International Conference on Smart Cities and Smart Technologies (MIC-Smart 2019).

This book includes a collection of selected papers presented at the International Conference on Modelling and Simulation in Engineering, Economics, and Management, held at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Girona, Spain, 28-29 June 2018.The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Modelling and Simulation Techniques in Enterprises (AMSE) and the University of Girona with the aim of promoting research in the field of modelling, simulation and management science. This book presents original research studies related to fuzzy logic, soft computing and uncertainty, as well as a number of papers in the field of bibliometrics in social sciences. Presenting new advances in these areas, with a special focus on management, economics and social sciences.It is of great interest to researchers and Ph.D. students working in the field of fuzzy logic, soft computing, uncertainty and bibliometrics.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,6,, language: English, abstract: In this paper, the phenomenon of digital nomadism in permanent employment is presented. In general, digital nomads are characterized by their independence of location, their employment in the digital space and common values. Most of them are freelancers and entrepreneurs, but also employees, who are part of this movement, want to leave the conservative concept of normal employment and break new ground. First the changes in the business world and the emergence of digital nomadism were presented in this paper. Due to a lack of literature, guideline-based expert interviews were conducted to gain insight into the opportunities and risks of the multi-local lifestyle concept for employees and companies. In addition, the framework conditions for companies and digital nomads required by this work and life concept were examined and presented in detail. Such a framework condition can mean, for example, the adaptation of processes and leadership. There are also differences between completely remote companies and only partially remote companies, which can lead to a split company structure. In this context, the similarities and differences between traditional telework and digital nomadism in permanent employment were also examined. These are similar, for example, regarding the technical prerequisites that should be created in companies and the changed communication. In addition, there are challenges and opportunities that arise from the travel component and the nature of digital nomadism, such as negatively impaired processes due to time differences or certain characteristics and experiences that digital nomads possess or experience that can be used positively in a professional context. Thus, this work not only serves a scientific purpose, but also provides a practical framework for employing digital nomads in traditional companies.

The book presents the proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Technology, Innovation and its Sustainability (WCETIS 2018), which took place on November 28-29, 2018 in Manila, Philippines. The conference featured the following tracks: Industrial Engineering and Healthcare, Sustainable Infrastructure; Water Resources Planning and Management; Heat transfer and fluids; Electronics and Electrical Engineering; and Internet of Things. Papers stem from academia and industry throughout the world, showing a variety of perspectives.Presents the proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Technology, Innovation and its Sustainability (WCETIS 2018), November 28-29, 2018 in Manila, PhilippinesShows how engineering and technology serve to support a variety for industries from manufacturing to water resourcesFeatures papers from a variety of researchers and developers from around the world

The recent surge of interest in “digital transformation” is changing the business landscape and posing several challenges, both organizational and sectoral. This transformation involves the application of digital technology in all aspects of business, and enables organizations to create new products and services, and to find more efficient ways of doing business.Moreover, the digital transformation is happening within and across organizations of all types and in every industry, producing a disruptive innovation that can break down the barriers between people and organizations, and help create more adaptive processes. In the information age, it is imperative for organizations to develop IT-related capabilities that allow them to leverage the potential of digital technologies. Due to the pervasive effects of this transformation on processes, firms and industries, both scholars and practitioners are interested in better understanding the key mechanisms behind the emergence and evolution of the digital business transformation.This book presents a collection of research papers focusing on the relationships between technologies (e.g., digital platforms, AI, blockchain, etc.), processes (e.g., decision-making, co-creation, financial, compliance, etc.), and organizations (e.g., smart organizations, digital ecosystems, Industry 4.0, collaborative networked organizations, etc.), which have been categorized into three major areas: organizing, managing and controlling. It also provides critical insights into how the digital transformation is enhancing organizational processes and firms'performance through an exploration and exploitation of internal resources, and through the establishment of external connections and linkages. The plurality of views offered makes this book particularly relevant for users, companies, scientists, and governments. The content of the book is based on a selection of the best papers (original double-blind peer-reviewedcontributions) presented at the annual conference of the Italian chapter of the AIS, which was held in Naples, Italy in September 2019.

The recent surge of interest in digital ecosystems is not only transforming the business landscape, but also poses several human and organizational challenges. Due to the pervasive effects of the transformation on firms and societies alike, both scholars and practitioners are interested in understanding the key mechanisms behind digital ecosystems, their emergence and evolution. In order to disentangle such factors, this book presents a collection of research papers focusing on the relationship between technologies (e.g. digital platforms, AI, infrastructure) and behaviours (e.g. digital learning, knowledge sharing, decision-making). Moreover, it provides critical insights into how digital ecosystems can shape value creation and benefit various stakeholders. The plurality of perspectives offered makes the book particularly relevant for users, companies, scientists and governments. The content is based on a selection of the best papers – original double-blind peer-reviewed contributions – presented at the annual conference of the Italian chapter of the AIS, which took place in Pavia, Italy in October 2018.

This proceedings is focused on the emerging concept of Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs). COINs are at the core of collaborative knowledge networks, distributed communities taking advantage of the wide connectivity and the support of communication technologies, spanning beyond the organizational perimeter of companies on a global scale. The book presents the refereed conference papers from the 7th International Conference on COINs, October 8-9, 2019, in Warsaw, Poland. It includes papers for both application areas of COINs, (1) optimizing organizational creativity and performance, and (2) discovering and predicting new trends by identifying COINs on the Web through online social media analysis. Papers at COINs19 combine a wide range of interdisciplinary fields such as social network analysis, group dynamics, design and visualization, information systems and the psychology and sociality of collaboration, and intercultural analysis through the lens of online social media. They will cover most recent advances in areas from leadership and collaboration, trend prediction and data mining, to social competence and Internet communication.

Globalization has moved through several change phases from capitalistic philosophy to democratic business notions involving stakeholders in the process of business growth. Large companies are seeking to harness globalization through cooperation with the local enterprises to reach the bottom-of-the-pyramid market segment. The opportunities for global businesses are expanding with the support of rapidly emerging product markets, the global race for innovation, technology, and talent management, which tend to widen the impact of digitization. The multinational companies today are engaging with the local enterprises to exploit reverse innovations and build new business models. This edited volume spread across fourteen distinguished articles aims at bringing together rich discussions on global-local convergence in reference to emerging markets. The impact on business-to-business and business-to-consumers imperatives, global-local convergence, and vice-versa effects that are driving the national economy are discussed through conceptual and empirical research papers. Discussions in this volume would critically analyse the convergence of technology, business practices, public policies, political ideologies, and consumer values for improving business performance at the global-local paradigm. This book will serve as a reference book and is widely useful to researchers engaged in exploring the small-business development in emerging markets and the effects of expansion of multinational companies into the emerging markets. The research papers and essays compiled in this volume will be enriching knowledge on business management among policy makers, corporate managers, and students of graduate management programs. In our view, graduate management students, potential researchers, and corporate managers will find this volume interesting for carrying out future research.

Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: B, Henley Business School University of Reading (Department of Real Estate & Planning), course: Independent Study, language: English, abstract: Purpose – To explore current practice and integrate proposed concepts from academic literature into a more comprehensive conceptual framework for workplace solution planning that is applicable to professional services firms. The paper aims for facilitating holistic considerations of strategic opportunities and, therefore, may enhance approaches in the early stages of workplace transformation projects. It also presents a critical reflection of the contemporary cost reduction paradigm. Design/methodology/approach – Review of literature from a wide range of academic disciplines and practitioners. Findings – In the realm of contemporary workplace solutions there is little evidence to be found of an evolution of CREM towards a truly strategic discipline but it still appears to be focused on operational metrics in the aftermath of the greatest recession after World War II. Originality/value – This paper integrates findings and theories from different disciplines in order to create a contextual understanding about the nature of knowledge work and the requirements for productivity-focussed workplace solutions in multinational professional services firms.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1.0, LMU Munich, language: English, abstract: This paper deals with structural challenges arising for organizational change after corporate scandals. Corporate scandals have become an increased phenomenon and corresponding information spreads progressively fast in times of digital and social media. These can pose an extreme threat to organizations'legitimacy and reputation and thus, endanger their performance and survival chances. Nevertheless, there are still many examples of ‘bad handling'and organizations seemingly do not know how to cope with such incidents correctly. The way organizations and their environments perceive and respond to a scandal constitutes a decisive factor concerning its outcome and consequences. Despite the extreme threat and inevitable harm that arise out of corporate scandals, they can be seen as triggering events that generate a chance for fundamental and beneficial organizational change. The corresponding literature on crisis management focuses on response strategies to improve perceptions of the organization. To substantially solve and permanently prevent the reoccurrence of such an incident, however, fundamental change in the organization's practices and behavior is necessary. This research question is addressed with an integrated approach to exploit both, knowledge from theory on crisis and change management as well as business practice and reality. In order to develop practical guidelines for organizations and to demonstrate how theoretically developed recommendations may look like and can be implemented in practical reality, this paper includes a case study. The theoretical approach is thereby enriched by an analysis of the Siemens AG after their bribery scandal in 2006. As result of the research, a framework is developed that should serve as a guideline for an effective handling of corporate scandals. Therein, implications from theory and practice are combined and both, the organization's direct response to the scandal as well as the management of the subsequent change, are considered. The main goal of this response and change effort is to recreate a perception of integrity to regain support both from the outside as well as from the organization's inside.

The book presents high-quality research papers presented at the 1st AUE International research conference, AUEIRC 2017, organized by the American University in the Emirates, Dubai, held on November 15th-16th, 2017. The book is broadly divided into three sections: Creative Business and Social Innovation, Creative Industries and Social Innovation, Education and Social Innovation. The areas covered under these sections are credit risk assessment and vector machine-based data analytics, entry mode choice for MNE, risk exposure, liquidity and bank performance, modern and traditional asset allocation models, bitcoin price volatility estimation models, digital currencies, cooperative classification system for credit scoring, trade-off between FDI, GDP and unemployment, sustainable management in the development of SMEs, smart art for smart cities, smart city services and quality of life, effective drivers of organizational agility, enterprise product management, DEA modeling with fuzzy uncertainty, optimization model for stochastic cooperative games, social media advertisement and marketing, social identification, brand image and customer satisfaction, social media and disaster management, corporate e-learning system, learning analytics, socially innovating international education, integration of applied linguistics and business communication in education, cognitive skills in multimedia, creative pedagogies in fashion design education, on-line summative assessment and academic performance, cloud concept and multimedia-based learning in higher education, hybrid alliances and security risks, industry and corporate security significance, legal regulation and governance. The papers in this book present high-quality original research work, findings and practical development experiences, and solutions for a sustainable future.

This book includes selected papers submitted to the ICADABAI-2017 conference, offering an overview of the new methodologies and presenting innovative applications that are of interest to both academicians and practitioners working in the area of analytics. It discusses predictive analytics applications, machine learning applications, human resource analytics, operations analytics, analytics in finance, methodology and econometric applications. The papers in the predictive analytics applications section discuss web analytics, email marketing, customer churn prediction, retail analytics and sports analytics. The section on machine learning applications then examines healthcare analytics, insurance analytics and machine analytics using different innovative machine learning techniques. Human resource analytics addresses important issues relating to talent acquisition and employability using analytics, while a paper in the section on operations analytics describe an innovative application in oil and gas industry. The papers in the analytics in finance part discuss the use of analytical tools in banking and commodity markets, and lastly the econometric applications part presents interesting banking and insurance applications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Business, ICSOB 2019, held in Jyväskylä, Finland, in November 2019. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary the conference theme this year was “The First Decade and Beyond” and focused on the development during the past decade, addressing the future of software-intensive business as well as studies on new and emerging ideas. The 18 full papers and 10 short papers presented together with 3 invited talks, 6 emerging research papers and a tutorial were carefully reviewed and selected from 52 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: software ecosystems; management of software products; continual improvement and product development; impacts of digitalization; software business education; software startups and digital business.

This proceedings presents the papers from Urb-IoT 2018 - 3rd EAI International Conference on IoT in Urban Space, which took place in Guimarães, Portugal on 21-22 November 2018. The conference aims to explore the emerging dynamics within the scope of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the new science of cities.The papers discuss fusion of heterogeneous urban sources, understanding urban data using machine learning and mining techniques, urban analytics, urban IoT infrastructures, crowd sourcing techniques, incentification and gamification, urban mobility and intelligent transportation systems, real time urban information systems, and more. The proceedings discuss innovative technologies that navigate industry and connectivity sectors in transportation, utility, public safety, healthcare, and education. The authors also discuss the increasing deployments of IoT technologies and the rise of the so-called'Sensored Cities'‚ which are opening up new avenues of research opportunities towards that future.

This book presents a collection of research papers exploring the human side of digital innovation management, with a specific focus on what people say and share on social media, how they respond to the introduction of specific IT tools, and how digital innovations are impacting sustainability and inclusion. Given the plurality of views that it offers, the book is particularly relevant for digital technology users, companies, scientists and governments. The overall spread of digital and technological advances is enhanced or hampered by people's skills, behaviors and attitudes. The challenge of balancing the digital dimension with humans situated in specific contexts, relations and networks has sparked a growing interest in how people use and respond to digital innovations. The content of the book is based on a selection of the best papers – original double-blind peer-reviewed contributions – presented at the annual conference of the Italian chapter of the AIS, which was held in Milan, Italy, in October 2017.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 2.0, University of Tubingen (Department of International Business), language: English, abstract: This paper's purpose is to give an overview of how distance in management research is measured and to overview the strong critique the corresponding measures have to face. The paper's investigation brought several findings: firstly that frameworks in which distance constructs develop are too wide in their definition and that these frameworks are insufficiently connected to each other what impedes the improvement of the strong criticised but in management research essential constructs. Secondly the paper illustrates the widespread disagreement among researchers and literature. The paper gives suggestions how distance measures could be improved and contributes to a more'outside of the box thinking'by considering the whole distance construct. Furthermore it helps to build unbiased opinions of the thematic by not taking a side or giving suggestions whether on construct is superior towards another. Due to rising internationalization of businesses and the circumstance of having business partners, suppliers and clients placed all around the world, companies are fronting challenges like diversities in lifestyles, languages, cultural values and norms, consumer preferences and buying power. So it is not surprising that these differences or distances became an increasingly important topic in international management research. Distance aspects are important for companies in evaluating and improving their international strategies in nearly every field of business, especially when it comes to expansions in foreign investments through direct investments, international transactions and joint ventures. In purpose to be able to identify the extent of difference between countries, that Hymer called'liability of foreignness', management scholars evolved a broad range of quantitative and qualitative distance measures based on different assumptions and methods. But although the concepts play an important role in international management research and although they are widely used in international business practice to support or to improve companies'decision-making process, they face strong criticism and contradiction.

This volume of Eurasian Studies in Business and Economics includes selected papers from the 22nd Eurasia Business and Economics Society (EBES) Conference in Rome. It presents original empirical research from several countries and regions including many developing economies such as Poland, Russia, Tunisia, Lebanon, Belarus, and Lithuania. Both the theoretical and empirical papers in this volume cover diverse areas of business and management from various regions. The main focus is on sharing the latest research results on evolving approaches to entrepreneurship research, behavioral aspects of entrepreneurship and SME development, and policy development. The volume also includes related studies that analyze international business cooperation, performance assessment, and a range of other current topics.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Review of Business Studies, grade: 1.0, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: This work will analyze the reality of social entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, through qualitative interviews in the field. By talking to social entrepreneurs of different countries and sectors in the region, it will possible to give a holistic understanding of what social enterprises need, in order to succeed. Social enterprises still face different internal and external challenges that need to be overcome: From equal access to talent, finance and social networks. To existing policies, which currently are not creating enough favorable incentives to support social enterprises. And an overall stigma and mindset around Sub-Saharan Africa, dominated by stereotypes of poverty, instability and risk. Based on this multidimensional understanding of the obstacles, which hinder social entrepreneurial success in the region, this paper will elaborate concrete recommendations: both in terms of internal and external factors, such as policy and mindset transformation. Social entrepreneurship and its difficulties and success factors in Sub-Saharan Africa are still under-researched. This field especially lacks empirical studies. Literature offers theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship in general and a holistic insight about specific business conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa. A desk review of existing literature in this area will form the theoretical-contextual foundation for the qualitative field-research of this paper. The analysis of the qualitative data will be carried out within four different categories in order to allow a comprehensive understanding of social entrepreneurial success factors: Human capital, financial capital, social capital and business environment. Within the discussion, based on the qualitative results, this paper will be able to formulate recommendations as to how social entrepreneurial success factors could be achieved and leveraged. The results of which will be summarized within the conclusion and form the foundation for answering the core research question of this work: which factors help social enterprises to scale successfully and foster sustainable development? An outlook of possible future research topics will conclude this paper.

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 5.00 (very good), Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek (Faculty of Economics in Osijek), language: English, abstract: Every company has a unique life cycle. Throughout the life cycle, companies are tracking successes and failures, depending on the various factors that affect their business. Situations such as financial distress, idleness, or bankruptcy represent the fundamental levels of a company's life cycle. The purpose of the paper is to present the financial restructuring of the company in business problems on the example of the Agrokor Group. This paper describes the operations of the Agrokor Group from 2007 to 2017, ie it is divided into business analysis prior to the extraordinary administration and in the procedure of extraordinary administration. The characteristics of Agrokor Group's operations prior to extraordinary administration are: low liquidity and negative working capital over the observed period, extended payment of obligations to suppliers ranging from 110 to 211 days, ie 156 days on average, increased indebtedness and high indebtedness and insolvency in 2016, solid Group's activity ratios, positive profitability by 2015. With the advent of extraordinary administration, inappropriate corporate governance has been identified, and audit results show that accounting irregularities and potential illegal actions have been identified. Claims recognized amounted to HRK 31.04 b illion, while disputed claims amounted to HRK 10.4 b illio n. The Group has a financial arrangement of EUR 1.06 billion with super senior status. In addition, the complex structure of claims is emphasized. Bearing in mind all the above, the Group's financial restructuring is possible with the new corporate structure, the new capital structure, the allocation of financial instruments to stakeholders. Returns to creditors should be defined by the entity's priority model. Group value would be distributed among stakeholders based on their legal rights, ie the model's rank. The value of each claim claimed is determined by the fraction of the total distributable value that it needs to receive. After that, it will determine how many depositary receipts and the exchangeable bonds each creditor receives.

This book publishes a number of papers that were presented at GeoMEast, Sustainable Civil Infrastructures, an international congress held in Cairo, Egypt, in November 2019. A number of papers were presented about materials for infrastructure sustainability, and those are the papers published in this book. A unique group of chapters have been well-organized and handled by a group of international experts in order to be included in this book to discuss a timely topic with regard to the sustainable infrastructures.

This book provides a selection of the best papers presented at the 18th Conference of the Portuguese Association for Information Systems (CAPSI), which was held in 2018. The focus of the conference and of these proceedings lies on the interplay between information systems and Industry 4.0. All contributions, which include original research, review papers and case studies, were peer-reviewed in a double blind process.

Thesis (M.A.) from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 67, University College London (School of Public Policy), language: English, abstract: The purpose of this research focuses on one of the latest and most significant development of Justice, Freedom and Security policies of the EU: the creation of FRONTEX, the Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union, established in 2004 and operational since 2005. In particular, this paper will utilise a principal-agent perspective in an attempt to explain why Frontex has been established, what roles the various institutions played in the process of, and the context behind, its creation. The paper argues that Member States established an agency borne out of the need to enhance the Area of Justice, Freedom and Security in the context of the Schengen agreements. Consequently, the paper highlights the deficiencies of the structure, especially regarding its independence from its principals, and its current funding regulation limits, that result in a wide range of tasks and a high dependence from the resources of Member States. However, even if primarily only used in the context of counter-illegal immigration operations, the paper highlights how the agency has been growing steadily in power and resources, and represents a first fundamental step towards an effective communitarisation of border management that could lead, in the long term, to the establishment of a European Border Police.

This open access book examines how the social sciences can be integrated into the praxis of engineering and science, presenting unique perspectives on the interplay between engineering and social science. Motivated by the report by the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Association of Arts and Sciences, which emphasizes the importance of social sciences and Humanities in technical fields, the essays and papers collected in this book were presented at the NSF-funded workshop ‘Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences and Innovation', which brought together a singular collection of people, topics and disciplines. The book is split into three parts: A. Meeting at the Middle: Challenges to educating at the boundaries covers experiments in combining engineering education and the social sciences; B. Engineers Shaping Human Affairs: Investigating the interaction between social sciences and engineering, including the cult of innovation, politics of engineering, engineering design and future of societies; and C. Engineering the Engineers: Investigates thinking about design with papers on the art and science of science and engineering practice.

This proceedings volume explores the socio-economic dimension of the heritage sector from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective. Featuring contributions from the 2016 ALECTOR International Conference held in Istanbul, Turkey, this book presents current theoretical and empirical research related to such topics as: R&D and ICT in tourism; heritage products and services; climate change; finance and tourism; cultural communication; anthropological cultural heritage; and heritage management. Collectively, the papers presented in this book provides methodologies, strategies and applications to measure the socio-economic dimension of the heritage sector and also good practices in the heritage sector that drive regional, cultural and economic development and sustainability. The EU Neighbourhood Info Centre (ENPI) Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Black Sea project “Collaborative Networks of Multilevel Actors to Advance Quality Standards for Heritage Tourism at Cross BorderLevel”, or ALECTOR, focuses on different types of heritage assets as a means to invest in human capital and tourism innovation in order to achieve socio-economic development and cooperation with social partners in the Black Sea region. Featuring collaborations from Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova Ukraine, Georgia and Turkey, the project proposes a cognitive and educational framework for using a region's assets, which would guide final beneficiaries (regions, communities, SMEs) to identify, signify, valorize and manage their natural and cultural resources, in order to use heritage potential as a vehicle for tourism. Presenting case studies of successful initiatives, the enclosed papers are divided into two parts: • Part I: Economics of Heritage features innovative research results on the heritage and tourism topics from countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, Russia, and Romania • Part II: Best Practices features best practices, experiences, and promotion plans for cultural heritage through tourism from countries such as Bulgaria, Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Russia, and Romania

This book gathers selected theoretical and applied science papers presented at the 2016 Regional Conference of Sciences, Technology and Social Sciences (RCSTSS 2016), organized biannually by the Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang, Malaysia. Addressing a broad range of topics, including architecture, computer science, engineering, environmental and management, furniture, forestry, health and medicine, material science, mathematics, plantation and agrotechnology, sports science and statistics, the book serves as an essential platform for disseminating research findings, and inspires positive innovations in the region's development.The carefully reviewed papers in this volume present work by researchers of local, regional and global prominence. Taken together, they offer a valuable reference guide and point of departure for all academics and students who want to pursue further research in their respective fields.

The edited book is produced from the top papers submitted to ICKM2017.To navigate the complex ecosystem of societal challenges, the International Conference on Knowledge Management Conference (ICKM 2017) focused on big data and data analytics as part of the relationship to the wider concept of knowledge management processes and practices.This book includes top papers presenting the major, and diverse, topics discussed at the conference. The papers covered various aspects of big data ranging from enhancing access to the big data to facilitating its wide applications in healthcare, social media, library and information centers, governments, and corporations.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Perspectives in Business Informatics Research, BIR 2018, held in Stockholm, Sweden, in September 2018. This year's conference theme was “Business Resilience – Organizational and Information System Resilience in Congruence”. The 17 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. The papers were organized in topical sections named: business, people and system resilience; resilient collaboration; digital transformation; information technology management; enterprise systems and data analytics; and business and information systems development.

Advances in Business and Management. Volume 15 begins by presenting a paper examining the depth and range of psychological stressors and strains that entrepreneurs encounter in their new ventures, aiming to further clarify the confusion and inconsistencies of being self-employed. The following study was conducted in order to analyze the impacts of IT on e-business adoption and to understand the effects of quality IT strategies in e-business performance. Focusing on Chinese users through an online survey, the measurement instrument of this research model was developed from various studies. The authors go on to discuss brand management and the way in which it attempts to tap into collective meanings, associating life-world categories of thought and emotion. A seduction takes place whereby a captured emotional involvement with advertisements confuses the imaginary with perception and circumvents rational thought prior to purchase—all likely to evolve in directions anticipated by the market specialists. One paper shows that the manner an organisation approaches strategic planning is significant. A case study rooted in stewardship, service and divine endowments develops theoretical findings drawing from biblical strategy and blends these with contemporary strategic human resource management. Social impact assessment (SIA) has become a recent concept of interest within the business and public domains, soliciting further study by academics. SIA is an interdisciplinary social science that incorporates various fields and is regarded as a technique for predicting social impacts as part of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) or as a stand-alone process. This book contributes to the knowledge base of SIA and its relationship with b-corporations and integrated reporting, providing insights between these two fields of research. The penultimate current chapter embraces a topic which is still underdeveloped in the literature: how corporate social responsibility may or may not influence brand equity. Therefore, the authors conducted a literature review to analyse past studies on this topic, focusing on four major aspects. Today every customer is digital customer, and every enterprise is digital enterprise. It is proposed that the significantly changing business environment requires enterprises to rapidly change their structures, processes and systems in order to save their customers and to remain competitive and compliant to the requirements of the modern digital economy.

This book presents a collection of original research papers addressing the relationship between information systems (IS) and innovation. “Open”, “Smart” and “Network” are three keywords that are currently guiding information systems (IS) innovation, enhancing IS potentialities and their ability to support decision-making processes. The book discusses the relevance of these three new concepts in connection with technological and organizational innovations (i.e. cloud, smart technologies and networking), and the role they play in the development of accounting and management information systems.The book's primary aim is to investigate how these innovations could influence information systems (with a particular focus on accounting and management information systems) by enhancing their information potentialities and improving accounting methodologies, performance measurement systems, data management, information systems architectures, and external and internal reporting.The book is based on a selection of the best papers—original double-blind reviewed contributions—presented at the 2016 Annual Conference of the Italian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

This book includes papers presented at the 2nd Economic forum: German-Turkish perspectives on IT and Innovation Management at the FOM in Munich, organized by the FOM University of Applied Sciences and Atatürk University Erzurum. Patron of the conference was Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister for Education and Research. To mark the German-Turkish year of science, both countries picked out global and societal challenges as a central theme and explored solution strategies as well as their implementation in new technologies and innovations. The papers discuss the effects of new technologies and innovations from different perspectives – from IT management, banking and finance to the special challenges of SMEs.

Organization students and scholars are able to trace the rise of aesthetics in management studies through the papers presented in this volume. The papers are arranged for individual review or thematic explorations of aesthetic thinking; including review papers and articles that focus on fashion, narrative, theatre, music and craft. This volume is a major contribution for those seeking alternatives to rational and positivist perspectives on management and who are willing to explore those alternatives beyond the usual disciplinary bases.

This book presents different perspectives of online business education - how it is designed, delivered and how it supports advances in management disciplines. The authors describe online platforms in their provision of timely, excellent and relevant business education. The book starts by examining the emergence of online business education. It offers insights for use to business educators in design and implementation of online learning. It presents and discusses technologies for class facilitation and collaboration including tools used to bring content and issues to life. Disruptive approaches and new directions in online business education are examined. The book is ideal for business educators, administrators, as well as business practitioners that have an interest in delivering high quality business education using online platforms and tools. On the Line: Business Education in the Digital Age is divided into three sections. Section 1 presents papers on “why” business education is viable and sustainable in today's context. Treating education as a service, this section describes new techniques for creating a better online business education experience. It also looks at the role advanced data analytics can play in enhancing the quality of online business education. Section 2 delves into “how” online business education works. It presents conceptual models for teaching in specific disciplines, learning design that describes what business educators do and how programs work. This section also addresses performance assessments and quality assurance measures that help to demonstrate the efficacy of online pedagogy. Practical applied papers are used in this section to highlight the use of learning platforms, tools and their application specific to businesses that build knowledge and skills and make students ‘work ready'. Finally Section 3 of the book addresses the “so what?” or the outcomes and impacts of online business education. This section targets where business education needs to take learning next, for example to support sustainable business, ethical decision making and inclusive and collaborative leadership. Chapters deal with topics such as how distributed online environments may work better to support knowledge and soft skill building directly relevant for organizations today. Other learning outcomes showing the value of online business education are discussed.Academics, alumni and consultants from over fifteen institutions and organizations around the world contributed to this book.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Software Business, ICSOB 2018, held in Tallinn, Estonia, in June 2018. This year the conference theme was “How Digitalization Impacts Software Business” and focused on digitalization and its impact on the speed of business models and business modeling and the realization of these business models. The 11 full papers and 1 short paper presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 34 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: software ecosystems; software product management and business models; and software start-ups.

This edited monograph presents the selected papers from RailNewcastle 2016, being held in Newcastle UK, June 2016. The collected papers focus on railway research, including topics such as rail operations, engineering, logistics, communication systems and safety. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field of railway engineering, but the paper collection may also be beneficial for graduate students alike.

As more and more startup companies are founded every year worldwide, building up one's own business does not get easier. Since 9 out of 10 startups fail, future entrepreneurs are well advised to take a look at potential reasons for failure and success. Learning from others'mistakes and studying success stories can improve their own performance and help to avoid critical errors. The academic paper at hand will provide valuable insights for entrepreneurs. It not only states the most important terms concerning startups but also lists the most important factors for a startup company's success, according to literature review. Delineating both internal and external factors, this thesis not only delivers a synoptic view of potential challenges inside a startup as well as in its ecosystem, but also juxtaposes these influences in opposition. The second part of this paper analyzes a series of interviews with twelve startup founders from three different regions (the province of North-Rhine Westphalia in Germany, Budapest in Hungary and the state of California in the US). Their views and experiences will be summarized and put into the context of their respective startup ecosystem.

This book helps students and researchers write better assignments, better dissertations, and better papers for publication. Characterizing academic writing as an integral part of the knowledge generation and dissemination process, it focuses on three main aspects: understanding research, documenting and sharing the process and results of research, and acknowledging the use of other people's ideas in the documentation. The authors use various samples of good as well as defective writing to illustrate the features of academic writing. They describe in detail the structure and contents of academic papers, especially conceptual and empirical research papers for journals. This lucidly written book will be a rich resource for MBA students and researchers working for MPhil and PhD degrees, especially in the fields of management, behavioural sciences and communications.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Software Business, ICSOB 2017, held in Essen, Germany, in June 2017. The 11 full papers and 5 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: software startups and platform governance; software business development; software ecosystems and App stores.

This book includes many cases that provide new perspectives in developing agent-based modeling and simulation. The real problems are complex, and sophisticated methodology is needed to handle them. Agent-based modeling and simulation is one methodology that provides a bottom-up experimental approach applicable to social sciences such as economics, management, sociology, and politics as well as some engineering fields dealing with social activities. However, to improve the applicability of agent-based modeling and simulation methods, a new perspective is needed. In this book, that new perspective is developed and utilized to deal with many cases of real-world problems such as the supply chain, land use and land cover, transportation, health, services, economics, and social problems. The cases are selected from papers presented at the Ninth International Workshop on Agent-Based Approaches in Economic and Social Complex Systems held in Bali, Indonesia, in 2015. At the workshop, 29 reviewed full papers were presented, and of those, 16 were selected to be included in this volume.

This paper describes issues in Korea's corporate sector, the need for restructuring, and the authorities'initiatives and challenges. It then identifies lessons from other countries'experience and conducts an econometric analysis based on cross-country aggregate data, compared with previous studies which mostly use firm-level data. This analysis finds that restructuring episodes, while sometimes challenging in the short term, have typically been associated with more rapid economic growth afterward. Corporate restructuring could have a negative effect on the labor and the financial markets in the short term, but is associated with positive growth through increased investment and capital productivity in the medium term, outpacing the negative effects.

Tax provisions favoring corporate debt over equity finance (“debt bias”) are widely recognized as a risk to financial stability. This paper explores whether and how thin-capitalization rules, which restrict interest deductibility beyond a certain amount, affect corporate debt ratios and mitigate financial stability risk. We find that rules targeted at related party borrowing (the majority of today's rules) have no significant impact on debt bias—which relates to third-party borrowing. Also, these rules have no effect on broader indicators of firm financial distress. Rules applying to all debt, in contrast, turn out to be effective: the presence of such a rule reduces the debt-asset ratio in an average company by 5 percentage points; and they reduce the probability for a firm to be in financial distress by 5 percent. Debt ratios are found to be more responsive to thin capitalization rules in industries characterized by a high share of tangible assets.

This book is the second in a series of volumes focused on publishing the latest thinking and findings in the field of project management research. It focuses on people and places and their role in projects and project management, and draws from conference papers presented at the Australian Institute of Project Management national conferences held in Australia in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Contributors here consist of both academics and practitioners with authors representing the latest developments in Australia, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. The book brings together papers focused on the themes of project management offices; stakeholders; complexity; and risk management. It concludes with three case studies on the application of project management in specific contexts.

These proceedings focus on selected aspects of the current and upcoming trends in business communication. In detail the included scientific papers analyse and describe communication processes in the fields of sports, finance, culture, politics, brand management and corporate communications. The variety of the papers delivers added value for both scholars and practitioners. This book is the documentation of the symposium “Trends in Business Communication”, which took place at the University of Applied Sciences in Kufstein, Tyrol.

BPP Learning Media is an ACCA Approved Content Provider. Our partnership with ACCA means that our Study Texts, Practice & Revision Kits and iPass (for CBE papers only) are subject to a thorough ACCA examining team review. Our suite of study tools will provide you with all the accurate and up-to-date material you need for exam success.

Management Research: European Perspectives brings together experts in the field to take stock of European management research and reflect on its distinctiveness. Building on a successful series of papers published in the European Management Journal, this book contains international contributions providing a range of scholarly perspectives on the reality of European management research.The state of management scholarship has recently been a topic of great interest, focusing on such matters as the role of universities versus businesses in shaping research agendas, the so-called ‘rigour–relevance'debate, the use of measurements in quality assessment of research outputs, the role of journal rankings, and the merits of the journal review system. Missing, however, is any discussion of what, if anything, constitutes a European approach to management research, how does it differ from other styles used in the rest of the world and why is there a need for such distinctiveness? It has been noted that European management scholars have a lower success rate for publishing theoretical papers than their North American counterparts, which is surprising given that Europe has been the cradle of many generative intellectual traditions. European scholars may be the heirs to those traditions, but they are sometimes criticised for failing to channel this legacy into authoritative theoretical contributions in elite US-based management journals. This book provides insightful contributions to the debate and offers critical reflections on what European-based scholars have to offer the study of management.