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This book offers an assessment of the benefits and contemporary relevance of free trade. With contributions from senior policy-makers—ranging from former prime ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom to ambassadors and political figures who have worked on trade negotiations—as well as some of the most prestigious academics in the field of trade, from a Nobel Prize winner to esteemed economic historians, it teaches how important free trade is to prosperity in this day and age. This book brings together the key approaches to free trade in the modern world, including the practical realities of negotiating trade agreements, how we can move towards a system of genuine free trade and the moral case for free trade. Each chapter in Free Trade in the Twenty-First Century has an eminent expert in the field addressing a specific aspect of modern trade. With a single book, one can gain an understanding of the most important themes, from the impact monetary economics has on trade to the intricacies of free trade agreements. By having chapters written by political figures, trade negotiators and think tank analysts, this book takes trade beyond abstruse economic theory and brings it into political reality so that the reader can understand how we can use trade to create global peace and prosperity.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Digital Economy, ICDEc 2024, held in Rabat, Morocco, during May 9-11, 2024. The 43 full papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 117 submissions. They were categorized under the topical sections as follows: Part I: Digital Transformation, Digital Economy and Investment, Artificial Intelligence and E-learning, E-commerce and Social Media Marketing, Exploring the Nexus of Digital and Sustainable Economies in Developing States and Digital Business Models. Part II: Application of Machine Learning for Business, Digital Technologies and Innovative Management, Social Networks and Information Technologies, Digital Economy in Emerging Countries Mobile Banking and Digital Assets, Online Session.

This open access book delves into the topic of monitoring the effectiveness of building renovation policies within the European Union (EU) using indicators. Given the substantial environmental impact of existing buildings on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, decarbonizing them is imperative for achieving climate neutrality in Europe. The use of indicators for monitoring decarbonization progress and evaluating policies emerges as a valuable tool, ensuring the efficiency, effectiveness, and alignment of building renovation policies with broader sustainability and climate objectives. Additionally, this approach facilitates evidence-based decision-making, promotes accountability by Member States (MSs), supports the realization of long-term goals, and actively involves the public in these vital initiatives. The European Commission is actively engaged in this realm, releasing a framework of optional indicators in 2019 and subsequently refining it during the review of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The evolving framework seeks to encompass both mandatory and optional indicators, posing greater challenges for EU MSs in monitoring the impact of their national building renovation policies and the progress of decarbonizing their building stocks. This book offers insights into these developing indicator frameworks, assesses the availability and quality of data in the case of Spain, and suggests areas of improvement and innovative approaches using emerging technologies to enhance data. The target audience includes diverse stakeholders such as central government administrations, regional and municipal authorities, data-collecting institutions, urban planners, researchers, and citizens interested in comprehending the impact of building renovation. By addressing this broad audience, the book aims to foster a more inclusive and well-informed discussion on building renovation and the decarbonization of the European building stock.

Since its existence in the 1950s, consumer policy in Germany has been understood and pursued primarily as a bundle of actions and measures initiated and institutionalised by the state. In many cases, the state has also issued corresponding mandates and set up support models, which has created the impression that we are basically dealing with a'consumer policy from above'imposed by macro-politics. Not that there have not been repeated attempts in the past decades to give impetus to consumer policy from the middle of civil society - often in the form of small citizens'initiatives. And in recent years in particular, a number of new consumer organisations have emerged which operate much closer to the grass roots. Nevertheless, the impression seems to have taken root among the large, government-related'players'in the field, who have been in the'business'for decades, not to mention government-internal consumer policy, that consumer policy concerns a policy field that is essentiallyordered by a collaboration of the state on the one hand, and consumer protection organisations representing all consumers equally on the other, while the many small consumer initiatives, not even started by individual committed consumers, regularly fall behind in comparison. This perspective refers largely to the view of and from the centre of politics. This volume is intended to go some way towards countering the institutionally prevailing impression that, in principle, there is only'consumer policy from above'that is really effective and assertive.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

Reto M. Hilty hat im europäischen, deutschen und schweizerischen Immaterialgüterrecht tiefe Spuren hinterlassen. Aus Anlass seiner Emeritierung als Direktor des Max-Planck-Instituts für Innovation und Wettbewerb und als Professor ad personam an der Universität Zürich würdigen seine Freunde, Kollegen und Schüler sein Wirken mit dieser Festschrift. Die Bandbreite der Themen und die Vielfalt der Autoren spiegeln die Vielschichtigkeit der Tätigkeiten des Jubilars. Die Festschrift enthält Beiträge zu Grundsatzfragen des IP-Rechts, zum Patent-, Urheber-, Design- und Markenrecht, zum Schutz von Geschäftsgeheimnissen, zum Recht der geographischen Herkunftsangaben sowie zum Kartell- und Lauterkeitsrecht. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt auf den Herausforderungen der Digitalisierung, insb. auf dem Umgang des IP-Rechts mit Daten und Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI).Reto M. Hilty has left a deep mark on European, German and Swiss intellectual property law. On the occasion of his retirement as Directorof the Max-Planck-Institute for Innovation and Competition and as Professor ad personam at the University of Zurich, his friends and colleagues pay tribute to his work with this Festschrift. The range of topics and the variety of authors reflect the impressive spectrum of Reto's activities. The Festschrift contains contributions on fundamental questions of IP law, on patent, copyright, design and trademark law, on the protection of trade secrets, on the law of geographical indications as well as on antitrust and unfair competition law. One focus is on the challenges of digitalisation, in particular on how IP law deals with data and artificial intelligence (AI).

This book presents the latest developments and innovations in clean energy engineering. It offers case studies on advances in clean energy technology, evaluates sustainable methods for increasing energy efficiency, and examines current concepts and solutions to global energy storage and energy-saving issues. Topics covered include clean coal, fossil field, green energy engineering and technology, including solar, biomass, wind, nuclear, energy efficiency, power cycles, and hydrogen equipment. Advances in Clean Energy Systems and Technologies is an essential guide to current research for scientists, practitioners, engineers, students, and researchers in clean energy systems and technologies.

This book explores multifaceted dimensions of economic crisis management including strategies and trends post-crisis. It examines the constraints and opportunities shaping the future of economics, social science and policy making, providing various economic models and paradigms. Featuring the best papers presented at the 2022 International Conference of Economic Scientific Research - Theoretical, Empirical and Practical Approaches (ESPERA), this book explores topics of highest interest such as energy crisis, inflation, fiscal and monetary policy, food security, safety and sustainability, the future of work, global financial systems, sovereign debt sustainability, digital currencies, supply chain disruptions, and cybersecurity, among others. Through the discussion of these topics, this book bridges the gap between theory and practice in economic crisis management and it is useful for scholars, researchers, academics, and policymakers.

Can we regulate something that doesn't exist yet? Can Europe create its own Silicon Valley? Who gets to create technological value in today's world? Whatever happened to the once-flourishing idea of rags to riches? Will new and exciting innovations only ever come from big tech companies? Can the EU establish its own flexible framework for boosting innovation, e.g. by facilitating the transformative use of technologies and data?This book seeks to answer these questions by exploring the differences in copyright culture in Europe and the United States, with its flexible fair use framework. The findings are anything but obvious, and decades of case law on both sides of the Atlantic tell a story of judges going to great lengths to deal with new challenges while navigating the imperfections of statutory law – both where it is too broadly formulated and where it is too prescriptive.How can the population's creative potential best be fostered? What do software innovations have in common with the evolution of living organisms? What are the vulnerabilities of distributed creativity? Answers are sought in the processes that came into being during the early years of the digital revolution and were then forced to take a back seat as control of the means of production was increasingly placed in the hands of tech companies. The findings and insights presented here are highly relevant for today's digital policymaking. Market concentration processes in innovation haven't ceased; they are ongoing. And in an age where data-driven services are creating and reinforcing global oligopolies, the question posed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Google v. Oracle is now more relevant than ever: who should hold the keys to digital innovation?

This book assesses the extent to which the current EU competition law framework can incorporate privacy-related theories of harm. Specifically, it evaluates the importance of protecting individual privacy in establishing exploitative abuse of dominance under Article 102 TFEU. The book explores scenarios where Big Tech firms exploit their dominant positions through excessive data collection or limiting consumer choice, thereby harming competition and directly affecting user well-being. It posits that zero-priced business models of online platforms and the ubiquity of data generation create strong incentives to acquire and process consumer data, which can harm digital consumers'privacy. The book assesses how the existing EU competition law framework can address and regulate exploitative abuses, particularly concerning the protection of individuals'privacy. Importantly, this book argues that competition law might recognize privacy-related harms as forming exploitative theories of harm under Article 102 TFEU. Article 102 TFEU offers flexibility and can be applied to a broader range of unfair practices. Article 102 TFEU emphasizes enhanced transparency and predictability, aiming to prevent abuses of dominant positions that could undermine healthy competition, to the detriment of consumers and other market participants. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of how the existing EU competition law framework can address the evolving challenges at the intersection of competition and privacy, ultimately seeking to protect consumer welfare and ensure fair competition in the digital economy.

This book contains selected papers presented at the 17th IFIP WG 9.2, 9.6/11.7, 11.6/SIG 9.2.2 International Summer School on Privacy and Identity Management, held online in August/September 2022. The 9 full papers and 5 workshop and tutorial papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 23 submissions. As in previous years, one of the goals of the IFIP Summer School was to encourage the publication of thorough research papers by students and emerging scholars. The papers combine interdisciplinary approaches to bring together a host of perspectives, such as technical, legal, regulatory, socio-economic, social or societal, political, ethical, anthropological, philosophical, or psychological perspectives.

This book includes original essays by prominent researchers and practitioners in the field of postal and delivery economics, originally presented at the 29th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held online, September 1-3, 2021. The central focus of the book is the short and long-term impact of covid-19 pandemic on the sectors, both from the economic and regulatory perspectives. Other important topics include the unstoppable growth of e-commerce and the implications for delivery market; solutions for the “last mile”, and the associated challenges in terms of sustainability. Chapters also discuss traditional topics for postal and delivery sectors, such as the competitive dynamics in the sector, the business strategies of postal operators, as well as the definition and funding of the Universal Service Obligation. This book will be a useful tool not only for graduate students and professors interested in postal and regulatory economics, but also for postal administrations, consulting firms, and federal government departments.

This book is a comprehensive resource for managers, engineers, researchers, academics, and professionals from various fields seeking to grasp the complexities and opportunities presented by digital transformation. It goes beyond the superficial understanding of digitalization, delving into the intricacies of this transformative process and its profound impact on organizations. By exploring the latest developments and insights from around the world, readers will gain a deep understanding of how digital transformation influences not only technological aspects but also human resources, processes, relationships, and information management. With a critical lens, this book addresses the challenges and changes that arise in the context of digital transformation, empowering readers to effectively lead and manage these processes. From examining the role of technology transfer to discussing talent management, consumer vulnerabilities, generative AIs, and the evolving landscape of e-commerce andinternet use, this book provides a rich tapestry of knowledge and practical recommendations. It also highlights the significance of collaboration, virtual teams, and intelligent tools in driving digitalization. Moreover, it explores innovative management practices and techniques for addressing mobile phone waste, utilizing scientometric, bibliometric, and visual analytic tools. Ultimately, this book equips readers with the necessary insights and strategies to navigate the digital transformation successfully and harness its potential to achieve organizational excellence in an increasingly dynamic world.

The plant-based food industry has flourished in recent years, with a steady stream of exciting product launches reaching the worldwide market. Consumers have become interested in a plant-based diet that includes grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, fruits and vegetables. There are a number of factors involved in this trend, including consumer opposition to harming animals, health problems such as lactose intolerance, desire for a healthier lifestyle and environmental awareness. Several books related to plant-based diets and cookbooks have been published for vegans and vegetarians, however there is no research work related to plant-based production, technology, ingredients and their qualitative and nutritional properties based on the results of scientific studies. Future Food: Plant-Based Products is the first book where the comparison of plant-based products with other alternatives are explored in detail. Novel plant-based product formulations, production and results of recent studies are examined in detail in this book. Plant-based products are mainly alternatives to dairy and meat products, and this text includes comprehensive chapters on meat substitutes and plant-based non-dairy products. In the opening chapter the main ingredients and raw materials used to produce a variety of plant-based products are covered along with their qualitative and nutritional properties. Further chapters focus on the health effects of plant-based products and microbiological and safety issues. For researchers seeking a full, up-to-date overview of plant-based product alternatives and their production, health affects and safety aspects, this book meets your needs.

This book is about retirement income security. This income security is provided by national public pensions, corporate pensions, and individual and reverse mortgages. However, these systems vary greatly from country to country and, in many countries, do not provide sufficient coverage. Ensuring income security in old age is an important issue that must be resolved in the rapidly aging environment of the world.From the perspective of financial consumers, this book cross-sectionally surveys public pensions, corporate pensions, individual pensions and reverse mortgages and compares them among many important nations. This gives many implications from the perspective of designing an overall income security for each individual. In addition, it presents many of the issues needed for these sustainable and comprehensive income security.

Since its existence in the 1950s, consumer policy in Germany has been understood and pursued primarily as a bundle of actions and measures initiated and institutionalised by the state. In many cases, the state has also issued corresponding mandates and set up support models, which has created the impression that we are basically dealing with a'consumer policy from above'imposed by macro-politics. Not that there have not been repeated attempts in the past decades to give impetus to consumer policy from the middle of civil society - often in the form of small citizens'initiatives. And in recent years in particular, a number of new consumer organisations have emerged which operate much closer to the grass roots. Nevertheless, the impression seems to have taken root among the large, government-related'players'in the field, who have been in the'business'for decades, not to mention government-internal consumer policy, that consumer policy concerns a policy field that is essentiallyordered by a collaboration of the state on the one hand, and consumer protection organisations representing all consumers equally on the other, while the many small consumer initiatives, not even started by individual committed consumers, regularly fall behind in comparison. This perspective refers largely to the view of and from the centre of politics. This volume is intended to go some way towards countering the institutionally prevailing impression that, in principle, there is only'consumer policy from above'that is really effective and assertive.The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

EURECA-PRO is the global educational core hub and interdisciplinary research and innovation leader in qualitative environmental and social framework development for responsible consumption and production.Through its novel approach, on the one hand, it holistically contributes to the highly topical issue of Sustainable Consumption and Production under the umbrella of Sustainable Development Goal 12, and on the other hand it effectively contributes to the development of the European Higher Education Area complimentary to Sustainable Development Goal 4.In this book readers will find the discussion results among professionals, academics and scientists on responsible consumption and production, regarding the latest advances to achieve a sustainable society. This book contents 5 chapters focused on: Smart and healthy societies, Recycling, reused and longer lasting products, fresh air, clean water, healthy soil and biodiversity, cleaner energy and cutting-edge clean technological innovation, and industry 4.0.This book also intends to show the current and future challenges, and innovative solutions considering the technological, humanistic, educational, economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability

This book explores the challenge that the commons present to the private-public dichotomy in a wide variety of national legal systems representing the West European legal tradition as well as post-socialist and post-colonial experiences. It presents national reports from 13 jurisdictions, ranging from Belgium and the South Africa to the US. Constituting the outcome of the 20th General Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in Fukuoka, Japan in July 2018, it offers a valuable and unique resource for the study of comparative law.

This book analyzes the impact of Covid-19 in different areas such as corporate social responsibility and legislation in SMEs, insolvency law, behavioral finance, government interventions in markets, financial disclosure, the emergence of unregulated financial sectors, the increase of coronavirus-related crimes, and the development of banking regulations in the Covid-19 pandemic, among others.The coronavirus epidemic, which has spread throughout the world, has highlighted the inadequacies of the health and social systems of all states, even the most advanced. The health emergency has required extraordinary measures, especially at the level of laws that are essential for the preservation of lives, health, and livelihoods. The priority for governments and even the international community was, from the outset, to prevent infections and care for those affected. Such a strategy required an unusual increase in health spending, even though it exceeded the State's financial capacity and lacked fiscal space. In addition to this challenge, which has not yet been overcome, there is another, that of redressing the consequences of the measures taken (general containment). It should be pointed out that during health crises, the state may have to review the requirement for transparency because of the emergency, but not free itself from it. The urgency could never be an alibi for a violation of citizens'rights and freedoms.With urgency, financial management systems must be flexible and responsive to all occurrences, while ensuring optimal use of resources and minimizing the risks of fraud and corruption.

This open access book offers unique and novel views on the social innovation landscape, tools, practices, pedagogies, and research in the context of higher education. International, multi-disciplinary academics and industry leaders present new developments, research evidence, and practice expertise on social innovation in higher education institutions (HEIs), across academic and professional disciplines.The book includes a selected set of peer-reviewed chapters presenting different perspectives against which relevant actors can identify and analyse social innovation in HEIs. The volume demonstrates how HEIs can respond to societal challenges, support positive social change, and contribute to the development of international public policy discourse. It answers the question ‘how does the present higher education system, in different countries, promote social innovation and create social change and impact'. In answering this question, the book identifies factors driving success as well as obstacles. Furthermore, it examines how higher education innovation assists societal challenges and investigates the benefits of effective social innovation engagement by HEIs.The interdisciplinary approach of the volume makes it a must-read for scholars, students, policy-makers, and practitioners of economics, education, business and management, political science, and sociology interested in a better understanding of social innovation.

The problems related to the process of industrialisation such as biodiversity depletion, climate change and a worsening of health and living conditions, especially but not only in developing countries, intensify. Therefore, there is an increasing need to search for integrated solutions to make development more sustainable. The United Nations has acknowledged the problem and approved the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. On 1st January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the Agenda officially came into force. These goals cover the three dimensions of sustainable development: economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection. The Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals comprehensively addresses the SDGs in an integrated way. It encompasses 17 volumes, each one devoted to one of the 17 SDGs. This volume is dedicated to SDG 14 “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development'. Marine and coastal bio-resources, play an essential role in human well-being and social and economic development. This volume addresses this sustainability challenge providing the description of a range of terms, which allows a better understanding and fosters knowledge about it.Concretely, the defined targets are:Prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollutionSustainably manage and protect marine and coastal ecosystems to avoid significant adverse impacts, including by strengthening their resilience, and take action for their restoration in order to achieve healthy and productive oceansMinimize and address the impacts of ocean acidification, including through enhanced scientific cooperation at all levelsEffectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristicsConserve at least 10 per cent of coastal and marine areas, consistent with national and international law and based on the best available scientific informationProhibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation 16Increase the economic benefits to small island developing states and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism Increase scientific knowledge, develop research capacity and transfer marine technology, taking into account the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission Criteria and Guidelines on the Transfer of Marine Technology, in order to improve ocean health and to enhance the contribution of marine biodiversity to the development of developing countries, in particular small island developing states and least developed countriesProvide access for small-scale artisanal fishers to marine resources and marketsEnhance the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources by implementing international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provides the legal framework for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and their resources, as recalled in pa

This book examines central aspects of the new technologies and the legal questions raised by them from both an international and an inter-disciplinary perspective. The technology revolution and the global networking of IT systems pose enormous challenges for the law. Current areas of discussion relate to autonomous systems, big data and issues surrounding legal tech. Ensuring data protection and IT security as well as the creation of a legal framework for the new technology as a whole can only be achieved through international and inter-disciplinary co-operation.The team of authors is made up of experienced, internationally renowned experts as well as young researchers and professionals who give valuable insights from numerous different jurisdictions. This book is written for jurists and those responsible for technology in public authorities and companies as well as practising lawyers and researchers.

This book contains selected papers presented during the World Renewable Energy Congress (WREC) 2020 at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon. The WREC is dedicated to promoting renewable energy global development, and features top international experts, policy makers, scientists, engineers, technology developers, and business practitioners addressing the most current research and technological breakthroughs in sustainable energy development and innovation. The contributions address policy and renewable energy technologies and applications in all sectors—for heating and cooling, agricultural applications, water, desalination, industrial applications, and for the transport sectors.Presents cutting-edge research in green building and renewable energy from all over the world;Covers the most up-to-date research developments, government policies, business models, best practices, and innovations;Contains case studies and examples to enhance practicalapplication of the technologies.

This book analyzes the business model of enterprises in the digital economy by taking an economic and comparative perspective. The aim of this book is to conduct an in-depth analysis of the anti-competitive behavior of companies who monopolize data, and put forward the necessity of regulating data monopoly by exploring the causes and characteristics of their anti-competitive behavior. It studies four aspects of the differences between data monopoly and traditional monopolistic behavior, namely defining the relevant market for data monopolies, the entry barrier, the problem of determining the dominant position of data monopoly, and the influence on consumer welfare. It points out the limitations of traditional regulatory tools and discusses how new regulatory methods could be developed within the competition legal framework to restrict data monopolies. It proposes how economic analytical tools used in traditional anti-monopoly law are facing challenges and how competition enforcementagencies could adjust regulatory methods to deal with new anti-competitive behavior by data monopolies.

This book focuses on traditional fields of business studies and economics and how digitalization has affected them. It provides an overview about the lessons learned from academic research and highlights implications for practitioners. Digitalization has not only changed the ways business administration and economics are taught, but also the substance at the core of the two disciplines. Chapters from expert contributors define and carefully evaluate the developments that have occurred over the last decades. The authors further provide an assessment of how industry branches have adapted and in which form regulators have engaged. Attention is given to the theoretical and empirical findings from recent scholarly literature. Furthermore, the authors provide some novel insights from their own research at the University of Bremen. This book appeals to business administration, economics, and entrepreneurship scholars and practitioners alike.

This book presents research on energy poverty alleviation, approaching the complex phenomenon topic holistically and with heterogeneity. It includes contributions from research teams studying the topic at a national, regional and local levels worldwide. The book is divided in two main blocks. The first part, New Approaches, involves novel assessments and concepts from a global and multidisciplinary point of view. The second part, Contexts, offers new theoretical diagnoses focused on case studies of different scales from around the world, and concepts for future trends. Energy Poverty Alleviation will be of interest to policy makers, stakeholders, academics and researchers with knowledge in the energy poverty field.

This book explores human decision-making heuristics. The monograph studies how nudging and winking can help citizens to make rational choices and governments to create choice architectures that aid in stabilizing markets and flourishing society. By applying the behavioral economics approach to political outcomes, it demonstrates how economics can be employed for personal benefits but also foster the greater societal good. A review of the current literature on human decision-making advantages and failures in Europe and North America opens the book. A wide range of nudges and winks is presented that aid to curb the harmful consequences of human decision-making fallibility. Awareness of mental heuristics and biases in the finance domain is strengthened in order to understand how to nudge people to benefit from economic markets but also help governments to stabilize economies in providing strategic market communication. The author also proposes concrete leadership and followership directives on nudging in the digital age. This book appeals to scholars and policy makers interested in rational decision-making. The behavioral perspective features the strategic use of nudging and winking in the digital age.The second revised and expanded edition offers the newest insights on behavioral e-Economics and the latest developments regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. It covers topics such as the role of social media in finance and discrimination in searchplace competition. It also offers new insights on strategic leadership and smart followership directives to successfully navigate through complex and fast-paced e-architectures.

This volume explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health, safety, and socioeconomic well-being of community residents of selected countries around the world. It is built on an overarching framework of studying community well-being, applied here to the analyses of one of the most significant crises of our time. Most important are the lessons learned from the experiences in these countries – including insights and recommendations on how to mitigate future pandemics. Building on years of research, each chapter is written by an accomplished scholar with interests and expertise on various assessments of community well-being development in the country of study. The authors share cases and analyses, and highlight failures and successes; they offer sound policy recommendations on how to restore the health, safety, and multidimensional wellness of community residents, and how to decrease the likelihood and impact of future crises. Some of the policy recommendations in this multi-country compendium can be used to assist crisis prevention and recovery, beyond pandemics. The volume shows how the lessons learned and shared from community responses to the pandemic can provide critical and useful policy insights to shape best practices in mitigating other disasters like hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, wars, riots, acts of domestic and international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and industrial accidents. This is a must-read for researchers across the social sciences, health sciences, and management studies, and for government and non-government professionals involved in community health and well-being.

This book has been written for experienced managers and students in postgraduate programs, such as MBA or specialized master's programs. In a systematic yet concise manner, it addresses all major issues companies face when conducting business across national and cultural boundaries, including assessing and selecting the most promising overseas markets, evaluating market entry alternatives, and examining the forces that drive adaptation versus standardization of the marketing mix. It looks at the various global marketing challenges from a strategic perspective and also addresses topics not usually found in international marketing texts, such as aligning marketing strategies with global organizational structures and managing the relationship between national subsidiaries, regional headquarters, and global headquarters, as well as corporate social responsibility challenges and pertinent future trends that are likely to affect global business.A guide to suitablevideo resources giving additional background to this book can be downloaded by all readers by contacting the author. Instructors can also obtain additional support material for teaching. Please email Bodo Schlegelmilch at WU Vienna, using your institutional email and stating your university affiliation: - More than 400 PowerPoint slides covering the material in each chapter- Open Ended Questions - A comprehensive multiple choice test bank with solutions

This book focuses on how firms should engage ethical choices in developing and deploying digital technologies. Digital technologies are devices that rely on rapidly accelerating digital sensing, storage, and transmission capabilities to intervene in human processes. While the ethics of technology is analyzed across disciplines from science and technology studies (STS), engineering, computer science, critical management studies, and law, less attention is paid to the role that firms and managers play in the design, development, and dissemination of technology across communities and within their firm. This book covers the topic from three angles. First, it illuminates diverse facets of the intersection of technology and business ethics. Second, it uses themes to explore what business ethics offers to the study of technology and, third, what technology studies offers to the field of business ethics. Each field brings expertise that, together, improves our understanding of the ethical implications of technology. Chapter “A Micro-ethnographic Study of Big Data-Based Innovation in the Financial Services Sector: Governance, Ethics and Organisational Practices', chapter ”The Challenges of Algorithm-Based HR Decision-Making for Personal Integrity'and chapter “Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle'are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license via link.springer.com.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being deployed by marketing entities in connection with consumers'interactions. Thanks to machine learning (ML) and cognitive computing technologies, businesses can now analyse vast amounts of data on consumers, generate new knowledge, use it to optimize certain processes, and undertake tasks that were previously impossible.Against this background, this book analyses new algorithmic commercial practices, discusses their challenges for consumers, and measures such developments against the current EU legislative framework on consumer protection. The book adopts an interdisciplinary approach, building on empirical findings from AI applications in marketing and theoretical insights from marketing studies, and combining them with normative analysis of privacy and consumer protection in the EU.The content is divided into three parts. The first part analyses the phenomenon of algorithmic marketing practices and reviews the main AI and AI-related technologies used in marketing, e.g. Big data, ML and NLP. The second part describes new commercial practices, including the massive monitoring and profiling of consumers, the personalization of advertising and offers, the exploitation of psychological and emotional insights, and the use of human-like interfaces to trigger emotional responses. The third part provides a comprehensive analysis of current EU consumer protection laws and policies in the field of commercial practices. It focuses on two main legal concepts, their shortcomings, and potential refinements: vulnerability, understood as the conceptual benchmark for protecting consumers from unfair algorithmic practices; manipulation, the substantive legal measure for drawing the line between fair and unfair practices.

This book discusses how various social marketing campaigns have taken up and had an impact on important aspects of quality of life across the world. The chapters bring up case studies from different regions, showing how successful social marketing campaigns have been instrumental in addressing public health challenges, discrimination and exclusion, violence, and inequity; and in changing public perceptions in different countries and through public and nonprofit organizations, but also through businesses. Thus, this book approaches social marketing from a quality-of-life (QOL) marketing philosophy, taking an international perspective. It includes 26 case studies discussing how social marketing campaigns were developed and implemented in specific cases related to disease prevention and risk behavior, safe and healthy lifestyles, and inclusion and interpersonal relationships. It also covers social marketing campaigns related to COVID-19 in various countries. The book is both comprehensive and provides in-depth understanding of every case, and is useful for research, policy making, development communication and social marketing. Graduate students, researchers, practitioners, and social marketers alike will find this book interesting.

Algorithms are now widely employed to make decisions that have increasingly far-reaching impacts on individuals and society as a whole (“algorithmic governance”), which could potentially lead to manipulation, biases, censorship, social discrimination, violations of privacy, property rights, and more. This has sparked a global debate on how to regulate AI and robotics (“governance of algorithms”). This book discusses both of these key aspects: the impact of algorithms, and the possibilities for future regulation.

This edited volume covers the challenges currently faced by consumer law in Europe and the United States, ranging from fundamental theoretical questions, such as what goals consumer law should pursue, to practical questions raised by disclosure requirements, the General Data Protection Regulation and technology advancements. With governments around the world enacting powerful new regulations concerning consumers, consumer law has become an important topic in the economic analysis of law. Intended to protect consumers, these regulations typically seek to do so by giving them tools to make better decisions, or by limiting the consequences of their bad decisions. Legal scholars are divided, however, regarding the efficacy and effects of these regulations; some call for certain policies to be abolished, while others support a regulatory expansion.

This open access book makes a case for a socially inclusive energy transition and illustrates how engineering and public policy professionals can contribute to shaping an inclusive energy transition, building on a socio-technical systems engineering approach. Accomplishing a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions economy in 2050 is a daunting challenge. This book explores the challenges of the energy transition from the perspectives of technological innovation, public policy, social values and ethics. It elaborates on two particular gaps in the design of public policy interventions focused on decarbonization of the energy system and discusses how both could be remedied. First, the siloed organization of public administration fails to account for the many interdependencies between the energy sector, the mobility system, digital infrastructure and the built environment. Cross-sector coordination of policies and policy instruments is needed to avoid potentially adverse effects upon societyand the economy, which may hamper the energy transition rather than accelerate it. Second, energy and climate policies pay insufficient attention to the social values at stake in the energy transition. In addressing these gaps, this book intends to inspire decision makers engaged in the energy transition to embrace the transition as an opportunity to bring a more inclusive society into being.

This book explores convergences of legal doctrine despite jurisdictional, cultural and political barriers, as well as divergences due to such barriers, examining topics that are of vital importance to contemporary legal scholars. Written by leading experts from all continents, its 26 chapters present a comparative analysis of cutting-edge legal issues of the 21st century. While each of the countries covered stands alone as a sovereign state, in a technologically advanced world their disparate systems nonetheless show comparable strategies in dealing with complex legal issues. Several of the chapters show how, in addition to state normative production and state adjudication, a growing panoply of non-state instruments and non-state adjudication are becoming more and more central to the legal field. This book is a key addition to the library of any scholar wanting to keep abreast of the major trends in contemporary law. Representing the current state of law in a vast range of areas, it covers each topic from a comparative perspective. Cet ouvrage, en examinant des sujets d'une importance vitale pour les juristes contemporains, traite des convergences de la doctrine juridique malgré les barrières juridictionnelles, culturelles et politiques ainsi que des divergences dues à ces barrières. Écrits par d'éminents universitaires de tous les continents, ses 26 chapitres présentent une analyse comparative de sujets juridiques majeurs du 21e siècle. Dans un monde technologiquement avancé, bien que chaque pays analysé dans cet ouvrage demeure autonome en tant qu'État souverain, l'ensemble des systèmes disparates présente néanmoins des stratégies comparables pour traiter des questions juridiques complexes. En outre, plusieurs chapitres montrent comment, en plus de la production normative et de la résolution des différends étatiques, la panoplie croissante de différents types d'instruments non étatiques et de résolution nonétatique des différends devient de plus en plus centrale dans la sphère juridique. Cet ouvrage est un ajout essentiel à la bibliothèque de tout universitaire souhaitant se tenir au courant des principales tendances du droit contemporain. Il couvre un vaste domaine de sujets traités d'un point de vue comparatif et représente l'état actuel du droit dans chaque domaine.

How can we design innovative food experiences that enhance food pleasure and consumer well-being? Through a wide variety of empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions, which examine the art of designing innovative food experiences, this edited book explores the relationship between design thinking, food experience, and food well-being. While many aspects of food innovation are focused on products'features, in this book, design thinking follows an experiential perspective to create a new food innovation design logic that integrates two aspects: consumer food well-being and the experiential pleasure of food. It integrates a holistic perspective to understand how designing innovative food experiences, instead of food products, can promote healthy and pleasurable eating behaviors among consumers and help them achieve their food well-being. Invaluable for scholars, food industry professionals, design thinkers, students, and amateurs alike, this book will define the field of food innovation for years to come.

The Commentary on the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (four volumes) is a major European project that aims to contribute to the development of ever closer conceptual and dogmatic standpoints with regard to the creation of “Europeanised research on Union law”. Following on from the Commentary on the Treaty of the European Union, this book presents detailed explanations, article by article, of all the provisions of the TFEU, discussing the application of Union law in the national legal orders and its interpretation by the Court of Justice of the EU. The authors are academics and practitioners from twenty-eight European states and different legal fields, some from a constitutional law background, others experts in the field of international law and EU law.Reflecting the various approaches to European legal culture, this book promotes a system concept of European Union law toward more unity notwithstanding its rich diversity grounded in national traditions.

This book offers readers a deeper understanding of the Cyberspace, of how institutions and industries are reinventing themselves, helping them excel in the transition to a fully digitally connected global economy. Though technology plays a key part in this regard, societal acceptance is the most important underlying condition, as it poses pressing challenges that cut across companies, developers, governments and workers. The book explores the challenges and opportunities involved, current and potential future concepts, critical reflections and best practices. It addresses connected societies, new opportunities for governments, the role of trust in digital networks, and future education networks. In turn, a number of representative case studies demonstrate the current state of development in practice.

This book is the second volume in the series Livestock Diseases and Management, and reviews the importance and implications of animal origin viral zoonoses. It also highlights the specific etiology and epidemiology of these viral infections and discusses their various biological and mechanical transmission mechanisms. Further, the book reviews various measures for controlling viral zoonoses and examines novel therapeutic and prophylactic strategies.Discussing recent studies on the pathogenesis and host immune response to these infections, it underscores the importance of using vaccines against these viral diseases to reduce the risk of them being transmitted to humans.Lastly, it describes in detail the challenges posed by these viral infections and our readiness to face them.

This book addresses major issues facing postal and delivery services throughout the world. Worldwide, there is currently a considerable amount of interest in postal and delivery economics. The industry is reacting to a state of near crisis and is implementing different drastic changes. The European Commission and member States are still wrestling with the problem of how to implement entry liberalization into postal markets, how to address digital competition, and how to maintain the Universal Service Obligation (USO).Digitalization, technological development and online platforms are strongly affecting both the way postal and delivery operators are managing their services, as well as their role on the market. Strong emphasis was attributed to the assets of Postal Operators (POs) and their added value in the digital age, as well as on new business strategies. This volume presents original essays by prominent researchers in the field, selected and edited from papers presented at the 27th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held in Dublin, Ireland, 22-25 May, 2019. Topics addressed by this volume include the fragmentation of the postal supply chain, blockchain and digital postal services, and the fading of traditional postal market boundaries. This book will be a useful tool not only for graduate students and professors, but also for postal administrations, consulting firms, and federal government departments.

This book contends that, with regard to the likelihood of confusion standard, European trademark law applies the average consumer incoherently and inconsistently. To test this proposal, it presents an analysis of the horizontal and vertical level of harmonization of the average consumer. The horizontal part focuses on similar fictions in areas of law adjacent to European trademark law (and in economics), and the average consumer in unfair competition law. The vertical part focuses on European trademark law, represented mainly by EU trademark law, and the trademark laws of the UK, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The book provides readers with a better understanding of key aspects of European trademark law (the average consumer applied as part of the likelihood of confusion standard) and combines relevant law and practices with theoretical content and other related areas of law (and economics). Accordingly, it is an asset for policymakers and practitioners, as well as general readers with an interest in intellectual property law and theory.

This proceedings volume explores marketing opportunities and challenges that exist in the current, fast-changing landscape of the global marketplace. Current global issues such as the rising middle class in emerging markets, disruptive technological breakthroughs, big data analytics, changing consumer habits and concerns over national trade policies have renewed ethical concerns around consumer privacy and the tools companies use to operate, market to, connect and build a relationship with their customers. Featuring the full proceedings from the 2019 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference held in Vancouver, Canada, this book explores and assess the rate of change that drives companies to evaluate and adapt their marketing strategies to remain competitive.Founded in 1971, the Academy of Marketing Science is an international organization dedicated to promoting timely explorations of phenomena related to the science of marketing in theory, research, and practice. Among its services to members and the community at large, the Academy offers conferences, congresses, and symposia that attract delegates from around the world. Presentations from these events are published in this Proceedings series, which offers a comprehensive archive of volumes reflecting the evolution of the field. Volumes deliver cutting-edge research and insights, complementing the Academy's flagship journals, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS) and AMS Review (AMSR). Volumes are edited by leading scholars and practitioners across a wide range of subject areas in marketing science.

This book covers technologies that pose new challenges for consumer policy, creative developments that can help protect consumers'economic interests, innovative approaches to addressing perennial consumer concerns, and the challenges entailed by emerging ways of creating and delivering consumer products and services. In addition, it reflects on past successes and failures of consumer law and policy, explores opportunities for moving consumer law in a different direction, and discusses potential threats to consumer welfare, especially in connection with the changing political landscape in many parts of the world. Several chapters examine consumer law in individual countries, while others have an international focus.

This proceedings book presents papers from the 18th International Scientific Conference, held in September 2019 at Volgograd State University (Russia). The research findings are largely based on the theoretical assumptions of Oleg Inshakov, renowned for his pioneering work on the theory of economic genetics and the theory of “development nucleus” for economic systems.The papers focus on the impact of the 4th industrial revolution on economic growth, the concept of ecosystems corresponding to the rapid spread of digital technologies, regulatory and legal aspects of the Russian economy digitalization, the development of digital technologies in EAEU and BRICS foreign trade, and the corresponding law enforcement measures.The book is intended for academics and practitioners, as well as anyone interested in the problems of new industrialization and the digital transformation of the economy of business entities, regions, countries and integration unions, and their legal regulation to enhance competitiveness on a national and global scale

This book gathers the outcomes of several scientific events that were organized and conducted by the Institute of Scientific Communications (Volgograd, Russia) and the leading universities of the Volgograd region. The contributing authors include more than 700 scholars from various cities and regions of Russia. 124 works were selected out of 3,000 papers on the preconditions of formation, transformation, and legal provision of social institutes, topics that are in high demand in connection with a core aspect of digital modernization – the Internet of Things. The book is intended for a broad target audience, including scholars of various generations and various disciplines. These include young researchers (undergraduates and postgraduates) and recognized scholars (professors and lecturers) who study the socio-economic and legal consequences of the emergence and dissemination of digital technologies, including the Internet of Things. In addition, the bookwill benefit all those who are interested in the development of the information society, information and telecommunication, and digital technologies. The content is divided into three logical parts, the first of which is devoted to the essence of the process of institutionalization and legal regulation of the information society. In the second part, the digital economy is analyzed in view of the spheres of the national economy. In the third, the authors study the peculiarities of state and corporate regulation, infrastructural provision and support for the security of entrepreneurship, which are currently developing on the basis of the Internet of Things.

This book further develops both the traditional and the behavioural approach to competition law, and applies these approaches to a variety of timely issues. It discusses several fundamental questions regarding competition law and economics, and explores the applications of competition law and economics. In turn, the book analyses the interplay of intellectual property rights and patents in various aspects of competition law, and investigates the impacts that developments in information technology, such as big data analytics, have on competition law. The book also discusses the impact of energy law reforms on energy markets from a competition law perspective. Competition law is a classic field of economic analysis. This is largely due to the fact that competition law uses terms such as market, price, and competition and must therefore rely on economic know-how and analyses. In the United States, economic analysis has greatly influenced not just the scholarship on antitrust law, but also judicial decisions and agency enforcement. Antitrust law and economics are based on the traditional paradigm of neoclassical economics, which relies on the assumption that the market players, i.e. consumers and producers, are rational. This approach to competition law was later received in Europe under the banner of a “more economic approach”. For the past two decades, behavioural law and economics, which seeks to generate better insights into legal phenomena by providing more realistic psychological foundations for economic models, and to offer a multitude of applications in legislation and legal adjudication, has challenged the traditional economic approach to law in general and, more recently, to competition law specifically.

The book examines how the interests of the member states, which provide the primary driving force for developments in European integration, are internalised and addressed by the law of the European Union. In this context, member state interests are taken to mean the policy considerations, economic calculations, local socio-cultural factors, and the raw expressions of political will which shape EU policies and determine member state responses to the obligations arising from those policies. The book primarily explores the junctions and disjunctions between member state interests defined in such a manner and EU law, where the latter expresses either an obligation for the member states to comply with common policies or an acceptance of member state particularism under the common EU framework.

This book focuses on recent developments in consumer law, specifically addressing mandatory disclosures and the topical problem of information overload. It provides a comparative analysis based on national reports from countries with common law and civil law traditions in Asia, America and Europe, and presents the reports in the form of chapters that have been drafted on the basis of a questionnaire, and which use the same structure as the questionnaire to allow them to be easily compared. The book starts with an analysis of the basic assumptions underlying the current consumer protection models and examines whether and how consumer models adapt to the new market conditions. The second part addresses the information obligations themselves, first highlighting the differences in the reported countries before narrowing the analysis down to countries with a general pre-contractual information duty, particularly the transparency requirements that often come withsuch a duty. The next part examines recent developments in the law on food labelling, commercial practices and unfair contract terms in order to identify whether similar traits can be found in European and non-European jurisdictions. The fourth part of the book focuses on specific information obligations in the financial services and e-commerce sectors, discussing the fact that legislators are experimenting with different forms of summary disclosures in these sectors. The final part provides a critical appraisal of the recent developments in consumer information obligations, addressing the question of whether the multiple criticisms from behavioural sciences necessitate abandonment or refinement of current consumer information models in favour of new, more adequate forms of consumer protection, and providing suggestions.

This proceedings volume highlights cutting-edge approaches for contemporary issues evolved in strategic marketing and the integration of theory and practice. It focuses on strategic research and innovative activities in marketing that can be used in everyday operations. The contributions have been divided into eight sections, grouping emerging marketing technologies together in a close examination of practices, problems and trends. The first section examines management challenges which influence societies, cultures, networks, organizations, teams, and individuals. It emphasizes ways business processes foster innovation and facilitate management transitions from dominant structures to more evolutionary, developmental paradigms. The second section discusses the benefits and guidelines to implementation of green marketing strategies. The following section pursues new perspectives of the role of location in marketing and its impact on consumer well-being. The next section explores the impacts of user generated content (UGC) on marketing theories and practice, which is followed by a section identifying how market-based assets can contribute to a sustainable competitive advantage. The sixth section covers understanding consumer perception to make marketing decisions. The final sections promote the use of business informatics and modeling in marketing and also the development of integrating information management in ways that change how people use information to engage in knowledge focused activities. The papers from the proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Strategic Innovative Marketing (IC-SIM 2017) have been written by scientists, researchers, practitioners and students that demonstrate a special orientation in strategic marketing, all of whom aspire to be ahead of the curve based on the pillars of innovation. This proceedings volume shares their recent contributions to the field and showcases their exchange of insights on strategic issues in the science of innovation marketing.

This Dictionary analyses the ways in which the statuses of European citizens are profoundly affected by EU law. The study of one's particular status (as a worker, consumer, family member, citizen, etc.) helps to reconsider the legal notions concerning an individual's status at the EU level. The Dictionary includes a foreword by Evgeni Tanchev, Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union, which illustrates some interesting features of the Court's case law on statuses.The Dictionary's core is composed of 79 chapters, published in alphabetical order. Each brief chapter analyses how the individual status was conditioned or created by contemporary EU law, or how the process of European integration modified the traditional juridical definition of the respective status. The Dictionary provides answers to the following questions: Has the process of European integration modified the traditional juridical definition of individual status? Has the concept oflegal status now acquired a new function? What role has EU law played in developing a new modern function for the concept of individual status? Are the selection of a specific individual status by EU law and the proliferation of such statuses, which is synonymous with the creation of new privileges, collectively undermining the goal of achieving substantive equality between EU citizens? Does this constitute a return to the past? Under EU law, is it possible to create a uniform definition of the legal status of the person, over and above the definition that is provided by a given Member State's legal system?