Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 185 - January 2022): Springer

Recommending Books for Purchase : (Bulletin 185 - January 2022): Springer

Title List

Subject Areas: Corporate Governance, CSR, Entrepreneurship, Information Systems, Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Economics and Finance, Business and Management

Governance and Performance Management in Public Universities by Eugenio Caperchione (Editor); Carmine Bianchi (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030856977
Publication Date: 2022-01-08

Description: This edited volume contributes to the ongoing research and practice on applying performance management to university governance. A comparative approach and international perspective of the issue is provided through extensive use of case studies and empirical findings. A specific focus is also placed on using performance governance applied to higher education institutions' Third Mission, and on enhancing decision makers' ability to frame dynamic complexity. In this regard, specific attention is devoted to analyzing the cause-and-effect relationships in affecting public outcomes. This also includes managing trade-offs in both time and space, and detecting and counteracting unintended behavioral effects from the use of formal systems focused on quantitative measures for performance assessment.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Employer Attractiveness by Silke Bustamante (Editor); Fabio Pizzutilo (Editor); Martina Martinovic (Editor); Susana Herrero Olate (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030688608
Publication Date: 2021-12-20

Description: This book investigates the preferences of young job seekers for different aspects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in comparison to other non-CSR related employer attributes. It takes into account the potential influence of cultural and socio-economic variables and provides a differentiated global perspective. In its first part the book gives an overview about the impact of CSR on employer attractiveness and explains the factors that potentially influence CSR preferences of young job seekers all over the world. In a second part the research design is outlined and employer related preferences of 4783 graduates and students coming from 22 countries across the globe are discussed. In the third part, research results are presented for different cultural clusters. The most important criteria for employer choice of respondents are reflected against the socio-economic background and against the characteristics of CSR of the countries in question. Finally, the results are summarized and implications for global employer branding are derived.
A Casebook of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility by Ananda Das Gupta (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811657184
Publication Date: 2021-12-05

Description: This casebook argues that corporate sustainability agendas should look beyond stakeholder demands and desires, towards strategic opportunities to achieve social and commercial benefits simultaneously. It encourages shifting focus from a strategic approach to a sustainable business practice. As the cases in the book highlight, it is in every company's best interest to identify a manageable number of sustainability initiatives whose shared benefits--for society at large and the company--are significant and also substantially help the company strategically position itself in the competitive marketplace. Strategic sustainable business practices can lead to shared value creation, strengthening the company's competitiveness and establishing a symbiotic relationship. Companies can achieve solid profits by doing good things for the environment; it is a "win-win" for society and for business. This casebook provides examples of multi-stakeholder partnerships that aim to create sustainable enterprises. Ideal for teaching purposes, after a brief introduction to the case method, the cases are presented with no comments or criticisms.
Stakeholder Entrepreneurship by Vanessa Ratten (Editor); Vitor Braga (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811670909
Publication Date: 2021-12-09

Description: This edited book explores how stakeholders play a key part in any entrepreneurial endeavour because of their investment in the outcome. This book highlights that it is important to understand the reason and rationale for stakeholder engagement in entrepreneurship. Furthermore, this book showcases how there are different kinds of stakeholders from businesses directly linked to an entity to others that have a more policy influence on the industry segment. This book demonstrates that it is useful to understand to what extent stakeholders influence entrepreneurial decision making. This book states that most stakeholders tend to take an indirect role in the governance of a business in terms of what strategic decisions are made. This can change in times of crisis or change depending on the nature of the relationship. This book makes the case that stakeholders can take positive action in the form of advice or help. This book asserts that stakeholders who have an ongoing direct role are likely to invest more time and effort in an entrepreneurial endeavour. This book uncovers that it is important to re-evaluate on a continual basis whether the relationship is working and what needs to be done in order to increase efficiency. This edited book focuses on the role of stakeholders in an entrepreneurial context thereby being amongst the first research books to place specific attention on stakeholder management through public and private partnerships.
The International Dimension of Entrepreneurial Decision-Making by Andrea Caputo (Editor); Massimiliano M. Pellegrini (Editor); Marina Dabić (Editor); Léo-Paul Dana (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030859497
Publication Date: 2022-02-07

Description: This book focuses on understanding the international behaviours of SMEs, entrepreneurial ventures, and entrepreneurs. The collection of contributions gathered in the book highlights the importance of cultures, contexts and behaviours that pertain to the international entrepreneurship arena. The respective chapters address topics such as entrepreneurial cognition, international entrepreneurial ecosystems, innovation, international market entry decisions, family SMEs, international human resources management, cross-cultural and indigenous entrepreneurship, social capital and sustainability in international markets. All contributions are based on the latest empirical and theoretical research, and provide key findings and concrete recommendations for scholars, entrepreneurs, organizations and policy makers.
Handloom Sustainability and Culture by Miguel Ángel Gardetti (Editor); Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811659669
Publication Date: 2022-02-12

Description: This first of the three volume series highlights the intricate relationship in the handloom industry between its culture and the various areas of sustainability. While there have been major disruptions in this age old industry, this volume presents the luxury and the entrepreneurship aspects to keep the industry moving ahead. The book contains seventeen chapters written by leading experts in the areas and discusses means to revive some of the cultures that are on the verge of closing/shutting down.
Blockchain Technologies for Sustainability by Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811663000
Publication Date: 2021-10-25

Description: This book highlights the applications of blockchain technologies to foster sustainable development in different fields. The concept of Sustainability has grown widespread in today's context and there are many requirements to achieve Sustainability in any industrial sector including mapping, tracing the supply chain to ensure sustainable supply chain management. Reliable and transparent, efficient data is one of the key requirements for Sustainability in today's advanced industrial context. Achievement of Sustainability objectives in this advanced era demands various technological advancements such as Blockchain technologies. The core competencies of blockchain technology namely transparency, data auditability, privacy, value transfer, and process efficiency and automation are very much essential for achieving the multifold objectives under sustainability.
Neuromarketing in Business by Benny B. Briesemeister (Editor); Werner Klaus Selmer (Editor)
ISBN: 9783658351847
Publication Date: 2022-01-04

Description: This book shows how neuromarketing works in practice. It describes how companies can use the methods and insights of neuroscience to make better decisions themselves. It brings together real-world use cases in the area of applied neuroscience, collected from the globally leading consumer neuroscience companies and their clients. The use cases come from a variety of business areas, from advertising research to store design, from finding the right name for a brand to designing a compelling website. The book reveals how clients engage in neuromarketing; the business problems they can encounter, and have encountered, solving with this new approach; and the values they generate.
Large-Scale Group Decision-Making by Su-Min Yu; Zhi-Jiao Du
ISBN: 9789811678882
Publication Date: 2022-01-04

Description: This book explores clustering operations in the context of social networks and consensus-reaching paths that take into account non-cooperative behaviors. This book focuses on the two key issues in large-scale group decision-making: clustering and consensus building. Clustering aims to reduce the dimension of a large group. Consensus reaching requires that the divergent individual opinions of the decision makers converge to the group opinion. This book emphasizes the similarity of opinions and social relationships as important measurement attributes of clustering, which makes it different from traditional clustering methods with single attribute to divide the original large group without requiring a combination of the above two attributes. The proposed consensus models focus on the treatment of non-cooperative behaviors in the consensus-reaching process and explores the influence of trust loss on the consensus-reaching process.The logic behind is as follows: firstly, a clustering algorithm is adopted to reduce the dimension of decision-makers, and then, based on the clusters' opinions obtained, a consensus-reaching process is carried out to obtain a decision result acceptable to the majority of decision-makers. Graduates and researchers in the fields of management science, computer science, information management, engineering technology, etc., who are interested in large-scale group decision-making and consensus building are potential audience of this book. It helps readers to have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of clustering analysis and consensus building in large-scale group decision-making.
Business Analytics by Walter R. Paczkowski
ISBN: 9783030870225
Publication Date: 2022-02-04

Description: This book focuses on three core knowledge requirements for effective and thorough data analysis for solving business problems. These are a foundational understanding of: 1. statistical, econometric, and machine learning techniques; 2. data handling capabilities; 3. at least one programming language. Practical in orientation, the volume offers illustrative case studies throughout and examples using Python in the context of Jupyter notebooks. Covered topics include demand measurement and forecasting, predictive modeling, pricing analytics, customer satisfaction assessment, market and advertising research, and new product development and research. This volume will be useful to business data analysts, data scientists, and market research professionals, as well as aspiring practitioners in business data analytics. It can also be used in colleges and universities offering courses and certifications in business data analytics, data science, and market research.
Sustainability and Innovation in Manufacturing Enterprises by Anca Draghici (Editor); Larisa Ivascu (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811673641
Publication Date: 2021-12-19

Description: This book informs and educates readers about sustainable development management, approaches and applications in manufacturing processes and presents the trends to the next economic and social paradigm: the Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0. Educational aspects, case studies from various companies, together with the analysis and synthesis of the literature and empirical experiences, define the content of the eleven chapters. Thus, this material could be considered as a starting point and foundation for researchers and practitioners interested in the present state and the evolution of the manufacturing systems. The book offers various points of view regarding the actual digital transformation of the manufacturing system.
Becoming an International Manager by Iris Kolesa
ISBN: 9783030873943
Publication Date: 2021-12-02

Description: The book discusses international assignment-related decision-making by emerging market firms and their employees. It reveals that the ongoing, reciprocal interactions between the organisational and individual discourses, structures, processes, and the wider macro context spark multilevel role transitions and identity work. The book uncovers the macro-, meso-, and micro-level factors of role transitions and identity work, as well as their outcomes for international staffing. It also expands on the role (transition), social categorisation, and social identity theories by applying them to international staffing. Finally, it presents practical insights for international human resources managers by presenting several 'soft' approaches to managing international employee mobility, such as employer branding, prioritisation of favourable discourses and identities, and encouraging role hybridisation.
Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation by Agnes Koschmider (Editor); Stefan Schulte (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030814083
Publication Date: 2021-12-17

Description: This book integrates the material of the lecture series "Blockchain and Robotic Process Automation", offered at Kiel University. The lecture series sheds light on current research topics on blockchain and robotic process automation (RPA) also in combination with business process management (BPM) or process mining. In this series, leading scientists and business experts give insights into the use of the blockchain technology and RPA. The seven contributions included offer a general introduction into blockchain and smart contracts, and detail the extraction of meaningful events for process mining from blockchain, challenges of blockchain-based collaborative business processes, executing Decision Model and Notation decisions on the blockchain, a blockchain-based solution for digital payment, blockchain use cases in transportation and logistics, and automatically identifying process automation candidates using natural language processing. Overall, the book provides researchers and graduate students with a basic introduction into blockchain, its applications, useful combinations of BPM and blockchain, and use cases for RPA.
Business Research Methodology by Sergey K. Aityan
ISBN: 9783030768560
Publication Date: 2021-12-20

Description: This book introduces students to major research processes and methods used in business research. The research process includes all steps in the research project beginning from the problem formulation, through research design, proposal, conducting the research, deriving conclusions, writing research report, and preparing and making presentation. The major research methods include risk assessment, statistics, sampling, hypothesis testing, surveys, and comparative analysis. It helps students develop solid knowledge and practical skills sufficient for conducting a research project from its initiation, through completion, and delivery. The author provides multiple examples as well as the questions and problems for self-testing and self-evaluation in each chapter. The book is structured to provide a smooth flow of understanding and learning the material along the learning curve and is concise enough to fit a one-semester course.
New Economies for Sustainability by Luise Li Langergaard (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030817428
Publication Date: 2021-12-11

Description: The edited volume New Economies for Sustainability: Limits and Potentials for Possible Futures brings together a range of alternative views on economy and organization to illustrate different perspectives on how to work towards more sustainable solutions to production, consumptions and economic organization more generally. The book brings chapters from the most renowned scholars in the field, who bring their perspectives on how alternative schools theorize politics, society, organization, nature and ethics in their attempts to develop theories with a strong focus on sustainability. The book aims to contribute with a platform for gathering and collecting these theories in a pluralist economic framework, which can provide a strong alternative voice to mainstream economic theories in sustainability debates.
Agricultural Supply Chain Management Research by Onur Boyabatli (Editor); Burak Kazaz (Editor); Christopher S. Tang (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030814229
Publication Date: 2021-12-10

Description: This book focuses on three essential elements of agricultural supply chains: Planting and Growing, Processing and Selling, and Government Interventions. For decades, most agricultural economists applied macro-economic theory in decisions pertaining to the optimization of food production and distribution. However, few researchers used micro-economic theory to examine how individual farmers respond to market information, incentive pricing mechanisms and different market structures in the trade of agricultural goods. Examining challenges in agricultural supply chain operations through the lens of micro-economic theory is imperative because it can enable policymakers and social enterprises to develop and design market information provision policy, incentive contracts and market structures for improving farmer and consumer welfare. In each chapter, contributing authors motivate their research questions by providing the context and articulating the importance of their questions. They present their analysis to examine the respective research questions and explain their results. At the end of each chapter, they provide a short list of future research questions.
Sustainability and the New Economics by Stephen J. Williams (Editor); Rod Taylor (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030787943
Publication Date: 2021-12-10

Description: This multidisciplinary book provides new insights and hope for sustainable prosperity given recent developments in economics - but only if swift and strong actions consistent with Earth's biophysical limits and principles of justice are universally taken. It is one thing to put limits on resource throughput and waste generation to conform with the ecosphere's biocapacity. It is another thing to efficiently allocate a sustainable rate of resource throughput and ensure it is equitably distributed in the form of final goods and services. While the separate but interdependent decisions regarding throughput, distribution, and allocation are the essence of ecological economics, dealing with them in a world that needs to cure its growth addiction requires a realistic understanding of macroeconomics and the fiscal capacity of currency-issuing central governments. Sustainable prosperity demands that we harness this understanding to carefully regulate the rate of resource throughput and manipulate macroeconomic outcomes to facilitate human flourishing. The book begins by outlining humanity's current predicament of gross ecological overshoot and laments the half-century of missed opportunities since The Limits to Growth (1972). What was once economic growth has become, in many high-income countries, uneconomic growth (additional costs exceeding additional benefits), which is no longer advancing wellbeing. Meanwhile, low-income nations need a dose of efficient and equitable growth to escape poverty while protecting their environments and the global commons. The book argues for a synthesis of our increasing knowledge of the ecosphere's limited carrying capacity and the power of governments to harness, transform, and distribute resources for the common good. Central to this synthesis must be a correct understanding of the difference between financial constraints and real resource constraints. While the latter apply to everyone, the former do not apply to currency-issuing central governments, which have much more capacity for corrective action than mainstream thinking perceives. The book joins the growing chorus of authoritative voices calling for a complete overhaul of the dominant economic system. We conclude with policy recommendations based on a new economics that, if implemented, would come close to guaranteeing a sustainable and prosperous future. Upon reading this book, at least one thing should be crystal clear: business as usual is not a viable option.
Energy Policy Advancement by Dmitry Kurochkin (Editor); Martha J. Crawford (Editor); Elena V. Shabliy (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030849924
Publication Date: 2021-12-06

Description: This book states that sustainable development has become an influential discourse worldwide. Climate change is not only an urgent problem, but it is also a fundamental spiritual question concerning social justice and sustainable peace development as well as solidarity among people of various religious backgrounds and different countries. Thus, this global problem must be faced and recognized for future actions and strategies. However, the politics of fear must be replaced with a culture of peace, hope, and compassion, and this urgent problem must be faced with an optimistic attitude and a certain degree of preparedness. Climate change is evident in many forms, such as, for example, the most obvious--recent weather fluctuations that happen around the world. Floods, droughts, and hurricanes are those visible signs of climate change. Human-caused climate change is projected to greatly impact marine, freshwater, and terrestrial life. Temperatures in Alaska and the Arctic have increased over the last 50 years at a rate more than twice as fast as the global average temperature. Poor people are vulnerable to man-made climate change and respond rapidly to its impacts. Diverse knowledge of and approaches to climate change help understand this growing problem; global average air temperature has increased in the recent past by approximately 1.0°C (1.8°F). According to the Climate Science Special Report, the last several years have been record-breaking, and the period of 1901-2016 is the warmest. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are still rising, with damaging effects on the Earth's climate. At the moment, the concentration of CO2 is higher than at any point in time--at least the past 800,000 years. However, carbon dioxide (CO2) is not the only GHG that impacts human-induced climate change.
Financial Crises, Poverty and Environmental Sustainability: Challenges in the Context of the SDGs and Covid-19 Recovery by Andreas Antoniades (Editor); Alexander Antonarakis (Editor); Isabell Kempf (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030874162
Publication Date: 2022-02-06

Description: This volume advances the state-of-the-art in the study of the interplay among financial crises, poverty dynamics and environmental sustainability. It offers timely and unique contributions to the immediate global challenge of sustainable development. Developing a new evidence-base, the volume offers concrete recommendations for policy action needed in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in relation to environment and poverty during the current conditions of financial distress. The approach taken is inductive and evidence-driven. Most analysis is based on in-depth case studies that aim to offer a detailed and dynamic picture on how poverty and environmental sustainability interact in specific social contexts and financial crises. In this way the volume aims to generate a wealth of new and concrete evidence that offer a solid foundation to understand the multiple channels through which social and environmental factors interact, and the ways in which this interaction can and should be managed in order to achieve the needed global transition to sustainability. Broader dynamics that are covered and analysed include the historical legacies of structural adjustment and colonialism; the current debt wave experienced in developing countries; the role of inequality; the significant impact that climate change has on livelihoods and on meeting the SDGs; the new challenge presented by the Covid-19 pandemic for the SDGs; the challenge of sustainable funding for SDGs; and the need for a new eco-social contract. Case-studies examined include Cambodia, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Zambia, and subregions such as the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and Lower Mekong Countries. The volume is part of a joint initiative by the 'Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP)' of the University of Sussex, the 'UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Action for Sustainable Development Goals' and the 'United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)'. The overall aim is to advance a new research programme and foster a better understanding of the multiple, complex and often opposing ways through which the punctuated economic slowdown of financial crises, poverty dynamics and environmental sustainability interact. It also makes novel recommendations into how poverty reduction and environment can work in synergy rather than being antagonistic, especially during financial distress, leading into recommendations directly geared towards achieving the SDGs and beyond.
AI and Analytics for Public Health by Hui Yang (Editor); Robin Qiu (Editor); Weiwei Chen (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030751654
Publication Date: 2022-01-05

Description: This volume offers the state-of-the-art research and developments in service science and related research, education and practice areas. It showcases emerging technology and applications in fields including healthcare, energy, finance, information technology, transportation, sports, logistics, and public services. Regardless of size and service, a service organization is a service system. Because of the socio-technical nature of a service system, a systems approach must be adopted to design, develop, and deliver services, aimed at meeting end users' both utilitarian and socio-psychological needs. Effective understanding of service and service systems often requires combining multiple methods to consider how interactions of people, technology, organizations, and information create value under various conditions. Chapters highlight ways to approach such technical challenges in service science and are based on submissions from the 2020 INFORMS International Conference on Service Science.
Technical Asset Management for Railway Transport by Igor Borisovich Shubinsky; Alexei Mikhailovitch Zamyshlaev
ISBN: 9783030900281
Publication Date: 2022-02-07

Description: This book introduces readers to the key provisions of the URRAN-based technical asset management system - a methodology for managing resources and risks by analyzing and ensuring the required levels of reliability and safety in Russia's railway transport facilities. It describes the architecture of the URRAN information system's unified corporate platform (UCP URRAN) and its subsystems for infrastructure facilities and rolling stock complexes. It also highlights the UCP URRAN's prospects for development, especially in the application of artificial intelligence to predict dangerous events in railway transport operation. The book is chiefly intended for specialists engaged in practical work on the technical maintenance of railway transport facilities. It can also be used as a reference guide for students and researchers at railway universities or professionals who are dealing with problems in technical asset management in other industries.
Global Competitiveness by William Philip Wall
ISBN: 9789811677540
Publication Date: 2022-01-04

Description: This book discusses the aspects of global competition in terms of the strategies that could be applied to improve the competitive position of businesses and consolidate gains particularly in the Thai market. The book is composed of 10 chapters focusing on topics related to business strategy, such as competition, marketing, innovation, utilizing information, technology, human resources, strategic alliances, customer service, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of strategies, and corporate social responsibility. This book will serve as a useful guide for those already in business in Thailand as well as for businesses that hope to expand their existing operations in Thailand to the global market.
Geospatial Data Analytics and Urban Applications by Sandeep Narayan Kundu (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811676482
Publication Date: 2022-01-04

Description: This book highlights advanced applications of geospatial data analytics to address real-world issues in urban society. With a connected world, we are generating spatial at unprecedented rates which can be harnessed for insightful analytics which define the way we analyze past events and define the future directions. This book is an anthology of applications of spatial data and analytics performed on them for gaining insights which can be used for problem solving in an urban setting. Each chapter is contributed by spatially aware data scientists in the making who present spatial perspectives drawn on spatial big data. The book shall benefit mature researchers and student alike to discourse a variety of urban applications which display the use of machine learning algorithms on spatial big data for real-world problem solving.
Speaking Management by Stephen Keith McGrath
ISBN: 9789811622120
Publication Date: 2022-01-06

Description: This book identifies ten linguistic traps in our everyday language usage and provides philosophical justification for a method of determining internally consistent definitions of groups of related terms that avoid all ten traps. Various examples and applications of this method are given throughout. The book demonstrates how the seemingly straightforward matter of our understandings of the meaning of words can have major implications for the exercise of power. This book illustrates how this insight originated from management research into project governance that found lack of agreement on the definition of that term, as well as on many other important management terms. To resolve this, the impacts of evolution, philosophy and linguistics upon our everyday language usage were investigated. The research documented in this book found that the human tool called language works well for describing physical objects but has difficulty producing a common understanding of the meaning of concepts - a problem not restricted to the management field. That field is simply a microcosm that exposes a much more widespread linguistic usage problem affecting our personal, religious and political lives; one that existed at the time of Plato and Aristotle and has laid hidden for millennia. This book includes a lexicon of 69 commonly used but confused or contested management terms, all developed by applying its definitional method. The terms include governance, power, ethics, leadership and their associated groups of terms. The book explores how disagreement can be resolved using these new clear definitions and extends this into an analysis of who 'good' ethics are good for. It also incorporates a section on "how to speak management and actually know what you are talking about", written in the style of an 'idiots guide' or 'guide for dummies'. This identifies common, everyday circumstances in which lack of agreed definitions cause avoidable confusion and provides the book's focus on conflict dissolution rather than on conflict resolution.
Industrial Organization by Pak-Sing Choi; Eric Dunaway; Felix Munoz-Garcia
ISBN: 9783030572839
Publication Date: 2021-01-07

Description: This textbook presents 122 exercises on industrial organization with detailed answer keys. While most textbooks on industrial organization focus on theory and empirical findings, this textbook offers practical examples and exercises helping predict firm behaviour in different industries. The book emphasizes the game-theoretic tools used in each type of exercise, so students can systematically apply them to other markets, forms of competition, or information environments where firms, consumers, and regulating agencies interact. The book begins with examples that analyse different models of firm behavior and interaction; starting with monopoly and moving through the Cournot model of simultaneous quantity competition, the Bertrand model simultaneous price competition, and sequential competition. The following chapters apply game-theoretic tools to situations of increasing complexity: regulation; R&D incentives; mergers and collusion; bundling incentives; incomplete information, signalling, and competition; networks and switching costs. In addition to providing algebraic simplifications, some chapters also offer the unique feature of worked exercises based on published journal articles by leading scholars in the field. Finally, exercises are ranked according to their difficulty, with a letter (A-C) next to the exercise number, which allows students to pace their studies and instructors to structure their classes accordingly. Providing a rigorous, yet practical introduction to the field of industrial organization, this textbook is appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in economics and finance.
An Introduction to Machine Learning by Miroslav Kubat
ISBN: 9783319876696
Publication Date: 2018-08-18

Description: This textbook presents fundamental machine learning concepts in an easy to understand manner by providing practical advice, using straightforward examples, and offering engaging discussions of relevant applications. The main topics include Bayesian classifiers, nearest-neighbor classifiers, linear and polynomial classifiers, decision trees, neural networks, and support vector machines. Later chapters show how to combine these simple tools by way of "boosting," how to exploit them in more complicated domains, and how to deal with diverse advanced practical issues. One chapter is dedicated to the popular genetic algorithms. This revised edition contains three entirely new chapters on critical topics regarding the pragmatic application of machine learning in industry. The chapters examine multi-label domains, unsupervised learning and its use in deep learning, and logical approaches to induction. Numerous chapters have been expanded, and the presentation of the material has been enhanced. The book contains many new exercises, numerous solved examples, thought-provoking experiments, and computer assignments for independent work.
Simulation and Gaming for Social Design by Toshiyuki Kaneda (Editor); Ryoju Hamada (Editor); Terukazu Kumazawa (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811620102
Publication Date: 2022-01-05

Description: This book is a collection of research articles that deal with three aspects of simulation and gaming for social design: (1) Theory and methodology, including game system theory and agent-based modeling; (2) Sustainability, including global warming and the energy-food nexus);; and (3) Social entrepreneurship, including business, ethnic, and ethical understanding. The latter two especially form two major areas of clinical knowledge in contemporary life. Simulation and gaming, with its participatory approach, provides participants with a seamless integration of problem solving and education. It has been known as a tool for interdisciplinary communication since the 1960s, and now it is being developed to contribute to global society in the twenty-first century. This is the first book on simulation and gaming for social design that covers all aspects from the methodological foundations to practical examples in the fields of sustainability and social entrepreneurship. Regardless of the size of the problematics, societal system design involves (1) The visioning and conception aspects due to the long-term, overall nature of the goal; (2) Interdisciplinary thinking and communication for the exploration of new states of accommodation with technological systems; and (3) The "human dimension" aspect including education that must be dealt with, thus academic developments of simulation and gaming for social design as system thinking and practice methodologies are anticipated. Simulation and gaming has great potential for development as a tool to facilitate the transfer between theoretical and clinical knowledge.
The Digital Platform Economy Index 2020 by Zoltan J. Acs; László Szerb; Eva Komlosi; Esteban Lafuente
ISBN: 9783030896508
Publication Date: 2022-01-05

Description: This book presents the 2020 Digital Platform Economy Index (DPE Index). The DPE Index integrates two separate but related literatures on ecosystems, namely, the digital ecosystem and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. This new framework situates digital entrepreneurship within the broader context of users, platforms, and institutions, such that two biotic entities (users and agents) actuate individual agency, and two abiotic components (digital infrastructure and digital platforms) form the external environment. The DPE Index framework includes 12 pillars that integrate the digital and the entrepreneurship ecosystems. Here, the authors report on the DPE Index, the four sub-indices, and the 12 pillar values for 116 countries as well as provide a cluster analysis based on the 12 pillars.
Climate Change and Adaptation for Food Sustainability by Ferdous Ahmed; Abul Quasem Al-Amin; Zeeda Fatimah Mohamad
ISBN: 9783030853747
Publication Date: 2022-01-28

Description: This book assesses the vulnerability impacts of climate change on food security by examining a 50 years scenario (2015- 2065) and following a top-down approach. Importantly, looking at the sustainable food production, the authors compared the cost-benefit of adaptation costs from 2015 to 2065. It was found that a 15% adaptation capacity is more efficient for Malaysia in order to combat the climate change effects on the food sector. This book has developed a quantitative adaptive model namely, the Malaysian Climate and Economy (MCE) model, based on the dynamic Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modeling structure to examine food sustainability and adaptation strategies. Malaysia experiences an unusual combination of droughts and extreme rainfall events that can be attributed to climate change. These unusual events and consequences leave Malaysian policymakers looking for ways to make Malaysia self-sufficient in terms of agriculture. It is assumed that climate change effects may result in increasing food insecurity and vulnerability in the future. Policy measures are in place to lessen the likely climatic effects overall, but there is an urgent need to develop an adaptation policy for the future.
Applying Predictive Analytics by Richard V. McCarthy; Mary M. McCarthy; Wendy Ceccucci
ISBN: 9783030830694
Publication Date: 2021-12-23

Description: The new edition of this textbook presents a practical, updated approach to predictive analytics for classroom learning. The authors focus on using analytics to solve business problems and compares several different modeling techniques, all explained from examples using the SAS Enterprise Miner software. The authors demystify complex algorithms to show how they can be utilized and explained within the context of enhancing business opportunities. Each chapter includes an opening vignette that provides real-life examples of how business analytics have been used in various aspects of organizations to solve issues or improve their results. A running case provides an example of a how to build and analyze a complex analytics model and utilize it to predict future outcomes. The new edition includes chapters on clusters and associations and text mining to support predictive models. An additional case is also included that can be used with each chapter or as a semester project.
The Economic Rise of East Asia by Linda Glawe; Helmut Wagner
ISBN: 9783030871277
Publication Date: 2021-12-10

Description: In light of the growing global economic importance of East Asia, this book analyzes and compares the extraordinary development paths and strategies of Japan, South Korea, and China. It examines both the factors that enabled these countries' prolonged periods of high-speed economic growth, and the reasons for their subsequent "cool-downs." In addition, the book illustrates how their development strategies served as role models for one another, and what current and future developing countries can learn from the East Asian success stories. This book will appeal to scholars and students of economics and development studies with an interest in the East Asian development model.
Innovation in Agriculture with IoT and AI by Suchismita Satapathy; Debesh Mishra; Arturo Realyvásquez Vargas
ISBN: 9783030888275
Publication Date: 2021-12-17

Description: This book examines different innovations in worldwide agricultural-systems including the applications of artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT) and features of machine learning (ML) for the benefits of the farm-community. Specifically, it examines the use of agricultural equipment and IoT to reduce physical stress; innovative equipment that measure and reduce mental work load; and innovative techniques to help with employee safety. Featuring case studies and future implications, this book is an excellent guide for academics and researchers in the agri-sector.
Innovative Technology at the Interface of Finance and Operations by Volodymyr Babich (Editor); John R. Birge (Editor); Gilles Hilary (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030757281
Publication Date: 2021-12-17

Description: This book examines the challenges and opportunities arising from an assortment of technologies as they relate to Operations Management and Finance. The book contains primers on operations, finance, and their interface. After that, each section contains chapters in the categories of theory, applications, case studies, and teaching resources. These technologies and business models include Big Data and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, IoT, 3D printing, sharing platforms, crowdfunding, and crowdsourcing. The balance between theory, applications, and teaching materials make this book an interesting read for academics and practitioners in operations and finance who are curious about the role of new technologies. The book is an attractive choice for PhD-level courses and for self-study.
Public Medical Insurance Reforms in China by Xinxin Ma
ISBN: 9789811677892
Publication Date: 2021-12-12

Description: This book investigates public medical insurance reform in China and studies its effects from both institutional and empirical study perspectives. It provides the reader with academic evidence for understanding the transformation of public medical insurance and its effect on the utilization of healthcare services, expenditure for medical care, individuals' financial portfolio allocation, and well-being. The main content of the book comprises two parts. First, institutional transformations of public medical insurance are considered: medical insurance reform in rural and urban China, and problems of medical insurance reform in the country. Second, it looks at the impact of public medical insurance reforms in China: evidence-based on empirical studies, including determinants of participation in medical insurance, the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme and its effects on the utilization of healthcare services, medical insurance and its effects on out-of-pocket expenditure, risky financial market participation, and well-being in China. This study provides academic evidence about these issues based on economic theories and econometric methods using many kinds of nationwide Chinese representative survey data. The book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in up-to-date and in-depth empirical studies on the mechanisms of participation in medical insurance and the impact of public medical insurance reforms on individuals and household behaviors in China. This volume will be of interest to those who are interested in the Chinese economy, social security policymakers, and scholars with an econometric analysis background.
The Changing Financial Landscape by Goran Karanovic (Editor); Persefoni Polychronidou (Editor); Anastasios Karasavvoglou (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030827779
Publication Date: 2021-12-19

Description: This book offers new insights and perspectives on the financial and banking sector in Europe with a special focus on Central and Southeastern European countries. Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of primary sources and datasets, the book examines both the financial development and performance of the real sector of the economy and the impact and involvement of the banking sector. The contributions offer new insights into current financial innovations and discuss best practices in innovative financial solutions. They also highlight new perspectives in finance and analyze characteristic problems in the real and banking sectors in various European countries. The insights and financial solutions presented in this book will be of interest to scholars of finance and financial economics as well as practitioners in the financial industry and policy makers.
Business Ethics: Kant, Virtue, and the Nexus of Duty by Richard M. Robinson
ISBN: 9783030859961
Publication Date: 2021-12-11

Description: This book offers students a philosophical introduction to the ethical foundations of business management. It combines lessons from Kant with virtue ethics and also touches upon additional approaches such as utilitarianism. At the core of the book lies the concept of the nexus of imperfect managerial duty: building and reinforcing the virtuous managerial team, engaging in reasoned discourse among all stakeholders, and diligently pursuing business responsibilities, including the creative efforts necessary for modern organizations. Case illustrations of these applications are presented throughout the book, including chapter appendices. Ancillary videos, test and answer banks and sample syllabi are available online via the author's website.
Islamic Finance and Circular Economy by Syed Nazim Ali (Editor); Zul Hakim Jumat (Editor)
ISBN: 9789811660603
Publication Date: 2021-12-05

Description: This book is the first of its kind to provide a critical overview and theoretical analysis of the Circular Economy from Shariah and Islamic Finance perspectives. The book is divided into three parts. The contributing authors pay close attention to Islamic Finance in light of sustainability and value creation. It also includes case studies on the Circular Economy application in Islamic Finance industry. The book is of interest to academics, students, and practitioners on Islamic Economics and Finance who have an interest in understanding the Circular Economy under the lens of Islamic Finance principles and applications.
The Knowledge Triangle by Dirk Meissner (Editor); Leonid Gokhberg (Editor); Yaroslav Kuzminov (Editor); Mario Cervantes (Editor); Sylvia Schwaag Serger (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030813451
Publication Date: 2021-12-04

Description: This book helps readers understand how universities position themselves in the innovation landscape and the implications for national policies. It provides a scholarly discussion and best practice-based insights to help answer questions like: To what extent do funding and governance policies support activities within the knowledge triangle? How should policies for universities be designed in countries with different industrial and higher education structures? Are there ways to effectively link universities with regional enterprises and social actors? And finally, what are the new institutional models and best practices for overcoming obstacles to interaction, collaboration, and co-creation?
Successful Management Strategies and Tools by Marc Helmold
ISBN: 9783030776602
Publication Date: 2021-12-02

Description: This book equips managers and professionals with effective management tools and strategies, as well as important concepts to help them combat current challenges and problems. It provides a holistic and practical approach to lean and quality management throughout the business value chain. The author describes comprehensively how management strategies and problem-solving tools enable companies to concentrate on value-adding activities and processes to achieve the competitive advantage. This allows managers to choose the proper tool and strategy for each situation and use it effectively. A wealth of best practices, industry examples and case studies are also included.
Smart Technologies for Energy and Environmental Sustainability by Parul Agarwal (Editor); Mamta Mittal (Editor); Jawed Ahmed (Editor); Sheikh Mohammad Idrees (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030807016
Publication Date: 2021-11-30

Description: As the application of smart technologies for monitoring environmental activities becomes more widespread, there is a growing demand for solutions that can help analyze the risk factors and impacts on the environment by focusing on energy consumption, storage, and management. This book is designed to serve as a knowledge-sharing platform, focusing on the emerging models, architectures, and algorithms being developed for smart computational technologies that can lead to efficient energy conservation and environmental sustainability.
Design Methodology for Future Products by Dieter Krause (Editor); Emil Heyden (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030783679
Publication Date: 2021-12-14

Description: Design Methodology for Future Products - Data Driven, Agile and Flexible provides an overview of the recent research in the field of design methodology from the point of view of the members of the scientific society for product development (WiGeP - Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Produktenwicklung e.V.). This book aims to contribute to design methods and their implementation for innovative future products. The main focus is the crucial data-driven, agile, and flexible way of working. Four topics are covered in corresponding chapters, Methods for Product Development and Management, Methods for Specific Products and Systems, Facing the Challenges in Product Development and Model-Based Engineering in Product Development. This publication starts with the agile strategic foresight of sustainable mechatronic and cyber-physical systems, moves on to the topics of system generation engineering in development processes, followed by the technical inheritance in data-driven product development. Product improvements are shown via agile experiential learning based on reverse engineering and via combination of usability and emotions. Furthermore, the development of future-oriented products in the field of biomechatronic systems, sustainable mobility systems and in situ sensor integration is shown. The overcoming of challenges in product development is demonstrated through context-adapted methods by focusing on efficiency and effectiveness, as well as designer-centered methods to tackle cognitive bias. Flow design for target-oriented availability of data and information in product development is addressed. Topics of model-based systems engineering are applied to the function-driven product development by linking model elements at all stages and phases of the product. The potential of model-based systems engineering for modular product families and engineering of multidisciplinary complex systems is shown.
China and the Belt and Road Initiative by Young-Chan Kim (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030861216
Publication Date: 2021-12-18

Description: This book offers critical insights into the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from an EU perspective. It analyzes the political, cultural, and diplomatic effectiveness of Xi's efforts to expand socio-cultural ties and build new trade corridors between Europe and the Far East, and sheds light on the lasting success and influence of China-led economic programs. The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides an overview of the various dimensions of the BRI initiative, including the challenges and opportunities of the EU-China trade relationship, China's geopolitical interests, and foreign policy approaches. The second part analyzes BRI cooperation from the perspective of the business sector, while the third part presents case studies that examine the impacts and responses of various European countries to the BRI.
Navigating Through the Crisis by Silvia L. Fotea (Editor); Ioan Ş. Fotea (Editor); Sebastian Vaduva (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030827502
Publication Date: 2021-12-23

Description: This proceedings volume provides a multifaceted perspective on the unprecedented crises generated by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and its ramifications for individuals, businesses, organizations, governments and systems in developing countries. Featuring selected papers from the 2020 Annual Griffiths School of Management and IT Conference (GSMAC), held in Oradea, Romania, this volume focuses on business, technological and ethical considerations in the process of navigating through a global crisis. It analyzes the effectiveness of different measures taken at individual, organizational and country level and outlines potential scenarios and solutions for the new post-crisis reality. Finally, the book provides diagnosis and recommendations for managerial practice in various industries impacted.
Pandemic, Lockdown, and Digital Transformation by Saqib Saeed (Editor); Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar (Editor); Ramayah Thurasamy (Editor)
ISBN: 9783030862732
Publication Date: 2021-11-27

Description: This edited volume discusses digital transformation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread lockdown policies that followed, digital technologies were touted as an effective means towards ensuring continuity and minimal interruption of day-to-day operations for businesses and other institutions. Digital transformation, however, is an inherently complex process and the pressure of short adoption times may further increase complexities for organizations looking to foster digital technologies. This volume comprises original research contributions on theoretical foundations and empirical studies of digital transformations in the pandemic era. Written by academics and practitioners from diverse disciplines and industries, the chapters cover topics such as psychological and technical implications of pandemic situations, the economic, organizational, social, and legal implications of digital adoption, and case studies for digital transformation in different industries. This book will be useful for academics, technology professionals, business policy makers, NGO managers, and governments looking to optimize their digital transformation processes to better prepare their organizations in the presence of pandemic situations.