Business and Management (R0)

This book organizes entrepreneurship theory in a way that constitutes a new body of knowledge, which is Informational Entrepreneurship.  It can serve as a basis for teaching entrepreneurship and reducing performance uncertainty.  Although entrepreneurship is not entirely about information, information determines how it can be systematically understood while depending less on luck.  It also offers the only known, experimentally tested approach that incorporates decision support tools.  Other known approaches rely on exposition for validation; whereas, Informational Entrepreneurship uses two-sample experiments that controlled for other explanations as well as experimenter bias.  It will appeal to those studying and teaching entrepreneurship who are looking for a prescriptive approach, rather than a descriptive approach.

This book deals with a much understudied and poorly understood aspect of business: the role of owners and boards in value creation. While there is abundant guidance on value creation for publicly listed firms and their managers, the role played by owners, and their corporate directors, in value creation and governance has been overlooked. This book aims to fill that gap. 

This book is distinctive in offering the first in-depth analysis and critique of the UK Green Jobs Taskforce, in examining this Taskforce using conservative political ideas, and by critiquing it too. Little academic literature is available globally on the business impact and analysis of UK governmental sustainability policy, and this study can provide wider learning points, lessons and implications for other green job plans being formed and enacted in the EU, USA and other countries. It will be of great interest to academics and students of sustainability, HRM, organizational behavior, organization studies and employment relations.

This volume features a collection of selected papers presented at the 4th Current Issues in Business and Economic Studies (CIBES) Conference, held in Frascati (Rome) from June 20-22, 2024. The CIBES Conference offers global perspectives on business and economic research, incorporating analysis at the micro-individual, meso-organizational, and macro-national levels. This book provides a comprehensive overview of contemporary research topics such as sustainable business practices, the impact of digital transformation on global markets, the dynamics of global trade, the future of work, the economic effects of global health challenges, innovation in entrepreneurship, and issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion. Additionally, it proposes frameworks and recommendations to assist organizations and researchers in addressing and managing the complexities of the global business and economic environment effectively. Through this lens, the book seeks to contribute valuable insights and methodologies to the fields of business and economics, serving as a vital resource for academics, practitioners, and policymakers engaged in understanding and navigating the intricate landscape of global business and economic challenges.

This book aims to provide practical alternatives to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) develop and deploy effective strategies. The chapters focus on offering techniques for strategy development tailored to the specific needs and constrained resources in SMEs, ensuring their viability in competitive and uncertain environments. This book also offers insights into managerial capabilities and approaches to enable SMEs to quickly adapt to unexpected marketplace changes, such as economic crises or technological breakthroughs. Based on scientific research and empirical studies, the book validates proposed strategies with case studies, serving as a guide for training managers and business leaders to make informed strategic decisions and continuously improve their organizations.

In a world shaped by interconnected systems and global challenges, this third and final volume of the trilogy explores how digital technologies can foster ethical engagement at the societal level. Grounded in design science and fuzzy logic, it investigates how scalable, sustainable frameworks can support democratic participation, environmental responsibility, and public trust. The book offers a vision for how information systems can mediate complex societal interactions while preserving human values.

Volume III addresses the societal dimension of the honorable merchant, applying ethical principles to broader systems involving politics, the public, and the environment. Drawing from interdisciplinary applications in business informatics, computer science, and engineering, it explores fuzzy approaches to conversational agents, smart logistics, participatory governance, voting advice systems, privacy calculus, and spatial modeling. A concluding framework for responsible action emphasizes ethical engagement in technologically mediated societal interactions.

This textbook trilogy is primarily intended for students of computer science, business information systems, and innovation management who aspire to make a meaningful impact. It will also appeal to managers who value balanced perspectives and data-driven analysis.

Innovation is one of the most impactful business development factors, both a source of competitive advantage and a source of non-market benefits through its contribution to individual and collective well-being. This contributed volume brings together studies of innovation in transport and logistics in Africa, an area of rapid development but still underserved and a source of challenges for organisations doing business in the region. The continent’s development requires the creation of innovative, sustainable solutions for inclusive, virtuous growth that integrates the individual, the organisation and the external environment, which includes society, ecology and stakeholders. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of logistics, operations management, supply chain management, African business and infrastructure development in emerging economies.

Our current era is characterised by multiple challenges, including climate change, global health challenges, economic inequality, political instability, and technological upheavals. With these crises intersecting and compounding, the modern business environment has become a landscape of volatility and moral complexity. Organizations can no longer remain passive in the face of these mounting challenges and are called upon to embrace human-centred, ethically-driven practices that acknowledge the profound interconnectedness of their actions with society and the planet. This edited volume explores how organizations and leaders can respond to the unprecedented complexities and crises of the 21st century with ethical integrity, adaptive governance, and proactive leadership.

The book integrates a multidisciplinary array of conceptual, qualitative and quantitative scholarly efforts. It includes studies of green HRM, sustainable career development, adaptive teleworking models, and AI-driven social accounting, underscoring the diverse ways in which organizations are navigating polycrisis with humanistic values and technological foresight. Together, these chapters advocate for a shift in mindset—from viewing crises as insurmountable barriers to recognizing them as catalysts for ethical growth and organizational evolution. This book is an essential resource for scholars and students of business ethics, sustainability strategy and organizational response to ‘grand challenges’. It will also be of interest to business leaders and policymakers seeking to navigate the complexities of polycrisis with ethical innovation, responsibility, and a commitment to building resilient, human-centered organizations.

This book offers knowledge and skills about developing market-centric and competition-oriented models and illustrates the power of consumers in managing sensitive market interventions through marketing-mix strategies, innovation, and technology applications for competitive markets. This updated edition discusses applied marketing concepts in real-life situations, incorporating new insights on the role of technology in marketing, with a particular emphasis on AI and machine learning, while also addressing topics related to consumer privacy and data protection. It will serve as a valuable resource for researchers interested in marketing in the digital age.

This book analyzes behavioral distortions in public schools and delineates outcome-based performance measurement systems that can prevent and mitigate them. An instrumental view of dynamic performance management (DPM) is used to support the endeavor by identifying how performance drivers affect end results of outcome and output, how end results affect strategic resources, and how strategic resources and benchmarks define the dynamics of performance drivers. This approach is also used to promote a shift from an output-oriented to an outcome-oriented view in performance management, with the aim of achieving sustainable results in the long term. The book also includes a comprehensive literature review at the end of each chapter, intended to strengthen readers’ knowledge and encourage further research.

Given its scope, the book will appeal to graduate students in public management, researchers in performance management, system dynamics, and education, and decision-makers in public schools.

Dive into the intricate realm of modern financial crime combating with this latest collection. Edited by global experts and featuring contributions from leading international scholars, the collection spans a spectrum of financial crimes, including crypto crime, terrorist financing, illegal logging, and money laundering. The collection provides focused insights into institutional risk-based compliance, offering perspectives on practices employed by banks and challenges faced in implementing risk-based measures to combat the financing of weapons of mass destruction. Additionally, it explores the interplay between cannabis regulation and money laundering. 

The collection raises thought-provoking questions about the effectiveness and efficiency of the risk-based approach to financial crime. It explores the evidence supporting its implementation and whether it has proven to be the best alternative. Specific concerns regarding bias and discrimination, especially in relation to mutual evaluations conducted by the Financial Action Task Force, are addressed. In light of these concerns and current evidence, the collection provides constructive proposals and enhances the understanding of the challenges that need to be navigated in the ongoing fight against financial crime. 

This book a product of the Financial Integrity Hub (FIH), is essential reading for professionals, scholars, and anyone interested in staying ahead in the ever-evolving landscape of financial crime risk management.

Chapters "The Crime-Crypto Nexus: Nuancing Risk across Crypto-Crime Transactions" and "The FATF’s Combating of Financing of Proliferation Standards: Private Sector Implementation Challenges" are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License> via link.springer.com.