Business and Management (R0)

This open access edited volume explores the past, present, and future of artificiality and sustainability in entrepreneurship – the unforeseen consequences and ways to advance to a sustainable future. In particular, it connects artificiality, sustainability and entrepreneurship, intertwining artificial with the specific phenomenon of those novel digital technologies that provoke continuous and significant change in our lives and business. Unlike digital entrepreneurship research, which focuses on digital technology development and management, this book covers processes and mechanisms of sustainable adaptability of entrepreneurs, the business logic of start-ups, and the collaborative behaviours under the mass digital transformation, including the prevalence of artificial intelligence.

Some of the questions that this book answers are as follows: How has entrepreneurship reacted to such challenges previously? What lessons have been learned and need to be carried forward? How can entrepreneurship and the artefacts of entrepreneurship respond to current challenges? What should be the mindset of the entrepreneur to assure sustainable adaptation? How to embrace and embed the new business logic?

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 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 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.

Outsourcing has become a crucial tool for industries, societies and governments alike, making it an important area of study within Management Science (MS) and Operations Research (OR). This book focuses on the intersections of outsourcing with MS and OR, beginning each chapter with fundamental concepts and exploring the benefits, advantages, disadvantages, real-world examples, applications, theories, and potential future developments. The content spans a broad range of topics, drawing examples from both the private and public sector. The book also delves into future trends and the evolving role of outsourcing.

Outsourcing is commonly employed to achieve faster results, reduce costs, distribute risk, enhance efficiency, and maintain flexibility. This book connects these aspects with MS and OR models, providing a comprehensive interface between engineering/technology and the organizational, economic, administrative, and planning strategies needed for managing outsourcing effectively.

This book is intended for professionals in the fields of energy, engineering, information science, mathematics, economics, etc., and for researchers who wish to develop new skills in outsourcing, or who employ outsourcing as part of their work. As the second volume in a two-part series, it focuses on real-world cases and studies.

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.

The "Great Thinkers in Marketing" series highlights the significant contributions of the most influential scholars to marketing research, theory, and practice. The series and volume editors organize each legend's most impactful articles into several volumes as an anthology set. Volume editors also seek commentaries from other scholars familiar with the legend's work on the articles included in that volume.

This set, comprising six volumes of contributions of Donald Lehmann, covers a broad spectrum of topics relating to customer behavior and decision-making processes, the estimation of stochastic models, empirical replication for theoretical generalization, advertising and branding, new product and innovation diffusion, and performance outcomes of marketing strategy.

This volume, edited by Oded Netzer, synthesizes Lehmann's work on marketing analysis methods. Along with a collection of his related articles, it features an interview with Lehmann himself and three insightful commentaries from frequent co-authors. Showcasing Lehmann's work on mapping brand preference and perceptions relating to consumer choice, as well as stochastic estimation models, this volume will help marketing researchers of all levels of experience understand how marketing analysis methods have developed over the last 50+ years.

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.