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Cultural tourism has proved to be a significant source of economic development for cultural destinations, but it has also emerged as a sometimes potentially controversial and unsustainable phenomenon. The recent pandemic has also pointed out that we need different models of development of tourism, that include a more balanced approach to cultural components in cities and rural areas. Calls have been made on the need to design more sustainable models of tourism development for cultural destinations, conceiving tourism as a means to increasing the quality of life and generating economic opportunities in cities and regions by involving their communities and stakeholders. This book presents an in-depth analysis of the transition towards more sustainable models of cultural tourism development. Starting from the ongoing debate on cultural ecosystems, the book explores the potential key role of cultural and creative organizations as leaders of change. Including theoretical contributions, quantitative and qualitative analyses and international case studies, the book explores the role of cultural actors as leaders and their potential as drivers of culture-led innovation for tourism in cities and regions.

This book draws on a neo-institutional theory to characterize service-oriented manufacturing firms in relation to more familiar organizational forms, such as lean and agile. It sheds light on whether being lean is a prerequisite for agile organizations and whether agile organizations are precursors of service-oriented organizations. The book empirically examines the prevalence of such organizations using representative samples of manufacturing firms in an industrialized country. This approach makes it possible to "e;zoom in"e; and determine whether the extent of adoption of digital manufacturing innovations, digital services, and service-oriented business models varies with organizations' size, industry, product complexity, lot size, type of design process, and type of manufacturing process. In turn, it shows which digital manufacturing innovations, lean practices, and services contribute to leanness-related performance capabilities like quality and costs; agility-related capabilities like fast delivery, flexibility and innovation; and service-oriented capabilities like high service performance and digitalization. In addition, it explores the question of whether lean, agile, and service-oriented performance capabilities contribute to financial performance separately or jointly.

This book presents contributions to the 50th Annual Conference of the Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA), which was jointly hosted with the African Federation of Operations Research Societies (AFROS) at North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa from 12 to 15 September, 2021. Focusing on innovative case studies and recent applications of Operations Research models and algorithms in African countries, each chapter highlights findings emerging from the countries in question and explains the lessons learned. As such, the book offers an up-to-date overview of Operations Research practices and developments in Africa. AFROS is a "e;not for profit"e; organization that aims to promote Operations Research in Africa. Its affairs are regulated by an Executive Committee consisting of representatives/alternates of all its member societies. The members of the Federation undertake to co-operate in the advancement of knowledge, interest and education in Operations Research by appropriate means, particularly the exchange of information, the holding of meetings and conferences, and the awarding of prizes.

This volume represents a comprehensive state-of-the-art picture of family business and entrepreneurship issues in countries belonging to the Gulf Cooperation Council.  It provides major theoretical and empirical evidence which depicts the current processes in each GCC country including problems, faced by family business owners and entrepreneurs, such as succession, financial constraints, and conflicts. The chapters offer recommendations to policy makers on how to improve the general business environment and encourage potential investors, researchers, academicians, and professionals to be more involved in the region. The book is an outcome of a long-lasting endeavor and includes contributions from highly reputed authors and experts from the region and abroad.

Manufacturing companies have just begun to implement the concepts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) on a larger scale. Still, this area is characterized by a rapid pace of technological change, blurring boundaries between physical, digital, and biological systems, and a quickly changing growing political, economic, and social environment -- leading to high uncertainty in decision making and many questions about the future development in this field. To provide guidance and inspiration for managers and academics on the future of digital manufacturing systems, this book presents the results of an extensive Delphi study on next-generation manufacturing systems, with a projection period of up to 2030. We analyzed almost 2000 quantitative estimations and more than 600 qualitative arguments from a large panel of industrial and academic experts from Europe, North America, and Asia. The book describes each of the 24 projections in detail, offering current case study examples and related research, as well as implications for policymakers, firms, and individuals. The empirical results also allowed us to build scenarios for the most probable future along the dimensions of governance, organization, capabilities, and interfaces from both a company-internal and an external (network) perspective.

This book offers a short history of business administration in four parts. Part 1 takes the reader from 8000 BCE with the development of simple control techniques to the middle of the nineteenth century. At this time, normative, empirical, and theoretical approaches to business problems in the industrial area were developed. Furthermore, more powerful methodologies came into use. In Part 2, the criteria for science are discussed and related to the development of business administration as a science at the beginning of the twentieth century. Part 3 demonstrates, using Germany as an example, the development of business administration as strongly influenced by its societal environment. The cases of National Socialist Germany, the socialist environment of the German Democratic Republic, and the reconstruction of an academic-inspired business administration in Western Germany are provided as illustrative examples. Part 3 also presents a typology of major specializations in business administration, examples of their development, and a proposal for a curricular approach to the discipline. The fourth and final part presents the benefits of studying the history of management ideas. This book is useful for academics in business administration, advanced students, and anyone who seeks to understand recent developments in business administration. 

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.

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.

This book is inspired by the term ¿digiwine,¿ a neologism referring to the production and/or marketing of wine through the use of new technologies and robotics such as vineyard information systems, sensor units, weather stations, drones, robotic harvesters, social media videos, digital labels, and wine apps. The alcohol industry is using these technologies to develop digital strategies and online tools for more efficient sales of wine. This book analyzes the use of digital alcohol marketing, the reasons for it, the role of regulation, and its social impact. In particular, malignant forms of alcohol marketing to youth are precisely described through exact case descriptions from the global milieu. The author questions whether the loopholes in the legislation or inefficiency of self-regulation have negative consequences that can no longer be prevented by public health care programs.When and how did the alcohol industry become so deeply interwoven in our lives that we mindlessly advertise and parade in its shadow on social media and that we increasingly buy alcohol digitally for fun, in innovative packaging, and with strange ingredients combinations? Dr. Mojca Ram¿ak¿s book peels back the layers of the alcohol industry¿s most obvious yet overlooked marketing tactics. It also reveals the sluggishness of preventive and curative efforts, as well as legal or self-regulatory measures, at keeping up with the alcohol industry¿s use of technology. - Nadja Furlan ¿tante, Principal Research Associate and Professor of Religious Studies, Science and Research Centre of Koper, Slovenia.

Especially after globalization, it can be seen that there is an increase in competition for almost all industries. In order to survive in such a competitive environment, companies have to take some actions to increase their competitive power and sustainability. Effective digital transformation is a significant way for companies to reach this objective. This book explores digital transformation strategy and digital business strategy together with digital innovation and digital learning, adaptability, and agility to illustrate the importance of information technology in business today. The book argues that effective digital management can be provided by increasing the quality in audit, internal control, corporate governance, transparency and improving effective marketing strategies. It touches on concepts such as digital diversity, digital privacy, digital literacy, the digitization of international logistics. This book also provides department specific (e.g., marketing, finance, HR) theories and applications of digital technology to guide companies in determining their specific strategies.

Digital transformation has profoundly affected organizations and value chains in cultural production at the global level. The volume focuses on this change by looking at the knowledge, skills, and competencies (KSC) of the labor force in the cultural and creative industries (CCI) in Italy. The contribution of the research is twofold. On the one hand, the book offers a detailed map of the KSC of creative and cultural professions and workers, on the other hand, it identifies relevant gaps between supply and demand across different cultural sub-sectors and typologies of workers.The study adopts an original methodology that implements a Natural Language Processing (NLP) approach to the analysis of education, experiences, and accomplishments contained in CVs. The result of the mapping exercise based on the algorithm shows how managerial and digital skills are increasingly crucial in the CCI in combination with creative skills. The Italian labor market in these industries seems characterized not only by a growing symbiosis between creative, digital, and managerial KSC but also by a convergence of CCI sub-sectors, whose boundaries get increasingly blurred and permeable. Finally, comparing the supply and demand of KSC, the book provides managers, practitioners, policymakers, and educational institutions with a comprehensive overview of the new KSC needed in CCI.

This book contributes to blockchain applications in food supply chain management from both theoretical and practical perspectives. By using the case study research method, it empirically investigates why and how food companies implement blockchain technology. Moreover, it proposes a conceptual framework based on the case findings and extant literature.The book provides empirical evidence to verify academic findings such as critical success factors and barriers. Furthermore, it identifies the implementation process to answer the ¿how¿ question. Uniquely, it applies the innovation process model and the practice-based view (PBV) to studies on food supply chains and blockchain. Thus, building on the original model and theory, it enriches the theory on blockchain implementation, making it a valuable asset for all researchers and practitioners interested in blockchain adoption and food supply chain management.

Cross-Impact Balances (CIB) is a method frequently used for research, in companies and in administrations for the systematic construction of qualitative scenarios. This book introduces the fundamentals of the method and uses a clear step-by-step example to explain how scenarios can be constructed with CIB. It describes possible problems in applying the method and offers help for various use cases. It includes a detailed discussion of the design decisions that shape a CIB application and the methods that can be used to collect the necessary data. The application examples presented provide a first impression of the possibilities of the method. A discussion of the strengths and limitations of the method offers guidance on the use cases in which CIB can be profitably applied. The book is valuable for researchers and practitioners in the field of scenario analysis.

This book focuses on understanding Innovation in the Financial Services Sector. The collection of contributions gathered in the book highlights the importance of technology contexts that pertain to Finance, accounting, and the law arena. The respective chapters address topics such as Economic development, social entrepreneurship, Online Behaviour, Digital entrepreneurship, and Islamic banks. All contributions are based on the latest empirical and theoretical research and provide key findings and concrete recommendations for scholars, entrepreneurs, organizations, and policymakers.

This volume discusses the role and characteristics of Islamic finance and how it can contribute to a sustainable financial system. Islamic finance is not only for the 1.5 billion Muslims. Several countries are interested in it because it has interesting characteristics in terms of transparency and banking regulation. Although the origins of Islamic finance date back several centuries, its resurgence is relatively recent. From its modern beginnings in Egypt and Malaysia, Islamic finance is now a growing sector and its recent performance contrasts with that of conventional banks. Rapid growth and innovation are transforming the sector, driving economic development in an increasing number of jurisdictions, while also increasing the number of new opportunities and challenges. Today, with the problem of climate change and its adverse effects on the whole world, the flexibility of Islamic finance concerning the operations available to those who wish to finance the development of infrastructure, makes this area crucial for sustainable finance.

This book explores diverse dimensions of innovation in business and finance from a micro as well as macro perspective through various case studies and analyses of trends. The previous decade is known as the era of digital transformation and innovation. The rise of new technologies is having an impact on the global trends and leading to innovation in business and finance. In this competitive market, businesses and financial institutions must be responsive to the trends in order to survive and thrive, governments must cope with the complex and uncertain environments by being smart, transforming service delivery, and implementing smart governance practices, and entrepreneurs and investors are faced with alternative sources of finance and investment.However, keeping up with these trends and innovations is fraught with its own set of challenges. Thus, it is important to analyze new and emerging technologies and innovations through a myriad of disciplinary lenses. This book not only expands conceptual understanding of digital transformation and innovation by presenting strong empirical evidence, but also by adding to the vigorous worldwide policy discussion on how to assist businesses in the digital transition. The book will be useful to scholars and researchers of business management, financial management, business economics, international business, human resources, and marketing. It will also be of interest to entrepreneurs, policymakers, academicians, and practitioners in the field.

In light of the Covid 19 pandemic and its impact on healthcare systems, this book examines health care innovations and service management models and discusses significant reforms and organizational and managerial changes in the healthcare systems of countries in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. It features contributions that shed new light on the impact of the pandemic on healthcare organizations and the lessons that can be drawn from this crisis for management practice.The book covers topics such as best practices in healthcare delivery, healthcare management, process and product innovation, digitization and information technologies, healthcare governance, collaborative healthcare experiences and networks, healthcare financing, and healthcare policy reform. It is aimed at scholars and practitioners in healthcare, as well as anyone interested in innovation in healthcare services and management.

This is a unique book that adopts a global approach to studying international business. It stimulates research and rethinking among scholars and practitioners to understand how businesses operate internationally into lucrative markets, and their role in sustainable business growth, glocal value creation, and economic development. It provides insights into how international firms, entrepreneurs, family businesses, and other stakeholders balance the act of value creation and conducting sustainable and ethical business. The book covers economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability such as poverty alleviation through FDI and remittances, diversity and inclusion in management, and ethical governance to value creation for stakeholders and profit maximization through sustainable firm growth, entrepreneurial initiatives, and sustainable business models. It addresses capacity building and the grand challenges that international business needs to develop solutions for. Thechapters offer multiple types of contributions including conceptual and theoretical works, literature reviews, and empirical (qualitative and quantitative) studies. The authors, and the topics included, provide a wide international representation and illustrate multi-layered sustainable business perspectives that cover developing, emerging, and developed country contexts as well as multiple directions of international business flows.

This book presents important insights into Social Innovation and Reverse Innovation. It introduces a unique perspective by merging Social Innovation with the emerging concept of Reverse Innovation. Addressing the scarcity of Reverse Innovation knowledge, the book starts with a comprehensive literature review, establishing a solid theoretical framework.By leveraging the core contributions of both concepts, a new idea is developed: Reverse Social Innovation. This unexplored notion is rigorously examined through a novel conceptual model and validated via mixed-method research. Case studies showcase instances of Reverse Social Innovation, while content analysis refines the model. The book is valuable for practitioners, researchers, and students. Practitioners can explore the potential of Reverse Social Innovation for impactful change. Researchers delve into the uncharted territory of Reverse Innovation and its intersections. Students engage with a cutting-edge research field, opening doors for future exploration.