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Book SynopsisWritten by a panel of leading international researchers, this Handbook identifies the key topics for research in supply chain management using an innovative step-by-step approach and provides an extensive range of methodologies for researching the subjects.Examining the complex and fascinating process of supply chain management, chapters provide a detailed and expansive review of the wide range of research methods used to study the topic. It further investigates the key issues facing supply chains, identifying important research questions such as how to build sustainable and socially responsible supply chains as well as how to address the complexities experienced in developing and emerging economies. The breadth of the Handbook of Research Methods for Supply Chain Management allows the next generation of researchers to successfully engage with the management of supply chains.This innovative Handbook will be an invaluable resource for research students and their supervisors, supply chain managers and anyone looking for a useful reference tool for contemporary and future challenges in supply chain management. Scholars looking for an excellent guide on research methods in supply chain management and how to identify topics for study will find this required reading.Trade Review‘Most thorough, comprehensive, and up to date treatise on how to do research in supply chain management. While part 1 lays the foundation for conducting research once the topic is chosen, part 2 dwells with the topical areas that are critical and futuristic. A must guide for every researcher.’ -- Mohan Gopalakrishnan, Arizona State University, US‘There has long been a need for a comprehensive reference source for all those engaged in researching supply chain management issues. This excellent Handbook amply meets that need by providing a wide-ranging review of the appropriate research methods and tools, enabling deeper insights to be achieved from the research process.’ -- Martin Christopher, Cranfield University School of Management, UKTable of ContentsContents: Introduction to the Handbook of Research Methods for Supply Chain Management xii Anabela Soares and Stephen Childe PART I HOW TO DO RESEARCH IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT (SCM) Introduction to Part I 2 Anabela Soares and Stephen Childe 1 The evolution of supply chain literature: key theories, concepts and categorisations 24 Larry C. Giunipero and Diane L. Denslow 2 Systematic literature review guidelines for supply chain management research 45 Giang Nguyen, Vikas Kumar and Anabela Soares 3 Undertaking supply chain management research: philosophy and practice 71 Breno Nunes, David Bennett and Miles Weaver 4 Gaining access for data collection 86 Mike Simpson, Andrea Genovese and Ahmad Rais Mohamad Mokhtar 5 Questionnaire design in SCM research 105 Barbara B. Flynn 6 Qualitative case study research methods in supply chain management 125 Felicity Kelliher 7 Action research for supply chain management: reflections and practical guide 149 Anne Touboulic, Lucy McCarthy, Anna Sannö and Carsten Reuter 8 PLAY WITH PURPOSE – LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® Methods for understanding and researching complex systems such as supply chains and supply chain management 169 Tammi Sinha 9 Qualitative data analysis 187 Moya Lerigo-Sampson 10 Bayesian analysis in operations and supply chain management 202 Qingyun Zhu and Joseph Sarkis 11 Partial least squares in supply chain management: an example study on sustainable supply chain management practices 221 K.T. Shibin, Rameshwar Dubey and Benjamin T. Hazen 12 Supply chain research – conclusions, implications and limitations 244 Peter Nielsen 13 A paper is not a little thesis! How to write a journal paper 255 Stephen Childe 14 The publication process and how to promote your paper 273 Stephen Childe PART II CURRENT ISSUES AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS Introduction to Part II 284 Anabela Soares and Stephen Childe 15 Advanced services: new dominant logic for manufacturers 288 Ali Ziaee Bigdeli, Tim Baines and Kawaljeet Kapoor 16 Defining the Supply Chain Quality Management concept 307 Rui Oliveira, Paulo Sampaio, Catarina Cubo, Maria Sameiro Carvalho and Ana Cristina Fernandes 17 Researching social responsibility in the supply chain context 323 Alison Ashby 18 Sustainable supply chain management and theory: taking stock and looking ahead 339 Leonardo Marques, Anne Touboulic and Helen Walker 19 Sustainability in supply chain management 352 Anton Shevchenko, Frank Montabon, Mark Pagell and Zhaohui Wu 20 Value chain analysis: a diagnostic tool for building sustainable supply chains 368 Andrew Fearne and Beverly Wagner 21 Supply Chain Resilience – research issues in supply chains in the era of lean and local production 390 Laura Purvis, Mohammed Naim, Anthony Soroka and Timothy Ramjaun 22 Supply chain research issues in developing and emerging industrial economies 404 Breno Nunes and David Bennett 23 Global supply chain configurations using environmental complexity dimensions: an ontological examination 424 Aseem Kinra, Juliana Hsuan and Herbert Kotzab 24 Circular economy and supply chain management 437 Simon Peter Nadeem, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes and Vikas Kumar 25 Supply chain systems: life cycle thinking and analysis 448 Raymond Obayi and Seyed M. Ebrahimi 26 Physical distribution in international and maritime supply chains: some current issues and future research directions 468 John Dinwoodie 27 Research needs in disaster response logistics 481 José Holguín-Veras, Trilce Encarnación, Diana Ramirez-Rios, Johanna Amaya and Felipe Aros-Vera 28 Culture in buyer–supplier relationships in a supply chain 496 Trevor Cadden and Aisling Bonner Index 520

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Book SynopsisThis comprehensive Research Handbook reflects the latest research breakthroughs and practices in services management. Addressing services management from a broader strategic perspective, it delves into the key issues of analytics and service robots, and their potential impact. Edited by the late Mark M. Davis, it represents an early foray into the new frontier of services management and provides insights into the future of the field.Drawing together expert service researchers, the Research Handbook begins with an analysis of service strategy and operations management, before moving on to explore service innovation and design, serving customers, healthcare services and artificial intelligence in service. Chapters explore a wide range of topics including scarcity strategies, perceived justice in services, the role of culture and religion in service provision, and the implications of Covid-19 on healthcare service operations. The book concludes with a reflection on the fourth industrial revolution that is occurring now and the understanding of services in an era of advanced technologies.Addressing emerging challenges and opportunities, this Research Handbook will be critical reading for scholars and advanced students of services management and information systems. It will also be beneficial for practitioners and business managers in service industries.Trade Review‘The Research Handbook on Services Management captures Mark Davis’s enormous impact on service research – and assures his legacy as a scholar, educator, and friend. Covering the past, present, and future – and theory, models, and applications – this volume is sure to become essential reading for service scientists and service practitioners everywhere.’ -- Paul P. Maglio, University of California, Merced, US‘The Handbook provides a window into future directions in service strategies and delivery systems. It is a treasure trove of the best work of many highly-regarded researchers.’ -- James L. Heskett, Harvard Business School, US‘What a tour de force! The Research Handbook on Services Management covers a vast array of ideas and concepts with some of the world’s leading thinkers offering their insights and views on the future of services. It’s a real testament to Mark M. Davis that so many have contributed to this edited volume. It is such a shame that Mark is no longer with us. The service management community has lost a great friend and leader, but his memory lives on in this superb Handbook.’ -- Andy Neely, University of Cambridge, UKTable of ContentsContents: A tribute to Mark M. Davis ix Joy M. Field Introduction to the Research Handbook on Services Management x Ravi S. Behara and Gang Li PART I SERVICE STRATEGY 1 Strategy in information intensive services 2 Uday M. Apte, Uday S. Karmarkar and Hiranya K. Nath 2 Servitization and innovation strategy – the trade-off between product R&D and service investments 23 Ornella Benedettini and Christian Kowalkowski 3 Understanding scarcity strategies in service firms 36 Huiling Huang, Stephanie Q. Liu and Jay Kandampully 4 Adopting a low-contact, high-focus healthcare service strategy in the era of pandemics 54 Uzay Damali, Enrico Secchi, Stephen S. Tax and Jeff Kessler PART II SERVICE INNOVATION AND DESIGN 5 Service innovation process in creative-intensive business services organizations 71 Fengjie Pan and Rohit Verma 6 Service design: managing services as a way of designing 88 Birgit Mager and Tina Weisser 7 Service support systems for ecostructuring decision support 103 Ralph D. Badinelli 8 Perceived justice and control of priority lines 117 Michael Dixon, David Rea, Liana Victorino and Craig Froehle 9 Co-creating services at the Base of the Pyramid (BoP): the role of bricolage 128 Karla Cabrera and Javier Reynoso 10 Failsafing service quality 143 Richard B. Chase and Douglas M. Stewart 11 Customer-focused service design for faster and more efficient services 153 Gang Li, Joy M. Field and Mark M. Davis PART III UNDERSTANDING AND SERVING CUSTOMERS 12 Customer success management 166 Vijay Mehrotra and Krishnamoorthy Subramanian 13 Culture and religion in service provision 180 Richard Metters 14 Are tech-savvy users more likely to use technology? An examination of market entry and customer experience 194 Xin Ding PART IV HEALTHCARE SERVICES 15 Implications of COVID-19 on operations in healthcare services 212 Sanjeev Bordoloi 16 Applying Lean healthcare in a non-profit hospital in Brazil 231 Ana Carolina Honda, Raquel Mizuki Eguchi Yoshida, Mateus Cecílio Gerolamo, Jeanne Liliane Marlene Michel and Mark M. Davis PART V SERVICE ANALYTICS 17 Service science in a world flooded with data 247 Jorge Grenha Teixeira, Vera Miguéis, Henriqueta Nóvoa and João Falcão e Cunha 18 The evolution of business analytics and their impact on the service industry 263 Ronald Klimberg 19 Text analytics of service customer reviews and feedback: understanding customers’ emotions and cognition in the hospitality industry 275 Jie J. Zhang, Spring H. Han and Rohit Verma PART VI AI IN SERVICES 20 The service robot revolution 296 Stefanie Paluch, Jochen Wirtz and Werner H. Kunz 21 Companion robots for well-being: a review and relational framework 309 Andrea Ruggiero, Dominik Mahr, Gaby Odekerken-Schröder, Tiziana Russo Spena and Cristina Mele 22 Rise of humanoid robots in hospitality services 331 Lina Zhong and Rohit Verma Epilogue: Service 4.0 346 Ravi S. Behara Index

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Book SynopsisWho captures the value created in global supply chains? How should gaps in value capture among participants be amended and by whom? Focusing on the global apparel supply chain and employing value creation as a yardstick for evaluation of value capture, this book documents disturbing misalignments between value creation and value capture among global brands, manufacturers, labor, and consumers. The authors posit that the failure of both markets and governments to adequately distribute the value created by global value chains calls for different mechanisms to address this challenge. They develop a novel approach based on the logic of the interdependencies germane to the co-specialized nature of value chains. These interdependencies afford participants power to create markets for social justice in which behavior that drives outcomes towards adequate value distribution is economically and socially rewarded. These dynamics turn GVCs into their own de-facto ‘regulators’ with the power to self-correct for distributional distortions.The contributions of the book are at the center of current debates in policy milieu, academic circles and corporate boards regarding human rights, social inequality, and the role of the private sector in advancing social goals. They received renewed importance in contemporary discussions regarding the future of global value chains as the predominant mode of organizing value creation and the governance challenges they raise in a complex global world.Trade Review‘The book stands out by providing a holistic analysis of GVCs, from labor to manufacturers, buyers, and consumers.’ -- Constantin Blome, Stephan Manning, Martin C Schleper, Journal of International Business Studies‘The book remains an excellent study of GVCs and their myriad contexts, participants, power relations and processes, and is a recommended read for students, researchers and policymakers working on GVCs. Its central contribution of understanding value capture through the yardstick of value creation is compelling. The research and theoretical developments that the book offers have important implications for practice and scholarship and provoke a debate on corporate governance in GVCs.’ -- Sukti Dasgupta and David Kucera, UNCTAD Transnational Corporations‘This captivating book addresses one of the great challenges of our era: how to achieve sustainable value creation and distribution in global value chains. The lucid analysis, inspired by Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza factory collapse, sheds light on what can go wrong in global value chains. The authors develop a credible roadmap for companies, policy makers and consumers to achieve a more balanced value distribution. This book is truly a must read for students in international business and global affairs, and for senior managers of firms with global ambitions.’ -- Alain Verbeke, University of Calgary, Canada and Editor-in-Chief, Journal of International Business Studies‘Firms and governments need a baseline against which to evaluate their operations in global value chains for growth and sustained economic development. This book goes beyond the discussion on which firms appropriate value and offers much-needed analysis on whether such appropriation is distorted or not, hence providing ample scope for public policies and firm strategies. The book’s unified framework based on the theory of value creation and value appropriation presents an approach for developing more economically and socially beneficial global value chains for all stakeholders by having their relationships more based on collaboration and co-value creation rather than competition and exploitation. This is an essential reference book for both policymakers and practitioners to build better and resilient global value chains in the post-pandemic world.’ -- Nobuya Haraguchi, United Nations Industrial Development Organization‘Fashion is a world of beauty and creativity, but today it faces many challenges—such as its catastrophic impact on the environment, its lack of diversity, and the way it poorly treats workers globally. In their new book, Professors Nachum and Uramoto do not shy away from addressing one of fashion’s key issues: how value is created, and then appropriated by various stakeholders (such as producers or customers). They take a well-established academic approach—the Global Value Chain—and use it to its full potential, expanding its reach far beyond its conventional confines. In particular, their analysis of the role customers is extremely intriguing, and highlights a simple fact: the future of fashion depends on all of us. A wonderful book which manages to reconcile thorough intellectual work and ethical engagement.’ -- Frédéric Godart, Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD, France and Author, Unveiling Fashion: Business, Culture, and Identity in the Most Glamorous Industry‘This timely book represents a significant academic contribution to an important under-researched aspect of global value chains, namely the contest for value in one of the key sectors in developing and emerging economies. Building on their rich research experience and intellect, Nachum and Uramoto present fresh evidence and prompt new insights and constructive debate. The Contest for Value in Global Value Chains is an essential reading for policymakers, business leaders, and researchers especially at a time of widening international inequalities, middle-income trap, and resilience of GVCs of industries and firms are prominent agenda.’ -- Arkebe Oqubay, Ethiopia Government, ODI Distinguished Fellow and Author of Made in Africa‘This well-written empirical study on the value distribution among participants in global apparel value chains is must-read for anyone interested in the economics of Global Value Chains. It also discusses critically how the share of local manufacturers in total value capture can be increased through government policies. At the same time, the study points out that local employees do not proportionally benefit from the increased profitability of their employers and–commendably–outlines policy options through which this deplorable drawback can be addressed.’ -- Karl Sauvant, Columbia University, US‘The systematic academic analysis and conclusions presented in the book provide a very good platform for multiple stakeholders to discuss and work on possible improvements for the thorny issue of value distribution in global supply chains. The multi-stakeholder approach advanced by the book, based on the principle of interdependencies among these stakeholders, referring to consumers, manufacturers, trade unions, governments and workers, offers a promising venture for amending imbalance between value appropriation/distribution. The book is notable in its objective, economically-rigor approach to value capture in global supply chains, which result in intriguing findings and conclusions regarding value capture and distribution, notably in relation to global brands. As pressure on global brands to assume accountability to governance of their entire supply chains increases the message of the book is particularly timing and relevance. I strongly endorse this work.’ -- Roger Hubert, Former H&M Regional Head, Bangladesh, Pakistan & EthiopiaTable of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction: setting up the stage 2. The conceptual framework 3. The empirical context: the global apparel value chain 4. The contest for value capture: manufacturers and global brands 5. The contest for value capture: labor as a claimant of value 6. The contest for value capture: consumers as external claimants of value 7. The contest for value capture: the apparel industry in perspective 8. Towards a balanced distribution of value in global value chains: creating markets for social justice 9. Implications of the study for value distribution in global value chains References Index

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Book SynopsisSupply chain management has long been a feature of industry and commerce but, with increasing demands from consumers, producers are spending more time and money investing in ways to make supply chains more sustainable. This exemplary Handbook provides readers with a comprehensive overview of current research on sustainable supply chain management. Multi-disciplinary in scope, the Handbook includes contributions from over 70 expert authors from a variety of areas including management, engineering, accounting, policy studies, innovation, and marketing. Chapters analyze the three core areas of sustainable supply chain management: environmental, economic, and social. The Handbook explores broad themes such as globalization and general organization strategies as well as examining more particular topics including particular industries, social and regulatory dimensions, and technological advances. Scholars and advanced business and management students will greatly benefit from the depth of analysis in this Handbook as well as the suggestions for directions for future research and practice. Written in an accessible style, it is also ideal for practitioners and government agencies seeking solutions to practical issues regarding sustainable supply chain management.Contributors include: A.Y. Alqahtani, M.A. Ates, S.G. Azevedo, C. Bai, P. Beske-Janssen, C. Brix-Asala, L.M.S. Campos, V. Carbone, L. Carmagnac, H. Carvalho, H.K. Chan, H.S.Y. Chen, T.C.E. Cheng, S.K. Cho, J. Dai, N. Darnall, L. Ellram, B. Fahimnia, Y. Feng, S. Goodarzi, D.B. Grant, J.H. Grimm, C. Groening, S.M. Gupta, A. Gurtu, I. Haavisto, Á. Halldórsson, J.S. Hofstetter, J. Hou, J. Hu, S. Hudson, S.E. Ibrahim, C.J.C. Jabbour, M.Y. Jaber, A.D. Joshi, A. Jug, R.U. Khalid, G. Kovács, K.-h. Lai, S. Liedke, J.J. Lim, M.K. Lim, J. Liu, A.B. Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, E. Marsillac, L. Meade, S.A. Melnyk, V. Moatti, A. Presley, J. Rezaei, Y. Sadaat, J. Sarkis, S. Schaltegger, D.G. Schniederjans, C. Searcy, S. Seuring, S. Shaw, R. Sroufe, C. Sundgren, K.H. Tan, W. Tate, M.-L. Tseng, D.A. Vazquez-Brust, M. Varsei, A. Vilmar, J. Wehner, E.W. Welch, M.G. Yalcin, A.Z. Zeng, F. Zeng, Q. Zhu, Q. ZhuTrade Review'Wide-ranging in scope, this book enables key experts from around the world to update many established areas and explore exciting new directions. In many chapters, multiple theories are integrated to better structure our field's current thinking: for example, on such topics as the diffusion of sustainable supply chain practices and the measurement of sustainable performance. Just as important, leading researchers explore the intersection of supply chain management with such fast-evolving topics as strategic ambidexterity, social networks, base-of-the-pyramid, and social enterprises. Overall, an excellent resource for both scholars and advanced students!' --Robert D. Klassen, Western University, CanadaTable of ContentsContents: 1. The Handbook on Sustainable Supply Chains: An Introduction Joseph Sarkis 2. Sustainability in the Globalization Era Sherwat Elwan Ibrahim 3. The Circular Economy and Green Supply Chain Management Junjun Liu, Qinghua Zhu and Yunting Feng 4. Diffusion of SSCM: where are we now and where are we going? Liliane Carmagnac, Valentina Carbone and Valérie Moatti 5. The Link Between Operations Strategy and Sustainable Supply Chain Management Melek Akın Ateş 6. Collaboration and Coordination in Sustainable Supply Chains Amy Z. Zeng and Jing Hou 7. Fundamentals of human resource management for environmentally-sustainable supply chains Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour 8. Building the business case for sustainable supply chains Laura Meade and Adrien Presley 9. Sustainable supplier selection: A process view Jafar Rezaei 10. The Interplay of Green Marketing and Sustainable Supply Chain Management Jing Dai, Hing Kai Chan, Jia Jia Lim, Fangli Zeng 11. Consumers’ Role in the Green Supply Chain Christopher Groening and Qingyun Zhu 12. Sustainable Service Supply Chains Helen S. Y. Chen, Kee-hung Lai and T. C. E. Cheng 13. Ambidexterity and Sustainable Supply Chains Dara G. Schniederjans and Mehmet G. Yalcin 14. Reverse Supply Chains and Product Design Ammar Y. Alqahtani, Aditi D. Joshi and Surendra M. Gupta 15. Sustainable Supply Chain Design Mohsen Varsei 16. Lean and Green Supply Chains Susana G. Azevedo and Helena Carvalho 17. Mapping Lean Manufacturing Practices and Green Manufacturing Practices in Supply Chains Diego A. Vazquez-Brust and Lucila M. S. Campos 18. The Critical Relationship: Sustainability and Performance Measurement Management Robert Sroufe and Steven A. Melnyk 19. Performance Measurement in Sustainable Supply Chain Management – Linking Research and Practice Philip Beske-Janssen, Stefan Schaltegger and Sonja Liedke 20. Environmental or Sustainable Supply Chain Performance Measurement Standards and Certifications David B. Grant and Sarah Shaw 21. Sustainable Supply Chain Management and Carbon Emissions Shadi Goodarzi, Behnam Fahimnia and Joseph Sarkis 22. Sustainability in Logistics Erika Marsillac and Sarah Hudson 23. Transportation and Sustainable Supply Chains Amulya Gurtu, Cory Searcy and Mohammed Y. Jaber 24. Big Data Application in Sustainable Supply Chains: A Transportation Industry Case Jiayao Hu, Ming K Lim, Kim Hua Tan and Ming-Lang Tseng 25. Sustainable Supply Chains and Energy: Where “planet” meets “profit” Árni Halldórsson, Caroline Sundgren and Jessica Wehner 26. Sustainable Supply Chains and Social Networks: An Overview Wendy L. Tate and Lisa M. Ellram 27. A Framework for Managing Social Issues in Supply Chains Sadaat Ali Yawar and Stefan Seuring 28. Sustainable Supplier Management in a Base of the Pyramid Environment Carolin Brix-Asala, Arne Vilmar, Raja Usman Khalid and Stefan Seuring 29. Sustainability in humanitarian supply chains Ira Haavisto and Gyöngyi Kovács 30. Sustainable Supply Chains and Regulatory Policy Nicole Darnall, Eric W. Welch and Seong K. Cho 31. Multi-Tier Sustainable Supply Chain Management Joerg S. Hofstetter and Jörg H. Grimm 32. Green Supplier Development: A Review and Analysis Chunguang Bai and Joseph Sarkis 33. The Role of Social Enterprises in Sustainable Supply Chains Ales Jug Index

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Book SynopsisThis timely Handbook provides a conceptual discussion and a wide empirical presentation of new disruptive forms of innovation producing appropriate technologies, addressing the needs of low-income populations, and providing alternative solutions for sustainable development. The Handbook of Innovation & Appropriate Technologies for International Development expertly analyses and compares contributions of appropriate technologies in developing, emerging and industrialized economies, including China and India, and their global development impacts. Additionally, it covers the transversal role of new international communication technologies, open access, digital tools as well as entrepreneurship and innovation from within emerging economies and in industrialized nations. Using empirical analyses of cases and experiences in manufacturing sectors and services, it covers both the formal and informal economy, and provides an insightful focus on differences and similarities across borders and sectors. NGO and private sector practitioners, public sector officers as well as academics specialized in development economics, entrepreneurship and engineering or management studies will find this Handbook to be illuminating and very informative. Science and technology producers and entrepreneurs will appreciate the global look into more sustainable development as related to appropriate technologies, and how they can be used across all economic backgrounds.Trade Review‘Handbook of Innovation & Appropriate Technologies for International Development is an outstanding contribution to bring out the progress of such innovations and appropriate technologies helpful for the development of people across the world. This book serves as a value pack for researchers, scholars and, in particular, practitioners working in the area of technology development and entrepreneurship for local community sustainable development impacts, and how they can be commercialised through various public–private inroads.’ -- Raunak Gupta, The Journal of Entrepreneurship‘The chapter authors take a comprehensive and eclectic approach to “global engineering” in all its aspects, from academic research and learning, to practical approaches by international organizations and NGOs, to the experience of practitioners and communities who experimented with appropriate technologies — or were experimented on with them. This compendium explains the origin stories of the pathbreaking practitioners and organizations, and provides both the traditional socio-economic and political frameworks for appropriate technologies as well as the new, somewhat controversial, decolonization narrative, with a range of LMIC examples. The human aspect gets attention, including the need for protection of subjects and participants, and the ethical dimensions, with the limitations university’s institutional review processes may face about collection and analysis of data, use of AI and machine learning techniques to tease out insights and learning, to making these analyses available to the non-specialist as well as to the participants and other stakeholders. The scholar, the practitioner, the student, and the innovators will all find things to like and reflect on as we move from appropriate technologies to the broader intellectual and political context for applying what we learn to engage with the poor to improve their lives.’ -- Paul M Cadario, University of Toronto, CanadaTable of ContentsContents: Introduction to the Handbook of Innovation & Appropriate Technologies for International Development xiv Daniel Frey, Samuel Pierre, Philippe Régnier, Koshy Varghese and Pascal Wild PART I APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY: ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF A CONCEPT 1 Revisiting the concept of “technology for the people”: from Gandhi and Schumacher to 21st century new developments 2 Philippe Régnier and Pascal Wild 2 MIT D-Lab: designing for a more equitable world 7 Amy Smith and Nancy Adams 3 Solving problems and strengthening systems: how local innovation of appropriate technology contributes to development 22 Elizabeth Hoffecker and Boru Douthwaite PART II THE RISE OF EMERGING ECONOMIES AND NEW CONTRIBUTIONS 4 The rise of emerging economies: implications on appropriate technology development in theory and practice 47 Philippe Régnier and Pascal Wild 5 Entrepreneurship, appropriate technologies and economic development in China 54 Heini Shi 6 Technological transformation in India: the debate between appropriate and frontier technologies 71 Binod Khadria and Ratnam Mishra PART III RECENT INNOVATIONS AND APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGIES IN TRANSFORMATION 7 Technology evaluation for global development: exploring the efficiency of comparative methods 87 Daniel Frey and Bish Sanyal 8 Mobilizing higher education and research toward engineering for global development: the approach taken by the Centre for Global Engineering 103 Ahmed Mahmoud, Amy Bilton, Morris Huang, Levente Diosady and Yu-Ling Cheng 9 The participatory design spectrum: design for, with, and by 125 Kendra Leith, Sher Vogel and Khanjan Mehta 10 Frugal engineering 140 Rao Balkrishna 11 Financial technologies and rapid development growth in emerging economies 154 Jane Khayesi 12 Openness and new development perspectives 168 Abdelhamid Benhmade 13 How technologies can be used to reduce poverty and promote sustainable development in Haiti: the case of the PIGraN Project 187 Samuel Pierre 14 Ethical considerations for “Internet of Things” in research to advance global development 207 Daniel Sweeney, Amit Gandhi and Evan Thomas 15 High-stake conditions to catalyse local sustainable development through Fablabs in Africa 222 Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou 16 The importance of local institutions: bottom‐up innovation in Uganda 240 Joe Amick and Roy William Mayega 17 How locally adapted information and communication technologies (ICTs) may contribute to the citizens’ socio-economic conditions in emerging countries: case study in the DR Congo 259 Musandji Fuamba Index

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Book SynopsisTimely and invigorating, this book explores how blockchain technology is disrupting economies and transforming societies. It offers detailed insights into the synergistic and complementary effects of blockchain and other new and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, satellite imagery and digital twins.The Rise of Blockchains highlights how the developments of ecosystems around blockchain are helping to realize the potential of this technology to act as a ‘trust machine’ across more contexts and settings. Multidisciplinary in both scope and perspectives, the book looks at blockchain’s potential for impacting challenges in supply chain management, security, privacy and compliancy issues, and transforming payment and settlement systems. It further provides insights into the opportunities, barriers, and enablers of blockchain adoption by organizations.With a focus on both theoretical and practical knowledge related to blockchain, this will be an important read for business and management scholars, particularly those focusing on organization studies, information systems, and supply chain management. It will also be a useful book for economics students and economists working with cryptocurrencies.Trade Review‘This book is both a fantastic introduction to the fundamental concepts of blockchains and a unique discussion of the business models impacted by the blockchain. Kshetri provides an excellent sketch of the debate over using distributed ledgers to demonstrate business trustworthiness. The business cases Kshetri provides perfectly demonstrate the value offered by technology that uses strong cryptographic tools. One of the book’s best and most unique contributions is in its chapter on the synergies between artificial intelligence and the blockchain. The case studies from health care and other data-intensive industries offer invaluable details on data ownership management, privacy, data lineage management, and shared governance for users of blockchain and AI technologies. Kshetri also discusses emerging disruptive technologies, like the Metaverse, Web 3.0, and the Internet of Things. This is one of the best books on the subject and an excellent guide for readers of all levels.’ -- J. Brzezinski, Choice Magazine‘Kshetri’s The Rise of Blockchains is a timely, to-the-point, and detailed book on a relatively new and still obscure topic of blockchain technology. The book focuses on this all-new phenomenon deeply impacting, sometimes disrupting, and transforming our societies, policy-making, and the global economy today. And as a matter of fact, it also does a good job focusing on this new technology that has both introduced cryptocurrencies and transformed the supply chain, payments, privacy, and security systems.’ -- Bilal Bağış, Insight Turkey Journal‘Professor Nir Kshetri’s exciting new text The Rise of Blockchains: Disrupting Economies and Transforming Societies is a must read for those interested in how distributed ledgers are impacting the political, economic, and social landscapes of societies, both developed and underdeveloped. Economists, politicians, and anyone else involved in finance should add this text to their reading list.’ -- Jeffrey Voas, EIC Computer Magazine, US‘This book covers several key topics in blockchain, ranging from payment and settlement to cybersecurity and the supply chain. The book is well written and flows logically. It would be a great textbook for a blockchain course and a nice reference for researchers working in this field.’ -- Yogesh K. Dwivedi, Swansea University, UK and Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune, India‘Professor Kshetri has delivered a very timely, well-written, and well-documented treatment of a topic that many people find difficult and sometimes opaque. I believe the content is accessible for both advanced undergrads and graduate students. I plan to adopt this book for my own blockchain course.’ -- Stephen C. Wingreen, University of Canterbury, New Zealand‘In 2018, Ginni Rometty, the retired CEO of IBM, caused a stir when she said presciently: “Blockchain will do for transactions what the Internet did for information.” This compendium by Professor Nir Kshetri attempts to explain why and how such a transformation is taking place. The comprehensive book is framed by business organisations and market opportunities. It addresses the essentials of how Blockchains work, and their synergies with decentralized, autonomous organisations as well as complementary technologies such as AI. It also provides up-to-date coverage of hot-button issues such as use-cases in supply chain management with traceability-as-a-service. It shows how such ubiquitous use-cases will allow Blockchain to cross the chasm. Two enabling technologies – security as an integral aspect of mainstream platforms and Blockchain-enabled payments which may counter the centralizing features of proposed CBDC initiatives – will bring confidence in such a trust-free environment. The book closes with a realistic assessment of emerging opportunities, barriers, trends and policy implications. It is commendable that Professor Kshetri, acknowledged as one of the most impactful researchers on Blockchain, has taken it upon himself to make translational his deep insights and understanding on the topic. I recommend this book highly to any business executive or specialist student interested in exploiting the value of Blockchains.’ -- Ravi S. Sharma, Zayed University, United Arab EmiratesTable of ContentsContents: PART I BLOCKCHAIN AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION 1. Blockchain basic: Definitions, key concepts and characteristics 2. Impacts on organizational forms, business models and strategies 3. Combining with other technologies to amplify blockchain’s value creation 4. Supply chain management 5. Security, privacy and compliance 6. Payment and settlement systems PART II OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES, IMPLICATIONS AND THE WAY FORWARD 7. Opportunities, barriers, and enablers of blockchain adoption in organizations 8. Discussion, conclusion, and recommendations Index

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Book SynopsisThe Supply Chain: A System in Crisis highlights the multifaceted challenges facing modern supply chains. It examines the concept of a globalized economy, juxtaposing the promise of prosperity with the acute reality of worker exploitation and environmental harm.This title contains one or more Open Access chapters.

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Book SynopsisThe New Era of Global Services is the result of interviews with more than seventy international leaders. The results show that in the coming years, Global Services will tend to grow in business-to-business (B2B), business-to-consumer (B2C), peer-to-peer (P2P), an in particular peer-to-business (P2B) relationships. Deciding on locations will be a more flexible process that may include different countries, cities, and even the cloud (virtual sourcing). Therefore, an increase in delocalizing options (multi-sourcing) is expected. As a result, global labour arbitrage will create opportunities not only for secondary cities but also for cells and individuals with outstanding talents and appropriate telecommunication infrastructures. This, in turn, will foster the flourishing of companies with neither human resources of their own, nor a physical presence in a specific location. Author Javier Peña Capobianco makes a compelling case that over the coming twenty years, the companies that thrive will be those which not only embrace technology, but also generate disruptive business models in an authentic digital transformation process. However, only those who place people and their environment at the centre of their business plans will achieve true success. This is an important book for anyone involved in Global Services, as well as business students, entrepreneurs, C-suite professionals, policy makers and business academicians.Table of ContentsIntroduction. Introduction Chapter 1. Importance Chapter 2. A New Framework for a New Model Chapter 3. The Keys to Successful Ventures in the Future Chapter 4. Social Changes that will Consolidate the Model Chapter 5. How is an Ecosystem for Global Services Generated? Chapter 6. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisMental health issues, stress and chronic illness are the biggest causes of absence from work and loss of productivity in most Western economies. Research and public awareness of this epidemic of physical and mental ill-health among working age people is growing, but our understanding of its impact on company performance and productivity and possible solutions for the future is less advanced. The Healthy Workforce: Enhancing Wellbeing and Productivity in the Workers of the Future examines current challenges and future solutions to understand issues around how we can improve the health of today's and tomorrow's workforce. This book will look at why workforce health is such an important challenge for businesses, governments and for employees today and how this will increase in the future with an ageing workforce. Closely linked to the authors' exploration of health issues in the work context is a focus on the impact of worker health on direct and indirect productivity costs. This book offers practical guidance for professionals on getting started in the delivery of an effective and evidence-based workplace health plan which can enhance and sustain productivity growth in business now and for the future.Table of ContentsForeword; Andy Haldane Chapter 1. Why Worker Health and Productivity Matter Chapter 2. How Health Affects Productivity Chapter 3. Health and Work in a Pandemic Chapter 4. Is Your Manager Bad for Your Health? Chapter 5. Productivity at Work: The Role of Healthcare Professionals Chapter 6. Workplace Health Interventions to Improve Productivity Chapter 7. Rethinking Workforce Health as an Asset Chapter 8. A Roadmap to Better Worker Health

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Book SynopsisThis incisive book integrates the academic fields of sustainable production and consumption (SCP) and sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) as a framework for challenging the current economic paradigm and addressing the significant ecological and environmental problems faced by the contemporary business world.Outlining the growth and progress of consumption in the developed world, initial chapters explore the numerous problems that have emerged from the current mode of consuming resources, and how we might engage in more sustainable consumption practices. The book goes on to address the historical development of mass production and the ecological damage caused by an unsustainable linkage between mass consumption and mass production. Considering the future of the supply web, it illustrates how SSCM can play a leading role in the transition towards a more sustainable economic system if it is able to address contemporary ecological concerns more effectively.This insightful and optimistic platform for ecological supply chain management is a rousing call to arms for business and management scholars hoping to propose innovative methods of improving the sustainability of consumption, production and supply webs. It will also benefit the work of business practitioners and entrepreneurs looking to engage in more sustainable business operations.Table of ContentsContents: 1. Introduction to Sustainable Consumption, Production and Supply Chain Management PART I UNSUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION 2. Sustainable consumption: an intractable problem? 3. Learning from the crisis 4. A transition phase: ‘reconfiguration’ 5. Consumption and our place in nature 6. A new role for marketing? 7. Unsustainable consumption: conclusions PART II UNSUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION 8. Economies of scale and the roots of mass production 9. Importance of mass car production 10. Origins of mass production: summary 11. Europe takes the technology lead: the case of Citroën 12. The death of craft production: Ford and Budd’s impact on the French car industry 13. Mass production in food 14. Unsustainable production: conclusions PART III SUPPLY WEBS: LINKING PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION 15. Toyotism: mass production adopts supply-chain thinking 16. Building sustainable supply chains 17. Learning from natural supply systems: towards ecological supply chain management 18. Supply webs: conclusions PART IV ARE WE GETTING ANY CLOSER TO SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION, PRODUCTION AND SUPPLY WEBS? 19. Solutions? 20. Is population really a problem? 21. Will innovation save us? 22. Alternatives to mass production 23. Conclusions: SCP and SSCM – an elusive vision? References Index

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Book SynopsisFast track route to understanding crisis management Covers the key areas of crisis management from crisis planning and handling a global business crisis to crisis plan execution Examples and lessons from some of the world's most successful businesses, including Parsons Corporation, Pepsi Cola, Johnson and Johnson and General Motors, and ideas from the smartest thinkers, including Douglas Hearle, James E Lukaszewski and Fraser P Seitel Includes a glossary of key concepts and a comprehensive resources guideTable of ContentsIntroduction to Express Exec introduction What is Crisis Management Evolution of Crisis Management The E-Dimension The Global Dimension The State of the Art In Practice Key Concepts and Thinkers Resources Ten Steps to Making it all Work Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Index

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Book SynopsisFast track route to mastering global operations Covers the key areas of international marketing and distribution, logistics, import/export compliance and government regulations Examples and lessons from some of the world's most successful businesses, including Nortel Networks, Terranova Forest Products and Ampro Electronics, and ideas from the smartest thinkers, including Adrian Wooldridge, Christopher Bartlett, Sumantra Ghoshal and John Micklethwait. Includes a glossary of key concepts and a comprehensive resources guideTable of ContentsIntroduction to ExpressExec v 06.02.1 Introduction to Operating Globally 1 06.02.2 Defining International Trade Elements 5 06.02.3 Defining Management Elements 13 06.02.04 The E-Dimension 21 06.02.05 State of the Art: Rules and Regulations 31 06.02.06 State of the Art: Technology Issues 45 06.02.07 In Practice: Success Stories 59 06.02.08 Key Global Thinkers and Trade Institutions 77 06.02.09 Resources and Online Services 93 06.02.010 Ten Steps to Making a Global Operation Work 105 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 115 Index 117

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Book SynopsisExpressExec is a unique business resource of one hundred books. These books present the best current thinking and span the entire range of contemporary business practice. Each book gives you the key concepts behind the subject and the techniques to implement the ideas effectively, together with lessons from benchmark companies and ideas from the world's smartest thinkers. ExpressExec is organised into ten core subject areas making it easy to find the information you need: 01 Innovation 02 Enterprise 03 Strategy 04 Marketing 05 Finance 06 Operations and Technology 07 Organizations 08 Leading 09 People 10 Life and Work ExpressExec is a perfect learning solution for people who need to master the latest business thinking and practice quickly.

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Book SynopsisThis innovative Handbook draws together and reflects on the specific methodological challenges that an international business scholar is likely to face when undertaking a qualitative research project. With a practical, hands-on approach to methodological debates, the Handbook raises concerns specific to international business scholars. Covering the entire life cycle of a research project from its philosophical underpinnings to publication hurdles, the book explores existing practices and gives voice to multiple, even contrasting perspectives. This invaluable source of experiential knowledge, as well as conceptual understanding, has been achieved by a truly international authorship. Including fascinating vignettes written by senior academics, the result is a guide that will be indispensable. Capturing the experiences and practices of qualitative researchers, the Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business should be on the bookshelves of students and scholars of IB, researchers in international management and marketing, and teachers of cross-cultural and IB research methods.Trade Review'This book is recommended for academic libraries supporting international business research, international business scholars involved in qualitative research projects, and international organizations with a need to conduct or understand qualitative business research.' -- Denise J. Johnson, Business Information Alert'This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide portraying the variety and complexity of qualitative research methods in international business (IB). The editors, Marschan-Piekkari and Welch, have ambitiously interwoven assorted methodological viewpoints, experiences, and recommendations in a wide-ranging compendium spanning twenty-eight chapters in six sections. Nine vignettes interspersed throughout the text offer distinctive personal accounts that are as enjoyable as they are informative. The total massive and admirable undertaking arrays the perspectives of fifty-four perceptive and self-reflective researchers representing diversity in nationality as well as research approach. Reading this book enhanced my understanding of the challenges, shortcomings, and satisfactions of various forms of qualitative research design. . . This Handbook successfully consolidates the existing qualitative methodological literature and reflects the range of techniques available for generating theory and obtaining fresh'Suffice to say that all researchers (be them familiar or not with qualitative research) and doctoral students in the field will find this Handbook insightful if not essential. Challenging ideas are put forward, useful tips and models discussed in detail, not to mention the numerous practical advice ranging from the theoretical underpinning of the research undertaken to personal experiences in unfamiliar places in the world.' -- Axele Giroud, International Business Review'The Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business provides an excellent resource for IB researchers. It combines practical advice and theoretical discussion, addressing and exploring many of the issues that challenge scholars who undertake qualitative research and summarizing trends and debates in the field. As a Handbook, it would be of special interest to doctoral students starting out on their research careers but it would also be a valuable source for reference by academics who are more established in the field of IB.' -- Anna Soulsby, Journal of International Business StudiesTable of ContentsContents: Vignette: Observations from a Lifetime of Interviewing Jean J. Boddewyn Foreword Peter J. Buckley Vignette: Interviews: A Key Data Source in International Business Research Arvind Parkhe PART I: TRENDS AND PROSPECTS IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RESEARCH Vignette: Theory is not Reality Jan Johanson 1. Qualitative Research Methods in International Business: The State of the Art Rebecca Marschan-Piekkari and Catherine Welch 2. Empirical Research in International Management: A Critique and Future Agenda Richard B. Peterson 3. Towards a Postcolonial Research Paradigm in International Business and Comparative Management Robert Westwood 4. Hermeneutic Methodology and International Business Research Niels G. Noorderhaven PART II: CASE STUDY RESEARCH Vignette: The Many Skills of the Case Researcher Robert W. Scapens 5. Designing and Conducting Case Studies in International Business Research Pervez Ghauri 6. The Architecture of Multiple Case Study Research in International Business Pieter Pauwels and Paul Matthyssens 7. The Role of Negative Personal Experiences in Cross-cultural Case Study Research: Failure or Opportunity? Karen Grisar-Kassé 8. First Put in the Sugar, Then the Eggs . . . Or the Other Way Round? Mixing Methods in International Business Research Leila Hurmerinta-Peltomäki and Niina Nummela PART III: INTERVIEWING IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS RESEARCH Vignette: Getting the Ear of the Minister Henry Wai-chung Yeung 9. Interview Studies in International Business Research John D. Daniels and Mark V. Cannice 10. Improvisation and Adaptation in International Business Research Interviews Ian Wilkinson and Louise Young 11. Language and Languages in Cross-cultural Interviewing Rebecca Marschan-Piekkari and Cristina Reis 12. Interviewing in the Multinational Corporation: Challenges of the Organisational Context Rebecca Marschan-Piekkari, Catherine Welch, Heli Penttinen and Marja Tahvanainen 13. The Interview in International Business Research: Problems We Would Rather Not Talk About Stuart Macdonald and Bo Hellgren PART IV: ALTERNATIVE METHODS AND METHODOLOGIES Vignette: Seeing and Experiencing Culture Mary Yoko Brannen 14. The Ethnographic International Business Researcher: Misfit or Trailblazer? Malcolm Chapman, Hanna Gajewska-De Mattos and Christos Antoniou 15. The Relevance of Ethnography to International Business Research Diana Rosemary Sharpe 16. Interpreting the International Firm: Going Beyond Interviews Hans De Geer, Tommy Borglund and Magnus Frostenson 17. Critical Discourse Analysis as a Methodology for International Business Studies Eero Vaara and Janne Tienari PART V: RESEARCHING OUTSIDE THE TRIAD Vignette: Eating Alone and Other Experiences Russell Belk 18. Contextualising Fieldwork: Reflections on Conducting Research in Eastern Europe Snejina Michailova 19. Conducting Qualitative Research in Vietnam: Ethnography, Grounded Theory and Case Study Research Nancy K. Napier, Suzanne Hosley and Thang Van Nguyen 20. The Role of Culture in Conducting Trustworthy and Credible Qualitative Business Research in China Giana M. Eckhardt 21. An Outsider in India Elisabeth M. Wilson 22. The Rhythms of Latin America: A Context and Guide for Qualitative Research Victoria Jones PART VI: FROM ANALYSIS TO PUBLICATION Vignette: Against Today’s Fashion: Experiences from the ‘Review Front’ Dirk Matten 23. Ensuring Validity in Qualitative International Business Research Poul Houman Andersen and Maria Anne Skaates 24. Computer-assisted Qualitative Data Analysis: Application in an Export Study Valerie J. Lindsay 25. Writing About Methods in Qualitative Research: Towards a More Transparent Approach Tatiana Zalan and Geoffrey Lewis 26. ‘Writing it Up’: The Challenges of Representation in Qualitative Research Sara L. McGaughey 27. Getting Published: The Last Great Hurdle? Denice E. Welch and Lawrence S. Welch 28. Publishing Qualitative Research in International Business Julian Birkinshaw Vignette: Case Studies in Construction: Recollections of an Accidental Researcher Stewart R. Clegg Index

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Book SynopsisVolume I of this two-volume series focuses on the role of big data in service delivery systems. It discusses the definition and orientation to big data, applications of it in service delivery systems, how to obtain results that can affect/enhance service delivery, and how to build an effective big data organization.This volume will assist readers in fitting big data analysis into their service-based organizations. It will also help readers understand how to improve the use of big data to enhance their service-oriented organizations.

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Book SynopsisVolume II of this series discusses the technology used to implement a big data analysis capability within a service-oriented organization. It discusses the technical architecture necessary to implement a big data analysis capability, some issues and challenges in big data analysis and utilization that an organization will face, and how to capture value from it.It will help readers understand what technology is required for a basic capability and what the expected benefits are from establishing a big data capability within their organization.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook presents a coherent and robust structure for integrated risk management in the context of operations and finance. It explains how the operations-finance interface jointly optimizes material and financial flows under intricate risk exposures. The book covers financial flexibility, operational hedging, enterprise risk management (ERM), supply chain risk management (SCRM), integrated risk management (IRM), supply chain finance (SCF), and financial management of supply chain strategies. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches – including conceptualization, theory building, analytical modeling, and empirical research – are used to assess the value creation by integrating operations and finance. “This book provides a comprehensive description of the interactions between finance and operations and of how managers can best make decisions in recognition of these effects.” John R. Birge, University of Chicago“Supply chain finance is an emerging area where innovations can unlock great values to complement the advances in information and physical flows of supply chain.” Hau L. Lee, Stanford University“This book provides an excellent overview of supply chain finance and its most recent advances.” Jan A. Van Mieghem, Northwestern University“This book is indispensable for advanced students as well as practitioners when looking for a pedagogical sound and scientific rigorous approach to Supply Chain Finance.” Ralf W. Seifert, IMD/EPFL“The book advances our knowledge on the interface between operations and finance and provides managerial guidelines for effective risk management in the supply chain.” Xiande Zhao, CEIBSTrade Review“The book provides a comprehensive description of the interactions between finance and operations in the management of firms by also providing tools for best making decisions in the field. … The book can be very useful for students, practitioners and academics, as well as researchers and global managers, who can find in it valuable insights and directions for further investigation.” (Doina Carp, zbMATH 13.93.90.003m, 2018)Table of ContentsIntroduction to Operations-finance Interface.- Capital Structure and Financial Risk Management.- Supply Chain Risk Management.- Integrated Risk Management in Multinational Corporations.- Integrated Risk Management with Capacity Reshoring.- Supply Chain Finance.- Managing Supplier Financial Risk with Pre-shipment Finance Instruments.- Research Overview of Operations-finance Interface.

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Book SynopsisThis book introduces readers to essential strategies, practices, and benchmarking for asset maintenance in operations intensive industries. Drawing on a case study from the oil and gas sector, it offers a methodology and practical solutions to help maintenance practitioners select and formulate an asset maintenance strategy, and to establish best maintenance practices at an organizational level using the frameworks developed here. It is intended for industry practitioners, young maintenance professionals, and students of engineering management who aspire to a career in operations intensive industries.Table of Contents1. Asset Maintenance: A Primary Support Function.- 2. Asset Maintenance in Operations-Intensive Organizations.- 3. Maintenance Strategy, Practices and Spare Parts Management.- 4. Asset Maintenance Framework and Benchmarking.- 5. Intelligent Predictive Maintenance: Industry 4.0.- 6. Asset Maintenance Strategic Plan for Operational Excellence.

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Book SynopsisThis book explores the novel uses and potentials of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) under big data. These areas are of widespread interest to researchers and practitioners alike. Considering the vast literature on DEA, one could say that DEA has been and continues to be, a widely used technique both in performance and productivity measurement, having covered a plethora of challenges and debates within the modelling framework.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Data Envelopment Analysis and Big Data: A Systematic Literature Review with Bibliometric Analysis.- Chapter 2. Acceleration of large-scale DEA computations using random forest classification.- Chapter 3. The estimation of productive efficiency through machine learning techniques: Efficiency Analysis Trees.- Chapter 4. Hybrid Data Science and Reinforcement Learning in Data Envelopment Analysis.- Chapter 5. Aggregation of Outputs and Inputs for DEA Analysis of Hospital Efficiency: Economics, Operations Research and Data Science Perspectives.- Chapter 6. Parallel Processing and Large-Scale Datasets in Data Envelopment Analysis.- Chapter 7. Network DEA and Big Data with an Application to the Coronavirus Pandemic.- Chapter 8. Hierarchical Data Envelopment Analysis for Classification of High-Dimensional Data.- Chapter 9. Dominance Network Analysis: Hybridizing DEA and Complex Networks for Data Analytics.- Chapter 10. Value extracting in relative performance appraisal with network DEA: an application to U.S. equity mutual funds.- Chapter 11. Measuring Chinese bank performance with undesirable outputs: a slack-based two-stage network DEA approach.- Chapter 12. Using Network DEA and Grey Prediction Model for Big Data Analysis: An Application in the Global Airline Efficiency.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents techniques for determining uncertainties in numerical solutions with applications in the fields of business administration, civil engineering, and economics, using Excel as a computational tool. Also included are solutions to uncertainty problems involving stochastic methods. The list of topics specially covered in this volume includes linear and nonlinear programming, Lagrange multipliers (for sensitivity), multi objective optimization, and Game Theory, as well as linear algebraic equations, and probability and statistics. The book also provides a selection of numerical methods developed for Excel, in order to enhance readers’ understanding. As such, it offers a valuable guide for all graduate and undergraduate students in the fields of economics, business administration, civil engineering, and others that rely on Excel as a research tool.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Some tips to use EXCEL.- Chapter 2: Some useful Numerical Methods.- Chapter 3: Probabilities with EXCEL.- Chapter 4: Stochastic Processes.- Chapter 5: Representation of Random Variables.- Chapter 6: Uncertain Algebraic Equations.- Chapter 7: Random Differential Equations.- Chapter 8: UQ in Game Theory.- Chapter 9: Optimization under uncertainty.- Chapter 10: Reliability.- Bibliography.- Index.

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Book SynopsisThis open access book reports on innovative methods, technologies and strategies for mastering uncertainty in technical systems. Despite the fact that current research on uncertainty is mainly focusing on uncertainty quantification and analysis, this book gives emphasis to innovative ways to master uncertainty in engineering design, production and product usage alike. It gathers authoritative contributions by more than 30 scientists reporting on years of research in the areas of engineering, applied mathematics and law, thus offering a timely, comprehensive and multidisciplinary account of theories and methods for quantifying data, model and structural uncertainty, and of fundamental strategies for mastering uncertainty. It covers key concepts such as robustness, flexibility and resilience in detail. All the described methods, technologies and strategies have been validated with the help of three technical systems, i.e. the Modular Active Spring-Damper System, the Active Air Spring and the 3D Servo Press, which have been in turn developed and tested during more than ten years of cooperative research. Overall, this book offers a timely, practice-oriented reference guide to graduate students, researchers and professionals dealing with uncertainty in the broad field of mechanical engineering.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- Types of uncertainty.- Our specific approach on mastering uncertainty.- Analysis, quantification and evaluation of uncertainty.- Methods and technologies for mastering uncertainty.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook treats graph colouring as an algorithmic problem, with a strong emphasis on practical applications. The author describes and analyses some of the best-known algorithms for colouring graphs, focusing on whether these heuristics can provide optimal solutions in some cases; how they perform on graphs where the chromatic number is unknown; and whether they can produce better solutions than other algorithms for certain types of graphs, and why. The introductory chapters explain graph colouring, complexity theory, bounds and constructive algorithms. The author then shows how advanced, graph colouring techniques can be applied to classic real-world operational research problems such as designing seating plans, sports scheduling, and university timetabling. He includes many examples, suggestions for further reading, and historical notes, and the book is supplemented by an online suite of downloadable code. The book is of value to researchers, graduate students, and practitioners in the areas of operations research, theoretical computer science, optimization, and computational intelligence. The reader should have elementary knowledge of sets, matrices, and enumerative combinatorics.Table of Contents1. Introduction to Graph Colouring.- 2. Bounds and Constructive Algorithms.- 3. Advanced Techniques for Graph Colouring.- 4. Algorithm Case Studies.- 5. Applications and Extensions.- 6. Designing Seating Plans.- 7. Designing Sports Leagues.- 8. Designing University Timetables.

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Book SynopsisThis 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.Table of ContentsPart A: Planting and Growing.- Chapter 1: Dynamic Crop Allocation in the Presence of Two-Season Crop Rotation Benefits.- Chapter 2: Agricultural Production Planning under Yield-Dependent Cost and Price.- Chapter 3: Mechanisms for Effective Sharing of Agricultural Water Between Head-Reach and Tail-End Farms.- Chapter 4: Portfolio Management Issues in the Commercial Seed Industry: A Modeling Framework and Industry Implementation.- Part B: Processing and Selling.- Chapter 5: Procurement Management in Agricultural Commodity Processing.- Chapter 6: The Influence of Yield-Dependent Trading Costs on Pricing and Production Planning under Supply Uncertainty.- Chapter 7: Capacity Management in Agricultural Commodity Processing.- Chapter 8: A Prescriptive Model for Selling Wine Futures to Mitigate Quality Uncertainty.- Chapter 9: Wine Analytics: Futures or Bottles.- Part C: Government Interventions.- Chapter 10: Implications of Farmer Information Provision Policies: Heterogeneous Farmers and Market Selection.- Chapter 11: Agricultural Market Information: Economic Value and Provision Policy.- Chapter 12: Knowledge Sharing among Smallholders in Developing Economies.- Chapter 13: Policy Interventions for an Agriculture-Based Malaria Medicine Supply Chain.- Chapter 14: The Impact of Crop Minimum Support Price on Crop Production and Farmer Welfare.- Chapter 15: Input- vs. Output-Based Farm Subsidies in Developing Economies: Farmer Welfare and Income Inequality.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents an interdisciplinary approach to conflict solution focusing on a very specific type of conflict, retributive conflicts . It is unique in the treatment of these and how relative measurement is used to find equilibrium solutions. The authors present an alternative process to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They do so in two ways that are different from past efforts. The first is by formally structuring the conflict and the second is the manner in which discussions were conducted and conclusions drawn. The approach will help create a solution and provide negotiators with a unique pathway to consider the thorny issues and corresponding concessions underlying the deliberations, together with their implementation. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) provides a way to conflict solution with the participation of negotiators for the parties. It is a positive approach that makes it possible to reason and express feelings and judgments with numerical intensities to derive priorities. With the assistance of panels of Israeli participants and Palestinian participants brought together in 2006 to 2017, AHP was applied for the first time in a group setting to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The process makes it clear that moderation in different degrees by both sides is essential to arrive at acceptable agreements on concessions proposed and agreed upon by both sides.Trade Review“This book will become a classic and the go-to reference handbook for negotiating retributive conflicts using the AHP approach. … The book is nicely printed by Springer and is pleasant to read.” (Enrique Mu, International Journal of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Vol. 13 (3), 2021)Table of ContentsLaying the Groundwork.- The Middle East Conflict.- The Analytic Hierarchy Process.- Retributive Conflicts and the AHP.- Structuring the Hierarchy to Make Tradeoffs.- Lessons Learned.- The Pittsburgh Principles.- Implementation to the Principles.- The Palestinian Refugee Problem.- Strategic Communications.- Looking Ahead.

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Book SynopsisThis book unifies and extends the definition and measurement of economic efficiency and its use as a real-life benchmarking technique for actual organizations. Analytically, the book relies on the economic theory of duality as guiding framework. Empirically, it shows how the alternative models can be implemented by way of Data Envelopment Analysis. An accompanying software programmed in the open-source Julia language is used to solve the models. The package is a self-contained set of functions that can be used for individual learning and instruction. The source code, associated documentation, and replication notebooks are available online. The book discusses the concept of economic efficiency at the firm level, comparing observed to optimal economic performance, and its decomposition according to technical and allocative criteria. Depending on the underlying technical efficiency measure, economic efficiency can be decomposed multiplicatively or additively. Part I of the book deals with the classic multiplicative approach that decomposes cost and revenue efficiency based on radial distance functions. Subsequently, the book examines how these partial approaches can be expanded to the notion of profitability efficiency, considering both the input and output dimensions of the firm, and relying on the generalized distance function for the measurement of technical efficiency. Part II is devoted to the recent additive framework related to the decomposition of economic inefficiency defined in terms of cost, revenue, and profit. The book presents economic models for the Russell and enhanced graph Russell measures, the weighted additive distance function, the directional distance function, the modified directional distance function, and the Hölder distance function. Each model is presented in a separate chapter. New approaches that qualify and generalize previous results are also introduced in the last chapters, including the reverse directional distance function and the general direct approach. The book concludes by highlighting the importance of benchmarking economic efficiency for all business stakeholders and recalling the main conclusions obtained from many years of research on this topic. The book offers different alternatives to measure economic efficiency based on a set of desirable properties and advises on the choice of specific economic efficiency models.Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: Conceptual background: firms’ objectives, decision variables and economic efficiency.- Part I.- Chapter 3: Shephard’s input and output distance functions: cost and revenue efficiency decompositions.- Chapter 4: The generalized distance function (GDF): Profitability efficiency decomposition.- Part II.- Chapter 5: The Russell Measures: Economic Inefficiency Decompositions.- Chapter 6: The Weighted Additive Distance Function (WADF): Economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 7: The enhanced Russell graph measure (ERG=SBM): economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 8: The directional distance function (DDF): economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 9: The Hölder distance functions: economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 10: The loss distance function: economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 11: The modified directional distance function (MDDF): economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 12: The reverse directional distance function (RDDF): economic inefficiency decompositions.- Chapter 13: A unifying framework for decomposing economic inefficiency: The general direct approach and the standard and flexible reverse approaches.- Chapter 14: A final overview: economic efficency models and properties.- Bibliography.- Subject Index.- Author Index.

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Book SynopsisThis open access book highlights the interdisciplinary aspects of logistics research. Featuring empirical, methodological, and practice-oriented articles, it addresses the modelling, planning, optimization and control of processes. Chiefly focusing on supply chains, logistics networks, production systems, and systems and facilities for material flows, the respective contributions combine research on classical supply chain management, digitalized business processes, production engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and mathematical optimization. To celebrate 25 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research conducted at the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics), in this book hand-picked experts currently or formerly affiliated with the Cluster provide retrospectives, present cutting-edge research, and outline future research directions.Table of ContentsPart I: Models and Methods for Planning in Logistics.- Autonomous Control of Logistics Processes – A Retrospective.- Explorable Uncertainty meets Decision-Making in Logistics.- Complex Networks in Manufacturing and Logistics: A Retrospect.- Recent Developments in Mathematical Traffic Models.- Part II: Digitalization and Logistics.- Intelligent Agents for Social and Learning Logistics Systems.- Semantic Interoperability for Logistics and Beyond.- Semantic Digital Twins for Retail Logistics.- A Demand-Response System for Sustainable Manufacturing Using Linked Data and Machine Learning.- The Influence of Cognitive Biases in Production Logistics.- Part III: Fields of Application in Logistics.- Automobile Logistics 4.0 – Advances through Digitalization.- 15 Years of Intelligent Container Research.- The Rise of Ultra Large Container Vessels: Implications for Seaport Systems and Environmental Considerations.- Modeling individualized sustainable last mile logistics.- Logistics Challenges along the New Silk Roads.- Observations and Perceptions on a Doctoral Research Seminar in Engineering and Logistics.

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Book SynopsisThis open access book highlights the interdisciplinary aspects of logistics research. Featuring empirical, methodological, and practice-oriented articles, it addresses the modelling, planning, optimization and control of processes. Chiefly focusing on supply chains, logistics networks, production systems, and systems and facilities for material flows, the respective contributions combine research on classical supply chain management, digitalized business processes, production engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and mathematical optimization. To celebrate 25 years of interdisciplinary and collaborative research conducted at the Bremen Research Cluster for Dynamics in Logistics (LogDynamics), in this book hand-picked experts currently or formerly affiliated with the Cluster provide retrospectives, present cutting-edge research, and outline future research directions.Table of ContentsPart I: Models and Methods for Planning in Logistics.- Autonomous Control of Logistics Processes – A Retrospective.- Explorable Uncertainty meets Decision-Making in Logistics.- Complex Networks in Manufacturing and Logistics: A Retrospect.- Recent Developments in Mathematical Traffic Models.- Part II: Digitalization and Logistics.- Intelligent Agents for Social and Learning Logistics Systems.- Semantic Interoperability for Logistics and Beyond.- Semantic Digital Twins for Retail Logistics.- A Demand-Response System for Sustainable Manufacturing Using Linked Data and Machine Learning.- The Influence of Cognitive Biases in Production Logistics.- Part III: Fields of Application in Logistics.- Automobile Logistics 4.0 – Advances through Digitalization.- 15 Years of Intelligent Container Research.- The Rise of Ultra Large Container Vessels: Implications for Seaport Systems and Environmental Considerations.- Modeling individualized sustainable last mile logistics.- Logistics Challenges along the New Silk Roads.- Observations and Perceptions on a Doctoral Research Seminar in Engineering and Logistics.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents recent advances in the theory and application of the Best-Worst Method (BWM). It includes selected papers from the Second International Workshop on Best-Worst Method (BWM2021), held in Delft, The Netherlands from 10-11 June, 2021, and provides valuable insights on why and how to use BWM in a diverse range of applications including health, energy, supply chain management, and engineering. The book highlights the use of BWM in different settings including single decision-making vs group decision-making, and complete information vs incomplete and uncertain situations. The papers gathered here will benefit academics and practitioners who are involved in multi-criteria decision-making and decision analysis.Table of ContentsPreface.- The balancing role of Best and Worst in Best-Worst Method.- Hierarchical evaluation of criteria and alternatives within BWM: A Mon-te Carlo approach.- A two-step Best-Worst Method (BWM) and K-Means clustering recom-mender system framework.- A linguistic 2-tuple Best-Worst Method.- How does the entrepreneurship ecosystem contribute to the perfor-mance of entrepreneurial start-up firms?.- A multi-attribute decision-making to sustainable construction material selection: A Bayesian BWM-SAW hybrid model.- Risk assessment of passenger flow in an urban rail transit system: indi-cators, application, and analysis.- Bridge infrastructure resilience analysis against seismic hazard using Best-Worst Method.- A value-focused approach for the design of innovative logistics con-cepts: the case of off-peak pickup and delivery in the air cargo industry.- An Innovative digital maturity assessment model for smart cities.- Determining the importance of barriers to IoT implementation using Bayesian Best-Worst Method.- Assessment of environmental performance criteria in textile industry using the Best-Worst Method.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook lays the foundations for System-of-Systems Requirements Engineering and Requirements Management practices, principles, technique, and processes. It provides a comprehensive treatment of requirements engineering, an integral part of Multidisciplinary Systems Engineering. The book takes the student/reader though the entire process of documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing, and managing requirements, and then goes on the describe controlling and communicating requirement change throughout the system development lifecycle. The authors discuss the role of requirements management in support of other requirements engineering processes; describe the principal requirements engineering activities and their relationships; introduces techniques for requirements elicitation and analysis and describes requirements validation and the role of requirements reviews; and discusses the role of requirements management in support of other requirements engineering processes. A full suite of classroom material is provided including exercises, assignments, and PowerPoint slides.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- Section I: Requirements Engineering Fundamentals.- Background.- The Need for Requirements Engineering – Why?.- Requirements Engineering Processes – What?.- System Engineering and Requirements – How?.- Developer Derived Requirements.- New Development vice Existing System Extension/Upgrades.- System Tier(s).- Section II: Requirements.- Engineering Mechanics.- MDSE Requirements Engineering.- Categories of Requirements.- Composition of a Requirement.- Use of Tables in Requirements.- Requirements Traceability.- Section III: Requirements Engineering Management .- Requirements Change Management.- Requirement Agility (Supporting Agile Development).- Typical Requirement Anti-Patterns.- Section IV: Requirements Engineering and System of Systems.- Legacy Systems and Requirements Management.- Optimizing Performance across Systems.- SOA What?.- Final Thoughts on Requirements Management.- Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the Third International Meeting on Innovation for Systems Information and Decision, INSID 2021, which was held during December 1-3, 2021. The conference was initially planned to take place in Recife, Brazil, but changed to a virtual meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 9 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 76 submissions. They reflect methodological improvements and advances in multi-criteria decision-making/multi-criteria decision-aid (MCDM/MCDA) oriented toward real-world applications, which contribute to the understanding of relevant developments of current research on and future trends of innovation for systems information and decision. Table of ContentsFITradeoff Based Analysis of Cultural Tourism Products Regarding Post-Industrial Heritage in Czeladź Commune in Poland.- The worth of cardinal information in MCDM – a guide to selecting weight-generating functions.- Efficiency of competitiveness evaluation of medium-lift launch vehicle (MLV) using integrated DEA-TOPSIS model.- Japanese port alliance: Cooperative game theory analysis.- Improving the Elicitation Process for Intra-criterion Evaluation in the FITradeoff Method.- Manufacturing Execution System Selection by Use of Multicriteria Partial Information Method.- Incorporating Hierarchical Criteria Structure in the FITradeoff Method.- A user interface for consistent AHP pairwise comparisons.- A Problem Structuring Multimethodology to Support a Post-graduation Course on Implant Dentistry.

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Book SynopsisThe book presents the proceedings of the 6th EAI International Conference on Management of Manufacturing Systems (MMS 2021), which took place online on October 6, 2021. The conference covered management of manufacturing systems with support for Industry 4.0, logistics and intelligent manufacturing systems and applications, cooperation management and its effective applications. Topics include RFID applications, economic impacts in logistics, ICT support for Industry 4.0, industrial and smart logistics, intelligent manufacturing systems and applications, and much more.Table of ContentsPart I. Industry 4.0.- Chapter 1. Monitoring of an industrial process based on Industry 4.0.- Chapter 2. Challenges and Benefits for Detecting Soon-to-Fail Drives in Industry 4.0.- Chapter 3. End-users and Industry 4.0 systems cyber resilience from XSS attacks.- Chapter 4. Education and Its Role in Risk Management in the Context of Industry 4.0.- Chapter 5. Using Quality Management Tools to Analyze the Error Rate in the Production Process.- Part II. Sustainable Communications & Information and communications technology.- Chapter 6. A Taxonomy of Cyber Attacks in Smart Manufacturing Systems.- Chapter 7. Analyzing performance of Wireless Network Based on the Industrial HART Protocol.- Chapter 8. Modeling the Business Purchase Process Using InnIoTShop Solution in a Store Environment.- Part III. Smart Techniques/Smart Technology.- Chapter 9. Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) as a Significant Material used by Additive Manufacturing.- Chapter 10. Optimization of the Production Process and Defect Iden-tification in the Production of Face Shields Using Fused Deposition Modeling Technology.- Chapter 11. The utilization of progressive methods in the manufacture and maintenance of aircraft components.- Part IV. Education and Awareness of Sustainability.- Chapter 12. The Specifics of the Silver Generation Shopping Behavior in the selected cities of Western Slovakia.- Chapter 13. Impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the educational process of the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Košice - use of innovative educational technologies.- Chapter 14. Application of the Vernier measuring system as a smart element in Physics education process.- Part V. Sustainable Industrial Development.- Chapter 15. ICT Cost Impact Model in Construction Project Management.- Chapter 16. Relationship Marketing - a Modern Marketing Strategy as a Tool to Increase the Competitiveness of the Company in the Market.- Chapter 17. Using Economical-Mathematics Method of Input-Output Analysis as a Tool for Cost Calculation of Steel Construction Production.- Chapter 18. Possible methods of valuing startups.

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Book SynopsisOperations Research (OR) is a fast-evolving field, which is having a significant impact on its neighbouring disciplines of Business Analytics and Data Science, and on contemporary business and management practices. This handbook provides a comprehensive and cutting edge collection of studies in the area. Views differ on what should be included within the scope of OR. The editors of this volume have taken the view that an inclusive stance is the most helpful, both for theory and practice. Real-world problems often require consideration from both ‘softer’ and ‘harder’ perspectives and need consideration of both predictive and prescriptive problems. In accordance with this inclusive approach to OR, the book is divided into six parts, covering Discrete Optimization, Continuous Optimization, Heuristic Search Optimization, Forecasting, Simulation and Prediction, Problem Structuring and Behavioural OR, and finally some recent OR Applications.This wide-ranging handbook includes a culturally diverse collection of authors, with different perspectives and backgrounds around Operations Research. It will be of tremendous value to researchers, students and practitioners in the field of ORTable of Contents

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Book SynopsisThis is the third edition of a textbook that has been used in a number of undergraduate courses and covers the standard models and techniques used in decision-making in organizations. The main emphasis of the book is on modelling business-related scenarios and the generation of decision alternatives. Fully solved examples from many areas are used to illustrate the main concepts without getting bogged down in technical details. The book presents an approach to operations research that is heavily based on modelling and makes extensive use of sensitivity analyses. It is the result of the authors’ many years of combined teaching experience. The third edition includes new topics such as nonlinear programming and reliability theory, as well as additional material on multi-attribute decision-making. Each chapter includes a number of fully solved problems that allow students to practice or self-study. Additional problems are available on the book’s accompanying website.Table of Contents1. Introduction.- 2. Linear Programming.- 3. Multiobjective Programming.- 4. Nonlinear Programming.- 5. Integer Linear Programming.- 6. Network Models.- 7. Location Models.- 8. Project Networks.- 9. Machine Scheduling.- 10. Decision Analysis.- 11. Multiattribute Decision Making.- 12. Inventory Models.- 13. Stochastic Processes and Markov Chains.- 14. Reliability Theory.- 15. Waiting Line Models.- 16. Simulation.- 17. Heuristic Methods.

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Book SynopsisIntroductory courses in combinatorial optimization are popular at the upper undergraduate/graduate levels in computer science, industrial engineering, and business management/OR, owed to its wide applications in these fields. There are several published textbooks that treat this course and the authors have used many of them in their own teaching experiences. This present text fills a gap and is organized with a stress on methodology and relevant content, providing a step-by-step approach for the student to become proficient in solving combinatorial optimization problems. Applications and problems are considered via recent technology developments including wireless communication, cloud computing, social networks, and machine learning, to name several, and the reader is led to the frontiers of combinatorial optimization. Each chapter presents common problems, such as minimum spanning tree, shortest path, maximum matching, network flow, set-cover, as well as key algorithms, such as greedy algorithm, dynamic programming, augmenting path, and divide-and-conquer. Historical notes, ample exercises in every chapter, strategically placed graphics, and an extensive bibliography are amongst the gems of this textbook.Trade Review“This book introduces combinatorial optimization with a methodology-oriented organization. It targets undergraduate and graduate students and contains a good mix of theoretical results (with proof) and examples, which helps the reader acquire ideas and concepts. The chapters end with a list of exercises for the students.” (Francisco Chicano, Mathematical Reviews, January, 2024)“The book can appropriately be used as a textbook in a graduate course. All the algorithms are clearly explained and presented. It is a very valuable book for successful application of real problems from combinatorial optimization. … this book is an excellent contribution to the field of combinatorial optimization, and it is highly recommended to the students and researchers in optimization.” (Samir Kumar Neogy, zbMATH 1512.90001, 2023)Table of Contents1. Introduction.-2. Divide-and-Conquer.- 3. Dynamic Programming and Shortest Path.- 4. Greedy Algorithm and Spanning Tree.- 5. Incremental Method and Maximum Network Flow.- 6. Linear Programming.- 7. Primal-Dual Methods and Minimum Cost Flow.- 8. NP-hard Problems and Approximation Algorithms.- 9. Restriction and Steiner Tree.- 10. Greedy Approximation and Submodular Optimization.- 11. Relaxation and Rounding. 12. Nonsubmodular Optimization.- Bibliography.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a blend of quantitative and qualitative approaches to decision making, while also bridging the gap between the theory of how to make good decisions versus how people actually make decisions. The authors present the tools and techniques of decision analysis to learn how to become a FOCCUSSED decision maker: Identify and properly Frame the decision or problem at hand Specify the goals, Objectives, and values that you are trying to achieve Develop creative, meaningful Choices from among which you can choose Evaluate the Consequences of selecting each alternative using your goals, objectives, and values Think about the key Uncertainties that could impact the decision Understand the Swaps and trade-offs that you are willing to make Develop an approach for implementing your Solution Elicit the data you’ll need from a variety of sources and Disseminate and communicate your decisions to others. The authors define a decision as the choice among alternatives, based on how we value and trade-off their pros and cons, made in the face of uncertainty about what will actually happen. The decision-making process is presented as having three pillars to support the decision maker: Preferences–what we prefer, what meets our goals and objectives, and the recognition that preferences are personal to the one making the decision; Alternatives–the choices, options, or courses of action that we have, and over which we have some degree of control; and Information–what we know about the situation, what we don’t know, how we connect choices to outcomes, and how we deal with uncertainty. Key components of good decision-making include how to define your goals and objectives, how to incorporate uncertainties that we all face, and how to develop better alternatives, all of which are discussed. Sophisticated techniques are presented in a way that is accessible to the average decision maker. Probability theory is utilized to improve decisions, and uncertainties are captured in decision trees. Risk avoidance, risk transfer, and risk mitigation are also discussed. Readers will gain a clear understanding of how to articulate the goals and objectives that should be the focal point of any decision.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- Framing the Decision.- Understanding Objectives and Values.- Creating Choices.- Identifying Consequences.- Incorporating Uncertainty.- Making Swaps and Trade-offs.- Selecting Solutions.- Eliciting Data: Making Your Decision-Making Processes More Productive.- Disseminating and Communicating Your Decisions.- FOCCUSSED Decision Making Wrap-Up.

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Book SynopsisThis open access book demonstrates all the steps required to design heuristic algorithms for difficult optimization. The classic problem of the travelling salesman is used as a common thread to illustrate all the techniques discussed. This problem is ideal for introducing readers to the subject because it is very intuitive and its solutions can be graphically represented. The book features a wealth of illustrations that allow the concepts to be understood at a glance. The book approaches the main metaheuristics from a new angle, deconstructing them into a few key concepts presented in separate chapters: construction, improvement, decomposition, randomization and learning methods. Each metaheuristic can then be presented in simplified form as a combination of these concepts. This approach avoids giving the impression that metaheuristics is a non-formal discipline, a kind of cloud sculpture. Moreover, it provides concrete applications of the travelling salesman problem, which illustrate in just a few lines of code how to design a new heuristic and remove all ambiguities left by a general framework. Two chapters reviewing the basics of combinatorial optimization and complexity theory make the book self-contained. As such, even readers with a very limited background in the field will be able to follow all the content.Table of ContentsPart I: Combinatorial Optimization, Complexity Theory and Problem Modelling.- 1. Elements of Graphs and Complexity Theory.- 2. A Short List of Combinatorial Optimization Problems.- 3. Problem Modelling.- Part II: Basic Heuristic Techniques.- 4. Constructive Methods.- 5. Local Search.- 6. Decomposition Methods.- Part III: Popular Metaheuristics.- 7. Randomized Methods.- 8. Construction Learning.- 9. Local Search Learning.- 10. Population Management.- 11. Heuristics Design.- 12. Codes.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest empirical research findings in Operations Research (OR) and Management Science (MS) as applied to sustainability. Its goal is to identify and describe ways in which OR and MS have been applied to and influenced the development of sustainability. Many of the issues we face today stem from the interconnectivity of the economy, society, and the environment, and from how both the economy and society are affecting the environment. In response, there have been a range of local and global efforts to advance society without harming the natural environment. The book showcases how OR/MS can help to address these issues, specifically with regard to renewable energy, smart industry, smart cities, transportation, smart homes and devices, etc. This book is intended for professionals in the fields of energy, engineering, information science, mathematics and economics, and for researchers who wish to develop new skills in connection with sustainability, or whose work involves sustainability.Table of ContentsSustainability. Cases and Studies in Using Operations Research and Management Science Methods.- What is Sustainability? A Layman Perspective.- Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Definition, Bibliometrics, Applications and Future Directions.- Applications of Machine Learning Algorithms in Data Sciences.- The machine learning model for identifying bogus profiles in social networking sites.- Support Vector Machine and K-fold cross validation to detect false alarms in wind turbines.- A Hybrid Neural Network Model Based on Convolutional Cascade Neural Networks: An Application for Image Inspection in Production.- A multi-objective sustainable traffic signal control for smart cities under uncertainty.- Multi Criteria Decision Making for Sustainable Transport: A Case Study on Traffic Flow Prediction Using Spatial-Temporal Traffic Sequence.- A Robust Prognostic Indicator for Renewable Energy Fuel Cells: A Hybrid Data-Driven Prediction Approach.- An Assessment of Electricity Markets in Turkey: Price Mechanisms, Regulations, and Methods.- The role of DevOps in Sustainable Enterprise Development.- Practices and indicators of waste and resource management in commercial buildings.- A descriptive comprehension study on solar energy, solar products, and solar product marketing in Indian context.- Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) Systems – Improving Sustainability and Efficiency of Animal Production.- Environmental Assessment of Rural Road Construction in India.- Perspectives on the sustainable steel production process: a critical review of the carbon dioxide (CO2) to methane (CH4) conversion process.- Exergy, Anergy and Sustainability.- Simulating complex relationships between pollutants and the environment using regression splines: A case study for landfill leachate.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents recent advances in the theory and application of the Best-Worst Method (BWM). It includes selected papers from the Third International Workshop on Best-Worst Method (BWM2022), held in Delft, the Netherlands, from 9 to 10 June 2022. The book provides valuable insights on why and how to use BWM in a diverse range of applications including health, energy, supply chain management, and engineering. Moreover, it highlights the use of BWM in different settings including individual decision-making vs group decision-making, and with complete information vs incomplete and uncertain information. Academics and practitioners whose work involves multi-criteria decision-making and decision analysis will particularly benefit from the papers gathered here.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Decision Support Systems Technologies, ICDSST 2023, held during May 30 – June 1, 2023.The EWG-DSS series of International Conference on Decision Support System Technology (ICDSST) is planned to consolidate the tradition of annual events organized by the EWG-DSS in offering a platform for European and international DSS communities, comprising the academic and industrial sectors, to present state-of-the-art DSS research and developments, to discuss current challenges that surround decision-making processes, to exchange ideas about realistic and innovative solutions, and to co-develop potential business opportunities. The main theme of this year was “Decision Support Systems in An Uncertain World: The Contribution of Digital Twins”. The 21 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: DSS models, methods, and tools; DSS for business performance and stakeholders; DSS applications for sustainability in health, energy and transportation; and DSS users and successful adoption.Table of ContentsMulti-actor VIKOR method for highway selection in Montenegro.- A tool to support the decisions for the trace clustering problem with a non-compensatory approach.- An Asset-Based Causal Loop Model to Improve Corporate Value.- Time-aware Optimisation Models for Hospital Logistics.- Prevention and Detection of Network Attacks: A Comprehensive Study.- Section 2: DSS for business performance and stakeholders.- A Literature Review on the Contribution of Industry 4.0 Technologies in OEE Improvement.- MAMCABM: A data-driven stakeholder-based decision-support system that considers uncertainties.- BPR Assessment Framework: Staging Business Processes for Redesign using Cluster Analysis.- A Lean Knowledge Management Processes Framework for Improving the Performance of Manufacturing Supply Chain Decisions in an Uncertain World.- Integrating Existing Knowledge to Accelerate Buildings Renovation Rates in Europe.- Equity-based allocation criteria for water deficit periods: A case study in South Africa.- Section 3: DSS applications for sustainability - health, energy and transportation.- Attracting financing for green energy projects: a city readiness index.- Building risk prediction models for diabetes decision support system.- AHP method applied to the evaluation of costs and pollution emitted by combined means of transport, case of SMMC port Toamasina.- Evaluate the potential of the Physical Internet for last mile delivery in developing countries.- Towards an integrative assessment model for port sustainability decisions: a systematic review.- Section 4: DSS users and successful adoption.- An investigation on Cloud ERP adoption using Technology-Organisation- Environment (TOE) and Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theories: a systematic review.- Young Elderly DSS Users - Some Reasons for Successful Adoption.- Behavioral studies for the use of visualization in holistic evaluation for multicriteria decision problems decision.- A Digital Distance Learning Critical Success Factors Model for Conducting Learning Analytics Research.- Scientific Authorship in DSS Research: Past Trends and Future Opportunities.

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a new search paradigm for solving the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). The intrinsic difficulty of the TSP is associated with the combinatorial explosion of potential solutions in the solution space. The author introduces the idea of using the attractor concept in dynamical systems theory to reduce the search space for exhaustive search for the TSP. Numerous examples are used to describe how to use this new search algorithm to solve the TSP and its variants including: multi-objective TSP, dynamic TSP, and probabilistic TSP. This book is intended for readers in the field of optimization research and application.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP).- The Nature of Heuristic Local Search.- he Attractor-Based Search System.- Solving Multi-objective TSP.- Solving Dynamic TSP.- Solving Probabilistic TSP.- Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisThis book discusses basic tools of partially ordered spaces and applies them to variational methods in Nonlinear Analysis and for optimizing problems. This book is aimed at graduate students and research mathematicians.Table of ContentsExamples.- Functional Analysis Over Cones.- Optimization in Partially Ordered Spaces.- Applications.- Bibliography.- Index.

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Book SynopsisThis book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Business Intelligence, CBI 2023, which held in Istanbul, Turkey, during July 19–21, 2023.The 15 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 50 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: artificial intelligence and business intelligence; and optimization and decision support. Table of ContentsArtificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence.- A business intelligence system for governing risks in SMEs.- A Systematic Analysis for Machine Learning Based Cow Price Prediction.- Deep learning models for cybersecurity in IoT networks.- Diabetes prediction by machine learning algorithms and risks factors.- Machine learning prediction of weather-induced road crash events for experienced and novice drivers: Insights from a driving simulator study.- Ontology-based Mediation with Quality Criteria.- Predicting driving license applicant’s performance for Car Reverse Test System.- Optimization and Decision Support.- A Comparative Study on the implementation of Blockchain in Supply Chain Models.- A Hybrid Approach of Dijkstra’s algorithm and A* search, with an optional adaptive threshold heuristic.- Causal Discovery and features importance analysis: What can be inferred about at-risk students?.- Computational features and applications of an inhomogeneous Gompertz diffusion process?.- Localization and Navigation of ROS-based Autonomous Robot in Hospital Environment.- Three-Phase Hybrid Evolutionary Algorithm for the Bi-Objective Travelling Salesman Problem.- Understanding Data Journalism Acceptance among Social TV Users: A Case Study of Twitter in the United Arab Emirates.- Unveiling the Performance Insights: Benchmarking Anomaly-Based Intrusion Detection Systems using Decision Tree Family Algorithms on the CICIDS2017 Dataset.

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Book SynopsisA new era is emerging in which a group of quantitative methods featuring characteristics of multidimensional comparative analysis (MCA) and multi-criteria decision-making analysis (MCDA) can be used to automate objective decision-making processes. This book introduces the character of the criteria (desirable, non-desirable, motivating, demotivating, and neutral) to MCDA and MCA methods. It presents the author’s own developed methods, the preference vector method (PVM), for solving multi-criteria problems in decision making; and, vector measure construction method (VMCM), which is dedicated to solving typical problems in the field of multidimensional comparative analysis. All methods are explained step by step with relevant examples, primarily in the fields of economics and management.Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction.- Chapter 2 Problems of multi-criteria and multidimensionality in decision support.- Part I: Methods of multidimensional comparative analysis.- Chapter 3 Initial data analysis procedure.- Chapter 4 Methods for building aggregate measures.- Part II: Multi-criteria decision support methods.- Chapter 5 Methods based on the outranking relationship.- Chapter 6 Methods based on the utility function.- Chapter 7 Multi-criteria methods using function points.- Chapter 8 Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisAuthored by a leading expert in the field, this book introduces an innovative methodology that harnesses the power of fuzzy logic to enhance decision-making in multi-attribute scenarios. In a world of complexity and uncertainty, effective decision-making is paramount. Springer proudly presents a cutting-edge publication that revolutionizes decision analysis: "Fuzzy Decision Analysis: Multi-attribute Decision-Making Approach." This book stands at the forefront of decision analysis, introducing the integration of fuzzy logic into multi-attribute decision-making. It is a transformative journey into the realm of advanced decision analysis. It book not only equips you with the knowledge to comprehend the theoretical underpinnings but also empowers you to apply these insights in practical scenarios. This book serves as your indispensable companion. Its comprehensive coverage serves as a beacon, guiding you through the intricate maze of fuzzy logic and multi-attribute decision-making, ultimately empowering you to embrace innovation and master the art of making well-informed decisions in an ever-changing world.Table of ContentsFoundations of Decision.- Technique for Order Preferences by Similarity to Ideal Solutions (TOPSIS) in uncertainty environment.- The Measuring Attractiveness by a Categorical Based Evaluation Technique (MACBETH) in uncertainty environment.- The Multi-Objective Optimization Ratio Analysis (MOORA) in uncertainty environment.

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Book SynopsisPreliminaries.- C Representing Functionals.- Application in Nonlinear Optimization.- Application in Vector Optimization.- Application in Set Optimization.- Basics of Deep Learning.- Deep Learning with Set-Valued Inputs.

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Book SynopsisRipple Effect in the Supply Chain: Definitions, Frameworks and Future Research Perspectives.- A Multi-portfolio Approach to Integrated Risk-Averse Planning in Supply Chains Under Disruption Risks.- The rippling effect of supply chains as complex adaptive non-linear systems.- Bullwhip Effect of Multiple Products with Interdependent Product Demands.- Demand Shocks in Supply Networks: Ripple Effects.- Performance Impact Analysis of Disruption Propagations in the Supply Chain.- AI-Powered Supply Chain and Operations Management (SCOM): Capabilities and Challenges.- Supply chain plasticity: reshaping the future of risk management.- A Model of an Integrated Analytics Decision Support System for Situational Proactive Control of Recovery Processes in Service-Modularized Supply Chain.- Entropy-Based Analysis and Quantification of Supply Chain Recoverability.- Disruption Tails and Revival Policies in the Supply Chain.- Epidemiological Models to Predict Infection Epidemic: A Literature Review.- Managing Disruptions and the Ripple Effect in Digital Supply Chains: Empirical Case Studies.- Contingent sourcing ripples considering hoarding behaviour under supply disruptions in a three-tier supply chain.- Healthcare Supply Chain Agility and Resilience: A Relational View Perspective.- Digital Supply Chain Twins: Managing the Ripple Effect, Resilience, and Disruption Risks by Data-Driven Optimization, Simulation, and Visibility.

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Book SynopsisLanda, Gartner, Preface.- Addis, Aringhieri, Gribaudo, Grosso, Staffing Healthcare Personnel combining Petri Nets and Optimisation.- Neumann, Cremona, Hajji, Morin, Rekik, Exploring the Recent Applications of Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Type-1 Diabetes Management.- Murazzano, Landa, An overview of the implementation of artificial intelligence in clinical pathways.- Testi, Tànfani, Landa    Economic evaluation of hospital production: analysis and comparison of different models.- Garidi, Rakotondranaivo, Steering patient flows: the contribution of quantification and simulation to the relevance of care pathways.- Tonde Laberge    Analysis of risk factors associated with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Quebec.- Haren, Gartner, Côté, Paquet, Application of segmentation methods in health care services planning and delivery.- Layani, How can we better take person-centred needs into account? The integrated care trajectory approach and intersectoral collaboration in primary care to support people living with diabetes.- Maillet, Godbout, Goudet, Thiebaut, Tools for Analyzing and Measuring the Performance of Care and Service Pathways.- Lalonde, Landa, An overview on adopting Clinical Pathways in Primary Care: A literature review.- Dufour, Dextras-Gauthier, Cachat-Rosset, Gilbert, Fournier, An ailing healthcare organization.- Hardy, Bergeron-Drolet, Corbeil, Côté, Healthcare experiences of elderly patients and managers' reactions to video testimonies.- Rakotondranaivo, Grandhaye, Contributions of value management and colour abacuses for improving the daily lives of patients and their caregivers.- Zaghmouri, Husson, Collective analysis of work to increase the amount of time spent with patients. A case study looking at the value of activities using the Lean approach.- Côté, Raki, Gartner, Towards the development of a conceptual framework adapted to the specific needs of healthcare and social services establishments for a sustainable transition of their supply chain.- Côté, Benharbit, Lemaire, Bergeron, Gartner, Why be a manager when you're a hospital doctor? A review of the literature.- Capgras, Claveranne, Evolving Landscape of For-Profit Private Hospitals in France.- Côté, Gartner, Replicating and scaling a healthcare innovation: theoretical and methodological insights.- Laberge, Sawadogo, Retention and attraction measures in the Quebec health care system during the covid-19 pandemic.

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