In this in-depth overview of Australia's economy, Michael Enright and Richard Petty — leading scholars on international competition—look at the data behind the news reports to offer a complete view of Australia's stable and wealthy economy. The book compares Australia with other similarly sized OECD economies as well as other Asia-Pacific economies and looks at fifteen international sources of data on competitiveness. It features a large-scale survey on Australian companies and offers deep insight on the country's future in terms of economics and economic policy. Revealing an honest assessment of Australia's true position in the world, the book looks at how Australian businesses see themselves and offers policy positions for government and firms to make the most of Australia's unique global economic position. Backed by CPA Australia, one of the world's largest accounting bodies Written by two global authorities on economic competitiveness Captures the thinking of more than 6,000 business leaders both within and outside of Australia Explains how Australia has weathered the global recession and looks at Australia's relationship with China For business leaders and policy makers in need of an in-depth look at the current and future state of Australia's economy, this book offers valuable and comprehensive information.

Electronic business plays a central role in the economy, facilitating the exchange of information, goods, services, and payments. It propels productivity and competitiveness and is accessible to all enterprises, and as such, represents an opportunity also for SME competitiveness. E-Business Issues, Challenges and Opportunities for SMEs: Driving Competitiveness discusses the main issues, challenges, opportunities, and solutions related to electronic business adoption, with a special focus on SMEs. Addressing technological, organizational, and legal perspectives in a very comprehensive way, this text aims to disseminate current developments, case studies, new integrated approaches, and practical solutions and applications for SMEs.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has forced many businesses to accelerate their digital transformation strategies to continue to meet the changing needs of their customers. This has resulted in significant growth in the global software market. However, for decades, managing software product quality has been a major challenge for many software development firms. This low success rate is due mainly to the development and delivery of low-quality software products. In addition to the direct costs associated with poor-quality software, software flaws can also raisesecurity concerns, as hackers can gain complete control of various devices and data, such as mobile phones, computers, or the operational transactions of businesses. These security and privacy breaches are currently occurring with great frequency. Although producers and consumers of software products spend vast amounts of money developing and purchasing these products, in many cases the promised benefits of user satisfaction, efficiency, productivity and profitability are not realized. In more severe circumstances, software development firms have failed and face the threat of going bankrupt, being acquired or suffering closure, because customers are demanding high-quality software products that they consistently fail to deliver. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating within the software development industry have a more critical need to produce high-quality software since they are less able to absorb both the cost and the reputational impact of producing low-quality output. A Software Development Approach for Driving Competitiveness in Small Firms provides some cost-efficient options that can help SMEs increase the likelihood that their software will be of high quality. It tells the story of the entrepreneurial journey that small firms should take to deliver high-quality software products. By utilizing practical examples and providing several recommended solutions to decrease the likelihood of producing low-quality software, the book outlines how mobilizing people, processes and technology are integral to the software development process and emphasizes why process maturity is the most influential factor in software development in small and medium enterprises.

This book examines competitive balance and outcome uncertainty from multiple perspectives. Chapters address the topic in different sports in a range of countries, to help to understand its significance. It provides readers with important new insights into previously unexplored dimensions as well as a rich context for better understanding why fans, teams, and leagues value competitive balance. The book challenges readers to think about the topic in a broad and rigorous way, and in some cases to question widely held beliefs about how outcome uncertainty motivates competitive balance, and how sports fans actually view competitive balance.

World-class experts from academia and industry assembled at the sixth Biennial Workshop on Digital Signal Processing (DSP) for In-Vehicle Systems at Korea University, Seoul, Korea in 2013. The Workshop covered a wide spectrum of automotive fields, including in-vehicle signal processing and cutting-edge studies on safety, driver behavior, infrastructure, in-vehicle technologies. Contributors to this volume have expanded their contributions to the Workshop into full chapters with related works, methodology, experiments, and the analysis of the findings. Topics in this volume include: DSP technologies for in-vehicle systems Driver status and behavior monitoring In-Vehicle dialogue systems and human machine interfaces In-vehicle video and applications for safety Passive and active driver assistance technologies Ideas and systems for autonomous driving Transportation infrastructure

Covering both practical and theoretical aspects of strategic management, this three-volume work brings the complex topic down to earth and enables readers to gain competitive business advantages in their marketplace. This clear, insightful, and interesting work covers all aspects of strategic management, including chapters that discuss SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis, the Resource-Based View, transaction cost economics, and real options theory. Unlike other books, this three-volume work examines strategic management from different perspectives, effectively interweaving seemingly disparate subdisciplines, such as entrepreneurship and international business, with specialized foci, such as creativity, innovation, and trust. Incorporating information from contributors as varied as a proprietor of a worldwide motorcycle business to one of the most published scholars in the field of international strategic management, the practical and theoretical perspectives presented in Strategic Management in the 21st Century will benefit business strategists, professors of strategic management, and graduate students in the field.

Possibly no group is more conscious of the challenges created by the increasing integration of markets for capital, labour, products and information than small, developing economies. Policy makers from these economies have sought a two-track response to this integration. One response lies in increasing lobbying efforts for these economies to be accorded special, or more equitable treatment in market integration discussions. The second response lies in improving the competitiveness of their economies. It is this second response that provides the subject matter for this book. It explores the challenges and opportunities associated increasing competitiveness in small, developing economies based on research conducted in the Caribbean. The topics covered indicate the breadth of activity that is required to enhance. competitiveness. At the macro-policy level, the book explores the key drivers of competitiveness, examines the role of exchange rate regimes and of government policy, considers the implications sovereignty, and assesses the extent to which competitiveness likely to be improved by attracting foreign direct investment. At the level of private-sector enterprise the book reports

This book develops a unified framework to explain the phenomena of competitive advantage and firm value creation in dynamic environments. Through a new strategic value creation theory, it explores how a firm can measure and sustain its competitive advantage through management incentives, capital market forces, organizational culture and structure, and social complexity. It also considers how management can utilize their resources and capabilities, shadow options, product market forces, customer needs, and organizational learning as a means to differentiate them from the competition. With an innovative approach to theory and research, it will be positioned to inform both scholars and practitioners in management, business strategy, and entrepreneurship on the process of competitive and sustainable value creation.