The global market is constantly evolving and it has become essential for organizations to employ new methods of appealing to customers in order to stay abreast on current trends within the world economy. The Handbook of Research on Driving Competitive Advantage through Sustainable, Lean, and Disruptive Innovation features theoretical development and empirical research in social media platforms, internet usage, big data analytics, and smart computing, as well as other areas of organizational innovation. Highlighting implementation challenges facing innovative processes, this publication is a critical reference source for researchers, students, professionals, managers, and decision makers interested in novel strategies being employed by organizations in an effort to improve their standings on the global market.

Across rural America there are disruptive leaders who are finding the courage to ignite their small local communities with creativity, ingenuity, scrappiness, and collaboration despite political, racial, or religious differences. By combining skills, experience, and culture heritage, they are successfully igniting their own creative economies. Many of these communities are providing products and services to much larger urban areas and are thriving in international trade. In addition, they have capitalized their own unique cultural heritage and have developed a bustling tourism industry. All have developed events, public art, fine arts, music, theater, and technology to create a modern new local enlightenment. Developing Creative Economy Through Disruptive Leadership: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research that explores strategies for reinventing and rebuilding creative economies. While highlighting topics such as entrepreneurism, social media, and branding, the research within this book is based on the interviews and analysis of fifteen state agencies that are a mixture of rural, semi-urban, and urban, and are all quite different in culture and diversity. This publication is ideally designed for community leaders, government officials, policymakers, entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, academicians, and students.

Soft computing techniques are innovative tools that use nature-inspired algorithms to run predictive analysis of industries from business to software measurement. These tools have gained momentum in recent years for their practicality and flexibility. The Handbook of Research on Fuzzy and Rough Set Theory in Organizational Decision Making collects both empirical and applied research in the field of fuzzy set theory, and bridges the gap between the application of soft computational approaches and the organizational decision making process. This publication is a pivotal reference for business professionals, IT specialists, software engineers, and advanced students of business and information technology.

"This edited book discusses data analytics and complex communication networks and recommends new methodologies, system architectures, and other solutions to prevail over the current limitations faced by the field"--

This groundbreaking handbook leads the way in accelerating the transition to a sustainable circular economy by introducing the concept of a catalyst as a positive and enhancing driving force for sustainability. Catalysts create and maintain favourable conditions for complex systemic sustainability transition changes, and a discussion and understanding of catalysts is required to move from a linear economy to a sustainable and circular economy. With contributions from leading experts from around the globe, this volume presents theoretical insights, contextualised case studies, and participatory methodologies, which identify different catalysts, including technology, innovation, business models, management and organisation, regulation, sustainability policy, product design, and culture. The authors then show how these catalysts accelerate sustainability transitions. As a unique value to the reader, the book brings together public policy and private business perspectives to address the circular economy as a systemic change. Its theoretical and practical perspectives are coupled with real-world case studies from Finland, Italy, China, India, Nigeria, and others to provide tangible insights on catalysing the circular economy across organisational, hierarchical, and disciplinary boundaries. With its broad interdisciplinary and geographically diverse scope, this handbook will be a valuable tool for researchers, academics, and policy-makers in the fields of circular economy, sustainability transitions, environmental studies, business, and the social sciences more broadly.

As technology grows more effective and refined, businesses and organizations are increasingly taking advantage by automating processes that were once presided over by human workers. As businesses explore the benefits of machine learning, research is necessary to examine the effects of the integration of technology to human workplaces. Advancing Skill Development for Business Managers in Industry 4.0: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential publication that examines Industry 4.0 and the important technological applications that revolutionize and disrupt modern organizations, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and programming languages, such as Python, to contextualize big data in business and frame the skills necessary for a high-performing modern workforce. The book provides a conceptual framework, analysis, and discussion of the issues concerning organizational behavior through the lens of organizational culture and emotions. Covering topics that include data-driven organizations, the digital business models, and leadership techniques, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, IT specialists, computer engineers, data scientists, researchers, academicians, and students.

In the increasingly competitive corporate sector, businesses must examine their current practices to ensure business success. By examining their social, financial, and environmental risks, obligations, and opportunities, businesses can re-design their operations more effectively to ensure prosperity. Sustainable Business: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications is a vital reference source that explores the best practices that promote business sustainability, including examining how economic, social, and environmental aspects are related to each other in the company’s management and performance. Highlighting a range of topics such as lean manufacturing, sustainable business model innovation, and ethical consumerism, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for entrepreneurs, business executives, business professionals, managers, and academics seeking current research on sustainable business practices.

Business systems undergo a number of transitions as the needs and demands of society change. With heightened connectivity driven by the development of the Internet, new opportunities for venture development and creation have become available to business owners and entrepreneurs. Crowdfunding for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research and business practices on the opportunities and benefits gained from the use of crowdfunding in modern society, discussing its socio-economic impact, in addition to its business implications. Featuring current trends and future directions for crowdfunding initiatives, this book is ideally designed for students, researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and policy makers. New financing models such as crowdfunding are democratizing access to credit, offering individuals and communities the opportunity to support, co-create, contribute and invest in public and private initiatives. This book relates to innovation in its essence to anticipate future needs and in creating new business models without losing revenue. There are tremendous unexplored opportunities in crowdsourcing and crowdfunding; two sides of the same coin that can lead to a revolution of current social and economic models. The reading of this book will provide insight on the changes taking place in crowdfunding, and offer strategic opportunities and advantages.

The decisions a corporation makes affect more than just its stakeholders and can have wide social, environmental, and economic consequences. The notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) describes the relationship between a business and society as a whole, considering all tangential effects of business. This facilitates a business environment built around practical regulations and transparency necessary to ensure ethical and responsible business practice. Analyzing the Relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility and Foreign Direct Investment explores the relationship between ethical and environmental standards and foreign investment on the international market. As certain jurisdictions are hesitant to comply with these standards, this publication elucidates the benefits of practicing CSR as a means of sustainable economic growth and to mitigate devastating negative consequences, especially in the developing world. This book is a key reference source for professionals, economists, students of business and finance, policy makers, and government agencies.

Workforce diversity refers to a strategy that promotes and supports the integration of human diversification in business. By utilizing focused inclusion policies and practices, businesses can guide work environments and create an optimal business culture. Management Techniques for a Diverse and Cross-Cultural Workforce is a critical scholarly resource that examines the emerging work culture to understand the underlying human processes prevalent in modern organizations. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics, such as gender diversity, workforce trends, and inclusion management, this book is geared towards business owners, managers, entrepreneurs, professionals, researchers, and students seeking current research on diversity management.