Building on the historical analysis of organizations and theories that have influenced their development, Gianfranco Dioguardi provides an insightful exploration of the network enterprise and its evolution from the Medieval guilds to the present innovation clusters of Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle, Route 128, and other regions in the U.S and around the world. Providing in-depth analysis of production systems and the evolution of "lean manufacturing" principles, Dioguardi integrates history, sociology, management theory, and economics to explore the dynamics of organizations that operate as networks and interact with other firms along the supply chain and in complementary industries. In a technology-enabled environment, the boundaries between products and services and across enterprises become blurred--and create the context for entrepreneurship, innovation, and dissemination of knowledge. Several chapters are devoted to practical concerns of managing the network enterprise, with a particular interest in the ethical and cultural issues. Dioguardi concludes with discussion of the role of the network enterprise in new firm creation and economic growth.

"A highly readable and yet comprehensive book on network businesses that have become governable with the advent of cloud and big data computing. Vivek Kale is a master of simplifying the complex world of network theory and its relevance to business." —Jagdish N. Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Emory University Agile Network Businesses: Collaboration, Coordination, and Competitive Advantage reflects the shift from traditional networks to virtual and agile networks that enable businesses to operate dynamically, thereby representing markets more closely. This book enables IT managers and business decision-makers to understand clearly what network businesses and enterprises are, what they can do for them, and how to realize them. Customers in geographically dispersed markets are demanding higher quality products in a greater variety, at lower cost, and in a shorter time. Thus, enterprises have moved from a few centralized and vertically integrated facilities to geographically dispersed networks of capabilities, competencies and resources, which are the core of network businesses. Enterprises are now constructing more fluid network businesses in which each member facility focuses on differentiation and relies increasingly on its partners, suppliers, and customers to provide the rest. Network businesses have emerged as an organizational paradigm for collaboration and coordination across loosely connected individual organizations. This pragmatic book: Introduces network solutions and distributed systems that are a first step towards enabling a network enterprise. It also gives a detailed description of networks and agent system that have paved the road to network enterprises. Describes the basics of service-oriented architecture (SOA), cloud computing, and big data that are essential to network enterprises. Details the distinguishing aspects of network enterprises, which include virtual enterprises, management of network enterprises, and collaborative network enterprises. Covers such major application areas as supply, manufacturing, e-business, platform, social and wireless sensor networks. Introduces decision networks in the context of supply chain networks This book reinterprets the traditional supply chain in terms of the flow of decisions, information, and materials, which leads to reconfiguring the traditional supply chain network into mutually separate decision networks (e.g., fourth-party logistics or 4PL), information networks (e.g., wireless sensor networks), and logistics networks (e.g., third-party logistics or 3PL).

Collaborative Network Organizations (CNO) corresponds to a very active and steadily growing area. For instance, Virtual enterprises/Virtual Organizations (PVC) suggest new ways of work and put the emphasis on collaborative networks of human actors. Further to these main lines, other collaborative forms and patterns of collaborative behavior are emerging, not only in industry, but also in service sector, as well as governmental and non-government social organizations, e.g. the collaborative networks for rescue tasks in disaster situations, time bank organizations, etc. The concept of breeding environment is now understood as a fundamental entity to enable dynamic collaborative organizations.

Introduction to E-commerce discusses the foundations and key aspects of E-commerce while focusing on the latest developments in the E-commerce industry. Practical case studies offer a useful reference for dealing with various issues in E-commerce such as latest applications, management techniques, or psychological methods. Dr. Zheng Qin is currently Director of the E-Commerce Institute of Xi’an Jiaotong University.

It has earned him favourable comparisons to Marx and Weber.

This volume covers the topic of innovation in three sections, first demonstrating that processes of innovation and technological change are spatially differentiated, second examining the increasing importance of knowledge creation and diffusion, and third raising key issues related to the systems of innovation approach as a conceptual framwork for regional innovation analysis. Includes enlightening conceptual and empirical work on the issue of how knowledge spills over locally.

A revised and updated translation of the French original, this work deals effectively with local area network technologies and management, offering a broad overview of enterprise telecommunication technologies. Also covered is computer telephony integration (CTI) through a presentation of the main technologies of the domain. A functional description of the main features of network operating systems is proposed and illustrated by Novell IntraNetWare and Windows NT examples, with special emphasis offered on business applications and management issues of these topics. The main interest of the book resides in the dual approach of enterprise networks, covering both technical and managerial elements, providing a global understanding of business applications and management of telecommunications to IT professionals and students. Concrete tools and methods are described, thus offering practical advice of immediate relevance.

This book aims to provide a platform to the researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry to meet and share their experience and knowledge. Forthcoming Networks and Sustainability in the IoT Era (FoNeS-IoT), Volume 1 & 2, aims to bring together researchers and professionals to exchange ideas on the advancements in technology, application areas for advanced communication systems and development of new services, and facilitate a tremendous growth of new devices and smart things that need to be connected to the Internet through a variety of wireless technologies. Parallel to this, new capabilities such as pervasive sensing, multimedia sensing, machine learning, deep learning, unmanned aerial vehicles, cloud and edge computing, energy efficiency/harvesting, and computing power open the way to new domains, services, and business models beyond the traditional mobile Internet. The new areas in turn come with various requirements in terms of reliability, quality of service, and energy efficiency. These are only some examples of the challenges that are of interest to researchers in Forthcoming Networks and Sustainability in the IoT Era (FoNeS-IoT). It will explore the latest developments, innovations, and best practices within the IoT and the impact it has on industries including: manufacturing, transport, supply chain, communication, government, legal sectors, financial services, energy utilities, insurance, health care, retail, and many others. It provides opportunities for academicians and scientists along with professionals, policymakers, and practitioners from various fields in a global realm to present their research, contributions, and views, on one forum, and interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines. Papers describing applications of IoT in e-Health, Smart Systems & Management, Communication, and Education are also included, but the focus is mainly on how new and novel techniques advance the performance in application areas, rather than a presentation of yet another application of conventional tool. Papers on such applications describe a principled solution, emphasize its novelty, and present an in-depth evaluation of the techniques being exploited.

Transportation Network Companies and Taxis: The Case of Seattle is a modern economic case history and thorough analysis of the devastating impact of the transportation network company (TNC) industry (Uber and Lyft) on the taxicab industry in Seattle, Washington, beginning in 2014. The events that transpired and lessons learned are applicable to most large cities in North America, Europe and Australia. As the regulator of the taxicab and TNC industries in Seattle during this period, the author offers a unique insider perspective. The book also provides internal operating statistics on the TNC industry, which are available here for the first time. Despite the spectacular growth of the TNC industry, growth rates have steadily declined and may fall to zero by 2019 or 2020, while the taxicab industry appears to have begun a modest recovery. This book offers a thorough explanation of how and why this decline has happened. It explains the taxicab industry, economic deregulation, competitive market failure, market disruption, price elasticity of demand and other concepts. There is also a wealth of data, computations and analysis for the specialized reader. This book considers the past, present and future of the taxicab and TNC industries in Seattle, It is recommended for both the general reader and industry professionals.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.