It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the recently concluded conference, held on May 2–3, 2023, in the beautiful Kingdom of Bahrain. This pivotal conference was focused on “Sustainable Innovations in Management in the Digital Transformation Era”. In an age defined by rapid technological advancements and digital innovation, the way we understand and carry out management is continually evolving. The conference brought together thought leaders, industry professionals, academ□ics, and innovators from around the globe to share insights, exchange ideas, and cata□lyze change. The digital transformation era has not only revolutionized our personal lives but has significantly impacted the business landscape. It became a strategic prior□ity, driving companies to reassess their business models, reinvent their strategies, and redefine their value propositions. Amidst this change, ensuring sustainability, building resilient, adaptable, and future-proof businesses became a central theme.

This book presents the proceedings of the 32nd World Congress of the International Project Management Association (IPMA). Digitalization is changing many fields of development and accelerating the global economic world. This challenge concerns project management as the driver of change. More than 1000 participants of the 32nd IPMA World Congress are an international community of the best experts and practitioners of project management. The Program Committee of the Congress includes more than 30 experts from Europe, Asia, America, and Australia, heads of large companies, and leading scientists and practitioners representing various areas of management, economics, and digital technology. The project management community discussed the challenges and prospects of the digital age, to find solutions to the problems that it poses to project management. The discussion took place in different formats – presentations, master classes, panel discussions, business games, and seminars that will be conducted by the world’s leading experts in the project management field.

In the past few weeks, OpenAI has released ChatGPT (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer). ChatGPT emerges as a formidable chatbot, surpassing various iterations of the GPT model, and plays a transformative role in user interactions with AI systems. In the dynamic realm of AI technologies, influential applications like ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, mir□ror the transformative consideration of the simplicity on multiple facets of our daily lives. This potent technology holds the potential for significant positive changes, particularly in healthcare where the introduction of GPT and chatbot models opens promising avenues for disease treatment and technological innovation.

This book focuses on digital innovation and sustainability in the Asian region in the context of business and management. Managers and policy makers rely on digital technologies to face the region’s sustainability challenges and solve sustainability problems. From business perspective, sustainability is defined as the adoption of business strategies, activities, and operations that meet the needs of the firm and its stakeholder today while protecting, sustaining, and enhancing the human and natural resources that will be needed in the future. Digital innovation refers to the application of digital technologies to existing business problems as well as the development of the firm’s strategy, culture, and human resources talent to deal and use digital technologies to solve sustainability issues. There is a consensus among scholars and practitioners that organizations need digital innovation to stay competitive. Businesses that are digital innovators consider new ways to solve old and new sustainability problems facing the Asian region. This book, with its practical examples, gives the reader impulses for new Asian’s approaches and encourages the readers to dare to think and act in new ways. This book is the first annual compilation of innovative ideas and valuable managerial solutions produced by the region’s managers and decision-makers who think and act creatively, helmed by Tobias Endress and Yuosre F. Badir from the School of Management at the Asian Institute of Technology.

In the ever-evolving landscape of the modern business world, a critical challenge has emerged at the crossroads of digital transformation and sustainable development. Businesses grapple with the need to adapt to digitalization while ensuring their practices align with the imperatives of sustainability. The complexities of this intersection demand innovative solutions and profound insights. Enter Digital Transformation and Sustainable Development in Cities and Organizations – a groundbreaking book that unravels the intricacies of this challenge and provides a comprehensive roadmap for organizations navigating the digital age with a commitment to sustainability. Traditional business models are rendered obsolete as the relentless march of digitalization transforms industries. Amidst this upheaval, the imperative to embrace sustainable practices often takes a backseat. Businesses face the daunting task of navigating this dual challenge – staying technologically relevant while safeguarding the environment and societal well-being. The consequences of overlooking this intersection are profound, leading to missed opportunities for growth and contributing to the escalating threats posed by climate change. The need for a cohesive guide that addresses these intertwined challenges has never been more urgent.

In today's business landscape, a pressing challenge looms large – the harmonious integration of digitalization, innovation, and sustainable development. As organizations grapple with the dizzying pace of digital transformation, they also confront the imperative of sustainability. Yet, the synergy between these two crucial facets remains uncharted territory, leaving a void in both academic discourse and practical application. Convergence of Digitalization, Innovation, and Sustainable Development in Business emerges as the much-needed solution to the complex interplay of digitalization, innovation, and sustainable development. Drawing from the insights of leading scholars and practitioners convened at the International Conference on Digitalization, Innovations, and Sustainable Development, this book offers a meticulously curated selection of papers that illuminate the path forward. For university professors, researchers, students, and industry practitioners, this book is an indispensable resource. It offers a multifaceted exploration of the intersection between digitalization and sustainable development, empowering organizations with a diverse array of digital innovative solutions and strategies. With topics spanning sustainable supply chain management, renewable energy innovations, smart cities, sustainable finance, and more, this book is poised to make a profound impact on academia and real-world decision-making processes.

Big data and machine learning are driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution. With the age of big data upon us, we risk drowning in a flood of digital data. Big data has now become a critical part of both the business world and daily life, as the synthesis and synergy of machine learning and big data has enormous potential. Big data and machine learning are projected to not only maximize citizen wealth, but also promote societal health. As big data continues to evolve and the demand for professionals in the field increases, access to the most current information about the concepts, issues, trends, and technologies in this interdisciplinary area is needed. The Encyclopedia of Data Science and Machine Learning examines current, state-of-the-art research in the areas of data science, machine learning, data mining, and more. It provides an international forum for experts within these fields to advance the knowledge and practice in all facets of big data and machine learning, emphasizing emerging theories, principals, models, processes, and applications to inspire and circulate innovative findings into research, business, and communities. Covering topics such as benefit management, recommendation system analysis, and global software development, this expansive reference provides a dynamic resource for data scientists, data analysts, computer scientists, technical managers, corporate executives, students and educators of higher education, government officials, researchers, and academicians.

In the business world, digital transformation involves finding and developing new strategies and modernizing the information technology of private and public companies. This book presents practices, challenges, and opportunities related to digital transformation. It includes fourteen chapters that address digital transformation in a variety of industries, including finance, construction, education, marketing, and more.

Big Data and Decision-Making: Applications and Uses in the Public and Private Sector breaks down the concept of big data to reveal how it has become integrated into the fabric of both public and private domains, as well as how its value can ultimately be exploited.