Long term asset owners and managers, while seeking high risk-adjusted returns and efficiently allocating scarce financial capital to the highest value economic activities, have the essential and formidable role of ensuring the sustainability of return. But generally accepted financial accounting methods are ill-equipped to provide clear signals of the risks and opportunities created by scarce natural and human capital. Hence many investment managers in global financial markets, while performing due diligence on portfolio companies, examine metrics of non-financial performance, especially environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators. Broken into three sections, this book outlines the rationale for and methods used in six areas where financial acumen has been harnessed to the goal of combining monetary return with long run sustainability. The first section offers an introduction to the role of finance in achieving sustainability, and includes an overview of the six areas—sustainable investing, impact investing, decentralized finance, conservation finance, and cleantech finance. The methods section of the book illustrates analytical tools and specialized data sources essential to those interested in increasing the level of social responsibility embedded in economic activity. The applications section describes and differentiates each of the six areas and their roles in advancing specific measures of sustainability.

This book offers a critical and comparative understanding of post-industrial development, highlighting the driving forces and limitations, strategies, sources of funding, tools and technologies for its implementation. It presents the results of research on the formation and functioning of post-industrial development institutions in developed countries and developing countries as integral elements of the national innovation system, and implementation of economic modernization and transformation of business models taking into account contradictions between modern productive forces and getting out of date production relations. This book also explores the widespread impact of new technologies on various areas of modern society, which is often impaired by its conservatism. Comprising contributions from experts across various disciplines including economics, public administration, law, and psychology, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the opportunities and challenges associated with the modern development of society, production, and consumption. It is a book with appeal to scholars and students of economics, business and public administration, interested in post-industrial development in developed and developing countries, and the specifics of implementing strategies for technological improvement in industry and the service sector.

This book “Global Challenges in Development, Finance, and Education”, already the 5th volume in the Global Studies Series of IJOPEC, has been organized around current research interests of the participating authors from Turkish universities who study various aspects of global processes intersecting with social development and human rights, education, financing technologies for sustainable environment, and financial markets and public investments, amidst the anti-globalisation backlash in the post-2008 era. Besides globalization’s impact on societies, social institutions, and people, the unifying theme of this volume radiates a message of necessity to find an alternative economic model that promotes equality of chances, social stability and justice instead of growing inequality, double standards, and unfair competition under coercion of hegemonic interest groups.

Handbook of Digital Finance and Financial Inclusion: Cryptocurrency, FinTech, InsurTech, Regulation, ChinaTech, Mobile Security, and Distributed Ledger explores recent advances in digital banking and cryptocurrency, emphasizing mobile technology and evolving uses of cryptocurrencies as financial assets. Contributors go beyond summaries of standard models to describe new banking business models that will be sustainable and likely to dictate the future of finance. The book not only emphasizes the financial opportunities made possible by digital banking, such as financial inclusion and impact investing, but also looks at engineering theories and developments that encourage innovation. Its ability to illuminate present potential and future possibilities make it a unique contribution to the literature. A companion Volume Two of The Handbook of Digital Banking and Financial Inclusion: ChinaTech, Mobile Security, Distributed Ledger, and Blockchain emphasizes technological developments that introduce the future of finance. Descriptions of recent innovations lay the foundations for explorations of feasible solutions for banks and startups to grow. The combination of studies on blockchain technologies and applications, regional financial inclusion movements, advances in Chinese finance, and security issues delivers a grand perspective on both changing industries and lifestyles. Written for students and practitioners, it helps lead the way to future possibilities. - Explains the practical consequences of both technologies and economics to readers who want to learn about subjects related to their specialties - Encompasses alternative finance, financial inclusion, impact investing, decentralized consensus ledger and applied cryptography - Provides the only advanced methodical summary of these subjects available today

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference, BigData 2023, Held as Part of the Services Conference Federation, SCF 2023, Honolulu, HI, USA, during September 23–26, 2023. The 14 full papers presented together with 2 short papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 27 submissions. The conference focuses on ​research track and application track.

The book presents the best contributions from the international scientific conference “Growth Poles of the Global Economy: Emergence, Changes and Future,” which was organized by the Institute of Scientific Communications (Volgograd, Russia) together with the universities of Kyrgyzstan and various other cities in Russia. The 143 papers selected, focus on spatial and sectorial structures of the modern global economy according to the theory of growth poles. It is intended for representatives of the academic community: university and college staff developing study guides on socio-humanitarian disciplines in connection with the theory of growth poles, researchers, and undergraduates, masters, and postgraduates who are interested in the recent inventions and developments in the field. It is also a valuable resource for expert practitioners managing entrepreneurial structures in the existing and prospective growth poles of the global economy as well as those at international institutes that regulate growth poles. The first part of the book investigates the factors and conditions affecting the emergence of the growth poles of the modern global economy. The second part then discusses transformation processes in the traditional growth poles of the global economy under the influence of the technological progress. The third part examines how social factors affect the formation of new growth poles of the modern global economy. Lastly, the fourth part offers perspectives on the future growth of the global economy on the basis of the digital economy and Industry 4.0.

The objective of GCN 2011 is to facilitate an exchange of information on best practices for the latest research advances in the area of green communications and networks, which mainly includes the intelligent control, or efficient management, or optimal design of access network infrastructures, home networks, terminal equipment, and etc. Topics of interests include network design methodology, enabling technologies, network components and devices, applications, others and emerging new topics.

Based on a systematic literature review using scientific database search engines and an opportunistic review of published and unpublished government, international and nongovernmental organization reports on cocoa from the internet, the paper explores sustainable irrigation financing feasibility and the potential for different cocoa systems. We design a conceptual framework and propose a sustainable financing ecosystem for supplemental irrigated cocoa farming in Ghana and a qualitative data collection tool based on the conceptual framework and insights from the literature review.

Cultural and creative sectors and industries are a significant source of jobs and income. They are a driver of innovation and creative skills, within cultural sectors and beyond. The report outlines international trends with new data, including at subnational scale.

This book presents selected papers from the II International Conference "Ecosystems without Borders 2021", held at Kaliningrad State Technical University in Kaliningrad, Russia on October 5–7, 2021. Materials of the book "Ecosystems without Borders - Opportunities and Challenges" include theoretical and spatial aspects of ecosystems, features of the formation of a creative class in these conditions, as well as studies reflecting transformation of ecosystems, both in terms of innovations and in science, technology and business. This book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, such as practicing economists, students, graduate students and researchers, as well as government employees and company managers.