経営学・会計学 — 全 下位分類

This book provides guidelines for the pragmatic integration of new marketing tools and business strategies for managers, researchers and students to implement innovative strategies in various industries.

Practical and actionable guidance is key to achieving high standards of strategic marketing across different organizations. This book offers a comprehensive overview of the application of diverse tools and strategic practices in the finance, e- commerce, fashion, entertainment and tourism industries, among others. It provides deep insights into consumer behaviour through extensive research and analysis in different sectors of business, especially during the COVID- 19 pandemic, as well as industry perspectives on shifts in consumption practices. It assesses buying behaviour and trends, demographic classifications, operational practices and the integration of technology in marketing and strategy.

Part of the Contemporary Management Practices series, this book will be useful to practicing managers, researchers and students who are interested in marketing, business studies, management studies, innovation and business strategy and communications.

This book aims to present a picture of one of the world's leading credit rating agencies. Credited as being the first credit rating agency, Moody's stands as the epitome of the rating sector and all that it effects. However, outside of internal and non-public histories compiled within the rating agency itself, the story of Moody's has never been told, until now. However, this is not a historical book. Rather, this book paints a picture of Moody's on a wider canvas that introduces the concept of rating to you, taking into account the origins of the sector, the competitive battles that formed the modern-day oligopoly, and the characters that have each taken their turn on sculpting the industry that, today, is critical to the modern economy.

The book is a story of personable people who provided the market with what it needed, but it is more than that. It is a story of conflict, impact, strategy, and most of all the relationship between big business and modern society. Standing as the gatekeeper to the capital markets that form the core of modern society, Moody's represents the very best of what the marketplace can produce, but also the very worst. This story takes in economic crises in the antebellum US, the Panics of the early 1900s, the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression and, of course, the Global Financial Crisis. It does this because, at the heart of each one was a member of the rating industry or the reporting industry that preceded it. Associated with almost any financial scandal you may care to remember the credit rating agencies, in their often-uncomfortable role as gatekeepers, have their fingerprints on most financial scandals and calamities. This book tells the story of the industry's founding member.

This book presents a comprehensive discussion of the recent advances in Industry 4.0, manufacturing processes, and intelligent techniques. It will serve as an ideal reference text for graduate students and academic researchers in the fields of manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and production engineering. This text introduces Industry 4.0, its evolution, and essential pillars of Industry 4.0 including calibration, metrology, quality control, robotics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things.

It comprehensively covers important topics including the cold spray technique for additive manufacturing, tool condition monitoring, robotic manipulators, metrology, quality control, and the Internet of Things in Industry 4.0.

The book:

• Discusses additive manufacturing and applications of lasers in advanced manufacturing
• Covers sensors, actuators, and calibration techniques for next-generation industries
• Emphasizes the recycling of materials for sustainable manufacturing
• Explores latest advances in the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning in view of Industry 4.0
• Provides a conceptual framework of Industry 4.0 with the help of applications and case studies

The text is primarily written for graduate students and academic researchers in the fields of manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, and production engineering.

The relationships within boards can make or break an organisation, but well-functioning relationships take skill and effort to maintain. This book looks at the psychology behind individual and group behaviour and offers tactics and power tools to help make a success of your board career.

The book shares advice and practical tips from 40 experienced board members from the worlds of corporates, the public sector and charities on how to spot and manage complex dynamics. And each chapter ends with techniques for unlocking tricky board relationships that you can put into practice immediately. The authors examine case studies and explore topics such as psychodynamics, cognitive behavioural psychology and neuroscience for insights into how boards react under pressure. They then demonstrate how to practise the ART of managing board relationships by increasing Awareness, Relating constructively to others, and choosing Tactics to ease tensions and foster collaboration.

The Art and Psychology of Board Relationships: The Secret Life of Boards reveals why board relationships lie at the heart of organisational success - and how you can use them to gain competitive edge. It is essential reading for current and aspiring board members, coaches, facilitators and anyone with an interest in boardroom dynamics.

Louis R. Pondy was a leading management and organizational studies scholar whose work on open systems helped launch and define the future of the field. This book offers an assessment of Pondy's contribution, through critical reflection on what happened to the relationship between conflict theory and "beyond open systems."

Exploring the ways in which Louis R. Pondy theorizes conflict and systems, and how he challenged the status quo paradigms, this book offers a historical analysis on Pondy's work and the relation to contemporary management theory. The author develops a Triple Loop framework, building on Pondy's theories as well as the work of Gregory Batesom, to demonstrate a beyond-open-systems approach and existing single- or double-loop systems.

Demonstrating the value and legacy of Louis R. Pondy, this book will have international appeal to researchers, academics and students across management disciplines and organizational studies, including systems thinking and conflict resolution.

This book surveys what executives who make decisions based on forecasts and professionals responsible for forecasts should know about forecasting. It discusses how individuals and firms should think about forecasting and guidelines for good practices. It introduces readers to the subject of time series, presents basic and advanced forecasting models, from exponential smoothing across ARIMA to modern Machine Learning methods, and examines human judgment's role in interpreting numbers and identifying forecasting errors and how it should be integrated into organizations.

This is a great book to start learning about forecasting if you are new to the area or have some preliminary exposure to forecasting. Whether you are a practitioner, either in a role managing a forecasting team or at operationally involved in demand planning, a software designer, a student or an academic teaching business analytics, operational research, or operations management courses, the book can inspire you to rethink demand forecasting.

No prior knowledge of higher mathematics, statistics, operations research, or forecasting is assumed in this book. It is designed to serve as a first introduction to the non-expert who needs to be familiar with the broad outlines of forecasting without specializing in it. This may include a manager overseeing a forecasting group, or a student enrolled in an MBA program, an executive education course, or programs not specialising in analytics. Worked examples accompany the key formulae to show how they can be implemented.

Key Features:

• While there are many books about forecasting technique, very few are published targeting managers. This book fills that gap.
• It provides the right balance between explaining the importance of demand forecasting and providing enough information to allow a busy manager to read a book and learn something that can be directly used in practice.
• It provides key takeaways that will help managers to make difference in their companies.

Most books on business strategy approach the subject from a corporate perspective, covering topics such as the vision for the business, the marketplace, competition and differentiation. However, the reality is that most managers work in sub-units or subsidiaries of the business and they are not involved in corporate strategy formulation. Their strategic concerns are with the positioning and future trajectory of their own units within the complex internal ecosystem in which they exist. If these units are to survive and grow, the middle managers responsible for them must plan their future, maximise their value-add and compete for resources within the internal market of their corporations. Such internal markets are becoming increasingly volatile due to general economic conditions but also given the questioning of globalisation and increasing corporate concerns about the frailties of international supply chains as brought into sharp focus by the COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine.

This book provides practical perspectives for these business unit managers and a step-by-step toolkit that can be used by management teams to develop a successful subsidiary strategy that acknowledges these challenges while maximising their contribution to corporate objectives. It is based on the author's 30 years of experience as an executive in a complex multinational (IBM) organisation, supplemented by academic study at Master's and PhD levels. The material covered has been verified through workshops over a 3-year period with the senior leadership teams of over 30 multinational subsidiaries operating from Ireland.

This handbook, representing the collaboration of 36 scholars, provides a multi-faceted exploration of Chinese business and management.

The volume represents an 'inside-out' perspective, offering local knowledge and experience, in conjunction with an 'outside-in' approach, presenting measured and sensitive observations from an outsider's perspective. The handbook's approach is organised around five key themes:

• Cultural and institutional contexts for business in China
• Management, including digital marketing and entrepreneurship
• Work and employment, covering gender and trade unions in the workplace
• Human resource management and human resource development in Chinese businesses, including multinational corporations in the UK
• Business and economic overviews, revealing the impact of guanxi relations and networks on Chinese business and management

Revealing major recent developments in Chinese business and management alongside an appreciation of the unique historical, institutional, and cultural context of Chinese business and management, this book is a must-read for scholars, students, and educators of Chinese business and theory, and business in Asia.

Among the biggest mistakes manufacturers make is not keeping key equipment and processes running and making saleable product when needed. This situation existed when the author Mike Beauregard began working in manufacturing years ago and it currently remains true in companies ostensibly focusing on Lean. To improve, companies often rely on increasing productivity by making products faster and with more automation, but many fail to focus on the area in which they can get the biggest gains for their efforts - the reduction of downtime.

This book provides readers the techniques they crucially need to keep their critical manufacturing equipment running correctly and efficiently - which increases production, decreases labor costs, decreases breakdown costs, and ultimately increases the bottom line. Downtime in production lines stems from many sources. The contribution might be small for many of those sources, but it adds up.

Downtime and its causes then insidiously become the norm, accepted, unseen by the workforce and the management team. Most training courses and books look at a specific cause of downtime - mainly, either product changeover (set-up reduction) or breakdowns (TPM). This book addresses these two areas and many other sources of downtime including how to decrease downtime caused by supply chain issues, staffing issues, and downtime internal to the processes themselves.

In the final chapter, the author covers how to manage the downtime reduction effort - how to measure downtime, prioritize which downtime sources to attack first, and monitor the improvement.

This companion takes the student through the different approaches to working with cases in the classroom, virtually and for research purposes. Capturing insights and best practices shared by scholars of the case method from around the world, this book aims to:

• equip students to work with and analyse case studies as part of their programme of study
• adapt student approaches to online learning with cases
• guide students on how to use case studies as a form of assessment
• help students looking to adopt a case study approach to a research project

These aims are framed in the sections of the book. Each section contains reflections from academics across the world, personal insights and lessons learnt from case sessions, templates, and exercises to develop your own skills in learning or researching with cases. Full examples showcase the nature of cases by type and format: short incident, exercise case, situation case; single, sequential and digital cases.

This text is for undergraduate and postgraduate Business and Management students, those studying as part of executive education programmes, MBA students, and academics who are using or preparing to use case studies in their learning or research. Online resources include PowerPoint slides, video material and example case studies from around the world.

Artificial Intelligence for Business Creativity provides an in-depth examination of the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the business sector to foster creativity. The book explores the interplay between micro-level individual creativity and macro-level organizational innovation through the lens of AI. It delves into three crucial areas where AI can stimulate business creativity: product and service design, optimized processes, and enhanced organizational collaboration. The authors also highlight the versatility and capability of generative AI systems in promoting creativity and innovation.

Intended for business leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and those interested in AI and creativity, the book offers practical guidance and insightful recommendations on how organizations can effectively utilize AI to enhance their creative process. By offering a comprehensive understanding of the role of AI in fostering creativity, the book equips its readers with the tools to stay ahead in the rapidly changing landscape of AI and creativity.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone seeking to understand the impact of AI on business creativity and how to effectively leverage it to foster creativity and innovation in their organization. It is a must-read for anyone looking to increase their knowledge and understanding of AI and its impact on business creativity.

This book is a collection of selected high-quality research papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Evidence-Based Management (ICEBM) 2023, held at Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, Rajasthan, India, during February 24-25, 2023. It has 76 chapters written by various scholars focusing on evidence-based management practices in different functional areas of management with the application of theory and empirical techniques.

This book will be helpful to practitioners, academics, scholars, and policymakers.

Thousands of project management-related books have been written. Why is Optimizing Project Work, Management, and Delivery different?

This book represents the authors' experiences gained from looking at the problem of project management for 50 years and wondering why projects cannot be more successful. Experience from various management models and techniques has helped but still does not fit reality or provide accurate forecasts. Industry surveys have compiled the root causes of project failure, and yet they persist. Is there no answer to this problem?

As the book explains, the management solution is not in the models or the theory but is found in how they are mapped against the actual target project characteristics. This is the book's unique strength. There are major coverage gaps in current project management models that also need to be recognized. All of the existing models are correct in some ways, and yet each is also wrong.

The book starts by reviewing popular models and related topics that help construct the building blocks of an integrated model structure, which is at the core of this book. The integrated model described here is meant to be a decision-oriented view related to the project life cycle rather than a cookbook of success steps. Project management is too complex for a cookbook approach. This text helps managers find that right path.

It all began when the world's first business school, the European School of Commerce Paris (ESCP), was established in 1819. Criticism notwithstanding, business schools have since continued their path in higher education without facing existential metamorphoses. Covid-19, however, has accelerated business schools' digital transformation, calling into question the concept of business school itself.

Business schools are in a new competitive landscape and profound structural changes seem inevitable. This concise text offers insights into how business schools should rethink their approach to management education, differentiate themselves from new players in the higher education market, and find innovative ways of doing things. The book is a survival toolkit for leadership teams across the world. It examines the rationale of business school and how it has evolved. The purpose of research is explained, and the teaching of management is explored. Kaplan analyzes the current business model in the digital environment. He looks at the business of accreditations and rankings and branding and community-building as strategies to address competition. The book concludes by looking at change leadership at business schools.

It will interest both leaders of established academic institutions and alternative educational providers from edtech and big tech planning to enter the management education market.

Taking a strategic imperative perspective, this book introduces business leaders to a key differentiator that contributes to competitive advantage and financial sustainability: cultural competence.

In a fast-changing and globalized world where organizations are being forced to rethink their strategies, understanding present and future environmental, social, and economic challenges is fundamental to creating a resilient and value-creating business. Combining experience and reflection, this book addresses concepts of organizational cultural competence as an internal differentiator and source of competitive advantage. Most organizations approach differentiation as an external feature of product and/or service delivery. Whereas these are open to imitation, cultural competence, as the internal DNA of an organization, is much more difficult, if not impossible, to imitate. The authors bring to bear their years of experience in corporate roles and as entrepreneurs and academics, sharing views and experiences based on research but also on primary examples, meta-insights, and real-world case studies.

Senior leaders and consultants across industries, as well as students of strategy and leadership development, will value this serious and comprehensive guide that explains the importance of cultural competence as a strategic advantage in a global market.

This book aims to develop the theme of non-financial reporting and the necessity of pursuing sustainable development with particular reference to Benefit Corporations and Certified B Corps. The research offers a systematic and exploratory analysis, with the goal of developing a conceptual framework for supporting companies in the achievement of sustainable governance in line with the United Nations' guidelines for sustainable development. The first chapter reviews the relevant literature and analyzes the concept of sustainable development, focusing on the United Nations' policies and SDGs. Chapter 2 reviews the relevant literature on corporate social responsibility, describing its evolution from its birth during the Industrial Revolution through to the present day. Chapter 3 focuses on non-financial reporting and emphasizes the need to establish effective social communication with stakeholders that includes environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects. Chapter 4 explores the value of Benefit Corporations and Certified B Corps, which are companies that have adopted an innovative business model that combines the need for both corporate social responsibility and profitability. Finally, the last chapter uses examples of Italian fashion B Corps to illustrate how such companies make decisions based on CSR.

This essential new book is a practical "how-to" guide to enhancing the quality of relationships between leaders and individuals in organisations - the proven key to maximising performance, building resilience, and retaining talent.

Integral vision, seen through each of the four quadrants described in this book, gives access to a range of perspectives, irreducible to one another but each significant in adding a kaleidoscope of understanding to a topic or body of knowledge. The author draws on recent research which focuses on Integral theory and emphasises the benefits to an organisation, including cultivating, at several levels, leaders and teams through coaching, improving the quality of meetings, introducing an understanding of emotional intelligence, and more recently, addressing adult stages of development. The book also demonstrates how the Integral quadrants can bring clarity to interpersonal and cross-sector communication, especially in diagnosing, planning, and implementing team and organisational strategy.

The concepts and practical skills explored in this book will be a valuable resource for senior leaders, human resources specialists, and in-house and external coaches focusing on leadership development, as well as students and trainers of coaching.

The competitiveness of companies plays an important role in developing their effectiveness. But technology provides a strong competitive advantage to the companies and helps in achieving the sustainable development. This edited collection discusses various methods by which a firm can create a competitive advantage in a dynamic situation. The book highlights the strategies in global decisions related to changing business models and processes in the innovation era. The contributions by authors take readers through emerging trends in innovation that can support managers in making more strategic decisions, while reducing reconciliation and report preparation.

In a hyper-competitive environment, this book will assist researchers and management practitioners in appreciating new strategic sources. Radical strategies and competitive innovation, sustainable development, competitiveness, SMEs, direct and indirect investment, delocalization of businesses, and value creation will all be discussed in depth. Overall, this volume will help readers understand the importance of real-time smart business sources to gain a competitive advantage.

Competitive Advantage, Strategy and Innovation in Africa provides essential information on contemporary issues and challenges in management and change strategies. It will serve as a reference for academicians, researchers, and practitioners interested in the rapid transformation in the management sector due to technological advancement and high competition between companies.

This new edition textbook continues down the path that the first edition, winner of the 2013 IISE/Joint Publishers Book-of-the-Year Award, successfully carved out. The textbook targets engineering students and emphasizes the use of operations research models and solution methods important in the design, control, operation, and management of global supply chains.

Completely updated, Supply Chain Engineering: Models and Applications, Second Edition stresses quantitative models and methods, highlights global supplier selection and vendor risk management techniques, and discusses the use of multiple criteria decision-making models in supply chain management. The new edition includes chapters on health and humanitarian supply chains, including disaster management and logistics modeling, and on warehousing and distribution. Disruptions to global supply chains due to the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed throughout the book. Industry and government strategies to make the global supply chains resilient are also presented. Thirty four case studies have been included to illustrate various supply chain models and methods. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter, and a solutions manual and PowerPoint slides are available for qualified textbook adoptions.

The new edition continues to target upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in engineering, as well as MBA students in operations management, logistics, and supply chain management programs that emphasize quantitative analysis. It is also useful as a reference for technical professionals and researchers in industrial engineering, supply chain management, procurement, logistics and health administration.

Why do some departments, divisions, and organizations soar while others struggle? Watching another team achieve the success you feel yours more rightfully deserves can be incredibly frustrating. However, they might have something you don't: Seconds-in-Command.

Given how many Seconds-in-Command exist in the workforce, it is stunning that there are so few books about them. Organizations can and often do have more than one 2iC; large ones may have hundreds. KP Powers focuses on essential skills that individuals in these positions already possess and can enhance to become an organization's key to achieving phenomenal success.

This book introduces the groundbreaking concept of linking multiple 2iCs to form a Second-in-Command chain. This game-changing technique increases the positive impact that 2iCs can have on organizational and leader success.

In today's world, leaders no longer have the luxury of hiring more people to keep up with a growing workload. The labor shortage and the need to cut costs because of looming economic issues make that impractical. It makes more sense to consider a new organizational framework that includes 2iCs, thus multiplying existing team members' contributions. This is especially critical in highly regulated fields such as higher education, finance, and health care, where the stakes and penalties are high and unforgiving.

Second-in-Command, First in Excellence invites readers to think differently about this critical role. Geared toward leaders who have or want a 2iC as well as 2iCs themselves, this book both demonstrates the value of the 2iC position and serves as a tool for professional development.

A Practical Guide to Post-Occupancy Evaluation offers high-level pragmatic guidance and case study examples on how to conduct a Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) to determine whether a workplace project is successful and uncover the lessons learned for future projects. For designers, POEs provide essential pre-design feedback, informing the design brief to determine occupant requirements and help focus expenditure. For those in charge of a building or buildings, POE offers proactive building management, and can also be used as part of the change management programme in larger projects, informing the occupants of progress. The practical guidance offered in this book will help the workplace industry understand if a design meets the requirements of an occupier and measure the success of and value offered by a workplace project.

This book will be of interest to professionals in the workplace industry responsible for delivering and evaluating capital projects as well as those studying interior design, architecture, surveying, facilities management and building services engineering.

"A timely and much needed book given how far and how fast the world of work has changed over the last few years. The ability to adapt the places and ways in which we work is now one of the key drivers of organisational and individual performance and resilience. The death of the office may have been greatly exaggerated, but it has emerged from the paroxysms of the last few years with a new and constantly evolving role. Nigel Oseland has set out clearly, with plenty of examples, how managers can gauge where they are, their direction of travel and the ways in which they might pause, change course or accelerate to deliver a better workplace experience for people and better results for the organisation."

- Mark Eltringham, Publisher of IN Magazine and workplaceinsight.net

"If you have more than 20 people on your team, either a corporate, academic, or other type of organisation, I highly recommend this book. It's our go-to practical guide for conducting POE research, arguably the single most important task in workplace change projects. With in-depth advice and invaluable case studies it's an essential resource for designing high-performance workspaces."

- Alenka Kragelj Erzen, CEO Kragelj Architects

"Oseland uncloaks the complexities of POE and, again, has produced an informative, easy-to-read, go-to resource. He emphasises POE as a critical aspect of the evidence-based design approach and reminds us to move beyond the view of 'what we got wrong' and, instead, embrace how we can do better. In the changing world of the workplace, from hybrid working, health and well-being and Carbon Net Zero, it is clear the time for permanent and consistent use of the POE has come."

- Paige Hodsman, Concept Developer, Workplace Specialist, Saint-Gobain Ecophon

Enterprise Project Management: A Comprehensive Guide to Successful Management by Projects covers the essential and fundamental topics of Enterprise Project Management and Management of Change by projects. It is written for portfolio, program, and project managers, members of the project community, upper-and middle-levelmanagement, functional and operational managers, and all who desire to acquire an understanding of effective change by project management. The book covers in-depth the following important aspects of Enterprise Project Management:

• Achieving organizational goals
• Management of programs
• Benefits realization management
• Stakeholder management and engagement
• Project portfolio management (PPM) and the Project Management Office (PMO)

The book explains how enterprises can consistently succeed in managing projects by aligning them with Business Goals and clearly defining what needs to be achieved. It shows how to ensure that Enterprise Project Management is fully deployed, and that project management concepts, methods, and techniques are available and utilized to deliver business value and realize benefits.

The book helps managers to answer the question, "Are we doing the right projects?" by covering how PPM can ensure project alignment with strategic or operational goals and the efficient use of scarce resources and funding to achieve Objectives and Goals. It also helps managers to answer the question, "Are we doing projects right?" by explaining the critical role of a PMO, which supports excellence in project management by enhancing the proficiencies of Project Managers and providing the foundational tools and techniques for project success.

This book is a unique collection of thoughts by independent thinkers, researchers, and corporate practitioners that demonstrates the concept of constructive discontent, which can be defined as looking for the opportunity to deconstruct something in order to build something else or build something better. The book discusses the concept of constructive discontent and provides a slate of examples of its application in practice. Taking an interdisciplinary focus that highlights fostering an innovative and entrepreneurial culture that can lead to creative solutions, the chapters look at innovations in information technology, business, the automobile and transportation industry, medical devices, agriculture, and more. The themes across the chapters highlight creativity, new rating and analysis systems, strategies to add value and reduce costs, and the fostering of an innovative culture. Chapters discuss alternate multidimensional models of individual entrepreneurial orientation, digital integration and adoption among small businesses, threats to business and labor faced by globalization during the pandemic era, success measurement techniques, risk taking and uncertainty avoidance in determining success, the predictive capability of the theory of planned behavior, and more.

Technological advances, alongside increasing globalization and growing awareness of socio-cultural and socio-political issues, are driving corporate branding innovations, and organizations must react and adapt quickly to compete. This book investigates and explores the impact of digital transformation on building corporate branding, identity and reputation.

This book brings together international contributors to provide examples from a wide range of industries and firms, including the retailing and agrifood industries, and illustrates the many dimensions of corporate branding and theories and how they can be aided by digital transformation. It explores the connection of branding with artificial intelligence, social media networks and technologies 4.0, as well as the limitations and challenges they might deliver. Using a combination of theory, primary research findings and practice, this book offers viewpoints and expertise from multiple regions, appealing to a global audience.

This edited collection serves as an important resource for researchers, scholars and postgraduate students of marketing, brand management and corporate communications and those interested in the emerging relationship with technology.

The issue of sustainability is characterised as a 'wicked problem' in the fashion, clothing and textiles sector and is now coming into increased focus due to growing consumer, business and policy pressures. This in-depth volume presents a comprehensive overview of the challenges and emerging opportunities faced by the sector, and provides strategic solutions as to how the sector can substantially accelerate sustainability.

This book collates research and industry best practice to provide a 'one-stop shop' exploring the complex and interconnected issues surrounding sustainability in fashion, clothing and textiles. The practical and digestible chapters include innovative examples and perspectives from different regions of the globe, addressing topics from policies to supply chain issues and materials innovation. Five unique case studies of sustainable businesses provide detailed examples of pioneering practice. Edited by three professionals with long-standing knowledge and expertise, the book takes a global perspective with examples that illustrate the scale and breadth of topics and regions in the scope of sustainability. This holistic approach brings together both academic and industry perspectives on the critical areas that require immediate action to move towards a more sustainable fashion, clothing and textile sector.

This is an invaluable resource for those working in the industry, policymakers and for those in business or academia with an interest in sustainability in fashion, clothing, textiles and related sectors worldwide. It is also relevant to professionals and students in the areas of sustainability, innovation, supply chains, design and development, consultancy, education and training.

This book investigates the relationship that Multinational Corporations form with Local Authorities and governments in West Africa. It argues that informal partnerships at the local level can provide significant socioeconomic benefits to communities and overcome shortfalls in state provision of infrastructure and collective goods and services.

Drawing on in-depth case studies in Niger, Ghana and Liberia, the book demonstrates that Decentralized Partnerships benefit from lower transaction costs while maintaining profitability and investment protection, whereas in formal relationships between multinationals and local government, asset specificity and uncertainty are high. By complying with informal rules, which are in many ways just as restrictive as formal rules, Multinational Corporations can adapt and acculturate themselves, become actors of territorial authorities and can get around the incompleteness of the contract that binds them to the state.

Reflecting on a range of local projects (educational, infrastructural, health, micro-financial, entrepreneurial), this book provides a rich and detailed assessment of the interactions between Local Authorities and Multinational Firms.

The book will be useful to upper-level students and researchers across the fields of economics, business, sociology, anthropology and African studies as well as to development practitioners and regional and international organizations with interest in the functioning of Multinational Corporations in local environments.

The debate on connections between economic activity and socio-environmental impact has become increasingly relevant. As a result, ethical finance is emerging from its niche. However, the terms "ethical finance" and "sustainable finance" are often confused and overlapping, and the risk of greenwashing is high. Many authors suggest the need of a paradigm shift because the present economic system is no longer able to maintain a safe environment. Tim Jackson explicitly argues about the need of a future of "prosperity without growth". From the experiences of ethical finance, we can identify some interesting tools to achieve that goal.

This book explains how ethical finance works and which innovations it has engendered in financial and economic systems; clarifies the links between finance and ethics, going beyond Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing, and offers an approach, which is vital for most financial sectors, from microcredit to impact investing; investigates the goals, constraints, and opportunities of environmental and social considerations in finance and explores the more innovative experiences in banking and investing. It helps readers understand the phenomena in depth, distinguishing the strategic, managerial, organizational, and risk practices of ethical finance. The authors adopt a holistic but critical approach, both with respect to the practices exercised by financial intermediaries, and with reference to new regulatory aspects. The book identifies the key issues and current challenges of ethical finance, both for financial operators and regulators.

Several concrete international cases offer empirical comparisons of practices, and as such it will be an invaluable reference for academics and researchers who wish to deepen their knowledge of ethical finance.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a driving force of the global economy, contributing up to 50% of gross domestic product in some instances. They also contribute to economic development through various channels such as employment creation, economic growth and poverty reduction, key elements of the Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, in many economies the majority of jobs are provided by SMEs. However, despite their support of the economy, SMEs are prone to several binding constraints, such as access to finance and market entry, as well as exogenous shocks and crises, most recently the COVID-19 pandemic.

Building on evidence from international experience, SMEs and Economic Development in Africa provides grounded solutions to challenges affecting SMEs, particularly in Africa, and offers guidance on how to build resilience to counteract future shocks. It also offers a number of policy measures which governments in developing countries may need to consider in order to encourage economic growth and development, such as increasing productive capacities, training, enhancing business ethics and professionalism and improving competitiveness.

What makes this book distinctive is that fact that it brings together the literature concerning SMEs in one place, and using case studies, it showcases how policymakers can overcome the challenges affecting SMEs. The book also provides tested and practical remedies for African economies with a view to making SMEs a springboard for economic prosperity.

The book will appeal to advanced students, scholars and researchers, as well as policymakers, development agencies and non-governmental organisations.