This book shows how churches can discover and strengthen their distinctive identity-enabling them to present themselves as a strong brand both internally and externally. Instead of focusing on superficial advertising, it highlights what truly defines churches and how they can live and communicate these values credibly.

Combining insights from brand sociology with real-life examples, including a detailed case study from the Diocese of Feldkirch/Vorarlberg (Austria), the book offers practical guidance for authentic and collaborative church leadership. It is aimed at those who want not only to manage their church in challenging times, but to actively shape its development-preserving what is valuable while addressing necessary change.

Community Development Through Craft Heritage and Creative Tourism: Prospects and Challenges explores the intersection of traditional craftsmanship, cultural identity, and sustainable development. Rooted in the belief that craft heritage?both tangible and intangible?is a living reflection of community identity, the book examines how creative industries and tourism strategies can serve as tools for revitalisation and empowerment. Through critical analysis and case studies, the authors delve into the role of artisans as cultural custodians, investigate community participation in policymaking, and evaluate sustainable tourism as a vehicle for preserving artisanal knowledge and fostering social and economic resilience in marginalised areas.

A number of key issues are addressed, including: How can creativity coexist with the authenticity of traditional craft? What drives the evolving demand for craft heritage in the market? Is community engagement a byproduct of creative tourism, or does it require a more structured approach? With a focus on four key themes?craft heritage, community, creative industries, and tourism?the authors offer a global perspective on the dynamics of cultural sustainability, supply chain integration, and heritage valorisation. The work contributes a holistic framework for empowering communities through tourism-informed strategies, bridging indigenous knowledge with contemporary economic opportunities.

This book presents cutting-edge research and practical insights from the Smart Service Summit 2025, exploring how smart services, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms enable sustainable value creation across industries. As service-driven business models become increasingly relevant, modular and data-driven service systems are transforming sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, mobility, smart cities, and finance.

Contributions address topics including AI-enabled maintenance, digital twins, circular economy strategies, urban digital transformation, resilient supply chains, and ESG reporting. Special attention is given to the ethical implications of AI, the governance of digital ecosystems, and compliance with emerging regulatory frameworks such as the EU AI Act.

With a focus on co-creation, adaptability, and future-readiness, this volume connects academic rigor with real-world application. It offers actionable knowledge for researchers, professionals, and policymakers working at the intersection of digital innovation, service design, and sustainability.

Come See the Truth explains how socialist Yugoslavia became a hot spot for international tourism during the Cold War. Following the 1948 split with the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia boldly and dynamically exploited tourism for political ends, inviting foreigners to "come see the truth" to counter Soviet invectives. During the following years, a combination of pragmatism and innovation led to an open-door policy that was fundamental to the country's tourism strategy and that allowed Yugoslav citizens to freely travel abroad for both work and leisure.

Situating this history in the dual contexts of the Cold War and the history of tourism, Igor Tchoukarine traces efforts by politicians, federal and republican administrations, tourist organizations, and individuals to develop international tourism in Yugoslavia. He reveals how tourism was inseparable from geopolitics, allowing Tito's state to enjoy international prestige and political legitimacy on both domestic and international levels. Yet Come See the Truth also uncovers the pitfalls of Yugoslavia's tourism boom, which exacerbated economic difficulties and rivalries and came to an end during the country's early-1990s collapse and descent into nationalist fervor and violence.

A philosophical framework for resistance that connects Socrates to the street

Does social change happen “top down” or “bottom up”?brought about by those who hold power or by those who struggle against the powerful? In Street Knowledge, Darien Pollock argues that the most powerful change comes from the bottom up. “Street culture” supplies the creative activity that inspires not only political change but any kind of positive social change. Pollock argues that part of what prevents progressive social change is that people in power only legitimize and respond to ideas and arguments that are legible to them; marginal actors?those with street knowledge?are forced to develop ways of making ideas that are illegible to the broader public meaningful and useful. At its best, street knowledge can be used to address civic injustice, cultural hegemony, and economic exploitation.

Reading Plato, Marx, DuBois, Derrida, and others, Pollock discovered that academic philosophy has had a street orientation all along. The core qualities he associated with the “street disposition”?the psychological and spiritual capacity to resist an unjust social arrangement?were already represented in Plato’s Republic. Drawing on the late Congressman John Lewis’s idea of “good trouble” as well as Socrates, Pollock argues that “the street” should be understood as a universal feature of the human condition?with the potential to emerge anywhere at any time. Street knowledge, Pollock contends, lays the foundation for a radically new way of doing philosophy and achieving social justice.

This book provides a comprehensive examination of the role of the digital economy in promoting high-quality development. The approach to the subject matter is systematic. The study commences with an examination of contemporary research on the high-quality development of rural tourism in a digital context. Subsequent to this, an exhaustive investigation is conducted, encompassing diverse domains such as international experiences, operational modalities, impact analysis, and evaluation strategies. This investigation integrates an array of research methodologies, including literature reviews, empirical research, case analyses, and system dynamics. The intended readership comprises researchers, students, policymakers, and practitioners specializing in tourism and the digital economy. The content is presented at an academic yet accessible level.

Although Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has advanced considerably since the late 1980s, scholarly focus has tended to cluster around talent management, performance, and compensation. Yet employee benefits?despite accounting for nearly a third of total labor costs?have remained surprisingly peripheral in strategic conversations.

A New Perspective on Employee Benefits addresses this long standing gap. Drawing on foundational SHRM and compensation strategy research, this book brings together emerging scholarship that reframes employee benefits as a powerful, underutilized driver of organizational effectiveness. Across its chapters, contributors explore new theoretical perspectives, present empirical insights, and examine practical implications that position benefits as a central component of strategic HR decision making.

This collection offers essential reading for scholars, doctoral students, and HR practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of how benefits can be leveraged to create sustainable competitive advantage. Rather than viewing benefits as static or purely administrative costs, the book invites readers to reconsider their strategic potential within the broader HRM landscape.

Nurturing AI-Powered HR Analytics and Virtual Reality in Employee Psychology and Workplace Happiness examines how emerging technologies are reshaping the foundations of modern human resource management. Drawing on advances in AI-powered HR analytics, the book demonstrates how data-driven insights can enhance organizational decision-making, predict employee behavior, and support interventions that foster engagement, motivation, and well-being. By illuminating the strategic value of intelligent analytics for understanding workforce dynamics and optimising HR practices, it provides a compelling case for building more responsive, ethical, and psychologically supportive workplaces.

Complementing this analytical perspective, this timely work explores the transformative potential of virtual reality in employee psychology and workplace happiness. It highlights how immersive VR environments can reduce stress, enrich training and onboarding, strengthen team cohesion, and nurture overall mental well-being by simulating real-world experiences within safe, controlled contexts. Offering a clear roadmap for responsible and human-centred implementation, this volume is essential reading for HR professionals, organizational leaders, and researchers seeking to harness technological innovation to cultivate more fulfilling and productive workplaces.

At the heart of The Role of Linguistic Profiling within Career Development is the important question: how does linguistic profiling shape careers in an increasingly globalised and diverse economy? From modifying an accent, to word choice, to tone, an international team of authors explore the effects of such modifications (both positive and negative) in various professional environments. The Role of Linguistic Profiling within Career Development brings to life the real-world implications of such bias and provides actionable insights for practitioners and academics alike.

This backbone of innovative research creates a fresh perspective into the relationship between linguistic profiling and career development, grounded in a globalised commitment to diversity and inclusion and aligned with the UNSGs of reducing inequality and promoting inclusive, sustainable economic growth. By pushing the boundaries of current thinking surrounding diversity, the authors lay out a solid groundwork for anybody interested in how the way that we communicate can affect our place in the workforce. Once linguistic differences are seen not as a cultural barrier, but as a source of strength and opportunity, the modern era of work can truly begin.

Charts the historical development of induction and challenges contemporary understandings of the concept and its foundations.

The problem of induction continues to vex and beguile. How can we reliably draw universal conclusions from limited observations? In Induction, John P. McCaskey steps back and rethinks long-held assumptions, tracing the ideas of Socrates and Aristotle in ancient Greece to those of Karl Popper in the twentieth century.

This comprehensive account does not look at how people of the past answered the questions we ask today. Instead, it asks: How did they understand the very meaning of the words epagoge in Greek, inductio in Latin, istiqra? in Arabic, Induktion in German, and induction in English? McCaskey's careful treatment of texts in their context dispels many long-standing myths, and importantly, he introduces us to a now-unfamiliar way to think about what induction is-a way in which there simply is no "problem of induction." McCaskey reveals that the problem was one of our own making and that an accurate history may help us recover old ways-and thereby introduce new ways-to think about the whole idea. A must-read for philosophers, historians of ideas, and anyone interested in the scientific method.

This book proposes the theory of dual (analog-digital) transformation (ADX) as a new framework for business transformation in the digital era, highlighting leading Japanese manufacturing firms. At its foundation, the book presents two core perspectives, the three-core competence strategy and the architecture strategy, which explain how firms build and reconfigure organizational capabilities in response to technological change. By tracing the evolution of manufacturing architecture and competence development, the book shows how analog and digital systems can coexist and reinforce each other.

While digital transformation (DX) has gained global attention, the enduring strength of Japanese manufacturing lies in its continued evolution through analog transformation-the refinement of craftsmanship, process integration, and tacit knowledge. The book examines how current IT technologies, including data analytics, IoT, and AI, are reshaping the traditional foundations of monozukuri (Japanese manufacturing), and how firms can align IT architecture and organizational competences to sustain innovation in the AI era.

Beyond the conventional framework of digitization, digitalization, and DX, this book proposes ADX as the next step for firms rooted in collaborative monozukuri-a model integrating analog excellence with digital innovation. Sustainable competitiveness emerges not from replacing analog systems, but from combining the two.

Through multiple cases of Japanese firms, the book demonstrates how Japanese manufacturers are restructuring capabilities, bridging management and production, and achieving deep analog-digital integration. Ultimately, it offers a roadmap for traditional manufacturing firms to evolve their IT strategies and thrive in the age of AI and organizational reinvention.

In the rapidly evolving world of contemporary business, artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a disruptive force that is being adopted by companies in a variety of sectors. Its ability to boost creativity, expedite processes, and increase productivity is undeniable. Along with other digital technologies like blockchain, big data analysis, and augmented reality, it is anticipated to be one of the main forces behind the fourth industrial revolution.

Despite the success that artificial intelligence is meeting, there are still a number of concerns about how consumers may perceive artificial intelligence-based products and services, how they act with conversational agents (chatbots), and how they communicate with them. Through this book, the authors attempt to understand how artificial intelligence can be integrated within products and services in a way that generates value for the consumer. In particular, three consumer contexts are considered in which the introduction of AI is changing the way consumers interact with products and services. The first relates to the use of artificial intelligence in the fashion industry, where the creation of AI-generated clothes is generating widespread debate. The second relates to the use of conversational agents who through the use of AI are able to engage in conversations that are increasingly human-like. The third, in the area of social media, evaluates how consumers perceive virtual influencers.

Managing Innovation in Business Strategy, Marketing and Finance has a goal of contributing to understanding the role of business innovation from the perspective of three key functional areas: strategy, marketing and finance.

Born-digital companies are often praised as agile disruptors ? until growing scale, legacy decisions and internal complexity slow them down. This book shows how digital-era firms can deliberately renew themselves through internal corporate ventures, turning them from side projects into powerful engines of strategic change. Based on an in-depth case study of a leading European fintech, it reveals how leaders can structure, stage and steer such ventures to keep their organizations fast, innovative and focused.?

The book develops a process model of strategic renewal that goes beyond born-digital companies. It offers actionable insights for any organization facing disruption, legacy structures or the challenge of sustaining innovation. By explaining how routines, capabilities and mindsets can be reconfigured over time, the study provides executives, entrepreneurs and corporate innovators with a practical roadmap for building lasting renewal capabilities ? in digital natives and established firms alike.

An innovative study reveals striking similarities in the ways three disparate cultural traditions conceived of what we owe those from across our borders.

Theorists of justice set out to solve a difficult puzzle: What ideas, if any, could guide us to live together in harmony? While some enumerate universal values, critics argue that these very principles are ineluctably contingent and culturally specific-that human societies affirm vastly different tenets across intellectual traditions.

In this bold, ambitious book, Hansong Li offers an alternative approach to world justice. He argues that while different cultures do conceive of justice in different ways, many also share important relational norms-ideas about how they might relate to and reason with other polities. To demonstrate as much, Li identifies parallel patterns of interpolitical arguments in ancient Greek, Indian, and classical Chinese traditions. Eschewing claims to universalism, he argues that the comparative study of these intellectual heritages can help transfigure us-versus-them logics. Thinkers in these traditions saw communities as guests and hosts, committed to love and justice, in pursuit of ethics and expediency. Then too, these thinkers all were concerned with stability and subversion, constraint and consonance, beauty and violence. Most significantly, Li traces among the three traditions an aspiration to define justice in the broadest possible terms: not as something worked out merely in courts but as a value of global and cosmic consequence.

A work of rigorous philological scholarship and dazzling philosophical range, Common Justice points toward a new avenue for global political thought and comparative political theory. More than tracing how justice has been elaborated in different contexts, it demonstrates how-while using culturally and linguistically distinct concepts-diverse peoples have long been thinking in startlingly compatible ways, enabling the possibility of global justice.

This book challenges the long-prevailing interpretation of China’s legal tradition as “virtue given priority over penalty,” arguing that this proposition is a projection of modern Western rule-of-law discourse and fails to accurately reveal the structure of traditional Chinese legal thought. The author introduces the concept of “virtue as foundation, penalty as function”?framing “virtue” as the bedrock of ruling legitimacy, moral education, and social self-governance, while “penalty” serves as a necessary tool for upholding order. It offers a novel theoretical framework for scholars and interested readers worldwide to re-examine China’s legal heritage and its embedded governance wisdom.

This book establishes the scientific definition of M&A for the first time, that is, M&A is a transaction targeted at business control. Based on this, the book established a theoretical framework of mergers and acquisitions with its 8 core pillars, including motivation, capability, boundary, direction, matching, synergy, performance and market. The theories of mergers and acquisitions will well explain the strategy, valuation, integration and other activities of M&A.

An estimated 20% of humanity are neurodivergent. Their brains develop and function differently from those of the broader population.

In recent years, awareness of neurodiversity has grown. At the same time, organizations are facing questions that challenge traditional understandings of collaboration at work.

This book provides a foundation for anyone seeking basic knowledge or a new perspective on neurodivergence. Decision-makers, leaders, HR professionals, and consultants will find fresh insights to help their organizations gain a genuine competitive advantage in the labor market. In addition to theoretical background information, it includes both practical, research-based tips and solution-oriented approaches, addressing topics along the entire talent and employee journey.

The book also covers areas such as collaboration, communication and inclusive language, diversity and inclusion (DEIB), disruptive thinking, as well as leadership and self management for neurodivergent leaders and employees. Likewise, those who are neurodivergent themselves and looking for ways to collaborate without compromising their well being will find inspiration for their own professional practice.

This book is a comprehensive guide to applying positive psychology principles to leadership and organizational management. It equips leaders with practical strategies for enhancing resilience, fostering a strengths-based culture, and promoting well-being within teams. By integrating the latest research in positive psychology with leadership theories, the book offers actionable tools that leaders can implement to improve both individual and organizational outcomes. The authors draw on their extensive research and teaching experience to deliver insights that blend both Eastern and Western perspectives, offering a culturally inclusive approach to leadership. From building emotionally intelligent leaders to creating positive organizational cultures, this book addresses the most pressing challenges faced by leaders in today's complex environments. The book features case studies, exercises, and real-world applications and is designed for leaders, administrators, educators, and professionals seeking to foster resilience, well-being, and ethical decision-making in their organizations. It provides the tools to enhance leadership effectiveness and create a lasting positive impact. With a strong foundation in evidence-based practices, this book is an essential resource for those looking to bring positive psychology into their leadership strategies for sustainable growth and success.

Advancing Project Management: Frameworks, Digital Transformation, Sustainability and Governance delivers research-driven insights into how modern frameworks, digital tools and governance practices transform project performance across sectors. Grounded in empirical research from Malaysia's defence, energy, construction and transportation industries, the book demonstrates how these elements work together to strengthen accountability, transparency, decision quality, and overall project outcomes.

Organised in four sections: methods and frameworks; digital transformation; sustainability and strategy; and risk and governance, the book integrates theoretical grounding with sector-specific analysis to show how established models such as PMBOK, the Technology Acceptance Model and Contingency Theory can be adapted for emerging economies. Findings highlight global challenges of digital readiness, governance capability and resource optimisation, and position Malaysia as a case study with lessons for both developed and developing contexts.

This volume is a companion to Advancing Leadership and Collaboration in Project Management: Culture, Knowledge, and Team Dynamics, which together offer a balanced perspective on technical and human dimensions of project success.

Essential for academics, practitioners, and policymakers, Advancing Project Management provides rigorous analysis and practical recommendations for organisations navigating digital transformation and sustainability pressures worldwide.

This book explores how artificial intelligence, digital transformation, and sustainability intersect in Africa and how they can reshape business practices, economic development, and environmental stewardship across the continent. Drawing on multidisciplinary perspectives, it analyses the role of emerging technologies in advancing sustainable business models, responsible governance, and inclusive growth. Case studies, data-driven analysis, and policy discussions illustrate how AI, blockchain, and digital platforms are influencing sectors such as finance, manufacturing, education, public administration, and entrepreneurship. The chapters explore themes such as technology adoption, sustainability education, and ethical technology governance while also addressing regulatory, capacity, and infrastructure challenges facing African economies. By combining empirical insight with practical policy reflection, the book offers guidance for business leaders, policymakers, researchers, and students seeking to understand how digital innovation can support sustainable development across Africa.

This book offers an interdisciplinary examination of how legal frameworks influence sustainability in entrepreneurship. Moving beyond traditional approaches that treat regulation and innovation as opposing forces, it explores how laws and policies can both constrain and stimulate entrepreneurial activity aimed at achieving long-term economic, social, and environmental goals. Through research-informed case studies, the book reveals how entrepreneurs can align with regulatory expectations while driving meaningful change.

Featuring contributions from experts in law, finance, and sustainability, the first part of this two-volume set focuses on institutional innovations, green public policies, and environmental governance mechanisms that address climate change, resource management and social equity. Emphasis is placed on the intersection of law, policy and organizational sustainability at the global level. It is an ideal resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to understand and shape the future of sustainable enterprise.

Rigorous nonpartisan research on the effects of economic forces and public policy on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are widely recognized as drivers of economic dynamics and long-term prosperity. This volume of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy and the Economy series brings rigorous new economic research to bear on a number of current policy issues. Andrew Fieldhouse and Karel Mertens quantify the social returns to public R&D and find that federal investments have yielded extraordinarily high productivity payoffs. They argue that cuts to non-defense R&D risk long-run damage to economic growth. Douglas Elmendorf, Glenn Hubbard, and Zachary Liscow examine the interaction of innovation-friendly growth-oriented policies with deficit reduction and conclude that while such policies alone cannot stabilize federal debt, they can meaningfully ease fiscal pressures. Nirupama Rao and Timothy Simcoe document the effectiveness of R&D tax credits while highlighting design challenges such as the need to ensure that credits stimulate additional research rather than subsidize activity that firms would have undertaken in their absence. Kyle Myers, Lauren Lanahan, and Evan Johnson analyze the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and show that small firms supported through SBIR pursue distinctive strategies compared to venture-backed startups. Pierre Azoulay, Daniel Gross, and Bhaven Sampat analyze indirect cost recovery, the system by which research universities are reimbursed for overhead. Fiona Paine, Richard Townsend, and Ting Xu assess restrictions on foreign investment in startups, weighing national security concerns against the costs to innovation ecosystems. Aaron Chatterji and Fiona Murray argue that geopolitics is fundamentally reshaping the economics of innovation, and distill the implications of this development for the approaches that are used in studying innovation policy.

A fascinating visual exploration of all things linguistic, tracing how words, sounds, scripts, norms, and borders are in constant flux

Did you know that more than 7,000 languages are spoken today, but that fifty percent of the world's people use only fifteen of them? Or that there are hundreds of separate sign languages? Or that a dog's bark is represented with wildly different sounds in English, Czech, and Thai? In The World Atlas of Language, Gaston Dorren, the international bestselling author of Lingo, Babel, and other books about languages, invites readers on a captivating journey that charts the geographical spread of languages and dialects around the world through the ages-and tells the incredible stories behind them in his unmistakable style. The result is an essential reference for anyone who loves how humans speak, write-and vary.

Organized by theme and richly illustrated throughout with full-color maps, timelines, and other graphics, this book traces the origins and evolutions of the world's languages and of the communities that nurture and live in them. From Old, Middle, and Modern English and the great linguistic variety of the Americas to the lingua francas of Africa and the many unique tongues that are about to fall silent, the atlas reveals an astonishing linguistic diversity.

• Features 100 full-color maps, timelines, and other graphics
• Tells engaging stories about the origins and evolutions of languages and how they have been carried around the world by nations, religions, and empires
• Includes sections on:

• An essential reference for readers interested in languages, words, and their histories

This book introduces research on computer games conducted in Japan, aimed at students and researchers of games and pop culture in Japan, and explains how to facilitate their studies and research.

Japan, along with the USA and Europe, has been a world leader in computer games. There are many users and companies, and the market is significant. In terms of game content, games developed in Japan have gained popularity outside of Japan and have influenced subsequent games. For this reason, a considerable amount of research on Japanese games has been conducted.

?Most of the literature on Japanese games is written in Japanese, however. Therefore, it is difficult for students and researchers living outside of Japan, even if they are interested, to read the literature and to work jointly with Japanese researchers. As a result, there is a disconnection between overseas and Japanese researchers. This book is presented to help bridge that gap. In addition, by introducing Japanese game studies across multiple disciplines, the book makes it easier for readers to find research approaches that match their interests.

The book begins with an overview of Japanese game research to date. It then introduces research results unique to Japan, such as those on arcade games and Doujin (people who make games mainly as a hobby, groups of people with shared strong interests in games). It then introduces research institutions and academic societies in which readers can research game studies in Japan. In addition, it introduces ways to access and obtain relevant resources.

Readers will be better prepared to study in Japan or collaborate with Japanese researchers by reading this book. In addition, it will help readers to know in advance which fields and themes are easier or more difficult to research in Japan, thus preventing mismatches in study abroad and research exchange. The academic significance is that it provides an overview of research on games in Japan that has been conducted from a variety of perspectives and approaches. By using this as a basis, we can expect to promote international and cross-disciplinary game research.