This edited collection of scholars and activists employs immersive first-person narrative descriptions and rich imagery to tell the oft-revealing stories of contestation, exploitation, and complication within the landscapes upon which the world's green energy transition depends: the unsanctioned cobalt mines of the Congo, the solar farms clearing vast tracts of the Mojave Desert, the scattered e-waste operations of Zimbabwe, among others.

Utilizing the global supply chain as an organizing structure-working backwards from consumption to extraction, and back again-each chapter is framed around an abiotic protagonist crucial for the widespread adoption of renewable energy technologies. Cast as our saviors in the face of climate change, cobalt, aluminum, and the many critical minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles are explored through the biophysical environments and cultural contexts in which they are extracted, refined, or deployed. In challenge to these descriptive chapters are counternarratives that offer alternatives beyond silver bullet ecomodernism toward complicated futures built on just practices and reciprocity. In grounding all chapters amid host landscapes, the collection cultivates a heightened awareness of land relations and global interconnection. The project thus not only engages the green energy transition, a topic of accelerating importance and topical prevalence, but uniquely exhibits the skills of landscape architectural practice to communicate environmental challenges of global proportions, identify points of interdisciplinary intervention, and craft compelling futures to catalyze change.

The book targets an audience of students and practitioners of the built environment while seeking to inspire the inner designer in all readers.

The aim of the monograph is to demonstrate different approaches to building business models, where the starting point is the joint examination of social and technical factors. In this way, business ecosystems are created without state borders, which, thanks to technological mergers, improves their performance in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. The monograph also aims to indicate the core aspects of designing and shaping digital business models based on the assumptions of the concept of socio-technical systems. The book presents a multidimensional approach to shaping digital platforms in the context of the determinants of complexity theory, business ecosystems and the taxonomy of various approaches to designing digital transformation solutions. Innovative algorithms and socio-technical and engineering models support the design of digital business models.

Global and Local Trends in Media Innovation and Entrepreneurship explores the cutting-edge technologies and entrepreneurial shifts transforming how media is created, distributed, and consumed worldwide.

The book offers readers a clear understanding of how emerging technologies-such as VR, AR, AI, the metaverse, and OTT platforms-are disrupting traditional media practices. Through real-world examples, case studies, and expert analysis, it bridges theory and practice to showcase how media innovation is driving new business models, reshaping audience engagement, and redefining global-local media dynamics.

A vital resource for media professionals, entrepreneurs, academics, and students, this book is designed for those seeking to navigate and leverage the evolving media landscape, whether for strategic insight, research, or innovation-driven practice.

Intelligent and Secure Solutions for Digital Transformation offers a comprehensive exploration of cutting-edge technologies and methodologies at the intersection of cybersecurity and digital innovation. In an era where rapid digital transformation is reshaping industries, this book delivers timely insights into how organizations can secure their infrastructures while embracing intelligent, data-driven change.

Spanning 13 forward-thinking chapters, the book delves into topics such as artificial intelligence and machine learning in cybersecurity, secure IoT network design, trust modeling, cloud pentesting, and resilient ICS/SCADA systems in healthcare. It offers both theoretical foundations and real-world applications, making it a practical guide for researchers, professionals, and decision-makers.

The book offers comprehensive coverage of key topics, including the following:

• How AI-driven systems enhance threat detection, response, and automation in security operations
• Strategic approaches to data privacy, governance, and compliance in the digital age
• Best practices for integrating DevSecOps and securing the software development lifecycle
• Intelligent frameworks for securing financial digital transformation and critical infrastructures
• Simulation-based training environments and cloud pentesting methodologies to bolster cyber resilience
• Emerging technologies like Deep Neural Collaborative Filtering (DNCF) and blockchain for secure, personalized e-commerce experiences

Authored by an international panel of experts and researchers, this volume not only identifies current cybersecurity challenges but also presents innovative, scalable, and secure solutions for tomorrow's digital ecosystem. Whether you're navigating the complexities of cloud infrastructure, IoT, or critical systems, this book is your guide to building intelligent, secure, and future-ready digital transformation strategies.

This book discusses the value of "how" versus "what." Process innovation is the practice of improving how products are made. Many retailers and brands often overemphasize what products are sold. In doing so, they miss out on valuable cost savings and getting products to market faster. This book will demonstrate why investing in the "how" impacts the bottom line. The book also outlines the exact steps brands need to take to improve the "how."

Materials make up every product we sell. The term "materials" accounts for patterns, zippers, ties, trims, and more. Yet, most materials are an afterthought in the product creation process. First, we design and then consider what materials to use. Materials teams do not sit alongside design and are often located overseas to be close to mills and factories. Further, materials teams often report to sourcing. As such, they are isolated from design, merchandising, and planning teams. Although this model has been working for years, it allows for inefficiencies to creep in.

There is another layer of complexity to consider. The concept-to-market (a.k.a. go-to-market) calendar outlines the time needed to design, assort, produce, and ship products to a distribution center or store. The calendar marks crucial decision-making moments. It is common for brands to have overlapping calendars. That means teams are working on more than one season at a time. As a result, it is very common to find materials teams scrambling to meet short-term deadlines. Many of these deadlines are pushed out, leading to products being late to market. This costs a retailer or brand valuable profits and gross margin. Further, long-term innovation goals are also sacrificed.

Outdated mindsets related to the use of technology also hinder progress. Decisions on materials and product assortment cannot be made without a physical sample. This happens even at the highest levels of the world's largest brands. The reliance on physical samples is called "Touch Crutch" or "No Sample, No Sale." Contrast this with advances in technology allowing us to do remote surgery and control spacecraft on earth. As such, retail executives should use digital tools to approve materials and products. Further, there are useful tools available to bank materials into a digital library, saving valuable hours of work.

Retailers and brands are constantly seeking out ways to be faster to market. Process innovation is where the gains are made. Many areas within product creation are ripe for improvement. Materials and all things related to them are a rich area of opportunity that is rarely explored. This book provides information, insights, and real-life examples to help brands improve processes and get them faster to market. In doing so, there will be a direct and positive impact to the bottom line.

This edited volume explores AI-driven digital transformation from the perspective of a well-established higher education institution. Featuring 23 chapters organized into six thematic areas - Decision Support, Data Processing, Marketing and Product Development, Supply Chains, Finance, and Foundational Issues - it provides practical examples of how business school departments can implement AI to foster innovation.

Each chapter presents accessible case studies demonstrating AI applications in business, highlighting both benefits and risks. The volume bridges the gap between AI advancement and practical industry needs, offering actionable insights for integrating AI into decision-making, organizational processes, and curriculum development. Key contributions include demonstrating AI as a strategic enabler, positioning business schools as catalysts for change, recognizing sector-specific impacts, emphasizing ethical foundations, and promoting collaboration between academia, industry, and policymakers. This comprehensive resource equips educators and decision-makers with the knowledge and methods necessary to thrive in the era of AI-driven innovation and serves as a strategic blueprint for business schools to lead AI-driven transformation while maintaining ethical considerations.

AI-Driven Digital Transformation will appeal to scholars and students of AI, technology, innovation management, and business education. It will also be of interest to business school leaders responsible for institutional strategies, educators creating study programs, curriculum specialists, and business leaders seeking AI implementation guidance within their expertise areas.

The topic of banning mandatory retirement has sparked debate as ageing populations transform societies. Comparing ageism to sexism and racism, this book addresses the philosophical concerns of age discrimination as well as the ethical and social considerations of personal dignity, economic efficiency, and employment insecurity.

This edited volume fosters theoretical discourse by drawing on interdisciplinary conceptual frameworks from philosophy, ethics, economics, social work, and law. Distinguished contributors-including philosophers, bioethicists, social scientists, and legal experts-critically examine Lazear's influential theory of mandatory retirement. They also develop compelling comparisons between mandatory retirement policies and the Victorian Factory Acts and analyze how prohibiting mandatory retirement could substantially benefit workers in mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).

This title is essential reading for scholars and students of practical ethics, bioethics, public policy, labour and public economics, social work, and employment law.

Inequality in Preindustrial Latin America is a groundbreaking examination of economic and social disparities in the region, spanning from pre-Columbian times to the nineteenth century.

This comprehensive volume with contributions of leading scholars is divided into two parts, offering a multidimensional economic and social analysis of inequality. Part I delves into the measurement and patterns of economic inequality across different regions and periods, presenting new and original regional research that document the magnitude and cycles of economic inequality in Latin America from the times. Part II explores the intricate social relations that engendered and shaped inequality, examining caste and class dynamics, gender disparities, taxation and the impact of slavery. This book shows that the history of inequality in Latin America is as much as story of persistence as it is of constant reinvention that defies stereotypes and simplifications.

The volume is vital reading for anyone interested in the history of economic inequality, Latin American history, and economic history more broadly.

Businesses deliver value to their stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders. Therefore, value creation is pivotal to management theory, but there is a lack of agreement amongst scholars about value at the conceptual level. This book uses invariant properties of human activities to develop a novel theory of value to help resolve controversies and integrate scholarship from different specialisms. To establish boundaries for the task of integration, business, management and organisation scholarship is identified as being an applied, supra-disciplinary mega-field. Its fragmented nature means that different academic fields, such as strategic management and marketing, approach the concept of value in distinct ways, based on their respective roots in economics and other social sciences. Tracing the evolution of ideas on value over time, a new theoretical framework is developed, the integrating theory of value co-creation, as an alternative to existing theories on value creation for individuals and organisations. The cornerstone of the integrating theory of value co-creation is that exchange is the fundamental basis for value co-creation, which enables it to cover both provider and customer perspectives. Given its interdisciplinary approach, this book will appeal to any social scientist interested in the management of organisations.

This book on Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) and Data Privacy is designed to equip apprentices, students and professionals across various industries with a deep understanding of this holistic approach to organizational security and risk management, quality management and regulatory responsibilities. It involves aligning a company's governance structure, quality and risk processes and compliance and data privacy activities to better enable the achievement of the company's strategic goals. It also looks at what is an Enterprise Security Architecture through the lenses of TOGAF and SABSA, which isn't about the technical implementation; think of building a house where you get an architect to design it and you ensure the construction is aligned to best practices and your goals.

Whether you are an Information Security or Cybersecurity specialist, a risk management practitioner, or simply seeking to enhance your knowledge in this domain, this book will provide you with the necessary framework and tools to excel in your current or future role. It teaches you the fundamentals of GRC, including what GRC is and why it is important; the key components of GRC; how to implement a GRC program; what Data Privacy is beyond protection; and how to use GRC to improve your company's performance.

Business networks consist of interconnected business relationships that evolve over time. The main notion is that firms coordinate business activities and adapt their resources towards counterparts so that long-term business relationships are formed. From time to time, however, ongoing business between suppliers and customers is subject to unforeseen and uncontrollable events that cause sudden stops in business activities all over industries.

Bringing together contributions from scholars in the field of business relationships and networks, this book presents unique insights into how and when rapid responses can be possible in the challenging times following business disruption. It explores the various origins of business disruptions, identifying channels for more active and apt monitoring of business contexts by managers. Readers will gain contemporary and highly relevant knowledge on several aspects of the widespread impact of sudden stops in business. The chapters provide readers with individual and detailed accounts and conclusions about business discontinuity and place them within a cohesive common ground in business relationships and networks.

This edited volume will be a valuable resource for scholars across business disciplines, including business-to-business (B2B) marketing and organisational studies.

This essential guide equips nurses and allied health care professionals with the tools and knowledge for self-care, mindfulness and overall well-being to enable providing compassionate care for others.

Written by a diverse group of contributors who work within the nursing and allied health care fields, this book shares their real-life experiences, expert knowledge, insights and relational-centred practices. Across 11 chapters, the book covers the distinctive pillars of well-being: Physical (regular exercise, sleeping and eating well), Emotional (clinical observation, counselling, peer support, relationships) and Psychological (financial well-being and mental health).

These three pillars of self-care allow readers to address the importance of establishing relational aspects of caring, as a process that requires as much attention as professional practice expertise. For students and practitioners alike, this book delves into important self-care research and applications for healthy personal and sustainable professional lives.

This comprehensive volume critically examines patient safety in the NHS, discussing both policy initiatives and practical issues with reference to management culture, the legal context and ethical concerns.

The book explores the multiple dimensions of healthcare ethics and safety, tracing the legal landscape's evolution around patient safety and examining clinical negligence processes and their consequences. Looking forward, it addresses the growing influence of artificial intelligence in healthcare delivery. The text engages with fundamental ethical considerations, including medical professional development and standards, while exploring specialised challenges in psychiatry and end-of-life care. The conclusion synthesises these diverse elements, contextualising UK practices globally and demonstrating how patient safety concerns can transform management culture and enhance risk management approaches in healthcare settings.

Timely and authoritative, this important book will interest students, researchers and professionals across medicine, law and health management.

This book offers innovative strategies for designing an Integrated Product Portfolio Management (IPPM) system that prioritizes customers, quality, growth and profits.

It explores current frameworks for building product portfolios and provides creative ways to adapt to dynamic environments. The authors present practical solutions to overcome challenges and ensure products and services remain competitive amidst shifting stakeholder expectations, customer demands, economic changes, technological advancements and social trends. The book includes case studies from different industries and showcases ways to balance product portfolios, analyze trends, adapt to changing market conditions, anticipate hurdles, and build flexible and sustainable product portfolios. It highlights the role of machine learning, including applications of ChatGPT, and examines the evolving nature of stakeholder capitalism, emphasizing environmental, social and governance pressures. A practical guide for leaders and individuals looking to advance innovation, it offers personal, professional and corporate guidance on ways to improve the odds of product and service success.

This book will be a valuable resource for middle and senior managers, strategic planners and product development professionals. It also will be of interest to students and faculty in marketing, product management, entrepreneurship and small business management, project management, strategic management and business leadership.

This engaging and practical book gives readers the tools and insight to become accomplished creators of stories to lead positive change within their organisation and communities.

For millennia, stories have connected us and helped us make sense of the world. Now we must rediscover the potency of stories to effectively respond to the leadership challenges of today. This book will help you engage and motivate others to take action for a liveable planet and equitable world.

Packed with relatable examples that will resonate for anyone in a leadership role, the book guides readers through five steps to create powerful stories that bridge divides, catalyse action and accelerate change:

• Story listening: walk in the shoes of others to gain empathy
• Story building: craft the ingredients of a compelling narrative
• Story shaping: improve with peer feedback and practice
• Story sharing: seed stories to help grow purpose-led, fearless cultures
• Story living: strengthen personal leadership to expand influence and impact

More than ever, we need stories that help us imagine and build healthy, productive workplaces and communities - stories that grow our sense of agency as citizens, grounded in the belief that every voice and every action matters. This book is an invaluable toolkit to help everyone craft stories that inspire themselves and others.

This comprehensive textbook examines the digital maturity of modern supply chains, presenting innovative frameworks for assessing and enhancing digital capabilities across procurement, production, distribution, and city logistics while offering forward-looking scenarios for supply chain evolution.

Logistics and Digital Transformation: The Challenges of Modern Supply Chains leads the reader through the various applications of information and communication technology (ICT) in logistics and suggests how digital logistics systems may develop in the future. These concepts present research conducted at the scale of the entire supply chain, as well as at the scale of individual logistics subsystems (supply logistics, production logistics, distribution logistics), and in the area of city (urban) logistics, which is closely related to the development of modern distribution systems. Unique to this book is its description of the relationship between the digital development of individual subsystems and entire supply chains, to identify the determinants of this development and challenges - this approach has not yet been addressed in the literature.

This book will find an appreciative audience amongst advanced students, researchers, practitioners in logistics, supply chain management, manufacturing, trading, IT companies, and policymakers interested in logistics innovation and digital maturity.

The book presents empirical insights on the relationship between corporate governance, environmental exposure and environmental sustainability performances of Indian non-financial companies.

The book discusses and analyses the basic theories and concepts associated with corporate governance and environmental exposure like the concept of board size, board meetings, proportion of independent director, CEO duality, air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution; and corporate governance theories like the various forms of ownership, agency crisis and its kinds, dominance and expropriation of large shareholders and the possible way out to protect the interest of their minority counterpart etc. It also explores the theoretical postulations, concepts and conventions relating to the topic and critically goes through the literature to develop the hypotheses and to finally testify the set of hypotheses using a set of reliable and suitable econometric estimation techniques to draw meaningful inferences on Indian non-financial companies. The conceptual and theoretical aspects of the topic are presented in a lucid and intelligible manner which enhances the theoretical and practical understanding of the students and scholars in the domain of commerce and management studies.

Offering robust empirical evidence, this book will be useful for corporate governance professionals, sustainability and CSR managers, environmental consultants, regulatory authorities, policymakers, academics, industry associations, and think tanks working on corporate governance, environmental sustainability, environmental studies, CSR, commerce, management, and banking.

The Routledge Handbook of Argumentation Theory offers 43 chapters-written specifically for this volume by a team of leading international scholars-that survey a wide spectrum of research on the nature, purpose, and promise of argument and the associated practice of argumentation. Each chapter provides a state-of-the-art survey to help readers understand and engage with the field's main ideas and problems.

The book is split into two parts:

• Part I covers orienting approaches in argumentation studies.
• Part II focuses on the main debates in argumentation theory.

The Handbook illustrates how different disciplines contribute to argumentation theory, integrating contributions from logic, epistemology, social psychology, political science, communication, rhetoric, and other fields. This volume thus provides researchers and students with a picture of the diversity and depth to the work in argumentation theory today. Throughout, it clarifies complex questions and methods in this evolving field of study. And references at the end of chapters and a comprehensive index at the back of the book provide readers with central resources for further work in this important area of research.

Sustainable Brand Leadership reveals, in simple steps, how to cultivate a leadership mentality to nurture future-fit brand management systems. These systems nurture balance, build resilience and evolve organizational cultures to sustainably achieve business outcomes. Distilling hundreds of case studies and decades of consultancy and agency expertise into an enjoyable journey and story-based guide, this book is packed with engaging and compelling tips, best practices and disruptive techniques for managing businesses, brands and ultimately your own leadership career.

The book addresses head-on the worrying disconnect at a leadership and management level between organizations and their wider trading environment, including the community and natural world: the dangers of subsidized capitalism without effective boundaries; extreme liberalism; chaotic change management; rampant consumerism; chronic short-termism and the limitations of trickle-down and command and control management. Written in an accessible coaching style, the authors re-examine the core hypothesis that organizations are more successful and sustainable if they focus on actual behaviour rather than clever words and promises, an increasing threat against a backdrop of rampant social media. They do this in the very real context of the modern socio-political and commercial environment but take a positive, appreciative, balanced, business-focused and practical approach that motivates, challenges, enlightens and empowers. With quality contributions from business and thought leaders across sectors, including HRDs and CEOs, the book includes interviews and case studies from organizations as varied as Bellway, everflow, AIME, the Mind Gym and the National Trust.

CEOs, COOs, Marcomms professionals, human resource professionals, line managers, change agents, consultants, coaches and people professionals will all find this book invaluable.