This book explores the concepts of ratio decidendi and obiter dictum from a historical-comparative perspective. It provides a comprehensive review of legal doctrine on precedent, delving into English and American Law so to illustrate its applicability to the Brazilian legal system. How we deal with precedents is its main topic.

Definitions within legal fields have always been subject to significant debate, with some recurring more often than others. Every now and then, a perspective arises which transforms the orthodoxy. As such is the case with the notion of precedent. Outlining its contours establishes a continuity between disparate and temporally distinct traditions. It requires theoretical-philosophical speculation, historical-comparative sense, and attention to the particularities of Brazilian Law.

This book includes in-depth discussions of the development of the various understandings of the ratio, outlines the notions of ratio decidendi and obiter dictum, and illustrates its application within legal practice. It suggests an understating of the ratio capable of dealing with identical, similar and distinct issues in the Brazilian legal system. Following an extensive debate on the characterisation of the ratio, it explores the notion of obiter dictum, its definition, abilities and effects.

The target audience of this book includes researchers, scholars and practitioners, especially those interested in the practice of precedent from a perspective that intertwines legal theory, legal history and comparative law.

In today's knowledge-driven economy, patents are more than legal protections-they are strategic assets shaping innovation, investment, and competition. This book provides a comprehensive framework for patent valuation, integrating economic, financial, and market approaches with emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, and tokenization.

Patents play a central role in diverse industries, from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to high-tech and green innovation. However, valuing these assets requires navigating complex legal, economic, and strategic factors. This book explores the methodologies used to assess patent worth, including cost-based, market-based, and income-based approaches, while addressing critical challenges such as litigation risks, regulatory considerations, and monetization strategies.

Featuring real-world cases and industry-specific insights, this book is an essential guide for investors, innovators, policymakers, and academics looking to unlock the economic potential of patents. Whether you're managing an IP portfolio, securing venture capital, or exploring the impact of ESG factors on patent valuation, this book provides the tools and knowledge to navigate the evolving landscape of intellectual property in the global economy.

This textbook equips readers with a clear understanding of how B2B markets have evolved in recent years, from the traditional focus on product development to more targeted approaches that focus on relationships, digitalization, innovation and sustainability.

Exploring the relevant theories behind this evolution and providing an extensive understanding of contemporary marketing strategies, the book equips readers with a broad perspective of B2B marketing - the evolution, theories, concepts, and the external environment - that allows students to put theory into practice in both manufacturing and service sectors. Allowing for a holistic understanding of contemporary B2B practices, students will learn how to design a competitive marketing strategy for the current business environment.

Covering key topics such as the customer journey, branding, value co-creation and servitization, and with a wide range of case studies, this is an essential text for students at both undergraduate and post-graduate level.

This proceedings volume covers peer-reviewed papers of the 2nd International Conference on Management Information System which is held on Sept 28-30, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. In an increasingly digitalized and connected world, management information systems are no longer serving resource planning, monitoring and reporting purposes. Indeed with the increasing availability of data from new sources, machine learning and artificial intelligence software can enable more automations involving less human decision-making and interventions, as well as generate predictions which can, among others, enhance risk prevention and astuteness in crisis management. This volume is valuable in introducing and explaining the impact of Industry 4.0, generative artificial intelligence, metaverse and others on organizational management information systems. Latest research and case studies are covered.

This book presents the latest behavioral research findings on workplace safety to assist practitioners and policymakers in achieving and maintaining good health for all workers. It delves into a wide range of topics such as experiential learning, individual and team safety training, safety climate, and safety leadership to discuss how to achieve specific targets associated with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3).

A distinctive feature is the thorough coverage of safety research findings applicable to organizations in high-income and low- to middle-income countries, where work-related accidents, diseases, and mortality rates are often considerably higher. A timely reflection on the global applicability of advances in behavioral safety research, this book is a useful source for practitioners, policymakers, graduate students, and researchers alike in management, occupational safety, occupational health psychology, and various fields in engineering, public health, and medicine.

This book describes green human resource management as practices undertaken by organizations' human resource departments to create supportive environments in which employees can thrive and perform in their most productive capacity. Focusing on the Sri Lankan military, it examines the case of successful green initiatives by theoretically and empirically linking green human resource management, high performance work practices, leadership, and virtues to green orientation and green employee engagement. The authors posit that green initiatives can only be successful if they win the hearts and minds of employees through cognitive engagement, emotional engagement, and behavioral engagement. Aimed at academics in HRM and organizational behavior, this work develops theoretical frameworks to examine green human resource management in developing countries.

With small businesses, the business is the brand, in contrast to corporations that have a portfolio of branded products. Therefore, effective brand management is dependent upon the business growing its brand into a strong brand. This comprehensive textbook helps students to navigate the dynamic world of branding for small and medium sized enterprises. It provides a strong conceptual and analytical foundation to brand management that can be applied to small business. It also addresses the unique challenges and opportunities that small businesses face in establishing, nurturing, and leveraging their brands for long-term success.

Each chapter features learning objectives, vignettes, key terms, chapter discussion questions, and mini cases. To assist in teaching from this text, PowerPoint sides, test banks, sample syllabi, and sample student projects are available to professors and lecturers online.

Written in a direct, accessible style for easy learning and understanding complex concepts and ideas, this book is ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate course work as well as small to medium-sized business professionals.

This book explores the dynamic landscape of corporate governance, focusing on the perspective of emerging markets. It delves into the evolving governance frameworks of these markets, highlighting variations in board structures, CEO roles, and director compositions due to diverse traditions and cultures. Emerging markets differ significantly from developed markets, characterized by concentrated ownership and the prevalence of family business groups within weak property rights environments. Additionally, there is a notable tension between direct ownership and control rights in these markets. The book's relevance is underscored by the growing importance of emerging markets in the global economy. These markets have contributed significantly to global output and growth, rapidly integrating into global trade and finance networks. Advocating for a dynamic view of corporate governance, the book emphasizes the need for continuous evaluation and adaptation of governance practices. It covers contemporary governance topics such as the role of whistle-blowers, governance challenges in start-ups, governance practices in family firms, and evolving governance regulations in emerging economies. This diverse coverage deepens readers' understanding of developments in governance issues, particularly within emerging economies.

This book offers essential insights into the policy and legal implications of the results-based approach in terms of shaping recent agri-environmental and climate commitments in the European Union and encouraging farmers to deliver significant and quantifiable enhancements of the quality of the environment within the EU Common Agricultural Policy.

To do so, it addresses several cutting-edge questions: what is the current legal understanding of ecosystem services in the European Union? How has the ecosystem-based approach and its linkage with the multifunctional role of agriculture been recognised in EU agricultural law? How have agri-environmental and climate schemes evolved to adopt the results-based approach? To what extent is the Common Agricultural Policy's new model encouraging farmers to deliver significant and quantifiable enhancements of the quality of the environment? What is the impact of the Common Agricultural Policy on EU actions concerning ecosystem and nature restoration? And lastly, what is the role of digitalisation and the AKIS in enhancing results-based agri-environmental and climate commitments in the EU?

Given its scope, the book will be of interest to a wide readership of researchers, practitioners, professionals, students, and policymakers interested in agricultural law, rural development studies, ecosystem-based management, climate change, environmental studies, political science, and economics.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of corporate reputation, aiming to enhance understanding, management processes, and measurement methods associated with this crucial concept. By integrating perspectives from various disciplines such as strategic management, organizational theory, and accounting, the book presents a holistic framework for both enhancing and safeguarding corporate reputation. The book explores essential processes such as creating, acquiring, protecting, and repairing reputational capital, employing a stock and flow model to establish a robust framework for reputation management.

Furthermore, the book studies the role of corporate communication and voluntary disclosure in establishing trust and credibility with stakeholders. It provides actionable strategies for reputational risk management and crisis management, emphasizing the critical importance of swift and transparent communication in safeguarding and restoring reputational capital. By addressing stakeholder-specific dynamics and offering detailed guidelines on reputation management, the book underscores the necessity of tailored efforts to meet the unique needs and concerns of diverse stakeholder groups.

Designed for scholars, practitioners, business leaders, and students in business and management disciplines, this book aims to deepen their understanding of the strategic importance of corporate reputation.

This is the first book to provide the fundamental backbone for the field of action research (AR). One of the main characteristics of AR is to achieve a kind of learning based on experience through action in the real world, connecting and reconciling theory and practice by reflection for / in / by action. A standard form of AR has not yet been found, however, because it is difficult for conventional academicians to effectively bridge the gap between objectivity in theory and subjectivity in practice. For the past 50 years, soft systems methodology (SSM) has developed the methodology to deal with subjectivity by rigorously adhering to a coherent guideline of a systemic means for discussion- for example, accommodation (i.e., living with different individual worldviews).

The author began to reinterpret SSM from an Eastern context at Lancaster University (UK), and received a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics, introducing the "actuality" point of view. This idea originated with the eminent Japanese psychiatrist Bin Kimura, who argued that schizophrenics do not lose touch with reality but with actuality. That is, there are two aspects of the world, reality and actuality, based on Latin res ("thing") and actio ("action"). They can recognize all things of the world as "reality" as expressed by that noun but cannot comprehend with a feeling of reality the predicate "actuality". Introducing actuality into SSM as a new dimension opened a new perspective in SSM both theoretically and practically. This topic is discussed in detail in Part II of this book.

Part I contains three chapters. Chapter 1 provides a basic conceptual overview of SSM. Chapter 2 provides an actual trace of the evolution of SSM over the last 25 years. One topic that is expected to become the subject of serious practical application of SSM in the future is its application to resilience. This is discussed in some detail in Chapter 3.

The actuality aspect of SSM has been used for more than 20 years in various contexts, yielding many good results. Among those are a new explanation of accommodation using paleo logic or predicate logic; a new management cycle based on actuality, such as learning for / in / by action; and the novelty of the methodological tool itself. Those 20 years of learning authenticate the guideline for the way of discussion or agreement that is relevant to actuality. Especially in the recent Covid-19 pandemic, it has oriented the restoration of actuality in the digital-based society, where actuality is deadened. This result is also dealt with in Part I.

This book presents an overview of the emerging topics in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity and addresses the latest AI models that could be potentially applied to a range of cybersecurity areas. Furthermore, it provides different techniques of how to make the AI algorithms secure from adversarial attacks. The book presents the cyber threat landscape and explains the various spectrums of AI and the applications and limitations of AI in cybersecurity. Moreover, it explores the applications and limitations of secure AI. The authors discuss the three categories of machine learning (ML) models and reviews cutting-edge recent Deep Learning (DL) models. Furthermore, the book provides a general AI framework in security as well as different modules of the framework; similarly, chapter four proposes a general framework for secure AI. It explains different aspects of network security including malware and attacks.

The book also includes a comprehensive study of various scopes of application security; categorised into three groups of smartphone, web application, and desktop application and delves into the concepts of cloud security. The authors discuss state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) security and describe various challenges of AI for cybersecurity, such as data diversity, model customising, explainability, and time complexity and includes some future work. They provide a comprehensive understanding of adversarial machine learning including the up-to-date adversarial attacks and defences. The book finishes off with a discussion of the challenges and future work in secure AI.

This book explores the critical role of technology in advancing the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. With the world facing pressing challenges like climate change, poverty, and environmental degradation, innovations such as artificial intelligence, big data, the Internet of Things, blockchain, and renewable energy are increasingly shaping global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The book examines how these technologies are transforming key sectors, from agriculture and healthcare to energy and education, offering practical solutions to complex global problems. By focusing on each SDG, it provides a thorough look at how technological advancements are being applied to drive sustainable development. Through real-world case studies, the book discusses the practical challenges of scaling and financing these technologies while highlighting the importance of governance, policy, and international cooperation in their success. It also explores how governments, businesses, and global institutions can leverage these innovations to build more resilient and inclusive societies.

This book is intended for scholars, policymakers, entrepreneurs, and professionals in sustainability who are seeking a deeper understanding of how technology can be integrated into strategies for achieving the SDGs. As the 2030 deadline approaches, it also offers insights into future trends and emerging technologies that will shape a more sustainable and equitable world in the years to come.

This textbook challenges the limitations of traditional rational decision-making, arguing that it often fails to address complex, real-world problems. In today's data-driven, rapidly evolving world, decision-makers need a more comprehensive approach. Sensible Decision-Making offers a novel perspective, blending the rigor of logic with the flexibility of human intuition to unlock innovative solutions. While mathematical models provide elegant solutions to well-defined problems, they may not always capture the nuances of human thought and emotion. By integrating systemic and creative thinking, these limitations can be overcome. The knowledge triad synthesis framework, introduced in this book, synthesizes diverse rational, intuitive, and social knowledge sources to empower individuals to make more informed and effective decisions.

The book begins by exploring traditional rational decision-making methods, including quantitative analysis of human factors. It then delves into well-established systemic and creative decision-making approaches. Finally, it introduces a novel synthetic decision-making method that reflects the author's innovative vision. Ultimately, this textbook aims to equip readers with the tools and insights needed to navigate the complexities of the twenty-first century. By understanding the principles of synthetic decision-making, readers can become more adaptable, insightful, and sensible decision-makers.