Open Access Books - Economics, Business and Management - 2022

Permanent URI for this collection

http://repository.vlu.edu.vn:443/handle/123456789/5152

Browse

Browsing Open Access Books - Economics, Business and Management - 2022 by Title

  • Publication
    A Guide to Sustainable Corporate Responsibility
    ( 2022)
    Caroline D. Ditlev-Simonsen
    This open access book discusses the challenges and opportunities faced by companies in an age that increasingly values sustainability and demands corporate responsibility. Beginning with the historical development of corporate responsibility, this book moves from academic theory to practical application. It points to ways in which companies can successfully manage their transition to a more responsible, sustainable way of doing business, common mistakes to avoid and how the UN Sustainable Development Goals are integral to any sustainability transformation. Practical cases illustrate key points. Drawing on thirty years of sustainability research and extensive corporate experience, the author provides tools such as a Step-by-Step strategic guide on integrating sustainability in collaboration with stakeholders including employees, customers, suppliers and investors. The book is particularly relevant for SMEs and companies operating in emerging markets. From a broader perspective, the value of externalities, full cost pricing, alternative economic theories and circular economy are also addressed. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Agricultural Value Chains in India
    ( 2022)
    Ashok Gulati, Kavery Ganguly, Harsh Wardhan (editors)
    This open access book provides a clear holistic conceptual framework of CISS-F (competitiveness, inclusiveness, sustainability, scalability and access to finance) to analyse the efficiency of value chains of high value agricultural commodities in India. It is based on the understanding that agriculture is an integrated system that connects farming with logistics, processing and marketing. Farmer’s welfare being central to any agricultural policy makes it very pertinent to study how a value chain works and can be strengthened further to realize this policy goal. This book adds value to the existing research by studying the value chains end-to-end across a wide spectrum of agricultural commodities with the holistic lens of CISS-F. It is not enough that a value chain is competitive but not inclusive or it is competitive and inclusive but not sustainable. The issue of scalability is very critical to achieve macro gains in terms of greater farmer outreach and sectoral growth. The research undertaken here brings out some very useful insights for policymaking in terms of what needs to be done better to steer the agricultural value chains towards being more competitive, inclusive, sustainable and scalable. The value chain specific research findings help draw very nuanced policy recommendations as well as present a big picture of the future direction of policy making in agriculture.
  • Publication
    Agriculture for Economic Development in Africa
    ( 2022)
    Emelie Rohne Till
    This book explores the role of agriculture in long-term economic growth. With a particular focus on Ethiopia, the role of the state in igniting agricultural growth and in sustaining economic growth is highlighted as essential for low-income countries. Taking ideas from both economic history and development economics, the ability of Ethiopia and the rest of Africa to sustain recent rapid growth into something that can tackle the development agenda is discussed, alongside policy suggestions. This book overall presents an optimistic account of Africa and its economic prospects. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in economic development and agricultural economics. This is an open access book.
  • Publication
    Business School Leadership and Crisis Exit Planning: Global Deans' Contributions on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the EFMD
    ( 2022)
    Edited by Eric Cornuel
    The European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) is the largest international accreditation body for business schools, with more than 950 members across 92 countries, including the world's highest-ranked schools. A not-for-profit, mission-led institution, the EFMD plays a central role in shaping a global approach to management education, emphasizing the development of socially responsible leaders. As part of EFMD's fiftieth anniversary celebrations, its President, Professor Eric Cornuel, has edited this volume, featuring contributions from leaders in management education, including the presidents and deans of the top business schools from across the world. Each contribution will address the challenges and dilemmas facing business schools today, with respect to four key themes: the 'higher purpose' of business schools; the social impact of business schools; the internationalization of business schools; and crisis management within business schools, with a special focus on the impact of COVID-19. This volume is also available via Open Access
  • Publication
    Can BRICS De-dollarize the Global Financial System?
    ( 2022)
    Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Mihaela Papa
    Existing scholarship has not systematically examined BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) as a rising power de-dollarization coalition, despite the group developing multiple de-dollarization initiatives to reduce currency risk and bypass US sanctions. To fill this gap, this study develops a 'Pathways to De-dollarization' framework and applies it to analyze the institutional and market mechanisms that BRICS countries have created at the BRICS, sub-BRICS, and BRICS Plus levels. This framework identifies the leaders and followers of the BRICS de-dollarization coalition, assesses its robustness, and discerns how BRICS mobilizes other stakeholders. The authors employ process tracing, content analysis, semi-structured interviews, archival research, and statistical analysis of quantitative market data to analyze BRICS activities during 2009-2021. They find that BRICS' coalitional de-dollarization initiatives have established critical infrastructure for a prospective alternative nondollar global financial system.
  • Publication
    Central Bank Policy Mix: Issues, Challenges, and Policy Responses
    ( 2022)
    Perry Warjiyo, Solikin M. Juhro (editors)
    This is an open access book. This book is an integration of keynote speeches, lectures, and related teaching materials during the five years of the "Central Bank Policy Mix: Issues, Challenges and Policy Responses" flagship program of the BI Institute, the learning and research centre of Bank Indonesia. The book examines the interactions among central bank policies including monetary policy, exchange rate policy, macroprudential policy, and capital flow management and also elaborates on modeling issues and quantitative analysis of the interaction between macroeconomic variables and policy instruments.
  • Publication
    Co-creation for Responsible Research and Innovation
    ( 2022)
    Alessandro Deserti, Marion Real, Felicitas Schmittinger (editors)
    This open access book summarizes research being pursued within the SISCODE (Society in Innovation and Science through CO-DEsign) project, funded by the EU under the H2020 programme, the goal of which is to set up an analytical, reflective and learning framework to explore the transformations in initiatives and policies emerging from the interaction between citizens and stakeholders. The book provides a critical analysis of the co-design processes activated in 10 co-creation labs addressing societal challenges across Europe. Each lab as a case study of real-life experimentation is described through its journey, starting from the purpose on the ground of the experimentation and the challenge addressed. Specific attention is then drawn on the role of policies and policy maker engagement. Finally, the experimentation is enquired in terms of its output, transformations triggered within the organization and the overall ecosystem, and its outcomes, opening the reasoning towards the lessons learnt and reflections that the entire co-creation journey brought. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Crisis Response in Higher Education
    ( 2022)
    Mats Benner
    ;
    Jonathan Grant
    ;
    Mary O’Kane
    This open access book explores the impact of Covid-19 on universities, and how students, staff, faculty and academic leaders have adapted to and dealt with the impact of the pandemic. Drawing on experiences from Britain, Australia and Sweden, it showcases how Covid has challenged routines and procedures in universities, and thrown them into a disarray of ever-changing events and short-term adaptations. The authors pay particular attention to how students, staff, faculty, and leaders have coped with Covid, through a series of autobiographical portraits of their strains but also heroic efforts in the harshest of circumstances. This important book explores the exceptional ramifications of the pandemic but also how universities may contribute to a fairer and more robust society and concludes with a set of prescriptions for universities that aim to be proactive and resilient forces in society. It will be of interest to scholars interested in higher education, governance and organizational studies. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Decarbonizing Freight Transport
    ( 2022)
    Sarah Pfoser
    This Open-Access-Book analyzes the acceptance of sustainable freight transport and suggests a new framework for policy measures to decarbonize freight transport. Despite intense political endeavors, the environmental performance of the transport system has not improved in the previous years. It seems that the existing measures are not sufficient to motivate transport users to implement sustainable freight transport strategies. The case of three different strategies for sustainable freight transport is studied: horizontal collaboration in a Physical Internet network, multimodal freight transport and liquefied natural gas (LNG) as alternative truck fuel. Each of these three strategies falls within a different pillar of the avoid-shift-reduce framework. The determinants of acceptance and suggested policy measures in this study reflect transport users’ needs towards sustainable freight transport. This should support policy makers and the logistics industry to implement sustainable practices and achieve the ambitious emission targets by decarbonizing freight transport. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Deep Integration, Global Firms, and Technology Spillovers
    ( 2022)
    Naoto Jinji, Xingyuan Zhang, Shoji Haruna
    This open access book explores the impact of deep regional economic integration on spillovers of knowledge and technology across countries. Deep integration through signing deep regional trade agreements (DRTAs), which cover various policy areas in addition to tariff reductions, may or may not facilitate technology spillovers among their signatories. To understand the mechanism of the impact of deep integration on technology spillovers, this book starts by analyzing the behavior of global firms. Factors that affect global firms’ activities, such as export, foreign direct investment (FDI), offshore outsourcing, are examined. Micro data on Japanese firms are employed for the analysis. Then, the relationships between bilateral trade patterns and technology spillovers and between types of FDI and technology spillovers are investigated in detail. Patent citation data are used to measure technology spillovers. Finally, the impact of DRTAs on international technology spillovers is analyzed. This book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in the effects of deep regional integration, including academic scholars, policymakers, and graduate students.
  • Publication
    Digital Health Care in Taiwan
    ( 2022)
    Po-Chang Lee, Joyce Tsung-Hsi Wang, Tzu-Yu Chen, Chia-hui Peng (Editors)
    This open access book introduces the National Health Insurance (NHI) system of Taiwan with a particular emphasis on its application of digital technology to improve healthcare access and quality. The authors explicate how Taiwan integrates its strong Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry with 5G to construct an information system that facilitates medical information exchange, collects data for planning and research, refines medical claims review procedures and even assists in fighting COVID-19. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Digital Towns
    ( 2022)
    Theo Lynn, Pierangelo Rosati, Edel Conway, Declan Curran, Grace Fox, Colm O'Gorman
    This open access book explores the digital transformation of small and rural towns, in particular, how to measure the evolution and development of digital towns. In addition to access to resources, competition from urban and global markets, and population trends, rural communities present lesser access and use of digital technologies and have lower digital competencies and skills than their urban counterparts. Consequently, they experience less beneficial outcomes from increased digitalisation than urban areas. This book defines what a digital town is and explores digitalisation from the perspective of the four basic economic sectors in towns - individuals and households, businesses, the public sector, and civil society - and three types of enabling infrastructure - digital connectivity, education, and governance. Particular attention is paid to how digitalisation efforts are measured by intergovernmental and international organisations for each sector and enabling infrastructure. The book concludes with a Digital Town Readiness Framework that offers local communities, policymakers, and scholars an initial set of indicators upon which to develop digital town initiatives, and measure progress. For those ready to embrace the opportunity, this book is a pathfinder on the road to a more equitable and impactful digital society and digital economy. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Dumbing Down
    ( 2022)
    Magnus Henrekson, Johan Wennström
    This open access book examines the challenges and issues caused by a move to a marketized education system in Sweden. Observing the introduction of the school voucher system and a postmodern social constructivist view of knowledge, the move away from objective knowledge is identified as the core reason for Sweden’s current education crisis. The impact of declining education standards on the labor market is also discussed. This book highlights the issues seen in Sweden and suggests policies that can improve education in the rest of the Western world as well. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in education and labor economics.
  • Publication
    Engaged Fatherhood for Men, Families and Gender Equality
    ( 2022)
    Marc Grau Grau, Mireia las Heras Maestro, Hannah Riley Bowles (Editors)
    This aim of this open access book is to launch an international, cross-disciplinary conversation on fatherhood engagement. By integrating perspective from three sectors—Health, Social Policy, and Work in Organizations—the book offers a novel perspective on the benefits of engaged fatherhood for men, for families, and for gender equality. The chapters are crafted to engaged broad audiences, including policy makers and organizational leaders, healthcare practitioners and fellow scholars, as well as families and their loved ones. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Entrepreneurial Responses to Chronic Adversity
    ( 2022)
    Dean A. Shepherd
    ;
    Vinit Parida
    ;
    Joakim Wincent
    This open acess book extends recent work on entrepreneurship in response to adverse events to explore entrepreneurial responses by people who face chronic adversity more deeply. Instead of focusing on the sort of responses intended to destroy the institutions that create and sustain chronic adversity, the authors are interested in how individuals use entrepreneurial action to find a way within these adverse constraints to improve their lives. They explore the positive outcomes arising from these entrepreneurial actions for the entrepreneurial actor and their family members as well as the negative consequences of these entrepreneurial responses to chronic adversity—outcomes that diminish others’ well-being. The book relies on the lived experiences of those facing chronic adversity to provide insights into the bright—and dark—sides of entrepreneurship and the complexity of these relationships. It will serve as a valuable resource to scholars seeking to understand how entrepreneurial action is conceived and implemented by those facing challenging resource-poor environments. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    Formalization of Banking Supervision
    ( 2022)
    Eiji Hotori, Mikael Wendschlag, Thibaud Giddey
    This open access book is the first attempt to elaborate the formalization phase of banking supervision in eight developed countries—USA, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, and UK. This innovative study in the field of banking supervision history identifies why national histories of banking supervision share similarities, but also remain different and are heavily path dependent. This book will be of great interest not only to financial/economic historians but also to general readers interested in banking supervision, i.e., students, bankers, supervisors, and international officials.
  • Publication
    From Financialisation to Innovation in UK Big Pharma: AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline
    ( 2022)
    Öner Tulum, Antonio Andreoni, William Lazonick
    The tension between innovation and financialisation is central to the business corporation. Innovation entails a 'retain-and-reinvest' allocation regime that can form a foundation for stable and equitable economic growth. Driven by shareholder-value ideology, financialisation entails a shift to 'downsize-and-distribute'. This Element investigates this tension in global pharmaceuticals, focusing on the two leading UK companies AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline. In the 2000s both adopted US-style governance, including stock buybacks and stock-based executive pay. Over the past decade, however, first AstraZeneca and then GlaxoSmithKline transitioned to innovation. Critical was the cessation of buybacks to refocus capabilities on investing in an innovative drugs pipeline. Enabling this shift were UK corporate-governance institutions that mitigated US-style shareholder-value maximisation. Reinventing capitalism for the sake of stable and equitable economic growth means eliminating value destruction caused by financialisation and supporting value creation through collective and cumulative innovation
  • Publication
    Guidebook to Carbon Neutrality in China
    ( 2022)
    CICC Research, CICC Global Institute
    This Open Access publication focuses on China’s goal of achieving peak carbon emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The book is the first to systematically build a framework combining a top-down and bottom-up analysis of this acute topic. What does carbon neutrality mean for economics in China? Might it imply stagflation or is it an opportunity to maximize the potential of green manufacturing? The book offers a comprehensive analysis of how the pursuit of carbon neutrality may influence the development of China's economy, and the country's biggest industries, while foreseeing the likely changes in people's lifestyles. In total, the book constructs a comprehensive path for China's carbon neutrality drive from the perspective of the green premium. This effort lays the foundation for a discussion of the country's emissions reduction plan. The book goes further, calculating the investment required for different sectors to achieve carbon neutrality, and illustrating the roles of carbon pricing and green finance in this undertaking. The book’s information comes from a network of primary sources, including experts in the field and noted academics, to depict potential low-carbon roadmaps and green transitions in major industries. Emphasized is green development in sectors that will be critical to civilization, including in technology, energy, manufacturing, transportation, and urban planning, which are backed by in-depth discussions and analyses. Accessible and academically rigorous, the work is anchored in the economics of carbon neutrality, extends to potential policy implications and identifies investment opportunities. This valuable reference will attract readers interested in public policy, economics, finance, and investors who seek to better understand China's prospects in the low-carbon economy of the near future.
  • Publication
    Happiness—Concept, Measurement and Promotion
    ( 2022)
    Yew-Kwang Ng
    This open access book defines happiness intuitively and explores several common conceptual mistakes with regard to happiness. It then moves on to address topical issues including, but not limited to, whether money can buy you happiness, why happiness is ultimately the only thing of intrinsic value, and the various factors important for happiness. It also presents a more reliable and interpersonally comparable method for measuring happiness and discusses twelve factors, from A to L, that are crucial for individual happiness: attitude, balance, confidence, dignity, engagement, family/friends, gratitude, health, ideals, joyfulness, kindness and love. Further, it examines important public policy considerations, taking into account recent advances in economics, the environmental sciences, and happiness studies. Novel issues discussed include: an environmentally responsible happy nation index to supplement GDP, the East Asian happiness gap, a case for stimulating pleasure centres of the brain, and an argument for higher public spending. This work is licensed under a CC BY
  • Publication
    How Megaprojects Are Damaging Nigeria and How to Fix It
    ( 2022)
    Jimoh Ibrahim
    ;
    Christoph Loch
    ;
    Kishore Sengupta
    Since 1960, two-thirds of very large governmental projects in Nigeria have not only failed, but been abandoned mid-course. This presents a bigger failure rate than mega projects elsewhere, and yet there is no available data or analysis to help us understand the reasons behind such failures. This book provides an authoritative examination into why very large projects in Nigeria have failed so badly, and provides practical recommendations on how the Nigerian government can improve its project performance. Drawing on data from 38 very large projects (19 completed and 19 abandoned) with a total budget of over $25B, this book presents detailed analysis of these projects and in-depth case studies 11 of the projects, and presents lessons for improvement. Through this, the authors have identified a small number of key success drivers, and argue that making moderate improvements on any of them would, on average, save hundreds of millions of dollars on one large project alone. This book is a game-changer in the management of government mega projects in Nigeria. With clear implications for other developing economies, this is a vital resource for project management practitioners, executives and civil servants This work is licensed under a CC BY