Statistical studies over the last forty-five years show that, although there are success stories, very many mergers and acquisitions do not result in the increased operating profits that economics textbooks would lead one to expect. As consultancy McKinsey have put it, 'Anyone who has researched merger success rates knows that roughly 70% fail...
Deno is a JavaScript runtime by the creator of Node, built upon the lessons learned from Node becoming an integral part of so many apps since 2009, plus the ever-changing web app landscape. In Deno Succinctly, author Mark Lewin illuminates the improvements that Deno brings to server-side web development, and guides readers through three quick proje...
How do social networking services earn money?What is the "second hand of the market" and how does it operate? Why does society need so many different kinds of goods? What does happiness economics not reveal about happiness?What is the link between talent, success and "stardom"? What is the business development model for the ent...
This book surveys drinking in Britain between the Licensing Act of 1869 and the wartime regulations imposed on alcohol production and consumption after 1914. This was a period marked by the expansion of the drink industry and by increasingly restrictive licensing laws. Politics and commerce co-existed with moral and medical concerns about drunkenne...
This book analyses the considerable variation in the shares of private provision for core services in education, health and social services, in the Scandinavian countries.The chapters compare countries, service areas, and the for-profit, non-profit and public sectors. Each focuses on different levels of change: the mix of welfare providers, nationa...
This book discusses the risks and opportunities that arise in Emerging Asia given the context of a new environment in global liquidity and capital flows. It elaborates on the need to ensure financial and overall economic stability in the region through improved financial regulation and other policy measures to minimize the emergent risks. "Man...
This book focuses on the achievements, current trends and further potential of microfinance to scale-up and serve many more clients with financial services that enable them to improve their living conditions. The book asks what it takes to achieve sustainable impact: to know your clients and to understand their needs, to treat them in a fair and tr...
This book provides fresh insights into concepts, methods and new research findings on the causes of excessive food price volatility. It also discusses the implications for food security and policy responses to mitigate excessive volatility. The approaches applied by the contributors range from on-the-ground surveys, to panel econometrics and innova...
Given the manifold challenges of financial sectors in developing and transition countries, one might be tempted to believe that embarking on "green" finance is not a priority for financial systems development. However, there are a number of arguments against this view. Environmental finance, particularly energy efficiency and renewable en...
This book contains a structured collection of complete solutions of all significant axially symmetric contact problems. It provides solutions for classical profiles such as the sphere, cone or flat cylindrical punch as well as a multitude of other technically relevant shapes, e.g. the truncated cone, the worn sphere, rough profiles, hollow cylinder...
This collected volume represents the final outcome of the COST Action IS1104 "The EU in the new complex geography of economic systems: models, tools and policy evaluation".Visualizing the EU as a complex and multi-layered network, the book is organized in three parts, each of them dealing with a different level of analysis: At the macro-l...
This book maps the youth transitions of descendants of migrants from Turkey living in Amsterdam and Strasbourg, through a comparative mixed-methods research design. As such, it is of interest to discussions in youth sociology, social mobility and second-generation research. The book follows transition trajectories of the second-generation, from sch...
This book sets out to explain the reasons for the gap between "knowing" and "doing" in view of self-reliance, which is more and more often expected of citizens. In today's society, people are expected to take responsibility for their own lives and be self-reliant. This is no easy feat. They must be on constant high alert in...
In the light of better and more detailed administrative databases, this book provides statistical tools for evaluating the effects of public policies advocated by governments and public institutions. Experts from academia, national statistics offices and various research centers present modern econometric methods for an efficient data-driven policy...
This book provides insight into the Life Cycle Management (LCM) concept and the progress in its implementation. LCM is a management concept applied in industrial and service sectors to improve products and services, while enhancing the overall sustainability performance of business and its value chains. In this regard, LCM is an opportunity to diff...
This open access Pivot demonstrates how a variety of technologies act as innovation catalysts within the banking and financial services sector. Traditional banks and financial services are under increasing competition from global IT companies such as Google, Apple, Amazon and PayPal whilst facing pressure from investors to reduce costs, increase ag...
The authors of this book advise the economies of the European Union to become more entrepreneurial in promoting innovation and economic growth. The authors propose a reform strategy with respect to several aspects to achieve this goal. Starting with the rule of law and the protection of property rights; the tax system; the authors deal with regulat...
Interest in social innovation continues to rise, from governments setting up social innovation 'labs' to large corporations developing social innovation strategies. Yet theory lags behind practice, and this hampers our ability to understand social innovation and make the most of its potential. This collection brings together work by leadi...
This book offers a comparative overview on Portuguese emigration in Europe and outside the EU in times of recession. It looks at Portuguese emigrants who, after the crisis of 2008, moved both intra-EU, such as UK, France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, but also into countries with historical links, such as the USA and Canada, and to Portuguese spe...
The objective of this book is to broadly illustrate the key aspects of water governance, mapping the spectrum of decision-making from techno-centric and eco-centric approaches, to hybrid concepts and people-centric approaches. Topics covered include the challenges for water-governance models, the polycentric model, the integration challenge, water ...
This book takes a look at fully automated, autonomous vehicles and discusses many open questions: How can autonomous vehicles be integrated into the current transportation system with diverse users and human drivers? Where do automated vehicles fall under current legal frameworks? What risks are associated with automation and how will society respo...
This book analyzes and seeks to consolidate the use of robust quantitative tools and qualitative methods for the design and assessment of energy and climate policies. In particular, it examines energy and climate policy performance and associated risks, as well as public acceptance and portfolio analysis in climate policy, and presents methods for ...
This book provides an in-depth study of the management of standards and regulation in sustainable and radical innovation development. It considers the case of micro Combined Heat and Power (mCHP) technology. The developers of this radical innovation in the European heating sector encountered major conflicts when attempting to create or adapt stand...
This book brings together a range of ideas and theories to arrive at a deeper understanding of inequality in Latin America and its complex realities. To so, it addresses questions such as: What are the origins of inequality in Latin America? How can we create societies that are more equal in terms of income distribution, gender equality and opportu...
This free book represents one of the key milestones of DESIGNSCAPES, an H2020 CSA (Coordination and Support Action) research project funded by the European Commission under the Call "User-driven innovation: value creation through design-enabled innovation". The book demonstrates that adopting design allows us to embed innovation within th...
Lone parenthood is an increasing reality in the 21st century, reinforced by the diffusion of divorce and separation. This volume provides a comprehensive portrait of lone parenthood at the beginning of the XXI century from a life course perspective. The contributions included in this volume examine the dynamics of lone parenthood in the life course...
This proceedings is a collection of 46 selected papers that were presented at the 12th International Wheat Genetics Symposium (IWGS). Since the launch of the wheat genome sequencing project in 2005, the arrival of draft genome sequences has marked a new era in wheat genetics and genomics, catalyzing rapid advancement in the field. This book provide...
This volume analyzes the economic, social, and political challenges that emerging states confront today. Notwithstanding the growing importance of the 'emerging states' in global affairs and governance, many problems requiring immediate solutions have emerged at home largely as a consequence of the rapid economic development and associate...
This book applies for the first time emerging concepts of socioeconomics to analyse an economic sector, namely agriculture. It considers the rational choices of all actors in the system (just as agricultural economists do) and their cultural preferences and constraints (just as rural sociologists do). Socioeconomic concepts are subsequently used to...
This book demonstrates the application of simulation modelling and network analysis techniques in the field of Roman studies. It summarizes and discusses the results of a 5-year research project carried out by the editors that aimed to apply spatial dynamical modelling to reconstruct and understand the socio-economic development of the Dutch part o...
This book discusses how Norwegian shipping companies played a crucial role in global shipping markets in the 20th century, at times transporting more than ten per cent of world seaborne trade. Chapters explore how Norway managed to remain competitive, despite being a high labour-cost country in an industry with global competition. Among the feature...
This book offers a critical perspective on intra-European mobility and migration by using new empirical data and theoretical discussions. It develops a theoretical and empirical analysis of the consequences of intra-European movement for sending and receiving urban regions in The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Turkey, Poland and Czech Republic. The ...