Service Alert
Delay in delivery of ZIP and Direct to Player materials
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
You may experience a delay in delivery of Direct to Player materials. All requests for materials will be delivered as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Showing 1 - 20 of 119708 items
By Maik Bieleke, Wanja Wolff, Corinna S. Martarelli. 2024
This comprehensive text is a unique handbook dedicated to research on boredom. The book brings together leading contributors from across…
three continents and numerous fields to provide an interdisciplinary exploration of boredom, its theoretical underpinnings, its experiential properties, and the applied contexts in which it occurs.Boredom is often viewed as a mental state with little utility, though recent research suggests that it can be a powerful motivator of human behavior that shapes our actions in many ways. The book examines boredom from a range of perspectives and is comprised of three parts. Part I delves into the theoretical approaches to boredom, presenting methods for its measurement, explaining when and why boredom occurs, and scrutinizing the impact it has on our behavior. Part II focuses on the psychological and neural properties of boredom and its associations with a multitude of mental and interpersonal processes, such as self-control, mind-wandering, flow, and aggression. Part III presents boredom in practical contexts like school and work, and sheds light on its role for health-related behaviors, psychosocial well-being, and aesthetic experiences. The book concludes by summarizing the state of boredom research, identifying promising areas for future research, and providing directions for how research on boredom can be advanced. As the authoritative book on boredom, this handbook is an essential resource for students and researchers of psychology, sociology, education, sport science, and computer science.By Philip Berners. 2024
This timely book critically evaluates the factors which shape an events industry as it develops, with the aim of helping…
to narrow the disparate behaviours and practices of organisers within the global marketplace of international events.Stemming from an innovative qualitative research project, which included interviews with senior events organisers at landmark venues in both the UK and Poland, this volume provides an insight into both the emerging events industry in Poland and the developed events industry in the UK, highlighting cross-cultural risk and safety gaps that may impact organisers, clients, attendees, suppliers, and workers. The book highlights the importance of a unanimous global approach to events organisation, the creation of a professional community of practice, and ethos of self-learning within the events industry and the need for an international professional association for organisers involved with providing international events. The book explores the three themes of 'Event Culture', 'Tourism and Events', and 'Risk Awareness at Events', thus focusing on long-term factors of events industries.International in scope, this book will appeal to students on courses such as managing events, planning events, project management, and hospitality and tourism studies, as well as events organisers in locations where events is an emerging industry.By Yannick Slade-Caffarel. 2024
Social ontology is the study of the nature and basic structure of social reality. It is a rapidly growing field…
at the intersection of philosophy and social science that has the potential to greatly assist social researchers of all kinds. One of the longest running projects in social ontology has developed over the better part of the last four decades through the work of Tony Lawson and the Cambridge Social Ontology Group. Cambridge social ontology has its origins in an assessment that the widespread explanatory failure of modern mainstream economics, as well as in the social sciences more generally, is due to sustained ontological neglect and the resulting use of research methods that are inappropriate, given the nature of social material. The Cambridge project’s aim has been to rectify this neglect through conducting explicit and sustained inquiry into the nature of social material with a view to elaborating an explanatorily powerful conception of social ontology. The result is social positioning theory. This book is an introduction to the key features of social positioning theory, provides context as to the theory’s development and illustrates how social positioning theory can clarify the natures of phenomena such as gender and the corporation.Cambridge Social Ontology is for social scientists, philosophers and all readers interested in gaining a better understanding of the nature of social phenomena.By Sławomir J. Magala, Christiane Erten, Roger Matthew Bell, Marie-Therese Claes, Senem Yazici, Atila Karabag. 2024
Hofstede Matters offers an updated presentation of the evolving views of academics and teachers who have worked with Hofstede’s research…
findings since the publication of the first edition of Culture’s Consequences in 1980. The authors reflect on their changing beliefs about the concept of cultural dimensions that led to a radical change in the way cultures were dealt with in business schools across Europe and beyond. Hofstede’s dimensions made "thinking" about culture more accessible overnight by creating a conceptual framework that teachers, students, managers, and consultants could grasp and easily apply in international comparisons. The book shows the man behind the value dimensions framework through the eyes of teachers and academics many of whom dealt with Hofstede personally. Contemporary contributors as well as younger academic fellow researchers evaluate the past paradigms and look behind the scenes to better understand the developments of the more recent ones. Jointly, they try to decide if Hofstede still helps us to overcome uncertainty when confronted with actions undertaken with different values in mind. Did he nudge us in the desirable direction? Offering a unique analysis of the strengths, criticisms, and legacy of Hofstede’s work, this book will appeal to academics and students across disciplines including cross-cultural management, critical management studies, and international management.By Sarah Horton, David Sloan. 2024
Accessibility is a core quality of digital products to be deliberately addressed throughout the development lifecycle. What Every Engineer Should…
Know About Digital Accessibility will prepare readers to integrate digital accessibility into their engineering practices. Readers will learn how to accurately frame accessibility as an engineering challenge so they are able to address the correct problems in the correct way.Illustrated with diverse perspectives from accessibility practitioners and advocates, this book describes how people with disabilities use technology, the nature of accessibility barriers in the digital world, and the role of engineers in breaking down those barriers. Accessibility competence for current, emerging, and future technologies is addressed through a combination of guiding principles, core attributes and requirements, and accessibility‑informed engineering practices.FEATURES Discusses how technology can support inclusion for people with disabilities and how rigorous engineering processes help create quality user experiences without introducing accessibility barriers Explains foundational principles and guidelines that build core competency in digital accessibility as they are applied across diverse and emerging technology platforms Highlights practical insights into how engineering teams can effectively address accessibility throughout the technology development lifecycle Uses international standards to define and measure accessibility quality Written to be accessible to non‑experts in the subject area, What Every Engineer Should Know About Digital Accessibility is aimed at students, professionals, and researchers in the field of software engineering.By Wolfgang Garn. 2024
We are drowning in data but are starved for knowledge. Data Analytics is the discipline of extracting actionable insights by…
structuring, processing, analysing and visualising data using methods and software tools. Hence, we gain knowledge by understanding the data. A roadmap to achieve this is encapsulated in the knowledge discovery in databases (KDD) process. Databases help us store data in a structured way. The structure query language (SQL) allows us to gain first insights about business opportunities. Visualising the data using business intelligence tools and data science languages deepens our understanding of the key performance indicators and business characteristics. This can be used to create relevant classification and prediction models; for instance, to provide customers with the appropriate products or predict the eruption time of geysers. Machine learning algorithms help us in this endeavour. Moreover, we can create new classes using unsupervised learning methods, which can be used to define new market segments or group customers with similar characteristics. Finally, artificial intelligence allows us to reason under uncertainty and find optimal solutions for business challenges. All these topics are covered in this book with a hands-on process, which means we use numerous examples to introduce the concepts and several software tools to assist us. Several interactive exercises support us in deepening the understanding and keep us engaged with the material.This book is appropriate for master students but can be used for undergraduate students. Practitioners will also benefit from the readily available tools. The material was especially designed for Business Analytics degrees with a focus on Data Science and can also be used for machine learning or artificial intelligence classes. This entry-level book is ideally suited for a wide range of disciplines wishing to gain actionable data insights in a practical manner.By Null Chander Velu. 2024
What strategic challenges are faced by both start-ups and incumbent firms, and what opportunities do these challenges create for business…
model innovation? Focusing on the underpinning theory and concepts of business models, this book identifies new business models capable of creating sustainable competitive advantage, and guides readers through their implementation. A detailed introduction outlines current research in business model innovation (including directions for future research) and global business cases are applied throughout to illustrate key issues. Topics covered include market creation, leadership, digital technology adoption, small- and medium-sized enterprises, start-ups, sustainability, socio-economic development and conduct risk. Also discussed are the principles of the architecting economic systems, the role of government in influencing business models design, and how organisational 45structures must adapt in the context of business model innovation.France was interwar Poland’s main ally, and the biggest source of the country’s foreign investment. The two roles were closely…
connected: Paris used its position in Warsaw to win preferential treatment for its firms, while Polish authorities depended on France to finance their modernization policies and military spending. The relationship’s asymmetric character bred conflict, and in the 1930s dissenting voices compared French actions in Poland to imperialism and colonial expansion. This book untangles the complex mix of economics, policy, and politics in Franco-Polish relations. Based on government and company-level sources, it evaluates the part played by French capital in Poland and discovers the mechanisms ruling French FDI and public loans. Exploring case studies of specific sectors and themes, it asks questions about the modernizing potential of FDI, interwar economic imperialism, the workings of asymmetric investment, and the interactions between investments and politics. Understanding the unequal footing of Warsaw and Paris, it goes beyond imperialistic interpretations, and examines the leeway available to the weaker partner of the relationship. The book contributes to economic history of Central and Eastern Europe, and, more generally, to our understanding of the position of peripheral countries in the interwar global system.By Siobhán E. Merriman, Katherine L. Plant, Kirsten M. Revell, Neville A. Stanton. 2024
Since the introduction of Automated Vehicles (AVs) on roads, there have been a number of high-profile collisions, which have highlighted…
significant driver challenges. These include challenges associated with drivers’ trust in the automation, their knowledge and awareness of the AV’s capabilities and limitations and their reduced situation awareness of the road environment and the vehicle. Solutions are needed to overcome these challenges, so that the expected benefits of AVs can be realised.Driver Training for Automated Vehicles: A Systems Approach identifies the training requirements for drivers of AVs and takes a systematic approach to design, develop, implement and evaluate a comprehensive training package to address these requirements. This book explores how training can overcome the driver challenges associated with AVs by improving drivers’ mental models, trust in automation, decisions and behaviour when activating a Level 4 AV. It presents a systematic approach to the training lifecycle, by first presenting the current state of research into AVs, identifying the challenges and training requirements for drivers of AVs, and then developing and evaluating a training programme to achieve these requirements. This fascinating title highlights the need for drivers to undergo training for AVs, and takes us a step closer to this need. It walks readers through a systematic, four-step process and provides practical guidance to develop and evaluate an effective training programme. The reader will develop a thorough understanding of the current driver challenges with AVs and the methods and systems to mitigate them through current knowledge and research.This book is an ideal read for practitioners, designers and academics with a professional or research interest in AVs. Its appeal extends to those in the fields of automotive design, Systems Engineering, Human Factors and education and training.By Blake Roeber. 2024
This book aims to change the way we think about politics, talk about politics, and vote.It does this in two…
ways. First, it shows it’s impossible for a Republican, Democrat, or voter in any political party to possess a significant level of knowledge of facts that would help their party secure or maintain political power. It calls this knowledge “political knowledge” and shows how unfeasible it is for anyone to have it. Second, it explains how we might best be politically engaged, given that we have virtually no political knowledge.To argue that it is impossible for any person to possess a significant amount of political knowledge, the book depends on two empirically verified facts. The first is that we have virtually no means of acquiring political information except by believing what other people say. The second is that, when people start talking about politics, they become highly unreliable. They’re very likely to say false things when voicing political opinions because they employ a belief‑forming process that psychologists call “identity protective cognition.” This is a type of reasoning aimed, not at truth, but at preserving one’s membership in some identity‑defining group. In combination, these two observations cast serious doubt on all of our political beliefs.As the book explains, however, the proper response to this doubt is not to simply avoid politics. Rather the best response is a kind of humble but real engagement with politics that constantly manifests one’s awareness that one is, at best, making educated guesses rather than speaking and acting from knowledge.Peter L. Berger on Religion provides an overview and critical assessment of the work of one of the most influential…
sociologists of the 20th century.Situating Berger’s writings on religion and secularisation in the broader framework of social constructionism, the book argues that neither he nor the research influenced by him consistently followed the constructionist paradigm. This assessment is informed by a close examination of The Sacred Canopy (1967), in particular. The volume also offers a Berger‑inspired constructionist framework for the study of religion.This book is an excellent resource for students and researchers interested in the intersection of religion and social theory.By Maria Cristina Longo, Pete Canalichio. 2024
This book presents a roadmap for a brand licensing strategy to enable companies to leverage brand value and expand into…
other product categories or into different markets. Readers will understand both the risks and the benefits of partnerships, how to make the most of a brand's potential in the digital platform, and how to extend a product portfolio through established brands. Brand licensing can be of interest to many stakeholders, including large companies, entrepreneurs, retailers, agencies and even celebrities. This is also a relevant strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises that want to expand their business abroad, reconciling their limited size with their flexibility. Examples of long-standing partnerships are presented and analyzed, with detailed consideration of what has made them so successful.Through the presentation of case studies in the sectors particularly interested in brand licensing, including the art, character, entertainment, fashion, jewelry, sports and toys sectors, this book aims to highlight opportunities, limits and challenges from both the licensor and licensee’s perspectives. In particular, these case studies represent an effective basis for comparing different experiences and brand licensing strategies, allowing readers to understand both best practices and pitfalls to avoid when building an effective and enduring licensing program. Chapter objectives, summaries, key learning points and discussion questions reinforce understanding and aid reflection.Practical yet theoretically grounded, this book is particularly suitable for postgraduate, MBA and executive education students interested in strategic brand management, licensing strategy and brand expansion. This book can also serve as a valuable guide for professionals interested in expanding their brand portfolio.This book provides effective tools to evaluate the strategic side of brand licensing and the selection of the appropriate company to be a licensee. Online resources include PowerPoint slides, a test bank of exam questions, a case list and discussion questions.By Stanley L. Engerman, Jacob Metzer. 2004
By Robert Kudłak, Ralf Barkemeyer, Lutz Preuss, Anna Heikkinen. 2023
The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporate Activities, the Environment and Society adds to the current debate on the societal-level…
impacts of corporate social responsibility (CSR). This edited volume offers conceptual and empirical contributions highlighting various dimensions of CSR impacts. What differentiates the book from others is that we examine the impact of CSR at the societal level, rather than focussing only on those at occur at the level of the firm. The book’s contributions present novel perspectives that comprise, among others, empirical analyses of CSR activities, accounts of impacts in various geographic locations, and state-of-the-art reviews of extant literature on the topic. The practical examples and theory-building presented here help us to better capture the societal impacts of contemporary CSR practice. This book will appeal to scholars and students as well as practitioners and policy makers interested in practical and theoretical aspects of CSR impacts at the societal-level.By Angel Au-Yeung, David Jeans. 2023
A Financial Times best business book of 2023In 1998, at the age of 24, Tony Hsieh sold his first company…
to Microsoft for $265 million.In 2009, at the age of 35, he sold his e-commerce company, Zappos, to Amazon for $1.2 billion.In 2020, at the age of 46, he died.Tony Hsieh revolutionized both the tech world and corporate culture. He was a business visionary. He was also a man in search of happiness. So why did it all go so wrong?Tony Hsieh’s first successful venture was in middle school, selling personalized buttons. At Harvard, he made a profit compiling and selling study guides. From there, he went on to build the billion-dollar online shoe empire of Zappos.The secret to his success? Making his employees happy.At its peak, Zappos’s employee-friendly culture was so famous across the tech industry that it inspired copycats and earned a cult following. Then Hsieh moved the Zappos headquarters to Las Vegas, where he personally funded a nine-figure campaign to revitalize the city’s historic downtown area. But as Hsieh fell deeper into his struggles with mental health and drug addiction, the people making up his inner circle began changing from friends to enablers.Drawing on hundreds of interviews with a wide range of people whose lives Hsieh touched, journalists Angel Au-Yeung and David Jeans craft a rich portrait of a man who was plagued by his eternal search for happiness and ultimately succumbed to his own demons.By Boomer Trujillo. 2024
This book argues that in order for people to live well, they must develop a virtue of playfulness. Inspired by…
Aristotle, the book draws on work from philosophy, classics, history, biology, psychology, and media studies to understand the place of play and playfulness in a good life.Many philosophers have written about play, from Presocratics such as Heraclitus to contemporary philosophers such as Bernard Suits. Some champion play as the most crucial value in life. Others deride it and warn strongly against it. This book evaluates the research on how play and playfulness bear on living a good life and becoming a good person. Its main argument is that in order to understand play as an action, we must understand playfulness as a virtue in the lives of good people. The author develops a theory of playfulness from an Aristotelian perspective. Like Aristotle sees the virtues as necessary for a happy life, the author argues that playfulness is necessary for living well. And just as Aristotle offers multifaceted characterizations of core virtues, the author argues that playfulness includes aspects of seriousness, creativity, humility, optimism, and sociality. Playful people take play seriously, learn new skills, overcome failure, strive for success, and keep others in mind. As a result, playful people have a better shot at living well.The Virtue of Playfulness is an accessible, empirically informed, and detailed treatment of the philosophy of playfulness. It will appeal to scholars and students in philosophy and related disciplines who are interested in virtue ethics, moral psychology, philosophy of games, philosophy of sport, and ancient philosophy.By Kaushal Shah. 2024
The book focuses on a paradigm of blockchain technology that addresses cyber security. The challenges related to cyber security and…
the solutions based on Software Defined Networks are discussed. The book presents solutions to deal with cyber security attacks by considering real-time applications based on IoT, Wireless Sensor Networks, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Smart Grids. The book is useful for academicians and research scholars worldwide working in cyber security. It is also useful for industry experts working in cyber security.By Kristi W. Arth. 2024
Legal issues touch every aspect of organizations in the creative and cultural sectors. This book teaches non-lawyer, arts administration professionals…
and students how to identify and manage legal issues common to arts organizations.Legal Issues for Arts Organizations demystifies common legal problems and helps readers to approach them proactively. With an easy-to-remember “issue-spotting” process, the book helps develop the average administrator’s “eye” for legal issues, so that the administrator knows when to do more research and when to seek out professional legal assistance. Written by a law professor and former intellectual property litigator with experience in arts policy and administration, this book provides a framework that arts professionals can use to navigate legal issues with increased confidence. It provides an overview of the American legal system, teaches a systematic process for identifying legal issues, trains administrators to read and understand contracts, gives practical advice for working with professional lawyers, and puts theory into practice with an applied learning component.Packed with practical tips and advice, this book provides a primer that every arts administrator and every arts- and nonprofit-management student will find immediately useful.A book adoption gift containing teaching support materials is available to instructors. To gain access, visit www.routledge.com/9780367771133.By Brídín Clements Cotton, Natalie Robin. 2024
Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production investigates both the history and current realities of life and work in…
professional theatrical production in the United States and explores labor practices that are equitable, accessible, and sustainable.In this book, Brídín Clements Cotton and Natalie Robin investigate the question of artmaking, specifically theatrical production, as work. When the art is the work, how do employers navigate the balance between creative freedom and these equitable, accessible, and sustainable personnel processes? Do theatrical production operations value the worker? Through data analyses, worker narratives, and analogues to the evolving gig economy, Theatre Work questions everything about theatrical production work – including our shared history, ways of operating, and assumptions about how theatre is made – and considers what might happen if the American Theatre was reborn in an entirely new form.Written for members of the theatrical production workplace, leaders of theatrical institutions and productions, labor organizers, and industry union leaders, Theatre Work: Reimagining the Labor of Theatrical Production speaks to the ways that employers and workers can reimagine how we work.This comprehensively updated third edition explores the nature and role of environmental management and offers an introduction to this rapidly…
expanding and changing field. It focuses on challenges and opportunities, and core concepts including sustainable development. The book is divided into five parts: Part I (Introduction to Environmental Management): four introductory chapters cover the justification for environmental management, its theory, scope, goals and scientific background Part II (Practice): explores environmental management in economics, law and business and environmental management’s relation with environmentalism, international agreements and monitoring Part III (Global Challenges and Opportunities): examines resources, challenges and opportunities, both natural and human-caused or human-aggravated Part IV (Responses to Global Challenges and Opportunities): explores mitigation, vulnerability, resilience, adaptation and how technology, social change and politics affect responses to challenges Part V (The Future): the final chapter considers the way ahead for environmental management in the future. With its well-structured coverage, effective illustrations and foundation for further, more-focused interest, this book is easily accessible to all.It is an essential reference for undergraduates and postgraduates studying environmental management and sustainability, and an important resource for many students on courses including environmental science, environmental studies and human geography.