Bücher veröffentlicht von IGI Global

Plastic pollution has been a growing concern globally, especially under the COVID-19 pandemic due to the use of personal protective equipment. While many engineers and environmental scientists have been addressing global plastic pollution, special attention must also be paid to smaller plastics such as micro- and nano-plastics. These smaller plastics pollute and affect the health of the public, environment, and marine life. Risk assessment of plastics is required to evaluate currently available treatment technologies and identify the significance of plastic pollution. Assessing the Effects of Emerging Plastics on the Environment and Public Health assesses the harmful effects of plastics on the environment and public health. It evaluates the potential risks of micro- and nano-plastics and reviews applications of modeling tools and prevention approaches using technologies to minimize plastic pollution through the development of biodegradable plastics or recycling and reusing plastics in environmentally friendly ways. Covering topics such as agroecosystems, preventive measures, and bioplastics, this book is an indispensable resource for environmentalists, environmental engineers, government officials, libraries, business leaders, students and educators of higher education, academicians, and researchers.

Currently, the main operations of companies are either directly or indirectly interconnected in a global-world context. Competition has drifted from an individual to a supply chain basis, where digitalization plays a key role. Companies with better digital capabilities achieve sustainable competitive market advantages. In this context, companies must identify their current position in terms of digital capabilities, link these capabilities to supply chain performance, define their future desired competitive position and how their digital capabilities are going to help them to get there, and forecast their future desired performance not only at the individual company but also at the supply chain level. Increasing Supply Chain Performance in Digital Society considers innovative approaches to measure, manage, and project towards the future of the digital capabilities of both individual companies and supply chains. It also examines the relations these have with performance being a practical tool to identify not only where they are today in terms of digital capabilities but also where they should be long term and the resources needed to get them there. Covering a range of topics such as artificial intelligence and risk management, this reference work is ideal for practitioners, researchers, scholars, business owners, industry professionals, academicians, instructors, and students.

The globalized world has experienced significant improvements in production and consumption in a heterogeneous way since the industrial revolution. However, the considerable environmental degradation and energy wars resulting from the limited fossil energy sources brought the issue of sustainable development to the world agenda. Sustainable development has become one of the most discussed issues at country and international levels and requires further investigation to fully understand how we can move towards a more sustainable future. Technological Development and Impact on Economic and Environmental Sustainability explores the determinants of economic, social, and environmental sustainability from a multidisciplinary perspective in the globalized world, analyzes the impacts of applied sustainable policies, and considers the improvements in the Sustainable Development Goals. Covering topics such as economic growth and climate change, this reference work is ideal for researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, industry professionals, instructors, and students.

The advent of Web 2.0 has led to a rebalancing of power between the customer and the company through the consumer's voice about the brand and referral behavior via electronic word of mouth. Customer opinions within the virtual brand communities can have a vast impact on a company's sales and image. It is crucial for companies to promote and use customer contributions in order to enhance their brand image, retain customers, and develop their marketing strategy. Social Customer Relationship Management (Social-CRM) in the Era of Web 4.0 provides relevant theoretical frameworks and the latest results of empirical research on the strategic role of marketing 2.0, digital customer experience, and social customer relationship management on social networks. Covering a range of topics such as disruptive marketing, artificial intelligence, and customer behavior, this reference work is ideal for marketers, IT practitioners, CRM specialists, industry professionals, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.

After the advent of the industrial revolution, the world experienced a rapid change in technology and lifestyle, which has led to a dramatic increase in energy demand. Unfortunately, many of the energy resources used in the past have negatively impacted the environment, from greenhouse gases to the depletion of natural resources. Society now faces the challenge of ensuring sustainable and clean energy production so that society may receive efficient energy without damaging the Earth's health. In order to promote an environmentally healthy society, strategic green policies must be developed. Eco-Friendly and Agile Energy Strategies and Policy Development establishes interdisciplinary coverage in sustainable energy development by strategic thinking and lifestyle changes by designing agile energy strategies and policies. It offers research, experiences, and lessons learned that offer integrated conceptual and empirical contributions from different interrelated fields. Covering topics such as energy security risks, green economy, and solar power plants, this premier reference source is an indispensable resource for engineers, government officials, business leaders, environmentalist organizations, economists, sociologists, students and educators of higher education, libraries, researchers, and academicians.

Many organizations, including government institutions and agencies, continue to increase their financial investment on information technology (IT) solutions. Despite these investments, during the global pandemic, employees and managers are either struggling or unequipped to use these tools effectively and efficiently for sustainability, competitive advantage, and decision making. Due to global pandemics, companies must harness the power of various digital channels such as big data analytics and artificial intelligence to better serve their customers and business partners. Using Information Technology Advancements to Adapt to Global Pandemics provides insights and understanding on how companies and organizations are using advances in IT to adapt to global pandemics such as COVID-19. It explores how the various IT approaches can be used for strategic purposes. Covering topics such as higher education institutions, religious organizations, and telework, this premier reference source is an essential resource for government officials, business leaders and managers, industry professionals, IT specialists, policymakers, libraries, academicians, students, and researchers.

The globalized world has witnessed the development of a number of economic integration projects, including at least two Eurasian projects: the Eurasian Union and the Belt and Road Initiative. These initiatives blur the European Union Global Strategy adjusted in 2016 to be an attempt to reconsider and enhance the role and place of the European Union as the leader in the global arena. These initiatives must be studied and considered further to understand the numerous benefits, opportunities, and challenges they face. Regional Economic Integration and Global Competition in the Post-COVID-19 Era: European Union, Eurasian Economic Union, and the Belt and Road Initiative provides insight into the reasons and consequences of the discrepancy in the legal restrictions, institutional policies, and mutual skepticism on the economic integration progress. The text is also useful in defining and promoting a regional strategy of economic integration and the creation of mutual trust. Covering a range of topics such as international trade, environmental risk management, and globalization, this reference work is ideal for policymakers, government officials, strategic decision makers, practitioners, researchers, scholars, academicians, instructors, and students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations and individuals to embrace new practices such as social distancing and remote working. During these unprecedented times, many have increasingly relied on the internet for work, shopping, and healthcare. However, while the world focuses on the health and economic threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, cyber criminals are capitalizing on this crisis as the world has become more digitally dependent and vulnerable than ever. Cybersecurity Crisis Management and Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic provides cutting-edge research on the best guidelines for preventing, detecting, and responding to cyber threats within educational, business, health, and governmental organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic. It further highlights the importance of focusing on cybersecurity within organizational crisis management. Covering topics such as privacy and healthcare, remote work, and personal health data, this premier reference source is an indispensable resource for startup companies, health and business executives, ICT procurement managers, IT professionals, libraries, students and educators of higher education, entrepreneurs, government officials, social media experts, researchers, and academicians.

It has never been more important for schools and instructors to consider best practices and strategies to appropriately design effective English language courses. Teaching English successfully to diverse audiences requires an understanding of how to communicate with students based on their individual needs and backgrounds. In order to ensure schools provide the best English language education possible, they must examine and apply innovative research in the field. Intercultural Communication and Ubiquitous Learning in Multimodal English Language Education reviews and reports the current research methods and theoretical advances in English language learning linked to applied technologies and action research. The book considers the most innovative approaches to English language education from an intercultural and communicative perspective that covers key concepts such as collaborative ubiquitous learning and multimodal communication. Covering topics such as social networks, virtual environments, and intercultural awareness, this reference work is crucial for academicians, researchers, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

Thermodynamics is a common field of study involving many different specialties including physics, chemistry, geology, and cosmology. Thermodynamics is incredibly useful for manmade industrial processes related to material studies, renewable energy, and more. It is essential for professionals to stay current with the developments in thermodynamic systems, as thermodynamics proves vital for understanding natural macroprocesses related to geology, areology, and cosmology. Advances in the Modelling of Thermodynamic Systems discusses the recent advances in modeling of thermodynamic systems as well as the state-of-the-art manmade industrial processes and natural processes taking place on Earth and beyond. It reveals an interdisciplinary vision of thermodynamics from the minuscule to the immense. Covering topics such as entropy generation, linear modeling, and statistical analysis, this premier reference source is an essential resource for engineers, chemists, physicists, mechanics, geologists, cosmologists, students and educators of higher education, libraries, researchers, and academicians.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is establishing significant connectivity networks, including a complex network of aviation e-services and trade network systems. It has promoted economic and financial development in regions covered by the BRI in terms of infrastructure construction and interconnection and attracted large foreign direct investment flows. At the bottom of the escalation of the China-US trade dispute is a more fundamental shift where China has become the US's strategic competitor, and political-economic tensions have continued to climb. Opportunities and Challenges for Multinational Enterprises and Foreign Direct Investment in the Belt and Road Initiative analyzes the opportunities and challenges of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and cross-border foreign investments transactions. This valuable reference adopts an economic and international business perspective to address these issues and presents novel and state-of-the-art research insights into the role of MNEs and their influence on the Silk Road Economic Belt. Covering topics such as economic determinants, foreign direct investment promotion policies, and trade gravity model, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for business leaders and CEOs, policymakers, geopolitical experts, politicians, government officials, sociologists, libraries, students and educators of higher education, researchers, and academicians.

Wellbeing is foundational to citizens' individual and collective ability to acknowledge, address, and alleviate ongoing struggles, shared risks, and the unprecedented challenges of our time. A holistic focus on wellness across campus communities is timely and important, given that national and global justice movements are calling upon post-secondary institutions to address the ways in which education systems have been reproducing dominant narratives, reinforcing systemic discrimination, and retaliating against education leaders who work to disrupt structural inequalities. Leadership Wellness and Mental Health Concerns in Higher Education offers diverse perspectives about whether and how campus leaders around the world are sustaining and advancing health and wellness in unprecedented times and amplifies diverse voices in the exploration of how to advance individual and collective wellbeing in higher education. Covering a wide range of topics such as stress management and burnout, this reference work is ideal for academicians, scholars, researchers, administrators, practitioners, instructors, and students.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an overwhelming impact on business operations such as global supply chain management, remote work, emerging economic and financial models, and international expansion plans. It is essential to thoroughly analyze the current state of international business operations so that they may progress in this era of uncertainty. Analyzing International Business Operations in the Post-Pandemic Era provides a synthesis of multiple international business functions and issues in the post-pandemic era that culminated in a single volume based on empirical research, theoretical development, and business practice. It discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered international business operations. Covering topics such as deglobalization, corporate behavior, and resilient global supply chains, this premier reference source is an essential resource for economists, business leaders and managers, entrepreneurs, government officials, students and educators of higher education, libraries, researchers, and academicians.

Ethnography in the digital age presents new methods for research. It encourages scientists to think about how we live and study in a digital, material, and sensory world. Digital ethnography considers the impact of digital media on the methods and processes by which we perform ethnography and how the digital, methodological, practical, and theoretical aspects of ethnographic research are becoming increasingly interwoven. This planet does not exist in a static state; as technology grows and shifts, we must learn how to appropriately analyze these changes. Practices, Challenges, and Prospects of Digital Ethnography as a Multidisciplinary Method examines the pervasiveness of digital media in digital ethnography's setting and practice. It investigates how digital settings, techniques, and procedures are reshaping ethnographic practice and explores the ethnographic-theoretical interactions through which "old" opinions are influenced by digital ethnography practice, going beyond merely transferring conventional concepts and techniques into digital research settings. Covering topics such as data triangulation, indigenous living systems, and digital technology, this premier reference source is an essential resource for libraries, students, teachers, sociologists, anthropologists, social workers, historians, political scientists, geographers, public health officials, archivists, government officials, researchers, and academicians.

Narrative theory goes back to Plato. It is an approach that tries to understand the abstract mechanism behind the story. This theory has evolved throughout the years and has been adopted by numerous domains and disciplines. Narrative therapy is one of many fields of narrative that emerged in the 1990s and has turned into a rich research field that feeds many disciplines today. Further study on the benefits, opportunities, and challenges of narrative therapy is vital to understand how it can be utilized to support society. Narrative Theory and Therapy in the Post-Truth Era focuses on the structure of the narrative and the possibilities it offers for therapy as well as the post-modern sources of spiritual conflict and how to benefit from the possibilities of the narrative while healing them. Covering topics such as psychotherapy, cognitive narratology, art therapy, and narrative structures, this reference work is ideal for therapists, psychologists, communications specialists, academicians, researchers, practitioners, scholars, instructors, and students.

Black women in higher education continue to experience colder institutional climates that devalue their presence. They are relied on to mentor students and expected to commit to service activities that are not rewarded in the tenure process and often lack access to knowledgeable mentors to offer career support. There is a need to move beyond the individual resistance strategies employed by Black women to institutional and policy changes in higher education institutions. Specifically, higher education policymakers and administrators should understand and acknowledge how the race and gender makeup of campuses and departments impact the successes and failures of Black women as they work to recruit and retain Black women graduate students, faculty, and administrators. Black Women Navigating Historically White Higher Education Institutions and the Journey Toward Liberation provides a collection of ethnographies, case studies, narratives, counter-stories, and quantitative descriptions of Black women's intersectional experience learning, teaching, serving, and leading in higher education. This publication also provides an opportunity for Black women to identify the systems that impede their professional growth and development in higher education institutions and articulate how they navigate racist and sexist forces to find their versions of success. Covering a range of topics such as leadership, mental health, and identity, this reference work is ideal for higher education professionals, policymakers, administrators, researchers, scholars, practitioners, academicians, instructors, and students.