This book reports on an outstanding thesis that has significantly advanced the state-of-the-art in the area of automated negotiation. It gives new practical and theoretical insights into the design and evaluation of automated negotiators. It describes an innovative negotiating agent framework that enables systematic exploration of the space of possible negotiation strategies by recombining diff…
This book investigates the design and implementation of market mechanisms to explore how they can support knowledge- and innovation management within firms. The book uses a multi-method design, combining qualitative and quantitative cases with experimentation. First the book reviews traditional approaches to solving the problem as well as markets as a key mechanism for problem solving. After a …
Many endangered species of wild animals are managed in captivity through studbooks. In this book these data-rich resources are mined in innovative, integrated and statistically tested ways to maximise information gain for conservation practice – whether for captive or released/reintroduced or managed wild populations. This book is thus an important tool for all species managers, and for stude…
This book attempts to link some of the recent advances in crowdsourcing with advances in innovation and management. It contributes to the literature in several ways. First, it provides a global definition, insights and examples of this managerial perspective resulting in a theoretical framework. Second, it explores the relationship between crowdsourcing and technological innovation, the develop…
Since their commercial introduction in 1996, genetically modified (GM) crops have been adopted by farmers around the world at impressive rates. In 2011, 180 million hectares of GM crops were cultivated by more than 15 million farmers in 29 countries. In the next decade, global adoption is expected to grow even faster as the research pipeline for new biotech traits and crops has increased almost…
This book offers the reader a new approach to the solvability of boundary value problems with state-dependent impulses and provides recently obtained existence results for state dependent impulsive problems with general linear boundary conditions. It covers fixed-time impulsive boundary value problems both regular and singular and deals with higher order differential equations or with systems t…
This study focuses on the effects of market reform on the life chances of rural people in China. Based on comparative ethnographical evidence from three townships of rural Guangdong province, this book provides a more recent and detailed story about the social inequality in rural China, a further explanation for the institutional analysis on the social stratification of China, a new typology of…
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 differentiate through sustainability performance on…
This book offers a detailed presentation of the principles and practice of life cycle impact assessment. As a volume of the LCA compendium, the book is structured according to the LCIA framework developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)passing through the phases of definition or selection of impact categories, category indicators and characterisation models (Classifi…
The book presents an overview of the International practices and state-of-the-art of LCA studies in the agri-food sector, both in terms of adopted methodologies and application to particular products; the final purpose is to characterise and put order within the methodological issues connected to some important agri-food products (wine, olive oil, cereals and derived products, meat and fruit) a…