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Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insight and analysis into E-commerce in China and how it has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society. Split into four distinct sections, the book first lays out the theoretical foundations and fundamental concepts of E-Business before moving on to look at internet+ innovation models and their applications in different industries such as agriculture, finance and commerce. The book then provides a comprehensive analysis of E-business platforms and their applications in China before finishing with four comprehensive case studies of major E-business projects, providing readers with successful examples of implementing E-Business entrepreneurship projects.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.

Current motivation theory and research face serious theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges. One central challenge is the fact that research has focused mainly on motivation for traditional achievement tasks such as graded assignments and normative educational trajectories. Arguably, current motivation theory and research may be inadequate to characterize adaptive motivation in the uncertain, changing, and unpredictable environments of the twenty-first century. How might motivation researchers conceptualize students’ motivation in such dynamic and complex contexts? How can motivational research inform educators, administrators, and policymakers in designing curricula, pedagogy, and evaluation and accountability systems to prepare students for such a world? In the current chapter, we address these challenges with a perspective on motivation as a complex dynamic system (CDS) that is based in the person’s identity. We begin with a brief review of the challenges to the current prevalent approach to motivation research, highlighting the need for a new paradigm. We then review assumptions of the CDSs approach that render it useful for understanding motivation in continuously changing and unpredictable environments. We then present a CDS conceptual model of identity and motivation that incorporates constructs and processes from a variety of identity and motivational theories – the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI). We follow with a conceptualization of the characteristics of the identity-motivation system most adaptive for growth in changing and unpredictable environments. We end by considering the implications of this perspective for motivational theory and research and for educational practice and policy.

Purpose – This chapter explains what is known about international homicide trends, highlights gaps in existing literature, and proposes avenues for future research that will expand understanding about international homicide.

Design/methodology/approach – We review extant literature on international homicide trends, and draw on data from the World Health Organization from 1990 to 2015 to identify patterns in contemporary international homicide trends.

Findings – We demonstrate evidence of an international homicide drop across most regions around the world. Nonetheless, the homicide decline is not a global event as several countries – particularly countries with high homicide rates – did not experience reductions in homicide during this period. The key question remains as to what the causes of changes in international homicide rates are and why many countries experience very similar reductions in homicide while a few experienced increasing violence. We propose potential explanations and suggest areas for future research.

Originality/value – This chapter documents an international homicide decline occurring between 1990 and 2015. We also demonstrate that homicide trends are likely influenced by factors beyond local phenomena and domestic policies since homicide rates largely track together for regions throughout the world. Accordingly, the chapter suggests potential avenues for future research that can help better explain this trend.

This paper aims to introduce a three-dimensional smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) framework for simulating supercooled large droplets (SLD) dynamics at aeronautical speeds.

To include the effects of the surrounding air, a multiphase model capable of handling high density-ratio problems is adopted. A diffusive term is incorporated to smooth the density field and avoid numerical instabilities. Additionally, a particle shifting technique is used to eliminate anisotropic particle distributions.

The framework is validated against low-speed droplet impingement experimental results and then applied to the droplet impingement at high speeds typical of SLD conditions. Preliminary parametric studies are conducted to investigate the post-impact splashing. It is observed that a thicker water film can decrease the crown diameter and a smaller impact angle can suppress upward and forward splashing.

A three-dimensional multiphase SPH framework for SLD dynamics at a wide range of impact speed is developed and validated. The effects of particle resolution, water film thickness and impact angle on the post-impact crown evolution are investigated.

Purpose and need for study: This chapter analyses the leading industries in the new European Union (EU) member states, focusing on automotive, information technology (IT), aerospace, textiles, machinery, chemicals, renewable energy, and food and beverages. It compares the 13 new EU countries that joined in 2004, 2007, and 2013, considering factors like industrial diversity, infrastructure, workforce skills, national economic policies, and geographical position. The aim is to enhance the EU’s industrial competitiveness and contribute to overall prosperity and social cohesion.

Methodology: The methodological instruments used in this chapter include literature review, EU documents search, historical analysis, comparative study, data handling, and interpretation.

Findings: A careful look at the top industries of the new EU states and their capacity to increase the EU export potential shows the need for the following measures: digitalisation (growing e-commerce, digital marketing, and data analytics to meet global market demand), the monitoring of geopolitical factors and dynamics of the internal market, the expansion of external economic relations, and the reduction of barriers in global trade. This study finds that the new EU members confronted several challenges and deficiencies over the years, which are highlighted (e.g. outdated infrastructure, skilled labour shortage, environmental issues, bureaucratic hurdles, and lack of transparency in certain areas), along with the associated solutions and initiatives meant to remedy them.

Practical implications: This study derives important practical implications linked to new business opportunities, investment decisions, infrastructure improvement, skills development, and educational policies.

The adoption of a model‐building approach to marketing is today inevitable, due to improvements in hardware and software and the increased professionalisation of marketing and its techniques. Aggregate response models are focused upon, particularly the issues of which responses are realistic and should be modelled, how the response can be expressed and how a choice can be made between options available. The traditional model‐building process is described, and the inclusion of correct variables found to be critical, the primary means of doing this being statistical analysis. Simple expressions perform as effectively as more complex ones, and should be used if able to give operationally meaningful results. Cross‐correlation analysis and biased estimation techniques provide good guides to usable variables and their effects.

Many factors like CEO (“the chief executive officer”) decision can influence efficiency and productivity in insurance firms. This paper seeks to address this issue.

To test the effect of CEO power on the efficiency and the productivity of the European insurance industries, the authors use the flexible Fourier cost function and they decompose the total factor productivity growth.

The result shows that after the integration of the CEO power score, not only efficiency scores in each country have changed, but also the order of non‐life insurance systems. Also, the CEO power influences the growth of productivity and an optimal power of the CEO can allow the insurance firm to be more productive and more efficient.

In this paper the authors model a new cost function in which they include the CEO power score; they also decompose the total factor of productivity in which they include the effect of the growth in the CEO power score.

Organizational learning (OL) is receiving increasing attention from researchers and practitioners alike. In fact, some have suggested that the only sustainable competitive advantage is a firm's ability to learn faster than its competitors. In spite of OL's promise, the field has been slow to evolve. The primary impediments to the development of OL theory are that inconsistent terminology is used for comparable concepts and that different definitions are used to describe the phenomenon. Furthermore, many theorists have neglected to make explicit their underlying assumptions about the phenomenon. Employing an inductive approach, this review surfaces the implicit and explicit assumptions of OL researchers, identifying three key dimensions that differentiate perspectives: (1) unit of analysis—individual, group, organizational, and inter organizational; (2) cognitive/behavioral emphasis; and (3) the learning‐performance relationship.