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This paper aims to present a solution that enables organizations to monitor and analyse the performance of their business processes by means of Big Data technology. Business process improvement can drastically influence in the profit of corporations and helps them to remain viable. However, the use of traditional Business Intelligence systems is not sufficient to meet today ' s business needs. They normally are business domain-specific and have not been sufficiently process-aware to support the needs of process improvement-type activities, especially on large and complex supply chains, where it entails integrating, monitoring and analysing a vast amount of dispersed event logs, with no structure, and produced on a variety of heterogeneous environments. This paper tackles this variability by devising different Big-Data-based approaches that aim to gain visibility into process performance.

Authors present a cloud-based solution that leverages (BD) technology to provide essential insights into business process improvement. The proposed solution is aimed at measuring and improving overall business performance, especially in very large and complex cross-organisational business processes, where this type of visibility is hard to achieve across heterogeneous systems.

Three different (BD) approaches have been undertaken based on Hadoop and HBase. We introduced first, a map-reduce approach that it is suitable for batch processing and presents a very high scalability. Secondly, we have described an alternative solution by integrating the proposed system with Impala. This approach has significant improvements in respect with map reduce as it is focused on performing real-time queries over HBase. Finally, the use of secondary indexes has been also proposed with the aim of enabling immediate access to event instances for correlation in detriment of high duplication storage and synchronization issues. This approach has produced remarkable results in two real functional environments presented in the paper.

The value of the contribution relies on the comparison and integration of software packages towards an integrated solution that is aimed to be adopted by industry. Apart from that, in this paper, authors illustrate the deployment of the architecture in two different settings.

David Peace’s Red Riding quartet ( 1974; 1977; 1980; 1983 ) was published in the UK between 1999 and 2002. The novels are an excoriating portrayal of the violences of men, focusing on paedophilia and child murder, the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper and, predominantly, the blurring of boundaries between the activities of police officers, criminals and entrepreneurs. This chapter aims to examine the way in which the criminal entrepreneur draws on socially constructed ideas of masculinity and the capitalist ideal in order to establish identity. This will be achieved through an examination of John Dawson, a character central to the UK Channel Four/Screen Yorkshire’s Red Riding Trilogy, the filmed version of the novels, first screened in 2009. The central role of networks of powerful men in creating space for the criminal entrepreneur and the cultural similarities between police officers and criminal entrepreneur will be explored.

Using the research approach of bricolage, the chapter provides a reflexive commentary on the films, drawing on a number of other texts and sources, including news accounts of featured events and interviews with the author David Peace and the series co-producer Jamie Nuttgens – an analysis of the texts, using a framework suggested by van Dijk (1993) and McKee (2003) features.

The centrality of the idea of hegemonic masculinity to the activities of both police officers, and criminals and businessmen and Hearn’s (2004) assertion that the cultural ideal and institutional power are inextricably linked are examined through an analysis of the role of Dawson (and his three linked characters in the novels) in the Red Riding Trilogy.

The chapter provides an analysis of one film series but could provide a template to apply to other texts in relation to topic.

The social implications of the findings of the research are discussed in relation to work on the impact of media representations (Dyer, 1993; Hall, 1997).

It is intended that the chapter will add to the growing body of academic work on the criminal entrepreneur and the ways in which media representation of particular groups may impact on public perception and construction of social policy.

The purpose of this paper is to improve understanding of the integration between big data (BD) and risk management (RM) in business processes (BPs), with special reference to corporate real estate (CRE).

This conceptual study follows, methodologically, the structuring inter-textual coherence process – specifically, the synthesised coherence tactical approach. It draws heavily on theoretical evidence published, mainly, in the corporate finance and the business management literature.

A new conceptual framework is presented for CRE to proactively develop insights into the potential benefits of using BD as a business strategy/instrument. The approach was found to strengthen decision-making processes and encourage better RM – with significant consequences, in particular, for business process management (BPM). Specifically, by recognising the potential uses of BD, it is also possible to redefine the processes with advantages in terms of RM.

This study contributes to the literature in the fields of real estate, RM, BPM and digital transformation. To the best knowledge of authors, although the literature has examined the concepts of BD, RM and BP, no prior studies have comprehensively examined these three elements and their conjoint contribution to CRE. In particular, the study highlights how the automation of data-intensive activities and the analysis of such data (in both structured and unstructured forms), as a means of supporting decision making, can lead to better efficiency in RM and optimisation of processes.

The article aims to investigate whether the integration between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and intellectual capital (IC) reports could be a plausible issue. To address this aim, the paper posits three main research questions: whether there is a theory able to explain the relationship between IC and CSR (RQ1); whether empirical surveys provide evidence of the links between CSR activities (CSRA) and IC (RQ2); and whether organizations have started to disclose social and intangible issues in a single document within the Italian context (RQ3).

To answer the RQs, we decided to arrange three different literature reviews. In detail, to address RQ1, we searched for theoretical studies focussing on an resource-based view (RBV) perspective of IC or CSR or both. To address RQ2, we searched for empirical studies addressed to test the links between CSRA and the creation and development of organizational IC. To address RQ3, we searched for empirical studies focussing on companies’ experiences of integration of CSR and IC reports or on surveys on this theme in the Italian context.

All the three literature reviews provide evidence that the trend to move towards an integration of social and IC issues in a single report is a plausible issue, from a theoretical, management and disclosure point of view.

The main limit of the research lies in its theoretical nature; however, the study can provide an impulse for further research on the existing trend in the real-life context, and can also provide the theoretical basis on which to build a model that, starting from the relationships among the different kinds of voluntary reports, provides the criteria and methods to integrate the firm’s corporate voluntary reports in a single report. For researchers, this result also has an implication to control for intangibles, for example, assessing the relationship between CSR and corporate performance may explain some of the mixed findings that have occurred in the past.

The article inserts CSR and IC within the RBV theory. Such recognition provides managers the theoretical framework to treat them conjointly, being aware that these two dimensions are intertwined. The article also provides evidence that CSRA impact on IC creation and development. The main implication for company managers is that, when developing a strategy aimed at strengthening IC, they should consider not only all components of intellectual capital but, above all, also include CSR actions and attributes in strategy formulation. Finally, the article provides evidence of a trend towards an integration of CSR and IC reports within the Italian territory. An integrated CSR–IC approach could have relevant implications on the development of the Italian territory characterized by a large number of SMEs and networks of firms that are an integral part of the local community, whose success is often related to their capability to acquire consensus from local stakeholders such as employees, public authorities, financial organizations, banks, suppliers and citizens.

The article provides three main contributions: first, the paper suggests that the integration of the two different perspectives IC and CSR finds its theoretical justification in the RBV theory, which is scarcely applied to explain the link between these two perspectives; second, the article provides evidence of the real effects that investments in CSR have on the maintenance and developing of organizational IC; third, it provides evidence that there is a trend moving towards an integration of social and IC issues in a single report in the Italian context.

Chapter one of this valuable book focuses primarily on the construction industry and emphasises on thematic areas such as industry entities, including its social and economic impact supported by the workforce within the industry. The workforce, which consists of a wide variety of training, semi-skilled and unskilled labourers, is crucial to the building sector. These people are vital to the conception, management and accomplishment of construction projects in various industries. The chapter also highlights the lack of female gender involvement and how the gender gap would be filled.

The body of literature in the field now commonly known as the “quality of working life” (QWL) has grown steadily over a period in which the industrialised nations have increasingly come to question the role and status of human beings in the modern technological environment. In recent years concern with the nature of work, its impact upon people, and their attitudes towards it, seem to have sharpened. Investigation of, and experimentation with, the qualitative aspects of working life—its ability to confer self‐fulfilment directly, for example, as opposed to being a means of acquiring goods—has gained momentum under the influence of a unique set of economic, social, political and technological factors. The outpouring of books, reports and articles from a wide variety of sources has, not surprisingly, grown apace.

There are encouraging signs that mental health, as opposed to mental illness, is beginning to move up the political agenda, but much still needs to be done to challenge misconceptions. Drawing on the growing literature on social capital, this paper looks at the case for building a new agenda for mental health promotion, one which recognises that we all have mental health needs, whether or not we have a diagnosis. Such needs underpin all health and well‐being and provide a rationale for placing mental health at the centre of the new public health debate.

This paper aims to investigate the views of English football supporter representatives on the implicit club–supporter relationship, pertaining to a normative social contract which can be used to help improve football club governance.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted within an exploratory enquiry, intentionally investigating the fan perspective to understand supporters’ views without the influence of owner self-interest which often leads to commercialisation and/or mis-management.

Findings show evidence of a normative social contract that reflects many supporters’ dissatisfaction with current practice and provides guidance for the expectations of both parties.

This research aims to stimulate further academic discussion on the underlying principles behind good club and industry governance. It provides a new lens with which to view the club–supporters relationship, adding to previous studies in the area of club governance.

There are implications for both clubs and the forthcoming Independent Football Regulator following a parliamentary Bill that recognises the community importance of clubs and supporters’ unique stakeholder position.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first academic paper linking social contract theory to football. By implementing the research findings, clubs can improve their governance, social capital, accountability and engagement practices in ways considered equitable by both parties.

RETIRING prime ministers are customarily offered an earldom. Because this often involves a change of name and historical oblivion, some of the greatest among them, men like Pitt and Gladstone and Churchill, have declined the honour. They understood that it is not names which give confidence in things, but things which give confidence in names. What would an Earl Chartwell of Westerham mean to future generations compared with the clarion voice we know as Churchill?