The world is changing at an unprecedented pace and organizations worldwide are finding it difficult to match their operational efficiency and sustainable development targets with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). Due to massive scarcity of resources, global supply chains are under immense pressure, leading to social, economic, and environmental challenges. Holistic sustainable development across social, economic, and environmental dimensions to create an equitable society varies widely in its efficiency towards creating a resilient and inclusive future.

Fostering Sustainable Development in the Age of Technologies highlights the interplay between various disruptive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Autonomous robots, Big Data Analytics, Blockchain, Cloud Computing, and Digital Twins, and holistic sustainable development. In the highly dynamic business environment, there is an urgent need to catch up with the paradigm shift being created using these technologies. The studies brought together here emphasise how various disruptive technologies can aid in sustainable development, offering possible strategies to help tackle the challenges we face today and embrace the new normal. Collaboration, adaptation, and continuous learning hold the key in overcoming the grand societal challenges and maintaining a balance between social, economic, and environmental dimensions.

This edited collection appeals to a wide range of academics and professionals including graduate, postgraduate, and PhD research scholars, and faculty members in the areas of International Management, International Business, International Marketing, Finance, Human Resources and Corporate Governance. They are also of interest to Government Agencies, Practicing Managers, Research Agencies, and Libraries of Business Management Colleges and Universities.

Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology (RHETM) is a book series dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to a broad range of topics related to the history and methodology of economics.

This Handbook explores the ways in which religion among the African people has been applied in situations of conflict and violence to contribute to sustainable peace and development. It analyzes how peacebuilding inspired and enabled by religion serves as the foundation for sustainable development in Africa, while also acknowledging that religion can also be a tool of destruction, and can be used to fuel violence and underdevelopment. Contributors to this volume offer theoretical discussions from existing literature, as well as experiences of practitioners, to deepen the readers' understanding on the role of religion and religious institutions in peacebuilding and development in Africa. The Handbook provides reflections on possible future developments as well, thereby aligning with the goals of SDG 16.

This open access book focuses on the 'downstream' element of PFM, that is how public organisations utilise public resources. It argues that improvements in PFM/IC will only flow from a recognition that what really matters is the quality of management. Management reform is an essential precondition to the successful implementation of many new techniques. Only when a managerial capacity exists willing to take advantage of the opportunities created by such technical developments, is it beneficial to pursue them. The benefits of PFM/IC flow from an improved quality of management.

Despite enormous efforts, reform of public financial management and internal control (PFM/IC) in developing and transition economy countries has not been particularly successful in improving the quality of public service delivery and the use of public resources. This book outlines why this is and suggests a new approach. The analysis set out in this book is particularly relevant especially given limited national budgets and squeezed international aid budgets.

These management changes include to the political/official relationships, to management structures, to budgetary and accounting arrangements and to the relationships between, particularly, the ministry of finance and other ministries. They require the delegation of operational management, developments in financial management and in accountability arrangements and a reconsideration of personnel policies, penalty and sanction arrangements. Managerial training for the civil service will be a key requirement. Reform may impact upon traditional cultural practices. These changes are all inter-related and should be coordinated.

This volume presents state-of-the-art contributions to the theory and practice of economic policy. In light of the 2007/2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, it discusses the relevance and effectiveness of various traditional economic policy tools and instruments. Written by experts in economics and public finance, the contributions highlight the virtues and institutional advantage of political authorities who can rely on a broader set of tools than those available to the private sector and are able to engage over a longer time horizon. The economic policy tools and prescriptions in this volume are founded on a rigorous reinterpretation of theoretical models of macroeconomics.

This book sets out to try to understand why segregated schooling still exists, especially in northern Italy in South Tyrol where they practice 'separate but equal' education. Supported by the UN, the Austrian and Italian governments, the province is considered a 'peace model' due to its consociational approach to dealing with the region's Nazi and Fascist past, which has led to a 'negative peace'. The autonomy statutes, which derived from this 'peace', resulted in an education system that is linguistically segregated for the purposes of protecting South Tyrol's ethnolinguistic minorities.

Broken into two parts, the book begins with the background history of the province, before describing the region's geographical layout, demographics, local identity, and its three-part schooling system. By examining responses to South Tyrol's education system, and its impact on local group dynamics, this book explores the implications that segregated schooling may have on second language acquisition. This case study will be of interest to students and scholars of Italian studies, anthropology, linguistic ethnography, sociolinguistics, and second language education.

This book states that the seventh information revolution is the intelligent Internet, and 5G is the foundation of the seventh information revolution. This book gives a clear introduction to the three major scenarios, six characteristics, core technologies, and global landscape of 5G, and answers "What is true 5G?" ?This book also gives an in-depth explanation of 5G-enabled traditional industries, and outlines the profound changes that 5G will bring to transportation, medical, industry, and agriculture. Finally, the author made bold assumptions about the opportunities and challenges that human society faces in the post-5G era. For readers who want to fully understand 5G, this book provides an important reference and is a must-have book.

This book focuses on the innovative development of microfinance in China and takes Luqiao District, Taizhou as the example to sum up Chinese experiences in the local innovative development of microfinance and the application of that experience nationwide. Based on theoretical research regarding microfinance, this book analyzes the history and current situation of the development of microfinance in Luqiao District, and places emphasis on proceeding from three-pronged positioning, five characteristics and three major modes of microfinance's innovative development in Luqiao District to explore and summarize the Luqiao story of microfinance. Subsequently, this book takes five perspectives-the innovative development of small and medium-sized banks, the innovative development of non-banking financial institutions, the roles of private capital, the policies of the local government and cooperation between the Chinese Mainland and Taiwan-to analyze the experience and paths for helping the development of small and micro enterprises. Finally, based on the conclusions of the research, this book presents some inspirations from the innovative development of microfinance in Luqiao District and future prospects. This book will interest economists, scholars of China's economic model, and banking sector analysts.