Growth

Growth
Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 665
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0262042835

A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Smil takes readers from bacterial invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous, looking at disease-causing microbes, the cultivation of staple crops, and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic activities—developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally, he looks at growth in complex systems, beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth of cities. He considers the challenges of tracing the growth of empires and civilizations, explaining that we can chart the growth of organisms across individual and evolutionary time, but that the progress of societies and economies, not so linear, encompasses both decline and renewal. The trajectory of modern civilization, driven by competing imperatives of material growth and biospheric limits, Smil tells us, remains uncertain.

Improving Credit Card Consumer Protection

Improving Credit Card Consumer Protection
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Financial Services. Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit
Publisher:
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2007
Genre: Consumer credit
ISBN:

Technological Change, Financial Innovation, and Diffusion in Banking

Technological Change, Financial Innovation, and Diffusion in Banking
Author: W. Scott Frame
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 33
Release: 2010-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1437928730

Discusses the technological change and financial innovation that commercial banking has experienced during the past 25 years. Describes the role of the financial system in economies and how technological change and financial innovation can improve social welfare. Surveys the literature relating to several specific financial innovations, which are new products or services, production processes, or organizational forms. The past quarter century has been a period of substantial change in terms of banking products, services, and production technologies. Moreover, while much effort has been devoted to understanding the characteristics of users and adopters of financial innovations, we still know little about how and why financial innovations are initially developed.

Paying with Plastic, second edition

Paying with Plastic, second edition
Author: David S. Evans
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2004-12-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780262550581

The definitive account of the trillion-dollar payment card industry. The payment card business has evolved from its inception in the 1950s as a way to handle payment for expense-account lunches (the Diners Club card) into today's complex, sprawling industry that drives trillions of dollars in transaction volume each year. Paying with Plastic is the definitive source on an industry that has revolutionized the way we borrow and spend. More than a history book, Paying with Plastic delivers an entertaining discussion of the impact of an industry that epitomizes the notion of two-sided markets: those in which two or more customer groups receive value only if all sides are actively engaged. New to this second edition, the two-sided market discussion provides useful insight into the implications of these market dynamics for cardholder rewards, merchant interchange fees, and card acceptance. The authors, both of whom have researched the industry for more than 25 years, also examine the implications of the recent antitrust cases on the industry as well as other business and technological changes—including the massive consolidation brought about by bank mergers, the rise of the debit card, and the emergence of e-commerce—that could alter the payment card industry dramatically in the years to come.

Work, In Progress: Bringing Human Values Back to the Workplace

Work, In Progress: Bringing Human Values Back to the Workplace
Author: Frank Mertens
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2018-09-21
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1483489345

The world came to a tipping point in 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States of America. A man who has incited racism, hatred, sexism, and more is now the leader of the free world, but we should not be overly surprised: The same cutthroat values are being promoted at companies everywhere. Frank Mertens, a seasoned global marketing executive who has worked at some of the world's most admired firms, challenges these values in this commentary that promotes bringing the healthy ideas we teach our children at home to our workplaces. Looking at the cultural dynamics influencing society now, and the aspirations of the next big working generation, the author focuses on two themes that will help guide our efforts on the job: security and purpose. Join Mertens as he examines how we've lost our way in the workplace over the past sixty years, why the stakes are so high, and what we can do to rediscover our shared humanity in Work, In Progress.

The Diffusion of E-commerce in Developing Economies

The Diffusion of E-commerce in Developing Economies
Author: Zeinab Karake-Shalhoub
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2007-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1847202993

Business managers in developing countries would find in this volume a solid background to e-commerce at large, and to its significance within a wider framework of a resource-based view of their business and of the national economic settings within which they operate. The book is of special importance to the academic community of Internet students, as well as for those interested in economic development, by providing a pioneering insight into the issue of e-commerce in developing countries which may emerge strongly in the upcoming years. Aharon Kellerman, Growth and Change Undoubtedly an important contribution. E-commerce is a technology which holds the possibility of levelling the global trading playing field. This book provides a necessary review of current issues in e-commerce in developing economies, and a useful collection of good practice and solid theory for scholars, policymakers and professionals. John Peters, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, UK This is a road map of some of the challenges governments and companies face, in terms of physical and human infrastructure, as countries wrestle with a rapidly changing commercial environment. As the virtual world conquers ever more of the material world, countries that adapt and adopt to a cyber reality will likely do better. If you are doing business or setting policy in a developing country, you want to understand and address the issues raised in this book. Juan Enriquez, CEO, Biotechonomy, US and author of The Untied States of America and As the Future Catches You The authors of this unique volume provide a timely and valuable perspective on how technology and the Internet revolution are changing business and spurring development across the world, especially in emerging countries. Utilizing a framework grounded in rigorous theory, they provide a fine-grained understanding of electronic commerce adoption processes by public and private sector entities in developing countries. In so doing, they consider how each exchange encounter is shaped by, and in turn shapes, relational characteristics that form the basis for growth and development. Using a resource-based view of economies, the authors hypothesize that differences in the adoption of electronic commerce technologies in developing economies can be attributed to a sense-and-respond capability of governments with respect to new technologies, which they term technological opportunism . One of their main objectives is to establish the distinctiveness of technology opportunities from related constructs, such as innovativeness, and show that it offers a significantly better explanation of technology adoption and diffusion than do existing constructs. The book examines a number of developing countries experiences with electronic government, bringing real life experience to the adoption of an e-government model by looking at the issue from strategic as well as operational perspectives. The volume s ground-breaking research and conclusions will be of great interest to professionals, researchers and students in the areas of e-commerce and economic development; government officials of developing and newly industrialized countries contemplating e-government initiatives; and information technology managers.

Mobilizing the Information Society

Mobilizing the Information Society
Author: Robin Mansell
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 541
Release: 2000
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0198295561

This work offers an assessment of progress made towards the "information society". It begins from the premise that the construction of such a society in Europe is a dynamic process and that the journey towards a society so dependent upon digital information is far from straightforward.

Computerization Movements and Technology Diffusion

Computerization Movements and Technology Diffusion
Author: Margaret S. Elliott
Publisher: Information Today, Inc.
Total Pages: 616
Release: 2008
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781573873116

" "Computerization movement" (CM) refers to a special kind of social and technological movement that promotes the adoption of computing within organizations and society. ... Through theoretical analyses, systematic empirical studies, field-based studies, and case studies of specific technologies, the book shows CMs to be driven by Utopian visions of technology that become part of the "ether" within society. The empirical studies presented here show the need for designers, users, and the media to be aware that CM rhetoric can propose grand visions that never become part of a reality and reinforce the need for critical and scholarly review of promising new technologies."--Back cover.

World Development Report 1978

World Development Report 1978
Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 135
Release: 1978
Genre: Adaptation (Biology)
ISBN: 0821372823

This first report deals with some of the major development issues confronting the developing countries and explores the relationship of the major trends in the international economy to them. It is designed to help clarify some of the linkages between the international economy and domestic strategies in the developing countries against the background of growing interdependence and increasing complexity in the world economy. It assesses the prospects for progress in accelerating growth and alleviating poverty, and identifies some of the major policy issues which will affect these prospects.