Business Intelligence and Modelling

Display advertising constitutes one of the most efficient digital marketing strategies for the development of organizations’ brand awareness. Proper targeting of display ads campaigns potentially leads to the improvement of web users’ consideration and engagement about products and services that organizations offer through their websites. As prior studies indicate, this kind of consideration and engagement, which resulted through display ads, leads web users to type the name of the brand in search engines. The submitted search terms that contain the brand name of the organizations are called branded keywords, and the traffic that comes from them as branded search traffic. In this paper, the authors propose a computational data-driven methodology for the estimation and prediction of display advertising effectiveness in terms of optimizing brand popularity in search engines. One step further, preliminary research efforts of the authors indicate that branded search traffic visitors show higher interaction with the content of the websites regarding the time they spend and the number of pageviews they are browsing. In this respect, if display advertising campaigns increase the number of branded keywords and hence, the volume of branded search traffic, then this raises opportunities to optimize users’ engagement inside websites. Against this research gap, the authors proceed into a data-driven methodological process that is expanded in three major stages. In the first stage, the web mining process of extracting several web behavioral analytics metrics takes place for 125 continuous days at 7 courseware websites. At the second stage, analysis and interpretation of possible intercorrelations between the web analytics metrics take place with the purpose to integrate a computational model that relies on web behavioral data harvesting and their statistical analysis. Subsequently, in the third stage, the authors develop a data-driven computational model based on the agent-based modeling approach for estimating and predicting the optimal interaction rates of branded search traffic visitors of the examined websites. The results of the study constitute a practical toolbox for digital marketing practitioners in order to understand their display advertising effectiveness in terms of brand popularity and branded search traffic improvement for their websites.

Optimized paid search advertising campaigns composed of multiple data analytics insights and prior experiences of search engine marketing performances. However, when marketers compete in the battle of paid search ads’ rankings, complexity in optimization is increased. The higher the search ads’ ranking position, the greater the chance that users of search engines will click the ads. Despite the existing knowledge of the factors that contribute to the higher ranking position in search ads, such as proper relevancy among users’ search terms and text ads, or landing pages content, little is known about search engine users’ behavior after ads clicking. Low interaction or immediate abandonments from the landing pages potentially lead to a waste of budget spent on each paid advertising campaign. In this regard, marketers should pay much more attention to the interaction of paid traffic visitors after clicking on search ads, and not only to search engine rankings and user impression share rates. In this paper, the authors develop a computational data-driven methodology with a purpose to estimate and predict paid traffic visitors’ engagement in seven courseware websites after clicking on the search ads. The higher the engagement with the landing page, the higher will be the probability for conversions. At the first stage, web behavioral analytics are retrieved for 120 consecutive days in certain web metrics. These are the volume of paid traffic visitors, the average pages per session, the average session duration, and the bounce rate. Statistical analysis of the extracted web behavioral datasets takes place for understanding the cohesion, validity, and intercorrelations between the web metrics. KMO and Bartlett’s test of sphericity and Pearson coefficient of correlation are adopted. One step further, agent-based modeling and simulation is adopted as a methodology for abstracting and calibrating paid traffic visitors’ behavior inside the examined websites. Poisson distributions are implemented for predicting the potential engagement of paid traffic visitors in specific date ranges. Through this, the paper highlights its practical contribution to marketers with the purpose to develop search engine marketing campaigns composed of search ads relevant to the users and sufficient content engagement after ads clicking.

In the new era of marketing, being at the top results of search engines constitutes one of the most competitive advantages to the organizations’ overall online advertising strategy. In search engines, users type their search terms to cover their informational or purchasing needs and subsequently, search engines rank websites to the relevance of users’ search terms. The higher are the rankings of the websites, the more is the percentage of visitors who explicitly come from search engines. Nevertheless this obvious one marketing advantage, there is no prior research evidence as regards the level of engagement between users and content, after they visit the websites from search engines’ results. That is, users probably visit a website that comes at the top of search engines’ results, however, they do not spend an amount of time, or they do not browse in several webpages inside of it and vice versa. Against this backdrop, the authors proceed into the construction of a methodology composed of the retrieval of web analytics datasets and the development of computational models with the purpose to evaluate users’ engagement and content use within the websites. At the first stage, the authors proceed into the retrieval of web behavioral analytics at certain metrics for 125 sequential days as regards the time users are spending, the number of pageviews they are browsing, the percentage of immediate abandonments, and the percentage of traffic that explicitly comes from search engines. Following a data-driven methodological approach for the development of computational models, the fuzzy cognitive mapping at the descriptive modeling stage is adopted with the purpose to indicate the possible correlations between web analytics metrics. One step further, a corroborative and predictive model is proposed through the agent-based modeling method in order to compute the date ranges that resulted in the highest and the lowest engagements of users as regards the content of seven examined courseware websites. The proposed methodology and the results of this study work as a practical toolbox for decision makers while computing and evaluating through a data-driven way the level of engagement between visitors and the content they receive for online presence optimization on the web.

This paper examines the search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, which lead to effective results up to date. Each one of these SEO techniques is then applied to an existing, but non-SEO-oriented, live website, in order to observe and confirm their effectiveness after a monitoring period of seven months. The result of using the specific SEO techniques was the increase in the website’s organic visitors by 310% within this seven-month period, and to rank it in the first place in Google searches for particular keywords.

The rapid growth of mobile-phone industries has led webmasters to find alternative ways to develop web apps that are mobile-friendlier. Google company accomplished its mission to provide web pages that load almost instantly and are more accurate to mobile devices, through its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project. AMP technology has expanded to other industries like search engine optimization and e-commerce and this paper presents the benefits on these fields by using AMP.

Modeling of Management Systems has been gaining recently the attention of many researchers. Complex dynamic systems are no longer static but most of its subsystems are dynamic and highly nonlinear. Management of such systems has become a challenging and difficult problem. Decisions must be made everywhere and by different people assuring the efficient performance of a business or an enterprise. Old management models and methods cannot solve effectively today’s most management problems and challenges. The human behavior cannot be neglected. There is a need to consider the concept of spirituality in modeling management systems. Advanced mathematical theories and methods can benefit a lot on this effort. Artificial intelligence (AI) and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCM) are considered as appropriate advanced methods. A new unified method is proposed utilizing Intelligence and Wisdom in an integrated way. Spirituality is playing a central and crucial role on management systems. The Plato–Aristotle approach to developing a Spiritual Model for Management Systems is proposed for the first time and briefly explained.

I challenge the uniqueness of the Burdett–Judd-type dispersed price equilibrium in markets with social networks by adding two new assumptions in Galeotti’s (Int Econ Rev, 51(4): 1159–1174, 2010) environment: (a) consumer heterogeneity with regard to search costs, and (b) seller prominence in the specific sense that all consumers with positive search costs who search once observe the price of the prominent seller with probability one. I demonstrate that in this modified setting there exist parameters for which multiplicity of the Burdett–Judd-type dispersed price equilibria is established. It turns out that a necessary condition for multiplicity of the Burdett–Judd-type dispersed price equilibria is that the percentage of consumers with zero search costs be relatively low. As the social networks widen, this condition becomes more restrictive.

I examine numerically the robustness of the uniqueness of the Burdett–Judd-type dispersed price equilibrium within the search regret disutility framework proposed by concurrent research (Rouskas, 2020, “Equilibrium Price Dispersion with Search Regret Disutility”, Studies in Microeconomics). To this end, I focus on a duopoly where (a) there exists two-type consumer heterogeneity with regard to search costs; (b) one seller is prominent in the sense that all consumers with positive search costs who search once observe the price of this seller with probability one; and (c) consumers with positive search costs experience search regret disutility. In this environment, the aforementioned uniqueness result reappears, i.e., adding seller prominence to the search regret disutility framework does not affect the uniqueness of the Burdett–Judd-type dispersed price equilibrium.

I present a model with social networks and search regret disutility. The focus is on the number of the Burdett–Judd-type equilibria. In this model, provided that the search regret disutility parameter is high, a unique Burdett–Judd-type equilibrium emerges, even though multiple candidate equilibria may exist.

In modern conditions, requirements for the level of training of analysts, the need for training experts for modern decision support centers for managing business systems (situational centers) requires the use of modern educational technologies that can use the information accumulated in the systems, experience analysis and problem-solving, external sources for the formation of skills and abilities to analyze in new or complex crisis situations and the preparation of appropriate management decisions.

Digital transformation has penetrated every industry, along with the luxury goods industry. While most luxury firms stand passively towards digitalization, there are some that have successfully adopted a holistic approach towards it. Digital transformation is not an easy process, requiring many operational steps and the willingness to change the company’s mindset. Following a systematic mapping study, two case studies describe the digitalization process of two major luxury companies that stand out from the rest, proving that transformation is feasible and necessary.

This article explores how banks can best manage their real estate portfolios. A bibliographic review highlights the emergence of business ecosystems, as a new strategic approach that banks may need to follow in order to succeed in these activities. To highlight its practical implications, this approach is assessed in the context of a financial institution in Greece.

Modern business operations are increasingly characterized by relationships, networks, interactions, and value co-creation. In this dynamic and full of disruptions environment, business ecosystems are increasingly attracting the attention of both the academic and business communities as a new way for delivering innovation. These are collaboration-driven networks of resource-integrating stakeholders that come together in order to co-create value and create new business models.

One of the most important problems across public sector agencies in Greece is the design of their processes. Process design in building permit issuance will be analyzed in this paper, whereby the main contribution is the proposition of a new, fully revamped process, based on best-practice design principles. A comparison of the old and new processes further highlights the benefits and limitations of the proposed approach.

Smart cities' terminology is in the spotlight with a gaining interest as modern European urban areas are constantly growing and have a high share of responsibility for the world’s GDP. Additionally, a sustainable urban development is presented as a protective net for emerging challenges which risks both the socioeconomic environment and the citizens’ quality of life. Meanwhile, the implementation of smart city projects is possible to lead to a sustainable future, in Greece, this stage is still inadequate. In this respect, the focus of the present paper is to distinct and present the traits which allows a city to transit into a smart, sustainable, eco-friendly, inclusive, and quality livable urban ecosystem. The research is based on analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) comparing European and Greek cities. By using this specific strategic marketing analysis, two main factors are presented, the differentiation of Greek cities from other European and the unique barriers confronted by Greek municipalities in a post-crisis era. In conclusion, European cities are shown with a systematic strategic planning in adopting ICTs and a better utilization of the opportunities from this new era. Furthermore, European and Greek cities may have different needs but both will have, in the following years, a great opportunity to take advantage of new smart trends and elevate the quality of life, while getting the citizens and the communities involved.

A business can be perceived as a set of unique resources and capabilities forming the basis of its strategy. Several examples in the literature focus on the impact of internal resources on shaping the development of a new venture. Thus, the human capital of a business, and more specifically the skills and knowledge of employees and the background of the founding team, can play a decisive role in the future success of new start-ups (Westhead et al., Journal of Business Venturing 16: 333–358, 2001). Technological resources, such as patents and trade secrets, can also be an important source of competitive advantage, growth, and development. At the same time, technological knowledge emerges as a resource creating higher value for the business and utilization of knowledge in the core of knowledge-based entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the organizational resources and capabilities, such as coordination and control processes, internal learning processes, marketing, and the links developed with the external environment, for example, networking with other businesses, universities, or research institutes for exchange and dissemination of knowledge, significantly affect its innovative performance and growth. Since knowledge entrepreneurship is high-potential entrepreneurship, the driving force for economic growth and its targeted promotion can be achieved by focusing on those factors that can affect it. In the context of this article, we have seen that such factors may be the knowledge and skills of the founders, the size of businesses, and their ability to identify and exploit market opportunities, their export orientation, and whether they were established before or after the onset of the economic crisis.

The present study aims at examining the alignment between strategic aggressiveness and general organizational capability in sport businesses during a period of economic crisis. A questionnaire-based research with the participation of 161 senior and top-ranking members of sport businesses has been carried out. The instrument was based on modification of Ansoff’s instrument for measuring the variables in the strategic success hypothesis (SSH). The SSH proposed by Ansoff is a comprehensive theory that combines the strategic aggressiveness and organizational capability as major determinants of success. A knowledge of general organizational capability and the forces that shape this capability contribute to better understanding of the relationship between general organizational capability and performance. An alignment of strategic aggressiveness and general organizational capability in sport businesses during the period of economic crisis was ascertained. The study concludes that general organizational capability is critical in achieving high performance. Good capability affects both competitive and strategic activities. An improvement in general organizational capability is mandatory, if a firm is to deal successfully with increasing turbulence and more intense competition.

This article is dedicated to the problem of communication; on the process example is considered the part of documentation support with analysis that specify some mistakes and context risks that can decrease process performance.

This article is dedicated to the problem of business communication; examples of communicative acts and dialogues show the meaning of cultural tradition in verbal and non-verbal informational interaction between different persons.

The aim of this research work is to analyze the basic principles of reorganization with regard to companies operating in the supply chain. In addition, reference various reorganization methods are analyzed and also, a comparison between them. Regardless of the method used, the basic principles remain the same. Firstly, the reorganization must be radical and in order to achieve it, the support of all the parts of Logistics is needed. The first procedure to be carried out is to recognize the procedures to be applied and then to assess, analyze, and improve them. Then we move on to planning and finally implementing them. This process is continuously repeated aiming to a continuous improvement for the desired outcome.

The ways and methods used to restructure companies operating in the field of Logistics vary. The study focuses on companies that follow the “traditional” business model that takes place for many years. The purpose of these changes is to reorganize the Logistics departments with the main purpose of facing each department not independent, but as a whole. In this way, the quality of service is increased, which directly increases the competitiveness of the company.

The aim of this research is to reflect the impact of the Change Management process on supply chain companies. Despite the high failure rate (84%), companies decide to implement this process to achieve their goals. The process of changing management requires very good study and planning by the company’s leadership so as a consequence the smoothest possible transition to the next situation occurs. In order to capture the situation in the future, we will use modeling and business process simulation. Finally, the impact on employees of the company, the aims and results of the procedure will also play an important role.

Communication technologies are increasingly interacting in our professional and personal lives. Intense competition and advanced trends for personalized mobile and communication products and their transfer speed have introduced mass adaptability (Massive Customization, MC), which constitutes a competitive requirement for the Development of a Distribution and Logistics Network of the Information Technology Companies. In order to achieve this process, we suggest a prediction model, with the aid of Agent-Based-Modeling that presents the optimal ranking of the web page. The results of the study are particularly useful for the Logistics companies, as they entail the optimization of the distribution network.

Social media have more influence on e-branding than any other digital way. Furthermore, they have fundamentally changed the impact that advertised products have on the customers/consumers (Sivertzen, Journal of Product & Brand Management, 22(7), 473–483, 2013). The reason of this effect is based on the two-way communication between consumers and logistic companies. The extended use of the Internet is the main reason why consumers and logistic companies create immediate, intimate, and direct contact through social media. Taking any traditional measurement of branding, such as perception and memory, we will find out that they have a greater impact regarding the consumers’ time spent with the business. Using modeling and simulation applications, we will see that social media effect on relationships between logistic companies and customers.

Searching the web is a fundamental process that is performed by every active Internet user on a daily basis (Moreno, Online Information Review 37(4), 564–580, 2013). The subject matters of the search as well as the results have a direct impact on the e-branding that concerns the companies operating in the field of Logistics. Search engines are constantly evolving so that they can meet the ever-increasing needs of users. The search is mainly divided into natural search, the results of which are found by the search engines and paid search, which requires payment to gain access.

Email marketing is one of the most personal and versatile tools for e-branding and when designed properly it provides tremendous influence potential. In recent years, email marketing has been neglected as an e-branding campaign for its design. Unfortunately, an email campaign is very easy to be designed incorrectly. The problem is that the majorities of emails are not personally targeted at consumers and are poorly designed. In this research paper we will analyze how email marketing can be a proper tool for e-branding with regard to a Logistics company. Using modeling and simulation applications, we will see how an email campaign can have a positive impact on the relationships between Logistics companies and customers.

The role of Digital Marketing is confirmed by numerous studies, where the following challenges have been raised: explosion of data, social media, proliferation of channels, and shifting of consumer demographics, which correspond to the developments in the digital market, with the supply chain companies having to adapt to these challenges.In order to discover the role of Digital Marketing, we suggest a prediction model. It concerns the distribution of mobile devices and telecommunications services and presents the optimal ranking of the website, which is produced exclusively by electronic marketing. The modeling and simulation of the process was conducted with the aid of a system of agents (Agent-Based-Modeling, ABM). The results of the study are particularly useful for the Supply Chain companies, offering data in order to better understand the optimal level of adaptability of Digital Marketing. The results of the study are notably useful for the Logistics companies, as they result in the optimization of the distribution network.

Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is the radical transformation of an organization’s structure, culture, and business processes aiming at the improvement of factors such as cost, quality, service, and speed, which questions the core of an organization’s way to do everyday business. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is also a process that causes turbulences even on a well-structured and effectively organized corporation. Business history is full of examples of failure in BPR projects and ERP implementation. Therefore, the combination of two high-risk processes applied simultaneously on an organization—especially when it is characterized by lack of human resources, absence of documented work flows, obsolete ICT infrastructure, and negative corporate culture—makes the adoption of a risk management approach from the initial stages of the project indispensable. The purpose of this paper is to present such a case of a public sector organization so as to highlight the importance of critical success and failure factors for ERP-led BPR projects. The results show that organizational culture, top management commitment, use of information technology, organizational structure, and the ability to incorporate change management are fundamental factors that can contribute to successful BPR/ERP implementation. On the other hand, the resistance to change was found to be the most dominant critical failure factor.

In the times when world population is increasing while available farmland is decreasing, pesticides have become a necessity guaranteeing food production and enhanced productivity. However, through the years of pesticides use and the advancement in environmental and health sciences many adverse effects in human health and the environment have been revealed forcing for better regulation and control of pesticides marketing and use. This led to the adoption of continuously stricter legal frameworks regarding pesticides all around the world. The more stringent regulations and the demand of substances with environmental friendlier toxicological profile have led also to significant increase in cost and time of development of new compounds. Under the worldwide economic circumstances and the specific to the industry conditions pesticide companies are consolidating expanding to seeds market increasing concerns about the power concentration, the operation of the market and agri-food system. As a measure of corporate concentration in this article we proceed in calculating the concentration indexes of the top 3, 5, and 7 companies and the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index of the top 20 corporations of the sector. The results show the special attention that should be paid to future possible further corporate consolidations.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the customers’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as well as to identify its impact on their buying intentions. In order to answer the main research questions, the study examines, through the review of literature and the conduction of empirical analysis, the conceptual transformation of CSR, the disclosure approaches provided for the communication with the stakeholders, and finally, through the conduction of a survey, its effect on consumers perceptions and consumers’ buying behavior. The study reveals that customers embrace highly the concept of CSR and demand from organizations to have wider responsibilities. Even if suspicious about their motives, they are willing to support the companies that engage in social activities and change their buying habits. Although, the level of respondents’ awareness was rather low, they showed willingness to enrich their knowledge on the subject.

In this paper, we are trying to understand the role of cultural intelligence and intercultural competence for developers and specialists in localization of computer games. We indicate the parameters that will form the basis of the developed cultural intelligence of specialists working in this field.

The main focus of the research is concentrated on the analysis of the teaching practices of the discipline “Intercultural Communication” and the methods of contextual learning. The main idea of the classes using the method of contextual learning is related to immersion of students through performance and visualization in the context of the studied micro and macro cultures. The purpose of in-class sessions with the use of the mentioned techniques is to give students the opportunity to practice the theoretical material and improve the skills of intercultural communication.

The paper dwells on intercultural communication as a multilevel concept that includes the following levels: ethnopsychological, ethnographical, cultural country-specific, language, communicative, didactic, and art. Didactic level provides for the involvement of ethnomethodic experience, which reveals the specifics of social, cultural, educational, scientific, and professional traditions of different nations of the world in the process of ethnocultural education. As well as the use of the experience of folk pedagogy, which seeks to foster national identity, instill values, and overcome the gap of cultural traditions through the esthetic and artistic image of the national culture. Intercultural education is the learning of the main features of non-native culture, the process of moving from an ethnocentric position to the awareness, respect, and evaluation of an unfamiliar culture. We suggest using cross-cultural adapters to prepare for cross-cultural interaction and increase cross-cultural sensitivity.

The present paper offers teachers, trainers, and facilitators in the field of intercultural communications a variety of training tools to enhance their work with both practical methodology and entertaining component, which creates better learning results with students of all ages. The material presented in this paper is based on the author’s professional experience of developing games to train intercultural skills and using edutainment tools for business audiences who study the intercultural science for their international business purposes.

The modern stage of society’s development is characterized by the accelerated pace of globalization, rapid development of the world information space, which leads to a quick change in working conditions, public attitudes and beliefs. The upbringing of the younger generation is of particular importance. The article considers objective and subjective factors that generate a special state of individual consciousness, the social basis of destructive behavior. For the purpose of its prevention, it is necessary to strengthen the moral, spiritual and religious values that are common to all peoples and faiths.

The formation of personality in modern information age occurs with interaction of real world, artificial, and augmented reality. The network society contributes to emergence of new human culture with transformation of moral sphere, social interaction, and technology. Changes in education are connected with challenges of modern society, while rapid development of information technologies is a consequence of new political, social, cultural, technological, and economic factors. Network socialization in the face of today world’s globalization becomes a main factor of formation of new personal identities, which are formed beyond the scope of education system. The question of control of identity formation in the context of network society is a key goal of every society and government. Importance of current social situation which defines the specific character of personality development in connection of real world and artificial reality determined the topic of this research.

The effectiveness of learning process nowadays largely depends on the applied scientific and pedagogical approaches. The use of modern methods and approaches in the learning process contributes to the development of creativity, overcoming stereotypes during the process. Teachers should contribute to the increase of cognitive activity of students. In determining the scientific and pedagogical approaches to improving the educational process, it is necessary to take into account the impact of educational reforms, economic, social, and political features of the regions. Modernization of the education system necessitates the search for new methods and an integrated approach to the organization of the learning process. Management of educational institutions in modern society is at a qualitatively new level with the use of information support decision-making based on network computer technology, modern software tools, provides for the relationship with regional and Federal management systems.

Our work discusses Critical Thinking and proves that its modeling and application in a linguistic university course play a great role in the effective teaching of Business English to students. In this paper, we try to focus on a complex concept of Critical Thinking, discuss a proposed Critical Thinking development model to teach language courses, and provide a description of components of the model and methodology we use to develop critical thinking and linguistic competences of a learner. Authors organized pilot testing of the methodology on the groups of students to reveal the effects of the proposed model in the teaching of a Business English course and found out that the higher the level of critical thinking, the more effective results and acquisition of the foreign language for special purposes we have.

This work outlines the problem of communication overload and considers techniques to overcome it. The work is based on such concepts as “communication overload,” “Internet detox,” and “overcoming techniques.” The work examines the types of techniques (communication, technical, intermittent use of social networks), behavioral patterns of users both in relation to their use by themselves and in the manifested reactions to the use of techniques by others. The general method is a literature review, the empirical part is based on in-depth interviews to identify the need for the use of such techniques and possible additional ways to overcome communication overload.

In the last few decades museums attempt to be more visitor-oriented by adopting new technologies that increase the visitor’s interaction on site and enhance visitor’s experience at museum. Emerging technologies offer many opportunities to museums, not only providing access to information but also to the development of virtual museums that can compete in the contemporary marketplace. Despite the realization that new technologies can offer a sound basis upon which museums transform the traditional visitors’ experience and increase visitors’ interaction, there are limited researches in this area. Unfortunately, museum digital strategy is not a priority for museum strategists and they are not aware of beginning on their path toward becoming truly optimized for the evolving digital landscape. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to propose a transformational framework in order to help the museum managers in terms of understanding and to draw more insights from the suggested principal drivers of museum digital strategies. The practical contribution of this paper is that it provides guidelines to cultural professionals regarding the strategies that can implement to digitalize the overall experience and make visits more enjoyable.

Firms are forced to re-examine the strategy as the growth of complexity in business environment has led to new competitive challenges and requirements. It is essential, though, that the IS strategy should be aligned with business strategy in order to be a source of sustainable competitive advantage and this is the reason why many companies have spent their resources to increase that advantage by examining their internal processes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the SISP process and highlight the potential benefits from SISP implementation and alignment between business and IT strategy. Furthermore, it explores the significant challenges associated with SISP implementation. It provides an insight into better and further understanding of the SISP process, the benefits, and the implementation issues. Such research will help academics provide a more accurate understanding of the role of alignment in the SISP process, and help executives in organizations realize the potential for IT strategies to implement them in increasing the competitive advantage. The practical contribution of this paper is that it provides guidelines to IT executives regarding the IT strategies that can implement to increase firm performance and business competitiveness.

In the last few decades museums attempt to be more visitor-oriented by understanding of visitor preferences. This is achieved by adopting new technologies that increase the visitor’s interaction on site and enhance visitor’s experience at museum. Internet and digital technologies provide opportunities for the exhibition’s audience by building communities to share information and for curators who interact with visitors by getting feedback, comments, ideas, and contributions. Emerging technologies offer many opportunities to museums, not only providing access to information but also to the development of virtual museums that can compete in the contemporary marketplace. Although there are different motivations, different reasons and expectations from the interaction with the museum, not all institutions in the heritage tourism embrace this approach. Despite the realization that new technologies can offer a sound basis upon which museums transform the traditional visitors’ experience and increase visitors’ interaction, there are limited researches in this area. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide a state of the art of the literature relating to the emergence of new technologies and its increasingly important role with visitors’ experience and interaction in cultural sector. The practical contribution of this paper is that it provides guidelines to curators regarding the strategies that can be implemented in order to get visitors involved in the overall museum experience and make visits more enjoyable.

Today there is a growing interest in the combination of knowledge management techniques with the emotions, induced by music, to build Music Recommendation Systems. Advertisers can exploit music recommendations to select the type of music that can produce appropriate emotional reactions to consumers. The goal of our research is to specify an efficient and accurate way for classifying listeners’ emotions and recommend music tracks. Metadata and the emotions, induced by music, are utilized to implement a prototype of a low cost personalized Music Recommendation System. Experiments are conducted on a set of 1000 tracks with three classes of music emotions. The results indicate the classification algorithm that can better predict the emotions evoked by a song, based on associated acoustic metadata. Eventually some conclusions are given.

In the present work we study the phenomenon of knowledge-based entrepreneurship within Greek companies active in high technology sectors. The analysis is based on data from a structured questionnaire released to a representative sample of Greek-based start-ups established in the period 2000–2010.The study proposes taxonomy of firms into groups based on specific variables: the intensity of business knowledge, their innovative performance, and the networking. According to the statistical analysis, four clusters of companies emerged. We conclude that although we look at high-tech firms, which are considered pioneers in terms of innovation, a large proportion of companies are characterized by very low innovation performance, with founders in the majority having low and medium education levels.

The present paper focuses on the Greek knowledge-based firms. Assuming that Knowledge-Based Entrepreneurship (KBE) is a high-potential entrepreneurship, we study different factors which shape this type of entrepreneurship as it may represent a new source of development for the Greek economy. We are interested in the educational attainment of founders and employees, the main areas of expertise of founders, and the factors influencing the creation of new ventures. We also explore the sources of knowledge for the exploration of new business opportunities and the importance of networking in different firm operations. Therefore, this research focuses on both the founder and the founding team as well as on the overall operations of the firms. Analysis is based on a structured questionnaire circulated to a representative sample of new firms that have been established between 2000 and 2010 and belong to various high-technology sectors. The examined sectors have been classified into three groups: (1) high-technology manufacturing, (2) medium-high-technology manufacturing, and (3) high-technology knowledge-intensive services. To understand the exploitation differences on sources of knowledge and the networking among the founders, depending on their educational background, we performed analysis of variance. Finally, we explore how these characteristics affect the performance of firms which in turn can generate economic growth, especially in the crisis period. Regarding the KBE perspective in exploring innovativeness and growth of newly established Greek firms, we derive useful conclusions for both the management of firms as well as for the public policies to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in general.

Modern urban centers are complex ecosystems consisting of other subsystems and networks which purpose is to ensure a long-term sustainable development and quality of life. This research focuses on both the development of Smart City services and applications by private entities and the investment trends in Greece. Under study are the business prospects rising from the new, small, and innovative formed firms and partnerships which they have developed between different actors and stakeholders of a city. Afterwards, the research analyzes the development and implementation of ongoing strategies from private companies, emphasizing on the necessity to form partnerships to achieve the prerequisite goals of the transition of conventional cities to smart. Thus, a targeted study was conducted to a group of eight multinational companies highly active in the Greek economy and have collaborated at least once with an entity from the Greek Municipalities. In conclusion, a series of systematic efforts are directed by private entities including active research and development in technologies which promote a sustainable economic environment and high quality of life. In the present study, companies are being actively involved in the development and implementation of innovative and cost-effective solutions aiming in developing, automating, and saving energy applications. Finally, it is pointed that a sustained and coordinated effort is required to implement the necessary actions to address the goal holistically. Additionally, it seems that the right planning and the developed strategy in a city ready to accept changes are the main tools for modernization.

The present study aims at examining the alignment between environmental turbulence and strategic aggressiveness in sport businesses during a period of economic crisis. A questionnaire-based research with the participation of 161 senior and top-ranking members of sport businesses has been carried out. The instrument was based on modification of Ansoffskampsk#x2019;s instrument for measuring the variables in the Strategic Success Hypothesis (SSH). An alignment of environmental turbulence and strategic aggressiveness in sport businesses during the period of economic crisis was ascertained. This fact indicates that sport businesses apprehend the level of environmental turbulence in which they venture and consequently react promptly, which is shown by the strategic aggressiveness they shape.

Deming developed and disseminated a new management system in the business world. He improved the competitiveness of both Japanese and American businesses. Deming’s vision was the transformation and continuous improvement of western management, applying statistical thinking, and leading to quality in products and services through the cooperation of all stakeholders.The purpose of this study was to present the Deming’s management theory and explore the connection between the human-related factors of the theory with spirituality. The author of this paper argues that, given Deming’s spiritual experience, the Deming management system’s human-related factors (Drive out fear from the workplace, institute a program of training and education for all employees, help employees accomplish their goals, etc.) seem to flow commonsensically.

The present study aims at examining the alignment between strategic aggressiveness and general organizational capability in sport businesses during a period of economic crisis. A questionnaire-based research with the participation of 161 senior and top-ranking members of sport businesses has been carried out. The instrument was based on modification of Ansoff’s instrument for measuring the variables in the Strategic Success Hypothesis (SSH). The SSH proposed by Ansoff is a comprehensive theory that combines the strategic aggressiveness and organizational capability as major determinants of success. A knowledge of general organizational capability and the forces that shape this capability contribute to better understanding of the relationship between general organizational capability and performance. An alignment of strategic aggressiveness and general organizational capability in sport businesses during the period of economic crisis was ascertained. The study concludes that general organizational capability is critical in achieving high performance. Good capability affects both competitive and strategic activities. An improvement in general organizational capability is mandatory, if a firm is to deal successfully with increasing turbulence and more intense competition.

Managing new product development (NPD) process is a challenging task for enterprises to fortify their new product success. In this research, we examine the NPD process proficiency of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam in manufacturing field. A total of 795 questionnaires were sent to SMEs in Hanoi resulted in the 340 usable responses with a response rate of 42.77%. The data was analyzed by using the SPSS (v.24) software. The results showed that the overall NPD project success was significantly affected by two stages: pre-development activities, and product development and product testing. Majority of Vietnamese manufacturing SMEs not only performed pre-development activities, and product development and product testing frequently but also perceived that they had implemented well in the activities. In the contrast, the overall NPD project success was insignificantly influenced by commercialization activities. The outcomes reinforced the understanding of the critical activities of the NPD process in Vietnamese enterprises, which could support Vietnamese business managers increase NPD process proficiency by employing these results to make better policies assisting both commercial and non-commercial innovation activities.

Nowadays, Museums have to make every effort to integrate digital technologies, not only as a means of expanding the museum experience, but also as a means of interacting with the complex relationship between museums and visitors. Thus, questions arise about the relevance of technological applications and their use in the Greek Art Museums. So what is the purpose, aims, and criteria of digital means integration in museums? How does this use affect the function, image, museum space, and exhibition practices? The present study researches the coexistence of technological applications in art museums. “Public Research on the Use of Technological Applications in Greek Art Museums” is an interdisciplinary, sampling research, which is part of the field of visitor studies and museum informatics.

Alexander the Great, the king of Macedon, was a significant strategist with successful battles. His father Philip took care of his education studying with Aristotle and he also took over his military amelioration. He became king at the age of 20 years and he fought for 12 years. When Alexander became a conqueror of an Eastern Empire, he changed his way of living and he behaved as a Persian king. When he died, the successors of his vast empire wanted to follow his tactics. The Roman emperors pursued his glory and his fame, so they imitated his attitude and his plans. Alexander the Great was not only a famous strategist, but he was the first who applied monetary policy: Alexandrian four-drachmas coin flooded all the well-known international markets and it became the means for huge exchanges for more than 200 years. This coin was so popular that it contributed in the international economical market. Furthermore, a lot of mints were founded. After conquering huge quantities of gold and silver talents from the Persian Empire, Alexander made a revolutionary economic policy for his era. During his reign, an increase of expedition was observed, because temples, streets, and monuments were built. History held for him a glorious fate and it worthwhile for further research and study.

This paper provides an introduction to the spiritual capital discourse and to Spiritual Capital Theory (SCT). It discussed new insights the notion of spiritual capital contributes to our understanding of spirituality in general and to how organizations, businesses, and individuals might benefit from it in a professional setting. It extends the business spirituality intersect with the notion of “capital,” and discusses how this concept provides a fresh lens to further clarify the “value” of spirituality in organizational and business settings. Finally, the paper begins to build some bridges between business and workplace spiritual literature and emergent spiritual capital literature, inviting further exploration.

The primary objective of this research is to investigate the relationships between emotional intelligence competencies (self-regulation, self-awareness, empathy, social skills, motivation) and mentoring received, focusing on the supervisor-subordinate relationship in four- and five-star hotel organizations in Greece. Participants were 250 employees representing 108 hotel organizations. Results indicate that social skills and self-awareness are positively associated with mentoring received in hotel organizations. Hotel managers with the ability to handle conflicts with tact and diplomacy and also are aware of their emotions and the effects of their feelings on hotel employees are in a position to meet subordinates’ emotional and social needs, implementing greater amounts of mentoring received.