With the impact of the recent financial crises, more attention must be given to new models in finance rejecting “Black-Scholes-Samuelson” assumptions leading to what is called non-Gaussian finance. With the growing importance of Solvency II, Basel II and III regulatory rules for insurance companies and banks, value at risk (VaR) – one of the most popular risk indicator techniques plays a fundamental role in defining appropriate levels of equities. The aim of this book is to show how new VaR techniques can be built more appropriately for a crisis situation. VaR methodology for non-Gaussian finance looks at the importance of VaR in standard international rules for banks and insurance companies; gives the first non-Gaussian extensions of VaR and applies several basic statistical theories to extend classical results of VaR techniques such as the NP approximation, the Cornish-Fisher approximation, extreme and a Pareto distribution. Several non-Gaussian models using Copula methodology, Lévy processes along with particular attention to models with jumps such as the Merton model are presented; as are the consideration of time homogeneous and non-homogeneous Markov and semi-Markov processes and for each of these models. Contents 1. Use of Value-at-Risk (VaR) Techniques for Solvency II, Basel II and III. 2. Classical Value-at-Risk (VaR) Methods. 3. VaR Extensions from Gaussian Finance to Non-Gaussian Finance. 4. New VaR Methods of Non-Gaussian Finance. 5. Non-Gaussian Finance: Semi-Markov Models.

Ever since their inception, space activities have been innovative, but not driven by commercial considerations that is, until the end of the Cold War, when the commercialization of space escalated. As a result, the direction of the innovation changed in order to leverage new business opportunities, which reached a turning point in the 2010s. This book discusses the developmental trends of the world space sector in detail, by analyzing their long-term evolution, and studying why this innovative industry sometimes experiences technological and organizational delays. Innovation Trends in the Space Industry also provides a framework to diagnose more accurately the potential technological threats that are currently faced by existing space tech manufacturers. Moreover, this book, with an economic perspective, provides a close examination of the space sector. It also contributes to enriching innovation management theory by leading us to better understand industry emergence shaped by customers, to reinterpret technological and organizational inertia in high technology activities, and to refine disruptive innovation trends.

For firms and other organizations, innovation has become a means of anticipating and managing major changes in their external context and overcoming societal challenges such as sustainable development. As a result, they must innovate repeatedly and continuously. This book explores the multiple facets of innovation project management, defined as the set of activities implemented to bring into being and successfully complete one or several innovation projects. It combines research experience, in cooperation with practitioners, and a theoretical, transversal and global overview inspired from different research streams. The author develops methodologies and frameworks that might be put into practice, provides a case study of research conducted with an air systems manufacturing firm, and outlines avenues for further reflection on innovation project management practice improvement.

This book urges us to be creative in our way of thinking about innovation. Adopting an artificial perspective, the author emphasizes creative rationality: a form of thought that encourages knowledge crossing and invites an adventurous transgression. The question of how such a form of thought might be developed is addressed through a detailed examination of the educational system. The book frees itself from many of the myths that surround innovation, including the predominance of what the author calls the linear and hierarchical model.

Risk management practices are growing both in number and complexity in businesses, notably driven by new regulatory standards that feature risk management at their core. Although large businesses are more likely to adopt a formal, holistic approach to risk management, the stakes are just as high for SMEs. Risk management in SMEs can contribute to a certain organizational, entrepreneurial and partnership dynamic which constitutes a real opportunity to evolve practices and improve performance. This book offers varied responses to this question by combining conceptual approaches, empirical illustrations and the associated managerial implications.

The term "takeover", of which the first form is mergers and acquisitions (M&A), refers to the transfer of control of a business from one group of shareholders to another. Considering the importance of this issue and the real drives behind takeovers, it has become imperative to identifying companies that are vulnerable to takeover by two types: tender offer and exchange offer. This book thus presents the legal aspects, the theoretical justifications and the empirical contributions of takeovers, and analyzes the economic and financial characteristics of targets in order to assess the probability of being acquired. An empirical approach based on two quantitative studies is then applied to the European market, which is still virgin territory in terms of academic research. Finally, acquisition probability models have been developed and they have a 72% forecast accuracy average rate of targets. Corporate Takeover Targets is aimed at students and researchers in economic and management, as well as M&A consultants.

Africa is a laboratory for managerial and societal innovations built out of pragmatic arrangements. Some African companies offer products and services that go beyond the standard practices of their international counterparts, based on original and inventive managerial characteristics. Such success stories outline a new model of management and innovation for companies in the digital era. The African innovations that have emerged over the past ten years are directly linked to a managerial model that perfectly meets the demands of the digital era. These new organizations indicate that good managerial practices and innovation models also come from the Global South and no longer exclusively from the East Coast of the United States. Understanding these dynamics is of great theoretical and practical interest for the many companies struggling to seize the opportunities for growth in Africa.

Despite the traditional opposition between play and work, games and their structure are increasingly used in workplaces. This phenomenon of using game elements or mechanisms in other contexts than games is named “gamification”. In workplaces, the gamification is supposed to abolish the separation between work and leisure or between constraint and pleasure. This book reviews a century of game theories in the social sciences and analyzes the uses of games in workplaces. We critically question the explicit functions (learning, experimentation…) which are supposed to be conveyed by games. Finally, we show that game, understood as a structure, could have efficient social functions in the workplace.

This title enriches both areas of research, finance and international management to analyze the choice of location and value creation in mergers and acquisitions. Our research answers the following question: What are the determinants of the location and value creation in mergers and acquisitions?

Forged at the heart of international political bodies by expert researchers, the innovation cluster concept has been incorporated into most public policies in industrialized countries. Based largely on the ideas behind the success of Silicon Valley, several imitative attempts have been made to geographically group laboratories, companies and training in particular fields in order to generate “synergies” between science and industry. In its first part, Innovation in Clusters analyzes the infatuation with the system of clusters that is integral to innovative policies by analyzing its socio historical context, its revival in management and its worldwide expansion, looking at a French example at a local level. In its second part, the book explores a specialized biotechnology cluster dating back to the end of the 1990s. The sociological survey conducted twenty years later sheds a different light on the dynamics and relationships between laboratories and companies, contradicting the commonly held belief that innovation is made possible by geographical proximity.