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Business is any legally permissible economic activity for gain. The first relation between government and business is that government determines by law what are the illegal activities, e.g. fraud, crime, violence. Government is the rule maker.

In the last two decades, a new form of organization has progressively become predominant on many global markets: networks. Very few worker co-operatives have adopted such a pattern though, despite the fact that, as the theoretical literature shows, the advantages of network industrial structures are numerous and networking can be considered a necessity in the context of globalization. After introducing a new framework for analyzing networks, we argue that combining several dimensions of integration has been an important factor of efficiency in three case studies: Mondragon Corporacion Cooperativa, the industrial districts of Emilia-Romagna, and Scop Entreprises.

This chapter aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the turnover tax system in South Africa. The objective of the study was to identify companies from the SARS-NT Panel that may qualify for turnover tax in order to calculate and compare turnover tax liabilities to alternative forms of taxation within the South African context. The results showed that turnover tax is not necessarily beneficial for most small businesses and the possible reasons are also highlighted.

This chapter addresses how small businesses resist city regulations by using material things, by making craft knowledge claims about material things, and by letting material things organize their political activity. Chefs successfully resisted a foie gras ban in Chicago, where political resistance shaped the production and use of material things. Bakers successfully resisted a trans fat ban in Philadelphia, where material properties of things structured political resistance. We bring together analytic tools from the sociology of culture and science and technology studies to demonstrate how materiality can be both an instigator and an instrument of legal and political resistance.

This chapter discusses legal considerations relating to digital assets. The legal aspects of tokenized and non-tokenized assets are evolving. Although some states have enacted specific laws or regulations for digital assets, Congress and federal agencies have been slower to craft specific rules and regulations for such assets. As a result, regulators, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Internal Revenue Service, and market participants must apply existing guidance to digital assets. This chapter examines applying specific aspects of federal securities and tax law to digital assets. It also discusses general business law considerations for blockchain and cyber enterprises. The discussion of state law applications centers on the New York Virtual Currency License and Wyoming and Delaware crypto initiatives. This chapter does not provide a comprehensive review of all legal issues related to cryptocurrency. Each legal issue about cryptocurrency is complex and requires separate analyses.

Do digital technologies of early 21st century capitalism promote or reduce consumer sovereignty? This chapter addresses this question by examining John Kenneth Galbraith’s critique of consumer sovereignty during the post-war period of industrial society and looks at the insights he provides to understand the impact of platform capitalism on consumer sovereignty today. This chapter has the following sections: (1) I review the main postulates of Galbraith’s theory; (2) I highlight the main differences between traditional advertising and online behavioral advertising; (3) I explain how online behavioral advertisement strengthens Galbraith’s dependence effect and revised sequence theories; (4) I then discuss normative challenges raised by digital platform corporations to individual sovereignty; and (5) finally, I argue that platform capitalism is a mature form of Galbraith’s “new industrial state.”

Micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprise (MSME) sectors have a strong influence on the Egyptian economy. Yet, effective formulation of integrated cluster along the value chain can lead MSMEs to become international actors in export-oriented activities. An Agro-Industrial Park is an integrated cluster taking into consideration synergetic agglomeration of agribusiness MSMEs assisting in decreasing deprivation of rural territories. This research aims to present the needs of agriculture MSMEs in Egypt, to describe challenges faced by this specific sector, and to set guidelines for a business model integrating small farmers and producers into an integrated agribusiness cluster. The researcher followed purposive/nonprobability sampling technique of 100 MSMEs research participants. A combination of questionnaires and open-ended interviews were the research instruments of choice along with secondary data. This research focused on agribusiness only and specifically MSMEs in Egypt. There is no agribusiness-integrated cluster in Egypt, even though the agricultural land increased significantly in the past 5 years, leading us to believe that it is imperative to develop agribusiness-integrated clusters in the coming few years.

This chapter examines roles and challenges for corporations in addressing Post 2015 world development objectives. Specifically it does review the contributions and opportunities of the principles of the Global Compact and other social responsibility initiatives for embedding corporate contribution to sustainable markets and societal development.

The results presented in this chapter are based on analysis of secondary sources and a literature review to determine conceptual and theoretical frameworks for identifying assumptions and challenges of corporate sustainability in the Post 2015 era.

It was found that although there are neither academic nor activist definitive consensuses regarding positive impacts of adopting the UN Global Compact principles for sustainability, the impacts of committed corporations, organisations and association are multiplying societal understanding of the implications in societies, governments and markets of violating human and labour rights, degrading and not protecting the environment, and having corruption.

This chapter could be used as teaching material for undergraduate and master courses of corporate social responsibility, business ethics, sustainability, operations management and strategy.

This chapter discusses firms’ responsibilities regarding world development objectives in a Post 2015 world.

The main purpose of this chapter is to define the concept, scope and importance of a feasibility study when developing a new business venture. It also presents the main components of a feasibility study by describing a feasibility study template.

A literature review was conducted on conceptual issues and practical aspects of the feasibility analysis and study by presenting a hypothetical case of study of a boutique hotel.

This chapter highlights the importance of both feasibility analysis and study, and the main reasons why all entrepreneurs should carry them out. It presents a simple template that shows the key components of a feasibility study and also a hypothetical case of study of a boutique hotel that helps in relating the concepts and ideas previously developed.

This chapter introduces both theoretical and practical approaches by presenting a model or template on how to develop the feasibility analysis and study. This template can be applied at any stage of assessment process of a business project.

The concept of a feasibility study is accompanied by a practical template and a case study. This approach contributes to a better understanding of the value and utility of feasibility analysis and study in assessing tourism business ventures.

This chapter presents a systematic review of over 30 types of online marketing methods. It describes different methods like email marketing, social network marketing, in-game marketing and augmented reality marketing, among other approaches. The researchers discuss that the rationale for using these online marketing strategies is to increase brand awareness, customer-centric marketing and consumer loyalty. They shed light on various personalization methods including recommendation systems and user-generated content in their taxonomy of online marketing terms. Hence, they explain how these online marketing methods are related to each other. The researchers contend that the boundaries between online marketing methods have not been clarified enough within the academic literature. Therefore, this chapter provides a better understanding of different online marketing methods. A review of the literature suggests that the “oldest” online marketing methods including the email and the websites are still very relevant for today’s corporate communication. In conclusion, the researchers put forward their recommendations for future research about contemporary online marketing methods.