Discussing how and by what paths Japan and Korea have built competitive and innovative capital goods sectors, this text examines the role of user firms in shaping the innovation dynamics of capital goods. These firms are represented in this study by car makers in both countries - companies which have involved themselves in the technical and entrepreneurial entry into machine tools along with active investments. The suggested consequence of this is an increased competitive advantage and competence of their specialized suppliers.

This book offers insight into international trade and foreign direct investment competitiveness in Africa. It examines two policies frequently used to enhance international competitiveness in Sub-Saharan African economies: exchange rate policy and productivity-related policy.

Providing an authoritative perspective on the best current research regarding telecommunication policy, this book is based on the 22nd Annual Telecommunications Policy Research Conference. The papers focus on the critical policy issues created by increasing competition in the industry. The book contains a careful analysis of local competition and interconnection, international competition, universal service issues, the Internet and emerging new methods of communication, and the first amendment problems created by changing telecommunication technology.
It brings together -- in a convenient form -- a wide range of important scholarship on telecommunication policy that otherwise would require extensive research into a variety of journals, government filings, and unpublished papers.

Location is an important factor in the efficiency and profitability of industrial activity. This work provides an introduction to and critical review of this field of growing academic and business interest. In business, the right choices have to be made to produce profit. Industrial location is a fixed investment, crucial to the strategy and capital investment of any organization. Location also impacts upon non-investors, directly affecting employment, the environment and economic activity in the locale. Focusing chiefly on the United States, but drawing on an international range of cases, the authors explain the economic, social and political forces which have shaped contemporary patterns of industrialization and examine the changing nature of production and systems.

How can retail brand power be built and maintained? What are the implications of this for 'producer brands' like Coca-Cola? How will retailing look in the twenty-first century? This book sets out strategies and implementation programmes for building strong brands in retailing, to create competitive differentiation and superior financial returns. It begins with an analysis of how retail and 'own label' brands have leap-frogged traditional producer brands. The authors argue that this is changing the consumer goods industry. To meet these new challenges, the book sets out action plans and examines branding strategies in a number of different market sectors. It also uses analysis and case-studies from around the world, particularly the USA, Europe and Japan.

Government policies to reduce environmental pollution and global warming are often criticized as damaging to the economy, particularly by reducing international competitiveness. This book addresses the issue by examining many of the policies concerned, and their effects on competitiveness. It demonstrates that well-designed, market-oriented environmental policies may be expected to improve both domestic and international competitiveness. The authors dismiss the fear that environmental policies will damage competitiveness by approaching the issue from four different perspectives: the economic analysis of competitiveness; a geo-economic approach to trade and foreign investment between Europe, NAFTA and Southeast Asia; studies of the effects of environmental policies on competitiveness; and the formal modelling of carbon taxation, international competitiveness and carbon leakage. The book also includes results from a global econometric model on the potential for carbon leakage, a detailed case study of German national policies, an examination of life cycle analysis and competitiveness, and an empirical study of green product development. This book will be of great interest to academics working in the field of environmental economics and researchers involved in environmental policy.

Corporate Geography examines the spatial structures and behaviour of large business organizations. Corporations are key operational units of economies. Each corporation has several locations and connections to suppliers and customers who also operate in geographical space. The effectiveness of corporate spatial organizations is of importance for their well-being and for the health of the national and local economies in which they operate. This volume discusses where and why firms locate units of production, sales and control and how these interact with each other, with suppliers and with customers. The foundations are from commercial geography, business economics and location theory, but there are some unique characteristics. One is the blending of manufacturing and retailing in one treatise. Another is the extensive use of real-company case studies which illustrate both the basic concepts and the inadequacies of existing models. Corporate managers can relate to the experiences of actual companies. This book is of interest to scientists, researchers and professionals in economic geography, business administration, general management, microeconomies, industrial organization and economic planning.

As businesses learn more about competitive intelligence (CI) and how to use it, the ferocity of competition rises to a new level. Naturally, people will seek ways to protect themselves and their organizations against CI, but how? McGonagle and Vella, specialists in CI and what can be called CI countermeasures, have studied the problem from its beginning, and now offer corporate executives and executives in public and nonprofit organizations a portfolio of strategies and tactics. Each one is designed to meet two mutually important criteria: self-protection against the competitive intelligence activities of others, but also the freedom and mobility needed to maneuver in the marketplace. The result, a so-called cloaking program, allows an organization to become significantly less visible to its competitors, and can therefore compete more effectively against them. Including full details on the new Economic Espionage Act of 1996, this book is an extremely useful resource for executives throughout the public and private sectors.

McGonagle and Vella maintain that there is nothing illegal about protecting an organization against competition. They argue that businesses can and should restrict the information available to others--available legally and ethically from newspapers, for example, or from an organization's annual reports. The authors' aim is for organizations to respond to CI's advances by making it more difficult for competitors to learn about them. They begin by explaining how CI data collection works and the analytical tools that are most effective and commonly used. They then develop the basic precepts for establishing and managing a cloaking program, that is, a way for a business to protect key pieces of competitively sensitive information by the same legal and ethical means others are using to discover it. Well written and easily accessed, "Protecting Your Company Against Competitive Intelligence" is important information not only for experienced CI professionals and those who aspire to such positions, but also for executives with general management responsibilities.

This book presents the theory of Industrial Organization in a unified and concise way. It presents the main models and results in the area, using game theory as a unifying theoretical background. Besides corrections and new sections, the new edition contains a new chapter on games of incomplete information. More than 200 excercises help the reader to understand the results of the book.

This business book is great for leaders, middle managers and entrepreneurs interested in the following categories:

• Small Business
• Entrepreneurship
• Marketing
• Strategy
• Branding
• Customer Experience

Make it easy for customers to choose you; whatever your business, product or service.

With customers now subconsciously weighing up their massively expanded options in terms of purchase friction (how easy it is to spend) and shopping reward (the extras inherent to the buying experience); your job is to make it easy for them to choose you

When is high friction bad? Friction includes frustrations like putting a coin in a supermarket trolley lock, too many clicks, and hidden frictions from awkward presentation, process and offer. Reward includes quality of business support, amazing retail environments, even emotional issues such as trust and belonging.

When is high friction good? What value do different customers place on friction and reward across different buying scenarios? How can I benchmark against competitors? And, where are the big opportunities and where should we focus effort and resource? How do I market improved experiences to win customers?

Friction Reward teaches you how to understand, measure and improve every single possible customer interaction by applying techniques outlined in the book to your customer experiences and organisations.

Readers will:

• Create easier, faster and improved customer experiences by reducing friction and increasing reward.
• Discover how reducing friction attracts new customers, increases spend from existing ones and gives you a competitive advantage.
• Understand how the world's leading retailers, B2B sellers and public service providers are winning using these insights.
• Learn how to apply practical tools and technologies to their own customer and user scenarios both online and in the physical world.

How a country competes in the world is the crucial factor in determining that country's ability to benefit from international trade in today's global economy. This book offers a complete and proper understanding of the meaning of international competitiveness, analyzes the implications it holds for an economy's progress, examines how it may be pursued and sustained at both the sectoral level (firms and industries) and the national level (strategic objectives). The author offers pertinent policy guidelines and prescriptions for how a nation can achieve and maintain international competitiveness in order to sustain the long-term prosperity of its industries, and hence the overall pace of economic growth.

The book is arranged into three parts. Part I discusses and defines the theories of international competitiveness. Part II deals with policy issues, specifically the policy analysis of structural reforms for promoting a country's ability to compete, the impact of globalization and the role of Communication and Information Technology (CIT), strategic trade policies, and environmental issues. Part III analyzes the strategies used to pursue competitiveness. The book will be useful for researchers, students, and teachers of business and economics as well as policy makers, business practitioners, and international and governmental agencies.

David Gabel and David F. Weiman The chapters in this volwne address the related problems of regulating and pricing access in network industries. Interconnection between network suppliers raises the important policy questions of how to sustain competition and realize economic efficiency. To foster rivalry in any industry, suppliers must have access to customers. But unlike in other sectors, the very organization of network industries creates major impediments to potential entrants trying to carve out a niche in the market. In traditional sectors such as gas, electric, rail, and telephone services, these barriers take the form of the large private and social costs necessary to duplicate the physical infrastructure of pipelines, wires, or tracks. Few firms can afford to finance such an undertaking, because the level of sunk costs and the very large scale economies make it extremely risky. In other newer sectors, entrants face less tangible but no less pressing constraints. In the microcomputer industry, for example, high switching costs can prevent users from experimenting with alternative, but perhaps more efficient hardware platforms or operating systems. Although gateway technologies can reduce these barriers, the installed base of an incumbent can create powerful bandwagon effects that reinforce its advantage (such as the greater availability of compatible peripherals and software applications). In the era of electronic banking, entrants into the automated teller machine. (A TM) and credit card markets face a similar problem of establishing a ubiquitous presence."

Classical location theory is extended from its least cost approach to a maximum profit framework in this outstanding collection of Melvin L. Greenhut's key essays. This extension of classical location theory changes the analysis used in location economics from that of pure competition to oligopolistic competition. Using the analysis which is developed in this volume, locational interdependencies and, in turn, industrial location are shown to be affected by, diverse factors, including among others, marginal cost curves, demand curves and the number of firms in the market. Employing empirical findings to relate theory to practice, the author establishes a general theory via which he investigates and resolves specific issues and problems. These essays make a major contribution by enabling the reader to appreciate the important developments that have taken place over recent years in location economics. Location Economics and its companion volume, Spatial Microeconomics, will be welcomed by students, teachers and practitioners of economics for improving access to Professor Greenhut's many important essays and papers.

This book aims to clarify the link between geographic clustering and international competitiveness in light of the Turkish experience, a subject that is high on the agendas of researchers as well as policy makers and strategic planners. The key findings of the study are discussed with respect to the recent debates on clusters to provide a full account of what the Turkish experience, when looked at from the viewpoint of the strategic management discipline, offers to further intellectual thinking on clusters.

An Innovative Blueprint for Enduring Client Relationships

More than 15 million people in this country earn their livings by serving clients, and their numbers are growing every day. Unfortunately, far too few develop the skills and strategies needed to rise to the top in a world where clients have almost unlimited access to information and expertise. Supported by more than one hundred case studies and wisdom gleaned from interviews with dozens of leading CEOs and prominent business advisors, Clients for Life identifies what clients really want and lays out the core qualities that distinguish the client advisor -- an irreplaceable resource -- from the expert for hire -- a tradable commodity.

• Experts are specialists; advisors become deep generalists who have broad perspective.
  
• Experts are for hire; advisors have selfless independence, balancing client devotion with objectivity and detachment.
  
• Experts have professional credibility; advisors develop deep personal trust.
  
• Experts analyze; advisors synthesize and bring big-picture thinking to the table.
  
• Experts supply expertise and information; advisors are educators who provide insight and wisdom.
  

Portraits of history's most famously successful advisors, including Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, and J. P. Morgan, underscore these timeless qualities that modern professionals need to develop to excel in today's competitive environment.

Reviews theories of competition and existing literature, and examines the attributes of market competition and strategies adhered to by firms in the global marketplace. Provides an in-depth analysis of a broad spectrum of important topics on competitive strategies and tactics.

The book is an iconoclastic overview of the art of analyzing industries and competition. The book examines the capabilities of several complex business tools such as decision analysis, accounting, and other 'MBA-science' disciplines, and translates them into commonsensical concepts such as competitive strengths, uncertainty, complexity and 'results'.

Throughout the world, governments are reducing their involvement in the area of telecommunications. Some telecommunications are being fully or partly privatized while others are experiencing deregulation. The situation in six Asian countries, four European countries, and two Latin American countries are examined. In addition, there is one chapter on the telecommunications business in developing countries as a whole. All sections explore the interaction with encroaching competition, new technology, and a desire for greater freedom.

Innovation is a major contributory factor to economic growth. How can it be encouraged? One solution favoured especially in highly-competitive high-tech industries is cooperation in research and development. The theoretical issues raised by these joint ventures are examined in these essays which cover all aspects for growth, technology, competition and welfare. Contributions from the UK, Europe, North America and Asia ensure a broad international approach. There is an indepth study of European technology policy.

Innovation and international trade are two important drivers of economic growth. These two activities perform differently under different types of market competition.This book - a collection of several important research publications by Larry D Qiu - discusses innovation and international trade, separately and jointly, under imperfect competition. Through exploring these topics, they offer different perspectives on these issues. The selected works also provide clear and strong implications on trade policies and intellectual property rights protection.

Despite the regional currency crisis of 1997-1998, Asia-Pacific economies continue to be among the most attractive markets in the world. Japanese, American, and European firms have invested heavily in the past decades, and now are positioning themselves to take advantage of the post-Asian recovery, phenomenal Chinese growth rates, and deepening economic liberalization. This pathbreaking work focuses on understanding the market and nonmarket strategies employed by Japanese firms to boost their share of the developing Asian market and to rally the Japanese government in support of their initiatives. In addition to advancing a novel theoretical framework to analyze strategy, the book contains an overview chapter focuses on Japanese investment and trade trends in Asia and original case studies of the banking, automobile, telecommunications, chemical, software, and electronics sectors that provide insight into winning strategies in Asia.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems require business model innovation as part of their evolution. This means when discussing any form of entrepreneurship that involves change, we should consider the role of business models. Strategic Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Business Model Innovation is the first collection to focus both on entrepreneurial ecosystems and business model innovation, thereby taking a novel and new approach to entrepreneurship and strategic management. Whilst the research on entrepreneurial ecosystems is new the practice has been around for a long time. This means it is important to consider historical developments of entrepreneurial ecosystems with new trends in the form of digitalization. Recognising the need to stress the way business models have altered because of the increase in the knowledge economy, business model innovation is a useful way to consider how entrepreneurial ecosystems develop based on knowledge exchanged in the global business environment. Each chapter of this edited collection focuses on a different area of interest regarding entrepreneurial ecosystems and business model innovation, fusing the literature of both streams of thought in terms of how entrepreneurship evolves based on contextual change.

This extraordinary book proposes a new theory of colonization and of its economic effects in leading to continued underdevelopment of formerly colonized countries. It brilliantly attributes those effects to a simple source: colonial monopolization that systematically affected consumers, labor, and related industries, creating a structure of domination that continues today. The book is comparable to Thomas Piketty's best-selling Capital in the 21st Century, but substantially goes beyond and is deeper than Piketty because it explains the economic and structural forces leading to increasing inequality. The book also shows that these same forces are affecting modern economies which will inhibit development into the future. It should be read by all interested in the economic and social effects of colonialism as well as by all interested in the economic future of the world.' - George L. Priest, Yale Law School, US'This bold, original and learned book proposes what might be termed a global, interdisciplinary theory of poverty. It identifies the cause of under-development of impoverished economies in the structural concentration of economic power inherited from their colonial past, then goes on to show how various fields of knowledge (economics, but also law, philosophy and the social sciences) still work today to support the same monopolistic socio-economic structures. Drawing lessons from this analytical framework, it offers a series of ideas for transformative action. In this respect, it provides highly instructive - if sobering - reading while also offering a remarkable methodological model for future research on issues which might be described as global justice.' - Horatia Muir Watt, Sciences Po, Paris, France This ambitious analysis is centered on the evolution of economic structures in colonized economies, showing the effects of these structures on today's global reality for all economies, whether they are considered 'developed or 'underdeveloped.' With a comprehensive scope encompassing economic structures and their influence on the growth of nations from past to present, Calixto Salomao Filho delves into issues of development, economic structures, social problems, monopolies, globalization, and poverty. This book features a unique combination of economic and legal analysis of development, including the examination of underdevelopment trends based on monopoly growth and the triple drain effects of monopolies on national economies. The result is an illuminating study of historical restriction and exploitation and its impact on present day markets around the world. Monopolies and Underdevelopment will capture the interest of scholars and readers of the economic theory of development, economic history of underdeveloped countries, and law and development; as well as those involved in Latin American and South Asian studies, international comparative law, and legal history.