The subject of Intangibles and knowledge management is becoming increasingly significant, particularly in the realms of finance, marketing and strategy. Intangibles are the nebulous but vital aspects of companies, for example, R&D, knowledge creation, corporate identity and marketing and advertising expenditures, which are now unanimously considered to be the most important factors in the strategic positioning of organisations today. This comprehensive volume provides an integrated and original approach to intangible resource management and an evaluation of their contribution to the establishment of competitive advantage in the market place.

Related link: International association for Management of technology webpage
eBook available with sample pages: 0203465032

Relationship Marketing: Creating Stakeholder Value extends the analysis of the change in the marketing rationale from a crude concern for increased market share to a strategy aimed at creating long-term profitable relationships with targeted customers.Offering a cutting edge vision of relationship marketing, Relationship Marketing: Creating Stakeholder Value is a seminal text for all students and managers in the field. With new up-to-date case materials and examples of best practice, the book covers all the stakeholder markets - employees, suppliers, influencers, customers and consumers - for which the relationship approach is critical. It also provides crucial advice on how to develop, integrate and implement the various strands of a successful relationship strategy.

Fundamental to management thinking and economic theory, Competitive Strategy offers a framework for understanding the underlying forces of competition in industry and business.

This book explains the ideas, theories and principles of Competitive Strategy in simple, straightforward terms. It shows readers how to use competitive tools and strategies to understand the underlying forces of competition in industry and business and apply them to assess industries, understand competitors, choose competitive positions and gain - and maintain competitive advantage.

Chapters include: What Competitive Strategy actually isThe foundations of strategy and the five forces of competitionAssessing the competition and strategic management in actionDeveloping a competitive strategyLooking to the future and mergers and acquisitions

This volume considers how media firms, as well as entire industries, exist and persist over time despite what often seems to be intense competition for such resources as audiences and advertisers. Addressing competition within and among media organizations and industries, including broadcasting, cable, and the Internet, author John W. Dimmick studies the media industries through the niche theory lens, developed by bioecologists to explain competition and coexistence. He examines the targets of the different media--audience, advertisers, money--and how they compete, using examples from a variety of studies.
Each chapter incorporates relevant economic constructs into the analytic framework. This approach includes the use of economics of scale to explain selection and firm mortality in newspapers and movie theaters; the application of the transaction costs concept to explicate the rise of advertising agencies; the employment of the strategic group concept in analyzing the niche breadth strategy; and the measurement of gratifications-utilities.
A comprehensive overview of the determinants of media competition and coexistence, "Media Competition and Coexistence: The Theory of the Niche" offers unique insights for scholars, students, researchers, and practitioners in media economics, management, and business.

This important and timely book is at the forefront of the increasing interest in regional competitiveness in the face of ever stronger global forces. Distinguished contributors discuss issues including the impact and implications of European expansion as well as developments in the Asia-Pacific region. They also examine the driving forces, backgrounds, obstacles and opportunities for regions to become powerful global players. This highly topical book contains a wealth of empirical material and is underpinned by a thorough investigation of the theory and methodology of policy strategies for the positioning of regions in the new global economy. It will be a major source of reference for scholars, policymakers, economic planners and institutions alike in the field of regional science.

This book examines the relationship between competitive strategies and the use of temporary employees. An organization's choice of strategy is predicted to impact its decision to use temporary workers. The study shows that firms differ in their competitive strategies and their respective use of temporary employment, which in turn impacts organizational performance. The way in which temporary employment use and firm strategy interact to affect organizational performance depends on the manner in which performance is measured.

Innovation in East Asia is the first book to show how 'latecomer' firms from Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have caught up technologically with Japan and learned to innovate. Mike Hobday examines the technology acquisition strategies of these firms, their strengths and weaknesses, and the origin and extent of latecomer innovation in the region.A series of detailed case studies is used to show how individual companies developed and how large groups of firms formed industrial clusters from behind the technology frontier. Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have emerged as dynamic and distinct forces for growth and innovation. Increasingly the competitive challenge to Japan comes from these countries rather than from Europe and America. The book extends conventional innovation theory to develop an analytical framework for understanding the strengths, weaknesses and future prospects of latecomer firms. The book will be welcomed by academics, policymakers, students, government bodies and companies concerned with the rise of East Asia. It will be of particular interest to countries facing the competitive challenge of East Asia (the US and Europe) as well as Japan and the individual countries of the Asian region.

This path-breaking book examines the effects of multinationals on the competitiveness of industry in the UK. The in-depth investigation analyses how these firms gain access to technology and questions whether or not multinationals, in their support of local technologies, improve the potential and competitiveness of local industry. The book discusses the evolution of multinationals in the late twentieth century, the role of the UK in this evolution and the theories of multinationals. It examines what these theories imply for efficiency and welfare, and the policies which affect multinational enterprises (MNEs). The authors consider the strategic positioning of subsidiaries in the UK in relation to the firm's overall global investment strategy. Using detailed empirical surveys, they also look at the role of technology in multinationals and how these firms' strategies are developing in regard to this. The authors examine whether MNEs UK operations are dependent on existing technology or whether they play a more positive role in its local creation and use. Finally the role of decentralized R&D in multinationals, and the status of this in the UK, is considered. Multinationals, Technology and National Competitiveness will be welcomed by those interested in international investment, business strategy, technology and innovation and public policy.

Contents:
1. Interest Rates and Budget Deficits: A study of the advanced economies Kanhaya L Gupta and Bakhtiar Moazzami 2. World Trade after the Uruguay Round: Prospects and policy options for the twenty-first century Edited by Harald Sander and Andras Inotai 3. The Flow Analysis of Labour Markets Edited by Ronald Schettkat 4. Inflation and Unemployment: Contributions to a new macroeconomic approach Edited by Alvaro Cencini and Mauro Baranzini 5. Macroeconomic Dimensions of Public Finance: Essays in honour of Vito Tanzi Edited by Mario I Blejer and Teresa M Ter-Minassian 6. Fiscal Policy and Economic Reforms: Essays in honour of Vito Tanzi Edited by Mario I Blejer and Teresa M Ter-Minassian 7. Competition Policy in the Global Economy: Modalities for co-operation Edited by Leonard Waverman, William S. Comanor and Akira Goto 8. Working in the Macro Economy: A study of the US labour market Martin F.J. Prachowny 9. How Does Privatization Work? Edited by Anthony Bennett 10. The Economics and Politics of International Trade: Freedom and Trade: Volume II Edited by Gary Cook 11. The Legal and Moral Aspects of International Trade: Freedom and Trade: Volume III Edited by Asif Qureshi, Hillel Steiner and Geraint Parry 12. Capital Markets and Corporate Governance in Japan, Germany and the United States: Organizational response to market inefficiencies Helmut M. Dietl 13. Competition and Trade Policies: Coherence or Conflict Edited by Einar Hope 14. Rice: The primary commodity A.J.H. Latham 15. Trade, Theory and Econometrics: Essays in honour of John S. Chipman Edited by James C. Moore, Raymond Riezman, and James R. Melvin 16. Who Benefits from Privitisation? Edited by Moazzem Hossain and Justin Malbon 17. Towards a Fair Global Labour Market: Avoiding the New Slave Trade Ozay Mehmet, Errol Mendes and Robert Sinding 18. Models of Futures Markets Edited by Barry Goss 19. Venture Capital Investment: An agency analysis of UK practice Gavin C. Reid 20. Macroeconomic Forecasting: A sociological approach Robert Evans 21. Multimedia and Regional Economic Restructuring Edited by Hans-Joachim Braczyk, Gerhard Fuchs and Hans-Georg Wolf 22. The New Industrial Geography: Regions, regulation and institutions Edited by Trevor J. Barnes and Meric S. Gertler 23. The Employment Impact of Innovation: Evidence and Policy Edited by Marco Vivarelli and Mario Pianta 24. International Health Care Reform: A legal, economic and political analysis Colleen Flood 25. Competition Policy Analysis Edited by Einar Hope

The Political Economy of Competitiveness offers an original perspective on the relationship between economic theory and policy. It places the issues within an accessible political economy perspective.
Rejecting the narrowness of mainstream economics the authors deploy an interdisciplinary approach to the problem of economic growth, placing it in its historical and political context. Issues covered include:
* trade theory and policy
* industrial decline and policy
* markets, competition and innovation
* globalisation, unemployment and government policy.
The book provides a valuable guide to the major economic policy issues for both economists and business students.

Drawing on the theoretical resources of institutional economics, The New Industrial Geography opens new perspectives in economic geography. In its focus on historical and geographical context, institutional embeddedness, and tacit rules and formal regulations, institutional economics is shown to be the perfect basis for understanding the profound economic and geographical changes of the last two decades, and on which also to build a new kind of industrial geography. Issues covered include: the retheorization of the geography of industrial districts; the analysis of institutional 'thickness', and the economic-geographical effects of institutional rigidity and sclerosis; the economic-geographical consequences of new regulatory bodies and policies; and the geographically situated character of institutions and regulatory frameworks, and the effects of separating them from their originating context; the development of new strategies for achieving more equitable forms of regional development.


eBook available with sample pages: 020302186X

This volume examines the nature of interfirm networks and their role in promoting industrial competitiveness. Where previous work in this area has tended to be descriptive, the distinguished contributors to this volume present a balanced theoretical and empirical approach to interfirm networking drawing on a variety of international case studies. Issues covered include:
* The role of networks in regulating conflict and producing co-operation
* The role of networks in developing knowledge and competences
* Network governance and conflict intensive networks

This book is the outgrowth of shared interests between the editors and the contributing authors to provide a multidisciplinary perspective in evaluating universal service policy and recommending policy changes to accommodate a more competitive telecommunications environment. The book is interdisciplinary in nature to reflect the extremely complex context in which universal service policy is formed. The chapter authors represent a broad cross-section of disciplinary training, professional positions, and relationships in the telecommunications industry. Academic disciplines represented include law, economics, anthropology, communication, and business.
This book's purpose is to significantly enhance the development of effective telecommunications universal service policy among policymakers, industry members, and stakeholders in the United States. Universal service policy has been, and will continue to be, both enabled and constrained by the simultaneous interaction of social, political, technological, and economic forces in the environment in which it is formed. A more effective process for policy design is to seek agreement on how entitlements embedded in universal service policy should be modified as circumstances invariably change over time. Therefore, the volume reflects recent significant developments in U.S. universal service policy--the implementation of which continues to unfold.

This book is the outgrowth of shared interests between the editors and the contributing authors to provide a multidisciplinary perspective in evaluating universal service policy and recommending policy changes to accommodate a more competitive telecommunications environment. The book is interdisciplinary in nature to reflect the extremely complex context in which universal service policy is formed. The chapter authors represent a broad cross-section of disciplinary training, professional positions, and relationships in the telecommunications industry. Academic disciplines represented include law, economics, anthropology, communication, and business.
This book's purpose is to significantly enhance the development of effective telecommunications universal service policy among policymakers, industry members, and stakeholders in the United States. Universal service policy has been, and will continue to be, both enabled and constrained by the simultaneous interaction of social, political, technological, and economic forces in the environment in which it is formed. A more effective process for policy design is to seek agreement on how entitlements embedded in universal service policy should be modified as circumstances invariably change over time. Therefore, the volume reflects recent significant developments in U.S. universal service policy--the implementation of which continues to unfold.

Regulating Utilities and Promoting Competition continues the series of annual books, published in association with the Institute of Economic Affairs and the London Business School, which critically review the state of utility regulation and competition policy. With contributions by some of the leading figures in the field, this important new book presents incisive chapters on a number of prominent topics. These include, amongst others, the future of the railways, the international trade in gas, the economics and politics of wind power and the role of economics in merger reviews. A key feature of the book is the careful examination of fundamental issues, not only from the viewpoint of academic and other independent commentators, but also by the regulators and heads of competition authorities themselves. By addressing significant developments both in Britain and abroad, the authors draw important lessons about the policy changes needed as well as their subsequent implementation. This book will be of great value to practitioners, policymakers and academics alike who are concerned with regulation, deregulation and policies to promote competition.

SHORTLISTED: CMI Management Book of the Year 2017 - Management Futures Category Understand how to drive business performance with your organizational data and analytics in the second edition of Data-Driven Organization Design. Using data and analytics is a key opportunity for businesses to transform performance and achieve success. With a data-driven approach, all the elements of the organizational system can be connected to design an environment in which people can excel and attain competitive advantage. Data-Driven Organization Design provides a practical framework for HR and organization design practitioners to build a baseline of data, set objectives, carry out fixed and dynamic process design, map competencies, and right-size the organization. It shows how to collect the right data, present it meaningfully and ask the most relevant questions of it to help complex, fluid organizations constantly evolve and meet moving objectives. This updated second edition contains new material on organizational planning and analysis, role design and job architecture, position management lifecycle and delta reporting. Alongside this, new case studies and examples will show how these approaches have been applied in practice. Whether planning a long-term transformation, a large redesign or an individual small project, Data-Driven Organization Design will demonstrate how to make the most of your organizational data and analytics to drive business performance.

Exploring the thorny issues of industrial organisation, competition policy and liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region, this book examines the ways in which governments regulate business. Using case studies from China, the USA, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, the authors take a comparative look at the evolution of policies and their implementation on the ground.
With a specific focus on the energy, transport and telecommuncations sectors, this book represents the most up-to-date analysis of the ways in which governments in the Asia-Pacific are coping with rapid industrial and economic change.

Exploring the thorny issues of industrial organisation, competition policy and liberalization in the Asia-Pacific region, this book examines the ways in which governments regulate business. Using case studies from China, the USA, New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan, the authors take a comparative look at the evolution of policies and their implementation on the ground.
With a specific focus on the energy, transport and telecommuncations sectors, this book represents the most up-to-date analysis of the ways in which governments in the Asia-Pacific are coping with rapid industrial and economic change.

Is there an inherent conflict between competition and trade policies, or are the two policy areas complementing each other? The relationship between competition and trade policies, and the development of an effective competition policy for an integrated world economy, is an issue policy makers face in the mid-to-late-1990s. This book examines current debates around competition and trade policy interactions, and discusses the need for new policy initiatives in an international context. The papers in this collection are presented in five parts which discuss in turn: general principles and issues; network industries and telecommunications; European Economic Area policies, notably the initiative taken by the Commissioner for Competition, Karel van Miert, for developing an EU competition policy for the new trade order; and recent development policy aspects. The final part of this book contains background papers for panel discussions on vertical restraints and business perspectives, respectively, in an international trade and competition policy context.

It is widely recognized that the performance and development of firms are heavily influenced by their environment and that the conditions that prevail in the local or regional milieu seem to be particularly important. Furthermore, the fact that economic, entrepreneurial and innovative activities tend to agglomerate at certain places, leading to patterns of national and regional specialization, is increasingly seen to give important insights into the very process of firm competitiveness and industrial transformation. Drawing on other literature and case study material from selected industries, and elaborating on key concepts such as firms and competencies, industries and industrial systems, and competitiveness and prosperity, the authors set out to answer some broad research questions such as what is competition about in today's economy, and how is the performance of firms and industries related to space and place?; why do geographical areas (local milieus, cities, regions, countries) specialize in particular types of economic activity?; and why do patterns of specialization, once in place, tend to be so tremendously durable?

Design is an important factor in business success. This book, first published in 1989, analyses what the role of design is in business success; just what design is; and how both design and its management might be improved. It draws on extensive original research by the authors in eighty-seven companies regarded as leaders in the field of export and technological achievement and it reports on the experiences of these companies. Among the book's many important conclusions and recommendations for improved practice are: that design, rather than price, is the key factor in determining customer/user satisfaction; and that success with design is the leading characteristic of firms that compete successfully in international markets.

This second edition reviews recent reforms and the likely impact of future developments in management and competition in the NHS. In particular, it reflects the growing importance of primary care and the continuing debates about health care rationing. It concentrates on the realities and how they can be interpreted to help strategists, managers, clinicians, students and those supplying the NHS understand the mechanism of efficient health care delivery.

Enterprise Clusters and Networks in Developing Countries analyses the functions and advantages of clusters and networks for small enterprises in developing countries.
In the opening chapter the editors describe different types of clusters and networks and compare the diverse forms of external economies and co-operation effects derived from them. Taking a multidiscplinary approach, they point out it is trust that is the social basis for positive effects of clustering and networking, which are often sources of co-operation and technology diffusion for small enterprises in developing countries.

International agreements on competition law and policy are notoriously difficult to implement. This collection examines the complexities involved when international co-ordination and harmonization of competition law and policy are considered. Presenting an analysis of the issues surrounding co-operation and convergence, a number of key factors are examined. These include the impact of differing anti-trust laws across borders on trade and investment, the effects on competition policy of international strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, the trade-off between firm privacy and antitrust needs in co-ordinating information flow across borders. The final section of the book addresses major policy themes in the context of how to proceed in the future.

Can industrial, trade and competition policies complement one another? In this major volume, a distinguished group of researchers and policymakers systematically investigates the relationships between the microeconomic policies of competition, trade and industry within the European Union. After an introductory chapter contrasting the optimal mix of targets and instruments with the effective use and interaction of policies that can be observed in the real world, the book addresses the experience of the EU, its institutional framework and the evolving use of instruments. The convergence and divergence of economic prescription and application are revealed through an outstanding set of case studies which focus on the automobile, chemical fibre, steel, telecommunication and pharmaceutical industries. Competition, trade and industrial policies play a central role in the efficiency of any market economy and the rich European experience offers valuable lessons for economists, regulators and policy makers from both inside and outside the union. European Policies on Competition, Trade and Industry offers an authoritative discussion of policy making and enforcement in the EU. The strong combination of analysis with detailed case studies and overviews will ensure that this book will make a pioneering contribution to understanding the development of microeconomic policies in the Union.