For all the turmoil that roiled financial markets during the Great Recession and its aftermath, Wall Street forecasts once again turned bullish and corporate profitability soared to unprecedented heights. How does capitalism consistently generate profits despite its vulnerability to destabilizing events that can plunge the global economy into chaos? The Great Levelerelucidates the crucial but underappreciated role of the law in regulating capitalism's rhythms of accumulation and growth. Brett Christophers argues that capitalism requires a delicate balance between competition and monopoly. When monopolistic forces become dominant, antitrust law steps in to discourage the growth of giant corporations and restore competitiveness. When competitive forces become dominant, intellectual property law steps in to protect corporate assets and encourage investment. These two sets of laws-antitrust and intellectual property-have a pincer effect on corporate profitability, ensuring that markets become neither monopolistic, which would lead to rent-seeking and stagnation, nor overly competitive, which would drive down profits. Christophers pursues these ideas through a close study of the historical development of American and British capitalist economies from the late nineteenth century to the present, tracing the relationship between monopoly and competition in each country and the evolution of legal mechanisms for keeping these forces in check. More than an illuminating study of the economic role of law, The Great Leveler is a bold and fresh dissection of the anatomy of modern capitalism.

This book provides an introduction to the concept of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial business management. It covers many elements of the entrepreneurial management discipline including choosing a business, organizing, financing, marketing, developing an offering that the market will value, and growing the business in all its dimensions.

The Second Chinese Revolution explores some of the keys to understanding China, a country whose evolution already affects all of us. Beginning in 1978 - when China's GDP was only 6% of the USA's - the author takes us through the different aspects that have played a fundamental role in the country's change: China's eruption in world markets in the background of the West's economic crisis; its obsession with science and technology and its relentless march towards a 'knowledge society'; and a reassessment of the Tiananmen Square events of June 1989 and the ongoing debate on political reform. The book also includes a comparative analysis of the reforms in China and Russia in the last decades.

This book addresses the multi-facet competitiveness of firms in China from an angle of strategic management of technology and innovation. The Chinese vanguard companies have been excellent in identifying strategic position and appropriately making strategic decisions, and effectively making strategy in action.

The book examines the changing external environment of organizations. This book explores the contradictions within the global capitalist system and their consequences to assess and find ways in creating new knowledge for managers/leaders to reorient themselves in appropriate restructuring of organizations to better serve their stakeholders.

401(k) plan sponsors have increasingly offered participants managed accountsservices under which providers manage participants' 401(k) savings over time by making investment and portfolio decisions for them. These services differ from investment options offered within 401(k) plans. This book examines how providers structure managed accounts; their advantages and disadvantages for participants; and challenges sponsors face in selecting and overseeing providers.

In Germany's Economic Renaissance, veteran European correspondent Jack Ewing of The International New York Times explains how a country with some of the highest labor and energy costs in the world beat the odds to become the third-largest exporter of manufactured goods, after China and the United States. Men and women who manage German companies both big and small explain how any company can behave like a multinational, as well as the secrets of conquering the high end of the market where quality is more important than price. Both informative and entertaining, filled with rich character studies, this book is essential reading for everyone wondering how to bring factories - and the jobs they provide - back to American shores.

In 2008, the U.S. economy collided with two historic forces. The first force was the Great Recession, the most severe economic crisis in a generation. While the economy has recovered considerably over the last five years, there is little doubt that more work remains to address some of the challenges left in the wake of the Great Recession. This book analyses the evolution of the labour force participation rate since late 2007 and attempts to quantify the effects of these various forces.

The need to examine and challenge a host of critical, taken-for-granted assumptions is one of the most important tasks facing managers and leaders daily. Beyond recognizing the need to examine and challenge key assumptions, managers and leaders must develop a systematic way of surfacing and critiquing important assumptions, let alone keeping track of them over time so that key business strategies can change as important underlying assumptions change. Using current business examples and academic research, Tools for Systematic Problem-Solving educates managers and executives on how to systematically examine key assumptions to ensure survival and success for their organizations.

For brands to succeed in a competitive environment they need to build a 'loving' relationship with their customers. Brands need to construct an emotional engagement with customers so that they feel genuinely connected to it and what it has to offer. Through 15 steps this books reveals how to use high design principles to build a truly loved brand.

The world of business has undergone unparalleled change in recent years as a result of dramatic social, economic and political events. Senior managers are faced with a business landscape that bears little resemblance to the world in which they began their careers and are challenged with more risks than ever before.
A new model for management in a new time, this book introduces the Risk-Based Performance Management methodology. This pioneering and practical framework enables senior management to understand, manage and control the risks facing their organizations while exploiting emerging opportunities to gain and maintain competitive advantage. By establishing the wider context of change within business, from the Credit Crunch, the upheaval of the Arab Spring, the uncertainty created by the Euro-zone Crisis and the increasing global influence of social media, the authors explain how and why a revolution is taking place in how organizations are structured, regulated and go to market. This results-focused guide to embedding risk management into strategic and operational decision-making gives executive teams the tools to align their risk-taking to strategy, enabling them to drive sustainable success while operating within appetite.

How can businesses transform to achieve competitive advantage in a digital-enabled world? How can managers and leaders create a culture that supports lasting change through these transformations? Building the Agile Business through Digital Transformation is an in-depth guide for all those needing to better understand, implement and lead digital transformation in the workplace. It sets aside traditional thinking and outdated strategies to explain what steps need to be taken for an organization to become truly agile, embed innovation and develop talent to succeed. This majorly revised second edition of Building the Agile Business through Digital Transformation contains new material on the culture and mindset challenges of shifting at scale from linear to agile working, and using data effectively in organizational decision-making. Full of practical advice, examples and real-life insights from organizations at the leading edge of digital transformation including AirBnb, Amazon and Google, this book is an essential guide to driving success by becoming an agile and digital native business.

Luxury is booming. The rise of emerging-market luxury brands and the digital revolution are reshaping the industry, but what's next and what trends will the future bring?
The rise of emerging market luxury brands, digital and online innovations, and growth in consumption globally has opened the doors for seasoned luxury houses and new players to expand their horizons. This book charts the trends that are shaping the luxury industry, particularly the rise of the luxury industry in Asia and emerging markets.

Today's manufacturing organisations in Mexico are increasingly confronting new markets, new competition, and greater customer expectations. Being immersed in this highly competitive environment is considered relevant for manufacturing SMEs to achieve optimal organisational performance, through efficient work processes, and leading the company to accomplish the competitiveness that the market demands. With this process, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Mexico face manifold difficulties in reference to the operational efficiency required to stay in the market. While globalisation poses challenges and opportunities for the development of enterprises, SMEs have not found a way to exploit this conjuncture, and they may not be sufficiently competitive with new market requirements. This book, with the incorporation of the theoretical review of the concepts involved, and the empirical study, which shows the relationship between organisational performance and competitiveness from the perspective of resource-based theory, provides greater understanding of this theoretical connection through non-experimental research; of trans-sectional type; and with a correlational/causal approach.

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.

In 'Competitiveness and Development', the author explains the confusion surrounding the concept of competitiveness in the context of developing countries; proposes policies for achieving competitiveness at a high level of development; examines its possibilities and constraints; and suggests policy changes necessary at the national and international levels. Shafaeddin illustrates how developed countries impose restrictive policies on developing countries through international financial institutions and the WTO, as well as regional and bilateral agreements, which limit their policy space for promoting dynamic comparative advantage in order to achieve competitiveness at a high level of development. Ultimately, such policies lock developing countries that are at early stages of development in specialization based on static comparative advantage and competitiveness at a low level of development.

Professors Crew and Kleindorfer have once again assembled a valuable collection of essays that address timely and important issues in postal sectors throughout the world. The essays employ diverse methodologies to provide useful insights about recent and likely future developments in the postal industry. This book will be a valuable resource for researchers, industry practitioners, and policymakers alike.' - David E.M. Sappington, University of Florida, USIn our increasingly technology-focused world, demand for traditional postal services is steadily shrinking. This timely volume examines the many challenges that the worldwide postal sector is facing as a result of growing electronic competition, and offers expert recommendations for reshaping postal structures to strengthen their competitiveness in an electronic age. Drawn from a selection of papers presented at the 20th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics in Brighton, UK, this book showcases expert contributions on the rapidly changing postal sectors in both the United States and Europe. Topics discussed include the various financial challenges posed by decreasing demand for postal services, recent changes in how postal services are provided, and new structures and modes of operation, such as privatization, that are currently affecting the industry. Contributors offer a thorough breakdown of the issues as well as ideas for keeping the postal sector alive in a world that is growing ever more reliant on purely electronic means of communication. Economists with an interest in regulatory economics, innovation and public sector economics will find this volume useful and informative, as will institutional libraries and industry professionals.

According to conventional economic wisdom, it is believed that the beneficial functioning of competition is not secured spontaneously but must be supported by state action, ie: specific antitrust laws and agencies. Hence, competition is regarded as an instance in which the visible hand of the state is believed to be needed in order to enable the invisible hand of the market to function more effectively. Topics discussed in this book include the competition and antitrust policy in the Austrian economic perspective; competition in the pharmaceutical market in Austria; a study of the greed factor in capitalism; consumption behaviours in a vertical differentiation model; the effects of mergers in the retail sector; and market competition with irrational agents.

Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach and using the case of the automotive industry as a starting point this volume discusses how industrial companies can remain competitive in spite of the current economic downturn.

Standards are everywhere, yet go mostly unnoticed. They define how products, processes, and people interact, assessing these entities' features and performance and signaling their level of quality and reliability. They can convey important benefits to trade, productivity, and technological progress and play an important role in the health and safety of individual consumers and the environment. Firms' ability to produce competitive products depends on the availability of adequate quality-support services. A "national quality infrastructure" denotes the chain of public and private services (standardization, metrology, inspection, testing, certification, and accreditation) needed to ascertain that products and services introduced in the marketplace meet defined requirements, whether demanded by authorities or by consumers. In much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, national quality infrastructure systems are underdeveloped and not harmonized with those of their trading partners. This imbalance increases trade costs, hinders local firms' competitiveness, and weakens overall export performance. The objective of Harnessing Quality for Global Competitiveness in Eastern Europe and Central Asia is to highlight the need to reform and modernize the institutions in the region toward better quality and standards. The book ties in with much of the work done in the World Bank on the business environment, trade facilitation, economic diversification, and enterprise innovation. The countries in the region can improve this situation, revising mandatory standards, streamlining technical regulations, and harmonizing their national quality infrastructure with those of regional and international trade partners. Most governments will need to invest strategically in their national quality infrastructure, including pooling services with neighboring countries and stimulating local awareness and demand for quality. Specifically for the countries of the former Soviet Union, the restructuring process will need to improve governance, thus eliminating conflicts of interest and providing technically credible services to the economy.

Since the pioneering work of Joseph Schumpeter (1942), it has been assumed that innovations typically play a key role in firms' competitiveness. This assumption has been applied to firms in both developed and developing countries. However, the innovative capacities and business environments of firms in developing countries are fundamentally different from those in developed countries. It stands to reason that innovation and competitiveness models based on developed countries may not apply to developing countries. In this volume, Vivienne Wang and Elias G. Carayannis apply both theoretical approaches and empirical analysis to explore the dynamics of innovation in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on R&D in manufacturing firms. In so doing, they present an alternative to Michael Porter's Competitive Advantage Model-a Competitive Position Model that focuses on incremental and adaptive innovations that are more appropriate than radical innovations for developing countries. Their research addresses such questions as: Do innovations advance the competitive positions of manufacturing firms in developing countries? Does the pace of innovation matter, in particular, in socio-economic and socio-political contexts? To what degree can national innovation systems and policies influence development? To what extent do a firm's innovation commitments correlate with the protection of intellectual property rights? What roles do foreign direct investment and relationships with clusters and networks play? The resulting analysis not only challenges traditional theoretical approaches to innovation, but provides suggestions for improving business practice and policymaking.

This book evaluates the successes, failures, and factors that influence the competition for public bus transport services. Using Germany as a case study, the author explains the dichotomous system of a market with licenses for commercial services, where operators are granted exclusivity, and licenses for non-commercial services, where supplementary direct subsidies are tendered out by public transport authorities. The empirical analysis is based on primary data usually not publicly available, and supplemented by numerous expert interviews. The book aims to provide a basic understanding of the players and their options, offer insights into the German model, and make policy recommendations for those whose goal is to increase competition.

"Negotiation is a key part of daily lives, but learning how to negotiate successfully is a valuable skill. The author provides a tool kit for negotiation, demonstrating new methods and giving practical advice"--

The importance of technology transfer to innovation and wealth creation is now recog nised by most governments. As the policy debate has intensified, however, it has become clear that the problem of encouraging successful transfer is complex, and requires an interdisciplinary approach. The collection of papers in this volume is deliberately diverse. It offers perspectives from economics, sociology, science, engineering and public administration, and also from outside academic life, from those involved at the 'sharp end' of technology licensing and administering government research programmes. Contributions are also drawn from a rangeofnational backgrounds-the authors are drawn from ten countries, from through out Europe and North America. The main focus for the papers was a NATOAdvanced Study Workshop, which took place at the National Institute ofEconomic and Social Research, London, in September 1995. Unfortunately time and space has prevented all of the contributions appearing here, but all those who attended played an important role in making the event such a success. Thanks are also due to Dr Alain Jubier and his colleagues at NATO, without whose support and advice the seminarcould not have take place, to my fellow organising committee members Dr Katalin Balazs, Dr Linda Parker and Professor Steve Woolgar, and to Monica Miglior who, in addition to assisting in the conference organisation, pro vided detailed notes on sessions which helped greatly in later analysis."