Global Business Transcendence focuses on both empirical studies with practical application and examinations of theoretical and methodological developments in the field of business studies. By drawing on important research and case study material from contributors all over the world, this collection offers genuinely international perspectives on the key issues and concerns preoccupying policy and decision makers, bringing together chapters that examine international business strategies across emerged and emerging economies. The collection argues that country's borders are becoming less important from a trade perspective. We are thus quickly approaching a single global economy.

This book represents the findings of the first-ever major investigation into the ways in which individual and group perceptions of competition impact the development of strategy at individual, group and industry levels of analysis. It is based on a study undertaken in the residential estate agency industry, during a period of rapid change and instability and draws extensively on one of the largest and most sophisticated data sets ever gathered in this field to date. The book will be of interest to researchers and advanced students in the field of strategic management, organizational theory and behavior, organizational psychology and marketing.

The research papers and cases in The Changing Dynamics of International Business in Africa provide multi-disciplinary insights on the opportunities and challenges of doing business in Africa, as well as on the changing competitive dynamics in the region, as Western, BRIC and African multinationals intensify their fight for market dominance.

Acquisitions and joint ventures can be difficult, costly, and risky, but if a company uses the right teams and processes and is adequately prepared, the chance of success can be significantly increased. Dr. Triantis, a practitioner with extensive experience in M&A planning and implementation and business strategizing, discusses the resources and preparation that are needed before an acquisition or joint venture should even be started, and the various roles and responsibilities of project participants once it is underway. His book examines the sequence of steps, and the events involved in conducting an acquisition or joint venture and shows how the screening and opportunity assessment process, along with proper planning and transfer of responsibilities, can go a long way toward creating the conditions necessary for success.

The book provides guidelines, advice, and recommendations that project teams in key areas must focus on, and by doing so it introduces much needed discipline into the M&A decision making process. It treats important issues and ingredients in project financial analysis, valuation, risk management, negotiations, due diligence and legal agreements. In addition, by examining M&A and joint venture project financing, implementation, the creation and harnessing of synergies, and the need for monitoring and control, the book gives readers greater confidence in their own M&A decision making. Readers will find instruction on how to obtain corporate approvals, deal with project impediments, assess the performance of project teams, distill lessons learned in conducting acquisitions and joint ventures, and how to institutionalize their knowledge after the project is completed. Highly detailed, with a unique viewpoint that challenges prevailing orthodoxies of M&A management, Dr. Triantis's step-by-step approach will be valuable not only for corporate M&A staffers but also for college-level teachers and students.

Based on over 200 interviews, this new book provides rich insights and practices on the toughest challenges facing offshore client/supplier relationships. While many client organizations found benefits to be gained from the offshoring of IT work, others struggled to realize any cost savings or other improvements. How can these mixed experiences be reconciled? The research reveals that offshore outsourcing can deliver on its promises, but only if both clients and suppliers diligently manage the details. In this book, the authors provide specific practices that managers can use, and detailed case studies which illustrate how these practices are embedded and enacted within client and supplier firms.

In the turbulence of recent times, it is clear that the need for SMART government could not be starker. Recently, how we run corporations has been examined from every angle. Corporations have proved adept at change while governments have stuck to established rules. The challenge is to put in place machinery to provide services in a way that resists the growth of bureaucracy. The authors provide powerful insights into what it takes for leaders to create efficient, successful governments.

In Wisdom, Knowledge, and Management, the second volume of the series Churchman's Legacy and Related Works, the editors draw contributions from leading systems thinkers inspired by the works of C West Churchman. The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (C. West Churchman, 1979) is one of Churchman's most significant works. In this particular writing he displayed two main tendencies, that he was a Skeptic and that he showed Socratic Wisdom. In Wisdom, Knowledge, and Management, the editors seeks to follow up on these two themes and reveal how modern authors interpret Churchman's ideas, apply them to their own line of thinking and develop their own brand of Systemics. Several authors re-interpret Churchman's thinking and several others apply this holistic discourse to practical applications. It is very significant that the authors are a very cosmopolitan group: hailing from Sweden, Australia, Spain, South Korea, Argentina and USA. Interestingly, the contribution from the South Korean author, Yu Jae E, applies conceptual tools from the French contemporary writer, Deleuze. Additionally, Darek M. Eriksson's chapter applies the epistemology of Jean-Louis Le Moigne. modern authors, and in particular Churchman, to ideas spawned two thousands years ago among the Ancient Greeks. This effort should show the reach of Churchman's intellectual power and demonstrates cross-fertilization across borders and continents. It could not have happened without the Internet.

As the world's resources are running out, sustainability issues will drive large strategy shifts for many organizations in the near future. Businesses need to explore how profit and value can be generated from sustainable innovations in their commercial offerings. This is both an ethical and an essential strategy in a global economy still reliant on increasingly limited resources.
Sustainable Innovation Strategy is a thought-provoking and timely book which examines the links between sustainable development, innovation strategy and the business model. Through insightful case studies from mature and developing markets, the authors show how sustainability needs to be at the core of every organization's strategy and innovation. They reveal the three ways in which sustainable strategies can be incorporated into business models - eco-efficiency, circularity and functional economy.
Rigorous and practical, this book shows how other organizations have successfully made the transition from resource reliant to generating profit and value through sustainable models. From the innovative strides being taken in the electric car industry in Europe to the management of agricultural waste in Brazil for profit and clean energy, they show how sustainable business models can add value to an organization.

Open Innovation Through Strategic Alliances demonstrates the vital role and applications of strategic alliances between firms and research organizations in creating and applying knowledge for the development of new products, technologies, or business models.

The Challenge for Japanese Multinationals is about strategic issues of modern management from the view of global business practice.
In the 2010 issue of Fortune Magazine's top 500 Multi-National Corporations, the USA ranked number one with 139 companies. This was followed with 71 companies in Japan and 149 in the EU.
With the maturing of the domestic market, Japanese MNCs - not only in manufacturing industries but in non-manufacturing industries as well, will continue to globalize, with overseas expansion accelerating in emerging countries such as BRICs.

Despite the fact that experts acknowledge the importance of the emerging markets, there is a dearth of real case studies specially focussed on marketing issues. This case study book addresses that need. It is also important and timely in providing a framework for instructors and researchers (both academic and industry) to understand the dynamics occurring in emerging markets. This book is composed of long and short real cases with varying complexity in different sectors including airlines, hotel, fashion, etc. These will cover issues which are unique to the emerging markets (including the BRIC countries) to understand the dynamics occurring in these countries. With its case studies, collection of questions, and real-life marketing examples, this book offers unique benefits to marketing students and educators across the world. A must-have for every marketing course module.

Focusing on the structure, processes, and behaviors for a board of directors to ensure good governance, this book examines the behavioral aspects of governance such as how to evaluate and process information provided to the board, how to critically question without de-motivating and how to provide guidance without interfering with management.

The need for enterprise flexibility in an era of rapidly advancing technology, increasing competition, and globalization, is apparent. Flexibility can be thought of as an ability of the enterprise to quickly and efficiently respond to market changes and to bring new products and services quickly to the market place. Beyond this definition, a truly flexible enterprise should proactively change the market through its ability to create new and innovative products and services. The proposed book is intended to provide a conceptual framework of Flexible Enterprise supported by researches/case applications in various types of flexibilities exhibited by a flexible enterprise. The selected papers from a variety of issues concerning the planning and operation of a flexible enterprise are organized into following four parts:

I Enterprise and Strategic Flexibility

II Organizational Flexibility

III Business Process and Information Systems Flexibility

IV Operations Flexibility "

This book explores leadership and management in social sector organizations, which include, NGOs, non-profits, social enterprises, social businesses, and cross-sector collaborations focusing on advancing human dignity and social justice. It provides social sector leaders with an overview of current trends, issues, and challenges in the field as well as best practices to foster effective programs, sustain organizations and meet the growing demands of the sector. The enclosed chapters cover topics such as cross-sector organizational design, innovation for client services, gender management dynamics, policy advocacy, and the growing social entrepreneurship movement. The social sector is currently in a vibrant, dynamic, and exciting stage. The sector's role and relevance to advancing human dignity and social justice is greater than ever. The number and types of social sector organizations have increased exponentially around the world and are offering extraordinary and much needed contributions toward an array of social issues. The traditional NGOs and non-profit organizations continue to be an integral part of the global civil society. At the same time, the emerging organizational forms under the social entrepreneurship umbrella are providing new momentum and excitement within and outside of the social sector. The interest in social entrepreneurship is encouraging existing social sector entities to actively embrace and encourage innovation. This interest is also inspiring a new breed of professionals and organizations to contribute to the social sector. This trend falls under the larger social sector dynamic promoting the creation of "hybrid" and emergent organizational forms, which cross and combine the traditional non-profit and for-profit domains. Despite the increased interest, the social sector still faces challenges around the world. CIVICUS - an international group promoting civil society organizations and groups-- recently reported a rise in the restrictions on civil society activities in a number of countries through worsening policy and legal environments. Funding challenges for the social sector are thus becoming more significant. At the same time, the calls for social sector accountability and emphasis on results and impact are growing. This book aims to offer approaches and tools which allow for the bridging of demands between creativity and accountability, between inspiration and results, and between gaining individual commitment and shared ownership of agendas and achievements, all of which are needed to effectively operate in the changing social sector.

Anglo American, Barloworld, Dimension Data, Hollard, Imperial Holdings, MTN, Naspers, SABMiller, Old Mutual, Sappi, Standard Bank, Tiger Brands - these are the heroes in the Going Global story.

What is it about the South African way of doing business that has seen a significant number of our companies extend a footprint into other countries? Is is the "we make a plan" attitude that South Africans seem to have in surplus? Is it that our own cultural diversity instinctively means we are fearless when it comes to new markets? Or is South Africa's global legacy determined by its unique character and status as a "dynamic market?"

For decades South African corporates have crisscrossed the world exporting their businesses, expertise, knowledge and daring to places as familiar as the United Kingdom, Australia, India and the United States and as unexpected as Russia, China, Brazil, Afghanistan and Colombia. Now meet the executives - past and present - who brought their global visions to life. Share their passion for exploring new frontiers and learn from thier experiences of what not to do when starting a business abroad.

The book explores various aspects of cognitive and motivational psychology as they impact entrepreneurial behavior. Building upon the 2009 volume, Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind, the editors and contributors explore the cognitions, motivations, passions, intentions, perceptions, and emotions associated with entrepreneurial behaviors, in each case preserving their original chapters and enhancing them with thoughtful and targeted updates, reflecting on the most recent developments in theory and practice, telling the story of what has transpired in the last decade in the field of entrepreneurial psychology. The volume addresses such questions as: Why do some people start business and others do not? Is entrepreneurship a natural quality or can it be taught? Do entrepreneurs think differently from others? While there is a great deal of literature exploring the dynamics of new firm creation, policies to promote innovation and technology transfer, and the psychology of creativity; research on entrepreneurial mindset or cognition is relatively new, and draws largely from such related fields as organizational behavior, cognitive and social psychology, career development, and consumer research. In this book, editors Brannback and Carsrud have reassembled the contributors to Understanding the Entrepreneurial Mind to discuss new research paradigms given their vantage point years after the original volume was published. Featuring the most current literature references, Revisiting the Entrepreneurial Mind continues to challenge conventional approaches to entrepreneurship and articulate an agenda for future research.

Economic Behavior and Distributional Choice brings together, for the first time, Harold M. Hochman's key papers on income redistribution and policy in one accessible volume.The introduction describes the genesis and development of a new direction in thinking, and the papers that follow cover the evolutions of an idea: the alliance between distribution policy and distributional preference as developed through public choice theory. This fine collection illustrates Harold M. Hochman's major contributions to the discussion of the relationship between distributional preference, income transfer policy and economic justice, including the concept of Pareto Optimal Distribution. These contributions have significantly advanced our understanding of the ways in which economic analysis can inform income distribution policy. This pathbreaking selection of writings, including a set of innovative papers on fiscal design, urban policy and addictive behavior, will be of great interest to academics, students and researchers concerned with macroeconomics and economic behavior.

Innovation underpins competitiveness, is crucial to addressing societal challenges, and its support has become a major public policy goal. But what really works in innovation policy, and why? This Handbook, compiled by leading experts in the field, is the first comprehensive guide to understanding the logic and effects of innovation polices. The Handbook develops a conceptualization and typology of innovation policies, presents meta-evaluations for 16 key innovation policy instruments and analyses evidence on policy-mix. For each policy instrument, underlying rationales and examples are presented, along with a critical analysis of the available impact evidence. Providing access to primary sources of impact analysis, the book offers an insightful assessment of innovation policy practice and its evaluation. The Handbook's final chapter draws overall conclusions, reflects on the merits and limits of evaluation and impact analysis in innovation policy and suggests tangible improvements. This Handbook is an indispensable source for researchers, analysts, students and practitioners of innovation policy at all levels, as well as all those interested in policy analysis and evaluation more generally. Contributors include: K. Blind, J. Cassingena Harper, P. Cunningham, J. Edler, K. Flanagan, A. Goek, D. Grimshaw, B. Jones, C. Koehler, P. Laredo, R. Ramlogan, C. Rammer, J. Rigby, P. Shapira, E. Uyarra, J. Youtie

The authors have conducted extensive research into the role of business in public life, and this book developes the themes of that work. It takes a practice-oriented look at corporate citizenship, and uses real, behind the scenes examples from well-known companies to show that for many firms social responsibility is becoming more integrated into corporate strategy.

Current thinking about how to improve strategic planning (now upgraded to strategic thinking) and decision making by managers at all levels is to employ some aspect of information systems technology. Although this approach has worked well for most organizations, chief executives are now asking their managers to do what they do best but to do it better. But how? Future thinking about improving strategic thinking and decision making involves integrating creativity with the latest in information systems. Hence, the power of the computer can be an important means to assist managers in doing what they do better when employing a creative computer software approach.

Initially, the text looks at a number of areas that are impacted by creativity, with special emphasis on creative computer software. Management decision making is examined from a problem-finding or a forward-looking viewpoint that can benefit from utilizing creative computer software. Not only is this software useful for organizing ideas, but also for getting managers involved in networking ideas in different locations of a company. But more importantly, this software centers on the generation of new ideas. To demonstrate the generation of these ideas, the final part of the text gives a number of real-world applications of creative computer software. Particular emphasis is placed on Idea Fisher 4.0, an effective software package for generating new products and services.

This book explores how the entire toolbox of intellectual property (IP) protection and management are successfully combined and how firms generate value from IP. It provides a framework of archetypes which firms will be able to self-identify with and which will allow companies to focus on the IP and IP Management issues most relevant to them.

This book is readers who wish to develop their knowledge, insight, skills, and facility into integrated communications within the post-modern era, a topic of relevance everywhere, but particular apposite as the original conference was hosted in Turkey, a rapidly developing nation, and one enjoying significant growth in the global.

This new approach argues that many practices and postures in strategy, marketing and branding, and organisational management are neither appropriate nor efficient. Based upon their studies of extremely successful firms, the authors distinguish two main paths to success. One followed by "proactive markers" like Club Med, Ikea and Royal Canin consists of designing and creating new economic and societal "territories," not just market shares or brands, that fill societal voids. The other, followed by "reactive markers" like First Direct, Tesco, Wal-Mart and Dyson consists of addressing with great talents existing social values and ways of living. But this book does not only deliver a groundbreaking new analytical framework: it also gives practical clues to business practitioners on both avoiding pitfalls and taking adequate decisions while elaborating their marking discipline.