This book examines the ways in which quality management methods, tools, and practices help improve an organization's performance and achieve sustainable competitive advantages. This volume includes quality techniques and tools such as the EFQM Model, SERVPERF model, E-S-Qual scale and the ISO 9001 certification and provide a wide variety of empirical studies in different economic sectors. In the current economic environment, characterized by economic turmoil and fierce competition, quality management has become a key strategy for organizations to overcome today's challenges. Organizations benefits from implementing quality management systems by following two approaches. First, they implement quality practices aimed at ensuring customer satisfaction by considering consumer expectations and establishing strategies accordingly. Second, organizations improve processes by establishing efficient and effective process management systems that improve productivity, lower costs, reduce unnecessary expenses, eliminate all non-value added activities, and ultimately maximize excellence and customer satisfaction. Quality management thereby provides tools, techniques, and methods for continuous process improvement in both the professional and academic worlds, which, when implemented by organizations in times of crisis, enable more effective administration of activities undertaken by managers. Containing contributions from various academics and scholars, this new book provides cutting edge research, methods and techniques providing a reference manual for academics, scholars, practitioners and policy-makers.

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 book considers the concept of strategic community, a framework that integrates knowledge possessed by people, groups or organizations across boundaries. Case studies demonstrate how strategy, organization and leadership in corporations, represent the dynamic view of strategy necessary to obtain competitive organizational capability.

This book focuses on foreign firms' nonmarket strategies and lobbying in Japan, in which important readjustments in traditional power configuration have taken place, giving more leeway to various stakeholders. The author analyzes in-depth how firms deploy their influence in a country that used to be dubbed "the castle" due to its difficulty of access, a theme on which minimal information currently exists. As professionals acknowledge, and contrary to what is usually assumed, similarities with the United States or the European Union outweigh local differences that though must still be addressed are no longer insuperable. With globalization and the rise of economic interdependence, it is now easier for foreign players with valuable assets to be part of the game. A significant feature of the country is the weight of collective action and the reluctance towards individual or direct lobbying as reflected in the perceptions and firms' organization. The consequence for foreign firms is that they are often compelled to circumvent with soft strategies. This book will take the reader over 20 cases that display a striking multiformity and highlight conditions for success for foreign businesses in Japan and will be of interest to scholars as well as practitioners.

The broad, interdisciplinary field of technology and innovation management contains emergent boundaries as well as developing frameworks and theories. Due to the dynamic nature of the field, familiarity with the scope of literature is important to practitioners, researchers, and scholars.""Principle Concepts of Technology and Innovation Management: Critical Research Models"" provides critical, scholarly analysis of over 100 peer-reviewed articles that have had the greatest impact on the multi-disciplinary field of technology and innovation management. The distinguished pool of international authors have identified and analyzed the field's most important works, creating a one-of-a-kind book for scholars and field practitioners.

"The complexity and tensions of industrial innovation processes are fleshed out through the analysis of an intriguing case study from the food industry. Drawing together insights from multiple disciplines, this book shows the controversial nature of innovation processes."--

This book provides insight into a region which is characterized by rapid economic and social changes with a significant rise in foreign direct investments and privatization. Analysis covers political, legal, economic and social trends, and topics such as the influence of informal networks and corruption, as well as cultural diversity.

Over the past decade, platforms have spread through many industries and generated an increasing share of the global economy. Many of the world's most valuable companies have adopted a platform-based business model and today, we find that platforms pervade our everyday lives. So far, however, the existing management literature has failed to provide professionals and students with appropriate tools to understand the business models that make those platforms successful. This book offers rigorous analysis of the complexity of platforms, as well as practical strategic guidance and tools to help you deal with this complexity. Written in an accessible style and based on a comprehensive approach, Platform Strategies is self-contained and does not require the reader to have specific prior knowledge. The book is both academically rigorous and a pragmatic and efficient guide, incorporating path-breaking insights from academic research on platforms with real-world applications of concepts and tools. The book engages with case studies and highlights important take-aways that can be implemented in practice. You'll learn how to use new tools of strategic management and how to adapt well-established ones. This book is an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs (experienced or aspiring), managers of existing platforms and businesses, professionals, and students in business, management and economics.

Presenting a broad literature review of scholarly work in the area of Business Model Innovation, this new book analyses 50 management theories in the context of BMI to yield valuable new insights. Research on BMI is still in its infancy and has so far proved to be more than just a sub-discipline of strategy or innovation research. Exploring the field of Business Innovation demonstrates the importance of the discipline as a more specialized management research field and offers new understandings of this important subject. It presents 'grand theories' that will help researchers approach BMI through a different angle and describes business models as phenomena, enabling readers to understand their patterns and mechanisms. Reviewing the most important academic work on the subject over the last 15 years, the authors aim to open up the debate and inspire researchers to look at this phenomenon from new and different angles.

Providing the necessary background information and hands-on tools to build compelling business cases, this book will increase the reader's capability to champion new business development ideas, take them to senior management, and facilitate the decision process by understanding the key theories and practices of finance and corporate investments.

Job migration across international boundaries and jobless economic "recoveries" are the latest disruptions in the workplace's human equation. To help policy makers, employers and employees to address these issues, DiVanna and Rogers propose a more rigorous approach to human capital. They point out that the emergence of stronger measures, management techniques and balance sheet valuations was a key enabler to the emergence of dynamic financial capital markets and international exchanges. This book puts forth a framework for measuring, managing and negotiating issues of human business value. It looks at how policymakers, employers and employees can achieve common ground when productivity threatens job loss or avoid the zero-sum view that pits international trade against domestic employment.

The Luxury Market in Brazil provides a holistic and practitioners approach to luxury marketing in Brazil. The book analyses the key challenges and opportunities facing luxury brands, while providing an insight into the skills and competencies to develop and implement effective luxury marketing strategies that are specific to the market in question.

Imagine planning an event like the Olympics. Now imagine planning the same event but not knowing when or where it will take place, or how many will attend. This is what humanitarian logisticians are up against. Oversights result in serious consequences for the victims of disasters. So they have to get it right, fast. This book comprehensively covers the problems of humanitarian logistics.

The author of this book believes passionately in the National Health Service and through his work offers the government recommendations for how its reform process can be saved from failure. The NHS will only survive and be true to its founding principles if the reform programme is driven forward - and if the book's recommendations are implemented.

As a new generation of leaders enters the workforce, what they have to say about leadership matters. Their values and ideas will soon drive innovation and progress in an increasingly competitive global climate. Here for the first time those thoughts are outlined and their voices heard.Sherry H. Penney and Patricia Akemi Neilson at the Center for Collaborative Leadership are actively involved in reaching out to the leadership of tomorrow and listening to these remarkable individuals. The voices of nearly 300 emerging leaders are captured here as the authors look at the important ways in which Generations X and Y will transform leadership, including how:

• Collaboration will replace the former top-down leadership model
• Cultural diversity will add value to organizations
• Corporate social responsibility is a necessary ingredient for organizational success
• Family friendly policies will permeate the workplaceEffective leaders are needed now and in the future and these emerging leaders are ready for the challenge.

Although sustainability efforts in business are still a work in progress, it is increasingly clear that key elements of a new generation of enterprises will be radically different from those of our contemporary modern industrial economy. The core distinctions between what currently exists and what is being created are communicated in this book through the compelling metaphor of "Ants, Galileo, and Gandhi."This collection, developed from The Natural Step's conference on Sustainability and Innovation in 2002, provides radical ideas for generating a new perspective on the dynamics of business systems. 'Ants' symbolize the lessons to be learned from nature and the dependence of individual beings on broader, complex systems. "Galileo" embodies brilliance in perceiving and proving that the current paradigm is flawed. "Gandhi" exemplifies exceptional compassion in fighting for fundamental change. All of these attributes are increasingly relevant in a world where, globally, we are experiencing both a steady decline in life-supporting resources and rising demands. Recognition of these challenges is sparking innovation within the private sector where the first glimmers of systemic change can be seen. The book examines the emergence of 21st-century enterprises that recognize their reliance on broad social and ecological systems ("ants"), incorporate sparks of genius rooted in rigorous analyses ('Galileo'), and acknowledge the importance of compassion and determination within any endeavour ('Gandhi'). With contributions from Ray Anderson, Gretchen Daily, Karl-Henrik Robert, Alois Flatz, Allen White and many more, the book illustrates that pioneering companies recognize that new opportunities emerge from recognizing the broader systems on which all businesses rely. Efforts to work with ecological and social dynamics of vibrancy and resilience offer a new space for innovation. Companies are stepping into this space and exploring innovative approaches to developing sustainability-focused products, operations and strategies. These sustainability-inspired business efforts are considering new ways to address human needs and desires. The most promising approaches are based on systems thinking and recognition of the linkages between 'upstream' and 'downstream' effects of actions. Understanding the undesired 'downstream' impacts of a firm's practices draws attention 'upstream'. This assessment highlights the most expedient approach: to design these impacts out of enterprises from the very start.The book is divided into five sections to present a set of theories emerging about sustainability and its application to: business strategy and operations; financial-sector practices; accountability and reporting drivers; and organizational change pathways. Together, these sections illustrate the current range of sustainability theories and applications."Ants, Galileo, and Gandhi" will be essential reading for both academics looking for robust teaching material, practitioners looking for inspiration and the general reader interested in exploring the state of the art in the realignment of 21st-century business."

Professionals Making Judgments examines the role of judgment in professional work and as a constitutive principle of professionalism more broadly. The book reviews the professionalism and makes the argument that too many studies of professionalism put emphasis on rational decision-making at the expense of intuition, experiences, and acquired skills that enables professionals to operate effectively. In addition, the volume discusses the concept of heterarchy as an organizational form that not only tolerates but actively encourages alternative views and therefore promotes professional judgment as a key skill. The more theoretical parts of the book are complemented by empirical studies of three distinct domains of professional practice in reproductive medicine, in a faith-based organization (the Church of Sweden), and a regional government agency. The volume thus contributes to the literature on professionalism by making a connection between analytical skills, decision-making capacities, and performance in professional work without reducing professional work to one-dimensional forms of rationality.

This powerful study of the threats to business survival draws compelling parallels between the Titanic and family firms, serving to motivate family business stakeholders into corrective action before it's too late. Family-owned businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy, responsible for 65 percent of wages paid, adding 78 percent of all new jobs, and contributing over half of the nation's GDP. Unfortunately, less than one-third survive the transition from first to second generation of family ownership. Now more than ever, many family businesses are in danger of going under as rising health care costs, lack of access to capital, and increasing costs of doing business shrink profit margins. Sink or Swim: How Lessons from the Titanic Can Save Your Family Business provides critical strategies for identifying and managing risks-obvious and hidden-that threaten family business survival. In part 1 of the book, the authors relate the design, construction, and operation of the ill-fated Titanic to the challenges facing family-owned businesses today. Part 2 examines the five fatal flaws that contributed to Titanic's sinking and reveals how family firms can have the same vulnerabilities. The final section supplies guidance that will help family-run businesses avoid unanticipated tragedy. Contributions from leading researchers, advisors, and family business owners, providing personal, professional, and academic insights A chronology of events originating from the early periods of the industrial revolution to the modern era Diagrams, tables, and charts related to family business Photographs of Titanic in various stages of development, as well as of Titanic's owners, builders, passengers, and crew Bibliography of sources citing leading researchers, advisors, and family business owners; and of primary and secondary sources relating to Titanic

This major book provides a new understanding of systems of corporate governance, notably in the USA, Japan and the EU. It discusses how governance influences corporate cultures and strategies, particularly in response to the effects of deepening integration in the world economy. These effects present challenges for governments, obliging them to focus increasingly on problems of the management of structural and foreign trade policies. Challenges in international financial markets also have to be confronted by policymakers as industries are funded more and more through cross-border investments, which reflect the responses of systems of corporate governance to globalization. The book links studies of corporate governance with surveys of efficiencies and failures in international financial markets, as well as examining aspects of corporate governance systems that have special significance for the management of economic policies as globalization continues. The contributors advocate increased international cooperation to promote more structural complementarities in the world economy.

This book presents conscious business as a constantly expanding and powerful approach to reinvent and shape organizations in a human and beneficial manner. In particular it examines the core characteristics, main drivers and challenges of conscious businesses in Germany. The book offers a structured overview of the current situation of the concept and outlines important issues that need to be considered in order to make independent decisions. Four case studies of successful conscious companies - differing in terms of their size, industry, legal form and international orientation - reveal concrete best practices and provide evidence for the approach's ability to deliver business paradigms that are simultaneously purposeful and profitable.

Organizational change is still an issue of high importance for organizations, yet many change initiatives fail. These failures are often attributed to a lack of consideration of existing organizational culture. This book explores ways to undertake cultural change within a shorter time span without losing sight of complexity and sustainability.

"Over the past years social entrepreneurship has grown as a research field. In this third edited volume we have collected contributions studying particularly questions of values in Social Entrepreneurship as well as the identification and exploitation of Social Venturing Opportunities"--

World economy globalization is driven by multiple interactive forces. They give rise to a number of paradoxes that impact the functional and developmental characteristics of firms. This book offers for the first time an in-depth study of the logical contradictions that stream from economic integration on the supranational level.