When Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy/Bad Strategy was published in 2011, it immediately struck a chord, calling out as bad strategy the mish-mash of pop culture, motivational slogans and business buzz speak so often and misleadingly masquerading as the real thing. Since then, his original and pragmatic ideas have won fans around the world and continue to help readers to recognise and avoid the elements of bad strategy and adopt good, action-oriented strategies that honestly acknowledge the challenges being faced and offer straightforward approaches to overcoming them. Strategy should not be equated with ambition, leadership, vision or planning; rather, it is coherent action backed by an argument. For Rumelt, the heart of good strategy is insight into the hidden power in any situation, and into an appropriate response - whether launching a new product, fighting a war or putting a man on the moon. Drawing on examples of the good and the bad from across all sectors and all ages, he shows how this insight can be cultivated with a wide variety of tools that lead to better thinking and better strategy, strategy that cuts through the hype and gets results.

Offering a comprehensive classification of the analytical approaches to the social within the fields of innovation and entrepreneurship studies, this book showcases a wide variety of perspectives and a collection of theoretical analysis tackling social complexity. The editors bring together contributors who mirror the heterogeneity present in the innovation and entrepreneurship fields, aiming to spark a discussion on the pluralist and critical nature of the social dimension within research, and to examine societal transformation processes and their attending multifaceted issues. Exploring how the social is analytically understood in innovation and entrepreneurship studies, the book proposes a non-exhaustive spectrum ranging from implicit assumption to explicit conceptualization in defining methodological foundations. Discussing the social and methodological challenges involved in the integration of social dimensions, this book will be a crucial companion for innovation and entrepreneurship scholars and students. This book is also a must-read for policy-makers and practitioners involved in societal transformation processes.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This enlightening Research Agenda considers the latest developments within the world of work, arguing that the time is right to address the variety of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and arrangements. Helping readers to deepen their theoretical understanding of HRM systems and processes, this Research Agenda brings insights from strategic human capital and theories that have been outside the main focus of strategic HRM researchers. Chapters look at attribution theories, the role of human and social capital in strategic HRM, as well as institutional or social forces that affect firm choices of HRM practices and outcomes. The book takes us beyond a best practice view by examining online labour platforms, the liquid workforce, networked organizations, and the management of human resources in entrepreneurial firms. Exploring the varying forms of HRM systems and practices, this book will be a key resource for scholars and PhD students in the fields of human resource management and strategic management.

How are digital technologies changing the creation of new ventures? What are the critical skills for entrepreneurs in the digital age? How does digitalization change product design and communication with customers? How can small businesses in non-digital industries overcome the digital divide? This book helps answer these questions through real-world case studies and lessons learnt from the perspectives of real entrepreneurs in various industries, countries and types of business. Each case has abundant materials to support learning and reflection, including: discussion questions and assignments to stretch students decision-making simulations rich and detailed teaching notes to help enliven your teaching. Highlighting how entrepreneurship is changing in the digital age, this book will be an excellent resource for teachers and students of entrepreneurship, innovation management, new venture creation, marketing and strategy.

This book offers cutting-edge insights into the changing landscape of entrepreneurial finance, as digital technologies play an increasingly dynamic role in the world economy. Assessing the rapid development of innovative technologies in entrepreneurial ecosystems, it contributes to a wider discussion on the role that technology plays in facilitating and commercializing ideas in the context of global finance. Chapters offer a systemic, comparative analysis of the interplay between financial activities and digital technologies, reflecting on the acceleration of the development of innovative technologies and alternative financing. The book includes thoughtful discussions of women entrepreneurs, crowdfunding, business angels and big data, connecting these topics to wider discussions of technology-based entrepreneurship. Offering interdisciplinary insights from a variety of entrepreneurial contexts, including startups, universities, corporations, and the public sector, contributors demonstrate the role of digital technologies in facilitating entrepreneurial ecosystems. Bringing together state-of-the-art qualitative and quantitative research on entrepreneurial ecosystems, this book offers crucial insights for academics and researchers of entrepreneurial finance looking for a better understanding of the contemporary role of digital technologies in alternative financing. Policymakers and practitioners will also benefit from the managerial implications of real-world scenarios analyzed by contributors.

This important book focuses on particular aspects of the development and implementation of community partnerships based in - and focused on - neighborhoods, municipalities, and regions. Throughout the book, David J. Maurrasse stresses the importance of philanthropy and representation from different types of organizations across public, private, and nongovernmental spectrums. In observing these collaborative efforts both in the US and various countries including Colombia, Malawi, England, India and Australia, two dynamics are emphasized: the role of private philanthropic institutions and their resources in facilitating the creation and continuation of these partnerships, along with the role of nongovernmental organizations as important enduring institutions in localities that are not, historically, considered as agents of community and economic development. It provides an evolving perspective on community partnerships particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and racial and income inequity, introducing the geographical, historical and cultural context behind these. Furthermore, the author defines and describes various roles in community partnerships and offers suggestions to help leverage these. Providing insightful case studies on the topic, this book will be key reading for practitioners in the field of community engagement at nonprofit institutions, such as universities, hospitals and philanthropic organizations. It will also be of use for academic researchers focusing on community studies and strategic partnerships.

This original book is a unique and original in-depth study on how, in the past decade, Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have achieved technological innovation in the large infrastructure sectors. It reveals a "new world" of Chinese innovation, showing that SOEs are willing to innovate and are also more than capable of doing so. Based on findings from first-hand data and years of observations, this book shows how the innovation ecosystem perspective incentivises and facilitates Chinese SOEs' innovation and highlights the entrepreneurial role of the government. Using the examples of UHV Power Transmission, mobile telecommunication standards, high-speed trains, and nuclear electric power, the book exhibits the complex determinants of SOEs' success in radical technological innovations within the large infrastructure sector. Chapters also demonstrate the innovation process of SOEs, the unique innovation model of China, as well as its advantages and disadvantages. Catch-Up and Radical Innovation in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises will be a useful resource for academics in research disciplines such as development studies, innovation and entrepreneurship, and Chinese studies. It will also aid entrepreneurs, businesses and managers who intend to collaborate with Chinese SOEs, to better understand the trends of SOEs' engagement in radical innovation and the potential opportunities for broadening their international collaborations.

Bringing together a series of new perspectives and reflections on creative economies, this insightful Modern Guide expands and challenges current knowledge in the field. Interdisciplinary in scope, it features a broad range of contributions from both leading and emerging scholars, which provide innovative, critical research into a wide range of disciplines, including arts and cultural management, cultural policy, cultural sociology, economics, entrepreneurship, management and business studies, geography, humanities, and media studies. Designed to push the boundaries of understanding on the topic, this Modern Guide initially addresses definitional and methodological challenges, before offering new perspectives on the theory and practice of creative and cultural entrepreneurship, and exploring the role of networks and the importance of place and mobility. The book concludes by re-imagining creative economies, raising issues of inequality and justice, care and solidarity, and opportunities for value recognition, while providing new visions of inclusivity, cultural capability, and future development. A timely reflection on the importance of creative economies, this Modern Guide will be a critical read for students, scholars and policymakers working to support and develop future inclusive and sustainable creative economies.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This cutting edge book introduces the origins and consequences of digital platforms, examining how artificial intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data from and about users by providing social media and e-commerce services. Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller compare and contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy approaches. They show how uneven power relationships between platform operators and their users are analysed in different economic traditions. Key features include: analysis of economic and public values provides a foundation for platform regulation examines the impacts of platforms on the media industry challenges claims of the inevitability of platform dominance discusses key challenges, including: artificial intelligence, data sharing and competition in the digital economy. This concise book will be indispensable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of media and communication studies, innovation studies and economics, particularly those focusing on platform economics.

Passion, power and purpose: engaging with strategy in your organisation, and your life provides a professional and personal guide to navigating a world of complexity, uncertainty and pandemic-sized shocks. This book offers a comprehensive overview of applied strategy, suited to leaders and executives, graduate students, and all those interested in the power of strategy, igniting passion and enabling purpose.

Passion, power and purpose covers a broad selection of the essential frameworks, models and tools needed to engage effectively in shaping and influencing organisational strategy. It is the ultimate practical guide for leading the strategy conversation. Passion, power and purpose goes further by inviting the reader to reflect personally on these important topics. Every strategy concept that is applied to the organisation is also translated into a personal journey of curiosity, discovery and empowerment through a set of probing reflective questions at the end of each chapter.

Alfred A. Marcus and Mazhar Islam examine how demographic changes introduce new challenges for businesses, with a focus on how the world today is divided between disproportionately old and young nations. Taking a broad international perspective, the book illustrates how demography affects underlying conditions in nations, presenting the risks and opportunities for businesses as well as a set of concrete obligations they owe to the nations in which they operate. The book analyzes the key challenges that nations face based on whether they have principally old, young, or middle-aged populations, and how businesses can best respond to these challenges. Chapters particularly emphasize the impacts of immigration and technology, democratic governance, crime, corruption, and stability. Providing an in-depth examination of the relationships between youth bulges, youth busts and violence, the book grapples with the question of whether the world is likely to be a more peaceful place in the future, and the implications this could have for the global business environment. Demography and the Global Business Environment will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of international business and strategic management. It will also be highly beneficial for business leaders looking for guidance about how to evaluate the opportunities and risks of investing in various countries.

Forget 'fail fast, fail often'. This revolutionary book reveals how we get failure wrong - and how to get it right.

We used to think of failure as a problem, to be avoided at all costs. Now, we're often told that failure is desirable - that we must 'fail fast, fail often'. The trouble is, neither approach distinguishes the good failures from the bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well.

Here, Amy Edmondson - the world's most influential organisational psychologist - reveals how we get failure wrong, and how to get it right. She draws on a lifetime's research into the science of 'psychological safety' to show that the most successful cultures are those in which you can fail openly, without your mistakes being held against you. She introduces the three archetypes of failure - simple, complex and intelligent - and explains how to harness the revolutionary potential of the good ones (and eliminate the bad).

And she tells vivid stories ranging from the history of open heart surgery to the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, all to ask a simple, provocative question: What if it is only by learning to fail that we can hope to truly succeed?

Innovation for Entrepreneurs presents a powerful but easy to apply toolkit for innovation, based on Professors Meyer and Lee's decades of experience as company founders and innovators for corporations around the globe. This textbook includes guidance for developing new product and service ideas with genuine impact, building teams around these ideas, understanding customers' needs, translating these needs into compelling product and service designs, and creating initial prototypes. It also helps students learn how to scope and size target markets and position an innovation successfully relative to competitors. These methods are fundamental for any new, impactful venture. The textbook is a series of frameworks and methods that build upon one another to the final deliverable - an innovation project developed by student teams, solving problems for specific types of users and use cases. Each chapter introduces readers to entrepreneurs and their stories of innovation and venture development, across different sectors of the economy and regions of the world. Going to a core theme of the book, each of these entrepreneurs has tackled a societal-focused problem and created economic value for themselves and their investors. These are stories of inspiration and achievement - and they illustrate the major frameworks provided in the book. Each entrepreneur faced a problem or challenge solved by the methods presented in that chapter. The authors' own entrepreneurial and corporate innovation experiences then complement these examples with additional industry applications of the method. Then, each chapter concludes with exercises for students to apply their newfound knowledge to their innovation projects. The book's final chapter then shows students how to best integrate their work from each chapter into a compelling presentation. Innovation for Entrepreneurs is an essential book for all undergraduate students. Entrepreneurship students in business schools will find it addressing a missing link in many business school curriculums - how to design a distinctive new product or service. At the same time, the methods-based approach combined with its inspiring stories makes this book a great learning platform for engineering and science students thinking about starting their own ventures or working for others upon graduation. Mindful, purposeful innovation is the gift that we wish to share in this book, arming readers with practical, powerful methods. Our students have started many interesting, impactful companies, and with this, have gained the deeper satisfaction of using creativity and technology to help others.

South African organisations operate in an environment that is fast changing due to digital advancement,economic challenges, social complexities, and changing employee and customer values/expectations. In this environment, successful organisations empower talented employees to work in teams and make pivotal decisions that lead to innovation and exceptionally high performance. Success for these organisations is not by chance but is the result of adopting carefully planned and sophisticated interventions into the organisational structure, leadership and management orientations, culture, and processes and behaviours. In this respect, Organisational behaviour: a contemporary South African perspective provides a solid and scientific foundation for developing an integrated and holistic understanding of the individual and group processes in the modern organisation. Organisational behaviour explores expectations that organisations and employees have of each other. It addresses contemporary issues related to organisational culture, change, engagement, performance excellence, changing communication technology, transformational and authentic leadership, diversity, business ethics, team excellence and globalisation. It contains many encounters, discussion questions, practical exercises and case studies with a southern African orientation to stimulate self-study, debate and reflective thinking. Organisational behaviour is aimed not only at aspiring HR practitioners and managers, but also at established professionals who need to stay updated, irrespective of their field and nature of their organisation.

Digital innovations influence every aspect of our lives in this increasingly technological world. Firms that pursue digital innovations must think carefully about how digital technologies shape the nature, process and outcomes of innovation as well as the long- and short-term social, economic and cultural consequences of their offerings. The Handbook contributes to building a transdisciplinary understanding of digital innovation by bringing together a diverse set of leading scholars from business, engineering, economics, science and public policy. Their distinct perspectives advance ideas and principles intended to set the agenda for future research on digital innovation in ways that inform not only firm-level strategies and practices but policy decisions and science-focused investments as well. The first of its kind, this Handbook provides scope and depth for scholars interested in information systems and digital technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship, strategy, and digital platforms and ecosystems. In addition, it is informative and enlightening to scholars and practitioners interested in the impact of digital technologies on organizations and the broader society. Contributors include: A. Aaltonen, C. Alaimo, E. Autio, N. Berente, C. Bubel, P.N. Courant, J. Cutcher-Gershenfeld, E.L. Echeverri-Carroll, A. Gawer, T.L. Griffith, V. Grover, J. Grudin, O. Henfridsson, S.L. Jarvenpaa, J. Kallinikos, M.J. Kim, J.L. King, R.J. Kulathinal, S. Kumar, K.A. Loparo, K. Lyytinen, A. Majchrzak, A. Malhotra, M.L. Markus, S. Nambisan, W. Nan, J.V. Nickerson, A. Pedraza-Avella, L.W. Rogowski, S. Seidel, L.D.W. Thomas, C. Velu, Y. Yoo, X. Zhang

Victor Kgomoeswana, well known as an African business expert with a profile on radio and television, shares 50 stories of innovation and opportunity behind the business headlines of the last ten years on the African continent, with some revised content since the first edition of the book in May 2014. From the introduction of M-pesa in Kenya to changing the image of Nigeria as Africa's fraud capital, and from Rwandan coffee farmers to Ethiopian airlines, and other remarkable stories in between, Kgomoeswana criss-crosses the continent to highlight and revisit the most fascinating business stories and their impact on the future of Africa. Africa is open for business revised and updated edition contains a dynamic and different view of the opportunities available in Africa from those usually portrayed in the news and in other media. Kgomoeswana focuses on the stories behind the headlines as well as sharing his personal experiences of Africa while travelling and doing business in a way that is as entertaining as it is informative.

Presenting cutting-edge research from Europe and beyond, The Role of Ecosystems in Developing Startups examines the diverse triggers of the entrepreneurial process and evaluates the richness of different entrepreneurial ecosystems. Novel approaches and methodologies in the field of startups, small business and entrepreneurship are provided, together with the conceptualisation of ecosystems in the managerial field. The book also demonstrates the importance of context in terms of actors and networks, the complete entrepreneurial journey as a set of complex processes and the role of time and resources supporting new companies. Furthermore, the use of social networks in both the early stages and in strategy execution are investigated as key to the entrepreneurial process and its ultimate success. The book's up-to-date empirical approach and practical guidance will provide an excellent resource to scholars and researchers in entrepreneurship alongside other business and management topics, practitioners and policy analysts in the field of entrepreneurship and management.

The international cast of authors in this important book explore how internationalizing small and medium sized enterprises (iSMEs) face major crises, such as COVID-19, and have managed them to reach a stable and desired state post-crisis. Chapter orientations vary from theoretical to empirical. Each focuses on issues related to a major crisis, and present already-deployed success strategies in 14 different country environments. The rich diversity of chapters offers a highly significant and timely contribution to the field. This book consists of five parts. An introduction to the volume and an extensive literature review open the book and are followed in Part II by general, yet critical, topics such as firm capabilities, resources and orientations, which collectively influence how smaller firms perceive emerging, approaching or unfolding crises in their environments and how the national public policy as well as the evolution of the crisis affects them. Part III extends this discussion to look at digitization and 'servitization' for higher customer and market-orientation, supply chains and overall governance. Specific research-based examples of potent strategies by four internationalized SMEs in different industries and country environments fill out Part IV and the final part offers a view beyond the current crisis. Scholars and students in entrepreneurship, international business and other related areas will find this very timely volume illuminating.

This Research Handbook provides a solid foundation for exploring the vibrant field of strategic entrepreneurship, with an examination of important topics from theoretical, psychological and economic perspectives. Analysing new directions for future research, this Research Handbook spans the comprehensiveness of the field and offers insights into specific topic areas within strategic entrepreneurship including historical cognition, ethnomethodology and the strategic entrepreneurial mind. With contributions from scholars across diverse backgrounds, the Research Handbook not only critically analyses existing research at the intersection of strategy and entrepreneurship, but also identifies new avenues for future inquiry. The editors provide useful guidance for travelling new paths within the domain of strategic entrepreneurship research, and across other disciplines, based upon distinct theoretical foundations. PhD students, scholars, and researchers alike who want to investigate further into strategic entrepreneurship in depth as well as uncharted territories, will find this Research Handbook a valuable resource.

Between the theories of business school and the real world of business, there is still a gap - one that can only be filled by experience, helped by the knowledge of someone who has already done it.

Over a lifetime as one of the world's most influential business leaders, Mark McCormack gathered more insights than could ever fit in one book: here he has distilled the strategies, techniques and wisdom that everyone needs to get organised, get ahead and gain and keep the competitive edge.

Building on from What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School, this straight-talking, practical guide offers essential tools and skills - from negotiating to managing, advancing your career to building a new idea - that will help you be a leader at any level.

How do you define ‘business’? What do you think are the ‘functions’ of a business? If you ask other people, you will likely get a different answer to yours. To get an authoritative view of how organisations do what they do every day and what the real role of a manager is, read this new edition of Business Functions. The topics it covers have been selected and presented so that you can enjoy current information from real, South African business examples and credible academic resources.

A landmark reference work in the field, this Elgar Encyclopedia presents over 60 entries from scholars that have shaped the economics of innovation as a distinct and specialised field of investigation. Comprehensive and accessible, it further elaborates the relationship between the economics of knowledge and the economics of innovation. The Encyclopedia offers an overview of the classical origins of the early economics of technical change, and the role of Schumpterian legacies and the Arrovian economics of knowledge as indispensable ingredients to understanding innovation. The entries demonstrate that the analysis of the full array of feedbacks, interactions and transactions that take place within economic systems show how and why out-of-equilibrium conditions in both factor and product markets are the cause and consequence of the introduction and diffusion of innovations. This will be a critical read for economics scholars, particularly those focusing on knowledge and innovation as it offers an understanding of the definitions of key terms in the field, the founding tenets of the topic, and the economics of knowledge and innovation in more specific contexts. It will also be a useful reference tool for business school students. Key Features: Contributions from 67 scholars in the field of the economics of knowledge and innovation Informative table offering thematic groupings of the entries in a thorough introduction Provides readers with the framework to elaborate innovation policies and firms' strategies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being rapidly introduced into the workplace, creating debate around what AI means for our work and organizations. This book gives grounded counterweight to provocative newspaper headlines by using in-depth case studies of eight organizations' experiences of implementing and using AI, providing readers with a solid understanding of what is actually happening in practice. Critical yet constructive, the authors address the challenges of implementing AI: organizing for data, testing and validating, algorithmic brokering, and changing work. Using a combination of existing literature and thorough practical examples, they provide answers to questions such as: What data do I need? When is a system good enough to actually take over tasks? And how can my employees be prepared for working with AI? The book presents four recommendations for WISE management of AI, requiring work-related insights, interdisciplinary knowledge, sociotechnical change processes, and ethical awareness. Offering insight into the unique characteristics of AI in organizations, this book will be essential reading for scholars of business and management, data analytics and information systems, technology and innovation, and computer science. With practical recommendations for managing the challenges of AI, it will also provide business managers with reflections to improve their own AI development and implementation processes.

This critical book presents ways to improve the impact of corporate sustainability programs on the ecological and social systems that we rely upon. Integrating three decades of multidisciplinary empirical and conceptual research undertaken by three leading management scholars in three countries, this book addresses the current state of, and the prospects for, business to help create a truly sustainable society. Providing a balanced perspective, Salvaging Corporate Sustainability expertly charts the path from the promises of corporate sustainability, to where it has gone wrong, and on to where it needs to go from here. The authors conclude by outlining a research agenda for finding a working balance between free market and formal governance that can yield substantive corporate sustainability programs. Overall, this book will challenge readers to take a broader view of how we use the planet's limited resources and the ways in which corporations can work with their stakeholders and the government to address our global sustainability challenges. Offering new directions for uncovering better ways to increase sustainability through business, this book will be core reading for academics and students of business leadership, corporate social responsibility, corporate sustainability, and strategic management. It will also be useful for practitioners who oversee and implement sustainability practices, helping them to conceptualize how to approach their jobs.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This visionary book presents a systematic, next-generation approach to marketing strategy, demonstrating how success is gained and sustained via continuous innovation to create new value for customers. George S. Day develops the outside-in approach to formulating strategy, while providing compelling insights into key market stakeholders to illustrate how to sustain customer value leadership in the face of mounting market turbulence. Key features: Provision of customer, consumer, and competitor perspectives to help innovate new customer value and grow faster than the market Advances in the outside-in approach to marketing strategy formulation, applying developments from supportive organizational cultures, dynamic capabilities, market orientation, and design thinking Deep insights into the evolution and progress of marketing over the past 50 years, to help marketers better anticipate and prepare for new organizational realities, emerging digital technologies, and proliferating market uncertainties The forward-looking marketing approaches explored in this Advanced Introduction ensure that the book will be an essential resource for students in MBA, EMBA, and Executive Education programs. Its innovative perspectives on strategy formulation and implementation will also benefit academics and practitioners in the fields of marketing, management, strategy development, and innovation.