How does a market globalize? How do antitrust and trade policies speed up or slow down the process? How do firms take part in it? The book offers a comprehensive appraisal of the phenomenon from a thorough study of the cement industry. Considered as a model of spatial competition in economic textbooks and inherently local, the industry globalized in the 1980s. Hence, the originality of the book to deal with an extreme case that highlights the fundamental characteristics of globalization.

Decolonization and its Impact is a ground-breaking comparative study of decolonization from before the Second World War to the early 1960s. Compares key cases across the European colonial empires Focuses on the process and impact of decolonization at the level of the 'late colonial state' and of colonial societies Presents an original model of decolonization that seeks to reconcile imperial and nationalist perspectives Engages with important theoretical approaches Makes extensive reference to recent literature on the subject

This book presents state-of-the-art probabilistic methods for the reliability analysis and design of engineering products and processes. It seeks to facilitate practical application of probabilistic analysis and design by providing an authoritative, in-depth, and practical description of what probabilistic analysis and design is and how it can be implemented. The text is packed with many practical engineering examples (e.g., electric power transmission systems, aircraft power generating systems, and mechanical transmission systems) and exercise problems. It is an up-to-date, fully illustrated reference suitable for both undergraduate and graduate engineering students, researchers, and professional engineers who are interested in exploring the fundamentals, implementation, and applications of probabilistic analysis and design methods.

This book introduces the main concepts of manufacturing systems and presents several evaluation approaches for these systems' evaluation. The relevant macroergonomics methods are summarized and the theoretical framework for Macroergonomic Compatibility construct is explained. This book presents a Macroergonomic Compatibility Model which proposes an instrument in the form of a Macroergonomic. The authors introduce a methodology to obtain a novel Macroergonomic Compatibility Index that enables manufacturing companies to assess and follow their progress on the implementation of macroergonomics practices.

Brunton's memoir opens a window on life and times in Meiji Japan from 1868 to 1876, a crucial period in that country's transformation from a medieval backwater into an efficient modern society. Schoolmaster to an Empire, the premier volume in Greenwood's newly initiated Asian Studies Series, provides a rare first-hand account of a nineteenth century English engineer and his key role in the epic-making technical developments of the time. Hired by the Japanese at the age of 27 as engineer in charge of a lighthouse project that would light the coast of Japan, Brunton embarked on a series of varied and adventurous experiences whose record is an enlightening case study of one yatoi, or hired foreign servant, in Japan. Because of the archaic technical level of old world Japan, Brunton the lighthouse builder was also compelled to design, build, and launch ships; build bridges and railways; drain swamps; and pave, drain, and light new settlements. His pages describing his inventive solutions to each new challenge make absorbing and sometimes amusing reading. Brunton's major contribution was probably the training of Japan's first modern mechanics and his insistence on the necessity of scientific training and preparation in a country where technical labor was despised and the skilled trades barely existed. Brunton emerges as a singular teacher not only of technological skills but also of the attitudes and mind set necessary to accomplish ambitious new tasks. This manuscript has been in the making for the last ninety years, according to editor/annotator Edward R. Beauchamp. Brunton completed his memoir shortly before his death in 1901, and it subsequently received the editorial attentions of three separate editors who were unsuccessful in publishing it. Beauchamp's conscientious efforts have restored the important but over-edited work as nearly as possible to Brunton's original language. The editor has retained and updated previous editors' useful annotations and incorporated additional notes to reflect new information and recently published materials bearing on the topics covered by Brunton. This final version is faithful both to Brunton's intent and the stylistic vagaries of the nineteenth century, while also containing updated materials. The 36-chapter volume is packed with fascinating details of the period, and it touches on subjects ranging from Building Iron Bridges and Women's Education in Japan to The Jealous Japanese. Here is an astounding portrait of Japan, the manufacturing giant, in its infancy. Schoolmaster to an Empire will appeal to general and specialist readers. It can also be used as a supplementary text in courses dealing with nineteenth century Japan and cross-cultural topics. Libraries, especially those with Asian interests, will find this a necessary addition.

With today's current problems, including forced migrations, inadequate education and healthcare systems, environmental threats, economic crises, poverty, etc., it has become evident that systemic social change is needed. Unfortunately, creating, maintaining, and fostering sustainable social value is not easy. In this respect, social entrepreneurs can act as change agents with their social missions. Yet, the role of social entrepreneurship in creating sustainable social value is still in an embryonic state. Creating Social Value Through Social Entrepreneurship contains expert research that links social entrepreneurship and social value in order to further understand the role of social entrepreneurship in creating social value and to highlight the importance of social entrepreneurs in emerging economies. While covering topics that include crowdfunding, social enterprise, social entrepreneurship ecosystems, and the triggers and challenges of social entrepreneurship, this book seeks to extend the social entrepreneurship contribution to social impact. The book is of value to entrepreneurs, managers, academicians, researchers, and students in various fields that include economics, management, and entrepreneurship.

This fully updated and expanded second edition of Human Resource Management examines the role of human resource management in the hospitality and tourism industry. The subject is approached from four perspectives: * the social psychology of managing people * the economics of labour * the practical techniques * strategy. The author argues that labour costs, labour utilisation, labour market behaviour and pay are inseparable from the skills of managing people. The book contains an important analysis of the labour market for this industry and now, in its second edition includes, among others, chapters on attitude measurement, customer-employee relations, questionnaire design and organizational change. Human Resource Management in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry is written in a clear, user-friendly style and offers a challenging view of the subject and an opportunity to learn an important aspect of management in an applied context. It is appropriate for degree level students and practitioners in the industry.

Psychological and ecological research has eroded the foundation of mainstream economics, and a new approach is needed rather than an adaptation of existing theory. The most promising new approach is doughnut economics (DE), version 2.0 of the discipline of economics for the 21st century that presents economics as an embedded discipline between the social foundation and the ecosystem with a focus on the disciplinary boundaries. The study of neuroeconomics, such as doughnut economics, still holds a gap between ""laboratory"" findings on homo neuroeconomics and the issues in contemporary behavioral economics. To understand a positivist application of doughnut economics within the new economic frameworks of the 21st century, further research must be discussed. Applied Doughnut Economics and Neuroeconomic Psychology for Business and Politics follows the economic history from the Stone Age to that of the modern creative man and then provides a specific focus on doughnut economics and 21st century neuroeconomics. This new type of behavioral economics will be linked to neuroeconomic psychology and behavioral science with a focus in areas such as cognitive training, economic ecology, the new welfare economy, and globalized markets. This book is ideal for health economists, economists, leaders in politics and business, psychologists, economic theorists, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in doughnut economics and the psychology behind it.

Why would an authoritarian regime expand social welfare provision in the absence of democratization? Yet China, the world's largest and most powerful authoritarian state, has expanded its social health insurance system at an unprecedented rate, increasing enrollment from 20 percent of its population in 2000 to 95 percent in 2012. Significantly, people who were uninsured, such as peasants and the urban poor, are now covered, but their insurance is less comprehensive than that of China's elite. With the wellbeing of 1.4 billion people and the stability of the regime at stake, social health insurance is now a major political issue for Chinese leadership and ordinary citizens. In Social Protection under Authoritarianism, Xian Huang analyzes the transformation of China's social health insurance in the first decade of the 2000s, addressing its expansion and how it is distributed. Drawing from government documents, filed interviews, survey data, and government statistics, she reveals that Chinese leaders have a strategy of "stratified expansion," perpetuating a particularly privileged program for the elites while developing an essentially modest health provision for the masses. She contends that this strategy effectively balances between elites and masses to maximize the regime's prospects of stability. In China's multilevel governance, both centralized and decentralized structures are involved in the distribution of social health insurance. When local leaders implement the stratified expansion of social health insurance, they respond to varied local conditions. As a result, China's health insurance policies differ dramatically across subnational regions as well as socioeconomic groups. Providing an in-depth look into China's health insurance system, this book sheds light not only on Chinese politics, but also on how social benefits function in authoritarian regimes and decentralized multilevel governance settings.

In an era of federal deficits and struggling municipalities, states have emerged as the most significant governmental actors. But state governments face the major challenge of fiscal planning in the midst of economic change. Roy Bahl and William Duncombe tackle this challenge head-on. Using New York as a case study, they identify looming dangers for state revenue and expenditure planning. Bahl and Duncombe begin with the premise that one cannot separate an evaluation of fiscal performance from an evaluation of economic performance. Accordingly, they describe and analyze the patterns of population, employment, and personal income growth. Following this is a study of state and local government finances in New York since 1970 and a recounting of the fiscal adjustments that were taken in the face of slower and then faster growth in the economy.

The authors conclude that based on current conditions, the state and its local governments are in for fiscal belt-tightening. They note that the state should take a comprehensive view in planning the development and retrenchment of its government sector. The book is thought-provoking, exhaustively researched, and sensibly written. Its lessons are applicable everywhere and should be read by all those seeking a route through the tangled thicket of government policy for economic growth.

The marketing of a destination requires effective planning and organization to engage prospective visitors. However, adequately marketing a destination requires not only a knowledge of the marketing channels but also an in-depth understanding of the motives and facilitators of tourism. Strategic Perspectives in Destination Marketing is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of branding in the tourism, travel, and hospitality industry sectors. It explores the pedagogical applications of socio-economic, environmental, and technological impacts of tourism through various regional-focused empirical studies and contemporary discussions. While highlighting topics including destination authenticity, consumer behavior, online travel businesses, and tourism promotion, this book is ideally designed for managers, travel agents, tourism professionals, executives, marketing agencies, academicians, researchers, and graduate-level students seeking current research on the applications of branding strategies in the tourism sector.

Goes beyond the boardroom to examine gender impacts in supply chains, in the community and among consumersFocuses on CSR practice as it relates to gender equalityContributions from practitioners in business, civil society and academia

Based on recent advances in economics, especially those in behavioral economics, this book elucidates theoretically and empirically the mechanism of time-inconsistent decision making that leads to various forms of self-destructive behavior. The topics include over-eating and obesity, over-spending, over-borrowing, under-saving, procrastination, smoking, gambling, over-drinking, and other intemperate behaviors, all of which relate to serious social problems in advanced countries. In this book, the author attempts to construct a bridge between the basic theory of time discounting, especially as of hyperbolic discounting, and empirically observed "irrational (non-classical)" behavior in the various contexts just mentioned. The empirical validity of the theory is discussed using unique micro data as well as public macro data. The book proposes prescriptions for individual decision makers, whether sophisticated or naive, to make better choices in self-control problems, and also provides policy makers with useful advice for influencing people's decision making in the right directions. This work is recommended not only to general readers who seek to learn how to attain better self-regulation under self-control problems. It also helps researchers who seek an overview of positive and normative implications of hyperbolic discounting, and thereby reconstruct economic theory for a better understanding of actual human behavior and the resulting economic dynamics .

This well-illustrated work by a distinguished social historian narrates the epic of the great age of railway history and development. It sets this in the context of the social history and its contemporary impact on society as a whole. It shows authoritatively how the railways revolutionised everything - being the most spectacular change of the Industrial Revolution. This impact continues to shape our life today, as the railways transformed the economic life of whole nations and transformed the quality of life itself. The author shows how railways helped break down class barriers, and established quite new ones which persist today. The railways radically altered the pattern of leisure, too, in upper, middle, and working class life. And they made possible the growth of vast suburban areas, and ushered in the computer age. In so many ways the railways formed the social structures of today's industrial advances, as the author shows. This is a very readable and highly individual social history full of valuable insights.

This book offers a detailed analysis of the key sectors in the Italian economy, with the focus especially on areas in which the economy excels, such as the automatic packaging machinery sector, pharmaceutical production, the food and wine industry, and tourism. The book explains how, contrary to widespread opinion, Italy is one of the world's most competitive countries in foreign trade, as confirmed by a new index compiled by Fondazione Edison that highlights its strengths and top traded products. The main characteristics of the Italian productive system, which is primarily composed of SMEs, are documented, and a map illustrating the importance of the various industrial districts is proposed, identifying their sectors of specialization, historical roots, and development. The principal steps in Italy's industrialization over the past 150 years are then outlined, in particular for the manufacturing system - the main driver of Italian exports. In-depth analyses of the mechanical industry and the machinery sector follow. In combining meticulous analysis of statistical data with a historical perspective, this book will appeal to all with an interest in the Italian economy.

This work uses techniques of optimization and operations research to develop the first comprehensive survey of the entire field of the optimization of resource, production, and distribution systems. Sten Thore proposes an "economic logistics" that is similar to the well-known concept of military logistics, but which is expanded to include such features as the optimal location of plants, inventories and retail outlets, and the management of hierarchical multi-echelon production, inventory, and distribution systems. The study of individual features of this supply process is familiar from operations research, but Thore joins these elements together into larger analytic structures encompassing the production and distribution system in an entire industry. Following an introductory chapter and a review of the saddle-point theory, coauthored with W. W. Cooper, Thore explores the three dimensions of the supply process synthesis: the spatial dimension (as in simple transportation systems), the vertical dimension (extending from resources to finished consumer goods, as in activity analysis), and the time dimension (as in inventory accumulation and investment). The combination of these then leads to models of such diverse subjects as regional warehouse systems, activity analysis and activity networks, multi-stage warehouse systems of intermediate goods, distribution networks, and spatial equilibrium. Each chapter contains its own exercises which are solved numerically and discussed in great detail, and illustrate such optimization techniques as linear and nonlinear programming, goal programming and goal focusing, chance-constrained programming, and infinite games. This work is designed for use ingraduate courses in economics and mathematics modeling, and will also be a useful addition to college and university library collections.

This contributed volume presents the experiences, challenges, trends, and advances in Service Science from Japan's perspective. As the global economy becomes more connected and competitive, many economies depend the service sector on for growth and prosperity. A multi-disciplinary approach to Service Science can potentially transform service industries through research, education, and practice. Offering a forum for best practices in Service Science within Japan, the volume benefits its audience by sharing viewpoints from a wide range of geographical regions and economies. The book is organized as follows: * Foundations of Service Science and the service industry sector * Public/Private sector partnerships, policies, trade in services, future prospects * Contributions from science, social science, management, engineering, design as well as industry sector perspectives * Road-maps, methodology, business development, strategies and innovative models, application of information technology, performance measures, and service system design * Education and workforce development * Case studies from practice, research and educational community * Future Directions in Japan This book includes three Forewords written by key leaders in Service Science:* Takayuki Aso (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology in Japan) * Yasuhiro Maeda (Director, Service Affairs Policy Division METI) * Norihisa Doi (Professor Emeritus, Keio University and Service Science, Solutions and Foundation Integrated Research (S3FIRE) Program Officer, JST/RISTEX)

After 1991, India after decades of stifling its own economic growth, has reformed its economy and has implemented its Look East policy to enhance its economic, business and trade linkages with East Asian economies. At the same time, Singapore has reached its own domestic limits to economic growth and is encouraging its companies to invest overseas to create its "external economic wing." Collaboration in information technology (IT) formed the key to initiating economic cooperation between Singapore and India. India has excellent IT talent but inadequate infrastructure to tap this talent for economic growth while Singapore has excelled in building high technology parks. The resulting collaboration is Singapore's flagship investment, the IT Park in Bangalore, India.