Innovation and standardization might seem polar opposites, but over many years various scholars have noted close connections between the two. This Handbook assembles a broad range of thinking on this subject, with contributions from several disciplinary perspectives by over 30 leading scholars and experienced practitioners. Collectively, they summarize and synthesize the existing body of knowledge - theory and evidence - pertaining to standards and innovation, and provide insights into how this knowledge can be useful to scholars, industrial strategists, policy-makers and standards practitioners. Drawn from leading experts in several social science disciplines, this Handbook provides new insights into innovation processes and systems using theoretical, empirical and applied approaches. By situating standards and standardization as specific factors which play distinctive roles in innovation-driven growth, it establishes that standardization (doing things the same way) is an essential component of innovation (doing things differently). The book also provides novel and practical insight into how standards are incorporated into innovation strategies and policies. Comprehensive and original, this collection will be a vital resource for all students and academics of social, natural and engineering science communities. Policy-makers and practitioners will also find a wealth of experience and knowledge within its pages.

Quality assurance is an essential aspect for ensuring the success of corporations worldwide. Consistent quality requirements across organizations of similar types ensure that these requirements can be accurately and easily evaluated. Shaping the Future Through Standardization is an essential scholarly book that examines quality and standardization within diverse organizations globally with a special focus on future perspectives, including how standards and standardization may shape the future. Featuring a wide range of topics such as economics, pedagogy, and management, this book is ideal for academicians, researchers, decision makers, policymakers, managers, corporate professionals, and students.

The field of regional development is subject to an ever-increasing multiplicity of concepts and theories seeking to explain uneven competitiveness. In particular, economic geographers and spatial economists have rapidly developed the theoretical tools by which to approach such analyses. The aim of this Handbook is to take stock of regional competitiveness and complementary concepts as a means of presenting a state-of-the-art discussion of the advanced theories, perspectives and empirical explanations that help make sense of the determinants of uneven development across regions. Drawing on an international field of leading scholars, the book is assembled and organized so that readers can first learn of the theoretical underpinnings of regional competitiveness and development theory, before moving on to deeper discussions of key factors and principal elements, the emergence of allied concepts, empirical applications, and the policy context. International in its scope, including global empirical analysis, the book is a definitive resource in terms of providing access to some of the seminal research and thinking on regional competitiveness. This contemporary Handbook is an ideal reference for students and academics in the fields of economic geography and spatial economics. It will also appeal to policymakers and other stakeholders involved in regional economic development. Contributors include: K. Aiginger, P. Annoni, M.J. Aranguren, D. Audretsch, P.-A. Balland, R. Boschma, R. Camagni, R. Cellini, J. Crespo, P. Di Caro, L. Dijkstra, J. Fagerberg, M. Firgo, U. Fratesi, R. Harris, R. Huggins, J. Jansson, C. Ketels, I. Lengyel, E. Magro, E.J. Malecki, A. Mamtora, R. Martin, P. McCann, H. Menendez, P. Ni, R. Ortega-Argiles, I. Perianez, A. Richardson, A. Rodriguez-Pose, L. Saez, J. Shen, M. Srholec, M. Storper, P. Sunley, M. Thissen, P. Thompson, G. Torrisi, I. Turok, F. van Oort, Y. Wang, A. Waxell, C. Wilkie, J.R. Wilson

The overall design and strategies that create work systems within organizations must be evaluated and analyzed in order to ensure that all structures of a company are properly harmonized. Harmonizing all aspects of a company serves to optimize workflow and support all interactions between employees, machines, and software utilized by the company. Advanced Macroergonomics and Sociotechnical Approaches for Optimal Organizational Performance provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of system harmonization and applications within macroergonomics. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as stress-related conditions, organizational culture, and worker health, this book is ideally designed for ergonomists, human resource professionals, manufacturing engineers, industrial engineers, industrial designers, researchers, industry practitioners, research scientists, and academics seeking current research on the optimization of workflow and work systems.

The contribution of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is acknowledged as an influential engine to economic growth. However, the biggest challenge faced by these SMEs is the lack of competitive service offerings for their target customers due to unstandardized products and a lack of consumer engagement and strategies. Service Marketing Strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential reference source that provides guidelines on how SMEs can achieve sustainability through positive marketing outcomes and effective customer services. Featuring research on the assessment of SMEs' customer service expectation, listening to customers through qualitative research, service quality model and its marketing implications, integrated marketing communications for SME environments, effective service encounters, and relationship developing strategies for SMEs, this publication provides new models for managers, industry professionals, academicians, and researchers.

The historical development of Russia remains one of the most unique yet ambiguous timelines in the realm of political science and sociology. Understanding the state of culture as a single, dynamic, and interrelated phenomenon is a vital component regarding the memoirs of this prominent nation. Political, Economic, and Social Factors Affecting the Development of Russian Statehood: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research on the historical aspects of the formation of the political system in Russia and proposes directions for the further development of modern Russian statehood. While highlighting topics including socio-politics, Soviet culture, and capitalization, this book is ideally designed for economists, government officials, policymakers, historians, diplomats, intelligence specialists, political analysts, professors, students, and professionals seeking current research on the history of public administration in Russia.

Through this book we hope to open hands, minds, and hearts in organizations to a new world of opportunities. Today (in the early years of the second decade of the 21st century) the world's population is something over 7 billion people. That's a lot of people and a lot of potential brain power, buying power, and leadership power. This book can help organizations to connect to and capture this great potential by understanding the necessary value exchanges and engagement opportunities.

This superb text defines and describes modern industrial policy. For many years economists, politicians, and policymakers have worried over inward-looking and damaging industrial policies, associating them with poor economic performance and arrested industrial development. At last we have a book which identifies and analyses new forms of modern industrial policy which work effectively and are able to overcome the problems of the past. The book is replete with concrete examples and new conceptual developments, showing how modern industrial policy is able to initiate, upgrade, and transform economic activity for the benefit of all. The evidence is used to provide a new theory of industrial policy, distinguishing modern industrial policy from the practices of the past - leaving no room for doubt as to how policymakers should proceed in the twenty-first century. Essential reading for policymakers, analysts, scholars, teachers, and consultants concerned with industrial policy and modern economic development.' - Mike Hobday, University of Brighton, UK'Jesus Felipe is to be congratulated for assembling a first-rate group of authors to address one of the most important policy issues of our time. Their main contention is that, to succeed, latecomer developing countries need a 'modern industrial policy'. Aware of the pitfalls, they provide empirical evidence in support of their arguments. The country studies are particularly interesting. A stimulating volume that deserves to be read, including by the skeptics.' - Hal Hill, Australian National University Development and Modern Industrial Policy in Practice provides an up-to-date analysis of industrial policy. Modern industrial policy refers to the set of actions and strategies used to favor the more dynamic sectors of the economy. A key aspect of modern industrial policy is embedding private initiative in a framework of public action to encourage diversification, upgrading, and technological dynamism to achieve development in the twenty-first century. The book reviews key questions that policymakers ask about industrial policy, such as: who selects sectors; what is the rationale for sector selection; what are the main tools to promote sectors?, what is the role of human capital; and what are the mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation? Expert contributors discuss how to undertake industrial policy effectively and examine the experiences of Australia, the EU, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and the US. Policymakers, multilateral development institutions, and scholars will find the discussions on industrial policy, structural transformation, economic diversification and upgrading, and capabilities to be useful and practical. Contributors: F. Block, J.-M. Chang, K. Farla, J. Felipe, F. Guadagno, C.A. Hidalgo, M.R. Keller, M.H. Khan, K. Lee, J.Y. Lin, C. Long, W.F. Mitchell, C. Rhee, T. Siew Yean, B. Verspagen, Y. Wang, X. Zhang

Organizations today need to continually implement new strategies that increase the sustainability and competitiveness of a business. By sharing experiences in a collaborative environment where the collective experience of its membership can lead to the design and implementation of new technology and product improvement, a company can differentiate itself to successfully compete in the business realm. Strategic Collaborative Innovations in Organizational Systems is a collection of research on the methods and applications of collaborative strategies in advancing the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm. Highlighting a range of topics including organizational design, productivity strategies, and workforce diversity, this book is ideally designed for academicians, business managers, entrepreneurs, human resources managers, researchers, graduate students, and scholars seeking current research on business and competitive strategies within a collaborative and organizational context.

This collection of specially commissioned chapters takes one of the oldest theoretical approaches on federalism in the law and puts it in the service of the new empirically minded law and economics. A federalist structure, at least in principle, allows for quasi-experimental examinations and evaluations of the effects of various policies that would be more difficult in unitary systems. Although legal scholars have talked about this topic for decades, rarely has the law and economics literature treated federalism empirically in such a systematic and useful way. The Law and Economics of Federalism begins with a generalized discussion of US federalism in the environmental context and in social welfare programs. Additionally, new empirical work is provided on the effect of state regulations on entrepreneurism, consumer protection law and crime policies. Expert contributors then turn to an analysis of inter-jurisdictional arrangements on the development of Native American communities, as well as the interplay among the levels of government on budgetary issues. Lastly, the book addresses the notable dearth of empirical analysis of federalism in the EU with an illuminating analysis of the EU's institutional background that will spur comparable empirical work in the future. This unique study offers valuable insights on federalism that will be welcomed by students and academics in law and economics. The innovative proposals on federalism as a vehicle for the empirical identification of policy effects will be of great interest to policymakers. Contributors include: T.L. Anderson, M.P. Bitler, J.A. Dove, M. Faure, R.K. Fleck, B. Galle, J.B. Gelbach, F.A. Hanson, J. Klick, D. Parker, R.S. Sobel, J.D. Wright, M. Zavodny

Why is religion so widespread? Why do individuals donate large amounts of time, money, and effort to religious groups? What forms does the religious competition take? Why are individuals more religious in some countries than others? What is the future of religion?This book provides a non-technical introduction to how the economic approach answers these and other questions about religion. It defines the economic approach to religion and demonstrates how it is used to study a variety of religious decisions. It explains how religious groups confront credibility, free-rider, and coordination problems that challenge the collective production of religious goods and services. It also examines competition and regulation in religious markets around the world, how religious beliefs and preferences are transmitted and sustained, how religion likely emerged in humankind's distant past, and what the future of religion may hold. The book thus demonstrates how the tools and methods of economics provide fresh insight into a variety of religious behaviors.This book is intended for a wide audience in and out of economics. Though not a textbook per se, its discussion questions and suggested readings at the end of each chapter allow for easy incorporation into the classroom. The mathematics and statistics used by researchers are generally avoided. Both theory and evidence are presented, but the focus is on the ideas that provide a coherent conceptual framework that grounds a deeper exploration of the theoretical and empirical research in the economics of religion.

Because it continually implements entrepreneurial creativity and innovative business models, the economic landscape is ever-changing in today's globalized world. As consumers become more willing to accept new strategic trends, this has led to the emergence of disruptive technologies. Since this equipment has an insufficient amount of information and high risks, it is necessary to assess the potential of disruptive technologies in the commercial environment. Impact of Disruptive Technologies on the Sharing Economy provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of disruptive technologies and knowledge-based entrepreneurial efforts and applications within management, business, and economics. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as consumer ethics, corporate governance, and insurance issues, this book is ideally designed for IT specialists, IT consultants, software developers, computer engineers, managers, executives, managing directors, students, professors, scientists, professionals, industry practitioners, academicians, and researchers seeking current research on the consequences of disruptive technologies.

Companies operating in countries with volatile economies face an environment subject to turbulence. It is important to understand how these companies can overcome adversity, establish competitive advantage, and achieve superior performance. The selection of competitive drivers can help to improve the ability to capture, process, and manage information that can generate knowledge and innovation in products and processes, as well as increase strategic capacity and organizational performance. Strategy and Superior Performance of Micro and Small Businesses in Volatile Economies focuses on the ways that organizations capture information and disseminate it in their work teams, transforming this knowledge into innovative products and services that establish competitive advantage. It will improve the understanding of the role of strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, and the effort to reduce poverty levels in societies with volatile economies and which are subject to serious social disparities. Highlighting topics such as economic development, market performance, and network economy, this publication is designed for managers, entrepreneurs, business professionals, academicians, researchers, and students.

With the publication of The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida in 2002, the 'creative city' became the new hot topic among urban policy makers, planners and economists. Florida has developed one of three path-breaking theories about the relationship between creative individuals and urban environments. The economist Ake E. Andersson and the psychologist Dean Simonton are the other members of this 'creative troika'. In the Handbook of Creative Cities, Florida, Andersson and Simonton appear in the same volume for the first time. The expert contributors in this timely Handbook extend their insights with a varied set of theoretical and empirical tools. The diversity of the contributions reflect the multidisciplinary nature of creative city theorizing, which encompasses urban economics, economic geography, social psychology, urban sociology, and urban planning. The stated policy implications are equally diverse, ranging from libertarian to social democratic visions of our shared creative and urban future. Being truly international in its scope, this major Handbook will be particularly useful for policy makers that are involved in urban development, academics in urban economics, economic geography, urban sociology, social psychology, and urban planning, as well as graduate and advanced undergraduate students across the social sciences and in business.

Digital transformation is among the most important opportunities provided by technological development. It is important to scientifically reveal the effects of digital transformation in the fields of economics, finance, banking and trade. For this purpose, research that theoretically and empirically analyzes the effects of digital transformation on the economics and finance-related fields is needed. This book aims to present these studies by operating a scientific process. Valuable studies of researchers, scientists, academicians and bureaucrats who are interested in this subject, are essential. These studies will result in a guide for managers and policymakers by revealing the effects of digital transformation and technological developments in the fields of economy and will create a scientific resource for researchers and students who are interested in the subject.