Exploding the curious myth that the ocean is a barrier rather than a highway for communication, this unusual interdisciplinary study examines the English Atlantic context of early American life. From the winterless Caribbean to the ice-locked Hudson Bay, maritime communications in fact usually met the legitimate expectations for frequency, speed, and safety, while increased shipping, new postal services, and newspapers hastened the exchange of news. These changes in avenues of communications reflected--and, in turn, enhanced--the political, economic, and social integration of the English Atlantic between 1675 and 1740. As Steele deftly describes the influence of physical, technological, socioeconomic, and political aspects of seaborne communication on the community, he suggests an exciting new mode of analyzing Colonial history.

The volume of relevant research and literature on this topic is growing but originates mainly from economists, sociologists, and political scientists; geographers have been slow to make contributions. One reason may be that geographers have been preoccupied with differentiation within the geography of production whereas this new field directs attention to the geography of consumption and a study of economies. This book aims to focus attention on the complex and inter-related problems--social, economic, political, and geographical--that come with development, placing particular emphasis on the problems which accompany attempts at industrialization. Focusing on the complex and interrelated social, economic, political, and geographic problems that attend under-development, this book presents one of the first contributions from a geographer on what has been called the most important economic problem of the modern world.

Contending that industrialization is no answer for under-developed countries that are striving to maintain expanding populations and to strengthen their economy, Alan B. Mountjoy traces the distribution, causes, and problems of under-development and the difficulties with and possibilities for industrialization as an aid in solving those problems. He defines development and under-development, considers problems of industrialization (including environmental and human problems), discusses the forms industrialization takes, and analyzes the progress of industrialization in specific under-developed areas.

The unique geographer's perspective and the ability of the author to select aspects of the study that most clearly reflect the problems of under-developed economies make this work a useful text and reference book for students and scholars of development, economic geography, and international relations.

Alan B. Mountjoy was lecturer in geography at Bedford College, University of London, where he specialized in economic geography and the study of underdeveloped countries. Some of his other books include "Industrialization and Developing Countries, Africa" (with David Hilling), and "Developing the Underdeveloped Countries."

This important book addresses the prospects for reconciling economic competitiveness with sustainable development. It shows that we cannot simply assume that changes in public attitudes, business policies and government regulation will guarantee the conditions for long-term ecological, social and economic sustainability. On the basis of new original case studies, the authors consider corporate environmental strategies, technological change and sustainable development as a social partnership between firms, citizens and government. They suggest that competitiveness must be considered as a dynamic process requiring proactive and reactive adjustments by business and government institutions all working towards sustainability. Sustainbility and Firms combines intellectual rigour with accessibility to communicate fundamental ideas to help policy decision-makers, enterprise managers, environmental scientists and economists grapple effectively with the problems of competitiveness, technological change, strategies of firms, governance and sustainable development.

From the New York Times bestselling authors of Abundance and Bold comes a practical playbook for technological convergence in our modern era. In their book Abundance, bestselling authors and futurists Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler tackled grand global challenges, such as poverty, hunger, and energy. Then, in Bold, they chronicled the use of exponential technologies that allowed the emergence of powerful new entrepreneurs. Now the bestselling authors are back with The Future Is Faster Than You Think, a blueprint for how our world will change in response to the next ten years of rapid technological disruption. Technology is accelerating far more quickly than anyone could have imagined. During the next decade, we will experience more upheaval and create more wealth than we have in the past hundred years. In this gripping and insightful roadmap to our near future, Diamandis and Kotler investigate how wave after wave of exponentially accelerating technologies will impact both our daily lives and society as a whole. What happens as AI, robotics, virtual reality, digital biology, and sensors crash into 3D printing, blockchain, and global gigabit networks? How will these convergences transform today's legacy industries? What will happen to the way we raise our kids, govern our nations, and care for our planet? Diamandis, a space-entrepreneur-turned-innovation-pioneer, and Kotler, bestselling author and peak performance expert, probe the science of technological convergence and how it will reinvent every part of our lives-transportation, retail, advertising, education, health, entertainment, food, and finance-taking humanity into uncharted territories and reimagining the world as we know it. As indispensable as it is gripping, The Future Is Faster Than You Think provides a prescient look at our impending future.

After twenty years of rapid economic growth, China is facing a critical decision on its agricultural policy. It can either continue to pursue a food self-sufficiency policy or further integrate its economy into the world market. This book examines key policy issues of China's agricultural reforms using the latest information.

First published in 1998, this volume explored the recent growth in university-based commercial start-up companies as a means of applying research in industry and as an alternative method of funding. Blair and Hitchens melded the practical experiences of universities with more theoretical understandings of technology transfer to assess whether it is more effective for universities to make commercial use of their research themselves as opposed to licensing, whether this is an effective way to get research applied by industry and the economic implications of these decisions. Drawing on the experiences of 25 universities, of which 18 are in the UK and Ireland, and including a detailed study of the QUBIS Group from Queen's University of Belfast, the authors explore universities' deliberate commercial exploitation of their research through university spin-off companies, the potential stresses on staff who are simultaneously academics and entrepreneurs along with universities' attitudes to the practice and possible managerial strategies.

This in-depth book explains how institutional changes such as the privatization and liberalization of network industries, for example transport, energy or telecommunications, can frequently be disappointing. The expected benefits such as lower prices, innovation and better services fail to materialize, often because the number of competitors is low. The authors demonstrate how strategic actor behaviour of one or more of the firms involved can help explain these disappointing results. This book elucidates the concept of 'strategic behaviour' and portrays it in real-life examples to aid our understanding of this important phenomenon in terms of policy and organizational decision-making. It clearly demonstrates the adverse effects strategic behaviour can exert on the quality of infrastructure provision after liberalization. The theoretical sections are backed by empirical examples from throughout the world. The unique multidisciplinary approach will ensure a broad readership among students, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the economics, politics and management of infrastructure and network industries.

The experience of Hong Kong's innovative and creative industries and the challenges they face serves as an important case study for other Chinese and Asian cities that are actively developing their innovative and creative industries in the era of globalization. The return of sovereignty over Hong Kong back to China in 1997 has led to both collaboration and competition between the two places in innovative and creative sectors for the Greater China and Asian Regions. Hong Kong has remained unique in spite of the integration, but she has to strike a delicate balance between being simultaneously a Chinese and an international city. This book looks at different innovative and creative industries, such as international art and culture exhibition, innovative technology, digital entertainment, TV and movies, as well as government policy for innovative and creative industries, particularly the changing competitive landscape brought about by the latest Great Bay Area development. Drawing insights from cultural history, innovation economics, cultural policy studies, and cultural geography, this book explores the opportunities and challenges of Hong Kong's innovative and creative industries, in particular after the change of sovereignty in 1997. It demonstrates that the city's legacy, and heavy government input in capital, do not guarantee their sustainable development. This is a book not only for policymakers or academics interested in innovative and creative industries but also to students contemplating a career in these areas in Hong Kong, the Greater China and the Asian Region.

Across the western world, there is a growing awareness of the importance of workplace learning, seen at the level of national and international policy, as well as in the developing practices of employers, training providers and Trades Unions. This key text is the first on workplace learning in a new series published in partnership with the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). Authoritative, accessible, and appealing, it presents key findings on work-based learning, bringing together conclusions from five different projects, and investigating a variety of workplace contexts. An extensive practical treatment, the included research has a unique combination of breadth of coverage and depth of understanding which significantly advances the understanding of workplace learning. This exceptional volume, grounded in rich and detailed empirical studies, challenges conventional thinking. It shows how workplace learning can be improved if close attention is paid to the relationship between organizational context, individual worker biographies, and regulatory frameworks. broad perspective on workplace learning as in, for, and through the workplace. A unique and broad-ranging text, Evans, Hodkinson, Rainbird and Unwin bring together social and individual perspectives to give an accessible overview of the key debates and explain the uneven impact of workplace learning policies. Practitioners, policy makers, students and academics with an interest in learning at work will find this an invaluable addition to their bookshelves.

In an increasingly technologically-led century the striking pattern emerging in firms' innovative activities is their competition for a technological leadership position in situations best described as races. A 'race' is an interactive pattern characterized by firms constantly trying to get ahead of their rivals, or trying not to fall too far behind. In high technology industries, where customers are willing to pay a premium for advanced technology, leadership translates into increasing returns in the market through positive network externalities. Innovation, Technology and Hypercompetition synthesizes and unifies the various methodological approaches for the industry-specific analysis of fast changing competitive positions driven by relentless innovation (hypercompetition). Game-theoretic and agent-based tools are applied to competitive industries in various market settings and in a global context. Rivalry of this sort is seen to extend to the catching up and forging ahead of regions and nations. In this revealing volume, Hans-Werner Gottinger brings his expert eye to this issue and employs various tools from economic theory to attain this end. He provides the behavioural foundations for what is driving globalization, in this, a volume of interest to academic economists, legal experts, management consultants and practitioners alike.

This important two volume reference work comprises the most important articles and papers on the history of industrial finance and capital formation from the 18th century to World War I. It covers all the main regions of the world with special emphasis on the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and the United States. By providing a careful selection of the most influential articles, these two volumes make a significant contribution to an issue of great and continuing importance.

In order to effectively address global warming, many countries have significantly reduced the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that are put into the atmosphere. From the perspective of industrial structure, this volume examines the emission reduction potentials and abatement costs in China. By making an empirical analysis of the emission reduction, the author proposes some practical strategies. The book comprehensively summarizes related theories and research of contaminant disposal modeling, and estimates the shadow price of interprovincial CO2 emissions, the emission reduction potential of different regions, and the marginal emission reduction cost based on the parametric model. It finally puts forward the strategy to adjust the industrial structure in China. The book hence provides solid evidence for policy-makers to help mitigate CO2 emissions through industrial restructuring strategy.

This shortform book presents key peer-reviewed research selected by expert series editors and contextualised by new analysis from each author on how the specific field addressed has evolved. The book features contributions on the history of government-business relations, regional and local business relationships, the development and formation of Silicon Valley, and the rise and fall of the US machine tool industry after the Second World. Of interest to business and economic historians, this shortform book also provides analysis that will be valuable reading across the social sciences.

Universities are increasingly expected to be at the heart of networked structures contributing to society in meaningful and measurable ways through research, the teaching and development of experts, and knowledge innovation. While there is nothing new in universities' links with industry, what is recent is their role as territorial actors. It is government policy in many countries that universities - and in some countries national laboratories - stimulate regional or local economic development. Universities, Innovation and the Economy explores the implications of this expectation. It sites this new role within the context of broader political histories, comparing how countries in Europe and North America have balanced the traditional roles of teaching and research with that of exploitation of research and defining a territorial role. Helen Lawton-Smith highlights how pressure from the state and from industry has produced new paradigms of accountability that include responsibilities for regional development. This book uses empirical evidence from studies conducted in North America and Europe to provide an overview of the changing geography of university-industry links.

This book examines comparative performance and best practice in National Tourism Organisations/ Administrations from extensive research carried out in 2003 and 2004. It compares qualitative and quantitative data in order to ascertain best performance.

Analysis is contained in detail for eight National Tourism Organisations based in four Continents, comprising: Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, South Africa and Spain. Each country is examined and analysed in the following key areas: Travel and Tourism Performance, Organisation of Tourism, The National Tourism Organisation, structure, Role, Staffing and Offices, Resources and Funding as well as providing case studies of good practice. The book includes methodology of the research and provides discussion and comment of the main roles and success formula in comparable National Tourism Organisations.

- Useful, practical guide to government's involvement in tourism over the past decade or more

- Brings insight from both the academic and practitioner markets

- International Case Studies
- Useful, up-to-date and practical guide to governments' involvement in tourism over the past decade or more.
- Brings insight from both the academic and practitioner markets.
- International case studies

The Industrial Revolution has been, and continues to be, the focus of massive historiographical as well as historical enquiry. This collection includes reappraisals by Phyllis Deane and by Francois Crouzet of their classic accounts of industrialization in Britain and in France, and more generally broaches the wider issue of 'new approaches' which have been emerging for the understanding of the industrializing process in nations where it came somewhat later. In addition to grappling with questions of technical skills, economic analysis and the process of industrialization, the authors also tackle questions of national politics and international relations. In addition to the roster of authors who examine individual national experiences, a general essay by Sidney Pollard takes into account the relative contributions of the distinct national experiences in Western and Eastern Europe, the USA and Japan, and assesses them as speical cases of a more general phenomenon.

Project managers in construction and civil engineering need to base their decisions on realistic information about risk and public perceptions of risk. This second edition of the original practical and straightforward text retains the easy-to-read format, but has been expanded to encompass the entire risk management process and to give a fuller presentation of how risk is generally perceived.

Two new chapters cover risk identification and risk response, and the chapters on risk analysis have been completely reorganized. There is also greater emphasis on the theory behind the principles, and an expanded bibliography is given to guide an exploration of the subject in greater detail. The book demystifies risk management by presenting the subject in simple and practical terms, free of technical jargon, and case studies are used extensively to enliven the text and to illustrate the concepts discussed.

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Project managers in construction and civil engineering need to base their decisions on realistic information about risk and public perceptions of risk. This second edition of the original practical and straightforward text retains the easy-to-read format, but has been expanded to encompass the entire risk management process and to give a fuller presentation of how risk is generally perceived.

Two new chapters cover risk identification and risk response, and the chapters on risk analysis have been completely reorganized. There is also greater emphasis on the theory behind the principles, and an expanded bibliography is given to guide an exploration of the subject in greater detail. The book demystifies risk management by presenting the subject in simple and practical terms, free of technical jargon, and case studies are used extensively to enliven the text and to illustrate the concepts discussed.

It is widely believed that current disparities in economic, political, and social outcomes reflect distinct institutions. Institutions are invoked to explain why some countries are rich and others poor, some democratic and others dictatorial. But arguments of this sort gloss over the question of what institutions are, how they come about, and why they persist. They also fail to explain why institutions are influenced by the past, why it is that they can sometimes change, why they differ so much from society to society, and why it is hard to study them empirically and devise a policy aimed at altering them. This 2006 book seeks to overcome these problems, which have exercised economists, sociologists, political scientists, and a host of other researchers who use the social sciences to study history, law, and business administration. It presents a multi-disciplinary perspective to study endogenous institutions and their dynamics.

Over the past several years, productivity improvement has become an increasingly vital economic issue for economies and individual firms. This book, first published in 1996, examines empirically relationships between changes in catalyst financial commitments (ie, research and development projects and capital improvements) and productivity/profitability changes, and relationships between productivity changes and profitability changes in selected manufacturing industries and companies.

Previous research has generally shown a very small although statistically significant economic benefit from attending high-quality colleges. This small effect was at odds with what students' college choice and various social theories would seem to suggest. This study sought to reconcile the empirical evidence and theories. The effort was in two directions. First, the economic effect of college quality was expanded from examining only the economic benefit to considering other student outcomes including job satisfaction and graduate degree accomplishment. A new perspective regarding the social role of college quality was offered in conclusion.

Offering a detailed overview of state involvement in the rationalisation and reorganisation of British industry between the wars, this is the first work to address the issues in a comprehensive manner for over 50 years. Utilising a range of primary source material (including papers from the PRO, the Bank of England, the Federation of British Industry and various private archives), Julian Greaves has combined a selection of detailed case studies of selected industries with a broader overview of the national political and industrial situation. The resulting work, which manages to balance analytical depth with breadth of coverage, argues that despite numerous problems and limitations, 1930s' industrial reorganisation policy was reasonably successful in meeting the limited aims of the government.

Global Taiwan examines the impact of globalization on the industry and economy of Taiwan since the spectacular growth of the 1990s. Drawing on hundreds of interviews with firms in Taiwan, China, the United States, Japan, Europe, and other areas, the book analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of Taiwanese firms at a time when they face new competition from powerful global leaders and new producers in China. The contributors cover topics of enormous importance for Taiwan as well as the rest of the world, including transformations in the international economy, technological advances that enabled modularization and fragmentation of the production system, contract manufacturers, regionalization, and links with Chinese industry. The book addresses such questions as: Can Taiwanese companies be maintained and expanded with the same corporate strategies and public policies as in the past? Can these strategies still work for other countries? If changes are required, what resources can be mobilized in the public and private sectors? As massive relocation of manufacturing and services moves plants and jobs to low-wage countries like China and India, what will remain at home in societies like Taiwan?