How do firms live through and experience change? The authors examine four high-technology firms, providing a rich analysis of their routines, and illustrating how people are continually engaged with change. The book develops a broader concept of routine, and identifies the persistence of routine practices at a strategic level.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203187962

Provides students with an in-depth historic and contemporary understanding of the causes, magnitude and implications of the different types of environmental crises in the countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Understanding the Industrial Revolution is a fresh, new exploration of this economic phenomenon of major importance. It describes theories of economic growth, shows how these can be applied to the revolution and discusses them in the light of modern research. Furthermore, it places the debate surrounding the social effects of industrialisation into the context of economic change during the period.
This book includes discussion of:
* theories on the supply of capital
* role of labour
* innovation and entrepreneurship
* the significance of transport
* the impact of industrialisation on living standards.
Each aspect of the Industrial Revolution in Britain is discussed in depth, focusing on the important debates and reviewing the most recent research.

A fresh, new exploration of this economic phenomenon of major importance. It describes theories of economic growth, shows how these can be applied to the revolution and discusses them in the light of modern research. Furthermore, it places the debate surrounding the social effects of industrialisation into the context of economic change during the period.
It includes discussion of:
* theories on the supply of capital, role of labour and on demand
* innovation and entrepreneurship
* the significance of transport
* the impact of industrialisation on living standards.

The phenomenon of collusive international agreements (cartels) became widespread in the 1930s. At that time, attempts to control production and prices were mainly the prerogative of multinational firms operating in the developing (then colonized) world. The "modern era" of cartels began in the 1960s, when the governments of developing nations began to participate in commodity agreements to achieve increases and stability in the world price of their commodities. This book is principally concerned with the modern era of cartels. It goes beyond the singular example of petroleum and OPEC to examine the structure of international commodity markets for bauxite (aluminum ore), cocoa, coffee, rubber, sugar, and tin, and the conditions that led to the formation of cartels in those markets during the latter half of the twentieth century. Specifically, the work focuses on four major aspects of international commodity markets: patterns of production and consumption; economic dislocations to both importers and exporters due to price fluctuations; the formation of cartels as a solution to weak and variable commodity prices; and the likely effects arising from tightening raw material markets. The book concludes with a detailed examination of what the future holds for each of the cartels, and what role technology, 24-hour market trading, and decreasing foreign direct investment in producing countries will have on the management of commodity markets.

This book, first published in 1948, examines four industries studied as part of the Nuffield College Reconstruction Survey, begun in 1941. These studies, despite their apparent diversity, have a number of features in common. One is geography, and another, more pressing, is the relation of industry to the Government and the public. The studies serve as part of the historical background of reconstruction, and they carry many lessons in economic organization.

An essential introduction to the effects of industrialisation on British society, from Queen Victoria's reign to the birth of the welfare state in the 1940s.
This book deals with the remarkable social consequences of the industrial revolution, as Britain changed into an urban society based on industry. As the first nation to undergo an industrial revolution, Britain was also the first to deal with the unprecedented social problems of rapid urbanisation combined with an unparalleled growth in population.
Industrialisation and Society looks at contemporary ways in which the government and ordinary people tried to cope with these new pressures, and studies their reactions to the unforseen consequences of the steam revolution. In particular, this indispensable book considers:
* the Victorian inheritance
* Edwardian England and the Liberal reforms
* the two world wars
* the Welfare State.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203130898

Schumpeter's profoundly influential work developed the notion of the endogeneity of technology, and offered illuminating historical analyses of how and why some social systems have managed to generate innovation. This new interpretation explores Schumpeter's central ideas, and examines the ways in which the concept of endogeneity can illuminate recent American economic history.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203465350

In the time it takes to read this sentence, about fifteen people will be added to the world's population. Read the sentence again, and there will be thirty. Tomorrow, each of these people will be demanding greater prosperity. Production and consumption are increasing fast but will have to grow even faster in the future to keep up with population growth and a world increasingly divided by inequality. How should we react to these trends? Certainly, many use growth figures to forecast disaster. But there is an alternative vision: one of a sustainable future, in which growth is seen not as a threat, but as the driving force behind innovation. This is the scenario worked out in the Netherlands by Sustainable Technology Development (STD), a five-year programme of research and "learning-by-doing" based on setting up new innovation networks and working with new methods to search for sustainable technological solutions. In order to make sustainability tangible, STD made a leap in time. What human needs will have to be satisfied fifty years from now? Taking a sustainable future vision as a starting point, STD demonstrated what steps we should take today for new technologies and systems to be in place in time. These results are now available for the first time in a comprehensive, specifically written English-language book, together with a description of the unique working method of STD and the results and key lessons from a set of the programme's illustrative case studies. This book serves as a manual for industry, governments and social leaders wanting to prepare themselves for a sustainable future. Sustainable Technology Development sets out the programme's underpinning philosophy and describes its approach, methods and findings. Delivering sustainability means finding ways to meet human needs using a fraction of the natural resources we use today. The world's richer nations would be wise to target at least ten-fold improvements by 2050 in the productivity with which conventional natural resources and environmental services are used. And they need to bring new, sustainable resources on-stream to augment the resource base and replace the use of unsustainable alternatives. Sustainable Technology Development marks a significant contribution to our understanding of innovation processes and how these might be influenced in favour of sustainable technology development. In principle, technology could play a pivotal role in sustainable development. Whether it does or not depends on whether innovators can be encouraged to make this an explicit goal, adopt long-term time-horizons and search for renewable technologies. Given the long lead-times involved, there is no time to waste in beginning the search. The STD programme has begun to make inroads into one of the most urgent of all needs concerning sustainable development: that for innovation in the innovation process itself.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are an important feature of contemporary development, yet they are often evaluated in the terms set out by lenders themselves, ignoring the wider implications of SAPs. This volume attempts to situate SAPs in a wider development context featuring case material from the UK, the USA, Ghana, Mexico, India, Jamaica, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Mali, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone. The book addresses SAPs in the lenders' terms, before addressing macro-economic issues, the impacts on social groups, and the impact upon welfare policies such as education and health. Beyond economic analysis, the role of the state in the process, the impact of these programmes on services and the environment are also analyzed.

Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) are an important feature of contemporary development, yet they are often evaluated in the terms set out by lenders themselves, ignoring the wider implications of SAPs.
Structural Adjustment attempts to situate SAPs in a wider development context featuring case material from the UK, USA, Ghana, Mexico, India, Jamaica, Turkey, Eastern Europe, Mali, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, the book addresses SAPs in the lenders' terms, before addressing macro-economic issues, the impacts on social groups, and the impact upon welfare policies such as education and health. Beyond economic analysis, the role of the state in the process, the impact of these programmes on services and the environment are also analysed.

What explains the growth of a business, and more broadly the development or decline of a whole economy? What role do particular entrepreneurs or indeed a culture of entrepreneurship play? Does the evidence suggest that a particular structure or organizational form was or should be adopted to ensure best practice and commercial success? These fundamental questions have long pre-occupied business and economic historians. With the current expansion of business and management education and training, the investigations and findings of the historian may have wider significance and relevance. This volume has been stimulated by the work of Peter Mathias, one of the leading figures in this field in the post-war period. Here a number of his former students, many now internationally distinguished historians, pay tribute in a book that explores the move from family firms to corporate capitalism. In a series of chapters they explore at the level of the firm the myriad of micro-decisions that ultimately help to explain the overall performance of industries, sectors, and national economies as they evolve through time. The contributors argue that sustained growth has never been a matter of a few s

"Region and Strategy in Britain and Japan" is a long-term comparison of industrial development in Manchester and Osaka, together making a substantial contribution to our understanding of the continuing importance of national and regional differences. This book is written jointly by British and Japanese scholars who are recognized authorities in their field, providing an innovative and unique perspective. Chapters focus on big business, electronics, shipbuilding and textiles. The resulting study sheds a welcome new light on world economic history.

This qualitative case-study of an American manufacturing organization describes the barriers which limited its ability to receive maximum return on its investment in human resources training and development. Specifically, the book examines the concepts of needs assessment, systems theory, organisation development, human capital theory, and performance improvement.

This book consists of essays on the 45 economists who have served on teh CEA, covering their economic and political programs and ideas as well as their lives. . . . This new biographical dictionary is an authoritative and substantive reference source covering federal economic policy since World War II through biographical information on the various economic advisers appointed in this period. "Reference Books Bulletin"

The more than 40 biographical essays in this volume are written by practicing scholars of economics, and are presented in alphabetical order. They provide comprehensive pictures of the council members, analyzing their ideas and their influence on both economic theory and governmental policy. An appendix details council membership during each presidential administration, allowing a clear understanding of the degree to which the advice and actions of particular individuals were effective. Council membership has traditionally been considered a prestigious assignment: consequently, the biographies collected in this directory represent a substantial group of the country's most important economists.

The North of England has claimed more inward investment form East Asia than any other region in Britain, or indeed any region in the other member states of the European Union. Specialists from business organization and managment join with political economists and geographers to consider how this Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has influenced change in the region, and plot the dynamics of this particularly British phenomenon.
The contributors investigate the main indicators of change and the interaction with FDI from East Asia against the background of profound changes in the regional economy since the mid 1980s, specially the part played by FDI in boosting successive phases of post-war regional economic development planning. They discuss in particular how the North has met the challenge of its long-term decline and, now that this source of FDI is levelling off and there are signs of dis-investment, the implications for the region. Specific aspects - such as private and public sector collaboration, localgovernment, and employment relations - are analyzed with a view to determining which have been most directly affected. The book concludes with a discussion of the causes and consequences of the East Asian economic crisis and some of the likely long-term effects of the crisis for East Asia and for the global economy more generally.

After a decade or more of deregulation and the retreat of the state there is a growing consensus that government can make a positive contribution to industrial growth. This volume explores both the theoretical basis for industrial policy in Europe and practical proposals for making industrial development happen. The volume is divided into five parts: the rationale for industrial policy and the argument for making it local and participative; creating meaningful local and regional economies - making localised learning a reality; nurturing small firms; creating adequate access to venture capital, especially for new small firms; and creating the infrastructure and environment for a dynamic, diffuse economy. The contributors include some of Europe's leading industrial economists, and they approach the subject on a micro, macro and meso level.

After a decade or more of deregulation and the retreat of the state there is a growing consensus that government can make a positive contribution to industrial growth. This volume explores both the theoretical basis for industrial policy in Europe and practical proposals for making industrial development happen. The volume is divided into five parts: the rationale for industrial policy and the argument for making it local and participative; creating meaningful local and regional economies - making localised learning a reality; nurturing small firms; creating adequate access to venture capital, especially for new small firms; and creating the infrastructure and environment for a dynamic, diffuse economy. The contributors include some of Europe's leading industrial economists, and they approach the subject on a micro, macro and meso level.

This volume examines the nature of interfirm networks and their role in promoting industrial competitiveness. Where previous work in this area has tended to be descriptive, the distinguished contributors to this volume present a balanced theoretical and empirical approach to interfirm networking drawing on a variety of international case studies. Issues covered include:
* The role of networks in regulating conflict and producing co-operation
* The role of networks in developing knowledge and competences
* Network governance and conflict intensive networks

Neo-Industrial Organising explores an emerging area of importance in management and organisation studies, namely the trend towards a projectization of the economy as a whole and the inter- and intra-organisational relations of renewal projects. By reporting on the experiences of twenty-five renewal projects from a wide variety of both local and international organisations, the authors develop a theoretical framework based on action and knowledge, in order to answer such key questions as: What is neo-industrial management? What does the future hold for organisations? How will institutions be formed? What effects will neo-industrial organising have on the individual and his/her work situation? Topics covered include: * industrial renewal, organisation and management * project management and temporary organisation * personnel recruitment, selection and training * societal infrastructure Distinctive, relevant and accessibly written, this book will interest researchers and students in the field of organisational behaviour.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, Malaysia's remarkable economic performance has attracted attention around the world and been subject to much study and enthusiastic acclaim. However, in the wake of the late-1990s financial crisis, the debate has centred on whether this impressive growth rate can be sustained. As the economy moves beyond growth based on low labour costs and other factor-endowed advantages, industrial technology development becomes increasingly critical to continued growth. This volume, and its companion, "Industrial Technology Development in Malaysia", examine and evaluate Malaysian industrialization in terms of its experience of and prospects for industrial technology development. The focus is on the role played by state-sponsored innovation in the process economic development and in the context of national development strategies. The work provides an analysis of the technological development of a newly industrializing country and reflects on whether existing development strategies can be maintained in the wake of the financial crises sweeping the East Asian economies

Confronted with rising citizen discontent, the Reinventing Government movement, and new technological challenges, public organizations everywhere are seeking means of improving their performance. Their quest is not new, rather, the concern with improving the performance of government organizations has existed since the Scientific Management Movement. "Public Sector Performance" brings together in a single volume the classic, enduring principles and processes that have defined the field of public sector performance, as written in the words of leading practitioners and scholars. Taken as a whole, this volume provides a performance compass for today's public managers, helping them to reconstruct the public's confidence in, and support of, government.Defined here as managing public organizations for outcomes, performance is examined in all its varied dimensions: organizing work, managing workers, measuring performance, and overcoming resistance to performance-enhancing innovations. The selected articles are interesting, thought provoking, and instructive. They are classics in that they have been widely cited in the scholarly literature and have enduring value to public managers who seek to understand the many dimensions of performance. The book is organized into three sections: Performance Foundations, Performance Strategies, and Performance Measurement. Excerpts from additional selected articles feature special topics and wisdom from performance experts.

First published in 1999, this volume examines technology in developing countries with a focus on Vietnam. One of the world's poorest countries, Vietnam has begun rehabilitation following the Vietnam War. Tran Ngoc Ca had four aims for this study. First, exploration of the development of TC in Vietnamese industrial companies and looks at how the learning process is related to the accumulation of TC. Second to detail links between macro environment factors and micro internal actions of firms and their impact on TC. Third, addressing specific issues in comparison with other developing countries and transitional economies. Fourth and finally, to provide a background for the implementation of policy concerned with enhancing TC acquisition.

Since 1988, Malaysia's remarkable economic performance has attracted attention around the world and been subject to much study and enthusiastic acclaim. However, in the wake of the financial crisis of 1998, the debate has centred on whether this impressive growth rate can be sustained. As the economy moves beyond growth based on low labour costs and other factor-endowed advantages, industrial technology development becomes increasingly critical to continued growth. This volume, and its companion, "Technology, Competitiveness and the State", examine and evaluate Malaysian industrialization in terms of its experience of and prospects for industrial technology development. The focus is on the development of Malaysia's technological-industrial base from a sector and firm-specific perspective, including the role of foreign multinationals in this process. The text reflects on whether existing development strategies can be maintained in the wake of the financial crises sweeping the East Asian economies.