Based on data regarding corporate mortality, organizations are built to fail: a conclusion critical to managers, employees, stockholders, consultants, customers, vendors, competitors, and therefore all of us who transact with and depend on organizations. Yet, literature about organizational management tends to focus on education and inspiration, and to bristle with optimism about the potential success of applying its wares. Ignored, in virtually all of this literature is the reality that personnel may or may not be inherently self-interested, but certainly join business organizations in order to serve individual rather than organizational interests.

Individual self-interest is advanced through control of various processes in order to rationalize that self-interest as a productive, organizational purpose, which not simply suppresses opposition but also conceals or even demonizes that opposition. These processes include such familiar organizational functions as individual and organizational goal-setting, job and organizational design, leadership, hiring, performance appraisal, compensation, promotion, communication, corporate culture, and change.

At all levels, therefore, the organization's long-term interest is undermined by the goals of the very members of whom it is comprised--it is built to fail. And through control of its various internal processes and elimination of opposition, the organization pursues self-destructive goals without knowing it.

Europe's achievements in economic integration have attracted worldwide interest and are seen as an example for other regions to follow. Ten years after the completion of the Single Market Programme, this book is able to utilise empirical data not available to previous studies, also building on research by reputed academic experts and staff at the European Commission. The book reveals that European product market integration has a significant impact on the conditions of competition, the strategies of companies and the structure of industry. It adds a quarter of a percentage to annual GDP growth rates and has not led to an increased exposure of the EU to asymmetric shocks. However, the book argues that further improvements in the functioning of European product markets are needed in order to improve the EU's growth performance over the next decade. Invaluably, the book provides not only current information about Europe's achievements in economic integration but also methodology to assess the outcome of economic integration in other regions of the World, such as NAFTA, MERCOSUR and ASEAN. Offering a uniquely up-to-date and comprehensive empirical analysis and assessment of the European integration process, this book will be of great use and interest to international institutions and NGOs as well as researchers and scholars of European studies and economics.

This book examines long-run technological change and the complex set of interrelated phenomena which can be grouped under the heading of 'innovative processes'. The authors refer to a broad notion of the technological system and propose an original methodology to ensure consistent empirical analysis.The book aims to explain, rather than merely identify, the effects of technological change. It does so by promoting the analysis of intersectoral innovation flows as a way to investigate the nature of technological change. At both the macro and sectoral level, institutional and structural elements are considered along with more standard technological and industrial variables. International comparisons are carried out on a systematic basis for a set of OECD countries, plus a focus on two important industrial sectors (motor vehicles and chemicals). The authors find that institutional arrangements (such as models of capitalism) turn out to play an important role in shaping both the internal and external relationships of macro technological systems. Moreover, the structure and performance of an industry is shaped by the broader techno-economic elements of the relevant sectoral technological system. The authors successfully integrate the theoretical and empirical analysis of technological systems with a specific investigation of intersectoral innovation flows. The book will be welcomed by students, scholars and researchers in the fields of innovation, evolutionary economics, industrial organisation and business studies.

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this volume focuses on the trust processes between people within organizations, with an emphasis on empirical studies. Rational foundations and psychological motivations for trust are taken into account through conceptual and empirical chapters. The authors begin by summarizing a number of key elements from the literature including how trust develops in time, and how its development is affected by social-psychological phenomena. This includes the notion of 'framing': the interpretive context in which actions are perceived and evaluated. A conceptual framework is then used to analyse trust and power in the internal relationships of the organization. The contributors take up this issue in an evolutionary analysis of competition between trust and cheating. The conditions for trust in teams, in terms of type of task and team composition are examined, and the effects on trust of different types of leadership are studied. In the concluding chapters, the relation between the control imposed by an expert system and the influence of users is analysed, and the relational signalling perspective is used for a study of norm violation and sanctioning, which in turn is used to analyse trust and trouble. The Trust Process in Organizations will be invaluable to students, academics and scholars of organization, management, organizational behaviour, HRM, organizational change and learning. In addition, those in the areas of trust, social capital, governance of relations, social psychology and leadership will deem this work essential reading.

This book identifies and discusses critical issues of ICT innovation at both the macroeconomic and organisational levels, bringing together two hitherto independent fields of study: economics and information systems. The book takes stock of these two fields, highlighting their complementarity in contemporary issues such as business competitiveness and e-commerce, organisational change and industrial restructuring, information systems implementation and technology infrastructure building. The contributions cover a broad range of issues, from analysing policy approaches for fostering ICT innovation at a regional level, to examining the way in which ICT-based information systems and organisational practice are simultaneously shaped. The book elaborates an understanding of innovation as shaped largely in context, rather than 'diffused' from the place of its conception into the place of its implementation. The theoretical perspectives offered by the authors include institutional economics, evolutionary economics, social constructivism, and structuration theory. Collectively, the chapters of this book present ICT innovation as a dynamic process involving multiple actors in multiple locations, codified and tacit knowledge, and instrumental and situated behaviour. This pathbreaking book will be of enormous interest to students, researchers and academics specialising in economics, information systems and ICT innovation, as well as policy and management consultants involved in information systems and development.

Innovation and Institutions is an extensive elaboration on the make up of systems of innovation. It examines why some countries are more innovative than others, why national styles of innovation differ, and goes on to explore why some countries make radical innovations but fail to successfully market them, whilst others making incremental innovations have more commercial success. The book draws on a variety of different literatures and perspectives to illustrate the organizational and institutional dimensions of national innovation systems. Literatures discussed include the economics of innovation, organizational sociology, administrative science, institutional economics, organizational learning, network analysis, business systems, economic governance and regulation. This truly interdisciplinary book will be invaluable to academics and researchers focussing on innovation in a wide range of fields. It will also strongly appeal to practitioners and policymakers concerned with innovation.

In recent decades, digital technologies have permeated daily routines, whether at school, at work, or during personal engagements. Stakeholders in education are promoting innovative pedagogical practices, the business sector is utilizing updated processes. Even the public is improving their lifestyles by utilizing innovative technology. In a knowledge construction setting, technology becomes a tool to assist the user to access information, communicate information, and collaborate with others towards human development and knowledge management. In this context, ubiquitous computing has emerged to support humans in their daily life activities in a personal, unattended, and remote manner. Ubiquitous Technologies for Human Development and Knowledge Management serves as an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the widespread incorporation of technological innovations around the globe. It examines how the application of ubiquitous computing technologies affects various aspects of human lives, specifically in human development and knowledge management. The chapters demonstrate how these ubiquitous technologies, networks, and associated systems have proliferated and have woven themselves into the very framework of everyday life. It covers categorized investigations ranging from e-governance, knowledge management, ICTs, public services, innovation, and ethics. This book is essential for ICT specialists, technologists, teachers, instructional designers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in the latest technologies and how they are impacting human development and knowledge management across different disciplines.

This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of spatial industrial clusters and inter-firm networks. Given the prevailing political belief that clusters can be a major vehicle for economic development and growth, it is important to have a sound understanding of clusters and how they emerge, grow, eventually stagnate and disappear. It is also vital to know when and how to apply policy measures to support cluster development in order to increase economic welfare. This book illuminates both the theoretical and empirical issues relating to clusters and inter-firm networks, and presents a number of interesting case studies from a variety of different countries. The authors study a number of important issues including interaction within and between clusters, the spatial dimensions and characteristics of this interaction, the factors which contribute to cluster formation, and the conditions and policies conducive to the development and sustainability of successful clusters. They also investigate whether firms in clusters perform better than those that are excluded, and illustrate how the importance of clusters can vary significantly between different industries. The authors go on to address the role of clusters in knowledge spillovers and their implications for the functioning of the overall economy, and highlight the effect of new information and communications technologies on cluster configurations and operations. Regional economists, economic geographers and regional scientists will welcome this comprehensive new volume. It will also be a useful reference tool for policymakers and planners involved in industrial and regional economic development.

Following China's accession to the WTO in 2001, reform of its science and technology system has deepened. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the high-tech sector, examining Chinese high-tech industry policy, the emergence of industrial clusters, the R&D activities of multinational corporations operating in China, and the prospect of commercialization of high-tech achievements. The authors argue that since commercialization has become the ultimate objective of innovation activity, the relationship between R&D facilities, the local economy and local enterprises has become closer, thereby boosting the technology innovation capability of the corporate sector. They go on to explore regions with the greatest scale and depth of high-tech industry development: Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Shaanxi; which now serve as models for other regions. The book concludes that although high-tech exports have become an important contributing factor to China's economic growth, the country still has no effective mechanism for high-risk investment, therefore Chinese high-tech enterprises still find it difficult to secure financing. This book will strongly appeal to those affiliated to multinational enterprises: managers, brokers, dealers and investors, as well as academics and researchers specialising in business economics and Asian studies.

This path-breaking book considers the recent trend for governments to look increasingly to private sector finance, provided by private enterprises constructing and managing public infrastructure facilities in partnership with government bodies. One outstanding feature of the book is that it brings together an academic assessment of this phenomenon with practitioner-based experience of organizing partnerships and advising government bodies in Australia, Canada, Continental Europe, Hong Kong and the UK. While the volume, as a whole, draws on this extensive experience of the market, there are also a number of specific case studies. Developments in the major advanced countries are covered, along with the potential for public private partnerships in developing countries and transition economies. Combining practitioner knowledge and academic perspective and integrating engineering, economics and finance literature, Public Private Partnerships will be of great interest to economists, engineers, investment banks and government bodies.

The Impact of Innovation on Globalization is the eighth volume of the series China in the World. Like other volumes in the series, this volume includes views of leading Chinese scholars on China's relations with other countries and regions in the world. In view of the theme of "globalization" in this volume, the contributors in this volume pay attention to how the Covid-19 pandemic impacts and challenges globalization, especially how it affects China, the United States, and their mutual relations. However, this is not to say that some issues surrounding globalization-the orientation and interrelationship of political and economic decision-making in China and the United States-have emerged only after the outbreak of the pandemic. The volume focuses on some long-term trends and innovations, from the past to the future. Chapter 2, "Globalization, Convergence, and China's Economic Development," describes the patterns of globalization. Chapter 3, "The Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation is Unstoppable," talks about views on current economic and financial issues. Chapter 4, "Reconstructing Global Industrial Chains under the Pandemic, and China's Response," discusses China's pivotal position in global supply chains. Besides answering these basic questions, the book investigates other important issues, such as Global Value Chains, Changes in the International Order, Changes in the International Economic Landscape, WTO Reform, China's Foreign Economic and Trade Strategies, Towards a Climate Resilience Society, Identity Politics, and the AI "Revolution".

Although there is an ever increasing demand for new technology and innovations in the economy and society in general, we currently know little about the conditions for stimulating creativity in relation to research and innovative activity. This book fills a significant gap in the literature by examining the environmental factors that encourage creative working processes for research and innovation. Uniquely, the book investigates creative environments rather than creative individuals which has been the traditional focus of most previous research. The authors first explain what a Creative Knowledge Environment (CKE) is and then examine the phenomenon in a number of case studies at the micro, meso and macro-levels. By analysing the conditions and mechanisms conducive to creativity in both private and public institutions, they are able to identify the work environments which appear to best stimulate the creation of knowledge. They combine and integrate the previously rather disparate literature on creativity and innovation, and summarise what we know about creativity on the basis of current research in a range of disciplines. They also link their findings to contemporary debates about the knowledge society, the knowledge economy and knowledge management, and address relevant issues in science and technology policy relating to knowledge production and exploitation. The concluding chapter summarises what we now know about CKEs and how best to stimulate them, including a discussion of the policy implications and an agenda for future research. Academics and researchers in the fields of science and technology policy, innovation management and business will welcome this original and insightful book. It will also be a useful reference for policymakers involved in knowledge management, and practitioners in R&D departments, universities and knowledge-intensive business sectors.