This book provides evolutionary and institutional perspectives on the reform of infrastructure industries, tracing the development of this process in a number of sectors and countries.The contributors contend that infrastructure based industries such as telecommunications, public transport, water management and energy have been increasingly exposed to the dynamism of the market since becoming privatized, and have therefore been stimulated into short-term efficiency and long-term innovation. Drawing on institutional economic theory backed up with case studies such as the California energy crisis, the Dutch gas industry, oil and electricity companies in Spain and the privatization of Schipol airport in Amsterdam, the book focuses on process, driving forces, and actors' roles to explain how new balances are established between competing institutions. The degree to which the processes of institutional change are predictable and the effects of deliberate strategic interventions of governments or private actors are explored. Specific technical and sector aspects and their influence on institutional change in various infrastructures are also discussed. This book will strongly appeal to academics and practitioners in politics or industry with an interest in industrial, evolutionary institutional or public sector economics.

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.

This reference book details the top 100 groundbreaking events in the history of American business, featuring case studies of successful companies who challenged traditional operating paradigms, historical perspectives on labor laws, management practices, and economic climates, and an examination of the impact of these influences on today's business practices. Throughout history, important commercial developments in the United States have made it possible for American companies to leverage tough economic conditions to survive-even thrive in a volatile marketplace. This reference book examines the top 100 groundbreaking events in the history of American business and illustrates their influence on the labor laws, business practices, and management methodologies of corporate America today. The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business: An Encyclopedia depicts the chronological order of events contributing to the evolution of American business, with an emphasis on the commercial innovations of each period. The book explores the origins of successful brands, including Apple, Wal-Mart, and Heinz; demonstrates the successful collaboration between public and private sectors illustrated by the Erie Canal, Hoover Dam, and the interstate highway system; and depicts the commercial impact of major economic events from the Panic of 1857 to the Great Recession of 2010. Chronology of key events in the history of American business from 1630 to the present Helpful sidebars of the evolution of key terms used today Comprehensive index includes category, company names, personal names, and cross references to other events Suggestions for further reading for each article 10 relevant charts and tables Appendix of relevant sources 80 key primary documents supporting major events in American business

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 book explains the strategic behaviors of platform firms on the global market, drawing on extensive research on the mobile communication systems, semiconductor equipment, personal computer, and automobile electronics industries. The book focuses on Ericsson, Applied Materials, Intel, and Bosch as representative global platform companies. The book's introductory section reports on the rise of platform business and addresses the theoretical basis of their competitive edge, based on a review of prior studies on the network effect of open standards and the economic theory of strategic behavior. The platform business obviously secures a competitive advantage on the global market. Yet this theory alone does not provide sufficient explanation for why the platform business achieves competitiveness on the market. The book proposes a theoretical framework and provides rigorous supporting evidence by using case studies and empirical analysis on the global business of platform firms. This evidence reflects the variety of global ecosystems: the mobile communications system in China, the semiconductor equipment industry in East Asia, personal computers in Taiwan, and automobile electronics in China. In conclusion, the book reviews these studies and identifies the key factors of platform strategy on the global market. Given its breadth of coverage, the book will benefit all academic researchers and undergraduate students in management and economics with an interest in global competition and collaboration in the open economy.

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 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.

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.

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.

Drawing on her extensive experience and research in various types of organizations-business, political, even religious organizations-Dr. Whicker looks closely at three distinct types of leaders which she categorizes as trustworthy, transitional, and toxic leaders. In a clear and readable style she describes leadership subtypes for transitional and toxic types: the absentee leaders, the busybodies, controllers, enforcers, streetfighters, and the bullies, all of whom are dangerous to their organizations and are directly responsible in many cases for an organization's decline. Whicker makes clear, however, that there are ways to protect oneself from such leaders, and shows exactly what these strategies are. A compelling, anecdotal, authoritative analysis for anyone in any organization who has ever wondered why did the boss do that - and why to "me"?

As Dr. Whicker sees it, "trustworthy leaders" are good, moral, green light leaders. They can trusted to put the goals of the organization and the well-being of their followers first. Organizations with trustworthy leaders at the helm have a green light to advance in productivity, growth, and progress. Three types of trustworthy leaders are consensus builders, team leaders, and commanders. "Transitional leaders" are self-absorbed, egotistical, yellow light leaders. They are focused on the approval of others and concerned with their personal role as leaders. Organizations headed by transitional leaders have a cautionary yellow light to growth, and lurch along at the mercy of the ebb and flow of external currents and trends. Three types of transitional leaders are absentee leaders, busybodies, and controllers. "Toxic leaders" are maladjusted, malcontent, and often malevolent and malicious. They succeed by tearing others down. They glory in turf protection, fighting, and controlling others rather than uplifting followers. They are red light leaders who destroy productivity and apply brakes to organizational progress. They have a deep-seated but well-disguised sense of personal inadequacy, selfish values, and cleverness at concealing deceit. Three types of toxic leaders are enforcers, streetfighters, and bullies. This book gives the reader strategies for surviving transitional and toxic leaders and for restoring organizational health.

What is the influence of software systems on an organization's ability to create knowledge, learn, adapt to change and innovate? While organization, management and innovation theory has primarily focused on the impact of software on measures such as process efficiency and speed, this book argues that integrated systems and digital technologies offer even more fundamental implications for the innovating firm. A series of detailed case studies provides the foundations for a deeper theoretical and empirical understanding of the nature and dynamics of software, knowledge, organization and their complex interactions. The author demonstrates how software induces the radical reconfiguration of organizational knowledge and learning dynamics, including an organization's ability to create, store, transfer and integrate knowledge across heterogeneous organizational boundaries. The book provides a unique perspective on what organizations know and how they use that knowledge to build, sustain and renew their capabilities. This includes understanding how information systems can be designed or implemented in such a way as to favour innovation and adaptation, and to prevent unfavourable patterns of behaviour. The book represents an in-depth and systematic attempt to characterize the fundamental influence of software over the processes that underpin an organization's ability to create and manage knowledge. Scholars and students interested in innovation, technological change and information technology, and managers in software and other hi-tech industries will find this an insightful and highly rewarding study.

This book examines cross-chain control centers (4C), an ambitious concept in supply chain management and logistics that is intended to foster collaboration between different supply chains to increase efficiency. It provides an overview of the main results, insights, and other developments in the academic field of horizontal collaboration. Furthermore, it gives recommendations to governments, commercial companies, and academia on how to proceed with horizontal logistics collaboration in the years to come. To link research with practice, the book takes the Dutch project on cross-chain collaboration centers (4Cs) and identifies a typology of existing patterns for horizontal collaboration in supply chains. Finally, the book zooms in on the Netherlands as a case-study of intense public-private partnerships to develop 4C as a mature logistics value proposition. It provides an overview of the accomplishments in the government supported 4C projects and offers a critical reflection of why some more ambitious and structural solutions have not found solid ground yet. The book is of value to researchers and professionals in the supply chain domain.