A globe-trotting, behind-the-scenes look at the dazzling world of flowers and the fascinating industry it's created.
It might be unromantic to call a flower a commodity or a manufactured product, but flowers are both. They've become big business--created in laboratories, bred in test tubes, grown in factories, harvested by machines, packed into boxes, sold at auctions, and then flown across oceans and continents to your supermarket or local florist. Amy Stewart tracks down the hybridizers, geneticists, growers, and vendors working to invent, manufacture, and sell flowers that are bigger, brighter, and sturdier than anything nature can provide. From big agribusiness to local farming, from Europe to Latin America, "Flower Confidential" explores the intersection of nature and technology, of sentiment and commerce.

By harnessing technological progress, good innovation policies can help enhance economic growth. New research offers additional insights into the design and application of such innovative policies.Industrial Dynamics, Innovation Policy, and Economic Growth through Technological Advancements examines the nature of the process of technological change in different sectors of an array of countries, analyzing the impact of innovation as well as research and development activities on different outcomes in different fields and assessing the design and impact of policies aimed at enhancing innovativeness of firms. The analyses and findings of the studies in this book contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the field of industrial dynamics, innovation policies, and economic growth.

Green technology is focused on devising environmentally-friendly (eco-friendly) agricultural practices. It plays a crucial role in dealing with food security issues and reducing the carbon footprint. Green technologies and environmental sustainability are focused on the goals of green technologies, which are becoming increasingly important for ensuring sustainability. The Handbook of Research on Green Technologies for Sustainable Management of Agricultural Resources covers the applications of green technology as well as different eco-friendly technologies for the sustainable management of natural resources. It also explores the timely topic of enhancing crop productivity. It is ideal for agriculturists, farmers, botanists, technologists, policymakers, scientists, academicians, researchers, and students as it covers a variety of concepts such as organic farming and the role of green technologies.

Reforms are a necessary part of social and economic regulation. Each year, political pressure for economic reform becomes more prevalent, especially from various international organizations and business associations. Economic Reforms for Global Competitiveness is an essential reference source for the latest scholarly research on important factors of modern countries' social and economic dynamics. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as human capital, project management, and fiscal reforms, this book is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking the latest material on the role and impact of economic reforms.

This monograph draws on the 10-nation CREDIT (Capacity for Research on European Defence and Industrial Technology) network. It covers post-Cold War related issues including: how to reduce and reorient national defence research and development efforts; the debate over dual-use technologies; how the diffusion of technologies of civil origin may affect the international flow of military-relevant technology; and how the competition with the USA will affect the European industry's ability to survive. By providing a comparative study of policy and practice in the countries of western Europe, this book provides insights into how governments and firms can begin to search for European-wide solutions to the dilemmas that face them.

A recently created trend within the past few years is the active involvement of the business community in the development and implementation of various educational programs. Business Community Engagement for Educational Initiatives provides innovative insights into the implementation of educational programs jointly by businesses, schools, teachers, and educational organizations. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as educational travel, internships, and summer school, this publication is designed for educational administrators, teachers, business leaders, academicians, and researchers seeking coverage on topics centered on business-supported educational programs.

This volume gathers the latest advances and innovations in the triple helix of university-industry-government relations, as presented by leading international researchers at the II International Triple Helix Summit 2018, held in Dubai, UAE on November 10-13, 2018, which brought together experts, practitioners and academics across disciplines that address the dynamics of government, industry and academia. It covers analysis, theory, measurements and empirical enquiry in all aspects of university-industry-government interactions, as well as the international bases and dimensions of triple helix relations, their impacts, and social, economic, political, cultural, health and environmental implications. It also examines the role of government/academia/industry in building innovation-based cities and nations, and in transforming nations into knowledge-based sustainable economies. The contributions, which were selected by means of a rigorous international peer-review process, highlight numerous exciting ideas that will spur novel research directions and foster multidisciplinary collaboration among different specialists.