The process of food production and distribution has grown into a global corporate system in recent years. This has caused significant impacts on sustainability on an international scale, particularly for developing nations. Establishing Food Security and Alternatives to International Trade in Emerging Economies is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on agricultural trade relations and trade liberalization in the context of developing countries. Highlighting a range of pertinent topics such as crop productivity, rural development, and value-added agriculture, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, graduate students, and practitioners interested in the current state of global food markets. Topics Covered: The many academic areas covered in this publication include, but are not limited to: Climate Change Crop Productivity Food Safety Maritime Piracy Rural Development Trade Policies Value-Added Agriculture

Tourists are today urged to visit the 'birthplace of the Industrial Revolution', packaged as part of 'a glorious heritage'. Half a century and more ago the picture was very different. Then the Industrial Revolution was commonly treated as having been a social catastrophe which had brought 'a new barbarism' to the country. Donald Coleman traces the history of the term 'Industrial Revolution' and the uses to which it has been put. Originating in European radical Romanticism, popularised in English by Arnold Toynbee in the 1 880s, it has achieved, with its meaning transformed, the status of potent myth in the nation's history. The book examines industrial revolutions real and imaginary; illuminates some of the activities of businessmen engaged therein; considers attitudes towards the businessmen who have thus come to occupy the historical stage; and discusses the academic study of business history- a subject hardly imaginable without the Industrial Revolution. In the course of investigating these inter-related topics, the volume as a whole offers valuable insights into the ways in which economic history has been written and the concepts which have been invented and deployed in an effort to understand a central event in British history. This book provides an excellent introduction to the subject.

The economic situation in Sub-Saharan Africa has recently undergone a process of change. After a long period of stagnation during the 1980s and 1990s, GDP per capita has shown significant growth in the 2000s. Although the growth rate is lower than that of East Asia, it is significantly higher than that in previous decades. The most significant factor yielding the better economic performance is the increase in commodity prices including oil, mineral and agricultural products, which are the main export products for most African countries. Another factor has been the scaling up of aid flows following the commencement of the Millennium Development Goals. The enhanced commitment of the donor community increased aid flow to Africa, which in turn increased GDP through consumption of locally sourced products and services, such as with the construction industry.This book aims to fill the lack of micro evidences on a structural change of African producers. By collecting studies on single industries, the authors attempt to demonstrate firms' and farmers' responses to the recent economic trend such as growth of demand, emergence of FDI and improvement in infrastructure. Since the economic trend differs by industry, its impacts on producers can be observed more clearly by focusing on a single industry. Based on case studies, this book covers four industries in five countries that experienced significant external changes; namely, horticulture in Ghana, construction in Burkina Faso, textiles in Madagascar, agriculture in Uganda, and wood processing in Tanzania. All studies are based on original data collected through the authors' field work.

The book relates to understanding the growing importance of aerospace power in modern warfare, including integration of air and space which has truly become the new theatre of war. The unifying space dimension will remain the single most important source for information and communication which can be used in multiple forms. It is an attempt to focus on China's evolving military strategy with emphasis on the aerospace dimension and its implications in the region, specifically in the Indian context. Initially, the book attempts to analyse the strategic importance of the rising economic, political and military stature of China with a view to understand its regional and global implications in the military domain. China, in recent times, has time and again demonstrated its resolve to defend its security interests at all costs. For over three decades, China has been modernising its strategic and nuclear capabilities besides developing new and complex military platforms that would be of great value to joint operations warfare. The current decade through 2020 will prove critical to the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as it attempts to integrate many new and complex platforms, and to adopt modern operational concepts, including network-centric warfare. Besides undertaking a comprehensive modernisation of its armed forces, China is developing a series of offensive space capabilities while advocating the peaceful use of outer space. In the later part, the book highlights the transformation of China's aerospace power. The PLA Air Force (PLAAF) appears to be well on its way to becoming a modern, highly capable air force for the 21st century. China's latest combat aircraft, the J-20, highlights China's ambition to produce a fighter aircraft that incorporates stealth attributes, advanced avionics, and super-cruise capable engines over the next several years. China's aviation industry is developing several types of Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. PLAAF exercises have demonstrated that its role has changed from support to ground forces to being able to conduct operations independently. It is actively trying to imbibe better training programmes and has increased joint training with other air forces in the recent years. Induction of the aircraft carrier Liaoning in September 2012 highlights China's growing maritime interests and power projection capabilities. The book will be of immense value both for the readers of the countries in the immediate neighbourhood of China and the strategic community in general since the rise of China and other major Asian players, including India, will shape the strategic international environment in the coming decades of this century.

This book proposes a new approach to the government regulation of utilities. Arguing that traditional command-and-control regulation does not encourage efficient performance, Strasser and Kohler advocate the use of an incentive-based regulatory system and offer a practical, realistic strategy for the successful implementation of such plans within the context of utility regulation. The analysis is supported by a comprehensive survey of the relevant legal materials, an overview of the literature on organization theory and institutional economics, and a survey of the latest thinking on how incentives can most effectively be paid.

Strasser and Kohler begin by identifying problems associated with current regulatory techniques, demonstrating that disincentives are often built into the regulatory system. When that system has tried incentives, the authors show they have been applied in an ad hoc manner, further exacerbating the problem. In presenting the case for incentive-based regulation, the authors review the history of comprehensive incentive plans, look at what organization theory can teach us about using incentives as a regulatory strategy, and explore the effective use of incentive compensation by nonregulated companies. Strasser and Kohler then develop a strategy for implementing incentive plans in regulated utilities, showing that, in order to work, the plans must include the installation of clearly defined bonuses and penalties, specific standards of performance, the payment of bonuses to managers rather than shareholders, and reliable and complete measures of company performance. Policymakers, economists, public utility regulators, and attorneys involved in the complex arena of utility regulation will find Regulating Utilities with Management Incentives indispensable reading.

Mass production is on its way out, according to Glenn Bassett, and is being replaced by a project shop economy. In a visionary book that is both theoretical and practical Bassett examines the factors turning our economy back to the short-run production methods that prevailed until the Industrial Revolution, 150 years ago. This economic change can be disorienting to management and can produce wrenching changes on the shop floor. Using the models and methods of management science, the author shows how to make the transition easier. He offers fresh strategies for measuring business effectiveness and specific management practices appropriate to the flexible, small-scale job shop. These include moderate to low capacity utilization, scheduling sensitivity to bottlenecks, and development of the job shop's most important asset--its highly skilled workers.

The historical analyses in this work are compelling to any reader aware of the limitations of passive consumerism. An economy characterized by mass production of commodity goods and services is inherently unstable because people will naturally begin to seek self-expression in the special and the uncommon. Not just a countertrend in a society of mass markets, this reemphasis of craftsmanship and quality represents a full-scale reversion to nonstandardization. Bassett helps managers understand the true value of custom production. While the project shop can never possess the precision and efficiency of mass production, it is more effective. It puts out higher quality products and provides a more humane workplace that utilizes the full potential of skilled workers. This book will help managers of short-run/custom production and service operations and production operations managers to adapt to the changing workplace and economy.

Many Japanese and Germans endorse the shareholder-first assumptions dominant today in Britain and America. Yet in both countries there are articulate defenders of what they consider to be a better, more social-solidary way of life. Dore traces the fascinating debates which ensue on corporate governance, on worker rights, on supplier relations, on cartels and anti-trust, on pensions and welfare. He also analyses actual changes in economic behaviour. These accounts of the battle for the national soul in Japan and Germany constitute one of the finest contributions to the 'diversity of capitalism' debate. Dore's account should be read by anyone who is interested to know whether, for all the talk of globalization, that diversity is going to survive.

The British consumer Co-operative movement pioneered the use of film for industrial and propaganda purposes. A powerful association of working-class consumers, the movement embraced the potential of cinema and used it to help articulate an ideology expounding the ideals of mutuality, equality, and democracy, and seeking to transform a capitalist society founded on individualism and selfish-help into the Co-operative Commonwealth. This book provides an extensive, detailed catalogue of more than 300 films relating to the movement. Technical details, credits, a synopsis, and historical and critical evaluations are given for each title. Numerous films, previously unknown or believed to be lost, have been traced.

The catalogue is prefaced by a substantial introductory essay which provides a contextual framework for a consideration of the movement and its use of film. The book is supplemented by a selection of articles, publications, and reports which appeared in the movement's contemporary press, and which reveal the genuine concern to use cinema to assist in the task of making Co-operators. This catalogue will be invaluable to students of social, labor, and business history and to film and media historians who wish to broaden their knowledge of non-commercial film. It also serves as a guide for contemporary filmmakers and television researchers to this extensive collection of archive film.

This study presents new microeconomic analyses of congestion-prone services that comprise most private and public services at the final consumption stage. It accounts for two distinctive features of congestion-prone services: the discrepancy between capacity and throughput, and service quality competition. To accommodate these features, a series of new decision-making theorems for consumers and suppliers is developed. The resulting demand and cost functions incorporate service time as the variable that reflects congestion and service quality. In market equilibrium, interactions between consumers and firms endogenously determine the industrial organization type of each firm and thus allow the coexistence of multiple industrial organization types in the same market. Efficiency of resource allocation is assessed by applying two different criteria: service quality diversity throughout the market and Pareto optimality in each submarket.

Mounting global competition, rapid technological change, and skyrocketing research costs are changing the arM's-length relationships between industry and universities toward closer and more direct cooperation. Yet, many companies remain unsure how to proceed in establishing effective alliances with the right universities and faculty investigators. Many books and articles describe features and benefits of the diverse forms of cooperation between the two communities, usually from the academic viewpoint. Based on his experiences in directing many (successful) collaborations between Du Pont and research universities, Carboni offers fresh insights and practical guidelines for planning, organizing, and conducting effective bilateral research initiatives, from the corporate perspective. Strategies and techniques are outlined, which enable managers and technical professionals to deal with major issues and problems throughout every phase of the undertaking.

A historical analysis helps the reader to understand the forces and events that have shaped the changing relationships between industry, academia, and government since World War II. The advantages and pitfalls of major types of industry-university research interactions are described so that the reader may evaluate and choose the best options for his or her company's needs and circumstances. The reader is shown how to analyze the key technical issues and gaps of his or her company as a basis for selecting a balanced portfolio of university projects. Factors to be considered in choosing suitable faculty investigators are discussed. For less experienced managers, the book offers suggestions for obtaining executive and in-house support, negotiating research agreements, and evaluating and transferring key scientific and technological findings to the organization for exploitation. This book is a valuable desk-side resource for corporate executives and technical staffs who seek fresh insights and information concerning the role, conduct, and potential impact of university collaborations on the company missions. The treatise enables academic and government scientists, research administrators, and consultants to acquire a deeper understanding of corporate needs, values, and expectations from these alliances.

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.

Under which conditions do companies engage in the provision of collective goods and services if the state lacks the capacity to do so? To what extent do multinational firms engage in a 'race to the top' fostering rather than undermining regulation? The empirical analyses in the individual chapters look at business responses to some of South Africa's most pertinent governance challenges, HIV/AIDS and environmental pollution. The contributors look at firms in four industry sectors: the automotive industry, the mining industry, the food and beverage industry and the textile industry. These four sectors comprise a significant number of foreign as well as local companies, with or without brand name, which cater to different market segments within South Africa, differ in size and are exposed to varying pressure from NGOs and foreign competitors.

This book explores the reasons why American industry was so slow to respond to the challenge of high quality goods from Japan in the postwar period.

This dictionary is designed to make the industrial vocabulary of earlier eras understandable and accessible to contemporary investigation. It brings together in one place a great deal of information that has been widely scattered in obscure places. The specialized language of the shop, the mill, and other everyday settings, although initially familiar, becomes quite foreign in the context of general lanuage. Mulligan contends that, upon close examination of this specialized vocabulary, the lives and experiences of the early workers can be better understood, thus opening another avenue in the exploration of this country's industrial heritage. As a historical barometer reflecting the extent of change in an industry, the language of particular crafts and industries brings together the social and cultural background of the participants, and the dynamic of the activity or work.

This work provides a consistent and empirically meaningful definition of surplus and suggests an analytical framework for studying economic growth and stagnation using that concept. The book also presents a case study of the role of surplus in economic growth. In the first part of the work, a method is developed emphasizing the links to classical economic theory and the logical flaws of the earlier works. The second part examines the role of surplus in one country, and tests the classical hypotheses about growth in the long run and in a cross-section of countries.

Since its inception in the late 19th century, Britain's mail order industry both exploited and generated social networks in building its businesses. The common foundation of the sector was the agency system; Sales were made through catalogs held by agents, ordinary people in families, neighborhoods, pubs, clubs and workplaces. Through this agency system mail order firms in Britain were able to tap social networks both to build a customer base, but also to obtain vital information on credit worthiness.
In this, the first comprehensive history of the British mail order industry, the authors combine business and social history to fully explain the features and workings of this industry. They show how British general mail order industry firms such as Kay and Co., Empire Stores, Littlewoods, and Grattan grew from a range of businesses as diverse as watch sales or football pools. A range of business innovations and strategies were developed throughout the twentieth century, including technological development and labor process rationalization. Indeed, the sector was in the vanguard of many aspects of change from supply chain logistics to computerization. The social and gender profile of the home shopper also changed markedly as the industry developed. These changes are charted, from the male-dominated origins of the industry to the growing influence of women both within the firm and, more importantly, as the centre of the mail order market. The book also draws parallels and contrasts with the much more widely studied mail order industry of the United States.
The final section of the book examines the rise of internet shopping and the new challenges and opportunities it provided forthe mail order industry. Here the story is one of continuity and fracture as the established mail order companies struggle to adjust to a business environment which they had partly created, but which also rested on a new range of core competencies and technological and demographic change.

By understanding the historical antecedents and current organization of industry associations, business and government will better be able to help restructure them and thus assist American industry more effectively battle foreign competition. Procassini, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, maintains that American associations can, and should be reorganized by reviewing and comparing their origins and operations today to similar associations in America's two major trade competitors, Germany and Japan. Comprehensive, thoroughly researched, readable and anecdotal, this book is the first to focus on the role of associations in the global marketplace. A provocative and useful analysis for businesspeople, government officials, and members of the academic community concerned with the structure and practice of international commerce.

The author compares U.S. industry associations to those in Germany and Japan in two ways. First, he looks at their past legacies and present mandates; then, with special emphasis on America's major high-tech industries, he analyzes their organization and operation. After a general overview of the past, present, and foreseeable future of associations, and a detailed study of those in the U.S., Germany, and Japan, he turns to specific industries -- aerospace, biotechnology, semiconductors, and computer systems -- and their trade associations, defining and comparing the characteristics of each. Part IV of the book digs into the ways in which associations fail, as well as succeed, in the mission demanded of them today. From this analysis and the author's extensive experience as a corporation and association executive, emerge a series of recommendations for redefining the associations' mission in today's global economy, and a blueprint for achieving these goals.