Technology, Innovation and Industrial Economics: Institutional Perspectives, inspired by the work of William E. Cole, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, extends his work with essays on technology, innovation and industrial economics from an Institutionalist perspective. The managerial style, innovational practices and industrial setting of the continuous improvement firm are central to several chapters. This volume also features innovation and technology in Latin America, Adam Smith's writing on entrepreneurship and a comparison of American and European Institutionalism. The topics of technology, innovation, industrial organization and industrial policy are being widely discussed and debated in today's literature, but seldom from an Institutionalist perspective. The purpose of this book is to reduce substantially this missing dimension in the ongoing debates on these important issues.

"There is no doubt in my mind that this is the best book on the Japanese school, and especially on the underlying concepts. As such it is one of the most important books on Japanese society." Peter Drucker "Benjamin Duke knows both American and Japanese education intimately. His analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each is compelling. Everyone interested in Japan's economic performance over the past generation--and the next--needs to examine The Japanese School." Mike Mansfield U.S. Ambassador to Japan

There are many complicated theories and ideas about the structure and style of organisations. Human Resource Management and Development looks at how they apply in practice and what they mean for the people who work with them. Divided into four sections and amply illustrated with case studies, topics such as Organisation Theory, Recruitment and Selection, Leadership and Counselling are explained, concluding with chapters on 'Organisation Change' and 'Empowerment'. Written in an accessible and lively manner, this book will be of interest to both students and professionals involved in Human Resource Management.

This volume of the Academy of International Business series looks at International Business in the context of a rapidly changing Europe. Leading contributors have come together to present the latest research, attempting to answer a number of important questions: * is the vision of a Single European market realistic? * what are the barriers to its achievement? * what are the prospects for Eastern Europe? * how should firms enter East European markets? * what does the process of transition imply for corporate policy?

This collection provides exceptional descriptive and analytical insights into changes in corporate governance settings in ten Eastern and Western European countries. It demonstrates that there exist different varieties of capitalism and paths to transformation of economic institutions. In addition, it offers detailed discussions about national cases as well as the overall European Union effects. This book should be of great interest to scholars and students of comparative national systems, corporate governance and European studies.

Business growth depends on the ability to innovate. Knowledge management concepts, business process reengineering, human centered assets and information and communication technologies are the foundation for innovation though virtual reality makes innovation a reality. Virtual Technologies for Business and Industrial Applications: Innovative and Synergistic Approaches provides insight into uncovering the security risks of dynamically created content, and how proper content management can greatly improve overall security. This book also researches the security lifecycle, protocols and applications of the Internet, and the contemporary solutions to these problems.

The shift to a market economy in post-communist Eastern Europe has had a profound impact on science and scientists across the region, leading to reforms in research management practices and to drastic cuts in funding levels everywhere. Many countries are moving towards a system of competitive research grants awarded on the basis of peer review.

The introduction of peer review is not simply a technical matter; it signifies a fundamental change in the social structure of science, enhancing professional autonomy and giving working scientists a voice in the allocation of resources. This book combines first-hand accounts of the reform process with analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of both peer review and quantitative indicators.

Public Technology Procurement and Innovation studies public technology procurement as an instrument of innovation policy. In the past few years, public technology procurement has been a relatively neglected topic in the theoretical and research literature on the economics of innovation. Similarly, preoccupation with supply-side' measures has led policy-makers to avoid making very extensive use of this important demand-side' instrument. These trends have been especially pronounced in the European Union. There, as this book will argue, existing legislation governing public procurement presents obstacles to the use of public technology procurement as a means of stimulating and supporting technological innovation. Recently, however, there has been a gradual re-awakening of practical interest in such measures among policy-makers in the EU and elsewhere. For these and other related measures, this volume aims to contribute to a serious reconsideration of public technology procurement from the complementary standpoints of innovation theory and innovation policy.

Corporations are the productive engine of market economies. Yet the rules by which the wealth generated by corporations gets divided between the providers of financial capital and the providers of human capital are poorly understood. In this colloquium, a group of economists, social scientists, lawyers, labor relations specialists, business executives, and executives of financial institutions debate questions about the allocation of risks, returns, and rights in corporations that were raised in Margaret Blair's prior book, Ownership and Control: Rethinking Corporate Governance for the Twenty-First Century (Brookings, 1995). In addition to Margaret Blair, participants include Bernard Aidinoff, Amatai Etzioni, Ronald Gilson, Martin Ginsburg, Mark Goyder, Oliver Hart, Bruce Householder, Tony Jackson, Bevis Longstreth, Jonathan Low, Bruce MacLaury, Ira Millstein, Nell Minow, Charles Rossotti, Charles Schultze, Kenneth West, and Sidney Winter. Roswell Perkins, of the New York law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, served as moderator.

In this, the first of three volumes to be published by the CEU Press on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia, distinguished economists, legal scholars, political scientists and sociologists examine the emerging institutions of corporate governance in privatized firms in transition economies. They investigate the role of banks, investment funds, and pension funds, as well as the role and impact of residual state ownership. Each paper combines experience from advanced market economies with in-country empirical work in transition settings. Together these papers represent the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparative analysis yet undertaken of privatization struggles and their impact on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia.

In this, the second of three volumes to be published by the CEU Press on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia, distinguished economists, legal scholars, political scientists and sociologists examine the emerging institutions of corporate governance in privatized firms in transition economies. They look at the nature of control exercised by insiders in Central and Eastern European firms and the emergence of indigenous corporate governance institutions. The volume also addresses the role of foreign investors and the many issues involved in the design of corporate and securities law. Each paper combines experience from advanced market economies with in-country empirical work in transition settings. Together these papers represent the most comprehensive and up-to-date comparative analysis yet undertaken of privatization struggles and their impact on corporate governance in Central Europe and Russia.

"A key issue in the debate about reforming the U.S. health care system is how to finance and organize the delivery of long-term care. This volume offers perspectives on several important facets of this problem, including the regulation of private long-term care insurance, catastrophic out-of-pocket costs, and the use of long-term care and acute care services by the chronically disabled elderly. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Lisa Alecxih, David Kennell, and John Corea, Lewin-VHI; Brian Burwell and William Crown, SysteMetrics; Terry Coughlin, Korbin Liu, and Sharon Long, Urban Institute; Judith Kasper, Johns Hopkins University; Kenneth Manton and P.J. Eric Stallard, Duke University; Jennifer Schore, Mathematica Policy Research; Catherine Sullivan, Brookings; and Bruce Vladeck, Health Care Financing Administration. Dialogues on Public Policy "

This book provides an account of work in the Schumpeterian and evolutionary tradition of industrial dynamics and the evolution of industries. It is shown that over time industries evolve and change their structure. In this dynamic process, change is affected and sometimes constraint by many factors, including knowledge and technologies, the capabilities and incentives of actors, new products and processes, and institutions.

This book provides a theoretical framework to explain the formation and growth of economic agglomerations and industrial clusters from the viewpoint of spatial economics, and goes on to present current examples of clustering and policy in different economies, through the case studies such as the automobile cluster in China; the technopolis in Austin, Texas; the automobile clusters in India; Japan's industrial cluster policy; the industrial cluster in the Greater Bangkok, Thailand; and the electronics cluster in Guadalajara, Mexico.

What does luxury value mean? What constitutes luxury, and what does not? While previous research has focused on luxury as a global business and how companies have generated, communicated and monetized luxury, this book draws on empirical research to examine how consumers understand and interact with it. It identifies the components of luxury value, as seen by consumers, and the most influential factors that shape these perceptions. Drawing on a range of disciplinary approaches, the author investigates how consumer segments differ in their perception of luxury products, and how different generations understand value. A comprehensive overview of consumer perceptions of luxury, this book is a must-read for those students and researchers interested in luxury studies.

A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns consists of twenty-four original chapters developed by a network of transport professionals in a coordinated manner. The three parts of the book are: European Mobility Patterns; Dimensions of European Mobility, and National Perspectives. Mobility in fourteen countries is described and ten chapters of analysis compare the major dimensions of travel across Europe, which is seen as a laboratory for transport policies. A Billion Trips a Day: Tradition and Transition in European Travel Patterns questions the uniqueness of European travel and transport policies and demonstrates that, in many ways, Europe is different from other developed economies. However, there are side dissimilarities within Europe. The authors take a deep look at the underlying factors which affect travel behavior, with the objective of providing the necessary information for policy making. The comparative chapters of Part II provide an analysis based on national perspectives of the role of the time dimension travel; automobile ownership and use; commuting; public transport; and international travel. They also review the transport policies applied in Europe, explaining why some policies work in some places, while failing in others.

Known as the Taiwan Miracle, the Republic of China on Taiwan (R.O.C.) has, over the past thirty-five years, experienced one of the world's highest rates of economic growth. Arguing that major theoretical frameworks for analyzing international political economy are often too simplistic in that they omit key factors or overly generalize from relationships found only in limited situations, Clark uses a detailed case history of the R.O.C. to suggest not only that development and dependency in contemporary society are extremely complex and indeterminate processes, but that development in Taiwan deviates significantly from the postulates of the two leading paradigms of international political economy. To go even further, Clark states that Taiwan's economic growth and transformation resulted from its deviation from the normal dependency syndrome. Indeed, a development strategy based on economic flexibility and periodic regime change that has made this flexibility possible are hallmarks in Taiwan's success story. The United States and other advanced industrial economies whose past successes have created economic and political barriers to future adaptation can be better understood in terms of the characteristics of R.O.C.'s development strategy.

Part I of the three-part work focuses on environment, first discussing various paradigms and theories about development and then presenting an historical overview of Taiwan. The second part investigates Taiwan's international role, political development, and rapid economic growth. The volume closes with a chapter devoted to the implications of the Taiwan experience and political economy paradigms. Eight figures and thirty-five tables illustrate facets of Taiwan's development, including government structure, indicators of agricultural development, industrialization, educational progress, and export performance, among others. Because of the detailed presentations of political economy theories and their variants, especially in relation to economic and political development in Taiwan, this volume would be an excellent choice for courses in political economy, developing societies, Asian politics, and international relations theory, as well as libraries serving students in these areas.

Acclaim for previous editions: 'The International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2011 provides comprehensive statistical data on world manufacturing. . . The Yearbook represents a massive effort in data collection, data harmonization, and tabular presentation - well beyond the constraints of time and resources available to the average researcher or investigator. Therefore, the Yearbook presents a vast amount of information in a convenient form.' - William C. Struning, American Reference Books Annual 2012 'The UNIDO International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics is now a classic reference. . . The different editions of the Yearbook provide a unique statistical tool for analyzing the world industry.' - Revue d Economie Industrielle / Industrial Economics Review A unique and comprehensive source of information, this book is the only international publication providing economists, planners, policymakers and business people with worldwide statistics on current performance and trends in the manufacturing sector. The Yearbook is designed to facilitate international comparisons relating to manufacturing activity and industrial development and performance. It provides data which can be used to analyse patterns of growth and related long term trends, structural change and industrial performance in individual industries. Statistics on employment patterns, wages, consumption and gross output and other key indicators are also presented.

How much of the growth of output can be accounted for by the growth of inputs and how much is due to the growth of productivity? This book, first published in 1994, is a detailed attempt to answer this question for Britain. Estimates of outputs and inputs for over 130 industries were constructed, following the methodology pioneered by Professor Dale Jorgenson. These estimates can be employed to build up a picture of the performance of UK manufacturing as a whole. Contrary to the impression left by some previous authors, growth of productivity is found to play a relatively minor role - growth of inputs, when properly measured, accounts for most of the growth of output. The wealth of data which this book presents can also be used to shed light on a number of recent controversial views attached to the 'New Growth Theory'. According to this theory, externalities and increasing returns, often held to be associated with fixed investment, are the engine of economic growth. However, this book finds that the evidence does not support these claims.

The international fragmentation of economic activities - from research and design to production and marketing - described through the lens of the global value chain (GVC) approach impacts the structure and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) agglomerated in economic clusters. The consolidation of GVCs ruled by global lead firms and the recession of 2008-09 exacerbated the pressures on cluster actors that based their competitive advantage on local systems, spurring an increasing heterogeneity, both across and within clusters, that is still overlooked in the literature. Drawing on detailed studies of different industries and countries, Local Clusters in Global Value Chains shows the co-evolutionary trajectories of clusters and GVCs, and the role of firms and their strategies in organizing manufacturing and innovation activities in the context of ongoing technological shifts. The book explores the tension between place-based variables and global drivers of change, and the possibility for territories containing such clusters to prosper in the new global scenario. By adopting insights from the GVC framework and management studies, the book discusses how the internationalization strategies of firms create opportunities as well as constraints for adaptive upgrading in clusters. This book is of interest to both researchers and policy-makers who are interested in the dynamic sources of competitive advantage in the global economy.

The second edition of An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis is designed to be a general introduction for those who wish to study efficiency and productivity analysis. The book provides an accessible, well-written introduction to the four principal methods involved: econometric estimation of average response models; index numbers, data envelopment analysis (DEA); and stochastic frontier analysis (SFA). For each method, a detailed introduction to the basic concepts is presented, numerical examples are provided, and some of the more important extensions to the basic methods are discussed. Of special interest is the systematic use of detailed empirical applications using real-world data throughout the book. In recent years, there have been a number of excellent advance-level books published on performance measurement. This book, however, is the first systematic survey of performance measurement with the express purpose of introducing the field to a wide audience of students, researchers, and practitioners. introduction to the field; it outlines, discusses and compares the four principal methods for efficiency and productivity analysis in a well-motivated presentation; and it provides detailed advice on computer programs that can be used to implement these performance measurement methods. The book contains computer instructions and output listings for the SHAZAM, LIMDEP, TFPIP, DEAP and FRONTIER computer programs. More extensive listings of data and computer instruction files are available on the book's website.