This section covers a wide range of new approaches to a crucial area of economics. It addresses the impact of game theory, the new institutional economics and the interaction of economics and business strategy.

This section covers a wide range of new approaches to a crucial area of economics. It addresses the impact of game theory, the new institutional economics and the interaction of economics and business strategy.

This book challenges some of the fundamental tenets of "free market" economics that have had a profound impact on public policy and the plight of the American worker. These include the beliefs that high wages inevitably mean low profits; that a "free" market will automatically reduce discrimination and pay inequality; that anti-trust legislation hinders competitive market forces; and that minimum wage laws and trade unions negatively impact the economy.

Using both theoretical analysis and real-life examples, the author shows that these myths are a product of unrealistic behavioral assumptions on the part of "free market" economists about the typical worker. In fact, as the author makes clear, the level of workers' satisfaction with their jobs, as a reflection of how well they are paid and treated by their employers, has a direct impact on the quality level of the products they produce and, inevitably, the economic performance of the firms.

A frequent complaint in literature is that services have been previously largely overlooked by innovation researchers and technology policy makers. Given the unarguable growth in the importance of the service sectors, increasing numbers of researchers and policy makers have taken a fresh look at service activities. Innovation Systems in the Service Economy: Measurement and Case Study Analysis presents contributions which increase the understanding of the role of services in the development of the division of labor in modern economics. This volume is devoted to the elaboration and understanding of the following two themes. First, service firms can be innovative in their own right, even though the process of innovation and the kinds of innovation may be different from those traditionally associated with manufacturing and other primary activities. Second, service firms and associated activities play an important role in the evolving division of creative labor which is constituted by modern innovative systems.

This book discusses the way in which economic integration and preferential trade agreements reinforce or alter the existing location of industries. Using a conceptual approach with real life examples, the author seeks to clarify and explain the key tendencies of the relationship and influence between spatial distribution of production and economic integration.
Geography of Production and Economic Integration will develop students', specialists' and policymakers' understanding of this highly topical subject.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203187733

This volume explores the wide diversity in the kinds of networks that have been established between firms in Japan and the Pacific Rim. Editor W. Mark Fruin shows how networks in Japan and Korea are more prescribed and standardized than those found in the United States. For example, Toyota's satellite organizational system is more flexible, open-ended, and market-conforming than General Motors divisional organization. But less market-conforming networks can also arise. In China, for example, networks have arisen because of the unpredictable nature of markets. The contributors to this volume utilize new ideas and data to formulate an understanding of the importance of networks to the success of Asian firms. The book's postmodern approach--seeking not a single model but rather a variety of models of equally probable validity--makes it a unique resource for scholars and professionals in the field.

Japan's escape from colonialism and its subsequent industrialisation has taken it to the point where its economy is second only to that of the US. This comprehensive volume examines how this rapid change of fortunes occurred, and the impact it has had on East Asia and the world at large. Taking a wide range and focus, Inkster looks at the history of Japan's industrial development in a social and cultural context.

This text is a clear and thorough introduction to political philosophy and political thought. Each chapter begins with a brief overview of a major political thinker and clearly introduces one or more of their most influential works. The reader is then introduced to key secondary readings, aiming to complement and further their understanding of the thinker and text in question. Key features of the book also include clear exercises, reading notes and guides for further reading. The book is structured around eight major works including Machiavelli's "The Prince"; Hobbes - "Leviathan"; Locke- "The Second Treatise of Government"; Rousseau - "The Social Contract"; " Two Concepts of Liberty' by Isaiah Berlin'; Marx and Engels - "The German Ideology (Part 1)"; and Mill - "On Liberty". This text provides students with the skills necessary to understand the main thinkers, texts and arguments of political philosophy. It requires no previous knowledge of philosophy or politics and is suitable to anyone coming to political philosophy and political thought for the first time.

This book explores how a long-term innovation can take place based on historical analyses of the development of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane from the early 1950s to the mid-2010s. The RO membrane is a critical material for desalination that is a key to solve water shortages becoming serious in many places of the world. The authors conducted in-depth field studies as well as analyses of rich archival data to demonstrate how researchers, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers interacted each other for this material innovation to be realized. A series of historical analyses in this book uncovered that initial government supports, strategic niche markets, emergence of breakthrough technology, and company-specific rationales played significant roles for companies to overcome four types of uncertainty, technological, market, competition, and social/organizational ones, and enabled the companies to persistently invest in the development and commercialization of the RO membrane. This book depicts that innovation does not arise on a sudden, but that it is actualized through long lasting process with turns and twists, which is driven by many non-economic rationales beyond economic motives.

For worldwide intercultural services, here is one-stop shopping at its best. This easy-to-use guide gives you practical advice to locate, evaluate, purchase, and oversee intercultural services. It describes and provides easy access (including websites and e-mail addresses) to the world's leading intercultural services. These high-impact, productive, and cost-effective service providers are critical to your operation's growth strategy and global success.
This handy guide covers the gamut of intercultural services. Whether you are managing a multi-cultural workplace, preparing to enter the global business arena, or are already competing internationally, you'll find valuable, practical insights and information on:
* exploring intercultural services
* key intercultural concept
* cross-border roles and organizations
* choosing service providers
* working with suppliers
* types and qualities of products
Based on the author's 30+ years of being a user, purchaser, manager, evaluator, designer, and provider of intercultural services, this book presents a helpful, in-depth review of all you must know to make the right decisions about intercultural services. Clear examples and checklists lead managers step-by-step through virtually all aspects of understanding, assessing, and acquiring intercultural services.
This handy guide covers the gamut of intercultural services. Whether you are managing a multi-cultural workplace, preparing to enter the global business arena, or are already competing internationally, you'll find valuable, practical insights and information on: * exploring intercultural services* key intercultural concept* cross-border roles and organizations*choosing service providers* working with suppliers* types and qualities of productsBased on the author's 30+ years of being a user, purchaser, manager, evaluator, designer, and provider of intercultural services, this book presents a helpful, in-depth review of all you must know to make the right decisions about intercultural services. Clear examples and checklists lead managers step-by-step through virtually all aspects of understanding, assessing, and acquiring intercultural services.

In an era of accelerating change in the world economy, services are assuming greater importance for the economies of both developed and developing countries. As technological developments allow increasing tradeability of services, huge global firms are offering services across national boundaries. This book explores the global impact of this economic phenomenon from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. A range of international authors, including both academics and representatives of major international organisations, offer contributions in two key areas: case studies covering a wide range of service industries, from consumer services, such as hotels and airlines, to professional business-to-business services; and theories and paradigms of economic behaviour. The book questions whether traditional models developed with manufacturing industries in mind are applicable to the service sector, and suggests new directions for economic theory. Globalization of Services therefore offers economists both a wealth of new source material and a fresh perspective on the modern global economy.

Initial public offerings (IPOs) play a crucial role in allocating resources in market economies. Because of the enormous importance of IPOs, an understanding of how IPOs work is fundamental to an understanding of financial markets generally. Of particular interest is the puzzling existence of high initial returns to equity IPOs in the United States and other free-market economies. Audience: Designed for use by anyone wishing to perform further academic research in the area of IPOs and by those practitioners interested in IPOs as investment vehicles.

This book focuses on the empirical analysis of productivity in services at the firm level. Productivity studies are still scarce in services, especially in view of the major role of the services sector in modern developed economies and the increasing concern about its performance. The services industries studied in this volume are quite diverse, with a strong representation of financial services. All analyses are performed on the microlevel, being based on cross-sectional or panel data for samples of firms of widely varying sizes. They focus on a variety of topics ranging from comparing the efficiency of different categories of service firms or exploring the impact of mergers and deregulation on productivity performance to assessing the magnitude of returns to scale and scope or investigating the properties of different parametric or nonparametric methods to estimate cost and production functions. Perhaps the most valuable feature of all these studies is the authors' care and ingenuity in putting the data together, measuring variables and extracting relevant information. After reading the book, one is inclined to consider that services may not be all that different from goods.

This authoritative text examines the arrangements at the centre of Whitehall for advising the British prime minister and Cabinet, especially during the Thatcher and Major governments. The traditional coordinating centre has shifted from the Treasury to the Prime Minister's Office and the Chief Whip's Office in Downing Street, and to the Cabinet Office in Whitehall. Exploration of the separate but interlinking contributions made by these three parts of the centre shows they form a flexible but not entirely adequate support for modern government.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

'Fisher's book will appeal to scholars interested in historical macroeconomics and the industrial revolution. It suggests promising directions for future research, and it contains vast amounts of useful information. In time, specialists may find it to be an indispensable reference.'- Gary Richardson, Journal of Economic History;In this study of the European economy from 1700 to 1910, the macroeconomic data from five countries is examined both descriptively and analytically (using structural and time-series methods). The UK receives three chapters, in view of the extensive literature in that case, while France, Germany, Italy and Sweden are each covered in a separate chapter.

Discover the challenges and pitfalls awaiting occupational social workers in the coming years!Social Services in the Workplace: Repositioning Occupational Social Work in the New Millennium will help you meet the challenges that the rapidly changing world of work today presents. These challenges offer new opportunities for you as a social work professional in general and for the field of occupational social work in particular. Globalizing economies, downsizing, rightsizing, mergers, and corporate acquisitions continue to challenge work organizations and impact the lives of workers and their families. These trends have led to an increased need for the provision of social work services to employed, unemployed, and transitional workers and their families, and to businesses of all types and sizes. To meet the challenges facing the world of work in the 21st century, the social work profession must put special emphasis on the diverse roles that social workers can take in the workplace--from the micro to the macro--both within workplace settings and in the context of more traditional local, national and global agencies.Social Services in the Workplace proposes an expanded paradigm for social work practice in the context of the workplace, spanning the gamut from corporate and union settings to 'workfare'or welfare-to-work programs. It provides a wide array of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical examinations of evolving and innovative roles that the social work profession can fulfill in the world of work. Given today's volatile global market conditions, which dictate rapid changes in the organization and conditions of work, Social Services in the Workplace examines opportunities and dilemmas for the social work profession and points to the paths that the profession must take in the near future to remain viable.Social Services in the Workplace focuses on: defining domains for practice techniques that work and aspects to emphasize in various workplace environments provision of social work services to workers and their families welfare-to-work programs formulating organizational policies and procedures Social Services in the Workplace: Repositioning Occupational Social Work in the New Millennium brings into focus the practice of social work in the workplace. With this book, social work students and practitioners can gain a new perspective on the field and learn of new opportunities for employment and practice in the world of work. Academicians can use the book in their Social Work Practice classes, and researchers will discover ideas that will spark innovative research in this field. Corporate executives and human resource managers will gain a new understanding of how the social work profession can benefit their employees, their families, and the work organization. No matter which of these categories you fit into, Social Services in the Workplace will shed light on this expanding field.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Sugar is a commodity that continues to hit the headlines. Whether the debate is over ongoing protectionism, volatile world prices, poor labour standards, or bio fuel production, the policies that surround sugar are heavily contested. Drawing on critical political economy and institutional theory, this book develops a novel framework by which the power underpinning these policies can be better understood and their distributive outcomes brought to the forefront of analysis.
Providing a truly global overview of the sugar industry, the book considers such issues such as the impact of the World Trade Organization on regulation, the patterns of concentration and diversification among sugar processors, and the transition to high-sugar diets in Asia. Importantly, these issues are also discussed in relation to the acts of resistance, submission and co-option among the rural poor. In doing so, this study sheds light not only on the changing nature of production in sugar, but also on the causes and consequences of globalization in the agri-food sector more generally.

This study provides a diagnostic of residential network water in Uganda, focusing on access and affordability for the poor, and using data from the latest national household survey.

With Strategic Networks: The Art of Japanese Interfirm Cooperation, you will examine the structure and dynamics of Japanese business networks and discover successful Japanese business practices and opportunities. For professors of business and Japanese studies, as well as managers of firms throughout the world, this book analyzes new and innovative networks through case examples from the Japanese automobile, chemical, and electronics industries. Strategic Networks offers you insight into the management of these company partnerships and how they work to increase the competitiveness of businesses and allow firms within the network to share important knowledge.Unknown to many, several of the management concepts that made Japanese companies successful in the 1980s, such as total quality control (TQC) and continuing improvement processes (CIP), were only a part of the formula for a successful business. This book discusses types of Japanese strategic networks, another element of Japan 's thriving business structure of today, how they are influenced by Japanese cultural values and state interventions, and why all of the businesses involved are benefiting from these networks.Evaluating the theoretical foundation of these business relationships and intercompany cooperation, Strategic Networks offers you up-to-date information on the structures of Japanese firms by: examining Karl Popper 's ideas on critical rationalism and how Japanese companies follow his theories of problem solving, questioning, and developing knowledgeexplaining the system, growth, and game theories in order to completely understand a network and all of its facetsexploring the ability to work with and navigate strategic networks when they are managed without strict plans or with unforeseen circumstancesrecognizing how networks enable the activation of interpreneurs to develop future visions, innovations, and responsible leadership for the networkComplete with illustrations to emphasize important points along with insight into networks in the twenty-first century, Strategic Networks offers information and research that will help you understand how Japanese networks operate and how Japanese firms are conducting business differently. As a result, you will learn how the changing values in Japanese society influence company structures and procedures and come to understand the unique workings and effective structures of strategic networks.

Multinational enterprises have played a crucial role in post-war international economic integration. They have promoted intra-firm trade, technology transfer and internal movements of capital and human resources. This book provides wide-ranging evidence on their role in globalizing the service sector - especially financial services - in establishing international networks of research and development and in developing trade and investment linkages in Asia. Particular attention is given to the participation of multinationals in management contracts and joint ventures and the significance of this for host country industrial policy. This book is designed to be of interest to students of business, management and finance, and economics.

Creative Technological Change draws upon a wide range of thinking from organisational theory, innovation studies and the sociology of technology. It explores the different ways in which these questions have been framed and answered, especially in relation to new 'virtual' technologies. The idea of metaphor is used to capture the differences between, and strengths and weaknesses of various ways of conceptualising the technology/organisation relationship. This approach offers the possibility of developing new ways of thinking about, viewing and ultimately responding creatively to the organisational challenges posed by technological change.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203019873

What is creative technological change? This text explores new ways of thinking and acting in relation to this question in contemporary organizations. It examines how technology shapes organizations and how organizations shape technology - especially "virtual" and other information and computing technologies. A wide range of thinking on these issues from organizational theory, political economy, evolutionary economics, feminist analysis, the sociology of technology and the "new socio-technical theory" is outlined. The idea of metaphor is deployed to capture the differences between, and strengths and weaknesses of, different ways of conceptualizing the technology/organization relationship. It is argued that this approach offers the possibility of developing new ways of thinking about, viewing and ultimately responding creatively to the organizational challenges posed by technological change. The book concludes by outlining a model of the process by which technology and organization are configured. Topics covered include: machine, biological and virtual ways of understanding technology and organization; the evolution of innovative organizational forms; the politics of consuming techno