This is the second book celebrating Brian Loasby's contribution to economics by an internationally renowned group of authors including Mark Casson, G.B. Richardson, Nicolai Foss, Keith Pavitt, Martin Fransman and Richard Day. It extends Brian Loasby's work in the area of the theory of the firm and related methodological issues. This book is mainly concerned with the theory of the firm, a subject central to much of Brian Loasby's work. The authors begin by considering the existence and nature of firms and their internal and external relations, paying special attention to the themes of coordination and communication costs in a world of surprise and change. The discussion then moves on to the way in which firms use and create knowledge and capabilities, referring to questions of organization, with some detailed empirical investigation of high technology industries. The final part focuses on methodological issues including rationality, knowledge, incommensurability and equilibrium, in the context of different traditions. This book will be welcomed by microeconomists especially those interested in the theory of the firm and methodology.

World Statistics on Mining and Utilities 2020 provides a unique biennial overview of the role of mining and utility activities in the world economy. This extensive resource from UNIDO provides detailed time series data on the level, structure and growth of international mining and utility activities by country and sector. Country level data is clearly presented on the number of establishments, employment and output of activities such as coal, iron ore and crude petroleum mining as well as the production and supply of electricity, natural gas and water.This unique and comprehensive source of information meets the growing demand of data users who require detailed and reliable statistical information on the primary industry and energy producing sectors. The publication provides internationally comparable data for economic researchers, development strategists and business communities who influence the policy of industrial development and its environmental sustainability.

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.

Institutionalist analysis is increasingly used as a key research tool for economists confronted with the shortcomings of mainstream economic analysis and the problems presented by the transformation of socio-economic systems in Eastern Europe. On Economic Institutions brings together leading economists working in a wide range of research traditions who examine theories of institutions and institutional change. This important volume shows that the failure of most neoclassical economic analysis to consider economic institutions is a major shortcoming in scholarship which seeks to describe and understand crucial economic phenomena. After discussing the dynamics of institutional change, the contributors examine the explanatory variables necessary for researching institutions and pay particular attention to 'efficiency' as the key variable used by neoclassical institutional analysis. Later chapters examine the processes of institutional change focusing on issues such as path dependency, selection mechanisms and institutional dynamics, and methodological issues in analysing economic institutions. An introduction by the editors places these papers in context and traces the development of economic research across the various schools. Economists from both neoclassical and institutionalist schools, as well as economic historians, are making increasing use of institutionalist analysis as a key research tool. In bringing together cutting-edge theory and research on economic institutions, this important volume will be welcomed by scholars working in evolutionary and institutionalist research traditions, as well as by organizational theorists and sociologists.

At a time when there is growing concern in many countries over the funding of expanding public sectors, this important new book brings together leading specialists in public finance to re-examine the economics of public sector growth. Several chapters document changes in the size of the public sector over recent decades for major OECD and Third World economies. Subsequent chapters then explore prominent explanations including public choice perspectives, bureaucracy models, relative price effects and Wagner's Law, and assess their contribution to current knowledge. The book also provides a number of new case studies of specific government activities - education, health and social security.

This superb text defines and describes modern industrial policy. For many years economists, politicians, and policymakers have worried over inward-looking and damaging industrial policies, associating them with poor economic performance and arrested industrial development. At last we have a book which identifies and analyses new forms of modern industrial policy which work effectively and are able to overcome the problems of the past. The book is replete with concrete examples and new conceptual developments, showing how modern industrial policy is able to initiate, upgrade, and transform economic activity for the benefit of all. The evidence is used to provide a new theory of industrial policy, distinguishing modern industrial policy from the practices of the past - leaving no room for doubt as to how policymakers should proceed in the twenty-first century. Essential reading for policymakers, analysts, scholars, teachers, and consultants concerned with industrial policy and modern economic development.' - Mike Hobday, University of Brighton, UK'Jesus Felipe is to be congratulated for assembling a first-rate group of authors to address one of the most important policy issues of our time. Their main contention is that, to succeed, latecomer developing countries need a 'modern industrial policy'. Aware of the pitfalls, they provide empirical evidence in support of their arguments. The country studies are particularly interesting. A stimulating volume that deserves to be read, including by the skeptics.' - Hal Hill, Australian National University Development and Modern Industrial Policy in Practice provides an up-to-date analysis of industrial policy. Modern industrial policy refers to the set of actions and strategies used to favor the more dynamic sectors of the economy. A key aspect of modern industrial policy is embedding private initiative in a framework of public action to encourage diversification, upgrading, and technological dynamism to achieve development in the twenty-first century. The book reviews key questions that policymakers ask about industrial policy, such as: who selects sectors; what is the rationale for sector selection; what are the main tools to promote sectors?, what is the role of human capital; and what are the mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation? Expert contributors discuss how to undertake industrial policy effectively and examine the experiences of Australia, the EU, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, and the US. Policymakers, multilateral development institutions, and scholars will find the discussions on industrial policy, structural transformation, economic diversification and upgrading, and capabilities to be useful and practical. Contributors: F. Block, J.-M. Chang, K. Farla, J. Felipe, F. Guadagno, C.A. Hidalgo, M.R. Keller, M.H. Khan, K. Lee, J.Y. Lin, C. Long, W.F. Mitchell, C. Rhee, T. Siew Yean, B. Verspagen, Y. Wang, X. Zhang

Companies outsource today to reduce cost, increase flexibility, and focus on core competence. Outsourcing is not a fad, but strategic lever organizations utilize to meet their planned objectives. Outsourcing led transformations have become a mechanism for generating economies of scale, specialization, and standardization. Let's face it most outsourcing initiatives fail to deliver the expected value. The wisdom isn't a secret - the companies succeeding in this journey invested in building the right competencies, proper governance, and support structures to manage these initiatives. The Customer Centric Service Competency framework introduced in this book essentially brings forwards the service orientation and integrates outsourcing successfully with the usual business of an IT organization. The service framework encompasses thirty key competencies that can be implemented over the duration of outsourcing initiative. Implementation the services framework will also bring together skills in areas of program management, service management, vendor management, and relationship management. This book is sweeping and perhaps innovative -- for it introduces an integrated view of core services and process centric competencies to succeed with outsourcing. It also brings forward a matured competency based method to managing vendor relationships -- more art than science. The information contained in this book, when applied in context of your organization, will emerge several areas of efficiencies you may benefit by implementing. This book can be a compelling choice of reference for IT service providers, researchers, students, and IT management - CIO, Vice President, Directors, Program Managers, Project and Delivery Managers, Specialists, Architects, Developers, Testers, Infrastructure personnel etc.. It can be a: -Choice of reference for anyone interested in learning about IT outsourcing industry. -Guide IT and outsourcing professionals to simplify application of outsourcing in

Against the backdrop of Enron and the other high-profile cases of corporate malfeasance, it is easy to paint today's executives as villains and blame big business, and corporations generally, for a wide array of social ills. Is the criticism warranted? Not quite, says Evan Osborne, as he traces the history of anti-corporate sentiment and assesses the fever-pitch hatred, by some, of all things corporate. While not perfect angels, Osborne argues, corporations confer many more benefits to society than ills. Moreover, they are an essential engine of human progress, and longstanding legal principles are more than adequate to address their flaws. And that makes the rising tide of anti-corporate sentiment dangerous. Why? Look at the facts: Large corporations inspire both awe and fear. On the one hand, they create jobs, introduce scientific and technological breakthroughs, open up borders through trade, and provide indispensable products and services that make life easier. On the other hand, many think they undermine the will of the people, encourage bribery and corruption, finance oppressive regimes, ruin values and culture, befoul the environment, and encourage economic inequality. It was no accident that the terrorists of September 11 targeted the World Trade Center, an iconic symbol of American financial power. In this provocative book, Evan Osborne pulls back the curtain to illuminate how corporations have evolved as an essential element of society, and how opposition to them has developed out of proportion--a fire fanned by anti-business activists, the media, and other groups. He sets the record straight, explaining how corporations work, how they have evolved in the context of otherinstitutions, the net benefits they provide--and how to deal with their undeniable imperfections. At the same time, he shows how anti-business claims have become more strident and where these arguments fail to stand up to scrutiny. Osborne also investigates: *Corporate influence over politics and the government. *Corporate influence in the media. *Corporate influence through marketing. *The pros and cons of globalization. *The extent to which business has responded to public demands for social responsibility, and the extent to which free commerce improves society even without such pressure. The result is a fascinating, provocative commentary on our love-hate relationship with business.

In recent years there has been an enormous amount of research into the way companies raise finance from stock markets. There are many reasons for this interest in 'initial public offerings' (IPOs). "Going Public" is the first book to investigate the issues in a non-technical manner, drawing upon international evidence from private sector companies and privatizations. Building on the success of the first edition, this second edition of "Going Public" has been comprehensively revised and updated throughout.

Using theories and methods from the toolbox of Comparative Public Policy and Comparative Political Economy, Thomas Krumm's excellent book is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of public-private partnerships in a cross-country perspective.' - Karsten Mause, University of Muenster, Germany'Why have some countries in Western Europe heavily relied on public-private partnerships between 1990 and 2009 while others have abstained from using this policy instrument? In his important study, Thomas Krumm provides an encompassing and detailed overview of PPP activities, in no less than 14 West European EU member states, that so far has not been available. Using a mixed-methods research design, the author convincingly shows that political and economic factors explain the diverse PPP trajectories in Western Europe.' - Reimut Zohlnhoefer, University of Heidelberg, Germany This comprehensive book provides a unique comparative policy analysis of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in 14 Western European countries - from Scandinavia to Greece - bringing together important insights from government and politics as well as economics and institutional analysis. Thomas Krumm focuses on political drivers for policy change in favour of PPPs, and the supportive and limiting socioeconomic and institutional conditions. Using comparative data, he charts key policies and actors involved in supporting collaboration between the State and private business organisations across Western Europe. Students and scholars of public policy, regulation and comparative politics, among other disciplines, will find this book to be useful in their research or teaching. It will also be of substantial interest to PPP practitioners, and other specialists in the subject.

This comprehensive single volume includes seminal articles written by eminent scholars that study the role of standards in the competitive process, the diffusion of standards throughout industry and the role of the public sector in support of standards development. With an original introduction by the editor, this volume is an excellent source of reference and provides an invaluable foundation for students and researchers interested in standards.

In the last two decades, multinational companies (MNCs) and global union federations (GUFs) have started to negotiate so-called global framework agreements (GFAs) which define minimum standards for labor conditions across their locations. This book focuses on the question why companies conclude GFAs, and identifies four groups of incentives: reduction and privatization of conflicts; public relations; promotion of equal competitive conditions; exogenous requirements and avoidance of public regulation. Based on an in-depth analysis of incentives considered to play a dominant role in the decision of companies to conclude GFAs, the book attempts to predict under which conditions GFAs can be expected to proliferate in the future.

This book explores current thinking on corporate governance by way of an empirical examination of the governance practices of fourteen Japanese companies. The analysis is structured around four principal themes, namely the role of shareholders, the role of the main bank, the role of employees, and the role of senior management in the governance of these companies. The book suggests that a system of reciprocal responsibilities, obligations, and trust within and between companies acts as an important means by which most Japanese companies are governed.

"Start Your Own Screen-Printing Business" provides the mentorship for both beginning and experienced entrepreneurs to obtain a solid step-by-step education on how to silk screen, sell the finished products, utilize available resources, and purchase the best equipment.

In conjunction with their family's company, Joan and Anthony Mongiello have relied on their more than twenty years of experience to help more than six thousand people launch and successfully operate their own T-shirt print shops. Together, the Mongiellos show you how much fun and easy it is to print T-shirts and make money doing it. The Mongiellos leave no stone unturned as their professional guidance teaches: Profit expectations from immediate to long-range Sales and marketing techniques specifically tailored for a silk-screening business Basic materials needed The ins and outs of the printing process Procedures on burning a silk screen and obtaining artwork Uses of the leading types of inks

Silk-screening has quickly become a multi-billion-dollar industry in the past few years. Potential business owners will appreciate the expert leadership provided by the Mongiellos as they gain extensive knowledge about the silk-screening business and the lucrative opportunities it offers

Theo S. Eicher and Thomas Strobel present an industry-level account of the recent changes in German productivity growth and compare the trends to Europe and the US. The specific focus is on how differential investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) affected the economic performance of these economies. Not all industrialized countries shared the economic fortunes that ICT presented to the US economy. While the US experienced successive accelerations in its trend growth in 1995 and again in 2000, Germany experienced dual reductions in labor productivity growth. Some European economies fared better and others even worse than Germany. Since productivity is the ultimate determinant of living standards, the authors examine the sources of these productivity differentials. They also present a new German growth accounting database that utilizes unique ICT investment data, sourced directly from the industries, to place their findings into an international context. This book is targeted at economists and policymakers alike, and is designed to provide clear guidance for those interested in industrial policy and statistical account methods.

This book seeks to examine the relationship between corporate law rules and economic performance. Contributors examine the design of the two main systems of corporate governance to ascertain which bundle of rules is likely to support the emergence of a strong system of governance. They seek to show that the performance of companies is linked to different patterns of shareholding, legal rules, and non-legal relationships.

This book employs an interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral lens to explore the collaborative dynamics that are currently disrupting, re-creating and transforming the production and consumption of tourism. House swapping, ridesharing, voluntourism, couchsurfing, dinner hosting, social enterprise and similar phenomena are among these collective innovations in tourism that are shaking the very bedrock of an industrial system that has been traditionally sustained along commercial value chains. To date there has been very little investigation of these trends, which have been inspired by, amongst other things, de-industrialization processes and post-capitalist forms of production and consumption, postmaterialism, the rise of the third sector and collaborative governance. Addressing that gap, this book explores the character, depth and breadth of these disruptions, the creative opportunities for tourism that are emerging from them, and how governments are responding to these new challenges. In doing so, the book provides both theoretical and practical insights into the future of tourism in a world that is, paradoxically, becoming both increasingly collaborative and individualized.

The presence of transaction costs greatly modifies the traditional picture of the allocation of resources through the market. It gives rise to many phenomena inexplicable in the simple market view and to problems of government policy. Oliver Williamson has been a leading figure in this analysis. His interpretations of corporate governance and of the complementarity between internal controls and the market have been the most profound in the literature. It is good that his leading essays are now available in collected form.' - Kenneth J. Arrow, Stanford University, US'Oliver Williamson's contributions to economics are certainly among the most important of the past several decades, and their importance will be increasingly recognized as economists come to grips with all that he has accomplished. This collection provides an unparalleled view of those contributions, and it belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who wants to understand complex economic transactions.' - David Kreps, Stanford University, US 'This book provides a terrific opportunity to have a collection of Oliver Williamson's best papers on transaction cost economics all in one convenient volume.' - Paul L. Joskow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and MIT 'Williamson's work on transaction cost economics has shaped the thinking of all social scientists about organizations and institutions. This volume reprints many of his seminal papers on the subject, and is valuable both as commemoration and for reference.' - Avinash Dixit, Princeton University, US Transaction cost economics has and continues to be a fruitful area of research. There is still much to be done in the field with past research being used in conjunction with the vast number of contractual phenomena that have yet to be investigated in transaction cost economics terms. New challenges are posed by the need to move beyond the design of new contractual instruments (such as financial derivatives) to include an examination of the lurking hazards that attend contract implementation. This important collection brings together Professor Williamson's key papers on transaction cost economics. It will be of benefit to academics, scholars and practitioners with an interest in this progressive subject.

Recent years have seen a lively debate over the role of tacit knowledge and interactive learning in privileging the local over the global. Yet, our continuing inability to answer questions such as 'when and why is the local important in production and innovation processes?' indicates that our understanding of the firm and the forces that shape its managers' choices remains weak. Such a theory ought to be able to answer fundamental questions like: why do firms in particular places adopt particular production and innovation practices, and not others? What forces determine what a firm 'knows' and when it is able to act upon this knowledge? How easy is it to transfer this knowledge between places? This book presents a new conception of industrial practice and firm behaviour. It explains how the cultures that shape the practices of firms and the trajectories of regional and national economies are actually produced. The analysis shows how the internal and inter-firm organization of production, use of technologies, and the industrial knowledge underpinning these practices are strongly influenced by their social and institutional context. Routine forms of behaviour are not simply inherited from past practice. Instead, they are shaped and constrained - though not wholly determined - by a set of institutions that govern how work is organized, workers are deployed, and technology is implemented. Because of the slowly evolving nature of these institutions, distinctive national 'models' are not converging around a single global norm.

This comprehensive guide to all the essential legal and business considerations in financing the business activities of the modern corporation. Readers are provided with a clear and concise introduction to the legal and contractual framework that governs the major capital raising transactions in which a firm might be involved, with a particular emphasis upon the federal and state securities laws. An indispensable resource for consummating any private investment transaction, public offering, or commerical loan transaction, as well as dealing with disclosure requirements, the structuring of underwriting arrangements, and complying with public company responsibilities. Intended for entrepreneurs and managers at firms of all sizes.

This monograph provides theoretical and practical perspectives on competency management as a key resource for producing competitive products. The authors develop and substantiate a law of dependence between competencies and emergence of new markets, and describe the practical aspects of developing competencies in high-tech companies. Further, they develop economic and mathematical models for managing the competitive advantages of a company based on competencies. Using these models, they present a method for evaluating and ranking core competencies, as well as for multi-criteria ratings of human potential efficiency. The book also discusses the mechanisms of competitiveness management based on a conceptual model of a competence center network.