Joint Industrial Councils: Inception, Adoption, and Utilization, 1917-1939 is a study of how a WWI proposal for "permanent improvement" in labor-management relations came about, why the target industries ignored it, and how it found a purpose in the second-tier industries, for which it was not originally intended. The press, social reformers, academics, and various business interests touted JICs as the beginning of worker control of industry, while skilled trade unions saw them as a plot to harm workers' interests. Their eventual modest use was directed to needs within individual industrial enterprises and not to more global missions, such as the remaking of British industry in general. But successful JICs undertook serious issues that management and unions needed to address, such as wage rates, retirement plans for workers, and safety-related concerns. Moreover, the level of labor-management understanding in JIC industries improved to the point that these industries suffered no strikes in the inter-war period; the conditions of employment for the workers improved; and productivity increased.

The large public corporations powering the U.S. economy--Churchill's Horses, in Bogie's metaphor--are underachievers, and all of us are paying the price. Why? The reasons are shrouded in the myths that these corporations use to mask their great power and disguise the interests it serves. "Myth" the shareholders who own a public corporation control it by electing the directors who govern it. "Anti-Myth" (fact): shareholders of a public corporation don't elect the directors, and the directors don't govern the corporation. Shareholders don't even own the corporation in any meaningful sense of the word. Yet Churchill's Horses spend billions propping up the current price of their shares rather than invest the money in their (and our) future prosperity. Using many voices from current and recent business literature, Bogie leads you through myths and anti-myths to understand how public corporations have lost focus and ignored their most important stakeholders. Few readers will emerge with all their assumptions and beliefs intact.

This book focuses on Indian manufacturing industries and analyses the impact of inward foreign direct investment on the domestic sector on the one hand, and exports and outward foreign direct investment by Indian companies on the other. Although the emphasis is mostly general, specific industries, such as the automotive industry or the wind energy sector are also explored. The differences between low and high technology industries are also addressed. In terms of theoretical setting and analysis, the book draws both from international business and industrial organization literature. The various characteristics of Indian industries, such as the determinants and impacts of R&D, the effects of spillovers, the drivers of productivity and technical efficiency are thoroughly researched employing appropriate quantitative methodologies that are relevant to the specific domain and topic under investigation. The book also focuses on the bearing of policy on promoting manufacturing industries in India and is therefore of interest to researchers, industrialists and policy makers alike.

Monetary incentives, as a driving force for human behavior, are the main theme of this book. The primary goals underlying the application of monetary incentive systems in companies are motivating employees to strive for superior productivity in line with the interests of employers, and hiring adequately skilled employees. The first goal refers to incentive effects, the latter to sorting effects. This book introduces important theories and concepts concerning behavior under influence of monetary incentives; it reviews existing economic frameworks and identifies specific contingency variables. Based on an integrative framework of elements influencing incentive and sorting effects, a laboratory experiment is presented including detailed methodological discussion on experimentation and data analysis as well as an extensive presentation of findings and discussion of implications.

This book examines the modules/elements required before implementing knowledge management solutions in typical manufacturing and service industry. The objective is to develop a framework, design and model suitable for all requirements and a strategy to properly implement. Related case studies from organizations are included, with the results provided to use as a solution to problems experienced when implementing knowledge management in the industry. Implementing a knowledge management system can be complex and dynamic, no matter how well planned and developed. Inevitably a degree of organizational inertia is focused on the current state rather than the new. Within an enterprise, personal and group involvement and interests process status and technology landscape can deflect the commitment needed to successfully implement such a system. Cumulative evidence from past research in knowledge management suggests that effective implementation of KM solution in any organization requires a robust designs and models for various critical elements of process, people and technology. Using the techniques provided in this book, readers should be able to design knowledge management strategies, to align objectives of the KM initiatives with their business goals.

The global food crises of 2008 and 2010 and the increased price volatility revolve around biofuels policies and their interaction with each other, farm policies and between countries. While a certain degree of research has been conducted on biofuel efficacy and logistics, there is currently no book on the market devoted to the economics of biofuel policies. The Economics of Biofuel Policies focuses on the role of biofuel policies in creating turmoil in the world grains and oilseed markets since 2006. This new volume is the first to put together theory and empirical evidence of how biofuel policies created a link between crop (food grains and oilseeds) and biofuel (ethanol and biodiesel) prices. This combined with biofuel policies role in affecting the link between biofuels and energy (gasoline, diesel and crude oil) prices will form the basis to show how alternative US, EU, and Brazilian biofuel policies have immense impacts on the level and volatility of food grain and oilseed prices.

The issues confronting the Securities and Exchange Commission, the courts, Congress, and securities and corporate lawyers regarding tender offers are examined in this timely collection of commentaries. New data is introduced on how to regulate tender offers and proxy contests for control of publicly held companies. In addition, the constitutional dimensions of state anti-takeover statutes, target managements's conduct in fending off hostile bidders, the SEC's advisory committee report of recommendations on tender offers and SEC tender offer rules are reviewed. Insider trading in the tender offer context and proposals for tender offer reform are also explored. Readers will learn what states are doing to regulate takeovers and what inside counsels should suggest when their firms become targets. They will also discover how target management's conduct is viewed and where further regulation will be most likely to occur.

The main objective of this book has been to carry out research into the definition of industrial policy and its goals; to evaluate previously-introduced policies and instruments; and to identify the future challenges for and features of a modern EU industrial policy. A modern industrial policy is seen as a non-traditional policy towards the industrial sector, based not necessarily on only the elimination of market failures (within the sectoral and/or horizontal approaches), but rather on the expanding the scope of industrial economic activities within the framework of both the pre- and post-fabrication stages. The book targets three market segments: academics; policy and decision-makers at the EU, national and regional level, as well as business practitioners. It includes a wide-ranging analysis of different spheres of industrial policies conducted within the European Union, making it of interest to an international audience. Each chapter also offers detailed and valuable comments, as well as conclusions that can be generally applied, ensuring the book's universality. The book presents the results of a research project conducted in the Collegium of World Economy at the Warsaw School of Economics.

Trade policy has played a vital role in the decline of European electronics business. The events that resulted in the disappearance of the European television industry, of a European and Japanese video recorder format and of other European consumer electronics are directly related to market structures in exporting countries and business practices. In this book, factual business data shows and economic models explain how restrictive trade practices result in elimination of efficient competitors in export markets. It deals with the memorable case how a videocassette recorder format was established by dumping and how politics enabled it. An innovative tariff increase for CD players was invalidated by heavy dumping, causing closure of production in Europe. European CTV industry succumbed under permanent dumping and a series of biases - as the interest of a state-owned company - and serious errors making trade instruments void and rules irreconcilable with international agreements. Practical and theoretical examples and explanations, some in detail, of trade rules are provided. The book sketches events - carelessness, prejudice or special interests, arbitrary and false application of trade instruments and fraud - resulting in disappearance of various European electronics business segments.

Technological advances have resulted in higher development of online businesses. As such, new entrepreneurs need to develop a different set of skills and strategies to be successful in the realm of digital business. Global Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation in the Sharing Economy is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly research on knowledge and skills essential to entrepreneurs for new business start-ups in the globalized and digital age. Featuring extensive coverage on a broad range of topics such as branding, social capital, and e-commerce, this publication is ideally designed for professionals, researchers, and academicians seeking current research on developing the right mindset, culture, and behaviors for business success in the digital age.

Helen Tsiganou's study explores the enormous diversity of worker participation schemes across national contexts. Using a historical comparative approach, worker participation schemes are examined in two major settings: the developed capitalist countries of the United States, Japan, Sweden, Norway, England, Germany, and France; and the centrally planned less developed socialist countries of Yugoslavia, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, China, and the Soviet Union. Tsiganou addresses the conditions under which participation schemes emerge and the reasons for similarities or differences among these schemes. She first studies the origins and history of schemes within a given national setting. She then draws on specific national experiences and makes cross national comparisons. This is not a systematic, detailed, country-by-country comparison but an explanation of the enormous diversity of worker participative schemes through comparative analysis. Part I of this volume examines the motives and goals behind various participatory schemes and their development and outcomes in the two distinct settings. The comparative logic and analytical framework of the book is laid out against a background of existing theoretical and analytical work. Meanings and definitions attached to worker participation, and their significance in denoting the dynamics of power within the workplace and society, are also covered. This section concludes with a discussion of the book's major assumptions. Part II deals with the diversity of workers participation schemes in several developed countries--countries with advanced industry and democratic pluralist political systems. Part III discusses schemes in several centrally planned socialist societies; and their efforts through reforms to correct their weaknesses. The final section summarizes the findings of the study and explores issues that emerge as cross-national and cross-sectional comparisons are made.

The book presents a coherent description of distributed manufacturing, providing a solid base for further research on the subject as well as smart implementations in companies. It provides a guide for those researching and working in a range of fields, such as smart manufacturing, cloud computing, RFID tracking, distributed automation, cyber physical production and global design anywhere, manufacture anywhere solutions. Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing anticipates future advances in the fields of embedded systems, the Internet of Things and cyber physical systems, outlining how adopting these innovations could rapidly bring about improvements in key performance indicators, which could in turn generate competition pressure by rendering successful business models obsolete. In laying the groundwork for powerful theoretical models, high standards for the homogeneity and soundness of the suggested setups are applied. The book especially elaborates on the upcoming competition in online manufacturing operations and respective control procedures. By outlining encapsulation and evolving decision-making principles, Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing fully conceptualizes the view of manufacturing networks as sets of loosely coupled interacting smart factory objects. Moreover, the book provides concrete approaches to a number of future fields, where distributed manufacturing might be applied. Both researchers and professionals will profit from the authors' broad experience in Distributed Manufacturing and Fractal Enterprise implementations, where they initiated and completed a number of successful research projects: within the global Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) scheme, within the European Research Area frameworks as well as national contexts, and both in industry and at leading research institutions. This background ensures well-founded theory on one hand and valuable practical results on the other in a fascinating area that is still under intensive research. Readers will acquire essential insights as well as useful guidance for categorizing and specifying extended distributed manufacturing solutions and their professional implementations.

Enhancing inter-firm networks and interorganizational strategies, is part of the Research in Management Consulting series.

This book examines the relationship between regulation and market integration, with a special focus on China. It pursues a Law and Economics and Comparative Law approach (China and EU) to analyze the current obstacles to market integration and domestic economic growth in China. Topics covered at the national level include competition law, public procurement rules and financial regulation. At the regional and local level, this book addresses questions related to administrative monopolies, self-regulation, legal services markets, and environmental law.

This proceedings volume presents new methods and applications in applied economic research with an emphasis on advances in panel data analysis. Featuring papers presented at the 2017 International Conference on Applied Economics (ICOAE) held at Coventry University, this volume provides current research on econometric panel data methodologies as they are applied in microeconomics, macroeconomics, financial economics and agricultural economics. International Conference on Applied Economics (ICOAE) is an annual conference that started in 2008 designed to bring together economists from different fields of applied economic research in order to share methods and ideas. Applied economics is a rapidly growing field of economics that combines economic theory with econometrics to analyse economic problems of the real world usually with economic policy interest. In addition, there is growing interest in the field for panel data estimation methods, tests and techniques. This volume makes a contribution in the field of applied economic research in this area. Featuring country specific studies, this book will be of interest to academics, students, researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in applied economics and economic policy.

Business intelligence has always been considered an essential ingredient for success. However, it is not until recently that the technology has enabled organizations to generate and deploy intelligence for global competition. These technologies can be leveraged to create the intelligent enterprises of the 21st century that will not only provide excellent and customized services to their customers, but will also create business efficiency for building relationships with suppliers and other business partners on a long term basis. Creating such intelligent enterprises requires the understanding and integration of diverse enterprise components into cohesive intelligent systems. Anticipating that future enterprises need to become intelligent, Intelligent Enterprises of the 21st Century brings together the experiences and knowledge from many parts of the world to provide a compendium of high quality theoretical and applied concepts, methodologies, and techniques that help diffuse knowledge and skills required to create and manage intelligent enterprises of the 21st century for gaining sustainable competitive advantage in a global environment. This book is a comprehensive compilation of the state of the art vision and thought processes needed to design and manage globally competitive business organizations.

This book gives a systematic exposition of China's logistics development to the English-reading community. The ultimate goal of the book is to present a timely portrayal of China's logistics market growth and the evolution status of China's logistics industry. Being the fourth volume of the "Contemporary Logistics in China", the book strives to offer in-depth analysis on some hot issues and dilemmas amid the on going dynamic and multi-faceted development and also a source of reference for interested readers in academic and professional fields.

Buck shines a new light on China's transition to capitalism by focusing on and analyzing the development of networks between the urban and rural factories that have produced the regional economy of greater Shanghai. These networks have incorporated millions of villagers into the national and the global economy. By getting inside these networks and watching as their restructuring unfolds, Buck reveals hidden aspects of major changes: China's transition from centralized planning to market economy, the transformation of Shanghai from industrial to financial center, and a wave of privatization that has swept away the last vestiges of socialism.

This book accomplishes an analysis of critical aspects of managerial implications on the business with information. The business dealing with information is spreading in the service market; and, an efficient management of informational processes, in order to perform successful business with them, is now crucial. Besides, economical/business, technological or any other kind of information, organized in a variety of forms, can be considered as an 'informational product'. Thus, creating a business value out of information is challenging but vital, especially in the modern digital age. Accordingly, the book covers the methods and technologies to capture, integrate, analyze, mine, interpret and visualize information out of distributed data, which in turn can help to manage information competently. This volume explores the challenges being faced and opportunities to look out for in this research area, while discussing different aspects of this subject. The book will be of interest to those working in or are interested in joining interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work in the areas of information management, service management, and service business. It will also be of use to young generation researchers by giving them an overview on different aspects of doing business with information. While introducing them to both technical and non-technical details, as well as economic aspects, the book will also be extremely informative for professionals who want to understand and realize the potential of using the cutting-edge managerial technologies for doing successful business with information/ services.

Based on over twenty years of experience, the author of this practical guide provides the executive with a comprehensive discussion of the issues and tools involved in the location or relocation of a business operation. A company's search for the ideal site is one of the most important managerial functions. The firm may need to expand for the development of new products, new markets, or additional production capacity. In some cases, a new location may be needed to house newly developed production equipment or to obtain higher efficiency and reduced operating costs. Other reasons include security, lower labor cost, and access to raw materials. Whatever the reason, a well-defined plan and detailed analysis program will aid and simplify the process.

The author walks the reader through each stage in the process, from planning the move, organizing and administering the search, and selecting the general area to evaluating a specific community and site and assembling a final report. The book provides helpful tables and survey samples, making it easier to utilize the information effectively. Besides executives involved in the process, economic development specialists and students will find the book useful.

This book assesses Chinese acquisitions in developed countries, evaluates the drivers and opportunities and, above all, explores the major operational challenges. It discusses topics such as cross-cultural issues, integration strategies, risk and resilience, the influence of emerging technologies, servitization, impacts on reshoring, corporate social responsibility, branding strategies, knowledge management, and transfer of best practices. While emerging market multinational corporations' (EMNCs) use of mergers and acquisitions as a strategic vehicle has received considerable attention, much less is known about their post-entry activities, such as the implementation of post-acquisition and integration strategies. It can be expected that, compared with their Western counterparts, EMNCs will face radically different challenges that may undermine the success of their products, brands and marketing. Addressing these issues by means of a case study approach, this book is an ideal teaching resource for a variety of courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. It also appeals to academics, researchers, and practitioners with a keen interest in manufacturing industry.

The theoretical basis of commercial law, corporate governance law, and corporate law is still unsatisfactory. There essentially is no theory of commercial law, and existing theories of corporate governance and corporate law cannot explain the behaviour of firms or the contents of existing regulation. This book proposes a coordinated solution for all three areas. The starting point is that all three areas deal with the organisation of firms. Commercial law, corporate governance, and corporate law are therefore studied from the perspective of the firm rather than that of the judge or the investor. Changing the perspective makes it easier to formulate an "umbrella" theory of commercial law, and theories of corporate governance and corporate law as applications of the main theory. The book provides examples of how the proposed theories work by studying legal corporate governance tools and practices that increase the sustainability of the firm. Sustainability can be bolstered by making the governance model more self-enforcing and ensuring that it fosters innovation.

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.

This book describes the importance of integration and clustering in creating sustainable economic growth. Modern economic conditions demonstrate the need for governmental stimulation of cluster initiatives in entrepreneurship, and make it necessary to study the experience of developed countries in the sphere of stimulation of cluster initiatives in entrepreneurship, and to offer recommendations for improving the system of state stimulation of these initiatives. The authors conclude that at present, innovational economy is an economic system that functions on the basis of business networks, as this model offers innovational cooperation between specialists from various scientific and technical spheres, between organizations of various sizes (large, medium, and small), and between groups of various types of companies. Cluster strategy in modern global practice is one of the most important tools of public policy for increasing the competitiveness of national economies. This means that the most competitive spheres develop on the basis of the cluster principle, and support for cluster building increases a country's economic competitiveness.