When this book was first published in 1990, there were massive economic changes in the East and significant economic challenges to the West. This critical analysis of democratic theory discusses the principles and forces that push both socialist and capitalist economies toward a common ground of workplace democratization. This book is a comprehensive approach to the theory and practice of the "Democratic firm" - from philosophical first principles to legal theory and finally to some of the details of financial structure. The argument for economic democracy supports private property, free markets and entrepreneurship for instance, but fundamentally it replaces the employer/employee relationship with democratic membership in the firm. For students, teachers, policy makers and others interested in the application of democracy to the workplace, this book will serve as a manifesto and a standard reference on the topic.

This insightful book analyzes the development of cross-border and cross-sector partnerships in a number of European cities and regions. Including, amongst others, Copenhagen, Budapest, Helsinki, Munich and Catalonia, these case studies shed light on the factors determining the success or failure of the coalition-forming process. Over the course of the nine case studies, the following questions are addressed: - What forms of metropolitan and/or regional partnerships can be found? -

This book addresses the issue of intangibles' contribution to growth at macroeconomic and microeconomic levels. It provides a review of a set of new approaches to innovation growth. It also considers the issue of how to invest in intangibles, especially with regard to the market failure issue. The book focusses on three major themes: First it provides a better understanding of how intangibles contribute to economic growth and value creation. In a second part it presents emerging practices as well as examples of market failure, analyzing managerial practices in relationship to market imperfections. Finally the book links the value of intangibles with innovation and the performance of firms."

Tourist visits used to be a less common activity in the past. However, more people than ever now make leisure trips, making this an era of mass tourism. This drastic change in spatial behaviour is not only caused by economic prosperity, but the scale of this phenomenon means that it is able to generate economic growth, making tourism a key factor in regional development policy. One of the main challenges of current regional policy is to market the attractiveness of an area, thereby increasing tourist visits and subsequent revenue. In particular, regions are attempting this through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which offer information on interesting places, and efficient methods for organizing and booking trips. This book examines the interconnections between tourism, ICT and regional development. Bringing together a range of European case studies illustrating various ICT and policy innovations, it not only critiques current activity by regions in terms of tourism development, but also considers how this sector is likely to continue to grow.

This innovative book offers a critical perspective on the state of the current global economy, making sense of knowledge-related issues by critically assessing existing institutional choices, as well as pointing to new ways forward. The pioneering chapters reposition knowledge in a number of economic debates including regional development, property rights, social enterprises, corporate governance, the management of universities, and the role of creative activities. They explore the possibility of an institutional dynamism that impacts not only on the characteristics of localities and their place in a hierarchical and ordered system of relationships, but on the nature of the system itself. Conclusions point at the individual and collective dimensions of the knowledge discovery process, suggesting a renewed approach to the assessment of economic choices. This insightful book offers an original perspective on knowledge-related issues and constitutes a valuable read for academics and postgraduate students in international business and economic competitiveness, as well practitioners and policymakers who are interested in alternative analyses and methods for economic development.

The contributors to this text aim to promote the understanding of the contemporary world economy by confronting the challenges that have to be faced in elaborating new tools of analysis. The text presents inquiries into the contemporary world economy, namely: the economic success of East Asia; political and organizational restructuring in Western, industrial countries; and the post-communist transformation process in former centrally planned economies.

In today's global knowledge economy, competition for the best and brightest workers has intensified. Highly skilled workers are an asset to companies, knowledge institutions, cities, and regions as they contribute to knowledge creation, innovation, and economic growth and development. Skilled migrants cross, and many times straddle, international borders to pursue professional opportunities. These spatial relocations provide opportunities and challenges for migrants and the cities and regions they inhabit. How have international skilled migratory flows been formed, sustained, and transformed over multiple spaces and scales? How have these processes affected cities and regions? And how have multiple stakeholders responded to these processes? The contributors to this book bring together perspectives from economic, social, urban, and population geography in order to address these questions from a myriad of angles. Empirical case studies from different regions illuminate the multiscaled processes of international skilled migration. In particular, the contributions rethink skilled migration theories and provide insights into: the experiences of highly skilled labor migrants and international students; issues related to transnational activities and return migration; and policy implications for both immigrant source and destination countries. It also charts a future research agenda for international skilled migration research. Rethinking International Skilled Migration provides a comparative perspective on the experiences of skilled migrants across the local, regional, national, and/or global scale, paying particular attention to spatial and place-based dimensions of international skilled migration. It will be of interest to scholars and professionals in international migration, regional and national development policymakers, international businesses, and NGOs.

Impact of liberalization on informality has been a subject of intense debate for many years and the major issue that has come up is whether liberalization helps to grow informal sector and informality in the economy or it is an obstruction for informal sector's growth. Thus, in the light of the recent liberalization measure, this book sets to examine general presumptions of the development of informal sector in the context of the Indian economy. The book begins with a broad framework for analysis of output contribution and growth of the informal sector. Liberalization is measured by openness indices and inter-sectoral linkages. Impact of liberalization on growth contributions of informal sector is captured by openness indices (i.e. degree of openness to trade and principal component scores), technical efficiency (measured by Data Envelope Analysis and estimated by Tobit Censored Regression model) and components of productivity (computed by Malmquist total factor productivity index) of the informal enterprises by inter-sectoral linkages. The linkages are modeled theoretically in a neo-classical growth theory and empirically measured by sub-contracting arrangements between formal and informal enterprises. In addition, the book also provides implications on promotion of informal sector from the viewpoint of employment generation. The description and analyses of the book will help with policy implications and enlighten the readers on the development of informal sector.

Productivity, Technology and Economic Growth presents a selection of recent research advances on long term economic growth. While the contributions stem from both economic history, macro- and microeconomics and the economics of innovation, all papers depart from a common viewpoint: the key factor behind long term growth is productivity, and the latter is primarily driven by technological change. Most contributions show implicitly or explicitly that technological change is at least partly dependent on growth itself. Furthermore, technology appears to interact strongly with investment in physical and human capital as well as with changes in historical, political and institutional settings. Together these papers are an up-to-date account of the remarkable convergence in theoretical and empirical work on productivity and growth over the past decades. The first part deals with the characteristics of growth regimes over longer periods, ranging from 20 years to two centuries. The next four chapters study the determinants of productivity growth and, in some cases, productivity slowdown during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The final five chapters focus on the role of technology and innovation as the key determinants of growth. Productivity, Technology and Economic Growth is, therefore, a welcome collection for academic scholars and graduate students in economics, history and related social sciences as well as for policy makers.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive analysis of US Federal Antitrust and EC Competition Law. It is encyclopaedic in coverage: examining every constituent element of the law and landmark decisions from the perspectives of economics and policy goals, explaining their implications for commercial operations and advocating policy reforms where necessary.

Bringing together theoretical, empirical and comparative perspectives on the European Social Model (ESM) and transitional labour market policy, this volume contains theoretical accounts of the ESM and a discussion of policy implications for European social and employment policies that derive from research on transitional labour markets. It provides an economic as well as legal assessment of the European Employment Strategy and contains evaluations of new forms of governance both in European and member state policies, including discussions of the potential and limits of soft law instruments. Country studies of labour market reforms in Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France assess their contribution to an emerging ESM, while comparative accounts of the ESM examine mobility and security patterns in Europe and beyond and evaluate recent 'flexicurity' policies from a global perspective.

The digital transition of the world economy is now entering a phase of broad and deep societal impact. While there is one overall transition, there are many different sectorial transformations, from health and legal services to tax reports and taxi rides, as well as a rising number of transversal trends and policy issues, from widespread precarious employment and privacy concerns to market monopoly and cybercrime. This Research Handbook offers a rich and interdisciplinary synthesis of some of the recent research on the digital transformations currently underway. This comprehensive volume contains chapters covering sectorial and transversal analyses, all of which are specially commissioned and include cutting-edge research. The contributions featured are global, spanning four continents and seven different countries, as well as interdisciplinary, including experts in economics, sociology, law, finance, urban planning and innovation management. The digital transformations discussed are fertile ground for researchers, as established laws and regulations, organizational structures, business models, value networks and workflow routines are contested and displaced by newer alternatives. This book will be equally pertinent to three constituencies: academic researchers and graduate students, practitioners in various industrial and service sectors and policy makers. Contributors include: D. Arnold, A. Asquer, R.W. Campbell, M.A. Cherry, K.K. Courtney, A. DuVernet, M. Foth, S. Friesike, D. Gifford, A. Hudson-Smith, E. Jardine, P. Jeffrey, F. Khan, J.H. King, I. Krachkovskaya, K.E. Kushida, D. Lupton, J.M. Newman, F.X. Ollero, S. Onnee, L. Osborn, M. Pilkington, W. Poster, S. Renault, N. Richards, A. Schmitz, D.I.C. Thomson, S. Vezzoso, J.l. West, M. Zhegu, D. Zillmann

From its formation in 1944, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was one of the most powerful and important players on the British political and industrial stage. Whilst the nation relied upon coal for its electricity production, domestic heating and railway transportation, the miners and their unions would always play a central role in national politics with the ability to cause massive disruption to the nation, should they decide to strike, as they did in 1972 and 1974. However, as the country began to move towards other forms of energy, such as oil and gas, the power of the mineworkers correspondingly decreased, leaving the once mighty union to come to terms with a very different world by the early eighties. The NUM and British Politics makes use of union material and party and government archives as well as oral testimony, much of it highly confidential, to present the first overall account of the evolving nature of the tripartite relationship between the miners, the NUM and the state.

Economic Models for Industrial Organization focuses on the specification and estimation of econometric models for research in industrial organization. In recent decades, empirical work in industrial organization has moved towards dynamic and equilibrium models, involving econometric methods which have features distinct from those used in other areas of applied economics. These lecture notes, aimed for a first or second-year PhD course, motivate and explain these econometric methods, starting from simple models and building to models with the complexity observed in typical research papers. The covered topics include discrete-choice demand analysis, models of dynamic behavior and dynamic games, multiple equilibria in entry games and partial identification, and auction models.

The acid test of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is simply this: does it lead to positive impacts on society and the environment or is it just rhetoric? And if it does lead to positive impacts, how can these be enhanced? This timely book tackles this cutting-edge challenge by presenting empirical findings from a range of surveys and in-depth case studies. These build on a new methodological and theoretical framework for assessing and explaining the sustainability impact of CSR.For selected sustainability issues - mitigation of climate change and chemical risk, resource management in marine fisheries, promotion of gender equality and countering of bribery - and within different European industries, the authors show that the rhetoric of CSR is still stronger than its reality. They do so by investigating into CSR practices which encompass the creation of a vision on CSR, its strategic and operative implementation and its organisational and cultural embedding within companies and their supply chains. The authors conclude that the reality of CSR is strong enough to allow for some rhetoric. They name intra- and extra-company success factors for, and limits of, producing sustainability impacts through CSR. Finally, they discuss its contribution to achieving public policy goals and the governance paradigms that are necessary to make CSR effective. The volume successfully combines a business and public policy perspective, based on an interdisciplinary approach. This book will be invaluable for both students and researchers interested in the effects of CSR, and will prove a useful tool for policy-makers and CSR practitioners alike.

Understanding and Managing IT Outsourcing explains and illustrates how uncertainty and trust interact with each other, and how an understanding of this interaction is critical to success in IT outsourcing. A partnership approach that is built on trust can be the determinant of success but this book explains in which particular outsourcing context this approach is likely to pay dividends.

Socially Responsible Outsourcing is an edited collection that focus on the topic of socially responsible outsourcing (SRO) including research frameworks, rich case studies, and an SRO agenda for the future.

From uncovering major retailers' links to sweatshop abuses and revealing the deception of American tobacco companies, to questioning corporations' ties to repressive dictators, shaming food processors into selling dolphin-safe tuna and demanding that businesses stop destroying old growth forests, citizens have become far more aggressive in directly challenging corporate behavior. Written by two activists who are constantly in the eye of this storm, Insurrection charts the growth of this dissatisfaction and gives us a glimpse of where this movement might be heading.

Accomplishing sustainability in the agribusiness sector is a significant, yet time-sensitive, challenge, especially when balanced with the need to grow sufficient quantity and quality of food to keep the growing global population healthy. Through both quantitative and qualitative methods, this book explores the extent to which the agribusiness sector is already evolving to become sustainable and the ways in which innovation in the industry can help address sustainable development goals, particularly around zero hunger, gender equality, decent work, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. The contributors to this volume address the following key questions: What are the drivers and barriers for the agribusiness sector to become sustainable? Which business models best facilitate the implementation of sustainable goals? How can we measure the extent to which the agribusiness sector is becoming more sustainable? How can the agribusiness sector leverage recent technological advancements to achieve its sustainability goals? The analysis of the sustainability challenges for the sector ranges across various facets of the industry including employment, pre-production industries, agriculture, food processing, distribution, and trade. This book will be of significant interest to readers in agribusiness, innovation management, and sustainability.

There are three stages to outsourcing: The first occurred at the dawn of industrial era in the 19th century, where mass production for consumption by many, became the norm and simple domestic means could not meet such demands. With the cost of labor soaring in developed countries, manufacturing of products started moving to countries like China to take advantage of labor arbitrage in the 1900s. This is the second stage of outsourcing. This book addresses issues and challenges in the third stage of outsourcing whose focus is on movement of services at electronic speed, utilizing the Internet platform.The book includes short essay questions, multiple choice questions, mini-cases at the end of most chapters and glossary of terms. It can also serve as a good reference book for practitioners.

Donald Stabile places current concerns over the commercialization of academia in a historical context by describing the long-standing question of the extent to which market economics can and should be applied to higher education. The debate between Plato and Aristotle on one side and sophists on the other provides a foundation for the modern debate of endowment versus tuition models. The author tackles the intellectual discourse over the mission of higher education and the effect markets and competition might have on it. The discussion encompasses the ideas on higher education of leading economic thinkers such as Adam Smith, Jeremy Benthan, John Stuart Mill, Alfred Marshall, Thorstein Veblen and John K. Galbraith and identifies them as supporters of either sophism or virtue. Included, too, are the thoughts of educators and policymakers influenced by free market ideas, such as Benjamin Rush, Francis Wayland and Charles W. Eliot, as well as those opposed to them. In addition, the author explores the development of collegiate business schools in the US and how they were justified on the basis of virtue. The book concludes with a section on for-profit colleges and their relationship to sophism. This fascinating study of the centuries-old intellectual debate over the mission of academia will appeal to all those involved with higher education. Historians of economic thought will find the influence of economic ideas on this debate of great interest.

The debate on the free movement of labour within the EU has gained new momentum in the wake of the economic crisis. Building on the earlier Ashgate publication EU Labour Migration Since Enlargement, the editors have assembled a team of experts from across Europe to shed light on the critical issues raised by internal labour mobility within the EU in the context of economic crisis and labour market pressures. The book's chapters tease out the links between economic developments, regulatory frameworks and migration patterns in different European countries. A central focus is on issues of skills and skills mismatch and how they relate to migration forms, duration and individual decisions to stay or return. Based on detailed analysis of European and national-level sources, the results presented clearly contradict assumptions about a "knowledge driven migration". Rather, over-qualification and the corresponding underutilisation of migrant workers' skills emerge as a pervasive phenomenon. At the same time the characteristics of migrants - not just skills, but socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes - and also their labour market integration are shown to be very diverse and to vary substantially between different sending and receiving countries. This calls for a differentiated analysis and raises complex issues for policymakers. Examples where policy has contributed to positive outcomes for both migrants and domestic workforces are identified. Unique in analysing labour migration flows within the European Union in a comparative manner putting skills into the centre and taking account of the effects of the economic crisis, while addressing policy concerns this is a valuable resource for academics, policymakers and practitioners alike.

The concept of smart cities has become one of the most significant new lines of thinking to emerge in the social sciences in recent years, both from the research and policy angles. To date, the focus in smart specialization has been on what regions as a whole can do to bring about innovation, but it hasn't necessarily addressed the role cities play within the field. This book aims to address that gap, drawing together a team of leading contributors, to illustrate this process with particular focus on cities. Smart Development in Smart Communities discusses the cross-fertilization between smart specialization and cities in fostering smart development and its interactions with the macro-, micro- and meso-economic framework, from both a theoretical and applied perspective. Specific topics covered by the book include: human capital formation and utilization; centralized/decentralized industrial policies; innovation policies; collective learning; and the role of public utilities in sustaining smart development processes. This book tackles some of the most important questions that must be faced when investigating how structural change and innovation processes are shaping local and global economic development. It will be of interest to academics and researchers in the area of Development Economics, Urban Studies and Public Management.

Now in its third edition, Cost-Benefit Analysis has been updated, offering readers the perfect introduction to project, programme and policy appraisal using basic tools of financial and economic analysis. The key economic questions of any social cost-benefit analysis are: do the benefits of the project or policy exceed the costs, no matter how widely costs and benefits are spread, and irrespective of whether or not project impacts, such as environmental effects, are reflected in market prices? And which group or groups of individuals receive the benefits and which bear the costs? This book addresses these questions with an emphasis on putting the theory presented in the book into practice. This third edition has several attractive features: Readers are encouraged to develop their own skills by applying the tools and techniques of cost-benefit analysis to case studies and examples, including an analysis of a project which is developed throughout the book. The book emphasizes the use of spreadsheets which are invaluable in providing a framework for the cost-benefit analysis. A dedicated chapter provides guidance for writing up a report which summarises the analysis which has been undertaken. New pedagogical features, including Technical Notes and Examples, have been added as an aid to readers throughout the text. An appendix provides 14 additional case studies which can be developed in class or as assignment projects. Additional material for instructors and students is provided through Support Material maintained by Routledge. This updated edition is an ideal text for a course on cost-benefit analysis where the emphasis is on practical application of principles and equipping students to conduct appraisals. It is also a useful handbook for professionals looking for a logical framework in which to undertake their cost-benefit analysis work.

What are the challenges and action points for agricultural sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa? This open access collection of papers offers technical analyses, policy recommendations and an overview of success stories to date. Each carefully selected paper provides valuable insights for improved policy making and defines relevant strategic priorities on Africa's sustainable transformation process, which is in line with the international development agenda. Although agriculture remains the main source of income for Africa's population, the sector is rain-fed subjecting it to the vagaries of weather and climate change. This volume demonstrates the rationale of developing a competitive, inclusive and sustainable agribusiness sector for Africa's food security and structural transformation. From the impact of Bioenergy crop adoption and Drought Index Insurance to Agro-Industrialization, this volume is important reading for individual researchers, academic associations and professional bodies interested in African agricultural development.