This book examines how businesses manage their labour systems, and particularly how they manage the complex interaction of factors which give rise to instances of 'partnership' style relations between businesses and their employees. The book draws from the literature concerning 'Varieties of Capitalism' (VoC) and the different institutional and regulatory designs inherent in different types of political economy. The book is informed by a new and extensive set of empirical data from Australia that examines the activities of national and multinational business corporations, their outlooks and relationships with stakeholders, and relates these to new and evolving theoretical frameworks based in political economy and law. The book places the Australian regulatory model within this international debate, and assesses the extent to which the system does or does not fit into the general categorisation created in the VoC literature.

This research review is a unique resource for those seeking a historical overview of the development of corporate governance. The papers trace the evolution of US corporate governance from the time when the subject became prominent in the 1970s to the present day. Topics canvassed include the board of directors, executive pay, shareholder activism and the regulatory structure that shapes corporate governance in the US. The primary focus is on the governance challenges posed by the separation of ownership and control, a hallmark of larger US public companies.

Research in Health Economics has developed into a separate discipline during the last 25 years. All this intense research activity has come about through the teaching of courses on health economics, mostly at graduate level. However, the Industrial Organization aspects of the health care market do not occupy a central place in those courses. We propose a textbook of health economics whose distinguishing feature is the analysis of the health care market from an Industrial Organization perspective. This textbook will provide teachers and students with a reference to study the market structure aspects of the health care sector.

The book is structured in three parts. The first part will present the basic principles of economics. It will bring all readers to the required level of knowledge to follow subsequent parts. Part II will review the main concepts of health economics. The third part will contain the core of the book. It will present the industrial organization analysis of the health care market, based on our own research.

Written by eminent scholars who are well known within their fields across Europe, this book explores changes in the international economic environment, their impacts on the strategy of firms and the spatial consequences of these changes in strategy. The economic environment in which major companies operate is subject to rapid and important changes. Such changes have their impact on the strategy of major and even smaller companies and changes in these firm's strategies often have important implications for the location choice of their activities, be it production, outsourcing, R&D or administrative activities. Addressing these issues in a clear yet rigorous manner, this book is an excellent resource for students and researchers working and studying in the areas of international business, corporations, business strategy, economic geography and business geography.

Stability of the electricity industry is crucial for economic growth of all nations. Sustainable economic growth cannot be accomplished without secured energy supply. The book underlines how management of the electricity industry should be conducted and the efficient form of electricity market structure. The book also studies the electricity industry in Korea which has been a strongly supportive and vital factor in the economic development of Korea for the last few decades. The book focuses on the three market players of the electricity market and they are the suppliers, consumers and the government-related organizations. It includes detailed information on generation and finances at the generator level and analyzes the efficiency differences among generators, plants and business units by using different performance measurement methods. It identifies and analyzes different production factors' effectiveness and relationships in generation. The comprehensive analysis helps to provide explanations in the differences in the performance of the studied units. The book also discusses the implications of the findings for future resource allocation and how we can further enhance the efficiency of the industry. The book will appeal to those interested in energy and energy policies, as well as researchers and practitioners in the economic development and electricity and utilities industry.

This book explores the relationship between space and economy, the spatial expressions of the knowledge economy. The capitalist industrial economy produced its own space, which differed radically from its predecessor agrarian and mercantile economies. If a new knowledge-based economy is emerging, it is similarly expected to produce its own space to suit the new circumstances of production and consumption. If these spatial expressions do exist, even if in incomplete and partial forms, they are likely to be the model for the future of cities.

First published in 1990, this work examines the link between the economic performance of companies and profit sharing. The relationship is a complex one: industrial relations may be improved by schemes, but good employers are likely to introduce profit sharing in any case; and though attitudes to work do change, schemes have more immediate impact on satisfaction an communications than on productivity and effort put into work.

The last Asian financial crisis, coupled with the western series of corporate scandals, has caused investors and citizens to doubt mangers' ability to guarantee credible financial information about organizations. Consequently, legislators all over the world have come to realise the necessity of legislating in the area of corporate governance. This book explores several national corporate governance reform experiences from around the world (including Canada, China, the United States, and the European Union) and offers an explanatory theory with regard to national systems of corporate governance. It also underlines corporate governance as a management tool and principle. The author argues that each country should be encouraged to build its own system of corporate governance which should be harmonized with its history, culture and the level of its economic development.

Focusing on the design and implementation of computer-based automatic machine tools, David F. Noble challenges the idea that technology has a life of its own. Technology has been both a convenient scapegoat and a universal solution, serving to disarm critics, divert attention, depoliticize debate, and dismiss discussion of the fundamental antagonisms and inequalities that continue to beset America. This provocative study of the postwar automation of the American metal-working industry--the heart of a modern industrial economy--explains how dominant institutions like the great corporations, the universities, and the military, along with the ideology of modern engineering shape, the development of technology. Noble shows how the system of "numerical control," perfected at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and put into general industrial use, was chosen over competing systems for reasons other than the technical and economic superiority typically advanced by its promoters. Numerical control took shape at an MIT laboratory rather than in a manufacturing setting, and a market for the new technology was created, not by cost-minded producers, but instead by the U. S. Air Force. Competing methods, equally promising, were rejected because they left control of production in the hands of skilled workers, rather than in those of management or programmers. Noble demonstrates that engineering design is influenced by political, economic, managerial, and sociological considerations, while the deployment of equipment--illustrated by a detailed case history of a large General Electric plant in Massachusetts--can become entangled with such matters as labor classification, shop organization, managerial responsibility, and patterns of authority. In its examination of technology as a human, social process, "Forces of Production" is a path-breaking contribution to the understanding of this phenomenon in American society.

"This is a story about stories and specifically about some of the stories that Americans have told themselves about corporate economic power." In this book, Anne Mayhew focuses on the stories surrounding the creation of Standard Oil and Wal-Mart and their founders , John D. Rockefeller and Sam Walton, combining the accounts of economists with the somewhat darker pictures painted by writers of fiction to tease out the overarching narratives associated with American big business. Mayhew argues that the diverse views about big business and its effects of welfare can be reconciled and better policies derived from a somewhat unlikely combination of ideas from the business world and from those who have dissented from the most widely accepted story told by economists. This book draws on the work of Chandler, Coase and Williamson, as well as Marx and Veblen's discussion of supply chains to address some of the major social and economics problems of the twenty-first century.

Design is central to every service or good produced, sold and consumed. Manufacturing and service companies located in high cost locations increasingly find it difficult to compete with producers located in countries such as India and China. Companies in high-cost locations either have to shift production abroad or create competitive advantage through design, innovation, brand and the geographic distribution of tasks rather than price. Design Economies and the Changing World Economy provides the first comprehensive account of the relationship between innovation, design, corporate competitiveness and place. Design economies are explored through an analysis of corporate strategies, the relationship between product and designer, copying and imitation including nefarious learning, design and competitiveness, and design-centred regional policies. The design process plays a critical role in corporate competitiveness as it functions at the intersection between production and consumption and the interface between consumer behaviour and the development and design of products. This book focuses on firms, individuals, as well as national policy, drawing attention to the development of corporate and nation based design strategies that are intended to enhance competitive advantage. Increasingly products are designed in one location and made in another. This separation of design from the place of production highlights the continued development of the international division of labour as tasks are distributed in different places, but blended together to produce design-intensive branded products. This book provides a distinctive analysis of the ways in which companies located in developed market economies compete on the basis of design, brand and the geographic distribution of tasks. The text contains case studies of major manufacturing and service companies and will be of valuable interest to students and researchers interested in Geography, Economics and Planning.

First published in 1985, this study is a comparative examination of industrialisation and industrial policy from the early 1960s to the early 1980s in the five original member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN): namely Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. The work provides an integrated overview of industrial policies and performance in the five countries and forms essential reading for both those with a specialist interest in the ASEAN countries and their economic performance, and for students of industrialisation in developing countries the world over.

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing amount of research on knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and innovation. This book brings together current thinking on this subject from geographic and territorial perspectives. Researchers from across Europe and North America present contributions from a wide range of disciplinary approaches including management studies, innovation studies and geography. They explore areas such as innovation related cooperation between KIBS firms and their industrial partners, how KIBS firms mediate business knowledge and the impact that KIBS make in local, regional and international contexts. The book offers a timely exploration of the role played by the geographic and institutional environment in the processes that link KIBS, innovation and territory across different contexts.

In large cities in developed countries, the share of manufacturing has declined drastically in the last decades and the share of service has grown as many manufacturing firms have closed or moved to lower-cost locations. The process of deindustrialization is often seen as part of the inevitable shift towards a knowledge based economy and urban economies come to rely on research and development, financial services, tourism and the creative industries. This book looks at the changing link between manufacturing and knowledge-based activities in urban regions. The authors develop a new framework drawing on insights from organization studies and regional economic literature looking at various international case studies in Western and Eastern Europe, South America and Asia.

This book focuses on three main areas, each of which is central to economic theorising: firms' organisation and behaviour, technological change and the process of globalisation. Each subject can be analysed by using different methods, which range from purely theoretical abstractions to case studies and from econometrics to simulations. What this collection provides is a broad view of the three topics by concentrating on different aspects of each of them, and utilising different methods of investigation.

Internationalization, Technological Change and the Theory of the Firm looks in detail at various questions surrounding firms' organisation, including why we can observe ordered paths of production, whether proximity between firms matters, and whether patenting is always worthwhile. In addition, several essays explore technology and innovation, including the persistence-cum-development of old technologies. Furthermore, this book focuses on those processes which concern small- and medium-sized firms, considering the usefulness of stage theory, the possibilities of production off-shoring and the skill composition of manufacturing firms.

Overall, the book is characterised by original ideas, renewed applications of mathematical and statistical methods and the use of new databases. This valuable collection will be of interest to postgraduates and researchers focusing on innovation, theories of the firm and globalisation; and should also be useful to a professional readership as it presents up-to-date research with the aim of improving our understanding of the phenomena of technological change, firms' strategies, and globalisation.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the dynamics underpinning the successful performance of local innovation systems (LIS), that is, spatial concentration of innovation activities in specific geographical areas, characterized by the synergetic co-localization of research centers, innovation-driven enterprises, large corporations and capital providers. The reader will gain a deeper knowledge of LIS theory and learn about the theoretical and empirical challenges of studying the LIS from a relational perspective. The book also provides an analytical framework to explore the level of connectivity among LIS actors through the use of social network analysis (network architecture) and second, to assess the variety of different types of relationships that local actors put in place to produce innovation within the LIS (network portfolio). More specifically, this book explores which network configuration is associated with a successful LIS by deriving evidence from the empirical study of the biopharma LIS in the Greater Boston Area (GBA), which has been exemplified as a benchmark case in terms of successful LIS performance. This book also contributes to the theoretical debate about the optimal configuration of network structure (e.g. network closure vs. network openness). In capturing the heterogeneous nature of the LIS demography, it addresses the challenges brought about by the adoption of a holistic approach. Finally, the study provides insights into the network portfolio composition, which has been underexplored by extant literature. Besides addressing the scientific community in the field, this book will also be a valuable resource with practical implications for policymakers and those actors willing to undertake an active role in the development of an LIS in their own regions.

Following the restructuring process which swept away the traditional manufacturing economy of the inner city 25 years ago, new industries are transforming these former post-industrial landscapes. These creative, technology-intensive industries include Internet services, computer graphics and imaging, and video game production. The development dynamics of these new sectors are volatile in comparison with those of the classic 'Industrial City'. But these new industries highlight the unique role of the inner city in facilitating creative processes, innovation and social change. Further, they reflect the intensity of interaction between the 'global' and the 'local' in the metropolis, and represent key agencies of urban place-making and re-imaging.

This book addresses the critical intersections between process and place which underpin the formation of creative enterprises in the emergent industrial districts of the 'new inner city'. It contains intensive case studies of industrial restructuring within exemplary sites in prominent world cities such as London, Singapore, San Francisco and Vancouver. The studies demonstrate the global reach of development and innovation across these cities and sites, marked by clustering, rapid firm turnover, and interdependency between production and consumption activity. The evocative case studies, brought to life by interviews, sequential mapping exercises, media narratives, and photography, also disclose the importance of local factors (including urban scale, built form, property markets and policy) which shape both the specific industrial structures and socio-economic impacts.

The New Economy of the Inner City places inner city new industry formation within the development history of the city, and underscores its role in larger processes of urban transformation. The findings inform a critique and synthesis of urban theory which frame the evolving conditions of the 21st century metropolis. This book would be useful to researchers and students of Geography, Urban Studies, Economics and Planning.

This text is the first major survey of risk analysis from the perspective of the agricultural firms since Agricultural Decision Analysis by Anderson, Dillon, and Hardaker published in 1977. In addition to updating the traditional material from that text, this book includes the statistical foundations of decision making under risk and uncertainty. Adding to the material covered in Anderson, Dillon, and Hardaker, the text includes material on dynamic decision rules, the arbitrage pricing model, real options theory, and state-contingent production relationships. Risk, Uncertainty, and the Agricultural Firm provides a unique discussion of each application - developing the theoretical basis for each model and presenting an empirical roadmap (or the "nuts and bolts") of each model to facilitate the empirical application of each technique.

Intellectual property rights have become increasingly important for our modern economies in recent years. Although the entire patent system has a profound effect on the decision of firms of whether to conduct research and at which volume, patent law is the heart of the entire patent system. Therefore, this book focuses on the economic effects of certain provisions in patent law by using economic models dedicated to patent policy.

The first part of the book presents a brief overview over the history of patent systems and introduces the main components of modern patent systems. A short introduction of the principal provisions of US patent law constitutes the centre of the subsequent analysis as it serves as a link between law and economics. The second part presents core economic models for central provisions, collecting the most fundamental results in a national framework in the field of literature. Part three is concerned with selected provisions of patent law in an international framework. It provides valuable insights into the situation of developing countries which are the chief recipients of technology transfers.

Patent Policy will be of interest to researchers interested in the field of modelling patent policy. It can be also used as supplementary text in courses in Industrial Organization, Innovation Economics and Law and Economics.

"Modern" integrated value chains need not necessarily exclude the smallest producers as this book aims to explain in detail by case studies. The issue is particularly topical in India, where modern retailing has come to the scene only recently and the majority of whose population are still small farmers and artisans. Following a brief introduction to the problem, 14 case studies from India are presented to illustrate how it is being solved in practice. The book also discusses the impact of organized retailing on small-scale traders, and finally analyses the case studies for an overview, with conclusions and learnings drawn from them. Inclusive Value Chains shows by practical examples that it is possible to link the smallest producers of fresh produce, commodities and handicrafts profitably, to modern integrated markets, within the country of origin as well as abroad.

This original new book offers a comprehensive and engaging perspective on the theory of vertical differentiation. It enables the reader to grasp the key concepts and effects that product quality has both on firms' behaviour and market structure, and the ways in which this relationship has evolved. With contributions from prominent figures in the field, the book investigates a number of important topics, such as the choice of the optimal product range, profit sharing, the existence of equilibrium in duopoly games, positional effects attached to status goods, international trade, collusion, advertising and the dynamics of capital accumulation for quality improvement and product innovation. Using both static and dynamic approaches, these aspects are assessed in relation to the manifold issues of regulation, competition policy and trade policy. Product differentiation and its influence on consumer behaviour and the performance of firms is a core topic in the existing literature in the fields of industrial organization, international trade and economic growth. This book will be an essential read for researchers, students and professional scholars working in these areas, especially those with an interest in antitrust regulation.

"How to Start a Home-Based Jewelry Making Business" is for creative, talented women who want to turn their passion for beautiful jewelry into a profitable sideline or full-time business. Selling and making jewelry is one of the more high-margin craft businesses and with the right approach to sales and a stylish look, one can develop a devoted following. In addition to the essentials common to the series, this book also includes information on pricing jewelry, setting up a Web site, and how to get celebrity attention.

This book disputes the traditional argument that the equal inheritance system hinders the growth of Chinese family business, approaching this not only in terms of economic capital, but also in terms of human capital such as education and leadership, and social networks.

Zheng argues that most of the family business patriarchs only focus on the passing on economic capital, but give little attention to human capital and social capital when the come to the stage to transfer control to the next level. It further elaborates that the equal inheritance system itself isn't the destructive force that weakens family business competitiveness, but can assist economic development by generating dynamism and capital.

Based on extensive primary research, the work discusses how equal division encourages sibling comparison, analysing how such comparisons initially generate stress and anxiety but will ultimately galvanize competition, benefiting the business. The author also assesses how family division can offer initial economic human and social capitals that can motivate siblings to start their own businesses and be free from the subjugation sometimes associated with a family firm. Through the evaluation of these issues the book argues that the equal inheritance system can be regarded as the origin of the self-employment mentality, which not only fosters the growth of Chinese family business by plays crucial role in promoting economic development.

Providing a valuable contribution to the field, this work will be of great interest to all scholars of Chinese and Asian business.

Not until 1997 did a female become chief executive officer of a Fortune 500 corporation (Jill Barad, at Mattel Toy Co. Women's progress since that time has been in fits and starts, exceedingly slow. The number of women CEOs reached 4 in 1999 only to slide back to 2 in 2001. Meanwhile, while not reaching anything approaching parity, women made significant strides in politics (as senators, cabinet secretaries and governors), in not-for-profit spheres (as CEOs of health care and hospital organizations or of United Way chapters, with budgets of billions of dollars), and at colleges and universities (23 % have female presidents or chancellors). Currently, 3%, or 15, of Fortune 500 CEOs are women.

After examining in detail the educations, career progressions, pronouncements and observations, as well as family lives, of the 19 women who have risen to the top (sitting and former CEOs), this book asks, and attempts to answer, two questions:

Why haven?t more women reached the CEO suite?How might women in business better position themselves to ascend to the pinnacle?

From the author of The Little Black Book of Innovation, a new guide for using the power of habit to build a culture of innovation Leaders have experimented with open innovation programs, corporate accelerators, venture capital arms, skunkworks, and innovation contests. They've trekked to Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, and Tel Aviv to learn from today's hottest, most successful tech companies. Yet most would admit they've failed to create truly innovative cultures. There's a better way. And it all starts with the power of habit. In Eat, Sleep, Innovate, innovation expert Scott Anthony and his impressive team of coauthors use groundbreaking research in behavioral science to provide a first-of-its-kind playbook for empowering individuals and teams to be their most curious and creative&#8212every single day. Throughout the book, the authors reveal a collection of BEANs&#8212behavior enablers, artifacts, and nudges&#8212they've collected from workplaces across the globe that will unleash the natural innovator inside everyone. In addition to case studies of "normal organizations doing extraordinary things," they provide readers with the tools to create their own hacks and habits, which they can then use to build and sustain their own models of a culture of innovation. Fun, lively, and utterly unique, Eat, Sleep, Innovate is the book you need to make innovation a natural and habitual act within your team or organization.