In recent years, auctions have become an important field and many markets have designed new and sophisticated auction models to assign different types of items. The prime goal of this book is to set an organized classification of the main auction mechanisms in a way that readers can understand the importance of auction design and the advantages and drawbacks of each model. Given the relevance of the subject, there is a great volume of research about this topic. Nevertheless, most of these contributions use complex mathematical language difficult to understand for the average reader. In this book, the authors summarize the main ideas of the auction theory and explain them with simple language and plenty of examples. This book is a good starting point for any researcher interested in embracing the auction design as it also includes numerous real-world examples to engage the reader in the topic. "This book fills an important gap by making the main ideas and findings of auction research accessible." Professor Paul Milgrom, Department of Economics, Stanford University.

Game theory explores situations in which agents interact strategically and provides a useful foundation for studying many traditional industrial organization topics. This approach has also enabled the emergence of new areas of enquiry including law and economics, networks, the digital economy, auctions, experimental game theory and many others. This second volume of the Handbook includes original contributions by experts in the field. It provides up-to-date surveys of the most relevant applications of game theory to industrial organization. The book covers both classical and industrial organization topics such as mergers in markets with homogeneous and differentiated goods, leniency and coordinated effects in cartels and mergers, static and dynamic contests, consumer search and product safety, strategic delegation, platforms and network effects, auctions, environmental and resource economics, intellectual property, healthcare, corruption, experimental industrial organization, and empirical models of research and development. Authoritative and engaging, this unique Handbook will be an indispensable resource for all serious academics, researchers and students of industrial economics and game theory. Contributors incude: S. Anderson, A. Barge-Gil, P. Belleflamme, J. Brandts, R. Burguet, L. Corchon, A. Daughety, N. Fabra, R. Fauli-Oller, J.-J. Ganuza, M.l. Gonzalez Maestre, A. Hernando-Veciana, M. Hoffmann, E. Huergo, M. Kopel, L. Lambertini, A. Lopez, M. Marini, C. Marvao, E. Maskin, J.G. Montalvo, L. Moreno, M. Motta, P. Olivella, M. Peitz, M. Pezzino, M. Polo, J. Potters, J. Reinganum, R. Renault, G. Rota Preziosi, J. Sandonis, M. Serena, G. Spagnolo

This authoritative volume focuses on the rise of modern firms, from their early history to the present day. It considers the role of laws and contracts in shaping the growth and influence of business enterprises. It presents entrepreneurs, executives and the firms they controlled as driving actors in national economies and international growth. Alongside an original introduction the editors have selected work by scholars who have used corporate archives to explore the fine details of how firms actually operated. It also includes work by those who have been influenced by evolutionary, transaction-cost and resource-based theories of the firm. The book will be an essential source of reference for economic historians as well as industrial economists.

This book is the result of a two-year interdisciplinary research programme named PRISM (Policy making, Reporting and measuring, Intangibles, Skills development and Management), financed by the European Commission and aimed both at understanding better how these assets are created and developed and what the policy implications of their growing importance in economies are. The book focuses on the policy issues raised by the increasing importance of intangible assets in a country's growth and competitiveness. The main idea is that the value of intangible assets, which is imperfectly captured by current economic indicators and imperfectly formalized in economic theory, lies in their being the cumulative elements that keep the economy together - the glue of the system. This argument leads to the focus on networks and social capital as drivers of the development of intangible assets and is illustrated by the case of EU innovation and knowledge diffusion policy.

This title was first published in 2000: The central aim of the Common Agricultural Policy is to support the incomes of farmers, yet reliable information on the overall incomes of farmers and their households is scarce. In general, farmers in the EU are not a low-income or poor sector of society and much of the present CAP income support goes to those that are relatively well-off. This book, the 3rd edition to address these issues, has been updated and expanded to include: updated coverage of statistics and references; the major changes in methodology of income measurement flowing from the 1995 revision of the European System of Accounts; a critical examination of wealth and balance sheets for the agricultural industry as currently calculated; incorporation of material from Japan and countries in Central and Eastern Europe that are candidates for EU membership.

This title was first published in 2002: Anthony Bende-Nabende focuses on the ongoing globalization process, which has sparked an unprecedented world-wide debate. He provides a one-stop centre for a balanced coverage of the theoretical, empirical and policy issues linking globalization with foreign direct investment, regional economic integration, and economic growth and sustainable development. This stimulating book comprehensively explores the theoretical and empirical literature inter-linking the aforementioned factors from the anti-globalization activists' viewpoint, and from the pro-globalization proponents' perspective. It proposes policies that individual countries should pursue, based on the recognition that globalization generates both positive and negative effects. These comprise policies required to maximise the economic benefits globalization may generate, and those that aim to eliminate or at least minimize the negative development-oriented effects globalization may engender and, hence, to propel sustainable development. The book will be an essential guide for students, academics and those involved in international economics, environmental studies, international relations, and growth and development studies.

Examining the UK's manufacturing sector, this book features contributions from specialists in business, management, economics, organizational behaviour and economic geography. Subjects covered include: the nature of change in the management of manufacturing organizations; the significance of manufacturing in the mature economies of the 21st century; the impact of Japanese companies and methods; the implications of de-industrialization; comparative analysis of British, Japanese and American electronics manufacturers; the regional political economy of manufacturing; the changing nature of buyer-supplier relations; and the prospects for manufacturing renewal in the UK. Detailed and topical, this book should be of interest to business students, researchers and public policy makers.

Series Information:
Routledge Studies in Organizations and Networks

First published in 1998, this organizational and professional socialization of trainee chartered accountants reports the findings of an ICAEW funded research project which explored the training and socialization of trainee accountants in two Big Six firms in the UK. The background to the research, particularly the under-researched nature of the socialization of accountants, is outlined. The research issues are located within the institutional context of the accounting profession in the UK and the academic literature on the professions and professional socialization. The main research findings reported concern. The main research findings reported concern the development of trainees' understandings of their professional indentity; the role of formal processes and informal norms within socialization; the relationship of professional identity to notions of client service, firm identity, divisionalization, and career success.

It is widely recognized that Britains economic growth has slowed drastically since the end of the Second World War. The 1950s are often seen as the significant decade in this respect, when a strong government could have checked economic decline in its earliest stages. However, in 1964 Labour alleged that the Conservative government had sorely failed to do just this and had led the nation through thirteen wasted years. Many commentators have agreed with this, yet until now such views have been subject to little serious empirical scrutiny. This text responds to the need for a full assessment of the Conservatives performance in this period. Drawing upon a range of archival sources, Nick Tiratsoo and Jim Tomlinson explore the different aspects of the efficiency question. Beginning with the major issue of attempts in the 1950s to Americanize British industry, the authors also discuss Conservative policy on competition, education and training, investment and research and development. This research reveals that the Conservatives were informed about each of these issues, yet shrank from effective reform. They were, rather, reduced to inertia by ideological dilemmas, internal party antagoni

Examining the UK's manufacturing sector, this book features contributions from specialists in business, management, economics, organizational behaviour and economic geography. Subjects covered include: the nature of change in the management of manufacturing organizations; the significance of manufacturing in the mature economies of the 21st century; the impact of Japanese companies and methods; the implications of de-industrialization; comparative analysis of British, Japanese and American electronics manufacturers; the regional political economy of manufacturing; the changing nature of buyer-supplier relations; and the prospects for manufacturing renewal in the UK. Detailed and topical, this book should be of interest to business students, researchers and public policy makers.

This text offers a fresh perspective on the rise of large-scale companies in Victorian England, by locating their origins in political and social practice. It seeks to challenge the division between the state and the market that has informed regulatory theory and policy. Th e study is divided into three sections, each on a different facet of "joint-stock politics". The first section surveys the East India Company and the Bank of England, two political institutions which needed to adjust to tendencies in the 19th century to view companies as more properly part of the market. The second aprt locates England's early joint-stock banks in the voluntarist and regionalist political culture of the 1830s, then traces their departure from these origins through the end of the century. The final section argues that Victorian railways, in shielding themselves from state intervention, neglected their public relations with creditors, customers and workers,and suffered economically as a result.

The ultimate resource for improvement and planning! This treasure trove of information gives you expert direction for helping your organization and its employees improve performance. Unlike most resources on organizational improvement that consider only the micro- (individual) and macro- (organization) levels, this guide incorporates the mega- (customer/client) level in planning success.

Among the many leading contributors to this volume are:
• Dale M. Brethower
• Diane Dormant
• Judith Hale
• Roger Kaufman
• Danny G. Langdon
• Bette Madson
• Ann W. Parkman
• Sivasailam "Thiagi" Thiagarajan
• Odin Westgaard
• Jack Zigon . . . and many more!

You'll learn vital performance improvement steps including:
• Defining objectives and ensuring that they are useful
• Determining what results to achieve
• Designing and implementing interventions, programs, and activities that will achieve results
• Planning appropriate evaluation efforts . . . and much more!

• --The Origins and Critical Attributes of Human Performance Technology
• Research and Development Origins of Performance Systems
• Social Responsibility
• --A Strategic-Planning Framework: Mega Planning
• Preparing Performance Indicators and Objectives
• Needs-Assessment Basics
• Business-Unit Performance Analysis and Development
• Organizational Mapping
• Job-Task Analysis
• --The Hierarchy of Interventions
• Applications of Total Quality Concepts to Organizational Effectiveness
• Developing Front-line Employees: A New Challenge for Achieving Organizational Effectiveness
• Job Aids
• Recruitment and Turnover
• Accountability for Staff Turnover
• Performance Management
• Program Management: Its Relationship to the Project
• Rewards and Performance Incentives
• Developing Test and Assessment Items
• Quality Management/Continuous Improvement
• Performance Appraisal

G.B. Richardson is often thought of as the 'founding father' of the theory of the firm or market. His work has given insights into issues and debates such as markets versus hierarchies, price stability, the economics of information and the concept of competition based uopn differentiated firms. Drawn from a recent colloquium held in his honour, the papers in this volume tie in with the themes central in G.B. Richardson's work, addressing their significance, their relationship to the work of other economists and their potential for further development. The first few chapters cover themes related to the comparative neglect of Richardson's work, such as the links with a Marshallian school and the connection with Austrian thinking. Later chapters go on to discuss modern thinking on the theory of the firm, connections between economic and management approaches, as well as applications of the "Richardson model" on collaborative arrangements, the growth of the firm and innovation policy. Crucially, the book also includes a recent essay by G.B. Richardson himself, which shows the continuing development of his ideas. This collection aims to encourage further development of Richardson's them

Economic restructuring in Eastern Europe has added a new universe of firms to the pool of cases for study of managerial effectiveness. Yet, in the ideologically charged atmosphere of post-communist transitions, analysis of the functioning of East European firms is sometimes clouded by preoccupation with privatization issues -- whether ownership is held by banks, a state or public agency, foreign investors, or inside or outside shareholders. This volume focuses on the performance of firms as a measure of the effectiveness of corporate governance, and only then attempts to draw conclusions about the relative advantages of different ownership structures.

This title was first published in 2002: Why do endogenous cycles persist in Spain? Manuel Roman demonstrates a highly novel approach to the study of finance and the persistence of endogenous growth cycles, providing a balanced account of the Post Keynesian, Classical and Neo-classical political economy approaches. Finding key propositions from a representative set of heterodox cycles' models, he rigorously tests their chief claims, grounding his research in empirical data. The endogenous forces behind persistent fluctuations in the Spanish economy are also identified and explored in this theoretically rich text, the first of its kind to examine the Spanish economy in such great detail.

Originally published between 1994 and 2000 the volumes in this set discuss: the successful implementation of radical, technological innovations within business organizations. issues of Chinese rural-rural and rural-urban migration a number of subjects of significance for labor and economic policy, especially the role of U. S. tax policy in the relocation of jobs from the contintental USA to Puerto Rico. the impact an immigrant community in the USA has on the type and quantity of foreign goods available. the relation between technology and the exercise of sea power. problems related to investment planning, capacity additions, and choice of technology in dynamic manufacturing systems.

Industry and Society in Europe examines changes in industrial organization in Britain, Germany and France from the perspectives of economic sociology and political economy. This important new textbook presents a systematic, comparative analysis of recent processes of industrial and social change in these societies and assesses the contribution each country will make to the emerging European social and economic entity. Written in an accessible, jargon-free style, the book covers a wide range of highly topical themes, including the finance-industry nexus, corporate restructuring, the impact of globalization, the role of small and medium-sized firms, state - industry relations and new developments in work organization and industrial relations. Introducing a sociological perspective to the study of business and economic life, Christel Lane critically engages with some of the main theories in the field including flexible specialization, regulation theory and the new institutionalism in sociology.

This book offers a sociological account of the process by which companies instituted and continue to institute outsourcing in their organization. Drawing on qualitative data, it examines the ways in which internal outsourcing in the information technologies and human resources professions negatively affects workers, their work conditions, and working relationships. With attention to the deleterious influence of outsourcing on relationships and the strong tendency of market organisations to produce social conflict in interactions - itself a considerable 'transaction cost' - the author challenges both the ideology that markets, rather than hierarchies, produce more efficient and less costly economic outcomes for companies, and the idea that outsourcing generates benefits for professional workers in the form of greater opportunity. A demonstration of the social conflict created between employees working for two separate, proprietary companies, Working Lives and in-House Outsourcing will be of interest to scholars with interests in the sociology of work and organizations and the sociology of professions, as well as those working in the fields of business management and human resources.

First published in 1999, this book brings together the findings from research projects funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. The programme of research examined the problems faced by home owners with the collapse of the property market in the late 1980s. The book focuses on households with negative equity and uses analyzes of secondary data sets, social surveys and in-depth interviews to explore the implications of the fall in property values for both households and the wider economy. In particular it examines the kinds of coping strategies adopted by home owners in relation to debt and mobility. Home Ownership in Crisis? thus gets beyond aggregate estimates and offers the reader a detailed understanding of what negative equity actually means for the individuals concerned. Moreover, by exposing a range of circumstances in which negative equity arises, the book also informs debates about the kinds of policy initiatives which may be appropriate in dealing with a more volatile economic environment in Britain and elsewhere.

Absentee Ownership is an inquiry into the economic situation as it has taken shape in the twentieth century, particularly as exemplified in the case of America. According to Thorstein Veblen, absentee ownership is the main and immediate controlling interest in the life of civilized men. It is the paramount issue between the civilized nations, and guides the conduct of their affairs at home and abroad. World War I, says Veblen, arose out of a conflict of absentee interests and the peace was negotiated with a view to stabilize them.

Part I of the book is occupied with a summary description of that range of economic circumstances and that sequence of economic growth and change that led up through the nineteenth century and have come to a head in the twentieth century. Part II is an objective, theoretical analysis of those economic circumstances described in the first part of the book.

Marion Levy writes in his introduction about the phrase "absentee ownership" and how it has a definite connotation, representing a dark figure in the economic system, a frustration of desired levels of self-sufficiency. In the early days, the giants of business enterprise had faces--Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Ford, Edison--but they all turned into faceless bureaucracies, says Levy. The giants may not have been nice, but they had faces and human traits. Absentee ownership wiped that out for the common man. Veblen's book continues to be of vital importance to the studies of economics, political theory, and sociology.

This annotated bibliography contains over 4,000 entries providing detailed information on books, journal articles, and theses in Business History worldwide. The coverage includes works published in the United States, England, France, Germany, Japan, Sweden and Italy; all are annotated in English. Entries cover a wide range of industries, from agricultural engineering to toys, weapons engineering, and wholesale distribution. Specific companies mentioned are indicated at the bottom of each annotation. Using the Standard Industrial Classification System, the book details:
*Exploitative Industries
*Traditional and Heavy Industries
*Light Industry
*Trade and Distribution
*Financial Services
*Other Services (including Health and Transportation)
*Corporate Structures
*Management and Entrepreneurship
The works listed in the "International Bibliography of Business History" will be found in almost any college library and will be used by every student, teacher, and librarian working in the field of Business.

Published in 1999, the book is the proceedings volume of the 23rd International Conference of Agricultural Economists, held in Sacramento, California, in August 1997. It continues the series of triennial IAAE conferences.

Originally published in 1995, this book explores a number of subjects of significance for labor and economic policy, especially the role of U. S. tax policy in the relocation of jobs from the contintental USA to Puerto Rico. The book demonstrates the problems for the USA because of inadequate adjustment policies to protect the interests of communities and workers when plants close and production is relocated. It disproves the myth that markets will take fcare of workers and communities, showing that basic economics is concerned with market forces and not with equity, environmental and worker protections. The Whitehall plant closing case is documented and the economic and political context analyzed which caused that case to be instructive for broader economic and labor policy purposes. In a new age of American Protectionism, this book has enduring relevance.

Originally published in 1994 this book examines problems related to investment planning, capacity additions, and choice of technology in dynamic manufacturing systems characterized by multiple products, dynamic demand growth, uncertainty in demand and availability of alternative technologies. A model-based methodology is developed that focuses on trade-offs between flexible and conventional technology. The research conducted for this book is directed to the development of tools to support investment decisions in production capacity over medium and long-term planning horizons.