International business is synonymous with big challenges. Cultural and institutional complexities remain ever potent, so are newer concerns like climate change and international terrorism. This timely book examines these challenges from the perspectives of different international business actors.

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.

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.

Ernest Aves (1857-1917) was an influential social analyst and civil servant. This title, first published in 1907, during Aves' work for the Board of Trade, investigates the different forms of industrial co-operation within Britain; the fundamental principle of this is stated as "equitable association", leading to increased profitability and the strengthening of industry. Chapters discuss such areas as centralisation, co-operative production and co-operative agriculture. This interesting reissue will be of particular value to students of economics with an interest in co-operative industry and the history of economic thought.

This indispensible book offers step-by-step guidance to small and mid-sized companies and non-profit organizations in managing corruption risks in overseas markets. It covers how and why to build a culture of integrity, develop a risk-based anti-corruption compliance programme, and engage with other industry players in collective action against shared corruption challenges. The focus on culture, compliance and collective action helps resource-stretched companies to build a strong foundation for a healthy and flourishing organization, as well as contribute towards raising standards of integrity across their industry. Key features include: Guidance for creating and contributing to collective action Quick definitions, tips and practical tools such as checklists A hands-on approach with an emphasis on culture and leadership Case studies and real-life examples of both corruption risks and the importance of a strong compliance culture. Anti-Corruption Compliance will be an invaluable resource for senior managers of small and mid-sized organizations in minimizing exposure to corruption risks in international markets. It will also prove useful to corporate lawyers and others involved with compliance functions in larger companies, as well as to academics and students of corporate law with an interest in anti-corruption and compliance.

Corporate Realities, first published in 1995, provides a concise but comprehensive review of the management issues relating to different types of organisation. Avoiding academic jargon, it describes the characteristics of administrative, manufacturing, service and professional organisations. It explores the features of both small and large businesses. The authors demonstrate how the transition from small to large scale can be achieved, as well as reviewing recent attempts to recreate entrepreneurial forms of organisation in the context of larger, more complex ones. Most importantly, it identifies future trends and the skills that will be needed to manage corporations at the turn of the century. This book will be of interest to students of business studies.

This book reveals how the Japanese national ministries can exploit their Special Status Corporations (public corporations, supported primarily with public funding from a state-run banking agency) in order to intensify their administrative power over industries and local governments and to perpetuate the interests of elite civil servants by facilitating the migration to post-retirement positions in the private sector. The book explains why the existence of these organizations inhibits the Prime Ministers efforts to implement structural reforms.

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.

This book explores the drivers of technological upgrading and catch-up in the emerging economies, paying specific attention to technology and innovation policies, national innovation systems, the role of foreign direct investment and small and medium enterprises. It provides practical implications for other developing countries

This book presents a new look at the leadership of Greek shipowners in world shipping in the second half of the twentieth century. The authors examine the fundamental factors of the dynamism of Greek entrepreneurship in family businesses and provides evidence for the organization, management and strategies of Greek family shipping companies.

'This book is different from most other attempts to understand the politics of Indian economic development. Breaking down the last 65+ years of Indian development into several episodes of growth, it provides a rich set of insights into the political economy of the Indian development process and is a valuable addition to the literature.' -Pranab Bardham, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Sustained economic growth in the world's largest democracy is critically important to human well-being, but the ups and downs of growth in India are not well-understood. This book provides a fresh and insightful approach to understanding what drives the starts of booms and the onset of slowdowns.' -Lant Pritchett, Harvard University, USA 'This is a little book with big arguments. The authors' explanation of the changing character of the deals done between political and business elites makes for the most original contribution to studies of the political economy of Indian development since Pranab Bardhan's seminal work of the early 1980s' -John Harriss, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada This book moves beyond the usual economic analysis of the Indian growth story and provides a fresh perspective on the determinants of growth episodes in post-independence India, based on its political economy. Using a robust and novel technique, the authors identify four such episodes during this period. The first, running from the 1950s to 1992, was mostly characterized by economic stagnation, with a nascent recovery in the eighties. The second, covering the period 1993 to 2001, witnessed the first growth acceleration in the economy. A second acceleration ran from 2002 to 2010. The fourth and final episode started with the slowdown in 2010 and continues to this day. The book provides a theoretical framework that focuses on rent-structures, institutions and the polity, and demonstrates how changes in these can explain the four growth episodes. Kar and Sen argue that the transitions from one growth episode to another can be explained by the bi-directional relationship between growth outcomes and institutional arrangements, and by the manner in which institutional arrangements and their transitions are determined by the political bargains struck between the elite groups in Indian society.

Today, Stakeholder Management is a term commonly used to describe the policy towards all interest groups that have a stake in a company or an institution, but the crucial question is how this concept can be best applied to a company's context. In this book, companies using a Stakeholder Management tool give their first-hand account of how this tool enables them to successfully measure, monitor and manage their stakeholders' performance. The experience of these companies highlights how across different sectors and countries strong customer relationships, committed employees and successful relationships with suppliers can be created to stay at the forefront of today's global economy. Company contributions are complemented by expert articles about current business topics such as Performance Measurement, Balanced Scorecard and Data Mining methodologies.

This book discusses digitalization trends and their concrete applications in business and societal contexts. It summarizes new findings from research, teaching and management activities comprising digital transformation, e-business, the representation of knowledge, human-computer interaction and business optimization. The trends discussed include artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robotics, blockchain, and many more. Professors and researchers who conduct research and teach at the interface between academia and business present the latest advances in their field. The book adopts the philosophy of applied sciences and combines both rigorous research and practical applications. As such, it addresses the needs of both professors and researchers, who are constantly seeking inspiration, and of managers seeking to tap the potential of the latest trends to take their business to the next level. Readers will find answers to pressing questions that arise in their daily work.

At the time in which this book was first published in 1987, mass unemployment had emerged as the dominant, most visible, problem of the West European economies. The post-war experience of expansion was remarkable in that it experienced growth high enough to sustain a consensus on the possibility and desirability of full employment. This period declined into one of poor economic performance in the 1970s. Growth slowed and the subsequent years were characterised by painful adjustment and dislocation. In this challenging discussion of ways to overcome unemployment Ciaran Driver stresses the importance of managed restructuring. Driver focuses attention of the role of investment in fixed assets and human resources, and argues that governments do have a major role in steering the economy through a period of turbulent change, and that there are policies which can move the economy towards full employment. This book is ideal for students of business and economics.

This book focuses on profiling, analysing, benchmarking and modelling in socio-economic terms, the ways that creativity, invention and innovation flourish. The work is based on comparative, conceptual and empirical research of 15 American, European and Asian knowledge-based innovation networks and knowledge clusters. It highlights critical success and failure factors, and the lessons learned about entrepreneurial initiatives, outcomes and impacts. It identifies and articulates insights that inform both public sector policies and private sector practices to render them more effective and efficient.

Independently commissioned by IAI, the three studies comprising this book examine inter-Arab industrial and economic cooperation. The first chapter analyses the industrial strategies, economic policies and attempts at harmonisation and cooperation of the Arab countries, providing a detailed picture of the convergences and divergences, the potential and the difficulties faced by the region. The second chapter examines the importance of coordinating economic polices if economic integration is to be sustained, and considers the implications to the world economy. Lastly, the third chapter examines Arab labour flows, a key factor in the development of the Arab countries. First published in 1979.

Since 1950 the governments of Iraq have attempted vigorously to develop the economy and have stressed industrial development. Here Dr Ferhang Jalal discusses, analyses and appraises a number of policies adopted by the government of Iraq designed to promote the growth of the industrial sector. The policies were of two kinds: the establishment of enterprises financed, constructed and operated by the government; and the encouragement of the expansion of private industrial enterprises through provision of finance, by way of tax exemptions of all kinds, through controls over the allocation of investment, and by protecting them from foreign competition. The author discusses the extent to which investment programmes formulated by planners were able to be implemented, and analyses in detail the factors facilitating and those constraining a more rapid rate of industrial growth.

Regulation of the Power Sector is a unified, consistent and comprehensive treatment of the theories and practicalities of regulation in modern power-supply systems. The need for generation to occur at the time of use occasioned by the impracticality of large-scale electricity storage coupled with constant and often unpredictable changes in demand make electricity-supply systems large, dynamic and complex and their regulation a daunting task. Arranged in four parts, this book addresses both traditional regulatory frameworks and also liberalized and re-regulated environments. First, an introduction gives a full characterization of power supply including engineering, economic and regulatory viewpoints. The second part presents the fundamentals of regulation and the third looks at the regulation of particular components of the power sector in detail. Advanced topics and subjects still open or subject to dispute form the content of Part IV. In a sector where regulatory design is the key driver of both the industry efficiency and the returns on investment, Regulation of the Power Sector is directed at regulators, policy decision makers, business managers and researchers. It is a pragmatic text, well-tested by the authors' quarter-century of experience of power systems from around the world. Power system professionals and students at all levels will derive much benefit from the authors' wealth of blended theory and real-world-derived know-how.

Economics of Research and Development is a research review of the major readings in the development of this topic, from its origins in the work of Kenneth Arrow, Robert Solow, and Zvi Griliches to present day concerns with the financing of R&D and measurement of its returns. Topics covered include historical perspectives, market structure and the various ways R&D is conducted, the role of venture capital and government incentives, the measurement of R&D returns including spillovers to other firms or countries and the contribution of R&D to economic growth. This research review serves as an invaluable reference for those who would like to have a review of the seminal papers on R&D collected into a single source.

In dynamic investment planning the time of investment is a significant issue. By simplifying the mathematical notation, the author of this book seeks to make control theory a practical tool that can be applied to the problem of timing. The book, first published in 1977, begins with an introduction to one important approach to control theory - dynamic programming. Then some of the relevant literature that deals with investment decision-making is reviewed. This is followed by a mathematically formulated planning model. The computational aspects of the model are discussed and a complete computer flow chart is given. The second part of the book gives a thorough application of the theory by means of a detailed case study - the planning of a steel industry. The case study illustrates how a fairly abstract dynamic analysis can be effectively integrated with practical decision-making concerns. This book is ideal for students of economics and business.

This book examines concepts and tools for selecting and modifying a combination of technologies that will be either developed by a technology supply organization, such as a national laboratory or a corporate research center, or adopted by a technology application organization, such as a government administrative office or a corporation management department, to either advance public goals or enhance corporate strategies.

With the advent of Thatcherism in the UK and Reaganomics in the USA, 'industrial policy' had become something of a discredited notion in the 1980s. The emphasis had shifted to programmes of deregulation, de-nationalization, and tax reform. The essays in this challenging and vigorous collection, first published in 1989, sprung from work that had been conducted in the USA, notably at the Harvard Business School, on reappraising the role of the public sector in industrial management. This American work suggested ways in which public sector and other bodies might have revitalized industrial life. This book is ideal for students of business and economics.

The physical distribution of products is an important element in the marketing operations of all productive enterprises, and in many cases efficient distribution is the most important single factor leading to success. With the emergence of post-industrial society the role of distribution has come to increasingly be viewed as a generator of wealth in the economy, attracting the interest of public policy makers anxious to influence investment, employment and efficiency in the sector.

First published in 1982, this book isolates the major trends affecting the main institutions in distribution and contrasts the processes of change amongst the countries and regions of the European Economic Community. Structural change in the industry is related to spatial change in the regions and comparisons made of the varied public policy responses in member countries. An interesting and relevant reissue, this title will be of particular value to economics and business students with an interest in the development of the European consumer and post-industrial Europe.