This book argues that for many companies organization is designed to achieve operational optimization and may be in conflict with strategic objectives. Managers may not share similar decision criteria and this may facilitate or hinder the fulfillment of certain strategies. The role of top managers is to shape to a large extent the ability of the organizational system to implement and achieve strategic objectives. This book provides breakthrough thinking on these issues by two leading academic thinkers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and platforms are closely related. Most investments in AI, especially in critical technologies, are provided by large platforms. This book describes how platforms invest in AI and how AI will impact the next generation of competences, following a twofold approach to do so: on the one hand, the book seeks to understand how platforms for investment in intangibles and AI are organized, but on the other hand, it provides a framework to describe how AI will change jobs and competences in the future. Moreover, the book addresses five main themes: 1. platforms, platformization, and the foundations of their business models; 2. artificial intelligence, technological tendencies, and the policy agenda; 3. artificial intelligence, productivity, and the next generation of competences; 4. artificial intelligence, productivity, and the digital divide; 5. artificial intelligence, ethics, and the post-truth society. The book's content is mostly based on papers presented at the last two installments of the World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities. It brings together the views of leading scholars and experts on how artificial intelligence and platformization will impact competences in the near future.

Explores challenges for developing and emerging economies for enhancing green financing for sustainable, low-carbon investment, looking at Indonesia. Based on surveys in the Indonesian banking and corporate sectors and expert interviews, it devises innovative policy recommendations to develop a framework conducive to fostering green investments.

In recent years, digital business models have frequently been the subject of academic and practical discourse. The increasing interconnectivity across the entire supply chain, which is subsumed under the term Industry 4.0, can unlock even farther-reaching potentials for digital business models, affecting entire supply chains and ecosystems. This book examines the specific challenges and obstacles that supply chain and ecosystem management poses with regard to the development of digital business models. The top-quality contributions gathered here focus on the successful implementation of Industry 4.0 in digital business models for industrial organizations in a European context, making the book a valuable asset for researchers and practitioners alike.

Why are historically Catholic countries and regions generally more corrupt and less competitive than historically Protestant ones? How has institutionalization of religion influenced the prosperity of countries in Europe and the Americas? This open access book addresses these critical questions by elucidating the hegemonic and emancipatory religious factors leading to these dissimilarities between countries. The book features up-to-date mixed methods from interdisciplinary research contributing to existing studies in the sociology of religion field by demonstrating-for the first time-the effect of the mutually reinforcing configuration of multiple prosperity triggers (religion-politics-environment). It demonstrates the differences in the institutionalization of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism by applying quantitative and qualitative methods and by performing a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 65 countries. The author also provides a comprehensive survey and results of empirical research on different theories of development, focusing on the influence of religion.

The significance of industrial ecology's geographic context of has for too long been neglected. This book makes a timely and pivotal contribution to the field by presenting analysis of an impressive range of case studies from across the world. Authors are highly familiar with their case study locations, which are analysed through a range of theoretical perspectives. International setting emerges as a significant contextual factor with which industrial ecology activity is inextricably linked.' - Alfred Posch, University of Graz, Austria'This book covers updated perspectives on eco-industrial parks across the world. It is an excellent work done by researchers from different backgrounds and cultures. History, barriers, institutional arrangements, policies, waste management, and greenhouse gas emissions, together with eco-industrial parks, are all discussed so that decision makers from different countries can understand the potential benefits of developing eco-industrial parks by considering their own realities. Specifically, case studies from both developing and developed countries are presented so that variations between different countries can be identified. Readers can enhance their knowledge on eco-industrial development, a useful tool for responding to challenges related to current resource depletion, environmental emissions and climate change issues.' - Geng Yong, Shanghai Jiaotong University, PR China With its high-level focus on industrial ecology-related policies such as circular economy and industrial symbiosis, this book provides a timely analysis of the industrial ecology experience worldwide. Editors Pauline Deutz, Donald I. Lyons, and Jun Bi combine their diverse experiences in both research and teaching to examine the topic as a business, community, and academic endeavor in different settings worldwide. International Perspectives on Industrial Ecology provides a cuttingeedge, in-depth exploration of the commonalities and differences of industrial ecology experiences, comparing geographical contexts from each of the world's continents. Expert contributors utilize case studies and contextualized reviews of current projects to formulate invaluable insights in the field. Much attention is given to industrial symbiosis, waste management, circular economy, sustainable development, and environmental management as each pertains to the field. This book's international perspective makes it ideal background reading for academics working in industrial ecology, as well as a valuable reference for postgraduates doing research or taking courses in the field. Public or private sector bodies trying to facilitate industrial symbiosis, economic development agencies considering industrial symbiosis projects, and environmental managers and regulators trying to improve environmental performance in their particular country will also find it engaging and relevant. Contributors: W. Ashton, L. Baas, H. Baumann, J. Bi, F. Boons, R. Branson, S. Brullot, I. Costa, C. Davis, P. Deutz, M Eklund, D. Gibbs, L. Hu, R. Isenmann, G. Korevaar, Y. Lei, L. Liu, P. Lowitt, D.I. Lyons, G. Massard, P. McManus, O.E. Olayide, J. Patchell, M. Rice, E. Romero Arozamena, C. Ruiz Puente, M. Shenoy, W. Spekkink, B. van Hoof, V. Verguts, H. Wang, Q. Wang, B. Zhang

Major changes which have occurred since this book was first published have been included in this edition. In particular, the chapter on Germany has been substantially revised and now includes a separate section on easter Germany. The other five countries covered in the book have also witnessed changes in their business culture and these have been taken into consideration. This book examines the background to business practice in Europe of six major countries: Germany, France, Italy, the UK, Spain and the Netherlands. Each chapter tracks the commercial development of that country in the late 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, focusing on the business environment, special features affecting business, and the response to the EC's single market. The business culture section in each is divided further into business and government, business and the economy, business and the law, business and finance, business and the labour market, business and trade unions and business training, education and development. The test is organized in such a manner to enable cross-referencing between countries, and maps have been included in the new edition.

In its Fourth Edition, this textbook explores how economic activity is organised from a new institutional economics perspective. Using transactions costs as a continuing theme, the book delivers the necessary skills to understand the evolution of organisational forms and the strengths and weaknesses of different varieties of private and public governance. The importance of entrepreneurship is emphasised throughout. Public policy concerning competition, regulation and the public utilities is used to illustrate the involvement of subjective judgements about transactions costs in all types of organisational choice. Key features of the Fourth Edition: ? Using impartial analysis, Martin Ricketts evaluates business enterprise through Neoclassical, Austrian and Evolutionary economics, allowing students to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each methodological perspective? Using a clear conceptual framework, the author explains principal-agent theory and the transaction cost paradigm in detail? The chapters are designed around a set of classic papers, giving students an understanding of the historical development of the discipline? Updated examples emphasise the applicability to different technological circumstances and the dynamic nature of studying economic organisation? Additional examples are included for teachers to further discussion or create extended seminar work. A key resource for advanced undergraduate courses or an excellent introductory text at graduate level, this Fourth Edition will provide students of economics, business and political economy with a greater awareness of how business enterprises operate and adapt in response to technological change and competition.

Beyond Innovation counter weighs the present innovation monomania by broadening our thinking about technological and institutional change. It is done by a multidisciplinary review of the most common ideas about the dynamics between technology and institutions.

Bread was the staple of the ancient Mediterranean diet. It was present in the meals of emperors and on the tables of the poorest households. In many instances, a loaf of bread probably constituted an entire meal. As such, bread was both something that unified society and a milieu through which social and ethnic divisions played out. Similarly, bakers were not a monolithic demographic. They served both the rich and the poor, but some bakers clearly operated within regional traditions. Some lived in big cities and others lived in small towns. Some bakers made flat breads and others made leavened loaves. Some made coarse brown loaves and others specialized in fancier white breads. This book offers new methods and new ways of framing bread production in the Roman world to reveal the nuances of an industry that fed an empire. Inscriptions, Roman law, and material remains of Roman-period bakeries are combined to expose the cultural context of bread making, the economic context of commercial baking, the social hierarchy within the workforces of bakeries, and the socio-economic strategies of Roman bakers.

In contemporary global capitalism, the most powerful corporations are innovation or intellectual monopolies. The book's unique perspective focuses on how private ownership and control of knowledge and data have become a major source of rent and power. The author explains how at the one pole, these corporations concentrate income, property and power in the United States, China, and in a handful of intellectual monopolies, particularly from digital and pharmaceutical industries, while at the other pole developing countries are left further behind. The book includes detailed empirical mappings of how intellectual monopolies develop and transform knowledge from universities and open-source collaborations into intangible assets. The result is a strategy that combines undermining the commons through privatization with harvesting from the same commons. The book ends with provoking reflections to tilt the scale against intellectual monopoly capitalism and arguing that desired changes require democratic mobilization of workers and citizens at large. This book represents one of the first attempts to capture the contours of an emerging new era where old perspectives lead us astray, and the old policy toolbox is hopelessly inadequate. This is true for the idea that the best, or only, way to promote innovation is to transform knowledge into private property. It is also true for anti-trust policies focusing exclusively on consumer prices. The formation of global infrastructures that lead to natural monopolies calls for public rather than private ownership. Scholars and professionals from the social sciences and humanities (in particular economics, sociology, political science, geography, educational science and science and technology studies) will enjoy a clear and all-embracing depiction of innovation dynamics in contemporary capitalism, with a particular focus on asymmetries between actors, regions and topics. In fact, its topical issue broadens the book's scope to those curious about how innovation networks shape our world.

The book addresses the most recent challenges faced by the postal and delivery sector. This book includes original essays by prominent researchers and practitioners in the field of postal and delivery economics, originally presented at the 28th Conference on Postal and Delivery Economics held online, December 1-5, 2020. Chapters discuss topics such as the sustainability of the universal service obligations (USO) quality of service, last mile solutions, competition in liberalized markets, data protection, environmental sustainability, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This book will be a useful tool not only for graduate students and professors interested in postal and regulatory economics, but also for postal administrations, consulting firms, and federal government departments.

Plan to succeed as an entrepreneur--we show you how Business Plans For Dummies can guide you, as a new or aspiring business owner, through the process of creating a comprehensive, accurate, and useful business plan. In fact, it is just as appropriate for an already up-and running firm that realizes it's now time for a full-bore check-up, to ensure the business is in tip-top shape to meet the challenges of the globalized, digitized, and constantly changing 21st Century. This edition of is fully updated, featuring the most recent practices in the business world. Let us walk you through each step of the planning process. You'll find everything you need in this one book, so you can finally stop googling, close all those browser tabs, and get organized and get going. Updates to this new revision include knowing how to pivot when your situation changes, recognizing the need for diversity and inclusion in the workplace, where to tap the latest funding sources, and how to plan for a digital strategy, market disruption, and environmental sustainability. You'll also learn how today's globalized marketplace influences your business--and how you can use social media to influence your customers right back. Learn the ins and out of creating a business plan that will actually work Set effective goals and objectives so your business can find success Wow investors with your knowledge of today's important business trends Map out your finances, marketing plan, and operational blueprint--then confidently get to work! Challenge the traditional framework by building a business plan that's workable in today's reality. Dummies is here to help.

Through the lens of the fashion industry, Iva Petkova explores not only how institutionalized organizations react and adapt to the rise of start-up outsiders, but also how these outside "disruptors" seek to cultivate legitimacy and win influence. In so doing, she reflects upon a longstanding question in the sociology of organizations and neo-institutional theory: How do institutionalized organizations in creative industries resolve the inherent conflict between art and commerce, particularly in a changing institutional environment? Engineering Legitimacy outlines the processes through which e-commerce and social commerce companies in fashion disturb and reconstruct the industry, crosscutting their technical field of expertise and looking to legitimize their innovative practice in the institutionally elaborated field of fashion. Through an analysis of the emerging culture of innovation collectively created by start-up outsider disruptors, this book contemplates how fashion-technology companies transform their moral narratives into acceptable commercial practice, legitimating a model of profound institutional change over the digital operations of fashion companies.

Acclaim for previous editions: 'The International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics 2011 provides comprehensive statistical data on world manufacturing. . . The Yearbook represents a massive effort in data collection, data harmonization, and tabular presentation - well beyond the constraints of time and resources available to the average researcher or investigator. Therefore, the Yearbook presents a vast amount of information in a convenient form.' - William C. Struning, American Reference Books Annual 2012 'The UNIDO International Yearbook of Industrial Statistics is now a classic reference. . . The different editions of the Yearbook provide a unique statistical tool for analyzing the world industry.' - Revue d'Economie Industrielle / Industrial Economics Review 'This annual publication seems to be the only international publication providing worldwide statistics on current performance and trends in the manufacturing sector. In terms of comprehensiveness, accuracy, and cross-country comparisons this volume is unparalleled . . . If you are looking for an authoritative source for comparative international statistics on industrial information, this is it.' - Andrea Meyer, Business Information Alert 'This is a unique and massive effort by UNIDO providing comparative statistics on current performance and trends in the manufacturing sector worldwide . . . There is no doubt that the volume is a most important source book for economists, planners and policymakers.' - Pradosh Nath, Journal of Science and Industrial Research 'UNIDO has done well to bridge gaps in information noticed so far in industrial statistics worldwide and its companionship and usefulness will be realised by all users of this documentation in governmental, industrial and academic circles, as a must on every working desk. Its reliability is fully backed up by authoritative analysis.' - Rajinder Kunmar, Marketing and Management News A unique and comprehensive source of information, this book is the only international publication providing economists, planners, policymakers and business people with worldwide statistics on current performance and trends in the manufacturing sector. The Yearbook is designed to facilitate international comparisons relating to manufacturing activity and industrial development and performance. It provides data which can be used to analyze patterns of growth and related long term trends, structural change and industrial performance in individual industries. Statistics on employment patterns, wages, consumption and gross output and other key indicators are also presented.

This book explores the impact of railroads on 19thcentury Russian peasant collectivism. The mutual-insurance mechanism in a precarious agricultural environment, provided bya structured communal-village system predicated on the reputation and authorityof community norms,is exposed to rationalist exchange-occasioning an institutional adaptation process:the individualization of property rights in land. Spatial-mobility technology animated market integration, specialization, literacy,and human-capital acquisition among peasant wage workers who commuted from their villages.Temporarily rising transaction costs forced the Tsar to concede household property rights in land in the so-called Stolypin reform of 1906.This challenge to the imperial patrimony, powered by the railroads, steered late imperial Russia toward constitutional governance.The spatial-mobility technology gave peasants access to centers of agglomeration of knowledge, changedcognitive perceptions of distance, and reduced the uncertainty and opportunity costs of travel. The empirical findings in this monograph corroborate the conclusion that the railroads occasioned a cultural revolution in late imperial Russia and made Stalin unnecessary for the modernization of the Euro-asian giant. This book highlights the profound effect that the development of the railroads had on Russian economic and political institutions and practices. It will be of indispensable valueto students and researchers interested in transitional economics and economic history.

This book explores the concept, techniques and implications of establishing stakeholder collaboration in sustainable tourism. The importance of involving a wide range of stakeholders in tourism planning and management is increasingly recognised. This reflects a move to less top-down, more decentralised and more inclusive forms of governance in tourism and in other policy fields. Twenty-two leading researchers and practitioners from around the world contribute their views and expertise to this pioneering volume. Case studies examining key issues are drawn from Europe, North and South America, Australia and the Arctic. Section 1 examines the processes, patterns and typologies involved. Specific concerns addressed include stakeholder interaction and negotiation, boundary issues in regional and international partnerships and stages of collaborative development. Section 2 evaluates the effects of politics and power on the practice of collaboration. Specific topics here include the changing roles of the state in tourism governance, regime theory and tourism, the public sector and partnership development and partnerships in a post socialist context. Section 3 looks at emerging thinking and approaches, sums up key issues affecting collaborative tourism planning and suggests future research directions. The book will be invaluable for final year undergraduate tourism students, for postgraduate students in tourism, environmental studies or planning and of interest to tourism planners, managers and consultants.

Management as we know it has been the driver of business growth in U.S. economies for a couple of centuries. Yet the practice of management is no longer focused on creating real value. Instead, it is now all about using sophisticated financial techniques-and practices like outsourcing and downsizing, among others--to improve profitability. Such addition through subtraction results in higher profits in the short term but puts the corporation and its employees at risk in the long term--not to mention the entire U.S. economy. Innovation and productivity improvement, corporate manager Jack Buffington argues, are lost arts in American business. So is getting back to basics the answer? Buffington's provocative thesis: Management as we know it probably can't be repaired. "It must be replaced."

Asian economies, meanwhile, are growing by leaps and bounds thanks in part to short-term, ill-advised decisions made by U.S. managers. Local companies and divisions of multinational organizations in emerging countries are on track to eventually overtake those of the West, putting our job base and prosperity at peril. If we want to bring manufacturing jobs back here to the U.S., corporate managers must seek productivity and innovation improvements in U.S. operations.

Jack Buffington knows all too well how quickly things can go downhill for U.S. businesses. Turned into a relentless cost-cutter by the forces of globalization and Wall Street's expectations for short-term gains, he--like thousands of other U.S. executives--has watched some of the companies he's worked for disappear for want of real value. Whereas America once prized managers who displayed skill in optimizing the interplay of capital, labor, and technology to grow a company, today's professional manager is rewarded more often for being a cost cutter than an innovator.

Fortunately, this book not only outlines the problem, it outlines the solution as well by establishing a 21st-century definition of management that will succeed in today's global economy. Rather than angling to produce a penny more of earnings per share to please the financiers, corporate managers will see once again how to use their ingenuity to produce products, services, and business processes that not only provide generous profits but sustain a business--and its jobs--for years to come. By heeding Buffington's call, the U.S. can rekindle its zeal for innovation, leading to an era in which consumers, workers, investors, and managers all prosper.

A growing number of organizations are meta-organizations; rather than individuals they have other organizations as their members. This comprehensive book explains, in-depth, the unique way in which meta-organizations function, how they differ from organizations with individual membership, and how they are crucial agents in the process of globalization. The book opens a whole new area for organizational research. It will be essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students interested in organization theory, globalization, politics and organizations, or international organizations.

Dream Vision Purpose Mission

These words have been defining the life of Michael E. Gerber, bestsellingauthor and international small business guru, since before 1977--whenhe created E-Myth Worldwide to transform the way that small businessowners can grow their companies. Now he's created the Dreaming Room, theplace where entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs come to discover how tomake their dreams a reality.

In Awakening the Entrepreneur Within, Michael will help you shape yourdream into a viable, economically successful company. He writes, "It is time todream. It is time to care about something bigger than you. It is time to imaginesomething sorely needed in the world--the world you live in--that somebody would pay to have. It is time to look around you and ask yourself, 'What's missing in this picture?'"

If you see something missing in your world, join Michael E. Gerber in the Dreaming Room and awaken the entrepreneur within you.

Start-ups are easy, but... is A.-W. Scheer's retrospective on his experiences founding, growing and taking public a successful, international company. Since its founding in 1985, IDS Scheer has grown to become the world leader in business process performance, with subsidiaries and representatives in 50 countries. This book contains the author's experiences and opinions about founding companies and watching them prosper, about how research and science work, and about the politics of innovation. It was written for entrepreneurs or potential company founders who would like to learn more about the challenges of building a company. It is also written for students who want to find out what it is like to live like a businessperson. Furthermore, the book is written for members of the scientific community, to motivate them to a more business-oriented approach at their research institutions.

Shipbuilding in the United Kingdom provides a systematic historical account of the British Shipbuilders Corporation, first looking at this major industry under private enterprise, then under state control, and finally back in private hands. The chapters trace the evolution of public policy regarding shipbuilding, ship repair, and large marine engine building through the tenures of radically different Labour and Conservative governments, and through the response of the board of the British Shipbuilders Corporation, trade unions, and local management also. The book benefits from comprehensive archival research and interviews from the 1990s with leading players in the industry, as well as politicians, shipbuilders, trade union leaders, and senior civil servants. This authoritative monograph is a valuable resource for advanced students and researchers across the fields of business history, economic history, industrial history, labour history, maritime history, and British history.

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Quarter examines business owners who use their firms as laboratories for social innovation. After providing an introduction to this phenomenon in an historical perspective and discussing the 19th-century British industrialist Robert Owen, he provides ll case studies of contemporary innovators from six countries-the UK, US, the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, and New Zealand.

The case studies fall into two broad groups. The first involves business people who promote innovative ownership and decision-making strategies such as donating their shares to a trust and thereby creating a company without shareholders so that employees can assume greater control; creating a worker co-operative; and transferring ownership to employees through an employee stock ownership plan. The second group of case studies involves innovative efforts at changing the relationship to the surrounding community through creating socially and environmentally responsible businesses. Quarter concludes by looking at the potential and limitations of this phenomenon for building a social movement. A provocative look at the social organization of work that will be of interest to scholars and researchers of industrial organization and to business leaders examining innovative ownership arrangements.

With the ongoing restructuring in Sudan, structural issues such as the need for skill development and interaction with technological change need an in-depth analysis that this book offers. The central themes of this book are- required skill formation, upskilling of the workers, and their interaction with technological change in lieu of a deficient educational system and its implications. An empirical investigation of the causes and consequences of low skill and technology indicators using a primary survey at macro and micro levels is undertaken. This is followed by an examination of the interaction between the low skill and technology indicators, the relationships between skill, upskilling and technology indicators, skills mismatch, the uses and impacts of ICT and differences at firm as well as industry level as well as knowledge transfer effects. A set of recommendations towards the need for implementation of consistent policies, increasing incentives and collaboration between public and private institutions completes the book.