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Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Ownership & organization of enterprises > General
This book, first published in 1984, analyses the institutions and decision-making processes that determined agricultural production in the Soviet Union. It addresses the crisis in Soviet agriculture of the early 1980s, examining the problems of low productivity, adverse natural conditions and an underdeveloped infrastructure. The book's analysis of the 'crisis' focuses on the growing gap between demand and supply of agricultural produce, and the pressures on the government to alleviate the food shortages.
This book, first published in 1986, is a major reference work for the political discussions arising out of the 1985 Congress revisions of US food and farm laws. It covers production, distribution and consumption of food, analyses international as well as domestic problems, and presents new ways forward. Emphasising public policy and programmes, the book has chapters on agricultural production; environmental and resource problems; food marketing; domestic hunger and nutrition; and world hunger and development.
This book synthesises several decades of research to extend beyond the limitations of a traditional functionalist model, offering a twenty-first century theory of professions and professionalism for a new generation engaging in theorising and research. It asserts nine innovative arguments, drawing on major theorists such as Johnson, Freidson, Larson, Weber, Foucault and Bourdieu to achieve a global framing of professions. Concepts of bundling and unbundling are used to explain changes happening to professions as they cease to be exclusive containers that fully control particular forms of knowledge. Examining how professions are changing today reveals the ways in which expectations around expertise and goodness have altered for all stakeholders: consumers, regulators, corporations and professions themselves. Unbundled professions morph into new forms of professional work, under new conditions, technologies and social arrangements Professionals and policy-makers interested in shaping the future of professions must recognise the potential impacts from an increasingly globalised, digitalised and managerialised world, and this book will be a key addition for scholars and practitioners alike.
Firm Size, Innovation and Market Structure uses evolutionary dynamic theory, non-linear mathematics and computer simulation techniques to explore the relationship between firm size, innovation and market structure. The book begins by reviewing the connection between these variables from a theoretical and an empirical point of view, and goes on to illustrate how analytical tools may be used in order to explore Schumpeterian propositions regarding firm size, innovation and the specific role of idiosyncratic events. In the concluding chapter, Mariana Mazzucato focuses on the US automobile industry from 1900-1997, and uses empirical evidence in order to determine whether or not there is a relationship between market share instability and stock price volatility, and to what degree the relationship is connected to industry specific factors. This innovative new book will prove invaluable to researchers, lecturers and scholars of industrial organisation, technology and market structure.
Originally published in 1987. The Chernobyl disaster intensified the whole debate on the nuclear power industry. There was great public concern about the industry regulation, about the siting of nuclear facilities, including the dumping of nuclear waste, and about the alleged secretiveness of the industry. This book examines these and many other important aspects of the industry worldwide and provides much important original research. It focuses in particular on the political processes which control the industry, on waste disposal and on the social impact.
Originally published in 1983. The Indian nuclear power programme, both the earliest in the Third World and also one of the most comprehensive, is an important and instructive subject for a wide-ranging and detailed study. This book examines the origins and rationale of the Indian programme in the context of energy resources and consumption. It traces the progress of its historical development and leads up to an evaluation of its performance, in both technical and economic terms of both individual reactors and the programme as a whole. In addition, the book discusses India's nuclear explosion of 1974 and the possibilities for novel developments in nuclear power and other energy sources, such as coal, biogas, hydro and solar power. The author then sets the Indian programme into the world picture by comparing developments in India with those of the Third World (including developments in China and South Africa) and discusses the overall prospects for the Third World. This extremely informative account will appeal to readers with interest in energy, science, technology and Third World developments.
Originally published in 1981. Examining in detail the best evidence on the likely level of domestic and overseas demand for British coal over the following 20 years, this study raised questions about the declared development and investment strategy of the National Coal Board. It exposes a central dilemma facing both the management and the unions of the British coal industry consequent upon their commitment to production objectives substantially out of line with likely market opportunities. It also poses questions for government and the EEC regarding the industry's finances and market prospects. The study concludes that Britain is unlikely to need both the scale of investment proposed for the coal industry and the nuclear programme endorsed by both the government and the electricity supply industry. The author argues for a rigorous reinterpretation of the prospects and a revision of the plans of Western Europe's largest coal industry. This is a fascinating snapshot of a changing industry and is interesting to those in geography, economics and industrial management and anyone interested in energy.
Originally published in 1984. This annotated bibliography will serve as a starting point for information on the issue of nuclear power. Arranged for easy use into three sections - Pro-Nuclear, Anti-Nuclear, and Neutral - the book cites over a hundred of the most important books on the subject, offering for each full bibliographic data and a lengthy annotation that is balanced and informative. This work, which features author, title and subject indexes, is simultaneously a collection-building tool, a guide for non-specialist library patrons and an invaluable aid for research.
Originally published in 1986. Nuclear power is now regarded as essential to survival in the twenty-first century. But the safety of nuclear power stations is a highly controversial topic, and where they will be sited is a most vital question. In this independent critique, based on four years of research, Stan Openshaw argues that reactor siting provides a simple means of offering additional, design-independent margins of safety. Reactor siting policies in the UK and USA are examined and it is suggested that UK siting practices need to be updated. The large number of potential alternative sites should be used to devise new planning strategies - strategies which will minimise both the residual health risks from accidents and the danger that a future change in public opinion might lead to calls for the closure of many existing sites on safety grounds.
Originally published in 1980. A clear understanding of how radioactivity moves through the environment is essential to discussions on nuclear power. This book describes, in didactic rather than polemic style, the nature of radioactivity, how it arises in the day-to-day running of nuclear reactors, how and why a small fraction is introduced into the environment in a controlled manner, and on what basis judgements on these processes should be made.
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.
This book is an introductory text on building measurement and estimating for simple buildings in Hong Kong, based on the Hong Kong Standard Method of Measurement of Building Works 4th Edition Revised 2018 (HKSMM4 Rev 2018). It provides a toolkit for students and surveying technicians who are new to the subject. This second edition updates the contents in line with the HKSMM4 Rev 2018 and incorporates the latest industry developments such as BIM. The main text is divided into five parts following the development of a typical project. Part 1, Building the project team, introduces the team setup for a typical project. Part 2, Deciding the procurement strategy, explains the various procurement decisions to be made by an employer before any cost estimating and measurement work takes place. Part 3, Preparing for tender, covers the tendering methods, tender documentation and approximate estimating techniques used by Quantity Surveyors. Part 4, Measuring quantities, introduces measurement principles and HKSMM4 Rev 2018, followed by a detailed review of the measurement methods for each major trade, with worked examples. Part 5, Estimating unit rates, explores the basic techniques for unit rate preparation. The book contains worked examples from real Hong Kong building projects, self-assessment questions, reminders and points of note. It is essential reading for Hong Kong construction and surveying students, international Quantity Surveyors working in the local area and those wanting international examples of Quantity Surveryors practice.
Paper and the British Empire examines the evolution of the paper industry within British organisational frameworks and highlights the role of the Empire as a market and business-making area in a world of shrinking commerce and rising trade barriers. Drawing on a valuable range of primary sources, this book covers the period 1861-1960 and examines events from the establishment of free trade backed by the gold standard to Britain's membership of the European Free Trade Association. In the field of the paper industry, the speed and intensity of the industrialisation process around the globe have been shaped by a wide variety of variables, including the surrounding institutional framework; entrepreneurial and organisational strategies; the cost and accessibility of transport; and the availability of capital, knowledge, energy resources, and technology. The supply of papermaking raw materials has also been key and has historically been the most important determinant for geographical location and dominance. The research in this work focuses on the roles played by such variants, on the one hand, and demand characteristics on the other. In particular, it considers developments connected to a quest for Empire-grown raw materials in order to tackle the problem of the lack of indigenous raw materials and the resulting dependence on Scandinavian wood pulp imports. This text is of considerable interest to advanced students and researchers in economic history, business history, and the paper industry, and will also be useful to organisations working within the pulp and paper industries.
The Political Economy of International Commodity Cartels examines how international commodity cartels in the 1930s were impacted not only by commercial rivalry, but also by international trade political and diplomatic concerns. This work presents the rise and decline of the European Timber Exporters' Convention (ETEC) and analyses how firms navigated through the cartel game under increasing international competition, pressures from the national governments, and the interventionist endeavours of the League of Nations. Cartels are often associated with, in the standard economic interpretation, business collusion. However, in using vast archive sources and historical methodology, the chapters in this book shed light onto how international relations shaped cartels. The rise of British protectionism, the emergence of the Soviet Union as an industrial power, and the economic rapprochement of the League of Nations in the early 1930s created a wave of political and diplomatic challenges in the timber trading countries and affected cartelisation. Timber firms in the biggest producer countries-Finland and Sweden-were uninterested in international cartel collaboration, but under pressure joined the ETEC nevertheless. This book makes a strong contribution to the fields of business history and cartel studies. It is an essential read for economic historians interested in how political pressure shaped international cartels and how cartels became avenues of diplomacy.
This Element reinvigorates calls to explore avenues to further integrate the research fields of Organization Theory (OT) and Family Business (FB). It presents the family business literature in management journals and categorizes these papers based on four types of theoretical contribution: Embedded, Integrative, Challenger and Generalized. It discusses opportunities for dialogue between FB and OT for each type in three research domains: (i) managing hybridity, (ii) mastering tensions, dualities, and paradoxes, and (iii) modelling time and temporality.
The world, of late, has seen a productivity slowdown. Many countries continue to recover from various shocks in the macro business environment, along with structural changes and inward looking policies. In contemporary times of growth slumps, various exits and protectionist regimes, this book engages with the study of productivity dynamics in the emerging and industrialized economies. The essays address the crucial aspects, such as the roles of human capital, investment accounting and datasets, that help understanding of productivity performance of global economy and its several regions. This book will be of interest to academics, practitioners and professionals in the field of economic growth, productivity and development studies. This will also be an important reference on empirical industrial economics in both India and the world.
Despite the size, complexity and importance of the construction industry, there has been little study to date which focuses on the challenge of drawing reliable conclusions from the available data. The accuracy of industry reports has an impact on government policy, the direction and outcomes of research and the practices of construction firms, so confusion in this area can have far reaching consequences. In response to this, Measuring Construction looks at fundamental economic theories and concepts with respect to the construction industry, and explains their merits and shortcomings, sometimes by looking at real life examples. Drawing on current research the contributors tackle: industry performance productivity measurement construction in national accounts comparing international construction costs and prices comparing international productivity The scope of the book is international, using data and publications from four continents, and tackling head on the difficulties arising from measuring construction. By addressing problems that arise everywhere from individual project documentation, right up to national industrial accounts, this much-needed book can have an impact at every level of the industry. It is essential reading for postgraduate construction students and researchers, students of industrial economics, construction economists and policy-makers.
This book serves three basic purposes: (1) a tutorial-type reference for complex systems engineering (CSE) concepts and associated terminology, (2) a recommendation of a proposed methodology showing how the evolving practice of CSE can lead to a more unified theory, and (3) a complex systems (CSs) initiative for organizations to invest some of their resources toward helping to make the world a better place. A wide variety of technical practitioners-e.g., developers of new or improved systems (particularly systems engineers), program and project managers, associated staff/workers, funders and overseers, government executives, military officers, systems acquisition personnel, contract specialists, owners of large and small businesses, professional society members, and CS researchers-may be interested in further exploring these topics. Readers will learn more about CS characteristics and behaviors and CSE principles and will therefore be able to focus on techniques that will better serve them in their everyday work environments in dealing with complexity. The fundamental observation is that many systems inherently involve a deeper complexity because stakeholders are engaged in the enterprise. This means that such CSs are more difficult to invent, create, or improve upon because no one can be in total control since people cannot be completely controlled. Therefore, one needs to concentrate on trying to influence progress, then wait a suitable amount of time to see what happens, iterating as necessary. With just three chapters in this book, it seems to make sense to provide a tutorial introduction that readers can peruse only as necessary, considering their background and understanding, then a chapter laying out the suggested artifacts and methodology, followed by a chapter emphasizing worthwhile areas of application.
This book is a continuation of Corporate Law and the Theory of the Firm: Reconstructing Corporations, Shareholders, Directors, Owners, and Investors. The author extends his analysis of contract law, property law, agency law, trust law, and corporate statutory law and applies that analysis to defy conventional concepts and theories in economics, finance, investment, and accounting and expose the artificial boundaries established by decades of research founded on indefensible assumptions and fallacious conclusions. Using the Humpty Dumpty principle, where words mean what the authors want them to mean, economists have created "strange new worlds" where contract law, property law, agency law, and corporate statutory law no longer apply. The author dismantles the theory of the firm by proving the theory of the firm wilfully and intentionally ignores fundamental contract law, property law, agency law, and corporate statutory law. Contrary to the theory of the firm, shareholders do not own corporations, directors are not agents of shareholders, and shareholders are not investors in corporations. The author proves that by property law and corporate law, capital is not privately owned by capitalists but by corporations. Entire economic and social systems have been constructed that have no basis in law. With the advent of publicly traded corporations, the capital is there, but both capitalists and capitalism have been rendered extinct. This book will appeal to researchers and graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in economics, finance, accounting, law, and sociology, as well as legal scholars, attorneys and accountants.
Artificial intelligence and the autonomous robots of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will render certain jobs and competences obsolete but will also create new roles, which in turn require new sets of skills. They will also transform how we produce, distribute and consume, as well as how we think. Rather than a linear understanding of evolutionary processes, we will develop a more interactive and circular interpretation. This book offers a unique and holistic perspective on the future of work in the context of industry 4.0. It discusses the globalization of capital markets, how artificial intelligence can help organizations to be more competitive and the new role of leadership in this technological landscape. The author argues that there are four categories of competences, which will be required in order to maintain the relevance of human skills and expertise in the innovation economy. The new jobs that come into being will lend themselves to a particular set of skills. General competences will be necessary for roles involving the 4Cs of communication, creativity, collaboration and change. Specific or STEM competences will be called for across the science, technology, engineering and mathematics sectors. Human competences will lend themselves to positions comprising the SELC framework of social, emotional, leadership and cultural skills. Critical or REVE competences will be in demand for roles embracing reflection, ethics, values and the environment. The book provides a human-centric view of the current technological advancements of artificial intelligence and robotics and offers a positive outlook for human actors seeking continued relevance. It will appeal to scholars and students of the innovation economy, the knowledge society and the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.
First published in 1930, New Zealand in the Making is an economic history of the democratic experiments in New Zealand. The geography, population, government ownership of public utilities, compulsory arbitration, pensions and all other factors have been covered in detail. The book will be of interest to anyone keen on learning about New Zealand as well as to students of economy, history, agriculture, and government.
Drawing on a range of European cases, this edited volume analyses the offshoring and outsourcing of foreign companies, with a focus on territorial embeddedness. The book opens by developing a theoretical framework and then presents a range of international case studies exploring the experiences of the service hub cities of Brno, Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow, and Prague. Attention is also given to internal and external determinants of embeddedness, with chapters on the employee perspective, the Fintech industry, corporate social responsibility, and the role of universities. This volume will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in regional economics, economic geography, innovation studies, industrial economics, European economics, and international business.
Very little has been written on industrialization and deindustrialization in Asia and Africa. This reference work sheds illuminating light upon the industrial development in Asia and Africa. It also provides an in-depth look into China's engagement and migrant labour in Africa. The book also addresses the roles of public-private partnership (PPP) and international development cooperation and how they are fundamental to industrialization in Asia and Africa. Designing Integrated Industrial Policies will be a very useful reference particularly as a how-to guide on industrial promotion and designing integrated industrial policies not only for economic growth and job creation but also for "inclusive" development. It comes with country cases and illustrates useful tools for industrial policy simulation and for evidence-based policy making through these concrete examples.
Luxury, Fashion and the Early Modern Idea of Credit addresses how social and cultural ideas about credit and trust, in the context of fashion and trade, were affected by the growth and development of the bankruptcy institution. Luxury, fashion and social standing are intimately connected to consumption on credit. Drawing on data from the fashion trade, this fascinating edited volume shows how the concepts of credit, trust and bankruptcy changed towards the end of the early modern period (1500 1800) and in the beginning of the modern period. Focusing on Sweden, with comparative material from France and other European countries, this volume draws together emerging and established scholars from across the fields of economic history and fashion. This book is an essential read for scholars in economic history, financial history, social history and European history.
As the fourth largest military spender in the world, India has a huge defence economy supported by a budget amounting to nearly $67 billion in 2020-21. This book examines how well India's defence economy is managed, through a detailed statistical exposition of five key themes - defence planning, expenditure, arms production, procurement and offsets. This book is based on hard-core evidence collected from multiple government and other credible sources including the ministries of Defence, Finance, and Commerce and Industry, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the Reserve Bank of India. It discusses key issues such as the evolution of India's defence plan; the feasibility of increasing defence spending; India's defence acquisition system; and the recent reform measures taken under the rubric of the 'Make in India' initiative. Well supplemented with original tables and figures, India's Defence Economy will be indispensable to students and researchers of defence and security studies, politics and international relations, finance, development studies, economics, strategic studies, South Asian politics, foreign policy and peace studies. It will also be of interest to defence ministry officials, senior armed forces personnel, military attaches, defence training institutes and strategic think tanks. |
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