In the past 30 years, magnetic research has been dominated by the question of how surfaces and interfaces influence the magnetic and transport properties of nanostructures, thin films and multilayers. The research has been particularly important in the magnetic recording industry where the giant magnetoresistance effect led to a new generation of storage devices including hand-held memories such as those found in the ipod. More recently, transfer of spin angular momentum across interfaces has opened a new field for high frequency applications. This book gives a comprehensive view of research at the forefront of these fields. The frontier is expanding through dynamic exchange between theory and experiment. Contributions have been chosen to reflect this, giving the reader a unified overview of the topic.

Advances in Photovoltaics: Part Four provides valuable information on the challenges faced during the transformation of our energy supply system to more efficient, renewable energies. The volume discusses the topic from a global perspective, presenting the latest information on photovoltaics, a cornerstone technology. It covers all aspects of this important semiconductor technology, reflecting on the tremendous and dynamic advances that have been made on this topic since 1975, when the first book on solar cells-written by Harold J. Hovel of IBM-was published as volume 11 in the now famous series on Semiconductors and Semimetals. Readers will gain a behind the scenes look at the continuous and rapid scientific development that leads to the necessary price and cost reductions in global industrial mass-production.

Research cooperation in a nation is a fundamental key to national competitiveness in technology that supports growth in a national economy. To fully understand why some nations are more successful in innovation than others, one must examine the structure and process of knowledge creation and use - the Science & Technology policy of a nation.National innovation requires progress both in Science & Technology, and also in economy. Research cooperation for innovation is necessary, since science, technology, and production are performed in different sectors of a nation. Universities conduct research science, and science discovers nature. Governments support most of the research in universities, and therefore are the principal sponsors of science. Industry develops most technology and commercializes technology into economically useful products/services. The structure and process of knowledge in a nation thus requires (1) creation of knowledge in science, (2) translation of science into technology, and (3) design of technology into commercialization of utility. At a national level, innovation is thus a complicated concept - proposing a need to identify the proper ways that government-university-industry can cooperate to advance knowledge and economically benefit from innovation. Special programs in Science & Technology policy that have proven beneficial in fostering research cooperation for national competitiveness will be covered in this book.Cooperative Innovation: Science & Technology Policy helps readers understand a practical science & technology policy for a nation. Its contents are particularly useful for government administrators of research, industrial research directors, university research directors, and students of science & technology policy.

Today, economic growth is widely understood to be conditioned by productivity increases which are, in turn, profoundly affected by innovation. This volume explores these key relationships between innovation and growth, bringing together experts from both fields to compile a unique Handbook. The Handbook considers innovation from fresh perspectives, encompassing topics such as services innovation, inward investment and innovation, creative industry innovation and green innovation. It is divided into seven sections, dealing with regional innovation and growth theory, dynamics, evolution, agglomeration, innovation 'worlds', innovation system institutions, and innovation governance and policy. This definitive compendium on regional innovation and growth will undoubtedly appeal to teachers, students, researchers and practitioners of innovation and growth dynamics worldwide. Contributors: M. Abreu, E.S. Andersen, Y. Aoyama, B. Asheim, S. Bagchi-Sen, M. Bellandi, F. Belussi, R. Boschma, N. Bosma, S. Breschi, R. Capello, C. Carrincazeaux, J.L. Christensen, P. Cooke, M. Coris, O. Crevoisier, L. De Propris, A. Eriksson, D. Felsenstein, A. Frenkel, K. Frenken, E. Giuliani, V. Harmaakorpi, M. Heidenreich, R. Horner, S. Iammarino, A. Isaksen, A. James, M. Klofsten, K. Koschatzky, A. Lagendijk, L. Lazzeretti, E. Malecki, R. Martin, H. Melkas, C. Nauwelaers, S. OEberg, P. Prud'homme van Reine, S. Ptak, S. Rosenfeld, V. Schutjens, D. Schwartz, D. Shefer, J. Simmie, E. Stam, M. Steiner, P. Sunley, G. Tichy, F. Toedtling, M. Trippl, T. Tura, E. Vatne, D. Wolfe

Communication is changing rapidly around the world, particularly in Africa, where citizens are embracing digital technologies not only to improve not only interpersonal communication but also the state of their financial well-being. This book investigates these transformations in Nigeria's booming communication industry. The book traces communications in Nigeria back to pre-colonial indigenous communications, through the development of telecommunication, broadcasting networks, the press, the Nigerian film industry ('Nollywood') and on to the digital era. At a time when Western voices still dominate the academic literature on communication in Africa, this book is noteworthy in drawing almost exclusively on the expertise of Nigerian-based authors, critiquing the discipline from their own lens and providing an important contribution to the decolonisation of communication studies. The authors provide a holistic analysis of the sector, encompassing print journalism, broadcast journalism, public relations, advertising, film, development communication, organisational communication and strategic communication. Analysis of the role of digital technologies is woven throughout the book, concluding with a final section theorising the future of communication studies in Nigeria in the light of the digital media revolution. Robust in its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, this book will be an important reference for researchers of media and communication studies, and those working on Africa specifically.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has augmented human activities and unlocked opportunities for many sectors of the economy. It is used for data management and analysis, decision making, and many other aspects. As with most rapidly advancing technologies, law is often playing a catch up role so the study of how law interacts with AI is more critical now than ever before. This book provides a detailed qualitative exploration into regulatory aspects of AI in industry. Offering a unique focus on current practice and existing trends in a wide range of industries where AI plays an increasingly important role, the work contains legal and technical analysis performed by 15 researchers and practitioners from different institutions around the world to provide an overview of how AI is being used and regulated across a wide range of sectors, including aviation, energy, government, healthcare, legal, maritime, military, music, and others. It addresses the broad range of aspects, including privacy, liability, transparency, justice, and others, from the perspective of different jurisdictions. Including a discussion of the role of AI in industry during the Covid-19 pandemic, the chapters also offer a set of recommendations for optimal regulatory interventions. Therefore, this book will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners interested in technological and regulatory aspects of AI.

Companies across different industries are launching technology-enabled (digital) business transformation programs to improve their strategic, tactical, and operational supply chain processes. The greatest challenges that they are facing include the lack of preparation and knowledge of the digital transformation life cycle and poorly addressing or neglecting the "people-related" aspects of them. Therefore, improvement initiatives have been short-lived or incomplete, and expected business benefits have not been achieved or materialized. Technology Optimization and Change Management for Successful Digital Supply Chains is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the application of digital business transformation programs to improve strategic, tactical, and operational supply chain processes. While highlighting topics such as maturity models, predictive analysis, and communication planning, this publication explores the limited literature in the field of digital supply chain optimization and business transformation, and complements it with practical and proven tactics from the industry. This book is ideally designed for program managers, engineers, students, and practitioners seeking current research on the field's latest best practices on digital supply chain enablement.

This book focuses on the analysis of financial data and innovative results of Chinese Zhongguancun (Z-park) NEEQ Listed Firms, and objectively evaluates the growth ability of them. The book displays the overall scale, growth capacity, industry distribution, social contribution, and comparison with other regions of NEEQ Listed Firms in Zhongguancun from multiple dimensions, aiming at objectively presenting the growth characteristics and development status of them. For global investors, economic researchers, or financial analysts, this book will be an important way to understand China's scientific and technological innovation achievements and Zhongguancun's outstanding enterprises.

When is international patent law cooperation and harmonization welfare-enhancing? What is the role of international institutions - WIPO and the WTO - in furthering such harmonization? This book explores these questions from a global welfarist, rationalist perspective. It grounds its analysis in innovation theory and a examination of patent law and prosecution, incorporating the uncertainty of patent law's impact on welfare at a detailed level, dynamic changes, the skewed nature of patent value and the difficulty of textually capturing patent concepts. Using tools from new institutional economics, it explores future design implications for international institutions, analyzing grounds for international cooperation as collective action problems and applying historical, political and transaction cost analyses. Academics, students and practitioners interested in international economic law, specifically in respect of patents, innovation and intellectual property, the TRIPs Agreement, the WTO and WIPO will find this book essential. It will also prove insightful for researchers whose primary background is in international relations or international political economy, but are seeking an introduction to the patent and intellectual property field. Contents: Introduction Part I: Welfare-Enhancing Harmonization 1. Domestic Patent Law, Autarchic Analysis 2. The Value of Diversity: Relaxed Autarchy 3. Bases for Harmonization Part II: International Patent Law Institutions 4. History 5. International Patent Cooperation as Collective Action 6. Institutional Analysis: WIPO and the WTO Conclusions and Implications References

This book provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research on regional competition and co-operation. Developing our current understanding of the new role of regions and their behaviour, this book addresses questions such as: How and why do regions compete? How does competition between border regions operate? Which regions are successful and which regions fail? What are the implications of regional competition in terms of resource allocation, the location of economic activities and the distribution of incomes? The book illuminates a number of critical theoretical end empirical issues relating to the competitive and cooperative nature of regions, as well as highlighting a number of new case studies from a variety of countries. The book will be a useful enhancement to undergraduate and post-graduate courses in economics, economic geography, regional science, regional planning, business administration, and international and industrial management. It will also be an invaluable guidance tool for researchers, consultants and policy makers in international organizations such as the EU, the World Bank and the OECD.

Reduced order modeling is an important, growing field in computational science and engineering, and this is the first book to address the subject in relation to computational fluid dynamics. It focuses on complex parametrization of shapes for their optimization and includes recent developments in advanced topics such as turbulence, stability of flows, inverse problems, optimization, and flow control, as well as applications. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students in the field of reduced order modeling.

This book analyzes future directions in the study of expertise and experience with the aim of engendering more critical discourse on the general discipline of science and technology studies. In 2002, Collins and Evans published an article entitled "The Third Wave of Science Studies," suggesting that the future of science and technology studies would be to engage in "Studies in Expertise and Experience." In their view, scientific expertise in legal and policy settings should reflect a consensus of formally-trained scientists and citizens with experience in the relevant field (but not "ordinary" citizens). The Third Wave has garnered attention in journals and in international workshops, where scholars delivered papers explicating the theoretical foundations and practical applications of the Third Wave. This book arose out of those workshops, and is the next step in the popularization of the Third Wave. The chapters address the novel concept of interactional experts, the use of imitation games, appropriating scientific expertise in law and policy settings, and recent theoretical developments in the Third Wave.

This book presents some twenty case studies, showing how companies in different industry sectors and of different sizes make advances in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). Like the author's previous volumes, this book provides a valuable resource for those wishing to learn about PLM and how to implement and apply it in their companies. Helping readers to * learn about implementing and benefiting from PLM; * learn about good PLM solutions and best practice; * improve their planning and decision-making abilities; * benefit from the lessons learned by the companies featured in the case studies; * proceed faster and further with PLM the book presents effective PLM solutions and best practices. At the same time, the case studies included demonstrate how different companies implement and benefit from PLM. Each case study is addressed in a separate chapter and details a different situation, enabling readers to put themselves in the situation and think through different actions and decisions. A valuable resource for PLM team managers and employees in engineering and manufacturing companies, the book is also of interest to researchers and students in industrial engineering fields.

Smart cities promise to generate economic, social and environmental value through the seamless connection of urban services and infrastructure by digital technologies. However, there is scant evidence of how these activities can enhance social well-being and contribute to just and equitable communities. Smart and Sustainable Cities? Pipedreams, Practicalities and Possibilities provides one of the first examinations of how smart cities relate to environmental and social issues. It addresses the gap between the ambitious visions of smart cities and the actual practices on the ground by focusing on the social and environmental dimensions of real smart city initiatives as well as the possibilities they hold for creating more equitable and progressive cities. Through detailed analyses of case studies in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, India and China, the contributors describe the various ways that social and environmental issues are interpreted and integrated into smart city initiatives and actions. The findings point towards the need for more intentional engagement and collaboration with all urban stakeholders in the design, development and maintenance of smart cities to ensure that everyone benefits from the increasingly digitalised urban environments of the twenty-first century. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Local Environment.

This book focuses on environmental sustainability by employing elements of engineering and green computing through modern educational concepts and solutions. It visualizes the potential of artificial intelligence, enhanced by business activities and strategies for rapid implementation, in manufacturing and green technology. This book covers utilization of renewable resources and implementation of the latest energy-generation technologies. It discusses how to save natural resources from depletion and illustrates facilitation of green technology in industry through usage of advanced materials. The book also covers environmental sustainability and current trends in manufacturing. The book provides the basic concepts of green technology, along with the technology aspects, for researchers, faculty, and students.

This book provides a critical insight into the ongoing debates and controversies that surround employee empowerment and workplace innovation. It highlights competing interests and conflicting values, and illuminates some basic tensions between confident rhetoric and everyday realities. Martin Beirne's contribution marks a contrast with established academic investigations in this area. It combines sober analysis with advocacy to claim space for a research-based activism among coalitions of critical researchers and like-minded practitioners that can anticipate and promote genuinely enriching and empowering ways of managing and organizing work. Advanced students of management and organization will discover an invaluable, thought-provoking resource. It offers fresh insights, stimulating arguments and applied knowledge that will also appeal to managers with responsibility for work and employee relations, and to educators and researchers in the areas of critical management studies, work and employment. Contents: Foreword Foreword to Empowerment and Innovation 1. Perspectives on Empowerment and Progressive Change at Work Part I: Contemporary Developments 2. Progressive Teamworking: Disputes, Promise and Practicalities 3. Technology and User Empowerment 4. Financial Participation 5. Gender and Empowerment 6. Culture, Management and Innovation Part II: Enabling, Enacting and Regulating 7. Sustaining a Voluntary Commitment 8. Public Policy and Regulatory Initiatives References Index

This path-breaking handbook analyzes the foundations, social desirability, institutions and geography of innovation and entrepreneurship. Leading researchers use their outstanding expertise to investigate various aspects in the context of innovation and entrepreneurship such as growth, knowledge production and spillovers, technology transfer, the organization of the firm, industrial policy, financing, small firms and start-ups, and entrepreneurship education as well as the characteristics of the entrepreneur. There is much in this handbook that will prove to be informative and stimulating, especially for academics and post-graduate students in economics and management. Those starting a PhD in innovation or entrepreneurship will find this book essential reading. Contributors: Z.J. Acs, P. Aghion, D.B. Audretsch, G. Avnimelech, W.J. Baumol, W. Boente, P. Braunerhjelm, U. Cantner, B. Carlsson, M. Dejardin, G. Duranton, A. Eisingerich, O. Falck, M.P. Feldman, K. Fogel, M. Fritsch, R. Gold, M. Guerzoni, D. Harhoff, S. Heblich, R.A. Jensen, M. Keilbach, W.R. Kerr, I.M. Kirzner, A. Kleinknecht, T. Kretschmer, K. Lee, A.N. Link, W. McCumber, R. Nanda, N. Nicolaou, B. Nooteboom, S.C. Parker, G. Pellegrino, M. Piva, S. Prantl, C.F. Sabel, A. Saxenian, S. Shane, D.S. Siegel, D.F. Spulber, E. Stam, G. van der Panne, M. van Praag, M. Vivarelli, C.W. Wessner

Published in Association with the Belgian-Dutch Association for Institutional and Political EconomyThis book takes the multidimensional nature of innovation as its point of departure, bringing together leading scholars from a variety of backgrounds to provide an authoritative and comprehensive overview of contemporary innovation challenges. Each chapter adopts its own disciplinary perspective, but all share a common focus on the dynamics that are present in the governance of innovation. The concept of governance is central to describing the social dynamics of innovation and the `nuts and bolts' of innovation processes. The authors demonstrate how influencing the process of invention, the kind of invention, and simultaneously benefiting from it, lies intuitively behind the meaning of innovation governance. In particular, two perspectives on innovation are expounded; the first being agency perspective, especially the innovating firm in the economic process, and the second is the wider social context in which innovation occurs. Extensive and comprehensive, this book illustrates that innovation is a complex and rich phenomenon with many dimensions and aspects. With a truly multidisciplinary perspective on the various dynamics affecting the governance of innovation, it will strongly appeal to a wide-ranging audience spanning scholars of innovation management, innovation politics, business administration, economics and political science. Contributors: M.J. Arentsen, M. Callon, G.C. Geerdink, P.-B. Joly, Y. Krozer, A. Midttun, N.-O. Orjasaeter, A. Rip, D. Schiliro, P.J. Stauvermann, A.E. Steenge, W. van Rossum, J.-P. Voss

Industrial Applications of Machine Learning shows how machine learning can be applied to address real-world problems in the fourth industrial revolution, and provides the required knowledge and tools to empower readers to build their own solutions based on theory and practice. The book introduces the fourth industrial revolution and its current impact on organizations and society. It explores machine learning fundamentals, and includes four case studies that address a real-world problem in the manufacturing or logistics domains, and approaches machine learning solutions from an application-oriented point of view. The book should be of special interest to researchers interested in real-world industrial problems. Features Describes the opportunities, challenges, issues, and trends offered by the fourth industrial revolution Provides a user-friendly introduction to machine learning with examples of cutting-edge applications in different industrial sectors Includes four case studies addressing real-world industrial problems solved with machine learning techniques A dedicated website for the book contains the datasets of the case studies for the reader's reproduction, enabling the groundwork for future problem-solving Uses of three of the most widespread software and programming languages within the engineering and data science communities, namely R, Python, and Weka

This book explores how policies targeting public research institutions, such as universities, contribute to the appropriation of biotechnology through national innovation systems. Around the world, biotechnology has become a driving force for dramatic change in systems and policies intended to spur innovation. The leading contributors expertly construct a detailed picture of policy approaches that support biotechnology and how such approaches work under different economic and social conditions. They also provide an insight into the role of universities in this process. Researchers, academics, students, policy advisors, decision makers and other professionals involved in the fields of biotechnology, innovation systems, higher education and development will find this book an invaluable resource. Contributors: A. Adamsone-Fiskovica, S.G. Antunes de Souza, I. Bortagaray, T.N. Ca, J.E. Cassiolato, L.V. Chuong, A.M. da Graca Mondjana, B.D. Diyamett, B. Goeransson, B. Gregersen, J. Kristapsons, R. Lindner, A. Lulle, P. Macucule, N.P. Mai, E. Mneney, L.F. Montalvo Arriete, B.L.M. Mwamila, L. Neves, J. Nunez Jover, C.M. Palsson, I. Perez Ones, T.T. Phuong, M.S. Rapini, T. Reiss, C.M. Ribeiro, G. Sagieva, U. Schmoch, J. Sutz, E. Tjunina, L. Van Chuong, H. Wang, Z. Yuan, G.F. Zucoloto

`If only one thing could be said about this book is that it comes at the perfect time and fills a great void on the subject it addresses. Genetically Modified Organisms are innovative - so have to be the answers to the legal questions raised by their development: What should be the definition of damage? Who should be held liable? Where should claims be brought? The Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety have been discussing these issues for many years and are now ready to give some answers by means of a new multilateral environmental treaty. The comprehensive analysis and comparative data put forth by the authors contribute enormously to the current debate and provide detailed insights into the nuances of international liability in a manner previously unaddressed.' - Jimena Nieto Carrasco, University of the Andes, El Rosario University, Externado University of Colombia, BogotA!, Colombia Innovation and Liability in Biotechnology introduces and articulates an innovative framework, the Liability Analysis Framework (LAF), which offers a new perspective from which stakeholders and society can assess, manage and communicate about liability in relation to innovation. This path-breaking book provides a detailed description of the relationship between risk and liability. Risk and liability are not synonymous and the fact that, at times, the terms have been used in very close proximity has resulted in confusion and misunderstandings. The book begins with an overview of risk and the development of the Risk Analysis Framework, describing how it has evolved from initial concepts to present day form. It highlights the need for a LAF and provides a diverse examination of the LAF as a means to stimulate further debate. The authors conclude that risk is concerned with hypothetical probabilities whereas liability relates to actual marketplace externalities. Offering a new conceptualization for the analysis of liability, this book will appeal to academics involved in the fields of law, innovation and business, as well as federal regulators and industry representatives. Agricultural organizations and their lawyers who are attempting to understand the legal liability issues involved in growing and marking transgenic crops and their products, will also find this book of great interest.

The Lisbon Agenda aims to prepare Europe for globalization by updating European policies for research, innovation, competition, trade, employment, education, social protection, environment and energy at both the European and national levels. Designed to inspire the new cycle of the Lisbon Agenda until 2010 and beyond, this timely and significant volume explores the intellectual elaboration of the agenda for the coming years. With contributions from some of Europe's leading scholars, this book explores new developments in the European agenda for globalization, addressing four critical areas: European policies, their adaptation to national diversity in Europe, their implications for the external action of the European Union and, finally, their implications for EU governance. This book presents the outcome of an organized dialogue between the political and research communities. Europe, Globalization and the Lisbon Agenda will undoubtedly prove an outstanding addition to the current literature and will be an invaluable resource for European policy-makers, governments and academics from a wide range of disciplines who are concerned about the future competitiveness of Europe.

Originally published in 1993, this book contains 3 studies from Finland, Greece and Japan. These countries were chosen because they experienced their technological transformation mainly during the 20th Century and it was considered that their experience would have some relevant lessons for the countries of the third world. Special attention is paid to Japan as its example has great relevance both for development theory and practical strategies.

Originally published in 1986, this book was published at a time when the manufacturing structure of advanced economies was transformed. The growing internationalization of production, the rising power of giant corporations and the increasing rate of technological innovation remain key issues today. The impact of these changes is felt unevenly between regions, shown by huge job losses in some places and high-tech based growth in others. Drawing together contributions from economists, geographers, sociologists and management specialists, the problems facing the declining regions are discussed and analyzed. The book will be of interest to researchers, planners and policymakers concerned with the regional aspects of technological change and industrial restructuring.