This book advances our understanding of interaction processes in multi-organisational partnerships, alliances and networks. By adopting a relational approach on collaboration, control, learning, conflict in and failure of inter-organisational relationships and networks, the book attempts to fill an existing gap in the literature. In so doing, it poses and answers leading questions such as: Which processes matter inside inter-organisational relationships and networks? What are the consequences of relations within them? The contributors' approach is relatively novel in the field of network studies: the process or relational stance taken complements existing knowledge on structural characteristics of inter-organisational relationships and networks. A number of key processes essential to their functioning and performance are addressed, and a future research agenda for structuralist, interactionist and combined approaches is recommended. Academics and practitioners focussing on organisation studies in general, and inter-organisational network research more specifically, will find this book a compelling read, as will consultants in inter-organisational collaboration and relationships.

Trust is an elusive concept, meaning different things to different people, and so needs to be clearly defined. By focusing on relations within and between firms, Bart Nooteboom undertakes to produce a clearer definition of trust and its role in the economy. Trust deals with a range of questions such as: what are the roles of trust? What can we trust in? Can trust serve as an instrument for the governance of relations? Is trust a substitute, a precondition or an outcome of contracts? The author then goes on to analyse what trust is based on, what its limits are, how it grows and how it can also break down. The role of intermediaries is also discussed. Bart Nooteboom argues that trust goes beyond calculative self-interest and that blind, unconditional trust is unwise. He then examines the paradox of how trust can be non-calculative and yet, not blind. The book also reveals ways to measure and model trust, its antecedents and its consequences.

Achieve "Massive Action" results and accomplish your business dreams

While most people operate with only three degrees of action-no action, retreat, or normal action-if you're after big goals, you don't want to settle for the ordinary. To reach the next level, you must understand the coveted 4th degree of action. This 4th degree, also know as the 10 X Rule, is that level of action that guarantees companies and individuals realize their goals and dreams.

"The 10 X Rule" unveils the principle of "Massive Action," allowing you to blast through business clichZs and risk-aversion while taking concrete steps to reach your dreams. It also demonstrates why people get stuck in the first three actions and how to move into making the 10X Rule a discipline. Find out exactly where to start, what to do, and how to follow up each action you take with more action to achieve Massive Action results.Learn the "Estimation of Effort" calculation to ensure you exceed your targetsMake the Fourth Degree a way of life and defy mediocrityDiscover the time management mythGet the exact reasons why people fail and others succeedKnow the exact formula to solve problems

Extreme success is by definition outside the realm of normal action. Instead of behaving like everybody else and settling for average results, take Massive Action with "The 10 X Rule," remove luck and chance from your business equation, and lock in massive success.

From Stephen R. Covey—the late, legendary author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People—a set of principles for achieving a happy and fulfilling life of primary greatness.

Many of us are hurting. We have chronic problems, dissatisfactions, and disappointments. Although we generally make it through the day, a lot of us feel overwhelmed by burdens we carry. We try to “lift the load of life” each day and sometimes it’s just too much. The idea of living a “great life” seems a distant dream.

Stephen R. Covey believed there were only two ways to experience life: primary greatness or secondary greatness. Through his books and speaking, he taught that the intrinsic rewards of primary greatness—integrity, responsibility, and contribution—far outweighed the extrinsic rewards of secondary greatness—money, popularity, and the self-absorbed, pleasure-ridden life that some people consider “success.”

In this posthumous work, Covey lays out clearly the 12 levers of success that will lead to a life of primary greatness: Integrity, Contribution, Priority, Sacrifice, Service, Responsibility, Loyalty, Reciprocity, Diversity, Learning, Teaching, and Renewal. For the first time, Covey defines each of these 12 qualities and how they can be leveraged and enacted in your daily life to lead you to success and happiness. Featuring his trademarked wisdom that is beloved and has inspired countless readers and leaders, Primary Greatness once again delivers classic Covey advice in a concise and reader-friendly way.

This volume is the imaginative outcome of several international strategy scholars who have cultivated original research on the broad relationship between strategic capabilities and knowledge transfer at both intra- and inter-organizational levels. This innovative book explores, in depth, the role that strategic capabilities play in facilitating or preventing knowledge transfer in both firm and interfirm environments. As regards the relationships between strategic capabilities and the transfer of knowledge, the research encompasses different levels of analysis (e.g., the firm, the interorganizational network, the industry), different theoretical lenses (e.g., the resource-based view, the knowledge-based view, the evolutionary perspective, transaction cost economics, the cognitive theory) and different methodological stances (conceptual, empirical, case based). Strategic Capabilities and Knowledge Transfer Within and Between Organizations is an illuminating and cohesive book which will appeal to scholars and researchers of management and business strategy as well as practitioners such as managers and consultants.

Personal technology continues to evolve every day, but business technology does not follow that trend. Business IT is often treated as a necessary evil that can't be relied upon to take companies to the next level in their corporate evolution. In "The Golden Age of Drive-Thru IT," author Kedar Sathe offers useful, wide-ranging, and imaginative advice about how to revive and strengthen IT departments.

Sathe, who has been programming computers since age fourteen, discusses how businesses must establish and execute new IT strategies to maintain and increase their bottom line. "The Golden Age of Drive-Thru IT" describes various aspects of technology and how IT can rise to every occasion and become a strategic enabler. It shows how IT can become nimble and flexible, yet produce robust and graceful solutions that allow companies to drive toward success in an efficient and enriching fashion.

"The Golden Age of Drive-Thru IT" communicates how innovative ideas and smart, enthusiastic contributors will allow IT transformations to take place, reinvent itself, rise to its true potential, and stop selling itself short.

Communication between man and machine is vital to completing projects in the current day and age. Without this constant connectiveness as we enter an era of big data, project completion will result in utter failure. Agile Approaches for Successfully Managing and Executing Projects in the Fourth Industrial Revolution addresses changes wrought by Industry 4.0 and its effects on project management as well as adaptations and adjustments that will need to be made within project life cycles and project risk management. Highlighting such topics as agile planning, cloud projects, and organization structure, it is designed for project managers, executive management, students, and academicians.

The "family effect" remains a challenge for researchers interested in both the family firm's organizational form and in the effects of familial ownership on a firm's strategy, structure, and performance. Governance mechanisms, management quality, ownership concentration, and family involvement all have relevant effects in terms of influencing monitoring costs, investment decisions, the development of the portfolio of resources and capabilities, and family firm competitiveness. Nevertheless, few studies to date have opened the black box of the "family effect." Competitiveness, Organizational Management, and Governance in Family Firms is an essential reference source that makes a clear distinction between the separation of ownership and management, on the one hand, and the institutional development of family governance instruments, on the other, to help uncover the asymmetric effects of these two choices. It also allows the examination as to which of the two strategies employed in family firms reinforce managerial capital that has a greater positive impact on the "family effect," thus helping to achieve better managerial capabilities. Featuring research on topics such as corporate governance, private business, and successional leadership, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, CEOs, company owners, consultants, business professionals, entrepreneurs, academicians, and researchers interested in an in-depth understanding of the keys to success and survival of family-operated organizations.