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Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Management of specific areas > Research & development management
Rooted in strategic management research, Business Model Innovation explores the concepts, tools, and techniques that enable organizations to gain and/or maintain a competitive advantage in the face of technological innovation, globalization, and an increasingly knowledge-intensive economy. Updated with all-new cases, this second edition of the must-have for those looking to grasp the fundamentals of business model innovation, explores the novel ways in which an organization can generate, deliver, and monetize benefits to customers.
This pioneering collection seeks to understand why and how some digital enterprises in Africa progress while others firms either stagnate or regress. Using a range of detailed case studies, it addresses the challenges and barriers that are in place and how some outstanding digital firms deal with operating in a hostile business environment. While digital platforms have created equal access for small businesses, many digital entrepreneurs in Africa continue to struggle with local environments replete with corruption, and other economic inefficiencies. The contributions move the debate forward by addressing the challenges, opportunities, and prospects of digital enterprise in Africa. Placing special emphasis on how African new entrant digital firms are shaping the landscape and forging a new beginning for Africa, this book offers entrepreneurial perspectives to both researchers and policy-makers seeking to support and stimulate entrepreneurship in the new era.
In most discussions about the knowledge-based economy, innovation is associated or even equated with technology, while culture's influence is ignored. Innovation is however embedded in cultural and social contexts, and neglecting these crucial contexts may impede an innovation's diffusion-and eventual success. This book places culture at the center of discussions on innovation, beginning with a comprehensive introduction to innovation's various forms, including the history, sociology, and economics of innovation. Insights from marketing and psychology are integrated into a complexity theory framework, which are then utilized to evaluate case studies of organizations experiencing repeated innovation successes. The sometimes fraught relationship of firms to creativity is discussed, and a new model for to calculating the creativity of an economy is presented.
This book offers a new understanding of innovation in the built environment. The ways meaning of innovation is constructed has important implications for policymakers, project managers, academics and students. Through a longitudinal research study into innovation in firms and projects, the book addresses some key themes, challenges and concerns that practitioners face when managing innovation in the built environment. It examines the key drivers for innovation in the construction, engineering and infrastructure firms and projects. In particular, the questions of how and why innovation becomes recognised and sustained over time are explored. Different theoretical perspectives are considered to explain different aspects of innovation. This includes sensemaking, organisational and individual identity, storytelling and narration. The book has practical implications for how organisational activities become labelled as 'innovation' and for what purpose. It shares some lived stories of innovation as mobilised by practising managers. The connectivity between the formal narratives of innovation at the policy level and the lived narratives of innovation articulated by practitioners is explored. Combining the theory with practice, this book presents an insightful view on the implications of innovation in the business world today.
This book focuses on Fintech regulation in Asian, situating local developments in broader economic, regulatory and technological contexts. Over the last decade, Fintech - broadly defined as the use of new information technologies to help financial institutions and intermediaries compete in the marketplace - has disrupted the financial services sector. Like other 21st century technological developments, Fintech is a global phenomenon that plays out in local economic, political and regulatory contexts, and this dynamic interplay between global trends and local circumstances has created a complex and fast-changing landscape. Diverse stakeholders (most obviously incumbent financial service providers, tech start-ups and regulators) all pursue a competitive edge against a background of profound uncertainty about the future direction and possible effects of multiple emerging technologies. Compounding these difficulties are uncertainties surrounding regulatory responses. Policymakers often struggle to identify appropriate regulatory responses and increasingly turn to policy experimentation. Such issues add to the challenges for the various actors operating in the Fintech space. This situation is particularly fluid in Asia, since many jurisdictions are seeking to establish themselves as a regional hub for new financial services.
In today's ever-changing global world, there is a permanent need for anticipating new and evolving customer needs, resource supply constraints, and dynamically changing employee expectations. Sustainable innovation applies to products, services, and technologies as well as new business and organization models. This book provides insights into sustainable innovation trends in various marketing- and management-related fields. Authors critically investigate, amongst others, the sustainability impact of disruptive product design and innovative collaboration solutions within buyer-supplier relationships, along with innovative organizational processes to promote sustainable well-being-productivity synergy in a VUCA world. This volume is a uniquely positioned contribution of interrelated research articles on the sustainability-driven innovation needed for organizational health and future viability.
This book focuses on how companies are innovating with regard to the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid (BOP) the lowest socio-economic segment, and the organizational conditions they need to be successful. The authors use several examples of disruptive innovations for this market, particularly in the Indian healthcare sector. Low-cost, specialty hospital chains like Aravind Eye Care and Narayana Hrudayalaya have brought down the cost of certain medical procedures significantly. The Indian conglomerate Tata Group and the American healthcare giant GE Healthcare have also developed affordable products targeted at the lowest-income segments in India. The authors present an in-depth analysis of these companies and present their insightful results on disruptive innovation and the ever-challenging BOP market.
Innovation is a source of building long-term sustainability. If implemented successfully it can lead to superior organizational performance. To be competitive, companies and their leaders continuously strive to engage in new market spaces by developing and engaging in an innovative culture so as to differentiate themselves from their rivals. With contributions from scholars and practitioners, this Handbook provides evidence-based case studies to identify workplace innovation practices in developed and developing countries. Chapters are based on an organizational innovation framework and focuses on two major areas: the determinants of innovation and the process and outcome elements. It covers in-depth, cutting edge specialised topics such as frugal innovation, innovation associated with leadership as well as numerous organisational contexts such as for-profit and not for profit sectors and small, medium and large organisations. Essential reading for any student or scholar of innovation studies, this handbook provides novel coverage of innovation practices linked to organizational variables such as culture, ethics, leadership and performance.
As industries adopt consumer-focused product development strategies, they should offer broader product ranges in shorter design times and the processes that can manufacture in arbitrary lot sizes. In addition, they would need to apply state-of-the-art methods and tools to easily conduct early product design and development trade-off analysis among competing objectives. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering supplies insights into the methods and techniques that enable implementing a consumer-focused product design philosophy by integrating design and development capabilities with intelligent computer-based systems. The book defines customer focused design and discusses ways to assess changing demands and sources, and delves into what is needed to successfully manufacture goods in a demanding market. It reviews proven methods for assessing customer need. Then, after showing how changing needs impact the reengineering of products, it explains how change can be efficiently achieved. It details how IT advances and technology support customer-focused product development, discusses cutting-edge mass customization principles that maximize cost-effective production, and illustrates how to implement effective predictive maintenance policies. Methods in Product Design: New Strategies in Reengineering provides methods, state-of-the-art technologies, and new strategies for customer-focused product design and development that allow organizations to quickly respond to the demanding global marketplace.
The growth of global corporations has led to the development of new business strategies whose complexity and configuration rest on corporate networks; corporate cross-culture and intangible corporate and product assets. In global markets, corporations compete in a competitive marketspace dimension, in other words, competitive boundaries in which space is not a stable element of the decision-making process, but a competitive factor whose complexity depends on markets increasingly characterized by time-based competition and over-supply. In view of today's fierce competition from US and Southeast Asian corporations, this book highlights global business development policies based on innovation, sustainability and intangible assets. The book assesses competitive business management from a global perspective, examining business development policies linked to the profitability of global firms. It forces readers to actively think through the most fundamental policies developed by global firms in the current competitive landscape and provides answers to questions such as: What are the new drivers of global capitalism?; How do global businesses deal with new local nationalism?; Which governance systems and behavioural norms qualify global businesses?; What are the main business policies that characterize competitive business management in a global competition perspective? Competitive Business Management neatly explains the global business management domain and helps readers to gain an understanding of global development business policies.
This volume presents a selection of the Proceedings of the Workshop on Anticipation, Agency and Complexity held in Trento (Italy) on April 2017. The contributions contained in the book brilliantly revolve around three core concepts: agency, complexity and anticipation, giving precious insights to further define the discipline of anticipation. In a world that moves increasingly fast, constantly on the verge of disruptive events, more and more scholars and practitioners in any field feel in need of new approaches to make sense of the complexity and uncertainty that the future seems to bear. The theory of anticipation tries to describe how possible futures are intrinsically intertwined with the present.
To properly understand the nature of the digital economy we need to investigate the phenomenon of a "ubiquitous computing system" (UCS). As defined by Robin Milner, this notion implies the following characteristics: (i) it will continually make decisions hitherto made by us; (ii) it will be vast, maybe 100 times today's systems; (iii) it must continually adapt, on-line, to new requirements; and, (iv) individual UCSs will interact with one another. This book argues that neoclassical approaches to modelling economic behaviour based on optimal control by "representative-agents" are ill-suited to a world typified by concurrency, decentralized control, and interaction. To this end, it argues for the development of new, process-based approaches to analysis, modelling, and simulation. The book provides the context-both philosophical and mathematical-for the construction and application of new, rigorous, and meaningful analytical tools. In terms of social theory, it adopts a Post-Cognitivist approach, the elements of which include the nature philosophy of Schelling, Marx's critique of political economy, Peircean Pragmatism, Whitehead's process philosophy, and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the flesh, along with cognitive scientific notions of embodied cognition and neural Darwinism, as well as more questionable notions of artificial intelligence that are encompassed by the rubric of "perception-and-action-without-intelligence".
R&D Investment and Impact in the Global Construction Industry brings together contributions from leading industry researchers in a diverse group of countries to investigate the role of research and development (R&D) in the construction industry. Investment in R&D is a proven factor in economic growth, and helps develop a more productive and innovative industry. This book explores how policy makers and industry leaders can better target future investment; and how industry and researchers can manage their efforts to improve productivity whilst addressing the environmental and social needs of their communities. Case studies present projects where R&D ideas funded by both the private and public sectors have been translated from research into practice or policy, and examine drivers, successes and barriers to the delivery of R&D in industry. Based on research from members of the CIB Task Group 85 (R&D Investment and Impact) and concluding with key insights for maximising the impact of R&D in the future, the book holds valuable lessons for practitioners, policy makers and researchers across the international construction industry.
Competition and intellectual property rights (IPRs) are both necessary for a market to work efficiently and to promote consumer welfare. Properly applied, intellectual property rules define a legal framework which allows undertakings to profit from their inventions. This in turn encourages competition among firms and enhances dynamic efficiency, to the benefit of consumer welfare. Standard setting represents one of the fields where the interaction between competition law and IPRs clearly comes to light. The collaborative goal of standard setting organizations (SSOs) is to adopt and promote standards that either do not conflict with anyone's right or, if they do, are developed under condition that patents are licensed under defined terms. This book examines the tension between IPRs and competition in the standard setting field which can arise when innovators over-exploit the rights they have been granted and hold up an entire industry. The book compares EU and U.S. jurisdictions with a particular focus on the IT and telecommunication sectors. It scrutinizes those practices which could harm standard setting and its goals, looking at misleading conducts by SSOs' members which may lead to breach the EU and U.S. antitrust provisions on abuse of market power. Recent developments in EU and U.S. standard setting are analysed highlighting the differences in enforcement approaches. The book considers how the optimal balance between IPRs and industry standards can be struck, suggesting a policy model which takes into account both innovators' interests and SSOs' goals.
New product development is not just about creating successful new products. It is about creating new products that will help companies succeed in the global economy. It is also about eliminating products that no longer contribute to the success of the firm. This book presents a blend of cases, original survey research, and theory, to show the principles used by successful firms in developing new products and pruning those that hold the company back.
Successful innovation is a true challenge and especially when today's companies are intertwined in close inter-organisational relationships and networks with e.g. customers and suppliers. Research has indicated that accounting can play important roles in such innovation processes, but there is little in-depth systematic knowledge about this issue. Accounting, Innovation and Inter-Organisational Relationships gathers leading researchers from all around the world to argue for the importance of more systematic knowledge about accounting, innovation and inter-organisational relationships. Accounting, Innovation and Inter-Organisational Relationships thus becomes an important source for researchers and practitioners interested in accounting and inter-organisational relationships as well as the related disciplines of management, marketing, innovation and strategy.
The introduction of Enterprise Identity Management Systems (EIdMS) in organizations even beyond the purely technological level is a costly and challenging endeavor. However, for decision makers it seems difficult to fully understand the impacts and opportunities arising from the introduction of EIdMS. This book explores the relevant aspects for an ex-ante evaluation of EIdMS. Therefore it examines this domain by employing a qualitative expert interview study to better understand the nature of EIdMS, as they are situated between security and productive IT systems. To this regard, the focus is put on the general nature of EIdMS projects and the constructs being relevant for analyzing such projects in the decision support phase. Based on the derived constructs and thematic topics from the interviews, an explanatory model for EIdMS introductions is derived and iteratively improved and evaluated. Finally, a possible application use-case for the creation of adequate decision support tools is presented.
Category management is one of the biggest contributors of commercial value in the area of procurement and supply chain. With a proven track record of successful delivery since the early 1990s, it helps organisations gather and analyse key data about their procurement spend before subsequently creating and delivering value-adding strategies that change the value proposition from supply chains. The aim of category management is to find long-term breakthrough strategies that help lift an organisation's commercial performance to a new level. Because of its strategic long-term orientation and complex execution, category management has long been the preserve of commercial consulting companies - in effect a 'black box' toolkit shrouded in expensive methodologies. This practical handbook lifts the lid on category management by providing readers with a step-by-step process and established toolkit that allows them a 'do-it-yourself' approach. Each activity is presented as a simple tool or technique for practitioners to apply to their own organisations. To support each activity, easy-to- use templates and checklists have been provided, together with simple but practical hints and tips for implementation. This handbook is a 'must read' for all procurement and supplychain managers looking to find significant improvements in their organisations. Its practical approach cuts through long-winded consultant-speak and provides an easy-to-use practical toolkit for everyday application.
This book introduces cutting-edge issues and thought-provoking concepts on innovation management. It illustrates how robotic developments allow new powerful support functionalities for harnessing workplace innovations and new types of work in enterprises. In particular, low status jobs-heavy, repetitive and dangerous jobs-are disappearing and increasingly replaced by creative and meaningful work. It situates the research within theoretical developments and academic literature in business and management studies on innovation networks and partnerships. The book then introduces the notion of "friction management," which invites us to re-examine creative tensions and explore how contradictions may spur or restrain change and innovation in this landscape. Innovation and change challenge established patterns, cultures, value systems, interests and network configurations-which creates a variety of frictions. Therefore, a theory of friction management is crucial, particularly in innovation-intensive industries, and can help professionals to understand change and the dynamics of innovation so that they can orchestrate events and learn to distinguish between the creative and negative frictions that can arise and that are important for change and the innovation process. Thus, the goal of friction management is to orchestrate, mobilize and (re)combine key organizational resources to strategically increase innovation capacity and promote dynamic renewal and creativity. It will be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in the areas of innovation management, sociology and business administration.
Technology in several forms, especially Information Technology (IT), has a strong tendency to converge at varying degrees. This phenomenon of converging innovation is likely to deepen and widen in the future due to intense competition in global markets. Asian manufacturing firms in particular lead the global industrial innovation. Convergent innovation exists as a constant disequilibrium between reference technology and matching technology; innovations of these technologies occur at different degrees to attain an optimal balance. Innovations as a result of convergence are often beneficial, improving welfare and employment. This book sheds light on the little-discussed idea of convergent innovation with examples hailing from Asia. The book also proposes new theories and investigates convergence at the micro level - guaranteed food for thought for academics interested in innovation economics and management.
Over the last several decades there has been a growing interest in the relationship between entrepreneurship and university-industry collaboration, namely how such cooperation can benefit entrepreneurship development at individual, national, and regional levels. While there are several refereed journal articles on different aspects of university-industry cooperation, most studies dwell primarily on instruments such as spin-offs, incubators and graduate entrepreneurs. This collection offers the first book-length compendium of international comparative perspectives on university-industry cooperation. Entrepreneurship and Knowledge Exchange explores insights from a wide variety of countries of relevance to researchers as well as policy and decision makers, especially those working in developing economies. Seminal contributions from top academics in the field, such as Alan Gibb, Peter Scott, and Mary Walshok, are included. The issues of knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship, and regional/national economic regeneration have inspired countless programs and initiatives at national and regional levels, and the chapters in this book examine these initiatives, providing both a reference work and a record of practical experience.
When one considers broadband, the Internet immediately springs to mind. However, broadband is impacting society in many ways. For instance, broadband networks can be used to deliver healthcare or community related services to individuals who don't have computers, have distance as an issue to contend with, or don't use the internet. Broadband can support better management of scarce energy resources with the advent of smart grids, enables improved teleworking capacity and opens up a world of new entertainment possibilities. Yet scholarly examinations of broadband technology have so far examined adoption, usage, or diffusion but missed exploring the capacity of broadband networks to enable new applications, the management aspects of funding and developing broadband-enabled services, or the policy environment in which such networks are developed. This book explores a wide range of issues associated with the deployment and use of broadband including its impacts on individuals, organizations, and society, and offers a generalist understanding of the technical aspects of broadband. Management of Broadband Technology and Innovation offers insights on broadband from the perspectives of Information Systems, Management, Strategy, and Communications Policy scholars, drawing on research from these disciplines to inform diverse aspects of broadband deployment, policy, and use. Issues associated with a subject technical in nature, but now researched in many ways, are emphasised. This book explains various softer aspects of broadband deployment and use, focusing on the benefits of broadband rather than on details of the technology.
Originally published in 1992 and now with an updated Preface this book analyses the development of innovations using a network perspective. The book offers practical guidelines with direct managerial relevance based on evidence collected from twenty-two case studies. First introducing theories of product development, adoption and diffusion, it then places them in the context of industrial networks, investigating such topics as user-involvement, interaction and market strategies. The book is essential reading for students of marketing, technology and strategy.
Originally published in 1989 this book gives an overview of the empirical work on new technology objectives, together with an analysis of management strategies for adoption at the corporate, technological and people levels. It also reviews previous work on the extent to which staff at different levels, and from different specialism, are involved in decision-making, as well as the adoption process more generally. The book looks at different approaches to analysing organizational contexts and provides a framework for studying the stages of the adoption process. The book includes case studies - two in financial services and two in engineering contexts.
This book, originally published in 1984, established the need for a strategic managerial response to the new technology, which relies on an understanding of the real effects of technology - on organisational structure, manageemnt style and employee relations. It assesses the impact of the new information technology on manufacturing systems, employment levels and types, industrial relations and finally on marketing and external relationships. |
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