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Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Management of specific areas > Research & development management
In this new book, Hara, Kambayashi and Matsushima gather together a collection of case studies of innovation in various industries in modern Japan, including automobile, electronics, semiconductor, component, chemical, pharmaceutical and service industries. Unlike other books in this area, this book focuses on a broader range of Japanese industries from the post world war era to the modern day and considers the relationships between the characteristics of innovation and the features of Japanese society. These chapters demonstrate Japan's shift from being product-oriented and domestic to being business system-oriented and global. Meanwhile the process of innovation in Japan continues to include the tendency of eliminating uncertainty through intimate in-process interaction between different functions, rather than through preset rule or contracts. This book goes some way in challenging accepted notions of Japanese innovation, emphasising new and diverse trends and practises.
The emotions are at the centre of our lives and, for better or worse, imbue them with much of their significance. The philosophical problems stirred up by the existence of the emotions, over which many great philosophers of the past have laboured, revolve around attempts to understand what this significance amounts to. Are emotions feelings, thoughts, or experiences? If they are experiences, what are they experiences of? Are emotions rational? In what sense do emotions give meaning to what surrounds us? The Emotions: A Philosophical Introduction introduces and explores these questions in a clear and accessible way. The authors discuss the following key topics:
Including chapter summaries and guides to further reading, The Emotions: A Philosophical Introduction is an ideal starting point for any philosopher or student studying the emotions. It will also be of interest to those in related disciplines such as psychology and the social sciences.
The implementation of new technologies is expected to boost the development of Islamic Finance by increasing accessibility to banking and other financial services in Islamic communities and democratizing access to investment opportunities. At the same time, new technologies will increase financing opportunities and facilitate asset management for Sharia-compliant businesses. This collection of essays from selected experts in the field comprise some of the most topical issues on Islamic Fintech, combining a business focus with legal insights. The book takes as a point of departure the role that Islamic Fintech can play in promoting sustainability. The social vision of welfare improvement and justice is already embedded in Sharia's economic rules, which makes Islamic Finance particularly well suited to bridge the gap between sustainability and funding. Although it is not without challenges for the industry, technology will help unleash its potential. With a holistic approach to Islamic Fintech, the contributing authors address the application of new technologies to Islamic Finance, including robo-advisory, crowdfunding and digital ledger technology (both in the issuance of bitcoin and the registration of securities in tokenized form) and in certain sectors such as takaful (takaful-tech) and health (e-health). Finally, they explore the challenges posed by anti-money laundering ('AML') in the specific realm of Islamic Fintech. The book combines theoretical analysis with a practical focus, both through case studies and directly through the experiences of leading entrepreneurs. In addition, it provides insights on legal and regulatory aspects, which are key in a field that is still in its infancy and needs support from lawmakers and regulators. It is, thus, a reference for academics, legal practitioners, policymakers, entrepreneurs and the Islamic Finance community.
Local government innovation has become one of the most important topics on China's policy agenda in recent decades. This book explains why some local governments are more innovative than others. This book uses a novel theoretical framework and points out that in China's multi-level government structure, the administrative hierarchy and the span of control could shape local governments' innovation motivation, innovation capability, and innovation opportunity, thus influencing local government innovativeness. The author systematically analysed the 177 winners and finalists of the biennial Innovations and Excellence in Chinese Local Governance (IECLG) Awards Programme from 2001 to 2015 to provide convincing empirical evidence to support this theory. This book adopts an institutional approach to explaining local government innovativeness in China and may be a useful reference to help us learn more about local government decisions and behaviours.
Despite providing us with a good understanding of how firms use certain mechanisms to benefit from open innovation strategies, current research provides only limited insights into how barriers internal to the firm may hamper knowledge transfer and limit effective utilization of external knowledge sources. The Influence of Internal Barriers on Open Innovation proposes a dynamic perspective that addresses this gap and aims at stimulating this discussion in two ways. First, by looking at how the way firms structure their internal (innovation) activities may (unintentionally) create barriers to the incorporation of external knowledge. Second, by reflecting on how internal barriers might be coupled to firm decisions aimed at the optimization of innovation processes, like the balance between exploration and exploitation strategies. The chapters of this book provide detailed conceptualization and investigation of organizational characteristics and practices that influence internal barriers to open innovation. The diverse set of studies described in the chapters of this book will help open innovation scholars to better understand the challenges that firms face when dealing with internal barriers that affect their external knowledge search and knowledge sourcing. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Industry and Innovation.
This new book explores how firms achieve competitive advantage in a disruptive, digital and globalized business landscape. An integrative framework, 'The Four Rs of Competitive Success', is introduced, which covers the four core pillars of global strategy: resources and capabilities, technology and innovation (recombination), internationalization and international markets (reach), and physical and virtual location (roots). It then explains how competitive advantage is achieved through an interaction of these four drivers against the backdrop of a globalized and digitized world. It is uniquely practical in its approach, combining theoretical understanding with international case studies and real-life examples throughout each chapter, including Apple, IKEA and Microsoft. Unlocking Strategic Innovation is concise, applied reading for postgraduate students studying international business, corporate strategy, innovation and digital strategy, as well as academics in the field. It will also be important reading for practitioners looking to gain further understanding of how firms compete and flourish in a global and technology-driven environment.
Businesses spend billions on innovation with very little to show for their investment or effort. This book challenges some of the 'ingrained truths' of innovation and suggests a different approach. Innovation is not the creation of a novel idea. It is the successful commercialisation of that novel idea. Rather than starting with a costly, time-consuming problem assessment that seeks to push potential solutions through an innovation funnel, an 'impeller approach' starts with possible solutions and gets the market to pull the best ones forward so they can fail fast or flourish fast. This approach is made possible by the addition of a 'bee' - a new type of integrative thinker who can harvest the existing knowledge from the 'meadow of experts'. Completely reversing the innovation process means organisations are much better placed to win in the market rather than focusing on finding theoretical solutions or clearing innovation stage gates. In addition, this approach also recognises that the people who shepherd the solution through the ideation and testing stage are not the same people who must then take that solution to market for successful commercialisation. Given the current innovation failure rate, coupled with the fact that society is beset with multiple wicked problems, it's time to think differently and innovate innovation itself. This book is essential reading for Heads of Innovation and Commercialisation, Directors of Marketing, Heads of New Product Development and New Service Development, Strategy Directors, Chief Technology Officers, Government advisers and policy makers.
Today, innovation does not just occur in large and incumbent R&D organizations. Instead, it often emerges from the start-up community. In the new innovation economy, the key is to quickly find pieces of innovation, some of which may already be developed. Therefore, there is the need for more advanced means of searching and identifying innovation wherever it may occurs. We point to the importance of data-driven innovation based on digital platforms, as their footprints are growing rapidly and in sync with the shift from analogue to digital innovation workflows. This book offers companies insights on paths to business success and tools that will help them find the right route through the various options when it comes to the digital platforms where innovations may be discovered and from which value may be appropriated. The world hungers for growth and one of the most important vehicles for growth is innovation. In light of the new digital platforms from which data-driven innovation can be extracted, major parts of analogue workflows will be substituted with digital workflows. Data-driven innovation and digital innovation workflows are here to stay. Are you?
In the last two decades, the quest for a widely accepted definition of social enterprise has been a central issue in a great number of publications. The main objective of the ICSEM Project (on which this book is based) was to show that the social enterprise field would benefit much more from linking conceptualisation efforts to the huge diversity of social enterprises than from an additional and ambitious attempt at providing an encompassing definition. Starting from a hypothesis that could be termed "the impossibility of a unified definition", the ICSEM research strategy relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the social enterprise phenomenon in its local and national contexts. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major social enterprise models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. Social Enterprise in Central and Eastern Europe - the last volume in a series of four ICSEM-based books on social enterprise worldwide - will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and others who want to acquire a broad understanding of the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship phenomena as they emerge and develop in this region.
This volume analyzes real in-flight communications to explain the dynamics of knowledge construction. With the use of a grounded theory approach, real-life scenarios for in-depth interviews with aviation informants were developed and analyzed using discourse analysis. The study revealed aspects of tacit knowledge and expertise behavior that develop in mission-critical environments. Among the findings, the author discovered: * Silence is an interactional element and a substantial contributing factor to both completed flights and aviation incidents/accidents * Hesitation is an early reaction when situational awareness is lacking * The aviation sub-cultures contain several distinct micro-cultures which affect professional responsibility and decision making in micro-environments * Human errors should be acknowledged, discussed and repaired by all actors of the flight model * Non-verbal communication in institutional settings and mediated environments is instrumental to safe and efficient operations The results suggest fruitful applications of theory to explore how knowledge is generated in highly structured, high-risk organizational environments, such as hospitals, nuclear plants, battlefields and crisis and disaster locations. Katerinakis explains the emergent knowledge elements in communication command with messages "spoken-heard-understood-applied," from multiple stakeholders... The interplay of theory and real-flight examples, with key interlocutors, creates a valuable narrative both for the expert reader and the lay-person interested in the insights of hospitals, nuclear plants, battlefields, safety and rescue systems, and crisis and disaster locations. Ilias Panagopoulos, PhD Command Fighter Pilot, Col (Ret) Senior Trainer, Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) Training Organisation Safety Manager, NATO Airlift Management Programme In this path-breaking work, Theodore Katerinakis brings the study of human communication to the airplane cockpit as a knowledge environment. Toward that end, drawing on his own experience with the Air Force and Aviation Authorities and interviews with flight controllers and scores of pilots, Katerinakis both builds on moves beyond human factors research and ecological psychology... It is a work of theoretical value across disciplines and organizational settings and of practical importance as well. His lively narrative adds to translational research by translating knowledge or evidence into action in mission-critical systems. Douglas V. Porpora, PhD Professor of Sociology & Director Communication, Culture and Media Drexel University
This edited volume presents an interdisciplinary collection of texts that examine the practice of gamification, the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, specifically as an organization and management research problem. As we travel deeper into the twenty-first century, it is becoming increasingly clear the late modernity is re defining its take on games and play. Following what has been termed a general ludification or playification of society, corporations are beginning to see games and play as resources rather than as a wasteful practice. We are witnessing the emergence of the practice of gamificiation with the intention of mobilizing play's motivational power for capitalist production. This book outlines both the essential "how tos" and also critically explores their links to diverse strands of organization theory such as institutionalism, business ethics, critical theory and organizational behavior. Gamification research has been mostly conducted within disciplines such as information studies, game studies and information systems science. This is a paradoxical state of affairs; whilst gamification aims at being a transformative intervention in work processes and practices and is being deployed as such by practitioners. This book will be of value to researchers, academics and students interested in management and organization studies.
Market-Oriented Product Innovation differs from most other titles,
written either from a marketing or technical perspective, by giving
a holistic view of the product innovation process. It has a product
perspective, written from a managerial point of view, recognizing
that product innovation, or new product development, is a
discipline of its own. It is concerned with managing the products
(goods and services) through their life cycle, integrating
marketing knowledge and technological expertise, with the aim of
getting satisfied customers. The book also gives a thorough
treatment of the human and cultural aspects of product innovation
by focusing on the change processes needed for the development of a
market-oriented culture.
There is a lot of hype, hand-waving, and ink being spilled about artificial intelligence (AI) in business. The amount of coverage of this topic in the trade press and on shareholder calls is evidence of a large change currently underway. It is awesome and terrifying. You might think of AI as a major environmental factor that is creating an evolutionary pressure that will force enterprise to evolve or perish. For those companies that do survive the "silicon wave" sweeping through the global economy, the issue becomes how to keep their humanity amidst the tumult. What started as an inquiry into how executives can adopt AI to harness the best of human and machine capabilities turned into a much more profound rumination on the future of humanity and enterprise. This is a wake-up call for business leaders across all sectors of the economy. Not only should you implement AI regardless of your industry, but once you do, you should fight to stay true to your purpose, your ethical convictions, indeed your humanity, even as our organizations continue to evolve. While not holding any punches about the dangers posed by overpowered AI, this book uniquely surveys where technology is limited, and gives reason for cautious optimism about the true opportunities that lie amidst all the disruptive change currently underway. As such, it is distinctively more optimistic than many of the competing titles on Big Technology. This compelling book weaves together business strategy and philosophy of mind, behavioral psychology and the limits of technology, leadership and law. The authors set out to identify where humans and machines can best complement one another to create an enterprise greater than the sum total of its parts: the Humachine. Combining the global business and forecasting acumen of Professor Nada R. Sanders, PhD, with the legal and philosophical insight of John D. Wood, Esq., the authors combine their strengths to bring us this profound yet accessible book. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in AI and the future of human enterprise.
Concise yet comprehensive, Product Planning Essentials, Second Edition, addresses the complex, interdisciplinary nature of product development and product management. It covers strategic issues that emerge during the product life cycle, including identifying opportunities, idea generation and evaluation, technical development, commercialization, and eventual product dismissal. Instructors, students, and practitioners will appreciate the balanced managerial and how-to orientation. Changes to the Second Edition * Addition of two chapters on design and legal considerations. * Expanded discussion of global considerations to introduce sustainable product development and Base of the Pyramid (BoP) product development. * Simplified technical discussions of planning techniques for improved comprehension. * Inclusion of product planning best practices from recent noteworthy cases and studies in the final chapter.
Concise yet comprehensive, Product Planning Essentials, Second Edition, addresses the complex, interdisciplinary nature of product development and product management. It covers strategic issues that emerge during the product life cycle, including identifying opportunities, idea generation and evaluation, technical development, commercialization, and eventual product dismissal. Instructors, students, and practitioners will appreciate the balanced managerial and how-to orientation. Changes to the Second Edition * Addition of two chapters on design and legal considerations. * Expanded discussion of global considerations to introduce sustainable product development and Base of the Pyramid (BoP) product development. * Simplified technical discussions of planning techniques for improved comprehension. * Inclusion of product planning best practices from recent noteworthy cases and studies in the final chapter.
This book focuses on the questions of: why do some economically
disadvantaged nations develop significantly faster than others, and
what roles do their educational systems play?
This book offers a comprehensive discussion of how green finance has been growing thus far and explores the opportunities and key developments ahead, with particular emphasis on Europe. The main features of the market, the key products, the issue of correctly defining green finance, the main policy actions undertaken, the risk of green washing and the necessary steps to mainstream green finance are discussed in depth. In addition, the book analyses some highly relevant aspects of the market that so far have not been sufficiently explored in the policy, industry and academic debate. This includes the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, the crucial role of the effective financing of the agriculture to reach climate and environmental targets and the possible relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of "alternative" finance. This book will be of interest to academics, practitioners, financial institutions and policy makers involved in green finance and to the finance industry in general.
The open source phenomenon has attracted an increased interest among commercial firms and governments. It is becoming one of the most influential paradigm shifts not only in software development but in social and economic value creation as well. While software development is perhaps the most prominent example of open source, its principles have now been applied across a wide range of product classes, industries and even scientific disciplines. Decision makers at different levels and in a variety of fields need to improve their understanding of the factors that contribute to the Open Source Software (OSS) effectiveness: approaches, tools, social designs, reward structures and metrics. Successful OSS Project Design and Implementation provides a state-of-the-art analysis of OSS design principles, their emergence and success and how they are extending well beyond the domain of software.
In many modern economies, creativity, the essential prerequisite for innovation, tends to be assumed or neglected while the catchphrase "innovation" dominates the field of business as the key to national performance and competitiveness. Creativity and Innovation in Business and Beyond illustrates the ways in which creativity spurs innovation and innovation enables creativity ? not only in the realms of business and management, where the innovation is regularly acknowledged and discussed, but throughout the social sciences. With contributions from experts in fields as far-flung as policy, history, economics, economic geography, sociology, law, psychology, social psychology and education, in addition to business and management, this volume explores the manifold avenues for creativity and innovation at many levels including nation, region, city, institution, organisation, and team across a multitude of sectors and settings.
This book is not just for reading. Design Thinking is something you need to actually do. Reading about design thinking will increase your knowledge, but by doing it, you will learn what design thinking can mean for you, in your studies and your work. In this book we encourage you to take action: design thinking by doing. Since the end of the last millennium, design thinking has received an increasing amount of attention from the business community, social organizations, universities and colleges.Organizations are confronted with complex problems and issues that are no longer self-containe, clear or easy to define. The creative solution strategy offered by design thinking appears to be increasingly needed to adequately respond to the questions, wishes and needs of customers and society as a whole. This book unravels the thinking and working process of design thinking and offers practical tools for getting started. The author approaches design thinking in four chapters, from different perspectives: as a way of thinking, a way of working, a project approach and a tool box.Design thinking is a way of thinking answers the questions: How do design thinkers approach problems and challenges? Which six fundamental attitudes do they use and what do you need to know in order to use them? Design thinking is a way of working answers questions such as: What phases and milestones does the design process distinguish? What is the difference between the more structured design process and the 'messy' cycle of design thinking? Because you learn design thinking by doing, you will practice this in Design thinking is a project approach.Finally, in the last chapter Design thinking is a tool box, the methods and tools that you use in a design project will be discussed. This international edition of Design Thinking is written for students and workers who want to apply design thinking to tackle challenges, problems or complex (social) issues in a different, practical way within their own professional practice.
This book offers a comprehensive overview of the dynamics underpinning the successful performance of local innovation systems (LIS), that is, spatial concentration of innovation activities in specific geographical areas, characterized by the synergetic co-localization of research centers, innovation-driven enterprises, large corporations and capital providers. The reader will gain a deeper knowledge of LIS theory and learn about the theoretical and empirical challenges of studying the LIS from a relational perspective. The book also provides an analytical framework to explore the level of connectivity among LIS actors through the use of social network analysis (network architecture) and second, to assess the variety of different types of relationships that local actors put in place to produce innovation within the LIS (network portfolio). More specifically, this book explores which network configuration is associated with a successful LIS by deriving evidence from the empirical study of the biopharma LIS in the Greater Boston Area (GBA), which has been exemplified as a benchmark case in terms of successful LIS performance. This book also contributes to the theoretical debate about the optimal configuration of network structure (e.g. network closure vs. network openness). In capturing the heterogeneous nature of the LIS demography, it addresses the challenges brought about by the adoption of a holistic approach. Finally, the study provides insights into the network portfolio composition, which has been underexplored by extant literature. Besides addressing the scientific community in the field, this book will also be a valuable resource with practical implications for policymakers and those actors willing to undertake an active role in the development of an LIS in their own regions.
This book captures a range of important developments that have occurred in Information Systems over the last forty years, with a particular focus on India and the developing world. Over this time, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Information Systems (IS) have come to play a critical role in supporting, complementing and automating managerial decisions, shaping and transforming industries, and contributing to deep societal and economic change. This volume examines a range of topics for those interested in the adoption and use of these technologies across varied situations. It combines empirical studies on the application and impact of IS with commentaries, debates and insights on the transformative role that IT and the IT industry have played, and continue to play, within India as well as globally. The book draws attention to issues and challenges that organizations grapple with in tech-enabled environments, and provides insights on the role of automation and computational techniques. It explores the global impact of the technology revolution on economic growth and development, electronic globalization, and the wider opportunities and challenges of a hi-tech world. The chapters cover various themes such as e-government in India, internet-based distribution systems, internet banking, and use of collaborative IT tools and functions to support virtual teams in the software industry and the business process outsourcing industry. Other chapters focus on methodological advances, such as systems thinking which finds applications in organizational decision-making, and the use of fuzzy logic. This volume will interest professionals and scholars of information technology and information systems, computer studies, IT systems, economics, and business and management studies.
The transformational technologies of the Internet-Web compound continue to exert a vast and readily apparent influence on the way we live and work. In recent times, internet penetration is now very high in most parts of the world, impacting the context and content of the workplace and the boundary between work and private life is even more porous. Not only has the reach increased, but the technologies to access the Internet-Web have further evolved towards increasing portability. The hardware evolution from desktops to laptops to mobile technologies (phones, tablets, watches, eyeglasses) marches forward. The increasing mobility and 24/7 accessibility offers the opportune time to revisit the transformations occurring. Today the Internet consists of billions of digital devices, people, services and other physical objects with the potential to seamlessly connect, interact and exchange information about themselves and their environment. Organizations now use these digital devices and physical objects to produce and consume Internet-based services. This new Internet ecosystem is commonly referred to as the Internet of People, Things and Services (IoPTS). In this follow-up to their 2006 volume, Simmers & Anandarajan examine how The Internet of People, Things and Services (IoPTS) transforms our workplaces. Information and communications technology (ICT) expansion from desktops to laptops to ubiquitous smart objects that sense and communicate directly over the internet - the IoPTS - offers us the opportune time to revisit how the Internet transforms our workplaces.
Since the early 2000s, state-led and innovation-focused strategies have characterized the approach to development pursued in countries around the world, such as China, India, and South Korea. Brazil, the largest and most industrialized economy in Latin America, demonstrates both the opportunities and challenges of this approach. Over the course of nearly 20 years, the Brazilian government enacted various policies and programs designed to strengthen the country's capacity to innovate. It increased spending on science and technology, encouraged greater collaboration between industry and universities, and fostered the creation of new institutions whose primary aim was to facilitate greater private research and development (R&D) spending. In this book, the editors unite a diverse array of empirical contributions around a few key themes, including public policies, institutions and innovation ecosystems, and firms and industries, that collectively make the case for a new, forward-looking innovation agenda aimed at addressing persistent challenges and exploiting emerging opportunities in Brazil. Its conclusions offer valuable lessons for other developing and emerging economies seeking to accelerate innovation and growth in the modern age. With its interdisciplinary and wide-ranging contribution to the study of innovation, as well as attention to broader policy implications, this book will appeal to scholars and professionals alike.
Wicked World advocates the need to acknowledge the complex contexts in which managers, professionals and policymakers operate. Conventional tools do not serve us well in these new contexts and regularly aggravate the situation. This book offers a systemic perspective in exploring complex challenges and a sensemaking framework to deal with interconnected, persistent problems. Looking beyond the problem; seeking deeper patterns and linkages to other problems; realizing that cause and effect may not be obvious or close by; and that small changes can have major impacts...these are essential steps in operating in a wicked world. It is time for new perceptions and concepts that can support us. Systems and complexity theories are a starting point for this book. A comprehensive sensemaking framework can guide us in dealing with challenges such as digitalization and robotization impacting businesses, institutions, homes and society as a whole; social inequity and polarizing discourses; obesity, burn-out and cybersecurity. The first step is to become 'systems savvy' - Wicked World takes you on this journey. |
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