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Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Management of specific areas > Research & development management
Latin America represents one of the most dynamic business regions in the world. Innovation Support in Latin America and Europe explores the need for training innovation professionals, identifies appropriate strategies and best practice for ensuring its delivery, and reflects the outcomes of a major innovation and knowledge transfer project. Academics, business professionals, policy makers, and trade representatives, all contribute to review the literature and existing practices of innovation, and explore the often misunderstood and contested terrain that surrounds innovation theory, policy and practice. In this book you will find a comparative insight into Latin American and European approaches to innovation management and innovation in practice, and an examination of how innovative ideas are exploited for a specifically Latin American context. With chapters which offer insights from both academics and practitioners, the text offers a refreshing, contemporary and trans-national perspective and a clear, concise and enriching discussion on the interplay between research, policy and practice. Innovation Support in Latin America and Europe will appeal to academics and researchers, higher level students, policy makers and business leaders, particularly those with any interest in Latin America.
This book analyses the determining factors behind productivity and innovation amongst Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore, and within the context of South East Asia, in order to offer recommendations for increasing productivity and aiding economic growth. SME firms are an influential driver of economic growth in advanced world economies like the USA, Germany, Japan and South Korea. Throughout the 2000s, Singapore experienced a decline in economic growth which was linked to decreasing productivity in its SMEs. The decline triggered a transformational policy by a Government intent on forging a 'high skill-high productivity' future. Given substantial evidence that low productivity growth occurred in sectors where immigrants dominated the workforce, the seeds of recovery focused on improving productivity and innovation amongst SMEs in those sectors. Hence, this book investigates the factors determining productivity amongst SMEs across the manufacturing sector. It utilises personal interviews with global experts and CEOs, combined with primary data collected from a major international Delphi survey, and interviews with 215 SME owners and managers in Singapore. This data helps us to better understand how these productivity-enhancing factors can be used to increase performance amongst SMEs. By investigating the nature and process of total factor productivity in Singapore's SMEs, this book tells the policy story behind the revolution. To provide a comparative analysis, Singapore's story is placed within a South East Asian context. The unfolding narrative contains important lessons for policy makers and industry globally, as they assess the strategic choices available to them for improving productivity and innovation. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of innovation and productivity, as well as economic development officers, government policy advisors, SME business managers and sustainable businesses.
Over last few decades, the world has witnessed, the process of rapid diffusion of new information and communication technologies (ICT) that enforced remarkable changes and structural shifts going far beyond economic sphere of life. ICT become fast available widespread and rapidly growing access to and use of ICT, additionally enhances the process of technological substitution, which consists in switching from the 'old' to 'new' technological solutions. The on-going digital revolution, undeniably, pervasively impacts and reshapes societies and economies, hence deserves special attention and interest. This book provides extensive evidence on information and communication technologies development diffusion patterns, unveils specific 'network effects' that enhance rapid spread of ICT, and detect major macroeconomic determinants of this process, across 36 Asian economies over the period 1980-2015. Moreover, this research traces country-specific patterns of the unique process. We consider two types of technological substitution, namely: 'fixed-to-mobile' type technological substitution process encompasses switching from fixed telephony ('old technology') to mobile telephony ('new technology'); while the 'fixed-to-wireless' type technological substitution - switching from fixed (narrowband and/or broadband) fixed Internet networks ('old technologies') to wireless (mainly broadband) Internet networks ('new technologies'). Moreover, this study empirically identifies the potential effect of selected macroeconomic factors, which may potentially enhance dynamic spread of ICT.
The idea of Self and the authenticity of particular identities have been rapidly dissolving in the acids of post-modern globalising capitalism. The hegemony of patterns of work, wage-labor and the operation of labour markets in the American West (and European North) has ridden rough-shod over distinctive ways of enabling communities to flourish in many parts of the Southern and Eastern worlds (Global South). But, this is not inevitable. Indeed, as this book indicates, there are many practical examples across the globe - that connect with some of the most significant theoretical challenges to the operation of dehumanising work - which reveal that a profound reversal is taking place. As such, the core theme of this book is to show that a movement is occurring whereby self-employment can be transformed into communal work that employs the Self in ways that release the authentic vocations of people, individually and collectively. The approach taken in these chapters traverses the globe, utilising the original 'integral worlds' model that will be familiar to students of the Trans4M/Routledge Transformation and Innovation series, developed over more than a decade. Such a standpoint points the way to the release of particular social and economic cultures in each of what we term the four "realities" or "worldviews" of South, East, North and Western worlds. In this book we use the methodology of GENEalogy - identifying the realms associated with each world - to show how the rhythms, that is Grounding, Emergence, Navigation and Effect, of each is leading to greater economic, social and spiritual freedom for individuals, organisations, communities and, indeed, entire societies.
Due to increasing global demand for software applications, the fundamental question of how to develop software collaboratively and most efficiently on a global scale is raised. Today, especially managing requirements traceability from elicitation to implementation constitutes a major issue. Therefore, this work aims at managing traces between different kinds of artifacts and stakeholders more effectively and efficiently in distributed collaborative software development environments. The overall contribution involves designing a novel solution approach, including conceptual, methodological, and tool-based components. Its applicability and utility are evaluated both analytically and empirically, eventually in the form of an experimental setting with 17 replicated development teams.
Departing from the traditional approach of surveying current and future trends and developments, this unique Handbook brings phenomena, theories, and concepts from multiple disciplines together to advance entrepreneurship. With original contributions from authors who are experts in their fields, the collection offers state-of-the-art insights into generating new areas for research, new theories and concepts, and new questions for policy debates - all aimed at advancing entrepreneurship. Divided into four sections and covering perspectives such as neuroscience, theology, organisational behavior and education, The Palgrave Handbook of Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Entrepreneurship is a rich source of information for researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, leaders and managers.
One of the challenges met by green entrepreneurs and product developers who have tried to develop more sustainable products is that efforts to have better products in environmental terms do not always translate into effective business cases. The purpose of this book is a better understanding of the implications of environmental issues in new product development. Through an empirical study in the human powered vehicle sector, Luca Berchicci examines how and to what extent the environmental ambition of product developers and managers influences the way new products and services are developed. The understanding of this phenomenon is particularly important since managers are encouraged and/or motivated to undertake environmental new product development projects. From the descriptions and analyses of the two cases study Luca Berchicci suggests that a high level of environmental ambition increases the complexity of the product innovation process. Moreover, a high level of environmental ambition may hamper a product innovation process because it may lead the developers away from the market that their product is to serve. Accordingly, this book attempts to explain and predict how environmental ambition influences new product development processes. This claim provides a theoretical contribution to existing research in both product innovation and green product innovation. Moreover, this book provides an original and deep insight on the diverse facets of greening.
The world beyond 2020 will be profoundly different from today. Radical transformative technologies are changing the relationship between mankind and machines in a way that even Wells, Orwell, or Jobs could not fathom. Nobody can tell for certain what will emerge from these tectonic shifts, save for the fact that the status quo is already obsolete. In effect, humanity has entered a new age in its evolution: the Symbiocene era. Societal issues notwithstanding, the existential concern for businesses and organizations everywhere is pressing: how to survive, or better yet, thrive in this brave new scary world? The Binary Firm explores the orchestrating strategies to get in front of the technological tsunami that is sweeping the globe. Tsunami is not too strong a word: witness the threat posed by artificial intelligence to the very nature of work. This book constructs a conceptual management framework engineered to anticipate changes and empower the organization to exploit them to its immediate advantage. The exposition goes beyond worn-out buzzwords like innovation, disruption, and collaboration. It dives into the underlying foundation of an organization impacting its financial destiny. This book will resonate with managers and entrepreneurs who may struggle to master the often-mystifying rigors of digital forces. As goes the new adage, every business is a software company. But how to tame this feral beast? Readers will find pragmatic answers herein. No organization can afford the status quo in this era of pervasive interconnections. This is the playbook to change your game and succeed at digitally transforming your organization without breaking the bank.
How do we advance? As individuals, families, and businesses? As societies, nations, and a species? In a world where it's said there is nothing new under the sun, we humans are remarkably resourceful at creating new things. The key to innovation is understanding, but not just by using facts, data, and casual observations. Progress demands the profound and useful understanding of a person or a thing, a situation or an issue. And profound and useful understanding that truly effects change is that most elusive of phenomena: insight. How To Be Insightful provides a novel and deeply practical framework that anyone can use to generate more powerful and impactful insights from the increasing volumes of data we all face every day, whatever we do. The framework - the STEP Prism of Insight - has been developed through decades of both practice and training, and the book includes many exercises designed to help strengthen and develop readers' insight muscles. The book explains the history, psychology, and neuroscience of insight and includes snapshots of insight from international experts in many different fields - psychology and neuroscience, music and acting, forensic science and market research.
Customers and markets identify needs and problems and companies design products and services to fill or solve them. While this relationship may seem straightforward, the development process in most companies is often a root cause for customer dissatisfaction and can lead to substantial waste throughout an enterprise. Mistakes made on the proverbial "drawing board" can have a significant impact on an organization for many years. Therefore, the application of lean thinking and detailed mapping to the development process is especially important, particularly when one considers the ever shortening product and service life cycle experienced in most industries. In Value Stream Mapping for Lean Development, Drew Locher provides an accessible, enjoyable, how-to guide to value stream mapping that highlights its tremendous impact on product development and accompanying processes.
The world beyond 2020 will be profoundly different from today. Radical transformative technologies are changing the relationship between mankind and machines in a way that even Wells, Orwell, or Jobs could not fathom. Nobody can tell for certain what will emerge from these tectonic shifts, save for the fact that the status quo is already obsolete. In effect, humanity has entered a new age in its evolution: the Symbiocene era. Societal issues notwithstanding, the existential concern for businesses and organizations everywhere is pressing: how to survive, or better yet, thrive in this brave new scary world? The Binary Firm explores the orchestrating strategies to get in front of the technological tsunami that is sweeping the globe. Tsunami is not too strong a word: witness the threat posed by artificial intelligence to the very nature of work. This book constructs a conceptual management framework engineered to anticipate changes and empower the organization to exploit them to its immediate advantage. The exposition goes beyond worn-out buzzwords like innovation, disruption, and collaboration. It dives into the underlying foundation of an organization impacting its financial destiny. This book will resonate with managers and entrepreneurs who may struggle to master the often-mystifying rigors of digital forces. As goes the new adage, every business is a software company. But how to tame this feral beast? Readers will find pragmatic answers herein. No organization can afford the status quo in this era of pervasive interconnections. This is the playbook to change your game and succeed at digitally transforming your organization without breaking the bank.
This book features research presented and discussed during the Research & Innovation Forum (Rii Forum) 2019. As such, this volume offers a unique insight into emerging topics, issues and developments pertinent to the fields of technology, innovation and education and their social impact. Papers included in this volume apply inter- and multi-disciplinary approaches to query such issues as technology-enhanced teaching and learning, smart cities,, information systems, cognitive computing and social networking. What brings these threads of the discussion together is the question of how advances in computer science - which are otherwise largely incomprehensible to researchers from other fields - can be effectively translated and capitalized on so as to make them beneficial for society as a whole. In this context, Rii Forum and Rii Forum proceedings offer an essential venue where diverse stakeholders, including academics, the think tank sector and decision-makers, can engage in a meaningful dialogue with a view to improving the applicability of advances in computer science. In brief, Rii Forum takes the imperative inherent in the 4th industrial revolution seriously, in that it identifies ways of making technology usable and therefore inclusive.
The Next American Century identifies and describes three modern waves of world economic integration. Professor Van Lear extensively demonstrates America's important role in driving the current era of globalization. Focusing on the varying and interrelated social, political, and economic dimensions of nation-state integration, this study addresses important issues such as the evolution in policy and institutions, the dynamics of economics and finance, and the discontents of contemporary globalization. The book centers in on the core economic driving mechanisms of globalization and examines the themes of wealth, power, class and policy in an age of globalization. Employing a diversity of scholarship and a critical yet fair examination of current economic evolution, this book offers a thorough explanation for the causes and consequences of globalization.
Jim Rouse: Capitalist/Idealist is the story of a very special businessman. A successful capitalist a real estate developer Jim Rouse led his life as a practicing idealist. He sought to help people enrich their lives. He wanted people to live in an enjoyable environment and to experience the joy in caring for each other. But he knew that to raise the capital to accomplish those goals his companies had to be profitable. As an enthusiast of urban renewal, he worked to rid core downtown areas of American cities of blight and despair. He created indoor malls in the new post-war suburbs that would be focal points for community life. He developed a whole new city Columbia, Maryland to show what an American city could be like. For one thing, it would be a city totally integrated racially, a city in which anyone could buy or rent on any street. In retirement, Rouse founded the Enterprise Foundation to produce profits that would be used to provide the poorest of Americans with a decent place to live. Rouse was one of America's first practitioners of social enterprise.
* Designed for students of public administration at every level who need to know and understand how technology can be applied in today's public management workplace * Explores the latest trends in public management, policy, and technology and focuses on best practices on governance issues. * Provides real-life examples about the need for policies and procedures to safeguard our technology infrastructure while providing greater openness, participation, and transparency * Contains all new material on blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, the latest developments in cybersecurity (including ransomware), big and visualized data, and the spread of misinformation * Includes a website maintained by the authors that contains YouTube Videos, PowerPoint presentations, sample quizzes, and group assignments for instructors to consider.
Provides the complete web of business ideas, product design, consumer practice and regulation. Written by thought-leaders in the field of the circular economy. Thomas Rau was nominated for the Circular Economy Leadership Award of the World Economic Forum in 2016. Though the book addresses the difficult challenges of the circular economy, it describes a very complex matter in an accessible and enjoyable style.
Quantifying and assessing the value of an organisation's design department can be problematic. The tools traditionally used by auditors are usually insufficient to 'measure' either the value of design projects or their influence within an organisation. This book demystifies the design development and design management process, scrutinising it against a new set of auditing principles which illuminates its true value in a contemporary context. Featuring a series of international case studies, Design Management: Exploring Fieldwork and Applications argues that assessment of the design function within any organisation must incorporate both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The book explores a number of key themes, such as new product development, risk in design and corporate identity. Moreover, by drawing on a range of techniques from the social sciences, the authors rigorously develop means by which design may be understood accurately. This book represents an important and timely contribution to our knowledge of the management of product and service innovation. It will be an invaluable text for students and researchers working in design and management.
Quantifying and assessing the value of an organisation's design department can be problematic. The tools traditionally used by auditors are usually insufficient to 'measure' either the value of design projects or their influence within an organisation. This book demystifies the design development and design management process, scrutinising it against a new set of auditing principles which illuminates its true value in a contemporary context. Featuring a series of international case studies, Design Management: Exploring Fieldwork and Applications argues that assessment of the design function within any organisation must incorporate both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The book explores a number of key themes, such as new product development, risk in design and corporate identity. Moreover, by drawing on a range of techniques from the social sciences, the authors rigorously develop means by which design may be understood accurately. This book represents an important and timely contribution to our knowledge of the management of product and service innovation. It will be an invaluable text for students and researchers working in design and management.
Based on research findings and detailed, original cases, this book charts the new innovation imperative, where organizations must deliver on dual goals: an efficient return on current operations, and a burgeoning pipeline of new products. It argues that the two pursuits cannot be achieved through a bland compromise, or by switching priorities back and forth. Only a 'dual' organization capable of amplifying the tension can optimize efficiency while seeding innovation. Reinventing Innovation examines the nature of dual organizing, presents a series of in-depth cases to reveal its principles, and explains how to fortify organizations with 'ambidexterity' capabilities. Ideal for tertiary students, academics, and practitioners, Reinventing Innovation contains a rich balance of theoretical principles, case insights, and practical guidance.
It takes 17 years on average to bring new medical treatments ideas into evidence-based clinical practice. The growing replicability crisis in science further delays these "new miracles." Blockchain can improve science and accelerate medical research while bringing a new layer of trust to healthcare. This book is about science, its value to medicine, and how we can use blockchain to improve the quality and impact of both. The book looks at science and medicine from an insider's perspective and describes the processes, successes, shortcomings and opportunities in an accessible way for a broad audience. It weaves this a non-technical look at the emerging world of blockchain technology; what it is, where it is useful, and how it can improve science and medicine. It lays out a roadmap for this application to transform how we develop knowledge about health and medicine to improve our lives. In the first part, Blockchain isn't Tech, the authors look at blockchain/distributed ledger technology along with critical trade-offs and current explorations of its utility. They give an overview of use cases for the technology across industries, including finance, manufacturing and healthcare, with interviews and insights from leaders across government, academia, and tech/health industry both big and start-up. In the second part, Science is Easy, the authors look at science as a process and how this drives advancement in medicine. They shed a light on some of science's shortcomings, including the reproducibility crisis and problems with misaligned incentives (i.e. publish or perish). They apply a breakdown of critical components to the functional steps in the scientific process and outline how the open science movement is looking to improve these, while highlighting the limit of these fixes with current technology, incentives and structure of science. In the third part, DAO of Science, the authors look at how blockchain applied to open science can impact medical research. They examine how this distributed approach can provide better quality science, value-based research and faster medical miracles. Finally, they provide a vision of the future of distributed medical research and give a roadmap of steps to get there.
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? In the early 1960s Mexico and South Korea were both equally underdeveloped agrarian societies. Since that time, the development strategies pursued by each country resulted in dramatically different results. By the turn of the century South Korea possessed one of the finest educational systems in the world and was a world-class producer of high-tech products. Mexico, on the other hand, was still graduating less than half of its secondary school-age students and bogged down in assembling products owned by others. This book addresses the issues of what happened and why, and frames the consequences for other developing nations facing similar challenges. Professor Hanson argues that the key to understanding involves the manner and intensity in which these countries engaged their educational, governmental and business institutions to acquire manufacturing knowledge from offshored transnational corporations, and how they used these insights to grow their own local industries. Whereas South Korea studied the foreign outsourced plants as if they were educational systems and pursued with tenacity the new knowledge they possessed, Mexico viewed them as 'cash cows' that generated wages and reduced unemployment. The author emphasizes that significant educational reform will only break down the barriers of institutional bureaucracies when responding to the pressures and demands of industrialization. This is one of the first books of its kind to compare South-East Asian and Latin American economies and their links to educational systems.
The Future of Work in Asia and Beyond presents the findings and associated implications arising from a collaborative research study conducted on the potential impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR - or Industry 4.0) on the labour markets, occupations and associated future workforce competencies and skills across ten countries. The 4IR concerns the digital transformation in society and business - an interface between technologies in the physical, digital and biological disciplines. The book explores many related issues: the nature of the 4IR, as well as demographic, generational and socio-cultural issues, economic and political perspectives, public and private sector similarities and differences, business strategy and managerial implications, human resource management/planning strategies, policies and practices, industry innovations, 'best practice' cases and comparative country studies. Chapters are based on a framework which combines labour market and multiple stakeholder theories. Issues are explored through the perceptions of organisational managers based in Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand to provide an analysis of organisational, industry and government preparedness for the 4IR. This book is recommended reading for anyone wanting to gain an understanding of the 4IR and a range of related challenges and issues, as well as suggested strategies for governments, education and industry that are necessary to address them.
Large technological systems, such as seaports, nuclear power stations, wind farms and natural gas extraction, provide vital functions for society. And yet these large technological systems have an impact on different stakeholder groups in both positive and negative ways. This book defines responsible innovation and describes how both the innovation process and the resulting innovation outcome can be designed, created and implemented in a way that respects the various stakeholder groups involved and affected by the system. Taking a case-based approach, a number of large technological systems are profiled, including hydraulic engineering, nuclear energy, smart metering, and wind power. The values of each of the stakeholder groups, and the costs and benefits of the systems presented, are analysed. The book concludes by combining these insights to provide a framework for how responsible innovation of large technological systems can be implemented in practice. The book will be of particular interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers in technology and innovation management, and corporate governance, CSR and business ethics.
This book presents a global view of digital and knowledge-based economies and analyses the role of intellectual capital, intellectual capital reports and information technology in achieving sustained competitive advantages in the globalized economy. Intellectual Capital in the Digital Economy reviews the state of the art in the field of intellectual capital and intellectual capital reports, exploring core concepts, strengths and weaknesses, gaps, latest developments, the main components of intellectual capital, the main sections of the reports, and indicators of each component. It presents experiences from pioneering companies and institutions in measuring intellectual capital around the world. It incorporates an interdisciplinary and cross-sectorial approach, offering a comparative view of intellectual capital reports elaborated in different regions of the world. This book presents case studies and experiences on the building of intellectual capital reports in organizations. In addition, the book discusses the benefits and challenges of building intellectual capital reports in smart economies and societies. This book is of direct interest to researchers, students and policymakers examining intellectual capital and the knowledge-based economy.
The first book to analyze how new technologies are emerging against a background of continuing globalization of research and development activities. This unique book explores how technological communities and networks shape a broad range of new computer based technologies in regional, national and international contexts. Offering a critique of existing organizational and business models, Assimakopoulos analyzes the structure of a broad range of existing technological communities and networks looking at a range of areas including:
This text is a key resource for research and development managers, ICT engineers and policy makers, as well as post graduate researchers in knowledge management, technology policy, sociology and economics of innovation or history of science and technology. |
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