![]() |
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
|
Your cart is empty |
||
|
Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Management of specific areas > Research & development management
Drawing on empirical insights from the field of desktop 3D printing, this book elaborates the concept of innovation communities as a pattern of open and distributed innovation. As these communities spur a fruitful exchange of explorative, open source knowledge, they represent a novel mode of "doing innovation", which considerably differs from established practices in market and business realms. Hence, the people that participate in these collective endeavors often develop entrepreneurial ambitions and start to exploit community-based innovations commercially. The book presents deep insights on the institutional idiosyncrasies of innovation communities, the associated dilemma of entrepreneurship and the strategies of 3D-printing startups to face the corresponding challenges.
This open access book examines how the social sciences can be integrated into the praxis of engineering and science, presenting unique perspectives on the interplay between engineering and social science. Motivated by the report by the Commission on Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Association of Arts and Sciences, which emphasizes the importance of social sciences and Humanities in technical fields, the essays and papers collected in this book were presented at the NSF-funded workshop 'Engineering a Better Future: Interplay between Engineering, Social Sciences and Innovation', which brought together a singular collection of people, topics and disciplines. The book is split into three parts: A. Meeting at the Middle: Challenges to educating at the boundaries covers experiments in combining engineering education and the social sciences; B. Engineers Shaping Human Affairs: Investigating the interaction between social sciences and engineering, including the cult of innovation, politics of engineering, engineering design and future of societies; and C. Engineering the Engineers: Investigates thinking about design with papers on the art and science of science and engineering practice.
This book maps the latest developments in public procurement of innovation policy in various contexts and analyzes the evolution and development of the various policy solutions in broader institutional contexts. In doing so, it addresses significant theoretical and practical gaps: On the one hand, there is an emerging interest in public procurement as a policy tool for spurring innovation; yet on the other hand, the current theory, with some notable exceptions, is guided and often constrained by historical applications, above all in the defence industries. By carefully examining the cases of eleven countries, the book points to the existence of much more nuanced public procurement on the innovation policy landscape than has been acknowledged in the academic and policy debates to date.
This is the sixth volume of a sub series on Road Vehicle Automation published within the Lecture Notes in Mobility. The contents have been provided by researchers, engineers and analysts from all around the world. Topics covered include public sector activities, human factors and challenges, ethical, legal, energy and technology perspectives, vehicle systems development, as well as transportation infrastructure and planning. The book is based on the Automated Vehicles Symposium held on July 9-12, 2018 in San Francisco, CA (USA).
The Toolset is a comprehensive collection of the relevant Design for Six Sigma+Lean tools, which are necessary for successfully implementing innovations. All tools are presented in a clear structure, providing a good overview of the methodology. The chronology of the listed tools corresponds to the procedure in a Design for Six Sigma+Lean development project with the stages Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, and Verify. Due to this unique structure by which tools can be found and applied quickly we created a book that facilitates project work in practical use enormously. Migrating from a tool based approach to a question based approach is a decisive success factor in our opinion enabling firstly, increased efficiency of project work for the Project Leader, his team and the associated Stakeholders, and secondly, significantly increasing the probability of success for the respective innovation projects.
Presents research in Employee-Driven Innovation, an emergent field of study that meets the demand for exploiting new innovative potentials in organizations. There is a growing interest in creating new knowledge in innovation, emphasizing human resources and social processes. The authors intend to take the global lead in research on these areas.
Industrial engineering is not known for its contribution to management requirements, which can be both challenging and varied. However, productivity and profitability are subjects that preoccupy manufacturers, distributors, warehouse managers and third-party logistics firms, many of which are multinational companies that cater to an end customer thousands of miles away. Industrial engineers must therefore follow a balance between maintaining a commitment to basic traditional tools that have been proven to improve productivity and keeping up with the evolution of their profession by staying informed about and trained in modern approaches. This "balance" of essential information, theory, case studies, and a thorough examination of many timeless applications for productivity and profitability is evidenced in Beyond World-Class Productivity. It serves as a practical, informative source of information in the field of industrial engineering because it is neither an instruction manual nor a theoretical textbook. Practical examples and commentary come from the author's 40 years of real-world experience on the shop floor and in the boardroom. Industrial engineering has a tendency to devote its time to "non-real gain" activities, or to making small improvements occasionally with a small-cycle time reduction. The effect of this "improvement" is calculated by annual reduced cycle time - an effect which consequently is practically invisible. Instead, industrial engineers should aim to achieve real gain; for example, reducing the allocated number of workers to reduce paid hours immediately, but accruing the same or more powerful results. Management, particularly in human resources departments, is most interested in this type of gain and industrial engineering should be a department that fosters such connections with management. Industrial engineering tools are effective enough to support management with these goals in mind.
This book applies a new analytical framework to the study of the evolution of large Internet companies such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon and Samsung. It sheds light on the dynamics of business groups, which are approached as 'business ecosystems,' and introduces the concept of Epigenetic Economic Dynamics (EED), which is defined as the study of the epigenetic dynamics generated as a result of the adaptation of organizations to major changes in their respective environments. The book augments the existing literature on evolutionary economic thinking with findings from epigenetics, which are proving increasingly useful in analyzing the workings of large organizations. It also details the theoretical and conceptual nature of recent work based on evolutionary economics, mainly from the perspective of generalized Darwinism, resilience and related variety, and complements the work conducted on evolutionary economics by applying the analytical framework of EED. It makes it easier to forecast future dynamics on the Internet by proving that a sizable number of big business groups are veering from their initial paths to take unprecedented new directions as a result of competition pressure, and as such is a valuable resource for postgraduates and researchers as well as those involved in economics and innovation studies.
This study explores the relationship between social characteristics of scientists and the interpersonal sharing of technological knowledge. The findings illuminate attributes of reputation conducive to the voluntary transfer of timely, relevant, technological knowledge among individual R&D scientists in the same multidivisional, multinational firm.
This book examines the role of bureaucracy in modern technologically advanced societies, the traditional models of governance, and the potential of information technology to fundamentally change and improve governance. In the area of public-domain governance, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have empowered public agencies to improve their activities and to strengthen the efficiency of their operations. Technology has enabled optimized transfer of knowledge and information between government agencies, more efficient supervision and control of relationships with citizens, and higher efficiency in law enforcement through better access to information. Throughout the last decades, technology has been used to strengthen the role of state bureaucracies and the relationship between the civil service and the citizens. We have witnessed the transformative powers of ICTs in private-sector enterprises in well-structured technological landscapes, which has produced new ecosystems comprised of software developers, providers, and consumers who provide and consume new products and services in ecosystems that are based on clear technological standards and shared modular generic artefacts, which allow for distributed peer production. ICTs will shape cultural and civic discourse and create products, services and tools, relying on the open toolsets, technologies and exchange of knowledge between peers. This book will be of particular interest to government CIOs, IT/IS managers, researchers, students, and practitioners in technical sciences, public administration, business management, public policy and IS management.
The book examines the conditions for successful high-technology policy from theoretical and empirical perspectives. It enhances the predominant national systems of innovation approach to innovation policy with concepts based on new developments in the governance of complex systems and processes. The conceptual framework of complex networks and systems is used to examine national policy approaches in countries that have created environments conducive to high-technology industries as well as individual high-technology sectors, such as biotechnology, alternative energy, and aerospace. Theoretical and empirical contributions are synthesised into lessons for high-tech policy and further research.
Mitigating climate change is one of the most profound challenges facing humankind. In industrialized countries, the residential housing sector produces roughly one-fourth of the greenhouse gas emissions. One solution to reduce these emissions is the availability of building codes that require high levels of energy efficiency. Given the current scientific knowledge, more research is needed to gain a proper systemic understanding of the underlying socio-economic and technical system. Such an understanding is crucial for developing high energy-efficiency standards because this system develops gradually over time and cannot be changed swiftly. This book creates a feedback-rich simulation model for analyzing the effects of different administrative policies on energy demand, the improvement of energy efficiency by means of building codes, and reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions. The dynamic model can contribute substantially to the discourse on energy policies and guide effective administrative interventions. The book will be a valuable resource for officials in the public energy administration, as well as researchers in the areas of innovation, diffusion processes, co-evolution, standardization, and simulation modelling.
Managers are increasingly concerned with the typical methods available for organizational performance measurement and control. Research into performance measurement, within the field of innovation management, has been variously approached through frameworks for performance measurement in general (for example, the Balanced Scorecard by Norton and Kaplan), R&D performance management, and surveys on in-use Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It is striking, however, that almost no research has focused explicitly on the performance measurement of research activities, or indeed tried to develop a systematic approach to setting KPIs for specific research goals. This work, in co-operation with ABB Research, Deutsche Telekom AG Laboratories, EMC2 Advanced Technology Solutions, IBM Research, Intel Research, Microsoft Research, Philips Research, and SAP Research, develops a systematic approach to performance measurement for industrial research organizations in innovation-driven companies. The following questions are addressed: (1) Which research goals do research departments have? (2) Which KPIs do they use to monitor the achievement of these goals? (3) Is there a systematic best-practice approach to selecting KPIs for performance goals? The outcome is a complete set of eleven performance clusters, such as the transfer of research results to the development or other organizational departments, and each cluster has its own set of KPIs. The eleven clusters are: Technology Transfer, Future Business Opportunities, Technical Achievements, Intellectual Property, Operational Excellence, Talent Pool, Image, Publications, Presence in Scientific Community, Collaboration with Academia, Collaboration with Partners and Customers. This work led to the creation of the Institute for Industrial Research Performance Management that provides ongoing research and insights for managers of industrial research organizations.
This book investigates dynamic regions in the context of greater global interaction in a world economy increasingly driven by knowledge and innovation. It offers novel empirical evidence on the underlying factors of the growth performance of these spaces. In particular, the following questions are addressed: What role is there for research, education and innovation in the development strategies of the dynamic growth regions? What are the risks and consequences of dynamic growth on patterns of world growth and development, competitiveness, inequalities, and convergence? What development strategies should be promoted at national and international levels to promote a growing and more sustainable world economy? What are the implications of the emerging new competitors for Europe's competitiveness? Using an innovative, integrated framework of analysis, the contributions in this book combine a wide array of complex theoretical and methodological approaches.
Industrial Revolution 4.0 is upon us, with disruptive technology rapidly changing our personal and professional lives. In this climate it is not clear how organization reorganization will take place and there is haziness over the strategic HRM required to attract, develop, and retain talent. This book shines a light on the rapidly changing work landscape by bringing together international expert contributors, who address issues such as the long-term effects of artificial intelligence and block chain technologies on the firm and on human resources, and deliberate on the effects Industrial Revolution 4.0 is likely to have on both emerging economies and developed countries. A number of fundamental questions are asked: Will HR managers perceive IT as a supporting adjunct or a core operational department? Will man and machine co-exist, or will artificial intelligence have more ominous implications for humanity, as predicted by Stephen Hawking? In other words, is HRM 4.0 an opportunity, a transient phase, or an impending threat? Human and Technological Resource Management is a must read for students and scholars of HRM, as well as anyone interested in the future of technology in the workplace
This book investigates key aspects of the development of engaged and entrepreneurial universities. Reflecting the complex and dynamic nature of changes in higher education institutions (HEIs), multi-level perspectives in the field are taken into account, namely the ecosystem, relationship, organisational and individual perspective. The book highlights the entrepreneurial and the social orientation of HEIs by focusing on both primary economically focused (entrepreneurial) universities and primary socially focused (engaged) universities. It challenges the understanding of the role universities and its individual stakeholders play today. The book explores a multitude of facets and perspectives on the topic and addresses both what we already know and what knowledge still needs to be acquired.
This book addresses the core challenges currently faced by traditional companies. In the age of digitization many industries are now challenged by disruptions of the traditional value chain: new competitors are coming into play, traditional products don't sell any more, and profits are at risk. As such, CEOs need to adopt new business models for these established industries, while many companies have to reinvent themselves by developing new products for new markets. In this book, leading CEOs share their experiences in transforming established companies. They provide insights on transforming industries and demonstrate what it takes to redefine companies from the ground up. Issues such as organizational transformation, new product development, implementing a new organizational spirit, and many more are discussed.
Formulating effective responses to the global challenges of mitigating climate change and securing a sustainable energy future requires a clear understanding of the interdependent causalities between institutions, local decision making, strategic alliances and eco-innovations, as well as policies. It has been acknowledged that the linear "Manhattan project" model is not an adequate governance model for mastering the dynamic complexity of socio-technical transitions; therefore this book aims at advancing research on systematic transition management models. It offers qualitative and quantitative analyses of socio-technical transitions in road transportation and housing, bringing together tailored theorizing on sustainability transitions and applied system dynamics modeling. It highlights the interconnected causal feedbacks that are required to overcome the lock-in situation in road transportation and housing fueled by fossil energies. Showing which concerted actions and framework conditions are required in the transition phases in order to initiate and sustain socio-technical transition, it serves as a guide to model-based strategy making, policy design and analyses in support of sustainable futures.
This book describes the water sector as it is structured in Italy, presenting innovative engineering, financial and managerial solutions implemented by the Italian water sector, through the experiences of its major stakeholders. The main themes addressed include water regulation, financing infrastructures, economic performance of the leading companies, abstraction, potabilization, distribution, treatment and purification technologies, energy production, and organizational restructuring. The last part of the work presents company profiles with important financial indicators, as well as future strategic postures. Written by leading Italian experts, the book reflects the remarkable advances that have been made in the field of water governance and environmental management. The book is especially valuable for researchers, water professionals, utility managers, as well as policy makers and foreign investors looking for opportunities. This work has been prepared as part of the research activities of the Observatory on Sustainable Water Industry, one of Agici's Research and Advisory units.
This book presents the proceedings of the 2nd EAI International Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education (TIE' 2018), which took place at Ravensbourne University London, London, UK, on September 4, 2018. The central theme of the conference is emerging technologies in relation to business, education, social and political needs that make modern society flourish. The proceedings feature papers from a cross-disciplinary audience that explore the process of creativity and innovation. The goal is that the various disciplines can learn from each other and see how they might benefit from the cross-fertilization of practices.
This book discusses how systems thinking and approaches can aid management consultants in navigating the complexities of client advisory in current realities. It thereby brings to the forefront aspects of holism, flexibility and responsibility - the keys to success in today's world. Management consultants are called in to offer an independent expert view of an organisation/ a situation and are expected to address some of the most pressing problems businesses face. The client does not exist in a silo, but in a complex environment that lies at the intersection of a range of internal and external factors that are often unseen and unpredictable. The organisation itself presents an alien territory that the consultant is expected to acclimatise to within a very short period of time, and come up with solutions that "insiders" would not have been able to visualise. The book presents a range of ideas, concepts and reference cases that are relevant and topical for consultants in their daily work. It argues that systems thinking allows holism and flexibility in management consulting - while holism is about the ability to encompass the environmental and organisational complexity, flexibility is about the ability to think creatively and adopt different approaches to accommodate this complexity. With commentaries, case studies, conceptual models and perspectives that cut across multiple industries, sectors and countries, this book is a valuable resource for academics and professionals alike. The book's inner pages and its page on Springer.com contain additional comments providing perspectives of clients, industry experts and academia.
This book introduces and analyzes the models for engineering leadership and competency skills, as well as frameworks for industry-academia collaboration and is appropriate for students, researchers, and professionals interested in continuous professional development. The authors look at the organizational structures of engineering education in knowledge-based economies and examine the role of innovation and how it is encouraged in schools. It also provides a methodological framework and toolkit for investigating the needs of engineering and technology skills in national contexts. A detailed empirical case study is included that examines the leadership competencies that are needed in knowledge-based economies and how one university encourages these in their program. The book concludes with conceptual modeling and proposals of specific organizational structures for implementation in engineering schools, in order to enable the development of necessary skills for future engineering graduates.
This edited book offers further advances, new perspectives, and developments from world leaders in the field of through-life engineering services (TES). It builds up on the earlier book by the same authors entitled: "Through-life Engineering Services: Motivation, Theory and Practice." This compendium introduces and discusses further, the developments in workshop-based and 'in situ' maintenance and support of high-value engineering products, as well as the application of drone technology for autonomous and self-healing product support. The links between 'integrated planning' and planned obsolescence, risk and cost modelling are also examined. The role of data, information, and knowledge management relative to component and system degradation and failure is also presented. This is supported by consideration of the effects upon the maintenance and support decision by the presence of 'No Fault Found' error signals within system data. Further to this the role of diagnostics and prognostics is also discussed. In addition, this text presents the fundamental information required to deliver an effective TES solution/strategy and identification of core technologies. The book contains reference and discussion relative to automotive. rail, and several other industrial case studies to highlight the potential of TES to redefine the product creation and development process. Additionally the role of warranty and service data in the product creation and delivery system is also introduced. This book offers a valuable reference resource for academics, practitioners and students of TES and the associated supporting technologies and business models that underpin whole-life product creation and delivery systems through the harvesting and application of condition and use based data.
This book covers all types of literature on existing trend analysis approaches, but more than 60% of the methodologies are developed here and some of them are reflected to scientific literature and others are also innovative versions, modifications or improvements. The suggested methodologies help to design, develop, manage and deliver scientific applications and training to meet the needs of interested staff in companies, industries and universities including students. Technical content and expertise are also provided from different theoretical and especially active roles in the design, development and delivery of science in particular and economics and business in general. It is also ensured that, wherever possible and technically appropriate, priority is given to the inclusion and integration of real life data, examples and processes within the book content. The time seems right, because available books just focus on special sectors (fashion, social, business). This book reviews all the available trend approaches in the present literature on rational and logical bases. |
You may like...
The Oxford Handbook of Innovation…
Mark Dodgson, David M Gann, …
Hardcover
R4,532
Discovery Miles 45 320
Accelerated Proficiency for Accelerated…
Raman K Attri
Hardcover
Organizational Leadership for the Fourth…
Peter A C Smith, John Pourdehnad
Hardcover
R4,073
Discovery Miles 40 730
Creative Innovative Firms from Japan - A…
Youngwon Park, Paul Hong
Hardcover
R3,332
Discovery Miles 33 320
Innovation in Brazil - Advancing…
Elisabeth B Reynolds, Ben Ross Schneider, …
Hardcover
R4,505
Discovery Miles 45 050
|