Today, innovation is a key driver for performance and growth in business. It provides a strong competitive advantage and is one of the best ways to speed up the rate of change and adaptation to the global environment. Concurrently, the innovation topic is also regaining more and more visibility and interest among the academic communities worldwide.
However, some of the challenges of innovating are remarkably consistent and recent times have shown the emergence of new ways for stimulating and managing the innovation process, especially from an international perspective. Even if these processes are taking place in very different industries, there are many parallels in successfully managing them.
Thsi voluem explores these new routes and assesses their value both for markets and companies. More specifically, the book is organized around three themes:
- How to stimulate and nurture innovations
- How to commercialize innovations
- How to lead and manage the innovation process

In this book the author aims to describe the path from Information Technology to Information Management and Information Governance. This path allows organizations to identify IT Business Value and take advantage of it. The book synthesizes the main approaches that have emerged in recent years, compares these approaches along multiple variables, and finally proposes an advanced and new approach to Information Governance, based on the concept of Organizational Absorptive Capacity. Furthermore, the book presents a new approach to Information Management: the SIGMA (Strategic Information Governance Modelling and Assessment) approach. The new approach is centered on information as a key factor allowing integration between IT applications, organizational capabilities and business strategy. In particular, the Absorptive Capacity concept is presented and discussed: this concept represents the ability of an organization to maintain and absorb the potential of information and IT investments. After having presented and discussed the model, we also provide the reader with a brief presentation of how the SIGMA approach should be applied in companies. The book adopts a scientific approach to ensure methodological rigour; however, it is also concrete and describes problems from the viewpoints of managers, adopting a clear and easy-to-understand language in order to capture the interest of top managers and graduate students.

Taking eleven countries in Europe, Canada, South Africa, America, Latin America and Australia, this book discusses recurring barriers to cluster development in the renewable energy sector. The authors look at the real-world dynamics and tensions between stakeholders on the ground, with a particular focus on the relationships between SMEs and other actors. This trans-regional study is unique in its scale and scope, drawing on a decade of field research to show how by learning from the successes and failures of other clusters, costs and risk can be reduced. The book fills a significant gap in the literature for policymakers, managers and economic developers in a key market.

Ideas are like goods and services--they can be sold--indeed, they must be. Friesen maintains that many executives, particularly those who aspire to similar positions in upper management, often do not understand this and wonder why their recommendations go unheeded and why they don't move up the organizational ladder. Others may wonder why they don't seem to have the authority they thought they had and why people who report to them often appear indifferent. Friesen's book makes clear that there are productive ways of selling your ideas, and he shows that these methods can and must be learned. He shows why organizations tend to be defensive and how to sell ideas effectively in a way that averts resistance to change. The result is an engrossing and practical book of advice for people at all levels in all organizations, public and private.

Executives at all levels and in every type of organization achieve their executive status in one of two ways: they either inherit it or they earn it through hard work, aspiration, and a bit of luck. Friesen directs his book at executives who wish to improve their ability to sell and implement ideas, and, in doing so, continue their rise up the corporate ladder. This book will also be of value to executives who have a desire to increase their authority and/or their administrative position and to those who wish to inspire a sense of loyalty among their employees, and those who hope to lead their orgaizations into the next century.

Friesen explains why organizations tend to be defensive and how recognizing this can lead to greater levels of personal success. He also provides a thorough background on the nature of power, contrasting legitimate power and authority, and helping one understand how to increase it without formal advancement in the organization. A specific process one can use to sell ideas as well as to develop relationships is described and illustrated. The book is intended for specialists in organizational behavior and top-level executives. It is organized to provide value as a reference work and to provide readers with unusual and useful strategies for their personal advancement and the enrichment of their communication skills.

This book offers a service science perspective on platform orchestration and on collaborative consumption, providing an overview of research topics related to service dominant logic in multi-sided markets. The chapters give an international and multi-disciplinary overview of the current topics of digital service platforms from many angles. This overview helps in filling the gap between service science and recent research of the platform economy and paves the way for future service platform research. Open standards and distributed databases such as blockchain configurations increase the connectivity of business ecosystems as devices and systems exchange data with each other instead of through intermediaries. This exchange opens up opportunities for new value constellations, makes services globally scalable, and connects local service systems as integrated systems of systems. The book brings together established academics from a number of disciplines. This collaboration makes it possible to provide novel constructs and empirical results that help the reader to understand how value is co-created and orchestrated in the era of digital service platforms. In addition to theory building, practical implications for wider managerial and policy use are highlighted. The topics in this book are related to service platform technologies; organizational capabilities; and strategies and management in the contexts of retail, healthcare, and the public sector. A wide selection of case studies is used to demonstrate the implications of platforms for different service and economic contexts. Combining both theory and practice, this book is highly recommended for readers interested in the service and marketing point of view on the platform economy and for practitioners strategizing for scalable service platforms.Chapters 4 and 10 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book examines the different ways companies can develop and design social innovation. Combining technological and social perspectives, the contributors present emerging research on social innovation from different sectors such as entrepreneurship, education and energy. Collectively, the authors demonstrate the ways in which social innovation can drive sustainability and development in regions around the world. All societies are characterized by their political, economic and social institutions, as well as by how they utilize technology. The social innovations with the highest importance are those which modify existing institutions or create new ones, and based on their magnitude, they can be considered as radical or incremental. For example, when Joseph Chamberlain encouraged workers to organize in order to achieve universal male suffrage in Great Britain in 1885, this was a considered a radical innovation for British society, which in turn changed its political framework. Social innovations may be based on intelligence and commitment, on technology or on social entrepreneurship in its most open forms. In addition, social innovations can be classified into those which correspond to an entire country or region, a field (e.g., education) or a sector (e.g., entrepreneurship, technology, social reform). Featuring contributions on topics such as agro-food, smart cities, higher education, gender equality and sports, this book is ideal for academics, students, scholars, professionals and policy makers in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and regional development.

This book provides essential insights on the adoption of modern software engineering practices at large companies producing software-intensive systems, where hundreds or even thousands of engineers collaborate to deliver on new systems and new versions of already deployed ones. It is based on the findings collected and lessons learned at the Software Center (SC), a unique collaboration between research and industry, with Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg University and Malmoe University as academic partners and Ericsson, AB Volvo, Volvo Car Corporation, Saab Electronic Defense Systems, Grundfos, Axis Communications, Jeppesen (Boeing) and Sony Mobile as industrial partners. The 17 chapters present the "Stairway to Heaven" model, which represents the typical evolution path companies move through as they develop and mature their software engineering capabilities. The chapters describe theoretical frameworks, conceptual models and, most importantly, the industrial experiences gained by the partner companies in applying novel software engineering techniques. The book's structure consists of six parts. Part I describes the model in detail and presents an overview of lessons learned in the collaboration between industry and academia. Part II deals with the first step of the Stairway to Heaven, in which R&D adopts agile work practices. Part III of the book combines the next two phases, i.e., continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), as they are closely intertwined. Part IV is concerned with the highest level, referred to as "R&D as an innovation system," while Part V addresses a topic that is separate from the Stairway to Heaven and yet critically important in large organizations: organizational performance metrics that capture data, and visualizations of the status of software assets, defects and teams. Lastly, Part VI presents the perspectives of two of the SC partner companies. The book is intended for practitioners and professionals in the software-intensive systems industry, providing concrete models, frameworks and case studies that show the specific challenges that the partner companies encountered, their approaches to overcoming them, and the results. Researchers will gain valuable insights on the problems faced by large software companies, and on how to effectively tackle them in the context of successful cooperation projects.

This book attempts to capture innovation outcomes. The intent is on a holistic assessment of value creation by innovation - the societal value that it delivers to humanity, the economic value that it has the potential to endow to nations, and the monetary value that it provides to innovating firms. With a range of anecdotal examples and empirical analysis, the book endeavours to answer the question: Have investments in innovation paid off? Big data and analytics underpin the development of the book material. The coverage is truly global, accentuating the economic value created by innovation in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors, the two largest bastions of innovation. In addition, it includes numerous examples of successful innovation in global companies while analyzing its economic/financial impact.

Addressing the challenge of improving battery quality while reducing high costs and environmental impacts of the production, this book presents a multiscale simulation approach for battery production systems along with a software environment and an application procedure. Battery systems are among the most important technologies of the 21st century since they are enablers for the market success of electric vehicles and stationary energy storage solutions. However, the performance of batteries so far has limited possible applications. Addressing this challenge requires an interdisciplinary understanding of dynamic cause-effect relationships between processes, equipment, materials, and environmental conditions. The approach in this book supports the integrated evaluation of improvement measures and is usable for different planning horizons. It is applied to an exemplary battery cell production and module assembly in order to demonstrate the effectiveness and potential benefits of the simulation.

Social franchising represents a third generation form of franchising development, after trade-name and business-format franchising. At the intersection of social enterprise and micro finance literatures, this book reviews a variety of social franchising formats across a number of developing countries.

This proceedings volume presents the latest research from the worldwide mass customization & personalization (MCP) community bringing together new thoughts and results from various disciplines within the field. The chapters are based on papers from the MCPC 2017. The book showcases research and practice from authors that see MCP as an opportunity to extend or even revolutionize current business models. The current trends of Industrie 4.0, digital manufacturing, and the rise of smart products allow for a fresh perspective on MCP: Customization 4.0. The book places a new set of values in the centre of the debate: a world with finite resources, global population growth, and exacerbating climate change needs smart thinking to engage the most effective capabilities and resources. It discusses how Customization 4.0 fosters sustainable development and creates shared value for companies, customers, consumers, and the society as a whole. The chapters of this book are contributed by a wide range of specialists, offering cutting-edge research, as well as insightful advances in industrial practice in key areas. The MCPC 2017 has a strong focus on real life MCP applications, and this proceedings volume reflects this. MCP strategies aim to profit from the fact that people are different. Their objective is to turn customer heterogeneities into opportunities, hence addressing "long tail" business models. The objective of MCP is to provide goods and services that best serve individual customers' needs with near mass production efficiency. This proceedings volume highlights the interdisciplinary work of thought leaders, technology developers, and researchers with corporate entrepreneurs putting these strategies into practice. Chapter 24 is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.

The book aims to present "traditional features" of regional science (as geographical concepts and institutions), as well as relatively new topics such as innovation and agglomeration economies. In particular it demonstrates that, contrary to what has been argued by recent economics literature, both geography and institutions (or culture) are relevant for local development. In fact, these phenomena, along with the movement of goods and workers, are among the main reasons for persisting development differentials. These intriguing relationships are at the heart of the analysis presented in this book and form the conceptual basis for a promising institutional approach to economic geography.

This book explores the factors that make digital disruption possible and the effects this has on existing business models. It takes a look at the industries that are most susceptible to disruption and highlights what executives can do to take advantage of disruption to re-invent their business model. It also examines the pivotal role that technology plays in creating new dynamics to business operations and forcing business model changes. Adoption of digital technology has caused process disruptions in a number of industries and led to new business models (e.g., UEber, AirBnb) and new products. In addition to covering some of the more popular and well known examples, this book targets not so obvious disruptions in the education sector and in services and changing business models. Phantom Ex Machina: Digital Disruption's Role in Business Model Transformation is divided into six parts. The book begins with an introduction to digital disruption and why it matters. The next part of the book focuses on business strategy which includes case studies on the impact of social media and how digital disruption changes pricing strategies and price models. For part three, the authors observe technology's role in digital disruptions. Chapters cover how 3D printing is challenging existing business models and how the automotive industry is innovating with new perspectives. Part four covers higher education, recognizing digital disruption's transformation in graduate management education. Part five centers upon the service industry with a look at virtual teams and the emergence of virtual think tanks. Finally the book concludes with a look to the future, embracing disruptions.

The purpose of this book is to provide public health, disability, and rehabilitation professionals and practitioners evidence-based science with respect to health disparities faced by people with disabilities, especially people with mobility limitations; alternative methods of rehabilitation and exercise science for this population; assistive device technology; and, improved access to health care, employment, and social participation. According to the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), approximately 57 million Americans live with a disability. Disability severity and types vary considerably, such that each individual with a disability faces unique physical, social, and environmental barriers in order to enjoy quality of life and full participation in society. A large research literature shows that people with disabilities face substantial employment and health disparities compared to people without disabilities. People with mobility limitations often experience secondary conditions to compound their primary disability. Hollar (2013) and Hollar and Lewis (2015) showed that people with mobility limitations were significantly more likely to experience obesity and lack of access to physical exercise. Other studies have shown that access to proper physical examination facilities and equipment remain a substantial barrier in many clinics and hospitals despite the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act 25 years ago. Research on alternative exercise programs and new assistive device technologies offers promise to improve physical functioning and exercise for people with mobility limitations. Furthermore, increased focus on biopsychosocial over traditional medical models for disability will help policymakers and the public to recognize the complex, contextual issues (e.g., personal, social, environmental) that affect the lives of people with disabilities. Readership includes public health practitioners and educators, disability and rehabilitation researchers, clinicians and sports medicine practitioners, and disability advocates. There have been general handbooks on disability, but advances in technology and alternative exercise programs, as well as novel disability health programs, are dispersed in the research literature. This book will help to highlight these programs for health policy experts, especially given the high health and social disparities experienced by this population.

This book integrates Industrie 4.0, Value Chain Network Management 2.0, and Stakeholder Value-Led Management into a method, offering organizations an opportunity to be more analytical when making strategic decisions for operations management activities. Strategic Capability Response Analysis embraces the value expectations of all stakeholders in a business enterprise and links them together with a demand-supply-response relationship. This convergence delivers a focused "agile-rolling-value proposition" that optimizes the expectations and the resources of its stakeholder constituents. The use of Strategic Capability Response Analysis considers the implications of the changing environment of value chain network management for the digital age. Industrie 4.0 has presented numerous opportunities across all industries to improve both the effectiveness of strategic decisions and the efficiency of their implementation to the network stakeholders. As Industrie 4.0 is changing the characteristics of decision making, the proposed model considers the impact of alternative solutions on the core business model components of performance, profitability, productivity, producibility, partnerships and preservation. The book includes case studies to highlight current management problems and how this approach can be used to help resolve those issues.

This book presents an overview of the main research findings and case studies concerning education and skills for inclusive growth, green jobs and the greening of economies. Focusing on India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam, it discusses government and business sector responses to these issues and how Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems and institutions are addressing both the renewal of curricula in the context of green growth dynamics, and patterns of training and skills development to meet demands. In addition, the book examines cross-country issues, concerns and prospects regarding education and skills for inclusive growth and green jobs for the four countries. These include critical themes and issues in the selected industry sectors triggering a demand for green jobs in the region; how industry is responding to those demands; areas impeding the transition from traditional to green practices; the importance of skills development; the role of TVET in addressing industry needs; and reasons for the slow response of TVET to green skills.While other studies conducted in Asia - and internationally - on the same topic have largely relied on secondary sources, this study conducted by the Asian Development Bank and the Education University of Hong Kong (ADB-EdUHK) is unique in that the findings, conclusions and recommendations reported on are based on primary data. As part of the study, TVET providers, business enterprises, policy makers and practitioners were surveyed using questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. In addition, workshops were held in each of the four countries to ascertain the views of key stakeholders in government, nongovernment organisations, members of the international development community, TVET providers and members of the business sector.The book also provides summaries of the case studies undertaken for India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam.

Technology is the key driver of business. May it be airport, ICT, smart governance, manufacturing or plantations. Technology management opens up opportunities for the business and help achieve leadership positions. This collection of papers provides a glimpse of issues faced in different sectors. These papers also should inspire more researchers to expand the scope of the subject itself."

Employing a three-dimensional approach, this book discusses inclusive innovation for socio-economic growth and development, and the implications for human security within the context of developing and emerging economies. Focusing on a new and innovative area of research, Inclusive Innovation for Sustainable Development explores new social and technological processes that are created within, and for the benefit of, marginalised populations. Considering policy and issues surrounding technology, business strategies and best practices, theoretical underpinnings and a broader contextualisation, the authors interrogate the concept of the inclusivity of innovations. Written from the perspective of the new UN paradigm which states that "no one will be left behind", the book considers the potential contribution of modern technology to human security and develops frameworks that counter the potential increases in inequality that this may bring. With contributions from leading international scholars in a range of disciplines, as well as practitioners in international development organizations and private sector actors Inclusive Innovation for Sustainable Development provides a way forward for excluded majority populations to take control of innovative technologies and business processes.

Although there have been considerable technological advances over the past decade, particularly in terms of mobile applications, much remains unknown about their effect on societal progress. This book focuses on how inequality and entrepreneurship are both by-products of technological change. The book provides insights into how society has shifted from consumer division to human centricity, and helps readers gain a better understanding of the positive and negative effects of entrepreneurship.

This book explores a wide range of emerging cultural, heritage, and other tourism issues that will shape the future of hospitality and tourism research and practice in the digital and innovation era. It offers stimulating new perspectives in the fields of tourism, travel, hospitality, culture and heritage, leisure, and sports within the context of a knowledge society and smart economy. A central theme is the need to adopt a more holistic approach to tourism development that is aligned with principles of sustainability; at the same time, the book critically reassesses the common emphasis on innovation as a tool for growth-led and market-oriented development. In turn, fresh approaches to innovation practices underpinned by ethics and sustainability are encouraged, and opportunities for the exploration of new research avenues and projects on innovation in tourism are highlighted. Based on the proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the International Association of Cultural and Digital Tourism (IACuDiT) and edited in collaboration with IACuDiT, the book will appeal to a broad readership encompassing academia, industry, government, and other organizations.

The 2nd International Conference on Sustainable Innovation emphasizes on natural resources technology and management to support the sustainability of mankind. The main theme of ICoSI 2014 "Technology and innovation challenges in natural resources and built environment management for humanity and sustainability " reflects the needs of immediate action from scientists with different fields and different geographical background to face the global issue on world's change.

The goal of this book is to provide a comprehensive, multi-dimensional approach to research and practice in e-government 2.0 implementation. Contributions from an international panel of experts apply a variety of methodological approaches and illustrative case studies to present state-of-the-art analysis and perspectives.

Around the world, governments are employing technological advancements to revolutionize their ways of working, resulting in changing relationships among public organizations and their constituents. Important enablers are new uses of information and knowledge-sharing technologies that emerged with the advent of the Web 2.0 paradigm; initially used in the private arena, such user-friendly, participatory, intuitive and flexible Web 2.0 technologies (e.g., blogs, Wikis, RSS, social networking platforms, folksonomy, podcasting, mashups, virtual worlds, open linked data, etc.) are increasingly disseminated within the professional sphere, regardless of organization type or field of activities.

Current e-government environments have undergone considerable transformations in an attempt to satisfy the incessant demand for more advanced e-service delivery, better access to information and more efficient government management. Looking to the future, the emergence of Web 2.0, the rise of social networks and the wider dissemination of data and information are expected to generate many benefits, such as a better match between public services and citizens' expectations, greater adoption of online services by citizens and better control of costs and prevention of delays in the implementation of new services. Governments around the world are building frameworks and proposals for e-government 2.0, in the hopes of improving participation, transparency and integration, while speeding up the pace of innovation through collaboration and consultation.This volume addresses a gap in the research literature, offering timely insights on the e-government 2.0 phenomenon and directions for future practice and policy.

This book provides a deep insight to which extent further improvement should be envisaged to ensure and improve the sustainable development beyond 2030 (the Sustainable Development Goals is a set of 17 global goals with 169 associated targets which the state community adopted in 2015). As the world, its environment, economy and society is getting more and more technical advanced, it is of high interest to analyze how space and its various applications can support this development. Once the Goals of the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" will be achieved new challenges are waiting. The analysis takes into account a proactive use of artificial intelligence for the development based on space infrastructure. Another important aspect revolves around the economic development which asks for further analysis of the cryptocurrencies relationship with space applications and how to use space based cryptocurrencies for development. Environment-wise the challenges for a sustainable development on Earth i.e. water supply, but also in outer space are requested ensuring a sustainable exploration and exploitation of space and its orbital resources. The book also highlights possible contributions of the post-2030 space industry to global economic development based on satellite technology and the enlargement of the scope of application of satellite data in administration and Justice to ensure development of effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels to promote growth, stability and security and peace on global level.

This book examines how regulators and policymakers from nine different countries have dealt with Uber, and initiates a legal dialogue between different jurisdictions that could potentially pave the way to a harmonized approach in regulating Uber. The case studies, conducted in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the US reveal the case law and regulatory responses that have been adopted in various areas of law. Legal issues relevant to Uber include market regulation, labor law, civil liability, consumer protection, unfair competition and antitrust law. The book thus compares and contrasts the regulatory policy implications of the disruptive innovation created by Uber in the area of transport services. The book starts with a conceptual overview of the legal challenges posed by Uber and concludes with comparative findings based on the individual case studies. In addition to introducing academics and legal practitioners to the theoretical and practical legal problems they may encounter in connection with Uber, the book will especially appeal to policymakers, who can benefit from and compare the experiences of other jurisdictions.

China is dramatically catching up and is rapidly becoming a leading technological innovator on the global scale. The number of Chinese firms with global ambitions is growing fast, more and more technological innovation is coming from China, and the number of patents in China is also growing steadily. The negative side of this development is the still insufficient protection of intellectual property in China. The phenomenon of counterfeits originating from China has increased constantly over the past two decades. Moreover, within the past ten years the scale of intellectual property theft has risen exponentially in terms of its sophistication, volume, the range of goods, and the countries affected. This book addresses managers dealing with innovation in China, and offers concrete advice on how Western firms can benefit from these innovations. Among others, it provides examples and checklists to help decision-makers active in China. "