This book analyses prevailing approaches and policies in innovative entrepreneurship. It explores the ways in which entrepreneurs learn and develop innovation-based businesses to drive increased regional competitiveness. Specifically, the contributions propose that sustainable innovation ecosystems booster innovative entrepreneurship and thus create a competitive advantage for smart and sustainable growth. It also examines the current state of entrepreneurship education, where the development of entrepreneurial abilities is considered a process of value creation-both economic and social-with the final aim to create both new start-ups and entrepreneurial mind-sets.Featuring theoretical approaches and empirical evidences, this title is appropriate for scholars, academics, students and policy makers in technology and innovation management, economics of innovation and entrepreneurship.

E-government has the potential to improve public services, information transparency, and the engagement of civic participation of the public sector management. This book analyzes the achievement of expectations created by public managers, policy-makers, and stakeholders with regard to the implementation of e-government policies and applications. It also tries to determine whether e-government applications have been introduced as a fad or according to real demands from citizenry and if efforts within e-government have been effective. This book investigates how public managers and policy-makers imagine e-government policies and the impact of those policies on their management and decision-making process through the engagement of citizenry. It is also discusses whether e-government policies are merely procedural improvements that strictly introduce new ways of delivering public services or disclosing public sector information. The book's analysis of the overall expectations on e-government applications makes it of interest to scholars in public administration as well as to policy-makers and stakeholders.

This book elaborates on the distinction between societal innovation and social innovation. It provides eight case studies to illustrate the scope, process, outcome, and impact of societal innovation and social innovation. In addition, the book proposes a model for interested parties to maximize their contribution for the common social good in a systematic and effective way. Case studies are used to illustrate concepts for readers to grasp the real essence of the relatively abstract notions of societal innovation and social innovation. In doing so, the book shows how small efforts can bring big benefits for the under privileged and to society as a whole. This book serves as a helpful resource for government officials, social innovation practitioners, social entrepreneurs, Non Profit Organizations, as well as students who would like to contribute to the common social good.

Value Chain Marketing (VCM) is a promising strategy to overcome immediate customers' innovation resistance. By pursuing VCM, material suppliers enlarge their target group beyond their immediate customers and address their downstream customers as well. Treading on relatively unexplored grounds, this book explores the relevance of VCM and comprehends its process; identifies the critical factors for suppliers' marketing success, and compares the performance of VCM trials, using a multi-method design linking case study research and computational modeling.

Information systems (IS)/Information technology(IT) has become an essential part and a major resource of the organization. IS/IT is a major resource that can radically affect the structure of an organisation, the way it serves customers, and the way it helps people in organisations to communicate both internally and externally, and the way an organisation runs its business. Managing information and information systems effectively and efficiently have become an essential part of the life of 21st century managers. This book is about Managing information and information systems and focuses on relationships between information, information systems/information technology, people and business. The impacts, roles, risks, challenges as well as emerging trends of information systems will be an important element of the book. At the same time, many strategic and contemporary uses of information systems such as implementing enterprise planning systems for improving internal operation, adopting customer relationship management systems and supply chain management systems to enhance relations with customers and suppliers/partners respectively, and establishing knowledge management systems for better managing organizational knowledge resources as well as using different information systems for supporting managers' decision making in all levels will be an integral part of the book. In addition, essential and critical information systems management skills including using information systems for competitive advantages, planning and evaluating information systems, system development & implementing information systems, and managing information systems operations will be a critical part of the book.

This book explores the parallels between the Renaissance during the 14th to 16th centuries and the upheavals in human and physical sciences in the 21st Century that herald an insurgent entrepreneurial renaissance. The first Renaissance, conceived and developed in an urban environment, with the Medici family in Florence as pioneers, was a melting pot of art, culture, science and technology. It is in that context that entrepreneurship derived from artisan tradition and, hence, customized, was born to meet the demands and anticipate the needs of individual consumers. Starting with the mechanical technologies of the first industrial revolution, art, culture and science became separated from entrepreneurship. The latter took on Fordist features which depersonalized and, therefore, standardized the producer-consumer relationship. The emerging model of entrepreneurship returns to its origins in customization (e.g., 3D printing technologies, sharing/on-demand economy) strongly linked to the sequence "art-culture-science-technology." The road to a new entrepreneurial renaissance is traveled by cities with creative communities. These communities actively participate in promoting international talent mobility, encouraging connections among the knowledge nomads who move around the world and the resources and talents rooted locally. Brought back to life under the conditions of the current age, entrepreneurship is once again woven into the fabric of art, culture, science and technology, and contributing to civic identity and pride. Featuring case studies from local experts that highlight innovative initiatives and developments in diverse cities around the world, this book aims to stimulate deep thought, theories and applications in the fields of entrepreneurship and innovation.

This book is a guide for achieving innovation through outsourcing. Unpacking the various challenges faced by client firms and suppliers, the authors take the reader through the innovation lifecycle and devise a clear plan to achieve valuable results. Offering practical frameworks and tools to ensure informed decision-making at every stage, this book also includes collaborative structures and metrics to measure outcomes. Written by leading figures in the area of outsourcing, this book offers both the academic rigor and the hands-on experience based on dozens of cases that walk the reader from the very beginning of the outsourcing journey to the successful delivery of transformative innovations.

This book introduces readers to cybersecurity and its impact on the realization of the Industry 4.0 vision. It covers the technological foundations of cybersecurity within the scope of the Industry 4.0 landscape and details the existing cybersecurity threats faced by Industry 4.0, as well as state-of-the-art solutions with regard to both academic research and practical implementations. Industry 4.0 and its associated technologies, such as the Industrial Internet of Things and cloud-based design and manufacturing systems are examined, along with their disruptive innovations. Further, the book analyzes how these phenomena capitalize on the economies of scale provided by the Internet. The book offers a valuable resource for practicing engineers and decision makers in industry, as well as researchers in the design and manufacturing communities and all those interested in Industry 4.0 and cybersecurity.

The current economic theory of innovation mainly analyses the technology factor and its impact on economic growth. In today's world, growth in information technology and knowledge of new ideas has altered the business paradigm dramatically. Modern economies have undergone a dynamic shift from material manufacturing to a new information technology model with research and development (R&D) and human capital. Through information and communications technology efficient information usage has achieved substantial productivity gains through learning by doing and incremental innovations. The present volume discusses this new paradigm in terms of both theory and industry applications, including Schumpeter in his innovation model and the emphasis on new innovations replacing the old. Growth of business networking and R&D consortium have dramatically helped the modern business to reduce their unit costs and improve efficiency. This volume presents some new models emphasizing knowledge sharing and R&D cooperation. Rapid growth in recent times in some south Asian countries have been cited as growth miracles are largely caused by knowledge spillover and learning by doing, and this volume also investigates the role of incremental innovations. With a strong focus and extension of the current theory of innovation and industry growth experiences of both the US and Asian countries, this book will be of interest to MBA and graduate students in economics, innovation management, and applied industrial economics.

This Handbook provides authoritative up-to-date scholarship and debate concerning creativity at work, and offers a timely opportunity to re-evaluate our understanding of creativity, work, and the pivotal relationship between them. Far from being a new arrival on the scene, the context of work has always been a place shaped and sharpened by creativity, as well as a site that determines, where, when, how, and for whom creativity emerges. Structured in four parts - Working with Creativity (the present); Putting Creativity to Work (in an organizational context); Working in the Creative Industries (creative labour); and Making Creativity Work (the future) - the Handbook is an inspirational learning resource, helping us to work with creativity in innovative ways. Providing a cutting edge, interdisciplinary, diverse, and critical collection of academic and practitioner insights, this Handbook ultimately conveys a message of hope: if we take better care of creativity, our creativity will better care for us.

The book examines the future deployment of renewable power from a normative point of view. It identifies properties characterizing the cost-optimal transition towards a renewable power system and analyzes the key drivers behind this transition. Among those drivers, particular attention is paid to technological cost reductions and the implications of uncertainty. From a methodological perspective, the main contributions of this book relate to the field of endogenous learning and uncertainty in optimizing energy system models. The primary objective here is closing the gap between the strand of literature covering renewable potential analyses on the one side and energy system modeling with endogenous technological change on the other side. The models applied in this book demonstrate that fundamental changes must occur to transform today's power sector into a more sustainable one over the course of this century. Apart from its methodological contributions, this work is also intended to provide practically relevant insights regarding the long-term competitiveness of renewable power generation.

The objective of this book is to explore the relationship between intellectual capital management and the sustainable development of organizations and society. To do so, it introduces readers to the topic of intellectual capital in the context of several connected entities such as organizations, cities and regions, sharing insights that both reflect the status quo and demonstrate the need for further action. In closing, the book presents practical cases to verify the impact of intellectual capital management on sustainable and competitive development.

The second title in the Palgrave Studies in Global Human Capital Management series, this book explores how human capital contributes to innovation within the context of an inter-connected and globalized world. Investigating globalization as a phenomenon reflected within increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, know-how and talent, Human Capital and Innovation: Examining the Role of Globalization illustrates various facets of innovation at individual, team and organizational level. It highlights the influence of new economic realities, such as technological advances and the rise of emerging economies, on human capital and innovation.

At a time when scientific and technical innovation now requires a multitude of heterogeneous inputs and expertise from the public and private sectors alike, cooperative research centers (CRCs) have emerged as the predominant vehicle for cross-sector collaboration. In the U.S. alone, there are thousands of CRCs on university campuses, and agencies like the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and more recently the Department of Energy fund CRCs to address some of the nation's most formidable challenges with science and technology, including cancer and other diseases, terrorism surveillance and the detection of weapons of mass destruction, and new energy technologies and smart energy grid development. Industry oftentimes participates in CRCs for access to knowledge, capacity development, and to mitigate risk. This volume includes research investigating CRCs from North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia to explore the dynamics of CRCs, including but not limited to resource allocation, structure, level of sponsorship, organization and membership, management and operations, objectives and goals, and in doing so identifies both differences and similarities across institutional and national contexts. The volume sheds light on the role of CRCs in promoting innovation, S&T policy, and economic development, and on the practical aspects of successful CRC management. Moreover, the works included in the volume consider the implications for the various stakeholder groups (firms, universities, researchers, students, policymakers) invested in CRCs.

The innovation economy sets new standards for global business and requires efficient innovation management to plan, execute and evaluate innovation activities, establish innovation capability and coordinate resources and capacities for innovation on an intra- and inter-organizational level. Communication has become a critical factor underpinning successful innovation. As a new communication field, innovation communication facilitates the successful launches of new products and services, the establishment of stakeholder relationships, and the strengthening of corporate reputation in the long-run. Consequently, firms today need to develop a strong portfolio of communication tools as an integral part of their strategic innovation management activities. This new edition mainly concentrates on emerging approaches and methods for integrating communication as part of strategic innovation management. A key theme is the provision of an integrated perspective to bridge the gap between innovation management and communication management at both strategic and operational levels. This book makes an important contribution to this evolving academic domain by providing multiple perspectives on the latest research on innovation communication and strategic open innovation. It also provides guidance for managers seeking to understand the diverse ways by which they can leverage communication to support successful innovation.

The media industry is in transition. While some changes are readily apparent, we have not even begun to understand the impact of others. The result is one of the most fascinating times in the history of media. As digital technologies accelerate the pace of change in all facets of our lives, researchers and practitioners are exploring its impact on traditional media and social interaction. Transitioned Media brings together leading academics and media industry executives to identify and analyze the most transformative trends and issues. Themes include the effect of digital technologies on consumer behavior, new approaches to advertising and branding, social networks, the blogosphere and impact of "citizen" journalism, music and intellectual property rights, digital cinema, and video games. Underlying the chapters is an economic perspective, with an emphasis on how new business models are being developed that take the social dimensions of digital technologies into account. The result is a unique perspective on the digital media landscape and the forces that will shape it in the future.

This book contributes to our understanding of the reasons for the uneven geographic emergence and distribution of innovative start-ups and human capital, analyzing the role of the regional knowledge base and specifically academic knowledge. Using extensive datasets from West German regions and advanced econometric tools, it confirms a strong relationship between the presence of higher education institutions and the emergence of innovative start-ups. It also shows that the influence increases in direct relation with the innovativeness of the respective start-up, and that certain fields of knowledge are more influential than others in fostering innovative start-ups. In a second step, the multidimensional concept of quality of life is used to explain the geography of human capital across West German regions. Based on these empirical findings, the book shares valuable insights for higher education and regional development policy.

This monograph provides a methodological approach for establishing demand-oriented levels of energy transparency of factories. The author presents a systematic indication of energy drivers and cost factors, taking into account the interdependencies between facility and production domains. Particular attention is given to energy flow metering and monitoring. Readers will also be provided with an in-depth description of a planning tool which allows for systematically deriving suitable metering points in complex factory environments. The target audience primarily comprises researchers and experts in the field of factory planning, but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

In a world moving towards services, driving service productivity is a central challenge for leaders and members of all types of organisations: for service businesses there is a clear need to be "productive", but it is far less clear what this exactly means. In this book, we invite you on a journey that explores the ways, tools and options for driving service productivity. We take an innovator's perspectives and look at the tricky challenge of service productivity as a landscape of options for designing the future of services. Case examples, from the airport, hotel, healthcare, and professional service industry, offer insights in the methods used and approaches taken in business practice. Research results provide food for thought and valuable advice on the path towards superior service productivity. Throughout the book we also listen to the views and advices of interviewed experts from academia as well as business practice on how to drive service productivity. A forecast on how service productivity and service innovation might evolve in the future provides us - and hopefully you as a reader - with the necessary food for thought to develop our own understanding of driving service productivity in different business settings. Overall, this book is not a traditional "academic product" that summarises the views of a few, but a co-created offering that profited enormously from the contributions of so many.

Contributing to the debate on work performance evaluation in a time of technological transformation, this book explores the impact of digitisation on production and organisation models, as well as on the rights and interests of the stakeholders involved. As organisations down-size, merge with other companies and become decentralised, the boundaries in employer-employee-customer relationships are blurred and new models for the organisation and assessment of work performance have emerged. With these new models, innovative regulatory approaches are sorely needed. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on theoretical concepts from organisation studies, human resource management, sociology and labour economics, this all-encompassing collection is not only essential reading for academics and students, but also for policy-makers and employers who are looking for innovative and practical solutions to the challenges of modern employment relations.

Too Good to Fail: Creating Marketplace Value form the World's Brightest Minds is a guide for senior managers seeking to address their need to rapidly develop globally innovative products with constrained R&D budgets. It creates a practical strategy to address and bring together, for the first time, the emergence of open innovation networks, intellectual property, technology transfer and the ubiquitous compression of technology development time lines in a clear, connected and lucid manner. In the industry today, companies look to remain competitive in the face of the convergence of global innovation networks and sub-optimal equity markets. This book offers a new perspective, turning what was once perceived as a weakness into a strength. Drastic action is required to address the inability of companies to control the development of new technology. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control over new technology development and embracing crowdsourcing discoveries from the world's leading research institutions to exogenously replace the "R" of corporate "R&D." The synthesis of the literatures on open innovation and technology transfer should prove useful to the growing number of practitioners in technology transfer. The recent global emergence of Patent Box tax relief has for the first time created the financial incentives for firms to seek to create marketplace value from university intellectual capital, to improve both their competitiveness and after tax income.

The Russian Federation has a history of more than twenty years of transformation to a market economy, but as well to a knowledge society, to look back on. This study takes a look at the knowledge generation, knowledge transmission and knowledge use inside the Federation since the early 1990s. Furthermore, in light of the high dependence of the Russian economy on the oil and gas sectors this study analyzes the impact knowledge related factors have on regional income generation following thereby in the direction of Schumpeterian growth theory. The study combines descriptive with empirical analyses to paint a picture as detailed as possible of the Russian knowledge society and its innovative potential.

This book analyzes the effects of the latest technological advances in blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) on business operations and strategies. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the contributions examine new developments that change the rules of traditional management. The chapters focus mainly on blockchain technologies and digital business in the "Industry 4.0" context, covering such topics as accounting, digitalization and use of AI in business operations and cybercrime. Intended for academics, blockchain experts, students and practitioners, the book helps business strategists design a path for future opportunities.

One of the first of its kind, this book examines the digitalization of Chinese businesses both theoretically and practically. Taking a fresh and unique approach, the authors seek to adopt individual theories for each empirical case explored and investigate the dramatic digital transformation that Chinese firms have undergone in recent years. With a particular focus on social networks, the authors observe and analyze the way that digitized applications can interlink with financial systems, developing new capabilities that help to yield competitive advantage. Covering both small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and globally orientated multinational enterprises (MNEs), this book is a valuable resource for those researching Asian business, or international business more generally, as well as innovation and technology management.