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Books > Business & Economics > Business & management > Management of specific areas > Research & development management
This book presents the integration of new tools, the modification of existing tools, and the combination of different tools and approaches to create new technical resources for assisting the innovation process. It describes the efforts deployed for assisting the transformation of Product-Services Systems and explains the main key success factors or drivers for success of each tool or approach applied to solve an innovation problems. The book presents a set of case studies to illustrate the application of several tools and approaches, mainly in developing countries.
Software product lines represent perhaps the most exciting paradigm shift in software development since the advent of high-level programming languages. Nowhere else in software engineering have we seen such breathtaking improvements in cost, quality, time to market, and developer productivity, often registering in the order-of-magnitude range. Here, the authors combine academic research results with real-world industrial experiences, thus presenting a broad view on product line engineering so that both managers and technical specialists will benefit from exposure to this work. They capture the wealth of knowledge that eight companies have gathered during the introduction of the software product line engineering approach in their daily practice.
This book portrays a fresh approach to tourism. It argues for increased and radical change by the tourism industry and claims that this change is made necessary by the emergent sophistication and increased experience of tourists who require a different style of treatment and type of product. Dynamic Tourism is presented as a formula to meet the needs of the prevalent consumer society, to cater for its changing wishes, to reflect society's contemporary concerns and to accommodate the ongoing projected growth of tourism. The focus is upon the tourist, highlighting the need for the tourism industry to give greater consideration to tourists' changing needs, and to take a more flexible, modern and thought-out approach. The argument is delivered in three parts. First, the book indicates why Dynamic Tourism is needed as a method, and shows its first signs of appearing. It then delivers the detail and practicality of the process. Finally, the complete concept is outlined and the method of future implementation is projected. Examples from around the world are used to explain and illustrate the argument. Underlying the whole discussion is the recognition that the tourism arena is a resource of finite size, needing capacity for renewal and requiring the most intelligent, adaptable and considered use. The intended readership for this book includes all participants in the tourism experience: the tourism industry, its policy makers, operatives and stakeholders, and those students who intend to join their ranks, existing tourists who are disappointed with the limited provision offered to them at present and who wish for better in the future, along with the increasing number of new tourists whose outlook is very different from those of the past.
The importance of technology transfer for the competitive advantage of companies and the economic success of nations cannot be overstated. Technology is a determining element for firms and nations to increase productivity, to compete, and to prosper. In The Competitive Advantage of Regions and Nations, the authors stress that companies, investment promotion agencies, and government bodies cannot simply sit and wait until new technologies arrive in their domain. Rather, they need to manage the identification, assessment, attraction, absorption and application of new technologies. In this comprehensive book, Boris Ricken and George Malcotsis explain how technology transfer in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects can be systematically managed. Using some 40 case studies as illustration, they give step-by-step guidance for managers. The explanation of theory in this book, together with the frameworks and cases delivering solutions to the various challenges of technology transfer will be highly appreciated by managers of companies, investment promotion agencies, and government bodies alike. It also offers students confronted with the topic an understandable study guide.
The advent of Internet marked a significant change in how users and customers can be involved in the innovative process. History is rife with examples of how users innovate, but Internet and its associated communication technologies brought radically new means for individuals to interact rapidly and at little cost in communities that spur new innovations. These communities are initiated and governed by people that differ in their motivations for taking part and participate to varying degrees. Such communities are outside the immediate control of companies seeking to develop open innovation strategies aimed at harnessing their work. This book brings together distinguished scholars from different disciplines: economics, organization theory, innovation studies and marketing in order to provide an improved understanding of how technological as well as symbolic value is created and appropriated at the intersection between online communities and firms. Empirical examples are presented from different industries, including software, services and manufacturing. The book offers food for thought for academics and managers to an important phenomenon that challenges many conventional wisdoms for how business can be done. This book was published as a special issue of Industry and Innovation.
In recent decades, there have been significant changes in the way corporate innovation activities are performed. They include changes in the innovation process, flexibility to outsource certain innovation activities, and by far, the most important one, wider choice in the location of innovation. What caught the most attention of is the trend towards globalization of research and development (R&D) and thereby performance of innovation activities away from the home countries. The main concerns relate to the two new trends: First, the multinational corporations (MNCs) locating strategic innovation activities in some countries outside the industrialized world, which can be referred to as 'emerging economies'; and Second, since 2000, some companies from the emerging economies have started entering the global markets with innovative products and services, developed through their own R&D. Both these new developments have managerial implications for companies and policy implications for the host countries (where such R&D is performed), as well as for the home countries of the companies. Further, innovative products and services resulting from R&D activities in emerging economies seem to better address the needs of consumers at the bottom-of-the-pyramid in other developing countries. This book explores and analyzes these issues. This research presented in Global Innovation in Emerging Economies is applicable to both the industrialized and developing worlds, although from different perspectives - the former would like to prevent relocation of R&D from their countries, and the latter want more of R&D-related investments.
• The first book to cover the strategic implementation of personalized learning in workforce education and higher education settings. • A critical contribution to actionable literature on effective lifelong learning, training, and education programs. • Provides a design framework to address many of the challenges facing existing training programs.
As we become familiar with the 21st century we can see that what we are designing is changing, new technologies support the creation of new forms of product and service, and new pressures on business and society demand the design of solutions to increasingly complex problems, sometimes local, often global in nature. Customers, users and stakeholders are no longer passive recipients of design, expectations are higher, and increased participation is often essential. Volume 1 explores these issues through the work of 21 research teams. Over a twelve-month period each of these groups held a series of workshops and events to examine different facets of future design activity as part of the UK's research council supported Designing for the 21st Century Research Initiative. Each of these 21 contributions describes the context of enquiry, the journey taken by the research team and key insights generated through discourse. Editor and Initiative Director, Tom Inns, provides an introductory chapter that suggests ways that the reader might navigate these different viewpoints. Volume 2 from the Designing for the 21st Century team is to capture a sense of the many ways design thinking has been applied to a broad range of issues. Each chapter describes the context for project work and the main research questions, which framed each project. A great opportunity exists to communicate the actual research methods that have been used, many of these involve an interdisciplinary approach and clear descriptions provide a great repository of knowledge for future design researchers. Each chapter concludes with a review of the new knowledge and understanding generated through project work and a description of potential beneficiaries. Whereas the phase-one projects focused on in the original volume covered interdisciplinary discussion and network building, phase-two projects have engaged in interdisciplinary research experimenting with a variety of methods and techniques to develop new knowledge and understanding for different stakeholders.
Self-organising networks have become the dominant innovators of complex technologies and radical innovation. The growing need for co-operation to ensure innovation success calls for a broader understanding of what makes innovation projects successful and requires new concepts. The book introduces the new concept of innovation communities, defining them as informal networks of like-minded individuals who act as innovation promotors or champions. These key figures come from various companies and organisations and will team up in a project-related fashion, jointly promoting a certain innovation, product or idea either on one or across different levels of an innovation system. The publication presents findings from surveys that demonstrate that networks of champions are a success factor in radical innovation. Five case studies of noteworthy innovation projects illustrate why the collaboration of champions can make innovation projects more successful. Furthermore, the book presents hands-on methods and includes best-practice cases and guidelines on how to develop innovation communities. This publication comprises empirical findings and practical experiences that are valuable for the following groups in particular: Entrepreneurs;Innovation, R&D, and network managers;Innovation and strategy consultants;Innovation and start-up intermediaries;Innovation researchers;Government officials and politicians responsible for R&D and innovation programmes and funding"
Digital Pricing Strategy provides a best practice overview of how companies design, analyse and execute digital pricing strategies. Bringing together insights from academic and professional experts globally, the text covers essential areas of the value and pricing of data, platform pricing, pricing of subscriptions and monetization of the global environment. Case studies, examples and interviews from leading organizations, including Zuora, Honeywell, Relayr, Alcatel Lucent, ABB, Thales and General Electric, illustrate key concepts in practice. To aid student learning, chapter objectives, summaries and key questions feature in every chapter, alongside PowerPoint slides and a test bank available online for lecturers. Comprehensive and applied in its approach, this text provides postgraduate, MBA and Executive Education students with an understanding of the capabilities, processes and tools that enable executives to effectively implement digital transformations and capture value from digital innovations.
Economic development has cyclical dynamics and long-term dynamics - the latter are typically related to demographical changes, innovation and long-term insti- tional changes in open economies. Financial markets - that means mainly capital markets - and labor markets are affected in OECD countries both by innovations and institutional reforms. As regards demographics ageing is a typical challenge on both sides of the Atlantic, and pension reforms in industrialized countries have placed greater emphasis on capital markets than in previous decades. Innovation dynamics certainly are also quite important for all high wage OECD countries. The Lisbon Agenda has put particular emphasis on more growth, higher innovation dynamics and better exploitation of the advantages of a digitally networked society. Traditionally, the US has a lead in global innovations, and the US policy certainly has contributed to the American technological leadership. There still is a per capita income gap in favor of the US and the US labor market situation also looks relatively favorable, but in the ?ve years since 2001 employment growth in the euro area was higher than that of the US. The euro area is, however, a rather heterogeneous set of countries which differ in terms of institutions, attitudes and reform progress - and everywhere governments are aware that there have to be reforms, not least in the context of globalization which bring a more complex and dynamic spatial structure of value-added.
Asset Condition, Information Systems and Decision Models, is the second volume of the Engineering Asset Management Review Series. The manuscripts provide examples of implementations of asset information systems as well as some practical applications of condition data for diagnostics and prognostics. The increasing trend is towards prognostics rather than diagnostics, hence the need for assessment and decision models that promote the conversion of condition data into prognostic information to improve life-cycle planning for engineered assets. The research papers included here serve to support the on-going development of Condition Monitoring standards. This volume comprises selected papers from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd World Congresses on Engineering Asset Management, which were convened under the auspices of ISEAM in collaboration with a number of organisations, including CIEAM Australia, Asset Management Council Australia, BINDT UK, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China. Asset Condition, Information Systems and Decision Models will be of particular interest to finance, maintenance, and operations personnel whose roles directly affect the capability value of engineering asset base, as well as asset managers in both industry and government.
The business world has been changing at a faster rate than before and has become more complex and interdependent. This has given rise to greater opportunities for new business platforms and growth, but the need for new understanding of this complexity. Hyperinnovation provides a complete rethink of strategies for innovation in a multidimensional and connected economy.
This is a selection of papers representing the best thinking of leading researchers and practitioners in the field of management of technology. Based on a conference on growth through business innovation and entrepreneurship, it addresses a wide range of starting points for technology and innovation managers on how to develop and commercialize new technologies. The book is structured along three themes: entrepreneurship and venture creation; knowledge management; and multi-actor innovation. The first theme essentially deals with entrepreneurial energy, the conditions for its appearance and its success. It focuses mostly on entrepreneurs in innovation, start-ups and venturing activities. The second theme is composed of articles addressing various issues of knowledge and know-how management - the role that information and technologies play to facilitate and create new business opportunities. The third theme discusses the trend towards a multi-actor innovation process, according to which developments are carried out by several organizations, firms or otherwise, each contributing a piece of the innovation puzzle. The concentration is on three areas: the actual implementation of collaborative developments, involving various types of partners; supply and demand chains; and the interplay between technology and its societal context.
Cooperation in Research and Development provides an empirical and theoretical analysis of a distinct form of inter-firm collaboration in Research & Development (R&D): research joint ventures (RJVs). Of all types of cooperation, RJVs have received the most attention in both formal industrial organization and science and technology policy literature. The emerging theoretical economic literature on incentives of firms to join RJVs has not been followed by much empirical work. Cooperation in Research and Development attempts to fill the void caused by this lack of consistent data on the rate of RJV formation, RJV characteristics, and RJV member characteristics. Significant attention is paid to the role of RJVs in facilitating virtual' firm diversification as necessary to pursue particular technological objectives. An effort is also made to blend the reported theoretical and empirical analyses with conceptual models of the process of technological innovation and models of industrial evolution in order to provide answers beyond the reach of the received economic theory. Cooperation in Research and Development should be of interest to academic economists, policy makers, and business representatives. The microeconomic issues the book deals with overlap significantly with the interests of decision makers both in government and business.
Digitalizing Sustainability outlines why 'business as usual' isn't working and sets out five Transformational Forces which can be used to innovate and scale sustainability solutions using digital means. This transformation will be powered by a range of digital technologies that have the potential to ideate, propel and scale sustainability solutions in an exponential manner over the next decade. This book introduces the Five Forces of Digital Transformation. These forces all share a common root - they are powered by digital technologies that enable them to operate at the speed and scale that we need to achieve global transformation for people and planet. Working together, these forces help overcome many of the barriers and pitfalls that humanity has faced in trying to achieve sustainability 2.0.and will help you tackle these questions: Why has sustainability 1.0 failed us? What are the bugs and bad code in our operating systems that we must address to have any hope at creating a sustainable civilization? What are the Five Forces of Digital Transformation that will forge a sustainable and resilient future for our people and planet? What are the core priorities going forward for coalitions of the willing to harness these forces for sustainability and resilience? Disruptive and innovative, this book provides readers with a clear path forward to a sustainable digital future. It will be of great interest to anyone interested in the adoption of digital technologies for driving solutions to global sustainability challenges.
This book investigates the role of smart cities in the broader context of urban innovation and e-government, identifies what a smart city is in practice and highlights their importance to the welfare of society. The book offers specific, measurable, and action-oriented public sector planning and management principles and ideas for smart governance in the era of global urbanization and innovation to help with the challenges in maintaining the democratic system of checks and balances as well as the division of powers in a highly interconnected world. The book will be of interest researchers, practitioners, students, and public sector IT professionals that work within innovation management, public administration, urban technologies and urban innovation, and public local administration studies.
Despite the ever-increasing interest in eye tracking, there is still no comprehensive work on the potential and applications of table-mounted and mobile head-mounted eye tracking solutions in travel and tourism. This volume bridges that gap, effectively linking eye tracking with travel and tourism. It presents, on the one hand, novel academic contributions on the concept of eye tracking, and on the other, practice-oriented case studies that illustrate the use and strategic value of eye tracking in travel and tourism. It provides concrete and novel insights into tourist behavior and the tourist consumer experience and, for the academic community, offers a comprehensive, scientifically based overview of the empirical, methodological, theoretical, and practical contributions of eye tracking research. Accordingly, the book will be of value to a diverse audience. It will be a useful resource for existing and future tourism businesses, allowing them to adopt proactive approaches in the design of tourism products. It will also stimulate further research in the field and inspire scholars and practitioners to combine their ideas and expertise, to look beyond supposedly fixed horizons, and to identify emerging opportunities.
Recognizing the increasing importance of environmental issues, energy prices, material availability and efficiency and the difficulty of adequately managing these issues in traditional accounting systems, several companies all over the world have started implementing Environmental and Material Flow Cost Accounting (EMA and MFCA). Environmental and Material Flow Costs Accounting explains and updates the approach developed for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSD/UNDESA) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and in addition includes experiences of several case studies and recent developments regarding EMA and MFCA in national statistics and ISO standardization."
Provocative and reflective, this volume on the notion of knowledge and innovation in the business industry provides readers with a holistic approach to the subject of 'knowledge'. Structuring their arguments around four case studies of innovation within four entirely different contexts, Hakansson and Waluszewski invite the business-minded reader to consider the costs of adopting new knowledge and innovation within a business setting. This book:
An ideal reference source for postgraduate students taking advanced courses in science and technology studies, innovation management, industrial marketing and purchasing, technological development and innovation systems.
This book represents one of the first attempts by a multidisciplinary research team, encompassing the social sciences, business, architecture and planning, engineering, and finance and economics, to help rural communities discover sustainable and self-reliant paths to development and transformation. The opening chapter outlines the background of the research, its importance in the context of China and other countries, the rationale for choosing the case study communities in rural China, and the composition of the research team. Chapter 2 explores key issues in the role of social entrepreneurship and leadership in rural community development. Chapter 3 analyses a green platform for a pilot transaction of China forest carbon sinks led by the Huadong Forestry Exchange. The fourth chapter examines carbon trade, forestry land rights, and the livelihoods of farmers in rural Chinese communities. Chapter 5 explores alternative energy development in rural Chinese communities, where the poor are often disproportionately dependent on fuel wood and solid biomass, causing environmental degradation, reduced productivity and the decline of income generating opportunities. Chapter 6 examines and tests the proposition that stronger communities will result from 'connected up', holistic, synergistic and inclusive planning of services and supporting infrastructure. Chapter 7 analyzes information and communications technology (ICT) based service innovations for supporting rural community enterprises. Chapter 8 highlights key elements of stronger rural communities, drawing together the themes and proposals of preceding chapters and constructing an integrated model. The authors demonstrate that interconnected community enterprises based on clean forest products, forest carbon and ecotourism can be underpinned by local infrastructure enterprises such as renewable energy, water, waste management, ICT and transport, and financial mechanisms like carbon finance, all involving skills development, leadership and social entrepreneurship coupled with corporate and investment partnerships. Such interconnected approaches are expected to generate increased employment and prosperity, improve social livelihoods, and benefit the environment.
High unemployment rates in the period of an internationalization of economies and an intensified technological competition are the main problems that exist in most EU countries. Taking stock of unemployment patterns, technological trends and employment opportunities in the EU and the US is crucial for the reform debate in Europe. In continental Europe, major problems are an insufficient creation of new firms in innovative technology fields, inadequate labor market developments and inconsistent R&D policies. Founded on new data evaluations, the book presents an innovative analysis of these topics and shows opportunities for reforms.
Leveraged Innovation reveals that a dramatically different approach to the supplier-client relationship is being developed by leading companies around the world. It documents the benefits of Early Supplier Involvement (ESI), a radically new approach to inter-company relations which is providing a powerful impetus for increased creativity. Based on the findings of a European Research team, the text clearly shows how, why and to what effect suppliers the world over are becoming increasingly involved in the innovation process itself. Leveraged Innovation demonstrates and documents the process through which increased co-operation can lead to real competitive advantage. Leveraged Innovation is both an introduction to Early Supplier Involvement and a dynamic overview of best practise around the world. It provides important practical insights for enterprising companies, enabling the development and maintenance of ESI programmes of their own.
The most important theme of the discourse on sustainable development and sustainability challenges concerns the relationship between innovation and sustainability. This book represents a realistic critical overview of the state of affairs of sustainable innovations, offering an accessible and comprehensive diagnostic point of reference for both the academic and practitioner worlds. In order for sustainable innovation to truly become mainstream practice in business it is necessary to find out how organizations can strategically and efficiently accommodate sustainability and innovation in such a manner that they accomplish value capturing (for firms, stakeholders, and for society), not merely creating a return on the social responsibility agenda. Addressing this challenge, the book draws together research from a range of perspectives in order to understand the potential shifts and barriers, benefits, and outcomes from all angles: inception, strategic process, and impact for companies and society. The book also delivers insights of (open) innovation in public sector organizations, which is not so much a process of invention as it is one of adoption and diffusion. It examines how the environmental pillar of the triple bottom line in private firms is often a by-product of thinking about the economic pillar, where cost reductions may be achieved through process innovation in terms of eliminating waste and reducing energy consumption. The impact of open innovation on process innovation, and sustainable process innovation in particular, is an underexplored area but is examined in this book. It also considers the role of the individual entrepreneur in bringing about sustainable innovation; entrepreneurs, their small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as the innovation ecosystems they build play a significant role in generating sustainable innovations where these smaller organizations are much more flexible than large organizations in targeting societal needs and challenges. The readership will incorporate PhD students and postgraduate researchers, as well as practitioners from organizational advisory fields. |
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