The emergence of new firm-level data, including the European Community Innovation Survey (CIS), has led to a surge of studies on innovation and firm behaviour. This book documents progress in four interrelated fields: investigation of the use of new indicators of innovation output; investigation of determinants of innovative behavior; the role of spillovers, the public knowledge infrastructure and research and development collaboration; and the impact of innovation on firm performance. Written by an international group of contributors, the studies are based on agriculture and the manufacturing and service industries in Europe and Canada and provide new insights into the driving forces behind innovation.

This book discusses and exchanges information on principles, strategies, models, techniques, methodologies and applications of technological challenges in a digital era. It helps the reader to develop the skills required in the digital age and to acquire the knowledge and know-how necessary to drive their organizations to success. This book presents contributions that are exceptional in terms of theory and/or practice in the area of human resources management, technological management, digital age, creativity, technological innovation, organizational innovation, business analytics and flexibility.

This book explores the enactment of technologically mediated Human Resource Management (HRM) in the gig economy from various perspectives. The gig economy offers a new form of work which is in line with the ongoing consumer desire for convenience. Also known as the online platform, on-demand or digital platform economy, the gig economy is perhaps one of the most distinctive and extreme sides of the increasingly digitalised and fragmented nature of work. This volume examines various challenges that exist between online labor platforms and human resource management in the realm of the gig economy. The chapters in this book explore issues like institutional complexity, technological supervision of gig workers, recruitment in the gig economy, quality of work and work fairness. They further illustrate the importance of gig work being incorporated within the parameters of HRM research given the existence of many activities and practices that are typically associated with HR functions within traditional organisational forms. This book will be a beneficial read for advanced students and researchers of Management, Economics, Business and Marketing. It was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.

Providing a first tentative understanding of novelty and a set of implications for organizations to manage it, this book focuses on the potential offered by emergent novelty, namely novelty which is neither designed nor pursued. The author asks how organizations might increase their abilities and strategies to benefit from its early recognition. Such potential is broken down into positive terms and demonstrates how early recognition is beneficial both to organizations which aim to seize emergent innovations as well as those which aim to avoid emergent disasters. Understanding Novelty in Organizations aims to rethink the structure and strategies of organizations to gain a new balance between design and randomness in the generation of novelty. The varied perspectives presented in this work will engage scholars interested in novelty, innovation and creativity, and emergency management.

This is the first book that comprehensively describes the history of the game software industry in Japan. A major objective here is to identify the key determinants of the emergence of the business, the maturing of the market, and the changes brought about by innovations, based on the history of the Japanese industry. To date, similar books have focused only on particular topics of the game software industry, such as the success of Nintendo and Sony and the uniqueness of the Japanese industry. There are no books that interpret the development process of this industry from the point of view of innovation. To fully understand the business and derive insightful lessons from it, however, requires a careful and thorough examination of its development process. Currently, many companies aim to improve efficiency by using information and communications technology (ICT), but it is difficult to maintain a balance between the pursuit of efficiency and the encouragement of creativity. In the case of Japan's game software industry, firms have pursued higher efficiency in product development to build competitive advantage, resulting in a low rate of radical innovation and causing the slow growth of the industry. In certain situations, the development activities that target the creation of new products may, in themselves, hinder the creation of truly new products. This book conceptualizes this phenomenon as a "development productivity dilemma" and clarifies the mechanisms behind it. The dilemma, like the productivity dilemma in the manufacturing industry, evokes a certain innovation pattern and prevents potential growth. Understanding the lessons from the game software business presented in this book, managers, researchers, and policymakers can gain insight into the mechanisms leading to industrial maturity and clues to avoid the development productivity dilemma.

Faced with a depleted planet and a series of connected crises, socially-minded agents and entities within the world of culture and the arts are reacting from within. With insights from sociology, economics, and cultural management and policy, this book aims to chronicle the journey of SMart - a cultural and artistic social enterprise now present in eight European countries - in order to illustrate such organisation's efforts to achieve its potential for social innovation and transformation. Tackling the endemic precariousness and intermittency of work through innovative arrangements for cultural workers and artists has been central to these efforts. In many cases, however, this activism not only had a direct impact at the level of individual and collective labor, but has transformed the ways culture is 'governed'. Readers of this book will better understand the connection between social innovation and culture and the arts; gain awareness of the trends and transformations within the field of culture and cultural work and their connection with institutional arrangements: and critically engage with the processes, challenges and benefits of scaling up and diffusing social innovation. The debates presented will be of relevance to scholars and students across disciplines, policy makers at both EU and national levels, practitioners and social activists.

The Spring Electric is a lower priced electrical vehicle from The Renault Group. It is the result of an impossible project that was a breakthrough in cultural innovation. The development of the Spring brought together a French company, a Japanese partner, an Indian project, and a Chinese developer to deliver a car for the European market. The Innovation Odyssey: Lessons from an Impossible Project examines four key issues central to this vehicle's development: The nature of the automotive industry itself and the actors involved in these "societal" innovations. The movement toward the electrification of vehicles is inseparable from public policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Without substantial subsidies or rigorous bans on internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), the electric vehicle (EV) would not be developed. It is these public policies that create the conditions for an electrified vehicle market. Electrification is thus a three-way game, in which public actors play a central role alongside suppliers and customers. Therefore, an analysis of these policies is essential to understand manufacturers' strategies in this area. What are the differences between these policies? Do they introduce regional competitive advantages? How do firms in the globalized automotive sector adapt to or take advantage of these differences? How can they combine local adaptation. Product strategy. To what extent should this technological breakthrough at the heart of the car be associated with a more profound break in the definition of the automobile product? Is the answer an electrification of the dominant ICEV design (and if so, how?) or a complete redefinition of the vehicle? International cooperation. Automotive design is largely concentrated in the technical centers of the parent companies: Detroit, Guyancourt, Wolfsburg, Yokohama. How can the design processes and the European and Chinese skills and know-how be combined in a project designed far from the traditional European or Japanese bases and under time constraints? Can this original form of design inspire new forms of international cooperation, and under what conditions? Globalized innovation strategies. For multinational groups such as car manufacturers, competitive advantage depends on their ability not only to invent relevant products that find customers in local markets, but also to deploy them rapidly at the global level, harnessing economies of scale that a startup, however innovative, cannot achieve. How then to combine local adaptation of innovations with effective global deployment?

Extensive research conducted by the Hasso Plattner Design Thinking Research Program at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, USA, and the Hasso Plattner Institute in Potsdam, Germany, has yielded valuable insights on why and how design thinking works. Researchers have identified metrics, developed models, and conducted studies, which are featured in this book, and in the previous volumes of this series. Offering readers a closer look at design thinking, and its innovation processes and methods, this volume covers topics ranging from understanding success factors of design thinking to exploring the potential that lies in the use of digital technologies. Furthermore, readers learn how special-purpose design thinking can be used to solve thorny problems in complex fields, such as the health sector or software development. Thinking and devising innovations are inherently human activities - so is design thinking. Accordingly, design thinking is not merely the result of special courses or of being gifted or trained: it is a way of dealing with our environment and improving techniques, technologies and life. As such, the research outcomes compiled in this book should increase knowledge and provide inspiration to all seeking to drive innovation - be they experienced design thinkers or newcomers.

Ideas are ubiquitous. They are the fundamental building blocks for all aspects of life. Yet, efforts to use ideas as a basic unit of analysis in a shared framework are rare. We often find it difficult to look past the artificial boundaries that academic disciplines and specialist fields of knowledge construct. In this book, the authors address this substantial lacuna by proposing an intuitive theory of ideas that serves as a trans-disciplinary basis for studying innovation and creativity. The theory proposed shows how new ideas emerge from contexts that rely on mechanisms, which were originally built on older and more central ideas. It demonstrates how these mechanisms help instantiate different perspectives on the same idea in variegated manners. By applying their theory to a variety of bat and ball sports, the authors illustrate the role that primitive ideas have on sports innovation, and explore further avenues for employing the theory in a number of different situations. This original book will be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of the processes of innovation and creativity, developed within a complex framework of ideas.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of engineering nanostructures mediated by functional polymers in combination with optimal synthesis and processing techniques. The focus is on polymer-engineered nanostructures for advanced energy applications. It discusses a variety of polymers that function as precursors, templates, nano-reactors, surfactants, stabilizers, modifiers, dopants, and spacers for directing self-assembly, assisting organization, and templating growth of numerous diverse nanostructures. It also presents a wide range of polymer processing techniques that enable the efficient design and optimal fabrication of nanostructured polymers, inorganics, and organic-inorganic nanocomposites using in-situ hybridization and/or ex-situ recombination methodologies. Combining state-of-the-art knowledge from polymer-guided fabrication of advanced nanostructures and their unique properties, it especially highlights the new, cutting-edge breakthroughs, future horizons, and insights into such nanostructured materials in applications such as photovoltaics, fuel cells, thermoelectrics, piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics, batteries, supercapacitors, photocatalysis, and hydrogen generation and storage. It offers an instructive and approachable guide to polymer-engineered nanostructures for further development of advanced energy materials to meet ever-increasing global energy demands. Interdisciplinary and broad perspectives from internationally respected contributors ensure this book serves as a valuable reference source for scientists, students, and engineers working in polymer science, renewable energy materials, materials engineering, chemistry, physics, surface/interface science, and nanotechnology. It is also suitable as a textbook for universities, institutes, and industrial institutions.

This book describes the 60-year history of the AO Foundation and its impact on the treatment of bone trauma. Originally founded by a group of Swiss surgeons, the AO has since established its osteosynthesis treatment approach to trauma, using surgery and implants, as the global standard. The AO successfully convinced the medical community that surgery of bone trauma was superior to the standard conservative treatment using plaster casts. This new technique meant that patients no longer had to spend long weeks at the hospital in traction, and prevented many disabilities. This book describes the struggle with the medical community, explains how the AO surgeons enlisted the support of an entire industry for their advanced tools and their research and teaching efforts, and details the AO's evolution into a non-profit foundation that now trains more than 50,000 surgeons, on all continents, every year. The efforts of the AO's affiliated surgeons, undertaken largely on a volunteer basis and with their own financial resources, serve as a stellar example of social entrepreneurship. Today the AO Foundation numbers over 20,000 surgeon members worldwide, and the industry that emerged to produce related implants and tools employs thousands of skilled staff. Professionals in consulting as well as in healthcare can use this book as a source of successful strategies, and as a blueprint for active social entrepreneurship.

China's new retail revolution will completely transform how the world thinks about retail and digital innovation. But is the world ready yet? In this book, the authors share an insider's perspective on what is happening in China to reveal the future for global retail, and a clear framework to help you prepare. The book presents a number of real-world cases, based on interviews and first-hand consumer experience, to decode China's retail revolution so that you can understand what is happening and why, and what it means for the rest of the world. Crucially, the book identifies five critical stages in the development of new retail that global retail executives need to grasp now: lifestyle commerce, Online-Merge-Offline retail, social retail, livestream retail and invisible retail. To help the industry get ready for this new, China-inspired paradigm in retail, the authors present a practical and simple framework - a ten-year strategic roadmap for global retail executives, which we call the "Beyond" the Value Chain Model. China's new retail is not just about fashion, cosmetics, snacks, data-driven convenient stores and commercial live streaming. At a time when the world of retail is being upended, it offers inspirational lessons in innovation, purpose and agility for global executives across the entire retail spectrum.

This book examines the extensive changes in markets, technologies and value chains that telecommunication companies are currently confronted with. It analyzes the crossroads they have reached and the choices that now need to be made - to be a bit pipe or a trendsetter of digitalization. Based on an analysis of the key challenges for telcos, the book derives future market scenarios and puts forward recommendations for how they can successfully position themselves. It proposes a framework based on seven "levers," which addresses concrete measures in each step of the value chain, ranging from technology, IT and processes, to innovation, marketing and sales issues. The book discusses the current challenges and provides both general recommendations and concrete solutions. Respected experts illustrate innovative strategic and technical trends and provide insights gained in real-life transformation projects. Recent developments in the areas of regulation, product development, competition between over-the-top (OTT) providers and telcos, as well as technical innovations like 5G, SDN/NFV, LEO satellites and MEC are discussed. Accordingly, practitioners, managers and researchers alike will benefit from the book's wealth of examples and up-to-date insights.

This book explores the ways in which education impacts labor markets. Specifically, the contributions in this book indicate that the future of labor is creative, socially aware and inter-disciplinary while identifying the changes and innovations needed in our educational systems to meet this demand. Due to an increasing automatization (robotic manufacturing), the character of labor and work in general will change dramatically in the near future. This will be the case not only in the western countries, but also in the larger emerging economies in Asia, for example China and India. While societal environments, economy and the character of labor are increasingly in a process of dramatic changes, the educational systems and the leading principles of research about labor and employment are not changing adequately. Cross-disciplinary (inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary) thinking and learning is not the main focus of our educational systems. Consequently, the systems of academic research follow and apply disciplinary or even sub-disciplinary strategies, avoiding cross-disciplinary research approaches, and not supporting inter-disciplinary academic career models. This book introduces such strategic models to better prepare the next generation of workers for the new knowledge economy, and the future of democratic societies.

This book comprises a set of stories about being an engineer for many decades and the lessons the author learned from research and practice. These lessons focus on people and organizations, often enabled by technology. The settings range from airplanes, power plants, and communication networks to ecosystems that enable education, healthcare, and transportation. All of these settings are laced with behavioral and social phenomena that need to be understood and influenced. The author's work in these domains has often led to the question: "Well, why does it work like that?" He invariably sought to understand the bigger picture to find the sources of requirements, constraints, norms, and values. He wanted to understand what could be changed, albeit often with much effort to overcome resistance. He found that higher levels of an ecosystem often provide the resources and dictate the constraints imposed on lower levels. These prescriptions are not just commands. They also reflect values and cultural norms. Thus, the answers to the question were not just technical and economic. Often, the answers reflected eons of social and political priorities. The endeavors related in the book frequently involved addressing emerging realities rather than just the status quo. This book is an ongoing discovery of these bigger pictures. The stories and the lessons related in this book provide useful perspectives on change. The understanding of people and organizations that emerges from these lessons can help to enable transformative change. Fundamental change is an intensely human-centric endeavor, not just for the people and organizations aspiring to change, but also for the people helping them. You will meet many of these people in this book as the stories unfold. The genesis of this book originated in a decision made early in the author's career. He had developed a habit of asking at the end of each day, "What did I really accomplish today?" This was sometimes frustrating as he was not sure the day had yielded any significant accomplishments. One day it dawned on him that this was the wrong question - He needed to ask, "What did I learn today?" It is always possible to learn, most recently about public health and climate change. In planning this book, the author first thought in terms of accomplishments such as projects conducted, systems built, and articles and books published. He could not imagine this being interesting to readers. Then, it struck him - It is much more interesting to report on what he learned about people and organizations, including how he helped them accomplish their goals. This is a book of stories about how these lessons emerged. In planning this book, the author first thought in terms of accomplishments such as projects conducted, systems built, and articles and books published. He could not imagine this being interesting to readers. Then, it struck him - It is much more interesting to report on what he learned about people and organizations, including how he helped them accomplish their goals. This is a book of stories about how these lessons emerged.

This book gathers papers presented at the 11th international scientific conference "Transbaltica: Transportation Science and Technology", held on May 2-3, 2019 at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania. It covers cutting-edge issues concerning research and development of modern transport systems. The chapters, written by an international group of experts, discuss novel and smart solutions in the area of vehicle engineering, including environmentally friendly technologies, topics relating to traffic safety, modeling and control, and solutions and challenges in modern logistics. Further topics include multimodal transport and vehicle automation. Providing comprehensive information and ideas concerning innovative transportation technologies and challenges, this book offers a valuable resource for transportation researchers and practitioners, including engineers, managers and decision-makers in the field.

Most books on leadership are penned by thought leaders and experts, each with a distinctive, individual perspective. But this work is different. Using the extensive client network of Eagle Consulting, we surveyed more than 100 leaders from all levels of experience - from CEOs to volunteer coordinators to school teachers - on how to find and nurture growth in leadership. Their collected victories and failures will sound familiar, since you probably have experienced the same in your own walk. In these pages you will find unique solutions in our common quest to make a difference. "This book challenged my thinking on leadership, it helped me understand how to be a better leader, and a better person. You can't afford not to read this book, there is something for all real life leaders." -Ian Poulton, Finance Manager with PPG Aerospace "There are many books on developing your leadership skills, this one is different. This book provides practical and real life stories of every day leaders at all levels...it is authentic, powerful and most of all relevant. Required reading for all great leaders." -Rebecca Morlando, Manufacturing Director with 3M Eagle Consutling www.teceagle.com 256-341-0811

The transition to Industry 4.0, and the subsequent ubiquitous digitalization and integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the economic system, has set the stage for a fundamental change - one towards forming a cyber economy: a type of economy in which humans are economic subjects who interact with or are confronted with AI. This book examines these interactions and specifically analyzes the overall effects of digitalization on the workplace, and on the economic system of the future. Scholars from a diverse range of fields address both the challenges and opportunities of using AI in business sectors, as well as the role of people dealing with digital channels. In closing, the book discusses the need to, and options for, training and educating the labor force in the digital age.

Product Development begins with an understanding of market needs, within a sound business model, a well-defined financial strategy, and well-thought-out strategic goals. This new book by industry-expert Marc Annacchino, will help the professional engineer, manager, marketer, and all others who must come together as a working team, to better understand their respective roles and responsibilities in that process. Today, speeding the right value proposition to the market can make all the difference between success and failure. With case examples, organizational analysis and project planning tools, this new book looks at that longer, organizational view of product development, and how that view can improve product development cycle times and better take advantage of new market opportunities. It will help the product development team better adapt to change and a dynamic market in today's global economy through product platform management, and do so rationally and reliably. And it will help product development professionals to look for hidden value in existing product lines as they plan for that change and growth ahead.
- Provides product development professionals with the concepts and tools for a more integrated, successful product development cycle
- Promotes a more coherent deployment of managers, engineers, marketers, and sales personnel to achieve results within market opportunity in terms of time, cost and performance.
- Shows how to better identify and target product value propositions in product line extensions and in securing new markets

The reflection on university management is based on the question about the shape of universities of the future. Civic, responsible, sustainable, virtual, digital and many other universities can be mentioned among concepts present in the literature. All these names describe an important distinctive feature of a university, which will gain more and more importance in the future. However, given the fundamental importance of the radical change taking place, it seems that the most appropriate name, reflecting the essence of the emerging new formation, is 'digital university.' This is because of the importance of digital transformation, which has been developing for several decades, bringing deep and multidirectional changes in the areas of technology, economy, society and culture. It is a disruptive civilizational transition and, although stretched over many decades, it is revolutionary in nature, significantly changing our lives in the Anthropocene. The book has three cognitive and pragmatic objectives: to provide a new perspective on the changing academic organization and management; to reflect on higher education management concepts and methods; and to present an overview of university management, governance and leadership, useful from the perspective of academic managers, and other stakeholders.

Utilising industry 4.0 technologies is essential to meet consumer expectations of personalised products and services but not without obstacles and challenges. This book provides comprehensive knowledge on the operating conditions and challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the era of industry 4.0 and proposes a business model 4.0 concept. The authors provide insights on the general conditions for the development of economy 4.0 and society 5.0, the expectations of modern consumers in product personalization, customization, servitization and the SME sector's requirements. In addition, the book offers a business model of cooperation between enterprises and the concept of rapid network prototyping methodology for the implementation of personalized products. It proposes the creation of e-business platforms that will allow for better integration of the customer with the manufacturer and the possibility of greater involvement in product configurations. The empirical research offered in this book will provide valuable insights for scholars and upper-level students across business disciplines, including strategic management, entrepreneurship, technology and innovation management.

This edited collection presents state-of-the-art reviews of the latest developments in multisensory packaging design. Bringing together leading researchers and practitioners working in the field, the contributions consider how our growing understanding of the human senses, as well as new technologies, will transform the way in which we design, interact with, and experience food and beverage, home and personal care, and fast-moving consumer products packaging. Spanning all of the senses from colour meaning, imagery and font, touch and sonic packaging, a new framework for multisensory packaging analysis is outlined. Including a number of case studies and examples, this book provides both practical application and theoretical discussion to appeal to students, researchers, and practitioners alike.

In an era of globalization, technological innovation, and social transformations, universities face the challenge of training students with the competencies needed to meet the demands of the market and to successfully integrate into today's workforce. This book looks at the university as a dynamic source of essential competencies and explores various skill management models, methodologies and innovations applied by educational institutions around the world. The demands of today's society represent a major challenge for universities and their teaching staffs. Professors need to adapt their teaching methods to meet these new challenges. For example, universities need to prepare new generations of students with the ability to select, update and use knowledge, rather than processing facts and formulas. Students need to be capable of learning in different contexts and modalities throughout their professional careers and learn to adapt their knowledge to new situations. In response, a conceptual and methodological change has taken place in the university organizational culture and in student curriculums. This book presents a variety of cases and observations on the competencies developed in the curriculums of universities around the world, with the aim to assure that graduates leave fully prepared to face the challenges of the new economy.

This book makes a valuable contribution to innovation management in the form of an interdisciplinary analysis of contemporary international approaches. By introducing the concept of a 'techno-corporate gap,' it also highlights the crucial role that companies play in creating and managing innovation in order to increase (or decrease) the technological gap between countries, and in their economic development. The originality of the book lies in its systems thinking oriented approach to the techno-corporate gap and technological gap, and their relation to corporate governance. These aspects are analyzed in detail, and not merely from an economic standpoint, but also with regard to innovativeness and regional social development.

Blockchain Supply Chain Use Cases. Distributed Ledger Technology Supply Chain Use Cases. Blockchain-Enabled Digital Transformation Use Cases. Blockchain Supply Chain Diffusion/Innovation Use Cases.