Some companies are great for customers - not only do they care but they change whole markets to work better for the customers they serve. Think of Amazon, easyJet and Sky. They make things easier and improve what really matters - obvious, surely? They have also enjoyed huge business success, growing and making plenty of money. The Customer Copernicus answers the question that follows - if it's obvious and attractive why is it so rare? And then it answers a second question, because Tesco, O2 and Wells Fargo were like this once. Why, having mastered it, would you ever stop? Because all three did, and two ended up in court. The Customer Copernicus explains how to become and how to stay customer-led. Essential reading for leaders and teams who want their organisations to stay competitive by developing a more purposeful and innovative culture.

Due to its potential transformative nature, empathy has increasingly received attention in business, psychology, neuroscience, education, medicine, social sciences and design, to mention only a few. During the last two decades, discussions about the role of empathy in design and creative research and practice have developed, with empathy perceived as a key instrument in human-centred design and design thinking. This book revisits the powerful concept of empathy in the new post-pandemic era in which ubiquitous digitalisation presents challenges to retaining human-centredness when developing products and services. The book presents a practical four-step approach to the challenges presented concerning how organisations can turn from merely feeling empathy with or for people, to actions of empathy and compassion that can be implemented with and by communities. A wide range of organisations and organisational settings can benefit from the presented case studies and research methods. Through them, the book explores how to discover, share and act with empathy and compassion in the new digitally driven post-pandemic era to innovate across a wide range of organisations, including for-profit and not-for-profit businesses and those in the public and third sectors. This edited volume will appeal to global researchers in the fields of product and service design and digital, social innovation, as well those interested in organisational development. The practical, interdisciplinary nature of the book and innovative four-step approach will also appeal to upper-level students.

In the era of modern industrial regimes, the role of technology in tackling climate change is pivotal. International goals of climate change mitigation and sustainable development cannot be achieved without the contribution of new technologies. At the same time, the importance of patent protection and an efficient patent system that facilitates technology transfer among international frontiers cannot be overlooked. Many patented technologies are either not accessible for further dissemination or do not hold much technical value. Therefore, advanced systems of collaborative innovation have been developed, especially in the sector of green technology and green innovation. The environmental concerns of the global community cannot be tackled by a single company, person, sector or country. Innovation partnerships and collaborative research will play a vital role in combating global climate concerns and in determining the diffusion of green technologies for maximum impact. This book argues that policy-makers should encourage partnerships in technology rather than focusing on gaining investment and access to green technology to encourage global technological giants to transfer their technology and knowledge to local entities. It analyzes the relationship between patent protection, green innovation and diffusion of green technology against the backdrop of climate change and severe climate crisis. Taking an interdisciplinary approach to align patent law and green technology with the Sustainable Development Goals, it examines the effects of patent protection, technology transfer and compulsory licensing on the diffusion of green technologies while offering a systematic analysis of the relationship between patent protection, green innovation and diffusion of green technology from a global perspective.

This volume contains the genuine proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the Strategic Approaches to the Assessment and Management of Manufacturing Technology Innovation, Bled, Slovenia, June 3-5, 1997. The word 'genuine' is used as the content of this book has arisen from ideas and reflections which arose during and after the workshop itself. It contains no pre-prepared papers or articles. The workshop was designed to create a forum for dialogue and debate. The essence of that debate is contained here. We acknowledge the support of NATO in making this possible. Because of the peculiar nature of these proceedings, we acknowledge all workshop participants as co-authors of different parts of the book and we pay tribute to them all. The proceedings have taken a while to prepare, as the reflection process has been long and varied! 1 Technosophy: Strategic Approaches to the Assessment and Management of Manufacturing Technology Innovation Paul Levy Mihael Junkar Location: Bled, Slovenia Date: June 3-5 1997 A 3-day workshop "Though our smoke may hide the Heavens from your eyes, It will vanish and the stars will shine again, Because, for all our power and weight and size, We are nothing more than children of your brain. " Rudyard Kipling 1. Introduction This is not a long book.

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.

Original ideas start in a persons mind, but the environment where they operate is crucial for the capture and development of these ideas. Equally important is the interaction with others in developing and evaluating ideas, as a brilliant idea only influences the world if it is put into use. This book hopes to inspire the team leader, innovation manager or research group leader. It deals with the delicate balance of managing and controlling intellectual property in a collaborative environment. Insights on how new inventions can be evaluated are offered. Following the whole cycle of innovation from a creative idea to where a product or service can be put on the market, examples illustrate how an innovative environment can be created and maintained. Strategies and solutions based on the science of team development are presented and leadership models for the different phases of group development are provided. The book will be of interest to researchers, academics, product developers, entrepreneurs, and advanced students in the fields of technology and innovation management and entrepreneurship and small business management but also for leadership.

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.

This book is not just for reading. Design Thinking is something you need to actually do. Reading about design thinking will increase your knowledge, but by doing it, you will learn what design thinking can mean for you, in your studies and your work. In this book we encourage you to take action: design thinking by doing. Since the end of the last millennium, design thinking has received an increasing amount of attention from the business community, social organizations, universities and colleges.Organizations are confronted with complex problems and issues that are no longer self-containe, clear or easy to define. The creative solution strategy offered by design thinking appears to be increasingly needed to adequately respond to the questions, wishes and needs of customers and society as a whole. This book unravels the thinking and working process of design thinking and offers practical tools for getting started. The author approaches design thinking in four chapters, from different perspectives: as a way of thinking, a way of working, a project approach and a tool box.Design thinking is a way of thinking answers the questions: How do design thinkers approach problems and challenges? Which six fundamental attitudes do they use and what do you need to know in order to use them? Design thinking is a way of working answers questions such as: What phases and milestones does the design process distinguish? What is the difference between the more structured design process and the 'messy' cycle of design thinking? Because you learn design thinking by doing, you will practice this in Design thinking is a project approach.Finally, in the last chapter Design thinking is a tool box, the methods and tools that you use in a design project will be discussed. This international edition of Design Thinking is written for students and workers who want to apply design thinking to tackle challenges, problems or complex (social) issues in a different, practical way within their own professional practice.

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 book demonstrates that a holistic approach to the bioeconomy is essential if it is to achieve its full potential in driving economic growth while simultaneously providing ecological, social and technological benefits. Definitions of the 'bioeconomy' vary but in general it incorporates the ways in which societies manage and distribute their primary or secondary biological resources for further use in everyday life (e.g. food, materials, and energy). The classical sectors related to the bioeconomy have therefore been agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, now extended to include bioenergy, biofuels, biochemicals, and other processing and service industries. There are also related new concepts such us the blue economy, the green economy, and the circular economy. This book integrates these definitions, sectoral analyses and new concepts into a fully rounded study of the bioeconomy. It is argued that the key aims in the coming years have to be the harmonization of public policies between different sectors, regulation of legislative framework for the bioeconomy, and clear communication of these issues. In particular, the book argues that a strengthening of the monitoring and evaluation of the impacts of the bioeconomy on society is an essential starting point. For this to be effective, appropriate indicators need to be established and defined for the monitoring of the effects of these resilient policies related to bioeconomy and their impact on local and regional development and quality of life. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the bioeconomy including students and scholars of ecological economics, environmental economics, sustainability, innovation, and regional development.

* Describes the principles of capitalism and how they can be used in the space industry to maximize creation of value for humanity. * Develops pragmatic criteria for readers to use in assessing value to humanity of initiatives and business decisions in the space industry. * Describes the world's greatest problems and how space systems may help address them with emphasis placed on how the space industry supports sustainability of humanity and the planet. * Provides all of the above in an integrated format that is accessible to readers, whether coming from technical, business, or policy backgrounds.

The future will bring only more megatrends and disruptions. With the guidance of this book, which centers around the authors' years-of-research-backed high-performance organizations (HPO) framework and includes the unique self-assessment tool Futurize! Diagnosis, business leaders and organizations will be prepared and truly 'future ready.' The next two decades will present massive challenges for organizations, as they navigate the need for sustainable development against a complex backdrop of factors such as increasing inequality, resource scarcity, continued globalization, and the ever-increasing speed of technological advancement. This book will help business leaders and organizations set priorities and make decisions so that not only do they honor commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, but also become more future ready by: identifying the megatrends and disruptors which impact organizations now and will in the future specifically outlining how those megatrends and disruptors will impact organizations showing how organizations can deal with this impact in practical terms. This book is a must for management teams, aspiring leaders, and professionals and students interested in the future of work, human resource management, and innovation.

The future will bring only more megatrends and disruptions. With the guidance of this book, which centers around the authors' years-of-research-backed high-performance organizations (HPO) framework and includes the unique self-assessment tool Futurize! Diagnosis, business leaders and organizations will be prepared and truly 'future ready.' The next two decades will present massive challenges for organizations, as they navigate the need for sustainable development against a complex backdrop of factors such as increasing inequality, resource scarcity, continued globalization, and the ever-increasing speed of technological advancement. This book will help business leaders and organizations set priorities and make decisions so that not only do they honor commitments to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, but also become more future ready by: identifying the megatrends and disruptors which impact organizations now and will in the future specifically outlining how those megatrends and disruptors will impact organizations showing how organizations can deal with this impact in practical terms. This book is a must for management teams, aspiring leaders, and professionals and students interested in the future of work, human resource management, and innovation.

This book includes studies on regions, industries and tendencies of industrial change and spatial concentration of competences and industrial potentials. The chapters in this volume provide for discussions concerning a wider understanding of situations related to Industry 4.0 and digitization. It also reaches out further than towards technology and economy because it includes regional and metropolitan societies, workforces and the divergencies of effects and opportunities. Industry 4.0 and digitization are new transformations for regions and metropolises where technologies are applied but regionally can appear as a continuation of innovative processes where it is developed. The divergent presence of competences creates a selectivity process among regions. There are individual industry-location-nexuses formed out of competences of industries, labour force and research which are complemented by public policies providing support towards such adaptation of innovation and change. Regional societies formed from skilled and educated labour become an important basis for participation in innovation and supply chains. Since smart factories widely can be managed remotely, this also shows a concentration of decision making. Simultaneously, it forms a polycentric de-concentration, indicating some more important locations as central within the networks. These systematic changes continue to deepen over time. While public policies may match innovative opportunities at the appropriate moment, they also contribute to a continuation of uneven development and divergent societal tendencies. Industry 4.0 and digitization indicate a wide and selective change of organization associated with new technologies and innovation. While some regions and metropolises can continue to build both innovative competences and innovative societies based on innovative labour force, others will participate because of their position in supply chains. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, European Planning Studies.

Consumer co-operatives provide a different approach to organizing business through their ideals of member ownership and democratic practice. Every co-operative member has an equal vote regardless of his or her own personal capital investment. The co-operative movement can also be an important force in promoting development and self-sufficiency in poorer areas, particularly in non-industrialised countries. This book explores in depth the fortunes of the Berkeley Consumer Co-operative, which became the largest consumer co-operative in the United States with 116,000 members in 1984 and viewed nationally as a leader in innovative retail practices and a champion of consumer rights. The Berkeley Consumer Co-operative is promoted by both supporters and opponents of the co-operative business model as a significant example of what can go wrong with the co-operatives. This book will provide the first in depth analysis of the history of the Berkeley Co-operative using its substantial but little used archives and oral histories to explore what the Berkeley experience means for the co-operative business model. The specific chapters relating to Berkeley will be organised around particular themes to highlight the issues relating to the co-operative business model and the local context of Berkeley. The themes relate to developments in Berkeley and the Bay Area in terms of the economy, politics and the retail environment; the management of the Berkeley co-operative, looking at governance, financial management and strategic decisions; relationship of management with members and employees; and finally, the relationship of the Berkeley Co-operative with the community. The core message of the book is that it is not inevitable that consumer co-operatives fail, but that the story of Berkeley story can provide insights that can strengthen the co-operative business model and minimise failures on the scale of Berkeley occurring in the future.

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.

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.

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.

In the last two decades, the quest for a widely accepted definition of social enterprise has been a central issue in a great number of publications. The main objective of the ICSEM Project (on which this book is based) was to show that the social enterprise field would benefit much more from linking conceptualisation efforts to the huge diversity of social enterprises than from an additional and ambitious attempt at providing an encompassing definition. Starting from a hypothesis that could be termed "the impossibility of a unified definition", the ICSEM research strategy relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the social enterprise phenomenon in its local and national contexts. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major social enterprise models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. Social Enterprise in Central and Eastern Europe - the last volume in a series of four ICSEM-based books on social enterprise worldwide - will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and others who want to acquire a broad understanding of the social enterprise and social entrepreneurship phenomena as they emerge and develop in this region.

This book evaluates the evolution of social innovation in post-Soviet Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Caucasus. Following the dissolution of the USSR, organisations such as the UNDP have encouraged local communities and governments to innovate in order to find solutions to existing social problems. This book demonstrates that progress with social innovations has varied, with countries with low government support such as Uzbekistan struggling, whereas countries with better government support and a more active civil society, such as Armenia and Ukraine, have seen more positive results. Covering the period 2012-2020 and a broad range of countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Moldova, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, this book provides an impressively broad-ranging critical analysis of post-Soviet social innovation. Including social innovations emerging as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak, this will be an important comparative study for researchers and practitioners working on social innovation, and to those with an interest in post-Soviet development.

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 focuses on digitalised talent management-the use of information technologies in talent management. The book affords theoretically, methodologically and empirically informed insights that are especially salient given the need for executives and organisations to balance the role of humans and technology, while ensuring competitiveness in this interconnected and increasingly digital world. In doing so, the book will shape and contribute to academic and industry-based conversations about the role of technological innovations in enabling organizations to transition towards digital ways of organising talent, as well as the associated implications for the who, what, where, when, and why of talent management as stakeholders decide which aspects of talent management can be delegated to technology, and those that require human agency. This book adds value by assembling subject matter experts currently siloed within traditional research domains whilst also highlighting the complexity of managing talent. By synthesising content from world-leading academics who herald from various backgrounds, the book will instigate, shape and contribute to conversations about both the promises and perils of digitalised talent management and the extent to which judgments and decisions about an organisations most valuable asset-it's talent-should be delegated to non-human agents. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of talent management and organisational design, especially those interested in digital ways of working, managing and leading.

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 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.