This book provides a comprehensive overview of role of entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy for the achievement of economic development and prosperity in African societies. It adopts a broad innovation systems approach. The book examines entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology commercialisation alongside context-specific factors associated with them. It also provides an interdisciplinary perspective, by discussing the above disciplines in a connected way. This book is presented in three distinct parts. It starts by discussing entrepreneurship and the state of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Africa. It then moves on to present technology commercialisation in Africa, before finally discussing the future directions for entrepreneurship, technology commercialisation and innovation policy. This broad picture provided in the book enables the reader to grasp the relevant messages, whilst the detailed analysis applies world-class theories and frameworks to deepen the readers understanding of key concepts and issues examined.

Robo-Advisory is a field that has gained momentum over recent years, propelled by the increasing digitalization and automation of global financial markets. More and more money has been flowing into automated advisory, raising essential questions regarding the foundations, mechanics, and performance of such solutions. However, a comprehensive summary taking stock of this new solution at the intersection of finance and technology with consideration for both aspects of theory and implementation has so far been wanting. This book offers such a summary, providing unique insights into the state of Robo-Advisory. Drawing on a pool of expert authors from within the field, this edited collection aims at being the vital go-to resource for academics, students, policy-makers, and practitioners alike wishing to engage with the topic. Split into four parts, the book begins with a survey of academic literature and its key insights paired with an analysis of market developments in Robo-Advisory thus far. The second part tackles specific questions of implementation, which are complemented by practical case studies in Part III. Finally, the fourth part looks ahead to the future, addressing questions of key importance such as artificial intelligence, big data, and social networks. Thereby, this timely book conveys both a comprehensive grasp of the status-quo as well as a guiding outlook onto future trends and developments within the field.

This book introduces readers to state-of-the-art cases and tools for managing innovation in today's rapidly changing business environment. It provides a wealth of methodological knowhow and guidance on practical applications, as well as case studies that reveal various challenges in technology and innovation management. Written by a mix of academic scholars and practitioners, the respective chapters present tools and approaches for the early detection of emerging fields of innovation, as well as relevant processes and resources. The contributing authors hail from leading innovative companies including Google, Amazon, Intel, Daimler-Benz, and NASA.

There is considerable interest in and growing recognition of the emotional domain in product development. The relationship between the user and the product is paramount in industry, which has led to major research investments in this area.
Traditional ergonomic approaches to design have concentrated on the user's physical and cognitive abilities. However, new approaches also take into consideration the user's emotional relationship with their belongings. Design and Emotion is an edited collection of papers given at the 3rd Design and Emotion Conference 2002. These contributions outline the latest developments, findings, and techniques in industrial applications and in research, bringing you up-to-date with the current thinking in this field.
As a forum for discussing the latest ideas in emotion-driven design, this book will prove to be essential reading for all human factors specialists involved in design.

This book analyses the important role of agribusiness and rural enterprises in economic growth and development. China's inclusive development of agribusiness and rural enterprises has played a pivotal role in economic growth, sustainable development and poverty reduction. This book analyses how market, price and institution are important factors for China's inclusive development of agribusiness and rural enterprises. Incentive property rights of farming lands have impacted the allocation efficiency of resources in markets, which contributed to the growth of its agro-industrial development and the families-agribusiness. The technological changes contributed to the agricultural growth in China pre and post economic reform phases. The book introduces the combination development approach (CDA) of agribusiness and rural enterprises. The combination development approach of agribusiness and rural enterprises facilitates developing countries to upgrade into emerging economies and industrial economies. The book presents theoretical perspectives of development economics, and it introduces cutting-edge international development issues, and China's international economic cooperation on international trade and enterprises development. New technology and information technology bring new business opportunities to smallholder farmers in transitional economies and developing countries to access global value chain in the future.

This book helps readers understand how universities position themselves in the innovation landscape and the implications for national policies. It provides a scholarly discussion and best practice-based insights to help answer questions like: To what extent do funding and governance policies support activities within the knowledge triangle? How should policies for universities be designed in countries with different industrial and higher education structures? Are there ways to effectively link universities with regional enterprises and social actors? And finally, what are the new institutional models and best practices for overcoming obstacles to interaction, collaboration, and co-creation?

Link commercial growth and value to management and governance. The guidance provided in this book helps you take the valuation of today-an arcane, statistical methodology-and bring it into the realm of modern management decision making. There is a disconnect between corporate governance/management initiatives and commercial success. Sound management and governance will help you bridge that gap between classic corporate valuation disciplines and commercial success. Project and corporate growth are both characterized by functional focus. For example, there might be a dedicated sales/marketing growth project. Metrics of success might be market share or number of units sold. In reality, growth is an overall organizational effort and must be measured by the increase in the corporate valuation. Interview data show that this is not the case and that the contributor's efforts become misaligned in the excitement and focus of the individual campaign. This book shows you how overall valuation is the true measure of success of a growth effort. It is a lesson that applies from startup to the public liquidation of the entity. What You Will Learn Allocate growth resources, including the decision process, internal governance, and empowering leadership Consider marketing and branding, such as competitive perspective, customer demographics, regulatory considerations, role of collaboration, and more Know the role of technology/IP, including the current state of application and the role of proprietary information Consider risk and downside, including company failure, loss of market share, and loss of key people/customers Who This Book Is For C-level management and above; corporate governance professionals; boards of directors; CEOs; venture and other investment organizations; business school academics, faculty, and students; and accounting, regulatory, and legal professionals

This book develops new theoretical perspectives on the economics and politics of innovation and knowledge in order to capture new trends in modern capitalism. It shows how giant corporations establish themselves as intellectual monopolies and how each of them builds and controls its own corporate innovation system. It presents an analysis of a new form of production where Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, and their counterparts in China, extract value and appropriate intellectual rents through privileged access to AI algorithms trained by data from organizations and individuals all around the world. These companies' specific form of production and rent-seeking takes place at the global level and challenges national governments trying to regulate intellectual monopolies and attempting to build stronger national innovation systems. It is within this context that the authors provide new insights on the complex interplay between corporate and national innovation systems by looking at the US-China conflict, understood as a struggle for global technological supremacy. The book ends with alternative scenarios of global governance and advances policy recommendations as well as calls for social activism. This book will be of interest to students, academics and practitioners (both from national states and international organizations) and professionals working on innovation, digital capitalism and related topics.

This volume is intended to serve as a review of the "next generation" of political economy scholars in what can be called the "Wagnerian" tradition, which traces its roots to Buchanan and De Viti De Marco in the 1930s, who argued that any decision that results from a political entity must be the product of individual decision makers operating within some framework of formal and informal rules. To treat these decisions as if they were the product of one single mind, or even simply the additive result of several decisions, is to fundamentally misunderstand and mischaracterize the dynamics of collective action. Today, Richard Wagner is among the most prominent theorists in analyzing the institutional foundations of the economy and the organization of political decision-making. In this collection of original essays, former students schooled in this tradition offer emerging insights on public choice theory, public finance, and political economy, across a range of topics from voting behavior to entrepreneurship.

How are we to understand the changing role of design and designers in the new age of consumer experience? Drawing on perspectives from cultural studies, design management, marketing, new product development and communications theory, The Design Experience explores the contexts, practices and roles of designers in today's world, providing an accessible introduction to the key issues reshaping design. The book begins by analysing how consumers acquire meaning and identity from product and other experiences made possible by design. It then explores issues of competitiveness, innovation and management in the context of industry and commerce. If designers are creators of human experiences, what does this mean for their future role in culture and commerce? Subsequent chapters look at new ways in which designers conduct user research and how designers should communicate about design and decision-making with key stakeholders. The authors conclude with a discussion of the design 'profession': will that label be a help or hindrance for tomorrow's designer? Written for students of design, design management, cultural and business studies, The Design Experience is also of interest to practitioners of design, marketing and management. Illustrated case study material is integrated into the text, and the book also includes a glossary, and extensive references.

This book is on globalization and sustainable growth in China. Thanks to the market-oriented policy reforms initiated in the late 1970s, China has achieved spectacular economic growth over the past several decades, and its economic structure has experienced great transformation. In the meantime, in the general context of globalization, the whole country has also gradually opened up to foreign trade and foreign direct investment, transforming itself from a virtually completely closed economy to a major trading nation and the largest developing-country destination for foreign direct investment in the world. In the first three chapters of this book, we investigate the potential and actual mechanisms and channels through which globalization, especially openness to foreign trade and foreign direct investment, affects industrial development and growth disparities in China. The current wave of globalization has encouraged economic growth in the world economy and affected all sides of international economic involvement. In the next four chapters of the book, we study China and the world economy. We first join the line of research on the trade frictions between China and the United States, including an analytical chapter on trade imbalance and protectionist policy, and an empirical chapter on business cycle synchronization between China and the US. A chapter on growth cycles in the BRICS is also included to explore growth and trade linkages among these five emerging market economies. A new "conventional wisdom" on globalization is that trade and financial openness do not lead to higher economic growth by themselves, in the absence of institutional reforms. Motivated by the Chinese experience, we develop an analytical framework in the last chapter to examine the case of growth targeting in China and draw policy implication for LDCs on how to achieve positive and sustainable economic growth. This book provides the readers with new facts and new findings that shed light on their understanding of globalization and sustainable growth in China.

The essays in this open access volume identify the key ingredients for success in capitalizing on public investments in scientific projects and the development of large-scale research infrastructures. Investment in science - whether in education and training or through public funding for developing new research tools and technologies - is a crucial priority. Authors from big research laboratories/organizations, funding agencies and academia discuss how investing in science can produce societal benefits as well as identifying future challenges for scientists and policy makers. The volume cites different ways to assess the socio-economic impact of Research Infrastructures and their role as hubs of global collaboration, creativity and innovation. It highlights the different benefits stemming from fundamental research at the local, national and global level, while also inviting us to rethink the notion of "benefit" in the 21st century. Public investment is required to maintain the pace of technological and scientific advancements over the next decades. Far from advocating a radical transformation and massive expansion in funding, the authors suggest ways for maintaining a strong foundation of science and research to ensure that we continue to benefit from the outputs. The volume draws inspiration from the first "Economics of Big Science" workshop, held in Brussels in 2019 with the aim of creating a new space for dialogue and interaction between representatives of Big Science organizations, policy makers and academia. It aspires to provide useful reading for policy makers, scientists and students of science, who are increasingly called upon to explain the value of fundamental research and adopt the language and logic of economics when engaging in policy discussions.

This edited volume brings together research on symbiotic themes of entrepreneurship, resource planning, and regional development and their impact on global-local business imperatives. Discussions in this volume critically analyze the convergence of entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, business practices, public policies, political ideologies, and consumer values for improving the global-local business paradigm to support regional development. This book also delves into contemporary entrepreneurship models, converging business strategies towards entrepreneurial and industrial alliance in manufacturing, services, and marketing organizations. It contemplates the development of new business models and hybrid entrepreneurial perspectives to match the changing priorities of regional economic development in developing countries. This volume offers scholars new entrepreneurial visions and business perspectives of industries in emerging markets, while presenting a more integrated view to enable companies to innovate for long-term profitability and sustainability.

This book contributes to the present state of knowledge, offering the reader broad evidence on how new digital technologies impact financial systems. It focuses on both macro- and micro-perspectives of ICT influence on financial markets. The book demonstrates how ICT can impact trading systems or information systems, which are crucial for financial systems to work effectively. It also shows how individuals can benefit from the adoption of digital technologies for everyday financial (e.g., banking) systems usage. The book provides empirical evidence of how digital technologies revolutionize the banking sector and stock exchange trading system and explores the associations between technology and various aspects of firms' functioning. Furthermore, it raises elements of financial inclusion, ICT-based microfinance service and finance-related gender issues. The principal audience of the book will be scholars and academic professionals from a wide variety of disciplines, particularly in the fields of finance and economics. It will be especially useful for those who are addressing the issues of new technologies and the financial markets, FinTech, financial innovations, stock markets, and the role of technological progress in a broadly defined socio-economic system. It will be a valuable source of knowledge for graduate and postgraduate students in economic and social development, information and technology, worldwide studies, social policy or comparative economics.

Building on the seminal work of David Teece, Kathleen Eisenhardt, Jeffrey Martin, and others, this volume applies the concept of dynamic capabilities to help readers understand how organizations can be successful in highly dynamic environments. The contributions, written by researchers who participated in the research program "Dynamic Capabilities and Relationships" and international researchers who participated in the program's international conference (both funded by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation), highlight state-of-the-art research on dynamic capabilities and relationships. They also put forward an integrated management approach for the purpose of understanding, analyzing, and managing the successful creation and adaptation of capabilities and relationships.

This book creatively puts forward the subject nature, object, system, theory, method and application of technical economics, and brings together the research achievements of 50 years, especially the latest research results. It is of great significance for the development of China's technical and economic disciplines and the cultivation of special talents for technical and economic development. It is of great significance for the solution of major technical and economic problems in economic and social development, and has a landmark significance in the history of world technical economics. The book can be used as teaching material for both the liberal arts, science and engineering students within higher education institutions, and as a leading cadre training source for engineers. Furthermore, it can facilitate readers engaged in policy making, program planning, macro control, evaluation of investment decision, feasibility studies, project with aspects such as government, consulting companies, banks, and financial personnel needs. Also this book can aid readers with engineering design, product development, business management, as well as with the needs of engineering and technical personnel and enterprise management personnel.

This book uses machine-learning to identify the causes of conflict from among the top predictors of conflict. This methodology elevates some complex causal pathways that cause civil conflict over others, thus teasing out the complex interrelationships between the most important variables that cause civil conflict. Success in this realm will lead to scientific theories of conflict that will be useful in preventing and ending civil conflict. After setting out a current review of the literature and a case for using machine learning to analyze and predict civil conflict, the authors lay out the data set, important variables, and investigative strategy of their methodology. The authors then investigate institutional causes, economic causes, and sociological causes for civil conflict, and how that feeds into their model. The methodology provides an identifiable pathway for specifying causal models. This book will be of interest to scholars in the areas of economics, political science, sociology, and artificial intelligence who want to learn more about leveraging machine learning technologies to solve problems and who are invested in preventing civil conflict.

The role of big finance and technology in social change is rapidly evolving. This book examines why large financial players are entering the social sector through social finance. Drawing on empirical research, the authors analyse the opportunities this new interest and commitment presents as well as the potential harm that can be done to vulnerable people when beneficiaries are not treated as partners and the social needs of people are not placed at the centre of the investment model. This book introduces a 'Deliberate Leadership' framework to help big finance tackle problems with no easy solutions. The book also analyses how current technologies (including blockchain) are being used and the benefits and drawbacks of different features of these technologies from the standpoint of the beneficiary and investor. The authors derive a series of insights into the model of technology for social finance and impact investing. Written as a practical book for students alongside a field book based on an action learning methodology, this volume will be useful to those in social finance and impact investing.

This book explores how companies combine technological innovation and competitive actions that create new opportunities for business growth in the international market. The complexity of designing today's technology platforms requires profound knowledge in multiple areas. Technology development and commercialization as an ongoing competitive process involves enabling and inhibiting mechanisms, which govern the speed and acceleration of technological innovation. To compete more effectively, potential competitors are using coopetition and pooling their resources for shared gain in areas where they do not compete directly. Thus, a thorough examination of the current paradigms, theories, and frameworks is needed to increase our understanding of the technology-innovation-competitiveness linkages of business growth. This book brings together recent developments and methodological contributions within technological innovation, international competitiveness, and business growth that bridge the existing gaps and simultaneously advances the debate on this research topic.

Transitioning organizations to the new normal following environmental shocks, economic upheavals, and technological innovations is a challenge to classic organizational management. The main reason: because no single organization knows precisely what the target of change is. Resources created and operated in relationships can support the organization in overcoming its constraints, changing faster, and adapting better. This book takes a relational perspective on how organizations adjust and adapt to their turbulent environment. Drawing from a broad literature and empirical studies, this book offers novel insights into how businesses create, grow, and manage relationships with partners to support strategic change. It discusses the benefits of cooperating with partners and relying on shared resources, while controlling relational risks. It presents key relational processes including organizational intelligence, open culture, knowledge sharing routines, motivation, co-creation, and communication. It discusses focus areas: longevity of family firms, improving health and safety in medical services, crisis management, public administration reforms, and relational risk management. This book is a valuable resource for researchers and students in the fields of organizational studies, organizational change, technology, and innovation management. Managers and entrepreneurs can find inspiration, motivation, and strategies for implementing and managing relationships along the value chain.

Innovation is not easy. Understanding the liability of newness but the potential for greatness is the central theme of this work. Innovation Renaissance explores and debunks the myths that have arisen from the proliferation of misleading and often confusing popular press treatments of creativity and innovation. Examples include the notion that successful entrepreneurs are winners because they are innovative-whereas creativity and business start-up acumen are not the same, and are rarely paired-or the idea of disruptive technology, which has now become the buzzword equivalent to radical new technology products or services, despite the fact that new technologies tend to offer simple, limited-capability products or services to satisfy overlooked customer demand. The popularity of open innovation has spawned assumptions, like the idea that crowdsourcing will increase the number of truly new ideas-but in fact the more novel these ideas, the less likely they are to be adopted by incumbent firms because they are less familiar. Starting by defining innovation and the theories that have arisen surrounding it, Ettlie considers individual creativity and innovativeness, radical innovation, new products, new services, process innovation, and information technology. There is special emphasis on neglected topics such as the dark side of the innovation process-the unintended consequences of new ventures. Finally, the last chapter of the book summarizes a prescriptive model of the innovation process and attempts to answer the question: what causes innovation? Three major constructs are explored: leadership, enhancing capabilities and integration. This informative and unique text is designed as a resource for postgraduate students, academics, and professionals deeply committed to understanding and working through the innovation process. The book includes an introduction to the subject before moving on to an in-depth study of emerging evidence and topics in the field.

This edited collection captures current thinking about and future practices and strategies for human resource development (HRD). It brings together contributions from a number of leading academics, practitioners and consultants who are active in the debate about the future of HRD. As the world of work grows ever more complex, diverse and ambiguous, there is growing interest in how technology, globalisation, changing workforce demographics and talent development can play a greater role in developing organisations for the future. In this context, HRD is a critical tool to address current complexity and offer solutions to organisational learning needs. Split into two volumes covering technology and innovation as well as the role of HRD in disrupting management and organisational thinking, these books provide analyses of the role of HRD in addressing the needs of the digital revolution. Volume I focuses on how technology affects organisational and individual life through innovation, creativity and learning. Contributions explore the growing trends around technology and how HRD could respond to these changes at the micro and macro levels. Together the two volumes offer a highly reflective, critical and insightful assessment on the foundations of HRD in the workplace.

Creativity loosely refers to activities in the visual arts, music, design, film and performance that are primarily intended to produce forms of affect and social meaning. Yet, over the last few decades, creativity has also been explicitly mobilized by governments around the world as a 'resource' for achieving economic growth. The creative economy discourse emphasizes individuality, innovation, self-fulfillment, career advancement and the idea of leading exciting lives as remedies to social alienation. This book critically assesses that discourse, and explores how political shifts and new theoretical frameworks are affecting the creative economy in various parts of the world at a time when creative industries are becoming increasingly 'industrialized.' Further, it highlights how work inequalities, oligopolistic strategies, competitive logics and unsustainable models are inherent weaknesses of the industrial model of creativity. The interdisciplinary contributions presented here address the operationalization of creative practices in a variety of geographical contexts, ranging from the UK, France and Russia, to Greece, Argentina and Italy, and examine issues concerning art biennials, museums, DIY cultures, technologies, creative writing, copyright laws, ideological formations, craft production and creative co-ops.

You know your organization needs creativity. Your improvement program is effective, but you're not making the real breakthroughs you were anticipating. Your employees struggle to create innovative change, while you struggle with how to help them. Your lean advisors talk about a "different way of thinking," but how do you get there? In this unique and uplifting book, Bella Englebach shows how the principles and tools of Creative Problem Solving drive deep and creative thinking when used with lean problem-solving approaches. In this book, you will learn how you can encourage creative thinking, how to support the creative thinking of your peers and employees, and how to help everyone in your organization develop high-value insights to advance strategy. Amid a lean deployment, Beth, a mid-level manager, is shocked to find that she has been assigned not one, but two coaches. Linda is her lean thinking coach, Carlo, a coach in Creative Problem Solving. As Beth faces serious business challenges, Linda and Carlo guide her to think deeply and creatively to solve problems and to become a strong lean thinking leader. You will follow her journey and see how Creative Problem Solving tools enhance lean thinking at every step. Creatively Lean is your roadmap to going beyond as a lean thinker and leader. Creatively Lean is more than a business novel. Appendices provide insight into the history of Creative Problem Solving, tools for divergent and convergent thinking, and tips on how to use Creative Problem Solving with A3 thinking. Use the book club questions to spur group discussion or for self-study.

Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems today provide increasing levels of clinical decision support and are the fulcrum for change for value-based healthcare delivery. Billions of dollars of government and insurer payments are dependent on evidence-based workflow design and quality report. In this context, quality measurement is no longer a retrospective exercise, but an essential prospective process embedded in clinical operations. Population health tools in the EHR enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of interventions thus improving the quality of care at lower cost. Population health methods are effective in ensuring that the right patient receives the right care at the right time. This book provides a clear framework for design, implementation, and monitoring of innovative population health tools to accelerate measurable improvements in care delivery. Key benefits for readers include conceptual framework, team approach, and technical insights that result in improved patient care, improved performance on quality measures and increased revenue from quality performance incentives and risk-based contracts. This is also a practice guide to the healthcare professionals many roles who are eager to build or improve population health programs with the goal of delivering high quality value-based care.