Provocative and reflective, this volume on the notion of knowledge and innovation in the business industry provides readers with a holistic approach to the subject of 'knowledge'.

Structuring their arguments around four case studies of innovation within four entirely different contexts, Hakansson and Waluszewski invite the business-minded reader to consider the costs of adopting new knowledge and innovation within a business setting.

This book:

• questions the long-held assumption that new knowledge and innovation are universally advantageous
• follows the tremor of an innovation as new knowledge reverberates through, or is dampened by the larger economic community - including cultural structures, the industrial standards and the foundational assumptions that rule a particular economic domain
• focuses in particular on the interfaces where the innovative agent connects to its customers, suppliers and competitors.

An ideal reference source for postgraduate students taking advanced courses in science and technology studies, innovation management, industrial marketing and purchasing, technological development and innovation systems.

In this book, the story of how IKEA and its paper producers struggled to solve the problem of creating environmentally friendly paper constitutes the foundation of a discussion of technological development. Through a detailed analysis of the case-study, the authors demonstrate the necessity of including social, technological and economical factors when dealing with such issues.
Focusing on the interactive aspects of commercial and technological development, they examine how new solutions are developed and shaped in relation to the different companies and organizations involved. They investigate resources in terms of how they are related and built into other resources through historical and contemporary interaction processes. Their overall emphasis is on dealing with the issue of how different, closely and distantly related companies and organizations are affected when resources are developed.


eBook available with sample pages: 0203217535

Provocative and reflective, this volume on the notion of knowledge and innovation in the business industry provides readers with a holistic approach to the subject of 'knowledge'. Structuring their arguments around four case studies of innovation within four entirely different contexts, Hakansson and Waluszewski invite the business-minded reader to consider the costs of adopting new knowledge and innovation within a business setting. This book: questions the long-held assumption that new knowledge and innovation are universally advantageous follows the tremor of an innovation as new knowledge reverberates through, or is dampened by the larger economic community - including cultural structures, the industrial standards and the foundational assumptions that rule a particular economic domain focuses in particular on the interfaces where the innovative agent connects to its customers, suppliers and competitors. An ideal reference source for postgraduate students taking advanced courses in science and technology studies, innovation management, industrial marketing and purchasing, technological development and innovation systems.

This volume tackles head-on the controversy regarding the tensions between the principles underlying Academe on the one hand, and the free market on the other. Its outspoken thesis posits that seemingly irresistible institutional pressures are betraying a core principle of the Enlightenment: that the free pursuit of knowledge is of the highest value in its own right. As 'market principles' are forced on universities, inducing a neoteric culture of 'managerialism', many worry that the very characteristics that made European higher education in particular such a success are being eroded and replaced by ideological opportunism and economic expediency. Richly interdisciplinary, the anthology explores a wealth of issues such as the phenomenon of bibliometrics (linking an institution's success to the volume and visibility of publications produced). Many argue that the use of such indicators to measure scientific value is inimical to the time-consuming complexities of genuine truth-seeking. A number of the greatest discoveries and innovations in the history of science, such as Newton's laws of mechanics or the Mendelian laws of inheritance, might never have seen the light of day if today's system of determining and defining the form and content of science had dominated. With analytical perspectives from political science, economics, philosophy and media studies, the collection interrogates, for example, the doctrine of graduate employability that exerts such a powerful influence on course type and structure, especially on technical and professional training. In contrast, the liberal arts must choose between adaptation to the dictates of employability strategies or wither away as enrollments dwindle and resources evaporate. Research projects and aims have also become an area of controversy, with many governments now assessing the value of proposals in terms of assumed commercial benefits. The contributors argue that these changes, as well as 'reforms' in the managerial and administrative structures in tertiary education, constitute a radical break with the previous ontology of science and scholarship: a change in its very character, and not merely its form. It shows that the 'scientific thinking' students, researchers, and scholars are encouraged to adopt is undergoing a rapid shift in conceptual content, with significant consequences not only for science, but also for the society of which it is a part.

This volume tackles head-on the controversy regarding the tensions between the principles underlying Academe on the one hand, and the free market on the other. Its outspoken thesis posits that seemingly irresistible institutional pressures are betraying a core principle of the Enlightenment: that the free pursuit of knowledge is of the highest value in its own right. As 'market principles' are forced on universities, inducing a neoteric culture of 'managerialism', many worry that the very characteristics that made European higher education in particular such a success are being eroded and replaced by ideological opportunism and economic expediency.
Richly interdisciplinary, the anthology explores a wealth of issues such as the phenomenon of bibliometrics (linking an institution's success to the volume and visibility of publications produced). Many argue that the use of such indicators to measure scientific value is inimical to the time-consuming complexities of genuine truth-seeking. A number of the greatest discoveries and innovations in the history of science, such as Newton's laws of mechanics or the Mendelian laws of inheritance, might never have seen the light of day if today's system of determining and defining the form and content of science had dominated. With analytical perspectives from political science, economics, philosophy and media studies, the collection interrogates, for example, the doctrine of graduate employability that exerts such a powerful influence on course type and structure, especially on technical and professional training. In contrast, the liberal arts must choose between adaptation to the dictates of employability strategies or wither away as enrollments dwindle and resources evaporate. Research projects and aims have also become an area of controversy, with many governments now assessing the value of proposals in terms of assumed commercial benefits. The contributors argue that these changes, as well as 'reforms' in the managerial and administrative structures in tertiary education, constitute a radical break with the previous ontology of science and scholarship: a change in its very character, and not merely its form. It shows that the 'scientific thinking' students, researchers, and scholars are encouraged to adopt is undergoing a rapid shift in conceptual content, with significant consequences not only for science, but also for the society of which it is a part."

This book comprises a variety of examples of the use of science and technology in business, ranging from early computer use in the U.S. insurance industry to the present use of information technology in the Swedish furniture industry; from the classic UK fish and chip shop's use of white fish to Heathrow's Terminal 5-project; from new fishing net fibers to the cooling of chocolate at Cadbury's; from the development of new mobile wireless services to the creation of a genetic database on Iceland. The book shows the multifaceted and interactive character of the relationship between science and technology on the one hand, and business and innovation on the other. It explores this non-linear relationship through a selection of case studies and discusses its implications for science as well as for business. The economy of the use of sciences and technology, as well as the science and technology of economy, is given equal focus.