This book presents a radically innovative view on trade shows as knowledge-rich places, where firms learn through observation and interaction with other economic actors, and as enablers, rather than mere consequences, of globalization. Traditionally seen as marketing tools, trade shows are conceptualised as temporary clusters that facilitate the creation and diffusion of knowledge across geographical distances, even in the age of social media. The book is organized in four parts. Part I lays out the conceptual foundations of the knowledge-based perspective, from the early development of trade fairs to modern-day events. Part II analyses specific global developments, focussing on the trade show ecologies of Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Part III investigates differences in the nature of knowledge generation practices across international hub shows, exports shows, and import shows in different industries, and investigates competition between such events. Part IV discusses the implications of a knowledge-based conceptualisation of trade shows. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in economic geography, management, marketing, organization studies, political science, and sociology. It also has practical implications for trade show organisers on how to make their events more competitive through knowledge-based strategies; for industry associations and cities, on how to use these events for collective/place marketing purposes; and for policy makers, on how to use trade shows for export promotion and innovation policies.

"Superior Customer Value" (SCV) advances theory and offers new tools useful for measuring value dimensions and strength. Achieving highly useful sense making about the value concept and value metrics is important because of the substantial evidence that: customer assessments of total value in a product/service offering strongly affects acceptance and initial purchase; customer evaluations of value experiences relate strongly with retaining them and growing the share-of-business these customers award specific suppliers; and increases in delivered-value implemented strategies relates positively to increases in profitability. "SCV" focuses on advancing value theory, research, and strategy in business-to-business contexts. Coverage includes in-depth case research findings for existing and disruptively new products and services and all papers in this volume embrace the proposition that context is a major force affecting planning and implementing strategy. "SCV" is relevant in particular to European and North American B-to-B contexts. However, the tools and theories in the volume are certainly relevant for research by scholars and decisions by executives working in Asia and Australia. "SCV" is essential reading for improving thinking, decisions, and actions relating to the creation, marketing, and purchasing of superior value in products and services - critical abilities for product-service executives.