Knowledge and innovation are key factors contributing to growth and prosperity in the new service economy. This book presents original, empirical and theoretical contributions to address the economic dimensions of knowledge and the organisation of knowledge intensive activity through specialised services. Specific analyses include: * macro statistics to highlight the contribution of services to economic activity * firm level survey data to identify and consider client relations * case studies of four innovation-oriented business services. Further chapters deal with the specific functions connected with knowledge, the new discipline of 'knowledge management', intellectual property rights, and the role of knowledge in national and international economic systems. Offering an overview of a highly important and pervasive set of phenomena, this book outlines and illustrates the intellectual agenda associated with the rise of a global services economy. It will appeal to industrial and business economists, researchers, students, policymakers and business analysts.

First published in 1998, this influential volume entered the debate on Foreign Direct Investment in the UK and focuses on the role of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in the service rather than manufacturing and primary sectors. While the significance of the service industry had been recognised (exceeding 60% of total GDP in some countries at the time of original publication), the role of FDIs has not. Joanne Roberts thus contributed to a woefully under researched field, covering areas including international trade, the organisational theory of the firm and the UK business sector.

First published in 1998, this influential volume entered the debate on Foreign Direct Investment in the UK and focuses on the role of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in the service rather than manufacturing and primary sectors. While the significance of the service industry had been recognised (exceeding 60% of total GDP in some countries at the time of original publication), the role of FDIs has not. Joanne Roberts thus contributed to a woefully under researched field, covering areas including international trade, the organisational theory of the firm and the UK business sector.

It has long been an interest of researchers in economics, sociology, organization studies, and economic geography to understand how firms innovate. Most recently, this interest has begun to examine the micro-processes of work and organization that sustain social creativity, emphasizing the learning and knowing through action when social actors and technologies come together in 'communities of practice'; everyday interactions of common purpose and mutual obligation. These communities are said to spark both incremental and radical innovation. In the book, leading international scholars critically examine the concept of communities of practice and its applications in different spatial, organizational, and creative settings. Chapters examine the development of the concept, the link between situated practice and different types of creative outcome, the interface between spatial and relational proximity, and the organizational demands of learning and knowing through communities of practice. More widely, the chapters examine the compatibility between markets, knowledge capitalism, and community; seemingly in conflict with each other, but discursively not. Exploring the frontiers of current understanding of situated knowing and learning, this book is for all those interested in the economic sociology of organizational creativity and knowledge capitalism in general.

It has long been an interest of researchers in economics, sociology, organization studies, and economic geography to understand how firms innovate. Most recently, this interest has begun to examine the micro-processes of work and organization that sustain social creativity, emphasizing the learning and knowing through action when social actors and technologies come together in 'communities of practice'; everyday interactions of common purpose and mutual obligation. These communities are said to spark both incremental and radical innovation. In the book, leading international scholars critically examine the concept of communities of practice and its applications in different spatial, organizational, and creative settings. Chapters examine the development of the concept, the link between situated practice and different types of creative outcome, the interface between spatial and relational proximity, and the organizational demands of learning and knowing through communities of practice. More widely, the chapters examine the compatibility between markets, knowledge capitalism, and community; seemingly in conflict with each other, but discursively not. Exploring the frontiers of current understanding of situated knowing and learning, this book is for all those interested in the economic sociology of organizational creativity and knowledge capitalism in general.

In a world that is obsessed with luxury, critical luxury studies is a rapidly emerging field. This is the first book to explore the interplay between the real and imaginary realms of luxury, considering the most significant developments in the theories and practices of luxurious places and spaces over the last fifty years. Providing a critical approach to contemporary interpretations of luxury, the book interrogates the distinction between real places and imaginary spaces. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, it features a range of case studies which take the reader from the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge to expressions of sensuality in the 1970s domestic interior, and global conceptions of fine wine and art. The Third Realm of Luxury considers the interplay between luxury and space in both the past and the present, examining the abstract conception of excess and exoticism, as well as the real locations of the home, hotel, apartment, and palace. Full of original research, it is a key contribution to the study of consumption, design, fashion, and architecture.

Assembling the foremost scholars in this innovative, distinctive and expanding subject, internationally well-known critical theorists John Armitage and Joanne Roberts present a ground-breaking aesthetic, design-led and media-related examination of the relations between historical and, crucially, contemporary ideas of luxury. Critical Luxury Studies offers a technoculturally inspired survey of the mediated arts and design, as well as a means of comprehending the socio-economic order with novel philosophical tools and critical methods of interrogation that are re-defining the concept of luxury in the 21st century.

Cyberspace and cybertechnology have impacted on every aspect of our lives. Western society, culture, politics and economics are now all intricately bound with cyberspace. Living With Cyberspace brings together the leading cyber-theorists of North America, Britain and Australia to map the present and the future of cyberspace.Presenting a guidebook to our new world, both the theory and the practice, the book covers subjects as diverse as androids, biotech, electronic commerce, the acceleration of everyday life, access to information, the alliance between the military and the entertainment industries, feminism, democratic practice and human consciousness itself.Together, the essays--divided into separately introduced sections on society, culture, politics and economics--present a systematic and state-of-the-art overview of technology and society in the 21st Century.Contributors: John Armitage, Verena Andermatt Conley, James Der Derian, William H. Dutton, Phil Graham, Tim Jordan, Wan-Ying Ling, David Lyon, Ian Miles, Joanne Roberts, Saskia Sassen, Cathryn Vasseleu, McKenzie Wark, Frank Webster

Written in a lively, conversational style, Knowledge Management looks at the nature of knowledge, including its definition and measurement, before the main concepts and theoretical contributions to knowledge management are reviewed and challenged, providing fresh insights into the central debates. Conceived by Chris Grey as an antidote to conventional textbooks, each book in the 'Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap' series takes a core area of the curriculum and turns it on its head by providing a critical and sophisticated overview of the key issues and debates in an informal, conversational and often humorous way. Suitable for students of Business and Management courses at Undergraduate and Postgraduate level and anyone interested in the concept of knowledge management.