This text examines how companies cope with the pressures which are unleashed by recessions. It is based on a large scale survey undertaken in the Spring, 1993, which involved the participation of more than 600 leading UK companies. The questionnaire data was combined with a long enough time series of data on the financial performance of most of the companies to enable the researchers to trace hangover effects from the recession in the early 1980s. The main issues examined in the book are: what makes companies vulnerable to recessionary pressures?; how do companies typically respond to these pressures?; how have recessionary pressures been transmitted back into labour markets, what kinds of institutional changes have they induced?; and, finally, do recessionary pressures stimulate innovative activity?

The text examines how companies cope with the pressures which are unleashed by recessions. It is based on a large scale survey undertaken in the spring of 1993 which involved the participation of more than 600 leading UK companies. The questionnaire data was combined with a long enough time-series of data on the financial performance of most of the companies to enable us to trace effects left over from the recession in the early 1980s. The main issues examined in the book are: what makes companies vulnerable to recessionary pressures? How do companies typically respond to these pressures? How have recessionary pressures been transmitted back into labour markets and what kinds of institutional changes have they induced? Finally, do recessionary pressures stimulate innovative activity?

Innovation - in products and processes - is an increasingly significant source of competitive advantage for firms and nations. Analysing extensive data on major innovations in the UK, this book examines the role of innovative activity in the structure of markets and the performance of firms. From this the author draws lessons on strategies for innovation for governments and firms alike. In particular, he addresses four questions which have long attracted the interst of economists: - does the structure of product markets affect the pace of innovative activity? - what are the effects of innovative activity on market structure? - how large a contribution does innovative activity make to productivity growth? - how does innovative activity affect corporate performance? In answering these important questions the author draws lessons for makers of public and business policy towards innovation.

Discover why being a "fast second" is often more financially rewarding than being at the cutting edge.

If you get there first, you'll lead the pack, right? Not necessarily The skill-sets of most established companies, say strategy experts Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski, are far better suited to scaling up newly created markets pioneered by others (in other words, being "fast seconds") than to creating these markets from scratch. In Fast Second, they explore the characteristics of new markets, describe the skills needed to create and compete in them, and show how these skills match up with different types of companies. Drawing on examples of successful fast-second firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Canon, JVC, Heinz, and many others, they illustrate how to determine which new markets have the potential to be successful and how to move into them before the competition does, when to make a move into a new market, how to scale up a market, where to position a company in the market, and whether to be a colonizer or a consolidator.

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