Series Information:
Routledge Advances in Management and Business Studies

This important book is about the origins and diffusion of innovation, in theory and in practice. The practice draws on a variety of industries, from electronics to eyewear, from furniture to mechatronics, in a range of economies including Europe, the USA and China. The eminent contributors investigate how the latest technologies diffuse through the economy, helping to reinvigorate seemingly old and stagnant industries in the process. Examples drawn from Asia and Europe show how countries like China and India are increasingly able to catchup with, or even surpass, industrialized nations in Europe and North America, in some cases by becoming technological pioneers. The book also examines the effects of new information and communications technologies on regional economies, especially in Western Europe. The themes and findings are summarized and evaluated in an extensive introductory chapter. Scholars of innovation from a variety of disciplines, including management, economics, and human resources will find this study insightful. Postgraduate students in industrial studies, industrial dynamics and industrial development, including both advanced and industrialising countries, will also find much of interest to them in this timely book.

Alternative Theories of the Firm provides a range of fundamental readings embracing the economics of firm behaviour from a non-neoclassical perspective. The collection covers several basic topics including: the importance of transaction costs and agency theory for the analysis of firm behaviour; capabilities and resource-based theories of the firm; the economics of firm strategy; behavioural theories; Austrian theories; evolutionary theories; and the historical development of firms. The readings include selections from traditional masters as well as writings by more recent authors. This collection will be of great value both to scholars who want a summary of developments in the field and to students of industrial economics and corporate strategy.

This book takes a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches to the issue of organization and authority in the modern corporation. Including contributions from scholars in the US, Germany and Japan, it considers such relations, and the possible advantages of family ownership. The book combines historical and contemporary case studies from a range of different industries.

Resources, Technology and Strategy brings together contributors from Europe, North America and Asia to consider the strategic relationship between technology and other resources, such as production capabilities, marketing prowess, finance and organisational culture. Throughout the book, these experts take a critical approach to RBP (Resource-Based Perspective) in order to assess both its strengths and weaknesses. Case studies also highlight the importance of both having and not having strong technological capabilities in settings as diverse as the US semiconductor industry, small family manufacturing firms in Hong Kong and state-owned enterprises in China.

This volume examines processes by which technological change has been assimilated into capitalist workplaces since the Industrial Revolution. Contributors present theoretical propositions, drawing arguments from neo-classical, Marxist, evolutionary and transaction cost economics, the sociology of Anthony Giddens and Max Weber, and network analysis. These are coupled with historical case studies, including: the growth of the factory system during the industrial revolution in Britain; the German chemical industry and German family firms before World War I; the American automobile industry in the inter-war period; agricultural labour in the American South after World War II; and the recent relationship between US medical specialists and hospitals.

Managing to innovate successfully is one of the key challenges facing modern managers, firms, and governments. The rise to prominence of Japanese "keiretsu" in recent years has brought into question the effectiveness of traditional Western forms of corporate organization. Will the future favour networks of small innovative firms as in California's Silicon Valley, or will giant integrated firms dominate? Should governments play a role in directing the innovation process or should decisions be left to private enterprise?;This work draws on industrial economics, business strategy, and economic history to illuminate these topics. The authors first develop an evolutionary model to show when innovation is best undertaken within firms and when markets are the most efficient way of dealing with change. This is then illustrated by detailed discussion of the effect of innovation on the organization of the American automobile industry in the early years of the 20th century. The chapters which follow outline the effect of innovation on the organization in the early years of the 20th century.

Traditonal western forms of corporate organization have been called into question by the success of Japanese keiretsu. Firms, Markets and Economic Change draws on industrial economics, business strategy, and economic history to develop an evolutionary model to show when innovation is best undertaken. The authors argue that innovation is a complex process that defies neat categorization and government policy should be to facilitate change rather than to direct it.