This book explores the distinct nature of innovation in medium technology industrial sectors - which are the key to European international competitiveness - and examines the recent changes of networks within regional clusters. The authors present best-practice management and regional strategies, and develop an original and coherent theoretical framework for the analysis of innovation processes called 'Territorial Knowledge Management'. They concentrate on the territorial dimension and the cognitive economics approach, and go beyond the traditional focus on R&D in high-tech sectors. The pivotal role of intermediate institutions in the governance of modern co-ordinated market economies is also highlighted. Working towards defining new guidelines for creating networks of competence centers and removing barriers to the enlargement of knowledge and innovation networks in Europe, this book will prove an enlightening read for those with an interest in postgraduate level management and innovation studies. Management and policy-making practitioners at both the regional and European level will also find much to interest them.

Path-breaking innovations are about instigating fundamental changes in people, organizations, communities, and economies. They are complex, continuous, and evolutionary processes that take considerable time, resources, and the efforts of many individuals and organizations to be accomplished successfully. Representing distinct departures from existing practices, they differ from other types of innovation, such as product extensions and incremental improvements. By examining path-breaking innovation processes through in-depth analysis of several large-scale initiatives around the world, the authors explore how profound changes in product, process, and service can be explained and managed, and consider the practical implications for scientific, organizational, institutional, and political leaders concerned with channeling innovation toward economic growth. In-depth analysis of science and technology initiatives at CERN-ATLAS, Airbus, and in stem cell research, the authors explore and illuminate how profound changes in product, process, and service can be explained and managed. Covering such issues as organizational culture, types of knowledge, and large-scale project management and resource distribution, the authors consider the practical implications of radical innovation for scientific, organizational, institutional, and political leaders concerned with channeling innovation toward economic growth.

Leading researchers on economic resilience from economic geography, economic history and organizational studies discuss recent approaches to better understand the impact of structures, processes, agency, governance and multilevel settings on economic resilience.

This volume includes in a unique way theoretical and empirical contributions on the context of forced migration and resilience from the perspective of psychology and social sciences. Contributions range from analyses of individual vulnerability and exposition to investigations of community and policy reactions in host countries.

Preventing Unemployment in Europe is an interdisciplinary volume offering an effective and authoritative contribution to the ongoing debate concerning the utility of preventive labour market policies. Positive labour market performance is discussed from a European perspective and analysed against the background of transferability in an era of increasing globalisation of markets. Concentrating particularly on the role of corporatist and market processes, the book focuses on the effects of preventive unemployment through the comparison of innovative and flexible policy solutions. Some of the fundamental issues the book tackles include the extent to which the conditional framework for preventive labour market policy is undergoing change, the response mechanisms to these changes which characterise national strategies and the learning processes which can be triggered through the exchange of national experiences within the EU. The discussions within the book benefit from both an economic analysis of the subject matter complemented by a broader social science approach. The editors, themselves distinguished scholars in this field, have produced a comprehensive resource which should prove invaluable reading for both policymakers and academics in the fields of labour market theory and policy.

Das Buch bundelt in einzigartiger Weise Erkenntnisse aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen zum Verstandnis des Begriffs Resilienz und zu Moeglichkeiten der Resilienzfoerderung. Die Identifizierung, Erklarung und Beeinflussung von Resilienz als Fahigkeit zur Bewaltigung externer Stoerungen unterschiedlichster Art werden in immer mehr wissenschaftlichen Disziplinen zu relevanten Forschungsfragen. Zugleich wird Resilienz auch in oeffentlichen Debatten zunehmend als Ziel einer gesellschaftlichen Umgestaltung genannt. Mit der Popularitat des Begriffs nimmt jedoch auch die Gefahr zu, das Verstandnis von Resilienz mit Verweis auf vereinfachende Metaphern und optimierenden Ratschlagen zu verengen. Dieser Gefahr wird in diesem Buch mit einer sorgsamen Aufarbeitung des Stands der Forschung und der Chancen, die in der Diskussion um Resilienz stecken, begegnet.

Das vorliegende Buch vereinigt Fallstudien zur Krisenfestigkeit in acht deutschsprachigen Regionen mit jeweils unterschiedlichen strukturellen Voraussetzungen, Anpassungsstrategien und -instrumenten, Krisenerfahrungen und wirtschaftlichen Erfolgen. Im Vergleich zu anderen europaischen Landern wird die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in den deutschsprachigen Landern Deutschland, OEsterreich und Schweiz wahrend des vergangenen Jahrzehnts positiv beurteilt. Beschaftigung und Exporte stiegen an, und das Wirtschaftswachstum sank lediglich relativ kurzfristig im unmittelbaren weltweiten Wirtschaftskrisenjahr 2009. Die Fallstudien basieren auf Experteninterviews in den jeweiligen Regionen und auf nationaler und europaischer Ebene sowie zwei Workshops mit Praktikern aus untersuchten Regionen in Baden-Wurttemberg und Sachsen. Zielgruppen fur das Buch sind zum einen Praktiker in Landesregierungen, regionalen und lokalen Wirtschaftsfoerderungen, Kammern und Verbanden und zum anderen regionalwissenschaftliche Forscher.