Balancing Exploration and Exploitation by Creating Organizational Think Tanks
Key for successful knowledge management is a balance between exploration and exploitation. Danger arises when exploration is neglected in favour of exploitation since that may result in an organization which lacks innovation capability. In order to prevent this, an idea has been put forward in recent knowledge management research called ambidexterity, which means the simultaneous and balanced pursuing of both exploration and exploitations activities. Tatjana-Xenia Puhan follows up on this idea by concluding that ambidexterity need not necessarily be implemented in one single organization but can also be realised in a network of associated organizations. The interorganizational ambidexterity is based on co-specialisation: one organisation is devoted solely to exploration while associated organizations focus on their competences in exploitation. Furthermore, the author develops the concept of think tanks as organizations that concentrate on radical innovations while their network associates exploit this newly generated knowledge commercially.
Automotive production systems and standardisation : From Ford to the case of Mercedes-Benz
The introduction of the Mercedes-Benz Production System (MPS) is exemplary of a trend within the automotive industry: the creation and introduction of company-specific standardised production systems. This book contributes to the debate about production systems by examining the social and economic implications of the role of standardisation in production systems. In this context it addresses three core issues: First, the driving forces behind the changing forms and functions of standardisation and the role of institutions therein. Second, the impact of standardisation on the evolution of automotive production systems. Third, based on the author's own empirical research conducted over a three year period at the Mercedes-Benz plant Stuttgart-Untertürkheim/Germany, the book examines the influence of standardisation on the work of actors on the shop floor in terms of organisational learning processes and the regulation of work.
Assetization : Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism
In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines argue that the asset—meaning anything that can be controlled, traded, and capitalized as a revenue stream—has become the primary basis of technoscientific capitalism. An asset can be an object or an experience, a sum of money or a life form, a patent or a bodily function. A process of assetization prevails, imposing investment and return as the key rationale, and overtaking commodification and its speculative logic. Although assets can be bought and sold, the point is to get a durable economic rent from them rather than make a killing on the market. Assetization examines how assets are constructed and how a variety of things can be turned into assets, analyzing the interests, activities, skills, organizations, and relations entangled in this process.
Artificial markets modeling : Methods and applications
Agent-based computational modeling with its intrinsic multidisciplinary approach is gaining increasing recognition in the social sciences, particularly in economics, business and finance. This volume is devoted to recent contributions to the field from both the social sciences and computer sciences.
Approaching consumer culture : Global flows and local contexts
This collection analyzes the impact of Western consumer culture on local cultures and consumption in Southeast Europe and East Asia. Cultural, historical, economic and sociopolitical contexts are examined regarding buying behaviors, usage and customization practices and consumer activism, specifically in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Romania as cultures continue to evolve in the post-socialist era, and in China and Japan as a continuation of movements toward modernity and progress. Surprising and thought-provoking contrasts stand out as consumers balance the global with the local in terms of clothing, technology, luxury items, and food.
Americanization of the European Economy : A compact survey of American economic influence in Europe since the 1800s
Provides a comprehensive yet compact survey of the growth of American economic influence in Europe since the 1880s. Three distinct but cumulative waves of Americanization are identified. Americanization was (and still is) a complex process of technological, political, and cultural transfer, and this overview explains why and how the USA and the American model of industrial capitalism came to be accepted as the dominant paradigm of political economy in today's Europe. Americanization of the European Economy summarizes the ongoing discussion by business historians, sociologists, and political scientists and makes it accessible to all types of readers who are interested in political and economic development.
Amartya Sens Capability Approach: Theoretical Insights and Empirical Applications
Kuklys examines how Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen’s approach to welfare measurement can be put in practice for poverty and inequality measurement in affluent societies such as the UK. Sen argues that an individual’s welfare should not be measured in terms of her income, but in terms what she can actually do or be, her capabilities. In Chapters 1 and 2, Kuklys describes the capability approach from a standard welfare economic point of view and provides a comprehensive literature review of the empirical applications in this area of research. In the remaining chapters, novel econometric techniques are employed to operationalise the concepts of functionings and capability to investigate inequality and poverty in terms of capability in the UK. Kuklys finds that capability measurement is always a useful complement to traditional monetary analysis, and particularly so in the case of capability-deprived disabled individuals.
Agent-Based Models of Energy Investment Decisions
This book demonstrates how bounded rational decision models can be standardized and parameterized by socio-economic data. Focusing on private energy technology investment decisions, the author shows how different representative agents can be constructed using search rules, analysis tools and decision strategies. Diffusion curves for energy technologies such as solar collectors, boilers and efficiency upgrades for buildings are calculated. Further, the model is extended to study the impact of firms’ competition on technology diffusion. The modeling approach presented in this book may serve as a template for applications in other domain.
Agent-based modeling : The Santa Fe Institute artificial stock market model revisited
An excellent reference to both the learning, and empirical literature in finance." (Krzysztof Piasecki, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1141, 2008) "Norman Ehrentreich was one of the daring few to take on the model, and he has summarized his work and findings in this excellent book. … It is useful primer for anyone interested in getting started in the area of agent-based finance. … It is essential reading for anyone interested in the dynamics of the SFI market in particular, but I also recommend it for others as a useful resource on agent-based financial market design as well." (Blake LeBaron, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Vol. 12 (2), March, 2009)
Agent-based computational modelling : Applications in demography, social, economic and environmental sciences
The present book describes the methodology to set up agent-based models and to study emerging patterns in complex adaptive systems resulting from multi-agent interaction. It offers the application of agent-based models in demography, social and economic sciences and environmental sciences. It presents and combines different approaches how to implement agent-based computational models and tools in an integrative manner that can be extended to other cases.
Advertising in contemporary consumer culture
This is the first scholarly book dedicated to reading the work of contemporary filmmakers and their impact on modern marketing and advertising. Drawing from consumer culture theory, film and media studies, the author presents an expansive analysis of a range of renowned filmmakers who have successfully applied their aesthetic and narrative vision to commercial advertising. It challenges some traditional advertising tropes and sheds light on the changing nature of advertising in the contemporary media context. Utilising Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of assemblage, This book addresses themes of spatiality and time, narrative and aesthetics and consumer reception within a new frame of reference that re-contextualises classical concepts of genre, platform and aesthetic categories. These diverse elements are embedded into a larger discussion of the resonance of contemporary advertising for consumer culture and the implications of the hybridity characteristic of convergent media platforms for understanding the potential of advertising in the twenty-first century.
Advertising culture and translation : From colonial to global
A first comprehensive study combining and integrating advertising, culture and translation within the framework of colonial, Commonwealth, and postcolonial studies, and globalization. It addresses a number of controversial issues evident in two relatively young disciplines, as a result of decades of research and teaching in university courses. A cross-cultural approach to translational issues and the translatability of advertising cohesively is adopted here, exploring the dynamics of the conflict between the 'centre' and the 'periphery'. It introduces the concept of advertising English as lingua franca (AELF), marking new trends in the domain of varieties of English around the world (VEAW). The data examined here show the ambivalent polarity conditioning advertising and translation: both have been mutually exclusive, and both have been subject to bans, censorship and ideological control, racism, propaganda, and stereotyping. In their fundamental principles and concepts of theories and applications, however, neither discipline cannot exist outside a free market and total freedom of expression and trust
Advances in public economics : Utility, choice and welfare
This Festschrift in honor ofChristian Seidl combines a group of prominent authors who are experts in areas like public economics, welfare economic, decision theory, and experimental economics in a unique volume. He has dedicated most of his research to utility and decision theory, social choice theory, welfare economics, and public economics.
Advances in Crowdfunding : Research and Practice
This book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date collection of knowledge on the state of crowdfunding research and practice. It considers crowdfunding models and their different manifestations across a variety of geographies and sectors, and explores the perspectives of fundraisers, backers, platforms, and regulators.
Accounting for social and environmental sustainability : A multi-capital approach
Offers an in‑depth examination of multi‑capital accounting, which has already been integrated within the corporate sustainability reporting directive and will follow on from sustainability reporting. the LIFTS model (limits and foundations towards sustainability accounting model) used in this book combines various scientific and practical contributions to develop budgets for environmental impacts and social obligations on an organisational scale. it proposes an accounting mechanism that enables an organization to manage each of its budgets and measure variances between forecast and actual. it provides an introduction to the principles of this model and its conditions of application and describes its implementation in numerous companies.
Accounting and Financial System Reform in a Transition Economy: A Case Study of Russia
Much has been written about the economic and political problems of countries that are in the process of changing from centrally planned systems to market systems. Most studies have focused on the economic, legal, political and sociological problems these economies have had to face during the transition period. However, not much has been written about the dramatic changes that have to be made to the accounting and financial system of a transition economy. This book was written to help fill that gap. Using Russia as a case study the authors examined all the major aspects of accounting reform, starting with problems of implementation. They also examined the current state of auditing in Russia. They also devote chapters to corporate governance issues, the Russian tax system and the problems Russian enterprises face when they try to attract foreign direct investment.
Accounting and auditing small and medium-sized practices : Transformative capabilities in a rapidly changing society
Addresses recent trends, developments, and future of accounting and auditing of small and medium-sized practices (AASMPs) in the public and private sectors.the book has three main objectives: firstly, to provide an analysis of how different societal trends, including digitalization, impact AASMPs and what role education and training play in proactive adaptation to those trends; secondly, to outline major scenarios for global AASMP development by 2035; and thirdly, to offer a conceptual framework for better understanding of AASMPs' dynamic and transformative capabilities that are necessary to create sustained competitive advantage in a rapidly changing society. beyond presenting a conceptual framework, this book also offers a discussion of future scenarios for AASMPs' development and their role in the global economic development.
Acceptance and Usage of Technology through the Digital User Experience
Sheds light on the challenges and solutions for companies when dealing with the online consumer on social media and in the era of Web 4.0. It investigates the digital transformation in terms of customer experience, customer empowerment, resistance, influencer marketing, and trust. The volume shows how consumers perceive, react and behave towards brands’ digital marketing strategies in addition to the barriers, constraints, advantages and modes of action of online consumers.
Absolute Essentials of Business Ethics
Explores practical applications of how business ethics impacts working lives, allowing readers to reflect on their own moral compass through the use of ethical dilemmas. Highlighting the extensive breadth of issues related to business ethics, the authors introduce and analyze ethical and unethical behaviors of firms through numerous real -life examples including Patagonia, Costco, LVMH, Bill Gates, Muhummad Yunus, Enron, WorldCom, Samsung, Purdue Pharma, Vale Mining and the COVID-19 crisis.
Absolute Essentials of Business Behavioural Ethics
Behavioural ethics in business is an emerging field that has challenged some of the established wisdom about ethics and added some truly new insights into our understanding about decision-making and behaviour. This concise textbook is ideal for use in the classroom as core or additional reading on courses in business ethics and corporate social responsibility; organisational behaviour and psychology; and any module with ethics content (for example, accounting ethics and strategic management).



















