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This book examines the interaction between social, regulatory, and market developments underlying the growing use of new technologies such as the personal computer and the Internet. Based upon empirical research by an international team, it offers insights needed to understand public policy, corporate strategy, and individual choices taken in response to the deluge of new technological opportunities. A principal theme of the book is that changes are governed by public decisions that establish the institutional framework in which the private sector operates. The quality and value of the information society for the citizen is not the inevitable consequence of market and technological forces. Policy choices that however fail to take market and technical influences into account will prove ineffective. The book lays the foundation for improved theories of the process of change, more appropriate strategies to achieve desired aims, and more effective policies for mitigating the effects of dislocation and exclusion from the information society.

This book argues that innovation is about creating meaning; that it is inherently social; and is grounded in existing social practices. To understand the social basis of innovation and technology development we have to move beyond the traditional product-centric view on innovations. Integrating concepts from several disciplinary perspectives and detailed analyses of the evolution of Internet-related innovations, including packet-switched computer networks, the World Wide Web, and the Linux open source operating system, the book develops foundations for a new theoretical and practical understanding of innovation. For example, it shows that innovative development can occur in two qualitatively different ways, one based on evolving specialization and the other based on recombination of existing socially produced resources. The expanding communication and collaboration networks have increased the importance of the recombinatory mode making mobility of resources, sociotechnical translation mechanisms, and meaning creation in communities of practice increasingly important for innovation research and product development.

How did Japan fall from challenger to US hegemonic leadership in the high tech industries in the 1980s to stumbling giant by the turn of the last century? What did it do about it? This book examines the challenges faced by Japan's high tech companies through successful emulation of some of their key practices by foreign competitors and the emergence of new competitive models linked to open innovation and modular production. High tech companies were slow to respond, relying at first on formulae which had worked in the past, but in a new environment, some of these traditional strengths had now become sources of weakness. Stability and success, moreover, had decreased their appetite for risk. Early in the new century, however, there were signs of a more concerted response, which opened up past practices to scrutiny and modification through selective learning and adaptation of the new models. The MOT (management of technology) movement provided a vehicle for this change. It was linked, in turn, to efforts to change the national innovation system, giving universities a more central role and encouraging spin-offs and startups. The book features contributions from scholars and practitioners who have distinctive insights into the nature of these challenges and responses. It includes introductory and concluding chapters with a discussion of knowledge management implications, a ‘reformed’ Japanese model, and a possible dual innovation system.

At its heart this book is about innovation and the innovation process. On the way, it considers culture and the cultural industries, aesthetics, creativity and the creative industries, and a number of other similar areas of study, but the common point of interest is innovation. One main purpose of the book is to argue that there is a type of innovation, here labelled soft innovation, primarily concerned with changes in products (and perhaps processes) of an aesthetic or intellectual nature, that has largely been ignored in the study of innovation prevalent in economics. Examples of innovations that, as a result of this refocusing, are here placed at the centre of the analysis, include the writing and publishing of a new book; the writing, production, and launching of a new movie/film; the development and launch of a new advertising promotion; the design and production of a new range of furniture; and architectural activity in the generation of new-built form designs. The realisation of the existence of soft innovation means that not only is innovation more widespread than previously thought, but may also take a different form than commonly considered. The book has three parts. Part 1 is concerned with attempts to define and measure the extent and nature of soft innovation, with Chapter 1 introducing and overviewing the whole. Part 2 of the book is directed towards the economic analysis of soft innovation. Part 3 of the book is concerned with impacts and implications.

This book introduces a powerful new concept to the business world — Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs). COINs have been around for hundreds of years, and many of us have already been a part of a COIN without knowing it. What makes COINs so relevant today is that the concept has reached its tipping point, thanks to the communication capabilities of the Internet and the World Wide Web. A COIN is a cyberteam of self-motivated people with a collective vision, enabled by technology to collaborate in achieving a common goal — an innovation — by sharing ideas, information, and work. Working this way is key to successful innovation, and it is no exaggeration to state that COINs are the most productive engines of innovation ever. This book explores why COINs are so important to business success in the new century. It explains the traits that characterize COIN members and COIN behavior. It makes the case for why businesses ought to be rushing to uncover their COINs and nurture them, and provides tools for building organizations that are more creative, productive, and efficient by applying principles of creative collaboration, knowledge sharing, and social networking. Through real-life examples of COINs in several business sectors, the book shows how to leverage COINs to develop successful products in R&D, grow better customer relationships, establish better project management processes, and build higher-performing teams. There is even a method offered for locating, analyzing, and measuring the impact of COINs on an organization.

In the mid-1980s, the author had a technological mini-vision. He saw in his mind's eye a quarter-inch thick personal scale weighing a pound, a travel scale, and he decided to make it a reality, to bring it to market. This book gives a first-person account of the process of invention and design as it unfolds in the remaking of the familiar bathroom scale. It is rare because inventors seldom have the inclination to articulate their thought processes and to recount their experiences in great detail. Angel, an urban planner by profession, had no mechanical skills as he embarked on his journey. This book records his transformation, over the course of a decade, from a bungling ignoramus to an expert on thin scales. Readers know as much about scales, or about invention for that matter, as Angel does at the beginning of the journey. Listening to Angel's unfolding story, this book shows the intricacies of invention and design. The pursuit of the thin scale travels to fascinating places, from Bangkok to Rolling Hills, California, from Groningen in the Netherlands to Murrhardt in Germany, and from New York to Tokyo. But the places Angel explores are not only visually different. They are realms of knowledge inhabited by people with diverse yet complementary outlooks on the invention process, such as engineers, designers, lawyers, product development specialists, corporate functionaries, and friends who philosophize on the deeper meanings of one's life pursuits.

Global markets, Japanese competition, the service economy, the sophisticated consumer — American business today faces challenges undreamed of just a few decades ago, and traditional approaches to corporate problems are becoming increasingly less effective. And yet MBA programs still preach — and thousands of American firms hold sacred — an antiquated system of business thinking that is wholly inadequate to the problems they face. In this book, the authors pinpoint the profound changes that must occur in the way business executives think, make decisions, and solve problems, if America is to remain competitive. They put forth a radically new approach — “new thinking” — and show executives exactly how to employ these special critical and creative tools to clear the hurdles businesses now face. Varying perspectives, multiple realities, and openness to multiple solutions are the secrets of contemporary problem-solving, and lead us to the cutting edge of innovation. In illustrating how “new thinking” differs from the usual ways in which American firms have handled problems, they analyze a wealth of examples including the decline of the American auto industry and the consequences of this country's blind exporting of technology. They also revisit and interpret some of the gravest crises corporate America has faced: the Bhopal disaster, the Tylenol scare, and the accident at Three Mile Island. This book argues that if we are to produce products and services that can compete in the information age, we must challenge the very foundations of our thinking, and learn how to approach decision-making in a truly creative way.

The number of new small closely held business start-ups, which may be referred to as entrepreneurial enterprises, is growing and they continue to be the primary source for employment growth in the United States and in most industrialized nations. However, the topic of the valuation of an entrepreneurial enterprise has for the most part been ignored because, in the view of many, traditional valuation methods are not applicable. This is because entrepreneurial enterprises do not have a history of sales and revenues upon which traditional valuation methods are built. Through conceptual discussions and numerical examples a more accurate method for dealing with the valuation issues that are relevant to an entrepreneurial enterprise is suggested.