Bøger i Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology serien

Over the last decade governments in Europe and North America have attempted to improve efficiency of public services through Information and Communication Technology, commonly branded as electronic government (e-government). Public Sector Transformation through E-Government explores the influence that e-government has on public sector organizations, the organizational complexities that result, and its impact on citizens and democratic society.

The term Facilities Management has become global but fraught with confusion as to what the term signifies. For some, notably in the USA, Facilities Management remains a discipline of human ecology. Elsewhere the term has become conflated with an alternative meaning: providing or outsourcing the provision of various services essential to the operation of particular buildings. This volume redresses that imbalance to remind Facilities Management of its roots, presenting evidence of Facilities Management success stories that engage the wider objectives of the organizations they serve, and engaging students, scholars and critical practitioners of general management with an appreciation of the power and influence of physical space and its place in the theory and practice of organizations.

This book offers an in-depth look at entrepreneurship in ten diverse international universities ¿ from the northernmost university in Tromsø, Norway to one of Americäs largest universities in Austin, Texas, and examines how these universities commercialize scientific research, develop entrepreneurial degree programs, establish industry partnerships, and build cultures and ecosystems of innovation.

The New Production of Users traces the history of designer-user relations from the era of mass production to the present days. Its focus lies in elaborating the currently emerging strategies and approaches to user involvement in business and citizen contexts.

This book is a unique collection of some of the latest research from a range of leading creativity researchers. It provides a clear understanding of the concepts, environmental determinants, inter-disciplinary nature and applications of creativity.

Information technology has come to play an important role in organizations over the last few decades. Though it began as an entity dealt with by specialists, IT has evolved to become an everyday tool with both operational and strategic impacts. Most modern organizations have adopted different forms of IT, and become dependent on their computer-based information systems and their peripherals for everyday operations. Information technology offers opportunities to increase efficiency, customer value, and competitiveness. Given the financial investment in IT required by organizations to remain competitive, IT has become a resource that needs to be managed. Management and Information Technology evaluates organizations'' utilization of IT including knowledge management and e-learning, accounting, and business relationships. Presenting theories to help the reader understand the varying roles IT can occupy in different organizations, this volume illustrates the ways in which IT has become a key strategic tool.

Digital media present opportunities for new types of consumption including desiring, buying, collecting, making, and even selling digital virtual goods. To these activities we can add those taking place in virtual communities of consumption, online shops, brand websites, and online auction houses that together amount to a vast new landscape of consumption. Digital virtual consumption motivates concatenated practices which produce meaningful experience for their users as well as market opportunities to profit from them. Consumers create and maintain elaborate wish lists, engaging with simulations of brands on websites and in videogames, coveting items for use in online games and even spending ''real'' money on these, undertaking entrepreneurial activity in virtual worlds, conjuring nostalgia via online auctions, engaging in playful consumption in other new retail formats, writing reviews of products as part of the consumption experience, engaging in online activist activities, and many other emerging behaviors. Analyses of consumption in the digital virtual realm are however limited. This collection brings together experienced researchers from the fields of consumer research, digital games, and virtual worlds to provide conceptual and empirical work that helps us understand these new and significant consumer activities. Online communities negotiate the ''correct'' use of goods and offer technical advice, consumers develop new products, individuals create and distribute their own promotional material for their favorite brands, and entrepreneurial consumers marketing and selling their own products online. Here we may see a blurring of consumption and production, or work and leisure activity that requires further thought about what makes it meaningful for individuals. The chapters in this volume take stock of the emergence and likely importance of digital virtual consumption for consumer culture, including a review of both new and existing conceptual and methodological tools as well as a resource of key examples and analyses of practices.

Leadership is vital to creativity and successful innovation in groups and organizations; leadership is however seldom studied in the academic literature as a creativity driver. One reason for the lack of attention paid to leadership''s effect on creativity may be the common belief that creativity cannot and should not be managed. Creative individuals and groups are regarded as, and indeed often are, autonomous and self-driving. From this belief the erroneous conclusion is drawn that there is no need for leadership in creative environments and situations. The better conclusion, proposed by this book, is that leadership not only stimulates creativity, but that such a leadership in the science, technology, and innovation fields should specifically possess at least two features: a) expertise in the field(s), and b) an ability to create, support, and encourage individuals, groups, and creative knowledge environments. A number of specialist authors in this volume offer original theoretical, empirical, and applied chapters that elucidate how to better organize and lead creative efforts in science, technology, and innovation. A number of important research questions are raised and answered, including: What kinds of leaderships are needed at different levels of S&T organizations for a creative output? What social and cognitive abilities and skills are needed for leadership in creative environments? How does leadership vary with different phases of the creative process? This book offers concrete analysis of how leaders and managers can facilitate, promote, and organize for creative performance in science, technology, and in innovating organizations, making it required reading for academic and industrial research leaders, scientists, and engineers.

As the economies of western countries move from primarily resource-based to knowledge-based, and trade liberalization limits what governments can do through direct action, the landscape of innovation is changing and policymakers must react accordingly. This exciting new book examines the challenges that policy makers face in responding to a new environment. The book addresses how governments are now seeking to drive innovation through new forms of R&D policies, through public procurement, skills development, entrepreneurship and innovation culture to name but a few of the approaches. Innovation Policy Challenges for the 21st Century explores these and other contemporary issues in innovation, reviewing the state of the art literature and consolidating current thinking at the frontiers of innovation. The volume debates and presents scattered and anonymous material in a coherent way, with a particular focus is on ''hot topics'' in the field of innovation studies that have been previously under-researched. The book is divided into four key themes: government as a key actor in the innovation process, entrepreneurs as innovators, skills and competences required to maintain and improve innovation performance in Europe and finally, the wider context in which innovation policy develops.

The aim of this book is to improve our understanding of creativity and the management of creativity, as discussed in the fields of management (including strategic management, organization science, organizational behaviour, and entrepreneurship), economics, sociology, regional studies, and political science.

The New Production of Users traces the history of designer-user relations from the era of mass production to the present days. Its focus lies in elaborating the currently emerging strategies and approaches to user involvement in business and citizen contexts.

In the global economy, regional development and innovation are increasingly an imperative to increase the competitive edge of EU economies. While European regions are different in many ways, the innovation capacity of regions, clusters and firms is what makes them capable of building up new and diversified pathways for sustainable growth. For this reason, Innovation Drivers and Regional Innovation Strategies looks to analyze different knowledge drivers (e.g. entrepreneurial or policy-orientation; scientific and practice-based knowledge modes; institutional innovation support) that influence the innovative and competitive capacity of regions, clusters and firms in Europe. The aim of this volume is to develop an in-depth understanding of these drivers and their implications for the way in which regional and cluster growth may be upgraded. Innovation Drivers and Regional Innovation Strategies examines the construction of new innovation pathways for regions and clusters in different geographical contexts. The main themes are cluster evolution, regional innovation systems and business innovation modes and capabilities. The objectives are centred on exploring the logic and mechanisms that can be activated as a means to promote innovation and competitiveness within regions and, within these, across and within firms. Aimed at researchers and academics in the field, this is a thoughtful and innovative new volume that helps define the academic debate.

Looking across different industries, Collaborative Innovation offers new knowledge and insights on the extraordinary value and increasing necessity of collaboration across different organizations in improving the health and lives of people.

The EU has fewer young leading innovators, especially in high R&D intensity sectors, a key weakness in an increasingly knowledge-based economy. This volume explores the creation, origins and processes of innovation systems and institutions that can address this. Vital reading for academics, researchers and policy makers in entrepreneurship and innovation management.

This book offers an in-depth look at entrepreneurship in ten diverse international universities ¿ from the northernmost university in Tromsø, Norway to one of Americäs largest universities in Austin, Texas, and examines how these universities commercialize scientific research, develop entrepreneurial degree programs, establish industry partnerships, and build cultures and ecosystems of innovation.

This book is a unique collection of some of the latest research from a range of leading creativity researchers. It provides a clear understanding of the concepts, environmental determinants, inter-disciplinary nature and applications of creativity.

This exciting new book addresses how governments are now seeking to drive innovation through new forms of R&D policies, through public procurement, skills development, entrepreneurship and innovation culture to name but a few of the approaches. The volume debates and presents scattered and anonymous material in a coherent way, with a particular focus is on `hot topics¿ in the field of innovation studies that have been previously under-researched. The book is divided into four key themes: government as a key actor in the innovation process, entrepreneurs as innovators, skills and competences required to maintain and improve innovation performance in Europe and finally, the wider context in which innovation policy develops.

Provocative and reflective, this volume on the notion of knowledge and innovation in the business industry provides readers with a holistic approach to the subject of `knowledge¿.

Over the last decade governments in Europe and North America have attempted to improve efficiency of public services through Information and Communication Technology, commonly branded as electronic government (e-government). Public Sector Transformation through E-Government explores the influence that e-government has on public sector organizations, the organizational complexities that result, and its impact on citizens and democratic society.

Creativity and Innovation in Business and Beyond illustrates the ways in which creativity spurs innovation ¿ not only in the realms of business and management, where the innovation is regularly acknowledged and discussed, but throughout the social sciences. With contributions from experts in fields as far-flung as policy, history, economics, law, psychology, and education, in addition to business and management, this volume explores the manifold avenues for creativity and innovation within and across a multitude of disciplines.

This new book gathers together a collection of case studies of innovation in various industries in modern Japan, challenging accepted notions of Japanese innovation and emphasizing new and diverse trends and practices.

Leadership is vital to creativity and successful innovation in groups and organizations; leadership is however seldom studied in the academic literature as a creativity driver. A number of specialist authors in this volume offer original theoretical, empirical, and applied chapters that elucidate how to better organize and lead creative efforts in science, technology, and innovation. A number of important research questions are raised and answered, including: What kinds of leaderships are needed at different levels of S&T organizations for a creative output? What social and cognitive abilities and skills are needed for leadership in creative environments? How does leadership vary with different phases of the creative process? This book offers concrete analysis of how leaders and managers can facilitate, promote, and organize for creative performance in science, technology, and in innovating organizations, making it required reading for academic and industrial research leaders, scientists, and engineers.

Dealing with the notion of knowledge and innovation in the business industry, this volume provides readers with a holistic approach to the subject of 'knowledge'. It invites the business-minded reader to consider the costs of adopting new knowledge and innovation within a business setting.

The term Facilities Management has become global but fraught with confusion as to what the term signifies. For some, notably in the USA, Facilities Management remains a discipline of human ecology. Elsewhere the term has become conflated with an alternative meaning: providing or outsourcing the provision of various services essential to the operation of particular buildings. This volume redresses that imbalance to remind Facilities Management of its roots, presenting evidence of Facilities Management success stories that engage the wider objectives of the organizations they serve, and engaging students, scholars and critical practitioners of general management with an appreciation of the power and influence of physical space and its place in the theory and practice of organizations.

Digital media present opportunities for new types of consumption including desiring, buying, collecting, making, and even selling digital virtual goods. Analyses of consumption in the digital virtual realm are however limited. This collection brings together experienced researchers from the fields of consumer research, digital games, and virtual worlds to provide conceptual and empirical work that helps us understand these new and significant consumer activities. The chapters in this volume take stock of the emergence and likely importance of digital virtual consumption for consumer culture, including a review of both new and existing conceptual and methodological tools as well as a resource of key examples and analyses of practices.

The Video Game Industry provides a platform for the research on the video game industry to draw a coherent and informative picture of this industry. Previously this has been done sparsely through conference papers, research articles, and popular science books. Although the study of this industry is still stigmatized as frivolous and ''only'' game oriented, those who grew up with video games are changing things, especially research agendas, the acceptance of studies, and their interpretation. This book describes and defines video games as their own special medium. They are not pinball from which they grew, nor movies which they sometimes resemble. They are a unique form of entertainment based on meaningful interactions between individuals and machine across a growing sector of the population. The Video Game Industry provides a reference foundation for individuals seriously interested in the industry at the academic level. As a result, this book will serve as a reference in curricula associated with video game development for years to come.

Given the financial investment in IT required by organizations to remain competitive, IT has become a resource that needs to be managed. Management and Information Technology evaluates organizations¿ utilization of IT including knowledge management and e-learning, accounting, and business relationships. Presenting theories to help the reader understand the varying roles IT can occupy in different organizations, this volume illustrates the ways in which IT has become a key strategic tool.

In many modern economies, creativity, the essential prerequisite for innovation, tends to be assumed or neglected while the catchphrase "innovation" dominates the field of business as the key to national performance and competitiveness. Creativity and Innovation in Business and Beyond illustrates the ways in which creativity spurs innovation and innovation enables creativity not only in the realms of business and management, where the innovation is regularly acknowledged and discussed, but throughout the social sciences. With contributions from experts in fields as far-flung as policy, history, economics, economic geography, sociology, law, psychology, social psychology and education, in addition to business and management, this volume explores the manifold avenues for creativity and innovation at many levels including nation, region, city, institution, organisation, and team across a multitude of sectors and settings.

There have been significant changes in the way corporate innovation is performed. This book examines the dynamics of the globalization processes and the emergence of fresh locations for innovation and its implications.