In addition to classifying the current understanding of the offshoring phenomenon, Simon Plankenhorn examines potential offshoring opportunities for innovation projects – from a conceptual and an empirical perspective. Leading European sponsors in five industries were questioned and confirmed the majority of hypotheses, while two case studies in the Indian clinical trial industry revealed surprising insights into growth oriented offshoring.
Across Asia there is a keen interest in the potential advantages of America's market-led system of voluntary standards and its contribution to US innovation leadership in complex technologies. For its proponents, the US tradition of bottom-up, decentralized, informal, market-led standardization is a "best practice" model for innovation policy. Observers in Asia are, however, concerned about possible drawbacks of a standards system largely driven by the private sector. This study reviews the historical roots of the American system, examines its defining characteristics, and highlights its strengths and weaknesses. A tradition of decentralized local self-government has given voice to diverse stakeholders in innovation. However, a lack of effective coordination of multiple stakeholder strategies constrains effective and open standardization processes. Asian countries seeking to improve their standards systems should study the strengths and weaknesses of the American system. Attempts to replicate the US standards system will face clear limitations--persistent differences in Asia's economic institutions, levels of development, and growth models are bound to limit convergence to a US-style market-led voluntary standards system.
The third edition of Exploring Innovation offers an engaging new perspective on innovation. The book provides business students with a clear understanding of the nature of innovation and how it can be managed and fostered. Written in an accessible style, Exploring Innovation encourages students to challenge their pre-conceived ideas about innovation and to see it as a continuous, on-going process, by exploring some of the biggest developments in innovation. Lively discussions of key concepts are provide through numerous case studies, on a range of original products and services, bringing business theories to life. The new edition has been fully revised and updated with a more intuitive structure to now feature: A greater emphasis on what innovation involves. A new chapter on Value Capture. Expanded coverage on Services and Process Innovations. Two new chapters covering Global and Green trends in innovation. 8 new major case studies and more than 40 new mini-cases including Twitter, Angry Birds, Netflick, Google and Toyota.
This book is a guide for achieving innovation through outsourcing. Unpacking the various challenges faced by client firms and suppliers, the authors take the reader through the innovation lifecycle and devise a clear plan to achieve valuable results. Offering practical frameworks and tools to ensure informed decision-making at every stage, this book also includes collaborative structures and metrics to measure outcomes. Written by leading figures in the area of outsourcing, this book offers both the academic rigor and the hands-on experience based on dozens of cases that walk the reader from the very beginning of the outsourcing journey to the successful delivery of transformative innovations.
In today's dynamic world, technology and innovation are of extreme importance for many organizations and for the advancement of society as a whole. In the past decades, firms have faced grand challenges of fast-changing innovation environments, shortening product life cycles and increased global competition. Especially those firms that seek to establish and maintain a competitive advantage by following an innovation-related strategy have been pressured to ensure an effective and efficient innovation process. However, a centralized R&D configuration with one large in-house domestic location was in many ways no longer sufficient in achieving this. Instead, firms have increasingly crossed country boundaries, have opened up their organizational boundaries, or have done so simultaneously. While there are first insights on the performance implications of crossing country and organizational boundaries, further research is needed to understand better how firms can effectively manage boundary-crossing activities. This is where this thesis sets in. Despite the heterogeneity in methods and specific research questions, all thesis chapters focus on the related general question: How can firms increase their innovation performance through boundary-crossing activities? The thesis implies that through strategically opening up the R&D system and crossing organizational and country boundaries, firms can build and maintain a competitive advantage. However, managers need to assess whether their firm is especially vulnerable to potential downsides of crossing boundaries. Based on this thesis, the assessment can build on three major aspects: First, the specific characteristics of the firm. Second, its management practices. And third, the potential effects on the firm's employees.
Private enterprises in advanced economies have been learning to use information and communication technology (ICT) to innovate and transform their processes, products, services and business models, significantly improving productivity and competitiveness. Moreover, the ICT industry itself has become a major source of job creation and a contributor to economic growth and business transformation. A key question today is whether and how developing countries can learn to benefit from the ICT revolution, and what roles the government and private sector can play. Already, a number of developing countries have been inspired by the example of India and China, and are now seeking to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. Nevertheless, with few exceptions in the developing world, little attention has been paid by policymakers and practitioners to invest systematically and proactively in ICT-enabled growth, poverty reduction and grassroots innovation. Most communities and small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries, for example, face multiple constraints to adopting and leveraging this general purpose technology, and lack the capabilities for maximizing its potential. In "Enabling Enterprise Transformation", Nagy Hanna draws on his rich experience of over 35 years at the World Bank and other aid agencies as a development strategist and ICT policy expert, the most current research, and best practices from around the world to provide practical tools for promoting economic and social transformation through ICT. He assesses various initiatives to develop and diffuse ICT, such as innovation funds, incubators, parks, public-private partnerships, and comprehensive promotion programs. He argues for the strategic options now open for developing countries to participate in ICT production, to deploy ICT to transform industries and services, and to leverage ICT as a new national infrastructure for improving the business environment and enhancing the competitiveness of the whole economy. The challenge for leaders in developing countries is to create such social and institutional dynamics for learning about ICT use and adaptation at many levels. Lessons gained so far from programs to build these social learning and innovation capabilities at the institutional and grassroots levels should be shared among developing countries, and a dialogue among business leaders, policymakers, development agencies, educational institutions, and the general citizenry must be advanced.
This is one of the few books on the market dealing with offshoring of professional services, a dynamic phenomenon of high relevance in the global economy. The market for offshore services is worth more than 1 trillion dollars annually and employs millions of people. Global offshoring of services has been recently undergoing a profound transformation due to automation and robotisation of tasks. It can be associated with the increased codifi cation of knowledge, commoditisation of services and advancement in technology. The global perspective has been supplemented by a detailed analysis of offshoring in Central and Eastern Europe. It witnesses a dynamic growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) in professional services, resulting in capital and knowledge transfers. This books is a result of a holistic approach and an interdisciplinary research. It is enriched with conclusions from meetings with representatives of: authorities responsible for attracting FDI; associations of offshoring fi rms; and enterprises operating in professional services. It was also a result of numerous discussions with scholars during academic conferences and research seminars.
'This book represents a significant step towards dealing with the lacuna constituted by the inadequacy of the literature on the services. And, as such, it approaches its task from a variety of directions.' From the foreword by William J. Baumol, New York University, US 'The Handbook of Innovation and Services is an exceptional volume. Its contributors, including Faïz Gallouj, William Baumol, Jean Gadrey, and Pascal Petit, are among the major thinkers in both the fields of the economics of services and the economics of innovation. Selected topics include the "cost disease", services innovation in the global economy, social innovation in the services, and innovation and employment in services. The book, I am sure, will become a standard reference volume in both these fields in the ensuing years.' Edward Wolff, New York University, US This Handbook brings together 49 international specialists to address an issue of increasing importance for the world's post-industrial economies; innovation as it relates to services. Contemporary economies have two fundamental characteristics. Firstly, they are service economies in as much as services account for more than 70 per cent of the wealth and jobs in most developed countries. Secondly, they are innovation economies as recent decades have seen an unprecedented development of scientific, technological, organisational and social innovations. This Handbook expertly links these two major characteristics in order to investigate the role of innovation in services, an issue that until now has been inadequately explored and one that poses many theoretical and operational challenges. This comprehensive volume encompasses the views of eminent scholars from a range of disciplines including economics, management, sociology and geography, and draws on a number of different analytical and methodological perspectives. With its multi-disciplinary approach this Handbook will be an invaluable reference source for academics and students in the fields of economics, management and the geography of services and innovation. Public authorities and managers in the service sector will also find this book fascinating.
This book offers a broad perspective on issues relating to the sourcing of systems and business processes in a national and global context, examining the client's and the vendor's involvement in sourcing relationships by putting the emphasis on the capabilities that each side should develop as a result of their interactions with each other.
"This book discusses the economic impacts of outsourcing and off shoring to the developing countries and developed countries and the short term and long term implications"--Provided by publisher.
