The process of firm-level adaptation and survival have historically been of great interest to researchers of firms. However, these researchers have previously been denied an ecological framework within which to study the processes through which individual firms respond to and indeed, modify their individual environments. This book remedies this situation, providing the first comprehensive introduction to organisational autecology, or, the study of individual firms and the environments they interact with and typically modify to ensure their survival. In addition to establishing the theoretical and philosophical foundations of organisational autecology, the empirical application of this new approach is demonstrated and its future application to the domain of organisational studies is contemplated.

In developing the first signature pedagogy for entrepreneurship education, Colin Jones unites the contexts of enterprise and education at the intersection of scholarship, transformational learning and student engagement. Good teaching for entrepreneurship is shown to emerge both from the educator and the students’ interest. For the educator, a process of scholarly leading is required to support student interest – from the alternate perspective, students require a willingness to welcome uncertainty and challenge the existing boundaries to effectively develop a capacity for self-negotiated action.

In this challenging book, the authors demonstrate that economists tend to misunderstand capital. Frank Knight was an exception, as he argued that because all resources are more or less durable and have uncertain future uses they can consequently be classed as capital. Thus, capital rather than labor is the real source of creativity, innovation, and accumulation. But capital is also a phenomenon in time and in space. Offering a new and path-breaking theory, they show how durable capital with large spatial domains — infrastructural capital such as institutions, public knowledge, and networks — can help explain the long-term development of cities and nations.

This insightful book traces the evolution of corporate power in the United States, from social control over corporate power under early state laws to the modern liberation of the corporation serving primarily private purposes. It illustrates how the transition of attitudes towards corporations and dynamic changes in public policy have ushered in an age of financial fragility, income inequality and macroeconomic instability.

Blockchains are the distributed ledger technology that powers Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But blockchains can be used for more than the transfer of tokens – they are a significant new economic infrastructure. This book offers the first scholarly analysis of the economic nature of blockchains and the shape of the blockchain economy. By applying the institutional economics of Ronald Coase and Oliver Williamson, this book shows how blockchains are poised to reshape the nature of firms, governments, markets, and civil society.

Policymakers consider enterprise education, and the skills it develops, as increasing student’s employability skills. This book delivers further insight to validate this. Authors provide evidence to inform the entrepreneurial education discipline in terms of best practice, success stories and identify its future direction for key stakeholders.

Despite the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenge of realizing sustainability across the triple bottom line of social, environmental, and economic development remains an urgent priority. If anything, it is now imperative that we work towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the global challenges are significant. Many of the societal challenges represent complex problems that require multifaceted solutions drawing on multidisciplinary approaches. Engineering management involves the management of people and projects related to technological or engineering systems—this includes project management, engineering economy and technology management, as well as the management and leadership of teams. Systems engineering involves the design, integration and management of complex systems over the full life cycle—this includes requirements capture and integrated system design, as well as modelling and simulation. In addition to the theoretical underpinnings of both disciplines, they also provide a range of tools and techniques that can be used to address technological and organisational complexity. The disciplines of engineering management and systems engineering are therefore ideally suited to help tackle both the challenges and the opportunities associated with realising a sustainable future for all. This book provides new insights on how engineering management and systems engineering can be utilised as part of the journey towards sustainability. The book includes a discussion of a broad range of different approaches to investigate sustainability through utilising quantitative, qualitative and conceptual methodologies. The book will be of interest to researchers and students focused on the field of sustainability as well as practitioners concerned with devising strategies for sustainable development.