SCM is a rapidly emerging paradigm that is transforming the organisation of business operations as firms seek ever new and innovative ways of finding the elusive mantra of competitive advantage. Little work to date has been undertaken on the creative sector. This e-book hopes to address this, by offering some interesting and informative exploratory work in different areas of the sector. One aim was to offer some insights and lessons that could be drawn on by the wider business community.

In recent years, cultural work has engaged the interest of scholars from a broad range of social science and humanities disciplines. The debate in this ‘turn to cultural work’ has largely been based around evaluating its advantages and disadvantages: its freedoms and its constraints, its informal but precarious nature, the inequalities within its global workforce, and the blurring of work–life boundaries leading to ‘self-exploitation’. While academic critics have persuasively challenged more optimistic accounts of ‘converged’ worlds of creative production, the critical debate on cultural work has itself leant heavily towards suggesting a profoundly new confluence of forces and effects. Theorizing Cultural Work instead views cultural work through a specifically historicized and temporal lens, to ask: what novelty can we actually attach to current conditions, and precisely what relation does cultural work have to social precedent? The contributors to this volume also explore current transformations and future(s) of work within the cultural and creative industries as they move into an uncertain future. This book challenges more affirmative and proselytising industry and academic perspectives, and the pervasive cult of novelty that surrounds them, to locate cultural work as an historically and geographically situated process. It will be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, cultural studies, human geography, urban studies and industrial relations, as well as management and business studies, cultural and economic policy and development, government and planning.

Based on more than 10 years of practical experience in the field of supply chain management, Oliver Münch indicates that in favor of sustainability within the supply chain the paradox purchasing savings can and should be substituted with the approach of the First-Time-Right Procurement. This dissertation subjects the monetary measurement of purchasing savings to a critical examination and questions whether it still applies. It indicates that monetary purchasing savings exert a negative impact on sustainable company success. In order to achieve a long-term sustainable success, it is proposed that the monetary measurement of purchasing savings can be replaced by measuring process times within the procurement organization.

This open access book explores supply chains strategies to help companies face challenges such as societal emergency, digitalization, climate changes and scarcity of resources. The book identifies industrial scenarios for the next decade based on the analysis of trends at social, economic, environmental technological and political level, and examines how they may impact on supply chain processes and how to design next generation supply chains to answer these challenges. By mapping enabling technologies for supply chain innovation, the book proposes a roadmap for the full implementation of the supply chain strategies based on the integration of production and logistics processes. Case studies from process industry, discrete manufacturing, distribution and logistics, as well as ICT providers are provided, and policy recommendations are put forward to support companies in this transformative process.

The construction industry is a versatile sector that requires the effort of managers to engage in practices that create innovation. Management practices are the skills, knowledge, resources, and culture needed to attain successful innovation. Regardless of the importance of management practices, an established management practice that demonstrates how managers’ practices might boost innovation is limited. A review of literature associated with management practices and innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry led to the determination that a gap exists in the body of work about construction industry management practices and innovation in SMEs. The exploratory qualitative study investigated the research question: What roles do management practices have in innovation in U.S. SMEs in the construction industry? Study participants were 12 middle managers employed in small- and medium-sized construction organizations with three or more years of experience. Data analysis identified two themes. First, improving project management had three subthemes of sharing information, bringing new ideas, and efficient project management. The improving competitive performance theme had three subthemes of effective delivery of service, knowledge exchange and collaboration, and effective leadership, categorized as management practices. The interpretation of themes and subthemes provided enough information to determine that management practices and innovation in U.S. SME construction companies involved improving project management and improving competitive performance. The study results could be used to improve innovation capabilities in SMEs in the construction industry through the improvement of knowledge sharing practices, internally and externally.