Interactions between business, technological, public policy, and organization processes are changing the way modern economies work. In this book the concept of 'change' is problematized in terms of flexibility and stability across these processes, examining the central issues of industrial dynamics, structural change, and transformation. It adopts a perspective of the economy that sees it as an inherently dynamic and complex system, consisting of diverse components and activities, which interact and change in different ways over time. This means placing an emphasis not only on economic transformation, but also on the diverse actors in this transformation who are deciding, doing, and acting in ways which affect the outcomes of this change. Chapters are grouped within three themes, which readers will find are core to the fields of innovation studies, industrial dynamics, and evolutionary economics: Experimenting and Inertia; Evolution and Adaptation of Structure; and Innovating and Technological Transformation.

Interactions between business, technological, public policy, and organization processes are changing the way modern economies work. In this book the concept of 'change' is problematized in terms of flexibility and stability across these processes, examining the central issues of industrial dynamics, structural change, and transformation. It adopts a perspective of the economy that sees it as an inherently dynamic and complex system, consisting of diverse components and activities,which interact and change in different ways over time. This means placing an emphasis not only on economic transformation, but also on the diverse actors in this transformation who are deciding, doing, and acting in ways which affect the outcomes of this change.Chapters are grouped within three themes, which readers will find are core to the fields of innovation studies, industrial dynamics, and evolutionary economics: Experimenting and Inertia; Evolution and Adaptation of Structure; and Innovating and Technological Transformation.

This edited book provides a conceptual framework of managing flexibility in the areas of people, process, technology and business supported by researches/case applications in various types of flexibilities in business. The book is organized into following five parts: (i) Managing Flexibility; (ii) People Flexibility; (iii) Process Flexibility; (iv) Flexibility in Technology and Innovation Management; and (v) Business Flexibility. Managing flexibility at the level of people, process, technology and business encompasses the requirements of both choice and speed. The need for managing flexibility is growing to cope with the developments and challenges in the global business environment. This can be seen from reactive as well as proactive perspectives. Flexibility is a major dimension of business excellence and deals with a paradoxical view point such as stability and dynamism, continuity and change, centralization and decentralization, and so on. It needs to be managed at the levels of people, process, technology and various business functions and it is important to create flexibility at the level of people to create and manage flexibility in processes and technologies in order to support flexible business requirements.

The accelerating pace of global change demands that economies must be adaptable. Economies which are flexible flourish, as in Eastern Asia. Inflexible economies stagnate, as in Eastern Europe and Africa. However even though adaptability governs the long-term progress of economies, economists have had little to say about the nature and determinants of economic flexibility. This book redresses that situation. A prestigious team of contributors address the key theoretical and empirical issues, using a wide range of country studies.

Unpredictable and unforeseen, or black swan, events are occurring increasingly often, one such recent example is the coronavirus crisis of 2020. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, with its growing use of artificial intelligence, intelligent robots, intelligent informats and intelligent algorithms, may help us to confront these incidents but only if we can avoid the sector optimization logic of some forms of economic thinking. This book offers a multi-faceted presentation of the application of systemic thinking in non-standard situations, especially those created by the fourth industrial revolution. It develops models and mini theories to promote systemic thinking at a time when cascades of innovations are entering the economy, while at the same time black swan events are occurring and disrupting social systems. It takes a critical look at how organizations and social systems have chosen to organize themselves to develop systems that prioritize high performance, by focusing on cost-cutting and maximizing profits, instead of on preparedness elasticity and resource slack. The consequences of this kind of organizational streamlining becomes evident only when the ‘black swans’ loom. The author discusses how individuals and society can develop the resilience needed to deal with these incidents. He asserts that there are three central social mechanisms that can help us understand how social systems work and how they are interconnected: time-lag, threshold value, and feedback. These three concepts can help us to understand how changes occur in non-linear systems; for instance, how small changes at the micro level can lead to large changes at the macro level. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of economics, finance, business and industry.

Since the 1980s, society has undergone enormous change. And yet management styles have stayed the same, not adapting to the change in focus from efficiency and productivity, to creativity and innovation. Here, leading innovation expert Jon-Arild Johannessen offers a replacement to traditional goal-driven management and New Public Management (NPM).

The role of the state in modern capitalism has gone beyond fixing market failures. Those regions and countries that have succeeded in achieving “smart” innovation-led growth have benefited from long-term visionary “mission-oriented” policies—from putting a man on the moon to tackling societal challenges such as climate change and the wellbeing of an ageing population. This book collects the experience of different types of mission-oriented public institutions around the world, together with thought-provoking chapters from leading economists. As the global debate on deficits and debt levels continues to roar, the book offers a challenge to the conventional narrative—asking what kinds of visionary fiscal policies we need to help promote "smart” innovation-led, inclusive, and sustainable growth.