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After some years in which industrial policy was frowned upon, it is now widely considered to be a legitimate arena for policy formulation. The danger is that policymakers will seek to return to previously implemented policies. However many elements of this historic policy agenda are not replicable because of changes in global governance regulations. But changing framing conditions in the global economy also mean that the historic agenda is no longer optimal.

This chapter discusses four disruptive structural changes which affect the industrial policy agenda – the changing manufactures-commodities terms of trade, the centrality of global value chains in world industrial production, the growth of environmental externalities which affect growth and development, and the need to develop more inclusive patterns of growth.

The key findings are that there is scope for industrial policies to successfully confront these challenges, but that this will be contextual and may require a mix of policies designed to meet multiple objectives.

Significantly, industrial policy should be seen as a process aligning the operations of key stakeholders and subject to change as conditions alter, rather than as an industrial policy roadmap of the sort which frequently characterised policy in the past.

“It should also be noted that the objective of convergence and equal distribution, including across under-performing areas, can hinder efforts to generate growth. Contrariwise, the objective of competitiveness can exacerbate regional and social inequalities, by targeting efforts on zones of excellence where projects achieve greater returns (dynamic major cities, higher levels of general education, the most advanced projects, infrastructures with the heaviest traffic, and so on). If cohesion policy and the Lisbon Strategy come into conflict, it must be borne in mind that the former, for the moment, is founded on a rather more solid legal foundation than the latter” European Commission (2005, p. 9)Adaptation of Cohesion Policy to the Enlarged Europe and the Lisbon and Gothenburg Objectives.

Taking an international comparative approach, this chapter investigates the variance in the adoption of employee share ownership and stock option arrangements across countries. In particular, we investigate the influence of multinational enterprises (MNEs), industrial relations factors, HRM strategies, and market economies on the adoption and spread of the arrangements across countries. We find that industrial relations factors do not explain the variance in adoption by companies in their respective countries. MNEs and HRM strategies are important drivers of adoption. Market economy does not moderate the influence of MNEs on adoption, suggesting that MNEs universally apply the arrangements across borders.

The purpose of this chapter is to determine the basic characteristics of information economy, including consideration of the theoretical features and distinguishing the analytical aspects of functioning of this phenomenon under modern conditions. The authors offer a hypothesis that basic characteristics of information economy are transformed under the influence of digitization and the change in telecommunication interaction.

The following methodological tools were used: analytical introspection (determining estimate phenomena of the studied object with the help of practical materials analysis), theoretical cognition (grouping and synthesis of scientific studies of foreign and Russian scholars in the sphere of information economy), and group evaluation of phenomena (studying the modern regularities of information economy development).

The following conclusions are made: the theory of information economy is based on presenting information as a tool of economy management (information is the main economic value that creates national wealth); the modern idea of information economy is connected to the aspects of digital and telecommunication interaction; the information economy of the twenty-first century is aimed at monetization of information on households; and a new basic direction of information economy is information and program economy.

The sphere of application of the received results is rather wide. They will be of interest for practitioners, government employees, and researchers in the sphere of macro-economic development of the country during the period of transformation of the paradigm of economic growth. The main direction of future research is substantiation of approaches to formation of a new economic thought based on information and digital technologies.

The sustainable transition towards the circular economy requires the effective use of artificial intelligence (AI) and information technology (IT) techniques. As the sustainability targets for 2030–2050 increasingly become a tougher challenge, society, company managers and policymakers require more support from AI and IT in general. How can the AI-based and IT-based smart decision-support tools help implementation of circular economy principles from micro to macro scales?

This chapter provides a conceptual framework about the current status and future development of smart decision-support tools for facilitating the circular transition of smart industry, focussing on the implementation of the industrial symbiosis (IS) practice. IS, which is aimed at replacing production inputs of one company with wastes generated by a different company, is considered as a promising strategy towards closing the material, energy and waste loops. Based on the principles of a circular economy, the utility of such practices to close resource loops is analyzed from a functional and operational perspective. For each life cycle phase of IS businesses – e.g., opportunity identification for symbiotic business, assessment of the symbiotic business and sustainable operations of the business – the role played by decision-support tools is described and embedding smartness in these tools is discussed.

Based on the review of available tools and theoretical contributions in the field of IS, the characteristics, functionalities and utilities of smart decision-support tools are discussed within a circular economy transition framework. Tools based on recommender algorithms, machine learning techniques, multi-agent systems and life cycle analysis are critically assessed. Potential improvements are suggested for the resilience and sustainability of a smart circular transition.

This paper introduces the concept of a “computable economy” and discusses how it relates to the emergence of Web3 or the new type of economy that has arisen from the integration of digital technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts, and digital identity. A “computable economy” is one where those computational rule systems are integrated into a connected graph, allowing for decentralized cooperation and distributed coordination. This paper traces the trajectory of innovation in the economy from the development of industrial production technologies to the rise of information and communication technology (ICT) and the digital economy. It argues that the shift to a “computable economy” is a consequence of the transformation of analog economic institutions into natively digital institutions. This results in a “full stack” digital economy where all economic actions can be digitally constructed and implemented. This paper concludes by discussing the potential of Web3 to create a new type of economy, that is, “techno-utopian” and characterized by human flourishing, as the incursion of machines and computation leads to a new era of economic growth and transformation.

Behind the source of environmental problems lie many factors. If we do not wish to ruin the world for future generations after making our own world uninhabitable by abusing the resources, we need to think and question many issues starting from our philosophy of science to our ways of consumption and from alternative technologies to the madness of the consumer society. The economic model applied today is the linear economy model which was developed after the industrial revolution. This model is based on the production and consumption process, which is entirely based on the take–make–dispose understanding in industry, agriculture and trade. The first priority in this cycle is the industry rather than the environment. However, the population is expected to increase gradually in half a century that will cause lack of food and shelter problems in every sense. As an alternative to linear economy, circular economy is defined as an economic approach that the value of products, materials and resources are kept as long as possible in the economy whereas the amount of waste is the lowest. The concept of circular economy is based on a transition to restorative industrial economy, renewable energy, reducing the use of toxic chemicals meanwhile avoiding waste. In this context, the consumer movement consisted of individuals who have high awareness and consciousness of the environment, reshapes consumption decisions and correspondingly initiatives are created. Adopting an understanding called lifestyle of health and sustainability, the consumers prioritize by making their consumptions sustainable, protecting green marketing practices and the ecological system for future generations.