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Book part
Publication date: 27 June 2015

Susanne Ollila and Anna Yström

This chapter asks how we can understand the managerial practices in open innovation, a recently popularized way of organizing innovative work. Open innovation implies opening up…

Abstract

This chapter asks how we can understand the managerial practices in open innovation, a recently popularized way of organizing innovative work. Open innovation implies opening up the borders of the organization, creating a context where conventional steering and managerial tools no longer apply. Utilizing a collaborative research approach, following an open innovation collaboration over 8 years, this chapter outlines the managerial practices that direct the collaboration. These practices are important for meaning making and identity creation in the collaboration and can be understood as a form of authorship, a continuous intervention strategy to manage, develop and change the organizational context.

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Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-018-0

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Book part
Publication date: 8 May 2017

Grietjie Verhoef

The development of banking in Africa followed the demand of exchange networks from traditional indigenous economies to colonial exchange with the European world. The establishment…

Abstract

The development of banking in Africa followed the demand of exchange networks from traditional indigenous economies to colonial exchange with the European world. The establishment of European banking institutions reflected the needs of the capitalist economy introduced by colonialism. The banking management of late nineteenth century and early twentieth century European banks adhered to the interests of shareholders. This chapter shows the emergence of well-managed banks in Africa, but after decolonization the political economy of African independence resulted in state capturing of financial institutions in most African countries. The South African banking system developed in close adherence to the British model. State-owned post-independence banks in Africa failed to deliver the development envisaged. The chapter shows the adverse impact of global economic developments on Africa, resulting in high debt levels. Structural adjustment of African economies and new market-oriented policies allowed the development of locally owned private banking institutions. The high-cost structure of the formal banking system from the dominant South African banks incentivised the mobile money innovation, an arena where African entrepreneurs lead global markets. Financial inclusion remains low in Africa.

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Developing Africa’s Financial Services
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-186-5

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Book part
Publication date: 15 June 2015

Inessa Laur

This chapter aims to enrich knowledge about cluster initiatives acting as intermediaries primarily between members in a cluster or in regional context. This is a practically…

Abstract

This chapter aims to enrich knowledge about cluster initiatives acting as intermediaries primarily between members in a cluster or in regional context. This is a practically oriented manuscript written to contribute to refinement of existing policies by proposing recommendations based on recent empirical studies regarding funding, actors’ and activities’ content, as well as cluster initiatives’ assessment. It is proposed that public support should be balanced, targeting new as well as established, well-functioning cluster initiatives. Furthermore, regional authorities should encourage multifaceted collaboration (e.g., Triple Helix), stimulate variation in activities to maximize the benefit of cluster initiatives as well as define and communicate success factors that make it possible to evaluate cluster initiatives from a holistic perspective. These recommendations are primary aimed for regional authorities and reflect a bottom-up perspective where both logic of initiatives’ actions and their development are captured. Yet, even national authorities can make use of the recommendations in this chapter to improve governance of cluster initiatives and to determine further directions of regional policies.

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New Technology-Based Firms in the New Millennium
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-032-6

Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2019

Linus Dahlander, Lars Bo Jeppesen and Henning Piezunka

Crowdsourcing – a form of collaboration across organizational boundaries – provides access to knowledge beyond an organization’s local knowledge base. Integrating work on…

Abstract

Crowdsourcing – a form of collaboration across organizational boundaries – provides access to knowledge beyond an organization’s local knowledge base. Integrating work on organization theory and innovation, the authors first develop a framework that characterizes crowdsourcing into a main sequential process, through which organizations (1) define the task they wish to have completed; (2) broadcast to a pool of potential contributors; (3) attract a crowd of contributors; and (4) select among the inputs they receive. For each of these phases, the authors identify the key decisions organizations make, provide a basic explanation for each decision, discuss the trade-offs organizations face when choosing among decision alternatives, and explore how organizations may resolve these trade-offs. Using this decision-centric approach, the authors continue by showing that there are fundamental interdependencies in the process that makes the coordination of crowdsourcing challenging.

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Managing Inter-organizational Collaborations: Process Views
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-592-0

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Book part
Publication date: 15 June 2012

Johanna Palmberg

The level of financial development is a key factor influencing long-term economic growth. A high level of financial development allows for the effective diversification of risk…

Abstract

The level of financial development is a key factor influencing long-term economic growth. A high level of financial development allows for the effective diversification of risk and allocation of capital, which, in the long run, improves the growth prospects of an economy. Schumpeter (1911) was one of the first to highlight the importance of financial development as a determinant of economic growth. Recent empirical work supports this relationship (see Beck & Levine, 2002; Levine, 2004; Mishkin, 2007). For example, Levine (2004) summarizes the empirical evidence on financial development and economic growth and states that “the level of financial development is a good predictor of future rates of economic growth, capital accumulation and technological change” (Levine, 1997, p. 689).2 Thus, stock and forward markets spread knowledge about market expectations of factors and changes that are important for economic development (Lachmann, 1978).

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The Spatial Market Process
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-006-2

Book part
Publication date: 12 December 2012

Fernando Barreiro-Pereira

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze whether sufficient conditions can be met for Turkey and the Balkan and Caucasian Republics to achieve future integration within Europe…

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze whether sufficient conditions can be met for Turkey and the Balkan and Caucasian Republics to achieve future integration within Europe because Turkey's accession to the European Union (EU) would provide opportunities for further enlargement of the Union toward the East. The paper is developed through three steps: In the first place we will select a group of countries belonging to the Southeastern Europe, Transcaucasia, and the Near-East, which could fulfill at medium term the requirements established by the European Councils of Copenhagen (1993), Madrid (1995), and Helsinki (1999) to be members of the EU in a future. Second, starting from the period 2000–2010, we estimate the possible existence of economic convergence in terms of real per capita income between these countries and the current EU at 27 members. Finally, we analyze whether the entrance of some of those countries in the EU could help to solve some local existing conflicts in the area, especially in the Middle-East.

For the above-mentioned purposes, first, we have selected potential candidates for a future adhesion to EU among the current official candidates, other countries that have already demanded the adhesion, and those other countries in the area for which the EU applies the neighborhood policy. We have selected these countries by using a multicriteria analysis. Second, following Quah (1996), we test the possible existence of several steady states in the EU at 27 members, and hence the possibility of Clubs Convergence in Europe. Also by using the Barro (1991) and Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) models, we test Absolute and Conditional Economic Convergence among all EU-27 countries and between each potential candidate, weighted by surface and population, with the EU-27, during the period 2000–2010.

The obtained results indicate the existence of Clubs Convergence in EU-27 because at least there are two steady states. Multicriteria analysis indicates that the following countries fulfill the requirements of the EU at medium term: Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Lebanon. The convergence analysis indicates Conditional Convergence between the selected countries and the EU.

The research limitations are that this paper only considers countries belonging to this area. The EU expansion could solve conflicts in the European–Asian border, like Cyprus, Nagorno-Karabakh, Kurdish, and other Middle East conflicts. Lebanon is a country that clearly belongs to Asia, but notwithstanding it appears as a possible candidate to enter in the EU considering our multicriteria analysis.

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Cooperation for a Peaceful and Sustainable World Part 1
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78190-335-3

Book part
Publication date: 1 October 2007

Jerry Thursby and Marie Thursby

Scientific knowledge has characteristics of a pure public good. It is non-rivalrous in the sense that once generated, it is neither depleted nor diminished by use. Knowledge is…

Abstract

Scientific knowledge has characteristics of a pure public good. It is non-rivalrous in the sense that once generated, it is neither depleted nor diminished by use. Knowledge is also non-excludable since, once it is made available, in the absence of clearly defined property rights, users cannot be excluded from using it. These aspects imply that private market mechanisms will not provide adequate incentives for knowledge creation. Legal property rights, such as patents, are one means of dealing with this problem. Patronage in the form of government support for research provides another solution, as does the priority system of awarding credit for scientific discoveries to the first to find them. In the last two decades, there has been a growth in the relative importance of the use of legal property rights in the university setting and with it a growing controversy as to whether the costs may be outweighing the benefits. In this chapter, we discuss issues and evidence with regard to the ownership and licensing of publicly funded research intellectual property rights (IPR). We begin with an overview of incentives created by the patent system and discuss the ways in which these incentives differ from traditional norms of science. We then draw on the legal and economic literatures which distinguish among the incentives to invent, disclose, and innovate, and argue that the rationale for providing IPR for university research stems from the last of these. Finally, we discuss the available evidence on the creation and diffusion of academic research under current IPR regimes.

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Intellectual Property, Growth and Trade
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84950-539-0

Book part
Publication date: 30 June 2017

Allison Loconto and Marc Barbier

Social and environmental standards-development organizations (SDOs) have been collaborating together to construct “meta-standards.” These exercises in standards-setting are part…

Abstract

Social and environmental standards-development organizations (SDOs) have been collaborating together to construct “meta-standards.” These exercises in standards-setting are part of a longer term process of transitioning innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture from diverse niches such as organic, fair trade, and environmental conservation into a regime of certified sustainability. Using participant observation during the development of an Assurance Code, we examine how actors construct the tools that enable them to influence the broader transition to sustainability. We do this by focusing on intermediation activities by “experts” during the development of a “meta-standard” for assurance. The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, we propose that in order to understand transitions in progress, we should be attentive to how these processes are accompanied by intermediation activities. Second, we argue that intermediate objects (or boundary objects) are important in these processes as they help actors to create actionable knowledge. These intermediation activities and the production of actionable knowledge contribute to the ability of actors to govern markets in the transition toward sustainable agriculture.

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Transforming the Rural
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-823-9

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Book part
Publication date: 21 October 2019

Peterson K. Ozili

This chapter provides a discussion on some issues in blockchain finance that regulators are concerned about – an area which bitcoin promoters have remained silent about…

Abstract

This chapter provides a discussion on some issues in blockchain finance that regulators are concerned about – an area which bitcoin promoters have remained silent about. Blockchain technology in finance has several benefits for financial intermediation in the financial system; notwithstanding, several issues persist which if addressed can make the adoption of blockchain technology in finance easier and accepted by regulators. The blockchain issues discussed in this chapter are relevant for recent debates in blockchain finance.

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Disruptive Innovation in Business and Finance in the Digital World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-381-5

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