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Digitalisation has become a central theme in the current economic and policy debate. Large digital and tech multinational enterprises (MNEs) are gaining an outsized role in the global economy. Also, the adoption of advanced digital technologies across all industries is fundamentally changing production processes. Both these (interrelated) phenomena have profound implications for economic structures, employment, inequality and development and industrialisation opportunities. This chapter analyses the international production and investment (i.e., foreign direct investment [FDI]) implications of the digital economy. First, it empirically documents significant differences in internationalisation patterns between the largest digital MNEs and traditional MNEs; particularly, the tendency of digital MNEs to exhibit an asset-light international footprint. Second, it argues that the powerful transformational forces related to digital adoption and the new industrial revolution have the potential to change international production more broadly, favouring a shift towards internationalisation models characterised by decentralised production, accelerated servicification and extended disintermediation. The chapter concludes with investment policy implications and a number of questions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of major structural changes on the conceptualization of the transnational corporation (TNC) based on foreign direct investment (FDI) and on indicators of transnationality.

Analysis of three major structural changes which impact the current conception of transnationality. They are: the rise of digital companies; the increased role of finance in the economy; externalization of activities via non-equity modalities (NEMs) with an impact on FDI and on the labour market.

The paper finds that the current concept of transnationality needs widening to take account of companies with a low degree of fixed assets abroad such as the digital and the financial companies and those internationalizing via NEMs, as well as to take account of the evolving relationship between TNCs and labour.

Future research along the lines proposed should consider: working explicitly with the new, inclusive concept of transnationality and arrive at an empirical estimate of the proposed indices of transnationality which modify and amplify the current United Nations Conference on Trade and Development indices.

Useful for understanding the nature of transnationality in the twenty-first century and for developing policies.

The paper proposes a new concept of transnationality and of the TNC, one that allows for new ways of organizing direct business activities abroad. It also proposes broadening the list of indicators of transnationality.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to introduce readers to the basic concepts and terminologies associated with the digital age, give examples of how customer service and services generally are changing as a result of digitalization, describe how emotions are being captured and used in digital communications, illustrate how people are using digital means to manage their own and workers' emotions and well-being, consider how the digital age is changing the future of services, workers, and communication between customers and organizations, and discuss some of the implications for emotions scholars and practitioners.

Design/Methodology/Approach – A literature review of recent publications on the digital age and its implications for services, work, workers, and emotions research and management.

Findings – The review covers seven areas: (1) What the digital age/economy/world is, (2) how customer service (including self-service) and services generally have changed as a result of digitalization, (3) how emotions are captured and used in social robots and digital communications, e.g., emoticons, (4) how people are using digital means (e.g., “self-tracking” and “wearables”) to manage their own emotions/feelings/well-being, (5) what some of the implications of the digital era are for emotions scholars and practitioners including methodology, (6) how people are saying the digital age will change the future of work, workers, relationships between customers and organizations, and learning, and (7) the ethical and well-being imperatives that researchers, practitioners, governments, and businesses must proactively and responsibly meet.

Practical Implications – Practically, the chapter provides information useful to five types of readers: (1) those who have emerging digital literacy or who consider themselves to be low digital natives, (2) those who are interested in understanding how customer service and services are changing because of digitalization, (3) those interested in understanding ways in which Artificial intelligence and digital tools are being used to capture and manage emotions, (4) those interested in learning how work is changing because of Industry 4.0, and (5) emotions scholars and practitioners interested in the implications of the digital world for their research and practice.

In the continuing endeavour to work towards ever better management, the engineering manager has a crucial role to play. The history of the engineer is reviewed and his/her possible present role in management is considered. Management objectives are outlined and defined and the specific role of the engineer emphasised. The best managers are leaders, in particular effective leaders of teams, and this is a management task well within the grasp of the engineer. The engineer′s specific training and initial experience give him/her special qualifications in this area. Indeed, there seems to be no reason why the engineer should not climb the management ladder right to the top, especially these days when technology is continually growing in importance. The demands made on the effective chief executive are outlined. It would seem that engineering management has come of age and that with the appropriate management training the engineer should be well capable of filling a senior management role.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the importance of innovation in the industry; factors that condition technological competitiveness at Magneti Marelli Controle Motor; analyse the risks and opportunities involved in the process of diffusion and management of flexfuel technology.

The methodological approach was qualitative/descriptive case study, supported by the theoretical framework on risk analysis and strategic analysis.

In a Brazilian market context, new technologies need to make cars more competitive in cost/price terms. Magneti Marelli had an innovative and important role in the development and implementation of this technology. Thus, it achieved a higher share of market and recognition of its entrepreneurial character.

There are few academic papers that relate the topics risk, strategy and Innovation. Moreover, the paper reports a successful case of Brazilian innovation in the global automotive industry.

Manufacturing strategy has attracted serious research attention in the recent past. In this paper, an attempt is made to review the status of literature in manufacturing strategy. A literature classification scheme is suggested. A total of 260 articles from 31 referred journals and international conferences are classified into content (manufacturing capabilities, strategic choices, best practices, trans‐national comparison, literature survey, and performance measurement) and process‐related issues. We have categorized the methodology used in the literature into conceptual, descriptive, empirical, exploratory cross‐sectional and exploratory longitudinal approaches. Based on this, some possible research issues are also identified, viz., resource‐based operations strategy, sector specific manufacturing strategy, relevance of manufacturing strategy to small and medium enterprises, manufacturing strategy in the context of green manufacturing, effect of organizational culture on formulation of manufacturing strategy, and performance measurement.

Concurrent designing of products, processes and supply chains (three‐dimensional concurrent engineering (3‐DCE)) has proved to be beneficial in rendering holistic, market‐responsive architecture to organizations through linkages created by dynamic capability development and innovation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the promises of 3‐DCE in synthesizing and sustaining critical success factors (CSFs) for organizations, and also to underpin the existing gap between its offerings in devising the CSFs and the “real solutions” essential in a dynamic system's perspective.

The paper adopts an intermediary approach combining both explanatory and exploratory researches. The conceptual framework of the paper is based on a matrix for organizational mapping of textile, clothing and fashion (TCF) firms prepared through content analysis. This is followed by an extensive semi‐structured survey. The selection of firms was based on contacting TEKO and Europages. Usable responses were obtained from 42 firms for detailed analysis, making the response rate around 15 percent.

The results were manifold. It showed that most of the key success factors are synthesized and sustained through 3‐DCE designing. The paper also highlights the necessity of incorporating intangible value propositions of culture, leadership and governance, knowledge, image and relationship into the 3‐DCE model to generate an “extended 3‐DCE” framework for mediating operational performance and hence organizational success. Such a model required in a dynamic environment is argued to show a fit to represent a design for resilience perspective, requiring further research.

First, the selection of sample size of organizations was small and arguments regarding its representation of the Swedish TCF firms' population could be raised. So the claims and propositions of the paper cannot be widely generalized. Second, the responses to the survey were based on judgments of the company top management and could vary if intra‐organizational responses were considered.

The findings from the paper can be beneficial for organizations to understand the key areas in which to invest and how to invest their resources and time, as CSF identification is largely qualitative and can result in differing opinions in pinpointing them. It is thus recommended to synthesize or identify them from the 3‐DCE perspective.

The paper is original in realizing how 3‐DCE can be instrumental in devising CSFs in organizations and also what factors needs to be incorporated into its “extended” framework to match the requirements for organizations in a dynamic environment.

There is growing concern about the performance of public organizations (POs) in developing countries. Despite the fact that the advantages of innovation and learning orientation to organizations have been evidently documented in Western economies and private owned enterprises, there has been little research into these practices and their impact on enhancing competitive advantages in POs in transitional economies such as Iran. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of innovation and learning orientation on performance of POs in Iran.

This paper draws on theory from innovation and learning orientation in conjunction with a strategic-centered model to carry out a survey-based study of 127 senior level managers (e.g. CEOs, planning, finance, HR and marketing managers) of POs and/or their cluster companies in six major developed and developing cities of Iran.

The research findings show that learning orientation and innovativeness leads to better PO performance and should be encouraged. More specifically, the results suggest that higher levels of learning orientation and innovativeness led these organizations to higher levels of delivery speed, cost improvement, and quality confidence in firm future PO performance.

Data were gathered via a questionnaire administered to senior level managers of some POs and/or their clusters in some cities in Iran. Further research is required to understand the contextual factors that influence internal company culture. For example, there are relatively few women in managerial positions in Iranian companies; and the impact of a restricted business environment appears to vary from service to retail and manufacturing industries.

This study is important for managers of public sectors. From empirical evidence, the authors found that PO managers must consider innovativeness and learning as two crucial strategic capabilities for a superior and sustainable performance.

The study provides insights into the types of activities that PO management should undertake in order to enhance economic performance.

This paper aims to study the problem of designing a Performance Measurement System (PMS) for R&D. In particular, it aims at investigating the influence exerted by the type of activity being measured (i.e. Basic and Applied Research or New Product Development) on the design of the PMS constitutive elements.

First, a literature review made it possible to build a theoretical model that identifies the constitutive elements of the PMS for R&D. Second, a survey involving 129 Italian firms (with a response rate of 33 per cent) was performed to unearth a number of similarities and differences between PMSs used in Research and New Product Development settings. Finally, a follow‐up multiple case study investigation made it possible to understand the reason underlying the dissimilarities which emerged from the survey.

The analysis suggests that a specialisation of the performance measurement practices in research and development is pursued by the Italian firms in the sample, especially when a number of conditions are in place (e.g. high level of uncertainty in R&D, availability of resources, organisational separation between the research and development functions).

The empirical analyses reported here focus on R&D‐intensive firms, because they invest more heavily in R&D and hence are more interested in measuring its performance. The generalisability of these results to other empirical settings is discussed and represents a promising avenue for future research.

The paper provides R&D managers with a number of criteria they should employ to design more effective PMSs for the R&D activities for which they are responsible. Moreover, it suggests that designing and using two different PMSs for research and new product development can be a valuable alternative but only under specific circumstances.

The paper is one of the first contributions that empirically assess the differences in the approaches employed to measure performance of research and new product development activities.