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The study here examines how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analyzing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the sense that revisions occur to the research question, method, theory, and context as an integral part of the research process.

Changes within networks receive less research attention, although considerable research exists on explaining business network structures in different research traditions. This study analyzes changes in networks in terms of the industrial network approach. This approach sees networks as connected relationships between actors, where interdependent companies interact based on their sensemaking of their relevant network environment. The study develops a concept of network change as well as an operationalization for comparing perceptions of change, where the study introduces a template model of dottograms to systematically analyze differences in perceptions. The study then applies the model to analyze findings from a case study of Norwegian/Japanese seafood distribution, and the chapter provides a rich description of a complex system facing considerable pressure to change. In-depth personal interviews and cognitive mapping techniques are the main research tools applied, in addition to tracer studies and personal observation.

The dottogram method represents a valuable contribution to case study research as it enables systematic within-case and across-case analyses. A further theoretical contribution of the study is the suggestion that network change is about actors seeking to change their network position to gain access to resources. Thereby, the study also implies a close relationship between the concepts network position and the network change that has not been discussed within the network approach in great detail.

Another major contribution of the study is the analysis of the role that network pictures play in actors' efforts to change their network position. The study develops seven propositions in an attempt to describe the role of network pictures in network change. So far, the relevant literature discusses network pictures mainly as a theoretical concept. Finally, the chapter concludes with important implications for management practice.

Benchmarking against industry averages or high performance organizations can be useful for most companies to improve products and processes, including strategic planning, forecasting marketing trends, and internal operation. Company innovation is also widely recognized as a critical process for company survival and growth. As business globalization and competition increase, company innovativeness has become essential for success. Analyses company innovativeness from a practical perspective, in terms of the activities and mechanisms necessary for companies to seek, evaluate, implement and foster the development of new ideas. The results provide strong empirical evidence that company innovation is a major determinant of company business performance. Because most benchmarking schemes are industry‐specific, focuses on the manufacturing industry. Provides a first attempt at developing an industry‐wide average for company innovativeness which business managers can use to gauge their company’s performance along the various activities required to innovate. Managers can then focus their attention on why their respective organizations vary from the industry averages regarding specific items.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.

Describes a study reviewing recent histories of new product ideas in order to devise a framework of their sources. Proposes a classification of sources for new product ideas through laboratory, management, company situation, distribution, supplier, consumer, marketplace, foreign products, and government regulations. Surmises that successful innovation requires an understanding of the sources of new ideas, and that the proposed framework is more effective than other paradigms.

This paper addresses the issue of initiating new service development (NSD) projects. The aim of the article is to investigate whether firms use systematic procedures to generate and screen ideas for new services. Utilising a survey of marketing managers in UK service companies, data were collected in the areas of NSD strategy, idea generation and screening. It was found that only half the sample have a formal NSD strategy, idea generation is undertaken on an ad hoc basis and idea screening, although more prevalent, is failing to support the NSD strategy. Management implications and areas for further research are discussed.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.

The study aims to use netnography to investigate the role of customers' contributions in social networks for NSD purposes.

The study adopted an exploratory case study methodology to conduct a content analysis of customers' contributions in a social network, namely www.mystarbucksidea.com. Netnography was used for data analysis and interpretation.

The findings reveal that online customers' interactions and dialogues enable customers to share and understand the context of using services, which in turn triggers emotions and cognition that help customers to generate and further enhance ideas for new services. Thus, the variety of customers and the sharing of their diverse roles have a positive influence on enabling participants of online social networks to generate new service ideas.

The findings are applicable to the study's context, but future research should try to triangulate and enhance them by conducting studies in other contexts. The findings also provide ideas on how to further investigate the observational learning processes and behavioural impacts taking place amongst customers' interactions within online social networks.

The findings provide several implications showing firms why and how to nurture, develop and moderate online customer interactions to enhance the effectiveness of their NSD processes.

The paper examines the role and the management of customers' contributions in social networks for NSD purposes. The topic has received only limited attention in traditional and online settings. Several suggestions for further research are also provided.

A collection of essays by a social economist seeking to balance economics as a science of means with the values deemed necessary to man′s finding the good life and society enduring as a civilized instrumentality. Looks for authority to great men of the past and to today′s moral philosopher: man is an ethical animal. The 13 essays are: 1. Evolutionary Economics: The End of It All? which challenges the view that Darwinism destroyed belief in a universe of purpose and design; 2. Schmoller′s Political Economy: Its Psychic, Moral and Legal Foundations, which centres on the belief that time‐honoured ethical values prevail in an economy formed by ties of common sentiment, ideas, customs and laws; 3. Adam Smith by Gustav von Schmoller – Schmoller rejects Smith′s natural law and sees him as simply spreading the message of Calvinism; 4. Pierre‐Joseph Proudhon, Socialist – Karl Marx, Communist: A Comparison; 5. Marxism and the Instauration of Man, which raises the question for Marx: is the flowering of the new man in Communist society the ultimate end to the dialectical movement of history?; 6. Ethical Progress and Economic Growth in Western Civilization; 7. Ethical Principles in American Society: An Appraisal; 8. The Ugent Need for a Consensus on Moral Values, which focuses on the real dangers inherent in there being no consensus on moral values; 9. Human Resources and the Good Society – man is not to be treated as an economic resource; man′s moral and material wellbeing is the goal; 10. The Social Economist on the Modern Dilemma: Ethical Dwarfs and Nuclear Giants, which argues that it is imperative to distinguish good from evil and to act accordingly: existentialism, situation ethics and evolutionary ethics savour of nihilism; 11. Ethical Principles: The Economist′s Quandary, which is the difficulty of balancing the claims of disinterested science and of the urge to better the human condition; 12. The Role of Government in the Advancement of Cultural Values, which discusses censorship and the funding of art against the background of the US Helms Amendment; 13. Man at the Crossroads draws earlier themes together; the author makes the case for rejecting determinism and the “operant conditioning” of the Skinner school in favour of the moral progress of autonomous man through adherence to traditional ethical values.

Suggests that the key to success for most European countries in maintaining their position in the world market place is a continuous process of innovation in industry. Looks at the situation in The Netherlands, providing a framework of phases for the product development process. Investigates the innovation process in nine Dutch companies, revealing that product development is poorly structured.