The 2008 crash has left all the established economic doctrines - equilibrium models, real business cycles, disequilibria models - in disarray. Part of the problem is due to Smith’s "veil of ignorance": individuals unknowingly pursue society’s interest and, as a result, have no clue as to the macroeconomic effects of their actions: witness the Keynes and Leontief multipliers, the concept of value added, fiat money, Engel’s law and technical progress, to name but a few of the macrofoundations of microeconomics. A good viewpoint to take bearings anew lies in comparing the post-Great Depression institutions with those emerging from Thatcher and Reagan’s economic policies: deregulation, exogenous vs. endoge- nous money, shadow banking vs. Volcker’s Rule. Very simply, the banks, whose lending determined deposits after Roosevelt, and were a public service became private enterprises whose deposits determine lending. These underlay the great moderation preceding 2006, and the subsequent crash.

The Economic Institutions of Capitalism

Models that depict innovation as a smooth, well-behaved linear process badly misspecify the nature and direction of the causal factors at work. Innovation is complex, uncertain, somewhat disorderly, and subject to changes of many sorts. Innovation is also difficult to measure and demands close coordination of adequate technical knowledge and excellent market judgment in order to satisfy economic, technological, and other types of constraints—all simultaneously. The process of innovation must be viewed as a series of changes in a complete system not only of hardware, but also of market environment, production facilities and knowledge, and the social contexts of the innovation organization.

An Overview of Innovation

Everybody knows that digital technology has revolutionized our economy and our lifestyles. But how many of us really understand the drivers behind the technology – the significance of going digital; the miniaturization of electronic devices; the role of venture capital in financing the revolution; the importance of research and development? How many of us understand what it takes to make money from innovative technologies? Should we worry about manufacturing going offshore? What is the role of India and China in the digital economy? Drawing on a lifetime’s experience in the industry, as an engineer, a senior manager, and as a partner in a global venture capital firm, Henry Kressel offers an expert personalized answer to all these questions. He explains how the technology works, why it matters, how it is financed, and what the key lessons are for public policy.

Competing for the Future

Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.

A natural resource-based view of the firm

An intertwined supply network (ISN) is an entirety of interconnected supply chains (SC) which, in their integrity secure the provision of society and markets with goods and services. The ISNs are o...

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02568319/document

Viability of intertwined supply networks: extending the supply chain resilience angles towards survivability. A position paper motivated by COVID-19 outbreak

Organisations on the Move

The study of practices for Strategic Capacity Management at five Malaysian companies and four Scottish companies shows that the Malaysian manufacturing managers acted more reactive due to pressures by sales and processing orders, whereas the Scottish managers were implementing a manufacturing strategy more ‘independently’. Problems with suppliers, albeit sometimes caused by outsourcing, feature high on the list of challenges in both samples. Alignment of organisational structures and investment in technologies are seen by all as key to aligning the manufacturing strategy with the competitive strategy, though actual investments tend to be happening more in Scottish companies.

Comparing Malaysian and Scottish firms on practices for strategic capability management

Assessment of screening mineral wool waste from market by using handheld X‐ray fluorescence

The steady-state model adds the control for the system boundary, or more precisely the process boundary, in addition to the control processes of the previous chapter, such as feedback and feedforward. The two previous chapters have emphasised the (primary) process and its control, based on the premise that a process constitutes an interaction between flowing elements (as system) and resources (as an other system). In addition, systems operate in relation to their environment and interact with other elements from that environment.

Rob Dekkers

Papers

Organisations on the Move

Comparing Malaysian and Scottish firms on practices for strategic capability management

Assessment of screening mineral wool waste from market by using handheld X‐ray fluorescence

Steady-State Model