An Autecological Theory of the Firm and its Environment


Book Description

The process of firm-level adaptation and survival have historically been of great interest to researchers of firms. However, these researchers have previously been denied an ecological framework within which to study the processes through which individual firms respond to and indeed, modify their individual environments. This book remedies this situation, providing the first comprehensive introduction to organisational autecology, or, the study of individual firms and the environments they interact with and typically modify to ensure their survival. In addition to establishing the theoretical and philosophical foundations of organisational autecology, the empirical application of this new approach is demonstrated and its future application to the domain of organisational studies is contemplated.




How to Teach Entrepreneurship


Book Description

In developing the first signature pedagogy for entrepreneurship education, Colin Jones unites the contexts of enterprise and education at the intersection of scholarship, transformational learning and student engagement. Good teaching for entrepreneurship is shown to emerge both from the educator and the students’ interest. For the educator, a process of scholarly leading is required to support student interest – from the alternate perspective, students require a willingness to welcome uncertainty and challenge the existing boundaries to effectively develop a capacity for self-negotiated action.




Time, Space and Capital


Book Description

In this challenging book, the authors demonstrate that economists tend to misunderstand capital. Frank Knight was an exception, as he argued that because all resources are more or less durable and have uncertain future uses they can consequently be classed as capital. Thus, capital rather than labor is the real source of creativity, innovation, and accumulation. But capital is also a phenomenon in time and in space. Offering a new and path-breaking theory, they show how durable capital with large spatial domains — infrastructural capital such as institutions, public knowledge, and networks — can help explain the long-term development of cities and nations.




Evolution of the Corporation in the United States


Book Description

This insightful book traces the evolution of corporate power in the United States, from social control over corporate power under early state laws to the modern liberation of the corporation serving primarily private purposes. It illustrates how the transition of attitudes towards corporations and dynamic changes in public policy have ushered in an age of financial fragility, income inequality and macroeconomic instability.




Understanding the Blockchain Economy


Book Description

Blockchains are the distributed ledger technology that powers Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. But blockchains can be used for more than the transfer of tokens – they are a significant new economic infrastructure. This book offers the first scholarly analysis of the economic nature of blockchains and the shape of the blockchain economy. By applying the institutional economics of Ronald Coase and Oliver Williamson, this book shows how blockchains are poised to reshape the nature of firms, governments, markets, and civil society.




Entrepreneurship Education


Book Description

Policymakers consider enterprise education, and the skills it develops, as increasing student’s employability skills. This book delivers further insight to validate this. Authors provide evidence to inform the entrepreneurial education discipline in terms of best practice, success stories and identify its future direction for key stakeholders.




Driving Sustainability through Engineering Management and Systems Engineering


Book Description

Despite the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenge of realizing sustainability across the triple bottom line of social, environmental, and economic development remains an urgent priority. If anything, it is now imperative that we work towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the global challenges are significant. Many of the societal challenges represent complex problems that require multifaceted solutions drawing on multidisciplinary approaches. Engineering management involves the management of people and projects related to technological or engineering systems—this includes project management, engineering economy and technology management, as well as the management and leadership of teams. Systems engineering involves the design, integration and management of complex systems over the full life cycle—this includes requirements capture and integrated system design, as well as modelling and simulation. In addition to the theoretical underpinnings of both disciplines, they also provide a range of tools and techniques that can be used to address technological and organisational complexity. The disciplines of engineering management and systems engineering are therefore ideally suited to help tackle both the challenges and the opportunities associated with realising a sustainable future for all. This book provides new insights on how engineering management and systems engineering can be utilised as part of the journey towards sustainability. The book includes a discussion of a broad range of different approaches to investigate sustainability through utilising quantitative, qualitative and conceptual methodologies. The book will be of interest to researchers and students focused on the field of sustainability as well as practitioners concerned with devising strategies for sustainable development.




Biological Invasions


Book Description

This new volume on Biological Invasions deals with both plants and animals, differing from previous books by extending from the level of individual species to an ecosystem and global level. Topics of highest societal relevance, such as the impact of genetically modified organisms, are interlinked with more conventional ecological aspects, including biodiversity. The combination of these approaches is new and makes compelling reading for researchers and environmentalists.




Sourcebook of Family Theories and Methods


Book Description

Origins We call this book on theoretical orientations and methodological strategies in family studies a sourcebook because it details the social and personal roots (i.e., sources) from which these orientations and strategies flow. Thus, an appropriate way to preface this book is to talk first of its roots, its beginnings. In the mid 1980s there emerged in some quarters the sense that it was time for family studies to take stock of itself. A goal was thus set to write a book that, like Janus, would face both backward and forward a book that would give readers both a perspec tive on the past and a map for the future. There were precedents for such a project: The Handbook of Marriage and the Family edited by Harold Christensen and published in 1964; the two Contemporary Theories about theFamily volumes edited by Wesley Burr, Reuben Hill, F. Ivan Nye, and Ira Reiss, published in 1979; and the Handbook of Marriage and the Family edited by Marvin Sussman and Suzanne Steinmetz, then in production.




Ecological and Economic Entomology


Book Description

Ecological and Economic Entomology is a comprehensive advanced text covering all aspects of the role of insects in natural ecosystems and their impacts on human activity. The book is divided into two sections. The first section begins with an outline of the structure, classification and importance of insects, followed by the geographical aspects of plant distribution and the complex defences plants marshal against herbivorous insects. Insect pests affecting plant roots, stem, leaf, and reproductive systems are covered in a comprehensive review. This section also covers insects that are important in medical and veterinary science, paying particular attention to those that transmit pathogens. The section concludes with the beneficial aspects of insects, especially their use in biological control, but also as soil formers and their importance in forensic science.




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