Commentators suggest that to survive in developed economies manufacturing firms have to move up the value chain, innovating and creating ever more sophisticated products and services, so they do not have to compete on the basis of cost. While this strategy is proving increasingly popular with...

This document offers an introduction to work that the AIM Fellows have recently undertaken on management topics relatedto one or more of five priority issues. The priority issues, selected for their potential to help public sector policy-makers andpractitioners in their efforts to achieve...

This Briefing Note considers recent trends in specialisation, outsourcing and offshoring of businessservices.Specialisation within a firm happens when a firm organises an activity in a specialised unit, for example,when a firm moves payroll activities out of the back office of a factory, and...