Introduction: Articles in this Special Issue were first presented at the World Innovation and Strategy Conference (WISC98) in Sydney, Australia in late 1998. Outstanding contributions that included a strong emphasis on technological issues or the management of technology were selected from over...

In an environment of decentralised employment relations, employers associations must reassess their role if they are to remain relevant. The Australian Retailers? Association faces a particular challenge. On the one hand, it has traditionally focused on the interests of the largest retailers, at...

In today's global shipping industry management functions have often been outsourced to separate companies and to overseas locations. With the appearance of socalled 'flags of convenience' the world shipping industry has increasingly registered commercial vessels overseas. Following this trend,...

For firms to survive in the highly competitive Aerospace Component Supply Market, they must have some sustainable competitive advantages. Customers are demanding continual price reductions and improvements in lead times from their suppliers. In the Asia Pacific region, developing economies such...

Selecting the right market(s) to enter is critical for business success and longevity. Various researchers have prescribed several decision models for international market selection. The proposed models generally confirm the importance of using market size and the level of economic development...

The Chinese telecommunications market is undergoing fundamental changes as it moves from state ownership to privatization. These changes have resulted in numerous ambiguous policies being announced, often by the same regulatory body. A key question is how management deals with these ambiguous...

Organisations have processes to manage their business activities, often referred to as business processes. In today?s competitive global economy, automation of processes with appropriate technology is advantageous. However, the paradox of processes automation is the continuous evolution and...

The Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) program is typical of the ways many governments are seeking to promote cross-sector R&D collaboration. Scientists are key resources in these organizational arrangements. However, there is only fragmentary information available about why and when...

Studies on globalisation suggest that a factor in the growth of nonstandard employment in developed economies has been the growing capacity of multinational corporations to arbitrage wage differentials across countries. This analysis applies in particular to industries subject to direct import...

Collaboration literally means working together. Collaborative improvement is an extension of continuous improvement and can be defined as a purposeful inter-company interactive process that focuses on continuous incremental innovation aimed at enhancing the collaboration's overall performance....