While Australian firms have generally recognised the value of continuous improvement (CI) in improving performance, many have yet to develop systems to ensure that the efforts of the CI program are focussed on issues of strategic importance to the company. In fact, as recognised in operations...

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: National Economies in Globalization -- Part I: Neoliberal Model: The Case of the United States -- Chapter 3: Globalization and the U.S. National Economy -- Chapter 4: Recent Transformation of the U.S. Economy -- Part II: Statist Coordination Capitalism: The...

«Soft» innovations are strongly emerging in modern competitive arenas in the form of dematerialization of the offering system. Thanks to the use of services, de-materialization aims to make mass production processes evolve, in order to make them suitable to face competitive environment...