1st Edition

Knowledge and Innovation in Business and Industry The Importance of Using Others

Edited By Håkan Håkansson, Alexandra Waluszewski Copyright 2007
    182 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    192 Pages 22 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Provocative and reflective, this volume on the notion of knowledge and innovation in the business industry provides readers with a holistic approach to the subject of ‘knowledge’.

    Structuring their arguments around four case studies of innovation within four entirely different contexts, Håkansson and Waluszewski invite the business-minded reader to consider the costs of adopting new knowledge and innovation within a business setting.

    This book:

    • questions the long-held assumption that new knowledge and innovation are universally advantageous
    • follows the tremor of an innovation as new knowledge reverberates through, or is dampened by the larger economic community - including cultural structures, the industrial standards and the foundational assumptions that rule a particular economic domain
    • focuses in particular on the interfaces where the innovative agent connects to its customers, suppliers and competitors.

    An ideal reference source for postgraduate students taking advanced courses in science and technology studies, innovation management, industrial marketing and purchasing, technological development and innovation systems.

    1. Economic Use of Knowledge  2. Resources in Use: The Embedded Electricity  3. Introducing 'Old' Knowledge in an Established User Context: Or How to Use Wood in the Construction Industry  4. Conscious Use of Others’ Interface Knowledge: Or How IKEA Can Keep the Price of the Lack Table Constant over Decades  5. Handling Resource Interfaces in a Planned Economy or How Tipografiya Solves Interaction Issues Without Direct Interaction  6. Use of Knowledge in the Model World: Lessons to Learn from Economic Literature  7. The Only Means to Create Use

    Biography

    Håkan Håkansson is Professor in International Management, Norwegian School of Management.

    Alexandra Waluszewski is Director of the Science & Technology Studies Center (STS) at Uppsala University, as well as a senior lecturer in the Department of Business Studies.