History is replete with examples of one political system replacing another, one scientific discovery invalidating another – and this cycle has occurred repeatedly in the production of goods and products for society. This book, first published in 1998, examines the massive transition currently taking place: the decline of the system of mass manufacturing. Various global changes in American business and manufacturing have forced a review of accepted thinking, and this book is a key text in this evaluation.

Design is an important factor in business success. This book, first published in 1989, analyses what the role of design is in business success; just what design is; and how both design and its management might be improved. It draws on extensive original research by the authors in eighty-seven companies regarded as leaders in the field of export and technological achievement and it reports on the experiences of these companies. Among the book’s many important conclusions and recommendations for improved practice are: that design, rather than price, is the key factor in determining...

Based on an industrial relations case study conducted in a British Steel plant in the north east coast iron and steel industry, this book, first published in 1976, is an account of the application of sociological concepts and ideas to the process of social relations between employer and employee, and between all types of workers in industrial organisations.

During the First World War, the necessity of increased production without increased human effort led to the practical investigation of the whole question by trained psychologists. This book, first published in 1924, deals with the methods they employed and with the results they obtained, and examines the wide-reaching effects which the application of these discoveries would have upon industrial organisation.

This book, first published in 1973, analyses and sets in context one of the major issues in the growth of the European economy. Workers’ participation played an increasingly vital role in industrial relations. This book looks at the background and development of different types of participation in Britain, ranging from workers’ attempts at co-operative production, through the schemes in the nationalised industries of mining and steel, to the Fairfields Experiment and the Upper Clyde ‘work-in’ in shipbuilding. This book concludes with an account of the developments in worker...

This book, first published in 1984, is the first systematic attempt in English to produce an analytical as well as a descriptive outline of the operations, management and role of the Soviet industrial enterprise. The microeconomics of central planning is a relatively neglected area of analysis with most effort being directed towards the theory of economic incentives. This book fills that gap by presenting an integrated view of the theory of the socialist firm. It concentrates on the day-to-day activities of the Soviet enterprise, and uses a wealth of unused Soviet data to project its...

This book, first published in 1983, is primarily concerned with the economic policies of the European Economic Community and the European Coal and Steel Community. It explains in detail how the common market was established and how it was maintained. Free competition cannot be created merely by removing customs duties and quotas: it is also necessary to attack the many non-tariff barriers which would otherwise impede free movement. Moreover, the Community sought to develop an industrial policy, notably in relation to the ECSC, to provide a stance towards declining industries suffering from...

This volume, first published in 1994, is the first collection of original research on the relationships between industrial property and economic development. The contributors, all specialists in their field, highlight the emerging conflicts between the users and the providers of industrial premises; conflicts that may undermine economic potential. The need for flexibility in the use and provision of industrial premises is explored in three contexts: the transformation of the urban fringe; the development of hi-tech premises; and the redevelopment of old or derelict premises.

Concern over conglomerate mergers increased dramatically in the latter part of the twentieth century. An acceleration in conglomerate merger activity rekindled firms’ takeover fears and swamped trustbusters, and attention focused on the political and economic issues surrounding conglomerate mergers. Of particular importance is the possibility that conglomerate mergers may increase aggregate concentration and eventually create a ‘zaibatsu’ economy. This book, first published in 1984, addresses the issue by examining the mutual forbearance hypothesis. More specifically, do multi-market...

This study of monopolies and trusts in England from Tudor days to the twentieth century was first published in 1909. It is a key text in the study of early capitalism and industrial organisation.