This book reveals the key importance, in terms of international competitiveness, of firms' capability to adapt to, and develop, new technologies. At the same time, the authors argue that the sheer complexity of emerging technologies is such that the knowledge involved in their creation is likely to be dispersed and distributed between many individuals and over numerous locations. The authors argue that even if one assumes that the internal knowledge base is of strategic importance to many companies, most of the knowledge used by the majority of companies is developed outside the company....

This comprehensive and innovative book demonstrates the dynamics of welfare policies in different socioeconomic settings by providing comparative analyses of the Baltic and Nordic welfare state systems. The book contributes to finding and reflecting upon innovative solutions to common challenges in European welfare states. Challenging conventional welfare state research, the authors compare the Nordic countries with the welfare states of the market-oriented democracies of the Baltic area, discussing welfare state theories, family policy regimes and welfare state models. Top...