Knowledge management presents a new way of understanding organizations and companies, and is especially suited to sophisticated and highly technical firms and operations such as those in the construction industry.

This new book draws on hard data from three separate research programs in Sweden and shows how the concept of knowledge can make sense in the construction industry, an industry which can be viewed in essence as being engaged in the material transformation of "nature into buildings." In particular it explores and examines three different businesses: a medium sized...

Original and based on empirical research in the areas of organisation theory and organisational behaviour, focusing on two major companies, this work makes an invaluable contribution to the literature on bureaucracy and innovation.

Vision and visuality are two concepts widely discussed and debated in philosophy and social science literature. Some authors even suggest that the entire Western intellectual tradition is strongly shaped by the paradigm of vision; the inspection and analysis of specimens collected from social reality are regarded as the only legitimate source of truth. However, in organizations, a variety of visual practices are employed in for instance science-based innovation in for instance the pharmaceutical industry and in architect work. Such visual practices include the use of various technoscientific...

Professionals Making Judgments examines the role of judgment in professional work. The book makes the argument that too many studies of professionalism put emphasis on rational decision making. The more theoretical parts of the book are complemented by empirical studies of three distinct domains of professional practice.

In Reproductive Medicine and the Life Sciences in the Contemporary Economy, Alexander Styhre and Rebecka Arman illuminate issues that have given rise to terms such as 'the bioeconomy' and 'the baby business'. The life sciences play an increasing role in providing services and commodities consumed by businesses and the public. Based on an in-depth study of clinics offering assisted fertilization in Sweden, this book is the first to examine the commercialization and commodification of know-how derived from the life sciences, from the point of view of organization theory. In the field of...

Rapid advances in the life sciences means that there is now a far more detailed understanding of biological systems on the cellular, molecular and genetic levels. Sited at the intersection between the life sciences, the engineering sciences and the design sciences, innovations in the biomaterials industry are expected to garner increasing attention and play a key role in future development. This book examines the biomaterials innovations taking place in corporations and in academic research settings today.

The term 'financialization' denotes the general tendency in the advanced Western economies to allow a substantial proportion of taxable profits to accumulate in the finance industry. Alexander Styhre discusses the financialization of the firm in the period after 1980 and stresses how key managerial activities have been redefined on the basis of finance theory and free-market ideologies. This book critically examines the literature and the implications of financialization for organizations and the economy as a whole.

Rapid advances in the life sciences means that there is now a far more detailed understanding of biological systems on the cellular, molecular and genetic levels. Sited at the intersection between the life sciences, the engineering sciences and the design sciences, innovations in the biomaterials industry are expected to garner increasing attention and play a key role in future development. This book examines the biomaterials innovations taking place in corporations and in academic research settings today.

The shift from managerial capitalism to investor capitalism, dominated by the finance industry and finance capital accumulation, is jointly caused by a variety of institutional, legal, political, and ideological changes, beginning with the 1970s' downturn of the global economy. This book traces how the incorporation of businesses within the realm of the state leads to both certain benefits, characteristic of competitive capitalism, and to the emergence of new corporate governance problems emerges. Contrasting economic, legal, and managerial views of corporate governance practices in...