This is the tool for gaining and maintaining innovation capacity.

Featuring a special introduction by Peter James, Dead Letter Drop is Peter James' first ever novel, originally published in 1981. Max Flynn, undercover agent, has the unenviable job of spying on his own side. When to kill, who to kill, whether to kill are all questions which have to be answered at great speed if he wants to stay alive. But why does an innocuous airline ticket No. 14B matter so much? Who has gone to the trouble of committing suicide? And could Flynn's beautiful companion be a spy? The hazy, murky world of counter espionage leaves no room for errors of judgement and Flynn knows he's finished if he makes one false move.

Eco-Innovation considers the impact industry has on our environmental surroundings whilst exploring the need for more sustainable development. The concept of sustainable development and the general understanding of the interdependence of the environment and the economy are both examined in this thought-provoking new book.

Industry 4.0 and the subsequent automation and digitalization of processes, including the tighter integration of machine-machine and human-machine intercommunication and collaboration, is adding additional complexity to future systems design and the capability to simulate, optimize, and adapt. Current solutions lack the ability to capture knowledge, techniques, and methods to create a sustainable and intelligent nerve system for enterprise systems. With the ability to innovate new designs and solutions, as well as automate processes and decision-making capabilities with heterogenous and holistic views of current and future challenges, there can be an increase in productivity and efficiency through sustainable automation. Therefore, better understandings of the underpinning knowledge and expertise of sustainable automation that can create a sustainable cycle that drives optimal automation and innovation in the field is needed Driving Innovation and Productivity Through Sustainable Automation enhances the understanding and the knowledge for the new ecosystems emerging in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The chapters provide the knowledge and understanding of current challenges and new capabilities and solutions having been researched, developed, and applied within the industry to drive sustainable automation for innovation and productivity. This book is ideally intended for managers, executives, IT specialists, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students who are interested in the current research on sustainable automation.

Why has capitalism produced economic growth that so vastly dwarfs the growth record of other economic systems, past and present? Why have living standards in countries from America to Germany to Japan risen exponentially over the past century? William Baumol rejects the conventional view that capitalism benefits society through price competition--that is, products and services become less costly as firms vie for consumers. Where most others have seen this as the driving force behind growth, he sees something different--a compound of systematic innovation activity within the firm, an arms race in which no firm in an innovating industry dares to fall behind the others in new products and processes, and inter-firm collaboration in the creation and use of innovations. While giving price competition due credit, Baumol stresses that large firms use innovation as a prime competitive weapon. However, as he explains it, firms do not wish to risk too much innovation, because it is costly, and can be made obsolete by rival innovation. So firms have split the difference through the sale of technology licenses and participation in technology-sharing compacts that pay huge dividends to the economy as a whole--and thereby made innovation a routine feature of economic life. This process, in Baumol's view, accounts for the unparalleled growth of modern capitalist economies. Drawing on extensive research and years of consulting work for many large global firms, Baumol shows in this original work that the capitalist growth process, at least in societies where the rule of law prevails, comes far closer to the requirements of economic efficiency than is typically understood. Resounding with rare intellectual force, this book marks a milestone in the comprehension of the accomplishments of our free-market economic system--a new understanding that, suggests the author, promises to benefit many countries that lack the advantages of this immense innovation machine.

It is frequently hypothesized that environmental management systems (EMSs) may improve a firm's environmental performance. Whether or not this hypothesis is true is as important from the perspective of environmental policy as questions relating to the relevant incentives for (1) a firm's voluntary adoption of an EMS and (2) its environmental innovation behavior. Based on ample empirical evidence for German manufacturing, this paper addresses these issues on the basis of a recursive bivariate probit model that explicitly takes into account that a facility's decision on innovation activities is correlated with the decision on EMS certification. Our empirical results indicate that environmental innovation activities are not associated with EMS certification nor any other single policy instrument. Rather, innovation behavior seems to be correlated to the stringency of environmental policy.

The Power of Evidence to Create Design Excellence This practical, accessible book—for design professionals and students alike—is about design excellence and how to achieve it. The authors propose an evidence-based design approach that builds on design ingenuity with the use of research in ways that enhance opportunities to innovate. They show the power of research data to both reveal new design opportunities and convince stakeholders of the value of extraordinary work. A guide for all designers who want to earn their place as their clients' trusted advisor and who aspire to create places of beauty and purpose, the book demonstrates: An approach to applying evidence to design that neither turns designers into scientists nor requires large-firm resources The wide range of types of evidence that can be applicable to design and where to look for it Direct, practical application of the evidence-based design approaches in use today Provides tools to distinguish strong evidence that can improve design decisions from misleading assertions resulting from weak research Benefits of evidence-based design, including improved human and building performance Two featured case studies illustrate the theory and practice of evidence-based design. The work of the authors' 2005–2007 AIA College of Fellows Benjamin Latrobe Research Fellowship provided an empirical foundation for this book, and addresses the use of rigorous research methods to understand relationships between design choices and health outcomes. The California Academy of Sciences, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Chong Partners Architecture, and Arup, provides transparent evidence that enhances building technology performance in the context of a powerful design expression. In-depth interviews and case studies are clustered around three research categories: modeling, simulation, and data mining; social and behavioral science and the physical and natural sciences; and including cutting-edge use of neuroscience to understand human response to physical environments. The twenty-two featured thought leaders include: William Mitchell, MIT Media Lab; Fred Gage, Salk Institute; Phil Bernstein, Autodesk; Sheila Kennedy, Kennedy & Violich; James Timberlake, KieranTimberlake; William and Chris Sharples, SHoP Architects; Vivian Loftness, Carnegie Mellon University; John Zeisel, Hearthstone; Paco Underhill, Envirosell; Susan Ubbelohde and George Loisos, Loisos+Ubbelohde Architecture-Energy; Chris Luebkeman, Arup; Martin Fischer, Stanford University CIFE; and Kevin Powell, GSA.

This volume examines the relationships among social ecology, innovation, sustainable development and economic growth. The Quintuple Helix innovation model focuses on the interactions among five key elements of society: academia, industry, government, culture, and the environment--with particular respect to harnessing knowledge to promote social, political, and economic development. The Quintuple Helix is a powerful theoretical and practical lens for analyzing and understanding such critical and complex ecological and socioeconomic issues as global warming and climate change and their implications for sustainability. The authors provide policy approaches and strategies to help create a balance among the often competing forces of environmental protection, innovation, entrepreneurship, and social and economic growth that will successfully benefit society and protect democratic values.

How can policy-makers pursue environmental goals while simultaneously keeping the burdens on industry to a minimum? Why does innovation play the key role in this balancing act, and what are the implications for the development of sustainable industrial societies? This book examines the evolution of environmental policy in 6 OECD countries. Through numerous examples, it contrasts the widely-varying political and regulatory styles and their consequences for innovation. Two industry-specific case studies provide a transnational perspective on the co-evolution of technology and environmental policy. The book concludes that innovation can be successfully harnessed by setting credible, long-term environmental goals and ensuring that regulatory instruments are grounded in flexibility, dialogue and trust.

Despite recent optimism and global initiatives, the implementation of corporate sustainability programs has been slow at best, with less than a third of global companies having developed a clear business case for their approach to sustainability. Presenting numerous award-winning cases and examples from companies such as Unilever, Patagonia, Tumi, DSM and Umicore alongside original ideas based upon 20 years of consulting experience, this book reveals how to design and implement a stronger sense of focus and move sustainability programs forward. This proven combination of purpose, direction and speed is dubbed “Vectoring”. Based upon practitioner cases and data analysis from the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, Vectoring offers a plain-spoken framework to identify the relative position of companies compared to their peers. The framework and its 4 archetypes deliver insights for practitioners to locate inhibitors and overcome them by providing practical suggestions for process improvements. This includes designing and executing new sustainability programs, embedding the SDGs within company strategy and assessing the impact of sustainability programs on competitiveness and valuation. Offering directions for CFOs to shift companies from integrated reporting to integrated thinking in order to accelerate their sustainability programs, Winning Sustainability Strategies shows how to achieve purpose with profit and how to do well by doing good.