As the twenty-first century begins, significant changes are occurring in the way that services and goods are produced and consumed. One of the key drivers of this change is information and communications technology (ICT). It has transformed the role of space and time in patterns of economic development, in the rise of globalization and in the scale and structure of organizations. ICT has therefore accelerated the process of continual change and evolution that is the hallmark of both the capitalist economy and of organizations. Giving a student-friendly account of the diversity of theoretical perspectives, this outstanding book aids understanding the evolving economic geography of advanced capitalist economies. A series of detailed firm and employees' case studies from Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific, are used to inform useful theoretical case studies, which also investigate the significance of increased blurring of the lines between services and manufacturing functions in the production and consumption process.

With global markets more crowded than ever, it is a major challenge for organizations to attract and retain customers due to the competition they are faced with. This text is designed to teach exemplary customer service thinking in public or private, domestic or international organizations and is written in a practical, common sense manner reflecting current customer service concepts and hints.

Until the 1990s, industrialization was the dominant development paradigm for the Asia-Pacific region. Since then, advanced services (finance, business or 'producer services', information and creative services) have become deeply embedded in the processes of economic growth and change in the region. This rapid tertiary expansion is fundamentally restructuring national and regional economies and urban form in line with the introduction of advanced production systems, national modernization programmes and the globalization strategies of governments. Services are being actively deployed as instruments of metropolitan reconfiguration and land use change. This book explores various aspects of the relationship between service industries and economic development in Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand. It provides new sector-oriented and regional and national perspectives on services and development.

This groundbreaking volume is one of the first to address questions related to the development of producer services in China. The contributions explore a wide range of associated topics including the characteristics of the growth of producer services and how this is related to China's economic and urban transition, the distribution of these services amongst Chinese cities, as well as drawing comparison between producer service development in China and Western counterparts. The text also discusses the dynamics of the development of these services in China and how the political-economic embeddedness of China has shape the development of producer services. Finally, the consequences of this growth and how the economy and urban space have change in response is explored, as well as the challenges Chinese cities face in moving towards a service economy, and how this can inform future public policies.

In recent years announcements of the birth of business anthropology have ricocheted around the globe. The first major reference work on this field, the Handbook of Anthropology in Business is a creative production of more than 60 international scholar-practitioners working in universities and corporate settings from high tech to health care. Offering broad coverage of theory and practice around the world, chapters demonstrate the vibrant tensions and innovation that emerge in intersections between anthropology and business and between corporate worlds and the lives of individual scholar-practitioners. Breaking from standard attempts to define scholarly fields as products of fixed consensus, the authors reveal an evolving mosaic of engagement and innovation, offering a paradigm for understanding anthropology in business for years to come.

A history of our time.

China's World Trade Organization (WTO) membership negotiations take place on 2 tracks -- bilateral & multilateral negotiations. The bilateral negotiations, including those between China & the U.S., are designed to obtain China's commitment to remove market access barriers & open China's domestic market to more foreign goods & services. The focus of the multilateral negotiations between China & 44 members is to ensure that China will conform its trade to the rules, practices, & obligations required by the WTO agreement. This report examines: the results of the Nov. 1999 bilateral Agreement on Market Access between China & the U.S., & the status of China's ongoing multilateral negotiations in the WTO.