This monograph is the proceedings of a symposium held at the University of California at Berkeley, September 12-14, 1990. It was sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPR!) and by the University of California University-Wide Energy Research Group (UERG). The sympo­ sium brought together researchers and practitioners from academia, the utility industry, private and public organizations and regulatory agencies to address various challenges and opportunities related to product differen­ tiation in the electric power industry. Electric utilities are evolving rapidly from commodity-oriented services to product-oriented services. Utilities are offering menus of service options tailored to the needs of different customers. Reliability is one important dimension of electric service that lends itself to such product differentia­ tion., Options include lower rate curtail able services for industrial cus­ tomers, higher reliability power for some commercial customers, and load control with rebates for residential customers., These specialized services are a first step toward the product differentiation goal of allowing all customers to choose the type of service best suited to their electricity needs. The symposium provided a forum for in depth examination of the complex planning, development, and implementation issues associated with differ­ entiated products. Its specific objectives were to: xviii • Review the state of the art in implementing reliability differ­ entiated electric services. • Address the entire process for developing and implementing reliability differentiated product menus including research, design, marketing, implementation, and evaluation. • Consider technical, economic, and regulatory barriers to imple­ menting reliabilitydifferentiated product design.

This book presents a selection of the best papers from the 5th International Conference on Financial Markets and Corporate Finance (ICFMCF2023), held in the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, in July 2023. In today's dynamic and swiftly changing financial environment, marked by heightened volatility and complexity, ensuring the financial sector's resilience is paramount. The contents of this book address this gap by offering state-of-the-art research in the fields of financial institutions, financial markets, and corporate finance. The book specifically explores dynamic topics such as risk management in banks, the growth of fintech, cryptocurrencies, the proliferating usage of derivative instruments, CSR policies, and the effect of corporate governance and earnings management on firm performance, with a special emphasis on emerging economies. The studies utilize advanced and innovative qualitative and quantitative techniques to offer valuable insights into finance. The studies included in this book deliberate on theoretical work, empirical findings, and policy implications related to financial markets and corporate finance. Given the scope, the range of papers in this collection benefits academics, practitioners, industry experts, and policymakers seeking economic insights to address various challenges.

Most boards are faced with the paradox of growth. Organic growth is slow and can be difficult in mature markets. M&A provides more rapid growth but is higher risk in terms of outcome. Businesses need growth not just to satisfy investors but to create market power and scale economies. This book helps to navigate the difficult terrain faced by boards wishing to grow through acquisition. It identifies which strategies are more likely to be effective and how the chosen strategy largely determines the form of integration. Taking a step-by-step approach, this book guides readers through the key decisions and likely business outcomes. Each chapter is accompanied by lessons which are helpful in summarising and consolidating the key issues.

This book provides a new and unique perspective on ideas of demand within sports economics. It reviews the methodologies that underpin the current analysis of the demand for sporting events, highlights their limitations, and proposes ways in which they can be improved. By proposing a new framework that takes approaches from behavioural economics, socio-economics and open-systems methodology, a new perspective is proposed that deepens our understanding of the demand for sporting events and is presented as a research strategy that embraces qualitative and mixed methods.

This book analyses the possible regionalization of global value chains, particularly in manufacturing. Amidst calls for an industrial renaissance in Europe and a resurgence of manufacturing jobs in the United States, the dynamics of global value chains have been reshaped by global pandemics, geopolitical tensions, and increased automation.

This book focuses on environmental technology and financial markets of the Asia-Pacific region, which includes traditional and emerging innovative countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea. The research and its outcomes presented here are devoted to the nexus between innovation in environment-related technologies, finance, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. A promising means of achieving a sustainable society is to accelerate innovation in environmental technologies. Chapters of this book tackle some important issues. Using the data on environmental innovation creation and financial markets, the contributors identify three scopes in which ESG performance forms how investors evaluate corporate performance against climate-related risk in the Asia-Pacific capital markets (e.g., corporate bond and credit default swaps); how lenders allocate their credits according to carbon emissions in Japan; and what determines environmental technology creation and how it affects environmental improvement at a country-level. This book thus provides insights into the nexus between innovation in environment-related technologies, finance, and ESG.

The Brief explores the relationship between industrial dynamics, business strategies, and environmental regulations in the agrochemical industry. Focusing on contested technologies that continue to be used despite evidence of their hazardous impacts, the book calls for investigating the potential hazards during the inventive phase of companies to anticipate future risks. Combining patent analysis with computational chemistry and toxicology, the author examines the toxicity of chemical inventions and the effectiveness of environmental regulations in curbing harmful products. The result is a comprehensive dataset that combines patent data with chemical structures, which provides valuable insights into firms' innovation strategies as well as their potential hazards. Underscoring the importance of effective regulation in addressing social and environmental challenges, this Brief will be of interest to researchers and practitioners at the intersection of numerous fields, including economic policy, industrial economics, agribusiness, management, life sciences, and sustainability.

This book addresses the idea that there are two ways to go about achieving a safe working environment. The text challenges the prevailing notion that compliance with a rule system, imposed from the top of an organization and designed to anticipate possible hazards in system operation, is really incompatible with the idea that the professional expertise of front-line workers is what promotes safe outcomes despite inevitable unanticipated perturbations. The contributors, drawn from academic and industrial backgrounds, demonstrate that rather than being at odds with each other, rules-compliance and proactivity are in fact complementary resources the coexistence of which increases safety. Furthermore, the implications of this approach extend beyond safety, being relevant to business performance, strategies for innovation and system resilience as well.

This book presents carefully selected chapters from the proceedings of the 6th International Scientific Conference on Business and Economics (ISCBE),Tetovo, North Macedonia, which took place in May 2023. The chapters address a wide range of areas relevant to contemporary business and economics issues such as economic shocks, high inflation, energy crisis, COVID-19, growth prospects, economic forecast, labor market, gender inequalities, migration, entrepreneurship, and family businesses, firm development and innovations, technological transformation, etc. Researchers learn about the latest studies that discuss emerging challenges and perspectives of business and economics in the perspective of post-crisis economic recovery, consolidation, and stability.

This book extensively examines various contemporary macroeconomic themes of India, namely growth and macro policies, tax reforms, government finances and intergovernmental fiscal transfers, banking and monetary policy, and environment and social sector policies. It has three to six chapters devoted to each of these broad themes, with the contributors being eminent economists from the region. The book serves as an excellent reference for students in economics, finance, and management, and a valuable tool for professionals such as policymakers and investment analysts and other stakeholders in the areas of global economics and finance, in general, and India in particular.

Europe faces significant challenges in the coming decades: geopolitical, demographic, technological, increased competition, climate-related, and health issues due to an aging population, to mention a few. Given these challenges, technological progress and new ways of handling complex issues will be key to continued prosperity and growth. To accomplish a growth process driven by innovation and entrepreneurship, the institutional environment must take into account a multitude of different policy areas that interact to either strengthen or weaken an economy's innovative potential. Innovation is not only about R&D and higher education but is also intimately related to entrepreneurship. Similarly, entrepreneurship is not only about low start-up costs and favorable tax rates. Hence, a consistent and coordinated policy environment conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship is required to translate innovation into high-growth firms and macro-level growth.

​This book explores some relevant distortions and market failures in financial and banking markets caused by the recent financial crisis and offers important insights to policymakers as well. After having introduced the reader to the economic background behind the origin of the present financial turmoil, the book proposes a distinct angle to look at some macro and microeconomic aspects. The volume discusses whether and to what extent policies, implemented by governments and monetary authorities to countervail bank defaults and avoid a disastrous financial instability, have in some way determined opportunistic conducts (moral hazard), changes in banks’ behaviour, distortive incentives and market failures. Furthermore, the book offers a viewpoint on the effects of the evolution of regulation for the banking sector. Finally, the book assesses how the increase in the cost of funding and the shrinking in credit supply (credit crunch) has modified the financial structure of small and medium firms. To illustrate this, some specific cases at Italian regional level are examined.

Physical interaction platforms (PIPs) such as living labs, innovation labs or co-working spaces serve as environments for ideas, experiments, and collaborative innovation. They play a key role in value creation by orchestrating ecosystem actors and facilitating interaction, e.g. the exchange of goods, services, or social currency such as information. This book explores how PIPs can be systematically designed. It adopts a platform perspective, focusing on value creation for manifold actors as a fundamental element for the sustainable operation of a platform. Well-established insights from the design of digital platforms are taken as a foundation and adapted to the physical world. This analysis is compiled of 4 major studies, structured along the lifecycle of a PIP. The first study explores design dimensions of PIPs as a basis for a design process. The second study explores the design process of a PIP itself.

This Brief provides a cutting-edge evaluation of the application of digital technologies to tackle the informal economy. Employing institutional theory to explain the informal economy, this book reveals that the informal economy arises when formal institutional failings trigger a gap between the formal rules of the game and social norms. Chapters outline how use of digital technologies by public authorities, such as tax, social security and labor authorities, can alter social norms so that they accord with the formal rules of the game and generate a formalization of the informal economy. Setting out the e-government tools that can improve the relationship between businesses, employers, workers and citizens, and government, this book will be essential reading for academics and advanced students studying development economics, labor economics, public economics, behavioral economics, economic sociology and institutional economics as well as for government policymakers working in related fields.