This interdisciplinary volume provides a critical and multi-disciplinary review of current manufacturing processes, practices, and policies, and broadens our understanding of production and innovation in the world economy. Chapters highlight how firms

This timely Research Agenda provides a state-of-the-art review of existing research on manufacturing, as well as highlighting key areas of study to advance the field. Expert contributors from across the globe analyse the central role of manufacturing industries in the global economy, considering it as a multi-scalar process and assessing the impact of climate change in necessitating the decarbonization of production processes.

Global production and purchasing operations create a platform for entry into new markets. However, it takes considerable effort to plan and implement a sustainable globalization strategy; this book will help in that task. The wealth of experience and analysis featured in this book is the result of an extensive survey among leading manufacturing companies as well as countless discussions with executives who have personally wrestled with the issues of "going global." The book treats the whole range of management challenges. In breadth and depth, the insights it offers surpass what a manager or most individual companies could acquire on their own.

Evolving rapidly from a mass-produced product orientation to a flexible, solutions-oriented model, the changing manufacturing sector is poised to lead a global economic recovery. Truly an insider's guide to the future of this critical sector, this book provides policy recommendations based on a wealth of information. Despite the appearance of difficult economic times for U.S. manufacturing, that sector of the American economy is actually the most innovative and competitive in the world. Far from being confined to the tired stereotype of Industrial Age commodities, such as steel and mass-produced consumer products, U.S. manufacturing has long been an engine for growth. In the 1990s, this central role was strengthened as new technology development and application spurred higher levels of growth throughout the economy. In its present configuration, manufacturing includes such high-tech industries as fiberoptics and microchips. Globalization has accelerated the growth of the manufacturing sector by increasing competitive pressures to cut costs and develop new products faster, spreading out the fixed costs of R&D and investment. Truly an insider's guide to the future of this critical sector, this book provides policy recommendations based on a wealth of information. Evolving rapidly from a mass-produced product orientation to a flexible, solutions-oriented model, the changing manufacturing sector is poised to lead a global economic recovery. But it can do so only if the right policies are in place in the United States. To that end, the editors of this volume recommend fiscal and tort reform, higher educational achievement, and continued deregulation. At the international level, further trade liberalization and steps to reduce the trade deficit are recommended to ensure the staying power of U.S. competitiveness, particularly for technology-intensive industries.

The Routledge Handbook of Industry and Development is a global overview of industrialisation. Each chapter will provide readers with contemporary insights into this this essential aspect of economic development. Industrialisation has been at the forefront of discussion on economic development since the earliest days of development economics. But over the last fifty years, the manufacturing sectors of different countries and regions have grown at strikingly different rates. In 1960 developing countries took a very small share of global manufacturing production. Today the position had changed radically with fast growth of manufacturing in many parts of what was originally the developing world, particularly in China and the rest of East Asia. On the other hand, countries in Africa and parts of Latin America have been largely left behind by this process of industrialisation. This volume aims to illuminate this uneven development and takes stock of the current issues that hinder and support industrialisation in low and middle income economies. This Handbook is a collection of chapters on different aspects of industrialisation experience in a range of countries. Key themes include, the role of manufacturing in growth, the nature of structural change at different stages of development, the role of manufacturing in employment creation, alternative options for trade and industrial policy, the key role of technology and technical change, and the impact of globalisation and the spread of global value chains and foreign direct investment on prospects for industrialisation. Several chapters discuss individual country experiences with examples from India, Mexico, South Africa and Tanzania, as well as an overview of African industrialisation. This authoritative Handbook will be a key reference source for those studying or wishing to understand contemporary economic development. Offering inspiration and direction for future research, this landmark volume will be of crucial importance to all development economics scholars and researchers.

The subdiscipline of economic geography has a long and varied history, and recent work has pushed the field to diversify even further. This collection takes this agenda forward by showcasing inspiring, critical and plural perspectives for contemporary economic geographies. Highlighting the contributions of global scholars, the thirty chapters showcase fresh ways of approaching economic geography in research, teaching and praxis. With sections on thought leaders, contemporary critical debates and future research agendas, this collection calls for greater openness and inclusivity.