Today's world is complex and getting more so each day. Huge multinational corporations, international crisis and fast breaking events require most people to make decisions on a daily basis without the tools to understand the long term impact that today's decision might create. Because most people have never really been trained in how to make important complex decisions most people rely on experience, and 'gut reaction' which is okay for many decisions, but not okay for decision that will have meaningful impact on organizations and individual. Decision makers need to develop the art and science of strategic decision making. Here, Professor Thomas Martin explains the need for decision makers to modify their thinking about how they deal with acquiring and analyzing information in each of the decision-making process steps. This approach requiring thinking modification will lengthen the process, make it more complex, and to some more arduous, but the comprehensiveness of the new thinking approach should lead to improved and more effective decision making. In this book, Dr. Martin presents a thinking modification framework that asserts that in the decision-making process, there are three situational states — a current state, future state, and a transitional state that one must deliberate in finding a solution. For each of these situational states, Martin develops an identical five-step process to determine the best decision to make. The steps of this process include: • Change-Needing Situational Analysis • Challenge Framing & Causal Analysis • Generating Solution Ideas • Choosing a Solution Set • Implementation and Aftermath Planning This book will appeal to decision makers, leaders, and students of management who want a specific framework that details the process behind making strategic, well-informed decisions.

The book focuses on low-carbon issues and China’s economy, which is analyzed from the perspective of electricity economics. It proposes the novel concept of an “economic gene” to reflect certain characteristics of the economy. The gene mapping of China’s economy has been studied based on production functions with electricity. Economic mutations have also been studied with the aim of diagnosing problems in the economy. Two such mutations have occurred in China since 1978, the most recent being in 2012 and no further mutation is expected until 2025. The book describes the inherent quality of China’s economy from 2012 to 2025, and how mechanism reforms would greatly improve marginal representative factor productivity in this period. The agents response equilibrium (ARE) approach to simulate national economy, based on multi-agent technology is proposed. Another cornerstone of the model is the input-output table. Simulated input-output tables from 2011 to 2025 are provided in the book. This book provides recommendations for policy makers and advisors, and is a valuable resource for researchers in the fields of economics, public policies, low-carbon development, electricity and energy. It also provides insights into China’s economic development.

Everything your students need to solve problems, manage change and deliver innovation using the Creative Problem Solving framework This text is the most comprehensive and contemporary overview and description of Creative Problem Solving (CPS) available today. Friendly and highly practical for a broad base of researchers and practitioners, the book provides a framework, language, guidelines, and set of easy-to-use tools for understanding challenges, generating ideas, and transforming promising ideas into action. New and Hallmark Features The authors expanded their emphasis on CPS as a flexible, dynamic process that enables users to select and apply CPS tools, components, and stages in a meaningful way that meets their actual needs. A framework for problem solving that has been tested and applied across ages, settings, and cultures allows readers to apply a common approach to process across many traditional "boundaries." Specific objectives in each chapter provide a clear focus for instruction or independent learning. Practical case studies introduced at the beginning of each chapter and then completed as a "rest of the story" toward the end of the chapter provide an application anchor for the reader. New enhanced graphics: Updated and refreshed tables, figures, and illustrative images provide "pictures" to go along with the authors' words. A companion Web site with additional resources can be found at www.sagepub.com/Isaksen3e.

Challenge-based research focuses on addressing societal and environmental problems. One way of doing so is by transforming existing businesses to profitable ventures through co-creation and co-evolution. Drawing on the resource-based view, this book discusses how social challenges can be linked with the industrial value-chain through collaborative research, knowledge sharing, and transfer of technology to deliver value. The work is divided into three sections: Part 1 discusses social challenges, triple bottom line, and entrepreneurship as drivers for research, learning, and innovation while Part 2 links challenge-based research to social and industrial development in emerging markets. The final section considers research-based innovation and the role of technology, with the final chapter bridging concepts and practices to shape the future of society and industry. The authors present the RISE paradigm, which integrates people (society), planet (sustainability), and profit (industry and business) as critical constructs for socio-economic and regional development. Arguing that the converging of society and industry is essential for the business ecosystem to stay competitive in the marketplace, this book analyzes possible approaches to linking challenge-based research with social and industrial innovations in the context of sectoral challenges like food production, housing, energy, biotechnology, and sustainability. It will serve as a valuable resource to researchers interested in topics such as social challenges, innovation, technology, sustainability, and society-industry linkage.

Within the context of Industrial 4.0 and beyond, developing and managing the technologies and operations key to sustaining the success of manufacturing businesses is crucial, and the promotion of manufacturing-engineering education, training, and research is of vital importance. This book presents the proceedings of ICMR 2022, the 19th International Conference in Manufacturing Research, Incorporating the 36th National Conference in Manufacturing Research, held in Derby, UK, from 6 - 8 September 2022. For over two decades, ICMR has been the main manufacturing research conference held in the UK. Bringing together researchers, academics, and industrialists to share their knowledge and experience, the conference provides a friendly and inclusive platform for a broad community of researchers who share the common goal of making digital and advanced manufacturing as efficient and effective as possible. The theme of ICMR2022 is smart manufacturing. Of the 78 papers submitted, 58 were accepted for presentation after review and are included here. This represents an acceptance rate of 72%. The book is divided into 8 sections: smart manufacturing; digital manufacturing; additive manufacturing; robotics and industrial automation; composite manufacturing and machining processes; product design, development and quality management; information and knowledge management; and decision support and production optimization. Exploring all core areas of digital and advanced manufacturing engineering, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field.