SME's are acknowledged as effective sources of jobs and incomes, gaining an important position in the development agenda, subsequently 'cluster' policies were conceived as a framework to augment the effects of SMEs and to optimize resources used to support them. Based on case studies from Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia and India, this volume examines SME clusters and argues that unless they counteract common problems such as very low wages, poor working conditions, poor quality products and lack or environmental regulation, they will be pushed out of the market and so become unsustainable. This book suggests that the SME clusters currently being stretched should react by 'socially upgrading' in order to improve their innovation capacity, as well as social, environmental and labour standards. It puts forward conceptual frameworks which explain the way firms can upgrade: through markets, interaction among cluster members, through Corporate Social Responsibility and other such public policy, and through the better enforcement of regulation.

Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries surveys the literature on entrepreneurship in developing countries, which covers a wide range of issues from culture and values, institutional barriers such as financial sector development, governance, and property rights, to the adequacy of education and technical skills. A broad literature has also developed on foreign direct investment and its positive and negative effects on technology transfer and entrepreneurship. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of studies examined the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises in transition economies. As these economies moved from centralized economies to market economies, enterprise and entrepreneurship became important. Other studies examine the effects of infrastructural development and the macroeconomy on entrepreneurship. With such a wide scope of issues, Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries offers a framework for synthesizing this growing literature. This study offers that the identification of the externalities which affect entrepreneurship provides a useful framework to examine the literature on entrepreneurship in developing countries. Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries: - Examines the evolution of development policy - beginning with the colonial period and the immediate post-colonial era. In both of these periods there were strong government intervention and a heavy emphasis on government planning for development. An important cornerstone of the post-colonial period was the use of import substitution programs. - Second, with the failure of import substitution, many developing countries then switched to export promotion. - Third, we set out a framework to explore the literature on entrepreneurship in developing countries based on the existence of network, knowledge and demonstration, and failure externalities. - Fourth, the authors identify the core policy issues to address these externalities and argue that internalizing these externalities by finding mechanisms to reward and encourage the firms and people which produce them, should increase the level of productive entrepreneurship in developing countries.

Analyzing the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Asian developing countries, the book is based on a survey of key literature and data on SMEs with the focus on; recent development, export performance, main constraints, competitiveness, innovation and technology transfer, and female entrepreneurs.

Originally published in 1992 and based on two theoretical approaches: the Global Commodity Chain and the Global Production Network, this book investigates the multitude of processes, as well as diverse consequences of global integration upon industries, regions, enterprises and employees. In doing so, it draws from the experience of Western and Eastern and South-eastern Europe. These European cases are complemented with evidence from Kenya, Thailand as well as US, China, India and Mexico. The book explores multiple causes of decentralization, arguing beyond the pursuit of cheap and adaptable labour. It goes on to argue that the effects of delocalization within Europe, unlike those in the rest of the developed world, are less negative than usually portrayed. It concludes by putting forward recommendations for best future practice of successful adjustment strategies and examines how these might be adopted elsewhere in the world.

"This book is about corporate citizenship in developing countries, paying special attention to the new partnerships between companies, development agencies and/or civil society organisations. The book will deal with some of the following issues: analyse the background for discussing corporate citizenship in developing countries; describe some of the development issues facing companies trying to be good corporate citizens; present the background and content of the new partnerships between companies, development agencies and civil society organisations; and discuss the potentials and pitfalls of these cooperative approaches." "The book is written by scholars and practitioners with comprehensive knowledge of corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, private sector development, etc."--BOOK JACKET.

This is a thoroughly researched volume, edited by key specialists in the field, along with an impressive team of contributors, that surveys the nature and extent of informal home work in Asia; examining and arguing for protection of the workers who are exploited.

Economic geographers have always argued that space is key to understanding the economy, that the processes of economic growth and development do not occur uniformly across geographic space, but rather differ in degree and form as between different nations, regions, cities and localities, with major implications for the geographies of wealth and welfare. This was true in the industrial phase of global capitalism, and is no less true in the contemporary era of post-industrial, knowledge-driven global capitalism. Indeed, the marked changes occurring in the structure and operation of the economy, in the sources of wealth creation, in the organisation of the firm, in the nature of work, in the boundaries between market and state, and in the regulation of the socio-economy, have stimulated an unprecedented wave of theoretical, conceptual and empirical enquiry by economic geographers. Even economists, who traditionally have viewed the economy in non-spatial terms, as existing on the head of the proverbial pin, are increasingly recognising the importance of space, place and location to understanding economic growth, technological innovation, competitiveness and globalisation. This collection of previously published work, though containing but a fraction of the huge explosion in research and publication that has occurred over the past two decades, seeks to convey a sense of this exciting phase in the intellectual development of the discipline and its importance in grasping the spatialities of contemporary economic life.

This handbook presents a comprehensive and multi-faceted analysis of the BRICS countries and other emerging economies, exploring their economic, social, environmental, and governance dimensions and challenges.

The first systematic and comprehensive analysis of innovation in Africa based on mixed methods and dedicated firm-level, multi-country, multi-year survey data. For researchers, graduate students and policy makers in the fields of innovation studies, African business, international business, and development studies.