Your “product,” whether a physical product, a process, or a service, is the manifestation of all your organization’s value-creating activity. It is the value you are creating for your customer. It is essentially “why” your organization exists. It naturally follows, then, that new product development capability may be the most important skill in your organization because the work done during development impacts your organization for many years to come. You are essentially designing your future.

This chapter critically examines the contractarian argument for the exclusive shareholder franchise. That argument comes out of the view that the corporation is merely a nexus of contracts among all the corporate constituents, and thus all have essentially agreed that shareholders alone should have voting and control rights. The nexus of contracts argument, though, is descriptively wrong, as corporations cannot be reduced to a set of contracts. Proponents fall back on using the concept as a metaphor, one that posits that “hypothetical” constituents would, if given the chance, all bargain for such an arrangement, but this, too, misdescribes actual constituent preferences and admits of too many degrees of freedom. The final part of the chapter examines the new corporate contract, where the contract metaphor has been redeployed to describe the role between shareholders and the board. This, like the nexus of contracts conception that it springs from, is also descriptively wrong and normatively hollow.

This chapter critically examines the argument that Arrow’s theorem supports giving the corporate vote to shareholders alone. We begin by laying out the argument and distinguish it from two, related arguments: the argument from politics and the argument for absolute delegation. We then show that the Arrow’s theorem argument is flawed on many fronts. Shareholder preferences are not, as supposed, homogeneous. Even if they were homogeneous, they would not translate into the kind of agreement on board candidates necessary to avoid intransitive corporate election results. Finally, restricting voting rights to shareholders gives up a fundamental condition of democracy in a situation where the likelihood and impact of intransitive results are already negligible.

In this concluding chapter, we note some of the societal problems associated with corporations, such as income inequality, and explore the relationship between those problems and the fact that shareholders have ultimate control of corporate decision-making. We then catalog the ways in which the theoretical underpinnings of this arrangement – shareholder primacy – appear to be in decline and the accompanying law and economics arguments in favor of the exclusive shareholder franchise have fallen apart. The chapter, and the book, conclude with some thoughts about how incorporating employees into firm governance is the best path forward.

This chapter provides an excellent overview of how to think about evaluating public sector knowledge transfer activities. It provides both a conceptual framework for doing so, as well as potential metrics. And it also includes a nice review of the now large body of economic and policy literature on these topics that has been developed over the past two decades.

This chapter analyzes the public research system and policies implemented in South Africa to promote innovation and economic development. In addition to public research organizations and state-owned enterprises, the government research and innovation infrastructure is supplemented with private sector research, regulatory bodies, industry associations, and the South African Patent Office in South Africa. The chapter describes South African policies that have been introduced to support the supply of public research, consisting of the outputs of public research organizations, policies to support the innovative capabilities of firms, and policies to support linkages and knowledge transfer between public research and firms. Four case studies based on desk research and interviews show that the main channels for knowledge transfer in South Africa are informal methods and research agreements. The chapter concludes that a number of factors have limited the flow of knowledge from public research to businesses in South Africa and action is required to improve the demand for university research and increase the domestic capability to absorb and learn how to use technologies associated with new investment and modernization.

This chapter analyzes the efforts and policies implemented in Brazil to support innovation and facilitate interaction among universities, researchers, research organizations, and companies based on a review of literature and legislation on university–industry relations in Brazil; data on IP and related indicators in official Brazilian government reports; information gathered through questionnaires sent to eighteen Brazilian universities and research institutes; and in-depth interviews with four selected Brazilian knowledge transfer offices. The chapter reviews the key literature on knowledge transfer in Brazil and provides an overview of the role of public research organizations in the Brazilian innovation system as well as the new policies introduced to reinforce its scientific and innovative capacity. It also analyzes the institutional practices as well as the main channels for knowledge transfer in Brazil. The chapter concludes that while the major universities and research institutes in Brazil now have a knowledge transfer office to support knowledge transfer to the business sector and the Brazilian legislation has improved its management of intellectual property rights, excessive bureaucracy, limited patent licensing to companies, and lack of competition among Brazilian companies are a few reasons why university–industry interaction is not stronger in Brazil.

A consensus exists that the EU’s excellence in the realm of scientific research does not translate into a correspondingly high level of performance in terms of technological innovation. The perceived failure of European countries to turn scientific advances into marketable innovations is often termed the “European paradox.” The innovation landscape is undergoing profound changes due to the accelerating pace of technological development, the globalization of markets, and the shortening economic life of products and processes. Hence, support frameworks for innovation and knowledge transfer are foreseen to play a highly significant role in the forthcoming EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the public research system and policies that the United Kingdom has implemented to support university–industry knowledge transfer in order to leverage public research for innovation and economic growth. The chapter discusses the evolution of universities and public research institutes in the United Kingdom and both the supply-side and demand-side policies implemented in support of university–industry knowledge transfer. The chapter examines the various knowledge transfer activities, with particular focus on research commercialization activities, in universities and public research institutes and compares their performance in terms of commercialization success. It also discusses the private sector’s demand for university knowledge and the practices that universities have set up for management of their knowledge transfer activities. The chapter concludes with lessons that can be drawn from the UK case study of its policies and practices in knowledge transfer.

One of the major problems in the world nowadays is the lack of access to financing for the lower classes, and in developing countries this issue also affects a big part of the middle class. In this chapter, we will analyze innovations that have been implemented in Latin America to help solve the problem of lack of financing in the population of scarce resources, and the companies or organizations behind these innovations. We study companies that are innovative not only in their business model, their group lending work, but also in their social commitment and their integral way of attacking the problem with education and other elements. Additionally, technology has played an important role in the innovation of microfinance institution mainly for the MOP. This chapter analyzes some of the most recent and innovative strategies that microfinancial organizations, dedicated mainly to the MOP population, have created to increase access to their services, and therefore, to improve the financial inclusion of this segment of the population.

We analyze a series of case studies of MNCs innovative business models, overcoming geographical, infrastructural, and social-cultural challenges to exploit the size of the traditional retail channel in LAC and its social–commercial connectedness with the middle-income customers. We display how innovators incorporate previously ill-collaborating players, (financial institutions, technology companies, (non)-governmental and (non)-profit organizations), in their models producing benefits for the MoP customers and retailers as crucial partners. Their models expand company´s value chains to the traditional retailers increasing their productivity through technology and modern retail practices, yielding a powerful impact on them and their communities. They employ and train locals with knowledge about the needs and aspirations of local communities, access to far-flung rural, lower-income consumers, contributing to job creation and MoP member´s income and improved quality of life. Innovative enterprises master multiple distribution schemes to bring an optimal range of products and services to those communities, efficiently achieving distribution and overall business excellence as well as social impact.

The entertainment industry is very heterogeneous, also for the MOP. In this chapter, we present various definitions proposed by different authors with varied academic backgrounds. The truth that they agree on is that entertainment is “that which the people find entertaining,” while leisure is about the actions that suppose freedom and enjoyment. On a global level, the entertainment industry itself has been studied from different sectors, which includes the following categories within the entertainment and media industry: cable or free-to-air television, internet, press, magazines, publishing market, cinema, music, and video games. We present in the chapter different cases in Latin America, obtained from secondary and primary sources such as restaurants because this category is one of those preferred by the MOP since it combines leaving the house, accompanied by family or friends, and enjoying time over a meal. Also other cases such as shopping centers, cinemas, and theme parks. Finally, we present the case of transportation because it is an important factor that impacts not only on entertainment options such as tourism, but also on business opportunities.

The quality of health care is one of the issues that highlights the great divide between advanced and less developed societies. In this chapter we present a view of the global healthcare industry, describing key indicators and its many different activities. Then, we look at trends and innovative actions that are shaking the industry, along with the drivers of health care shortly. Afterwards, we present a broad panorama of health care in Latin America. Five exemplary cases serve the purpose of illustrating how companies and individuals are bringing new solutions to the market, thus fostering change and improving the quality of life for many people. Those cases refer to dental services, specialized clinics for diabetes, pharmacies, home care services, and hospitals. We look at the founders of the chosen organizations, scanning the steps taken until the complete success of their proposals. Thus, we drive our quest for those elements of their business models that are suitable to reproduce in emerging nations with similar market conditions. In the end, we present some recommendations for companies of any size that are willing to venture into the healthcare industry in Latin America.

This chapter looks at successful knowledge transfer of products or processes from public research organizations to private sector firms for commercialization. Through six national case studies (Germany, the Republic of Korea, and the UK for high-income countries, and Brazil, China, and South Africa for middle-income countries), contextual conditions that influence success are discussed. Over time, the conceptual model behind policies to support knowledge transfer has shifted from a mode 1 linear pipeline model to a mode 3 model. In the linear model, basic research conducted by universities is followed by applied research, either by public research organizations or firms. In a mode 3 model, multiple actors – such as different types of public research organization, knowledge intermediaries such as knowledge transfer offices, and private businesses – are involved in an innovation system; there is a reverse knowledge flow whereby firms provide public research scientists with information on their needs, which influences the research projects of public research scientists. Best practice includes policy support for research and development and other innovation-related activities and incentives for firms to work closely with public sector researchers for problem solving and commercialization.