A Risk Benefit Perspective On Early Customer Integration

Customer integration in the early innovation phase, considered the method of choice in theory and practice, has shown unexpected side effects that may even outweigh its recognized advantages. As a result, management needs to be able to assess in advance whether the involvement of customers will add overall value to an innovation project. This book develops a mathematical formula to support this decision.

For small firms, knowledge leakage, loss and theft are counted among the greatest risks in inter-firm collaborations. SMEs are more vulnerable, because they suffer from a number of structural disadvantages when collaborating with larger companies, and yet, they need to collaborate with external partners to overcome their lack of resources.Therefore, this study investigates how SMEs can most effectively protect critical knowledge in collaborations with external partners, for that they can prevent knowledge loss, leakage and theft, while maximizing the performance of the collaboration.This book derives valuable insights for practice and theory through a comprehensive review of existing literature and a collection and analysis of experiences from Germany’s most innovative and successful SMEs.

In April 1991 BusinessWeek ran a cover story entitled, "I Can't Work This ?#!!@ Thing," about the difficulties many people have with consumer products, such as cell phones and VCRs. More than 15 years later, the situation is much the same-but at a very different level of scale. The disconnect between people and technology has had society-wide consequences in the large-scale system accidents from major human error, such as those at Three Mile Island and in Chernobyl. To prevent both the individually annoying and nationally significant consequences, human capabilities and needs must be considered early and throughout system design and development. One challenge for such consideration has been providing the background and data needed for the seamless integration of humans into the design process from various perspectives: human factors engineering, manpower, personnel, training, safety and health, and, in the military, habitability and survivability. This collection of development activities has come to be called human-system integration (HSI). Human-System Integration in the System Development Process reviews in detail more than 20 categories of HSI methods to provide invaluable guidance and information for system designers and developers.

This international comparison of pension plans lends great understanding to the transformation taking place in almost every nation around the world. It covers ten of the twelve countries of the European Union, as well as the United States and Japan. The project is interdisciplinary, covering a number of fields, such as economics, law, actuarial science, sociology, and political science, that contribute to the analysis of retirement income systems. The chapters vary in scope - some are comparative, some are restricted to a single country or to one type of plan in one country. Despite their diversity, the chapters share a common awareness of three aspects of pension plans: the importance of actors' roles in shaping each system, the different economic and social domains affected by retirement plans, and the interconnections between social security and supplementary plans.

An innovative, cardiology-specific text that blends basic science with the fundamentals of clinical medicine A Doody’s Core Title for 2022! Cardiology: An Integrated Approach to Disease skillfully bridges the gap between the science and practice of medicine. This beautifully illustrated book seamlessly integrates the core elements of cell biology, anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and pathology with clinical medicine. It is the perfect companion for medical students transitioning to their clinical years, as well as for practicing physicians who need a user-friendly update on the basic science underlying the practice of clinical medicine. Full-color design includes approximately 340 images and 40 tables Cases teach students how to apply principles to real-world patient situations The latest developments in the field are incorporated throughout the text End-of-chapter case-based questions with detailed explanations reinforce important concepts and assess understanding of the material

This text examines the difficulties involved in integrating the three perspectives of biology, psychology and sociology in relation to health. Part One explores professional perspectives and practice, Part Two explores lay perspectives and the final part reviews holistic approaches to health.