Between Imitation and Innovation: The Transfer and Hybridization of Productive Models in the International Automobile Industry

Book Description

Recent years have seen intense debates among management and academics on the rise of `lean production' and `Japanization'. Some authors have stressed the `universal' impact of new forms of work organization and `best practice' while others have questioned the limits of convergence, stressed the weight of national contexts or `societal effects', or highlighted the evolutionary effects of unpredictability in the external environment. The international automobile industry has been a focus for much of this debate and this book, written by a team of leading international researchers in the field, uses this industry to examine in detail the actual practice of the transfer and adaptation of productive models and the trajectories of innovation, compromise, and failure that can result. Case studies cover in detail the Japanese transplant experience in North America, and the global experience of hybrid production systems in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. The book contributes to theoretical discussions about the transfer, adaptation, or convergence of productive models. In particular, the authors argue that direct transplantation or imitation of these models is rarely feasible or even desirable. Systems cannot be transferred without being significantly reshaped. Instead, the book focuses on the process of `hybridization', the complex interaction of productive models with national and societal effects. Hybridization, it is argued, is inevitable. But this should be seen not simply as a process of compromise and retreat but also as an important dynamic of innovation and learning. This book is from the French-based international research network GERPISA (Groupe d'etude de recherche permanent sur l'industrie et les salaries de l'automobile). See related titles below.

Book Description

Arguing that we have largely inadequate financial markets, dealing with relatively small risks, Robert Shiller makes a unique set of proposals for marketizing the biggest economic risks faced by society today, risks that really matter to most people. The new markets could diminish the impact
of international economic fluctuations and reduce the inequality of wealth. He proposes new international markets for claims on national incomes, on components and aggregates of national incomes, and for property such as real estate, and argues that these markets might dwarf our stock markets in
their activity and significance. He challenges the widespread presumption that any such new market would be infeasible, by offering solutions to technical problems of measurement and settlement. There are proposals for implementing markets in perpetual claims and a substantial section on the
construction of index numbers for use in settlement in the new markets.

Book Description

Science and Power in Colonial Mauritius examines, within the context of the history of sugarcane production in Mauritius, the cross-cultural debates about the production and dissemination of science and technology from "developed" to "less-developed" countries and from elites to peasants within these countries. The book also shows in great detail that the history of science, technology, and colonialism can shed light on contemporary problems in natural resource management and global policy making.

Book Description

This research series will focus on the presentation of integrated, known, and confirmed phenomenological observations of electromagnetic fields; their basic mechanisms of interaction; and their applications in biology and medicine. Moreover, it will promote the flow of ideas between practitioners and researchers in biomedicine, engineering, and the physical sciences. The inaugural volume summarizes the history of the field and presents basic, applied, and clinical information ranging from extremely low to super high frequencies.

Advances in applied biomagnetics and the life-force power: Knowledge that's sweeping the globe

Average customer rating:

Advances in applied biomagnetics and the life-force power: Knowledge that's sweeping the globe
R.C Schafer
Manufacturer: ACAP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006PCC4Q

Advances in Biomagnatism (Advances in Biomagnetism)

Average customer rating:

Advances in Biomagnatism (Advances in Biomagnetism)

Manufacturer: JAI Press Inc.,U.S.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

The Sensory Physiology of Aquatic Mammals presents current findings in the study of the sensory functions of aquatic mammals, with an emphasis on hearing, vision, and somatic senses. These senses have not been well researched prior to this volume.
The book opens with a discussion of the anatomy and mechanics of the cetacean middle and inner ear and demonstrates what makes it particularly sensitive to high frequencies; it then focuses on vision in aquatic mammals: specifically, those with centrally-symmetric eye optics with a quasi-spherical lens and hemispheric eyecup.
Finally, The Sensory Physiology of Aquatic Mammals concludes with a comparative analysis of sensory systems of aquatic mammals and terrestrial mammals.

Book Description

From the reviews: "The book has a broad and general coverage of both the mathematics and the numerical methods well suited for graduate students." Applied Mechanics Reviews #1 "This is a very well written book. The topics are developed with separate headings making the matter easily understandable. Computer programs are also included for many problems together with a separate chapter dealing with the application of computer programs to heat transfer problems. This enhances the utility of the book." Zentralblatt für Mathematik #1

Solutions Manual and Computer Programs for Physical and Computational Aspects of Convective Heat Transfer

Average customer rating:

Solutions Manual and Computer Programs for Physical and Computational Aspects of Convective Heat Transfer
Tuncer Cebeci , and P. Bradshaw
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Mechanics | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Amazon.com

Reading a Christopher Moore novel is a little like eating a potato chip--it's hard to stop at just one. And you don't have to look beyond the titles to understand the allure; who could pass up a book called Practical Demonkeeping or Island of the Sequined Love Nun? Each of Moore's tales skewers a particular literary genre. In Coyote Blue he nailed New Age fascination with Native American religion; in Blood-Sucking Fiends: A Love Story he put a new twist on the classic vampire tale. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove is a companion piece to his first novel, the hilariously twisted horror story Practical Demonkeeping, and readers of that book will recognize the setting, Pine Cove, California. In addition, Moore includes plenty of his patented weird sex, occasional gross-out death, several off-kilter but nonetheless affecting love stories, and some fabulous secondary characters such as Mavis Sand:

Mavis first began augmenting her parts in the fifties, first out of vanity: breasts, eyelashes, hair. Later, as she aged and the concept of maintenance eluded her, she began having parts replaced as they failed, until almost half of her body weight was composed of stainless steel (hips, elbows, shoulders, finger joints, rods fused to vertebrae five through twelve), silicon wafers (hearing aids, pacemaker, insulin pump), advanced polymer resins (cataract replacement lenses, dentures), Kevlar fabric (abdominal wall reinforcement), titanium (knees, ankles), and pork (ventricular heart valve).

In a nutshell, the plot revolves around a gigantic prehistoric lizard whose slumber deep beneath the ocean surface is interrupted by a radioactive leak from a nearby power plant. At the same time, a woman in Pine Cove hangs herself; the local psychiatrist (who has been prescribing antidepressants to everyone in town with gay abandon) decides the suicide was her fault and yanks everyone's medication; and an elderly black blues singer named Catfish Jefferson arrives to perform at the Head of the Slug saloon. Into this already strange brew mix one schizoid former B-movie starlet, a pot-head town constable, a bereaved local artist, a biologist tracking anomalous behavior in rats, a crooked sheriff, and a pharmacist with a bizarre sexual fixation on sea mammals, and you have a recipe for the kind of madness Moore does so well. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally—well, to be accurate, artificially—business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what's wrong and what, if anything, to do about it.

Download Description

The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally -- well, to be accurate, artificially -- business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what's wrong and what, if anything, to do about it.

Customer Reviews:

Steve!.......2007-09-22

Moore's 5th novel takes us back to the town and surrounding area where his career kicked off, Pine Cove. A few of the main characters from Practical Demonkeeping return but the main stars of this one are fresh, eccentric and very enjoyable to read about. A stand alone novel, not a sequel to his first novel, reading this book before that one won't spoil anything!

It's the off season tourist wise in Pine Cove but a leaking pipe from a Californian Power Plant attracts a tourist even bigger than your normal American human one. When a fuel truck gets angry with him he must take refuge in trailer park to recover and wonder why she couldn't just have told him no! Meanwhile a psychiatrist decides to switch all her patients' drugs with placebos resulting in hilarious consequences for the town but great business for the Slug (town bar). The town rent a cop is addicted to pot. A former B grade movie star existing as a crazy woman is getting attached to her new neighbour in more ways than one. Throw in a nerdy guy obsessed with finding out why his microchiped rats fled town and the whole town suddenly getting their libido back and you've got one hilarious tale. You've got to get all of his books!

If you like the surreal eccentric character comedy novels also check out the authors Bill Fitzhugh (Pest Control's a great place to start), Carl Hiassen (Stormy Weather's as good as any other), Dave Barry (Tricky Business) and Max Barry (Syrup).

Putting humor on the scales.......2007-07-28

After Harry Leon Wilson died in 1940, American comic novels stopped being funny about people. They didn't stop being funny.

But if they were writing about real people, the fun ended in tragedy, so that we had the comitragic novels of Peter de Vries. Or they wrote about giant monsters of amorphous instincts and physiology, like Christopher Moore in "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove."

This is, at least, funny. Some recent comic novels are either disgusting or puzzling without being fun.

Moore is a little puzzling. He appears to be making some point about psychotropic medicine, but I can't figure out what. And it is at least a little disgusting that his protagonist eats so many people.

Moore is a stylish writer and every chapter or two he gets off an amusing line. The plot is clever although Moore does have an irritating habit of forgetting what he wrote one or two pages earlier so that characters have to be in two places at once.

Ah, well, I cared enough about the poor monster to finish the book. I can't say as much about very many other recent comic novels.

Classic Moore.......2007-06-06

If you are a fan of Moore's other books, you will recognize some common characters. Set a little earlier than his "The Stupidest Angel", the book never disappoints. Outrageous characters, great story, and unbelievable laughter on each page. No one makes me laugh out loud like Christopher Moore.

What's not to love about a Moore Novel?.......2007-04-02

So far, I've read probably 2/3rds of Moore's offerings and I have to say, each one is thoroughly entertaining. Lust Lizard is no exception! Moore has the uncanny ability to take the most offbeat topics and turn them into great books.

In many ways, I feel the people of Pine Cove (Pine Cove is to Moore as Castle Rock is to Stephen King...a recurring locale where the unusual happens to ordinary people) are much like those kids from South Park where strange and unusal things happen and no one really questions the underlying idea of what's going on....but the characters just deal with the present crisis. No one in Lust Lizard really gets overly excited about the propsect of some ancient sea creature gobbling up Pine Cove denizens, rather the characters just sort of accept the "reality" and deal with it.

Moore has a strange sense of humor (well, strange to some at least) and if you have read any of his other books then you are quite prepared to pick this book up. Ever since reading Lamb, I've been on a non-stop tear to get through all of Moore's books. Its not that he's a modern-day literary genius, or that his works will be critically acclaimed as modern day masterpieces, its because they are pure entertainmnet and hard to put down. Honestly, every time I've ever read a review that says such and such a book is "non-stop hilarious, you'll laugh out loud" I rarely, if ever do. However, in the case of Moore's books, I find myself repeatedly laughing out loud (much to the amusement of those around me) and Lust Lizard was no exception.

In short, I loved this book and you will too!

hmm.......2007-03-23

Well I wouldn't say this book is for kids but it is truly amazing how much detail and whittyness went into this book. This book I could not put down! I finished it in two days! its truly funny and good.

Average customer rating:

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Christopher Moore
Manufacturer: Spike
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KRV9AI

Average customer rating:

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Christopher Moore
Manufacturer: Orbit
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S8NANS

Average customer rating:

Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
Christopher Moore
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OF5OIE

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books