| This proceedings volume presents a multidisciplinary analysis of modern businesses as complex systems and some managerial implications of managing complex networks in the knowledge economy. It discusses the impact of major forces that are altering today's business landscape, such as sweeping technological changes, unbundling of integrated structures, growing interdependence between once-independent sectors and increased unpredictability of strategy outcomes. The result has been and will increasingly be the dominion of complex interconnected networks in business. One of the challenges facing today's management is to develop theories and practices that address the dynamics of business networks. Complexity theory has much to contribute to this purpose. Thus, this volume focuses on exploring the emerging patterns of order and discussing the new management practices suitable to the network economy.
About the Author Prof Pierpaolo Andriani comes from a physics background and has been Project Manager for various Research and Development European projects with several years’ experience in the laser industry and laser research. In 1997 he decided to move into academia at the University of Durham, where he currently teaches in innovation and management of technology at the Business School. Current research focuses on the application of complexity theory to industrial clusters. Prof Andriani is Chairman of the Durham Business School Alumni Association, Director of The Complexity Society, and Director of the sessions of the Summer School "e-Business and Complexity: New Management Practices".
Prof Giuseppina Passiante is Associate Professor at the Department of Innovation Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Lecce, (Italy). Currently her research fields concern the e-Business management, and more specifically the management of learning organizations and learning processes in the Net-Economy. Her focus is mainly on the development of Intellectual Capital, both in entrepreneurial and academic organizations. She is also an expert in the development of local systems versus information and communications technologies (ICTs), ICTs and clusters approach, complexity in economic systems. In these research fields she has realized programs and projects, and published several papers. |
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