Global Value Chains, Flexibility and Sustainability

This book provides a conceptual framework of global value chains, flexibility and sustainability, supported by research projects, case applications and models in various related areas organized into three parts. In the first part of the book, various authors discuss how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of global value chains through various types of analyses. While the focus is on cluster management, and mergers and joint ventures, the legal aspects of control and liability concerning the integration of value chains, is also examined in one of the contributions. The second part includes chapters concerning ‘Strategy and Flexibility’. Strategies concern topics such as inventory management, talent management, strategic alignment, decision making, behavioural change and HR systems. The third and final part of the volume concerns the topic of ‘Sustainability’, wherein the contributions focus on various initiatives intended to promote sustainability across respective value chainsbearing in mind the concept of flexibility.  The book is a valuable resource for a varied audience, ranging from management students and researchers, to practicing business managers, as well as for professional institutions, consultants, and corporate organizations.

Julia Connell is an adjunct professor at Curtin University, visiting professor at the Graduate School of Business and research development advisor at Hasanuddin University, Indonesia. Prior to joining Curtin University, she was the Dean of Graduate Studies for the Australian Catholic University. Before that, she served as the Association Dean Postgraduate/ Director of the Graduate School of Business, University of Technology, Sydney. She has also held a number of other roles such as associate dean international, and director of research at other universities, and was a visiting/invited professor at various universities in the UK, France and Dubai. Professor Connell has published over 80 refereed journal articles and co-edited 5 books, many on employment-related issues, change and people development. Research concerning industry clusters, economic development and knowledge sharing led to her involvement in this conference. Professsor Connell has also consulted for a number of organizations such as the Australian Workplace and Productivity Agency, the NSW Police, local government Energy Australia and QBE.
 
Renu Agarwal is an associate professor, Operations and Supply Chain Management in the Management Discipline Group within the UTS Business School, Sydney, Australia. As Director of Supply Chain Management programs, she provides leadership in service value networks, supply chain management, service innovation and dynamic capability building, management practices, and innovation and productivity. She has been instrumental in securing funding and managing both federal and state government grants on management practices for Australia and New Zealand in collaboration with LSE, McKinsey and Stanford. More recently, Dr. Agarwal has been instrumental in the development of the Australian Management Capability Survey in collaboration with Stanford University and funded by DIIS, and launched by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to 15000 Australian businesses to assess the impact of sustainable supply chain management, digital business and innovation management practices on innovation and productivity. She is also the Research Director, Future of Innovation and Innovative Systems at the Centre for Business and Social Innovation, UTS Business. Dr. Agarwal has published in several top-tier journals, including Decision Sciences, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and is the editor of The Handbook of Service Innovation. Currently she is the editor of the upcoming Routledge Companion to Global Value Chains: Reinterpreting and reimagining mega trends in the world economy, and guest editor of the special issue of the Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management titled “The Future of Manufacturing Global Value Chains, Smart Specialization and Flexibility” by Springer.
 
Sushil is AbdulazizAlsagar chair professor (professor of strategic, flexible systems and technology management), and chair of the Strategic Management Group at the Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He has served as a visiting professor and delivered seminars in numerous leading universities, including Kyoto University, University of Minnesota, Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, University of Lethbridge, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, among others. He is an active researcher and has supervised more than 60 doctoral dissertations. He has written 20 books in the areas of flexibility, strategy, systems thinking, and technology management, and published over 300 papers in various refereed journals and conferences. He has pioneered the area of “flexible systems management” and made original contributions to the field of knowledge in the form of interpretive approaches in management. He is the founder editor-in-chief of the Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management and serves on the editorial boards of leading international journals. He is the founder president of the professional body, “Global Institute of Flexible Systems Management.” He has acted as a consultant to both governmental and industrial organizations, and has served as an independent director on the boards of RINL and HSCC.
 
Sanjay Dhir is an assistant professor of Strategic Management at the Department of Management Studies, IIT, Delhi. He is also the coordinator for the Executive MBA (Technology Management) at DMS, IIT, Delhi, and Director, GIFT School of Strategic Alliances Management. He is a fellow (PhD) of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow. He worked at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (Automotive), R&D Department, Nasik, for three years. He has published several research papers in leading international journals, including case studies at Richard Ivey School of Business, Western Ontario jointly distributed by Ivey and Harvard Business School. His research papers have been presented and published as conference proceedings at several prestigious academic conferences such as Academy of Management (AoM), Academy of International Business (AIB), Strategic Management Society (SMS), Southern Management Association (SMA), International Simulation Conference of India (ISCI, IIT, Mumbai) and Strategic Management Forum (SMF, IIM Lucknow). His major areas of interest are strategic management, joint ventures, innovation management, management of change and transformation, implementation strategy and international strategy. He is also a coordinator of the stakeholders’ engagement cell at IIT, Delhi, and associate editor of the Global Journal of Flexible Systems Management (Springer). He is also the editor of the e-journal ‘Global Journal of Business Excellence’ managed by the GIFT society, which aims to create and enhance business-excellence practices in Asia and the Pacific.