Andrew Jones

Grete Rusten

Patrik Ström

Brita Hermelin

Services and the Green Economy addresses a significant gap in the knowledge and understanding of sustainable economic development. Bringing together a range of expert contributions the book analyses the role of services and service industries in the transition to a greener economy. Framed by an approach within environmental economic geography, chapters written by leading researchers from a range of disciplines explore how service industries, service firms and service activities are at heart of green economic processes. Adopting a global perspective, it includes research from the US, Europe, South America and Japan, providing a detailed insight into how the crucial role of service industry activity has often been ignored in current understandings of a green economic transition.

Services and the Green Economy

John R. Bryson

Design is central to every service or good produced, sold and consumed. Manufacturing and service companies located in high cost locations increasingly find it difficult to compete with producers located in countries such as India and China. Companies in high-cost locations either have to shift production abroad or create competitive advantage through design, innovation, brand and the geographic distribution of tasks rather than price. Design Economies and the Changing World Economy provides the first comprehensive account of the relationship between innovation, design, corporate competitiveness and place. Design economies are explored through an analysis of corporate strategies, the relationship between product and designer, copying and imitation including nefarious learning, design and competitiveness, and design-centred regional policies. The design process plays a critical role in corporate competitiveness as it functions at the intersection between production and consumption and the interface between consumer behaviour and the development and design of products. This book focuses on firms, individuals, as well as national policy, drawing attention to the development of corporate and nation based design strategies that are intended to enhance competitive advantage. Increasingly products are designed in one location and made in another. This separation of design from the place of production highlights the continued development of the international division of labour as tasks are distributed in different places, but blended together to produce design-intensive branded products. This book provides a distinctive analysis of the ways in which companies located in developed market economies compete on the basis of design, brand and the geographic distribution of tasks. The text contains case studies of major manufacturing and service companies and will be of valuable interest to students and researchers interested in Geography, Economics and Planning.

Grete Rusten

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