With the global competition ever more intensified, there has been a plethora of literature on innovation and technology. With no doubt, those interests focus on the competitiveness of the firm or national economy. This edited volume is no exception. But unlike other books, the point of emphasis is somewhat shifted to the left: what is the impact of global competition on the inequality between the North and the South; unemployment or job creation; uneven developed competitiveness among regions, in particular G3; the prospect of small and medium-sized enterprise. The overall thread of this book is much more akin to ones of development economics than those of other materials.
This book is the one of the series: 'Unemployment in Europe' 'Managing the Global Economy' 'Creating Industrial Capacity: Towards Full Employment' 'Employment and Economic Performance' You can guess what would be the tone and interest of papers in this book from the name of other books in the series. Those are particularly concerned with how to restore full employment, particularly in Europe. Writers delve into how to make innovation more benign and less threatening to the job creation. But naturally, job creation is not attainable without flexibility and company dynamics especially on the face of globalization. So this volume focuses on how firms can be made more innovative to introduce new products and services, open up new markets and develop new industries. Most model cases are from the US and Japan. Vis-a-vis globalization, writers intend to draw policy recommendations to sustain prosperity by way of stimulating technological development. But when it comes to real actor to foster the development, the point is far from clear, and that, not that realistic. They seem to have Japanese developmental state in mind. But I'm not that positive to that kind of position as a student of Japanese economy and a Korean.
Besides, each paper is not that bad. Thou those are hard to be said as innovative, well written and giving good vantage point on the subject. But overall quality of the book looks not that brilliant. I can't be sympathetic to the conclusion. To me, their appraisal of East Asia is not that appealing. And their position doesn't go beyond the context of EU area.
If you have interest in the topic of innovation, competitiveness, and development, papers in this book are surely helpful. But if you are not oriented in those field, this book should be not your choice. If you want to be accustomed to the field of innovation, and to know what is the state of art discussion, read 'The Dynamic Firm'. If you want to be oriented to innovation and technology from the view of development, Ruttan's 'Technology, Growth, and Development' should be the pick. It's much more systematic and influential.

This is a good book introducing the global economics