Technology, Business and the Market ― From R. and D. to Desirable Products

John Sheldrakea€?s long experience of teaching business and management to engineers has highlighted a gap in the knowledge of students and practitioners alike, between their grasp of developments in science and technology and how these developments lead to the creation of successful products. Using case studies, Technology, Business and the Market explores the impact of new materials, techniques and technologies, and looks at the links between innovation, entrepreneurship, business (including finance), design, manufacturing, branding and marketing. The author examines the ways in which scientific endeavour is conditioned and even distorted by contextual issues such as finance and fashion. This demonstration of the synthesis of technology, business and the market has relevance for students, practitioners and policy makers in established and emerging markets.

Professor John Sheldrake is based in the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College, London, where he teaches management and business to aeronautical and mechanical engineers, and a Professorial Research Fellow at the Global Policy Institute in the City of London. He was previously Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Business School at Imperial, where among other things, he taught the MBA elective on Corporate Social Responsibility. For two years he was the project manager of the Imperial College Formula Student programme which provides the first step to Formula 1 motor racing. Alongside his work at Imperial, Professor Sheldrake spent two years at the Royal Docks Business School, developing programmes in events and tourism management and specialising in sport tourism. He has published widely and is the author of Management Theory, which is in its second edition.