TY - BOOK ID - 14263294 TI - Arms and innovation : entrepreneurship and alliances in the twenty-first-century defense industry PY - 2008 SN - 0226318869 0226318877 9786611957100 1281957100 0226318893 9780226318899 9781281957108 9780226318868 PB - Chicago : University of Chicago Press, DB - UniCat KW - Defense industries. KW - Business. KW - Defense industries KW - Business & Economics KW - Industries KW - Technological innovations KW - Armaments industries KW - Arms sales KW - Military sales KW - Military supplies industry KW - Munitions KW - Sale of military equipment KW - E-books KW - Arms transfers KW - defense, military, weapons, alliance, entrepreneurship, technology, space, trw, acquisition, merger, northrop grumman, low program, sbirs, munitions, bombs, drone, reconnaissance, predator, destruction, precision, production, catamarans, aluminum, cambridge research associates, dayton peace talks, powerscene, vehicles, blast-resistant, force protection, nonfiction, government, politics, economics, business, industry. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:14263294 AB - With many of the most important new military systems of the past decade produced by small firms that won competitive government contracts, defense-industry consultant James Hasik argues in Arms and Innovation that small firms have a number of advantages relative to their bigger competitors. Such firms are marked by an entrepreneurial spirit and fewer bureaucratic obstacles, and thus can both be more responsive to changes in the environment and more strategic in their planning. This is demonstrated, Hasik shows, by such innovation in military technologies as those that protect troops from roadside bombs in Iraq and the Predator drones that fly over active war zones and that are crucial to our new war on terror. For all their advantages, small firms also face significant challenges in access to capital and customers. To overcome such problems, they can form alliances either with each other or with larger companies. Hasik traces the trade-offs of such alliances and provides crucial insight into their promises and pitfalls. This ground-breaking study is a significant contribution to understanding both entrepreneurship and alliances, two crucial factors in business generally. It will be of interest to readers in the defense sector as well as the wider business community. ER -