When globalization affects jobs and economies, policy makers strive to plan, design and implement actions to support their communities and businesses (Ansell and Gash 2007). Furthermore, local development policies are at the core of international cooperation programs or more in general represent a challenge for emerging countries. They could refer to infrastructure, entrepreneurship innovation or urban renewal. However, more frequently than not, development policies, which involve different institutional levels and public and private players, fail due to poor implementation management. This research book presents a managerial approach (the so called Managerial Flow) that could help the closure of gaps that hamper an efficient and effective policy execution.

The managerial flow model observes the phenomenon of policy implementation for economic development through managerial lens. In the book, the research team has empirically identified five gaps in practice whereupon public policy implementation falls down. As a response Managerial Flow model outlines sets of managerial actions that can be adopted to facilitate a clear ‘flow’ from policy development through to implementation.

This book expands on the Managerial Flow model, and acts as both a practical guide to stimulate evidence based policy implementation in governments and as theoretical contribution to policy and strategy execution.

Written for researchers and academics, this book begins by outlining the theoretical foundations of Managerial Flow and moves to unpack application and cases, based in different sectors and countries, in order to discuss and show how the Managerial Flow approach can concretely support managers in the implementation of economic development policies. It reviews and discusses how the managerial flow could be relevant in the implementation of a set of sectorial policies and uses the managerial flow concept to analyse cases of economic development and establish lessons for broader management scope.