Location Theory : A Unified Approach
Although modern location theory is now more than 90 years old, the focus of researchers in this area has been mainly problem oriented. However, a common theory, which keeps the essential characteristics of classical location models, is still missing. This monograph addresses this issue. A flexible location problem called the Ordered Median Problem (OMP) is introduced. For all three main subareas of location theory (continuous, network and discrete location) structural properties of the OMP are presented and solution approaches provided. Numerous illustrations and examples help the reader to become familiar with this new location model.
Linear Programming and its Applications
This book presents a unified treatment of linear programming. Without sacrificing mathematical rigor, the main emphasis of the book is on models and applications. The most important classes of problems are surveyed and presented by means of mathematical formulations, followed by solution methods and a discussion of a variety of "what-if" scenarios. Non-simplex based solution methods and newer developments such as interior point methods are covered along with a variety of approaches that incorporate multiple objectives in the model.
Life Cycle Investing and Occupational Old-Age Provision in Switzerland
Florian Zainhofer uses the theory of life cycle investing, i.e. how we should optimally choose our savings rate and risky asset share throughout our lives, as a framework to study the implications of a potential BVG individualization. Following an introduction on the Swiss system of old-age provision, the author reviews recent life cycle models of portfolio choice and covers their numerical solution algorithms in depth. He presents an empirical analysis of Swiss workers’ earnings dynamics since these are important determinants of life cycle investment behavior. To further investigate the implications of a flexible contribution rate and risky asset share in the mandatory BVG, the author proposes a model adapted to Swiss conditions and parameterized with the estimated earnings dynamics.
Legitimacy Needs as Drivers of Business Exit
A diversified firm’s withdrawal from a business unit, i.e. business exit, is a significant phenomenon in management practice. Although divestitures are highly relevant in practice, the acquisition of business units attracts much more attention in strategic management research. Carolin Decker develops and empirically applies a framework in which business exits serve the purpose of re-establishing a firm’s previously harmed legitimacy. She suggests four types of legitimacy needs that are to be satisfied with the divestiture of a business unit and the simultaneous pursuit of strategic reorientation. The author tests the theoretical framework with secondary data on 213 business exits. Her findings support the idea that legitimacy needs drive the likelihood of fit-enhancing business exits in divesting firms.
Learning in Economic Systems with Expectations Feedback
Recently economists have more and more focussed on scenarios in which agents' views of the world may be erroneous. These notes introduce the concept of perfect forecasting rules which provide best least-squares predictions along the evolution of an economic system.
Learning at speed : How to upskill and reskill your workforce at pace to drive business performance
Learning at Speed is a practical book which brings together the best from lean and agile methodologies to show how they can be applied to learning and development (L&D) to improve individual and organizational performance. This provides a people development framework which can be used to deconstruct a learning strategy and optimise each element for improved results. It shows how to identify learning barriers and possible solutions, leverage company data to understand learning needs and how to assess the most effective learning resources and delivery channels.
Leadership and Performance in Public Sector Networks
Analyses two key aspects of network management in the public sector: leadership and performance. It investigates what integrative leadership is, and how it differentiates from leadership in single-agency structures. It also examines the performance of public interest networks by proposing an analytical framework that highlights which factors lead to high performance networks.
Leadership : Limits and possibilities
Leadership: Limits and Possibilities offers a critical discussion of leadership that draws upon a wide range of approaches, material and examples to demonstrate the complex and challenging role of leadership and through this debate suggests possible ways to improve as a leader. It is structured around 5 key aspects of leadership: person, product, position, process and purpose, providing a useful organizing framework. It combines theoretical discussions with lively examples to bring the subject alive.
Lead Markets for Environmental Innovations
Often, the leadership in technological development is accompanied by a leadership in environmental policy. The book provides an analysis of lead markets for innovations such as fuel cells, photovoltaics, and others. Contributions of innovation economics, policy analysis and environmental economics are assessed regarding their potential to explain the leadership of single countries. The book depicts the policy frameworks that are favourable to the creation of such lead markets on the basis of theoretical considerations and case studies. Finally, recommendations for R and D policies, environmental and industrial policies are derived.
Knowledge Management and Management Learning : Extending the Horizons of Knowledge-Based Management
The book begins with an extended introduction and theoretical framework. Contributing authors have written chapters that add to both the framework and the practical consequences of knowledge management. These chapters suggest many lessons learned that will find considerable use in practice. Some of these chapters include an investigation of the "do’s and don’ts" virtual learning based on real-life cases, the use of design teams for group learning, the role of language and the creation of common ground between company and client, culture as a dynamic and non-linear constructed concept, innovation and knowledge management and more. The book offers an exceptional range of contributions within a developing paradigm. Within this context, the book illustrates why and how of knowledge management is important for companies.
Its Not About the Technology : Developing the Craft of Thinking for a High Technology Corporation
This book is not about a new concept, or a new technique. It tackles the big questions of how to develop the craft of the thinking that is required of us in high technology companies. It is predicated on a radical notion that, even though the problematic is the execution in a high technology corporation, neither a high level market strategy nor the kind of technology itself matters, insofar as learning the craft of execution goes. How marketers and engineers comprehend a context uniquely shapes the ways they interact, engage in decision-making phenomenon, and eventually their execution performance in a company. The breakdown of their interaction occurs when the individual contexts of a marketer and an engineer are permanently secluded from one another.this book methodically demystifies the key to successful execution in the high technology space
Italian Institutional Reforms : A Public Choice Perspective
Using a public choice perspective, this book explains the evolution and political and economic impact of recent changes to the Italian institutional framework. Because these changes are so numerous and broad, their implementation serves as a case study for other Western governments. Particular attention is paid to the introduction of the EURO, the reform of voting from proportional to majoritarian rule, the impact of corporatism, constraints imposed by the Maastricht Treaty, and the switch from a highly centralized government to a federal organization.
Computational Aspects of General Equilibrium Theory : Refutable Theories of Value
This monograph presents a general equilibrium methodology for microeconomic policy analysis. It is intended to serve as an alternative to the now classical, axiomatic general equilibrium theory as exposited in Debreu`s Theory of Value (1959) or Arrow and Hahn`s General Competitive Analysis (1971). The methodology proposed in this monograph does not presume the existence of market equilibrium, accepts the inherent indeterminancy of nonparametric general equlibrium models, and offers effective algorithms for computing counterfactual equilibria in these models. It consists of several essays written over the last decade, some with colleagues or former graduate students, and an appendix by Charles Steinhorn on the elements of O-minimal structures, the mathematical framework for our analysis.
Complex Scheduling
This book deals with such complex scheduling problems and methods to solve them. It consists of three parts: The ?rst part (Chapters 1 and 2) contains a description of basic scheduling models with applications and an introduction into discrete optimization (covering complexity, shortest path algorithms, linear programming, network ?ow algorithms and general optimization methods). In the second part (Chapter 3) resource-constrained project scheduling problems are considered. Especially, methods like constraint propagation, branch-a- bound algorithms and heuristic procedures are described. Furthermore, lower bounds and general objective functions are discussed.
Competitiveness in the Tourism Sector : A Comprehensive Approach from Economic and Management Points
International tourism is expected to be a major vehicle of economic development in industrializing countries in the 21st century, especially for Asia. To generate long-term growth, countries with tourism-based economies must develop strategies for employing their comparative advantages to achieve competitive advantages. However, competitiveness in the tourist industry is multi-dimensional and complex. This study evaluates the competitiveness of the Taiwanese tourism sector by a multi-dimensional framework. The theoretical model proposes that the competitiveness of tourist destinations should be composed of Ricardian comparative advantages (like the conditions of natural endowments and the degree of technological change); Porterian competitive advantages; tourism management, i.e., providing high quality education and job training, public goods, support services and reduced transaction costs to enhance comparative and competitive advantages; and environmental conditions.
Chinese Railways : Reform and Efficiency Improvement Opportunities
Although being huge by any measure, Chinese Railways are a bottleneck for economic growth in China. The state-owned enterprise returns a small profit but is severely capacity constrained and burdened with inefficiency. A comprehensive reform and efficiency improvement program needs to be developed in order to enable Chinese Railways to support further GDP growth in China. Application of industrial economics to the case of Chinese Railways suggests that moderate deregulation of e.g., the freight business could make Chinese Railways fit for future growth. Operational improvements need to complement this development, such as a redesign of the schedule or the introduction of value added services in the freight business. Based on interviews with Chinese experts, benchmarking with railways in the US, Germany, Russia, and Japan as well as broad coverage of Chinese-language sources, the book makes detailed recommendations on how to design a comprehensive turnaround program for Chinese Railways.
Carbon Pricing in Japan
This book evaluates, from an economic perspective, various measures introduced in Japan to prevent climate change. Although various countries have implemented such policies in response to the pressing issue of climate change, the effectiveness of those programs has not been sufficiently compared.
Capital, Systems, and Objects : The Foundation and Future of Organizations
Provides a set of integrated frameworks—capital, systems, and objects—that transcend managerial or technology hype by focusing on the long-term fundamentals that sustain organizational success. Many organizations are currently addressing two important transformational issues: ecological sustainability and digitization. Sustainability is a goal, an end, and digitization is a process, a means to achieve a goal. This book introduces a flexible model that can be applied to current and future organizational challenges, including sustainability and digitization, because the fundamentals are constant.
Capacity options for revenue management : Theory and applications in the air cargo industry
Hellermann addresses in his dissertation one of the most interesting - pects of this evolution for OR/MS, the parallel development of long-term and short-term markets for capacity and output, accompanied by a range of option and ?xed-commitment (i. e. , forward) contracts as the basic mec- nisms supporting transactions. This has been a fascinating topic for OR/MS research because it builds on the powerful framework of real options, while connecting directly to key operations decisions (capacity planning, network design, staf?ng, routing, maintenance, and so forth) of the equipment and technologies whose output is the focus of contracts.
Building intuition : Insights from basic operations management models and principles
"‘This user-friendly book will help the reader to develop insights with respect to a number of models that are important in the study and practice of operations management’. … all the chapters are extremely well written and a pleasure to read. … This would be a good book to use as a text in any operations management course, and in particular for operations management courses which are part of a ‘liberal studies’ program. It would also be good book for managers … ." (R Bharath, Journal of the Operational Research society, Vol. 60 (7), 2009)



















