Bøger i Non-Series serien

A firm's value consists of its assets-in-place and growth opportunities: its investment opportunity set. IOS plays a major role in determining a firm's corporate and accounting strategies, and how the marketplace reacts to them. Riahi-Belkaoui shows how IOS can be examined, measured, and used as one way to understand the various accounting and nonaccounting strategies espoused by management. His book fills a gap in the literature on this timely and provocative topic, and provides useful knowledge for upper management, academics, and graduate-level students.The importance of the IOS concept is beginning to be acknowledged in the literature of empirical accounting, finance, and management. There, the investment opportunity set is introduced as an explanatory or moderating variable of the relationship between accounting and economic phenomena and various predictor variables. Riahi-Belkaoui explicates a concept of growth opportunities or IOS (Chapter 1) and provides a general model for its measurement (Chapter 2). He shows its role in a general valuation model based on dividend yield and price earnings ratio (Chapter 3), in the relationship between profitability and multinationality (Chapter 4), in the determination of capital structure (Chapter 5), in a general model of international production (Chapter 6), in a general model of corporate disclosure (Chapter 7), in the relationship between systematic risk and multinationality (Chapter 8), in a model of reputation building (Chapter 9), and earnings management (Chapter 10). He goes on to discuss its role in explaining the relative market value compared to the accounting value of a multinational firm in Chapter 11, and in differentiating between the usefulness of accrual and cash flow based on valuation models in Chapter 12.

Solving Word Problems for Life, Grades 6-8 offers students who struggle with math a daily opportunity to improve their skills. The book offers 180 math word problems. The first 30 focus on 6th-grade math standards, the second 30 on 7th-grade standards, and the last 30 on 8th-grade standards. There is also a section of more difficult, extra-credit problems titled "e;Hard-Hat Thinking"e;. All of the activities are designed to strengthen basic math skills and problem-solving ability. Six visual cues-a hammer for adding, a screwdriver for subtracting, gears for multiplying, a saw for dividing, a tape measure for measuring, and a level for averaging-remind the students which math process to follow and further reinforce their skills. Catering to the growing need to prepare students for gateway tests, the problems here target the areas that appear on these tests most frequently. In this era of accountability, every teacher is concerned with student achievement and adequate yearly progress. This book can help.

The author maintains that American politics, institutional arrangements, and political culture have prevented the development of a comprehensive, integrated, intermodal transportation policy in the United States. Dilger makes his argument by examining the development of the national governmental authority in both surface and air transportation. Each transportation mode-highways/mass transit, Amtrak, and civilian air transportation-is examined separately, assessing their development over time and focusing on current controversies, including, but not limited to, the highway versus mass transit funding issue; the recent decentralization of decision making authority on surface transportation policy; Amtrak's viability as an alternative to the automobile; and current antiterrorist policies' effect on transportation policy.

The concept of culture has gained considerable attention within the humanities and social sciences in general, and this is certainly true in the field of gerontology. The new perspectives thus gained widen the scope of gerontology. In this study, chapter authors examine the growth of gerontology as a discipline, the phenomenon of ageism as a socio-cultural concept, identity politics in which older persons are perceived as belonging to a subculture, and images of the older body in cultural perspective.The manner in which gerontology emerged as a discipline was embedded in culturally defined views of aging that had consequences for how it was seen to vary between cultures. One consequence was a perception of ageism as a cultural construction. Since the 1980s, much of the politics of older people is a form of identity politics in which groups are mobilized to further their interests. Questions of cultural meanings ascribed to the gendered aging body is a central question for ageism, social identity, and self-image. These questions become especially relevant in confrontations with bodily decline and negotiations of intimacy in institutions for older people.

Health care reforms around the world-from Europe and North America to Africa, Latin America and Asia-seem to all be market-oriented reforms driven by international business interests and right wing political parties. There seems to be a sudden and broad concern with the efficiency of medical care, with the assertion that democratically or professionally run systems are inherently inefficient. Far less concern is evident for the more traditional values held regarding medical care, effectiveness (or quality) and equity. The fact is that we have little good cross-national research that systematically addresses the reform issue.This book addresses that problem, and attempts to look at health care reforms in a number of countries, representing as wide a spectrum as possible, and using a common conceptual framework that allows for comparable information to be gathered and presented on each, despite differing levels of socio-economic development. The authors agreed on a set of models that were thought to provide reasonable guidance in answering the questions of the source of pressures for reform, the alternative modes of organization that have been found in the world in recent years, and the direction of change among those alternatives.

Gabriel examines 18 ancient army systems, examining the organizational structure and weapons employed and the degree to which cultural values and imperatives shaped the form and application of military force. The tactical doctrines and specific operational capabilities of each army are analyzed to explain how certain technical limitations and societal/cultural imperatives affected the operational capabilities of ancient armies. Cross-cultural and cross-historical connections ground the analysis in the larger historical context of the ancient world.*Sumer and Akkad*The Armies of the Pharaohs*The Hittites *The Mitanni*Armies of the Bible*The Iron Army of Assyria*Chinese Armies*Persia and the Art of Logistics*The Greeks*Carthaginian Armies*Armies of India*Rome*The Iberians, Celts, Germans, and Goths*The Army of Byzantium*The Vikings*The Arab Armies*The Japanese Way of War*The Mongols*The OttomansThis book also provides an introductory overview of war in the ancient world, from 2500 B.C.E. to 1453 C.E., as well as an examination of the evolution of modern warfare from 1453 to 2002 C.E.

Not only are performance and human resources management (HRM) bound tightly together, but Sims even goes so far as to say that the way people are managed in coming decades will be the most important determinant of organizational success. He shows how success is determined by a firm's skill in attracting, developing, and retaining its human capital; how a firm's people are what give it a measurable advantage over the competition; and how an organization's commitment to developing its people's abilities and skills is an obligation at all levels. Sims focuses on practical, real-world human resources problems and activities emphasize the need for managers to prove themselves excellent people managers as well, and covers the traditional HRM tasks and responsibilities in ways that will give them new meaning and urgency. By focusing on current challenges, emerging issues, and HRM innovations now on the horizon, Sims' book is essential for managers and executives throughout the organization, and indeed throughout all sectors of the economy.Sims provides a firsthand understanding of the importance of HRM and lays out the tools to help managers do it well. He emphasizes repeatedly how important it is for organizations to understand that their success depends on their ability to attract and keep talented employees. With its persuasive discussion of the trends and emerging issues in the development of proactive human resources policies and practices, the book shows how to anticipate and work towards the development and retention of the right people. It emphasizes the importance of taking a strategic approach to all of the various human resources activities, and proves throughout that for an organization to prosper and earn a profit, goals must be set and initiatives taken in all areas of HRM and by all people, whatever their levels of responsibility may be.

The increased threat of chemical terrorism and warfare makes a quick, comprehensive guide more vital than ever. Forensic chemist Steven L. Hoenig has compiled information from diverse sources to produce this ready reference with details on various chemicals, including identification tips, symptoms and treatment procedures, protective gear necessary to counter each threat, and a step-by-step description of decontamination procedures.A brief overview of the history of chemicals used in warfare is followed by a discussion of the different categories of chemical threats. First responders to a chemical event will find the wealth of information invaluable, as cities and civic organizations are called upon to develop readiness plans for dealing with terrorist attacks. This guide includes clear diagrams and explanations, and has been compiled with both the layman and professional in mind, making it a useful addition to any military, medical, or home library.

Science and literature have always been strange bedfellows. Like puzzle pieces, they fit because they're different. Some of the greatest works of world literature have been inspired by the marvels of the scientific world. Scientists have written works of the imagination. Even formal scientific writings have been known to employ rhetoric. There is a tendency to think of literature-and the humanities in general-as having little to do with science. Yet scholars have conducted fruitful studies of the history and philosophy of science. With the rise of technology, scholars have also applied scientific analysis to the study of literature and the creative process. The intersection of scientific and humanistic inquiry is finally being mapped. This volume includes more than 650 A-Z entries on topics and themes in science and literature, significant writers, key scientists, seminal works, and important theories and methodologies.This reference defines the rapidly emerging interdisciplinary field of literature and science. An introductory essay traces the history of the field, its growing reputation, and the current state of research. Broad in scope, the volume covers world literature from its beginnings to the present day and illuminates the role of science in literature and literary studies. A wide range of experts contributed entries to this volume, each of which concludes with a brief bibliography. The entire volume closes with a list of works for further reading.

Need ideas to stimulate student interest in reading and library usage? Try one of the 98 bulletin board and showcase ideas featured in this eagerly awaited sequel to the best-selling first volume of this title, and you will be amazed how easy it can be to motivate readers to use the library! Each of the chapter provides detailed directions that allow for effortless reproduction of some of the most innovative and exciting bulletin boards and showcases you have ever seen.Following the same format as in the first volume, the book also includes an expanded section on the principles of design, as well as where to get ideas and how to put everything together. Tried and true favorites of students in grades 7-12, these three-dimensional display ideas are guaranteed to get your library the attention it deserves!

Not just an anthology, this extensive index offers keyword, title, and author name access to more than 1,800 quotations from nearly 500 classic, award-winning, and popular works for children. Pearls of humor and wisdom from authors such as the Brothers Grimm, Dr. Seuss, Judith Viorst, and Shel Silverstein are at your fingertips. Very few quotations have been indexed in other works, making this a unique tool to find that elusive quote. A sure-to-please reference tool for school and public libraries-not just in children's departments-this book helps you identify the source of unusual terms or names such as tesseract or Who-ville and makes a great resource for locating quotes addressing special occasions. Fun for browsing!

Better than ever, this latest edition brings you more than 440 of the most exciting, educational, and innovative Web sites available for taking your students on unforgettable Internet field trips. The Coopers have responded to your requests with more than 100 new trips to visit sites that tie into National Science Standards, use inquiry-based learning, or encourage independent studies. The book follows the same topical easy-access subject organization, cross-referenced to save you time. Sites that incorporate sound, animation, video, and instructions on downloading software for site navigation are also new to this edition. Whether you are headed to the ocean bottom or outer space, don't hit the information superhighway without this book as your road map. You'll avoid inappropriate and hard-to-navigate sites, and students will thank you for the trouble-free virtual trips.

Douglas Bullis goes beyond the usual superficial accounts found in the usual import/export books and provides something truly unique: an in-depth analysis of what India needs from the rest of the world, not what the world can get out of India. What most businesspeople don't know, and what is crucial if they are to succeed in their transactions with India, is what India needs from them-and not always is this mere capital. Bullis describes the rise of India's middle class and consumer economy since 1991, and provides readers with what very few outsiders know: how India really works. The result is an essential resource for corporate management in marketing, sales, strategic planning and investment, and important collateral reading for students and teachers of international business.Bullis argues that India has long been misunderstood by the West. Now, as the business climate goes global, India looms as the largest country in the world to embrace the market economy. As India emerges as a mass consumer market and a major low-cost manufacturing center, not only the Indian economy, but the world economy is likely to be changed. If overseas businesspeople are to enter India and compete successfully, they need a clear, broad, up-to-the-minute and useful view of the country, its markets, its resources, and its people. In this book, Bullis provides just that.

There's more to work and the life of the organization than just numbers. In his new book on how people function in work settings, Allcorn calls it the human spirit. It too contributes to the life and performance of organizations, but like life itself it can die--or be killed. Allcorn argues that changes in how organizations are managed--downsizing, rightsizing, reengineering, and other catastrophic means--can have an unintended but devastating result. These factors can cause spiritual death--the end of that quality in people that keeps them alive, growing, and productive. Allcorn shows that management and the methods it uses to cope with organizational change must be adjusted to take into account a special kind of workplace spirituality and to nurture it, not destroy it. Indeed, he maintains that by appreciating the importance of the human spirit, and liberating the quality of spirituality into the workplace, benefits to the organization can be profoundly rewarding. Allcorn explains the practical, measurable results of this liberation, documenting his assertions in heartbreaking detail. Even the most tough-minded executive will soon come to consider this book as essential as a spreadsheet.Allcorn asserts that while spirituality inevitably has religious connotations, in his use of the word, it is fundamentally secular and powerfully humanistic. Besides the rationality of numbers and the irrationalities common to a defensive workplace, there is something else that permits members of organizations to rise above workplace adversities. This creates organizational success. As employees are downsized out or just furloughed, the effect on the organization and those who remain is clearly destructive. The author concludes that the way for an organization to achieve success is certainly not by killing its people's spirit by firing them. Other means exist to preserve the organization, and Allcorn explores them in careful, useful detail.

The impact of multinationality on the operations of a firm is clear and strong. Riahi-Belkaoui shows how it affects the known relationships between earnings, efficiency, disclosure, and market valuation by its role as a dependent, moderating, intervening antecedant or consequent variable. Its impact can be felt, for example, in relationships and phenomena such as the timeliness and the informativeness of earnings, the underreaction of securities analysts, post-earnings announcement drifts, and the level and quality of disclosure. An understanding of multinationality in the earnings-disclosure-efficiency-market valuation relationship can also be used by accountants and researchers in their daily activities, and by corporate executives in multinational organizational decision making. The result is a useful, probing exploration for academics and practitioners alike.

China is the largest emerging market in the world, yet Western MNCs have invested significantly less there than their Asian MNC counterparts. Luo systematically compares Western and Asian investment strategies and their performance in China and draws lessons that Westerners must heed. He compares Western and Asian MNCs on their respective economic rationales, cultural proximity, strategy behavior, investment structure, business determinants, and performance differences. He also reviews foreign direct investment in China over two decades, outlines the economic environment facing MNCs today, delineates new policies that affect foreign investment and operations, and discusses China's entry into the World Trade Organization and the impact this will have on MNCs everywhere. The result is a needed contribution to the literature on international investment and the China market, particularly for upper level executives, analysts studying emerging markets, and scholars specializing in international business and expansion.In Part I, Luo reviews the experience of MNCs in China and the opportunities and challenges, today and in coming years. In Part II he looks at the strategy, structure, and performances of Western and Asian MNCs. He assesses and compares strategic and structural behaviors of these two groups of MNCs, then deciphers and compares the differences in distinctive capabilities and their performance implications. In other chapters he examines and compares financial performance and its business determinants-thus giving executives of Western MNCs a way to verify the effectiveness of their own investment and operating strategies and to reconfigure them, if necessary, to include environmental dynamics and organizational capabilities. In addition to mini-cases throughout the book, there is an appendix consisting of six major case studies, detailing the experiences and successes of six Asian MNCs in China, offering a seldom seen glimpse of how the West's Asian competitors accomplish their own goals, and why the challenges they present to the West are so formidable.

Normally, our relationships with our brothers and sisters are the longest relationships in our lives, outlasting time with our parents, and most marriages today. The sibling relationship is emotionally powerful and critically important, giving us a sense of continuity throughout life. So what happens when a child loses contact not only with his or her parents, but with siblings too? That is what happens in thousands of cases each year inside the child welfare system. Children are surrendered by parents - or taken by the government - and placed in the foster care system. There, they are often separated and sent to different foster families, or adopted by different couples. In this work, a team of top experts details for us how this added separation futher traumatizes children. This stellar team of internationally known researchers - some of whom are themselves adoptees - shares with us hard, poignant, and personal insights, as well as ways we might act to solve this widespread problem.Contributors address not only the importance of nurturing sibling bonds and mental health strategies to support those relationships, but also the legal rights of siblings to be together, as well as issues in international adoptions. Emerging and standing programs to encourage and facilitate adoptions that keep siblings together are featured, as are programs that at least enable them to stay in contact.

The successful evaluation of capital projects requires not only a thorough understanding of traditional techniques of capital budgeting but advanced techniques as well. Riahi-Belkaoui examines the multidimensionality of capital budgeting in its various facets and in ways that executives with no special facility in the subject can follow. He covers replacement decisions, capital rationing, capital budgeting under inflation uncertainty, capital budgeting in a multinational setting with attention to political risks, social project evaluation, and concepts of wealth measurement and distribution. The result is a wide ranging treatment for executive decision makers in finance, banking, investment, and general management, and for their colleagues with similar interests in the academic community.Riahi-Belkaoui begins by examining the principles underlying the time value of money. In Chapter Two he introduces capital budgeting and in Chapter Three moves to advanced capital budgeting. There he discusses such advanced topics as replacement decisions, capital rationing, and capital budgeting under uncertainty and inflation. In Chapter Four he takes up the same issues associated with capital budgeting but in a global context, and in Chapter Five, the determination of political risk and its use in capital budgeting internationally. Chapter Six compares the techniques of leasing versus purchasing and their reliance on capital budgeting techniques. In Chapter Seven he turns to the techniques of capital budgeting applied to social projects, and ends the book with an examination of the behavior and cognitive implications of wealth measurement and distribution. This is a useful survey and examination of the traditional and advanced techniques of capital budgeting and their applications in domestic and international contexts.

The modern marketing concept, with its focus on creating consumer satisfaction, makes marketing seem beyond reproach. Instead of its successes and failures, Rotfeld focuses on the uses, and frequent abuses, of marketing analysis. His book--a collection of clearly observed and forceful case studies drawn from his personal research and study--deals with the pragmatic realities of marketing and its limitations. He argues that marketing can only serve consumer predispositions. It cannot guarantee satisfaction. When marketers lose sight of this, they actually ignore their market. Rotfeld takes the unusual approach of providing a fundamental view of the relationship between marketing and its customers. He shows what can happen when that relationship is misperceived or its implications are mistaken. Marketing gets misplaced. For marketing practitioners and academics, his book is a unique study of how marketing and consumers interact.As Rotfeld explains: Misplaced Marketing is a term I coined, using `marketing' to refer to the marketing analysis of consumers and `misplaced' to mean either `lost' or `ignored.' Many firms `misplace' marketing in the sense of losing track of what it is and what it can do; many not-for-profit organizations do not use marketing in a way that could improve the results of their efforts. Just because marketing is satisfying consumers does not mean it is above reproach, since Al Capone satisfied many consumers too. Moreover, there are critics who fear marketing power and feel that any service to consumers is a problem for society. This is misplaced marketing in the sense that it is misused, abused, or tied to products that do not serve society's interests. Just because marketing perspectives are misplaced does not mean a product or service will fail, nor does it mean it should be banned. My book gives a perspective to understand the view of business critics and ways to improve business decision-making. The book also provides an unusual examination of the entire relationship of business to its customers.

Drawing upon cost accounting, mathematics, operations research, economics, and the behavioral sciences, Riahi-Belkaoui answers the call for a unique, multifaceted approach to the study of management accounting. His goal: to enhance performance in the essential tasks of cost estimation, allocation, planning, control, and performance evaluation. He covers the traditional techniques, but expands into quantitative methods and applications, then extends further into the behavioral unification of these techniques. His book is state of the art, ingenious in the way it adapts quantitative methods' solutions to traditional cost accounting topics, and innovative in its use of the behavioral implications. The result is an important resource for professionals, academics, and upper-level students in the field.Riahi-Belkaoui arranges his various techniques chapter by chapter. First, he looks at cost allocation and then at cost-volume profit analysis under stochastic conditions. In Chapter three he treats regression for cost estimation; in Chapter Four, the learning curve for the same purpose. He takes up advanced planning analysis in Chapter Five, advanced control analysis in Chapter Six, and decentralizing and performance evaluation in Chapter Seven. He then finishes with an important discussion of transfer pricing.

Rich and his contributing authors provide a political and economic analysis of sports stadium construction in the United States-the impact it has on the sports industry itself and on the host communities in which stadiums and arenas are built. The book brings together the research of leading academic analysts of sports in American society and gives a candid assessment of the claims and benefits the sports industry makes, in its continuing promotion of new stadium construction. Focusing on Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, New Orleans, Toledo and Phoenix, the authors examine the topic from the perspectives of history, politics, and economics-and in doing so they raise several questions about taxpayer and community protection issues. Specifically, what do communities really get out of these facilities?They point out that even as new and more expensive facilities are being built, Congress has not provided taxpayers and cities any real protection from the risks involved in stadium investment. Rich and his contributors examine how the pro-stadium coalitions mobilize and explain why stadium supporters manage to win most of their construction initiatives. In doing so, the contributors challenge the conventional wisdom that stadiums stimulate economic development and provide good jobs. On the contrary, they have not lived up to the promises owners made to their host communities. Neither have they generated high paying jobs nor have they met their operating costs. The book concludes with ways in which sports franchise owners can be held more accountable to their communities. The result is a powerful, well reasoned, skeptical but fair assessment of a growing phenomenon, and an important resource for professionals and academics in all fields of public policy administration and urban development and management.

Why does management encounter people problems whenever organizations attempt to change? Green and Butkus say this occurs because organizations overlook one of the most critical problems of change: how employees react it emotionally. Change is not about work processes or information systems alone. It is also about what people believe and feel-emotions such as anger, anxiety, confusion, and fear. Yet managers are usually unaware of these things,and those who are aware usually lack skills to manage these emotions effectively. They tend to rely on traditional incentive systems, which usually do not work. What does work? The one approach that has been applied consistently with positive results is Green's belief system of motivation and performance.Green and Butkus show how the belief system helps to bring negative feelings and convictions to the surface. They provide ways to identify the underlying emotional problems and find effective solutions. The belief system works, say the authors, because it goes directly to the source of the problem-employees themselves-to discover why motivation and performance problems occur and what can be done to solve them. This book describes applications of the belief system in a variety of work situations, including a recent effort at organizational transformation with AT&T's Business Communications Services (BCS) Division. It outlines in detail the process that BCS used to implement the belief system, starting at the highest management levels and cascading down to the organization's front lines. With a clear exposition of the belief system's theoretical underpinnings and nuts-and-bolts methods, Green and Butkus provide executive decision makers and planners throughout the organization with critical insights into the pitfalls in the implementation process and workable guidance on how to avoid them.

Just as the crash of 1929 did not presage the downfall of the United States, neither will the economic crisis of 1997 mean the end of the rise of Asia and the Pacific Rim. Leading them out of a temporary setback, says Bullis, will be the new high-tech sectors of their economies: information services, communication technology, and electronic delivery systems such as e-commerce and e-business. His book is thus a non-technical look at the state of information technology (IT) and how people in the emerging Asia marketplace are thinking about it, especially in places like Singapore and Malaysia, the only two countries in the region pursuing the sorts of large-scale information infrastructure projects that will eventually determine the region's long term commerce in IT. Not a state of the technology book but a state of the mindset book, it offers businesspeople worldwide an important understanding of this vast and burgeoning market for their products and services, insights that will help decision makers recognize the big mistakes they can make before they make them. An important and fascinating study for executives in all industries that hope to do business in the still vital Asian market.Bullis makes clear that a great deal of investment money and corporate prestige can be wasted if companies attempt to enter the Asia information technology (IT) services arena with no clear idea of what IT wants. Overseas firms often assume that their potential clients think the way they think and have the same needs. This is especially true, he says, with the sorts of decision makers who assume that marketplace forces alone condition investment decisions. But Asia is not a marketplace; it is a cultureplace. Basic issues, such as freedom of expression, the social utility of information, who should benefit from commerce, and the structure of organizations-all these are viewed differently in Asia. Bullis' book explains just what the mindset of the region is, largely in the words of Asia's IT movers and shakers and those who are rising in the economy to become tomorrow's leaders and influentials, precisely the people with whom their counterparts elsewhere will soon have to deal. Readers will find not only a much better understanding of the kinds of services they should be offering, but how to tailor those services and their delivery systems to local realities.

Globalization provides firms with tremendous opportunities as well as daunting challenges. International expansion has become a pervasive and prominent strategic response to global economic dynamics for a large number of companies. The success of such expansion depends on several of entry and cooperative strategies. Dr. Luo provides conceptual backgrounds, analytical frameworks, managerial insights, and business guidance for a firm's international expansion efforts. He illustrates how (entry mode), when (timing), where (location), and what (industry). He elaborates on cooperative strategies such as partner selection, joint venture negotiation, control, cooperation, and termination.The book is written for international executives who are actively pursuing international market opportunities. It argues that managers need to formulate appropriate expansion strategies to achieve a sustainable and successful presence in the global marketplace. The book is also valuable for students and scholars of international business, global management, and strategic management.

Without new ways to think and manage itself strategically, academic healthcare faces terminal deterioration. Heightened competition and changing dynamics have brought turbulence to teaching hospitals, and the main impact has been financial. Langabeer and Napiewocki give health care executives the tools and concepts of strategic management they need and ways to strengthen analytic skills, all based on up-to-date empirical research, cast in language they can grasp and relate to, and specially tailored to help teaching hospital administrators cope successfully with today's marketplace challenges. Board members, trustees, and others with decision- and policy-making responsibilities will also find the book essential, as well as their teaching colleagues and students on their way up in the hospital industry.The authors maintain that if nonprofit teaching hospitals are to compete successfully with private for-profit hospital chains, not only must they learn the terrain of the playing fields, they must also learn how the game itself is played. Langabeer and Napiewocki offer that knowledge, and in doing so have written the first book of its kind to address comprehensively the entire realm of strategic management aimed clearly at teaching hospitals and major academic medical centers. With findings from primary empirical research into a large sample of teaching hospitals and focusing on the statistical relationships to economic performance, they provide crucial insights into why certain hospitals are more effective than others. Their book will also help healthcare executives relate strategy research on industrial organizations to their own teaching hospital environments. In doing so, their book fills a void in the literature on business strategy that for too long has caused consternation among healthcare administrators and aspirants alike.

Though he wrote more than a century ago, French author Victor Hugo (1802-1885) continues to capture the imagination of contemporary readers both in France and around the world. In the United States, he is best remembered as the author of the novel Les Mis^D'erables (1862), which has been adapted for the stage, and of Notre-Dame-de-Paris (1831), more commonly known to Americans as The Hunchback of Notre Dame. But Hugo was also a poet and dramatist, a great religious and social thinker, and one of the most important shapers of French Romanticism. As a poet, he created new verse forms, explored historical and mythological themes, and criticized social issues of his time. Through his drama, he united prose and poetry and examined the politics of England and Spain. In all of his works, he discussed such theological and social issues as the problem of evil, the nature of war and peace, and the problems of capital punishment.The volume begins with a short biography that places Hugo within the context of 19th-century France. The biography tells of his early years during which he began to form his religious and political views, his maturation as a writer and thinker during the 1830s, and his political exile, during which he wrote some of his finest poetry. The alphabetically arranged entries that follow discuss his works, characters, themes, and ideas, as well as historical persons and places that figured prominently in his life and writings. Many of the entries cite sources of additional information, and the volume closes with a selected, general bibliography.

A few lawsuits have changed the entire shape of the computer industry as nearly every aspect of computers has come under litigation. These courtroom battles have confused not only computer and legal amateurs, but lawyers, juries, and judges too. The result has been illogical legal opinions, reversals on appeal, and an environment in which the outcome of key legal battles is not only unpredictable but could change the industry's direction yet again. Graham surveys the past and shows how it points to the future. He illustrates how the absence of statutes specifically protecting software has frequently forced courts to simultaneously create and apply the law. Graham covers the whole spectrum of computer hardware and software, addressing the litigation that affected each part of the product chain. In 23 chapters he cuts through the legalese while still offering enough substance to introduce lawyers unfamiliar with intellectual property law to the evolving legal landscape of this dynamic and contentious industry. No prior legal background is required to understand Graham's presentation, however. The result is a comprehensive and fascinating study of this newest of new century industries, and a book that will guide -and caution!- anyone now in it or who expects to be a part of it tomorrow.Graham shows how the course of litigation in the computer industry has substantially paralleled the growth of the industry itself. Yet, while computer law has been an active field, it is also an unpredictable one. The law governing computers was particularly sketchy prior to 1976, Graham explains, when it was unclear whether programmers had any legal rights to the software they developed. In l976 Congress modified the statutes to specify that software was indeed eligible but unfortunately offered little guidance to the courts on how to apply copyright laws to software. With each lawsuit the courts added to the sketchy foundation of copyright laws, developing the law as they went along. Graham shows that because the courts have so often made the law as they applied it, many computer-related lawsuits had an especially profound impact on the industry. By outlining this history of the development of computer law and its effect on the computer industry, Graham provides a broad outline of the state of computer law today, and a fascinating look at the industry itself.

He describes the depth of animosity between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and analyzes the obstacles in the path of a search for a solution. Most casual observers see the conflict between Greeks and Turks on a strategic Mediterranean island as a struggle within a sovereign state.

Called the business crime wave of the 21st century, trademark counterfeiting and product piracy are worldwide in scope and cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year. High technology and the globalization of business have made it possible to counterfeit and pirate a seemingly limitless number of products, from t-shirts, designer jeans, films and books to auto and airplane parts, and prescription drugs. The 1995-1996 trade dispute between the U.S. and China shows how serious the problem has become for American business and for U.S. diplomatic relations. Paradise explores the history of counterfeiting and piracy, shows how they are done, and the strategies that U.S. businesses are using to combat them. With interviews, commentary, and anecdotes by corporate attorneys, business leaders, and private investigators, this well-written book is essential for anyone interested in the damage that violations of intellectual property law are inflicting on world trade and what is being done to stop it.Paradise lays out the problem in Chapter 1 with a clear explanation of the differences between trademarks, copyrights, and patents, and the laws covering each. In Chapter 2 he looks at the role played by organized crime, gray market goods, the lack of intellectual property laws, and ultimately the threat to U.S. business. He discusses the recent investigations and disputes with China, and its aftermath throughout Southeast Asia. Chapter 4 focuses on the knockoff, chapter 5 on street peddlers and flea markets (and how merchants are retaliating), and chapter 6 on the tracking of counterfeiters. The entertainment industries and the pharmaceutical industries are then closely examined. He follows with equally comprehensive (and chilling) studies of automobile and aircraft parts counterfeiting and piracy in cyberspace. Paradise ends with a look at what is being done to counteract the inroads that piracy and counterfeiting have made into the global economy, and offers a provocative call for more and better efforts in the future.

Michman and Mazze present five key variables that retailing executives in nine specialty businesses must understand and work with, to gain and sustain competitive advantage in their competitive environments. Innovation, target market segmentation, image development, physical store decor, and human resource managementf are identified and examined. Authors argue convincingly from research and practical experience that these fundamental considerations are crucial to achieving competitive dominance. With up-to-date analyses and extensive coverage of e-commerce and internet retailing as well, their book is essential for retailing executives.Michman and Mazze find that successful specialty retailers are not all things to all customers, and do not try to be. They are, however, the first to apply new technologies. Authors analyze the development of specialty stores in the U.S. and tie their variables together in an epilogue. Along the way they make clear that by focusing on their five critical variables, we can understand how marketing successes come about and what causes blunders in the nine highly important store categories under their examination here. They point out that not all of their variables need be used concurrently. Some may be more critical than others, and this depends on environmental and competitive conditions. Backing it all up is meticulously developed evidence from their research and personal experience -- all of it presented readably and in a way that practitioners can understand and immediately apply.