Expected utility provides simple, testable properties of the optimum behavior that should be displayed by risk-averse individuals in risky decisions. Simultaneously, given the existence of paradoxes under the expected utility paradigm, expected utility can only be regarded as an approximation of actual behavior. A more realistic model is needed. This is particularly true when treating attitudes toward small probability events: the standard situation for insurable risks. Non-Expected Utility and Risk Management examines whether the existing results in insurance economics are robust to more general models of behavior under risk.

Local governments are hard-pressed to balance their budgets in the 1990s. Part of any budget-balancing effort is accurate forecasting. In this new work, Howard Frank introduces time-tested forecasting techniques from the private sector and military in a local forecasting environment. In a lucid, user-friendly treatment, Frank shows how simple and complex methods can be put to use in the contemporary local government setting. Through examples--many of them from his own research--the author delineates the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative and non-quantitative forecasting methods. Frank also shows how these techniques can be used to monitor changes in public programs--an increasingly important part of contemporary budget execution.

Frank does not assume an extensive mathematical or statistical background on the part of the reader--indeed, a forecast neophyte will have no difficulty understanding the text. Questions at the end of each chapter focus the reader on the major concepts and provide insights on practical applications within the urban setting. A cornerstone of the work is that local forecasters must be intelligent experimenters with the new tools--there is no canned advice that applies to all cities and forecast situations. But with application of forecasting approaches treated in this unique work, local budgeters--and those in training to become budgeters--will be able to adopt forecasting approaches that have been underutilized in local government.

The complete guide to the principles and practice of risk quantification for business applications. The assessment and quantification of risk provide an indispensable part of robust decision-making; to be effective, many professionals need a firm grasp of both the fundamental concepts and of the tools of the trade. Business Risk and Simulation Modelling in Practice is a comprehensive, in depth, and practical guide that aims to help business risk managers, modelling analysts and general management to understand, conduct and use quantitative risk assessment and uncertainty modelling in their own situations. Key content areas include: * Detailed descriptions of risk assessment processes, their objectives and uses, possible approaches to risk quantification, and their associated decision-benefits and organisational challenges. * Principles and techniques in the design of risk models, including the similarities and differences with traditional financial models, and the enhancements that risk modelling can provide. * In depth coverage of the principles and concepts in simulation methods, the statistical measurement of risk, the use and selection of probability distributions, the creation of dependency relationships, the alignment of risk modelling activities with general risk assessment processes, and a range of Excel modelling techniques. * The implementation of simulation techniques using both Excel/VBA macros and the @RISK Excel add-in. Each platform may be appropriate depending on the context, whereas the core modelling concepts and risk assessment contexts are largely the same in each case. Some additional features and key benefits of using @RISK are also covered. Business Risk and Simulation Modelling in Practice reflects the author s many years in training and consultancy in these areas. It provides clear and complete guidance, enhanced with an expert perspective. It uses approximately one hundred practical and real-life models to demonstrate all key concepts and techniques; these are accessible on the companion website.

In the knowledge economy, the value of corporations is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. But broaden the perspective a little wider and you begin to see the possibilities: Think of cities, regions, even entire nations, in addition to the public sector. If intangibles and intellectual capital are important to the private sector, they are also important to the productivity and competitiveness of the public sector, and so to communities and nations as a whole. In this book, Editors Ahmed Bounfour and Leif Edivinsson have brought together the best minds in intellectual capital throughout the world to focus on a new and fertile area of research: measuring and managing the intellectual capital of communities. This is a creative and cutting-edge area of research that has the potential to change how public sector planning and development is done. Once there is a clear way to identify where wealth is created in a given region/nation, this process has the potential to reveal a huge knowledge repository in the public sector with a significant but idle potential for collective wealth creation the wealth of nations in waiting.

As stakeholder relationships and business in general have become increasingly central to the unfolding of stakeholder thinking, important new topics have begun to take centre stage in both the worlds of practitioners and academics. The role of project management becomes immeasurably more challenging, when stakeholders are no longer seen as simple objects of managerial action but rather as subjects with their own objectives and purposes. This book will aim to explain some of the complexities of project management and managerial relationships with stakeholders by discussing the practice of stakeholder engagement, dialog, measurement and management and the consequences of this practice for reporting and productivity, and performance within project management.

Purchasing and Financial Management of Information Technology aims to significantly reduce the amount of money wasted on IT by providing readers with a comprehensive guide to all aspects of planning, managing and controlling IT purchasing and finance. Starting from a recognition that IT purchasing and the financial management often needs to be treated differently from other types of expenditure, the author draws on over 25 years of experience in the field to provide readers with useful mixture of good procedures and common sense rules that have been tried, tested and found to work. Many of these are illustrated by case histories, each with a moral or a lesson. Purchasing and Financial Management of Information Technology provides useful guidelines and advice on whole range of topics including: * IT acquisitions policy * Dealing with suppliers * Budgeting and cost control * IT cost and risk management * Specification, selection and evaluation of systems * IT value for money

In recent years developments in information and communication technology, along with globalisation and trade liberalisation, have brought about a revolution in the capital markets. Always highly sensitive to global corporate trends, the asset management industry has been subject to huge changes in recent years.

This book discusses the changing nature of asset management and the implications for investors. It is based on extensive research and interviews with a large number of distinguished practitioners in the industry.

The issue of how technology has impacted on asset management is discussed and how, with the growth of the industry, more individuals are exercising control over their investments than ever before. Insightful and comprehensive, this book is a must for anyone involved in the management of money.

Professor Lewis is to be congratulated upon being among the first economists to tackle the tricky subject of controlling the nationalised industries."Financial Times This book analyses some of the difficulties of costing and price formation that arise out of the existence of overhead costs in nationalised industry. Issues such as the law relating to monopoly and the accountability of public enterprise are considered, along with complex questions such as price formation and the problem of policy in public corporations.

Organization development practitioners have, for over half a century, engaged with organizations to help them grow and thrive. The artful application of Organization Development (OD) has helped business leaders articulate vision, rethink business processes, create more fluid organization structures and better utilize people's talents. While business leaders and OD practitioners intuitively believe that OD provides valuable results, rigorous measurement of the value delivered has long eluded many OD practitioners.
'Bottom-Line Organization Development' provides powerful tools to capture and measure the financial return on investment (ROI) of OD projects to the business. Given the increasing competition for budget and resources within organizations and the requirements of demonstrating tangible results, the need for such OD measurement tools is very high.
But in addition to proving the value of OD projects, integrating evaluation into the change management process itself can actually increase the value of the change initiative because it opens up new ways of capturing and increasing the value of change initiatives. In other words, there is an ROI to ROI. Merrill Anderson calls this new way of approaching OD "strategic change valuation."
The book explains the five steps in the OD value process - diagnosis, design, deployment, evaluation and reflection. In addition, three case studies take readers through the process of applying bottom-line OD to three types of popular strategic change initiatives: executive coaching, organization capability, and knowledge management. Readers will gain a holistic perspective of how to make the seemingly intangible benefits of these initiativestangible.
* Guides you through a proven, results-based approach to calculating the Return on Investment for large-scale, complex change management initiatives
* Provides the tools to identify the key measures and specific advice on how to measure them effectively
* Summarizes in simple language everything HR professionals need to do to justify and document the ROI of organization development initiatives for senior management

A resource for administrators seeking innovative ideas and supporting precedents in formulating policy, this book also provides a useful textbook for public administration and policy students. It employs a wealth of case studies in budgeting and financial management to demonstrate strategies in system implementation, policy formulation, government accounting, auditing, and financial reporting. With contributions from leading experts, it clarifies procedures to solve cutback and downsizing dilemmas using theoretical models, and provides pragmatic approaches to managing financial activities under budgetary strain. It also covers the evolution of a debt management policy.

"The complexity of business in economically demanding times makes finding constructive angels that much more challenging. The advice and tips in Attracting Capital from Angels are, therefore, invaluable. The wisdom offered here is not just for start-ups or neophytes, but is a well-timed companion to already existing resources and approaches to helping a business in all phases of development. It’s also a great manual for people who want to share their knowledge (and invest capital) as an angel. I plan to recommend Attracting Capital from Angels to every entrepreneur I run into in the future who asks for mentoring sources. Great job!" (Bob Bozeman, General Partner, Angel Investors, LP)

PENNIES FROM HEAVEN

This book offers all the information entrepreneurs need for finding elusive angel investors. Comprehensive, eminently readable, and based on the authors’ years of experience dealing with venture capital firms, angels, and entrepreneurs, this book covers all the angles on angels:

• What are angels and what do they want?
• Different types of angels
• Pitching and preparing for angels
• Finding angels
• Working with angels
• The future of angel investing

Attracting Capital from Angels is the ultimate guide to finding the money your business needs to get on its feet–and make a run at success.

This eighth volume in the series covers a variety of topics in financial planning and forecasting, including: the change in earnings response coefficient around dividend omissions; estimating spin-off values; and, forbearance, deposit insurance, and the market value of savings and loan associations.

Managing Risk in Organizations offers a proven framework for handling risks across all types of organizations. In this comprehensive resource, David Frame— a leading expert in risk management— examines the risks routinely encountered in business, offers prescriptions to assess the effects of various risks, and shows how to develop effective strategies to cope with risks. In addition, the book is filled with practical tools and techniques used by professional risk practitioners that can be readily applied by project managers, financial managers, and any manager or consultant who deals with risk within an organization. Managing Risk in Organizations is filled with illustrative case studies and

• Outlines the various types of riskpure, operational, project, technical, business, and political
• Reveals what risk management can and cannot accomplish
• Shows how to organize risk management efforts to conduct risk assessments, manage crises, and recover from disasters
• Includes a systematic risk management processrisk management planning, risk identification, qualitative impact analysis, quantitative impact analysis, risk response planning, and monitoring control
• Provides quantitative and qualitative tools to identify and handle risks

Unique in its approach, 'Money Matters for Hospitality Managers' is unlike other heavy theoretical accounting texts, using real life scenarios to show managers how it's done. Backed up by a range of exercises and activities, it thus allows managers to put their learning straight into practice - and so to achieve immediate results! 'Money Matters' will actively help managers and employees in the industry to: * learn more about the control aspects in order to become more effective in their work * learn about the business and companies in the wider context * understand where their section of the organization fits in the 'bigger picture' * increase their knowledge and enhance career opportunities Covering an unprecedented range of sectors (including hotels, restaurants, contract catering, leisure tourism, cruise ships and theme parks), the book supplies useful advice for the whole hospitality industry. It is ideal for operational and first line management, for whom it provides a welcome, accessible and hands-on introduction to finance and accounting in their sector.

'Delivering Business Value from IT' is focused on the evaluation issue in IT and how IT evaluation can proceed across the life-cycle of any IT investment and be linked positively to improving business performance.
Chapters 1,2 and 3 detail an approach to IT evaluation whilst chapters 4 and 5 build on these by showing two distinctive approaches to linking IT to business performance. The remaining three chapters deal with a range of evaluation issues emerging as important - specifically Internet evaluation, Y2K and beyond, EMU, quality outsourcing, infrastructure, role of benchmarking, and cost of ownership issues that practitioners regularly encounter.
A 'Computer Weekly' Professional Series book
Contains high visibility case studies including Safeway, Unipart, Hewlett Packard, Morgan Stanley, CNN, BP Exploration, British Aerospace, and Royal and Sun Alliance.

Thorough, accessible coverage of the key issues in XVA XVA Credit, Funding and Capital Valuation Adjustments provides specialists and non-specialists alike with an up-to-date and comprehensive treatment of Credit, Debit, Funding, Capital and Margin Valuation Adjustment (CVA, DVA, FVA, KVA and MVA), including modelling frameworks as well as broader IT engineering challenges. Written by an industry expert, this book navigates you through the complexities of XVA, discussing in detail the very latest developments in valuation adjustments including the impact of regulatory capital and margin requirements arising from CCPs and bilateral initial margin. The book presents a unified approach to modelling valuation adjustments including credit risk, funding and regulatory effects. The practical implementation of XVA models using Monte Carlo techniques is also central to the book. You'll also find thorough coverage of how XVA sensitivities can be accurately measured, the technological challenges presented by XVA, the use of grid computing on CPU and GPU platforms, the management of data, and how the regulatory framework introduced under Basel III presents massive implications for the finance industry. * Explores how XVA models have developed in the aftermath of the credit crisis * The only text to focus on the XVA adjustments rather than the broader topic of counterparty risk. * Covers regulatory change since the credit crisis including Basel III and the impact regulation has had on the pricing of derivatives. * Covers the very latest valuation adjustments, KVA and MVA. * The author is a regular speaker and trainer at industry events, including WBS training, Marcus Evans, ICBI, Infoline and RISK If you're a quantitative analyst, trader, banking manager, risk manager, finance and audit professional, academic or student looking to expand your knowledge of XVA, this book has you covered.

Series Information:
Garland Studies on Industrial Productivity

Japan has been, and will likely remain, the second largest economy in the world. In the four decades following the Second World War, it dazzled the world, its enviable social indicators, unprecedented fast and sustained with economic growth, process innovations, high productivity and high quality of manufactured product. In the nineties, the growth slowed down to a crawl, and a recession and deflation now threaten it. Could we foretell these historic ups and downs on the basis of financial reports of Japan's great corporations? The 14 chapters of the book take a sweeping view of accounting, covering methods, data, theories, and comparisons. Institutionalism has been a major force in accounting thinking in the United States as well as Japan. The influence of Marxian theory on Japanese accounting and social science thinking remains vastly underappreciated in the United States. A direct comparison of Japanese and U.S. factor markets, and Korean and German accounting practices also reveals important differences.

It is crucial for anyone interested in international investments, trade, and economics to understand Japanese financial reporting practices and how they differ from the United States practices . While a few comparative works on Japan and U.S. financial reporting are available, they rarely give the reader an in-depth understanding of the similarities and differences between the United States and Japan. In this volume, a Japanese and U.S. editor have collaborated to bring an understanding of Japanese accounting practices, perspectives, and their implications to the English speaking audience.

This volume is a milestone on our journey toward developing a more comprehensive understanding of the underpinnings of corporate financial performance. Weare concerned with both the factors that cause the financial performance of some firms to be better than others at a point in time and those factors that influence the trajectory of firm financial performance over time. In addressing these issues, we consider theoretical and empirical work on financial performance, drawn from several literatures, as well as present the results from our own empirical study. The review of the theoretical and empirical work is contemporary; the major portion of data comprising the empirical study was collected in the early 1980s as part of the Columbia Business School project on corporate strategic planning, but some data sequences extend into the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Our goals are to improve understanding of firm financial performance by developing a more integrated framework and to develop a research agenda based on what we have learned. This volume consists of four chapters, 12 appendices that provide detailed technical support and development for various portions of the discussion and an extensive set of references. It interweaves results from published literature in various fields with our original empirical work and develops an integrative approach to the study of firm fmancial performance.

This book mainly focuses on defining profit models, on how many main kinds of profit models there are, how profit models can change a company, and how to tailor a profit model to the needs of a certain company. In this context, profit models are classified as fixed-income, remaining-profit and profit-sharing, admission, toll, parking, fuel and sharing fees, profit sources, customer pricing, auction, combined pricing, etc. The logic behind all these profit models will be analyzed in detail and numerous micro-cases will be introduced. All of the micro-cases discussed are the best profit model practices used by outstanding enterprises, mainly from China and the USA (including HomeAway, Priceline, Tencent, Sina, Google, the Voice of China, CSPN and so on). These models will be complemented by a wealth of figures and additional tools to help readers better understand the principle of profit models. As such, the book not only explains "why" entrepreneurs preferred to apply a specific kind of profit model and not others, but also answers "how" they derived that model.

To date, both internal and external corporate environmental reporting and management systems have focused on physical input-output measures. However, external stakeholders are increasingly demanding that organisations provide more financial information about the costs and benefits of their environmental actions. As environmental costs rise, internal decision-makers are also seeking such information to ensure that money is well spent. Beyond basic compliance, many companies will not countenance environmental actions for which a "business case" cannot be made. A number of companies - such as Baxter, BT, Xerox, Zeneca and others - are now beginning to develop a better understanding of the costs and benefits of environmental action. The US Environmental Protection Agency has also done considerable work on models designed to understand the "full costs" of pollution control investments, with the aim of demonstrating that - when these are properly considered - pollution prevention can be a more cost-effective alternative. The Green Bottom Line brings together much of the world's leading research and best-practice case studies on the topic. Divided into four sections, covering "General Concepts", "Empirical Studies", "Case Studies" and "Implementation", the book includes case studies from the US EPA's Environment Accounting Programme and contributions from authors at institutions including the IMD, INSEAD, Tellus Institute and the World Resources Institute. It constitutes a state-of-the-art collection.

In this issue, there are thirteen high-quality and interesting papers to deal with the issue of Financial Analysis, Planning and Forecasting. Out of these thirteen papers, we can classify them into two major groups i.e. (a) Risk Analysis and (b) Financial Evaluation Models. The Risk Analysis group includes five papers as follows:
Time-varying accounting betas and risk estimation for thinly traded stocks: Finnish evidence.
Additional evidence on managerial ownership and risk taking behavior in banking industry.
A DSS approach to managing the risks of online trading.
Estimating exchange rate exposure of U.S. MNC's operating in South America.
Analyzing the risks inherent in the Proctor and Gamble-Bankers trust levered swap contract.

The financial evaluation models group consists of seven papers as follows:
Contextual accrual and cash flow based valuation models: impact of multinationality and corporate reputation.
Predicting changes in cash flow.
Valuing repurchasing corporations with the discounted dividend model: theory and application.
The role of taxes in the composition of the firm's retirement plans.
The valuation of the multinationality of U.S. multinational firms.
Cross-classification models: comparative empirical findings.
An extension of break-even analysis for financial planning.

In addition to these two groups there is a paper using survey approach to banking operations entitled Organizational Features, Operating Procedures, and Overdue Loans: empirical findings from a Commercial Bank's opinion survey in Taiwan.In summary, this issue is useful for readers who are interested in risk analysis and alternative financialevaluation models. In addition to these two groups there is a paper using survey approach to banking operations entitled Organizational Features, Operating Procedures, and Overdue Loans: empirical findings from a Commercial Bank's opinion survey in Taiwan.

Rather than treating financial management as an independent administrative practice, Financial Management in Human Services provides students and social service administrators with a conceptual framework in which financial management is the major responsibility of an administration, not just a separate practice. This text describes how the integration of administrative practice with fiscal responsibility and accountability will help you plan better programs, account for all fiscal transactions, and coordinate and evaluate services more effectively. Containing many different approaches on how to determine costs, obtain information, and collect data, this text will help you clearly evaluate your organization's progress and determine if your program goals are being reached.Financial Management in Human Services also discusses other topics related to efficient management, including: applying financial management techniques to the areas of program planning, service monitoring, estimating service and unit costs, and setting future service priorities in order to make better business decisions utilizing the information generated from the Financial Management System (FMS) to improve administrative functions, such as forecasting and goal determination, activity flow and service provision monitoring, and service planning according to program policy examining the importance of the four administrative subsystems-- budgeting and accounting, service coordination, program planning, and program evaluation choosing a FMS with consideration to certain factors, such as availability of information and identifying informational needs of the administration listing of reactive and proactive types of financial reports that help administrators evaluate the costs of services provided and identify problems in balancing the fiscal budget using methods such as a line item analysis to accurately compute the costs of staff involvement in a program This organized, straightforward text will help you evaluate all costs-- from salaries, travel time, and office supplies to direct costs to make your office more organized and productive.Complete with questions and answers about starting and maintaining a FMS, Financial Management in Human Services will enable you to manage finances more efficiently, making it easier for you to reach and set goals that better serve your clients.