"Applications of Management Science" is a blind refereed serial publication published on an annual basis. The objective of this research annual is to present state-of-the-art studies in the application of management science to the solution of significant managerial decision-making problems. It significantly aids the dissemination of actual applications of management science in both the public and private sectors. Volume 13 is directed toward the application of management science to financial management, specifically in portfolio analysis and in productivity management such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Arranged in two sections, the first comprises a collection of financial applications papers, while the second focuses on the use of DEA in such wide-ranging environments as airport operations, freight railroads, gynaecological departments, severe coastal storms, and performance evaluation and classification of universities and public schools. This volume will prove valuable to researchers and practitioners of management science and operations research, as well as being a vital companion to portfolio analysts and industrial and financial engineers alike.

This book critically engages with how the conservation of tropical rainforests is financed. Beginning with the context of tropical deforestation, alongside an overview of tropical ecology, global environmental policy and finance, the book reviews several conservation financing instruments. These include ecotourism and private reserves, debt-for-nature swaps and government domestic budgetary expenditures for state and national parks. Tropical deforestation and forest degradation are serious global environmental issues, contributing to global climate change, species extinction, and threatening the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities. Yet, many leading companies, individuals and governments are making a positive impact on tropical forest conservation to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions through the use of conservation finance. Conservation of Tropical Rainforests tells the history of international conservation finance and provides a variety of options for individuals, businesses, and governments to support conservation financing projects.

Written by two leading experts, this is a compact guide to the key tools and methods necessary to carry out cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The authors use modern economic tools to obtain general equilibrium cost-benefit rules that can be used to evaluate small projects, as well as large and even mega projects. Intertemporal issues like discounting, the shadow price of capital, and the treatment of risk are covered, and a state-of-the-art summary of available methods for the valuation of unpriced commodities is also included. In addition, the book provides detailed expositions of the marginal cost of public goods (MCPF), the marginal excess burden of taxes (MEB), and second-best evaluation rules, and shows how these concepts are interrelated. The importance of undertaking due diligence in evaluations is highlighted. This is an excellent toolkit for graduate students learning about the principles of CBA, and is a useful guide for government officials and policymakers.

Philipp Plank analyses the question, what drives the quality of cost-systems and is the quality of cost-systems directly and at best positively related to the firms' performance. In other words, is it worth investing in complex cost allocation systems or are there environmental and/or production settings in which less enhanced systems perform adequately. Using simulations, a benchmark firm (first-best solution) perfectly allocating cost to products is compared to firms implementing heuristic cost-allocation schemes (second-best solution) to identify the profit gap resulting from decisions based on limited information. Into this discussion, the idea of cost-stickiness is integrated, thereby indicating a new planning approach.

This book approaches the question of the relation between financial crises and earnings management from two philosophical perspectives: positivism and critical realism. The results obtained using the positivist approach indicate that financial crises tend to have no consistent effect on earnings quality since managers' earnings behavior does not differ from the pre-crisis to the crisis period. The author accordingly argues against the existence of a causal law based on a constant conjunction model (i.e., whenever a financial crisis happens, earnings management occurs) and concludes that financial crises cannot be seen as the cause of earnings management. The critical realism perspective, on the other hand, casts light on managers' reasons for acting like an earnings manager; in conjunction with the more traditional positivist approach, it assists in refuting the idea of financial crises as a generative mechanism for earnings management. The author concludes by exploring other structures at work that might be responsible for earnings management. This book will be of interest to both academics and a wide range of professionals.

This book is the first attempt to re-define objective risk. It addresses the cost of running out of capital as a generalized cost syndrome and explains how it is possible to describe this cost in such a way as to give it practical, real-life significance for personal finances, company finances and the economy as a whole. The discussion begins by presenting an intuitive and useful definition of risk: the probability of prospective capital shortfall. From this point it establishes a risk theory and expands the work of major thinkers such as Frank Knight and John Maynard Keynes, and adds reserve capital as a new financial risk management tool, with an economic function that is different from savings. This book will be of interest to economists, politicians, and decision makers as well as to the general public.

This book examines the relationship between digital innovations on the one hand, and accounting and management information systems on the other. In particular it addresses topics including cloud computing, data mining, XBRL, and digital platforms. It presents an analysis of how new technologies can reshape accounting and management information systems, enhancing their information potentialities and their ability to support decision-making processes, as well as several studies that reveal how managerial information needs can affect and reshape the adoption of digital technologies. Focusing on the four major aspects data management, information system architecture, external and internal reporting, the book offers a valuable resource for CIOs, CFOs and more generally for business managers, as well as for researchers and scholars. It is mainly based on a selection of the best papers - original double blind reviewed contributions - presented at the 2015 Annual Conference of the Italian Chapter of the Association for Information Systems (AIS).

A top risk management practitioner addresses the essential aspects of modern financial risk management

In the "Second Edition" of "Financial Risk Management + Website, " market risk expert Steve Allen offers an insider's view of this discipline and covers the strategies, principles, and measurement techniques necessary to manage and measure financial risk. Fully revised to reflect today's dynamic environment and the lessons to be learned from the 2008 global financial crisis, this reliable resource provides a comprehensive overview of the entire field of risk management.

Allen explores real-world issues such as proper mark-to-market valuation of trading positions and determination of needed reserves against valuation uncertainty, the structuring of limits to control risk taking, and a review of mathematical models and how they can contribute to risk control. Along the way, he shares valuable lessons that will help to develop an intuitive feel for market risk measurement and reporting.Presents key insights on how risks can be isolated, quantified, and managed from a top risk management practitionerOffers up-to-date examples of managing market and credit riskProvides an overview and comparison of the various derivative instruments and their use in risk hedgingCompanion Website contains supplementary materials that allow you to continue to learn in a hands-on fashion long after closing the book

Focusing on the management of those risks that can be successfully quantified, the "Second Edition" of "Financial Risk Management + Website"is the definitive source for managing market and credit risk.

This book investigates how businesses can adapt their executive and fiscal practices to adopt an ethical, equal-opportunity approach. The authors demonstrate how corporations can create sustainable work environments that embrace feminist care ethics and ground their research in a strong theoretical discussion of this relatively new framework. The discussion has a multidisciplinary outlook and explores how the concept of care ethics might be successfully applied to various professional contexts. Later chapters present findings from an empirical case study conducted in Australia and use both qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse the potential power of a feminist care of ethics approach within commercial and corporate management.

Presenting a vision of the luxury sector and its management, this edited book describes "the new luxury" through a comprehensive view of the value chain, from concept to market. The authors argue that the main characteristics of "luxury" are linked to specific resources and competencies found throughout the value chain and that value is a result of the interaction between the brand and stakeholders, and more precisely with their clients. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, New Luxury Management encompasses both strategic and functional aspects of luxury management, providing innovative solutions to the successful creation and management of value across the organization, from leadership, human resources, financial management, marketing and economic perspectives.

This book offers a comprehensive, easy to understand guide for startup entities and developing companies, providing insight on the various sources of funding that are available, how these funding sources are useful at each stage of a company's development, and offers a comprehensive intellectual property strategy that parallels each stage of development. The IP strategies offered in this book take into consideration the goals that most startups and companies have at each stage of development, as well as the limitations that exist at each stage (i.e., limited available resources earmarked for intellectual property asset development), and provides solutions that startups and companies can implement to maximize their return on intellectual property investments. This book also includes a number of descriptive examples, case studies and scenarios to illustrate the topics discussed, and is intended for use by startups and companies across all industries. Readers will garner an appreciation for the value that intellectual property rights provide to a startup entity or company and will gain an understanding of the types of intellectual property rights that are available to companies and how to procure, utilize and monetize those intellectual property rights to help their company grow.

This volume, inspired by and dedicated to the work of pioneering investment analyst, Jack Treynor, addresses the issues of portfolio risk and return and how investment portfolios are measured. In a career spanning over fifty years, the primary questions addressed by Jack Treynor were: Is there an observable risk-return trade-off? How can stock selection models be integrated with risk models to enhance client returns? Do managed portfolios earn positive, and statistically significant, excess returns and can mutual fund managers time the market? Since the publication of a pair of seminal Harvard Business Review articles in the mid-1960's, Jack Treynor has developed thinking that has greatly influenced security selection, portfolio construction and measurement, and market efficiency. Key publications addressed such topics as the Capital Asset Pricing Model and stock selection modeling and integration with risk models. Treynor also served as editor of the Financial Analysts Journal, through which he wrote many columns across a wide spectrum of topics. This volume showcases original essays by leading researchers and practitioners exploring the topics that have interested Treynor while applying the most current methodologies. Such topics include the origins of portfolio theory, market timing, and portfolio construction in equity markets. The result not only reinforces Treynor's lasting contributions to the field but suggests new areas for research and analysis.

The world of construction is intrinsically linked with that of finance, from the procurement and tendering stage of projects right through to valuation of buildings. In addition to this, things like administrations, liquidations, mergers, take-overs, buy-outs and floatations affect construction firms as they do all other companies. This book is a rare explanation of common construction management activities from a financial point of view. While the practical side of the industry is illustrated here with case studies, the authors also take the time to build up an understanding of balance sheets and P&L accounts before explaining how common tasks like estimating or valuation work from this perspective. Readers of this book will not only learn how to carry out the tasks of a construction cost manager, quantity surveyor or estimator, they will also understand the financial logic behind them, and the motivations that drive senior management. This is an essential book for students of quantity surveying or construction management, and all ambitious practitioners.

Today, nearly every aspect of higher education--including student recruitment, classroom instruction, faculty research, administrative governance, and the control of intellectual property--is embedded in a political economy with links to the market and the state. Academic capitalism offers a powerful framework for understanding this relationship. Essentially, it allows us to understand higher education's shift from creating scholarship and learning as a public good to generating knowledge as a commodity to be monetized in market activities.

In " Academic Capitalism in the Age of Globalization," Brendan Cantwell and Ilkka Kauppinen assemble an international team of leading scholars to explore the profound ways in which globalization and the knowledge economy have transformed higher education around the world. The book offers an in-depth assessment of the theoretical foundations of academic capitalism, as well as new empirical insights into how the process of academic capitalism has played out. Chapters address academic capitalism from historical, transnational, national, and local perspectives. Each contributor offers fascinating insights into both new conceptual interpretations of and practical institutional and national responses to academic capitalism.

Incorporating years of research by influential theorists and building on the work of Sheila Slaughter, Larry Leslie, and Gary Rhoades, "Academic Capitalism in the Age of Globalization" provides a provocative update for understanding academic capitalism. The book will appeal to anyone trying to make sense of contemporary higher education.

Overcome ERM implementation challenges by taking cues from leading global organizations Implementing Enterprise Risk Management is a practical guide to establishing an effective ERM system by applying best practices at a granular level. Case studies of leading organizations including Mars, Statoil, LEGO, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, and Astro illustrate the real-world implementation of ERM on a macro level, while also addressing how ERM informs the response to specific incidents. Readers will learn how top companies are effectively constructing ERM systems to positively drive financial growth and manage operational and outside risk factors. By addressing the challenges of adopting ERM in large organizations with different functioning silos and well-established processes, this guide provides expert insight into fitting the new framework into cultures resistant to change. Enterprise risk management covers accidental losses as well as financial, strategic, operational, and other risks. Recent economic and financial market volatility has fueled a heightened interest in ERM, and regulators and investors have begun to scrutinize companies' risk-management policies and procedures. Implementing Enterprise Risk Management provides clear, demonstrative instruction on establishing a strong, effective system. Readers will learn to: * Put the right people in the right places to build a strong ERM framework * Establish an ERM system in the face of cultural, logistical, and historical challenges * Create a common language and reporting system for communicating key risk indicators * Create a risk-aware culture without discouraging beneficial risk-taking behaviors ERM is a complex endeavor, requiring expert planning, organization, and leadership, with the goal of steering a company's activities in a direction that minimizes the effects of risk on financial value and performance. Corporate boards are increasingly required to review and report on the adequacy of ERM in the organizations they administer, and Implementing Enterprise Risk Management offers operative guidance for creating a program that will pass muster.

This book focuses on the application of revenue management in the manufacturing industry. Though previous books have extensively studied the application of revenue management in the service industry, little attention has been paid to its application in manufacturing, despite the fact that applying it in this context can be highly profitable and instrumental to corporate success. With this work, the author demonstrates that the manufacturing industry also fulfills the prerequisites for the application of revenue management. The book includes a summary of empirical studies that effectively illustrate how revenue management is currently being applied across Europe and North America, and what the profit potential is.

This book focuses on microeconomic foundations of capital structure theory. It combines theoretical results with a large number of examples, exercises and applications. The book examines fundamental ideas in capital structure management, some of which are still not very well understood in the business community, such as Modigliani and Miller's irrelevance result, trade-off theory, pecking-order theory, asset substitution, credit rationing and debt overhang. Chapters also cover capital structure issues that have become very important following the recent financial crisis. Miglo discusses the ways in which financial economists were forced to look critically at capital structure, as the problems faced by many companies stemmed from their financing policies following the crisis. The book also discusses links between capital structure and firm's performance, corporate governance, firm's strategy and flexibility, and covers such topics as life cycle approach to capital structure management, capital structure of small and start-up companies, corporate financing versus project financing and examples of optimal capital structure analyses for different companies. This comprehensive guide to capital structure theory will be of interest to all students, academics and practitioners seeking to understand this fast-developing and critical area of business management.

Crowdfunding for SMEs: A European Perspective provides a valuable insight into this new source of capital. In particular, the authors focus on financial return crowdfunding, which repays the crowd either through debt or equity. This source of capital might play a significant role in the future becoming an alternative or a complement to traditional funding sources. It is therefore of the uttermost importance to understand what has boosted its exponential growth in recent years, as well as the key drivers of success of P2P lending and equity crowdfunding campaigns on both the funders and the fundraisers side. Due to the financial nature of the return provided to the crowd, financial return crowdfunding has been the object of recent waves of regulation, although the European Union still lacks a set of common rules. The aim of regulation should be twofold, to protect investors and, at the same time, to favor the financing for SMEs. In this book, the authors explore such issues and the regulatory policies, while looking to the future of financial return crowdfunding as an evolving source of capital.

This book examines the role of risk management in the recent financial crisis and applies lessons from there to the national security realm. It rethinks the way risk contributes to strategy, with insights relevant to practitioners and scholars in national security as well as business. Over the past few years, the concept of risk has become one of the most commonly discussed issues in national security planning. And yet the experiences of the 2007-2008 financial crisis demonstrated critical limitations in institutional efforts to control risk. The most elaborate and complex risk procedures could not cure skewed incentives, cognitive biases, groupthink, and a dozen other human factors that led companies to take excessive risk. By embracing risk management, the national security enterprise may be turning to a discipline just as it has been discredited.

Unique guidance for cutting costs regardless of economic conditions--without reducing headcounts

Successfully reduce costs in the area of indirect spend and watch your bottom line grow. "Managing Indirect Spend" provides you with the knowledge and tools necessary to get it done with an overview of: the challenges faced when sourcing indirect spend categories; strategic sourcing process; tools that can help drive savings, and examples based on real world experience. This how-to guide clearly covers specific sourcing engagements and provides the details needed to source effectively. Includes sections covering the process, the tools, real-world examples, guidance through specific sourcing engagements and the information needed to source effectivelyPresents guidance for achieving the object of strategic sourcing: cost reductionShows how effectively managing indirect costs can provide a huge impact on bottom line growthCovers all areas of Market Intelligence (MI)

With tools, real world examples, and workable guidance, "Managing Indirect Spend" provides insider guidance for big bottom-line growth through effective management of indirect costs.

An authoritative handbook on risk management techniques and simulations as applied to financial engineering topics, theories, and statistical methodologies

The Handbook of Financial Risk Management: Simulations and Case Studies illustrates the prac-tical implementation of simulation techniques in the banking and financial industries through the use of real-world applications.

Striking a balance between theory and practice, the "Handbook of Financial Risk Management: Simulations and Case Studies" demonstrates how simulation algorithms can be used to solve practical problems and showcases how accuracy and efficiency in implementing various simulation methods are indispensable tools in risk management. The book provides the reader with an intuitive understanding of financial risk management and deepens insight into those financial products that cannot be priced traditionally. The "Handbook of Financial Risk Management" also features: Examples in each chapter derived from consulting projects, current research, and course instructionTopics such as volatility, fixed-income derivatives, LIBOR Market Models, and risk measuresOver twenty-four recognized simulation modelsCommentary, data sets, and computer subroutines available on a chapter-by-chapter basis

As a complete reference for practitioners, the book is useful in the fields of finance, business, applied statistics, econometrics, and engineering. The "Handbook of Financial Risk Management" is also an excellent text or supplement for graduate and MBA-level students in courses on financial risk management and simulation.

Praise for VALUE MAPS

"Equivocator, Explorer, Experimenter, Exploiter, Extender--Chapter 12 might be well served as mandatory reading for all subject matter experts SPARC is not a valuation, per se, but rather a separate consulting engagement that might interest a client--especially if that client is preparing for a sale or planning an exit strategy. Miller has taken the good ideas from five disciplines and married them with value enhancement, creating what could become a very good 'add-on' consulting engagement. NACVA recommends, and looks forward to, further dialogue related to this new approach. This book will open your eyes to new opportunities."
--Parnell Black, MBA, CPA, CVA, Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA)

"No one illuminates the murky intersection where business strategy and private company value creation meet better than Warren Miller. Now he's focused his extensive professional training and real-world experience to produce this intellectually rich, yet down-to-earth and fun-to-read road map we can all use. Business owners and leaders, financial analysts, management consultants, wealth managers, CPAs, business brokers, private equity investors, business appraisers--no one should plan to increase the value of an enterprise without Value Maps in their passenger seat."
--David Foster, CEO, Business Valuation Resources

"Private-equity analysts do not often come across scholarly and technical professional reading laced with laugh-out-loud moments Yet this is exactly what one finds in "Value Maps." Warren Miller's advice stems from his career as a finance executive, a CPA, a valuation analyst, and a 'recovering academic.' With pitch-perfect balance, Warren has created both a must-have professional reference guide and a best-practices road map designed to enhance the profitability of your client's business and your own--all in a very readable style with just a 'spoon-full of sugar.' Enjoy the read "
--Gary M. Karlitz, ASA, CPA, Partner-in-Charge, Valuation Services, Forensic Services, and Forensic Accounting, Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP

"Extremely readable, with numerous real-world examples--valuation specialists who don't read this book will soon be looking for a new profession. Miller takes the term 'valuation' to new levels, suggesting that appraisers can indeed add real value to their clients' businesses. Clients should demand that a valuation professional read this book before he or she will be hired."
--Alfred M. King, Vice Chairman, Marshall & Stevens, Inc.

Negotiate commercial leases and renewals like a pro

Renting space for businesses and navigating a commercial lease can be a daunting task for those without expertise, as errors or oversights can cost thousands of dollars. Thankfully, "Negotiating Commercial Leases & Renewals For Dummies" takes the mystery out of the commercial leasing process and offers expert tips and advice to help small business owners successfully negotiate their leases without losing their cool, or their cash.

From one of the industry's most respected and experienced consultants, "Negotiating Commercial Leases & Renewals For Dummies " provides tenants with tips and advice on finding the best location and amenities for a business; understanding space needs and maximizing lease space; ensuring fair operating costs and keeping rent fees at a manageable level; minimizing the deposit requirement; mastering and executing negotiation strategies and tactics; and much more.Discover the rights and responsibilities associated with commercial leasesFind out how much negotiability and flexibility you can expect in commercial leases and renewalsGet to know which laws protect you and your business

"Negotiating Commercial Leases For Dummies" is essential reading for the more than 10 million business owners, entrepreneurs, retailers, restaurants, doctors, and franchise tenants who lease commercial, office, and retail space across North America.

This book focuses on the concepts and applications of risk-based asset allocation. Markowitz's traditional approach to asset allocation suffers from serious drawbacks when implemented. These mainly arise from the estimation risk associated with the necessary input the most critical being expected returns. With the financial crisis, there has been an increasing interest in asset allocation approaches that don't need expected returns as input, known as risk-based approaches. The book provides an analysis of the different solutions that fit this description: the equal-weighting approach, the global minimum-variance approach, the most diversified portfolio approach and the risk parity approach. In addition to a theoretical discussion of these, it presents practical applications in different investment environments. Three different evaluation dimensions are considered to put these approaches to the test: financial efficiency, diversification and portfolio stability.

Investors receive thousands of business plans, but only a few businesses receive funding. While there are many "how-tos" out there for entrepreneurs, no one has focused on the mind-set, tools, and foundation that are important to investors, and therefore essential to entrepreneurs. Getting Funded examines and develops a framework on which to base a business concept, conduct due diligence research and risk analysis, refine a business model and reformulate a business strategy, and develop a risk and reward structure that protects investment money and incentivizes entrepreneurs to successfully manage the opportunity to create and share value. Getting Funded shows entrepreneurs the tools and framework critical to a venture's success, teaching entrepreneurs to refine their business model and strategy as well as to develop an investment model to improve the investability of the venture and thereby increase the chances of getting funded. Even without the need for external funding, these tools will improve a venture's potential odds of success. Listen to the author discuss the book on the UK-based radio show, The Evening Show with Simon Rose.