This is a management oriented book about efficiency, quality and effectiveness designed for an audience of management practitioners, scholars, and students. The integrative approach developed in this book contains new ideas regarding quality and efficiency-based effective management. These ideas lend themselves to managerial applications. This work is not meant to provide an exhaustive account of the measurement, and applications of effectiveness, quality, and efficiency concepts. With the exception of the treatment of conventional productivity concepts and measurements in Chapter 2, and of production flexibility in Chapter 5, the discussion in this book is largely non-teclmical. Among management practitioners, the book may be of particular interest to managers with broad strategic orientations in the fields of production management, quality management, marketing, and management of human resources. The academic audience is likely to include scholars and students interested in strategic planning, applied productivity analysis, quality management, marketing management, and management of human resources. The book could also be used as a supplementary text to or part of the readings in basic and advanced courses in strategic management, production management, and quality management. Concepts and dimensions of efficiency, quality, and effectiveness, as used throughout this book, are introduced in Chapter 1. The intricate sets of relationships among effectiveness, quality, and efficiency are explored.

Effective Management Control deals with a critical but relatively neglected and misunderstood aspect of organizational effectiveness: the process of controlling the behavior of people in organizations. The issue of organizational control and the design of an optimal control system is essential for the long term effectiveness of an organization: too little control can lead to confusion and chaos; conversely, too great a degree of control can result in the erosion of innovation and entrepreneurship. This monograph presents a conceptual framework for approaching these issues, and examines the role accounting can play in a successful control system. The author works towards an understanding of the nature, role, elements and functioning of organizational control and control systems in organizations. The book posits and discusses the features of a core control system and its component parts, including: planning, measurement and feedback, evaluation and reward sub-systems. It also discusses the ways in which a core control system operates within a larger organizational structure and culture. The theory is illustrated through its application to a particular case study.

Cost analysis and estimating is a vital part of the running of all organizations, both commercial and government. This volume comprises the proceedings of the 1992 conference of the Society for Cost Estimating and Analysis. Individual chapters are written by experts in their respective fields. Consequently, the volume as a whole provides an invaluable and up-to-date survey of the field.

Michael C. Munnix analyses the statistical dependencies in financial markets and develops mathematical models using concepts and methods from physics. The author focuses on aspects that played a key role in the emergence of the recent financial crisis: estimation of credit risk, dynamics of statistical dependencies, and correlations on small time-scales. He visualizes the findings for various large-scale empirical studies of market data. The results give novel insights into the mechanisms of financial markets and allow conclusions on how to reduce financial risk significantly.

The theory of Markov decision processes focuses on controlled Markov chains in discrete time. The authors establish the theory for general state and action spaces and at the same time show its application by means of numerous examples, mostly taken from the fields of finance and operations research. By using a structural approach many technicalities (concerning measure theory) are avoided. They cover problems with finite and infinite horizons, as well as partially observable Markov decision processes, piecewise deterministic Markov decision processes and stopping problems.

The book presents Markov decision processes in action and includes various state-of-the-art applications with a particular view towards finance. It is useful for upper-level undergraduates, Master's students and researchers in both applied probability and finance, and provides exercises (without solutions). "

The definitive guide to fixed income valuation and risk analysis

The Trilogy in Fixed Income Valuation and Risk Analysis comprehensively covers the most definitive work on interest rate risk, term structure analysis, and credit risk. The first book on interest rate risk modeling examines virtually every well-known IRR model used for pricing and risk analysis of various fixed income securities and their derivatives. The companion CD-ROM contain numerous formulas and programming tools that allow readers to better model risk and value fixed income securities. This comprehensive resource provides readers with the hands-on information and software needed to succeed in this financial arena.

As featured in the hit HBR Article "A 10 Year Study Reveals What Great Executives Know and Do" Rising to Power is a time tested, wisdom-packed guide for executives desiring to be exceptional leaders as they navigate their ascent to the highest levels of their organization. Nearly two-thirds of all leaders entering executive roles lack sufficient understanding of what is required and are unprepared for what they will face, which explains why 50 percent of them fail within the first eighteen months. For decades we have known that failure rates among transitioning executives are too high, causing exorbitant costs, damaged organizations, and stalled careers. Still, little has changed in the way organizations prepare leaders to assume executive positions. Three-fourths of new executives say their organization did not adequately prepare them for the executive office. It doesn't have to be this way. If you are an executiveor you're aspiring to be oneand considering how you will navigate the ascent in your organization, Rising to Power will serve you like no other resource can. Odds are high you have watched a promising executive fail on their way up. Like many, you scratched your head, wondering, "Why didn't they see that coming?" Now you're hoping not to be the next one that falls. Rising to Power will guide you on a predictable journey of ascent, through the transitional moments and issues most common in executive failure. It will bolster your confidence, open your eyes, deepen your insight, and if you let it, reveal your own proclivities for failure that you may not even recognize. Based on a ten-year longitudinal study, Rising to Power offers a profoundly new way of looking at an executive's rise in an organization, and offers an approach to significantly increase your odds of success.

This book will interest and assist people who are dealing with the problems of predicitons of time series in higher education and research. It will greatly assist people who apply time series theory to practical problems in their work and also serve as a textbook for postgraduate students in statistics economics and related subjects.

The original guide to creating wealth!

With this seminal book, Wallace Wattles popularized the Law of Attraction, the powerful concept that inspired "The Secret." "The Science of Getting Rich" explains how to attract wealth, overcome emotional barriers, and apply foolproof methods to bring financial success into your life.

This special 100-year edition contains the complete, original text, along with never-before published biographical information on Wattles, and a foreword by Catherine Ponder, the doyenne of modern prosperity writers. It also features an introduction from personal development authority Tom Butler-Bowdon, plus another Wattles classic, "The Science of Being Great."

The Bachelier Society for Mathematical Finance held its first World Congress in Paris last year, and coincided with the centenary of Louis Bacheliers thesis defence. In his thesis Bachelier introduces Brownian motion as a tool for the analysis of financial markets as well as the exact definition of options. The thesis is viewed by many the key event that marked the emergence of mathematical finance as a scientific discipline. The prestigious list of plenary speakers in Paris included two Nobel laureates, Paul Samuelson and Robert Merton, and the mathematicians Henry McKean and S.R.S. Varadhan. Over 130 further selected talks were given in three parallel sessions. .

This book proposes a uniform logic and probabilistic (LP) approach to risk estimation and analysis in engineering and economics. It covers the methodological and theoretical basis of risk management at the design, test, and operation stages of economic, banking, and engineering systems with groups of incompatible events (GIE). This edition includes new chapters providing a detailed treatment of scenario logic and probabilistic models for revealing bribes. It also contains clear definitions and notations, revised sections and chapters, an extended list of references, and a new subject index, as well as more than a hundred illustrations and tables which motivate the presentation.

The ECOMAC project (Eco-management Accounting as a Tool of Environmental Man agement) has provided a framework for linking environmental management with man agement accounting. It was funded in Theme 4, 'Human Dimensions of Environmental Change' in the EU Environment and Climate Research Programme. The project is of high policy relevance by contributing to the on-going debate on eco management accounting, reporting and indicators. It is also an area needing further re search. I would like to thank the research team, companies that participated as associated con tractors, and the advisory panel. Jonathan Parker DG XII/D-5, European Commission Theme on Human Dimensions of Environmental Change 7 Preface The ECOMAC project This document is the final report on the project 'Eco-management accounting as a tool of environmental managemenf (ECOMAC). This research project was conducted under the Environment and Climate Programme (Human Dimension of Environmental Change) of the European Commission (DG XII). The ECOMAC project investigated how companies are using or intend to use environ mental costs and benefits figures in support of their decisions, and what they have been doing to remedy the limitations of conventional management accounting in this area. The research was largely explorative in nature, but the project also produced a structured overview of the subject and made suggestions and recommendations as to how compa nies could improve their own environmental accounting."

As more applications are found, interest in Hidden Markov Models continues to grow. Following comments and feedback from colleagues, students and other working with Hidden Markov Models the corrected 3rd printing of this volume contains clarifications, improvements and some new material, including results on smoothing for linear Gaussian dynamics.

In Chapter 2 the derivation of the basic filters related to the Markov chain are each presented explicitly, rather than as special cases of one general filter. Furthermore, equations for smoothed estimates are given. The dynamics for the Kalman filter are derived as special cases of the authors general results and new expressions for a Kalman smoother are given. The Chapters on the control of Hidden Markov Chains are expanded and clarified. The revised Chapter 4 includes state estimation for discrete time Markov processes and Chapter 12 has a new section on robust control.

Does money blur perspectives for a better life?
Lifting the money veil from our yardsticks of progress, income and wealth, reveals the trade-offs of economic growth. The book presents new indicators of the social, economic and ecological impacts of our lifestyles and production techniques. The indicators help to identify those responsible for these impacts and account for their accountability in terms of environmental and other ("social") costs.
Sustainable development is to bring about long-term prosperity without undermining its natural foundation. For the assessment of the opaque concept we need both, physical impact measures and environmentally modified ("green") indicators of income, capital and output.
Peter Bartelmus opens the dialogue between frequently hostile camps of economists and environmentalists, data producers and users, and scientists and policy makers. Together, they may steer us towards a sustainable future.

This book covers a highly relevant and timely topic that is of wide interest, especially in finance, engineering and computational biology. The introductory material on simulation and stochastic differential equation is very accessible and will prove popular with many readers. While there are several recent texts available that cover stochastic differential equations, the concentration here on inference makes this book stand out. No other direct competitors are known to date. With an emphasis on the practical implementation of the simulation and estimation methods presented, the text will be useful to practitioners and students with minimal mathematical background. What's more, because of the many R programs, the information here is appropriate for many mathematically well educated practitioners, too.

Modern businesses generate huge volumes of accounting data on a daily basis. The recent advancements in information technology have given organizations the ability to capture and store these data in an efficient and effective manner. However, there is a widening gap between this data storage and usage of the data. Business intelligence techniques can help an organization obtain and process relevant accounting data quickly and cost efficiently. Such techniques include, query and reporting tools, online analytical processing (OLAP), statistical analysis, text mining, data mining, and visualization. Business Intelligence Techniques is a compilation of chapters written by experts in the various areas. While these chapters stand of their own, taken together they provide a comprehensive overview of how to exploit accounting data in the business environment.

This book provides an introduction to probability theory and its applications. The emphasis is on essential probabilistic reasoning, which is illustrated with a large number of samples. The fourth edition adds material related to mathematical finance as well as expansions on stable laws and martingales.

From the reviews: "Almost thirty years after its first edition, this charming book continues to be an excellent text for teaching and for self study." -- STATISTICAL PAPERS

The study of copulas and their role in statistics is a new but vigorously growing field. In this book the student or practitioner of statistics and probability will find discussions of the fundamental properties of copulas and some of their primary applications. The applications include the study of dependence and measures of association, and the construction of families of bivariate distributions. This book is suitable as a text or for self-study.

Sampling-based computational methods have become a fundamental part of the numerical toolset of practitioners and researchers across an enormous number of different applied domains and academic disciplines. This book provides a broad treatment of such sampling-based methods, as well as accompanying mathematical analysis of the convergence properties of the methods discussed. The reach of the ideas is illustrated by discussing a wide range of applications and the models that have found wide usage. The first half of the book focuses on general methods; the second half discusses model-specific algorithms. Exercises and illustrations are included.

This book provides a rigorous mathematical treatment of the non-linear stochastic filtering problem using modern methods. Particular emphasis is placed on the theoretical analysis of numerical methods for the solution of the filtering problem via particle methods. The book should provide sufficient background to enable study of the recent literature. While no prior knowledge of stochastic filtering is required, readers are assumed to be familiar with measure theory, probability theory and the basics of stochastic processes. Most of the technical results that are required are stated and proved in the appendices. Exercises and solutions are included.

From the reviews: "While this book is oriented toward students of physics, it could well be appreciated by a wider mathematical audience [ ] The text offers a rare opportunity to have a unified and modern treatment of stochastic processes in physics and finance." Bulletin of Mathematics Books

No pleasure lasts long unless there is variety in it. Publilius Syrus, Moral Sayings We've been very fortunate to receive fantastic feedback from our readers during the last four years, since the first edition of How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics was published in 1999. It's heartening to know that so many people appreciated the book and, even more importantly, were using the book to help them solve their problems. One professor, who published a review of the book, said that his students had given the best course reviews he'd seen in 15 years when using our text. There can be hardly any better praise, except to add that one of the book reviews published in a SIAM journal received the best review award as well. We greatly appreciate your kind words and personal comments that you sent, including the few cases where you found some typographical or other errors. Thank you all for this wonderful support.

This book examines non-Gaussian distributions. It addresses the causes and consequences of non-normality and time dependency in both asset returns and option prices. The book is written for non-mathematicians who want to model financial market prices so the emphasis throughout is on practice. There are abundant empirical illustrations of the models and techniques described, many of which could be equally applied to other financial time series.

The book gives a comprehensive overview of modern non-life actuarial science. It starts with a verbal description (i.e. without using mathematical formulae) of the main actuarial problems to be solved in non-life practice. Then in an extensive second chapter all the mathematical tools needed to solve these problems are dealt with - now in mathematical notation. The rest of the book is devoted to the exact formulation of various problems and their possible solutions. Being a good mixture of practical problems and their actuarial solutions, the book addresses above all two types of readers: firstly students (of mathematics, probability and statistics, informatics, economics) having some mathematical knowledge, and secondly insurance practitioners who remember mathematics only from some distance. Prerequisites are basic calculus and probability theory.

This book is an introduction to optimal stochastic control for continuous time Markov processes and the theory of viscosity solutions. It covers dynamic programming for deterministic optimal control problems, as well as to the corresponding theory of viscosity solutions. New chapters in this second edition introduce the role of stochastic optimal control in portfolio optimization and in pricing derivatives in incomplete markets and two-controller, zero-sum differential games.