This book mainly introduces a series of theory and approaches of group decision-making based on several types of uncertain linguistic expressions and addresses their applications. The book pursues three major objectives: (1) to introduce some techniques to model several types of natural linguistic expressions; (2) to handle these expressions in group decision-making; and (3) to clarify the involved approaches by practical applications. The book is especially valuable for readers to understand how linguistic expressions could be employed and operated to make decisions, and motivates researchers to consider more types of natural linguistic expressions in decision analysis under uncertainties.

"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.

Getting organizations going is one thing. Stopping them is another. This book examines how and why organizations become trapped in disastrous decisions. The focal point is Project Taurus, an IT venture commissioned by the London Stock Exchange and supported by numerous City Institutions. Taurus was intended to transform London's antiquated manual share settlement procedures into a state of the art electronic system that would be the envy of the world. The project collapsed after three year's intensive work and investments totalling almost GBP500 million. This book is an in depth study of escalation in decision making. The author has interviewed a number of people who played a key role and presents a most readable account of what actually happened. At the same time she sets the case in the broader literature of decision making.

Providing the necessary background information and hands-on tools to build compelling business cases, this book will increase the reader's capability to champion new business development ideas, take them to senior management, and facilitate the decision process by understanding the key theories and practices of finance and corporate investments.

This peer reviewed volume is part of an annual series, dedicated to the presentation and discussion of state of the art studies in the application of management science to the solution of significant managerial decision making problems. It is hoped that this research annual will significantly aid in the dissemination of actual applications of management science in both the public and private sectors. Volume 11 is directed toward the applications of mathematical programming to (1) Multi-criteria decision making, (2) Supply chain management, (3) Performance management, and (4) Risk analysis. Its use can be found both in university classes in management science and operations research, (management and engineering schools), as well as to both the researcher and practitioner of management science and operations research.

Written by an experienced risk manager, this innovative new book explores the core concepts of risk management, including in-depth coverage of its scope, rationale, and practical applications. In addition to being fundamentally important to risk managers, this text will also be invaluable to senior executives, directors, regulators, and capital markets professionals. Students, lay readers, and others interested in finance will find a vast subject made engaging and accessible. Written with unusual clarity, "The Shape of Risk" makes use of graphics, case studies, and questions. The author encourages readers to develop their own intuition and judgment for identifying and managing risk. This is an excellent starting point for a new generation of readers who increasingly need a both practical and conceptual understanding of risk management.

With the fast pace of communications and change in today's global marketplace, investing in equities has become increasingly complex. Communicating a clear, concise, meaningful message to investors is critical. Dr. Higgins and his contributing authors provide a broad set of perspectives, lessons learned, and best practices in global investor relations. They examine the fundamentals of investor relations from a theoretical and practical perspective. They explore individual company strategies and challenges for investor relations in unique and meaningful situations--all from their own vantages and experiences at six topflight corporations with world-class investor relations organizations: AT&T, Schering-Plough, BASF, Reuters, Sony, and Toyota. Readers will get detailed pragmatic insights into the way IR is done in these important, highly visible corporations, plus the results of a unique five-year study of global strategy communications, complete with ideas and concepts they can use immediately in developing and influencing investor relations in their own organizations.

But Higgins' book is more than a collection of company studies. Impinging upon the strategic and financial communications of virtually every global corporation are institutional, market, and technological forces that are shaping the current practice of investor relations. The book examines these forces and their impact on strategic financial communications. It also explores the theoretical and empirical foundations underlying the practice of investor relations and presents a conceptual model--a strategic perspective--for viewing and analyzing best practices. In addition, the book presents the results of a recent survey of global investor relations practices in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and Japan, plus two new studies of the latest communication technologies in U.S. companies.

"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 the private sectors. Volume 14 is directed toward the application of management science to multi-criteria decision making, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and financial performance analyses. This volume is arranged in three sections. The first section focuses on multi-criteria decision making; the second focus is on the application of DEA to public schools, paper mills, nursing home quality, retailing, health care services, and performance efficiencies in cities. The third section focuses on multi-dimensional performance of a national stock market and the effect of organizational structure on micro-financial institutions. This volume will prove to be most valuable to those interested in financial performance measurements, productivity measurement and analysis, and management science, both as practitioners and researchers.

A hydrocode refers to a computer program used for the study of the dynamic response of materials and structures to impulse (primary blast), impact (involving everything from car and aircraft collisions to impacts of space structures by assorted debris).
The understanding of hydrocodes requires knowledge of numerical methods in the code as well as a keen understanding of the physics of the problem being addressed. This can take many years to learn via codes. There are currently a number of titles addressing the physics of high pressure and high rate material but nothing introducing the novice to the fundamentals of this highly technical and complicated study. This title bridges the gap, bringing together the large body of literature, scattered through diverse journals, government and corporate reports and conference proceedings. As valuable as the text are the cited references and the combination will take years off the preparation time of future code users.
* Introduces complex physics essential for the understanding of hydrocodes
* Infused with over 30 years practical experience in the field
* Brings together a wide range of literature saving valuable research time

Strategic Acquisitions: A Guide to Growing and Enhancing the Value of Your Business is for business managers, rather than "deal makers," and explains why strategy, people, and financial performance are the keys to successful acquisitions. This book will show business managers how to identify a viable acquisition, how to evaluate the likelihood of a smooth corporate merger, how to efficiently combine management and labor teams, and how to absorb the new company without jeopardizing the existing corporate culture.

This highly praised introductory treatment describes the parallels between statistical physics and finance - both those established in the 100-year long interaction between these disciplines, as well as new research results on financial markets.

The random-walk technique, well known in physics, is also the basic model in finance, upon which are built, for example, the Black-Scholes theory of option pricing and hedging, plus methods of portfolio optimization. Here the underlying assumptions are assessed critically. Using empirical financial data and analogies to physical models such as fluid flows, turbulence, or superdiffusion, the book develops a more accurate description of financial markets based on random walks. With this approach, novel methods for derivative pricing and risk management can be formulated. Computer simulations of interacting-agent models provide insight into the mechanisms underlying unconventional price dynamics. It is shown that stock exchange crashes can be modelled in ways analogous to phase transitions and earthquakes, and sometimes have even been predicted successfully.

This third edition of "The Statistical Mechanics of Financial Markets" especially stands apart from other treatments because it offers new chapters containing a practitioner's treatment of two important current topics in banking: the basic notions and tools of risk management and capital requirements for financial institutions, including an overview of the new Basel II capital framework which may well set the risk management standards in scores of countries for years to come.

Management ideas, and their associated applications, have become a prevalent feature of our working lives. While their focus is familiar, such as efficiency, motivation, and improvement, they range from specific notions such as activity-based costing, to broad movements like corporate social responsibility. This Handbook brings together some of the latest research from leading international scholars on how management ideas are produced, promoted, and adapted, and their effects on business and working practices and society at large. Rather than focusing on specific management ideas, this volume explores their key socio-political contexts and channels of dissemination, and is organized around four core overlapping themes. The first section sets out the research field in general, in terms of both an overall system and of different perspectives and research methods. The second section explores the role of different actors and channels of diffusion, including the consumers and producers of management ideas and 'new' media, as well as traditional players in the management ideas field such as consultancies and business schools. The third section focuses on specific features or dynamics of the management ideas system, such as their adoption, evolution, institutionalisation, and resurgence, while in the final section, critical and new perspectives on management ideas are examined, highlighting specific socio-political contexts and the possibility of alternative ideas and forms of critique. With a broad range of perspectives represented, this Handbook provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and enduring resource for those studying management, innovation, and organizational change, as well as for those working in the management ideas industry.

Inspiring lessons on business and life from Frank Savage

Frank Savage's is an unlikely success story. Raised in segregated Washington, DC, by his mother, a hairdresser and entrepreneur with little formal education, Savage's career has taken him around the world as a globetrotting financier. From his first banking job at Citibank to his current position as Chairman Emeritus of Howard University, "The Savage Way" shares the life and business lessons he learned along the way. This memoir relates the many starts and stops, successes and failures in his long career, from his involvement in the collapse of Enron, to his experience investing in Africa, to his days as a competitive yachtsman--always guided by the wisdom of the mother who taught him to transcend all limits.A powerful memoir of an inspiring business leaderSavage is the current Chairman of his alma mater, Howard University, and the CEO of the global financial services company Savage Holdings LLC

A rare and inspiring story of personal and professional challenge and ultimate triumph, "The Savage Way" is a memoir that offers powerful inspiration and wisdom for tomorrow's business leaders.

Beliefs, Interactions and Preferences in Decision Making mixes a selection of papers, presented at the Eighth Foundations and Applications of Utility and Risk Theory (`FUR VIII') conference in Mons, Belgium, together with a few solicited papers from well-known authors in the field. This book addresses some of the questions that have recently emerged in the research on decision-making and risk theory. In particular, authors have modeled more and more as interactions between the individual and the environment or between different individuals the emergence of beliefs as well as the specific type of information treatment traditionally called `rationality'. This book analyzes several cases of such an interaction and derives consequences for the future of decision theory and risk theory. In the last ten years, modeling beliefs has become a specific sub-field of decision making, particularly with respect to low probability events. Rational decision making has also been generalized in order to encompass, in new ways and in more general situations than it used to be fitted to, multiple dimensions in consequences. This book deals with some of the most conspicuous of these advances. It also addresses the difficult question to incorporate several of these recent advances simultaneously into one single decision model. And it offers perspectives about the future trends of modeling such complex decision questions. The volume is organized in three main blocks: The first block is the more `traditional' one. It deals with new extensions of the existing theory, as is always demanded by scientists in the field. A second block handles specific elements in the development of interactions between individuals and their environment, as defined in the most general sense. The last block confronts real-world problems in both financial and non-financial markets and decisions, and tries to show what kind of contributions can be brought to them by the type of research reported on here.

Providing a comprehensive overview of various methods and applications in decision engineering, this book presents chapters written by a range experts in the field. It presents conceptual aspects of decision support applications in various areas including finance, vendor selection, construction, process management, water management and energy, agribusiness , production scheduling and control, and waste management. In addition to this, a special focus is given to methods of multi-criteria decision analysis. Decision making in organizations is a recurrent theme and is essential for business continuity. Managers from various fields including public, private, industrial, trading or service sectors are required to make decisions. Consequently managers need the support of these structured methods in order to engage in effective decision making. This book provides a valuable resource for graduate students, professors and researchers of decision analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis and group decision analysis. It is also intended for production engineers, civil engineers and engineering consultants.

This book explores the challenges that confront leaders in government and industry when making decisions in the areas of environmental health and safety. Today, decision making demands transparency, robustness, and resiliency. However thoughtfully they are devised, decisions made by governments and enterprises can often trigger immediate, passionate public response. Expertise Under Scrutiny shows how leaders can establish organizational decision making processes that yield valid, workable choices even in fast-changing and uncertain conditions. The first part of the book examines the organizational decision making process, describing the often-contentious environment in which important environmental health and safety decisions are made, and received. The authors review the roles of actors and experts in the decision making process. The book goes on to address such topics as: * The roles of actors and experts in the decision making process * Ethics and analytics as drivers of good decisions * Why managing problems in safety, security, environment, and health Part II offers an outline for adopting a formal decision support structure, including the use of decision support tools. It includes a chapter devoted to ELECTRE (ELimination and Choice Expressing Reality), a multi-criteria decision analysis system. The book concludes with an insightful appraisal and analysis of the expertise, structure and resources needed for navigating well-supported, risk-informed decisions in our 21st Century world. Expertise Under Scrutiny benefits a broad audience of students, academics, researchers, and working professionals in management and related disciplines, especially in the field of environmental health and safety.

Decision Science and Technology is a compilation of chapters written in honor of a remarkable man, Ward Edwards. Among Ward's many contributions are two significant accomplishments, either of which would have been enough for a very distinguished career. First, Ward is the founder of behavioral decision theory. This interdisciplinary discipline addresses the question of how people actually confront decisions, as opposed to the question of how they should make decisions. Second, Ward laid the groundwork for sound normative systems by noticing which tasks humans can do well and which tasks computers should perform. This volume, organized into five parts, reflects those accomplishments and more. The book is divided into four sections: `Behavioral Decision Theory' examines theoretical descriptions and empirical findings about human decision making. `Decision Analysis' examines topics in decision analysis.`Decision in Society' explores issues in societal decision making. The final section, `Historical Notes', provides some historical perspectives on the development of the decision theory. Within these sections, major, multi-disciplinary scholars in decision theory have written chapters exploring some very bold themes in the field, as an examination of the book's contents will show. The main reason for the health of the Decision Analysis field is its close links between theory and applications that have characterized it over the years. In this volume, the chapters by Barron and Barrett; Fishburn; Fryback; Keeney; Moreno, Pericchi, and Kadane; Howard; Phillips; Slovic and Gregory; Winkler; and, above all, von Winterfeldt focus on those links. Decision science originally developed out of concern with real decision problems; and applied work, such as is represented in this volume, will help the field to remain strong.

Mathematical Methods of Environmental Risk Modeling provides a working introduction to both the general mathematical methods and specific models used for human health risk assessment. Rather than being purely an applied math book, this book focuses on methods and models that students and professionals are likely to encounter in practice. Examples are given from exposure assessment, pharmacokinetic modeling, and dose-response modeling.

The approach known as Diversity Management, is about managing the increasing diversity of issues that confront us. It is a response to the ever growing number of approaches - more models, more methodologies and more theories - developed to tackle those issues. Diversity Management addresses this new issue to be confronted - how to choose between the models, methodologies and theories. The book, Diversity Management: Triple Loop Learning, will provide a strong intellectual contribution to the now widely debated issue of managing diversity. It carefully blends theory and practice in order to provide substance to the debate on diversity management in the social and systems sciences. The focus on triple loop learning increases the fullness of learning about the diversity of issues and dilemmas faced. It brings together three main learning centres in one overall awareness so that the process is more reflexive and those involved can operate more intelligently and responsibly. Diversity Management: Triple Loop Learning is thoroughly illustrated with case studies and shows theoreticians and interventionists how they can operate with a consciousness that is more than the sum of its parts.