Enterprise Modeling has been defined as the art of externalizing enterprise knowledge, i.e., representing the core knowledge of the enterprise. Although useful in product design and systems development, for modeling and model-based approaches to have a more profound effect, a shift in modeling approaches and methodologies is necessary. Modeling should become as natural as drawing, sketching and scribbling, and should provide powerful services for capturing work-centric, work-supporting and generative knowledge, for preserving context and ensuring reuse. A solution is the application of Active Knowledge Modeling (AKM).

The AKM technology is about discovering, externalizing, expressing, representing, sharing, exploring, configuring, activating, growing and managing enterprise knowledge. An AKM solution is about exploiting the Web as a knowledge engineering medium, and developing knowledge-model-based families of platforms, model-configured workplaces and services.

This book was written by the inventors of AKM arising out of their cooperation with both scientists and industrial practitioners over a long period of time, and the authors give examples, directions, methods and services to enable new ways of working, exploiting the AKM approach to enable effective c-business, enterprise design and development, and lifecycle management. Industry managers and design engineers will become aware of the manifold possibilities of, and added values in, IT-supported distributed design processes, and researchers for collaborative design environments will find lots of stimulation and many examples for future developments.

Enabling Simulation Capability in Organisations addresses the application of simulation modelling techniques in order to enable better informed decisions in business and industrial organisations.

The booka (TM)s unique approach treats simulation not just as a technical tool, but within as a support for organisational decision making, showing the results from a survey of current and potential users of simulation to suggest reasons why the technique is not used as much as it should be and what are the barriers to its further use.

By incorporating an evaluation of six detailed case studies of the application of simulation in industry by the author, the book will teach readers: (1) the role of simulation in decision making; (2) how to introduce simulation as a tool for decision making; and (3) how to undertake simulation studies that lead to change in the organisation.

Enabling Simulation Capability in Organisations provides an introduction to the state of the art in simulation modelling for researchers in business studies and engineering, as well a useful guide to practitioners and managers in business and industry.

Risk management has become a critical part of doing business in the twenty-first century. This book is a collection of material about enterprise risk management, and the role of risk in decision making. Part I introduces the topic of enterprise risk management. Part II presents enterprise risk management from perspectives of finance, accounting, insurance, supply chain operations, and project management. Technology tools are addressed in Part III, including financial models of risk as well as accounting aspects, using data envelopment analysis, neural network tools for credit risk evaluation, and real option analysis applied to information techn- ogy outsourcing. In Part IV, three chapters present enterprise risk management experience in China, including banking, chemical plant operations, and information technology. Lincoln, USA David L. Olson Toronto, Canada Desheng Wu February 2008 v Contents Part I Preliminary 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 David L. Olson & Desheng Wu 2 The Human Reaction to Risk and Opportunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 David R. Koenig Part II ERM Perspectives 3 Enterprise Risk Management: Financial and Accounting Perspectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Desheng Wu & David L. Olson 4 An Empirical Study on Enterprise Risk Management in Insurance . . 39 Madhusudan Acharyya 5 Supply Chain Risk Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 David L. Olson & Desheng Wu 6 Two Polar Concept of Project Risk Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Seyed Mohammad Seyedhoseini, Siamak Noori & Mohammed AliHatefi Part III ERM Technologies 7 The Mathematics of Risk Transfer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Marcos Escobar & Luis Seco 8 Stable Models in Risk Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BIS 2008 was the 11th in a series of international conferences on Business - formation Systems. The conference took place in Innsbruck which means that after Klagenfurt it was the second Austrian BIS edition. The BIS conference series from its veryroots has been recognized by professionalsas a forum for the exchangeand disseminationof topicalresearchin the development,implemen- tion, application and improvement of computer systems for business processes. The theme of this conference was"Business Processes and Social Contexts- Reaching Beyond the Enterprise."The material collected in this volume covers research trends as well as current achievements and cutting-edge developments in the area of modern business information systems. A set of 41 papers were - lectedforthepresentationduringthemaineventandgroupedaroundconference topics: Business Process Management, Service Discovery and Composition, - tologies, Information Retrieval, Interoperability, Mobility and Contexts, Ent- prise Resource Planning, Wikis and Folksonomies, Rules and Semantic Queries. The Program Committee consisted of more than 80 members that carefully evaluated all the submitted papers. This year they were supported by an Easy- Chair review system, and again, we observed an increase in the quality of the reviews. This not only raised the quality of the conference but also positively a?ected the work of the authors. The regular program was complemented by the outstanding keynote spe- ers. We are proud that BIS 2008 hosted Alistair Barros (SAP, Australia), Hans Ulrich Buhl (University of Augsburg, Germany), Fabio Ciravegna (University of She?eld, UK), John Davies (BT, UK), and Frank Leymann (University of Stuttgart, Germany).

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of UNISCON 2008 held in Klagenfurt, Austria, during April 22-25, 2008.

UNISCON combines the ECOMO workshop series and the ISTA conference series. The 19 papers dealing with conceptual modeling, model-driven software development and information systems applications represent a 30% selection from the original set of submissions.

They are completed by two keynote lectures and 35 papers from internationally renowned researchers, invited in honor of Heinrich C. Mayr, whose 60th birthday is also celebrated at this event, that he originally created.

Knowledge Management is a vast and diverse topic that must be addressed by all modern industrial companies, from the smallest SMEs to the most complex organizations. Knowledge is a critical and strategic asset and the key to competitiveness in the modern manufacturing environment, as it facilitates capacities essential for achieving the required responsiveness, flexibility, agility and innovation. Nevertheless, knowledge itself is difficult to explicate and capture, and often can be recognized only in the improvements it brings to products, technologies and enterprise organizations.

Four years ago, members of the CIRP community submitted a proposal to the 6th EU Framework Programme to establish a Network of Excellence (NoE). The European Community accepted this proposal, and thus the Virtual Research Laboratory - Knowledge Community in Production (VRL-KCiP) network was launched. The network set out to create a Knowledge Community in Production that would provide support and knowledge to EU industry. This goal was achieved thanks to (a) the ongoing cooperation and collaboration among the network partners, who represent leading universities worldwide, and (b) additional strong member partnerships with laboratories outside of Europe (Japan, Australia, South Africa, USA, and others).

The main efforts of the VRL-KCiP NoE were aimed at aiding European manufacturing industry in defining and structuring its strategic knowledge in order to meet worldwide strategic challenges. These challenges, detailed below, have remained constant over the four years of the network s activities:

1. Manufacturing must become knowledge intensive, given the demand for high-tech products (e.g. electronics, medicines).
2. Given the relatively high labor costs in Europe compared to those in developing countries, manufacturing processes in Europe require high levels of expertise to realize required productivity.

As a result of these challenges, over the past 30 years knowledge management (KM) has become a major issue in Europe, in academia as well as in industry. Indeed, firms have recognized that cultivating the "knowledge resource" is essential for management as well as for operations.

The aim of this book is to help readers understand the complex topic of knowledge. Moreover, it underlines why knowledge is one of the most important strategic issues in achieving future manufacturing competitiveness.

The book is a collection of 34 complementary contributions written by researchers from multinational locations and multidisciplinary perspectives. This book is unique in that it is based on the collective experience of these researchers and represents the status and current issues in the study and implementation of Knowledge Management today.

The book describes fundamental concepts in knowledge and knowledge management and provides several case studies in the fields of design and manufacturing. In particular, the book presents several very original examples of knowledge management and knowledge sharing in the context of European manufacturing. Actual experiences and feedbacks are presented with respect to knowledge engineering approaches for design, manufacturing, and more generally for enterprise engineering. Moreover, methods and tools for knowledge integration within the extended enterprise and the value chain are described, and the role of knowledge management and documents in supporting radical innovation projects is also highlighted.

The book discusses ontology, which constitutes the basis for formalizing and mapping knowledge from different points of view. Concrete examples are described and elaborated, mainly with respect to product, process and resource description and management along the lifecycle of mechanical systems.

Moreover, the book outlines the knowledge management efforts within the VRL-KCiP network. These efforts include (a) realizing a common knowledge management capability in the multilingual, multinational, multidisciplinary distributed research lab, and (b) developing a knowledge map, which now forms the basis for efficient collaboration within the VRL-KCiP consortium. In addition, the benefits of developing networks of experts and shared knowledge among multi-cultural communities are highlighted.

It is our hope that this book will offer you new insight into the topic of knowledge management in the European manufacturing context."

The challenges that firms managing global work face are many. In addition to geographical and time zone differences, global firms face cultural differences. This book highlights the importance of organizing knowledge processes to overcome challenges involved in global work. It provides frameworks and tools that enable the reader to consider how to strike a balance between these knowledge processes. The book is a must read of practitioners, academics or students concerned with managing knowledge processes in globally distributed work

Volume 14, Advances in Business and Management Forecasting is a blind refereed serial publication. It presents state-of-the-art studies in the application of forecasting methodologies in such areas as financial forecasting, market demand analysis, executive compensation forecasting, data analysis, forecasting improvement with interpolation and cluster analysis. This is a key text for academics and researchers of financial forecasting, market demand forecasting and executive compensation forecasting.

The essays and lectures collected in this book center around knowledge transfer from the complex-system sciences to applications in business, industry and society, as viewed from a broad perspective. The contributions aim to raise awareness across the spectrum to meet the increasing need to integrate lessons from complexity research into everyday planning, decision making, logistics or optimization procedures and forecasting. The writing has been largely kept non-technical.

This encyclopedic, detailed exposition spans all the steps of one-period allocation from the foundations to the most advanced developments.

Multivariate estimation methods are analyzed in depth, including non-parametric, maximum-likelihood under non-normal hypotheses, shrinkage, robust, and very general Bayesian techniques. Evaluation methods such as stochastic dominance, expected utility, value at risk and coherent measures are thoroughly discussed in a unified setting and applied in a variety of contexts, including prospect theory, total return and benchmark allocation.

Portfolio optimization is presented with emphasis on estimation risk, which is tackled by means of Bayesian, resampling and robust optimization techniques.

All the statistical and mathematical tools, such as copulas, location-dispersion ellipsoids, matrix-variate distributions, cone programming, are introduced from the basics. Comprehension is supported by a large number of figures and examples, as well as real trading and asset management case studies.

At symmys.com the reader will find freely downloadable complementary materials: the Exercise Book; a set of thoroughly documented MATLAB(r) applications; and the Technical Appendices with all the proofs. More materials and complete reviews can also be found at symmys.com.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Business Information Systems, BIS 2007, held in Poznan, Poland in April 2007. Among the issues addressed in the 49 revised full papers presented together with one keynote lecture are business process management, Web services, ontologies, information retrieval, system design, agents and mobile applications, decision support, social issues, specific MIS issues.

Risk management is a decision-making process which considers political, social, economic and engineering factors with relevant risk assessments relating to a potential hazard in order to develop, analyse and compare options to facilitate the selection of the optimal regulatory response for safety from that hazard. Rapid technological developments, organisational changes and increased demand for efficiency have all influenced the vulnerability of our society. As a result, safety and risk management is becoming an increasingly important field.

Risk Management with Applications from the Offshore Petroleum Industry presents an in-depth discussion of some fundamental principles of risk management, related to the use of expected values, uncertainty handling and risk acceptance criteria. A decision framework for risk management is developed that provides a structure for the classification of risk decision problems and a procedure for the execution of the related decision-making processes. Several examples from the offshore petroleum industry are included to illustrate the use of the framework, but it can also be applied in other areas.

With the inclusion of a risk management framework designed to achieve better decisions and therefore more desirable outcomes, Risk Management with Applications from the Offshore Petroleum Industry is a valuable resource for practitioners in the industry, engineering managers and regulatory authorities. Graduate students and researchers in risk management will find this book a comprehensive reference.

Increasingly India, with its expertise in communication technology, is becoming the "global back office" to international supply chains. Many international companies (and examples are legion, but a few examples are IBM, Sony, Exxon/Mobil, etc.) have employed Indian resources to help them with their data, their computerized decision support and their knowledge management. With large corporations opening the path to India, it has allowed a substantial communications and decision-support infrastructure to develop in a number of Indian cities. Therefore, opportunities have emerged for both large and small enterprises in the global market place to utilize these developing Indian resources.

DECISION SUPPORT FOR GLOBAL ENTERPRISES is a volume of a mixture of peer-reviewed and invited papers. The volume will have two primary goals: (1) Stimulate creative and thoughtful discussion between academic research leaders and the practitioner information systems community that will improve both the research and practice in the area. (2) Increase the awareness of the problems and challenges faced by global enterprises that can be met with innovative computerized decision support systems. In addition to the positive aspects, the limitations of these systems and technologies are also explored. Emphasized in the book will be research on the following topics: (1) the emerging enterprise decision making processes and technologies; (2) decision making in uncertain, rapidly changing conditions; (3) the changing infrastructure in organizations and society; (4) the expanding role of web technologies; and (5) emerging theories and practices for managing knowledge and in making decisions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Practical Aspects of Knowledge Management, PAKM 2006, held in Vienna, Austria in November/December 2006.

The 29 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 123 submissions. All aspects of knowledge management and their role in next-generation business solutions are addressed in perspective to business and organisation sciences, cognitive science, and computer science.

Budding entrepreneurs face a challenging road. The path is not made any easier by all the cliches they hear about how to make a startup succeed-from platitudes and conventional wisdom to downright contradictions. This witty and wise guide to the dilemmas of entrepreneurship debunks widespread misconceptions about how the world of startups works and offers hard-earned advice for every step of the journey. Instead of startup myths-legends spun from a fantasy version of Silicon Valley-Rizwan Virk provides startup models-frameworks that help make thoughtful decisions about starting, growing, managing, and selling a business. Rather than dispensing simplistic rules, he mentors readers in the development of a mental toolkit for approaching challenges based on how startup markets evolve in real life. In snappy prose with savvy pop-culture and real-world examples, Virk recasts entrepreneurship as a grand adventure. He points out the pitfalls that appear along the way and offers insights into how to avoid them, sharing the secrets of founding a startup, raising money, hiring and firing, when to enter a market and when to exit, and how to value a company. Virk combines lessons learned the hard way during his twenty-five years of founding, investing in, and advising startups with reflections from well-known venture capitalists and experts. His candid advice makes Startup Myths and Models an ideal guide for those readers just embarking on the startup life and those looking for their next adventure.

Many complex systems in civil and military operations are highly automated with the intention of supporting human performance in difficult cognitive tasks. The complex systems can involve teams or individuals working on real-time supervisory control, command or information management tasks where a number of constraints must be satisfied. Decision Making in Complex Environments addresses the role of the human, the technology and the processes in complex socio-technical and technological systems. The aim of the book is to apply a multi-disciplinary perspective to the examination of the human factors in complex decision making. It contains more than 30 contributions on key subjects such as military human factors, team decision making issues, situation awareness, and technology support. In addition to the major application area of military human factors there are chapters on business, medical, governmental and aeronautical decision making. The book provides a unique blend of expertise from psychology, human factors, industry, commercial environments, the military, computer science, organizational psychology and training that should be valuable to academics and practitioners alike.

Despite many years of development, risk management remains problematic for the majority of organizations. One common challenge is the human dimension, in other words, the way people perceive risk and risk management. Risk management processes and techniques are operated by people, each of whom is a complex individual, influenced by many different factors. And the problem is compounded by the fact that most risk management involves people working in groups. This introduces further layers of complexity through relationships and group dynamics. David Hillson's and Ruth Murray-Webster's Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude will help you understand the human aspects of risk management and to manage proactively the influence of human behaviour on the risk process. The authors introduce a range of models, perspectives and examples to define and detail the range of possible risk attitudes; looking both at individuals and groups. Using leading-edge thinking on self-awareness and emotional literacy, they develop a powerful approach to address the most common shortfall in current risk management: the failure to manage the human aspects of the process. All this is presented in a practical and applied framework, rather than as a theoretical or academic treatise, based on the authors' shared experiences and expertise, rather than empirical research. Anyone involved in implementing risk management will benefit from this book, including risk practitioners, senior managers and directors responsible for corporate governance, project managers and their teams. It is also essential reading for HR professionals and others interested in organizational or behavioural psychology. This second edition is updated to strengthen the understanding of individual risk attitudes and reinforce what individuals can do to manage those risk attitudes that are leading them away from their objectives. For people who want to embrace this subject, the book highlights ways forward that are proven and practical.

The book answers a simple question: when managers and companies face a decision with two outcomes that are safe and risky, what leads them to choose the risky alternative? The answer starts with a detailed review of the theory behind risk and decision making by managers. The book then gathers real-world evidence using two surveys of senior managers and directors to analyze why they take risks, and how companies control risks.

Formal decision and evaluation models are sets of explicit and well-defined rules to collect, assess, and process information in order to be able to make recommendations in decision and/or evaluation processes. They are so widespread that almost no one can pretend not to have used or suffered the consequences of one of them. Our earlier companion volume, Evaluation and Decision Models, heavily criticised formal models but also argued that they could be useful. On the other hand, Evaluation and Decision Models with Multiple Criteria is a guide aimed at helping the analyst to choose a model and use it consistently. We propose a sound analysis of techniques and our presentation can be extended to most decision and evaluation models as a decision aiding methodology. This volume is intended for the enlightened practitioner, for anyone who uses decision or evaluation models - for research or for applications - and is willing to question his practice, to have a deeper understanding of what he does.

We make decisions, and these decisions make us and our organisations. And in theory, decision-making should be easy: a problem is identified, the decision-makers generate solutions, and choose the optimal one - and powerful mathematical tools are available to facilitate the task. Yet if it is all so simple why do organisations, both private and public sector, keep making mistakes - the results of which are borne by shareholders, employees, taxpayers and ultimately society at large? This guide to decision making. by leading decision science academic Helga Drummond, aims to improve decision-making in organisations. It explores how and why decisions go awry in the first place - and offers practical advice on what decision-makers can do to counter the psychological, social and other forces that can undermine individual judgment and pull organisations off course. Full of examples of good and bad decision-making from around the world, it will make readers think more clearly about decisions big and small.

This book recommends and examines the various approaches to incorporating an accurate measure of risk into the appraisal of an international investment. It considers the way in which decisions on international investment projects are taken and how they should be. It critiques and integrates existing theories, including the global capital asset pricing rule of financial theory, theories of strategy making and the real options approach, to show how risk should be incorporated into the present value formula and its various elements to produce a clear decision rule.

In this book leading scholars debate current issues and shed light on future prospects in the field of Knowledge Management. It presents new perspectives on knowledge and learning, including modes of knowing in practice, transactive knowledge systems, organizational narrations, and challenges conventional wisdom. It deals with emerging issues in knowledge and innovation embracing models of distributed innovation and forms of co-operation. It also includes problems in managing knowledge, leadership issues and how to measure knowledge.

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.