While many nations are still struggling from the global financial crisis and regaining their financial security, investors are considering alternative options for investing their money; and the secure financial sector is China appears as a viable option. International Cross-Listing of Chinese Firms examines the successful techniques and strategies that Chinese companies are using within their financial practices. It highlights the foreign-based multinational enterprise theories related to the major international stock markets. By providing the latest theories and research, this book will be beneficial for business practitioners, researchers, and managers interested in the relationship between cross-listing and firm valuation of Chinese firms.

This Handbook brings together experts in the field of leadership to provide insights into methods for leadership research. It serves to motivate them to use new research methods to further our knowledge of the leadership field. Illustrating novel approaches to research with sample questions and applications to the field of leadership, this comprehensive and accessible Handbook covers key methodologies in leadership research today, as well as introducing methods that will be invaluable in the future. With chapters written by established leadership scholars, the Handbook of Methods in Leadership Research is arranged to cover three core areas of research: measurement and design, quantitative analytic approaches, and qualitative analytic approaches. The book provides an accessible overview and starting point to discover new methods. All chapters are well researched and provide references for those who want to delve deeper into the topics covered. The volume ends with a summary of tips for each method presented. This book will be an indispensable resource for leadership students, scholars, and practitioners alike, to inspire their future research but also to support their understanding of the quality of research carried out by others. Contributors: C.-H. Chang, S.H. Chong, A.R. Cook, A.J. Dixon, E. Djurdjevic, R.J. Foti, V. Gochmann, J. Gooty, R.J. Hall, R. Ilies, R.E. Johnson, M. Jokisaari, R.B. Kline, M. Lewis, W.-D. Li, R.G. Lord, M.E. McCusker, B. Meyer, P. Neves, S. Ohly, M. Pina e Cunha, A. Rego, E.F. Rietzschel, D. Rus, J. Schilling, B. Schyns, W.K. Smith, S. Trichas, W. Wang, J.M. Webb, B. Wisse, F.J. Yammarino

Anthony Von Mickle is President of The Investment Forum, a real estate and equity investments group based in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Based upon his interests, through formal education and practical research, he has learned that actively pursuing what you want, regardless of your personal background, is a key ingredient to the attainment of accumulated wealth in residential real estate investments. Wealth can be acquired in this field by anyone willing to do the work and formulate this goal. Real Estate for Real People: A Guide to Achieving Profitability in Residential Real Estate Investing is a guide to help long-term investors seeking profit in residential real estate investments. Von Mickle stresses the initial accumulation of preliminary information which helps prevent problems down the line. For example, examine zoning and planning details of the economic development office in the counties in which you wish to invest in property, obtain tax assessment information and detail an exit strategy. Von Mickle provides valuable tools that can help secure profitable residential real estate investments. Learn from an expert who has extensively studied extremely wealthy people and successfully utilized their common traits of passion, timing, fear, and leverage. He shares how anyone can use these traits to their financial advantage.

In this timely report, a number of chief executive officers talk frankly about how they've managed to increase profits and improve market shares for their companies without government intervention even in the face of economic hard times and foreign competition. Drawn from companies in both well-established and fast-growing non-traditional industries, these success stories represent a broad range of experience and expertise. In addition, Rosabeth Moss Kanter and Alan M. Kantrow offer their own perspectives on corporate success. "How to Compete Beyond the 1980S" clearly shows that, through the increased imagination and efforts of individual corporations and institutions, America's lagging productivity can be revived.

Learn how to take risks, thrive and build your dream career. 'Sukhinder is one of Silicon Valley's most well-respected leaders. Her unique style of authenticity, optimism and hustle will help anyone unlock their career potential' - Eric Schmidt, former chairman & CEO, Google Each one of us dreams of possibility - in our careers and in our personal lives. But our pursuit of possibility is hamstrung by 'The Myth of the Single Choice' that has led us to believe that one large choice stands between us and success, and that a single failure may topple us should we choose 'wrongly'. We let fear trump possibility: we become paralyzed. Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is one of the most well-respected leaders in Silicon Valley, but her path to success has been far from linear. While she has started three companies including theBoardlist, and has served as president of StubHub, she's also encountered failed choices, misfires, and all other types of pitfalls that she had to learn how to overcome and incorporate into her new path forward. Drawing on her own experience and those of other leaders, Sukhinder shows that when people thrive, it's because their fear of missing out on an opportunity overtakes their fear of failure, and compels them to take action. Better yet, they keep acting, building a fundamental risk-taking muscle that under weighs the importance of any single choice in favour of continually 'choosing'. Choose Possibility is a thrilling and insightful new way to approach risk-taking and achieve lasting success. 'An excellent guide to help anyone learn how to take risks in their own careers and thrive' - Kai-Fu Lee, chairman & CEO, Sinovation Ventures and author of bestseller AI Superpowers

This research study attempts to provide a comprehensive CSR literature review, analyze corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues from the strategic decision-making (SDM) perspective, and investigate the process of managers' CSR- related SDM in China. In particular, it utilizes content analysis to examine selected CSR articles from published studies, in order to evaluate the trends in CSR theory development as well as to identify the variables, constructs, and relationships within CSR theory. The review indicates that CSR should be involved in organizational strategies. Therefore, this study reviews the relevant theoretical and empirical literature in the SDM area. Firstly, it summarizes the broader context of strategic decisions and points out factors in the external environment and organizational characteristics that influence the SDM process of managers. Secondly, it articulates the influences of individual characteristics on the SDM. Thirdly, it examines the process of SDM using the rational and bounded rationality theory of decision making. Finally, on the basis of the SDM model, the author generates a research model which proposes the links between vital and influential factors from an integrated perspective. This book also provides a detailed description of how to choose a proper method for the CSR-related SDM research, the process of survey design, sampling methods, and survey administration. In particular, the author utilized a policy-capturing method to develop a series of scenarios concerning CSR activities and an explanation of this method is provided. It reports research findings of this study and provides an extensive and thorough discussion and compares it with previous empirical studies. The conclusion summarizes the research findings and their theoretical and practical implications.

The proliferation of computers in business requires increased managerial expertise in decision support systems and expert systems. Managers, executives, and scholars will find this in-depth examination of the latest tools and technologies available for decision support invaluable. The book provides a clear and complete discussion of the foundations and management applications of decision support, expert systems, artificial intelligence, and other management support systems. Practical examples are provided throughout, giving the business professional a useful tool for evaluating and utilizing the variety of decision support and information technologies available. In addition, Bidgoli explores the growing field of applicable artificial intelligence, including expert systems, fuzzy logic, and neural networks. This book enhances expertise in a succinct, practical, and readable way.

This book introduces a new paradigm called 'Optimization in Changeable Spaces' (OCS) as a useful tool for decision making and problem solving. It illustrates how OCS incorporates, searches, and constructively restructures the parameters, tangible and intangible, involved in the process of decision making. The book elaborates on OCS problems that can be modeled and solved effectively by using the concepts of competence set analysis, Habitual Domain (HD) and the mental operators called the 7-8-9 principles of deep knowledge of HD. In addition, new concepts of covering and discovering processes are proposed and formulated as mathematical tools to solve OCS problems. The book also includes reformulations of a number of illustrative real-life challenging problems that cannot be solved by traditional optimization techniques into OCS problems, and details how they can be addressed. Beyond that, it also includes perspectives related to innovation dynamics, management, artificial intelligence, artificial and e-economics, scientific discovery and knowledge extraction. This book will be of interest to managers of businesses and institutions, policy makers, and educators and students of decision making and behavior in DBA and/or MBA.

There are many people who are refugees of the corporate world.

Global Solutions for Teams is a strategy-packed resource essential for multinational organizations or any company that is considering going global. The book's cultural guidelines and case examples of leading multinational corporations demonstrate how cross-cultural teams can overcome a disjointed state of cultural collision...and progress to the more productive stages of coexistence and finally, collaboration. As workplace borders expand and the mobility of the workforce increases, new techniques are needed to manage transnational teams. Global Solutions for Teams shares these concepts, as well as the approaches that can position a company more competitively now - and well into the 21st century.

This book targets the critical issue of decision making in uncertain conditions and situations. The aim is to increase readers' understanding of complexity and of socio-economic interactions through the application of systems thinking perspectives. Among the various areas and topics addressed are complexity and sustainable management, markets as complex adaptive systems, the impacts of psychological and emotional factors upon value co-creation exchanges, and ICT enablers of service network performance and service exchange fulfillment. Thanks to the chosen perspectives, all of which are based on different systems research streams, the book will support more consistent and robust decisions, leading to sustainable, wise, and viable systems dynamics. It will aid managers, practitioners, and consultants in their decision-making processes and will also be of interest for academics and scholars in management, systems, computer science, engineering, and marketing.

This book provides essential insights into a range of newly developed numerical optimization techniques with a view to solving real-world problems. Many of these problems can be modeled as nonlinear optimization problems, but due to their complex nature, it is not always possible to solve them using conventional optimization theory. Accordingly, the book discusses the design and applications of non-conventional numerical optimization techniques, including the design of benchmark functions and the implementation of these techniques to solve real-world optimization problems. The book's twenty chapters examine various interesting research topics in this area, including: Pi fraction-based optimization of the Pantoja-Bretones-Martin (PBM) antenna benchmarks; benchmark function generators for single-objective robust optimization algorithms; convergence of gravitational search algorithms on linear and quadratic functions; and an algorithm for the multi-variant evolutionary synthesis of nonlinear models with real-valued chromosomes. Delivering on its promise to explore real-world scenarios, the book also addresses the seismic analysis of a multi-story building with optimized damper properties; the application of constrained spider monkey optimization to solve portfolio optimization problems; the effect of upper body motion on a bipedal robot's stability; an ant colony algorithm for routing alternate-fuel vehicles in multi-depot vehicle routing problems; enhanced fractal dimension-based feature extraction for thermal face recognition; and an artificial bee colony-based hyper-heuristic for the single machine order acceptance and scheduling problem. The book will benefit not only researchers, but also organizations active in such varied fields as Aerospace, Automotive, Biotechnology, Consumer Packaged Goods, Electronics, Finance, Business & Banking, Oil, Gas & Geosciences, and Pharma, to name a few.

"Operational Risk Management" offers peace of mind to business and government leaders who want their organizations to be ready for any contingency, no matter how extreme. This invaluable book is a preparatory resource for when times are good, and an emergency reference when times are bad. "Operational Risk Management" is destined to become every risk manager's ultimate weapon to help his or her organization survive ? no matter what.

When you become a manager, you need proven strategies and advice to ensure your team meets expectations. Two longtime managers draw upon their decades of combined experience in this guidebook to getting the job done during your first year as a manager. Whether you've just been promoted, been transferred, or started a new job, you'll learn how to - establish an organized work environment; - create stability in the workplace; - write a code of conduct for yourself and your employees; and - organize effective meetings. The authors also share case studies focusing on successful and unsuccessful managers. By applying lessons from real-life examples, you'll be able to establish your authority, motivate underperforming employees, and appropriately reward superstars. When it comes time to hire and fire, you'll also know what to do. Use this book as a reference and refresher whenever you need to set performance goals, write a performance review, or hold employees members accountable. Stock your manager's toolbox and prove that you're the right person for the job with techniques, guidelines, and strategies to manage your team.

Large businesses, government entities, and other organizations constantly have to make complex decisions with many potential long-term impacts that need to be monitored and adjusted as necessary. In today s globalized society, these decisions are increasingly complicated. Integrated and Strategic Advancements in Decision Making Support Systems explores the world of Decision Making Support Systems (DMSS), which encompasses Decision Support Systems (DSS), Executive Information Systems (EIS), Expert Systems (ES), Knowledge Based Systems (KBS), Creativity Enhancing Systems (CES), and more. This publication is essential for any decision-making professional in learning how to effectively implement 21st century solutions.

The author of this volume illustrates how decision-making in organizations has to go beyond economic criteria and the individual level, due to the impossibility of making decisions that do not affect other human beings. The book first reviews the conventional analyses of decision-making, including the classical analysis of uncertainty and the multiple criteria decision-making with qualitative aspects, that do not take into account explicitly how decisions affect other people. Following this, the author puts forward a model for analyzing decisions, which takes into consideration the effects on other people. Decision-Making in an Organizational Context highlights the consequences of organizational decision-making and suggests the principles of effectiveness, attractiveness and unity of the organization that should guide it. The volume finishes up by applying this framework of analysis to real-world situations.

This book examines the relationships among leadership, the quality of the management process and business results. Drawing from the pioneering contributions of Chester I. Barnard, this book defines the role and characteristics of an effective and efficient manager in the new knowledge economy. This book also examines the relevance of Barnard's work on modern studies in economics and business administration. Chester I. Barnard considered the company to be a complex socio-economic system, oriented towards general aims. A company's behavior is rational if its constituent elements and management models are planned, organized, guided and regulated in order to create and maintain a cooperative system that combines efficiency and effectiveness. In this book, the conceptual construction of Barnard's management theory is represented by a synthetic scheme in which the various components of the business process (including leadership) and their influences on the outcome variables of the company are linked as a system. This approach makes this book appealing to academics, scholars and professionals in business, management, administration and knowledge management.

Should we be doing--or trying to do--everything ourselves, or might it be better to contract some tasks out to others? Could they do them better and cheaper than we can? More and more state and local governments are asking these questions, and while there are many answers on the Federal level, these answers often don't apply lower down the line. Nevertheless, it is evident that contracting out is often the better strategy--but how best to go about it? What are the benefits and what are the hidden risks? Dr. O'Looney's book provides precisely the guidance that state and local managers need: first, how to decide to outsource a government service, then step-by-step how to proceed. Based on extensive interviews and other research, O'Looney takes managers through the intricacies of contract outsourcing and administration, but in doing so he makes clear that he appreciates the importance of government. His book is not an argument for privatization, as so many other books are; rather, it is an affirmation of government and the benefits of its many services.

Readers will find theory and advice on the services that are most suitable for contracting out; a listing and review of the components of a high-quality analysis, including the analysis of often overlooked political, organizational, and functional aspects of government; advice on how to go from deciding to outsource to actually designing, implementing, and monitoring a contract in situations that could prove hazardous to the livelihoods of government workers. He also discusses the changes that need to be made in the organizational culture, management, and employee training as a result of the change to a contract-based system of providing services; the considerations in designing work specifications and other critical aspects of the government-vendor relationship, and how ideal contracting processes and ideal contracts can differ according to the nature of the service being contracted. The result is a thorough and highly practical volume for executives and managers in the public sector, and for those who hope to do business with them.

From medicine to education, evidence-based approaches aim to evaluate and apply scientific evidence to a problem in order to arrive at the best possible solution. Thus, using scientific knowledge to inform the judgment of managers and the process of decision-making in organizations, Evidence-based Management (EBMgt) is the science-informed practice of management.
Written by leading experts in the study and practice of EBMgt, The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-based Management provides an overview of key EBMgt ideas and puts them in context of promoting evidence-based practice. Furthermore, it addresses the roles and contributions of practitioners, educators, and scholars -- the primary constituents of EBMgt -- while providing perspectives and resources for each. Divided into three sections (research, practice, and education), this handbook examines the realities of everyday management practice and the role EBMgt can play in improving managerial decision making and employee well being and instructs educators in their roles as designers of curricula and resources.
As the first major volume to capture the spirit of this emerging movement, The Oxford Handbook of Evidence-based Management shows how practitioners can use high-quality knowledge gleaned from scientific research in order to make better use of available data and ultimately make more mindful decisions.

Creating Knowledge Based Organizations brings together high quality concepts closely related to organizational learning, knowledge workers, intellectual capital, virtual teams and will include the methodologies, systems and approaches needed to create and manager knowledge-based organizations of the 21st Century.