We live in times of increasing world uncertainty. Consumer culture in Asia has embodied such precariousness, with their unprecedented states of both prosperity and vulnerability. Works in this volume examine the consumer cultures that exist in today's precarious Asia. They do this through culturally oriented, critical consumer research. How deeply has the consumer precariousness in Asia been intertwined with the sociohistorical patterning of consumption including class, gender, and other social categories? How do these problematics affect consumers' identity projects, consumer rituals, and marketplace cultures? How is consumer precariousness aggravated by the governmentality of the superpower? How does the changing landscape of inter-Asian and global popular culture impact consumer culture in these nations? Together, the authors in this volume attempt to answer these questions through consumer research within the paradigm known as consumer culture theory (CCT). Since most CCT inquiry has been in Western contexts, this volume augments the existing knowledge. It presents the most current, critical, historical, and material consumer studies focused on Asia. This volume will be of interest to seasoned CCT researchers and academics, for anyone new to CCT, and for postgraduate students interested in CCT or writing a consumer culture-related thesis.

Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of "In Search of Excellence". First intellectual biography of the world's foremost management guru Based on original research, the book distils lessons for business leaders

Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of "In Search of Excellence". First intellectual biography of the world's foremost management guru Based on original research, the book distils lessons for business leaders

This third volume in the Routledge Focus on Women Writers in Organization Studies series challenges us to think again about the implications of gender, embodiment and fluidity for organizing and managing. The themes of this book disrupt our understanding of dualisms between sex (men and women), gender (masculinity and femininity) and mind / body, and in so doing analyze the ways in which dominant power relations constitute heteronormativity throughout organizational history, thereby reinforcing mainstream management research and teaching. By centring the work of women writers, this book gives recognition to their thinking and praxis; each writer making political inroads into changing the lived experiences of those who have suffered discrimination, exclusion and marginalization as they consider the ways in which organizational knowledge has tended to privilege rather than problematize masculinity, fixity, control, normativity, violence and discrimination. The themes and authors (Acker, de Beauvoir, Halberstam, Kosofsky Sedgwick, Kristeva, Yourcenar) covered in this book are important precisely because they are not generally encountered in mainstream writing on management and organization studies. They are significant to the study and analysis of organizations because they demonstrate how our understanding of managing and organizing can be transformed when other voices/bodies/genders write on what it is work, live, lead and relate to self and others. All the writers turn to the ways in which individuals matter organizationally, acknowledging that lived experiences are a source of political and ethical practice. Each Woman Writer is introduced and analyzed by experts in organization studies. Further reading and accessible resources are also identified for those interested in knowing more. This book will be relevant to students, researchers and practitioners with an interest in business and management, organizational studies, critical management studies, gender studies and sociology. Like all the books in this series, it will also be of interest to anyone who wants to see, think and act differently.

1. A "tool kit" of recommended methods for the accountable manager in aviation to meet their responsibilities - moral, regulatory, legal and fiducial - in an efficient and effective manner. 2. Every company operating within the aviation industry must have a corporate leader, the accountable manager, who has the ultimate responsibility for compliance with the civil aviation regulations and the aviation law of the country that they are licensed in. Failure to comply with the regulations can result in catastrophic consequences for the company. 3. The first book to disseminate, understand and review the professional responsibilities of the accountable manager, but also to provide a best practice guide for accountable managers in civil aviation.

This book provides an in-depth presentation of algorithms for and complexity of open shop scheduling. Open shops allow operations of a job to be executed in any order, contrary to flow and job shops where the order is pre-specified. The author brings the field up to date with more emphasis on new and recent results, and connections with graph edge coloring and mathematical programming. The book explores applications to production and operations management, wireless network scheduling, and timetabling. The book is addressed to researchers, graduate students, and practitioners in Operations Research, Operations Management, computer science and mathematics, who are developing and using mathematical approaches to applications in manufacturing, services and distributed wireless network scheduling.

This book will cover heuristic optimization techniques and applications in engineering problems. The book will be divided into three sections that will provide coverage of the techniques, which can be employed by engineers, researchers, and manufacturing industries, to improve their productivity with the sole motive of socio-economic development. This will be the first book in the category of heuristic techniques with relevance to engineering problems and achieving optimal solutions. Features Explains the concept of optimization and the relevance of using heuristic techniques for optimal solutions in engineering problems Illustrates the various heuristics techniques Describes evolutionary heuristic techniques like genetic algorithm and particle swarm optimization Contains natural based techniques like ant colony optimization, bee algorithm, firefly optimization, and cuckoo search Offers sample problems and their optimization, using various heuristic techniques

National oil companies are big business with about 80 percent of the world's proven oil reserves, and they are crucial to the world's energy supplies. They are giants, some of the world's largest companies, measured by market capitalisation, cash flow and investment. Little is known about their modus operandi, how they make decisions about investment and production or about relations with their government-owners. However, it is known that they conduct business with a political mandate, often with multiple long-term objectives, broadly defined and hard to quantify. Unclear mandates give national oil companies leeway to pursue their own distinctive interests, apart from those of the government-owner. As investors, governments are less zealous than private investors. They generally observe multiple objectives, not only return on capital. Therefore, the senior management of national oil companies enjoy more discretionary power and consider longer time horizons than their counterparts in the private sector. The Oil Business and the State explains the practice of state ownership in a capital-intensive industry with high risks and high return, and how these companies act in a market with imperfect competition. This book looks to give readers more insight into the oil industry, into the background of oil exporting countries as well as the economic and political challenges confronting them, including problems of state ownership. The book discusses wider consequences of China replacing the United States as the world's leading oil importer. It will be of interest to researchers, academics and students in the fields of international business, management history, corporate governance, political economy and economic development of oil-rich countries.

This new edition continues to emphasize the use of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to create optimization-based benchmarks within hospitals, physician group practices, health maintenance organizations, nursing homes and other health care delivery organizations. Suitable for graduate students learning DEA applications in health care as well as for practicing administrators, it is divided into two sections covering methods and applications. Section I considers efficiency evaluations using DEA; returns to scale; weight restricted (multiplier) models; non-oriented or slack-based models, including in this edition two versions of non-controllable variable models and categorical variable models; longitudinal (panel) evaluations and the effectiveness dimension of performance evaluation. A new chapter then looks at new and advanced models of DEA, including super-efficiency, congestion DEA, network DEA, and dynamic network models. Mathematical formulations of various DEA models are placed in end-of-chapter appendices. Section II then looks at health care applications within particular settings, chapter-by-chapter, including hospitals, physician practices, nursing homes and health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Other chapters then explore home health care and home health agencies; dialysis centers, community mental health centers, community-based your services, organ procurement organizations, aging agencies and dental providers; DEA models to evaluate provider performance for specific treatments, including stroke, mechanical ventilation and perioperative services. A new chapter then examines international-country-based applications of DEA in health care in 16 different countries, along with OECD and multi-country studies. Most of the existing chapters in this section were expanded with recent applications. Included with the book is online access to a learning version of DEA Solver software, written by Professor Kaoru Tone, which can solve up to 50 DMUs for various DEA models listed in the User's Guide at the end of the book.

The Fundamentals of Developing Operational Solutions for the Government guides professionals on how to use operations research to solve problems and capture opportunities for government customers. The governments of modern democratic nations manage large complex societal operations to offer national defense, social services, infrastructure sustainment, law enforcement, monetary control, and other benefits for their citizens. The United States government alone spends over $1 trillion per year on these discretionary activities. Within all the spending, deliveries, and oversight, some operational needs require solutions to improve processes, architectures, technologies, and human factors. Without such effective and comprehensive solutions, the most eloquent proposal for government work could end in defeat and the most well-funded government programs could yield operational disruptions and performance failures. There are many books on how to write winning proposals to the government, but this book places winning in the context of deeply understanding government operations and innovatively solving government problems. There are also some books on convincing the government to adopt new transformational processes, but this book seeks to first try to fix current government processes before demanding risky transformation. Finally, there are massive tomes dedicated to the theories and mathematical models of operations research, but this book is devoted to making operations research simple enough for professionals to apply throughout the course of developing proposals and delivering products and services. Presenting the methods and techniques for quickly developing solutions is thus the central focus.

This book highlights state-of-the-art developments in metaheuristics research. It examines all aspects of metaheuristic research including new algorithmic developments, applications, new research challenges, theoretical developments, implementation issues, in-depth experimental studies. The book is divided into two sections. Part I is focused on new optimization and modeling techniques based on metaheuristics. The chapters in this section cover topics from multi-objective problems with fuzzy data with triangular-valued objective functions, to hyper-heuristics optimization methodology, designing genetic algorithms, and also the cuckoo search algorithm. The techniques described help to enhance the usability and increase the potential of metaheuristic algorithms. Part II showcases advanced metaheuristic approaches to solve real-life applications issues. This includes an examination of scheduling, the vehicle routing problem, multimedia sensor network, supplier selection, bin packing, objects tracking, and radio frequency identification. In the fields covered in the chapters are of high-impact applications of metaheuristics. The chapters offer innovative applications of metaheuristics that have a potential of widening research frontiers. Altogether, this book offers a comprehensive look at how researchers are currently using metaheuristics in different domains of design and application.

Various industries in modern society can contribute to many different sustainable development initiatives. By implementing better processes for resource usage and its impacts, businesses can play a vital role in creating a cleaner environment. Ethics and Sustainability in Global Supply Chain Management is a comprehensive reference source for the latest scholarly material on organizational procedures and methods that ensure environmental sustainability, while maintaining effective production processes. Highlighting the most innovative topics and perspectives, such as life cycle costing, waste management, and business leadership, this book is ideally designed for professionals, academics, practitioners, graduate students, and researchers interested in developing green supply chain processes.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The quadratic binary optimization problem (QUBO) is a versatile combinatorial optimization model with a variety of applications and rich theoretical properties. Application areas of the model include finance, cluster analysis, traffic management, machine scheduling, VLSI physical design, physics, quantum computing, engineering, and medicine. In addition, various mathematical optimization models can be reformulated as a QUBO, including the resource constrained assignment problem, set partitioning problem, maximum cut problem, quadratic assignment problem, the bipartite unconstrained binary optimization problem, among others. This book presents a systematic development of theory, algorithms, and applications of QUBO. It offers a comprehensive treatment of QUBO from various viewpoints, including a historical introduction along with an in-depth discussion of applications modelling, complexity and polynomially solvable special cases, exact and heuristic algorithms, analysis of approximation algorithms, metaheuristics, polyhedral structure, probabilistic analysis, persistencies, and related topics. Available software for solving QUBO is also introduced, including public domain, commercial, as well as quantum computing based codes.

This book presents the essential concepts of operations research and engineering management in a structured manner. Starting with the basic functions of management - planning, organizing, leading and controlling - it introduces the reader to the process of strategic decision-making, covering the essentials of technological invention management, innovation and entrepreneurship, with ample examples of decision-making under certainty, uncertainty and risk conditions. It also exposes the reader to the fundamentals of managing projects and professional communication. In order to reinforce the theory used, practical case studies taken from relevant disciplines are introduced. For instance, case studies from the retail sector have been appended to the assignment problem and cases related to traffic have been introduced for queuing formulation. The concept of game theory is discussed in greater detail with an introduction to topics such as incentive compatibility, Bayesian representations for different games, budget balance, auctions and a broad coverage of mechanism design. While a few of these problems have been solved in the book, a few others have been left un-solved to promote readers' understanding. The mix of theoretical and practical examples reveals to the reader the underlying complexities and highlights the challenges entailed by field implementation.

In an era of systemic crisis and of global critiques of the unsustainable perpetuation of capitalism, Pervasive Powers: The Politics of Corporate Authority critically questions the conditions for the maintenance and expansion of corporate power. The book explores empirical case studies in the realms of finance, urban policies, automobile safety, environmental risk, agriculture, and food in western democracies. It renews understanding of the power of big business, focusing on how the study of temporalities, of multi-sited influence and of sociotechnical tools is crucial to an analysis of the evolution of corporate authority. Drawing on different literatures, ranging from research on business associations and global governance to that on the social production of ignorance or on corporate crime, this book aims at contributing to existing works on the capacity of corporations to rule the world. Unlike approaches focused on economic elites and on the political activities of firms, it goes beyond analysis of the power of corporations to influence policy-making to depict their unprecedented capacity to transform and shape the social world. Operating in numerous social spaces and mobilizing a wide range of strategies, corporate organizations have acquired the pervasive power to act far beyond mere spaces of regulation and government. Based on contributions from historians, science and technology studies scholars, sociologists and political scientists, this book will be of great interest to researchers, academics and students who wish to understand how corporations exert a pervasive influence on public policies, and to NGOs and regulatory agencies.

This book describes a variety of quantitative methods that are vital to planning and control in the operations of the industrial world, from suppliers to manufacturing plants to distribution centers and to the dealers and stores. The topics include: forecasting, measuring forecast error, determining the order quantity, safety stock, when and how much inventory to replenish, all this for individual items and for a distribution network where the items are housed in multiple locations. Further quantitative methods are: manufacturing control, just-in-time, assembly, statistical process control, distribution network, supply chain management, transportation and reverse logistics. The methods are proven, practical and doable for most applications. The material in Elements of Manufacturing, Distribution and Logistics presents topics that people want and should know in the work place. The presentation is easy to read for students and practitioners. There is little need to delve into difficult mathematical relationships, and numerical examples are presented throughout to guide the reader on applications. Practitioners will be able to apply the methods learned to the systems in their locations, and the typical professional will want the book on their bookshelf for reference. Everyone in professional organizations like APICS, DSI and INFORMS; MBA graduates, people in industry, and students in management science, business and industrial engineering will find this book valuable.

Presents an elucidative discussion about productivity and efficiency, illustrating its potentials of use and conceptual differencesCovers the concepts and techniques for analysis of productivity and efficiency, analyzing critical benefits and limitations Explains didactically and in detail how to use DEA for analysis of productivity and efficiency Provides an innovative method for using DEA Offers a free online computer tool to operationalize the concepts and method proposed in the book

Includes practical organizational and economical methodologies Offers concepts of marketing and its role in business and public organization Presents marketing decisions and the need for scientific marketing analysis Provides mathematical models in marketing Illustrates sales response to advertising in presence of competition

Analysis and Modeling of Manufacturing Systems is a set of papers on some of the newest research and applications of mathematical and computational techniques to manufacturing systems and supply chains. These papers deal with fundamental questions (how to predict factory performance: how to operate production systems) and explicitly treat the stochastic nature of failures, operation times, demand, and other important events.

Analysis and Modeling of Manufacturing Systems will be of interest to readers with a strong background in operations research, including researchers and mathematically sophisticated practitioners.

The purpose of this book is to introduce and explain research at the boundary between two fields that view problem solving from different perspectives. Researchers in operations research and artificial intelligence have traditionally remained separate in their activities. Recently, there has been an explosion of work at the border of the two fields, as members of both communities seek to leverage their activities and resolve problems that remain intractable to pure operations research or artificial intelligence techniques. This book presents representative results from this current flurry of activity and provides insights into promising directions for continued exploration. This book should be of special interest to researchers in artificial intelligence and operations research because it exposes a number of applications and techniques, which have benefited from the integration of problem solving strategies. Even researchers working on different applications or with different techniques can benefit from the descriptions contained here, because they provide insight into effective methods for combining approaches from the two fields. Additionally, researchers in both communities will find a wealth of pointers to challenging new problems and potential opportunities that exist at the interface between operations research and artificial intelligence. In addition to the obvious interest the book should have for members of the operations research and artificial intelligence communities, the papers here are also relevant to members of other research communities and development activities that can benefit from improvements to fundamental problem solving approaches.

This book examines Multi-Criteria Decision Modelling (MCDM) methodologies and facilitates diverse ways for strategic decision-making in a variety of practical applications. This book also provides a pragmatic foundation for solving real-life problems in different scenarios of emerging global markets. Multi-Criteria Decision Modelling: Applicational Techniques and Case Studies depicts the use of sensitivity analysis and modelling and includes case studies to understand and illustrate challenging concepts. It also offers step-by-step comprehensive methodologies for the utilization of MCDM to a variety of situations. The book deliberates ways for companies to use these methods to their advantage in order to achieve sustainability. Furthermore, it also presents an overview of the major streams of thought and provides a holistic view of the latest research and development trends in modelling and optimization. FEATURES Offers a stepwise comprehensive methodology for the application of MCDM to a variety of situations Presents an overview of the major streams of thought present in the MCDM technique Provides a holistic view of the latest research and development trends in the emerging markets in terms of modelling and optimization using MCDM for different industrial sectors Illuminates a practical foundation in order to provide a guide to address the problems of emerging markets Enlightens the ways for companies to use these methods to their advantage to be able to achieve sustainability This book is a guide for those performing decision analysis for academic purposes as well as for researchers aspiring to expand their knowledge on MCDM problem solving.

This shortform book presents key peer-reviewed research selected by expert series editors and contextualised by new analysis from each author on the subject of knowledge management in industrial history. With contributions on knowledge management, knowledge transfer, knowledge loss, knowledge creation, competition and co-operation in producing skilled employees, and ownership structures and their relation to knowledge management, this volume provides an array of fascinating insights into industrial history. Of interest to business and economic historians, this shortform book also provides analysis and illustrative case-studies that will be valuable reading across the social sciences.

With the beginning of the twentieth century, American corporations in the chemical and electrical industries began establishing industrial research laboratories. Some went on to become world-famous not only for their scientific and technological breakthroughs but also for the new union of science and industry they represented. Innovative ideas do not simply appear out of the blue and spread on their own merit. Rather, the laboratory's diffusion takes place in a cultural context that goes beyond corporate capital and technological change. Using discourse analysis as a method to comprehensively capture the organizational field of the early American R&D laboratories from 1870 to 1930, this book uncovers the collective meanings associated with the industrial laboratory. Meanings such as what and where a laboratory is supposed to be, who the scientist is, and what it means to practice science provided cultural resources that made the transfer of the laboratory from academic science into an industrial setting possible by rendering such meanings understandable and operable to big business and organizational entrepreneurs fighting for hegemony in a rapidly evolving market. It analyzes not only the corporations that established laboratories in the United States but also their contexts - economic, political, and especially scientific - showing how "the industrial laboratory" was transformed from an organizational novelty into an expected institution in less than two decades. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, historians, and students in the fields of organizational change, discourse studies, the management of technology and innovation, as well as business and management history.