In May 2002 a number of about 20 scientists from various disciplines were invited by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities to participate in an interdisciplinary workshop on structures and structure generating processes. The site was the beautiful little castle of Blankensee, south of Berlin. The disciplines represented ranged from mathematics and information theory, over various ?elds of engineering, biochemistry and biology, to the economic and social sciences. All participants presented talks explaining the nature of structures considered in their ?elds and the associated procedures of analysis. It soon became evident that the study of structures is indeed a common c- cern of virtually all disciplines. The motivation as well as the methods of analysis, however, differ considerably. In engineering, the generation of artifacts, such as infrastructures or technological processes, are of primary interest. Frequently, the analysis aims there at de?ning a simpli?ed mathematical model for the optimization of the structures and the structure generating processes. Mathematical or heuristic methods are applied, the latter preferably of the type of biology based evolutionary algorithms. On the other hand, setting up complex technical structures is not pos- ble by such simpli?ed model calculations but requires a different and less model but rather knowledge-based type of approach, using empirical rules rather than formal equations. In biochemistry, interest is frequently focussed on the structures of molecules, such as proteins or ribonucleic acids. Again, optimal structures can usually be de?ned.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible-but not simpler" Albert Einstein Traffic Theory, like all other sciences, aims at understanding and improving a physical phenomenon. The phenomenon addressed by Traffic Theory is, of course, automobile traffic, and the problems associated with it such as traffic congestion. But what causes congestion? Some time in the 1970s, Doxiades coined the term "oikomenopolis" (and "oikistics") to describe the world as man's living space. In Doxiades' terms, persons are associated with a living space around them, which describes the range that they can cover through personal presence. In the days of old, when the movement of people was limited to walking, an individual oikomenopolis did not intersect many others. The automobile changed all that. The term "range of good" was also coined to describe the maximal distance a person can and is willing to go in order to do something useful or buy something. Traffic congestion is caused by the intersection of a multitude of such "ranges of good" of many people exercising their range utilisation at the same time. Urban structures containing desirable structures contribute to this intersection of "ranges of good." xii Preface In a biblical mood, I opened a 1970 paper entitled "Traffic Control -- From Hand Signals to Computers" with the sentence: "In the beginning there was the Ford."

From the Preface: This festschrift is devoted to recognize the career of a man who not only witnessed the growth of operations research from its inception, but also contributed significantly to this growth. Dr. Salah E. Elmaghraby received his doctorate degree from Cornell University in 1958, and since then, his scholarly contributions have enriched the fields of production planning and scheduling and project scheduling. This collection of papers is contributed in his honor by his students, colleagues, and acquaintances. It offers a tribute to the inspiration received from his work, and from his guidance and advice over the years, and recognizes the legacy of his many contributions. Dr. Elmaghraby is a pioneer in the area of project scheduling (in particular, project planning and control through network models, for which he coined the term 'activity networks'.) In his initial work in this area, he developed an algebra based on signal flow graphs and semi-Markov processes for analyzing generalized activity networks involving activities with probabilistic durations. This work led to the development of what was later known as the Graphical Evaluation and Review Technique (GERT), and GERT simulation models. He has made fundamental contributions in determining criticality indices for activities, in developing methodologies for project compression and time/cost analysis, and in the use of stochastic and chance-constrained programming and Petri Nets for the analysis of activity networks. This volume brings together fourteen contributions, which can be viewed under the following three main themes: operations research and its application in production planning; project scheduling, and production scheduling, inspired by, and in many cases based on, Dr. Elmaghraby's work in these areas. The first five chapters are devoted to the first theme, followed by four chapters each devoted to the other two, respectively. An additional chapter is devoted to the vulnerability of multimodal freight systems.

In today's global economy, supply chains are an essential ingredient to corporate survival and growth. Operations strategy in supply chains must assume an ever-expanding and strategic role of risks that modern enterprises face when they operate in an interdependent supply chain environment. These operational and strategic facets entail a brand new set of operational problems and risks that have not always been understood or managed very well. It falls to supply chain managers to identify and to educate corporate managers on what these critical operational problems and risks involve. This book provides business students and practitioners with the means to understand, to model and to analyze these outstanding issues and problems that are the essential elements in managing supply chains today. This book will consider these problems in depth and draw essential conclusions regarding their management in supply chains. As a textbook treatment, it will examine traditional operational problems, expressing them in a strategic context, understanding their complexity, and recognizing their interdependency with other firms within a supply-chain environment. Used throughout the book will be application examples that illustrate all the aspects of dealing with and solving these kinds of problems. The content of SUPPLY CHAIN GAMES: Operations Management and Risk Valuation is presented in three sections, each of which will emphasize important facets of supply chain management operations. (1) Supply chains and operations modeling and management section will provide static and time models and their gradual extension to a supply chain environment. The section will give special attention tothe new concerns and issues at this level of analysis. (2) Inter-temporal supply chain management section will address this aspect as differential games. The differential games will be presented as natural continuous-time extensions of static models so that the effect of various types of dynamics on supply chains can be assessed and insights can be developed. (3) Risk and supply chain management section will deal with risk and supply chains as well as providing numerous applications regarding the management of interdependent operations and quality in a supply chain environment.

Soft computing has provided sophisticated methodologies for the development of intelligent decision support systems. Fast advances in soft computing technologies, such as fuzzy logic and systems, artificial neural networks and evolutionary computation, have made available powerful problem representation and modelling paradigms, and learning and optimisation mechanisms for addressing modern decision making issues. This book provides a comprehensive coverage of up-to-date conceptual frameworks in broadly perceived decision support systems and successful applications. Different from other existing books, this volume predominately focuses on applied decision support with soft computing. Areas covered include planning, management finance and administration in both the private and public sectors.

This book aims at illustrating strategies to account for uncertainty in complex systems described by computer simulations. When optimizing the performances of these systems, accounting or neglecting uncertainty may lead to completely different results; therefore, uncertainty management is a major issues in simulation-optimization. Because of its wide field of applications, simulation-optimization issues have been addressed by different communities with different methods, and from slightly different perspectives. Alternative approaches have been developed, also depending on the application context, without any well-established method clearly outperforming the others. This editorial project brings together - as chapter contributors - researchers from different (though interrelated) areas; namely, statistical methods, experimental design, stochastic programming, global optimization, metamodeling, and design and analysis of computer simulation experiments. Editors' goal is to take advantage of such a multidisciplinary environment, to offer to the readers a much deeper understanding of the commonalities and differences of the various approaches to simulation-based optimization, especially in uncertain environments. Editors aim to offer a bibliographic reference on the topic, enabling interested readers to learn about the state-of-the-art in this research area, also accounting for potential real-world applications to improve also the state-of-the-practice. Besides researchers and scientists of the field, the primary audience for the proposed book includes PhD students, academic teachers, as well as practitioners and professionals. Each of these categories of potential readers present adequate channels for marketing actions, e.g. scientific, academic or professional societies, internet-based communities, and authors or buyers of related publications.

This book opens the door to multiobjective optimization for students in fields such as engineering, management, economics and applied mathematics. It offers a comprehensive introduction to multiobjective optimization, with a primary emphasis on multiobjective linear programming and multiobjective integer/mixed integer programming. A didactic book, it is mainly intended for undergraduate and graduate students, but can also be useful for researchers and practitioners. Further, it is accompanied by an interactive software package - developed by the authors for Windows platforms - which can be used for teaching and decision-making support purposes in multiobjective linear programming problems. Thus, besides the textbook's coverage of the essential concepts, theory and methods, complemented with illustrative examples and exercises, the computational tool enables students to experiment and enhance their technical skills, as well as to capture the essential characteristics of real-world problems.

Aviation networks play a critical role in the success of today's airlines and airports. This book provides insight on all aspects of modern network strategies and structures, ranging from market research to hub design, operations, organization, alliances, benchmarking, and antitrust issues. Considering both the airline and the airport perspectives, the book explains the economics of connectivity or productivity-driven hub structures through basic mathematics, which helps the reader to comprehend the structural strengths and weaknesses of aviation networks. More than 100 charts help clarify the topics at hand.

Globalization has created an increase in the number of business opportunities presented to enterprises. A competitive market places demands on businesses to think differently and follow new approaches to managing their business goals and remaining acceptable to suppliers and service providers. Effective Open Innovation Strategies in Modern Business: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a comprehensive resource that focuses on the importance of interdisciplinary concepts in open innovation projects. Using case illustrations, the book examines concepts such as virtual reality, knowledge harvesting, and business process reengineering in relation to open innovation initiatives. As a publication exploring the areas of management and information technology disciplines, this resource is useful for corporate executives, business managers, entrepreneurs, business professionals, and graduate-level students seeking current research on business innovation techniques and approaches.

This book gathers selected contributions by top Portuguese and international researchers in the field of Operations Research, presented at the 19th Congress of APDIO (Portuguese Association of Operational Research). The papers address a broad range of complex real-world problems, which are approached using recent theoretical techniques. Of particular interest are the applications of e.g. linear, nonlinear and mixed-integer programming, multiobjective optimization, metaheuristics and hybrid heuristics, multicriteria decision analysis, data envelopment analysis, clustering techniques and decision support systems, in such varied contexts as: supply chain management, scheduling problems, production management, logistics, energy, finance and healthcare. This conference, organized by APDIO and held in Aveiro, Portugal in September 2018, offered an ideal opportunity to discuss the latest developments in this field and to build new bridges between academic researchers and practitioners. Summarizing the outcomes, this book offers a valuable tool for all researchers, students and practitioners who wish to learn about the latest trends in this field.

The Second Edition of this book presents the state of the art in this important field. Marketing decision models constitute a core component of the marketing discipline and the area is changing rapidly, not only due to fundamental advances in methodology and model building, but also because of the recent developments in information technology, the Internet and social media. This Handbook contains eighteen chapters that cover the most recent developments of marketing decision models in different domains of marketing. Compared to the previous edition, thirteen chapters are entirely new, while the remaining chapters represent complete updates and extensions of the previous edition. This new edition of the Handbook has chapters on models for substantive marketing problems, such as customer relationship management, customer loyalty management, website design, Internet advertising, social media, and social networks. In addition, it contains chapters on recent methodological developments that are gaining popularity in the area of marketing decision models, such as structural modeling, learning dynamics, choice modeling, eye-tracking and measurement. The introductory chapter discusses the main developments of the last decade and discusses perspectives for future developments.

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.

Supply Chain Optimization captures the latest results in a segment of current research activity in supply chain management. This research area focuses on applying optimization techniques to supply chain management problems. The research papers that make up the volume provide a snapshot of state-of-the-art optimization methods within the field. This book presents rigorous modelling approaches for supply chain operations problems with a goal of improving supply chain performance (or the performance of some segment thereof). It contains high-quality works from leading researchers in the field whose expertise fits within this scope. The book provides a diverse blend of research topics and novel modelling and solution approaches for difficult classes of supply chain operations, planning, and design problems.

MICHEL GENDREAU AND PATRICE MARCOTTE As an academic, Michael Florian has always stood at the forefront of transportation research. This is reflected in the miscellaneous contributions that make the chapters of this book, which are related in some way or another to Michael's interests in both the theoretical and practical aspects of his field. These interests span the areas of Traffic Assignment, Network Equilibrium, Shortest Paths, Railroad problems, De mand models, Variational Inequalities, Intelligent Transportation Systems, etc. The contributions are briefly outlined below. BASSANINI, LA BELLA AND NASTASI determine a track pricing policy for railroad companies through the solution of a generalized Nash game. BEN-AKIVA, BIER LAIRE, KOUTSOPOULOS AND MISHALANI discuss simulation-based estimators of the interactions between supply and demand within a real-time transportation system. BOYCE, BALASUBRAMANIAM AND TIAN analyze the impact of marginal cost pricing on urban traffic in the Chicago region. BROTCORNE, DE WOLF, GENDREAU AND LABBE present a discrete model of dynamic traffic assignment where flow departure is endogenous and the First-In-First-Out condition is strictly enforced. CASCETTA AND IMP ROTA give a rigorous treatment of the problem of estimating travel demand from observed data, both in the static and dynamic cases. CRAINIC, DUFOUR, FLo RIAN AND LARIN show how to obtain path information that is consistent with the link information provided by a nonlinear multimodal model. ERLANDER derives the logit model from an efficiency principle rather than from the classical random utility approach."

There is synergy between the diverse methodologies of Operations Research and Management Science, and the many problems it seeks to solve. Operation Research/Management Science at Work is an example of that synergy. The principal aim of this book is to examine selected recent research in and applications of Operational Research/Management Science. The focus is on research that is of industry interest and covers a wide range of topics from major fields of OR/MS in a systematic and coherent fashion. Each application is chosen to demonstrate the elegance of their implementations. The book meets the needs of applied researchers who are interested in applications of OR/MS algorithms. Moreover, real world problems together with their solutions and implementations are the applications that have been selected for the volume. The Asia Pacific region has embraced business applications of decision support systems in recent years. Many of these applications have the state of the art OR/MS techniques in this region embedded in them. Hence, the increased use of OR/MS techniques in this region provides opportunities for identifying methodological advances that are taking place as a result of the unique nature of the applications. These also provide opportunities for exploring synergies and interfaces that exist between OR/MS, both in terms of applications and theoretical advances.

This work brings together some of the most up to date research in the application of operations research and mathematical modeling te- niques to problems arising in supply chain management and e-Commerce. While research in the broad area of supply chain management enc- passes a wide range of topics and methodologies, we believe this book provides a good snapshot of current quantitative modeling approaches, issues, and trends within the field. Each chapter is a self-contained study of a timely and relevant research problem in supply chain mana- ment. The individual works place a heavy emphasis on the application of modeling techniques to real world management problems. In many instances, the actual results from applying these techniques in practice are highlighted. In addition, each chapter provides important mana- rial insights that apply to general supply chain management practice. The book is divided into three parts. The first part contains ch- ters that address the new and rapidly growing role of the internet and e-Commerce in supply chain management. Topics include e-Business applications and potentials; customer service issues in the presence of multiple sales channels, varying from purely Internet-based to traditional physical outlets; and risk management issues in e-Business in B2B m- kets.

This book inclusively and systematically presents the fundamental methods, models and techniques of practical application of grey data analysis, bringing together the authors' many years of theoretical exploration, real-life application, and teaching. It also reflects the majority of recent theoretical and applied advances in the theory achieved by scholars from across the world, providing readers a vivid overall picture of this new theory and its pioneering research activities. The book includes 12 chapters, covering the introduction to grey systems, a novel framework of grey system theory, grey numbers and their operations, sequence operators and grey data mining, grey incidence analysis models, grey clustering evaluation models, series of GM models, combined grey models, techniques for grey systems forecasting, grey models for decision-making, techniques for grey control, etc. It also includes a software package that allows practitioners to conveniently and practically employ the theory and methods presented in this book. All methods and models presented here were chosen for their practical applicability and have been widely employed in various research works. I still remember 1983, when I first participated in a course on Grey System Theory. The mimeographed teaching materials had a blue cover and were presented as a book. It was like finding a treasure: This fascinating book really inspired me as a young intellectual going through a period of confusion and lack of academic direction. It shone with pearls of wisdom and offered a beacon in the mist for a man trying to find his way in academic research. This book became the guiding light in my life journey, inspiring me to forge an indissoluble bond with Grey System Theory. --Sifeng Liu

The contributions of this volume stem from the "Fifth International Conference on the Dynamics of Information Systems" held in Gainesville, FL in February 2013, and discuss state-of the-art techniques in handling problems and solutions in the broad field of information systems. Dynamics of Information Systems: Computational and Mathematical Challenges presents diverse aspects of modern information systems with an emphasis on interconnected network systems and related topics, such as signal and message reconstruction, network connectivity, stochastic network analysis, cyber and computer security, community and cohesive structures in complex networks. Information systems are a vital part of modern societies. They are essential to our daily actions, including social networking, business and bank transactions, as well as sensor communications. The rapid increase in these capabilities has enabled us with more powerful systems, readily available to sense, control, disperse, and analyze information.

This book is devoted to a novel approach for dimensionality reduction based on the famous nearest neighbor method that is a powerful classification and regression approach. It starts with an introduction to machine learning concepts and a real-world application from the energy domain. Then, unsupervised nearest neighbors (UNN) is introduced as efficient iterative method for dimensionality reduction. Various UNN models are developed step by step, reaching from a simple iterative strategy for discrete latent spaces to a stochastic kernel-based algorithm for learning submanifolds with independent parameterizations. Extensions that allow the embedding of incomplete and noisy patterns are introduced. Various optimization approaches are compared, from evolutionary to swarm-based heuristics. Experimental comparisons to related methodologies taking into account artificial test data sets and also real-world data demonstrate the behavior of UNN in practical scenarios. The book contains numerous color figures to illustrate the introduced concepts and to highlight the experimental results.

This book describes a wide range real-case applications of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) in maritime related subjects including shipping, port, maritime logistics, cruise ports, waterfront developments, and shipping finance, etc. In such areas, researchers, students and industrialists, in general, felt struggling to find a step-by-step guide on how to apply MCDM to formulate effective solutions to solving real problems in practice. This book focuses on the in-depth analysis and applications of the most well-known MDCM methodologies in the aforementioned areas. It brings together an eclectic collection of twelve chapters which seek to respond to these challenges. The book begins with an introduction and is followed by an overview of major MCDM techniques. The next chapter examines the theory of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in detail and investigates a fuzzy AHP (FAHP) approach and its capability and rationale in dealing with decision problems of ambiguous information. Chapter 4 proposes a generic methodology to identify the key factors influencing green shipping and to establish an evaluation system for the assessment of shipping greenness. In Chapter 5, the authors describe a new function of fuzzy Evidential Reasoning (ER) to improve the vessel selection process in which multiple criteria with insufficient and ambiguous information are evaluated and synthesized. Chapter 6 presents a novel methodology by using an Artificial Potential Field (APF) model and the ER approach to estimate the collision probabilities of monitoring targets for coastal radar surveillance. Chapter 7 develops the inland port performance assessment model (IPPAM) using a hybrid of AHP, ER and a utility function. The next chapter showcases a challenging approach to address the risk and uncertainty in LNG transfer operations, by utilizing a Stochastic Utility Additives (UTA) method with the help of the philosophy of aggregation-disaggregation coupled with a robustness control procedure. Chapter 9 uses Entropy and Grey Relation Analysis (GRA) to analyze the relative weights of financial ratios through the case studies of the four major shipping companies in Korea and Taiwan: Evergreen, Yang Ming, Hanjin and Hyundai Merchant Marine. Chapter 10 systemically applies modern heuristics to solving MCDM problems in the fields of operation optimisation in container terminals. Arguing that bunkering port selection is typically a multi-criteria group decision problem, and in many practical situations, decision makers cannot form proper judgments using incomplete and uncertain information in an environment with exact and crisp values, in Chapter 11, the authors propose a hybrid Fuzzy-Delphi-TOPSIS based methodology with a sensitivity analysis. Finally, Chapter 12deals with a new conceptual port performance indicators (PPIs) interdependency model using a hybrid approach of a fuzzy logic based evidential reasoning (FER) and a decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL).

The author is one of the prominent researchers in the field of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a powerful data analysis tool that can be used in performance evaluation and benchmarking. This book is based upon the author's years of research and teaching experiences. It is difficult to evaluate an organization's performance when multiple performance metrics are present. The difficulties are further enhanced when the relationships among the performance metrics are complex and involve unknown tradeoffs. This book introduces Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a multiple-measure performance evaluation and benchmarking tool. The focus of performance evaluation and benchmarking is shifted from characterizing performance in terms of single measures to evaluating performance as a multidimensional systems perspective. Conventional and new DEA approaches are presented and discussed using Excel spreadsheets - one of the most effective ways to analyze and evaluate decision alternatives. The user can easily develop and customize new DEA models based upon these spreadsheets. DEA models and approaches are presented to deal with performance evaluation problems in a variety of contexts. For example, a context-dependent DEA measures the relative attractiveness of similar operations/processes/products. Sensitivity analysis techniques can be easily applied, and used to identify critical performance measures. Two-stage network efficiency models can be utilized to study performance of supply chain. DEA benchmarking models extend DEA's ability in performance evaluation. Various cross efficiency approaches are presented to provide peer evaluation scores. This book also provides an easy-to-use DEA software - DEAFrontier. This DEAFrontier is an Add-In for Microsoft (R) Excel and provides a custom menu of DEA approaches. This version of DEAFrontier is for use with Excel 97-2013 under Windows and can solve up to 50 DMUs, subject to the capacity of Excel Solver. It is an extremely powerful tool that can assist decision-makers in benchmarking and analyzing complex operational performance issues in manufacturing organizations as well as evaluating processes in banking, retail, franchising, health care, public services and many other industries.

FIRST PART Preparation of the Investment 1. Investments in the Company 19 The decline of stability . . 19 The change in direction of studies on the investment process. 25 Basic elements for arithmetical study of selection 29 Thc study of selection from non-numerical elements. 37 2. Programming Investment Activity 49 Classical programming techniques. 49 Handling of an investment programme. 56 Incorporation of costs into investment projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Estimating financial needs throughout the process. 72 3. Financial Risk of Investment 85 Financial aspects of the investment process. 85 Determination of the financial capacity of the investment . . 89 From pre-diagnosis to diagnosis. 102 Numerical determination of the financial risk of an investment. 106 4. Analysis of financial products for the investment 113 Aspects prior to product analysis. 113 Analysis by means of the clan concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Obtaining affinities and thc use of codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Grouping the characteristics of the products by means of the Moore closing. 126 From product grouping to affinities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 10 / Index SECOND PART Selection 5. A first approximation to selection models 145 Updating of monetary currents 145 Incorporation of the lack of precision of interests rates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 The hypothesis of known net values and fuzzy rate of interest . . . . . . 157 6. Selection of investments in an economy with inflation 165 Estimate of monetary currents at constant prices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Estimate of monetary currents at prices for each period . . . . . . . 172 The hypothesis of different rates of inflation . . . . 180 7.

This book represents a continuation of an uninterrupted record of international research pertaining to high technology small firms (HTSFs) over a period that has witnessed a rebirth of interest in the growth problems of the small firm, and is a further addition to a portfolio of specialist work by academics and practitioners on the issues facing new technology-based firms (NTBFs).
The book begins with a conceptual overview on the broad theme of innovation in NTBFs, providing a theoretical perspective on the problems of innovation at the end of the twentieth century and setting in context the more specific contributions to follow. A continuing theme of HTSF research is innovation management, and seven chapters are included under this heading focusing on topics such as university spin-out companies and the role of non-executive directors. The successful management of innovation in NTBFs is clearly critical to their survival and growth. Another key and recurrent area of interest to researchers concerned with the problems of NTBFs is finance, with three chapters here addressing the funding problems faced by NTBFs during often lengthy periods of product development. The book concludes with a set of contributions which deal with the increasingly important issues of clustering and location as they affect NTBFs.
The chapters included in this book represent a strong set of themes indicative of what key workers in the area of NTBF development are thinking at the turn of the millennium. These issues of effective management, funding and networking are key themes that will continue in the new millennium.

For both public and private managers, the book Optimization Methods for a Stakeholder Society is today's key to answer the problem of a sustainable development world. This world has to take into account the meaning of all stakeholders involved and has to reconcile a number of objectives, such as economic growth, employment and preservation of the ecosystem. Traditional methods, such as cost-benefit, are outmoded as they translate all these objectives into monetary costs, a materialistic approach. On the contrary, objectives have rather to stick to their own units, eventually indicators.
The author is in favor of the use of nonlinear methods in multi-objective optimization. Therefore, several nonlinear approaches are proposed, illustrated with many applications from different fields such as: privatization in the public sector, regional versus national economic policy in a country, location of a seaport, arms procurement, industrialization of a developing country, updating or replacement of old industry, pre- and post-evaluation of projects, performance management, marketing and distribution.