Social economics is the study, with the methods of economics, of social phenomena in which aggregates affect individual choices.1 Such phenomena include, just to mention a few, social norms and conventions, cultural identities and stereotypes, peer and neighbor- hood effects. A central underpinning of the methods of economics is methodological individualism. In particular, explanations based s…
This part introduces the readers to Continuous Risk Management and how to use this guidebook. Chapter 1 focuses on why Continuous Risk Management is important, why people don't do risk management, and the costs and benefits of performing risk management. The chapter ends with a discussion of the principles of Continuous Risk Management. Chapter 2 focuses on how this guidebook is organized a…
The idea for this research project into the costs of procurement in the construction industry was born at a time of great interest throughout the industrialized world in the development of innovative working practices in the management of the commercial processes of the construction industries. The new thinking included new methods of financing projects, such as the development of PFI (PPP)…
The recent decade has witnessed a growing interest in using public procurement to spur innovation and development. An increasing number of governments are claiming that public procurement—often worth of 10–30 % of a country’s GDP as exemplified by European Union member countries (EC 2011b)—should be used more extensively and explicitly to promote innovation, technology, and economic…
Public procurement is the process whereby government bodies purchase from the market the goods, works and services that they need. Whether buying paper clips, commissioning major projects for the construction of hospitals, schools or offices, or procuring multimillion-pound IT and communications systems, the authorities in question are participating in the public procurement market. It is …
Does my procurement organization already employ best-in-class practices, sophisticated tools with the right talent, and the necessary formal and informal cross-functional linkages? Some 50 to 90 percent of the companies that answer this question will respond “no.” On the one hand, this realization is a good indication of readiness for change and the acceptance that development is neede…
Crash Course is not an accounting textbook. We believe that standard accounting texts make the subject inaccessible for the nonaccountant. This is a crash course, born out of years of our experience training students and professionals who need to learn accounting quickly in order to understand financial reports, perform financial analysis, and speak the language of business. Our trainees come f…
Organisations are devices for creating value through the effective use of resources. While they need to create value for all contributors of resources, a premium is placed on value creation for customers and shareholders. After all, an organisation is unlikely to be able to offer inducements to other resource contributors if it does not provide value to its customers. Also, shareholders are awa…
If you happen to be reading the profiles of people in the corporate world, or dealing with qualified business persons or even undertaking some activity in the world of business, chances are that you will inevitably come across certain designations and designatory letters used after peoples’ names that will baffle you. You will ask yourself: “What are those? What do they mean? Where were t…
Over the last few decades project management has moved from its roots in industries such as construction and defense into the main- stream of American business. Many different industries, in particular the service sector, rely heavily on project management as an integral part of a successful strategy. In support of the widening importance of project management, a number of important professi…
Over the last few decades project management has moved from its roots in industries such as construction and defense into the main- stream of American business. Many different industries, in particular the service sector, rely heavily on project management as an integral part of a successful strategy. In support of the widening importance of project management, a number of important profession…
Knowledge of federal budgeting, accounting, costing, and reporting is essential for all doing business with the federal government. This includes the 50 U.S. states; tens of thousands of counties, cities, municipalities, special authorities, and districts; over 100,000 prime and subcontractors, and nonprofits, colleges, and university grantees to the federal government; and beneficiaries of fed…
An understanding of the principles of book keeping and accounting is essential for anyone who is interested in a successful career in busi ness. The purpose of bookkeeping and account ing is to provide information concerning the fi nancial affairs of a business. This information is needed by owners, managers, creditors, and governmental agencies.
The book primarily is about financial management and, as its title implies, real options are an integral, subsidiary theme. Real options are opportunities available to management permitting them to adapt the enterprise to changing needs. Understanding the value of real options is essential to corporate financial management. Examples in several chapters demonstrate why failure to assess the va…
Anyone who has read a newspaper or watched the evening news in recent years is well aware that fraudulent financial reporting by big businesses has reached alarming levels. Equally startling is the frequency of fraudulent financial reporting by small businesses—as many bankers and government agencies will confirm—and even by non–business entities such as not-for- profit organizations.
Architects and other designers inhabit a curious borderland between the virtual and the physical. They have always been concerned with conjuring up things that don’t exist but might, imagining them in detail, and eventually finding ways to translate these visions into physical reality. Over the last half-century, computer-generated virtual worlds have played an increasingly crucial role i…
R is a language and environment for data analysis and graphics. It may be considered an implementation of S, an award-winning language initially developed at Bell Laboratories since the late 1970s. The R project was initiated by Robert Gentleman and Ross Ihaka at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in the early 1990s, and has been developed by an international team since mid-1997. Histori…
When comparing the penetration of e-procurement in large and medium Companies were found significant discrepancies. So have great Company e.Procurement almost invariably a successful, while only each fifth midsize businesses eProcurement uses. Nevertheless, in medium-sized Company savings potential available, the use of e-procurement by the can be realized. It follows a recognizable need f…
Managing Human Resources in Europe provides an analysis of the most important themes in European human resource management (HRM) written by leading authorities based all over Europe. Unrivalled by any other text it provides a thematic approach with distinctive country examples in each chapter and is characterized by a critical approach with special attention given to dilemmas, controversies, pa…