At a time when the United States faces tremendous pressure from global competition, and the voices of external customers are growing louder and stronger, the quest for quality has never been more urgent. The very survival of organizations is acutely in jeopardy. The notion of quality has gone from being a socially provocative one to being a deliberate strategy for long-term viability. In t…
The rise of the quality profession as a specialty within business coincided with the increased complexity of business enterprises. In simpler times, when goods and services were provided by individual artisans, elaborate quality systems were unnecessary. An individual producer could simply compare customer requirements to his or her work and estimate its value. The rise of complex and larg…
The objective of econometrics is to study economic phenomena using statistical observations. Econometrics formalizes the economic theory in the form of relationships (models) whose unknown elements are determined by the available data. Econometrics quantifies and tests economic theories and makes those theories operational through forecasting or simulation of the impact of political or economic…
This Solutions Manual provides completely explained solutions to all exercises of the textbook. The manual can be used by a wide variety of audience in various fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry and engineering. Because the text A First Course in Integral Equations, Second Edition contains the newly developed methods and some of the classical methods, we have aimed to make the So…
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…
In response to demands and opportunities of the labor market, contemporary employers and employees voluntarily are entering into highly customized agreements regarding nonstandard employment terms. We refer to such idiosyncratic deals as “i-deals,” acknowledging that these arrangements are intended to benefit all parties. Examples of i-deals include an employee with highly coveted skil…
If one word could describe the essence of project management it is responsibility. The project manager (PM) is responsible for all that happens on a project. This doesn’t mean the project manager should or could do everything associated with the project; it does mean the PM owns ultimate responsibility for the project, regardless of who is on the project team and regardless of the obstacles…
This chapter deals with the introduction of electronic procurement in the public healthcare domain. After a brief discussion on the healthcare spending characteristics and on the suitability of e-procurement tools in the public sector, the long-lasting experience of e-procurement implementation promoted by an Italian Local Healthcare Public Agency is described. This initiative included some …
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…
This book explains the methods used in accounting and business valuations by using the fictional story of a new start-up business, from original concept to eventual acquisition. Enamoured with entrepreneurial spirit, a business woman buys her family’s secret salad dressing recipe from her brother and sets up a business. Chapter 1 illustrates double entry bookkeeping and how to prepare a Tri…