Over the last couple of years, e-procurement has received tremendous attention from researchers and practitioners alike. However, research on e-procurement is still scarce and scattered. This chapter looks into prior research on inter-organizational information systems (IOIS), electronic data interchange (EDI), channel management, and procurement to develop a research framework and identif…
This paper discusses the types of property investment vehicles available, high-lights the different valuation techniques used for direct and indirect property investments, and looks at the implications for property investment vehicles and valuation techniques. It discusses the opportunities and threats facing chartered surveyors given the changing nature of the property market. Keywords: …
This monograph examines the domain of classical political economy using the method- ologies developed in recent years both by the new discipline of econo-physics and by computing science. This approach is used to re-examine the classical subdivisions of political economy: production, exchange, distribution and finance. The book begins by examining the most basic feature of economic life – pr…
This book looks at the specific institutional arrangements and the policy choices that underpin the management of public finances in the Latin American and Caribbean region. It draws primarily from a sample of publicly available Country Financial Accountability Assessments and Country Procurement Assessment Reports undertaken at regular intervals by the World Bank and its development partn…
The standard approach to the legal foundations of corporate governance is based on the view that corporate law promotes separation of ownership and control by protecting non-controlling shareholders from expropriation. This book takes a broader perspective by showing that investor protection is a necessary, but not sufficient, legal condition for the efficient separation of ownership and contro…
Starbucks’, the Seattle-based coffee store mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit: one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. The company is well-known for its ethical sourcing of coffee from farmers all over the world, environmental stewardship (by 2015 all cups will be reusable or recyclable), and community involvement through volunteer work in neighborhoods wh…
In "Analyzing strategic Risks," we focus on industry dissonance, that is, the risk that an organization is executing an obsolete strategy. In "Maximizing the value of Competitive Itelligence, we focus on both market exploitation opportunities and industry dissonance.
The genesis of this book is the confluence of past and present food and nutrition policy. Each generation of people interested in the topics of food and nutrition start with a certain grounding and basis in the knowledge then currently agreed on. The elder author of this book struggled with seven food groups in school, the younger author learned about four. Those four food groups are now so ent…
Imagine that a time machine could carry you back to the year 900 and land you anywhere on earth for an extended stay. Where would you go live? As you consider the possibilities, you might want a bit of useful advice—namely, avoid western Europe at all costs.1 Why reside there, when it was poor, violent, politically chaotic, and by almost any yard- stick, hopelessly backward? There were no ci…
It becomes a very useful information - the address of New York office of Human Rights Watch, a non-profit, non-governmental human rights organization. So, from a system analyst's point of view, information is a sequence of symbols that can be construed to a useful message. An Information System is a system that gathers data and disseminates information with the sole purpose of providing infor…
Organizations are facing exciting and dynamic challenges in the 21st century. In the gloabalized business, companies require strategic thinking and only by evolving good corporate strategies can they become strategically competitive. A sustained or sustainable competitive advantage occurs when firm implements a value – creating strategy of which other companies are unable to duplicate the…
A business plan is a comprehensive, written description of the business of an enterprise. It is a detailed report on a company's products or services, production techniques, markets and clients, marketing strategy, human resources, organization, requirements in respect of infrastructure and supplies, financing requirements, and sources and uses of funds. The business plan describes the pas…
The future may be hard to predict, but need not be hard to prepare for. Insurers are grappling with the tough new business, investment and regulatory environments that are emerging from the financial crisis. The industry, however, also faces far broader challenges. Demographic shifts, the rise in power of the emerging markets and changing customer behaviour will all help shape the sector’s…
The demand for food and agricultural products is changing in unprecedented ways. Increases in per capita incomes, higher urbanization and the growing numbers of women in the workforce engender greater demand for high-value commodities, processed products and ready-prepared foods. A clear trend exists towards diets that include more animal products such as fish, meat and dairy products, whi…
To maintain a competitive position in the marketplace, a company must have a long-range plan. This plan needs to include the company’s long-term goals, an understanding of the marketplace, and a way to differentiate itself from its competitors. All other decisions made by the company must support this longrange plan. Otherwise, each person in the company would pursue goals that he or s…
In the heavy-truck industry, many buyers operate large fleets and are highly motivated to drive down truck prices. Trucks are built to regulated standards and offer similar features, so price competition is stiff; unions exercise considerable supplier power; and buyers can use substitutes such as cargo delivery by rail. To create and sustain long-term profitability within this industry…
Being your own boss is wonderfully exciting, but isn’t for everyone. Anyone considering starting a business needs first to consider if they are suited for it, personally and professionally. There is no right or wrong answer to each of these questions. This is a self-evaluation to help you think through critical aspects of your personal and business readiness to be self-employed. It is desi…
This paper aims to provide an overview of the gender differences in leadership and business using decision science principles, set in the context of the Commonwealth. Current findings from the ‘science of decision making’ reveal key gender distinctions in the behaviours between women and men, and how these behavioural differences influence and shape decisions as well as the outcomes of …
One way to learn about business is to read the textbooks, learn the definitions, discuss case studies, and pass the exam. In Foundation: A Hands-on Introduction to Business Fundamentals we take a less theoretical and more hands-on approach. We’re going to learn business by managing a business. The approach makes sense for two reasons. First, business itself is practical. If there were a sing…
Nebraska has weathered the recession much stronger than other states and, as Governor Heineman explained in his 2010 State of the State Address, “…we have seized the opportunity to make Nebraska more competitive.” In that spirit of gaining competitive advantage and building economic momentum going forward, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED), in collaboration with the…
Even as attention is increasingly paid to “going green” and to the role business can play to help solve sustainability problems, the flip side of the business-and-sustainability relationship has gone underexamined. Forget how management can affect sustainability. How will sustainability change management? The difference between the questions isn’t as subtle as it might sound. The …
Building a new business is hard work. The US Small Business Administration reports that 50% of new businesses disappear by their fifth year of operation. New businesses fail for a variety of reasons from lack of access to capital to poor management to insufficient linkages to markets. Yet there is one step, which should be the first step, that helps to address many of these issues and that is t…