Книги

Pain--it is the most common complaint presented to physicians. Yet pain is subjective--it cannot be measured directly and is difficult to validate. Evaluating claims based on pain poses major problems for the Social Security Administration (SSA) and other disability insurers. This volume covers the epidemiology and physiology of pain; psychosocial contributions to pain and illness behavior; promising ways of assessing and measuring chronic pain and dysfunction; clinical aspects of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation; and how the SSA's benefit structure and administrative procedures may affect pain complaints.

Panel data econometrics uses both time series and cross-sectional data sets that have repeated observations over time for the same individuals (individuals can be workers, households, firms, industries, regions, or countries). This book reviews the most important topics in the subject. The three parts, dealing with static models, dynamic models, and discrete choice and related models are organized around the themes of controlling for unobserved heterogeneity and modelling dynamic responses and error components.

The objective of this paper is to develop a tractable approach for recovering and quantifying all sources of TFP changes (namely, technical change, changes in technical and allocative efficiency, and scale economies) from the econometric estimation of an input distance function which also fully describes the production technology. The proposed theoretical framework relies on Bauer’s TFP decomposition framework and the duality between input distance and cost functions. Hence, instead of using a system approach to estimate a cost frontier, all necessary information for decomposing TFP changes are recovered from its dual counterpart.

Employee participation is a dynamic and contested area of organisational behaviour, attracting continuing academic, practitioner and policy interest and debate. This book will bring together a fresh, critical and comparative perspective on the full range of participation practices, drawing on the work of leading scholars in the field. It is inteded to honour the work of Harvie Ramsay, who died tragically in 2001 and who was a pioneering writer on participation and democracy in this field.

Entrepreneurs are embedded in structures from which they attempt to depart. It is to explicate this notion of agency that the authors offer path creation as a concept that lies in contrast to path dependence. Path dependence celebrates the role of chance historical events in shaping the flow of future events. Such a process perspective takes an outsider's view to the genesis of novelty. In contrast, path creators are boundary spanners who disregard myopic pressures from existing relevance structures by making mindful deviations with objects to create new futures. Time is a critical element in this process. Specifically, path creators negotiate the time required for their initiatives to mature and succeed. In doing so, they harness the dynamic efficiencies implicit in adopting a perspective that views the emergence of novelty ex-vizu of a point in time.

Several studies found significant differences between the US American and European management research. Since these studies included only journals published in English language, particularities of German management research are not taken into consideration. In this study a comparative content analysis of all articles in the leading four US American, European (in English language) and German management journals published in 2000 was conducted. The following items were analyzed: research patterns (theoretical versus empirical; and if empirical, nomothetic or idiographic), purpose and data collection methods, and collaborative behavior of authors (international cooperation, national and cooperation within the same university) in the respective geographic areas. On all these variables, clear differences were found.

Over the last decade, industry professionals have radically transformed the theory and practice of new product development. Now the Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) has combined the best aspects of current product development practice in a single volume which applies to new products and services in both consumer and industrial markets. With thirty-three chapters written by leading professionals in the field, The PDMA Handbook of New Product Development offers authoritative practical information on every stage of the product development process, from idea generation to delivery of the final product. Experienced practitioners will find important guidance on topics outside their own area of expertise, as well as material on more advanced and emerging concepts, such as process ownership, pipeline management, metrics, and product architecture. The book’s concise, how-to approach enables readers to access the basic information they need quickly, while providing helpful references to up-to-date sources of further information.

В книге сведены статьи ведущих мировых экспертов, описывающие наиболее значимые аспекты современной теории и практики разработки новых товаров и услуг как для потребительских, так и для промышленных рынков. Книга позволит читателям получить необходимую информацию по всем стадиям процесса создания новых продуктов: от выработки идеи до вывода продукта на рынок (коммерциализации).

Книга по экономике фермерских домохозяйств в развивающихся странах. Основные рассматриваемые темы – эффективность, риск, распределение времени, род, сельскохозяйственные контракты, размер фермерских хозяйств и технологические изменения. Дополненное издание содержит новые главы по экологическим проблемам, связанным с применением экстенсивных методов ведения сельского хозяйства.

The growth of pension funds has been nothing short of astronomical. Pension funds now dominate the world's financial markets, affecting nations' wealth, community development, and industrial well being. Yet little is known about their structure and organization. Pension funds and their agents in the investment industry control enormous sums of money, profoundly affecting the structure and performance of nation-states and the global economy. At the same time, it is also apparent that many western governments are retreating from the provision of 'public good' once thought essential to the fabric of urban life. Clark agues that if we are to understand the long-term future of the western economies (in general) and our communities (in particular), we need also to understand how institutional investors allocate assets, mobilize funds, and make investment decisions. There are few studies of the relationship between pension funds and the financial services industry. Pension Fund Capitalism fills an important gap in the literature as well as the intersection between pension funds and public policy.

This Papers provide information about: model of optimal retirement, retirement savings plan, the effect of the pension system on the return to work, partial retirement programmes, earnings and defined-contribution pension by age, annuity rates by age and sex, effective tax rate on working by age etc.

Modern urbanization is intimately linked with contemporary Jewish history, and this volume, the fifteenth in this acclaimed series, looks at the diverse connections. Spanning a wide range of topics, the volume includes essays on the Jewish communities in New York and St. Petersburg, on Orthodox Jews in the city, on Jewish-Christian relations within the urban context, on klezmer music, on the impact of urbanization on German Jewish history, and on the first "Hebrew city," Tel-Aviv. The volume also includes an extensive collection of reviews of recent literature on Jewish history, culture, and society

The objectives of this paper are to examine consumers’ perceptions of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) beef on the basis of a survey of consumers and buyers of beef.

The paper identifies a profile of PDO beef consumers, examines their behaviour and perceptions on PDO beef, derives the dimensions of perceptions of PDO beef, and establishes segments based upon those dimensions. The results reveal that PDO consumers are representative of all geographical regions, age and profession groups, are lighter consumers of beef and shop for food mainly in the butchers. Consumers’ perceptions on PDO beef emphasises quality, safety, and control. However, underlying those perceptions are six main dimensions and it is possible to identify three segments of PDO beef consumers: a faithful consumer group, an unaware consumer group, and a sensory, price conscious group.

Парадигма "принципал-агент", в которой принципал играет первую роль в работе некоторой системы, но делегирует операционный контроль за этой системой агенту, имеет множество естественных применений в операционном менеджменте (ОМ). Однако существующие модели "принципал-агент" ограниченно применяются исследователями ОМ, поскольку они не отображают богатую динамическую структуру, требуемую от моделей ОМ. В данной работе сформулирована новая динамическая модель, способная преодолеть эти ограничения путем сочетания сети "принципал-агент" с физической структурой процесса решений Маркова. В этой модели имеется система, переходящая с течением временем от одного состояния к другому, причем вероятности перехода зависят от выбранных агентом действий, а принципал платит агенту, исходя из наблюдаемого состояния переходов. Принципал ищет оптимальную схему выплат, стремясь вызвать действия, максимизирующие его ожидаемую выгоду в ограниченном горизонте планирования. Динамические модели "принципал-агент", сходные с предлагаемой, считаются трудно поддающимися обработке, но авторы вводят ряд постулатов, делающих возможным систематический анализ. Эти постулаты включают экономическую, а не физическую структуру модели. При таких посылках авторы полагают, что для вывода оптимальной схемы выплат можно использовать рекурсивное динамическое программирование. Такая схема не обладает памятью и удовлетворяет обобщенному принципу оптимальности Беллмана. Важные идеи управления освещены в контексте примера, включающего два состояния и названного проблемой обслуживания.

In this paper a study is presented that had as goal to develop a management instrument ( benchmarking)for co-innovation projects on basis of a set of performance indicators for chains and net-works of firms. To base the indicators on a sound basis relevant theories were studied, like industrial economics, resource-based theory, marketing theory, net-work theory and also specialised theories related to flexibility, innovation and quality care.

Thereafter a framework was developed. The framework consist of a quick scan of performance measurement and comparative benchmarking to get a global idea of the possible improvements. For the aspects that need to be improved a more fine tuned approach is the measurement of performance related tot the different processes and a benchmark thereof. In the fine tuned part of the framework we distinguish capacities, realisation and perspectives. The quick scan part is used to get a global idea of the performance of different apple chains in The Netherlands, France and New-Zealand. It appeared to be a useful approach to get an idea about the performance of different chains with help of desk research and published information. Finally, some conclusions are drawn.

This book explores the many facets of performance management and how it works. The author defines performance management as a continuous process which consists of defining, planning, analyzing and developing performance through competency building. It focuses on commitment and support building as also recognizing and rewarding performance and contribution