physica okt 2010 (245 risultati)

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware -The book focuses on the relations between small states and alliances. It is on why, how and under what conditions states engage in alliances. What are the benefits and costs of alliances How are the benefits and costs of alliances allocated among their members What determines who allies with whom Can small states still pursue their own security interests within an alliance Can they even become integral part of an alliance Scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and advisors from several countries discuss these issues. They address historical, empirical and theoretical topics and give policy recommendations.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. Neuware - The book focuses on the relations between small states and alliances. It is on why, how and under what conditions states engage in alliances. What are the benefits and costs of alliances How are the benefits and costs of alliances allocated among their members What determines who allies with whom Can small states still pursue their own security interests within an alliance Can they even become integral part of an alliance Scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and advisors from several countries discuss these issues. They address historical, empirical and theoretical topics and give policy recommendations.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -After the dramatic failures of the dot coms in 2000 and 2001, many observers were quick to report on the death of electronic commerce. Investor confidence sagged, stock prices of technology firms in nearly all of the related sectors suffered. In reality, the picture is not nearly as dismal as the press would have us believe. E-commerce is not dead, but it has moved beyond its overhyped beginning stage. This book is an effort to sort through the hype, providing a realistic assessment of the state of electronic commerce today, and the important areas of opportunity and challenge for tomorrow. The book sees all kind of developments where e-business is becoming an integral part of 'traditional' business processes, with special emphasis on practical and policy importance. E-commerce scholars from a number of disciplines and countries contribute to assess the impact of the dot com bust and the current state of e-commerce. 296 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The creation of a single monetary currency and a single monetary policy in the euro area has faced extraordinary challenges, among them the design of suitable monetary policy instruments. This book evaluates monetary policy instruments of the Eurosystem against a number of requirements. To do so, a theoretical model framework is developed which brings together the monetary policy activities of a central bank and the liquidity management of banks considering the main characteristics and institutional features of the euro area. 192 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -It is a notorious fact that the evolution of civil-military relations and the security sector reform in South-East Europe has to deal with post-totalitarian and post-conflict challenges. The book examines these issues in the context of the adaptation to combating terrorism and the need to be effective in this struggle, while continuing the democratic reforms in the individual countries. A team of authors from all South-East European states, Western Europe and North America draws a complicated, yet logically evolving picture of the problems in the security sector reform field of the region, and proves the validity of the particular research area. This comprehensive study concludes that the security sector in the region is becoming increasingly mature, but also faces a variety of uncompleted tasks. 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -After the dramatic failures of the dot coms in 2000 and 2001, many observers were quick to report on the death of electronic commerce. Investor confidence sagged, stock prices of technology firms in nearly all of the related sectors suffered. In reality, the picture is not nearly as dismal as the press would have us believe. E-commerce is not dead, but it has moved beyond its overhyped beginning stage. This book is an effort to sort through the hype, providing a realistic assessment of the state of electronic commerce today, and the important areas of opportunity and challenge for tomorrow. The book sees all kind of developments where e-business is becoming an integral part of ¿traditional¿ business processes, with special emphasis on practical and policy importance. E-commerce scholars from a number of disciplines and countries contribute to assess the impact of the dot com bust and the current state of e-commerce.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 296 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -It is a notorious fact that the evolution of civil-military relations and the security sector reform in South-East Europe has to deal with post-totalitarian and post-conflict challenges. The book examines these issues in the context of the adaptation to combating terrorism and the need to be effective in this struggle, while continuing the democratic reforms in the individual countries. A team of authors from all South-East European states, Western Europe and North America draws a complicated, yet logically evolving picture of the problems in the security sector reform field of the region, and proves the validity of the particular research area. This comprehensive study concludes that the security sector in the region is becoming increasingly mature, but also faces a variety of uncompleted tasks.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - Print on Demand Titel. Neuware -The creation of a single monetary currency and a single monetary policy in the euro area has faced extraordinary challenges, among them the design of suitable monetary policy instruments. This book evaluates monetary policy instruments of the Eurosystem against a number of requirements. To do so, a theoretical model framework is developed which brings together the monetary policy activities of a central bank and the liquidity management of banks considering the main characteristics and institutional features of the euro area.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 192 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The present study is a slightly revised version of my PhD thesis which was accepted at the Economics Department of Dresden University of Technology in July 2008. It has a long and a short history. For it began, as suggested theme, as a fundamental evaluation of evolutionary economics for ecological economics, asking, especially, for what the two elds actually constitutes and, eventually, relates. In several years of unfruitful dwelling, however, neither of these two young, non-mainstream elds proved as constituted at a fundamental level as yet. Rather, ecological economics, founded at the end of the 1980s as an attempt to combine social and natural s- ence approaches(in particular economics and ecology) to study especially long-run environmental problems in an encompassing manner, has mainly developed into an interdisciplinary research forum on environmental-economicissues. Particularly uni edbycertainnormativestances sharedwithinits community,it constitutes,well understood, a new discpline of its own right, distinct from economics, with its own scienti c standards, questions, methodologies and institutions (Baumgartner and Becker 2005). Modern evolutionaryeconomicson the other hand has been a quarter of a century after its inception with Nelson and Winter (1982) still a mainly h- erogeneousendeavor, linked by a (rather amorphous) common interest in economic 'evolution' and a critical stance towards neoclassical mainstream economics, with a certain strength in applied studies on industrial dynamics (Heinzel 2004, 2006). 184 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Nowadays, decision problems are pervaded with incomplete knowledge, i.e., imprecision and/or uncertain information, both in the problem description and in the preferential information. In this volume leading scientists in the field address various theoretical and practical aspects related to the handling of this incompleteness. The problems discussed are taken from multi-objective linear programming, rationality considerations in preference modelling, non-probabilistic utility theory, data fusion, group decision making and multicriteria decision aid. The book is oriented towards researchers, graduate and postgraduate students in decision analysis, fuzzy sets and fuzzy logic, and operations research/management science. 220 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book focuses on the relations between small states and alliances. It is on why, how and under what conditions states engage in alliances. What are the benefits and costs of alliances How are the benefits and costs of alliances allocated among their members What determines who allies with whom Can small states still pursue their own security interests within an alliance Can they even become integral part of an alliance Scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and advisors from several countries discuss these issues. They address historical, empirical and theoretical topics and give policy recommendations. 204 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book contains the contributions presented at the international workshop 'The Dynamics of Complex Urban Systems: an interdisciplinary approach' held in Ascona, Switzerland in November 2004. Experts from several disciplines outline a conceptual framework for modeling and forecasting the dynamics of both growth-limited cities and megacities. Coverage reflects the various interdependencies between structural and social development. 504 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book provides an up-to-date analytical and empirical treatment of some important interactions between paid and unpaid labour and the social economy. The emphasis on the motivations for paid and unpaid labour, and on how these factors contribute to efficiently providing social services,gives a clear empirical counterpart to the concept of social economy.The book begins with a theoretical perspective on the development and characteristics of paid and unpaid labour in social services. Several empirical analyses, largely using novel data sets, are then provided about these phenomena in Italy, a country which has drawn broad international attention in this field, as well as in other European countries and in the US.Topics of particular interest include: preferences regarding and satisfaction with paid and unpaid labour; ownership structure and risk; ownership structure, remuneration and incentives for paid labour; characteristics of volunteer labour and its relationship with social capital endowment across Italian regions; and a comparative analysis of labour in the nonprofit sector across Europe. 262 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -There has been a long tradition of research on the relation between diversification and performance of public corporations in the strategy and finance fields. As for private equity portfolios, research on this matter is rather scarce. From a theoretical as well as from a practical perspective, however, it is interesting to know more about the relation between private equity portfolio diversification and performance, how private equity firms manage their portfolios, and what public companies can learn from private equity firms. These are the research questions which are addressed in Daniel Klier's research. In order to answer these questions, the author uses a two-tier research design. As a first step, he compares the diversification-performance link of public corporations and private equity firms. With respect to the private equity sample and the ope- tionalization of the relevant variables, the study is highly innovative in terms of generating the PE sample from databases like Preqin and Dealogic, constructing a diversification measure from transaction data, and developing comparable perfo- ance measures for private equity firms as well as traditional multi-business firms. As the second step, which is exploratory in nature, the author explores m- agement models of PE firms. The sample of 20 US and Europe-based private equity firms is unique and of high quality, because the author succeeded in getting in-depth interviews with top decision makers of PE firms. The exploratory study extracts three clusters of management models that PE firms are using, and their relation to performance. 316 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book examines an integrated innovation environment. Coverage describes four market archetypes as well as the market outcome for each archetype. The book analyzes innovation dynamics, including commoditization, the constant innovation challenge and the sustainability of innovation along with cases including the iPod, Lego, Barbie, the browser wars and Google. 216 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Regional development is attracting the attention of policy makers and scientists again, as regions, urban centers and rural areas, experience substantial pressures, particularly in Europe, as a consequence of globalization and geopolitical changes which lead to changes in spatial structures and dynamics.This book is based on the contributions of Greek regional science research presented at the 2006 Congress of the European Regional Science Association at Volos, Greece. The contributions selected to be presented in this bookaddress these changes offering a fresh look into regional development. They provide an overview of regional development concerns from Greek regional scientists but the issues discussed pervade Greek particularities and stimulate thinking about regional science, regional development and regional policy in the early twenty-first century. 408 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Information providers are a very promising application area of recommender systems due to the general problem of assessing the quality of information products prior to the purchase. Recommender systems automatically generate product recommendations: customers profit from a faster finding of relevant products, stores profit from rising sales. All aspects of recommender systems are covered: the economic background, mechanism design, a survey of systems in the Internet, statistical methods and algorithms, service oriented architectures, user interfaces, as well as experiences and data from real-world applications. Specific solutions for areas with strong privacy concerns, scalability issues for large collections of products, as well as algorithms to lessen the cold-start problem for a faster return on investment of recommender projects are addressed. This book describes all steps it takes to design, implement, and successfully operate a recommender system for a specific information platform. 168 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The importance and value of tracking and sharing the dispersed knowledge resources of contemporary organizations have received widespread rec- nition in recent years. It is widely believed that with the transition from the industrial to information-based economies, organizational knowledge has emerged as the single most critical resource at both macro- and mic- levels. A major challenge for most organizations during this transition and beyond is to learn to deal with the intricacies of discovering knowledge from the vast amounts of data being generated, identifying pockets of - portant knowledge in various forms, to devise strategies and techniques to formalize parts that lend themselves to codification, and to nurture tech- cal and other solutions with which useful knowledge can be shared among relevant participants. This has the potential to produce greater knowledge utilization leading to multiplier effects in organizational performance. This calls for an approach in which both the organizational and technological dimensions of the challenge are better understood and effectively integ- ted. The papers included in this volume were selected from a collection of papers presented at an invitation-only workshop entitled 'Knowledge - nagement (KM) and the Global Firm: Organizational and Technological Dimensions' held at the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia in February 2003. The workshop was made possible by a generous grant from the Carnegie Bosch Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, Pit- burgh, USA. 216 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Franz Ferschl is seventy. According to his birth certificate it is true, but it is unbelievable. Two of the three editors remembers very well the Golden Age of Operations Research at Bonn when Franz Ferschl worked together with Wilhelm Krelle, Martin Beckmann and Horst Albach. The importance of this fruitful cooperation is reflected by the fact that half of the contributors to this book were strongly influenced by Franz Ferschl and his colleagues at the University of Bonn. Clearly, Franz Ferschl left his traces at all the other places of his professional activities, in Vienna and Munich. This is demonstrated by the present volume as well. Born in 1929 in the Upper-Austrian Miihlviertel, his scientific education brought him to Vienna where he studied mathematics. In his early years he was attracted by Statistics and Operations Research. During his employment at the Osterreichische Bundeskammer fUr Gewerbliche Wirtschaft in Vienna he prepared his famous book on queueing theory and stochastic processes in economics. This work has been achieved during his scarce time left by his duties at the Bundeskammer, mostly between 6 a.m. and midnight. All those troubles were, however, soon rewarded by the chair of statistics at Bonn University. As a real Austrian, the amenities of the Rhineland could not prevent him from returning to Vienna, where he took the chair of statistics. 312 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Quantile regression has emerged as an essential statistical tool of contemporary empirical economics and biostatistics. Complementing classical least squares regression methods which are designed to estimate conditional mean models, quantile regression provides an ensemble of techniques for estimating families of conditional quantile models, thus offering a more complete view of the stochastic relationship among variables. This volume collects 12 outstanding empirical contributions in economics and offers an indispensable introduction to interpretation, implementation, and inference aspects of quantile regression. 332 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The international political and military-strategic importance of the Asian continent has dramatically increased in recent years and it is conceivable that world affairs in this century will be significantly influenced by developments in Asia. This volume examines, on the one hand, the strategic goals of the most influential powers in the Eurasian region - in particular India, Pakistan, China, Russia and Japan, but also the USA that is strongly involved in the region, and on the other, the relations that these states have with each other. Special attention is paid to the subjective perceptions and thought patterns of the different players, for the perception that international political players have of the outside world is an important element that is frequently neglected in political and military analyses. 224 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book explores both theoretically and empirically the impacts of housing reforms on housing provision in the context of the transition from a centrally-planned to a market-based economy. Fifteen years after the overthrow of state socialism housing policy has lost its privileged status of a political priority as most politically emb- ded systems had favoured market-based solutions to housing problems. This dep- ture from state controlled housing policies with the aim of providing a dwelling for every family is significant, particularly in some post-socialist countries where no new housing policy has emerged. The transition process, embedded in the paradigm shift from central planning to markets, has triggered off turbulence and adjustments with tangible outcomes in post-socialist housing systems. What has changed and what new housing systems have emerged during this dramatic 'transition to markets and democracy' Are these systems more efficient and equitable These questions are the main focus of the book with an emphasis on diversity and change in housing reforms. The book supports the hypothesis that notions of convergence are not really appropriate to the conceptualisation of post-socialist housing systems. It argues that different housing policy choices are going to map out increasingly divergent s- nario for future development. 262 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The book focuses on the relations between small states and alliances. It is on why, how and under what conditions states engage in alliances. What are the benefits and costs of alliances How are the benefits and costs of alliances allocated among their members What determines who allies with whom Can small states still pursue their own security interests within an alliance Can they even become integral part of an alliance Scholars, practitioners, policy-makers and advisors from several countries discuss these issues. They address historical, empirical and theoretical topics and give policy recommendations. 204 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This book analyzes economic interdependence in the Euro Area. It offers expert estimates of the sign and size of economic spillovers. Moreover, the authors explore the impact of economic policy coordination on economic performance in the Euro Area. Among the many topics explored are the link between fiscal and monetary policies in the Euro Area and the coordination of fiscal policies and of structural reforms. 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -1. 1 Motivation and Scope of Research Container terminals in seaports constitute interfaces between sea and land tra- port of goods in global transport chains. These logistics facilities face an increasing demandof service capacity,as is re ected by a tremendousgrowthin the worldwide container transshipments per year. For example, the top 20 terminals in the world showed an average relative increase of 14% with respect to the number of handled container units from 2006 to 2007, see Port of Hamburg Marketing (2008). In spite of this development, competition is high among container terminals within the same region. A terminal's customers, rst and foremost the vessel op- ators, expect a high level of service quality where reliability is one of the most importantdimensions,seeWiegmansetal. (2001). Regardingtheserviceofavessel, reliability means to realize all transshipment operations within its projected service time interval. The reliability of terminal operations impacts the reliability of v- sels in meeting their liner schedules. According to Notteboom (2006) unexpected waiting times of vessels before berthing and unexpected low transshipment prod- tivity at terminals are responsible for about 86% of liner schedule disturbances, see Fig. 1. 1. Currently, many terminal operators counteract this situation by extending their transshipment capacities. They build new terminals or enlarge existing ter- nals and purchase new or upgrade existing equipment. Ilmer (2005) provides an overview of current projects for building terminal capacity in northern Europe. 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -Instead of yet another theory on good governance, this book presents a substantiation of contemporary notions. It builds on the theoretical foundations for taking an overall perspective on social contexts and culminates in a systemic framework that captures social structures based on first principles of viability and sustainability. The framework at hand enablesapplicants to view social contexts holistically while at the same time envisioning a rich picture of what leverages the implementation of social purposes beyond the boxes of the professional disciplines: social structures can be assessed, strengths and weaknesses identified and measures arrived at. Ultimately, the required structures can be tailor-made to align forces for a joint implementation of purposes. Conventional static hierarchies can be deployed into dynamic social organisms capable of developing and adapting continuously according to the opportunities and challenges faced. 344 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The ability to manage knowledge is relevant for millions of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that operate in high-tech environments. They strongly depend on external knowledge about customers, technologies, and competitors because, as opposed to large companies, they have limited internal knowledge resources and little power to control their business environments. Present KM literature, however, mainly focuses on large companies and therefore does not explain, how SMEs, for example, can successfully apply groupware, data mining, semantic networks, and knowledge maps. This book addresses this problem by introducing the concept of knowledge integration (KI) that places emphasis on the identification, acquisition and use of external knowledge. Drawing from this theoretical basis, the book presents concepts and instruments specifically designed for SMEs, as well as examples of their implementation and use in practice. 216 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In its latest Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) projects that without further action the global average surface t- perature would rise by a further 1. 8-4. 0°C until the end of this century. But even if the rise in temperature could be limited to the lower end of this range, irreversible and possibly catastrophic changes are likely to occur. Consequently, the protection of the earth's atmosphere requires substantial efforts to reduce CO and other green- 2 house gas emissions - especially in countries with very high per capita emissions. To limit the imminent rise in temperature, in the Kyoto-Protocol, the European Union has committed itself to reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases by 8% up to 2008-2012 compared to 1990 levels. Within the EU burden sharing agr- ment, some countries have to achieve even higher emissions reductions. Germany was assigned a reduction target of 21%. The entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in February 2005 marks a first step towards meting global climate targets, but more ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed after 2012, when the Kyoto targets expire. Under German presidency, the EU has committed itself to unilaterally reduce its greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 by 20%. In case a Post- Kyoto agreement can be reached, the EU reduction target would be 30% (CEU, 2007). 169 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -The present book is a collection of panel data papers, both theoretical and applied. Theoretical topics include methodology papers on panel data probit models, treatment models, error component models with an ARMA process on the time specific effects, asymptotic tests for poolability and their bootstrapped versions, confidence intervals for a doubly heteroskedastic stochastic production frontiers, estimation of semiparametric dynamic panel data models and a review of survey attrition and nonresponse in the European Community Household Panel. Applications include as different topics as e.g. the impact of uncertainty on UK investment, a Tobin-q investment model using US firm data,cost efficiency of Spanish banks, immigrant integration in Canada, the dynamics of individual health in the UK, the relation between inflation and growth among OECD and APEC countries, technical efficiency of cereal farms in England, and employment effects of education for disabled workers in Norway. 392 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Condizione: Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -This intriguing study sheds light on the efficiency of corporate control allocation in Chinese listed firms. Using a panel data set for the period 1996 to 2006, it examines the frequency, causes and consequences of changes in corporate control. The results indicate that poorly performing firms are the predominant targets of control changes. The findings provide insights into the motives and constraints of the key players involved in governance practices in China. 128 pp. Englisch.