Book Summary: A unique, non-traditional, Organizational Behavioral-oriented book that is geared toward flexible leadership, and that offers a series of funny, yet thought-provoking, motivating, growth-oriented jokes and humor anecdotes that will help readers tap into their internal locus of control.

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Iran, as most countries in the Middle East, has a natural competitive advantage in the global tourism industry. However, the potential of this competitive advantage has not been reached. This research is designed to provide Iranian policy makers with a systematic approach toward understanding and narrowing the gap which exists between tourism potential and market realities. The Constant Market Share (CMS) model is used toward that end. The model is used to analyze two sets of actual data related to tourist arrivals. Based on the results of this study, some policy implications are advanced.

The Middle East is the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of the three major religions practiced today. As such, most countries in the Middle East have a natural competitive advantage in the global tourism industry. However, for many of these countries the potential of this competitive advantage has not been reached. This research is designed to provide policy makers with a systematic approach toward restructuring their tourism strategies. Based on the results of this study, some significant policy implications are identified. While the methodology presented in this study is not without some weakness, it can be easily applied to other countries and regions. In this context, four Middle Eastern countries are used to illustrate the approach proposed in this study, J BUSN RES 2000. 48.147-156.

Coevolution is the elegantly simple idea that entities evolve together in an intricate dance that changes each and all forever. Since 1991, the emergence of Organizations and the Natural Environment Division (ONE) in the Academy, the advancement of scholarly ONE research, and the emergence of sustainability-based curricula in universities have coevolved. This process has opened the door for the widespread development and dissemination of sustainability-based management curricula that teach managers how to account for the greater society and ecosystem in their decisions and actions.

Social entrepreneurs utilize the traits of commercial entrepreneurs; organizational abilities, opportunity identification, combining resources in novel ways, willingness to accept and manage risk and explosive growth or returns, to create enterprises that return high social value. As educators, we see opportunities where entrepreneurial skills can be applied to education, not-for-profit organizations, government offices and programs and philanthropic concerns and create service learning opportunities for students beyond the boundaries of the university. Many of us involved in higher education are frustrated with students who do not attend class, turn in assignments late or exhibit a lack of effort in classes where they pay tuition and receive a grade. It is a challenge, therefore, to gain the involvement of students in social entrepreneurship efforts where the reward (grade, pay or recognition) is not immediate or minimal and the trade-off (time management for their schedule) may be more fun or financially rewarding. This paper discusses the evolution for the process of enlisting student involvement in two distinct social entrepreneurship programs at our university. The first program involves linking university skill sets in the arts, digital media, technology and project management to the planning, implementation and evaluation of a regional arts and music festival held in the city where our university operates. Students involved in this social entrepreneurial venture work with community volunteers, city government officials and local business owners for a period of nine to ten months. In the first two years of sponsoring this program the strategy has evolved from enlisting the help of a student technology club (Edge Club, Digital Media) to working with a small volunteer student team (3 to 4 students). In each case, the organization or student team that worked on the project received no academic credit for the work involved beyond enhancement of their resume. Initial enthusiasm was high but tended to decline as the time horizon for finishing the project extended beyond the current semester and other activities or demands competed for the students' participation. The second program also utilizes a student organization (Students In Free Enterprise, SIFE) to work on social entrepreneurship projects. In SIFE we have found that the students prefer projects that entail an afternoon of preparation for a short presentation, or service within a 3-4 day period. In that this group is involved in a "competition" with SIFE teams from other institutions at the end of the year, it is important that they seek projects that will differentiate themselves. The short-term projects that they prefer do little to accomplish this differentiation. The projects that truly differentiate are those that require a high degree of preparation for an event that culminates at the end of the semester, or even the following year. To that end, all students of this select team are required to create a long-term project that they will spearhead throughout the year. This leads to an escalation of commitment due to their "ownership" of that project. They are also required to assist another team member on their long-term project. Their efforts on these projects tend to be greater in that they realize that the other members will be assisting them on their project and they want to receive a conscientious effort from their teammates. This synergistic performance enhances both the number and quality of the projects. Using this method, we typically create 5 to 6 viable projects each year. Most teams that we compete with tend to have one major project per year. Using this system our university team has completed an average of 10 projects per year for presentation, of which 2 to 3 have been major projects.

While there has been extensive research on the use of financial appraisal techniques (Pay back, Return on Capital Employed, Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value) in the Investment Appraisal Process (lAP), little research has been conducted on the role of the Real Options Approach (ROA) and Managerial Judgement (MJ) in the IAP. In an ideal world, prior to making Strategic Investment Decisions (SIDs), a detailed analysis of the benefits generated by the investments would be conducted. This would cover financial and nonfinancial benefits. In practice, however, many investments are undertaken on the basis of financial returns with little or no analysis of the growth options embedded in the proposed investments. The exploitation of these options contributes to the enhancement of the business strategy as financial returns do. Essential to considering these options in the IAP is the deployment ofMJ inthe lAP. This thesis aims to make a sound contribution to the development of the emerging literature on capital budgeting. First, it provides a critical review of the existing investment appraisal literature. Second, it investigates whether or not British Automotive Components Manufacturers (BACMs) deploy the ROA and MJ in the lAP in order to accommodate the growth options. And fmally, it presents an alternative perspective of the IAP by the development of a conceptual framework that integrates the ROA & MJ into the lAP, while taking account ofproject risk and business strategy. This research draws on a 73-firm survey of finance directors in this industry enhanced by fieldwork (11 interviews) to set out the relative importance of the strategic approach (ROA informed by MJ) and financial analysis when making the SIDs. The findings from the survey show similar results to earlier studies in relation to the popularity of PB and the use of more than one financial technique in the lAP. However, in contrast to previous studies, DCF techniques seem to be less popular and higher usage of ROCE is evident, and no relationship is found between company size and the range and type of techniques used in the lAP. The main thrust of the findings of the statistical analysis is the absence of the formal adoption of the ROA in the IAP. However, the impact of the growth options regarding the deployment of MJ in the lAP appeared to be evident. The analysis shows that MJ is considered when assessing both investments with growth options and risky projects. The fieldwork provides insights into the context of the lAP and the factors that influence the deployment of the ROA and MJ in the lAP. Conclusions are drawn regarding the interrelationships between financial analysis and the ROA and MJ in the lAP. The integration of the ROA and MJ into the lAP appears to involve moving the focus of attention in the lAP away from financial analysis and a short-term perspective towards a more strategic perspective. More importantly, it contributes to bridging the gap between risk management and strategic analysis.

This research was undertaken in the United States within two different regional airlines and examines the attitudes and behaviours of managers to operations performance measurement and review (PMR) systems during separate periods of crisis and growth. The aim and objectives were to examine whether managers would consciously adopt the necessary attitudes and behaviours that are required to positively interact with a PMR system and to further examine what these behaviours should be. A secondary aim was to understand whether the prevailing business state of crisis or growth affected the attitudes and behaviours of managers as they used the PMR system. The research spanned seven years and was conducted over four iterative cycles within an Action Research paradigm and used semi-structured interviews and repertory grids to examine individual personal construct systems. The research is essentially qualitative but draws on quantitative techniques where appropriate. The research has shown that people do not automatically adopt the behaviours necessary to achieve performance goals. Unless there is structure, support and an inherent commitment to training managers on how to, correctly, interpret operations performance data then there is likely to be an uncommitted and uninformed response to the PMR system. The research has confirmed that both business states of crisis and growth can have a positive impact on some people and encourage them to adopt performance-driven behaviour.

One of the major economic themes which characterised the development of modern company law was the well-documented separation of ownership from control and the increase in management control brought about by the wide dispersion of share ownership in large public companies.The growth and complexity of the modern corporation with diversified ownership created the need for governance mechanisms to facilitate the monitoring of managers and to restrain them from acting inappropriately, while not unduly restricting their ability to make decisions. The issue of corporate governance has been fiercely debated in both the US and the UK for several decades. The impact of globalisation and the recent financial crises in East Asia and elsewhere have spurred on corporate governance reform, which is now being implemented in many jurisdictions around the world. In recent years, China appears to have adopted some of the basic corporate governance structures of the Anglo-American system. However, little comparative empirical work has so far been undertaken to document systemic differences in ownership structures, institutional arrangement and legal rules betweenthe current Chinese corporate governance system and the systems in the UK and the US, or to determine how a corporate governance regime can best be designed to overcome the agency problems created by the separation of ownership from control in the Chinese context. In this thesis, we investigate the characteristics of China's corporate ownership structure and assess how effective shareholders are in monitoring directors' activities; we examine how boards are structured and function to ensure the efficient running of the company; and we consider the legal duties imposed on directors and how these duties are enforced in China, drawing comparisons and contrasts with the UK. Also, given the distinctive features of the Chinese corporate governance system, we estimate a regression model to investigate the relationship between corporate governance and corporate performance in China. Our results indicate that the weakness of the Chinese corporate governance system is not only a consequence of the concentrated state-ownership structure. This weakness is also in part due to the ineffectiveness of internal monitoring rules, inadequate/incomplete law and poor law enforcement. Finally, we provide some suggestions for the Chinese government to improve the Chinese corporate governance system.

Abstract is available to download.