Since the end of the Cold War, crises from the Balkans to Central Asia and Africa have forced international organizations to adapt, expand, and cooperate to end civil wars, manage humanitarian challenges, and contain terrorist threats. The Power of Dependence explores the complex relationship between two of these organizations: NATO and the United Nations. It advances an innovative resource dependence approach to explain the stark variation in interorganizational cooperation, combining insights from international relations theory and organizational science in a comprehensive theoretical framework. Comparing NATO and the UN's engagement in three major post-Cold War conflicts- Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan- the study finds that the level and balance of the organizations' resource dependence plays a crucial role in shaping the degree of cooperation. The Power of Dependence demonstrates the logic, dynamics, and impact of organizational interactions in addressing regional instability and violent conflict. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with understanding and building more effective interorganizational partnerships in crisis management.

Risk management practices are growing both in number and complexity in businesses, notably driven by new regulatory standards that feature risk management at their core. Although large businesses are more likely to adopt a formal, holistic approach to risk management, the stakes are just as high for SMEs. Risk management in SMEs can contribute to a certain organizational, entrepreneurial and partnership dynamic which constitutes a real opportunity to evolve practices and improve performance. This book offers varied responses to this question by combining conceptual approaches, empirical illustrations and the associated managerial implications.

Strategic alliances have emerged as an important element of firms' strategies. Following suit, research on alliances has blossomed, concentrating on the various forms alliances take, the reasons of their existence, and increasingly embracing questions of alliance management and governance tasks. However, most contributions which address the alliance governance problem are yet rather vague and selective in their conception of alliance governance structures as well as the factors which influence their suitability. The aim of this book is to further advance our understanding of alliance governance and to provide recommendations on the problem of alliance governance design. Following the configurational approach, Sascha Albers develops a comprehensive model of alliance governance systems. He identifies relevant structural and instrumental design parameters and analyzes major contingency factors, including member firms' cultures and alliance experience, number of alliance partners, and trust, which impact the design parameters' suitability. He finally deducts five configurations, or ideal types, of alliance governance systems which can be regarded as blueprints for the practitioner and as platform for further research for the alliance scholar. Potential readership includes scholars of strategic management and organization theory, interested students in these areas as well as practitioners involved in formulating and implementing alliance strategies.

"This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it"--Amazon.com.

With the theme of relationship receiving renewed attention in a variety of areas, theological expressions of the subject are also being brought back into the spotlight. Although the concept of a personal relationship with God is a common Christian expression, it is often poorly defined. Here, Michael Berra draws on the Swiss theologian Emil Brunner to redefine and rehabilitate the analogy of relationship. Basing his study primarily on Brunner's seminal work Truth as Encounter, Berra proposes that relationship ought to be the central motif for the whole of theology. He investigates the theme in light of modern relationship science, arguing that God-human interaction categorically meets the definition of a relationship, and that it is existentially intended to be intimate. Scholars and church leaders will find in Berra's approach a refreshing voice in this dynamic field.

This first edition text, written by Dr. W.C. Benton, the Dean’s Distinguished Research Professor of Operations and Systems Management at Ohio State University, outlines the most current methods in purchasing and supply chain management. With his step-by-step approach, both students and professionals can gain analytical purchasing skills. Real case studies and exercises help students transform purchasing theory into purchasing practice and implementation. Some of the topics include purchasing business processes, price cost analysis, professional services, and transportation, global, and healthcare purchasing. Dr. Benton has published more than one hundred articles in the areas of purchasing management, inventory control, supply chain management, quality assurance, and materials management. He has been ranked #1 out of 753 quality and quantity researchers in operations management, has served as a consultant for IBM, RCA, Frigidaire, and state Departments of Transportation, among others, and is the founder of the Purchasing and Supply Management Association (PSMA) at the Fisher College of Business.

AAAI proceedings describe innovative concepts, techniques, perspectives, and observations that present promising research directions in artificial intelligence. The annual AAAI National Conference and Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence Conference provide a forum for information exchange and interaction among researchers from all disciplines of AI. Contributions include theoretical, experimental, and empirical results. The technical papers published in this proceedings were selected by a rigorous, double-blind review process. The National Conference papers cover a myriad of topics, including agents, artificial intelligence and the world wide web, cognitive systems, constraint satisfaction problems, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, learning, model-based reasoning, natural language and information retrieval, planning, robotics, satisfiability, scheduling, search, tractable reasoning, and vision. The Innovative Applications Conference papers feature deployed and emerging applications. These papers will be of special benefit to AI applications developers. In addition, abstracts from the Invited talks, Intelligent Systems Demonstrations, Robotic Competition and Exhibition, SIGART/AAAI Doctoral Consortium, and Student programs are also included in this proceedings.

Addiction: A Behavioral Economic Perspective focuses on the behavioral economics of addiction to explain why someone decides and act against her own well-being. It answers the questions of what accounts for self-defeating behavior patterns and how do we best motivate individuals to act according with their long-term goals. A better understanding of decision processes will lead to an improved knowledge of why people engage in self-destructive behaviors and better policy interventions in areas of addiction and obesity. The approach also promises to be valuable as a framework for understanding decisions for an addict’s professional and business life. This book will be of particular use to clinicians, students, and researchers in the fields of addiction, public health, and behavior therapy.