Formal business process engineering based on graph grammars

Designing and managing a company's specific landscape and its business processes has been identified as a great challenge for several years. Business processes are highly dynamic and distributed and can only rarely be planned, modeled and analyzed completely. For a computer-aided business process system, which supports the designing and managing process, first of all a powerful uniform formalism is necessary, where all necessary knowledge concerning company's and its processes can be represented. In this paper we will concentrate on the introduction of such a formal methodology to describe business processes, company organization structures and information technology structures in one uniform formalism. The ideas we use are mainly based on methods from graph grammars, process management, Artificial Intelligence and business process (re)engineering.     

Tinbergen in De Economist

Jan Tinbergen's scientific writings cover six main areas of research. His articles in De Economist represent these areas; in some cases the contributions to De Economist were of a pioneering nature (business cycles, economic models, economic integration); in others De Economist was the first or even single outlet for Tinbergen's work. This article provides an overview of these contributions. The wide scope of Tinbergen's areas of research goes together with a unity in approach, the characteristics of which are: policy relevance, quantification and measurement, balance in analysis and presentation, and learning from experience. Tinbergen's articles in De Economist bear witness to this approach which at the time also met with scepticism and resistance as this overview shows. According to Houthakker, Tinbergen's main contribution may be that, amidst the pleas of interest groups and the slogans of the laity, an attempt is made that the voice of the professional economic researcher be heard. Tinbergen's work still sets an agenda for both economic research and policy making.     

Are emerging economies less efficient? Performance persistence and the impact of business group affiliation

By drawing a theoretical distinction between the persistence of superior and poor performance, we reconcile the conflicting predictions of the ‘revisionist’ and accepted views on the persistence of firm performance in emerging economies. Using a sample of manufacturing firms in the United States and India, we show that superior firm performance in emerging economies persists only as much as developed economies in line with the revisionist argument. We also provide evidence consistent with the accepted view that poor firm performance persists longer in emerging economies compared to developed economies. Further exploration of the latter shows that, contrary to predictions of extant theories, firms in emerging economies that are affiliated with an MNC or a business group have a greater persistence of poor performance than firms that are unaffiliated with these intermediate governance structures, and hence would be better off operating at arm's length. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

水文自动测报系统防雷的探讨

水文自动测报系统若配备有线／无线（GSM，GPRS）双通道，可提高系统的可靠性，保证系统的畅通。然而，有线组网方式最致命弱点是防雷能力差，针对防雷问题，在实践中探讨其有效途径，论述接地装置的设计、安装中应注意的几个问题，并介绍在实践中电话线防雷从一级防护发展到三级防护，提高防雷的效果，有待在实践中，再认识，再提高。     

数值地形图的生成及其水文地貌特征评价

数值地形图(DEM)是利用地理信息系统(GIS)进行流域水文模拟的基础, 其精度直接影响模拟结果在没有现成的数值地形图时, 应用人员往往利用传统的地形图来生成它. 本文分别采用Arc/Info地理信息系统软件提供的哈奇逊法和不规则三角网五次插值法, 对一个实验流域的高程取样点进行插值, 生成了4种不同的数值地形图, 从凹洼分布、流域界定、河网提取、地面坡度和地形指数、以及地面径流汇成等方面, 对它们的水文地貌精度进行了比较. 结果表明, 两种方法都能生成由高程点群所反映的地形, 然而由于哈奇逊法能够结合流域的河网结构及其具有物理基础的水文地貌加强法来处理凹洼问题, 因此大大地提高了其所生成的流域数值地形图水文地貌特征精度.     

浅议现代企业的财务管理

论述现代企业财务管理的一般方法、企业目标与财务管理的关系。     

从博弈论看商务谈判僵局的本质和处理

商务谈判中的僵局是谈判双方都不愿看到但又不得不面对的难题。只有了解了商务谈判僵局产生的本质才能够更好地处理好谈判中的僵局。从博弈论的角度,对商务谈判僵局的本质进行了分析,指出在挖掘共同利益的过程中既可以寻求到瓜分共同利益的有效途径,又可寻找到共同利益与个体利益实现的最佳结合点。     

电子商务的发展对市场营销的影响

电子商务正在逐渐改变着传统的商务模式。电子商务的发展改变了市场营销的环境,影响着消费者的消费行为,进而使得企业的营销理念和营销管理中心发生着转移。     

Problem shifts and market research: The role of networks in business relationships

This article discusses changes in approach to the study of business relationships, and sees the paradigm concept as constituting an inadequate basis for describing gradually evolving changes in the perception of business. The frequent references to paradigms appear to focus more on state aspects than on change aspects of theory building. The article attempts to trace some of the changes in the perception of markets preceding the emergence of network theories, and relates the presence of an interactional approach to business studies to the concept of problem shifts (Lakatos). The development of interactional approaches in marketing is seen as representing a shift away from theory building commonly found in economics and organizational theory. Changes in the approach to the study of business relationships are interpreted as theoretical or empirical problem shifts, and are thus related to the a priori and a posteriori relevance of the continual evolution of alternative business theories. The article explores some of the epistemological relevance of the network theories to the study of market relationships, and the potential impact on continual changes in approach to the study of markets.     

Can Business Ethics be Trained? A Study of the Ethical Decision-making Process in Business Students

The purpose of this paper is to examine the various guidelines presented in the literature for instituting an ethics curriculum and to empirically study their effectiveness. Three questions are addressed concerning the trainability of ethics material and the proper integration and implementation of an ethics curriculum. An empirical study then tested the effect of ethics training on moral awareness and reasoning. The sample consisted of two business classes, one exposed to additional ethics curriculum (experimental), and one not exposed (control). For the experimental group, ethics exercises and discussion relevant to each topic were completed. Findings suggested gender differences such that, relative to other groups, women in the experimental group showed significantly improved moral awareness and decision-making processes. An explanation of the underlying cognitive processes is presented to explain the gender effect.