physica verlag hd okt 2010 (241 résultats)

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. 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.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 248 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. 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.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 332 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Applications of Soft Computing have recently increased and methodological development has been strong. The book is a collection of new interesting industrial applications introduced by several research groups and industrial partners. It describes the principles and results of industrial applications of Soft Computing methods and introduces new possibilities to gain technical and economic benefits by using this methodology. The book shows how fuzzy logic and neural networks have been used in the Finnish paper and metallurgical industries putting emphasis on processes, applications and technical and economic results.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 236 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -As societies face the challenge of securing an efficient and environmentally sound energy supply, researchers have strived to determine the future development of energy consumption, infrastructure and technology endowment.This book proposes a new agent-based approach to studying the development of urban energy systems. Decisions of private and commercial investors and operators are modeled using a bounded rational decision model which are parameterized by socio-economic data. The study goes on to analyze the impact of firms¿ competition on technology diffusion and calculate diffusion curves for energy technologies such as solar collectors, boilers and efficiency upgrades for buildings. While making an important methodological contribution to the field of energy modelling, the author also presents practical results which will help urban planners and policy makers take more accurate decisions.As societies face the challenge of securing an efficient and environmentally sound energy supply, researchers have strived to determine the future development of energy consumption, infrastructure and technology resources.This book proposes a new agent-based approach to studying the development of urban energy systems. Decisions of private and commercial investors and operators are modeled using a bounded rational decision model which are parameterized by socio-economic data. The study goes on to analyze the impact of firms¿ competition on technology diffusion and to calculate diffusion curves for energy technologies such as solar collectors, boilers and efficiency upgrades for buildings. While making an important methodological contribution to the field of energy modeling, the author also presents practical results, which will help policy makers and urban planners make more accurate decisions.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 128 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Supply chain management helped companies to manage volumes, fulfil customer demand and optimize costs in production and distribution. Specifically, chemical industry companies with high complexity in production and distribution used supply chain management to steer their operations. Confronted with globalization and increasing raw material and sales price volatility, optimizing supply chain costs is no longer sufficient to ensure the overall profitability of the business. Value chain management takes supply chain management to the next level by integrating all volume and value decisions from sales to procurement. The book presents the value chain management concept and demonstrates how it is applied in a global value chain planning model for commodities in the chemical industry. A comprehensive industry case study illustrates the effects of decision making integration, e.g. the influence of raw material prices or exchange rates on optimal sales, production, distribution and procurement plans as well as overall company profitability.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 288 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -In recent times, scholars and practitioners have equally been attracted by the notion that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) need not merely be a costly obligation to private business but can sometimes be in the very interest of companies themselves. This Book forms a conceptual analysis of and an empirical study on this business case for CSR. CSR is thereby understood as a multi-dimensional and multi-relational concept which relates to the responsibilities ascribed to companies by various stakeholders. In contrast to the mainly normative discussions on CSR in Germany, this study analyses empirical antecedents and financial impacts of corporate social performance (CSP). It adds to the long lasting research tradition on the business case for CSR by employing hitherto unused data on CSR. The study proposes additional statistical analyses to account for the widely neglected econometric problem of endogeneity due to simultaneous causality. Although the results indicate that CSR can be in line with economic goals in some cases, they do not support the assumption of a generic or even universal business case for CSR.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 140 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. 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.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 188 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -In the mid-1960's I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Lotfi Zadeh at which he presented some of his basic (and at the time, recent) work on fuzzy sets. Lotfi's algebra of fuzzy subsets of a set struck me as very nice; in fact, as a graduate student in the mid-1950's, I had suggested similar ideas about continuous-truth-valued propositional calculus (inffor 'and', sup for 'or') to my advisor, but he didn't go for it (and in fact, confused it with the foundations of probability theory), so I ended up writing a thesis in a more conventional area of mathematics (differential algebra). I especially enjoyed Lotfi's discussion of fuzzy convexity; I remember talking to him about possible ways of extending this work, but I didn't pursue this at the time. I have elsewhere told the story of how, when I saw C. L. Chang's 1968 paper on fuzzy topological spaces, I was impelled to try my hand at fuzzi fying algebra. This led to my 1971 paper 'Fuzzy groups', which became the starting point of an entire literature on fuzzy algebraic structures. In 1974 King-Sun Fu invited me to speak at a U. S. -Japan seminar on Fuzzy Sets and their Applications, which was to be held that summer in Berkeley.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 328 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -The book emphasizes research in economics and management of networks as an interdisciplinary field by offering new theoretical perspectives and presenting new empirical results on strategic and governance structure issues in cooperatives, franchising networks, alliances, joint ventures and venture capital relations. The authors apply different theoretical views on networks, such as transaction cost theory, property rights theory, resource- and knowledge-based theory, evolutionary theory, information richness theory and social exchange theory.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 404 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Productivity growth is a keyword for sustainable economic growth in a knowledge-based society. There has been significant methodological development in the literature on productivity and efficiency analysis, e.g. SFA (Stochastic Frontier Analysis) and DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). All these methodological developments should be matched with applications in order to provide practical implications for private and public decision-makers. This volume provides a collection of up-to-date and new applications of productivity and efficiency analysis. In particular, the case studies cover various economic issues in the Asia-Pacific region. The authors analyze the performance of manufacturing firms, banks, venture capital, broadcasting firms, as well as the issues of efficiency in the education sector, regional development, and defense industry. These case studies will shed light on the potential contribution of productivity and efficiency analysis to the enhancement of economic performance.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 352 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -This book offers a systematic critique of the scientific discourse of strategic management. It uncovers scholars' unquestioned assumptions and shows that by upholding these assumptions reseachers obscure the paradoxical nature of strategic reasoning. To uncover the paradoxes of strategic management the author refers to the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. He exposes the paradoxes that inevitably occur when theorizing about corporate strategy along the dimensions strategy context, process, and content and shows how these paradoxes can enrich future thinking about strategic problems. The analysis is completed by a discussion of theoretical and practical implications which highlight the need to research strategy not as something an organization has, but as something an organization does. Such a 'practice perspective' gives reference to the paradoxical ground that strategic management rests on and enriches scholars' ability to reflect on practitioners' tasks while 'doing' strategy in organizations.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 360 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Driven by the fascination about dramatic structural and competitive changes within telecommunication and information technology in dustries during the past decade, the convergence phenomenon has increasingly gained my personal attention throughout my work and studies. Therefore, not entirely coincidentally, this book was written as the result of my doctoral research at ETH Zurich, which turned out to be a challenging, yet highly rewarding endeavor. However, this work would not have been possible without the enduring support of several people. First, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Prof. Fritz Fahrni, for providing me with the opportunity to conduct exciting research projects in close collaboration with industry, and for supporting me with solid guidance and advice all the way. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Christian Marxt, for urging me to pursue the chosen line of enquiry, as well as for his devoted coaching, both at ETH and at Stanford, both within and beyond of ce hours. Furthermore, I am grateful to Prof. Georg von Krogh, for his encouraging feedback and valuable comments during various inspiring discussions.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 280 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -I started researching the dramatic changes in the automobile industry of Central and East European countries in the late 1990s. My interest grew out of my previous work on the post-socialist transformation, foreign - rect investment and regional economic development. While researching the economic and regional development effects of foreign direct inve- ment, I was increasingly drawn to the automobile industry because of the speed and depth of its transformation through foreign direct investment and its potentially very significant economic and regional development - fects. In addition to working on the Central and East European automobile industry as a whole, I became interested in detailed case studies of ent- prise restructuring as I wanted to understand its complex nature and the role of different actors in the restructuring of the automobile industry. In order to achieve this goal, I visited dozens of automotive enterprises, es- cially in the Czech Republic (Czechia) to conduct in-depths interviews with key informants. I have also interviewed key informants at ministries, automotive associations and academia and collected various secondary data and information. This book is the outcome of this work. In this endeavor I have benefited from various support. The University Committee on Research and Creative Activity at the University of Nebraska at Omaha funded three field work sessions in Czechia to conduct interviews and research for this book.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 312 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -This Festschrift is dedicated to Götz Trenkler on the occasion of his 65th birthday. As can be seen from the long list of contributions, Götz has had and still has an enormous range of interests, and colleagues to share these interests with. He is a leading expert in linear models with a particular focus on matrix algebra in its relation to statistics. He has published in almost all major statistics and matrix theory journals. His research activities also include other areas (like nonparametrics, statistics and sports, combination of forecasts and magic squares, just to mention afew). Götz Trenkler was born in Dresden in 1943. After his school years in East G- many and West-Berlin, he obtained a Diploma in Mathematics from Free University of Berlin (1970), where he also discovered his interest in Mathematical Statistics. In 1973, he completed his Ph.D. with a thesis titled: On a distance-generating fu- tion of probability measures. He then moved on to the University of Hannover to become Lecturer and to write a habilitation-thesis (submitted 1979) on alternatives to the Ordinary Least Squares estimator in the Linear Regression Model, a topic that would become his predominant eld of research in the years to come.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 452 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : Neu. Neuware -Collaboration plays an important role in the early development of com- nies. Among others, they provide opportunities to combine complementary resources, develop additional competencies, and generate valuable signals for investors. They are particularly important for biotechnology firms, whose resource base often is not sufficient to realize the market potential of their R&D findings. Strategic alliances thus are an integral part of the business model of most biotechnology companies, but their economic re- vance is not yet fully understood, since research has thus far neglected most industry-specific drivers of alliance value. Based on an event study, Hady Farag analyzes the capital-market re- tion to alliance-related news announcements and assesses their complex - fects on company value. In this regard, the present work represents the first comprehensive study of European biotechnology alliances. In addition to this unique database, the research approach and techniques in sample - lection, econometric and cross-sectional analyses are state-of-the-art. The author develops and empirically tests an integrative dynamic model of collaborative value drivers. These reflect the specific characteristics of biotechnology firms and biotechnology alliances. Moreover, the work - tends to so far entirely unresearched dynamic aspects of alliances, such as the value of contractual flexibilities, the impact of environmental unc- tainty, and the evolution of alliances over time. Overall, Hady Farag¿s work underscores the need to consider pluralistic influences on the value of collaborative ventures.Physica Verlag, Tiergartenstr. 17, 69121 Heidelberg 568 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : Neu. This item is printed on demand - it takes 3-4 days longer - Neuware -In the global knowledge economy, corporate governance, organisational behaviour and performance of the supply chain are becoming increasingly important aspects of the evaluation of an enterprise. The subject of this book is the development of a contemporary organisation behaviour performance measurement (OBPM) model for enterprises in the modern economy. The fields of organisation behaviour and supply chain management are integrated with an Open Socio-Technical Systems theory of management and the application of Operations Research to corporate governance for the measurement of organisation performance. This book thereby offers a new and innovative quantitative approach to qualitative concepts of corporate performance measurement and makes a significant contribution to the fields of management theory, supply chain management as well as operations research. 256 pp. Englisch.

Taschenbuch. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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. Etat : 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.