A Survey on Economic-driven Evaluations of Information Technology

The economic-driven evaluation of information technology (IT) has become an important instrument in the management of IT projects. Numerous approaches have been developed to quantify the costs of an IT investment and its assumed profit, to evaluate its impact on business process performance, and to analyze the role of IT regarding the achievement of enterprise objectives. This paper discusses approaches for evaluating IT from an economic-driven perspective. Our comparison is based on a framework distinguishing between classification criteria and evaluation criteria. The former allow for the categorization of evaluation approaches based on their similarities and differences. The latter, by contrast, represent attributes that allow to evaluate the discussed approaches. Finally, we give an example of a typical economic-driven IT evaluation

Entrepreneurship Education

"The discussion around whether entrepreneurship can be taught is becoming obsolete as the number of entrepreneurship courses, specializations and degrees is rising at an unprecedented rate all over the world and the demand for entrepreneurial education teachers or instructors is constantly growing. The global community of entrepreneurial education proponents is enthusiastic about the possibility of spreading the idea of entrepreneurship, as it is believed to benefit societies and economies in addition to influencing human development on an individual level. The fervour is nurtured by public policies and the development of an enterprising culture in the public discourse. In this discourse, entrepreneurship is treated as a panacea for numerous social and economic problems. This book is a solid reference point for all who are interested in conducting research on entrepreneurial education or engaged in teaching entrepreneurship. It is a compendium of knowledge about entrepreneurial education as a research field, seen from the perspective of the last four decades, its complete contemporary history. It reviews the progress of the field from the outset to the present in terms of its socio-economic context, changes in the academic community, but also its research focus and methodological development. This uniquely comprehensive book is a resource of both knowledge on entrepreneurial education research and inspiration for future studies within the field. This timely and relevant book provides practical insights for educators when developing their teaching practice and will be of interest to entrepreneurship educators and entrepreneurship education researchers.

Econometrics: A bird's eye view

As a unified discipline, econometrics is still relatively young and has been transforming and expanding very rapidly over the past few decades. Major advances have taken place in the analysis of cross sectional data by means of semi-parametric and non-parametric techniques. Heterogeneity of economic relations across individuals, firms and industries is increasingly acknowledge and attempts have been made to take them into account either by integrating out their effects or by modeling the sources of heterogeneity when suitable panel data exists. The counterfactual considerations that underlie policy analysis and treatment evaluation have been given a more satisfactory foundation. New time series econometric techniques have been developed and employed extensively in the areas of macroeconometrics and finance. Non-linear econometric techniques are used increasingly in the analysis of cross section and time series observations. Applications of Bayesian techniques to econometric problems have been given new impetus largely thanks to advances in computer power and computational techniques. The use of Bayesian techniques have in turn provided the investigators with a unifying framework where the tasks and forecasting, decision making, model evaluation and learning can be considered as parts of the same interactive and iterative process; thus paving the way for establishing the foundation of the "real time econometrics". This paper attempts to provide an overview of some of these developments

Getting rid of Keynes ? A survey of the history of macroeconomics from Keynes to Lucas and beyond

The aim of this paper is to recount the ebbs and flows of Keynesianism over the history of macroeconomics. The bulk of the paper consists of a discussion of the main episodes of the unfolding of macroeconomics (Keynesian macroeconomics, monetarism, new classical macroeconomics, real business cycle models and new neoclassical synthesis models) against the background of a distinction between Keynesianism as a ‘moderately conservative’ (Keynes’s words) vision about the working of the market system and as a conceptual apparatus. Particular attention is given to the contrast between Keynesian and Lucasian macroeconomics. The paper ends with a few remarks about the impact of the present crisis on the development of macroeconomic theoryKeynes, Lucas, history of macroeconomics

RECOVERABLE COST: THE BASIS OF A GENERAL THEORY OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING MEASUREMENT

This paper addresses a very profound question concerning financial accounting. Is financial accounting measurement. as represented by diverse valuation rules. hodgepodge or is it logically developed? Salvary [1985. p.28. Chap. IV] advances and provides a theoretical development of the concept of 'recoverable cost' as the measurement property observed in (underlying) financial accounting measurement. Sa/vary [1989, pp.50-51] maintains that 'recoverable cost' is the center of 'economic gravity' and demonstrates that this valuation is derivable from axioms advanced. This paper provides a rigorous proof that 'recoverable cost' is the observed measurement property underlying financial accounting measurement. This analysis draws upon: (a) the concept of recovery underlying the investment decision and (b) the distinction between decision theory and measurement theory. It establishes recoverable cost as the measurement property in financial accounting and leads to the conclusion that financial accounting measurement is logically developed.measurement rules, capital budgeting, realizable value, lower of cost and market, capitalization, depreciation, decision theory, market simulation, asset specificity.

A Star is Born? The Authors, Principles and Objectives of Analytical Sociology

This article presents the main features and objectives of the so-called «social mechanisms based explanation» or «analytical sociology». This perspective has gained quite considerable attention in contemporary debate, both for its theoretical novelty as well as for its empirical results. In the first part of the article I describe the key concepts, main scholars and institutional strengths of this approach. In the second part, I clarify the relationships between the analytical sociology perspective and the main trends in contemporary sociology, both theoretical and empirical. In the third part, three core principles of the approach are outlined: the idea of causal process, the relevance of multilevel theory and the prominence of formal theories and models.Este artículo presenta los principales rasgos y objetivos de la así llamada «explicación basada en mecanismos sociales» o «sociología analítica». Esta perspectiva ha ganado considerable atención en los debates contemporáneos, tanto por su novedad teórica como por sus resultados empíricos. En la primera parte del artículo se pasa revista a los conceptos centrales, los principales estudiosos y los pilares institucionales de este enfoque. En la segunda parte, se clarifican las relaciones entre la perspectiva de la sociología analítica y las principales corrientes de la sociología contemporánea, tanto teóricas como empíricas. En la tercera parte, se esquematizan tres principios básicos del enfoque: la idea de procesos causales, la relevancia de la teoría multi-nivel, y la preeminencia de las teorías y modelos formales

Novel analysis and modelling methodologies applied to pultrusion and other processes

Often a manufacturing process may be a bottleneck or critical to a business. This thesis focuses on the analysis and modelling of such processest, to both better understand them, and to support the enhancement of quality or output capability of the process. The main thrusts of this thesis therefore are: To model inter-process physics, inter-relationships, and complex processes in a manner that enables re-exploitation, re-interpretation and reuse of this knowledge and generic elements e.g. using Object Oriented (00) & Qualitative Modelling (QM) techniques. This involves the development of superior process models to capture process complexity and reuse any generic elements; To demonstrate advanced modelling and simulation techniques (e.g. Artificial Neural Networks(ANN), Rule-Based-Systems (RBS), and statistical modelling) on a number of complex manufacturing case studies; To gain a better understanding of the physics and process inter-relationships exhibited in a number of complex manufacturing processes (e.g. pultrusion, bioprocess, and logistics) using analysis and modelling. To these ends, both a novel Object Oriented Qualitative (Problem) Analysis (OOQA) methodology, and a novel Artificial Neural Network Process Modelling (ANNPM) methodology were developed and applied to a number of complex manufacturing case studies- thermoset and thermoplastic pultrusion, bioprocess reactor, and a logistics supply chain. It has been shown that these methodologies and the models developed support capture of complex process inter-relationships, enable reuse of generic elements, support effective variable selection for ANN models, and perform well as a predictor of process properties. In particular the ANN pultrusion models, using laboratory data from IKV, Aachen and Pera, Melton Mowbray, predicted product properties very well

Entrepreneurship Education

"The discussion around whether entrepreneurship can be taught is becoming obsolete as the number of entrepreneurship courses, specializations and degrees is rising at an unprecedented rate all over the world and the demand for entrepreneurial education teachers or instructors is constantly growing. The global community of entrepreneurial education proponents is enthusiastic about the possibility of spreading the idea of entrepreneurship, as it is believed to benefit societies and economies in addition to influencing human development on an individual level. The fervour is nurtured by public policies and the development of an enterprising culture in the public discourse. In this discourse, entrepreneurship is treated as a panacea for numerous social and economic problems. This book is a solid reference point for all who are interested in conducting research on entrepreneurial education or engaged in teaching entrepreneurship. It is a compendium of knowledge about entrepreneurial education as a research field, seen from the perspective of the last four decades, its complete contemporary history. It reviews the progress of the field from the outset to the present in terms of its socio-economic context, changes in the academic community, but also its research focus and methodological development. This uniquely comprehensive book is a resource of both knowledge on entrepreneurial education research and inspiration for future studies within the field. This timely and relevant book provides practical insights for educators when developing their teaching practice and will be of interest to entrepreneurship educators and entrepreneurship education researchers.

Econometrics: A Bird’s Eye View

As a unified discipline, econometrics is still relatively young and has been transforming and expanding very rapidly over the past few decades. Major advances have taken place in the analysis of cross sectional data by means of semi-parametric and non-parametric techniques. Heterogeneity of economic relations across individuals, firms and industries is increasingly acknowledged and attempts have been made to take them into account either by integrating out their effects or by modeling the sources of heterogeneity when suitable panel data exists. The counterfactual considerations that underlie policy analysis and treatment evaluation have been given a more satisfactory foundation. New time series econometric techniques have been developed and employed extensively in the areas of macroeconometrics and finance. Non-linear econometric techniques are used increasingly in the analysis of cross section and time series observations. Applications of Bayesian techniques to econometric problems have been given new impetus largely thanks to advances in computer power and computational techniques. The use of Bayesian techniques have in turn provided the investigators with a unifying framework where the tasks of forecasting, decision making, model evaluation and learning can be considered as parts of the same interactive and iterative process; thus paving the way for establishing the foundation of “real time econometrics”. This paper attempts to provide an overview of some of these developments.history of econometrics, microeconometrics, macroeconometrics, Bayesian econometrics, nonparametric and semi-parametric analysis