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In the last four years, since Volume I of this Bibliography first appeared, there has been an explosion of literature in all the main functional areas of business. This wealth of material poses problems for the researcher in management studies — and, of course, for the librarian: uncovering what has been written in any one area is not an easy task. This volume aims to help the librarian and the researcher overcome some of the immediate problems of identification of material. It is an annotated bibliography of management, drawing on the wide variety of literature produced by MCB University Press. Over the last four years, MCB University Press has produced an extensive range of books and serial publications covering most of the established and many of the developing areas of management. This volume, in conjunction with Volume I, provides a guide to all the material published so far.

The authors argue that most current descriptions of production management systems rely on too narrow a theoretical perspective, and thereby fail to meet management's needs. They suggest instead a more comprehensive approach based on task assignment and task structuring for production management. Structuring is seen to be composed of task areas (capacity establishment and capacity utilisation), task levels (strategic, tactical, and shop‐floor), and task support (including managerial technology, such as database organisation, information systems, and software). Task assignment takes into account the skills, attitudes, and working limits of human resources, developing task subgroupings or constellations to match tasks to available persons.

This paper aims to analyze the marked decline in exchange rate pass-through to US import prices in the early 2000s focusing on the increased role of China as a trade partner. In particular, the research focuses on the impact of an exporter with a fixed exchange rate having large market shares of a particular importing country.

The study uses highly disaggregated US import data and rolling regressions to calculate quarterly pass-through estimates for specific goods from every exporter. This leads to a total of over 1.7 million pass-through coefficients. The second stage compares these pass-through coefficients with China’s share of US import market for that particular good and time.

The paper shows that as China’s market share for specific goods grows, pass-through rates of imports from other countries falls. Pass-through rates remain relatively stable for goods that China does not export to the USA or goods for which China’s share of US imports stays constant. This relationship is stronger when the dollar decreases in value, further suggesting that pressure from China forces competitors to maintain stable prices.

This paper is unique in its use of highly disaggregated data on US imports. While many analyses of exchange rate pass-through focus on overall levels or general goods, this work uses import data at the 10-digit HTS code level. Therefore, the findings are more detailed in showing how China’s increased presence in the US market influences prices of imports from other countries.

Justifying new manufacturing technology is usually very difficult since the most important benefits are often strategic and difficult to quantify. Traditional capital budgeting procedures that rely on return measures based on direct cost savings and incremental future cash flows do not normally capture the strategic benefits of higher quality, faster responses to wider ranges of customer needs, and the options for future growth made available by flexible manufacturing technology. Adding to these limitations is the difficulty of using traditional cost accounting systems to generate the information necessary for justifying new manufacturing investments. This paper reviews these problems and recommends procedures useful for assessing investments in flexible manufacturing technology.

Knowledge management (KM) research lacks a common conceptual core; it is cross‐disciplinary, addresses a wide variety of phenomena, and has difficulty distinguishing itself from many related areas of research. The result is a fragmented field that is itself artificially split from the related literature on organizational learning. KM may be progressing through a predictable life‐cycle that could end in collapse of the KM concept unless researchers can develop more integrative core theories of learning‐ and knowledge‐related phenomena in organizations. The diverse body of organizational learning and knowledge management research provides an impressive foundation for the synthesis of such broader theories of learning and knowledge that are creative, new, and integrative.

This paper presents a sustainability assessment model to holistically guide sustainable construction and green retrofitting of affordable housing from the Ghanaian perspective.

A comprehensive review was carried out, which yielded 16 sustainability indicators. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted among respondents in the Ghanaian housing sector. Forty-seven valid responses were received and analysed using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique.

A four-index model was developed that includes: Housing and Transportation (H + T) index, household-satisfaction index, efficient stakeholder-management index and quality-related index. These indices account for 25.3%, 26.3%, 23.6% and 24.9% of sustainability attainment in affordable housing, respectively. Accordingly, household-satisfaction has the greatest contribution to sustainability attainment in affordable housing.

Due to challenges in obtaining responses to the questionnaire, the study was conducted with relatively small number of responses.

The model serves as a tool that could be used to objectively and comprehensively assess sustainability performance in affordable housing. Besides, it could be used as a baseline to calibrate future projects and for benchmarking success levels of comparable housing projects. Finally, the estimated indices are applicable in decision making for optimum resource allocation for sustainable low-cost housing in the Ghanaian perspective.

Ethics is the foundation on which societies and cultures are based and are fundamental to political, social and economic decision making. Ethical dilemmas have created controversy and heated debate over the years. Disasters have been defined in public health terms as destructive events that result in the need for a wide range of emergency resources to assist and ensure the survival of the stricken population. Lack of medical resources, in conjunction with a mass casualty situation, can present specific ethical challenges. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ethics of disaster management.

In and after a disaster, ethical questions arise regarding appropriate and fair allocation of relief funds to help with recovery. Research in disaster settings poses unique ethical dilemmas. The researcher must determine how to balance the critical need for research with the ethical obligation of respect for, and protection of, the interests of research participants. Ethics as part of an educational program made available to health care providers may assist disaster responders to make the difficult ethical decisions involved in disasters. This literature review discusses these issues in conjunction with disaster response and recovery.

The cardinal virtues of disaster response are prudence, courage, justice, stewardship, vigilance, resilience, self‐effacing charity and communication. These eight virtues are not considered all inclusive, no more than Aristotle considered that his morals or virtues were all inclusive. Ongoing work in disaster management will help to ensure that such situations are managed in an ethical manner that respects the rights and privileges of all those involved.

The literature reviewed for this paper was based on peer reviewed scholarly writings. Concepts of ethics and justice are important issues in disaster situations. This paper offers ideas to prompt further discussion among disaster managers and students of disaster studies.

Social changes are reliant on an understanding of ethics and how it affects society. This paper puts forward ethical concepts to prompt discussion by disaster responders and managers with the hope of improving disaster management.

The paper is an original document that may be useful to students of disaster management and those who teach disaster management

This study aims to simultaneously enhance the load-carrying capacity and control the leakage rate of mechanical seals by optimizing the texture shape.

A multi-objective optimization approach is implemented to determine the optimal “free-form” textures and optimal circular dimples. Experiments are conducted to validate the simulation results.

The experimental coefficient of friction (COF) and leakage rate are in good agreement with the calculated results. In addition, the optimal “free-form” texture shows a lower COF and a lower leakage in most cases.

This work provides a method to optimize the surface texture for a better combination performance of mechanical seals.

During the past decade Wall Street practitioners devised various methods for converting undervalued corporate shares into instant wealth. Their tactics, however, have had highly negative consequences for a number of companies. Many companies have, in fact, restructured with substantial debt with severe operational consequences. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasoning behind such a boom in the hostile takeover activities. It will discuss the importance and implications of restructuring, causes for corporate hostile takeovers and the defense strategies that effectively resist external acquisition.

Marketing of international banking services in the Asia Pacific region must proceed from understanding both the locational needs of international banks and of the financial centres in which they locate. Presents the findings of a detailed series of interviews in major financial centres and by major financial sector. These mesh with findings found in the surveyed location literature. Also explores the development of international financial centres as this is closely tied to location of financial firms. Concludes that the sort of sectoral locational analysis conducted here provides highly useful information for the location of international banking in the major Asia Pacific centres. Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo are, not surprisingly, the prime locations for marketing the broadest array of international banking services.