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The purpose of this article is to provide commentary on the utility of Altman's Z‐score as a strategic assessment and performance management tool. This possibility is suggested in the recently published book Measuring Organizational Performance – Metrics for Entrepreneurship and Strategic Management Research (Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2006) by Robert B. Carton and Charles W. Hofer.

This paper is a corporate manager's analysis of the utility of Altman's Z‐score as a strategic assessment and performance management tool based on published research, with suggestions for further research.

The analysis supports Carton and Hofer's findings with respect to the utility of the Z‐score as a strategic assessment and performance management tool.

While the Z‐score is both popular and widely used in the fields of credit risk analysis, distressed investing, M&A target analysis, and turnaround management it has received relatively little attention as a strategic assessment and performance management tool. The findings of Carton and Hofer's study, in conjunction with the impressive results achieved by GTI Corporation, suggest that applying the Z‐score in strategy and performance management may also be warranted, especially after more research is undertaken.

This article offers a manager's perspective on new research that indicates the potential of a popular financial distress metric to provide insight in the areas of entrepreneurship and strategic management.

This chapter will describe and analyze the evolution of the structure, content, and other key parameters of business plans in international business plan competitions from the beginnings of such competitions in 1991 through the current time. In particular, the chapter will describe how these competitions have evolved through the current time, the standardization of the structure and content of the plans submitted to these competitions, and the changes that have occurred in their structure and content over time. Then it will explain why these changes have occurred. Specifically, that most of the changes that have occurred in these various areas is a direct or indirect result of pressures on the competitions from the major judges used in them – namely U.S. venture capitalists. Appendices A and B will describe the evaluation criteria used in two of the major competitions – Moot Corp/Venture Labs^® and the Georgia Bowl^® – in more detail, while Appendices C and D will provide information on the Term Sheets and decision-making processes used by such venture capitalists. Appendix E contains four Exhibits that provide additional insights into U.S. venture capitalists’ thought processes. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of the additional changes that are likely to happen in the future.

If U.S. business fails to make long‐term commitments to R&D in favor of short‐term profits, one can expect competitive advantages to be lost to the Japanese.

The 1960s saw the birth of corporate social responsibility. In the 1970s, companies focused on the management of social responsiveness. In the 1980s, corporations are grappling with the issue of making social responsibility a part of overall strategic management. The authors examine some of the ramifications of the search for a new definition of social responsibility.

No matter what the state of the economy, no company is immune from internal hard times—stagnation or declining performance. How can management pinpoint the right turnaround strategy when it is needed—and make it work?

How do you balance the rewards against the risks when you're thinking of new international operations? Here's a technique that works for domestic businesses looking to put a toe in the water overseas as well as for established multinationals.

Barrett, Charles H., Budgets work best if management takes part in making them, Newspaper Controller, Vol. 27, No. 10 (July 1976), pp. 2–3, 10. The most significant characteristic of the profit planning procedure at the Chicago Tribune is management involvement. From the time when an original game plan is established until actual performance occurs, management participates and follows through. Without its support, even the most sophisticated planning systems would undoubtedly fail. Both long‐range‐planning and short‐term budget preparation are byproducts of management's basic strategy. The major goals include: (1) improved return‐on‐investment and revenue, and (2) an improved competitive position. The annual budget is the first step in reaching the long‐term objective. Budget preparation is delayed as long as is practicable, to give the most current results and provide a strong basis for forecasting. An initial estimate of total revenues is requested before the actual forecast is completed.

Entrepreneurship has been widely recognized as having greatly influenced the United States. Its influence has especially been documented over the past 20 years. Paralleling our societal interest in entrepreneurship has been increasing interest in entrepreneurship education. While our interest in entrepreneurship education has grown considerably over the past two decades, this field of study continues to have critics both within and outside of schools and colleges of business (Kuratko 2004). In spite of these criticisms, some researchers suggest that the United States is still far ahead of other regions of the world in terms of entrepreneurial education (Solomon et al. 1998).

Using entrepreneurship education in the United States as a point of departure, this article uses a case study to analyze the efforts of a private university in Bogota, Colombia, to create a new program in entrepreneurship. The Colombian Legislature passed Law 590 in July 2000 as a means to promote and develop entrepreneurship in the nation. Shortly thereafter a private university in Bogota started a new program in entrepreneurship. At the university's invitation, a small number of faculty from U.S. universities participated in the school's “kick-off” efforts. The paper offers analysis and recommendations based on five criteria: 1) What is taught, 2) Why it is taught, 3) How it is taught, 4) How well it works, and 5) Leadership support. In addition, rather than simply adopting a U.S. or European model of entrepreneurship education, the authors propose that they should develop a center that integrates lessons from other models with elements that are relevant to the local situation.

Judging the increasing number of strategic statements appearing in company advertisements, stockholder meetings and annual reports, corporate executives now believe there is a clear connection between strategic management and company profitability. The extent to which corporations reported on strategic management in their 1980 annual reports, reflects the growing belief that it is to a company's advantage to formulate and publicize its corporate strategy. In addition, by examining these reports, one may draw a correlation between a company's size and rank and its reported strategy.