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The business-travel department of American Express is facing rapid growth in demand but is plagued with overstaffing in some offices because of the broad distribution of client demand. Management's challenge is to reduce costs in local offices while maintaining a high level of service. One alternative under consideration is a centralized regional business-travel center to handle reservation functions for up to 20 other Amexco offices. This case gives students the opportunity to apply queuing theory to a practical situation. Normally, in order to facilitate the numerous calculations required, it is used with the UVA “QUEUE” program.

This case requires a decision on the possible consolidation of three Midwest business-travel centers. Significant cost savings in service representatives can be achieved by combining the front-end (booking) operations. The sensitivity of cost to service-productivity levels and customer waiting time is also explored. This case and related materials can be used as part of the Workforce Planning Module.

The consumer-products division of a multinational company is facing a decision on the sourcing of product components: whether to stay in Taiwan or switch to Mexico. See also the supplement to this case, “Cost Analysis for Sourcing Alternatives for Emerson Electric Company ACP Division” (OM-0823).

The purpose of this paper is to review the state of the art in extended enterprise (EE) thinking.

The approach used the 2004 book, The Extended Enterprise, as the jumping-off point to review the literature and better define the EE. What was once projected as depicting the future state of supply chain management is now shaping the way in which organizations interact with their customers and suppliers. New issues in this arena include considerations of risk, knowledge sharing, and supply chain performance. The authors review these new developments, describe how they might affect the collaborative supply chain, and posit future trends.

The major theme from this research is that EE thinking is emerging among global companies as a primary way in which firms now compete. The term “Collaborative supply chains” appears, in some circles, to replace the term “EE.” Yet the principles and tenets delineated in the term “EE” are captured in “collaborative supply chains.” The authors find that the EE concept is distinct from other supply chains or subcontracting relationships in that firms are linked as learning organizations. Also, the authors have noted barriers to collaboration such as an unwillingness to share information, lack of trust, perceptions of lack of mutuality and symmetry, and mistrust about the fairness of benefits, costs, and risk sharing.

The limitations of this research could be a function of the papers reviewed since this review was not intended to be exhaustive but merely illustrative of the extant research. Nonetheless, the conclusions from the focus on risk, knowledge sharing, and performance hold strong implications for more collaborative relations among supply chain partners.

Given the importance of supply chain partnerships, this research adds perspective for those firms that are reluctant to engage in such collaborative partnerships. This review contributes to extended enterprise thinking and is therefore insightful for both academics and practitioners.

The notion of risk is receiving greater attention in research on supply chain management by academics and practitioners alike. As firms collaborate and combine forces to compete as extended enterprises against other integrated supply chains, risk is linked to the interdependence among supply chain partners. Academic interests appear to focus mostly on the risks associated with logistics and its impact on the timely delivery of goods. Beyond these concerns, the events of 9/11 have heightened consideration for supply chain risks related to possible security breaches and terrorism. This paper highlights six areas of supply chain‐related risks. It discusses these risks at length, showing how they are endemic to the extended enterprise, and attempts to develop a typology for categorizing them. It also addresses the implications for supply chain managers as they balance a concern for risk with their efforts to search for, select, nurture, and manage their set of supply chain partners.

The owner/editor of the small Davis Press encounters a dilemma when she is given the opportunity to publish a novel set in the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Given the events of the last 16 years—the angry fallout after Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, the continuing Iraq War, and the recent controversy of Koran desecration at the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay—publishing the novel presents a host of various ethical dilemmas, including whether she should put her staff at risk. This case discusses the ethics of a free press and challenges the profit motive in the face of jeopardizing political and religious world affairs.

Many jurisdictions fine illegal cartels using penalty guidelines that presume an arbitrary 10% overcharge. This article surveys more than 700 published economic studies and judicial decisions that contain 2,041 quantitative estimates of overcharges of hard-core cartels. The primary findings are: (1) the median average long-run overcharge for all types of cartels over all time periods is 23.0%; (2) the mean average is at least 49%; (3) overcharges reached their zenith in 1891–1945 and have trended downward ever since; (4) 6% of the cartel episodes are zero; (5) median overcharges of international-membership cartels are 38% higher than those of domestic cartels; (6) convicted cartels are on average 19% more effective at raising prices as unpunished cartels; (7) bid-rigging conduct displays 25% lower markups than price-fixing cartels; (8) contemporary cartels targeted by class actions have higher overcharges; and (9) when cartels operate at peak effectiveness, price changes are 60–80% higher than the whole episode. Historical penalty guidelines aimed at optimally deterring cartels are likely to be too low.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.