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Describes the contributions of strategic concepts in the business world, and how they came to be influenced by competitive thinking.

Defines types of costs--current, sunk, opportunity, relevant, differential--and their use in management and management decision making. Contrasts single-period and multiple-period cost analysis.

Examines the motivations for franchising. Examines the academic literature in the area and draws implications for franchising patterns. Also provides data on franchising patterns.

What is the appropriate role for business to play in a capitalist society? In analyzing responses to this question, this note distinguishes two separate dimensions. The first involves the distinctive objective of business as a social institution, considers the pros and cons of profit maximization as well as alternatives to profit maximization such as putting the customer or the employee first, stakeholder theory, and the corporation as a public service entity. It then considers a second dimension, the appropriate moral constraints on business's pursuit of its objectives. On this dimension, the note considers minimal strategic compliance, libertarian structures against force or fraud, the law, social norms, and independent standards of moral behavior.

Discusses the purpose of independent audits of financial reports, the nature of audits and auditing, types of independent auditor opinions, and changing expectations of those who use and rely on audits.

The basics of project management are described and applied to a simple tutorial problem. Microsoft Project, as one software tool, is used in the context of the tutorial project. The steps for project management, as well as the calculation of the critical path, using Critical Path Method, are presented.

Discusses the dimensions of the institutional environment surrounding business, including the role of stakeholders and the need for new collaborations in emerging markets; the key assumptions of the institutional perspective on businesses and markets, especially in contrast to assumptions of neoclassical economics; and managerial implications--analytics, skills, and success factors.

Describes applying activity-based costing to manage customer relationships. Links cost-to-serve to net margins earned with individual customers.

Presents a framework for analyzing strategic decisions. Takes as given the practice of value-based management whereby managers use value as a primary criterion when making financial, strategic, or investment decisions. Through a simple valuation model, it shows how equity value is related to three value drivers profitability, advantage horizon, and reinvestment. Also presents a numerical example to illustrate the model as well as empirical evidence to support the relation between value creation and the value drivers.

This technical note outlines the link between shareholder-return requirements and a firm's use of debt. It explores the theoretical arguments concerning how the cost of equity changes with the use of debt and discusses the limitations of each view. It also provides conceptual and practical guidance on the use of "levered" and "unlevered" betas.

This note explores how managers determine the proper amount of debt financing to use to fund a firm's operations. It examines the fundamental differences between debt financing and equity financing and the factors that drive the choice between them. The note is suitable for an introductory MBA course on corporate finance.

Presents a conceptual framework for thinking about markets characterized by asymmetric information. Presents the standard economic analysis of "the lemons problem," and demonstrates how asymmetric information may lead to market inefficiencies and alter the distribution of surplus. Then discusses the potential to overcome these problems through credible signals of quality, illustrated by the example of education as a signal in labor markets. Concludes by briefly discussing the incentives of firms to screen consumers in order to price discriminate or to target particularly profitable consumer groups.

Describes the exchange rate system adopted at Bretton Woods in 1994.

Describes how activity-based costing (ABC) should be applied with: 1) budgeted, not historical, expenses and 2) assigning the costs of capacity resources.

Provides background information on copper and zinc markets as of mid-1996. Discusses supply and demand conditions, forecasts of the spot prices of the metals, and contracts for future delivery (forwards, futures, and options).

Provides a framework for maximizing the value of a plant tour, or a single visit to an operation. There are three principal types of plant tours within this framework tht can provide information about four broad types of operational performance.

Describes India's move from a controlled economy toward a more market-oriented one, commencing in 1991. Highlights the extent of changes in the product, capital, and labor markets, and the political situation at the central government, as these stood in 1995.

Introduces the fundamental notions of activity-based costing (ABC). Motivates ABC by means of a simple example, a single and a diversified pen factory. Proceeds to show how ABC assigns costs more accurately to products and customers by: 1) identifying the activities being performed by organizational resources; 2) assigning resource costs to the activities; 3) identifying all the products, services, and customers of the organization; and 4) assigning activity costs to these outputs via activity cost drivers. Also covers activity attributes, such as the cost hierarchy, value and non-value added, and business processes, as well as different types of activity cost drivers: transaction, duration, and intensity. Closes with the admonition to balance the benefits from more accurate cost estimates with the cost of developing an appropriate activity-based cost system.

Provides a brief overview of the history of the savings and loans, the savings and loans crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, and the creation of the mortgage markets in the United States. Also explains briefly the most common types of mortgage-backed securities available.

Summarizes six principles of effective persuasion. A rewritten version of an earlier note.