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This note explains how the People's Bank of China (PBOC) manages (some say manipulate) the dollar-yuan exchange rate. It discusses briefly the process of sterilization in China and the possible costs for the PBOC. Therefore, the note summarizes some of the main challenges the PBOC faces to contain inflation in China and to keep Chinese exports competitive.

In this note, we look at what happens when there are only few producers. For simplicity, we start with a market with only one supplier, a monopolist. We analyze the price the monopolist charges and the amount of output he or she produces, how those decisions affect overall welfare, and in what circumstances government intervention can increase overall welfare.

Unlike traditional marketers who must wait days if not weeks to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns, online marketers are confronted with an ocean of data which can be tracked and measured in near real-time. Despite the volume of data and powerful tools available to online marketers (at free to low cost, making analytics as affordable for startups to fortune 500) online metrics are widely misunderstood, misapplied and often misused to say much more that they should. Understanding how online metrics work, what they measure and which of them are most relevant based on specific marketing functions and campaign goals is a valuable skill for every marketer. This note frames online metrics in the context of campaign goals (from search marketing to back-end analytics) while discussing the various marketing functions (from display advertising to brand management) that benefit as a result of access to specific metrics. Throughout the note, each metric is placed along an ROI Continuum designed to add insight as to the role of each metric over time as it relates to a firm's bottom line.

This case presents a way to test the efficacy of a firm's corporate diversification strategy or its corporate advantage. In this context, the performance of several lines of business is considered simultaneously within a corporate family; comparisons are made with other diversified firms that compete with the firm for capital. This case expands upon the corporate advantage paradigm of Collis & Montgomery through six tests that consider the underlying and moderating forces of fit and intervention in operations in order to arrive at a corporate strategy which is balanced on all dimensions and creates the desirable outcomes of superior competitive advantage.

This technical note accompanies the case/class on "The Lady Tasting Tea" (LTT). It describes how a Bayesian would update his or her prior probability for the probability the LTT can correctly distinguish cups of tea based on whether the milk was added first or last. The long-form note (UVA-QA-0769) describes both a discrete model (LTT has p of 0.5 or 0.8) and a more complicated continuous model (p is beta distributed). This abridged note describes only the discrete model. The case/class itself provides a very useful analogy with which students can explore the elements of statistical inference.

This technical note accompanies the case/class on "The Lady Tasting Tea" (LTT). It describes how a Bayesian would update his or her prior probability for the probability the LTT can correctly distinguish cups of tea based on whether the milk was added first or last. This long-form note describes both a discrete model (LTT has p of 0.5 or 0.8) and a more complicated continuous model (p is beta distributed). The abridged note (UVA-QA-0768) describes only the discrete model. The case/class itself provides a very useful analogy with which students can explore the elements of statistical inference.

This note is designed to give readers an overview of some useful tools within Excel and VBA. These include Offset, Vlookup, Dynamic Charts, Form Controls and Pivot Tables. The note contains explanations followed by examples for each tool.

Describes methods to calculate the carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions) of an organization's operations and supply chain, and a product or service. Illustrates concepts with examples of calculating the carbon footprint of organizations and products. Provides data necessary for carbon footprint calculations.

Governments throughout the world have offered subsidies for a wide variety of reasons, including the objectives of increasing investments and jobs, particularly those that are high-tech, stimulating economically depressed regions, supporting domestic agriculture, and preventing bankruptcies through "bail-outs." Subsidies now play a key role in business location decisions, and impact their international competitiveness. Recipients of subsidies can offer their goods and services for sale at lower prices than would exist in the absence of subsidies. Foreign-based corporations may regard these lower prices as unfair competition in international trade. Consequently, international trade negotiations have come to focus on many of these subsidy programs as trade distortions that should be limited by formal international agreements. Some countries, especially the US, impose special countervail duties if their corporations are being hurt by foreign subsidies. With current and projected reductions in trade barriers, subsidies will become relatively more important as a trade-determining process. Nevertheless, subsidies are implemented to pursue certain social objectives, and so an intergovernmental pact that limits subsidies may diminish, rather that improve, the well-being of signatories.

This note addresses the dynamics of supply chains as they affect profits--how profits may be both maximized overall and equitably distributed across the supply chain. Influences of pricing and stocking are discussed, as are the benefits and shortcomings of coordination by the most common types of contract.

Location choice is a critical decision for entrepreneurs. This note explores how entrepreneurs should think about different city options through a systematic framework that encompasses professional and personal issues. We use the intellectual frameworks of the cluster and industry agglomeration literatures to organize these factors. We then provide some tactical advice and worksheets for entrepreneurs to consider when selecting the location for their new venture.

This technical note discusses scale economies, and direct and indirect network effects in the context of building better business models. Some of the great business disasters of the dot.com bubble were companies that scaled their infrastructure without working through the scaling effects. This note also discusses multi-sided platforms, the skewing of business models reflecting a mispricing to get one side on board, and suggests the importance of testing in establishing viable business models.

This note provides an overview of private equity in Europe as of mid-2010.

This note provides an overview of private equity in emerging markets as of late 2009.

It is an understatement to say that environmental challenges are attracting attention. Sustainability tops the list of challenges for the 21st century. There is no consensus about how to address these challenges in a politically feasible way. This note offers a conceptual framework that firms and consumers can use to start thinking about the economic challenges ahead and how economic policies are likely to affect the environment within which they operate.

The purpose of this note is to describe the manner in which publicly traded corporations and local governments in the United States account for their pension plans.

This technical note introduces important metrics firms use to monitor customer relationships. The note begins by discussing how to count the firms' customers and keep track of their activity using the concepts of recency and retention. An important summary of customer activity is the profit the firm receives from each customer. Just as some brands are more profitable than others, so too are some customer relationships more profitable than others. Customer profit is the metric that summarizes the past financial performance of a customer relationship. A companion note, "Customer Lifetime Value" (UVA-M-0800), addresses the forward-looking metric that attempts to put a dollar value on a customer relationship. This technical note is an excerpt of the more comprehensive treatment of customer metrics found in "Customer Profitability" (UVA-M-0718).

This technical note introduces important metrics firms use to monitor customer relationships. An important summary of customer activity is the profit the firm receives from each customer. Customer profit (CP) is the metric that summarizes the past financial performance of a customer relationship and is covered in a companion note, ""Customer Profit"" (UVA-M-0799). The central difference between CP and customer lifetime value (CLV) is that CP measures the past and CLV looks forward. This note addresses the forward-looking metric that attempts to put a dollar value on a customer relationship. This technical note is an excerpt of the more comprehensive treatment of customer metrics found in "Customer Profitability" (UVA-M-0718).

In 1992, the United Nations (UN) Convention on Climate Change urged UN members to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to limit global warming and climate change. In 1997, international negotiations established the Kyoto Treaty in which 160 signatory nations agreed to achieve specific reductions by the period 2008 to 2012. While the overall commitment was to reduce GHG emissions to a level 5.2 per cent lower than 1990 levels, nations committed to various percentage reductions. Each signatory would determine how it wished to reach its target, and no penalties were threatened to those who might not reach their goal. By 2001, when the time came to ratify the treaty, various credits were provided to some nations for "carbon sinks," particularly for existing forests. Even with such concessions, the United States refused to sign, and so did most developing nations. The Kyoto protocol proceeded at very different speeds in different nations. International negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009 and in Cancun in 2010 attempted to add clarity to the intentions of signatories. However, many significant details had not yet been addressed. Future negotiations in Rangoon and elsewhere would be necessary.

Process capability, as revolutionized by Motorola, can be defined as the extent to which a process's natural variation falls within specifications. This note is a succinct introduction to the process capability ratio, which compares set specifications against the three standard deviations on either side of the process mean--six in total, referred to as Six Sigma. This introduction assumes a normal distribution of observations and a process that is performing predictably over time.