Book Description

Is it possible to complete projects on-time and on-budget using geographically distributed "virtual" teams?

Yes! Here’s the book that shows you how. Packed with practical tools and proven techniques for managing virtual teams for optimum performance, this expert author uses real-world examples and specific guidelines to show you how distributed work groups can be even more productive, effective and flexible than traditional co-located teams.

Supported by extensive research, the book addresses the most commonly identified managerial concerns such as communication, control, monitoring, team building, cultural differences, and legal and process issues. You’re provided with a framework of principles and best practices for dealing with these concerns, plus step-by-step procedures for "transitioning teams," and tips on using high-speed networks and groupware as tools for solving problems. What’s more, you learn how to...

>Reduce costs and time to market with round-the-world, round-the-clock work flow

>Integrate remotely located technical experts into a team and take advantage of remotely located corporate resources

>Build stronger products and markets with partnerships and joint ventures

Managing Virtual Teams, contains communication principles and management practices that won’t become outdated with the next release of a software program. The author outlines the benefits of concentrating first on the investment that needs to be made in people, planning, processes, and training, not on technology alone. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Great Management Perspective
I have really looked a long time to find a book that has a practical management perspective. Most of the books I've read on virtual teams either focus on bits and bytes (which I don't need since I'm an IT Director) or high level organizational theory. This book had some really practical suggestions that I could implement to improve communication and control for my team.

Very practical and useful
If you are managing geographically distributed teams this is a "save your life" kind of book. Short and to the point with techniques based on actual research instead of myths or stories. I found the 4 key principles for effective distance communication very helpful. I saw immediate improvement in my team's communications once we began using the ideas.

Skimpy, pedantic and superficial
I rarely write reviews, and as an author myself I'm loath to criticize another's work. But this one I couldn't let go by...

At 147 pages (main text) there was nowhere near enough "meat" to justify ...[the price tag.]

The writing style was boring and pedantic.

Most of the chapters just skimmed the surface and lacked
substance; the topics are covered much more thoroughly by other
authors.

Chapter 6, Networking Technology, at 12 pages, was much too
"thin" and already out of date; less than 2 full pages
were devoted to the 'section' on securing the network -- a
major concern these days.

Highly recommended
I recently reviewed a number of books on distance work for a current project at a research center (...)and found Haywood's to be the best in its class. Haywood does a great job of describing the problems of distance work from different perspectives (manager, employee), and she gives sound advice on how to address these problems. Her prescribed solutions are balanced, and include some new technologies (e.g. personal web pages), but mostly she gives good advice on raising awareness of problems and setting reasonable policies for use of communications.

Haywood's book has more analysis and fewer case studies than others in this genre, which is what I was looking for. She does include plenty of vignettes, but they are short and to the point.

Haywood is my hero!
This highly organized, "how-to" book is best in class. From its pragmatic examples to its in depth understanding of
"real" work processes, this book examines all of the aspects of v-teams and is fairly objective in its recommendations. While not giving "deification" to I.T., it DOES break down the elements of IT necessary for success. GREAT BOOK for managers of projects which span geographies ... Read more

Book Description

This book contributes substantively to the current state of the art of macroeconomic modeling by providing a method for modeling large collections of heterogeneous agents subject to nonpairwise externality called field effects, i.e. feedback of aggregate effects on individual agents or agents using state-dependent strategies.Adopting a level of microeconomic description that keeps track of compositions of fractions of agents by "types" or "strategies", time evolution of the microeconomic states is described by (backward) Chapman-Kolmogorov equations. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Content
Content: 1 Introduction 2 Simple Illustrative and Motivating Examples 3 Empirical Distributions: Statistical Laws in Macroeconomics 4 Modeling Interactions I: Jump Markov Processes 5 Modeling Interactions II: Master Equations and Field Effects 6 Modeling Interactions III: Pairwise and Multiple-Pair Interactions 7 Sluggish Dynamics and Hierarchical State Spaces 8 Self-organizing and Other Critical Phenomena in Economic Models Elaborations and Future Directions of Research Appendix References Index

A stimulating synthesis -- physics models of social systems
Can statistical physics methods be used to help understand and predict the behaviors of groups of people over time?Aoki, a well-known expert in optimal control theory and dynamic models applied to economic models,suggests that they can.This book offers an inspiring medley of technicalideas and probabilistic models -- based on analogies to spin glasses,self-organizing physical systems, and key ideas of statistical mechanics --to make plausible the idea that behaviors of aggregates of rational actors,too, can be predicted statistically.(Enthusiasts of Isaac Asimov'sFoundation series, take note!)

The book is worth studying carefully forits ideas and models, even though its main thesis may not ultimately beconvincing.It presents and illustrates modeling techniques that will beuseful to marketing scientists and quantitative social scientists as wellas to economists.A central idea is that individual behaviors can berepresented by transitions among discrete choices or microstates, while therates at which these transitions take place may depend on the frequencydistribution of the whole population (and/or of local subpopulations)amongmicrostates.The result is an adaptive process in which individual choicesdefine the aggregate macrostate (i.e., the frequency distribution ofindividuals of various distinguished types among microstates), which inturn affects subsequent choices.Whether this adaptive process will reachany equilibrium, and, if so, which one and how and when, are principalconcerns addressed through various well-analyzed models.

The techniquesintroduced and illustrated are primarily, partition function and stochasticprocess methods, including jump processes, diffusion processes, andmartingale methods.Other ideas, from critical process theory, stochasticepidemics, large deviations, and maximum entropy econometrics and physics,are introduced and exploited where appropriate.The practical value ofsuch methods to modelers cannot be denied.Aoki's main theme, that suchtechniques can be used to predict behaviors of populations of individuals,is not buttressed by any real applications.The models presented may betoo simple to capture what many social scientists would consider essentialreal-world complexities, such as the generation of new player types androles and the effects of boundaries and spatial distributions of resourcesand environments on populations over time.Nonetheless, the collection ofideas and methods presented, and the overall vision of a social science inwhich inter-individual heterogeneities and choices are accounted for bydiscrete transitions, makes this monograph exciting and valuable.

Note: Readers who enjoy this book may also want to read T.C. Schelling'sMicromotives and Macrobehavior.Schelling's book is much less technical,but follows some of the same big ideas and applies them to many homely,compelling examples. ... Read more

Book Description

Since the 1970s, Robert Barro's academic research has significantly influenced macroeconomic theory. For more than a decade, his writing has also enlivened the pages of publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Business Week. In Nothing Is Sacred, Barro applies his well-honed free market arguments to a remarkably diverse range of issues. These include global problems such as growth and debt, as well as social issues such as the predictive value of SAT scores, drug legalization, the economics of beauty, and the relationship between abortion rights and crime reduction.

The book opens with a series of essays on famous economists, past and present, and other prominent figures whose work has economic implications, including Joe DiMaggio and Bono. In the book's second part, Barro discusses the economics of social issues. In the third part, he considers democracy, growth, and international policy, and in the final part he examines fiscal policy, monetary policy, and the macroeconomy. Throughout, he shows that even the most widely held beliefs are not sacred truths but are open to analysis. ... Read more

Book Description

We live in a commercial age, awash in a sea of brand names, logos, and advertising jingles -not to mention commodities themselves. Are shoppers merely the unwitting stooges of the greedy producers who will stop at nothing to sell their wares? Are the producers´ powers of persuasion so great that resistance is futile? James Twitchell counters this assumption of the used and abused consumer with a witty and unflinching look at commercial culture, starting from the simple observation that "we are powerfully attracted to the world of goods (after all, we don´t call them ‘bads´)." He contends that far from being forced upon us against our better judgment, "consumerism is our better judgment." Why? Because increasingly, store-bought objects are what hold us together as a society, doing the work of "birth, patina, pews, coats of arms, house, and social rank" -previously done by religion and bloodline. We immediately understand the connotations of status and identity exemplified by the Nike swoosh, the Polo pony, the Guess? label, the DKNY logo. The commodity alone is not what we are after; rather, we actively and creatively want that logo and its signification -the social identity it bestows upon us. As Twitchell summarizes, "Tell me what you buy, and I will tell what you are and who you want to be."Using elements as disparate as the filmFrench theorists, popular bumper stickers, andmagazine to explore the nature and importance of advertising lingo, packaging, fashion, and "The Meaning of Self," Twitchell overturns one stodgy social myth after another. In the process he reveals the purchase and possession of things to be the self-identifying acts of modern life. Not only does the car you drive tell others who you are, it lets you know as well. The consumption of goods, according to Twitchell, provides us with tangible everyday comforts and with crucial inner security in a seemingly faithless age. That we may find our sense of self through buying material objects is among the chief indictments of contemporary culture. Twitchell, however, sees the significance of shopping. "There are no false needs." We buy more than objects, we buy meaning. For many of us, especially in our youth, Things R Us. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Just Dreadful
As an academic who loves to shop, I was hoping this would provide a more balanced account of the rise and impact of mass consumerism. He is certainly right that academics and other relatively privileged strata have something of a knee-jerk animus to mass pleasure. But the book is a complete failure. It amounts to little more than a defense brief for mass consumerism--and like a good defense lawyer, he ignores evidence that doesn't fit his case, distorts the arguments of his foes, and offers a rosy, unreal view of his client. ... Skip.

Pragmatic view point on consumerism and advertising
An interesting read about the invasive consumerism of the 20th century. His basic take is we buy what we want, it isn't foisted on us by advertsing. All that you see on TV is an ad, including the "news", the sitcom set, ie house, clothes, pots, pans, lamps and has been since the beginning of TV. And that "Democracy" is the freedom to buy what you want when you want it.

He makes a good case that this has been what people "really" want since time imortal. And that no amount of whining about how it isn't good for you can compete with the almighty dollar. Simply put, if you really didn't want it, you wouldn't buy it.

I do agree that he can get long winded in his arguments.

Anyone looking to start up another .com company would do well to read this first.

Pretentious twaddle disguised as scholarship
First, it was quite obvious that the author has some sort of animus against non-materialism, since he seems to glory in taking gratuitous chops at environmentalists, the voluntary simplicity movement, and pretty much anyone who doesn't agree with him. I was thoroughly sick of it by the end of the first chapter.

Second, he does not back up many of his assertions, despite a plethora of footnotes. For instance, he asserts that kitchens have gotten smaller in the last few decades (seemingly as a way of proving that we eat more take out and less home cooked food), without stating whether he means suburban or urban kitchens, new construction or remodelling, apartment, condo or detached kitchens...you get the picture. There are similarly unsupported assertions about trash disposal, landfills, and teenage buying patterns.

Finally, it was *dull*. The only parts that were even vaguely entertaining were the last few chapters, when the polemics were replaced by personal reporting of his trip to a mall. I learned very little about American materialism, and far more than I wished about the author's political biases.

A huge disappointment.

A fascinating, entertaining, and important book!
I first must take issue with a previous review. There is nothing remotely complex about the language Twitchell uses - certainly nothing that would require anyone with a basic vocabulary to need a dictionary. On the contrary, I found that Twitchell is often quite amusing and there were even times I laughed out loud at his astute observations and the entertaining way he presents them. Having said that, I did find one thing slightly irritating - the use of extensive footnotes that could easily have been included in the text without forcing the reader to jump around. Still, that doesn't detract from the important ideas Twitchell presents. You will never look at the world (and particularly the world of adverised products) the same way after reading this. This book, however, goes far beyond merely addressing products and how they are advertised. It addresses the psychology of "meaning" that is fundamental to how each of us construct our innner and outer world. It was given to me as a gift by a friend. I intend to buy several copies and give them to my own friends. I highly recommend it to anyone even if they are not interested in advertising per se. After reading "Lead us Into Temptation" they will be.

Interesting, valid, and not so controversial
Based on the rejection of the "hypodermic" theory of advertising, the idea that we are not hapless victims is something most students of media will here about. Propaganda is not as powerful as we believe, but our own desire to buy is very powerful. His views on the negativity of our consumerism are what make him and his work so different. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Not even Mediocre: Bad.
Azariadis doesn't display the fun or power of macroeconomics. A dull book that intends to be "modern" in its language, and only hides the economics. There are five or six better advanced macroeconomics book tochoose from. Buy it only and only if required in the reading list!

Mediocre
Not that well organized or motivated.A reader interested in Macroeconomics will not get much out of this book unless they look very hard.Intended as a book for first year graduate students in economics, itfails to bridge the gap between concept-building undergraduate courses andthe relatively more mathematical graduate courses. ... Read more

Book Description

This book is unique. It gives a clear and systematic account of the economic basis of every equation in a major 100-equation macro model, plus full documentation of parameters and simulation properties. Results are explained in detail with the help of miniature models that capture the important macrodynamics as well as the steady-state properties of the model. Microeconomic underpinnings are stressed throughout. This book will be particularly useful to practitioners of policy economics and forecasting, as well as to upper-level undergraduate and graduate students in economics and econometrics. ... Read more

Book Description

This work provides a unified and simple treatment of dynamic economics using dynamic optimization as the main theme, and the method of Legrange multipliers to solve dynamic economic problems. The author presents the optimization framework for dynamic economics in order that readers can understand the approach and use it as they see fit. Instead of using dynamic programming, the author chooses instead to use the method of Legrange multipliers in the analysis of dynamic optimization because it is easier and more efficient than dynamic programming, and allows readers to understand the substance of dynamic economics better. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An alternative to Lucas, Sargent and recursive methods
Most grad students are taught to solve dynamic equilbrium problems using recursive methods. Two of the prominent books that I am familiar with are:
* Thomas Sargent's Dynamic Macroeconomics
* Lucas and Stokey's Recursive Methods in Economic Dynamics

(Note: I see that Sargent has another volume out, Recursive Macroeconomic Theory, with Lars Ljungqvist.)

Chow's book presents a Lagrangian method for dynamic optimization. This is a far easier approach than recursive methods, as anyone who is familiar with simple calculus will attest. Chow presents the method then --and this is the real value of this book-- systematically applies it to familiar market equilibrium, financial, business cycle, game theory, and growth models (all dynamic, of course).

BENEFITS:
* Chow's Lagrangian method removes mathematical obstacles to understanding important macroeconomic models
* Chow is a good writer, and this book is far easier to understand than the two books listed above
* This is a great reference for grad students looking for foundations for your own research ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

This book provides an integrated approach to recent developments in the understanding of foreign exchange markets. It covers the theory of efficient markets as developed in finance, and the models used to explain the movements of exchange rates in macroeconomics. The authors deal with the econometric estimation and testing of different models and theories of the foreign exchange market and macro-economy. ... Read more

Book Description

Macroeconomics is in disarray. No one approach is dominant, and an increasing divide between theory and empirics is evident.

This book presents both a critique of mainstream macroeconomics from a structuralist perspective and an exposition of modern structuralist approaches. The fundamental assumption of structuralism is that it is impossible to understand a macroeconomy without understanding its major institutions and distributive relationships across productive sectors and social groups.

Lance Taylor focuses his critique on mainstream monetarist, new classical, new Keynesian, and growth models. He examines them from a historical perspective, tracing monetarism from its eighteenth-century roots and comparing current monetarist and new classical models with those of the post-Wicksellian, pre-Keynesian generation of macroeconomists. He contrasts the new Keynesian vision with Keynes's General Theory, and analyzes contemporary growth theories against long traditions of thought about economic development and structural change.

Book Description

Robert Solow is widely regarded as one of the greatest living economists. He has conducted path-breaking work in both microeconomics and macroeconomics, is the best-selling author of numerous publications, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Science in 1987. In Monopolistic Competition and Macroeconomic Theory, Professor Solow gives a nontechnical account of the implications of monopolistic competition on macroeconomic theory and shows that simple and tractable micro-based models can offer the possibility of a richer and more intuitive macroeconomics. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

This book studies the implications of macroeconomic complementarities for aggregate behavior. The presentation is intended to introduce Ph.D. students into this sub-field of macroeconomics and to serve as a reference for more advanced scholars.The initial sections of the book cover the basic framework of complementarities and provide a discussion of the experimental evidence on the outcome of coordination games. The subsequent sections of the book investigate applications of these ideas for macroeconomics. The topics Professor Cooper explores include: economies with production complementarities, search models, imperfectly competitive product markets, models of timing and delay and the role of government in resolving and creating coordination problems. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Essential Reading on Macroeconomic and Financial Instability
This is an essential book for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of macroeconomic and financial instability: recessions, depressions, financial panics, currency crises, bank runs, the Russian and Asian crises, andsimilar events.It also presents fundamental analysis critical to theunderstanding of monetary and fiscal policy coordination; for example inthe European Union, and in dealing with the Asian macroeconomic andfinancial crisis.In addition, it is essential reading for students andenthusiasts of game theory.The book is very well organized, has anunerring eye in its coverage of topics, and is almost astonishingly wellwritten.While parts of the book are technically demanding for the layreader, the rest can be read with profit by the non-specialist andnon-student.Indeed, the technical parts can still profitably be skimmed,and the gist of the ideas are clear to the patient non-specialist.Hence,exactly as advertised, the book is essential for graduate courses, but alsouseful as a reference for the specialist, and is required reading for theinformed public.Unlike what is suggested in the advertising, however, Iand my colleagues also feel the book can be taught and assigned to advancedundergraduate students, and to the more motivated of the intermediatestudents as well.I will do so.In short, if you haven't read thisbook you are simply out of date.Excellent brief summaries of thismaterial can be found in David Romer's graduate text AdvancedMacroeconomics, McGraw Hill, pp. 294-299, in Jansen, DeLorme and Ekelund'sundergraduate text Intermediate Macroeconomics, West Publishing, pp.412-419, and in John Taylor's introductory undergraduate text Principles ofMacroeconomics, Houghton Mifflin, in the "New Keynesian School"subsection.Background readings appear in N. Mankiw and D. Romer (eds.)New Keynesian Economics, vol. 2, Coordination Failures and Real Rigidities,M.I.T. Press Readings in Econommics (Benjamin Friedman and LawrenceSummers, eds.).But the very best place to learn this essential materialis in this elegant volume by Russell Cooper. ... Read more

Book Description

Arguing that we have largely inadequate financial markets, dealing with relatively small risks, Robert Shiller makes a unique set of proposals for marketizing the biggest economic risks faced by society today, risks that really matter to most people. The new markets could diminish the impact of international economic fluctuations and reduce the inequality of wealth. He proposes new international markets for claims on national incomes, on components and aggregates of national incomes, and for property such as real estate, and argues that these markets might dwarf our stock markets in their activity and significance. He challenges the widespread presumption that any such new market would be infeasible, by offering solutions to technical problems of measurement and settlement. There are proposals for implementing markets in perpetual claims and a substantial section on the construction of index numbers for use in settlement in the new markets. ... Read more