DYSON - Böcker

With Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) the European Union is embarked on a major historic political project of formidable technical complexity. In January 2009 the Euro Area will be ten years old. What does the evidence from the first decade tell us about the significance of the euro for the EU and its member states? This book brings together a range of recognized academic specialists to examine the main political aspects of this question. How, and in what ways, has the euro Europeanized states (members and non-members), their institutions, policies and politics? What have been its effects on the location and use of power? Has the euro generated convergence or divergence? What political patterns can be identified? The book offers the first, in-depth and systematic political analysis of the first decade of the euro. It places the euro in its global and European contexts; offers a set of case studies of its effects on a representative sample of EU member states ('Anglo-Saxon', old 'D-Mark Zone', east central European and Baltic, Mediterranean, and Nordic); and looks at three key sectors (financial markets, wages and collective bargaining, and welfare reform). The book contributes to Europeanization studies, comparative political economy, and studies of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It will be of major interest to students of the European Union and European integration, comparative European politics, and area and 'country' studies.

Supporting Strategy develops the concept of the strategic development process. The book begins by describing a balanced process for strategy development, spanning direction setting, strategy creation, rehearsal, evaluation and choice, leading to a continuous process of adopting strategic initiatives.  It then goes on to present a practical collection of frameworks, methods and models which both individually and in combination can be used to support strategy.  The collection includes:  drama theory, visioning methods, problem structuring methods, resource based view of strategy, SWOT / TOWS analysis, system dynamics, agent based modelling, scenario planning, decision and risk analysis, financial evaluation, real options, robustness analysis and performance measurement.  This is a contributed work with original content written fro the book from leading academics in the field, including Maureen Meadows, Robert Berry, Jim Bryant, Adrian Caldart, Alberto Franco, Giles Hindle, Nigel Howard, Martin Kunc, Abhijit Mandal, Gilberto Montibeller, John Morecroft, Martin Murtland, Fernando Oliveira, and Efstathios Tapinos.

There are a range of views of the strategic development process within organisations. Some see the process as being purely creative, with little or no scope for analysis at any stage (hunch-and-hope). Others see it as being over-formalised, static and focusing on producing a strategic plan rather than on actions. The approach adopted in this book argues that for effective strategic decision making, creativity needs to be supported by structured methods. The strategic development process consists of a series of elements which need to be working effectively for the process to ensure the successful development of the organisation. These elements include objective setting and performance measurement, strategic initiative formulation, strategic evaluation and a process for modelling uncertain/uncontrollable factors. The book then presents a range of hard and soft methods and models capable of supporting them. These include the balanced scorecard, visioning, the TOWS matrix, cognitive mapping, scenario development, systems dynamics modelling, transformation methods such as reengineering, strategic investment appraisal and real option theory. The book should be of interest to both academics and practitioners concerned with strategic development and those teaching and researching in the fields of strategic management, management science and operational research. The book is developed from a previous text Strategic Planning: Models and Analytical Techniques, (Wiley, 1992) following a similar approach and including some of the same methods and models but incorporating an entirely new set of articles including contemporary classics by Eden, Kaplan, Keeney, Porter, Schoemaker and others.