Reinhard H. Schmidt The impressive development of the finance literature with its emphasis on asset pricing and the formal modeling of incentive systems during the past three decades, has largely relegated the business and operational aspects of banking as an industry from the agenda of academic research. Though this is understandable, it is especially regrettable in view of the dynamic dev- opments in the banking industry which have started about a decade ago and are currently in full swing. Fortunately, there are now signs of a change to the effect that banking is back on the research agenda. The p- sent book by Professor De Laurentis and his co-authors is a highly inno- tive and interesting manifestation of this reorientation. Banking is an important part of any financial system, and it is especially important in the financial systems of the countries of Continental Europe, such as Italy, France, and Germany, which have been bank-based for d- ades and which are, in my view, likely to remain bank-based for the fo- seeable future. There are many reasons, based on empirical and theoretical considerations, to believe that strong banks are not only important for the banking industry itself, but also for the respective national economies.

Academics and professionals from corporate banking and private banking present a detailed look at what banking means for family business. The text covers a wide spectrum of topics, including the ways family bankers really work, the relations between private banking and corporate banking, and the trends of the market in Europe and USA. The book is based on a strong link between a rigorous methodological approach and the real world best practices of wealth management.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Business Process Management, BPM 2007, held in Brisbane, Australia, in September 2007. The papers are organized in topical sections on business process maturity and performance, business process modeling, case studies, compliance and change, process configuration and execution, formal foundations of BPM, business process mining, and semantic issues in BPM.

Florian Mueller empirically investigates how retail, private, and corporate banking institutions need to set up their sales management control strategy in accordance to their specific environment, business strategy, and organizational characteristics in order to increase performance.

This book provides a thorough analysis of internal rating systems. Two case studies are devoted to building and validating statistical-based models for borrowers’ ratings, using SPSS-PASW and SAS statistical packages. Mainstream approaches to building and validating models for assigning counterpart ratings to small and medium enterprises are discussed, together with their implications on lending strategy. Key Features: Presents an accessible framework for bank managers, students and quantitative analysts, combining strategic issues, management needs, regulatory requirements and statistical bases. Discusses available methodologies to build, validate and use internal rate models. Demonstrates how to use statistical packages for building statistical-based credit rating systems. Evaluates sources of model risks and strategic risks when using statistical-based rating systems in lending. This book will prove to be of great value to bank managers, credit and loan officers, quantitative analysts and advanced students on credit risk management courses.

This book, written in story narrative form, traces the development of a company from a start-up to a global enterprise. It develops the key concepts related to this evolution — corporate strategy, raising external finance, capital budgeting, dividend policy, mergers and acquisition, globalization, marketing and human resource management. The focus is on topics in corporate strategy and corporate finance, and each topic is developed in depth with problem sets and reflection questions within the context of the organization's evolution.The Power Point slides, practice problems and solutions, as well as intervention exercises for executive education teaching is available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to [email protected].

Managing (e)Business Transformation comprises text and cases designed to show students how a business can be transformed into an internetworked enterprise where IT infrastructures are used to link customers, suppliers, partners and employees to create superior economic value. The book is written based on the premise that integrating internet technologies throughout the value chain is crucial to building and managing customer relationships. Importantly, it underscores the centrality of basic business and economic principles within the context of a networked environment. The book builds on established business and economic theories, concepts and fundamentals to show that 'e-business' will soon be synonymous with 'business'. The book takes a strong managerial perspective, especially popular with MBA students, to argue that the internet is simply an enabling technology, which allows firms to build the infrastructure needed to operate in an evolving business world. The application of theory/concepts is emphasized throughout and contains a range of international case studies enhance the learning experience. This book is a must for all students studying e-business strategy at undergraduate, MBA and postgraduate level. Also available is a companion website with extra features to accompany the text, please take a look by clicking below - http://www.palgrave.com/business/farhoomand/index.asp