On September 26, 1924, the ground collapsed beneath a truck in a back alley in Washington, D.C., revealing a mysterious underground labyrinth. In spite of wild speculations, the tunnel was not the work of German spies, but rather an aging, eccentric Smithsonian scientist named Harrison Gray Dyar, Jr. While Dyar's covert tunneling habits may seem far-fetched, they were merely one of many oddities in Dyar's unbelievable life. For the first time, insect biosystematist Marc E. Epstein presents...

An insiders' account of failed efforts to control corporate misconduct—and a forceful plan to do so.Nothing anyone has done in the past 50 years has stopped, or even slowed, corporate misconduct. Business schools have required courses on ethics, regulators have implemented laws and levied fines, and journalists have exposed the scandals named names, yet misconduct continues. Why? Is it simply the case of a few bad apples? Or maybe it's a bad orchard? Two pioneers in the field of bu...

Often business executives serve (or are asked to serve) as board members of nonprofit organizations. However, without a clear understanding of how nonprofits work, service on a board can be a frustrating experience.Joining a Nonprofit Board offers an important guide to the roles and responsibilities of a nonprofit board member. Marc J. Epstein and F. Warren McFarlan provide a step-by-step guide to how board members can work with a nonprofit organization to achieve the orga...

Identifying, measuring and improving social impact is a significant challenge for corporate and private foundations, charities, NGOs and corporations. How best to balance possible social and environmental benefits (and costs) against one another? How does one bring clarity to multiple possibilities and opportunities? Based on years of work and new field studies from around the globe, the authors have written a book for managers that is grounded in the best academic and managerial research....

In times of economic turbulence, an organization's ability to learn from its environment and adopt innovations enhances its competitive advantage as well its ability to improve its performance. This book focuses specifically on the contribution learning and innovation in management accounting can contribute to the success of the organization. However, all management accounting innovations may not be successful. The success of an innovation is contingent upon whether the learning and implem...

The ultimate "how-to-do-it" guide for corporate leaders, strategists, academics, sustainability consultants, and anyone else with an interest in actually making sustainability work for organizations. An updated edition of a landmark book at a time when a growing number of corporate leaders are asking for urgent help in "getting this done".

This research monograph critically examines convergence of financial reporting in Germany by taking into account the influence of political, social and economic factors on accounting. This study makes an original and significant contribution by examining issues and biases in the convergence process that may challenge the assumption of superiority, global comparability and universal applicability of International Financial Reporting Standards. Specifically, this monograph critically evaluat...

Over the years, the performance measurement and management control conference has grown in number of participants, quality of presentations and reputation, and has attracted leading researchers in the field from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa. The 2011 theme was directed at global issues, and included the significant challenges of managing and measuring performance within and across different organizational and geographical boundaries, using theoretical, empir...

The Middle Ages provide us with one of the richest repositories of art in the West. Yet the rise in the production of art made for and by Jews—especially in the form of illuminated manuscripts—is often neglected in general surveys or viewed as a mere emulation of Christian art during this period.In People of the Image, Marc Michael Epstein demonstrates how medieval Jews transformed their visual art into a vital site of critical commentary. Through bold speculation and radi...

Profitable innovation doesn’t just happen. It must be managed, measured, and properly executed, and few companies know how to accomplish this effectively. Making Innovation Work presents a formal innovation process proven to work at HP, Microsoft and Toyota, to help ordinary managers drive top and bottom line growth from innovation. The authors have drawn on their unsurpassed innovation consulting experience -- as well as the most thorough review of innovation research eve...

Volume 21 features articles on: the impact of framed information and project importance on capital budgeting decisions; the measurement of participation in budgeting practice and research; the impact of adverse selection and risk propensity on managers' project evaluation decisions; relative hedonic utility and budgetary conflict resolution; management control systems, environmental uncertainty, and organizational slack; industrial relations, budgetary participation and budget use; corpora...

Featured in Volume 22 of Advances in Management Accounting are articles on: The Effect of Personality Traits and Fairness on Honesty in Managerial Reporting; The Impact of Firm Size on the Productivity of Resources; Transfer of Performance Measurement System Innovations Across Economic Sectors; Target Costing and Product and Production Interdependencies; Cost Accounting, Simulation, and Post-Structuralist Understanding; Input-Based Performance Evaluation, Incentive Intensity, and Proactive...