The Casual Structure of Long-Term Supply Relationships: An Emperical Test of a Generalized Transaction Cost Theory

Book Description

Today, industrial organization can hardly be imagined without long-term supply relationships. Firms use this specific type of alliance to acquire or develop (complementary) competencies. These are necessary to be able to survive and be successful in an increasingly dynamic environment.
Rather than studying particular features in isolation, this book analyzes the overall, underlying causal structure of long-term supply relationships. De Jong and Nooteboom develop an encompassing theoretical model that brings together important firm- and relation-specific characteristics such as trust, commitment, dependence, uncertainty, dedicated investments, and the exchange of information. The relationships between these main characteristics build the overall, underlying causal structure and determine the nature of long-term supply relationships. The model is based on an extended theory of transactions that includes trust next to opportunism and the development of competencies.
The model is tested in the automobile industries of the United States, Japan and Europe. The empirical evidence indicates that there are strong similarities between the three regions in the underlying causal structure. There are differences but these differences seem small, particularly relative to the expectations one may have on the basis of perceived views of systemic differences between `Japanese' and `Western' contracting. Thus, if indeed there were large differences between the Triad's regions, there now appears to be considerable convergence towards a common underlying `logic' of long-term supply relationships.
The Causal Structure of Long-Term Supply Relationships is a primary source for scholars and students who want to learn about industrial organizations in an international perspective. It reviews the main theories, defines many concepts, offers an overview of literature on alliances, and provides insights into the statistical techniques of LISREL. Little background knowledge is required, since concepts are developed as the book progresses.

Customer Reviews:

Finally breaking the myth.......2000-09-07

This book gives a thorough insight into how relationships between companies work and how they either sustain or break down. It also breaks the myth of differences in relationships between Japan and 'the West', as the book indicates that relationship in the three continents work quite the same. Quite a new proposition, I think!

The insights of this book will give managers a tool for how they can build successful relationships and how they can improve it. Also students will benefit from this book, as it combines theory and practise in an easy manner. A 'have to read' for anyone who wants to build business relationships that go beyond contracts.

Amazon.com

Originally published in 1909, "Handy Farm Devices" is more than an engaging trip down memory lane. For any small farmer or homesteader, the techniques and devices described in detail are just as useful, durable, and fully functional today as they were 75 years ago. You will learn to build a portable chicken coop, a stone boat (for moving stone), a lightweight orchard ladder, gates that don't sag, and a handy wood splitter, as well as rudimentary farm structures, well houses, bee hives, a baby's cradle, a cheese press and much more. The charming, turn-of-the-century language and useful and inspirational quotes from Shakespeare, the Bible, Bacon, Longfellow and many others make this book a delight to read. --Mark A. Hetts

Book Description

Practical projects as useful today as when first published 75 years ago.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic book that can save you time and money.......2007-09-25

"Success comes to the man who so works that his efforts will bring the most and the best results-not to the man who simply works hard." Very elequently stated by the author from page three in the introduction of this gem of a little book.

Call me a survivalist, but I feel books such as these are going to become imperative in the future of america for both the suburbanite and country boy alike. Handy Farm Devices by Rolfe Cobleigh is a must own to anyone who owns or is even thinking about owning their own homestead. This book allows you to make just about anything you could possibly need around a private farm/homestead. Just to name a few things that are tucked away in the pages of this litte gem are How To: use a carpenters square, build stairs, temporary animal housing, a cellar, make your own dresser drawers, feeders for your animals, make a chicken coop from a barrel (and other chicken, pig, horse, and cattle housing designs as well), laying cement foundations, simple housing plans, how to build a concrete stone house for $400 dollars, build your own wheelbarrel, plus various orchard and planting ideas as well as other ideas that are so numerous I can't possibly mention them all.

The only thing this book will not do is give you a step by step guide on how to go about doing X,Y, and Z. It gives you pointers and a general push in the right direction, but it doesn't give you in depth direction. I only see this becoming problematic if you were to take on the task of building one of the houses described in this book. However, I don't see in depth directions being an issue for most of the devices mentioned. Even a modest amount of ingenuity should be sufficient in most cases. In the end this book delievers all that it reasonably can in less than 300 pages. A must have for those interested in homesteading, and those who believe that true self-sufficiency will become a necessary skill in the future of this country.

Great!.......2007-09-06

This book is a "must have" because of all the great ideas.
Today you can just buy all the stuff but this would be very costly.
This little book shows how to build everything you need by yourself.
I'm starting a very small farm for selfsuffiency and was desparate about the costs of all the needy things.
This book will spare me hundreds of $, it's really great.

Historical and functional.......2007-08-13

This book is full of historical information about devices, buildings and just useful things. This guide would be useful in areas or farms trying to live without elecrical equipment and in cases of disasters to make do until some assistance with more modern means arrives. I enjoyed the writing and would recommend the book to those looking to do things more "natural".

Great Ideas...don't expect to build them........2007-05-12

This is a great and fun little book full of old fashion devices. Treat it as an idea book, but don't expect explanations of how-to here. For at least half of the devices you won't need any explanation, the others look the info up somewhere else.

Depends on what you're looking for..........2007-01-10

This was a nice, fun book to read... but it was essentially useless for actually helping you build any of the things it talks about (and gives interesting history and info about). So for a practical DIY book, it's useless, but for a book just to learn a bit about this stuff and it's history and get a frame of reference, it's not bad at all.

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Things you won't find anyplace else

Farm Appliances: And How to Make Them
George A. Martin
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Electrical | How-to & Home Improvements | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Agricultural Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1558218882

Book Description

Classic instruction sure to appeal to anyone interested in Americana or inclined toward self-sufficiency.

Customer Reviews:

Things you won't find anyplace else.......2000-05-30

This book is full of things you won't find anyplace else, maybe because most of them haven't been around for a hundred years or so. The book is like wandering through a living museum. We bought a country place a year ago and this book (and Farm Devices, Harris on the Pig, Farm Conveniences and fences, Gates and Bridges, all of which we also own) are exactly the right thing if you want to add an authentic touch to a porch or a barn. My friends love reading through them. I enjoy them immensely. The "introductions" are wonderful, too. There are three by Dennis Boyles and they are the best - hysterically funny!

Book Description

This innovative book provides a clear and pedagogical introduction to research through a series of problems and answers. The author has designed the problems to develop each core topic in a simple and coherent way, and he provides full solutions to make this book completely self-contained. The first half of the book covers the core subjects of astrophysical processes, gravitational dynamics, radiative processes, fluid mechanics and general relativity. The second half uses these concepts to develop modern cosmology; topics include the Friedmann model and thermal history, the dynamics of dark matter and baryons in an expanding universe, the physics of high-redshift objects and the very early universe. This unique self-study textbook will be of key interest to graduate students and researchers in cosmology, astrophysics, relativity and theoretical physics. It is particularly well suited to graduate-level courses.

Customer Reviews:

Hard... but excellent!.......1998-04-18

This is a very welcomed book for graduate students in astrophysics. Although I have only scratched the surface of the topics, I find its format and distribution very well organized. The solutions are also clearly exposed, but you need a very high background to work on the problems entirely on your own.

Book Description

The only way to completely eliminate the health effects associated with hazardous materials is to eliminate the material. How and when should dangerous chemical products be replaced with safer products? Substitutes for Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace answers this question and others, including:

Book Description

This book ties together classical and modern topics of advanced vibration analysis in an interesting and lucid manner. It provides students with a background in elementary vibrations, with tools necessary for understanding and analyzing more complex dynamical phenomena that can be encountered in engineering and scientific practice. It progresses steadily from linear vibration theory over various levels of nonlinearity to bifurcation analysis, global dynamics and chaotic vibrations. It trains the student to analyze simple models, recognize nonlinear phenomena and work with advanced tools such as perturbation analysis and bifurcation analysis. Explaining theory in terms of relevant examples from real systems, this book is user-friendly and meets the increasing interest in non-linear dynamics in mechanical/structural engineering and applied mathematics and physics. This edition includes a new chapter on the useful effects of fast vibrations and many new exercise problems.

Book Description

This is a portrait both of an individual and of an organization. The individual is the Japanese admiral who, as architect of the Pearl Harbor raid and commander of the Combined Fleet throughout the first part of World War II, is one of the most widely known of Japanese wartime leaders. The organization is the Japanese Imperial Navy, whose "gentlemanly" traditions and outlook contrasted strongly with those of the Japanese army and whose failure to check the latter in its headstrong course makes one of the sadder episodes of recent history.

Here, for the first time, Yamamoto emerges as the complex, sympathetic, and in many ways contradictory character that he was. A realist who foresaw the future importance of the airplane for the navy long before his contemporaries and who believed that Japan would inevitably be defeated in any war with America and Britain, he was also an inveterate gambler with an odd streak of superstition. A tough leader, he had at the same time a vein of sentimentality that would allow him to burst into tears at the funeral of a young subordinate. In public the very epitome of the dignified national hero, in private he often showed a schoolboyish playfulness that was sometimes endearing and occasionally embarrassing. He was always ready to express his views with a frankness uncommon in his day, yet he revealed in the end the same readiness as most of his fellow countrymen to accept passively "the call of duty."

The author, refusing the temptation to indulge in speculation or "reconstruction," has gone straight to the original sources--accounts written by those who worked with Yamamoto; scores of interviews with men and women who knew him personally; above all, letters written by Yamamoto himself. The latter range from his more circumspect, semi-official communications to intimate letters addressed to his mistress or long-standing friends of both sexes, in which he bares his private doubts and pessimism. It is these personal documents and reminiscences that make the character so human and, ultimately, give such a moving quality to the account of his dramatic wartime death in the South Pacific.

An intimate portrait of the man who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and died a dramatic death in the South Pacific.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent study of a complex character.......2002-12-28

This is an excellent study of a complex and contradictory man. Understandably vilified in the heat of war, a more interesting image has appeared over time. One cannot help but admire the daring and gambler quality of a man ordered to start a war he did not agree with and risked his life to prevent. Yamamoto certainly deserves to be remembered as a grand naval commander. It's unlikely any more authoritatve work will ever emerge as the author when directly to people who knew Yamamoto in life

Rare Authentic History Of WW II.......2002-02-22

The original Japanese title of this book was simply Yamamoto Isoroku. I suppose renaming it The Reluctant Admiral with the implication that Isoroku was indecisive is comforting to american psychology. But otherwise it's the same book, and one of the few books I know about WW II Japan that isn't clichéd propaganda of either a rightist or leftist american persuasion.

Samurai! The biography of Saburo Sakai is also recommended although the ibook edition has an opinioned, and inaccurate forward by the new editor not Martin Caidin.

Yamamoto, the Admiral, the womanizer........2001-08-01

Admiral Yamamoto did not want to go to war with the United States; a naval war he felt could be sustained for at most 18 months. But go to war he did and it cost him his life. This is an easy to read history of Yamamoto's life, rich in personal details. He turns out to have been an avid womanizer, with one and perhaps two mistresses throughout most of his career. A man who lost interest in his marriage fairly early and was merely a financial contributor for most of his married life. Most of the personal correspondence quoted and many of his poems were written to his number one mistress, with nothing of substance regarding his wife and children.

Yamamoto seems to have come up with the strategy for the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the detailed tactical planning was the work of his staff. Somehow the debacle of Midway, which occurred under his command and which was planned by his staff, did not result in his immediate replacement. This apparently was due to the Imperial Japanese Forces being in full denial mode and not wanting to high light the disaster by removing the hero of Pearl Harbor.

Yamamoto seems to have been something of a figurehead for most of his career after Pearl harbor and until his death. This could be misleading since the author focuses so much of his attention on Yamamoto's personal life and not so much on his naval leadership.

It is particularly interesting to learn that with the many signs pointing to the fact that the Japanese codes had been broken, they denied this possibility and continued to send the "coded" messages which resulted in Yamamoto's plane being shot down by United States P-38s. There is an excellent book on that subject, "Get Yamamoto" but it seems to be out of print ...

Subarashii.......2001-06-13

This was a wonderful book which went into alot of detail about the life of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He was a much more complex person than most people think. He was no ranting imperialistic flunky. In fact, he held most of those types in contempt. So much so, that he had to maintain constant vigilance because of death threats. However, he did his duty, as he was ordered to do, even though he knew the futility of it. He was also totally against the building of the Yamato and Musashi battleships. Utter "folly" he called them and a waste of time and money. He truly believed that the future of war would be aviation. He was proved right. Its really too bad that he was killed, he would have been of great benefit to the restructuring of the new Japanese government. Anyone interested in a more "personal" look of one of the greatest Admirals in the world, will love this book, like I did.

The Hesitant Gambler-Yamamato Isoroku.......2000-07-16

This excellent book is possible the best glimpse of the man behind the plan to attack Pearl Harbor and the plan to trap the U.S. Fleet at Midway. Admiral Yamamoto was experienced in the United States, having been schooled (at Yale, I believe) and knew the American psyche. He knew that the only way to defeat the United States was to strike early and hard, to discourage us before we could even get started. Yamamato was a habitual gambler which goes even further to explain the PH attack because it was an all out gamble. Discovery of the force could have led to disaster spoiling all of Japan's early war aims. Midway was a gamble as well, but this time, Yamamoto lost. This is an excellent study of a man who knew his warrior duties could have but one outcome: defeat for his nation. But he did his duty to the best of his ability, which was not inconsiderable.

The Reluctant Admiral. Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy

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The Reluctant Admiral. Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy

Manufacturer: Kodansha International Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GPLNQ4

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The Reluctant Admiral - Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy

Manufacturer: Kodansha International Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HVTZ9Y

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The Reluctant Admiral : Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy
Hiroyuki; Bester, John (translator) Agawa
Manufacturer: Kodansha America, Incorporated
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PS78AM

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THE RELUCTANT ADMIRAL: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy
Hiroyuki Agawa
Manufacturer: Kodansha
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RNSNS6

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Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy

Manufacturer: Tokyo: Kodansha, 1982
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 4770009992

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Reluctant Admiral: Yamamoto and the Imperial Navy.
HIROYUKI AGAWA
Manufacturer: See notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RQH8VG

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As I Live and Breathe

Courage and a warning

an enlightening account

Beautiful, Elegant, & Wise! A TERRIFIC MEMOIR!

Illness is honest

As I Live and Breathe: Notes of a Patient-Doctor
Jamie Weisman
Manufacturer: North Point Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Medical | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Medicine | Subjects | Books
General | Physician & Patient | Medicine | Subjects | Books
Doctor-Patient Relations | Medicine | Medical | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
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Elements of Bioethics

The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death

One Hundred Days: My Unexpected Journey from Doctor to Patient

Human Genetics: A Problem-Based Approach

Classic Cases in Medical Ethics: Accounts of Cases That Have Shaped Medical Ethics, with Philosophical, Legal, and Historical Backgrounds

ASIN: 0865476020

Book Description

A doctor who is also a long-term patient examines the body, in sickness and in health.

Jamie Weisman was a patient long before she was a doctor. She was born with a rare defect in her immune system that leaves her prey to a range of ailments and crises and that, because it is treatable but not curable, will keep her a patient for life. Her history has graced her with a deeper perspective -- a second sight, in a sense -- on the body itself, in all its frailty, glory, and irreducible mystery.

In this probing and inspiring book, Weisman brings her sojourns on both sides of the doctor-patient divide to bear on the issues of the flesh that preoccupy us all. She considers the randomness of illness, and the fears and fortitude it calls forth in those it strikes. She weighs the economic and moral value of sustaining any given life. She explores the vulnerabilities of the body and of those who care for it, including their capacity for error. And she conveys, by eloquent example, that the only cure for the fear of death is living.

As I Live and Breathe is a view of medicine from both sides of the trenches, embracing the patient's fervent desire for health and the doctor's fervent desire to grant it. It is a worthy addition to the best that has been written about our physical selves, a meditation on our extraordinary powers of healing and the limitations that leave intact the miracle and tragedy of being.

Customer Reviews:

As I Live and Breathe.......2007-04-11

This is the best book I have ever read. Dr Jamie Weisman is my Doctor and she is very dedicated to her patians. She has really done wonders for me. Everyone should read this book to see that they are not the only ones having problems

Courage and a warning.......2006-07-04

Jamie Weisman is an excellent writer and a brave woman. She has been willing to accept the health problems she has been dealt and yet she chooses to grab life by the horns and live it. She acknowledges she is surrounded by a loving strong support system in her family of origin and her husband, and by giving that acknowledgement she also shows grace and strength.

The warning comes from Jamie's spelling out the human mistakes that happen in the practice of medicine, even when the patient and the family advocates are watching closely.

This is an excellent memoir in and of itself but I would also recommend it to anyone trying to be advocate for an ill relative or friend.

an enlightening account.......2003-08-11

After witnessing the painful treatment and deaths of my in-laws recently, I was most interested in the author's account of her unbearable pain when her face was infected, and the problem she had in obtaining relief. She was a doctor herself and the staff knew her--yet she still had to beg for hours for relief. When will the medical profession treat pain adequately? I am disappointed that after enduring so much pain that she does not recognize this need. Overall, her courage is admirable, and we need more doctors who have endured chronic illness to write accounts that enlighten the general public.

Beautiful, Elegant, & Wise! A TERRIFIC MEMOIR!.......2002-11-29

I feel lucky to have been able to read this absolutely exquisite, yet at times gut wrenching, personal memoir, by a very gifted author who, it should be noted, is over twenty years younger than me. As one who has a very limited real life knowledge of medical life and death, it was an eye opener to (what sometimes seems) a completely different world. This is not only a sublime course in medical history and ethics, but a harrowing landscape of how the body can go wrong in myriad ways, and how the medical profession works its genius. The author has been through it from both sides too, and does not flinch in the telling. Not to be missed! Having read thousands of great books in nearly all fields, this is among the all-time best!

Illness is honest.......2002-11-25

Dr. Weisman provides an insightful look into the unique life of a "patient-doctor" in As I Live and Breathe. She battles a chronic, severe immune system illness, at the same time juggling a medical career that is both rewarding and disheartening. The fight for life is sometimes won and sometimes lost, but she keeps a positive attitude through it all. This comes from the exceptional experience that she encounters everyday, through her disease. She uses the knowledge that she has gained from her own illness to create compassion and true sympathy for the patients that she treats. This is unique; this is where most doctors are lacking. She shows both the understanding and knowledge that is rare in the medical profession.
This autobiography is not only about health and medical experience. It is about everything any human being encounters: marriage, childbearing, dealing with the loss of a loved one, and all the trials that comes with them. Dr. Weisman simply puts a spin on life, expressing it to the audience from a different point of view. She ponders on the unique perspectives of all the patients and families that she treats, and finds a positive force in all of them. She learns from her mistakes to help them better their lives. In a way, it is a sort of cycle, both parties feeding off the other.
The power of family is important, she says; it provides an amazing support system for a patient that is much needed. She speaks fondly of her own family and the support that they provide, giving them credit for their undying courage and love. In wonder, she says, "I have never had to stand by and watch a loved one suffer the way my family has stood by me." She also admires her husband, saying, "[There was a] mix of joy I felt at asking another human being to share in the ambiguity of my life. I credit my husband with tremendous courage in loving me, someone whose future is from the start more fragile than others'." The relationship between family and patient is extraordinary, and Weisman does a wonderful job of depicting this with the sheer honesty that comes with an illness.
This book is truly inspirational; the author takes the incredible situation that she is in, and turns it into a masterpiece of insight into the human mind. It expresses the core of the human spirit and everything it can endure. It shows the reader that one can overcome any obstacle and make light of a seemingly dark situation. It also proves that "bad days" are acceptable and "good days" are even better. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a good, honest read.

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