Multi-criteria decision analysis

Weeks et al.’s (2008) state that “literature on rural veterans' health care needs warrants expansion and investment so that policy makers can make informed decisions in an environment of limited resources and competing interests.” In general, it’s understood that studies of access to care found that rural veterans have less access to care and were more vulnerable to travel barriers than their urban counterparts. Weeks et al.’s (2008) “conducted a review of the peer-reviewed literature that…

Collectivism implies that people are integrated from birth into strong, cohesive groups that protect them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. Hofstede found that individualistic cultures value personal time, freedom, challenge, and such extrinsic motivators as material rewards at work. In family relations, they value honesty/truth, talking things out, using guilt to achieve behavioral goals, and maintaining self-respect. Their societies and governments place individual social-economic…

Social Sci., 6 (1): 99-112, 2010 assumptions provides good support for the use of qualitative methods. To that end, some writers have argued that assumptions can be so deeply embedded that only a complex interactive process of joint inquiry between insiders and outsiders can bring them to the surface (Schein, 1984). Clearly this kind of interactive probing is essential for less visible manifestations of culture. Such observations led some to conclude that as the elements of culture become more…

Revised April 7, 2003 Starbucks Corporation: Competing in a Global Market Starbucks Corporation is a Seattle, Washington-based coffee company. It buys, roasts, and sells whole bean specialty coffees and coffee drinks through an international chain of retail outlets. From its beginnings as a seller of packaged, premium specialty coffees, Starbucks has evolved into a firm known for its coffeehouses, where people can purchase beverages and food items as well as packaged whole bean and ground…

Does the company need to defend itself against new competition? Under Armour, founded in 1996, has successfully entered the high-performance apparel industry. Bargaining power of suppliers: How dependent is the business on its suppliers? If the business has only one major supplier and no available alternatives, the supplier has great bargaining power. Conversely, a business can have bargaining power over the supplier. For example, Nike doesn’t manufacture its own sneakers; it uses…

In addition, some of our ingredients, such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, saccharin and ascorbic acid, as well as some of the packaging containers, such as aluminum cans, are available from a limited number of suppliers, some of which are located in countries experiencing political or other risks. We cannot assure you that we and our bottling partners will be able to maintain favorable arrangements and relationships with these suppliers. The citrus industry is subject to the…

find that: IRRNX-20 = 20.34% The IRR criteria implies accepting the NX-20. c. The profitability index is the present value of all subsequent cash flows, divided by the initial investment, so the profitability index of each project is: PINP-30 = ($185,000{[1 – (1/1.15)5 ] / .15 }) / $550,000 PINP-30 = 1.128 PINX-20 = [$100,000 / 1.15 + $110,000 / 1.152 + $121,000 / 1.153 + $133,100 / 1.154 + $146,410 / 1.155] / $350,000 PINX-20 = 1.139 The PI criteria implies accepting the…

At the beginning of the period, the price of Computers, Inc. divided by the industry index was 0.39; by the end of the period, the ratio had increased to 0.50. As the ratio increased over the period, it appears that Computers, Inc. outperformed other firms in its industry. The overall trend, therefore, indicates relative strength, although some fluctuation existed during the period, with the ratio falling to a low point of 0.33 on day 19. 18. Five day moving averages: Days 1 – 5: (19.63 + 20 +…

While ubiquitous Internet access is extremely convenient and enables marvelous new applications for mobile users, it also creates a major security vulnerability—by placing a passive receiver in the vicinity of the wireless transmitter, that receiver can obtain a copy of every packet that is transmitted! These packets can contain all kinds of sensitive information, including passwords, social security numbers, trade secrets, and private personal messages. A passive receiver that records a copy of…

"Well, use your head, son," he said, smiling. Which really meant, "That's all I'm going to tell you," or "I don't know the answer, so don't embarrass me." A Partnership Is Formed The next morning, I told my best friend, Mike, what my dad had said. As best I could tell, Mike and I were the only poor kids in this school. Mike was like me in that he was in this school by a twist of fate. Someone had drawn a jog in the line for the school district, and we wound up in school with the rich kids. We…