This book suggests that investment decisions cannot be understood by focusing on isolated investors. Rather, most of their money flows through a chain: a sequence of intermediaries that 'sit between' savers and companies/governments. It argues that investment management is shaped by the opportunities and constraints that this chain creates.

Investment is no longer a matter of individual savers directly choosing which shares or bonds to buy. Rather, most of their money flows through a 'chain': an often extended sequence of intermediaries. What goes on in that chain is of huge importance: The world's investment managers, who are now almost as well paid as top bankers, control assets equivalent in value to around a year of total global economic output. In Chains of Finance, five social scientists discuss the ways in which the intermediaries in the chain influence each other, channel the flows of savers' money, enhance investment decisions, and form audiences for each other's performances of financially competent selves. The central argument of the book is that investment management is fashioned profoundly by the opportunities and constraints this chain creates. Whether chains constrain or enable, however, they always entangle, tying intermediaries to each other - silently and profoundly shaping the investment management industry. Chains of Finance is a novel analysis that will make students, social scientists, financial professionals, and regulators looking at the workings of financial markets in a new light. A must-read for anyone looking for insights into the decision-making processes of investment managers and those influenced by and working for them.

This textbook presents a coherent and robust structure for integrated risk management in the context of operations and finance. It explains how the operations-finance interface jointly optimizes material and financial flows under intricate risk exposures. The book covers financial flexibility, operational hedging, enterprise risk management (ERM), supply chain risk management (SCRM), integrated risk management (IRM), supply chain finance (SCF), and financial management of supply chain strategies. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches – including conceptualization, theory building, analytical modeling, and empirical research – are used to assess the value creation by integrating operations and finance. “This book provides a comprehensive description of the interactions between finance and operations and of how managers can best make decisions in recognition of these effects.” John R. Birge, University of Chicago“Supply chain finance is an emerging area where innovations can unlock great values to complement the advances in information and physical flows of supply chain.” Hau L. Lee, Stanford University“This book provides an excellent overview of supply chain finance and its most recent advances.” Jan A. Van Mieghem, Northwestern University“This book is indispensable for advanced students as well as practitioners when looking for a pedagogical sound and scientific rigorous approach to Supply Chain Finance.” Ralf W. Seifert, IMD/EPFL“The book advances our knowledge on the interface between operations and finance and provides managerial guidelines for effective risk management in the supply chain.” Xiande Zhao, CEIBS

Finance and Risk Management for International Logistics and the Supply Chain presents a detailed overview of financial and risk management tools, activity-based costing, and multi-criteria decision-making, providing comprehensive guidance for those researching and working in logistics and supply chain management. The book breaks new ground, combining the expertise of leading authorities to analyze and navigate the funding components for these critical transportation functions. As the international logistics and supply chain transportation fields have recently received heavy investments, this research and the theory behind it provide a timely update on risk management, finance and legal and environmental impacts. Users will find sections that address the wide-ranging issues related to this emerging field that are presented from an international and holistic perspective. - Provides a valuable reference covering the full slate of financial issues of interest to global players in the international transport, logistics and supply chain industries - Covers a truly international perspective, addressing a diverse variety of worldwide transport, logistics and supply chain contexts - Features finance and risk-management strategies related to the banking industry, exchange rates, fuel prices, climate-related funding, freight derivatives and legal aspects

The book “Supply Chain Finance Solutions” offers orientation in the new discipline of Supply Chain Finance (SCF) by investigating the need for and nature of SCF, along with its characteristics and enablers. Due to the novelty of the Supply Chain Finance approach, there are still many knowledge gaps. This lack of research leads to uncertainties about the successful implementation of SCF solutions within companies as there is little quantified evidence on the achievable cost savings and other potential benefits. The authors close this gap by providing the latest information on business concepts and the SCF market. Based on a sample SCF model, the worldwide market size for such solutions and potential cost savings to companies engaged in SCF are analyzed. The work underlines the generally agreed-upon attractiveness and future relevance of SCF solutions by creating win-win situations; for all actors in the end-to-end supply chain as well as for external service providers.

The vast majority of international trade is supported by some form of trade financing: a specialized, sometimes complex form of financing that is poorly understood even by bankers and seasoned finance and treasury experts. Financing Trade and International Supply Chains takes the mystery out of trade and supply chain finance, providing a practical, straightforward overview of a discipline that is fundamental to the successful conduct of trade: trade that contributes to the creation of economic value, poverty reduction and international development, while increasing prosperity across the globe. The book suggests that every trade or supply chain finance solution, no matter how elaborate, addresses some combination of four elements: facilitation of secure and timely payment, effective mitigation of risk, provision of financing and liquidity, and facilitation of transactional and financial information flow. The book includes observations on the effective use of traditional mechanisms such as Documentary Letters of Credit, as well as an overview of emerging supply chain finance solutions and programs, critical to the financing of strategic suppliers and other members of complex supply chain ecosystems. The important role of export credit agencies and international financial institutions is explored, and innovations such as the Bank Payment Obligation are addressed in detail. Financing Trade and International Supply Chains is a valuable resource for practitioners, business executives, entrepreneurs and others involved in international commerce and trade. This book balances concept with practical insight, and can help protect the financial interests of companies pursuing opportunity in international markets.

`This is a "must read" for anyone interested in value chain finance.---Kenneth Shwedel, Agricultural Economist --Book Jacket.

What is digital business reporting? Why do we need it? And how can we improve it? This book aims to address these questions by illustrating the rise of system-to-system information exchange and the opportunities for improving transparency and accountability. Governments around the world are looking for ways to strengthen transparency and accountability without introducing more red tape, which is a source of growing frustration and costs for businesses. In 2004, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands started to investigate the potential of XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) as a uniform data standard for business-to-government information exchange. In 2006, there was a comprehensive architecture for Standard Business Reporting (SBR), including the requirements for the information infrastructure. One year later the first reports in XBRL were successfully delivered to the Tax and Customs Administration and the Chamber of Commerce via a secure infrastructure. Today, millions of business reports are being exchanged using SBR. As a solution, SBR empowers organisations to present a cohesive explanation of their business operations and helps them engage with internal and external stakeholders, including regulators, shareholders and creditors. Challenging the chain describes the journey of SBR from challenge to solution. Specialists in the field – flanked by academics – provide detailed insights on the challenges actors faced and the solutions they achieved. In its versatility, this book exemplifies the necessary paradigm shifts when it comes to such large-scale public-private transformations. Policy makers, managers, IT specialists and architects looking to engage in such transformations will find guidance in this book.

The theory of Markov decision processes focuses on controlled Markov chains in discrete time. The authors establish the theory for general state and action spaces and at the same time show its application by means of numerous examples, mostly taken from the fields of finance and operations research. By using a structural approach many technicalities (concerning measure theory) are avoided. They cover problems with finite and infinite horizons, as well as partially observable Markov decision processes, piecewise deterministic Markov decision processes and stopping problems. The book presents Markov decision processes in action and includes various state-of-the-art applications with a particular view towards finance. It is useful for upper-level undergraduates, Master's students and researchers in both applied probability and finance, and provides exercises (without solutions).

Aswath Damodaran, distinguished author, Professor of Finance, and David Margolis, Teaching Fellow at the NYU Stern School of Business, has delivered the newest edition of Applied Corporate Finance. This readable text provides the practical advice students and practitioners need rather than a sole concentration on debate theory, assumptions, or models. Like no other text of its kind, Applied Corporate Finance, 4th Edition applies corporate finance to real companies. It now contains six real-world core companies to study and follow. Business decisions are classified for students into three groups: investment, financing, and dividend decisions.