Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Entrepreneurship and Innovation Toolkit
Lee Swanson · OPENPRESS.USASK.CA · 2017
This book is designed for upper year undergraduate students and graduate students studying fundamental entrepreneurship concepts.
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Project Management
Adrienne Watt · BCcampus · 2014
This book covers the basics of project management. This includes the process of initiation, planning, execution, control and close out that all projects share.
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Health and Safety in Canadian Workplaces
Jason Foster; Bob Barnetson · Athabasca University Press · 2016
Workplace injuries happen every day and can profoundly affect workers, their families, and the communities they live in. This textbook provides workers with an introduction to effective injury prevention. The book pays particular attention to how issues of precarious employment, gender, and ill health can be better handled in Canadian occupational health and safety (OHS).This introduction to OHS differs from others because it contends that the practice of occupational health and safety can only be properly understood if we acknowledge that workers and employers have conflicting interests. Specifically, we investigate which workplace hazards are recognized and controlled,the manner in which these hazards are controlled, and who makes these decisions. These are all factors that reflect the broader political economy of employment and suggest that OHS is contested terrain.
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Introductory Business Statistics with Interactive Spreadsheets
Mohammad Mahbobi; Thomas Tiemann · BCcampus · 2010
Introductory Business Statistics with Interactive Spreadsheets – 1st Canadian Edition is an adaptation of Thomas K. Tiemann's book, Introductory Business Statistics. This new edition still contains the basic ideas behind statistics, such as populations, samples, the difference between data and information, and sampling distributions as well as information on descriptive statistics and frequency distributions, normal and t-distributions, hypothesis testing, t-tests, f-tests, analysis of variance, non-parametric tests, and regression basics. New topics include the chi-square test and categorical variables, null and alternative hypotheses for the test of independence, simple linear regression model, least squares method, coefficient of determination, confidence interval for the average of the dependent variable, and prediction interval for a specific value of the dependent variable. This new edition also allows readers to learn the basic and most commonly applied statistical techniques in business in an interactive way — when using the web version — through interactive Excel spreadsheets. For each topic, a customized interactive template has been created within which selected values can be repeatedly changed to observe how the entire process, as well as the outcomes, are automatically adjusted. Also, in this adapted edition, the real-world examples throughout the text, and the information in general, have been revised to reflect Canadian content.
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Mastering Strategic Management
Janice Edwards; Dave Ketchen; Jeremy Short · BCcampus · 2014
Mastering Strategic Management is designed to enhance student engagement in three innovative ways. The first is through visual adaptations of the key content in the book. It is well documented that many of today's students are visual learners. To meet students' wants and needs (and thereby create a much better teaching experience for professors), Mastering Strategic Management contains multiple graphic concept pages in ever section of every chapter of the book. Think of graphic concept pages as almost like info-graphics for key concepts in each section. This feature sets Mastering Strategic Management apart from any strategic management book on the market today. The second way the authors capture student interest through their textbook is by using a real-world company as the running example in each chapter. For example, Chapter 1 in Mastering Strategic Management utilizes Blackberry to harness the conceptual coverage of the chapter in a running, corporate, application to which students will relate. The third inventive way Mastering Strategic Management holds the attention of strategic management students is through the “strategy at the movies” feature in each chapter that links course concepts with a popular motion picture.
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Fundamentals of Business
Stephen Skripak; Ron Poff · Virginia Tech Libraries · 2023
Fundamentals of Business, 4th Edition is an open education resource intended to serve as a no-cost, faculty-customizable primary text for one-semester undergraduate introductory business courses. It covers the following topics in business: Teamwork; economics; ethics; entrepreneurship; business ownership, management, and leadership; organizational structures and operations management; human resources and motivating employees; managing in labor union contexts; marketing and pricing strategy; hospitality and tourism, accounting and finance, personal finances, and technology in business. The textbook was designed for use in Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business introductory level business course, MGT1104 Foundations of Business and is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 license. If you are an instructor reviewing, adopting, or adapting this textbook, please help us understand your use by filling out this form http://bit.ly/business-interest. A testbank is now available by request for this book: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/93404. The testbank covers chapters 1-18 and (currently) aligns to previous editions of the textbook. It is available to any instructor who has adopted Fundamentals of Business in their course.
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Law of Commercial Transactions
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Law of Commercial Transactions is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students who engage in commercial transactions must understand. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Law of Commercial Transactions provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to key commercial transactions topics: contracts, sales, commercial paper, debtors and creditors. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy students will need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, creditors, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Law for Entrepreneurs
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Law for Entrepreneurs is an up-to-date textbook that covers the broad spectrum of legal issues that entrepreneurs must understand when starting and running a business. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Law for Entrepreneurs provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to contracts, product liability, intellectual property, insurance, agency law, partnerships, corporations, and employment law. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy that entrepreneurs need to talk in an educated way to customers, suppliers, employees, creditors, shareholders, government regulators and other stakeholders — and to their own lawyers.
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Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance is an up-to-date textbook that covers legal issues that students must understand relating to real estate (an especially important business asset), as well as estate planning and insurance. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with their clear, concise and readable style. After introductory chapters covering the legal environment of business, Introduction to the Law of Property, Estate Planning and Insurance provides students with context and essential legal concepts relating to property rights and duties, estate planning, insurance, secured transactions, mortgages, and related topics. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy they will need when working with these concepts, which are critical to business planning and success.
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Introduction to Contracts, Sales and Product Liability
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel; Jethro Lieberman · Saylor Foundation · 2012
This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with whichmanagers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumennecessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers,government officials—and to their own lawyers. Traditional publishers often create confusion among customers in the text selection process by offering ahuge array of publications. Once a text is selected, customers might still have to customize the text to meettheir needs. For example, publishers usually offer books that include either case summaries or excerptedcases, but some instructors prefer to combine case summaries with a few excerpted cases so that studentscan experience reading original material. Likewise, the manner in which most conventional textsincorporate video is cumbersome because the videos are contained in a separate library, which makesaccess more complicating for instructors and students.
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Business Law and the Legal Environment
Don Mayer; Daniel Warner; George Siedel · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Our goal is to provide students with a textbook that is up to date and comprehensive in its coverage of legal and regulatory issues—and organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. This book engages students by relating law to everyday events with which they are already familiar (or with which they are familiarizing themselves in other business courses) and by its clear, concise, and readable style. (An earlier business law text by authors Lieberman and Siedel was hailed “the best written text in a very crowded field.”) This textbook provides context and essential concepts across the entire range of legal issues with which managers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal acumen necessary for businesspeople to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers, government officials—and to their own lawyers.
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The Business Ethics Workshop
James Brusseau · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Ethics is about determining value; it's deciding what's worth doing and what doesn't matter so much.Business ethics is the way we decide what kind of career to pursue, what choices we make on the job,which companies we want to work with, and what kind of economic world we want to live in and thenleave behind for those coming after. There are no perfect answers to these questions, but there's adifference between thinking them through and winging it. The Business Ethics Workshop provides aframework for identifying, analyzing, and resolving ethical dilemmas encountered through working life.
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Beyond Lean: Simulation in Practice
Charles Standridge · Grand Valley State University · 2013
Lean thinking, as well as associated processes and tools, have involved into a ubiquitous perspective for improving systems particularly in the manufacturing arena. With application experience has come an understanding of the boundaries of lean capabilities and the benefits of getting beyond these boundaries to further improve performance. Discrete event simulation is recognized as one beyond-the-boundaries of lean technique. Thus, the fundamental goal of this text is to show how discrete event simulation can be used in addition to lean thinking to achieve greater benefits in system improvement than with lean alone. Realizing this goal requires learning the problems that simulation solves as well as the methods required to solve them. The problems that simulation solves are captured in a collection of case studies. These studies serve as metaphors for industrial problems that are commonly addressed using lean and simulation.
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Guidelines for Improving the Effectiveness of Boards of Directors of Nonprofit Organizations
Yvonne Harrison; Vic Murray · Open SUNY · 2014
The purpose of this book is to help boards of directors of nonprofit organizations improve their performance after completing the online board self-assessment tool found at www.boardcheckup.com. However, it can also be used as a stand-alone resource for any board seeking to enhance its effectiveness in that it also contains the diagnostic questions on which the online tool is based. The approach taken here is similar to that which lies behind health checkups for individuals. Doctors usually begin by asking us to review a lengthy list of many possible health issues and we check those about which we have concerns. The doctor and patient then focus their discussions on these issues. The typical process proceeds through the following three stages: Understanding the symptoms. The doctor and patient begin by trying to define the issues more clearly. Diagnosis. Effort is made to understand the causes of the problems through tests and further examination. Treatment. Once the problem has been properly diagnosed, a treatment program to remedy it is begun. While the Board Check-Up survey on which this book is based does not pretend to be as scientifically rigorous as a medical examination, it is based on the same logic. It begins by having those who belong to, or relate to, boards provide their perceptions of how well the board is working by guiding them through a list of potential "health issues”, i.e. statements of possible problems, issues or challenges that boards might encounter in their work. These statements have been derived from comments made by those who serve on boards or interact with them as well as from the work of researchers and consultants who have studied boards over the past 30 years. Once issues (symptoms) have been identified, they become the focal point for discussions that explore how serious they are, what might be causing them (diagnosis) and what can be done to resolve them (treatment). As noted above, this book is intended to help boards assess perfo
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The Sustainable Business Case Book
Ross Gittell; Matt Magnusson; Michael Merenda · Saylor Foundation · 2012
The issue of sustainability and specifically sustainable business is of increasing interest and importance to students of business and also students in the sciences, government, public policy, planning and other fields. There can be significant benefits from students learning about sustainable business from the rich experiences of business practice. The Sustainable Business Case Book by Gittell, Magnusson and Merenda is one of the first of its kind. It combines the the theory of sustainability with key concepts, analytical information and contextual information with a collection of cases which provide insights, perspective and practical guidance on how sustainable businesses operate from different business functional area perspectives. The Sustainable Business Case Book can be used as a stand-alone text or as a supplemental textbook for undergraduate courses that have an interest in sustainable business. While the book's primary focus is on the relationship between business and sustainability, the book can also be used in courses offered in fields other than business, including environmental and earth systems sciences, environmental studies, urban planning, economics and public policy. The first part of The Sustainable Business Case Book, Chapter 1 through Chapter 3, introduces students to the meaning of sustainability, and the practice of sustainable business. The introductory chapters also describe key concepts, analytical frameworks, and contextual information relevant for the understanding of business sustainability. Chapter 1, defines sustainability and describes how and why businesses choose to engage in sustainable practices and how sustainable business practices relate to corporate profitability and social responsibility. Chapters 2 and 3 provide important background and contextual information affecting sustainable business practice. Chapter 2, The Science of Sustainability, reviews scientific evidence about climate change and the human and business influenc
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Small Business Management in the 21st Century
David Cadden; Sandra Lueder · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Small Business Management in the 21st Century offers a unique perspective and set of capabilities for instructors. The authors designed this book with a “less can be more” approach, and by treating small business management as a practical human activity rather than as an abstract theoretical concept. The text has a format and structure that will be familiar to you if you use other books on small business management. Yet it brings a fresh perspective by incorporating three distinctive and unique themes and an important new feature (Disaster Watch) which is embedded throughout the entire text. These themes assure that students see the material in an integrated context rather than a stream of separate and distinct topics. First, the authors incorporate the use of technology and e-business as a way to gain competitive advantage over larger rivals. Technology is omnipresent in today's business world. Small business must use it to its advantage. We provide practical discussions and examples of how a small business can use these technologies without having extensive expertise or expenditures. Second, they explicitly acknowledge the constant need to examine how decisions affect cash flow by incorporating cash flow impact content in several chapters. As the life blood of all organizations, cash flow implications must be a factor in all business decision-making. Third, they recognize the need to clearly identify sources of customer value and bring that understanding to every decision. Decisions that do not add to customer value should be seriously reconsidered. Small Business Management in 21st Century boasts a new feature called Disaster Watch scenarios. Few texts cover, in any detail, some of the major hazards that small business managers face. Disaster Watch scenarios, included in most chapters, cover topics that include financing, bankers, creditors, employees, customers who don't pay, economic downturns, and marketing mistakes.
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Leading with Cultural Intelligence
Mai Moua · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Organizations in the 21st century are in need of culturally intelligent managers and leaders. The pressure to build authentic global networks and to cultivate an appreciation and respect for cultural differences and similarities has driven cultural intelligence to the forefront of diversity and inclusion work. Preparing today's students to be effective leaders in their professional lives requires that they hone their cultural intelligence as it is vital to working inter- and intra-culturally in today's global economy. This unique ability to identify, recognize, and acknowledge the differences and similarities that exist between and among cultural groups and systems will set their leadership skills apart from the masses. And when applied, cultural intelligence can bridge the gap in cultural misunderstanding by creating awareness, knowledge, and patience of cultural norms and behaviors. The purpose of Leading With Cultural Intelligence by Mia Moua is to outline the important ideas of cultural intelligence and the steps that must be considered and then practiced to become a culturally intelligent leader. The most important aspect covered within this book is that cultural intelligence is both a strategy and a tool towards cultural competency and proficiency. This book outlines the importance of understanding culture and its impact on organizations, the strategic value of cultural intelligence, and the significance of integrating and practicing cultural intelligence in everyday business life. When all these aspects are properly integrated and applied in the leadership and management process, organizations are more innovative and adaptable to respond to cultural changes.
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Foundations of Business Law and Legal Environment
Don Mayer · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Mayer, Warner, Siedel and Lieberman's Foundations of Business Law and the Legal Environment is an up-to-date textbook with comprehensive coverage of legal and regulatory issues for your introductory Legal Environment or Business Law course. The text is organized to permit instructors to tailor the materials to their particular approach. The authors take special care to engage students by relating law to everyday events with which they are already familiar with their clear, concise and readable style. Business Law and the Legal Environment provides students with context and essential concepts across a broad range of legal issues with which managers and business executives must grapple. The text provides the vocabulary and legal savvy necessary for business people to talk in an educated way to their customers, employees, suppliers, government officials — and to their own lawyers.
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Focusing on Organizational Change
William Judge · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Never before have strategic leaders been confronted with so much overwhelming change. The traditional approach is to teach the leader or leaders how to direct or control the organizations' reaction on a monthly, weekly, or even daily basis. This approach is stressful and overwhelming for executive leaders, makes middle managers feel torn between honoring their senior leaders and listening to the demands of front line employees, and is alienating for front line employees. Focusing on Organizational Change offers an alternative to the traditional approach by focusing on building the change capacity of the entire organization in anticipation of future pressures to change. Based on systematic research of more than 5,000 respondents working within more than 200 organization or organizational units conducted during the previous decade, this book offers a clear and proven method for diagnosing your organizational change capacity. While building organizational change capacity is not fast or easy, it is essential for effective leadership and organizational survival in the 21st century.
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Developing New Products and Services
G. Lawrence Sanders · Saylor Foundation · 2012
Developing New Products and Services by Sanders is an outstanding contribution to market research. The book focuses on the upfront activities and ideas for new product and service development. A central theme of Developing New Products and Services is that there is, or should be, a constant struggle going on in every organization, business, and system between delivering feature-rich versions of products and services using extravagant engineering and delivering low-cost versions of products and services using frugal engineering. Students will come away with this notion and how to manifest it as a contributing employee at any company. A number of powerful concepts and tools are presented so your students can better understand how to facilitate new product development. For example, three templates are featured that facilitate new product and service development. The FAD (features, attributes, and design) template is used to identify the features and attributes that can be used for product and service differentiation. The Ten–Ten planning process contains two templates: an Organizational and Industry Analysis template and the Business Plan Overview template. These two templates coupled with the FAD template can be used to develop a full-blown business plan. In addition, Developing New Products and Services includes the following topics: entrepreneurship, technology and product life cycles, product and service versioning, product line optimization, creativity, lock-in real options, business valuation, and project management. Evaluate Developing New Products and Services by Sanders for your marketing courses today.