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This book lays the foundations for quality modeling and analysis in the context of supply chains through a synthesis of the economics, operations management, as well as operations research/management science literature on quality. The reality of today's supply chain networks, given their global reach from sourcing locations to points of demand, is further challenged by such issues as the growth in outsourcing as well as the information asymmetry associated with what producers know about the quality of their products and what consumers know. Although much of the related literature has focused on the micro aspects of supply chain networks, considering two or three decision-makers, it is essential to capture the scale of supply chain networks in a holistic manner that occurs in practice in order to be able to evaluate and analyze the competition and the impacts on supply chain quality in a quantifiable manner. This volume provides an overview of the fundamental methodologies utilized in this book, including optimization theory, game theory, variational inequality theory, and projected dynamical systems theory. It then focuses on major issues in today's supply chains with respect to quality, beginning with information asymmetry, followed by product differentiation and branding, the outsourcing of production, from components to final products, to quality in freight service provision. The book is filled with numerous real-life examples in order to emphasize the generality and pragmatism of the models and tools. The novelty of the framework lies in a network economics perspective through which the authors identify the underlying network structure of the various supply chains, coupled with the behavior of the decision-makers, ranging from suppliers and manufacturers to freight service providers. What is meant by quality is rigorously defined and quantified. The authors explore the underlying dynamics associated with the competitive processes along with the equilibrium solutions. As appropriate, the supply chain decision-makers compete in terms of quantity and quality, or in price and quality. The relevance of the various models that are developed to specific industrial sectors, including pharmaceuticals and high technology products, is clearly made. Qualitative analyses are provided, along with effective, and, easy to implement, computational procedures. Finally, the impacts of policy interventions, in the form of minimum quality standards, and their ramifications, in terms of product prices, quality levels, as well as profits are explored. The book is filled with many network figures, graphs, and tables with data.

Son preference prevails among Indian families. We test the hypothesis that women who bear sons experience an elevated status within the household, which translates into their increased role in decision-making. Using data from the Indian Human Development Survey, we find that women who have given birth to at least one son show greater participation in the household's financial decisions as well as other decisions on a regular basis. After analysing 13 decision variables, we find that women who have given birth to at least one son enjoy higher overall bargaining power in the household. For example, in decisions concerning what to spend money on, having a son is equivalent to 6 years of formal education. We also show that the presence of a senior member in the household, however, often reduces the women's household bargaining strength. JEL Classification Codes: J11, J12, J13, D190

At the end of the 19th century, South Asia subcontinent was ruled by British Empire. After the Mutiny in 1857, British India Islamic nationalism appeared among British Indian Muslims. In this social context, the Muslims in the United Province which located in northern India grew the United Province to be a strong political vanguard. The Muslims in the United Province carried out political activities positively, established political parties, and disseminated their political ideology around the whole British India. At last, the Muslims in the United Province united most of Muslims in British India to fight for their rights.

The divide and rule policy adopted by the British India government, which had drive the British India society from religious complexity and social conflicted into even worse. With sectarian conflict in the British India and the invasion from the United Kingdom, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan's initial reaction was to appeal solidarity and struggle for the independence of whole British Indian people. However, with the evolution of a series of events, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan had abandoned the original intention gradually, and had played a vital role in promoted the British India Islamic Nationalism among the British India Muslims eventually.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine country perceptions in China from the point of view of the personality concept.Design/methodology/approachA country personality scale developed in a Western country was adapted to the Chinese social context and used to position 11 different countries, including China, on six personality dimensions. This was accomplished by means of a survey of 184 adult Chinese people from the city of Beijing.FindingsThe results show that the adapted scale has good psychometric properties, that it behaves appropriately with respect to some theoretical expectations, and that it brings about results that are consistent with common sense and with previous country image research.Research limitations/implicationsThe study should be replicated with a more representative sample of Chinese people and a larger array of country stimuli.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the country personality scale can be used to better understand how Chinese consumers think of a product's country of origin and suggest appropriate product positioning strategies to help multinational corporations define their strategic actions with respect to China.