Pure Strategy

A stimulating new inquiry into the fundamental truth of strategy - its purpose, place, utility, and value. This new study is animated by a startling realization: the concept of strategic victory must be summarily discarded. This is not to say that victory has no place in strategy or strategic planning. The outcome of battles and campaigns are variables within the strategist's plan, but victory is a concept that has no meaning there. To the tactical and operational planner, wars are indeed won and lost, and the difference is plain. Success is measurable; failure is obvious. In contrast, the pure strategist understands that war is but one aspect of social and political competition, an ongoing interaction that has no finality. Strategy therefore connects the conduct of war with the intent of politics. It shapes and guides military means in anticipation of a panoply of possible coming events. In the process, strategy changes the context within which events will happen. In this new book we see clearly that the goal of strategy is not to culminate events, to establish finality in the discourse between states, but to continue them; to influence state discourse in such a way that it will go forward on favorable terms. For continue it will. This book will provoke debate and stimulate new thinking across the field and strategic studies.

"Backgammon - Pure Strategy" goes deeper into understanding the theory of the game, than any other book before it. This is not a beginners book. This is the book to take your game from intermediate or advanced, into the expert or world class level. The book explains how the backgammon AI algorithms (artificial intelligence) work, and how we as humans can get inspired from them. With this inspiration, the book presents a very strong framework of understanding the dynamics and strategy of the game: a human neural net philosophy. But instead of using brute force calculation power as a computer does, we use pattern recognition and conceptual thinking. The second part of the book consists of 129 quiz positions, where the ideas and principles of the first part are put to practice. The reader is encouraged to make an effort to find the best move and understand what's going on in the position. Each position has an in-depth analysis, when you turn the page.

Ferdinand Mahr develops an integrative theoretical model of IT complements such as organizational structure, human resource management, and corporate strategy. He conducts two empirical analyses of the complementarities between IT, organization, and strategy.

To make the best decisions, you need the best information. However, because most issues in game theory are grey, nearly all recent research has been carried out using a simplified method that considers grey systems as white ones. This often results in a forecasting function that is far from satisfactory when applied to many real situations. Grey Ga

Enhance your decision-making skills with the comprehensive e-Book 'Quantitative Techniques for Decision Making' designed for MBA II Semester students at Anna University, Chennai. Published by Thakur Publications, this invaluable resource equips you with the essential quantitative tools and techniques needed to analyze data, make informed decisions, and achieve business success. Accessible and practical, this e-Book is your guide to mastering quantitative techniques and their application in real-world scenarios. Elevate your decision-making process and excel in your MBA studies with this trusted resource.

Strategic interaction occurs whenever it depends on others what one finally obtains: on markets, in firms, in politics etc. Game theorists analyse such interaction normatively, using numerous different methods. The rationalistic approach assumes perfect rationality whereas behavioral theories take into account cognitive limitations of human decision makers. In the animal kingdom one usually refers to evolutionary forces when explaining social interaction. The volume contains innovative contributions, surveys of previous work and two interviews which shed new light on these important topics of the research agenda. The contributions come from highly regarded researchers from all over the world who like to express in this way their intellectual inspiration by the Nobel-laureate Reinhard Selten.

The new edition of a widely used introduction to game theory and its applications, with a focus on economics, business, and politics. This widely used introduction to game theory is rigorous but accessible, unique in its balance between the theoretical and the practical, with examples and applications following almost every theory-driven chapter. In recent years, game theory has become an important methodological tool for all fields of social sciences, biology and computer science. This second edition of Strategies and Games not only takes into account new game theoretical concepts and applications such as bargaining and matching, it also provides an array of chapters on game theory applied to the political arena. New examples, case studies, and applications relevant to a wide range of behavioral disciplines are now included. The authors map out alternate pathways through the book for instructors in economics, business, and political science. The book contains four parts: strategic form games, extensive form games, asymmetric information games, and cooperative games and matching. Theoretical topics include dominance solutions, Nash equilibrium, Condorcet paradox, backward induction, subgame perfection, repeated and dynamic games, Bayes-Nash equilibrium, mechanism design, auction theory, signaling, the Shapley value, and stable matchings. Applications and case studies include OPEC, voting, poison pills, Treasury auctions, trade agreements, pork-barrel spending, climate change, bargaining and audience costs, markets for lemons, and school choice. Each chapter includes concept checks and tallies end-of-chapter problems. An appendix offers a thorough discussion of single-agent decision theory, which underpins game theory.