Customer demands on manufacturers and retailers are increasing relentlessly. Spurred by the Internet's “click it and get it” value proposition, a growing number of consumers and business buyers want customized products, convenient ordering, and rapid fulfillment. Delivering against these...

Resilience, in the context of earth's ecosystems, is defined as the capacity to absorb a shock, reorganize, and continue to function as before. This basic ability is often taken for granted by the global economy, and yet evidence is mounting that crucial ecosystems are in decline. Without a...

This paper articulates and applies frameworks for examining whether consumption is excessive. We consider two criteria for the possible excessiveness (or insufficiency) of current consumption. One is an intertemporal utility-maximization criterion: actual current consumption is deemed excessive...