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While the number of think tanks active in American politics has more than quadrupled since the 1970s, their influence has not expanded proportionally. Instead, the known ideological proclivities of many, especially newer think tanks with their aggressive efforts to obtain high profiles, have come to undermine the credibility with which experts and expertise are generally viewed by public officials. This book explains this paradox. The analysis is based on 135 in-depth interviews with officials at think tanks and those in the policy making and funding organizations that draw upon and support their work. The book reports on results from a survey of congressional staff and journalists and detailed case studies of the role of experts in health care and telecommunications reform debates in the 1990s and tax reduction in 2001.

After Haiti's 2010 earthquake, over half of U.S. households donated to thousands of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in that country. Yet we continue to hear stories of misery from Haiti. Why have NGOs failed at their mission?Set in Haiti during the 2004 coup and aftermath and enhanced by research conducted after the 2010 earthquake,Killing with Kindnessanalyzes the impact of official development aid on recipient NGOs and their relationships with local communities. Written like a detective story, the book offers rich enthnographic comparisons of two Haitian women's NGOs working in HIV/AIDS prevention, one with public funding (including USAID), the other with private European NGO partners. Mark Schuller looks at participation and autonomy, analyzing donor policies that inhibit these goals. He focuses on NGOs' roles as intermediaries in \"gluing\" the contemporary world system together and shows how power works within the aid system as these intermediaries impose interpretations of unclear mandates down the chain-a process Schuller calls \"trickle-down imperialism.\"

Consumers use warmth and competence, two fundamental dimensions that govern social judgments of people, to form perceptions of firms. Three experiments showed that consumers perceive nonprofits as being warmer than for‐profits but as less competent. Further, consumers are less willing to buy a product made by a nonprofit than a for‐profit because of their perception that the firm lacks competence. Consequently, when perceived competence of a nonprofit is boosted through subtle cues that connote credibility, discrepancies in willingness to buy disappear. In fact, when consumers perceive high levels of competence and warmth, they feel admiration for the firm—which translates to consumers’ increased desire to buy. This work highlights the importance of consumer stereotypes about nonprofit and for‐profit companies that, at baseline, come with opposing advantages and disadvantages but that can be altered.

\"A history of how corporate innovation has shaped society, from ancient Rome to Silicon Valley. Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism has only grown more intense in recent year. Meanwhile, corporations continue to amass wealth and power at a dizzying rate, recklessly pursuing profit while leaving society to sort out the costs. In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of the corporation didn't have to come to this. Throughout history, he finds, corporations have been purpose-built to benefit the societies that surrounded them. Corporations enabled everything from the construction of ancient Rome's roads and aqueducts to the artistic flourishing of the Renaissance to the rise of the middle class in the twentieth century. By recapturing this original spirit of civic virtue, Magnuson argues, corporations can help craft a society in which all of us--not just shareholders--benefit from the profits of enterprise\"--Provided by publisher

This article proposes and validates a Mamdani fuzzy-inference model to diagnose the profitability of the fictitious company TecnoAmazon Ltda., using 2024 income-statement data. Four input variables, General Administrative Expenses (DGA), Tax Expenses (DT), Financial Expenses (DF) and Financial Revenue (RF),were fuzzified into Low, Medium and High through trapezoidal membership functions calibrated on historical quartiles. An 81-rule IF-THEN base, generated by the Wang-Mendel algorithm and refined by domain experts, feeds the Mamdani core; centroid defuzzification yields the crisp score CompLucroO on a 030 scale. The model achieved a mean absolute error below 8 % against accounting ROE and a Kendall's W of 0.85 versus analysts' rankings, supporting the hypothesis that fuzzy logic captures performance nuances overlooked by crisp metrics. Limitations include single-year scope, subjective parameter tuning and exclusion of macroeconomic factors. Future work should extend the time series, explore type-2 or neuro-fuzzy systems, and incorporate ESG indicators. Keywords: Fuzzy Logic. Mamdani. Corporate Profitability. Income Statement. Accounting Analysis. Este trabalho desenvolve e valida um modelo de inferencia fuzzy Mamdani para diagnosticar a rentabilidade da empresa ficticia TecnoAmazon Ltda., a partir da margem operacional da Demonstracao do Resultado do Exercicio de 2024. Quatro variaveis de entrada, Despesas Gerais Administrativas (DGA), Despesas Tributaria (DT), Despesas Financeira (DF) e Receita Financeira (RF), foram designando os termos Baixa, Media e Alta por meio de funcoes trapezoidais calibradas com quartis historicos. Uma base de 81 regras SE-ENTAO, gerada pelo algoritmo Wang-Mendel e validada por especialistas, alimentou o nucleo Mamdani; a defuzzificacao Centroide produziu o escore CompLucroO (0-30). O modelo obteve erro medio absoluto inferior a 8 % em relacao ao ROE contabil e indice Kendall W de 0,85 quando comparado ao ranking interno de analistas, evidenciando que a logica fuzzy capta nuances ignoradas por metricas crisp. Limitacoes concentram-se no recorte temporal unico, subjetividade na parametrizacao e ausencia de variaveis macroeconomicas. Recomenda-se ampliar a serie historica, testar conjuntos tipo-2 e integrar indicadores ESG em pesquisas futuras. Palavras-chave: Logica Fuzzy. Mamdani. Rentabilidade Empresarial. Demonstracao de Resultados. Analise Contabil. Este artigo desarrolla y valida un modelo de inferencia difusa Mamdani para diagnosticar la rentabilidad da empresa ficticia TecnoAmazon Ltda., utilizando los margem operativo del Estado de Resultados de 2024. Cuatro variables de entrada, Gastos Generales Administrativos (DGA), Gastos Tributarios (DT), Gastos Financiero (DF) y Ingresos Financieros (RF), se difusificaron en Bajo, Medio y Alto mediante funciones trapezoidales calibradas con cuartiles historicos. Una base de 81 reglas SI-ENTONCES, generada por el algoritmo Wang-Mendel y validada por especialistas, alimento el nucleo Mamdani; la defusificacion por centroide produjo la puntuacion CompLucroO (0-30). El modelo registro un error absoluto medio inferior al 8 % frente al ROE contable y un coeficiente Kendall W de 0,85 al compararse con la clasificacion de los analistas, demostrando que la logica difusa capta matices que las metricas crisps pasan por alto. Las limitaciones se centran en el alcance de un solo ano, la subjetividad en la parametrizacion y la ausencia de variables macroeconomicas. Se sugiere ampliar la serie temporal, probar conjuntos tipo-2 e integrar indicadores ESG en futuras investigaciones. Palabras clave: Logica Difusa. Mamdani. Rentabilidad Empresarial. Estado de Resultados. Analisis Contable.