Foreward

I am pleased to present the Proceedings of the Fortieth Annual Meeting of the Western Decision Sciences Institute. This CD-ROM contains the papers that were submitted in camera-ready version for the Proceedings.

As you know, any entity that has been around for forty years has been built on the strength of many leaders. We honor all of the WDSI Past Presidents for their service. Several of them gave invaluable input into the planning and coordination of this meeting. The current WDSI Board members gave me assistance that made completing my responsibilities possible. I thank each of them, especially Nafisseh Heiat, John Davies, Richard Jenson, Abbas Heiat, and Mahyar Amouzegar. It is truly a team effort to organize a successful meeting.

Organizing a conference of this magnitude requires the unyielding efforts of countless volunteers. The 2011 WDSI Annual Meeting was supported by a Program Planning Committee consisting of Track Chairs and Country Contacts. I would like to thank each member of the Committee for his/her efforts in managing the review process, organizing sessions, and assisting in the planning of the conference. Thanks to all who submitted papers for consideration. Thanks to all who served as reviewers, for the peer-review process cannot go forward without your efforts.

I am also grateful to personnel at Travel Portland, the Embassy Suites, New Times Media Corporation and Bootleg Enterprise for their help with physical arrangements and the production of the printed program and the CD Proceedings. I am also grateful for the support of our Sponsors and Exhibitors.

On behalf of WDSI President, Nafisseh Heiat, the Board of WDSI, and the 2011 Program Planning Committee, I present the Proceedings from the 2011 WDSI meeting.

Sheldon R. Smith - Vice-President for Programs and Program Chair

Woodbury School of Business, Utah Valley University

WDSI President

Nafisseh Heiat - Montana State University-Billings

WDSI Vice President for Programs, Program Chair, and Proceedings Editor

Sheldon R. Smith - Utah Valley University

ISSN 1098-2248