United States intelligence officers and policymakers need reliable forecasts of country, regional, and global stability or instability. Such forecasts require a methodology for identifying and analyzing factors that contribute to stability. The anticipation of this stability level can facilitate crisis warning and diplomatic strategies for various timelines, including five, ten, and twenty year forecasts. While the problem of forecasting can be tackled in various ways, in the interest of time and space, I will only go into a few of them. The approach I will use is multiple linear regression to generate a short-term forecast for the stability levels of the countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). This model could ultimately be used to help formulate policies that enhance stability in developing or transitioning countries.

The objective of the thesis is the comparative analysis of a system of corporate officers remuneration. The present state of the corporate officers remuneration in the Czech Republic and abroad will be analyzed. For the analysis data from selected companies will be used.

Abstract This dissertation assesses the potential impacts of corporate governance codes and legislation on Directors and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance. Corporate failures lead to numerous losses for stakeholders especially shareholders. Worldwide including in South Africa, this has resulted in an increase in legal liability claims against directors and thus insurers. Often these failures are ascribed to corporate governance breaches giving rise initially to corporate governance codes and more recently many countries are legislating certain aspects of corporate governance; this includes a codification of director‟s duties. South Africa, in-line with the United Kingdom, Australia and to an extent the United States has followed suit with the Companies Bill of 2008. This dissertation seeks to assess the possible effects of the codes of practice and new Companies Act on Directors‟ and Officers‟ Liability insurance. This will be done by ascertaining what impact the new Act will have on directors‟ liability using inter alia the Delphi Technique.

Thesis advisor: Ana M. Martínez-Alemán / The dearth of women in executive positions within the field of information technology (IT) has been studied extensively in the corporate sector. That is not the case within higher education, despite the data collected showing that women attain the top executive role - that of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) - at much better rates than their corporate counterparts. Given this discrepancy, as well as the importance of technology in today's society, research was needed into the structural factors contributing to women's executive attainment in higher education IT organizations. Using a sequential explanatory mixed methods design, this dissertation study compared women and men higher education CIOs along a variety of individual and organizational characteristics, and examined elements related to women's ability to attain the CIO role. The study combined quantitative descriptive data on higher education CIOs, gathered via a web-based questionnaire and analyzed for significant differences between women and men in the population, with women CIOs' qualitative explanations of the quantitative findings via semi-structured interviews. 188 women and men (38 women and 150 men) participated in the questionnaire, and nine women who filled it out participated in the semi-structured interviews. All participants were higher education CIOs working at EDUCAUSE member institutions. Integrated findings from this study suggest that though few demographic differences exist between women and men in the population, higher education IT culture is based upon masculine norms, and as such, perpetuates biases against women leaders in the profession. Despite cultural norms that potentially dissuade women from working in the field, a number of environmental characteristics emerged associated with women's ability to secure the CIO position. These included stimulating work that is connected to the mission of higher education; flexible work options available at different points in IT employees' careers; the presence of women executives in academic institutions; and a nationally based professional development community focused on mentoring future generations of CIOs. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Situado no contexto de incremento das políticas penitenciárias de interiorização de unidades prisionais por todo o estado de São Paulo, este trabalho tem a intenção de analisar o cotidiano e as práticas sociais e profissionais de agentes penitenciários do município de Itirapina, cidade localizada no interior paulista, onde se encontram instaladas duas penitenciárias. Análise parte da ótica de agentes, moradores, comerciantes e demais moradores,para resgatar o modo pelo qual tais políticas de interiorização dos presídios têm afetado a vida no município em questão. Assim como os detentos, os agentes penitenciários têm seu cotidiano ligado à rotina da prisão, criam seu vocabulário e seu modo de agir transitando entre o interior da cadeia e o convívio com demais pessoas na cidade. A dinâmica social recebe grande influência dos valores e das práticas oriundos das penitenciárias construídas na cidade. Portanto, dentro deste contexto, a construção de discursos e valores colocam a profissão de agente penitenciário numa posição de destaque, cercada de privilégios, relativizando o conceito de prestígio, mesmo estando diretamente relacionado com um universo tão estigmatizado como o prisional. Através da observação da rotina desses profissionais e demais pessoas que se relacionam entre si, na intenção de perceber a dinâmica social cotidiana dessas pessoas, este trabalho também realizou entrevistas com agentes, moradores e comerciantes, buscando perceber como o ambiente criado dentro dos limites da prisão ultrapassa suas muralhas até invadir e influenciar a rotina da grande maioria da população local.. Dessa maneira, destaca-se a relevância do agente penitenciário nos mais variados espaços de sociabilidade do município, fazendo deles agentes sociais referenciais no contexto urbano. Esta dissertação volta sua análise para as transformações e consequências engendradas durante esse processo, percebendo o trânsito de agentes penitenciários, sua comunicação do convívio intramuros com o extramuros, ao mesmo tempo em que ambos se coalescem em sua dinâmica social. Percebe-se, portanto, como a cidade e a prisão interligam-se uma à outra, envolvendo todas as pessoas pertencentes a esse contexto. / Situated in the context of increase policies internalization of prisons throughout the state of Sao Paulo, this paper aims to analyze the everyday practices of social and professional prison officers of Itirapina the municipality, a town in the interior, where are installed two prisons. Analysis through the views of agents, residents, merchants and other inhabitants of the city such as internalization of prison policies has affected the county in question. Like the inmates, prison officers have linked to their daily routine of prison, they create their vocabulary and their mode of action moving between the inside of jail and living with others in the city. The social dynamics developed in Itirapina receives great influence of the values and practices from the prisons built in the city. Therefore, within this context, the construction of discourses and values put the profession of the prison guard in Itirapina in a prominent position, surrounded by privileges, relativizing the concept of prestige, it is directly related to a universe so stigmatized prison. By observing the routine of these professionals and others who relate to each other, hoping to understand the social dynamics of these people daily, this study also conducted interviews with staff, residents and merchants, seeking to understand how the environment created within the confines of the prison beyond its walls to break the routine and influence of the great majority of the population of the city. Thus, we highlight the relevance of the prison guard in a variety of social spaces in the city, making them agents of social references in the urban context. This essay turns its analysis to the changes and consequences engendered during this process, realizing the transit of prison guards, their communication with the extramural with intramural living, while they both coalesce in its social dynamics. It is clear, therefore, how city and prison are interconnected to each other, involving all those present here.

For decades, acquisitions have been a remarkably popular and controversial phenomenon all over the world. However, little is known about how acquisition performance is affected by the characteristics of top executives of the acquiring as well as the target company. Acquisition performance can be examined both as investor reactions to acquisition announcements on the stock market and as post-acquisition performance of the newly integrated company. Drawing upon several research streams (signaling theory, the behavioral decision making perspective, the resource-based view, and social network research), this dissertation reports on three independent but interrelated studies that examine the effects of executive human and social capital characteristics on acquisition performance. / Study 1 focuses on the firm tenure of the acquiring company’s CEO and shows that investors responded to acquisition deals more favorably when the deals were made by either short- or long-tenured CEOs, especially when the CEO was also the chairperson of the board and when he/she had received higher compensation. Study 2 shifts the focus from stock market reactions to post-acquisition firm performance. This study examines post-acquisition integration in the form of knowledge contributions made by the executives from the target company who were retained in the newly integrated company. Results show that the positive effect of retention of target executives was stronger when an acquisition was unrelated and when the target firm was relatively small. Study 3 explores the effects of acquiring CEOs’ social ties on investor reactions to acquisition announcements and compares the effects between manufacturing and hospitality industries. / This dissertation contributes to both the acquisition research and the research on corporate executives. It contributes to the acquisition literature by applying a multi-stage view of acquisition performance and explicitly examining the performance implications of key decision makers’ characteristics. It also contributes to the executive effect literature by uncovering an unconventional U-shaped curvilinear relationship between executive tenure and acquisition performance. More important, the study examines the corporate governance mechanisms that may modify the executive effects on acquisition performance. / 企業收購是近幾十年來十分流行而又具有爭議的現象。然而，我們對高管的特徵如何影響企業收購的績效卻知之甚少。收購績效可定義爲收購公告發佈時股票市場的反應和收購完成之後的新公司的財務業績。本文綜合了來自信號理論、決策行爲、資源基礎理論和社會網路方面的文獻，用三個相互獨立而又相互聯繫的三個研究來檢驗高管的人力資本和社會資本對收購績效的影響。首先，本文提出，股市投資者傾向於更加歡迎那些由年資很短或者很長的首席執行官所執行的收購，尤其是當首席執行官同時是董事會主席或者薪酬水準很高的情況下。第二，本文從收購完成後，留用的目標公司高管知識貢獻的大小來考察收購後的整合。研究結果表明，在非相關收購和在兩家公司規模差異較大的情況下，目標公司高管留用對收購後財務業績的正向效應更加明顯。第三，本文還從社會資本的角度出發，探討了收購公司首席執行官的社會關係對股市反應的作用在酒店業收購和製造業收購的差異。本文對收購和公司高管研究的貢獻主要體現在以下三個方面。首先，從收購是多階段現象這一視角，本文檢驗了高管對收購績效的影響，豐富了關於收購的研究。其次，本文通過揭示在收購情形下任期與績效的U型關係，拓展了關於高管效應的研究。更重要的是，本文還考察了公司治理機制如何完善高管對收購績效的作用。 / Lin, Shanshan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-223). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 30, September, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Tidigare forskning om arbetet med relationsbrottsdömda saknar studier som är inriktade på behandlingsavdelningar, samt studier om vårdarnas egna upplevelser av dagligt behandlingsarbete. Syftet med studien är att få kunskap om kriminalvårdares upplevelser och känslor av att arbeta på en relationsbrottsavdelning på en klass ett-anstalt. De tre frågeställningarna var: Vilka känslor upplevs i arbetet med denna typ av brottslingar? Vilka egenskaper upplever kriminalvårdare hos relationsbrottsdömda?  Hur upplever kriminalvårdarna de dömdas möjlighet till stöd och behandling på anstalten? Studien är gjord med kvalitativ ansats där nio intervjuer genomfördes. Resultatet visar att känslor som förekommer hos vårdarna är bland annat frustration, glädje och obehag. Upplevelsen av klienternas egenskaper visar på socialt fungerande individer. Resultaten visar också att det finns en upplevd brist hos vårdarna i fråga om kunskap gällande behandlingsarbete men ett väl fungerande behandlingsprogram. Resultaten diskuteras bland annat i relation till om MORM (Multifactor offender readiness model) skulle kunna införas för att utvärdera hur väl klienter är redo för att påbörja behandlingsprogram och i större utsträckning dra nytta utav det.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Why do some businesspeople run for political office, while others do not? Sending directors into elected office is one of the most powerful but also resource-intensive ways firms can influence policymaking. Although legislative bodies are populated with businesspeople in countries worldwide, we know little about which firms decide to invest in this unique type of nonmarket strategy. In response, I argue that businesspeople run for elected office when (1) they cannot trust that the politicians they lobby will represent their interests and (2) their firms have the resources available to contest elections. My theory predicts the probability of politician shirking (reneging on their promises) depends on whether rival firms have representatives in parliament and political parties are capable of enforcing informal quid pro quo agreements. Evidence to test my arguments comes from an original dataset of 8,829 firms connected to candidates to regional legislatures in Russia from 2004-2011. I find that both greater oligopolistic competition and weaker political parties incentivize businessperson candidacy, while the ability to cover campaign costs depends on the level of voter income and firm size. Do firms with directors holding elected political office then benefit from political connections? Using the same dataset but restricting the analysis to elections in single-member districts, I next employ a regression discontinuity design to identify the causal effect of gaining political ties, comparing outcomes of firms that are directed by candidates who either won or lost close elections to regional legislatures. I first find that a connection to a winning politician can increase revenue by roughly 60% and profit margins by 15% over their time in office. I then test between different mechanisms potentially explaining the results, finding that connected firms improve their performance by gaining access to bureaucrats and reducing information costs, and not by signaling legitimacy to financiers. Finally, winning a parliamentary seat is more valuable for firms where democratization is greater, but less valuable when firms face acute sector-level competition. This finding suggests that the intensity of economic rivalry, rather than the quality of political institutions, best explains the decision to send a director into public office.

Why do voters change their political behavior after negative events such as natural disasters and crime victimization? The extant literature tends to focus on how citizens punish or reward the incumbent based on a model of (mis)attribution of responsibilities. This approach overlooks the fact that affected voters might change their political preferences after the negative shock. Departing from the existing literature, I argue that affected citizens, in addition to evaluating incumbent performance, are also selecting the political leader they believe can most enhance their well-being after the negative event. In particular, I hold that affected voters focus on improving their living conditions, which leads them to pay attention to the policy issues that can help them achieve that goal. As a consequence, victims are more likely to prefer candidates better able to address these new policy preferences. Under adverse conditions, these individuals will vote for political candidates whom they would not select under other circumstances. In each of the three chapters of this dissertation, I provide evidence to support different aspects of this main argument. In the first chapter, I study the political consequences of natural disasters. According to my theory, citizens affected by catastrophes seek to reduce the gap between their living conditions before and after the disaster. This leads them to focus on welfare and social policies – for example, the construction of new housing. Consequently, they are more inclined to vote for parties or persons associated with those measures, typically left-wing candidates. To test this argument, I use a natural experiment created by flash floods that occurred in Chile in 2015, which produced random variation in exposure to the natural disaster. I then measure voters’ political preferences using a conjoint survey experiment, and find that disaster victims are more likely to prefer left-wing candidates. In addition, grounded in two months of fieldwork in the affected area, I provide qualitative evidence that illustrates how disaster victims emphasize the importance of welfare policies that can improve their standard of living. In the second chapter, I show how disaster victims after the 2010 earthquake in Chile select housing and not infrastructure as a top priority after the catastrophe. These results help us better understand why disaster victims are more likely to vote for left-wing politicians: affected citizens are particularly concerned about the reconstruction of their houses, and in consequence, should be more likely to vote for candidates who can be linked with those specific welfare policies. To study how the earthquake modified victims’ political priorities, I rely on survey data before and after this negative event comparing exposed and unexposed counties. In the third chapter, I study how crime victims change their policy preferences. I show that affected citizens are more likely to support strong-handed measures to reduce crime, such as allowing state repression. These results reveal that exposure to crime can change what people think the state should be allowed to do, which can have important political implications. To study the impact of crime on victims’ preferences, I use panel data from Brazil and I implement strategies for reducing sensitivity to hidden biases, such as focusing on individuals who were not crime victims during a previous wave.