We study systems of n dimensional diffusions whose drift and dispersion coefficients depend only on the relative ranking of the processes. We consider the question of how long it takes for a particle to go from one rank to another. It is argued that as n gets large, the distribution of particles satisfies a Porous Medium Equation. Using this, we derive a deterministic limit for the system of particles. This limit allows for direct calculation of the properties of the rank traversal time. The results are extended to the case of asymmetrically colliding particles. These models are of interest in the study of financial markets and economic inequality. In particular, we derive limits for the performance of some Functionally Generated Portfolios originating from Stochastic Portfolio Theory.

The aim of thesis is to analyze the duration and its application in portfolio management. The work is divided into three logical parts. The intoductory part deal with issues of yield curves and in the following chapters we will build on this knowledge. In the mainstay of thesis we concentrate primarily on duration and its various modifications. The last section is devoted to portfolio management with emphasis on the bond portfolio. All theoretical knowledge is then applied to practical examples, which should lead to a better understanding of the topic.

Os centros de manutenção de aeronaves da América Latina possuem portfólios de serviços limitados e esse é um fator que restringe o crescimento do transporte aéreo na região. Faz-se necessário, portanto, o desenvolvimento de novos serviços de reparo de aeronaves e seus componentes nesses centros. Apesar de o Desenvolvimento de Produtos ter recebido uma atenção substancial na ultima década, há pouca literatura sobre o Desenvolvimento de Serviços e trabalhos que tratam de gestão de portfólio de serviços são ainda mais escassos. A pouca literatura existente não é suficientemente abrangente para tratar da gestão de portfólio de serviços de manutenção complexa. O objetivo deste trabalho é, portanto, desenvolver um processo de gestão de portfólio de serviços para empresas de manutenção aeronáutica, chamado de modelo específico. O desenvolvimento do modelo será feito utilizando a pesquisa-ação, abordagem que objetiva tanto a tomada de ação quanto a criação de conhecimento com ciclos contínuos. Durante a criação do modelo específico foram usados como base de conhecimento modelos de referência de PDP e PDS, posteriormente adaptados para a realidade de serviços, para a região e tipologia da indústria. A pesquisa ação se iniciou numa pré-fase de contextualização, seguida por quatro ciclos, sendo que em cada ciclo uma etapa do modelo foi desenvolvida e avaliada, resultando em um modelo especifico de gestão de portfólio para indústria de MRO aeronáutico brasileiro. Ao final dos ciclos foi feita uma avaliação do processo criada por meio de um questionário. Os participantes da pesquisa avaliaram o método de desenvolvimento do modelo como adequado e avaliaram também o próprio modelo como adequado. / The aircraft maintenance centers in Latin America have limited portfolios of services; this is a factor that restricts the growth of air transport in the region. Therefore is necessary to develop new maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft and their components in those centers. New Product Development (NPD) process theory has received substantial attention in the last decade but there is little literature on the New Services Development (NSD), and papers dealing directly with services portfolio management are even scarcer. The existing literature is not holistic enough to deal with maintenance services portfolio management. Therefore this paper aims to develop a services portfolio management (SPM) for aircraft components maintenance. The SPM model development will be done using the action research approach trough the creation of knowledge in continuous PDCA cycles. During the creation of the specific model, were used as knowledge base reference models of PDP and PDS, later adapted to the reality of services to the region and type of industry. The action research began in pre contextualization phase, followed by four cycles, and each cycle a stage of the model was developed and evaluated, resulting in a specific model of portfolio management for MRO Brazilian aeronautics industry. At the end of cycles an evaluation process created by means of a questionnaire. Survey participants rated the method as proper development of the model, the model itself also rated as adequate.

A composição de um portfolio de projetos é realizada de acordo com um conjunto de critérios de seleção e avaliação de projetos, que permite identificar quais projetos trazem maior valor, benefícios e alinhamento com as estratégias definidas pela organização, para um determinado horizonte de tempo. O grau de exposição a riscos do portfolio de projetos é um dos critérios mais importantes a ser considerado na composição e no balanceamento do portfolio, uma vez que indica a magnitude dos desvios a que o portfolio está sujeito em relação ao atendimento de seus objetivos. Este trabalho apresenta um procedimento para a avaliação do grau de exposição a riscos do portfolio de projetos, que parte dos riscos de cada projeto, e considera seus inter-relacionamentos, bem como outros riscos inerentes ao portfolio como um todo. O procedimento abrange a identificação, análise e tratamento dos riscos do portfolio e a determinação do grau de exposição a riscos no atendimento de cada objetivo e do portfolio com um todo. Através de um estudo de caso, realizado numa empresa multinacional do setor de máquinas e equipamentos, o procedimento foi testado num portfolio composto por nove dos maiores projetos de sua maior unidade de negócio. Foi possível determinar o grau de exposição a riscos do portfolio de projetos frente aos objetivos estratégicos a que se propunha atender valores determinados de margem bruta média e faturamento para o ano fiscal corrente. O estudo de caso permitiu validar a aplicabilidade do procedimento. A identificação dos riscos em comum, das interdependências e de outros riscos abrangentes permitiu identificar causas comuns e proliferações entre os riscos dos projetos e, principalmente, racionalizar recursos no tratamento dos riscos. / When building a project portfolio, evaluation and selection criteria are used to recognize which projects bring greater value, benefits and alignment with the organization strategies defined for a given period of time. One of the most relevant criteria in project portfolio composition and balancing is the risk exposure, as it indicates the magnitude of slippages to which the organization objectives are susceptible. This work presents a procedure for the evaluation of the overall project portfolio risk exposure, considering the risks of each project, the inter-relationships among them, and also other risks inherent to the portfolio as a whole. The procedure encloses portfolio risks identification, analysis and treatment and the assessment of the risk exposure in the attendance of each objective as well as for the complete portfolio. Through a case study, carried through in a world class multinational company of the capital goods sector, the risk analysis procedure has been tested in a portfolio encompassing nine major projects from its main business unit. It has been possible to define the risk exposure related to the strategic objectives this portfolio should fulfill average gross margin and revenues for the current fiscal year. The case study has allowed validating the applicability of the proposed procedure. The identification of common risks, interdependences and other overall portfolio risks has also allowed to recognize common causes, proliferation among projects and, mainly, to rationalize resources in treating these risks.

Mutual fund portfolio managers do not always meet risk-adjusted performance expectations, resulting in loss of capital reserves. Out of 3,612 U.S. based open-ended mutual funds, the risk-adjusted performance of 2,890 (80%) failed to meet or beat the S&P 500 (index fund) performance between the year 2006 to 2016. Grounded in Markowitz's modern portfolio theory, the purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between mutual fund class type, portfolio turnover, fund longevity, management turnover, and annual fund risk-adjusted performance. Archival data were collected from 88 U.S. based equity mutual funds companies. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated the model as a whole was able to significantly predict annual fund risk-adjusted performance for the 5-year period ending 2016, F (4, 83) = 3.581, p =.043, R2 = .147. In the final model, mutual fund class type and portfolio turnover were statistically significant with mutual fund class type (Ã?= .249, t = 2.302, p = .024) accounting for a higher contribution to the model than portfolio turnover (Ã? = .238, t = 2.312, p = .023). Mutual fund longevity and management turnover did not explain any significant variance in annual fund risk-adjusted performance. Society can benefit from the results of this doctoral study because investors and mutual fund managers could better predict the return based on the information from the study, which may lead to higher families' confidence in the positive contribution of the mutual fund in their portfolio.

This three-essay thesis focuses on how value of the brand, i.e. brand equity is created, with each study investigating different parts of the relationships within the brand value chain. My first essay identifies and tests a new set of brand equity drivers such as brand structure and positioning, brand strategy, and customer characteristics. I use revenue premium as the retail level measure of brand equity and decompose it into price and volume premiums. Then, I explore the effects of different brand equity drivers on these premiums. The study on the universe of grocery industry in the U.S. shows compelling evidences that volume premium prevails over price premium in driving revenue premium. Brand structure and positioning, brand strategy and customer characteristics contribute significantly to the changes of the brand market performance measured with price, volume and revenue premiums. My second essay examines the association between consumer-based brand equity (IBBE) and brand market performance, and the moderators of this association. I explore a comprehensive set of market performance measures (penetration, loyalty, market share, price and revenue) of 216 major brands sold in the grocery channel in the U.S., in conjunction with EquiTrend© brand equity measure. The results show that customer based brand equity provides incremental explanatory power for brand market performance beyond the explanation by a wide array of performance determinants identified in the first essay. Furthermore, the equity-performance association is moderated by a set of product and category features, as well as the firm brand strategy. My third essay studies whether firms benefit from having multiple brands across different areas. I model brand market performance as a function of different elements of the firm brand portfolio, including the size and performance of sibling brands and the inter-brand distance. The dataset includes 1,700 brands from over 350 firms in the grocery channel within the U.S. The results show that the brand portfolio information provides incremental explanatory power for brand market performance. Moreover, the size and the performance of sibling brands have significant impact on a focal brand's market performance, and these impacts are moderated by the inter-brand distance.

<p>During the past two decades research has shown that brands are among a company’s most valuable assets. However, in today’s competitive landscape, it is not enough to just create strong brands. The focus lies rather in managing a range of brand lever-age strategies within complex brand portfolios. Moreover, the majority of today’s established brand concepts do not represent the reality of contemporary brand man-agement. Instead, they tend to be based on dichotomies and simplifications. In addi-tion, there is a lack of criticism towards many of the established brand concepts resulting in the reduction of brand management to a number of static categories and stagnated definitions – thereby missing out on the analysis of important intersec-tional issues between the various categories. This book explores the somewhat for-gotten area of intersection, investigating the territory in-between brands.</p><p>The methods used consist of a literature review covering some of the most influ-ential brand models within the area of brand portfolio and brand leverage as well as an empirical case study including the following seven brands: Adidas, Bang & Oluf-sen, Electrolux, H&M, Microsoft, Peak Performance and W. L. Gore & Associates.</p><p>The findings show that conventional brand management models and terminology do not fully explain common marketplace strategies and practice. As a result, this research introduces a more realistic viewpoint and dynamic framework that is based on convergence and that allows migration and iteration rather than today’s static approach. The framework, named the brand leverage palette, introduces various nuances between different leverage strategies, both adding clarity and offering guid-ance by explaining different migration movements among today’s brand portfolios.</p>

<p>Despite the many researches made on emergent strategies and project portfolio management, one can hardly find studies on the link between them. It can easily be assumed that emergent strategies and market dynamics have considerable effect on the portfolio of projects in organizations and, supposedly, give rise to emergent projects. We defined emergent projects to be untypical or irregular projects for the organization which are at the borderline or even outside the mainstream of the current portfolio of projects. These types of projects impact the company’s strategy with the aim to increase the organizations competitiveness. This study will try to find out the possible distinct characteristics and strategic impact of emergent projects on large organizations so that these kinds of projects can be properly recognized for what they really are and managed effectively.</p><p> </p><p>We used a semi-structured interview method to collect data from six international companies in four countries. The countries are Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Taiwan. Using template analysis method, we analyzed the collected data. The analysis confirmed our assumption that there is a correlation between emergent strategies and project portfolio management. Moreover, we found out some of the characteristics and strategic impacts of emergent projects. The results of the study, therefore, shows that emergent projects are kinds of strategic projects which have bigger significance and bring a higher sense of urgency to organizations than the normal projects in their portfolio. Furthermore, the study indicated that emergent projects do not need any different project management methodology than typical projects do. Nonetheless, emergent projects are characterized by rarity, disrupting routine operations, enhancing company-customer relationship, causing resource reallocation, bringing profit, demanding higher budget, opening both internal and external new opportunities, posing risk due to shorter planning phase and limited implementation time, and capturing higher attention from top management. The major result we have found out in the research about the strategic impact of emergent projects is that they have a higher potential to bring profit and new business opportunities which in total make organizations more competitive in their respective markets.</p><p>The theoretical and managerial implications of our research have a common idea that emergent projects should be recognized and categorized as strategic projects of organizations. Further studies should be carried out on how the dynamic situations of business environments and emergent strategies affect the project portfolio of organizations. Moreover, it is worth researching on how the idea of emergent projects are dealt in the studies of strategic project management and project categorization both in the academic and practitioners world. Overall, the study has brought the linkage between emergent strategies and project portfolio management into light through the discussion on emergent projects.</p>

<p>Background: The devolopment in the exchange market has attract a large number of investors. The information flow is extensive and it might be hard to follow the dynamic market. Some investors therefore choose to place their capital in a stock portfolio which is manged by a professional firm with no influence from the capital owner, this management is called discretionary managing. </p><p>Purpose: the purpose of the thesis is to examine the working methods and the rationality regarding the management of the discretionary portfolios. The purpose is also to try to examine whether there is a relation between the selected risk, return and fees. </p><p>Realization: in this thesis our primary data comes from interviews with portfolio managers. By means of snowball sample we found portfolio managers in banks and in stock broker firms. Anonymity has been used to promote the right information from our interviews. </p><p>Result: Discretionary portfolio management differ between banks and stock brokers. The managing in the banks has a passive investment strategy and the stock brokers has an active strategy. The chosen stategy characterize the selected risk, expected return and the required fees.</p>

During the past two decades research has shown that brands are among a company’s most valuable assets. However, in today’s competitive landscape, it is not enough to just create strong brands. The focus lies rather in managing a range of brand lever-age strategies within complex brand portfolios. Moreover, the majority of today’s established brand concepts do not represent the reality of contemporary brand man-agement. Instead, they tend to be based on dichotomies and simplifications. In addi-tion, there is a lack of criticism towards many of the established brand concepts resulting in the reduction of brand management to a number of static categories and stagnated definitions – thereby missing out on the analysis of important intersec-tional issues between the various categories. This book explores the somewhat for-gotten area of intersection, investigating the territory in-between brands. The methods used consist of a literature review covering some of the most influ-ential brand models within the area of brand portfolio and brand leverage as well as an empirical case study including the following seven brands: Adidas, Bang &amp; Oluf-sen, Electrolux, H&amp;M, Microsoft, Peak Performance and W. L. Gore &amp; Associates. The findings show that conventional brand management models and terminology do not fully explain common marketplace strategies and practice. As a result, this research introduces a more realistic viewpoint and dynamic framework that is based on convergence and that allows migration and iteration rather than today’s static approach. The framework, named the brand leverage palette, introduces various nuances between different leverage strategies, both adding clarity and offering guid-ance by explaining different migration movements among today’s brand portfolios.