Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

No description available.

Each day more and more companies choose to become international and to expand to new markets looking for bigger profits. However, many of them end up carrying big losses only because they lack a deep and detailed analysis of a new market they have chosen to expand to. Therefore, the authors of this thesis decided to conduct a deep and profound analysis of Russian public transportation market. Russia presents a fast developing economy which shows very positive development signs. Russian market became more approachable and less risky in legal terms since Russian membership in World Trade Organization in 2012. Thus, Russia can be a very interesting market to expand to. For the accuracy of the analysis it was chosen to concentrate on the public transportation sector of the market of Moscow, as this city has 12 million passengers per day and big transportation and traffic problems. It was chosen to conduct a case study and take a Veolia Transdev Company as an empirical example for the market analysis. This company was chosen due to its wide international presence and successful and sustainable growth. Now the company started to lose its grasp and lately has been experiencing financial problems. This company is not presented in Rus-sia, so it serves for this study as a potential entrant to the Russian market of public trans-portation. Hence, the analysis was conducted from the view of the company that is looking for new markets to expand to. The experience of Veolia Transdev was integrated with the market analysis conducted with a help of two models combined together: PESTEL and Porter‟s Five Forces. As a result, it was discovered that Russian public transportation market limited to Moscow area can be very profitable; it has plenty of opportunities to be exploited by international companies of Veolia Transdev‟s size and experience. As for a specific case of Veolia Transdev, company could become successful in this market with a right integration of its experience. Moreover, after the conducted research authors believe that Russian public transportation market could help Veolia Transdev‟s future financial success and could be-come one of its major profit sources. This paper provides a very descriptive analysis of Russian public transportation market limited to Moscow area for Veolia Transdev. The chosen market proved itself to be open for new entrants; to be full of different domestic and international suppliers with a low negotiation power; to have a high popularity of pub-lic transportation and poor competition from local public transportation providers.

This research investigates motivational and procedural aspects of households’ long-term decisions of residential locations. The main goal of the research is to develop microbehavioural models of location processes in order to implement this critical land use component within a microsimulation-based model of Integrated Land Use, Transportation and Environment (ILUTE). The research takes a disaggregate and longitudinal approach to develop the models, which is consistent with the real-world decision-making process of households concerning their movements from one residence to another over time. It identifies two sequential model components to represent households’ relocation behaviour: (1) a model of household residential mobility that determines whether a household decides to become active in the housing market, and (2) a (re) location choice model. Both components are empirically investigated using retrospective surveys of housing careers. For the residential mobility decision, the research tests continuous-time hazard duration models and discrete-time panel logit models, and attempts to capture heterogeneity effects due to repeated choices within both modelling techniques. A discrete-time random parameter model is selected for implementation within ILUTE since it incorporates time-varying covariates. Assuming a sequential decision process, this mobility decision model is linked to the (re) location choice model that establishes preference orderings for each active household for a given set of dwelling units that it considers to relocate within the housing market. A unique feature of the (re) location model developed in this research is that it incorporates reference dependence that explicitly recognizes the role of the status quo and captures asymmetric responses towards gains and losses in making location choice decisions. The research then estimates an asking price model, which is used to generate base prices for active dwellings to interact with active households through a market clearing process within a microsimulation environment. A multilevel model that simultaneously accounts for both temporal and spatial heterogeneity is developed in this research using multi-period property transaction data. Finally, this research simulates evolution of households’ location choices for a twenty-year period (1986-2006) and compares the results against observed location patterns.

Recent transportation, economic and environmental trends demonstrate a need for altering the typical commuting practices in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) area. Travel Demand Management initiatives like Smart Commute’s, Carpool Zone, are working to reduce the negative externalities of commuting. Using a variety of secondary data sources, geographic visualization, and statistical methods, this thesis examines the carpool formation and use process in the GGH. The results indicate that municipalities with the highest rates of carpooling are in relatively affluent exurban/suburban areas, located beyond the Smart Commute programming jurisdiction. The most significant factor in the carpool process was found to be proximity to other Carpool Zone users. Other factors include; motivations to save time, gender, and current use of public transit. These results are both relevant in a behavioural science context – advancing current understanding of shared travel behaviour, and in the policy environment, as they inform how to improve carpool practices.

Recent transportation, economic and environmental trends demonstrate a need for altering the typical commuting practices in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) area. Travel Demand Management initiatives like Smart Commute’s, Carpool Zone, are working to reduce the negative externalities of commuting. Using a variety of secondary data sources, geographic visualization, and statistical methods, this thesis examines the carpool formation and use process in the GGH. The results indicate that municipalities with the highest rates of carpooling are in relatively affluent exurban/suburban areas, located beyond the Smart Commute programming jurisdiction. The most significant factor in the carpool process was found to be proximity to other Carpool Zone users. Other factors include; motivations to save time, gender, and current use of public transit. These results are both relevant in a behavioural science context – advancing current understanding of shared travel behaviour, and in the policy environment, as they inform how to improve carpool practices.

This paper will examine transportation as follows; first it will discuss traffic as a whole and in Claremont. Second, sustainability in Claremont will be looked at great depth highlighting the city’s goals and methods for creating sustainable transportation. Examples of roadways in the city will be given and reevaluated as satisfying sustainable traffic. Policy regulations and restrictions will then be discussed on how the contribute to congestion and affect sustainable transportation. Finally sustainability will be redefined in regards to transportation and assessing city roadways.

This research investigates motivational and procedural aspects of households’ long-term decisions of residential locations. The main goal of the research is to develop microbehavioural models of location processes in order to implement this critical land use component within a microsimulation-based model of Integrated Land Use, Transportation and Environment (ILUTE). The research takes a disaggregate and longitudinal approach to develop the models, which is consistent with the real-world decision-making process of households concerning their movements from one residence to another over time. It identifies two sequential model components to represent households’ relocation behaviour: (1) a model of household residential mobility that determines whether a household decides to become active in the housing market, and (2) a (re) location choice model. Both components are empirically investigated using retrospective surveys of housing careers. For the residential mobility decision, the research tests continuous-time hazard duration models and discrete-time panel logit models, and attempts to capture heterogeneity effects due to repeated choices within both modelling techniques. A discrete-time random parameter model is selected for implementation within ILUTE since it incorporates time-varying covariates. Assuming a sequential decision process, this mobility decision model is linked to the (re) location choice model that establishes preference orderings for each active household for a given set of dwelling units that it considers to relocate within the housing market. A unique feature of the (re) location model developed in this research is that it incorporates reference dependence that explicitly recognizes the role of the status quo and captures asymmetric responses towards gains and losses in making location choice decisions. The research then estimates an asking price model, which is used to generate base prices for active dwellings to interact with active households through a market clearing process within a microsimulation environment. A multilevel model that simultaneously accounts for both temporal and spatial heterogeneity is developed in this research using multi-period property transaction data. Finally, this research simulates evolution of households’ location choices for a twenty-year period (1986-2006) and compares the results against observed location patterns.

With the booming volume of international trade, the container shipping industry plays an important role in the world now. The previous literature only shows separate factors for the development of the port. And the container transport chain is only analyzed separately without the development of the port. With abundant of literatures and theories, the factors influence the development of the port can be divided into two parts. The external factors include the hinterland, the international trade and the policies. And the competition and coordination between different ports constitute the internal factors. The container transport chain is important for the internal factors. It can affect the area of the hinterland and the cost for the customers. The Tianjin Port is introduced as the case for this thesis. And for the comparison, the mature port Rotterdam and the competitors within Bohai Rim are showed. The data are from official website of the ports and other organizations with high reputation. And the relationships of the inside and external factors are discussed in the analysis. With the SWOT matrix, the case of Tianjin Port is compared with the mature port Rotterdam and its competitors Qingdao Port and Dalian Port. The container transport chain in Tianjin has the disadvantages such as complicated information flow system, lower capacity of rail transportation and the over fierce market of the third party logistics companies. By the end of the thesis, how to adopt the container transport chain with the rapid development of the port and some suggestions for the further development of Tianjin Port are given as the conclusion.

Purpose - The thesis aims to provide a framework of measuring the performance of pur-chasing consortia humanitarian sector. The performance measurement seeks to identify the competitive advantages of being a member of purchasing consortia during purchasing activities of transportation ervices. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a qualitative study with de-ductive and explanatory approach. Semi-structured interviews with experts within the humanitarian sector have been conducted to gain necessary and credible data. Findings – It has been identified that purchasing consortia do not mutually operate physical purchasing activities. However, the consortia performance measurement framework, derived from the resource-based view, illustrates that being a member gen-erates the capabilities of decreased purchasing complexity, learning capabilities and ca-pacity sharing. These capabilities have a significant impact on the purchasing process for transportation services and lead to the competitive advantages of (1) having access to extensive knowledge, (2) reducing operational efforts, (3) reducing lead-time and (4) improving learning procedures. Research limitations/implications – As the literature on humanitarian logistics is still in its infancy, further applications from the commercial sector were considered to strengthen the results of the framework. Practical implications - The extent of collaboration of purchasing consortia indicates that managers of HOs are able to gain significant expertise and offers advantageous opportunities in handling purchasing activities in humanitarian logistics. The implications cover strategic as well as operational issues. Originality/value – The thesis gives an insight about practical purchasing operations of existing consortia and detects previously unknown aspects within the literature of humanitarian logistics.