The Aviation Industry in South Africa is considered to be a budding industry with an expected growth rate of 14% for each of the next three years. Considering that, plenty investment and expansion possibilities are probably available in this industry. Nonetheless, given the current economic situation, challenges may exist that necessitates the development of a decision framework. The aim of this framework should thus be to assist with informed decision-making; whether to invest in, or utilize opportunities that may occur within a given prospective “high” growth situation. In the light of all of this, a specific aviation entity desires to exploit possible business opportunities that may occur. Provided the relative high growth situation in the Aviation Industry, as mentioned above, the entity has a specific need for a decision tool which could determine whether to invest in new projects or not. In order to meet this need, a decision framework has been developed during this study. Considering the emphasis currently placed on wealth creation in the business environment, it is considered appropriate to utilize the value-based management approach in this study, with specific reference to capital budgeting techniques in developing a decision framework. Data for the study has been obtained from the participating aviation entity, who was considering investment in a specific project, given the previously referred to prospective high growth situation in the Aviation Industry. The decision framework or model was developed using Microsoft Excel as the development platform. Based on the input data, as received from the aviation entity, the results from the decision model indicated that the considered project was indeed financially viable. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Problembakgrund: I en verksamhet görs lönsamhetsbedömningar i samband med investeringar där intäkter förs mot kostnader för att undersöka vilka investeringar som kan vara lönsamma. Investeringar i kultur förknippas ofta med höga investeringskostnader men kännetecknas däremot inte av höga intäkter, varpå det kan vara svårt för en kulturinvestering att bli lönsam. Kultur är värdefullt för många i samhället, men är desto svårare att värdera i monetära termer eftersom den upplevs olika av alla individer och befintliga värderingsmetoder kan användas för att värdera kulturens output på olika sätt. Kommuner investerar ofta i kulturområdet, varför det är intressant att undersöka tillvägagångssättet för rättfärdigandet av sådana investeringar, vilket denna rapport undersöker.   Syfte: Syftet med rapporten är att beskriva och analysera vilka faktorer som kan påverka beslut i kulturinvesteringar, samt att förklara hur kultur kan värderas i monetära termer.   Metod: I denna kvalitativa rapport har Varbergs kommun valts ut som fallstudie. En deduktiv ansats har använts, där utgångspunkten har legat i befintliga teorier och sedan jämförts med insamlad empiri. Teorierna är hämtade ur vetenskapliga artiklar och tryckt litteratur, den insamlade empirin har hämtats genom kvalitativa besöksintervjuer och en kvantitativ enkätundersökning.   Slutsats: Rapportens slutsats är att Varbergs kommun tar hänsyn till besöksantal, befolkningsökningar, efterfrågan och behov från invånare när beslut tas kring kulturinvesteringar. Några traditionella företagsekonomiska lönsamhetsbedömningar eller metoder för att värdera kultur används inte. Kommunen ser kultur som en självklarhet i samhället och bedömer istället vilken nytta som den tillför kommunens invånare. / Background: Profitability assessments are made in traditional businesses before investments: possible revenues are compared to costs to determine which investments can be profitable. Investing in culture is often associated with high investment costs but not with high revenues, therefore it can be difficult to get a cultural investment to become profitable. Culture is valuable for the community, but is also difficult to valuate in monetary terms since it is perceived differently and existing valuation methods can be used to value the culture output in various ways. Municipalities often invest in culture, why it is interesting to examine how they proceed in order to justify such investments, which this report covers.   Purpose: The purpose of this report is to describe and analyze the factors that can affect decisions in culture investments, and to explain how culture can be evaluated in monetary terms.   Method: In this qualitative report Varberg municipality was selected as a case study. A deductive approach has been used, with a starting point in existing theories and then compared with collected empirical data. The theories are derived from scientific articles and printed literature, the collected empirical data are gathered through qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey.   Conclusion: The report concludes that the municipality of Varberg takes into account the number of visits, population increases, the demand and needs of the residents when making decisions about cultural investments, and not traditional profitability assessments. Method of valuing culture is not used, but the municipality sees culture as an essential part of the community and instead examine the benefits it brings to local residents.

Aircraft noise, for the first time in Thailand, has gained public attention as a significant environmental issue since Bangkok s Suvarnabhumi Airport opened in 2006. Residential areas around the airport are expanding rapidly while local residents are protesting about the noise from the new airport which suggests a tension between economic benefits and environmental problems at the airport. This thesis sets out to obtain valuation of aviation externalities at Suvarnabhumi airport using the stated choice method. It is the first study to obtain and compare valuations from perspectives of the polluters (Thai air passengers) and the polluted (residents) at the same airport. Furthermore, this is the first study to obtain a valuation of local impacts from aircraft operations and from air passengers. It starts by investigating perceptions and awareness of the benefits and costs of aviation activities among Suvarnabhumi s residents and passengers using focus groups and questionnaires. It then employs the stated choice method to elicit willingness-to-pay (WTP) and willingness-to-accept (WTA) values of aviation externalities. The results found that the perceived environmental problems at Suvarnabhumi airport are in line with the literature mainly involving aircraft noise and its effects. This study also found that the development of the airport and surrounding area, while creating business and employment opportunities, has also created traffic and flooding problems. In terms of air pollution from aircraft, residents concerns are confined to local impacts from aircraft. Thai air passengers were found to be more concerned with engine pollution than noise. These findings were reflected in the values obtained. Two stated choice designs were used to elicit values. The first rerouted the aircraft flight path away from residents homes thus reducing aircraft noise and pollution in the area. This design also included travel time to place of work or to the shops. The rerouting attribute was not statistically significant. However, the travel time attribute reveals that residents were willing to accept 14.23 baht a month to have their travel time to work or shopping increased by 1%. The second design was used to obtain and compare values between Suvarnabhumi s residents and air passengers. In this design, attributes for aircraft noise, local air pollution and carbon emissions were included. Residents willingness to pay to reduce aircraft noise by 1% is 104.76 baht/year whereas passengers are willing to pay less, at 70.63 baht per year. Air passengers place a higher value on local air pollution than the residents. Passengers are willing to pay 97.72 baht to reduce local pollution by 1% per year, whereas residents willingness to pay is 45.36 baht. Lastly, passengers WTP to offset carbon is 473.26 baht per flight, whereas residents carbon offset coefficient is not statistically significant. The obtained values are well within the range of existing studies on aircraft noise and carbon emission valuations. Findings from this study suggest that current mitigation measures at Suvarnabhumi airport are still inadequate. There are areas where the situation is likely to get worse given the rapid growth in aviation activities and urban development at the airport. The values from this study may be used to help form the basis of fairer and more transparent compensation system alongside an operational mitigation policy to address aviation impacts. On the passenger side, the stated willingness-to-pay to reduce the impact gives an opportunity for the Thai aviation industry to promote an environmentally friendly behaviour among the travelling public.

Before the global financial crisis around 2008, the priority of the credit margin was comparatively low and was not taken into consideration as much as today. Many actors believed that credit risk could be neglected at various valuations. Due to that a lot of parties went bankrupt because of the low priorities. Today, this is a natural component in the financial market due to the capital regulation CRR and the Capital requirement directives (CRD IV), which are directly related to Basel III. In this thesis the authors have created a Credit valuation adjustment model, or a CVA-model, on behalf of the consulting firm AGL who want to use it in negotiations of interest rate swap with financial institutions. Factors as expected exposure, loss given default and probability of default are estimated in order to estimate a fair value for CVA. As a final product, the authors have created a model in VBA that can price CVA for individual contracts. This model is then evaluated and a sensitivity analysis is performed to see what impact credit rating and maturity have on the result.

Thesis (MBA)-- Stellenbosch University, 1973. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: no abstract available / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: geen opsomming

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Master / Master of Science in Real Estate and Construction

published_or_final_version / Business / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation consists of two essays on housing, the first on estimation strategies for the valuation of a local disamenity and the second on the structure of the market for the services of real estate brokers. The purpose of the first essay is to apply hedonic and quasi-experimental methods to measure the value of any disamenity caused by communication antennas. Crucial to unbiased estimates is accounting for both endogenous antenna location and changes in unobservable housing and neighborhood characteristics. Spatial fixed effects are used to control for unobservable characteristics that can influence the location decisions of residents and the location of antennas. Panel data techniques are used to address both time invariant and time varying unobservables and to account for possible changes in the hedonic price function after construction of a nearby antenna. The estimates indicate that houses near communication antennas sell less than comparable houses not located near a communication antenna, and also highlight a shortcoming of applying the difference-in-differences technique to value a local disamenity when houses are affected by the presence of multiple sites. The second essay compares the performance of brand name franchised and independent real estate brokers with respect to list price, sales price, time on the market, and prevalence in areas with more out-of-state buyers using techniques that control for the different types of agents that choose to affiliate with franchised real estate brokerage firms. The results indicate that most of the difference in the sales price and the time it takes to locate a buyer can be explained by the types of agents that choose to affiliate with franchised brokerage firms, and that on average weaker agents choose to affiliate with franchised real estate firms. In addition, there is an indication that properties in areas with larger shares of out-of-state residents are more likely to be sold by a franchised broker. This result is consistent with the industrial organization literature on franchising that says franchising should be more prevalent in areas where consumers are less familiar with the local market.

QC 20100707

<p>Problems associated with traffic, such as traffic congestionand pollution, have occurred in major urban areas in particulardue to the increased use of cars. One possible way to reducethe use of cars is to replace commuter trips by car with othermodes of transport, such as a combination of car and publictransport called Park&Ride. The aim of this thesis was tounderstand more about factors influencing the choice of modeand to find measures that could attract car drivers to Park&Ride. A stated preference survey has been conducted inorder to quantify some standard factors. The factors used inthis stated choice experiment were: security at the lot,availability of spaces at the parking lot, costs at the parkinglot and walking distances between the parking space and thestation. The results indicate that security at the Park&Ride facility is important. Both sexes assign a high value tosecure parking, but women are more willing to pay for lights atan unguarded parking lot. The results reveal that parkingfacilities, such as free parking and short distance betweenparking place and work at work, influence people’s choiceof mode. A general conclusion is that there is potential forincreasing the use of Park&Ride facilities, especiallyamong women and respondents over 30 years.</p><p><b>Key words:</b>Mode choice, valuation, traffic reduction,stated preference, factors, Park&Ride</p>