The growth of international businesses within the context of economic globalisation has created different operating environments that have exposed managers at both national and international levels to different business challenges as well as moral dilemmas. The moral dilemmas and subsequent decisions facing managers in Britain and China today are important considerations both in terms of research knowledge and management practices. This thesis is based on a triangulated cross-cultural comparative study of managers working for British multi-national corporations (MNCs) in China and the United Kingdom (UK). The study includes a postal survey and semi-structured interviews with Chinese and British managers of British MNCs that represent various industries. Alternative to traditional approach, the study has investigated the reality experienced by the managers in their decision making when confronted by moral dilemmas. The managers‟ moral behaviour processes are compared. For China-based managers, the recent moral, economic, social and cultural changes in modern China have contributed to the creation of ethical challenges. The dilemma for them is whether to follow local practices or the corporate standards of their British companies. For managers who are based in Britain, the centre of the moral tension is caused by reconciling personal ethical standards when making decisions to prioritise business rationale. Similarities found between Chinese and British managers show that despite moral struggles and discomfort suffered by managers, the decisions they finally make are determined by a leaning towards their companies‟ continued benefit. The evidence in this study suggests that managers‟ moral behaviour and final decisions are not often determined by what they personally think is morally right or wrong, but determined by their managerial responsibility, business pressure, commonly accepted practices, business culture and social environment, as well as changing economic environments. The components which play essential parts in constructing moral behaviour include managers‟ moral sensitivity, judgement, motivation and decisions. Business rationale and economic values of a decision are consistently shown to be the main reasons which can explain managers‟ decisions. This is the reality of managerial ethical decision-making interpreted and understood by the managers in China and the UK in this study.

Στην παρούσα εργασία έγινε μία προσπάθεια ανάπτυξης της οικονομετρίας σαν εργαλείο για την εξαγωγή συμπερασμάτων και αποφάσεων από τα δικαστήρια. Αφορμή αποτέλεσαν οι υποθέσεις αθέμιτου ανταγωνισμού που πρόσφατα έχουν συμβεί στην χώρα μας, όπου με τη χρήση των ποσοτικών μεθόδων αποδείχτηκαν οι εναρμονισμένες πολιτικές. Περιγράφηκε η αναπτυσσόμενη ανάγκη χρήσης ποσοτικών μεθόδων στο δικαστήριο. Γίνεται αναφορά στο νομικό προηγούμενο Daubert το αποίο περιγράφει ρητά την αποδεκτικότητα μαρτυριών ειδικών επιστημόνων σε δικαστικές διαμάχες (στο νομικό σύστημα της Αμερικής). Αναπτύσσονται τα κριτήρια για να είναι μία οικονομετρική μελέτη αποδεκτή από το δικαστήριο σαν πειστήριο. Βασικές αναφορές στην οικονομετρία. Υποθέσεις που έχουν χρησιμοποιήσει οικονομετρία. Προβλήματα από την χρήση των ποσοτικών μεθόδων στο Νομικό σύστημα. Τέλος μελέτες περιπτώσεων όπου η οικονομετρική ανάλυση είχε τον πρώτο λόγο σαν αποδεικτικό στοιχεία στο δικαστήριο. / In this particular assignment an effort has been made to develop econometrics as a weapon to reach conclusions and decisions of courts. The reason for all this have been the antitrust cases which have recently occurred in our country, where policies agreed among companies have been proved by using quantitive methods. In the court the increasing need to use quantitive methods has been described. A reference has been made concerning the Daubert standard which explicitly describes the acceptance of the testimonies of scientists in litigation (in the legal system of America). What is thoroughly developed are the criteria so that it will be an econometric study which will be accepted by court as evidence. Basic references to econometrics. Cases which have used econometrics. Problems which may arise by the use of quantitive methods in the legal system. Finally, studies of cases where econometrics analysis was the most import evidence in court.

Η διαχείριση της γνώσης (knowledge management) αποτελεί ένα σύγχρονο ερευνητικό πεδίο με μεγάλο ενδιαφέρον, τόσο για τον επιχειρηματικό όσο και για τον ακαδημαϊκό κόσμο. Σήμερα, ο τρόπος με τον οποίο οι διάφοροι οικονομικοί οργανισμοί διαχειρίζονται την επιχειρησιακή γνώση καθορίζει το πλαίσιο της επιτυχίας ή της αποτυχίας τους. Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αποτελεί μια προσπάθεια επιβεβαίωσης και επέκτασης της υπάρχουσας θεωρίας που αφορά στη Διαχείριση της Γνώσης. Μέσα από τη σύνθεση προηγούμενων θεωρητικών και εμπειρικών δεδομένων δημιουργήθηκε ένα Εννοιολογικό Πλαίσιο που εξετάζει την επίδραση μίας από τις πιο σημαντικές διαδικασίες της διαχείρισης της γνώσης, αυτή της Διάχυσης της Γνώσης (Knowledge Sharing), στις ελληνικές εξαγωγικές επιχειρήσεις. Γίνεται μία προσπάθεια αποτύπωσης των πρακτικών διάχυσης γνώσης, που εφαρμόζουν οι ελληνικές εξαγωγικές επιχειρήσεις, τόσο στο εσωτερικό τους, όσο και με τους διανομείς / πελάτες τους στο εξωτερικό. Το συγκεκριμένο Εννοιολογικό Πλαίσιο ελέγχτηκε, με την χρήση ερωτηματολογίου, σε ένα δείγμα 71 ελληνικών εξαγωγικών επιχειρήσεων. Τα δεδομένα αναλύθηκαν με το Spss 20 και η μέθοδος που χρησιμοποιήθηκε είναι η παραγοντική ανάλυση. / Knowledge management is a contemporary research area of great interest, both to the business and the academic world. Nowadays, the way in which various financial organizations manage operational knowledge determines their success or failure. The present study constitutes an effort to confirm and extend the existing theory on Knowledge Management. Through the synthesis of previous theoretical and empirical data we created a Conceptual framework which examines the effect of one of the most important processes of knowledge management, Knowledge Sharing, in the Greek export business. An attempt was made to define the ways in which knowledge sharing is applied by the Greek export companies, both internally as well as with their distributors / customers abroad. This Conceptual framework was checked, using a questionnaire to a sample of 71 Greek export companies. The data were analyzed by using the Spss 20 and Factor analysis method was used to identify the factors.

Ces dernières décennies ont vu une évolution remarquable du contexte économique des entreprises. Ceci est dû certainement à la compétition fortement croissante à laquelle elles sont confrontées. Cette forte concurrence a entraîné les entreprises à investiguer des voies pour améliorer leurs performances économiques tout en répondant aux mieux aux exigences de leurs clients. La clé de la réussite de la majorité des entreprises réside dans la mise en place d’une méthode de gestion économique des différentes fonctions. Les industriels et les chercheurs ont prouvé l’existence d’une forte interaction entre trois fonctions fondamentales de l’entreprise ; la maintenance, la production et la qualité. Ils ont démontrés qu’une gestion indépendante de ces trois fonctions n’est plus efficiente. Suite à ce constat, nous nous sommes intéressés dans ce projet de recherche au développement de nouvelles stratégies de maintenance intégrée à la production et à la qualité. En tenant compte du prix de vente, des coûts de retouche, de la maintenance et ceux de la production, une analyse de l’interdépendance des trois fonctions a permis de réaliser notre objectif qui consiste à maximiser les profits des entreprises. Le but de cette thèse consiste, à proposer des nouvelles approches de maintenance intégrée à la qualité en tenant compte de la dégradation progressive du système de production, son impact sur la qualité des produits finis et l’impact économique des actions de retouche. Des modèles analytiques ont été développés afin d’illustrer les stratégies proposées. L’effet de la dégradation du système de production sur la perte de qualité du produit fini et son impact économique ont été mis en équation par le biais de modèles mathématiques. Dans ce contexte, différentes politiques de maintenance (parfaite, imparfaite, semi parfaite) ont été traitées. L’existence des solutions optimales liées aux variables de décision a été démontrée analytiquement. Enfin, des résolutions numériques, basées sur des cas industriels, ont été présentées afin de valider les résultats théoriques obtenus. La robustesse des modèles analytiques développés a été prouvée par des études de sensibilité / The last few decades have been marked by a remarkable change in the economic environment of companies. It is due certainly to the increasing competition that they face. This strong competition has led companies to investigate new ways to improve their economic performance while meeting their customers' requirements. The key to the success of the majority of companies lies in the implementation of an economic management method of various functions. Industry and researchers have demonstrated a strong interaction between the three fundamental functions of the company; maintenance, production and quality. They have demonstrated that an independent management of these three functions is no more efficient. Following this observation, we were interested in this research project in the development of new maintenance strategies integrated production and quality. Taking into account sales prices, reworking costs, maintenance costs and production costs, an analysis of the interdependence of the three functions enabled us to achieve our goal of maximizing the profits of companies. The purpose of this thesis is to propose new approaches integrated quality and maintenance taking into account the progressive degradation of the production system, its impact on the quality of output products and the economic impact of reworking actions. Analytical models have been developed to illustrate the proposed strategies. The effect of the degradation of the production system on the degradation of quality of output products and its economic impact has been modeled using mathematical models. In this context, various maintenance policies (perfect, imperfect, semi-perfect) have been studied. The existence of optimal solutions related to the decision variables has been analytically demonstrated. Finally, numerical resolutions, based on industrial cases, have been presented in order to illustrate the theoretical results obtained. The robustness of the analytical models developed has been proved by sensitivity studies

This thesis explores in detail intuition or the often neglected, non-analytical aspects of the strategic decision-making process.  In doing so, it makes a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge on strategic decision-making. In order to fully explore the strategic decision-making process, analysis (analytical aspects) and the interaction of both intuition and analysis are also considered.  Companies involved in the present study are classified according to three types based on the results:   Analytical, Intuitive and See-Saw.  This forms a useful means of comparison between companies. A model is developed drawn from the empirical analysis, which highlights that there are various aspects within the organisational and industry environment, including analysis and intuition, which influence inter-organisational variation in strategic decision-making.  Variation in the strategic decision-making process is important to consider because it may be a source of competitive advantage for individual companies.  The applied implications of the model are also discussed. The upstream oil and gas industry, a dynamic environment characterised by uncertainty, provided the setting for the current study.  Data was collected in both Australia and the U.K.  Fifty face-to-face interviews were conducted within eleven operators and one serve company.  This information was also supplemented with documentary material.  Grounded theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) provided the research strategy.  It is intended the empirical results will increase the clarity and understanding of the strategic decision-making process, ultimately leading to better and more informed decisions being made.

- / -

Il y a de cela un demi-siècle, l’expression de la performance industrielle était taylorienne, monocritère, rattachée aux résultats financiers de l’entreprise. Aujourd’hui, la performance a adopté une dimension multicritère, multi niveau, liée au degré d’atteinte d’un objectif généralement global. Les performances du système sont établies à des fins de pilotage, calculées sur la base de comparaisons entre les objectifs fixés et les mesures correspondantes. Toutefois, cette performance est restée exprimée, de manière statique, généralement à l’instant final de l’horizon temporel associé à l’atteinte de l’objectif.Nous proposons, dans le cadre de cette thèse, une définition de la performance temporelle, déployée selon trois performances, instantanée, tendancielle et prédictive. L’hypothèse émise dans nos travaux consiste à considérer un objectif défini par une trajectoire d’objectifs dits intermédiaires, sur un horizon temporel donné. La performance instantanée est définie comme le degré d’atteinte de l’objectif à un jalon donné de l’horizon temporel. Elle repose ainsi sur une fonction de comparaison de la valeur de l’objectif et celle de la mesure de son atteinte. La performance tendancielle est le résultat de la comparaison de la tendance de l’objectif avec la tendance de la mesure. Cette performance renseigne de la manière dont l’objectif est atteint. La performance prédictive est définie à un jalon donné de l’horizon temporel, pour un jalon futur. Elle est le résultat de la comparaison de la valeur de l’objectif intermédiaire associé au jalon futur, avec une estimation de valeur de la mesure à ce même jalon futur. Une méthode d’exploitation de ces performances est proposée, fondée sur un principe d’agrégation, « deux à deux », des trois performances temporelles ; ce qui nous permet de fournir une information synthétique unique, relative à la performance de la trajectoire de l’objectif en quelque sorte. A l’issue de cette étape de définition, nous proposons une formalisation qualitative de ces performances, fondée sur l’utilisation de la théorie des sous-ensembles flous. Jeux de règles et descriptions linguistiques sont utilisés dans ce sens. Nous illustrons enfin ces propositions par des exemples extraits d’un projet d’amélioration du TRS de la Société Fournier. / Fifty years ago, the expression of industrial performance was Taylorian, mono criterion, and attached to the financial results of the company. Today, the performance has adopted both multi criteria and multilevel dimensions. More generally, such a performance is usually related to the achievement of overall objectives and is dedicated to control purposes, post Taylorian performances are thus expressed on the basis of comparisons between the fixed objectives and the corresponding measures. However, this performance is often statically expressed, generally at the final moment of the temporal horizon which is associated with the objective achievement.In this thesis, we propose a definition of the “temporal” performance, according to three performances: the instantaneous performance, the trend performance and the predictive performance. The fundamental assumption in our work consists of considering an objective as being a trajectory of what we call intermediate objectives, throughout a given temporal horizon. Instantaneous performance is expressed by the objective achievement at a given milestone of the temporal horizon. Such a performance relies on the comparison of the objective and the measurement of its achievement. Trend performance is the result of the comparison of the trend objective with the trend measurement. This performance provides information concerning the objective achievement. Predictive performance is defined at a given milestone of the temporal horizon, for a future milestone of this horizon. It is the result of the comparison of the intermediate objective of the considered future milestone with an estimation of measurement at this same future milestone. Moreover, a methodology for using these performances is proposed, based on a principle of aggregation, "in pairs", of the three temporal performances, which allows us to provide a single synthetic piece of information that is, to some extent, the performance of the objective trajectory. As a continuation of this definition step, we propose a qualitative formalization of these performances, based on the fuzzy subsets theory. Rules-based aggregations and linguistic descriptions are used in this. Finally, we illustrate these propositions with examples that are extracted from the OEE improvement project of the Fournier Company.

AIMS OF THE RESEARCH: To explore the decision making processes of top management, CEO's and boards of directors - to gain ne~ insights into the causes of management decision failures, management risk and decision process weaknessess. To identify important factors that play a pivotal role in effective decision making in business situations. To draw up a frame~ork for effective decision making based on the correlations between decision theory and empirical findings amongst senior executives and board members. To find ways how management can minimize the risk of decision failure in complex problems, what questions they have to ask themselves about the way in which they make decisions, what decision risks they have to be aware of at each stage of the decision process and how they can gain from available decision theory. The aim is to improve the decision process to obtain better overall quality of decisions produced by kno~ledgeable senior managers and board members. This will provide a framework for effective third generation risk management. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS Board members and top executives rely on experience and personal knowledge to analyse complex problems and do not consciously involve concepts from decision theory (see section 8.5). They describe these phenomena in their organisations, but they have not formally done a decision process analysis to minimise decision risk. Current risk management practises in modern financial institutions focus mainly on risk classification techniques and structural mechanisms (see section 15) to control risks, with little or no attention to decision process dynamics. The Board of Directors and Top Management are generally very good at identifying corporate risks, economic risks and financial risks, but they have great difficulty in identifying internal decision process risks within the management hierarchy/system or amongst themselves. Introspective analysis of their own decision process dynamics can help to improve this. A step by step analysis of the decision process in the board and top management team as described in section 18.2 is proposed as a further contribution to improve the quality of decision making in financial institutions. Structural changes to boards like those introduced by Cadbury improved second generation risk management practices. This research proposes that further advances can be made by third generation risk management improvements in the decision process dynamics. We teach decision makers about economic and financial analysis and derivatives and risk management, but the fundamentals of decision science and the human decision process seem to be ignored. To prevent the financial failures that so often destroy shareholder value, we need to focus on decision science and financial decision process analysis Analysis of the decision process dynamics is proposed as a way to reduce the number of decision failures in large financial institutions and other organisations. By increasing the a~areness and kno~ledge of board members and top executives about the potential causes of decision failure, their own ability to identify and prevent these will be improved. New risk management structures and recent changes to board structures have contributed greatly to corporate governance but could not prevent many of the financial failures. Combining these structural improvements with an additional focus on decision process analysis can increase our ability to manage risk successfully. / Business Leadership / DBL

AIMS OF THE RESEARCH: To explore the decision making processes of top management, CEO's and boards of directors - to gain ne~ insights into the causes of management decision failures, management risk and decision process weaknessess. To identify important factors that play a pivotal role in effective decision making in business situations. To draw up a frame~ork for effective decision making based on the correlations between decision theory and empirical findings amongst senior executives and board members. To find ways how management can minimize the risk of decision failure in complex problems, what questions they have to ask themselves about the way in which they make decisions, what decision risks they have to be aware of at each stage of the decision process and how they can gain from available decision theory. The aim is to improve the decision process to obtain better overall quality of decisions produced by kno~ledgeable senior managers and board members. This will provide a framework for effective third generation risk management. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCH FINDINGS Board members and top executives rely on experience and personal knowledge to analyse complex problems and do not consciously involve concepts from decision theory (see section 8.5). They describe these phenomena in their organisations, but they have not formally done a decision process analysis to minimise decision risk. Current risk management practises in modern financial institutions focus mainly on risk classification techniques and structural mechanisms (see section 15) to control risks, with little or no attention to decision process dynamics. The Board of Directors and Top Management are generally very good at identifying corporate risks, economic risks and financial risks, but they have great difficulty in identifying internal decision process risks within the management hierarchy/system or amongst themselves. Introspective analysis of their own decision process dynamics can help to improve this. A step by step analysis of the decision process in the board and top management team as described in section 18.2 is proposed as a further contribution to improve the quality of decision making in financial institutions. Structural changes to boards like those introduced by Cadbury improved second generation risk management practices. This research proposes that further advances can be made by third generation risk management improvements in the decision process dynamics. We teach decision makers about economic and financial analysis and derivatives and risk management, but the fundamentals of decision science and the human decision process seem to be ignored. To prevent the financial failures that so often destroy shareholder value, we need to focus on decision science and financial decision process analysis Analysis of the decision process dynamics is proposed as a way to reduce the number of decision failures in large financial institutions and other organisations. By increasing the a~areness and kno~ledge of board members and top executives about the potential causes of decision failure, their own ability to identify and prevent these will be improved. New risk management structures and recent changes to board structures have contributed greatly to corporate governance but could not prevent many of the financial failures. Combining these structural improvements with an additional focus on decision process analysis can increase our ability to manage risk successfully. / Business Leadership / DBL

In the remarkable developments that have occurred recently in all sectors of society, e.g. environmental, social, and governance (ESG) integration, responsible investing, social entrepreneurship, and strategic philanthropy, the measurement of extra-financial (or non- financial or external) information remains a key issue. While 'making a difference' is the goal of such developments, no integrated externality measurement framework (IEMF) has been proposed, recognized as a reasonable candidate, or adopted by practitioners. The overall objective of this thesis is to develop such an IEMF which would facilitate meaningful measurements and interpretations of the 'quantum of difference' (e.g. in the context of ESG information) and applications thereof towards resource allocation strategies. The aim is not so much to develop some putative 'perfectly accurate model of reality' but an epistemic framework which would serve as a communicative and organizational anchor. The overall objective derives to five research imperatives, which are responded to by five core chapters in the thesis. The following key findings emerge: Finding 1. The ESG metric landscape exists in a patchwork. In particular, while social impact metrics have proliferated recently, they constitute an incoherent domain of its own, separate from the environmental and governance metric literatures. In devising an IEMF, the key challenges include aggregating disparate metrics and disaggregating causalities. Once such a framework has been devised and adopted by practitioners, one can innovate various resource allocation strategies. Finding 2. The attitudes and approaches toward measurement and metrics can broadly be typologized as being fetishistic, positivistic, cynical, and pragmatic. Taking the pragmatic stance allows us to ascribe an appropriate epistemic status to metrics and calibrates the philosophical proclivity of the culminating IEMF. Finding 3. A geography of philanthropic governance exists. In particular, there are variegated similarities and differences in the perceptions and usage of ecosocial metrics. Significant overlaps in the domain and geographic foci of giving signify the feasibility of meaningful comparison, competition and collaboration among such organizations with metrics at the centrepiece. Finding 4. While best practice benchmarks in the usage of metrics in driving positive tangible changes are rare, a highly innovative integrated rural development program known as Saemaul Undong serves as a solid example. It is possible to maximize the efficiency in resource-deployment, induce participation and competition, and scale a parochial initiative to a national level through the usage of performance metrics. Finding 5. Calibrating appropriate philosophical stance, aggregating widely disparate measuranda, disaggregating casual attribution are among the key challenges towards developing an IEMF. Identifying and adopting appropriate formalisms facilitate addressing such challenges. For adoption in practice, however, one must factor in human expertise and judgements when making resource deployment decisions along with the numbers calculated through such a framework. The findings above constitute a series of 'firsts' of the kind in each relevant bodies of literature, paving the way for further explorations.