In recent years, the beef industry has been forced to examine improving supply chain coordination in order to respond to the declining consumer demand for beef. Exploring the different supply chain structures being used by beef industry participants to improve coordination and provide consumers with differentiated beef products is important. The problem is that it is not clear how the different attributes often included in branded beef programs affect transaction costs and result in the formation of particular supply chain structures. This thesis examines what makes a successful supply chain alliance in the beef industry. Essentially, this study examines the sustainability and effectiveness of different alliance types and their ability to coordinate various branded beef programs and the product attributes included under these programs. A predictive transaction cost model is developed, which examines how different product attributes result in the emergence of particular transaction characteristics. The model shows how the structure of the supply chain adapts in order to minimize the associated transaction costs. In order to better understand the relative importance of different transaction characteristics to supply chain participants, a two-part empirical study was conducted. In the first portion of the study the relative importance of key transaction characteristics to cow-calf operators was examined through the use of conjoint analysis. The results from the conjoint analysis indicate that certain transaction characteristics, namely asset specific investments, limit the willingness of cow-calf operators to participate in alliances due to the associated transaction costs. Cow-calf operators placed an emphasis on premiums, which shows that while they are willing to make trade-offs and accept increased costs, associated with asset specific investments and price uncertainty, they are only willing to do this when benefits are greater than costs. To further understand the importance of different transaction characteristics to supply chain participants, key managers and directors of different beef alliances throughout Canada and the United States were interviewed. Based on the interviews it appears that alliances have typically limited the level of asset specific investments required. Consequently, the degree of coordination is not affected to, any great extent, by the level of investments required. Instead, the degree of coordination appears to more a result of how an alliance is aligned with a particular brand name label. It appears that greater coordination occurs when an alliance owns a brand name label or is an exclusive supplier to a brand name label, as there is a higher risk of opportunistic behaviour and, as a result, higher transaction costs. The use of grid-based pricing systems and the number of buyers/sellers in the market did not appear to have a significant affect on the method of coordination chosen. Based on the results obtained from both the cow-calf operator conjoint-based analysis and interviews with alliance members this thesis identifies several critical success factors and challenges to improving coordination in the beef industry. Most significantly, when developing alliances it is necessary to understand the importance of different transaction characteristics to supply chain participants. This research demonstrates that supply chain participants in the beef industry are willing to make trade-offs between the benefits received from improved coordination and the transaction costs that arise, as long as the benefits exceeds the increase in costs.

Title: Strategic Alliances: Performance Measurement in the Financial Service IndustrySubtitle: Case study: The Beneficial Life Insurance S.A. and Microfinance Institutionsin CameroonAuthors: Chi Jonathan Dze & Anouar SoldiSupervisor: David GilbertBackground: Due to the globalization, companies choose different strategies in order tosurvive. Some run towards the vertical integration in order to control the wholeproduction process, others outsource in order to reduce the productions costs, others gofor strategic alliances aiming to strengthen their market positions by bringing the lackedresources and competencies.Aims: To find a defined combination and set of factors that lead to the success of thiskind of partnerships, and to cover the lack of inexistence of one vision of measuring thesuccess of strategic alliances, especially in the service industry.Definition: We find in Varadarajan and Cunningham (1995) that strategic alliances aredefined as "the pooling of specific resources and skills by the cooperating organizationsin order to achieve common goals, as well as goals specific to the individual partners".Completion and Results: The success factors of strategic alliances in general aredifficult to be concretely measured. Still, we managed to find a model that can be usedby these companies as a guideline for the evaluation.Search terms: Strategic alliances, collaboration, success measurement, success factors,service industry

The goal of the first part of this thesis is to obtain a high-level theoretical understanding of how an alliance can be managed such that its resources are used in an optimal manner. We propose a pricing mechanism to manage the interactions of carriers, through the allocation of alliance resources and profits, in a manner that encourages individual carriers to make decisions that are optimal for the alliance. Our methodology is based on modeling carrier behavior as linear programs, which are incorporated into a mechanism that manages carrier interactions by appropriately setting resource prices. After introducing two distinct behavioral models, the performance of the mechanism using each model is analyzed for its ability to ensure alliance optimal behavior is attained. We find that the behavioral model selected can significantly impact the characteristics of allocations obtained using the mechanism. In the second part of the thesis, we seek to establish practical insights regarding how the characteristics of potential partners impact the benefit that can be gained by collaborating with these partners. Computational experiments are conducted to evaluate the impact of network size, fleet capacity, demand distribution, and network compatibility on the benefit associated with collaborating. A comprehensive study for simulated two and three-carrier alliances establishes general insights regarding the compatibility of carriers with varying network sizes and fleet capacities. The impact of increasing hub-to-hub connectivity between partnering carriers is then investigated, followed by a study of the effect of market overlap on alliance success. Finally, a real-world cargo alliance is analyzed. In the third and final part of this thesis, we develop new approaches for determining and inducing fair profit allocations in alliances, providing alternatives to traditional approaches which equate minimum acceptance requirements and satisfaction. The mechanism established in the first part of the thesis is adapted to more precisely control the profit allocations obtained, in particular so that an allocation as close to some predetermined fair" allocation is obtained. Several measures of fairness are proposed and implemented, and their performance analyzed for each of the behavioral models discussed in the first part of the thesis.

Container terminal plays an important role to serve container vessel¡¦s loading and discharging in seaport. Owing to high sunk cost and resource limited in operating ( e.g. rental, quay and yard cranes, berth window, yard and so on ), container terminals are mostly run by government or conglomerate of joint carriers . Practically, there are many container terminal operation types in the world. Among them, Kaohsiung Harbor Authority ( KHB ) leases out all terminals to several vessel carriers and the terminal lessee serves hers own vessels. In such operation type, Kaohsiung port terminal industries are faced with resource limited and berth window shortage problems. Above all, under the prevailing of global alliance tendency and ports serious competition, the terminal lessees will have the pressures of lack in resource sharing advantage and cost increasing. In such situation, the terminal performance and efficiency will be deteriorated in the long run. Thus, how to seek a better way, even changing the operation type, to enhance Kaohsiung port competitive ability is an imminent problem. Therefore, in order to maintain the Kaohsiung port¡¦s competitive advantage in international seaports, this thesis aims to discuss and evaluate the possibility of joint-venture type in Kaohsiung container terminal. We take Los Angeles¡¦s joint-venture case, which is a success cooperation, as an emulating example. And we act the expert investigation by AHP analysis to process this study. Finally, we expect this conclusion and suggestions can provide an opportunity to relating organizations for further study enabling them to come up with a suitable operation type in Kaohsiung harbor.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Business Administration. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 246-265). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR29492

Diss.--Wirtschaft--Göttingen Universität, 1998.

Texte remanié de: Master of science--Agronomie--Montpellier--CIHEAM, 2005. / CIHEAM-IAMM = Centre international des hautes études agronomiques méditerranéennes-Institut agronomique méditerranéen de Montpellier. En appendice, choix de documents. Bibliogr. p. 85-90.

Thèse de doctorat : Sciences de gestion : Université Paris-Dauphine : 2009. / bibliogr. p. 302-318. Index.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy