La compétence des gestionnaires de placements est l'un des sujets les plus étudiés en finance, de sorte que les lecteurs peuvent se demander pourquoi il existe encore des thèses comme celle-ci qui lance trois nouveaux Essais sur le sujet. Pris ensemble, ces essais contribuent à divers flux de la littérature de gestion des investissements en jetant un regard neuf sur les compétences dans les classes d'actifs où il est difficile de mesurer (private equity), ou si le sujet n'a pas été étudié en profondeur.). Les résultats donnent des résultats contrastés, car il existe des preuves substantielles de compétences pour le capital-investissement, même après les frais, mais moins de preuves de compétences pour les familles de fonds communs de placement. Les raisons possibles de cette divergence peuvent inclure des incitations élevées des gestionnaires de fonds dans le secteur du capital-investissement, des rendements d'échelle décroissants dans le secteur des fonds communs de placement, des coûts de recherche pour les investisseurs, une inefficacité du marché ou une combinaison de ces facteurs. Ces Essais contiennent également des informations utiles pour les praticiens et les investisseurs. En identifiant au moins quelques déterminants de compétence, les praticiens peuvent avoir une idée des comportements qui ajoutent (ou soustraient) à la valeur de leurs fonds. En quantifiant et en localisant les compétences dans différents types de fonds, les résultats des études peuvent également aider les investisseurs à concentrer leur recherche de compétences, et au moins augmenter la probabilité de trouver un gestionnaire de fonds qualifiés. Pour conclure cette introduction, le sujet de la compétence dans la gestion de fonds est extrêmement important pour beaucoup de gens, mais c'est un sujet complexe qui nécessite encore beaucoup de recherches sérieuses. Le mieux que je puisse espérer, c'est que ces Essais apportent un éclairage nouveau sur certains aspects du sujet qui n'ont pas encore été complètement explorés dans la littérature existante. Sur une note personnelle, j'ai trouvé que la recherche était une tâche très intéressante et stimulante qui fournissait un cadre riche pour faire progresser mes compétences en tant que chercheur financier empirique. J'espère que vous aimez lire ces Essais autant que j'ai aimé les assembler. / Investment manager skill is one of the most researched topics in finance, so readers may wonder why there are still theses such as this one which launches three new Essays on the topic. There are two parts to the answer. The first part lies in the fact that the issue is an extremely important one for many people, organizations, and even governments, at all levels of society and in all corners of the globe. The second part of the answer lies in the fact that, despite intensive research going back 50 years at least, investment manager skill is not yet a well understood phenomenon. Taken together, these Essays contribute to various streams of the investment management literature by taking a fresh look at skill in asset classes where it is difficult to measure (private equity), or where the topic has not previously been studied in depth (mutual fund families). These Essays also contain useful information for practitioners and investors. By identifying at least some determinants of skill, practitioners can get a sense of the behaviors which add to (or subtract from) the value of their funds. By quantifying and locating skill in different type of funds, the papers' findings can also aid investors to focus their search for skill, and at least increase the probability of finding a skilled fund manager.

Research Summary: This paper argues for, and contributes to, a stronger integration of research on finance and international business/global strategy. We perform bibliometric analysis of journal publications between 2010 and 2016 and show that papers published in the two domains relate to very different underlying literatures which, so far, have had a limited overlap. We further argue based on a qualitative review of the literature that both fields offer substantial novel perspectives, models, and theories to each other that have the potential to enrich our theoretical understanding of relevant research questions in both domains. We map various pathways for further integration of international business/global strategy and finance fields and discuss different ways how to better connect the two fields and their different research perspectives and research methodologies. Managerial Summary: In this paper we, first, find that publications from the field of finance and from the area of international business/global strategy relate to very different literatures. Second, we show that both fields would indeed offer substantial and relevant novel perspectives to each other. Third, we develop various pathways for a more intense integration of both literatures. Given the relevance of both international business/global strategy and finance perspectives for business practice, we strongly believe that a more intense integration also bears substantial implications for managers. This is as much of the knowledge developed in international business/global strategy and finance did not fully transfer into the respective other field.

Access to safe and sufficient drinking water and adequate sanitation are now recognized as basic human rights. One Millennium Development Goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015. However, ensuring sustainability of existing and new services is considered to be one of the major challenges for the water sector in the years to come. In India, in addition to service expansion, existing water service quality has been observed to be deteriorating over recent years. There is therefore an equally urgent need to address sustainability and improvement of service quality to the presently served population. In this low-income country, where water utilities are unable to recover even the service costs of operations and minor maintenance through user charges, there is a need to determine ways and means to be able to maintain a cost-effective service to consumers. For such a capital intensive service these ways have to include not only the introduction of efficiency measures but also the long-term planning of capital maintenance, that is the maintenance of the fixed assets upon which services depend. Water utilities in high-income countries have been using various fixed asset management techniques to improve asset operational efficiency, to plan capital maintenance and to demonstrate their ability to maintain and improve service to their customers. This study explores the viability of the application of asset management techniques and their potential contribution towards improving water service provision in urban centres in India. Following a literature review, a generic asset management model for a low-income country water utility was developed and then applied in the water utility serving Jaipur, Rajasthan to assess the viability of this adaptation. Having identified strengths and weaknesses during this fieldwork a revised model was proposed, including distinct phases of asset management/data intensity, which could be used as a generic approach in large urban centres in India. Following consultations with prospective users in six States, the study showed that it is feasible to take a first step towards asset management at low cost but this will require a change in the management approach. The study identified lack of relevant data as a key factor influencing an effective and comprehensive application of a generic asset management model. The study concludes that the proposed phased asset management models can contribute to improving serviceability for customers; however the concern that remains is the willingness of the organisation to adapt to the necessary changes.

This research assessed the concept of future-proofing (FP) as a proactive initiative for enterprise asset management is an urgent need against uncertainty, particularly in health care due to unforeseeable demographic shifts and rapid advances in medical technology. Building information modelling (BIM) is a data-driven initiative but a rigorous analysis will indicate that a synergy exists. A multiphase design methodology was adopted to cover as much breadth and depth around the synergies that exist between future-proofing and BIM both in terms of delivery (supply chain) and in an enterprise context (organisational structures). In the first phase, an exploratory survey was conducted. The exploratory data were gathered to include responses of industry experts. The findings provide valuable insights regarding the integration of flexibility and design standardisation and whether this integration can improve change-readiness in designing future-proof healthcare facilities. Then, a first round of primary and secondary case study data were gathered from a major public asset owner organisation. The findings focused on the governance of BIM and FP in an enterprise context. As such three agendas emerged, namely government, strategic management and, due to the opportunities that BIM brings, information management. Then, a second round of primary qualitative data were collected and a series of interviews were conducted. The interviews targeted the opinion of leading industry experts across all phases of a project. At this phase the aim was to develop a classification ontology of the interactions between FP and BIM during project delivery. Finally, the findings were triangulated. As such, a reference model was developed, concentrating on the functional and organisational aspects of the core business of a service organisation. Finally, the three types of findings were connected to give a deployment plan for future-proofing asset management taking into account adoption of innovation which service providers can use to manage their assets across an enterprise.

abstract: Pavement management systems and performance prediction modeling tools are essential for maintaining an efficient and cost effective roadway network. One indicator of pavement performance is the International Roughness Index (IRI), which is a measure of ride quality and also impacts road safety. Many transportation agencies use IRI to allocate annual maintenance and rehabilitation strategies to their road network. The objective of the work in this study was to develop a methodology to evaluate and predict pavement roughness over the pavement service life. Unlike previous studies, a unique aspect of this work was the use of non-linear mathematical function, sigmoidal growth function, to model the IRI data and provide agencies with the information needed for decision making in asset management and funding allocation. The analysis included data from two major databases (case studies): Long Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) and the Minnesota Department of Transportation MnROAD research program. Each case study analyzed periodic IRI measurements, which were used to develop the sigmoidal models. The analysis aimed to demonstrate several concepts; that the LTPP and MnROAD roughness data could be represented using the sigmoidal growth function, that periodic IRI measurements collected for road sections with similar characteristics could be processed to develop an IRI curve representing the pavement deterioration for this group, and that pavement deterioration using historical IRI data can provide insight on traffic loading, material, and climate effects. The results of the two case studies concluded that in general, pavement sections without drainage systems, narrower lanes, higher traffic, or measured in the outermost lane were observed to have more rapid deterioration trends than their counterparts. Overall, this study demonstrated that the sigmoidal growth function is a viable option for roughness deterioration modeling. This research not only to demonstrated how historical roughness can be modeled, but also how the same framework could be applied to other measures of pavement performance which deteriorate in a similar manner, including distress severity, present serviceability rating, and friction loss. These sigmoidal models are regarded to provide better understanding of particular pavement network deterioration, which in turn can provide value in asset management and resource allocation planning. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Civil Engineering 2016

abstract: This paper studies the dynamic relationship between the pricing of Alternative Asset Management products and macroeconomic variables. It does so using an index of Alternative Asset Management products, employing a VAR framework and examining the implied impulse response functions. I find a bivariate causal relation between the expected rate of return on Alternative Asset Management products and the growth rate of industrial value added. I also find that the CPI, the yield on one-year national debt, the weighted average yield of bond repurchases in interbank bond market, and the one-year loan interest rate can influence the expected return rate of Alternative Asset Management products. An analysis of the variance decomposition suggests that macroeconomic variables have a different impacts on forecast errors variance. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2016

The work focuses on issues of mutual funds. How is managed cash flow, how the selection of instruments in the portfolio and how managers manage the risk associated with investment. In the practical part is matched by asset management and risk management for equity and bond mutual fund.

Currently, operation of companies is entirely dependent on information and communication technologies (ICT) which are used across all indfustries. There are bigger demands that are placed on the management of individual assets, while software is the most problematic from this perspective. It is necessary for companies to pay sufficient attention to this issue, because there is a high risk of financial penalties in case of its failure. The first objective of this thesis is to provide basic characteristics of Software Asset Management (SAM) belonging to Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), which is one of the few adressing this area in an entirely way. This objective is default condition for achieving the second objective, where will be analyzed specific case of software asset management in the banking sector. On the basis of the analysis will be accepted proposals for implemention of best practises of SAM. The third objective is enrichment of previous proposals by parts of request for proposal, which are focused on detailed specification of the required functionality of software tools according to SAM. The all tasks will be achieved through the study of relevant sources and through techniques that help with analysis and definition of the future state. The benefits of thesis are in to identification of gaps within software asset management, which obtained through employee survey. The second contribution is to propose changes in the form of specific steps that should help to bring more efficiency to the current state. The last contribution is to summarise new pieces of knowledge, which are extending this issue by information focused on large organisations.

This master’s thesis contains proposal to implementation Asset management to ServiceNow in unnamed multinational company. The aim of this master’s thesis is analysis of company requirements and find suitable solution of Asset management implementation with current tools. At the end I will evaluate if is possible to use selected tool.

The South African Ports are considered a key engine for the economic growth of the country for import and export trade as well as passenger ships. In order to provide such services, the ports' waterside / wet concrete assets are pivotal to the business as trade and travel are reliant on the availability of safe and well-maintained concrete assets. Transnet is a State-Owned Company (SOC), wholly owned by the Government of the Republic of South Africa and is the custodian of rail, ports, and pipelines. The asset management and maintenance of Transnet's infrastructure assets are, therefore, the cornerstone of delivering on their mandate as a SOC. Moreover, to deliver on their mandate, systematic, holistic, and integrated approaches to asset management and maintenance of their assets are imperative. This dissertation focuses on the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) division. It has a very large asset base of Infrastructure, in particular its marine concrete infrastructure. Regulated by the National Ports Act 2005 (Act No. 12 of 2005), some of their core functions are the planning, provision, maintenance, and improvement of port infrastructure. This dissertation gives a background on the structure of the South African Ports and operations and the types and age of concrete structures within the ports. The study also critically assesses the existence of and the type of Infrastructure Asset Management & Maintenance (IAMM) systems currently in place for the Asset Management and Maintenance of TNPA's concrete infrastructure assets. The approach and methods of managing and assessing assets' condition and maintaining their existing concrete structures are reviewed to ascertain whether their asset management systems are aligned and conform to certain IAMM standards, codes, and guidelines. The Asset Maintenance Principles & Procedures (AMPP) document is also reviewed for its effectiveness in maintaining assets. In order to get a holistic idea of the extent of the possible shortcomings of TNPA's current maintenance and asset management strategies, other ports around the world with similar or the same concrete infrastructure are identified and assessed for commonalities and deviations from best practices. The research methodology used is qualitative using the analysis of existing text and literature as well as case studies of other ports as a source of data. The findings of the research show that although there are good maintenance systems and guidelines in place with some elements of asset management principles, an all encompassing civil infrastructure asset management framework for the marine concrete assets does not exists where the benefits of a properly implemented asset management framework can be realised. The research also shows that asset management is largely treated as a financial exercise with finance being the custodian of asset management. Recommendations are made for dealing with the shortcomings identified. Recommendations are also made for a more in-depth case study for the TNPA to conduct based on the findings of this dissertation.