Railways have played an important role for the Swedish economy throughout the 20th into the 21st century since it provides good connections between urban and rural regions and also within them. However, it has been very costly for the state to run this activity and a significant effort to reduce costs and to increase the efficiency for this sector was to introduce procurement auctions where also private firms are invited to lay bids. Four auctions have taken place in Jönköpings Län since its introduction in 1990. It has been a turbulent time economically for the winning bidders and the phenomena winner’s curse is evident where the bidder with highest over-estimate wins and therefore faces high costs or low returns. This study points at flaws in the auction design as the reason for the economical difficulties for the winning firms. If second-price sealed bid auctions or first-price sealed bid auctions were used instead of a combination of first-price sealed auction and English auction, the winner’s curse phenomena could be reduced or even eliminated.

The chapters of this dissertation explore related aspects of the procurement of conservation services from private landowners. In the first chapter, heuristic laboratory experiments reveal the impact of potential government regulation on strategic forces and efficiency properties in conservation procurement auctions. In the second chapter, data from past procurement auctions are analyzed to discover the existence and magnitude of premiums received by auction participants. The first Chapter, “Procurement Auctions Under Regulatory Threat,” examines how strategic forces and efficiency properties are impacted in auctions for the procurement of environmental services when a threat of regulation is levied. Laboratory experiments examining different regulatory environments demonstrate that a threat of regulation will reduce the amount of public funds necessary to purchase a given level of environmental services. However, adverse selection costs and equity are negatively impacted by threat implementation. The second Chapter, “Estimating Bid Inflation in Procurement of Environmental Services,” studies the size of premiums received by program participants in conservation programs. Predictions informed by economic literature and theory elicit the underlying value distribution for a unique dataset of procurement auctions. Average premiums for auction participants range from almost 50 percent to less than 1 percent across auction periods and institutions. The results demonstrate that both repetition and rule variation may improve the efficiency of procurement auctions. The auctions studied here are shown to yield efficiency improvements of more than 32 percent over standard fixed-payment schemes for service procurement.

This Thesis will begin by highlighting the significance of social media networks and e-Commerce in today’s business environment. The purpose of this paper is to develop an external marketing strategy that can be employed by start-up firms operating in the e-Commerce of reverse auction sites.   The paper will particularly focus on the company EarnBidWin.com and the marketing strategy will be based on the Service Perspective. EarnBidWin.com is an online reverse auction site that is new and unique compared to other existing models of reverse auction. EarnBidWin.com is a web-based advertising and networking platform that features e-Campaigns (performance-based advertising) and reverse auctions. EarnBidWin.com’s unique business model within a social-business network offers a win-win situation for all parties concerned.   A qualitative research method is conducted by using a case study. The data is gathered through the primary source of interviews with the CEO of the company, along with the secondary source of extensive academic literature. Finally, the results are presented in a discussion of a proposed marketing strategy based on the combination of the Service Perspective and the Critical Success Factors of high growth start-up firms in the e-Commerce arena.

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<p>Railways have played an important role for the Swedish economy throughout the 20th into the 21st century since it provides good connections between urban and rural regions and also within them. However, it has been very costly for the state to run this activity and a significant effort to reduce costs and to increase the efficiency for this sector was to introduce procurement auctions where also private firms are invited to lay bids.</p><p>Four auctions have taken place in Jönköpings Län since its introduction in 1990. It has been a turbulent time economically for the winning bidders and the phenomena winner’s curse is evident where the bidder with highest over-estimate wins and therefore faces high costs or low returns.</p><p>This study points at flaws in the auction design as the reason for the economical difficulties for the winning firms. If second-price sealed bid auctions or first-price sealed bid auctions were used instead of a combination of first-price sealed auction and English auction, the winner’s curse phenomena could be reduced or even eliminated.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2001. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 61 p.; also contains graphics. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-60).

"Dissertation, Humboldt-Universitäte zu Berlin, 2008"--T.p. verso. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 209-212) and index.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 59-62). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2002. / Title from title page of source document. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Florida, 2002. / Title from title page of source document. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.