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Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Peterson_Carlos_Pirola.pdf: 1373676 bytes, checksum: ce4b7c1d993a0bd8c80f2c8bf89a8cf9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-19 / This work sought to study the reaction of the Brazilian capital market towards announcements of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) processes, investigating its impact in the price of stocks negotiated on S??o Paulo Stock Exchange, Commodities and Futures Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA). With regard to the methodology applied in this work, both descriptive and quantitative researches can be observed. These were carried out by using secondary data collection and statistical analysis. The aim of the survey was to check if the announcements of M&A operations produced impact on the prices of stocks publicly negotiated on BM&FBOVESPA after the global financial crisis in 2008. An event study was carried out in order to verify the existence of statistically significant abnormal returns around the dates of the announcements of the M&A processes, based on the assumption that a link between the stock market and companies decision to join an M&A process exists. The results obtained with the segmentation of the sample between acquiring and acquired companies indicate that announcements of M&A operations did not impact on the prices of publicly traded shares on the BM&FBOVESPA, during the research period, showing evidence of the informational efficiency of the Brazilian capital market as being semi-strong. When making up the segmentation between companies that had a change in control, both the acquired companies as the acquiring firms had positive abnormal returns, a fact that repeated itself in the segmentation carried out with regard to the payment method / Este trabalho procurou estudar a rea????o do mercado de capitais Brasileiro diante do an??ncio de um processo de Fus??es e Aquisi????es (F&A), investigando seu impacto no pre??o das a????es negociadas na Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros de S??o Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA). Com rela????o ?? metodologia aplicada neste trabalho, podem-se observar pesquisas de natureza descritiva e quantitativa, realizadas com coleta de dados secund??rios e an??lise estat??stica. O problema estudado foi verificar se os an??ncios de opera????es de F&A produziram impacto nos pre??os das a????es negociadas publicamente na BM&FBOVESPA ap??s a crise financeira global de 2008. Tendo como pressuposto a liga????o existente entre o mercado de capitais e a decis??o das empresas em ingressar num processo de F&A, foi realizado um estudo de evento com o intuito de verificar a exist??ncia de retornos anormais estatisticamente significantes em torno e na data do an??ncio de um processo de F&A. Os resultados obtidos com a segmenta????o da amostra entre empresas adquirentes e adquiridas indicam que os an??ncios de opera????es de F&A n??o produziram impacto nos pre??os das a????es negociadas publicamente na BM&FBOVESPA, durante o per??odo pesquisado, demostrando ind??cios da efici??ncia informacional do mercado de capitais Brasileiro na forma semiforte. Ao efetuar-se a segmenta????o entre empresas que tiveram mudan??a de controle, tanto as empresas adquiridas quanto as empresas adquirentes obtiveram retornos anormais positivos. Fato que se repetiu na segmenta????o efetuada com rela????o ?? forma de pagamento

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:08:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacaoRaulWCalaca.pdf: 389248 bytes, checksum: cb60b52936f41e68078c960a1cf097e6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-08-06 / The Elliott Wave analysis is a technique developed for the prediction of prices of financial assets (stocks, exchange rates etc.). This work introduces the basic concepts of the financial market, focusing mainly on the Elliott Wave principle, which differs from other techniques for providing direction and intensity of changes in shares / stocks prices in the financial market. The Elliott Wave detection usually employs manual methods, since automated systems present high costs and are apparently based on trial and error method associated with Statistics. Manual methods assess, following some rules, the waves prospected by trial and error, and requires specialized training and experience. To automatically detect the waves of Elliott, this work suggests, develops and tests a computational system based on Genetic Algorithms, an Artificial Intelligence technique inspired on Biology. Genetic Algorithms are used to evolve answers to problems by assessing candidates, which are coded as chromosomes. Tests of the system were performed based on BM&FBOVESPA stocks with high daily liquidity. Simulations have indicated that the detected waves are satisfactory, with error rate below 3% in each inflection point. / A análise das Ondas de Elliott é uma técnica desenvolvida para a previsão dos preços de ativos financeiros (ações, taxas de câmbios etc). O presente trabalho introduz conceitos básicos do mercado financeiro, focando principalmente nas Ondas de Elliott que diverge das outras técnicas por prever direção e intensidade da mudança do valor de ações/papéis no mercado financeiro. A detecção das Ondas de Elliott usa geralmente metodologia manual, visto que os sistemas automáticos possuem custos elevados e são aparentemente baseados em métodos de tentativa e erro associados à Estatística. O método manual avalia, seguindo algumas regras, as ondas prospectadas por tentativa e erro, exigindo treinamento especializado e experiência. Para detectar automaticamente as Ondas de Elliott no mercado financeiro, este trabalho propõe, desenvolve e testa um sistema computacional baseado em Algoritmos Genéticos, uma técnica de Inteligência Artificial baseada na seleção natural da Biologia. Algoritmos Genéticos são utilizados para evoluir respostas a problemas que permitem avaliar candidatos a soluções, codificados como cromossomos. Os testes do sistema foram realizados com base nos dados de ações pertencentes à Bolsa de Bolsa de Valores, Mercadorias e Futuros (BM&FBOVESPA) e possuidoras de alta liquidez diária. As simulações indicaram que as ondas detectadas pelo sistema foram satisfatórias, possuindo índice de erro abaixo de 3% por ponto de inflexão.

Environmental issues have been a trending topic for some time now due to constant changes. One of the most contributing industries is the construction sector. In Malmo, the construction industry is responsible for 20% of the total climate impact in the city. The first regional roadmap has been initiated in Malmo, which is called LFM30. Their focus is to increase the perspective of life cycle assessment (LCA), where different methods and materials are reviewed. The purpose of this degree project was to analyze and compare these to tools from different criteria, such as required knowledge, user-friendly, comparison-options, results and applicability in the early stages. These criteria have been analyzed in a case study, where a specific case has been examined. Climate impact has been calculated with BM and One Click LCA. The study was limited to Malmo and the initiative LFM30 and its affiliated companies. The case study shows that there’s good opportunity to develop this further, but to reach climate neutrality and climate positivity soon, it’s required that climate calculations are implemented as early as possible. The comparison between the two programs showed that BM is more limited function-wise but works more accurate and user-friendly than One Click LCA.

We develop a new method for pricing options on discretely sampled arithmetic average in exponential Lévy models. The main idea is the reduction to a backward induction procedure for the difference Wn between the Asian option with averaging over n sampling periods and the price of the European option with maturity one period. This allows for an efficient truncation of the state space. At each step of backward induction, Wn is calculated accurately and fast using a piece-wise interpolation or splines, fast convolution and either flat iFT and (refined) iFFT or the parabolic iFT. Numerical results demonstrate the advantages of the method.

Background: In today's digitalized and globalized business environment, entrepreneurs are constantly challenged to carefully plan its start-ups products, services or business model. Any failure in one of those components may result in a less competitive company, which could lead to failure as consequence. Business model is often seen as a central and important part of a start-up. Over time, entrepreneurs look for new ways of improving its current business model or new ways doing business always aiming economic growth. Business Model Innovation is a technique that supports companies, business managers and entrepreneurs to look for business opportunities (or business models) that would somehow be related to the company. Purpose: The main purpose of this master thesis is to expose the challenges that start-ups face in terms of business model and then to understand how the companies studied overcame those challenges by making use of business model innovation (BMI). We also look to understand what kind of impact business model innovation generated in the start-up, in terms of economic growth. Method: Primary data and secondary data were collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews involving multiple case study of five technology start-ups in Sweden. Once all data were collected and stored, we made use of open and axial coding techniques in order to perform data analysis to possibly generate a theory and the answer to the research questions. Conclusion: All start-ups are aware about the importance and positive benefits that business model innovation could bring. When it comes to challenges, there are two main problems, where the first one is related about the difficulty to abstract different business model and then incorporate into the company’s context while the second one is once they manage to overcome the first challenge, they still needs to find a way to make sure it would be profitable. Another finding is that older start-ups tends to be more aware about the positive and negative impacts that business model innovation could bring, and each company has its own method to validate a business model innovation. We analyzed each case, identified some patterns and develop a model that helps start-ups to validate potential business models to be incorporated in the company.

After the Paris agreement 2015 the Energy Commission in Sweden proposed a goal for Sweden of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The focus in this report has been on how buildings in Sweden could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Year 2017 the government gave a task for Boverket in Sweden (National Board of Housing, Building and Planning) to investigate the possibility to introduce a climate declaration on buildings. The idea is a life cycle analysis (LCA) should be performed on the building in order to get a building permit. An LCA include all CO2 emissions emitted from resources used for raw material extraction, production of materials, construction site operations, user phase and also the demolition and disposal in the end of life of the building. The first draft from Boverket was published in February 2018 where they recommended a simple declaration. They recommended in the beginning to only include a few components in the declaration, and to only include the production phase. The major interest in this report have been to gain more understanding on how to perform LCAs and also how the LCA result could be used to decrease CO2 emissions. A case study was made on a residential building project called Mården, in Umeå Sweden. The first part in this thesis was to determine the phase in the buildings life cycle with the largest potential for decreasing CO2 emissions. When the LCA was performed on case study building Mården it was difficult to use exact data, since only 20 % of the construction products where declared in an environmental product declaration (EPD). Therefore the other 80 % where approximated with similar products declared in an EPD, or with generic data (general data for a type of product). An EPD is an LCA on a single product and could therefore give exact information on CO2 emissions for a specific product. However, several improvements where implemented in the buildings life cycle and where compared with this reference case. The result from the LCA showed the energy use in the user phase emitted the largest amount of CO2 emissions, and therefore also where the phase with the largest potential for reducing CO2 emissions. When the Swedish district heating mix where replaced with an energy source with 50 % less CO2 emissions, the emissions for the whole life cycle could be decreased with 20 %. Smaller improvements such as more environmental friendlier concrete, shorter transport distance between manufacturer and construction site or less water usage resulted in a decrease by 1.6-7 %. It was though shown these smaller improvement could result in a large decrease of CO2 emissions if more buildings also would improve the same thing. 2.4 million tons of CO2 emissions could for example be reduced in Sweden if 50 % of Sweden’s all new building projects would improve their choice of concrete. To make sure buildings could reduce their CO2 emissions there is important LCAs are performed before the building is constructed, to make sure all phases in the life cycle can be improved. If an LCA will be performed when the building is constructed, it is only possible to improve a few parts in the user phase, since the other phases already have passed. The second part in this thesis was to compare the different LCA softwares; (i) One Click LCA (needs license, from Finland), (ii) e-tool (free, from Australia) and (iii) BM (free, from Sweden). When more exact data were tried to be used in e-tool and One Click LCA the results were similar for the CO2 emissions from the production phase. E-tool only resulted in 6 % higher CO2 emissions in the production phase than One Click LCA. The LCA in the eventual future climate declaration will probably be performed with generic data, since in an early stage the contractors will not have detailed information on their construction products. An LCA was thus performed in each software with generic data, and the result differed a lot. The CO2 emissions from the production phase resulted in 36 % and 23 % less CO2 emissions in BM and e-tool than in One Click LCA. If several softwares will be allowed in this eventual climate declaration, the judgment could be difficult since different generic data is used in each sofware. The generic data were also different for one type of product in a single software, where the CO2 emission could differ with as much as 50 % between two types of generic data for one type of products. This leads to a difficulty when choosing generic data since there will be lack of information on the construction products at the time when this eventual climate declaration should be performed. A main focus for the future development should be on evaluating a standard database that could be used in EU. If a future law will be implemented it could be valuable to declare detailed rules on how to perform the LCA. Since depending on who will perform the LCA different results could occur due to different data used or assumptions on things like products, boundaries or used resource. However, this master thesis has shown there is possible to use the LCA methodology to find solutions for decreasing the CO2 emissions for buildings.

This thesis sits at the junction of asylum history and Anglo-Jewish history, specifically Scottish Jewish history, and contributes new perspectives to scholarship on histories of both psychiatry and Anglo-Jewry. It explores the lived experiences of Jewish patients admitted to the royal asylums of Edinburgh and Glasgow between 1870 and 1939 using a range of both quantitative and qualitative archival sources. A discussion of the relevant literature that has focused on ‘Anglo’ asylums and Anglo-Jewry, particularly on Scottish asylums and Scottish Jewry, provides the historical context for the research questions being asked about how Jewish patients admitted to the royal asylums were understood, diagnosed and treated. The quantitative Jewish patient population is presented, discussing: demographic variables such as gender distribution, age at admission and the patient’s marital status at admission; social variables such as ‘class’ as regards a patient’s accommodation within the asylum and their occupation; diagnostic variables such as the mental disorders identified; and finally institutional variables such as a patient’s discharge status and the length of a patient’s stay within the asylum. This Jewish patient profile is compared to control samples of non-Jewish patients to detect similarities and differences between the two groups, providing scope for the qualitative accounts that follow. Qualitative sources are then used, pulling out a number of individual case histories as detailed exemplars of broader claims, spread across three substantial chapters. The first qualitative chapter draws on several of the themes presented in the discussion of relevant literature, such as matters of Jewish demography, migration, family dynamics, social standing, cultural experiences and the like, as these intersect with the ‘asylum lifecycle’, meaning periods spent in and outside of the asylum by these patients. This material opens a door to the Jewish patient experience through the discussion and analysis of several themes, such as: family, community, immigration status, social class, migration histories, big and small and the asylum lifecycle with respect to patients who experienced multiple admissions to asylums. The next chapter’s overarching theme is the Jewish body – all aspects of Jewish embodiment; of embodying Jewishness – in the asylum. This theme is further broken down into specific areas for discussion, such as: the male Jewish body; poisoning, because historically Jews have been associated with the act of poisoning; the diagnostic criteria as it was applied to Jews during the period under investigation; the role of language within the clinical encounter; and troublesome patients. The goal here is to illustrate how the Jewish body was often seen as inherently different from other (British) asylum patients and therefore pathologised because of those differences, such that in certain situations merely being Jewish suggested a likelihood of being mentally unstable and possessing a mental illness due to the Jewishness association. The final qualitative chapter concentrates on Jewish women and their experiences within Scottish asylums, highlighting some of the gendered differences within that experience when compared to the male Jewish experience of madness that was primarily tackled in the previous chapter. This chapter discuses Jewish women and their place within the Jewish community and wider Anglo-Scottish society, and further it addresses the perceived close relationship between Jewish women and mental illness, itself complicated by the extent to which the woman concerned sought to live up to a vision of the perfect Jewish mother while also being judged through an idealized version of domestically content British (middle-class) womanly reserve. Final conclusions are added which summarise the contributions made by the thesis, and speculate about further inquires that might be conducted in this field.

A antropização dos ambientes naturais vem ocasionando efeitos adversos aos sistemas ecológicos, acelerando a perda da biodiversidade. Como resultado, as alterações climáticas tornaram-se mais frequentes e com maiores proporções de desastres. Por tanto, é imperativo que novas formas de exploração dos recursos naturais sejam incorporadas pelos diversos setores econômicos, diminuindo, minimizando e/ou mitigando os impactos negativos à biodiversidade e aos serviços ecossistêmicos. Este trabalho avaliou os relatórios socioambientais de todos os empreendimentos que permaneceram listados nos Índices de Sustentabilidade Empresarial da bolsa de valores de São Paulo entre 2005 e 2014, analisando se os empreendimentos reconhecidos como os detentores das melhores práticas sustentáveis contribuem, voluntariamente, para a conservação, recuperação e manutenção dos serviços ecossistêmicos nos biomas e regiões hidrográficas onde estão instalados. As coletas e as análises de dados foram realizadas através da metodologia da certificação LIFE (Lasting Initiative For Earth), que qualifica e quantifica os impactos ambientais negativos à biodiversidade ocasionados pelos processos produtivos de empreendimentos de qualquer porte ou setor. A metodologia LIFE também qualifica e quantifica as ações de conservação que os empreendimentos desenvolvem e, principalmente, indica quais são as ações conservacionistas que deverão ser desenvolvidas para minimizar e/ou mitigar, minimamente, os impactos ambientais ocasionados aos ecossistemas por meio dos processos produtivos. Das 11 empresas avaliadas, 10 não desenvolvem ações de conservação suficientes para mitigarem os impactos ambientais nos biomas e regiões hidrográficas a que pertencem, mesmo sendo sete delas diretamente dependentes dos serviços ecossistêmicos. Apenas a empresa E9, do setor florestal (Papel e Celulose), mitigou os impactos e reconheceu que as ações conservacionistas privilegiam e favorecem o desenvolvimento de suas atividades produtivas e na qualidade de seus produtos. Todas as demais empresas listadas no ISE, avaliadas neste estudo, demonstraram que não desenvolveram, voluntariamente, ações conservacionistas que minimizem e/ou mitiguem impactos ambientais à biodiversidade com o intuito de manterem e restaurarem os serviços ecológicos dos quais se beneficiam. Propõe-se, então, que a metodologia da certificação LIFE pode ser utilizada como um instrumento adicional de gestão ambiental, auxiliando empresas a fortalecerem seus posicionamentos de sustentabilidade frente à bolsa de valores paulista e aos demais stakeholders. / Anthropization of natural environments has caused adverse effects to ecological systems, accelerating the loss of biodiversity. As a result, climate change has become more frequent with bigger disaster proportions. Therefore, it is imperative that new forms of exploitation of natural resources are incorporated into the various economic sectors, reducing, minimizing and/or mitigating the negative impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. This study evaluated the social environmental reports of all companies that remained listed in the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE portfolio in Portuguese) of the São Paulo Stock Exchange between 2005 and 2014, analyzing whether the recognized enterprises as holders of the best sustainable practices contribute voluntarily to the conservation, recovery and maintenance of ecosystem services in the biomes and hydrographic regions where they are installed. The data collection and analysis were realized with LIFE Certification methodology (Lasting Initiative For Earth), which qualifies and quantifies the negative environmental impacts on biodiversity caused by the production processes of enterprises of any size or sector. The LIFE methodology also qualifies and quantifies conservation actions that enterprises develop and mainly indicates what the conservation actions that should be developed to minimize and/or mitigate, minimally, the environmental impacts caused to ecosystems by means of production processes. 11 companies from 10 analyzed do not develop sufficient conservation actions to mitigate the environmental impacts in the biomes and hydrographic regions to which they belong, even though seven of them directly dependent on ecosystem services. Just E9 company, forestry sector (Cellulose and Paper), mitigated the impacts and recognized that conservation actions emphasize and promote the development of productive activities and the quality of its products. All other companies listed on the ISE, evaluated in this study showed that no developed voluntarily conservation actions to minimize and/or mitigate environmental impacts to biodiversity in order to maintain and restore the ecological services that benefit. It is proposed therefore that the LIFE certification methodology can be used as an additional tool for environmental management, helping companies strengthen their positions facing the sustainability of the São Paulo stock exchange and other stakeholders.

When exploring business in China we noticed that companies behaved in a different way, Corporate Social Responsibility was seen as integrated in companies’ business models as an integral part in order for them to grow and sustain. This seemed to be a new approach to us as well as poorly discussed in the literature we had experienced. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the content of Business Model, the conceptualisation of corporate social responsibility in the Chinese context and the importance of including the concept of corporate social responsibility in firms’ Business Models. Based on the exploration, we decided to employ the hermeneutics perspective of social science. Accordingly, the research was conducted through a qualitative study with an inductive approach. Based on interviews of the respondents’ organisational and personal perspective of the Chinese context, with literature review as reference to and reflection on the findings to have in-depth understanding of the concepts, we conducted this study, which is shaped by the following major findings. Business Model and Corporate Social Responsibility are dependent on the complexity in a certain context, the studied Chinese context, and therefore need reconfiguration. Sustainability in China is assumed to move, but rather in its own direction than similar way to the development in West. The focus of Business Model is moving more towards creating value in terms of economic, social and societal rather than only considering money making. The Chinese government is seen to have political power and influence on the business market with heavy interference in the business’s direction, operation and management. As a result, collaboration with government can guide, facilitate and increase success of businesses. Business Model for Sustainability should be created on an aggregate level, where businesses should consider integrating Corporate Social Responsibility as the foundation in their business model, which is pushed and driven by the government. A business model for sustainable development in China is proposed with the two integral constituents: Corporate Social Responsibility and Politics represented by the government. Lastly, reflecting on the literature review of the studied fields respectively, it has been dragged behind the current state of the evolving world. What is happening in China, the second largest economy in the world and one of the biggest countries suggests that more intensive attention of researchers should be paid to business practice with Corporate Social Responsibility as an integral part of business model. With a focus more on the contextualisation, new dimensions or horizons of the literature development can be revealed when hidden or untouched aspects such as political influence in business are investigated. Accordingly, the heterogeneity in perspectives on conceptualisation and configuration of Business Model and Corporate Social Responsibility in the literature along with that in practice is inevitable. It is more important to see how the concepts look like and work in close connection with the context, rather than trying to shape the literature in one particular way to prove that it works in all contexts.