This thesis examines legislation that creates a “safe habour” for apologies by making them inadmissible as evidence of liability in a civil action. In recent years, jurisdictions across North America and Australia have enacted such “apology legislation” in an effort to encourage apologies. This is allegedly done to assist victims, who often benefit from full and sincere apologies. Legislators are also motivated, however, by the perception that apologies can induce victims to settle or forgo legal action, thereby reducing litigation rates. Whether such a correlation exists, particularly for apologies given under apology legislation, has not been firmly established, and attempting to use apologies in this manner may prove harmful to victims and the state. Apologies are powerful, and if legislators are not careful, they may enact legislation that alters apologies so that they become a source of harm to victims, the legal system, and even society as a whole.

This project examines how undergraduate and graduate students at a university in the Southern United States utilize and conceptualize volunteering at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, a time when volunteerism is on the rise despite a severe economic crisis. I was interested in taking an anthropological approach to explore the reasons that people volunteered as well as how their decisions about volunteering might be impacted by different aspects of their identity, including their ethnicity, gender identity, student status, and affiliation with student groups. Based on in-depth interviews and surveys conducted with five undergraduate and five graduate students, I learned about their motivations for volunteering and their perceptions about participating in volunteer activities.

This thesis examines legislation that creates a “safe habour” for apologies by making them inadmissible as evidence of liability in a civil action. In recent years, jurisdictions across North America and Australia have enacted such “apology legislation” in an effort to encourage apologies. This is allegedly done to assist victims, who often benefit from full and sincere apologies. Legislators are also motivated, however, by the perception that apologies can induce victims to settle or forgo legal action, thereby reducing litigation rates. Whether such a correlation exists, particularly for apologies given under apology legislation, has not been firmly established, and attempting to use apologies in this manner may prove harmful to victims and the state. Apologies are powerful, and if legislators are not careful, they may enact legislation that alters apologies so that they become a source of harm to victims, the legal system, and even society as a whole.

The Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefits (GMWBs) are optional riders provided by insurance companies in variable annuities. They guarantee the policyholders' ability to get the initial investment back by making periodic withdrawals regardless of the impact of poor market performance. With GMWBs attached, variable annuities become more attractive. This type of guarantee can be challenging to price and hedge. We employ two approaches to price GMWBs. Under the constant static withdrawal assumption, the first approach is to decompose the GMWB and the variable annuity into an arithmetic average strike Asian call option and an annuity certain. The second approach is to treat the GMWB alone as a put option whose maturity and payoff are random. Hedging helps insurers specify and manage the risks of writing GMWBs, as well as find their fair prices. We propose semi-static hedging strategies that offer several advantages over dynamic hedging. The idea is to construct a portfolio of European options that replicate the conditional expected GMWB liability in a short time period, and update the portfolio after the options expire. This strategy requires fewer portfolio adjustments, and outperforms the dynamic strategy when there are random jumps in the underlying price. We also extend the semi-static hedging strategies to the Heston stochastic volatility model.

The Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefits (GMWBs) are optional riders provided by insurance companies in variable annuities. They guarantee the policyholders' ability to get the initial investment back by making periodic withdrawals regardless of the impact of poor market performance. With GMWBs attached, variable annuities become more attractive. This type of guarantee can be challenging to price and hedge. We employ two approaches to price GMWBs. Under the constant static withdrawal assumption, the first approach is to decompose the GMWB and the variable annuity into an arithmetic average strike Asian call option and an annuity certain. The second approach is to treat the GMWB alone as a put option whose maturity and payoff are random. Hedging helps insurers specify and manage the risks of writing GMWBs, as well as find their fair prices. We propose semi-static hedging strategies that offer several advantages over dynamic hedging. The idea is to construct a portfolio of European options that replicate the conditional expected GMWB liability in a short time period, and update the portfolio after the options expire. This strategy requires fewer portfolio adjustments, and outperforms the dynamic strategy when there are random jumps in the underlying price. We also extend the semi-static hedging strategies to the Heston stochastic volatility model.

Several recent corporate governance scandals relate to non-disclosure or high amounts of pension benefits given to executive directors. The lack of disclosure and transparency has gained pensions benefits greater attention as a significant part of the total remuneration received by executive directors. Due to the associated problems there is a greater need for better disclosure and in turn heightened transparency towards shareholders.   This qualitative case study focuses on general retailers in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Due to the lack of research five general retailers from respective country were chosen to be examined and compared during 2006-2010. The aim is to examine the disclosure of individual pension benefits of executive directors and the development in levels of pension benefits in the following general retailers Bilia, Clas Ohlson, Debenhams, Dunelm Mill, Fenix Outdoor, Halfords, JD Sports Fashion,  Kappahl, Mekonomen and N Brown Group. The findings show that the majority of general retailers have complied with their respective corporate governance code during 2006-2010. The level of disclosure has differentiated, where UK general retailers have a higher level of individual disclosure. The development in levels of pension benefits has shown that there are higher amounts of pension benefits in Swedish general retailers. A negative trend in the development of the Chief Executive Officers amounts of pension benefits has mainly been present in 2007-2009. Reversal of the negative trend came in the last year of the case study. No distinctive trends were found in the development of pension benefits for all other executive directors.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the influence of e-commerce on the small-size companies in Sweden. This thesis describes the drivers for e-commerce adoption and investigates the barriers and benefits faced from the companies when starting the process of implementation. A qualitative research was performed and an abductive approach was used, where the research findings and the theoretical background were connected by going back and forward in the process of analysis. Interviews with small companies in Värmland Country, Sweden were conducted in order to answer the research questions. This study shows that Swedish companies have relatively well-developed e-commerce strategies comparing to other counties, but the gap between small and large companies is still visible. The decisions for e-commerce adoption are dependent on the knowledge of the owner /manager and e-commerce is extensively used as a marketing tool. Main benefits of e-commerce adoption are improved internal efficiency and increased information exchange. The results suggest that companies value less than before the cost factor and consider the lack of knowledge as a main barrier. At the same time many companies are not motivated enough to make improvements, because of lack of customer demand.

In recent years, retailers have evolved to offer higher levels of hedonic value in shopping experience, thereby intensifying levels of the competition within the industry. The reason for success of President Chain Store Corporation¡¦s integrated marketing of whole store also is hedonic value. However, academic research on consumer reactions to these efforts is limited. This study focuses on the integrated marketing of whole store carried out by two leading convenience store in Taiwan, and investigates consumer reactions to these promotions enhancing hedonic value in shopping experience.Research results find that, hedonic benefits of sales promotion have positive relationship with customer satisfaction, word of mouth, repatronage anticipation, and resource expenditures. On the contrary, utilitarian benefits of sales promotion have negative relationship with those retail outcomes. And results show that the distinct categories of sex and age have different level of effect on the benefits of sales promotion¡¦s relationship with customer satisfaction, word of mouth, re-patronage anticipation, and resource expenditures. According to the research findings, this study provides useful insight for the further development of marketing strategies.

This study evaluated how three conservation approaches implemented by the Brazilian Sea Turtle Conservation Program (the TAMAR Project) are related to local support for sea turtle conservation in Praia do Forte, Brazil. Four species of sea turtles nest in Praia do Forte. In Praia do Forte, locals harvested sea turtles for their meat and eggs on a regular basis to support subsistence needs. The three conservation strategies analyzed are employment opportunities and alternative sources of income from sea turtle ecotourism; enforcement of federal sea turtle protection laws; and implementation of environmental education programs via sea turtle ecotourism. These conservation strategies, which are implemented since 1982, represent both top-down and bottom-up conservation paradigms. Qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through nine months of fieldbased research (between May 2006 and September 2008), using tools of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and key informant interviews. Results indicate that conservation strategies implemented by TAMAR seem to influence local support for sea turtle conservation. Income and environmental education programs to the local children are cited as the main benefits sea turtle conservation brings to the community. Enforcement caused resentment when first implemented, but is now perceived as a necessary strategy to protect sea turtles. The relative lack of community participation in sea turtle conservation seems not to have hampered local support for sea turtle conservation. In fact, the majority of respondents perceive TAMAR as the most appropriate entity to manage sea turtles, and only a minority believes the community should co-manage sea turtle conservation with TAMAR. Though these three conservation strategies seem to help maintain traditional ecological knowledge, the future of this knowledge across generations is uncertain. Though community-based sea turtle conservation is working at the community scale, external factors associated with tourism development at the larger scale seem to influence both livelihoods and sea turtle survival. On a negative side, larger scale tourism development is associated with an increase in the cost of living, the introduction of drugs, violence and greater sense of insecurity, changes in the local fishing culture, and with ongoing threats to sea turtle survival. Tourism development is associated with benefits as well, including improvements in the local infrastructure, employment opportunities, and alternative sources of income. Since tourism development, at both local and regional scales, is unlikely to decrease any time soon, sea turtle survival no longer solely depends in getting local support for sea turtle conservation, but also in addressing the external factors that drive conservation and consumption of sea turtles. Overall, sea turtle ecotourism is one part of a larger strategy for meeting local socioeconomic needs while also protecting sea turtles in Praia do Forte.

none