American automobile manufacturers experienced a bitter-sweet time during the 1980s. On one hand, they gained support from the government to prevent mass imports of small cars from Japan; while on the other hand, they still lost market share to their Japanese counterparts and ever since then, they have been facing fierce competition from the Japanese auto-makers. To better understand today s competition in the automobile market, it is crucial to study the industry in the 1980s when the scope of the market began to change. This paper focuses mainly on studying the compact car market in the 1980s, which was the primary competition field then. It first briefly introduces the rise of Japanese automobile industry, and the economic background of the decade. Then it examines the U.S. compact car segment in detail, and finally constructs a model to explain consumer decisions on purchasing compact cars. In the end, it gives suggestion to the Big Three companies according to the findings presented in this paper.

Background: Since the financial crisis in 2008, the inflows into index funds havedramatically increased compared to actively managed funds. When discussing indexfunds in a global context there are three big players, Blackrock, Vanguard, and StateStreet which are described as permanent universal owners. The reason for this isbecause index funds cannot by themselves determine when to sell a stock. Additionally, the inflows into these funds have led to a more concentrated ownership structure. For example, 88 percent of S&P 500 firms have the Big Three as the largest owner. Therefore, many questions have been raised about how the Big Three act as owners. Purpose: The purpose with this study is to explain how the Big Three act as owners infirm specific corporate governance at their Swedish holdings. This thesis can hopefully contribute to the previous inconclusive evidence in the literature if the Big Three influence firm specific corporate governance, but from a Swedish setting. Method: This quantitative study uses an explanatory and deductive research approach. The empirical data was collected from the Holdings database as well as from the annual reports for our selected sample. Additionally, multiple statistical tests were conducted toanalyse the empirical material. Findings: The findings from this thesis shows that the Big Three are active owners anddo influence firm specific corporate governance at their Swedish holdings. The findings indicate that the Big Three are not as passive of an owner as many scholars previously thought.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 18, 2010). Department of Communication Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): John Parrish-Sprowl, Kristina Horn Sheeler, Ronald Sandwina. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-138).

Orientador: Murilo Gaspardo / Resumo: Este trabalho objetiva investigar como a “colonialidade do poder” do mercado de classificação de risco de crédito limita a soberania brasileira, e a existência ou não de alternativas institucionais que possam contribuir para o enfrentamento desta questão. Para tanto, estuda de que modo as Três Grandes contaram com o domínio econômico e político dos Estados Unidos para se consolidarem no domínio do mercado, e como seus saberes impactam o preço dos ativos no mercado financeiro, configurando suas “autoridades epistêmicas”. Posteriormente, examina de que maneira seus saberes apresentam semelhanças prejudiciais ao Brasil e a outros países subdesenvolvidos em, pelo menos, dois campos: teto e rating soberanos. Dessa forma, analisa como há um enredamento entre domínio econômico-político e epistêmico, característicos da “matriz colonial de poder”, que limita ainda mais a soberania do Brasil e de outros países subdesenvolvidos, além de prejudicar seus “fins” de Estado. Diante desse quadro, pesquisa alternativas institucionais disponíveis ao país para lidar com esse assunto e com outros problemas da ordem econômica atual. / Abstract: This paper aims to investigate how the credit rating market’s “coloniality of power” limits the brazilian sovereignty, and the existence or not of institutional alternatives that might contribute to face this issue. In order to achieve this, it studies how the Big Three counted on the United States’ economic and political domination to consolidate their market’s domination, and how their knowledges impact assets prices on financial market, settling their “epistemic authorities”. Afterwards, it examines how their knowledges present harmful similiarities to Brazil and other developing countries on, at least, two fieds: sovereign ceiling and rating. Thus, it analyzes how there is an entanglement between economic-political and epistemic domination, typical from “colonial matrix of power”, that limits even more the sovereignty of Brazil and other underdeveloped countries, aside from prejudicing its State’s “ends”. Before this framework, it searches for available institutional alternatives for Brazil to cope with this issue and other problems of the current economic order. / Mestre

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The importance of image management has created the need to for organizations to continually work in order to improve their image or defend it against perceived threats. Since organizations engage in a constant struggle to preserve their reputation, it is important to understand the persuasive discourse associated with image repair strategies. In addition, a successful rhetor must also acknowledge the importance of perception of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the apologetic discourse from the perspective of an audience. Focus groups were conducted and analyzed in order to better understand the perceived appropriateness and effectiveness of the image repair strategies employed by the Big Three Automakers as perceived by the audience. The findings of this study complement the original findings of Benoit and Drew’s quantitative study assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of image repair strategies in an interpersonal setting. However, there were observable differences between the studies in terms of the perception of both the appropriateness and effectiveness of bolstering and the effectiveness of differentiation. The implications of these differences can be important in developing a better understanding of the utilization of image repair strategies in the apologetic discourse of organizations. Specifically, the results demonstrate how the audience determines the appropriateness and effectiveness of the strategies and how rhetors are able to successfully use different strategies based in context.