The literature presented in the following pages explores the shortcomings of the American public education system in the context of creating long-term, sustainable social change. Using financial illiteracy and its relationship to low quality of life as an entry point, the first section exposes public schools’ shortcomings as agents of social change by delving into the hardships endured by the original public school promoters of the 19th century, the pitfalls of President George W. Bush’s 2001 enactment of No Child Left Behind, and the shortcomings of the financial literacy programming that found traction in urban schools following the subprime lending crisis. These examples render the public education system unfit to address social change, at which point the paper segues into a discussion of social enterprise and the new field’s demonstrated potential to capture social value. After a brief historical exploration of social innovation which examines some values and principles of this “fourth sector,” successful ventures and failed social organizations are scrutinized in the penultimate chapter. The comparisons made ultimately argue in favor of social entrepreneurship’s fitness, on both a structural and ideological level, in addressing the complex social, environmental, and cultural issues of our time.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Jose Geraldo Falcao Britto.pdf: 5869611 bytes, checksum: 14b5d85dd3ea95c71c04d75b9b9691c0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-16 / As of 2010, the main publicly traded organizations have been going through an improvement process of disclosing with transparency the results of their operations that involves the improvement of financial statements and supplementary reports, by adopting the standardization process promoted by the International Accounting Standards Board and International Financial Reporting Standards (IASB / IFRS). It also includes the disclosure of operational risks or operations to meet the new legislation will be effective on January 2016 (CVM Instruction 552). This process has promoted adaptive approach and adoption of new practices of reporting financial and accounting information, as well as has promoted the way the organizations manage their internal processes and operational controls. Especially in financial, banking and insurance sectors that fund productive activities, and motivated by the improvements of due diligence analysis of their customers and borrowers, they have better framed the analysis and identification of operational risks of organizations and are also following the changes promoted by the Organization for Cooperation of Economic Development (OECD). In this way, this study aimed to monitor, update, and analyze the current Organizational practices with regards to their Sustainability Operational Risk reports and the levels of compliance compared with existing risk management framework through structured interviews. To analyze the practices of organizations it has been done 02 studies, using primary data (survey made with organizations employees) and secondary data (financial statements, published integrated reports of sustainability risks). To better support the study, an open survey was conducted (primary data) with companies that are part of ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards and CEE63 committees - Risk Management), where the results showed that the organizations, for instance, Petrobrás, Netshoes, Inmetro, Furnas, Syngenta, Empresa RBS communication, Sabesp among others, have operational risks management practices and they are consistent with the criteria established by the framework, and they are in implementation phase and in constant process improvement. After applying the sample selection criteria (not probability) and the secondary data, the company named Fibria Celulose has been selected through the analysis of its ISE sustainability reporting, financial statements and integrated risk reporting (years 2013 and 2014 ), and this meets concept terms as well, by contemplating norms/standards and frameworks (standards ISO 26001, 16001, 31000), and is, as described in its own published reports, in preparation phase to meet new requirements of Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). These processes of adapting organizations, the new requirements recently summarized in the standardization of Accounting practices; the disclosure of risk indexes; the materiality of operational risks; the certification of products/management systems of risk/sustainability and adoption of Environmental & Social Accounting are shown as a new phase of observation of the economic activities in Brazil / A partir do ano de 2010, as organizações, principalmente de capital aberto, vêm atravessando um processo de aperfeiçoamento do processo de divulgação e transparência da divulgação de resultados de operações, que envolve a melhoria das demonstrações contábeis, e de relatórios complementares, a adoção do processo de uniformização das práticas contábeis promovidas pelo International Accounting Standards Board e International Financial Reporting Standards (IASB/IFRS), também pela divulgação de Riscos operacionais ou de operações para atendimento à nova legislação que entrará em vigor a partir de janeiro de 2016 (Instrução CVM 552). Esse processo tem promovido adaptações e adoções de novas práticas de relatos de informações financeiras e contábeis, bem como tem promovido a forma com que as organizações gerenciam internamente seus processos e implementado suas formas de controles operacionais. Principalmente o setor financeiro, bancário e de seguros, que financiam as atividades produtivas, motivados pelo aperfeiçoamento dos processos de análise de riscos de seus clientes e tomadores de empréstimos, tem aprofundado sua forma de análise e aperfeiçoado as práticas de identificação de riscos operacionais das organizações, e acompanhando as modificações promovidas pela Organização para cooperação do desenvolvimento econômico (OCDE). Desta forma, e por este cenário, o estudo teve o objetivo de acompanhar, atualizar e analisar as práticas organizacionais de relatos de Riscos Operacionais de sustentabilidade, e de pesquisar as práticas através de entrevistas estruturadas sobre o grau de aprofundamento frente aos frameworks (padrões) em Gestão de Riscos estabelecidos. Foram Realizados 02 estudos utilizando dados primários (pesquisas diretas com usuários das organizações) e secundários (demonstrações contábeis, relatos integrados de riscos de sustentabilidade divulgados) como forma de analisar as práticas das organizações. Para fundamentar o estudo, foi realizada pesquisa aberta (dados primários) com empresas participantes da ABNT (Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas e comitês CEE63 de Gestão de Riscos), onde os resultados demonstraram que as organizações pesquisadas como, por exemplo, Petrobras, Netshoes, Inmetro, Furnas, Syngenta, Empresa RBS de comunicação, Sabesp, entre outras, possuem práticas de Gestão de Riscos Operacionais coerentes com os conceitos estabelecidos por frameworks, estando em fase de implantação e em constante aperfeiçoamento interno dessas práticas. Após aplicados os critérios de seleção de amostras (não probabilísticos), e o estudo de dados secundários, foi selecionada a empresa FIBRIA Celulose, através de análise de relatórios de sustentabilidade ISE, demonstrações contábeis e Relato integrado de riscos (dos anos de 2013 e 2014), e demonstrou atender em termos conceituais, por contemplar os aspectos constantes em normas e frameworks do tema (normas ISO 26001, 16001, 31000), e está, como descrito nos próprios relatórios divulgados, em fase de preparo para atendimento de nova exigência da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (CVM). Este processo de adaptação das organizações e de novas exigências, resumidas recentemente na padronização das práticas contábeis, na divulgação de índices de riscos e de materialidade dos riscos de operações, da certificação de produtos e sistemas de gestão em Gestão de Riscos e sustentabilidade e adoção de Contabilidade Ambiental e Social, apresenta-se como uma nova fase de observação da atividade econômica no Brasil

Entrepreneurial small businesses are significant to the U.S. economy, as they represent 99% of employer firms and employ 49% of the private sector. Nearly half of new businesses fail within the first 5 years of operation. While external factors beyond the control of business owners account for some failures, many occur because of managerial inadequacies. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of successful entrepreneurs to understand the qualities needed to create and sustain new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) beyond 5 years. The sample consisted of 21 entrepreneurs from Northeastern Indiana who created and operated SMEs successfully for at least 5 years. The conceptual framework for this study was human capital theory and entrepreneurial leadership theory. The data were collected from semistructured interviews. Participants completed transcript reviews and member checking was conducted to enhance data credibility and trustworthiness. The phenomenological reduction method was used for data analysis and included bracketing, horizontalizing, clustering, integrating invariant statements, and synthesizing composites. The following themes emerged in addressing the guiding question: entrepreneurial intention recognized at a young age, creative problem-solving skills, business and support systems, entrepreneurial passion, opportunity recognition and seizure, and task and managerial delegation. The study findings can help inform best practices to help future entrepreneurs, and those who educate, train, and mentor them, create and operate successful new ventures.

In recent years, numerous high tech companies have developed and used technology roadmaps when making their investment decisions. Jay Paap has proposed the Customer Focused Technology Planning (CFTP) framework to draw future technology roadmaps. However, the CFTP framework does not include risk assessment as a critical factor in decision making. The problem addressed in this quantitative study was that high tech companies are either losing money or getting a much smaller than expected return on investment when making technology investment decisions. The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between returns on investment before and after adding risk assessment to the CFTP framework. Paap's CFTP framework and process to improve technology investments thus served as the theoretical framework for this study. Data were obtained from cloud computing companies using the companies' market risk data and actual returns on investment data. The results and findings of paired sample two-tailed t tests for means and equal variances showed that return on investment was positively related to adding a traditional risk assessment model to Paap's CFTP framework. These findings regarding the addition of risk assessment to the technology investment framework may be used by investors to (a) make better and more expeditious decisions, and (b) obtain a high return on technology investment by selecting the highest return value and lowest risk value.

There exist major disparities in issues concerning health, education, the environment, and other problems that affect overall well-being. Currently, government and nonprofit institutions do not sufficiently mitigate these problems. This thesis examines traditional corporate structures that uphold the profit-maximization dilemma and analyzes emerging corporate structures that encourage greater social enterprise. The alternative corporate structures provide greater flexibility for mission-driven companies. Such structures encourage─and legally require─increased awareness and investment in social and environmental enterprise. Executives must decide, to what extent, they will utilize the power and influence of business to do good works.

Over the past several decades and increasingly in recent years, blood transfusions in the United States have plummeted as surgery has gotten more precise and less invasive. Alongside this decrease in general transfusions has been an increase in specific blood products for patients whose immune systems require special treatment. Simultaneously, trends in healthcare in the United States have incentivized regional hospitals to join large conglomerates. These coexisting factors have left regional blood banks, traditionally economically viable, in much weakened states. This thesis was born out of an initial curiosity to discover whether or not genetic science, and genotyping in particular, could benefit small regional blood banks by allowing them to bring down their costs of pre-transfusion blood testing or offer new products. I focus on the San Diego Blood Bank (SDBB) as a case study of the larger blood banking industry. In the course of this research, economic factors were taken into consideration as well as social and health. A minor question that was also discussed was whether genotyping not only help regional blood banks survive fiscally but also open the gateway to better patient outcomes and lower costs nationally of blood transfusions and their associated costs. Feasibility analyses and financial modeling suggest support for genotyping blood donors and transfusion recipients in order to more perfectly match blood transfusions through extended antigen matching.

Many barber salons and other small businesses in the United States fail to succeed beyond the first 5 years. The factors responsible for the low survival rate of salons may include the limited training and education levels mandated by state certification requirements. The purpose of this multiple case study was to identify business strategies successful barber salon owners use to overcome the business management and staffing challenges associated with a small pool of skilled barbers and the high turnover in a low wage profession. The theory of transformational leadership served as the conceptual framework. The data collection included interviews of 3 successful barber salon owners who met the study participation eligibility criteria of licensed, registered, operating a salon business in the Indiana region for more than 5 years, and over the minimum age of 25 years. The 4 themes emerging from the interview data analysis were (a) barber salon operating structures, (b) salon leadership and managerial strategies, (c) licensed barber skill enhancement, and (d) salon operating strategies effectiveness and sustainability. The data analysis also involved the triangulation of the primary research against secondary data from the Small Business Administration and barber industry reports. The expertise and knowledge shared by the interviewees could serve the quest of barber salon businesses in the Indiana region to overcome the profitability and financial sustainability challenges of this industry. The study findings may potentially contribute to positive social change by improving the economic standing and welfare of barber salon owners and professionals in the community.

Research suggests that 70% of North American employees are disengaged in the workplace. Some small retail managers lack strategies for engaging employees. Using the employee engagement framework, the purpose of this descriptive case study was to explore successful strategies that small retail managers use to engage employees. The target population was small retail leaders, purposefully selected because of their success with engaging employees at an Orlando, Florida, company. Data collection was through face-to-face interviews with 5 leaders; and a review of archived organizational documents, including company memorandums, central email software, and online customer reviews through social media websites such as Google, Yelp, and Facebook posts. Data were analyzed using inductive coding of phrases and words from participant interviews, whereas secondary data were collected from participant memorandums, the company website, central email software, and online social media posts supporting the theme interpretation through methodological triangulation. The findings on these Orlando leaders revealed that supportive leaders improved employee engagement, direct communication improved employee engagement, and training improved employee performance. Improving employee engagement contributes to social change because small retail managers can use the findings to improve employee engagement through the implementation of effective strategies, direct communication, and training initiatives.

Vietnam is undergoing economic transition from a command economy to an economy with greater market characteristics. Transition is fundamentally reshaping the country through economic liberalization and increased exposure to foreign markets. The Vietnamese are developing institutions necessary for market growth and international tourists are arriving in ever-larger numbers. This research project is a case study of businesses that provide guided motorbike tours and evaluates the businesses based on two criteria: as a study of institutional growth during economic transition and as an examination of tourism production through guide interpretation. The author interviewed and observed sixteen guides in Vietnam—from Dalat in the Central Highlands to Tam Coc, just south of Hanoi—during two months of fieldwork research in summer 2010. The study identifies a variety of institutional types, from informal guides to formalized businesses with a high degree of support from market institutions. Though market activities are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated, many services remain informal. The study also investigates how guides create products for tourists through interpretation. The guides draw upon the landscape, people and culture in Vietnam, and their own personal narratives to create a tourism product that they call the “Real Vietnam.” The guides sell access to Vietnam, and tourists purchase a sense of intimate knowledge of their destination. Together with tourists, guides participate in place-making interpretation that utilizes both the real geography of Vietnam and the imaginary geographies of foreign visitors. The research reveals the ways in which actors at the local scale adapt to large-scale processes, and in turn influence the course of economic transition in Vietnam and the content of international tourism.

To respond to the high imported food prices in their domestic markets, net food importing countries in the Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) zone[1] are adjusting their import tariffs and homologate domestic prices of imported commodities such as rice, wheat, maize, and sugar. This research uses a multivariate specification of error correction model (VECM) of estimation to investigate the link between food imports, world price index of rice, wheat, maize and sugar, real effective exchange rates, domestic food production, GDP, and trade openness in the short and long run. The data are on each homogenous commodity from 1969 to 2012. This research finds a long-run relationship between world price index, domestic production, GDP, real effective exchange rates and trade openness. Under fixed exchange rates regime, GDP, domestic food production, world price index of food, and trade openness are the determinants of food imported in the CFA zones. Policy options focusing on long-term investment in domestic food production of rice, wheat, maize and sugar, and trade openness are the fundamental factors to curtail the increasing food import volume/bill under fixed exchange rate regime in the CFA zones. [1] The CFA zone in Sub-Saharan Africa is the WAEMU and CEMAC Countries, which are listed and represented in figure 1.