The Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 is halfway to the finish line, underscoring the urgency for engagement of all stakeholders to accomplish its overarching objectives. The private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, play a crucial role, with a significant potential to advance sustainable development. Nevertheless, they frequently abstain from sustainable endeavours due to several constraining factors such as lack of resources or knowledge. This thesis aims to explore strategies for sustainable business practices that SMEs implemented despite these limitations. These strategies can consequently enhance their contribution to the Agenda 2030. Building on the theoretical concepts of dynamic capabilities and transformational leadership, a case study was developed including eight semi-structured interviews with SME leaders from the food and beverage industry in Skåne, Sweden. In addition to the interviews, data from three documents provided by the interviewed SMEs were reviewed. The main findings of this thesis illustrate that SMEs can develop essential capabilities and strategies to address sustainability. Moreover, the owner-managers’ perceptions of sustainability and leadership style influence the organisational commitment towards sustainability. The strategies SMEs employ are focused on developing a long-term, holistic perspective towards sustainability, focusing on sustainable product development, adjusting their operational processes, and enhancing integration of resources of external stakeholders by maintaining collaborative efforts, partnerships, and networks.

L'avancement des communications sans-fil permet l'obtention de nouveaux services bases sur l'habileté des fournisseurs de services sans-fil à déterminer avec précision, et avec l'utilisation de technologies de pistage, la localisation et position géographiquement d'appareils sans-fil Cette habileté permet d'offrir aux utilisateurs de sans-fil de nouveaux services bases sur la localisation et la position géographique de leur appareil. Le développement des services basés sur la localisation des utilisateurs de sans-fil soulevé certains problèmes relatifs à la protection de la vie privée qui doivent être considérés. En effet, l'appareil sans-fil qui suit et enregistre les mouvements de I 'utilisateur permet un système qui enregistre et entrepose tous les mouvements et activités d'un tel utilisateur ou encore qui permet l'envoi de messages non anticipes à ce dernier. Pour ce motif et afin de protéger la vie privée des utilisateurs de sans-fil, une compagnie désirant développer ou déployer une technologie permettant d'offrir ce genre de services personnalisés devra analyser l'encadrement légal touchant la protection des données personnelles--lequel est dans certains cas vague et non approprié à ce nouveau contexte--ainsi que la position de l'industrie dans ce domaine, et ce, afin d'être en mesure de traduire cet encadrement en pratiques commerciales. Cette analyse permettra d'éclairer le fournisseur de ces services sur la façon d'établir son modèle d'affaires et sur le type de technologie à développer afin d'être en mesure de remédier aux nouveaux problèmes touchant la vie privée tout en offrant ces nouveaux services aux utilisateurs de sans-fil. / The proliferation of mobile communications is leading to new services based on the ability of service providers to determine, with increasing precision and through the use of location determination technologies, the geographic location of wireless devices and allow their users to receive services based on such location. The development of location-based services introduces new privacy risks for consumers that must be addressed. The portability of wireless devices coupled with their ability to pinpoint the location of wireless users and reveal it to others could produce a system where the everyday activities and movements of these users are tracked and recorded, and where wireless users receive unanticipated messages on their device. For this reason and in order to preserve the privacy of wireless users, a company looking to deploy a technology related to the providing of personalized location-based services ("LBS Provider") will have to analyze the privacy legal framework, coming either from legal sources--that may be in some case vague and not specific to this new context--or from the industry, and translate such framework into business practices. Such analysis may help in establishing what kind of business model and technology should be adopted and developed by LBS Providers in order to ensure the privacy of wireless users while providing this new type of service.

Dans le domaine du projet de conception-construction architecturale, la gestion de la collaboration entre les différents acteurs d'un projet est un enjeu important. D'un projet à un autre, en fonction du projet, mais aussi des acteurs qui y interviennent, les pratiques de travail varient. Parallèlement, de nombreux services sont proposés et utilisés pour assister la collaboration, certains sur un modèle « grand public » et d'autres plus orientés vers un usage professionnel. L'expérience CRTI-weB est un projet de développement d'un collecticiel mené avec et pour les professionnels du secteur au Luxembourg. Malgré l'étude des besoins métiers menée en amont du développement, l'outil présente cependant des manques d'adaptation. Ce constat d'inadaptation n'est pas un cas isolé, il reflète une lacune générale de ce genre d'outils à satisfaire pleinement les attentes des professionnels. C'est pourquoi ce travail doctoral propose un cadre d'analyse supporté par la modélisation des comportements des utilisateurs. Nous adoptons alors plusieurs points de vue relatifs à différents champs de recherches : le génie logiciel, la conception d'interfaces homme-machine, l'entreprise orientée services et la conception de système d'information, et enfin le travail collaboratif assisté par ordinateur (TCAO). Nous proposons la méthode PUSH (Practices and Usages based Services enHancement) qui orchestre ces différents points de vue et permet de générer un ensemble d'exigences pour le développement de services dits « adaptés ». Communication et traçabilité sont les maitres mots de cette méthode de conception. Le contexte d'étude à la fois orienté recherche et développement nous a permis d'évaluer et d'améliorer la définition des concepts mis en avant ainsi que la mise en place de la méthode PUSH à travers trois expérimentations / In the sector of the architectural design-construction project, the management of the collaboration between the different actors of a project is an important issue. From a project to another, considering the project type and also the actors involved, business practices vary. In parallel, many services are proposed and used to assist the collaboration, some of them being generic and others more specific to professional usage. The CRTI-weB experience is a groupware development project lead with and for professionals of the Luxembourgish sector. Despite the analysis of business needs lead before development, the tool has some lacks of adaptation. This statement isn't isolated; in general, this type of tools doesn't fully satisfy professionals' expectations. This doctoral work proposes an analysis framework supported by users' behaviors modeling. We adopt several viewpoints related to several research fields: software engineering, human-computer interactions design, service-oriented enterprise and information system design, and finally computer-supported collaborative work (CSCW We propose the PUSH method (Practice and Usages based Service enhancement) that orchestrates the different viewpoints to generate an amount of requirements for the development of adapted services. The communication and the traceability are supported by this design method. The context of study, both research and development-oriented (through the collaboration of the MAP-CRAI laboratory in Nancy and the CRP Henri Tudor in Luxembourg) allows us evaluating and enhancing the definition of our concepts and the applicability of the PUSH method through three experimentations

L'avancement des communications sans-fil permet l'obtention de nouveaux services bases sur l'habileté des fournisseurs de services sans-fil à déterminer avec précision, et avec l'utilisation de technologies de pistage, la localisation et position géographiquement d'appareils sans-fil Cette habileté permet d'offrir aux utilisateurs de sans-fil de nouveaux services bases sur la localisation et la position géographique de leur appareil. Le développement des services basés sur la localisation des utilisateurs de sans-fil soulevé certains problèmes relatifs à la protection de la vie privée qui doivent être considérés. En effet, l'appareil sans-fil qui suit et enregistre les mouvements de I 'utilisateur permet un système qui enregistre et entrepose tous les mouvements et activités d'un tel utilisateur ou encore qui permet l'envoi de messages non anticipes à ce dernier. Pour ce motif et afin de protéger la vie privée des utilisateurs de sans-fil, une compagnie désirant développer ou déployer une technologie permettant d'offrir ce genre de services personnalisés devra analyser l'encadrement légal touchant la protection des données personnelles--lequel est dans certains cas vague et non approprié à ce nouveau contexte--ainsi que la position de l'industrie dans ce domaine, et ce, afin d'être en mesure de traduire cet encadrement en pratiques commerciales. Cette analyse permettra d'éclairer le fournisseur de ces services sur la façon d'établir son modèle d'affaires et sur le type de technologie à développer afin d'être en mesure de remédier aux nouveaux problèmes touchant la vie privée tout en offrant ces nouveaux services aux utilisateurs de sans-fil. / The proliferation of mobile communications is leading to new services based on the ability of service providers to determine, with increasing precision and through the use of location determination technologies, the geographic location of wireless devices and allow their users to receive services based on such location. The development of location-based services introduces new privacy risks for consumers that must be addressed. The portability of wireless devices coupled with their ability to pinpoint the location of wireless users and reveal it to others could produce a system where the everyday activities and movements of these users are tracked and recorded, and where wireless users receive unanticipated messages on their device. For this reason and in order to preserve the privacy of wireless users, a company looking to deploy a technology related to the providing of personalized location-based services ("LBS Provider") will have to analyze the privacy legal framework, coming either from legal sources--that may be in some case vague and not specific to this new context--or from the industry, and translate such framework into business practices. Such analysis may help in establishing what kind of business model and technology should be adopted and developed by LBS Providers in order to ensure the privacy of wireless users while providing this new type of service.

While the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is widely used, it is not seen as the most appropriate to describe responsible business activities in Small, Medium and Micro-sized Enterprises (SMMEs). The concept of Responsible Business Practices (RBP) is better suited to SMMEs, although the theory is still based in the broader literature of CSR. Choices and decisions made by the owners/managers of SMMEs regarding the expenditures for RBP may reflect various influences. These influences may be conscious and purposely orientated toward a personal set of beliefs, but may also be indirectly, subconsciously influenced. This research will explore the influences behind expenditure decisions. Structured questionnaires will be used to reveal conscious influences that play a role in decision-making in SMMEs. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the aspects that consciously influence the decision-makers at SMMEs in Tshwane, South Africa, to expend resources on RBP. The study also aims to determine the awareness of, perceptions about and attitudes towards RBP among SMME decision-makers, as well as to determine the RBP activities SMMEs are involved in. Relationships between the extent of RBP engagement and the level of RBP awareness, the activities involved in, and the respondents’ highest level of education will be discussed. Key differences between the respondents’ age, highest level of education and gender with regards to the influencing aspects are also covered. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on individual-level studies in the RBP field and makes a contribution to the South African SMME literature that focuses on the doing of responsible business. It also addresses the gap in RBP knowledge by investigating the influences on RBP decisions in SMMEs, as the small business decision-making processes might prioritise influencing aspects differently than that in larger organisations. / Business Management / M. Com. (Business Management)

Le monde des affaires est marqué par des contrats conclus entre des personnes de pouvoir économique inégal, ce qui résulte souvent sur des abus subis par la partie la plus faible. De ce fait, la recherche de l’équilibre contractuel et, plus précisément, de la protection de la partie faible, y est constante. Dans cette optique, le droit des pratiques restrictives de concurrence, droit des pratiques économiques individuelles, est souvent présenté comme un dispositif légal permettant de répondre à cette préoccupation en ce qu’il aurait pour finalité la protection des entreprises dans leurs relations bilatérales. Cependant, cette affirmation est loin d’être exacte. En effet, l’analyse des règles de ce droit de la concurrence amène à remettre en cause ce point de vue. En réalité, les dispositions qui le composent ont une finalité qui transcende l’intérêt des parties pour s’attacher à un intérêt général économique. L'encadrement individuel des relations commerciales est un moyen pour parvenir à atteindre des finalités macroéconomiques. La protection de la partie faible ne peut être assurée par le droit des pratiques restrictives de concurrence mais ressortit à d'autres mécanismes juridiques. / The business world is marked by contracts between people of unequal economic power which often leads to abuses suffered by the weaker party. Therefore, the search for the contractual balance and more specifically the protection of the weaker party is constant. In this context, the right of restrictive practices, the right of individual economic practices, is often presented as a legal mechanism to address this concern in that it would aim to protect businesses in their bilateral relations. However, this statement is far from accurate. The analysis of the rules of the competitive law brings to question this view. In fact, the provisions in it have a purpose that transcends the interests of the parties to focus on the general economic interest. Legislature organize relations between enterprises to regulate macroeconomic problems and not regulate problems of each enterprise. The protection of the weaker party cannot be ensured by the law of restrictive practices but falls within other legal mechanisms.

Структура магистерской диссертации включает введение, три главы, заключение, список литературы. В первой главе будет определено понятие устойчивого развития, формирование устойчивости и методы оценки эффективности улучшения устойчивого развития. Во второй главе будет представлена методология исследования с углубленным анализом собранных данных. В третьей главе будут исследованы проблемы и механизмы управления устойчивым развитием компании и рекомендации по стратегии устойчивого развития, а также будет оценена их эффективность. Диссертация завершится кратким изложением основных выводов и их последствий для устойчивого развития современных корпораций. / The structure of the master's thesis includes an introduction, three chapters, conclusion, list of references. The first chapter will define the concept of sustainable development, the formation of sustainability and the methods for evaluating the effectiveness of improving sustainable development. The second chapter will provide the research methodology with an in-depth analysis the collected data. In the third chapter, will explore the problems and mechanisms of the company's sustainable development management and recommendations for sustainable development strategy, and their effectiveness will be evaluated. The thesis will conclude with a summary of the key findings and their implications for the sustainable development of modern corporations.

No description available.

Within the worldwide business community, many analysis tools and techniques have evolved to assist in the evaluation and encouragement of financial health and fiscal viability. However, in the educational community, such analysis is uncommon. It has long been argued that educational institutions bear little resemblance to, and should not be treated like, businesses. This research identifies an educational environment where educational institutions are, indeed, businesses, and may greatly benefit from the use of business analyses. The worldwide effort of Education for All (EFA) has focused on primary education, particularly in less developed countries (LDCs). In Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda increased its primary school enrollments from 2.7 million in 1996 to 7.6 million in 2003. This rapid primary school expansion substantially increased the demand for secondary education. Limited government funding for secondary schools created an educational bottleneck. In response to this demand, laws were passed to allow the establishment of private secondary schools, operated and taxed as businesses. Revenue reports, filed by individual private schools with the Uganda Revenue Authority, formed the database for the financial analysis portion of this research. These reports, required of all profitable businesses in Uganda, are similar to audited corporate financial statements. Survey data and national examination (UNEB) scores were also utilized. This research explored standard business financial analysis tools, including financial statement ratio analysis, and evaluated the applicability of each to this LDC educational environment. A model for financial assessment was developed and industry averages were calculated for private secondary schools in the Mukono District of Uganda. Industry averages can be used by individual schools as benchmarks in assessing their own financial health. Substantial deviations from the norms signal areas of potential concern. Schools may take appropriate corrective action, leading to sustainable fiscal viability. An example of such analysis is provided. Finally, school financial health, defined by eight financial measures, was compared with quality of education, defined by UNEB scores. Worldwide, much attention is given to education and its role in development. This research, with its model for financial assessment of private LDC schools, offers a new and pragmatic perspective.

不論是反全球化或是支持全球化，我們都無法否認，全球化已經是一個現在進行式。另外一個與全球化一樣逐步成長的乃是市場經濟體制，市場經濟體制植基於開放競爭有助於資源合理分配的觀念，而全球化則擴大了資源分配的範圍。然而，全球化和市場經濟體制的發達，貿易壁壘的消除，也帶動跨國界限制競爭活動的發展，反托拉斯不再是單純的國內問題，而是國際問題。 國際反托拉斯所帶來的問題大致可分為下述兩種，一是阻礙國際貿易的發展，二是因為各國不同的反托拉斯標準造成國際緊張以及企業成本。第一類問題可以細分為下述幾種情況：1. 國際卡特爾破壞市場競爭機制以及消費者福祉； 2. 跨國公司在全球濫用獨占力，影響國際競爭秩序和消費者福祉；3. 競爭法的缺乏以及競爭法的不力執行構成市場進入障礙。第二類問題亦可以細分為下屬幾種情況：1. 國際合併的多國標準造成企業的額外成本，不利國際合併之進行，並造成國際緊張；2. 國與國間產業政策以及競爭政策的衝突。 面對上述這些跨國性的反托拉斯問題，各界紛紛提出競爭法調和的呼籲，此議題近來在各國際組織也漸獲重視。事實上為了處理國外限制競爭行為對國內所產生的影響，以保護本國利益，國內法方面已有所謂的「域外適用（extraterritorial application）」對策產生。但是競爭法的域外適用並無法全然解決現時國際限制競爭行為所帶來的問題，反而還帶來了新的問題，並造成國際緊張。為了在國際案件有效執行反托拉斯法，不論是在卡特爾案件或是獨占力濫用案件，各國競爭法主管機關互相合作與協調都是不可或缺的。至於將競爭法提升至國際法層次，避免國家以非關稅措施破壞自由貿易制度，似乎也有需要。 本文目的在於藉著對競爭法調和現況的瞭解和其成就之分析來尋求目前全球化時代，貿易自由化時代下跨國限制競爭問題的解決之道。 全文一共分為六章，第一章為緒論，為本論文做出開端，闡明全球化時代國際競爭秩序的問題，並提出研究範圍與目的。 第二章研究關於國際競爭秩序的雙邊條約，著眼於美國和歐盟，澳洲和紐西蘭，以及我國和世界各國所訂立的條約。討論範圍為該些雙邊關係所建立之合作內容，其具體成效，成功失敗之因素，以及可供世界各國借鏡之處。台灣部分則著眼於我國目前現狀之檢討，和未來走向之研究。 第三章為從事競爭法調和的區域性國際組織，研究範圍包括歐盟、APEC以及NAFTA。其中APEC所從事的活動較近於政策性的調和，屬於競爭政策的宣導；NAFTA則進一步具有競爭法的實體規範；歐盟不但具有實體規範，並具有一套全球獨步的競爭法執行架構。 第四章為國際組織，將討論UN, WTO和OECD在國際競爭法的發展。UN基本上雖為政治組織，但是對於競爭議題也相當重視；WTO部分則將討論目前競爭議題在WTO體系的進展，並進一步討論WTO進行國際競爭法調和工作的可行性和不可行性；OECD對於競爭議題也一直相當重視，本文將探討OECD在競爭議題方面的研究成果。 第五章為全球性的競爭法規範，討論的範圍有UNCTAD所提出的「管制限制性商業行為的一套多邊協議的公平原則和規則（Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices）」以及DIAC。這兩套全球性的競爭法不但都具有實體規範也都提出一套制度性規範，雖然兩者都未能成為具有拘束力的國際競爭法，但是其所提出的實體規範內容和架構設計仍值得我們做進一步的研究。「管制限制性商業行為的一套多邊協議的公平原則和規則」本身是以聯大決議的形式呈現，因此在某一角度而言，「管制限制性商業行為的一套多邊協議的公平原則和規則」並未失敗，然而DIAC原本乃是預定成為WTO的附件之一，唯最後這樣的理想並未實現，因此我們有必要去問，DIAC的失敗因素為何？是基於其實體內容的設計問題，或是制度面的設計問題？或者是因為其他的外在因素？ 最後，在第六章的結論，本文將試圖分析各種競爭法調和方式的利弊得失，並且提出建議。 / Some people oppose globalization, while others support globalization. However, it is undeniable that globalization is an on-going trend. Another on-going trend is market-oriented economy structure. The structure of market-oriented economy bases on the theory that competition contributes to reasonable allocation of resource. On the other hand, globalization expands the scope of the allocation of resources. However, the proliferation of globalization and the structure of market-oriented economy and the elimination of trade barriers also promote the development of transnational anticompetitive activities. Antitrust is no more a pure domestic issue, it is also an international issue nowadays. International antitrust problems could be divided into two parts. First, the international antitrust activities hinder the development of international trade. Second, different antitrust standards of each country cause international tense situation and increase enterprises’ cost. First situation contains following aspects: 1. International cartels ruin market competition system and welfare of consumers. 2. Transnational companies abuse their dominant power all globally and affect international competition order and consumers’ welfare. 3. Absence of competition law and unenforcement of it constitute market entrance obstacles. Second situation also contains following aspects: 1.Different standards of international mergers bring many results, such as increasing enterprises’ extra cost, hindering the proceedings of international mergers, and causing international tensions. 2. The conflict between industry policy and competition policy of countries. Facing those transnational antitrust problems, the issue of the harmonization of competition law has been raised. This issue is drawing more and more attention in several international organizations day by day. In fact, to deal with the domestic effect of abroad anticompetitive activities to protect national interest, the theory “extraterritorial application” of domestic law has been raised. However, the extraterritorial application of domestic law is unable to solve all the problems that the international anticompetitive activities have brought. Furthermore, it has also made new problems and caused international tensions. To enforce antitrust law effectively in international cases, cooperation and coordination between national competition agencies are unavoidable. In addition, bringing antitrust law up to international law level and avoiding nations ruin free trade system by non-tariff strategy seem also be needed. The main purpose of this essay is to understand and analysis the current situation of the harmonization of competition law and to find out the solution of transnational competition problems in the era of globalization and the era of free-trade. This essay has been divided into 6 chapters. The first chapter is the introduction, which illustrates the international competition problems in the era of globalization and brings out the studying scope and purpose of this essay. The second chapter talks about international competition bilateral treaties between U.S. and E.U., Australia and New Zealand, Taiwan and other countries. The discussing scope contains the cooperation content which was set up by the bilateral treaty, its concrete result, and the reasons of its failure or success. As for Taiwan, this essay focuses on the review of its current situation and where its future is. The third chapter talks about regional international organizations which involve in the harmonization of competition law, such as E.U., APEC and NAFTA. APEC’s activities are more closer to the harmonization of policies, which promote competition activities. NAFTA has substantial competition regulations. E.U. not only has substantial regulations but also has the first set of enforcement system of international competition law in the world. The forth chapter is international organization, which talks about the development of international competition law in U.N., WTO and OECD. Although basically U.N. is a political organization, it also highly emphasizes competition issues. In addition, this chapter talks about the development of competition issues in the WTO system and the possibilities of promoting the harmonization of international competition law in WTO. Additionally, OECD also emphasizes competition issues very much. This chapter also talks about the study result of OECD in the competition issues. The fifth chapter is the global competition regulations, which contains “Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices” of UNCTAD and “ Draft International Antitrust Code”. Both of the global competition laws contain substantial regulations and the design of enforcement systems. Although both of them ended up in unrestrictive regulations, they also deserve further research. “Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices” was brought out with the form of UN General Assembly Resolution, but it is successful in some aspect. DIAC was meant to be an Annex of WTO originally. However this idea was not realized at the end. Why DIAC failed? Was it because of the design of its substantial content or the design of the enforcement structure or other outside factors? At last, this essay will analysis the shortages and advantages of all kinds of the harmonization of competition law and bring out recommendations in the conclusion of chapter 6.