Humboldt-Univ., Diss.--Berlin, 2004.

abstract: The e-Retail industry has grown rapidly over the last few years and is projected to continue its upward trend as consumers shift from traditional channels to online channels. In March 2010, Forrester Research forecasted that online retail sales will grow by 10% a year for the next 5 years and e-Retail sales will amount to $249 billion by 2014. With intense competition for market share and profits, information systems and technology (IST) sourcing decisions are becoming increasingly important to e-Retail firms to support continued growth and market responsiveness. There are several aspects for e-Retailers to consider when formulating its IST sourcing strategy. Whether to choose make versus buy for technology assets and services has been addressed in both strategy and IS literature (Handfield et al. 1999, Leiblein et al. 2002, Wade and Hulland, 2004). Then there is the follow-up question of selecting a best-of-breed strategy or tighter partnership with a select group of vendors (Clemons et al. 1993, Kauffman and Tsai 2009). Few studies have looked at IST sourcing or proposed models and frameworks for evaluating IST sourcing decisions (Saarinen and Vepsalainen, 1994). Furthermore, these existing studies mainly address the antecedents of the decisions but not so much on their performance effects (Kauffman and Tsai 2009; Smith et al., 1998). The goal of this study is to extend the knowledge of IST sourcing for e-Retailers, a topic which has received limited attention (Kishore et al., 2004), by addressing a core problem: How should an e-Retailer develop and implement its IST sourcing strategy to accommodate the increase in consumer demand and IT complexity but still achieve high performance? The study introduces two theoretical models to examine organizational factors that influence an e-Retailer's IST sourcing strategies of make versus buy and partnership versus best-of-breed. The proposed models are tested using a panel data set of 307 e-Retail firms over the period of 2006 to 2010. The study opens up the black box of internal firm operations by introducing a granular view of IST sourcing decisions at both the value chain and e-Commerce architecture levels and examining the performance impacts of these strategic choices. This in-depth look at IST sourcing has yet to be explored in the literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Information Management 2012

Made available in DSpace on 2009-11-18T19:01:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Licia-Rios.pdf: 436670 bytes, checksum: c571e18c2289fd9b46b9f90f3f105395 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Este estudo objetivou verificar a percepção do consumidor sobre a relação entre as variáveis independentes: uso de dados secundários não autorizados, percepção de invasão de privacidade, percepção de proteção de privacidade, percepção de confidencialidade, percepção de autenticação, percepção de erro, comportamento intencional de uso e a variável dependente propensão à compra on line. Realizou-se um levantamento com aplicação de questionários em uma amostra de 451 usuários de Internet, alunos de graduação e de pós-graduação das Instituições de Ensino Superior de São Luís, Maranhão. A análise estatística englobou Análise Descritiva e Regressão Múltipla. Concluiu-se que apenas uma variável, comportamento intencional de uso, está correlacionada à variável dependente. Algumas limitações, implicações e sugestões de pesquisa futura foram analisadas neste estudo. / The goal of this essay was verify consumer perception about the relationship among independents variables: unauthorized data use perception, privacy invasion perception, protection privacy perception, confidentiality perception, intentional use behavior, error, authenticity perception, and the dependent variable willingness to buy on line. A Survey was used in 451 undergraduate and postgraduate students, Internet user‘s in Universities in São Luís, Maranhão. Statistics Analyses used was Descriptive and Multiple Regression. In conclusion, only one variable, intentional use behavior was correlated to the dependent variable. Some limitations, implications and suggestions to future research were analyzed in this study.

Submitted by Thiago Ferreira Prediger (thiagoprediger@gmail.com) on 2015-04-24T15:28:34Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Prediger - Exploring Attitudes and Behavioral Intention of Brazilian consumers towards Fair Trade and Fair Trade products.pdf: 1053923 bytes, checksum: aa7aeb5347c8b1046a0294506593cce5 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luana Rodrigues (luana.rodrigues@fgv.br) on 2015-04-24T15:54:40Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Prediger - Exploring Attitudes and Behavioral Intention of Brazilian consumers towards Fair Trade and Fair Trade products.pdf: 1053923 bytes, checksum: aa7aeb5347c8b1046a0294506593cce5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-24T16:10:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thiago Prediger - Exploring Attitudes and Behavioral Intention of Brazilian consumers towards Fair Trade and Fair Trade products.pdf: 1053923 bytes, checksum: aa7aeb5347c8b1046a0294506593cce5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Global sales of FT products have been growing consistently in the last years. According to the FLO, they jumped from less than €1 billion in 2004 to around €5,5 billion in 2013. Although the movement is still beginning in Brazil, some efforts aiming the institutionalization of FT are already being done. For instance, Schneider (2012) shows that there is a potential market for the FT products in Brazil, however the it is still not well developed. Therefore, there is a need to better understand the variables affecting purchase intention of these product. Past studies have identified factors that are considered predictors of Intention to Buy FT products. Considering these factors, this study aims to determine the variables that are most related to the consumers’ intention to buy and willingness to pay for FT products in Brazil. Based on the answers of 124 respondents, results show that intention to buy FT products in Brazil is linked to the consumers’ ethical consumption attitudes, product interest and quality, low skepticism and positive interest regarding the FT concept. The results also showed two antagonistic clusters of consumers regarding their attitudes. The group 'Activists' have positive attitudes, high intention to buy and willingness to pay. On the other hand, the 'Unbelievers' have negative attitudes, low intention to buy and are not willing to pay more. Based on the results of this study, organizations and individuals who aim to foster the FT market in Brazil can better understand the consumer and take more assertive marketing decisions, considering the relevance of factors affecting Intention to Buy, and differences between consumers. / As vendas globais de produtos FT cresceram de forma consistente nos últimos anos. De acordo com a FLO, as vendas cresceram de menos de € 1 bilhão em 2004 para cerca de € 5,5 bilhões em 2013. Apesar do movimento ainda estar engatinhando no Brasil, alguns esforços visando a institucionalização da FT estão sendo tomados. Por exemplo, o Schneider (2012) mostrou que existe um mercado potencial para os produtos FT no Brasil. Entretanto, ele ainda não é bem desenvolvido. Portanto, há uma necessidade de compreender melhor as variáveis que afetam a intenção de compra destes produtos. Estudos anteriores identificaram fatores que são considerados previsores de intenção de comprar produtos FT. Considerando esses fatores, o presente estudo tem como objetivo determinar as variáveis que estão mais relacionadas com a intenção de compra e disposição para pagar por produtos FT no Brasil. Com base nas respostas de 124 entrevistados, os resultados mostram que a intenção de compra de produtos FT no Brasil está ligada a atitudes de consumo éticas dos consumidores, o interesse e qualidade dos produtos, baixo ceticismo e percepção de relevância acerca do conceito FT. Os resultados também mostraram dois grupos antagônicos de consumidores a respeito de suas atitudes. O grupo dos 'ativistas' tem atitudes positivas, de alta intenção de compra e disposição a pagar mais. Por outro lado, os 'incrédulos' têm atitudes negativas, baixa intenção de compra e não estão dispostos a pagar mais. Com base nos resultados deste estudo, organizações e indivíduos que visam fomentar o mercado FT no Brasil podem entender melhor o consumidor e tomar decisões de marketing mais assertivas, considerando a relevância dos fatores que afetam a intenção de comprar, como também as diferenças entre os consumidores.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:20:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 120568.pdf: 1108272 bytes, checksum: 0be6908eb8b09e3c1dc37b72b4159533 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-02T00:00:00Z / For 70 years LPG has been distributed in Brazil. However, just little is known through the literature on economy and marketing issues that challenge the LPG distributors on fetching profitability, market leadership and growth. Along these years, the commercialization of the product has considerably improved as far as operational or regulatory matters are concerned. It’s utilization for cooking has been the technological rupture that allowed a transformation in the Brazilian’s homes, bringing the family into the kitchen, unlike the old firewood cooker. At the beginning of LPG distribution, on buying a cooker, the customer would choose the distributor with whom it would sign up an agreement on exclusive basis; client’s residence would have them on it’s front door a brand plate of the supplier in charge of delivering the product. Since the product became a requisite of presence in Brazilian homes, its activity started being considered of basic supply, of urban infra-structure and for that reason, it had to be regulated by the govern like the water and power energy supply. Although there had been an attempt to nationalize its distribution, the LPG was among the few infra-structure activities which were not carried out by a state-owned company. Nevertheless, the sector had been closely watched by the government which stated prices, outlined the markets and subsidized the imported material until last decade, when the LPG distributors were set free to make their own decision. An economic approach was required then to run the process, so that it would guarantee profitability and dispute for the national market leadership. The value-based management discussion through EVA of the retained market and the value leverage for the home distribution in Brazil where also demanded in this scenario. egarding the managerial decisions, it was included the cost of capital, one moment demanding additional contribution on the capital charges, the next rationalizing the capital itself, reducing excess and increasing the productivity of the utilized resources. Besides the value drivers discussion there are the reflection on the core activity, where the economic surplus come from the operational management along of products to the market consumer and the efficiency in the use of the assets. The alignment of the shareholders and managers’ objectives starts with the management for value, forgotten in operational management, included though in the EVA management. By running the assets, the executives will make decisions in order to increase the productivity of the system, whether to gain scale in the plants, whether to better allocate the cylinders and vehicles, whether to extract more value from the bigger markets and through the diversification of the distribution channels / A distribuição de GLP no Brasil acontece nos últimos 70 anos, mas pouco se sabe na literatura das questões econômicas e de marketing que desafiam as distribuidoras de GLP no Brasil na busca pela rentabilidade, liderança de mercado e crescimento. Nas últimas décadas, com o fim da regulação do governo na atividade, as empresas se viram num ambiente de livre mercado, sem tabelamento de preços ou reservas de mercado e uma abordagem econômica precisou liderar o processo de tomada de decisão nas distribuidoras de GLP para garantir a rentabilidade e a disputa pela liderança do mercado nacional. A este ambiente de mercado, incluímos a discussão sobre geração de valor, através do EVA dos mercados atendidos e das alavancas de valor para a distribuição domiciliar no Brasil. Nesta equação avaliamos a importância da competição para a definição dos preços ao consumidor, a postura estratégica adequada para crescer onde não se é líder de mercado, o atendimento direto ao consumidor para se diferenciar e a alocação racional dos ativos na operação. Transcender o resultado operacional e esperar o retorno adequado sobre o capital investido nos leva à revisão de todo o negócio, desde as práticas de precificação, a estrutura de canais e o uso dos ativos. Em alguns mercados de atuação da empresa, constatou-se a geração de valor do negócio. Outros mercados, entretanto, com algum incremento marginal nas vendas já atingiriam um EVA positivo, mesmo que para isso dependam também do incremento das margens de contribuição unitárias. Por fim, mercados em situação deficitária, distantes do ponto de equilíbrio do EVA, pedem uma decisão estratégica entre subsidiar os déficits ou desmobilizar os ativos encerrando a operação de distribuição nesses mercados. Há, entretanto, um fator comum entre todos esses mercados: além da comercialização do produto, temos a gestão baseada em valor. Às decisões gerenciais então se propõe incluir o retorno sobre o capital, ora demandando contribuições adicionais na operação, ora racionalizando o próprio capital, reduzindo excessos e aumentando a produtividade dos recursos utilizados.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:22:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 66070100197.pdf: 310163 bytes, checksum: 3b9928fac26ea1cdec9c73ead81d55d9 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z / This work seeks to analyze the efficiency of the investment committees of the FIPs (Fundos de Investimento em Participações), the most relevant investment vehicle of the Brazilian private equity industry, taking into consideration that acquisitions made by these vehicles are not leveraged. Such analysis is made by comparing it with the American model, which usually delegates the investment decision to the general partner and employs a significant amount of leverage when acquiring a target. Initially, a non-exhaustive review of the Brazilian papers on private equity is conducted. Next, the particularities of the Brazilian model are pointed out, specially the investment decisions shared by fund managers and investors, and the scarce usage of leverage in the acquisitions, and it is shown how these characteristics affect the equilibrium of Axelson, Strömberg and Weisbach’s model. The conclusion is that the particularities of the FIPs model offer: (i) better protection to the limited partners’ interests and (ii) allow the general partners to take advantage of the period when the transactions occur at lower multiples, resulting in a more efficient investment model with a countercyclical nature. However, such conclusions are subject to the compliance of the following premises: (i) the investment committee must have qualifications as good as, or better than, those of the general partner, (ii) it must have enough time and personnel availability to analyze the opportunities as deeply as the general partner does, (iii) the existence of the investment committee must not result in a competitive disadvantage for the limited partner in terms of agility in the negotiation processes. Finally, some potential situations of conflicts of interests of the committee members are raised. / Este trabalho objetiva analisar a eficiência dos comitês de investimento no modelo de investimento em private equity através de FIPs (Fundos de Investimento em Participações) que não utilizam alavancagens em suas aquisições. Tal análise é feita através de uma comparação com o modelo americano, no qual tipicamente o gestor do fundo tem o poder de decisão sobre os investimentos e as aquisições são realizadas utilizando financiamento de terceiros. A dissertação é iniciada com uma revisão bibliográfica não-exaustiva dos trabalhos da academia brasileira sobre o tema de private equity. Em seguida, levanta-se as particularidades do modelo dos FIPs, principalmente a decisão de investimento feita em conjunto pelo gestor e seus investidores através de comitês de investimento e a rara utilização de alavancagem nas aquisições, e demonstra-se como o impacto destas características altera o equilíbrio do modelo proposto por Axelson, Strömberg e Weisbach. Conclui-se que as particularidades do modelo dos FIPs que não utilizam alavancagens nas aquisições oferecem: (i) melhor proteção aos interesses dos investidores, e uma representativade similar aos conselhos de administração de companhias abertas, e (ii) permitem que o gestor aproveite os períodos nos quais as transações ocorrem a um múltiplo mais baixo, resultando num modelo mais eficiente de investimento e que evita a multiplicação dos ciclos econômicos. Tais conclusões, no entanto, estão sujeitas à observação das seguintes condições: (i) o comitê deve ter qualificação igual ou superior ao do gestor; (ii) o comitê deve ter disponibilidade de tempo e corpo suficientes para analisar os investimentos nas mesma profundidade que o gestor, (iii) a existência do comitê de investimento não deve acarretar numa desvantagem para o gestor em termos de agilidade de resposta nas negociações. Finalmente, são levantadas algumas situações de ponteciais conflitos de interesse nas quais os membros dos comitês de investimento podem se encontrar.

The purpose and intent of this study is to conduct comparative research between domestic and foreign investors in regard to short selling positions on the Swedish financial market. The performance differences are measured by compounding short selling positions by the investors between 2015-2018. Two comparative methods were utilized to conduct this research: The cumulative abnormal return (CAR) and the buy-and-hold abnormal return, with each calculation being utilized in accordance with Barber & Lyon (1997). The produced results have been scrutinized via univariate descriptive statistics (t-test) and a regression in order to verify if there is any significant difference between the investors. The result of the study shows that there is a tangible, noteworthy difference in an average performance amongst the investors. We can now recognize that foreign investors who hold their short selling positions for a longer time-period demonstrate better performance. To compare with the domestic investors, their displayed trading behavior seems to be more unpredictable and they have not been performing as good in this selected time-interval.

Studien undersöker om den svenska aktiemarknaden i regel presterar sämre mellan månaderna maj och september enligt den så kallade “ sell-in-may-and-go-away- effekten”. Vi använder den logaritmerade avkastningen för det svenska indexet OMXS30 som delas upp i olika perioder; maj till september, samt oktober till april. Avkastningen för dessa perioder jämförs genom att använda en regressionsmodell. Resultatet från undersökningen visar att effekten är positiv, samt signifikant på en-procentsnivå mellan 1986 till 2017 för OMXS30 iSverige. Studien tittar även på sell-in-may-and-go-away- effektens utveckling, och finner indikationer för att effekten avtar efter publiceringen av Bouman & Jacobsens undersökningav effekten år 2002. Indikationen på att effekten avtar kan betyda en högre grad av rationalitet hos investerare samt en mer effektiv marknad allt eftersom sell-in-may-and-go-away- effekten blir mer allmänt känd. Resultatet för att effekten skulle vara avtagande är dock inte statistisk signifikant och därmed inte heller statistiskt säkerställd.

The thesis studies the topic of Business Intelligence applications specialized to enhance the analytical, planning and control capabilities of commercial banks in areas such as marketing, sales and customer care. The goal of the diploma work is to give a complex view on analytical CRM in the context of banking industry, to analyze the solution from different perspectives and to design functions, processes and data corresponding to a business model of commercial banking. The theoretical part of the work investigates the customer relationship management strategy, general principles of relationship marketing, current situation in the area of Customer Intelligence and keystones of IS/ICT applications which are applicable to implement the CRM strategy. The following chapters deal with the actual development in Czech banking industry, banking activities and IS/ICT application architecture in the context of banking industry. The main part of the work is focused on analysis and design of functions, processes and data of analytical CRM in the context of banking industry. The results of the analysis suggest implementing a propensity to buy model as an analytical CRM function applicable to manage customer acquisition and customer selection for direct marketing campaigns. Similarly, a function providing the probability of customer churn can be of great value for activities aimed at customer retention. The thesis contributes to the existing literature by designing input variables for propensity to buy modeling, customer retention modeling and customer segmentation. Additionally, the work introduces process models which define the main steps of data analysis and also the performance metrics for these processes. Finally, the part dedicated to data principles of analytical CRM contributes by designing key customer data aggregations and by analyzing different possibilities of data layer integration within the IS/ICT architecture of commercial banks.

I arbetet mot människohandel och prostitution understryks vikten av att minska efterfrågan på sexköp, det vill säga att få män sluta köpa sex. Med detta är det därför relevant att skapa en förståelse för hur man kan få sexköpare att ändra sitt beteende för att på så sätt stoppa den sexuella exploatering av kvinnor som sker genom sexhandel. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka yrkesverksammas erfarenheter av sexköpare som söker hjälp respektive sexköpare som inte gör det, för att skapa en förståelse för vad som gör att sexköpare ändrar sitt beteende. Studien bygger på kvalitativa intervjuer med yrkesverksamma från hela Sverige, materialet har sedan analyserats med tematisk analys. I resultatet framgår det att det som upplevs vara betydande för en beteendeförändring hos män som köper sex är att skapa motivation samt medvetenhet hos männen. För att detta ska hända anses det vara betydelsefullt att komma åt sexköparnas kognitiva struktur som gör att de exempelvis rättfärdigar sitt beteende och där med fortsätter med beteendet. Vidare anses även att lära sig hantera sina känslor på ett hälsosamt sätt samt att det finns konsekvenser för sexköp vara betydande för att få män att sluta köpa sex. / In the fight against human trafficking and prostitution many emphasize the importance of working towards reducing the demand, in other words, decreasing the number of men who buy sex. Therefore, it can be considered important to create an understanding of how to get sex buyers to change their behavior and by doing so, stop the sexual exploitation of women through sex trade. The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of professionals who meet sex buyers who get help changing their behavior and sex buyers who do not, in order to create an understanding what makes men who buy sex change their behavior according to professionals. The study is based on qualitative interviews with professionals from different parts of Sweden and has been analyzed using thematic analysis. The result confers the importance of creating motivation and awareness among sex buyers, in order to get them to change their behavior. To make this happen, it is considered important directing efforts to reconstruct the cognitive structure of the sex buyers, which for instance justifies their behavior and thereby counteract changing it. Furthermore, results from the interviews also indicated that it is important for the men to learn how to manage their emotions in a non-dysfunctional way, along with the existence of consequences for buying sex.