Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-05-02T17:58:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Deisi Luana Diel Weber_.pdf: 569327 bytes, checksum: 355337b56ffb691e0e6bd0005f05fc4d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-02T17:58:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Deisi Luana Diel Weber_.pdf: 569327 bytes, checksum: 355337b56ffb691e0e6bd0005f05fc4d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-10 / UNISINOS - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos / This research presents an investigation about the decision-making process regarding Make or Buy, trying to understand which variables most influence this decision to insource some activities, to outsource others, or to better estimate a percentage to combine both. The dependent variable on our research is the behavioral decision-making process, measuring the influence received by cost, quality, and monitoring. Trying to understand if differences between these independent variables influence how managers make their decision in the context of insource or outsource production. In order to test this model empirically, an experiment research was conducted, on the basis of eight different scenarios, which simulate a purchasing decision situation ranging the variables costs, quality, and monitoring of suppliers between High and Low, to understand the relationship of these constructs with the decision-making process of Brazilian managers. It was performed with a sample of 211 students from the Production Engineer course at Universidade do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos). The data was analyzed using statistical technique ANOVA. The results demonstrate that managers consider cost variation to decide about how much to internalize and how much to outsource. They change their choices when quality is higher in their suppliers than inside the company. They also evaluate manager capability to control costs over their suppliers and on their process inside the company. However, they do not change their sourcing decision due to supplier’s monitoring variation, neither when quality monitoring is considered. This issue was already addressed in Hall’s study (2012) conducted in the United States. Thus, we decided to replicate his in Brazil in order to check if in a different environment, with other economic, politic, social, and regulatory situation, the manager will change their decisions. Nevertheless, after comparing both studies, we realize that the same hypothesis was supported in both studies, what means that even in another context the same variables are considered to base managers sourcing decision.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Stephen A. Dyer / Steven Warren / Embedded systems control nearly every device we encounter. Examples abound: appliances, scientific instruments, building environmental controls, avionics, communications, smart phones, and transportation subsystems. These embedded systems can fail in various ways: performance, safety, and meeting market needs. Design errors often cause failures in performance or safety. Market failures, particularly delayed schedule release or running over budget, arise from poor processes. Rigorous methods can significantly reduce the probability of failure. Industry has produced and widely published “best practices” that promote rigorous design and development of embedded systems. Unfortunately, 20 to 35% of development teams do not use them, which leads to operational failures or missed schedules and budgets. This dissertation increases the potential for success in designing and developing embedded systems through the following: 1. It identifies, through literature review, the reasons and factors that cause teams to avoid best practices, which in turn contribute to development failures. 2. It provides a framework, as a psychologically unbiased mediator, to help teams institute best practices. The framework is both straightforward to implement and use and simple to learn. 3. It examines the feasibility of both crowdsourcing and the Delphi method to aid, through anonymous comments on proposed projects, unbiased mediation and estimation within the framework. In two separate case studies, both approaches resulted in underestimation of both required time and required effort. The wide variance in the surveys’ results from crowdsourcing indicated that approach to not be particularly useful. On the other hand, convergence of estimates and forecasts in both projects resulted when employing the Delphi method. Both approaches required six or more weeks to obtain final results. 4. It develops a recommendation model, as a plug-in module to the framework, for the build-versus-buy decision in design of subsystems. It takes a description of a project, compares designing a custom unit with integrating a commercial unit into the final product, and generates a recommendation for the build-versus-buy decision. A study of 18 separate case studies examines the sensitivity of 14 parameters in making the build-versus-buy decision when developing embedded systems. Findings are as follows: team expertise and available resources are most important; partitioning tasks and reducing interdependence are next in importance; the quality and support of commercial units are less important; and finally, premiums and product lifecycles have the least effect on the cost of development. A recommendation model incorporates the results of the sensitivity study and successfully runs on 16 separate case studies. It shows the feasibility and features of a tool that can recommend a build-or-buy decision. 5. It develops a first-order estimation model as another plug-in module to the framework. It aids in planning the development of embedded systems. It takes a description of a project and estimates required time, required effort, and challenges associated with the project. It is simple to implement and easy to use; it can be a spreadsheet, a Matlab model or a webpage; each provides an output like the model for the build-versus-buy decision.

This research attempts to provide an explanation for the firm's choice of using either a dividend or a stock repurchase for distributing cash to its stockholders. It also provides an examination of the impact of the firm's disbursement decision on the stock market's resulting reassessment of the value of the firm. Before analyzing the disbursement decision, I examine the stock market effects of dividends and stock repurchases using an event study methodology that corrects for the possible variance change effects of cash distribution announcements. I find that the measured wealth effects are statistically significant and similar, for the most part, to that reported in earlier studies, notwithstanding increases in the variance of the abnormal returns distribution. I apply LIMDEP's full information maximum likelihood estimator (FIML) to investigate the factors influencing a firm's disbursement decision. I use proxies to represent the major theories put forward in the literature to explain firms' rationales for making cash disbursements, namely, signaling / asymmetric information, undervaluation hypothesis, agency theory, dividend clientele, corporate control, optimal capital structure theory, managerial incentives hypothesis, financial flexibility and cash flow permanence. I find that the firm's payout choice is related to the change in annual earnings per share, the residual volatility in daily stock returns prior to the distribution, the level of undervaluation, the free cash flows of the firm, the size of the firm, the extent of available managerial stock options, the average dividend yield, the volatility of operating earnings, the average daily stock return prior to announcement, the relative proportion of permanent cash flows, and the difference in the levels of permanent cash flows pre and post announcement. I evaluate the stock market impact of the disbursement choice by using a self-selectivity limited-dependent variables model. The findings indicate that while open market repurchasing firms make optimal disbursement choices, that is reflected in the reaction of the stock market to the disbursement announcement, firms using repurchase tender offers make disbursement decisions detrimental to the welfare of their stockholders. However, similar results were inconclusive with regard to firms choosing to utilize dividends as their cash payout mechanism.

This study aims to examine the effects of animosity on consumers’ willingness to buy hybrid products (i.e. products that involve affiliations of two or more countries - such as branded in Japan but made in China). While consumers’ reluctance to purchase foreign products from countries that they have animosity towards is clearly evident in the current literature, little is known about consumers’ attitudes towards hybrid products. As such, the study introduces this new construct (i.e. willingness to buy hybrid products) to the animosity model to determine if animositic consumers would be more receptive or willing to accept hybrid products where the animositic tendencies towards foreign countries in question can be negated by the products’ domestic affiliations. To conduct this investigation, the study is undertaken in China where the Chinese consumers’ animosity towards the Japanese was examined. The data with a usable sample size of 435 were collected in the Chinese city of Nanjing. The findings of the study revealed that the high level of animosity present against the Japanese resulted in the Chinese consumers’ unwillingness to buy Japanese products. More importantly, results showed that the Chinese consumers are not any more receptive to hybrid products as such domestic affiliations have not diluted the animosity. Consistent with the literature, the study has also validated that consumer animosity to be a higher-order construct indicated by war and economic animosity. Under the conditions of extreme animosity, consumer ethnocentrism does not take a significant role in influencing other constructs in the animosity model.

<p>During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company’s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk. Studying the debt to equity ratio in a company captures capital structure. Studying the volatility in return on assets over a certain time period captures business risk. The Master Thesis also includes a study of what factors have an impact on the business risk when looking at the day-to-day business. By conducting a study of the pulp and paper industry and its nine listed companies a picture is created of what factors have an impact on the relation between capital structure and business risk. The business risk is in a very high degree dependant on factors like economic development for the product, raw material prices, number of product groups and what segments the company penetrates. A positive relation between capital structure and business risk has been identified. The study also indicates that other factors than just the business risk should be hold responsible for a company’s capital structure.</p>

During the past year it has been made possible to buy back a company’s outstanding stock. This is done in order to change the capital structure towards a situation with less equity. A change in capital structure means a change in the cost of capital for a company and by that a change in the value for the stockholder. This Master Thesis studies the relation between capital structure and business risk. Studying the debt to equity ratio in a company captures capital structure. Studying the volatility in return on assets over a certain time period captures business risk. The Master Thesis also includes a study of what factors have an impact on the business risk when looking at the day-to-day business. By conducting a study of the pulp and paper industry and its nine listed companies a picture is created of what factors have an impact on the relation between capital structure and business risk. The business risk is in a very high degree dependant on factors like economic development for the product, raw material prices, number of product groups and what segments the company penetrates. A positive relation between capital structure and business risk has been identified. The study also indicates that other factors than just the business risk should be hold responsible for a company’s capital structure.

Bakgrund: Den 10 mars 2000 blev Sverige ett av de sista västländerna att tillåta noterade bolag att återköpa egna aktier. Intresset för denna nya möjlighet har varit stort bland svenska börsbolag och fram till idag har ett femtiotal bolag återköpt egna till ett värde av åtskilliga miljarder. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera hur ett bolags återköp av egna aktier påverkar aktiekursen. Genomförande: Vi har studerat litteratur och artiklar om ämnet återköp. Vi har undersökt 48 företags återköp och dess kursutveckling en månad efter avslutat återköp. En jämförelse har gjorts med respektive företags branschindex. Därutöver har vi även undersökt om det går att se någon mer långsiktig effekt från starten av respektive återköpsprogram till det att de avslutades i varje företag. Resultat: I knappt hälften av de undersökta bolagen fann vi att återköpen haft en positiv effekt på aktiekursen.

Background and purpose In Sweden private savings in stocks has experienced a large increase and in year 2006 there were 6.7 million people, or 77 per cent of the population owning stocks. A recent study shows that more than every other Swede has deficient knowledge in trading with stocks. Since small private investors often do not know how to gather and interpret information they must utilize investment advices. The large increase in private savings in stocks, the lack of investment knowledge together with the large increase in Internet usage has resulted in investment advice seeking on the Internet. One of the largest sources of investment advices on the Internet in Sweden today is Avanza.se. The purpose with our thesis is to describe and analyze if, after a buy recommendation issued at Avanza’s website, the effects with respect to abnormal return and market efficiency differ significantly depending on a company’s capitalization value. Method We have used a quantitative approach to fulfill our purpose. The secondary data required to do so was gathered from the OMX-Group’s website, where historical prices and Index information was collected, and from the online broker Avanza’s website where the buy recommendations were compiled. In order to conduct statistical tests and calculations we have used the statistical software SPSS. Frame of Reference The theories we made use of mainly treated market efficiency and abnormal return. Conclusions We have seen that the recommendations’ effect concerning abnormal return differ signifi-cantly depending on capitalization value, where the effect on companies with smaller capitalization values are larger. We have also found tendencies of market inefficiency at the semi strong level for stocks with smaller capitalization value.

Tidigare studier som gjorts inom området visade att kvinnor anser att kvinnors skönhet inte är värderad enligt rimliga normer i vårt samhälle. Hård retuschering motarbetas på många håll, bland annat genom att organisationer som ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) och politiska partier som Liberaldemokraterna i Storbritannien arbetar för att missledande retuschering ska försvinna. En studie har visat att det, för att öka annonsers attraktionskraft, är viktigt att den ökade skönheten hos en modell är relevant för produktens användningsområde, då betraktaren anstränger sig intellektuellt vid betraktandet av bilden. Det finns dock inga tidigare studier som bevisar om en retuscherad modell faktiskt ökar målgruppens köplust av skönhetsprodukter vid rådande samhällsattityder och skönhetsideal. Två enkätundersökningar gjordes därför med sammanlagt 1480 deltagare. Produkten i studien var en fiktiv hudkräm. Genom att i den ena undersökningen låta betraktaren möta modellbilden i en situation som efterliknade verkligheten, på så sätt att de inte fick veta om den var retuscherad, kunde studien svara på om retuschering ökade köplusten. Bilder med bortretuscherade skönhetsfläckar och utväxt prefererades. Att retuschera bort flyghår ökade inte köplusten. I den andra jämförande undersökningen kunde betraktaren jämföra den retuscherade med den oretuscherade modellbilden. Resultaten visade att skönhetsfläckar och flyghår tillåts och prefereras borttagna, men inte utväxt. I intervjuer med fem kvinnor hördes målgruppens attityder om vad som ansågs var tillåtet att retuschera. Svaren tydde på att en relevant och försiktig retuschering prefererades. Att lämna några födelsemärken ökade trovärdigheten. / This study aims to answer whether retouching of models in beauty ads increases the desire to buy in the target group and the attitudes held about what is allowed to retouch. Two surveys with 1,408 participants was made. In one the participant was shown a beauty ad in a situation imitating the reality where the participant did not know if the picture was retouched. The study showed that the participant preferred that the model's beauty spots and outgrowth were removed. To remove stray hair did not increase the desire to buy. A second study in which participants could compare the retouched picture to the unretouched showed that blemishes and stray hair was preferred and allowed to be removed. Removing outgrowth did not increase the desire to buy the skin cream. Interviews with five women revealed that a prudent and relevant retouching, such as removing blemishes, but to leave some birthmarks, increased the reliability in the ad.

<p>This dissertation consists of three chapters relating to various topics in empirical Industrial Organization. The first two chapters deal with the empirical treatment of sales in online markets. The third chapter explores the level of pass-through for taxes on soft drinks.</p><p>In the first chapter I demonstrate that when dealing with online market places it is important to take into account the fact that multiple listings coexist. Traditionally, the economic literature has treated listings as independent. In reality, however, buyers often have the choice between multiple contemporaneous listings. I demonstrate that it is important to take this fact into account since sellers who list their items simultaneously are in direct competition. More specifically, I show that the sale probability of a given item decreases when the number of simultaneous listings increases. Thus, the aforementioned assumption of independence can lead to wrong results.</p><p>In the second chapter, I specify and estimate a structural model of mechanism choice in online markets. I consider both sides of the market: On the demand side, buyers' choices among available listings are equilibrium outcomes of an entry game. On the supply side, sellers take competition into account and make equilibrium decisions when choosing sales mechanisms and prices. I estimate this model using data from sales of baseball tickets on eBay. I find that sellers' outside options, dynamic incentives, and risk preferences affect mechanism choice. Using the estimation results from my model I analyze the welfare effects of a hybrid mechanism (buy-it-now auctions) eBay offers. I find that the existence of buy-it-now auctions increases the consumer surplus and reduces the producer surplus. The reason for this is that buy-it-now auctions diminish sellers' potential for diversification via mechanism choice and thus strengthen competition.</p><p>The third and last chapter focuses on the incidence of soda taxes by studying the pass-through level of these taxes. It lays out a framework for thinking about the determinants of the pass-through level. More specifically, it builds theoretical models that examine the pass-through under more complex supply structures with multiple manufactures and retailers. In addition to providing some intuition behind theoretical predictions of the models, this chapter also presents empirical results found in the data along with their implications.</p> / Dissertation