One of the best ways to get expected results from information technology (IT) in a business organization is to have a close look at the financial issues related to it. Financial issues such as IT investment, IT costs, IT resources should be dealt with special care if any organization wants to get best result from its IT systems. The purpose of this research is to investigate the condition of IT financial issues such as IT investment, IT costs, IT resources, IT business value etc. in the selected seven organizations of Sweden and to have an understanding behind the condition. First of all, a survey has been conducted with nine IT managers from these seven organizations to get an overview of the condition of dealing with various IT financial issues. Then follow-up interviews have been conducted with four of those IT managers that took part in the survey to find out the reason behind the condition dealing with those IT financial issues. The results of the study show that most the seven companies do not have proper capital budgeting technique, benefit identification plan for IT investment. Most of them do not calculate all the IT related costs. Most of them have lack of knowledge about the business value of IT. Their knowledge of impact of IT resources is not clear. The study further shows why those seven companies are having that kind of condition regarding the IT related financial issues.

We consider a portfolio selection problem in the presence of transaction costs. Transaction costs on each asset are assumed to be a convex function of the amount sold or bought. This function can be nondifferentiable in a finite number of points. The objective function of this problem is a sum of a convex twice differentiable function and a separable convex nondifferentiable function. We first consider the problem in the presence of linear constraints and later generalize the results to the case when the constraints are given by the convex piece-wise linear functions. <br /><br /> Due to the special structure, this problem can be replaced by an equivalent differentiable problem in a higher dimension. It's main drawback is efficiency since the higher dimensional problem is computationally expensive to solve. <br /><br /> We propose several alternative ways to solve this problem which do not require introducing new variables or constraints. We derive the optimality conditions for this problem using subdifferentials. First, we generalize an active set method to this class of problems. We solve the problem by considering a sequence of equality constrained subproblems, each subproblem having a twice differentiable objective function. Information gathered at each step is used to construct the subproblem for the next step. We also show how the nonsmoothness can be handled efficiently by using spline approximations. The problem is then solved using a primal-dual interior-point method. <br /><br /> If a higher accuracy is needed, we do a crossover to an active set method. Our numerical tests show that we can solve large scale problems efficiently and accurately.

Canada has been recognized as the largest exporter of flax seed in the world. Currently, very little flax straw is further processed, despite its potential as a value added product, with only about 7-10% of Canadian flax seed producers harvesting residual flax straw rather than burning the straw. A traditional use of flax straw has been for the production of fibre for the linen industry. Interest in flax fibre has been rekindled with the impetus to seek out bioproducts that replace non-renewal resources and provide value-added opportunities for agricultural producers. Flax fibre also has a range of potential uses in automotive parts, geotextiles, insulation material, etc. Despite this potential, the Canadian flax fibre sector remains largely underdeveloped, with fledgling supply chains and lack of investment in the necessary processing capacity. This paper develops a framework for analysing the relational exchanges at different stage of the supply chain to determine if the paucity in investment is the result of prohibitively high exchange costs. A number of distinct stages in the flax fibre supply chain can be identified: farmers producing flax seed and/or straw; processors who extract the natural fibre from the straw; and manufacturers who use the fibre in their products. The paper develops a framework that draws together insights from Transaction Cost Economics, Agency Theory and Bargaining Theory. The role of institutions in facilitating quality measurement and providing participants with information is also considered. The theoretical framework identifies asset specificity, agency measurement costs, bargaining power and under-developed institutions as key factors in the development of the flax fibre sector. From the theoretical framework, a set of propositions is developed that examine the anticipated effect of these factors on vertical coordination in the sector. The theoretical propositions are explored through a series of semi-structured interviews with parties at each stage of the supply chain (producers, fibre processors, final manufacturers), as well as with industry experts. Information from the interviews is used to identify the transaction characteristics and the institutional framework characterizing the flax fibre sector in Canada. This is analysed through a comparative case study approach with the flax fibre sector in Europe, and the wool fibre sector in New Zealand as an example of a fully developed and long-standing fibre sector. By also noting the different vertical coordination strategies that are present in these supply chains, a connection is drawn between the presence of certain transaction characteristics and the corresponding cost-minimizing exchange relationships. The case studies are used to investigate the propositions developed from the theoretical framework regarding the impact of transaction characteristics on the optimal vertical coordination strategy and the impediments to development and investment in the sector. The propositions developed in the framework are verified to a great extent by the comparative case study. The uncertainty in the exchange environment regarding the future direction of the flax fibre industry and the high measurement costs due to the absent quality and grading regime in the Canadian flax fibre set the two industries apart from each other. Both of these dimensions impact the exchange costs of a transaction and subsequently, the extent to which the parties are closely coordinated. The case studies verify that using a framework to analyze transactions provides additional insights because of the joint consideration of several features of the transaction.

<p>The goal of this dissertation is to provide a coherent and computationally feasible basis for the analysis of the dynamics of both housing supply and demand from a microeconomics perspective. The dissertation includes two papers which incorporate unique micro data with new methodological approaches to examine housing market dynamics. The first paper models the development decisions of land owners as a dynamic discrete choice problem to recover the primitives of housing supply. The second paper develops a new methodology for dynamically estimating the demand for durable goods, such as housing, when the choice set is large.</p><p>In the first paper, using the new data set discussed above, I develop and estimate the first dynamic microeconometric model of supply. Parcel owners maximize the discounted sum of expected per-period profits by choosing the optimal time and nature of construction. In addition to current profits, the owners of land also take into account their expectations about future returns to development, balancing expected future prices against expected future costs. This forward looking behavior is crucial in explaining observed aggregate patterns of construction. Finally, the outcomes generated by the parcel owners' profit maximizing behavior, in addition to observable sales prices, allow me to identify the parameters of the per-period profit function at a fine level of geography.</p><p>By modeling the optimal behavior of land owners directly, I can capture important aspects of profits that explain both market volatility and geographic differences in construction rates. In particular, the model captures both the role of expectations and of more abstract costs (such as regulation) in determining the timing and volatility of supply in way that would not be possible using aggregate data. The model returns estimates of the various components of profits: prices, variable costs, and the fixed costs of building, which incorporate both physical and regulatory costs.</p><p>Estimates of the model suggest that changes in the value of the right-to-build are the primary cause of house price appreciation, that the demographic characteristics of existing residents are determinants of the cost environment, and that physical and regulatory costs are pro-cyclical. Finally, using estimates of the profit function, I explain the role of dynamics in determining the timing of supply by distinguishing the effects of expected future cost changes from the effects of expected future price changes. A counterfactual simulation suggest that pro-cyclical costs, combined with forward looking behavior, significantly dampen construction volatility. These results sheds light on one of the empirical puzzles of the housing market - what determines the volatility of housing construction?</p><p>In the second paper, I outline a tractable model of neighborhood choice in a dynamic setting along with a computationally straightforward estimation approach. The approach allows the observed and unobserved features of each neighborhood to evolve in a completely flexible way and uses information on neighborhood choice and the timing of moves to recover semi-parametrically: (i) preferences for housing and neighborhood attributes, (ii) preferences for the performance of the house as a financial asset, and (iii) moving costs. In order to accommodate a number of important features of housing market, this approach extends methods developed in the recent literature on the dynamic demand for durable goods in a number of key ways. The model and estimation approach are applicable to the study of a wide set of dynamic phenomena in housing markets and cities. These include, for example, the analysis of the microdynamics of residential segregation and gentrification within metropolitan areas. More generally, the model and estimation approach can be easily extended to study the dynamics of housing and labor markets in a system of cities.</p> / Dissertation

The literature on escalation situations and audience costs suggests that democratic executives tend to increase commitment to a foreign policy in response to negative feedback. However, real-world cases from international politics suggest otherwise. Specifically, executives do not appear to respond uniformly to failing situations. While scholars have begun to unravel the audience cost mechanism, up until know, we know little about reasons for the variation in how executives use policy feedback to update commitment to a foreign policy. In this dissertation, I adopt an integrative approach and present a model of sequential decision-making that explains the conditions under which leaders escalate and de-escalate commitment in response to feedback. I attempt to break down the audience cost mechanism to explain why democratic executives do not respond uniformly to negative feedback. While the literature on the escalation of commitment suggests decision-makers tend to increase investment in the face of negative feedback, my theory suggests that under certain conditions, executives may find it politically advantageous to back down from a failing policy. My theory emphasizes the relationship between citizens, executives, and foreign policy effectiveness. Next, I suggest that the foreign policy tool of military intervention provides a suitable test case for a theory of sequential decision-making. I first test hypotheses derived from the theory regarding the preference formation process of democratic citizens during the course of such an episode. Understanding the response of citizens to feedback is an important first step to understanding the updating decisions of democratic executives. While previous work has relied on aggregate survey data, experimentation provides me with the ability to analyze how an individual citizen?s preference over commitment is impacted by policy feedback. The results of the experimental analyses suggest that citizens act as investors: they favor increasing commitment to military interventions when viewing negative feedback, up to a point. I then test the main hypotheses derived from the theory regarding executive decision-making on a dataset of major power military interventions from 1960-2000. Overall, the results support the hypotheses: public approval conditions the manner in which executives use feedback to update intervention commitments. In the conclusion, I summarize the study by highlighting key results, present the broad implications for the study of democratic foreign policy making, and discuss avenues for future research.

Based upon the view that changes in institutional environment have an effect on transaction attributes, which will make anew the choice of economic organization, the purpose of the thesis is to explain the organization development and structure change of Mainland China's non-state-owned enterprises. It tries to modify O. E. Williamson's theory of governance structure in order to theorize China's economy more suitably. More importantly, the thesis describes a specific dimension of transaction ¡Ðthe need for "political reliance" in the transitional economy, with which we supplement and/or on substitute Williamson's (1999) concept of "probity". We find out that the need for political reliance in stead of probity, is the key to understanding why and which kind of governance mechanism is more "efficient" in managing transaction in Mainland China's non-state-owned section. The theory we establish is applied to explaining the organization development and structure change of Mainland China's non-state-owned interprises, which have experienced different need of political reliance in different stages of China's economic reform. Especially suitable for the theory to explain is about the surge and fall of the unique form of organization, i.e. the so-called "Gua-kau"(±¾¾a) enterprises. The thesis also predicts the tendency of structure change in Mainland China's non-state-owned seitor by using the same theory.

An improved understanding of the costs of diseases is obtained by conducting a case study of the costs associated with end stage renal disease (ESRD). In estimating the costs of ESRD, the costs incurred by both patients and their primary unpaid caregivers are calculated. Most economic studies of the costs of diseases ignore either the patients’ or unpaid caregiver side, focusing on one or the other. From a theoretical standpoint, it is shown unpaid caregiving lowers the costs of diseases to society. Unpaid caregiver lowers the cost, because for unpaid caregiving to occur, the net benefits of unpaid caregiving must be lower than the net benefits of hiring a paid caregiver. Using patients and their primary caregivers at the Gambro Dialysis Center in College Station, Texas as a case study, estimated total ESRD costs range from $84,000 to $121,000 / year / case. The distribution of these costs is positively skewed. Of the total costs, approximately 2% to 25% can be attributed to unpaid caregiving. Excluding direct medical costs in total ESRD costs, unpaid caregiving is 14% to 65% of total ESRD costs. Consideration of unpaid caregiving costs is, therefore, an important component of the costs of diseases. These estimates are conservative as the costs associated with lifestyle changes and health effects are noted, but no monetary value is placed on them. Results also indicate the patients’ and caregivers’ perception of the quantity of caregiving varies. An alternative water supply system to improve the efficiency of water supply systems taking into account water pricing, marketing, and treatment costs is proposed. This system treats and supplies water differently depending on the source of the water and if the end-use of the water is a potable or non-potable use, then may reduce treatment costs. Decreased treatment costs may make more stringent water standards more affordable. More stringent water standards may cause a decrease in the risk of water-related diseases including ESRD induced by water-borne toxins. Reducing the risk of ESRD will reduce society’s costs associated with chronic illnesses. Possible benefits and costs of the proposed system are discussed, but not calculated.

Concerns over the total costs assessed to the beef industry from the implementation of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) regulations warranted an investigation into the estimation and distribution of marketing and marginal costs of production for retail chain stores and distributors, meat packers and processors, cattle feedlots, cattle backgrounding yards and cow-calf producers. Furthermore, it is thought the implementation of COOL will impose severe market and social welfare effects on the participants in the beef industry. This research focused on two main objectives. The first objective is to provide a full beef industry cost assessment for implementing COOL regulations based on the preliminary guidelines for COOL as published by the United States Department of Agriculture in the proposed rule in October of 2003. Financial and production data was collected and used from U.S. retail chain stores and distributors, meat packers and processors, cattle feedlots, and cattle backgrounding yards and stockers. The second objective was to use the weighted average cost estimates calculated from the data to determine the magnitude of increases in the demand for retail beef, wholesale beef, fed cattle, and feeder cattle needed to negate the increase in costs of implementing mandatory COOL regulations. An equilibrium displacement model was used to demonstrate the supply and demand functions and relationships for retail beef, wholesale beef, fed cattle, and feeder cattle. Estimated elasticities for retail beef, wholesale beef, fed cattle and feeder cattle were used to calculate the relative changes in price and quantity in response to the COOL-induced supply and demand shifts. The quantity intercepts from the estimation of the linear parameters can be used to calculate the increases in consumer demand needed to negate the increases in costs estimated from the survey results for the retail, wholesale, fed cattle, and feeder cattle sectors of the beef industry. A significant cost burden to the beef industry was shown by the weighted average estimates calculated from the research. Retail chain stores and distributors, meat packers and processors, cattle feedlots and cattle stockers are expected to see an increase in marketing and marginal costs of production as a result of implementing COOL.

<p>Companies need different information about their operations, so that they can make better decisions and be more effective in the business world. One way to obtain that information is through looking at how costs are assigned to different cost objects, such as products or services. Of special interest is the allocation of indirect costs, because if these costs make up an important part of an organisation, then grasping them will help the firm be more competitive and respond better to customers and their needs.</p><p>One method of allocating indirect costs is called activity based costing, or ABC, and it looks upon what activities that are being performed by a company, how much they cost based on resource usage, what drives the costs, and most importantly, it assigns these ex-penses to products/services.</p><p>The aim of this thesis has been to investigate whether the ABC method can be applied in an event organising company. In order to reach the purpose we have used the example of Elmia AB, an event and trade show organiser situated in Jönköping, Sweden. The focus of our investigation was exhibition stands used in trade shows.</p><p>We have come to the conclusion that activity based costing is applicable when it comes to event organisers in the sense that it is possible to identify major activities and depict re-sources. However, problems emerge when trying to estimate costs of resources because it is hard to know in advance what customers want, and therefore one cannot clearly distin-guish or set fixed and variable costs, nor can one easily cope with problems of unused ca-pacity, that is resources that are supplied but not used. This is especially the case with cus-tomised exhibition stands. The process is somewhat easier when it comes to standardised offerings, because they are less complicated since they are already set and cannot be much altered by the customers. Furthermore, cost drivers can be applied in this setting, at least theoretically because they provide help in determining what processes the customers might find important. On the other hand, they might be rather difficult to measure. Finally, the actual assigning of costs to cost objects is hard, because for the complex solutions, one cannot easily find common activities across different stands, but this can be easier to do when exhibition stand pack-ages are standardised and demand is better traceable.</p><p>We have based our results on one company as a generalisation of event organisers as a whole, and we can argue that the example that we have chosen can be a good representa-tive of this particular branch of the service industry, because it shows how important indi-rect costs are to this dynamic business and also it reveals the importance of customers and their role when applying activity based costing to the environment. However, in order to have a complete conclusion with respect to our aim, more research is needed in other event and trade show organising firms because there are company specific situations in terms of size, structure, culture, etc, of a company that makes ABC a special case that changes ac-cording to different objectives of different users.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-103). Also available on the Internet.