This dissertation investigates emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs)’s acquisitions of firms in developed economies (DE) through three distinctive but interrelated essays. Despite costs EMNEs must offset from the obvious cultural distance (CD) they encounter with limited exploitable advantages, EMNEs have continued to aggressively acquire firms in DE, suggesting there are ways for the EMNEs to effectively overcome CD. In Essay 1, using insights from the symbolic interaction paradigm in sociology, I developed the Dynamic Socio-Cultural Model (DSCM), to uncover the general process of cultural creation and change. At the core of the DSCM is the process of collective learning and adaptive interaction in every social system. Viewing EMNEs’ acquisitions in DE as a cultural event that leads to new shared cultural resources, DSCM shows culture is not as rigid as was typically conceptualized in the cross-cultural management literature. While the negative effect of CD may initially impede EMNEs, CD may be positively moderated by certain conditions of the involved cultures. In Essay 2, I extended DSCM and combined it with insights from the organizational learning literature to focus on EMNE’s choices of control mode and their performance implications. Performing event study and endogenous switching regression on 1157 EMNE’s acquisitions in 21 advanced economies, I found EMNEs have, on average, a positive post-acquisition performance. I also found being an EMNE from an emerging economy that underwent rapid industrialization and targeting a high-tech firm increases the probability for choosing a low-control mode. Moreover, EMNE acquirers choose control mode by strategically considering their unique characteristics to optimize performance. In Essay 3, using the same theoretical approach, I examined the target firms’ sources of value creation. Applying an event study on 167 acquisitions in North America made by EMNEs from 11 countries, I found EMNEs’ partial acquisitions in DE generate, on average, a positive target’s cumulative abnormal returns (CAR). There is also empirical support for several determinants of target’s value creation and moderation effects. In particular, I found target’s international experience attenuates the negative effect of CD on target CAR, while acquirer’s state-owned status exacerbates it. Overall, the three essays collectively contribute to research streams in EMNEs, seller’s view of M&A, and cultural change.

iv ABSTRACT ADAPTIVE CONTROL OF GUIDED MISSILES Tiryaki Kutluay, Kadriye Ph.D., Department of Aerospace Engineering Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Ilkay Yavrucuk February 2011, 147 Pages This thesis presents applications and an analysis of various adaptive control augmentation schemes to various baseline flight control systems of an air to ground guided missile. The missile model used in this research has aerodynamic control surfaces on its tail section. The missile is desired to make skid to turn maneuvers by following acceleration commands in the pitch and yaw axis, and by keeping zero roll attitude. First, a linear quadratic regulator baseline autopilot is designed for the control of the missile acceleration in pitch axis at a single point in the flight envelope. This baseline autopilot is then augmented with a Direct Model Reference Adaptive Control (DMRAC) scheme using Neural Networks for parameter estimation, and an L1 Adaptive Control scheme. Using the linearized longitudinal model of the missile at the design point, simulations are performed to analyze and demonstrate the performance of the two adaptive augmentation schemes. By injecting uncertainties to the plant model, the effects of adaptive augmentations on the linear baseline autopilot are examined. v Secondly, a high fidelity simulation software of the missile is used in order to analyze the performance of the adaptive augmentations in 6 DoF nonlinear flight simulations. For the control of the missile in three axis, baseline autopilots are designed using dynamic inversion at a single point in the flight envelope. A linearizing transformation is employed during the inversion process. These coarsely designed baseline autopilots are augmented with L1 adaptive control elements. The performance of the adaptive control augmentation system is tested in the presence of perturbations in the aerodynamic model and increase in input gain, and the simulation results are presented.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka vilka stressfaktorer som upplevs av handläggare på Försäkringskassan samt vilka resurser de skulle önska för att minska den upplevda stressnivån. De formulerade frågeställningarna lyder; Vad upplevs stressande på arbetsplatsen hos handläggarna, Vilka faktorer påverkar handläggarnas upplevelser samt Vilka resurser skulle de önska för att kunna minska stressen? Studiens empiri bygger på en kvalitativ studie med semistrukturerade intervjuer av sex stycken respondenter. Den teoretiska referensramen består av Krav- & Kontrollmodellen samt Känsla av Sammanhang. Studien utgår från tidigare forskning i området: Försäkringskassan, stress och arbetsplatslärande.Resultatet visar att de faktorer som handläggarna upplever stressande dels är att bli avbrutna i sitt arbete och därmed behöva omstrukturera sina arbetsuppgifter. En annan faktor är att de upplever ett bristande stöd från arbetsgivarnas håll och från medarbetare med specialistkompetens. Därtill upplevs en avsaknad av resurser i form av mer personal och mer tid i förhållande till mängden arbetsuppgifter, vilket skapar en känsla av otillräcklighet. Resultatet visar även att handläggarna önskar kompetensutveckling i och med att omorganisationen har bidragit till ökade krav.Vidare kan konstateras att de önskade resurserna hos handläggarna på Försäkringskassan är ett mer tillgängligt stöd och utökad kompetens, vilket i sin tur skulle kunna leda till en ökad känsla av kontroll. Vad som också har lyfts fram som ett behov är tydligare direktiv från cheferna i hur handläggarna ska prioritera, strukturera samt planera sitt arbete. / The purpose of the study is to investigate the stress factors experienced by administrators at an Swedish insurance agency, and what resources they would need to reduce the perceived level of stress. The formulated questions reads; What is perceived stressful at the workplace among employees, What factors influence employees experiences and What resources would they need in order to reduce their stress? The empirical data is based on a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with six people at the Social Insurance Agency in the Stockholm area. The theoretical framework consists of Demand- & control model and Sense of Coherence. The study is based on previous research in the field of Social Insurance, stress and workplace learning. We intend to examine what employees perceive stressful at work and the resources they see necessary to reduce the perceived stress and thus cope with their daily work better. The result shows that the factors the employees experiencing stressful is to be interrupted during their work and therefore have to restructure their tasks. Another factor is that they experience a lack of support in form of social support from the employer and from colleagues with specialist skills. In addition, in terms of resources such as more staff and more time, creating a sense of inadequacy. What the result shows is that the employees want more time to develop their skills, since the reorganization has contributed to increase the demands. Furthermore, it can be stated that the employees wished to have a more accessible support and enhanced skills from their employer, which could lead to an increased sense of control. What also have been requested is clearer directives from the employer in how to prioritize, organize and plan their work.

Constraint handling is difficult in model predictive control (MPC) of linear differential inclusions (LDIs) and linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. The designer is faced with a choice of using conservative bounds that may give poor performance, or accurate ones that require heavy online computation. This thesis presents a framework to achieve a more flexible trade-off between these two extremes by using a state tube, a sequence of parametrised polyhedra that is guaranteed to contain the future state. To define controllers using a tube, one must ensure that the polyhedra are a sub-set of the region defined by constraints. Necessary and sufficient conditions for these subset relations follow from duality theory, and it is possible to apply these conditions to constrain predicted system states and inputs with only a little conservatism. This leads to a general method of MPC design for uncertain-parameter systems. The resulting controllers have strong theoretical properties, can be implemented using standard algorithms and outperform existing techniques. Crucially, the online optimisation used in the controller is a convex problem with a number of constraints and variables that increases only linearly with the length of the prediction horizon. This holds true for both LDI and LPV systems. For the latter it is possible to optimise over a class of gain-scheduled control policies to improve performance, with a similar linear increase in problem size. The framework extends to stochastic LDIs with chance constraints, for which there are efficient suboptimal methods using online sampling. Sample approximations of chance constraint-admissible sets are generally not positively invariant, which motivates the novel concept of ‘sample-admissible' sets with this property to ensure recursive feasibility when using sampling methods. The thesis concludes by introducing a simple, convex alternative to chance-constrained MPC that applies a robust bound to the time average of constraint violations in closed-loop.

Submitted by Caroline Falcao (caroline.rfalcao@ufpe.br) on 2017-06-05T16:18:45Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Tamires Taís.pdf: 9141530 bytes, checksum: dab991dd87283a9e223705028b80d093 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-05T16:18:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Tamires Taís.pdf: 9141530 bytes, checksum: dab991dd87283a9e223705028b80d093 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-04-04 / Esta dissertação apresenta um panorama do sistema de saúde brasileiro, com ênfase no caso do Estado de Pernambuco. A gestão de sistemas de saúde se manifesta sob a forma geral de longas filas de espera, que são analisados neste contexto, incluindo algumas abordagens que têm sido propostas e implementadas em Pernambuco, a fim de resolver o problema. Um modelo de crescimento econômico ótimo destacando o setor de saúde, e, em seguida, operando em conjunto, os setores de saúde e educação é proposto. Os resultados do princípio do máximo de Pontryagin aplicado a este modelo mostram os benefícios mútuos para ambos os setores e os seus efeitos no bem-estar da sociedade. Um estudo de caso de filas de espera no Hospital da Restauração, em Recife, Pernambuco, é apresentado. / An overview of the Brazilian health care system is presented, with an emphasis in the Pernambuco state case. One central issue concerning health systems management manifests itself under the general form of long waiting lines, which are then here analyzed in this context, including some approaches that have been proposed and implemented in Pernambuco in order to tackle the problem. An optimal economic growth model highlighting the health sector, and then, operating jointly, the health and education sectors, is proposed. The results of the Pontryagin Maximum Principle applied to this model show the mutual benefits for both sectors and their effects in the community welfare. A case study of queueing systems in Hospital da Restaura¸c˜ao (an emergency hospital) in Recife, Pernambuco, is presented.

Introdução - O ambiente psicossocial do trabalho em enfermagem influencia diretamente a qualidade de vida dos trabalhadores desta área. Diferenças entre as categorias profissionais nesta profissão podem se traduzir em diferenças na percepção de saúde e de condições de trabalho. Objetivo - Avaliar as associações entre condições de trabalho e qualidade de vida relacionada à saúde (QVRS) de enfermeiros, técnicos e auxiliares de enfermagem. Métodos Foram coletados dados em um hospital universitário no município de São Paulo, de uma população de 696 enfermeiros, técnicos e auxiliares de enfermagem, população predominantemente feminina (87,8%) e que trabalhava em turnos diurno e noturno. Os dados coletados a partir de questionário correspondiam a informações sobre aspectos sóciodemográficos, condições de trabalho e de vida, hábitos de vida e sintomas de saúde referidos desta população. Foram também utilizados os questionários: Questionário Genérico de Avaliação de Qualidade de Vida (SF-36), Escala de Estresse no Trabalho e Desequilíbrio Esforço-Recompensa (ERI). Foram ajustados modelos de regressão logística ordinal de chances proporcionais para cada dimensão do SF-36. Resultados Aproximadamente 22% da população foi classificada como trabalhando em condições de alto desgaste e 8% em desequilíbrio desfavorável entre esforços e recompensa no trabalho. Vitalidade, dor e saúde mental foram as dimensões do SF-36 com pior avaliação. Os modelos de regressão múltipla 5 demonstraram: alto comprometimento associado a todas as dimensões do SF-36, e ERI desfavorável associado a todas as dimensões relacionadas à saúde mental. Alto desgaste no trabalho, ERI desfavorável, alto comprometimento e ser enfermeira associaram-se de maneira independente aos resultados desfavoráveis da dimensão de aspectos emocionais. Conclusões As dimensões relacionadas à saúde mental foram as que mais sofreram influência dos fatores psicossociais do trabalho. ERI desfavorável e alto comprometimento mostraram-se mais significativos à saúde desta população comparados com altas demandas e baixo controle. Os resultados indicam que a análise conjunta dos modelos de desequilíbrio esforço-recompensa e demandacontrole contribui para a discussão sobre os papéis profissionais, condições de trabalho e QVRS de profissionais de enfermagem. / Introduction- The psychosocial work environment influences the quality of life of nursing professionals. Differences among job titles may lead to distinct perceptions of working conditions and health status. Aim-To evaluate working and living conditions and quality of life associated with health (HRQL) among nursing professionals. Methods- Six hundred ninety six nursing professionals, registered nurses and nurse assistants, predominantly females (87.8%), working day or night shifts, participated in a study carried out in an university hospital of São Paulo, Brazil. Data collection took place during 2004-2005 and included a comprehensive questionnaire including sociodemographic characteristics, life styles, working and living conditions, and health outcomes. HRQL was evaluated using the short form questionnaire of quality of life (SF-36). Working conditions included the job stress scale, effort-reward imbalance (ERI), and other environmental and occupational stressors. Ordinal logistic regression of proportional ratios was used to evaluate each of SF-36 dimensions. Results- Imbalance of the effort-reward ratio and high work strain were mentioned by 7.8% and 22.1% of the participants, respectively. Vitality, pain and (poor) mental health were the SF-36 worse perceived outcomes. The multiple regression models showed: over commitment associated with all SF-36 dimensions, and unfavorable ERI associated with mental health dimensions. High 7 job strain, unfavorable ERI, over commitment, and being a registered nurse were independently associated with negative emotional outcomes. Conclusions- The dimensions associated with mental health were significantly influenced by psychosocial factors at work. Unfavorable ERI and over commitment were more significantly associated with health compared to high demands and low control. These results show the importance to jointly evaluate ERI and demand- control models to discuss professional roles, working conditions and HRQL of nursing professionals.

The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying mechanisms behind mental illness of women. A limitation was made to young women with an academic education who early in their careers became sick because of mental illness. The theoretical framework for the study consisted of Karasek and Theorell’s demand, control and support model. In addition, Bauman's theory about identity was used as a supplement of the category of identity included in Karasek and Theorell’s model.In order to answer the research question, a qualitative approach was chosen consisting of five interviews with young women who have been on sick leave. The results show that the respondents had high demands and low control at their workplaces before they became sick. In addition, the respondents had good social support from colleagues and outside the workplace. The social support from managers varied and common for all respondents is that they did not use their complete social support weeks before they got sick. Regarding identity, the respondents have shown that they have a performance-based self-esteem. In the discussion, the results show that identity can affect women’s ability to use social support, which can contribute to mental illness. / Syftet med studien var att undersöka bakomliggande mekanismer som påverkar psykisk ohälsa hos unga kvinnor. En avgränsning gjordes till unga kvinnor med akademisk utbildning och som tidigt i karriären blivit sjukskrivna på grund av psykisk ohälsa. Den teoretiska referensramen för studien har bestått av Karseks och Theorells krav- kontroll- och stödmodell. Utöver detta har Baumans teori om identitetsskapande används som en komplettering till kategorin identitet.För att kunna besvara studiens problemformulering har en kvalitativ metod valts, bestående av fem intervjuer med unga kvinnor som har varit sjukskrivna. Resultatet visade att respondenterna har haft höga krav och låg kontroll i arbetet innan de blev sjukskrivna. De har även haft ett gott socialt stöd från kollegor samt från kontakter utanför arbetsplatsen. Det sociala stödet från chefer har varierat och gemensamt för samtliga respondenter är att de inte har använt sig av sitt fulla sociala stöd, innan de blev sjukskrivna. Kopplat till identitet har respondenterna haft en prestationsbaserad självkänsla. I diskussionen redovisas att identiteten kan göra att man inte använder sitt sociala stöd vilket kan bidra till psykisk ohälsa.

Cloud computing is becoming increasingly popular among all types of companies due to its inherent benefits. However, because of its infrastructure, it might be difficult to manage access rights between users and resources. To address these difficulties, Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides Identity and Access Management (IAM) and features that support the use of different access control models, for example, Role-based Access Control (RBAC) and Attribute-based Access Control (ABAC). Access control models are used for authorisation within systems to decide who gets access to what. Therefore, to determine what constitutes an efficient (the average time it takes to perform a task in AWS IAM) and secure access control model, a thorough study of background material and related work was conducted. Through this study, it was found that RBAC lacked scalability whilst ABAC lacked administrative capabilities. It was also found that flexibility and scalability were two important factors when designing access control models. Furthermore, by conducting a survey and designing an access control model for AWS through various iterations, a new access control model called Entity-centric Attribute- & Role-based Access Control (EARBAC) was developed. In an experiment comparing it with the RBAC model, the EARBAC model was found to be both efficient and secure, in addition to its flexibility and scalability. Furthermore, EARBAC was also found to be 27% faster than RBAC in AWS IAM. These results suggest that the model is useful when developing cloud infrastructures in AWS.

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This report delves into the early developmental phase of an autonomous vehicle designed for defense applications. Navigating diverse terrains, this unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) poses unique challenges, particularly in the absence of clearly defined directives found in typical traffic scenarios. The analysis employs the Systems-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) to identify and anticipate risks inherent in the conceptual stage of product development. Beyond the specific UGV case, the report explores the broader landscape of validating autonomous systems. It discusses prevalent methods, emphasizing adaptability to different contexts and stages of development. By shedding light on the risks and challenges of autonomy in vehicles and examining effective validation strategies, this report aims to contribute valuable insights to the ongoing discourse surrounding autonomous vehicle development.