Many firms from emerging markets flocked to developed countries at high cost with hopes of acquiring strategic assets that are difficult to obtain in home countries. Adequate research has focused on the motivations and strategies of emerging country firms' (ECFs') internationalization, while limited studies have explored their survival in advanced economies years after their venturing abroad. Due to the imprinting effect of home country institutions that inhibit their development outside their home market, ECFs are inclined to hire executives with international background and affiliate to world-wide organizations for the purpose of linking up with the global market, embracing multiple perspectives for strategic decisions, and absorbing the knowledge of foreign markets. However, the effects of such orientation on survival are under limited exploration. Motivated by the discussion above, I explore ECFs’ survival and stock performance in a developed country (U.S.). Applying population ecology, signaling theory and institutional theory, the dissertation investigates the characteristics of ECFs that survived in the developed country (U.S.), tests the impacts of global orientation on their survival, and examines how global-oriented activities (i.e. joining United Nations Global Compact) affect their stock performance. The dissertation is structured in the form of three empirical essays. The first essay explores and compares different characteristics of ECFs and developed country firms (DCFs) that managed to survive in the U.S. The second essay proposes the concept of global orientation, and tests its influences on ECFs’ survival. Employing signaling theory and institutional theory, the third essay investigates stock market reactions to announcements of United Nation Global Compact (UNGC) participation. The dissertation serves to explore the survival of ECFs in the developed country (U.S.) by comparison with DCFs, enriching traditional theories by testing non-traditional arguments in the context of ECFs’ foreign operation, and better informing practitioners operating ECFs about ways of surviving in developed countries and improving stockholders’ confidence in their future growth.

Du GATT de 1947 à l’OMC, l’encadrement juridique de l’agriculture demeure un processus difficile et laborieux tant dans ses aspects processuels, normatifs qu’institutionnels. Le cadre décisionnel de l’OMC marqué du sceau du « consensus », peine à instituer un cadre normatif satisfaisant. De plus, la conclusion d’un Accord global sur les politiques agricoles est retardée par des stratégies de blocage ou des coalitions de circonstance lors des négociations multilatérales successives. La question agricole se retrouve donc coincée entre des enjeux nationaux et des logiques d’économie politique que ni le droit positif de l’OMC, ni les processus décisionnels en vigueur à l’Organisation Mondiale du Commerce ne parviennent à résorber. Par ailleurs, le processus de démantèlement des barrières tarifaires a laissé place à des politiques nationales de subventionnement massif que les accords sur l’agriculture et celui sur les subventions et mesures compensatoires tentent en vain d’endiguer. Cette thèse jette donc un regard critique sur ce phénomène à travers une réflexion approfondie du statut juridique de l’agriculture en général et du traitement particulier des subventions agricoles. De cette analyse, il ressort que l’impasse de Doha relève d’une triple carence du système de régulation des subventions agricoles. D’abord, une carence du cadre normatif découlant du « péché originel » de l’exception agricole largement décrite dans la première partie de la thèse. Ensuite, et telles que décrites dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, une carence institutionnelle relevant de l’inadaptation de l’architecture de l’OMC, principalement le processus décisionnel face au phénomène du subventionnement agricole et une carence structurelle liée au déroulement des négociations multilatérales. La thèse démontre donc que cette triple carence explique pourquoi il demeure difficile au processus de Doha de déboucher sur des engagements contraignants en terme d’élimination des subventions agricoles et en terme de politiques de développement favorables aux PED et PMA. La thèse démontre aussi que l’impuissance du « système OMC » face aux divergences agricoles animées notamment par les États-Unis, l’UE, le groupe de Cairns et le groupe africain sur le coton découle de cette triple carence. Prospectivement, il s’est donc avéré nécessaire de formuler des alternatives nouvelles reposant sur l’introduction des logiques d’efficacité lors de l’élaboration et de l’application des mesures anti-subvention ainsi que dans les techniques de négociations commerciales multilatérales. / From GATT 1947 to WTO, the legal framework of agriculture remains a difficult and laborious process in its procedural aspects as well as in its normative and institutional ones. The decision framework of the WTO is marked by the seal of "consensus" and hardly allows to establish a satisfactory regulatory framework. A comprehensive agreement on agricultural policy has been postponed by blocking strategies or ad hoc coalitions at the critical times of the successive multilateral negotiations. Therefore, the agricultural question is being smothered by national issues and the logic of political economy which neither positive law of the WTO, nor the decision-making processes in force at the World Trade Organization have been able to resorb. The process of dismantling trade barriers has given way to national policies of massive subsidizing that the agreements on Agriculture and on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures have tried to stem in vain. This thesis reviews this phenomenon with a critical eye through an extensive consideration of the legal status of agriculture in general and the special treatment of agricultural subsidies. This analysis shows that the dead-end situation in the Doha negotiations result from a triple deficiency of the regulatory system on agricultural subsidies: (1) a deficiency of the regulatory framework resulting from the "original sin" of the agricultural exception, (2) an institutional deficiency coming from the inadequacy of the architecture of the WTO, mainly the decision-making process in relation to the phenomenon of agricultural subsidies and (3) a structural deficiency related to the conduct of the multilateral negotiations. This thesis demonstrates that these three deficiencies explain why it remains difficult for the process of Doha to bring binding commitments on the elimination of agricultural subsidies and development policies which would favour of developing countries and LDCs. The thesis also reveals that the inability of the "WTO system" to cope with diverging views over agriculture mainly livened up by the United States, the EU, the Cairns Group and the African Group on cotton results from those three deficiencies. A prospective analysis leads to the formulation of new alternative solutions based on the introduction of logics of efficiency in the elaboration and application of anti subsidy measures altogether with multilateral trade negotiation techniques.

Orientador: Leandro Gobbo Braz / Resumo: Braghiroli KS. Mortalidade perioperatória e por fator anestésico em pacientes geriátricos: revisão sistemática com metanálise e análise de metarregressão [tese]. Botucatu. Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Estadual Paulista; 2020. Introdução: o número de procedimentos anestésico-cirúrgicos está aumentando nos pacientes geriátricos, pois este grupo etário está em aumento progressivo dentro da população mundial. A presente revisão comparou as incidências de mortalidade perioperatória e mortalidade por fator anestésico em pacientes geriátricos de acordo com o IDH (Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano) dos países e com o tempo. Métodos: realizou-se uma revisão sistemática de estudos observacionais da literatura mundial sobre as incidências de mortalidade perioperatória e mortalidade por fator anestésico em pacientes geriátricos. Para a estratégia de busca, foram utilizadas as seguintes bases de dados até 30 de setembro de 2019: Medline, Embase, LILACS e SciELO. Foi utilizado o teste estatístico de Freeman-Turkey e um modelo de efeito randômico para comparar com a metanálise proporcional a incidência de mortalidade perioperatória e mortalidade por fator anestésico, de acordo com o IDH dos países (alto e baixo-IDH) e o período de tempo (pré-1990 e versus 1990-2019). Utilizou-se um modelo de efeito fixo para a análise de metarregressão, analisando-se a incidência de mortalidade perioperatória e mortalidade por fator anestésico ao longo do tempo e do IDH dos países. Resultados: foram i... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Braghiroli KS. Anesthesia-related and perioperative mortality in geriatric patients according country Human Development Index status: a systematic review with meta-regression and meta-analysis [Ph.D. thesis]. Botucatu: Medical School, São Paulo State University; 2020. Background: There is an increase in anesthetic procedures performed in geriatric patients, since the worldwide population is ageing. This is the first review of the literature related to global perioperative and anesthesia-related mortality rates in older patients according to country Human Developed Index (HDI) status and time. Methods: A systematic review was performed to identify worldwide observational studies in which older patients were submitted to anesthesia with perioperative and/or anesthesia-related mortality rates. Databases searches of Medline, Embase, LILACS and SciELO from inception to September 30th, 2019. We applied Freeman-Turkey transformation and a random-effects model to perform proportion meta-analysis to compare perioperative and anesthesia-related mortality in low- and high-HDI and in two time periods (pre-1990 versus 1990-2019). Perioperative and anesthesia-related mortality rates were analyzed by time and country HDI status using a fixed-effects model to perform meta-regression. Results: Twenty-five studies from 12 countries fulfilled the inclusion criteria with more than 4 million anesthetic procedures administered to older patients undergoing anesthesia. In high-HDI countries, the rat... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

The purpose of this research is to assess the impact of Chinese acquisitions on Italian target firm performance, and explore which characteristics of the acquirer can determine a change of it. First, a Paired-Samples T-test has been applied to appreciate the difference between pre-and post-acquisition performance on 27 sample companies. Secondly, through an OLS regression, the impact of the Chinese acquirers’ characteristics on the performance of Italian target companies has been estimated for the year 2018. In addition, two interviews with managers from one sample company were carried out to complement the quantitative findings with qualitative insight. The results show that the performance of Italian target companies did not change significantly after the acquisition-at least not in the time span of 3 years used for the analysis- in terms of: profitability, solvency and growth. However, job creation slightly increased following the takeover. Furthermore, our findings indicate that, among the Influential factors examined, Chinese acquirers’ prior M&Aexperience in developed countries and the level of relatedness have a significant and positive impact on the performance of Italian target sampled companies. Whereas, being acquired by a Chinese SOE or POE seems to not affect the performance. Lastly, another influential factor raised by our respondents resulted to be the integration strategy implemented by the Chinese acquirer.Indeed, choosing the appropriate integration strategy for the two entities can be crucial for the acquisition success, and ultimately, for the future performance of the target.

Syfte: ESG-betyg utgör det huvudsakliga underlaget för beslut om hållbara investeringar. För en effektiv kapitalallokering krävs därför att betygen återspeglar företags faktiska hållbarhetsprestationer. Betygen har dock visats vara missvisande då den bakomliggande hållbarhetsrapporteringen påverkas av ett antal olika faktorer, däribland företags institutionella miljö, vilket kan hänföras till en strävan efter att uppfattas som legitima av samhälle och intressenter. Denna studie avser att kartlägga samband mellan institutionell miljö och den miljömässiga dimensionen (E) av ESG-betyg. För att testa sambandet prövas huruvida detta har en praktisk motsvarighet i form av mängden växthusgasutsläpp.    Metod: Studien har en positivistisk vetenskapsteoretisk utgångspunkt med en deduktiv ansats och är av kvantitativ natur. Genom en longitudinell design har data från 1969 företag under fem år analyserats. Studiens empiriska data är inhämtad från databasen Refinitiv Eikon och har analyserats i statistikprogrammet IBM SPSS, främst genom linjära regressioner.   Resultat & slutsats: Positiva samband mellan ekonomisk utvecklingsgrad i företags verksamhetsland och E-betyg samt benägenhet att tillhandahålla ESG-data har konstaterats. Möjliga förklaringar återfinns i legitimitets-, intressent samt den institutionella teorin och kopplas främst till institutionella skillnader mellan länder. Vidare återfanns att större benägenhet att tillhandahålla ESG-data påverkar datatillgänglighet positivt samt att datatillgänglighet har ett positivt samband med E-betyg. Ett negativt samband mellan industriländer och växthusgasutsläpp kunde dock återfinnas vilket innebär att resultatet inte ger något belägg för att de högre E-betyg som återfinnas bland företagen i industriländerna, inte motsvaras av en högre nivå på hållbarhet i praktiken.   Examensarbetets bidrag: Studien bidrar till den undersökning av ESG-betygens funktion som i tidigare forskning omnämnts som bristfällig. Även om studien inte kan bekräfta att institutionell miljö har en avgörande påverkan på betyget tydliggörs andra brister i betyget. Exempelvis betydelsen av mängden publicerad ESG-data. Detta innebär problem eftersom benägenheten att tillhandahålla ESG-data är mindre i utvecklingsländerna.      Förslag till fortsatt forskning: För att öka generaliserbarheten föreslås en utvidgad undersökning som omfattar fler värderingsinstitut och ESG-betygets alla dimensioner. Vidare undersökningar av den institutionella miljöns påverkan, utifrån andra aspekter än ekonomisk utveckling, samt forskning för att förbättra värderingsinstitutens metoder för datainsamling behövs. / Aim: ESG scores are the main basis for responsible investments decisions. An efficient capital allocation therefore requires the ratings to reflect companies’ actual sustainability performance. However, the scores have been found to be misleading as the underlying sustainability disclosures are affected by various different factors, including companies’ institutional environment, which can be attributed to an effort to be perceived as legitimate by society and stakeholders. This study is intending to identify relationships between the institutional environment and the environmental dimension (E) of the ESG score. To test the relationship, it is examined whether this has a practical equivalent in terms of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.   Method: The study is based on positivistic theory of science with a deductive approach and quantitative nature. Through a longitudinal design, data from 1969 companies over five years have been analysed. The empirical data of the study are obtained from the database Refinitiv Eikon and have been analysed in the statistical program IBM SPSS, mainly through linear regressions.   Result & Conclusions: Positive relationships between the degree of economic development in a company’s country of operation and E-scores and propensity to provide ESG data has been established. Possible explanations are found the legitimacy, stakeholder and institutional theory, and are mainly related to institutional differences between countries. Furthermore, higher propensity to provide ESG data has a positive effect on data availability and data availability has a positive relationship with E-score. However, a negative relationship between developed countries and greenhouse gas emissions was found, meaning that the result does not provide evidence that the higher E-score found among companies in developed countries, is not equivalent to a higher level of sustainability in practice.   Contribution of the thesis: The study contributes to the examination of the function of the ESG ratings which in previous research has been considered deficient. Although the study cannot confirm that the institutional environment has a crucial effect on the score other deficiencies in the ratings has been apparent. For example, the importance of the amount of published ESG data. This poses a problem because the propensity to provide ESG data is lower in developing countries.   Suggestions for future research: To increase generalizability, an extended study including more rating agencies and all ESG dimensions is proposed. Further examination of the institutional environments effect, based on other aspects than economic development, and research to improve the rating agencies’ methods for data collection are needed.

Magister Legum - LLM / It has been held that agricultural domestic support would not be such a contentious issue if its only effect was the benefit of local farmers, but this is not the case.1 It was found that several forms of domestic support have the effect of distorting the patterns of agricultural production and trade at an international level, leaving non-supported farmers elsewhere worse off.2 It was thus concluded that such support measures may indeed nullify the benefits which accrue from trade liberalisation and explains how the AoA3 regulates these measures in a way that reduces their trade distorting effects.4 It has been noted that the agricultural sector only accounted for a small percentage of the developed world's Gross Domestic Product {GDP}, yet the regulation of international agricultural trade was not an easy task.5 Smith explains that numerous attempts were made to implement some form of regulation, including a half-hearted effort in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the subsequent AoA upon the creation of the WTO in 1995.6 According to Smith, the successful regulation of international agricultural trade remained elusive, despite Desta MG and McMahon JA explain that the WTO is not very concerned with countries that provide domestic support to their agricultural sectors, as this only matters to the extent that it hopes for liberalising trade in the sector.7 affects trade in that sector.8 It is further observed that the AoA balances out the freedom to provide domestic support with the need to reduce or eliminate the trade distortive effects thereof and note that the AoA has essentially made all forms of domestic support more transparent and easier to deal with.9 A party is therefore unlikely to be challenged, successfully, if domestic support is given in accordance with the provisions of the AoA.10 The aforementioned views only seem to address the merits of the AoA and the way in which it regulates the use of agricultural subsidies. It should however be noted that the literature fails to address the fact that the WTO has not enforced the provisions of the AoA very effectively against the EU and the USA, in light of the continued misuse of subsidies within both parties. In this regard it must be ascertained whether the WTO should impose stricter penalties as a means to deter its member states, especially the EU and USA, from using subsidies in an abusive way. In addition to this, it must be determined which types of penalties can and should be imposed.

Magister Commercii - MCom / Diversification is one of the more familiar concepts in finance because of its ability to curtail risk towards investors. However, for diversification to be efficient, the assets combined should have inversely related price movements. In the same light, previous research done on international portfolio diversification has consistently found that having investments diversified across different global markets that have low to medium correlations helps to get as close to an optimal portfolio as possible. However, previous research also indicates that both global financial integration and exogenous shocks increase correlations among international markets, hence negating the benefits of international portfolio diversification to an extent. Therefore, with global integration on the rise, coupled with economic and political instability in some BRICS nations, the research examines these factors and gauges the current viability of international portfolio diversification from the perspective of a South African investor.

The rise of market globalization creates challenges for business executives seeking to pursue foreign direct investment (FDI) in least developed countries (LDC), such as Afghanistan. Multinational corporate (MNC) executives need strategies that will improve the timely delivery of minerals for mining projects in LDCs. Guided by the force field analysis theory, the purpose of this holistic, single-case study was to explore the strategy that 5 MNC executives in Beijing, China, used to improve the timely delivery of minerals associated with the Aynak copper mine project in Afghanistan. Semistructured interviews were used to elicit detailed narratives from MNC executives about their experiences to develop strategies for mining projects in LDCs. A review of company documents, as well as member-checking of initial interview transcripts, helped to bolster the trustworthiness of final interpretations. Study results included 2 themes. Theme 1 was determinants of mine investment strategies in LDCs that included an exploration of driving forces, restraining forces, neutral forces, and the effect of those forces. Theme 2 was FDI strategies for copper mine projects in LDCs that included the comparison of cost leadership strategy, differentiation strategy, and combination of cost leadership and differentiation strategies. By implementing a cost leadership strategy and best practices, MNC executives were able to achieve greater success to improve timely delivery of minerals associated with FDI copper mine projects in LDCs. Social implications include ongoing efforts of Afghan government leaders to implement effective economic policies that decrease unemployment while reducing poverty.

The national laboratories (NLs) play a critical role in the economic and social development of technological latecomer countries, yet no academic study has ever quantified how knowledge inflows and internal knowledge impact the performance of the NLs. This dissertation identifies and ranks the importance of factors pertaining to knowledge inflows and project-internal knowledge, which determine the success or failure of research projects in the NLs of Thailand. A survey of 123 project managers in the NLs, which covers 208 R&D projects, has been conducted. It consists of a questionnaire and unstructured interviews in which the project managers discuss their project(s). Data from the questionnaire are analyzed by factor analysis, multiple regression and logistic regression; qualitative data from the interviews are used to interpret the quantitative results from the questionnaire. The research finds that, regardless of a project's mission, knowledge inflows from outside the project group impact performance more significantly than knowledge from inside the project group does. Second, the capacity of R&D project groups within the NLs to absorb knowledge from external sources is very selective. Absorptive capacity does not just pertain to prior related knowledge; it is also a function of the source of external knowledge, the knowledge pathway into the project group, the source of complementary or substitutive knowledge that resides within the project group, and the mission to which the knowledge contributes. Third, the NLs face an ambidexterity challenge that is commonly observed in private industry--exploiting current capabilities interferes with the national laboratories' capability to explore. The discovery of selective absorption of knowledge provides practicing managers with a toolkit of micro-levers with which they can enhance performance as measured by a variety of metrics in highly specific ways. The dissertation also proposes and validates a theoretical framework for knowledge management that decomposes the national laboratory system into nine knowledge subsystems, which can be managed at a relatively low level of the organization. The methods by which this research has been conducted can be used as a tool to benchmark how knowledge management practices in different R&D organizations and environments impact performance. Guidelines for structural adjustments to the national innovation system, which are based on these contributions, should enable policymakers in most countries to implement an Open Innovation program for their national laboratories and enhance the ambidexterity of their organizations.

Access to modern energy services derived from renewable sources is a prerequisite, not only for economic growth, rural development and sustainable development, but also for energy security and climate change mitigation. The least developed countries (LDCs) primarily use traditional biomass and have little access to commercial energy sources. They are more vulnerable to problems relating to energy security, air pollution, and the need for hard-cash currency to import fossil fuels. This thesis evaluates sugarcane-molasses bioethanol, a renewable energy source with the potential to be used as a transport fuel in Nepal. Sustainability aspects of molasses-based ethanol have been analyzed. Two important indicators for sustainability, viz. net energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) balances have been used to assess the appropriateness of bioethanol in the life cycle assessment (LCA) framework. This thesis has found that the production of bioethanol is energy-efficient in terms of the fossil fuel inputs required to produce it. Life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from production and combustion are also lower than those of gasoline. The impacts of important physical and market parameters, such as sugar cane productivity, the use of fertilizers, energy consumption in different processes, and price have been observed in evaluating the sustainability aspects of bioethanol production. The production potential of bioethanol has been assessed. Concerns relating to the fuel vs. food debate, energy security, and air pollution have also been discussed. The thesis concludes that the major sustainability indicators for molasses ethanol in Nepal are in line with the goals of sustainable development. Thus, Nepal could be a good example for other LDCs when favorable governmental policy, institutional set-ups, and developmental cooperation from donor partners are in place to strengthen the development of renewable energy technologies. / QC 20101029