Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2006. / Title from PDF title page screen. Advisor: Barbara Dyer ; submitted to the School of Human Environmental Sciences. Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-180).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Leisa Flynn, Florida State University, College of Business, Dept. of Marketing. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 19, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xiii, 129 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christopher Livingston. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-142).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (May 2, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Cette thèse propose de formuler le taux d’escompte comme fonction du revenu individuel et classifie cette spécification comme les externalités de revenu dans le taux d’escompte. La justification de cette relation est trouvée dans la théorie de la hiérarchie des besoins humains par Abraham Maslow (Maslow (1943)) : plus le revenu d’un individu, interprété comme le pouvoir économique à consommer, est élevé, plus l’individu a tendance à penser à des besoins supérieurs, associés à une plus grande patience. Ensuite, la présente étude s’intéresse aux implications des externalités pour deux phénomènes macro-économiques : les fluctuations endogènes, et la convergence/polarisation des revenus par tête entre les pays. Les résultats obtenus indiquent que les externalités de revenu dans le taux d'escompte constituent un mécanisme qui génère des fluctuations endogènes dans une économie fermée. L’extension de ce modèle à une configuration 2x2x2 dynamique permet de conclure qu’en fonction des technologies et des préférences des consommateurs, l'intégration commerciale d'une économie volatile avec une économie stable peut avoir un effet stabilisant ou, au contraire, peut engendrer des fluctuations macro-économiques dans toute la région. Enfin, cette thèse démontre que la libéralisation des échanges commerciaux peut avoir, comme effet de long terme, soit la convergence soit la divergence des revenus par habitant. Pour un certain nombre de paramètres, les externalités génèrent la divergence. Ce résultat est compatible avec les observations empiriques et met en évidence l’importance des interventions politiques pour bénéficier de la libéralisation commerciale. / This dissertation proposes a new formulation of time discounting: discount factor as a function of individual income, referred to as income externalities in discounting. The rationale for this relationship is found in the theory of hierarchy of human needs by Abraham Maslow (Maslow (1943)): the greater is income, interpreted as economic power of individuals to consume, the higher layers of needs, associated with greater patience, individuals seek to satisfy. Then, the thesis entails an examination of the linkage between the externalities and two macroeconomic phenomena: endogenous fluctuations and convergence/polarization of per capita incomes across countries. It is established that income externalities in discounting could be a vehicle for endogenous fluctuations in an autarkic economy. In the extension of the autarkic model to a dynamic 2x2x2 framework, it is found that trade integration of a volatile economy with a stable one can make fluctuations to evanesce or, on the contrary, propel them to the whole region depending on technologies and consumer preferences. Last, it is shown that trade liberalization can result in convergence or divergence of long run per capita income. For some range of parameters, externalities produce divergence. The result is consistent with empirical observations and emphasizes the importance of policy interventions for reaping benefits from free trade.

In this thesis we survey several interpolation methods that are used to construct the yield curves. We also review the bootstrapping and show that the bootstrap is closely connected to the interpolation in the case of bootstrapping yield curve. The most effort is dedicated, in this thesis, on the monotone convex method and on investigation of the difficulties to get accurate yield curves.

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A new retail institution type has emerged in South Korea that is unique in comparison to any previous retail institution type. The study of this emergence and its growth has implications for the future structure of retail both in South Korea and in other parts of the world. To proceed with a study of this new retail institution type, appropriate theory base and research findings about past retailing in South Korea were needed; however, a search of literature indicated that South Korean retailing has been the subject of limited and mostly fragmented research. Historically, many researchers have endeavored to study retail evolution in Western countries. Although extensively studied, used in conceptual work, and applied as foundation in empirical work, some limitations exist with previous retail evolution theories: inability to cover all types of retail institutions, lack of geographic universality, and limited quantification. In conjunction with these limitations, the historic evolution and current structures of retail institution types in South Korea, on the surface, appear to be very different from the evolution and structure of retailing in the Western hemisphere. Several reasons for this difference appear to involve the unique features of South Korea and its culture: retailing types were imported to South Korea within a very compressed time period, unique geography includes small land size and high population concentration in South Korea, the government control and the political insulation of South Korea are different from Western cultures. The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of retail institution types in South Korea with a proposed model. To examine the evolution of retail institution types in South Korea and to develop a more universal research model to explain this evolution, a qualitative research design was used. Specifically, a modified grounded theory type of design, with a historical/ comparative analysis method, was used in this study. First, the grounded theory process was used to develop a graphical representation or model using information from previous research. Second, the researcher collected publicly available data in South Korea from government offices, trade and industry associations, public libraries, and websites on the Internet. Through comparative analysis, data from the South Korean retail industry were examined and compared to the working model. According to the data analysis, the CREM was partially supported. Regarding the spiral evolution, all types of indicators (e.g., sales, profit, market share, operating cost) did not continuously increase as retail institutions mature, which was in contrast to the CREM, but fluctuated whenever environmental influences interrupted the growth. Four spiral endings were found: (1) upgrade, (2) stay and eventually go out of business, (3) downgrade, and (4) change types of retail institution. In the conflict part, a new retail institution type started competing with its own type, other traditional retail institution types, and a new retail institution type; therefore, the conflict portion in the CREM was also supported. Environmental influences affected not only the emergence of a new retail institution type but also the conflict among retail institution types and the evolution process. In addition, a new reciprocal relationship was found between environmental influences and a new retail institution type and between consumer preference of store/product attributes and a new retail institution type. The environmental influence part was therefore partially supported. The consumer influence variables in the CREM were also supported. For future research, the final CREM could be the base of research in many types of retail institution and in any countries that have unique retail environments. Using the CREM from this study of retail evolution in South Korea, current and future retail institutions could predict both consumers' changes depending on environmental influences and what competitive advantages they must achieve to provide benefits to these consumers. In addition, researchers, both academic and retail, could use the final CREM to study the emergence and characteristics of a new retail institution type by analyzing current retail institution types / Ph. D.

The dissertation thesis deals with discounts and premiums in business valuation, especially lack of marketability discount and control premium (minority discount). There are no complex theoretical publications concerning these topics in the Czech Republic. Abroad, the publications are mostly descriptions and results of empirical studies originated in U.S. markets. These empirical studies usually deal with a single or a few aspects of a discount or premium. There are still some blank areas in the discounts and premiums theory even abroad, such as the sources of control premium, relationship between the levels of value and standards of value, the relation between the value of a company as a whole and the value at the level of shareholders. I develop a theoretical model of control premium, in the dissertation, which is trying to fill-in these blank areas and thus help practitioners to deal with the control premium or minority discount in a correct way. Moreover the model shows how protection of minority shareholders in general and especially during acquisitions influences the magnitude of control premium. It also shows that the magnitude of control premium depends on the market competition structure. If the competition is perfect (as we can suppose it would be at financial markets for minority interests) or there is a strong oligopsonistic competition the subjects of transaction are not able to influence the price, whereas for monopsonic structure (as it usually is in the M&A market in the Czech Republic) the subjects can influence the price. For monopsonic structure at the M&A market I conclude it is impossible to estimate the value of transaction as a point estimate since it will depend on nonfinancial factors what the price of transaction will be. We can only estimate the upper and lower boundary of interval the final price of transaction will lie within. The boundaries are the maximum price for the acquirer and minimum price for the seller in the sense of German Köln School. The dissertation also tests the possibility and theoretical correctness of using the results of foreign empirical studies of discounts and premiums for valuing businesses in the CR. We analyze the methodology and synthetize the problems connected with application of results of various studies. I conclude that it is impossible to use the results directly in the conditions of the CR. I suggest there should be a deeper analysis done and factors that influence the magnitude analyzed and considered. We should not rely just on averages. The thesis also contains an empirical part testing the magnitude of the lack of marketability discount in the Czech Republic.