Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas-Pan American, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-140).

The growth of the industry and population of South Africa urges to seek new sources of electric power, hence the need to look at alternative power sources. Power output from some renewable energy sources is highly volatile. For instance power output from wind turbines or photovoltaic solar panels fluctuates between zero and the maximum rated power out. To optimize the overall power output a model was designed to determine the best trade-off between production from two or more renewable energy sources putting emphasis on wind and solar. Different measures of risk, such as coefficient of variation (CV) and value at risk (VAR), were used to determine the best hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) configuration. Depending on the investors’ expected returns (demand) and risk averseness, they will be able to use the model to choose the best configuration that suites their needs. In general it was found that investing in a diversified HRES is better than investing in individual power sources.

Over the past four years, considerable attention has been focused on the problems of high unemployment in the State of Oregon. The percentage of jobless continued to be higher than that of the nation. The depressed housing market, caused by high interest rates, coupled with an increase in the import of Canadian timber managed to reduce the demand for Oregon lumber and wood products drastically. This has resulted in an abnormally high unemployment rate in many of Oregon's counties which are dependent on the wood industry; for example, the 1980 jobless rate in Harney County reached a record high of 29 percent. On the other side of the spectrum, less dependent counties such as Gilliam and Morrow continued to grow during the same period, with unemployment rates of merely 4.9 and 5.8 percent respectively. These rates are approximately half the state average. Community leaders, including the Governor, seem convinced that the only solution is economic diversification. It is an argument that makes a great deal of sense at first glance. The notion here is that if you diversify you will become less vulnerable to outside forces and hence will have a more stable economy. But what is diversification? How can we tell that one region is more diversified than another? Furthermore, having a diversified economy, does this ensure a lower rate of unemployment? The thrust of this dissertation deals with providing answers to these questions. Three schools of thought--ogive-norm, portfolio variance and entropy--were examined in an effort to determine a more proper measure of economic diversification. Various statistical procedures of hypothesis testing were employed together with stepwise regression and analysis of variance. The research findings indicate that there is a definite relationship between economic diversification and regional unemployment. However, only 28 percent of the change in the rate of unemployment is explainable by changes in the levels of diversification. (The necessary data were provided by the State of Oregon - Employment Division).

It has been observed that there has been an ever growing trend toward more extensive corporate diversification. The thesis here is that a great deal of the observed diversification has been the result of an effort by firms to develop internal markets for resources which do not trade well through external markets. The nature of this resource, called firm specific capital, is examined theoretically and empirically. The work begins with a presentation of a neoclassical model of the firm, where firm specific capital is produced as a joint output in the firm. It is shown how this capital, which for simplicity can be thought of as managerial expertise, would lead a firm to diversify. Then the model is subjected to an empirical test. This test supports the argument that firms use diversification to develop and exploit internal markets. In addition, the test suggests that the diversification process is procompetitive, not anticompetitive as some have argued. After the general industry level test, the study examines the effect of diversification on the individual firm. This portion of the study was concerned with the impact of diversification on corporate risk. Using risk and performance measures derived from the Capital Asset Pricing Model, and diversification measures calculated for individual firms, the study analyzes the impact of diversification on 97 firms for the years 1960 and 1965. The results of this portion of the study also demonstrate the importance of firm specific capital in the firm's diversification decision. / Ph. D.

by Chan Kei-Shun Keith, Yeung Yu-Hung Antonia. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-56). / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.ii / ABSTRACT --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vii / LIST OF APPENDICES --- p.viii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Diversification and Firm Performance --- p.1 / The Asia Financial Crisis --- p.2 / Chapter II. --- THEORY AND LITERATURE REVIEW --- p.5 / Internationalization --- p.6 / Market Concentration vs. Market Diversification --- p.7 / Product Diversification --- p.9 / Competitive Advantage --- p.10 / Diversification Strategies for Emerging Markets --- p.10 / Chapter III. --- HYPOTHESES --- p.12 / Chapter IV. --- DEFINITION OF VARIABLES AND METHODOLOGY --- p.15 / Sample --- p.15 / Measures --- p.17 / Market (International) Diversification (GEO) --- p.17 / Diversification (DIV) - Product and Industry --- p.18 / Firm Performance --- p.19 / Methodology --- p.19 / Chapter V. --- RESULTS --- p.21 / "Market, Product, and Industrial Diversification" --- p.21 / Firm Performance --- p.25 / Categorization of Firms Based on Sales Growth/Profit Growth Standing --- p.28 / "Sales Growth as a Function of Market, Product, Industrial Diversification and 1997 Sales and Profit" --- p.35 / "Sales Growth as a Function of Market, Product, and Industrial Diversification" --- p.36 / "Profit Growth as a Function of Market, Product, Industrial Diversification, and 1997 Sales and Profit" --- p.37 / "Profit Growth as a Function of Market, Product, and Industrial Diversification" --- p.38 / Chapter VI --- DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION --- p.40 / Implications to Managers --- p.43 / Further Research and Limitations --- p.44 / APPENDICES --- p.46 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.53

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Typescript.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1983. / Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-141).

No description available.