This thesis has been carried out during second semester 2010 at University College of Borås in Collaboration with Halens AB. Halens Holding AB is one of Sweden’s leading e-commerce companies. The company contains of four subsidiaries which together create Halens Holding AB. The concern includes Halens AB, Cellbes AB, Time Finans AB and New Bubbleroom Sweden AB. The main office of Halens Holding AB is located in Borås, the company has a turnover of 1.1 billion SEK and employs 300 people. Halens Holding AB has a wide range of products; fashion, home textile, furniture’s, home electronics and beauty- and health products. Halens has recently expanded their market, and now have Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Estonian, Latvian, Czech, Polish, Slovakian, Russian, Swiss, Slovenian and Turkish customers.The purpose of this thesis was to investigate customer requirements and demands on e-commerce. Furthermore, the intention was also to compare customers from the different subsidiaries. The purpose could be concluded with following three bullets;Identify customer demand on; product, lead-time, service and cost. Investigate differences in customer demand at two of the subsidiaries; Halens and Cellbes. Determine different consequences to the identified customer demand; purchase, non-purchase, purchase followed by return, uncollected package. A survey was made in order to find real time information about customer behavior. The objective of the survey was to understand customers’ demands of e-commerce in general. The next step was to investigate if Halens and Cellbes fulfilled those requirements. Moreover, observations were made in order to capture the customers’ use of the web-pages. These observations provided a deeper insight of the customer requirements and demands. With survey answers and observations as a base, different customer segments could be spotted. Furthermore, the task was to find problem areas or errors from the customers’ point of view in order to improve the system. Suggested areas for improvement were presented in order to get a better match between customer demand and customer experience. During this project, a clear view of the demand and requirements of Halens and Cellbes customers has been obtained. There were not major difference between the two subsidiaries, to the contrary; the results showed that there were very similar. It can be concluded that Halens and Cellbes can improve their businesses with smaller changes. Several proposals for improvement have been developed in order to better fulfill customer demand.

Preschool attendance is widely recognized as a key ingredient for later socioeconomic success, mothers' labor market participation, and leveling the playing field for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the empirical evidence for these claims is still relatively scarce, particularly in Europe. Using data from the 2011 Austrian European Union Statistics of Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), we contribute to this literature by studying the effects of having attended preschool for the adult Austrian population. We find strong and positive effects of preschool attendance on later educational attainment, the probability of working full time, hourly wages, and the probability that the mother is in the labor market. Full time workers at the bottom and the top of the distribution benefit less than those in the middle. Women in particular benefit more in terms of years of schooling and the probability of working full time. Other disadvantaged groups (second generation migrants; people with less educated parents) also often benefit more in terms of education and work.

Motivated by the recent evidence of investors' preference for stocks with lottery- type payoffs documented on the U.S. stock markets, I investigate preferences for stocks that appear to be like lotteries in Europe. Across 14 markets, lottery- type stocks, characterized by high idiosyncratic skewness, high idiosyncratic volatility and low price, underperform and exhibit a "lottery premium". Fur- thermore, preferences for lottery-type stocks can help to explain the puzzling negative relation between past idiosyncratic volatility and returns, which does not persist after controlling for past extreme positive returns. Examining the relation between national revenues from gambling and "lottery premium" I find that countries featuring higher gambling revenues also exhibit a higher "lottery premium". Overall, the results indicate that lottery preferences might impact investment decisions and stock prices. JEL Classification G11, G12 Keywords gambling, lottery-type stocks, idiosyncratic volatility, maximum returns Author's e-mail p.vokata@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail novakji@fsv.cuni.cz

Cette thèse porte sur l’adaptation de l’immersion lors de la simulation de conduite en fauteuil roulant. Il s’agit d’étudier le réalisme des retours sensoriels impliqués dans un environnement virtuel afin de pouvoir adapter l’immersion en fonction des préférences de l’utilisateur et de la tâche à accomplir. Ces travaux ont été effectués dans le cadre du projet AccesSim soutenu par la région Ile–de-France. L'objectif du projet est de développer un simulateur dynamique pour évaluer l'accessibilité d'environnement urbain et également, de procéder à l'entraînement à l’usage de fauteuils roulants.Dans le cadre de la conduite en fauteuil roulant, il est nécessaire que le comportement de conduite soit cohérent entre une situation réelle et une situation simulée. Pour cela, il faut que l’environnement virtuel et les retours sensoriels soient suffisamment immersifs et réalistes. Notre proposition est de spécifier une configuration immersive en adaptant les retours haptiques et visuels du simulateur. Nous avons validé cette hypothèse à l’aide du simulateur développé dans le cadre du projet AccesSim.Dans la première partie de la thèse, la contribution porte sur la conception du simulateur AccesSim. Cette conception porte sur l’environnement logiciel en charge des fonctionnalités innovantes : aide au diagnostic d’accessibilité et navigation 3D en fauteuil roulant à l’aide d’un modèle dynamique de fauteuil roulant. Pour permettre une navigation en fauteuil roulant, le simulateur est couplé à une plateforme robotique intégrant des retours haptiques et vestibulaires.La seconde partie de la thèse porte sur l’analyse du comportement de conduite des utilisateurs. Il s’agit de comparer la conduite en situation réelle et en situation virtuelle en fonction de la configuration du simulateur. Cette analyse montre la sensibilité des résultats vis-à-vis des profils des usagers et de l’immersion.Enfin, nous avons étudié les différents retours sensoriels participant à la qualité de l’immersion. Le premier retour concerne le sens vestibulaire. Il est dépendant des retours haptiques du simulateur robotique. Ce retour sensoriel supplémentaire doit permettre d’améliorer les performances de conduite de l’utilisateur. Nous avons évalué la perception de ce retour sur la base d’une tâche de descente d’une marche à l’aide d’un fauteuil roulant. Dans la thèse, nous avons montré les performances de notre solution ainsi que le besoin d’adapter ce retour haptique pour chaque utilisateur.Le second retour sensoriel étudié concerne les retours visuels. Nous avons proposé une configuration d’immersion visuelle modulable. Elle permet une immersion plus ou moins égocentrée. En analysant les trajectoires d’utilisateurs effectuées avec les différentes configurations d’immersion, nous pouvons évaluer la configuration la plus efficace en fonction de l’environnement et des préférences de chaque utilisateur.Ces deux études sur les retours sensoriels ont été basées sur des évaluations avec deux groupes d’utilisateurs : un groupe d’expert (thérapeutes et ergonomes) et un groupe de personnes en situation de handicap. / This thesis focuses on the adaptation of the immersion in a driving wheelchair simulation. This is the study of sensory feedback realism involved in a virtual environment in order to adapt the immersion according to user preferences and the task to perform. These works were performed within the AccesSim project supported by the Ile de France region. The project objective is to develop a dynamic simulator to evaluate the accessibility and also urban environment, to conduct training in the use of wheelchairs.In the context of wheelchair driving, it is necessary that the driving behavior is consistent between a real situation and a simulated situation. To do this, we need the virtual environment and the sensory feedback to be sufficiently realistic and immersive. Our proposal is to specify an immersive configuration adapting haptic and visual feedback from the simulator. We validated this hypothesis using the simulator developed within the AccesSim project.In the first part of the thesis, the contribution focuses on the design of the AccesSim simulator. This design focuses on the software environment responsible for the innovative features: assistance for accessibility diagnosis and 3D navigation with a wheelchair using a dynamic model. To enable navigation in a wheelchair, the simulator is coupled to a robotic platform integrating haptic and vestibular feedback.The second part of the thesis focuses on the analysis of driving behavior of users. It comes to comparing the driving in real and virtual situation depending on the configuration of the simulator. This analysis shows the sensitivity of results towards profiles of users and immersion.Finally, we studied the different sensory feedback involved in the quality of immersion. The first feedback concerns the vestibular sense. It depends on haptic feedback simulator. This additional sensory feedback should improve driving performance of the user. We evaluated the perception on the basis of a task consisting in going down a step using a wheelchair. In the thesis we have shown the performance of our solution and the need to adapt the haptic feedback for each user.The second sensory feedback investigated concerns visual feedback. We proposed a modular configuration of visual immersion. It allows immersion more or less egocentric. By analyzing the trajectories of users performed with the different configurations of immersion, we can evaluate the most efficient configuration depending on the environment and preferences of each user.These two studies on sensory feedback were based on evaluations with two groups of users: an expert group (therapists and ergonomists) and a group of people with disabilities.

This study analyzes the impact of merger and acquisition financing method on buyer cumulative abnormal returns. The model builds on findings in previous literature by including deal structure variables, company variables, industry variables, time variables, and post-acquisition announcement return data from 2000 to 2018. The analysis does not find a statistically significant relationship between cash plus debt/stock financing and cumulative abnormal returns. However, significant coefficients for buyer and target industry suggest that deal structure varies and ultimately effects cumulative abnormal returns within specific industries. Additionally, significant results for buyer profitability and time variables provide insight on how the financial market interprets synergy realization and economic crises in relation to security valuation and the mergers and acquisitions market.

This study examines two interrelated but separate issues: cross-sectional predictability of equity returns in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), and transmission of stock market movements. The first essay empirically investigates to what extent the evidence of three major documented stock market anomalies (earnings-price ratio, firm size, and book-to-market ratio) can be generalized across national stock markets. The second essay studies the price and volatility spillover effects from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to the SET. The first essay, using the Fama-Macbeth procedure and the pooled time-series cross-sectional GLS regressions, finds a weak relation between the beta and average stock returns. The adjustment of estimated beta for the effect of thin trading does not change the implications of the results. Of the three anomalies investigated, the size effect has the most prominent and consistent role in explaining average returns. For the earnings-price ratio, the results indicate that the significance of the E/P ratio variable persists only if the nonfinancial firms are considered. In contrast to the previous empirical results for the U.S. and Japanese stock markets, the book-to-market ratio fails to explain the SET equity returns. The second essay employs a generalized autoregressive conditionally heteroskedastic (GARCH) model with conditional t-distributed errors to investigate the spillover effects. No evidence of price spillover effects is found for the full sample period. However, the spillover effects are significant during the period in which the Federal Reserve Board raised interest rates. Further examinations reveal that information inferred from price changes in the U.S. market influences only the opening price in the SET, not the open-to-close Thai stock market returns. This implies that price in the SET is informationally efficient with respect to the price determined in the U.S. stock market. The evidence is generally supportive of international financial integration and informational efficiency in the Thai stock market.

US economic recession from 2007- 2009, also known as the Great Recession, negatively impacted the financial sector as well as other aspects of society. Researchers have found value-based measures and accounting measures as effective performance measures, but they have found inconclusive results when comparing the strengths of economic value added (EVA) and accounting measures in predicting stock performance. This study used data from the Great Recession to further compare EVA and accounting measures. The purpose of this cross-sectional or correlational study was to determine the relative predictive strength of EVA during the Great Recession to determine whether a model with EVA added to accounting measures did a better job predicting stock returns. Secondary were data collected from a sample of 93 Fortune 500 Companies from 2007-2009 and then analyzed via multivariate regression analysis. The null hypothesis was not rejected. The result showed that EVA was not a useful addition to accounting variables in predicting stock returns during the Great Recession. Although the findings did not support EVA as a better predictor of stock returns during the Great Recession, the study revealed useful information about value-based measures and value-creation, especially how they are impacted by the period of a severe economic downturn. Researchers have indicated that creating value for shareholders enables the funding of positive-net-present-value projects that would result in positive social change. This study revealed that firms are unlikely to create shareholder value through returns on investment for a positive social change in unfavorable economic conditions.

Si de nombreux efforts ont été déployés pour améliorer l’accès à l’éducation en Afrique subsaharienne, la proportion d’enfants qui interrompent leur scolarité avant la fin du cycle primaire reste encore très élevée. Pour tenter de répondre à ce défi majeur, cette thèse se propose d’examiner les déterminants de la demande d’éducation dans un environnement rural exposé à de nombreux risques. Le premier chapitre s’intéresse à la place essentielle, et pourtant peu étudiée, que tiennent les coûts d’opportunité du temps des enfants dans les choix éducatifs. Il s’avère dans ce cas nécessaire d’estimer la productivité du travail des enfants afin d’identifier les coûts susceptibles de compromettre leur scolarisation. Afin de mieux appréhender les choix en matière d’éducation, le deuxième chapitre dresse quant à lui une estimation des bénéfices de l’éducation dans un contexte agricole qui se distingue à la fois par un accès limité aux nouvelles technologies et par la prédominance d’exploitations familiales de petites tailles. Enfin, le troisième chapitre interroge les effets des chocs de productivité sur les décisions de scolarisation et sur les performances scolaires des enfants. Deux critères retiennent notre attention, l'âge auquel les enfants sont confrontés à ces chocs et leur intensité. Ce sujet nous semble d’autant plus pertinent que la fréquence de ces chocs ne cesse aujourd’hui d’augmenter. À travers ces trois chapitres centrés sur la Tanzanie rurale, cette thèse offre ainsi un aperçu du rôle des politiques publiques dans la protection et le développement de l’éducation. / Despite numerous investments that have been made to increase access to education in sub-Saharan Africa, a noteworthy share of children drop out of school prior to completing primary education. To address this issue, this thesis examines the factors that drive education decisions in a rural risky environment. The first chapter focuses on one of the core determinant of education investment that has been under-explored, the opportunity costs of education. To identify these costs that can significantly hinder education, we determine children's productivity on the farm and provide an estimate range of the value of one day of child labor. In order to better understand education decisions in rural sub-Saharan Africa, the second chapter assesses the different benefits of education in rural Tanzania, where family farm is the dominant structure in agriculture and where the technology level is low. Finally, the third chapter investigates whether productivity shocks are detrimental to educational achievement and children’s cognitive skills by considering two particular aspects, the age at which shocks occur, and the length of shocks. This subject is all the more relevant today when the number of productivity shocks is growing. Throughout these three chapters which focus on rural Tanzania, this thesis provides some insight into the role of public policies in protecting and promoting education.

Using a three-essay approach, I focus on two issues related to the labor market: the effect of changes in regulatory costs on informal sector employment, and the role of endogeneity in the relationship between education and earnings. In the first essay, I analyze the implications of regulatory costs on skill-based wage differences and informal sector employment. I use a two sector matching model with exogenous skill types for workers where firms have sector-specific costs and workers have sector-specific bargaining power. In general, there are multiple equilibria possible for this model. I focus on the equilibrium that best resembles the situation in the developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. My results show that government policies which reduce regulatory costs decrease unemployment, earnings inequality, and the fraction of skilled workers in the informal sector. The different types of regulatory costs affect the skill premium differently and non-monotonically. In the second essay, I test the hypothesis of linearity in returns to education in the Mincer regression with endogenous schooling and earnings. I estimate the marginal rate of return to education using a polynomial model and a semiparametric partial linear model based on the standard Mincer regression. To perform the analysis, I use a control function approach for IV estimation with spousal and parental education as instruments. Results suggest that estimates not accounting for endogeneity understate returns at the tails of the education spectrum and overstate returns for education levels between middle-school and college. In the third essay, I empirically test the claim of Mookherjee and Ray (2010), based on a theoretical model of skill complexity, that "the return to human capital is endogenously nonconcave." I estimate the functional form of returns to education for India using a semiparametric partial linear model based on the standard Mincer regression. Marginal returns are estimated to test the nonconcavity of the functional form under both exogenous and endogenous schooling assumptions. My results show that the marginal rate of return declines during primary education and increases until high school, followed by stable returns for college and higher studies. However, the test of robustness of the functional form based on uniform confidence bands fails to reject the presence of nonconcavity in returns to education for India. This lends support to the claim of Mookherjee and Ray (2010).

Syfte – Syftet är att identifiera förbättringsåtgärder i en returhanteringsprocess för produkter med kort livscykel. För att kunna bidra med förbättringsåtgärder till fallföretaget har tre frågeställningar formulerats för att uppnå detta: 1. Hur ser returhanteringsprocessen ut för produkter med kort livscykel? 2. Vilka utmaningar finns det i returhantering? 3. Hur kan processen effektiviseras? Metod – I samtal med fallföretaget och under litteraturstudie identifierades ett problemområde vilket blev grunden för studiens syfte och frågeställningar. Utefter detta genomfördes en enfallsstudie som bestod av observationer och en intervju. Författarna strävade efter en djupgående kunskap av ämnet och därför ansågs enfallsstudie vara lämpligast för studien och dess syfte. För att skapa en grund för hur ett returflöde och utmaningar ser ut byggdes ett teoretiskt ramverk upp baserat på en genomförd litteraturstudie. Tillsammans med den insamlade data och teori analyserades möjliga förbättringsåtgärder. Resultat – Genom att integrera data och teori har möjliga förbättringar kunnat identifierats. En rekommendation är att införa nyckelfunktionen gatekeeping tidigt i returflödet, vilket bidrar till att returer sorteras för att skapa värdeskapande processer i returflöde i en större utsträckning. För att effektivisera ett returflöde kan det analytiska ramverket vara till hjälp för företag samt att betydelsen av att utgå ifrån ett standardflöde. Implikationer – Teorin nämner bristande kunskap inom returhanteringsprocessen, vilket bekräftades av den insamlade empiri där returflödet kan visa en utformning som inte är helt optimalt för produkter med kort livscykel. Det här mynnade ut i att författarna valde att sammanföra två returteorier samt med ett lean perspektiv för att belysa en ny synvinkel med förväntningar att uppnå ett mer optimerat returflöde. Med den nya synvinkeln finns det möjlighet att identifiera värdeskapande processer vilket dagens produktlivscykler kräver för att de idag tenderar att bli kortare. Begränsningar – Studien begränsar sig till en enfallsstudie, vilket medför att trovärdigheten och generaliserbarheten blir lägre. Dock ser författarna fördelar med detta för att de tagit fram ett nytt analytiskt ramverk som först får empiriskt stöd genom denna studie. Vidare krävs det forskning om det analytiska ramverket genererar förbättringar för företag. / Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to identify improvements in a returns flow for products with a short life cycle. Three research questions has been formulated in order to enhance the return flow: 1. How is the returns flow process built for products with short life cycle? 2. What are the challenges in the returns flow? 3. How can the returns process be improved? Method – In conversation with the case company and during the writers literature study a problem area was discovered. This established a foundation for the purpose and research questions. The study was performed as a case study which included observations and an interview. A case study was considered as the most appropriate method for this study since the writers aimed to gather profound knowledge within the subject. A theoretical framework was built upon the literature study to help the writers create an understanding of the returns flow and its challenges. Findings – To be able to identify possible improvements the study integrated data and theory. Recommendations based on this study is to introduce the function of gatekeeping in a returns flow, which contributes to a create a greater value in the returns flow. The analytical framework can help companies to implement better structures for their returns flow and the writers can also recommend to follow one standard which enables a more efficient return flow. Implications – The theory argue that the knowledge is lacking on how to manage a return flow, this is confirmed with the gathered data where the return flow is not designed to create efficiency. To tackle this issue, the writers choose to intertwine two returns flow theories together with a lean perspective. With the integration of these theories, this new viewpoint had the expectation to achieve a more optimal returns flow. This would also give the possibility to find the value creating processes within the returns flow and help to extract as much as possible of the product life cycle. Limitations – The study is limited to a case study, this entails that the credibility and the generalization is low. This is a disadvantage, but this study can be seen as a starting point and therefore the case study is the most suitable. The theoretical framework that is presented in the study also needs practical verification to earn credibility.