This thesis is a study of the development and uptake of an emerging infrastructural technology: the mobile Wireless Broadband technology and service known as WiBro in South Korea, and Mobile WiMAX internationally. WiBro has emerged through a national development effort since the early 2000s. The commercial service was launched in 2006. However, uptake fell far below initial expectations, only succeeding in niche markets. This study was motivated by concerns about the perceived gulf between development and diffusion and the ‘failure’ of WiBro. However, this study seeks to go beyond the technology-driven perspective that informs conceptions of diffusion gap: it aims to explicate the sociotechnical factors leading to such a gap. This study draws on Science and Technology Studies (STS) and in particular the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) perspective, which provides tools to scrutinize the interactions among the various interests and factors involved in the process of technological innovation. The SST perspective goes beyond approaches that treat technology as a static object to be developed and diffused. It provides tools to examine the complex and dynamic forces that develop technical capacity towards particular forms and uses. The ‘social learning’ perspective extends SST and provides concepts to explore the changing dynamics over multiple cycles of innovation. Here, Jørgensen’s concept of ‘development arena’ helps examine the interlinked, yet dispersed and multiple spaces in which differing goals, motivations and strategies of innovation players together shape technological innovation. Through comprehensive analyses of a longitudinal study of WiBro, a broader view of the process and the outcomes of technological innovation have been achieved. Rather than viewing the technology as a stable object that would progress in a linear manner through the stages of design, development, and diffusion, it has focused on the process of shaping of WiBro through multiple cycles of innovation. Several arenas of innovation were identified as diverse players sought to align their interests towards exploiting the resources, capacities, and tools for innovation that seemed to be available. In these spaces, conflicting and yet coevolving dynamics were observed: one involving coordination through alignments of multiple interests, and the other incorporating tensions and misalignments among the differing concerns, aims and commitments towards the innovation. The complex dynamics involved a multi-level game where the collective actions among the innovation players and their individual strategies diverged to a degree. Furthermore, changing contingencies, linked to shifting choices of innovation players, resulted in the deviation of the innovation from the initial visions and aims. The study thus illustrates the outcomes of highly divergent interactions at play in innovation process and the mutual enrollment efforts of players that constituted the distributed governance of innovation. Here the complex interplays among the innovation players involved in multi-level games produced a gap between the generic vision and the actual uptake of WiBro. Changing contingencies, especially linked to broader and evolving structures and relations - brought about the reshaping of the generic vision of WiBro. This research therefore suggests the concept of the ‘distributed governance of innovation’ as a new mode for governance: that accommodates not only differing knowledges and interests but also the shifting choices and visions through the various cycles of technological innovation. The boundary of social learning is thus extended to incorporate diverging choices over time and across the multiple spaces of innovation. Its implications for policy include achieving reflexivity by incorporating into the policy framework the learning process that takes place as the innovation players go through the varying stages and cycles of technological innovation.

This study used the conceptual framework of emerging adulthood to explore the following question: “What are the post-care housing experiences of youths who have transitioned from care through the Independent Living with Supports (ILS) program offered by MacDonald Youth Services (MYS)?” In order to answer the research question, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten youths who had aged out of care through the ILS program. Six service providers who worked with youth in and from care in various capacities and from various agencies were also interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. The youths’ housing experiences were characterized by multiple moves post-care, including homelessness in the case of seven youth participants. These findings mirror the literature. In addition, none of the youth participants indicated they were successfully connected to formal supports prior to leaving care... / May 2016

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between Zimbardo time perspectives (TPs) and career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE). In total, 1,753 young adults participated in the longitudinal study. For the present study, we selected only participants who were students and provided information on TPs, CDMSE, and sociodemographic characteristics (n = 492, M = 22.97 years, SD = 1.32, 82.9% women). The results of multilevel modeling showed that future orientation and present-hedonistic TPs were positively related to CDMSE, whereas present-fatalistic and past-negative TPs were negatively related to CDMSE. These findings indicate that besides the beneficial effect of widely studied future TP, the negative role of past-negative and present-fatalistic TPs should be considered in connection with the career development of emerging adults.

In recent years, the increasing release of trace organic chemicals to the aquatic environment have been problematic to both the ecosystem and the human society. These trace organic chemicals, regarded as emerging contaminants, include different categories of chemicals, which are either deemed to be safe for human consumption or they are naturally occurring compounds. As a newly recognized class of emerging contaminant, artificial sweeteners are proven to be one of the most ubiquitous classes of emerging contaminants in environmental waters. Its transformation to different suite of TPs during water treatment processes generated more toxic influence than the parent compound is problematic. The realization of the widespread of emerging contaminants, together with their ambiguous fate and impact to the environment have led to the development of advanced oxidation processes that can effectively attenuate this wide range of contaminants. In this work, several catalytic advanced oxidation processes were studied. On one hand, it aimed to evaluate their effectiveness on the removal of the artificial sweetener - acesulfame; and on the other hand, to shed lights on the future development of catalytic advanced oxidation processes. In the first part of this thesis, the photo-Fenton treatment was evaluated on its potential to effectively remove acesulfame together with the produced transformation products, and the post-treatment toxicity screening. The photo-Fenton treatment was found to be effective in removing both the parent compound and the transformation products, without leading to an increase in toxicity, which is largely related to the effective removal of the transformation products. In attempt to reduce the reliance on UV irradiation, newly synthesized carbon and nitrogen co-doped TiO2-based photocatalyst was applied to capture the simulated sunlight for the degradation of acesulfame. The heterogenous photocatalytic treatment was found to involve several different oxidative reactive species for both degradation and transformation by using several scavengers to alter the degradation profile. Unexpected transformation product was also formed upon treatment in actual water matrix, suggesting the impact of water constituents to the transformation of emerging contaminants. Toxicity results indicated the inability to achieve detoxification, suggesting that a more effective degradation process was needed. To accelerate the degradation process, and enhance the performance at neutral pH, the use of redox mediators for Fenton/Fenton-like system was evaluated. Developed novel Fenton-like system involving copper(II) as transition metal ion, persulfate as oxidant and mercaptosuccinic acid as redox mediator led to effective removal of different contaminants. Elucidation of the proposed oxidation mechanism suggested the role of each components of the system, and the generation of different reactive species for degradation as indicated by the different acesulfame transformation profile obtained. The implementation of redox mediators to Fenton/Fenton-like system was beneficial and an effective approach. In short, this work presents several kinds of catalytic advanced oxidation process and shed lights on improving the degradation performance with directions for the future development of better and more effective water treatment processes.

Emerging markets have become important investment destination for international investors as they seek opportunities to grow and diversify their investment portfolios. At the same time, emerging markets are perceived to be riskier than developed markets. It is therefore imperative for the international investor to fully comprehend and appreciate the risk faced by their investments in the emerging markets and the drivers of the underlying their value. A significant amount of research has been carried out on the valuation of companies in emerging markets and the role country risk has in determining the final valuation price. Despite this, there is still no consensus amongst practitioners in the financial industry and academics on the best approach. The valuation methodologies currently employed vary significantly and in some cases involve making arbitrary adjustments based on “gut feel” with limited empirical evidence. This research study appraises existing emerging markets valuation frameworks such as the discounted cash flow model (DCF), including capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and its variants. It also looks at relative valuation and real option pricing framework with intention of proposing the “best practice” valuation framework for valuing companies in emerging markets. The general theory is that emerging markets are segmented from the developed world capital markets making portfolio optimisation across these markets difficult. Segmentation of emerging markets is as a result of inefficiency of the capital markets, in particular the inability of foreign investors to enter and exit the local capital markets at no extra costs. The emerging markets valuation frameworks are designed to address the inability to effectively diversify investments due to the segmentation of these markets. It was therefore pertinent that this study determines whether emerging markets are indeed segmented from world capital markets and therefore significantly riskier than developed markets. This part of the study was carried out by conducting both quantitative and qualitative analysis of the emerging capital markets. Quantitative analysis was done on the performances of twenty-seven emerging equity markets for the period between July 1998 and November 2008 and the results were compared with the US equity market analysis (United States was used in the study as the proxy for the world equity market) for the same period. The study used volatility of the markets as the measure of risk and the correlation to measure the level of integration. Qualitative analysis involved reviewing regulatory, legal and political risks of the different emerging markets. The results from this part of the study showed that emerging markets are indeed riskier than developed markets and are somewhat segmented from the world capital markets. Based on 4 this result, we concluded that the valuation frameworks in emerging markets should be adjusted or modified to incorporate the impact of country risk. A total of eleven different emerging markets valuation frameworks were appraised. The study reviewed the literature relating to the emerging markets valuation frameworks to establish their theoretical and empirical basis. The study also conducted qualitative and quantitative analysis of each of the eleven selected methods regarding relevance and practicality in the valuation of emerging market companies. Valuation models were developed from the different valuation frameworks, a process that included deriving different variants of the models such as the country risk premium. The qualitative analysis looked at the how practical is the valuation frameworks considering its variants. For quantitative analysis the emerging market valuation models were used to value ABSA Bank Group; Edgars Consolidated Stores Limited; and Standard Bank Group and outcomes of the valuation were compared with the final purchase price paid in recent corporate transactions involving these companies. The absolute difference between the notional valuation and the actual transaction price was used to rank the valuation frameworks, with smallest difference indicating the best fit. All the eleven emerging market valuation methodologies yielded results different from the purchase prices. Erb−Harvey−Viskanta (EHV) model had the best fit when compared with the actual purchase price. However, the study does not propose the usage of EHV as the “best practice” method because of weak theoretical basis. The study concludes that at least three to four methodologies should be used to derive a valuation range for purchase price negotiations

Companies within Artificial Intelligence are receiving increased international attention in many industries and the technology is affecting the everyday life of many people, with or without their knowledge. Simultaneous to this development, the BRIC countries have gained a spot in the global sitting room due to their rapid growth and industrialisation, which in its turn has made way for vast business opportunities. The purpose of this thesis has therefore been to explore how Artificial Intelligence companies utilise these opportunities and internationalise to the BRIC countries. This has been done through a qualitative study where four cases have been interviewed to explore whether traditional or new internationalisation processes are applicable in this context. Additionally, the drivers and barriers of this market expansion have been researched to broaden the view of the process. The findings reveal that Artificial Intelligence business is global and that networks are significant in the success of internationalising to the BRIC countries. It is also found that there are great drivers and challenging barriers that affect the decision to enter the BRIC countries and the success in these markets. Lastly, several topics for future research are presented in the hope of encouraging more contributions to the field.

Background: Due to a series of financial crisis and political turbulence, a share of international economic activities has been decreased which results in the emergence of deglobalization trend. For those emerging Asian market SMEs, they are more likely to be influenced by this context because of the left impact of bureaucracy in Asian markets and lack of sufficient resources to overcome the challenges compared with MNCs. Purpose: The purpose of this research is investigating the specific challenges appearing in the deglobalization trend and importance and impacts of networks in the internationalization process of emerging Asian market SMEs under this specific trend. Method: This research follows the philosophy of interpretivism, correspondingly, the inductive research approach is appropriate for this paper to apply to refine existing theory. Qualitative research strategy approach is adapted to understand the meaning and impact of network for SMEs under deglobalization trend through multiple case study. Conclusion: The following four impacts networks have on Asian SMEs become more prominent and pivotal to assist SMEs overcome deglobalization challenges: 1) information communication, 2) access to new customer, 3) cost reduction and 4) reliable support.

Thesis advisor: Karen D. Arnold / As students increasingly incur high amounts of debt for their undergraduate education, there is heightened concern about the long-term implications of loans on borrowers, especially borrowers from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Drawing upon the concepts of cultural capital and habitus (Bourdieu & Passeron, 1977) and the human capital framework (Becker, 1993), this research explores how student debt and social class intersect and affect individuals' trajectory into adulthood. A total of 50 interviews were conducted with young adults who had incurred $30,000 to $180,000 in undergraduate debt and who were from varying social classes. The findings explore how four categories of students -<italic>Insiders, Entrepreneurs, Pioneers, and New Moneys</italic>- varied along dimensions of economic and cultural wealth, and experienced their college search, college education, and transition to the workforce differently. The findings point to the immense role that habitus (Bourdieu, 1986) plays in shaping borrowers' educational experiences and post-graduation outcomes: Individuals' embodied cultural capital shaped their educational experiences and interactions with institutions and the labor market. Those who had high levels of cultural resources tended to have a more rigorous college search, stronger academic orientation, and greater student involvement during college. Compared to other students, they were more likely to transition to high-paying, high-status professional positions after graduation and attend graduate school. In contrast, individuals with low cultural resources tended to have a more casual college search, were more prone to encountering errors with their financial aid, spent a great deal of time working during college, and later faced underemployment in the labor market. They were less likely to report benefiting from a social network and their credential in the labor market and more likely to express regret about their debt and college education. The findings illustrate the inequitable payoff that college and debt have for borrowers with varying levels of cultural resources, and suggest that loans can serve as a form of social reproduction. A conceptual model outlines the factors associated with incurring high levels of debt and illustrates how they relate to borrowers' college experiences and lives post-graduation. In highlighting how debt exacerbates social inequities and the risks it can pose to students, especially students with low income and cultural resources, the findings call for higher education institutions to conduct a comprehensive review of their practices and services from the time students apply to college to after they graduate. Enhanced supports at high schools and community organizations can also assist families, particularly in encouraging participation in early savings plans and strengthening their financial literacy. Additionally, increased governmental scrutiny of borrowing can help protect students from over-indebtedness. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

La croissance rapide du commerce mondial au cours des deux dernières décennies a été caractérisée par une évolution économique accrue couplée à de l’instabilité économique des pays émergents. D’après la littérature, la spécialisation technologique est souvent associée à la croissance, la compétitivité et la stabilité économique. Partant de ce double constat, nous analysons dans cette thèse l’impact de la spécialisation des pays émergents sur leur croissance et leur stabilité économique et nous évaluons l’impact de la compétitivité (elle-même liée à la spécialisation) de ces pays sur leurs performances à l’exportation.Dans un premier chapitre, nous délimitons le contour définitionnel des notions de spécialisation selon les différentes théories.Après avoir déterminé le plus objectivement possible une liste de pays émergents en se référant aux critères les plus utilisés dans la littérature et après avoir mesuré le degré de spécialisation de ces pays, nous étudions la carte de leur spécialisation technologique sur la période 1995-2014. D’après cette cartographie, nous remarquons une mauvaise orientation de la spécialisation dans ces pays. Ces derniers se caractérisent essentiellement par une forte spécialisation dans les articles manufacturés à forte intensité de main-d’œuvre et provenant de ressources naturelles et dans les articles à faible technologie qui sont des spécialisations à faible valeur ajoutée. La spécialisation dans la haute technologie est en grande partie tirée par les importations, les produits exportés étant principalement issus d’activités de montage.Dans le duexième chapitre, nous évaluons dans un premier temps l’impact des spécialisations technologiques des pays émergents sur la croissance économique et nous comparons les résultats trouvés à ceux des pays développés et en développement. Nous constatons que les différents types de spécialisation ont un impact positif sur la croissance des pays émergents. Mais cet impact positif, ne peut pas occulter la mauvaise orientation de cette spécialisation (résultat du chapitre 1).Dans un deuxième temps, nous étudions l’impact de la compétitivité (prix et hors-prix) des pays émergents sur l’évolution de leurs exportations. Nous remarquons que l’impact de la compétitivité-prix sur l’évolution des exportations des pays de notre échantillon varie selon l’indicateur utilisé. Il est négatif quand nous utilisons le taux de change et positif quand nous utilisons la productivité.Nous trouvons aussi que l’impact de la compétitivité structurelle, expliquée par les dépenses dans la haute technologie et par la spécialisation dans la haute technologie, est positif. Cela peut être expliqué par la demande mondiale croissante dans les produits de haute technologie.Dans le troisième et dernier chapitre, nous nous intéressons à la relation entre spécialisation et stabilité économique et nous comparerons cette relation avec celle observée dans les pays développés. Nous constatons que les pays dont la spécialisation est basée sur les ressources naturelles sont plus instables et que l’impact de la spécialisation dans la haute technologie dépend du niveau de développement du pays. L’impact est négatif pour les pays développés et positif pour les pays émergents. Cette différence dans l’impact peut être due à la politique d’assemblage utilisée par la plupart des pays émergents, politique qui consiste à importer la majeure partie des produits de haute technologie (HT) sous forme de pièces et composants. / The fast growth of the world trade during the last two decades was characterized by an improved performance as well as an economic instability of emerging countries. According to the literature, the technological specialization is often associated with growth, competitiveness and economic stability. Recognizing this, we analyze the impact of the specialization of emerging countries on their growth and on their economic stability and we estimate the impact of the competitiveness (itself related to specialization) of these countries on their export performance.In a first chapter, we outline the contours of the notion of specialization according to the various theories.Having determined as objectively as possible a list of emerging countries referring to the most criteria used in the literature and having measured the degree of specialization of these countries, we study the map of the technological specialization in emerging countries over the 1995-2014 period. According to this cartography, we notice a bad orientation of their specialization. These countries are essentially characterized by a strong specialization in Labour-intensive and resource-intensive manufactures and low-tech items that are low value-added specialization. The specializing in high technology is largely driven by imports. Exports are mainly drawn by assembly activities.In the second chapter, we first assess the impact of technological specializations of emerging countries on their economic growth and we compare the results with those found in the developed and developing countries. We find that different types of specialization have a positive impact on the growth of emerging countries. But this positive impact cannot hide the misdirection of this specialization (result of Chapter 1).Second, we study the impact of competitiveness (price- and non-price competitiveness) of emerging countries on the development of their exports. We note that the impact of price-competitiveness on the evolution of the exports of the countries in our sample depends on the indicator used. It is negative when we use the exchange rate and positive when we use productivity.We also find that the impact of the structural competitiveness, measured by the expenses in the high technology and by the specialization in the high technology, is positive. It can be explained by the more and more increasing world demand in the high-technology products.In the last chapter, we focus on the relationship between specialization and economic stability and we compare this relationship with that observed in developed countries. We find that countries whose specialization is based on natural resources are more unstable and that the impact of specialization in high technology depends on the country's level of development. The impact is negative for developed countries and positive for emerging countries. This difference in the impact may be due to the assembling policy used by most emerging countries and which leads to import of high-tech products (HT) as parts and components.

Existing research demonstrates that corporate financing decisions influence the cash-flow rights and control rights of the securities issued by companies differently and that the same corporate capital structures and/or ownership patterns have diverse effects and aims across countries, especially when emerging countries are analysed. The 1research purpose of this investigation is to understand how corporate financing decisions are affected by ownership structure in emerging countries. For this purpose, two game-theoretic models are developed and an empirical test is carried out. The first theoretical model analyses a number of key factors inducing a separation of ownership and control in emerging countries. This model argues that large private benefits of control, extreme risk, low investor protection, inefficient capital markets, and governments sympathetic to incumbent management at the expense of outside investors are factors contributing to create a separation of ownership and control in emerging markets. The second model examines the positive side of network creation through the analysis of the interaction of empathy and economic gains. This model identifies important factors promoting the formation of business groups in emerging countries. The empirical study is a two-fold analysis. Firstly, it tests the effects of well-known determinants of capital structure on debt; secondly, the effects of ownership and control in the financial policies of emerging countries are analysed. To do so, corporate financial data and firm-level data of Mexican publicly traded companies for was gathered. As expected, asset tangibility, company size, profitability and market to book ratio proved to be important firm-specific capital structure determinants, similar to the case of developed countries. Business risk and effective tax rate are key firm-specific capital structure determinants, as emerging markets research has identified. The two factors proposed by this researcher, viz. consolidation and liquidity are significant in the determination of capital structure of the Mexican publicly traded companies. Further, almost two thirds of Mexican publicly traded companies are family controlled. When families are large shareholders, they favour debt financing; whereas when families are the majority controlling shareholder they prefer issue shares, the latter supports the risk management argument proposed by Hagelin et al. (2006) and Céspedes et al. (2010).