In this thesis it is recognised that marketing has a dual role to satisfy both customer and shareholder objectives. The issue of shareholder value creation of marketing is an important and immediate agenda for marketing executives, management and academics. To date, marketers have not been able to adequately quantify and measure shareholder value creation through marketing assets and marketing expenditure. This has led to a dilution of marketing power and influence in the boardroom with management tending to treat marketing as discretionary expenditure and not as an asset. Academics have responded with conceptual models that relate marketing assets back to shareholder value, generally through cash flow or sales models. The creation of shareholder value through marketing assets and expenditure is then conceptualised and tested empirically. The conceptual model builds on the theory of agency and incomplete markets setting to illustrate the flow effects through marketing assets to shareholder value. The conceptual model also demonstrates that marketing expenditure can have stock and/or flow impacts on shareholder value. Flow effects are indirect effects that are mediated through sales, cash flows, and earnings and can be either temporary or longer term. It is concluded that in listed markets stock prices are the general surrogate for shareholder value, and risk adjusted earnings are the appropriate surrogate in non-listed markets. The thesis then empirically illustrates and tests the relationships between marketing communications expenditure on two data sets representing firms in listed and non-listed settings. The empirical results reveal that marketing expenditure does play an important role in the creation of shareholder value and that stock and flow effects are both present. Knowledge of the various empirical impacts from marketing across firm size, industry and listed and non-listed market settings observed in this thesis should prove highly valuable for marketers and managers. Finally, a conceptual understanding by marketers of the financial metrics that are required to be influenced in order to increase shareholder equity will provide greater clout in negotiations with management and boards of directors.

The thesis looks at the macroeconomic impact of foreign aid. It is specially concerned with aid's impact on the public sector of less developed countries < LDCs> . Since the overwhelming majority of aid is directed to the public sector of LDCs, one can only understand the broader macroeconomic impact of aid if one first understands its impact on this sector. To this end, the thesis econometrically estimates " fiscal response" models of aid. These models, in essence, attempt to shed light on public sector fiscal behaviour in the presence of aid inflows, being specially concerned with the way aid is used to finance various categories of expenditures. The underlaying concern is to extent to which aid is " fungible" -that is, whether it finances consumption expenditure and reductions in taxation revenue in LDCs. A number of alternative models are derived from a utility maximisation framework. These alternatives reflect different assumptions regarding the behaviour of LDC public sectors and relate to the endogeniety <as opposed to exogeniety> of aid, whether or not recurrent expenditure is financed from domestic borrowing and the determination of domestic borrowing. The original frameworks of earlier studies are extended in a number of ways, including the use of a public sector utility function which is fully consistent with expected maximising behaviour. Estimates of these models' parameters are obtained using both time-series and cross-section data, dating from the 1960s, for Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the Philippines. Both structural and reduced-form equations are estimated. Results suggest that foreign aid <defined as all foreign inflows to the official sector> is indeed fungible, albeit at different levels. Moreover, the overall impact of aid <both loans and grants> on public sector investment, consumption, domestic borrowing and taxation varies between countries. Generally speaking, aid leads to increases in investment and consumption expenditure, but reduces taxation and domestic borrowing. Comparative analysis does, however, show that these results are highly sensitive to alternative behavioural assumptions and, therefore, model specification.

Thesis (M.A. (Tourism))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This investigation examined acute energy compensation and macronutrient intake in habitually active and sedentary, college-aged males, following an exercise session as compared to a resting (control) session, to see if habitually active males compensate intake better to an energy deficit incurred by exercise, than sedentary males. Participants were males, aged 18-30 years, of a normal percent body fat and body mass index, and exercised < 60 min per week (sedentary) or > 150 min per week (habitually active). Participants came in for two sessions: 1) 45 minutes of resting (control) and then eating an ad libitum meal; and 2) riding a cycle ergometer for 45 minutes (exercise) and then eating an ad libitum meal. Sessions were counterbalanced across participants. Energy and macronutrient intake were calculated for the meal and over the remaining part of the day. Sedentary individuals ate significantly less during the meal in the exercise session (which expended a mean of 453.5 kcals across both groups) as compared to the control session (934.8 + 222.0 kcals vs. 1073.9 + 470.3 kcals, p < 0.03), which demonstrated negative energy compensation (-30.6%). The habitually active group showed no significant difference in energy intake between sessions at the meal (1016.8 + 396.7 kcal [control] vs. 1105.6 + 389.2 kcal [exercise]). While the habitually active group showed no significant difference in intake at the meal, the slight increase in intake at the meal in the exercise session demonstrated some energy compensation (19.6%), which was significantly better (p < 0.03) than that in the sedentary group. No differences in macronutrient intake at the meal were found between the sessions. Over the day following the sessions, both groups reported a significant increase in energy intake after the exercise session as compared to the control session (1457.5 + 646.2 kcals vs. 1356.1 + 657.2 kcals, p < 0.04), with no difference in macronutrient intake between the sessions. These results indicate that, although complete acute compensation did not occur, the habitually active group acutely compensated intake significantly more so than the sedentary group, demonstrating better energy regulation ability.

Fiscal federalism has been an important topic among public finance theorists in the last four decades. There is a series of arguments that decentralization of governments enhances growth by improving allocation efficiency. However, the empirical studies have shown mixed results for industrialized and developing countries and some of them have demonstrated that there might be a threshold level of economic development below which decentralization is not effective. Developing and transition countries have developed a variety of forms of fiscal decentralization as a possible strategy to achieve effective and efficient governmental structures. A generalized principle of decentralization due to the country specific circumstances does not exist. Therefore, decentralization has taken place in different forms in various countries at different times, and even exactly the same extent of decentralization may have had different impacts under different conditions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the fiscal decentralization in Mongolia and to develop policy recommendations for the efficient and effective intergovernmental fiscal relations system for Mongolia. Within this perspective the analysis concentrates on the scope and structure of the public sector, the expenditure and revenue assignment as well as on the design of the intergovernmental transfer and sub-national borrowing. The study is based on data for twenty-one provinces and the capital city of Mongolia for the period from 2000 to 2009. As a former socialist country Mongolia has had a highly centralized governmental sector. The result of the analysis below revealed that the Mongolia has introduced a number of decentralization measures, which followed a top down approach and were slowly implemented without any integrated decentralization strategy in the last decade. As a result Mongolia became de-concentrated state with fiscal centralization. The revenue assignment is lacking a very important element, for instance significant revenue autonomy given to sub-national governments, which is vital for the efficient service delivery at the local level. According to the current assignments of the expenditure and revenue responsibilities most of the provinces are unable to provide a certain national standard of public goods supply. Hence, intergovernmental transfers from the central jurisdiction to the sub-national jurisdictions play an important role for the equalization of the vertical and horizontal imbalances in Mongolia. The critical problem associated with intergovernmental transfers is that there is not a stable, predictable and transparent system of transfer allocation. The amount of transfers to sub-national governments is determined largely by political decisions on ad hoc basis and disregards local differences in needs and fiscal capacity. Thus a fiscal equalization system based on the fiscal needs of the provinces should be implemented. The equalization transfers will at least partly offset the regional disparities in revenues and enable the sub-national governments to provide a national minimum standard of local public goods. / Der Fiskalische Föderalismus ist in den letzten vier Dekaden eines der wichtigsten Themen der finanzwissenschaftlichen Theorie. Dabei wird häufig argumentiert, dass eine Dezentralisierung der öffentlichen Aufgaben nicht nur die Wachstumschancen eines Landes erhöhen kann, sondern darüber hinaus auch der Allokationseffizienz förderlich ist. Allerdings zeigen empirische Untersuchungen für die Industrie- und Entwicklungsländern keine einheitlichen Ergebnisse; es wird aber deutlich, dass es einen Schwellenwert in Bezug auf den Entwicklungsstand gibt, unterhalb dessen eine Dezentralisierung erst wirksam wird. So haben einige Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländer eine Vielzahl von Formen der steuerlichen Dezentralisierung als eine mögliche Strategie gewählt, um wirksame und effiziente dezentrale staatliche Strukturen zu entwickeln, wobei es einen allgemeinen Lösungsansatz hinsichtlich der Dezentralisierung allerdings nicht gibt. Vielmehr sind die besonderen kulturellen, wirtschaftlichen und geografischen Bedingungen des einzelnen Landes in angemessener Weise zu berücksichtigen. Die gefundenen Lösungen weisen daher eine relativ große Variationsbreite auf. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, den aktuellen Stand der steuerlichen Dezentralisierung in der Mongolei zu untersuchen und Empfehlungen für ein effizientes und effektives System der zwischenstaatlichen Finanzbeziehungen in der Mongolei zu entwickeln. Dabei konzentriert sich die Analyse auf Umfang und Struktur des öffentlichen Sektors, also die Aufgaben und Ausgaben sowie die öffentlichen Einnahmen. Außerdem wird auf die Zuordnung von Aufgaben und Einnahmen sowie auf die Gestaltung der zwischenstaatlichen Transfer und die subnationale Kreditaufnahme eingegangen. Die Studie basiert auf Daten der zwanzig Provinzen und der Hauptstadt der Mongolei für den Zeitraum 2000 bis 2009. Als ehemals sozialistisches Land verfügt die Mongolei über einen stark zentralisierten staatlichen Sektor. Aus der detaillierten Analyse folgt, dass die Mongolei eine Reihe von Maßnahmen zur Neustrukturierung der gebietskörperschaftlichen Ebenen ohne eine klare Dezentralisierungsstrategie durchgesetzt hat, die einen Top-Down-Ansatz verfolgten. Im Ergebnis wurde die Mongolei zu einem Staat mit einer starken Konzentration des Steueraufkommens auf der zentralstaatlichen Ebene. Dabei fehlt der Einnahmenzuordnung vor allem ein sehr wichtiges Element, nämlich eine Einnahmenautonomie auf der Ebene der untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften, welche zum einen die Aufkommenssituation der lokalen und regionalen Gebietskörperschaften verbessert und ihnen damit erst eine eigenständige Aufgabenerfüllung ermöglicht. Bei der derzeitigen Aufgaben- und Steuerverteilung sind die meisten Provinzen nicht in der Lage, einen bestimmten nationalen Mindeststandard an öffentlichen Güter und Dienstleistungen bereitzustellen. Die Staatstätigkeit auf den untergeordneten Ebenen folgt überwiegend der Auftragsverwaltung und wird folglich im Wesentlichen über Finanzhilfen des Zentralstaats finanziert. Das entscheidende Problem der zwischenstaatlichen Transfers liegt darin begründet, dass es für die zentralstaatlichen Finanzhilfen an die untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften kein stabiles, berechenbares und transparentes System der Steuerverteilung gibt. Die Höhe der Transferzahlungen an die sub-nationalen Regierungen ist weitgehend von politischen ad hoc Entscheidungen abhängig, welche in der Regel die lokalen und regionalen Finanzbedarfe missachten. Damit werden die Unterschiede zwischen Finanzbedarf und Finanzkraft auf der Ebene der untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften nicht angemessen ausgeglichen. Es wird daher eine formelbasierte Steuerverteilung vorgeschlagen, welche die starken Schwankungen der Transferhöhe im Zeitverlauf vermeidet und die es den untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften ermöglicht, einen vorgegebenen Mindeststandard an öffentlichen Gütern und Dienstleistungen ihren Bürgerinnen und Bürgern auch anbieten zu können.

Fiscal federalism has been an important topic among public finance theorists in the last four decades. There is a series of arguments that decentralization of governments enhances growth by improving allocation efficiency. However, the empirical studies have shown mixed results for industrialized and developing countries and some of them have demonstrated that there might be a threshold level of economic development below which decentralization is not effective. Developing and transition countries have developed a variety of forms of fiscal decentralization as a possible strategy to achieve effective and efficient governmental structures. A generalized principle of decentralization due to the country specific circumstances does not exist. Therefore, decentralization has taken place in different forms in various countries at different times, and even exactly the same extent of decentralization may have had different impacts under different conditions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the current state of the fiscal decentralization in Mongolia and to develop policy recommendations for the efficient and effective intergovernmental fiscal relations system for Mongolia. Within this perspective the analysis concentrates on the scope and structure of the public sector, the expenditure and revenue assignment as well as on the design of the intergovernmental transfer and sub-national borrowing. The study is based on data for twenty-one provinces and the capital city of Mongolia for the period from 2000 to 2009. As a former socialist country Mongolia has had a highly centralized governmental sector. The result of the analysis below revealed that the Mongolia has introduced a number of decentralization measures, which followed a top down approach and were slowly implemented without any integrated decentralization strategy in the last decade. As a result Mongolia became de-concentrated state with fiscal centralization. The revenue assignment is lacking a very important element, for instance significant revenue autonomy given to sub-national governments, which is vital for the efficient service delivery at the local level. According to the current assignments of the expenditure and revenue responsibilities most of the provinces are unable to provide a certain national standard of public goods supply. Hence, intergovernmental transfers from the central jurisdiction to the sub-national jurisdictions play an important role for the equalization of the vertical and horizontal imbalances in Mongolia. The critical problem associated with intergovernmental transfers is that there is not a stable, predictable and transparent system of transfer allocation. The amount of transfers to sub-national governments is determined largely by political decisions on ad hoc basis and disregards local differences in needs and fiscal capacity. Thus a fiscal equalization system based on the fiscal needs of the provinces should be implemented. The equalization transfers will at least partly offset the regional disparities in revenues and enable the sub-national governments to provide a national minimum standard of local public goods. / Der Fiskalische Föderalismus ist in den letzten vier Dekaden eines der wichtigsten Themen der finanzwissenschaftlichen Theorie. Dabei wird häufig argumentiert, dass eine Dezentralisierung der öffentlichen Aufgaben nicht nur die Wachstumschancen eines Landes erhöhen kann, sondern darüber hinaus auch der Allokationseffizienz förderlich ist. Allerdings zeigen empirische Untersuchungen für die Industrie- und Entwicklungsländern keine einheitlichen Ergebnisse; es wird aber deutlich, dass es einen Schwellenwert in Bezug auf den Entwicklungsstand gibt, unterhalb dessen eine Dezentralisierung erst wirksam wird. So haben einige Entwicklungs- und Schwellenländer eine Vielzahl von Formen der steuerlichen Dezentralisierung als eine mögliche Strategie gewählt, um wirksame und effiziente dezentrale staatliche Strukturen zu entwickeln, wobei es einen allgemeinen Lösungsansatz hinsichtlich der Dezentralisierung allerdings nicht gibt. Vielmehr sind die besonderen kulturellen, wirtschaftlichen und geografischen Bedingungen des einzelnen Landes in angemessener Weise zu berücksichtigen. Die gefundenen Lösungen weisen daher eine relativ große Variationsbreite auf. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, den aktuellen Stand der steuerlichen Dezentralisierung in der Mongolei zu untersuchen und Empfehlungen für ein effizientes und effektives System der zwischenstaatlichen Finanzbeziehungen in der Mongolei zu entwickeln. Dabei konzentriert sich die Analyse auf Umfang und Struktur des öffentlichen Sektors, also die Aufgaben und Ausgaben sowie die öffentlichen Einnahmen. Außerdem wird auf die Zuordnung von Aufgaben und Einnahmen sowie auf die Gestaltung der zwischenstaatlichen Transfer und die subnationale Kreditaufnahme eingegangen. Die Studie basiert auf Daten der zwanzig Provinzen und der Hauptstadt der Mongolei für den Zeitraum 2000 bis 2009. Als ehemals sozialistisches Land verfügt die Mongolei über einen stark zentralisierten staatlichen Sektor. Aus der detaillierten Analyse folgt, dass die Mongolei eine Reihe von Maßnahmen zur Neustrukturierung der gebietskörperschaftlichen Ebenen ohne eine klare Dezentralisierungsstrategie durchgesetzt hat, die einen Top-Down-Ansatz verfolgten. Im Ergebnis wurde die Mongolei zu einem Staat mit einer starken Konzentration des Steueraufkommens auf der zentralstaatlichen Ebene. Dabei fehlt der Einnahmenzuordnung vor allem ein sehr wichtiges Element, nämlich eine Einnahmenautonomie auf der Ebene der untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften, welche zum einen die Aufkommenssituation der lokalen und regionalen Gebietskörperschaften verbessert und ihnen damit erst eine eigenständige Aufgabenerfüllung ermöglicht. Bei der derzeitigen Aufgaben- und Steuerverteilung sind die meisten Provinzen nicht in der Lage, einen bestimmten nationalen Mindeststandard an öffentlichen Güter und Dienstleistungen bereitzustellen. Die Staatstätigkeit auf den untergeordneten Ebenen folgt überwiegend der Auftragsverwaltung und wird folglich im Wesentlichen über Finanzhilfen des Zentralstaats finanziert. Das entscheidende Problem der zwischenstaatlichen Transfers liegt darin begründet, dass es für die zentralstaatlichen Finanzhilfen an die untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften kein stabiles, berechenbares und transparentes System der Steuerverteilung gibt. Die Höhe der Transferzahlungen an die sub-nationalen Regierungen ist weitgehend von politischen ad hoc Entscheidungen abhängig, welche in der Regel die lokalen und regionalen Finanzbedarfe missachten. Damit werden die Unterschiede zwischen Finanzbedarf und Finanzkraft auf der Ebene der untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften nicht angemessen ausgeglichen. Es wird daher eine formelbasierte Steuerverteilung vorgeschlagen, welche die starken Schwankungen der Transferhöhe im Zeitverlauf vermeidet und die es den untergeordneten Gebietskörperschaften ermöglicht, einen vorgegebenen Mindeststandard an öffentlichen Gütern und Dienstleistungen ihren Bürgerinnen und Bürgern auch anbieten zu können.

<p><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"><font face="Times-Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The purpose of this research effort is to contribute to the discussion on consumer indebtedness and poverty, analyse the causes and levels of indebtedness as well as the role played by both the consumer and the credit provider in the growth of consumer indebtedness among the sampled population of the Cape Flats area of West Bank in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The methodology used in this study included both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. The research methods comprised of a comprehensive literature study and secondary data analysis, immersion in the case study area in order to observe the consumer credit market dynamics and its trends. In-depth informal and semi-formal interviewing, focus group discussions as well as a questionnaire survey were also used to gather primary data.</p> </font></font></font></font></p>

Since the global budget system carried out by National Health Insurance Bureau in 2003, hospital autonomy management practiced in 2003 as well as reviews carried by specialized doctors system established, local hospitals have faced critical impacts. The fluctuating point reimbursement was applied, it not only restrains the reimbursement received by the hospitals, but also causes management difficulties for local hospital as the fluctuating points shrink year by year. The number of western medical hospitals is decreasing. The number in 2000 was 575, but now only 500 local hospitals operate in Taiwan. For survival, local hospitals have to establish sound financial system in order to deal with changing national health insurance policies. On the other hand, they are encouraged to use strategy management theories to promote the competitiveness for local hospitals to well control their expenditures and create their income. The study has analyzed the statistical data from Statistical Office, Department of Health and National Health Insurance Bureau and integrated related literatures to understand the management strategies and responses of local hospitals under national health insurance policies and the economic, demographic and political environment. Results of the study will be provided for reference. Beside statistic data and literatures, strategy management concepts and theories were also adopted to clarify current policies of health insurance, reimbursement system and the situation of local hospitals to probe into the difficulties and possible solutions. Local hospitals were chosen to be the study subjects, and through SWOT Analysis, Poter¡¦s Five Force Analysis, Blue Sea Strategy and the findings from literature review, we found that (1)the financial gap of health insurance has transferred to medical organizations, especially local hospitals; (2)under global budget system, local hospitals have to increase income and decrease expenditures by transformation, running pay business or joint outpatient service; ¡]3¡^cost management is critical for local hospitals to establish internal strength; (4) referring to blue sea strategy to develop distinguished business and differential products can create niche for local hospitals to break through the bottleneck.

The thesis consists of an introductory part and three self-contained papers. Paper [I] studies the determinants of the differences in expenditure on services for functionally impaired individuals among municipalities in Sweden. A spatial autoregressive model is used in order to test whether the decisions on the expenditure level in a neighboring municipality affect the municipality’s own expenditure. The results show of spatial interaction among neighbors, possible due to mimicking. However, when controlling for differences among counties there is no evidence of spatial interaction. Therefore, the positive interaction first found can be interpreted either as a result of differences in the way county councils diagnose individuals or due to interaction among the neighbors in the same county. Paper [II] takes advantage of a new intergovernmental grant in two ways. First, the grant is used to study the effect on municipal spending related to the grant. Second, the grant is used to test a hypothesis of spatial interaction among municipalities due to mimicking behavior. The data used pertains to the periods before and after the introduction of the grant. A fixed-effects spatial lag model is used to study the spatial interactions among municipalities. The results show that before the grant, municipalities interact with their neighbors when setting the expenditure level, while there is no evidence of interaction in the second period. This would support the hypothesis that the grants provide information to the municipalities and the need for mimicking diminishes with the grant. Paper [III] examines whether local public expenditures on services to functionally impaired individuals crowd out other local public expenditures in Sweden. The hypothesis is tested on five different spending areas using a two-stage least squares (2SLS) fixed-effects model. While the results give no support for crowding out in the areas of social assistance, culture &amp; leisure, and childcare &amp; preschool, a negative relationship on spending for elderly &amp; disabled care and on spending for education is found, suggesting that crowding out indeed occurs within the municipal sector. The negative relationships are significant both in a statistical and an economic sense.

The overall aim of the research presented here was to expand the knowledge on metabolic course and nutritional outcome in patients with severe traumatic brain injury and to analyze the use and accuracy of different methods of assessment. Study I, a systematic review of 30 articles demonstrated consistent data on increased metabolic rate, of catabolism and of upper gastrointestinal intolerance in the majority of the patients during early post injury period. Data also indicated a tendency of less morbidity and mortality in early fed patients. Study II, a retrospective survey, based on medical records of 64 patients from three regions in Sweden, showed that the majority of patients regained their independence in eating within six months post injury. However, energy intake was set at a low level and 68 % of the patients developed malnutrition with 10 to 29 % loss of initial body mass during the first and second month post injury. Study III, a questionnaire based study addressed to 74 care units caring for patients with severe traumatic brain injury showed that resources in terms of qualified staff members were reportedly good, but nutritional guidelines were adopted in less than half of the units, screening for malnutrition at admission was rarely performed and surveillance of energy intake declined when oral intake began. Moreover, assessment of energy requirements relied on calculations and the profession in charge to estimate energy requirement varied depending on nutritional route and unit speciality. At transferral between units nutritional information was lost. Study IV and V, a prospective descriptive study on metabolic course, energy balance and methods of assessment in six patients showed that patients were in negative energy balance from 3rd week post injury and lost 8-19 % of their initial body weight. Concurrent nutritional problems were difficulties in retaining enteral and/or parenteral nutrition delivery routes until oral feeding was considered satisfactory. The majority of methods for predicting energy expenditure agreed poorly with measured energy expenditure.  The Penn-State equation from 1998 was the only valid predictive method during mechanical ventilation. This thesis concludes that patients with moderate or severe traumatic brain injury exhibit a wide range of increased metabolic rate, catabolism and upper gastrointestinal intolerance during the early post-injury period. Most patients regain independence in eating, but develop malnutrition. Suggested explanations, other than the systemic disturbances early post injury, could be the use of inaccurate predictions of energy expenditure, deficient nutritional routines and difficulties in securing alternative nutritional routes until oral feeding is satisfactory. The impact of timing, content and ways of administration of nutritional support on neurological outcome after a severe traumatic brain injury remains to be demonstrated.