Practice firm - it is a virtual company silhoueting a „real“ firm and trading, reflecting other proceses in „real“ company. Pf objective - the shoolpupil and students knowledge in the business area. This is theoretical knowledge with intention to put it into the practical outfit.

The first two chapters study the effect of foreign lobbies on trade policy of a country which is a member of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). They rely on a monopolistically competitive political economy model in which the government determines external tariffs endogenously. In the first paper the effect of foreign lobbying under the FTA is examined empirically using Canadian industry-level trade data that allow differentiating of lobby groups by the country of origin. The analysis suggests that the presence of foreign lobbying has a significant effect on the domestic trade policy: the presence of an organized lobbying group in an FTA partner country tends to raise trade barriers while an organized lobbying group of exporters from outside of the FTA is associated with less protection. The second paper analyses political viability of FTAs and their effect on the world trading system in the presence of lobbying by organized foreign interest groups. I show that the FTA in the presence of an organized lobby group in a prospective partner country may cause an increase in the level of protection against imports from third countries and impede trade with non-member countries. I also find that foreign lobby may encourage the local government to enter a welfare-reducing trade-diverting FTA. Finally, I show that the FTA increases the lobbying power of the organized lobby groups of the member countries, which can potentially obstruct the viability of welfare-improving multilateral trade liberalization. The last paper shows that the reason for a higher capital-labor ratio observed for exporting firms is a higher capital intensity of their production technology. Exporters are more productive, more likely to survive and, hence, more likely to repay loans. A higher repayment probability causes creditors to charge lower interest rate and reduces the marginal cost of the firm when a more capital-intensive technology is used. Here, a reduction in international trade costs stimulates exporting firms to use more efficient capital-intensive technologies, while non-exporters switch to less capital-intensive ones. This within-industry change in the composition of technologies reinforces the productivity advantage of exporters and contributes further to industry-wide productivity improvement. The results of model simulations highlight that to 10% of welfare and productivity gains of trade liberalization come from the adoption of new technologies by existing firms in the industry, thus amplifying the effect of resource reallocation from firms' entry and exit.

<p>I examine the long-term valuation consequence of over-investment in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on acquiring firms through the "anticipation effect," in which forward-looking prices embed investors' expectations about the profitability of firms' potential future acquisitions. Using a sample of 1,451 firms with past acquisition activities, I find that their market valuations depend on both the profitability of their past acquisitions and their current free cash flow. Specifically, among firms with positive free cash flow, those with the worse history of value-destroying acquisitions experience lower market valuations. Among firms with negative free cash flow, the history of value-destroying acquisitions is not systematically associated with firm value. In addition, a significant portion of the discount is from lowered valuation of firms' cash holdings. These findings are consistent with investors forming expectations about the profitability of future possible acquisitions based on the realized performance outcomes of firms' past acquisitions and value these firms accordingly based on the likelihood of engaging in future acquisitions. They also provide empirical support for using observed market prices to proxy for investors' expectations about firms' future investment opportunities.</p> / Dissertation

The recent global economic challenges have drastically impacted several economic sectors across the world. As such, Eskom, the South African electricity utility, has experienced a number of changes, ranging from the organisational structure to the functional processes or models, to meet the demands of the volatile global market. This research acknowledges that the Eskom Transmission organisation, a division within Eskom, has interrelated departmental processes. However, the transition from the conceptual phase to the execution (implementation) phase had a number of misalignments. These manifested in the following challenges, amongst others: late execution and completion of projects which often results in cost overruns; poor quality completed projects; a high number of projects at execution stage with inadequately defined scope of work which led to scope changes during implementation; and a high staff turnover, particularly of project managers. As such, the project lifecycle model was adapted to address these challenges. This research focused on the change management principles that were followed in realising the new Eskom Transmission lifecycle model, and investigated the impact that this had on the people “living” with the new model as well as the inter-departmental relations, control mechanisms, attitude towards the management, and organisational performance. Available literature on change management, as well as some aspects of organisational behaviour, such as organisational performance, were utilised to try and provide an understanding of the above-mentioned areas of interest. The chosen and most appropriate methodology for collecting data was the qualitative approach as it allowed for descriptive and extensive information gathering. The researcher sought subjective information through human interpretation. For data collection, a comprehensive questionnaire for all the stakeholder groups was used, as well as documentation analysis. The data was then analysed and interpreted, which allowed for pertinent findings and recommendations to be made. The findings included the establishment that Eskom Transmission adapted Kotter’s (1988) eight stage model in implementing its new lifecycle model. The impact of Eskom Transmission’s new lifecycle model on the people “living” with this model was found to be premature to measure. However, an improvement has been noted in the definition of the scope of work for projects, possibly owing to more effective interactions between employees during project meetings and is an indication that the new model is a contributor towards improving Eskom’s organisational performance. Further findings included inadequate stakeholder consultation, which rendered the followed implementation strategy non-optimal; as well as varied stakeholder views on the support of the new lifecycle model for Eskom Transmission’s goals and vision. The latter suggests an opportunity for Eskom Transmission management to review the lifecycle model to improve its alignment to the division’s goals and vision in order to encourage commitment levels which, amongst others, impact organisational effectiveness. / Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

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Service innovation is increasingly becoming a basis for manufacturing firms to reach and sustain competitive advantages. While traditional product innovation typically includes how new technology can be utilized in new products, service innovation spans a broader area that is not exclusively focused on new technology, but rather how resources can be developed into value propositions and then integrated in the customer’s process in order to support customer value creation through realization. However, manufacturing firms that infuse services struggle with service innovation; this becomes especially evident in the realization phase. This thesis is a compilation of five papers discussing different aspects of service innovation realization and the inherited challenges. The study builds upon empirical data from four Swedish manufacturing firms that infuse services and develop new value propositions that include both products and services to support customer processes. The thesis illustrates realization as a phase in service innovation where the firm interacts with its customer in order to adjust, revise and further find new ways of improving the customer’s processes through for example customer training. Realization is characterized by a deployment phase and a post-deployment phase that represent the ongoing relationship between the customer and the firm. Depending on who has the competencies or ability to integrate the resources that are needed for service innovation, different interaction patterns are identified. Through indirect interaction, the firm facilitates the customer’s value creation through, for example, preventive maintenance, while through direct interaction the firm acts as a co-creator in the service innovation process and hence work jointly together with the customer in order to improve customer value creation. This thesis contributes to the literature by characterizing service innovation realization and by increasing the understanding for different interaction patterns in the service innovation process.

This research undertakes a contingency theory examination of strategy and cost system alignment based on customer retention and customer profitability analysis. Previous research and consultancy advice has promoted the benefits of a firm following a customer retention strategy. They claim that in order to support the strategy a firm should have a customer profitability analysis system in place. Yet often what is prescribed as good practice is not observed in firms. This inconsistency is explained using contingency theory. Initial qualitative evidence was collected from four industry sites to determine whether the above strategy-cost system alignment was present. An analysis of these findings suggested that the customer retention-customer profitability analysis system relationship was contingent on a range of factors. As a result, a contingent theory of this relationship was developed from the four sites, and this theory was then tested in a survey of 862 people from 431 firms. The survey results provide support for the propositions developed from the qualitative evidence. It is likely that firms will follow multiple operational marketing strategies and have cost management systems in place to support those strategies. Although customer retention is a very important operational marketing strategy, a significant number of firms do not have customer profitability analysis systems in place to support the strategy. Many contingent factors were identified. Customer profitability analysis implementation is dependent on industry type; size; the difficulties involved in determining customer costs; whether the organisation has a champion for the system; the relationship between the marketing and accounting functions in a firm; and the available labour resources to facilitate implementation. Further, it is apparent that customer profitability analysis information is not essential to support a customer retention strategy. Customer revenue information can be substituted and the firms are satisfied with the level of management accounting system support for their operational marketing strategies. However, many respondents see the value of customer revenue, customer cost and customer profitability information, providing opportunities for future design of such systems as well as research into their development.

In this thesis we show how and why non-family managers are excluded in family firms. Additionally, we depict the implications of exclusion on an individual as well as a business level. The literature framework that consists of literature from family business and organizational as well as socio-psychological studies lays the foundation for our qualitative empirical research. A method triangulation of semi-structured interviews and vignettes, based on empirical material from seven cases, is applied to understand the exclusion of non-family managers. Our findings suggest that exclusion is prevailing in family firms. Hereby, family members as well as non-family managers can be the ones excluding. We identified six main categories why exclusion of non-family managers happens. Exclusion can be based on the family’s values and norms, exclusive knowledge of a family member, the need of quick decision making, the need of secrecy, the manager’s professional values and norms, as well as the manager’s personal values and norms. Further, exclusion can take place in formal and informal selective arenas, through formal and informal breach of agreements, through structural and cultural hindrances, as well as through differences between enacted and espoused values. Moreover, we reveal several implications exclusion has on an individual and on a business level. The findings contribute to the theoretical and managerial understanding of exclusion in family firms. Thus, increasing the awareness of its existence in family firms. Additionally, we contribute to current research about exclusion in family firms by providing more insights into the complex phenomenon. This thesis is of interest to any individual in a leading position in family firms, as well as academics in the research field of family businesses.

The importance of small firms in a country’s development cannot be over-emphasized. In particular, it is important for them to grow in order to sustain their contributions to a country’s economy. Studies have shown how firms achieve growth using the traditional model of decision making (causation) in which planning, market research and forecasting are used to gain relevant information about the firm’s market/industry. This planning enables the firms to compete favourably with other existing firms in the market. Effectuation as an alternative theory involves decision-making processes under conditions of uncertainty where there is no adequate knowledge of the market due to its latent and emerging nature. Effectuation has been used to examine various concepts in entrepreneurship, but there has been no real effort to apply it to the growth of small knowledge-intensive firms (SKIFs). This study, based on in-depth interviews with six SKIFs, highlights how effectuation can be applied to the growth of SKIFs and it examines how the four underlying principles of contingencies, affordable loss, strategic relationships and adaptation contribute to SKIF growth. In addition, elements of causation are also shown to be relevant, leading to the conclusion that the two models can be used jointly to achieve growth of SKIFs.

When a major disruption occurs, an organization’s performance is usually negatively affected. The great recession of 2008 – 2009 was such a disruption which had global implications that had not been seen since the great depression that started in the 1930s. This thesis is intended to contribute to the understanding of how leanness and slack resources affect firm performance in the presence of disruptions that test supply chain resilience, or the ability to restore the firm’s performance to its original condition after encountering stress or a large disturbance. These disruptions may not only affect the firm’s financial performance during the disruption but also well after the disruption has occurred. Two industries with differing supply chains, food and beverage, and electronics and computer, were investigated. The study is based on archival data (N=10,020 and 668 firms) with observations from just before and just after the great recession, a disruption that affected the entire global economy. Our results suggest (1) the effect of inventory leanness and slack resources on firm performance is industry specific; and (2) variation in firm performance is less in the post-disruptive period than in the pre-disrupted period. Overall, our findings call for a contingency perspective to specify the level of inventory leanness and slack resources when determining their impact on firm performance to support supply chain resilience.