M.Ing. / This case study explores the different technology management techniques available to organisations to control and manipulate technology to improve efficiency, reliability, optimisation and productivity. The technology techniques explored in this case study include technology roadmaps, technology capability analysis and technology portfolio analysis. The theoretical framework section of this case study provides an in depth study on the different techniques and presents supporting information that must be understood to correctly and efficiently implement these techniques. The analysis section of this case study presents results to authenticate the research captured in the theoretical section. The analysis section and the conclusion of this case study provide results and benefits of implementing technology management techniques within business units of Sasol. Sasol consists of a number of different technologies with different lifecycles which are required to be controlled and maintained to ensure continuous operation. Sasol is dependent on technology for safety, continuous operation and maintenance. The outcome of this case study is to provide an organisation such as Sasol the benefits and results of implementing technology management techniques within the organisation and to justify investing in technology management tools and techniques. The technology roadmap and technology portfolio analysis was carried out for the Solvents business unit whereas the technology capability analysis was carried out for Sasol Technology control engineering group.

The paper is a study of barriers to communication in terms of agents' incentives to search for and communicate complementary information. In particular, I look at the value of commitment by comparing game forms in which a contract is negotiated prior to, versus after, search and communication. I will use the names "firms" and "markets", respectively, for these two game forms. The comparison depends on three effects. (1) The bargaining power effect: Since the decision to communicate reveals information about preferences, it implies a loss of bargaining power when the players negotiate ex post. This hurts the incentives to communicate and therefore the incentives to search. (2) The incentive transfer effect: If the gains from adjustment accrue unevenly, ex ante negotiation may leave one of the players without incentives to communicate and search. With ex post negotiation, that player can bargain for a share of the gains. (3) The bargaining efficiency effect: The negotiation process itself may be more efficient ex post because more information has been revealed. The net effect depends on the magnitude of the gains and their accrual. If negotiation normally leads to agreement, it is better done ex ante in cases where adjustments yield smaller, more evenly accruing gains. When gains are larger and accrue less evenly, ex post negotiation implements more communication and search

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This study examines the failure firm¡¦s stock risk character and return behavior prior announcements day. This study includes three parts. First, we examine the risk different between failure firms and control firms. Second, we analysis the returns character of failure firms, and third, we test whether the different judgment announcements will affect the failure firms¡¦ stock return. We examine the daily stock returns between 1997 and 1999, 26 failure firms and 50 control firms have been observed. The empirical results can be summarized as follows: 1. Systematic risk behaves quite differently for the failure and control groups as much as two years before failure. 2. Both the total variance and the firm-specific variance behave quite differently for the failure and control groups only two months before failure. 3. The market is effective before announcements and not effective after announcements. 4. The shareholders of failure firms lost between different judgment announcements are no different in a short time. 5. The magnitude of the price reaction to failure filings depend on the probability of bankruptcy and proxy for predisclosure information impounded in stock prices over the year prior to failure filing.

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ABSTRACT This paper tests the influence of family control on corporate governance. It empirically examines the efficacy of internal governance mechanisms by analyzing the forced turnovers of top executive officers in Taiwan manufacturing companies. We divide samples into family firms and non-family firms, and also into firms in the high-tech industry and firms in the traditional industry. The result shows that corporate governance in family firms differs from that in non-family firms. In the traditional industry, the top executive turnover is related to performance for family firms, and it implies the effectiveness of internal monitoring mechanism. However there is no evidence to prove the efficiency of governance mechanism for non-family firms in the traditional industry. In the high-tech industry, the influence of family control on corporate governance is not significantly observed, but there is significant evidence to show the well functioning of governance mechanism in non-family firms. Overall, these results suggest that both family control and industry characteristic do influence the efficiency of corporate governance.

As the whole environment is changing dramatically and competition is globalizing, corporations face a future hard to predict and control and have a strong desire for more help from outside. Therefore, the consulting industry which satisfies corporations¡¦ demand to solve their problems is growing faster and faster. With the suggestions and recommendations from consulting firms, some corporations really have better performance and become more competitive; however, others do not benefit but get big losses from consulting forms. So we can have a conclusion that solving corporations¡¦ problems from consulting firms is not the only way to choose. Nevertheless, this research hopes to provide corporations and consulting firms with some efficient methods when they are involved in consulting projects. According to the case study and integrating analysis, the main conclusions of this research are as following: 1. Corporations must understand what they need and measure they own capability before planning to have consulting, and then be able to evaluate if they need to have consulting. 2. When corporations plan and choose consulting firms, they can benefit more by starting from staffs with interpersonal relationship and other corporations¡¦ experiences. 3. In the beginning, corporations and consulting firms should communicate completely with each other. Corporations should insist on their core value and culture and take it as the base of changing to get rid of missing their directions. 4. When facing resistance, corporations should solve problems positively and rely on the consulting firms¡¦ distinctive experiences and competencies of resolving conflicts. 5. Corporations usually find it difficult to evaluate consulting firms¡¦ performances; therefore they often spend more making a decision about consulting firms. But what is important for corporations is taking the results of evaluating consulting projects as the basis of improving to enhance the success of next project. Consequently, corporations should complete performance evaluating of consulting projects in detail; continue using a good model and correct failures and mistakes to promote the performance and value of consulting projects.

Transportation research regularly relies on data exhibiting both space and time dimensions. Thanks to the rise of smartphones, Bluetooth, and other devices, geo-referenced data collection enables application of more behaviorally realistic -- but complex -- models that account for spatial autocorrelation, temporal correlation, and possible time-space interactions (e.g., time-lagged effects from a neighboring unit's response). One promising area is crash count prediction, where crash frequencies (and severities) at zones, intersections, and along roadways will generally exhibit some spatial relationships, due to missing variables, causal mechanisms, and other ties. This dissertation work proposes and estimates a spatial multivariate count model and provides two case studies to implement such model. One case study is in the context of pedestrian-vehicle crash counts across zones in Austin, Texas, while accounting for network features (e.g., lane-miles and intersection density), land use factors (such as land use entropy and residential accessibility to commercial activities), population and job densities, and school access. The other case study pertains to new firm births by industries across U.S. counties while controlling for population density, agglomeration economies (e.g., percentage of firms with more than 100 people), wealth, and median age. The new model specification captures region-wide heterogeneity (thanks to extra variation introduced by the lognormal component in the mean crash-rate specification), correlations across two (or more) count types (in the same zone), and spatial autocorrelation among unobserved components. This new approach and associated application allow analysts to distinguish covariates' effects on multivariate crash and other counts from spatial spillover effects and cross-response correlations. This work adds to the literature by providing guidance on what types of specifications best reflect spatial count data while facilitating estimation (using large data sets) and illuminating the level and nature of spatial autocorrelation, multivariate correlation, and region-wide (latent) heterogeneity that exists in crash data after controlling for a host of observable factors. / text

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