This thesis presents an approach which the small and medium size firms can use in-house to introduce manufacturing information systems. The approach developed is generic and employs information system design and analysis techniques to guide Small and Medium size Enterprises (SME's) from specification of their need, right through to the implementation of an appropriate solution. Although there are various tools and methodologies that are available for large organisations needs, none are available for SME's. Therefore, the approach presented in this thesis provides original and significant improvements on current practice. The approach emphasises the importance of taking a company wide approach to analyse systems throughout its various departments to establish bad practices and system flaws which may impinge on the performance of the manufacturing operations. The research involved three independent stages. The first stage was the identification of the problem which was realised from two sources: literature survey and interviews with case study company managers. The second stage was the development of a novel approach. The final stage included the validation of the approach by implementing it in five different SMEs in the Devon and Cornwall region. Through the use of this work, company's are encouraged to improve ownership and commitment to the manufacturing information systems by fully involving the relevant company personnel in identifying and resolving various problems. The approach proposed also helps managers understand how the various processes work in other areas of company, and can subsequently lead to improvements in other departments.

Research on the firm's heterogeneity is a well-developed concept in the export context; literature can found in the export context. Previous research can found on firm heterogeneity and firm performance, but they are in export context. On the other hand, importing firms' heterogeneity is less sought in the literature, which we believe as a clear gap in the export-import research stream. Limited research has done in the context of importing firms. The purpose of our thesis is to explore the different forms of heterogeneities that Pakistani importing firms' practices are gaining a competitive advantage. Furthermore, our goal is to examine the extent of heterogeneity dimensions to what contributes to their performances. There is a significant gap in the research field of import. As there is less research in the import context, this will be a fundamental goal of research towards firms' heterogeneity and the importance of a country.

No / The purpose of this paper is to theorise and develop seven dimensions (strategic supplier partnership, level of information sharing, quality of information sharing, customer service management, internal lean practices, postponement and total quality management) into a supply chain management (SCM) practices (SCMPs) construct and studies its causal relationship with the conceptualised constructs of supply chain performance (SCP) and manufacturing firms’ performance (MFP). The study also explores the causal relationship between SCP and MFP. Data were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 249 Jordanian manufacturing firms. The relationships proposed in the developed theoretical framework were represented through three hypotheses: H1 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and SCP; H2 – there is a significant relationship between SCMPs and MFP; and H3 – there is a significant relationship between SCP and MFP. Linear regression, ANOVA and Pearson correlation were used to test the hypotheses. The results were further validated using structural equation modelling. The results indicate that SCMPs have a positive effect on SCP (H1), which in turn also positively affect MFP (H3). Despite this intermediary positive effect of SCMP on MFP through SCP, the study also suggests that SCMPs have a direct and positive effect on MFP (H2). This study provides hard evidence indicating that higher levels of SCMPs can lead to enhanced supply chain and firms’ performance. It also provides SC managers of manufacturing firms with a multi-dimensional operational measure of the construct of SCMPs for assessing the comprehensiveness of the SCMPs of their firms. This study is among the very first SCM researches conducted on the Jordanian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the practices that manufacturing firms in this country need to adopt to make their supply chains a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing companies, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated supply chains are key stages in economic development.

Företag är av stor vikt för det svenska samhället. Presterar de dåligt, drabbar det inte enbart den svenska ekonomin utan även de anställda och deras liv. De senaste åren har antalet noterade aktiebolag på Nasdaq Stockholm ökat, ökningen medför att företagens intressenter blir allt fler. Det är därför även viktigt för aktieägarna att företagen leds av den mest lämpade VD:n och presterar optimalt. I tidigare forskning har det observerats att faktorer såsom lön, kön samt företagsspecifik erfarenhet kan påverka VD:ns agerande och således även företagets prestation. Motstridiga resultat har presenterats mellan företagets prestation och kön samt företagsspecifik erfarenhet, samtidigt som positiva resultat observerats mellan prestationen och lön. Covid-19 har varit brännande aktuellt de senaste åren och en mängd åtgärder har införts från den svenska staten. Forskning från andra länder har konstaterat att företagens prestation har påverkats negativt av Covid-19 pandemin. Vidare har det observerats från tidigare kriser som drabbat den svenska ekonomin, att egenskaper som VD:n besitter haft en stor påverkan på hur företaget klarat sig under kriserna. Detta examensarbete ämnar därmed att undersöka hur de svenska företagens prestation har påverkats av Covid-19, samt om VD:ns egenskaper i form av lön, kön samt företagsspecifik erfarenhet har någon koppling till hur företaget presterar under denna ekonomiska kris. Examensarbetet präglas av en kvantitativ metod där publika företag på Nasdaq Stockholm har legat till grund för studien. Ett antal företag har exkluderats på grund av avgränsningar samt bortfall. Slutligen har det resulterat i att 277 företag observerats under åren 2017 till 2020. Resultaten som återfunnits har visat på att det inte finns något signifikant samband mellan Covid-19 och företagets prestation, däremot finns det tendenser som tyder på detta. Dessutom har det observerats att vissa egenskaper hos VD:n har olika betydelse beroende på om företaget befinner sig i en tid med Covid-19 eller ej. Resultatet visar på att VD:ns kön har större betydelse för prestationen under Covid-19. Detta pekar på att en manlig VD bidrar till ett högre resultat under Covid-19 än vad kvinnliga gör, vilket inte går att konstatera för perioden innan. Däremot är det tydligt att företagen presterar bättre både innan samt under Covid-19, om VD:n har en lång företagsspecifik erfarenhet. Avslutningsvis kunde det observeras att den totala lönen har ett svagt negativt samband med företagets prestation innan men inte under Covid-19.

近年來國內外許多企業層出不窮的發生管理階層舞弊案，使得投資人以及債權人對於企業公開發佈財務資訊之信心大受影響，公司若能開誠佈公告知利害關係人其相關之資訊，不僅能提升公司之資訊透明度，亦能重拾投資人的信心，故公司資訊透明度為廣受重視之議題。分析師擁有專業知識分析公司的財務報表且能提供額外的資訊給投資大眾，並扮演了公司重要的外部監督機制。 本研究旨在探討公司資訊透明度、分析師跟隨與公司績效之關聯性。採用台灣證券暨期貨發展基金會所公布的資訊揭露評鑑系統結果作為資訊透明度的替代變數，來探討當公司資訊透明度揭露程度較低時，分析師跟隨人數愈多是否愈能增加公司之績效。此外，本研究採用標準普爾之評等分數作為穩健性測試，來驗證結果是否相ㄧ致。研究結果顯示：公司資訊透明度較佳的公司相較於揭露程度較差之公司，其績效愈高。公司績效愈好，分析師跟隨人數愈多。資訊透明度揭露程度較差的公司，分析師的跟隨人數會愈少。無論公司資訊透明度好或壞時，分析師跟隨人數愈多，均能增加公司之績效，且資訊透明度揭露程度較差的公司相較於資訊透明度揭露程度較好的公司，分析師跟隨人數愈多，愈能增加公司之績效。穩健性測試之結果亦有相ㄧ致的發現。 / In recent years there were lots of frauds by managers in domestic and international enterprises, causing investors and creditors lose confidence on financial reporting. It is believed that if the company management can frankly and earnestly disclose related information to the stakeholders, the company’s transparency and thus the investors’ trust will be promoted. Corporate information transparency has become an important issue. Analysts have professional skills to analysis financial statements and disclose additional information to investors and also play an important role in supervising corporation’s operating condition. The purpose of this study is to discuss the association among corporate information transparency, analysts following and firms performance. The research uses the evaluated result of The Information Disclosure and Transparency Ranking System as the disclosure transparency proxy variable to examine whether the companies with lower disclosure level have higher firms performance if more analysts follow these enterprises. In addition, this paper uses Standard and Poor’s rating scores to do robust check. The empirical results indicate follows: 1.The higher information disclosure level companies have higher firms performance than the lower information disclosure level companies. 2.Enterprises with better firm performance have a larger analyst following. 3.Analysts are less likely to follow firms with lower corporate information transparency. 4.Corporate information transparency plays an important role in analysts’ willingness to follow firms and that increased analyst following is associated with higher firm performance, particularly for firms with lower corporate information transparency. 5.The result of robust check reaches a consistent conclusion.

員工分紅制度用以激勵員工，卻對股東權益有『稀釋效果』，其對股東財富之關係如何？本研究將探討員工分紅制度是否能提高公司的市場績效與財務績效，進而彌補因為稀釋效果所造成股東報酬的減少。此外，本研究認為企業在制訂員工分紅政策時，必定會受到公司特性的影響，故本研究亦探討公司特性與員工分紅政策之間是否具有關連性。實證結果發現，員工分紅制度與公司績效之關連性方面，現金紅利與會計績效間呈現正向相互影響，與市場績效呈現負向相互影響，而股票紅利與市場績效間存有負向相互影響，且無法顯著提升會計績效。員工分紅政策與公司特性之關連性方面，公司規模、人力資源重要性、成長機會與員工紅利成現正相關，唯成長機會與現金紅利無顯著相關。 / The employee bonus policy in Taiwan makes manifest contribution to the upgrade of local high-tech firms. Such policy attracts eminent employees while causing direct losses to the equity of stockholders. Is it definitely a good policy? This study investigates if this policy improves firms’ accounting performance and market performance and if there exists an association between the employee bonus policy and firms’ characteristics. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between the employee bonus and accounting performance, but accounting performance doesn’t have significant positive effect on stock bonus. Negative association between the employee bonus and accounting performance exists, but the negative relationship between cash bonus and market performance is not significant. The firm size, importance of human resource and opportunity of growth all have positive effects on the employee bonus, but opportunity of growth has no significant effect on cash bonus.

Politically connected firms may extract rent which significantly improves their financial performance, but with social costs to others in form of market distortions. The thesis presents the first empirical analysis of personal political connections to government ministers in the Czech Republic. We estimated value of political connections and inspected subsidies and public procurements allocation as channels of rent extraction on firm-level data set of 1993-2015 period. For both approaches, cross-section regressions and dynamic matching on covariates and propensity score, we found that connected firms significantly underperform their similar rivals, but slightly improve their performance over the time of connection to minister in office. Connected firms gain significantly more subsidies which confirms subsidy allocation as a channel of rent extraction. We interpret our results that firms may seek political connections as the last option how to improve their bad financial results and remain on the market. Biased subsidy allocation to connected firms in sectors where firms are dependent on subsidies like agriculture creates market distortions and could lead to significant consumer harm.

Teorinėje darbo dalyje analizuojama marketingo įtaka įmonės veiklai, jos vertinimo poreikis ir problemos bei išanalizuojama subalansuotų rodiklių sistema ir jos naudojimas įmonės veiklos vertinimui. Analitinėje baigiamojo darbo dalyje pateikiama ir analizuojama antrinių informacijos šaltinių - tyrimų, atskleidžiančių subalansuotų rodiklių sistemos galimą pritaikomumą finansines paslaugas teikiančių institucijų Lietuvoje marketingo veiklai vertinti bei tokio vertinimo naudą, apžvalga. Šioje dalyje taip pat pateikiami ir analizuojami atlikto kokybinio tyrimo – giluminio ekspertų interviu rezultatai, kuomet siekiant išsiaiškinti egzistuojančią marketingo veiklos efektyvumo praktiką finansines paslaugas teikiančiose institucijose Lietuvoje, buvo kalbinti keturi tokias organizacijas atstovaujantys specialistai. Projektinėje darbo dalyje pateikiamas subalansuotų rodiklių sistemos pagrindu sukurtas marketingo veiklos efektyvumo vertinimo modelis skirtas finansines paslaugas teikiančioms organizacijoms Lietuvoje, aprašomi jo įgyvendinimo etapai, pateikiamas konkrečių rodiklių sąvadas, o pabaigoje įvardinamos galimos modelio pritaikomumo problemos. / The theoretical part analyzes how marketing actions influences proceeding of the enterprise, the need of evaluating marketing performance and there’s an analysis of the balanced scorecard and it’s usage for firm performance measuring given. Analytical part of this paper represents and analyzes the secondary repository – researches that reveal posible balanced scorecard adaptability for marketing performance measuring ir the financial services enterprises of Lithuania and what‘s the benefit of doing that. This part of the paper also presents and analyzes the results of the qualitative research that was accomplished by the author - in-depth interviews with the experts, when seeking to find out the existing practise ir todays finanacial services enterprises ir Lithuania four professionals that represents this kind of organizations were interviewed. In the project part of this paper a model for marketing performance measuring is offered. Proposed model is created on the ground of balanced scorecard and designed for financial services enterprises in Lithuania. The steps of implementing the model are described in detail with a given set of particular measures and there are possible application problems named in the end.

Le succès du modèle d’innovation américain pour faire émerger des firmes leaders dans plusieurs domaines a largement influencé de nombreuses transformations réglementaires concernant les Droits de Propriété Intellectuelle (DPI) et le financement par les marchés en Europe. Cette thèse vise à analyser le rôle et l’importance de ces transformations dans l’organisation et la performance des firmes du logiciel. Nous montrons que des multiples mutations réglementaires des DPI ont ouvert la voie à un certain type de brevetabilité « très restreint » du logiciel en Europe. En parallèle, les évolutions dans le domaine financier ont favorisé l’émergence des marchés financiers dont le rôle est de plus en plus déterminant dans la croissance et le développement des jeunes firmes innovantes. De plus, il semblerait que l’usage stratégique du brevet soit complémentaire avec le financement par le marché de firmes du logiciel. Nous étudions cette complémentarité à travers l’analyse de la valeur du brevet en tant que signal pour les investisseurs lors de l’introduction en bourse ainsi que son effet sur la survie des firmes du logiciel après leur cotation. Cette complémentarité expliquerait en partie le recours accru au brevet dans un secteur dans lequel il est très controversé. Elle renvoie à un processus de sélection particulier du système et à l’émergence d’acteurs gagnants et perdants. / The success of the US innovation model to help start-ups emerge as global leaders has greatly influenced many regulatory changes on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and the external finance of firms in Europe. This study aims to analyze the role and importance of these changes in the organization and performance of software firms. We show that multiple regulatory mutations of IPR have paved the way for some kind of “restricted” patentability of software in Europe. In parallel, via changes in financial markets, they play an increasing role in the growth and development of young innovative companies. In addition, it seems that the strategic use of patents is complementary with software firms’ access to capital markets. We study this complementarity by analyzing the value of patents as signals for IPO markets and their impact in the likelihood of survival of newly-listed companies. We argue that this complementarity may explain the increased importance of patents in a sector where patents are highly controversial. It refers to a particular market selection process and the appearance of winning and losing actors.

Le aziende a controllo familiare sono considerate in molti Paesi la struttura proprietaria dominante, e la ricerca accademica si è progressivamente concentrata negli ultimi decenni sugli aspetti peculiari che differenziano le aziende familiari dalle altre strutture proprietarie. Nonostante questa convergenza, molti studi hanno sviluppato teorie contrastanti, in modo particolare sulla capacità delle aziende familiari di generare performance finanziarie superiori. Di converso, pochi studi hanno concentrato l’attenzione sulle scelte strategiche che posso spiegare il (maggiore o minore) differenziale di performance delle aziende familiari. Partendo dall’assunto che punti di forza e di debolezza possano coesistere nelle aziende familiari, identificare se siano gli uni o gli altri a prevalere è una sfida complessa se non si prendono in considerazione le scelte strategiche effettuate dalle aziende familiari. Partendo da questo gap nella letteratura, il presente lavoro cerca di misurare l’impatto che la proprietà familiare può avere sulle performance aziendali concentrandosi su tre aspetti principali della strategia d’impresa: il livello di conformità strategico alla media di settore (mediante la creazione di un indice che approssima le principali determinanti della business strategy), l’avvio di un processo di internazionalizzazione attraverso investimenti diretti esteri (IDE), e le implicazioni delle strategie di acquisizione. / The family business is widely considered the dominant property structure around the world and the research on this field has increased rapidly in the last decades to understand whether and in which aspects family firms differ from other organizations. Despite this convergence, the actual body of research on family firms is populated by conflicting theories and findings, especially on the relationship with financial performance. On the other hand, few studies focus their attention on which strategic choices may explain the financial differences between family firms and non-family peers. Starting from this research gap, we think that both positive and negative aspects may coexist in family firms, and it would be difficult to identify which predominate without considering how family principals frame strategic decisions. In our thesis, we try to disentangle the effect of family ownership on firm performance focusing on three main aspects of firm strategy: the level of strategic conformity through the creation of a composite index (in which we incorporated six items that can be considered as key determinants of the business strategy), the departure of the internationalization process through foreign direct investments (FDI), and the implications of acquisition strategies.