Based on the theories, such as the resources-based theory, new product development and Strategic alliances, we proposed the equity-building process of new ventures of Internet industry. We note that new ventures¡¦ purpose of capital raising actions before going public is not simply to raising fund, those actions represents that organizations attempt to obtain rare resources, building core competence, through equity invested or conjoined. In other word, equity portion to the new venture can become a means not necessarily an end. Through several Internet new ventures¡¦ interview, we discussed factors that affect the equity-building process, such as original core resources and primary exchanging resources. Four propositions have developed. First, original core resources of new ventures would affect equity-building process, especially on target selecting, conjoining timing, and interaction. Second, on the affection of single equity relation¡¦s occurs, primary exchanging resource didn¡¦t evidently a decisive factor, for, it¡¦s hardly to tell it apart from original core resources. Third is our basic notion, we hold that equity-building process before IPO becomes a portion of growing strategy of emerging organization. Fourth, based on the observation of these selected cases, we conclude that characteristics of core resources of new ventures would affect their manners of acquiring resources, especially needed for organization growth. Due to the limitations of organization condition and capital market, new ventures¡¦ equity-building process of Internet industry could not apply the financial views of analysis. For this reason, we proposed new analysis manner, tried to indicate that how to select and equity portion, and how to build-up competitive advantage during infant stage.

Using a qualitative multiple case study methodology, this study explores the relationship between government funding and INGO autonomy in three INGOs through resource dependence and tool choice frameworks. Adapting Verhoest, Peters et al.'s (2004) conceptualization of organizational autonomy as the extent of an organization's decision making capacity in matters concerning agency operations and human resource and financial management; this research regards the authors second definition of financial, structural, legal, and interventional constraints not as types of autonomy per se, but as the mechanisms through which INGOs' actual use of their decision making competencies is constrained. The findings in this research suggest that relative to other funding sources, government funding disproportionately impacts INGOs' operational and managerial autonomy. This is largely accomplished through various ex ante and ex post constraints such as, rules and regulations on inputs allocation and use, performance controls and evaluation requirements attached to government funding. This research also finds that the tool of choice used by government to finance INGO activities also steer, direct and influence INGO grantees' decisions thus positioning INGOs to incorporate government policy interests, preferences and priorities. However, INGOs can exercise their autonomy through various strategies ranging from program design, contract negotiation, and participation in advisory groups.

This study examined the determinants of public pension fund performance through the lens of agency theory. The study sought to answer the following questions: (1) How much of the fluctuation in the performance of pension plans is due to political interference - either directly from decisions made by legislatures or through the governance structure of the pension boards, after controlling for asset allocation, plan size, and other external factors? (2) Do pension board expertise, education and training, and information disclosure requirements improve the performance of pension plans? (3) Do pension trustees strategically determine the actuarial rate of return (discount rate) in order to reduce contributions in times of fiscal stress for the pension sponsor? Using longitudinal data of pension fund performance over the period 2000 to 2009 and instrumental variables methods to address endogeneity issues, the study found partial support for the agency theory hypotheses. The results indicate that political interference through reduced contributions was the main factor explaining pension performance. There was no direct evidence about the negative impact of politically appointed trustees on pension performance. The impact of these findings for current policy and future research are discussed.

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how well Swedish banks’ follow the interest rate development of Swedish Treasury Bills and Swedish Government Bonds when they are determining the levels for their deposit and lending rates. Individuals’ deposits in a bank serves as one of the banks main assets in the balance sheet, and the spread between the bank’s deposit rate and the short-term market rate is a large source of funding for the bank. If there is a strong relationship of this spread over time, one may assume that this spread is of great importance for financing of the banking firm.</p><p>The spread between the bank’s lending rate and the long-term market rate – credit risk spread – also serves a large source of interest income for the bank, and if this relationship is strong over time, one may assume that this spread is of great importance for financing of the banking firm as well.</p><p>The banks subjected for investigation in this paper are Handelsbanken (SHB) and Föreningssparbanken (FSB). This paper finds a weaker relationship between the banks’ deposit rates and the short-term market rates, than for the lending rates and the long-term market rates. This indicates that the credit risk spread is of greater importance for financing of the banking firm than the funding spread. The weaker relationship between the banks’ deposit rates and the short-term market rate may be due to the great variability of savings alternatives offered in the market place today. The fact that banks today have deposit-deficit may also explain the weaker relationship, which may be explained by the Baumol-Tobin transaction model – where the higher the interest rate, the greater amount is being kept in the account. The stronger relationship between the banks’ lending rate and the long-term market rate may be due to the nature of the credit risk spread to function as a price-discrimination tool between lending clients.</p>

This dissertation illuminates the funding contexts that structured art music composition in interwar France. While music historiography tends to focus solely on patronage - an ill-defined and limited category - as the paradigmatic economy within which pre-paid composition takes place, I bring patronage into conversation with other, similarly enabling funding sources: publishing, radio, film, orchestras, and ballet companies. Through a series of case studies of the individuals, institutions, and practices that provided a market for interwar French art music, I pursue two central ideas: first, that musical works, genres, and styles present sonic traces of the economic forces that structured their composition, and second, that the funding context of music often determines its historiographical reception. The rich musical landscape of interwar France provides a unique setting through which to explore these ideas. Between a remarkable flowering of artistic movements, the rapid proliferation of new media for cultural expression, and steadily increasing institutional involvement in music composition and performance, we can observe a remarkable context of wealth and power exerting a significant impact on the practices of music composition and performance. In order to theorize patronage in the broader context of funding for music composition, I explore the conventions of individual, aristocratic patronage, focusing on commissions as contractual exchanges and as reflective of the "collections" to which they belong, both for patrons and composers. While the state lagged far behind individual patrons in terms of direct commissions to composers, it nevertheless found numerous ways to intervene in musical culture in the hope of stimulating the market for art music composition, particularly with respect to symphonic music. The clear-cut patronage of aristocratic individuals and public ministries contrasts sharply with the ambiguous roles played by the leaders of three influential ballet companies (Ballets Suedois, Soirees de Paris, Ballets Ida Rubinstein) whose competition with the Ballets Russes engendered precisely the market for new French music that the state sought vainly to encourage. Through my study of these ballet companies and of the business correspondence of Darius Milhaud, I show that rather than constraining or corrupting creativity, many sources of funding not ordinarily considered "patronage" nevertheless freed composers to pursue experimental avenues and enrich musical culture, in their time and in ours. / Music

Health authority administrators were interviewed for their perspectives on what makes a good health care system; on tailored population-specific services as a way to address health inequities; and on how they perceive themselves to be making good funding decisions on the public’s behalf. The qualitative descriptive research dataset includes 24 hour-and-a-half long interviews with administrators from four BC health authorities, health region documents, memos, and field notes. Participants support the continuation of a public health care system and all participants acknowledge using tailored services as a route towards reducing health inequities. However, these identified services have not been evaluated for their overall effectiveness. When it comes to decision-making, participants describe using a series of governance and bioethical principles that help them frame what and how issues can be considered. Decision situations are framed in a way that informs them whether they need to use formal or informal processes. In both cases participants collect information that allows others to understand that they have made wise decisions. The Recognition-Primed Decision Model accurately reflects the intuitive processes that participants describe using during informal decision-making and portions of formal decision-making. However, in relation to formal decision situations, there is less alignment with existing Decision-Analysis literature. Seven practice and future research recommendations are provided: 1. Increase health authority participation in intersectoral partnerships that address non-medical determinants of health. 2. Develop new strategies for addressing health inequities. 3. Evaluate the efficacy of using tailored services beyond their ability to remove barriers to access. In addition, increase focus on testing new strategies for reducing the inequities gap. 4. Enhance existing decision-making processes by including the explicit review of decision tradeoffs, value weighting, and mechanisms for requesting revisions. 5. Focus future research on developing and evaluating the usefulness of formal decision-making tools in health authority structures and their relation to decision latitude. 6. Launch a longitudinal research study that examines how health authority expert decision-makers use judgmental heuristics and how they avoid the negative effects of bias. 7. Commission public dialogue on shifting the current illness-based system to one that is wellness based.

In the context of continuous innovations in information and communication technology (ICT) and its impact on higher education, this descriptive study explores the state of instructional technology (IT) integration by university lecturers in pre-service secondary school teacher education programs in Zimbabwe. Specifically, the study examines how the lecturers conceptualize IT integration, how they integrate IT into their instruction, the support given by their institutions, and the constraints they face. The qualitative methodology used is basic or generic in nature (Merriam, 1998). Twenty-one lecturers in the colleges of education at 3 universities participated. The 3 data collection methods used are questionnaires, interviews and analysis of documents. Analysis of data was inductive and Miles and Huberman’s (1994) interactive data analysis model was employed. Findings show that the conceptualization of IT and its integration by the majority of the lecturers was largely as hardware in nature, with focus put on viewing technological tools as audiovisual aids. Lecturers with qualifications in educational technology (ET) viewed IT and its integration from what Schiffman (1995) calls a narrow systems view. Most of the lecturers used technological tools for illustrating key points in their lecture delivery and lecturers who used computers used these for lecture preparation. Lecturers’ computer proficiency and competencies were at the basic level in Internet usage, with little confidence shown in basic productivity software skills and in IT integration tasks and processes. The lecturers’ integration of IT was at the Entry and Adoption stages (Dwyer, Ringstaff and Sandholtz, 1991). Institutional support was characterized by poor availability and access to appropriate technological tools by both lecturers and students, and in the context of a hyper-inflationary operating environment, constraints ranged from lack of institutional funding, to the absence of an IT integration policy framework, and lack of appropriate initial and continuous staff development. This study is part of the genesis of instructional technology research in the Zimbabwean context. It is hoped that insights gleaned will influence policy, practice and future research. From a global perspective, this study will add to the limited knowledge and literature on instructional technology integration in “developing” and/or low-income countries like Zimbabwe.

Darbo objektas. Lietuvos masinio sporto klubų tvaraus finansavimo užtikrinimo galimybės ir kliūtys. Darbo tikslas. Ištirti Lietuvos masinio sporto klubų tvaraus finansavimo užtikrinimo prielaidas. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Apibrėžti masinio sporto ir masinio sporto klubo vystymo teorines koncepcijas; 2. Išanalizuoti masinio sporto klubų finansavimo ypatybes; 3. Išanalizuoti Lietuvos masinį sportą reglamentuojančius teisės aktus ir veiklos dokumentus; 4. Atlikti Lietuvos masinio sporto klubų tvaraus finansavimo užtikrinimo galimybių ir kliūčių analizę, apklausiant sporto šakų federacijų atstovus bei miestų savivaldybių sporto specialistus; Svarbiausi rezultatai ir išvados: 1. Masinis sportas – mėgėjų sportas, organizuotas nacionalinių sporto šakų federacijų lygmeniu ir kurio organizavimui labai svarbi savanorių pagalba. Masinis sportas dažnai vykdomas mėgėjų sporto klubuose – asociacijose, kurių nariai yra individualūs asmenys ir kurių esminis tikslas – suteikti visiems gyventojams galimybę užsiimti sportu vietiniame lygmenyje; 2. Masinio sporto klubai, ieškodami finansų savo funkcionavimui, gali remtis šiais šaltiniais: šalies gyventojų išlaidomis sportui, lėšomis iš nacionalinio bei vietinio biudžeto, savanorišku darbu, rėmėjų skiriamomis lėšomis; lėšomis, gautomis už žiniasklaidos teises; lėšomis iš loterijų, lažybų ir lošimų operatorių; lėšomis, gautomis per sporto sistemoje egzistuojančius finansinio solidarumo mechanizmus bei ES projektinio finansavimo lėšomis. 3. Lietuvos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Object of this paper. Possibilities and barriers for Lithuanian grassroots sports clubs to ensure sustainable funding. Aim of this paper. To explore the presumptions for Lithuanian grassroots sports clubs to ensure sustainable funding. Tasks of this paper: 1. To define theoretical concepts of development of grassroots sports and grassroots sports club; 2. To analyze funding features of grassroots sports clubs; 3. To analyze legal acts and work documents, which regulates grassroots sports in Lithuania; 4. To analyze possibilities and barriers for Lithuanian grassroots sports clubs to ensure sustainable funding by interviewing representatives from national sports federations and sports experts from municipalities. Main results and conclusions: 1. Grassroots sports – amateur sports, organized at the level of national sports federations and which strongly depends on voluntary work. Grassroots sport is usually exercised in amateur sports clubs – associations, which members are individuals and which essential goal is to privide all people with oportunities to practise sports on local level. 2. Main funding sources for grassroots sports clubs are: households expenditures, finances from local and national budgets, voluntary work, media rights, finances from lotteries, gambling and betting operators, finances designated through financial solidarity mechanisms and EU funding programmes. 3. Laws in Lithuania influence grassroots sports clubs by regulating both direct and indirect state... [to full text]

Fifty-three careers advisers in Canterbury secondary schools in New Zealand were asked to complete a questionnaire, assessing their perceptions regarding current levels of resourcing and support for careers advisers in secondary schools. Forty-five returned completed questionnaires, of which ten respondents were male and 35 were female. All were registered teachers. Although there was overall agreement that resourcing had improved over time, the respondents were evenly divided in their opinion that current levels of resourcing were adequate for them to effectively perform their job. Larger schools, in terms of pupil numbers, were better resourced. They had more teaching and ancillary hours for careers. The single most restrictive factor, which was identified as hindering careers advisers from completing their jobs satisfactorily, was time. An analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data has been used to examine present conditions in careers centres in Canterbury secondary schools.

Australia has a crop research system with higher research intensity than exists internationally. Motivated to improve R&D policy in Canada, this dissertation focuses on the Australian End Point Royalty (EPR) system for wheat and addresses four principal questions: (1) How was the Australian system created and how does it work? (2) How do public, producer and private ownership of breeding programs affect the pricing of varieties? (3) How do EPR rates affect wheat variety adoption? (4) Finally, how would uniform EPR rates, similar to those used in France, affect variety selection, total production and revenue if used in the Australian market? In addressing the first question I use existing literature and interviews with prominent personnel in the Australian wheat breeding system, including management of InterGrain, AGT, DAFWA, GRDC and others. Interviews were conducted during field study in Australia in 2011. In addressing the second question I employ a horizontal location model to analyze three game theoretic scenarios of a two firm oligopoly market with private, public and producer owned-breeding companies. The results show public and producer ownership of one of the wheat breeding programs reduces price level relative to private only ownership. I derive a novel result showing that when competing with private firms who must price above marginal cost, the public firm should also price above marginal cost in order to maximize total industry surplus. In addressing the third question I develop and estimate an econometric wheat variety adoption model for Western Australia. I find EPR rates have a negative inelastic, statistically significant impact on the adoption of varieties. Finally, in addressing the last question, I use the econometric model to simulate the adoption of Australian wheat varieties, given a counterfactual of revenue neutral uniform EPR rates. The uniform EPR rates speed up both the adoption and dis-adoption of varieties, thereby increasing weighted average yield and total production. The value of the increase in value of production exceeds the revenue for breeders under varying EPR rates, suggesting uniform EPR system may be an attractive alternative to varying EPR rates.