This thesis takes the critical incident of the suicide of a part-time lecturer in South Korea in 2010 and the subsequent policy response as paradigmatic of the problems of governing higher education. In terms of theoretical resources, it draws on state theories, especially a cultural approach to the state, in order to understand the multiple relations and the interplay of different layers of governing practices in the governing of higher education in South Korea. This thesis argues that mainstream theories of the state are often culturally 'blind' and that the specificities of the Korean state need to be understood with reference to its particular culture, history and context. The thesis also draws on literature on higher education governance, from which three governing principles are identified as topics for investigation, along with a process-oriented approach to professionalism. The research question emerging from this is 'how does the centrality of the Korean state play out in the governing of higher education in South Korea?' Methodologically, the enquiry is shaped by critical discourse analysis (CDA). This approach explores the ways in which higher education governing discourses are related to other social elements. By analysing policy texts and institutional characteristics, the first phase of the enquiry explores how the governing discourses have been indigenised, constructing particular state-academy relations in South Korea. The second phase scrutinises the case of part-time lecturer policy in order to illuminate the distinctive governing dynamics, by which the centrality of the Korean state is assumed to be practised.

Technological and economic development have long since been associated. From the archaeological discoveries of urban living to the cities of the future; from Babylon to places such as Singapore, technology and life are entwined. Much preoccupation today is with information and communications technologies (ICTs) and misguided notions of 'cyberspace' and 'information superhighways' and of course, life in the informational age. The hype that goes with this often conjures up images of endless potential for marginalised groups, or in turn, reinforces the powers of dominant groups during a most challenging period for capitalism. Yet there is a need for research into the way technology, and in particular ICTs, interacts with the social, political, cultural and economic complexity that forms the basis of place. This thesis attempts to address that need by focusing on the role of ICTs in local economies. Based on an extensive overview of the North East, and followed by an intensive approach of investigation into a small number of case studies, this work looks at the political processes that go hand-in-hand with technology and place. Specifically, the thesis pays attention to locally based partnerships that have taken form to build up the ICTs potential of local economies, and it seeks to understand the reasons why these have occurred at this particular moment in time. The research has identified a number of points in the local economy that appear to be emerging as areas for ICTs application. In effect, these are the key points from which the local economy is connected to the global economy. It is argued that local economies are falling in line behind a more global shift towards what Manuel Castells refers to as the informational mode of development. The role of local ICTs partnerships is crucial in enabling such development and the mechanics behind this are investigated. Again, by drawing on the work of Castells, it is contended that these groups are trying to condition the dynamics of the informational age and the logics of that age. That is, local ICTs partnerships, at the level of place, are attempting to shape the space of flows. Four cases are considered in detail. There is the work of the Sunderland Telematics Working Group who have developed a strategic path for the application of ICTs in the city. There is the work of the Wansbeck Initiative, focused on an emerging set of methods to deal with local economic decline and peripheralisation. There is the work of the County Durham Informatics Partnership, led by the county-wide Training and Enterprise Council and supported by the local University, the County Council and a number of local district authorities. And then there is Teesside, a place that has had a number of false starts in commencing on the road to informationalism, due in part to a lack of cohesion in the partnership building process. There is also the work of Northern Informatics who act as part of the bigger regional picture, perhaps suggesting that as these groups take form there may be an ICTs 'turf-war' to consider. This work shows that there is indeed some level of contestation as local ICTs partnerships are formed. Fundamentally, we are at the beginning of something new here, and there can be no predetermined outcome of how local groups attempt to shape the space of flows.

This dissertation is an in-depth comparative case study analysis of different ways of tackling the widespread and difficult problem of managing and governing groundwater aquifers. In an open access situation, groundwater presents a highly challenging common pool resource dilemma, necessitating the development of some kind of institutional arrangements to avoid the negative physical and socio-economic consequences of intensive resource development. Groundwater is especially challenging because not only is it migratory, its movements and volumes are often hard to observe and predict. Further, aquifers and groundwater basins may be geographically expansive, spanning great horizontal distance and underlying and supporting a variety of socio-ecological settings. Some emerging governance trends in the Western U.S. are decentralized decision-making and the use of market mechanisms.The analysis I report here is largely concerned with two primary governance problems: (1) how to effectively address multi-scalar impacts of groundwater use, and (2) how to allocate and access to groundwater resources among competing and increasing demands. It is motivated by the primary research question: what factors promote and hinder the effectiveness of different approaches to groundwater governance and why? The dissertation explores dimensions of this question through a comparison of contrasting approaches to groundwater administration in the major Southwestern metropolitan areas of Phoenix, Arizona and San Antonio, Texas.In the Phoenix area, I conclude that more capacity is required to resolve difficult local and regional groundwater problems that are not addressed by top-down region-wide regulations. In the case of Texas, recent legislative innovations have developed a formal bottom-up regional groundwater planning and management system that reflects principles of good governance. However, its effectiveness appears limited due to a number of problems. Overall, I find that both Arizona and Texas have developed only partial polycentric governance systems for dealing with both local and regional groundwater problems. The comparative analysis of cases studies yields insights to expand the general understanding of the merits and limitations associated with emerging decentralized groundwater governance approaches.This research also contributes to the literature on water transfers and markets by developing the first in-depth quantitative-qualitative institutional analyses of both the Edwards Aquifer groundwater cap and trade system and the market for extinguishment credits in the Phoenix and Pinal Active Management Areas of Central Arizona. Findings highlight the importance of the material characteristics of aquifers for the functioning of a groundwater market and the different roles and markets can play within a regional groundwater governance regime.

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / This study attempted to examine the role that selected civil society groups played to promote citizen participation in governance processes. / South Africa

A research report submitted In partial fulfilment of the degree of Masters of Commerce in Accounting, School of Accountancy, 2015 / This study is concerned with the adoption of materiality as a key reporting principle in the integrated report. This study investigates how preparers are determining which information is material and ought to be included in their integrated reports. The influence of logics is observed through an investigation of the different conceptualisations of the materiality concept by the preparers of integrated reports. Qualitative data was gathered from interviews with preparers of integrated reports in South Africa. The data was analysed using a grounded theory approach and the interplay between old and new logics that are shaping materiality in integrated reporting was identified. The findings of this research indicate that there are three groups of preparers each embodying different logics. The compliance preparers view integrated reporting as a compliance exercise. The stakeholder-aware preparers are aware that the integrated report should communicate with a wide variety of stakeholders and the interpretive preparer uses the integrated report not only to communicate to stakeholders but to identify weaknesses with in the entity. The findings also indicate that there are variations in practices and understandings of materiality and reveal differing organisational priorities which highlight the extent to which materiality is a social and behavioural phenomenon. The research adds to the limited body of corporate governance research drawing on an interpretive epistemology to explore recent reporting developments in a South African context the findings of this study will be relevant for the current debate about materiality in the integrated report, especially given the emergence of integrated corporate report. Keywords: King 3, GRI, Sustainable reporting, South Africa, Materiality, Institutional Logics, Integrated report. / MT2017

Thesis advisor: Philip E. Strahan / In my first essay, I explain the rise of transferable managerial skills in the CEO market. I show that growing competition in the product markets is a key factor driving the increased importance of CEOs’ transferable managerial skills, specifically industry-transferable skills. To rule out the endogeneity of CEO-firm matching, I exploit the exogenous shocks of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA) of 1989 and the deregulatory policy in the 1990s. I show that CEOs with these skills outperform in competitive markets and are a good match for firms’ innovation-based competition strategy. In my second essay, we explain why firms in the same board-interlock networks tend to have similar corporate governance practices. Specifically, we utilize a novel instrument based on staggered adoptions of universal demand laws across states to identify causal peer effects in firms’ decisions to adopt various governance provisions. We find that a firm’s propensity to adopt these provisions increases after other firms in the same board interlock network choose to adopt similar policies. The impact of universal demand laws on the incentives faced by directors as they seek to maximize their career outcomes is a likely mechanism explaining these effects. In my third essay, I identify the effects of the gender of CEOs’ offspring on corporate performance. First, acquisitions, debt and equity offerings made by CEOs with more daughters are better received by the market. Second, CEOs with more daughters are less likely to overpay the targets, and better use newly raised capital. Third, CEOs’ daughter(s) decrease(s) corporate litigation risk. In sum, the gender of a child is arguably a random and natural experiment, which shows a clear effect on CEOs’ behavior. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals Johannesburg, 2016 / In this research report I will be investigating whether companies have an obligation to shareholders or a wider group of stakeholders. If they have an obligation to a wider group of stakeholders, then the question is whether planned obsolescence is an ethical practice that should inform their business and what the role is of ethical leaders in addressing problems such as job losses, environmental damage and conspicuous consumption that result from planned obsolescence. As part of my attempt to answer the research question I will discuss the evolution of views regarding business and the profit motive in relation to shareholders, the multi-fiduciary model, the enlightened shareholder approach and the inclusive stakeholder approach. I will then focus on planned obsolescence as a pervasive business practice and what circumstances morally justify negative consequences which are weighed against the positive effects. Finally, I will propose ethical solutions to the issues raised around planned obsolescence, aimed at achieving specific benefits whilst also limiting the negativity introduced by planned obsolescence. / GR2017

A Research Report Submitted to the Faculty of Commerce University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Mastel of Commerce Johannesburg 1995 / The King Report released in South Africa in 1994 has the potential to revolutionise the country's existing form of Corporate Governance. The objective of the report is to improve the system by which companies in South Africa are directed and controlled (King Report, 1994:1). This objective encompasses decreasing the risk of management fraud within entities. The question which this research report addresses is whether a reduction in the risk of management irregularities in an organisation can be achieved through adherence to the King Report's proposals. To obtain this answer a South African company which experienced significant management frauds was selected for examination as a case study, and a determination was made as to whether the proposals of the King Report, had they been implemented, could have prevented the irregularities which occurred in the organisation. The finding of the research is that diligent compliance with the King Report's recommendations can assist significantly ill both preventing and detecting management fraud, but is unlikely to prevent all management irregularities within an organisatlon

A Governança da Informação (GI) é uma nova abordagem para a governança dos ativos informacionais nas organizações, resultando de desafios como o crescimento exponencial de dados, novas e mais complexas regras do negócio e de um contexto competitivo mais regulado e litigioso. O objetivo principal da pesquisa foi investigar como fatores organizacionais, relacionais e de Tecnologia da Informação (TI) podem atuar como viabilizadores, inibidores ou componentes da adoção da Governança da Informação em instituições. Alicerçada na revisão de literatura, foi feita uma pesquisa qualitativa descritiva e exploratória, baseada em vinte e um estudos de caso de empresas brasileiras escolhidas por apresentarem alta intensidade de utilização de informações em seus processos, produtos e serviços. A pesquisa apresenta como contribuições teóricas a proposta de dois modelos: uma Matriz para Comparação entre Governanças Institucionais, usada para diferenciar aspectos das Governanças Corporativa, da Informação, de TI e de Dados; e uma Matriz de Fatores Viabilizadores e Inibidores, com fatores derivados da teoria e das observações dos estudos de caso. As contribuições práticas compreendem: diferentes visões sobre o impacto dos fatores previstos em teoria, principalmente considerando-se a atuação dos entrevistados, a segmentação econômica e os portes das empresas; e fatores não previstos na teoria, como a falta de alinhamento entre TI e áreas de negócios, a cultura da empresa, os avanços da tecnologia e a gestão de mudanças. A comparação entre teoria e prática sugere maior polarização em fatores como: cultura de acumulação de dados; práticas e políticas organizacionais; comunicação entre áreas; e, educação dos usuários. Como conclusão destaca-se que a GI é entendida nas empresas como uma disciplina específica dos negócios, fundamental para atribuir sentido aos estudos empresariais e para suportar projetos e processos coerentes e eficazes. / Information Governance (IG) is a new approach to the governance of the organizational information assets, resulting from challenges such as exponential data growth, new and more complex business rules and a more regulated and litigious competitive context. The main objective of the research was to investigate how organizational, relational and Information Technology (IT) factors can act as enablers, inhibitors or components for IG adoption in companies. Supported by a literature review, an exploratory-descriptive qualitative research was carried conducted, based on 21 case studies from Brazilian companies selected by information high intensity usage in processes, products and services. The theoretical contributions of the research are two proposed models: a Matrix for Institutional Governance Comparison, to be used for differentiating Corporate, Information, IT and Data governance; and an Enablers and Inhibitors Matrix, with factors derived from theory and case studies. Practical contributions are different views from theory, especially related to the interviewee\'s professional area, industry and company size; unpredicted factors such as lack of alignment between IT and business areas, institutional culture, technology advancements and change management. The comparison between theory and practice suggests greater polarization in factors such as data accumulation mentality, organizational practices and policies, communication between areas and users education. The research concludes that IG is a business-specific discipline, fundamental to sensemaking for company studies and support to coherent and effective organizational projects and processes.

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