Zugl.: Heidelberg, Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Today’s technological development has shed new light upon the management practiceproduct management and it is considered more important than ever to manage products.Moreover, organisations to a growing extent face external bodies that evaluate them andimpose organisational structures that they need to comply with. Product management isnevertheless characterised with ambiguity, broad definitions and various depictions. Ascattered research field together with practitioners struggle to define the area stress the needto clarify product management structuring. This thesis uses a sensemaking perspective and akaleidoscopic approach in order to capture product management structuring in a fragmentedarea. It means that we investigate what the sensemaking outcome of product management isand why organisational members make sense this way. This thesis has found that productmanagement is understood on two main levels and that the practice comprises bothconsistency and inconsistency on an inter-organisational level. Findings suggest that sharedidentity, strong commitment, cues, metaphors and expectations have influenced consistentunderstandings and crystallised the sensemaking outcome. In addition, product governanceinfluences product management and therefore the sensemaking outcome are inconsistent inseveral structuring elements. The thesis concludes that our contemporary productmanagement practice is comprised with general components that can be structured similarlybut also components that require a customised structuring due to the product governance trait.

By year 2020, developed countries pledged to mobilize USD100 billion per year towards mitigation of greenhouse gases and strategies of adaptation. This redistribution from Annex I (developed) countries to developing countries represents a near doubling of current official development assistance levels, yet future strategies of adaptation remain nebulous. Definitions, opinions and agendas of adaptation have evolved into new global development strategy, but will externally-designed strategies threaten an adaptive process that should be community-led and environmentally-contextual? Little empirical research has been conducted on adaptation as an international development strategy that consists of massive earmarking of funds to institute and later demonstrate that projects are related to climate change. Through semi-structured interviews with international and development organizations, national and local governments, civil society and community focus groups, this research chronicles Malawi's polycentric response to climate change vulnerability. Using site-visits to numerous active adaptation projects in Malawi as case-studies, this research examines who the stakeholders are in this process, what adaptation looks like and how the overall concept of this new development strategy can be improved. / text

Although managers rate concerns about being seen as committed disclosers as an important consideration in their voluntary disclosure decisions, prior research has paid limited attention to how investors view commitment to disclosure. This study experimentally tests two competing perspectives relating to how managers' commitment to disclosure and prior forecast accuracy jointly influence managers' forecasting credibility. The first perspective (the normative perspective) draws on economic theory and the second perspective (the omission bias perspective) draws on theory from psychology. The normative perspective suggests that commitment to disclosure and prior forecast accuracy will independently influence managers' forecasting credibility. In contrast, the omission bias literature suggests that the influence of commitment to disclosure on managers' forecasting credibility depends on managers' prior forecast accuracy. In other words, the normative perspective suggests two main effects, whereas the omission bias perspective suggests a commitment to disclosure x accuracy interaction. To test the competing predictions relating to the joint impact of commitment to disclosure and prior forecast accuracy on managers' forecasting credibility, I conduct an experiment. Results of this experiment support the omission bias perspective. Participants in the role of investors rate more (less) committed managers as more (less) credible, but only when they are also accurate. When managers are inaccurate, however, this relationship reverses. That is, more committed managers are viewed as less credible relative to their less committed peers. These results suggest that managers' concerns about commitment to disclosure are indeed valid, but only when they are accurate. When managers are less accurate, commitment to disclosure hurts, rather than helps, managers' credibility. Participants' valuation judgments as well as their judgments relating to a current disclosure are positively associated with their judgments of managers' forecasting credibility, suggesting that their assessment of managers' credibility may have significant valuation consequences. This study contributes to the voluntary disclosure literature and has implications for managers who provide earnings forecasts and for investors who use these forecasts in their investment decisions. / text

This dissertation addresses concerns regarding corporate activities in relation to agency costs and studies the effect of the market for corporate control. In the first essay, we use the mid-1990s Delaware takeover regime shift as an exogenous shock to examine how the removal of takeover threats affects managerial decisions on corporate financing and investment and how it affects firm value. Based on a differences-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) approach, we find that managers reduce debt financing and increase capital investment when they are protected against hostile takeovers, which is consistent with managerial agency models of capital structure and the free cash flow hypothesis proposed by Jensen (1986). We demonstrate that engaging in these entrenched behaviors consequently destroys firm value. Moreover, our evidence indicates that the effect of the takeover regime shift is more pronounced in firms with fewer institutional holdings or lower managerial ownership, supporting the argument of Jensen (1993) that effective internal control systems can alleviate the negative outcomes of a weakened market for corporate control. The substitution effect of internal controls is more substantial than that of the external product market competition. Finally, we determine that empire building, rather than quiet life, is the main consequence of a weakened market for corporate control. In the second essay, we directly examine the causal relationship between managerial entrenchment and diversification. We demonstrate that more entrenched managers adopt higher levels of diversification than do less entrenched managers. We verify the result by using two-stage least squares (2SLS) regression and treating entrenchment as endogenous. In addition, based on an exogenous change in takeover legislation in Delaware in the mid-1990s, we adopt the differences-in-differences-in-differences (DDD) approach and demonstrate that managers increase diversification activities when they are protected against hostile takeovers. Given that diversification destroys value, these results are consistent with the agency costs explanation of diversification. We then explore the motivations that drive managers to diversify. We document that entrenched managers diversify to gain private benefits and to reduce firm risk. Finally, we demonstrate that CEO equity-based incentives increase when takeover-protected firms diversify, suggesting that firms proactively respond to counterbalance the increased costs associated with discretional diversification, which is consistent with theories of optimal contract. / published_or_final_version / Economics and Finance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This research is in the field of corporate governance and focuses on corporate accountability and transparency of China’s commercial banks, in particular SOCBs. Since 1979, the banking system of China has been undertaken reforms to transform from a mono banking system to a banking system in which banks should be profit-driven. The focus of the reforms has been changed from off-loading of NPLs to the improvement of corporate governance of commercial banks. However, China’s SOCBs still appear to be inefficient and poor in disclosure of information, though they are now more profitable. They are also required to make certain loans in line with the policies of the Chinese government. This research aims at finding out issues related to the governance and disclosure systems of China’s commercial banks from a legal perspective and suggesting possible direction to solve the issues. For the governance system, directors who are accountable to their stakeholders, not only the majority shareholders, play an important role in enhancing the operations of banks. For the disclosure system, auditors and CRAs, the gatekeepers of the financial sector, could help to reduce information asymmetry and enhance the transparency of banks, leading to a more effective use of market discipline in monitoring the operations of banks. To improve the operations of banks, this research highlights the need to improve various institutions in addition to the reforms of banks, with the focus of reforms on the legal and regulatory systems relating to the governance mechanism, disclosure system, audit industry and credit rating industry. Though legal rules on the above areas are mostly stipulated in line with international standards or in line with regulations of other developed countries, they are usually scattered in various administrative regulations, departmental rules and normative documents and some of the provisions are still principles based in lack of implementation details. In lawmaking, there should be more revision, harmonization and consolidation of existing regulations and rules. In particular, the provisions associated with the liability risks of directors/ banks/ auditors/ audit firms/ CRAs/ responsible personnel of CRAs should be revisited and revised to enhance the enforceability of regulations and rules by regulators. Regulators of banks, auditors and CRAs should also take up more proactive roles in preventing possible risks in the financial sector rather than passively conducting box-ticking compliance. They should also increase supervisory intensity and effectiveness, with sufficient resources and clear mandate. Though the Chinese government holds controlling shares of SOCBs and certain bank loans made are still policy-led, this research argues that a well-established and effective legal and regulatory system on governance mechanism and disclosure system, via the help of auditors and CRAs, could help withstand political influence and enhance a healthy and sustainable development of the financial sector. Without an effective legal and regulatory system, China’s banking system may still be subject to external and internal influence which will affect the progress of gradual transformation to a real market economy. / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis explores state-civil society relations with respect to urban services in the context of democratic decentralisation. These issues are analysed through a comparative case study of approaches to improved services in the Indian cities of Bangalore and Calcutta. Three main areas of focus in the thesis are a) relationships between citizens' voice and local government responsiveness; b) the implications of collaboration and partnership in urban service delivery; and c) the impact of broader socio-political factors on relations between service users and service providers. At the national level, legislation attempting to revitalise local government through democratic decentralisation has had a range of consequences for urban service provision. These consequences are examined through three paths towards improving service provision. The first, led by service users, is through traditional modes of political engagement and direct involvement in local community action groups. The second path, led by the local government service providers is through internal reforms adopted to boost responsiveness. The third path is led by the collaborative efforts of service users and service providers. The consequences of national legislative attempts at decentralisation have been markedly different in the two cities. Comparing the experience of approaches to improved service delivery in each, the thesis isolates the impact of local socio-political factors on municipal local governance. Demographic characteristics, the nature of political and administrative leadership, the character of local government institutions and the status of civil society, all prove to be important determinants of the quality of service delivery. Neither Bangalore nor Calcutta have enjoyed dramatic improvements in urban services as a direct result of democratic decentralisation. The thesis argues, however, that the decentralisation process has created an environment more conducive for dialogue between service users and providers: in which users have the space to express their voice, and state actors are encouraged to listen, acknowledge and respond.

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This dissertation examines 'sovereignty' as not only a theoretical abstraction of power relations within finite territories, but also as a very alive practice, a daily defense of inherent rights based on Indigenous philosophical notions of power and space. I examine the perspectives of Indigenous practitioners who either through their conversations and/or life ways cultivate an original conception of sovereignty, specifically the governance of the Gwich'in people, a nation of 15 villages in the Arctic Circle. As an Indigenous nation living within legal structures of a settler state, they offer an alternative understanding of collective political power, rooted outside the western European paradigm but simultaneously confronting those ambits. I argue that rather than an alternative narrative of resistance towards secession or segregation, the Gwich'in Nation provide a viable, pro-active and realized form of co-existent sovereignty. This sovereignty is a form of political collective identity and a relationship with the environment and non-human actors, as well as other governments, that is productive, creative and focused as much on future generations as drawing from tradition.