This research intends to investigate the relationships among governance environment, organizational structure, information technology governance, information technology use, and information technology performance. An empirical study was conducted to collect from Taiwanese companies. The result shows three major findings. First, small positive effect exists between information technology use and the alignment between governance environment and organization structure. Second, information technology use has positive effects on information technology performance. Finally, the relative governance of IT department does not affect IT use. This research helps organizations understand how information technology governance affects IT use and performance. Organizations could adjust their organization governance strategy to fir its structural and cultural environment in order to improve information technology performance.

Stringent Northern private food standards have created onerous requirements for horticulture farmers in Kenya who wish to supply global value chains (GVC) and production networks (GPNs) governed by global lead firms. Simultaneously, Southern (regional) supermarkets have emerged over the last few decades leading to the formation of regional production networks (RPNs), which provide a new market opportunity and require meeting different regional private and public standards. Both Northern and regional standards are increasingly including complex environmental requirements that risk farmer exclusion from participation in both global and regional markets. This is exacerbated by bio-physical aspects of climate variability and extremes that impinge on crop quality and yield. A key problem therefore arises from the ability of farmers across not only GPNs but also RPNs and local production networks (LPNs) to cope with different environmental upgrading and downgrading pressures, emerging from standards and bio-physical aspects. The overarching research question this thesis seeks to address is: What are the dynamics of environmental upgrading, embeddedness and governance for farmers in global, regional and local production networks? This thesis seeks to make three contributions to the GPN and GVC literatures. The first is integrating the natural environment through a concept I call re-environmentalization. I suggest farmers dis-embed from previous relationships and interactions with their environment/land and re-embed into new socio-ecological relationships in GPNs, RPNs or LPNs. The second contribution enriches production network and value chain analysis by adding a dimension of €changing epistemologies€™ wherein I explicate understandings of governance through the lens of a farmer. I view governance as something that 'is experienced'€™ rather than focus on the lead firms'€™ perspective of '€˜governing'€™. I question the linearity of upgrading, studying what it means to a farmer, instead of assuming that all upgrades are beneficial. The third contribution is to compare how re-environmentalization and governance, effect a farmers' ability to environmentally upgrade heterogeneously across global, regional and local production networks, thereby going beyond the North-South analysis prevalent in GPN literature. The thesis is based on field research in Kenya involving 102 key informant interviews, 6 focus group discussions and a survey of 579 farmers across four counties (Murang'a, Machakos, Nyandarua, Meru) producing snow peas, garden peas, avocados and mangoes. The analysis uses a mixed method approach, drawing on econometric models along with qualitative data to provide triangulated and robust comparisons across production networks. The empirical findings of the research indicate that the trajectories of environmental upgrading/ downgrading are complex and dynamic across farmers in GPNs, RPNs and LPNs. This is because the process through which farmers re-environmentalize into GPNs is contested, as relationships with Northern firms'€™ breed dis-trust and inhibit the use of tacit knowledge. This prevents farmers from performing environmental upgrading in a sustainable way. Furthermore, I debunk the implicit assumption that economically upgrading, by adhering to Northern and regional standards is sustainable, and instead show that these standards can trigger environmental downgrading. RPN farmers, because of their entrepreneurial capacity and smoother process of re-environmentalizing into regional networks, compared to farmers in GPNs, are able to internalize knowledge and environmentally upgrade more sustainably. Finally, LPN farmers perform the least environmental upgrades, due to minimal support from other network actors. Overall, I establish that it is critical to incorporate environmental dimensions in production network and value chain analysis.

The major focus of this thesis is to discuss the development and current level of the concept of environmental politics in terms of its potential to serve as a general concept for the theoretical understanding of the relationship between man and his natural environment and of its dynamics. To the end the thesis, using a broad literature review, sets the major stages of the development of society focused on the exploitation of natural resources, the protection of nature, and the benefits of natural services, and on ways in which modern societies responded to negatively evaluated impacts of these activities. This serves as a base for analysis and better understanding ofthe development of a key concept of current environmental policy, the concept of sustainable development, the development and current state of the social sciences in terms of environmental issues, as well as their major focus in this area, the current debate over structure and power of environmental goals in modern societies, as well as the issues of effectiveness and integration of governmental environmental policies.

This study primarily investigates the determinants of CEO membership of New Zealand (NZ) boards, and the effect of CEO board membership on firm performance, for publicly-listed NZ firms between 1997 to 2008. The project is conducted using a unique hand-collected panel dataset containing information about CEO participation on the board, firm characteristics, firm performance, ownership, and firm governance. The sample covers the twelve-year period. The sample statistics of CEO board membership reveal that on average, approximately 30% of NZ CEOs do not sit on their company board. In addition, the number (percentage) of incidences of CEOs off their company board has been increasing. Specifically, the percentage of CEOs off the board was approximately 20% in 1997 but 42% in 2008. Models examining the determinants of CEO board participation indicate that the probability of CEO board membership is significantly related to the opacity of firms' information environment and the strength of firms' governance environment. Specifically, the probability of CEO board membership is significantly affected by firm size, firm age, percentage of independent directors, board ownership, and multiple directorships in independent companies. In particular, firm size and percentage of independent directors on the board possess economic significance. The negative association between the probability of CEO board membership and the strength of firms' governance environment is consistent with CEO utility maximization. I also find that although CEO board membership is positively related to ROA, ROE and Jensen's alpha in basic regression models, the positive effect observed in accounting performance models disappears after controlling for self-selection. In other words, firms with better accounting firm performance tend to appoint their CEOs on the board. This may attribute to the possibility that CEO board membership is optimally determined by shareholders. The evidence from a market-based model also reflects shareholder interests after controlling for the negative self-selection behavior. As an additional analysis, I examine the determinants of different degrees of CEO board involvement where CEOs on the board are categorized into CEO-director and CEO duality (the CEO also holds the position of the chairman of the board). This analysis shows that a number of explanatory variables have a non-linear relationship with the degree of CEO board involvement. For example, CEO board involvement is negatively related to firm age and multiple directorships in independent companies but positively related to their squared terms. To the contrary, CEO board involvement is positively related to Tobin's Q ratio and percentage of independent directors but negatively related to their squared terms. Moreover, basic regression results examining the effect of the extent of CEO board involvement on firm performance reveal that dual firms and CEO-off-the-board firms are associated with lower accounting firm performance than CEO-director firms, but dual firms are associated with better Jensen's alpha and CEO-off-the-board firms are associated with lower Jensen's alpha. The robustness analysis finds that the negative effect of CEO duality on operating performance is significantly mitigated by self-selection and the effect of CEOs off the board on operating performance is intensified by self-selection. In other words, after taking into account the self-selection bias, CEO duality status provides strong evidence for CEO utility maximization whereas CEOs off the board are optimally chosen given the underlying characteristics. However, the results from the market-based models show the exact opposite story after controlling for the self-selection bias: CEO duality is optimally chosen whereas the costs of CEOs off the board are greater than their benefits in firms with CEOs off the board, providing evidence for CEO utility maximization.

Submitted by Rosina Valeria Lanzellotti Mattiussi Teixeira (rosina.teixeira@unisantos.br) on 2018-05-21T13:48:37Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Luiz Zanethi.pdf: 687372 bytes, checksum: bd046c2de23a1210e47af95afd71cbe1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-21T13:48:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Luiz Zanethi.pdf: 687372 bytes, checksum: bd046c2de23a1210e47af95afd71cbe1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-12 / Hoje, um dos temas mais sensíveis para a humanidade é o meio ambiente. Em um mundo globalizado, onde a preocupação com o meio ambiente deve ser repartida entre todos, não há caminho para a prática de medidas unilaterais, estanques, ante a complexidade e influência destas no mundo atual. Assim, litígios podem aparecer e alguns surgem, em razão desta dificuldade em conciliar interesses. A questão é como prevenir e resolver estes dilemas ambientais sem a necessidade da imposição da força. Daí surge a governança global como instrumento para a busca de soluções pacíficas e comuns para as mais diversas questões relativas à proteção ambiental, por meio da adoção de políticas e de instrumentos normativos. Ocorre que estas questões ambientais também atingem o comércio internacional, principalmente quando medidas ambientais aparecem como forma de barreira comercial, caracterizando-se, muitas vezes, como uma medida protecionista, prática combatida pelo comércio internacional e por seu órgão máximo de defesa e regulação, a Organização Mundial do Comércio. Mais uma vez, aparece a governança global, agora, governança global ambiental, como instrumento para a proteção ambiental, expandindo seu campo de atuação nos acordos de livre comércio mundial, sendo a sua importância destacada em dois deles, o Acordo de Facilitação do Comércio, nascido dentro da Organização Mundial do Comércio, objetivando a simplificação e desburocratização do comércio internacional e exterior, e no TransPacific Partnership, este último com grande preocupação ambiental e com mecanismos de solução de conflitos ambientais embasados nas melhores práticas de governança. Assim, em razão da complexidade das questões ambientais, principalmente nos acordos mundiais de livre comércio, o meio capaz de prevenir litígios e resolvê-los são os arranjos de governança global. / Today, one of the most sensitive issues for humanity is the environment. In a globalized world, where the concern for the environment must be shared among all, there is no way to practice unilateral, watertight measures, given the complexity and influence of these in today's world. Thus, litigation may appear and some arise, because of this difficulty in reconciling interests. The question is how to prevent and resolve these environmental dilemmas without the need for force. Hence, global governance emerges as a tool for seeking peaceful and common solutions to the most diverse issues of environmental protection through the adoption of policies and normative instruments. These environmental issues also affect international trade, especially when environmental measures appear as a form of trade barrier, often being a protectionist measure, a practice attacked by international trade and by its highest defense and regulatory body, the World Trade Organization. And, once again, global governance now appears as a global environmental governance instrument for environmental protection, expanding its field of activity in global free trade agreements, and its importance is highlighted in two of them, the Trade Facilitation Agreement , born within the World Trade Organization, aiming at simplifying and reducing bureaucracy in international and foreign trade and in the TransPacific Partnership, the latter with great environmental concern and with environmental dispute resolution mechanisms based on the best governance practices. Thus, because of the complexity of environmental issues, especially in trade-free agreements, the means of preventing and resolving disputes are the means embedded in global governance arrangements.