M.Phil. (Labour Law) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

No description available.

This project describes NASA's culture during two important time periods (1958-1972) and (1996-2004) and explains its relative fit with its system components-task, people, resources, and structure. The open-system model is used to explain how system components affect culture and how culture affects them. During the first period (1958- 1972), NASA was established and it landed the first man on the moon, a remarkable accomplishment given the advances in science and technology required to complete this mission. During the second period (1996-2004), the Columbia accident occurred, causing NASA's image to be tarnished and its credibility with key stakeholders to be compromised. To conduct this research, books, online resources, newspaper article, technical and investigative reports and theses provided the main sources of information. Project results indicate that culture alone is not the only contributory factor to NASA's performance. The space agency's technical culture closely aligned with system components enabled the organization to complete its moon-landing mission. However, NASA culture changed due to alterations in the system components. A misalignment between culture and its system components occurred during the second period, causing the Columbia accident. Therefore, the alignment between culture and other components is essential for NASA to perform its missions effectively. NASA leadership should monitor and assess this alignment to help prevent future mishaps. / US Navy (USN) author.

LL.D. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Prof. Gert Roodt

M.Comm. / Corporate governance has become a heated topic of debate when meetings arise and new legislation is drafted. It is also a means to mould new ways of doing business as more and more businessmen are found to be committing irregularities in their actions. Fraud has become rife with over 30 000-fraud cases reported annually. Where will it end and how to curb this? Within this study, a comparison is drawn between corporate governance and ethics. The interrelationship between the two is noted and compared. The differences are brought forward and similarities discussed. The study tries to define ethics and corporate governance. It then moves on to establish which are the principles of corporate governance. This is followed by an evaluation of ethics and corporate governance. Finally, recommendations are made to make corporate governance more effective. These are hard questions but ones, which need answering. The study concerns itself with the study of corporate governance and ethics. Corporate governance is not merely a theoretical tool but one, which needs to be practiced. The question concerning the fact that ethics is synonymous to corporate governance is questioned and answered. In question are the definitions of ethics and corporate governance. Each is defined but the realisation that there is more than one definition of each, which is widely used, is debated. Each definition brings its own problems but also proves that it is vital to the whole. Definitions are usually one-liners, which instil an author’s point of view. To complement each definition further elaborance is made. Each of these further defining statements are discussed and compared to the definitions. A comparison is sought and the purpose of these elaborances is discussed. The principles of corporate governance are documented and later discussed in detail. Comparisons with ethics are drawn and the principles are later discussed with practical examples to serve as guidelines and examples. The driving principles of corporate governance and the King report are debated and transparency proves to be the driving factor over and above all other principles. Within the study, it becomes apparent that corporate governance is only essential in big business. Small to medium business is left out. Why should this be? Another provocative question reviewed is the question of whether corporate governance is essential or not. Why all this fuss over a theoretical report. However, to discuss corporate governance without ethics is like using only half measures in a teacup. Defining ethics is easy but the real study comes forth when the true essence of what is ethics is debated. Morality is a factor but the inner soul’s consciousness of what is right or wrong is discussed. The laws of human nature serve all. The scales can be tipped either way if the price is perceived high enough. The rights and obligations of ethics are questioned together with the director’s responsibilities in determining the ethical climate in business.

Thesis advisor: Philip Strahan / In the first two essays of this dissertation, I examine the role of third-party debt collectors in consumer credit markets. First, using law enforcement as an instrument, I find that higher density of debt collectors increases the supply of unsecured credit. The estimated elasticity of the average credit card balance with respect to the number of debt collectors per capita is 0.49, the elasticity of the average balance on non-credit card unsecured loans with respect to the number of debt collectors per capita is 1.32. There is also some evidence that creditors substitute unsecured credit for secured credit when the number of debt collectors increases. Higher density of debt collectors improves recoveries, which enables lenders to extend more credit. Finally, creditors charge higher interest rates and lend to a larger pool of borrowers when the density of debt collectors increases, presumably because better collections enable them to extend credit to riskier applicants. In the second essay I investigate the economics of the debt collection industry. The existence of third-party debt collection agencies cannot be explained by the benefits of specialization and economies of scale alone. Rather, the debt collection industry can serve as a coordination mechanism between creditors. If a debt collection agency collects on behalf of several creditors, the practices it uses will be associated will all creditors that hired it. Hence, consumers will be unable to punish individual creditors for using harsh practices. As a result, the third-party agency may use harsher debt collection practices than individual creditors collecting on their own. As long as the costs of hiring third-party debt collectors are below the benefits from using harsh debt collection practices, the debt collection industry will create economic value for creditors. The last essay, written jointly with Thomas Chemmanur, develops a theory of corporate boards and their role in forcing CEO turnover. We show that in general the board faces a coordination problem, leading it to retain an incompetent CEO even when a majority of board members receive private signals indicating that she is of poor quality. We solve for the optimal board size, and show that it depends on various board and firm characteristics: one size does not fit all firms. We develop extensions to our basic model to analyze the optimal composition of the board between firm insiders and outsiders and the effect of board members observing imprecise public signals in addition to their private signals on board decision-making. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.

by Yiu-Fai Peter Ho. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1989. / Bibliography: leaves 59-61.

Ling Nie Bun. / Summary in Chinese. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 97-100.

This thesis develops a model for the net present value to the firm of a strategy of increasing an SBU's market share as a function of four quantitative variables: the firm's initial market share, the current position in the product life cycle, as viewed by the firm, the competitor's relative experience curve slope and the competitor's view of the shape and size of the product life cycle. The net present value is calculated using traditional definitions, but includes a limit pricing strategy by the firm and assumes the existence of the experience curve. The prime reason for the development of this model is to test quantitatively the capital budgeting implications of the portfolio matrices proposed by the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Company. And, to suggest a format that better integrates corporate strategy and finance. The most important finding of this research is that the inclusion of experience curve effects causes relative market share to assume dominance over market growth rate in the BCG matrix and causes business strength to assume dominance over industry attractiveness in the McKinsey matrix, at least within the limitations and assumptions of the model. Put into laymen's terms, that means that corporate planners should abandon attempts to convert low share but high growth businesses (what BCG calls "Problem Children") into "Stars", if such conversion can only be accomplished .through price, or price equivalent competition, as long as both participants are equally competent. A second important finding is that other variables, beyond growth and share, can be successfully and quantitatively incorporated into the model. This means that the two-dimensional approach of the Boston Consulting Group can be improved upon by adding additional variables or that businessmen can make better use of the McKinsey approach to strategy and its investment implications, by logically quantifying their variables.