This thesis investigates the performance of business model innovation (BMI) by incumbent power utility and clean-tech start-up firms influenced by the German Energiewende. It emphasises the factors that impact BMI from a managers’ perspective, examines success factors for managers to overcome BMI challenges, and addresses contingencies to perform BMI in a more structured way. The research is driven by the German Energiewende. It has been chosen as Germany is considered one of the world’s leading markets for renewable energies and a transformation of the power sector is currently underway. Therefore, established power utility firms face severe changes, which have the characteristics of a potential disruption to their business model (BM). At the same time, new players are challenging these incumbents with new BMs. The research is underpinned by the extant literature on BMs and BMI. The research approach is based on two case studies; the incumbent power utility and the clean-tech start-up sector. The qualitative study comprises of 24 semi-structured interviews conducted with top tier managers, from 18 firms, responsible for BMI within these firms. Key findings: This study extends our knowledge of BMI in both a start-up and an incumbent environment that is influenced by various contingent events. It portrays barriers to BMI and depicts critical success factors for BMI that point out solutions on how to overcome these barriers. It provides a structured BMI framework for established firms and illustrates future BM archetypes in this sector. It clearly documents the German Energiewende is regarded as a disruptive threat from the perspective of incumbent power utility managers. The theoretical contribution of this thesis is a process framework including all identified drivers and challenges for BMI in both established and start-up firms. Contributions to practice include critical success factors for BMI, recommendations to overcome barriers to BMI and future BM archetypes within the newly evolving Energiewende industry based on sustainable technologies.

本論文的研究主旨勿探討立法委員的選區經營方式，作者將選區經營中的選民服務(casework)獨立出來，探討它與選區經營的其他部份工作的關係。筆者發現，選民服務與連任得票之間的確有正相關的關係，而且與選民對立委的工作滿意度亦有正相關的關係。 　　本論文分為六章，分別略述於下：第一章緒論：分析選民服務的特性，並且建立選區經營與選民服務之研究架構。第二章研究背景，概述台灣國會選舉制度與政治文化。第三章選民服務案分析，剖析立委的選區服務組織與服務案處理程序，並且畫分服務案的特質。第四章選區經營分析，探討選區經營的兩項工作：拜訪選民與發行國會通訊。第五章選民服務的效果分析，證明選民服務的效果。第六章為結論。

The article tries to explain the performance of peruvian incumbent parties in the immediate electoral process after their term. To do this, the limitations of two possible explanations are explored: retrospective voting and party institutionalization. Against this, the article proposes that, to explain the peruvian government parties poor performance, it is necessary to stressed the importance of the party leader and the presidential candidate. These are key factors that can affect the electoral chances of the Peruvian ruling party in a high caudillism. / El presente artículo busca explicar el pobre desempeño de los partidos de gobiernos peruanos en los procesos electorales inmediatamente posteriores a su mandato. Para ello, se exploran las limitaciones de dos posibles explicaciones: el voto retrospectivo y la institucionalización partidaria. Frente a esto, el artículo propone que, para explicar los malos resultados obtenidos es preciso revisar el rol del líder partidario y la importancia del candidato presidencial. Ambos resultan factores fundamentales que pueden afectar las oportunidades electorales del partido de gobierno en un contexto de alto caudillismo como el peruano.

This thesis seeks to understand how political awareness affects what information one uses to indicate their approval or disapproval of Congress and its members. More concisely, do more and less aware individuals rely on the same pieces of political information to mold their opinions of Congress? The second question of concern is what role does media consumption play in informing survey respondents about Congress. Third, I consider how survey respondents use cues like the condition of the economy and presidential job performance to help formulate their opinion of Congress Finally, by applying the Congressional approval literature to incumbent level approval, I seek to advance the theory and literature on what motivates the approval of incumbents.

The digital transformation, providing disruptive digital technologies, changed customer needs, and new digital entrants, is starting to affect the insurance industry. Although, the insurers are struggling to become digital and excel on technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to identify and investigate the factors necessary for incumbent insurers to achieve digital transformation and excel on related technologies, to stay competitive in the fast-changing environment. The overall theoretical foundation was built on the ability to create dynamic capabilities to achieve digital transformation. The study further linked the dynamic capabilities theory to the context of the change currently happening in the insurance industry, achieved by performing a single case study on a Swedish incumbent insurer. The case study included two units of analysis which investigated (1) how, and under which circumstances, the identified key factors were met, and (2) how the attempts of implementing Artificial Intelligence have been perceived, received and achieved. Both qualitative and quantitative data collections were performed, but where the qualitative was predominate. The findings proved that the incumbent insurer is at the start of its digital transformation and does realise the need to transform. However, it was found that many of the essential dynamic capabilities’ activities are limited at the case company and that hierarchical structures, riskaversion and legacy systems are hindering the insurer’s attempts to transform. Some good initiatives though proved that the insurer is starting to build more dynamic capabilities, but there are also many areas where the company must improve. A central contribution to the study was further the realisation that the implementation of Artificial Intelligence was well related to the parts of the dynamic capabilities’ theory. As digital transformation is an ongoing journey of strategic change, once more dynamic capabilities are in place, the incumbent insurer will be ready to excel on the possibilities that digital transformation entails. / Den digitala transformationen har börjat påverka försäkringsbranschen och medför nya omvälvande digitala tekniker, förändrade kundbeteenden och nya digitala konkurrenter. Många försäkringsbolag kämpar därför med att bli digitala samt att förstå sig på nya tekniker, så som Artificiell Intelligens. Syftet med denna studie var därför att identifiera och undersöka vilka faktorer som är nödvändiga för väletablerade försäkringsbolag att klara sig igenom den digitala transformationen, och adaptera nya uppkommande tekniker som förändringen medför. Detta för att kunna behålla sin marknadsposition och klara sig i en snabbförändlig värld. Huvudsakligen var den teoretiska grunden för detta arbete byggt på förmågan att kunna skapa dynamiska förmågor för att överleva den digitala transformationen. Vidare så sammankopplade studien teorin om dynamiska förmågor till den pågående förändringen inom försäkringsindustrin, genom att utföra en fallstudie av ett väletablerat försäkringsbolag i Sverige. Fallstudien innefattade två analysdelar beskrivna enligt följande: (1) Hur, och under vilka förhållanden, uppfylls de identifierade faktorerna och (2) hur har försöken att implementera Artificiell Intelligens uppfattas, mottagits och uppnåtts av försäkringsbolaget. Både en kvalitativ och kvantitativ datainsamling utfördes, där den kvalitativa delen dominerade. Resultaten visade på att det studerade försäkringsbolaget är i början av sin digitala transformation, men har insett betydelsen av att behöva förändras. Det blev även bekräftat att många av de grundläggande dynamiska förmågorna var begränsade hos företaget samt att hierarkiska strukturer, riskundvikande och legacy förhindrar möjligheten att förändras. En del goda initiativ visar att företaget börjar bygga dynamiska förmågor men att det finns många områden där ytterligare fokus krävs. En stor insikt i studien var att implementationen av Artificiell Intelligens var relaterad och stämde väl överens med faktorerna identifierade i teorin. Den digitala transformationen är en pågående resa av strategiska förändringar, och försäkringsbolaget kommer kunna ta del av dess möjligheter när fler dynamiska förmågor uppnås.

This thesis investigates the performance of business model innovation (BMI) by incumbent power utility and clean-tech start-up firms influenced by the German Energiewende. It emphasises the factors that impact BMI from a managers’ perspective, examines success factors for managers to overcome BMI challenges, and addresses contingencies to perform BMI in a more structured way. The research is driven by the German Energiewende. It has been chosen as Germany is considered one of the world’s leading markets for renewable energies and a transformation of the power sector is currently underway. Therefore, established power utility firms face severe changes, which have the characteristics of a potential disruption to their business model (BM). At the same time, new players are challenging these incumbents with new BMs. The research is underpinned by the extant literature on BMs and BMI. The research approach is based on two case studies; the incumbent power utility and the clean-tech start-up sector. The qualitative study comprises of 24 semi-structured interviews conducted with top tier managers, from 18 firms, responsible for BMI within these firms. Key findings: This study extends our knowledge of BMI in both a start-up and an incumbent environment that is influenced by various contingent events. It portrays barriers to BMI and depicts critical success factors for BMI that point out solutions on how to overcome these barriers. It provides a structured BMI framework for established firms and illustrates future BM archetypes in this sector. It clearly documents the German Energiewende is regarded as a disruptive threat from the perspective of incumbent power utility managers. The theoretical contribution of this thesis is a process framework including all identified drivers and challenges for BMI in both established and start-up firms. Contributions to practice include critical success factors for BMI, recommendations to overcome barriers to BMI and future BM archetypes within the newly evolving Energiewende industry based on sustainable technologies.

This study investigates challenges that emerge for Swedish incumbent banks when pursuing compliance with IT security regulations, while simultaneously striving towards innovation in order to maintain market competitiveness in terms of digital payment service offerings. As competition increases within the payment service industry, developing innovative services becomes increasingly important. At the same time, it is essential that these solutions maintain a high level of IT security, both in terms of the preservation of customer trust as well as in terms of compliance with financial regulations. Consequently, the aim of this study was to contribute to research from an incumbent banking perspective, where theory together with a qualitative case study has revolved around the topics of technology, compliance, and innovation in the pursuit of identifying key challenges. The study included a series of interviews with respondents within banking, IT security, and compliance management. This resulted in three principal challenges regarding compliance and innovation within payment services at incumbent banks, along with proposed actions to be taken. Firstly, the necessity of incrementally transitioning from legacy infrastructure towards modernized platforms was established. Secondly, banks are encouraged to make trade-offs between regulations and deploying new products and services. Finally, for banks to engage in communication and collaboration within the organization as well as with regulators can facilitate compliance as well as promoting harmonization of regulations. / Denna studie undersöker de utmaningar som svenska storbanker står inför i en digitaliserad miljö där både IT-säkerhet och innovation behöver tillgodoses för att upprätthålla konkurrenskraft gällande betaltjänster. Då konkurrensen ökar inom betaltjänstsektorn blir utvecklingen av innovativa tjänster allt mer betydelsefull. Samtidigt är det viktigt att dessa lösningar håller en hög nivå av IT-säkerhet, dels för att bibehålla kundförtroende, men också för att banker lyder under finansiella regelverk. Följaktligen var syftet med denna studie att bidra till kunskap om utvecklingen av framtidens betaltjänster. Teori och empiri kretsade kring områdena teknik, regelverk och innovation, med en strävan att identifiera huvudutmaningar på området. I en kvalitativ fallstudie inkluderandes en serie intervjuer med experter inom banksektorn och ITsäkerhet. Resultaten visade att de viktigaste utmaningarna kopplat till regelefterlevnad och innovation inom betaltjänster för storbanker är nyttjandet av föråldrad teknik, behovet av en avvägning mellan att uppfylla regelverk och utveckling av nya produkter och tjänster, och slutligen kommunikation och samarbete inom både organisationen och med lagstiftare.

The study of electoral defence and its stated advantages are an integral part of American political science. Post-war, much academic literature has emerged in an attempt to identify and explain rising re-election rates of congressional incumbents and the political consequences of such a phenomenon (Mayhew 1974; Fiorina 1977; Cain, Ferejohn & Fiorina 1987; Gelman & King 1990; King 1991). Conversely, the study of political incumbency in Britain can be attributed to a handful of scholars who tend to consider the repercussions at parliamentary level (Williams 1967, King 1981, Cain, Ferejohn and Fiorina 1984, Norton 1990 & 1994, Norris, Valance & Lovenduski 1992). Consequently, incumbency advantage at the local level remains a relatively under-researched topic in England, confined to the sub-chapters of Rallings & Thrasher (1997). The aim of this thesis is to research and present evidence in support of incumbency effects in English local elections and the extent to which they influence their outcome, in that, incumbent candidates fare better than less experienced candidates, to different degrees across the three major parties. It will do so using survey and electoral data collected by The Elections Centre at Plymouth University, drawing on established methods from the literature and demonstrating via a variety of data and methods, that incumbency advantage is indeed a real phenomenon effecting the outcomes of local elections in England. The research provides substantial evidence for Sophomore Surge and Retirement Slump effects throughout the period examined (1974-2010). These methods of estimation feature alongside a number of others, which are constructed to uncover the significance of defending, rather than challenging for a council seat. A number of influences on the advantage that defending councillors maintain are also presented, including district magnitude, ward size and rural/urban classification. Results reveal a modest advantage for Conservative and Labour incumbent candidates, whilst the effects are shown to be stronger for the Liberal Democrats, a finding that is in step with the existing literature on electoral trends and the local campaign strategy of the party (Dorling et al, 1998; McAllister et al, 2002; Russell & Fieldhouse, 2005; Cutts 2006).

This dissertation investigates the relationship of competition and firms' price responses, by analyzing: i) whether new entry reduces price discrimination, ii) when incumbents reduce price discrimination preemptively in response to the threat of entry, and iii) how competition increases prices. The dissertation consists of three independent essays addressing each of the above questions. The first two essays present an empirical analysis of the airline industry and the third essay presents a theoretical analysis of the credit card industry. In the empirical study of the relationship between competition and firms' pricing in the airline industry, I emphasize the importance of distinguishing the equilibrium behaviors with respect to different market characteristics. Major airlines can price discriminate differently in a market where they compete with low-cost carriers comparing to in another market where they don't, and also they can respond dfferently to the threat of entry depending on whether they are certain about the rival's future entry. The study reveals that competition has a positive effect on price discrimination in the routes where major airlines compete against one anther. In these routes, competition reduces lower-end prices to a greater extent than upper-end prices. In contrast, an entry by low-cost carriers results in a significant negative relationship between competition and price discrimination. Thus, the opposite results in the literature are both evident in the airline industry, and it is very important to identify the different forces of competition on price discrimination. Firms can respond to potential competition as well as actual competition. So, I extend the study to the relationship of potential competition and price discrimination, specially in cases where major airlines compete against one another while facing Southwest's threat of entry. I also attempt to suggest major airlines' motives of reducing price discrimination preemptively. The results of the study suggest that incumbents reduce price dispersion when it is possible to deter the rival's entry and that the potential rival discourages incumbents from deterring entry by announcing before its beginning service. Finally, I examine when competition can increase prices in a market, by analyzing the issuing side of the credit card industry. This industry is characterized by a two-sided market with a platform. Under the no-surcharge rule that restricts merchants to set the same price for cash and card purchases, the equilibrium interchange fee increases with competition. This occurs because issuers can compensate losses from competing on the issuing side by collectively increasing the interchange fee. As a result, limiting competition may improve social welfare when the interchange fee is higher than the social optimal level. In contrast, in the absence of the no-surcharge rule, the analysis shows that competition always improves social welfare by lowering the price of the market.

Magister Commercii (Industrial Psychology) - MCom(IPS) / The focus of this exploratory study was on competency profile development, specifically the factors impacting on the validity of its development. Given the paucity of research both nationally and internationally into the development of criteria feeding employment practices, as well as the conjectured enigmatic disjuncture between theory, which promotes the almost indispensability of job analysis, and organisational reality which attests to it seldom being performed or performed in a way which would satisfy scientific standards, a qualitative enquiry and a two tiered research design was developed to explore this phenomenon. Through excavating documentary data, the first phase of research intensively explored the work of the City of Cape Town's Competency Framework Team, their particular job analysis processes and their methodology for developing a competency profile for a single incumbent position, namely that of the City Manager's position. The medium of the case study allowed the reader to enter the world of a pulsing organisation and witness such researchers' dilemmas as contemplating whether there is a standard recipe for competency profile generation, the factors influencing choice of methodology, judgment around the relevancy of competencies developed to lead the change process, accurately responding to and managing dramatically skewed samples, the types of interventions to design, etc. The three key results from this phase of research confirmed that: the complexity of change within the City of Cape Town, as well as the types of decisions the various HR functions had to make on the basis of the profile, influenced decisions on how to profile and which methods to use; that stakeholders actively shaped the design and understanding of the particular components of the competency profile as they bring human volition to the areas of challenge arising within the organisation; and on the issue of whether racial composition of a sample was anticipated to have an effect on the competencies generated, it was clear that is not possible to ascertain whether the differences noticed in the behavioural repertoire of an individual are as a function of race or a myriad of other competing variables. The second phase of research studied the behavioural competencies elicited from a sample of Chief Executive Officers when using different job analysis methods to develop these competencies. The results confirmed that the distinctive features of a job analysis method selected or developed may impact on the behavioural competencies generated. These results not only sensitise practitioners to the role of methodology in influencing the derivation of competencies, but also to the many variables within, as well as between chosen methodologies, and to the reality that choice of methodology may influence the degree of confidence with which one interprets the results attained. The study concluded that despite this being a case study, limiting the conclusiveness and generalisability of its findings, the facets of the phenomenon of competency profiling illuminated may have much salience for the art and practice of profiling in general, for users and developers of job analysis processes, instruments, and leadership models, as well as practitioners entrusted with organisational design and redesign.