Over the past decade banks repeatedly made headlines with severe cases of business misconduct. Several high profile political inquiries sought to ascertain responsibility for the malfeasance but concluded that responsibility could not unequivocally be attributed. Considering that the responsibility principle constitutes a normative element which should guide social interaction, its evasion can lead to social distortions. The purpose of the thesis is threefold. First, it seeks to explore the responsibility practices in banking; second, it considers the mechanisms of responsibility evasion; and third, it discusses the power relations guiding responsible business conduct. Academic research typically considers corporate responsibility from two perspectives. At the meso level responsibility is framed in terms of corporate governance; at the micro level individual and team responsibilities are studied. This thesis offers a different perspective and discusses responsibility in terms of practice, which comprises responsibility constitution and responsibility attribution. In an organisational context responsibility is arranged in terms of role and task responsibilities and corporate culture, while responsibility attributions refer to the interpretations and judgements of social conduct. The analysis draws on the concept of 'agencement' which describes a heterogeneous compendium of different devices that act on and modify each other (Pollock and Williams, 2009). Ontologically, ANT views realities as multiple and fluid and the question of which reality takes precedence is a matter of power relations. For the analysis a methodological tool, the responsibility map, has been developed and applied to three case studies, namely the mis-selling of PPI, trader manipulation of LIBOR and low-balling of LIBOR. Operating under the principles of financialisation, banks have internalised financial benefits while negative outcomes were externalised. Responsibility attribution for the misconduct was systematically evaded. The mechanisms of responsibility diffusion are closely tied to the business strategies: retail banks proceduralised responsibility; it became invested in meeting sales targets. Investment banks operated at the forefront of LIBOR manipulations. Handling the LIBOR rate setting process in an informal manner created responsibility gaps. In both environments the regulatory regimes in place proved ineffective. It is argued that corporate irresponsibility must be considered as a recurrent theme if banking remains organised in terms of financialised business models. The thesis presents a novel approach to the study of organisational responsibility. The methodological tool developed for this research can be adapted to study responsibility in other corporate contexts. Given that the current business models are flawed as they create an environment that condones irresponsible conduct the thesis concludes with suggestions for policy making.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-11T13:57:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Elias de Oliveira.pdf: 2060340 bytes, checksum: c5523e19da419c48e3ab9bea69faedfe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-19 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The large Corporation constitutes one of the most important agent spatial reorganization of capitalism. His action, after world war ll world, has produced a new international division of labor, characterized the formation of numerous and complex networks that connects in a geographical home to a large corporation with several subsidiaries in different regions and countries. Therefore, it is from this point that puts the purpose of this research: to understand the spatial organization of Moto Honda Amazonia company to effect the production and distribution of motorcycles nationwide. This is a case study, and as a theoretical foundation, a literature review was done on large corporations and the formation of networks of geographic locations, and field research at the headquarters of the company. Inaugurated in 1976 at the Pole Manaus Industrial, Moto Honda da Amazonian is one of the industry s most in the country, given its volume of production represented in 2011 79% of the domestic motorcycle. I organized a dense and branched network of geographic locations, involving a large number of companies subsidiaries, warehouses, distribution centers, banks, services financial as well as hundreds of dealerships that effectively articulate the activities of the company, consolidating an integrated area in the country and beyond its borders, considering the sum of exports involving motorcycles all countries in the Americas and some countries in Europe, Africa and Asia. Moto Honda Amazonia is actually a branch of Honda Motor Company, a powerful conglomerate based in Tokyo that is a leader production of motorcycles in the world and a major producer of cars and power products. It is, therefore, a large industrial conglomerate that, with financial resources injected from outside, found in Brazil an incredibly promising market and established a progressively performance space at the national level / A grande corporação constitui-se em um dos mais importantes agentes da reorganização espacial capitalista. Sua ação, após a Segunda Guerra Mundial, produziu uma Nova Divisão Internacional do Trabalho, caracterizada pela formação de numerosas e complexas redes que no plano geográfico conecta a sede de uma grande corporação com diversas empresas subsidiárias em diferentes regiões e países. Assim sendo, é a partir desse ponto que se coloca a finalidade desta pesquisa: compreender a organização espacial da empresa Moto Honda da Amazônia para efetivar a produção e distribuição de motocicletas em todo território nacional. Trata-se de um estudo de caso, e como fundamentação teórica, foi feito um levantamento bibliográfico sobre grandes corporações e a formação de redes de localizações geográficas, além de pesquisas de campo na sede da própria empresa. Inaugurada em 1976 no Pólo Industrial de Manaus, a Moto Honda da Amazônia é uma das indústrias mais importantes do país, dado o volume de sua produção que representou, em 2011, 79% do mercado nacional de motos. Para isso, organiza uma densa e ramificada rede de localizações geográficas, envolvendo um grande número de empresas subsidiárias, depósitos, centros de distribuição, bancos, serviços financeiros além de centenas de concessionárias que efetivamente articulam as atividades da empresa, consolidando um espaço integrado no país e além de suas fronteiras, considerando a soma das exportações de motos que envolve todos os países do continente americano e alguns países da Europa, África e Ásia. A Moto Honda da Amazônia constitui, na realidade, uma ramificação da Honda Motor Company, um poderoso conglomerado com sede em Tóquio que é líder mundial na produção de motocicletas e um dos maiores produtores de automóveis e produtos de força. Trata-se, portanto, de um grande conglomerado industrial que, dotado de recursos financeiros injetados do exterior, encontrou no Brasil um mercado incrivelmente promissor e estabeleceu progressivamente um espaço de atuação em nível nacional

Research linking marketing to financial outputs has been gaining significance in the marketing discipline. The pertinent questions are, therefore: how can marketing improve measures of firm performance and draw potential investors to the company, and where is the quantitative proof to back up these assertions? This research investigates the role of marketing expenditures in the context of initial public offerings (IPOs). The proposed theoretical framework comes from marketing and finance literature, and uses econometric models to test the hypotheses. First, we replicate the results of a previous study by Luo (2008) showing a relationship between the firm's pre-IPO marketing spending and IPO underpricing. Next, we extend the previous study by looking at the IPO's long-run returns, types of risk, analyst coverage, and market/industry characteristics. The results of this study, based on a sample of 2,103 IPOs from 1996 to 2008, suggest that increased marketing spending positively impac ts firm performance. We examine different measures of firm performance, such as risk and long-run performance, whose results are important to the firm, its shareholders, and potential investors. This study analyzes the impact marketing spending has on IPO characteristics (IPO underpricing in the short-run and cumulative abnormal returns in the long run); risk characteristics (systematic, unsystematic, bankruptcy risk, and total risk); analyst coverage characteristics (the number of analysts, optimistic coverage, and forecast error) and market characteristics (market volatility and industry type). We control for variables such as firm size, profitability, and IPO characteristics. In this paper, the results show that increased marketing spending lowers underpricing, lowers bankruptcy risk, lowers total risk, leads to greater analyst coverage, leads to more favorable analyst coverage, and lowers analyst forecast error. For theory, this paper advances the literature on the / marketing-financ e interface by extending the market-based assets and signaling theories. For practice, the results indicate that spending more money on marketing before the IPO and disclosing this information produces positive bottom-line results for the firm. KEYWORDS: Marketing-Finance, Risk, Financial Analysts, Marketing Spending, Firm Performance, Marketing Strategy Meets Wall Street, Long-Run Firm Performance, Underpricing, Stock Recommendations, Initial Public Offering, Marketing Strategy, Econometric Model. / by Monica B. Fine. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 140-142).

Με την όλο και αυξανόμενη απαίτηση των πελατών για προϊόντα που να προσαρμόζονται περισσότερο στις ανάγκες τους, η σύγχρονη βιομηχανία πρέπει να επιδεικνύει μεγάλο βαθμό ευελιξίας. Ένα τυπικό παράδειγμα είναι οι αυτοκινητοβιομηχανίες, όπου για τον σκοπό αυτό, προσπαθούν να εξασφαλίσουν την βέλτιστη συνεργασία με τους προμηθευτές και τους αντιπροσώπους. Στην εργασία αυτή, έχει αναπτυχθεί ένα λογισμικό σύστημα που βασίζεται στο διαδίκτυο για την ανταλλαγή δεδομένων μεταξύ του κατασκευαστή, των προμηθευτών και την αντιπροσώπων μιας αυτοκινητοβιομηχανίας. Το λογισμικό αποτελείται από υπηρεσίες διαδικτύου, ενώ για την υλοποίηση της επιχειρησιακής λογικής, χρησιμοποιείται η γλώσσα BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). Τέλος, έχει υλοποιηθεί μια σχεσιακή βάση δεδομένων για την αποθήκευση του συνόλου των δεδομένων. / Since the customers’ demand for highly customizable products is rising, modern industry has to exhibit a high degree of flexibility. A typical example is the automotive industry, where efforts are being made, to ensure the best possible cooperation of the manufacturer with the suppliers and the dealers. In this thesis, a web based software system has been developed, for the exchange of data between the manufacturer, the suppliers and the dealers of an automotive industry. The software system consists of Web Services, while the business logic is implemented using BPEL (Business Process Execution Language). Last but not least, a relational data base has been developed for the storage of the data needed.

The purpose of this paper is to assess consumer behavior in the airline industry from a perspective beyond the effects of price discrimination. First the consequences of dynamic pricing will be assessed before looking at the role of social media and offline social influences, consumer satisfaction and airline equilibrium networks and their effects on consumer loyalty. Final implications on aviation revenue management will be drawn.

Thesis (MTech (Tourism and Hospitality Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. / Electronic commerce, popularly referred to as e-commerce, is the latest catchphrase surrounding the Internet and its many functions. In the past, the Internet was solely used for information seeking, but the 21st century has brought a new global economy to the fore – one that is conducted online. Tourism is seen as a driver of economic growth, contributing both to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of South Africa (SA) and creating jobs in the hospitality sector. E-commerce does not only provide a platform for business to be conducted online but also an opportunity for consumers to interact directly with industry. Many studies have been done previously about the perceived benefits of e-commerce in the retail sector, yet none in Cape Town and at five-star hotels in particular. It is well known that holidaymakers conduct an online search prior to booking accommodation; some of those potential guests in turn choose to finalise their bookings online. The purpose of the study was to investigate the role of e-commerce in five-star hotels in the Cape Town Metropole. The main objective of this study was to define what e-commerce is for five-star hotels in the Cape Town Metropole and determine if the hotels are using e-commerce as a booking method. Online questionnaires were used to gather primary data and a literature review was presented as secondary data. The findings of this study showed that all the hotels surveyed use online bookings and half of the respondents believe Online Travel Agents (OTAs) generate more revenue than traditional methods of room reservation. When asked to rank methods of room’s reservations, there was a slight difference between telephone bookings and e-commerce as number one. This could mean that while electronic methods are popular, they have not completely replaced traditional methods. The researcher recommends that five-star hotel managers train the rooms’ division staff to respond to negative reviews on social media, as this was one of the findings. The hotels should also learn how to effectively use their social media presence to increase room sales.