How to evaluate if a spatial model is well ajusted to a problem? How to know if it is the best model between the class of conditional autoregressive (CAR) and simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) models, including homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity cases? To answer these questions inside Bayesian framework, we propose new ways to apply Bregman divergence, as well as recent information criteria as widely applicable information criterion (WAIC) and leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO). The functional Bregman divergence is a generalized form of the well known Kullback-Leiber (KL) divergence. There is many special cases of it which might be used to identify influential points. All the posterior distributions displayed in this text were estimate by Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC), a optimized version of Metropolis-Hasting algorithm. All ideas showed here were evaluate by both: simulation and real data. / Como avaliar se um modelo espacial está bem ajustado? Como escolher o melhor modelo entre muitos da classe autorregressivo condicional (CAR) e autorregressivo simultâneo (SAR), homoscedásticos e heteroscedásticos? Para responder essas perguntas dentro do paradigma bayesiano, propomos novas formas de aplicar a divergência de Bregman, assim como critérios de informação bastante recentes na literatura, são eles o widely applicable information criterion (WAIC) e validação cruzada leave-one-out (LOO). O funcional de Bregman é uma generalização da famosa divergência de Kullback-Leiber (KL). Há diversos casos particulares dela que podem ser usados para identificar pontos influentes. Todas as distribuições a posteriori apresentadas nesta dissertação foram estimadas usando Monte Carlo Hamiltoniano (HMC), uma versão otimizada do algoritmo Metropolis-Hastings. Todas as ideias apresentadas neste texto foram submetidas a simulações e aplicadas em dados reais.

知識經濟時代的來臨，宣告著掌握知識是關鍵的策略能力，尤其是多國企業的全球競爭優勢建立，其知識和創新的來源及運用均不再侷限於國界之內，故子公司之知識來源成為學術界與實務界相當重視的議題。本研究目的在於發展多國企業子公司知識來源型態分類架構，建立知識來源型態影響因素之理論模型，並進行實證。 本研究提出「知識來源決策階層模式」，認為進行知識取得決策時，管理者的決策思考能力有限的情況下，此一決策應為階層模式。就多國企業子公司而言，知識來源決策第一階層應為「母公司集團」及「非母公司集團」型態二者之考量，其中「非母公司集團」型態下的第二階層則為「自行發展」及「策略聯盟」之決策。此外，每一階層考量的因素並不相同，此模式可以提供管理者更明確的影響因素藍圖，在資訊過多與複雜的情境下，釐清各因素的影響階層，有助管理者的決策思考。 經由文獻探討，從多國企業相關理論、交易成本理論、資源基礎理論與社會網絡概念，探討與知識來源型態的關係，並透過個案訪談分析，建立研究實證架構。本研究提出，子公司知識來源傾向來自「母公司集團」或「非母公司集團」型態之主要影響因素，包括子公司知識環境與知識專屬性，而子公司知識環境與知識來源型態之間的關係，會受到子公司資源因素與母公司組織系絡因素之調節影響。另外，在非母公司集團之知識來源中，子公司因素與知識不確定性會影響子公司傾向採取「自行發展」或「策略聯盟」型態。 假說驗證方面，本研究以製造業之多國企業在台子公司為研究對象，分析單位為知識。經由問卷調查，共計回收234個有效知識樣本。資料分析方法上，同時採用邏吉斯迴歸與一般迴歸二個方法進行分析，強化實證結果之穩健性。結果發現外商在台子公司知識來源型態的特色為：（1）多國企業所有權優勢愈大，愈傾向於母公司集團型態；（2）地主國區位優勢愈大，愈傾向於非母公司集團型態；（3）知識區位專屬性愈高，愈傾向於非母公司集團型態；（4）母公司集權控制程度、子公司高階團隊社會資本會對多國企業所有權優勢、全球策略與地主國區位優勢和子公司知識來源型態間的關係造成影響；（5）子公司資源愈豐富，愈傾向於自行發展型態；（6）知識不確定性愈大，愈傾向於策略聯盟型態。 綜合實證結果，本研究提出之知識來源型態影響因素理論架構，對子公司知識來源型態具有良好的解釋能力。在理論方面，本研究提出適於多國企業子公司的知識來源型態分類架構，並且證實知識來源決策階層模式的觀點；在實務方面，本研究可提供子公司知識來源決策之考量因素，以及母公司調整其全球策略、管理制度設計及定位子公司角色之參考依據。 第一章 緒論……………………………………………… 1 第一節 研究背景與研究動機………………………… 3 第二節 研究問題與研究目的………………………… 8 第三節 研究範圍與研究限制………………………… 11 第四節 相關名詞說明………………………………… 14 第五節 研究程序……………………………………… 19 第二章 文獻探討……………………………………………… 23 第一節 知識的意義與內涵………………………………… 23 第二節 知識來源型態之分類架構………………………… 28 第三節 子公司知識環境與知識來源型態……………… 33 第四節 母公司因素與知識來源型態……………………… 41 第五節 子公司因素與知識來源型態……………………… 50 第六節 知識特性與知識來源型態………………………… 64 第七節 文獻探討與初步研究架構………………………… 70 第三章 個案分析………………………………………… 73 第一節 個案研究方法………………………………… 73 第二節 個案說明……………………………………… 75 第三節 個案比較分析………………………………… 93 第四章 研究設計………………………………………… 96 第一節 研究架構的建立……………………………… 96 第二節 研究假設……………………………………… 102 第三節 研究變項定義與問卷設計…………………… 122 第四節 研究樣本與資料蒐集………………………… 131 第五節 資料分析方法………………………………… 134 第五章 實證研究結果…………………………………… 139 第一節 樣本描述……………………………………… 139 第二節 問卷之信度與效度…………………………… 150 第三節 子公司知識來自母公司集團或非母公司集團 的影響因素分析……………………………… 156 第四節 影響子公司知識來自自行發展或策略聯盟的 因素分析……………………………………… 175 第五節 其他相關因素之影響………………………… 181 第六章 結論與建議……………………………………… 190 第一節 研究結論……………………………………… 190 第二節 理論與實務涵意……………………………… 203 第二節 後續研究建議………………………………… 210 參考文獻…………………………………………………… 216 / By coming of the knowledge age, to acquire knowledge is a key capability. A potentially important source of competitive advantage for multinational firms is the capacity of their foreign subsidiaries to generate knowledge and innovations based on stimuli and resources resident in the heterogeneous host country environments in which they operate. In this sense, sources of knowledge of subsidiaries become an important issue. The purposes of this research are to identify the influential factors in the choice of knowledge-sourcing mode and proceed empirical tests. The research develops a hierarchical model of knowledge-sourcing decision and argues that managers have a limited analytical capacity when making complex decision. Mode of knowledge-sourcing decision for MNCs’ subsidiaries can be first classified as MNC-based and nonMNC-based. At the next level of hierarchy, nonMNC-based modes are further split into internal development and strategic alliances. Moreover, there are factors that influence the choice at first level, and that all of these factors do not influence the choice at the second level of the hierarchy. This model can provide a more precise picture of what affects the choice of knowledge-sourcing modes under the information overload and the complexity of the choice decision. By reviewing literatures on the theory of MNCs, transaction cost economics, resource-based view and the theory of social network, and integrating the result of case analysis, we develop the research framework. We argue that both subsidiary knowledge environment and knowledge specificity are the main factors affecting knowledge-sourcing mode likely to MNC-based or nonMNC-based sources. There are moderators, resource factors. and organizational context factors, affecting the front relationship. Furthermore, subsidiary factors and knowledge uncertainty affect knowledge-sourcing mode likely to internal development or strategic alliances. The empirical samples were MNCs’ subsidiaries in Taiwan. The unit of analysis was an item of knowledge. By questionnaire survey, the total number of samples is 234. We apply two analysis methods, including the logistic regression and the regression analysis, to make sure the robustness of our results. The empirical results reveal six findings: (1)Strong ownership advantages will promote subsidiary to adopt the MNC-based mode; (2)strong location advantages of the host country will promote subsidiary to adopt the nonMNC-based mode; (3)high location specificity of knowledge will promote subsidiary to adopt the nonMNC-based mode; (4)the extent of headquarter control and social capital of subsidiary managers are moderators affecting the relationship between ownership advantages, the global strategy, location advantages separately and the knowledge-sourcing mode; (5)rich subsidiary resources will promote subsidiary to adopt the internal development mode; (6)high uncertainty of knowledge will promote subsidiary to adopt the strategic alliance mode. To conclude, the theoretical model possesses a high explanatory power in associating the determinants and the choice of mode. The study has two key contributions. First, it provides a knowledge-sourcing typology that is suitable for MNCs’ subsidiaries. In addition, the results provide supportive evidence for the hierarchical model of knowledge source. Second, for managers, our study shows that there are many factors that affect the adoption of knowledge-sourcing mode and provide a guideline for headquarter managers to adjust their global strategy, design the control system and position their subsidiaries.

Bakgrund: Ständiga förbättringar och organisatoriskt lärande syftar båda till att förbättra och utveckla organisationers processer. Inom ämnesområdet ständiga förbättringar är fokus många gånger på systematiska metoder medan det i organisatoriskt lärande fokuseras mer på den holistiska bilden av organisationen. Även om de båda forskningsområden skiljer sig åt på många sätt så går det att utröna likheter gällande vad som är påverkande faktorer i utfallet gällande de båda strategierna. Detta väckte vårt intresse och vi ville undersöka detta faktum vidare. Syfte: Studiens syfte är att förstå vilka påverkansfaktorer som finns gällande ständigt förbättringsarbete som strategi i verksamheter och organisatoriskt lärande samt var det finns gemensamma nämnare däremellan. Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ ansats och bygger på intervjuer och observationer som inhämtats på Saab Dynamics samt en litteraturgenomgång av existerande forskning och teorier. Resultat: Resultatet från denna studie har resulterat i två modeller: en teoretiskt framtagen som kartlägger de gemensamma nämnarna gällande påverkansfaktorer på organisations-, grupp- och individnivå samt en omarbetad modell med fokus på de faktorer vi funnit empiriskt. Påverkande faktorer är bland annat policykommunikation, ledningsnärvaro, gruppdynamik och förståelse. En förutsättning och kritisk variabel i detta är tid. / Background: Continuous improvement and organisational learning both aim to improve and develop an organisation’s processes. Within the field of continuous improvement the focus is often on systematic methods whilst in organisational learning the focus is mainly holistic when looking at an organisation. Although both research areas differ in many ways there are clear similarities concerning what are influential factors inducing the output regarding both strategies. This aroused our interest and we wanted to explore this fact further. Aim: This study aims to understand the influential factors that exist regarding continuous improvement as a strategy in businesses and organisational learning, as well as discovering where there are common denominators. Method: The study has a qualitative approach and is based on interviews and observations collected at Saab Dynamics as well as a literature review of existing research and theories. Result: The result from this study is shown in two models: a theory developed model that maps the common denominators regarding influential factors on the organisational-, group- and individual level as well as a revised model with focus on the factors we have found empirically. Influential factors include policy communication, managerial presence, group dynamics and understanding. A condition and a critical variable in this is time.

How to evaluate if a spatial model is well ajusted to a problem? How to know if it is the best model between the class of conditional autoregressive (CAR) and simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) models, including homoscedasticity and heteroscedasticity cases? To answer these questions inside Bayesian framework, we propose new ways to apply Bregman divergence, as well as recent information criteria as widely applicable information criterion (WAIC) and leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO). The functional Bregman divergence is a generalized form of the well known Kullback-Leiber (KL) divergence. There is many special cases of it which might be used to identify influential points. All the posterior distributions displayed in this text were estimate by Hamiltonian Monte Carlo (HMC), a optimized version of Metropolis-Hasting algorithm. All ideas showed here were evaluate by both: simulation and real data. / Como avaliar se um modelo espacial está bem ajustado? Como escolher o melhor modelo entre muitos da classe autorregressivo condicional (CAR) e autorregressivo simultâneo (SAR), homoscedásticos e heteroscedásticos? Para responder essas perguntas dentro do paradigma bayesiano, propomos novas formas de aplicar a divergência de Bregman, assim como critérios de informação bastante recentes na literatura, são eles o widely applicable information criterion (WAIC) e validação cruzada leave-one-out (LOO). O funcional de Bregman é uma generalização da famosa divergência de Kullback-Leiber (KL). Há diversos casos particulares dela que podem ser usados para identificar pontos influentes. Todas as distribuições a posteriori apresentadas nesta dissertação foram estimadas usando Monte Carlo Hamiltoniano (HMC), uma versão otimizada do algoritmo Metropolis-Hastings. Todas as ideias apresentadas neste texto foram submetidas a simulações e aplicadas em dados reais.

O presente estudo investiga qual o efeito que a divulgação de empresas solidárias apoiadoras e da remuneração de dirigentes de Organizações Sem Fins Lucrativos (OSFL) possui na decisão sobre o volume de contribuição e na propensão de doar futuramente por parte do doador individual. O estudo é consubstanciado em pesquisas desenvolvidas por Balsam e Harris (2014) e de Galle e Walker (2013) que encontraram evidências de que doadores reduzem as contribuições subsequente à divulgação, por parte da OSFL, de alta remuneração do dirigente; e, em pesquisa desenvolvida no Brasil por IDIS e Gallup (2016), que relatam a falta de confiança como um dos principais motivos para que doadores deixem de contribuir para as OSFL. Este estudo pressupõe que, divulgar empresas solidárias apoiadoras da OSFL gera compliance, um dos principais elementos de influência social citado por Cialdini e Trost (1998) sobre o doador, levando-o a perceber a OSFL como monitorada e, com maior confiança de que a organização cumpre a missão social para a qual se destina, reduzindo o efeito adverso ocasionado da divulgação pela própria OSFL de valores elevados de remuneração do dirigente. O procedimento metodológico para coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de um experimento, com 140 participantes estudantes de pós-graduação lato sensu em Ciências Contábeis da Universidade Federal do Paraná. Encontraram-se evidências de que o disclosure voluntário pela OSFL de empresa solidária apoiadora possui efeito positivo significativo na propensão de contribuição futura do doador individual, assim como o disclosure da remuneração do dirigente e da empresa solidária apoiadora, de forma interativa, conduz à maior probabilidade de doação futura pelo doador individual. Esperava-se que a divulgação da empresa solidária apoiadora apenas, ou essa em conjunto com a informação de menor remuneração do dirigente gerassem maiores volumes de contribuições pelo doador, contudo, não foram obtidas evidências empíricas que suportem as referidas hipóteses. Os achados também não confirmaram a hipótese de que, divulgados maiores valores da remuneração do dirigente seriam reduzidos o volume de contribuição e a propensão de doação futura. Os resultados implicam que a divulgação da empresa solidária apoiadora pela OSFL suscita uma resposta por parte do doador em relação à probabilidade de doar futuramente em consonância à comunicação explícita da organização, neste caso a solicitação de doação, possivelmente ocorrendo o compliance como forma de influência social de direcionamento pela figura de autoridade legítima exercida pela empresa solidária apoiadora. Isto ocorre inclusive quando a divulgação é realizada em conjunto com a remuneração do dirigente, indicando a relevância do disclosure voluntário por parte das OSFL na captação de recursos. Desta forma, este estudo amplia os conhecimentos sobre o disclosure voluntário em OSFL, principalmente relacionado à divulgação da empresa solidária apoiadora como fonte de autoridade legítima e do efeito de compliance sobre o doador individual. / This study investigates the effect of disclosure of Influential Institutional Partners and senior management\'s compensation on individuals\' decisions to donate for non-profit organizations (NPOs). Prior research (Balsam & Harris, 2014; Galle & Walker, 2013) indicate that donors reduce donations after the disclosure of senior manager\'s high compensation by the NPOs, and in the Brazilian setting (IDIS & Gallup, 2016), lack of trust is one of the main reported reasons for donors to stop contributions for NPOs. Based on the literature on social influence, this study argues that the Influential Institutional Partner\'s disclosure increases the donors\' compliance with the NPOs (Cialdini & Trost, 1998). This behaviour should lead donors to conclude that the NPO is an entity under monitoring, and drive higher trust that the organization reaches the social mission for which it is intended, reducing the adverse effect caused by the disclosure of senior management\'s high compensation. The experimental is conducted with 140 graduate accounting students at the Federal University of Parana (UFPR). The results indicate that NPOs voluntary disclosure has a significant positive effect on the individual donors\' propensity of future donations, as does, interactively, the disclosure of senior management\' compensation and of the Influential Institutional Partners. However, no empirical evidence was found supporting the main or interactive effects of disclosure of Influential Institutional Partners and senior management\'s compensation on donors contribution\'s amount. Findings also did not confirm that disclosure of senior management\'s higher compensation result in lower propensity of future donations by individual donors. The results imply that the Influential Institutional Partner\'s disclosure by NPOs drives a response from donors with respect to the probability of making future donations in accordance with explicit communications by the organization, leading to the compliance as a form of social influence, exerted by the legitimate authority figure represented by the Influential Institutional Partner. This also happen when the disclosure is made in conjunction with senior management\'s compensation, indicating the relevance of the NPO\'s voluntary disclosure in fundraising. This study broadens the knowledge on voluntary disclosure by NPOs, in particular about the Influential Institutional Partner\' disclosure as a source of legitimate authority, and the effect of compliance on individual donors.

Orientador: Mauricio Enrique Zevallos Herencia / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Matemática, Estatística e Computação Científica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T02:03:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Reis_SandraSantosdos_M.pdf: 1897835 bytes, checksum: 24e50267c694dbcb380ddcfc9d7bdace (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Neste trabalho discutimos a detecção de observações influentes em modelos simétricos lineares e não lineares. Em primeiro lugar é realizado um estudo de simulação para avaliar o desempenho de três métodos de estimação em dados gerados por quatro situações: sem observações influentes, com outliers na variável resposta, com observações influentes de média alavancagem e com observações influentes de alta alavancagem. São analisados dois métodos de máxima verossimilhança e um método robusto. Foram considerados modelos de regressão linear e não linear com erros logísticos tipo II e t-Student. Em segundo lugar é discutida detecção de observações influentes mediante a distância de Cook generalizada, a estatística de Peña e a estatística de Andrews-Pregibon. Em particular é discutida a conveniência de utilizar a metodologia de limiares para caracterizar uma observação como influente ou não influente, assim como o efeito da estimação de parâmetros na construção de limiares. Estas medidas foram aplicadas a conjuntos de dados reais e simulados considerando o ajuste de alguns modelos simétricos com uma adaptação no método de estimação scoring de Fisher / Abstract: We discuss the detection of influential observations in symmetrical linear and nonlinear regression models. First a simulation study is conducted to evaluate the performance of three estimation methods on data generated by four situations: without influential observations with outliers in the response variable, with influential observations average leverage and influential observations with high leverage. Two methods of maximum likelihood and robust method are analyzed. We considered linear and nonlinear regression models with logistic-II and Student-t errors. Secondly detection of influential observations by generalized Cook's distance, the statistic PeÃ?a and Andrews - Pregibon statistic is discussed. In particular the convenience of using the methodology to characterize a threshold observation as influential or not influential, as well as the effect of parameter estimation in the construction of thresholds is discussed. These measures were applied to sets of real and simulated data considering the fit of some symmetrical regression models with an adaptation estimation method of Fisher scoring / Mestrado / Estatistica / Mestra em Estatística

Context. Fault correction process is one of the two main activities in software evolution model. As it is very important for software maintainability, software industry especially large-scaled global companies, aim to have mature fault correction processes that detect faults and correct them in a continuous and efficient way. Considerable amount of effort is needed and some measures should be taken in order to be successful. This master thesis is mainly related with fault correction and finding possible solutions for better process. Objectives. The main aim of this study is to investigate and identify influential factors having affects over undesired fault correction outcomes. This study has three main stages: 1) to identify factors from company data that have affects over target factors, 2) to elicit influential factors from interviews and literature review, 3) to prioritize influential factors based on their significance. Based on the outcomes, giving recommendations to company and software industry is the other aim of this master thesis. Methods. This study mainly reflects the empirical research of software fault correction process and undesired outcomes of it. In this master thesis, both quantitative and qualitative data analysis were performed. Case study was conducted with Ericsson AB that data analysis was made with the archival data by using several methods including Machine Learning and Apriori. Also, surveys and semi-structured interviews were used for data collection instruments. Apart from this, literature review was performed in order to collect influential factors for fault correction process. Prioritization of the influential factors was made by using hierarchical cumulative voting. Results. Throughout the case study, quantitative data analysis, interviews and literature review was conducted and totally 45 influential factors were identified. By using these factors prioritization was performed with 26 practitioners (4 internal and 22 external) in order to find which factors are most a) significant and b) relevant in undesired fault correction outcomes. Based on the outcomes of prioritization, cause-effect diagram was drawn which includes all the important factors. Conclusions. This research showed that there are lots of factors influencing fault correction process. The practitioners mostly complained about the lack of analysis of deeply including correction of faults are not resulted the new requirements and they are not used for process improvement. Also, limited resources (such as work force, vacations and sickness), unbalanced fault correction task assignment and too much fault reports at the same time cause problems. Moreover, priorities of faults and customers affect the lead time of fault correction process as the critical faults are fixed at first. / +90 533 7698780

Access to schooling and education for children and youth of school age in Brazil in terms of school places has not been a concern. On the other hand, faced with high dropout rates, low level of school and consequently the weak performance obtained by schools on standardized tests. The present study aims to analyze the factors that may help explain the performance of public schools in Rio Grande do Sul. To find the different realities presented by state schools, firstly four schools have been selected, and from its results at Ideb in 2011, it has been shown that two of them have had a good performance, while the others have had a bad performance at it. As possible influential factors, facilities and resources, the size of the school, the profile of the school s management, the group size, school time, teachers profile, teachers assessment, commitment, students, teachers and parents have been analyzed. These factors are related to school s daily routine, and can be seen as possible determinants of high or low performances at schools. Questionnaires have been applied to students, teachers, supervisors and guidance service advisors, the principals or head masters, and also on-site visits have been conducted. In the analysis of results, it has been observed that a few factors have presented relevant differences between schools with high and low performances. Among the differences, two of them need to be noted: the facilities and resources are much more adequate in schools which have presented high performance than in the ones with low performance, and also the students from high performance schools have shown more commitment and attention in relation to their studies if compared to students from low performance schools. / O acesso a escolarização e a educação para as crianças e jovens em idade escolar no Brasil em termos de vagas escolares não tem sido motivo de preocupação. Por outro lado, depara-se com altas taxas de abandono escolar, baixo nível dos escolares e consequentemente o pífio desempenho obtido pelas escolas nos exames padronizados. O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar os fatores que podem auxiliar na explicação do desempenho das escolas públicas do Rio Grande do Sul. Para conhecer as diferentes realidades apresentadas pelas escolas estaduais primeiramente foram selecionadas quatro escolas, a partir do resultado do Ideb de 2011 sendo duas escolas de alto desempenho e duas de baixo desempenho. Como possíveis influenciadores foram analisados os seguintes fatores: instalações e recursos, tamanho da escola, perfil da gestão escolar, tamanho das turmas tempo do escolar, perfil do professor, avaliação de professores, perfil da gestão escolar, clima escolar, comprometimento, alunos, escola e família. Tais fatores relacionam-se ao dia-a-dia da escola, portanto como possíveis determinantes do alto ou baixo desempenho das escolas. Foram aplicados questionários para os alunos, professores, supervisão escolar/ serviço de orientação escolar, diretores e vice-diretores e realizada a visita in loco. Na análise dos resultados observou-se que poucos fatores apresentaram diferenças relevantes entre as escolas de alto e baixo desempenho. Dentre as diferenças duas merecem destaque. As instalações e recursos são muito mais adequadas nas escolas de alto do que na escolas de baixo desempenho e os alunos das escolas de alto desempenho demonstravam mais comprometimento e atenção em relação aos estudos que os alunos das escolas de baixo desempenho.

With increasing demand for social network based activities, it is very important to understand not only the structural properties of social networks but also how social networks form, to better exploit their promise and potential. We believe the existing methods and tools for social network analysis have a major inadequacy: they do not capture the behavior (such as rationality and intelligence) of individuals nor do they model the strategic interactions that occur among these individuals. Game theory is a natural tool to overcome this inadequacy since it provides rigorous mathematical models of strategic interaction among autonomous, intelligent, and rational agents. This thesis brings out how a game theoretic approach helps analyze social networks better. In particular, we study three contemporary and pertinent problems in social networks using a game theoretic approach: determining influential individuals for viral marketing, community detection, and social network formation. The first problem deals with determining influential nodes in social networks for diffusion of information. We present an efficient heuristic algorithm (SPIN) to this problem based on cooperative game theoretic techniques. The running time of SPIN is independent of the number of influential nodes to be determined. Moreover, unlike the popular benchmark algorithms, the proposed method works well with both submodular and non-submodular objective functions for diffusion of information. In the second problem, we design a novel game theoretic approach to partition a given undirected, unweighted graph into dense subgraphs (or communities). The approach is based on determining a Nash stable partition which is a pure strategy Nash equilibrium of an appropriately defined strategic form game. In the proposed graph partitioning game, the nodes of the graph are the players and the strategy of a node is to decide to which community it ought to belong. The utility of each node is defined to depend entirely on the node’s local neighborhood. A Nash stable partition (NSP) of this game is a partition consisting of communities such that no node has incentive to defect from its community to any other community. Given any graph, we prove that an NSP always exists and we also derive a lower bound on the fraction of intra-community edges in any NSP. Our approach leads to an efficient heuristic algorithm to detect communities in social networks with the additional feature of automatically determining the number of communities. The focus of the third problem is to understand the patterns behind the evolution of social networks that helps in predicting the likely topologies of social networks. The topology of social networks plays a crucial role in determining the outcomes in several social and economic situations such as trading networks, recommendation networks. We approach the problem of topology prediction in networks by defining a game theoretic model, which we call value function -allocation rule model, that considers four determinants of network formation. This model uses techniques from both cooperative game theory and non-cooperative game theory. We characterize the topologies of networks that are in equilibrium and/or socially efficient. Finally, we study the tradeoffs between equilibrium networks and efficient networks.

The purpose of this research is to assess the impact of Chinese acquisitions on Italian target firm performance, and explore which characteristics of the acquirer can determine a change of it. First, a Paired-Samples T-test has been applied to appreciate the difference between pre-and post-acquisition performance on 27 sample companies. Secondly, through an OLS regression, the impact of the Chinese acquirers’ characteristics on the performance of Italian target companies has been estimated for the year 2018. In addition, two interviews with managers from one sample company were carried out to complement the quantitative findings with qualitative insight. The results show that the performance of Italian target companies did not change significantly after the acquisition-at least not in the time span of 3 years used for the analysis- in terms of: profitability, solvency and growth. However, job creation slightly increased following the takeover. Furthermore, our findings indicate that, among the Influential factors examined, Chinese acquirers’ prior M&Aexperience in developed countries and the level of relatedness have a significant and positive impact on the performance of Italian target sampled companies. Whereas, being acquired by a Chinese SOE or POE seems to not affect the performance. Lastly, another influential factor raised by our respondents resulted to be the integration strategy implemented by the Chinese acquirer.Indeed, choosing the appropriate integration strategy for the two entities can be crucial for the acquisition success, and ultimately, for the future performance of the target.