This exploratory study examined the different tourism market development strategies that tourism Multinational Corporations (MNCs) implement in their operations in African host countries. It empirically investigated the existence of any relationships between tourism MNCs’ market development strategies and the “Needs and Expectations of African host countries.” Also, it investigated the influences of external environmental factors on tourism MNCs’ tourism market strategic choice. Its sample population were top management executives of tourism MNCs‘ with operations in the African market. The unit of analysis was the corporation. The sample frame was an exhaustive list of tourism MNCs with operations in the African region. The initial sample size was 106 tourism MNCs’ executives. Thirty-seven of them responded to a mail in survey questionnaire. Two of the questionnaires were discarded due to numerous missing data. Thus, there were 35 usable questionnaires for data analysis, which is a response rate of 33%. The study results identified relationships between the integration of Multinational Corporations’ (MNCs) tourism market development strategies with the needs and expectations of developing African host countries, and their successful performance in those host countries in terms of growth in operations and profitability. It revealed that significant differences exist among the market development strategies on the factors of needs and expectations of African host countries. The significant factors were community participation, local entrepreneurship, and job and national security. Also, the economic development factor was observed to be partially significant. This study also identified free trade economy in the African host countries as a significant factor on the influence of external environment. The framework of this study is embedded in the underlying theories of international strategic management, international business, international development, and needs and expectations. The study’s final conceptual model depicts the significant factors of African host countries’ needs and expectations, the tourism market development strategies, an integration of the two concepts and the resultant tourism MNCs successful performance. This research study investigated MNCs in all sectors of the tourism industry. And the findings have shown that for the tourism MNCs to be successful in their African host countries, they should be sensitive to the identified sectors, namely economic development, community participation, local entrepreneurship, and job and national security measures. Also, they should exert more efforts in exploring African free trade economies for their business locations in the region. / Ph. D.

Background: In recent times, the maritime shipping industry has been facing several challenges due to higher shipping costs caused by delayed deliveries and underperformance damaging the relationship between operating companies and end-customers. Researchers have shown the potential usefulness of an integrated supply chain system as it helps improve business results and end-customer relationships. It has also been shown to have a tremendous impact on operational and financial performance. Purpose: This thesis aims to analyze supply chain integration in the maritime transport sector to improve end-customer relationships and performance. Particularly, the logistics and distribution in terms of preventing delays and increased prices. Method: This thesis is conducted as a case study at a Scandinavian international service provider company. Empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews with employees within the company and their end-customers. Content analysis is used to create themes that clearly relate to research. Conclusion: The study shows that inefficiencies in the shipping service supply chain are due to lack of integration within logistics and distribution processes. Improvements of the operations to improve the lead time and the pricing in the supply chain are needed to reduce such gaps. As data have been collected from a single company and its end-customers, the analysis shows that all actors in the supply chain must act as a single entity and work for a unified goal, and more studies are needed to confirm the applicability of these results to other cases with similar conditions.

No description available.

Tandis que l’OMC éprouve des difficultés à réglementer le commerce, les nations expérimentent tous types d’accordssusceptibles de favoriser leur stratégie d’insertion internationale : bilatéraux, stratégiques, régionaux, de coopération,d’association, etc. Les États-unis et l’Union européenne sont en concurrence face au plus important marchélatino-américain, le Mercosud, lequel bénéficie désormais d’un contexte favorable l’autorisant à choisir ses partenaires. Depuis le rejet du projet de ZLEA, le jeu de séduction tourne à l’avantage de l’Europe qui a su proposer un projet plus complet incluant la coopération pour le développement, l’approfondissement du dialogue politique et la libéralisation deséchanges. L’ouverture de négociations en 1999 en vue de parvenir à un accord, dit d’association, entre les deux systèmesd’intégration régionale, symbolise l’apparition d’un concept nouveau : l’« interrégionalisme»Pourquoi 12 années de négociations n’ont-ellespas été suffisantes pour parvenir à unconsensus sur les termes de l’association ?L’acuité des dossiers, le nombre de paysimpliqués, le « noeud agricole, l’absence deconsultation du secteur privé, sont autantd’éléments à prendre en considération. Cetravail synthétise un processus de négociationcomplexe et présente la particularité d’inclurele secteur privé. En partant à la rencontre, desacteurs politiques et économiques, des deuxrégions, on observe que le secteur privén’occupe pas la place qui lui revient de droitdans ce projet. Il ne manque pas de le rappelerici et, ce faisant, interpelle l’Université sur lerôle qu’elle a à jouer dans l’évolution desrelations entre l’Europe et le Mercosud / In a global economic context where the WTO is losing momentum, nations experiment all sorts of agreements which are likely to help them implement their international integration strategies: bilateral, strategic, regional, cooperation, association agreements, etc. It results in a competition between the United States and the European Union to win the most important market in Latin America, Mercosur, which now enjoys a favourable context and can choose its partners. Since the Free TradeArea of the Americas project was rejected, the game of seduction benefits Europe for it has offered a more complete project including cooperation for development, a deeper political dialogue and a free trade area. Furthermore,the negotiations opened in 1999 with a view to getting to a so-called “association” agreement between the two regional integration systems, symbolise the emergence of a new concept: “interregionalism”Why were those 12 years of negotiation notsufficient to reach a consensus on the terms ofthe association?The complexity of the files, the number ofcountries involved, the agricultural issue andthe lack of consulting from the private sectorare all clues to be taken into consideration.The interest of this research lies in theperspective given by political and economicstakeholders from the two regions. Meetingthem and analysing their speeches helped meshow that the private sector has not beendirectly consulted at all during thenegotiations. In addition, the economicstakeholders have expressed their will to bepart of the process. The private sector alsocalled out the Universities, reminding the rolethey can play in the evolution of therelationship between the two regions.

No description available.

ABSTRACT EFFECTS OF GRAPHING CALCULATORS ON EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS&amp / #8217 / ACHIEVEMENT IN GRAPHS OF LINEAR EQUATIONS AND CONCEPT OF SLOPE &Ouml / n&uuml / r, Yurdag&uuml / l M.S., Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Ayhan K&uuml / rSat ERBAS May 2008, 76 pages The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of graphing calculators on eight grade students&amp / #8217 / achievement in graphing linear equations and concept of slope. Pretest-posttest experimental-control group design was utilized in the study. While the students in experimental group (EG) received instruction about graphs of linear equations and concept of slope with graphing calculators, the students in control group (CG) was taught the same topics without using graphing calculators. There were 27 students (13 girls and 14 boys) in each group. Students in both EG and CG was administered an achievement test (i.e., MAT) consisting of questions related to graphing linear equations and slope concept before and after the instruction. Additionally, the teacher and six students from the EG were interviewed. The data obtained from students&amp / #8217 / post test scores of MAT were analyzed by Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). A statistically significant difference was found between the achievements of students in experimental and control groups. However, gender had no statistically significant effect on students&amp / #8217 / post test scores of MAT. Additionally, students&amp / #8217 / pre-test scores of MAT and their mathematics grades of the second semester of the seventh grade (MGS) were analysed by independent samples t-test. The results showed no statistically significant difference. On the other hand, the analysis of interview data revealed that graphing calculators affected students&amp / #8217 / attitudes towards mathematics in a positive way. Students had no considerable difficulty while using graphing calculators and they found studying with graphing calculators enjoyable. In summary, the results of the study showed that when graphing calculators used at elementary school level, they had positive effects on students&amp / #8217 / achievement and in some respects to their attitude. Consequently, integration of graphing calculators to elementary mathematics curriculum may be beneficial for students and teachers.

Darmstadt, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2008. / Dateien im PDF-Format.

Darmstadt, Techn. University, Diss., 2007.

Mjukvarutestningsgruppen på Scania använder en manuell och tidskrävande process för att återställa testfordon efter sina utförda arbeten. I den återställningsprocessen ingår ett antal olika applikationer för att kunna säkerställa att fordonet är i samma skick som det var innan testerna. För att förbättra arbetsflödet med minskad arbetsbelastning och att försäkra en säkrare process var de intresserade av att utveckla ett återställningsverktyg som kan göra detta uppdrag. Önskemålet var att skapa detta genom att återanvända så mycket av de redan tillgängliga komponenterna som möjligt. Då det fanns flera komponenter som uppfyllde funktionskraven för de flesta funktionaliteten krävdes det en undersökning för att avgöra vilka ska användas. Denna gjordes med hjälp av integrationsmodellen Enterprise Application Integration, där målet är att utveckla en slutprodukt av applikationerna som används inom en organisation för att förenkla bland annat underhåll, datahantering och utbildning av medarbetarna. En prototyp har tagits fram som implementerar tre existerande moduler på olika nivåer och som enligt målet med EAI själv är en enkel mjukvara som möjliggör att komponenterna tillsammans utför arbetet. / The software testing team at Scania use a manual and time consuming process to restore a test vehicle after working with it. Several different applications are used in this process to ensure the vehicle is in the same state as it was before their testing. To improve the workflow with a reduced workload and a more robust process, the test team was interested in the development of a restoration application. It was desired to develop the restoration application by reusing the components to the greatest possible extend. Since there were many components that fulfilled the needs of most functions, a pre-study of all the applications was done to decide which components can be re-used. This was study was based on the integration model, Enterprise Application Integration, which aims to create a single product combining the applications used in an organization to simplify processes such as maintenance, data management and employee training. A prototype was developed which implements three existing modules on different levels and, in line with the goals of EAI, is itself a simple application that enables the components to work in unision

The topic of this thesis is to evaluate Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integrations in order to create a set of guidelines to help ease the integration of SaaS systems into internal in-house developed systems. It was achieved by performing a case study on a successful SaaS integration to locate relevant success factors to incorporate into upcoming SaaS integrations. The primary findings included a focus on the usage of standard solutions, experienced cooperation from the SaaS contractor and tactical usage of technical debt that extends the whole life cycle. While there are many success factors that aided to create a successful integration, there are still drawbacks to certain techniques that will have to be decided by the specific integrations requirements if the trade-off is worth it. There were other success factors that weighted in but was not crucial to the success, and certain factors that should be treated with caution due to the harmful effect it might have upon the project. Using the factors found in the case study, a set of guidelines with a focus on the processes and work methodology were created to ease future SaaS integrations for organizations and institutions. / Ämnet för detta arbete är att utvärdera Software-as-a-Service-integrationer (SaaS) för att kunna skapa en uppsättning av riktlinjer för att underlätta framtida SaaS-integrationer till internt utvecklade system. Detta uppnåddes genom att utföra en fallstudie på en framgångsrik SaaS-integration för att kunna lära sig vilka relevanta framgångsfaktorer förekom och kan användas i generalla SaaS-integrationer. De främsta resultaten inkluderade ett fokus på att använda standardlösningar, erfarna SaaS-leverantörer som underlättar implementering samt ett taktiskt användande av teknisk skuld för att möta deadlines och funktionella krav. Även om det finns flera framgångsfaktorer som hjälpt till att skapa en framgångsrik integration så har även vissa av dessa faktorer nackdelar med vissa tekniska egenskaper, där prioriteringarna i projektet måste besluta ifall nyttjande av dessa faktorer är värt konsekvenserna. Det fanns även andra framgångsfaktorer som vägde in men som inte var avgörande för framgången och vissa motgångsfaktorer som bör undvikas på grund av de negativa effekter som kan förekomma. Med hjälp av faktorerna som funnits i fallstudien skapades en uppsättning av riktlinjer med fokus på processen och arbetsmetodiken i syfte att underlätta framtida SaaS-integrationer för organisationer och institutioner.