Yes / The financial crisis of 2008 provides evidence for the instability of the conventional banking system. Social banks may present a viable alternative for conventional banks. This paper analyzes the performance of social banks related to the bank business model, economic efficiency, asset quality and stability by comparing social banks with banks where the difference is likely to be large, namely with the 30 global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) of the Financial Stability Board over the period 2000-2014. We also analyze the relative impact of the global financial crises on the bank performance. The performance of social banks and G-SIBs is surprisingly similar.

Yes / The financial crisis of 2008 provides evidence for the instability of the conventional banking system. Social banks may present a viable alternative for conventional banks. This article analyses the performance of social banks related to the bank business model, economic efficiency, asset quality, and stability by comparing social banks with banks where the difference is likely to be large, namely with the 30 global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) of the Financial Stability Board over the period 2000–2014. We also analyse the relative impact of the global financial crisis on the bank performance. The performance of social banks and G-SIBs is surprisingly similar.

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of retailers and assigning it to an intermediary increases the value of a supply chain when demand volatility is high. This is because an intermediary can help solve two incentive problems associated with retailers\' inventory control and thereby improve the intertemporal allocation of inventory. Adding an intermediary as a new link in a supply chain is also shown to reduce total inventory, to make shipments from the manufacturer less frequent and more variable in size, as well as to reduce social welfare.

The paper shows that taking inventory control out of the hands of retailers and assigning it to an intermediary increases the value of a supply chain when demand volatility is high. This is because an intermediary can help solve two incentive problems associated with retailers\' inventory control and thereby improve the intertemporal allocation of inventory. Adding an intermediary as a new link in a supply chain is also shown to reduce total inventory, to make shipments from the manufacturer less frequent and more variable in size, as well as to reduce social welfare.

隨著金融交易與經濟活動的不斷演變，以及資訊科技的更迭與普及，有別於傳統的、非實體型態的金融中介機構逐漸威脅過去如銀行、保險公司等傳統中介機構的功能與收益，故隨之而來討論新型態金融中介是否仍有助於經濟成長、如何影響金融中介發展等議題也漸漸升溫。有鑒於此，本文第2.3章將探討兩種不同型態的中介機構(銀行與群眾募資平台) 之風險穩定程度，並據此提出新的分析結論。 金融中介在向大眾提供資金融通服務的同時也面臨風險。以信用風險及流動性風險為例，銀行利用創新金融工具，不但能將手中融資貸款部位的信用風險轉移至願冒險投資的投資人手中，藉此增加資金以繼續提供融資服務，成功達到幫助銀行增加利潤、分散信用風險，以及增加流動性等功能，但實際上，這些可能違約的信用風險其實並未消失。 本文試圖重新檢視金融中介的信用風險議題，首先分析銀行產業結構會如何影響銀行的違約風險；並關注次貸後因市場流動性急遽消失而新興的新興金融工具--群眾募資，是否將再次導致市場上高風險項目的出現。

Darbo tema Gyvybės draudimo ir ilgalaikio investavimo produktų pardavimo proceso tobulinimas UAB „Finsaltas“; Darbo tikslas Išanalizuoti, įvertinti ir pateikti rekomendacijas kaip pagerinti gyvybės draudimo ir ilgalaikio investavimo produktų pardavimo procesą; Darbo uždaviniai • Išanalizuoti esamą UAB „Finsaltas“ pardavimo procesą; • Identifikuoti pardavimo proceso tobulintinas sritis, naudojant kokybinio tyrimo metodą. • Parengti pasiūlymus pardavimo proceso tobulinimui; Tyrimo metodai • Giluminis interviu; Darbo rezultatai Darbo metu buvo pasiūlyti vadybiniai sprendimai, padėsiantys: 1. pagerinti pardavimo procesą; 2. palengvinti naujų konsultantų įvedimo į darbą procesą; 3. užtikrinti kryptingą konsultantų kvalifikacijos kėlimą; 4. sumažinti nutraukiamų sutarčių skaičių (t.y. pagerinti pardavimų ir aptarnavimo kokybę); 5. rezultate – padidinti pardavimus. / Work title Improvement of Life Insurance and Long Term Investment Products Sales' Process at UAB „Finsaltas“; Work goal To analyze, evaluate and provide recommendations for improvement of the sales process of life insurance and long term investment products at a life insurance agency; Work tasks • To analyze sales process at UAB „Finsaltas“; • Using qualitative research identify sales process areas which require improvement,. • Give recommendations for sales process improvement; Methods of analysis • Depth interview Work outcomes There were recommended management solutions leading to: 1. Sales process improvement; 2. Facilitation of the process of introducing new agents to work; 3. Ensuring coherent process of agents’ qualification improvement; 4. Decrease of the number of lapsed policies (i.e. to improve sales and service quality); 5. As a result – to increase sales volume.

Cette thèse se concentre sur la question de la détermination des prix des services touristiques et celle de l’évolution de leur qualité. La première partie s’intéresse aux canaux de distribution, en particulier aux incidences de la généralisation de l’usage des TIC sur leur mode de fonctionnement et les stratégies de prix qui y sont mises en place. Le premier chapitre dresse un état des lieux des évolutions récentes. Il met l’accent sur les modalités de tarification dynamique. Puis, le deuxième chapitre est consacré à l’analyse des offres opaques qui contribuent aujourd’hui beaucoup à l’activité des canaux alternatifs. Nous montrons que la diversification des modalités de vente opaque par un monopole n’est pas souhaitable en information complète, mais qu’elle peut en revanche améliorer les profits de ce monopole en situation d’information incomplète. La deuxième partie s’articule autour de problématiques liées à l’incidence de la montée des préoccupations environnementales sur la qualité et l’offre des produits touristiques. Ainsi, le troisième chapitre étudie théoriquement l’impact de la modification de la demande sur les stratégies d’offre des professionnels, dans un contexte de monopole, puis de duopole. Nous montrons comment une offre environnementalement responsable peut émerger, évoluer, jusqu’à évincer l’offre de produits traditionnels. Le quatrième chapitre part du cadre envisagé dans le précédent, en y adjoignant une population de résidents. La prise en compte des populations locales a deux conséquences : celle d’accélérer l’adoption de normes environnementales, mais aussi de limiter l’offre de services du tourisme. / This Ph.D. thesis focuses on tourism products pricing and quality evolution. The first part considers the impacts of ICT development on distribution channels, intermediation and pricing strategies. The first chapter identifies and analyzes prevailing distribution and pricing strategies. The focus is made on dynamic pricing models. Then, the second chapter focuses on alternative distribution channels, namely the innovative strategies of opaque selling. It analyzes the case of an intermediary in a situation of monopoly facing heterogeneous demand. Model results depend on consumers’ uncertainty levels. We find that when information is complete, the combination of opaque channelsis not profitable for the monopoly. On the opposite, in case of incomplete information, joint implementation of both systems provides the best results. The second part considers the influence of increasing environmental awareness on the quality of tourism products. In the third chapter, by adapting a demand-driven approach, in context of monopoly, and then duopoly, we explain the role of the industry in the adoption of environmental sustainability norms. We show, how sustainable tourism products emerge, evolve, and may even eliminate traditional products. Then, in the fourth chapter, based on the same theoretical core, we include another aspect of sustainability, which concerns interactions with local population. We consider how a population ofresidents influences the adoption of environmental norms. We show that taking into account residents’ actions leads the service provider to reduce its offer, and in most cases, to choose the sustainable solution.

This thesis makes two main contributions to the literature. The first is to establish the existence of a capital supply channel, in particular a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in the UK using a clean measure of bank loan supply. In this study we exploit the revealed debt preferences of debt issuing firms by using the Becker and Ivashina (2014) fixed effects framework to isolate the impact of credit supply. By conditioning the sample on non-financial firms whose debt issuance is observed, we are able to eliminate the effects of credit demand and to isolate a clean measure for bank loan supply. In this thesis, we find that the tendency by unconstrained, non-financial firms to substitute corporate bonds for bank loans at different points of the financial cycle reflects changes in bank loan supply. We also find that the patterns of substitutability are consistent among more granular classifications of heterogeneous debt. Our results reveal that among unconstrained firms, the proportion of new bank loan issuance declines, while the proportions of corporate bonds and program debt issuance tend to increase, when faced with unfavourable credit market conditions. We then create a loan to bond substitution measure based on observed substitution behaviour of unconstrained firms. We find that this measure explains the out of sample bank loan issuance behaviour of constrained firms. As a result we conclude that the measure is able to cleanly capture changes in bank loan supply. We extend the study to examine the impact of bank loan supply on the financing, hiring and investment decisions of UK non-financial corporations. We find that bank loan supply disruptions significantly and disproportionately affect the hiring and inventory investment decisions of bank dependent firms relative to those of non-bank dependent firms. The propensity to invest or hire among bank dependent UK non-financial firms declines relative to non-bank dependent firms when bank loan supply deteriorates. Moreover, the fixed investment decisions of non-bank dependent firms tend to decline following adverse bank loan supply shocks. These results confirm the existence of a bank lending channel among UK non-financial firms, and the findings are in line with the narrow credit view of monetary policy transmission. Our second central contribution is to analyse the impact of orthogonal QE shocks, credit supply shocks, credit demand shocks, and monetary policy shocks on the aggregate debt issuance behaviour of UK non-financial firms. Using structural vector error correction models (SVECM), we show that QE shocks increase corporate bond issuance and compress term spreads, but have no effect on the policy rate. Moreover, we observe that unexpected increases in the monetary policy rate lead to a decline in corporate bonds in the short term. While credit supply shocks move aggregate bank lending and aggregate corporate bond issuance in the same direction, corporate bond issuance responds with a lag to fluctuation in credit supply. This implies that adverse credit supply shocks may produce amplified negative effects on capital supply as both corporate bonds and bank loan decline. We also establish a counterfactual for corporate bonds and bank loan issues based on our structural model. We find that the QE policies result in the Bank of England averting a decline in corporate bond issuance of between 3% and 10% during the QE period. Our findings in this thesis point towards the existence of a portfolio balance channel of QE that operates in the UK corporate bond markets during the QE period.

Cette recherche s’intéresse aux effets induits par les dispositifs numériques de partage social sur les pratiques de collaboration, de communication et de médiation d’étudiants, dans un contexte situé de formation à distance. L’objectif est d’appréhender le processus de collaboration à l’origine de l’apprenance collective qui s’illustre dans les communautés d’apprentissage, constituées en marge de l’institution académique. Notre approche empirique par systématique hypothético-déductive est une observation netnographique menée auprès d’individus inscrits en Bachelor et Mastère dans un centre de formation privé. Notre corpus est composé de 1405 messages recueillis sur les forums de la plateforme institutionnelle et sur Facebook ou Google+ pour les groupes communautaires à l’initiative des étudiants. Nous recourons à une catégorisation de l’activité d’apprentissage suivant quatre dimensions intrinsèques à l’intervention des usagers sur les forums. Les phénomènes observés sont analysés suivant trois variables dépendantes : la temporalité, la reconnaissance sociale et le pouvoir hiérarchique. Notre ancrage est la théorie critique des médias de l’école de Francfort. Nous faisons l’hypothèse que les dispositifs sociotechniques d’information et de communication participent de l’horizontalisation des usages estudiantins. Nos observations de terrain révèlent en effet que les apprenants préfèrent s’en remettre à leurs pairs plutôt que solliciter l’institution ou les tuteurs en ligne. S’ils privilégient leur disponibilité indéfectible, ils accordent une plus grande importance à leur réactivité. Nous pensons que le clivage qui oppose l’environnement académique à la sphère estudiantine est pour partie le fait de deux temporalités distinctes. L’une verticale, celle de l’environnement numérique de travail (ENT), l’autre plus horizontale, caractérisée par les échanges entre pairs au sein de l’environnement personnel d’apprentissage (EPA). L’asynchronisme qui résulte de ces deux dispositifs engendre des effets de détournement d’usage par lesquels les étudiants exportent les ressources institutionnelles vers leur communauté. Mais l’analyse des praxis communautaires révèle d’autres artefacts induits par les technologies numériques. Qu’il s’agisse de désintermédiation ou d’accélération temporelle, ces usagers attirés par le modèle a hiérarchique, se retrouvent à leur insu dans un processus de domination sociale. Nous soulignons les effets pernicieux liés à l’accélération temporelle particulièrement prégnante dans la génération d’étudiants observée. / This research is interested in the effects led by the digital devices plans of social sharing on the pratices of collaboration, communication and mediation of students in context of distance learning. The goal is the understand the origin of the collaborative process of collective apprenance which is illustrated in the communities of apprenticeship outside the academic institution. A netnographic observation is conducted whith Bachelor and Master's degree in a private training center ; our corpus is made of 1405 messages taken in the forums of the institutional platform and on Facebook or Google +. We assume the information and communication sociotechnical devices participate in the horizontalisation of student's practices. We highlight the paradox of these learning communities which are, unwittingly, in a process of social domination by having choosing a priori a decentralized structure

投資人在獲取報酬之前，可能發現其它更為有利的投資機會、甚至在短期時發生消費需求，因而有臨時要求抽回資金的可能。投資人面對如此流動性風險（liquidity risk），金融資產與活期存款皆可扮演提供流動性（liquidity provision）的功能。部分文獻上質疑，當金融市場與銀行同時存在時，活期存款亦具有可交易性，則銀行提供流動性之功能如何。本文依循Diamond（1997）所提出金融市場有限參與率的觀念，考慮投資人在可交易性資產之外，尚可選擇將部分資金投資於不具有可交易性、但具有較高效率性的長期生產活動。當銀行並未存在時，投資人不僅無法達到跨期補助（cross-subsidization）性質的消費型態，甚至將發生效率性的損害。一旦銀行（a coalition）存在時，集中資金持有後將可代表投資人進行效率性的投資活動，再將短期與長期投資報酬以提領契約的方式配置予兩類型投資人，將可避免掉效率性的損失。且由於銀行選擇的長期投資方式是不具有可交易性的效率性長期生產活動，因此提領契約當中所約定的第2期求償權（date 2 claims）是不可交易的。於是乎，銀行確實可設計符合社會最適化條件的提領契約，使得其存款客戶達到社會最適化的消費機會集合。也因此，投資人願意將資金完全存放銀行，次級市場的資產交易活動不再存在。