FDA decisions and late-stage clinical trial results regarding new pharmaceutical approvals can cause extreme moves in the share price of small biopharmaceutical companies. Throughout the clinical trial process, many potential investors are exposed to market-moving information before such information is made available to the investing public. An investor who wished to profit from advance knowledge about clinical trial results may use the publicly traded options markets in order to increase leverage and maximize profits. This research examined options data surrounding the public release of information pertaining to the efficacy of clinical trials and approval decisions made by the FDA. Events were identified for small pharmaceutical companies with fewer than three currently approved drugs in an attempt to isolate the effect of individual clinical trial and FDA-related events on the share price of the underlying company. Option data were analyzed using logistic regression models in an attempt to predict phase II and III clinical trial outcome results and FDA new drug approval decisions. Implied volatility, open interest, and option contract delta values were the primary independent variables used to predict positive or negative event outcomes. The dichotomized version of a predictor variable designed to estimate total investment exposure incorporating open interest, option contract delta values, and the underlying stock price was a significant predictor of negative pharmaceutical related events. However, none of ii the variables examined in this research were significant predictors of positive drug research related events. The estimated total investment exposure variable used in this research can be applied to the prediction of future clinical trial and FDA decision related events when this predictor variable shows a negative signal. Additional research would help confirm this finding by increasing the sample size of events that potentially follow the same pattern as those examined in this research. / text

Šiame magistratūros baigiamajame darbe nagrinėjama darbuotojų, dirbančių klinikinės medicinos srityje, asmeninės karjeros valdymas. / The present paper evaluates personal career management of the professionals working in clinical research.

Performance Measurement is necessary in order to support the implementation of a Continuous Improvement approach within a company. Performance Measurement has been a subject of increasing interest for researchers and practitioners. The questions addressed in the literature especially evolved from “what” to measure to “how” to measure. The present thesis follows this evolution by exploring how companies can successfully implement Performance Measurement. The thesis follows a parallel research design including a literature review and a case study. From one side, a literature review aims at explaining the main theories behind Performance Measurement, such as the concept of Performance Measurement System, as well as giving some recommendation for its implementation. On the other side, an empirical case study, conducted in a construction industry company, presents a practical implementation of Performance Measurement including some of the indicators dashboards built in several factories and departments of the company. The results of this case study are also supported by several interviews conducted at different steps of the implementation with the different actors involved. Then a theoretical verification is conducted by comparing the theory from the literature review with the empirical results from the case study. It especially allows to verify some recommendations as well as to identify a few gaps. The results of this study can be seen as a set of verified recommendations in order to successfully implement Performance Measurement within a company. These recommendations come from the comparison between theory and practice and they are divided in three main parts: the Key Performance Indicators identification, the Performance Measurement System design, and the practical implementation of Performance Measurement. Regarding this last part, five key success factors (e.g. perceived benefits of performance measurement, top management commitment) and five barriers (e.g. time and effort required, human behaviour) have been verified. Moreover, some Performance Measurement issues are discussed, such as the reduction of the complexity, the potential gaps between local approaches and global consistency, as well as the concept of organisational learning. Finally, the thesis identifies three kinds of trade-offs (e.g. accuracy of the data and cost of collection) that need to be considered when implementing Performance Measurement.

When difficulties appear concerning the environment and the social relationships in teams, leading others become very interesting as well as challenging. I am sharing in this research an understanding of the concept of hardship in order to point out a main leadership issue, which is to lead others in extreme situations. It is a new and innovative approach of leadership within the business area based on the literature and completed by sailors’ experiences of hardship.Offshore sailors have the use to handle hardship situations alone as well as in crews, and they cannot avoid it when they are far away from the coasts. Thus when a problem occurs they must fix it themselves. During offshore races and expeditions, sailors have to deal with teams issues and cannot quit for going back home. Thereby, a boat, which is going to sail for few months without stop, is a real laboratory of leadership and social relationships.The starting point of this approach concerns the art of leading oneself, which represents a prerogative for a great leadership in extreme conditions. Indeed when a leader loses his or her self-control in extremes situations, he or she will probably not be able to lead others. Thus, in order to illustrate the literature approach to this concept, this thesis has been completed with an auto-ethnographical approach. I as a sailor have experimented hardship alone on my boat during some offshore sailing trips. I present an analysis of these experiences to explain the issues of leading oneself in such conditions. Thanks to the participation of some sailors experts in hardship, I illustrate the possibility to lead others in hardship context with the inspiration of their experiences. It is possible to lead others in very extremes conditions, and offshore sailors that I called hardship experts could represent a real inspiration to leaders, for a real and great leadership.

This study aims to measure the managerial skills of managers working in the banking industry. To do so, the newly developed managerial skills measuring instrument of Thekiso (2011) was used by to determine skills for managerial competence in the banking industry. The seven managerial skills that are covered in the questionnaire are: Self awareness skills; Self directed career planning; Integrative skills; Planning and controlling skills; Organizing skills; Leading skills; and Managing change skills. Even though some skills may appear on a less frequent basis, six of the seven skills were rated to be of a high importance, with their means ranging between 4.008 and 4.480 on the 5–point Likert scale. Training in the form of mentoring and stewardship programs, to transfer knowledge and introduce existing relationships to up and coming leaders, would be of great value for companies in the banking industry to foster these seven managerial competency skills. By implementing training and mentoring programs on a much broader scale, organisations can train and use their leaders’ abilities to gain competitive advantage in the market. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

This study aims to measure the managerial skills of managers working in the banking industry. To do so, the newly developed managerial skills measuring instrument of Thekiso (2011) was used by to determine skills for managerial competence in the banking industry. The seven managerial skills that are covered in the questionnaire are: Self awareness skills; Self directed career planning; Integrative skills; Planning and controlling skills; Organizing skills; Leading skills; and Managing change skills. Even though some skills may appear on a less frequent basis, six of the seven skills were rated to be of a high importance, with their means ranging between 4.008 and 4.480 on the 5–point Likert scale. Training in the form of mentoring and stewardship programs, to transfer knowledge and introduce existing relationships to up and coming leaders, would be of great value for companies in the banking industry to foster these seven managerial competency skills. By implementing training and mentoring programs on a much broader scale, organisations can train and use their leaders’ abilities to gain competitive advantage in the market. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study the causal relationship between bank sector development and economic growth in four Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway). Method: Our thesis is based on a quantitative method. The study consists of a compilation and analysis of key financial indicators that represent economic growth and bank sector development. A Granger causality test has been conducted on the time series in order to measure the causal link between economic growth and bank sector development. Theoretical framework: The study is based on the theory of endogenous growth and the causal relationship between bank sector development and economic growth also known as the demand following and supply leading hypothesis.  Results: The results of the four countries are ambiguous. Except for Denmark, that follows the supply leading hypothesis, the remaining countries do not show a unanimous result.

Thesis (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

Dissertation (D.P.H.)--University of Michigan.

xiii, 188 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Beethoven's last five string quartets have engaged the imagination and curiosity of performers, listeners, and critics at a level that has rarely been touched in the world of chamber music, or beyond. Throughout the late quartets' history, musicians have scrutinized the works in search of a logic that might demystify their stylistic and structural peculiarities. This present study continues this pursuit as it examines analytically (through Schenkerian techniques) the harmonic, contrapuntal, and motivic procedures in Beethoven's last complete composition, the String Quartet in F major, op. 135. Most of the published analytical commentaries on the F major quartet approach the work more or less exclusively from a motivic standpoint. Arnold Schoenberg (1941), Rudolf Reti (1951), Deryck Cooke (1963), and Christopher Reynolds (1988) have all praised op. 135 for its highly unified motivic structure; what their studies show--at least in a general sense--is that there is undoubtedly a motivic strategy that ties much of op. 135 together. But what are we to do when the details of one motivic reading opposes another? Or what if a particular reading contradicts the way we understand a passage aurally (which happens often when the proposed reading is incongruous with the music's harmonic-contrapuntal structure)? What criteria should we use to evaluate a motivic analysis? Clearly, we need a set of principles and standards that will help answer these questions and advance us beyond mere intuition. The position taken in this study echoes John Rothgeb's argument that "proposed thematic relationships must bear scrutiny in the light of the Schenkerian theory of structural strata," and that incompatible readings should be "dismissed as spurious" (1983, 42). In the pages that follow, Schenkerian approach is adopted to help assess existing motivic readings of op. 135 within the requisite contexts of harmony and voice leading. The method is also used to help generate a rational, hearable analysis that reveals motivic relationships that reside at deeper, hidden levels of structure. / Adviser: Jack Boss