Foreign companies operating in developing countries are losing competitive advantage due to local workforce policies and restrictions that governments issue to foster the development of indigenous businesses and people. Maintaining a competitive advantage is essential to foreign business owners long term sustainability. Based on Argyris and Schön's organizational learning theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore strategies foreign company managers use to achieve profitable business performance while satisfying local workforce policy requirements. The population comprised of 5 foreign managers who implemented effective strategies to increase the profitability of their company while meeting local content requirements in Kazakhstan. The data collection process included semistructured interviews and review of company documentation and artifacts. Through thematic analysis, the following primary themes emerged: training of local personnel, cultural and communication competence, and personnel retention. The implications for positive social change include the potential for foreign managers who want to develop business in developing countries to become them profitable. Leaders of profitable businesses can create positive social change by increasing employment opportunities for local personnel and enhancing the social welfare of local communities.

Many resource-rich countries have adopted domestic policies such as local content policies (LCPs) to make sure that their nationals profit from their resources and to ensure economic development for their countries. However Despite the value that LCPs bring into the local economy, they might be in conflict with international investment agreements. The study will look at what local content entails and what international investment agreements entail. The study will look into the possible areas of conflict such as employment requirements, support schemes and local procurement and determine whether such measures are in conflict with international investment agreements. The findings of the study outline that local content policies are in breach with international investment agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Public Law / LLM / Unrestricted

The construction of wind power is strongly associated with negative local externalities in terms of noise, shadows, visual impact and effects on local environment. To compensate for these negative effects, wind developers seek to find methods to create more local value. The purpose of this study has thus been to identify and evaluate potential methods to increase the local value creation from onshore wind power projects, mainly in the Swedish context. Firstly, from the literature review and interviews, four different approaches to create local value has been identified. The four identified methods to create local value are (1) community funds, (2) local ownership, (3) modernization and (4) local content. Of these identified methods, local content is deemed to have most potential in creating local value. The use of local content has generally been strong in the UK, why this study comprises a field study that reveal that British wind developers manage to appoint up to 20-30 % of the total capital expenditure to local companies. Compared to Sweden, the same number is as little asone percent. The explanation to this significant difference could be explained by “three I:s”,, namely, (1) Identification of local companies, (2) Information of opportunities and requirements and (3) Incentive creation for the main contractors. For Swedish developers to overcome the problems associated with the three I:s, the study presents seven activities that are possible to implement directly into the development process of wind power. Together these activities create a comprehensive way of enhancing the possibility for local companies to be involved in the construction phase, and by doing so, increasing the local value creation.

The research for this thesis started just before the TVNZ Charter was released in 2001. It followed the discussion regarding the new direction for the broadcaster to follow a more public service role. The data gathering was conducted through to post Charter implementation and captured the uncertainty surrounding the shift in policy. Although the aim of the TVNZ Charter was to raise the standards of public service broadcasting the introduction of this new policy was marked by confusion as to how this would be achieved, funded and monitored.The TVNZ Charter was introduced with the prescription that TVNZ find a balance in achieving public service needs in television as well as maintaining the revenue from advertising. This was because the government was not willing to provide sufficient funding for a non-commercial service and hence the result was always to be a hybrid model. It was frequently emphasized that Charter programmes should rate well and there was strong stress on the importance of retaining and attracting audiences.The core changes leading to the introduction of the TVNZ Charter owe their origins to the major policy turning point of 1989/1990, when broadcasting was deregulated in New Zealand. The free market provided programmes with a focus on entertainment and the previous dictum that they should also educate and inform was no longer spelled out in the Broadcasting Act. As only one of the traditional principles of television was being satisfied, there was a measurable decline in programmed diversity and it is argued, quality. The freedom of deregulation allowed TVNZ to pursue the goal of earning as much advertising revenue as possible. Therefore, the TVNZ Charter was hailed as a significant change of direction to ensure that public service needs were met.Even though it can be argued that many positive changes have resulted since the TVNZ Charter was mooted, it is argued that the drive to reposition TVNZ as a public service broadcaster seems to have resulted in a very diluted form of public service broadcasting. A major shift in direction has been compromised by a fear that significant changes in programming would result in a dramatic loss of vital advertising revenue.

When considering the effects of cultural policy on international trade in television programming there is an area that is frequently overlooked, that of classification and censorship. The role that classification and censorship play as tools of cultural policy is poorly understood, as is their impact on the ease with which television programs can be traded. A broad definition of cultural policy has been used here, in order to encompass both its theoretical and practical elements. Cultural policy as expressed through television classification and censorship is seen here as having three layers. These layers are legislative policy such as local content quotas, the content gate keeping carried out by television producers prior to production, and program classification, that is the implementation of local programming codes by broadcasters. It is important to understand the effects of television regulatory regimes, including those that govern content classification, on the international trade in programs for two reasons. One is the precedence international economic agreements generally take over cultural policy, because classification and censorship can quietly undermine this precedence in a way which currently receives little attention. The second is the importance of the export market to the Australian television production industry, which is unable to fully fund its program output from local markets. Australian children's drama and its export to the UK are the focus of this research as this provides an excellent example of the current tensions between cultural policy and economic imperatives. Australian children's drama is tightly regulated through government policy, particularly the demands of the 'C' (children's) classification. It is argued here that the demands of current Australian cultural policy are making it extremely difficult for Australian producers to internationalise their product and thus cultivate a competitive advantage in international markets. With the advent of digital technology and the end of spectrum scarcity, the television landscape is changing rapidly. Australian producers of children's programming are facing commercial challenges that have been created by the proliferation of children's channels in the UK and particularly the popularity on those channels of American animation. While the need to cultivate a competitive advantage is pressing, Australian producers of children's programming are also having to accommodate the three layers of cultural policy described earlier, that is the demands of government policy regarding the 'C' classification, the local programming codes of their export market, in this case the United Kingdom, and their own internalised cultural values as expressed through their gate keeping roles. My Industry experience in a senior compliance role in the pay television industry led to an awareness of the impact of local classification procedures on international trade in programming and provided the initial starting point for this research. Through scholarly investigation and interviews with three key producers of Australian children's programs and a senior UK programmer, certain findings regarding the impact of regulatory regimes on the export of Australian children's programs have been reached. The key findings of this research are firstly, that the rationales and operations of national classification schemes seem to be fundamentally untouched by supranational trade agreements and arguably are able to act as restraints on international trade. Additionally, programs that do not conform to the societal values of the countries to which they are being exported, will not sell. Secondly, multi-channelling is having the unexpected effect of driving down prices achieved for children's programs which is a cause for concern, given the importance of international sales to Australian producers. Part of this decline in pricing may be attributed to the rise in popularity of inexpensive animation, which now dominates children's channels in the UK. Thirdly, this research finds that Australian cultural policy is preventing Australian producers cultivating a competitive advantage in international markets, by making demands regarding content and quality that render their programs less attractive to overseas channels. If the Australian government believes that certain culturally desirable forms of television such as high quality, children's programming should continue to exist, it may in future have to modify its cultural policy in order to attain this objective.

The research for this thesis started just before the TVNZ Charter was released in 2001. It followed the discussion regarding the new direction for the broadcaster to follow a more public service role. The data gathering was conducted through to post Charter implementation and captured the uncertainty surrounding the shift in policy. Although the aim of the TVNZ Charter was to raise the standards of public service broadcasting the introduction of this new policy was marked by confusion as to how this would be achieved, funded and monitored.The TVNZ Charter was introduced with the prescription that TVNZ find a balance in achieving public service needs in television as well as maintaining the revenue from advertising. This was because the government was not willing to provide sufficient funding for a non-commercial service and hence the result was always to be a hybrid model. It was frequently emphasized that Charter programmes should rate well and there was strong stress on the importance of retaining and attracting audiences.The core changes leading to the introduction of the TVNZ Charter owe their origins to the major policy turning point of 1989/1990, when broadcasting was deregulated in New Zealand. The free market provided programmes with a focus on entertainment and the previous dictum that they should also educate and inform was no longer spelled out in the Broadcasting Act. As only one of the traditional principles of television was being satisfied, there was a measurable decline in programmed diversity and it is argued, quality. The freedom of deregulation allowed TVNZ to pursue the goal of earning as much advertising revenue as possible. Therefore, the TVNZ Charter was hailed as a significant change of direction to ensure that public service needs were met.Even though it can be argued that many positive changes have resulted since the TVNZ Charter was mooted, it is argued that the drive to reposition TVNZ as a public service broadcaster seems to have resulted in a very diluted form of public service broadcasting. A major shift in direction has been compromised by a fear that significant changes in programming would result in a dramatic loss of vital advertising revenue.

Regulation of border and behind-the-border measures in the oil and gas sectors presents the ‘resource access’ challenge with immense economic ramifications for export markets, yet their status under the multilateral trading regime remains obscure. Recent developments that could reshape the trading regime and market dynamics for oil and gas have seen the call for a global energy governance gain momentum in recent years. But the complex relationships between national laws, institutional norms, and the multilateral trading regime regulating energy presents an ideological ‘conflict in applicable law’. They reveal a conflict between regulatory privileges enshrined in energy resource-focused institutions namely: OPEC as a producer-only treaty, the ECT as a sector-specific multilateral energy treaty, national energy laws on the heel of the PSNR principle as a customary international law; versus international obligations under the GATT rules relevant to energy. These regimes have the trappings of nationalism, regionalism, and institutionalism in energy regulation, thereby creating an ambiguous path to global energy governance. This research revisits the institutional and regulatory architecture of oil and gas regimes from the perspective of quota measures and trade-related investment measures (TRIMs) implemented through the instrumentality of national laws, acts of NOCs (in the oil sector) and acts of non-state undertakings (in the gas sector). It therefore charts an uncommon territory and brings a new dimension to the discipline of energy and trade, with a robust examination of how regulation of quota measures and trade-related investment in the oil sector (with export restriction issues) differs from their regulation in the gas sector (with underlying competition issues) and how their varying trade effects shape their future in international economic law. Given the inherent conflicts between the legal, policy, and regulatory design of these regimes governing energy, this research first explores and applies the principle of conflict of norms to energy governance. This paves way for a hands-on approach to examining the applications of these measures under the auspices of these regimes aimed at a ‘co-operative energy governance’ between the resource-focused regimes and the GATT rules relevant to energy on the basis of their trade effects. I argue that an understanding of ‘quota measures’ and ‘TRIMs’ in the oil sector compared to their implementations in the gas sector is compelling in making a case for a systemic energy cooperation that would serve economic interests of all affected states without diminishing the normative value of each regime in each sector.

Employee turnover remains a ubiquitous phenomenon that could negatively impact the operations and profitability of any business entity. For decades, managers, business leaders, and individuals in academia have devoted considerable time and resources to understanding and reducing the phenomenon. This qualitative multiple case study was conducted to explore the successful strategies that restaurant managers used to reduce employee turnover. The population sample consisted of 4 restaurant managers from Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago who had successfully used strategies to reduce employee turnover. The conceptual framework used was the transformational leadership model. Data for the study were gathered using semistructured interviews, employee records, and company documents. The data were analyzed using cross-case synthesis. The findings included 4 emergent themes. Two themes were tethered to the transformational leadership model with the focus on the constituents of individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation. One theme was linked to the transactional leadership style under the element of management by exception active approach. The 4th theme was unexpected and tethered to practice; actions involved the use of various labor configurations to reduce employee turnover. The results of the study might be beneficial to managers not only in the restaurant industry but within the wider business ecology. With the implementation of successful strategies to reduce employee turnover, business operations and profitability could be spared degradation from operational disruptions due to frequent recruitment and labor shortages. The improved margins could be reinvested towards improving the communities and the lives of workers through positive changes in wages, therefore, contributing to positive social change.

Ces travaux s’intéressent au choix des tratégies de création de valeur dans des pays pétroliers. Ils cherchent à offrir des outils à un décideur pour améliorer la compréhension du problème et procéder au choix de stratégies sous des contraintes de coûts. La thèse s’articule autour d’un processus d’aide à la décision adapté au contexte pétrolier et de trois questions de recherche : 1. Comment modéliser les valeurs durables apportées par des projets complexes dans un pays hôte ? 2. Comment outiller une entreprise d’une méthode d’estimation des valeurs créées localement en tenant compte des effets indirects et induits ? 3. Comment aider à la décision pour la sélection de stratégies agissant sur de multiples systèmes ? Pour y répondre, nous avons pris en compte les spécificités du contexte du contenu local dans le domaine pétrolier. Nous y avons apporté des méthodes de génie industriel et d’aide à la décision multicritère. Nous aboutissons à une proposition de modélisation de la valeur apportée à un pays hôte. Celle-ci nous permet d’introduire une méthodologie d’estimation des impacts d’une stratégie. Enfin, nous proposons une procédure pour réaliser des recommandations à un décideur. / Our research focus on the problem of choosing among value-creation strategies in the context of Oil and Gas development project. The objective is to offer tools to a decision maker to improve his understanding of the problem and to aid to decision. The thesis is structured around a decision-making process adapted to the Oil and Gas context and three research questions: 1. How to model the sustainable values brought by complex projects in a hostcountry? 2. How to furnish to a company a method to estimate local values brought, taking into account indirect and induced effects? 3. How to aid to select among strategies that impact multiple systems? To answer, we took into account the specificities of local content in the Oil and Gas. We brought metholodologies from industrial engineering and multicriteria decision aid. We propose a modeling of the value-added brought to a host country. This allows us to introduce an estimation methodology for the impacts of a strategy. Finally, we suggest a procedure for making recommendations to a decision maker.

[pt] Nesse artigo, estudamos os leilões de petróleo e gás no Brasil para medir o impacto de requerimentos de conteúdo local nos lances realizados, o que nos permite estimar o seu impacto na receita obtida pelo governo. O caso brasileiro é particularmente atrativo, uma vez que houve variação significativa das exigências de conteúdo local ao longo do anos. Nas rodadas em que os requerimentos foram mais altos, observamos uma mudança significativa no comportamento dos participantes dos leilões: o bônus de assinatura médio em blocos offshore caiu de uma média de 57 milhões de reais nas primeiras rodadas para apenas 10,6 milhões de reais, e o número médio de lances por bloco caiu de 0,92 para 0,12. Nosso objetivo é responder em que medida a elevação das exigências de conteúdo local afetaram participação e receita nos leilões. Nós desenvolvemos e estimamos um modelo estrutural de leilões dentro do arcabouço de valores comuns que inclui a decisão de entrada e lances em múltiplas dimensões, incluindo um bônus e um percentual de conteúdo local. Nossos resultados mostram que as exigências de conteúdo local elevam os custos em blocos em águas profundas em 14 por cento. A receita governamental em leilões nessas áreas poderia ser muito maior em um contrafactual sem exigências de conteúdo local, contabilizando 17 bilhões de reais em receita de bônus de assinatura apenas em águas profundas. Em blocos em terra, não encontramos diferenças significativas de custo local e estrangeiro. / [en] In this paper, we study the case of Brazilian oil and gas auctions to assess the impact of local content requirements in bidding behavior, allowing us to estimate its impact on government revenue. The Brazilian case is particularly appealing, as there were significant changes in these requirements throughout the years. In the sales with increased local content requirements there was a dramatic change in the bidders behavior: the average signing bonus for offshore tracts dropped from an average of 57 million reais in the first sales to only 10.6 million reais and the average number of bids per tract plunged from 0.92 to 0.12. We aim to answer how much the increased local content requirements affected participation and revenue in the auctions. We develop and estimate a structural auction model within the mineral rights framework that includes an entry decision and bids in multiple dimensions, including a bonus and a local content percentage. Our results show that local content requirements increase costs in deep water areas in 14 por cento. Government revenue in auctions in these areas could be much larger in a counterfactual with no local content requirements, amounting to an extra 17 billion reais in signing bonus only for deep-water tracts. For onshore areas, we did not find any significant difference between local and foreign costs.