We live in an era where markets are more dynamic and the product life cycle is shorter, an era where concepts such as smart manufacturing and mass customization form part of daily life in industries and where consumption rates of products and services are rising. All these result in more dynamic, global, complex and fragile supply chains. Disruptions are negative impacts on business continuity in companies and when a supply chain is disrupted there is only one way to tackle the challenges originated and is the ability to be resilient. Based on a systematic literature review, this thesis lay out a framework to position Vendor Managed Inventory digital solutions in order to provide full visibility in the supply chains, and enhance agility and flexibility skill sets in the organizations to be resilient after massive disruptions such as the COVID-19. The conclusions of this work provide a positive outlook of the capabilities of VMI solutions to create more resilient supply chains. / Vi lever i en era där marknader är mer dynamiska och produkters livscykel kortare. En era där koncept som smart tillverkning och mass-anpassning är en del av dagliga livet i industrier och där konsumtionsnivåer av produkter och tjänster ökar. Allt detta resulterar i mer dynamiska, globala, komplexa och känsliga försörjningskedjor. Störningar påverkar kontinuiteten i verksamheten negativt hos företag och när en försörjningskedja påverkas av störningar finns det bara ett sätt att hantera utmaningarna som uppstår och det är genom förmågan att vara motståndskraftig. Baserad på systematisk litteratursökning, lägger denna avhandling fram ramverk för att positionera Vendor Managed Inventory digitala lösningar för att förse full synlighet i distributionskedjan och förbättra rörlighetens och flexibilitetens förmågor i organisationerna för att bli mera uthållig efter massiva störningar som COVID-19. Slutsatserna av detta arbete ger en positiv syn på möjligheterna för VMI-lösningar för att skapa mer motståndskraftiga försörjningskedjor.

Fire suppression, combined with lack of forest thinning and short-rotation, monodominant management, has drastically altered the landscape in the southeastern U.S., leading to the loss of open pine ecosystems and associated avian species. Management of open pine ecosystems is a common practice; yet, there remains uncertainty regarding how vegetation structure impacts priority species. Using empirical data, I assessed changes in species abundance and associated vegetation characteristics before and after management. I also sought to identify vegetation characteristics that influence home range establishment and microhabitat selection of Bachman’s Sparrows. Priority species were negatively associated with hardwood midstory and abundance per site increased following management. Home range establishment of Bachman’s Sparrows was influenced by disturbance, canopy cover, and slope, while microhabitat selection was influenced by pine basal area, available perching options, vegetation density, and herbaceous groundcover. Understanding how vegetation structure impacts priority species may be helpful in guiding conservation and management efforts.

The South African health care environment is a two-tier health care delivery system consisting of the public sector and the private sector. The focus of this study is on the private health care sector. Private health care is funded by medical schemes through employer and employee contributions. The private sector is also the most profitable sector for multinational pharmaceutical organisations to market and sell their products within the South African health care environment. The major cost saving initiative by employers and medical schemes in the private health care sector has also been the introduction of managed health care initiatives. The goal of managed health care is to establish a system which delivers value by giving people access to quality and cost-effective healthcare. The new reality of managed health care initiatives are changing the boundaries of the South African pharmaceutical industry. The managed health care wake is overturning the business processes which made the pharmaceutical industry so successful and are rendering obsolete the industry's conventional models of corporate strategy and management systems. In the context of these turbulent changes, pharmaceutical companies are being forced simultaneously to develop new strategic approaches for the future, design new business processes which will link them more firmly to their new customers, and implement the cultural changes neccessary to accomplish the transformation from yesterday's successful pharmaceutical company to tomorrow's customer-led, integrated health care supplier. The way forward lies in three organising concepts. The first is cutomer alignment. The effort of transformation must start with an understanding of how the customer defines the value of the services and/or products offered by the organisation. Everything that follows involves aligning internal processes with external contingencies. The second is sequencing. It is vital to understand not just what needs to happen first in the transformation process, but also what the subsequent steps is and in what order the steps need to be undertaken. The third organising concept is learning. The sequence of interventions that lead to organisational transformation must occur in such a way as to maximize the ability of the organisation to learn: from customers and the marketplace, and from itself. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Costa Rica’s annual mean precipitation is above 3300 mm, but this precipitation is not evenly distributed in time or space, producing clear differentiated wet and dry seasons in most of the country. Droughts are also common phenomena which greatly affect the availability of water resources. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes are being taken into consideration to enhance the underground water storage capacity of the country. The present study constitutes the first assessment for the identification of suitable sites for the implementation of MAR technology spreading methods (SM) in Costa Rica. The suitable sites are identified by means of a geographic information system multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) based on four criteria: hydrogeological aptitude, terrain slope, top soil texture and drainage network density. Four steps are performed in order to identify these sites: problem definition, screening for suitable areas, suitability mapping, and sensitivity analysis. The suitability map was divided in two zones after the screening: suitable and unsuitable, the first zone was further divided in five classes according to the weighted linear combination (WLC) ranking. The results indicate that 61% of the country is suitable for conducting SM. This map is a tool for future implementation of MAR techniques in the country.

The South African health care environment is a two-tier health care delivery system consisting of the public sector and the private sector. The focus of this study is on the private health care sector. Private health care is funded by medical schemes through employer and employee contributions. The private sector is also the most profitable sector for multinational pharmaceutical organisations to market and sell their products within the South African health care environment. The major cost saving initiative by employers and medical schemes in the private health care sector has also been the introduction of managed health care initiatives. The goal of managed health care is to establish a system which delivers value by giving people access to quality and cost-effective healthcare. The new reality of managed health care initiatives are changing the boundaries of the South African pharmaceutical industry. The managed health care wake is overturning the business processes which made the pharmaceutical industry so successful and are rendering obsolete the industry's conventional models of corporate strategy and management systems. In the context of these turbulent changes, pharmaceutical companies are being forced simultaneously to develop new strategic approaches for the future, design new business processes which will link them more firmly to their new customers, and implement the cultural changes neccessary to accomplish the transformation from yesterday's successful pharmaceutical company to tomorrow's customer-led, integrated health care supplier. The way forward lies in three organising concepts. The first is cutomer alignment. The effort of transformation must start with an understanding of how the customer defines the value of the services and/or products offered by the organisation. Everything that follows involves aligning internal processes with external contingencies. The second is sequencing. It is vital to understand not just what needs to happen first in the transformation process, but also what the subsequent steps is and in what order the steps need to be undertaken. The third organising concept is learning. The sequence of interventions that lead to organisational transformation must occur in such a way as to maximize the ability of the organisation to learn: from customers and the marketplace, and from itself. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Costa Rica’s annual mean precipitation is above 3300 mm, but this precipitation is not evenly distributed in time or space, producing clear differentiated wet and dry seasons in most of the country. Droughts are also common phenomena which greatly affect the availability of water resources. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes are being taken into consideration to enhance the underground water storage capacity of the country. The present study constitutes the first assessment for the identification of suitable sites for the implementation of MAR technology spreading methods (SM) in Costa Rica. The suitable sites are identified by means of a geographic information system multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) based on four criteria: hydrogeological aptitude, terrain slope, top soil texture and drainage network density. Four steps are performed in order to identify these sites: problem definition, screening for suitable areas, suitability mapping, and sensitivity analysis. The suitability map was divided in two zones after the screening: suitable and unsuitable, the first zone was further divided in five classes according to the weighted linear combination (WLC) ranking. The results indicate that 61% of the country is suitable for conducting SM. This map is a tool for future implementation of MAR techniques in the country.

This study examined the nature and extent of relations between Management of Technology [MOT] and cost management. It explores the roles of competencies and competency measurement in these relations and its associations with company performance. The problem statement asks how the MOT community deals with cost management, whether MOT-based cost management competencies can be isolated and measured, whether a tool for measurement can be created, tested and validated and indeed whether it can be used to assess relations between MOT-based cost management competencies and company performance. To answer these questions, a MOT-based cost management competency index is formulated, consisting of problem statements representing MOT-based cost management insights, knowledge and practices. Designed in the format of a typical research survey, the index is used to source data from sampled companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange [JSE]. Although too small a sample to generalise about the population, sufficient data is collected and processed with statistical software programs. A second set of variables, about financial performance of the responding companies, consists of Asset Turnover [ATO] and Return on Assets Managed [ROAM]. Data for these variables is sourced from their annual financial statements and processed into ATO and ROAM indicators. The combined research data set is used to critically describe statistical qualities of variables such as ATO, ROAM, MOT-based cost management competencies of company executives, their education and exposure to the executive management teams in their respective organizations. The research data is subsequently subjected to correlation analysis, as foundation for hypothesis testing. Among the relationships described by correlation analysis and warranting further examination with regression analysis, are associations between MOT-based cost management competencies and ATO and between Education and MOT-based cost management competencies. The former association is found to be not significant, having the research hypothesis rejected. A significant association between Education and MOT-based cost management competencies is indeed found. Utilizing regression equations yielded by the analyses, the predictive capacity of regression analysis is used to demonstrate results of interventions in those associations postulated in the research hypotheses. The study concludes that it achieved a qualified success in its first objective, which was to formulate a MOT-based cost management competency index, and to demonstrate its application as measurement and management tool on executive managers of JSE-listed companies. The study failed in its second objective, which was to demonstrate a significant association between MOT-based cost management competencies and financial performance of sampled companies. Critical perspectives on the data and the associations tested reveal important shortcomings in the research. These perspectives do though create opportunities for refinement of the MOT-based cost management competency index as measurement and management tool, validation of its status, and indeed demonstration of its business value to the MOT and business community in particular. In closure, the study was meant as a contribution to the discourse on a credo for MOT and the MOT body of knowledge, and it subjects itself to critical analysis by the research community so as to establish whether it succeeded in indeed making such a contribution. / Business Management / M.Tech. (Business Administration)

The integration of computer technology in education has been a worldwide issue that has been supported and equally criticized by many. However, the practicability of computer technology in education cannot be overlooked, and this reality led to this study. This qualitative study aimed to explore the extents to which computer technology has been integrated in teaching and learning in Namibian schools, and three central schools in the town of Katima Mulilo (Zambezi Region) were investigated in this regard. The study explored possible benefits of computer technology in education, and sought to understand the way learners perceive computer technology. The study findings showed that teachers were unable to use computers to teach due to lack of resources and skills, whereas learners indicated willingness to embrace computer technology in education. Findings further showed greater need to equip schools with computer technology and training teachers. Based on the findings, recommendations were made to train teachers in integrating computer technology, and that schools should be provided with necessary computer technology resources. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Comparative Education)

This study examines the main research hypothesis that there is significant interaction between the effects of computer use/non-use and level of computer training among community college educators in the state of Texas regarding attitudes toward the implementation of administrative and instructional computing. A statewide survey was conducted with deans of instruction and full-time faculty members who represented the three academic transfer departments of natural/physical sciences, social science, and humanities/fine arts. Fifty-five deans of instruction and three hundred fifty-six faculty members participated in the study. A factor analysis of data from the questionnaires revealed four factors which were identified and labeled: Factor One: Computer Applications: Advantages and Disadvantages; Factor Two: Administrative Computer Applications: Advantages and Disadvantages; Factor Three: Apprehensions About Educational Computing; Factor Four: Situational Factors Associated With Computer Applications in Education. A 4x3x2 (professional position x level of computer training x level of computer experience) multivariate analysis of variance of both main and interaction effects was then performed within and across these factors.

This Master's thesis reflects the theory of American political philosopher S. Wolin. The work introduces the reader to interpretations of S. Wolin's term inverted totalitarianism and confronts it with the common and mainstream approaches to totalitarianism. It is concerned about S. Wolin's reflection on contemporary western liberal democracy as managed democracy. The text pays attention to work of G. Agamben who takes a similar critique on the form of Euro-Atlantic democracy; for instance the thesis deals with his view of state of exception in which the author sees connections on inverted totalitarianism. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)