Bibliography: leaves 187-202. / This thesis focuses on the development of a management framework that allows organisations to gradually evolve into a full-fletched B2B e-business. Every manager considering the implementation of a B2B e-business system as part of his business plan, need a rigorous approach for the successful implementation thereof. The successful planning and managing of e-business investments are of the utmost importance to sustain and create more shareholder value for the future. The main hypothesis stated by the author is that a framework is required to guide managers with the re-organisation necessary throughout the life cycle (including planning, implementation and sustaining) of a B2B e-business model. The author believes that this framework will contribute to organisations enhancing competitive position and thus, unlocking more shareholder value.

Bibliography: leaves 146-152.

Bibliography : leaves B1-B8. / This study primarily investigates the processes and capabilities which are important for building and developing trust in e-Commerce. The main area of focus of this study is on the factors and enablers which can be applied by online retailers to build trust and communicate trustworthiness to online consumers. Throughout the study these factors and enablers are commonly referred to as the 'building blocks of trust in e-Commerce'. It is argued that without trust, e-Commerce cannot reach its full potential and that the building blocks of trust in e-Commerce can be applied to build and develop trust in e-Commerce. This study further investigates consumer perceptions of e-Commerce, and the deterrents to online shopping. Special emphasis was placed on important e-Commerce issues, central to building and developing trust in e-Commerce, such as privacy, security and fulfilment. As part of the recommendations, a conceptual model for building trust In e-Commerce is presented, which maps out the online trust building process with the general building blocks of trust in e-Commerce at its core.

Bibliography: leaves 89-94. / This thesis is about the comparison of Pricing models for the valuation of American Options. Three classes of numerical approaches are considered. These are Lattice Methods, Analytic Approximations and Monte Carlo Simulation. Methods will be contrasted in terms of accuracy and speed of the computed American option price. One particular method utilises regression when estimating the American option price. For this approach the impact of outliers and multicollinearity is examined and alternative regression models fitted. Monte Carlo Simulation is implemented to calculate early exercise probabilities of American options in the South African market. Results are compared for both call and put options. A test set of 3550 options is simulated with parameters mirroring the South African economy. On this set, the accuracy of all methods is assessed relative to a benchmark price, which is computed by a convergent lattice approach. Finally, American Symmetry is used to evaluate both put and call options.

Bibliography: leaves 82-83. / Elasticities of demand and supply for South African manufactured exports are estimated using the co-integrating vector autoregression / vector error correction model approach in order toaddress simultaneity and non-stationarity issues. Demand is highly price-elastic, ranging from-3 to -6. The price elasticity of supply is 1. Competitors' prices and world income are an important determinant of demand, but domestic capacity utilization is not an important determinant of export supply.

Bibliography: leaves 80-81. / This dissertation illustrates how in-house dynamic hedging could be evaluated through modeling, simulation and sensitivity testing. The illustration helps to illuminate the financial benefits and associated risks of dynamic hedging, but does not provide a specific conclusion on whether dynamic hedging shoul be implemented. Ultimately this decision will depend on the unique circumstances and strategic objecitves of the life office. The scope of the dissertation is thus limited to an illustration and discussion of the relevant issues only and specifically does not cover the costing of in-house dynamically hedged guarantees.

This is an exploratory study into the role commercial banks play in triggering recognition of failure in a declining firm and the nature of the bank's responses. Management literature has excluded important issues in the critical phase intervening decline and turnaround such as how the recognition of failure takes place, and the possible external influences on the turnaround strategy. Commercial banks being an influential external agency are ideally placed to perform this role. The study covered four banks in Canada and six banks in the US. The data collection comprised of qualitative sources (27 in-depth interviews with bank officers) and quantitative sources (questionnaire to loan officers seeking information pertaining to specific problem loan firms). Information on 34 cases in the US and 146 in Canada was obtained. The quantitative data was studied using correlational analysis, factor analysis, and a multiple regression model to help explain the bank's response strategies. The study shows that acting out of self-interest, the banks are a source of triggering early recognition of failure in the firms and attempt to distinguish between decline in performance and impending failure. The variables explaining the response strategy of the bank include: the causes (internal/external) for decline, extent of security coverage, severity of the decline, the extent of cooperation with the bank, size, and the bank's judgement on the ability of the firm to turnaround. The bank's response should be considered at two levels: the initial efforts of the loan officer and the subsequent institutional response of the bank. While there were only a few major differences between US and Canadian banks on several aspects of recognition and response, they exhibited different correlation structures. While both US and Canadian officers preferred a workout to an exit strategy, the US officers had a bias towards a financial approach including additional financial coverage, and the Canadian officers showed a managerial approach including managerial changes. From the perspective of strategic management, this study shows the importance of a source outside the firm in triggering recognition of failure and its influence on the turnaround strategy of the firm.

The U.S. beverage container industry is a highly competitive industry in which firms compete for market share. This study has two purposes. The first purpose of this study is to show the relationship between beverage container market share and container-specific variables, which affect beverage container demand. The second purpose of this study is to show the nature of beverage container competition in terms of the container-specific variables. To show the relationship between market share and container-specific variables, this study developed a model of the beverage container industry. This model was a multiplicative competitive interaction (MCI) attraction model. The theoretical basis of the model is the attraction of beverage container "consumers," consisting of beverage companies and end consumers, toward competing containers. The model was applied to the two principal markets of the beverage container industry: the beer market, and the soft drink market. The competitors in each market were aluminum cans, steel cans, one-way glass bottles, returnable glass bottles, and plastic bottles (soft drink market only). The explanatory variables used in each model were raw material prices, primary product prices, aluminum can recycling rate, and scrap prices. The models were estimated using ordinary least squares, applied separately to each container equation. To show the nature of beverage container competition, this study used market share elasticities. These elasticities were calculated from the parameter estimates of the beer and soft drink market models, and from average market shares. This study found that beverage container competition is different in the beer and soft drink markets. In the beer market, the market share responses of aluminum cans and glass bottles are similar. In the soft drink market, the market share responses of aluminum cans and plastic bottles are similar. Also, the market share responses of steel cans and glass bottles are similar. Of the models' variables, steel sheet prices and aluminum ingot prices have the largest impact on beer container market share. In the soft drink market, steel sheet prices and aluminum can recycling have the largest impact.

Firm's advertising and marketing expenditures do not always translate to measurable financial returns. Understanding brand value appropriation and financial consequences of advertising is important for more focused investments in branding and marketing. This quantitative study sought to understand the joint effects of advertising expenditure and brand value (BV) on firms return on assets (ROA) and on stock return (SR) in the computer industry. The theoretical framework of the study was the resource-based view theory that proposes that the intangible assets of a corporation have a direct relationship to its ability to sustain its competitive advantage. The key research question involved the joint and positive effect of a firm's advertising expenditure and brand value on return on assets and on stock return. The research design was a non randomized cross sectional study. The data consisted of advertising expenditures and brand value of 17 firms listed on the Interbrand annual global brand list from 2000 to 2007, ROA and SR extracted from each firms 10K and Morningstar financial report. The study used panel data modeling and time series of cross section analysis. Results showed positive correlation between ROA and BV, and between AER and BV. The association between brand value and ROA, even after accounting for the effect of advertising expenditure and the interaction effect between brand value and advertising expenditure, was statistically significant. Further research is needed to confirm the findings. Effective marketing increases firms' profitability. Profitable firms contribute more to causes that drive social changes in the areas of education, healthcare and food sustainability.