Supply Chain Due Diligence (SCDD) is conducted by companies to minimise or even eliminate risks of being involved directly or indirectly in human rights violations. It is part of Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) requirement. Through their suppliers companies may be exposed to irresponsible business practices. Considering this, companies should be able to systematically formulate concise demand from their suppliers that they practice responsible business practices which respect human rights. Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) as management tool commonly assist companies to direct suppliers methodically in achieving their financial goals. This research attempts to repurpose SRM concepts to enable companies to conduct SCDD methodically. Defining human rights requirements into practical supplier’s evaluation system is a challenging task. Possible criteria and their indicators are discussed. The structure and processes to implement SRM framework for SCDD purposes are also described.:1. INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM DESCRIPTION 2. INTENSIFICATION OF PURCHASING FUNCTION AND SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FOR IMPROVED COOPERATION WITH SUPPLIERS 2.1. Procurement and Purchasing Function in Integrative Supply Chain Management 2.2. Supplier Relationship Management and Purchasing Function 2.2.1. Supplier Relationship Management Framework 2.2.2. Strategy Development 2.2.3. Supplier Observation 2.2.4. Supplier Selection 2.2.5. Classification of Suppliers and Performance Assessment 2.2.6. Cooperation and Collaborating with Suppliers 2.2.7. Development of Suppliers 2.2.8. Disturbance and Dissolution Management 3. RESPECT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF SUPPLY CHAIN DUE DILIGENCE THROUGH IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING 3.1. Relation between Business and Human Rights 3.2. Human Rights Due Diligence for Companies 3.2.1. Basic Concept of Human Rights Due Diligence 3.2.2. Relating Human Rights Due Diligence to Common Commercial Due Diligence 3.2.3. Business Case for Human Rights Due Diligence from Legal and Other Perspectives 3.3. Human Rights Due Diligence with Focus on Impact Assessment 3.3.1. Approaches and Guidelines to Conduct Human Rights Impact Assessment 3.3.2. Relevance of Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) Approaches to Practical Implementation within Procurement Activities 3.4. Human Rights Reporting 3.5. Supply Chain Due Diligence Activities as Instrument to Conduct Human Rights Due Diligence 4. EVALUATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF SUPPLIERS’ PROSPECTIVE HUMAN RIGHTS PERFORMANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION RISKS: DETERMINING CRITERIA AND THEIR INDICATORS 4.1. Performance Evaluation and Indicators Development 4.2. Rationalization in Grouping Human Rights Performance Criteria into Three groups of Criteria and Weighing/Scaling/Calculation System 4.3. Sourcing and Regulation 4.3.1. General Standards and Regulations 4.3.2. Specific Product Standards and Requirements 4.3.3. Supplier’s Code of Conduct and Industry Initiatives 4.4. Political and Social Circumstances 4.4.1. Political Condition in Country of Supplier 4.4.2. Risks of Corruption 4.4.3. Social Circumstance and Civil Society 4.5. Suppliers’ Internal Condition 4.5.1. Supplier’s Human Rights Policy 4.5.2. Supplier’s Human Rights Record and Reputation 4.5.3. Supplier’s Corporate Governance and Political Connections 4.6. General Remarks on Groups of Performance Criteria and Framework for Suppliers’ Classification 5. RESULTS INTERPRETATION OF SUPPLIERS’ CLASSIFICATION FOLLOWING EVALUATION OF SUPPLIERS’ PROSPECTIVE HUMAN RIGHTS PERFORMANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION RISK 5.1. 5.1.1. Understanding and Using the Assessment Framework 5.1.2. Determining Indicators’ Scaling Complexity, Weighing System and Cut-off Points 5.1.3. Interaction Model of the Framework in Determining Overall Performance and Classification of Suppliers 5.2. Suppliers with Low-Level of Prospective Human Rights Performance 5.3. Suppliers with Medium-Level of Prospective Human Rights Performance 5.4. Suppliers with High-Level of Prospective Human Rights Performance 6. INTRODUCING SUPPLIER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR SUPPLY CHAIN DUE DILIGENCE 6.1. Building the Supplier Relationship Management Framework for Supply Chain Due Diligence Framework: Laying Out the Foundation 6.2. Supply Chain Due Diligence Using an Approach of Supplier Relationship Management: How to Implement the Framework 6.2.1. Purchasing Strategy Development 6.2.2. Observation of Potential Suppliers 6.2.3. Suppliers Selection 6.2.4. Performance Assessment and Classification of Suppliers 6.2.5. Disturbance and Dissolution Management 6.2.6. Cooperation and Collaboration with Suppliers 6.2.7. Development of Suppliers 7. CONCLUSION REFERENCES

Direct-to-consumer genomics (DTCG) health testing offers great promise to humanity, however to date adoption has lagged as a result of consumer awareness, understanding, and previous government regulations restricting DTCG companies from providing information on an individual's genetic predispositions. But in 2017 the broader DTCG market which also includes genealogical testing demonstrated exponential growth, implying that DTCG is starting to diffuse as an innovation. To better understand the sociocultural forces affecting diffusion, adoption, and satisfaction, qualitative ethnographic research was conducted with DTCG genealogy and health consumers. The data was qualitatively analyzed using thematic analysis to understand the similarities and differences in beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and mediating factors that have influenced consumers. Design anthropology theory and methods were used to produce ethnographically informed insights. The insights were then translated into actionable product management and business strategy recommendations.

This dissertation describes the manner by which a multinational corporation (MNC) enacts a market-based logic with a locally embedded partner in a complex and unfamiliar operating setting to fulfil both business and social objectives. It examines a hybrid partnership between BP, an MNC, and SSP, a rural Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO). Together, the organisations trained rural women, who were affiliated with SSP, as agents to distribute and sell BP’s ‘smokeless’ cookstoves and fuel pellets to households who cook on smoky firewood stoves. The research draws on two theories—neo-institutional organizational theory and real markets theory—to examine the process by which logics are aligned across partners and projected and translated into the rural Indian exchange setting. It constructs a four-actor model (MNC, NGO, agent, customer) to explore the exchange relationships between the actors at the meso- and micro-levels. At the meso-level, it explains how the MNC and NGO’s non-aligned logics, asymmetric power dynamics, and lack of mutual trust contribute to the venture’s failure. In addition, the NGO was so determined to succeed as a professional, market-driven, channel partner that it shed part of its identity as a civil advocacy organisation and adopted mainstream commercial practices that were not sensitive to the needs of its local stakeholders. At the micro-level, the partners did not come to a common understanding with the agents regarding the cultural challenges they faced marketing the stove. Moreover, the marketing strategy glossed over the multi-layered social relationships and culinary, behavioural, and religious practices that needed to be translated for the technology to meet the needs of consumers. Using gritty ethnographic data, the dissertation highlights a challenge that large, foreign companies face when entering ‘Base of the Pyramid’ markets, namely the inconsistency between the MNC’s market logic and the wider associational logics that motivate village agents and customers.

The dissertation work engages in working out a business plan for a business intention of A HOUP s. r. o. company, which is running a café. The work pays attention to the basic terms of business, legal policies in business and new law no. 90/2012col. and also its economic impact on the company itself. Within the frame of business intention, the work concentrates on an assessment of the intention effectiveness through the analysis of the environment and the foundation budget. On the ground of researched indicators the implementation of such intention is recommended and it is classified as effective. In conclusion of this study, the most common business risks are assessed form the point of limiting those.

The Master's Thesis is focused on methods and tools in knowledge management. The paper introduce knowledge management its history and present. Meanwhile history is presented as a list of important events present view is supported by current trends in field of knowledge management, business analysis of selected companies and evaluation of available publications on the topic of knowledge management. The main aim the paper is to present suitable methodology for the initial phase of Mitroff's model - conceptualization. The selected approach is then applied to the model situation. It is the decision of the city government for the construction and expansion of local factory. The last part is about Business Model Canvas which aims to outline the possible application of the methodology in practice.

New legal regulation of the private law contained in the New Civil Code and the Business Corporations Act has brought plenty of changes also in the status of a board of directors' member in a joint stock company. Both codes have brought new terminology, new institutes and clarification of the rules known from the legal regulation before the recodification. On one hand there is certain loosening in the decision making of statutory bodies of business corporations, on the other hand there is tightening of sanctions for cases of failure. This diploma thesis introduces major institutes of legal regulation related to the status of a board of directors' member and provides a basic comparison with the legal regulation before the recodification.

Die Thematik der Strategieberatung in kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) hat in der Managementforschung bisher wenig Beachtung gefunden und dies obwohl jenem Forschungsfeld hohe Relevanz attestiert wird. Die vorliegende Arbeit adressiert genau dieses Forschungsdesiderat. Im Rahmen einer explorativen, qualitativ-empirischen Studie wird beleuchtet, inwieweit KMU-Geschäftsführer (KMU-GF) Unternehmensberatung zur strategischen Unternehmensführung in Anspruch nehmen, ob diesbezüglich unterschiedliche Typen existieren und wodurch sich die entsprechenden Verhaltensweisen der KMU-GF begründen. Für die Analyse, weshalb KMU-GF Strategieberatung nutzen bzw. nicht nutzen, wird eine sozio-kognitive Perspektive eingenommen, die kognitive Strukturen sowie kognitive Prozesse als Auslöser von Verhalten untersucht und dabei auch die Rolle von Kontextfaktoren berücksichtigt. Ergänzend werden Einblicke in die Denk- und Verhaltensweisen von KMU-GF hinsichtlich der Themen Unternehmensberatung allgemein und strategische Unternehmensführung geboten.

As depicted in Chapter I, 2-oxoglutarate- (2OG) dependent oxygenases are ubiquitous in living systems and display a wide range of cellular functions, spanning metabolism, transcription, and translation. Although functionally diverse, the 2OG oxygenases share a high degree of structural similarities between their catalytic sites. From a medicinal chemistry point of view, the combination of biological diversity and structural similarity presents a rather challenging task for the development of selective small molecules for functional studies in vivo. The non-selective metal chelator 8-hydroxyquinoline (8HQ) was used as a template for the generation of tool compound <b>I</b> for the KDM4 subfamily of histone demethylases via application of the Betti reaction. Structural analogue <b>II</b> was used as the corresponding negative control (Figure A). These compounds were characterised in vitro against a range of 2OG oxygenases and subsequently used for studies in cells. <b>I</b> displays selectivity for KDM4 and increases the level of the H3K9me3 histone mark in cells. It has an effect on the post-translational modification pattern of histone H3, but not other histones, and reduces the viability of lung cancer cells, but not normal lung cells, derived from the same patient. <b>I</b> also stabilises hypoxia-inducable factor HIF in cells via a mechanism which seems to be independent from prolyl hydroxylase inhibition. This work is described in Chapters II and III. The chemical biology research in epigenetics is complemented by qualitative analysis conducted in the social sciences at Said Business School. With a global view on how innovation occurs and may actively be fostered, Chapter IV focuses on the potential of epigenetics in drug discovery and how this process may actively be promoted within the framework of open innovation. Areas of focus include considerations of incremental and disruptive technology; how to claim, demarcate, and control the market; how knowledge brokering occurs; and insights about process, management, organisation, and culture of open innovation. In contrast to the open-skies approach adopted for the development of a tool compound in Chapters II and III, a focused-library approach was taken for the generation of a tool compound for the OGFOD1 ribosomal prolyl hydroxylase. The development of a suitable in vitro activity assay for OGFOD1 in Chapter V enabled the development of lead compound <b>III</b> in Chapter VI. <b>III</b> is selective for OGFOD1 against the structurally closely related prolyl hydroxylase PHD2.

美國次級房貸在1990年代中期曾經十分興盛，不過之後因LTCM危機，加上Fed採取連續升息政策，許多次級房貸放款的業者面臨資金流動性問題，以及次級房貸利潤不夠高，迫使許多業者退出這個市場，1998年亞洲金融風暴,美國雖未受波及,然自2000年開始因網路科技泡沫影响及2001年911恐怖攻擊,經濟衰退連續降息後，次級房貸在美國持續降息期間再度大幅成長，原因包括當時美國房價上升速度快、不動產市場流動性充裕，投資人增加對收益率較高產品的需求，導致更多次級房貸需求。 國際資金游動頻繁，衍生性產品及不動產證券化盛行，信用卡債、擔保債權憑證(CDO)、資產抵押證券被分割、包裝成證券或基金產品賣出，次級房貸風暴發生，間接亦影響到全球投資在上列產品之銀行、避險基金、機構法人、退休金等等…導致全球股票市場大跌，引發整個金融信用環境惡化，可能引發不良金融連鎖反應，從而導致更大的經濟金融危機。 美林證券、花旗銀行、歐美各大銀行相繼宣布資產減損,台灣國內銀行、保險公司亦陸續出現認列資產減損金額,只要一有次級房貸不利之消息出現,全球股市應聲而倒,截至目前問題所在雖略知一二,然國外金融業界因資訊較透明,其影響已漸公佈及擴大中,國內金融業則仍多採取保守態度,但亦逐漸依規定認列財產損失,然而問題是否已近尾聲,風險是否完全受控制則說法不一。 次級房貸問題的主要原因是相關金融商品證券化,層層包裝成各種衍生性產品,於次級房貸風暴發生後,信用風險連鎖反應造成相關產品無流動性,被隱藏的風險暴露後原有的信評機制幾乎全部失效,層層包裝的風險因事先未被定價,風暴後更無法估算其所會波及之影響,Mark to Market及34號公報迫使全球企業對次級房貸投資相關產品之損失提列資產減損,更加重各項產品流動性之停滯,信用危機造成信心危機，層層結構性產品及再轉投資,造成信用無虞的公司也遭魚池之殃,次級房貸衍生之金融商品,因主要購買者多為金融業或保險業或再包裝後出售予投資客,其後繼影響更是難以估計。 本論文內容除探討美國次級房貸定義、對美國國內及全球之影響、美國政府及各國政府的因應政策、截至目前影響及預計可能還會再出現影響,及因次級房貸之崩潰及衍生之金融產品之跌價所影響的層面與近年來國內外銀行爭相推展個人金融事業及財富管理事業的成立,是否有相當之關係,信用評等、風險控管、及定價在此風暴是否扮演重要角色,但卻又明顯失控?為避免類似情況再發生,應如何因應與防範?進而以提出個人對此事件探討之結論及省思後之建議。