Zugl.: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2008

Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Kenneth J. Euske, Jeffrey R. Cuskey. Includes bibliographical references (p. 61-62). Also available online.

Zugl.: Bayreuth, Univ., Diss., 2009

Étonnamment méconnues du grand public et de nombreux avocats, qu’elles ont pourtant vocation à servir, les caisses de règlements pécuniaires des avocats (CARPA) sont indissociables du paysage juridique et judiciaire français. Créées au milieu du siècle dernier pour contrôler la comptabilité des avocats auxquels les pouvoirs publics venaient de donner le droit de manier des fonds au nom et pour le compte de leurs clients, puis autorisées à mener une activité spéculative pour financer leur fonctionnement, les CARPA sont par ailleurs devenues gestionnaires de fonds publics affectés à la rétribution des avocats prenant en charge des missions d’aide juridique. D’une efficacité certaine, les caisses n’en sont pas moins confrontées à de multiples défis et à une relative incertitude quant à leur avenir. L’évolution de la criminalité économique et financière, l’inefficacité du service public de l’accès à la justice, la baisse du rendement de leur activité spéculative et les perspectives de réformes les concernant pourraient effectivement menacés la pérennité du concept CARPA jusque dans ses fondements. Émanations des ordres qui les ont institués, symboles de discipline, de probité et de rigueur, les CARPA œuvrent dans l’intérêt de la profession d’avocat, des valeurs que celle-ci défend et de l’intérêt général. Les caisses de règlements pécuniaires n’ayant jamais fait l’objet d’une étude d’ensemble, leur évolution passée et à venir impose de faire un état de lieu de leur statut juridique en droit positif avant de formuler des propositions qui pourraient en accroître l’efficience en droit prospectif. / Surprisingly unknown to the general public and many lawyers, despite being intended to serve them; the Special Lawyers’ Litigation Fund's (CARPA) are inextricable from the French legal and judicial landscape. The CARPA’s were created in the middle of last century to inspect the accounts of the lawyers who had just been given the right, by the government, to manage funds in the name and on behalf of their clients. They have since then been allowed to conduct speculative activity to finance their operations. The CARPA’s have, furthermore, become managers of the public funds allocated towards the remuneration of the lawyers that support the legal aid mission. Of an unquestionable efficiency, the CARPA’s are none the less facing multiple challenges and suffer from a relative uncertainty regarding their future. The evolution of economic and financial crimes, the effectiveness of the public service guaranteeing access to justice, as well as declining returns from their speculative activity and the prospect of reforms could actually threaten to shake the concept of CARPA’s to its very core. Emanations of the orders that set them up as symbols of discipline, probity and rigor, the CARPA’s work in the interest of the legal profession, the values that it stands for and of the general interest. The Special Lawyers’ Litigation Fund never having been the object of a comprehensive study, their past and future evolution dictates that we analyze their legal status within positive law before formulating proposals that could improve their efficiency in prospective law.

Over the last decade there has been an increasing trend by governments in Australia and throughout the world to use the skills and expertise of the private sector in developing and implementing infrastructure projects. The agreement for these projects must allocate responsibility for dealing with the risks which may arise to either the government directly, or on behalf of consumers, or to the private sponsor. / This thesis investigates risk allocation in the private provision of infrastructure, particularly in build-own-operate (BOO) and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) projects. Its primary objective is to identify a framework for efficient risk allocation so that decision makers can assess the efficiency of the risk allocation in past projects and can attempt to increase the efficiency of the risk allocation in future projects. / This thesis defines an efficient situation as one where the risk allocation cannot be varied without the total risk premium for the entire project being increased, and approach based on Pareto optimality. As it is almost impossible to determine the true risk premium charged by parties for risk bearing, risks should be allocated to the party best able to control and manage them. This is explained to mean the party which is best able to control or manage the likelihood of the risk occurring or the size of its consequences if it does occur. It also means the party with the best access to reasonable mitigation techniques and the party which is least risk averse. Those exogenous risks which are not easily allocated in this way should be shared so that both parties, the sponsor and the government, have an incentive to manage them. Some of the options for sharing these risks are examined. / The application of the theory of efficient risk allocation is simplified by using a categorical risk framework. This approach is then tested on seven case studies of recent Australian projects spanning several industry sectors. Finally, the theoretical hypotheses and assumptions are tested in a survey of key participants in the Australian private infrastructure industry. This survey not only confirms that the basic theory for efficient risk allocation is valid but also identifies the key areas of concern to the private sector when it considers project risk allocation. Risks of concern are identified and possible options for risk sharing are investigated. / This thesis concludes that it is possible to achieve efficient risk allocations in practice, and that by achieving this outcome transaction costs can be reduced, allowing cheaper infrastructure services to be supplied to the community. However, several hurdles to achieving this outcome are identified. These include the peculiar characteristics of banks and their position in projects funded using non-recourse project finance, and the fact that most private firms fail to value potential upside risks as highly as they fear potential losses due to downside risks. / More work is needed to understand and overcome these hurdles if efficient risk allocation is to be achieved in the real world. It is only then that governments can be sure that they are providing private sector infrastructure services to the community at the lowest overall cost.

Over the last decade there has been an increasing trend by governments in Australia and throughout the world to use the skills and expertise of the private sector in developing and implementing infrastructure projects. The agreement for these projects must allocate responsibility for dealing with the risks which may arise to either the government directly, or on behalf of consumers, or to the private sponsor. / This thesis investigates risk allocation in the private provision of infrastructure, particularly in build-own-operate (BOO) and build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) projects. Its primary objective is to identify a framework for efficient risk allocation so that decision makers can assess the efficiency of the risk allocation in past projects and can attempt to increase the efficiency of the risk allocation in future projects. / This thesis defines an efficient situation as one where the risk allocation cannot be varied without the total risk premium for the entire project being increased, and approach based on Pareto optimality. As it is almost impossible to determine the true risk premium charged by parties for risk bearing, risks should be allocated to the party best able to control and manage them. This is explained to mean the party which is best able to control or manage the likelihood of the risk occurring or the size of its consequences if it does occur. It also means the party with the best access to reasonable mitigation techniques and the party which is least risk averse. Those exogenous risks which are not easily allocated in this way should be shared so that both parties, the sponsor and the government, have an incentive to manage them. Some of the options for sharing these risks are examined. / The application of the theory of efficient risk allocation is simplified by using a categorical risk framework. This approach is then tested on seven case studies of recent Australian projects spanning several industry sectors. Finally, the theoretical hypotheses and assumptions are tested in a survey of key participants in the Australian private infrastructure industry. This survey not only confirms that the basic theory for efficient risk allocation is valid but also identifies the key areas of concern to the private sector when it considers project risk allocation. Risks of concern are identified and possible options for risk sharing are investigated. / This thesis concludes that it is possible to achieve efficient risk allocations in practice, and that by achieving this outcome transaction costs can be reduced, allowing cheaper infrastructure services to be supplied to the community. However, several hurdles to achieving this outcome are identified. These include the peculiar characteristics of banks and their position in projects funded using non-recourse project finance, and the fact that most private firms fail to value potential upside risks as highly as they fear potential losses due to downside risks. / More work is needed to understand and overcome these hurdles if efficient risk allocation is to be achieved in the real world. It is only then that governments can be sure that they are providing private sector infrastructure services to the community at the lowest overall cost.

The process of economic innovation in Vietnam since the late 1980s presented its human resources in the private sector with constant challenges in terms of continuous improvement for operating effectiveness and efficiency. The challenges have been met by substantial investment of resources in business and management training. Returns from this training, however, have not received due attention. The study sets out to examine the reality of acquiring and utilising business and management training in local private businesses in Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s economic centre. In doing so, the study is expected to provide a better understanding of the characteristics of business and management training in Vietnam, and how this human resources development activity assists private businesses in a transitional economy. Based on Kirkpatrick’s evaluation framework, findings of the study revealed not only different approaches to business and management training but also the limited effects of the training on the trainees and private companies. Knowledgemania, or training for the sake of pursuing knowledge, was still very prevalent among the group of ‘Oriental’ companies whilst a more practical approach towards training aimed at meeting explicit business objectives was adopted by companies exposed to Western management practices. The research revealed that among the factors facilitating or hindering learning transfer within the case study companies, the ability to manage the training process and cultural values were the most influential. The research study also introduced two refined frameworks for training evaluation, aimed at small family and larger private businesses respectively. These refined frameworks incorporate not only the spirit of simplicity and practicality of Kirkpatrick’s framework but also relevant contextual factors. These frameworks are, therefore, able to serve as evaluation tools to reveal both training outcomes and spot the opportunities to further improve management of training. The experience and process of developing the frameworks gained in this research may assist future researchers when undertaking training evaluation in other business contexts.

For my diploma thesis I chose a private dental office, where I partially work as a financial manager and an accountant. The office is situated in the centre of Prague and is operating since 1993 - thus it is an established and well-performing organisation. The objective of my thesis is to show specifications of strategic management and marketing in the field of dentistry. Afterwards on the bases of my own analysis I will propose a marketing strategy for the private dental office of MUDr. Iva Poláčková.

Důvodem pro zpracování této diplomové práce bylo objasnění hlavních principů řízení rozvojových projektů, vyzvednutí významu spolupráce veřejné správy se soukromým sektorem a uvedení do problematiky realizace projektů v rámci iniciativy Evropského Společenství Interreg III B CADSES a Interreg IIIC, které byly realizovány českými projektovými partnery ve zkráceném programovém období 2004 ? 2006. Na základě provedené analýzy dotazníkového šetření autorkou diplomové práce byla zjištěna zásadní rizika realizace rozvojových projektů v rámci iniciativy ES Interreg III B CADSES a Interreg IIIC.

Bakgrund: Sveriges vård och omsorg har sviktat de senaste åren vilket har gjort att frågan om vilken vårdleverantör en kund ska välja uppmärksammats. Det finns olika faktorer som har en inverkan på kundens val, bland annat förtroende och kvaliteten för tjänsten. Där kommer valet mellan offentlig och privat vård in. Därigenom har frågan om vinst i välfärden lyfts, och vad som egentligen är skillnaden mellan privat och offentlig vård och omsorg. Kvalitetsarbetet blir således det som ger förtroendet för vården. För att kunna utveckla den kvaliteten som kunden efterfrågar behöver ett lärande finnas i verksamheten. Utan lärande kan inte kvalitetsarbetet utvecklas och det sviktande förtroendet för vården återstår. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen ämnar undersöka begreppet kvalitetsarbete och hur privata samt offentliga aktörer inom vård och omsorg arbetar med fenomenet. Studien vill uppnå en ökad förståelse för hur kvalitetsutveckling bedrivs inom olika verksamheter. Studien har för avsikt att jämföra den privata vård- och omsorgssektorn med den offentliga för att få en så stor överblick och insikt i ämnet som möjligt. Teoretisk referensram: Föreliggande studie använder teorier och begrepp som exempelvis new public management, kaizen och lärande organisationer. Kärnbegreppen som studien bygger på är ständiga förbättringar, vilket kommer från kaizen, och organisatorisk lärande. Dessa utgör kvalitetsarbetet i en verksamhet och är därav sammankopplade. Dessa teorier kommer att stöjda studiens undersökning av skillnaderna mellan privat och offentlig verksamhet. Metod: Studien använde en kvalitativ forskningsansats, där semistrukturerade intervjuer utgjorde den huvudsakliga datainsamlingen och kompletterades med en dokumentanalys. Studien undersökte två fallstudieorganisationer, vilket gjorde att en triangulering utfördes. Slutsats: Det studien indikerade var att privata verksamheter känner en stark press för att både leverera till sina aktieägare och till sina kunder, vilket blir en paradox där vinstmaximering och god service möts. Offentliga verksamheter har en automatisk tillgång till brukare vilket gör att de inte känner samma påtryckningar. Generellt indikerade studien att kvalitetsarbetet inom organisationerna var liknande, det som skiljde sig kom framförallt ifrån skillnader inom arbetssätten. Privata verksamheter arbetar mer med att skapa konkurrenskraftiga tjänster, där lärande och konkurrenskraft kan kopplas samman. Det kan i sin tur härledas till att offentliga verksamheter inte känner samma press att arbeta konkurrenskraftigt.