<p>This study aims to obtain a better understanding of the development of the kids market. The aim is also to find out the future directions of this market, with a focus on high-end toiletries for children. Furthermore, the authors will highlight important marketing aspects that need to be considered both by companies entering the market, as well as companies already operating on the market. </p><p>The authors already had expectations and general knowledge about the topic, due to its frequent media publicity during recent years, therefore a deductive approach was the most suitable one. Moreover, a qualitative method with open interviews was used in order to obtain a deeper knowledge about the topic. </p><p>The result from the interviews indicates a future growth on the kids market. Companies have to focus a lot on the kids in the future in order to avoid a revenue decline in this particular customer segment.</p>

This study aims to obtain a better understanding of the development of the kids market. The aim is also to find out the future directions of this market, with a focus on high-end toiletries for children. Furthermore, the authors will highlight important marketing aspects that need to be considered both by companies entering the market, as well as companies already operating on the market. The authors already had expectations and general knowledge about the topic, due to its frequent media publicity during recent years, therefore a deductive approach was the most suitable one. Moreover, a qualitative method with open interviews was used in order to obtain a deeper knowledge about the topic. The result from the interviews indicates a future growth on the kids market. Companies have to focus a lot on the kids in the future in order to avoid a revenue decline in this particular customer segment.

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Thesis (M.M. (ICT Policy and Regulation))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development, 2013. / This research study investigates challenges affecting the supply and demand side factors of the broadband ecosystem that hinder the market development of broadband in rural areas in South Africa and how policy and regulation has affected the evolution of the broadband ecosystem in rural areas. Although the elements of the broadband ecosystem are strong and well placed in urban areas, not all elements of the broadband ecosystem in rural areas are in place and equally strong. The relative strengths and weaknesses of the different elements of the broadband ecosystem in rural areas are unknown and demand and supply side factors are not understood. Hence the broadband policy may not be based on a full understanding of the complex ecosystem. The study points to a classic case of market failure that exists in rural areas in relation to the broadband market development. The study identifies that a governance framework, investment management framework, universal access funding model, sufficient frequency spectrum resources, policies and regulation that specifically address the development of the broadband market in rural areas are lacking. Although the barriers and gaps identified in this study are known to the industry this research study goes further to corroborate from an academic research perspective the existence of these barriers that are affecting the broadband market development of rural areas.

This paper explores the relationship between stock market development and economic growth in Africa. It provides a theoretical basis for establishing the channel through which stock market affect economic growth and this is empirically examined by using regression analysis to test if indeed there is such a relationship. Three stock market indicators, namely market capitalization as a percentage of GDP, turnover ratio and numbers of listed shares, are used to test whether they have any impact on economic growth, together with other explanatory variables of growth such as foreign direct investment, inflation and credit. The study uses data on four countries: Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa for the period 1991-2010. Furthermore, the study investigated whether a collaborative regional cross-listing will improve the stock market development of the country of secondary listing. Dummy variables and interactive variables are used in regressions to test for collaborative relationships between the exchanges in the region. The results show that indeed there is an association between stock market development and economic growth. Results also show that cross-listing within a region can boost stock market development, which in turn boosts economic growth. Africa does not have a lot of cross-listings but from this paper, the evidence suggests that it is a path worth exploring.

This thesis analyzes the challenges associated with the countries in socioeconomic and political transition when on the path of integrating into the developed world unions or on the path of fulfilling projected renewable energy targets. As an example country, or as a study case here, The Republic of Serbia has been selected. The thesis addresses the question of how the Renewable Energy Market in Serbia is developing and how are the challenges being addressed. Thesis reveals that main obstacles come from the ownership of the energy and the power gird assets which are still entirely owned and controlled by the State. Due to this fact it is hard to introduce the planned renewable projects, mostly to be developed and owned by foreign entities, and at the same time to be forced to reduce domestic power production out of the thermal power plants. However, by being on the path to the EU, the renewable energy targets and the RES (Renewable Energy Sources) market have to be accomplished and the government has to show full legislative and policy support. It is also realized that there is a significant discrepancy between the "say and do" in the case of The Republic of Serbia, at least so far. The thesis highlights the important driving factors that, despite of the local resistance and sluggishness,...

This study profiles demographic and sociographic characteristics as well as media habits of heavy, moderate, light, and nondonors to volunteer dependent organizations. Insights gained will help administrators design appropriate courses of action. This becomes very important at a time when volunteer organizations face stiff challenges in attracting donors.

The performance of own-label brands varies enormously across countries, with high penetration in Western countries but limited success in Eastern countries. The common explanations for this state are related to market factors such as the development of big retailer chains or the power balance between retailers and manufacturers. However, the role of culture has been overlooked to explain this situation. This study aims to provide insights into the impact of culture on own-label brands performance. This thesis formulates and tests a conceptual framework linking Hofstede s (1980, 2001) five cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance & long-term orientation) to retail market development (size of the retail market) and own-label brands performance, controlling for three socio-economic variables: GDP per capita, Gini index and Government expenditure. Relevant literature is reviewed in order to develop hypotheses. The conceptual model is then tested upon a sample of 65 countries, utilising data collected via secondary sources and the application of structural equation modelling techniques. The results of this study indicate that three out of five Hofstede s cultural dimensions, power distance, individualism and uncertainty avoidance, have a significant impact on retail market development, which in turn, significantly influences own-label brands performance. Moreover, results show that individualism and long-term orientation have a significant direct impact on own-label brands performance. Past studies on this domain are restricted to one or two cultural dimensions and generally involve a limited number of countries. This research therefore pioneers in investigating the five national cultural dimensions across a high number of nations. The findings are important for retailers and may help them to adapt their own-label strategy according to the culture of the nation they are operating in.

In the first chapter, we analyze the role of market development, risk premium, and transparency as factors influencing the value of cash in firms listed as American Depository Receipts. Based on the method by Pinkowitz and Williamson (2002), our primary results are as follows. The market value of cash is greater on average for ADR firms than for U.S. firms, and within the ADR sample the value of cash is greater for firms based in less developed countries after 2007 financial crisis but not before. Together, the results suggest that the market development is especially important during more volatile periods. Further, the value of cash is negatively associated with the market risk premium. In addition, the relation between insider trading law execution and the value of cash is statistically insignificant for all periods, but corporate-level transparency as measured by the number of analysts is weakly negatively related to ADR firms’ cash value before 2007 after controlling for the fixed effects. The second chapter attempts to assess the relative importance of superior information and hedging in institutional trading in equity index futures in the Taiwan Futures market for the sample period of January to June 2012. Based on the methodology by Llorente, Michaely, Saar, and Wang (2002), we find that, for the market as a whole, significant informed trading or hedging frequently occur, and the opening minutes tend to be associated with a greater portion of trading motivated by hedging. More important to our purpose, for foreign institutions the absolute value of institutional order imbalance tends to be greater on days when the overall market’s informed trading is greater in the cases of regular contract on Taiwan composite index futures and electronic index futures, but for the dealer and domestic fund groups trading is not correlated with the overall market’s informed trading or hedging. An additional analysis of the relation between past institution trades and current returns provides some evidence implying institutions are informed, but the evidence can also be interpreted as their trades, which account for more than half of the overall trading, having an impact on subsequent trades.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-09-15T12:52:24Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Renan Carvalho Cruz_.pdf: 1400581 bytes, checksum: 16d1afcd923785540fd7a91caa95a865 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-15T12:52:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Renan Carvalho Cruz_.pdf: 1400581 bytes, checksum: 16d1afcd923785540fd7a91caa95a865 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-31 / Nenhuma / O presente trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de entender o desenvolvimento do mercado das microcervejarias em Porto Alegre. Apesar de hoje observar-se diversas microcervejarias, bares de cervejas artesanais e eventos que promovem essa cultura por toda cidade, os acontecimentos e agentes responsáveis por conduzir esse mercado até o presente momento não estavam claros. Este trabalho se propôs a identificar estes marcos e atores possibilitando uma análise sobre o desenvolvimento desse mercado através das lentes da CCT. Essa corrente teórica foi escolhida por propiciar uma investigação sobre a formação de mercados enquanto uma construção social, dando ênfase não somente às ações das empresas e sim a todos os atores que contribuíram ativamente para a emergência desse mercado. Esse posicionamento teórico tem ganhado cada vez mais força pois observamos o surgimento de diversos trabalhos que fazem uso da CCT em conjunto com outros instrumentos advindos das teorias sociais, como a legitimação, cooptação, comoditização e teoria ator-rede. Este estudo se beneficiou das propostas de análise de mercado de Martin e Schouten (2014), pois segundo os autores um mercado é um movimento que pode ter sua origem influenciada pelas ações de uma empresa ou pelos consumidores e práticas de consumo. Essa ótica foi escolhida pois desde o início da pesquisa acreditou-se que o mercado em questão era um movimento impulsionado pelos cervejeiros caseiros. A pesquisa mostrou que o mercado das cervejas artesanais na cidade de Porto Alegre tem sua origem em meados da década de 90, período em que ocorreu o surgimento da primeira microcervejaria do Brasil na capital gaúcha e também o aparecimento dos primeiros fornecedores de insumos do país. O início da constituição dos alicerces que sustentaram o crescimento desse mercado tem uma forte influência de grandes empresas, o que foi constatado através de dados obtidos que ilustram seus interesses no potencial do nosso mercado anos antes do início do seu crescimento acentuado. Mas foi apenas quando ocorreu a união dos cervejeiros caseiros que o mercado começou a ser estabelecido devido ao surgimento de entidades como a Acerva Gaúcha e a AGM que suportam as práticas e interesses dessa comunidade. Durante a exposição dos resultados, fica clara a maior quantidade de evidências de um movimento de emergência de mercado direcionado por consumidores e suas comunidades em detrimento a um processo conduzido pelas empresas. Diferente dos estudos que fundamentaram a teoria deste trabalho, conseguiu-se mostrar que mesmo mercados conduzidos por consumidores podem ter grande influência de empresas e que essa dinâmica pode ocorrer de forma pacífica. / This study intends to understand the development of microbreweries market in Porto Alegre. Although today we can easily observe several microbreweries, craft beers bars and events that promotes this culture all over the city, the milestones and agents responsible for conducting this market until the present scenario was not clear. This study aimed to identify these milestones and actors enabling an analysis of the development of this market through the lens of CCT. This theoretical stream was chosen to enable an investigation about market emergence as a social construction, emphasizing not only the actions of firms but all stakeholders that actively contributed to the emergence of this market. This theoretical position has obtained an increasing strength as we observe the emergence of several works that make use of CCT in conjunction with other instruments that arose from social theories such as legitimation, cooptation, commoditization and actor-network theory. This study benefited from the proposals of Martin and Schouten (2014) market analysis, according to them a market is a movement that may have its origin influenced by the actions of the firms or by consumers and consumption practices. This perspective was chosen because since the beginning of this research it was believed that the selected market was a movement driven by home brewers. The research has shown that the craft beers market in the city of Porto Alegre has its origin in the mid-90s, a period which had the emergence of the first microbrewery of Brazil in the capital of Rio Grande do Sul and also the appearance of the first supplier of brewers inputs. The beginning of the establishment of the foundations that supported the growth of this market had a great influence of large firms, this was found through obtained data that illustrates a large foreign interest in the potential of our market many years before we had the emergence of more microbreweries and all other actors who are part of the community of craft beers. But it was only when the union of homemade brewers occurred that the market began to be established through the emergence of entities such as Acerva Gaúcha and AGM that supports the practices and interests of this community. During the exhibition of the results became clear the greatest amount of evidences of a market emergence driven by consumers and their communities over a market development driven by firms. Unlike the studies that supported the theoretical foundation of this work, we demonstrated that even markets led by consumption can have a great influence of firms and these dynamics can occur peacefully.