In the current third wave of internationalization companies from mature markets are investing in emerging markets and increase their foreign activities. For this internationalization process, companies need to enter the market with an appropriate entry mode strategy. Prior research focused mainly on MNC entry modes and also on factors as ownership, location or internalization advantages and not on SMEs and transaction cost theory. This thesis deals with the topic of institutions, transaction costs and entry mode decisions of Swedish SMEs in India. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the managerial perceptions about the influence of institutions on the degree of linkage specificity with which the transaction costs will be explored. This will lead to further knowledge about certain entry mode decisions of Swedish SMEs for the Indian market. This was studied with a qualitative research strategy using a multiple case study method. The empirical data was conducted via secondary data and primary data was collected via interviews with the sales responsible of the four case companies Norden Machinery AB, Slipnaxos AB, Håkansson Sågblad AB and Hedin Lagan AB. Main findings of the research were that institutions are perceived differently by the managers and therefore the institutions dissimilarly influenced the perceptions of the transaction costs. Furthermore, the study revealed that some managers decided their entry mode on the base of the perception of the transaction costs and some managers did not consider transaction costs when entering new markets. All in all it can be stated that transaction costs influence the entry mode of companies. The research is limited by the fact that transaction cost theory in general neglects factors as production costs. Managerial implications are that transactions costs should not be neglected as they help to choose a more successful entry mode and that the assets specificity and the behavioral uncertainties need to be taken into account when deciding upon an entry mode. Theory profits from this thesis as it proved that transaction costs influence entry mode decisions and that the linkage specificity is an important factor to include when combining transaction cost theory with entry mode decisions.

This study examines preservice teachers’ knowledge in the case of linear functions. Teachers’ knowledge in general consists of their subject matter knowledge and their pedagogical content knowledge. In this study, teachers’ subject matter knowledge is examined by looking at their ability to adapt to different representation modes. The framework for subject matter content knowledge consists of five components: (1) flexibility across formal mathematical symbolisms; (2) flexibility between visual and algebraic representations; (3) flexibility within visual representations; (4) flexibility with real-life situations, and (5) procedural skills. In terms of pedagogical content knowledge, two aspects were examined across five corresponding components. These two aspects were knowledge of students’ conceptions and misconceptions, and teachers’ teaching strategies. The primary source of data for the study was from two tests and six interviews. The results showed preservice teachers performed poorly in terms of representation flexibility. Furthermore, most of the preservice teachers had limited knowledge of the nature and sources of students’ mistakes as well as effective teaching strategies to help students with their misconceptions. In terms of knowledge structure, representation flexibility was found to be significant in both CK and PCK compared to procedural skills. Moreover, the representational flexibility in terms of CK seemed to strongly predict the overall PCK performance. Representational flexibility seemed to be related to the use of instructional representations. Overall, there was a strong relationship between various components of CK and PCK.

Traffic congestion has become a menace to civilized society. It degrades air quality, jeopardizes safety and causes delay. Traffic congestion can be alleviated by providing an effective traffic control signal system. Closed-loop traffic control systems are an example of such a system. Closed-loop traffic control systems can be operated primarily in either of two modes: Time of Day Mode (TOD) or Traffic Responsive Plan Selection Mode (TRPS). TRPS mode, if properly configured, can easily handle time independent variation in traffic volumes. It can also reduce the effect of timing plan aging. Despite these advantages, TRPS mode is not used as frequently as TOD mode. The reason being a lack of methodologies and formal guidelines for predicting the factors and thresholds associated with TRPS mode. In this research, a new methodology is developed for determining the thresholds and factors associated with the TRPS mode. This methodology, when tested on a closed-loop system in Odem, Texas, produced a classification accuracy of 94%. The classification accuracy can be increased to 98% with a proposed TRPS architecture.

The purpose of this thesis is to find out carrier concentration in nitride semiconductors by micro Raman measurements. We focus on the Raman measurements of two different III-nitride semiconductors doped with Si. First series is narrow band gap InN films with varying carrier concentration (ne). The highest (ne) in this series is 1.9 X 1019 cm-3. The second series is wide band gap GaN films, with highest (ne) of 8.0 X 1019 cm-3.From the room temperature Ramam measurements ,it is observed that the L- LOPCM (lower branch of longitudinal-optical phonon-plasmon coupled modes) depends on the carrier concentration. We focus the further analysis of this result and try to extract the carrier concentration and compare with electrical measurements.

<p>The composite event detection process in different consumption modes has been proven to be difficult to comprehend. It is believed that visualization of this process can make it easier to grasp. In this final year project, a prototype of a visualization tool that visually displays the composite event detection is developed. The prototype uses time graphs to display the composite events and the chronicle consumption mode is used in the detection of the composite events. Animation is used in the prototype when the composite events are visualized, as it is believed that animation can be of help when learning complex algorithms, such as consumption modes. The prototype is then compared with other similar visualization tools. This prototype addresses factors, which have been identified as playing a central role in the visualization of composite events, that other similar visualization tools do not.</p>

Depuis plus d'une vingtaine d'années, les pays en développement ont entrepris des réformes économiques afin de rétablir leurs équilibres commerciaux et budgétaires. Ils ont, par la même occasion, ouvert leurs frontières économiques en faisant baisser les barrières au commerce. Dans certains pays d'Asie du Sud-Est, la mise en place des politiques d'ouverture commerciale a provoqué une hausse des taux de croissance économique. Dans d'autres régions du monde, comme en Afrique Sub-Saharienne ou en Amérique Latine, malgré une légère hausse des taux d'ouverture, la croissance économique n'a pas atteint les niveaux attendus.<br />Dans cette thèse, nous proposons de revenir sur les différents effets de l'ouverture commerciale sur le développement économique. Ainsi, nous distinguons l'ouverture « naturelle » qui est déterminée par la structure économique et l'abondance des ressources naturelles des politiques d'ouverture qui sont purgées de ces variables. Ensuite, nous testons les effets des deux variantes de l'ouverture commerciale sur le développement économique. Les résultats de nos estimations économétriques montrent que la croissance économique est plus élevée pour des pays<br />qui ont mis en place des politiques d'ouverture que pour des pays ouverts grâce à leurs ressources<br />naturelles. L'adoption des politiques d'ouverture semble offrir l'avantage de stimuler une hausse<br />des taux d'investissement et de la productivité des facteurs dans un environnement de concurrence internationale. Par ailleurs, nous testons l'effet interactif entre l'adoption des politiques d'ouverture et l'instauration de la bonne gouvernance du début des années 90 dans bon nombre de pays en développement. Nos résultats nous amènent à conclure que la bonne gouvernance et l'adoption des politiques d'ouverture agissent de façon interactive et sont positivement associés à l'augmentation des revenus, à la réduction des inégalités et à<br />l'amortissement des chocs commerciaux. Nous concluons, en fin de compte, que l'adoption des<br />politiques d'ouverture s'accompagne du développement économique.

Thèse de doctorat : Mathématiques appliquées : Metz : 2009. / Titre provenant de l'écran-titre. Notes bibliogr.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to conduct an international market selection which will result in a suitable choice of market for an SME that is about to place offshore production in an emerging market. A focus during the thesis is directed towards potential risks that may occur and how SMEs can manage these. In order to fulfill this purpose the authors have developed two main research questions:How can an SME use the IMS-framework to select an emerging market for offshore production?How can an SME manage potential risks when placing offshore production in an emerging market?The theoretical framework consists of the description of the international market selection process that is relevant as it is the framework from which the selection of a target market originates. Further, a description of theories on entry modes and risk management is presented in order to provide insight on how SMEs can manage risks when placing production in an emerging market. The empirical chapter consists of interviews from a case company as well as Business Sweden and is structured in accordance to the theoretical chapter.In the analysis the theoretical frameworks are discussed and connected to the empirical findings. In the initial part of the analysis the international market selection is presented and discussed before it culminates in the authors chosen target market. The latter part of the analysis addresses the risk management SMEs is faced with when placing offshore production in an emerging market.The conclusion provides the reader with the chosen target market for the case company. It also shows that SMEs ought to apply a risk averse mindset when placing their production in an emerging market. The authors finally present suggestions for further research regarding SMEs ventures to place production in emerging markets.

This thesis presents audible vibratory mode data obtained by mechanically exciting acoustic modes in mc-Si wafers grown by EFG technique with various levels and distributions of residual stress. Stress maps obtained using scanning infrared polariscopy are presented, illustrating the variation of residual stress.Modal analyses of the wafers are performed using the finite element method and are in remarkably good agreement with the measured frequency response data. The calculated mode shapes were further validated through classic Chladni type patterns.The vibratory data is found to correlate with the residual stress measurements. The data is fit with both linear and quadratic models with correlation coefficients of 0.8. The results reveal a dependence of wafer audible mode frequencies on residual stress level that may be useful for solar cell mechanical quality control and breakage inspection.