Title: How Do Social Enterprises Access Funding? RAPATAC In Gävle Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Authors: Peiying Kuang and Zhonglv Song Supervisor: Dr. Maria Fregidou-Malama Examiner: Jonas Kågström  Date: 2013 May Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence social enterprises to access funding. Method: This study has chosen a social enterprise as a single case study. We design the questions and collect the data based on five assessment factors from both the social enterprise and funders’ perspective. We use interview and questionnaires to investigate whether these five assessment factors influence funders’ decision.      Result and Conclusions: In our study, we found that five assessment factors could influence the funders’ decision. Social mission and the qualities of the leader are crucial factors influencing funding decisions. The performance of SE, financing sustainability and communication transparence influence social enterprise to maintain a long-term relationship with funders.  Suggestion for further studies: This investigation based on a single case study in Gavle, and we have collected data from a limited number of responders. Thus, we suggest using multiple case studies and collecting data from more responders. The further study should not be limited to one city. Contribution of the thesis: Our theoretical contribution is providing a model to complete theory. This model includes five factors which affecting funding of social enterprise. In managerial aspect, both current and potential social entrepreneurs can refer to these five assessment factors to improve their competence to attract funders. For the societal implication, this study shows the value and challenge of social enterprise to people and government, which enhance the public recognition of the social enterprise. Key words: Funders, social mission, qualities of leader, performance of SE, financing sustainability, communication transparence.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Cette thèse propose d'analyser via l'utilisation de données microéconomiques les canaux spécifiques à travers lesquels la transparence serait susceptible de promouvoir la croissance des firmes appréhendée par l'effort d'Investissement et d'alléger leurs contraintes de financement. Ce travail se donne un double objectif. Il s'agit d'abord, de construire deux scores de transparence microéconomique et macroéconomique à travers une analyse discriminante multiple portant sur un échantillon de 64 pays entre 1997 et 2009, mettant également en évidence les facteurs les plus influents sur les deux types de transparence. Ensuite, l'intégration des scores de transparence dans un modèle d'investissement basé sur l'équation d'Euler permet d'évaluer les effets respectifs des deux types de transparence sur les contraintes de financement et sur le niveau de l'investissement réel. Cette étude, portant sur un échantillon de 5652 firmes entre 2005 et 2009, fait ressortir une hiérarchisation des effets des deux types de transparence. Ces effets sont aussi plus importants pour les firmes des pays émergents. Notre étude suggère également que la transparence microéconomique et la transparence macroéconomique allègent plus les contraintes financières des firmes les moins endettées et stimulent plus l'investissement des firmes les plus endettées. Il ressort de cette recherche que les petites firmes sont plus à même de tirer profit des avantages des deux types de transparence. L'étude met en relief une non-linéarité de l'effet de la transparence microéconomique sur l'investissement et des effets de la transparence macroéconomique sur les contraintes de financement et l'investissement des firmes.

Facilitar o gerenciamento e o acesso a sistemas de alto desempenho vem sendo uma área de pesquisa explorada nos últimos anos. Isto acontece uma vez que se verifica o aumento do número de usuários, muitos pertencentes a outras áreas, como por exemplo, biologia, geologia, hidrologia, etc e, desta forma, é preciso facilitar os meios de interação destes usuários com tais sistemas, assim como melhorar as técnicas de gerenciamento dos mesmos. Além do aumento do número e da multidisciplinaridade desses usuários, existe também o fato de que grande parte deles tem acesso a diferentes tipos de sistemas de alto desempenho. Em geral, estes sistemas possuem ferramentas não padronizadas, sendo que cada uma apresenta uma interface e um conjunto de ações e comandos a serem realizados para que possam dispor de suas funcionalidades. Este trabalho propõe a definição de uma arquitetura de gerenciamento e acesso a múltiplos clusters, que seja capaz de ser facilmente extensível, transparente, interoperável e de fácil utilização configuração e manutenção. Como resultado da arquitetura proposta, foi desenvolvido um protótipo, denominado ICE - Integrated Cluster Environment. Os principais objetivos da arquitetura e do ambiente ICE são: (i) capacidade de uniformização do modo como as ferramentas de clusters são utilizadas e, também, uniformização na maneira como os clusters são acessados; (ii) transparência na forma de acesso e uso dos clusters; e (iii) capacidade de extensibilidade em dois níveis: o primeiro refere-se á extensibilidade do número de funcionalidades (serviços) providos pelo sistema e o segundo está relacionado á capacidade do sistema lidar com o uso de diferentes ferramentas que possuem a mesma funcionalidade. Além da descrição da arquitetura e do protótipo, neste trabalho, também é realizada uma avaliação do ambiente ICE. Essa avaliação foi dividida em dois momentos. O primeiro traz a comparação das características do ambiente proposto com algumas ferramentas relacionadas. No segundo momento são apresentados alguns experimentos que visam identificar o overhead inserido pelo ambiente ICE na execução das operaçõess do módulo de gerenciamento de aplicações, desenvolvido e descrito neste trabalho. / Some researches have been done over the last years in order to improve the management and access of high performance systems. One of the motivations of these researches is the continuously increase in the number of users who, not rarely, belong to other areas, such as biology, geology, hydrology, etc; so it is necessary to provide some access and also management facilities in these kinds of systems. Furthermore, the users also have access to different kinds of high performance systems, and they have to deal with distinct tools of their underlying, which are not standardize. Therefore, the users need to learn the specificities of each tool in each high performace system that they have permission to access. Aiming to solve this problem, this work proposes an architecture to provide access and management of multiple clusters with extensibility, transparance, interoperability, user-friendly, manageability and maintainability. As a result of the proposed architecture, a prototype called ICE - Integrated Cluster Environment - was developed. The main goals of the architecture and the ICE environment are: (i) the capability of uniforming the manner the cluster tools are used and accessed; (ii) cluster access and transparence use; and (iii) two extensibility levels: the first one refers to capability of extending the number of functionalities/services provided by the environment and the second one concerns to the capability of extending the number of tools, with the same functionality, the system is able to manage. Beyond the architecture and prototype description, this research presents the evaluation of ICE environment, which is divided in two parts. The first one brings the comparison of the features between ICE and some related work. The second part shows some experiments that intend to verify the overhead inserted by ICE environment when performing the tasks of the job management module, also developed and explained in this work.

FREIRE, Geovana Maria Cartaxo de Arruda; ROVER, Aires José. Ciberdemocracia no judiciário: uso de mapas como política de virtualização. 2014. 351f. Tese (Doutorado em Direito) - Centro de Ciências Jurídicas, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 2014 / Submitted by Nirlange Queiroz (nirlange@gmail.com) on 2017-10-05T19:18:09Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_tese_gmcafreire.pdf: 22085805 bytes, checksum: dbad85392744530ab7194e4cad56cb04 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Nirlange Queiroz (nirlange@gmail.com) on 2017-10-05T19:18:31Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_tese_gmcafreire.pdf: 22085805 bytes, checksum: dbad85392744530ab7194e4cad56cb04 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-10-05T19:18:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2014_tese_gmcafreire.pdf: 22085805 bytes, checksum: dbad85392744530ab7194e4cad56cb04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / This research aims to investigate how the use of new technologies may foster the renewal of judicial practices and democratic management of the Justice System. The analysis of the Reform of the Justice System, having as miestone the Constitutional Amendment (CA) 45/2004 and the creation of the National Council of Justice (NCJ), a department which was characterized as a turning point in the Judicial System and changed the scope of operation and structure of the Judiciary, assessing the main public policy undertaken by NCJ: virtualization of the Judiciary Power. The importance of this research is based on the reflection of the role of the Judiciary and its technological changes from the need of new concepts, principles and a new legal set of actions by using collaborative maps plataforms as a framework for public policy development and support decision. Due to the impacts in doing and thinking jurisdiction, within society, this research formulates a proposal to expand access and democratization of Justice given through the use of maps and new technologies. The main hypothesis of this thesis is the use of maps as a public policy that virtualization can deepen their democratizing power by gathering collective intelligence and giving platform for collaboration and interaction making a more democratic and less bureaucratic judiciary set of actions. The use of maps is a process that approximates the theory and renews democracy the judiciary due to the inserted cyberdemocracy increment, reconfiguring a theory of egovernance and the Judicial cyberdemocracy. The study uses quantitative and qualitative methodologies that seek to assess and measure the public policy of the virtual governance, structured, closed and semi-structured questionnaires. The use of the set and techniques intended to identify from multiple dimensions of the research object elements that reveal regularities and certainties. / A presente pesquisa visa investigar como o uso das novas tecnologias pode engendrar a renovação das práticas judiciais e uma gestão democrática do Sistema de Justiça. A análise parte da Reforma do Sistema de Justiça, tendo como marco a Emenda Constitucional (EC) 45/2004 e a criação do Conselho Nacional de Justiça (CNJ), órgão que se caracterizou como um ponto de mutação no sistema judicial e mudou o âmbito de atuação e estrutura do Judiciário, avaliando a principal política pública empreendida pelo CNJ: a virtualização do Judiciário. A importância da presente pesquisa se funda na reflexão do papel da magistratura e em suas mudanças tecnológicas a partir da necessidade de novos conceitos, princípios e de um novo fazer jurídico pelo uso de plataformas de mapas colaborativos como estrutura para elaboração de políticas públicas e apoio à decisão. Devido aos impactos no fazer e pensar a jurisdição, no âmbito da sociedade, a pesquisa formula uma proposta para ampliação do acesso e democratização da Justiça por meio do uso de mapas e das novas tecnologias. A principal hipótese desta tese consiste no uso de mapas como uma política pública de virtualização que poderá aprofundar seu poder democratizador por reunir a inteligência coletiva e conferir plataforma para colaboração e interação embasadoras de um fazer judiciário mais democrático e menos burocrático. Consiste, ainda, num processo que aproxima e renova a teoria da democracia do Judiciário, devido ao incremento inserido pela ciberdemocracia, reconfigurando uma teoria de governança eletrônica do Judiciário e da ciberdemocracia. O trabalho utiliza metodologias quantitativas e qualitativas que buscam aferir e mensurar as políticas públicas da governança virtual, com questionários estruturados, fechados e questionários semi estruturados. O uso do conjunto e técnicas utilizadas pretendeu identificar a partir de múltiplas dimensões do objeto de pesquisa os elementos que revelassem regularidades e constâncias.

La présente thèse étudie l'interaction entre structure et agence dans le contexte d'une institutionnalisation sur plusieurs niveaux. Les institutions interagissent de manière complexe sur le terrain et aux niveaux national et transnational. Cette dynamique complexe conditionne tant les interprétations et les convictions générées par les acteurs que leur mobilisation du sens pour mettre en pratique interprétations et convictions en pratique dans le cas d'exigences multiples. Les deux études empiriques l'étudient de manière détaillée.La première porte sur le rôle joué par les institutions nationales dans la réglementation transnationale des fonds souverains ; la seconde, sur le rôle des acteurs et des institutions dans l'évolution des cadres d'interprétation appliqués aux investissements socialement responsables. Ces deux études se basent sur des méthodes de recherche qualitative qui s'appuient sur différentes sources de données, dont l'observation de participants, des entretiens plus de nombreuses sources documentaires et sources secondaires. Ces études ont donné lieu à trois articles de recherche, deux empiriques et un conceptuel. Les deux articles empiriques, Fonds souverains, fonds monétaire international et transparence et Du dieu aux marchés, répondent à des questions théoriques sur le rôle des acteurs et des institutions aux différents niveaux du champ, la société et l’espace transnational dans la constitution interprétative et sémantique. Ces deux articles font référence à d'autres cadres théoriques et les enrichissent en retour, notamment dans les domaines de la transparence, de l'étude interprétative de la comptabilité, de la gouvernance transnationale, des mouvements sociaux et du droit mou. Le troisième article, La responsabilité sociale des entreprises et le « karma du marché », propose un cadre conceptuel pour les mécanismes supposés traduire le comportement social des entreprises en performances financières. Cela introduit différentes caractéristiques relatives à l'entreprise ainsi que des facteurs institutionnels impactant ce lien. La thèse dans son ensemble éclaire la façon dont des institutions en compétition conditionnent le comportement des acteurs et comment ces derniers se mobilisent de manière sélective des cadres et apports sémantiques des institutions. / This dissertation explores the interaction between structure and agency in the context of multi-level institutionalization. Institutions interplay in complex ways across the field, national and transnational levels. Those complex dynamics condition both the interpretations and convictions that actors produce and the ways they mobilize meanings in order to “enact” their interpretations and convictions under competing demands. These dynamics are explored in-depth through two empirical studies. The first looks at the role national institutions play in the transnational regulation of sovereign wealth funds. The second examines the role of actors and institutions in evolution of frames used for socially responsible investments.Both the empirical studies utilize qualitative research methods drawing upon multiple sources of data including participant observation, interviews and a wide range of documentary evidence and secondary material. These studies yielded three research papers, two of which are empirical and the third one is conceptual. The two empirical papers named respectively “Sovereign wealth funds, the IMF and transparency” and “From God to markets” attempt to answer theoretical questions around the role of institutions at multiple levels of transnational, national and field, and actors in constitution of interpretations and meanings. In addition, these papers mobilize and contribute to other theoretical frameworks including transparency, interpretive accounting, transnational governance, social movements and soft laws. The third paper named “social responsibility and karma of market”, provides a conceptual framework for all the mechanisms claimed to translate the social behavior of firms to financial performance. It then sets out the firm attributes and institutional factors at multiple levels that mediate this link. Overall, this dissertation attempts to provide a better understanding of how competing institutions at different levels condition the actors’ behavior and how actors selectively mobilize and edit the institutional frames and meanings.

La révolution numérique se fait dans un climat de défiance latente des clients et des citoyens envers les pratiques digitales (collecte et exploitation de données, etc.). Nombre de responsables appellent de leurs vœux à davantage de transparence afin de sortir de la crise de confiance actuelle. Mais ce principe de transparence serait-il suffisant pour restaurer la confiance dans l’environnement digital ? La question de la transparence se pose aujourd’hui de manière prégnante en raison des risques de dérive et de manipulation des clients, mais elle se pose aussi de manière différente, tant les modes d’échange et de communication sont maintenant multiformes, multidirectionnels et instantanés. Cette recherche explique le rôle de la transparence perçue des pratiques digitales dans l’appréhension de la relation client. Une étude qualitative exploratoire sur deux échantillons (16 clients et 12 managers) a permis de valider la multi-dimensionnalité de la transparence perçue (objectivité, limpidité, ouverture) des pratiques digitales. Une étude quantitative en ligne (panel ad hoc de 445 répondants) réalisée sur les perceptions des clients d’Amazon, un pure player de l’e-commerce, leader dans le domaine et pionnier dans l’exploitation massive des données (moteurs de recommandations, customisation, etc.), a quant à elle permis de 1) développer une échelle de mesure de la transparence perçue, 2) comprendre en quoi la transformation digitale des clients avait un rôle dans la perception de la transparence et 3) évaluer l’impact des différentes facettes du concept sur le renforcement ou la dégradation des relations avec les entreprises (confiance et engagement). Une étude post-enquête qualitative a finalement été menée afin de discuter avec les managers des implications de ce travail doctoral. / The digital revolution is taking place in a climate of distrust. Consumers and citizens often have a negative judment of digital practices (collection and data exploitation, etc.). Officials are calling for more transparency to surpass the current trust crisis. But will this principle of transparency be enough to restore trust in the digital environment? The question of transparency arises significantly today because of the risks of customer drift and manipulation. It also arises because of the changing communication modes which are now multiform, multidirectional and instantaneous. This research explains the role of perceived transparency of digital practices in the way we apprehend the customer relationship. A qualitative exploratory study on two samples validated the multi-dimensionality of the perceived transparency construct (objectivity, clarity, openness) using the perceptions of 16 consumers and 12 managers. An online quantitative study (ad hoc panel of 445 respondents) conducted on the perceptions of Amazon customers, an e-commerce pure player, leader in the field and pioneer in the massive exploitation of data (recommendation engines , customization, etc.), has helped to 1) develop a measurement scale of perceived transparency, 2) understand how the customers’ digital transformation had a role in the perception of transparency and 3) determine the influence of perceived transparency’s dimensions on trust building and commitment. A qualitative post-survey study was finally conducted to discuss with managers the implications of this doctoral research.

La corruption affecte tous les secteurs de la vie de la société, aussi bien le secteur public, le secteur privé que le secteur politique. Compte tenu de la spécificité de chacun de ces domaines, elle acquiert ses caractéristiques et prend différentes formes (publique, privée et politique). La transparence, couplée à la responsabilisation "accountability"), agit en tant qu'instrument de prévention ainsi que de répression de la corruption, en exposant les actes des agents au public et en mettant en évidence les faits de corruption. La transparence, de cette manière, poursuit la corruption partout où elle existe indépendamment de sa forme. Ainsi, dans la lutte contre la corruption, en agissant comme une antithèse, elle joue le rôle de l'«antiforme» de la corruption, sa forme s'adaptant aux différentes formes de corruption qu'elle combat. Pourtant, la transparence n'est pas une solution miracle et a un rôle spécifique et limité dans la lutte contre la corruption. Elle doit être complétée par des mesures comme l'incrimination, le contrôle externe et interne, la prévention des conflits d'intérêt etc. Le Conseil de l'Europe, l'institution dont le but est la promotion de la démocratie, considère également la transparence comme un élément crucial de la prévention et de la lutte contre la corruption. Pourtant, ni le Conseil, ni aucune autre organisation internationale, ne détermine les critères de la transparence. Il existe même une confusion entre la notion de transparence et d'autres notions voisines. Toutefois, le Conseil a pu imposer aux États membres certaines mesures qui, sans être désignées expressément comme telles, relèvent de la transparence; ces mesures ont été exigées de manière spontanée, et formulées au cas par cas selon la nécessité des États. Pour déterminer l'étendue des actions du Conseil, il était nécessaire de définir non seulement les formes, mais également le contenu de la transparence. Ses trois composantes sont l'accessibilité, la communication et l'ouverture. Les actions du Conseil ne sont pas développées de la même manière concernant tous les domaines de la transparence. Si elles sont développées en matière politique et peu nombreuses en matière privée, les réglementations restent partielles et sont toujours en phase d'évolution concernant les volets administratif, judiciaire ou législatif. Les actions du Conseil ne couvrent pas non plus la totalité des actes de la transparence. Si elles sont plus développées en ce qui concerne l'accessibilité, la sensibilisation ou le signalement, elles restent en phase d'évolution concernant la communication et l'ouverture. Certaines des lacunes découlent de la spécificité de la mission du Conseil de l'Europe qui, ayant pour but la promotion de la démocratie, est avant tout une organisation politique. Dans les cas où le Conseil de l'Europe a fixé des exigences pour la transparence, il a mis en place des mécanismes de suivi par le biais de son institution spécialisée - le GRECO - pour s'assurer de la bonne mise en œuvre de ces exigences. La pratique du GRECO a eu un impact considérable sur le renforcement et l'harmonisation des législations nationales. Toutefois, elle s'est trouvée limitée par l'approche pratique de cette institution ainsi que par les réticences des États dans la mise en œuvre de ses recommandations. / Corruption affects all the sectors of society, both the public, private and the political sectors, Given the specificity of each of these areas, it acquires its characteristics and takes different forms (public, private and political). Transparency, coupled with accountability, acts as a means of prevention and repression of corruption. Transparency in this way pursues corruption wherever it exists independently of its form. Acting as an antithesis, it plays the role of "antiform" of corruption, its shape adapting to different forms of corruption that it fights. However. transparency is not a miracle solution and has a specific and limited role in the fight against corruption. It must be complemented by measures such as criminalization, external and internal control, prevention of conflicts of interest etc. The Council of Europe, the institution whose purpose is to promote democracy, considers also transparency as a crucial element in the prevention and the fight against corruption. However, neither the Council nor any other international organization, determines determines the criteria of transparency. There is even confusion between the notion of transparency and other related concepts. However, the Council could impose measures on Member States which, without being specifically designated as such, are the transparency measures; these measures were required in a spontaneous manner. and made on a case by case basis according to the need of States. To determine the extent of the Council's actions, it was necessary to define not only the forms but also the content of the transparency, Its three components are accessibility, communication and openness. Council's actions are not developed in the same way in all the areas of transparency. For cases where the Council of Europe set requirements for transparency, it put in place mechanisms to monitor through its specialized agency - GRECO - to ensure the proper implementation of these requirements. GRECO's practice had a significant impact on the strengthening and harmonization of national legislations. However. it has been limited by the practical approach of this institution as well as the reluctance of States in the implementation of its recommendations.

Facilitar o gerenciamento e o acesso a sistemas de alto desempenho vem sendo uma área de pesquisa explorada nos últimos anos. Isto acontece uma vez que se verifica o aumento do número de usuários, muitos pertencentes a outras áreas, como por exemplo, biologia, geologia, hidrologia, etc e, desta forma, é preciso facilitar os meios de interação destes usuários com tais sistemas, assim como melhorar as técnicas de gerenciamento dos mesmos. Além do aumento do número e da multidisciplinaridade desses usuários, existe também o fato de que grande parte deles tem acesso a diferentes tipos de sistemas de alto desempenho. Em geral, estes sistemas possuem ferramentas não padronizadas, sendo que cada uma apresenta uma interface e um conjunto de ações e comandos a serem realizados para que possam dispor de suas funcionalidades. Este trabalho propõe a definição de uma arquitetura de gerenciamento e acesso a múltiplos clusters, que seja capaz de ser facilmente extensível, transparente, interoperável e de fácil utilização configuração e manutenção. Como resultado da arquitetura proposta, foi desenvolvido um protótipo, denominado ICE - Integrated Cluster Environment. Os principais objetivos da arquitetura e do ambiente ICE são: (i) capacidade de uniformização do modo como as ferramentas de clusters são utilizadas e, também, uniformização na maneira como os clusters são acessados; (ii) transparência na forma de acesso e uso dos clusters; e (iii) capacidade de extensibilidade em dois níveis: o primeiro refere-se á extensibilidade do número de funcionalidades (serviços) providos pelo sistema e o segundo está relacionado á capacidade do sistema lidar com o uso de diferentes ferramentas que possuem a mesma funcionalidade. Além da descrição da arquitetura e do protótipo, neste trabalho, também é realizada uma avaliação do ambiente ICE. Essa avaliação foi dividida em dois momentos. O primeiro traz a comparação das características do ambiente proposto com algumas ferramentas relacionadas. No segundo momento são apresentados alguns experimentos que visam identificar o overhead inserido pelo ambiente ICE na execução das operaçõess do módulo de gerenciamento de aplicações, desenvolvido e descrito neste trabalho. / Some researches have been done over the last years in order to improve the management and access of high performance systems. One of the motivations of these researches is the continuously increase in the number of users who, not rarely, belong to other areas, such as biology, geology, hydrology, etc; so it is necessary to provide some access and also management facilities in these kinds of systems. Furthermore, the users also have access to different kinds of high performance systems, and they have to deal with distinct tools of their underlying, which are not standardize. Therefore, the users need to learn the specificities of each tool in each high performace system that they have permission to access. Aiming to solve this problem, this work proposes an architecture to provide access and management of multiple clusters with extensibility, transparance, interoperability, user-friendly, manageability and maintainability. As a result of the proposed architecture, a prototype called ICE - Integrated Cluster Environment - was developed. The main goals of the architecture and the ICE environment are: (i) the capability of uniforming the manner the cluster tools are used and accessed; (ii) cluster access and transparence use; and (iii) two extensibility levels: the first one refers to capability of extending the number of functionalities/services provided by the environment and the second one concerns to the capability of extending the number of tools, with the same functionality, the system is able to manage. Beyond the architecture and prototype description, this research presents the evaluation of ICE environment, which is divided in two parts. The first one brings the comparison of the features between ICE and some related work. The second part shows some experiments that intend to verify the overhead inserted by ICE environment when performing the tasks of the job management module, also developed and explained in this work.

Les exosquelettes sont des robots mobiles assistant les humains de multiples façons, que ce soit pour la réadaptation, l’augmentation de la force ou la réduction du coût métabolique. Plusieurs exosquelettes sont maintenant commercialisés et utilisés dans des domaines militaires, médicaux et industriels. Ces dispositifs doivent interagir avec l’humain, et donc posséder un haut niveau de transparence mécanique qui est atteint ultimement lorsque les mouvements humains ne sont pas affectés par le robot. Cette aptitude constitue en fait le plus grand défi de conception d’un exosquelette. Les deux caractéristiques qui définissent une bonne transparence sont une bande passante élevée et une bonne réversibilité du mécanisme. Pour atteindre ces deux critères, le système de distribution de puissance, constitué de l’actionnement et de la transmission, doit être léger, doit posséder peu d’inertie reflétée et peu de friction. Les systèmes de distribution de puissance utilisés actuellement dans les exosquelettes comportent par contre un compromis fondamental entre une bonne densité de force et un bon niveau de transparence; en général, les exosquelettes forts ne sont pas transparents, et vice-versa. Certaines applications requièrent par contre à la fois force et transparence, un exosquelette pour la course en est un bon exemple. Dans le but de pallier cette problématique, ce mémoire présente le développement et la caractérisation d’un système de distribution de puissance possédant une bonne densité de force ainsi qu’un bon niveau de transparence. Ce système est composé d’embrayages magnétorhéologiques (MR) couplés à une transmission hydrostatique comportant des cylindres à membranes déroulantes. Les embrayages MR possèdent une bonne bande passante (>50 Hz), une bonne densité de force et peu d’inertie reflétée. Couplée aux embrayages MR, la transmission hydrostatique est très rigide, possède peu de friction ainsi qu’une faible inertie. La transparence a été évaluée expérimentalement et à l’aide d’un modèle analytique et numérique. Les résultats obtenus démontrent que le système est à la fois fort et transparent, ce qui lui confère un haut potentiel d’être employé dans les exosquelettes. Les essais expérimentaux ont été effectués sur une interface haptique à un degré de liberté prenant la forme d’un joystick. Les résultats démontrent une bonne transparence du système avec une bande passante supérieure à 40 Hz et des niveaux des forces restrictives (inertie et friction) ne dépassant pas 11 % de la force maximale (bonne réversibilité du mécanisme) de 112 N au bout du joint haptique. Le modèle analytique et numérique élaboré confirme ces résultats et sert également de guide à la conception en fournissant des tendances de bande passante et de forces restrictives en fonctions de différents paramètres de la transmission hydrostatique. Enfin, les performances de ce système ouvrent la voie à de nombreuses applications d’exosquelettes transparents, forts, peu coûteux et versatiles.