Les stratégies d’entreprises dites « BoP » (pour Bottom/Base of the Pyramid) impliquent la création de produits/services au bas de la pyramide économique, soit 4 milliards d’individus vivant avec moins de 9$ par jour. Les chercheurs et les professionnels expriment l’intérêt de ces stratégies mais relèvent la difficulté d’obtention simultanée des performances économique (pour la firme) et sociale (pour le marché BoP). Notre recherche doctorale s’inscrit dans cette lignée et pose les questions de recherche suivantes : « quels sont les déterminants des performances économique et sociale des stratégies BoP ? Existe-t-il une relation entre ces types de performance ? Pour y répondre, un design méthodologique en trois phases a été élaboré : (I) un sondage de cas basé sur 77 observations de stratégies BoP (II), une étude empirique quantitative basée sur un échantillon de 316 professionnels, (III) une discussion des résultats pour une proposition théorique nommée océan blanc. Les résultats montrent que pour atteindre les performances économique et sociale, l’entreprise doit, (1) avoir des motivations économique et sociale (2), acquérir et capitaliser des connaissances sur le terrain, (3) adapter le prix, la communication, le produit/service mais pas les modes/canaux de distribution, (4) réaliser des alliances sociales et (5) limiter l’influence des institutions, des acteurs locaux et des actionnaires. / The so called « BoP » (for Bottom/Base of the Pyramid) strategies of companies involve products/services creation at the base of the economic pyramid that is 4 billion people living on less than 9$/day. Researchers and professionals express interest in this type of strategy but point out the difficulty of simultaneously obtaining economic performance (for the firm) and social performance (for the BoP market). Our doctoral research is in line with the following research questions: "What are the determinants of economic and social performance of BoP strategies? Does the relationship exist between these types of performance? To answer it, a three phase methodological design has been developed: (I) a case survey method based on 77 observations of BoP strategies, (II) a quantitative empirical study based on 316 professionals, (III) a discussion on results for a theoretical proposition called white ocean. The results show: to achieve the economic and social performances, the company must, (1) have economic and social motivations, (2) acquire and accumulate knowledge in the field, (3) adapt price, communications, product/service but not distribution methods/channels, (4) make social alliances and (5) limit the influence of the institutions, local stakeholders and shareholders.

This thesis aims to solve the mathematical inverse problem of characterizing sea waves based on the responses obtained from a marine vessel sailing under certain sea conditions. By researching this problem the thesis contributes to the marine industry by improving products that are using ocean behavior for controlling ship's dynamics. Knowledge about the current state of the sea, such as the wave frequency and height, is important for navigation, control, and for the safety of a vessel. This information can be retrieved from specialized weather reports. However, such information is not at all time possible to obtain during a voyage, and if so usually comes with a certain delay. Therefore this thesis seeks solutions that can estimate on-line the waves' state using methods in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The specific investigation methods are Transfer Functions augmented with Genetic Algorithm, Artificial Neural Networks and Case-Based Reasoning. These methods have been configured and validated using the n-fold cross validation method. All the methods have been tested with an actual implementation. The algorithms have been trained with data acquired from a marine simulation program developed in Simulink. The methods have also been trained and tested using monitored data acquired from an actual ship sailing on the Baltic Sea as well as wave data obtained from a buoy located nearby the vessel's route. The proposed methods have been compared with state-of-the art reports in order evaluate the novelty of the research and its potential applications in industry. The results in this thesis show that the proposed methods can in fact be used for solving the inverse problem. It was also found that among the investigated methods it is the Transfer Function augmented with Genetic Algorithm which yields best results. This Master Thesis is conducted under the Master of Engineering Program in Robotics at Mälardalens högskola in Västerås, Sweden. The thesis was proposed by Q-TAGG R&D AB in Västerås, Sweden, a company which specializes in marine vessel dynamics research.