本研究旨在實驗探討檔案評量在高中英文之實施狀況及其可能性，以期了解學生對檔案評量之觀感。同時，本研究希望在評量方面，能提供給高中英文老師新的思維。 本研究採用質的分析法，涵蓋 : (一) 學生對自己的檔案作品之感想；(二) 學生對檔案評量之認識及評價；(三) 檔案評量對學生在學習英文之助益；(四) 提供學生自主學習之機會。 本研究結果如下 : (一) 學生對自我作品之肯定；(二) 發現檔案評量對學生之影響；(三) 獲得一些教學上的啟示。簡言之，本研究提供了檔案評量在教學上之另一選擇，對學生及老師而言，導引出評量及教學的方向。 / The purpose of the study is to show how portfolio assessment can be implemented in an EFL senior high school classroom and to provide an alternative assessment for senior high school English teachers. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted. Research data were collected from classroom observations, questionnaires, interviews and student portfolios. The results not only revealed the students’ improvement in a range of skills but reflected change and growth over a period of time. The study showed that portfolio assessment provided students with self-directed learning, created an interaction for instruction and assessment and offered opportunities for peer-supported growth. As for future implementation, portfolio assessment is not an educational panacea; rather, it is a promising alternative assessment procedure, and instructors must fully realize both its strengths and weaknesses for proper implementation. In conclusion, the study found that portfolio assessment linked assessment more closely to classroom activities. In addition, the students’ participation and academic achievement were satisfactory.

<p><strong>Introduction </strong>– Project-based organizations face a series of challenges when trying to implement and manage their project portfolios successfully in line with their strategic goals. Good project portfolio management (PPM) practices play a crucial role in maintaining well performing portfolios, but PPM is still a fairly new academic field. And it was found that the current PPM literature embodies a gap in providing explicit governance criteria to assure consistent portfolio decision-making.</p><p><strong>Problem </strong>– What are the criteria of portfolio governance that contribute to better aligning the project portfolio to organizational strategy? Do project-based organizations in fact not implement a governance framework to guide their decision-making rationale? If there is some sort of a governance framework, do project-based organizations implement it in a consistent manner every time they take portfolio-related decisions?</p><p><strong>Purpose </strong>– The purpose of this study is two-fold. First, we attempt to fill a gap in the current PPM literature by proposing a portfolio governance framework that could enhance project portfolio decision-making. Secondly, it is our goal to find out whether decision makers in project-based organizations consistently cover all issues related to portfolio governance at portfolio meetings.</p><p><strong>Methodology</strong> – The study employs both qualitative & quantitative methods to fulfill the two-fold nature of the study. A Portfolio Governance Framework, comprising 26 statements, was developed on the grounds of existing literature on PPM, strategy & governance. The proposed Framework was then used as a basis to carry out an online survey in which 31 respondents (executive level) from 25 project-based organizations (operating in Sweden) were asked about how consistent they are in discussing relevant portfolio governance issues.</p><p><strong>Conclusion</strong> – The empirical findings of this study indicate that the majority of project-based companies do not employ a governance framework when it comes to portfolio decision-making. In the few cases that they do, it is mostly a set of policies that is not applied on a consistent basis.</p>

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This thesis focuses on lead auditors’ differences in terms of client portfolios and  performances. First, lead auditors are surveyed and their responses on professional scepticism linked to their performances. Second, survey and archival data are combined to check whether self-control is related to performance. Third, lead auditors’ client portfolios are examined with regard to industry similarity, portfolio dispersion and client grouping. Finally, auditors’ independence is tested in the  private firm setting. Overall, the findings indicate that performance is not homogenous across lead auditors in the same (tier) audit firm(s), and that the characteristics of lead auditors and accounting firms are determinants that partly explain the differences. / Avhandlingen fokuserar på skillnader i klientportföljer och prestation mellan ansvariga (alternativt påskrivande) revisorer och består av fyra huvudsakliga delar (alternativt studier). I den första delen kopplas mått på professionell skepticism, som bygger på enkätsvar från ansvariga revisorer, till prestation. I den andra delen kombineras enkätdata med arkivdata för att undersöka sambandet mellan självkontroll och prestation. I den tredje delen analyseras revisorernas klientportföljer utifrån dimensionerna branschtillhörighet, klientgruppering och portföljspridning. I den sista delen genomförs tester av revisorns oberoende för uppdrag i privata företag. Sammantaget indikerar resultaten att prestation varierar mellan revisorer från samma revisionsbyrå och att egenskaper hos ansvariga revisorer och revisionsbyråer delvis kan förklara dessa skillnader.

Consistent with the well-documented relation between political orientation and psychological traits, hedge funds' political orientations are related to their portfolio decisions. Relative to politically conservative hedge funds, politically liberal hedge funds exhibit a preference for smaller stocks, less mature companies, volatile stocks, unprofitable companies, non-dividend paying companies, and lottery-type securities. Politically liberal hedge funds are also more likely to enter new positions or fully exit existing positions, and make larger adjustments to their U.S. equity market exposure. Our results suggest that psychological characteristics can influence the portfolio decisions of even those at the very top of the financial sophistication ladder.

A portfolio can be defined as “a purposeful combination of items” (Chien and Sainfort 1998). As the topic relates to research and development (R&D) the items in question are technologies, projects or products under consideration for inclusion in a given portfolio. As described by surveys from Cooper et al (1998), companies have widely varying practices for portfolio selection. This thesis examines existing literature to determine the key characteristics of good portfolio and portfolio method. The approach needs to handle multiple objectives, account for project interactions, and address the social aspect of decision making. The resulting portfolio should be aligned with business strategy, balanced, and of maximum value. It introduces general concepts that have been used to select single projects and reviews five specific applications and assesses them against the key characteristics from the literature. After identifying gaps in the current approaches, a comprehensive approach is proposed. This approach would (1) apply multi-attribute decision analysis at the portfolio level, (2) apply constraints for common inputs to cost such as resources, and (3) apply probabilistic methods to account for project interaction. This approach incorporates successful elements from existing approaches and addresses the two areas that are not adequately addressed with current approaches.

The objectives of this thesis are threefold. First, this dissertation examines whether patterns (growth and consistency in growth) of firms' past financial performance influence investors' perceptions about stock values and future performance of these firms. Second, multiple estimation horizons of past performance variables (ranging from one to five years) are used to assess whether the interaction between growth patterns and measurement interval lengths of these variables influence investor expectations. Third, this thesis examines whether an intermediate price drifts (e.g. Jegadeesh and Titman [1993]) and subsequent long-horizon price reversal (e.g. DeBondt and Thaler (1985)] are manifestations of a market over-reaction as suggested in recent studies (e.g. Lee and Swaminathail [2000]).Annual data on sales, earnings, cash flow, and stock returns over various time periods from a sample of publicly traded firms listed on the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ exchanges from 1983 to 1999 are used to address the research questions proposed in this thesis. The evidence provided in this study shows that low-growth firms outperform their high-growth firm counterparts across different performance variables, estimation intervals, and investment horizons except in the first post-formation year for firms ranked by their prior one-year financial growth rate (except for sales growth). These return differentials between low and high growth firms increase uniformly as more years of past financial performance added.Furthermore, when ranking firms based on the consistency of their prior financial growth rates over multiple estimation periods, this study finds that a firm consistently achieving low (high) growth rates that places it in the lowest (highest) growth 40 percent earns high (low) stock returns. The consistency in a firm's prior financial performance influences the behavior of its future stock returns, i.e. the longer the consistency of exceptionally strong (weak) performance of a firm, the greater (lower) its subsequent stock returns. However, the incremental impact of an additional year of growth consistency on future returns seems to dissipate after the third year of prior performance data, suggesting that it may not take investors longer than three years to assume that a firm's past growth will continue for many years to come. Thus, additional evidence confirming investors' prior beliefs will not lead to a significant price drift because their expectations are already reflected in market prices.First year returns for firms except SG exhibit a strong financial drift. The price drift seems to persist even with longer estimation horizons. Multiple regression analyses suggest that reported higher returns for low-growth firms is not due to risk as measured by market betas or book-to-market ratios, nor is it due to the disproportionate impact caused by relatively smaller firms. As well, the one-year-ahead size-adjusted abnormal returns are significantly and negatively related to the size-adjusted abnormal returns for years 2 through 5. This result indicates that the evidence of a price drift reported in the first post-formation year might be due to a market over-reaction, a finding consistent with results reported by Lee and Swaminathan (2000). In additional analysis, return performance for all growth portfolios for the month of January is compared to the remainder of the year. No evidence indicating that returns to these portfolios are driven by extraordinary performance of low-growth firms in the month of January.For all variables (except for past sales growth and to some degree past stock returns), the financial drift in year one return for portfolios based on prior-one year of past performance data, is significantly stronger than that reported in Chan et al. (2004). Results reported in this thesis indicate that the average abnormal return differential between low and high growth firms for the five-year estimation intervals (with exception of past sales growth) is greater than 10 percentage points. The evidence contradicts that documented in Chan et al. (2004). They find no discernable evidence of price reversals over the next 36-months after ranking firms by their five-year growth rates in sales, operating income, and net income. However, results of this study are consistent with the predictions of behavioral models (e.g. Daniel et al. [I998] and Lakonishok et al. [1994]) suggesting that investors put excessive weight on patterns of a firm's past financial performance when projecting its future prospects.

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The main objective of the thesis is to analyse impact of wavelet covariance estimation in the context of Markowitz mean-variance portfolio selection. We use a rolling window to apply maximum overlap discrete wavelet transform to daily returns of 28 companies from DJIA 30 index. In each step, we compute portfolio weights of global minimum variance portfolio and use those weights in the out-of- sample forecasts of portfolio returns. We let rebalancing period to vary in order to test influence of long-term and short-term traders. Moreover, we test impact of different wavelet filters including Haar, D4 and LA8. Results reveal that only portfolios based on the first scale wavelet covariance produce significantly higher returns than portfolios based on the whole sample covariance. The disadvantage of those portfolios is higher riskiness of returns represented by higher Value at Risk and Expected Shortfall, as well as higher instability of portfolio weights represented by shorter period that is required for portfolio weights to significantly differ. The impact of different wavelet filters is rather minor. The results suggest that all relevant information about the financial market is contained in the first wavelet scale and that the dynamics of this scale is more intense than the dynamics of the whole market.