Research Report: BUSA7167 (MM Finance and Investment Management). Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the (Master of Management in Finance and Investments). Submitted on 06th June 2016 / The findings of the research have implications on the efficiency of the South African exchange rate market, and by extension, the efficiency of similar emerging foreign exchange markets. The study used Ordinary Least Square Approach and Johansen cointegration. Despite their theoretical appeal, and in line with a dozen of related past literature, the findings of the research generally favour the rejection UIP, PPP and IFE. The findings have implications on some regulatory measures that can be undertaken by the financial authority to improve the efficiency of the foreign exchange market. While there have been extensive studies on uncovered interest parity (UIP), purchasing power parity(PPP), and the international Fisher effect(IFE), research has scarcely tested these hypotheses in the context of emerging markets. This study attempts to bridge the existing gap by testing the three related parity condition for South Africa. / MT2016

A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, 2012. / The purpose of this study is to investigate if the International Comparison Program (ICP) methodology could be used to examine the different buying power (worth) of the currency on the same products or goods amongst South African provinces. The method will be tested on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) food data collected from January 2006 to December 2006 from the main cities in the provinces. The food basket is obtained via the Income and Expenditure Survey (IES), which is generally updated every 5 years. South Africa (SA) has disparities and differentials in economic indicators such as the CPI, Gross Domestic Product and employment, amongst the provinces which are caused by among other things geographic set-up, urbanisation, inflation rates, and expenditure patterns. We use the monthly data to do an inter-provincial comparison of food prices by deriving annual purchasing power parities (PPPs) for each of the provinces, using the Country Product Dummy (CPD) method recommended as best practice by the World Bank. The CPI data is validated using the SEMPER software developed by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The validated data is examined for variability over the months and between the provinces using Analysis of Variance. Significant price differences are found for various products over the months and between provinces. The validated data was used to compute PPPs at the group and basic heading level. PPPs were investigated for differences in the provinces on grouped level of food products using Analysis of Variance. The reliability of PPPs between provinces is investigated both at grouped and basic heading level of products using the Cronbach-alpha statistic. The results show that there are no significant variations in PPPs across provinces. This could be due to the similar business opportunities or developments in the provinces or due to the aggregation of prices from the individual product (basic heading) to the main product group level. This implies that the cost of the food basket is the same across provinces.

A Research Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation / This research investigates perceptions of the SMME community in Johannesburg, Gauteng, on the impact of the Preferential Procurement Policy (PPP) Framework Act (Act No. 5 of 2000) as a Supplier Diversity (SD) tool. The research questions discussed are: 1) Are SMMEs directly benefitting from government as a result of PPP? 2) Are SMMEs indirectly benefitting through the private sector as a result of PPP? 3) How can PPP be improved? and 4) What are the problems with the implementation of PPP? The Osiba Research (2011) found that there was minimal impact from government programs in supporting and improving the majority of black-owned SMMEs and integrating them into the mainstream economy. It was further found that the major shortcomings were not due to insufficient or inaccurate policy, but the government’s inability to implement and support the very programs they designed. Other factors that work against SD in South Africa are corruption and nepotism which have led to lack of transparency in the awarding of tenders (Lodge T, 1998). Weak policy coordination and implementation, funding constraints and the fact that policy benefits were leveraged almost exclusively by medium-sized enterprises, which were often white owned, meant that previously disadvantaged people continue to be economically marginalized (Rogerson, 2013). Another setback is that of set-asides. Government has not been practicing its own policy through public procurement and as a result the private sector has showed little commitment to these set-asides. This is partly because the National Treasury holds that set-asides will inflate the cost of procurement (Timm, 2011). This is a qualitative study and as such an interpretivist research approach was used. Enterprises included in the sample were selected using the City of Johannesburg’s Supplier Database, which is the City’s official database that contains the list of accredited prospective suppliers of different goods and services that are required by the City. The results of this research suggests that while there have been links to increased economic growth and rebalancing of socio-economic inequalities as a result of PPP, there are still major problems to overcome such as lack of transparency in awarding tenders, beneficiaries of government business employing non South African citizens/permanent residents, despondency on set-asides, fronting, lack of access to funding, lack of information and lack of commitment to PPP by large corporates. The study concludes with recommendations on policy, how the problem of rationalisation might be overcome, as well as how closer cooperation between SMMEs, government and large corporates can enhance PPP. Recommendations on potential future research are also made. / MT2016

Course: Degree Project in Supply Chain Management, the Business Administration and Economics Programme, 4FE19E Authors: Matilda Engblom and Katarina Nyberg Supervisor: Arash Kordestani Examiner: Helena Forslund Title: Following the Recipe Brings Franchisees to the Table - A Case Study Consolidating Purchasing and Calculating Cost Savings at Franchisees Background: As a franchisor, Company X does not have insight or control in purchasing at their franchisees. Spend analysis is a tool used to identify current purchased volumes and costs. An aim with spend analysis is to decrease the cost and analyse the spend. There are four different types of consolidation that can consolidate the current purchased volumes and create purchasing cost savings. They are article, volume, supplier and transport consolidation. However, identifying the current situation can be hard in the franchise concept and therefore hard to create purchasing cost savings. It is therefore of need for the franchisor to have insight and control over their franchisees in purchasing. Purpose: The purpose of this study is mainly to identify how the current purchased volumes can be consolidated to create purchasing cost savings for the franchisees of Company X in the Middle East. In addition, calculate the purchasing cost savings that consolidation could lead to. As well as, investigate how a franchisor can regain insight and control in purchasing over their franchisees. Methodology: This case study had a mixed research strategy of explanatory sequential design. Empirical data was collected by both unstructured, semi-structured and structured interviews. The analytical methodology was based on pattern matching. Confidentiality has been of great focus during the study for ethical considerations. Conclusion: The current purchased volumes and costs were identified, enabling different types of consolidation and calculations for purchasing costs. The consolidation model (Figure 28, p. 43) illustrates four different types of consolidation, article, volume, supplier and transportation, which should be followed. Lastly, Table 38 (p. 85) presents actions for regaining insight and control over franchisees.

Um mercado globalizado altamente competitivo e a crescente horizontalização das cadeias de abastecimento realçam a importância da racionalização dos custos e da adequada seleção de fornecedores. Esses mesmos fatores, no entanto, agravam a complexidade envolvida no desempenhar dessas tarefas. A fim de desatar tais nós, o presente trabalho propõe uma abordagem para a seleção de fornecedores que conjuga técnicas de programação matemática que permitam a exploração de economias de escala e escopo a uma metodologia inovadora para construção de cenários de demanda baseada em conceitos modernos de suprimentos. O resultado desta abordagem foi um modelo de programação inteira mista visando a minimização dos custos por desempenho adquirido. Os resultados obtidos na aplicação a um caso hipotético relevam efetividade na redução dos custos, sem prejuízo à qualidade dos materiais adquiridos. O impacto nos custos decorre da reconfiguração da demanda, aumento do poder de barganha interno e externo e aproveitamento de ganhos de escala e escopo. / A highly competitive globalized market and a growingly horizontalization through supply chains highlight the importance of properly selecting suppliers and managing costs. These same factors, however, increase the complexity in performing such tasks. In order to solve this plot, it is presented in this work an approach for supplier selection connecting mathematical programming techniques, which allow the use of economies of scope and scale, and an innovative methodology that applies modern concepts of purchasing management for constructing new demand scenarios. From this approach a mixed integer programming model derives, with the goal of minimizing costs per performance acquired. The results of its application in a hypothetical case reveal the effectiveness of the approach in reducing the costs with no significant impact on the acquired performance. This is explained by the reconfiguration of the demand, a shift in the bargaining power within and out of the company and the incorporation of economies of scope and scale.

O objetivo desse estudo é avaliar a validade da Teoria da Paridade do Poder de Compra (PPC) no Brasil em sua recente experiência de regime de câmbio flutuante, 1999M01-2009M12. São empreendidas decomposições da taxa de câmbio real de forma a evidenciar o papel da taxa de câmbio nominal, dos preços de bens comercializáveis e não comercializáveis, e preços das exportações e importações. A validade da PPC é diretamente testada através de testes de cointegração. Os resultados apontaram que ambos os setores, dos comercializáveis e não comercializáveis, são relevantes nos desvios da taxa de câmbio real, mas que a fonte de desvios não estacionários da PPC está relacionada ao setor dos não comercializáveis, tendo-se, portanto, evidência favorável à validade da Teoria da PPC para o setor dos comercializáveis no Brasil durante o período. Na relação de cointegração do setor dos comercializáveis, a taxa de câmbio nominal se apresentou fracamente exógena e os índices de preços tiveram velocidades de ajustamento significativas, sendo maior para os preços externos. Esses resultados são consistentes com um cenário em que a determinação da taxa de câmbio nominal é dominada por fatores fora do escopo da PPC e os preços dos comercializáveis se ajustam à relação de equilíbrio. / The aim of this study is to evaluate the validity of the Purchasing Power Parity Theory (PPP) in Brazil during its recent experience of floating exchange rate regime, 1999M01- 2009M12. Real exchange rate decompositions are undertaken in order to highlight the role of nominal exchange rate, prices of tradable goods and relative prices of nontradable goods, and prices of exports and imports. The validity of PPP is directly tested through cointegration tests. The results have shown that both sectors are relevant for the deviations of the real exchange rate, but that the source of non-stationary deviations from PPP is related to the nontradable sector, and, therefore, there was favorable evidence for the validity of PPP theory for tradable goods sector in Brazil between 1999 and 2009. For the cointegration relationship of the tradable sector, the nominal exchange rate appeared to be weakly exogenous and the index prices presented significant speeds of adjustment, which was higher for foreign prices. These results are consistent with a scenario in which the nominal exchange rate determination is dominated by factors outside the scope of the PPP and the prices of tradable goods adjusts to the equilibrium relationship.

Thesis advisor: Julie Mortimer / Essays on the effects of health policy payment systems in long-term care and end-of-life care institutions are studied. In the arena of long-term care, state Medicaid agencies have recently implemented pay-for-performance (P4P) programs to address poor quality of care in nursing homes. Using facility-quarter level data from 2003 to 2010, we evaluate the effects of Medicaid nursing home P4P programs on clinical quality measures, relying on variation in the timing of P4P implementation across states. Further, we exploit variation in the structure of states' programs to investigate whether programs that reward certain dimensions of quality are associated with larger improvements. We find P4P decreases the incidence of adverse clinical outcomes by as much as 8%, and the improvements are concentrated among the measures that experienced an increase in their relative returns and share strong commonalities in production. In the Hospice industry, changes to the current reimbursement system are mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The motivation stems from noticeable hospice utilization changes since the Medicare Hospice Benefit (MHB) introduced a per-diem reimbursement in 1983. This research analyzes the abilities of a multi-tiered payment system, and a simpler two-part pricing system, to accurately match Medicare payments with hospice patient costs. Both systems improve on the current payment mechanism, while two-part pricing is the only system to maintain access to care for all MHB eligible patients. In addition, consumer disutility incurred by driving to airports is estimated and used to define air travel markets. Though an accurate definition of an economic market is important for any study of industry, there is no rule governing what exactly constitutes a market. To define a market we must ask the question ``between which products do consumers substitute,'' knowing that the answer to this question will depend on how ``close'' products are to one another in product space, as well as how close they are to one another, and to consumers, in geographic space. We estimate a discrete choice model of air travel demand that uses known information about the locations of products and consumers, which allows us to study substitution patterns among air travel products at different airports. We evaluate the commonly used city-pair and airport-pair definitions of a market for air travel, and conclude that a city-pair is the appropriate definition. We also employ the Hypothetical Monopolist test for antitrust market definition, as defined by the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, and conclude that the relevant geographic market for antitrust analysis is frequently more narrowly defined as an airport-pair. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

O trabalho tem como objetivo realizar uma prova de conceito que reproduza a rotina de compras entre empresas com a utilização da tecnologia blockchain. A prova de conceito será executada por meio da construção de dois artefatos. O primeiro artefato foi a modelagem e simulação dos processos de compras na sua forma tradicional (As-Is) e com o uso blockchain (To-Be) expandido para transação máquina a máquina (M2M). O segundo artefato foi a implantação de um contrato inteligente no blockchain público do Ethereum, que retratou o processo To-Be. Foi sugerida a proposição de que uma base de dados distribuída como o blockchain tenha um desempenho operacional superior ao de uma base de dados tradicional. Para tanto, comparou-se os custos transacionais de duas variáveis obtidas como resultados da simulação: tempos de execução da tarefa de geração de pedidos e número de postos de atendimentos necessários. Pode-se comprovar o desempenho superior do blockchain, mas dependente da arquitetura selecionada. No presente estudo, o blockchain privado com prova de trabalho ajustada para descobrir o hash iniciado com dois zeros consecutivos teve o melhor desempenho. / The aim of this work is to build two artifacts as a proof of concept of a procurement management that makes use of blockchain technology in order to demonstrate its feasibility. The first artifact was the modeling and simulation of a traditional (As-Is) purchasing process and other with the use of expanded blockchain (To-Be) for machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions. The second artifact was the implementation of a smart contract in the public blockchain of Ethereum, which portrayed the To-Be process. It was suggested that a distributed system of registries presents a more efficient operational performance than the conventional one. The output of the simulations was used to compare the transactional costs of each model measured through two variables: the execution time of placing orders and the number of service stations required. It could be verified that the blockchain alternative had a superior performance according to the type of architecture employed. In this present study, the private blockchain with proof of work adjusted to seek hashes that begins with two consecutive zeros had the best achievement.

Titel: Sustainability in purchasing - a study on the shoe industry Authors: Malin Åqvist and Sofie Skarlöv Tutor: Leif Rytting Examiner: Kaisa Lund Subject: Bachelor thesis 15 credits. Business administration III - Marketing. Retail and Service management, Linnaeus University, Spring of 2019. Purpose and research question The purpose of the report is to investigate which elements can be interesting and important in the purchasing function regarding sustainability issues and what characterizes these. Furthermore, the intention is to clarify how sustainability can be communicated from a market perspective. The focus is a case study on the shoe industry, as a starting point for possible transfer to other consumer sectors. -What elements of sustainability are relevant to a purchase and what distinguishes them?-What is the characteristics of the different stakeholders who have an impact on the work with sustainability? -What can the future and development mean for the connection between purchasing and sustainability?-What affects how companies communicate their sustainability work? Method The empirical data is collected through eight interviews based on an interview guide. The respondents work within the shoe industry and or with connection to the purchasing function and sustainability. Conclusion The result indicates that there is a combination of different factors that are central to achieve a sustainable purchasing. To clearly communicate sustainable choices externally will therefore be an essential part of an exchange of knowledge between businesses and its customers. / Titel: Hållbarhet inom inköp - en studie på skobranschen Författare: Malin Åqvist och Sofie Skarlöv Handledare: Leif Rytting Examinator: Kaisa Lund Kurs: Kandidatuppsats 15 hp. Företagsekonomi III - Marknadsföring. Detaljhandel och Service management programmet, Linnéuniversitetet, VT 2019. Syfte och forskningsfrågor Syftet med rapporten är att undersöka vilka inslag som kan vara intressanta och viktiga i inköpsfunktionen gällande hållbarhetsfrågor och vad som präglar dessa. Vidare är avsikten att tydliggöra hur hållbarhet kan kommuniceras ur ett marknadsperspektiv. I centrum står en fallstudie på skobranchen, som utgångspunkt för möjlig överföring till andra konsument-sektorer. - Vilka inslag av hållbarhet är relevanta för ett inköp och vad utmärker dessa?- Vad är karaktäristiskt för olika intressenter som har en inverkan på arbetet med hållbarhet?- Vad kan framtid och utveckling innebära för kopplingen mellan inköp och hållbarhet? - Vad påverkar hur företag kommunicerar sitt hållbarhetsarbete? Metod Den empiriska datan är insamlad genom åtta stycken intervjuer baserat på en intervjuguide. Respondenterna arbetar inom skobranschen och eller med koppling till inköpsfunktionen och hållbarhet. Slutsatser Resultatet tyder på att det är en sammansättning av olika faktorer som blir centrala för att uppnå ett hållbart inköp. Att tydligt kommunicera sina hållbara val utåt blir således en väsentlig del i ett kunskapsutbyte mellan verksamheter och dess kunder.

Much previous research concerning the effects of the in-store experience on customers’ decision-making has been laboratory-based. There is a need for empirical research in a real store context to determine the impact of product, service and in-store environment perceptions on customer satisfaction and behaviour. This study is based on a literature review (Project 1) and a large scale empirical study (Projects 2/3) combining two sources of secondary data from the largest retailer in the UK, Tesco, and their loyalty ‘Clubcard’ provider, Dunnhumby. Data includes customer responses to an online self-completion survey of the customers’ shopping experience combined with customer demographic and behavioural data from a loyalty card programme for the same individual. The total sample comprised n=30,696 Tesco shoppers. The online survey measured aspects of the in-store experience. These items were subjected to factor analysis to identify the influences on the in-store experience with four factors emerging: assortment, retail atmosphere, personalised customer service and checkout customer service. These factors were then matched for each individual with behavioural and demographic data collected via the Tesco Clubcard loyalty program. Regression and sensitivity analyses were then conducted to determine the relative impact of the in-store customer experience dimensions on customer behaviour. Findings include that perceptions of customer service have a strong positive impact on customers’ overall shopping satisfaction and spending behaviour. Perceptions of the in-store environment and product quality/ availability positively influence customer satisfaction but negatively influence the amount of money spent during their shopping trip. Furthermore, personalised customer service has a strong positive impact on spend and overall shopping satisfaction, which also positively influences the number of store visits the week after. However, an increase in shopping satisfaction coming from positive perceptions of the in-store environment and product quality/ availability factors helps to reduce their negative impact on spend week after. A key contribution of this study is to suggest a priority order for investment; retailers should prioritise personalised customer service and checkout customer service, followed by the in-store environment together with product quality and availability. These findings are very important in the context of the many initiatives the majority of retail operators undertake. Many retailers focus on cost-optimisation plans like implementing self-service check outs or easy to operate and clinical in-store environment. This research clearly and solidly shows which approach should be followed and what really matters for customers. That is why the findings are important for both retailers and academics, contributing to and expanding knowledge and practice on the impact of the in-store environment on the customer experience.