Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

This thesis explores and evaluates the drivers and performance factors of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity at Deutsche Post DHL (DPDHL). Furthermore, the “success paradox” related to M&A found in theory is addressed by analyzing how well it rhymes with the activity and performance of M&As at DPDHL. The methodology used to reach the aim can be characterized as an explorative and qualitative case study with an inductive approach. We review literature and interview stakeholders both within and outside the DPDHL group to present an in-depth view of the drivers causing M&As and factors affecting the performance of the transactions at DPDHL. Consequently, it has been possible to reach reality driven conclusions and recommendations tailored for DPDHL. We found that the success rate of M&A transactions at DPDHL is high and primarily triggered by strategic motives, such as achieving market power, acquiring capabilities, accessing new markets and to follow customers. In addition, we found that overall, DPDHL has systems and procedures that are consistent with theory findings and views of practitioners. However, we found two improvement areas for the overall success rate of transactions at DPDHL. Firstly, the biggest change for DPDHL going forward will lie within post-merger integration and management. There is a need to develop an independent, non-political, and transparent setup for M&A teams to better integrate and track performance after each transaction. The aim should be to create local ownership at all levels to better reap synergy effects. Secondly, there is a potential benefit to streamline the strategic models used to retain key people after the M&As. Moreover, relating the findings of the study to the “success paradox”, we argue that success ought to be measured on multiple motives instead of by only measuring financial outcome of deals as done historically. In our view, the inadequate measurement of M&A performance is a reason for the seemingly high failure rates found in empirical studies. It would only be logic to measure the success of something by assessing whether or not the motives were achieved, be that strategic or financial.

Context: Cloud computing is a concept in which a user get services like SaaS, PaaS and IaaS by deploying their data and application on remotely servers. Users have to pay only for the time the resources are acquired. They do not need to install and upgrade software and hardware. Due to these benefits organization are willing to move their data into the cloud and minimize their overhead. Organizations need to confirm that cloud can replace the traditional platform, software and hardware in an efficient way and provide robust performance. Web servers play a vital role providing services and deploying application. One might be interested to have information about a web server performance in the cloud. With this aim, we have compared cloud server performance with a local web server. Objectives: The objective of this study is to investigate cloud performance. For this purpose, we first find out the parameters and factors that affect a web server performance. Finding the parameters helped us in measuring the actual performance of a cloud server on some specific task. These parameters will help users, developers and IT specialists to measure cloud performance based on their requirements and needs. Methods: In order to fulfill the objective of this study, we performed a Systematic literature review and an experiment. The Systematic literature review is performed by studying articles from electronic sources including ACM Digital Library, IEEE, EiVillage (Compendx,Inspec). The Snowball method is used to minimize the chance of missing articles and to increase the validity of our findings. In experiment, two performance parameters (Throughput and Execution Time) are used to measure the performance of the Apache Web Server in Local and Cloud environment. Results: In Systematic literature review, we found many factors that affect the performance of a web server in Cloud computing. Most common of them are throughput, response time, execution time, CPU and other resource utilization. The experimental results revealed that web server performed well in local environment as compared to cloud environment. But there are other factors like cost overhead, software/ hardware configuration, software/hardware up -gradation and time consumption due to which cloud computing cannot be neglected. Conclusions: The parameters that affect the cloud performance are throughput, response time, execution time, CPU utilization and memory utilization. Increase and decrease in values of these parameters can affect cloud performance to a great extent. Overall performance of a cloud is not that effective but there are other reasons for using cloud computing

Few studies have attempted to determine the tenability of Community Participation (CP) theory is explicating Water Production and Management dynamics in Urban Informal Settlements. Consequently, several gaps exist in knowledge of the value of this important theory for efforts to improve water service delivery in such settlements. The main purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts addressed to filling these gaps. Four water schemes established by Sustainable Aid in Africa International in partnership with different communities in the informal neighborhoods of Kisumu Kenya are used as empirical referent. The study is guided by the following three Research Questions; 1) what is the relationship between community participation and beneficiary satisfaction with the work of the water management committees in the four schemes? 2) what are the contributions (positive or negative) of community participation on the production of clean potable water supply in the informal settlements? 3) what are the participation-related factors affecting the performance of the schemes? Uncovering answers to these questions entailed the use of a mixed methods approach. The approach involved the application of both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The former was employed mainly to answer the first two Research Questions and latter to deal with Research Question Three. The quantitative component of data collection involved administering a survey questionnaire through a simple random sampling technique. Logistic Regression and Chi-square Tests were employed to analyze the quantitative data. In the qualitative phase, Focus Group Discussions, Observation, Transect Walks and Photographic evidence was used to collect data analyzed through Constant Comparison Analytic technique. For Research Question One, the logistic regression results indicate that five participatory variables are significantly associated with beneficiary satisfaction with the work of the water management committees. These are provision of paid or unpaid labor to the water schemes, household willingness to intervene against pipe vandalism, meeting attendance, willingness to contribute money or time to the community water scheme and whether a household has ever made a complaint about water supply/quality issues. For Research Question Two, the chi-square test shows that households who use community managed water schemes and attend water and sanitation meetings tend to practice better water handing hygiene in the settlements. For Research Question Three, the following factors are identified to be either aiding and/or impeding the success of the schemes; networking and collaboration, continuous community engagement/participation, the formation of water consumer groups, coordination and organizational management, extent of institutional formalization, provision of dividends to the community, clannism, population increase, and poverty and community fatigue. This dissertation sheds new light on the role played by CP in managing vital resources such as water in urban informal settlements/neighborhoods. An important policy contribution is that CP can be used as a viable strategy in the establishment of effective water schemes in urban informal settlements. Furthermore, it can act as an antidote with regards to water quality improvements in urban informal settlements/neighborhoods.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate educator factors that have an impact on student achievement and overall school performance as indicated in the American College Test (ACT) scores from the district and the individual schools. Educators from a moderate-sized public school district participated in an anonymous online survey. According to the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Report Card, the district ACT composite is a 20.1 (TDOE, 2018e). Two of the district’s schools’ results are higher than the district composite, while the other five are consistent with or below the district composite. Participants of this study shared their number of years of experience, amount of professional development, and education level obtained, as well as their perceptions of these factors. All data were collected through an online survey distributed to 9th-12th teachers by email from school principals. The analysis of data was based on the responses of 67 teachers from this school district. For this study, non-experimental quantitative research was used with a comparative and correlational design. As indicated in the findings of this study, teacher experience, teacher professional development hours, teacher education level, and teachers’ perceptions of these factors did not play a significant role on student performance on nationally standardized tests, specifically the ACT.

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Construction is one of the largest industry sectors in terms of size and output in the United Kingdom (UK). The sector contributes about 10% directly to the UK's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and drives historical GDP growth. However, Construction projects and Organisations continue to underperform at significant levels which is underpinned by actors' Information Behaviours (IBs).

M&A has for decades been an important topic within the corporate world as well as financial research, due to its performance and the impact it generates. The main objective of this study is to explore the effect of M&A announcements on the short-term performance of acquiring firms on the Swedish stock market. By conducting an event study with a sample of 194 M&As in various industries from 2007-01-01 to 2018-02-07, we are able to retrieve abnormal returns, analysing cumulative abnormal returns in order to measure the effect the announcements have on the stock price. Three performance factors are included in order to get an understanding of the potential impact they have, and if so, how strong that impact is. The performance factors are (1) payment method, (2) diversified versus focused M&As, and (3) cross-border versus domestic M&As. The empirical findings tell us that the abnormal returns are significant for most industries, and to a great extent positive. The performance variables only show significance for cash as a payment method where it generates a negative effect on the main event window (-1, +1). With these findings we hope to contribute to existing research by creating higher awareness to society and organisations about the performance M&As bring.

<p>Composite plate shear walls – concrete-filled (C-PSW/CF) are a new innovative lateral force resisting system intended for high-rise buildings. The walls consist of parallel steel faceplates connected with tie bars and filled with concrete. This dissertation introduces the C-PSW/CF </p> <p>system and coupled C-PSW/CFs consisting of C-PSW/CF walls and composite coupling beams. Three studies are presented herein covering seismic design parameters for C-PSW/CFs, non-linear modeling techniques for composite coupling beams, and the design philosophy for coupled C-PSW/CFs.</p> <p> </p> <p>The first study summarizes the results of a recent FEMA P695 study completed to verify seismic design parameters for uncoupled C-PSW/CFs with rectangular flange plate boundary elements. Seven archetype structures were: (i) designed, (ii) modeled using a benchmarked fiber-based finite element analysis approach, (iii) subjected to nonlinear pushover analysis, (iv) subjected to incremental nonlinear dynamic analysis to failure for 22-sets of scaled ground motions, and (v) the results were statistically analyzed to assess performance. These structures ranged from three (3) to twenty-two (22) stories and included both planar and C-shaped wall configurations. As part of this design process, recommendations for stiffness approximations for linear analysis of C-PSW/CFs</p> <p>were developed. Additionally, these nonlinear incremental dynamic analysis results were post-processed to determine the rotation and strain demands at the base of these structures at the design basis, maximum considered, and failure level earthquakes. These results showed that the rotation and strain demand at failure level earthquakes were comparable regardless of the ground motion. Ultimately, this FEMA P695 approach verified the R factor of 6.5, C_d factor of 5.5, and Ω₀ of 2.5 for C-PSW/CFs with boundary elements. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The second study proposes modeling approaches for composite coupling beams used in combination with C-PSW/CFs. Capturing the behavior of these components is critical to understanding the system behavior of coupled C-PSW/CFs, as the coupling beam components undergo yielding, plastification, and fracture prior to collapse of coupled C-PSW/CF walls. Although steel-concrete composite walls have been a known structural system for decades, only recently have coupled C-PSW/CF systems been investigated and implemented as a seismic force resisting system. As the interest in coupled C-PSW/CF systems increases, the necessity of reliable nonlinear modeling techniques for pushover, cyclic, and seismic analysis has become apparent. This paper presents fiber-based options for modeling composite coupling beam components of coupled C-PSW/CF walls for use in nonlinear and seismic response analyses. Recommendations include effective steel and concrete stress-strain curves, modeling parameters for fiber-based </p> <p>materials, and concentrated plasticity options for additional computational efficiency. These recommendations are then implemented for a full-scale coupling beam section. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In the final study, a capacity design principle is used to establish a basis for the seismic design of coupled composite plate shear walls – concrete filled (CC-PSW/CF) systems. This design philosophy implements a strong wall-weak coupling beam approach, where flexural yielding in coupling beams occurs before flexural yielding at the base of walls. The coupling beams are sized </p> <p>to resist the calculated seismic lateral force level. The walls are sized to resist an amplified seismic lateral force corresponding to the overall plastic mechanism for the structure, while accounting for the capacity-limited forces from the coupling beams and the coupling action between the walls. Based on this philosophy, recommendations and requirements for appropriate sizing of coupling beams and C-PSW/CFs are presented. These recommendations are used to design four example (8-22 story) structures and evaluate their seismic behavior. The structures were modeled using 2D finite element models and fiber-based models subjected to monotonic and time history analysis. </p> <p>The nonlinear inelastic behavior and seismic responses of the example structures were in accordance with the capacity limited design philosophy (strong wall-weak beam), thus confirming the philosophy’s  efficacy. </p>