This master's thesis deals with the concept of the weaker party in private law, especially in

In this study, the adaptive behaviour towards sustainability initiatives is investigated in interorganizational exchange relations. To do so, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in a supplier role that experienced a situation where a buyer asked them to adapt to a certain sustainability initiative are asked about their power relation with their buyer. During this process, suppliers perceived dependence and buyers perceived power are compared, and the outcome of these measures on the adaptive behaviour towards sustainability is modelled. In order to explain the power relation in the dyad in more detail, the framework of the bases of power as initially introduced by French Jr. and Raven (1959) is integrated in the analysis. Sustainability in the current globalised business environment needs to be tackled on a systems level rather than by focusing on a site. The purpose of this research is to shed some light on the permeation of sustainability initiatives through the upward supply chain. The current academic literature about the drivers of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) point towards the buyers as a powerful driver. Therefore, this driver is scrutinized in detail with the aims to: a) deliver practical advice on how to improve sustainability permeation from a buyer s perspective; and b) contribute to academic knowledge by dismantling and analysing the mechanism behind buyer power driven sustainability permeation. An online questionnaire was deployed to collect data from SMEs in a supplier role. The participants were contacted and reminded via email. The questionnaire is based on established instruments to measure suppliers dependence (Bode et al., 2011) and the bases of power (Raven et al., 1998). The quantitative analysis of the responses to the questionnaires is built around a mediation model with suppliers dependence as Independent Variable (IV), the binary outcome of sustainability adaptation as Dependent Variable (DV) and two mediators representing the magnitude of hard and soft power bases in the dyadic exchange relation. The established framework of the bases of power is a suitable instrument to explain the relationship between a supplier s adaptive behaviour towards sustainability and its dependence on its buyer. Measurements solely of how a supplier perceives its dependence on the buyer do not explain the adaptive behaviour of a supplier towards a buyer-requested sustainability initiative. Introducing the bases of power framework and distinguishing between soft and hard bases of power explains why suppliers experiencing hard power bases are more likely to reject a buyer-requested sustainability initiative, whereas suppliers experiencing soft power bases show a significantly higher acceptance of buyer-requested sustainability initiatives. Without dismantling the black box power, the observation that the two effects neutralize each other if not distinguished cannot be made. The original contribution to knowledge is the mechanism behind power in dyadic exchange relations and how this mechanism conduces to the permeation of sustainability through the supply chain. Knowing about the different pathways hard and soft, and their opposite effect on sustainability adaptation, advances knowledge in the SSCM literature and provides guidance for practitioners.

Although Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) is often seen as a powerful tool to drive sustainability across its supply chain, there is little available research in terms of how SPP actually influences its suppliers’ sustainability practices and what challenges are being faced during the process. In this study, we shed light on both issues by exploring SPP using Institutional and Power Dependence Theory in the context of the surgical instrument industry in Sweden. Methodologically, the study is grounded in an exploratory design and employs in-depth interviews with multiple stakeholders to gain a holistic understanding of the phenomena being studied. The study revealed that SPP mainly influences suppliers by requiring them to evaluate their own sustainability practices, engage in collaborative actions and make alterations when they fail to comply with the contractual terms.The most significant challenge resulted to be the lack of resources, resulting in the inability to perform sufficient follow-ups, engage in meaningful conversations with suppliers and procurers having to buy unsustainable products because of their tight budgets. Another major challenge was Sweden’s forerunner position when it comes to SPP on an international level, resulting in reluctancy on the part of international suppliers to alter their sustainability practices.

This is the first research to empirically study the congruity in supply chain operations strategies. The tests show that the congruity in supply chain operations strategies are related to performance and also moderate the association between performance and the types of supply chain relationships. 308 manufacturing firms were studied for empirical tests. Various methods including multiple regressions, cluster analyses, and logistic regressions are applied in this study. Based on the tests, five hypotheses are supported and only one hypothesis is inconclusive. This dissertation contributes in different thresholds. First, by studying operations strategies through a different angle (the supply chain instead of a firm) this study reconciles results in the relationships between performance and operations strategies and between performance and supply chain relationships. Therefore, this study contributes to reconciling two long-term puzzles in both operations strategies and supply chain management literatures. Second, this research draws on three different disciplines, operations strategies, supply chain management and organization theory (resource dependence theory). This interdisciplinary approach provides a broader perspective in operations management research. Third, through this research, guidelines are provided for not only powerful firms but also the weak ones on how to improve their performance through developing different types of supply chain relationships and integrating their operations strategies with their supply chain members.

This dissertation summarizes three research projects related to microwave radiation induced electron transport properties in the GaAs/AlGaAs two dimensional electron systems. In chronological order, the projects are: a microwave reflection and electron magneto-transport correlation study, the combined microwave power and polarization dependence on microwave radiation induced magneto-resistance oscillations study, and a comparative study about the effect of circularly polarized and linearly polarized microwaves radiation on magneto-resistance oscillations induced due to the microwave. These three research projects experimentally address many interesting issues in the non-equilibrium low dimensional electron transport under microwave irradiation and provide potential applications of utilizing microwave radiation induced magneto-resistance oscillations in two dimensional electron systems as a method to detect different qualities of microwaves or terahertz waves.

Submitted by Lea Larsen Volay (larsenvolay@gmail.com) on 2014-01-06T13:16:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_MPGI_Lea Larsen Volay_pdf.pdf: 47135669 bytes, checksum: c1d884a10cdfa74721eb5a450ff02250 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luana Rodrigues (luana.rodrigues@fgv.br) on 2014-01-06T14:22:27Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_MPGI_Lea Larsen Volay_pdf.pdf: 47135669 bytes, checksum: c1d884a10cdfa74721eb5a450ff02250 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-01-06T15:05:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Thesis_MPGI_Lea Larsen Volay_pdf.pdf: 47135669 bytes, checksum: c1d884a10cdfa74721eb5a450ff02250 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-12-05 / The present research was conducted in the form of a multiple-case study of the two cultural institutions in the French and the Brazilian contexts. The Pompidou Center is a State-funded presidential museum project, with the mission to make modern art in all its expressions accessible to the wider public. The Sesc Pompeia is a multidisciplinary center for culture and sports financed by tax-money and managed by the Commerce Federation. The Sesc Pompeia is dedicated to the provision of informal education through the cultivation of the mind and the body. The study examines whether resource- and power-dependence theories can be used to conceptualize the relationship that the Pompidou Center & the Sesc Pompeia have with their financial stakeholders. More specifically it will be discussed to what extent the degree of power-dependence in the relationship influences the management strategy of the institution. The objective is to answer the question: what strategies do the institutions adopt to reduce their power-dependence on their main financial stakeholders? Finally some practical management implications will be drawn from the parallel between the strategies of the two institutions. / A presente pesquisa foi conduzida na forma de um estudo de caso de duas instituições culturais no contexto francês e brasileiro. O Centro Pompidou é um projeto presidencial de museu financiado pelo Estado, com a missão de tornar a arte moderna em todas as suas expressões acessíveis ao público em geral. O Sesc Pompeia é um centro multidisciplinar de cultura e esporte - financiado pelo dinheiro dos impostos e administrado pela Federação do Comércio. O Sesc Pompéia é dedicado à oferta de educação informal através do cultivo da mente e do corpo. O estudo examina se as teorias de dependência de recursos e de poder podem ser utilizadas para conceituar a relação que o Centro Pompidou e do Sesc Pompéia tem com seus stakeholders financeiros. Mais especificamente, será discutido em que medida o grau de dependência influencia a estratégia de gestão das instituições. O objetivo é de responder a pergunta seguinte: quais são as estratégias que as instituições adotam para reduzir sua dependência com relação a seus principais stakeholders financeiros? Finalmente algumas implicações práticas de gestão serão elaboradas a partir do paralelo entre as estratégias das duas instituições.

The thesis explores the nature of executive leadership in international organisation. Executive leadership is often praised or blamed for outcomes in international agencies, and yet, the disciplinary literature fails to incorporate the executive head into institutional analyses of politics, power, and change over time. The thesis aims to address this lacuna and the role of executive leadership by analysing if and how it matters in international politics. The thesis draws on a composite literature from other areas of political research to establish what is known. A review of the literature and prevailing approaches to leadership studies reveals that an overwhelming majority of scholarship relies on exclusively structural or agential accounts of leadership. This somewhat determinist literature has distorted the limited knowledge on the nature of executive leadership in international organisation. Approaches that focus on agency-based explanations argue that executive heads matter greatly. Approaches that utilise structure to interpret executive leadership find that it matters little, if at all. Rejecting these narrow frameworks, the thesis uses a dialectical approach, supported by critical realism, to analyse four cases of executive leadership in the World Trade Organization to address the research questions and lacuna. The case studies draw on over 70 years of multilateral trade governance to reveal a set of core and subsidiary findings about politics, power, executive leadership, and change over time. The thesis argues that executive leadership matters, but that how it matters is contingent on the executive head and the circumstances of their term. By incorporating the executive head into the disciplinary literature, the thesis argues politics, power, and change over time can be more accurately understood.