Extrait de: Thèse de doctorat--Histoire contemporaine--Toulouse-Le Mirail, 2006. Titre de soutenance : Les profiteurs de la Grande guerre : histoire culturelle et socio-économique. / Notes bibliogr.

Islamic finance is entering into a new pattern. It is deemed that Islamic finance should take initiative to meet the increasing needs of microfinance with aim of alleviating poverty and to help the poor people in their distress. Concept of Islamic Microfinance is being used to fulfill the demands of microfinance in the developing countries. Different models of Islamic finance are proposed to be used in microfinance activities to help the poor people for betterment of their personal life and to initiate the small business for the overall growth of the economy. But profit and loss sharing (Mudarabah) model is being criticized due to high risk involvement. Due to high risk factor, proper monitoring is deemed necessary for the smooth running of the contract. Our current research tends to investigate the underlying risk attached with Profit and Loss sharing project. As per theory of Profit and loss sharing financing all the risk is to be borne by the investor of the capital i.e. microfinance institution. But monitoring itself is not risk free and can result in expenses that would surpass the original price of the sanctioned loan. In the long run and at very end, we are hopeful that our research findings would play an important role to overcome the issue of monitoring in profit and loss sharing loans in microfinance. / Islamisk finansiering går in i ett nytt mönster. Det anses att islamisk finansiering bör ta initiativ för att möta de ökande behoven av mikrofinansiering med syfte att minska fattigdomen och att hjälpa fattiga människor i deras nöd. Begreppet islamiska Mikrofinans används för att uppfylla kraven från mikrofinansiering i utvecklingsländerna. Olika modeller för islamisk finansiering föreslås att användas i mikrofinansieringsverksamhet att hjälpa de fattiga för förkovran i deras personliga liv och att inleda ett litet företag för den totala tillväxten i ekonomin. Men vinst och förlust delning (Mudarabah) modell är att bli kritiserad på grund av hög risk engagemang. På grund av hög riskfaktor är korrekt övervakning anses nödvändigt för att fungera väl i kontraktet. Vår nuvarande forskning tenderar att undersöka den underliggande risken fäst med Resultaträkning dela projekt. Per teori av vinst och förlust dela finansieringen alla risker skall bäras av investeraren av kapitalet, dvs mikrofinansiering institution. Men övervakningen i sig inte är riskfritt och kan resultera i kostnader som skulle överträffa det ursprungliga priset på sanktionerade lånet. I det långa loppet och på slutet, vi hoppas att våra forskningsresultat kommer att spela en viktig roll för att lösa frågan om övervakning i resultaträkningen dela lån mikrofinansiering.

This dissertation offers insight into the organizational lives of small and new not-for-profits. The first essay used three different estimation strategies to model the role of revenue type in the growth in young and small not-for-profits. We find that increases in the percentage of a not-for-profit’s revenue portfolio going to dues, indirect support, or non-mission income will suppress growth and that there is no “optimal” model across subsectors. The second essay uses over twenty years of panel data to predict which factors indicate the impending recovery of a financially vulnerable small and young nonprofit. Support for hypotheses based in the literature is mixed, but the key insight is that nonprofits need to save if they want to get healthy: bringing in revenues is not enough. Finally, the third essay uses a qualitative approach on young and new mental health not-for-profits in the state of New York. Using comparative case studies, this study analyzes the internal and external factors surrounding the demise of small and young mental health nonprofits. This study finds support for several of the potential causes of nonprofit demise in a newly proposed typology.

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Products are priced in order to sell them and make a profit. Every firm, therefore, needs a pricing strategy. Such a strategy should be simple. It should ensure simplicity in tactics and decisions and minimize complications. It is difficult to set a price with the help of only one pricing model. The price of a product may vary due to factors like geographical area, different clients and time difference. Prices must always be cost-compatible. An essential step in deciding on a pricing strategy involves looking at the characteristics of pricing decisions. The classic economic theory is based upon demand and supply and attempts to balance these two concepts. In most cases it works on the basis of cost plus profit. This way of thinking about prices does not guarantee a profit, because costs and profit depend upon volume and volume is dependent on the correct price. Prices can be cut at first. In this way only a small profit will be ensured. If the price is too low it will not automatically ensure a profit. Usually little attention is paid to the market itself in deciding on a price. It is not an easy task to arrive at the 'envelope of acceptable prices". Not to fall into the standard trap of adding profit to cost, one has to have a broad overview of pricing strategies. Multiple approaches are followed in determining prices. Firstly, one can look at cost and its characteristics. By adding a profit margin to cost, one can determine a new price. It may be too low or it may be too high, resulting in the risk that customers will buy the competition's product. It is there for essential to look at strategic concepts like the competition's price as well. The way a buyer looks at certain prices and then decides whether to buy or not, also plays a very important role. All of these factors have to be taken into consideration and all aspects have to be balanced to arrive at a price. A framework for pricing decisions includes the recognition of the need for a pricing decision, determining a price, developing a model, identifying and anticipating pricing problems, developing feasible courses of action, forecasting the outcomes of each alternative and monitoring and reviewing the outcome of each action. Management's pricing decision is taken after studying all this information. Information can be given as a single answer or in detail. Costs can be divided into direct costs and absorption costs. Although prices can be determined in more ways than one, the ideal is to take more than one factor into consideration. Every aspect must carry a weight and these weights can be changed. That is why the multiple criteria decision method is so effective. With this method a few factors are taken into account. Each of these factors adds to the price definition in a certain manner with regard to each product. By changing the profit margin, the price can be adjusted until one is satisfied with the new price. A company's structure, location and nature will play a role in determining which technique is used to determine a price. The best technique is one that can be adjusted and where multiple criteria can be set. The choice of a technique is a personal choice. The multi-criteria method is flexible and prices can be determined uniformly for all products or for a single product. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Computer Science))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Directors in not-for-profit organizations are not only monitors who ensure that financial reports are free from misreporting but also often act as fundraisers. This paper examines the intensity of directors’ monitoring when management misallocates expenses to solicit donations; especially whether the directors’ oversight is influenced by the organization’s expense disclosure transparency and the donors’ evaluation focus. The results from two experiments indicate that directors play a monitoring role to not allow management’s expense misallocation. Further, the enhanced transparency of expense disclosures increases directors’ tendency not to endorse management’s expense misallocation. However, the donors’ adoption of a balanced evaluation process (i.e., considering both financial and nonfinancial performance metrics) reduces directors’ monitoring compared to the donors’ adoption of an expense-focused evaluation process (i.e., focusing solely on financial metrics). This effect of the donors’ adoption of a balanced evaluation process occurs when directors anticipate donors will not donate to the not-for-profit organization, but not when directors anticipate donors will donate. This paper contributes to a richer understanding of directors’ role in not-for-profit organizations’ expense misallocations. Implications for nonprofit governance are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2011-08-29 14:29:22.41

The topic was inspired by my obsession for service excellence. Having served the retail industry as a photographic salesman and ultimately as director of a chain of retail stores, I was startled by some of the blasphemous remarks made to the insurance industry. Furthermore, I was personally subjected to poor customer service by some of the large insurance companies. In my current tenure as a life assurance consultant, I have made it my mission to harness good quality, good values and provide excellent service to the countless patrons of the insurance industry. The purpose of this study was to analyse service quality at Sage Life Insurance Company. Particular attention was paid to the five dimensions of service quality and consumer behaviour. To provide a background to the evaluation, a brief history of the life assurance industry and companies was explored. The evolution of new legislations and the governing bodies was put into perspective. The findings of the study showed that clients' perception of service quality at Sage favoured some dimensions more strongly. Recommendations were made to improve the gaps in customer-relations and a model for Sage Life's customer relationship management was suggested. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

Over 13 million people live in Guatemala, and among this population more than 50% live below the poverty line. One proposed solution to mitigate the large percentage of poverty in the country is micro-entrepreneurship. A compost micro-enterprise is a small business, which collects organic raw material and processes it into stable humus material for the purpose of applying to soils to increase crop yields. Developing such micro-enterprises could not only indirectly improve current soil nutrient deficiencies specific to the region, but also provide alternative incomes for the already agriculturally involved community. The success or failure of enterprises practicing composting may be measured by a plethora of figures or outcomes. Employee characteristics are one variable that should be taken into consideration when estimating the efficiency of an agricultural enterprise's operations and productivity. While a variable, such as an employee characteristic, may not be able to be quantified exactly it should be argued that this variable can have a structural impact on productivity. Another crucial variable considered when developing such a micro-enterprise is accounting for its input and output. It is explained the issue of costs within micro-enterprises is complex and should be considered not only in terms of fees but also in terms of payments in any kind, such as entry and exit presence, and the duration of the apprenticeship. When an enterprise has failed to account for its various inputs and consequent output, it has become unsustainable because it has not satisfied basic economic, social and security needs presently and for its future. This study identified and described employee characteristics and documented the inputs and outputs of compost micro-enterprises in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The study found that employee characteristics, particularly gender, age, and occupation affected a micro-enterprise's access to markets as well as row materials, and how efficiently tasks were completed. Costs of labor, raw material, transport, packaging, energy and the location the micro-enterprise itself heavily influenced profitability. The production of any product on a large scale must anticipate how positive financial outcomes will occur because profitability may not arrive as planned. If the revenue cannot be determined and/or made, compost micro-enterprise may fail to be a sustainable, much less a viable option for alternative income streams.

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During the past five years the Red Cross has been involved in two different internal crises. All of them can be related to trustworthiness and brand image. Why would someone keep donating money to an organization that has been involved in fraud and suspicion of corruption? The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how non-governmental (NGO) and non-profit (NPO) organizations rebuild their brand image and trustworthiness after a crisis. We will look at the problem from both the organization’s and the public’s point of view. The dissertation is based on theories about brand image, trustworthiness and crisis management. For the theoretical framework a model was created from these different theories. This study is conducted as a qualitative case study with a realistic philosophy. The findings and analysis shows that the Red Cross has an elaborated crisis management with a good base that can be adapted to suit each situation. However, there are some miscommunications between the organization and the public. Therefore, we suggest three improvements that can be made: communicate directly to the public, investigate immediately when suspicions occur, communicate the internal functions to the public. The first conclusion is that their form of reactive crisis management is that they have a weak pre-emptive crisis management, which consists of diffuse guidelines. After the crisis, these guidelines are adapted to the crisis. The second conclusion is that the organizations brand image and trustworthiness was affected negatively directly after the crisis occurred. However, today both the brand image and the trustworthiness have become stronger than before the crisis. Recommendation for future research is that it can be conducted in another area and include the behavior aspects of the respondents. In addition, the crisis communication team could be investigated.