As an increasing number of homeowners decide to take advantage of distributed renewable resources such as rooftop solar, we may need to rethink the current regulatory paradigm and governance structure of the electric market. This thesis examines the shortcomings of current net metering programs in California. While the current Net Metering 2.0 proceeding highlights a clash of solar advocates and electric utilities, it is in fact revealing an underlying structural flaw that has been present all along. In order to send the appropriate price signals to solar customers, both the structure by which utilities recover costs and the rate at which solar customers are compensated must be reconceived. I show how the current debates over the appropriate price to compensate solar customer are built on a flawed rate structure. Without addressing the underlying inefficiencies of current rate structures, it is unlikely that we will maintain utilities’ financial ability to operate and maintain grid infrastructure and provide solar customers with the proper incentives to reach the ideal transition to solar energy.

No description available.

The major objectives of this study are: (1) to develop a practical approach for evaluating, periodically and in quantitative terms, the effectiveness of management information systems; (2) to develop an evaluative device to check the results produced by the suggested approach. A modified semantic differential is developed and used for this purpose; and (3) to test the practicability and validity of the suggested approach by applying it on a sample of organisations for the purpose of evaluating the effectiveness of their management information systems. The foundation for the suggested approach is synthesised from the relevant literature. Specifically, a survey is undertaken of the literature in management information systems, accounting and psychology. The suggested approach assumes that users' satisfaction with the information provided by an information system indicates that the information is useful and consequently the system is effective. The approach takes also into consideration the views of both the providers of information and the persons affected by the decisions taken which are based, among other things, on the information provided by the system. A set of information criteria is developed to measure information utility and consequently the effectiveness of a management information system can be determined. To express the effectiveness in quantitative terms, a point scoring model is used so that the results can be compared from one period to the next. Also an operational framework of the suggested approach is developed. To evaluate the results produced by the suggested approach, the semantic differential is modified, based on the views of a sample of users of information and individuals involved in the preparation of management information, and is used as an evaluative device. As no similar research conducted on the effectiveness of management information systems in nationalised industries was found, it may be useful to test the suggested approach in this field. This application achieves two purposes: (1) primarily, to test the practicability and validity of the approach; and (2) to fill a gap in knowledge concerning the effectiveness of management information systems in nationalised industries. The results of this empirical study are based on the views of 198 individuals involved in the preparation of management information, who use the information and are affected by the decisions taken, which are based, among other things, on information.

This study presents a detailed analysis of the public relations organization, objectives, and practices of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, Dallas, Texas. Information sources included interviews with telephone company public relations personnel, company publications, and other publications. The five chapters deal with the history and development of the company and its public relations program, and the organization, functions, and operations of the public relations department. With a long and varied history of public relations activities, the company executes numerous activities for employees, customers, educational institutions, the community, stockholders, and the media. The study recommends that the department establish a committee to formulate long-range public relations goals, initiate a management orientation program, and advertise in area high school and college publications.

This research evaluates the change observed during the implementation of an outsourced application development within a large defence organisation in Europe. Whereas most extant research focuses on the firm level or dyadic relations this research aims to uncover how different outcomes can be explained by attending to the micro-processes and specific mechanisms of work between purposive actors as they create the new service. The research was a longitudinal, six-year in-depth participant observation focused on the implementation of an HRM application carried out by six case organisations within a consortium formed to implement the service. The results of the field study are based on a grounded analysis from semi-structured interviews, focus groups, documents, and over 5,000 email communications involving a total of 62 stakeholders. A conceptual framework of neo-institutional theory, practice and power was used to analyse the process of change as the consortium worked together to deliver the outsourcing. The findings showed that political goals and behaviour influenced and shaped the outsourcing implementation and exposed the systemic nature of conflict within a constrained project context. The high conflict observed was shown to negatively influence success and supports the notion that strong contracting is only effective in stable contexts. It was also shown that tight control can negatively impact collaboration, by reducing adaptability, forcing vendors to take an inflexible posture. This type of behaviour was observed to increase power and conflict within the project and buyers reacted by increasing control and applying sanctions. This resulting in increased conflict and was a form of feedback loop. The findings also showed control in general is ineffective and can be overwhelmed in situations where there is high demand uncertainty. These observations add to the outsourcing and power/political literature by showing the central role of power and conflict and suggests the final configuration of an outsourcing is a negotiated order that may be at variance to the original objectives. Implications for practice: From a practical perspective, managers should think carefully before rushing into tight preventative contracts and consider the complexity of the demanded service and degree of completeness in their requirements. High uncertainty can lead to outsourcing failure, conflict within the implementation, and unmet expectations, unless specific mechanisms are in place to mitigate this. Furthermore, embedding new work processes and procedures to manage the service within the buying organisation is fundamental to how outsourcing actually works. Buyers and suppliers must pay attention to the design and implementation of processes and routines to manage effective delivery of the outsourced service.

To make the most of emergent techno-economic innovations, countries around the world must constantly upgrade their physical infrastructure and infrastructure systems – more than ever now that the world is facing growing environmental constraints. Public policies that foster the transformation of established infrastructure sectors, and encourage the development of new ones, can help to speed up and direct these structural changes. But to be effective, these policies must take into account how the process of development of new sectors varies among different infrastructure sectors, how it varies with respect to other kinds of sector, and how it varies in different institutional contexts. In this work, I show how three new infrastructure sectors developed in Chile, a ‘Hierarchical Market Economy' characterised by the dominance of diversified business groups and subsidiaries of multinational enterprises, a segmented labour market, and a low-skills equilibrium. These three sectors are the ones that first started to build wind farms, solar PV systems, and anaerobic digesters in the country, and in the study I characterize three aspects of their development process: a) the economic changes that turned these new (to the country) kinds of infrastructure facilities into attractive entrepreneurial opportunities; b) the economic agents that discovered these opportunities and developed them into viable investment projects, and those that sponsored and procured finance to build these projects; and c) the means by which these economic agents became capable of undertaking the relatively novel activities that their entrepreneurial initiative demanded. The resulting rich description of new sectoral development processes in Hierarchical Market Economies helps to understand what makes these processes vary inter-sectorally, cross-sectorally, and cross-nationally.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-198). / A design that proposes the redefinition of the role of a power plant facility within a community by creating a humane environment for recreation, education, community gathering, living, and energy production; rather than the traditional remote and often inhumane environments of the present. This thesis explores the design of a small scale alternative energy plant as the center of a new framework for revitalizing small industries, developing industrial cogeneration of energy, and redeveloping mixed use commercial, office, and residential areas within the context of a deteriorated urban neighborhood. Located in a historic area of Rockford, Illinois, the design incorporates some fifty new passive solar residences and a 34,000 square foot clean energy plant within an eleven and one- half acre inner-city site. Fueled by the sun, the wind, the Rock River, and the community's municipal refuse and sewage, this neighborhood alternative energy plant (NAEP) represents not only a renewable energy resource, but both a recreational and educational resource as well. The challenge of this project is to provide an integrated alternative method for both producing power and participating in its production. Included in the design of this NAEP are: an overview of alternative energy use in architecture and community planning; a history of small scale power generation within the context of the neighborhood; a master plan for the site; design of the facility; and energy and economic analysis, designed to demonstrate the viability of the project within a contemporary marketplace. / by Douglas James Brooks. / M.Arch.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

This thesis emerged as a result from the desire to know how the Public Service of Malaysia is coping up with the demands of quality services from the public. The Public Service, in meeting the aspirations of the Government, on providing quality services to the public, has introduced a number of quality programmes. In spite of this positive move to inculcate a quality work culture among the Public Service employees, the public is said to be still complaining about public services. In this situation, investigations are required to determine the true status of the level of quality of services delivered by the Public Service. These investigations involved measuring service quality and the SERVQUAL instrument of measuring service quality, which has been tested for its reliability, has been introduced. After obtaining the measurements, shown in the form of service quality gaps, further investigations was carried out to identify the cause of the service quality gaps. It was discovered that service quality can be affected by the internal service gaps and in this case, the service performance gap is the main cause of the service quality gap. Further investigations narrowed down the cause of the service quality gap to performance appraisal. Therefore insight was gained about the improper implementation of performance appraisal which can affect quality. The invaluable findings obtained from the thesis about the Public Service prompted suggestions to be made about ways of improving quality services delivered by the Public Service.

Thesis (M. Ec.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Economics, 1986. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 213-225).