Diese Dissertation besteht aus drei unabhängigen Kapiteln über mikroökonomische Themen. Die ersten beiden Kapitel befassen sich mit Themen der Industriökonomie und Wettbewerbstheorie, wohingegen das dritte Kapitel Fragestellungen von Cheap Talk Spielen untersucht. Kapitel 1 untersucht die Folgen, die sich aus einer partiellen Akquisition zwischen Wettbewerbern ergeben. Kapitel 2 analysiert die Auswirkungen einer Forschungs-und Entwicklungs (FuE)- Kooperation auf die Investitionsanreize in einem Markt, in dem eine Mehrproduktunternehmer mit einem Einzelproduktuntfirma konkurriert. Kapitel 3 untersucht die Funktion der Mediation zur Erleichterung der Kommunikation mit privaten Informationen. / This dissertation consists of three independent chapters in the field of microeconomics. The first two chapters are concerned with topics of industrial organization and competition policy, whereas the third chapter addresses some problems in cheap talk games. Chapter 1 studies anti-competitive issues that arise from partial acquisition between competitors. Chapter 2 analyzes the effects of cooperation on R&D investment incentives in a market where a multi-product firm competes with a single-product firm. The third chapter examines the role of mediation in facilitating communication with private information.

L’objectif de cette thèse est d’étudier les effets de pairs en finance d’entreprise. Trois essais portant sur les entreprises américaines sont proposés. La thèse est organisée en quatre chapitres. Le premier chapitre présente une revue de la littérature financière des théories et des modèles qui motivent les effets de pairs et le comportement de conformité. Plus précisément, nous définissons les effets de pairs et nous proposons une synthèse des études théoriques et empiriques identifiant les effets de pairs et leurs implications sur la psychologie humaine. Ensuite, nous résumons les théories les plus critiques dans la littérature financière qui se sont intéressées à l'impact du comportement des pairs sur les politiques financières de l'entreprise. Enfin, nous discutons les principales questions que pose la mesure des effets de pairs. Nous soulignons en conclusion de ce chapitre l’intérêt de ce sujet et nous présentons les axes d’orientation des recherches futures. Dans les chapitres suivants, nous examinons empiriquement ces effets de pairs dans trois domaines, non encore explorés, dans le contexte du marché américain. Il s'agit notamment de la « mauvaise conduite » des entreprises, du « bien-être » des employés et de l’investissement en recherche et développement.Le deuxième chapitre étudie la présence ou non d’un effet de pairs dans l’explication du comportement frauduleux des entreprises. En utilisant un échantillon de 3 034 entreprises américaines et couvrant la période de 1999 à 2014, nous montrons que les entreprises dont le siège social se situe dans les zones ayant le taux de fraude des « cols blancs » le plus élevé, ont une plus grande probabilité d’avoir un comportement frauduleux. Ce résultat suggère que l'interaction sociale au niveau régional encourage les entreprises à adopter une mauvaise conduite. Des tests complémentaires montrent que ces effets de pairs prévalent dans le cas des entreprises en difficulté alors que nous ne trouvons pas les mêmes résultats pour les entreprises en bonne situation financière. Nous constatons également que ces effets de pairs sont principalement présents dans les régions où le taux de criminalité est élevé, ce qui laisse supposer que les niveaux élevés de criminalité locale sont susceptibles de favoriser une culture de la fraude dans ces domaines.Le troisième chapitre explore les effets de pairs dans les politiques de « bien-être » des employés de l'entreprise. Nous montrons que les entreprises de pairs jouent un rôle important dans la définition des politiques de bien-être des employés d'une entreprise. En utilisant les données d’un échantillon américain de 9 062 observations année/entreprise couvrant la période de 1996 à 2013, nous constatons que les décisions de l'entreprise sur le bien-être des employés sont principalement des réponses aux politiques sociales de leurs pairs. En outre, nos résultats montrent que ce comportement est répandu chez les suiveurs, qui adoptent le comportement des « leaders », mais nous ne trouvons pas ce genre de comportement de la part des entreprises « leaders » du secteur d’activité.Le quatrième et dernier chapitre de la thèse étudie les effets de pairs dans la politique de recherche et développement (R&D) des entreprises. Nous montrons que les entreprises ne décident pas de leurs politiques en R&D d’une manière isolée puisque les entreprises pairs jouent un rôle essentiel dans la définition de ces dernières. En utilisant des données américaines pour un échantillon large de 54 393 observations entreprise/année sur la période de 1991 à 2015, nous constatons que les décisions R&D de l'entreprise sont principalement des réponses aux politiques R&D de leurs pairs. De plus, nous constatons que les effets de pairs en R&D ne sont significatifs qu'en présence d'une forte concurrence sur le marché des produits, alors que ces résultats ne sont pas vérifiés sur les marchés à faible concurrence. / This thesis explores the peer effects in corporate finance. The first chapter provides a review of literature on the theories and models that motivate peer effects and conformity behavior. Specifically, we emphasize on what precisely is meant by peer effects, how existing studies in the literature identify peer effects and its implications on human behavior. Next, we summarize the most critical theories in finance literature that encourage peer effects and the impact of peer behavior on firm financial policies. Last but not least, we discuss the main challenges in measuring peer effects and conclude the chapter by highlighting potential areas of future work in this field. The next chapters empirically examine these peer effects in three important, yet not explored areas of finance in the context of the US market. These include corporate misbehavior, employee welfare, and, research and development.The second chapter examines the presence of peer effects in corporate misbehavior. Using a sample of 3,034 US-listed firms covering 1999‒2014, we show that firms headquartered in areas with the higher white-collar fraud have a higher probability of corporate misbehavior, suggesting that area level social interaction encourages corporate misconduct. Additional analyses show that these peer effects prevail in distressed firms while we do not find such evidence for non-distressed firms. We also find that these peer effects are mainly present in areas with a high crime rate, suggesting that the high levels of local criminality are likely to favor a culture of fraud in these areas.The third chapter explores the peer effects in the firm’s employee welfare policies. We show that peer firms play a significant role in defining employee welfare policies of a firm. Using US panel data for a sample of 9,062 firm-year observations from 1996 to 2013, we find that firm’s employee welfare decisions are responses to their peers’ employee welfare policies. This impact is much higher than any other peer characteristics. Moreover, our additional analysis shows that this behavior is prevalent in followers, who mimic the behavior of leaders but we do not find any such relationship for industry leaders.The fourth and last chapter of the thesis empirically investigates firm peer effects in research and development (R&D) policies. We show that firms do not make their R&D decisions in isolation and peer firms play an essential role in defining the R&D intensity of a given firm. Using US panel data for a sample of 54,393 firm-year observations from 1991 to 2015, we find that firm’s R&D decisions are responses to their peers’ R&D policies. Further, we find that R&D peer effects are significant only in the presence of strong product market competition, while these results do not hold for markets with lower product market competition.

L’objet de la thèse est de traiter de la compétition automobile comme enjeu opérationnel pour l’entreprise publique française. Elle montre la part respective des impératifs de recherche-développement, de parrainage, puis sponsoring, de recherche d’une image de marque, de marketing et de maximisation des ventes. Elle démontre le rôle moteur des pétroliers, Shell-Berre d’abord, puis, sous l’impulsion gaullienne représentée par Pierre Guillaumat, le groupe Elf ERAP, dont ce dernier était le PDG. Ce ne fut qu’à partir de l’arrivée de Bernard Hanon, directeur général, puis PDG, au début des années 1980, que la Régie Renault prit le leadership en ce domaine. En effet, sous la pression de la crise de l’énergie et de l’opinion, Elf Aquitaine, dirigée par Albin Chalendon, s’éloigna de la compétition automobile au profit de la voile. / The purpose of the thesis is to treat motor racing as an operational issue for the French public company. It shows the respective roles of research and development, sponsorship, sponsoring, branding, marketing and sales maximization. It demonstrates the driving role of the biggest oil companies, Shell-Berre first, then, under the Gaullist impetus represented by Pierre Guillaumat, the Elf ERAP group, of which the latter was the CEO. It was not until the arrival of Bernard Hanon, general manager, then CEO, in the early 1980s, that the Régie Renault took the leadership in this area. Indeed, under the pressure of the crisis of energy and opinion, Elf Aquitaine, led by Albin Chalendon, moved away from the motor racing in favor of sailing.

Early project termination is one of the most difficult decisions to be made by Research and Development managers. While there is the risk of terminating good projects, there is also the opposite risk of not terminating bad projects and overspend resources in unproductive research. Criteria used for identifying these projects are common subject of research in Business Administration. In addition, companies might take important lessons from its interrupted projects that could improve their overall portfolio technical and commercial success. Finally, the set and weight of criteria, as well as the procedures companies use for achieve learning from cancelled projects may vary depending on the project type. This research intends to contribute to the understanding of policies applied to projects that were once considered attractive, but by some reason is not appreciated anymore. The research addressed the question: How companies deal with projects that become unattractive? More specifically, this research tried to answer the following questions: (1) Are projects killed or (otherwise) they die naturally by lack of resources? (2) What criteria are used to terminate projects during development? (3) How companies learn from the terminated projects to improve the overall portfolio performance? (4) Are the criteria and learning procedures different for different types of projects? In order to answer these questions, we performed a multiple case study with four companies that are reference in business administration and innovation: (1) Oxiteno, considered the base case, (2) Natura, the literal replication, (3) Mahle and (4) AES, the theoretical replications. The case studies were performed using a semi-structured protocol for interviews, which were recorded and analyzed for comparison. We found that the criteria companies use for selecting projects for termination are very similar to those anticipated by the literature, except for a criteria related to compliance. We have evidences to confirm that the set of criteria is not altered when dealing with different project types, however the weight they are applied indeed varies. We also found that learning with cancelled projects is yet very incipient, with very few structured formal procedures being described for capturing learning with early-terminated projects. However, we could observe that these procedures are more common when dealing with projects labeled as innovative, risky, big and costly, while those smaller and cheaper derivative projects aren\'t subject of a complete investigation on the learning they brought to the company. For these, the most common learning route is the informal, where the project team learns and passes the knowledge though interpersonal information exchange. We explain that as a matter of cost versus benefit of spending time to deeply investigate projects with little potential to bring new knowledge to the project team and the organization / Terminação precoce de projetos é uma das decisões mais difíceis a serem tomadas pelos gerentes de pesquisa e desenvolvimento. Enquanto há o risco de terminar bons projetos, há também o risco oposto de não encerrar maus projetos e ter recursos alocados em pesquisa improdutiva. Os critérios utilizados para a identificação destes projetos são objeto comum de investigação em Administração de Empresas. Além disso, as empresas podem tirar lições importantes com seus projetos interrompidos que poderiam melhorar o desempenho técnico e comercial da sua carteira. Finalmente, o conjunto de critérios e respectivos pesos, bem como os procedimentos usados pelas empresas para reter aprendizado a partir da interrupção de projetos, podem variar dependendo do tipo de projeto. Esta pesquisa pretende contribuir para a compreensão das políticas aplicadas a projetos que já foram considerados atraentes, mas por alguma razão não são mais apreciados. A pesquisa abordou a questão: Como as empresas lidam com projetos que se tornam pouco atraentes? Mais especificamente, esta pesquisa procurou responder às seguintes questões: (1) São os projetos encerrados ou (caso contrário) eles morrem naturalmente por falta de recursos? (2) Que critérios são usados para encerrar projetos durante o desenvolvimento? (3) Como as empresas aprendem com os projetos terminados de modo a melhorar o desempenho geral da carteira? (4) Os critérios e procedimentos de aprendizagem são diferentes para diferentes tipos de projetos? A fim de responder a essas perguntas, foi realizado um estudo de caso múltiplo com quatro empresas que são referência em administração de empresas e inovação: (1) Oxiteno, considerado o caso base, (2) Natura, a replicação literal, (3) Mahle e (4) AES, as replicações teóricas. Os estudos de caso foram realizados utilizando um protocolo semiestruturado para as entrevistas, que foram gravadas e analisadas para comparação. Descobrimos que os critérios usados pelas empresas para identificação dos projetos candidatos ao cancelamento são muito semelhantes àqueles antecipados pela literatura, com exceção de um critério relacionado com a existência de indícios de corrupção. A pesquisa gerou evidências que corroboram a ideia de que o conjunto de critérios não é alterado quando se lida com diferentes tipos de projeto, no entanto, varia o peso atribuído a cada um na sua aplicação. Também descobrimos que a aprendizagem com projetos cancelados é ainda muito incipiente. As empresas descreveram muito poucos procedimentos formais estruturados para a captura de aprendizagem com projetos terminados precocemente. No entanto, pode-se observar que estes procedimentos são mais comuns quando se trata de projetos rotulados como inovadores, arriscados, grandes e caros. Os projetos derivados, menores e mais baratos, não são objeto de uma investigação completa sobre o aprendizado que eles trouxeram para a empresa. Para estes, a rota de aprendizagem mais comum é a informal, onde a equipe do projeto aprende e passa o conhecimento à frente por meio de intercâmbio de informações entre as pessoas. Nós explicamos este achado como uma questão de custo versus benefício de pessoal de P&D para investigar profundamente projetos com pouco potencial de trazer conhecimentos valiosos para a organização.

Os modelos de crescimento econômico mostram que a única forma de promover o crescimento sustentado da economia é por meio do progresso tecnológico. Porém, a manutenção de um fluxo crescente de inovações tecnológicas requer uma forte estrutura de pesquisa e desenvolvimento (P&D), o que implica em uma série de gastos por parte de ambos os setores, público e privado. Conseqüentemente, as instituições de pesquisa são crescentemente cobradas quanto aos resultados dos recursos nelas investidos, o que torna interessante a realização de estudos que procurem avaliar os retornos de tais investimentos e determinar quão proveitosos estes vêm-se revelando para a sociedade. Encontram-se na literatura diversos estudos objetivando medir os retornos econômicos provenientes dos investimentos em P&D na agricultura em geral, porém, existem poucos trabalhos para setores específicos. Desta forma, o presente estudo teve como principal objetivo medir o retorno econômico dos investimentos em pesquisa na citricultura paulista. A justificativa para a escolha do setor analisado é que o Brasil, além de representar sozinho cerca de 80% do total de suco de laranja concentrado e congelado comercializado no mercado internacional, responde por 28% da produção mundial de laranja. O Estado de São Paulo, por sua vez, responde por cerca de 80% da produção nacional de laranja e 98% das exportações brasileiras de suco concentrado. A relevância econômica dessa atividade no Estado tem estimulado inúmeras pesquisas, especialmente em relação aos aspectos fitossanitários, uma vez que a citricultura paulista é fortemente atacada por uma série de pragas e doenças, desde o seu surgimento. A metodologia utilizada para a estimativa do retorno aos investimentos na pesquisa citrícola foi o cálculo da produtividade total dos fatores (PTF), através do Índice de Tornqüist, para posterior comparação com os gastos em pesquisa. Além disso, utilizou-se o método do valor presente líquido (VPL) para comparação entre diferentes cenários com relação à contaminação dos pomares, de modo a estimar o dano econômico evitado pela descoberta e pelo controle das doenças. Dentre os principais resultados encontrados verificou-se que para cada R$1,00 investido na pesquisa citrícola obtém-se um aumento de R$ 13,67 no valor da produção de laranja no Estado de São Paulo. Com relação às perdas de produtividade evitadas graças ao controle das principais doenças, verificou-se que se o cancro cítrico não fosse rigorosamente controlado através da erradicação, o prejuízo teria sido ao redor de R$ 2 bilhões nos últimos 35 anos. Finalmente, a partir da simulação de diferentes níveis de contaminação pelo greening os resultados sugeriram que o prejuízo causado pela possível disseminação desta doença nos pomares paulistas seria bastante significativo nos próximos 20 anos, especialmente se estiverem associados a um cenário de manejo integrado do cancro cítrico, ao invés da erradicação. Em outras palavras, os resultados do estudo corroboram a importância dos investimentos em P&D na citricultura paulista. / The economic growth models show that the only way to promote a sustained growth of the economy is through technological progress. However, keeping a growing technological innovation flow requires a strong research and development - R&D structure, demanding expenses from both public and private sectors. Consequently, the research institutions have been increasingly charged about the outcomes from applied funds, which turn necessary to conceptualize and evaluate such R&D investment returns, as well as to highlight what benefits they can reveal to society. There are several studies aiming to assess the whole agriculture R&D investments returns, whereas only few studies has been doing towards to specific sectors. Thus, the general objective of this study is to assess the economic return from R&D investments in São Paulo State's citrus sector over the last 35 years. Brazil represents 80% of the total frozen concentrated orange juice - FCOJ commercialized in the international market, and 28% of the world orange production. São Paulo State is responsible by 80% of national orange production and 98% of Brazilian FCOJ exportation. The economic importance of this industry has been stimulating several research activities, especially related to plant disease aspects, given that São Paulo's citrus sector is strongly threatened by pests and diseases. It was used the Tornqüist Index Method to estimate the citrus industry total productivity of factors - TPF, in order to compare the outcomes with citrus R&D investments. In addition, the net present value - NPV method was used to compare different scenarios, in relation to citrus canker and greening outbreak in São Paulo's groves, to estimate the economic losses avoided due to diseases control. For every R$1 invested in the citrus industry R&D, it was found that R$13,67 is risen on the São Paulo State orange production value. In relation to avoided economic losses due to diseases control, if the citrus canker had not been controlled through tree eradication, the economic losses would have been approximately R$2 billion throughout the past 35 years. Finally, from different levels of citrus greening outbreak simulation, the results suggest that the damage caused by the possible citrus greening outbreak in São Paulo's orchards would be quite significant for the next 20 years, especially if the levels are associated with canker integrated management, regardless of eradication program. Summarizing, the results achieved from this work reinforces the remarkable importance of São Paulo's citrus sector R&D investments.

This thesis examines the theoretical premises of and ways that macro deliberative approaches to decision making function in application to specific instances of science and technology governance. Macro-level deliberations constitute complex, extended, distributed decision making processes, in contrast to individual micro deliberation exercises undertaken in particular settings. Macro deliberations employ the mechanism of ‘division of labour' in terms of actors, tasks and methods in order to secure the two essential qualities of ‘inclusiveness' and ‘deliberativeness' – thus resolving the inherent tension between number of participants and deep discussion. Accordingly, the thesis focuses on the ways in which this paradoxical mechanism of ‘inclusion by division' functions in macro deliberations. An interrogation of two UK nationwide public deliberation cases – GM Dialogue (on GM crops) and the CoRWM process (on radioactive waste) – sheds light on the significant role of reflexivity in such macro deliberative approaches to decision making. The thesis adopts a triangulated approach towards both documents and interviews employing contending representations to cross-check the one with the other. In considering the ways in which reflexivity constitutes a critical quality of the process and outcome of division of labour in macro deliberations, the thesis argues that the notion of reflexivity is central to explaining how macro deliberation functions: The reflective and self-contingent feature of reflexivity enables participants to explore diverse rationales on division of labour through continuous generation of new rationales; this recursive self-reconfiguration process of rationales on division of labour entails an evolutionary development of division of labour. As division of labour is played out not in a static, exogenous fashion, but through a dynamic, endogenous construction process, reflexivity in real-world macro deliberations illuminates some significant contrasts in the ways that ‘deliberation' and ‘inclusion' take place to those characterised in theory. Indeed, deliberation emerges in practice as more than just open rational dialogue. In order to understand this more fully, it must be seen in terms of diversity of material, social and political interactions, and relationships – referred to here as ‘discursive relations'. In reality, then, inclusion occurs in more emergent ways than intended by design, rather, unfolding as participants engage with each other. In this way, actors' divergent views are cross-reflected and mutually influence each other, not through theoretically-envisaged top-down aggregation but via a kind of endogenous ‘fermentation' process. In this way, reflexivity actually makes macro public deliberation a more effectively inclusive and deliberative decision making process. In short, recognition of this inherent reflexivity in macro deliberations offers practically to aid improved understanding of the complex process of engagement in science and technology governance. It suggests that we would benefit from shifting our attention somewhat away from the direct provision of strictly prescriptive design protocols towards the construction of better general environments for facilitating more reflexivity, which should enable actors to shape their own reflexive deliberation. Then let them brew!

The aim of my master's thesis is to assess the influence of research support of European Union on location and competitiveness of European high-tech industry. After defining high-tech industry according to OECD and ČSÚ (Czech statistical office) follows a part dealing with different forms of support of EU for high-tech industry, while the focus is also on volume and efficiency of invested money. I try to analyze the location with regard to European support and Porter's diamond theory. Since high-tech industry is usually concentrated in clusters, which are rather abundant in Europe as well, the focus is only on a few selected regions. Last part compares European competitiveness with that of other OECD members and developing countries based on data from OECD and Eurostat.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

The purpose of this study is to determine the scientific and technological, economic, social and organizational impacts of the European Framework Programmes (FPs) on Turkish universities by focusing on the projects in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), Energy, Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology (KBBE) themes in order to understand, monitor and evaluate outcomes and impacts of FPs as well as to help decision makers and policy makers to develop strategies for maximizing benefits of participation. Data/document review and survey methods were used as evaluation methods. T&Uuml / BITAK and EC&rsquo / s data and document were reviewed. An online survey was sent to the academicians who have Seventh Framework Projects (FP7) projects in these themes in Turkey. Data that were gathered by survey were analyzed by using Mann-Whitney U Test Method. We concluded that the impacts of these four categories of FP7 projects were high on the universities. Value additions of scientific and technological impacts are relatively high compared to other impacts. Universities whose roles were coordinator or WP leader have higher impacts in all factors. Turkey&#039 / s participation and success in the FP7 are growing thanks to T&Uuml / BITAK&rsquo / s effort, but further efforts are needed for meeting competitive participation within a defined strategy. Bearing in mind the results of the impact analyses, the study supports Turkey&rsquo / s continuity to forthcoming FPs but there is need for developing national strategies to maximize benefits of participation and to integrate the outcomes with the national innovation strategy.

The rapid growth of Science and Technology has made the use of scientific information a problem of international concern. To keep abreast of current research the scientist and engineer can use a multitude of information sources. In this study the problem of information use is analysed and a theoretical framework is developed and applied in several case-studies of formal and informal communication. The case-studies include surveys among scientists, engineers and social scientists in different R&D-settings. Information about research is looked upon as a fundamental resource for R&D activities. It is demonstrated that information use and communication behavior are related to research productivity. However the use of both written and oral information sources is limited by barriers related to the individual user, his position in the social structure of the research community and organisation as well as the availability of information resources. In order to improve the use of knowledge it is necessary to integrate the information and documentation functions with the planning and conduct of research. In this context user education and marketing of information resources are important prerequisites. Information search and library use in higher education are analysed and discussed in relation to pedagogical methods and the maintainance of professional competence. Special attention is also given to computerized reference retrieval services and their evaluation. / digitalisering@umu