Abstract In fashion industry, customer demand is constantly changing. One of the main reasons is due to the time of delicate fashion awareness among the consumers, which has come into larger variety and frequent assortment changes. The changing trends in fashion industry allow researchers to get into the postponement strategy as a customized operation in order to focus on quality and flexibility. In today’s fashion market the key for success is to keep an eye on and react to the customer demand. H&M is Europe’s second largest fashion retailer in terms of sales and our work will reflect on H&M supply chain particularly. We try to figure out business strategies such as mass customization and standardization, which H&M is using in their entire supplier chain and in his different processes. Keeping this view in mind, we design our research question, which is about mass customization and standardization and we try to relate these business strategies to the postponement. We try to find out the structure and implementation of these strategies in H&M supply chain with the help of our respondent answers in our proposed questionnaire. For this purpose, an electronic interview with the H&M senior merchandiser in Pakistan liaison office was carried out. The questionnaire contains different questions related to postponement strategy, customization, and standardization and other processes which are used in the supply chain of any fashion industry. The questionnaire consists of 22 major questions. Our research is purely qualitative. We include both types of the data; namely secondary and primary. Secondary data was collected from earlier studies of the literature and related theories of postponement, customization, and standardization and certain areas of fashion retailing, whereas primary data was collected through the electronic interview with Mr. Syed Naqeeb who is working in H&M liaison office as a senior merchandiser in Pakistan. After receiving the questionnaire, we have tried to highlight our research questions with the help of our proposed Frame of Reference in Chapter 2. The Frame of Reference consists of theories which will help the reader to get the clear picture of fashion retailing and the related theories. In the Analysis section, we talk about the activities of H&M and its background followed by its business concept. We define H&M SCM model and draw a figure of H&M complementarities, which we developed by the help of electronic interview. In the Conclusion part, we come to the point that customization and postponement affect fashion retailing by choosing raw material, components, and apparel accessories plus logistic management. The other aspect of our research area is standardization. After the analysis we come to know that Standardization and postponement are also used together in the supply chain of H&M, in raw material, cotton and yarn, dying, packaging and in the care instruction of labels (washing instructions).

Each of the three essays in this dissertation deals with asset timing or allocation using technical techniques and pattern recognition. The first essay uses a technical indicator, the stochastic oscillator, for market timing in the bond market. The trading strategy using this technical indicator is optimized using a genetic algorithm The second essay finds that a measure of market chaos improves the performance of a simple trend-following technique in the stock market. The last essay uses technical analysis for asset allocation. A neural network with technical indicator inputs outperforms both a passive asset mix strategy and a neural network with economic data as inputs.

In this thesis I examine, within a behavioural finance framework, the impact on stock prices of order and trade imbalance in three separate but related studies. The first study, chapter two, begins with a question that plagues behavioural finance theories???do the investors most likely to be influenced by the behavioural biases described in the literature, i.e., individual investors, affect stock prices? My data enable me to consider the impact of net individual investor trading for the entire market over several years. I find that net individual investor purchasing Grangercauses stock price changes. The correlation is negative, however, contradicting common sense by demonstrating that individuals investor buying pressure makes prices go down and selling pressure forces them up. More investigation is required. Chapter three references order imbalance results from experimental finance. I use field data to test a robust laboratory model and my modified versions. My findings suggest that, with appropriate modifications, laboratory results can be applied to real financial markets. Chapter four combines the data from the chapters two and three to revisit the question of individual investor impact on stock prices. Other studies have argued that individual investor influence is strongest in smaller capitalization stocks. Moreover, various theories propose that individual investors are the driving force behind the irrational stock prices of a bubble. I focus on the stocks from chapter three, bubble stocks, and ask whether, in the context of the trading of the entire market, individual investor trades are influential. Once again I find Grangercausality, but in the wrong direction. Moreover, the activity and volume of the individual investor category of the holdings data is completely overshadowed by that of the two large investor categories, domestic and foreign institutions. I conclude that individual investor trades are not influential in determining stock prices. This conclusion has important implications for some behavioural finance models of asset pricing. I suggest that emphasis might be better placed on educating individual investors about the errors to which they are prone, rather than on trying to explain market anomalies with those errors.

In this thesis I examine, within a behavioural finance framework, the impact on stock prices of order and trade imbalance in three separate but related studies. The first study, chapter two, begins with a question that plagues behavioural finance theories???do the investors most likely to be influenced by the behavioural biases described in the literature, i.e., individual investors, affect stock prices? My data enable me to consider the impact of net individual investor trading for the entire market over several years. I find that net individual investor purchasing Grangercauses stock price changes. The correlation is negative, however, contradicting common sense by demonstrating that individuals investor buying pressure makes prices go down and selling pressure forces them up. More investigation is required. Chapter three references order imbalance results from experimental finance. I use field data to test a robust laboratory model and my modified versions. My findings suggest that, with appropriate modifications, laboratory results can be applied to real financial markets. Chapter four combines the data from the chapters two and three to revisit the question of individual investor impact on stock prices. Other studies have argued that individual investor influence is strongest in smaller capitalization stocks. Moreover, various theories propose that individual investors are the driving force behind the irrational stock prices of a bubble. I focus on the stocks from chapter three, bubble stocks, and ask whether, in the context of the trading of the entire market, individual investor trades are influential. Once again I find Grangercausality, but in the wrong direction. Moreover, the activity and volume of the individual investor category of the holdings data is completely overshadowed by that of the two large investor categories, domestic and foreign institutions. I conclude that individual investor trades are not influential in determining stock prices. This conclusion has important implications for some behavioural finance models of asset pricing. I suggest that emphasis might be better placed on educating individual investors about the errors to which they are prone, rather than on trying to explain market anomalies with those errors.

Les crises récentes sont la manifestation la plus concrète des limites du mode d’accumulation actuel. Ce régime, à dominante financière, laisse libre jeu aux comportements grégaires, source de fragilité et de dysfonctionnement des systèmes économiques et financiers. Au regard de cette évolution de la finance globale, marquée fortement par des épisodes répétés de crises et d’instabilité, nous proposons dans une première partie un travail d’analyse des différents facteurs qui fragilisent le système financier mondial. Il s’agit pour nous de déceler tout ce qui pourrait constituer un vecteur d’instabilité ou de crise. Nous établissons le lien direct entre la libéralisation financière, la spéculation et les crises, et nous démontrons que les stratégies spéculatives des fonds de performance, des fonds d’investissement et des banques d’affaires sont les sources majeures d’instabilité. Nous présentons un examen critique exhaustif de l’ambigüité qui caractérise les résultats des études théoriques et empiriques dans leurs traitements des effets déstabilisants de la globalisation. Dans la seconde partie, nous étudions l’efficacité des contrôles des mouvements internationaux de capitaux en cas de crise. L’examen des expériences de certains pays nous permet de mettre la lumière sur les avantages et les coûts de ces contrôles. Nous nous intéressons aux pays émergents qui s’étaient engagés dans la libéralisation du compte de capital à la suite d’une forte ouverture au commerce internationale et qui ont réinstauré les contrôles pour limiter les potentiels déstabilisants des entrées massives de capitaux (comme le Chili), ou pour éviter des sorties massives de capitaux en période de crise (comme la Malaisie). Nous étudions aussi les conditions qui limitent l’efficacité des contrôles. / Recent crises are the most concrete manifestation of the limitations of current accumulation mode. The scheme, predominantly financial, gives free play to herd behavior, a source of weakness and dysfunction of the economic and financial systems. Given this evolution of global finance, strongly marked by repeated episodes of crises and instability, we propose in the first part of a job analysis of the various factors which undermine the global financial system. It is for us to identify anything that might be a vector of instability or crisis. We establish the direct link between financial liberalization, speculation and crises, and demonstrate that speculative fund performance, investment funds and investment banks strategies are the major sources of instability. We present a comprehensive critical review of the ambiguity that characterizes the results of theoretical and empirical studies in their treatments destabilizing effects of globalization. In the second part, we study the effectiveness of controls on international capital movements in time of crisis. A review of the experiences of some countries allows us to shed light on the benefits and costs of such monitoring. We focus on emerging markets, which were engaged in the liberalization of the capital account after a strong opening to international trade and have reintroduced controls to limit the destabilizing potential of strong capital inflows (such as Chile), or to avoid massive capital outflows in times of crisis (such as Malaysia). We also study the conditions that limit the effectiveness of controls.

The aim of this research study is to examine the impact of Saudi Arabian culture on corporate governance (CG) and its regulatory compliance with respect to the protection of minority shareholders’ interests. The protection of minority shareholders is a primary concern in the area of CG and particularly as defined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) principles. In Saudi Arabia, CG is a newly introduced regime. Its set of CG principles was initially issued after the first market crash in 2006, which signified the need for appropriate CG standards in Saudi Arabia because minority shareholders suffered catastrophic losses. Moreover, CG legislation in Saudi Arabia is still slowly moving from voluntary to obligatory because family-owned firms, which is the dominant form of incorporation, are stifling corporate growth by their reluctance to open their equity to outside shareholders, as argued by the OECD report of Koldertsova (2011). Hence, the conceptual framework for understanding how Saudi Culture affects minorities is based upon Hofstede’s (1980-2010) Cultural Value Dimension (CVD) model linking societal constructs with the legal and political milieu. Thus, this research sets out to examine this link in relevance to Saudi Culture. In addition, this undertaking will extend, via the second research question, to uncover other factors, such as the legal and political, influencing the level of compliance of listed Saudi corporations with the OECD principles with respect to the protection of minority shareholder rights. The findings of this study provides significant correlations between each of Hofstede’s CVDs: Individualism, Power Distance, Uncertainty Avoidance, Femininity, and Long Term Orientation and the quality of the exercise of minority shareholders’ rights as defined by the OECD’s principles of CG in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the distribution of each CV dimension was found not to be the same when comparing groups of Majority and Minority shareholders. Hence, the significant correlations expose two different subcultures: an active culture pertaining to Majority shareholders and a passive culture pertaining to Minority shareholders in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the current legal environment guiding the CG procedures in Saudi Arabia was found to attach a low level of significance to minority shareholders in terms of: ease of litigation, establishment of specialised courts, appointment of competent qualified judges in CG commercial cases, and creation of awareness programmes for minority shareholders’ rights. In addition, the lack of a solid constitution was found to weaken popular pressure to safeguard shareholders' rights and promote a block-holding model of corporate control. Hence, due to governmental institutions falling short on their responsibilities, Saudi controlling families can practically be considered as an institution, as indicated by Institutional Theory, and this familial institution is likely to continue to manifest itself in the governance of emerging economic systems such as Saudi Arabia's as its survival is dependent on the institutional context.

O espaço urbano é percebido de diferentes maneiras pelos atores que participam de sua produção. No modelo de produção capitalista o espaço tornou-se uma mercadoria diferenciada, com alto grau de liquidez, propiciando elevados rendimentos àqueles que o possuem. Contudo, numa sociedade, cujo modelo prima pela diferenciação, nem todos pode usufruir do espaço de maneira igual. Em Boa Vista, capital do Estado de Roraima, ao observarmos os diferentes espaços, percebemos que o processo de urbanização caracterizou-se por uma forte segregação sócio espacial, que impulsiona para as áreas menos propicias a ocupação parcela significativa da sociedade. Nesse trabalho, objetivamos compreender essa dinâmica de exclusão a partir da análise da atuação dos agentes que coordenam a produção do espaço urbano. É fundamental nesse processo percebermos o papel do Estado, como agente regulador do uso e ocupação do solo urbano, utilizando-se dos mecanismos legais que lhe estão disponíveis. Para tanto, amparamo-nos numa metodologia de pesquisa exploratória, utilizando-se de questionários para capturar os dados necessários para nossa análise, além da observação direta da paisagem. O recorte espacial proposto, a área de ocupação irregular Monte das Oliveiras, propiciou-nos um melhor entendimento da dinâmica de expansão urbana impulsionada pela segregação, condicionando homem e meio a impactos, muitas vezes, irreversíveis. É nessa perspectiva que, por fim, apresentamos, após uma criteriosa análise dos dados obtidos, algumas considerações sobre o processo de produção do espaço urbano de Boa Vista-RR, destacando a influencia da especulação imobiliária, o papel do Estado e da sociedade. / The urban space has been seen of different ways by the actors that have participate in its production. In the model of capitalist production space has become a commodity differentiated, with a high degree of liquidity, providing high income to those who possess it. However, in a society whose material model for differentiation, not everyone can enjoy the space equally. In Boa Vista, Roraima State capital, we observe the different spaces, to find that the urbanization process was characterized by a strong socio-spatial segregation, which impels it to areas less conducive to occupation significant portion of society. In this study, we aimed to understand the dynamics of exclusion from the analysis of the activities of agents who coordinate the production of urban space. It is vital to this process to realize the state's role as a regulator of the use and occupation of urban land, using the legal mechanisms available to you. For that, we took on a methodology for exploratory research, using questionnaires to capture the necessary data for our analysis beyond the direct observation of the landscape. The spatial area proposed, the area of irregular occupation Monte das Oliveiras, allowed us a better understanding of the dynamics of urban expansion driven by segregation, conditioning the middle man and impacts, often irreversible. In this perspective, finally, we present, after a careful data analysis, some considerations about the production process of urban areas of Boa Vista-RR, highlighting the influence of speculation office, the paper of state and society.

O espaço urbano é percebido de diferentes maneiras pelos atores que participam de sua produção. No modelo de produção capitalista o espaço tornou-se uma mercadoria diferenciada, com alto grau de liquidez, propiciando elevados rendimentos àqueles que o possuem. Contudo, numa sociedade, cujo modelo prima pela diferenciação, nem todos pode usufruir do espaço de maneira igual. Em Boa Vista, capital do Estado de Roraima, ao observarmos os diferentes espaços, percebemos que o processo de urbanização caracterizou-se por uma forte segregação sócio espacial, que impulsiona para as áreas menos propicias a ocupação parcela significativa da sociedade. Nesse trabalho, objetivamos compreender essa dinâmica de exclusão a partir da análise da atuação dos agentes que coordenam a produção do espaço urbano. É fundamental nesse processo percebermos o papel do Estado, como agente regulador do uso e ocupação do solo urbano, utilizando-se dos mecanismos legais que lhe estão disponíveis. Para tanto, amparamo-nos numa metodologia de pesquisa exploratória, utilizando-se de questionários para capturar os dados necessários para nossa análise, além da observação direta da paisagem. O recorte espacial proposto, a área de ocupação irregular Monte das Oliveiras, propiciou-nos um melhor entendimento da dinâmica de expansão urbana impulsionada pela segregação, condicionando homem e meio a impactos, muitas vezes, irreversíveis. É nessa perspectiva que, por fim, apresentamos, após uma criteriosa análise dos dados obtidos, algumas considerações sobre o processo de produção do espaço urbano de Boa Vista-RR, destacando a influencia da especulação imobiliária, o papel do Estado e da sociedade. / The urban space has been seen of different ways by the actors that have participate in its production. In the model of capitalist production space has become a commodity differentiated, with a high degree of liquidity, providing high income to those who possess it. However, in a society whose material model for differentiation, not everyone can enjoy the space equally. In Boa Vista, Roraima State capital, we observe the different spaces, to find that the urbanization process was characterized by a strong socio-spatial segregation, which impels it to areas less conducive to occupation significant portion of society. In this study, we aimed to understand the dynamics of exclusion from the analysis of the activities of agents who coordinate the production of urban space. It is vital to this process to realize the state's role as a regulator of the use and occupation of urban land, using the legal mechanisms available to you. For that, we took on a methodology for exploratory research, using questionnaires to capture the necessary data for our analysis beyond the direct observation of the landscape. The spatial area proposed, the area of irregular occupation Monte das Oliveiras, allowed us a better understanding of the dynamics of urban expansion driven by segregation, conditioning the middle man and impacts, often irreversible. In this perspective, finally, we present, after a careful data analysis, some considerations about the production process of urban areas of Boa Vista-RR, highlighting the influence of speculation office, the paper of state and society.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo abordar a leitura que o jovem Hegel faz da filosofia kantiana, tendo como foco o desenvolvimento da noção de especulação a partir da relação estabelecida com a reflexão, característica fundamental daquela filosofia. Através do reconhecimento da presença de idéias especulativas nessa filosofia, Hegel orienta sua interpretação pela crítica ao caráter formal das filosofias da reflexão e ao princípio da subjetividade no qual elas se enraízam. Sua leitura é conduzida pela tentativa de restituir a idéia da razão, como unidade primordial e absoluta do sujeito e objeto, que na filosofia crítica somente pôde ser vislumbrada enquanto tarefa, mas cuja realização se encontra ali de antemão impedida. Pretende-se, ao longo do trabalho, acompanhar como Hegel chega a constatar a ambigüidade inscrita na reflexão filosófica kantiana e de que maneira ele a submete a uma reinterpretação especulativa que destaca, de sua interpretação finita (crítica), uma reflexão especulativa como instrumento positivo do conhecer absoluto. Através do reconhecimento destas duas formas distintas de interpretar o sentido da reflexão e de sua atividade, voltamo-nos ao modo com que Hegel desenvolve a distinção kantiana entre Razão e Entendimento, porém agora não mais compreendidas enquanto faculdades do espírito, mas como modos distintos de interpretação do real. / The aim of this work is to approach the reading by the young Hegel of the Kantian philosophy, with the focus on the development of the notion of speculation out of the relationship established with the reflection, which fundamentally characterizes that philosophy. Through the recognition of the presence of speculative ideas in this philosophy, Hegel guides his interpretation by a critique to the formal character of the reflection philosophies and to the principle of subjectivity upon which they stand. His reading is guided by an attempt to reestablish the idea of reason as the foremost and absolute unity of the subject and object, which in the critical philosophy can only be envisaged as a task, which can not then be accomplished. The intention along this work is to follow how Hegel arrives at the finding of the ambiguity embedded in Kants philosophical reflection and how he submits it to a speculative reinterpretation, which distinguishes from within its finite interpretation (critical) a speculative reflection as a positive instrument of the absolute knowledge. Through recognizing these two distinct forms of interpreting the sense of the reflection and of its activity, we turn back to the manner which Hegel develops the Kantian distinction between Reason and Understanding, no longer seen as faculties of the spirit, but as two distinct ways of interpreting reality.

Esta tese procura reconstruir a crítica de Schopenhauer a Hegel, para além das invectivas e juízos sumários. Embora não escreva um texto específico sobre esse tema, a posição crítica de Schopenhauer em relação a Hegel é formulada em vários momentos de sua obra. Nosso trabalho consiste, em um primeiro momento, em reconstruir a crítica de Schopenhauer, comparando-a com as posturas críticas de Schelling e Feuerbach. Trata-se de expor e analisar os argumentos de Schopenhauer de modo a construir uma imagem crítica da filosofia de Hegel e, ao mesmo tempo, mostrar em que sentido essa mesma crítica pode ser relativizada do ponto de vista da filosofia hegeliana. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho procura refletir sobre a dificuldade implicada na tarefa de construir uma crítica da filosofia de Hegel, já que como mostrou Gérard Lebrun, Hegel oferece menos uma filosofia que um discurso que é mal compreendido sempre que tentamos julgá-lo a partir de nossos pressupostos discursivos. Num segundo momento, examinamos os pontos comuns da abordagem especulativa presente em ambas as filosofias e investigamos temas tais como a questão da determinação das coisas finitas em relação à realidade substancial, a tarefa da filosofia e o problema da exposição da verdade filosófica. Num terceiro e conclusivo momento, procuraremos contrapor a filosofia da religião de ambos os autores, pois como pretendemos mostrar, o tema da fronteira entre a filosofia e a religião é fundamental para estabelecer a oposição entre os autores sobre a questão central da exposição do absoluto e dos limites do conhecimento. Por fim, ofereceremos ainda alguns textos paralelos a essa tese que procuram refletir sobre as interpretações de autores como Lukács e Horkheimer sobre a contraposição entre Hegel e Schopenhauer. / This thesis seeks to reconstruct Schopenhauer\'s criticism of Hegel, beyond invective and brief judgment. Though he does not write on the theme specifically, Schopenhauer\'s critical position with regards to Hegel is formulated at several moments of his oeuvre. This work consists of reconstructing Schopenhauer\'s criticism at first, by comparing it to the criticism of Schelling and Feuerbach. It aims at exposing and analyzing Schopenhauer\'s arguments so as to build a critical image of the philosophy of Hegel, and simultaneously demonstrate how this very criticism can be relativized from a Hegelian point of view. Therefore, this work seeks to reflect upon the difficulty implied in the task of constructing a criticism of the philosophy of Hegel, since Hegel, as Gérard Lebrun has demonstrated, offers less of a philosophy than a discourse which is misunderstood whenever we attempt to judge it from the perspective of our discursive presuppositions. Secondly, we shall examine the common points in the speculative approach present in both philosophies, and investigate themes such as the question of the determination of the finite in relation to the substantial reality, the task of Philosophy and the problem of the exposure of the philosophical truth. Thirdly, we\'ll attempt to counterpose the philosophy of religion of both authors, for, as we intend to demonstrate, the theme of the frontier between Philosophy and Religion is crucial to establish the opposition between the authors on the central issue of exposure of the Absolute and of the limits of knowledge. Finally, we shall look into a few other texts parallel to this thesis which aim at reflecting upon the interpretations of authors such as Lukács and Horkheimer about the counterposition between Hegel and Schopenhauer.