This dissertation comprises two essays in financial economics. They study how firms finance and invest in innovative and intangible assets. The first essay examines the impact of technology spillovers on corporate financing decisions for innovative firms. I find that greater technology spillovers lead to higher leverage in innovative firms. Furthermore, in firms with greater technology spillovers, equity is more costly relative to debt. I find that these financing effects are generated by at least three related mechanisms: information asymmetry, asset redeployability, and equity undervaluation. All three mechanisms lead firms to substitute away from equity and toward debt. The results are robust to exploiting variation in RandD tax credits to identify the causal effect of technology spillovers. The second essay is coauthored with Ambrus Kecskés at York University and Sattar Mansi at Virginia Tech. My coauthors and I enter the long-lived debate about whether stakeholder capital investment increases shareholder value. We argue that long-term investors are natural monitors that can ensure that managers choose stakeholder capital investment to maximize shareholder value. We find that long-term investors increase the value to shareholders of stakeholder capital investment, not as a result of higher cash flow but rather of lower cash flow risk. Also following prior work, we use indexing by investors and the staggered adoption of state laws on stakeholder orientation for identification. Our findings suggest that firms can create value for shareholders by investing in stakeholder capital as long as managers are properly monitored by long-term investors. / Ph. D.

Background: Scientists are more aware and concerned about society and have therefore pointed out an increased need for sustainable transformation. Due to unethical acts in the world, ethics have received a lot of attention recently. That is why we are studying different factors that push organizations to adopt ethical practices. Literature shows that stakeholders are the main factors that push organizations to adopt ethical practices, as well as organizational culture.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to focus on the differences and similarities of internal and external factors pushing organizations to adopt ethical practices, the challenges of this, and how to overcome them between the private sector and the public sector.  Method: This study focuses on interpretivism philosophy with an inductive approach. This study is based on a qualitative study, with semi-structured interviews.  Conclusion: The results shows that there are both internal and external factors that push organizations to adopt ethical practices. There exist similar challenges due to this, as well as similarities on how to overcome them, with some differences as well

Contemporary research and industrial youth online safety solutions focus on the primary stakeholders in youth online safety, i.e. the youth, and their parents. However, the voices of secondary stakeholders in youth online safety have not garnered the same attention even though they play a pivotal role in protecting youth online. These secondary stakeholders in youth online safety perform various roles such as entrepreneurs creating technological solutions for youth online safety, educators, therapists, and clinicians, all sharing the goal of imparting youth with life skills needed to navigate online and offline modalities. This dissertation focuses on bringing into focus the views of secondary stakeholders in online safety and uncovers the minimum capabilities needed from technological systems to engage secondary stakeholders to work collaboratively on youth online safety solutions. Through a user study, we first examine the different sociotechnical approaches used by secondary stakeholders to keep youth safe online, while overcoming key challenges associated with these approaches. A closer look at the feasibility of using technological solutions for youth online safety is then presented through the unique perspectives of youth social service providers who work with underprivileged youth. Using these insights, a conceptual online community for secondary stakeholders is presented followed by its examination in a user study to uncover their views on using youth online safety communities for collaboration. The results show that, while technological solutions for youth online safety could help protect youth online and assist secondary holders in identifying when youth online risk exposure has occurred, serious privacy, data handling, and ethical concerns need to be addressed to make youth online safety solutions and communities more broadly accepted. Stakeholders have a preference for a trusted non-partisan organization to lead collaborative efforts using an open-innovation methodology to mitigate these issues.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Leonardo Lopes.pdf: 3436128 bytes, checksum: 5734274dc05d398fea5893f8badc3516 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-10-17 / Increasingly important for an organization, the Information Technology (IT) has undergone profound changes in recent decades because the speed with which its new technologies appear has been increasing. In this context, organizations must be prepared to implement these technologies, on the form of projects, as quickly and effectively as possible. In a competitive environment, a company's IT project must provide results before its competitors. Therefore, it can be noted that the delivery of a project on time, ever shorter, is essential for a company to keep ahead of competitors. Considering these observations, the main purpose of this study is to explore how failures in IT project stakeholder management may impact, directly or indirectly, the deadlines of these projects. The exploration of the delays through the stakeholder's theory is one possible approach to study the issue, being the management of stakeholders, including the communication, considered the main shortcoming of project managers. The empirical research, qualitative in nature, is of the exploratory type and counted with the participation of IT project managers and managers of IT project managers, who answered a semistructured interview and provided documents in support of the research. The transcripts of the interviews as well as the provided documents were used for the analysis of data content. As a final result of this study, the main failures in the stakeholder management that may compromise mostly indirectly the timely delivery of IT projects are identified and explored. Finally, the limitations of this study and suggestions for future research are presented / Cada vez mais importante para uma organização, a Tecnologia da Informação (TI) tem passado por profundas mudanças nas últimas décadas, pois a velocidade com que novas tecnologias aparecem está cada vez maior. Nesse contexto, as organizações devem estar preparadas para implementar, sob a forma de projetos, essas tecnologias da maneira mais rápida e efetiva possível. Em um cenário competitivo, o projeto de TI de uma empresa deve apresentar resultados antes dos de seus concorrentes. Portanto, pode-se notar que a entrega de um projeto no prazo cada vez mais curto é essencial para que uma empresa se mantenha na frente dos competidores. Considerando tais observações, o propósito principal deste estudo é o de explorar como falhas na gestão dos stakeholders de projetos de TI podem impactar, direta ou indiretamente, os prazos finais desses projetos. A exploração dos atrasos por meio da teoria dos stakeholders é uma das possíveis abordagens para se estudar a questão, sendo a gestão dos stakeholders, incluindo a comunicação, considerada a principal deficiência dos gerentes de projetos. A pesquisa empírica realizada, de natureza qualitativa, é do tipo exploratória e contou com a participação de gerentes de projetos de TI e de gestores de gerentes de projetos de TI, os quais responderam a uma entrevista semiestruturada e forneceram documentos de apoio à pesquisa. As transcrições das entrevistas, assim como os documentos fornecidos, foram utilizadas para a análise de conteúdo dos dados. Como resultado final, as principais falhas na gestão dos stakeholders que podem prejudicar em sua maioria, indiretamente a entrega pontual dos projetos de TI são identificadas e exploradas. Por fim, são apresentadas as limitações do presente estudo e sugestões para pesquisas futuras

Environmental aspects have been intentioned more in recent years and the wasteproblem has a great impact in this matter. Due to this fact, waste management systems havebeen developed and new waste treatment methods as well as waste recovery and reductionhave been introduced. These methods are focused on preserving the environment as a coreissue. Despite of high effort and investment in waste management system, the environment isfaced with large impact due to high amount of landfill. This problem is a worldwide issue andcan be seen both in developed and developing countries.In this research, quality and environmental management system planning in wastemanagement has been analysed through stakeholders’ analysis. Waste management systemshave been investigated in two cities, one in the Middle East and another in Scandinavia.Results of this research show that stakeholders’ analysis can be applied into qualitymanagement system planning in order to ensure municipalities and waste managementcompanies to set SMART quality objectives which meet all stakeholders’ requirements. Thisapproach is recommended to be used in technology transfer projects.Stakeholders- QE management model proposed in this research, defines the role ofstakeholders’ analysis into quality and environmental management system planning.

O atual momento de incertezas induzidas pelas mudanças climáticas no agronegócio brasileiro tem-se mostrado oportuno para pesquisar as ações em torno das cadeias produtivas como um todo. Analisar como o agronegócio brasileiro está se preparando para se posicionar e agir diante das novas realidades climáticas é crucial tanto para a academia como para o futuro das atividades produtivas. As incertezas geradas por esse novo contexto associadas à ausência de diálogos e de diretrizes assim como a resistência a mudanças e a falta de confiança entre os stakeholders do agronegócio tornam-se problemas para o agronegócio,. Assim, a formação de redes entre stakeholders do agronegócios é fundamental para promover o conhecimento coletivo e propor convenções específicas para o momento atual e para o futuro. Nesse contexto, o conflito entre produção de bioenergia e alimentos é uma discussão central no agronegócio mundial e nacional. As questões levantadas nesta pesquisa são: como os diálogos entre stakeholders do agronegócio podem contribuir com os relacionamentos entre as organizações em rede? Qual o papel no agronegócio na discussão das mudanças climáticas no contexto do dilema da bioenergia? O objetivo da presente pesquisa é o de propor um framework para analisar a natureza dos diálogos entre stakeholders e os modelos criados para atuar nos conflitos da bioenergia e das oportunidades em redes voltadas para bioenergia com relação às mudanças climáticas no agronegócio brasileiro. Para isso, foram usadas as abordagens teóricas de Stakeholders, Redes, Negociação, Conflitos e Teoria das Convenções. Esta pesquisa classifica-se como de natureza exploratória e qualitativa, e o método adotado para a realização desta pesquisa é o de estudo de casos. Foram analisadas as organizações relacionadas com bioenergia participantes do Instituto ARES. O ARES é uma instituição inédita ligado ao agronegócio Brasileiro com intuito de promover o diálogo entre as cadeias produtivas.Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que o dilema de produção de bioenergia e alimento são aceitos seriamente pelos stakeholders, uma vez que estão dispostos a agirem em conjunto, criando bases para construção da confiança entre as diferentes cadeias produtivas; isto é, cadeias produtivas diferentes preocupando-se com outras cadeias. Esta visão permite a formação de redes, mesmo com os conflitos que existem entre elas, com negociações embasadas em confiança, coletividade, comunicação, interesses diversos com soluções únicas (estratégicas) em forma de convenções. A contribuição da pesquisa está relacionada as novas formas de análises teóricas entre os stakeholders do agronegócios. / The current moment of uncertainties induced by climate changes in the Brazilian agribusiness has been convenient for researching the actions related to the productive chains as a whole. Analyzing the way chosen by the Brazilian agribusiness to face the new climate realities is crucial both for the academy and the future of productive activities. The uncertainties generated by the new context associated to the absence of dialogues and guidelines as well as the resistance to changes and the lack of confidence among the agribusiness stakeholders have become a problem for the agribusiness. Then, it is fundamental the network formation among the agribusiness stakeholders to promote the collective knowledge and propose specific conventions for the current moment and the future. In this context, the conflict between bioenergy production and food is the central discussion of the national and international agribusiness. The issues raised in this survey are: How can the dialogues among the agribusiness stakeholders contribute to the relationships among the organizations of the network? What is the role of agribusiness in the discussion of climate changes within the bioenergy dilemma? The goal of this survey is to propose a framework to analyze the nature of dialogues among stakeholders and the models created to act in the conflicts of bioenergy and the opportunities in networks linked to bioenergy in relation to the climate changes in the Brazilian agribusiness. The theoretical approaches of Stakeholdes, Networks, Negotiation, Conflicts and Convention Theories were used to answer these questions. This survey is classified as exploratory and qualitative in nature and the method adopted is the case study. It was analyzed the organizations related to bioenergy participating in the Institute ARES. ARES is a new institution linked to the Brazilian agribusiness, aiming at promoting the dialogue among the production chains. The results of the survey show that the dilemma of bioenergy and food production are seriously considered by the stakeholders, since they want to act together, creating bases for the construction of confidence among the different productive chains; that is, different productive chains worried about other chains. This view allows the network formations, even with the conflicts existing among them, using negotiations based in trust, collectivity, communication and different interests related to exclusive solutions (strategies) used as conventions.The contribution of this survey is related to the new ways of theoretical analyzes among the stakeholders of agribusiness.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2018-05-23T19:00:57Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Clainton Jos?? Jockims de Avelar.pdf: 383778 bytes, checksum: 7dfa60270f5a8a5b6902775d2bec8118 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-23T19:00:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Clainton Jos?? Jockims de Avelar.pdf: 383778 bytes, checksum: 7dfa60270f5a8a5b6902775d2bec8118 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-08-14 / The preponderant theory of Stakeholder Management proposes the existence of positive associations between fairness (fairness approach) with stakeholders and business performance. Nevertheless, there is recent literature that proposes that not all stakeholders would care about mutually fair relationships and that such audiences would have heterogeneous motivations. In this context, there would be reciprocators and self-referents. According to this theory, companies would be more successful if they adapted their approaches to the specific behavior of the different stakeholders. Using the indicator of the percentage variation of a company's revenue with its client stakeholders over a period of two years, the objective of this article was to test if the form of treatment employed between company and client stakeholders has an influence on financial performance. The data collection took place in a large retail company and occurred through questionnaires where the type of treatment was classified in the relationship between the company and the client stakeholder. The valid sample total for the study was 421 stakeholders. After identifying the form of treatment employed in the relationship between company and stakeholder, the respective financial performance of the revenue between the years 2015 and 2016 was determined. From the survey and respective analysis of the statistical models of the sample of 421 stakeholders, it was not possible to establish a conclusive position on the theory of heterogeneity of treatments in Stakeholder Management. This research, however, generates a meaningful empirical contribution by examining the recently published theoretical proposition and also generates benefits to the business practice, since it brings operational results that suggest alternatives on how a company can manage its relations with client stakeholders. / A teoria preponderante sobre Gest??o de Stakeholders prop??e a exist??ncia de associa????es positivas entre os relacionamentos justos (fairness approach) com stakeholders e o desempenho empresarial. N??o obstante, h?? literatura recente que prop??e que nem todos os stakeholders se importariam com rela????es mutuamente justas e que tais p??blicos teriam motiva????es heterog??neas. Neste contexto, existiriam os stakeholders rec??procos (reciprocators) e os autocentrados (self-regarding). De acordo com essa teoria, as empresas seriam mais bem-sucedidas se adequassem suas abordagens ao comportamento espec??fico dos diferentes stakeholders. Utilizando o indicador da varia????o percentual da receita de uma empresa com os seus stakeholders clientes, num per??odo de dois anos, o objetivo do presente artigo foi testar se a forma de tratamento empregado entre empresa e os stakeholders clientes tem influ??ncia no desempenho financeiro. A coleta de dados se deu em uma empresa varejista de grande porte e ocorreu por meio de question??rios onde se classificou a tipologia de tratamento na rela????o entre a empresa e o stakeholder cliente. O total da amostra v??lida para o estudo foi de 421 stakeholders clientes. Ap??s a identifica????o da forma de tratamento empregado na rela????o entre empresa e stakeholder cliente foi apurado o respectivo desempenho financeiro da receita entre os anos de 2015 e 2016. A partir da realiza????o da survey e respectiva an??lise dos modelos estat??sticos da amostra de 421 stakeholders clientes n??o foi poss??vel estabelecer uma posi????o conclusiva acerca da teoria da heterogeneidade de tratamentos na Gest??o de Stakeholders. Esta pesquisa, contudo, gera contribui????o emp??rica significativa, ao examinar proposi????o te??rica recentemente publicada e, tamb??m, gera benef??cios ?? pr??tica empresarial, uma vez que traz resultados operacionais que sugerem alternativas sobre como uma empresa pode gerenciar suas rela????es com stakeholders clientes.

As certificações sustentáveis são consideradas um caminho possível para alavancar um consumo mais sustentável por parte dos consumidores, por meio da comunicação, nas embalagens dos produtos, de atributos socioambientais que eles carregam, verificados por uma terceira parte. Considerando as relações entre empresas, as certificações também podem apoiar organizações que desejam implementar políticas sociais e/ou ambientais, assegurando a rastreabilidade de sua matéria-prima e/ou a qualidade de seu processo produtivo. Porém, nota-se que ainda há diversas barreiras para uma maior adoção destas certificações, seja por parte dos consumidores, que não os reconhecem, não compreendem suas mensagens, ou não os valorizam no momento da compra; seja por parte das empresas, que ainda não conseguiram identificar os reais benefícios de sua adoção, seja por falta de demanda de mercado, ou pela falta de comprovação da efetiva redução de seus impactos socioambientais. Neste contexto, o presente estudo teve como objetivo fazer uma sistematização das barreiras que dificultam a utilização das certificações sustentáveis por parte de empresas de bens de consumo. Foram levantadas diversas barreiras às certificações, sem ser possível encontrar uma iniciativa de consolidação e sistematização das mesmas. Para avançar o conhecimento relacionado ao tema, procedeu-se a análise de dois casos de certificações relevantes no Brasil, o Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) e o \"I´m Green\". Os principais resultados alcançados foram: i) a atualização da listagem de barreiras previamente levantada; ii) a primeira proposta de classificação das barreiras às certificações sustentáveis; e iii) o primeiro mapeamento da atuação das barreiras de acordo com o stakeholder envolvido no processo. Nota-se que os obstáculos enfrentados pelas empresas de bens de consumo são principalmente referentes à sua relação com seus fornecedores de insumo e os padronizadores, além de diversas questões internas à organização. Observa-se, também, que as barreiras comuns às duas certificações estudadas estão concentradas na fase inicial de adoção das mesmas, e são oriundas, em sua maioria dos stakeholders externos. Já as barreiras específicas de cada certificação tem algumas particularidades: no caso do FSC elas estão concentradas na fase de implementação, e envolve uma gama maior de stakeholders; e no caso \"I´m Green\" há uma dispersão entre a fase anterior de implementação, e a fase de implementação, propriamente, sendo que elas são focadas no fornecedor. O presente estudo abriu espaço para uma maior compreensão sobre como a questão da rotulagem sustentável vem sendo considerada no ambiente corporativo, podendo ser endereçado de diversas formas pela academia, pelas empresas, pelos padronizadores e pelos demais envolvidos com o tema. / Sustainable standards are considered a possible way to leverage a more sustainable consumption by consumers, through the communication, on the packaging of products, of socio-environmental attributes that they carry, verified by a third party. Considering business-to-business relationships, they can also support companies that want to implement social and/or environmental policies, assuring the traceability of their raw material or the quality of their production process. However, it is noted that there are still several barriers to greater adoption of these standards, either by consumers, who do not recognize them, do not understand their messages, or do not value them at the time of purchase; Or by companies that have not yet been able to identify the real benefits of their adoption, either due to a lack of market demand or to the lack of measurement of the effective reduction of their socio-environmental impacts. In this context, the present study aimed to systematize the barriers that hinder the use of sustainable standards by companies of consumer goods. Several barriers to the adoption of the standards by companies were raised, but no study until now had the initiative to consolidate them. In order to advance the knowledge related to the theme, two cases of relevant standards in Brazil, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the \"I\'m Green\" were analyzed. The main results achieved were: i) the list of barriers previously raised updated; ii) the first classification proposal of the barriers to sustainable standards; and iii) the first map of barriers to sustainable standards according to the stakeholder involved. It is noted that the obstacles faced by consumer goods companies are mainly related to their relationship with their suppliers and standardization body, as well as various issues internal to the organization. It is also observed that the common barriers to the two certifications are concentrated in the initial phase of their adoption, and come mainly from external stakeholders. The specific barriers of each certification have some peculiarities: in the case of FSC they are concentrated in the implementation phase, and involve a wider range of stakeholders; in the case of \"I\'m Green\" there is a dispersion between the previous phase of implementation and the implementation phase, properly, being that they are focused on the supplier. The present study opens space for a better understanding of how the issue of sustainable labeling is being considered in the corporate environment, and can be addressed in different ways by the academy, companies, standardizers and others involved with the theme.

<p>Private organizations are facing organizational field pressures which need to be addressed from an economic and ethical point of view in order to be sustainable in the long term. The present research study analyzes the role of the Pharmaceutical Industry as a provider of a social good and its responsibility towards its organizational field and stakeholder network. On the one hand it is argued that the mentioned industry should be profitable in order to make investments in research and development; while on the other hand, the industry must demonstrate engagement in the social sphere because of the good it commercializes, human health care. The Role of Organizational Policies, Codes and Structure will also be studied in order to deepen the understanding of the organization strategy towards Corporate Responsibility Practices.</p><p>This research project presents a case study of AstraZeneca Sweden Corporate Responsibility practices. In this study an Analytical Framework is developed based on institutional theory, the stakeholders' model, deliberative democracy model and business ethics. The mentioned framework will contribute to the understanding of AstraZeneca's Corporate Responsibility practices. The role of the company towards the demands from the outside world that causes the organization to respond and act will be addressed as well as the role of Policies, Codes and Organizational Structure in the Corporate Responsibility practice of the organization. We argue that the managerial response should be based upon a deliberative engagement method, in which all the interest parties are included in the decision making process.</p><p>The study is supported by two interviews which were conducted with key actors and extensive secondary data.</p>

Private organizations are facing organizational field pressures which need to be addressed from an economic and ethical point of view in order to be sustainable in the long term. The present research study analyzes the role of the Pharmaceutical Industry as a provider of a social good and its responsibility towards its organizational field and stakeholder network. On the one hand it is argued that the mentioned industry should be profitable in order to make investments in research and development; while on the other hand, the industry must demonstrate engagement in the social sphere because of the good it commercializes, human health care. The Role of Organizational Policies, Codes and Structure will also be studied in order to deepen the understanding of the organization strategy towards Corporate Responsibility Practices. This research project presents a case study of AstraZeneca Sweden Corporate Responsibility practices. In this study an Analytical Framework is developed based on institutional theory, the stakeholders' model, deliberative democracy model and business ethics. The mentioned framework will contribute to the understanding of AstraZeneca's Corporate Responsibility practices. The role of the company towards the demands from the outside world that causes the organization to respond and act will be addressed as well as the role of Policies, Codes and Organizational Structure in the Corporate Responsibility practice of the organization. We argue that the managerial response should be based upon a deliberative engagement method, in which all the interest parties are included in the decision making process. The study is supported by two interviews which were conducted with key actors and extensive secondary data.