This study describes the reasons why street children in Jakarta, Indonesia choose to leave a life on the street and the steps that are taken to exit the street successfully. Also described are the street entry process, life on the street, street disengagement, life after the street, and the role of service providers. Nine key informants (six former street children and three workers who work with homeless children) participated in in-depth interviews that revealed that troubled family life is the most common cause of street entry, and while street life offers much freedom and excitement it is also the source of great danger to street children, and street disengagement often takes a number of attempts before a “successful” exit is fully negotiated. Forming trusting relationships with street- based outreach workers and attending NGOs that emphasize love and care were highly influential in aiding with street exit. Also key to a successful exit over time is the development of new skills and knowledge, as well as a positive sense of self and an identity that is not connected to street involvement. / Graduate / 0630 / 0628 / brendenrbtaylor@gmail.com

Environmental impact has increasingly become a “buzzword” and an important topic. This topic has been integrated into the agenda of many companies worldwide, and this dissertation focuses on the transportation and logistics industry. Environmental concerns have gained increased attention among many logistic service providers (LSPs) due to the environmental impact from their operations, and they have been identified of having a significant role in reducing the environmental burden in the supply chain. An environmental approach of the LSPs' business has also been identified as a way to achieve competitive advantage and provide market opportunities where the development and marketing of new products and services associated with green issues are suggested as important aspects for future growth. However, considering the scarcity of research regarding this topic, a study that reveals potential aspects in the development of green service offerings can bridge the knowledge gap and provide opportunities for further research within this field. The purpose of this dissertation is therefore to develop and explain a framework for LSPs’ development of green service offerings. The purpose is addressed by first investigating LSPs' service development from a general perspective in order to, in a second stage, reach a better understanding of the implications when integrating green aspects in LSPs' service development efforts. Theoretically, this dissertation departed from service marketing literature or more specifically new service development (NSD) research. This resulted in a conceptual framework including key dimensions and aspects regarding a company’s NSD efforts and activities. From this foundation, the theoretical framework was developed further based on research regarding LSPs' service development and innovation management. Finally the framework was extended with green logistics literature as well as research regarding LSPs' green development and influences on their service offerings. Empirically, this research is mainly based on qualitative data from an in-depth case study on a large LSP active on the Swedish market. In addition, empirical data from a multiple case study and a questionnaire survey conducted for the Licentiate thesis were used in order to enrich the analysis regarding the LSPs' development of green service offerings. The analysis followed a stepwise approach where literature and empirical data were analysed. One of the main results in this dissertation is the framework for LSPs' new service development, consisting of five dimensions: NSD culture, NSD strategy, NSD process focus, IT use and expertise and NSD knowledge and skills. The NSD framework presents a holistic view of the LSPs’ NSD efforts by revealing different dimensions, their roles and relations to each other as well as the pre-requisites to take into consideration in the development of new services. Thus, the different NSD dimensions should not solely be viewed as isolated dimensions; instead, there is a need for LSPs to have a holistic view and understanding of the NSD activities’ reciprocity. Another main result concerns the adaption of the NSD framework to green service development. The results reveal some pre-requisites relevant for LSPs to consider in their efforts to develop green service offerings and are summarised in the following main dimensions: Creating green awareness in the NSD culture – encourage participation regarding green initiatives within the organisation, defining a “common picture” in order to facilitate collaboration efforts and knowledge exchange concerning green expertise. The support from top management was also identified of having an influencing impact. Defining the strategic approach of green service offerings – integrate a green concern in the overall business strategy and to define the strategic role and incentives for developing green service offerings. The results also suggest LSPs to adapt green NSD efforts to different business contexts and market possibilities to match existing resources and skills with customers’ green requirements, and to perform a segmentation of customers’ environmental work and ambitions to increase the understanding of customers’ green attitudes and requirements. Create processes and routines to facilitate spreading of green knowledge – highlights the relevance of a process focus for spreading green knowledge both from an external and internal perspective. It involves e.g. adoption of certifications, procedures for environmental calculations and documentation as well as routines to spread and integrate green knowledge among employees as well as identification of customers’ green requirements. Improve green internal knowledge and build green collaborations – provide training and education to increase the level of green awareness and knowledge among employees as well as customers and strive for collaboration efforts both internally and externally to utilise each other’s knowledge and resources towards the development of green service offerings. Increase transparency of green information both internally and externally – improve green information transparency to build both internal and external trust and increase possibilities to effectively use other actors’ knowledge and resources to develop environmental improvements in the supply chain. Integration of IT expertise and synchronisations of IT systems to facilitate and support environmental work and development of green service offerings.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Logistics outsourcing has been applied in practices by enterprises for decades, but its efficiency is always restricted because logistics service providers (LSPs) often only have a single function such as delivery or warehousing. In the last few years, LSPs have upgraded their capabilities to support some other logistics services including value-added services, materials management, information-related services etc. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the differences between self-built logistics system and outsourcing logistics system by using the Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) strategic analysis; and figure out how to apply the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to make an appropriate selection among LSPs that based on the single-case study of Gevalia. Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in this study, authors expect to describe and explore the application of AHP approach regarding to the case company which implements outsourcing logistics system. Accordingly, it could be a good idea for case company to implement the mixed mode of self-built and outsourcing logistics system after using the SWOT strategic analysis. In addition, the production and logistics manager of case company emphasized that the five selection criteria including “compatibility”, “delivery performance”, “location”, “management” and “cost” should be considered as a priority among other different criterion when he selected a LSP. As a result, it will be efficient and effective for us to simulate a best decision for those industrial manufacturing enterprises to achieve a path regarding to the selection of the best logistics partner that based on the significant AHP approach.

The Internet does not currently provide end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees across multiple network providers. We demonstrate that networks. by using dynamic pricing, can provide end-to-end QoS guarantees for those applications that need it. We propose the concept of QoS-Transit Services: a set of primitive services offered by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) in order to deliver packets with statistical performance guarantees within its network, using dynamic pricing. ISPs can choose their own pricing schemes, as long as QoS is guaranteed. Through simulation, we demonstrate that even simple pricing mechanisms can guarantee the advertised performance of a QoS-Transit Service. End-to-end QoS across multiple networks is achieved by using multiple QoS¬Transit Services, from different ISPs, in sequence. Since QoS-Transit Services are offered by ISPs to generate revenues. we determine how to allocate bandwidth among the services in order to maximize revenue. assuming that demand functions can be estimated. We propose the IterLP and IterGreedy heuristics to determine the optimal allocation of bandwidth on predefined paths. IterLP achieves revenue close to 99% of the optimal solution. achieving this result quickly. IterGreedy achieves 90-95% optimality, but executes faster than IterLP. Additionally, to determine the paths on which to route the QoS-Transit Services so as to maximize the ISP's revenue, we propose three heuristics with different specific advantages: Service Grouping. Iterative Bottleneck Avoidance, and Iterative Bottleneck Avoidance with Tabu. We demonstrate that Iterative Bottleneck Avoidance with Tabu achieves approximately 98% of an optimal solution. Route selection is also shown to be more important when fewer QoS-Transit Services are offered. When demand functions cannot be adequately estimated. an ISP can use our Iterative Allocation Adjustment heuristic to find the optimal allocation of bandwidth for a set QoS-Transit Services. The heuristic achieves over 95% of the optimal revenue for an ISP. We then examine how better routes can be identified by valuing the links in the network to identify rerouting possibilities, or to identify paths for new QoS-Transit Services. To receive a specified end-to-end QoS, customers may use concatenated QoS-Transit Services. We propose the Hub Charging Model to provide scalable charging, using Brokers as middle-men. Additionally, we propose the concept of Overlay ISPs: ISPs that provide QoS-Transit Services by controlling an overlay network. An Overlay ISP, a type of virtual network operator, can offer QoS over a large geographic area without universal ISP support for QoS-Transit Services. Finally, we detail an architecture for offering QoS-Transit Services using existing protocol standards. By using a Broker-ISP as an intermediary between customers and the 1SPs offering QoS-Transit Services, routing and charging complexities can be hidden from the customers. Additionally we describe how security, billing, metering. and policing can be achieved. The competitive environment assumed within this dissertation is now emerging, with ISPs charging content providers in order to deliver content at a superior quality level to the ISP's customers. The time is therefore ripe for dynamic pricing to be deployed.

In recent years, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Hong Kong have been facing tremendous challenges and demands from both the external environment and internal administrative mechanisms. Regarding the external environment, Hong Kong is facing a major political change in 1997 as its sovereignty will be returned to Mainland China. However, it is perceived that there are many differences in both the conceptions and the administrative systems of both Hong Kong and China. In view of the task environment, as opposed to the general environment, the Social Welfare Department is now conducting a `subvention review' exercise. Such an exercise attempts to re-examine the current funding arrangements and the partnership relationship between the government and the NGOs. Service contracts between the funder and the service providers are recommended as the future mode of operation in the subvention policy. In addition, the NGOs will also be required to conform to a list of performance standards which are categorised into four major dimensions, namely, the provision of information, service management, the management of clients and a respect for clients' rights. Not only the rise of managerialism, but public accountability and the empowerment of clients are also perceived as prominent issues affecting the administrators. Based on a research study conducted by the author, this paper will examine the above issues in detail. It also examines the value orientations of the social work administrators in the voluntary sector during their decision-making processes. Various organization theories such as contingency theory, political economy and resources dependency perspective are adopted as the organizing framework for the analysis. Patterns of service development and patterns of management development have been constructed after examining twenty-five voluntary organizations. Four domains of strategic planning and management are covered in the study, including Domain Enlargement mode, Domain Enhancement mode, Domain Restructuring mode and Domain Reduction mode. A questionnaire was also constructed in order to examine the views of the chief executives in terms of their choices of strategies and approaches in responding to environmental changes, with respect to the organizational attributes, including organization size, complexity of service nature, religious background, and level of subvention from government funding.

The situation of Somali Bantu refugees has been studied in the USA and, to a lesser degree, in the refugee camps of Kakuma and Dadaab, but not in self-settled urban contexts in East Africa. This qualitative study, a needs assessment of the Somali Bantu refugee community in Nairobi, Kenya, contributes towards filling that gap in the literature. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with both Somali Bantu refugees and staff of refugee-serving NGOs in Nairobi provided rich ethnographic data. Research questions focused on perceived needs and assets of refugees, community support structures, and NGO services available to Somali Bantu refugees. The results of the study showed how systems of marginalization and oppression found within Somalia are reproduced within the urban refugee environment of Nairobi. It also revealed how this marginalization was exacerbated through the systems set up by refugee-serving NGOs. However, the study also demonstrated refugee agency and aspirations, revealing strategies employed by individual refugees to improve their situation as well as multi-local and transnational kinship networks of mutual support.

Thesis (LL. M.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed October 1, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. [331]-366)