Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, February 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 93). / This paper examines trading behavior of market participants and how quickly private information is revealed to the public. in a stationary financial market with asymmetric information. We establish reasonable assumptions, under which the market is not efficient in the strong form. in contrast to the Chau and Vayanos (2008) model. First, we assume that the insider bears a quadratic transaction cost. We find that the trading intensity of the insider is inversely related to transaction cost and that the market maker's uncertainty about private signals is positively related to transaction cost. As transaction cost approaches zero, the economy converges to that of the Chau and Vayanos (2008) model. Second, we assume that the insider can observe signals only discretely and at evenly spaced times, at a lower frequency than that at which trading takes place. The sparseness of signals induces insiders to trade patiently before the next signal comes in, as in the finite horizon model of Kyle (1985). Furthermore, the degree of market efficiency declines as signals arrive more sparsely. Finally, we assume that arrival times of private insider signals are random. In such case, the insider is less patient and trades more smoothly than with fixed arrival times As a result. market prices incorporate private information more quickly. / by Zhihua Qiao. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-116). / by Thomas Edward Ricciardelli. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-301). / By examining the origin and growth dynamics of two generations of high-tech startups in China's information technology sectors, this study presents empirical research on how Chinese technology startup companies, despite their lack of many of the basic elements that are usually necessary for a successful enterprise, survived and thrived in a competitive environment. The first-generation firms appeared in the mid- and late 1980s, competing in computer-related areas such as Chinese-language processing software and hardware products, personal computers, and financial software products. The second-generation startups, namely Internet-related companies, emerged in the mid-1990s. The thesis presents case studies, which form the primary evidence for analysis, on major domestic players Legend, Founder, Great Wall, Sohu, Sina, and Netease. A framework was built based on a theoretical distinction between external resources and organizational capabilities. Case studies show that external resources are important, but richer resources do not always guarantee a startup's success if they fail to help build organizational capabilities. External resources might even become a hurdle in sustaining a competitive edge. The case studies indicate that organizational capabilities that were built during a startup's development, rather than just richer or "better" external resources alone, make significant contributions to success. Another observation is that in many cases resource constraints trigger startups to search for needed capabilities. Together with external resources and strategic alliances, trial-and-error learning is an effective vehicle to carry out capability-building processes. The unintentional nature of capability building is also discussed. / by Lin Xu. / Ph.D.

Thesis: S.M. in Management Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2016. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (page 44). / Along with the rise of the Internet and smartphones, e-commerce plays a more and more important role in the Chinese consumer market. In 2009, Alibaba first created the "11.11" shopping festival. In 2015, the total GMV of "11.11" exceeded US$14.3 billion, which was even more than the total transaction volume of the "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" in the US. Then, what is this "11.11" phenomenon, and why is this "11.11" so incredible? This thesis aims to study this phenomenon. The paper will start by providing an overview and development of the "11.11" shopping festival in China. Then, it will illustrate the reasons for the success of the "11.11" phenomenon from policy, economy, social and service, and technology aspects. Afterward, it will analyze the impacts of the "11.11" phenomenon to consumers, suppliers, express companies and point out the problems and challenges in this phenomenon. It will also compare the "11.11" shopping festival with the Black Friday in the US. In the last part of the paper, it will summarize some takeaways from the analysis. The data used in this paper are mainly from secondary sources, which consist of research from large institutions such as National Bureau of Statistics of China, Chinese Ministry of Commerce, and State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), previous research by well-known research houses such as McKinsy, Deloitte, and several others. Key words: "11.11" shopping festival, tmall.com, e-commerce, online shopping. / by Lu (Alora) Chen. / S.M. in Management Studies

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2000. / Also available online on DSpace at MIT. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 37). / It can be observed that in consumer-to-consumer on-line auctions, there is a strong degree of price dispersion, even in liquid markets with a large number of bids per auction item. This Thesis research strives to quantify such dispersion and present explanations for the key findings on the nature of price dispersion in on-line auctions of like goods: Although contrary to common sense and public opinion, I found no significant correlation of winning bid price with feedback rating. This is true for low, medium-high and high value goods and for both new and used goods. This observation holds for all ranges of feedback ratings. Of all of the other variables of an auction listing: (shipping costs, amount of opening bid, number of bids, accepted payment types, picture in listing, and the use of reserve prices), only picture in listing and use of reserve prices are correlated with winning bid price. This observation holds for all types of goods examined. However, correcting for these variables does not significantly reduce price dispersion. The majority of the dispersion in winning bid prices of same-good auctions can be explained by the unique ability of the on-line auction process to obtain the reservation prices of buyers in the market, through its use of maximum bid amounts and proxy bidding. An auction winning bid curve for a good can be constructed by aggregating the winning bid prices of all auctions of that good over a period of time. The downward sloping and isoelastic nature of this curve can be explained in part by the downward sloping demand curve for that good, made up by the range of premiums buyers are willing to pay in order to increase their chances of winning the auction, and getting the item sooner. The exact shape of the curve can be further explained and in fact reconstructed by an examination of the statistics of grouping bids in auctions. Arbitrage to take advantage of the dispersion of winning bid prices can be shown to be possible, and in theory it appears to be surprisingly profitable. This suggests that on-line auction markets are only weakly market efficient. Several explanations were explored as to why arbitrage has not been pursued, thereby eliminating the observed dispersion. These explanations include the unseen non-monetary transaction and arbitrage costs, the level of sophistication necessary to capitalize on opportunities, and the persisting immaturity of the consumer-to-consumer on-line auction market. / by Mark Andrew Perutz. / M.B.A.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND DEWEY. / Bibliography: leaves 76-80. / by Sayeed Sadeq. / M.S.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-72). / Faced with declining margins, many large trading firms have expanded their scopes of sourcing and supplying goods, to include the management of the supply chains and inventories as a mean to improve the operational efficiencies, and thus, overall margins. In some instances, these firms have chosen to undertake the responsibility of logistics themselves through their own subsidiaries. The emergence of these "mini-maestro" (a term coined by Professor Bitran) has shifted the balance of power with regards to the decisions of supply chain governance and the movement of goods. These models may, have huge implications to established logistics service providers such as UPS. While the models may pose new challenges to the existing logistics service providers, they may open up new opportunities for the existing logistics service providers as well. In this thesis, I will perform an in-depth study on one of the mini-maestros, Li & Fung Trading and its subsidiaries, with particular focus on investigating the underlying forces and the core competencies that make Li & Fung the leader in its field. This thesis will also analyze the degree of maturity of its logistics unit, IDS Logistics, and explore the areas in which established logistics service providers can add values to the chain. / by Eng Ching Kooi. / M.B.A.

Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2015. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 56-58). / Economic growth is now stalling in Europe and at the same time unemployment has remained at high levels for a long time. On the other hand, the United-States are posting record growth rates and enjoy low unemployment, in great part thanks to their exploitation of shale oil and gas that has provided a surge of economic activity in the sector and has benefited to the whole economy through cheaper energy. Europe cannot rely on such natural resources to restart its economy and is facing difficult times since the financial crisis. However, this problematic situation might be in fact an opportunity to renew its economic system and impulse a new wave of healthy economic activity by choosing the path of an energy transition. The underlying assumption of this thesis is that, beyond any environmental considerations, the energy transition represents an unparalleled opportunity to restore economic activity and cope with the challenges of this century. However, as beneficial as a new energy system might appear to be upfront, it definitely implies ambitious and complex transformations. This thesis explores practical ways, best practices and shortfalls to avoid to implement the energy transition by focusing on the case study of the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) Master Plan developed in collaboration with Jeremy Rifkin in the Nord Pas-de-Calais region in France. This region has decided to implement an energy transition plan for some obvious environmental motivations, but mostly for economic and employment-related ones. The thesis explains and reviews the concept of TIR, but it mostly spends time analyzing the NPDC Master Plan itself to explore the ways it has decided to implement its energy transition. The goal is to identify best practices and successes but also mistakes and failures on the path to making the TIR a reality. Hopefully, it will be useful for other projects of this kind, with the same ambitions for other regions of the world. / by Florian Malidin. / S.M. in Management Research

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2011. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 25). / Large-scale epidemiologic longitudinal cohort studies are a distinct area of epidemiology and public health. To conduct such studies, it often requires exorbitant resources. African collaborators and a team of Harvard scientists have initiated what is groundbreaking to the field of epidemiology and will be the largest investigations into lifestyle ever conducted in history: The Africa/Harvard School of Public Health Partnership for Cohort Research and Training (PaCT), a four-nation, large scale longitudinal cohort study comprising 500,000 study participants in Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, and Nigeria, investigating lifestyle factors and their relation to chronic diseases( i.e., cancer, heart diseases, mental illness, diabetes, etc.). This cohort study will be paired with an innovative philanthropic venture capital firm, ImPaCT Commercial Ventures. This business entity will be responsible for the commercialization of the intellectual property (IP) generated from the cohort study, decades-long collection of behavioral and genetic "Big Data" (primarily collected through mobile phones) from the study's 500,000 study participants. A select group of corporations will have semi-exclusive rights to the intellectual property to create and refine innovative products (goods and services) that help prevent chronic diseases and other public health threats in Africa, and they will also serve as limited partners in the ImPaCT Commercial Fund. This venture Fund will support a portfolio of entrepreneurial start-up ventures that also develop innovation around chronic disease prevention. ImPaCT will profit from this commercialization of IP and by equity ownership in the start-up ventures. ImPaCT, structured as a "Benefit" Corporation, will earmark some of its profit to help sustain the resource-intensive and expensive longitudinal cohort study. / by Todd G. Reid. / M.B.A.

Thesis: M.B.A., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 89-92). / Today, a broad and deep understanding of the concept of "culture" is one of the keys to understanding and solving the challenges of managing complex organizations. The Kirin Group, too, has been working on changing its organization culture. Specifically, after Kirin began to implement its globalization strategy in 2006, the organization culture challenge became one of the keystones to executing the new strategy. The Japanese alcohol market is shrinking so rapidly that Kirin recognizes it must expand its business beyond its home market and into overseas markets. Kirin aims to achieve sustainable growth through this globalization. To execute the 2006 business strategy, Kirin engaged in a number of mergers and acquisitions that brought cultural diversity into the Kirin organization. This expansion requires Kirin to understand and embrace a range of different cultures. Historically, Kirin has pursued organic growth and maintained a mono-culture organization. Even though Kirin understands the necessity of this organization culture change in order to align with its new strategy, Kirin is still moving along the road to culture change. It is a challenge. In this thesis, I explore the question of how to build organization culture in a decentralized, global company. I define culture and the concepts of culture analysis, then analyze Kirin Group's organization culture from the perspective of these concepts. I focus specifically on how Kirin operates in two different cultures: Japan and Brazil. Through my analysis, I found that Kirin is altering its approach to culture change as it learns from its own experiences in past efforts. However, Kirin also postponed solving some fundamental culture change challenges in order to mitigate the impact of organization change. I recommend that Kirin fully embrace diverse cultures and include them in the overall Kirin Group culture as part of its strategy of becoming a global company. / by Satoko Yoshida. / M.B.A.