[Truncated abstract] This thesis investigates the phenomenon of organisational guanxi in business in the SOE hotel environment in south-west China. A general aim is to give the reader a sense of how organisational guanxi operates in this environment. It identifies the characteristics and roots of organizational guanxi and discusses the significance of its operation in this environment. This thesis also analyses the implications of the continued practice of organizational guanxi and the prospects of its future as the Chinese economy continues to evolve toward a more market orientation. In Chapter One, the phenomena of guanxi, mainzi and renqing are defined and the importance of their role in conducting business in mainland China proposed. … The findings of this new research in south-west China provide conclusive evidence that in this region the guanxi network remains the lifeblood of the business community (Kao, 1993). In addition, this research throws up some conclusions that are not aligned with that of Guthrie?s (2002) Shanghai-based findings. In Chapter Nine, The Conclusion, the major findings of this thesis are revisited and include the acknowledgement and definition of organisational guanxi, the exploration of the roots of organisational guanxi inside the danwei, the differentiation of intra-organisational guanxi from inter-organisational guanxi, the definition of the concept of guanxi neglect, and a comparison of the decay in the strength and usage of guanxi in south-west China with that in the Shanghai region.

The purpose of this research is to assess the impact of Chinese acquisitions on Italian target firm performance, and explore which characteristics of the acquirer can determine a change of it. First, a Paired-Samples T-test has been applied to appreciate the difference between pre-and post-acquisition performance on 27 sample companies. Secondly, through an OLS regression, the impact of the Chinese acquirers’ characteristics on the performance of Italian target companies has been estimated for the year 2018. In addition, two interviews with managers from one sample company were carried out to complement the quantitative findings with qualitative insight. The results show that the performance of Italian target companies did not change significantly after the acquisition-at least not in the time span of 3 years used for the analysis- in terms of: profitability, solvency and growth. However, job creation slightly increased following the takeover. Furthermore, our findings indicate that, among the Influential factors examined, Chinese acquirers’ prior M&Aexperience in developed countries and the level of relatedness have a significant and positive impact on the performance of Italian target sampled companies. Whereas, being acquired by a Chinese SOE or POE seems to not affect the performance. Lastly, another influential factor raised by our respondents resulted to be the integration strategy implemented by the Chinese acquirer.Indeed, choosing the appropriate integration strategy for the two entities can be crucial for the acquisition success, and ultimately, for the future performance of the target.

This dissertation consists of three essays on the empirical analysis of economic growth and technology development. In particular, I consider spillover effects in different frameworks. The first chapter outlines the three topics involved and briefly discusses the motivations, methods as well as some conclusions in each of the following chapters. The second chapter considers the spillovers in economic growth and convergence. Spillovers are prevalent in nowadays' economy. I formally model the spillover effects as the interdependence of total factor productivity (TFP), and develop a model in which spillover effects of R&D through the channel of international trade make the TFPs correlated among countries. In this sense, I apply the thoughts of international trade to the economic growth framework. Empirically, I develop a three-stage generalized method of moment(GMM) to estimate the dynamic panel spatial error autoregressive model. Simulation results show that my estimator is consistent and efficient. Through counterfactual analysis, I find that there are positive spillovers through both geographic connection and trade connection. Such a positive spillover effect, however, slows down the convergence speed. Moreover, there were little spillovers in the early 1960s. Spillover effects become stronger overtime. The third chapter is about the determinants of technology development in China. What makes my paper different from others is that I take a full consideration of the spillover effects: provincial spillovers in Science and Technology (S&T) capital as well as S&T personnel, and international spillovers through trade and FDI. The most interesting point in my paper is that I consider the indirect effects of institutions on technology development. Marketization, measured by the share of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in the economy, affects the production of technology through different channels at different stages. I use a semiparametric varying-coefficient model to account for the effects. In this paper, I find that provincial spillovers are mainly through the externalities of S&T capital stock while international spillovers occur through trade. Marketization affects the technology development through S&T capital, S&T capital spillovers and trade. Although a certain share of SOEs is necessary for technology production, the marketization process will promote the development of technology in China in the long run. The fourth chapter looks into the provincial technology spillovers from another aspect. Instead of the S&T endowment spillovers from the nearby provinces, I consider the technology transfer from the frontier province to the targeted province as well as the absorptive capacity of the targeted province itself. Two forms of technology transfer are analyzed: the technology distance due to the structural discrepancy in the patent portfolio and the technology gap because of the difference in the patent level. Through the empirical analysis, several factors contributing to patent growth, such as S&T investment, road density, international spillovers from imports and FDI, are identified. Moreover, I find that technology transfer due to the technology distance can stimulate patent growth. However, I fail to find robust evidence of technology transfer due to the technology gap, which implies that the provincial technology convergence may not exist in China. / Ph. D.

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Dans un contexte d'accroissement du recours à des sources d'énergies renouvelables intermittentes, la palette des dispositifs de stockage électrochimique s'étend et se diversifie pour assurer l'adéquation entre ces sources intermittentes et leurs applications. La conception et le contrôle en temps réel de ces dispositifs nécessitent un modèle de l'énergie disponible au cours du fonctionnement. Or, la non-linéarité du comportement énergétique des dispositifs de stockage électrochimique en fonction des conditions d'utilisation rend cette modélisation très complexe. Aujourd'hui, l'énergie disponible est modélisée grâce à un estimateur de l'état de charge (SoC), couplé à un modèle de la tension de la batterie. L'interfaçage de ces modèles avec ceux des autres composants d'un système est souvent difficile du fait de la nature des variables de contrôle. Par ailleurs, en temps réel, ces modèles permettent difficilement de réaliser des prévisions de l'énergie disponible dans diverses conditions d'utilisation. L'approche énergétique retenue ici a permis de définir un nouvel estimateur, l'état d'énergie (SoE) et de concevoir directement un modèle de l'énergie disponible pour différentes conditions d'utilisation, sans avoir recours à une double modélisation SoC/tension. Le SoE a été utilisé pour caractériser les performances énergétiques d'accumulateurs plomb-acide et Lithium Ion. Pour ces derniers, la précision sur la prévision de l'énergie disponible a été estimée sur plusieurs profiles types.

This thesis is a history of the Polish Country Section of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), a British organisation whose purpose was to infiltrate agents behind enemy lines during World War II. The thesis covers the period 1940 – 1946, the entire period that SOE existed, and its close connection with the Polish special department, formally known as the Sixth Bureau of the Polish Government in Exile. Chapters contained herein each cover a full year of operations from 1941 -1943, followed by two chapters for 1944, and one chapter for 1945-1946. Covered are details of agent training, information on the first flight to Poland to drop agents and couriers and the problems encountered. The German invasion of the Soviet Union and SOE’s thoughts on the predicted outcome is covered, as are also Polish operations in France and indications of support for Polish operations in other parts of the world. Throughout, is evidence of the difficulties in obtaining sufficient air support for flights to Poland which, although inadequate for Polish requirements, were more abundant than many realised at the time. This is especially true with reference to supplies dropped to Warsaw during the rising of 1944. Brief accounts of the meetings between the ‘Big Three’, Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, at Teheran and Yalta in as much as they affected SOE/Polish relations. The thesis finishes with appendices detailing agent/courier parachute drops, lists of personnel involved, a bibliography and glossary.

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L'objet de cette thèse est d'étudier les liens qui existent entre les déséquilibres macroéconomiques et les crises, et de voir dans quelles mesures leur prise en compte peut aider une meilleure gestion des crises dans les pays de la zone euro. Les différents chapitres de cette thèse tentent d'apporter des réponses à trois questions importantes : Quels sont les indicateurs macro-financiers qui pourraient aider à mieux anticiper les épisodes de stress budgétaire dans les pays de la zone euro ? Quelles seraient les conséquences de la mise en place d'un système de garantie des dépôts bancaires sur les variables macroéconomiques et sur le comportement des investisseurs, investisseurs qui tiendraient compte du risque de défaut souverain ? Dans quelle mesure une meilleure qualité des institutions, de la gouvernance pourrait-elle aider à améliorer la croissance de long terme d'une économie contrainte sur le marché international des capitaux ? En retenant une approche de court terme, les deux premiers chapitres montrent l'importance de la confiance des marchés dans l'analyse du lien entre déséquilibres macroéconomiques et crises. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous adoptons une perspective de plus long terme pour analyser les effets de cette confiance des marchés sur la dynamique de la croissance. Notre approche est à la fois théorique et empirique. L'approche théorique se base sur les modèles DSGE (modèles d'équilibre général stochastiques dynamiques et la modélisation d'une crise dans une petite économie ouverte. L'approche empirique se focalise sur les modèles Probit/Logit sur données de panel et sur un modèle d'alerte fondé sur des signaux avancés (early warning indicators). / This dissertation consists of three essays on how macro-financial imbalances precede crises and to what extent their consideration can help better management of crises in the Eurozone countries. The different chapters of this thesis, try to answer three important questions : What are the macro-financial imbalances that exposed the Euro area countries to fiscal stress before the outbreak of the debt crises in Europe? What are the impacts of sovereign default and deposit guarantee on macroeconomic variables and on the behavior of investors ? To what extent could better institutions/governance help to improve the long-term growth in a constrained economy on the international capital market ? Using a short-term approach, the first two chapters show the importance of market confidence in analysis of the link between macroeconomic imbalances and crises. In the third chapter, we adopt a long-term perspective to analyze the effects of this market confidence on the dynamics of growth. Our approach is both theoretical and empirical. The theoretical approach is based on the DSGE models (dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models) and the modeling of a crisis in a small open economy (SOE). The empirical approach focuses on Probit/Logit models for panel data and on Signal model based on early warning indicators.

The Single Economic Entity Doctrine in EU Competition Law Focused on applying single economic entity doctrine in relation to merger control of State Owned Enterprises Abstract This thesis focuses on the issues surrounding single economic entity doctrine in relation to State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), in particular on the effects of Article 22 of the Preamble of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 of 20 January 2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (EUMR), and the Commission Consolidated Jurisdictional Notice under Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings. Together these documents set the standards for merger control practice concerning SOEs. They are centred around the principle of applying the single economic entity doctrine when identifying the turnover of SOEs and when determining the jurisdiction of the Commission. The thesis possesses two major goals. The primary goal of the thesis is to elucidate the criteria used for the determination of a single economic unit (single economic entity) with independent decision-making power in the public sector. To this end, in chapter 3, the author has synthetized a list of the relevant criteria used for the determination of an economic entity, based on the criteria used by the Commission that have...

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