Thesis (MAcc) -- Stellenbosch University, 1999. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The current South African tax dispensation does not make provision for a system of group taxation, which gives rise to various tax anomalies. The Katz Commission recommended the implementation of a consolidation system of group taxation in their third interim report. This study investigates the issue of group taxation with the objective of commenting on the Katz Commission's recommendation. Chapter 1 explains the purpose of a system of group taxation and discusses the different forms of group taxation. Furthermore, the theoretical norms or canons are described which can be used to evaluate the current tax treatment of groups as well as the different forms of group taxation. Chapter 2 investigates the current tax treatment of groups by focussing on the tax implications of various intra-group transactions. It is found that the current tax treatment of groups does not satisfy the canons of equity, neutrality, efficiency of tax collection, low administration cost and certainty. Although the absence of a system of group taxation may contribute to technical simplicity, such an absence also leads to complex tax schemes that attempt to exploit favourable tax anomalies or avoid unfavourable anomalies. Chapter 3 exammes certain Issues which may render a system of group taxation unnecessary or undesirable, even if such a system leads to better compliance with the canons of taxation. The conclusion is reached that none of these issues will cause such a result. With regard to the issue of divisionalisation as an alternative to group taxation, it is found that section 39 of the Taxation Laws Amendment, No. 20 of 1994 does not provide an accessible mechanism for divisionalisation. Furthermore, groups may be preferred over divisionalised companies for various commercial and legal reasons. With regard to the issue of limited liability of individual group companies (a benefit which is not available to individual divisions of a single company) it is found that group companies rarely abuse this benefit. In addition, a system of group taxation will complement the concept of limited liability in promoting economic growth. With regard to the issue of concentration of economic control and ownership, the conclusion is reached that group taxation will not lead to further concentration of economic control, as the intra-group shareholding required for group tax treatment will greatly exceed the intra-group shareholding necessary for economic control. A system of group taxation may even lead to the broadening of economic ownership by enabling minority shareholdings in group companies which would otherwise be structured as divisions of existing companies due to tax considerations. Chapter 4 compares the loss transfer system of group taxation with the consolidation system, using the canons of taxation as a reference framework. Because a loss transfer system is similar to the current tax treatment of groups, in the sense that both dispensations treat individual group companies as separate taxable entities, the current tax treatment of groups is included in the above mentioned comparison by implication. It is found that a consolidation system will satisfy the canons of taxation the best. Although such a system carries the risk of undue complexity, it should be possible to design and implement a specific system which will fall within the administrative capabilities of both taxpayers and tax authorities. Chapter 5 examines key recommendations of the Katz commission with regard to group taxation. The writer expresses his agreement with the commission's conclusion that a consolidation system of group taxation should be implemented gradually. Certain adjustments to the commission's recommendations are suggested, which will facilitate quicker implementation and increased simplicity. The current tax treatment of groups leads to tax anomalies which are highly unsatisfactory. From a theoretical as well as a practical perspective, the implementation of a consolidation system of group taxation will represent a significant improvement to the South African tax dispensation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Suid-Afrika beskik tans nie oor 'n stelsel van groepbelasting nie, wat aanleiding gee tot verskeie belastinganomaliee. Die Katz-kommissie het die implementering van 'n gekonsolideerde stelsel van groepbelasting aanbeveel in hulle derde tussentydse verslag. Hierdie studie ondersoek die aangeleentheid van groepbelasting met die doel om kommentaar te !ewer op die Katz-kommissie se voorstelle in hierdie verband. In Hoofstuk 1 word die doel van 'n stelsel van groepbelasting verduidelik, en die verskillende vorme van groepbelasting bespreek. V erder word die teoretiese norme beskryf waaraan die huidige belastinghantering van groepe en die verskillende vorme van groepbelasting gemeet kan word. In Hoofstuk 2 word die huidige belastinghantering van groepe ondersoek deur te fokus op die belastingimplikasies van 'n verskeidenheid intra-groep transaksies. Dit word bevind dat die huidige belastinghantering van groepe nie lei tot billikheid, neutraliteit, effektiewe invordering van die belastinglas, lae administrasiekoste en sekerheid nie. En alhoewel die gebrek aan 'n stelsel van groepbelasting bydra tot tegniese eenvoud, lei dit terselfdetyd tot ingewikkelde, belastinggedrewe skemas wat poog om gunstige belastinganomaliee te benut en om ongunstige belastinganomaliee te vermy. In Hoofstuk 3 word sekere aangeleenthede ondersoek wat moontlik 'n stelsel van groepbelasting onnodig of onwenslik sal maak, selfs al sou so 'n stelsellei tot 'n meer gebalanseerde bevrediging van die teoretiese belastingnorme. Die slotsom word bereik dat geeneen van hierdie aangeleenthede we! so 'n resultaat sal he nie. Met betrekking tot divisionalisering as 'n altematief vir groepbelasting, word beslis dat artikel 39 van die Wysigingswet op Belastingwette, No. 20 van 1994 nie 'n toeganglike meganisme daarstel vir die divisionalisering van bestaande groepe nie. Uit 'n kommersiele en regsoogpunt bestaan daar boonop verskeie redes waarom groepe bo gedivisionaliseerde maatskappye verkies word. Met betrekking tot die beperkte aanspreeklikheid van afsonderlike groepmaatskappye ('n voordeel wat nie tot die beskikking is van divisies van 'n enkele maatskappy nie), word bevind dat groepe in praktyk selde hierdie voordeel misbruik of selfs benut. Voorts sal 'n stelsel van groepbelasting die konsep van beperkte aanspreeklikheid komplimenteer in die bevordering van ekonomiese groei. Met betrekking tot die konsentrasie van ekonomiese beheer en eienaarskap, word beslis dat 'n stelsel van groepbelasting nie die verdere konsentrasie van ekonomiese beheer sal aanhelp nie, aangesien die kwalifiserende aandeelhouding wat vir groepbelastinghantering vereis sal word, die aandeelhouding wat nodig is vir ekonomiese beheer ver sal oorskry. 'n Stelsel van groepbelasting mag voorts hydra tot die verbreding van aandeeleienaarskap, deurdat buiteaandeelhouers direkte belange sal kan opneem in ondernemings wat andersins gestruktureer sou word as divisies van bestaande maatskappye. In Hoofstuk 4 word verliesoordragstelsels en gekonsolideerde stelsels van groepbelasting in die algemeen vergelyk, met die belastingnorme as 'n verwysingsraamwerk. Aangesien 'n verliesoordragstelsel soortgelyk is aan die huidige belastinghantering van groepe, in die sin dat albei bedelings groepmaatskappye as afsonderlike belastingentiteite hanteer, word die huidige belastinghantering van groepe by implikasie ingesluit in die vergelyking. Die slotsom word bereik dat 'n gekonsolideerde stelsel van groepbelasting die mees bevredigende stelsel is in terme van 'n gebalanseerde voldoening aan die belastingnorme. Alhoewel 'n gekonsolideerde stelsel die risiko van kompleksiteit inhou, is dit moontlik om 'n spesifieke stelsel op sodanige wyse te ontwerp en implementeer dat dit wel administreerbaar sal wees. In Hoofstuk 5 word sleutelaanbevelings van die Katz-kommissie met betrekking tot groepbelasting ondersoek. Die skrywer spreek sy instemming uit met die kommissie se voorstelle vir die geleidelike implementering van 'n gekonsolideerde stelsel van groepbelasting. Sekere wysigings word aangebring aan die kommissie se voorstelle, ten einde verdere eenvoud en spoediger implementering teweeg te bring. W anneer die belastinganomaliee as gevolg van die huidige belastinghantering van groepe oorweeg word, is dit duidelik dat die huidige situasie onhoudbaar is. Uit 'n teoretiese en praktiese oogpunt, sal die implementering van 'n gekonsolideerde stelsel van groepbelasting 'n beduidende verbetering van die Suid-Afrikaanse belastingbedeling meebring.

published_or_final_version / Business Administration / Master / Master of Business Administration

<p>The position of the subsidiary CEO is characterized by its complexity in terms of the level of independence and control that s/he possesses. The subsidiary CEO is not only con-trolled by the parent company in certain aspects but in some cases also by the board of directors of the subsidiary. This raises questions about what the subsidiary CEO is left to decide by him/herself and if it is possible to infact categorize him/her as a middle manager? In order to gain more insight into these intriguing questions we formulated our purpose as follows: The purpose of this thesis is to examine how the subsidiary CEO controls the subsidiary consider-ing the dual role perspective. In addition, four research questions were formulated to support us in the search for answers to the amount of control that the subsidiary CEO has. The research questions were intended to the highlight the control aspect from different angles, and to discover what the parent company and board of directors controlled. In addition, we were also curious about whether it was possible for the subsidiary CEO to influence his/her superiors.</p><p>To enlighten us of the situation of the subsidiary CEO we made seven semi-structured interviews, whereof four with subsidiary CEOs. The three additional interviews were made with co-workers to the subsidiary CEOs. This was done to get a different perspective on the role of the subsidiary CEO. With the purpose and research questions as a base we asked questions on these topics and the answers were recorded and transcribed in order to give us a stable foundation to stand on before moving on to the analysis.</p><p>The findings confirmed our view that the CEOs in some cases, especially when it comes to larger financial decisions, are controlled by the parent company. Further, reports are sent regularly and the overall organizational vision has to be adopted by the subsidiary. On the other hand the subsidiary CEOs regards themselves as very independent when it comes to the management of the subsidiary. Indeed, we were able to see some general characteristics of the job of a subsidiary CEO, such as the freedom of formulating and implementing strategies for the subsidiary. In addition, they solely decide how to run the daily operations as well as deciding on questions concerning the personnel. Further, we conclude that the subsidiary CEOs can neither be categorized as merely a CEO or a middle manager, since our study shows that they are a combination of both. It is their level of independence which decides how to perceive their role and this varies from case to case. Finally, the level of control much depends on their relationship with the parent company as well as the sub-sidiary board of directors.</p>

Subsidiary mother cell (SMC) divisions during stomatal complex formation in Zea mays are asymmetric generating a small subsidiary cell (SC) and a larger epidermal cell. Mutants with a high number of abnormally shaped subsidiary cells include the brick1 (brk1) and discordia1 (dcd1) mutants. BRK1 is homologous to HSPC300, an ARP2/3 complex activator, and is involved in actin nucleation while DCD1 is a regulatory subunit of the PP2A phosphatase needed for microtubule generation (Frank and Smith, 2002; Wright et al. 2009). Possible causes of the abnormal SCs in brk1 mutants include a failure of the SMC nucleus to polarize in advance of mitosis, no actin patch, and transverse and/or no PPBs (Gallagher and Smith, 2000; Panteris et al 2006). The abnormal subsidiary mother cell division in dcd1 is due to correctly localized, but disorganized preprophase bands (PPBs; Wright et al. 2009). The observation that brk1 has defects in PPB formation and that the dcd1 phenotype is enhanced by the application of actin inhibitors led us to examine the dcd1; brk1 double mutant (Gallagher and Smith, 1999). We found that dcd1; brk1 double mutants demonstrate a higher percentage of aberrant SCs than the single mutants combined suggesting that these two mutations have a synergistic and additive effect on SC formation. Our observations and results are intriguing and the future step will be to quantitate the abnormal PPBs and phragmoplasts in the double and single mutants using immunolocalization of tubulin and actin as well as observations of live cells expressing tubulin-YFP.

Le droit à un recours effectif constitue une disposition clé de la Convention européenne des droits de l'homme. En vertu de l'article 13 de la Convention, toute personne ayant un "grief défendable" tiré d'une violation des droits conventionnels, doit bénéficier d'un recours effectif devant une autorité nationale. Le droit à un recours effectif vient ainsi consolider la protection des droits conventionnels au niveau interne. Par conséquent, il établit avant tout une garantie supplémentaire qui renforce l'effectivité des droits substantiels. Dans le même temps, l'article 13 contient à la fois un droit subjectif procédural dont la violation peut être constatée par la Cour européenne des droits de l'homme, ainsi qu'une obligation étatique découlant de l'obligation générale de protection des droits de l'homme. Il est ainsi l'expression du principe de subsidiarité et permet aux Etats parties de remédier eux-mêmes aux violations des droits conventionnels. Dans un souci d'efficacité, le juge européen a enrichi de plus en plus le contenu du droit à un recours effectif, qui semble se transformer en droit à un recours juridictionnel effectif. / The right to an effective remedy is one of the key-provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights. On the basis of the Article 13 of the Convention, everyone who has an “arguable claim” that one of his Convention rights has been violated, shall have an effective remedy before a national authority. The right to an effective remedy therefore enforces the protection of the Convention rights on domestic level. In this way, it principally establishes an additional guarantee that reinforces the effectiveness of the substantive rights. At the same time, the Article 13 contains an individual procedural right, the violation of which can be found by the European Court of Human Rights. Furthermore, it contains an obligation of the States giving direct expression to their general obligation to protect human rights. The Article 13 is therefore the expression of the principle of subsidiary and it allows the Contracting parties to remedy directly the violations of the Convention rights. Attentive to the effectiveness of the Convention, the European Court has gradually enhanced the content of the right to an effective remedy, resulting in what appears to be a transformation into a right to an effective judicial remedy.

The purpose of my thesis Position of war refugees in international law is to analyze particular types of protection of war refugees, to construe unclear legal provisions and to evaluate suitability of possible solutions. The thesis focuses on specifics of the position of war refugees and on options of their protection. The research question relates to the determination who a war refugee is and how his situation is solved in international law. The reason for this research is my great interest in refugee law and the current instability of the position of war refugees. The methodology used during writing the thesis was the analysis, comparison and description. The thesis is composed of three chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of the position and the protection of war refugees. Chapter One defines characteristics of war refugees and addresses the issue of armed conflicts. Chapter Two concerns individual options of protection of war refugees in international law. This part concentrates primarily on issues related to the broader refugee definition, asylum and subsidiary protection. Within this chapter subsidiary protection is examined from a general point of view, as well as in relation to provisions of particular legal instruments. Furthermore, it pays close attention to the law of...

This final thesis deals with the specific problems of the consolidation of the foreign subsidiary. Main topics are translation to the foreign currency, elimination of intragroup balances and deffered tax.

Abstract -   Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a concept related to corporations for decades and is still highly relevant. The concept has been developed throughout the years, resulting in an extensive concept. This thesis, however, defines CSR as a corporation’s willingness, engagement and ability to participate in societal objectives.   Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to analyse business management of CSR. More specifically, in the context of MNEs subsidiaries implementation and management of CSR in practice relating to services, retailing and manufacturing industries.     Method: A qualitative multiple case study was conducted in order to carry out the purpose. The empirical data was collected by doing 14 semi-structured interviews from five MNEs in three different industries.    Findings: Common findings in all five MNEs are, a global management team in all organizations, that the organizational goal is in line with the organizational standard and that all MNEs encounter a local demand. Moreover, all five MNEs were found to measure, track and evaluate their processes by using one or a couple evaluation methods. Lastly, it was clear that all responsibilities within Carroll's pyramid of CSR were valued within the participating MNEs and that CSR is believed to become increasingly more important in the future.    Conclusion: The final conclusion of this thesis is that the importance of CSR will increase in the future for MNEs and its subsidiaries based on the current market situation. Furthermore, MNEs tend to manage and implement CSR in subsidiaries based on a global framework. The amount of local adaptation differs between industries and MNEs, however, if the CAGE distance is bigger the local adaptation tends to be bigger. / Sammanfattning -   Bakgrund: CSR har varit ett koncept förknippat med företag i årtionden och det är fortfarande mycket relevant. CSR har utvecklats genom åren, vilket har resulterat i ett brett koncept. I denna avhandling definieras CSR som företagens vilja, engagemang och förmåga att delta i mål som gynnar samhället.   Syfte: Syftet med denna magisteruppsats är att analysera företagsledningen av CSR. Närmare bestämt i kontexten av multinationella företags dotterbolags utförande och förvaltning av CSR i praktiken, i relation till företag inom, tjänste-, återförsäljnings och tillverkningsindustrin.   Metod: Flera kvalitativa fallstudier har utförts för att uppfylla syftet med denna uppsats. Empirin är baserad på 14 semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem multinationella företag i tre olika industrier.   Resultat: De gemensamma resultaten för alla fem deltagande multinationella företagen är, ett globalt ledarskapsteam i sin verksamhet, att verksamhetsmålet är i linje med organisationens standard och att de alla upplever en lokal efterfrågan. Vidare fann man att alla fem multinationella företagen mäter, spårar och utvärderar sina processer genom att använda ett eller ett par utvärderingsmetoder. Slutligen var det tydligt att alla ansvarsområden inom Carroll´s CSR-pyramid värderades inom de deltagande företagen och att de alla tror att CSR kommer att bli allt viktigare i framtiden.     Slutsats: Slutsatsen i denna avhandling är att CSR kommer att öka i framtiden för multinationella företag och dess dotterbolag baserat på den nuvarande marknadssituationen. Dessutom tenderar multinationella företag att hantera och genomföra CSR i dotterbolag baserat på en global ram. Mängden lokal anpassning skiljer sig mellan branscher och multinationella företag, om CAGE-avståndet är större tenderar den lokala anpassningen att vara större.

Emerging-market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) have been increasingly engaged in outward foreign investments, the distinctive feature for their internationalization being the aim of strategic asset-seeking and acquiring knowledge. Thus, reverse knowledge transfer is significant in achieving innovation catch-up. Subsidiary willingness towards reverse knowledge transfer has huge implications for building up competitive advantages for MNEs. However, research on EMNEs shows that the subsidiary willingness towards reverse knowledge transfer is rather low. In this vein, the purpose of this thesis is to explore headquarters initiatives to improve subsidiary willingness in EMNEs. This thesis conducts a qualitative case study by semi-structured interviews with respondents from both headquarters and subsidiaries in a Chinese MNE. A case of a Chinese MNE, Geely, and its two Swedish subsidiaries (i.e. Volvo Cars and CEVT) is adopted to explore our research question. The findings suggest that headquarters in EMNEs can improve subsidiary willingness towards reverse knowledge transfer by promoting socialization between headquarters and subsidiary, granting subsidiary autonomy, making contributions to the subsidiary as well as maintaining headquarters/subsidiary cooperation. This thesis contributes to the research on reverse knowledge transfer and EMNEs by identifying new antecedents which influence subsidiary willingness in EMNEs.

As modificações do ambiente competitivo nos mercados consumidores maduros, o aumento do número de empresas competidoras e a aceleração da propagação de novos conhecimentos e tecnologias vêm provocando alterações nas estratégias das empresas e contribuindo para a ampliação do processo de internacionalização. O Brasil está inserido neste processo, ampliando a participação no mercado internacional, com o aumento do número de empresas de capital nacional com subsidiárias no exterior. As empresas decidem pela aquisição e implantação de unidades industriais no exterior com o intuito de ampliar seus mercados e rendimentos. A subsidiária contribui não apenas para o mercado ao qual serve, mas também para outros mercados, tanto como plataforma exportadora quanto como unidade que gera conhecimento a partir do relacionamento com agentes externos. Dado que o processo de internacionalização é importante tanto para empresas quanto para países, o objetivo em questão é entender qual tem sido a trajetória das empresas brasileiras. Dessa forma, este trabalho analisa a gestão das subsidiárias de empresas brasileiras e os diferentes papéis dessas unidades, pretendendo, além de obter um retrato do cenário atual destas empresas, compreender a dinâmica entre matriz e subsidiárias. Para atender aos objetivos foi realizada pesquisa de natureza exploratória e qualitativa, através de estudo de caso de quatro empresas. Foram utilizadas técnicas de entrevista em profundidade, com o apoio de fontes documentais. O trabalho com múltiplos casos foi fundamental para caracterizar as diferenças de estratégias entre as empresas, assim como para justificar a escolha das mesmas. A pesquisa mostrou que não é possível estabelecer um modelo de gestão típico para as subsidiárias, isto é, não existe alinhamento ótimo entre os elementos da estratégia de gestão da empresa atribuição da subsidiária, grau de autonomia dos gestores, nível de transações de conhecimento, nível de atividades técnicas e mecanismos de gestão. Conclui-se que o alinhamento é dependente da estratégia, que por sua vez é estabelecida em função da análise do ambiente econômico. / The changes in the competitive environment in mature consuming markets, the increase on the number of competing companies and the accelerated propagation of new knowledge and technologies have been producing alterations in company strategies and contributing for the enlargement of internationalization process. Brazil is inserted in this process, extending its participation in the international market by the increase on the number of national companies with subsidiaries abroad. These companies decide for the acquisition and establishment of subsidiaries abroad intending to extend its markets and incomes. These units contribute not only to the market which they serve, but also to other markets, as exporting platform and units that generates knowledge from the relationship with external agents. Given that the internationalization process is important both for companies and countries, the aim of this study is understanding which has been the trajectory of some Brazilian companies. In this way, it was analyzed the management of Brazilian company subsidiaries and the different functions of these units intending to visualize the current scenario of the companies, as well as understanding the dynamics between national headquarters and their subsidiaries. In order to achieve these objectives it was done a qualitative research, through a case study of four companies. Interviewing techniques were used supported by documentary sources. The work with multiple cases was fundamental to characterize different company strategies, as well as to justify the reasons of choice of the companies. The research pointed out that it is not possible to establish a typical model of management for the studied subsidiaries, that is, there is not an excellent alignment between the elements that are part of the management strategy attribution of subsidiary, management mechanisms and levels of managers autonomy, knowledge transaction and technical activities. One may conclude that the alignment depends on the strategy, which on its turn is established by the economic environment analysis.