This diploma deals with the use of decision analysis methods to solve the decision problem of selecting an information system for small business. The theoretical part explains the basic concepts, methods and procedures related to information systems and decision theory, the practical part use methods of the decision analysis and chose the best option and suggest the optimal decision.

Au sortir de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, les Coréens représentaient la première communauté étrangère au Japon. Beaucoup d’entre eux y subissait des discriminations et vivaient dans la précarité, voire dans l’indigence. Dans la deuxième moitié des années 1950, alors que les dirigeants nord-Coréens se proposaient de les accueillir, le rapatriement en Corée du Nord représenta pour nombre de ces Coréens l’espoir d’un avenir meilleur. De 1959 à 1984, plus de 93000 personnes – dont environs 2000 Japonaises mariées à des Coréens – gagnèrent le Nord du 38e parallèle. Toutefois, le gouvernement japonais, confronté dès 1974 aux demandes des familles de ces Japonaises, tenta d’obtenir des informations sur leur sort et leur retour au Japon. Le présent travail établit une cartographie des acteurs impliqués dans le processus décisionnel autour des rapatriements vers la Corée du Nord, mais également dans les négociations touchant à la question de ces femmes japonaises. Plus particulièrement, cette étude met en lumière le rôle d’ « acteurs subsidiaires » – notamment la Société de la Croix-Rouge du Japon et les parlementaires nationaux – intervenant là où les marges de manœuvre du gouvernement sont restreintes en l’absence de relations diplomatiques officielles entre le Japon et la Corée du Nord. Cette contrainte institutionnelle a eu pour conséquence l’investissement des champs d’action traditionnellement dévolus au Ministère des Affaires étrangères (négociation, protection de ses nationaux à l’étranger, renseignement) par ces « acteurs subsidiaires » dont l’analyse permet d’établir une image à la fois plus complète et moins stato-Centrée de la politique étrangère du Japon. / At the end of the Second World War, Koreans constituted the main foreign community in Japan. Many of them were subjected to discrimination, and lived precariously or even in abject poverty. From the latter half of the 1950s, when North Korean leaders were welcoming them and guaranteeing them decent living conditions, repatriation to North Korea represented hope for a better future for many of these Koreans. Between 1959 and 1984, more than 93,000 people – of whom 2,000 were Japanese women married to Koreans – arrived at the 38th Parallel North. Nevertheless, the Japanese government, confronted by requests from the families of these Japanese women from 1974, tried to obtain information on their whereabouts, and asked for their return to Japan. The present work establishes a mapping of the actors implicated in the decision-Making process concerning repatriation operations to North Korea, but also in the negotiations retated to the Japanese women. More specifically, this study highlights the role of the “subsidiary actors” – of which the Japanese Red Cross and national parliaments are the most prominent – those that intervened where the government’s margins for manoeuvring were narrow in the absence of official diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea. This institutional constraint led to an investment in fields of action that had traditionally been relegated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (negotiation, protection of nationals abroad, intelligence, etc.) by these “subsidiary actors”, and a subsequent analysis of these actors provided both a more complete and less state-Centred image of Japan’s foreign policy.

The dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of the issue of quality in simultaneous interpreting. The theoretical part explores general questions related to quality in interpreting, namely the inherent difficulties encountered in defining quality, the issue of subjectivity in the assessment of quality, the different perspectives on quality and the issues surrounding the various quality criteria as suggested by different authors. The work focuses on the cognitive processes involved in simultaneous interpreting; concepts of working memory and cognitive load are discussed as well as their connection to the concept of interpreting as a decision-making process and a strategic behaviour. Quality is therefore understood as the capacity to efficiently and effectively manage available cognitive resources and to choose appropriate strategies to solve a particular problem in a specific interpreting situation, while taking into account the overall working conditions and the individual predispositions of the interpreter. The empirical part includes an analysis of actual interpreting of technical (legal) speeches. The technical nature of the speeches and the resulting linguistic and conceptual difficulties of the input material is considered to be a factor that increases cognitive load. The aim is to...

La gestion du patrimoine est un concept récemment adopté par le secteur public qui consiste d'une manière générale à prendre les décisions, jugées optimales, concernant l'acquisition, la maintenance, le fonctionnement et la disposition des immobilisations. Pour pouvoir prendre ces décisions, plusieurs outils peuvent être retrouvés à l'exemple de la comptabilité des immobilisations. Ces outils forment le système de gestion du patrimoine ou la chaîne de gestion patrimoniale. C'est ce qui est affirmé dans la littérature. Notre étude est accès sur la manière dont ces décisions se prennent au niveau de deux communes malgaches : la commune suburbaine d'Ambohimanga Rova et la commune rurale de Mahabo. L'analyse de plusieurs décisions patrimoniales a permis de déduire par la suite la place potentielle des outils qui ne s'arrête pas seulement à l'aide à la décision mais peuvent constituer également des éléments de légitimation des décisions politiques. / The public asset management which recently adopted by public sector, consists in making decision, considered as optimal, about the acquisition, the maintenance, the operating and the disposition of fixed assets. To make those decisions, several management tools can be found like the fixed assets accounting. Those tools constitute the asset management system. It is what is marked on the research about the asset management. Our study is about the way in which those decisions are made on the level of two malagasy's municipalities: the suburban municipality of Ambohimanga Rova and the rural municipality of Mahabo. The analysis of several decisions implies the potential roles of those tools which does not stop only with the decision-making process but can also constitute elements of legitimation of political decisions.

Assim como outros investimentos em tecnologia da informação, os sistemas de Business Intelligence (BI) também têm sido questionados em relação aos benefícios e retornos obtidos depois de sua implantação. Isso porque o produto de BI é inteligência, ou, em outras palavras, algum tipo de informação processada, e o valor da informação é difícil de avaliar. A presente pesquisa pretende contribuir ao estudo desse problema de pesquisa, abordando o tema da avaliação dos sistemas de BI por meio do modelo de sucesso de sistemas de informação proposto por DeLone e McLean. Além das dimensões tradicionais inter-relacionadas do modelo: capacidade de BI, qualidade da informação, satisfação dos usuários e nível de uso, foi incluída a variável a abordagem de decisão, pois um dos principais objetivos dos sistemas de BI é processar dados advindos de diferentes fontes, para produzir informação que sirva como suporte para a tomada de decisão. Uma vez que a capacidade de BI e a qualidade da informação são constructos multidimensionais, uma das contribuições desta pesquisa foi realizar um levantamento na literatura sobre as dimensões que operacionalizam esse constructo e avaliá-las empiricamente. A capacidade de BI foi definida em termos de acessibilidade, capacidades analíticas, flexibilidade e integração, e qualidade da informação em termos de atualidade, completude, oportunidade e precisão. O problema de pesquisa foi abordado por meio da metodologia de survey, em que os respondentes foram convidados a participar da pesquisa via e-mail e o questionário foi disponibilizado em forma eletrônica através da ferramenta SurveyMonkey. No total, foram obtidas 483 repostas, das quais 246 foram válidas. Já que o modelo conceitual proposto inclui múltiplas relações de interdependência, a técnica estatística selecionada para analisar os dados foi a modelagem de equações estruturais. O software utilizado foi o SmartPLS que testa o modelo estrutural por meio do método de mínimos quadrados ordinários. Foi possível comprovar empiricamente todas as relações de causalidade propostas entre as dimensões de sucesso dos sistemas de BI, a exceção da relação de moderação da variável abordagem de decisão na relação de causalidade entre satisfação e nível de uso. Um teste subsequente permitiu observar que essa variável poderia ser preditora do nível de uso. Segundo os resultados, é possível afirmar que o sucesso de BI pode ser definido em termos da capacidade de BI, qualidade da informação, satisfação dos usuários e nível de uso. A operacionalização realizada dos constructos multidimensionais \"capacidade de BI\" e \"qualidade da informação\" poderia dar luzes sobre quais características devem ser priorizadas na implantação e/ou desenvolvimento dos sistemas de BI nas empresas. / As well as other investments in Information Technology (IT), Business Intelligence (BI) systems have also been questioned in relation to the benefits and returns obtained after its implementation. These questions arise because the BI product is intelligence, or, in other words, some kind of processed information and the value of information is difficult to assess. This research aims to contribute to this by addressing the issue of evaluation of BI systems through the information systems success model proposed by DeLone and McLean, beyond the traditional dimensions that are interrelated: BI capabilities, quality of information, user satisfaction, and level of use. The decision approach was included as a variable since a key objective of BI systems is to process data coming from different sources to produce information that serves as a basis for the decision-making process. Once the BI capability and information quality are multidimensional constructs, one of the contributions of this study was to review the literature available about the dimensions that operationalize this construct and evaluate them empirically. BI capability was defined in terms of accessibility, analytical capabilities, flexibility and integration, and the information quality in terms of opportunity, completeness, timeliness and accuracy. The research problem was addressed by the survey methodology: the respondents were invited to participate in the survey via email and the questionnaire was made available in electronic form through the SurveyMonckey tool. A number of 246 responses were usable out of the 483 total responses that were obtained. Since the proposed conceptual model includes multiple interdependencies, the statistical technique selected to analyze the data was the structural equation modeling. The software used was the SmartPLS, which tests the structural model using the ordinary least squares method. It was possible to prove empirically all the causal relationships proposed between success dimensions of BI systems, except for the moderation effect of making-decision approach variable on the relationship between satisfaction and usage level. A subsequent test allowed us to observe that this variable could be a predictor of the level of use. According to these results, we can say that the success of BI can be defined in terms of BI capability, the quality of information, user satisfaction and the level of use. The operationalization of the variables BI capability and information quality as a multidimensional construct could enlighten the decision about which features should be prioritized in implementing the development of BI systems in companies.

RésuméCette thèse a pour but de contribuer à l'histoire des communautés européennes et à la compréhension du processus de prise de décision au sein de cette coopération. Elle a pour objectif de clarifier l'importance du choc pétrolier pour la coopération européenne. Plus particulièrement, elle vise à comprendre quels effets immédiats et à court terme cette crise eut sur le développement d'une politique énergétique commune : La crise pétrolière fut-elle un levier ou une barrière au développement d'une politique énergétique commune? D'un côté, il se peut que le choc pétrolier ait accéléré le processus de prise de décision parce qu'il créa une urgence à traiter les problèmes d'approvisionnement du moment et à changer la dépendance européenne envers le pétrole du Moyen-Orient sur le long terme. D'un autre côté, il se peut que le choc pétrolier ait ralenti l'évolution d'une politique énergétique commune en intensifiant une confrontation entre les perspectives divergentes des Neuf, bloquant ainsi tout compromis. Dans ce contexte, des questions se posent quant aux raisons pour lesquelles les états membres recherchaient une coopération dans le domaine énergétique sans chercher de compromis au niveau de leurs intérêts divergents.Cette thèse a donné un aperçu sur différents aspects du processus de prise de décision dans les communautés européennes. La Commission européenne apparait dans cette recherche comme intervenant activement dans le développement d'une politique énergétique commune après la fusion de l'exécutif des communautés en 1967. L'échec de consensus en mai 1973 prouve toutefois que le besoin d'une coopération énergétique commune des gouvernements nationaux ait été moins fort que les différences d'intérêt mutuelles. En outre, on peut en conclure que les Neuf jugèrent l'OCDE comme un organisme plus approprié pour faire face aux tensions du moment du marché pétrolier.Après le début du choc pétrolier la coopération au niveau supranational fut considérablement minimisée. Il est certain que la Commission ne resta pas apathique face aux problèmes pétroliers lors du choc pétrolier. L'institution réagit vivement aux déclarations des pays producteurs de pétrole par des propositions de juridiction sur une politique pétrolière à court terme et des lettres insistant sur une position commune face aux problèmes d'approvisionnement en pétrole. Au sein de la Commission plusieurs comités et groupes furent créés, ou se rencontrèrent plus fréquemment, et se concentrèrent sur différents aspects du choc pétrolier.Le choc pétrolier ne fut pas un accélérateur du traitement des juridictions au niveau commun. Toutefois, il y a quelques remarques à faire. Il convient de mentionner que le Groupe de l'énergie du Conseil permit, curieusement, un forum pour la discussion d'actions communes possibles pour traiter les problèmes pétroliers du moment. En outre, la création du Comité de l'énergie signifiait un changement important dans le processus européen de prise décision. Troisièmement, l'OCDE a eu un rôle plus important que constaté avant en tant qu'acteur important du processus de prise de décision européen au niveau de l'énergie.Lors du choc pétrolier il ne fut pas donné à la Commission européenne de rôle d'élaboration de politique concernant les problèmes pétroliers du moment. Dans une première phase, le Conseil refusa ce rôle à la Commission à cause des mesures arabes sur les réductions de production et par crainte d'aggraver la situation. Mais même si cet argument n'était plus valable, les propositions pour des politiques à court termes de la Commission ne furent pas acceptées. Par contre, à cette époque, il fut confié à la Commission la tâche d'élaborer un programme à moyen et long terme pour une politique énergétique commune jusqu'en 1985. À cet égard, le choc pétrolier semble avoir été le catalyseur d'une politique énergétique commune. / This thesis aims to contribute to the history of the European communities and to the understanding of the decision-making process within this cooperation. More specifically, it seeks an answer to the question of what immediate and short-term effects he oil shock had on the development of a common energy policy: Was the oil crisis a lever or a barrier for the development of a common European energy policy? On the one hand, the oil shock may have possibly accelerated the decision-making process because it created an urgency to deal with the current supply problems and to change the European dependency on Middle Eastern oil on the longer term. On the other hand, the oil shock may have slowed down the development of a common energy policy by escalating a confrontation between the diverging perspectives of the Nine, blocking, in this way, a compromise. In this context, questions arise about the reasons why member states were searching for cooperation in the field of energy without searching for a compromise for their diverging interests.This thesis gives insight into different aspects of the decision-making process at the European communities. The European Commission emerges from the research as an active actor in the development towards a common energy policy after the merger of the communities' executives in 1967. The failure to reach consensus in May 1973 shows, however, that the need from national governments for a joint energy cooperation was less significant than the mutual differences of interest. Moreover, it might be concluded that the Nine deemed the OECD a more appropriate body to face the current tensions in the oil market. Two weeks after the Energy Council, they had committed themselves to the consumer cooperation at the OECD, just like the other member countries of this organisation. The idea for such a closer cooperation had been pushed by the United States since 1972. Within the OECD's Oil Committee, the theme of a worldwide apportionment scheme was being discussed as well as the danger of outbidding prices. The most important questions of the time were thus already discussed within this forum which maintained the large advantage of including the United States.After the start of the oil shock, cooperation at supranational level was significantly minimised, although the Commission did certainly not remain apathetic towards the oil problems. The institution swiftly reacted to the oil producer countries' announcements with new proposals for jurisdiction on short-term oil policy and letters insisting on a joint position faced with the oil supply problems. Within the Commission several committees and groups were created, and existing committees met more regularly, and focused on different aspects of the oil shock. The oil shock was not an accelerator for the processing of jurisdiction at common level. Noteworthy is the fact, however, that the Energy Group of the Council surprisingly provided a forum for the discussion of possible common actions to counter the current oil problems. Moreover, the creation of this Energy Committee signified an important change within the European decision-making process. Thirdly, the OECD had a more important role than assumed in other studies in this field, as an actor in the European decision-making process on energy.During the oil shock the European Commission was not attributed a role in the policy making concerning the current oil problems. In a first phase, the Council refused to such a role for the Commission because of the Arab measures on production cuts and a fear to aggravate the situation. But even when this argument no longer applied the proposals for jurisdiction of the Commission were not accepted. By contrast, at that time the Commission was given the assignment of elaborating a mid- and long-term programme for a common energy policy until 1985. In that respect, the oil shock seems to have been a catalyst for a common energy policy.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T18:40:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marcelo H Consoli.pdf: 464724 bytes, checksum: 730bce2c6c19d7b07068073111c8514d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-04-19 / Among the ways that companies can coordinate they activities and define the sources of resources, two are opposite: make or buy in market. In this way, companies choose one of these options or use hybrid coordination forms, that will define the level of vertical integration used by the company. The aim of this research is analyze and classify the main factors regarded by managers when deciding about the level of vertical integration to use in their strategies. Following this objective, it was made a review in the publications related to this subject, like strategy, decision making process, transaction cost economy, industrial organization and finance. The procedures to develop the research used case study methodology applied in the sugar cane sector, where three different sugar mills with distinct vertical integration levels were analyzed through secondary data and interviews. As results it shows a list of factors and situations to be analyzed and pondered to assist managers to organize their production systems and make most efficient decision making about make or buy / Dentre inúmeras maneiras possíveis para as empresas organizarem suas atividades e definirem suas fontes de obtenção de recursos, destaca-se duas formas polares, são elas: produzir internamente ou comprar no mercado. Dessa maneira, a opção por uma dessas formas ou até mesmo a opção por uma forma híbrida, define o grau de integração vertical adotada pela empresa. Este trabalho tem como objetivo levantar e classificar quais são os principais fatores considerados pelos gestores no processo decisório de definição do grau de integração vertical adotado pela empresa. Para tanto, foram revisadas as principais obras relacionadas aos temas: estratégia, processo decisório, economia de custos de transação, organização industrial e finanças. Utilizou-se ainda neste trabalho, para alcançar os objetivos propostos, a metodologia de estudo de caso aplicado, em três empresas pertencentes ao sistema agroindustrial da cana, com diferentes graus de integração vertical. Ao término do mesmo, lista-se uma série de situações, que analisadas e ponderadas, permitem escolher qual a melhor forma de organizar a produção e, conseqüentemente, qual a melhor decisão a ser tomada: produzir ou comprar

Ocasionalmente, decisores se deparam com situações que demandarão a tomada de decisões estratégicas. Trata-se, com freqüência, de decisões que não foram vivenciadas anteriormente - seja no âmbito do organizacional, seja no âmbito pessoal dos decisores envolvidos - e, por isso, essas experiências anteriores podem ser de pouco valor ou podem ser transpostas apenas parcialmente ao novo contexto decisório. Nessas situações, surge um problema real a ser enfrentado pelos decisores e pouco explorado empiricamente pelos estudiosos dos processos decisórios: o problema de decidir como tomar uma decisão estratégica ou, como também conhecido no meio acadêmico, como tomar as metadecisões de um processo decisório. Para tratar desse problema, pesquisou-se a escassa literatura existente e, considerando estudos selecionados sobre processos decisórios, desenvolveu-se um modelo teórico representando os fatores que podem afetar dois tipos de metadecisões: a de processo e a de conteúdo. Em seguida, no contexto de uma organização pública e, no âmbito do desenvolvimento e produção de dois produtos para fins de diagnóstico e terapia, uma investigação foi conduzida envolvendo, no total, sete processos decisórios. Essa investigação objetivou testar o modelo teórico desenvolvido, verificar a existência de alguma associação lógica entre as diferentes metadecisões tomadas ao longo de um processo decisório e, a partir de análises dos resultados, identificar contribuições acadêmicas e práticas ao estado da arte sobre o tema. Como resultado desse esforço, o modelo do processo metadecisório foi revisado com a inclusão de novos fatores que podem influenciar as metadecisões e constatou-se que, ao longo de um processo decisório, parte das metadecisões tomadas podem apresentar uma associação lógica entre si. No conjunto, esses resultados permitiram a conclusão quanto à existência de uma estrutura lógica subjacente ao processo decisório maior do que a identificada por outros autores em estudos anteriores. Dezenove proposições relacionadas a metadecisões e uma metodologia para decidir como decidir integram as contribuições do estudo e abrem a perspectiva para outros estudos investigarem a aplicabilidade e generalidade do modelo desenvolvido e das proposições efetuadas para outros contextos organizacionais. / Occasionally, decision makers face situations where they need to make strategic decisions. Frequently, these decisions are new, and thus, previous experience is only partially helpful, if it is at all. In these situations, there is a real problem that needs to be addressed by the decision maker, which is the problem of deciding how to decide strategic decisions, or, in other words, how to make the metadecisions of a strategic decision. In order to deal with this theme, the scarce literature was reviewed and, along with selected topics about the decision making process, a theoretical model was developed to represent two types of metadecisions: process and content. The next step was the development of an empirical research in a public organization, involving the development and production of two products for diagnosis and therapy purposes. Seven decision processes were studied. The investigation was carried out in order to test the theoretical model, to verify the existence of any logical association among the different metadecisions taken within the decision process and, after the analysis of the results, to generate new contributions to the state of the art of this theme. The main results of this research are the revision and inclusion of new factors in the metadecision model and the identification that some of the metadecisions taken within a strategic decision process may present a logical association with one another. These findings indicated that the subjacent logical structure pointed out by other authors in previous studies can be extended. Nineteen propositions concerning metadecisions and a methodology to decide how to decide are additional contributions of this study. Taken altogether, this investigation opened the perspective of future studies to investigate the problem of deciding how to decide and extend the findings of the present study to other organizational environments.

La Constitution de la Roumanie de 1991, élaborée au début d’une période detransition d’un système totalitaire à un système démocratique, a inévitablement dû êtrerévisée. Si elle a défini un cadre juridique démocratique contribuant à la réinstauration et à lastructuration de la démocratie, la révision constitutionnelle intervient dans un cadre deconsolidation démocratique, avec un objectif principal : l’intégration de la Roumanie dans lesstructures euro-Atlantiques.Toutes les modifications apportées par la loi de révision pourraient être interprétées etjustifiées par cet objectif principal, compte tenu du lien entre la dynamique démocratisante etl’intégration dans les structures euro-Atlantiques.Trois finalités du processus de révision se dégagent dans ce contexte : l’institution desfondements constitutionnels de l’intégration euro-Atlantique et de ses effets, l’élargissementdes garanties constitutionnelles et institutionnelles des droits et des libertés fondamentaux etl’optimisation du processus décisionnel. Si les modifications présentées dans la premièrepartie sont directement liées à l’adhésion à l’Union Européenne et à l’OTAN, indispensables,les modifications répondant aux deux autres finalités sont d’influence ou d’inspirationeuropéenne, contribuant à la consolidation de la démocratie. / The Romanian Constitution of 1991, elaborated at the beginning of a period oftransition from a totalitarian system to a democratic one, needs undoubtedly to be revised. Ifthe Constitution defined a juridical democratic frame that contributed to the democraticrevival and settlement the revision of the Constitution responds to a period of democraticconsolidation related to a main objective: the integration in the European and North Atlanticstructures.All the modifications to the law brought on by the revision could be interpreted anddefended in relation to this main objective taking into account the relation between thedynamic of the democratization process and the integration in the European and NorthAtlantic structures.This revision process of the Romanian Constitution has three motivations related directlyto this context: the introduction of constitutional fundaments for the integration into theEuropean and North Atlantic structures and consequences of that integration, broadening theconstitutional and institutional warranties for fundamental rights and liberties and finally, theoptimization of the decision making process. If the revisions introduced in the first part weredirectly connected to the accession into the European Union and NATO, and thus essential,the revisions responding to the two other ends were influenced or based on a European modeland contributed directly to the strengthening of the young Romanian democracy.

Denna magisteruppsats i offentlig rätt är ämnad att behandla implementeringen av direktivet om betaltjänster på den inre marknaden i svensk rätt. Betaltjänstdirektivet är väsentlig vid inrättande av den inre marknaden inom EU:s medlemsstater, då alla inre gränser skall avlägsnas för att möjliggöra fri rörlighet för varor, personer, tjänster och kapital; i det sammanhanget blir det viktigt med en modern och konsekvent rättslig ram för betaltjänster på EU-nivå. Uppsatsen syftar till att undersöka implementeringen av de processuella och materiella bestämmelser i betaltjänstdirektivet som knyter an till principen om god förvaltning och därtill medlemsstaternas processuella och institutionella autonomi. Till de frågor som analyseras hör tolkning av begreppet god förvaltning och hur de utvalda principerna kan identifieras i svensk rätt genom implementeringen av direktivet. God förvaltning i denna uppsats förstås i vid mening som ett begrepp motsvarande vad enskilda har rätt att förvänta sig av det berörda förvaltningsorganet vid handläggning av ett enskilt ärende. Uppsatsen har visat att direktivet innehåller ett flertal bestämmelser som knyter an till principen om god förvaltning och som reglerar hur svenska myndigheter skall handlägga ärenden inom direktivets tillämpningsområde. Uppsatsen har också kunnat påvisa en tydlig påverkan på Sveriges processuella och institutionella autonomi.