Purpose: This master thesis attempts to propose a guideline for improving logistics performance in terms of cost efficiency and on-time delivery in shipper-TPL provider relationships within offshore outsourcing businesses. Methodology: As a first step, the authors construct a conceptual model based on a thorough literature review. In a second step, empirical data is collected through semi-structured interviews within a single-case study with dyadic perspectives examining the shipper-TPL provider relationship of Ericsson, Sweden and Aramex, Saudi Arabia. Lastly, the authors are able to develop a final detailed model through merging the discovered theoretical and empirical findings. Findings: The findings of this thesis highlight the impact on performance of the factors of communication, culture, work agreements, standardization, system compliance and trust. Based on these factors, the PILOOR Model is developed that illustrates a sequential order of these factors to improve performance. In detail, the findings suggest to start off with communication and culture in order to foster a mutual understanding. Afterwards, work agreements and standardization within processes and communication channels should be established. Thus, considerable efforts are required within the build-up stage of shipper-TPL provider relationships. Within the execution stage, system compliance is found to enhance performance, in which formal and informal communication tools support performance improvements. Finally, this research highlights that trust develops over time by successfully working on the other factors. In addition, it has an overall positive effect on performance once a sufficient level is achieved. Research Implications: This research is the first to propose a guideline for performance improvements within offshore outsourcing of TPL services through the presented PILOOR Model. Thus, this research fills a significant gap within the body of the TPL literature. Furthermore, the PILOOR Model is believed to support practitioners in successfully building-up and executing their offshore outsourcing shipper-TPL provider relationships. Limitations & Further Research: Due to the choice of methodology, this study is limited in terms of generalizability. Therefore, the authors suggest replicating this study within other offshore outsourcing shipper-TPL relationships. Ideally, the developed PILOOR Model should be tested empirically.

Motor Third Party Liability Insurance has appeared some years after serial production of cars was started. This kind of insurance was made obligatory in many European countries after it was noticed, that not all the drivers, who did harm to others or damaged their property, were able to suit civil liability claims and compensate damage. The Lithuanian Motor Third Party Liability Insurance Law was accepted on June 14, 2001 and came into force on January 1, 2002; the demand to insure vehicle came into force after 3 months, on April 1. Lithuania was the last country in Europe, which brought into practice this obligatory kind of insurance. In this work insurance markets of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are being compared. These markets were chosen because of economical and political situation: ex-members of USSR, similar living standards, no insurance market. After retrieving independence insurance companies were established little by little. The aim of this work is to show how insurance markets that started in the same conditions, later developed differently and to compare their present situation. Both: annual and average data is being used for the comparison. In the first part of this work statistical data of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian insurance markets are compared: the number of insurance companies, average installment for a habitant, etc. In the second part the contracts, signed by Lithuanian insurance companies each quarter, are studied as time series. Several time... [to full text]

Aim: To evaluate an audiologic rehabilitation program previously piloted in the U.S. (Kelly-Campbell, in review) for unaided hearing-impaired working adults that was also modified to include their significant others. <p> <p> Method: In this quasi-randomised repeated measures waitlist design, forty-eight participants (24 hearing-impaired adults and their 24 normal hearing significant others) aged 50-64 years were randomised into either a non-waitlist group (immediate treatment), or a waitlist group (treatment after 12-weeks). In these groups, participant couples attended three weekly 2-hour group sessions and completed health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessments. Treatment outcomes for hearing-impaired adults (HIAs) were measured from self and significant other (SO) proxy reports of the Communication Profile for the Hearing Impaired (CPHI; Demorest & Erdman, 1986; 1987). Treatment outcomes for SOs were measured from self-reports of the Significant Other Scale for Hearing Disability (SOS-HEAR; Scarinci, Worrall & Hickson, 2009b). An investigation of the effect of treatment on the congruence of SO-proxy versus HIA HRQOL measures was also undertaken. <p> Results: A series of analyses of variance and repeated-measures t-tests examined HRQOL outcomes for HIAs and their SOs between pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 12-weeks follow-up. Results suggest a significant effect of time for all HRQOL assessments, with gender effects found for CPHI measures, but not for SOS-HEAR measures. Medium to large effect sizes were revealed for both HIAs and their SOs. <p> Conclusions: Group AR appears to be a beneficial treatment approach for reducing the consequences of hearing impairment for HIAs and for their normal hearing SOs.

With the development of online shopping, the number of third-party online payment systems increases. Alipay is a commonly used third-party online payment system among Chinese consumers. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors that affect the users’ acceptance of Alipay among Chinese B2C customers. This study adopts a deductive, theory testing approach. Based on the model of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), a research model and hypotheses were proposed. A survey study was performed with a quota sample of 300 Chinese online shopping consumers. Based on the responses, the hypotheses were tested through statistical analysis. Through testing the hypotheses, it was concluded that: “Social Influence”, “Effort expectancy” were the factors that most prominently could affect B2C user’s acceptance of Alipay. Hence, third-party online systems suppliers should focus on social marketing and increasing the ease of use of the systems to increase user acceptance. Other similar third-party online payment company could take those identified factors as reference in further user acceptance study, and the proposed research model in this study could also help in improving understanding of user acceptance in similar third-part online payment system.

This paper examines the process of employing four kinds of information systems in fourth-party logistics. The paper mainly tries to answer research questions: what is fourth-party logistics and information systems; what are benefits and barriers for using four kinds of information systems (RFID, WMS, EDI, Electronic marketplace) with the help of fourth-party logistics; what are unique benefits and barriers for fourth-party logistics to employ the four kinds of information systems and how to overcome the difficulties. To answer the research question, qualitative case study approach was employed and two case companies were chosen. Information in literature review was collected from secondary data for example scientific paper. Information in findings was collected from interviews of people in charge of the project and internal reports.   Definitions of fourth-party logistics and information system were reviewed in literature review. The differences between fourth-party logistics and third-party logistics were presented as well. In addition, categorization of various kinds of advanced information systems was also listed.   Benefits and barriers organized from literature and case studies were gathered and compared in discussion. Two significant benefits were identified: opportunities to do businesses with leading companies and improved efficiency. Two main barriers are confusion of the concept of fourth-party logistics and terminology of information system and financial justification. There are different opinions between the two case companies, literature review and empirical data, and between different literature. The paper concluded that there are many benefits and barriers for employing the four kinds of information systems in fourth-party logistics, and the future development of it is promising.

The thesis aims to discuss effectiveness of the international conflict resolution in the region of the South Caucasus, analyzing the challenges to international efforts to solve the three conflict cases: the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh is among the frozen disputes in the region, the others Abkhazia and the South Ossetia are nominally independent states, however de facto occupied by Russia. It is the fact that three regional players Russia, Turkey and Iran and global players Russia, US, EU have different type of impacts to conflict settlements in the region which directly relate to their political and economic interests. Therefore, after two decades of mediation by powerful states provided no final resolution with numerous attempts at mediation, wherein the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has taken the lead. The complicated and interdepended relations of states make this region highly sensitive area for war and peace in the world theatrical chessboard. Author also analyzes the effectiveness of conflict management between the parties by focusing on conflicts in the South Caucasus region mentioning their historical, political, security and ethnic dimensions, where international organizations, namely OSCE, UN, EU involve.

La notion de partie comportant de nombreuses incertitudes, tant théoriques que pratiques, l'objet de cette thèse est de proposer une approche renouvelée de cette notion, en ne recherchant pas seulement quels sont les critères de détermination de la qualité de partie mais aussi quelles sont les personnes ayant vocation à disposer de cette qualité procédurale, car beaucoup de problèmes entourant cette notion nécessitent de pouvoir répondre à cette dernière interrogation. Il est ressorti de cette étude que le respect du principe selon lequel nul ne peut être jugé sans avoir été mis en mesure de se défendre impose que toute personne susceptible d'être jugée ait la qualité de partie, et que, sauf exceptions, le respect du devoir de non-immixtion dans les affaires d'autrui et de l'objectif de bonne administration de la justice implique de ne pas octroyer la qualité de partie à d'autres personnes que celles susceptibles d'être jugées. Dès lors, nous avons pu vérifier si les personnes étant parties ou tiers étaient légitimes à l'être et proposer, lorsque tel n'était pas le cas, des solutions pour y remédier. En outre, en analysant à la lumière de l'approche centrée sur la vocation à être partie les divers cas posant des difficultés de qualification procédurale, nous avons pu démontrer que les catégories de tiers et de parties ne nécessitent pas d'être complétées de classifications intermédiaires. En revanche, étudier isolément chaque situation à l'aune de cette nouvelle approche a permis de faire en sorte, pour tous ces cas jusqu'alors incertains, que chaque personne dispose de la qualité procédurale et des prérogatives auxquelles elle pouvait légitimement prétendre. / No English summary available.

Since the mobile communication technology gains a big success in China, internet finance becomes one of the most emerging industries in China in the past decade. People’s living habits have been deeply changed by this emerging service. Nowadays the majority of Chinese citizens use cellphones to deposit and make payments, rather than use traditional debit and credit cards. They can even scan their cellphones to pay the bus and subway fares. While facilitating people’s lives, internet finance also causes new challenges for the commercial banks in China. It makes financial transactions more efficient and lowers transaction costs. Meanwhile, it also takes some profit sources of traditional commercial banks. This study first analyzes the current developing situation of internet finance in China and then introduce the banks efficiency of Chinese banks. Finally, the profitability that is measure by the ROA and ROE of 15 public commercial banks are chosen as the independent variables that measure the profitability of banks. The market scale of internet finance and its profitability are the independent variables. The study finds that while internet finance continues to develop in China, commercial banks’ profitability keeps a decreasing trend. The test results indicate that with the increase of one percent in total revenue, net income and ROA of the internet finance industry, the commercial banks’ ROA decreases by 0.02%, 0.04 and 2.52%, while ROE reduces by 0.22%, 1.04%, and 3.99% respectively.

In an effort to reduce waste in construction projects, hence promoting value creation, the focus on the construction logistics becomes increasingly important, especially with increasing complexity of the project. This is in order to coordinate and effectively plan the routines and deliveries that occur regularly at the construction site. In an effort of becoming more efficient regarding this matter and to reduce the amount of waste, procurement of a third party logistics company that conducts all necessary logistical activities has become more and more recognized. The purpose of the master thesis is to analyze the procurement of a third party logistics company (3PL) and how it has been handled during a project life cycle and how to optimize this type of solution as a partnership and as a benchmarking method. Finally client perception and satisfaction of the executed work is analyzed, all of which are summarized in the research questions stated below: • How has the collaboration with the procured third party logistics company (3PL) been conducted during the project life cycle? • How is it possible to develop and optimize the collaboration with a 3PL in order to achieve better results in the future as a partnership and a benchmarking method? • What is the client perception and satisfaction of the executed work by the third party logistics company? The theoretical chapter will serve as a foundation of the thesis where the relevant concepts are described complemented with a comparative case study of two projects with relevance to the stated questions. The case study consists of documents and interviews with key participants. The result will show a holistic profitability with additional suggestions to further develop this type of collaboration as a benchmarking method, what is the next reasonable step of further optimization regarding 3PL procurement and what generalizations can be made.

This thesis selects data from the financial annual report of 15 different kinds of commercial banks in China from 2016 to 2019. Meanwhile, the bank's return on total assets (ROA) and non-interest income ratio (NIIR) are considered as dependent variables and other variables are considered as the independent variables. The aim of this thesis is to examine the effect of third-party payment developments on the profitability of commercial banks and whether the effect is different due to different types of banks. At the end of the thesis, suggestions are proposed for banks to withstand risks and improve supervision. JEL Classification F12 Keywords third-party payment , commercial bank profitability, bank supervision , regression Title The impact of third-party payment on the profitability of commercial banks.