This study examines the friendship patterns of students in a year 7 to 10 A.C.T. high school using Vertical Integration as a grouping policy. The origins of this study can be found in the school's policy developed in 1976 and favouring vertical integration on the basis of perceived social benefits. In the development of teaching strategies at Melba High, Vertical Integration has been used with all year groups in all subject areas. Over the last three years teachers have questioned the validity of this policy. This study arose out of the demand by staff for more detailed understanding of group formation processes generally and of the link between group formation and school grouping policies at Melba High in particular. The approach used to generate data was an action research design that could feed information to the school decision-making processes. The key findings of the study were that; (a) whatever form of Vertical Integration was used, students still worked in age and sex groups by choice. (b) students tended to form friendships on a subschool basis. Recommendations resulting from these findings have been implemented in the present planning of Melba High School. The format for Vertical Integration (the method of combining years 7,8,9 and 10 in classes) has been modified to combine adjacent year groups only. (viz. years 7 and 8 as one group and years 9 and 10 as another).

In response to recent economic downturn and its turmoil impact, semiconductor distributors begin to take on a customer relationship management approaches in hoping to find critical success factors. Additionally, they hope to actively strengthen internal competitiveness so that market advantage can be gained, and therefore leading to a better industry position. therefore, it is very different to establish noticeable product differentiation within this limited environment, as well as maximizing any profit gain. By emphasizing Customer Relationship development, semiconductor distributors can maintain a more long-term relationship and stay competitive. The purpose of this study is therefore listed as follows: 1.To explore the effect of industrial environment on customer relationship and the associating key factors. 2.To explore the attributes of successful business strategy, its critical factors and their effects on successful customer relationship management. 3.To evaluate on financial capability and its influence on the success of Customer Relationship Management. 4.To explore the relationship between supplier relationship management on customer relation and other critical factors. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) will be used to divide the topic into two levels. First thru the use of general discussion and review on focus group, a structuralized second level, including the associating four dimensions, along with each dimension¡¦s relevance towards the success factors will be drafted. By synchronizing both AHP qualitative and quantitative data, it is then possible to establish an in-depth understanding on Customer Relationship Management in semiconductor distributors. Through this example, it is then possible to understand the critical importance behind these key factors: customization on product capabilities, ability to improve inventory turnover, and lastly, financial control capabilities.

BenQ was founded in1984,the business income was NTD 300 million during the initial period of years and her core business was merely to produce computer components. Her sales income has achieved to NTD 174.7 billion till 2004 after merging her subsidiary companies. Over the past 20 years, the employees increased to more than 13,000 as a global enterprise distributing more than 30 countries. In addition, the sales income has increased 582 times than she was founded. Therefore, the way of BenQ success was a model for the enterprise growth. In order to research the model and the experiences that the enterprise grows, this research uses BenQ as case study thoroughly studies in her nearly more than 20 years growth processes and how she used each strategy activity to achieve the enterprise growth goal. According to BenQ¡¦s success of new business development, this research constructs set of universalized new business development model, the flow, the process, and product life cycle backward vertical integration model. It was discovered that the corporate venture capital played an important role and function to provide the enterprises growth strategy when enterprise is growing.

With globalization and knowledge economy, distance between spaces and obstacles to social and economic activities are reduced, however, R&D activities and technology diffusion of high-tech industry still rely on face-to-face communication. Geographical proximity and social networks are still beneficial to share technology and decrease transaction costs, so clustering of high-tech industry is still popular in the world. The research based on the concept of social embeddedness aims to discuss whether cultural atmosphere and social networks influence the fluidity of labor market, and to know how the fluidity of high-tech personnel and technology learning work on the vertically-integrated optoelectronic system in the Southern Taiwan Science-based Industrial Park. The research compares the results of questionnaire and interview with the existing literature to paint a configuration of the fluid labor market and further to discuss the interaction between the labor market activities and high-tech development in the Southern Taiwan Science-based Industrial Park. At last, it comes to the conclusion of the differences and commons in different industrial districts by comparing labor market activities. The result shows that employees think job-change is an acceptable value and phenomenon in the Southern Taiwan Science-based Industrial Park. Thus the cultural atmosphere will render the fluidity of labor market easy. Due to the industrial cluster forming a labor pooling, job-related information is concentrated and job-change costs are decreased. In addition, workers usually seek and get jobs by strong ties of social networks. So network embeddedness influences labor market activities. The more conveniently job information flows, the higher possibility of workers¡¦ job mobility is. Furthermore, most employees are willing to accumulate technological knowledge and realize ideals by changing jobs. However, some contradictions including wasting educational training, exposing competitors to key technology, and nurturing new competitors coexist with the fluidity of labor market. Consequently, firms are mostly opposed to the fluid labor market. Thanks to the innovations transferred by foreign high-tech personnel, the optoelectronic system is able to escape from the obsolete technology lock-in of the system.

In recent years the three Prairie Pools have actively expanded their primary operations to include a number of investments both within and outside of the agricultural sector. The Pools' investment strategies are economically interesting because they are being pursued within the context of a co-operative organizational structure which requires that the users of the cooperative business also own, control, and benefit from its operations. This thesis examines the possible economic incentives agricultural co-operatives may have to invest in vertically integrated and diversified activities using the case of the Western Canadian co-operative elevator companies as an example. The analysis undertaken in this thesis is structured in two ways. First, the economic literature regarding co-operative formation and conventional firm expansion is surveyed. This analysis suggests that an important difference between vertically integrated investments and diversified investments is that they are motivated by the realization of distincly different sets of economic benefits for the co-operative firm and its members. It is argued that co-operative vertical integration can convey benefits to members indirectly through the market, in the form of increased producer margins and improved market access. However, these benefits may not impact the "bottom line" of the co-operative firm. Diversification can, on the other hand, provide a co-operative with direct monetary benefits in the form of improved financial performance and increased profits, which can translate into increased patronage refunds available to members. The second component of this analysis involves the development of a simulation model to examine the implications of an additional hypothesis proposed to explain co-operative expansion. The proposed hypothesis is based on the notion that perhaps the indirect market benefits from cooperation and co-operative expansion are being undervalued. This undervaluation can result in a preoccupation with the monetary benefits from co-operative business, and may therefore cause a bias towards diversified investments. The model developed in this thesis illustrates that, although such a bias may improve a co-operative's rate of return, it may also result in significant opportunity costs for agricultural producers due to a decrease in a co-operative's pro-competitive effect on primary markets.

The EU has been promoting unbundling of the transmission grid from other stages of the electricity supply chain with the aim of fostering competition in the upstream stage of electricity generation. At presence, ownership unbundling is the predominant form of unbundling in Europe. However, the benefits of increased competition from ownership unbundling of the transmission grid may come at the cost of lost vertical synergies between the formerly integrated stages of electricity supply. The policy debate generally neglects such potential costs of unbundling, yet concentrates on its benefits. Therefore European crosscountry evidence may shed some light on this issue. This study helps fill this void by empirically estimating the magnitude of economies of vertical integration (EVI) between electricity generation and transmission based on a quadratic cost function. For this purpose we employ novel firm-level panel data of major European electricity utilities. Our results confirm the presence of substantial EVI, which put the policy measure of transmission ownership unbundling into question. (authors' abstract) / Series: Working Papers / Research Institute for Regulatory Economics

The South African pharmaceutical market is seen as part of the so called "pharmerging" markets, together with countries like India, China and Brazil. These "pharmerging" markets are the fastest growing markets within the global pharmaceutical industry. The distribution of chronic medicine in South Africa is a growing market, as the disease burden in South Africa continues to escalate, with the incidence of chronic conditions growing at a rapid rate. The study will focus on one of South Africa’s pioneer courier medication service providers, with more than twenty years’ experience in the healthcare industry. The company will be referred to as Pharmacy X. The mission of Pharmacy X is to provide the right chronic medication, to the right patient, at the right place, at the right time. It is imperative to ensure that a patient receives his/her chronic medication on the scheduled date of delivery to ensure compliance and customer satisfaction. To achieve a competitive advantage, companies increasingly depend on their supply chain partners to minimize cost and improve business processes. The core value chain activity of outbound logistics has been outsourced by Pharmacy X to several courier companies. This study will aim to understand the importance of the outbound logistics function within the value chain of the company and the costs involved with the outsourcing of the function. The primary objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of an in-house courier operation in the Bloemfontein area versus the current outsourced courier model. In order to achieve the primary objective of the study, several secondary objectives were set and reached throughout the four chapters of this study. The study applied cost benefit analysis techniques to determine the feasibility of the Bloemfontein courier investment project. All the cost benefit analysis techniques concluded that the Bloemfontein courier investment will be a financial viable operation. The Bloemfontein courier investment will increase shareholder value over the period of the project compared to the current outsourced model. The contribution of this case study to determine the feasibility of a courier operation investment can be of value to Pharmacy X. The current projected total courier cost of Pharmacy X for the 2013 financial year amounts to more than a third of the total operational cost. The findings within the case study can lead to a greater national roll out of courier operations in order to reduce costs and increase profit margins for Pharmacy X. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The South African pharmaceutical market is seen as part of the so called "pharmerging" markets, together with countries like India, China and Brazil. These "pharmerging" markets are the fastest growing markets within the global pharmaceutical industry. The distribution of chronic medicine in South Africa is a growing market, as the disease burden in South Africa continues to escalate, with the incidence of chronic conditions growing at a rapid rate. The study will focus on one of South Africa’s pioneer courier medication service providers, with more than twenty years’ experience in the healthcare industry. The company will be referred to as Pharmacy X. The mission of Pharmacy X is to provide the right chronic medication, to the right patient, at the right place, at the right time. It is imperative to ensure that a patient receives his/her chronic medication on the scheduled date of delivery to ensure compliance and customer satisfaction. To achieve a competitive advantage, companies increasingly depend on their supply chain partners to minimize cost and improve business processes. The core value chain activity of outbound logistics has been outsourced by Pharmacy X to several courier companies. This study will aim to understand the importance of the outbound logistics function within the value chain of the company and the costs involved with the outsourcing of the function. The primary objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of an in-house courier operation in the Bloemfontein area versus the current outsourced courier model. In order to achieve the primary objective of the study, several secondary objectives were set and reached throughout the four chapters of this study. The study applied cost benefit analysis techniques to determine the feasibility of the Bloemfontein courier investment project. All the cost benefit analysis techniques concluded that the Bloemfontein courier investment will be a financial viable operation. The Bloemfontein courier investment will increase shareholder value over the period of the project compared to the current outsourced model. The contribution of this case study to determine the feasibility of a courier operation investment can be of value to Pharmacy X. The current projected total courier cost of Pharmacy X for the 2013 financial year amounts to more than a third of the total operational cost. The findings within the case study can lead to a greater national roll out of courier operations in order to reduce costs and increase profit margins for Pharmacy X. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-143).