This diploma thesis is concerned with a financial tool called factoring. It involves an assignment of account receivables before their maturity date onto the factoring company and thus taking over their administration while providing immediate cash to the original creditor in order to sustain liquidity. Legislation of this method of financing is not yet fully resolved therefore it is crucial to focus primarily on the ecnomic substance of individual contracts. Basically, there are two major types of factoring: recourse and non-recourse depending on the level of assumed risk, together with transfer of ownerwhip of the account receivable. This fundamental distinction is inevitable for correct financial reporting which should reflect not only the accounting principles but also it should respect other implications, such as taxation.

Nas últimas décadas, a maturidade de alguns mercados, a globalização e o crescente poder de barganha dos clientes aumentam ainda mais a necessidade das empresas em manterem e desenvolverem de forma eficaz seus clientes mais importantes. Neste contexto, ganham relevância os programas de Key Account Management (KAM), iniciativas corporativas que tratam de forma especial os clientes mais importantes do fornecedor. Para obter o desempenho financeiro superior, o programa de KAM precisa criar valor para o cliente para posterior apropriação de valor pelo fornecedor. Contudo, a maioria dos estudos enfatiza a apropriação de valor pelo fornecedor, porém poucas pesquisas investigam a criação de valor para o cliente em programas de KAM. Além disso, a maioria das pesquisas em marketing de relacionamento ainda foca muito nos impactos positivos do relacionamento. Dessa forma, é importante analisar empiricamente como é a implementação da criação de valor para o cliente em programas de KAM, identificando as principais dimensões e os fatores críticos. O objetivo do presente estudo é analisar o processo de criação de valor para o cliente em programas de Key Account Management (KAM) e propor um modelo de criação de valor para o cliente segundo a perspectiva da empresa fornecedora. As análises e o modelo são elaborados a partir de um processo de investigação abdutiva, ou seja, a combinação entre a fundamentação teórica sobre o conceito de valor e programas de KAM e a análise de conteúdo de 22 entrevistas em profundidade com especialistas em programas de KAM, profissionais de marketing/vendas que trabalham por pelo menos cinco anos com programas de KAM em grandes empresas no Brasil. O modelo proposto explica de forma integrada e sistemática como é a criação de valor para o cliente em programas de KAM segundo cinco dimensões (Desenvolvimento de relacionamentos; Entendimento dos direcionadores de valor; Desenvolvimento da proposta de valor; Comunicação da proposta de valor; e mensuração de valor), quatro moderadores (Orientação relacional do cliente; Formalização do programa de KAM para o cliente; Abordagem do fornecedor: \"orientada ao cliente\" vs. \"orientar o cliente\"; e Fit estratégico entre o fornecedor e o cliente) e três riscos (Não entrega do valor básico para o cliente; Rotatividade do Key Account Manager; e Sentimento de injustiça do cliente). Contribui-se com a teoria sobre o tema, ao incluir uma dimensão específica no modelo para desenvolvimento de relacionamentos do nível da díade (organização-organização) e indivíduo (funcionário-funcionário), e ao abordar não somente aspectos positivos do relacionamento, mas também os aspectos negativos (ou riscos da criação de valor para o cliente). Contribui-se também para a prática, ao prover uma visão mais ampla, sistemática e integradora dos diversos elementos da criação de valor para o cliente aos executivos das empresas que possuem programas de KAM, e ao recomendar práticas organizacionais que servem como guias para a tomada de decisão dos gestores de programas de KAM. Ademais, como a parte empírica do estudo é baseada no contexto brasileiro, amplia-se o conhecimento sobre KAM no Brasil. Por fim, apresentam-se as limitações do estudo com a agenda de pesquisas futuras / In recent decades, with the maturity of some markets, globalization and increasing power of the customers is becoming more important for the companies to maintain and develop effectively their most important customers. In this context, increases the relevance of Key Account Management (KAM) programs, a corporate initiative that performs special treatment to the most important supplier\'s customers. To obtain the superior financial performance, the KAM program improves the customer value creation for the value appropriation by the supplier. However, the majority of studies emphasize the value appropriation by the supplier, but few researches investigate the customer valuer creation on KAM programs. In addition, most of relationship marketing research still focuses much on the positive impacts of the relationship. Thus, it is important to empirically analyze how the implementation of customer value creation on KAM programs, identifying the main dimensions and the critical factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the customer value creation process on Key Account Management programs (KAM) and to propose a model of customer value creation from the supplier perspective. The analysis and the model are made through an abductive research process that combines the theoretical framework of the value concept and KAM programs, and content analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with experts on KAM programs, marketing or sales professionals who work for at least five years with KAM programs in large companies in Brazil. The proposed model explains in an integrated and systematic way the customer value creation on KAM programs according to five dimensions (Relationships development; Value drivers understanding; Value proposition development; Value proposition communication; and Value measurement), four moderators (Customer relational orientation; Formalization of the KAM program for the customer; Supplier approach: \"customer driven\" vs. \"customer driving\"; and strategic fit between the supplier and the customer) and three risks ( Not delivering the basic customer value; the Key Account Manager turnover; and Perceived injustice by the customer). The study contributes to the KAM theory through the inclusion of a specific dimension for the development of dyad relationships (organization-organization) and individual relationships (employee-employee) in the model, and through not only addressing the positive aspects of the relationship, but also the negatives (or customer value creation risks). It contributes also to the practice by providing a broader, systematic and integrating view of the several elements of customer value creation to executives of companies that have KAM programs, and recommending organizational practices that can be drivers for the decision making of KAM programs managers. Moreover, as the empirical part of the study is based in the Brazilian context, it broadens the knowledge of KAM in Brazil. Finally, we present study limitations with the future research agenda

One of the proxies for the success of a corporate strategy is firm performance. This is because “performance is a surrogate for the alignment between an organization’s internal processes (strategy, structure, etc) and the external environment.”1 Business excellence therefore hangs together with the attainment of such an alignment. It is two of the processes that support such an alignment between customer and supplier that are the subject of this paper. The processes in question are so called “Key Account Management” (KAM) and competitive intelligence (CI). [... aus der Einleitung] 1 Subramanian R., IsHak S., Competitor Analysis Practices of US Companies, 1998, S.13

The introduction of open banking has made it possible for companies to build the next generation of applications based on transactional data. Enabling economic forecasts which private individuals can use to make responsible financial decisions. This project investigated forecasting account balances using supervised learning. 7 different regression models were run on transactional data from 377 anonymised checking accounts split into subgroups. The results concluded that multivariate XGBoost optimised with feature selection was the best performing forecasting model and the subgroup with recurring income transactions was easiest to forecast. Based on the result from this project it can be concluded that a viable option to forecast account balances is to split the transactional data into subgroups and forecast them separately. Minimising the errors given by certain random, infrequent and large types of transactions.

China’s goal of eventually having the renminbi (RMB) be “fully convertible” necessarily requires that its capital account be fully liberated; this paper investigates the on-going changes of the implemented capital controls by China and China’s progress on liberalizing the country’s capital account. The first portion of the paper studies deviations of the covered interest parity, a common measure of capital controls. Econometrical analysis provides evidence for significant and persistent RMB/USD interest rate differentials, calculated from monthly data of 1-month yields for the sample period of 1999 to 2014. At the same time, evidence for cointegration between the onshore and offshore yield suggests that capital flows are not fully restrictive in the long run. The second portion of the paper analyzes constructed de jure capital control indices based on IMF’s AREAER documents following Chen and Qian (2015), and actual capital account flows based on China’s Balance of Payments. The constructed de jure indices quantify the intensity of changes of capital controls, capturing the gradualist style that China adopts in implementing its policies. The index reveals that China has been increasing its pace of capital account liberalization in the recent years compared to the past, and in particular, prioritizes liberalizing controls on outward FDI flows and equity securities inflows. The constructed de jure indices and the respective flows for FDI and equity securities are found to be highly correlated, implying that flows have been responsive to changes in the controls. It also indicates that prior to the restriction lift offs, the capital controls had been relatively effective.

A country’s economy is becoming more and more dynamic and complicated in its scale and mobility. So, the concerns of exchange rate economics have become more popular. My research interest is in international economics with its major factor, exchange rates and other macroeconomic variables. Chapter 1 presents a brief introduction of the three studies. Chapter Two investigate the role of exchange rate changes with particular attention to international capital flows. With liberalization of capital movements, international capital movements became free and unrestricted in many emerging market economies as well as developed countries. Using a Vector Auto-regressive (VAR) model for a small open economy in which the endogeneity of exchange rate changes is fully taken into account, I find that capital movements are more likely to be a cause of output fluctuations and current account deficits in developing countries than a channel of equilibrium changes. I also find that domestic currency depreciation is far more likely to be contractionary on domestic output in developing countries than in developed countries. Interestingly, the trade balance improves after depreciation regardless of its output consequence. These findings suggest that there are important differences between developed and developing economies in the way capital movements and exchange rate changes affect and are affected. Chapter Three demonstrates the dynamic relationship between the current account and the real exchange rate in response to permanent and temporary shocks using structural VAR models for seven developed countries and five developing countries. Special focus is given to the issue of the stationarity of the current account. Capital flows are also included to capture external shocks as well as potential structural breaks due to financial liberalization. I find that the results for unit root tests for the current account are ambiguous. By testing two different VAR models, each taking an opposing stance on the stationarity of the current account, I conclude that responses based on a stationary current account are a better fit to the current theoretical view than those based on a nonstationary current account process. Additionally, the real exchange rate and the current account are positively correlated under a permanent shock while two variables are negatively correlated under a monetary shock. I also find that real exchange rate is an endogenous variable, which is not closely related to the temporary factors that affect the current account in the short run. Chapter Four examines the long-run mean reverting behavior of the real exchange rates with its six different definitions for 27 economies using annual data from 1974 to 2003. I find that Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) holds better, and the half-life of the real exchange rates is shorter when the wholesale price index, rather than consumer price index, is used as price level measure. Somewhat surprisingly, there is no evidence that PPP holds better with trade-weighted real exchange rates than with bilateral ones regardless of the price index used. Strong evidence for PPP emerges only with the use of Im, Pesaran, and Shin (2003) panel tests but not with the Levine, Lin, and Chu (2002).

This study investigates the effects of an anticipated inflation targeting in a small open economy based on the framework of Mansoorian and Mohsin (2006) with cash-in-advance constraints. It is shown that the steady-state effects of a permanent increase in the inflation rate on capital accumulation, labor and current account are consistent with the results in Mansoorian and Mohsin (2006). However, there is an ambiguous change in consumption depending on the relationship between consumption and labor in the utility function. If consumption and labor is with a large degree of substitution, consumption may rise. Moreover, there is an impact decrease in the shadow price of investment when the policy of targeting a higher inflation rate announces, and the degree of such decrease is inversely related to the time length between the announcement and the realization of policy. Prior to the execution of the policy, the capital stock decumulates and the current account may go through a deficit or surplus first and then deficit along the unstable trajectories depending on the relative impact between the change in the shadow price of investment and the shadow price of assets on the locus where the current account maintains in equilibrium. After the implementation of a higher inflation targeting policy, the capital stock continues to decumulate and the current account accumulates along the stable paths toward the new equilibrium. In addition, the relationship between consumption and labor also influences the dynamic movements of the shadow price of investment.

Izgorodin, A, valstybės fiskalinė politika Lietuvos einamosios sąskaitos deficitui sumažinti: bakalauro baigiamasis darbas: ekonomika. Vilnius, ISM Vadybos ir ekonomikos universitetas, 2009. Šio darbo tikslas yra pasiūlyti fiskalinės politikos priemones Lietuvos ESD sumažinti. Darbe siekiama išanalizuoti Lietuvos einamosios sąskaitos komponentų kitimą laikui bėgant, nustatyti, ar ESD Lietuvai yra problematiškas, atlikti regresinę analizę ir išsiaiškinti, kaip pasirinkti kintamieji įtakoja einamosios sąskaitos balansą. Darbo gale pasiūlomi konkrečių mokesčių dydžiai ir valstybės išlaidų kryptis, kurie padės pagerinti Lietuvos einamosios sąskaitos balansą. Gauti rezultatai parodo, kad Lietuvos ESD didėjo dėl kelių priežasčių. Lietuvos ESD turėjo įtakos įstojimas į ES ir prasidėjęs vadinamasis „pasivijimo“ laikotarpis, kuris iš pradžių turėjo neigiamos įtakos ekonomikos dalyvių taupymo normai ir veiksniai, kilę šalies viduje, pvz. perdėtas ekonomikos dalyvių optimizmas, sparčiai augantis darbo užmokestis, mažėjantis nedarbas, pigios ir lengvai prieinamos paskolos, neefektyvios vietinės ir tiesioginės užsienio investicijos, (kurios buvo nukreiptos į pajėgumų didinimą, vartojimo didinimą ir kitų trumpalaikių ekonominių problemų sprendimui vietoj to, kad paspartintų pramonės vystymąsi ir padidintų šalies eksporto konkurencingumą), didelė infliacija ir kt. Minėtos priežastys skatino importą ir ribotojo eksporto augimą, o didelis šalies patrauklumas užsienio investuotojų akyse tik... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Izgorodin, A. Government's Fiscal Policy Measures to Reduce Current Account Deficit in Lithuania: bachelor thesis, Economics. Vilnius, ISM University of Management and Economics, 2009. The goal of this work is to suggest the fiscal measures that the government can use in order to reduce the Lithuanian current account deficit (CAD). In this work I analyze how different components of Lithuanian current account have performed in time. In addition to this, I will determine, whether Lithuanian CAD is problematic and dangerous for the country. Moreover, I will perform regression analysis in order to find out how different variables have affected the current account balance of the country. Lastly, I will suggest tax rates and the direction of government spending that should be used in order to reduce the CAD in Lithuania. Results show that Lithuanian CAD is a consequence of several factors. Firstly, one of the causes of CAD in Lithuania is the so-called catch-up period which started after Lithuania has joined the EU. At first the catch-up process had a negative effect on the current account balance through low savings rate. In addition to this, factors inside the country have also contributed to CAD. The factors, among others, include over optimism of business and consumers, increasing salaries, decreasing unemployment, cheap and easily accessible loans, inefficient investments both within the country and from abroad (FDI), which were largely directed towards increasing of the... [to full text]

This thesis explores a relatively new and arguably innovative United States (US) international development initiative called the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), which was launched by President Bush in 2004 as his flagship development programme for combating global poverty. Inciting transformational change, both in the delivery of aid and within the recipient countries themselves, lies at the heart of the MCA, which is housed in a new development entity named the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). In-depth semistructured interviews were utilised to facilitate the accumulation of rich and varied data, through which the rhetoric and discourses surrounding the MCA could be' challenged, contested and debated at a variety oflevels. This study critically engages with the MCA to reveal its core motivations and ideological underpinnings, through which we can better understand its origins and potential to deliver sustainable development in the South. In order to do this, specific attention is given to Nicaragua's involvement in the initiative; a country which has played host to a plethora of US foreign policy activities, actions and interventions over the years. An exhaustive exploration of Nicaragua's experience of the MCA is subsequently utilised as a platform for engaging with the core debates and issues surrounding the MCA and development discourse more broadly. In particular, the study's findings critically question the neoliberal model of development being promoted through the MCA and challenge the programme's ability to address the complexities of impoverishment. Part and parcel of this process involves examining the seemingly inseparable marriage between 'democracy' and market liberalisation in development, through which it is argued in this thesis that transnationalliberalism has been extended as the hegemonic ideology of this epoch and a polyarchic system of rule promoted across much of the South.

Sales management control and sales force performance has received substantial attention by researchers in the past decades. Researchers have been investigating the construct of sales control, its antecedents and its consequences on both the individual sales person and on sales force performance. This research project analyses how and why the sales control systems are implemented the way they are. The basis for this approach is drawn from the organisational or management control literature which treats behaviour and outcome approaches as dimensions rather than categories. Organisational control also treats the control system as a process which consists of a set of stages or sub processes being objective setting, planning, monitoring, feedback and correcting. With the growing importance of relationship selling and key account management it can no longer be assumed that all the sales people will operate at the same hierarchical level within an organisation nor that they will be subject to one and the same control system. Therefore an in depth analysis of how sales force control processes are implemented for different types of sales functions, ranging from customer acquisition, small to medium account management to strategic and global account management, is needed. The research project included 17 preliminary interviews across different organisations, from which one organisation was selected on the basis that it contains a large international sales force of about 2.500 people consisting of a very wide range of sales functions. The analysis of this organisation included 100 plus interviews of 66 sales managers and sales people across all types of sales functions over a two year period. The findings show that the inability to measure certain inputs and outputs does not deter a sales organisation to adopt their sales control strategy within a functional sales team. When some measures are not available or are unreliable, sales managers find other ways to measure them being it through some locally developed tools or through more qualitative approaches. The method used to obtain certain measures does impact the level of the sophistication of the actual control process or strategy. When there is a need to control sales people who operate as a team of employees from different departments the sales managers can no longer individually develop some local tools to measure inputs and outputs. The findings show that team based selling requires accurate data but also globally agreed rules and procedures in order to operate successfully. This enables us to conclude that the inability to measure certain inputs and outputs is a determining variable for the implementation of client sales teams. With regard to sales force control strategies the research uncovered that within the category of the hybrid sales control approach there are four types of sales control sub approaches. The choice of which control to use is dependent on the size of the customers or opportunities the sales people work with and the selling approach which is either hunting or farming. This shows that while farming can be relabelled as key account management, hunting remains a major sales activity requiring not only different selling approaches it also requires different types of sales control processes than for farming. All of these findings indicate that several types of sales control systems can operate across one single organisation and that the main determining variables are the sales approach and the type of accounts the sales person is managing. This challenges current beliefs or assumptions that all sales people operate at the same hierarchical level within an organisation and that they all operate under one single sales control approach. Future research on sales force control will need to take these findings into account when designing their approach to study control systems within organisations.