This master thesis is in its five chapters dealing with the issue of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, taking as its main objective to describe a process of acquiring one company by another - from the perspective of a foreign acquirer - with an emphasis on identifying key attributes of his decision and the main criteria for selecting the final acquisition target. The first chapter sets theoretical basis for the work and provides definition, classification and characterization of motives for the implementation of mergers and acquisitions. The second part enriches the thesis with the historical and current development of international acquisition activity. The third chapter chooses a strategic approach to M&A. The fourth part explaines the process side of these transactions. The final, fifth chapter follows up on the development in the CEE region and highlights the Czech Republic as a traditional acquisition target for foreign investors, assessing of areas that increase or decrease its attractiveness at once.

The question of China's military rise will be the security issue of the 21st century. Chinese economy has been growing since open door policies were introduced and its implications is the military expansion of China's military, which is gaining strength. Thanks to its weapon acquisition process, China's power gap has been shrinking in comparison to other, developed countries. China's regional military dominance is beginning to be publicly accepted and American strategists are trying to figure out how to keep China respect its international obligations. Despite all disputes, whether historical or current, China assures the other members of the international environment, that her rise, whether economic or military, is a peaceful rise. However, its acquisition process, whether it is led from domestic or foreign sources, causes concerns not only within the region but also from a global perspective. This thesis approaches the Chinese military rise from an alternative perspective. In Sagan design, the thesis tries to explain China's military rise by three modules applied to various doctrinal periods of the People's Republic of China. Three modules explain China's acquisition process from three perspectives - security, domestic political and normative terms. The work assumes that can Sagan's concept,...

Ändamålet med denna studie är att konkretisera vad skillnaden är mellan den portugisiske fastighetsmäklarens kontra den svenske fastighetsmäklaren gällande utbildningskrav och arbetsuppgifter. Samtidigt kommer studien att förklara förmedlingsprocessen i respektive land och dess aktörer. Studien om transaktionsprocessen, vid förmedling av fastigheter, kommer att ge en tydligare bild av fastighetsmäklarens ansvar samt ge ett bredare underlag för förståelse och anpassning till de portugisiska fastighetsmarknaden.Med hjälp av portugisisk lagtext och portugisiska institutioners hemsidor har vi insamlat information om hur den portugisiska förmedlingsprocessen går till. För att kunna göra paralleller med den svenska förmedlingsprocessen har vi även använt oss av svensk lagstiftning, rättspraxis och juridisk kurslitteratur.Resultatet visar att det finns skillnader mellan processerna i Portugal och Sverige, men studierna visar även att det finns flera likheter men under andra benämningar. Det finns fler aktörer som medverkar i transaktionsprocessen i Portugal, än vad det gör i Sverige. Detta ger en annorlunda arbetsfördelning med annorlunda juridiskt ansvar. / The purpose of this study is to clarify the differences between the Portuguese real estate agent and the Swedish real estate agent, as it is about the education requirements and their professional duties. At the same time, the study will explain the property acquisition process in both countries and the who is required to be a part of it. Studies of the transactional process within real estate will provide a clearer picture of the agent's responsibilities and provide a better understanding and adapting to the Portuguese real estate market.With the help of Portuguese legislation and different Portuguese institutions' websites, we have gathered information about the Portuguese property acquisition process. In order to be able to make parallels to the Swedish acquisition process, we read and interpreted Swedish legislation, cases and legal literature.The results show that there are differences between the processes in Portugal and Sweden, but studies also show that there are several similarities but the similarities are named differently. There are more parties involved in the transaction process in Portugal than it is in the Swedish one. This gives a different division of work with different legal responsibilities.

During the 2000 presidential race, then Texas Governor George W. Bush advocated transforming and reforming how the Department of Defense (DoD) acquires new weapon systems. He promised a "revolution" that would "skip a generation of technology," in order to "move on to futuristic weapons without necessarily buying all those in development." This thesis examines President Bush's proposal and analyzes the potential impact on DoD and the defense industry. Ultimately the research revealed that there are ways to improve the acquisition process and protect the defense industry. The primary conclusion of the research is that it is feasible to skip current weapon systems in development, in order to begin research and development of the next-generation weapon systems. However, DoD will be impacted through higher operations and sustainment (O & S) costs to sustain existing weapon systems if weapon systems currently in development are skipped. The acquisition professionals that participated in this study believe these O & S costs could increase up to 10% per year for anywhere from five to 20 years depending on the type of system. This thesis makes additional recommendations and areas of further research. / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Cross-national merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is common and is argued to be a strategic tool for the growth of multinational corporations. Yet, M&A activity has a high failure rate which theorists have explained being due to cultural clashes. Previous research has explained these clashes being due to cultural distance. Other studies have focused on the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated and its relation to cultural clashes. In this study we investigate the relation between cultural distance and the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated as we believe that this relation in turn influences how cultural clashes are perceived by managers. As the human side of M&A has become of great interest within research we stress the importance of understanding what happens with managers in the organization during the post-acquisition process. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to investigate the managers’ perception of cultural clashes, in relation to the perceived extent of cultural integration and perceived cultural distance, in cross-national mergers and acquisitions. In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of a series of cross-national M&As and to answer the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative case study design was used. Semistandardized interviews were made with ten managers from a Swedish firm that has gone through a series of cross-national M&As involving Swiss, French and German managements. The findings show that managers’ perception of cultural clashes differs depending on to what extent two firms are culturally integrated and in relation to the cultural distance between the two firms. No matter if high or low cultural distance managers perceive few cul-tural clashes if the extent to which the firms are integrated is low. If the cultural integration, on the other hand, is high and the cultural distance is high, the cultural clashes are perceived as many. Our findings indicate that cultural clashes are perceived differently depend-ing on how they affect the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. We refer to these clashes as implicit agreements and explicit statements. Clashes in implicit agreements are evolved from behaviour deeply rooted in national culture and corporate culture. These clashes have minor effects on the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. Never-theless, managers need to be aware of the differences and adapt to the preferred behaviour when interacting with the acquiring firm’s management. Explicit statements, on the other hand, affect the managerial role and organizational behaviour and lead to cultural clashes that conduce to frustration, lack of motivation and inefficiency. These clashes are more ap-parent when the extent of culturally integration is high. Therefore, the acquiring firm should not attempt to assimilate its target company in cross-national M&As.

<p>Cross-national merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is common and is argued to be a strategic tool for the growth of multinational corporations. Yet, M&A activity has a high failure rate which theorists have explained being due to cultural clashes. Previous research has explained these clashes being due to cultural distance. Other studies have focused on the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated and its relation to cultural clashes. In this study we investigate the relation between cultural distance and the extent to which the firms are culturally integrated as we believe that this relation in turn influences how cultural clashes are perceived by managers.</p><p>As the human side of M&A has become of great interest within research we stress the importance of understanding what happens with managers in the organization during the post-acquisition process. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to investigate the managers’ perception of cultural clashes, in relation to the perceived extent of cultural integration and perceived cultural distance, in cross-national mergers and acquisitions.</p><p>In order to achieve an in-depth understanding of a series of cross-national M&As and to answer the purpose of this thesis, a qualitative case study design was used. Semistandardized interviews were made with ten managers from a Swedish firm that has gone through a series of cross-national M&As involving Swiss, French and German managements.</p><p>The findings show that managers’ perception of cultural clashes differs depending on to what extent two firms are culturally integrated and in relation to the cultural distance between the two firms. No matter if high or low cultural distance managers perceive few cul-tural clashes if the extent to which the firms are integrated is low. If the cultural integration, on the other hand, is high and the cultural distance is high, the cultural clashes are perceived as many. Our findings indicate that cultural clashes are perceived differently depend-ing on how they affect the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. We refer to these clashes as implicit agreements and explicit statements. Clashes in implicit agreements are evolved from behaviour deeply rooted in national culture and corporate culture. These clashes have minor effects on the managerial role and the organizational behaviour. Never-theless, managers need to be aware of the differences and adapt to the preferred behaviour when interacting with the acquiring firm’s management. Explicit statements, on the other hand, affect the managerial role and organizational behaviour and lead to cultural clashes that conduce to frustration, lack of motivation and inefficiency. These clashes are more ap-parent when the extent of culturally integration is high. Therefore, the acquiring firm should not attempt to assimilate its target company in cross-national M&As.</p>

Tidiga skeden av byggprojekt är oftast väldigt komplexa, och många av projektens förutsättningar är osäkra. Då osäkerheter kan ses som brist på information och kunskap, innebär det att tidiga skeden innefattar många osäkerheter som kan generera både positiva och negativa utfall. Därav är det viktigt att både identifiera och hantera osäkerheter för att fatta beslut och skapa rätt förutsättningar för projekten. Syftet med studien är att öka förståelsen för osäkerheter och osäkerhetshantering i förvärvsprocessen vid bostadsutvecklingsprojekt, vilket görs genom att besvara frågeställningen: Hur kan ett ramverk utformas för att skapa trygga beslutsunderlag vid affärs- och projektutveckling under förvärvsprocessen för bostadsutvecklare med avseende på osäkerheter. För att uppnå studiens syfte har en fallstudie av ett svenskt bostadsutvecklingsföretag genomförts genom observationer och intervjuer vid fallföretaget. Studien har resulterat i ökad förståelse för identifiering av osäkerheter och vilka osäkerheter som bör tas i beaktning vid beslut om förvärv. De identifierade osäkerheterna kan delas in i sex huvudområden: Tid, Ekonomi, Projekt, Organisation, Myndigheter och Marknad. Studien har även resulterat i ett ramverk för att analysera och värdera osäkerheter samt visualisera dessa i förhållande till varandra. Studien bidrar på så sätt till teorin genom att studera förvärvsprocessen i bostadsutvecklingsprojekt samt presenterar ett strukturerat arbetssätt för att klassificera och analysera osäkerhet. Ramverket som denna studie resulterat i är främst av relevans för beslutsfattare i förvärvsprocessen och kan användas som underlag vid beslut om förvärv av nya projekt. / Early stages of construction projects are usually very complex, and many project conditions are uncertain. Uncertainties can be seen as lack of information and knowledge, which implies that many uncertainties are involved in early stages.  These can result in both positive and negative outcomes. Hence it is important to identify and manage uncertainties in order to make decisions and create proper project conditions. The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of uncertainties and uncertainty management in the acquisition process in real estate development, by answering the research question: How can a framework be designed to create a secure basis for decisions by business- and project development during the acquisition process for real estate development in terms of uncertainties? To manage this a case study of a Swedish real estate developer has been conducted, where observations and interviews were conducted at the case company. The result from this study is increased understanding about uncertainty identification but also knowledge about which uncertainties to take in to consideration when making decisions on acquisitions. The identified uncertainties were divided into six major areas: Time, Economy, Project, Organization, Government and Market. This study has also resulted in a framework for analyzing and evaluating uncertainties, which also visualize the uncertainties in relation to each other. The result from this study contributes to theory by studying the acquisition process in real estate development projects and presents a structured approach to classifying and analyzing uncertainties. The framework is mainly relevant for decision-makers within the acquisition process and can be used as the basis for decisions on acquisition of new projects.

The main purpose of this dissertation is to assess ontological issues of information acquisition, focusing on information overload from an integrative perspective of two theoretical foundations, which links two perspectives of consumer behavior in information acquisition: foraging theory in behavioral ecology and information processing theory in marketing. Applying to the integrative investigation, the current research primarily emphasizes the infusion of ecological rationality (i.e., Darwinian Theory) into normative rationality (i.e., Newtonian Theory), but it is not alternative but complementary to each other. Ecological rationality, which is rooted in Darwinism, emphasizes that human behavior has developed through adaptation and natural selection as the human minds interact with environments. The current study consists of five chapters: the philosophical foundation of the rationalities, exploratory study, proposed hypotheses, empirical tests, and general discussion. A summary of the contents of each chapter is: The first chapter aims to provide an integrative framework of consumer information acquisition in order to explore ontological issues in information overload paradigm, attempting to synthesize different approaches in marketing and behavioral ecology. To explore, the current study emphasizes an integrative perspective between two theories for information acquisition (foraging and information processing), which are based on different philosophical foundations of the rationality (ecological and normative). Along with the process of the information acquisition, this study provides relevant consequences (decision-related responses and decision-related alternatives) after the information acquisition process and influential factors in temporal and psychological dimensions (time and motivation). Then, the conceptual study provides conclusion and the current research scope. The second chapter aims to examine the efficacy of the current study's theoretical integration in the process of consumer information foraging so as to approach an ontological issue in information overload paradigm: more information is better vs. less information is better (i.e., information processing theory and foraging theory under an information overload paradigm). Therefore, this study explores and examines what can be appropriate information structures to describe the ontological issue in the process of consumer information foraging. To formulate the adequate information structure, this study attempts to utilize an integrative perspective between marketing and behavioral ecology. This study examines consumers' online activities sequentially from a broad to detail approach, based on the categories of goods and services. The result, by and large, suggests a necessity of an integrative perspective to view a holistic information structure, including quantity, quality, and environment components. These structural components interactively communicate with minds when shaping the process of the consumer information foraging, which are likely to involve in the degree of information overload. Moreover, results demonstrate rather higher variation of strategic information foraging but emphasize some important communality in the initial stage of information foraging, such as the role of search engine and interpersonal communication. In addition, categories of goods and services affect shaping the pattern of strategic information foraging. Then, the conclusion of the study provides. The third chapter aims to propose a hypothetical model, based on the theoretical backgrounds in Chapter 1 and the findings of the exploratory study in Chapter 2. In addition, the pilot study was conducted to provide a concrete framework of the empirical study by checking the manipulation of holistic information structures. The manipulation of the structures includes the total quantity of information, the quality of information, and environmental information. Those structures measured on several resultant consequences, using the patch concepts (within-patch and between-patch). Controversially, in general, consumers tend to prefer more information rather than less information only when arranged information provides; otherwise, this preference attenuates. This controversial result also has conflicting variations, depending on the types of patches. Overall, the comparison in the within-patch and between-patch through displaying heterogeneous information structures suggests that holistic information structures are a more important factor than the mere quantity or quality of information. The fourth chapter empirically tests the theory-based hypothetical frameworks to assess the ontological issues in information overload paradigm using the integrative perspective of the two information acquisition theories. The findings of the empirical study suggest that the real-world information overload is not simply determined by a single dominant factor (e.g., quantity), but by the interplay of intricately intertwined factors. The factors are the following: information structures (three unarranged and four arranged information structures, including quantity, quality and environment), item categories (durables, nondurables and services), and time constraints (time pressure vs. no time pressure). The interwoven complexity implies that paradigmatic change of perspectives in relation with information overload though integrating two important conceptual factors between domain-specific dependency and universality. Moreover, the information overload begins with the browsing stage of acquiring the necessary information, not with the searching stage, suggesting the view of browsing-searching continuum that underscores the important role of the patch concept. As a whole, the conclusive findings suggest an integrative perspective between Darwinism and Non-Darwinism as a prerequisite of providing a better comprehension of the issues of the information overload paradigm. The fifth chapter is the section of general discussion including major findings, theoretical, methodological and empirical implications, limitations, and conclusive statement. / Business Administration/Marketing

The thesis focuses on entrance of a strategic investor into the foreign market through a mergers or acquisitions. The main aim of the paper is to show the process of pre-acquisition analysis. First, a brief description of a mergers and acquisitions problematic will be provided as well as the acquisition process itself. Within the pre-acquisition analysis there are discussed different factors which play an important role in evaluating of the target market as well as in the selection of an acquisition candidate. Next, the thesis provides an evaluation of the target company, particulary a description of various tools and methods used in evaluating the financial aspects of a company. The goal of the practical part is to assess the target market selected by the investor, to illustrate the procedure for collecting a suitable candidate and then the accomplishment of a financial analysis of the company.

Ce manuscrit porte sur la synthèse d'observateurs grand gain pour des systèmes non linéaires à sorties échantillonnées et retardées. Trois contributions sont proposées à la lecture de ce manuscrit. La première contribution, pour une classe de systèmes Multi-entrées / Multi-sorties uniformément observables et dont les sorties sont regroupées en un seul bloc, met en jeu le problème du processus d'acquisition des mesures de sorties (continues, échantillonnées, retardées ou non) et propose un cadre commun pour l'ensemble des cas possibles. La deuxième contribution propose un observateur grand gain filtré sur cette même classe de systèmes dans l'optique de réduire la sensibilité au bruit de mesure, dans le cas où la sortie est continue puis dans le cas où cette dernière est échantillonnée. La dernière contribution vise à étendre la synthèse grand gain standard pour une large classe de systèmes Multi-entrées / Multi-sorties uniformément observables dont les mesures des sorties sont continues. Pour chacune de ces contributions, il a été montré que l'erreur d'observation de chacun des observateurs proposés converge exponentiellement vers zéro en l'absence d'incertitudes sur le système. Toutes ces contributions ont été illustrées par différents exemples issus de plusieurs domaines d'étude. / This manuscript deals with the synthesis of high gain observers for nonlinear systems with sampled and delayed outputs. Three contributions are proposed for consideration in this manuscript. The first contribution, for a class of Multi-input / Multi-output systems whose outputs are grouped into a single block, involves the problem of the acquisition process of output measurements (continuous, sampled, delayed or not) and proposes a common framework for all possible cases. The second contribution proposes a filtered high gain observer on this same class of systems in order to reduce the sensitivity to measurement noise, in the case where the output is continuous and then in the case where the latter is sampled. The last contribution aims to extend the standard high gain synthesis for a large class of uniformly observable Multi-input / Multi-output systems with continuous output measurements. For each of these contributions, it has been shown that the observation error of each of the proposed observers converges exponentially towards zero in the absence of uncertainties in the system. All these contributions have been illustrated through several examples from different fields of study.