In recent years the G8 and G20 Summits have become important sites of protest and conflict. Extensive planning by police and protesters have transformed the public meaning of these yearly assemblies into large-scale events characterized by what many see as threats to public order. The summits have also provided a world-stage for the economically and racially disadvantaged as well as globalized free trade dissenters to voice their resistance and opposition. At the same time, police have been placed on the opposite side of the conflict, ordered to “control the masses.” This conflict situation can sometimes lead to collective violence, especially on behalf of the police. In attempting to explain the police collective violence witnessed at the G8/G20 protests in Toronto in June of 2010, Neil Smelser’s (1962) value-added model of collective behaviour can be employed. This model demonstrates how processes involving structural conduciveness, structural strain, the spread of a generalized belief, the mobilization of participants and finally the utilization of social control can lead to an event such as collective violence. Recent revisions to the value-added argument by Fine (1997) have shifted attention away from the functionalist assumptions of the model and toward a more social constructionist stance. Thus, for Fine, belief itself does not create action. Rather, the use of the belief by claimsmakers can lead to a call to action, through media or other outlets. Finally, Randall Collins’s (2008) theory of forward panic is useful for illustrating the finer details of precisely how police mobilize for violence. In order to analyze the police collective violence witnessed over the weekend, a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and ethnographic content analysis methods were employed. The findings support that because of the placement of the G8/G20 meetings, the conflicting relationship between the police and the protesters and the construction of the protesters as troublemakers, meant to be approached with suspicion, the police were able to overcome the tense conflict situation and attack the protesters. I conclude by suggesting a community-policing model for future protest situations. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2011-06-30 11:36:35.115

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The aim of this dissertation is to provide a detailed analysis of the impact electronic-commerce (e-commerce) is having upon the tax base and revenue collection of Value-Added Tax (VAT) in South Africa. This dissertation commences with a chapter that sets out the model for the treatment of VAT in an e-commerce environment. Three chapters follow this, recording how South Africa legislates for VAT, how traditional (offline) and e-commerce (online) transactions are conducted. This is followed by a chapter that makes a comparison between online and offline commerce, identifying the differences and difficulties between the two forms. Leading from this comparison is a chapter that makes suggested recommendations to overcome the identified VAT administrative difficulties. The final chapter records how the three parties, namely, governments, commerce and consumers can work together, if the freedom afforded by e-commerce is allowed to continue. The analysis shows that if certain recommendations are implemented, then the negative impact of e-commerce on the tax base and revenue collection of VAT in South Africa can be reduced. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This research was conducted to determine whether the intrinsic share values that are obtained using the EVA valuation model are an indicator of share prices as quoted on the JSE Securities Exchange. The research did not differentiated between companies that have implemented EVA in South Africa and those that have not. The research was conducted by performing EVA intrinsic share price calculations for 43 companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange. These EVA share prices were correlated to the actual share price as quoted on the JSE Securities Exchange, for the current and lagged periods of one and two years. The resultant correlation coefficients were tested for significance at the 5% level. The results show that there is no statistically significant correlation between the EVA intrinsic share values and the share price as quoted on the JSE in both the same and lagged periods. Hence we cannot conclude that EVA is an indicator of share price. / Thesis(MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

This thesis contributes to influence analysis in nonlinear regression and in particular the detection of influential observations. The focus is on a regression model with a known mean function, which is nonlinear in its parameters and where the function is chosen according to the knowledge about the process generating the data. The error term in the regression model is assumed to be additive. The main goal of this thesis is to work out diagnostic measures for assessing the influence of observations on various results from a nonlinear regression analysis. The obtained results comprise diagnostic tools for detecting observations that, individually or jointly with some other observations, are influential on the parameter estimates. Moreover, assessing conditional influence, i.e. the influence of an observation conditional on the deletion of another observation, is of interest. This can help to identify influential observations which could be missed due to complex relationships among the observations. Novelties of the proposed diagnostic tools include the possibility to assess influence of observations on a specific parameter estimate and to assess influence of multiple observations. A further emphasis of this thesis is on the observations' influence on the outcome of a hypothesis testing procedure based on Rao's score test. An innovative solution to the problem of visual identification of influential observations regarding the score test statistic obtained in this thesis is the so called added parameter plot. As a complement to the added parameter plot, new diagnostic measures are derived for assessing the influence of single and multiple observations on the score test statistic.

This study analyzed the perceptions of Kentucky Homebased Processors and Microprocessors of the benefits of and barriers to developing and selling value-added products. The final sample consisted of 141 participants, 60.5% (n=72) of which were from Central KY, 26.9% (n=32) were from Western KY, and 12.6% (n=15) were from Eastern KY. Overall, participants seemed to feel that their value-added products were successful in many different benefit categories. The primary barriers to developing value-added products were lack of time, lack of funding, and lack of legal knowledge. The primary barriers to utilizing program resources for farmers were not having enough time, being unaware of the services offered, and programs being too far away. The information found by this study can be used to determine the addressable needs in different regions of Kentucky and assist programs in making their services more available and applicable to Kentucky farm entrepreneurs.

Problem of the Study: Non-traditional, value-added coconut products, such as Virgin Coconut Oil, Coco Water and Coco Sugar, have increased tremendously the last few years and the end-consumer pay a high price in retail for these considered luxury products. However, there is no abundance or indulgence in the life of the farmers and small producers in the Philippines at the other end of this global billion-dollar industry. Purpose of the Thesis: The purpose of this study is to describe, analyse and define the export network, and the roles of the actors, of the value-added coconut products in the Philippines as well as locate the origin of the single or combined problems that have led to struggling industry suppliers, and through that identify possible solutions which can increase the economic viability of the suppliers. Methodology: This study has been conducted as a case study, where the empirical findings was collected during an 8 weeks long field trip to the Philippines. A qualitative approach was adapted in order to create a deeper understanding of the problem and abduction made this possible. Six semi-structured interviews and one in-depth interview were executed. The majority of the data was collected through these interviews, although participating observation was also an important source of information along with secondary data. The validity and reliability has been secured by carefully explaining the methodology of the study, interviewing several different actors, following a interview guide and by separately interpreting the the primary data before comparing them with each other. Conclusions: The study showed that the Philippine coconut industry network is far from centreless. The government and MNCs play the biggest roles in the network, meanwhile the farmers and small producers have a very small part in the export activities of value-added coconut products. In order for the existing inequalities within the network, in both influence and profit shares, to be resolved farmers and small producers need increased support to be able to engage in value-added production, reach collaborative advantage and get access to direct export channels.

It is generally well understood that venture capital (VC) is an important and significant source of financing for small firms. Questions revolving around the increased likelihood of a firm backed by Venture Capitalists (VCs) to be export oriented have yet to be fully explored. Responding to this research gap, a sample of Canadian VC backed firms is used to compare the performance of Canadian VC firms in terms of facilitating internationalization among their portfolio companies. The particular reference of this study is Export Development Canada (EDC), a crown corporation mandated to promote export among Canadian firms. This research finds that EDC as a VC investor and export-oriented consultant has no association with the increased probability of exporting. Also, stage of the investment does not show any relationship with internationalization. These results run contrary to previous speculation that syndication of VCs increases the probability of internationalization among portfolio firms.

The thesis is concerned to explore whether and how ‘value added’ data analyses can contribute to school improvement, and to identify some of the conditions under which this might be so. In the course of conducting the study, the author experienced a tension between the ‘research’ and the ‘development’ dimensions of her work, and this is used to inform the outcomes of the thesis. The thesis is underpinned by three related aims: first, to provide a historical and evaluative overview of how the idea of ‘value added’ came to enter and influence the debate on educational quality in England. The study of the literature demonstrates that the main principles of ‘value added’ were already well developed before the term was in common use; it also reveals that the ambiguities in the term are not merely reflective of disagreements about how best to calculate value added but actually central to how the idea has been made to function within a particular political agenda for education having to do with ‘raising standards’. Because of the relentlessness of that agenda, ‘value added’ measures of attainment have undergone considerable methodological development over the past ten years, to the point where sophisticated statistical data on pupils’ and schools’ performance is being generated and used by government agencies, LEAs and schools themselves to an extent virtually unknown elsewhere. However, this thesis indicates that the technical and conceptual issues involved in putting such data to practical use in schools are likely to test the interpretative and organisational skills of users. The literature search confirms that not much investigation has been done into how data is actually used, but that what there is suggests some important lines of inquiry. The second aim of the thesis is accordingly to explore, through a small-scale empirical study, the use by secondary school staff of value-added data as exemplified by the NFER’s value added service QUASE. The study was conducted in nine schools, with staff at senior and middle management levels, and focused on mathematics, English and science departments. The third aim of the thesis is to assess how far the case-study findings might shed further light on the issues entailed in using such data for school improvement. The evidence suggested that value added data are seen as complex and often ‘high stakes’ and that – at the time of this study – the uses of value added data were rather more limited than expected; furthermore, the meanings of value added would seem to be socially constructed by the political and institutional environment, and to be closely related to individual teachers’ values and attitudes. This in turn suggests that better insights into, and management of, ‘the psychology and sociology’ of how value added data are perceived and used are necessary. Nonetheless, the study concludes that there is potential for value added analyses to contribute to school improvement under certain conditions; crucially, the study indicated that these included a culture which emphasised self-evaluation – rather than external accountability – within the school or subject department, combined with input from a ‘champion’ or facilitator who understood the technicalities and significance of the data. Value added analyses seemed to be used most actively by,staff who were able to use them ‘heuristically’, that is, to pose informed questions about teaching and learning (rather than as literal truths or statistical fictions). The study argues that ‘value added’ measures of performance are accordingly better understood as a technology than a science – that is, a practical application of knowledge which interacts dynamically with its social and cultural environment.

Manaakitanga plays an important role in Māori society. There are several meanings associated to this Māori cultural concept, one of which refers to the fostering and nurturing of relationships between a host and a visitor. The well-being of the visitor is paramount to the development of this relationship as the mana (prestige) of the host is at stake. If the host fails to manaaki (support) their visitor this could result in the loss of mana within the Māori community as the host has shown they are incapable of attending to the needs of others. In recent times, there has been an increased presence of the term manaakitanga in tourism related documents, which has generated several interpretations of this cultural concept. Currently, various government organisations use this concept as a basis for developing both short and long-term strategies. This is particularly noticeable in the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015. However, there are varied interpretations of the term manaakitanga by the tourism industry, which are in conflict with Māori operators understanding and knowledge of manaakitanga reflected in their businesses. In order to contextualise the experiences and perspectives provided by Māori tourism operators, a theoretical framework has been developed. This framework called ‘Te Kōhai’ located in kaupapa Māori (Māori ideology) ideology best reflects the world-view of the participants who form the basis of this study. Thus, this study has been prompted by the research question - how is manaakitanga interpreted in a Māori tourism operation? Possible misinterpretation of manaakitanga may result in the concept being used incorrectly and the transgression of cultural practices, thus compromising the experiences offered by Māori tourism operations. It is important then, to investigate, whether manaakitanga is understood as ‘hospitality’ in the tourism industry and more specifically, by people who work within a Māori tourism operation. Additionally, it is important to determine how staff employed in a Māori tourism operation, understand and portray this concept. Subsequently, interpretations of manaakitanga from the perspective of Māori tourism operators, forms the basis of this thesis.