Abstract Small medium enterprise had been the primary contributors to the Economical Miracle in Taiwan in the past decades. Although they had their merits in macro-economy, they could hardly escape the fate of pioneers. Not only had they experienced the hardship and sacrifice but also the probability of transforming into large-size corporations was close to zero. Witnessing the struggle of these businesses, this study is expected to provide some solid suggestions. With which, small medium enterprises could survive the change of the era and the impact of globalization. Hopefully, this study will help in their continuous growth and development. According to the references, we find ¡§lack of resources¡¨ is fatal to those businesses. ¡§Changes in the markets all around¡¨ puts more risk in their operations. Therefore, this study is designed to use the before-mentioned key factors as its major pillars. The analysis has shown that the so-called ¡§lack of resources¡¨ was basically ¡§the absence of strategy-oriented mind¡¨ which was caused by lacking knowledge. The ¡§Strategy Factors¡¨, the focuses of this study, such as Scope of Operation, Managerial Capabilities, Utilization of Resources, Strategic Alliance, and Organizational Abilities, etc. are all based on ¡§Resource Theory¡¨. The research framework of this study is primarily designed as that suggested in ¡§the stable growth cycle of small medium enterprise¡¨,(by Dr. Fong¡K) combined with ¡§the organizing ability of corporations¡¨ and ¡§major strategies of each phase¡¨. As to ¡§sense-making¡¨ learning, this research aims at ¡§the how-to in Entrepreneurship¡¨ and hopes to involve extensive discussions and findings supported by real cases rather than by functionalities. Consequently, this research is expected to offer strategic suggestions with reference value to the businesses in various development phases.

This thesis investigates how breaking apart selection interference (‘Hill-Robertson’ effects) that arises between linked loci can select for higher levels of recombination. Specifically, it mainly studies how the presence of both advantageous and deleterious mutation affects selection for recombination. These evolutionary advantages are subsequently investigated with regards to sex resisting asexual invasion in a subdivided population. i) KEIGHTLEY and OTTO (2006) showed a strong advantage to recombination in breaking apart selection interference, if it acts across multiple, linked loci subject to recurrent deleterious mutation. Their model is modified to consider selection acting on recombination if a small proportion of mutations are advantageous. This leads to a greater increase in selection acting on a recombination modifier, compared to cases where only deleterious mutations are present. ii) Branching-process methods are developed to quantify how likely it is that a deleterious mutant hitchhikes with a selective sweep, and how recombination between the two loci affects this process. This is compared to the neutral hitchhiking model, to determine how levels of linked neutral diversity would differ between the two scenarios. A simple application with regards to human genetic data is provided. iii) Population subdivision can maintain costly sex, as a consequence of restricted gene flow slowing the spread of invading asexuals, which leads to an excessive accumulation of deleterious alleles. However, previous work did not quantify whether costly sex can be maintained with realistic levels of population subdivision. Simulations in this thesis show that the level of population subdivision (as measured by Fst) needed to maintain costly sex decreases with larger population size; however critical Fst values found are generally high, compared to surveys of geographicallyclose populations. The lowest levels of population subdivision that maintained sex were found if mutation is both advantageous and deleterious, and demes were arranged in a one-dimensional stepping-stone formation. iv) An analytical method is developed to calculate how long it takes an advantageous mutation (such as an invading asexual) to spread through a subdivided population. The flexibility of the methods created means that they can be applied to different types of stepping-stone populations. It is shown how to formulate the fixation time for one-dimensional and two-dimensional structures, with analytical methods showing a good fit to simulation data.

No description available.

Public procurement in the Czech Republic is a complex process directly settled by the legal procurement framework which defines various contract-awarding procedures. This study focuses on the part of selection process when procurers can decide between using lowest price criterion or most economically advantageous tender (MEAT). We found an evidence of preference of lowest price criterion, especially in the recent years. The main goal of the study is therefore to provide a comprehensive analysis of the leading drivers of selection of specific criteria and their consequential effects. Taking into account various characteristics of public procurement processes, we found out that in general lowest price criterion is preferred by public contracting authorities and by procurers with larger number of employees. This type of selection process also consequently provides an interesting trade-off between higher competition in terms of number of bidders, higher stability in terms of less interventions by the Office for the Protection of Competition (OPC) but also higher probability of consequent extraworks.

When trying to make sense of uncertain situations, we might rely on summary information from a description, or information gathered from our personal experience. There are two approaches that both attempt to explain how we make risky decisions using descriptive or experiential information—the cognitive-based explanation from the description-experience gap, and the emotion-based explanation from the somatic marker hypothesis (SMH). This dissertation brings together these two approaches to better understand how we make risky decisions. Four options were presented, with options differing in terms of advantageousness and riskiness. How easy or difficult it was to consciously comprehend the reward structure, or cognitive penetrability, was manipulated by displaying single outcomes or multiple, diverse outcomes per trial. Within the description or experience task, participants were randomly assigned to the more or less penetrable version of an all gain or all loss set of options. How often the riskier or advantageous options were chosen served as a measure of risky or advantageous decision making. Regardless of penetrability, risk preferences were generally but not completely as predicted by the SMH. Instead, the primary effect of cognitive penetrability was on advantageous decision making. Furthermore, description was found to be more cognitively penetrable than experience. Overall, the results suggest that clarification is needed regarding how somatic markers are formed in the loss versus gain domain, and future research should consider the difference in penetrability between description and experience when trying to explain preferences between the two decisions.

It is largely expected that people can learn from past experiences and use this knowledge to make better decisions in the future. However, there are aspects inherent in experiential learning which may affect the extent to which people can extract and use information from experiential feedback to make advantageous decisions. Three aspects inherent in experiential learning were identified: (1) it is reliant on memory, (2) information is gathered exclusively through outcome feedback, and (3) outcome feedback is inherently dynamic. The current investigation explored how each of these aspects may help shape experiential decision making, and examined how the presence of competing types of information might hinder the ability of experiential information to guide people towards advantageous choices. A card-selection paradigm was used to examine learning about monetary outcomes from repeatedly sampling from two decks with different expected values (EVs, i.e., average payoffs). Effects on working memory were assessed by varying the number of outcomes within each deck and varying whether both decks had all-gain outcomes or one deck had some zero outcomes. Reliance on outcome feedback was manipulated by adding misleading (but technically correct) descriptive information which favored the less advantageous deck. To assess the impact of dynamic information, the dynamics of experience were contrasted with misleading dynamic descriptions. The primary dependent variable was the number of higher EV deck selections measured during the first and last 25 choices. The results of the investigation revealed little strain on working memory, but found a surprise zero effect in which identification of the more advantageous option was noticeably disrupted when the better option contained possible zero outcomes. Participants seemed drawn to options that were less advantageous but had only gain outcomes. Misleading descriptions provided at the outset only disrupted advantageous choice when zero outcomes were involved, but outcome feedback was found to help overcome the initial bias toward the lower EV all-gain deck. However, when no description was available, the zero effect grew more intense with experience. Finally, when misleading dynamic descriptions were presented, disruptions in experiential learning were seen throughout. The implications of these results contribute to our understanding of which conditions are likely to support versus disrupt our ability to use experiential feedback to guide us towards advantageous choices.

Abtract The main aim of this diploma thesis is to analyze the evaluation of tenders in public procurement according to their economic advantageousness and at the same time to compare the current stage of the ability of contracting authorities to evaluate this economic advantageousness compared to the stage of effect of the previous legal regulation. The background information for the topic of this diploma thesis were obtained from the legal regulation of the Czech Republic and the European Union, professional literature (legal commentaries), professional articles of periodical publications dealing with public procurement, internet sources and the case law of the Office for the Protection of Competition, administrative courts of the Czech Republic and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The analytical approach, linguistic, teleological and comparative method of legal interpretation were used. This diploma thesis consists of six main chapters. The introductory chapter discusses the purpose and aim of the legal regulation of public procurement and in the following chapter the part of the tender procedure and the basic principles of public procurement, crucial for the whole process of public procurement. The third chapter is devoted to the core of this thesis, namely the economic advantage in the...

The essence of the most advantageous tender (MAT) is to allow the procuring authorities to carry out a comprehensive assessment on the technical merits, quality, function, terms and prices of tenders in accordance with the judging criteria listed on the tendering document. In this way, the award of contract can be determined that ensures the best quality within the budget and encourages good competition among tendering parties while eliminate vicious undercutting. Scandals arose from recent procurement projects such as the ETC procurement project, High Speed Rail vibration reduction project, the procurement of Kuan-hwa Fast Attack Boat Guide-Missile (F-ABG), and the construction of the southern courtyard of the National Palace museum have attracted great attention. On March 22, 2006, the Premier announced that ¡§Award to the lowest tender should be made the rule while the MAT should be the exception¡¨ in future government procurement projects. This announcement highlighted the flaws and problems yet to be improved within the existing system. After studying related literatures, conducting a thorough analysis of the current situation and different case studies of the tender selection process, this paper conducted a survey among the people involved in government procurement to find out how they think of the selection of the most advantageous tender legally and in practice, the function of the tender selection committee, the management and the efficiency of the selection process. Suggestions for improvement are put forward based on the findings and analysis. The survey found that the Ranking Method while considering the price factor and the Overall Evaluation Score Method are the most frequently used tendering methods in the past experience of our interviewees. Price may be a crucial factor in determining the most advantageous tender. The most important factor in the award selection process is technical merits. The process of selecting the most advantageous tender is most susceptible to flaws and scandals. The inappropriate appointment of the committee members is the main cause of these flaws. In practice, the selection of committee members itself is of great difficulty. The expertise, personal bias, as well as one¡¦s understanding of the procurement could all affect the fairness and credibility of the tendering process. Besides these committee members, top officials in the procuring institutions also play important roles in the decision-making process. Cognitive differences among interviewees in the understanding of the legal institutions of the MAT selection, the functions of the selection committee, the execution of the MAT selection, the management mechanisms of the MAT selection may be caused by elements such the institutions they work for, the nature of their works, the job title, the training hours they received, whether they are professionally accredited. Yet, different years of experience did not contribute to such differences. People with different job title, nature of work, years of experience, and training hours did cause significant difference in the understanding of the efficiency of the MAT selection. Working at different institutions and professional accreditation, however, did not result in such difference. Based on the above findings, a way forward has been provided: a set of comprehensive regulations for the most advantageous tender selection should be established. A standard of procedure and module should be designed. The decision authority of the procuring institution should be defined in order to actually fulfill the need of the procurement. A comprehensive list of suggested professionals should be compiled to assist different kinds of procurements. This list would ensure the fairness of the selection process. Specify the judging criteria for prices, weights of evaluating elements, and the scoring principle. Determine a set of reasonable scoring method for prices. Provide professional training for procurement professionals. Enhance the efficiency of the MAT selection. Committee members should receive professional training in order to improve the credibility of the selection process. A performance evaluation mechanism should be established in order to improve efficiency and put the government¡¦s budget to the best use.

最有利標是參酌先進國家所訂定的一種決標機制，亦是政府採購法重大特色之一。惟最有利標施行以來，不斷發生一些重大的採購弊案，導致政府由原先積極鼓勵推行最有利標，轉變為「應以最低標為決標原則，最有利標決標為例外」，且須經嚴謹認定後方得採行最有利標。 本研究以研究者本身已從事十多年政府採購業務之專業及藉擔任評選委員身分參與其他政府機關標案之經驗，研析相關論文、申訴案例、法令沿革及採購弊案，再以參與觀察及深度訪談之研究方法，發掘最有利標作業程序中所發生之原因及錯誤型態並加以探討。 最後本研究研定最有利標各項作業程序之表格及注意事項，並提出研究發現及研究建議，期能建立機關正確採購程序、提升採購效率與功能，且確保採購品質。 / The“most advantageous tender”is a type of bidding mechanism developed after considering the pragmatic practices implemented by some of the most advanced countries in the world economy. It is one of the specialties in the procurement act of our government. However, the mechanism has frequently been abused by some of the unscrupulous government employees. The negative impact of such fraudulent abuse has prompted the government to change its policy of promoting the most advantageous tender. The government’s new policy is to sign contracts with those who offer the lowest, but not necessarily the most appropriate, tender. Regulations still permit the use of the most advantageous tender, but only when implemented under the closest scrutiny. The author of this research paper has for decades been involved in government procurement missions as a member of the procurement evaluation committee. He has studied and is familiar with many relevant theses on bidding systems. He has analyzed numerous cases of appeal, the evolution of pertinent decrees and defective purchasing cases. Additionally, the author has examined the advantages and disadvantages of the most advantageous tender by observing pragmatic practices and conducting in-depth interviews with officials associated with procurement missions. This research paper proposes a series of appropriate procedures and implementation forms necessary to insure that most advantageous tender can be used successfully for government procurement duty. The author also respectfully submits suggestions to government officials to help establish a new set of procurement regulations and procedures. In so doing, the author hopes to increase the efficiency of the government’s procurement work and improve the quality of all items thus purchased.

A presente dissertação trata da contratação administrativa como instrumento de fomento econômico, pelo prisma da Constituição da República Federativa do Brasil de 1988 e legislação posterior, com o objetivo de apurar se há suporte constitucional para o fomento das áreas escolhidas pelo legislador e contempladas pelo Direito Administrativo Contratual vigente; se é legítima a utilização das contratações públicas como instrumento de fomento, finalidade que extrapola o interesse direto da Administração na aquisição do bem, na execução da obra ou na prestação do serviço; e qual o impacto dessas medidas nos procedimentos de contratações administrativas. Na primeira parte do trabalho, com o objetivo de melhor compreender a relação entre a função estatal de incentivo e os contratos administrativos, são buscadas balizas constitucionais para a atuação do Estado como agente normativo e regulador da atividade econômica, mediante o melhor entendimento da sua função de incentivo e a busca de objetivos, pessoas e/ou áreas que poderiam ser destinatárias do fomento econômico, investigando-se no que consiste a vantagem a ser buscada pela Administração em suas contratações e a sua relação com o fomento econômico. Na segunda parte do trabalho, são examinadas as principais alterações legislativas que visam à utilização das contratações administrativas como instrumentos de fomento econômico, que foram agrupadas em dois blocos. Um para exame dos benefícios concedidos às microempresas, às empresas de pequeno porte, às cooperativas e para outras formas associativas; outro para exame das preferências estabelecidas para proteção do mercado nacional e do meio ambiente e para o incentivo à inovação tecnológica. / The present work deals with the administrative signings as an economic fomentation tool, through the prism of the Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988 and subsequent legislation, in order to determine whether there is constitutional support for the fomentation of the areas chosen by the legislator and, contemplated by Contractual Administrative Law in force; if is legitimate the use of public contractings as a fomentation tool, purpose that goes beyond the direct interest of the Administration at the acquisition of the property, carrying out the work or providing the service; and what impact of these measures in the procedures for administrative hirings. In the first part of the work, in order to better understand the relationship between the state function of incentives and administrative signings, constitutional goals are sought for the State acting as a normative and regulating agent of economic activity through a better understanding of their function incentive and the pursuit of goals, people and / or areas to be the recipients economic fomentation, investigating on what is the advantage to be sought by management in their hirings and their relationship with economic fomentation. In the second part of the work are investigated main legislative changes aimed at the use of administrative signings as instruments of economic fomentation, which were grouped into two blocks. One for the examination of the benefits granted to micro-enterprises, to small businesses, cooperatives and other forms of association; another exam of the preferences established for the domestic market protection and the environment and to encourage technological innovation.