Thesis (M.M. (Public Policy))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, 2013. / Increasingly, literature suggests that there is a causal link between the development of the Small, Medium and Micro-enterprise (SMME) sector and economic and social development, especially in developing countries. It is for this reason that many countries are pursuing SMME development policies as part of their growth and social development strategies, including South Africa. To this effect, the South African government has also developed policies and established institutions to support SMME development. However, the development of the SMME sector in South Africa is still lagging behind that of many developing countries and the failure rate of SMME remains very high. Research has predominantly attempted to find reasons for SMME failure by focusing on challenges faced by SMMEs. However, literature now suggests that the problem also lies within the institutions that are meant to provide support to the SMMEs. The purpose of the study was to investigate short-comings in the provision of support services by Seda to SMMEs, particularly training and mentoring. In this regard, the study found that the main challenge faced by Seda is with regards to its poor accessibility. Other challenges include poor quality of trainers and mentors skills; training programmes that fail to respond to SMMEs‟ needs; lack of resources; poor monitoring and evaluation. The study concluded that the challenges faced by Seda have contributed, to some extent, to the slow progress in the development of SMMEs.

Thesis advisor: Lisa S. Cahill / Informed by Gaudium et Spes and Ron Thiemann's "public theology," this dissertation examines the role of the church in responding to the contemporary ethical challenge of providing long-term care for the elderly in a manner that respects and promotes their human dignity. Biblical sources and the theological concepts of discipleship and friendship found in Karl Barth and Paul Wadell insist on the agency of older people as called by God and as participating members of the community. This vision complements and connects with secular visions of justice such as Martha Nussbaum's "capabilities approach" and the concept of justice as participation found in United Nations' documents. Two concrete examples--the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Green House project--provide important models of long-term care that foster the agency of older people and their ongoing participation in human community and fellowship. An ethical vision based upon the elderly themselves as subjects with ongoing agency and purpose demands the church's engagement with the wider society to reform the United States' current long-term care system so that care is provided at a level and in a manner that overcomes marginalization of the frail elderly. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Uma das bases do sistema de franquias é a relação entre franqueado e franqueador. O franqueador, proprietário da marca, é responsável pela formatação do negócio e por formar as bases de uma rede padronizada, um dos pilares desse tipo de sistema. O franqueado desempenha o papel de manter a sua unidade segundo os preceitos e modelos impostos pela franqueadora. A rede pode se prejudicar por decisão de franqueados que não se engajam e apresentam comportamento diferente. A pergunta que orientou o trabalho foi: O que leva os franqueados a não se engajarem na rede de franquia? Para responder a pergunta foi elaborado um modelo de fatores que influenciam no engajamento e que serviram de base para o objetivo da tese - buscar os fatores que influenciam os franqueados a não se engajarem. O estudo apresenta a relação entre os agentes envolvidos, aprofundando os conceitos da teoria da agência em franquia, principalmente na escolha de novos parceiros e na manutenção dos atuais. Além disso, verifica-se a importância de fatores comportamentais, tais como pró-atividade e capacidade de adaptação e não apenas dos econômicos, usualmente considerados pelos franqueadores. Para a elaboração da tese utilizou-se a Theory Building from Cases (Teoria Baseada em Casos), estudando franqueados de três redes de franquia estabelecidas com mais de dez anos de atuação que totalizam por volta de 400 franqueados em seus quadros (setenta, noventa e duzentas e trinta unidades respectivamente). Para a elaboração da tese foram realizadas 37 entrevistas (3 franqueados; 8 consultores de campo; 24 franqueados e 2 entrevistas teste) totalizando mais de 60 horas de entrevistas. Qualitativo e exploratório, o estudo comparou franqueados engajados e não engajados por meio de dados primários se utilizando das técnicas de analise de conteúdo por meio do software MAXQDA12. O estudo, que partiu de trinta fatores de influência, apresenta um modelo de não engajamento de franqueados de seis fatores, divididos em duas dimensões, Franqueador: Problemas de Comunicação, Falta de Supervisão e Monitoramento e Influência na Rentabilidade e; Franqueado: Pouca Capacidade de Adaptação, Não Conhecimento do Sistema e Baixa Pró-Atividade. Esses fatores dificultam a construção da confiança no franqueador e problemas de agência. Destaca-se que a falta de comunicação com a equipe pode ser um fator desencadeante desse processo, um gatilho desse não engajamento. Na tese também fica claro que o nível de empreendedorismo pretendido pelas franqueadoras para seus franqueados ainda é algo difícil de mensurar e não muito claro. / One of the franchising foundations is the relationship between franchisee and franchisor. The franchisor, brand owner, is responsible for formatting the business and establishing the bases of a standardized franchised chain, one of the pillars of this type of system. The franchisee plays the role of keeping its unit according to the precepts and models imposed by the franchisor. The franchise chain may be harmed by franchisees who decide not to engage and present different behavior. The question that guided the work was: What leads franchisees not to engage in the franchise chain? In order to answer this question, a model of factors that influence engagement was developed. It served as basis for the purpose of the thesis, which is to look for the factors that influence franchisees not to engage. The study presents the relationship between the agents involved, deepening the concepts of the agency theory in franchising, mainly regarding the choice of new partners and maintenance of the current ones; moreover, the importance of behavioral factors is verified as well, such as, proactivity and adaptability and not only the economic ones which are usually considered by franchisors. In order to elaborate the thesis 37 interviews were conducted (3 franchisees, 8 franchise field consultants, 24 franchisees and 2 test) totaling more than 60 hours of material. Qualitative and exploratory, the study compared engaged and not engaged franchisees through primary data using content analysis techniques by operating MAXQDA12 software. The study, which started off from thirty influence factors, presents a six-factor model of franchisees non-engagement, divided into the following two dimensions: Franchisor (Communication Problems, Lack of Supervision and Monitoring and Influence on Profitability) and Franchisee (Poor Adaptability, No Knowledge of the System and Low Pro-Activity). These factors hinder confidence building in the franchiser resulting in agency issues. It is accentuated that the lack of team communication can be an initiating factor to this process, a trigger of this nonengagement problem. In this thesis it is also clear that the entrepreneurship level intended by franchisors to their franchisees is still something very difficult to measure and it is very unclear.

The aim of this study is to investigate how children express spatial autonomy in their preschool. Observations were made of one-to-three-year old children in free play in the preschool and in a nearby forest setting. The study is framed by Corsaro’s theory of peer culture and interpretive reproduction. It is a childhood sociological perspective that stresses the importance of children’s agency, children’s own contribution to their development. The results show three main strategies that children use to show spatial autonomy. The first is that children create places together, spatial autonomy evolve in interaction with peers. The second strategy is that they use high places to get a new perspective and gain a feeling of being on top of the world. The third strategy is how children make use of small spaces to withdraw. The expression of spatial autonomy is also a way for the children to gain control.

Teacher identity (Ti) is an important concept in helping to understand the variety of inter-connected influences that impact on the professional lives of teachers in further education (FE). Ti is under researched within the FE sector and is used in this study to analyse the impact of the marketization of FE (post-incorporation) on the roles of individual teachers and teacher managers. The study takes an interpretive stance using visual metaphors and the narratives of participant teachers, linked to their roles, and teaching journeys, to analyse and evaluate changes to professionalism and individual agency in response to the marketization of the sector. Key literature on Ti in FE, professionalism and teacher agency were used to develop an understanding of the effects of marketization in relation to the main question and market theory provided a lens through which to consider marketization in context. The findings identified the individualised nature of the effects of marketization on the identities of teachers and how they interpreted their roles. These were seen through different levels of teacher agency and changes to professionalism in response to managerialism and the altered culture of the colleges in the study. A summative conceptualisation of Ti in an FE context was developed, which provided an insight into the potential strategies adopted by staff in relation to marketization and the main question set for this study.

A política de dividendos é um tema amplamente pesquisado no Brasil e no mundo ao longo de várias décadas. Consequentemente, inúmeras teorias foram desenvolvidas para explicar esse assunto. Contudo, recentemente, o arcabouço da Teoria de Agência tem proporcionado novas descobertas sobre os fatores que influenciam as políticas de dividendos das empresas. Especificamente, foram propostas teorias que sugerem que os dividendos refletem boas práticas de governança corporativa, tornando a distribuição de proventos um complemento à proteção legal do acionista. Em contrapartida, em um ambiente com proteção mais fraca e regras menos rígidas de governança, a distribuição de dividendos atua de maneira substituta à essa carência de proteção. No Brasil, devido às características legais mais frágeis quando comparada com mercados como o Norte Americano e do Reino Unido, seria esperado uma situação na qual os dividendos fossem substitutos à proteção oferecida pelos padrões de governança. Entretanto, pesquisas relacionadas à América Latina, aos mercados emergentes e, mais especificamente, ao mercado brasileiro, têm apontado para situações diferentes do que é apontado pela teoria, mas não de maneira unânime. Além disso, considerando o ambiente institucional brasileiro, de elevada concentração de propriedade, estudos anteriores não conseguiram determinar de que forma esse fenômeno influencia a política de dividendos das companhias. Assim, para contribuir com essa discussão, este trabalho investiga conjuntamente como a governança corporativa e a concentração de propriedade afetam as políticas de dividendos das empresas brasileiras. Esta pesquisa abrangeu 171 empresas no período de 2008 a 2017. De maneira inédita, foi utilizada como variável dependente o valor total dos dividendos dividido pelo patrimônio líquido. Os resultados das estimações por efeitos fixos com erros-padrão robustos por empresas mostraram uma relação positiva entre as proxys para governança corporativa e concentração de propriedade com a distribuição de dividendos. Como contribuições adicionais, foi mostrado que os resultados da estimação com a variável dependente dividendos pelo patrimônio líquido são melhores que os resultados da estimação com a variável dependente payout. Também foi identificado que a propriedade dispersa e altamente concentrada afetam positivamente e de maneira mais intensa a distribuição de dividendos, em comparação com outros níveis de propriedade do maior acionista / The dividend policy is a widely researched topic in Brazil and the world over several decades. Consequently, numerous theories have been developed to explain this subject. However, recently, the Agency Theory framework has provided new insights into the factors that influence corporate dividend policies. Specifically, theories have been proposed that suggest that dividends reflect good corporate governance practices, making the distribution of proceeds a complement to shareholder legal protection. On the other hand, in an environment with weaker protection and less rigid rules of governance, the distribution of dividends acts in a substitute way to this lack of protection. In Brazil, due to the more fragile legal characteristics when compared to markets such as the United States and the United Kingdom, a situation in which dividends would be a substitute for the protection offered by governance standards would be expected. However, research related to Latin America, emerging markets and, more specifically, the Brazilian market, have pointed to different situations than is pointed out by theory, but not unanimously. Moreover, considering the Brazilian institutional environment, with a high concentration of ownership, previous studies have not been able to determine how this phenomenon influences the companies\' dividend policy. Thus, to contribute to this discussion, this work investigates jointly how corporate governance and concentration of ownership affect the dividend policies of Brazilian companies. This survey covered 171 companies in the period from 2008 to 2017. In an unprecedented way, the total amount of dividends divided by shareholders\' equity was used as the dependent variable. The results of fixed-effect estimate with robust standard errors by companies showed a positive relationship between the proxies for corporate governance and concentration of ownership with the distribution of dividends. As additional contributions, it was shown that the results of the estimation with the dependent variable dividends by the equity are better than the results of the estimation with the dependent variable payout. It has also been identified that dispersed and highly concentrated ownership positively and more sharply affect the distribution of dividends as compared to other ownership levels of the largest shareholder

A presente dissertação parte de uma análise dos principais corpos regulatórios nacionais e internacionais da governança corporativa para buscar os traços essenciais que caracterizam tal sistema. Uma vez identificados os traços essenciais a partir dos elementos regulatórios, passa o texto a analisar os elementos caracterizadores da governança corporativa por meio das principais disposições doutrinárias sobre o tema. Após estabelecido um conceito funcional de governança corporativa, busca-se compreender as bases econômicas que originaram e auxiliaram no desenvolvimento do sistema da governança corporativa. A partir deste ponto são levantadas as principais Indagações acerca do funcionamento do mercado em um ambiente de informações assimétricas, ressaltando-se o impacto advindo dos agency costs. Finalmente, após levantados os problemas relacionados à assimetria de informação, essencialmente focados no agency problem, se propõe a dissertação a vincular o desenvolvimento do sistema da governança corporativa à mitigação dos problemas de assimetria de informação. / The present work starts from an analysis of the main national and international regulatory provisions in connection to corporate governance searching for the essential traces that characterize such system. Once the essential traces are identified by means of the regulatory elements, the dissertation moves on to analyze the characterizing elements of corporate governance through the main academic considerations on the subject. After a concept of corporate governance is reached, the intent of the works shifts to comprehending the economic basis that have originated and further developed the corporate governance system. From this point forward, the dissertation addresses the main questions on the working of markets under asymmetric information, mainly taking into consideration the impacts arising from the agency costs. Finally, after the problems related to asymmetric information are addressed, basically related to agency problems, the work deals with the objective of bonding the development of the corporate governance system with the reduction of the problems arising from asymmetric information.

Este trabalho de doutoramento busca problematizar a instituição Escola e as epistemologias tradicionais que a fundamentam. Parte-se do princípio de que vivemos no paradigma da complexidade, impulsionado pelo acesso às tecnologias, e, com isso, novas demandas no que diz respeito ao aprender, ler, agir e viver surgem. Diante da nova ordem mundial, do fácil acesso à informação, da interação com diversas culturas e da gama de textos presente no ciberespaço, pedagogias baseadas nas Teorias dos Multiletramentos e do Letramento Crítico emergem para dar conta das novas habilidades (criticidade, criatividade, flexibilidade e agência, etc.) cruciais ao aprendiz. Portanto, o objetivo deste trabalho é analisar e discutir (1) como se dá a construção de conhecimento numa instituição de ensino onde perspectivas educacionais emergentes (a meu ver) estão sendo implementadas e (2) se essas perspectivas educacionais emergentes, já em andamento, estão contribuindo para a formação do cidadão crítico, agente e transformador. Discute-se também de que forma essas perspectivas estão contribuindo para formar o cidadão para o letramento crítico e agência. Para responder a essas perguntas, foi escolhido um projeto escolar situado no interior do estado de São Paulo, cuja proposta educacional situa-se numa epistemologia não convencional, para a vivência da pesquisadora. Os dados, portanto, foram gerados segundo uma metodologia de pesquisa qualitativa, de cunho etnográfico, a partir do diário de campo da mesma, construído durante intensa vivência no Projeto, além da análise de dois documentos oficiais que regem sobre a proposta pedagógica da escola. Dentre as percepções da pesquisadora estão o fato de que, apesar de haver coexistência de epistemologias tradicionais e não tradicionais no Projeto estudado, há uma grande ruptura em relação às epistemologias tradicionais no que diz respeito ao espaço físico, aos saberes, às hierarquias e aos conceitos de professor, ensino e de aula. Há, no entanto, três questões passíveis de ressignificação: a fragmentação do conhecimento, o controle e o conceito de coletividade. Apesar disso, esta proposta educacional contribui, sem dúvida, para a formação do cidadão crítico, agente e transformador. / This doctoral work seeks to problematize the school as an institution and the traditional epistemologies that underlie it. It is assumed that we live in the paradigm of complexity, driven by access to technologies and with this, new demands as to learning, reading, acting and living arise. Faced with the new world order, easy access to information, interaction with diverse cultures and the range of texts present in cyberspace, pedagogies based on Multiliteracies and Critical Literacy arise to account for the new abilities (criticality, creativity, flexibility and agency, etc.) that are crucial to the learner. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyze and discuss (1) how knowledge construction takes place in an educational institution where emerging educational perspectives are (as I see it) being implemented and (2) whether these emerging educational perspectives are contributing to the development of the critical citizen, able to act and transform his / her localities. How these perspectives are contributing to the development of the citizen for critical literacy and agency is also addressed in this work. To answer these questions, a school project, located in the State of São Paulo, was chosen due to the epistemological unconventionality of its educational proposal. The data were generated through qualitative ethnographic research, through a research journal constructed by the researcher, as well as through the analysis of two documents that explain the pedagogical proposal of the institution. Among the researcher\'s perceptions are the fact that, despite the existence of traditional and non-traditional epistemologies in the Project studied, there is a great rupture in relation to traditional epistemologies regarding physical space, knowledges, hierarchies and concepts of teacher, teaching and class. There are, however, three possible issues of re-signification: the fragmentation of knowledge, control and the concept of collectivity. Nevertheless, this educational proposal undoubtedly contributes to the development of the critical citizen, able to act and transform the world.

Following a call from Linton (2010) to think more relationally about water this thesis seeks to explore the infolding and unfolding relations that take-form between bodies around particular characteristics of freshwater. There is a tradition of exploration regarding the sustainability, quality, monitoring and management of water when we encounter research on human associations with fluvial hydrology, and whilst this work is important, this project looks to enrol more nascent and contemporary geographical themes to broaden our understanding of encounters with freshwater landscapes, and take a more relational approach to fluvial geographies. These works then shall address a gap in the geographical literature and describe the personal, pre-personal and affective worlds that emerge when bodies become down by the river. Whilst this is not specifically a walking project, walking the course of the River Severn serves as a trajectory along which processual ideas of bodies on the move shall be mobilised. A series of creatively written segues will link together a sequence of theoretical and conceptually driven site ontologies (Marston et al 2005; Woodward et al 2010) and relations associated with the Severn and freshwater more broadly. The flow and form of the thesis will reflect the multivariant characteristics of water and its varying speeds and slownesses. The chapters will step into puddles, mooch about in a ships graveyard, rethink the source of a river, paddle a coracle and set the scene for how an ontological, relational approach to fluvial landscapes can contribute to geographical thinking. The works will focus on human-nonhuman relations, vibrant materialities and elemental mobilities, in so doing enable further understanding of how we can apprehend sites as moments of coherence in a turbulent world, and contribute to broadening our scope of knowledge of the more-than-human.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are information systems that integrate organizational activities across geographical and functional divisions. Being enterprise-wide systems, they are used within an organization in order to standardise its data and streamline its business processes. However, the envisaged benefits of installing an ERP system, such as better control over the company’s operations and seamless integration and data exchange, often fail to materialize. Although the literature has looked into the factors affecting a successful ERP implementation and adoption, it has largely overlooked the actual use of the system. However, as ERP systems have become widespread in many organizations, it is important to examine the use of such systems and their organizational consequences in-situ. This research is particularly concerned with the impact of the use of ERP systems on organizational control and drift. The main argument is that there are contextual factors, in the form of existing organizational control and drift, which influence the use of the ERP system by its users. The actual use of the ERP system can then also lead to organizational control or drift itself. This depends on the way the system is used by its users, as well as the affordances of the system. The former is characterized as human agency in this thesis, while the latter is characterized as machine agency. An interpretive case study approach is adopted to examine those issues. A main case study is examined in depth, aided by four auxiliary case studies. The main contribution of this research is the provision of rich insights regarding the use of ERP systems and their organizational consequences.