Diploma thesis goal is to define the extent of possibilities which are presented to client who is interested in vacation in Crete offered by selected travel agencies. The thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter, there are theoretically explained the most important concepts, terms and topics associated with tourism and travel agencies. Following chapter is from tourism development point of view oriented on the destination analysis. Characterictic traits, geography, history, weather conditions, administrative units and the most atractive sites of the island are described. In the third chapter, there are ten travel agencies according to given criterions selected and introduced. Supply of these companies related to Crete is subject of the analysis. The analysis is focused on four basic marketing mix elements, it means product, price, promotion and place. In the last chapter particular criterions are set. On the basis of these criterions the comparison of studied travel agencies is made and total extent of the offer which is presented to the clients is specified. The appraisal of its comprehensiveness comes out from the resultant summarisation of possibilities which are offered to the client. In conclusion there is advised the opportunity which could be used by travel agencies in order to gain broader range of clients.

The aim of the diploma thesis "Promotion of internet travel agency" is to analyze the communication mix of travel agency Invia.cz and to formulate proposals for its improvement. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter defines internet as a medium and the possibilities of online communication. The second chapter describes the specific characteristics of tourism marketing and the expanded marketing mix. The third chapter analyzes survey results about consumer behavior in selecting and purchasing holiday. The fourth chapter introduces the company Invia.cz and focuses on its online and offline promotion. Based on the analysis and on the survey results, proposals for communication mix improvement are submitted.

This diploma thesis deals with the communication strategy of STUDENT AGENCY Company. The main aim is to analyze and describe all the principles, possibilities and targets of marketing communication, as well as show how the communication mix can be set and optimized. The theoretical part of the paper shows basic instruments of marketing known as 4P, one of which is promotion (as well known as marketing communication). Here we can find all the instruments of communication mix which can be used, as well as other needed information about the factors which affect the management of marketing communication. The practical part deals with a concrete situation in STUDENT AGENCY Company, explains relationships between the competitors and the whole transportation industry. Because the company operates also in tourism sector, these business activities are mentioned, too. The basic promotional mix of STUDENT AGENCY is introduced, as well as the most important reproaches. At the end the future line of marketing communication is foreshadowed. The main benefit of this paper is the complex vision of the company and its marketing communication, which helps to create a compact opinion to the present and future condition of the communication strategy of STUDENT AGENCY.

The diploma thesis is describing Analysis of business strategy of the company Invia and is divided into two parts. First part summarizes principle of market of tourism. It defines subjects and specifics of this market. Special attention is focused on selling tours through the Internet. Second part analyzes business strategy of travel agency Invia, the largest seller of tours online in the Czech Republic. First of all basic information about the company are described, and then parts of business strategy are developed, including SWOT analyze.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Social entrepreneurship has spread worldwide, as social entrepreneurs seek the solutions to developmental challenges. This is especially true in Nairobi, Kenya, as social entrepreneurship has established itself in the labor market. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the impact of social enterprises in African countries, especially with regards to the labor market. It is for this reason that this study aims at highlighting the impact of social enterprises on the labor market in Nairobi, Kenya. It also provides an outline of the labor market structure in Nairobi. The study employed a mixed methods approach, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, collected concurrently as part of a concurrent triangulation design. Five social enterprises located in Nairobi were involved in the study, and were chosen through snowball sampling. These social enterprises offered direct employment, training programmes or support for beneficiaries to start their own businesses. The research instruments used in this study were as follows; 10 interviews (5 interviews with beneficiaries and 5 with social entrepreneurs), 50 questionnaires distributed to beneficiaries through random sampling, field work observations and a literature review. The results of this study were that social enterprises in Nairobi have a significant impact on the livelihoods of beneficiaries by directly employing them, providing necessary skills for later employment or supporting them to start their own businesses. However, these increases in income are often either inadequate or inconsistent as most beneficiaries are forced to diversify their livelihoods. Social enterprises also fail to reduce the gender wage gap among their beneficiaries. Social enterprises also increase market access among their beneficiaries by providing them with advice and training, as well as, direct access to customers. In the same vein, they increase the level of training of beneficiaries. This helps beneficiaries improve their relations with customers, produce high quality goods, hone their skills, gain employment, gain experience, build a repertoire, earn profits and start businesses. The subject of training also affects the income levels of beneficiaries, as many of those who study entrepreneurship, quality training and customer service earn above minimum wage.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / This thesis explores the intelligence cooperation exhibited between South Africa and Israel during the time periods of apartheid (1948-1994) and post-apartheid (1994-2015). Regime type is explored as a factor impacting on the intelligence relationship in both periods. Pertinent to the case study is the fact that South Africa and Israel’s regime type shared commonalities during the first period, but not the second. The thesis examines how these commonalities facilitated intelligence cooperation during apartheid, then turns to the question how the change in South Africa’s regime type after 1994 (whilst Israel’s remained the same) impacted on intelligence cooperation. In order to understand the significance of South Africa’s regime change on the intelligence relationship between the two states, a comprehensive theoretical framework is proposed in order to analyse how and why the internal policies of the two states redirected their intelligence relationship. Within this thesis, the concept of regime type is not used in a conventional way, it is framed through a constructivist notion that includes a focus on identity and how this shapes the two states’ intelligence bureaucratic behaviour. This constructivist framing is in turn juxtaposed to two other International Relations (IR) theories, namely: realism and liberalism. This thesis therefore explores how the system of apartheid in South Africa and a system that has been compared to apartheid in Israel brought the two states together on a national interest level. But, what constituted the perceived alignment of national interests and filtered down into a bureaucratic level is better understood through the constructivist notion of culture and identity that actually solidified the relationship. Culture and identity formed the basis of what made the relationship between the two states strong, and as per the focus of this thesis, manifested in intelligence cooperation between the two states that goes over and beyond what Realists would predict. Although liberalism can explain the apartheid relationship better, it cannot explain why the relationship was not severed after apartheid. Since the end of apartheid, the intelligence relationship has been deteriorating, but this has been a gradual process. This study investigates how regime type impact on intelligence cooperation. It applies the three main IR theories in order to explain and understand the post-apartheid South Africa-Israel relationship. It finds that although Realism and Liberalism are useful, interpreting regime type in a constructivist way adds significantly to explanations of the role regime type plays.

A presente dissertação de mestrado tem como finalidade o estudo dos instrumentos jurídicos previstos no Direito Brasileiro utilizados nas operações de venture capital, tendo em vista a sua capacidade de lidar com os problemas de agência na cadeia de investimento das referidas operações. O estudo fundamenta-se na importância desse mercado no financiamento de inovações, que, por sua vez, possuem importância vital para o desenvolvimento dos países. Particularmente, tais operações atuam para suprir a falta de financiamentos disponíveis para empresas recém-constituídas, de pequeno e médio porte, com alto potencial de introduzir inovações no mercado. A literatura estrangeira revela-nos que problemas de agência são consideravelmente altos na cadeia de investimento de venture capital, tendo em vista a alta assimetria informacional entre agentes e principais nas relações entre investidores e venture capitalists, e venture capitalists e empreendedores. A mesma literatura anota que os instrumentos jurídicos desempenham papel fundamental no alinhamento dos interesses das partes nas relações retromencionadas, para que as operações sejam viabilizadas. Diversas avenças e mecanismos são previstos em tais instrumentos, com este propósito, tendo em conta as condições deste mercado em particular. No Brasil, para que o mercado de venture capital se desenvolva, os instrumentos jurídicos devem lidar com tais problemas, e é nessa análise que concentramos nossos estudos. / This research has as it purposes the study of legal instruments provided for in the Brazilian Law and used in venture capital transactions, taking into account their capacity of dealing with agency problems inherent to the investment chain of referenced transactions. The study has its grounds on the importance of such market to the financing of innovations, which, in its turn, have vital importance to the development of nations. Particularly, said transactions work to correct the lack of available financing to start up small and medium companies with high potential to introduce innovations into the market. The foreign literature shows that agency problems are considered high in the venture capital investment chain, taking into account the high information asymmetry between principals and agents to the relationships between investors and venture capitalists, and venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. The same literature affirms that the legal instruments perform fundamental role in the alignment of parties interests in the aforementioned relationships, so that the transactions are made feasible. A variety of covenants and mechanisms are set forth in such instruments with this purpose, considering the conditions of such particular market. In Brazil, in order to develop the venture capital market, the legal instruments have to deal with such problems, and that is the focus of our analysis.

The equity holders of a firm typically control investment choices but enjoy limited liability, since the value of equity is the firm’s value in excess of the value of debt and other fixed claims. The asset substitution problem allows equity holders to expropriate value from other claimants by shifting downside risk from failed projects. To do so, equity holders substitute riskier investments for those with less risk. In the context of tax choices, firms pursue uncertain tax projects to reduce their current or future tax payments. Given the negative consequences of tax uncertainty documented by prior studies, understanding why firms pursue more uncertain tax projects is important for both internal and external stakeholders. In this study, I construct a model of the firm that highlights how asset substitution incentives influence the adoption of uncertain tax projects. I confirm the inferences from this model empirically to illustrate when firms are more likely to prefer more uncertain tax projects due to the investment distortion created by asset substitution incentives. Specifically, I find that firms in financial distress, firms with high growth potential, and loss firms adopt more uncertain tax projects than other firms. These results provide relevant insight for debt holders, regulators, and enforcement bodies.

Cette thèse étudie l’impact de la composition du conseil d’administration sur la performance financière d’une entreprise. Elle est composée de trois chapitres. Dans le premier chapitre, nous effectuons une revue de la littérature sur les conseils d’administration. Nous pointons l’évolution de la gouvernance des entreprises au cours des dernières décennies, et montrons en quoi l’efficacité des conseils d’administration est devenue un sujet majeur de ce champ de recherche et une préoccupation importante des actionnaires et des régulateurs. En particulier, après avoir présenté le cadre théorique de la gouvernance, nous présentons les résultats des articles académiques étudiant l’impact de la composition du conseil d’administration sur la performance de l’entreprise. Dans les deuxième et troisième chapitres, nous étudions l’impact de la présence de différents types d’administrateurs au sein du conseil. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous proposons un modèle théorique pour tenter de comprendre et de déterminer l’impact de la représentation salariale au conseil d’administration sur la valeur actionnariale de l’entreprise et sur l’horizon de ses investissements. Nos résultats suggèrent que la représentation salariale peut s’envisager comme un choix, pour les actionnaires, entre liquidité et information. Nous montrons que lorsque des représentants des salariés siègent au conseil d’administration d’une entreprise, celle-ci a une plus grande probabilité d’investir dans des projets à long-terme qu’une entreprise sans représentation salariale. Nous montrons également que les salariés ayant accès à une information interne précieuse, leur présence au conseil d’administration peut permettre d’augmenter la valeur actionnariale de l’entreprise. Ainsi, nous proposons un modèle de la représentation salariale cohérent avec certaines études empiriques. Dans le troisième chapitre, nous étudions empiriquement l’impact des connexions politiques sur le taux d’intérêt d’emprunts bancaires en utilisant un échantillon de prêts concernant des entreprises de plusieurs pays. Si ce sujet a déjà été largement traité, nous proposons une nouvelle définition de la connexion politique que nous subdivisons en deux catégories, selon l’exposition médiatique, forte ou faible, des politiciens. Les politiciens les plus en vue sont aussi ceux pour lesquels le risque d’être soupçonné de conflit d’intérêt ou de manquement à l’éthique est le plus important, et pour qui le coût d’un scandale est le plus élevé. Aussi discriminons-nous les connexions politiques selon qu’elles impliquent des politiciens très en vue ou des politiciens à un niveau inférieur. Cette division se fonde sur l’hypothèse que les politiciens les plus exposés sont, ayant le plus à perdre d’un scandale, disposent de la marge de manœuvre la plus réduite en tant que dirigeants d’entreprise et sont donc les moins à même d’impacter la performance de l’entreprise. Nos résultats confortent la pertinence d’une telle redéfinition de la connexion politique en fonction de la visibilité des politiciens concernés. Nous montrons en particulier que les entreprises politiquement connectées qui empruntent auprès de banques politiquement connectées le font à des taux significativement inférieurs à celles non connectées, et que cet effet est plus important lorsque la connexion de l’emprunteur passe par un politicien moins exposé. Nos résultats suggèrent que l’effet est encore plus fort si la banque est elle aussi connectée par l’intermédiaire d’un politicien moins exposé. Par ailleurs, nous montrons que les entreprises connectées politiquement empruntent significativement moins auprès de banques connectées par l’intermédiaire d’un politicien très exposé médiatiquement. Nos résultats suggèrent enfin que cet effet est plus fort à l’approche d’élections, un moment il est particulièrement coûteux pour un politicien d’être soupçonné de manquement à la déontologie. / This thesis studies the impact of the composition of the board of directors on the firm financial performance. It consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, we review the literature on boards of directors. We show the evolution of corporate governance over the past decades, and how the efficiency of boards of directors has became a key issue for shareholders and regulators. After describing the theoretical and historical framework, we present and discuss the academic papers studying the impact of board composition on the firm performance. In the second and third chapters, we examine the impact of the presence of different directors on the board. In the second chapter, we provide a theoretical model that aims at understanding and determining the impact of employee representation on the board of directors on the shareholder value of the firm and on its investment horizon. Our results suggest that with employee representation, shareholders face a tradeoff between liquidity and information. We show that a firm with employee representation is more likely to invest in long-term rather than in short-term projects and that, because employees have access to valuable inside information, their presence on the board may increase the shareholder value. Consistent with some empirical studies, we offer some theoretical support for employee representation on the board. In the third chapter, we study the impact of political connections on the rate of interest of bank loans. We conduct a cross-country study of the impact of political connections on bank loans interest rates. While this topic has already been widely investigated, we offer a new definition of political connection. We subcategorize political connections into two categories: politicians with a high media exposure, and lower level politicians. Politicians with business ties bear the risk of being suspected of ethics breaching or of having conflicting interests, which can be costly for their reputation. We discriminate the political connections of firms based on the idea that with greater exposure comes greater risk of suspicion, and thus smaller ability to impact the firm performance. We study the impact of political connection of the borrower as well as of the lender on interest rates. Our results give support to our definition, as we find significant differences depending on the level of visibility of the political connections of the borrower and of the lender. Our results show that politically connected firms which borrow from politically connected banks enjoy a significantly lower rate if they are connected with lower level politicians. Our results suggest that the rate is even lower if the bank also is connected with lower level politicians. Furthermore, our results suggest that politically connected firms tend to avoid borrowing money from banks that are connected with top politicians. Our results also suggest that this effect is stronger in pre-election periods, when the potential cost for politicians of being suspected of collusion is higher.

Thesis (Ph.D.), Faculty of Humanities, School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / People who hold doctoral degrees are considered valuable national resources able to produce knowledge to address pressing problems, and important sources of labour for the higher education sector. However, in 2006, only 1100 people graduated with doctoral degrees in South Africa. This limits the potential for research and improvements in higher education. In addition, 618 of those graduates were white, making it difficult to address equity concerns. Within the higher education sector there are debates about how to increase enrolments in doctoral education and the best way to run PhD programmes for effective learning, high quality research results and for efficiency. But there is little South African-based empirical research into what makes people undertake PhDs, how the programmes work and what learning and knowledge result. This study explores how different stakeholders – national and institutional policymakers, academic staff and doctoral people – understand the PhD; how these understandings influence the practice of doctoral education; and how different practices affect the PhD experience and the learning and knowledge produced. The primary research question I address is: “How do existing models and pedagogies of doctoral programmes shape the learning of doctoral people and the outcomes of doctoral programmes in South Africa?” The origins of the Doctor of Philosophy degree are often traced back to the nineteenth century reforms of German universities when the idea emerged that all scholars should be actively involved in research. But this is a simplistic view. By examining the evolution of the PhD in greater depth, it becomes clear that it has undergone continuous change and has always served both the high-minded pursuit of knowledge and the more prosaic pursuit of skills for employment. The literature reflects ongoing tension between the scholarly view of the PhD as knowledge generation by an emerging scholar, and the labour market view of the PhD as developing high-level research skills. In the South African context both of these views can be observed, but I also identified a view of the PhD as ongoing personal development through an engagement with knowledge. The three views of the PhD are underpinned by different discourses which inform the practice of doctoral education. In South Africa, the traditional model of individual supervision dominates, and it varies by discipline, department and supervisor. But patterns of practice can be discerned and I identify four of these and discuss how supervisors construct their individual supervision practice. Doctoral education is also a function of the people who do PhDs. Much of the research undertaken in the overdeveloped world focuses on younger people who are starting out on academic careers. However, in South Africa, many people doing PhDs are older and midway through careers which are often not academic. This leads me to propose a model of intersecting contexts, as an alternative to McAlpine and Norton‟s nested context model of doctoral education, which more accurately reflects the local situation. I discuss the PhD experience and make use of the intersecting contexts model to develop the notion of congruence between the PhD, the contexts and the PhD person with more positive experiences being related to higher degrees of congruence. Finally, I consider how the outcomes of doctoral education, the learning and knowledge which result, relate to the expectations of the different stakeholders. The research took the form of a qualitative study with a multiple case-study design employing theoretical replication. I examined doctoral education in four academic units at three South African universities with the units selected to represent different disciplines. All four units were in previously advantaged universities from the English-speaking tradition and all were successfully producing PhD graduates. These rich pictures of how doctoral education takes place contribute empirical evidence to current debates about the PhD in South Africa. At a conceptual level I identify the competing discourses about what a PhD is. I provide a more nuanced understanding of the practice of doctoral education within the overarching model of individual supervision. The intersecting contexts model provides a way to understand the expectations and circumstances of doctoral people and the notion of congruence illuminates their varied experiences. Finally, the study confirms that the outcomes of doctoral education, in terms of learning and knowledge generated, meet at least some of the expectations of policy-makers, supervisors and people who do PhDs.