The regulatory sandbox is a special regime provided by regulators and super- visory authorities to market participants for testing their innovative business models, while temporarily reducing certain regulatory requirements. It is a very recent topic and so far its impact has not been sufficiently empirically tested. However, the empirical evidence may be crucial for the authorities hesitating to adopt their regulatory sandboxes. The main contribution of this thesis is the empirical testing of the effect of the sandbox on the investments into FinTech in three European countries, using the Synthetic control method. The yearly aggregate amounts and numbers of FinTech investments were selected as mea- surable indices of the FinTech sector development. The most significant results show that in the United Kingdom, the aggregate yearly amounts invested into FinTech grew considerably compared to the values of the synthetic control unit, after the sandbox introduction. For the other two tested countries (the Nether- lands, Denmark), no significant outcomes were observed due to insufficiency of data. In the theoretical part, this thesis gathers information about the existing regulatory sandboxes in European countries. Also, the author seeks to outline the main legal issues related to the regulatory sandbox...

The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate elements of racism in two court documents from The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS). The court documents deal with two regulations from the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the implementation of these regulations, which aim to assess womens’ participation in elite running. These regulations are based on measurements of female athletes’ testosterone levels to assess who is considered eligible to compete in the female category in elite running. The regulations have been criticized by UN Human Rights Council, which states that the regulations include racial discrimination, since the regulations are primarily aimed at women from the global South as they to a greater extent demonstrate higher levels of testosterone. The thesis has analysed whether racist discourses can be discerned in the court documents by examining statements from the IAAF and CAS when it discusses the implementation of these regulations in elite running for women.  The analysis of the court documents is based on a method of critical discourse analysis. which intends to shed light on uneven power structures due to, among other things, race. In the court documents, the content of the texts was examined according to the method. The thesis examines how women who produce higher levels of testosterone are described in relation to women who produce testosterone within the “normal” range. The thesis also examines which discourses have the most space in the court documents. The analysis is supplemented with Sara Ahmed´s theory of the phenomenology of whiteness, and Sandra Fredman´s theory of the concept of equality. The results of the thesis show that women from the global South are considered abnormal due to a socially constructed norm based on white Western ideals. Female athletes who show a higher level of testosterone come mainly from the global South. Since these athletes are more affected by the IAAF:s regulations than those from the West, it can be interpreted that these women are restricted in their freedom of movement within elite running compared to white female athletes.

In this thesis, I study subnational and supranational institutional dynamics and their effects on international connectivity. In the second and third chapters, I focus on regulative harmonization within regional integration as a proxy to the changing institutions at the supranational level. I use process of Turkey’s candidacy to full membership in the European Union (EU) as a context of regional integration. In the second chapter, I adopt a network perspective to the international connectivity and track the progress in regulative harmonization by constructing a basic composite index using EU Commission annual progress reports. I utilized social network analysis on USPTO patent data to understand the effect of regulative harmonization on the centrality, complexity and resilience of Turkey’s innovation network. In the third chapter, I adopt a team perspective to the international connectivity. Using the same context, I construct a more sophisticated composite index by utilizing a combination of content analysis, principal component analysis (PCA) and linear aggregation methods to track the regulative harmonization in a robust way. In this chapter, I investigate the relationship between regulative harmonization and international connectivity in innovation using the same patent data supplemented by additional manually parsed company and country level data. I use a classic entropy-based measure, Shannon, to analyze the international connectivity of co-inventor teams in patents. Additionally, I explore asymmetrical impact of different regulation groups as well as a possible mediatory role of MNEs conditional on their origin using a signaling theory perspective. This chapter presents insights regarding the relationship between institutional fundamentals and international connectivity of a country. Finally, in the fourth chapter, I analyze the mechanisms through which national formal institutions interact with subnational informal institutions. More specifically, I use exploratory qualitative analysis supported by the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to study how and under what conditions subnational informal institutional factors, that are represented by local business communities and local government-business relationships, exacerbate or ameliorate voids in national formal institutions. Export promotion programs represent the context for formal national institutions in this final chapter. My study contributes, first, to institutional theory by offering a deep analysis of how national formal and subnational informal institutions interact and result in different subnational responses to common institutional voids. Second, it contributes to the literature on economic geography and innovation by demonstrating the institutional fundamentals as antecedents of international connectivity in innovation from both network and team perspectives. My thesis also contributes to the IB literature by showing the asymmetrical effect of different groups of formal institutions on international connectivity and mediatory role of MNEs conditional on their origins in the relationship between regulative harmonization and international connectivity in innovation. I also contribute methodologically to analyses of complex social phenomenon by putting together a novel bundle that produces the Weighted Average Regulative Progress Index, WARP Index, and then combines it with Shannon’s Entropy Index and a recently published estimation method, ivmediate for Stata, that accounts both on endogeneity and mediation. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

In the current Master's Thesis, the use of hydrogen as a fuel in transportation, the state of hydrogen in the European Union as well as the rest of the European countries' future for adopting hydrogen in the mass transportation sector, were researched. Initially, the thesis provides an overview of hydrogen classification, production methods, storage methods, and transportation methods. Furthermore, it discusses the environmental impact of hydrogen production and use, assesses the technology readiness level, the cost of hydrogen technologies and their environmental footprint. Finally, it examines the energy use, the environmental footprint, reviews the policies and regulations governing the use of hydrogen of the transportation sector in Europe.The method used is literature review and found that hydrogen has some potential to decarbonize the transportation sector in Europe after 2035. However, there are multiple challenges that need to be addressed, such as the high cost of hydrogen production and the lack of infrastructure for hydrogen refueling. Steps to address these challenges are being taken, such as investing in research and development of hydrogen technologies and providing financial incentives for the deployment of hydrogen infrastructure.The electrolysis of water using renewable energy sources was found to be the least efficient and most expensive production technique, but this is expected to change in the future. In the meantime, programs have been launched in Europe to increase hydrogen adoption in the transport sector, through measures such as the development of new gas stations and pipeline networks. Since there is currently no regulatory framework specifically for hydrogen, it is governed by regulations that apply to hazardous liquids and gases or alternative fuels.However, further research and development is needed to make hydrogen more cost-competitive and to build the necessary infrastructure. With the right policies and investments, hydrogen can play a major role in decarbonizing the transportation sector in the EU.

In March 2003, many communities in Mississippi fell under National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) regulations and were required to develop Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPPs). This study surveyed those in charge of SWPPPs in Mississippi’s regulated communities to determine the knowledge, efforts, and associated expenses, of complying with Stormwater Phase II regulations as well as what attempts regulated communities made to include urban forestry in their SWPPPs. While results indicated that all respondents were compliant with Stormwater Phase II regulations, regulated communities can improve efforts in several areas to best mitigate stormwater runoff pollution (e.g., public education and urban forestry). Findings will be useful when presented to current and, soon to be, regulated communities in an educational and outreach effort to increase their knowledge levels, reduce incurred costs, increase the effectiveness of their SWPPP, and enhance their ability to utilize urban and community forests as a stormwater mitigation tool.

No description available.

No description available.

Yes / This study aims to provide a better understanding of the role of the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) in restoring public trust in audit profession in the UK. It analyses the views of partners in the Big 4 audit firms on this role. This study identifies three main strategies to promote trust and enhance the choice of auditors in the UK audit market. These strategies are improving audit quality, increasing the transparency of the big audit firms and reducing the barriers to competition in the audit market. The findings suggest that partners of the Big 4 believe that the FRC's projects effectively participate in improving audit quality as well as providing wider information about the audit firms to the public. However, different actions need to be taken to enhance the choice in the market.

No / The Nigerian economy depends on the petroleum industry for revenue and fuel to drive its growth. However, the petroleum industry has been associated with major issues of accidents and disasters which have contributed to vast safety and environmental problems. This is especially true for all sectors of the industry including the downstream. Against this back-drop, this paper critically examines the provisions in various environmental and petroleum laws and the institutional arrangements for monitoring and enforcement to evaluate their adequacy for ensuring safety and proper environmental management within the downstream sector. The review revealed the limitations of the framework such as incoherent laws, overlaps, duplications and conflicting regulatory functions. In addition, the paper looked beyond the regulatory framework to factors within wider socio-political and governance context that contribute to the lack of effectiveness of the regulatory framework. Poor governance, rent seeking culture and inadequate funding were also identified as the key contributing factors to implementation deficit. However, the paper did find that provisions in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) (Draft) and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Amendment Bill offers some prospects that address some of the limitations within the reviewed framework.

Yes / This paper aims to capture the perception of banking services providers on how to restore their customers’ trust in the UK banking industry. Twenty frontline employees (FLEs) who have customer-facing responsibilities are interviewed and a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts is undertaken. Through the emergence of three different major themes and a number of sub-themes, we have presented our findings in the form of a trust restoration model. Interviewees have reported three major themes as an action framework to restore their customers’ trust. Firstly, banks are implementing enhanced transparency in their operations, by appropriately disclosing the key features of their lending and other banking activities. Secondly, they are implementing policies and procedures that can help strengthen their relationship banking, such as improving employee and customer engagement activities for supporting small businesses and the community. Thirdly, they are promoting operational efficiency by adequately investing in information technology infrastructure. However, some financial service practices identified by the interviewees, for example, the deliberate sale of financial products that are unsuitable for their customers or too complex to understand, still continues. Ultimately, this ‘sale before service’ tactic is incompatible with the industry claims of compliance with the new financial regulations.