<p>The study seeks to establish the state of infrastructure management system, pertaining to electricity distribution, as an example of policy implementation.</p>

Masters in Public Administration - MPA / The study seeks to establish the state of infrastructure management system, pertaining to electricity distribution, as an example of policy implementation.

With increasing incidence of severe disasters, global policies and frameworks have been shifting towards an emphasis on collaboration and community resilience. The greater use of information systems to assist with disasters has prompted a need to examine how technology can support collaboration and resilience. Hence, this thesis aims to identify a set of requirements for a collaborative online asset mapping tool through a requirement engineering process. A multiple case study design was used with the objective of answering: (1) what are the functional, non-functional, and general system requirements of an online asset mapping tool for disaster preparedness; (2) is a standard “off-the-shelf” asset-mapping application feasible for community development and adaptive capacity building for disaster management; and (3) what are the potential designs that can address the requirements? The specific cases examined were The Region of Waterloo, Ontario and Truro, Nova Scotia. The data from the cases was used to perform qualitative content analysis combined with activity diagrams, to determine and analyze the requirements for an online asset mapping tool to aid in disaster preparedness. The findings of the research included shared requirements between the two communities that encompassed: system purpose, system functionalities, user characteristics, and system requirements. Furthermore, prototype user interface (UI) wireframes were developed using the requirements results to show a potential design of an online asset mapping application. This thesis research addressed the need to design a tool that facilitates all aspects of the asset mapping process. Ultimately, this research builds the foundation to which future research can examine the requirements to design and develop a citizen-oriented tool to enhance community disaster resilience.

Empirical findings on herding behavior among institutional investors suggest that those market participants speed up the price adjustment to new information and as such stabilize stock prices. Other findings indicate the opposite, that institutional herds drive stock prices away from fundamental values, and thus destabilize stock prices. This study examines the effect that Swedish institutional investors have on the stock prices on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. More precisely, we analyze the relationship of institutional herding with future excess stock returns. Major findings from this paper suggest that persistent herding among Swedish institutional investors leads to future long-term return reversals, which to some extent indicates a destabilizing influence at long horizons.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Statistics and Actuarial Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

File sharing is a significant activity of enterprise computer use. In organizations, files are usually shared using e-mail attachments. However, large media files cannot be shared using e-mail, due to file size limitations. Instead, different external file sharing systems are used to share large files. The use and size of media files will continue to increase, which requires file sharing mechanisms that can handle this. For organizations today, it is difficult to find a file sharing application that fulfills all requirements and needs of the users. Especially for large media rich organizations, where the file sharing scenarios are many and files can be shared internally and externally with dissimilar feature and security requirements. An example of such an organization is Baggie, a fashion company where large media files are shared daily, using various file sharing systems. The inconsistency of what system to use, leads to confusion and frustration among its users. Additionally, their current file sharing systems do not fulfill all of Baggie’s users’ requirements and no system is integrated with their media asset management system. This master thesis aims to solve the challenges of file sharing within large organizations, particularly media rich organizations such as Baggie by centralize file sharing to one application. By performing a theoretical study and user studies, thirteen design guidelines for file sharing applications have been established. The guidelines focuses on usability, security and users’ requirements regarding media file sharing. Based on the studies, a prototype have been designed for a new file sharing application: BShare. BShare aims to replace Baggie’s current file sharing systems and the application fulfills all requirements of Baggie users. The BShare prototype can be seen as a reference design for file sharing applications.

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In the first chapter we introduce securitisations and discuss the current state of structured finance in Europe; we also explore the main trends in securitisations and future prospects. Next, we provide a general introduction to the theoretical and empirical literature concerning securitisations and structured finance more generally: we discuss theoretical hypotheses concerning different rationales for structured credit and explore the empirical literature on the topic. In the second chapter, we look at financial contracts determining implicit boundaries of a firm. In the spirit of the incomplete contract theory, we analyse optimal allocations of control in financial contracts involving limits on managerial discretion and legal separation of assets. Our model explores the interplay between different groups of creditors and managers in a symmetric information environment. The results display optimality conditions for different contracts from asset-backed securities through project finance to debt with covenants vis-a-vis a standard debt contract. In the third chapter, we provide the first systematic testing of the theories of tranching. We find support for asymmetric information and market segmentation explanations for tranching and present evidence on how such different rationales influence the structuring process in practice. We also investigate the impact of tranching on the price of securities at the issue level. In the fourth chapter, we investigate determinants of launch spreads in securitisation transactions. First, we develop a reduced-form pricing model of tranches across different transaction types and test it. We document the importance of credit ratings for prices of structured securities. Next, we test for the effect of tranching on pricing of individual securities. Finally, we develop a simultaneous equations supply and demand model with endogenous structuring to further investigate the effects of structuring on prices at launch. In the fifth chapter, we investigate returns to equity around securitisation dates, and explore how different factors influence the size and the direction of the potential effects. We find significant, positive, and consistent abnormal returns to equity on the pricing date, over longer event windows, and over the period immediately prior to the issue date. We find support for the theory that equity holders in well-capitalised banks and firms with low gearing benefit from securitisations. Furthermore, we show that more developed securitisation markets, larger issuers, and banks in particular all benefit from securitisations.

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