Please read the abstract in the section front of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Mathematical Statistics))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Statistics / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Technology Management))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

This thesis is concerned with the classification of accounting information from the recording phase through to the reporting phase. Various criticisms on the way information is presented in financial statements, especially in the balance sheet and income statement ware found in the literature. Classification models for accounting information have been proposed in the literature but the main disadvantages of these models are that they are inherently static in nature and do not embed the notion of time. To further test the various criticisms of present classification structures, 1) a comprehensive literature survey of the criticisms of present accounting classification structures as presented by researchers in the literature was conducted, 2) a questionnaire was prepared and sent out to companies in industry, academics as well as analysts in order to test these criticisms, and 3) an analysis of the financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) of 93 companies listed on The JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) was undertaken. The outcome of the above three (3) actions led to the following hypothesis: The current classification of accounting information, from the recording phase to reclassification in the reporting phase, does not supply users of such information with the necessary information for decision-making purposes. In this regard a comprehensive classification framework for accounting information is proposed, with the following properties: • A well-defined set of attributes will be used, ultimately to classify a transaction into a static sub-framework to aid decision-making. • Time will be used to classify a transaction at the time of recording and later to reclassify it at the time of reporting. • The proposed framework will guide the classifier as to how an item finds its way into a static structure. Classification has as its step the identification of all the attributes known at the time of recording and reporting of the items implicitly involved in a transaction. These attributes in essence define the items that are to be classified into a structure as well as allowing for relationships to be drawn among the said items. One of the advantages of classification is the creation of (new) knowledge or information. The utility of such information depends on the quality of the classification performed. Normally the responsibility for classification at both the recording and reporting phases rests with the accountant. The resultant classification should provide enough information to users of financial statements, especially financial managers, to allow them to reclassify the given information to suit their own needs. An important influence on a classification framework for accounting information is the various requirements put forward by a variety of users of such information. Some of these requirements may conflict with one another. It is proposed in this thesis that a distributed union of all requirements of users be taken and all conflicting requirements be removed from the union (i.e. simply put all requirements into one group and remove all those that conflict with one another). Classification is then performed for the result. Additional information may be supplied in the statements to cater for the requirements outside the result. The classification framework for accounting information proposed in this thesis is made up of three (3) sub-frameworks as follows: • A normative sub-framework that defines a number of attributes for a transaction and which is based on the recording (past) and reporting (present) phases of accounting information. This framework also takes transactions with future aspects into account • A decision sub-framework which follows directly on the normative sub-framework and which directs the classifier as to where a transaction should be classified in a final, static sub-framework. • A static sub-framework which shows where items implicitly involved in a transaction are finally classified. Classification frameworks are proposed for both the balance sheet and the income statement. The balance sheet framework embodies a temporal component, a decision component and a static structure. A different classification layout for the income statement, including a temporal component and a static structure, is also proposed in this thesis. / Thesis (DCom (Financial Management Sciences))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Financial Management / unrestricted

Inom detaljhandeln anses könsfördelningen av de anställda vara jämställd, men när ledningspositionerna granskas visar det sig att det är män som dominerar på positionerna. Trots lagstiftningar för att främja en jämställd arbetsmarknad och det faktum att en förändring av könsfördelningen skett de senaste tio åren visar det sig ändå att underrepresentation av kvinnor på ledningspositioner kvarstår. Det framkommer även att kvinnors arbetsvillkor innefattar könsstereotyper och fördomar gällande deras ledaregenskaper samt ambitionsnivå vilket på sikt kan försvåra deras karriärförutsättningar och möjligheter att nå ledningspositioner. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att förstå kvinnors upplevelser av att nå ledningspositioner som traditionellt besitts av män och de faktorer som påverkat kvinnornas karriärmöjligheter. I uppsatsen har fem intervjuer med kvinnor på VD-position i fem detaljhandelsföretag i Sverige har genomförts genom en kvalitativ studie. Materialet som samlats in visar att de här kvinnorna lyfter sina personligheter och egenskaper som de främsta anledningarna till att de nått sina ledningspositioner. Resultatet visar på glapp mellan teorin som belyser vikten av nätverk för att kvinnors karriärer ska möjliggöras, och empirin som talar för att de här kvinnorna inte anser att det är en viktig faktor. Teorin och empirin överensstämmer när det kommer till relationen mellan bristen på kvinnliga förebilder och underrepresentationen av kvinnor i ledningspositioner. Slutsatsen för uppsatsen är att de kvinnor som intervjuats inte har stött på några hinder på sin väg mot ledningspositioner inom detaljhandeln men att det finns en medvetenhet om att könsstereotyper och fördomar påverkar kvinnors karriärmöjligheter inom detaljhandeln. / In the retail sector is the gender balance of employees considered equal, but when management positions are examined, it appears that men dominate these positions. Despite legislation to support an equal labor market and the fact that a change in the gender balance has taken place over the past ten years, it still appears that an underrepresentation of women in management positions remains. It also shows that women's working conditions include gender stereotypes regarding their leadership skills and ambition level, which in the long term can obstruct their career prospects and opportunities to achieve management positions. The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to understand women's experiences of reaching management positions that is traditionally occupied by men and the factors that affect women's career opportunities. Five interviews with women at the CEO's position in five retail companies in Sweden have been conducted in a qualitative study. The empirical data shows that these women raise their personalities and attributes as the main reasons for reaching their leadership positions. The result shows a gap between the theory that highlights the importance of networking to make women's careers possible, and empirical evidence that these women do not consider it an important factor. Theory and empirical evidence correspond when it comes to the relationship between the lack of female role models and the underrepresentation of women in management positions. The conclusion of this paper is that the women interviewed have not encountered any obstacles on their way to management positions in retail, but that there is awareness that gender stereotypes and prejudices affect women's career opportunities in retail.

O solo fornece suporte e atua como reservatório de água para as plantas, promovendo condições fundamentais ao crescimento de raízes e à dinâmica da água e nutrientes. O conhecimento de suas propriedades hidráulicas, como a curva retenção da água, é de grande importância na descrição e predição dos processos de transporte da água e solutos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi determinar a curva de retenção pelo método tradicional dos funis e câmaras de pressão de ar com placa porosa, pelo método de campo utilizando tensiômetros e pelo método da evaporação da água em amostra de solo no laboratório munida de tensiômetro. O solo utilizado para estudo foi classificado como Nitossolo Vermelho eutrófico de textura argilosa, e estava sendo cultivado com café há mais de 10 anos. A comparação entre as curvas obtidas pelos três métodos indicou que o método da evaporação diferiu estatisticamente do método do funil e câmara e foi estatisticamente idêntico ao método do tensiômetro a campo. Por sua facilidade de execução, baixo custo e rapidez na determinação da curva de retenção até a tensão de aproximadamente 100 kPa, o método da evaporação aqui apresentado é uma boa opção de utilização. Com relação ao método do tensiômetro no campo, embora mais realístico, é muito trabalhoso. / Soil provides support and acts as a water reservoir to plants, promoting essential conditions to root growth and to water and nutrient dynamics. The understanding of its hydraulic properties, like the water retention curve, is of great importance for the description and prediction of the processes of water and solute transport. The objective of this study was to determine soil water retention curve through the traditional method using porous plate funnel and pressure chamber, through the field method using tensiometers and through the water evaporation in soil sample with tensiometer in the laboratory. The studied soil was classified as clayey Rhodic Hapludox, which had been cultivated with coffee for more than 10 years. The comparison of curves obtained through the three methods indicated that the evaporation method was statistically different from the method using funnel and chamber, and statistically equal to the method of tensiometers at field. For its easy execution, low cost and quickness to determine soil water retention curve until the tension of about 100 kPa, the evaportation method presented here is a feasible option. As for the method of tensiometers at field, although it is more realistic, it is very laborious.

Dentre as várias técnicas de tratamento e disposição dos resíduos sólidos urbanos a disposição em aterros sanitários é a mais usada, devido ao baixo custo e relativa simplicidade operacional. No entanto, a falta de estudos para áreas adequadas é um dos principais fatores limitantes da aplicação desta técnica. É imprescindível o conhecimento dos atributos do meio-físico para avaliar as suas várias interações com o aterro sanitário. Essas interações e a variedade de atributos, dificultam a seleção do local adequado para a instalação do aterro sanitário. Diante disto, há a necessidade de uma metodologia que considere as interações, juntamente com os atributos, e se mostre eficaz na seleção do melhor local para o aterro. Propões-se aqui uma metodologia que considera 14 atributos do meio físico, referentes ao substrato rochoso, materiais inconsolidados, água e feições de relevo. Em vista da variedade de atributos, múltiplas alternativas possíveis e objetivos muitas vezes conflitantes, a serem considerados, foi aplicada a técnica de tomada de decisão denominada processo hierárquico analítico (PHA). O PHA divide um problema complexo em problemas mais simples na forma de uma hierarquia de decisão e, permitiu a obtenção do índice de adequabilidade (I.A.), que representa o valor numérico da adequabilidade de uma determinada áreas para a instalação de aterros sanitários, além de possibilitar a sua hierarquização em relação às áreas adjacentes. Esta metodologia foi aplicada na região de Araraquara, estado de São Paulo, limitada pelo paralelos 21º45\' e 22º00\' sul e meridianos 48º00\' minutos e 48º15\' minutos oeste Gr. O I.A. possibilitou o zoneamento e a classificação de unidades de combinação em favorável, moderada, severa e restritiva para a implantação de um aterro sanitário. A metodologia mostrou-se eficaz e permitiu comparar os 14 atributos de forma numérica, ao introduzir a ) técnica de tomada de decisão através do processo de hierarquia analítica. Desta forma, apresentou as vantagens de diminuir a subjetividade do processo de seleção e ponderar atributos inter-dependentes, direcionados ao objetivo de selecionar áreas para a implantação de um aterro sanitário. / Among several techniques for disposition and treatment of urban solid waste, sanitary landfill is the most employed, by their low cost and relative operational simplicity. However, the lack of research for suitable areas is one of the main problems to the application of this technique. It is necessary to know the attributes of the environment to assess their numerous interactions with the environment sanitary landfill. This interactions and the variety of the attributes becomes diffilcut the selection of the most suitable area to the installation of the sanitary landfill. A methodology to be effiecient in the selection of the best site to this facility, must consider the interactions and the attributes of the environment. This paper proposes a methodology which consider 14 attributes of the environment related to the rocky substrate, unconsolidated materials, water and relief. Because the variety of attributes, multiple possible alternatives and competing objectives to be consider was applied a decision support system (D.S.S.) technical named analytic hierachy process (AHP) which divides a complex problem in simpler ones in the form of a decision hierarchy. The use of AHP reaches the numerical suitability index (SI), of the areas to the installation of a sanitary landfill and becomes possible to hierarchy these areas. This methodology was applied in an area located in the Araraquara region, São Paulo state, limited by the parallels 21º45\' and 22º15\' south and meridians 48º00\' and 48º15\' West gr. The use of the suitability index (SI) permitted the zoning and ranking of the sub-areas and their classification in favorable, moderate, severe and restrictive to the installation of a sanitary landfill. The methodology to compare the 14 attributes in a numerical way by the use of the making decision technique applied to the AHP. By this way had the advantage of less subjectivity of the process of area selection and to weigh inter-dependents attributes, addressed to the objective of to select sites to the sanitary landfill.

Research Questions: How does influencer marketing affect online purchase intent?  How do social media influencers’ trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness affect online purchase intent?   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between online purchase intent and social media influencers, as well as how their attributes affect this relationship.  Method: This empirical study consists of a quantitative online survey with 476 respondents. Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that social media influencers have a positive impact on online purchase intent. Furthermore, the collected data could confirm that trustworthiness has a clear impact on online purchase intent, while expertise and attractiveness showed no significant impact.

E-Commerce research shows that existing studies on online consumer choice behavior has focused on comparative studies of channel or store choice (online or offline), or online store choice (different e-tailers). Relatively less effort has been devoted to consumers’ online brand choice behavior within a single e-tailer. The goal of this research is to model online brand choice, including generating loyalty variables, setting up base model, and exploring the effects of Internet-specific attributes, i.e., order delivery, webpage display and order confirmation, on online brand choice at the SKU level. Specifically, this research adopts the Multinomial Logit Model (MNL) as the estimation methods. To minimize the model bias, the refined smoothing constants for loyalty variables (brand loyalty, size loyalty, and SKU loyalty) are generated using the Nonlinear Estimation Algorithm (NEA). The findings suggest that SKU loyalty is a better predictor of online brand choice than brand loyalty and size loyalty. While webpage display has little effect on the brand choice, order delivery has positive effect on the choice. Online order confirmation turns out to be helpful in choice estimation. Moreover, online consumers are not sensitive to net price of the alternatives, but quite sensitive to price promotion. These results have meaningful implications for marketing promotions in the online environment and suggestions for future research.

Background: Developing and maintaining software is resource expensive. Therefore many organizations and practitioners use Open Source Software(OSS) in commercial development to minimize resource expense. But, adopting OSS mandates the organizations and practitioners to assess and monitor the OSS for updates from the community. Previous literature proposes many assessment frameworks. Many are non-automated and use complex attributes that require a steep learning curve for practitioners to understand. The OSS assessments and monitoring choke the agility of the team and delay their time to market. Practitioners need automated quick assessments with easy-to-understand attributes to assist them during OSS adoption. After adoption, monitoring and upgrading OSS can be challenging. Therefore, organizations need automatic OSS monitoring and upgrading solutions capable of checking community updates for the OSS and upgrade the internally hosted OSS if the update is compliant automatically. Objectives: The objective of our thesis is to automate OSS assessments and monitoring using OSS assessment attributes that are easily understood by the practitioners. Methods: We performed a design science research at City Network to understand OSS assessments and monitoring in organizations and identified the attributes used by the practitioners. Additionally, we identified the attributes from the previous literature that were relevant for practitioners. Following the identification, we constructed an automated solution for OSS assessments and monitoring that was accepted by City Network. To evaluate the generalizability of our automated solution, we conducted interviews with practitioners outside City Network. Results: Our automated solution was praised for its ease of use and easy-to-understand attributes. Practitioners wanted their customizations on our automated solution with additional features and attributes to fully automate their OSS assessments. But our OSS monitoring and upgrading solution was criticized for lack of rigor in assessing an update. But, its program flow and usage at scale were appreciated by practitioners. Conclusions: Our automated solution was effective in automated assessing OSS before adoption. But, it was not capable of automating OSS monitoring and upgrading. With that said, the problem of OSS assessments and monitoring is relevant for many organizations and practitioners. Therefore, such research is essential to improve and streamline OSS adoption for organizations and practitioners. Additionally, it is worthwhile to research more OSS attributes that are relevant and easy to understand for the practitioners.

This master´s thesis deals with the description of control selection methods with emphasis on sampling procedures for inspection by attributes in the theoretical part. In the practicel part, the input control system in the plant Siemens motors Frenstat is analyzed. The outcome of the thesis is the direction of the input control created in accordance with the requirements of the management of the organization and based on ISO 2859 standards.