A multicriteria approach to assess the ranking performance of Portuguese companies is utilized. In the process, the research methodology which utilizes ELECTRE III. a fuzzy set theory based procedure, and the SFR Software is illustrated using a conceptual research framework. The results derived from the application presented in this study, are used to propose a set of economical and financial benchmarks indicators to guide Portuguese managers in pursuing a strategy of excellence.

The pricing of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) is an area of interest to practitioners and academics alike given the empirical regularity of investors in IPOs making very large first day returns. These first day returns are as a result of share underpricing. Academics have explained the underpricing phenomenon in terms of ex ante uncertainty, namely the risk of pricing, off take and issuing of such shares. In an attempt to predict the degree of the phenomenon much work has been done in linking underpricing to company, issue and market related factors that are known prior to the listing (ex ante as opposed to ex post information). In the case of junior mining companies, underpricing is exacerbated by a lack of financial information making these issues difficult to value since such unseasoned companies have no past earnings history on which to base predictions of future earnings. Given this context, this study identified relevant factors from secondary sources which could be used to proxy the level of ex ante uncertainty and therefore correlate with the degree of underpricing. The analysis firstly sought to ensure that underpricing exists for the issues, market and time period of interest. Secondly the presence of a “hot issue” period (Ritter, 1984), which is exclusive to the natural resources sector, was investigated. Finally the relationship between underpricing and the relevant factors was explored using hypothesis testing about means and regression analysis. It was found that underpricing does indeed exist for junior mining listings on the Toronto Venture Exchange (TSX-V) between 2005-2007. This said no evidence of the “hot issue” period could be found. In terms of linking company, issue and market related factors to the degree of underpricing this study failed to identify any significant predictors. It is argued that junior mining listings on the TSX-V may be a special case since some of these factors have successfully been used, by other researchers, to predict the degree of underpricing of mining IPOs. The fact that junior mining IPO’s listed on the TSX-V show a constant degree of underpricing over time implies that investors do not build market specific factors (market sentiment and commodity price) into the listing price. Rather investors seem to demand a constant degree of underpricing regardless of the market situation to compensate them for the “unknown” exploration risk. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Machine Learning (ML) has become a hot topic in recent years because of its potential benefits for many companies. Especially some big companies such as Amazon, Google and Microsoft have shown several successful cases on integrating AI capability in their own businesses. Although the interest in machine learning is rapidly increasing in almost all the business sectors, there is still a lack of knowledge of how to apply ML in small companies. Different from the big companies, smaller companies usually do not have massive resources such as the capital investment, infrastructures and expertise in machine learning. The lack of resources does not only make it difficult to adopt machine learning in small companies, but also makes the existing solutions from big companies difficult to be applied in the more general business environments. This thesis aims to help small companies to adopt machine learning by integrating the machine learning activities in their existing agile software development processes. Thus the companies can reuse most of their existing resources and let the developers apply machine learning by following the proposed model. Throughout the work, a literature review, a survey and an interview were conducted to find the challenges for small companies regarding adopting machine learning. The identified major challenges include affording to hire the right talents working with machine learning, the sufficient amount of data at their disposals, the general knowledge regarding the Machine Learning Process (MLP) and what can/cannot be done with machine learning. These challenges were identified as requirements for the proposed model to make machine learning more accessible to small companies.The proposed model called Machine Learning for All (ML4A), is divided into two major sections for the investigated challenges. The first section is a Machine Learning Usage Model to give a guideline to the non-experts for a better view of what can be accomplished with machine learning techniques. This should be used before starting a project related to machine learning. To implement the project, a process model called Agile Machine Learning (AML) is proposed in the second section. AML is a proposition of how machine learning can be integrated into an agile software engineering process, which also fits the requirements for small companies. A case study was conducted at a small Swedish company called SportAdmin to validate ML4A. The results showed the effectiveness of the proposed model by letting non-experts in machine learning to apply machine learning techniques in a small company.

Magister Pharmaceuticae - MPharm / Regulatory Affairs (RA), within the pharmaceutical business, could be a profession that covers different registration parameters of a pharmaceutical product. This is a profession that was developed to protect the public by providing smart, quality, safe and efficacious pharmaceutical products. However, it is not clear if the personnel possess the fundamental education and training required to perform the roles and responsibilities in this profession. The study aimed to explore the educational training and role of RA associates/officers in pharmaceutical corporations in Gauteng, South Africa. The study was a cross-sectional survey, which utilized Google forms with both open and closed-ended questions. Using descriptive statistics, it was found that the majority of the participants (78.3%) (RA assistants, officers, and scientists) indicated that the knowledge for most of the responsibilities they carry out was acquired through informal training (i.e., learning on the job).

Russia today presents potentially lucrative business opportunities and markets for any company interested in expanding internationally. Together with the opportunities and potential profits, however, Russia also presents formidable challenges and risks to any Western or American company considering doing business there. The purposes of this thesis are: to explain how Russia's unique and tortured history has impacted the business culture of modern Russia; to describe the primary business risks that any Western company entering Russia will face; and to offer recommendations to any Western company considering doing business there.

Globally, the implementation of succession planning in the construction industry is not developing. Literature indicates that, while construction companies understand succession planning, their lack of implementation directly affects employee retention. This research employed a qualitative research design to investigate the extent to which certain South African construction companies implement succession planning. Data were collected from six human resource executives serving across six South African construction companies. Overall, the results confirmed a lack of succession planning implementation at the respective companies. This study found that the HR executives understand the concept of succession planning even though it is not formalised. Furthermore, leadership buy-in was found to be lacking, which was negatively impacting the succession planning implementation. Certain specific factors were also discovered to be contributing to the hindering of the succession planning implementation. These factors include lack of retention strategy, lack of career discussion, lack of skills development, and lack of available positions. Suggestions and recommendations in light of these findings are provided.

Frågor kopplade till ekologisk hållbarhet i företagssammanhang (både i forskning och inom företagsvärlden) har historiskt inte haft speciellt mycket gemensamt med forskning om ekosystem och miljöprocesser. Styrning av affärsverksamhet för att uppnå ekologisk hållbarhet är typiskt fokuserad på linjära företags eller industri-specifika miljöproblem. Forskningen om ekosystem och miljöprocesser har antagit ett holistiskt perspektiv på miljöproblemen vilket erkänner icke-linjära karaktärsdrag i ekosystemens svar på mänsklighetens avtryck i form av miljöförstörande aktiviteter. Denna studie försöker bringa dessa två skilda tillvägagångsätt tillsammans genom att applicera ett holistiskt perspektiv på ekologisk hållbarhet i företagssammanhang. Detta testas genom att undersöka om hur den konceptuella modellen ’planetära gränser’ kan användas i företag för att stödja företagens arbete med ekologisk hållbarhet. Genom tre analytiska och åtta relaterade empiriska frågeställningar söker denna studie svaret på frågan ifall ramverket ’planetära gränser’ är ett lämpligt verktyg för att förbättra företags prestationer inom ekologisk hållbarhet. En fallstudie på företaget ’Sandvik Materials Technology’ som inkluderar intervjuer med nyckelpersoner och en analys av deras verksamhet och processer utifrån perspektivet ’planetära gränser’, samt en strukturerad litteraturstudie har genomförts för att svara på verktygets lämplighet för applicering i företagsverksamhet. Från litteraturstudien konstateras att föreslagna metoder för implementering på andra nivåer än den globala typiskt inkluderar en kombination av ramverket ’planetära gränser’ med ett annat verktyg. Totalt fann litteraturstudien nio föreslagna kombinationer varav tre var testade i fallstudieformat på regional och nationell nivå. Sex kombinationer inkluderar metoder för att skala ner planetära gränser till andra nivåer än den globala. Implementering av ramverket i företagssammanhang kan enligt den studerade litteraturen assistera företag i deras prestationer inom ekologisk hållbarhet genom att användas för prioritering bland miljöproblem. Vidare har ramverket beskrivits som ett starkt utvärderingsverktyg för externa intressenter.  Intervjuerna visade en skepticism mot verktygets möjligheter att förbättra Sandvik Materials Technologys prestationer på (ekologisk) hållbarhetsområdet. Intervjupersonerna tyckte förvisso att det var viktigt att luta sig mot vetenskapen för att ta fram miljömål, men inte bara. Miljömål på företag måste också ta hänsyn till kostnadseffektivitet och/eller affärsmöjligheter. Sandvik Materials Technology´s verksamhet och processer lämpar sig dock väl för en analys utifrån perspektivet ’planetära gränser’ då kopplingar kunde fastställas för alla gränser. Jämfört med företagets nuvarande miljö och klimatstrategi visade analysen utifrån ’planetära gränser’ på några fler möjliga fokusområden (t.ex. biologisk mångfald och påverkan på biokemiska flöden) medans andra förblev desamma (klimatförändringar och vattenanvändning). Det nuvarande huvudfokusområdet, resursanvändning inkluderas dock inte på ngt annat sätt än möjligtvis indirekt. En fullskalig kvantitativ implementering av ramverket ’planetära gränser’ kräver på grund av avsaknaden av robusta metoder starkt engagemang där det ska genomföras. Detta engagemang bedöms saknas på Sandvik Materials Technology, därför konstateras att verktyget ensamt idag inte är moget för implementering på detta företag. / The question investigated in this study is whether the framework ‘planetary boundaries’ can be a suitable tool for improving sustainability performance at companies or not. It does so by investigating three analytical and eight related empirical questions. The methods in this study include; a structural literature review, qualitative interviews with key players at the focal company Sandvik Materials Technology and a qualitative analysis of the steel industry and Sandvik Materials Technology’s relationship to planetary boundaries. From the literature study, it was concluded that as for now, methods for applying the planetary boundary framework lack in maturity. It does not follow from this that there is no scientific relevance in developing methods for application, but more research is needed to confirm a methodological framework for application which is suitable for companies. The interviews revealed a skeptical attitude towards the framework´s ability to improve Sandvik Materials Technology´s sustainability performance. To derive environmental targets from science was viewed as a necessity, however environmental targets in companies must take other aspects (e.g. cost-effectiveness and business opportunity) into account as well.   The qualitative Planetary Boundaries analysis showed that the activities and processes at Sandvik Materials Technology is well suited for an environmental assessment based on a planetary boundaries perspective. Some focus areas remained the same as in their current environmental strategy (e.g. climate change and fresh water abstraction) but others (biosphere integrity and biochemical flows) appeared as new possible focus areas. Sandvik Materials Technology´s main focus, resource use, were however excluded from an environmental assessment based on a planetary boundaries perspective. Due to the lack of mature methods, an implementation of the framework at a company requires a strong commitment at the company. The researcher concludes that such level of commitment is lacking at Sandvik Materials Technology. Therefore, this study reaches the conclusion that the planetary boundary framework is, at least for now, not alone a suitable tool for improving sustainability performance at the focal company Sandvik Materials Technology.

No description available.

One key to CSR’s success has been its fuzzy definition, whereby its meaning is constantly (re)defined by practice and through the dialectical relationship between companies and their stakeholders. This thesis focuses upon the influence of MNOCs’ socio-political field upon their CSR (rather than upon specific CSR projects), from a critical realist perspective, contributing to existing research in three key ways. Firstly, I present original explanatory models that outline the practice of CSR in Colombia and Venezuela. From these models, I develop further models that categorise the types of CSR practiced in each country. I argue that Colombia follows a conventional model of private-led CSR; by contrast, the Venezuelan model pushes the boundaries of more traditional CSR definitions. Given the government’s dirigiste approach, I categorise the Venezuelan model as an example of a new form of CSR, that I call Regulated CSR (RCSR), noting the inherent contradictions of regulating to increase responsibility. Secondly, I produce original research on MNOCs’ CSR reports, examining how MNOCs’ agency is affected by global socio-political discourses. Paradoxically, whilst CSR is an important element of corporate communication, many MNOCs only disclose limited CSR-related information. Thirdly, this thesis contributes to the growing discussion of CSR’s role within the neoliberal paradigm. I argue that CSR is not and cannot be a panacea for social absences and can have negative social effects. Therefore, appropriate regulation is necessary, starting with greater corporate transparency at an international level to level-up MNOCs’ practices, and national oversight of MNOCs’ CSR budgets and practices.

With the progress and expansion of civilization, companies are interested in distributing their products and goods in distributed areas on a daily basis. These daily tasks are considered to ensure that the products reach the largest possible number of people to keep pace with accommodating the expansion and population. However, these daily duties demand a lot of effort and are financially burdened on both drivers and companies as well. Besides that, daily transportation might cause traffic congestion as well as being negative on the environment with harmful emissions coming from heavy-duty trucks. With overcrowding, companies may face delays in the arrival of their products to their customers, which is a point that may reflect negatively on the company's reputation in the business. One of the proposed solutions for companies to deal with these problems is to create a platoon of trucks during their transportation between the pickup stations and the drop-off stations. The literature review demonstrates that there are written benefits for the truck platoons, however, there is a lack of showing these benefits in the reality. The platoon simulation was built in this thesis to present the results numerically so that they could be contrasted with scenarios where the platoon was not used for freight transportation. This thesis focused on the benefits of a platoon from three aspects: the aspect of saving time, reducing cost by reducing fuel usage, and finally increasing safety in public driving on highways. The results of using the simulations showed that the time was using to deliver the goods by using truck platoons was shorter than the time by using individual trucks. Additionally, traffic congestion was less when the trucks were driven on single-lane on highways, which causes reduced the number of accidents especially, those that occurred with small cars. They compiled accident data between 2007 and 2017, coming to the conclusion that 98,790 crashes involving large trucks were among the 243,017 total crashes. In the same survey, the authors found that 9.4% of truck accidents occurred when changing lanes with small cars on highways. This thesis demonstrated numerically that there was less fuel usage while the trucks were driven in a platoon compared with the fuel usage of the trucks that were driven individually. In a word, transportation companies will gain benefits from using truck platoons to deliver their goods to their customers.