Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This study seek to investigate whether the optimal entrance fees for Zambia’s national parks with particular focus on the four most popular parks namely South Luangwa, Mosi-oa-tunya, Lower Zambia, and Kafue are optimal. This study collects data from tourists which it then uses to estimate the parks visitation demand functions, the price and income elasticities. Using price elasticity estimates, optimal conservation fees are estimated. The study employs the contingent behaviour approach to elicit park visitors’ behaviour in response to changes in entrance fees. This is done for both actual and hypothetical scenarios. The study reveals that demand elasticities estimated at the four parks are fairly different, demonstrating the heterogeneity characterizing both tourist behavior and park attraction and amenities. The cross price elasticity that was estimated showed that substitutability in visitation demand existed in all the four parks. This entails that increasing price at one park can effectively influence tourists to move from that park to another.

Published Article / Any economy is based on the production and consumption of material or immaterial goods. Development is the process that creates a concise concept of a product. To develop good products within a given frame of time and resources is one of the most challenging and most important tasks within an economy. We state the common features within development project management for several different kinds of products. Most general issues are the model transformation and decision making process at phase transitions.

The study is centered on the current ineffectiveness of career development planning within MTN SA.

The study is centered on the current ineffectiveness of career development planning within MTN SA.

The purpose of this quasi-experimental mixed-method study was to examine the impact of transformational ethics instruction methodologies on student moral judgment in a leadership development course. Quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses were used to examine changes in moral judgment and moral thought processes, with particular emphasis on how those constructs influence leadership decisions. Eighty-eight students from the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University comprised the sample of this study. Over the course of the spring 2007 semester, these students received systematic ethics instruction in the context of a leadership development course. Treatment group participants received this instruction through largely transformational education strategies, while control group participants primarily received the instruction via traditional/ transactional methods. Over the course of the semester, participants completed pretest and posttest administrations of the Defining Issues Test, Version 2 (DIT2). Additional follow-up interviews were conducted with eight students, representing the treatment and control groups. Results indicated that transformational instructional methodology is a significant determinant regarding increases in student moral judgment. In contrast, students exposed to traditional/ transactional instructional methods did not demonstrate significant changes in moral judgment scores. Augmentative qualitative analyses identified three distinguishing themes that appear to be representative of shifts in moral or leadership perspectives: (1) deep personal application of moral concepts, (2) exposure to significant emotional events (or disorienting dilemmas), and (3) desire for personal change. Implications for ethics and leadership educators are presented, along with areas for future research.

This research builds on three projects that aim to investigate how knowledge transfer takes place in new product development in the automotive industry. The study seeks to picture how product development teams frame and shape new product knowledge, how they interpret such knowledge, and how they apply knowledge to the product development process. From that perspective, product development activities can be seen as transactions that are integrated into an overall system of identifying, assessing, collecting and combining knowledge. Results of my research so far reveal that there are many factors that affect the successful management of knowledge transfer in new product development projects. Based on my first two projects, using the case study approach, it is evident that for successful knowledge transfer to occur, there is a need to distinguish between design knowledge that is embedded in the tacit knowledge domain and that embedded in the or explicit design knowledge domain. The results of project three, using a survey questionnaire approach, provide a powerful demonstration, that knowledge integration, combination and creation in product development need intensive interaction and collaboration. The enormous importance of interaction and collaboration to integrate and combine knowledge has its origin in the nature of design knowledge. For example engineers produced in the survey a 82 % rate of agreement with the statement that they use mainly knowledge that comes from their past work experience as product developers, in order to solve complex design tasks. The underlying assumption of this finding is, that engineers are therefore mostly forced to transfer tacit design knowledge to solve complex design tasks. The research showed that a remarkable under-performance exists in knowledge identification and knowledge articulation in new product development in the automotive industry. In vehicle development, non-routine tasks are highly complex. This requires team members to have an understanding of the complete product system architecture. To create such an understanding, engineers need to identify and articulate knowledge. These activities can be seen as a pre-knowledge creation. The result is a shared product knowledge base, which makes it possible for people engaged in the vehicle development process to use different kinds of knowledge to capture and link new technologies into innovative products. This may require a cultural shift by vehicle manufacturers in terms of how they steer and allocate resources to future vehicle development programmes. Building on four years engagement with knowledge transfer research, I conclude that organisations in the automotive sector still rely on methods and processes that were successful in the past and strictly directed at exploiting tangible assets. To integrate preknowledge creation, as a new found discipline in product development projects creates an enormous potential to integrate and combine knowledge in an efficient way for future product development projects.

The purpose of this quasi-experimental mixed-method study was to examine the impact of transformational ethics instruction methodologies on student moral judgment in a leadership development course. Quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses were used to examine changes in moral judgment and moral thought processes, with particular emphasis on how those constructs influence leadership decisions. Eighty-eight students from the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University comprised the sample of this study. Over the course of the spring 2007 semester, these students received systematic ethics instruction in the context of a leadership development course. Treatment group participants received this instruction through largely transformational education strategies, while control group participants primarily received the instruction via traditional/ transactional methods. Over the course of the semester, participants completed pretest and posttest administrations of the Defining Issues Test, Version 2 (DIT2). Additional follow-up interviews were conducted with eight students, representing the treatment and control groups. Results indicated that transformational instructional methodology is a significant determinant regarding increases in student moral judgment. In contrast, students exposed to traditional/ transactional instructional methods did not demonstrate significant changes in moral judgment scores. Augmentative qualitative analyses identified three distinguishing themes that appear to be representative of shifts in moral or leadership perspectives: (1) deep personal application of moral concepts, (2) exposure to significant emotional events (or disorienting dilemmas), and (3) desire for personal change. Implications for ethics and leadership educators are presented, along with areas for future research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 159-170). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83). Electronic version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [70-78]).