This thesis uses case study, focus on four manufacturers in copper industry. Base on Porter¡¦s generic strategies ¡V Over all cost leadership, Focus, Differentiation, with diversification and joint venture, all together five competitive strategies as the foundations of investigate structure. And I have made the matrix chart and a survey base on the five administrative functions. I observe individually for four copper manufacturers¡¦ competitive strategies, which are approved by customers, to find out if each of them has had effect in the market. Finally, I use Michael E. Porter¡¦s competitive advantage to test the industry environment, mean while forecasting the coming 3-5 years of First Copper Technology Co., Ltd. base on the theories of SWOT and PEST as the following: 1. Having joint venture with copper manufacturers in Mainland China or East Europe to get products to compete with local manufacturers, and no longer produce low attach value products. 2. Combine Japanese or Korea wholesalers or set up a trading company to sell high attach value product in local areas in Japan and Korea. 3. Total output needs to be maintained by lowering the cost, but the products should be developed in high attach value categories like lead frame and other high level alloy products, to get alone with new developments.

For the past years more and more well-managed middle-size enterprises in Taiwan have tried to be more competitive and become multination-base enterprises through diversification. A lot of research indicates that the diversification can result in unique competitive advantages. However it also indicates that the degree of diversification is no more one of the important indexes of business performance. This study was conducted to investigate how to integrate resources within a diversified enterprise to create the management synergies and channel them back to subsidiaries for more growth. Based on various theories regarding resource-base view, diversification, resource building and resource leverage, this study empirically documented that the resource integration among subsidiaries is positively related to the existence of business groups and their growth within a mature industry. The results of this study indicate that: 1. Business profits can be generated through resource-integration strategy even during the period of a macro-economic recession. 2. Either related diversification and unrelated diversification could be achieved when enterprises are able to effectively use related techniques and resources. 3. The diversified enterprises can exploit resources to create new management synergy through resource building, resource leverage and resource integration. 4. Whether resource integration can be achieved hinges heavily on the subsidiaries willingness to cooperate. Key Words: Resource-Based View Theory, Diversification, Resource Leverage, Resource Building, Resource-Integration, And Business Performance

Abstract Because of the motorbike market¡¦s atrophy in Taiwan from 1997,domestic motorbike companies must face it and change their strategies. This is a kind of unavoidable trend. Some of them developed new oversea markets, such as Europe, America, Japan etc. Some of them choose another different way, such as diversification. When these companies devote themselves to some kind of new domains, there are some serious questions which need to think about, such as ¡§What is the new model of development? ¡¨, ¡§What kind of business should we devote to? ¡¨,¡§Should we devote to related business or unrelated business? ¡¨, ¡§What is the related strategies? ¡¨, etc. This research will focus on the processes of strategy development. In other words, we will concern some agendas. Just as: ¡§Which business should we choose when our company devote ourselves to related business? ¡¨, ¡§Why do you determine it? ¡¨, ¡§How do you develop its strategy? ¡¨, etc. The research also strongly suggests that a series of effective strategies almost are based on the core competitiveness of enterprise. Because of the difference among different businesses, companies also have to develop its own unique strategies. This thesis will get a motorbike company, ¡§KYMCO ¡¨motor company, as a research target. We will explore further these questions.

The relationships between supply chain management and its corresponding¡@variables are the focus in this research. Furthermore, this study tries to explore the¡@interaction between supply chain management and those corresponding variables on¡@both the effectiveness of supply chain and whole organization. The main variables¡@employed at this study include, supply chain strategy, supply chain ability, competitive strategy, and product diversification. Through mail to collect data, the companies with related diversification are the goals to deliver questionnaires. The results that the more a company emphasizes competitive strategies than his competitors, the better his operating performance is. However, supply chain strategy, supply chain ability, and the degree of product diversification do not have significant effect on a company¡¦s operating performance.

<p>Sammanfattning Introduktion: Sverige har en lång tradition av olika pensions system, så tidigt som 1914 blev det första sy-stemet implementerat. Systemet har blivit förändrat åtskilliga gånger och 1998 infördes Premie Pensions (PPM) systemet. PPM är en blandning av ett distributionsbaserat system och ett fondbaserat system. 16 procent av en individs inkomst är bundet till det distribu-tionsbaserade systemet för att kunna finansiera dagens pensioner. 2,5 procent av en indi-vids inkomst är låst till det fondbaserade systemet och kan investeras av individen i olika fonder. PPM systemet har blivit utsatt för mycket kritik eftersom tidigare studier påvisat att flertalet svenskar inte gör aktiva fondval samt att de har otillräcklig kunskap. Diversifiering förklaras bäst genom talesättet; att inte placera alla ägg i samma korg. Diver-sifiering är ett mått på hur väl en investerare lyckats sprida risken i sin portfölj genom att fördela tillgångarna i olika sorters värdepapper. Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera huruvida svenskens pensionsportfölj inom PPM är diversifierad. Detta syfte valdes för att ingen tidigare studie med ett likadant syfte genomförts samt där-för att risken med att inneha en dåligt diversifierad portfölj kan vara stor. Metodval: En kvantitativ ansats har använts i denna uppsats då syftet med den är att dra slutsatser ba-serat på en stor urvalsgrupp. Andrahandsdata emottaget från PPM har uteslutande använts för att genomföra den empiriska studien. För att underlätta studien har en viss begränsning av information gjorts. I studien har ett urval av 100 individer samt 50 fonder använts. En avgränsning är att endast fonddata för de tre senaste åren använts. Trots dessa tillkorta-kommanden hävdar författarna att en hög validitet och reliabilitet har uppnåtts i uppsatsen. Slutsats: Efter att ha jämfört individernas portföljer mot efficient frontier, har åtskilliga resultat uppdagats som påvisar samma slutsats; att svenskens pensionsportfölj inom PPM är dåligt diversifie-rad. Handlingsplan för ansvariga: Att genomföra vidare studier med syfte att få mer kunskap om varför portföljerna är dåligt diversifierade samt implementera dessa resultat av studien i praktiken.</p> / <p>Introduction: Sweden has a long tradition of pension systems, as early as 1914 was the first system implemented. The system has been changed a number of times and in 1998 was the Premium pension authority (PPM) system introduced. PPM is a mixture of a distribution-based system and fund-based system. 16 per cent of an individual’s income is devoted to the distribution-based system for financing today’s pensions. 2.5 per cent of an individual’s income is looked in the fund-based system and can be invested by the individual in different funds. The PPM system has been a target for much criticism since earlier studies has shown that the Swedes do not make an active choice nor have the demanded knowledge. Diversification is best explained through the saying; not to place all your eggs in the same basket. Diversification is a measure of how well an investor has succeeded to spread the risk of the portfolio by allocating assets in different securities. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study whether the Swedish inhabitant’s pension portfolios within the PPM system are diversified. This purpose has been chosen because no studies have been made with an identical aim and also that the risk with holding a poorly diversified portfolio is grave. Methodology: A quantitative approach has been chosen since the aim of the thesis is to draw conclusions based on large sample numbers. Solitary secondary data, received from PPM, has been used to conduct the empirical study. To simplify the study limitations of information have been made; in the study samples of 100 individuals and 50 funds have been used. A Delimitation of the study is that only fund data for the last three years has been used. Despite the scarcities of the thesis the authors claim that the thesis has high validity and reliability. Conclusions: When benchmarking the individual portfolios against the efficient frontier a number of results were revealed and they all ended up in the same conclusion that the Swede’s pension portfolio within the PPM system is insufficient diversified. Implication for management of the PPM system To conduct further studies with the aim to get knowledge; why the investments are poorly diversified and find ways to transform the suggestions of the study into practice.</p>

<p>This thesis has the intention to investigate the risk situation for small investors in the domestic residential property market in Sweden, and discuss some alternatives for reducing that risk. Focus will be on risk reduction by diversification.</p><p>Residential property is considered to be a rather safe investment for the long term investor. The return is determined by the change of value for the property (capital growth), and the direct return through net rental income. When investments in residential property are compared with other types of investments, they have high returns compared to their stan-dard deviation. Diversification gains are described in the frame of the Capital Assets Pricing Model (CAPM).</p><p>The CAPM shows that portfolios based on residential property can reduce their risk and maintain the same level of returns through diversification. To get the best effect out of this diversification this should be done with assets that are least correlated with residential property. This thesis has tested with other residential property, other real estate and equities/bonds. Of which equities/bonds gave the best results. An optimal portfolio based on historical data from 1984 – 2003 suggests a portfolio with 40 -60 % residential property, 30 – 60 % bonds and 0 – 10 % equities. This is with a risk free rate between 3 – 11 %. The debt ratio for this portfolio is determined by the investor’s risk-aversity and utility function.</p><p>The positive effects from diversification have to be compared to the increased scale effect from investing in more residential property when chosing new investment items. Investors can get a good diversification performance even with a few stakes. The main point in this thesis is that investors with residential property can get positive effects from diversification and the effects from diversification increase the more different the investments are.</p>

<p>The thesis studies the impact of the financial support of the Environmental and Rural Devel-opment Programme of 2000-2006 on farm diversification and other activities in the rural areas of the Västra Götaland County for the period 2000-2005. Furthermore, it analyses if diver-sification within the firms has improved efficiency due to economies of scope.</p><p>The statistical data of this study is based on a telephone survey of a total population of 50 firms that have received financial support for diversification, within the County of Västra Götaland. The response rate of the telephone survey was 80 per cent of the total popula-tion. The statistical analysis is based on chi-square and logit models in combination with a descriptive analysis in order to test the hypothesis of the thesis. Therefore, the empirical analysis has both a quantitative and a qualitative character.</p><p>The result of the study shows that about 87.7 per cent of the surveyed firms have diversi-fied their economic activities during the years 2000-2005. Firms owned by women tend to have diversified to a larger extent compared to men. Further, women show a tendency to be more successful with a higher degree of diversification within the service sector com-pared to men. The enterprises within the production and refinement sectors have, on the other hand, a propensity to focus on traditional agricultural production despite the diversi-fication. A majority of the interviewed firms have received benefits from scope economies, which imply that the firms utilise joint production with shared inputs. The scope econo-mies existed among studied firms previous to the support and there are no significant changes in the economies of scope due to the financial support. Overall, the financial sup-port seems to have had a positive impact on the firms’ economic situation since none of the studied firms has experienced a decline in employment, turnover or income.</p>

<p>There are several authors Markowitz (1991), Elton and Gruber (1997) that discuss the main issues that an investor faces when investing, for example how to allocate resources among the variety of different securities. These issues have led to the discussion of portfolio theories, especially the Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), which is developed by Nobel Prize awarded economist Harry Markowitz. This theory is the philosophical opposite of tradi-tional asset picking.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate if an investor can apply MPT in order to achieve a higher return than investing in an index portfolio. Combining a strong portfolio that beats the market in the longrun would be the ultimate goal for most investors.</p><p>The theories that are used to analyze the problem and the empirical findings provide the essential concepts such as standard deviation, risk and return of the portfolio. Further, diversification, correlation and covariance are used to achieve the optimal risky portfolio. There will be a walk-through of the MPT, with the efficient frontier as the graphical guide to express the optimal risky portfolio.</p><p>The methodology constitutes as the frame for the thesis. The quantitative method is used since the data input is gathered from historical data. This thesis is based on existing theories, and the deductive approach aims to use these theories in order to accomplish a valid and accurate analysis. The benchmark that is used to compare the results from the portfolio is the Stockholm stock exchange OMX 30. This index mimics and reflects the market as a whole. The portfolio will be reweighed at a preplanned schedule, each quarter to constantly obtain an optimal risky portfolio.</p><p>The finding from this study indicates that the actively managed portfolio outperforms the passive benchmark during the selected timeframe. The outcome someway differs when evaluating the risk adjusted result and becomes less significant. The risk adjusted result does not provide any strong evidence for a greater return than index. Finally, with this finding, the authors can conclude by stating that an actively managed optimal risky portfolio with guidance of the MPT can surpass the OMX 30 within the selected timeframe.</p>

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The socioeconomic context of many biodiversity rich countries is argued to be heavily dwarfed in current conservation and development debate, resulting in that projects that intersect complex issues of development and conservation are often simplistically deemed as being unsuccessful. The aim of this research has therefore been to attain a more profound understanding of how socioeconomic conditions and local neoliberal contexts effect ICDP projects and to an extent also agroecological transition. In this case study ten qualitative life-story interviews were carried out during a minor field study in rural Las Pavas, Nicaragua. These were further analyzed through the use of the sustainable livelihood approach in order to identify what impacts the local socioeconomic contexts had on participant livelihoods and also what prospects and challenges C.I.P.P’s permaculture project presented in this regard. The empirical evidence shows that participant livelihoods were subjected to several constraints that were buttressed by the neoliberal development context which signified a great reliance on cattle raising as main financial activity at the expense of other important natural assets such as forest and water. Furthermore, demonstrating that permaculture projects had to provide the widest range of benefits with the least amount of risk in order to be adopted.