La croissance d'une entreprise est un processus complexe à analyser. Depuis quelques décennies, la recherche se focalise sur la détection des facteurs influençant la croissance et la performance de l'entreprise. L'objectif poursuivi est d'une part d'affiner la prédiction de réussite ou d'échec des entreprises et, d'autre part, dans une approche plus proactive, de contrôler et d'agir sur ces facteurs pour améliorer la performance de l'entreprise et pour limiter le risque de faillite. Les critères objectifs sont souvent utilisés et considérés comme les seuls facteurs déterminants du devenir des entreprises [Cooper et al., 1994]. Il existe cependant une variance dans les trajectoires de croissance à l'intérieur d'un groupe d'entreprises ayant des caractéristiques « objectives » similaires [Delmar et al., 2000]. L' explication de la diversité des trajectoires de croissance doit donc tenir compte d'autres facteurs, plus subjectifs, ayant trait à la psychologie des dirigeants. Dans ce sens, de nombreux travaux issus de la psychologie montrent que le comportement de l'individu est loin d'être homogène et est régi par différentes variables telles que la motivation. Cette thèse s'inscrit dans une démarche visant à mieux expliquer la croissance des entreprises. Elle s'inscrit dans la lignée des travaux traditionnels qui cherchent à déterminer les facteurs stimulants et inhibants à la croissance des entreprises. Elle se démarque cependant des travaux antérieurs en mettant en évidence l'impact d'un facteur clé de la personnalité des dirigeants, à savoir la motivation. L'objectif de cette thèse est donc de montrer que la motivation des dirigeants est un vecteur incontournable de la croissance des entreprises. Pour répondre à cette problématique, nous nous sommes intéressés à trois stades fondamentaux de la vie d'une entreprise, c'est-à-dire sa création, son développement et enfin sa possible défaillance. Le premier chapitre est consacré à l'étude de l'impact du type motivationnel de l'entrepreneur naissant sur la probabilité de création de l'entreprise. Quatre types de motivations chez les entrepreneurs naissants sont détectés : le succès financier, l'indépendance, la reconnaissance/développement de soi et autrui. Une approche explicative est mise en place pour tester l'effet direct et l'effet indirect du type de motivation des entrepreneurs naissants (médiation par l'effort) sur la probabilité de création de l'entreprise. Les résultats montrent que le type de motivation affecte de manière différenciée l'issue du processus de création. Dans le deuxième chapitre, un modèle est proposé sur le choix de financement avec lequel l'entreprise se développera. L'entrepreneur a la possibilité de choisir un financement par dette bancaire ou par capital-risque. Ce choix est conditionné, entre autres, par son type de motivation. L'entrepreneur doit faire un arbitrage entre la conservation des droits de contrôle et les cash-flows, autrement dit entre le fait de préserver son indépendance et le fait de privilégier ses gains monétaires. Ainsi, un entrepreneur motivé par l'indépendance privilégie la dette bancaire. Le choix de financement d'un entrepreneur motivé par le succès financier est plus complexe et dépend de ses compétences managériales. Il opte pour la dette bancaire s'il dispose de fortes compétences managériales et il privilégie le financement par capital-risque si ses compétences managériales sont faibles. Une forte croissance non contrôlée peut amener à des conséquences néfastes pour l'entreprise, à savoir provoquer sa faillite. L'étude de la défaillance de l'entreprise est l'objet de notre troisième chapitre. Une typologie a été créée pour caractériser et classifier les entreprises selon leur trajectoire de croissance.... / The growth of business is a complex process to analyze. In recent decades, the research focuses on the identification of the determinants influencing the growth and performance of ventures. The objective is, on the one hand, to refine predictions of success or failure of ventures and, on the other hand, as a more proactive approach, to monitor and to affect the factors that improve the performance of the venture and limit the risk of bankruptcy. The objective criteria are often used and considered as the only determinants of the future of the venture [Cooper and al., 1994]. However, there is a variance in growth trajectories within groups of ventures which have the same "objective" characteristics [Delmar and al., 2000]. The explanation of the diversity of growth trajectories must take into account other factors, more subjective, relating to the psychology of entrepreneur. Many studies in the field of psychology show that the behavior of the individual is far from being homogeneous and is governed by variables such as motivation.This thesis aims to better explain the growth of ventures. It is in line with the traditional studies that seek to determine the factors stimulating and inhibiting the growth of ventures. However, it differs from previous works in highlighting the impact of a key feature of personality of entrepreneurs : the motivation. The objective of this thesis is to show that the motivation of entrepreneur is a major vector for growth of the venture. We are interested in three stages in the life of a venture : creation, development and potential failure.The first chapter is devoted to the study of the impact of a nascent entrepreneur's motivation on the probability of successful launch. Four types of nascent entrepreneur's motivation are detected : financial success, recognition/self-realization, roles and independence. An explanatory approach is implemented to test the direct effect as well as the indirect effect of nascent entrepreneur's motivation (mediation through effort) on the probability of successful launch. The results show that the type of motivation affects differentially the venture's creation process.In the second chapter, a theoretical model on the financing choices with which the venture will grow is proposed. The entrepreneur can choose between bank debt financing and venture capital financing. This choice is conditioned, among other things, by the type of motivation. The entrepreneur must make a trade-off between conservation control rights and cash-flows, i.e. between the fact to preserve his independence and the privileging his monetary gains. Thus, the entrepreneur who is motivated by independence prefers bank debt. The choice of financing for an entrepreneur motivated by success financial is more complex and depends on his managerial skills. He opts for bank debt if he has strong managerial skills and favors funding by venture capital if his managerial skills are week.A strong uncontrolled growth can lead to adverse consequences for the venture, i.e. cause bankruptcy. The study of business failure is the subject of our third chapter. A typology was created to characterize and classify ventures according to their growth trajectory. Then, inter and intra groups comparative and explanatory analyzes were conducted to better understand the determinants of failure. These results show that the hyper-growth is not necessarily an asset for a venture.

The core of this thesis comprises three previous published reports ‐ Profiling the Profession: a survey of archaeological jobs in the UK (Aitchison 1999), Archaeology Labour Market Intelligence: Profiling the Profession 200203 (Aitchison & Edwards 2003) and Archaeology Labour Market Intelligence: Profiling the Profession 200708 (Aitchison & Edwards 2008). These volumes are the only comprehensive reviews of the labour market within the archaeological sector in the UK, examining who works in all sectors of archaeology, what qualifications they hold, how they are rewarded and how they are trained. These three surveys have established a corpus of time-series datasets which demonstrate how archaeological practice and employment have evolved in the UK over the decade to 2008 and the onset of the global economic crisis in that year. The thesis contextualises these data‐rich reports with a historical and analytical account of how employment in archaeology grew from the late nineteenth century until 1990, and then examines the drivers of demand for services that lead to archaeological employment in the United Kingdom over the 20 years from 1990‐2010, and how this demand was met. Until 1990, archaeology was primarily a state‐provided or state‐sponsored activity. The sector's funding base transformed in the 1990s to become primarily reliant on private sector monies and the effects upon employment within the sector have been of the sectoral reaction to adopt an enterprise‐focussed model for delivery have been considerable. The number of people employed in archaeology grew very rapidly over this period (by approximately 4.5% per annum), with the expansion of applied, commercial archaeology representing the majority of this growth. These individuals are very highly academically qualified, but not very well rewarded financially. In order to fully explore the central issues, historical patterns and precedents are examined, focussing on particular strands of activity in detail, using case studies of organisations and particular archaeological projects.

This research examines the impact, if any, of the introduction of casemix funding on public hospitals in Victoria. The results reported here show that in Victoria, during the period under observation, rural hospitals showed a significantly greater preponderance, relative to metropolitan hospitals, to either amalgamate or close down. Since 1 July 1993 public hospitals in Victoria have been compared for efficiency in the delivery of their services. The casemix funding arrangements were installed, among other reasons, to improve efficiency in the delivery of hospital services. Duckett, 1999, p 107 states that under casemix funding 'The hospital therefore becomes more clearly accountable for variation in the efficiency of the services it provides'. Also, 'Generally, case-mix funding is seen as being able to yield efficiency improvements more rapidly than negotiated funding'. Hospital comparisons provide State bodies with information on how to allocate funding between hospitals by means of annual capped budgets. Budgets are capped because funding is restricted to a given number of patients that can be treated in any given year. Thus, casemix funding relies heavily on cost comparisons between hospitals, and the way that hospital output is measured relies on the use of diagnosis related groups (DRGs).

PhD / Access to justice is an important human right that ensures adequate redress for harm, and which consequently helps deter future wrongdoing. Without access to justice citizens are precluded from the full enjoyment of their economic and social entitlements. The cost of litigation is a significant impediment to access to justice. Although the courts have attempted to increase access to justice by broadening the range of available dispute resolution options and by improving productivity through the implementation of case flow management systems, the cost of prosecuting claims remains disproportionately high and unaffordable for most small to medium sized claimholders. Legal claim assignment to parties able to aggregate claims and to apply their expertise as litigation entrepreneurs to deal with claim prosecution efficiently is one means of redressing the imbalance between the cost of claim prosecution to individual claimholders compared to the value of their claims. However, the well-entrenched doctrines of maintenance and champerty prohibit legal claim assignment. The continued resort to the doctrines of maintenance and champerty despite a strong and independent modern judiciary reflects distaste for claim commodification. However, the advent of litigation funding and its acceptance by the High Court of Australia in Campbell’s Cash and Carry v Fostif Pty Ltd (and to some extent United Kingdom and United States courts) on access to justice grounds has challenged conventional maintenance and champerty dogma. Together with other measures such as the introduction of conditional fee agreements that shift the cost of funding access to justice from the public to the private purse, the resistance to full claim alienability has been significantly weakened. The thesis argues that full claim alienability is favoured on normative and efficiency grounds and examines developments in Australia, England and the United States, which portend toward claim commodification. In addition, the thesis examines regulatory instruments required to ensure that the present partial claim market and the potential full claim market operates fairly and efficiently. It also considers how claim commodification may affect the relationship between legal practitioners and claim holders. [Please note: For any information on access to the full text please conact the author.]

PHARMAC, the Pharmaceutical Management Agency, manages the Pharmaceutical Schedule on behalf of the Government. The Agency is tasked with securing the best health outcomes that are reasonably achievable from pharmaceutical treatment and from within the amount of funding provided (§ 47 NZPHD Act, 2000). The Agency reports that it continues to improve New Zealanders’ access to funded medicines. In determining which pharmaceuticals to fund, PHARMAC’s Operating Policies and Procedures (OPPs) state that nine criteria guide its decision- making. The OPPs further state that PHARMAC can apply whatever weight it sees fit to the application of these criteria. I undertook a thematic analysis of 20 cases referred by PHARMAC’s principal medical advisory body, the Pharmacology and Therapeutic Advisory Committee (PTAC), to PHARMAC during the period February 2004 to November 2006 to determine whether these criteria were acknowledged in the official minutes of the respective bodies. PTAC is similarly required to take account of the abiding decision criteria. I also sought to determine whether other factors were apparent in guiding the decisions. There was evidence that PHARMAC consistently applied the decision criteria. PTAC was less assiduous in recording its application. In addition, I found that PHARMAC takes account of factors outside the stated criteria. I noted that PHARMAC takes particular account of the degree to which a decision might be publicly, politically or medically contentious in its decision-making. I also found evidence that consistency with prior decisions is another factor which PHARMAC takes into account, though does not apply routinely. This research indicates that PHARMAC does take account of its abiding decision criteria, applying health needs as well as fiscal criteria, though the weighting given each criterion is nowhere apparent in its official minutes. There remains an opportunity for evaluative research to determine whether fiscal considerations ‘outweigh’ needs considerations in PHARMACs decision-making.

Abstract The Ministry of Education in Taiwan adopted a funding program in 1991 to encourage private universities and colleges to improve their academic performance through developing their own medium-term plans. This thesis tends to study the effect of the funding program on the academic performance of universities and colleges in Taiwan. A data envelopment analysis is conducted to examine the degree of improvement in faculty and teaching resources for 17 universities and colleges that participated in the funding program. Major conclusions in this study are as follows: 1) The academic performance of private universities and colleges was significantly improved after the implementation of the funding program. 2) The Ministry of Education put a limitation on the use of the fund in 1995. However, the academic performance of universities and colleges improved insignificantly after following the limitation. 3) As a matter of fact, the limitation on the use of the fund distorted the distribution of university resources so that the teacher/student ratio, ¡§the percentage of full-time faculty members with Ph.D.¡¨ and ¡§the average research expenditure per full-time faculty member¡¨ were decreased.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to advance our understanding of the original legislative intents of the Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA) and to evaluate the IFA policy in achieving its goals. The study seeks to identify the original legislative intents of the bill that led to the creation of this program. The study also describes the evolution of the program from the passing of the bill through inception of the program to gauge whether the policy satisfied those intents since its inception. Interviews were conducted with state-level officials, leaders, and legislators, as well as those affiliated with the litigation that led to the drafting of this legislation. These interviews were conducted to identify the original legislative intents of the bill that led to the formation of the policy. More specifically, this study sought to address the following questions: 1) What is the social political history of school finance in Texas in context with which the Instructional Facilities Allotment (IFA) policy was developed? 2) What were the legislative intents of the IFA? 3) Were the legislative intents achieved? A mixed method approach, employing both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, was used in this study to evaluate the IFA policy. The data analysis yielded two over-arching themes from the interview responses relating to the research question “what were the original legislative intents of the IFA?” A policy that was both legally defensible and politically responsible were two emerging themes identified in this study. Legislators aimed to keep the state out of court or have a policy that would be considered constitutional should facilities funding be challenged again through litigation. In addition, there was a desire among legislators to act in a manner that satisfied both their moral responsibility and political obligation. While the themes are two separate ideas, the analysis seems to support that one was possibly dependent on the other. The theme of politically responsible seems to be in response to, or in conjunction with, the notion that the primary motivator was to introduce a facilities funding program that was ultimately legally defensible. Furthermore, responses and data collected in regards to the third research question illustrated how both legislative intents seemed to be achieved initially, but the efforts deteriorated over time leading to a decline in it continuing to meet the intents.

In their seminal work on policy implementation, Pressman and Wildavsky (1973:143) have argued that 'there is no point in having good ideas if they cannot be carried out.' The use of a New Public Management (NPM) service delivery approach in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) health area, referred to as the Purchaser Provider Model (PPM), was seen as one of those good ideas. The then-ACT Government hoped that the use of this model as part of its public policy reform agenda would assist it in successfully achieving its goal of restraining the growth of ACT public health care costs. The PPM was in operation between 1996 and 2002, when it was discontinued, suggesting a policy implementation failure. In this thesis, the PPM is used as a case study as a basis for supporting the argument that the administrative architecture through which public policy is implemented plays a crucial part in the success or otherwise of the implementation of that policy, especially in the area of public service delivery. The administrative architecture is defined as, the administrative components that have been designed to assist the implementation of public policy. To undertake the analysis the PPM is expressed in terms of the following three extremely important components of the administrative architecture: - the configuration of role and role relationships; - resource allocation arrangements; and - the performance management framework. Pattern matching logic in conjunction with the literature is used to show how crucial was the part played by the above components and hence the administrative architecture in the implementation of public policy. While the thesis provides compelling evidence (based on the case study and the academic literature) to support its claim, the crucial part played by the administrative architecture in the implementation of public policy, especially in the area of service delivery, has hitherto received little attention in the implementation literature.