n modern democratic consumer societies, decentralized, participative, and consensus-oriented forms of multi-stakeholder governance are supplementing, and often replacing, conventional forms of state-centered environmental government. The engagement in all phases of the policy process of diverse social actors has become a hallmark of environmental good governance. This does not mean to say, however, that these modes of policy-making have proved particularly successful in resolving the widely debated multiple sustainability crisis. In fact, they have been found wanting in terms of their ability to respond to democratic needs and their capacity to resolve environmental problems. So why have these participatory forms of environmental governance become so prominent? What exactly is their appeal? What do they deliver? Exploring these questions from the perspective of eco-political and sociological theory, this article suggests that these forms of environmental governance represent a performative kind of eco-politics that helps liberal consumer societies to manage their inability and unwillingness to achieve the socio-ecological transformation that scientists and environmental activists say is urgently required. This reading of the prevailing policy approaches as the collaborative management of sustained unsustainability adds an important dimension to the understanding of environmental governance and contemporary eco-politics more generally.

In un periodo di risorse pubbliche scarse e bisogni collettivi complessi, le collaborazioni (o partenariati) pubblico-privato (PPP) rappresentano un’opzione preziosa per i decisori pubblici e una fonte di crescente interesse per gli studiosi. In tali collaborazioni, il privato viene coinvolto in scelte che, spesso, hanno un notevole impatto sugli interessi pubblici. Tuttavia, i fini istituzionali dei partner continueranno ad essere diversi e dunque a generare delle tensioni. In questo contesto, la ricerca di efficaci forme di accountability (rendicontazione in senso ampio, trasparenza) riveste grande importanza. I tre articoli della tesi dottorale si concentrano sulle PPP in ambito sanitario e socio-sanitario; si ricollegano al tema della valutazione, anche preventiva, delle PPP come strumento per rispondere adeguatamente ai bisogni pubblici. Il primo articolo rifinisce e allarga le attuali classificazioni delle possibili forme di governance delle PPP. Sul piano teorico, il lavoro mostra un’associazione tra alcune classiche determinanti dell’esternalizzazione dei servizi pubblici (misurabilità e contendibilità) e tratti come la forma giuridica, la natura dei partner, gli obiettivi strategici. Il secondo articolo approfondisce le caratteristiche contingenti dei PPP che possono orientare l’elaborazione di efficaci sistemi di performance measurement. Come contributo teorico, il lavoro presenta un modello per regolare il grado di disclosure economica della collaborazione nei confronti del pubblico e i trade off tra fattibilità e ricchezza della misurazione. Il terzo articolo approfondisce l’impatto delle PPP per il rinnovamento infrastrutturale e la gestione di servizi di supporto in ambito ospedaliero, focalizzandosi su alcuni aspetti non finanziari di valutazione: la coerenza delle caratteristiche quali-quantitative dell’infrastruttura con i desiderata aziendali (alla consegna e nel tempo); la flessibilità di adeguamento a potenziali cambiamenti nei bisogni epidemiologici; il contributo alla riduzione della complessità del cambiamento interno (organizzativo) ed esterno (stakeholder management). Sul piano teorico, l’articolo identifica le PPP come mezzo per conservare autonomia strategica a livello meso (regione) e micro (azienda), anche se gli impatti globali sono molto influenzati dalle economie di esperienza. / In times of resource scarcity and swift change in collective needs, public authorities are making increasing use of public - private partnerships (PPPs) to reshape day-by-day delivery of public services or to renovate infrastructure. In PPPs, the private partners become involved in government decision-making and program delivery; however, those partners maintain their own long-term institutional objectives, which naturally diverge from public ones. The three papers of the dissertation relate to the application of the accountability issue to PPPs, with different sub-themes, drawn from Forrer et al. (2010): characteristics and classification of the partnership; performance measurement and management; social and political impacts. The first paper aims to refine the governance taxonomy of PPPs focusing on public service provision. Considering the levels of service contestability and measurability, which were drawn from the literature on public service outsourcing, the study identified four clusters of partnerships. With each of these clusters, I associated some relevant governance features: legal form, institutional aim of the partners, and strategic goal of the PPP. Indeed, higher levels of measurability appear to be associated with contractual (non-organizational) forms of partnerships, whereas higher contestability with corporate forms involving for profit partners. The second paper draws on the consolidated literature on performance management and contingency theory to identify appropriate Key Performance Measures (KPM) for service-focused PPPs. The work provides a model drawing on the integration with the public system to regulate the degree of economic disclosure; while it draws on the degree of specialization to solve the trade-off between measurement feasibility and richness. The third paper focuses on the specific impact of a PPP-DBFO (Design, Build, Finance, Operate) operation on three non-financial issues: building’s compliance to public partner’s desiderata, infrastructure’s flexibility and project’s governance complexity. PPPs appear to help policymakers and managers to maintain the possibility of making strategic choices. If the public partner is experienced enough to cope with a laborious practice, the PPP can help to reach notable social and political achievements; however, costs remain higher compared to the public finance alternative.

Corporate governance (CG) has recently received much attention because of the wave of financial scandals in the early 2000s and the more recent global financial crisis. CG reforms, including laws, codes and listing rules have been established to protect shareholders’ rights and restore investors’ confidence in the capital market. These reforms have largely contributed to the evolution of internal and external governance mechanisms that are aimed at mitigating agency conflicts between managers and shareholders. However, overemphasis has been placed on the monitoring and control dimensions of governance, which may hinder entrepreneurial activities, obscure business prosperity and contribute to a narrow perspective on CG. It has been argued that there is a need to broaden CG beyond compliance (conformance) to a set of rules and laws, to include the performance aspects of governance that focus on strategy and value creation. In other words, governance should not only focus on monitoring managerial performance to ensure accountability to shareholders, but also on mechanisms that motivate management to optimise shareholders’ wealth. Enterprise governance (EG) framework has been introduced to keep the balance between the conformance and performance dimensions of governance. However, few studies address the possible tension between conformance and performance. Moreover, there is no agreement among these studies on the relationship between conformance and performance in the governance context. Arguably, Value-based Management (VBM) is an appropriate approach to address the issue of EG. VBM adopts value creation as an overall objective, develops a strategy that contributes to value creation and integrates it into decision-making. In this way, VBM can act as an effective mechanism for motivating management to maximise shareholder wealth, which works in parallel with other CG mechanisms, to mitigate agency conflicts resulting from the separation between ownership and management. This study aims to develop a contingency framework of EG through operationalising the conformance using CG and performance using corporate entrepreneurship (CE). This framework examines the inter-relationships between VBM, compliance with the Combined Code on Corporate Governance (CCCG), CE and the ultimate effect on organisational performance. More specifically, the study empirically examines the effect of compliance with the CCCG on CE, and whether VBM can achieve a balance between compliance with the CCCG and CE, should a conflict exist. The study also examines whether a fit between contingency variables (company size, agency conflicts, uncertainty, strategy and decentralisation), VBM, compliance with the CCCG codes and CE is associated with organisational performance. To achieve the aim of this study a cross-sectional survey, based on a questionnaire, is conducted to identify the level of VBM implementation, contextual and organisational factors in the large and medium quoted companies in the UK. The questionnaire targets the Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in these companies as key informants. In addition, a content analysis of the annual reports of the sampled companies is undertaken to measure the level of compliance with the CCCG. Financial data (e.g. organisational performance) have been obtained from the DataStream, Fame and Thomson One Banker databases. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) is adopted for data analysis and hypotheses testing. The results suggest that VBM implementation is positively associated with agency conflicts, low cost strategies and decentralisation. Compliance with the CCCG is positively associated with agency conflicts and company size. CE is positively associated with company size, uncertainty and differentiation strategies. In addition, the fit between compliance with the CCCG and contingency factors significantly predicts the marketbased performance. The fit between CE and the contingency factors significantly predict the perceived performance. However, the results regarding the effect of VBM on organisational performance are mixed. While VBM has no significant direct effect on the market-based performance, VBM has indirect positive effect on the market-based performance acting through compliance with the CCCG as an intervening variable. VBM is significantly associated with compliance with the CCCG but not with CE. No evidence is found for negative association between compliance with the CCCG and CE. The results support a large number of the proposed relationships between the contingency factors, VBM, compliance with the CCCG and CE. The results also suggest that using both compliance with the CCCG and CE as intervening variables in the relationship between VBM and organisational performance contributes to explaining the mixed results in the VBM literature. In terms of the EG framework, VBM does not keep a balance between conformance and performance. VBM emphasises the compliance with the CCCG (conformance) at the expense of CE (performance). The results did not provide significant evidence of a conflict between compliance with the CCCG and CE, the area which lacks empirical evidence. This study contributes to the literature at different levels. At the theoretical level, this study develops a theoretical model that links a performance management system (PMS), i.e. VBM, to CG practices and CE. This model attempts to bridge the gap between different disciplines, including management accounting, CG and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, combining both the contingency theory and the agency theory lenses contributes to the development of a comprehensive model of EG. At the methodological level, unlike previous studies, this study measures VBM practices on a continuum, rather than categories. Multiple data collection methods are used, and a powerful statistical technique (PLS-SEM) is adopted for data analysis. At the empirical level, the study is conducted in the UK. Though it is different from the US in many aspects, very few studies have been conducted in this context in many research areas such as VBM, CG and CE.

Submitted by Elba Lopes (elba.lopes@fecap.br) on 2017-09-20T13:16:21Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Cleber Roberto dos Santos.pdf: 318189 bytes, checksum: 7e6e199deeffd080afb3168854fbbf19 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-20T13:16:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Cleber Roberto dos Santos.pdf: 318189 bytes, checksum: 7e6e199deeffd080afb3168854fbbf19 (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-06 / This paper investigates the relationship between related party transactions and firm performance for Brazilian companies. Additionally, we analyze the relationship between these transactions and corporate governance quality. In order to measure these relationships, it was adopted a statistical model of panel data for a sample of 107 companies in the period from 2011 to 2015. The results indicate that related party transactions are frenquent and have significant amounts among the companies in our sample. There was a substantial increase in the incidence and value of these operations between 2011 and 2014, with a same proportion decrease in 2015, that is possibly related to the disclosure of new instruction CVM 552/14, which became effective in 2015. Futrthermore, we found a negative and significant relationship between the firm performance and the financial relevance of the related party transactions. Furthermore, a negative and significant association was observed between corporate governance and related party transacions. Overall, the results corroborate the conflict of interest hypothesis, it indicating a possible market disapproval for related party transactions and/or an undestanding of the potential of minority shareholder expropriation mechanism provided by such transactions. / O presente trabalho investiga a rela????o entre transa????es entre partes relacionadas e o desempenho das companhias brasileiras. Adicionalmente, ?? analisada a rela????o da incid??ncia destas transa????es e as pr??ticas de governan??a corporativa. Para mensurar estas rela????es utilizou-se do modelo de dados em painel para uma amostra de 107 empresas no per??odo de 2011 ?? 2015. Os resultados indicam que as transa????es entre partes relacionadas s??o frequentemente utilizadas e possuem montantes significativos nas empresas que comp??em a amostra. Verifiou-se um aumento substancial na incid??ncia e valor destas opera????es entre 2011 e 2014, com um decr??scimo de mesma propor????o em apenas um ano em 2015, relacionado poss??velmente pela divulga????o da nova instru????o CVM 552/14, que passou a vigorar em 2015. Adicionalmente, observou-se rela????o negativa e significante entre o desempenho das companhias e a relev??ncia das transa????es entre partes relacionadas frente o ativo e a receita das empresas. Al??m disso, foi observada rela????o negativa e significante entre governan??a corporativa e a vari??vel relativa a transa????es entre partes relacionadas com o ativo total das companhias. No geral, os resultados da pesquisa corroboram com a hip??tese de conflito de interesse, indicando poss??vel desaprova????o do mercado para as transa????es entre partes relacionadas e/ou entendimento do potencial mecanismo para expropria????o dos minorit??rios propiciados por tais transa????es.

Contemporary enterprises are largely dependent on Information Technology (IT), which makes decision making on IT matters important. There are numerous issues that confuse IT decision making, including contradictive business needs, financial constraints, lack of communication between business and IT stakeholders and difficulty in understanding the often heterogeneous and integrated IT systems. The discipline of IT governance aims at providing the decision making structures, processes, and relational mechanisms, needed in order for IT to support and perpetuate the business. The adjacent discipline of enterprise architecture provides a broad range of frameworks and tools for model-based management of IT. Enterprise architecture is a commonly and successfully used approach, but the frameworks need to be adapted with respect to the concerns at stake in order to become truly useful. The IT organization includes all people involved in decision making regarding IT. The quality of the IT organization differs between enterprises and depends on aspects such as: are rights and responsibilities assigned to the appropriate people, are formalized processes implemented, and does proper documentation exist? This internal IT organization efficiency is labeled IT governance maturity. One might argue that internal efficiency metrics of the IT organization are of moderate interest only. What really matters is the external effectiveness of services that the IT organization delivers to the business. This latter effectiveness is labeled IT governance performance. Even though it is reasonable to believe that enterprises with good IT governance maturity also achieve high IT governance performance, the validity of this assumption has never been tested. IT management’s ability to make well-informed decisions regarding internal IT organization matters would increase if it were possible to predict IT governance performance. The contribution of this thesis is a method for model-based IT governance decision making. The method includes a metamodel, i.e. a modeling language, and a framework for the assessment of IT governance maturity and performance. The method also allows prediction of IT governance performance.  This thesis is a composite thesis consisting of four papers and an introduction. Paper A presents an overview of the method for model-based IT governance decision making. Paper B presents the mathematical foundation of the prediction apparatus, i.e. a Bayesian network that is based on statistical data. Paper C presents how the method can be used in practice to support IT governance decision making. Finally, Paper D analyzes the correlation of IT governance maturity and performance. The analysis is based on statistical data from case studies in 35 organizations. / QC 20100909

<p>This thesis is written about IT Governance and Management, a phenomenon which can result in higher efficiency and stronger competition for the organization or enterprise in mind. By implementing good IT Governance and Management, IT can support business goals and optimize investments in IT while at the same time IT manages risks and opportunities.</p><p>The main case study is done at County Administrative Board of Kronoberg where Kronoberg County is counted as one of the smaller counties in Sweden. The County Administrative Board of Kronoberg has an awareness of the importance of good and effective IT Governance and Management even though there is room for improvement.</p>

This thesis addresses the relationship between financial development and CSR performance, based on countries within the EU. The main objective of this thesis is to critically analyse and discuss the impact of financial development on CSR performance, through using ESG performance as a proxy. Additionally, this study aims at analysing the inclusion of institutional factors when examining the relationship. While the issue of how financial development impacts individual sustainability dimensions is quite well-researched, only one study is found to examine the precise relationship between financial development and ESG performance, concluding a positive linkage in Asia. No similar study is found in the region of the EU. We find the relationship to be complex, where various channels of influence are identified when examining ESG dimensions separately. To examine this relationship, we used panel data regression analysis, based on country level data for EU’s individual member states. Our findings show a complex relationship, implying that financial development has various impacts on ESG performance and varies throughout the range of financial development. This is in contrast to previous empirical research regarding the relationship, concluding an overall positive impact. This study provides no evidence that institutional factors affect the relationship between financial development and ESG performance, but argues for the importance of institutional inclusion, due to the identified influence on ESG practices through channels such as governing laws, regulations, norms and culture. Finally, financial development is concluded as an important catalyst to promote ESG performance within the EU. When suggesting any policy implementation, it is important to keep in mind that different countries within the EU may have different needs regarding the most efficient approach to increase ESG.

This thesis is written about IT Governance and Management, a phenomenon which can result in higher efficiency and stronger competition for the organization or enterprise in mind. By implementing good IT Governance and Management, IT can support business goals and optimize investments in IT while at the same time IT manages risks and opportunities. The main case study is done at County Administrative Board of Kronoberg where Kronoberg County is counted as one of the smaller counties in Sweden. The County Administrative Board of Kronoberg has an awareness of the importance of good and effective IT Governance and Management even though there is room for improvement.

本文旨在研究政治人物或政黨的表現如何影響選民對立法委員進行選舉課責。課責是民主政治運作的重要基石，而選舉機制則是體現政治課責最直接的制度設計。現有選舉課責研究多數聚焦於行政首長的表現如何影響選民的投票選擇，以立法委員選舉為對象的選舉課責研究相對顯得不足，且這些研究或者是在舊選制的架構內進行分析，或是旨在探索選民的分裂投票行為，未見新選制下的選舉課責研究。 本研究以2016年新北市與臺中市的立法委員選舉為例，分析選民對總統、市長、政黨、政黨立委與區域立委五種層面的表現評價如何影響其立委投票對象。企圖了解選民是否真的會因為現任者表現不佳而投給在野黨、或因滿意現任者表現而投給執政黨？而當不同層面的表現評價發生衝突時，哪一項的表現評價影響力更大？並藉由兩個不同黨籍的直轄市長，來解析過去研究未曾在立委選舉研究中觸及的地方首長施政表現因素會如何影響選民的投票抉擇。 本研究發現，選民在區域與不分區立委選舉中均會以市長與區域立委的表現作為課責依據，而政黨立委表現評價僅對區域立委選舉有影響，政黨表現評價及不分區名單印象則影響不分區立委選舉，至於過去研究認為會影響立委選舉結果的總統施政表現評價，反而在統計模型中未達顯著水準。這樣的結果，除了立委與政黨本身表現在各自選票上的影響力外，更凸顯了地方首長的施政表現對於立委選舉的重要性，當總統與立委選舉合併舉辦後，立委選舉不再是總統的期中成績單，而是地方首長的期中成績單與現任者的期末成績單，被課責的對象包含了現任者本身（立委與政黨）與地方首長。這些研究發現與既有的研究提供一個重要的對照與補充，也希望這些發現能提供未來選舉課責與地方治理研究的助益。 / Accountability is the cornerstone for the operation of democracy, and election is the mechanism realizing political accountability. Most studies on electoral accountability focused on the influence of presidential performance at the national level while the influences of legislators themselves and local governments are less concerned.This essay explores how the performance of the president, the legislators, the local governments, and the political parties influence electorate’s vote choice in the 2016 legislative elections in New Taipei City and Taichung City in Taiwan. Political accountability is operationalized as voter’s performance assessments of the president, the legislator, the city mayors, and the two major political parties. It is assumed that an electorate will be more likely to vote for the legislative candidate based on favorable assessments of her party’s president, legislators, city mayors, list of at-large candidates and overall party performance. The study finds that the performance of city mayors and the performance of (district as well at–large party list) legislators have exercised significant impact on voter’s choice. Meanwhile, voters’ assessment of political parties and impression of party list candidate will influence voter’s choice in the at-large legislative election. As for the evaluation of presidential performance which has been widely discussed in the literature, this essay finds only limited impact. As the elections for legislator and president are held concurrently, the impact of the presidential performance is overshadowed by the performance of local executives. These findings provide crucial comparison and supplementation with the previous studies of political accountability and offer valuable references for the future study of electoral accountability and local governance.

No / This study examines the effect of board composition on the likelihood of corporate failure in the UK. We consider both independent and non-independent (grey) non-executive directors (NEDs) to enhance our understanding of the impact of NEDs' personal or economic ties with the firm and its management on firm performance. We find that firms with a larger proportion of grey directors on their boards are less likely to fail. Furthermore, the probability of corporate failure is lower both when firms have a higher proportion of grey directors relative to executive directors and when they have a higher proportion of grey directors relative to independent directors. Conversely, there is a positive relationship between the likelihood of corporate failure and the proportion of independent directors on corporate boards. The findings discussed in this study support the collaborative board model and the view that corporate governance reform efforts may have over emphasised the monitoring function of independent directors and underestimated the benefits of NEDs' affiliations with the firm and its management. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.