Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / The purpose of this research was to develop a decision tool to identify and rank potential locations for making a greenfield investment in flour milling. The driving characteristics of the tool developed are transparency, reproducibility, specificity and clarity. Currently, the approach to selecting countries in which to invest is driven purely by ad hoc frameworks that often lack the characteristics driving this investment index tool. The investment index was designed to have three main components: market conditions, economic environment and supporting infrastructure. Market conditions for the product of interest – in this case flour – were defined to encompass per capita wheat-based food consumption growth rate, wheat production versus wheat consumption and wheat flour imports growth rate. The economic environment was defined to incorporate the growth rate of per capita gross domestic product, corporate tax rate , labor productivity, foreign direct investment growth rates, position on the World Bank’s Doing Business 2012 rankings, and the number and extent of the country’s membership in regional economic and trade groups. Supporting infrastructure included electricity reliability, transportation quality, urbanization rate and the physical presence of the investing company in the country. The rationale for this last variable is that when the investing company already has a presence in the country under consideration, it has already incurred some of the hurdle costs that it would have to include in investments in a location where it does have current physical activities. The study started by filtering the scope of potential opportunities by a set of well-defined criteria: target geographical locations; Doing Business 2012 scores; and quantity of wheat flour imports in 2009. This led to four countries emerging as leading candidates for investment considerations: Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. The investment index ranked these countries according to their relative suitability for investment. The three components of the index carry different weights because of their effect on the potential investment outcome. There is no data to support these weighting and therefore executives must utilize different probing approaches to weight the components. To this end, a base scenario and two other scenarios based on alternative weights were considered. The robustness of the ranking is revealed by the consistency of the rankings under the alternative weights applied to the components. The results showed that under the base scenario Malaysia had the highest investment index score. The results also showed that varying the alternative weights for the scenarios did not affect the overall outcome with Malaysia leading with the highest overall index score for each of the three scenarios.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Michael A. Boland / The purpose of this thesis is to identify Greenfield grain facility sites within 100 miles of Holdrege, Nebraska and to evaluate the feasibility of these sites. CHS Agri Service Center currently has facilities that are within 50 miles of Holdrege, Nebraska. However there are no Greenfield sites in this area that would be feasible due to a large number of competitors already operating in this area. This problem was broken down into two components. The first is site selection and the second is a financial model using net present value to determine if the sites selected would be profitable to the standards that CHS, Inc. requires (12% or better return on assets). In order to determine where Greenfield sites might be located supply and demand factors were evaluated to determine surplus and deficit grain areas. The areas where there were large surpluses of grain have the greatest potential for a Greenfield facility to succeed. Then a feasibility analysis of the chosen sites is conducted using net present value and internal rate of return analysis to determine if there is enough grain volume to operate the grain facility above the 12% return on assets criterion. After a detailed review of the supply and demand factors of grain in the region, two locations were determined to be good candidates for further study. Based on recent projects completed at CHS, Inc. two model facilities were created as tools to determine if a certain facility type is more profitable than another. The cost structures for these two model facilities are based on costs that are currently incurred at CHS Agri Service Center locations. It was found that neither facility at either location was profitable enough to meet the minimum performance criteria required by CHS, Inc. As a result of these findings it may be possible to move ahead with a Greenfield facility at one of these sites if a higher volume can be obtained. A merger with another grain company in the immediate area of the proposed facility may be the best way to increase volume.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Vincent Amanor-Boadu / Bunge is a global agribusiness company that has invested in a facility to produce extruded ingredients and inclusions in its Woodland, California rice mill. Because Bunge is not a branded food manufacturer, it is in a unique position to be a contract manufacturer to a variety of customers without the potential for a conflict of interest. Also, because Bunge is primary in three of the most common ingredients for extruded products, corn, rice and oil, this would be a move down the value chain that would allow it to be more competitive. The initial investment in Woodland has allowed Bunge to learn more about the manufacture of extruded ingredients and inclusions and also gauge overall market demand. A possible next step would be to build a second facility in the eastern half of the United States to expand capacity and be geographically situated to supply the Midwest, South and Northeast regions of the U.S. In order to begin exploring the possibility of a greenfield expansion into the contract manufacture of extruded ingredients and inclusions, this thesis considers three subjects. The first is a customer survey case study, which discovers the customer found high price and whether or not the manufacturer was considered a strategic partner to be the most significant factors in how desirable a manufacturer is. The second subject considered is the ideal location for a second manufacturing site based on a number of factors, including distance from both the customer base and inputs, labor issues, and any savings associated with a particular site. It was found that distance from the ultimate customer may be less important overall than the other factors. The third and final component of the research involved conducting a financial feasibility study. The analyses were conducted under alternative scenarios and subjected to a sensitivity analysis on a number of crucial variables. The weighted average NPV for the alternative scenarios was about $31 million and the IRR of 13.8% cleared the company’s investment hurdle rate. The payback period was estimated to be just under six years. All these suggest that the project as presented in this research is feasible and any investment in it, subject to the absence of any unforeseen event, will be profitable. It is hoped that this information can be used as a starting point and a guide to consider a future investment based on demand and other market indicators available at the time such a decision is required.

Art and Dance: Sediments, Segments, and Movement (A&D) is a series of photographs that studies dance movement, with the added element of flour to exaggerate and exhibit motion. A&D captures the different styles of dance out of their usual context, so that the actual movement becomes the central focus. This paper on the other hand provides the academic foundation for the artwork. It traces the history of dance photography as a genre. It not only sheds light on the photographic techniques that were used, but also how dance photography has evolved as an art form in its own right. The paper also presents my inspiration for the project and explains how those sources have influenced my images.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-69).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Ill., 1998. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 188-192).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Florida, 2005. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 240 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Magíster en Gestión para la Globalización / Paris, cadena de tiendas por departamento, se plantea la posibilidad de expandir sus operaciones a Colombia, como parte de su estrategia de internacionalización, basándose principalmente en la observación de lo que están haciendo los otros retailers chilenos en Latinoamérica y que se cataliza dada la compra de supermercados Carrefour Colombia por parte de su casa matriz, Cencosud, lo que disponibiliza terrenos para instalarse en ese país. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una evaluación estratégica y económica de la entrada de Paris al mercado de tiendas por departamento colombiano. En la primera sección de este trabajo se definió a Colombia como el país ideal para continuar con la estrategia de internacionalización de Paris, ya que ofrece una serie de oportunidades e incentivos para la inversión extranjera y porque se encuentra viviendo un proceso de recuperación política y económica que ha atraído a los grandes actores del retail latinoamericano. Las tiendas por departamento son una industria creciente en Colombia, la cual está lejos de saturarse y Paris cuenta con los recursos tanto económicos, de personas y know-how para lograr una expansión exitosa bajo la modalidad Greenfield o de inversión directa. El estudio de mercado muestra que la mejor estrategia es replicar el modelo de negocios que posee la compañía en Chile y realizar pequeñas adaptaciones locales, basándose en la exitosa experiencia que tiene Falabella en ese país. Esto tiene implicancias en el Plan de Marketing y Operaciones, ya que las tiendas funcionarán de una manera muy similar a como operan actualmente en nuestro país, manteniendo el lay-out y el mix de productos. La selección de la localización de las tiendas se realizó seleccionando ciudades donde los segmentos altos son más relevantes y que no sean mercados saturados por los competidores. En esas ciudades, se seleccionaron los locales de Carrefour Colombia que cuenten con cercanía a los estratos objetivos, geo-referenciados a través de la estratificación socioeconómica, el atractivo comercial del área determinado a través del modelo de Huff y la ubicación del establecimiento dentro de un Centro Comercial, lo que entregó las ubicaciones exactas dentro de Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, Cartagena y Pereira que resultan más atractivas para instalar las tiendas Paris. Por las diferencias entre estas ciudades, la comunicación se debe realizar en dos etapas, primero a nivel local y luego nacional. La operación se realizará con elementos locales en las actividades primarias y el corporativo realizará las de apoyo en la casa matriz. La estructura de Recursos Humanos será liviana, pero con la suficiente independencia que requiera para tomar las decisiones relevantes del negocio a nivel local, con un equipo multinacional, teniendo en cuenta las diferencias culturales entre Chile y Colombia. La evaluación económica mostró que realizar un Greenfield resulta muy conveniente, con un VAN de USD 136 millones, descontado a WACC 10,7%, y una TIR de 24,7%. Finalmente, se recomienda evaluar la expansión a otras ciudades colombianas más pequeñas y también a otras economías latinoamericanas.

Dans ce travail, nous analysons et comparons les comportements de localisation de trois différentes formes d'investissements durables (les greenfields seuls, les investissements directs étrangers totaux (IDE) et les investissements productifs intérieurs). Parmi un groupe de déterminants, dont une large partie est inspirée de la littérature empirique existante, nous étudions tout particulièrement le rôle que joue le taux de change réel sur l'attractivité des territoires vis-à-vis de chacun de ces investissements. Un tel examen est opéré à partir d'une économétrie de données de panel. Il consiste à tester un modèle de référence sur les greenfields, les IDE totaux ainsi que sur les investissements productifs – avec des spécifications adaptées à chaque cas – et à interpréter l'ensemble des résultats et en particulier les écarts obtenus. Pour appréhender les variables dépendantes, nous nous appuyons sur les séries statistiques de la CNUCED et de l'OCDE, ainsi que sur celles du FDI Markets (Financial Times), et de l'European Investment Monitor (Ernst & Young) qui ont jusqu'à présent été peu exploitées, voire ignorées, par les études portant sur le sujet. Plusieurs échantillons (global, européen et OCDE) et plusieurs périodes (2004-2010, 1998-2010, 1995-2010) sont retenus en fonction de la disponibilité des données. Nos résultats indiquent que les greenfields, les IDE totaux (et donc, par déduction, les fusions-acquisitions) et les investissements productifs répondent à des critères de localisation bien différents correspondant à leurs caractéristiques propres. L'impact qu'exerce notamment le taux de change réel sur chacun de ces capitaux est des plus intéressants. De faibles prix relatifs apparaissent ainsi comme attirant de façon sensible les investissements productifs, qu'ils soient d'origine domestique ou étrangère (greenfields). En revanche, il semble que ces prix relatifs n'aient aucune influence sur les recompositions transnationales de capital, déduites à partir des IDE totaux. / In this work, we analyze and compare locational behavior of three forms of durable investments (greenfields, foreign direct investments, and internal productive investments). Among a group of determinants, mainly inspired by the existing empirical literature, we study more particularly the role played by the real exchange rate on countries' attractiveness towards each of those investments. Panel data econometrics is used for this study. We test a basis model on greenfields, total FDIs, and on productive investments – with specifications adapted to each case – and then analyze the results, particularly when they show differences. In order to proxy the dependent variables, we use the UNCTAD and the OECD's data series, as well as the FDI Markets (Financial Times) and the European Investment Monitor (Ernst & Young) which have somehow been ignored by the studies on the subject until now. Several samples (global, European and OECD) and several periods (2004-2010, 1998-2010 and 1995-2010) are analyzed depending on data availability. Our results prove that greenfields, total FDIs (and mergers and acquisitions by deduction), and productive investments respond to different location criteria according to their characteristics. In particular, the impact of the real exchange rate on each of those investments is very interesting. While low relative prices attract significantly productive investments, financed by domestic or foreign multinational companies (greenfields), they don't seem to have any impact on mergers and acquisitions (deduced from total FDIs).

Die bisherigen Untersuchungen zum Thema Nachhaltigkeit und Energieeffizienz konzentrierten sich nicht auf die speziellen Anforderungen einer Fahrzeugmontage. Bei der Neuplanung einer Fahrzeugmontage spielte bisher die Energieeffizienz ei-ne untergeordnete Rolle. Mit der zunehmenden Bedeutung von Nachhaltigkeit und der Energieeffizienz in Politik und Öffentlichkeit wachsen auch diesbezüglich die Erwartungen an die Automobilindustrie. Aus diesem Grund wurden ganzheitliche Ansätze und Methoden entwickelt, um einen Neubau eines Fahrzeugwerkes, im Speziellen die Fahrzeugmontage, energieeffizient und nachhaltig zu gestalten. Die Nutzung von natürlichen Ressourcen stand hierbei im Vordergrund. Der Einsatz von fossilen Energien sollte hierbei weitestgehend vermieden werden. Beginnend mit der Standortauswahl über die Festlegung der Werksstruktur sowie der Fahr-zeugmontage- und Logistikstruktur wurden hier die wichtigsten Bereiche der Fab-rikplanung abgedeckt. Zusätzlich wurde noch die Gebäudekonstruktion unter den Prämissen der Energieeffizienz untersucht.