President Chain Store Corp. (PCSC), the leading chain store company in Taiwan, utilizing the successful experience to develop their logistic business, thus has been built up the strong subsidiary logistic group of Uni-President nowadays. PCSC structure the integrated production line, which enables each of the business unit to focus on the competitive advantage and utilize the inter-group resources successfully. This integrated structure also enhances the core ability of every business unit which lifts the group from retail industry to the brand with high value-adding brand marketing all over the world. The purpose of this research, using the methodology of Smiling Curve, is to find out the connection between the acquisition of crucial re source and the build-up of crucial process, as well as the impact of benefit and efficiency brought to the group. This research try to use the concept of ¡§ the acquisition of crucial resource¡¨, ¡§ the efficiency of resource utilization¡¨ and the ¡§the build-up of crucial process¡¨ to probe the connection among the best timing for entering new market, the process of acquiring the resource and the timing of acquisition. Furthermore, this research would like to probe how to acquire the crucial resource and build up crucial process, given that under the circumstance of the positive startup of both resource and market. The major findings from this research with the methodology of Smiling Curve for the explanation of integrated strategy and effectiveness come to three points: the 1st is the vertical integration shortens the sales channels, the shorter of the channel, the higher of the value-adding will be; the 2nd is the horizontal integration enables each division to concentrate on the core business to accelerate the leading advantage; the 3rd is the well implementation of related diversification strategies to adopt the overseas brands know-how and corporate-owned trained specificity of human capital to achieve the target of lifting the operation efficiency. This synergy justify the result of aiming at higher value-adding activities, such customers-oriented marketing and service, the value chain relocation, move PCSC to the Y-axis as increasing value-added brand.

The objective of this study is to investigate the determinants of the export behavior of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey. In SMEs, key decision makers play important roles / therefore, studying the impact of managerial characteristics is of paramount importance for understanding the determinants of SME export behavior. Particularly, possible relations between CEO age, tenure, level of education, international experience and foreign language skills and the export performance of SMEs will be examined. While doing this, two distinct theories, namely, upper echelons perspective and resource-based view of the firm (RBV) will be integrated. Furthermore, the study will focus on the role of the human capital as a strategic resource that may enhance the SME export performance. The relations between international experience and foreign language skills of the human capital and SME export performance will be analyzed from upper echelons perspective and RBV point of view. Overall, this study attempts to illustrate that CEOs and human resources are valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable resources for SMEs, and that studying their attributes in SME internationalization context is crucial to understanding the determinants of expert activities of SMEs. As a result, this study expects to reveal important implications for those who aim at increasing the export performance of SMEs. Practitioners may benefit from the findings by addressing which managerial and human capital characteristics influence SME export behavior and in which directions, so that they can better match the characteristics of CEOs and human capital with SMEs in order to attain higher export performance.

This dissertation aims to provide evidence on the inter-relationship between per-capita income variation and worker effort indices through nutritional intakes or income to food expenditure ratio. Based on these worker effort indices, there are two data sets / 69 countries data for the year 1980, 1990 and 2000 and 17 regionalized Turkish provinces data for 1994 and 2003. One major contribution is the definition of human and physical capital interactions since accumulation of human capital (H) and physical capital (K) depends on each other within a given technology. This is called &ldquo / complementary interaction&rdquo / . Therefore, we emphasize K and H ratios are key factors in an economy rather than the absolute sizes. Another our main contribution to the literature is the data sources we employ. The 1980, 1990 and 2000 data are the first in the literature for 69 countries and more importantly, it is the first study for Turkish provincial level. While some studies are held for particular countries in terms of health proxy levels, there is no such study of any type pertaining to the Turkish economy. Our health proxies empirically play a very important role in our economic growth study. While health proxies make an important contribution in explaining income disparity approach, we do not see such effect on the convergence rate.

This thesis examines the effects of international capital flows on economic growth by using a dynamic general equilibrium framework based on a three-sector Ramsey Model. In order to detect the impact of financial integration on production, allocation of resources across three sectors and consumption, two different economic environments are modelled. While the first model represents a closed economy with financial autarky, the second model examplifies a financially integrated open economy with partial capital mobility. Each of the models is calibrated to Turkish economy based on the data of the year 2006. The simulation results demonstrate that the presence of international capital flows, despite being limited by a borrowing constraint, reverses the impact of economic growth on production and resource allocation. It is found that even though the importance of production in tradable-goods sector diminishes in the absence of international capital flows, it increases in the open economy model. Moreover, the findings show that while production in the closed economy model simply adjusts to domestic demand, that of the open economy model is not constrained by it. This can be explained by the augmentative effect of partial capital flows on the impact of foreign demand on domestic production.

In this dissertation, I examine individual decisions in occupational choice, labor supply, and health care utilization. Occupational choice decisions of female college graduates on whether to teach or not are analyzed to understand the role of fertility and relative wages using a panel estimation method. I also compare the behavioral changes in the labor force participation among teachers and non-teachers conditional on the presence of a new-born baby. Using the human capital model where a worker decides her hours of work responding to wages, and her human capital is accumulated proportional to her hours of work, I predict that the positive relationship between entry wages and post wages. Empirical evidence suggests that the shock in entry wages may be attributed to post wage differentials. I examine individuals?? choice of health insurance plan and utilization of health care services. Empirical evidence shows that there is favorable self-selection into health maintenance organizations (HMOs) plans and that HMO members use more of office-based and hospital outpatient services. It suggests ineffectiveness of HMO plans in reducing utilization.

目前，台灣整型、塑身的潮流已不分性別且日趨普遍化，觀察其原因除了吸引異性之外，美麗對就業、工作職位之升等似乎亦有直接關係。國外研究發現，外表與個人在職場上的表現息息相關，但台灣研究漂亮經濟的相關文獻少之又少，針對個人體型、相貌對其工作職位之影響的實證研究更是付之闕如，促使筆者意欲去驗證，台灣的勞動市場中，外表是否為影響個人事業的重要變數，以彌補現有文獻之不足。然而，由於研究資源不足，本文僅以太子汽車工業股份有限公司之員工為研究對象，以BMI值及相貌作為個人外表的衡量指標，進行外表與個人職位高低是否相關的初探性研究。 本文將男性非銷售人員、女性非銷售人員、及銷售單位人員區分為三種模型，並以最小平方法（OLS）對各解釋變數的影響方向加以估計。實證結果發現，男性非銷售人員之年齡、婚姻、教育、年資對其職位階級都有正向的助益；相貌方面也的確存在“貌醜懲罰”、“貌美獎勵”的傾向，即越英俊的男性非銷售人員，其職位便相對越高。至於國小以下子女數及BMI值過輕對工作職位則有負面影響。 在女性非銷售人員部分，已婚及教育程度越高者，其職位相對越高；國小以下子女數對女性職業地位則有不利之影響。至於年齡及年資都未如男性非銷售人員般與個人職位呈正相關，此估計結果可能代表，太子汽車工業股份有限公司存在「玻璃天花板」現象。最後，體型相貌變數皆與女性非銷售人員之職位高低無關。 在銷售單位方面，不區分性別一同估計的結果得出，婚姻、教育程度對銷售單位員工職位有正向效果；國小以下子女數及BMI值過輕則有負面影響。而BMI值過輕者可能是受消費者歧視所累，間接導致其難以獲致較高的職位。 / This study attempts to investigate the relationship between Body Mass Index, physical attractiveness and an employee’s position in Taiwan for the sake of being the supplement to the existing literatures related to this research field which primarily consider gender differences. The research object comes form the data bank of Prince Motor Corporation. The total number of sample used in this study is 754 and the empirical employed in this study is OLS Model. The findings suggest that age, marital status, education, experience, and physical attractiveness have a positive effect on men’s positions in non-sales department; number of children under age 12 and being underweight, a negative effect. For women in non-sales department, positions are significantly and positively affected by marital status and education, negatively affected by number of children under age 12. Finally, in sales department, the employees who are married and have higher education definitely are in higher position. Number of children under age 12 and being underweight have a negative effect on sales people’s position.

This thesis presents two applications of the incompleteness and one application of the imperfection of the market economy. The first application, Chapter 2, studies the decision making problem of an individual seeking to accumulate an optimal amount of human capital realizing that the wage income derived from the accumulated human capital is subject to incompletely insured uncertainty. In other words, the financial market that insures against wage income risk is not fully functional. We find that the individual's inability to diversify wage income risk tends to increase the need to accumulate more human capital in order to elevate wage path and compensate for the burden of its associated risk. This is particularly true when (i) the wage income risk is positively correlated with the rate-of-return risk in the financial market, resulting in an even greater risk burden to the individual, and (ii) the individual is more risk averse. There are two possibilities that no human capital is needed. The first possibility occurs when it is optimal to work as an unskilled worker because both the burden from wage income risk and the rate of return from education are low. The second possibility is the case where the risk burden is so high that the optimal time spent in school to acquire sufficient human capital to cover the risk is so long that the discounted rate of return from education is negative. In this case, the best strategy is to invest in financial assets alone and forfeit the opportunity to earn wage income - either as an educated or as an unskilled worker - to avoid its associated risk. Chapter 3 applies equilibrium unemployment theory with a frictional labor market to study the impact of immigration on the local labor market. Markets are imperfect in the sense that job matching takes time and recruitment is costly. We find that labor market outcomes of both the natives and existing immigrants depend crucially on how the economic surplus from successful matching is divided between the firms and the workers or, in other words, on the bargaining power of the workers. An arrival of immigrants with low bargaining power tends to benefit both the natives and the existing immigrants. A disparity between the two worker types in the matching efficiency also plays a major role. An inferior matching technology among the immigrants, interpreted here as reflecting their less established social network, lowers their wage rate and increases their unemployment rate. The natives are more likely to benefit from additional immigration than the existing immigrants and, when they do, the overall benefit can be decomposed into "job creation spillover" effect resulting from the immigrants' low bargaining power, and "job stealing" effect resulting from the immigrants' less efficient matching. The implications on the pattern of international migration flows are also discussed. In Chapter 4, a simple macroeconomic model is constructed and applied quantitatively to OECD countries, to analyze the effect of incomplete insurance on saving, growth and welfare in a closed economy. In this economy, precautionary saving motivated by uninsured idiosyncratic shocks raises growth rates but lowers risk-free returns. Welfare is measured by the sum of growth rates and risk-free rates of return, not growth rates alone. This welfare measure takes the negative impact of precautionary saving into consideration. Applied to the OECD data, three major results emerge: (i) the heterogeneous performance of growth and saving across the countries reflects different degrees of insurance incompleteness, (ii) since the externality of growth on productivity was very strong in the 1960's, the heavily constrained insurance market itself improves productivity by promoting growth, thereby enhancing welfare, (iii) while the externality of growth became weaker in the 1980's, the development of insurance markets lowered growth, but still contributed to a raise in welfare.

This study examines the value placed on learning and knowledge by innovative small and medium-sized computer service firms, using a framework for analysis adapted from intellectual capital (IC). Knowledge is conceived as a specialized and appreciable asset capable of being acquired, nurtured, developed, managed and commercially exploited. Emphasis is placed on evaluating the strategies and practices that drive company learning and knowledge transfer in smaller computer service companies with respect to developing and making use of the knowledge owned by employees, customers and the corporation. The study evaluates the extent to which short-term commercial objectives impose conceptual boundaries on particular forms of intellectual capital - skill development, experience and recurrent learning. Data is drawn from case studies and a broader, provincial sample of companies based in British Columbia with ten to one hundred employees. The study concludes that small and medium-sized computer service firms narrowly conceptualize and undervalue knowledge in the area of human resource development, where supporting learning processes and structures are often poorly developed. Companies place a premium value on new forms of knowledge with an obvious potential to improve the skills and experience necessary to support commercial products and services. In contrast, learning, knowledge and expertise related to professional development and more long-term organizational and/or career benefits are consistently and systematically marginalized. The study outlines limitations of the IC framework in terms of the intrinsic values attributed to sources and types of knowledge. Of particular concern is the importance attached to formalized, external relationships with customers and the undervaluing of knowledge with less obvious or potentially more long-term commercial value. Suggestions for using the framework in small and medium-sized computer firms include broadening the existing narrow focus of external knowledge sources to encompass the extensive network of business relationships companies exploit, while the undervaluing of knowledge found in professional development is countered by linking benefits to returns from specific, rather than generic commercial goals. Emphasis is placed on potential gains in efficiency and productivity offered by improvements to learning and organizational processes.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe išanalizuota valstybės intelektinio kapitalo teorija ir valstybės intelektinio kapitalo vertės nustatymo modeliai. Remiantis išanalizuotais valstybės intelektinio kapitalo metodais ir intelektinio kapitalo teorinėmis prielaidomis buvo sudarytas valstybės intelektinio kapitalo vertinimo modelis. Naudojantis šiuo modeliu buvo apskaičiuotas 30 Europos valstybių 2006-2009 m. intelektinio kapitalo indeksas. Atlikti skaičiavimai leido nustatyti Europos valstybių intelektinio kapitalo vertę, atlikti šios vertės kitimo laike analizę, įvertinti intelektinio kapitalo ir BVP ryšį bei intelektinio kapitalo indeksą sudarančių kapitalų tarpusavio koreliaciją. / Master’s thesis analyses the national intellectual capital theory and national intellectual capital evaluation models. According to analysed intellectual capital evaluation models and theoretical assumptions the national intellectual capital evaluation model was composed. This model was used to identify intellectual capital value of 30 European countries in 2006-2009. The analysis of intellectual capital index tendencies was performed. Strong national intellectual capital correlation with GDP was identified also correlation of structural, human and intellectual capital were identified.

Šio magistro baigiamojo darbo tema nagrinėja pastaraisiais dešimtmečiais makroekonominėje užsienio literatūroje itin populiarią žmogiškojo kapitalo koncepciją ir tiria žmogiškojo kapitalo, kaip ekonomikos augimo veiksnio įtaką Lietuvos ekonomikos augimui 2004-2011 m. laikotarpiu. Darbas susideda iš trijų dalių. Pirmojoje apžvelgiamas ekonomikos augimo veiksnių ir žmogiškojo kapitalo ištirtumas mokslinėje literatūroje, antrojoje pateikiami žmogiškojo kapitalo makroekonominių tyrimų bendrieji bruožai, apribojimai bei detaliai aprašoma bei pagrindžiama šio darbo tyrimo metodologija. Trečiojoje dalyje pateikiami statistinio tyrimo duomenys, interpretuojami jo rezultatai, apibrėžiami ribotumai. Rezultatai parodo aukštojo išsilavinimo darbo jėgos svarbą Lietuvos ekonomikos vystymosi procesuose. / This paper focuses on the the concept of human capital that has been a major topic in modern economic literature in the last few decades. The paper consists of three parts. Firstly, the paper provides with an overview of the human capital discussion in the economic literature. The second part consists of brief summary of methodological and empirical findings of human capital empirics followed by a complete description of this paper‘s statistical model and data. The third part shows the results and thoroughly specifies the econometric model.