There are two main views of advertising – the informative view and the persuasive view. This thesis studies aspects of the informative view. One aspect of interest is whether firms can benefit from collusion on advertising even though advertising is only informative. If so, will this enhance or lower welfare? There are several reasons why firms may want to collude on adver­tising. First, the legal field is tilted in favour of nonprice collusion. Second, it is not at all obvious that collusion on price is more profitable than collusion on advertising and third, the analyses of Grossman and Shapiro (1984) and others show that profits can be increased by restricting advertising. In Paper 1, we examine firms’ incentives to collude on advertising and the implications for welfare. We find that collusion on advertising and competition on price is more profitable than competition on both price and advertising. We also find that semicollusion on advertising is detrimental to welfare. This suggests a need for monitoring, especially since it is in the interest of firms to restrict price advertising. We also compare semicollusion on price to semicollusion on advertising. We find that, in general, semicollusion on price does not lead to higher profits compared to semicollusion on advertising. Hence we lend theoretical support to the empirical literature that consistently find evidence of semicollusion on advertising rather than on price. Another important issue concerns the effect, on prices and profits, of ad-vertising only a subset of the product range. Many firms, in particular those in the retail sector, sell a wide variety of products but only advertise a few. Recent empirical evidence suggests that prices of unadvertised products are higher (Milyo and Waldfogel, 1999). Theoretically, little is known. In Paper 2, we study the effects of advertising only a subset of products. We allow for both low and high differentiation and, at the same time, we explicitly model the advertising decision. We find that the extend of differentiation between competing firms plays an important role in the analysis of loss leader pricing. When firms sell products with the same reservation price, loss leader pric­ing obtains only when differentiation is low. When products are less similar however, price competition is less intense and, as a result, firms advertise prices above marginal cost. Our loss leader pricing results enable us to shed some light on the seemingly paradoxical empirical findings in the marketing literature that loss leader pricing fails to increase store traffic, loss leader sales and hence to increase profits. We also consider a different subject – price discrimination. Although it is well understood that movements in the exchange rate have a bearing on firm profitability and hence affect firm behaviour, the role of exchange rate variability in the firm’s choice of the number of varieties to produce has (to my knowledge) not been explored. This, despite the fact that the product mix is an important aspect of firm strategy. By tinkering with the number of varieties, a firm can bolster its ability to extract consumer surplus. In Paper 3, we explore this issue. We show that variability in the exchange rate induces the firm to vertically segment markets (i.e., offer two varieties in each market). This happens because exchange rate variability affects income dispersion and hence the firm’s incentives to extract consumer surplus. To better extract surplus, the firm offers two price-quality menus, high quality variant (priced high) for top-end surplus extraction and a low quality variety (priced low) to address market coverage concerns. / <p>Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2005 S. 3-9: sammanfattning, s. 13-95: 3 uppsatser</p>

L’attenzione verso la sostenibilità ambientale da parte di istituzioni, società civile e imprese, ha condotto alla diffusione di molteplici strumenti utilizzati delle imprese per dimostrare il proprio impegno per ridurre l’impatto ambientale dei propri prodotti e processi. Tra questi spiccano le eco-label, certificazioni di qualità ambientale. Attraverso una ricerca esplorativa questa tesi intende chiarire i meccanismi che regolano la comunicazione tra istituzione, impresa e cliente, quali siano i i gap informativi più rilevanti in tale triangolazione e le aree di intervento su agire per ridurre le asimmetrie informative aumentando l’efficacia dell’eco-label, le imprese come fonte di vantaggio competitivo e i certificatori come sistema di riduzione dell’impatto ambientale. La ricerca multi-metodo condotta conferma un diffuso interesse dei consumatori verso la sostenibilità ambientale e l’intenzione di contribuire attivamente, tuttavia, sottolinea anche l’esistenza di numerosi malfunzionamenti della comunicazione sia da parte delle imprese che da parte degli enti certificatori. Spunti interessanti emergono sulle modalità attraverso cui i consumatori vorrebbero essere informati e sulle loro necessità informative circa le eco-label. Emerge chiaramente la necessità di investimenti di marketing da parte delle istituzioni e, per le imprese, la necessità di integrare l’eco-label nella visione strategica per valorizzarne il potenziale di vantaggio competitivo. / During the last two decades, the interest in environmentally-conscious production and consumption has been considerably increasing. In response to these environmental concerns, a growing number of third-party certified eco-labels has been developed. Through eco-labels companies can demonstrate their commitment in lowering the environmental impact of their products and processes. The aim of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of: 1) the communication mechanisms among issuer, firm and customer; 2) the nature of the main information gaps within this triangulation; 3) the areas of intervention as to reduce the information asymmetries and increase the effectiveness of eco-labels, in terms of competitive advantage for firms and increased beneficial effects on the environment for the issuers. The multi-method explorative research conducted confirms a wide interest towards sustainable consumption issues among consumers and their willingness to actively contribute; although it highlights numerous communication failures involving both firms and issuers. Interesting suggestions emerge about the consumers’ preferred ways to be informed on eco-labels and about their information needs. It also clearly emerges the need for marketing investment from the issuers, and the need of integrating the eco-label in the strategic vision for the firms in order to value its competitive advantage potential.

Šiame amžiuje nebeužtenka tik gebėti skaityti ir rašyti. Šiandien žmogus privalo orientuotis globaliame ir komercializacijos įtakos persunktame pasaulyje, kuriame reikia gebėjimo kritiškai vertinti ir interpretuoti visuomenėje vykstančius procesus, žiniasklaidoje pateikiamą informaciją. Žiniasklaidos raštingumas (angl. media literacy) – procesas, kurio metu ugdomas gebėjimas kritiškai mąstyti, analizuoti ir vertinti žiniasklaidos siunčiamus pranešimus. Žiniasklaidos raštingumas – jaunų žmonių kritinių ir kūrybinių gebėjimų vystymasis. Nors kitose šalyse žiniasklaidos raštingumo ugdymas vidurinėse mokyklose pradėtas dėstyti dar septintajame dešimtmetyje, tačiau Lietuvoje šis procesas tik dabar pradeda įsitvirtinti ugdymo sistemoje. Šio darbo tyrimo objektas – moksleivių žiniasklaidos raštingumo ugdymas. Darbo tikslas – įvertinti žiniasklaidos raštingumo ugdymo poreikį, patirtį ir galimybes Lietuvoje. Siekiant šio tikslo iškeliami šie uždaviniai: išnagrinėti žiniasklaidos raštingumo sąvokos vartojimo ir apibrėžimo tendencijas mokslinėje literatūroje ir oficialiuose dokumentuose, išanalizuoti proceso atsiradimo ir poreikio aspektus šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje ir situaciją Lietuvoje. Įvertinti programos ekspertų, mokytojų ir žurnalistų nuomonę dėl žiniasklaidos raštingumo programos poreikio ir naudingumo vidurinėse mokyklose bei ištirti programoje dalyvaujančių moksleivių žinias ir įgūdžius, vertinant žiniasklaidoje pateikiamą informaciją. Kad atlikti šiuos uždavinius... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / In this age it is not enough merely to read or write. These days a person has to orient in the world marked by globalisation and commerce, where in a compentence is needed to critically evaluate and interpret the ongoing society processes and the information proposed by mass media. Media literacy is a process during which an ability of thinking, analizing and evaluating critically the outgoing mass media messages is being developed. Media literacy is a development of young people‘s critical and creative abilities. Even though the education of media literacy was begun to be taught at secondary schools already in the seventies of the previous century, in Lithuania this process has merely begun to be entrenched in the system of education. The object of this research is the education of pupils‘ media literacy. The purpose of the work is to evaluate the need, experience and the opportunities of mass literacy education in Lithuania. The tasks aiming for the purpose are the following: to examine the tendencies of the use and the definition of the concept of media literacy in the scientific literature and official documents; to analyze the aspects of the nascency and the need of the process in modern society as well as to analyze the situation in Lithuania. To evaluate the opinion of the teachers, journalists and experts of the programme on the need and the benefit of the media literacy programme in secondary schools as well as examine the intelligence and skills of the pupils... [to full text]

The research object is probabilistic properties of non-coding DNA (nucleotide) sequences. Available models of DNA sequences are reviewed and their basic assumptions are verified by statistical analysis of bacterial DNA sequences. On the ground of this analysis, the definition of non-informative genetic sequence is introduced and a mathematical model of “genetic noise” is proposed. Computer simulations of non-coding (non-informative) nucleotide sequence evolution are performed and resulting sequences are compared with native ones. The task of visualisation of genetic sequences is an important part of the work. The main tasks of the work are the following: 1. to analyse the statistical features (independence, Markovity, long-range dependence, etc.) of bacterial DNA sequences, especially non-coding ones, 2. to formulate a definition of a non-informative nucleotide sequence (“genetic noise”) and to propose its mathematical model, 3. using the methodology of functional data analysis and the distance metrics between oligonucleotides, to propose an efficient method for nucleotide sequence visualisation. General Conclusions: 1. The probability model of non-informative nucleotide sequence or, in other words, “genetic noise” (an analogue of the “white noise”) is proposed and its properties are studied mainly by computer simulation. The long-range dependence in DNA sequences has been extensively studied and is considered as an evidence of their complexity and hierarchical structure... [to full text]

The research object is probabilistic properties of non-coding DNA (nucleotide) sequences. Available models of DNA sequences are reviewed and their basic assumptions are verified by statistical analysis of bacterial DNA sequences. On the ground of this analysis, the definition of non-informative genetic sequence is introduced and a mathematical model of “genetic noise” is proposed. Computer simulations of non-coding (non-informative) nucleotide sequence evolution are performed and resulting sequences are compared with native ones. The task of visualisation of genetic sequences is an important part of the work. The main tasks of the work are the following: 1. to analyse the statistical features (independence, Markovity, long-range dependence, etc.) of bacterial DNA sequences, especially non-coding ones, 2. to formulate a definition of a non-informative nucleotide sequence (“genetic noise”) and to propose its mathematical model, 3. using the methodology of functional data analysis and the distance metrics between oligonucleotides, to propose an efficient method for nucleotide sequence visualisation. General Conclusions: 1. The probability model of non-informative nucleotide sequence or, in other words, “genetic noise” (an analogue of the “white noise”) is proposed and its properties are studied mainly by computer simulation. The long-range dependence in DNA sequences has been extensively studied and is considered as an evidence of their complexity and hierarchical structure... [to full text]

Questa tesi studia un mercato assicurativo competitivo in cui gli assicurati possiedono informazione privata riguardo la loro rischiosità, e al contempo gli assicuratori, in ragione della loro superiore esperienza, hanno una maggiore abilità a valutare il rischio. Nel caso in cui il rischio sia perfettamente stimabile dagli assicuratori e tale stima rappresenti la loro informazione privata, una perfetta rivelazione dell'informazione può non avvenire ed equilibri profittevoli sono possibili, nonostante il contesto competitivo. Inoltre, l'aumento della pressione competitiva può rivelarsi inefficace ai fini di una riduzione dei prezzi assicurativi, in quanto può semplicemente comportare una riduzione dei profitti dei singoli assicuratori. Tuttavia, Il vantaggio informativo degli assicuratori può permettere soluzioni caratterizzate da una maggiore efficienza. La presenza di doppia asimmetria informativa permette anche di spiegare l'esistenza di una correlazione negativa tra rischio e copertura assicurativa in mercati competitivi. Inoltre, se la stima del rischio da parte degli assicuratori è affetta da incertezza, così che gli assicuratori differiscono gli uni dagli altri per quanto riguarda la stima del rischio, profitti nulli non sono consentiti. / This dissertation studies a competitive insurance market in which a policyholder owns private information about her own riskiness and at the same time insurers (through their higher expertise) are better able to estimate it. If insurers’ estimations are private and identical, we find that, despite the presence of competition, perfect revelation of information is not necessarily achieved and profitable outcomes are possible. Adding competitive pressure may be ineffective in driving the insurance prices downward, as it simply reduces the individual insurer’s profits. The insurers’ informative advantage, however, allows more efficient outcomes. The presence of a bilateral asymmetry can also explain why, in dispersed markets, low risk policyholders may be more insured than high risk ones. Moreover, if insurers’ private estimations are heterogeneous and suffer of some degree of uncertainty, we find that, in addition to the previous results, actuarially fair outcomes for all policyholders are never allowed, despite the presence of competition.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This thesis has as context the institutional legitimation crisis that occurs in our society and affects the mediating role of journalism informative, maximized by the interactive practices of digital social media, with their abilities for participation, sharing and decentralized distribution of messages by public. This logic is opposed to the broadcast model of mass media that mark the process of journalism legitimacy. The research problem asks: what strategies of institutional legitimacy emerge in the contents of messages postedby the newspaper Zero Hora on Twitter? The overall goal is to understand the strategies used by journalism in order to gain institutional legitimacy through the use of digital social media. The specific objectives are: to recognize the institutional uses of Twitter for Zero Hora, identifying the emerging strategies of institutional legitimacy for the posts of Zero Hora on Twitter, watch as Zero Hora develops its mediation role in the informational use of Twitter as social media, analyze the relationship between the mediating role of journalism and the characteristics of digital social media disintermediation. The Hybrid methodology is qualitative, using content analysis (CA), semi-structured interviews and participant observation in the writing of Zero Hora. The Content Analysis (CA) was performed in two corpora relating to news coverage carried out by Zero Hora with a one year interval between them. The results of the CA was crossed with data from participant observation and interviews, relating to the theoretical analysis. The main uses of Twitter found relate to the categories of information dissemination, participation, sharing and conversation, making to emerge strategies of institutional legitimacy by journalism. The analysis indicates for continuities and ruptures in the process of legitimation by journalism on the passage of the emission centered logic of mass media for decentralized and interactive logic by digital social media. Comparing the two corpora analysis was possible to observe a transformation in the mediating role of the news organization's Twitter, with a growing ownership of the possibilities of digital social media participation, in which the public is increasingly included. / Esta dissertação possui como contexto a crise de legitimação institucional que ocorre na sociedade atual e afeta o papel de mediação do jornalismo informativo, potencializada pelas práticas interativas das mídias sociais digitais, com suas possibilidades de participação, compartilhamento e distribuição de informações pelo público. Essa lógica se contrapõe ao modelo de transmissão da mídia de massa que tem marcado o processo de legitimação do jornalismo. O problema de pesquisa é que estratégias de legitimação institucional emergem no conteúdo das mensagens postadas pelo jornal Zero Hora no Twitter? . O objetivo geral é compreender as estratégias utilizadas pelo jornalismo informativo com vistas a obter legitimação institucional por meio do uso das mídias sociais digitais. Os objetivos específicos são reconhecer os usos institucionais do Twitter por Zero Hora; identificar as estratégias de legitimação institucional emergentes nas postagens de Zero Hora no Twitter; observar como Zero Hora desenvolve seu papel de mediação informativa no uso do Twitter como mídia social; analisar a relação entre o papel de mediação do jornalismo e as características desintermediadoras das mídias sociais digitais. A metodologia é híbrida com caráter qualitativo, utilizando análise de conteúdo (AC), entrevista semi-estruturada e observação participante na redação de Zero Hora. A análise de conteúdo (AC) foi realizada em dois corpora relativos a coberturas jornalísticas realizadas por Zero Hora com um intervalo de um ano entre elas. Os resultados da AC foram cruzados com os dados provenientes da observação participante e das entrevistas, relacionando-se as análises ao referencial teórico. Os principais usos do Twitter encontrados relacionam-se às categorias de difusão de informações, participação, compartilhamento e conversação, em que emergem estratégias de legitimação institucional do jornalismo. A análise indica continuidades e possíveis rupturas no processo de legitimação do jornalismo informativo na passagem da lógica de emissão centralizada da comunicação de massa para a lógica interativa e descentralizada da mídia social digital. Comparando-se os dois corpora de análise foi possível observar uma transformação no papel de mediação da organização jornalística no Twitter, com uma crescente apropriação das possibilidades de participação da mídia social digital, em que o público é cada vez mais incluído.

Depuis la fin des années 1990, face aux risques sanitaires multiples associés à l’alimentation, les écoles sont devenues un champ d’intervention privilégié pour sensibiliser les enfants à la « bonne » alimentation. En France, diverses instances publiques se sont associées pour concevoir et diffuser de vastes campagnes info-communicationnelles à l’échelle nationale dont l’un des objectifs consiste à éduquer les enfants à un ensemble de normes et valeurs liées à ce qui est aujourd’hui désigné comme sain. Cette thèse se propose de saisir les enjeux de cette communication publique ainsi que sa circulation d’instance en instance et d’acteur en acteur jusque dans les écoles. Elle s’appuie sur une analyse sémio-pragmatique des dispositifs info-communicationnels et infopédagogiques produits de 2010 à 2015 par les instances publiques, ainsi que sur des observations participantes et des entretiens semi-directifs dans les écoles. Cette enquête fait apparaître deux logiques à l’œuvre. D’une part, traduits en prescriptions, protocoles et missions selon les différentes échelles territoriales et institutionnelles, les messages de santé publique montrent la volonté d’inculquer aux enfants des modèles normatifs afin qu’ils apprennent à diriger par eux-mêmes leurs conduites et celles des autres. D’autre part, ces prescriptions et dispositifs sont adaptés, transformés, réappropriés et détournés de leur objectif premier à chaque étape de leur circulation. À l’origine de ces transformations, les acteurs successifs forment une chaîne dont les derniers maillons sont les enfants. / Since the end of 1990s and facing up to numerous sanitary risks associated to food, schools became the favorite field of intervention to make children sensitive to so-called “proper”food. In France, diverse public authorities joined to develop and diffuse vast information and communication campaigns on a national scale. One purpose of these campaigns is educatingchildren in a set of standards, norms and values bound to what is seen today as healthy. This work is dedicated to understand what is at stake in this public communication as well as its progress through various authorities and various actors up to schools. It is built upon a semio pragmatic analysis of informative and pedagogical scheme produced between 2010 and 2015 by public authorities as well as observations and semi-directive interviews in schools. This work reveals two logics. On one hand, as messages about public health are translated into prescriptions, protocols and missions according to the various territorial and institutional scales, they demonstrate the will to instill normative models into children so that they learn to manage by themselves their conducts and those others. On the other hand, those prescriptions and devices are adapted, transformed and diverted from their first objective in every stage of their progress. At the origin of these transformations, the successive actors form a chain the last links of which are the children.

All the society is changing all the time. Also tasks a nd ways of work realization, charakter of economic subjects and business are changing. Therefore it is more and more important for all the subjects to use modern methods of controlling. To determine, which activities are preferred for the assigned enterprise and which are only the supporting ones, i sone of the basic thoof facility management. The way ughts and claims of security of accompanying activities for the subjects by organizations blond is called outsourcing. By its exploitation i tis possible to specialize in priority goals of each company and also to decrease expendes on realization of supporting procedures.

Submitted by (ana.araujo@ufrpe.br) on 2016-05-25T16:16:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Cicero Carlos Felix de Oliveira.pdf: 934310 bytes, checksum: 4f4332b0b319f6bf33cdc1d615c36324 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-25T16:16:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cicero Carlos Felix de Oliveira.pdf: 934310 bytes, checksum: 4f4332b0b319f6bf33cdc1d615c36324 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-08 / This dissertation is being dealt with a discrete distribution based on Bernoulli trials, which is the Negative Binomial distribution. The main objective is to propose a new non-informative prior distribution for the Negative Binomial model, which is being termed as a possible prior distribution Beta(0; 0), which is an improper distribution. This distribution is also known for the Binomial model as Haldane prior, but for the Negative Binomial model there are no studies to date. The study of the behavior of this prior was based on Bayesian and classical contexts. The idea of using a non-informative prior is the desire to make statistical inference based on the minimum of information prior subjective as possible. Well, makes it possible to compare the results of classical inference that uses only sample information, for example, the maximum likelihood estimator. When is compared the Beta(0; 0) distribution with the Bayes-Laplace prior and Jeffreys prior, based on the Bayesian estimators (posterior mean and posterior mode) and the maximum likelihood estimator, note that the possible Beta(0; 0) prior is less informative than the others prior. It is also verified that is prior possible is a limited distribution in parameter space, thus, an important feature for non-informative prior. The main argument shows that the possible Beta(0; 0) prior is adequate, when it is applied in a predictive posterior distribution for Negative Binomial model, leading the a Beta-Negative Binomial distribution (which corresponds the a hypergeometric multiplied by a probability). All observations citas are strengthened by several studies, such as: basic concepts related to Bayesian Inference and concepts of the negative binomial distribution and Beta-Negative Binomial (a mixture of Beta with the negative binomial) distribution. / Nesta dissertação está sendo abordado uma distribuição discreta baseada em ensaios de Bernoulli, que é a distribuição Binomial Negativa. O objetivo principal é prôpor uma nova distribuição a priori não informativa para o modelo Binomial Negativa, que está sendo denominado como uma possível distribuição a priori Beta(0; 0), que é uma distribuição imprópria. Essa distribuição também é conhecida para o modelo Binomial como a priori de Haldane, mas para o modelo Binomial Negativa não há nenhum estudo até o momento. O estudo do comportamento desta a priori foi baseada nos contextos bayesiano e clássico. A ideia da utilização de uma a priori não informativa é o desejo de fazer inferência estatística baseada no mínimo de informação subjetiva a priori quanto seja possível. Assim, torna possível a comparação com os resultados da inferência clássica que só usa informação amostral, como por exemplo, o estimador de máxima verossimilhança. Quando é comparado a distribuição Beta(0; 0) com a priori de Bayes - Laplace e a priori de Jeffreys, baseado-se nos estimadores bayesiano (média a posteriori e moda a posteriori) e no estimador de máxima verossimilhança, nota-se que a possível a priori Beta(0; 0) é menos informativa do que as outras a priori. É verificado também, que esta possível a priori é uma distribuição limitada no espaço paramétrico, sendo assim, uma característica importante para a priori não informativa. O principal argumento mostra que a possível a priori Beta(0; 0) é adequada, quando ela é aplicada numa distribuição a posteriori preditiva para modelo Binomial Negativa, levando a uma distribuição Beta Binomial Negativa (que corresponde a uma hipergeométrica multiplicada por uma probabilidade). Todas as observações citadas são fortalecidas por alguns estudos feitos, tais como: conceitos básicos associados à Inferência Bayesiana e conceitos das distribuições Binomial Negativa e Beta Binomial Negativa (que uma mistura da Beta com a Binomial Negativa).