by Mok Wai Chung, David and Dai Yat Hang, Alice. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Bibliography: leaf 66. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.iv / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.v / Chapter / Chapter I. --- "THE COMPANY, ITS PRODUCTS AND ITS COMPETITORS" --- p.1 / Company Profile --- p.1 / Corporate Culture and Company Philosophy --- p.2 / Organization Structure --- p.3 / Property Development vs Property Investment --- p.4 / Process of Property Development --- p.5 / Classification of Competitors --- p.8 / Strengths and Weaknesses of Cheung Kong --- p.10 / Chapter II. --- MARKET PROFILE --- p.12 / The Building Industry Development --- p.12 / Building Types --- p.13 / Profit Contribution --- p.15 / Market Structure Characteristics --- p.17 / Competitive Strategy of Rival Firms --- p.19 / Chapter III. --- IDENTIFICATION OF THE UNSERVED MARKET NICHE --- p.20 / Public Housing Scenerio --- p.20 / Rental --- p.21 / HOS/PSPS --- p.22 / Supply and Demand of Public Housing --- p.23 / The Cost-Focus Approach --- p.24 / Consumer Profile --- p.25 / Objective --- p.25 / Sampling Method --- p.25 / Observation --- p.26 / Chapter IV. --- COST-FOCUS STRATEGY --- p.27 / Cost and Price Analysis --- p.27 / Acquisition of Land --- p.29 / Chapter V. --- MARKETING STRATEGY --- p.30 / Product Strategy --- p.30 / Product Differentiation --- p.30 / Quality --- p.31 / Management --- p.32 / Maintenance --- p.32 / Pricing Strategy --- p.33 / Markup Pricing --- p.33 / Reduction in Construction Cost --- p.33 / Incremental Pricing Strategy --- p.35 / Distribution Strategy --- p.35 / Improvement in Existing Distribution Channels --- p.36 / Creation of District Sales Office --- p.36 / Promotion Strategy --- p.37 / Chapter VI. --- CONCLUSION --- p.39 / APPENDIX --- p.41 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.66

by Lou Tak Meng, Yen Chiang, Raymond. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-76). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / Chapter / Chapter I --- introduction --- p.1 / Objective of the Project --- p.1 / Company Background --- p.2 / Chapter II --- METHODOLOGY --- p.4 / Literature Review --- p.4 / Chapter III --- industry analysis --- p.6 / Rivalry among Existing Competitors --- p.7 / Industry Growth Rate --- p.7 / Concentration and Balance of Competitors --- p.12 / Degree of Differentiation and Switching Costs --- p.13 / Threat of New Entrants --- p.13 / Economies of Scale --- p.14 / First Mover Advantages --- p.14 / Access to Channels of Distribution and Relationship --- p.14 / Threat of Substitute Products --- p.15 / Bargaining Power of Buyers --- p.16 / Bargaining Power of Suppliers --- p.17 / Conclusion --- p.18 / Chapter IV --- COMPANY ANALYSIS --- p.19 / Management and Their Ability --- p.19 / Successful Diversification --- p.19 / Strategic Alliance --- p.20 / Distribution Network --- p.22 / Relationship with Government --- p.23 / Critical Success Factor (CSF) --- p.23 / Chapter V --- ACCOUNTING ANALYSIS --- p.24 / Analysis of Significant Accounting Policies --- p.24 / Accounting for Inventory --- p.24 / Research and Development (R&D) Cost --- p.25 / Revenue Recognition --- p.25 / Analysis of the Quality of Disclosure --- p.26 / Disclosure of Business Strategy and Operating Performance --- p.26 / Disclosure of Notes to Accounts --- p.26 / Conclusion --- p.29 / Chapter VI --- FINANCIAL ANALYSIS --- p.30 / Return on Equity (ROE) --- p.30 / Profit Margin --- p.31 / Asset Turnover --- p.31 / Leverage --- p.31 / Comparative Analysis with the Competitor: Legend Holdings Company Limited --- p.32 / Profit Margin --- p.33 / Asset Turnover - Utilization of Assets --- p.37 / Financial Leverage --- p.40 / Cash Flow Analysis --- p.43 / Prediction of Distress --- p.49 / Conclusion --- p.50 / Chapter VII --- VALUATION OF STONE'S SHARE PRICE --- p.51 / Cost of Capital (WACC) --- p.51 / Cost of Equity --- p.51 / Cost of Debt --- p.54 / Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) --- p.54 / Forecasting the Fair Market Value of Stone using Discounted Free Cash Flow Model --- p.55 / Book Valuation Method --- p.56 / Chapter VIII --- CONCLUSION --- p.57 / APPENDIXES --- p.58 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.74

by Lam Tsui-Wa. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-58). / Questionnaire also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.iii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Background of CLP Holdings (CLP) --- p.1 / Communication in CLP --- p.3 / Background of Joint Consultative Committee --- p.4 / A Need to Review the Efficacy of the Joint Consultative Committee --- p.5 / Objectives --- p.7 / Theoretical Review on Organization Communication --- p.8 / Theoretical Review on Employee Participative Management --- p.10 / Chapter II. --- METHOD OF STUDY --- p.13 / Questionnaire --- p.13 / Pre-testing --- p.15 / Subjects --- p.15 / Chapter III. --- FINDINGS --- p.16 / Chapter IV. --- ANALYSIS --- p.29 / Power: Decision-Making Approach --- p.29 / Information Flow --- p.31 / Rewards --- p.32 / Knowledge and Skills --- p.33 / Chapter V. --- RECOMMENDATIONS --- p.35 / Use of Different Decision Making Approaches --- p.35 / Review of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Rewards --- p.35 / Training and Development --- p.37 / Chapter VI. --- CONCLUSION --- p.38 / APPENDIX --- p.41 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.57

This thesis aims to find general principles governing the behaviour of biological systems, with a particular emphasis in the communicational (social) aspect of these systems. Communication between biological entities plays a major role in their evolution, enabling them to exchange information about their environment and thereby improving their chances of survival. Communication also plays a pivotal role in the organisation of populations of organisms, clearly observed in social insects, but present also at least in bacteria, plants, fungi, animals and humans. It is also theorised that the genetic code is a by-product of the establishment of an innovation-sharing protocol between primitive cells [Vetsigian et al., 2006]. This thesis is mainly concerned with identifying necessary conditions for the emergence of communicational codes, and the problems that arise with their establishment. For this purpose, we introduce an information-theoretic framework where species maximise their growth rate by following a Kelly-gambling strategy to bet on environmental conditions. Information theory provides a powerful tool for abstracting away mechanisms and for focusing on hard limits of a system's dynamics which cannot be circumvented. We begin by exploring the relation between information exchange and limited resources. We show that a transition from cooperation to antagonism in the exchange of environmental information follows from a change in the availability of resources, from abundant to scarce. We then assume a non-competitive scenario with abundance of resources, where conflicts in a population occur only at a communicational (informational) level, rather than on the physical level, such as competing for (physical) resources. However, traditional Shannon communication is non-semantic, as opposed to the semantic communication observed in biological systems, which is necessary for capturing conflicts in communication. In the traditional use of information theory, it is assumed that every organism knows how to \interpret" the information offered by other organisms. However, this assumes that one \knows" which other organisms one observes, and thus which code they use. In our model, however, we wish to preclude that: namely, we will do away with the assumption that the identity of the organisms who send the messages and those who receive them is known, and the resulting usable information is therefore influenced by the universality of the code used and by which organisms an organism is \listening" to. We introduce a model which captures semantic communication in information-theoretic terms, where organisms talk to each other in a communication network. We show that, for particular population structures, when organisms cannot identify which other organisms they talk to, the adoption of a universal code emerges as a solution for full interpretation of the shared information. However, the evolution and establishment of universal codes for communication introduces vulnerabilities: organisms can be exploited by parasites. We de ne two types of parasites whose strategies have different levels of complexity and study the co-evolution of a host (the population) and a parasite by optimising their respective objective functions in stages. First, we consider a disruptive parasite (a troll) that inflicts harm in a host by minimising a population's mutual understanding, and then a more complex parasite, which manipulates the members of the population via their codes (the puppetmaster). We show emergent characterisations of both parasites, as well as which host configurations are robust against parasites and show adaptive properties. This thesis introduces a framework which allows the study of informational properties in the host-parasite co-evolution, where the rules of the parasite's habitat, the host, are the outcome of an evolutionary process, and where these very same rules are those that allow the parasite to exploit the host.

Purpose: The purpose of our thesis is to make an analysis and create an understanding for how the development for special collections, within the fashion retail segment, will look in the future and to see if/how special collections are connected to overconsumption.Methodology: In this thesis, we have relied on a qualitative research strategy for collecting and analyzing data. The research design applied resembles of case studies but is correctly defined as cross-sectional design. We have done semi-structured interviews with three practitioners and one expert. We have also done content analysis of the campaigns for the three current special collections we have investigated.Conclusions: We have come up with the conclusion that there is a future for special collections, but it needs to be a development from how they are worked out today. Some factors are more relevant than others for a possible success for the special collections. These factors are that the collection offers a high rate of trend awareness, that it enables to offer the consumer something extraordinary and that the collection is anchored within environmental issues. / Program: Magisterutbildning i Fashion Management

Consacrée à la famille Martelli de Florence, cette thèse porte sur les dynamiques internes à l’élite marchande du premier Âge moderne, envisagées sur la longue durée, entre le milieu du XIVe et la fin du XVIe siècle. Etude de cas, conduite à plusieurs échelles, elle place au centre de l’enquête les choix individuels et collectifs et les relations socio-économiques, qui sont saisis aussi bien aux échelles micro-historiques des individus et des groupes qu’aux échelles plus grandes des réseaux sociaux, politiques et économiques. Est analysée, en premier lieu, l’ascension sociale, politique et économique de la famille, ce qui permet d’en révéler les enjeux à la fois multiples et mouvants dans le temps. Le jeu d’échelles permet alors de dépasser une dichotomie réductrice, en termes de marginalisation et d’affirmation, et ainsi de saisir ce qui demeure de précarité dans cette famille « nouvelle ». En second lieu, l’étude sur la longue durée des dynamiques internes à la famille conduit à mettre en question l’idée d’une linéarité dans l’évolution des relations entre ses membres et de faire ressortir de complexes articulations entre continuités et changements. La notion même de famille semble faire problème, au regard des stratégies particulières dont elle fut l’enjeu. Enfin, à partir du XVIe siècle, l’étude se concentre sur l’une des branches des Martelli, avec un focus sur son implication dans le monde du négoce local et international. Sont alors examinées de très près les relations et les pratiques sociales et économiques intervenant entre les membres de cette branche, mais aussi à l’intérieur des compagnies marchandes dans lesquelles ils étaient intéressés, notamment à Lyon. / This PhD-dissertation focuses on the internal dynamics of the Florentine merchant elite of the early modern era, basing on a case-study which covers different aspects of its development in the long term, from the middle 14th century to the end 16th century. Case study on different scales, the heart of the analysis are the individual and collective choices within the socio-economic relationships, taken on micro-historical level of individuals and groups, as well as in the broader context of social, political and economical networks. Firstly, the detailed scrutiny of social, political and economic ascension of the Martelli family allows to define its multiple and time-varying stakes. The scale-game enables to go beyond the simple interpretative dichotomies between marginalization and affirmation, providing a fuller insight into the aspects of precariousness of this «new» family. Secondly, the long-term study of internal dynamics within the Martelli family permits to question the linearity of evolution of these relations. Their complexity is investigated in order to determine which elements are constants and which should be considered as variables. As a consequence, the notion of family is being challenged and eventually considered in the framework of individual strategies. Finally, the case study focuses on a small family unit in the 16th century. The in-depth analysis of the relationships and socio-economic practices covers the members of the Martelli family, their involvement in local and international commerce, and the merchant-companies in which they were interested and the one based in Lyon in particular.

This thesis determines and examines the obstacles to Saudi women's right to work in terms of religious and cultural barriers and limited access to higher education through an analysis of Sharia sources, Saudi domestic law and international human rights treaties pertaining to Saudi women's right to work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It also delineates the provisions for women's right to work in Sharia and Saudi domestic law in the public and private sectors. The thesis also examines the reservations that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has entered into, and some of the international human rights treaties it has ratified, with a particular focus on the application of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). It also examines Saudi Arabia's obligations under International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions. In the context of Saudi domestic law, it identifies obstacles that underlie Saudi Arabia's decision not to ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); it examines the arguments for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signing up to the ICESCR; and it examines Saudi Arabia's obligations to respect, protect and fulfil women's right to work under CEDAW. The protection of women's right to work under customary international law, by its sources will be explored. This section will look through customary international law elements; whether or not women's right to work is protected. Finally, the thesis provides recommendations for action which can be taken by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to provide Saudi women with equal rights to work. It also makes recommendations concerning ratified and pending international human rights treaties which have the capacity to protect Saudi women's right to work.

This thesis makes two main contributions to the literature. The first is to establish the existence of a capital supply channel, in particular a bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in the UK using a clean measure of bank loan supply. In this study we exploit the revealed debt preferences of debt issuing firms by using the Becker and Ivashina (2014) fixed effects framework to isolate the impact of credit supply. By conditioning the sample on non-financial firms whose debt issuance is observed, we are able to eliminate the effects of credit demand and to isolate a clean measure for bank loan supply. In this thesis, we find that the tendency by unconstrained, non-financial firms to substitute corporate bonds for bank loans at different points of the financial cycle reflects changes in bank loan supply. We also find that the patterns of substitutability are consistent among more granular classifications of heterogeneous debt. Our results reveal that among unconstrained firms, the proportion of new bank loan issuance declines, while the proportions of corporate bonds and program debt issuance tend to increase, when faced with unfavourable credit market conditions. We then create a loan to bond substitution measure based on observed substitution behaviour of unconstrained firms. We find that this measure explains the out of sample bank loan issuance behaviour of constrained firms. As a result we conclude that the measure is able to cleanly capture changes in bank loan supply. We extend the study to examine the impact of bank loan supply on the financing, hiring and investment decisions of UK non-financial corporations. We find that bank loan supply disruptions significantly and disproportionately affect the hiring and inventory investment decisions of bank dependent firms relative to those of non-bank dependent firms. The propensity to invest or hire among bank dependent UK non-financial firms declines relative to non-bank dependent firms when bank loan supply deteriorates. Moreover, the fixed investment decisions of non-bank dependent firms tend to decline following adverse bank loan supply shocks. These results confirm the existence of a bank lending channel among UK non-financial firms, and the findings are in line with the narrow credit view of monetary policy transmission. Our second central contribution is to analyse the impact of orthogonal QE shocks, credit supply shocks, credit demand shocks, and monetary policy shocks on the aggregate debt issuance behaviour of UK non-financial firms. Using structural vector error correction models (SVECM), we show that QE shocks increase corporate bond issuance and compress term spreads, but have no effect on the policy rate. Moreover, we observe that unexpected increases in the monetary policy rate lead to a decline in corporate bonds in the short term. While credit supply shocks move aggregate bank lending and aggregate corporate bond issuance in the same direction, corporate bond issuance responds with a lag to fluctuation in credit supply. This implies that adverse credit supply shocks may produce amplified negative effects on capital supply as both corporate bonds and bank loan decline. We also establish a counterfactual for corporate bonds and bank loan issues based on our structural model. We find that the QE policies result in the Bank of England averting a decline in corporate bond issuance of between 3% and 10% during the QE period. Our findings in this thesis point towards the existence of a portfolio balance channel of QE that operates in the UK corporate bond markets during the QE period.

A normatização da contabilidade no Brasil tem origem não só na Lei nº 6.404/76, que define as regras contábeis para as Sociedades por Ações, mas também na legislação fiscal, por meio do Regulamento do Imposto de Renda, pelas Instruções, Deliberações, Ofícios Circulares e outros documentos da Comissão de Valores Mobiliários - CVM, pelas Normas Brasileiras de Contabilidade emitidas pelo Conselho Federal de Contabilidade e, até mesmo, pelo Novo Código Civil. Além desse conjunto de órgãos normatizadores, existem ainda as regras ditadas por agências federais reguladoras como a Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (ANATEL) e a Agência Nacional de Energia Elétrica (ANEEL), por exemplo, não se esquecendo do Banco Central do Brasil, que tem poderes para definir regras para as instituições financeiras. Mais recentemente foi criado o Comitê de Pronunciamentos Contábeis (CPC), com o objetivo de centralizar a emissão de Pronunciamentos na área contábil que poderão ser adotados pelos diversos órgãos normatizadores. E, finalmente, em dezembro de 2007, a Lei nº 11.638 alterou substancialmente a Lei nº 6.404/76 em suas disposições de natureza contábil. Nesse cenário de tantos órgãos normatizadores, os diversos Pronunciamentos e Normas produzidos não são iguais entre si quando tratam de um mesmo assunto e, em muitos casos, divergentes em alguns pontos. Além disso, é de se esperar que as práticas contábeis hoje não sejam as mesmas existentes nos anos 70. Este trabalho analisa as alterações julgadas mais importantes ocorridas em um período de aproximadamente trinta anos, isto é, de 1978, quando a Lei das Sociedades por Ações entrou em vigor, a 2008, quando a Lei das Sociedades por Ações foi reformulada em alguns de seus artigos que tratam dos aspectos contábeis. Foi constatado que as alterações ocorridas nas práticas contábeis no decorrer dos anos buscam atender à demanda do mercado, principalmente a exigência de maior confiabilidade e qualidade das informações contábeis publicadas pelas empresas. Podem ser destacados como exemplos a correção monetária integral na década de 80 e primeira metade da década de 90 e a primazia da essência econômica em detrimento de sua forma jurídica no processo de avaliação, entre outros. É importante ressaltar, ainda, a influência norte-americana na Lei nº 6.404/76 e nas normas emitidas pela CVM desde aquele período até a década de 90. Nos últimos anos, a CVM tem a clara preocupação com a convergência das práticas contábeis brasileiras às internacionais emitidas pelo International Accounting Standards Board IASB. / The standardization of accounting in Brazil has its origin not only based on the Law nº 6.404/76, which defines the accounting rules for the Limited Liability Corporation Law, but also on the fiscal law according to the Income Tax Regulation; in addition it is ruled by the Instructions, Rules and other documents complying with the Securities Commission (CVM), by Brazilian Accounting Standard issued by Federal Accounting Council, and also by the Civil Code. Besides these ruling agencies, there are the rules issued by Regulating Agencies such as National Agency for Telecommunications (ANATEL) and National Agency for Electric Energy (ANEEL), as well as the Brazilian Central Bank which establishes rules for financial entities. Recently the Accounting Pronouncements Committee (CPC) was founded for establishing the accounting pronouncements in Brazil, which may be adopted by several ruling agencies. And, finally, in December 2007, the Law nº 11.638 came to change substantially the Law nº 6.404/76 regarding its accounting subjects. Due to this scenario of such a large number of regulating agencies, there are different pronouncements and rules concerning the same issue and, in many cases, divergent in some aspects. Furthermore, the accounting practices nowadays are naturally different from those of the 70´s. This work analyses the main considered changes that have occurred in the last thirty years, in other words, from 1978 when the Limited Liability Corporation Law started, up to 2008, when the Limited Liability Corporation Law was reformulated concerning those articles regarding the accounting aspects. The changes occurred in the accounting practices along the years aim at responding to the market demand, mostly the great need of reliability as well as the quality of the accounting information disclosed by the companies. We can mention as examples the methodology of the Integral Correction in the 80´s and in the early 90´s, besides, the consideration of the economic essence rather than its juridical aspects in the valuation process, among others. It is important to cite, yet, the North American influence concerning the issue of the Law nº 6.404/76 as well as the Rules issued by CVM since then, up to the 90´s. In the recent years CVM is absolutely worried about the convergence between the Brazilian accounting practices and the international accounting practices issued by International Accounting Standards Board - IASB.

by Biala, Winnie Lata, Cheng Ka Lar, Cara. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 57). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES --- p.v / Chapter / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- EVOLUTION OF AIR TRANSPORT --- p.3 / Chapter III. --- KEY FACTORS IN THE AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY --- p.5 / Economy --- p.5 / Aircraft --- p.6 / Airlines --- p.7 / North America --- p.7 / Europe --- p.7 / Asia-Pacific --- p.8 / Chapter IV. --- CURRENT ISSUES IN THE AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY --- p.9 / Downturn --- p.9 / Consolidation --- p.10 / Price --- p.11 / Jet Fuel --- p.11 / New Generation Airlines --- p.12 / Chapter V. --- CHINA'S AVIATION INDUSTRY --- p.14 / Overview --- p.14 / The CAAC and the Aviation Market in China --- p.15 / Underlying Problems of China's Aviation Industry --- p.17 / "Small Pie, Many Players" --- p.17 / Industry Still Regulated --- p.17 / Lagging Behind International Standards --- p.19 / Lack of Corporate Governance Within Airlines --- p.20 / Heavy Losses and Debts --- p.20 / The Civil Aviation Reform --- p.21 / The Post-WTO Era --- p.24 / Chapter VI. --- CHINA SOUTHERN AIRLINES --- p.26 / Company Background --- p.26 / Routes --- p.27 / Fleet --- p.27 / Performance --- p.28 / Finance --- p.28 / Operations --- p.29 / Chapter VII. --- COMPETITORS ANALYSIS --- p.31 / China Eastern Airlines --- p.31 / Air China --- p.33 / Hainan Airlines Group --- p.34 / China Sky Enterprises Group --- p.35 / Chapter VIII. --- TAKING CSA TO THE NEXT STAGE: MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES --- p.37 / Building the Brand --- p.37 / Improving Service Quality --- p.38 / Enhancing Corporate Governance --- p.39 / Smoothing Up Consolidation --- p.40 / Dealing with Losses and Debts --- p.41 / Chapter IX. --- CONCLUSION --- p.43 / APPENDIX --- p.45 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.57