The subject of cross-border alliances, and of cooperative strategy generally, is one that has been growing in importance over the last ten to fifteen years, both for practitioners and for academics. The literature on the subject has increased substantially during this time but, as with all subjects that come into vogue, there is currently no generally agreed body of theory, or even terminology to assist the student in researching and understanding the subject. This thesis, which is exploratory in nature, seeks to contribute to the strategic alliance field by means of research aimed at identifying significant associations between formation conditions, management approaches and evolving decision making taken in the case study alliances and the effectiveness of those alliances as deemed by significant partner members. The concluding chapters present findings from the research, attempt to bring together the overall findings, and arrive at some general conclusions, especially certain implications for management. / Master of Commerce (Hons)

This study is a comparative analysis of the level of high-involvement management (HIM) in a group of First Nations businesses in Saskatchewan and a matched sample group of non-Aboriginal businesses in Saskatchewan. The level of high-involvement management in the businesses was measured using an existing survey questionnaire based on one developed by Long (2001). This questionnaire is targeted to both managers and employees in each company. The researcher hypothesized that the level of high-involvement management in the First Nations businesses would be higher than that in the non-Aboriginal businesses. The rationale for this hypothesis was that the First Nations businesses would exhibit a cultural effect that would make the management of the businesses congruent with the traditional high-involvement organizational approach of the Plains Cree and Assiniboine First Nations in Saskatchewan prior to their confinement to reserves. This research has demonstrated that the management approach of First Nations companies is not more high-involvement oriented than a matched sample of non-Aboriginal businesses using a high-involvement management scale. Several techniques were utilized to try to identify a cultural effect. Means testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were all utilized to try to identify a cultural effect, all to no avail. Only when the data was analyzed based on various other dimensions were significant differences identified between First Nations and non-Aboriginal firms in terms of high-involvement management. Even in these cases, the differences are the opposite of that which was hypothesized for this study. In each of these cases, First Nations firms were significantly lower in high-involvement management than non-Aboriginal firms. Management and employee responses to the research instrument were shown not to be significantly different. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.

This study is a comparative analysis of the level of high-involvement management (HIM) in a group of First Nations businesses in Saskatchewan and a matched sample group of non-Aboriginal businesses in Saskatchewan. The level of high-involvement management in the businesses was measured using an existing survey questionnaire based on one developed by Long (2001). This questionnaire is targeted to both managers and employees in each company. The researcher hypothesized that the level of high-involvement management in the First Nations businesses would be higher than that in the non-Aboriginal businesses. The rationale for this hypothesis was that the First Nations businesses would exhibit a cultural effect that would make the management of the businesses congruent with the traditional high-involvement organizational approach of the Plains Cree and Assiniboine First Nations in Saskatchewan prior to their confinement to reserves. This research has demonstrated that the management approach of First Nations companies is not more high-involvement oriented than a matched sample of non-Aboriginal businesses using a high-involvement management scale. Several techniques were utilized to try to identify a cultural effect. Means testing, correlation analysis, and multiple regression analysis were all utilized to try to identify a cultural effect, all to no avail. Only when the data was analyzed based on various other dimensions were significant differences identified between First Nations and non-Aboriginal firms in terms of high-involvement management. Even in these cases, the differences are the opposite of that which was hypothesized for this study. In each of these cases, First Nations firms were significantly lower in high-involvement management than non-Aboriginal firms. Management and employee responses to the research instrument were shown not to be significantly different. Possible explanations for these results are discussed.

Food security and eutrophication are two issues proven to have severe impacts on both humanity and the environment. This study suggests improving the local food security by utilizing phosphorus and nitrogen, available in severe eutrophic small lakes, in local food production, thus turning eutrophication from a problem into a resource. The study theoretically experiments the possibility of using eutrophic water in a greenhouse, where hydroponics is used as a cultivation method. The eutrophic water is pumped from the lake into the greenhouse, and then to the hydroponic system, which is expected to remediate the water, returning clean water to the lake. The objective of this process is to phytoremediate eutrophic water and simultaneously, produce edible commercial plants. Finding the best matching lake and plant nitrogen to phosphorus (N:P) ratio, is of key importance to optimize the remediation process. Based on data from a literature review, edible plants N:P ratios are found lower than typical lake N:P ratios, suggesting that, in some cases, edible plants in the hydroponic system would require additional nutrients to grow optimally. Finding the best matching lake and plant N:P ratio is thought to optimize the remediation process. Matching the lake and plant N:P ratio was conducted in Python.

La maîtrise des risques est un enjeu majeur pour les entreprises. Loin d’être l’apanage des seules catastrophes naturelles, les perturbations des chaînes logistiques actuelles peuvent parfois être causées par des événements mineurs amplifiés par les failles d’organisations industrielles de plus en plus complexes. Nombreux sont les exemples de ces perturbations avec des conséquences économiques graves.La gestion des risques dans les chaines logistiques est un thème récent et les méthodes et outils actuels ne répondent pas encore totalement aux préoccupations des gestionnaires de ces chaînes logistiques. Une grande aide peut être apportée par la simulation des événements affectant les chaînes. Cependant malgré son efficacité pour couvrir la complexité de la chaîne, la simulation reste encore difficile à mettre en œuvre, notamment dans les phases de création et d’exploitation des modèles.Le but de cette thèse est de faciliter l’utilisation de la simulation pour l’analyse des risques dans les chaines logistiques. Ainsi, nous avons développé un référentiel de modélisation pour la simulation qui permet d’assurer une construction facile des modèles de la structure, du comportement et des risques inhérents aux chaines logistiques. Ce référentiel est bati sur un ensemble de metamodèles et de bibliothèques adaptés à la définition de chaînes logistiques et définis sur la base du référentiel SCOR. Ajouté à cela, nous avons proposé un guide de traduction permettant le passage d’un modèle conceptuel de chaîne logistique vers un modèle de simulation permettant de tester les scénarios de risque. Une bibliothèque de modules de simulation a été proposée pour accompagner ce passage. Une étude de cas a été menée pour tester et valider partiellement l’approche proposée. / Controlling risks is an important issue for companies. Far from being only the prerogative of natural disasters, the disruptions of today's supply chains can sometimes be caused by minor events amplified by the flaws of increasingly complex industrial organizations, causing severe economic losses.Risk management in supply chains is a recent theme and the proposed solutions are not yet able to meet the needs of practitioners. One of the solutions to analyse risks is using simulation. But, despite its effectiveness to cover the complexity of the chain, it still presents a major weakness which is the difficulty of implementation.The aim of this thesis is to facilitate and to adapt the simulation for risk analysis of supply chains. Thus, we have developed a modeling framework for simulation which enables an easy construction of models of supply chain structure, behavior and if the associated risks. This is done through the proposition of a set of meta-models and libraries, defined on the basis of the SCOR reference model. In addition, we proposed a translation guide for the translation of the conceptual model of supply chains into a simulation model and enabling testing risk scenario. Additionaly, we developed a library of simulation modules.A case study was conducted and the results show the relevance of the proposed approach.

The master’s thesis is focused on management issues within the organization. It describes and evaluates selected management approaches to capture individual thoughts and consequently creates a comprehensive management philosophy that is applicable across a wide range of specialization. It also deals with the non-governmental non-profit sector, the introduction of a process approach and improvement through the Deming PDCA cycle.