By understanding current approaches and methods of product development (PD) combined with knowledge of the needs and know-how of customers in the least developed countries (LDCs) associated risks and excessive costs can be avoided. The main purpose of this thesis is to highlight the important need of developing products and services for the LDCs and to look at current practices for PD and to distill these into one method for developing products pertinent to LDC needs and markets. Conversely, the second purpose for this thesis is to examine possible LDC based development tools that can be applicable when designing for the more established markets. There are also crucial social, cultural, economic and political reasons for addressing LDC related issues. The goal is to show companies of all sizes that it can be profitable to expand to new markets in the LDCs and also that the steps used there can help generate new revenue when implemented in their current markets, as well as to provide them a model for it. This thesis includes and clearly demonstrates the importance of development involvement on the local level and the benefit of using complementors. The thesis data and conclusions are based on literature studies and an extended stay in the Dominican Republic. It is here observed that by getting closer to the end customer, a company will get an increased understanding and knowledge that provides an advantage over the competition. And for companies to succeed in the LDCs, the three most significant things to consider are: 1) to find the specific needs of the customer, 2) design for affordability, and 3) to source and manufacture locally. It will be seen that the benefits to such an approach extend outward in essentially all directions.

We examine to what extent Europe´s stock markets are integrated, and how this can be measured. We review 54 empirical studies and find an overemphasis on price-based measures and a need for more quantity-based studies. We update the Baele et al (2004) study on investment funds' equity holdings to March 2006 for ten euro area and four non-euro area countries, provide additional quantity based evidence, and discuss integration theories. Our results indicate a decline in home bias particularly after the advent of the euro. We conclude that although European stock markets have undergone significant developments, the level of European integration is below expectations and there is a high joint integration with the U.S. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

This Thesis examines recent trends in flexible forms of employment and how those forms of employment influence and at the same time are influenced by the economic, structural and regulatory environments in the different countries of the European Union, as well as their diverse labour market regimes. Those interactions are used as the basis for an analysis of the likelihood of convergence or divergence in European ways of work organisation; and for a consideration of how much influence decision makers are capable of exercising on this process. The Thesisis divided into four parts. The first part starts by discussing theories of societal development, presenting a model of firms flexibility, and deals with methodological issues involved in relating firms strategies with national employment environments. The second part examines the characteristics of the various European labour markets using data from the European Labour Force Survey (ELFS, 1984 - 1994) and the New Forms of Work and Activity Survey (NFWA, 1989/90). Firm specific data from the NFWAis used to explain variance in firms use of new forms of employment with other firm features. The study argues that European labour markets are still distinct and that differences in the usage patterns and meaning of new forms of employment can not be explained by firm characteristics alone; differences in national labour market regimes have also to be considered. The third part relates the findings of the previous part to the national employment systems and compares various aspects of the findings in three sample countries (Spain, United Kingdom and Germany). It shows that the various systems function in different manners, and possess competitive advantages / disadvantages in different areas. Conditions needed for one system to work are distinct from those needed for the other systems. Interchanging some features known from other systems to increase for example flexibility in the short run, might have effects contrary to those sought and might destroy a system's foundations in the long run. The fourth part looks into possible converging / diverging trends in European ways of work organisation, given the different starting positions. The evidence presented suggest that in the short term gains can be made through a cost cutting strategy, however this will make in the long run the creation of the wanted high trust, high wage, high quality economy in Europe even more difficult. To overcome short term thinking, which could bring about a convergence towards a economy competing only on costs, co-ordination on a supranational level is needed. As the situation of the national systems is still distinct, decision making on this level is increasingly prone to gridlock. However, recent developments on the company level towards transnational information and work councils on a European level might have important effects, even when such arrangements still lag behind the swift developments towards economic and monetary union.

This paper examines the relationship between the development of the aggregate bond markets and real GDP in 13 highly developed economies. The recent interest in the ties between the real and the financial sector has usually been on the banking sector and the stock markets, rather ignoring the bond markets as a third essential source of external finance. We fill this gap by providing empirical evidence for causality patterns supporting the supply-leading approach in the USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Spain over the 1950 to 2000 period. In the cases of Japan, Finland and Italy we find evidence of interdependence between bond market capitalization growth and real output growth. Granger causality test and co-integration approach are employed to support this conjecture. (author's abstract) / Series: EI Working Papers / Europainstitut

The transfer pricing, literature indicates that an investigation of some aspects of this subject could usefully be undertaken in order to contribute to the understanding of transfer pricing in both domestic and international markets. This study aims at exploring the current state of transfer pricing practice and establishing the importance attached to the ranking of transfer pricing determinants (i. e. objectives and environmental variables) and the extent to which the ranking varies across markets, industry, and according to the transfer pricing method used. It also seeks to discover interrelationship among the transfer pricing determinants in order to produce a reduced set of basic factors. Lastly, it aims at evaluating the relationship between transfer pricing determinants and transfer pricing methods and at discovering a means of predicting the latter from the company's perception of the relative importance of these determinants. To achieve the above objectives, an empirical study covering both domestic and international markets was undertaken in UK companies. The conclusions are concerned with transfer pricing policy, methods currently used, and problems apparent in practice. The overall ranking-by survey respondents of the transfer pricing determinants is given as well as the results of tests of certain hypotheses which relate to this ranking. The transfer pricing determinants used in the survey for domestic and international. markets (twelve and twenty respectively) have been reduced by Factor Analysis to four and six factors. The study made use of the results to obtain measures of the ranking of discovered factors. Finally, the relationship between the transfer pricing determinants and transfer pricing methods was quantitatively evaluated in the form of a set of classification functions by using Multi-Discriminant Analysis. The classification functions are able to predict the transfer pricing method actually used in companies with an acceptable degree of success. The study's results have been reviewed with a small number of senior managers who are involved in establishing transfer pricing policy within their companies.

This thesis seeks to address three important issues relating to the efficient functioning of the Istanbul Stock Exchange. In particular the thesis seeks to answer the following questions 1. What makes markets informationally efficient or inefficient? 2. Has increased stock market volatility had an impact on the equity risk premium and the cost of equity capital to firms? and 3. How is it possible to reconcile the view that markets are weak form efficient and technical analysis is a pervasive activity in such markets? Unlike previous studies, this thesis seeks to examine the issue of efficiency when institutional features specific to the market under investigation are taken into account. Specifically, the thesis adopts a testing methodology which enables us to recognize possible non-linear behaviour, thin trading and institutional changes in testing market efficiency. The results from this investigation show that informationally efficient markets are brought about by improving liquidity, ensuring that investors have access to high quality and reliable information and minimising the institutional restrictions on trading. In addition, the results suggest that emerging markets may initially be characterised as inefficient but over time, with the right regulatory framework, will develop into efficient and effective markets. The second important issue to be examined in this thesis concerns the impact of regulatory changes on market volatility and the cost of equity capital to firms. It is not sufficient to simply examine whether volatility has increased following a fmancial market innovation such as changes in regulation. Rather, it is necessary to investigate why volatility has changed, if it has changed, and the impact of such a change on the equity risk premium and the cost of equity capital to firms. Only then can inferences be drawn about the desirability or otherwise of innovations which bring about increases in volatility. Surprisingly, these issues have not been addressed in the literature. The evidence presented here suggests that the innovations which have taken place in the ISE have increased volatility, but also improved the pricing efficiency of the market and reduced the cost of equity capital to firms. Finally, the thesis tries to identify the conditions under which weak-form efficiency is consistent with technical analysis. It is shown that this paradox can be explained if adjustments to information are not immediate, such that market statistics, in particular statistics on trading volume contain information not impounded in current prices. In this context technical analysis on volume can be viewed as part of the process by which traders learn about fundamentals. Therefore, the thesis investigates the issue whether studying the joint dynamics of stock prices and trading volume can be used to predict weakly efficient stock prices. In summary, the findings of this thesis will be of interest to international investors, stock market regulators, firms raising funds from stock markets and participants in emerging capital markets in general. The implication of the results presented here is that informational efficient emerging markets are brought about by improving liquidity, ensuring that investors have access to high quality and reliable information and minimising the institutional restrictions on trading. In addition, the evolution in the regulatory framework of, and knowledge and awareness of investors in, emerging markets may mean that they will initially be characterised by inefficiency, but over time will develop into informational efficient and effectively functioning markets which allocate resources efficiently. In addition, the results of this thesis have important implications, for emerging markets in general, in identifying the regulatory framework that will achieve efficient pricing and a reduction in the cost of equity capital to firms operating in the economy.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2006.

No description available.

Aim: This research aims to analyze the different market challenges faced by multinational corporations when operating in frontier markets, taking the Lebanese market as the case example. Methodology: The adopted methodology is based on a perspective multi-case study carried out through a qualitative conduct with several multinational corporations operating in frontier markets and Lebanon in specific. Accordingly, the data collection is based on semi-structured face-to-face, telephone and email interviews with different personnel in allocated companies based on their observations and experiences regarding business operations and market conditions in the country. Subsequently, the gathered primary data is analyzed, discussed and compared with secondary data provided by academic journals, books and trustworthy databases. Findings: Against the background of growing international competition companies increasingly follow internationalization strategies and expand their operations into new markets. Thereby, frontier markets, a subcategory of emerging markets, gain in importance. Simultaneously, new opportunities often go hand in hand with various risks and challenges. In this study four different categories of market challenges were applied and investigated: (1) Political Instability; (2) Economic & Financial Constraints; (3) Corruption & Nepotism; and (4) Cultural Differences. The interviews conducted with several MNCs operating in Lebanon devoted that only the country’s Political Instability affected the case companies’ business operations. Economic & Financial Constraints played a tangential role. Whereas, Corruption & Nepotism and Cultural Differences did not affect the enterprises’ operations at all. Hence, the primary data gathered revealed partially contradictory results in comparison to the findings obtained from the literature review. Contribution: This study addresses various market challenges occurring in frontier markets, a comparably new and uncharted subcategory of emerging markets. Particularly, the market challenges in the case country Lebanon are unexplored yet. Thus, the study contributes novel results and aims to close a research gap. Limitations: The findings presented cannot be generalized, neither to other ME countries nor to frontier markets in general. The scope of this study is limited to one specific market, providing companies’ perceptions about various market challenges when operating in Lebanon. In addition, due to the applied qualitative approach and the authors’ geographical distance to the researched market, the sample size is relatively small limiting the generalization of the study outcomes. Suggestions for Future Research: Due to the recently introduced terminology and categorization, research about frontier markets is limited yet. So far, the ME region in general and the case country Lebanon were not in the researchers’ focus regarding market challenges. This study provides initial points of reference about market challenges MNCs face in Lebanon. Further research with a greater variety of investigated enterprises and industries would be conceivable. Moreover, a research focus on SMEs operating in the country might reveal different findings.