Strategic alliances are a prevalent form of business organization. The critical characteristics of strategic alliances are detailed using Coase (1937) and the resulting definition tested through primary research and the alternative form, the infrastructure alliance posited. The thesis examines whether strategic alliances add value in the European banking sector through four types of analysis at two levels of engagement - a 23 historical review (at industry level); a review of over 400 papers in the academic literature; a questionnaire survey (at firm level) and in-depth interviews (at firm level). Bankers high pre-existing propensity to enter into strategic alliances is determined and three lifecycles, and the underpinning, conditions identified - Clubs and Consortium Banks, Bankassurance and the Virtual bank - the latter involving a fundamental change in Coase (1937) enabled by the underpinning technology. Bankers were found to be followers of potential business steams and the strategic alliance was one form of market entry. The questionnaire research, however, identified European bankers prefer to enter into alliances (as opposed to own branch or M&A) only in countries which had the appropriate supporting conditions such as definable, enforceable and terminable contracts, the provision of accounting information, stable governments and economic freedom. Direct discussions with senior bankers resulted in a number of valuable insights into the conceiving, forming, organizing evolving and dissolving of alliances. Further research into the infrastructure alliance, including 'oscillation' between infrastructure and strategic forms is proposed. The Co-Evolution Model of Strategic Alliances is proposed and taxonomy consisting of parallel co-evolution, convergent coevolution, divergent co-evolution and the subsidiary taxonomy of differential parallel coevolution, differential convergent co-evolution and differential divergent co-evolution detailed and further research suggested. Strategic alliances are found to add value in European banking but this value is contingent on the strength of the business stream, the global, national and industry conditions and the nature of managerial decisions and drive.

The significance of credit risk models has increased with the introduction of new Basel accord known as Basel II. The aim of this study is default rate modeling. This thesis follows the two possible approaches of a macro credit risk modeling. First, empirical models are investigated. Second, a latent factor model based on Merton's idea is introduced. Both of these models are derived from individual default probability models. We employed data over the time period from 1988 to 2003 of the Finnish economy in the first part of this thesis. Time series of bankruptcy and firm's numbers were used. Aggregate data for whole economy as well as industry specific data were available. First, linear vector autoregressive models was used in case of dynamic empirical model. We examined how significant macroeconomic indicators determined the default rate in the whole economy and in the industry specific sector. However these models cannot provide microeconomic foundation as latent factor models. We employed a one- factor model in our estimation although, multi-factor models were also considered. A one-factor model was estimated using disaggregated industrial data. This estimation can help understand relation between credit risk and macroeconomic indicators. Obtained results were used in the second part of this...

The present thesis deals with the specifics of Data Warehouse enhancement in a bank. The aim of the thesis is a definition of the general specifics of banks, their Business Intelligence and Data Warehouse enhancement compared to other companies. The thesis is divided into seven parts. The first part describes the theoretical basis of banking and Business Intelligence. The second part defines the general specifics of banks and their informatics compared to other companies. Then Business Intelligence in a bank, its architecture and enhancement are explored. In the fourth part a conceptual data model of Data Warehouse in a bank is introduced and described in detail. Afterwards the main source systems of Data Warehouse are identified and matched to the subject areas of the data model. The sixth part discovers important application areas of Business Intelligence usage and mentions the basic indicators. The last part presents a case study (a project of Data Warehouse enhancement in a bank). The result of this thesis is clear description of the Data Warehouse in a bank, its data model, source systems, application areas and enhancement.

This thesis analyzes the impact of the monetary policy of the Czech Republic on the Czech banking sector. It explains the monetary transmission mechanism in an inflation targeting regime and its channels: interest rates channel, asset price channel, exchange rate channel and credit channel. The aim of the thesis is to introduce and analyze channels of the Czech transmission mechanism by Correlation and Graphical Analysis of chosen time series and using Linear Regression Model. The analyses are calculated in MS Excel and Gretl.

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