Diploma thesis analyzes the influence of weather on TV audience in the Czech Republic in 2012 to 2016 by using data of the Association of Television Organizations and meteorological data of the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute. The first part of the thesis deals with the phenomenon of TV ratings, discusses its importance for contemporary society and puts it in the frame of other leisure activities. Additionally, it introduces the current Czech TV market, electronic measurement of TV ratings, its main institutions and complementary research. The empirical part of the diploma thesis focuses on realization of the statistical analysis. Weather components (temperature, rain falls and cloudiness) that affect TV viewing have been identified by using a suitable regression model and their weight in the aggregate meteo factor have been determined. The final model, in addition to weather elements, takes into account calendar effects (day of the week, holidays, season) as well as interaction between weather and calendar effects. The model was applied to total TV audience as well as to selected groups of TV channels, to individual age categories, whole day, prime time and off time and also separately to so called guests TV audience.

This study investigated the influences of personal value systems and risk propensities on managerial decision-making quality during value clashes. The post-globalisation business landscape is impacted by role players of vastly differing personal attributes, hypothesised to have varying influences on decision-making behaviour. A deeper understanding of how these attributes impact decision-making quality will therefore enrich the literature and arm practitioners with improved decision-making skills. A review of behavioural decision-making literature revealed three core approaches: the normative (prescriptive) perspective, focussed on decision analysis, the cognitive limitations perspective highlighting the boundaries of human cognition and the psychological (values/emotions/motivations) perspective allowing for ethical- or value-boundedness. The extant literature contributes little on the quality of decision-making exhibited by managers, or how to improve it. It also doesn’t consider variance in decision-making between groups defined by personal value and risk traits. This study therefore aimed to establish whether decision-making quality varied with variances in personal attributes, and whether an intervention would improve decision-making behaviour. The research, conducted on a sample of 460 South African managers, established the demographics and value- and risk orientations of the participating group. Three value clashing scenarios, incorporating social-relational framing interventions, where introduced to gauge the decision-making behaviour of the test subjects. Decision-making quality was assessed through the integrative complexity measure and qualitative assessments were conducted on the decision motivation texts. Decision-tree analyses, multiple regression analyses as well as T-tests comparing the decision-quality produced by individuals of opposing orientations, revealed a clear relationship between the value segments of self-enhancement and openness to change and higher quality decision-making. Social risk-taking was related to better decision-making and reframing the scenarios produced better decision-making quality responses, if the reframing was done harshly enough. The qualitative analysis supported these findings, but hinted at additional, context specific decision motivators. This study contributed an integrated view of decision-making literature, tested the application of integrative complexity as a measure of decision quality and introduced new perspectives on how value orientations, risk proclivities and scenario framing relate to decision-making quality. Practitioners can apply this to assess individuals in terms of their decision-making abilities, and can improve decision-making quality in managers through scenario re-framing. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / PhD / Unrestricted

Construction literature forwards innovation as a desirable objective for firms. Innovation is argued to; improve the firm s performance, increase market share, establish a competitive advantage, and ultimately ensure firm survival. Literature has overlooked the role of organisational slack within construction firms as a determinant of innovation despite the concept being well developed within the general management literature. This research uncovers and examines the impact of organisational slack on firm-level innovation as a determinant of innovation within the construction sector. This work forwards organisational slack as an unexplored firm level determinant of innovation within the construction context. Using the resource-based view of the firm, as a framework for firms, the thesis develops links between previously established firm level determinates of innovation to and slack to support its proposal as a determinant of innovation. Following this traditional measures of innovation argued fail to accurately capture innovation in the construction context, with patents represent inventions, while R&D expenditure is not applicable within the construction. Due to these failures of traditional approaches to measuring innovation, firm level performance is forwarded as a proxy measure for innovation outcomes. Developing existing slack literature, this thesis develops hypotheses proposing inverse U-shaped (n) and U-shaped (u) relationships between the level of slack and innovation outcomes. The thesis presents mixed method research. Study 1 adopts a deductive research strategy, incorporating statistical analysis to test the hypothesised relationships. The Research Design develops and Archival analysis research method; mirroring the approaches of econometric research found in slack literature. The data analysis explores two contexts: construction and manufacturing, allowing a comparative baseline to be established. The analysis of data from this study reveals that discrepancies in the R2 between the contexts is largely the result of the inability of control variables (Age, Size and Number of employees), to explain variation in firm performance (as a proxy for innovation outcomes) in a construction context, rather than the unsuitability of slack in the construction context. In construction firms, Unabsorbed Slack and Financial Slack demonstrated statistically significant results supporting an inverse U-shaped relationship with firm performance (n) supporting Hypothesis 1a and 1b. Contrary to this Absorbed Slack and Human Resource Slack demonstrated statistically significant results demonstrating a U-relationship (u) between slack and performance supporting hypothesis 2b (H2b). Study 2 adopts a deductive research strategy, incorporating semi-structured interviews as a source of primary data in order to explore the slack-innovation relationship in greater depth. Primarily, this study provided evidence to suggest that construction firms do not directly measure innovation. Instead, firms choose to measure outcomes of changes within the firm, typically in terms of measure relating to firm financial performance. Evidence from this study supports the proposal of firm financial performance as a viable proxy for innovation outcomes in Study 1. In addition to this when faced with changes to their environment, participants responses typically supported a positive linear relationship between the level of organisational slack and the firm. This research is the first to examine the impact of organisational slack on construction firm financial performance (as a proxy for innovation). This relationship is curvilinear in nature, however, the results are inconclusive if it is inverse U shaped (n) or U shaped (u) based upon conflicting evidence from different slack variables. What can be ascertained however, is that the level of slack impacts firm level performance and theoretically impacts firm level innovation.

The analysis of factors influencing the final cost of large contracts in Slovakian infrastructure is the main concern of this study. I will be talking about general Slovakian infrastructure as a whole, contractual law, the contractual system itself and its grading.

Finding a well-predicting model is one of the main goals of regression analysis. However, to evaluate a model's prediction abilities, it is a normal practice to use criteria which either do not serve this purpose, or criteria of insufficient reliability. As an alternative, there are relatively new methods which use repeated simulations for estimating an appropriate loss function -- prediction error. Cross-validation and bootstrap belong to this category. This thesis describes how to utilize these methods in order to select a regression model that best predicts new values of the response variable.

The main goal this master thesis is the identification of key factors influencing the performance and production of Czech agriculture. The work contains into three parts. First part summarizes theoretically background concepts for construction models with looking historical contexts. The second part builds a data base for another work. The third part of the thesis is computational, formulates specific numerical models of possible answer. This part contains a discussion of the results and definitions of possible limits.

This study aims to determine the effect of school conditions on learner reading achievement in primary schools in South Africa. Reading skills are not only imperative for further study but are essential for economic and meaningful citizenship. Initiatives such as the Quality Learning and Teaching Campaign, geared to improve the quality of education for all children and to ensure improved learner achievement have resulted in an increase in educational spending. Despite such initiatives, learner achievement remains poor. In order to measure the relative relationship between school conditions and learner reading achievement, this study focused on selected variables from the PIRLS 2006 South African data, notably from Grade 5 learner reading achievement, teacher and school questionnaires. A secondary data analysis through multiple regression technique was utilised in an attempt to measure those school conditions that may enhance or impede learner reading achievement. This study follows the tradition of school effectiveness research by utilising the context-input-process-output (integrated model for school effectiveness research) model as espoused by Scheerens (2000; 2005). The integrated model was adapted combining school and classroom factors in order to measure the effect of school wide processes on learner reading achievement. Although this study was unable to measure the effect of educational leadership on learner reading achievement, it found significant school and classroom factors associated with learner reading achievement. This study highlights the importance of improving the teaching and learning of literacy across all 11 official languages. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Reading can improve the quality of life for individuals and is widely considered the cornerstone of learning. However, many boys who enjoy reading are bullied. The direct, negative effects of bullying on academic achievement have been exposed in previous research. The purpose of this empirical study was to examine whether any statistical relationship existed between the low overall reading literacy achievement scores of Grade 4 boy learners and whether they experienced being the victims of peer bullying. Three research questions underpinned this quantitative, non-experimental, secondary data analysis. The primary data were collected from 8 196 Grade 4 boy learners in South Africa as part of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011. The three research questions were: What is the relationship of bullying with Grade 4 boy learners overall reading literacy achievement scores when categorised for each of the individual prePIRLS 2011 benchmarks? What is the correlation between overall reading literacy achievement scores and being a victim of bullying as measured by the Learners Bullied at School Index? What is the potential statistical relationship between the overall reading literacy achievement scores of Grade 4 boy learners and the degree to which they have experienced bullying as measured by prePIRLS 2011, looking at the Learners Bullied at School Index as well as the six independent bullying variables individually? Bronfenbrenner s Ecological Model of Human Development served as a theoretical framework for the study, and a post-positivistic epistemological paradigm was adopted. Overall reading literacy achievement scores from the reading assessments were positioned on a common reading achievement scale using item response theory methods that offered an overall image of the assessment outcomes. The prePIRLS 2011 Learner Questionnaire itself was based on the Likert scale, while the variable Learners Bullied at School Index is a contextual scale based on Rasch modelling. The descriptive statistical analysis revealed that the more frequently the Grade 4 boy learners experienced bullying, the lower their overall reading literacy achievement scores were and vice versa. The Pearson correlation revealed that, as bullying increased, overall reading literacy achievement scores decreased proportionately. The multiple regression revealed that a school that had higher levels of bullying could expect overall reading literacy achievement scores to be lower. Finally, the model statistics revealed that bullying accounted for only 5% of the variation in the target population s overall reading literacy achievement scores. Therefore, other associated variables can be investigated in future research, including, but not limited to, cyberbullying. If the statistical relationship between bullying (including cyberbullying) and reading literacy receives immediate attention, it could lead to stronger design, improved development, and implementation of preventative measures. / Die sleutel tot leer is geletterdheid. Geletterdheid word bereik deur te lees. Lees beskik oor die vermoë om die lewensgehalte van individue te verbeter. Vir dié rede is die leesgedrag van Graad 4-skoolseuns, wat die teikenpopulasie van die huidige studie is, die fokuspunt. Vorige navorsing het reeds die negatiewe en regstreekse gevolge van afknouery (boeliegedrag) op akademiese prestasie onthul. Dus, as lees die hoeksteen van leer is, moet afknouery as 'n moontlike struikelblok tot leer ondersoek word. Die doel van die studie was om te ondersoek of daar enige statistiese verhouding bestaan tussen die lae algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie van Graad 4-skoolseuns en of hul die slagoffers is van afknouery. Die studie het gebruik gemaak van Bronfenbrenner se Ekologiese Model van Menslike Ontwikkeling as teoretiese raamwerk. Verder het die studie ? post-positivistiese epistemologiese paradigma aangewend. Die studie is gegrond op 'n kwantitatiewe, nie-eksperimentele, sekondêre data-ontleding van data versamel van 8 196 Graad 4-skoolseuns in Suid-Afrika. Die data is versamel as deel van die Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2011. Algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie is geplaas op 'n algemene leesprestasieskaal met behulp van itemresponsteoriemetodes. Die prePIRLS 2011-leerdervraelys is gebaseer op die Likert skaal. Die Leerders Afgeknou by die Skool Indeks is ? kontekstuele skaal wat gebaseer is op Rasch-modellering. Die drie navorsingvrae wat ondersoek is, was die volgende: • Wat is die verhouding tussen afknouery van skoolseuns en die algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie gemeet teen elk van die prePIRLS 2011 individuele maatstawwe? • Wat is die korrelasie tussen algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie en om ‘n slagoffer te wees van afknouery soos gemeet deur die Leerders Afgeknou by die Skool Indeks? • Wat is die potensiële statistiese verhouding tussen die algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie van Graad 4-skoolseuns en die mate waarin hulle afknouery ervaar het soos gemeet deur prePIRLS 2011, met inagneming van die Leerders Afgeknou by die Skool Indeks asook die ses onafhanklike afknouveranderlikes individueel beskou? Die beskrywende statistiese analise het getoon dat meer gereelde ervarings van afknouery ? verhouding het met laer algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasies van Graad 4-skoolseuns. Die Pearson-korrelasie het getoon dat, indien afknouery vermeerder, algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasies proporsioneel afneem. Die veelvoudige regressie-analise het getoon dat by skole waar hoër vlakke van afknouery gevind is, die algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie laer is. Ten slotte, het die modelstatistieke aan die lig gebring dat afknouery verantwoordelik is vir slegs 5% van die variasie in Graad 4-skoolseuns se algehele leesgeletterdheidsprestasie. Daarom moet ander veranderlikes, met inbegrip van kuberafknouery, met 'n moontlike verhouding met leesgeletterdheid deur toekomstige navorsing ondersoek word. Indien afknouery dringende aandag ontvang, kan dit lei tot verbeterde ontwerp, ontwikkeling en implementering van voorkomende maatreels. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Humanities Education / MEd / Unrestricted

This study aims to establish the relationship between reading literacy in the primary school and parental attitudes and behaviour to reading. Reading literacy is another dimension of literacy (Dubin & Kuhlman, 1992), notably the ability to understand and make use of written language (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy, Trong & Sainsbury, 2009). Despite various educational improvement initiatives undertaken by the South African Education system (ANAs, SACMEQ, TIMMS, PIRLS) as a means of creating systems to improve standards of education (Education Policy Act 2015 of 1998), learner achievement in the primary school remains low. This study makes use of selected variables from the PIRLS 2011 parent questionnaire to measure the extent of the relationship between learner reading achievement in Grade 5 and home level factors such as learning environment, parental behaviours in reading and parental attitudes towards reading. It adopts a secondary analysis design and makes use of quantitative approaches (Creswell, 2003). The Developed model of Home Learning Environment, Parental Behaviours and Parental Attitudes to Reading and Reading Literacy Achievement was adapted from the model of attitudes, behaviours and reading as developed by Abu-Rabia and Yaari (2012). This study was able to establish that the home learning environment and parental behaviours to reading had negative association with reading literacy, meaning that in their absence reading literacy would decrease. It established that parental attitudes to reading had positive association with reading literacy, meaning that in the presence of positive parental attitudes, reading literacy would increase. This highlights the importance of parental involvement in learner reading development. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

In practice, when one has many candidate variables as explanatory variables in multiple regression, there is always the possibility that variables that are important determinants of the response variable might be omitted from the model, while unimportant variables might be included. Both types of errors are important, and in this dissertation it is attempted to quantify the probabilities of these errors. A simulation study is reported in this dissertation. Different numbers of variables, i.e. p= 4 to 20 are assumed, and different sample sizes, i.e. n=0.5p, p, 2p, 4p. For each p the underlying model assumes that roughly half of the independent variables are actually correlated with the dependant variable and the other half not. The noise is ε~ N(0, σ2, where σ2, is set fixed. The data was simulated 10000 times for each combination of n and p using known underlying models and ε randomly selected from of a normal distribution. For this investigation the full model and forward selection regression are compared. The mean squared error of the estimated coefficient β(p) is determined from the true β of each n and p set. A full discussion, as well as graphs, is presented. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Statistics / unrestricted