This study aims to investigate the relative contribution of tangible and intangible resources, and capabilities on firm performance based on the measures of market share, sales turnover and profitability and explore the complex interaction and foundation of different resource sets and capabilities in the process of performance creation within the context of resource-based theory. In order to address these objectives, a mixed-methods research approach incorporating both qualitative and quantitative components was utilised. Hence, a sequential explanatory design is employed, commencing with qualitative methods including in-depth interviews along with the literature review to define and organise resources and capabilities in a coherent system that will form the basis of survey instrument, leading to quantitative methods which empirically test a series of hypotheses regarding the contribution of resources and capabilities on firm performance. Whilst qualitative data analysis indicated organisational culture, reputational assets, human capital, business processes and networking capabilities as the most important determinants of firm performance, the survey that was conducted on a total of 243 questionnaires obtained from 951 firms revealed that intangible resources and capabilities contributed more greatly to firm performance compared to tangible resources. However, in contrast to the proposition of resource-based theory that views capabilities as the most important skills that underpin the development and deployment of both tangible and intangible resources, capabilities offered rather limited additional explanatory power to the prediction of firm performance only with respect to profitability against the combined effects of tangible and intangible resources. All findings were explained especially within the context of Turkish business environment that shows typical emerging market characteristics. Moreover, some noteworthy results were elaborated based on the developed and emerging market differences. Overall, the study raises some questions with respect to resource contributions on firm performance and offers a fruitful avenue for further research.

A inclusão de crianças com deficiência em escolas regulares, ocorrida seguindo a Lei 13.146 de 06 de julho de 2015, que institui a Lei Brasileira de Inclusão da Pessoa com Deficiência, exige que as atividades escolares sejam acessíveis a todas as crianças. Entre as atividades escolares, as atividades de programação têm se espalhado nas escolas devido aos benefícios gerados nas habilidades dos alunos, como criatividade e pensamento lógico. Atualmente, essas atividades utilizam principalmente ambientes de programação em blocos, como o Scratch, que focam em aspectos visuais para interação, contando com cores, formatos e utilização do mouse. Nesse contexto, e de grande importância o estudo de interfaces de programação para que crianças com deficiência visual possam ser incluídas e participem em conjunto com as outras crianças. Este projeto busca investigar este tema, bem como propor e avaliar um sistema para atividades de introdução à programação para crianças cegas e videntes. Foi proposto um sistema formado por peças tangíveis, em que os blocos digitais foram substituídos por peças físicas com formas para reconhecimento tátil e respostas auditivas. Foi adotado um modelo cíclico para o desenvolvimento do protótipo que garantiu duas etapas de testes com usuários. Na primeira etapa foram 4 participantes videntes, sendo que três participaram vendados, e a partir das observações foram gerados novos requisitos e modificações no protótipo. Na segunda etapa participaram 2 crianças cegas e os resultados destes testes geraram requisitos específicos para a utilização do sistema por crianças cegas. Este trabalho traz como contribuição final um conjunto de recomendações para o desenvolvimento de sistemas que permitam a crianças cegas e videntes brincarem juntas em atividades de programação. / The inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools, following Law 13,146 of July 6, 2015, which establishes the Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, requires that school activities be accessible to all children. Among school activities, programming activities have spread in schools because of the benefits generated in students\' skills such as creativity and logical thinking. Currently, these activities mainly use blocks programming environments, such as Scratch, that focus on visual aspects for interaction, counting on colors, shapes and mouse usage. In this context, it is of great importance to study programming interfaces so that children with visual impairment can be included and participate together with other children. This project seeks to investigate this theme as well as to propose and evaluate a system for introductory programming activities for blind and sighted children. It was proposed a system formed by tangible pieces in which the digital blocks were replaced by physical pieces with forms for tactile recognition and auditory responses. It was adopted a cyclical model for the development of the prototype that guaranteed two stages of testing with users. In the first stage, four sighted participants, three were blindfolded among them, and and from the first observations were generated new requirements and modifications in the prototype. The second stage involved 2 blind children and the results of these tests generated specific requirements for the use of the system by blind children. This work brings as final contribution a set of recommendations for the development of systems that allow blind and sighted children to play together in programming activities.

Submitted by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-09-17T14:57:23Z No. of bitstreams: 1 HamiltonBrunoDissertacao2018.pdf: 3908365 bytes, checksum: 9e0df17bd246aecffba4df5794e8a7ac (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-09-17T14:58:10Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 HamiltonBrunoDissertacao2018.pdf: 3908365 bytes, checksum: 9e0df17bd246aecffba4df5794e8a7ac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-17T14:58:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 HamiltonBrunoDissertacao2018.pdf: 3908365 bytes, checksum: 9e0df17bd246aecffba4df5794e8a7ac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-07-09 / The process of determining the worth of a company (valuation) aims to calculate the fair value using several methodologies. Considering that, the value of a company is a result of its potential production; valuation methods should measure the capability to generate future benefits from the company's assets, which may be tangible (machinery, stock, etc.) and intangible (brands, the quality of its administration, strategy, etc.). Intangible assets, besides being more difficult to measure, are fundamental to the organization, contributing to the company's value. Several methods have been identified, making more difficult to choose the method to be used. Thus, the present study sought to analyze the main valuation methods and their applications, both those traditionally used and those that used for intangible assets. It was also observed if the governance of the company and involvement in fraud and corruption are considered during the evaluation. The identification of the practices of using which evaluation methods are most appropriate to each type of organization was elaborated from the data collection through the application of a structured questionnaire with professionals of the area and the evaluation of the results by a discussion group composed by specialists. The research findings can contribute to the choice of methods for evaluating companies, depending on their segment, size and concentration of assets: tangible and intangible. The results of this work demonstrate that, despite the existence of several methods of valuation of companies and intangible, the cash flow discounted method is the most used, but can also be complemented by other methods. / O processo de avaliação de uma empresa (valuation) tem como objetivo calcular o valor justo (fair value), sendo que esse cálculo pode ser realizado mediante a utilização de diversas metodologias. Considerando que o valor de uma empresa é representado pelo o que poderá produzir, os métodos de avaliação devem, em princípio, mensurar a capacidade de geração de benefícios futuros, originados dos ativos da empresa, que podem estar sob a forma de ativos tangíveis (imóveis, máquinas, estoques, etc.) e intangíveis (marcas, a qualidade de sua administração, sua estratégia, etc.). Os ativos intangíveis além de apresentarem maior dificuldade de serem mensurados, possuem importância fundamental na medida em que seu adequado gerenciamento gera vantagens competitivas à organização, contribuindo para a alavancagem do valor da empresa. Foram identificados diversos métodos, o que dificulta a escolha do procedimento a ser empregado. Assim, o presente estudo buscou verificar a aplicação dos principais métodos de avaliação, tanto os tradicionalmente utilizados, como os que tratam de avalição dos ativos intangíveis. Procurou-se observar se a governança da empresa e envolvimento em fraudes e corrupção são consideradas quando da avaliação. A identificação das práticas de utilização de quais métodos de avaliação são mais adequados a cada tipo de organização foi elaborado a partir da coleta de dados mediante a aplicação de um questionário estruturado com profissionais da área e da avaliação dos resultados por um grupo de discussão composto por especialistas. Os achados da pesquisa podem contribuir para a escolha de métodos para avaliações de empresas, em função do seu segmento, porte e concentração de ativos: tangíveis e intangíveis. Os resultados deste trabalho demonstram que, apesar da existência de diversos métodos de avaliação de empresas e de intangíveis, o método do fluxo de caixa descontado é o de maior utilização, podendo, porém, ser complementado por outros métodos.

The thesis deals with the depreciation of tangible fixed assets with a focus on the issue concerning component depreciation. The topic is dealt with from the perspective of IFRS, Czech accounting standards and Czech tax regulations. The significant part of the thesis is devoted to a practical example, which illustrates the implementation of component depreciation in the selected company.

A inclusão de crianças com deficiência em escolas regulares, ocorrida seguindo a Lei 13.146 de 06 de julho de 2015, que institui a Lei Brasileira de Inclusão da Pessoa com Deficiência, exige que as atividades escolares sejam acessíveis a todas as crianças. Entre as atividades escolares, as atividades de programação têm se espalhado nas escolas devido aos benefícios gerados nas habilidades dos alunos, como criatividade e pensamento lógico. Atualmente, essas atividades utilizam principalmente ambientes de programação em blocos, como o Scratch, que focam em aspectos visuais para interação, contando com cores, formatos e utilização do mouse. Nesse contexto, e de grande importância o estudo de interfaces de programação para que crianças com deficiência visual possam ser incluídas e participem em conjunto com as outras crianças. Este projeto busca investigar este tema, bem como propor e avaliar um sistema para atividades de introdução à programação para crianças cegas e videntes. Foi proposto um sistema formado por peças tangíveis, em que os blocos digitais foram substituídos por peças físicas com formas para reconhecimento tátil e respostas auditivas. Foi adotado um modelo cíclico para o desenvolvimento do protótipo que garantiu duas etapas de testes com usuários. Na primeira etapa foram 4 participantes videntes, sendo que três participaram vendados, e a partir das observações foram gerados novos requisitos e modificações no protótipo. Na segunda etapa participaram 2 crianças cegas e os resultados destes testes geraram requisitos específicos para a utilização do sistema por crianças cegas. Este trabalho traz como contribuição final um conjunto de recomendações para o desenvolvimento de sistemas que permitam a crianças cegas e videntes brincarem juntas em atividades de programação. / The inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools, following Law 13,146 of July 6, 2015, which establishes the Brazilian Law on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, requires that school activities be accessible to all children. Among school activities, programming activities have spread in schools because of the benefits generated in students\' skills such as creativity and logical thinking. Currently, these activities mainly use blocks programming environments, such as Scratch, that focus on visual aspects for interaction, counting on colors, shapes and mouse usage. In this context, it is of great importance to study programming interfaces so that children with visual impairment can be included and participate together with other children. This project seeks to investigate this theme as well as to propose and evaluate a system for introductory programming activities for blind and sighted children. It was proposed a system formed by tangible pieces in which the digital blocks were replaced by physical pieces with forms for tactile recognition and auditory responses. It was adopted a cyclical model for the development of the prototype that guaranteed two stages of testing with users. In the first stage, four sighted participants, three were blindfolded among them, and and from the first observations were generated new requirements and modifications in the prototype. The second stage involved 2 blind children and the results of these tests generated specific requirements for the use of the system by blind children. This work brings as final contribution a set of recommendations for the development of systems that allow blind and sighted children to play together in programming activities.

The resource-based view of the firm (RBV) is one the most important areas of research content to emerge in the field of strategic management in the last 15 years. The RBV is prescriptive. That is, the RBV prescribes that competitive advantage stems from those resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable, and nonsubstitutable (VRIN). With rare exception, resources that meet the VRIN criteria are widely purported to be intangible in nature. From a research perspective, the RBV stream tends to be dominated by conceptual discussions and advancements. However, empirical tests of the core premises, or the main prescription, of the theory are argued to be very limited in quantity. To add to the body of empirical research that seeks to verify the main prescription of the RBV, this research undertakes a new and different level of analysis, one that has not been previously tested. Given that firms compete with both tangible and intangible resources, the present study is interested in determining if, as the RBV implicitly prescribes, resources that are intangible in nature are more important determinants of firm success than tangible resources. Although the research question is basic and fundamental, it has rarely been appropriately or adequately tested within the RBV stream, as is demonstrated by this thesis. To carry out the research, this study offers a conceptual model of the firm’s resource pool that includes tangible assets (financial and physical assets), intangible assets (intellectual property assets, organizational assets, reputational assets), and capabilities. A series of hypotheses are posited to explore the proposition that intangible resources contribute more greatly to firm success, on the dimensions of sales turnover, market share, and profitability, than tangible resources. / A field survey, administered to 2000 manufacturing and services businesses operating in Australia, is used to gather the data. Of the 2000 surveys sent, the hypotheses are empirically tested using multiple hierarchical regression analysis on a final sample of 291 firms. Control variables include firm age and Porter’s five forces of industry structure. Based on the results, verification of the RBV’s main prescription can not be supported unequivocally. Intellectual property assets, for example, do not have a statistically significant association with firm success, after accounting for the effects of tangible resources and the control variables. Organizational assets, however, not only explain additionally significant variation in firm success, after accounting for the effects of tangible resources and the control variables, but make among the greatest, unique contribution to firm success based on the size of the beta coefficients. Reputational assets offer additional explanatory power to predicting firm success after accounting for the effects of tangible assets and the control variables, but only with respect to one measure of firm success does its beta coefficient make a larger, unique contribution than financial assets. Lastly, contrary to theory, capabilities are not the single most important determinant of firm success, after accounting for the effects of intangible assets, and tangible and intangible assets, in two separate hierarchical regression equations. This finding is surprising and explanations are provided. Overall, the study raises some questions with respect to just which resources are the most important determinants of a firm’s market and financial success and offers a fruitful avenue for further research.

<p>Research and Development-costs constitutes an important part in contemporary companies. R&D are treated differently depending on their definition and how the historic value is decided. The main goal for this essay is to bring clarity to how the definiton of the term R&D is decided in accounting as well as in tax law. Another goal is to decide how the historic value is calculated. It is also interesting to examine under which circumstances the costs can be activated in the balance sheet, and under which circumstances deduction for the R&D-costs may be allowed. Besides R&D-projects when searching for new products, there are other areas in which R&D-projects can be found. For example there can be R&D-projects with the purpose to evolve the companies administrative routines and in the area of personal health-care. The historic value contains all the costs that are related to the project. Activation of a cost may be allowed from the day the company decides that the asset is going to generate economic value in the future. The rights to deduct R&D-costs is admitted when the R&D-project is done within the field where the company is operating.</p>

The thesis claims that an experiential approach to design really does promise the possibility of scientific design of everyday life. The purpose of this thesis is to show the promise. René Descartes conceptualized the classical formulation of a mind-body dichotomy. Various resulting and unbalanced dichotomies, such as subjective-objective, internal-external, experiential-practical and so on, raise serious concerns surrounding the concept of design. The thesis raises a crucial issue about the imbalance between technological and human concerns in the context of human-computer interaction, an imbalance that has been caused partly by the mechanistic aspect of informatics and its impact on designing human computer interaction. The thesis first explores the origin of design as a distinct activity during the industrial revolution, and reviews the tide of design history from then until today. The brief review of design history indicates that design is not merely the skill of making things or presentations. This gives direction to how design can be positioned in our modern information society. Second, the author starts a critical discussion about ordinary design approaches that, it is suggested, may have hindered true human-centred design, and then introduces an alternative approach to design and research, which the author calls Human-Experiential Design. Third, the notion of Tangible Presence in Blended Reality Space is introduced. The conceptual grounding that illustrates the experiential approach to interaction design is discussed. Fourth, the thesis presents use cases and provides examples of Human-Experiential Design in specific practical contexts. The concrete examples suggest that the emphasis on ‘balance’ or appropriate blending is very important in the development of better interactive systems for health, capitalizing on seamless combinations of the virtual and the physical in Blended Reality Space. As exemplified in the thesis, the human-experiential approach, striving for optimal combinations of tangibility and evoked presence, offers a promising tool in designing for special needs groups such as elderly people with some cognitive weaknesses, and children undertaking physical rehabilitation programmes. It is suggested that such virtual-physical blends will release human beings from the strain that existing perceived dichotomies bring. Finally, the author concludes by offering a way forward, a way that is neither subjective nor objective but rather a meaningfully integrated blend of the dichotomies, which responds to the question of what it means to be human.

Research and Development-costs constitutes an important part in contemporary companies. R&amp;D are treated differently depending on their definition and how the historic value is decided. The main goal for this essay is to bring clarity to how the definiton of the term R&amp;D is decided in accounting as well as in tax law. Another goal is to decide how the historic value is calculated. It is also interesting to examine under which circumstances the costs can be activated in the balance sheet, and under which circumstances deduction for the R&amp;D-costs may be allowed. Besides R&amp;D-projects when searching for new products, there are other areas in which R&amp;D-projects can be found. For example there can be R&amp;D-projects with the purpose to evolve the companies administrative routines and in the area of personal health-care. The historic value contains all the costs that are related to the project. Activation of a cost may be allowed from the day the company decides that the asset is going to generate economic value in the future. The rights to deduct R&amp;D-costs is admitted when the R&amp;D-project is done within the field where the company is operating.

The purpose of this master thesis is to provide a deeper understandingof managerial innovation impact on companies through Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR). For this objective, IKEA Karlstad was chosen for theempirical part in order to apply the theoretical framework to practicalrelevance. The method used for this thesis was a case study design includingdata collection from literature in different databases: Emerald, BusinessSource Premier, Scopus as well as Google Scholar. Regarding data collection forthe case study, three qualitative questionnaires were also distributed to IKEA:two designed for the local IT and sustainability coordinator Magnus Engstrandand one targeting employees. A quantitative questionnaire was distributed toIKEA employees too. An interview was set up with Magnus Engstrand according tothe unstructured interview guidelines. The theoretical framework focuses notonly on understanding the links between managerial innovation and CSR,managerial and technological innovations but also on the companies’ motivationto implement these actions and their impact on employees, organizations andcommunity. From our analysis of the literature it can be stated that managerialinnovation is stimulated by an internal element of the company. Managerialinnovation helps partly or entirely to develop CSR actions resulting in thecreation of positive value: tangible or intangible; or negative value accordingto value resonance or value dissonance. The case study analysis broughtexamples of how managerial innovation brings value without involvement of anytechnological innovation contradicting certain theories exposed in thetheoretical framework. At IKEA, the three different types of managerialinnovations are management, administrative and organizational innovations whichare used to develop CSR actions and constitute a minor or major part of theirimplementation. The impact of managerial innovation on CSR is translated atIKEA Karlstad as an intangible value for the company and its stakeholders. Thisthesis contributes to a better comprehension of managerial innovation conceptsin general as well as its application in a CSR strategy through concreteexamples. It can also be used as a demonstration of how managerial innovationcan be used to improve the internal and external images as well as employees’welfare and perceptions. Further qualitative research is needed to measure themanner of managerial innovations as well as quantitative studies to generalizeits impact on a larger scale.