Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-161). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D. (Management))--Rhodes University, 2005.

Thesis, PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in electronic version.

Cette thèse, fondée sur une enquête ethnographique, est consacrée aux employés de la SNCF qui travaillent en gare, « au contact de la clientèle ». Figures familières des voyageurs, les agents de vente, d‟accueil et d'escale ferroviaire voient leur activité professionnelle évoluer autour d'injonctions relatives à la « qualité de service » rendu, à la « satisfaction client » et au respect d‟objectifs comptables. Des dimensions qui sous-tendent notamment le renouvellement constant d‟un ensemble de normes encadrant leur travail et leur comportement. Cette thèse vise ainsi à mettre en évidence le fait que, bien qu'étant « une réalité ancienne » [Finez, 2013], la régulation marchande qui s'opère à la SNCF est une réalité multiforme, avec pour corolaire des réformes managériales qui redessinent progressivement les contours de l'activité des agents en gare, exigeant d'eux un « travail commercial ». Ces évolutions conduisent à interroger parallèlement le regard qu'ils portent sur ce rôle « commercial » et, plus généralement, la manière dont ces agents perçoivent leur condition professionnelle dans une entreprise publique en mutation.Ce travail s‟inscrit dans le sillage d'un ensemble d'études menées au sein d'entreprises et administrations publiques qui ont mis en exergue les transformations intervenues suite à l'introduction et à la généralisation de dispositifs d'organisation et de gestion appliqués dans le secteur privé. L'objectif est ainsi d'analyser les recompositions professionnelles mais aussi sociales que les exigences commerciales et gestionnaires de la SNCF entraînent. / This thesis, based on an ethnographic survey, focus on SNCF employees working at therailway station, “in contact with customers”. Sales, reception and railways stopover agents,who are the familiar figures of the travelers, see their professional activity evolving accordingto injunctions towards the quality of service returned to the customers, customer satisfactionand respect of sales target. Consequently, the norms around their work tasks and behaviorsare constantly changing due to those types of injunctions. This thesis aims at highlightingthat, despite being “an ancient reality” [Finez, 2013], the trade policy of the state-ownedcompany SNCF is an ongoing reality. It leading to managerial reforms that reshape theactivity of those previously mentioned agents with an important “commercial” dimension. Asa consequence, it is also important to question agents about their option regarding their“commercial” role, and, more generally, about the way they perceive their professionalcondition in a public company undergoing changes. This work falls in with a group of studies conducted in state companies and administrations which underline the changes occurred after the insertion and spread of organizational and managerial measures applied in the private sector. The purpose of this work is therefore to study the professional and social reconfigurations caused by the SNCF commercial and managerial demands.

Even though empirical studies show that political institutions affect various economic policies, standard economic models do not evaluate the effects of government ideology on the performance of state firms. I argue that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are more efficient under center-right governments, while state firms under center-left cabinets show weaker performance. A modified Stackelberg oligopoly competition model that analyzes the proposed connection is developed. I, then, test implications from the model empirically using the case of Lithuania.

This thesis explores, first, the evolvement and implementation of competition policy in China, where a competition culture was largely missing for decades; and second, the extent to which the government has resolved the inherent contradiction between preserving state control and promoting competition. The main aim is to evaluate how a competition law, which is essentially a product of capitalist free market economy, is being applied in China, a socialist country where predominant state-owned enterprises (SOEs) together with their owner – the Chinese government – generate the most distortions to market competition. To achieve this aim, the thesis studies, first, the ongoing economic transition and the historical development of Chinese competition policy; second, the prolonged drafting process of the Anti- Monopoly Law (AML); third, the substantive and institutional aspects of the enforcement of the AML, and the outstanding problems of the current competition system; and fourth, the role of the government in the interplay between competition policy and SOEs. The thesis also studies the European Union (EU) competition regime, which had substantial influence on the adoption of the AML and the design of China’s competition system. This discussion intends to use the experiences of the EU in modernising its competition system and in handling competition-related issues involving public enterprises to provide some meaningful answers to certain problems concerning the application of the AML and to possible reform of competition system in China.