Esta tese investiga as mudanças ocorridas nas políticas sobre drogas no Brasil e em Portugal na última década do século XX e na primeira do século XXI. O argumento central, tomado em parte dos debates existentes entre as vertentes neoinstitucionais, é que tais mudanças só podem ser interpretadas a partir do conhecimento a respeito das trajetórias históricas das políticas e sua relação com o contexto internacional mais amplo no qual estão inseridas. Desta forma, construiu-se uma narrativa a respeito das mudanças em um processo indutivo baseado em investigação empírica que se articula em torno do conceito de dependência da trajetória. Nesse sentido, a ideia central da tese é que as diferentes naturezas das mudanças nas políticas analisadas podem ser compreendidas a partir da sua contextualização histórica e da importância dos efeitos que as escolhas e decisões tomadas em um dado momento têm no desenvolvimento posterior das políticas. / This thesis investigates the changes ocurred in the drug policies in Brazil and in Portugal in the last decade of the XXth century and in the first decade of the XXIst century. The central argument, taken in part of the existing debates within the neoinstitucionalist approaches, is that such changes can only be interpreted based on the knowledge regarding the historical trajectories of the policies and its relation with the broader international context in which they are imbedded. This way, a narrative was built concerning the changes on drug policies in these both countries, in an inductive process, grounded on empirical research that articulates itself around the concept of path dependence. In this sense, the central idea of the thesis is that the different natures of the changes in the analysed policies can be understood based on its historical contextualization and the importance of the effects that the choices and decisions taken in a certain moment have in the ulterior development of the policies.

O papel da inovação tecnológica no processo de crescimento econômico tem sido enfatizado pela teoria econômica desde Adam Smith, Karl Marx e Joseph Schumpeter, sendo trazido de volta ao debate pelas contribuições das teorias evolucionárias neo-schumpeteriana e institucionalista. De tal maneira que no período recente construiu-se a noção de que para fomentar o crescimento econômico seria necessário que o Estado implementasse políticas públicas a fim de estimular a inovação tecnológica. Estas políticas, por sua vez, podem assumir diferentes formas, onde os modelos mais difundidos são o linear e o sistêmico. Como o primeiro modelo define etapas a serem seguidas, assim como metas claras, elevação dos gastos em P&D, ele se difundiu e influenciou a construção de políticas de inovação ao redor do mundo. Neste sentido, durante os anos de 1995 a 2012, o Estado brasileiro construiu um aparato institucional e pôs em marcha um conjunto de políticas de inovação a fim de reduzir a brecha existente entre a indústria local e dos países desenvolvidos. Sem embargo, a despeito do esforço empreendido a política de inovação nacional não foi capaz de mudar a estrutura produtiva brasileira. Destarte, o objetivo desta tese é analisar, a partir de uma ótica evolucionária, a natureza da política de inovação praticada no Brasil entre os anos de 1995 e 2012, e com isso tentar compreender o porquê de ela não ter sido capaz de impulsionar o desenvolvimento tecnológico do País. Argumenta-se que isso se deu por a política de inovação ter enraizado em seu cerne o modelo linear de inovação, causando, consequentemente uma trajetória dependente difícil de ser alterada. Esse enraizamento se dá não só dentro do Estado, mas também nos hábitos de pensamento do grande empresariado industrial, que entende a instrumentalização da política de inovação por uma lógica linear, enfatizando meramente gastos em P&D. Como esse grupo teve ao longo dos últimos anos influência na construção da política de inovação nacional, a partir da atuação de lideranças empresariais e de entidades representativas interagindo com o Estado, esse hábito de pensamento acabou por se refletir na construção da política de inovação. / The role of technological innovation in the process of economic growth has been emphasized by economic theory since Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Joseph Schumpeter, and brought back to the debate by the contributions of neo-Schumpeterian and institutionalist evolutionary theories. In such a way that in the recent period was constructed the notion that to foment the economic growth would be necessary that the State implemented public policies in order to stimulate the technological innovation. These policies, in turn, can take different forms, where the most widespread models are linear and systemic. As the first model outlines steps to be followed, as well as clear goals, R & D spending increases, it has spread and influenced the construction of innovation policies around the world. In this sense, during the years 1995 to 2012, the Brazilian State built an institutional apparatus and implemented a set of innovation policies in order to reduce the gap between local industry and developed countries. However, despite the effort made, the national innovation policy was not able to change the Brazilian productive structure. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to analyze, from an evolutionary perspective, the nature of the innovation policy practiced in Brazil between 1995 and 2012, and with that to try to understand why it was not able to drive the development The country. It is argued that this was because innovation policy has rooted at its core the linear model of innovation, causing, consequently, a dependent trajectory difficult to be altered. This rooting occurs not only within the State, but also in the thinking habits of the large industrial entrepreneurs, who understand the instrumentalization of innovation policy by a linear logic, emphasizing merely R&D expenditures. As this group has influenced the construction of national innovation policy in recent years, based on the performance of business leaders and representative entities interacting with the State, this habit of thinking ends up being reflected in the construction of innovation policy.

As China has become one of the largest economic entities in the world, many studies focus on corporate governance in China. In 2001, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) transplanted the outside director mechanism from the United States and the United Kingdom. CSRC hoped that outside directors could play a control role to monitor the behaviours of controlling shareholders, protecting the interests of minority shareholders. However, since it was established, the Chinese outside director mechanism has played an unsatisfactory control role because they are not truly independent of the controlling shareholders. In contrast, many Chinese outside directors use their Guanxi connections (a particular kind of social connections in China) to play a resource acquisition role very well. Based on the theories of the firm, the resource dependence theory, studies of Guanxi and the path dependence theory, this thesis finds that when Chinese outside directors use their Guanxi connections to play their resource acquisition role, their independence and fiduciary duties required by CSRC is compromised.

Outsourcing attracted much attention in 1989 when Kodak outsourced its data center operation to IBM (International Business Machines Corp.). Nowadays, this strategy has become more popular. At the beginning of this century, the ASP (Application Service Provider) model was considered one of the typical solutions of Internet-based IT (Information Technology) outsourcing. Although this model has been transformed and renamed (e.g. SaaS - Software as a Service), the principle concept of providing IT service through the Internet or wide area network is still there. This study attempts to explore the determinants of customer perception of Internet-based IT outsourcing by obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the ASP model. The research dimensions not only include factors affecting users' perception of service quality but also ASP business position (i.e. the firm origin of ASP and its provider type) and services utilized by the customers. Through the study of firm history, two important theoretical themes of this research - path-dependence and Ansoff's product/ market growth matrix - are taken account of in exploring the influence of the determinants. Web-based questionnaire survey research is conducted together with a documentation study to collect data. Targeting the customers of the top 50 ASPs selected by ASPnews.com during the period 2001-2004, the researcher contacted 597 potential respondents, and 196 responses were returned. The valid sample consisted of 175 responses, and 124 of them not only provided full information for satisfaction evaluation but also the information for tracking their ASP vendors' business position. The GLM (General Linear Model) and the Pearson correlation coefficient were the major statistical approaches used to evaluate the survey data for developing a structural model. The research findings indicated that the factors associated with service competitiveness, such as capability and performance, reliability and trustworthiness, affordability, integration and customization, have positive effects on customer perceived satisfaction; whereas lock-in has a negative effect. More specifically, the origin of the ASP firm has a direct effect on capacity and performance, and also directly influences the use of IT adoption services. Based on this finding, a descriptive analysis and qualitative research shows that two mechanisms for path-dependence - existing expertise and perceived expertise - can affect the satisfaction level of capacity and performance of ASP services. On the other hand, provider type has a direct effect on affordability and also directly influences the use of facility supporting services. On this basis, another two mechanisms for path-dependence - transaction cost and standardization - can indirectly impact customer's perception of this business model via affordability. In addition to those major findings, some other determinants (e.g. software applications, brand of applications, and intensity of service used) were also identified in this study. The study result can be used for theoretical understanding about the determinants of ASP customer's perception. It not only indicates a new perspective to enhance the current body of research on this topic, but can also be more broadly applied to any fast-growth firm, rapid-change business, or technology intensive industry. Acknowledgements I would like to sincerely thank the following people for their contribution to this research project. Dr. Scott Koslow, my chief supervisor, for his continued encouragement, patience and guidance to ensure the completion of this project. His speciality in statistics has provided appropriate and valuable guidance in the data analysis for my research. Dr. Steven Lim, my second supervisor, for his advice, coherence, and support over the years. I also appreciate his constructive comments on my drafts and the shaping of my research. Dr. Bob McQueen and Dr. Jim Corner, for their assistance and advice in the early stages of my study. My parents, Yu-Ho and Lee-Chiung Liang, and my brother Ken, my sisters Annie, Eva, and Nancy, my brothers-in-law, J.C. and Chen, and Alice, my sister-in-law, for their emotional support throughout the length of my study. I also thank Bessie, my best friend for her assistance in data collection and her loving support, as well as Ted, Kevin, Mark, Frank, and Shirley, my study mates for their encouragement and friendship. Special thanks goes to Dr. Kuang-Ya Wang, the principal of Yu Da High School of Commerce and Home Economics, Taiwan, and also to the staff over there for their concern and assistance in data collection. Most importantly, my heartfelt appreciation goes to Warren, my husband. I am deeply grateful to him for his understanding, patience, and practical help. Without his enduring support I could not have done this study. Finally, my thanks and gratitude goes to those people who patiently answered my survey questionnaire as their kind assistance made it possible to complete this research.

Underpinning economic growth is the emergence of entrepreneurial ventures with the potential to grow that boost job creation and provide new sources of products for mature companies. The critical role associated with new firms, underscores the importance of understanding how entrepreneurship unfolds. Network-based research, while leading the way to rich empirical studies provides a limited understanding of how entrepreneurial networks are built and their impact on the emergence of a new venture. Employing a multiple case study design and a perspective based on organizational path building, three young technology ventures were investigated in terms of the formation of networks around five key entrepreneurial activities defined by entrepreneurs. Rich insight into new venture emergence is presented in terms of the reciprocal relationship between specific activities enacted by entrepreneurs and the networks that form to execute those activities revealing the path building mechanisms that evolve to drive network development. The findings of this research not only contribute to theories of new venture emergence, but also offer an interesting opportunity for future research into factors that may influence the outcome of entrepreneurial ventures and provide practical insight for organizations seeking to sustain or develop an entrepreneurial path.

This thesis from a constructivist approach to explore the neoliberal interdependence theory, the structural power of nationalism theory, in constructed out of Mainland China to control the East Asian system, how restricting contact sign, Taiwan and Thailand the opportunities of Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECA). Learned from the theory and data analysis, we know that Thailand is relatively dependent on the extent of Taiwan, and the interdependence of economic and social exchange behavior of multi-track each other. Although the basis of comparative advantage that favor positive contact Taiwan and Thailand signed the ECA and the optimum behavior of integration, limited to the new amendment to Article 190 of the Constitution of Thailand must get Congress to vote on the signing of an international agreement approved by the provisions, as well as the rise of Mainland China in East Asia caused by nationalism asymmetry interdependent the structural power constraints, resulting in consistent sign of Taiwan and Thailand ECA system failure, the phenomenon of zero, contrary to the rules of the market liberal institutionalism theory. How to break through Mainland China in the East Asian the structural power system constructed of path dependence, reversing the international status of Taiwan disadvantage, from the analysis of the theory, competence structure and fieldwork, Taiwan and Thailand signed ECA feasibility contact program with specific practices.

Taiwan¡¦s IC foundry has truly emerged as important roles in Taiwan¡¦s electronic industries, whose fast growth has successfully been in the construction of Taiwan¡¦s economic miracle. Through the differentiation strategy, TSMC, the largest and most successful dedicated IC foundry in the world, expands and develops its business from bottom to top. It also has well driven IC industries a Cluster Effect, prosperously fostering the industries in its supply chain, from IC design and manufacturing to packaging and testing, even rapid growth of Taiwan¡¦s personal computer and peripheral industries relatively. Long-term, increasing growth for IC industries had earned many companies to invest low entry barrier factories - IC packaging that needs lower technical expertise and less capital. However, against semiconductor industrial booming and bust cycles, and the phenomenon known as the Bullwhip Effect in supply chains, most packaging factories have been confronting with the challenges in worse and more competitive environments. Those factories, even the same for the new entrants, actively adopted all different types of competitive, cooperative and integrated strategies, not only for profits but survival. In this study, based on path dependence theory, the competitive strategies among ten new IC packaging companies were introduced to discuss, examine, and more further verify the linkages between their competitive strategies and developing paths. The conclusion indicates that competitive strategies of positive developing path may offer new entrants a successful, experienced model to copy with. 1.The advancement of Taiwan IC packaging new entrants gave evidence for developing path¡¦s model. That is to say, different competitive strategies will result in different developing paths. 2.The competitive strategies of the positively developing path¡¦s model are helpful for new entrants to develop positively. Strategic positioning helps to concentrate company¡¦s resources onto her beneficial path to develop. Innovative strategies will help to break through the limitations of path and guide the developing path to success. Competitive advantage helps the developing path come into positive cycles. 3.IC packaging companies have to review and react very often to manage their competitive strategies when the developing path is influenced by the variances of inner and outer environments.

In recent years, methodology of new institutionalism has gradually been the crucial feature of the researches on constitutional system. By pointing out the political actors who affect constitutional operation, the context of institution that constructs constitutional rules, and the social structure accompanied with constitutional culture, etc., the new institutionalism even replaces the old institutionalism in constitutional analysis. However, due to incompatible roots in methodology, new institutionalism has raised more and more disputes. In addition, derived from the same origin that presented historically and methodically, new institutionalism and its old counterpart share some assumptions that make it difficult to divide on institutional approach. Therefore, by the comparative viewpoint of old and new institutionalism approaches, this thesis will integrate them into the analysis of institutional change, and apply to the constitutional change in R.O.C. (1947-2007). Through this way, this thesis will base on the design and operation of the constitutional system of R.O.C. and carry on cause and effect analysis according to the historical context. By several specific time sequences of the path of institutional change, include: crucial moments and changes of the system origin, institutional structure and crisis met, interactive actors¡¦ preferences and tactics, this thesis will also plan to observe the starting point, development of the path and assess its prospect. Moreover, abide by the old and new institutionalism approaches are derived from the same origin, meanwhile, the concepts of ¡§constitution¡¨ and ¡§constitutionalism¡¨ also do combine with them, the purpose of this thesis is to confirm the dimensions of ¡§constitutional law¡¨, ¡§constitutional operation¡¨ and ¡§spirit of constitutionalism¡¨ in Taiwan¡¦s semi-presidential system. Thus, by the comparative viewpoint of old and new institutionalism approaches, this thesis will analyze three main problems of Taiwan¡¦s constitutional operations revealed by the president-premier-Legislative Yuan interactions through the perspectives of ¡§constitutional law¡¨, ¡§constitutional operation¡¨ and ¡§spirit of constitutionalism.¡¨ The concern of this thesis is to establish a new analytical framework which could find out constitutional problems effectively, and propose the solutions.

A case study of the first 35 years, 1945 to 1980, of the Swedish nuclear institution. The purpose is to discover which actors that have shaped the Swedish nuclear institution. By using the theories of historical institutionalism and advocacy coalition framework I have analyzed these 35 years in three separate parts. Historical institutionalism puts emphasis on the creation of an institution, and so have I. The creation phase goes from 1945 to 1972. The following two parts are critical junctures that spans the years 1973-1978 and 1978-1980. The first critical juncture deals with the Centre Party's reversal in their opinion on nuclear power, the 1976 election and the outcome of that election. The third juncture starts with the Harrisburg accident and ends after the 1980 referendum. Using the advocacy coalition framework to analyze the actions or actors and coalitions during these three phases, I have come to the conclusion that the industry actors, those that have built the reactors, have been the most successful in pushing their coalition's agendas, over the years. Their influence was considerable during the years of institutional creation, while the coalitions that opposed nuclear power were quite weak during this time frame, which is consistent with historical institutionalism's focus on the creation, and path dependence.

This study examines farm financial performance of Kentucky farms using Kentucky Farm Business Management data from 1998-2010. Logit models are used to estimate the likelihood of farm characteristics affecting whether financial ratios fall into critical zones or not. The results show that large farms in terms of total gross returns and total assets are less likely to experience repayment capacity problems. Total gross returns significantly affect all five financial measures. These findings will help farmers and lenders understand what factors influence farm financial performance. Profitability migration is tested to see if the migration probabilities differ across business cycles. Migration drift is also tested to determine if the Markov property of independence is violated. Results show substantial retention in return on equity (ROE) performance over time, and a tendency for trend-reversal if ROE changes occur. Results are compared to previous literature using ARMS data and Illinois FBFM.