The study aims to summarize and synthesize 236 mean willingness to pay (WTP) estimates from 22 studies on WTP for broadband while exploring factors driving heterogeneity using a meta-regression analysis. Employing weighted least square regression, it identifies factors contributing to heterogeneity, including publication characteristics, study-design characteristics, consumer characteristics, and broadband attributes. Key findings reveal higher WTP in working papers and survey reports compared to peer-reviewed journal articles. WTP for broadband after 2015 is lower compared to pre-2007, potentially reflecting a shift in consumer perception over time. Higher download speeds are associated with increased WTP, and rural areas exhibit a nearly $2 higher WTP than urban areas. Households with income below $75,000 exhibit lower WTP than higher-earning counterparts. These findings are valuable for policymakers, extension specialists, researchers, and internet service providers to address broadband adoption barriers and bridge the availability-adoption gap.

No / The English school sector has been transformed over recent decades through wide-ranging education policies. One far-reaching change has been the dramatic rise in academy schools driven by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition (2010-2015) (Stevenson 2016), with 64.7% of secondary state-funded schools now holding academy status (Department for Education 2018). A central issue emerging from this context is the changes to school teachers’ pay and working conditions, given that autonomy over employment terms and conditions transfer from local authorities to operating education trusts under the academy model (see Academies Act 2010). Stevenson (2011) importantly argued that rather than establishing new directions in education policy, recent changes – such as the academy expansion enterprise – solidify the long-standing trajectory of restructuring to public education, underpinned by neoliberal ideologies. Such projects seek to fragment a public service accountable to local authorities, superseding it with a state-subsidised system buttressed by predominantly private investors (Stevenson 2011); pressing schools into competition for students and resources (Connell 2009). Dovetailed in this setting, a significant study by Carter and Stevenson (2012:491), exploring workforce remodelling in teaching, found strong evidence for “an accelerated form of creeping managerialism,” with middle-grade teachers carrying increasing responsibility for the monitoring of colleagues. The combined effects of markets and managerialism, that bolster the grander-scale neoliberal project, have worked in unison to fundamentally recast teachers’ experiences of work (Stevenson and Wood 2013). Currently in its analytical phase, this PhD study, informed by a labour process theoretical (LPT) perspective, set out to explore (1) the various formal and informal structures and processes (control strategies) that impact on school teachers’ work, (2) how teachers experience those control strategies, (3) teachers’ orientations to work and (4) how teachers’ orientations to work interrelate with their experiences of control strategies. Several scholars employ an LPT perspective to facilitate critical studies of teachers’ work (for examples see Carter and Stevenson 2012; Stevenson and Wood 2013). Yet there remains a paucity of research that takes an LPT approach to the in-depth interpretive analysis of teachers’ work. Inspired by a call from Reid (2003) for research that combines LPT with detailed single-site ethnographic accounts, a qualitative ethnography of one academy school in Northern England was conducted over a four-month period. This comprised interviews with 26 teachers, senior managers, HR and trade union representatives; a six-week shadowing period; non-participant observations and document collection. This article focuses on two key issues relating to the impact of academies and widespread managerialism on teachers’ work experiences: working time and teaching preparation. In particular, it highlights the erosion of autonomy previously given to teachers to manage their own time, lessons and resources; with accounts of increased frustration at the rising mechanisation of teaching. The central contribution of this paper, therefore, is the application of LPT to the context of contemporary teachers’ work in England, to gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of academies and widespread managerialism on school teachers’ working lives.

Executive pay research has traditionally focused on salary, severance payments and longterm incentives. A systematic rigorous empirical examination of short-term annual bonuses is lacking. To address this omission, this research empirically examines the relationship between short-term bonuses and firm performance (TSR and EPS), in the UK. It also considers the association between form of bonus payment (i.e. cash/shares), and type of performance target (i.e. hard/soft and simple/complex) with bonus and performance. Furthermore, firm size and particular corporate governance factors are included (i.e. NED ratio on remuneration committee, CEO presence on nominations committee, CEO/Chair duality, tenure, and power) to examine their relationship with bonus value. From a sample of 299 firms listed in the FTSE-350 (1,542 executives including 300 CEOs), this study uses two competing theories (i.e. agency and power theory) to provide a fuller explanation of the subtleties of the pay-performance relation. The main findings support the agency view, since bonus is positively and significantly associated with financial performance. As with previous studies on executive bonus pay this association remains weak. By implication, power theory is not supported. However, other findings indicate: (1) although firm size may change, the proportion of bonus pay relative to salary does not vary. This suggests that large and small firms pay out proportionally similar bonuses; (2) cash bonuses are not positively related with the total value of bonus pay, suggesting that they are not any more open to abuse than other methods of compensation, as agency theory would predict; (3) cash bonuses encourage short-term achievement, as predicted by power theory; (4) consistent with agency theory, share-based bonuses are positively related to bonus pay and performance (weak association), suggesting that share-based bonuses (rather than cash bonuses) may be more effective at aligning pay with performance; (5) in line with agency theory, transparency (i.e. hard (external/published) and simple bonus conditions) is positively associated with performance, providing support for the alignment between principals' and agents' interests; (6) detailed bonus scheme characteristics are generally insensitive to performance and are becoming increasingly softer (i.e. more internal/unspecified targets) and complex (i.e. multiple targets). On the power view, these may create opportunities for executives to mask weak performance and extract greater rents; (7) governance factors are insignificant, suggesting that efforts to improve this area may be wasted, since they mainly leave pay-performance sensitivities unaffected. However, based on power theory, weak governance may foster the rise of powerful executives and widen the pay-performance gap. Therefore, it is suggested that close monitoring of executive pay must continue and shareholders should remain vigilant.

Vi går mot ett allt mer kontantlöst samhälle, där mobilbetalningar är det betalsätt som används mest efter kortbetalningar. Idag finns det ett stort urval av olika mobila betalningstjänster på marknaden. I denna studie kommer acceptans av digitala plånböcker att undersökas. Digitala plånböcker är betaltjänstapplikationer som bl.a. kan användas för att online och i fysisk butik. Mer specifikt kommer vi att undersöka de digitala plånböckerna Apple Pay och Samsung Pay, vilka är relativt nylanserade på den svenska marknaden. I och med det nya betaltjänstdirektivet (PSD2) som initierades av EU, förväntas fler företag tillhandahålla betalningstjänster som bygger på bankernas API och använda kundens kontoinformation. Denna potentiella förändring av den finansiella marknaden, där företag istället för banker tillhandahåller kunders kontoinformation och sköter deras finansiella tjänster, väcker frågor angående kunders uppfattade förtroende och risk. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka faktorer som påverkade användares acceptans och avsikten att använda dessa digitala plånböcker. Dessa faktorer baserades på E-commerce acceptance model, vilken baserades på den etablerade modellen Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) och litteratur om faktorerna risk och förtroende. Data som låg till grund för empirin hämtades från elektroniska enkäter. Resultatet påvisade att faktorerna uppfattad nytta och förtroende hade starkast påverkan på respondenternas avsikt att använda de digitala plånböckerna. Resultatet och urvalet diskuterades även utifrån teorin Diffusion of Innovations för att kontextualisera studien. / We are moving towards an increasingly cash-free society, where mobile payments are the most frequently used payment method after card payment. Today there is a wide selection of different mobile payment services on the market. This study will focus on acceptance of digital wallets, which are payment service applications that can be used online as well as in physical stores. More specifically, we will examine the digital wallets Apple Pay and Samsung Pay, which are newly launched on the Swedish market. With the new Payment Service Directive (PSD2) initiated by the EU, more companies are expected to provide payment services based on the bank's APIs to use the customer's account information. This potential change in the financial market, where companies instead of banks manage customer account information and financial services, raises questions about customers' perceived trust and risk. The purpose of this study was to investigate which factors influenced users' acceptance and intent to use digital wallets. These factors are based on the E-commerce acceptance model, which was based on the established model Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and literature on the factors risk and trust. The data which the results were based upon were obtained from electronic surveys. The results indicated that the factors perceived usefulness and trust had the strongest impact on respondents' intention to use the digital wallets. The result and sample were also discussed based on the theory Diffusion of Innovations to contextualize the study.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Melbourne, 1990. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the effect of two specific external, to the principal-agent relationship, influences on executive pay practices in the UK, namely pay consultants and the introduction of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay, I examine the role of pay consultants in UK CEO pay practices. The results illustrate that their role is not consistent with the predictions of the managerial power theory. More specifically, pay consultants do not try to help managers towards the expropriation of shareholders' wealth; on the contrary I show strong indications that pay consultants urge firms towards the adoption of more incentive based CEO compensation. Moreover, I report that economic characteristics (e.g. firm size, complexity of the contract) rather than CEO power explain the firm's choice to hire a compensation consultant. These results are robust to selection bias controls. The results of this essay indicate that pay consultants play a less "sinister" role than what the managerial power theory suggests and that their advice and expertise can assist firms design an optimal executive pay contract. In the second essay, I examine the existence of managerial opportunism at the switch from UK GAAP to IFRS. I find strong indications that the restatements from UK GAAP to IFRS have not been manipulated by managers. I examine the existence of such behaviour under different specifications and for different types of CEOs that one would expect to engage in opportunistic behaviour to maximise the expected personal wealth. The research design that I adopt makes the results less prone to methodological issues common in studies in this area. Positive Accounting Theory literature has established that managerial opportunism seriously affects accounting choice. The results of this essay imply that with respect to IFRS restatements, where managers had strong incentives to manage future earnings, I find no signs of manipulation. This essay thus puts into question the Positive Accounting Theory Paradigm. In the third essay, I examine the effect of IFRS on the use of performance measures for evaluating and rewarding managers. This essay illustrates that firms make less use of accounting based performance measures due to the introduction of IFRS. I explain these results based on the predictions of optimal contacting theory. I claim that IFRS adds unnecessary "noise" to accounting numbers not relevant to the managers' actions. This is mainly due to the adoption of "fair value" accounting, which makes accounting earnings more value relevant and therefore useful for firm valuation purposes; however, "fair value" accounting also makes accounting numbers more volatile and sensitive to market movements. If this increase in volatility is related to events outside the managers' control, this makes the use of accounting based performance measures less useful for evaluating and rewarding managers. The results of this essay imply that IFRS might have made accounting earnings more useful for stock market purposes, e.g. firm valuation, but this has happened at the expense of other purposes that accounting serves, e.g. contracting.

Målet med den här undersökningen har varit att se om fastigheten Orkestern 1 går att koppla off-grid och om det är ekonomiskt försvarbart eller om en on-grid lösning är bättre. Förutsättningarna är goda med ett stort tak med plats för solpaneler i öst-västlig riktning och en årsmedelvind på 4 m/s. Då huset är nybyggt och välisolerat är även energiförbrukning låg. För att kunna beräkna hur mycket energi som ska produceras i form av värme och el med hjälp av solceller, vindkraftverk, pelletskamin och dieselverk upprättas en energibalans och energifördelning med hjälp av transmission och ventilationsberäkningar. Lagring av energi görs i form av pellets, batteri och biodiesel. Simuleringsprogrammet för solceller Polysun används för att beräkna produktion av solel över varje månad på året. Diagram upprättas över året indelat i månader där det framgår hur stort energibehovet är och visar hur stor del varje energiproducent har varje månad. En pay-off kalkyl görs för att se om det är ekonomiskt lönsamt och för att kunna jämföra mellan två olika off-grid system. Pay-off kalkylen används också för att jämföra mellan off-grid och on-grid system. Resultatet landar i att on-grid systemet är ekonomiskt hållbart medan off-grid systemet inte är det men är ändå fullt genomförbart. / The main target of this examination has been to see if the real estate Orkestern 1 has the possibility to go off-grid and if it is economical defendable or if on-grid solution is a better way to go. The prerequisites are good with a large roof to place solar panels to the east and west, a yearly average windspeed at 4 m/s and a low energy consumption because the house is new built and well insulated. To calculate how much energy that must be produced in form of heat and electricity with solar cells, windmills, pellet stove and diesel generator an energy balance and an energy distribution will be prepared with help of calculations of transmission and ventilation loses. Storage of energy will be done in form of pellets, battery and biodiesel. The simulation program for solar panels Polysun is used to calculate the produced solar energy for each month on the year. Diagram is prepared for each month to see the need of energy and how much every energy producer is delivering. A straight pay-off calculation is done to see if there are any economic benefits and to compare between off-grid and on-grid systems. The result will be that on-grid system is better economical but still the off-grid system is doable.

Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) is a financial service whereby customers defer payment on a purchase against a short-term debt. While BNPL services have a long history, digital invoice services are now the largest market for BNPL. For the study, two of the largest providers in Sweden, and their checkout interfaces were reviewed for dark patterns. Dark patterns are instances where designers exploit the knowledge of human behaviour (e.g., behavioural psychology) and cognition (e.g., cognitive psychology) in order to coerce the customers into performing target actions. For digital invoice services, the target actions are for the customers to select the credit instalments which profits their business model, as a large percentage of their income are from postponed payments. This study employs three research methods to answer the research questions “What existing dark patterns are identified in digital invoice services, and what are the impacts of dark patterns in the context of digital invoice services?”. First, existing dark patterns were identified through a systematic literature review. Second, the resulting dark patterns were applied to an analysis of the two digital invoice services, where ten dark patterns were identified. Finally, an interface of a digital invoice service was designed, prototyped, and evaluated to test the impact of the identified dark patterns in the context of digital invoice services. Analysis suggests that the users are being coerced through design into the target actions, which were selecting the credit instalments (X2 = 5.84, df=1). The results is being further discussed in means of the potential debt users face from dark patterns in financial interfaces. / Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) är en finansiell tjänst där användarna skjuter upp betalningar mot en kortfristig skuld. BNPL-tjänster har en lång historia, men digitala faktureringstjänster är nu den största inom marknaden för BNPL. För studien granskades Sveriges två av de största faktureringstjänster och deras användargränssnitt för “Dark Patterns”. Dark Patterns är designmönster som utnyttjar kunskapen om mänskligt beteende (t.ex. beteendepsykologi) och kognition (t.ex. kognitiv psykologi) för att uppmana kunderna att utföra riktade åtgärder. För digitala faktureringstjänster är de riktade åtgärderna att användarna väljer kreditbetalningar vilket uppfyller deras affärsmodell, eftersom en av deras huvudsakliga inkomstkällor är från användare som skjuter upp sina betalningar. Denna studie använder tre forskningsmetoder för att svara på forskningsfrågan ”Vilka befintliga “Dark Patterns” kan identifieras i digitala faktureringstjänster, och vad är påverkan av “Dark Patterns” i samband med digitala faktureringstjänster?”. Först identifierades befintliga “Dark Patterns” genom en systematisk litteraturstudie. Sen tillämpades de identifierade “Dark Patterns” i en analys av digitala faktureringstjänster, där tio “Dark Patterns” identifierades. Slutligen skapades en prototyp vars gränssnitt utvärderas för att testa påverkan av de identifierade “Dark Patterns” i samband med digitala faktureringstjänster. Analys tyder på att användarna uppmanas genom design till riktade åtgärder för de digitala faktureringsstjänsterna som valde kreditbetalningarna (X2 = 5,84, df = 1).

This thesis takes an exploratory approach to On Demand Pay, an upcoming technology and employer benefit that allows employees to take out part of their earned salary before payday. With the technology relatively new, the academic literature around On Demand Pay is still in its infancy and we know little about how it affects employees beyond the financial benefit. Based on qualitative and exploratory interviews, the goal of this thesis is to explore ways in which On Demand Pay could affect employees and employer in a small Swedish software consultancy. The results indicate that the financial aspect of being able to take out a salary advance and having more flexibility around when to receive a salary might not affect software developers in the mid- to high-earner range in a particular positive or negative way. It could however negatively affect developers temporarily, as it can interfere with established budgeting habits. Still, there are indications of On Demand Pay positively affecting job satisfaction coming from a feeling of increased recognition and appreciation by the employer.

Thesis (M.Sc. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2023 / The agricultural sector plays an important role in South Africa regardless of the small contribution of 1.88% it has to the GDP of the Country. Small-scale maize farmers’ decisions to adopt adaptation options in response to climate change and variability are influenced by socioeconomic, institutional, and environmental factors, indicating that decision patterns can be very specific to a given locality. The study aimed to analyse the determinants of small-scale maize farmers’ willingness to pay for changing planting dates in the face of climate change. This study had two main objectives, to identify and describe the socio-economic characteristics of small-scale maize farmers, and to determine factors influencing the small-scale maize farmer’s willingness to pay for changing planting dates in the face of climate change in Makhuduthamaga Local Municipality. The study used primary data with a sample size of 150 small-scale maize farmers. Descriptive statistics and the Probit Regression Model were employed when analysing data. The study employed purposive sampling in the data collection process and three villages were selected. Probability was proportional to sample size and was used to select the number of small-scale maize farmers for the sample frame of each village. About 58% of the sampled small-scale maize farmers were willing to pay for changing planting dates in the face of climate change, as opposed to 42% of those not willing to pay for changing planting dates. Empirical results from the analysis reported that age (10%), educational level (1%), level of income (1%), years of farming (10%), total output (1%), exposure to climate information services (5%), and use of indigenous forecast (1%) out of twelve explanatory variables were found to be significant. Based on the empirical findings of the study it is recommended that government officials together with other stakeholders such as NGOs and research institutions should invest in the education of small-scale maize farmers through knowledge systems such as (presentations, conferences, seminars, abet etc). Government policies and strategic investment plans that support improved small-scale maize farmers’ accessibility to climate information are also recommended.