by Vong Vai Kun, Tanny. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [168-179]). / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / Table of Contents --- p.iii / List of Tables --- p.viii / List of Figures --- p.ix / Chapter CHAPTER ONE: --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- Significance of the Study --- p.2 / Chapter III. --- Data and Methodology --- p.9 / Chapter IV. --- Organization of Chapters --- p.12 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO： --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.16 / Chapter II. --- Economic Action and Institution Viewing From An Economic Approach --- p.16 / Chapter III. --- A Critique on The Transaction Cost Approach --- p.19 / Chapter IV. --- The Network Structure / Chapter A) --- Network As a Distinct Form of Organizing --- p.23 / Chapter B) --- Role of Entrepreneurs and Firm's Boundary Under The Network Structure --- p.27 / Chapter V. --- Problem of Embeddedness --- p.29 / Chapter VI. --- A Research Agenda --- p.33 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE： --- GENERAL BACKGROUND OF HONG KONG'S INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.36 / Chapter II. --- The Institutional And Global Economic Context --- p.36 / Chapter III. --- A Brief Account of Hong Kong's Manufacturing Industries / Chapter A) --- Nature of Hong Kong Manufacturing Industries --- p.38 / Chapter B) --- The Declining Manufacturing Sector --- p.40 / Chapter IV. --- Industrial Restructuring and Relocation / Chapter A) --- Industrial Restructuring --- p.41 / Chapter B) --- Scale of Relocation --- p.43 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR： --- STARTING BUSINESS / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.52 / Chapter II. --- Motivations For Starting Business / Chapter A) --- Unfavourable Conditions in Entrepreneurs' Previous Jobs --- p.53 / Chapter B) --- Entrepreneurs' Perceptions of Environment --- p.55 / Chapter i) --- A Favourable Economic Environment --- p.57 / Chapter ii) --- A Niche Market --- p.58 / Chapter iii) --- A Short Run Opportunity --- p.60 / Chapter iv) --- Opportunity Under China's Open Door Policy --- p.62 / Chapter III. --- Process of Starting Business --- p.63 / Chapter A) --- Career History of the Entrepreneurs --- p.64 / Chapter i) --- Working Experience and the Type of Industry Engaged In --- p.64 / Chapter ii) --- Former Company As Seedbed In Starting Business --- p.67 / Chapter B) --- Family As A Supportive Institution --- p.69 / Chapter C) --- Organizational Form In Starting Business --- p.71 / Chapter i) --- Skilled Subcontractor --- p.72 / Chapter ii) --- Craftsmanship --- p.73 / Chapter iii) --- Capacity Subcontractor --- p.73 / Chapter iv) --- Contractor --- p.74 / Chapter IV. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.75 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE： --- FORMS OF ORGANIZING AND GROWTH PATTERNS BEFORE RELOCATION / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.80 / Chapter II. --- Organizing At Initial Stage of Development --- p.80 / Chapter A) --- Composition of Work Force --- p.81 / Chapter B) --- Production Process --- p.84 / Chapter i) --- Capacity Subcontracting --- p.84 / Chapter ii) --- Skilled Subcontracting --- p.85 / Chapter C) --- Finance --- p.88 / Chapter D) --- Technological Development --- p.91 / Chapter III. --- Rational Behind The Network Form --- p.94 / Chapter IV. --- Preliminary Organizational Growth --- p.97 / Chapter A) --- Growth Without Integration --- p.98 / Chapter B) --- Integration --- p.100 / Chapter CHAPTER SIX： --- "RELOCATION： CAUSES, LOCATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL FORM" / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.105 / Chapter II. --- Causes of Relocation / Chapter A) --- Economic Consideration of Relocation --- p.106 / Chapter B) --- Isomorphism --- p.109 / Chapter i) --- Mimetic Isomorphism --- p.110 / Chapter ii) --- Coercive Isomorphism --- p.112 / Chapter C) --- Other Latent Motives --- p.113 / Chapter III. --- Selection of Location --- p.114 / Chapter A) --- Transportation Consideration --- p.115 / Chapter B) --- Network --- p.116 / Chapter C) --- Institutional Environment --- p.118 / Chapter D) --- Isomorphism --- p.120 / Chapter i) --- Mimetic Isomorphism --- p.120 / Chapter ii) --- Coercive Isomorphism --- p.121 / Chapter IV. --- Form Of Cooperation --- p.122 / Chapter CHAPTER SEVEN： --- AFTER RELOCATION:ORGANIZING STRATEGIES AND GROWTH PATTERNS / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.128 / Chapter II. --- Growth After Relocation --- p.129 / Chapter III. --- Form of Organizing After Relocation --- p.134 / Chapter IV. --- The Bureaucratic Environment --- p.144 / Chapter A) --- Organizing Under the Bureaucratic Environment --- p.144 / Chapter B) --- Informal Practices To Gain Profits Under the Bureaucratic Environment --- p.147 / Chapter V. --- Networks As A Social Mediation --- p.149 / Chapter VI. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.151 / Chapter CHAPTER EIGHT： --- CONCLUSION / Chapter I. --- Introduction --- p.158 / Chapter II. --- Research Findings And Discussions / Chapter A) --- Firms' Strategies Of Organizing At Different Stages Of Development: The Different Network Structure In Organizing --- p.158 / Chapter B) --- Growth Strategies Of Firms Before And After Relocation --- p.160 / Chapter C) --- Reflections On Hong Kong Industries' Future Development And China's Open Door Policy --- p.162 / Chapter D) --- Inadequacies Of Williamson's Transaction Cost Approach --- p.164 / Chapter E) --- Elaboration On Granovetter's Embeddedness Arguments --- p.165 / Chapter III. --- Limitations Of The Study --- p.166 / APPENDIX / BIBLIOGRAPHY

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between frequent childhood mobility and perceived social support, education level, and economic well-being in a sample of former Even Start parents. Theoretically the mechanisms for the disruption of frequent mobility are studied through both social capital theory and an ecological model. As individuals are uprooted and moved from one environment to the next they are faced with the developmental challenge of continuous adaptation. With each move losses of social capital at the individual, family, and community level are experienced. The most striking factor about the results of the qualitative analysis is the parallel it finds to previous quantitative studies on the outcomes and risk factors of frequent mobility. The participants who experienced frequent mobility in childhood described lives that were chaotic and uncertain. Frequent childhood mobility was directly mentioned by several of the participants as a factor increasing hardship in their lives, associated with participants' retrospective accounts of their poverty status in childhood and their economic status at the time of the interviews. A lack of significant parental social support in the group experiencing high childhood mobility, and its presence in the low childhood mobility group suggests the disruption frequent childhood mobility may cause in the ability of this group to obtain needed parental social support. In a population where risk factors are already present frequent childhood mobility seems to be a key factor in further reducing life chances. / Graduation date: 2004

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

This dissertation has two major sections. The first section focuses on analyzing objective data gathered from public sources to investigate factors influencing industrial location to Texas. Areas of investigation include (1) where Texas stands--on economic, demographic, sociologic, climatic, and technological terms--in relation to the remaining forty-seven contiguous states; (2) what are the locational characteristics of Texas compared to other states; and (3) what types of industry move to Texas and from where. Regional and state comparisons are also made in terms of factors that can influence business success. The second section is concerned with analyzing survey data gathered from three test groups. The three groups are (1) civic interest groups consisting of Texas mayors, city managers, and chamber of commerce executives; (2) manufacturing executives who have located a new plant in Texas from outside the state since 1978; and (3) out-of-state manufacturing executives who have considered Texas as a possible location but decided not to locate within the state during the period 1978-1983. The major purposes of this section are to determine (1) whether manufacturing executives and Texas community leaders possess different views concerning the relative importance of location factors and factors that are specifically advantageous to the state of Texas, (2) what factors motivate out-of-state manufacturers to select Texas as a location for their plant, and (3) what factors they see as disadvantages. A comparison is made between the findings of the survey data and the objective data. A variety of nonparametric statistical tests are used in testing the hypotheses.

Call number: LD2668 .R4 1985 H92 / Master of Regional and Community Planning

To obtain the rupture history of the Parkfield, California, earthquake, we perform 12 kinematic inversions using elliptical sub-faults. The preferred model has a seismic moment of 1.21 x 10^18 Nm, distributed on two distinct ellipses. The average rupture speed is ~2.7 km/s. The good spatial agreement with previous large earthquakes and aftershocks in the region, suggests the presence of permanent asperities that break during large earthquakes. We investigate our inversion method with several tests. We demonstrate its capability to retrieve the rupture process. We show that the convergence of the inversion is controlled by the space-time location of the rupture front. Additional inversions show that our procedure is not highly influenced by high-frequency signal, while we observe high sensitivity to the waveforms duration. After considering kinematic inversion, we present a full dynamic inversion for the Parkfield earthquake using elliptical sub-faults. The best fitting model has a seismic moment of 1.18 x 10^18 Nm, distributed on one ellipse. The rupture speed is ~2.8 km/s. Inside the parameter-space, the models are distributed according the rupture speed and final seismic moment, defining a optimal region where models fit correctly the data. Furthermore, to make the preferred kinematic model both dynamically correct while fitting the data, we show it is necessary to connect the two ellipses. This is done by adopting a new approach that uses b-spline curves. Finally, we relocate earthquakes in the vicinity of the Darfield, New-Zealand earthquake. 40 years prior to the earthquake, where there is the possibility of earthquake migration towards its epicentral region. Once it triggers the 2010-2011 earthquake sequence, we observe earthquakes migrating inside regions of stress increase. We also observe a stress increase on a large seismic gap of the Alpine Fault, as well as on some portions of the Canterbury Plains that remain today seismically quiet.

When Department of Defense (DoD) personnel receive orders to relocate to a new duty installation, nearly one third abandon their companion animals, which negatively affects the local shelters' costs, personnel, and capabilities to provide quality care for shelter animals. There is a lack of research on relevant policies among local government policy makers, installation commanders, directors of animal shelters, and animal rights advocates about the abandonment of companion animals by DoD personnel. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive case study was to investigate the relationship between the influx of abandoned DoD companion animals and the management and logistical (including financial) operations of 2 publicly funded animal shelters near a Midwest DoD installation. The theoretical framework was Merton's theory of unintended consequences. Data were collected through interviews with 2 shelter directors, 10 surveys completed by shelter personnel, and a review of the shelters' logistical and financial documents spanning fiscal years 2013 - 2014. Data were analyzed after coding for themes and patterns. According to study findings, the abandonment of companion animals by DoD personnel has a negative impact on the shelters' finances, shelter personnel workload and stress, and the quality of life for incoming animals as well as those already in the shelters. The implications for positive social change are to inform policy makers of the importance of implementing policies to keep DoD companion animals with families, thereby easing transitions for those at risk, which helps to maintain the financial solvency of animal shelters, reduce stress for shelter personnel, and help companion animals to adjust as they are adopted into new homes.

This thesis consists of a summary and five self-contained papers addressing dynamics of firms in the Swedish wholesale trade sector. Paper [1] focuses upon determinants of new firm formation in the Swedish wholesale trade sector, using two definitions of firms’ relevant markets, markets defined as administrative areas, and markets based on a cost minimizing behavior of retailers. The paper shows that new entering firms tend to avoid regions with already high concentration of other firms in the same branch of wholesaling, while right-of-the-center local government and quality of the infrastructure have positive impacts upon entry of new firms. The signs of the estimated coefficients remain the same regardless which definition of relevant market is used, while the size of the coefficients is generally higher once relevant markets delineated on the cost-minimizing assumption of retailers are used. Paper [2] analyses determinant of firm relocation, distinguishing between the role of the factors in in-migration municipalities and out-migration municipalities. The results of the analysis indicate that firm-specific factors, such as profits, age and size of the firm are negatively related to the firm’s decision to relocate. Furthermore, firms seems to be avoiding municipalities with already high concentration of firms operating in the same industrial branch of wholesaling and also to be more reluctant to leave municipalities governed by right-of-the- center parties. Lastly, firms seem to avoid moving to municipalities characterized with high population density. Paper [3] addresses determinants of firm growth, adopting OLS and a quantile regression technique. The results of this paper indicate that very little of the firm growth can be explained by the firm-, industry- and region-specific factors, controlled for in the estimated models. Instead, the firm growth seems to be driven by internal characteristics of firms, factors difficult to capture in conventional statistics. This result supports Penrose’s (1959) suggestion that internal resources such as firm culture, brand loyalty, entrepreneurial skills, and so on, are important determinants of firm growth rates. Paper [4] formulates a forecasting model for firm entry into local markets and tests this model using data from the Swedish wholesale industry. The empirical analysis is based on directly estimating the profit function of wholesale firms and identification of low- and high-return local markets. The results indicate that 19 of 30 estimated models have more net entry in high-return municipalities, but the estimated parameters is only statistically significant at conventional level in one of our estimated models, and then with unexpected negative sign. Paper [5] studies effects of firm relocation on firm profits of relocating firms, employing a difference-in-difference propensity score matching. Using propensity score matching, the pre-relocalization differences between relocating and non-relocating firms are balanced, while the difference-in-difference estimator controls for all time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity among firms. The results suggest that firms that relocate increase their profits significantly, in comparison to what the profits would be had the firms not relocated. This effect is estimated to vary between 3 to 11 percentage points, depending on the length of the analyzed period.

HOPE VI, instituted in 1993 and subsequent related policies, resulted in the demolition of traditional public housing and the relocation of former residents. For former residents living on low incomes, combining housing subsidy and other social services is important to survival. One crucial type of social services support provides food supplements. Research indicates that among low-income families, many do not receive necessary food social services. For example, among eligibles, food stamp utilization is at 50 to 60%, and for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) rates vary from 38 to 73%. Research indicates that 35% of food insecure older adults are ineligible for the Elder Nutrition Program, and approximately 60% of eligibles are wait-listed upon application. Social services utilization patterns among eligibles are affected by neighborhood contexts. Relocation due to public housing transformation policies has been shown to change neighborhood context. This in turn has affected former public housing resident’s cultural capital and social capital. But how this affects food social services utilization has not been studied. I use Klinenberg’s (2002) activist client thesis as a framework to investigate the effect of cultural capital and social capital for housing subsidy recipients (relocated public housing residents) in Atlanta on their utilization of food social services using secondary longitudinal data from the Georgia State University Urban Health Initiative analyzed using ordered logistic regression. Most specifically, my research investigated how varying neighborhood contexts affect food social services utilization for former public housing residents in Atlanta. This research informs public policy on the provision of housing subsidy and the provision of food social services.