published_or_final_version / abstract / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

This study challenges the long-standing thesis that by the failure to repeal or greatly reduce the war tariffs, the government and the Republican party embarked on a deliberate policy of aiding business.

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Tato práce je zaměřena na zhodnocení alternativního systému zdanění na principu rovné daně. Pro svoji práci jsem zvolila podrobnější zkoumání konkrétní příjmové situace poplatníků v případě zavedení rovné daně a zhodnocení přínosů rovné daně převážně v souvislosti s příjmy. Součástí této práce jsou také příklady z několika států, kde rovná daň byla již zavedena.

This thesis examines the impact of the new revenue recognition standard, Accounting Standard Codification 606 (ASC 606), on the preparation and presentation of the financial statements. This thesis also inspects the impact of this change on the financial markets. This study begins with a qualitative examination of the impacts pertaining to ASC 606 through expert interviews and close examination of previously published reports. This paper later analyzes the financials of 10 specific companies and the effects attributed to ASC 606. And finally, this paper analyzes the effect of this change on the financials markets by examining the stock prices of each firm in the days surrounding the release of the updated financials.

Creating revenue diversification forces nonprofit leaders to create innovative programs and services, build resilience against adverse conditions, and establish a sustainable future. The problem is that some nonprofit managers lack strategies for developing a diversified financial portfolio to achieve sustainability. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore the revenue diversification strategies used by 3 leaders of a nonprofit organization in the eastern region of the United States through the conceptual lens of Markowitz's modern portfolio theory and Thaler's behavioral finance theory. Data were collected using purposeful sampling, semistructured interviews, and analysis of organizational documents, social media platforms, and online databases. Four categories were used to organize the data: process strengths, process opportunities, results strengths, and results opportunities. The key themes that emerged from process strengths and results strengths were utilizing volunteers, collaborating with local partners, developing diverse revenue streams, strong fiscal management, program innovation, and evaluating the market. The key themes that emerged from process opportunities and results opportunities were the lack of written processes and procedures, the lack of process improvement strategies and performance measurement outcomes, the lack of knowledge about donor attrition and retention, and high turnover in the executive director position. Organizational leaders who focus on diversifying revenue streams can serve the mission instead of chasing funding streams that have become more competitive. The social change implication of these findings is that nonprofit leaders could create sustainability through diverse revenue streams, ensuring long-term employment, and sustaining positive social impacts.

Airports contribute about 5% of the gross domestic product and employ over 7 million people in the United States. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the strategies that airport managers need to increase nonaeronautical revenue. A generic strategy does not exist to assist airport operators in generating operating income. Aeronautical revenue does not always provide sufficient funding for airport operations and existing research does not consistently provide effective strategies for all airports to generate revenue. The sample for this qualitative multiple case study consisted of 3 small commercial airport managers in the southeastern North Carolina coastal region. The conceptual framework for this study was built upon general systems theory. The data were collected using semistructured interviews and review of company documents. Transcript review and member checking were used to strengthen credibility and trustworthiness. Through methodological triangulation of the data sources, 3 emergent themes were uncovered during a qualitative data analysis: types of nonaeronautical sources of revenue, strategies for measurement of success, and size and location of the airport. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing insight into strategies that contribute to sustainability at small airports. Existing and aspiring small airport managers may apply the findings to contribute to the success of the communities in which their airports reside and the local economies in which they operate.

This thesis looks at policy formulation in a Revenue Office over the nine-year period, from 1984 to 1993. It presents a case study that is based on actual events; but, because of the difficulties in reporting on the events in a large organisation without the possible influence of some staff, particularly senior management, it was decided to change the names of the organisation, the people and policies. The thesis is based on an examination of a number of policy initiatives that were 'quilted' together. Its focus is not on the contents of the policies or primarily on their economic success, but on the bureaucratic and stakeholder processes involved in their formulation. The purpose of the thesis is to provide a way of understanding events in organisations that are portrayed or categorised by research as policy formulation. Policy formulation is considered to be a core process in organisations, but it is still poorly understood or explained by current models, particularly those based on a rationalistic view of the world. Many of these models have their roots in economic theory and rationality, which promotes the idea that policy is a fundamental and almost inevitable part of organisation goal attainment. These ideas permeate and structure the theory and depiction of organisations and, hence, the way we understand the nature of the social actions and interactions supporting policy formulation. The thesis rejects the assertion that organisations move in a consistently calculated and logical direction based on goal setting and developing policies to meet objectives. An alternative view is proposed: that policy formulation must be understood within the phenomenon of an organisation where people enact a particular form of social reality. Under this model organisations are created and maintained by social processes that are continually executed by people. In this context, individuals and groups use processes of negotiation and power to manipulate and re-define the meanings attributed to problems and solutions to maintain a perception of consistent and coordinated change and goal attainment in policy formulation. This social practice is an attempt to define reality and maintain legitimacy for the policy changes. Thus, the emphasis is on social processes rather than outcomes, thereby focusing on the development and maintenance of perceptions of problems and solutions. This thesis analyses policy formulation as a distinctive kind of social practice using a case study of policy developments in a revenue office, as a means of explaining the basic nature of ongoing corporate life. The case study explores the way that core revenue office policies, proposed as 'logical' change, were formulated by individuals and groups who constantly used 'legitimising' management models and principles, agenda management, and bargaining and power processes to negotiate, influence, modify and manipulate the perceptions of change. The aim is to explain how policy options were generated in the 'Charisma period', to examine their origins and how they were acted upon, and to develop a set of summary concepts that might be used to understand policy development behaviours. / Master of Commerce (Hons)

自2000年網路泡沫之後，網路發展雖有趨緩之勢，卻仍持續累積能量，直至Web2.0概念出現，讓網路再度風起雲湧。Web2.0強調人與人之間的互動以及分享內容，並成功匯聚了人氣，但如何將人氣轉換成獲利卻是經營者必須面對的挑戰。 本研究之目的在發掘Web2.0網站的可能獲利模式，並找出不同獲利模式的關鍵成功因素。依據文獻探討，其獲利模式主要有三類：一、廣告獲利，二、訂閱收費，三、交易收費。本研究根據Web2.0定義：強調人際互動與內容分享，以「互動強度」與「內容來源」兩要素來將Web2.0網站分成四個象限之「網站分類IC矩陣」。象限一代表互動密切及內容原創，對應的例子為社群網站(SNS)，象限三強調內容加值，對應的例子為資訊分享網站(Information Sharing)，而社群與資訊分享正為最常見之兩類Web2.0網站。 本研究透過質性訪談的方法，分析不同象限之網站之對應獲利模式與其關鍵成功因素。再輔以問卷統計之方式，分析影響使用者接受/拒絕訂閱收費的關鍵因素以及接受/拒絕交易收費的關鍵因素。 研究結果得知愈靠近象限一之網站，如社群網站，愈適合向使用者收費作為獲利模式。愈靠近象限三之網站，如資訊分享網站，愈適合以廣告收費做為獲利模式。向使用者收費的方式包含訂閱收費與交易收費，若網站計畫進行訂閱收費，網站經營者必須檢驗自身網站服務的三個構面：這三個構面依重要性排列依序為「需求滿足、重要內容與差異化」、「資訊搜尋與服務品質」與「互動與安全機制」，其中最重要之區別因素為「差異化」。若網站欲以交易收費為主要獲利模式，則「重要內容」是影響使用者願意付費最重要的區別因素。 / The bursting of dot-com bubble in 2001 slows down the speedy trend of web. Until the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet rolls on again. The concept of Web 2.0 emphasizes on interaction among users and content sharing . It is a great challenge for Web 2.0 operator to convert the traffic to the profit. The main purpose of the study is to discover the suitable revenue model for Web 2.0, and its key successful factors. There are three revenue models, (1) Advertising model (2) Subscription model (3) Transaction model. The study categorizes web environment into four quadrants by “Interaction intensity” and “Content source”, according to the Web 2.0 definition of user interaction and content sharing. The matrix is named as “IC Matrix” (“I” indicates interaction and “C” indicates content). Quadrant I indicates that the users interact each other closely and the content is created by user directly and creatively in the website. The corresponding example is Social Networking Service (SNS) website. Quadrant III indicates the site with value-added content. The corresponding example is Information Sharing (IS) website. The study interview the actual websites to investigate the revenue model for different quadrant and its key factors, and a survey was to conduct to examine the impact of several factors on consumers’ willingness to pay for subscription–based service and transaction-based one. The revenue model of the website can be decided by the location of IC Matrix, the more close to the quadrant I , such as SNS, the more suitable to the user fees as a revenue model, the more close to the quadrant III, such as IS, the more suitable to advertising fee as a revenue model. There are two kinds of user fees. One is subscription-base and the other is transaction-based. The most important factor of subscription-based fee is “differentiation” and the most important factor of transaction-based fee is “Essentiality”. Managerial implications based on our findings are discussed.

Traditionally, tax administrations have used taxpayer audit program resources principally to deter deliberate noncompliance, 'encourage' due care in the exercise of tax obligations, and recoup otherwise forgone Revenue. Usually, a corresponding perspective has been adopted by those policy analysts concerned with identifying and modelling the 'optimal' design characteristics of taxpayer audit programs. But, in the process, they have presumed that tax administrations make no efforts to learn from the results of taxpayer audits. Equally, most policy analysts have presumed that taxpayer audit programs can play no part in tax administrations' efforts to improve the underlying willingness and ability of taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations. One important adverse consequence of these presumptions has been that the taxpayer compliance behavior literature has paid very little attention to the major policy issue of how tax administrations should go about allocating their taxpayer audit program resources so as to best manage what the candidate has termed the risks to the Revenue. These risks are defined to be those which stem from the lack of information available to tax administrations about both deliberate and inadvertent noncompliance by taxpayers. In the empirical part of the taxpayer compliance behavior literature it is now well-appreciated that both the nature and the degree of taxpayer noncompliance can vary considerably across different categories (populations) of taxpayers. Thus the 'risks to the Revenue' can likewise vary considerably across taxpayer populations. In turn, different taxpayer populations may well require different program 'treatments'. Accordingly, it is now being recognised in the empirical literature that much more attention needs to be paid to the types of information tax administrations require about taxpayer noncompliance so as to better perform their central role. It is already widely agreed by policy analysts that a tax administration's central role is a broad one, and that it entails ensuring, as far as is practicable and socially desirable, all taxpayers pay the correct amounts of tax - preferably voluntarily. However, a tax administration's performance in this regard has to be assessed largely on the results obtained from taxpayer audit programs. There is therefore a need for a new conceptualisation (model) of what might constitute an 'optimal' taxpayer audit program, and which better captures both the various aspects of taxpayer noncompliance and the information requirements of tax administrations. The need for such a model has now become an urgent one. This is especially because a number of tax administrations, including the Australian Taxation Office, are no longer seeking to use taxpayer audit program resources principally in the traditional deterrence, 'encouragement' and Revenue-recovery mode. Instead, these resources are increasingly being used to help identify those taxpayer populations, as distinct from individual noncompliant taxpayers, which represent the greatest 'risks to the Revenue'. In turn, the results from taxpayer audits conducted in the 'high risk' populations are being used to help the tax administration determine the most appropriate strategies for improving future compliance in these populations. It will be argued in this thesis that the capture of these important strategic characteristics of modern taxpayer audit programs cannot be achieved by augmenting the existing deterrence-based models. A complementary model, more suitable for wider policy analysis, is therefore developed which can readily encompass these characteristics. This model is based on the construct of a budget-constrained tax administration seeking to manage the risks to the Revenue in (what is described in the organizational literature as) a Learning Organization environment, and where market segmentation techniques are drawn on when making inter-population resource allocation decisions. The policy value of this model is then demonstrated by applying it to both quantitative and qualitative data compiled by the candidate for the Business Audit Program of the Australian Taxation Office. In the process, a number of separate, substantive contributions are made to the program monitoring, program evaluation and taxpayer compliance behavior literatures. Collectively, these contributions provide support for the central argument of this thesis that both taxpayer compliance behavior researchers and policy analysts now need to pay much more attention to the information-gathering and strategic resource allocation challenges confronting tax administrations. The policy issues arising here, it will be argued, go to the heart of what constitutes successful and accountable tax administration, and (in turn) a 'high integrity' tax regime which is both efficient and equitable.