The principal aim of the thesis is to analyze specific issues of financial service firms in comparison with nonfinancial firms, and to explain how to determine the intristic value of a stock using the fundamental analysis. The particular macroeconomic, industrial and business factors influencing the intristic value of a stock are desribed in detail with the emphasis on the distinctions of financial service firms. A separate chapter is focused on particular methods suitable for determining the intristic value of a financial service firm's stock. The applied section analyzes all the components of the fundamental analysis in detail using Komerční banka's stock as an example. Consequently, the intristic value of the stock is calculated by means of available methods with the decision whether the market pricing is correct.

[pt] A literatura sobre internacionalização de empresas tem focado principalmente em empresas manufatureiras e de países desenvolvidos, havendo ainda relativamente poucos estudos sobre internacionalização de empresas de serviço e empresas de países emergentes. O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar o processo de internacionalização de uma empresa brasileira que atua no setor de serviços, a Rede Globo de Televisão, que teve o início de sua internacionalização ainda na década de 70 e passou por diversas etapas da internacionalização tradicional, com diferentes resultados. O método escolhido foi o estudo de caso através de levantamentos de dados junto à empresa e entrevistas com executivos, que estiveram envolvidos ou que conheceram de perto este processo de internacionalização. Algumas perguntas orientaram o estudo e foram respondidas ao longo dele: (1) Quais os motivadores para a internacionalização da TV Globo? (2) Quais os modos utilizados por ela para entrar no mercado externo? (3) Como foi feita a escolha dos países estrangeiros onde atuar? (4) Quais os resultados de mercado alcançados? (5) Quais os principais obstáculos e dificuldades enfrentados? / [en] Literature about internationalization of firms has focused primarily on manufacturing companies and developed countries and there are relatively few studies about internationalization of service companies and companies from emerging countries. The objective of this study is to investigate the internationalization process of a Brazilian company that operates in the service sector, Globo Television Network, which has the beginning of its internationalization still in the 70s and went through several stages of internationalization traditional, with different results. The method chosen was the case study using survey data from the company and interviews with executives who were involved or who knew closely the process of internationalization. Some questions guided the study and were answered by the interviewers: (1) What were the motivating factors for the internationalization of TV Globo? (2) What were the methods used by the company to enter the foreign market? (3) What criteria were employed to select target countries? (4) What were the market results? (5) What were the main obstacles and difficulties?

Background: Professional services firms (PSFs) face unique challenges when internationalisingdue to their intangible services and the need to adapt to local markets. Digital technologies havemade internationalisation more efficient since firms utilise digital communication tools (DCTs).However, PSFs still struggle to internationalise due to the need to establish a local presence tocreate competitive advantages where language plays an important role integrated fully into thetargeted countries. Problem: The internationalisation of PSFs is a complex process that involves interrelated researchstreams, such as the utility of digitised tools and the importance of language strategy. However,the research is fragmented and lacks a multidimensional discipline that incorporates all factorsapplied when PSFs internationalise. Therefore, there is a need for more efforts to broaden theconceptualisation of the PSF internationalisation process. Purpose: Provide a multidimensional perspective on the practical and theoretical knowledge PSFsrequire when expanding internationally. The aim is to explore the phenomenon’s complexity tointernationalise as PSFs and the interrelationships with factors such as DCTs and language. Method: The research is a qualitative multiple-case study using semi-structured interviews toretrieve primary data. Triangulation is applied to guarantee an in-depth inquiry, combining primarydata and secondary data consisting of scanning social media platforms of the case companies andnon-responsive textual data in the form of company reports, websites, etc. The data was analysedusing thematic and cross-cage analysis. Conclusion: The results show the importance of relationships when PSFs internationalise and aneed to adapt locally. PSFs perceive the utility of DCTs as an enabler of internationalisation butdiscovered a limitation of DCTs where the importance of relationships and physical meetingscreate a gap when establishing relationships. In addition, language is strategically selected to meetthe market’s needs and increase local adaptiveness by using the local language. We can furtherconclude that the “fluffier stuff decides the game” when PSFs internationalise due to underlyingfactors such as language, cultural context and relationships, guiding how PSFs expand into foreignmarkets.

In professional partnerships, partners have to agree how to split their income between each other. Such a profit sharing system (PSS) must be perceived as being fair and motivating to ensure the enduring success of the partnership. Surprisingly, quite different systems are in use today in otherwise comparable firms. The understanding of a “fair share” and how to motivate best varies con-siderably. Existing literature on professional service firms rarely discusses in which circumstances the different PSS types are adequate; non-economic per-spectives are scarce. Using semi-structured interviews with senior partners from large German law firms, this study evaluates their understanding of trust, fairness and motivation, and how that links to their respective PSS’s. It adds the otherwise missing peer-to-peer perspective to existing organisational research on fairness, trust and motivation. The findings include the presence of both extrinsic and intrinsic motivation through money, but also through peer pressure. Different fairness ideals clearly link to PSS types. Mutual trust, based on knowing each other, is key in all but one PSS type. An important, but yet overlooked differentiator between PSS’s is whether profit distribution decisions are made based on algorithms or on human (committee) decisions. A new framework is developed that links the beliefs and values of the partners with the specific characteristics of the PSS, which are systematically assessed for the first time. This framework offers partners from law firms and potentially other professional service firms a methodical approach to identify and discuss their needs and to identify the most appropriate PSS for their specific situation.

yes / Purpose – The management of reputation and status is central to creative professional service firms (CPSFs) rendering the internationalisation process a particular challenge. We build on arguments that internationalisation requires moving from outsidership to insidership within client networks and focus on how CPSFs build signals about quality to start this process. Design/methodology/approach – The exploration draws from the international business, professional services and organizational status bodies of literature. A multiple case study design is developed comprising ten Irish architecture firms. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings - The findings clarify how relationships start in the internationalisation process through signal building. This allows firms to join client networks moving from outsidership to insidership. Our findings systemise three different approaches for CPSFs: from outsidership to insidership within a local market network, within a global industry network and within a global project network. Research Limitations/Implications – Research within other sectoral and geographical contexts could support transferability of the findings. Practical implications – The study has implications for CPSF’s international business strategies as it identifies multiple paths to gaining network insidership and the tactics employed to achieve this.

This study is generally concerned with the assumption that the contemporary global flows of people, capital, and commodities, which accelerated dramatically in the age of globalization, have significant impacts on the land use patterns of global cities. With this assumption, the study further questions in the context of polycentric US metropolis, whether or not the distribution of transnational advanced producer service firms define a new form of centrality, in which the traditional central business districts and suburban centers differ from each other in terms of spatial clustering patterns and sectoral distributions of transnational advanced producer service firms. Spatial clustering patterns of advanced producer service firms are evaluated according to high-rise and high-density criteria. In ten selected cities, clusters of advanced producer service firms and high-rise office buildings are identified through the Nearest Neighbor Hierarchical Clustering Method in CrimeStat. To define the polycentric US metropolis, the research employs Lang et al's (2006) classification of metropolitan office space. The results show significant differences between former manufacturing belt cities and Sunbelt cities. / Ph. D.

The information service sector e.g. utilities, telecommunications and banking has grown rapidly in recent years and is a significant contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the world’s leading economies. Though, the information service sector has grown significantly, there have been relatively few attempts by researchers to explore this sector. The lack of research in this sector has motivated my PhD research that aims to explore the pre-established relationships between dependability, quality and customer satisfaction (RQ1) within the context of information service sector. Literature looking at the interrelationship between the dependability and quality (RQ2a), and their further impact on customer satisfaction (RQ2b) is also limited. With the understanding that Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Customer (B2C) businesses are different, exploring these relationships in these two different types of information firms will further add to existing literature. This thesis also attempts to investigate the relative significance of dependability and quality in both B2B and B2C information service firms (RQ3a and RQ3b). To address these issues, this PhD research follows a theory testing approach and uses multiple case studies to address the research questions. In total five cases from different B2B and B2C information service firms are being investigated. To explore the causality, the time series data set of over 24 to 60 months time and the ‘Path Analysis’ method has been used. For the generalization of the findings, Cumulative Meta Analysis method has been applied. The findings of this thesis indicate that dependability significantly affects customer satisfaction and an interrelationship exists between dependability and quality that further impacts customer satisfaction. The findings from B2C cases challenges the traditional priority afforded to relational aspect of quality by showing that dependability is the key driver of customer satisfaction. However, B2B cases findings shows that both dependability and quality are key drivers of customer satisfaction. Therefore, the findings of this thesis add considerably to literature in B2B and B2C information services context.

This study explores how service firms incorporate CSR activities within the internal brand building process. It was found that CSR does influence and is implemented in every stage of our theoretical framework of the internal brand building process. The study was based on interviews conducted on managers and employees of service firms in the Netherlands and in Sweden.  CSR is an evolving concept, increasingly becoming important in affecting the consumption decisions of service firm’s customers. Service firms are now resorting to incorporating CSR in their internal brand building to appeal to consumers. Consumers who are trying to minimize the inherent risk in buying an intangible product typical of a service product are now shifting their focus from the firm’s product to the firm itself.  The purpose of this study was to explore if and how CSR influences the internal brand building processes of service firms. We did not seek to generalize the findings. We carried out eight interviews where the respondents were able to broadly shared their thoughts and opinions. The research questions we sought to answer were: In what way does CSR influence the internal brand building process in service firms? And, how do service firms implement CSR in their internal brand building process?  It was found that the service firms do define CSR as a responsibility for their Employees, Community, Environment, Clients/Customers as well as Ethical Responsibility. We also found out that CSR influences the internal brand building in service firms through their employees, brand audit, brand identity, brand positioning and brand communication, which we then included in our empirical developed model of the internal brand building processes in service firms. CSR is implemented in service firm’s employees’ management through employee education, training, recruitment and motivation. CSR is implemented in a service firm’s brand audit through a flat/hierarchical organizational structure, multicultural organization, ethics, sustainability, transparency and honesty. CSR is implemented in a service firm’s brand identity through quality assurance, creativity/innovation and compliance. CSR is implemented in a service firm’s brand positioning through partnership, accessibility, quality, trust. CSR is implemented in a service firm's brand communication through intranet, meetings, publications and teams.  Future researchers are recommended to study service firms that are equally divided based on their size, age and wealth to get a deeper understanding. More employees could also be studied since employees might have different viewpoints and since it is found that employees are the most important asset for service firms.

<p>AbstractPurposeTo study which and how project management methodologies are applied in consulting firmsApproachThe study begins by reviewing literature on Traditional Project Management (TPM) andAgile Project Management (APM) methodologies ending with characteristics of the twomethodologies that identify a project as applying one methodology or another. The literaturethen reviews the nature of consulting firms emphasising on elements such as the professional,professional services and professional service firms before reviewing how projects areimplemented in consulting firms. A case study design is adopted and semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with PricewaterhouseCoopers-Ghana staff. Patterns from theinterviews are identified and compared with the characteristics of both Traditional and Agileproject management before drawing conclusions on which methodologies are applied andhow they are applied. Since APM is presumed to deal with problems of TPM in complexenvironments, challenges in applying TPM in consulting firms are assessed and the extent towhich APM responds to those challenges are also discussed.FindingsThe findings indicate that TPM is applied in consulting firms mainly for structured projects,whilst APM methods are also applied for some structured projects but very much forunstructured and ‘executory’ projects. APM also deals with some challenges of TPM butthose which are organisation related are not solved by applying APM methods.Research limitationThe limited number of people interviewed for this research is one key issue that limitsgeneralization to all consulting firms. However, it is hoped that this work serves as a basis forfurther research in this field.Practical implicationsThe study shows that whilst TPM will continuously be applied in consulting firms due to thenature of some projects, APM can also be applied to the benefit of consulting projects that areunstructured and ‘executory’. Therefore consulting firms do not need to ‘force’ structure intoall projects.Paper typeMasters Thesis – Research paperKeywordsTraditional project management, agile project management, consulting firms, professional,professional service, professional service firms</p>

AbstractPurposeTo study which and how project management methodologies are applied in consulting firmsApproachThe study begins by reviewing literature on Traditional Project Management (TPM) andAgile Project Management (APM) methodologies ending with characteristics of the twomethodologies that identify a project as applying one methodology or another. The literaturethen reviews the nature of consulting firms emphasising on elements such as the professional,professional services and professional service firms before reviewing how projects areimplemented in consulting firms. A case study design is adopted and semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with PricewaterhouseCoopers-Ghana staff. Patterns from theinterviews are identified and compared with the characteristics of both Traditional and Agileproject management before drawing conclusions on which methodologies are applied andhow they are applied. Since APM is presumed to deal with problems of TPM in complexenvironments, challenges in applying TPM in consulting firms are assessed and the extent towhich APM responds to those challenges are also discussed.FindingsThe findings indicate that TPM is applied in consulting firms mainly for structured projects,whilst APM methods are also applied for some structured projects but very much forunstructured and ‘executory’ projects. APM also deals with some challenges of TPM butthose which are organisation related are not solved by applying APM methods.Research limitationThe limited number of people interviewed for this research is one key issue that limitsgeneralization to all consulting firms. However, it is hoped that this work serves as a basis forfurther research in this field.Practical implicationsThe study shows that whilst TPM will continuously be applied in consulting firms due to thenature of some projects, APM can also be applied to the benefit of consulting projects that areunstructured and ‘executory’. Therefore consulting firms do not need to ‘force’ structure intoall projects.Paper typeMasters Thesis – Research paperKeywordsTraditional project management, agile project management, consulting firms, professional,professional service, professional service firms