En dépit de quinze années de travaux, le normalisateur comptable international, l'International Accounting Standard Board (IASB), n'a pas abouti dans sa tentative de définir une norme spécifique aux activités d'extraction. Cet échec partiel soulève la question suivante : existe-t-il un contenu informationnel propre aux actifs spécifiques et s'il existe, quelle forme communicationnelle doit-il revêtir ? L'IASB s'adressant en priorité à l'actionnaire, notre travail devait naturellement débuter par l'évaluation de ses perceptions, tout en admettant le caractère restrictif d'une telle focalisation. Mobilisant la théorie positive, en cohérence avec l'orientation marché du IASB, notre étude longitudinale est conduite sur onze ans, comprenant le prix bas du baril en 1996/1997 et sa hausse soudaine en 2004, afin de mesurer la manière dont le(s) marché(s) perçoi(ven)t les éléments comptables relatifs à l'activité d'extraction pétrolière et gazière, caractérisée par la présence d'actifs spécifiques à haute teneur stratégique, et réputés très incertains. Une revue de littérature propose une double rétrospective, d'une part, des travaux interrogeant la pertinence des divulgations de valeurs ou volumes, et d'autre part, du raisonnement par les options réelles, mis à l'épreuve dans notre dernier travail empirique. Réalisé sur une population internationale, et mesurant le lien entre les divulgations comptables spécifiques à l'activité pétrolière et gazière et la valeur de marché, notre travail examine la pertinence de ces divulgations par le prisme du modèle de Ohlson tout en proposant une solution aux problèmes de colinéarités que génèrent des variables spécifiques. / Despite a fifteen years work, the international standard setter, the International Accounting Standard Board (IASB) hasn't succeeded in its attempt to define a specific standard relative to extractive activities. This semi-failure raises the following - maybe unresolved - question : does an informational content proper to specific activities exist, and if it does, which would be its appropriate communication form ? Despite the restrictive aspect of a scope admitting that IASB's primary target is the shareholder, our work subsequently started with the evaluation of his/her perceptions. Consistent with the IASB's point of view, we mobilized the positivist theory in an eleven years longitudinal study, covering a period of low barrel prices - in 1996/1997- and the sudden raise of 2004, to study the way in which the market(s) perceive(s) the disclosures of specific items relative to oil and gas activities. The latter are characterized by the presence of specific assets, sometimes strategic, described by the standard setter as highly uncertain. A literature review offers a retrospective on previous researches questioning the value-relevance of either the volume or the value of oil and gas reserves, and on the Real Options Reasoning that is tested in our empirical work. Our examination, on a international sample, of the link between specific accounting disclosures and the market value relies on the Ohlson's model and provides us with some insights on the identification of multicollinearity as likely present when dealing with specific variables.

許多學者紛紛提出專屬資產對品牌忠誠度的影響，本研究主要想探討不同的專屬資產種對品牌忠誠度的影響。其中將專屬資產種類分為：特有使用知識專屬資產；特有實體設備、軟體或服務專屬資產；忠誠客戶優惠專屬資產；無形專屬資產；心理層面認同專屬資產；特有無形社會壓力專屬資產。 隨著網路普及，網路也漸漸改變我們的購物模式。近年來許多廠商紛紛採用多重通路的模式以增加其效益，而消費者也依本身偏好利用不同通路進行產品資訊蒐集及交易等行為。因此本研究的另一主軸為專屬資產種類將如何影響消費者對品牌之官方網站的購物態度及購物意願，又此對官方網站的購物態度將如何影響消費者之多重通路購物意願。本研究以百貨公司專櫃化妝品為例，探討專櫃品牌和消費者所建立的專屬資產種類會如何影響消費者之品牌忠誠度及對官方網站的購物態度、購物意願，以及對官方網站的購物態度又會如何影響其在百貨專櫃及在官方網站的購物意願。 研究結果發現，特有使用知識專屬資產、特有實體設備、軟體或服務專屬資產、忠誠客戶優惠專屬資產、無形專屬資產、心理層面認同專屬資產都和品牌忠誠度呈正相關，唯特有的無形社會壓力專屬資產對品牌忠誠度無顯著相關。而其中僅忠誠客戶優惠專屬資產對官方網站的購買意願呈負相關。對官方網站的購物態度則和在官網蒐集資訊在專櫃購買、在專櫃試用在官網購買、在官網蒐集資訊在官網購買皆呈現正相關，表示對官網的購物態度愈正面，愈可能透過官網進行資訊蒐集或購買之行為。

在日益競爭的商業環境下，企業看待企業客戶的觀點，由傳統競爭觀點轉變為，有越來越多企業選擇與企業客戶建立夥伴關係，Bidault et al.(1998)的研究指出高科技廠商在新產品開發過程中，會協同其供應商共同參與研發設計過程，期望藉此能發揮一加一大於二的綜效效果，為企業帶來更好的績效表現。 Sasser(1990)指出若企業能提高5%的顧客維持率，利潤將可望提高25%~85%，既有的顧客能藉由與企業重複交易與為企業宣傳來吸引新顧客，使企業獲取更好的利潤，因此本研究沿用此一概念，採取量化衡量方式，以統計軟體SPSS17.0版本進行資料分析，試圖探討企業之間如何產生自發性忠誠行為，引用B2C關係行銷的概念於B2B交易情境中討論，將企業客戶視為顧客，以關係利益為前置變數，分別檢驗關係利益三大構面－信心利益、社會利益與特殊對待利益，與企業專屬資產投資的關係與影響企業專屬資產投資的程度，再以專屬資產投資七大分類－實體專屬資產、人力資源專屬資產、特定專屬資產、無形專屬資產、心理層面認同專屬資產、忠誠客戶優惠專屬資產、區位專屬資產，做為衡量企業專屬資產投資程度的指標，並以此做為中介變數，檢驗企業專屬資產投資是否會引發企業具有忠誠行為表現。 經由實證研究顯示，信心利益與企業專屬資產投資並無明顯的正向因果關係，社會利益與特殊對待利益皆與企業專屬資產投資呈現正向因果關係，企業專屬資產投資也對企業自發性忠誠行為表現具有正向影響力，表示企業在交易過程中，如能與企業客戶互動密切並發展出朋友般的關係、給予企業客戶優惠的利益、提供較低的價格、給予折扣等，都能誘發企業客戶進行專屬資產投資，而當企業客戶進行越多的專屬於特定企業的資產投資，則越能對該企業展現忠誠行為，表現在願意再度與企業交易或成為企業的促銷者，宣傳企業的優秀表現於其它廠商，帶給企業更好的績效表現。 本研究從關係行銷的觀點出發，希望能提供企業一些管理上的建議，企業可著重於與企業客戶維持長期的交易，視企業客戶為企業內部顧客，與企業客戶發展出夥伴關係，強化企業客戶的忠誠度，提升企業營運的利潤，來抗衡現今動態的商業競爭環境。 / Nowadays with the business environment becoming much more competitive, in order to build a solid partnership with clients, corporations will try to form specific assets to raise clients’ potential costs of switching associates. The purpose of this research is to build a B2B context about specific assets investment sales and to discuss the enterprise voluntary performance behavior. This research employs the theory of transaction cost economics as fundamental bases to classify specific assets investment into seven major categoriesas following: physical specific asset, human specific asset, idiosyncratic, intangible, psychological identification, loyalty client, and territorial. The research shows specific assets investment has a positive significant impact on loyalty behavior. Besides,this research also test whteher relational benefits have positive effect on specific assets investment, and the result also shows that relational benefits has a positive significant impact on specific assets investment. Lastly, the context provides corporations with management suggestions and academic implication.

The research evaluates the impact of the Relationship Quality and the Investments in Specific Assets on the Business Performance of Brazilian pig farmers. Pig meat production in Brazil, as in other countries, has grown based on vertical coordination and production contracts. The increasing need for stable supply of pigs and the environmental uncertainty faced by the companies make them invest in long terms relationships instead of single transactions. On the other hand, pig farmers face the decision of maintain long term contracts or transact with several slaughterhouses. The relationship between firms has been extensively studied, both in Brazil and abroad, especially from approaches of the Transaction Costs Economy and Relationship Quality. The first one has the transaction as the unit of analysis and the second one focuses on long term relationship. While ECT is based on the assumptions of bounded rationality and opportunism QR believes in a relationship based on trust, commitment and satisfaction between partners, and that the assumptions from ECT can be superseded by clear information sharing and higher contact frequency. If there is good Relationship Quality, it is possible that the pig farmer makes more investments in specific assets, increases production scale and improve the quality of his pigs. In the end, these investments will reflect in better Performance, both financial and not. Based on this argument, we measure the Relationship Quality from the dimensions: Satisfaction; Commitment and Trust. A scale for measuring Specific Assets Investments was developed. The Business Performance was measured both by Financial and non Financial Performance variables. Data were collected in different States in Brazil with a questionnaire using likert scales and included the constructs Opportunism, Uncertainty and Frequency. The sample size is 100 pig farmers. The Partial Least Squares Path Modeling (PLS-PM) technique was used to test the hypotheses. As a result, the descriptive statistics show that Relationship Quality is good for pig farmers, as well as their Business Performance, but Investments in Specific Assets are present and important. Interviewees do not perceive existence of Opportunism of the partner, but as Uncertainties exist. The structural model shows that Relationship Quality and Specific Assets Investments have significant impact on interviewed pig farmers Business Performance. Both impacts confirm the main hypotheses. Also, Relationship Quality has positive impact on the Specific Assets Investments. Secondary Uncertainty and Opportunism have negative impact on Relationship Quality. In this sample, Primary and Secondary Uncertainties have no impact on Specific Assets Investments. The Frequency of the Transaction does not show impact on the Specific Assets Investments, in the same way, Contact Frequency does not impact on Relationship Quality. / A pesquisa avalia o impacto da Qualidade do Relacionamento e dos Investimentos em Ativos Específicos no Desempenho Empresarial dos suinocultores do Brasil. A produção de carne suína no Brasil tem aumentado, assim como em outros países, baseada na coordenação vertical e nos contratos de produção. A crescente necessidade de estabilidade no fornecimento de suínos e as incertezas ambientais enfrentadas pelas empresas faz com que elas invistam mais em relacionamentos de longo prazo ao invés de transações únicas. Por outro lado, os suinocultores encaram a decisão de manter um contrato ou transacionar com grande número de frigoríficos. O relacionamento entre empresas tem sido amplamente estudado, tanto no Brasil quanto no exterior, especialmente a partir das abordagens da Economia dos Custos de Transação e da Qualidade do Relacionamento. A primeira tem a transação com unidade de análise, enquanto a segunda tem foco nos relacionamentos de longo prazo. Enquanto a ECT é baseada nos pressupostos da racionalidade limitada e do oportunismo, a QR se baseia na confiança, comprometimento e satisfação entre as partes, e de que os pressupostos da ECT podem ser superados pela clareza nas informações compartilhadas e maior frequência de contato. Havendo boa Qualidade do Relacionamento, é possível que o suinocultor invista em ativos específicos, ganhe escala e melhore a qualidade dos seus suínos. Ao final, esses investimentos e melhorias na qualidade resultam em melhor Desempenho, financeiro ou não. Com base neste argumento, mede-se a Qualidade do Relacionamento a partir das dimensões: Satisfação; Comprometimento e Confiança. Para os Investimentos em Ativos Específicos foi desenvolvida uma escala específica. O Desempenho Empresarial é mensurado a partir de variáveis de Desempenho Financeiro e Não Financeiro. Os dados foram coletados por questionário em diferentes estados do Brasil, através de escalas likert e incluíram, além de construtos principais, outros explicativos como Oportunismo, Incerteza e Frequência. O tamanho da amostra é de 100 suinocultores. A técnica de Modelagem de Equações Estruturais com Mínimos Quadrados Ordinários (PLS-PM) é utilizada para testar as hipóteses. Como resultado, as estatísticas descritivas demonstram que a Qualidade do Relacionamento é boa na opinião dos suinocultores, assim como o seu Desempenho Empresarial, mas, os Investimentos em Ativos Específicos estão presentes e são importantes. Os entrevistados não percebem existência de Oportunismo do parceiro, mas as Incertezas existem. O modelo estrutural mostra que a Qualidade do Relacionamento e os Investimentos em Ativos Específicos têm impacto positivo no Desempenho Empresarial dos suinocultores entrevistados. Ambos os impactos confirmam as principais hipóteses propostas. Também se confirma o impacto da Qualidade do Relacionamento sobre os Investimentos em Ativos Específicos. Incerteza Secundária e Oportunismo impactam negativamente na Qualidade do Relacionamento. Nesta amostra, as Incertezas Primária e Secundária não impactam nos Investimentos em Ativos Específicos. A Frequência da Transação não mostra impacto sobre os Investimentos, da mesma forma, a Frequência de Contato não impacta na Qualidade do Relacionamento.

The performance effects of multinationality have been subject to extensive study over the last four decades. To date, the findings of empirical studies have not been able to demonstrate a consistent picture as far as the relationship between multinationality (M) and performance (P) is concerned; nor have they established a general link. This dissertation suggests that the M-P relation might be contingent upon certain contextual considerations. In particular, this doctoral thesis examines the performance effects of multinationality depending on a) scope of international expansion (regional vs. global); b) the role of firm-specific assets (FSAs) and c) home region effects.

This thesis consists of four self-contained essays. The common theme of the essays is the behavior of multi-plant firms. An underlying idea in all four of them is that firms possess intangible assets such as management skills and organizational expertise, technological knowledge, marketing know-how and better access to finance capital or natural resources. These assets are typically specific to the respective firm. Due to market imperfections and failures, firms tend to internalize the advantages of firm-specific assets and exploit them themselves rather than sell or lease them to other firms. For instance, intangible assets are often joint inputs in the sense that knowledge developed by one unit can be transferred to another unit within the same firm at a low cost and without diminishing the amount of knowledge available to the first unit. Furthermore, the assets are typically only partly appropriable by their owner, and the market transactions of the assets are hampered due to information asymmetries between a potential buyer and seller. The literature on multinational firms emphasizes the role of intangible firm-specific assets in creating ownership advantages that, together with location and internalization advantages, explain the pattern of foreign direct investments. The essays in this thesis are based on the view that the ownership advantages created by firm-specific assets are the "raison d'etre" of large multi-plant firms. The existence of such assets is assumed to create multi-plant economies of scale and give incentives to make better use of capacity or overheads to gain advantage in size, economies of interdependent activities, integration and/or diversification. Rather than studying the international aspects of firms with intangible assets, the first three essays empirically explore different aspects of multi-plant firm behavior in domestic markets. This analysis has been made possible by the access to unique plant-level data on the thirty largest multinational manufacturing corporations in Sweden. The sample corporations play an important role in the Swedish economy. For instance, the thirty corporations account for about 70 percent of aggregate industrial R&D in 1999. This should be compared with their share of total manufacturing employment, which was about 30 percent during the period of study. The first essay examines the sources of productivity growth within multi-plant firms and particularly emphasizes the role of external restructuring and ownership changes in explaining why multi-plant firms may sustain higher productivity growth as compared to single-plant firms. The second and the third essay explore the idea that large multi-plant corporations exploit their ownership advantages when acquiring partial- and full-firm assets. The second essay analyzes whether technological intangible assets may explain transfers of productive capacity from acquiring corporations to their target. The third essay explores the idea that multi-plant corporations search for targets matching their firm-specific organizational capabilities when acquiring corporate assets. Uncertainty about the matching outcome explains why some acquisitions end in divestitures. However, the likelihood of a "good" match is expected to increase in the buyer's organizational capabilities. The fourth essay, coauthored with Karolina Ekholm, extends the analysis to encompass the international aspects of multinational firms. In this essay, we develop a theoretical model analyzing the localization decisions of multi-plant firms beyond the national borders. More specifically, we develop a two-country model where firms can choose to separate their innovative activities generating an intangible asset from the production of the final good. In our model, there are two agglomeration forces: knowledge spillovers associated with R&D and backward and forward linkages associated with high-tech production. We analyze how the interplay of these forces affects the localization decisions of the firms. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2003

The performance effects of multinationality have been subject to extensive study over the last four decades. To date, the findings of empirical studies have not been able to demonstrate a consistent picture as far as the relationship between multinationality (M) and performance (P) is concerned; nor have they established a general link. This dissertation suggests that the M-P relation might be contingent upon certain contextual considerations. In particular, this doctoral thesis examines the performance effects of multinationality depending on a) scope of international expansion (regional vs. global); b) the role of firm-specific assets (FSAs) and c) home region effects.

Submitted by Leonardo Gomes Ribeiro Gonçalves (lgribeirogoncalves@gmail.com) on 2016-03-17T23:30:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 GONÇALVES, Leonardo Gomes Ribeiro_dissertação.pdf: 1606735 bytes, checksum: 22d73e62ebec198cb8b8f9a1fcf85787 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by BRUNA BARROS (bruna.barros@fgv.br) on 2016-03-23T14:59:50Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 GONÇALVES, Leonardo Gomes Ribeiro_dissertação.pdf: 1606735 bytes, checksum: 22d73e62ebec198cb8b8f9a1fcf85787 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Almeida (maria.socorro@fgv.br) on 2016-03-30T17:30:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 GONÇALVES, Leonardo Gomes Ribeiro_dissertação.pdf: 1606735 bytes, checksum: 22d73e62ebec198cb8b8f9a1fcf85787 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-30T17:38:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 GONÇALVES, Leonardo Gomes Ribeiro_dissertação.pdf: 1606735 bytes, checksum: 22d73e62ebec198cb8b8f9a1fcf85787 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-22 / The water and sewage public service relevance is widely recognized. Nevertheless, there is high deficit level of access in Brazil, with different situations in the various country regions. In this sense, the objective of this dissertation is (i) from the interdisciplinary perspective of the Transaction Costs Economics, introduce an understanding of water and sewage public service in Brazil, currently regulated by Law No. 11,445/2007, (ii) evaluate the efficiency of the mainly used mode of governance, and (iii) eventually purpose alternative designs for the organization of the provision, economically superior in terms of reducing transaction costs for necessary investments to fulfill the fundamental objectives defined in art. 2 of Law No. 11,445/2007. The research used as a methodological strategy an interdisciplinary approach to law, economics and organizations, based on the new institutional economics. From the study of the basic institutional environment, with support in the theoretical framework, it was observed that the governance mechanism predominantly used to provide the water and sewage public service in Brazil, ie delegations to State Sanitation Companies through long-term contracts (program contracts) does not favor investments in specific assets (infrastructure) necessary for the supply and does not ensure policy goals. It was also found that there are viable alternatives to overall governance design, although the use of alternative forms probably are not feasible by implementing simple transplant standards, that is, by formal means. The modification of the prevailing water and sewage public service mode of governance, overcoming the verified low performance (low-level equilibrium), can not be held without charge. Therefore, it is necessary to overcome the costs for breaking the path dependence caused by hold-up carried out by the Sanitation State Companies to public service holders (municipalities), as well as costs for the disruption of path dependence in the Brazilian administrative law, which restricts the development of a legal theory of regulation to enable the construction of an adequate regulatory governance to reduce transaction costs in order to make viable investments in infrastructure assets with a high degree of specificity. / O serviço público de saneamento básico tem relevância amplamente reconhecida. Apesar disso, ainda são verificados no Brasil elevados índices de déficit ou de atendimento precário, com situações distintas nas diversas regiões do país. Nesse sentido, o objetivo desta dissertação é (i) apresentar, a partir da perspectiva interdisciplinar da Economia dos Custos de Transação, uma compreensão do serviço público de saneamento básico no Brasil, atualmente regulamentado pela Lei nº 11.445/2007, (ii) avaliar a eficiência do modo de governança majoritariamente utilizado e, (iii) eventualmente, propor desenhos alternativos para a organização da prestação que sejam economicamente superiores em temos de redução de custos de transação para a realização de investimentos necessários ao cumprimento dos objetivos fundamentais definidos no art. 2º, da Lei nº 11.445/2007. A pesquisa adotou como estratégia metodológica a utilização de uma abordagem interdisciplinar de direito, economia e organizações, nos termos da análise econômica da nova economia institucional. A partir o estudo do ambiente institucional básico, com apoio no referencial teórico, observou-se que o mecanismo de governança predominantemente utilizado no serviço público de saneamento básico no Brasil, isto é, delegações a Companhias Estaduais de Saneamento por meio de contratos de longo-prazo (contratos de programa), não favorece a realização de investimentos em ativos específicos (infraestrutura) necessários à prestação e cumprimentos de metas da política. Foi também constatado que existem alternativas de governança viáveis ao desenho predominante, embora a utilização de formas alternativas provavelmente não possua execução viável pelo simples transplante de normas, isto é, pela via formal. A modificação da forma de governança predominante no saneamento básico no Brasil, com a superação do baixo desempenho verificado (low-level equilíbrium), não é possível de ser realizada sem custos. Nesse sentido, é necessário superar os custos para o rompimento do path dependence provocado pelo hold up realizado pelas Companhias Estaduais de Saneamento Básico sobre os titulares do serviço público (municípios), bem como os custos para o rompimento do path dependence no direito administrativo brasileiro, o qual restringe o desenvolvimento de uma teoria jurídica da regulação apta a viabilizar a construção de uma governança regulatória adequada à redução dos custos de transação, de modo a tornar viáveis investimentos em ativos de infraestruturas com elevado grau de especificidade.