As a technique to ensure absence of undesired interference in transactional computations, Concurrency Control (CC) guarantees logical data consistency via providing transaction isolation, thus contributing to their dependability. However, single-version CC, which requires that a transaction system always works on the current version of a data item, may introduce unpredictable delays for real-time transactions because of unbounded blocking time which may cause deadline misses. Compared to single-version CC (current value of a data item is available but the historical values are overwritten and not accessible) mechanism, multi-version Concurrency Control (MVCC, historical values of a data item are maintained in a version list and accessible) mechanisms have several advantages. The benefit of multiple versions for concurrency control is helping the scheduler avoid rejecting operations, which could improve the concurrency for real-time transaction systems. Because transactions are less likely to be blocked using MVCC, timeliness could be improved. Transaction isolation levels, out of which the serializable one is the highest, control the degree of interference-freedom of concurrent transactions. Instead of serializable isolation, some MVCC mechanisms are known to achieve a relaxed level of isolation. In order to select an appropriate MVCC mechanism that guarantees both timeliness and an acceptable level of isolation for a given transaction set, trade-off analysis between isolation and timeliness is necessary. However, even though approaches have been proposed to analyze timeliness and isolation together, they only focus on lock-based single-version concurrency control algorithms, not on MVCC. In this thesis, we focus on modeling multi-version based real-time transaction system as a network of timed automata, and verify the consistency of the tradeoff transaction timeliness and isolation in UPPAAL. We propose a modular modeling approach to model real-time multi-version transaction systems by reusing and extending set of basic blocks. The proposed approach not only reduces the modeling efforts, but also enables easy adjustment for adapting current MVCC mechanism to another. Assuming a given transaction set, we model three MVCC algorithms including multi-version Timestamp Ordering, a variant of multi-version Two-Phase locking and a Two-Version Priority Ceiling Protocol, and verify both timeliness and isolation level. The verification results show that Two-Version Priority Ceiling Protocol outperforms the other two MVCC algorithms with the given transaction set.

In the Gulf of Mexico offshore exploration and production (E&P) industry, oil company decision-makers desire to drill wells for exploration or development purposes. While a number of organizational arrangements are employed by firms in the E&P industry, most drilling arrangements can be categorized as one of two types of organizational structure based upon the allocation of planning and supervision responsibilities. Companies can employ internal drilling organizations (best-efforts) to plan and manage their drilling operations or choose to contract externally (turnkey) for these activities. The decision made by the exploration and production company as to which organizational form to employ can have significant impacts on the efficiency and profitability of any given well or drilling campaign. This research examines this choice of governance structure. This paper will examine the drivers of this decision using the theory of transaction cost economics. Regression models are specified and estimated for the turnkey drilling decision, and for the underlying cost functions of best-efforts and turnkey drilling. Results provide support for the transaction cost hypothesis as significant in the choice of governance. / text

E-CRM emerges from the Internet and web technology to facilitate the implementation of CRM; it focuses on Internet or web-based interaction between companies and their customers. In particular, E-CRM enables companies to provide appropriate services and products to satisfy the customers and enhance customer loyalty. Furthermore, E-CRM features are vital for managing customer relationships online. They are generally referred to as concrete website functionality or tools and they are required for customising, personalising and interacting with the customer. Without E-CRM features, CRM could not be realised on the Internet. In fact, in the literature, there appears to be an absence of theoretical models for E-CRM implementation in general, and E-CRM features in particular. Furthermore, there is a lack of studies focusing on identification of the importance and categorisation of E-CRM features within different stages of transaction cycle. Consequently, this dissertation attempts to fill the information gap based on empirical data derived from survey. The aim of this dissertation was to examine the relationship between E-CRM features and ELoyalty at the different stages of transaction cycle (pre-purchase, at-purchase, and postpurchase) on mobile phone companies websites in UK. The results from this study show that the use of E-CRM in building consumer relationships affects online consumer satisfaction and loyalty. The efficiency of E-CRM program determine the level of which online features, such as search capabilities, security/privacy, payment methods, and online customer support would be implemented on mobile companies’ websites. This research contributes to knowledge in several ways. Most importantly, it illustrates the roles of E-CRM features in enhancing online consumer loyalty at different stages of purchase cycle leading to long-term consumer relationships. In particular, this research highlights the critical features of E-CRM program, which mobile phone companies’ websites in UK should in vest in their consumer loyalty strategies.

The wood energy market remains nascent in the UK, despite climate change policies and energy security concerns. Transaction costs have been identified as one barrier to woodfuel development. However, few studies provide explicit insights into such barriers to spontaneous exchange in this sector and how they influence its formation. The study approaches the development of woodfuel in the South West Region of England through Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) and aims to identify the appropriate governance structure of the supply chain as a response to existing transactions costs. When transaction costs increase, seamless market exchange gradually gives way to credible contracting and even to full vertical integration or unified ownership. The TCE approach provides insights to analyse friction and barriers to exchange and allows for a dialogue between economics, law and day-to-day business decision-making. Fuel procurement from woodfuel suppliers to woodfuel users is central to this project in looking at the barriers to exchange. Original data was collected through 42 in-depth interviews, mainly with suppliers themselves but also from Forestry Commission, regional agencies, NGOs and lobbies involved. The results suggest the influence of transaction costs. Also, there is some evidence that wood-energy regional actors are embracing organisational diversity from known rural business structures to less familiar ones in the UK, such as cooperatives and new partnerships as answers to, among other factors, transaction costs. The evidence suggests that not only support to demand and supply is necessary, as generally identified, but it is also needed at its interface by supporting the governance of the supply chain. Some practical implications for both public and private sectors are identified to better articulate the response to this need.

This study was designed to investigate the question of what goes on in a reader's mind as she transacts with extended text. It was a case study with one respondent, a ten year old girl. She reported, in writing, her thoughts during teacher read aloud, subsequent silent reading of the same text, and group discussions about the text. The findings support and flesh out Rosenblatt.s transactional theory, Vygotsky.s Zone of Proximal Development theory, and Lipman.s Philosophy for Children theory. Conclusions were that there are numerous sociocultural influences on a reader's transaction with text and that these influences must be taken into account in the classroom.

This study is an intervention study conducted on students in the middle years of a Swedish suburban school. The aim of the study is to examine students’ cooperative skills in ball games in the subject of physical education. The study’s questions focus on what emerges in activity and in conversation when students receive cooperative tasks that they must complete together in ball games, and how these conversations and activities change during the learning process. The study also focuses on the patterns that occur in the game room when students must help each other cooperate, and on the consequences of these patterns for the learning of cooperation in ball games. The intervention consisted of three game laboratories, created as special tasks by means of cooperation, which were orchestrated. The study is based on and can be understood through John Dewey's pragmatic epistemology. It has a  constructionist basis which means that learning and development is seen as an active process where individuals creat meaning in cooperation with others. Furthermore, the theoretical framework implies that students and the environment are seen as constantly interacting, creating each other in a mutual transactional process. A practical epistemology analysis (PEA) was used for the analysis of `talk and action´ in order to explore students' constructions and reconstructions of meaning making and learning about cooperation in ballgames. The empirical material consists of 24 games played and 24 rounds of talks. The first game laboratory focuses on what students are doing and talking about when they are asked to achieve the first pass. The second game laboratory focuses on what they do and talk about in order to succeed together in getting across the field’s halfway line before they get to shoot at goal. The third game laboratory focuses on what students should do to achieve the final pass before shooting at goal. The analysis of the game laboratories shows that it is not enough to pass or to create space as, own rooms in order to achieve cooperation in ballgames. The students’ actions and agreements during talks must also harmonise with the purpose of the task in order to allow learning to cooperate in ballgames to occur. The patterns that emerged in the game room were convergence and divergence; students created their own rooms as well as isolated rooms. Furthermore, densified game room was observed to hinder cooperation, and thinned room to favour cooperation. / Forskningslinjen Utbildning

We consider agent trading futures on a market with small transaction costs. Her capital is deposited on a money market account, where compounding is possible. Arithmetic Brownian motion with random coefficients is considered as a model for futures strike price. The coefficients are assumed to be bounded Itô processes with bounded coefficients. Under these assumptions, an almost optimal interval strategy is derived, which almost maximizes expected utility in certain stopping times under hyperbolic absolute risk aversion utility function. Furthermore, under logarithmic utility function the derived strategy almost maximizes expected utility in wide class of (integrable) stopping times.

Mining association rules is an important technique for discovering meaningful patterns in transaction databases. In the current literature, the properties of algorithms to mine associations are discussed in great detail. In this paper we investigate properties of transaction data sets from a probabilistic point of view. We present a simple probabilistic framework for transaction data and its implementation using the R statistical computing environment. The framework can be used to simulate transaction data when no associations are present. We use such data to explore the ability to filter noise of confidence and lift, two popular interest measures used for rule mining. Based on the framework we develop the measure hyperlift and we compare this new measure to lift using simulated data and a real-world grocery database. / Series: Research Report Series / Department of Statistics and Mathematics

Le résumé en français n'a pas été communiqué par l'auteur. / In the past couple of decades, digitization has affected the strategy of economic players and the structure of markets across the board by lowering the cost of storing, sharing and analyzing data. This has given rise to a new field of economics, the economics of digitization, which touches upon the fields of industrial organization, market design, information economics, and labor economics. For industrial economists, these new questions and challenges coupled with new types of data, have led to vigorous research on the topics of reputation, search, rankings, matching, and online auctions. Following this line of research, the first two of the chapters in my thesis are on the topics information frictions and reputation systems in online service markets, and the third chapter proposes a novel methodology for modeling transaction prices motivated by competition on online distribution channels.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2014. / The business literature has long heralded franchising as an economically efficient business strategy for sustainable job, wealth and value creation, economic transformation and small business development. However, opportunism, being the tendency of the parties involved in the franchise relationship to act in their self-interest at each other’s expense resulting in misaligned incentives, may undermine the long-term efficacy of the franchising system. Such opportunism may be enacted at different times by either the franchisor or the franchisee. For the above reasons, this thesis focuses on the role of opportunism, a key aspect of Transactions Cost Economics theory, within the franchising system. Following an extensive review of the franchising, opportunism and related literatures, the thesis goes on to theorising and investigating a two-dimensional conceptualisation of opportunism, namely ‘opportunistic orientations’ and ‘opportunistic actions’. Secondly, the thesis theorises and investigates various key antecedents and consequences of opportunistic orientations (OO) and opportunistic actions (OA) from the perspectives of both franchisors and franchisees. Ultimately, this thesis proposes an integrated model combining structural, contextual and strategic factors as antecedents affecting OO which, in turn, leads to OA. The model further proposes that OA impact the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems. In order to test this model, this thesis used a mixed methods strategy to undertake empirical fieldwork conducted separately among x franchisors and franchisees. The franchisor study was based on questionnaire data gathered from 111 purposefully sampled franchisors analysed principally through multivariate correlational techniques including structural equation modelling and canonical correlations. The franchisee study involved gathering semi-structured interview data from a purposeful sample of 30 Johannesburg-based franchisees, analysed through content analysis. To a large extent, while the results of the empirical fieldwork supports the proposed model as outlined above, the results of the franchisor study produced some unexpected outcomes. These relate mainly to the findings that structural and strategic factors directly affected the competitiveness of franchise systems and that contextual and strategic factors also directly affected the growth and survival of franchise systems and not through the intervening variables, that is, OO and OA. These findings suggest that structural, contextual and strategic factors may create entrepreneurial orientations (EO) and not OO within franchise systems. Nevertheless, this thesis makes several important and unique contributions to the study of franchising in South Africa, possibly with broader applications elsewhere, which include the following: - extending the opportunism construct by conceptualising the OO notion which helps to increase understanding of the manifestation of opportunism as a central problem within franchise relationships; xi - examining the antecedents and consequences of OO and OA in the same model to test the opportunism-performance hypothesis probably as the first study to do so among franchisors and franchisees in general and particularly in this country and continent; - applying TCE and RET theories to explain OO and OA and strategies to curb or minimise it within franchise relationships; and - incorporating some aspects of the country’s marriage laws into the franchise relationship to provide for secured tenure among franchisees by expunging the expiry clauses from franchise contractsWithin the context of Relational Exchange Theory, this thesis mainly and uniquely suggests the use of: - psychological contracts between franchisors and franchisees to help align the incentives of these parties largely through mutually agreed norms of acceptable behaviour, role expectations and objectives; - independent and statutory bodies such as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), law societies and medical or nursing councils as dispute resolution mechanisms to help mediate or resolve franchising disputes fairly, quickly and cheaply; and xii - “evergreen” franchise contracts which make no provision for expiry clauses to attenuate opportunism among franchisees through secured tenure. On the whole, this thesis recommends the use of the above interventions as governance mechanisms to help improve franchisor-franchisee relationships and the reputation of franchising in South Africa by aligning the incentives of the parties and creating an environment in which franchise relationships can flourish. Finally, the thesis also implores future researchers to investigate the impact of existing legislation such as the Consumer Protection Act and the measures suggested above on franchising in this country and the rest of the continent; and the relationship between EO and the growth, competitiveness and survival of franchise systems.