Saskatchewan has good growing conditions, much land and water resources, minimal pest pressure and the expertise necessary for growing high-quality commercial vegetables. Statistics show, however, that commercial vegetable production occupies a relatively small place in the agricultural economy of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan production accounts for less than 10 per cent of the total provincial market for fresh vegetables, the other supplies of fresh vegetables marketed in Saskatchewan come from sources outside of the province and imports from the southern United States, Mexico, and other warm regions. The majority of Saskatchewan produced vegetables are sold through market gardens, farmers’ markets and consumer contract sales. In light of the increasing importance of fresh vegetable demand, examining the role of a new marketing organization in the province is important as it might bring about major realignment of the Saskatchewan fresh produce market. Recently, a project supported by the Agriculture Council of Saskatchewan Inc. (ACS) encouraged producers to organize themselves into picking zones and to work together to supply larger retail markets. The Grocery People (TGP) (a retailer) has agreed to purchase vegetables grown in Saskatchewan for their distribution centre in Saskatoon. This new organization, Prairie Fresh Food Corporation (PFFC), despite its numerous benefits, will test the farmer participants’ resolve to cooperate rather than proceed alone. This poses a real opportunity for producers to expand and develop the infrastructure required, as produce can be pooled. This study uses Transaction Cost, Agency and Monopolistic Competition theories to analyze the factors that hamper farmers from participating in contracts and taking advantage of these potential opportunities. It considers the advantages and barriers or potential challenges to wholesalers and retailers cooperating with this plan. In particular, an economic model of economies of scale through collective action is developed. The model assumes that small growers can access higher market share through collective action and achieving economies of scale. The results of personal interviews with eleven members of PFFC are presented and analyzed in a case study format. The case study analysis of PFFC reveals that the organization could provide positive benefits to its members in the early period of its establishment. The results show that the market share of the PFFC is still relatively small throughout the province, but its members expect it to expand in the future. The results suggest that high relative prices in the market and trust in the buyer have a positive effect on the probability of farmer participation in the project.

The food processing industry is dominated by large corporations. These firms play a critical role in forming the derived demand faced by agricultural producers, but little is understood about how these companies make strategic choices. Organizational economics provides a framework for exploring the firm's decision process. However, several theories exist in this discipline, operating in fundamentally different ways. This paper examines the two prevalent organizational theories, Transaction Cost Economics and Agency Theory, through a study of the food processing industry. This sector is thoroughly analyzed in order to make predictions from each theory regarding the aspects of capital structure and firm expansion. With accounting data for a sample of food processing firms, these predictions are then tested empirically using an ICAPM model in a cross-section of expected stock returns. Our results indicate that Agency Theory is the relevant organizational model for food manufacturers, making it the appropriate tool for evaluating the actions of these firms in agricultural markets.

Cloud computing is becoming a viable option for Chief Information Officers (CIO’s) and business stakeholders to consider in today’s information technology (IT) environment, characterized by shrinking budgets and dynamic changes in the technology landscape. The objective of this study is to help Federal Government decision makers appropriately decide on the suitability of applications for migration to cloud computing. I draw from four theoretical perspectives: transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, agency theory and dynamic capabilities theory and use a conjoint analysis approach to understand stakeholder attitudes, opinions and behaviors in their decision to migrate applications to cloud computing. Based on a survey of 81 government cloud computing stakeholders, this research examined the relative importance of thirteen factors that organizations consider when migrating applications to cloud computing. Our results suggest that trust in the cloud computing vendor is the most significant factor, followed by the relative cost advantage, sensing capabilities and application complexity. A total of twelve follow-up interviews were conducted to provide explanation of our results. The contributions of the dissertation are twofold: 1) it provides novel insights into the relative importance of factors that influence government organizations’ decision to migrate applications to cloud computing, and 2) it assists senior government decision makers to appropriately weigh and prioritize the factors that are critical in application migration to cloud computing.

Relay networks and cooperative transmission have spurred considerable interest in recent years, promising performance improvements in, e.g., system capacity, robustness and transmission rate. In this thesis, the focus is on the so-called half-duplex relay channels, where in the system, a source node wants to transmit a message to a destination node and a relay node can potentially assist this transmission. The relay is said to be half-duplex in the sense that it cannot transmit and receive at the same time within the same frequency band. It is natural to categorize the potential relaying schemes (operations of the relay node) into two kinds. The relay can either decode the message of the source node, or it can process its received signal without decoding. The thesis investigates various schemes of the second kind and they are termed as ``relaying schemes without decoding.'' The first part of the thesis is devoted to the approach of instantaneous relaying. The instantaneous relaying schemes belong to the relaying schemes without decoding, where the relay node is implemented by a deterministic single-variable function. Both linear and non-linear functions are investigated and it is demonstrated that the functions with sawtooth-like shape give higher achievable rates than other functions investigated. Furthermore, the work is extended to half-duplex multiple-access relay channels, where an extra source node is present. For such channels, the relay's operation is ``instantaneous'' in the sense that it is represented by a deterministic function of two variables. Essentially, the function handles the received signals from the two source nodes, combining them together and transmitting the combined signal to the destination node. Novel functions based on the Archimedean spiral mapping and sawtooth-like functions are proposed and demonstrated to perform well, using achievable rate regions and achievable sum rates of the two source nodes as figures of merit. In the second part of the thesis, the class of relaying schemes without decoding and with memory is investigated, where for such schemes, information theoretic source and channel coding with long codewords is used at the relay node. The two predominant schemes of such kind are the so-called compress-and-forward (CF) and quantize-and-forward (QF) schemes. The achievable rate results of the two schemes and some of their variants are derived for static channels. Furthermore, under the assumption of slow fading channels, with transmitter channel state information (CSIT) not available at the source and relay nodes, outage probabilities, expected rates as well as diversity--multiplexing trade-offs (DMT) of the respective schemes are derived and compared. In addition, to compensate for the loss due to the absence of relay CSIT, a finite-resolution feedback link from the destination node to the source node is designed for the CF and QF schemes to provide the relay node with partial CSIT, and thus, the performance of the respective schemes can be improved. Lastly, the thesis considers the problem of lack of relay CSIT from another viewpoint. The concept of hybrid digital-analog coding, as is first investigated in source-channel coding, is adapted and applied at the relay node. Such relaying schemes are termed hybrid digital-analog relaying schemes and their performance in terms of expected rate is studied. It is shown that the hybrid schemes significantly outperform the conventional digital-only (e.g., the CF scheme) and the analog-only schemes (e.g., the so-called amplify-and-forward scheme). / QC 20110222

This dissertation consists of four essays with specific objectives. The overall objective is, however, to seek a further understanding of the issue of cross-border residential transaction markets. While the first two essays focus specifically on transaction processes and costs in a number of selected countries, the two subsequent essays shift their attention towards the EU’s Internal Market and the impact of differences between the countries, with relation to the transparency of transaction markets. The research is primary based on studies of written sources, subject-specific literature and legislation. The main message is that organization of the transaction process affects transaction costs in different ways. It can be argued that efficiency is associated with a lowering of transaction costs. The efficiency of different structures depends on our perspective. Transparency is associated with the organisation of transactions and their needs, though the term is somewhat unclear. Generally, the term may refer to the ability of transaction participants to observe information concerning the transacting process, thereby increasing their knowledge to make informed decisions. Thus it can be argued that a better basis for the decision-making process presupposes information disclosure, more standardized transaction practices, synchronized legal systems, and both legible and transparent regulations. This leads to the design of a transparency system, which is based on an understanding of the need for the system and its goal. Although reaching transparency will be both complex and time-consuming, this study draws attention to certain key aspect of the need to encourage transparency. The first two essays focus on how residential transactions are organized in selected countries and on the costs for carrying out these transactions. Essay II works with two hypotheses concerning the relation between the organizational structure and the transaction costs. The study shows that transaction processes and costs differ considerably between the countries and as a result it is difficult to arrange the countries in a clear way according to their rules. Moreover, there is no clear connection between a broker’s education level and how large a part in the process s/he plays. The total transaction costs excluding taxes vary from approximately 3 up to 8.5 percent. The costs are lower when the recording system is well arranged, when a broker has a bigger part in the process and when a conveyancer is impartial. In the countries where a broker has a higher education level and plays bigger part in the process, the broker’s commission is not any higher when compared to other countries in the study. The study shows also that transaction costs are lower in the countries where the broker has a more neutral role and where fewer parties are involved in the process. Thus in order to avoid high transaction costs, it is important to avoid situations where both buyer and seller have their own agents. Furthermore, the availability of standardized information about properties may increase the efficiency of the market even though it increases the short run transaction cost. Essay III provides a theoretical framework for an analysis of the concept of transparency in residential property transactions within the EU’s internal market and tries to identify the essential factors that need to be addressed with respect to transparency of procedural, regulative and economic features. Essay IV seeks a further understanding of the issue of transparency in the residential property transaction market and attempts to define the state of transparency on the basis of selected EU-countries, in accord with five specific dimensions. The essential points are that an increase in cross-border transactions increases demand for easy access to information in other countries, and that the studied literature focuses on the coordination of legal systems, which produces systems that are more uniform and legally secured, and on broadening the mortgage market. Some of the aspects analysed in the study are far from transparent while others may be considered relatively transparent. The degree of transparency in the EU’s internal market is determined by how transparency is defined, since something may be transparent based on a certain criteria but not on others, especially when the concept is a relative one and subject to changes. The study raises some key aspect as a basis for discussion about the encouragement of transparency. / QC 20111123

The Sino-Australian wool trade relationship is the most significant in the international wool industry. China accounts for 65 per cent of Australia’s wool exports and Australian wool around 70 per cent of China’s imports. At the same time, it has also been one of the most contentious areas of Sino- Australian trade. There have been frequent disputes, protracted trade negotiations and numerous problems unsettling the smooth flow of product from Australian woolgrowers to Chinese wool textile mills. Despite a number of investigations and several bilateral and multilateral initiatives to improve trade protocols, in particular associated with China’s accession in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, many of these longstanding problems remain unresolved. A range of different methods are employed by China-located early-stage wool processors (ESWPs) to obtain their raw wool requirements. This research applies transaction cost analysis to examine the extent to which different raw material purchasing channels have changed (and are changing) over time. The research aims both to elucidate how China-located ESWPs govern the wool procurement transaction and to investigate the interaction of socio-economic (asset specificity, frequency, uncertainty) and transactional cost factors (information, negotiation and monitoring costs) influencing the decision-making of the ESWPs. This research is unique in that it has been conducted by a wool industry “insider” who speaks Mandarin and who has applied the Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) from the perspective of the Chinese management of the ESWP firm in order to identify possible improvements. Transaction Cost Analysis seeks to analyse the “make or buy decision” or in this case the degrees of backwards vertical integration into the Australian wool marketing system by China’s ESWPs. The “make or buy” decision has become a theoretical reality since China’s WTO accession — an institutional change that allows more vertical coordination and the potential for improved fibre selection in Australia’s wool market. Understanding these structures can provide considerable insight into how the Australian wool supply chain (particularly fibre selection and soft attribute differentiation) can be improved to the benefit of stakeholders. This is especially important from the viewpoint of improving the quality of China’s intermediate wool processing — a vital stage where any mistakes in fibre selection cannot be undone and are expensive, often only “discovered” much later at garment or fabric delivery stage. Being a natural fibre destined for the high-end apparel market, quality with consistency is always a challenge for wool, “the fibre”, in the modern textile landscape. The research finds that although the conditions exist for vertical coordination, a hierarchy structure has v only been employed by foreign processors that had pre-existent raw material infrastructure in Australia. Most Australian wool imports still enter China through intermediaries without sufficient completeness of the contract, mainly owing to the uniquely “Chinese” method of price and quality risk management. Two large privately owned Chinese processors have vertically integrated for some of their raw material needs but also use intermediaries to avoid over dependency. The fact that China has still not completely fulfilled WTO entry requirements, specifically in regards to Tariff Rate Quota administration, also contributes to state intermediary participation and sovereign risk issues that periodically destabilise Australian wool markets. Institutional reforms have had little impact on wool quality, and significant improvements in terms of outcomes for both processors and woolgrowers would only be possible by further integration of Chinese processors into Australia’s wool marketing system.

The Action Plan on Building a Capital Markets Union (‘CMU’) in the European Union (‘EU’) was launched by the European Commission in 2015. It aims to pursue a further development and integration of European capital markets by 2019. However, in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2007–09 and the Eurozone crisis, it is proven that appropriate governance is indispensible to underpin such integrated markets. Therefore, in order to establish a solid CMU, this thesis attempts to answer one crucial question: ‘whether investment conduct should be supervised centralisedly at the European level in the CMU’. This thesis, at first, explores the regulatory system of investment conduct in the EU to date, with particular emphasis given to the competence allocation between the EU and Member States (and between Member States). Two findings are important: first, even though the rules of investment conduct are harmonised to a large extent in the EU, supervisory issues still matter to investment intermediaries and their clients in cross-border transactions; and, second, the current supervisory system of investment conduct in the EU might bring significant costs in cross-border transactions, but this does not necessarily mean that the installation of a single supervisor in charge of investment conduct supervision is inevitable in the CMU. This thesis then examines the proposed single supervisor in detail, with an aim to find out the optimum institutional governance of investment conduct in the CMU. Based on the transaction cost approach, this thesis compares the proposed single supervisor and the current system from the perspectives of private law systems and administrative regulation respectively. From the perspective of private law governance, it is undeniable that many issues of private law in governing investment conduct are still unclear and complex in the EU, but the proposed single supervisor provides little help to these issues. By comparison, a non-mandatory pan-EU alternative dispute resolution (‘ADR’) for cross-border disputes of investment conduct might be a better option in reducing transaction costs in the CMU. From the perspective of administrative governance, the proposed single supervisor may also be difficult to pass the EU Treaty principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. This is because the total transaction costs of European capital markets will not decrease (but even increase) after the introduction of the proposed single supervisor. It is further argued that, other than the establishment of the proposed single supervisor, policymakers have to pay more attention on how to ensure the current network-based system functions effectively in the CMU. In the light of this, not only a negative answer of the research question is concluded, but also policy recommendations for designing the optimum governance of investment conduct in the CMU are given in this thesis.

The construction industry is notorious all over the world for disputes and claims. In large scale projects these claims are often more frequent and more expensive. The contract is the legal frame work of the project and forms project culture, therefore is a logical starting point for any attempt in reducing project claims. This research initially intended to study the possibility of drafting a robust contract which can prevent claims in major projects, and the main characteristics of such contract. However a review of contract related theories (transaction cost economics, agent theory and relational contracting) revealed that there is no such thing as perfect contract; and that contracts are invariably incomplete and prone to formation of claims. Traditional management theory considers disputes in project as pathological and tries to prevent them. The development and use of standard forms of contract was an attempt to tackle the problem of claim in the construction project, yet today more than 50 standard forms are in use in the UK alone and the rate of claims is at its highest ever. Much of the literature introduces partnering as a panacea for the current plague of disputes and claims. However this idea is seriously challenged by some scholars. Complexity science maintains that projects are complex systems and conflict occurs naturally. Conflicts are neither good nor bad by themselves; however the system needs re-adjustment after such conflicts. Flexibility of contracts or error controlled regulation can enhance such readjustment measures in the system. To get first hand information about the nature of claims from practitioners in major projects different methods of data gathering have been used. Three case studies, a set of interviews and a questionnaire survey have been conducted. Using a grounded theory like approach some repeating patterns of forming claims in the oil, gas and petrochemical projects are identified. Considering that all data have been gathered from Iranian projects, Iranian national culture has also been studied. The research concludes that contracts cannot prevent claims no matter how well they are drafted; nevertheless a poorly drafted contract can cause dispute. Some areas for improvement have been identified in the Iranian oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. By analysing the data and studying standard contracts some suggestions are made. In practice, stake holders try to preserve flexibility and rearrange relationships to keep continuity of contract and complete their projects.

O sistema Fairtrade é um comércio alternativo, norteado nas relações de troca mais justas visando uma maior equidade no mercado internacional, por meio do desenvolvimento sustentável dos produtores e trabalhadores, tidos como marginalizados, especialmente, do Hemisfério Sul. Ressalta-se que a constituição dos mercados de produtos certificados não ocorre de forma instintiva, e sim, de forma negociada entre os agentes envolvidos. Conforme esses mercados são ajustados, novas estruturas de governança surgem e são reestruturados para se adequar às novas demandas e dinâmicas instituídas (LEME et al, 2013). No Brasil, a certificação Fairtrade é aplicada em diversos produtos; contudo, os que mais se destacam são o café, o suco de laranja e as frutas frescas. Alguns estudos acadêmicos já foram desenvolvidos para melhor compreender a referida certificação no café e suco de laranja; no entanto, no Brasil, ainda carece desses estudos voltados para as frutas frescas, em esfera nacional. Pensando nessa carência, a presente pesquisa tomou como objeto de análise a rede Fairtrade Frutas Frescas Brasileiras. Para a realização de tal estudo, foi utilizada a Teoria dos Custos de Transação, com o intuito de identificar e analisar os contratos existentes na referida rede, bem como verificar a atuação da Fairtrade International. Nesta pesquisa, foram considerados dados secundários e entrevistas com os representantes das 13(treze) organizações produtoras contempladas neste estudo, assim como da Fairtrade International, das traders e, de outras organizações que compõem a rede. As análises permitiram identificar que a Fairtrade International é o centro estratégico da rede Fairtrade Frutas Frescas, o qual é responsável pela coordenação de toda a rede. Também foram identificados três tipos de contratos envolvendo as organizações produtoras (OPs), os quais ligam as OPs à rede Fairtrade, aos traders, e aos seus importadores. A relação que surge nas transações contratuais na rede é de dependência trilateral e os contratos são do tipo neoclássico. Frisa-se que, como o sistema Fairtrade prima pelas relações duradouras entre produtores e importadores, espera-se que os contratos evoluam de neoclássicos para relacionais, porém, a pesquisa evidenciou que a frequência dos contratos identificados é discreta. Também, ficou claro que a Fairtrade International vem, em suas ações, priorizando o atendimento de critérios de conformidade por parte dos produtores, em detrimento do fortalecimento das relações contratuais existentes na rede. / The Fairtrade system is an alternative market based on fairer trade relations, aiming at greater equity in the international market, through sustainable development of marginalized producers and workers, especially, from the southern hemisphere. The constitution of certified commodity markets do not occur in an instinctive form, but through negotiation among involved actors. As these markets are adjusted, new governance structures emerge and are re-structured to adapt to new instituted demands and dynamics (LEME et al. 2013). In Brazil, Fairtrade certification is employed in diverse products, however the most prominent commodities are coffee, orange juice and fresh fruits. Some academic studies have been developed to better understand the Fairtrade certification in the coffee and orange juice sectors, however there is a lack of this type of study in fresh fruits in the national level. To address this lacuna, this research analyzes the Brazilian Fairtrade certified fresh fruit network. To carry out this study, the Transaction Cost Theory was utilized to identify and analyze the existing contracts in the Fairtrade certified networks and to demonstrate the activities of Fairtrade International in Brazil. This research analyzed secondary data and interviews with representatives from 13 producer organizations, Fairtrade International, traders and key actors of the network. The research findings identified that Fairtrade International is the fresh fruit network strategic center, responsible for the coordination of the entire network. It also identified three types of contracts involving producer organizations (POs), linking the POs to the Fairtrade network, trades and their importers. The relations that emerged from the network contractual transitions are trilateral dependency and the contracts are the neoclassical type. It is important to note that Fairtrade focuses on long-lasting relations between producers and importers, thus it is expected that the contracts evolve from neoclassical to relational, however this research evinced that the frequency of contracts identified in this study are discrete. It also became clear that Fairtrade International, with their actions, is prioritizing the producer criteria conformity in detriment of the strengthening of relational contracts in the network.

Exporting plays an imperative role in many firms growth and survival. For that reason, a profound understanding of export operations is of interest to researchers as well as practitioners. Choosing the export mode is one of the most important strategic decisions a firm makes when exporting to its foreign markets. This decision may affect the firm s resource allocations and shape the possibility of future foreign expansion, and thus has potential performance implications. This study acknowledges that export mode choices should contribute to the firm success initially and on a continuous basis. Hence, it recognises the interlinked nature of export mode operations, and, for the first time, adapts a holistic view on export operation modes. Introducing the portfolio logic, this study investigates antecedents of the export mode portfolio and its performance implications. Two different theoretical approaches of transaction cost economics (TCE) and real options (RO) were used to distinguish different possible export mode portfolios of a firm. The study model is empirically tested using data from 250 Chinese export firms. From the TCE perspective, the finding suggests that firms' levels of investment uncertainty and export marketing capability are the main drivers of an internalised export mode portfolio. From the RO theory viewpoint, on the other hand, the result indicates that firms' levels of endogenous uncertainties (i.e. cultural uncertainty and technological uncertainty) are positively related to the intensity of use of Joint-Investment export modes in the portfolio of firms. In ddition, as expected, the greater the preponderance of exogenous uncertainties (i.e. investment uncertainty and demand uncertainty) the higher the proportion of No-Investment export modes in the portfolio of the firm. Further analysis of firms' export performance reveals that firms shaping their export mode portfolios according to the predictions of real options out-perform firms that shape their export mode portfolio based on TCE considerations. More specifically, firms that reduce their endogenous uncertainty, by engaging more in Joint- Investment modes of export operation across their portfolio, benefit from higher profit performance. The new model developed in this study provides a tool that enables scholars to give better advice to exporters on how they can structure their export mode portfolio for enhanced export profit.