<p>The study deals with real estate transaction for one-family houses and aims to compare and analyse the transaction processes and costs in six countries: Sweden, Finland, Norway, Poland, England and USA. The study identifies the main features of the normal transaction in each country and tries to measure the costs of the process. A basic description of the role of the real estate agent/broker is presented, referring among others to legal role of the agent/broker and the requirements for being allowed to work as real estate agent/broker. </p><p>The conclusions of the study are that transaction processes differ considerably between the countries and that transaction costs vary. Only in Sweden and Norway, can and may a real estate broker carry out the whole transaction while in Poland, England and USA either a notary, an attorney or an otherwise authorized person is also required in the process. In Finland a purchase witness is required to confirm the purchase. It is difficult to arrange the countries in a clear way according to their rules, because even if a group of countries resemble each other in some aspects, they differ in others. </p><p>There is no clear connection between how large part a real estate broker plays in the process and the broker’s education level. </p><p>The total transaction costs excluding taxes vary from approx. 3-3.5 % of selling price in Norway and Sweden and up to approx. 8-8.5 % of selling price in USA and Poland. The transaction cost is, for example, lower if the recording system is well arranged, if a real estate broker has a bigger part in the process and the conveyancer, the professional who assists in the legal transfer of property, is impartial. The cost can also, but not always, be lower if only one real estate broker works with one commission and if the real estate broker is impartial, i.e. is enjoined to assist both parts in the process.</p><p>In the countries where a real estate broker has a higher level of education and plays bigger part in the process, the estate agents remuneration is not higher compared to other studied countries</p>

<p>Bakgrund: Svenska banker och försäkringsbolag spenderar stora summor och resurser på sina IT-system, vilka oftast sköts internt. IT-kostnaderna utgör för banker den näst största kostnadsposten i resultaträkningen och därmed utgör över 20 procent av den totala kostnadsmassan. Marginalerna inom bank och försäkringsbolag minskar i Sverige samtidigt som ITs komplexitet ökar med krav på integrering medgamla bank- och försäkringssystem. IT-outsourcing och joint venture med ett IT-företag är vanliga organiserings former och inget nytt fenomen i Finland inom bank och försäkringsbolag. IT-outsourcing har både för- och nackdelar. </p><p>Syfte: Att beskriva och analysera begreppet outsourcing kopplat till hur aktörerna på den finansiella marknaden i Sverige hanterar och bör hantera sin IT-verksamhet. </p><p>Metod: Vi har använt oss av en tvärsnittstudie och intervjuat de högsta ansvariga för IT inom bank och försäkring i Sverige och Finland. Vi har även intervjuat divisionschefer och IT-leverantörer på den nordiska marknaden. </p><p>Resultat: IT är inte för banker och försäkringsbolag någon kärnkompetens och utgör heller ingen hög specifik tillgång och är därför lämplig för en viss sorts outsourcing. De flesta svenska banker har uppnått skalfördelar inom IT- drift, men försäkringsbolagen är inte lika kostnadseffektiva och har inte uppnått skalfördelar i samma utsträckning som bankerna. IT-driften är en standard tjänst som är lättare att specificera i kontrakt och därmed är en god kandidat för outsourcing. IT-förvaltning och utveckling ligger närmare bankernas och försäkringsbolagens kärnkompetens och bör inte outsourcas. Däremot utgör vissa delar inom IT-utveckling och förvaltning inget unikt värde och är i princip en standard för alla aktörer och kan därmed outsourcas. Detta förutsätter att företaget bygger en professionell inköpsorganisation som kan hantera problemet. Genom att IT-utvecklingen blir mer komplex är ett joint venture förhållande med ett IT-företag en bra lösning. Den finska IT- outsourcing marknaden skiljer sig från den svenska på grund av att svenska banker och försäkringsbolag är större än de finska motsvarigheterna och de svenska aktörerna tappade förtroendet för IT-outsourcing på grund av dåliga avtal under början av 90-talet.</p> / <p>Background: Swedish banks and insurance companies have spent considerable amounts of money and resourceson their IT-systems. IT-costs constitute the second largest cost after personal costs for banks, which mean over 20 percent of the total costs. The margins in banking and insurance industry are diminishing in Sweden, and at the same time they are facing more complex applications that have to be integrated into 30 years old IT-systems. IT- outsourcing and joint ventures are common in Finland, whereas Swedish banks and insurance companies have the IT-function in- house. IT-outsourcing is not a new phenomenon, and it has both advantages and disadvantages. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if IT-outsourcing is suitable for banks and insurance companies with a focus on the Swedish and Finnish market. Furthermore, analyses on which part of the IT-function is core and strategically important for banks and insurance companies, and which part of the IT-function is a standard procedure that does not create value. </p><p>Method: The paper has been carried out as a survey and interviews with the IT- responsible and divisional heads from the biggest Swedish and Finnish banks and insurance companies. </p><p>Results: IT-production is not a core competence nor high asset specificity for banks and insurance companies. Swedish banks have reached economic of scale in their IT-production, but insurance companies do not possess the high cost effectiveness that banks have in their IT-production. IT-production is a standard service and easy to specify in contracts, which have an effect on outsourcing decisions. Application management and development is near the core business and should not be outsourced. However, some parts in development are standard and could be outsourced if the company can build a good and competitive purchase organisation. Application development is such a complex matter and that is why joint venture with an IT-supplier will be preferred in the future. The Finnish IT-outsourcing market differs from the Swedish, because the Swedish companies have bigger IT-organisations, furthermore the Swedish IT- outsourcing market was destroyed in the beginning in the 90s. The bad experience in Sweden has led to loss of faith in IT-suppliers on the market, this has a large influence on outsourcing decisions.</p>

本研究以個案公司切入中國市場，採取個案研究法討論個案公司如何配合產業的特性進行策略轉換，進一步達到擴張階段布局的效果；並討論B2B軟體產業如何應付價格與價值的兩難，切入新興市場，並且享受高門檻軟體產品所帶來的套牢(Lock-in)效果。以期待能夠複製此種模式至其他開發中國家，或提供不同產業策略啟發之用。 研究了解除巨觀的進入策略外，必須同時透過細部交易分析考量微觀的交易成本。在面對國際市場的進入策略選擇時，通常會藉由進入策略的分析，期待能在各種不同的進入模式中，挑到合適的選項。但必須更深入考慮，不論是採行獨資、合資、授權等方式，對客戶而言產業所獨有的交易模式與在地企業沒有兩樣。因此必須要針對交易本身進行深入的分析，即使是採取獨資設立子公司的方式，也必須考慮與客戶進行交易的模式，才是完整的進入策略。 而針對交易模式的特性，必須分階段破解交易成本的限制，當中又以專屬資產最是重要。既有大型系統軟體可利用模組分割，採取近似免費增殖（Freemium）的作法分階段獲利。在銷售前期以基礎功能模組的方式，降低使用者的採購成本以換取快速的市場佔有率，並且可以藉此建立使用者的專屬資產，有利後續再銷售的獲利模式。而在進行模組分割的同時，除藉此降低前期銷售的單價外，必須考慮如何降低再銷售時所衍生的系統擴充成本。因此遠端試用及軟體授權開通的設計，就對中國市場幅員遼闊差旅費用高的困難，有很大的幫助。 且除了銷售與再銷售的系統設計外，藉由系統整合建立與經銷商和使用者間的專屬資產，則是確保經銷商在較長時間的採購頻率中，仍會選擇同一企業作為優先合作的對象，以達到策略目標中的獲得再銷售收益的效果。

During the last decade, the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) market altered substantially. Significant investments have been realized, traded volumes increased and contracting structures gained in flexibility. Various governance forms co-exist, including the poles of spot market transactions and vertical integration as well as numerous hybrid forms such as long-term contracts, joint ventures, and strategic partnerships. This dissertation empirically investigates, based on transaction cost economics and recent extensions thereof, which motivations drive companies towards the choice of hierarchical governance forms. First, the likelihood of vertical integration and the impact of inter-organizational trust as a shift parameter accounting for differences in the institutional environment are analyzed. Estimation results confirm transaction cost economics by showing that relationship-specific investments in an uncertain environment drive LNG companies to invest in successive stages along the value chain. Furthermore, the presence of inter-organizational trust increases the likelihood of less hierarchical governance modes. Second, alternative theories of the firm are linked in order to explain the menu of strategic positions recently observed in this dynamic market. Estimation results support the positioning-economizing perspective of the firm. The three strategic choices of target market position, resource profile, and organizational structure are interdependent. Third, the determinants of optimal contract length as a trade-off between the minimization of transaction costs due to repeated bilateral bargaining and the risk of being bound in an inflexible agreement in uncertain environments is discussed. Estimation results show that the presence of high asset specificity results in longer contracts whereas the need for flexibility in today’s LNG market supports shorter agreements. When firms have experience in bilateral trading, contract duration decreases. In addition, countries heavily reliant on natural gas imports via LNG are often willing to forgo some flexibility in favor of supply security. Contracts dedicated to competitive downstream markets on average are shorter than those concluded with customers in non-liberalized importing countries.

This thesis consists of two central Parts. Part 1 examines the extent to which an agent s transaction-specific investments (TSIs) in a customer relationship increase his/her concerns for opportunism by his/her own co-workers. Thus, unlike prior research in marketing that examines opportunism by the recipient of TSIs, I show that agents become concerned with opportunism by non-recipients of TSIs. I then introduce novel moderators that shape the relationship between TSIs and concerns for internal opportunism. Importantly, I also show that in response to concerns for internal opportunism, agents will engage in internal safeguarding behaviors. Notably, unlike external safeguards between firms which tend to benefit firms (e.g., relational norms), I show that internal safeguarding has a deleterious effect on performance. I test the set of hypotheses with data collected from two sources: account managers and their supervisors. In Part 2, I advance the emerging view on customer solutions by simultaneously examining the networks within and between selling and buying teams involved in the development and deployment of complex customer solutions. Such a concurrent within-and-between perspective helps to bridge research on buying and selling teams, which prior research tends to examine only in isolation of each other. This research also extends the literature by showing how within-team network characteristics interact with between-team network characteristics to affect solution effectiveness. Notably, I advance the literature by moving beyond firm-level and individual-level dyads to team-level dyads and introduce a new network characteristic mirrored ties to help our understanding of the interactions between these dyads. I develop my hypotheses in the context of a sales team selling a complex customer solution to a buying team and test the hypotheses using an innovative, picture-based conjoint field experiment from 233 purchasing managers.

The traditional way to analyze stocks and portfolios within the area of finance have been restricted to Sharpe and Markovitz. The Omega function and its properties enlighten the field of finance and differs from the traditional ways when it comes to the volatility of the stocks. The Omega function, the Sharpe performance criteria and mean-variance model by Markovitz will be used. All calculations are done in Matlab and the data sheets are excel tables. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the nordic small cap market by using the Omega function, Sharpe performance criteria and the mean variance model by Markovitz. In order to to see how the purposed methods differs.

Australia and the UK are both prominent economies in the international arena and share a strong trade and investment relationship. Interestingly, the UK while being a significant destination for Australian exports is an even more significant destination for Australian direct investment, a case anomalous to international trends. Analysis of this case elicits the question as to what factors differentiate between the firms that export and those that FDI. It is imperative to understand the differentiating factors between exports and direct investment as market entry decisions are decisive to the success of firms in international markets. A number of theories of international market entry have developed over the last quarter century, the ownership, location, and internationalisation model (OLI) is used in this study. The importance of the variables developed in this model are identified, and assessed as to their relevance to entry of Australian firms into the UK market through FDI or Exports. Qualitative information is used to support initial quantitative profiling. Results of the investigation indicate that while some variables were at times decisive, they were not predictive at all in other situations. The full interaction of the variables in the model was therefore concluded to be essential to fully differentiate between exports and FDI in all cases.

Diese Arbeit ist eine Sammlung von Studien, welche sowohl die makro-, als auch die mikroökonomischen Aspekte und Charakteristika von Rücküberweisungen pakistanischer Migranten in ihr Heimatland analysieren, sowie deren ökonomische Auswirkungen auf das Konsumverhalten und die Vermögensbildung der Empfängerhaushalte. Es zeigt sich, dass internationale Überweisungen im Vergleich zu anderen finanziellen Mittelflüssen eine stabile und stabilisierende Quelle für Devisen darstellen. Des Weiteren weisen sie mit Blick auf die heimische Wirtschaft ein antizyklisches Verhalten auf, während ihr Verhalten mit Blick auf die Wirtschaft des Gastlandes als azyklisch beschrieben werden kann.  Die Überweisungsströme werden maßgeblich von ihren Transaktionskosten beeinflusst, so dass Migranten in Zeiten hoher Transaktionskosten Rücküberweisungen ins Heimatland entweder einstellen oder informelle Kanäle zum Überweisen nutzen. Im Rahmen dieser Studie stellt sich außerdem heraus, dass Rücküberweisungen als hauptsächlich kurzfristige Einnahmequelle betrachtet werden. Aufgrund dessen werden die Zuflüsse oftmals in die Förderung von Humankapital investiert, wobei dieser Effekt stark abhängig vom Einkommensniveau des Empfängeraushalts ist.  Ferner führen internationale Überweisungen zu einem erheblichen Anstieg des Haushaltsvermögens, wohingegen Inlandsübweisungen keine signifikanten Vermögensänderungen mit sich bringen. Überdies ermöglichen internationale Rücküberweisungen den Empfängerhaushalten das Aufstocken vorsorglicher Ersparnisse.

Submitted by Maria Creuza Silva (mariakreuza@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-10-02T18:37:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS MP JOSE SANTOS SANTANA 2013.pdf: 1497708 bytes, checksum: 95edefd856737d3300929e1bee655dda (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Creuza Silva (mariakreuza@yahoo.com.br) on 2014-10-02T19:00:17Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS MP JOSE SANTOS SANTANA 2013.pdf: 1497708 bytes, checksum: 95edefd856737d3300929e1bee655dda (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-02T19:00:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS MP JOSE SANTOS SANTANA 2013.pdf: 1497708 bytes, checksum: 95edefd856737d3300929e1bee655dda (MD5) / A Fundação Estatal Saúde da Família (FESF-SUS) é uma iniciativa inovadora, que investe na capacidade do Estado Brasileiro em modernizar-se para ofertar aos seus cidadãos, de maneira mais eficiente, serviços considerados essenciais pela Constituição Federal de 1988. Este processo de modernização do Estado não pode vir apartado da aquisição de novas ferramentas e referenciais teóricos, que serão fundamentais para auxiliar no processo de gestão desses novos modelos. A Teoria dos Custos de Transação (TCT) é um referencial com potencial interessante para cumprir este papel. Este trabalho tem como objetivos definir e analisar as transações necessárias à oferta de serviços de Atenção Primária à Saúde (APS), baseado no referencial teórico TCT, e comparar os custos associados à transação “alocação de recursos humanos” realizada sob coordenação da administração direta municipal e da FESF-SUS. Para isto, foi realizado um estudo de análise de custos de transação na APS, em duas etapas, cada uma respondendo a um dos objetivos enunciados. A execução do trabalho, em ambas as etapas, consistiu em um processo de produção de dados, realizado através de consulta a documentos públicos, e sua posterior análise. Constatou-se que a transação “alocação de recursos humanos”, quando coordenada pela administração direta, sem salvaguardas contratuais, apresenta custos de transação ex ante de baixa intensidade, o que explica ainda ser o modelo mais frequentemente adotado nos municípios da Bahia. Já o modelo híbrido possui custos de transação ex ante maiores do que a contratação direta sem salvaguardas, o que demanda capacidade e disposição para um investimento inicial pelo gestor, em um cenário de escassez acentuada. Além disso, por possuir uma estrutura administrativa centralizada e especializada, os custos ex post deste modelo são altos em um cenário de baixa adesão dos municípios baianos (sem ganho de escala). Portanto, para viabilização do modelo híbrido, é necessário um investimento inicial dos governos, para minoração dos custos ex ante para os municípios. Além disso, aprimorar os mecanismos de salvaguarda contratual, coibindo comportamentos oportunistas por parte dos contratantes, é fundamental. Por fim, constatou-se que a TCT pode consolidar-se como um instrumental teórico importante para a tomada de decisões estratégica na gestão de serviços de saúde.

Licensing agreements are commonly used when, for instance, exploiting new areas or countries. Trade mark licences are one such example. A trade mark licence gives the proprietor the opportunity to keep its exclusive rights at the same time as another party uses the trade mark in commercial purposes. When licensing an EUTM to a third party, it is possible to include quality control clauses in the agreement in order for the licensor to control that the licensee uses the trade mark correctly. The possibility to include quality control implies that there is no such obligation within EU trade mark law. Yet, in the US, quality control is not only a possibility but also an obligation in order to keep the trade mark registered. Therefore, it is of interest to examine European trade mark law in relation to quality control in licensing. The American view of quality control is examined for illustrative purposes. Within the EU, the essential function of an EUTM means the ability to identify the origin. In addition, one single undertaking is responsible for the quality that is needed for the trade mark to fulfil its essential role in the system of undistorted system. Quality is seen as an economic function of the trade mark and therefore it should not be an obligation to include quality control in trade mark licences. The proprietor should bear the responsibility him- or herself when not including quality control. As a contrast, in the US, the consumers must be protected from deception and therefore it is a requirement for the proprietor to control and maintain the quality by including quality control in trade mark licences. If a trade mark licence does not include quality controls, the licence is considered invalid and the trade mark is considered abandoned. Furthermore, a law and economics perspective is included in the thesis and specifically the theory of TCE and the belonging terms or bounded rationality, opportunism, uncertainty and trust. While the EU seems to value trust more when settling licence agreements, the US seems to value opportunism and uncertainty more due to de fact that consumers must be protected from the proprietors. Since quality control within trade mark licensing appears to lock the proprietor into a situation where it is difficult to differentiate and change the direction of the trade mark, it should not be an obligation to include quality controls in trade mark licences. It should be a privilege for the proprietor to decide on whether to use or not and bear the consequences of that choice.