Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:32:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Daniel Gloria.pdf: 1779297 bytes, checksum: 9bd41fd468fe82dde5e3635f4ae28219 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-19 / The aim of this study is to identify the factors in determining credit for companies in judicial or extrajudicial rehabilitation or which are undergoing a period of financial crisis. This research is particularly relevant in the current scenario where the number of companies opting for the rehabilitation process is constantly increasing. Several causes can be attributed to companies showing poor performances and facing subsequent financial crises either as a result of internal factors or external ones. The lack of competent managerial decision-making, adoption of consistent strategies, poor management of the company's cash, among many other factors, cause loss of income and lowering of credit rating, thus leading to credit restrictions by commercial banks. Faced with this financial crisis, some companies end up taking advantage of the benefits provided by Statue 11.101/05 and opting for bankruptcy protection. Given the scarcity of credit, companies turn to factoring and FIDC, through which assignment of receivables helps to meet the need for raising funds and maintaining company operations. In this context, the present research proposes a study of the determining factors in granting credit to businesses in rehabilitation (turnaround), given the assumption of disparity between financial statements and the need for credit to keep the company going during the period of recovery from the crisis. The theoretical framework bases the survey on the causes of the financial crisis, followed by factoring, FIDC, securitization, Statute 11.101/05, the American Bankruptcy Code, credit and the role of trust. Qualitative, exploratory research was conducted at companies in the city and state of São Paulo. The results indicate two main trends in the credit-granting process; (i) the adoption of an agent who builds confidence and lowers the perceived risk for the funding entity; and (ii) the search for a partner to finance the company during the formal or informal rehabilitation process. / O objetivo deste estudo é identificar os determinantes de crédito para empresas em recuperação judicial, extrajudicial ou em crise financeira. Esta pesquisa está amplamente inserida no cenário atual em que os índices de empresas que optam pelo processo de recuperação se apresentam em constante elevação. Diversas causas podem levar as empresas ao desempenho desfavorável e, consequente, crise financeira, seja por fatores internos ou externos. A ausência de tomada de decisão gerencial, da adoção de estratégias consistentes, a má gestão do caixa da empresa, dentre tantas outras, ocasionam a perda de resultado e a deterioração do rating de crédito e, consequentemente, à restrição ao crédito por bancos comerciais. Diante da crise financeira, algumas empresas acabam recorrendo ao benefício da lei 11.101/05, optando pelo processo de recuperação judicial. Face à escassez do crédito, as empresas recorrem à factoring e Fundos de Investimentos em Direitos Creditórios (FIDC) para que, por meio da cessão de direitos creditórios possam suprir a necessidade de captação de recursos e manter o funcionamento da operação. Nesse contexto, a presente pesquisa propõe um estudo sobre os fatores determinantes na concessão do crédito para as empresas em recuperação (turnaround), dado o pressuposto da assimetria nas demonstrações financeiras e a necessidade de crédito para fomentar a empresa durante o período de recuperação da crise. O referencial teórico traz o levantamento a partir das causas da crise financeira, seguido do factoring, Fundos de Investimentos em Direitos Creditórios (FIDC), securitizadora, da lei 11.101/05, da lei americana Bankruptcy Code, do crédito, da confiança, do estudo de um caso real, chegando às conclusões. Realizou-se pesquisa qualitativa, do tipo exploratória, com 9 empresas da cidade de São Paulo e interior em que a soma do patrimônio líquido representa 33% do mercado. A aplicação do caso real de uma empresa em recuperação judicial com a adoção de um FIDC para fomentar o caixa a partir da contratação da empresa de consultoria permite compreender todo o processo. Os resultados obtidos através da análise de conteúdo indicam 2 vertentes no processo de concessão de crédito, sendo (i) a adoção de um agente que eleve a confiança e diminua a percepção do risco para o fomentador e (ii) a busca por parceiro para financiar a empresa durante o processo de recuperação judicial ou recuperação informal (acordo fora do tribunal). Constatou-se os seguintes determinantes de crédito: a competência da empresa em produzir resultados, o caráter da empresa, a qualidade das informações financeiras e a adoção de consultor, ainda que exerça o papel de agente, e mitigador de risco percebido.

Die zentrale europäische Verkehrsflusssteuerung (englisch: ATFM) und Luftverkehrsgesellschaften (englisch: Airlines) verwenden unterschiedliche Paradigmen für die Priorisierung von Flügen. Während ATFM jeden Flug als individuelle Einheit betrachtet, um die Kapazitätsauslastung aller Sektoren zu steuern, bewerten Airlines jeden Flug als Teilabschnitt eines Flugzeugumlaufes, eines Crew-Einsatzplanes bzw. einer Passagierroute. Infolgedessen sind ATFM-Zeitfenster für Flüge in Kapazitätsengpässen oft schlecht auf die Ressourcenabhängigkeiten innerhalb eines Airline-Netzwerks abgestimmt, sodass die Luftfahrzeug-Bodenabfertigung – als Verbindungselement bzw. Bruchstelle zwischen einzelnen Flügen im Netzwerk – als Hauptverursacher primärer und reaktionärer Verspätungen in Europa gilt. Diese Dissertation schließt die Lücke zwischen beiden Paradigmen, indem sie ein integriertes Optimierungsmodell für die Flugplanwiederherstellung entwickelt. Das Modell ermöglicht Airlines die Priorisierung zwischen Flügen, die von einem ATFM-Kapazitätsengpass betroffen sind, und berücksichtigt dabei die begrenzte Verfügbarkeit von Abfertigungsressourcen am Flughafen. Weiterhin werden verschiedene Methoden untersucht, um die errechneten Flugprioritäten vertraulich innerhalb von kooperativen Lösungsverfahren mit externen Stakeholdern austauschen zu können. Das integrierte Optimierungsmodell ist eine Erweiterung des Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problems und integriert das Bodenprozessmanagement von Luftfahrzeugen mit bestehenden Ansätzen für die Steuerung von Flugzeugumläufen, Crew-Einsatzplänen und Passagierrouten. Das Modell soll der Verkehrsleitzentrale einer Airline als taktische Entscheidungsunterstützung dienen und arbeitet dabei mit einer Vorlaufzeit von mehr als zwei Stunden bis zur nächsten planmäßigen Verkehrsspitze. Systemimmanente Unsicherheiten über Prozessabweichungen und mögliche zukünftige Störungen werden in der Optimierung in Form von stochastischen Prozesszeiten und mittels des neu-entwickelten Konzeptes stochastischer Verspätungskostenfunktionen berücksichtigt. Diese Funktionen schätzen die Kosten der Verspätungsausbreitung im Airline-Netzwerk flugspezifisch auf der Basis historischer Betriebsdaten ab, sodass knappe Abfertigungsressourcen am Drehkreuz der Airline den kritischsten Flugzeugumläufen zugeordnet werden können. Das Modell wird innerhalb einer Fallstudie angewendet, um die taktischen Kosten einer Airline in Folge von verschiedenen Flugplanstörungen zu minimieren. Die Analyseergebnisse zeigen, dass die optimale Lösung sehr sensitiv in Bezug auf die Art, den Umfang und die Intensität einer Störung reagiert und es folglich keine allgemeingültige optimale Flugplanwiederherstellung für verschiedene Störungen gibt. Umso dringender wird der Einsatz eines flexiblen und effizienten Optimierungsverfahrens empfohlen, welches die komplexen Ressourcenabhängigkeiten innerhalb eines Airline-Netzwerks berücksichtigt und kontextspezifische Lösungen generiert. Um die Effizienz eines solchen Optimierungsverfahrens zu bestimmen, sollte das damit gewonnene Steuerungspotenzial im Vergleich zu aktuell genutzten Verfahren über einen längeren Zeitraum untersucht werden. Aus den in dieser Dissertation analysierten Störungsszenarien kann geschlussfolgert werden, dass die flexible Standplatzvergabe, Passagier-Direkttransporte, beschleunigte Abfertigungsverfahren und die gezielte Verspätung von Abflügen sehr gute Steuerungsoptionen sind und während 95 Prozent der Saison Anwendung finden könnten, um geringe bis mittlere Verspätungen von Einzelflügen effizient aufzulösen. Bei Störungen, die zu hohen Verspätungen im gesamten Airline-Netzwerk führen, ist eine vollständige Integration aller in Betracht gezogenen Steuerungsoptionen erforderlich, um eine erhebliche Reduzierung der taktischen Kosten zu erreichen. Dabei ist insbesondere die Möglichkeit, Ankunfts- und Abflugzeitfenster zu tauschen, von hoher Bedeutung für eine Airline, um die ihr zugewiesenen ATFM-Verspätungen auf die Flugzeugumläufe zu verteilen, welche die geringsten Einschränkungen im weiteren Tagesverlauf aufweisen. Die Berücksichtigung von Unsicherheiten im nachgelagerten Airline-Netzwerk zeigt, dass eine Optimierung auf Basis deterministischer Verspätungskosten die taktischen Kosten für eine Airline überschätzen kann. Die optimale Flugplanwiederherstellung auf Basis stochastischer Verspätungskosten unterscheidet sich deutlich von der deterministischen Lösung und führt zu weniger Passagierumbuchungen am Drehkreuz. Darüber hinaus ist das vorgeschlagene Modell in der Lage, Flugprioritäten und Airline-interne Kostenwerte für ein zugewiesenes ATFM-Zeitfenster zu bestimmen. Die errechneten Flugprioritäten können dabei vertraulich in Form von optimalen Verspätungszeitfenstern pro Flug an das ATFM übermittelt werden, während die Definition von internen Kostenwerten für ATFM-Zeitfenster die Entwicklung von künftigen Handelsmechanismen zwischen Airlines unterstützen kann.:1 Introduction 2 Status Quo on Airline Operations Management 3 Schedule Recovery Optimization Approach with Constrained Resources 4 Implementation and Application 5 Case Study Analysis 6 Conclusions / Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) and airlines use different paradigms for the prioritisation of flights. While ATFM regards each flight as individual entity when it controls sector capacity utilization, airlines evaluate each flight as part of an aircraft rotation, crew pairing and passenger itinerary. As a result, ATFM slot regulations during capacity constraints are poorly coordinated with the resource interdependencies within an airline network, such that the aircraft turnaround -- as the connecting element or breaking point between individual flights in an airline schedule -- is the major contributor to primary and reactionary delays in Europe. This dissertation bridges the gap between both paradigms by developing an integrated schedule recovery model that enables airlines to define their optimal flight priorities for schedule disturbances arising from ATFM capacity constraints. These priorities consider constrained airport resources and different methods are studied how to communicate them confidentially to external stakeholders for the usage in collaborative solutions, such as the assignment of reserve resources or ATFM slot swapping. The integrated schedule recovery model is an extension of the Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem and integrates aircraft turnaround operations with existing approaches for aircraft, crew and passenger recovery. The model is supposed to provide tactical decision support for airline operations controllers at look-ahead times of more than two hours prior to a scheduled hub bank. System-inherent uncertainties about process deviations and potential future disruptions are incorporated into the optimization via stochastic turnaround process times and the novel concept of stochastic delay cost functions. These functions estimate the costs of delay propagation and derive flight-specific downstream recovery capacities from historical operations data, such that scarce resources at the hub airport can be allocated to the most critical turnarounds. The model is applied to the case study of a network carrier that aims at minimizing its tactical costs from several disturbance scenarios. The case study analysis reveals that optimal recovery solutions are very sensitive to the type, scope and intensity of a disturbance, such that there is neither a general optimal solution for different types of disturbance nor for disturbances of the same kind. Thus, airlines require a flexible and efficient optimization method, which considers the complex interdependencies among their constrained resources and generates context-specific solutions. To determine the efficiency of such an optimization method, its achieved network resilience should be studied in comparison to current procedures over longer periods of operation. For the sample of analysed scenarios in this dissertation, it can be concluded that stand reallocation, ramp direct services, quick-turnaround procedures and flight retiming are very efficient recovery options when only a few flights obtain low and medium delays, i.e., 95% of the season. For disturbances which induce high delay into the entire airline network, a full integration of all considered recovery options is required to achieve a substantial reduction of tactical costs. Thereby, especially arrival and departure slot swapping are valuable options for the airline to redistribute its assigned ATFM delays onto those aircraft that have the least critical constraints in their downstream rotations. The consideration of uncertainties in the downstream airline network reveals that an optimization based on deterministic delay costs may overestimate the tactical costs for the airline. Optimal recovery solutions based on stochastic delay costs differ significantly from the deterministic approach and are observed to result in less passenger rebooking at the hub airport. Furthermore, the proposed schedule recovery model is able to define flight priorities and internal slot values for the airline. Results show that the priorities can be communicated confidentially to ATFM by using the concept of 'Flight Delay Margins', while slot values may support future inter-airline slot trading mechanisms.:1 Introduction 2 Status Quo on Airline Operations Management 3 Schedule Recovery Optimization Approach with Constrained Resources 4 Implementation and Application 5 Case Study Analysis 6 Conclusions

Published Article / The South African public service has unfortunately rapidly gained a reputation for inefficiency, corruption and incompetence. Government has therefore introduced a variety of legislative measures to ensure that the public service would play a meaningful role in a well-functioning country, one that maximises its development potential and the welfare of its citizens. Examples of these measures are the Single Public Service (SPS) and the Local Government Turnaround Strategy (LGTAS), two seemingly contradictory measures to accomplish the above-mentioned objectives. Concerns that a SPS was a move towards recentralisation by central government were countered by the LGTAS to strengthen local government per se. It was found that both projects endeavour facilitative measures for improved coordination and integration of services in local government to provide efficient and effective services.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of School Improvement Grants (SIGs) in the state of California (CA) in increasing student achievement using the turnaround implementation model. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) included educational priorities focused on fixing America’s lowest achieving schools. SIGs (i.e., up to $2 million per school annually over 3 years) to the nation’s persistently lowest achieving public schools required schools accepting these awards to implement a federally prescribed school-reform model. Of these models, the school turnaround model is the most aggressive and least used. Using data from CA, the researcher analyzed student achievement results in reading and mathematics at six high schools in CA over a three-year span between their pre- and post-SIG-award year.

Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan / This qualitative case study explored the role of central office leaders as they supported principals’ development of high instructional expectations in the Lawrence Public Schools. One of the key strategies of central office transformation is the creation of assistance relationships with principals, which serves as the conceptual framework for this study. Data were gathered from interviews with central office leaders and principals as well as a document review. The results of the study found that central office leaders employed high quality practices that strengthened principals’ instructional leadership capacity and raised instructional expectations within schools and of teachers. Principals reported that having central office support through systems and structures, curriculum, culture and working conditions created heightened instructional expectations and contributed to their growth as instructional leaders. The central office leaders and principals reported the strong culture of assistance relationships contributed to increased expectations and improved student outcomes. Recommendations include continual examination of assistance relationships among central office leaders in support of principals in the context of a turnaround district. Future researchers may continue to contribute to the growing body of literature by examining these findings and offering a longitudinal view of this practice. This strand’s findings can serve as a guide for the practice of central office leaders who are working with principals to raise and create heightened instructional expectations required for improving achievement and equity system-wide in habitually underperforming schools and districts across our country. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / This single case study examines how stakeholders of a local education agency (LEA) understand and implement state turnaround policy for its chronically underperforming schools. While there is ample research on how to improve chronically underperforming schools, that research becomes limited when looking at turnaround implementation actions that are in response to policy mandates. This qualitative study uses the theory frame of policy sense-making to identify how implementers come to understand turnaround policy and to explore how that sense-making impacts their implementation decisions. Focusing on school leaders as turnaround policy implementers, this research considers how school leaders come to understand their work of turning around a chronically underperforming school in the context of responding to policy mandates. Research findings, which emerged from Interviews, observations, and policy analysis, reveal that school leaders in this LEA are engaged in sense-making of turnaround policy and practice, which informs their decisions about how to implement turnaround. School leaders begin by asking questions about the policy requirements which center on decisions about how to organize staff and utilize resources. Yet, findings show that their sense-making goes beyond policy requirements to other areas of turnaround work. Namely, they also make sense of the data, which plays a prevalent role in turnaround in that it informs how school leaders diagnose the school's strengths and weaknesses. School leaders then consider the leadership practices that would effectively raise achievement in the school. Findings also show that how school leaders make sense of these areas is influenced by their communication with other stakeholders, their background knowledge and experience in turnaround, and the context of the school. These findings lead to the recommendations to increase communication that focuses on facilitation of sense-making, to communicate a transparent process about how decisions about resource distribution are made across the LEA, to build capacity around data analysis throughout the LEA, and to communicate a vision of turnaround leadership for the LEA. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Thesis advisor: Martin Scanlan / This qualitative case study explored the role central office leaders played in recruiting, developing and retaining principal human capital in Lawrence Public Schools. One of the key strategies of central office transformation is the creation of assistance relationships with principals, which serves as the conceptual framework for this study. Data was gathered from interviews with central office leaders and principals as well as a document review. The results of the study found that central office leaders targeted principals with certain characteristics and recruited candidates from within and outside of the district. Central office leaders provided in-district professional development and engaged external organizations in the process. Work environment and a focus on cultivating local talent contributed to principal retention. Findings further indicated that the assistance relationships developed between central office leaders and principals contributed to principal development and retention through their impact on the work environment. Recommendations include continual examination of work environment and development of assistance relationships for their contribution to principal human capital. Future researchers may continue to contribute to the growing body of literature by examining these findings and offering a longitudinal view of this practice. This strand’s findings may provide insights into practices to recruit, develop and retain principals in low-performing districts. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Diploma thesis "Restructuring of OP Prostějov Company" offers a comprehensive insight into crisis management and key ingredients that lead to the successful company turnaround. Slatter`s theoretical approach is combined with the best practice of strategy consultants at Roland Berger. We analyze the situation of the biggest manufacturer of outerwear dresses in Czech Republic - OP Prostějov Company. Both financial and strategic analyses identify the key drivers in clothing industry and assess the causes of the company poor performance. OP Prostějov is recommended to focus on Measure-to-Made luxury collection, while all the unnecessary properties should be divested and sold in order to pay the bank loans and other liabilities of the company. The most important steps are defined in the part of financial restructuring and new strategic reorientation with attention to improve the basic operational metrics -- most importantly to improve EBIT margin and return on capital invested.

The presented master thesis is intended to serve as a guide to the corporate turnarounds for small and medium enterprises. In the first part, the theoretical background related to corporate turnaround is outlined complemented with specific aspects of the CEE region and the Czech Republic. In the next part, a comprehensive turnaround framework based on theoretical research is developed. The final part presents a case study of a small Czech company that went through a turnaround and evaluates the company's turnaround actions from the perspective of suggested theoretical framework.

This dissertation includes two related chapters that analyze financial condition of firms. In the first chapter, I examine the relationship between the firms' level of cash holdings and governance. The findings show that higher levels of cash holdings are significantly related to strong governance. The results also show that firms with strong governance hold asymmetrically higher levels of cash than firms with weak governance when they have high growth opportunities. Furthermore, I also test the impact of financial constraint status of the firm on the level of cash holdings for both good and poorly governed firms separately. The results suggest that strong governance firms hold higher levels of cash to use as financial slack in order to avoid financial distress. In the second essay I examine if a firm's success in leaving distress is explained by firm characteristics and manager decisions. I proxy the managers' decisions by measuring changes in operating, investing, and financing choice variables. Timely decisions with regard to product refinement, proxied by increased investment in research and development and reduction in capital expenditures, increase the probability of successful turnaround. Further the results show that increased financing through additional sale of equity, acquisitions and sale of assets do not help a firm exit financial distress.