Thesis (PhD (Economics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The primary financial objective of a firm is the maximisation of its shareholders’ value. A problem faced by the shareholders of a firm is that it is difficult to determine the effect of management decisions on the future share returns of the firm. Furthermore, it may be necessary to implement certain monitoring costs to ensure that management is focused on achieving this objective. A firm would, therefore, benefit from being able to identify those financial performance measures that are able to link the financial performance of the firm to its share returns. Implementing such a financial performance measure in the valuation and reward systems of a firm should ensure that management is aligned with the objective of shareholder value maximisation, and rewarded for achieving it. A large number of traditional financial performance measures have been developed. These measures are often criticised for excluding a firm’s cost of capital, and are considered inappropriate to be used when evaluating value creation. Furthermore, it is argued that these measures are based on accounting information, which could be distorted by Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP). Studies investigating the relationship between these measures and share returns also provide conflicting results. As a result of the perceived limitations of traditional measures, value based financial performance measures were developed. The major difference between the traditional and value based measures is that the value based measures include a firm’s cost of capital in their calculation. They also attempt to remove some of the accounting distortions resulting from GAAP. Proponents of the value based measures present these measures as a major improvement over the traditional financial performance measures and report high levels of correlation between the measures and share returns. A number of studies containing contradictory results have been published. On the basis of these conflicting results it is not clear whether the value based measures are able to outperform the traditional financial performance measures in explaining share returns. The primary objectives of this study are thus to: • Determine the relationship between the traditional measures earnings before extraordinary items (EBEI) and cash from operations (CFO), and shareholder value creation; • Investigate the value based measures residual income (RI), economic value added (EVA), cash value added (CVA) and cash flow return on investments (CFROI), and to determine their relationship with the creation of shareholder value; • Evaluate the incremental information content of the value based measures above the traditional measures. The information content of the traditional measures and the value based measures are evaluated by employing an approach developed by Biddle, Bowen and Wallace (1997). The first phase of this approach entails the evaluation of the relative information content of the various measures in order to determine which measure explains the largest portion of a firm’s market-adjusted share returns. The second phase consists of an evaluation of the incremental information content of the components of a measure in order to determine whether the inclusion of an additional component contributes statistically significant additional information beyond that contained in the other components. The study is conducted for South African industrial firms listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange for the period 1991 to 2005. The data required to calculate the measures investigated in the study are obtained from the McGregor BFA database. This database contains annual standardised financial statements for listed and delisted South African firms. It also contains EVA, cost of capital and invested capital amounts for those firms listed at the end of the research period. Including only these listed firms in the research sample would expose the study to a survivorship bias. Hence these values are estimated for those firms that delisted during the period under review by employing a similar approach to the one used in the database. The resulting sample consists of 364 firms providing 3181 complete observations. Since different information is required to calculate the various measures included in the study, different samples are compiled from this initial sample and included in the tests conducted to evaluate the information content of the measures. The results of this study indicate that the value based measures are not able to outperform EBEI in the majority of the relative information content tests. Furthermore, the measures EVA, CVA and CFROI are also not able to outperform the relatively simple value based measure RI. The results from the incremental information content tests indicate that although some of the components of the value based measures provide statistically significant incremental information content, the level of significance for these relatively complex adjustments is generally low. Based on these results, the claims made by the proponents of the value based measures cannot be supported. Furthermore, if a firm intends to incorporate its cost of capital in its financial performance measures, the measure RI provides most of the benefits contained in the other more complex value based measures.

Syfte: Syftet med studien är att genom en flerfallsstudie analysera och söka förståelse för sambanden mellan prissättningsstrategier och prissättningsmetoder som tillämpas hos företag som riktar sin verksamhet främst mot andra företag, B2B. Analysen av empirin sker med hjälp av redan existerande teorier om prisstrategier och prissättningsmetoder. Trots studiens fokus på ett visst företag inom en viss bransch är ändå förhoppningen att studiens slutsatser ska kunna vara av intresse för B2B-företag med samma kostnadsstrukturer. Metod: Ramen för studien utgörs av en deduktiv ansats med kvalitativ undersökningsdesign. Företagen i studien har studerats genom en flerfallsstudie med semistrukturerade intervjuer som metod för att insamla data. Teoretisk referensram: Uppsatsens teoretiska del innefattar teorier från företagsekonomisk forskning som förklarar vanliga prisstrategier, prissättningsmetoder och dess funktioner. Begreppen Price Waterfall och Strategic Fit har behandlats för att i analysen kunna se hur väl företagens övriga aktiviteter integrerar med prissättningsprocessen. Slutsats: Målet med denna studie är att besvara frågeställningen: Vilka samband finns det mellan prissättningsstrategier och prissättningsmetoder inom B2B-fötetag? Resultatet visar att det finns tydliga samband på flera områden. Det finns flera slutsatser att dra av denna studie, men den viktigaste slutsatsen är: För att vinstmaximera sina prisstrategier måste man hitta samband med flera olika prissättningsmetoder och arbeta med dessa på ett aktivt sätt i hela organisationen / Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and seek knowledge about the connection between pricing strategy and pricing methods in B2B companies. The analysis was conducted with help from already exciting theory about pricing strategy and pricing methods. Even though the study is conducted on a small amount of companies in a special branch, the ambition is that this thesis could be of interest for B2B-companies with the same structures of cost. Method: The thesis uses a deductive and qualitative approach. The data is collected from a case study conducted through semi-structured interviews. Theoretical framework: The base of the theoretical approach is a number of theories from business and specialist literature that have explained common pricing strategy and pricing methods. The concept of Price Waterfall and Strategic Fit is used to analyze how the companies’ activities integrate with the pricing process. Conclusion: The purpose of this study is to answer the question: What is the relationship between pricing strategies and pricing practices in B2B companies? The result shows that there are clear links in several areas. There are several conclusions to draw from this study, but the main conclusion is that to maximize profits the pricing strategies must be associated with several different pricing methods and work with them in an active way in the whole organization

Cette thèse repose sur l’idée que les individus prennent des décisions en assignant des valeurs aux conséquences appétitives (récompenses) et aversives (punitions) associées aux différentes options proposées, puis comparent ces valeurs pour sélectionner l’une d’elles. Dans la plupart des cas, ces valeurs sont apprises par essais et erreurs. En neuroscience et neuro-économie, il a été proposé que le cerveau représente ces valeurs de manière abstraite dans une échelle de valeur commune indépendante de la nature des conséquences attendues. Cette hypothèse est soutenue par un grand nombre d’études qui se sont intéressées à l’évaluation et à l’apprentissage des récompenses. Ces études mettent en évidence une implication du mésencéphale, du striatum et du cortex préfrontal dans le traitement de récompense primaires, monétaires, morales ou sociales. Beaucoup moins de travaux se sont intéressés au traitement des punitions. L’objectif de cette thèse est donc de comparer les corrélats cérébraux des processus d’évaluation des stimuli appétitifs et aversifs. Dans un premier temps nous avons utilisé un paradigme d’apprentissage par conditionnement pavlovien pour comparer les régions cérébrales impliquées dans la représentation de l’erreur de prédiction au cours de l’apprentissage avec des récompenses et des punitions gustatives, visuelles et monétaires. Ensuite nous nous sommes intéressés aux régions cérébrales impliquées dans traitement de récompenses et punitions plus abstraites tel que l’approbation sociale ou les considérations morales, dans un contexte de prise de décision pro-sociale. Ces études nous ont permis de démontrer que l’erreur de prédiction et l’évaluation liées à des stimuli appétitifs et aversifs étaient, en partie, sous-tendus par des réseaux cérébraux communs. / There is a growing consensus in behavioral neuroscience and neuroeconomic that individuals make decisions by assigning values to different options and comparing them to make a choice. Most often, these values are acquired on the basis of trial and error learning. A long-held view is that the brain assigns values to the different goods using an abstract signal that is encoded in a common currency. Multiple studies have found evidence for such value signals in midbrain, striatum and prefrontal cortex during learning or decision making involving primary or secondary rewards. An important open question is whether aversive outcomes expectation and learning engage the same or different valuation networks. The goal of this thesis is thus to compare the brain network involved in appetitive and aversive stimuli valuation. First we used a pavlovian conditioning paradigm to compare the cerebral correlates of prediction error during learning with gustative, visual and monetary rewards and punishments. Second, we investigated the brain regions involved in moral and social rewards and punishments in prosocial decision making. Overall, we found that prediction error and valuation related to appetitive and aversive stimuli are processed in part by common brain networks.

Introduktion: Psykisk ohälsa hos elever är ett växande problem. Svenska skolan ska arbeta med elevers trygghet och att bedriva ett systematiskt kvalitetsarbete mot diskriminering och kränkande behandling. Syfte: Syftet var att undersöka om pedagoger och elevhälsopersonal på en grundskola i en skånsk kommun upplever att trygghetsinsatserna har en positiv effekt på elevernas hälsa. Metod: En tvärsnittsstudie med kvalitativa inslag genomfördes av pedagoger (n=65) på en grundskola i Skåne. Datainsamlingen skedde genom digital enkät som skickades ut via e-post. Insamlad data analyserades i statistikprogrammet SPSS. Kvalitativa svar redovisades i textform. Resultat: Svarsfrekvensen var 34%, en för låg svarsfrekvens för att kunna generalisera resultatet.  Av respondenterna kände 73% sig delaktiga i trygghetsarbetet, 91% upplever att trygghet har effekt på elevernas hälsa och 67% uppfattar inga hälsoskillnader mellan kön. Däremot ses några skillnader i vilka insatser som fungerar bäst och sämst i relation till kön. Elevinsatser som involverar socialt utbyte upplevs mest positivt och bestraffningar mest negativt. Det efterfrågas systematik i trygghetsarbetet. Slutsats: Resultatet kopplas till tidigare forskning som både bekräftar och visar på förbättringsområden. Trygghetsplanens förekomst är grundläggande. Efterlyst tydlighet och uppföljning kan vara ett uttryck för områdets storlek och svårigheten att få en helhetsbild av trygghetsarbetet. Olika former av socialt utbyte är det som anses ha effekt på elevernas hälsa och bör därmed prioriteras. Trygghetsarbetet kan gagnas av kollegialt lärande och trygghetsplanens innehåll behövs eventuellt kompletteras. Framgångsfaktorer och förbättringsförslag kan bidra till en tydligare förankring. Den låga svarsfrekvensen ska dock tas i beaktande och eventuella genomföranden av förslag bör stämmas av med personal. / Introduction: Mental illness in students a growing problem. The Swedish school has the task of working with students' safety and to conduct systematic quality work against discrimination and offensive treatment. Purpose: The purpose was to investigate whether pedagogues and student health personnel at a primary school in a municipality in Skane felt that the safety efforts have a positive effect on the students' health. Method: A cross-sectional study with qualitative elements was conducted by educators (n = 65) at an elementary school in Skåne. The data collection was done through a digital survey that was sent out via e-mail. The collected data was analyzed in the statistics program SPSS. Qualitative answers were presented in text form. Result: The response rate was 34%, a too low response rate to be able to generalize the result. Of the respondents, 73% felt that they were participant in the safety work, 91% felt that safety had an effect on the students' health and 67% did not experience any health differences between the sexes. However, there are some differences in which efforts work best and worst in relation to gender. Student initiatives that involve social exchange are perceived to be most positive and punishment most negative. There is a demand for systematic security work. Conclusion: The result links to previous research that both confirms and demonstrates areas for improvement. The existence of the security plan is fundamental. Requested clarity and follow-up can be an expression of the area's size and the difficulty of obtaining a comprehensive picture of the safety work. Different forms of social exchange are what are considered to have an effect on the students' health and should therefore be given priority. Security work can benefit from collegial learning and the content of the safety plan may need to be supplemented. Success factors and improvement proposals can contribute to a clearer anchoring. However, the low response rate should be taken into account and any implementation of proposals should be reconciled with staff.

Este trabalho procura ampliar os conhecimentos a respeito da influência do enfoque na geração do valor aos acionistas sobre as práticas de gestão de pessoas, com ênfase no ambiente da produção. Inicialmente, o trabalho resgata as origens e os fundamentos da concepção financeira e da concepção da geração de valor ao acionista das empresas, em que o principal foco é a valorização do preço das ações. Em seguida, é analisada a interface que estas concepções possuem com as práticas de gestão de pessoas, explorando o caráter bidirecional desta interface, uma vez que a função recursos humanos não só é influenciada pelas diretrizes das empresas, mas também é tida como uma das principais formas para ajudar a difundi-las, tendo em vista seu papel de agente de mudança de comportamento nas empresas. Neste sentido, são aprofundados três principais elementos que compõem, segundo a literatura, esta interface: a remuneração variável, gestão de desempenho e autonomia no trabalho. Por fim, é apresentado um estudo de casos múltiplos que busca verificar como a concepção financeira das empresas vem influenciando, de fato, estas práticas relacionadas à gestão de pessoas no nível da produção de organizações que atuam no Brasil, assim como o quanto estas práticas têm contribuído para a difusão da mentalidade de geração de valor ao acionista. O resultado deste estudo indica que, no plano conceitual, a influência da orientação à geração de valor ao acionista sobre as práticas de gestão de pessoas é nítida, mas que, na prática, ainda é pouco efetivada, apesar de mudanças já estarem ocorrendo nesta direção. / The objective of this paper is to increase knowledge about the influence of the shareholder value on people management practices, with emphasis on the production environment. Initially, the paper takes a step backwards to the origins and fundaments regarding the finance conception and the shareholder value conception of the firm, where the main focus resides in increasing share prices. The paper then goes on to analyze the interface that these concepts possess with people management practices, exploring the two-way nature of said interface, in view that the human resources function is not only influenced by company guidelines, but is also deemed one of the main forms for helping disseminate it, due to its role as a change agent of behaviors in companies. As such, it delves into the three main elements that, according to literature, comprise this interface: variable compensation, performance management and work autonomy. Lastly, the paper presents a multiple case study that aims to verify how the finance concept of companies has, in fact, been influencing these practices relating to people management at the production level of companies that operate in Brazil, as well as how much these practices have contributed to disseminate the shareholder value mentality. The result of this study shows that, at the conceptual level, the influence of shareholder value on people management practices is quite clear, but that in practice it is still used very little, despite changes that are already occurring in this sense.

No contexto atual dos mercados globalizados, as empresas enfrentam uma competicao cada vez mais complexa na obtencao de capital. Para atrai-lo, elas precisam oferecer um retorno que remunere o risco assumido pelos investidores, ou seja, gerar valor. A Gestao Baseada no Valor defende a maximizacao de riqueza dos acionistas como a meta principal da organizacao. No Brasil, essa abordagem tem sido adotada de forma mais intensa na ultima decada, tornando evidente a necessidade de monitorar o valor da firma nessa economia. Nesse contexto, o objetivo deste estudo foi identificar os principais direcionadores de valor das empresas de capital aberto nao financeiras brasileiras, representadas pelas companhias com acoes negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo (BM&FBOVESPA), no periodo de 2000 a 2009. Para isso, foram avaliados quais indicadores financeiros estavam mais relacionados a geracao de valor, representada pelo Valor Economico Agregado (VEA), de forma a serem considerados direcionadores desse em cada setor economico. As tecnicas estatísticas utilizadas para esse proposito foram: correlacao, teste t para diferenca de medias entre as empresas com VEA positivo e negativo, regressao multipla, regressao em painel e regressão logistica. Um dos principais resultados encontrados foi que pelo menos dois tercos dos indicadores financeiros utilizados para analise de empresas nao explicam a geracao de valor. Considerando o universo pesquisado, os indicadores financeiros significativamente relacionados a geracao de valor foram: retorno sobre o patrimonio liquido (ROE), retorno sobre o ativo (ROA), spread do acionista, margem bruta, margem liquida e giro do ativo, todos com coeficiente positivo, ou seja, com relacao direta com o VEA. Alem disso, na analise dos setores economicos, por suas caracteristicas especificas, foram encontradas divergencias entre os indicadores financeiros considerados direcionadores de valor. Em relacao ao desempenho das empresas no periodo de analise, observou-se que a maioria delas destruiu valor, ja que apenas 30% obtiveram valor economico agregado anual positivo. Porem, nao ha uniformidade entre os setores, pois as porcentagens medias variaram de 6,7% (setor textil) a 66,7% (setor de petroleo e gas). Outra contribuicao deste trabalho foi a avaliacao das diferencas na geracao de valor das empresas brasileiras antes e apos a crise do subprime. Como resultado tem-se que, embora o ano de 2009 tenha sido o segundo pior nesse quesito, nao foi encontrada diferenca significativa, no conjunto, entre os periodos antes e depois da crise, apesar das divergencias identificadas entre os setores. Esta pesquisa inova pela sua amplitude, ao utilizar um significativo numero de indicadores financeiros (33), que refletem o resultado de estrategias da empresa ligadas a estrutura de capital, rentabilidade, liquidez, operacao e investimento e, tambem, uma ampla base de dados (345 empresas, totalizando 2.205 relatorios anuais), abrangendo dez anos de analise em quinze setores economicos. Assim, espera-se que os resultados contribuam para subsidiar a tomada de decisao nas organizacoes, utilizando a abordagem da Gestao Baseada no Valor, bem como para auxiliar na selecao e monitoramento das empresas pelos investidores. / In the current context of globalized markets, the enterprises face a competition more and more complex in the capital obtainment. To attract it, they need to offer a return that rewards the risk taken by the investors, in other words, create value. The Value Based Management (VBM) defends the shareholders wealth maximization as the main goal of the firm. In Brazil, this approach has been adopted more intensively in the last decade, becoming evident the need of monitoring the business value in this economy. In this context, the objective of this study was to identify the main value drivers of non-financial publicly traded Brazilian companies, represented by the ones with shares traded in the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange (BM&FBOVESPA), in the period from 2000 to 2009. For this purpose, it was evaluated which financial indicators were more associated to the value creation, represented by the Economic Value Added (EVAR), in a way that they could be considered value drivers in each economic sector. The statistical techniques used to obtain the results were: correlation, test t for mean differences between the firms with EVAR positive and negative, multiple regression, panel regression and logit model. One of the main results obtained was that at least two thirds of the financial indicators used for company analysis don\'t explain the value creation. Considering the universe studied, the financial indicators significantly related to the value creation were: return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), shareholder spread, gross margin, net margin and asset turnover, all of them with positive coefficient, what means that they have direct relation with EVAR. Furthermore, in the analysis of the economic sectors, because of their specific features, it was found differences between the financial indicators considered value drivers. In relation to the companies\' performance in the period analyzed, it was observed that most of them destroyed value, since only 30% obtained positive annual economic value added. However, there is no uniformity between the sectors, because the average percentages varied from 6.7% (textile sector) to 66.7% (oil and gas sector). Another contribution of this assignment was the analysis of the differences in the Brazilian companies\' value creation before and after the subprime crisis. As a result, despite the fact that the year of 2009 had been the second worst in this criterion, it was found no significant difference, considering the whole sample, between the periods before and after the crisis. However, divergences were identified between the sectors. This research innovates for its extent, using a significant number of financial indicators (33), which reflect the result of the firm strategies connected to capital structure, profitability, liquidity, operation and investment, besides a wide database (345 companies, totalizing 2,205 annual reports), covering ten years of analysis in fifteen economic sectors. Therefore, it is expected that the results contribute to subsidize the decision making in the organizations, using the approach of Value Based Management, as well as to help the selection and monitoring of the firms by the investors.

A crescente atuação da sociedade nos processos de discussão e de tomada de decisões relacionados com as políticas públicas incentiva a gestão pública no Brasil a buscar mecanismos para demonstrar eficiência e transparência na aplicação de recursos. Dentro da esfera pública, o setor de saúde é destaque em termos de alocação de recursos, por isso, apresenta acentuadas necessidades de planejamento, avaliação e prestação de contas das atividades desenvolvidas. Este trabalho adotou o modelo conceitual de mensuração do resultado econômico em entidades públicas e teve como objetivo principal calcular o valor econômico agregado à sociedade por Hospitais Universitários Públicos, segundo os preceitos da Gestão Baseada em Valor. Para consecução deste propósito, conduziu-se um estudo de caso no Hospital das Clínicas da FMRP-USP, avaliando seu desempenho econômico em um período de três anos. Para interpretação dos resultados utilizou-se a Análise por Envoltória de Dados que categorizou os epartamentos do hospital estudado em eficientes e ineficientes. Este estudo revelou que o valor econômico agregado à sociedade no longo prazo pela entidade é positivo. Essa medida de valor proposta indicou que a sociedade está obtendo um retorno superior ao custo de oportunidade do capital investido, ou seja, o hospital está construindo valor econômico e, conseqüentemente, contribuindo para o bem estar social. Adicionalmente, o estudo demonstrou que a teoria da Gestão Baseada em Valor pode ser adaptada como uma ferramenta para avaliação de desempenho de entidades públicas, adotando-se a perspectiva do cidadão como investidor. Finalmente, os gestores de hospitais universitários públicos podem aprimorar o processo de tomada de decisões utilizando o cálculo do valor econômico agregado à sociedade, porque foi constado que esta medida de valor econômico tem sensibilidade para identificar os direcionadores de valor econômico a serem enfatizados na gestão de curto e longo prazos. / The increasing performance of the society in the processes of discussion and taking decisions related to public politics stimulates public administration in Brazil to search for mechanisms to demonstrate efficiency and disclosure in resources application. Within public sphere, the health sector is prominence in terms of allocation of resources; therefore, it presents accented necessities of planning, evaluation and accounts rendering of the developed activities. This work has adopted the conceptual measurement model of economic result in public entities and it has had as main objective to calculate the economic value added to the society by Public University Hospitals, according to the precepts of Value Based Management. For achievement of this intention, a case study at ?Hospital das Clínicas da FMRP-USP? has been carried out, evaluating its economic performance in a period of three years. For interpretation of the results it has been used Data Envelopment Analysis that categorized the efficient and inefficient departments of the studied hospital. This study has shown that the economic value added to the society in the long term by the entity is positive. This proposed value measure has indicated that the society is getting a superior return at the opportunity costs of capital invested, or either, the hospital is constructing economic value and consequently contributing for the welfare state. Additionally, the study has demonstrated that the theory of Value Based Management can be adapted as a tool for performance evaluation of public entities, adopting the perspective of the citizen as a shareholder. Finally, the managers of public university hospitals are able to improve the taking decisions process using the economic value added to the society calculation because it has been consisted that this measure of economic value has sensitivity to identify which value drivers should be emphasized in short and long term management.

Unternehmen, die den organisierten Kapitalmarkt in Anspruch nehmen, steuern sich zunehmend und mehrheitlich nach den Methoden einer am Wert des Unternehmens ausgerichteten Unternehmensführung. Bei börsennotierten Unternehmen wurden bereits seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre empirische Untersuchungen zum Stand der Anwendung wertorientierter Unternehmensführungsmethoden durchgeführt. Für deutsche, mittelständische Unternehmen existieren diesbezüglich noch keine Untersuchungen. 2.000 mittels einer geschichteten Zufalls-stichprobe ausgewählte Unternehmen wurden mit Hilfe einer strukturierten schriftlichen Befragung danach untersucht, wie weit eine wertorientierte Denkhaltung und die verschiedenen Facetten der wertorientierten Unternehmensführung in mittelständischen Unternehmen verbreitet sind und was wesentliche Einflussfaktoren, die den Einsatz wertorientierter Methoden fördern bzw. hemmen darstellen. Auf der Basis von 307 auswertbaren Fragebögen (Rücklauf-quote 15,4 %) können wertvolle Ergebnisse zur Einstellung des Managements bzw. der Ei-gentümer zur wertorientierten Steuerung, zu eingesetzten Methoden und zur Verzahnung mit anderen Managementsystemen gewonnen werden. / Companies using the organized capital market are increasingly and dominantly controlled by management methods that focus on a company’s value. Already since the mid-1990s empirical studies have been conducted about the dispersion of value-based management methods in listed companies. But, there have been no such studies of German SMEs. In our study, 2,000 German small- and medium-sized companies randomly selected through a stratified sample are investigated by using a standardized written questionnaire to receive information about the dispersion of value-orientated attitudes, application of value-based management methods, and factors of influence supporting or hindering the diffusion of value-based management in German SMEs. Based on 307 usable questionnaires (response rate 15.4 %) valuable insights have been gained into the attitudes of managers and owners about value based management, applied methods, and interconnections with other management systems.

在未來的無線點對點環境中，由於資訊將被賦予金錢上的價值，故核心議題將不在於如何解決資訊便車者問題，而是必須針對有價資訊制定一有效的定價模式以促進個體提供差異化服務的意願。本研究所提出之情境式小額定價模式，以價值導向定價為基礎，除了針對個體本身資源限制考量而設計之外，更考量服務本身之特性(如無形性、不可分割性、異質性與易逝性)，因此可有效地針對個體目前所處的情境需求以協助服務買方與賣方分別制定服務價格策略與價格談判策略，讓買賣雙方可快速地達成協議。 本研究期望藉由情境式定價與談判機制的提出，能對WP2P 的無線應用服 務發展有所貢獻，並期望讓使用者在動態且即時的環境下，能有效地促進資訊分享的意願與流通，進而能恣意地享受行動服務所帶來的全新生活體驗。 / In the foreseeable Wireless Peer-to-Peer (WP2P) environments (in which information traded is associated with monetary value), one of the key issues in WP2P will focus on how to build efficient pricing strategies to facilitate the peers’ willingness of offering differentiated services (rather than the status–quo of merely resolving the free rider problems). Accordingly, this paper presents a contextualized micro pricing strategy for e-services operating in distributed WP2P environments. The pricing strategy grounding in the concept of value-based pricing not only takes mobile device restrictions and attributes of the surrounding context (ex. time, location) into account, but also regards the unique features of services (intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, perishability) to assist service buyers and sellers to rapidly come to a deal with each other in terms of a lightweight pricing/bargaining process. The contribution of the proposed contextualized micro pricing strategy is to improve peers’ willingness of furnishing differentiated services and to enhance the distribution of the service resources amid the WP2P environments.

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a learning framework in which an agent learns a policy from continual interaction with the environment. A policy is a mapping from states to actions. The agent receives rewards as feedback on the actions performed. The objective of RL is to design autonomous agents to search for the policy that maximizes the expectation of the cumulative reward. When the environment is partially observable, the agent cannot determine the states with certainty. These states are called hidden in the literature. An agent that relies exclusively on the current observations will not always find the optimal policy. For example, a mobile robot needs to remember the number of doors went by in order to reach a specific door, down a corridor of identical doors. To overcome the problem of partial observability, an agent uses both current and past (memory) observations to construct an internal state representation, which is treated as an abstraction of the environment. This research focuses on how features of past events are extracted with variable granularity regarding the internal state construction. The project introduces a new method that applies Information Theory and decision tree technique to derive a tree structure, which represents the state and the policy. The relevance, of a candidate feature, is assessed by the Information Gain Ratio ranking with respect to the cumulative expected reward. Experiments carried out on three different RL tasks have shown that our variant of the U-Tree (McCallum, 1995) produces a more robust state representation and faster learning. This better performance can be explained by the fact that the Information Gain Ratio exhibits a lower variance in return prediction than the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistical test used in the original U-Tree algorithm.