O objetivo principal desta dissertação foi estudar as relações dos valores de mercado, dos patrimônios líquidos contábeis e da utilização do valor justo como base única de mensuração para ativos e passivos financeiros nos bancos listados em três importantes bolsas de valores que requerem ou permitem o arquivamento de demonstrações financeiras no padrão IFRS, a BM&FBOVESPA, a LSE e a Euronext. Mais precisamente, sob três pontos: (i) se o uso de uma contabilidade plena ao valor justo torna os patrimônios contábeis próximos dos valores de mercado das instituições; (ii) se as empresas que se utilizam em maior extensão do valor justo como base de mensuração apresentam patrimônios contábeis mais próximos ao valor de mercado e (iii) se os lucros líquidos e resultados abrangentes totais das entidades seriam significativamente diferentes caso fosse utilizada a contabilidade plena ao valor justo. As análises foram efetuadas tomando a amostra conjuntamente, segregada por bolsa e também por porte a um nível de significância (?) de 5%. O procedimento estatístico utilizado foi o de confecção de Testes de Hipóteses de Médias para Amostras Emparelhadas (t-Student ou Wilcoxon). Os resultados apontam que: (i) o uso do valor justo como base de mensuração única aproxima os valores contábeis dos patrimônios de seus pares de mercado, porém sem significância estatística; (ii) tanto as instituições que usam em maior extensão o valor justo quanto aquelas que se utilizam em menor nível apresentam patrimônios contábeis significativamente diferentes de seus respectivos valores de mercado e (iii) o uso do valor justo como base única de mensuração não altera significativamente os valores dos lucros líquidos e resultados abrangentes totais contábeis. / The main objective of this dissertation was to study the relations between the market values, the accounting equities and the use of the fair value as the single measurement basis for financial assets and liabilities for the banks listed at three important stocks exchanges that require or allow the filling of the financial statements in the IFRS standard, the BM&FBOVESPA, the LSE and the Euronext. More specifically on three points: (i) if the use of the full fair value accounting make the accounting equities closer to the institutions\' market values; (ii) if the enterprises that use in higher extension the fair value as measurement basis presents accounting equities closer to the market values and (iii) if the entities\' net income and total comprehensive income would be significantly different if it was used the full fair value accounting. The analysis were carried out taking the sample in conjunction, segregated by stock exchange and also by size at a significance level (?) of 5%. The statistical procedure used was the making of the Hypothesis Tests for Means of Matched Samples (t-Student or Wilcoxon).The results show that: (i) the use of fair value as the single measurement basis approximates the accounting values of the equities to their market peers, but without statistical significance; (ii) both the institutions that use fair value in higher extension and those that use in lesser level present accounting equities significantly different from their respective market values and (iii) the use of fair value as the single measurement basis does not change significantly the values of the net income and the total comprehensive income.

O luxo é um setor que tem cada vez mais despertado o interesse de acadêmicos e profissionais de marketing, não só pela importância econômica que representa para alguns países, mas também pela sua tendência de crescimento em mercados emergentes, favorecida pelo aumento da renda disponível e do tamanho da clientela potencial. Especificamente no Brasil, o mercado do luxo tem experimentado um incremento anual significativo e superior ao da economia como um todo. A gestão das empresas atuantes nesse mercado apresenta desafios de particular interesse para os estudiosos e praticantes do marketing, pois os produtos luxuosos possuem elevado grau de valores intangíveis, subjetivos e sociais agregados, que são determinantes para a formação de sua demanda e de uma parcela considerável do preço final. O cenário de crescente competição e internacionalização exige processos gerenciais cada vez mais orientados para o mercado, nos quais análises da concorrência e do perfil dos consumidores são formas de gerar um maior valor percebido pelo cliente. Não obstante, criar e entregar esse valor exige uma clara compreensão de sua natureza e dimensões. Nesse contexto, este trabalho teve por objetivo propor e testar um modelo conceitual integrador para o Valor Percebido pelo Cliente dos produtos de luxo, buscando ampliar o corpo teórico sobre o constructo e fundamentar o desenvolvimento de estratégias de marketing. A partir da análise crítica de modelos propostos por diferentes autores, de reflexões teóricas sobre o conceito do luxo, e com base na opinião de consumidores do setor, foram desenvolvidos o modelo teórico e seus respectivos itens de mensuração, testados e refinados pela técnica de modelagem de equações estruturais PLS-SEM em termos de sua confiabilidade e validade. Os resultados mostraram haver um impacto considerável das duas dimensões dos sacrifícios percebidos (não monetários e monetários) sobre o valor percebido total dos produtos prestigiosos, bem como efeitos menores, porém significativos, das dimensões dos benefícios psicológicos, sociais e intangíveis. Os benefícios tangíveis também demonstraram impacto sobre o valor percebido final, porém em menor grau. Tais resultados contribuem para a ampliação do corpo teórico de marketing sobre esse tema, ao propor e validar um modelo mais abrangente que integra os existentes e, ao mesmo tempo, preenche lacunas observadas. Em termos gerenciais, o conhecimento dos aspectos mais relevantes da percepção dos consumidores sobre o valor entregue pelos bens luxuosos é fundamental para gerenciar as marcas, direcionar os esforços de comunicação de marketing e desenvolver estratégias de mercado eficazes, levando em conta as diferentes dimensões de benefícios e sacrifícios propostos pelo estudo. / The luxury industry has been raising greater interest among marketing scholars and professionals, not only due to its economic relevance in some countries, but also because of its growth trend in emerging markets, spurred by increases in disposable income and a greater diversity of its target audiences. Specifically in Brazil, the luxury market has experienced significant annual growth rates, well above those of the total economy. The management of luxury companies presents challenges that are particularly interesting for marketing scholars and practitioners, as prestige products possess high levels of intangible, subjective and social added value, which are determinant for their demand and final price formation. In the present scenario, where growing competition and internationalization demand increasingly market-oriented managerial processes, competition and consumer behavior analysis is a necessary tool to create higher customer perceived value. Nevertheless, creating and delivering value demands a clear understanding of its nature and dimensions. Thus the purpose of this study: to propose and test an integrative conceptual framework for luxury products Customer Perceived Value, aiming to increase the construct\'s theoretical understanding and to serve as a basis for developing marketing strategies. Building upon a critical analysis of models proposed by various authors, the theory on the luxury concept, and luxury consumers\' opinions, the conceptual model and its measurement items were developed, tested and refined in terms of validity and reliability through the structural equation modeling technique PLS-SEM. The findings revealed a considerable impact of the two perceived sacrifice dimensions (non-monetary and monetary) on luxury products total perceived value, as well as smaller, though significant, effects of the psychological, social and intangible benefits dimensions. Tangible benefits have also shown an impact on the final perceived value, but to a lesser extent. Those findings contribute to the marketing theory on the subject by proposing and validating a more comprehensive framework that synthetizes preexisting ones and, at the same time, fills out gaps found in the literature. In terms of managerial practice, a better understanding of the most relevant aspects of luxury customer perceived value is vital for brand management, marketing communications and the development of effective marketing strategies that build upon the various benefit and sacrifice dimensions proposed in this study.

Although Value Engineering (VE) studies are mandated by the Federal Highway Administration for large ($25 million or more) federal-aid highway projects, many state Departments of Transportation do not conduct voluntary VE studies on smaller projects. Those who have done so have seen project improvements and savings as a result. The success of the existing voluntary VE programs indicates that VE application to small transportation projects represents a significant opportunity for savings. The goal of this thesis work was to develop a methodology for conducting VE studies on small transportation projects that would make efficient use of available personnel and require little VE training. The author examined the results and procedures of several DOT VE programs, including some that conduct studies on projects as small as $1 million. The analyses revealed sources of past savings, trends and common methods in VE studies, and procedures and forms that are best suited to the types of project under study. Based on the research and analyses, the author developed a VE study methodology that is tailored to small transportation projects, including a workbook and both general and specific guidelines. This report proposes an approach to VE on small transportation projects using this methodology, which is characterized by conformance with accepted VE practice and FHWA guidelines, efficient use of personnel, and ease of use. In particular, these recommendations are intended for use by any state DOT with an existing but limited VE program, such as MassHighway, which currently conducts only mandated studies.

P-values combination procedure for multiple statistical tests is a common data analysis method in many applications including bioinformatics. However, this procedure is nontrivial when input P-values are dependent. For the Fisher€™s combination procedure, a classic method is the Brown€™s Strategy [1, Brown,1975], which is based empirical moment-matching of gamma distribution. In this project, we address a more general family of weighting-andtruncation p-value combination procedures called TFisher. We first study how to extend Brown€™s Strategy to this problem. Then we make further development in two directions. First, instead of using the empirical polynomial model-fitting strategy to find moments, we developed an analytical calculation strategy based on asymptotic approximation. Second, instead of using the gamma distribution to approximate the null distribution of TFisher, we propose to use a mixed gamma distribution or a shifted-mixed gamma distribution. We focus on calculating the one-sided p-value for TFisher, especially the soft-thresholding version of TFisher. Simulations show that our methods much improve the accuracy than the traditional strategy.

Nous nous focalisons dans cette recherche sur les consommateurs chinois qui vivent à l'étranger (en Europe et aux Etats-Unis), pour analyser dans quelle mesure les valeurs et les comportements des consommateurs chinois vis-à-vis des produits et des services de luxe peuvent être modifiés à la suite de leurs contacts avec les cultures européennes (française et allemande) et la culture américaine ; elle vise également à identifier le rôle que les valeurs traditionnelles chinoises jouent dans ce contexte. Les résultats sont présentés dans trois essais distincts. Dans le premier essai, l'influence de la culture française et de la culture allemande sur la consommation des produits de luxe des Chinois est identifiée en interviewant un groupe de 22 consommateurs chinois qui vit en Europe. Dans le deuxième essai, nous nous efforçons de développer et de valider une échelle de mesure des perceptions des valeurs du luxe en Chine et aux Etats-Unis. La conceptualisation transculturelle de ce construit des valeurs du luxe est également étudiée, en utilisant deux échantillons d'étudiants (Chinois et Américains), et deux échantillons de consommateurs adultes chinois (qui vivent en Chine et aux Etats-Unis). Dans le troisième essai, avec les mêmes échantillons que ceux du deuxième essai, nous visons à clarifier comment les Chinois qui vivent aux Etats-Unis modifient leurs valeurs et leurs comportements pour se conformer aux nouvelles normes de la consommation des produits et des services de luxe. Après des analyses, nous conclussions que les consommateurs immigrés se comportent parfois comme les caméléons pour se fondre dans les normes culturelles du consommateur du pays d'accueil. / In this research we focus on the Chinese consumers living in the West (Europe and U.S.), exploring how European cultures (French and German) and American culture influence their luxury consumption values and behaviors, and meanwhile seek to identify the role of Chinese cultural values within this context. These results are presented in three essays. The first essay focuses on exploring the influence of French and German cultures on European-Chinese consumers' luxury consumption, by analyzing 22 qualitative interviews carried out with the Chinese consumers living in Europe. The second essay seeks to develop and validate a scale measuring luxury value perceptions in China and in the United States, and to assess the cross-cultural conceptualization of this luxury value construct, using two student samples (Chinese n=92 & Americans n=92) and two Chinese adult samples (in China n=255 & in the U.S. n=217). Using the same samples as the second essay, we further investigates in the third essay that, the extent to which immigrant Chinese consumers would change in order to comply with the new cultural consensus in luxury consumption. A series of analyses suggest a conclusion that immigrant consumers tend to acquire the prevailing consensus of the host culture, and behave like chameleons, blending into the surrounding environment.

Thailand is a leading rice exporting country that exports rice for one-third of world‟s export volume. Rice from Thailand is exported to markets in every part of the world including Sweden. Thai rice products are available to be accessed by Swedish consumers in supermarket generally. The purposes of this study are to analyze the entire chain of rice starting from farm in Thailand to consumers in Sweden. Stakeholders in the chain are examined and value-added by each stakeholder is defined. Role of governance in the chain is analyzed to underline the governance relationships and interaction of actors. Moreover, roles of government institution are examined to describe its impact on the chain. Data for the analyses are collected through two activities which include a review of relevant literature and gathering from government offices of Thailand and international institutes.The results of the study reveal that there are at least twelve actors involving in the value chain of rice exported from Thailand to Sweden which include farmers, local collectors, farmer‟s organization, central market, millers, brokers, wholesalers, retailers, exporters, International rice traders and brokers, Associated Marketing Services (AMS), Swedish importers and Swedish consumers. Rice from producers is taken through numbers of path before it‟s reached to consumers. Value of rice is raised along the chain it is taken through according to the costs incurred and marketing margin of each stakeholders. Profits are shared largely to stakeholders who have high bargaining power which are millers and exporters. The governance in domestic rice market goes forth and back along the chain. Prices of rice are influenced by local supply and demand of both local and international consumption.The policy measures adopted by Thai government create affects to the rice value chain to some extent; anyhow the chain typically adjusts itself by the market mechanism of demand and supply. Swedish government applies EU legislation in the country since Sweden has become the member of the European Union in 1995. Further to EU legislation, there are non-legislative requirements developed by market itself that rice exporters must be aware. / Program: Magisterutbildning i företagsekonomi

Dada a crescente importância do relacionamento empresa-cliente e a pluralidade de modelos que discutam os elementos e resultados desse tipo de atividade, esta pesquisa buscou entender melhor a atividade de marketing de relacionamento e seus resultados por meio da análise de como os profissionais dessa área enxergam as relações entre os constructos relevantes, a fim de buscar desenvolver um modelo que expresse mais claramente como os profissionais da área entendem que os resultados de marketing de relacionamento são alcançados. O tema é tratado com base em uma revisão teórica que explora o conceito de marketing de relacionamento e seus principais elementos, o processo de modelagem, e o processo de mapeamento cognitivo. A partir da revisão teórica, foram listados onze constructos de marketing de relacionamento, que foram, então, analisados por 35 profissionais da área. Assim foram traçados 35 mapas cognitivos individuais que apontam como cada entrevistado entende as interações entre os elementos do marketing de relacionamento. Com base nas visões de cada indivíduo, foi traçado um mapa cognitivo agregado que aponta o entendimento médio dos entrevistados. A análise desse mapa permitiu identificar como, de acordo com a visão dos profissionais pesquisados, os elementos de marketing de relacionamento se influenciam mutuamente e quais elementos têm maior ou menor impacto no resultado final (aqui considerado como o custumer lifetime value - CLV). Por fim, foi feita análise de cluster para identificar a possível existência de algum tipo de agrupamento de respostas. Nenhum padrão significativo foi encontrado / Given the growing importance of activities related to the relationship between company and client, and the plurality of models to discuss the elements and results of this type of activity, better understanding the relationship marketing activity and it\'s results is important, in order to seek to develop a model that express more clearly how relationship marketing results are achieved. The theme is treated from a theoretical review based on the concept of relationship marketing and its key elements, the modeling process, and the process of cognitive mapping. Eleven contructos of relationship were listed from the theoretical review, and were then analyzed by 35 marketing professionals. Thus 35 individual maps which indicate how each respondent understands the interactions between the elements of relationship marketing have been traced. Based on the views of each individual, was plotted an aggregate map that shows the average understanding of the respondents. The analysis of this map has allowed us to identify, in accordance with the vision of

Eccles' expectancy-value model of achievement motivation suggests that beliefs about ability and expectations for success are a strong predictor of grades and differences in task value underlie differences in motivation and achievement. This model has not been previously investigated in the context of high stakes examinations in the UK and this study therefore explores the relationships between expectations, values and A-level achievement in 930 students. This is important given the significance of these qualifications for future life pathways. Furthermore, studies examining the subjective task value (STV) patterns across school subjects, rather than domain specific ones, are rare, highlighting the additional importance of this work. A mixed methods design was used. A questionnaire collected information on a student's background (SES, gender, ethnicity), the expectations and STV attached to A-levels, and their future and general life expectations and values. Some of these relationships were also explored using 20 semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data illustrated that studying A-levels confirmed aspects of students' identity but also facilitated changes to their goals and academic skills, having positive effects, contrary to the argument that high stakes assessment has a negative impact on individuals. Unsurprisingly parents and teachers were perceived to be influential. As predicted, expectations and values were related to A-level achievement. As there is a lack of research into the effects of these variables on A-level outcomes these findings are valuable. Eccles' original three factor model of STV could not, however, be supported. In this research the utility construct was removed. Further exploration of the STV construct is warranted. Socio-economic status was positively related to both achievement and expectations about achievement. Girls had lower expectations but placed higher value on their A-levels. There were, however, no gender differences in achievement. Employing the expectancy-value model in this UK context has been useful in explaining the motivational patterns underlying A-level qualifications and the findings have implications for enhancing outcomes and narrowing educational gaps in this student population.

Cyber-Incident Response (or, as it was initially called, Computer Incident response) has traditionally followed cyclic models such as the SEI Incident Response Cycle and SANS models, which aim to detect and identify incidents, stop, contain and eradicate them. Using the knowledge gained from the incidents, these models then advocate improving the capabilities to defend against subsequent attacks of the same nature. Although some later versions of these models, including the NIST model proposed in 2012, have nested the cycles to provide a more reactive response, they are neither demonstrably empirically founded nor do they represent the interests of all stakeholders within an organisation. This research addresses cyber-incident response from a broader perspective, looking from the viewpoint of a cross-functional set of stakeholders and ensures that incident response decisions are sensitive to temporal priorities, taken from an organisation-wide perspective and provide a range of responses rather than only containing and eradicating an incident. During this research, principal component analysis and structural equation modelling were used to develop the Dynamic Cyber Incident Response Model (DCIRM) which resulted in the development of a fielded prototype tool, the Cyber Operations Support Tool (COST). COST was then subjected to both controlled experimentation and operational validation. Empirical analysis of both of these activities confirmed the utility and effectiveness of the COST and the underlying DCIRM. The COST has since been used to train military cyber operational planners. The novel areas of this research are the dynamic nature of DCIRM which takes account of the changing asset values based on the point in the business/mission cycle, the trade-off between risk to the organisation and gathering intelligence during an incident, the flexibility in response options within organisational constraints and the abstraction of the information to allow a non-cyber specialist to make an appropriate incident response decision.

This thesis addresses existing shortcomings in the co-creation literature by proposing organisational capabilities that support co-creation in financial service firms. A developing country perspective is taken and the context is Nigeria, a West African Country. In this thesis, the Resource-based view and Knowledge-based view are integrated with the Dynamic Capability perspective to identify capabilities required to manage the dyadic interactions during co-creation. First, a conceptual model is developed through an in-depth literature review, before testing, refining and validating the model through a mixed-method research approach, involving both qualitative and quantitative research steps. The conceptual model identified a set of capabilities - namely the firm's innovation, knowledge management and relational capability and their effect on co-creation practice. The aim of the qualitative research step was to improve the conceptual model through exploratory research. This step involved in-depth interviews (n=9) with key informants and a focus group discussion with users (n=7). In the quantitative step, empirical data was collected via a questionnaire (n=261) using a drop-off-pick-up (DOPU) technique. The data is analysed using structural path analysis, hypotheses testing and model re-specification. The results of the qualitative phase indicate that co-creation in financial services is dependent on regulation, user need and the structure of financial services in Nigeria. The results also confirm the influence of innovation, knowledge management and relational capabilities on co-creation practice. Nevertheless, qualitative findings also show that knowledge management capability emerged as a vital capability upon which other value creation activities in financial service firms depend. These findings were further tested and validated in the quantitative phase. In line with the resource-based view (RBV) and the knowledge-based view (KBV), empirical findings confirm that the firm`s resource endowments explain, in part, value co-creation in firms. Principally, the findings of this study show that the capacity of financial service organisations to provide sustainable value creation for its clients and itself depend on the degree to which they possess specific dynamic capabilities. The findings also show the relative importance of co-creation practices and how they are effective only in certain conditions and specific environments.