Dedication. Acknowledgements. Preface. Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: Green Business and Carbon Offsetting. Chapter 3A: Case Study. Chapter 3B: Interview. Chapter 4: Case Study. Chapter 5: Conclusion. Bibliography.

Dedication. Acknowledgements. Preface. Chapter 1: Introduction. Chapter 2: Green Business and Carbon Offsetting. Chapter 3A: Case Study. Chapter 3B: Interview. Chapter 4: Case Study. Chapter 5: Conclusion. Bibliography.

Submitted by Mariane Pravato Munhoz Gonçalves (marianepmunhoz@hotmail.com) on 2018-05-11T13:41:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTAÇÃO.pdf: 1225224 bytes, checksum: f2790e403b442ce9d4fd2f94146f5678 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ederson Vasconcelos Pereira null (edersonpereira@fmva.unesp.br) on 2018-05-14T13:46:42Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 gonçalves_mpm_me_araca_int.pdf: 1225224 bytes, checksum: f2790e403b442ce9d4fd2f94146f5678 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-14T13:46:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 gonçalves_mpm_me_araca_int.pdf: 1225224 bytes, checksum: f2790e403b442ce9d4fd2f94146f5678 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-04-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / O ritmo acelerado da vida moderna vem contribuindo para o aumento da demanda por alimentos industrializados e de rápida preparação. O produto cárneo tipo hambúrguer é um alimento bastante apreciado pela população em geral, pelas suas características sensoriais e de praticidade. Esses alimentos podem conter elevadas concentrações de aditivos químicos, gorduras saturadas, amido e açúcares refinados. Diante disso, este experimento objetivou elaborar produtos cárneos tipo hambúrguer à base de carne de frango e carne bovina magra enriquecidos nutricionalmente, pela adição de ingredientes funcionais, mantendo ou aumentando sua aceitação pelos consumidores. Foram elaboradas duas formulações de hambúrgueres, uma de carne bovina enriquecida com cerca de 1,6% de farinha de batata doce e uma de carne de frango enriquecida com aproximadamente 3,2% de aveia em flocos. Foi realizada a caracterização físico-química e sensorial e avaliada a aceitabilidade das amostras experimentais, em comparação a hambúrgueres industrializados de carne de frango e bovina, disponíveis comercialmente no mercado. As amostras foram analisadas por 50 provadores não treinados, escolhidos em função de apreciarem e serem consumidores habituais do produto. Foi observado que o hambúrguer composto por carne de frango e aveia obteve os maiores escores de aceitação na análise sensorial, além da composição nutricional ter se mostrado mais adequada, por apresentar menor teor de lipídeos totais em relação às demais amostras. O hambúrguer de carne bovina enriquecido com farinha de batata doce também foi bem aceito pelos provadores e apresentou menor teor de lipídeos quando comparado aos industrializados, enquanto o hambúrguer de frango industrializado foi o mais rejeitado. Com isso, ficou demonstrado ser possível elaborar produtos cárneos tipo hambúrguer que agreguem praticidade, sabor e qualidade nutricional. O hambúrguer de frango enriquecido, que obteve maior aceitação, seria uma alternativa de produto prático e de rápido preparo para a industrialização e comercialização, pois além de saboroso, entraria como alternativa saudável ao consumidor. / The fast pace of modern life has been contributing to the increasing demand for industrialized foods and fast preparation. The hamburger type meat product is a food that is appreciated by the general population for its sensorial characteristics and practicality. These foods may contain high concentrations of chemical additives, saturated fats, starch and refined sugars. The objective of this experiment was to produce hamburger-based meat products based on meat and poultry meat nutritionally enriched by the addition of functional ingredients, maintaining or increasing their acceptance by consumers. Two formulations of burgers were made, one of beef enriched with about 1.6% sweet potato flour and one chicken meat enriched with approximately 3.2% oat flakes. The physicochemical and sensorial characterization was performed and the acceptability of the experimental samples was evaluated, compared to commercially available hamburgers of chicken and beef meat commercially available on the market. The samples were analyzed by 50 untrained tasters, chosen because they like and are habitual consumers of the product. It was observed that the hamburger composed of chicken and oats had the highest acceptance scores in the sensory analysis, besides the nutritional composition was more adequate, since it presented lower total lipid content in relation to the other samples. The beef burger enriched with sweet potato flour was also well accepted by the tasters and presented lower lipid content when compared to industrialized, while the industrialized chicken burger was the most rejected. Thus, it has been demonstrated that it is possible to produce a hamburger type meat product that adds practicality, flavor and nutritional quality. The enriched chicken burger, which received greater acceptance, would be an alternative of practical product and quick preparation for the industrialization and commercialization, because besides tasty, would enter as a healthy alternative to the consumer.

Firms are the unit cells of the economy. Understanding how they create value is key todesigning policies that promote sustainable growth. In this dissertation, I study how two major trends: globalization and rising inequality, affect the causes and consequences of firm growth. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the interaction of multinational firms and domestic firms in developing countries, while chapter 3 looks at the unequal distribution of consumer gains from the expansion of a firm in the United States. Specifically, in Chapter 1, I study how the presence of multinational firms affects how domestic firms grow. I investigate the hypothesis that uncertainty about product quality, a distinctive feature in developing countries, leads consumers to prefer products made by multinational firms headquartered in high-income countries, as opposed to domestic firms. Combining barcode-level consumption data from Mexico with information about the origin of the producers of the goods, I measure a precise foreign price premium of at least 16%. While the availability of foreign goods increases consumers’ welfare, the dominance of foreign firms may also hinder the growth of domestic firms. I then document the following novel facts about the consumer packaged goods industry in Mexico: 1) domestic firm sales growth is driven by older goods rather than new goods; 2) domestic goods have slower and longer life-cycles than foreign goods; 3) the extensive customer margin is key to growth for both types of firms; 4) domestic firms depend relatively more on the intensive margin for customer growth; and 5) new customers of older domestic goods are poorer than those of new goods. I estimate a demand model, showing that the price premium elicited in the raw data can be attributed to consumers’ relative preference for foreign goods. Importantly, this preference fades over time. I show that this is consistent with consumers learning about product quality, and provide consumer-level empirical evidence for this mechanism. Demand-side policies may be useful complements to classic industrial policy tools. Chapter 2 looks inside multinational firms to understand how contextual factors may affect the probability of spillovers from multinationals to the domestic sector. A distinct feature of multinationals is a three-tier hierarchy: foreign managers (FMs) supervise domestic managers (DMs) who supervise production workers. Surveys suggest that language barriers impede interactions between FMs and DMs. An experimental protocol that offers DMs free English language courses confirms that lowering communication costs increases their interactions with FMs. A second experimental protocol that asks human-resource managers at domestic firms to rate hypothetical resumes reveals that multinational experience and, specifically, DM-FM interactions are valued in the domestic labor market. Taken together, the protocols suggest that reducing language barriers can improve transfers of management knowledge to domestic workers, and a longer-run survey indicates treatment DMs’ improvements in soft skills. We further examine why MNCs and DMs may under-invest in language training. Complementary policies such as language subsidies can increase the probability of positive spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment. In Chapter 3, I study the expansion of a large, high-quality firm in the United States and itsimpact on the competitive landscape. The arrival of high-end grocery stores in neighborhoods is a harbinger of gentrification. However, economic theory generally predicts that the entry of firms is good for consumer welfare. This paper combines barcode-level retail data with a newly collected dataset on the opening dates of Whole Foods, a high-end grocery chain in the United States, in new neighborhoods, to estimate the effect of entry. I show that Whole Foods’ entry causes prices to rise by three percent for households in the bottom half of the income distribution, while prices don’t change for households in the top half of the income distribution. This finding is robust to changing the sample of stores and the set of control variables and to a falsification test using announcement dates instead of entry dates. Building on differentiated competition models, I show that this unexpected effect of entry can happen because incumbent stores catering to high-income households are closer to Whole Foods’ assortment and therefore behave pro-competitively when Whole Foods arrives, while incumbent stores catering to low-income households are quite differentiated and are able to raise their prices. Policies seeking to address gentrification should take the business side of this phenomenon into account.

This is an interdisciplinary master's level thesis that explores links among technical writing, training manuals, surveillance, and anti-union rhetoric used with service workers in select American chains and franchises. Brief histories are provided, including those of technical writing, the rise of unions in America, and how technical writing became inextricably linked with labor. A major shift occurred in the 20th century when workers began interacting less with products and more with the public. The research focuses on training manuals, techniques, and rehearsed dialogues of McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, and Publix, though similar organizations are referenced. Service worker language, uniforms, and store decorum are sometimes analyzed for their rhetorical content. The idea of a single, technically written training manual in the service sector is a misnomer; training is delivered through a pastiche of manuals, videos, computers, apps, flipcharts, and on the job training. Unions are avoided through franchising (and therefore eat outlet not possessing enough workers to organize), creating conditions of high turnover rates, rhetoric, and use of euphemism. Global corporations are likened to "superfiefdoms," with service workers equated to modern serfs. If the world has evolved into supercorporations, it is argued then that the Publix employee-owned model may be the best approach and the most dignified of all. The technical writing and instruction in state-sponsored and federalized school pedagogies, which emphasize drills and compliance, may be culturally linked to the training found in these entry-level service jobs, and more academic study exploring these links is called for.

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