The implementation of corporate governance in Germany and Brazi l: a comparative case study

The recent promotion of best corporate governance standards by several different government institutions and non-for profit organizations resulted in the implementation of more sophisticated governance mechanisms. As consequence to the separation of ownership and control the concept of agency theory arose. Agency theory argues that without out proper control mechanism managers would behave exploit owners due to information asymmetry. Regulators have promoted corporate governance mechanisms in order to address this issue. This paper aims to contrast the implementation of best corporate governance practices in Germany and Brazil on the example of two practical examples. With this purpose in mind, this paper analyzed two companies listed in the main stock exchange in Germany and Brazil throughout a period of 5 years. In order to measure the degree of corporate governance practices implemented 3 different parameters have been chosen. In line with great part of the literature the parameters considered to be relevant are; composition, procedures and deviation from the local corporate governance code. The comparison of the data revealed that board composition in the two analyzed companies is similar regarding the proportion of independent representatives but does distinguish in size. While committees are related to the same topics it can be implied that Natura’s board is more involved in the actual management of the company. Lastly, Beiersdorf has been able to comply to a larger extend with the recommendations of the local German code than Natura to the recommendations published by Brazilian code of the IBGC.

O Brasil, o Império Otomano e a Sociedade Internacional: contrastes e conexões (1850-1919)

Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar a forma como o Brasil e o buscaram se inserir na sociedade internacional europeia – nos moldes Inglesa de Relações Internacionais a define - no período que vai da a assinatura da Lei Eusébio de Queiroz do lado brasileiro e do tratado de Império Otomano, até a criação da Liga das Nações, em 1919. Estes são como “impérios periféricos” ao centro europeu, integrando o grupo que não eram nem colônias, nem potências no período em tela. Assim, contrastar os esforços feitos por Brasil e Império Otomano em utilizar o internacional e a diplomacia – formal e não-formal –, e as formas de transformações que empreenderam em suas capitais visando serem “civilizados”. Por outro lado, chama-se atenção para as conexões que se entre Brasil e Império Otomano justamente em função dessa maior Europa. Estas conexões são analisadas então em duas fases. Uma tentativas formais de relações diplomáticas, chamada de “relações envolveu inclusive viagens de D. Pedro II a domínios otomanos. A vinda de súditos otomanos – gregos, armênios, judeus e árabes – para o Brasil e de novas relações diplomáticas travadas.

Creditor's protection and bank loans: lack of competition hamprers bankruptcy reform's effects

This dissertation investigates how credit institutions’ market power limits the effects of creditor protection rules on the interest rate and the spread of bank loans. We use the Brazilian Bankruptcy Reform of June/2005 (BBR) as a legal event affecting the institutional environment of the Brazilian credit market. The law augments creditor protection and aims to improve the access of firms to the credit market and to reduce the cost of borrowing. Either access to credit or the credit cost are also determined by bank industry competition and the market power of suppliers of credit. We derive a simple economic model to study the effect of market power interacting with cost of lending. Using an accounting and operations dataset from July/2004 to December/2007 provided by the Brazilian Central Bank, we estimate that the lack of competition in the bank lending industry hinders the potential reducing effect of the BBR on the interest rate of corporate loans by approximately 30% and on the spread by approximately 23%. We also find no statistical evidence that the BBR affected the concentration level of the Brazilian credit market. We present a brief report on bankruptcy reforms around the world, the changes in the Brazilian legislation and on some recent related articles in our introductory chapter. The second chapter presents the economic model and the testable hypothesis on how the lack of competition in the lending market limits the effects of improved creditor protection. In this chapter, we introduce our empirical strategy using a differences-in-differences model and we estimate the limiting effect of market power on the BBR’s potential to reduce interest rates and on the spread of bank loans. We use the BBR as an exogenous event that affects collateralized corporate loans (treatment group) but that does not affect clean consumer loans (control group) to identify these effects, using different concentration measures. In Chapter 3, we propose a two-stage empirical strategy to handle the H–Statistics proposed by Panzar and Rosse as a measure of market competition. We estimate the limiting effects of the lack of competition in replacing the concentration statistics by the H–Statistics. Chapter 4 presents a structural break test of the concentration index and checks if the BBR affects the dynamic evolution of the concentration index.

Which strategies can an educational business, such as a kindergarten in Germany, develop to foster employee engagement?

Which strategies can an educational business, such as a Kindergarten in Germany, develop to foster employee engagement? The goal of this master thesis is to identify effective and viable measures to engage employees, that could be potentially implemented in a Kindergarten in Germany. The literature concerning the notion of employee engagement is so inconsistent that even studies about the subject fail to find one common definition and have to acknowledge the variety of existing definitions (IES, 2014, p.52-53). This reflects the youth of the concept, which has only been partially studied by academics and practitioners in recent years. The literature gap about employee engagement concerns many aspects, among which small companies and educational businesses, in particular those focusing on early child development. Considering the low levels of employee engagement in Germany combined with the absence of studies on educational organizations focusing in early child development this master thesis studies engagement in German Kindergärten(s). This master thesis is divided in two parts consisting of a literature review and a case study. The literature review allows to follow the evolution of the concept along the years, while the case study focuses on assessing employee engagement in Montessori Kindergärten(s) in Munich & elaborating potential measures to increase engagement levels. Double sided research was undertaken for this case study. On the one hand a quantitative research was performed, through a survey, in order to uncover which strategies would be viable to foster employee engagement. On the other hand a qualitative research was undertaken, consisting in an internship in a Kindergarten, in order to shed light on how to do so. Findings in the quantitative research indicate overall engagement levels average to low. Results related to specific statements bring out the originality of the educational sector, which is in some aspects intrinsically engaging, similarly to the medical field (Seijts & Crim, 2006). Furthermore low engagement levels led to a conversely high number of positives responses to potential engagement strategies suggesting their potential effectiveness. Findings in the qualitative research are coherent with qualitative results and complement them