The role of investor type in the fee structures of pension plans

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10693-015-0230-1

A comunicação das marcas de motos nos concessionários multimarca em Portugal

Dissertação apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciências da Comunicação, especialização em Marketing e Comunicação Estratégica.

The ranking of alternative tariff and quota policies in the presence of domestic monopoly

Bhagwati demonstrated the nonequivalence between tariffs and quotas in the presence of monopoly. This paper also assumes domestic production to be monopolized and shows that giving import licenses or tariff revenues to the domestic producer may raise or lower the welfare cost of protection and the price paid by consumers from the price under other tariff and quota arrangements which maintain the same market share for the domestic producer. However, if the monopolist realizes that commercial policy is an instrument used to maximize the policymaker's welfare function, instead of being a goal in itself, the equivalence of tariffs and quotas re-emerges. © 1977.

Identificación de los posibles riesgos contractuales en el desarrollo de franquicias de la empresa Bon Pan

BON PAN es una empresa creada en el año 2009, dedicada principalmente a la panificación y desayunos con producción y puntos de venta propios. Actualmente está presente en Colombia con cinco puntos de venta en las ciudades de Manizales y Pereira. Gracias a su imagen, productos y servicio se ha convertido en uno de los lugares de consumo preferidos por los habitantes de la región. Se ha detectado el potencial de crecimiento que tiene esta empresa y se pretende aumentar su market share o participación en el mercado colombiano principalmente. Sin embargo, el limitado capital propio disponible para incrementar la cantidad de puntos de venta en el país dificulta su crecimiento, así entonces se propuso el franquiciamiento de puntos de venta. El objetivo de éste documento fue identificar los riesgos que puedan existir en la relación contractual franquiciante - franquiciado y que deben ser protegidos por el contrato de franquicias. Se diagramo el Subsistema Estrictamente Coordinado de Bon Pan como franquiciante, se encontró que los activos específicos de mayor riesgo son: la formulación de productos, manual de operaciones, marca y ubicación de los locales. También, que sus responsabilidades como franquiciante son: elaboración de materias primas, alianzas, benchmarking, proyecciones del negocio y apoyo al franquiciado. Las funciones del franquiciado son: operación del punto de venta, transferencias y otros referentes al contrato, gestión y ejecución de estrategias, contratación de personal, pagos y reportes de ventas al franquiciante. Finalmente se analizaron los riesgos relacionados con todos los activos específicos hallados y los relacionados a las funciones de franquiciante y franquiciado.

Identificación de los posibles riesgos contractuales en el desarrollo de franquicias de la empresa Bon Pan

BON PAN es una empresa creada en el año 2009, dedicada principalmente a la panificación y desayunos con producción y puntos de venta propios. Actualmente está presente en Colombia con cinco puntos de venta en las ciudades de Manizales y Pereira. Gracias a su imagen, productos y servicio se ha convertido en uno de los lugares de consumo preferidos por los habitantes de la región. Se ha detectado el potencial de crecimiento que tiene esta empresa y se pretende aumentar su market share o participación en el mercado colombiano principalmente. Sin embargo, el limitado capital propio disponible para incrementar la cantidad de puntos de venta en el país dificulta su crecimiento, así entonces se propuso el franquiciamiento de puntos de venta. El objetivo de éste documento fue identificar los riesgos que puedan existir en la relación contractual franquiciante - franquiciado y que deben ser protegidos por el contrato de franquicias. Se diagramo el Subsistema Estrictamente Coordinado de Bon Pan como franquiciante, se encontró que los activos específicos de mayor riesgo son: la formulación de productos, manual de operaciones, marca y ubicación de los locales. También, que sus responsabilidades como franquiciante son: elaboración de materias primas, alianzas, benchmarking, proyecciones del negocio y apoyo al franquiciado. Las funciones del franquiciado son: operación del punto de venta, transferencias y otros referentes al contrato, gestión y ejecución de estrategias, contratación de personal, pagos y reportes de ventas al franquiciante. Finalmente se analizaron los riesgos relacionados con todos los activos específicos hallados y los relacionados a las funciones de franquiciante y franquiciado.

Investigating the cost Performance of UK Credit Unions using Radial and Non-Radial Efficiency Measures

This paper examines the relative efficiency of UK credit unions. Radial and non-radial measures of input cost efficiency plus associated scale efficiency measures are computed for a selection of input output specifications. Both measures highlighted that UK credit unions have considerable scope for efficiency gains. It was mooted that the documented high levels of inefficiency may be indicative of the fact that credit unions, based on clearly defined and non-overlapping common bonds, are not in competition with each other for market share. Credit unions were also highlighted as suffering from a considerable degree of scale inefficiency with the majority of scale inefficient credit unions subject to decreasing returns to scale. The latter aspect highlights that the UK Government's goal of larger credit unions must be accompanied by greater regulatory freedom if inefficiency is to be avoided. One of the advantages of computing non-radial measures is that an insight into potential over- or under-expenditure on specific inputs can be obtained through a comparison of the non-radial measure of efficiency with the associated radial measure. Two interesting findings emerged, the first that UK credit unions over-spend on dividend payments and the second that they under-spend on labour costs.

Investment and Capitalization of Firms in the USA

In the USA today, the precipitous rise of new financial mechanisms for capitalisation of firms as well as the merger and acquisition of others, especially risk equity capital through venture capitalist and investment banking, has sparked growth and helped to bring the economy out of the 1990s recession into a robust continuous growth pattern well positioned for the next century. The scenario is not new. For the venture capitalists of ''Silicon Valley'' in California, the experience is not new. They have seen the new industries arise before, like a phoenix from ashes of ruin, despair and even failure. Venture capital poured into high tech start-up companies has been an enormous source of financial support for the entrepreneurs who head new and growing companies. The mid-1990s marked the most dramatic increase yet recorded. Indicators, such as the NASDAQ document, outlined the solid and continuous growth in high tech industries. The paper discusses investment in US corporations within the context of governance and management of the company. Discussion about the various forms of finance are related to the organisation and management of the US corporation. Critical to any firm today are its ability to find innovative, new products or services. A growing literature on resource-base framework for analysis will be discussed as part of the firm's development of research for commercialisation. The results of a recent survey further shed light on the relationship between corporate financial management and allocated resources for research and development as the ''engine'' for new product development and therefore corporate market share and growth. The conclusion is that more financial mechanisms will be created and changed within US corporate systems to adjust, grow, and expand companies in the global economic arena, as the inevitable economic pattern leads to mergers, consolidations, and increasing cooperation and alliances among firms.

Overcoming Customer Dependency - A Case Study of Small Consumer Food Producers in Northern Ireland

Dependency on a small number of customer puts intense pressure on suppliers' profit margin and, in slow growing markets, limits their ability to grow. using stragtegic benchmarking information, a group of Northern Ireland consumer food producer are shown, depsite slow market growth and higher than averge customer dependency, to have increased market share while maintaining aboe vergate proitability. examination of the business strategic and develoment activites of the consumer food firms,and comparble information for other small food prodcuers in Ireland, suggests and emphasiss on cost-reduction and new prodcut development. A comparision of the productivity and prodcut range of the consuer food firms provides evidence of the success of these strategic. This suggests that even a relatively weak market situations, charactrised by dependency on a small number of customers, can be over come by effective and appropriate business strategy.

Competitive destination analysis in Southern European countries

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse the competitiveness of the European Union Member States of Southern Europe (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) as tourist destinations for European Union Member States of Central and Northern Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden and the UK). Design/methodology/approach – Application of the market share analysis tool, initially developed by Faulkner, using secondary data from Eurostat – statistical office of the European communities. Findings – The results obtained show that France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain present distinct levels of competitiveness for the various generating countries, with changes having occurred in the period between 1999 and 2007. Originality/value – The paper offers refreshment of Faulkner's tool and an insight into tourist flows in Europe as a tool for tourism and hospitality managers.

Enabling solar electricity with electric vehicles in future energy systems

Tese de doutoramento, Sistemas Sustentáveis de Energia, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2015

Product innovation and the costs of energy-using product policies

Energy-using Products (EuPs) contribute significantly to the United Kingdom’s CO2 emissions, both in the domestic and non-domestic sectors. Policies that encourage the use of more energy efficient products (such as minimum performance standards, energy labelling, enhanced capital allowances, etc.) can therefore generate significant reductions in overall energy consumption and hence, CO2 emissions. While these policies can impose costs on the producers and consumers of these products in the short run, the process of product innovation may reduce the magnitude of these costs over time. If this is the case, then it is important that the impacts of innovation are taken into account in policy impact assessments. Previous studies have found considerable evidence of experience curve effects for EuP categories (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.), with learning rates of around 20% for both average unit costs and average prices; similar to those found for energy supply technologies. Moreover, the decline in production costs has been accompanied by a significant improvement in the energy efficiency of EuPs. Building on these findings and the results of an empirical analysis of UK sales data for a range of product categories, this paper sets out an analytic framework for assessing the impact of EuP policy interventions on consumers and producers which takes explicit account of the product innovation process. The impact of the product innovation process can be seen in the continuous evolution of the energy class profiles of EuP categories over time; with higher energy classes (e.g. A, A+, etc.) entering the market and increasing their market share, while lower classes (e.g. E, F, etc.) lose share and then leave the market. Furthermore, the average prices of individual energy classes have declined over their respective lives, while new classes have typically entered the market at successively lower “launch prices”. Based on two underlying assumptions regarding the shapes of the “lifecycle profiles” for the relative sales and the relative average mark-ups of individual energy classes, a simple simulation model is developed that can replicate the observed market dynamics in terms of the evolution of market shares and average prices. The model is used to assess the effect of two alternative EuP policy interventions – a minimum energy performance standard and an energy-labelling scheme – on the average unit cost trajectory and the average price trajectory of a typical EuP category, and hence the financial impacts on producers and consumers.

Impact of the financial crisis on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and concentration in the global banking industry

The global banking industry has seen dramatic changes in the past 40 years. Most recently, the financial liberalization of emerging markets and the global financial crisis have significantly impacted the market share of banks worldwide. This article investigates the impact of the 2007–2008 financial crisis on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the banking sector and emphasizes the role of emerging-market banks in the postcrisis consolidation trend. Using M&A data and concentration data over the period 2000–2013, our analysis indicates that the financial crisis had a significant impact on worldwide M&As, especially on the direction of the transactions. Emerging-market banks appear to be major acquirers in the postcrisis period, targeting both neighboring countries and developed economies in Europe. We also observe an increase in bank concentration in developed markets most hit by the financial crisis, especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, whereas bank concentration decreased in emerging markets.

Fatores influenciadores da gestão da qualidade e independência do auditor: um estudo de caso

Dissertação apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Auditoria Orientada por: Doutora Alcina Dias

Projecto da suspensão do VEECO RT

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Estratégias de investimento em mercados liberalizados de energia elétrica

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo Energia