Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Credit to the public sector'

The banking industry in India has undergone many phases in its history; evolving from a regulated, decentralised system in the early 1800’s, to a regulated, centralised system during British rule, to a nationalised system following India’s independence, and finally a combination of a nationalised and private system adopting global standards as it currently stands. This study has two main aims. Firstly, it will assess the relationship between the firm-specific determinants of capital structure, based on the prevailing literature, and the capital structure of public and private sector banks in India. Secondly, it will determine whether there is a difference in the firm-specific factors that contribute to the determination of the capital structure of public sector banks and private sector banks. This study adopts quantitative methods, similar to previous studies on the relationship between capital structure and its firm-specific determinants. The dependent variable, being total leverage, is regressed against multiple independent variables, being profitability, growth, firm size and credit risk (hereinafter referred to as “risk” unless otherwise indicated) in a multivariate linear regression model. This study adds to the current literature by applying the same firm-specific independent variables to the case of private and public sector banks and then to evaluate and compare the similarities and differences between the regression outputs. The results show that for private sector banks, all independent variables are statistically significant in explaining total leverage, where all the independent variables conform to the current literature on capital structure – profitability (-), firm size (-), growth (+) and credit risk (-). Conversely, for public sector banks, all independent variables were considered to be statistically significant, except for credit risk – profitability (-), firm size (+) and growth (+). These results imply that credit risk is not an important determination in a nationalised banks’ capital structure; thus, providing evidence for the moral hazard theory of public sector banks.

Le cadre juridique du recours des collectivités territoriales et de leurs groupements au crédit a subi d’importantes modifications lors des nombreuses réformes dont a fait l’objet le secteur public local.En dépit de ces évolutions, l’emprunt des collectivités territoriales continue d’être au coeur d’un paradoxe entre autonomie et contrainte. Il constitue d’abord un facteur d’autonomie pour les décideurs locaux comme cela s’est accentué avec la libéralisation du crédit qui s’est produite au cours de la seconde moitié du XXème siècle. Les collectivités territoriales doivent ainsi désormais user de cette autonomie pour répondre aux enjeux induits par la banalisation de cet instrument qui intègre dans une large mesure le champ du droit privé et dont les pratiques ne cessent de se complexifier. La liberté acquise n’est toutefois pas totale. D’une part, l’autonomie offerte au secteur public local dans son recours à l’emprunt ne reste que relative dès lors que l’État continue d’imposer un encadrement multiple et ce, tant à travers l’existence de règles que par la mise en place de procédures de contrôle.D’autre part, cette autonomie a fait émerger de nouveaux enjeux pour les décideurs locaux qui ont vula notion de risque financer s’inscrire au coeur de leurs politiques d’endettement. L’actualité la plus récente de l’emprunt local demeure du reste une parfaite illustration de ce paradoxe entre autonomie et contrainte avec des collectivités territoriales qui ont connu d’importantes difficultés liées à leur recours au crédit
Regarding the recourse of local authorities and their consortiums to credit, the applicable legalframework went through a number of significant modifications. These modifications took place duringthe numerous reforms of the local public sector. In spite of these evolutions, the indebtness capacity of local authorities continues to be at the heart of an autonomy and constraint paradox. Theliberalisation of credit that took place during the second half of the XXth century accentuated theautonomy factor for local deciders. Local authorities must use this autonomy to find solutions to thechallenges induced by the trivialization of this tool - a tool that for a large part incorporates privatelaw - and the practices of which never cease to increase in complexity. The acquired liberty ishowever not absolute. On one hand the autonomy given to the local public sector in its recourse to debt remains relative as long as the State continues to impose a multi-layered framework - this takingplace not only through the existence of rules but also through the implementation of contro lprocedures. On the other hand, this same autonomy enabled the rise of new challenges for localdeciders : the notion of financial risk found itself at the very heart of their debt policies. The mostrecent event with regards to local debt is a perfect illustration of this autonomy and constraintparadox, and local authorities faced great difficulties regarding their resort to credit

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Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)
O setor bancário brasileiro sempre possuiu características muito específicas em relação aos bancos instalados em outros países. Na segunda metade da década de 1990, com a entrada dos bancos estrangeiros no país, iniciou-se um processo de reestruturação bancária, que acarretou em importantes mudanças na estrutura e nos padrões de concorrência do setor. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo verificar a evolução e forma de atuação dos maiores bancos após esse processo de reestruturação, considerando o tipo de controle, se público, privado nacional ou privado estrangeiro.
The Brazilian banking sector always had very specific characteristics compared to banks located in other countries. In the second half of the 1990s, the entry of foreign banks in the country started a bank restructuring process, which resulted in important structural and pattern changes to competition in the sector. This dissertation aims to verify the progress and way of action of the major banks after this restructuring process, considering the type of control, whether public, domestic private or foreign private.

The main focus of this is the use of credit rating by public sector entities and especially by so called sub-soverign entities, i.e. those that are below the central government. Author is primarily trying to understand to what extent credit rating is used by public sector entities globally, what role it plays in their activities, what motivates these entities to seek services of credit rating agencies and ultimately what benefits, if any, credit rating bring to them.

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The objective of this work is to examine the level of bank credit in Brazil in the period after the Real Plan. To this, the work uses the Barajas and Steiner (2002) methodology but with a larger country sample (Brazil among nine Latin American countries and other forty outside Latin America). The results suggest that bank credit has not grown as expected and is still as volatile as the Latin America average. The size of the Brazilian banking system is not small as expected, but is less prone to lending to the private sector. Credit to the public sector still occupies a very important share of the Brazilian banking system balance sheet. About this matter the work shows that an increase in securitization could increase significantly the credit to the private sector.
O objetivo deste trabalho é estudar o nível de crédito bancário no Brasil no período pós implantação do Plano Real. Para isso, o trabalho utiliza a metodologia de Barajas e Steiner (2002) mas utilizando uma amostra maior de países (além da economia brasileira, nove países da América Latina e quarenta não América Latina). Os resultados encontrados mostram que o crédito bancário historicamente não cresceu como o esperado e ainda é tão volátil quanto a média América latina. O sistema bancário não mostrou-se menor do que o esperado para a economia brasileira, mas é menos propenso ao crédito ao setor privado. O crédito ao setor público ainda ocupa uma fatia muito relevante no balanço do agregado bancário e sobre esse respeito o trabalho mostra que um aumento na securitização e cessão de crédito aumenta significativamente o crédito ao setor privado.

This study investigates the determinants of financial development and private sector credits for a panel of 85 developing and industrial countries using annual data from 1980 to 2006. The results from the panel cross-sectional fixed effects procedure suggest that an increase in the public sector credits and central government debt leads to a decrease in private sector credits in low income and lower middle income counties. For this group of countries, public sector credits, albeit leading to a financial crowding out, are found to be enhancing financial development. For the upper middle income and high income countries, private sector credits are found to increase with public sector credits and financial development and decrease with central government debt. Financial development is affected adversely from inflation and positively from real GDP and public sector credits in high income countries. In upper middle income countries both real GDP and credits to public sector affect financial development positively. In low income countries, on the other hand, public sector credits and inflation are correlated positively with financial development.

Orientador: Eduardo Strachman
Banca: Enéas Gonçalves de Carvalho
Banca: Carlos Eduardo Ferreira de Carvalho
Resumo: O setor bancário brasileiro sempre possuiu características muito específicas em relação aos bancos instalados em outros países. Na segunda metade da década de 1990, com a entrada dos bancos estrangeiros no país, iniciou-se um processo de reestruturação bancária, que acarretou em importantes mudanças na estrutura e nos padrões de concorrência do setor. Esta dissertação tem como objetivo verificar a evolução e forma de atuação dos maiores bancos após esse processo de reestruturação, considerando o tipo de controle, se público, privado nacional ou privado estrangeiro.
Abstract: The Brazilian banking sector always had very specific characteristics compared to banks located in other countries. In the second half of the 1990s, the entry of foreign banks in the country started a bank restructuring process, which resulted in important structural and pattern changes to competition in the sector. This dissertation aims to verify the progress and way of action of the major banks after this restructuring process, considering the type of control, whether public, domestic private or foreign private.
Mestre

Cette thèse s’intéresse à la comptabilisation de la dette publique sous trois angles distincts et complémentaires. Tout d’abord, nous étudions les normes de comptabilité des retraites publiques. Nous développons une grille théorique d’analyse comparée et diachronique s’appuyant sur un examen des pratiques existantes. Notre analyse met en évidence que les dispositifs existant en Europe sont incompatibles avec le modèle d’épargne individuelle tel que promu par la norme IPSAS 25. Ensuite, nous analysons la relation entre comptabilité de la dette et milieu politique, et en particulier l’hypothèse d’une sous-estimation de la dette en période d’élection. Notre analyse des révisions comptables permet de valider cette hypothèse et indique que les pays en développement sont les plus affectés par cette sous-estimation. Enfin, nous analysons l’impact du caractère sollicité ou non d'une notation sur celle-ci, ainsi que sur l’évaluation de la dette publique par les agences de notation. Notre analyse de Moody’s, Fitch, et S&P indique que les agences favorisent les pays qui sollicitent leur notation par rapport à ceux qui ne la sollicitent pas
This thesis deals with the accounting of public debt from three distinct and complementary analytical perspectives. First, we study the accounting standards for retirement obligations. We develop a theoretical evaluation grid using a comparative and diachronic analysis based on the review of existing practices. Our analysis highlights that the existing pension schemes in Europe are incompatible with the individual savings model as promoted by the IPSAS 25 norm. Second, we analyze the relationship between debt accounting and the political environment, and test the hypothesis of an underestimation of debt levels around elections. Results allow us to validate our hypothesis and indicate that developing countries are most affected by this underestimation. Third, we examine the impact of the solicitation status of a sovereign rating on the rating itself and on the public debt level assigned by rating agencies. Focusing on Moody’s, Fitch, and S&P, our findings indicate that agencies favor countries soliciting their rating comparing to those who do not solicit them

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
Esta dissertação avalia a evolução e estrutura do spread bancário ex-post no Brasil, no período 2000-2008, usando o método de decomposição contábil. Esta avaliação é feita em três partes. Na primeira estuda-se o setor bancário como um todo utilizando uma amostra de 30 bancos representando 89,8% do total de ativos do Consolidado bancário I (bancos comerciais e bancos múltiplos que tenham uma carteira comercial) no ano 2008. Na segunda a análise é realizada levando em conta as especificidades dos diferentes segmentos de bancos (grandes bancos varejistas, bancos varejistas públicos e bancos especializados em crédito), definidos considerando características como tamanho, tipo de negócio e clientela, característica do funding, etc., e ainda o controle de capital (público, privado nacional e estrangeiro). Por fim, numa terceira parte, considera-se, sobretudo o nicho do mercado de crédito que o banco atua. Esta segmentação do setor bancário permite avaliar a evolução do spread e sua decomposição, assim como comparar os diferentes segmentos do mercado de crédito no Brasil. A principal conclusão da dissertação é que a diferenciação da amostra de bancos por segmento ou por nicho de mercado tem implicações importantes para análise do nível e decomposição do spread bancário.
This dissertation evaluates the evolution and structure of the ex-post bank spread (net interest margin) in Brazil in the 2000-2008 period using the method of accounting decomposition. This evaluation is made in three parts. In the first one the banking sector is studied as a whole using a sample of 30 banks that involve 89.8% of the total assets of banking sector in 2008. In the second part an analysis is carried out taking in account the peculiarities of the different segments of banks (great retail banks, public retail banks and banks specialized in credit), defined considering a set of features that include size, type of business and clientele, characteristic of funding, and the capital ownership (public, private domestic and foreign one). Finally, in a third part, it is considered the niche of the credit market that the bank acts. This segmentation of the banking sector allows us to evaluate the evolution of spread and its decomposition, as well as comparing the different segments of the credit market in Brazil. The main conclusion of the dissertation is that to divide the sample of banks according to the segment or niche of market has important implications for the analysis of the level and decomposition of bank spread.

The subject of this thesis is to depict the financial provision of a public project during its implementation that includes the draft of its financial provision and the appraisal of the financial feasibility of the investment project. The theoretical part is focused on clarifying the basic concepts that explain the issues of public projects, the public sector and public procurement. The end of the theoretical part describes the various ways to finance public projects. The second part of the thesis is practical. In this part I focused on the creation of the ways to finance the project “Realization of energy savings” that are possible, including the reconstruction of the roof of the building of the Police of the Czech Republic in Brno, at street Cejl No. 474 and No. 159 and the proposal of the optimal financing options.

Dissertation (PhD) -- University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was motivated by the need to determine the key factors that influence credit demand and credit rationing in the informal financial markets so as to contribute to policy formulation to improve access for the poor in Uganda to the broader (formal and informal) financial sector. The results of the study suggest that credit demand in the informal financial sector is positively and significantly influenced by capacity related variables (education level, and household expenditure) at the household level, and the informal lenders' credit rationing behaviour is also negatively and significantly influenced by household wealth factors (asset values). The same variables have similar effects in the models for credit demand and credit rationing in the broader financial sector. Since households demand credit for both investment and consumption smoothing, improved access to the broader financial sector will enable them to acquire more wealth, and move out of poverty in the long run. The policy options to improve small borrower access to the broader financial sector include provision of incentives to banks to serve the smaller borrowers, development of credit reference bureaus, provision of innovative insurance products to the poor, and broader economic policies that enable households to acquire more wealth. In addition appropriate linkages need to be developed between the formal and informal financial sectors so as to broaden the financial system.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie is gemotiveer deur die behoefte om die sleutelfaktore te identifiseer wat die vraag na krediet en kredietrantsoenering in die informele finansiele markte bemvloed ten einde In bydrae te kan maak tot beleid om beter toegang vir die armes tot die bree (formele en informele) finansiele sektor in Uganda te bewerkstellig. Die resultate van die studie dui aan dat die vraag na informele krediet In betekenisvolle en positiewe verwantskap toon met kapasiteitsverwante veranderlikes (vlak van opvoeding en huishoudelike besteding) op die huishoudingvlak. Informele uitleners se kredietrantsoeneringsoptrede toon In betekenisvolle en negatiewe verwantskap met huishoudings se vlak van rykdom (batewaardes). Dieselfde veranderlikes toon soortgelyke verwantskappe in die geval van die modelle vir kredietvraag en kredietrantsoenering in die bree finansiele sektor. Huishoudings se vraag na krediet is vir beide investeringsdoeleindes en om In meer egalige verspreiding van verbruik te verkry. Daarom sal verbeterde toegang tot die bree finansiele sektor hulle in staat stel om meer rykdom te bekom en so uit armoede in die langer termyn te ontsnap. Die beleidsopsies om kleiner leners beter toegang tot die bree finansiele sektor te bied, sluit in voorsiening vir insentiewe aan banke om klein leners te bedien, die ontwikkeling van kredietverwysingsburo's, die voorsiening van innoverende versekeringsprodukte aan die armes, en breer ekonomiese beleid wat huishoudings in staat sal stel om meer rydom te bekom. Toepaslike skakeling tussen die formele en informele finansiele sektore moet ook ontwikkel word ten einde In verbreding van die finansiele sektor te bewerkstellig.

Performance Management aims to develop the employee and ensure that the work which the employee does is in line with organisational goals. However, many managers and employees do not like performance management systems and very often, for this reason, such a system does not succeed in meeting the organisation’s goals. The aim of this study was to determine the perceptions towards the performance management system of pharmacists working in the public sector. A questionnaire was compiled and pharmacists working in all public sector hospitals, provincial and municipal clinics and medical depots were asked to complete the questionnaire. The response rate was 66 percent. Seventy three percent of respondents had never undergone a performance evaluation, 75 percent stated it did not motivate them, 62.5 percent felt it did not improve poor performance, 90.6 percent felt the Performance Appraisal System did not reward good performance sufficiently and 63.6 percent felt it did not help with career progression. Seventy eight percent believed that the Performance Appraisal System did not effectively measure the pharmacists’ performance, and 82 percent felt that the System needed to be developed further. At least four evaluations should have been completed per year, yet 85 percent of respondents had experienced three or fewer evaluations since the System had been introduced. The analysis of the responses indicated that there was great dissatisfaction with the current performance management system. A few of the reasons are that the system in place did not effectively measure the pharmacists performance, that additional work done was not recognised, and that the process was extremely time-consuming. It may be concluded that the government needs to address the current problems being experienced with this system, as at present, it is not meeting the objectives it was intended to meet.

This thesis considers the problems associated with the Australian Public Sector moving sometimes erratically towards strategic public management following substantial and wide ranging reforms over the last 20 years. In particular, this study examines public organizational planning and evaluates the extent to which private sector planning philosophies and methodologies have already and could be applied more relevantly to the public sector. The major proposition is that commercial planning methods and techniques can be used selectively to enhance agency planning and management effectiveness and efficiency. A specific application at Centrelink is considered for public service providers delivering high quality government services as part of a purchaser/provider relationship. Strategic planning and management theory and models are reviewed and a progressivestages model is developed for the APS. A range of private sector planning techniques and tools is evaluated and brief but classified case studies on major APS organizations are also presented. The thesis concludes that a dynamics capabilities approach would enable public organizations to maximize strategic management and operational effectiveness.

This doctoral project presents an analysis of public credit as an imaginary of security against a critique of the Foucaultian analytic of liberal governmentality. The effective fiction of sovereign credit is traced in the form of the liquid government bond, the risk-free asset of financial-economic textbooks and the 'safe haven' role in times of crisis. The analytical relation between these different manifestations of public credit is conceptualized as a translation between the different terms and a translation from debt into credit, where government securities no longer require collateral but draw the credible return of capital from a perception of sovereign creditworthiness. By the 20th century government debt of developed economies was regarded as the safest asset in the financial system and crucially underwrites modem finance theory. While the analytic of governmentality contributes important elements to an analysis of sovereign credit, its turn from a centralized power of the state fails to account for the unity of the 'state effect'. Its close following of the liberal dichotomy of the 'market' and the 'state' prevents a grasp of the (dis)accreditation of sovereign credit. The article-based dissertation further articulates the financial imaginary of the state by comparing it with the political-legal fiction of the state person and shows that the performativity of the imaginary of financial security cannot be understood without regard to changing criteria of credibility manifested in particular in fictional realism. The present crisis of sovereign credit in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis however puts the century-old imaginary of sovereign credit to a new test and leads to a redefinition of sovereign creditworthiness away from market capitalization to non-market technologies of calculation.

The purpose of the research is to explore the significance and role of the Bangladeshi public sector leadership (PSL) in the context of public sector reforms (PSR). I examine how the adoption of the reforms depends on the interaction between the PSL of the home government and the donor agencies, resulting in reform challenges on the part of the home government. To do this, the research explores how bureaucratic behaviour responds to and matches donor agenda vis-à-vis their dual role of protecting the traditional socio-economic system, cultural and political norms, values and developing the institutional basis when dealing with reforms. Thus, the research emphasises the need for exploring the elite actors’ beliefs about their governmental traditions as they shape PSR. Taking an interpretive approach, this thesis presents empirical insights in three important areas of public sector management, namely, perceptions and lived experiences of PSL; bureaucratic response to PSR; and traditions in governance and governance intervention by donors. Its contribution is to illuminate the key aspects of PSL roles/practice within the Bangladeshi PSR. Findings offer an understanding of how public sector leaders construe and respond to reform initiatives. Analysis of the PSL role shows that reform is fundamentally a political and contested process. The current study presents an empirical analysis of the elite actors’ webs of belief about the PSR in the context of normative roots of the Bangladeshi governance traditions and culture vis-à-vis the motives of the aid regimes. Part of the originality of this research is its attempt to conceptualise governance traditions as adaptable sets of beliefs that stresses the role of agency in PSR in the Bangladeshi context. I also claim my research to be worthwhile as I situate the Bangladeshi governance traditions within a context that goes beyond the typology of traditions advanced by Painter and Peters (2010). Moreover, this research argues for the performative accounts of the governance traditions. The key argument in this thesis is that public sector leaders’ response towards the public sector reforms is shaped by the wider web of beliefs embedded in a historically inherited tradition and that dilemmas arise when the public sector leaders face new situations uncommon and unfamiliar to them in terms of atypical reform agenda prescribed by international donors. Dilemmas also arise because of the incongruity between the traditional socio-economic, cultural values and donor-prescribed reform initiatives. This study suggests that dilemmas and conflicts – two important constructs illuminating cultures and traditions in public sector management – have an explanatory link to the bureaucratic response towards reforms. Thus, change is the outcome of the dilemma, if not the solution (Bevir & Rhodes, 2010). Looking from an interpretive lens, I contend that the Bangladeshi governance tradition is postcolonial, combining multiple features directly traceable to colonial institutions and ancient Samaj (village life/society) with post-independence adaptations and innovations based on administrative reform prescriptions by donor agencies, the latter essentially appearing as new ‘layers’ on the original bedrock. Therefore, it can be called a hybrid tradition.

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The paper develops a tool for modeling the bank credit risk and applies this to banking market of Fortaleza. Using data from a large commercial bank of the city for 290 customers with active accounts and minimum income of six hundred reais, were selected 23 control variables and was estimated the probability of default on the modalities check and other credit restrictions. The results showed that: i) females are less likely to face restrictions, although this is not a determinant of emissions of bad checks; ii) people who have insurance contracted with the bank showed themselves more likely to default and iii) the extent of the bank rating proposal was effective in measuring the chance of credit risk.
O trabalho desenvolve uma ferramenta para modelar o risco de crÃdito bancÃrio e aplica ao mercado bancÃrio de Fortaleza. A partir de dados de um grande banco comercial da cidade para 290 clientes com contas ativas e renda mÃnima de seiscentos reais, foram selecionadas 23 variÃveis de controle e estimou-se a probabilidade de inadimplÃncia nas modalidades cheque e demais restriÃÃes de crÃdito. Os resultados demonstram que: i) indivÃduos do sexo feminino possuem menos chance de enfrentar restriÃÃes, muito embora este nÃo seja um determinante das emissÃes de cheques sem fundos; ii) os indivÃduos que possuem seguro contratado junto ao banco apresentaram maior chance de inadimplÃncia e iii) a medida de rating proposta pelo banco se mostrou eficaz em mensurar a chance de risco de crÃdito.

The theoretical models in this thesis address questions relating to the interaction between information and decisions. The main issues are as follows: i) decisions are based on uncertain parameters, ii) parameter estimates are used for specific policy decisions, iii) policy decisions take the form of sequential reforms whose magnitude and frequency must be determined, iv) there are dynamic interactions between the properties of estimators and the performance of decision rules. The method of investigation is by formulation of algebraic models whose properties are examined by analytic and numerical techniques. The contribution to the knowledge of the subject is as follows: i) a well-known linear control model is extended to incorporate sequential reforms, ii) the properties of a limited class of optimal active learning strategies are described, iii) in Monte Carlo simulations, least squares estimates are not found to have desirable tatist al properties when used in conjunction with active earning decision rules, iv) a number of well-known optimal tax models are extended to incorporate parameter uncertainty.

This thesis document was issued under the authority of another institution, not NPS. At the time it was written, a copy was added to the NPS Library collection for reasons not now known.  It has been included in the digital archive for its historical value to NPS.  Not believed to be a CIVINS (Civilian Institutions) title.
The decade of the 1990's saw the advent of a new attitude in Government contracting. After witnessing several high-profile success stories such as constructing the Atlanta Olympic Park, the Government embraced the concept of Partnering as a primary method.

Across the world, confirmed by academic and internal research evidence, Government and public sector organisations consistently display varying degrees of difficulty in generating, developing and implementing innovative ideas. Now, as budgets become tighter, the pressure to fundamentally transform the UK’s public sector by relying upon the exploration and adoption of sustainable innovation continues to grow as a policy necessity. Given this necessity, there is a definite, identified need to critically review the literature covering theory development and innovation practice as part of a cultural challenge within the UK public sector to identify the key deep rooted and persistent barriers to public sector innovation to assist in researching potential workable solutions. To facilitate this endeavour this Doctoral study deploys, as per Chapter 3, Ethnographic methods underpinning qualitative thematic template analysis to explore and identify existing innovation barriers from qualitative data collected from the management and staff of a major UK Civil Service Department. The primary objective of this research study is to contribute to the effective improvement in public sector Innovation delivery, via identification of the key barriers via ten literature defined and participant response analysis propositions to facilitate improved innovation generation. In Chapters 2 & 4, by critically showing the linkages between innovation literature and the practical observations and innovation process experiences of public servants, workable solutions as to how the UK’s Civil Service can overcome such persistent problems have been explored. This research aims to add value to the wider debate by identifying an environment that supports and encourages the practical generation of public sector innovative ideas and change behaviour. In Chapters 5 & 6, from analysis of the quantitative data, the study identified 18 barrier subject nodes covering a number of themes which appear to inhibit the successful embedding of such innovation practices and processes.

As a result from the latest financial crisis, the banking industry has undergone major modifications during the last years in order to limit banks’ risks. A vast majority of existing literature tends to focus upon credit risk evaluation methods and techniques mainly concerning quantitative measures and large companies. Thus, the lack of research regarding credit risk evaluation of SMEs is profound, especially considering Sweden. With the dominant market share of SMEs compared to large corporations the authors found it interesting to further explore this area of the credit assessment process as SMEs largely impact the Swedish business sector.   The purpose of the thesis at hand is to explore and provide empirical evidence of which criteria banks assess when evaluating credit risk of SMEs in Sweden. In regards to the purpose the authors have chosen to adapt the perspective of the banking industry throughout the thesis. In order to bridge the research gap the following question was established, “How do banks evaluate credit risk of SMEs in Sweden?” In light of the lack of research regarding qualitative assessment of credit risk, the authors found it interesting in terms of developing new theoretical and practical knowledge to establish the following sub-question, “What are the qualitative criteria used by banks when evaluating credit risk of SMEs in Sweden?” Further, as existing literature mainly focus on large companies the authors found it interesting to compare the findings regarding credit risk evaluation on SMEs to the evaluation process of one of the largest credit rating agencies. As a result the second sub-question was established as following, “Are these criteria similar to the criteria used by Standard & Poor’s in their rating model?” These questions were conducted in order to provide the authors and the reader with further insight regarding the criteria used by banks in their evaluation process.   An inductive approach was adopted, in line with the epistemological stance of interpretivism and the ontological belief of constructivism. With this in mind, the authors of the thesis conducted a qualitative exploratory research employing narrative interviews in order to collect the data needed, as of the lack of existing research to address the research questions.   The results of the research were that the criteria used in the assessment of credit risk tend to alter from advisor to advisor. The most commonly used criteria by the advisors are budget, business plan, customer’s customers, internal and external discipline, financial statements, industry specifics, historical accounts, key individuals, relationship, repayment capacity and the owner/individual. It was discovered that the qualitative criterion of assessing the individual majorly impacts the credit risk evaluation. However, what matters in the end is the overall impression of both qualitative and quantitative measures of the firm.   In regards to sub-question one, the authors established a list of qualitative criteria used by advisors in their credit risk evaluation of SMEs, the most widely used criteria among the advisors are the owner/individual, key individuals, internal discipline, industry specifics, external discipline, customer’s customers, relationship and business plan. In comparison with the criteria used by Standard and Poor’s and the banks, it was evident that the criteria used in the evaluation differed a lot between the two.

Doctor of Philosophy
Public private partnerships [PPPs] are a product of policies and processes to modernise the delivery of infrastructure-based services. An examination of the modernisation literature establishes the broad analytical frame within which this thesis investigates PPPs. The macro-level overview of the recent transformation of the Australian public sector confirms that the dominant principles underlying modernisation are grounded in new institutional economics [NIE] that are implemented through private-sector derived accounting and management implementation technologies. It highlights the contextual complexities stemming from Australia’s federal system of government, explaining the decision to focus on investigating PPP experiences in Victoria. At the conceptual level, PPPs rely on risk management and modernisation of service delivery to achieve value for money [VFM] for governments. In Victoria, 2000 signals a change in the modernisation role of PPPs. Thereafter, risk inherent in PPPs was reduced by excluding the contractor from the delivery of core social services. Also, the state began to develop a number of PPP policies to guide, aid, control and rationalise decision making in the pre-contracting stage, and to clarify objectives. Analysis of PPP contracts and the failure of one pre-2000 PPP hospital project are illustrative of the controversies identified in the literature about ‘hidden’ aims, the role of technologies designed provide ‘objective’ evidence of VFM inherent in PPPs at the time of contracting, and the ‘fallacy’ of risk transfer to private contractors. An examination of prison contracts indicates the changing nature of the management and control of PPPs in the execution stage. Analysis of pre-2000 prison contracts reveals that these projects were intended to drive significant financial and nonfinancial modernisation reforms throughout the correctional services system. Despite problems with contractual specification of performance and payment mechanisms, and the failure of one of the three pre-2000 prisons, recent evidence suggests, contrary to conclusions in the previous literature, that sector-wide modernisation objectives are being achieved in PPP prisons. PPPs have been criticised on the grounds that they enable governments to avoid accountability for service provision. A survey of the extent, focus and characteristics of the performance audit of PPPs confirms that little PPP auditing has been undertaken in Australia per se, and also that much of the performance auditing has focused on examining adherence to mandated procedures in the pre-contracting stage. However, this thesis demonstrates that the Victorian government has undertaken significant evaluation of the operation of its pre-2000 PPP prisons, and that its thinking and policy development reflect lessons learnt. The evidence presented in this thesis challenges findings in the previous literature that modernisation has delivered less than promised. This thesis confirms the potency of longitudinal research to investigate outcomes of what is essentially an iterative process of reform and that ‘successful’ implementation of modernisation change is sensitive to the context to be reformed. In finding that the presence of goodwill trust is critical to the implementation of recent modernisation reform in the correctional services sector (including in the PPP prisons), this thesis also confirms recent critiques of the power of NIE theories to explain contracting practices in the PPP setting.

When banks lend money to another party they face a risk that the borrower will not fulfill its obligation towards the bank. This risk is called credit risk and it’s the largest risk banks faces. According to the Basel accord banks need to have a certain amount of capital requirements to protect themselves towards future financial crisis. This amount is calculated for each loan with an attached risk-weighted asset, RWA. The main parameters in RWA is probability of default and loss given default. Banks are today allowed to use their own internal models to calculate these parameters. Thus hold capital with no gained interest is a great cost, banks seek to find tools to better predict probability of default to lower the capital requirement. Machine learning and supervised algorithms such as Logistic regression, Neural network, Decision tree and Random Forest can be used to decide credit risk. By training algorithms on historical data with known results the parameter probability of default (PD) can be determined with a higher certainty degree compared to traditional models, leading to a lower capital requirement. On the given data set in this article Logistic regression seems to be the algorithm with highest accuracy of classifying customer into right category. However, it classifies a lot of people as false positive meaning the model thinks a customer will honour its obligation but in fact the customer defaults. Doing this comes with a great cost for the banks. Through implementing a cost function to minimize this error, we found that the Neural network has the lowest false positive rate and will therefore be the model that is best suited for this specific classification task.
När banker lånar ut pengar till en annan part uppstår en risk i att låntagaren inte uppfyller sitt antagande mot banken. Denna risk kallas för kredit risk och är den största risken en bank står inför. Enligt Basel föreskrifterna måste en bank avsätta en viss summa kapital för varje lån de ger ut för att på så sätt skydda sig emot framtida finansiella kriser. Denna summa beräknas fram utifrån varje enskilt lån med tillhörande risk-vikt, RWA. De huvudsakliga parametrarna i RWA är sannolikheten att en kund ej kan betala tillbaka lånet samt summan som banken då förlorar. Idag kan banker använda sig av interna modeller för att estimera dessa parametrar. Då bundet kapital medför stora kostnader för banker, försöker de sträva efter att hitta bättre verktyg för att uppskatta sannolikheten att en kund fallerar för att på så sätt minska deras kapitalkrav. Därför har nu banker börjat titta på möjligheten att använda sig av maskininlärningsalgoritmer för att estimera dessa parametrar. Maskininlärningsalgoritmer såsom Logistisk regression, Neurala nätverk, Beslutsträd och Random forest, kan användas för att bestämma kreditrisk. Genom att träna algoritmer på historisk data med kända resultat kan parametern, chansen att en kund ej betalar tillbaka lånet (PD), bestämmas med en högre säkerhet än traditionella metoder. På den givna datan som denna uppsats bygger på visar det sig att Logistisk regression är den algoritm med högst träffsäkerhet att klassificera en kund till rätt kategori. Däremot klassifiserar denna algoritm många kunder som falsk positiv vilket betyder att den predikterar att många kunder kommer betala tillbaka sina lån men i själva verket inte betalar tillbaka lånet. Att göra detta medför en stor kostnad för bankerna. Genom att istället utvärdera modellerna med hjälp av att införa en kostnadsfunktion för att minska detta fel finner vi att Neurala nätverk har den lägsta falsk positiv ration och kommer därmed vara den model som är bäst lämpad att utföra just denna specifika klassifierings uppgift.

Innovations in the public services have become mandatory to provide more efficient and secured services to the citizens. In today'
s fast changing technological environment, the sustained management of innovation is the most vital executive task for the organizations. Identification of the technological innovation process is required in order to manage innovation in the public organizations. This thesis study aims to build a technological innovation model for public organizations in Turkey identifying technological innovation process, stakeholders of the process, sources of innovation, obstacles of innovation and driving forces of innovation. In this research study, strategically important organizations, including all ministries and the pioneer public organizations that perform technological innovation projects are analyzed. In the research study, case study is used as a research strategy and interviews are used as data collection methods. Using collected data
data sets are produced and presented in tables. Data analysis results enable to identify technological innovation process, stakeholders of the process, sources of innovation, barriers of innovation, and driving forces of innovation. Consequently, in accordance with the findings of the study, a new technological innovation model that may pave the way for technological innovation projects and enable successful management of innovation process is constructed. The proposed model lights the way of managers for their innovation projects by means of determining unclear innovation process and identifying the inputs and outputs of the process. Moreover, this study is a guide for managers in public organizations identifying possible obstacles and offering solutions, identifying driving forces to accelerate the innovation process, emphasizing the importance of interaction between the stakeholders.

This study approaches the study of organisational communication in the Australian public sector by focussing on the gendered nature of the organisation, and presenting results from the grass roots or 'native' level (Gregory, 1983). The theoretical framework of this study draws on a diverse range of philosophical viewpoints, ranging from organisational communication and culture approaches, sociological perspectives, public sector research, and uniquely Australian conceptualisations of gender within the public sphere. This study introduces a new way of conceiving feminist bureaucrats (femocrats), in terms of their relationships with 'natives' within public sector organisations. Difficulties in identifying a distinctly Australian organisational communication arena result from both the paucity of organisational communication, grass roots, and public sector research, and because of the problematic task of assimilating 'bits' of divergent theories, with often incompatible views to inform one comprehensive theoretical framework. The results of focus group and individual interviews suggest that a 'managerial' culture exists both within and externally to public sector organisations. This managerialism originates from within patriarchal and masculine organisational structures, and from a shift of workplace practices where a public service model has been replaced by a more private sector, bottom line, results orientation. While the 'natives' in this study are not representative of all public sector employees, their discourse provides a glimpse into the concerns of grass roots members of organisations, a view that is significant in its absence from organisational communication research, particularly in the Australian context.

The objectives of the thesis are: (1) to contribute to the literature on the issue of accountability in public sector organisations in a developing country; and (2) to explore the relationship between accountability theory and accountability aspects implemented and reflected in a developing country. There are three general research questions: How is accountability as defined in a western context reflected by public sector organisations in a developing country?; How do government departments in a developing country implement accountability?; and How does the experience of implementation in a developing country help us think about theories of accountability? In order to achieve these objectives, this thesis explores accountability in the Thai public sector with a particular focus on Thai government departments. It is motivated by the implementation of public sector reform in Thailand and the promulgation of the Royal Decree on Criteria and Procedures for Good Governance B.E. 2546 (2003) following the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997 in order to recover Thailand from the crisis and to enhance accountability in operations. From the literature review, a practical guideline, based on four concepts of accountability in practice, is developed for conducting interviews, and an analytical framework of coding schemes is developed for analysing the interview data. There are two main empirical parts. The first part is an interview-based case study, where semi-structured interviews were conducted, while the second examines communications in the public domain, where the content analysis was conducted. The implementation of the aspects of accountability from western society does not lead to the creation of an entirely new system. It helps people in society to realise what they had in the past and clarifies the aspects of accountability that should be implemented. To enhance accountability in government departments, some improvement is needed. There are some factors such as cultural perspectives, incentives, motivations, pressures, systems, and organisational culture that influence the accountability relationship. The contribution is (1) to discuss the literature on accountability issues in a developing country and (2) to link the findings with accountability theory in the public sector in a developing country. The findings show that the understanding of the aspects of accountability, the focus on types of accountability, qualification and educational training, and cultural perspectives, including motivations and incentives of accountors and accountees, affect the accountability relationship and how a developing country implements accountability.

The research applies the contextual context, content, and process (CCP) framework to explore the contextual and processual factors that are associated with implementing interorganisational collaborative arrangements in the public sector. Collaborative arrangements in the public sector are found to be complex, difficult to implement, and liable to failure when not fully explored and recognised. Background theory reveals the absence of a multilevel lens that can embrace the multifaceted nature of interorganisational collaborations, the multiple contextual levels, the process stages and micro-actions, and the interplay between the process and the context. By identifying the need to explore contextual and processual factors, the background theory informs the focal theory which proposes an extended CCP framework as a useful multilevel lens to elucidate the research problem. The framework is developed and validated through multidisciplinary literature synthesisation, the pilot stage, and the main fieldwork which applies qualitative methods based on multiple case studies from the public sector in Oman as data sources’ techniques. The originality of this study stemming from developing and validating a novel multilevel contextual framework. The emerged multifaceted CCP framework, used to explore contextual and processual factors when implementing collaborative arrangements in the public sector, is found to be an applicable, feasible, and useful analysis tool. It can help public policy-makers, public management, academics, change agents, and collaborating organisations in identifying the inhibitive, supportive prerequisites, and in general influencing contextual factors. It helps also in elucidating and minimising uncertainty about the nature and micro-actions of the processual stages.

Questions on the optimal size of government always provoke intense political debate. At the center of this is the public goods problem, where certain goods and services are “under-provided” by the market due to problems with rivalry and excludability. These goods are usually provided by the public sector and financed through taxes. Questions emerge over the optimal level of provision, as different individuals value these goods differently. This dissertation consists of two studies which address preferences for the size of government from different perspectives. The first study provides a method that can be used to estimate demand for changes in levels of public provision. Using individual level Census data on migration from 1990 and 2000, I demonstrate how preferences are revealed through migration responses. Though policy convergence precludes the estimation of optimal levels for different demographic groups, I find that balanced-budget increases in education expenditures tend to attract most demographic groups while other expenditures tend to repel most individuals. Young, college educated, relatively high-income individuals tend to be more responsive to, and therefore appear to have higher preference intensity for, fiscal changes. This is true even when controlling for their increased propensity to migrate. Evidence inconsistent with welfare migration is found, suggesting that policies intended to address the race-to-the-bottom in welfare benefits may be counterproductive. In addition, the ability of the Tiebout migration process to homogenize a jurisdiction is limited by relatively small fiscal changes among jurisdictions and similar migration responses among demographic groups. The second study empirically explores the effect of ethnic heterogeneity on government size for countries throughout the world. In the developed world, heterogeneity is found to reduce the size of budgetary government, consistent with previous studies and predictions in the literature. In the undeveloped world, however, heterogeneity is found to increase the size of non-budgetary government and may increase the overall size of government.

Despite a quarter of a century of policy aimed at improving quality, public sector organisations still attract criticism. Frequently, continuous improvement is cited as being integral to, or the prerequisite for, many quality initiatives and it has been described as the ultimate test of a world-class organisation. The main purpose of this research is to establish the current level of maturity of continuous improvement across the public sector and explore how that level has been reached in order to develop recommendations to help public sector organisations further embed continuous improvement. The secondary aims of the research are to establish any differences between the sectors (fire, police, health and local government) or geographical areas (Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales). The variation could be the result of different legislation or different sectoral cultures. The research methodology employs a mixed method approach using self-completion questionnaires and case stUdies. The survey of 1174 organisations achieved a 16% response rate representing organisations throughout the UK across all four sectors. Four case studies were compiled, one from each part of the public sector studied, using predominantly document analysis, interviews and focus groups to gather the data, with participant observation being employed in one instance. The research findings reveal disparity within sectors, rather between sectors, suggesting that differences in levels of CI maturity between organisations appear to be a function of organisational strategy rather than sectoral policy initiatives. Scrutiny has had a major impact on ensuring systems are in place, but the determination of senior managers appears to be the biggest driver in embedding continuous improvement. A range of tools, techniques, and approaches have been used within each sector, despite common legislative pressures. This research has contributed to knowledge in a number of ways both theoretical and empirical. Most previous research has looked at particular parts of the public sector, whereas this research study compares continuous improvement across four different areas of the UK public sector. Further, while there have been studies of CI in local government and NHS, the police service and particularly the fire service have been neglected. The secondary research provides a comprehensive review of the literature which can be used both to inform and as a benchmark for future research. During the research a three stage maturity model of continuous improvement was developed based on an adaptation of Bessant et ai's (2001) model. It is proposed that this model can be used as a diagnostic tool or for training. This is a key contribution to academia and public sector management, which combines theory building with practical application

This thesis investigates the public sector wage premium in the UK over the last decade using both econometric and economic modelling methods. A comprehensive literature review is conducted to summarise the four popular types of methods adopted by the existing microeconomics studies, which are weakly derived from some labour economic theories. A common problem of the economic methods is the difficulty in dealing with selection bias when valid instruments are not available. All four types of econometric methods are then applied to estimating the public sector wage premium, resulting in an overall average of 6.5% when a relatively higher female's premium. In particular, propensity score matching method provides the most robust estimate against mis-specification. As a bridge between microdata and macrodata in the labour market, the wage premium is shown to be counter-cyclical. Indirect inference is then introduced as a new method of testing and estimating a micro-founded economic model in the microdata analysis context. All four types of econometric methods are used as auxiliary models to summarise the data features, based on which the distance between the actual data and the model-simulated data is assessed. A calibrated model passes the test only when the propensity score matching method is used as the comparison criterion. To focus on the key properties of the model, the OLS coefficients are grouped into a smaller dimension, and the estimated model can also pass the test. The selection bias can be tested in a straightforward way under indirect inference, and we find no evidence for selection in the data. A Monte Carlo experiment is designed to verify the high statistical power of indirect inference test. Finally, a normative analysis is carried out and there is no evidence of unjust factors behind the observed public sector wage premium.

Senior leaders in state government public sector agencies must manage employee performance to ensure quality services to the citizens they serve. Limited academic research exists to study the barriers that these leaders acknowledge as deterrents to managing employee performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the reasons that public sector leaders at the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) were challenged to manage employee performance and explore the role of transformational leadership. The ODOT was selected for this research because two prior worker surveys conducted by the agency revealed that employee performance accountability was an issue of concern. Following the conceptual framework of transformational and full range leadership, the research question for this study examined the barriers that these leaders cited as deterrents to managing employee performance. Twelve leaders were interviewed using a 5-item, open-ended questionnaire. Data were analyzed using inductive coding techniques and examined against the full range leadership continuum. The results of the study revealed nine barriers that leaders cited as deterrents to managing employee performance. The most frequently occurring included subordinates' self-preservation interests, market pay disparity, employee low motivation levels, and ineffective leadership training. The study concluded the role of transformational leadership was minimal, as leaders identified mostly with transactional characteristics. These findings may assist public leaders to improve performance management outcomes and possibly increase the quality of services to citizens.

The main goal of this work is to create some kind of simple methodology that can help to improve effectiveness of public organizations. There're a lot of theories and methodologies focused on this topic and there is a good chance many new ones will be presented in the future. These came mainly from management field and sometimes from other fields as well. This work focuses mainly on Business Process Reengineering and combines it with other methodologies hoping, it will help in a process improvements in the public sector. Focus is on Czech Republic but this work should be useful to other countries as well, if necessary changes are made in order to shape things that are different between the countries. In this work, a whole project cycle of the public organization processes improvement project can be found, but some project phases will be explained in more detail then the other. Focus is on the analytic parts of the project (strategy creation, use of UML, BSC and other models and methodologies like that) rather than the project management parts of the project. All the practical examples are from public sector organization -- namely the administrative office of one of the city districts of Prague. After reading this work, reader should have moderate understanding of the application of a BPR methodology in the public sector and how it can be supported by other methodologies. There is also big portion of models and diagrams in this work showing pieces of reality from chosen public organization. Their meaning is to show what is usually done in this kind of project and how to understand the models. This works goal isn't creation of a guideline to UML or any other modeling principles.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning and (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil Engineering, 1985.
MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES, ROTCH AND ENGINEERING.
Bibliography: leaves 114-116.
by Philip C. T. Ng.
M.S.
M.C.P.

This doctoral thesis studies sovereign credit risk during periods of uncertainty about the state of a government's fiscal position. A new measure of fiscal uncertainty is introduced, based on the disagreement in official forecasts of the public budget deficit, and forecast revisions to approximate common uncertainty shocks. It is shown that in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, fiscal uncertainty increased substantially in advanced economies. The effects of fiscal uncertainty are largely unknown, in particular in the context of sovereign credit risk. To estimate the response of sovereign credit ratings to fiscal uncertainty, a new empirical framework is developed for the analysis of rating determinants. Rating transition is modelled as the joint outcome of two processes, which determine the frequency of rating changes, and their direction. This thesis finds that fiscal uncertainty is perceived a credit risk by rating agencies and increases the probability of a rating downgrade. Fiscal uncertainty also affects the attention paid to sovereign ratings. An event study analysis shows that the attention to rating announcements increases, the more noisy publicly available information about fiscal outcomes is.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze local Corporate Social Responsibility and how this relates to local political priorities in Denver, Colorado to provide insights both in the US context but also in the midst of the Swedish debate regarding the role of private provision of welfare. The research questions are threefold: 1. Are private engagements addressing welfare issues as identified by the public sector?, 2. What is the interaction between public and private sector in social engagements in Denver? and 3. What expressions of a governance network prevails in the cross-sector interactions in social provisions in this case study? The empirical material used in this case study consist of data collected by conducting semi-structured interviews from Denver-based corporations and individuals working for the City and County of Denver. Theories of governance; network governance and interactive governance have been applied in structuring and in the analysis of the empirical data. The results indicate that due to the internal incapacity as a result of the fiscal- and spending restrictions of the public sector in the provision of social services, the public sector lacks the capacity in providing social services for the constituents. This has opened up for a need of nontraditional governance solutions which includes a dependence of private-sector provision of welfare. Furthermore, there are expressions which indicate that CSR does play a role in the local provision of social services by filling the gap of provision which is left as a result of the institutional incapacity of the public sector. However, there are indicators of large variations in the connectedness of the linkages within the network, varying from close connections and comanagement between CSR and public initiatives to activities expressed as the self-governance of corporations in the provision of social services, making top-down goal sharing such as incentives crucial for the public sector to get corporations to address local priorities. Keywords: governance, interactive governance, network governance, welfare provision, cross-sector, CSR

Credit, to the private sector, is a critical component in driving growth and development the world over. In Africa, the level of credit advanced to the private sector as a percentage of GDP seems to have lagged other more developed regions at 46% of GDP in 2015, in comparison to 120% of global GDP. This study seeks to examine the macro-economic determinants of private sector credit growth in sub-Saharan Africa. The study focuses on independent variables GDP growth (GDP), money supply (M2), inflation (CPI) and interest rates (INTR). Using a panel data approach, twelve sub-Saharan countries are analysed with data observed over a thirty-six-year period, from 1980 to 2015. The size of the panel of countries was determined by the availability of data points on all variables that enabled a balanced panel. Both the random effects and the fixed effects estimation techniques are computed with the random effects method being more significant in the regression analysis, exploring the relationships between the independent variables and the dependent variable. The key findings of the study are that money supply is a significant determinant of private sector credit growth in sub-Saharan Africa showing a positive correlation coefficient. A percentage increase in M2 results in an increase of 0.9% in credit to the private sector. Inflation, on the other hand, dampens the growth in credit to the private sector with a significant negative correlation: a percentage increase results in a reduction of 0.06% in credit to the private sector. GDP growth was statistically insignificant in determining private sector credit growth, with recessionary periods experienced by the sample countries yielding a marginal negative correlation coefficient. Interest rates were also statistically insignificant with a negative correlation to private sector credit showing that credit growth was driven by the underlying need, rather than the cost of credit, in sub-Saharan Africa. It is recommended that policy makers and African governments formulate macro-economic policy that delicately balances the need to drive growth in required money supply, while at the same time maintaining stability in the rate of inflation and related variables. It is also recommended that Financial institutions implement strategies that prioritise mobilisation of loanable funds over interest rate margins. Private sector players are encouraged to focus on promoting investment-led credit consumption in key sectors of the African economy.

This study investigates the contribution of bank credit extension to the private sector to inflation in South Africa, covering the period 1970:1-2006:4. The long-run impact of bank credit on inflation is investigated by means of the Johansen co integration model. The short-run ynamics of the inflation is subsequently modelled by means of the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). Using the Johansen methodology, the study identifies two co integrating equations linking inflation and its eterminants. The results suggest that the long-run relationship between inflation and bank credit to the private sector is negative and statistically significant at 10% level. The determinants that are significant at 5% level are: money supply, real gross domestic product, the money market rate, rand/dollar exchange rate and imports. The results are consistent with previous findings. The speed of adjustment in response to deviation from the equilibrium path was found to be negative at 10.56% per quarter, which is consistent with findings by Ohnsorge and Oomes (2003) for Russia. Both the signs and the magnitude of the coefficients suggest that the co integrating vector describes a long-run inflation equation. The impulse response functions confirm the theoretical expectations except for the import prices. The most persistent and significant shocks observed are on impulse response functions of money supply and bank credit to the private sector. The variance decomposition results also suggest that inflation responds quicker to innovations from money supply and the money market rate. The overall results provide evidence that the surge in inflation is associated with an increase in money supply as well as the instability in exchange rate. The effects of exchange rate fluctuation on inflation are reflected through changes in import prices. Based on the results we conclude that an increase in bank credit during the period 1970:1-2006:4 had a negative mpact on inflation in South Africa.

In 2009, the Republic of Ireland (ROI) revised its Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies. Despite a review of the literature revealing a considerable body of work on codes of practice, few studies were observed to systematically analyse the impact of codes and none to do so in a public sector context. Furthermore, the literature indicated that although the significance of boards was generally accepted, agreement as to the attributes that determine their effectiveness was lacking. This issue was adjudged to be compounded in the ROI context, where public sector agentification was revealed to be particularly unique. This thesis explores whether a series of variables, identified in the public sector literature as determinants of board effectiveness, are significant in the ROI Non-Commercial Semi State Bodies (NCSSB) context. The research employed a board governance questionnaire conducted amongst a purposeful sample of NCSSBs. The empirical analysis indicates mixed findings: where no relationships between board member demographics and board effectiveness are identified while, some evidence in support of associations between certain board practice and board structure variables are revealed. Relative to the Code of Practice implementation indicators, the results suggest significant relationships between board effectiveness and board size and relationship with parent department, while no association was observed with the method of board member appointment. The key findings of the descriptive analyses suggest that the sector’s board members emerge from a select coterie of Irish society and that training and orientation uptake is at odds with participants reported governance awareness levels. This study contributes to our understanding of public sector board effectiveness as it treats of board effectiveness from nuanced and context sensitive perspectives. It is anticipated that the results of this study will stimulate future research, which may focus on, in particular, the anomalies revealed by this study’s findings.

How do public organizations manage crises? How do public organizations learnfrom crises? These seemingly basic questions still pose virtual puzzles for crisismanagement researchers. Yet, the interest of the academic and practitionerrealms in crisis management has grown in recent years. In this doctoral dissertationEdward Deverell sheds light on the problems regarding the lack ofknowledge on how public organizations manage and learn from crises, with anumber of critical knowledge gaps in contemporary crisis management as thestarting point.   In the last few decades the interest in crisis management as a scholarly fieldhas grown. This developing field is composed of an increasing number of looselyconnected social science scholars concerned with issues of extraordinary events,their repercussions and the way in which they are managed by authorities,organizations, policy makers and other key actors. However, there are severallacunae to be dealt with in the emerging field of crisis management research.This dissertation sets the spotlight on four of these limitations of the crisis managementliterature to date.   First, influential scholars within the field call for increased structuration andfeasible models to help us understand and explain various important factorsinfluencing the crisis management process. In this dissertation I try to bridgethis gap by developing theory on crisis response and learning. Crisis responsesignifies organized activities undertaken by a stakeholder when a community ofpeople – an organization, a town, or a nation – perceives an urgent threat to corevalues which must be dealt with under conditions of uncertainty. Crisis-inducedlearning refers to purposeful efforts, triggered by a crisis event and carried out bymembers of an organization working within a community of inquiry, that leadto new understanding and behavior on the basis of that understanding.   Second, organizations play a key role in crisis management. Surprisinglyenough, however, crisis management research have only occasionally built theoryon how organizations respond to crisis. So far, the literature tells us moreabout crises as events than on how these events are actually managed. One reasonis the focus within crisis management research on highly unusual, big catastrophicevents and industrial accidents. Therefore, this dissertation explorescrisis episodes that affect specific organizations rather than entire communitiesor national governments. In addition, the dissertation brings together debateson crisis management and crisis-induced learning from a public managementand organizational perspective.   Third, crisis management researchers have to date dealt mostly with acutecrisis response and issues of preparedness, while the issues of crisis aftermathsand crisis-induced learning are still relatively unknown. However, althoughthis study recognizes the importance of crisis planning and sense-making, thisshould not lead to a relative neglect of the issue of learning from crisis. Crisisinducedlearning is important as crises are rare events with huge repercussions.Thus crises are opportunities to draw lessons in order to improve future managementand crisis response, and to mitigate the risk of future crises.   Fourth, the relatively few studies that have dealt with crisis-induced learninghave focused on learning after the crisis (intercrisis learning), while theoryon learning during crisis (intracrisis learning) is not as developed. My interestin both inter- and intracrisis learning obligates me to study crisis response andcrisis learning in conjunction. This means studying how organizations respondto crises and how they learn during and from these episodes. By focusing onprocesses of crisis response and learning under pressure – rather than pre-crisisplanning, threat perception, risk management and preparedness – the dissertationlooks into how organizations and their members manage the challenge ofcrises and how they take on, make use of and implement lessons learned fromone crisis to the next.   The lacunae outlined above are theoretical points of departure for this dissertation’sinterest in the extent to which public organizations learn from crises.Accordingly, the overall objective of the dissertation is to increase understandingof crisis response and crisis learning in public organizations. In doing so, Iconduct an abductive study of how public organizations respond to crises andhow they learn during and after these events. The term ‘abductive’ refers toa research strategy which is characterized by continuous movement back andforth between theory and empirical data.   The first step of the research process was grounded in the empirical world.The empirical contribution is a careful process tracing and case reconstructionof six cases involving Swedish public sector organizations. In the methodologychapter (Chapter 3) I describe the basis of the empirically bounded case study approach and case reconstruction and process tracing method. Six case studiesof organizational crisis management and learning were selected for furtheranalysis. The case studies were based on a variety of sources including posthoc accident investigations, articles, organizational documents and 129 extensivesemi-structured interviews with key crisis managers. The process tracingand reconstruction efforts led to case narratives, which were then dissected byidentifying dilemmas and critical decision-making occasions that were studiedin more detail. The following cases are explored in the dissertation: TheSwedish energy utility Birka Energi’s management of two cable fires that causedlarge-scale blackouts in Stockholm in March 2001 and May 2002; The cityof Stockholm’s management of the 2001 blackout and the repeated incidentin 2002; The Swedish Defence Research Agency’s (FOI) management of hoaxanthrax letters in 2001; and three Swedish media organizations’ (the Swedishpublic service radio Sveriges Radio, the Swedish private TV station with publicservice tasks TV4, and the Swedish public service TV station Sveriges Television)management of news work and broadcasting challenges on 11 September 2001(and to some extent following the murder of the Swedish Foreign MinisterAnna Lindh in September 2003).   As the case selection reveals, all organizations under study are not puregovernment organizations. Rather three organizations (Birka Energi, SverigesRadio and Sveriges Television) are publically owned corporations, while one(TV4) is a privately owned media organization. Accordingly, this dissertationclaims that ownership is not the only measure of ‘publicness’. Media organizations,for instance, are of great importance for democratic societies. The term‘public organization’ is thus in this dissertation not used in the sense of equatingto government, but rather in reference to the degree of which political authorityand influence impacts on the organization.   The theory generating approach that this dissertation takes on impliesthat the case studies are ‘heuristic’ case studies. The dissertation aims to promotenew hypotheses for further research rather than to produce generalizedknowledge. To this end the case studies are further analyzed by specific theoreticalapproaches suggested by prior research. This second step of the researchprocess is dealt with in some detail in the literature review. The literature reviewin Chapter 2 aims to bring an injection of organizational studies into the fieldof crisis management research. The review presents relevant studies from thefields of crisis management studies, organization studies (with special attentiongiven to organizational learning theory) and public administration and management.The review puts forth a twofold argument: There is a need of increasedknowledge not only about crises and how they develop, but also about how theyare actually managed by public organizations. However, prior crisis managementresearch with bearing on public management organizations are mostly based on either political executive foreign policy decision making or on veryspecific high reliability organizations operating in the pre-crisis phase. Hence,organization studies and public management studies should play a greater partin crisis management research.   The review also provides an overview frame for the study by highlightingrelevant research. The chapter discusses the problems of defining, categorizingand operationalizing key concepts such as crisis, crisis management and organizationallearning.   In the third step of the research process, the case studies are further analyzedusing theoretical approaches aimed at proposing propositions on how publicsector organizations may respond to crises, and how they may learn from theircrisis experiences. These analyses have been carried out with an aim to producestand-alone articles aimed for publication in international scholarly journals.Thus this dissertation differs somewhat from the typical public administrationdissertation as it is comprised of an analysis of several articles, as opposed to amonograph. The journal articles are published or accepted for publication inthe Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, the Journal of HomelandSecurity and Emergency Management, Public Management Review, and RiskManagement. The articles are reprinted in four empirical chapters (Chapters4-7), which make up the core of the dissertation. Introductory and concludingchapters aimed at bringing the discussion together have then been added.I present the first empirical analysis in Chapter 4. It looks into how organizationalculture affects strategy and adaptability in crisis management. The keyresearch question is: What mechanisms affect organizations’ ability to restructurein order to cope with acute crisis management challenges? In the study I propose atypology of temporal organizational responses to crises in public perception. Thetypology is based on organizations’ abilities to change strategy and adapt theirmanagerial and operational levels to deal with crises. The empirical data used toconstruct the typology covers three organizational crisis responses: 1) The utilityBirka Energi’s response to a cable fire that caused a thirty-seven hour blackoutin Stockholm in 2001; 2) The TV station TV4’s response in terms of how toreorganize and broadcast during the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks; 3)FOI, the Swedish National Defence Research Agency’s response to the anthraxletter scare of 2001 and 2002. The different organizational outcomes featuredby the typology reveal distinct aspects of organizational crisis management.According to the typology, the Fully Adapting Organization (TV4) managesto adapt both its strategy and its managerial and operational levels to deal withthe crisis. The Semi-Adapting Organization (FOI) changes its strategy but lacksthe capacity to change managerial and operational levels according to the newstrategy. The Non-Adapting Organization (Birka Energi) does not grasp theimportance of strategy change in the first place. Based on three inductive case studies, the study concludes that organizational culture plays an important rolein this process where the Semi-Adapting Organization and the Non-AdaptingOrganization were dominated by strong expert cultures which proved to be lessinclined to change. In contrast, the Fully Adapting organization had deliberatelyfostered an organizational culture in which flexibility – understood as thecapacity to readily adapt to changing demands – was a cornerstone.   The second empirical analysis is presented in Chapter 5. It deals with theissue of flexibility and rigidity in crisis response and crisis learning at two Swedishpublic organizations. The point of departure for the study is that the relationshipbetween crises, organizational crisis management response and learning hasto date been understudied. In an effort to broaden theoretical knowledge on therelation between crisis and learning, the study analyzes the crisis responses oftwo public organizations during a sequence of two failures. The empirical datais grounded in thorough process tracing and case reconstruction analyses ofhow the utility Birka Energi and the city of Stockholm managed two comprehensiveblackouts in March 2001 and in May 2002. The key research questionis: How does organizational rigidity and flexibility affect public organizations’ crisisresponse and crisis learning? A framework of rigidity versus flexibility in responseis utilized in the analysis. The findings are then discussed in relation to theirimplications for the nexus between crisis and learning. The study concludes byraising four propositions for further research.   The third empirical analysis is presented in Chapter 6. This study aims tocontribute to the debate on organizational learning from crisis by sheddinglight on the phenomenon of crises as learning triggers. In the study I pose thefollowing key research question: How can we analyze organizational learningduring and after crisis and what criteria should be part of the analysis? In an effortto unveil patterns of how organizational crisis-induced learning may appearand develop, I suggest a conceptual framework based on conceptual categoriesand answers to four fundamental questions: what lessons are learned (single- ordouble-loop)?; what is the focus of the lessons (prevention or response)?; whenare lessons learned (intra- or intercrisis)?; is learning carried out or blocked fromimplementation (distilled or implemented)? In the analysis section I explorethe practical applicability of the framework by using the same empirical casestudies as in Chapter 5. The final section suggests four propositions for furtherresearch.   The last empirical study is presented in Chapter 7. There I construct aframework of management, learning and implementation in response to crisis.My point of departure is a proposition from previous crisis managementresearch which posits that previous experience can shape crisis response as away of repeating former routines or as a precondition for improvisation. Thekey research question is: How do organizational management structures affect crisis response, learning and implementation? In the study I argue that flexibilityis closely connected to the way organizations learn – in behavioral or cognitivemodes. Moreover, these learning modes are connected to the role of managerialgroups, where I differentiate between centralized and decentralized top managerialgroups. In addition, two case studies of how two bureaucratic media organizations(Sveriges Radio and SVT) managed and learned from extraordinarynews events – most notably 9/11 and the assassination of the Swedish ForeignMinister Anna Lindh – are conducted. The findings show how the decentralizedmanagerial group learned in a behavioral fashion, by creating new formalpolicies and structures, while organizational members in the centralized managerialgroup relied on individual cognitive structures as a way of ‘storing’ lessonslearned. The study ends by discussing the findings from a crisis managementperspective, where I propose that the two modes of learning profoundly affectthe crucial issue of flexibility in organizational crisis response.The concluding Chapter 8 discusses and contrasts the findings and propositionsgenerated from the four separate empirical analyses. Here the role oforganizational structure and culture are highlighted by revisiting specific organizationalfactors that seem to impact on organizational crisis management andlearning processes, such as previous experience, flexibility and rigidity in crisisresponse and learning, and centralization and decentralization. These factorswere also outlined in the literature review. Further empirical evidence of howthe factors affect crisis response and crisis learning in organizations was foundin the four empirical analyses.   In addition, findings from the empirical studies also related to different types of learning processes such as intra- and intercrisis learning and singleand double-loop learning. Consequently these concepts are also deliberated upon in the concluding sections of the dissertation. As a final attempt to bring the propositions and arguments together, a framework of the crisis management and learning process is proposed. In regard to this venture, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of the framework, and of the dissertation as a whole. As it is only based on data from six cases of Swedish public organizational responses to crisis, the framework is merely a visual schematic of a number of propositions to be further tested and validated by further research. However, the framework also has a few virtues. It is an attempt to approach the ambiguous nature of crises and crisis management processes. The framework may also assist in providing more sensible and practical conceptualizations, and thus bring us closer to definitions that remain close to everyday operations of practitioners involved in crisis management. This dissertation thus makes an effort to bridge the gap between crisis management scholars and practitioners. This is also an overall goal guiding research activities at the National Center for Crisis Management Studies (CRISMART) at the Swedish National Defence College, where the research behind this dissertation has been conducted.

In many public sector organisations, the use of Information Technology (IT) has become important for sustaining and extending public service delivery. This has caused there to be a critical dependency on IT, which calls for a specific focus on effective IT governance. Accordingly, the success factors for effective IT governance must be determined and adhered to if an organisation wishes to increase the contribution of IT towards achieving its objectives. Much research has been carried out on IT governance effectiveness and the necessary success factors, but not with a focus on organisations from a developing country such as Tanzania. The context in these organisations is characterised by IT resources, knowledge and culture constraints as well as by an increasing level of IT investment and applications. In this research, we analyse how IT governance practices are implemented in Tanzanian public sector organisations (TaPSOs) and benchmark their levels of maturity. Furthermore, we analyse and identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that contribute to effective IT governance in TaPSOs. Subsequently, we analyse the effects of these CSFs on IT governance performance and develop and evaluate a CSFs framework for implementing effective IT governance in TaPSOs. We find weak IT governance practices, especially in terms of processes. This was also pointed out by the lower level of IT governance maturity in TaPSOs in contrast to public sector organisations in developed countries. Furthermore, we find that the identified CSFs have a significant effect on IT governance performance in TaPSOs. In addition, the designed CSFs framework is found to be important for providing guidelines to be used by IT and business management personnel for implementing effective IT governance. This CSFs framework for implementing effective IT governance in TaPSOs consists of the IT governance focus areas, CSFs, activities, roles, IT resources and environment in which it should be implemented. In contrast to existing frameworks from the research literature, the designed CSFs framework offers a holistic view by focusing on the five IT governance focus areas.

The Public Sector Scorecard (PSS) is a younger version of the balanced scorecard, created for public and nonprofit organizations. The latest model of PSS is divided into three main groups and seven perspectives, while the balanced scorecard consists of four perspectives. Organizations who use either PSS or the balanced scorecard are supposed to have a clear vision spread all over the unit. This study has sought differences between the two models of financial control in both theory and practice. The first part of the study is a theoretical comparison between the models’ structures and terms used in them. In the second part, a PSS was created for a Swedish municipality and that laid as foundation for a comparison between PSS and the balanced scorecard in practice.

The study has shown that the largest differences between PSS and the balanced scorecard lie in the process for creating the models and in the different ways the models focus in customers. Both of these two differences come out of a greater customer focus in PSS since the service users play a central role both in the model per se, but also in the process creating it. This is also what would affect a Swedish municipality using the balanced scorecard the most, if changing to PSS: the process for creating the model and the way customers would be taken into consideration.

Denna uppsats har undersökt ekonomistyrningsmodellen balanserat styrkort parallellt med en av dess efterföljare, Public Sector Scorecard (PSS). Grunderna till PSS presenterades av Moullin (2002) i en modell som påminde om ett balanserat styrkort anpassat efter offentliga organisationer. Denna modell omarbetades av upphovsmannen och 2007 var en nyare version av PSS publicerad, vilken fortfarande visade inslag av det balanserade styrkortet men till en högre grad var en egen modell. Den senaste versionen av PSS är uppdelad i tre grupper, vilka sammanlagt innehåller sju perspektiv medan det balanserade styrkortet vanligen består av fyra perspektiv. Vid tillämpning av både PSS och balanserat styrkort förväntas organisationer ha en tydlig vision som ska vara väl förankrad i hela verksamheten. Avsikten med denna studie var att finna skillnader mellan de båda styrmodellerna och ställa dem i relation till varandra i en jämförelse. Jämförelsen genomfördes både teoretiskt och genom en hypotetisk jämförelse i praktiken, där jämförelsen utgick ifrån en fallkommun som tillämpade en användning av balanserat styrkort.

En skrivbordsundersökning genomfördes av båda styrmodellerna i avsikten att dels kunna genomföra den teoretiska jämförelsen av de båda modellerna och dels för att ligga som grund för den empiriska studien av en kommun i praktiken. Kommunen som undersöktes var Nacka kommun, vilka vid tidpunkten för studien använde sig av en variant av det balanserade styrkortet. Utifrån Nackas situation och förutsättningar arbetades ett PSS för kommunen fram, vilket låg till grund för en praktisk jämförelse mellan de båda styrmodellerna.

De viktigaste resultaten som undersökningen visade var att de största skillnaderna mellan balanserat styrkort och PSS dels ligger i processen för framtagandet av modellen och dels i hur de olika modellerna ser på kunden. Båda dessa skillnader har sin grund i hur PSS i större utsträckning än det balanserade styrkortet utgår ifrån kunden, vilket visar sig både sett till modellen i sig, men även i processen för framtagandet. Dessa skillnader är grunden för hur en kommun som använder sig av balanserat styrkort skulle påverkas av att byta styrmodell till PSS. Processen vid framtagandet skulle vara mer fokuserad på kunden och dennes åsikt skulle i högre grad blandas med medarbetarnas, istället för att processen enbart formas internt. Detta blir dock mer tids- och resurskrävande då ytterligare moment läggs till för en mer utförlig process. Modellen i sig skulle bli mer kundorienterad, men organisationer behöver före en eventuell implementering av PSS göra avvägningen om de extra resurserna som sätts in i processen skulle leda till önskat resultat.