Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Global and digital economy'

Thesis (Mcomm)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Technology has become one of the most important factors in the business world today. Information technology is playing an ever-increasing role in all areas of business. Logistics is no exception, and is one of the areas most affected by technological change. Many firms need to adapt technologically, or they might face extinction. This study aims to make firms aware of the power of information technology and the benefits it holds for those who use it. It tries to inform firms about the various uses and applications that exist and how they can improve business processes. It sets guidelines for the implementation of information technology and allows the firm to make an informed choice. It also discusses the growing role that the Internet is playing in logistics and the business world as a whole. Tips for the implementation of an electronic commerce system are also given, and the effects of electronic commerce on logistics are discussed. The firms can use the information to plan their strategies more effectively and hopefully find success in the global digital economy.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Tegnologie is een van die belangrikste faktore in vandag se sakewêreld. Informasietegnologie speel 'n al groter rol in alle sakegebiede. Logistiek is daarby ingesluit, en is een van die areas wat die meeste deur tegnologiese verandering geaffekteer word. Sakeondernemings moet toenemend aanpas by die nuwe tegnologie om te kan voortbestaan. Die fokus van hierdie werkstuk is om firmas bewus te maak van die voordele wat informasietegnologie inhou en hoe ondernemeings daarby kan baat. Daar word gepoog om firmas bewus te maak van die wye verskeidenheid tegnologiese produkte wat bestaan, en hoe hulle aangewend kan word om besigheidsprosesse te verbeter. Daar word riglyne vasgestel wat firmas die geleentheid bied om tegnologie doeltreffend in te span en om 'n ingeligte keuse te kan maak. Die rol wat die Internet in logistiek en die sakewêreld speel word ook bespreek, asook die effek wat elektroniese handelop logistiek het. Riglyne word ook verskaf oor die implementering van 'n stelsel wat elektroniese handel moontlik sal maak. Die inligting wat verskaf word kan firmas help om hulle strategieë doeltreffend te beplan en om sodoende sukses te behaal in die globale digitale ekonomie.

Political and environmental chaos recently experienced in Haiti has damaged the economic sector and telecommunication infrastructure. Developmental data from Haiti show 3 major trends: inadequate social and economic development, insufficient benefits from the global economy, and poorly planned information technology infrastructure (ITI). The specific problem addressed in this study is a knowledge gap in the views of stakeholders within Haiti's national culture on how the country's ITI can be developed to better engage Haiti in 21st century global and digital economy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the views of 48 expert participants regarding ITI development within Haiti's national culture to better engage Haiti with the 21st century global and digital economy. To satisfy the goal of this exploratory research a case study research design was used, and data were collected from multiple sources including in-depth interviews of 48 participants, observational field notes, and archival documentation. The analysis of the archival data, online surveys, and semi-structured interviews of expert informants revealed that nationwide broadband internet availability has been achieved, which has resulted in internet usage increasing from 2% in 2002 to 12% in 2009. The study participants noted the lack of reliable access to electricity limits the implementation of ITI in the nation. Legislation and financial investment are needed to improve ITI in Haiti. The academic significance and social change implications of the study include filling the knowledge gap of the status of ITI in Haiti, helping the national development of a modernized ITI well-connected to the global economy, and a better quality of life for Haiti's people.

TESIS PARA OPTAR AL GRADO DE Economia Analytica
In order to get a better understanding of worldwide Internet usage differences, spatial interaction effects are added to a model explaining cross-country growth in Internet usage. The paper finds that ICT infrastructure growth has a positive and significant effect on Internet usage growth in one’s own country as well as in other countries. The findings suggest that the efficiency of policies aimed at decreasing the global digital divide can be increased if they are initiated on a trade bloc level. Contrary to earlier papers no significant role for income in explaining cross-country Internet usage differences is found.

Around the globe, countries move away from banknotes and coins in the favor of digitized payments. A number of findings from academic research conclude various benefits associated with decreased cash usage, such as enhanced economic development, less costs for governments and banks, financial transparency as well as lower economic-related crime rates. In a light of various benefits moving towards cashless payments, it is hypothesized that there also could be a relationship between how innovative a country is and how much cash circulates in economy. The relationship could be both-sided like less cash circulation can trigger innovation and, at the same time, adoption of cashless payments could be driven by how innovative a country is. To be able to investigate a potential correlation, a correlation analysis is conducted between the two variables: an innovation level of a country and cash circulation in econom. The Global Innovation Index score will be used to summarize various factors that provide an overview of national innovation performance, and percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be used for currency in circulation. According to the findings, the hypothesis that there is a correlation between cash circulation and innovation performance in a country could not be rejected with a 5% significance level.
Runt om i världen öppnar länder upp för att gå från kontanta betalningsmedel mot digitala betallösningar. Enligt tidigare forskning, leder minskad kontanthantering till flertalet fördelar såsom kraftigare ekonomisk tillväxt, ökad transparens, minskade kostnader samt minskad ekonomiskt brottslighet. De fördelar som kontantlösa betalningar skapar kan vara kopplade till hur innovativt ett land är och hur mycket kontanta medel som cirkulerar i ett lands ekonomi. Ett potentiellt samband mellan mängd kontanter som cirkulerar i ett samhälle och innovation i ett land kan vara tvåsidigt, till exempel att minskade mängder kontanter i ekonomin kan skapa innovation eller så kan kontantlösa betalningar skapas av hög innovationsnivån i ett land. För att kunna undersöka ett potentiellt samband, utförs en korrelationsanalys mellan de två variablerna: nationell innovationsnivå och mängd kontanter i cirkulation i ekonomin. Global Innovation Index används för att sammanfatta olika faktorer som ger en översikt över den nationella innovationsnivå per land och en procentandel av bruttonationalprodukten (BNP) kommer att användas för mängd valuta i omlopp. Enligt framkomna resultat från korrelationsanalysen kunde hypotesen om att det finns ett samband mellan kassaflöde och innovationsnivå i ett land inte förkastas.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Economics, 2017.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 109-115).
This dissertation is a collection of three empirical essays studying consumer behavior and firm strategy in the digital economy. The first chapter examines how consumers learn from their market experience in an online marketplace. Using consumers' six-month purchase history data in a unique empirical setting in one of China's largest e-commerce platforms, I find that consumers buy from cheaper sellers as they gain market experience. To investigate how market experience improves the outcomes of price search, I incorporate price learning into a flexible structural search model, in which consumers have Dirichlet priors and update their price beliefs based on their past purchase prices in a Bayesian fashion. The results suggest that consumers have an upward bias in their prior price beliefs and are increasingly more price sensitive as they gain market experience. Early in a consumer's purchase history, the memory of sellers and prices from previous purchases accounts for a large portion of the price improvements, whereas an increasing price sensitivity plays a larger role in explaining the price advantage later on. The second chapter investigates whether the new form of quality disclosure in the digital age - online reviews - incentives restaurants to improve quality. With little local information, tourists rely more on online reviews for restaurant recommendation than locals. Exploiting this source of variation in the impact of online reviews on restaurants, I study the trend of Yelp ratings for chain-affiliated restaurants in Las Vegas between 2005 and 2015. After controlling for common trends of restaurant chains and zip-code areas, I find that for chains with a moderate size, the customer reviews of their units closer to the Strip - the center of Las Vegas tourist activity - improve significantly more during the eleven-year data period when online reviews gain popularity, while the Strip units initially had worse ratings than the off-the-Strip units in the early days of online reviews. No such difference is found for very small, regional chains or large, multinational chains. While market transparency is expected to increase as a result of the digital economy, in the third chapter I document the obfuscation strategies that merchants implement on an e-commerce platform with a price-comparison feature. Furthermore, I present evidence that sellers intentionally engage in the price obfuscation strategy to be more profitable and find a systematic relation between seller experience and their choice of obfuscation strategies: experienced sellers are more likely to use the bait-pricing strategy by advertising a low price, while new sellers tend to combine similar products into one listing to appear more popular and also offer the lowest price. In addition, consistent with results found in the first chapter, consumers with less market experience are more prone to being exploited by price obfuscation.
by Mengxi Wu.
1. The Mechanisms of Consumer Learning and Price Search in a Homogeneous Goods Market -- 2. Do Online Reviews Affect Quality? Evidence from Yelp.com -- 3. Obfuscation and Experience: Empirical Evidence from on Online Market.
Ph. D.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: After the end of the Cold War hopes were high for a freer, fairer new world order. This did not happen. What the world got instead was globalisation - a complex phenomenon born from the interaction of political and economic liberalisation and technological change. Much of the impetus behind globalisation was derived from the prescriptions of the so-called Washington Consensus, which given its powerful influence in developing countries forced them to integrate into the global economy - to the point that integration became a virtual substitute for development policy. The benefits of globalisation were unevenly spread around the world and those who had most, stood to gain most from it. While Multinational Corporations and inhabitants of the developed world were definite winners the losers included workers, the environment and financial market stability. As the full impact of globalisation was beginning to be felt criticism of the process emerged particularly, but not exclusively, from the NGO community and left-leaning commentators. These critics are diverse and do not have much in common, but have at times created alliances of convenience. Most critics however agree that international organisations play an important part in globalisation and that in order to impact on globalisation they would have to impact on these organisations. A particularly abundant area of criticism relates to the threats posed to the global commons. There is very little agreement though on how to deal with the threats. Suggestions range from a return to subsistence production and disengagement from the international trade system to using market forces and new technologies to benefit the global environment. Among the organisations with most critics are the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. A variety of factors contribute to the need for international financial institutions reform. These include: the blurring of their missions; the ineffectiveness of their assistance; and lack of transparency and accountability. The international financial institutions have however been remarkably effective at shielding themselves from calls for reform. The reasons for this are not only political (lack of agreement on required reforms) but also institutional (management siding with powerful stakeholders or pursuing their own agenda). The World Trade Organisation is another target of criticism. As with the international financial institutions the exact nature of future reforms is impossible to surmise, nevertheless environmental and development issues are certainly on the agenda. Decision-making is also likely to be revisited, with the focus being on reconciling effectiveness with representativeness. What is least likely to happen though is what is most needed - a thorough assessment of the World Trade ..Organisation's role in global governance and its relations with other institutions. This will not be possible without a rebalancing of power between the World Trade Organisation and international financial institutions on one side, and the UN family of institutions on the other. Reforming current systems of global governance may also involve creating new organisations. While there are a host of institutions active in global governance there is no formal mechanism to coordinate their efforts. This is where a UN Economic Security Council can playa major role, not least because such a body would give the international system a degree of legitimacy that it has so far lacked. A World Central Bank is however not an institution likely to be seen in the foreseeable future - it is too complex and many states will not give up monetary sovereignty as it impacts on too many other policy areas. It is widely acknowledged that a Currency Transaction Tax will go a considerable way in stabilising the international monetary system, while at the same time raising funds to finance global development. It is an elegant solution that is gaining political support worldwide. The institutional arrangements for its implementation and collection are however still subject to much debate. These are only a few possible ways in which the global economy may be reformed in the short to medium term. In the long term the most likely outcome is a loosely structured web of institutions that together form something akin to global federalism
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Na die einde van die Koue Oorlog is groot hoop gekoester vir 'n vryer, regverdiger nuwe wêreld orde. Dit het nooit gebeur nie. Instede daarvan het die wêreld globalisering gekry - 'n komplekse verskynsel gebore uit die interaksie van politieke en ekonomiese liberalisering en tegnologiese verandering. 'n Groot deel van die impetus agter globalisering het sy ontstaan in die voorskrifte van die sogenaamde Washington Konsensus, wat gegewe sy invloed in die ontwikkelende wêreld baie state gedwing het om in die wêreldekonomie te integreer - tot die punt dat integrasie byna 'n alternatief vir ontwikkelingsbeleid geword het. Die voordele van globalisering was ongelyk versprei, en die wat meeste gehad het, het gestaan om meeste voordeel daaruit te trek. Terwyl multinasionale maatskappye en inwoners van die ontwikkelde wêreld ongetwyfelde wenners was, was werkers, die omgewing en finansiële mark stabiliteit onder die verloorders. Soos wat die impak van globalisering meer en meer gevoel is het dit ook kritiek ontlok, veral - maar nie alleenlik - uit nie-regeringsorganisasie kringe en van linksgesinde kommentators. Alhoewel hierdie kritici nie veel in gemeen het nie, het hulle by tye gemaksalliansies gevorm. Die meeste kritici stem egter saam dat internasionale organisasies 'n belangrike rol speel in globalisering en dat om 'n impak op globalisering te maak dit nodig is om 'n impak op hierdie organisasies te maak. 'n Besonder vrugbare area van kritiek hou verband met bedreigings tot die sogenaamde "globale meent". Daar is egter baie min instemming oor hoe om die bedreigings te hanteer. Voorstelle wissel van 'n terugkeer na bestaansproduksie en terugtrede van die internasionale handelstelsel tot die gebruik van mark kragte en nuwe tegnologie tot voordeel van die wêreld omgewing. Onder die organisasies met van die meeste kritici is die Internasionale Monetêre Fonds en die Wêreld Bank. 'n Verskeidenheid faktore dra by tot die behoefte aan hervorming van die internasionale finansiële instellings. Hierdie sluit in: die verwarring van hulle onderskeie missies, die oneffektiwiteit van hulle bystand, en 'n gebrek aan deursigtigheid en verantwoording. Die internasionale finansiële instellings is egter besonder effektief daarin om hulself van oproepe om hervorming te isoleer. Die redes hiervoor is nie net polities nie (gebrek aan ooreenstemming oor vereiste hervormings) maar ook institusioneel (bestuur kies kant met invloedryke rolspelers of streef hul eie agenda na). Die Wêreld Handelsorganisasie is nog 'n teiken van kritiek. Soos met die internasionale finansiële instellings is dit nie moontlik om die presiese aard van moontlike hervormings te raai nie, desnieteenstaande is omgewings- en ontwikkellingskwessies definitief op die agenda. So ook is besluitneming, met die doel om effektiwiteit en verteenwoordigendheid te versoen. Wat egter mees nodig is, is mins waarskynlik om te gebeur - 'n deurtastende ondersoek na die rol van die Wêreld Handelsorganisasie in wêreld besluitneming en sy verhoudings met ander internasionale instellings. Verandering in hierdie opsig is egter nie moontlik sonder 'n herbalansering van tussen die Wêreld Handelsorganisasie en die internasionale finansiële instellings aan die een kant en die VN familie van instellings aan die ander nie. Hervorming van huidige stelsels van wêreld besluitneming mag ook die skepping van nuwe organisasies behels. Terwyl daar etlike aktiewe organisasies in wêreld besluitneming is, is daar geen formele meganisme om hul aktiwiteite te koordineer nie. In hierdie opsig kan 'n VN Ekonomiese Veiligheidsraad 'n belangrike rol speel, veral omdat so 'n instelling 'n mate van legitimiteit aan die internasionale stelsel kan gee wat dit tot dusver nie gehad het nie. 'n Wêreld Sentrale Bank is egter 'n instelling wat nie in die voorsienbare toekoms die lig sal sien nie - dis te kompleks en baie state sal nie monetêre soewereiniteit wil prysgee nie omrede dit op te veel ander beleidsareas impakteer. Dit word wyd erken dat 'n buitelandse valuta transaksie belasting 'n beduidende stabiliserende invloed op die internasionale monetêre stelsel kan hê, terwyl dit terselfdertyd fondse sal in vir wêreld ontwikkeling. Dis 'n elegante oplossing waarvoor politieke steun wêreldwyd opbou. Die institusionele vergestalting wat benodig word om so 'n belasting te implementeer en administreer is egter nog die onderwerp van vurige debatte. Hierdie is slegs 'n paar van die moontlike maniere waarop die wêreldekonomie oor die kort- tot mediumtermyn hervorm kan word. Oor die langtermyn is die mees waarskynlike uitkoms iets soortgelyk aan 'n losweg gestruktureerde web van instellings wat soortgelyk aan 'n vorm van globale federalisme is.

The workplace has entered an international era where the need for proactive, globally-aware employees has become increasingly crucial. More than ever, employees are responsible for agentically investing in their own development and work outcomes—including job satisfaction. This study investigates the relationship between agentic career practices, organizational support, and job satisfaction. Better clarity is needed to understand the career management skills and practices that individuals can develop to navigate the modern workplace. This study compared 2,870 individuals across 73 nations. Five Career Development Practices (CDPs) (connecting with others, planning for development, branding, adapting, and stretching) were found to be meaningfully connected to job satisfaction (R² = .46) where connecting with others emerged as the most potent CDP. Furthermore, the order of the CDPs’ potency in explaining job satisfaction varied by global region to indicate practices vary by culture.

This thesis investigates the impact of international trade on the sorting patterns of workers across firms and analyzes the implications for welfare. The first essay builds a model of matching between heterogeneous workers and firms in presence of search frictions. Variation in the worker type at the firm level exists in equilibrium only because of search costs. When firms gain access to foreign markets their revenue potential increases. When stakes are high, matching with the right worker becomes particularly important because deviations from the ideal match quickly reduce the value of the relationship. Hence exporting firms select sets of workers that are less dispersed relative to the average. The second essay documents the difference in the sorting patterns of workers between exporters and non-exporters in a French matched employer-employee dataset. We proxy the type of each worker using her average wage over her job spells and construct measures of the average type and type dispersion at the firm level. We find that exporting firms tolerate a lower dispersion in the pool of workers they hire. The matching between exporting firms and workers is even tighter in sectors characterized by better exporting opportunities as measured by foreign demand or tariffs. We also confirm the conjecture in the literature that exporters pay higher wages because, among other factors, they employ better workers. The final chapter explores the implications for wage inequality using the French Employer-Employee Data. We find that the differences in sorting in large part account for the existing differences in the wage structure between exporters and non-exporters. Exporting firms tend to have higher wages but tolerate a lower dispersion. Using an alternative theory-based measure of residual wage inequality, we also find that the unexplained component tends to be smaller in exporting and more productive firms, even when controlling for some differences in workforce composition. This finding suggests that exporters are better able to overcome frictions in the labour market in order to move closer to their ideal worker.
Arts, Faculty of
Vancouver School of Economics
Graduate

This thesis is about regional development in the new global economy. Changes in the world economy, notably the trend toward multinational big business and an international division of labour, are affecting, in various ways and in varying degrees, those people and places that are part of this interdependent system. Nevertheless, one constant theme is becoming discernable: the operating rules of global capitalism are antagonistic to attempts by regions to develop a self-sustaining, self-reliant economy. The resulting crisis of development is an aspect of the new economic order that mainstream development paradigms of industrial society are ill-equipped to explain, let alone resolve. In an effort to come to grips with this crisis of development there has been a growing interest in the possibility of social and economic reconstruction at the regional and community level. This bottom-up approach, referred to here as Communal Cooperation, is being advocated as a more socially responsive and economically viable alternative to the dependence and underdevelopment that follow in the wake of functional integration into the international network of economic relations. However, as this thesis argues, Communal Cooperative strategies of self-management must be complemented with the kind of overall management and coordination that has become necessary in today's interdependent economy. The purpose of this thesis is to translate these general principles into practical terms by presenting a development strategy for the province of British Columbia. British Columbia is a resource economy, exporting its raw materials to the industrial centres of the world and, given the dynamics of economic globalism, there is little opportunity to break out of this mold and develop a self-sustaining, diversified economic base. The development options outlined in this thesis are designed to counteract this trend and ensure that international trade serves regional and community interests.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of
Graduate

German banking is distinguished from neighboring European banking systems by the influence of its public sector banks. Nearly 50 percent of German banking is carried out by government owned state banks (ländesbanken) and regional savings banks (sparkassen) whose roots date from the 18 th century. German banks play a particularly important role in the economy and exert more control over firms and corporations than do their American counterparts. German banks tend to be less profitable than foreign counterparts. German public banks were originally founded to foster local and regional business. However, the operations of German public sector banks now extend into all forms of international investment. German public banks are currently seeking new business models to increase profits as they are being forced to compete in the global financial market under liberal market practices dictated by the European Union. Turbulence in the global financial market precipitated by the U.S. sub‐prime mortgage meltdown has severely impacted German public sector banks, precipitating a banking crisis that leaves German taxpayers exposed to staggering losses. These global financial pressures dictate the restructuring of the German financial system. This restructuring has forced a breaking point in the traditional German corporatist banking model and is associated with significant risks to the stability of the German banking system.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Feminist international relations theories stress that global solutions to environmental, social and economic dilemmas will not be accurately diagnosed nor corrected until hierarchal social relations, including gender relations, intrinsic to the global economic and political framework are recognized and altered. How does a feminist interpretation of international relations aid in the adoption of global taxes to benefit women? This study explores the ways a mechanism such as global taxation could be utilized to create a more equitable global political economy. The study is exploratory making use of a qualitative methodology employing secondary data from industries such as tourism, toy production, and textiles. Feminist perspectives on environmental, social, and economic security, rational actor behavior and collectivism facilitate the dialogue which is essential for global tax implementation. The adoption of global taxes has the capability to better the lived experiences of women globally by minimizing poverty and strengthening the working conditions of women worldwide. Proposed carbon taxes and global commons taxes work to redefine environmental security by placing appropriate price indicators on the use of globally used resources. Proposed email taxes, world trade taxes, and currency exchange fee taxes grant the fiscal resources necessary to create greater economic and social security. Chapter One is an analysis of the global political economy. Chapter Two explains the controversial and progressive idea of a global tax administered by the United Nations to deal with the inequity of globalization. Chapter Three focuses on the linkages between the introduction of a global tax and the feminist perspective on the global political economy. Chapter Four summarizes the structural inadequacies of the current economic framework to address the economic and social grievances that global taxes combat.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Feministiese teorieë oor internasionale verhoudinge benadruk die feit dat wêreldwye oplossings vir omgewings-, maatskaplike en ekonomiese probleme nóg akkuraat gediagnoseer nóg reggestel kan word tensy hiërargiese sosiale verhoudinge (waaronder genderverhoudinge), wat onlosmaaklik deel van die wêreldwye ekonomiese en politieke raamwerk is, as sulks erken en verander word. Hoe dra die feministiese interpretasie van internasionale verhoudinge by tot die instelling van wêreldwye belasting wat vroue tot voordeel strek? Hierdie studie ondersoek maniere waarop 'n meganisme soos wêreldwye belasting benut kan word om 'n billiker wêreldwye politieke ekonomie daar te stel. Die studie is ondersoekend van aard en maak gebruik van kwalitatiewe metodes wat sekondêre data uit bedrywe soos toerisme, speelgoedproduksie en die tekstielbedryf gebruik. Feministiese standpunte oor omgewings-, maatskaplike en ekonomiese sekuriteit, rasionele optrede en kollektivisme dra by tot dialoog wat noodsaaklik is vir die instelling van wêreldwye belasting. Danksy die instelling van wêreldwye belasting kan die lewenservaring van vroue wêreldwyd verbeter word deur armoede te beperk en werkstoestande van vroue wêreldwyd te verbeter. Die voorgestelde koolstofbelasting en wêreldmeent-belasting sal bydra tot 'n nuwe benadering in omgewingsbeveiliging deurdat toepaslike prysaanwysers aan die gebruik van wêreldwyd benutte hulpbronne gekoppel word. Die voorgestelde e-posbelasting, wêreldhandelbelasting en belasting op valutagelde sal nodige fiskale middele bied vir die daarstelling van beter ekonomiese en maatskaplike sekuriteit. Hoofstuk 1 is 'n analise van die wêreldwye politieke ekonomie. Hoofstuk 2 is 'n uiteensetting wêreldwye belasting as kontroversiële en progressiewe konsep, wat deur die Verenigde Nasies geadministreer sou word om die wanbalans in globalisasie die hoof te bied. Hoofstuk 3 handel oor die raakpunte tussen die instelling van 'n wêreldwye belasting en die feministiese beskouing van die wêreldwye politieke ekonomie. Hoofstuk 4 bied 'n oorsig oor die strukturele ontoereikendheid van die huidige ekonomiese raamwerk met betrekking tot die ekonomiese en maatskaplike griewe wat wêreldwye belasting sou bekamp.

Cette thèse a pour objet l’étude de la dynamique des entreprises en économie ouverte enprésence d’incertitude. Dans un premier chapitre, je mets en évidence les effets réallocatifs del’incertitude sur les investissements directs à l’étranger des multinationales Françaises. Dansun second chapitre, je montre qu’une augmentation de l’incertitude de la demande à un effet négatif sur la croissance des entreprises et que sa persistance dépend du degré de synchronisa-tion de la firme avec son secteur. Enfin, dans un dernier chapitre j’illustre comment la marge extensive du commerce international contribue à façonner la direction, la quantité et le contenude la transmission des connaissances technologiques entre entreprises de pays différents
In this dissertation, I study firm dynamics in the context of a global and uncertain economy.In the first chapter, I show how uncertainty generates reallocation among French multinationals.In a second chapter, I study how an increase in demand uncertainty negatively impacts firmgrowth and how the persistence of this effect depends on the synchronicity of the firm dynamicwith that of the other firms in its sector. Finally in the third chapter, I highlight how the extensivemargin of international trade contribute to shape the direction, quantity and content of theinternational transmission of knowledge

The thesis start from general introduction to globalization but its focus is on the following areas: global buying of company inputs (sourcing), expanding on the foreign/global markets (output) and managing the risks associated with globalization (increased competition, foreign currency and raw material/inputs hedge). Overall the thesis is practical in its approach and thus it provides the real applicable approaches in terms of the management in the global economy. Despite these practicalities the thesis also aims at analyzing the more general business environment for global activities of a firm. This is realized in section on economic assessment of the market and evaluation of foreign currency fundamentals.

The thesis start from general introduction to globalization but its focus is on the following areas: global buying of company inputs (sourcing), expanding on the foreign/global markets (output) and managing the risks associated with globalization (increased competition, foreign currency and raw material/inputs hedge). Overall the thesis is practical in its approach and thus it provides the real applicable approaches in terms of the management in the global economy. Despite these practicalities the thesis also aims at analyzing the more general business environment for global activities of a firm. This is realized in section on economic assessment of the market and evaluation of foreign currency fundamentals.

This thesis argues that to better understand global coal trade, the conventional economic model of trade needs to be replaced with a more comprehensive international political economy model of trade. The rapid growth of global coal trade during the 1970s and 1980s is disaggregated by coal type, source and destination. The extent and adequacy of various data sets are assessed and contract data are selected as the source of greatest information. The limitations of the conventional least cost trade model are then evaluated using detailed Japanese and European trade data. The global coal trade is found not to conform with a uniform commodity market model, but to be fragmented. A new international political economy model is then developed to explain and evaluate the structures which create a fragmented coal trade. The importance of security, production, financial and information structures are each examined in turn. The security structure identifies the policies and decisions of the state and their importance in shaping trade. Important state initiatives include the protection of domestic industry and the promotion of diverse supply sources. Governments also enter bilateral trade and investment agreements and form international entities like the International Energy Agency which affect coal trade. Most studies of the coal trade concentrate on the production structure where investment in mines creates the productive capacity of the industry. Particular attention is paid to investment where mines are integrated either horizontally or vertically into large productive units which may effect bargaining power in the trade. The financial structure grew in importance in the 1970s and 1980s. Coal mines are increasingly financed on an independent project basis. However, loan finance is not necessarily independent of traditional investors. Linkages among loans to established joint venture partners or parent corporations and long term contracts are shown to be strong. The information structure is rarely studied, but essential to the trade process. Specialised information institutions have evolved to facilitate the reliable and coordinated control over trade flows. Japanese trading houses, sogo shosha, are shown to have an especially strong role in global coal trade. This pattern is contrasted with the declining and specialised role of European coal traders. The comparison of Japanese and European trade patterns and the attitudes of regional consumers offers a better understanding of global trade patterns than that offered by simple competitive models. The result is not only more detailed insight into trade patterns, but a better understanding of the resource trade process.

Due to the nature of the digital economy, multi-national entities are able to trade in countries over the internet without a physical presence, they are setting up group structures across the world, housing intellectual property in tax havens and shifting profits between jurisdictions, lowering their group tax rates. This treatise considered the OECD/G20 BEPS Project 2015 Final Report on Action Plan 1 which discusses the nature, risks and proposed options to combat base erosion and profit sharing (BEPS). Although the OECD have made no recommendations in their report many countries have taken action to protect their tax bases. The scope of this treatise is limited to multi-national entities who avoid tax presence in a country or shift profits to off-shore entities in low/no tax jurisdictions. The aim of this treatise is to identify the risks posed by the nature of the digital economy to direct taxation and analyse proposed solutions to respond to these risks. A comparative study of the proposal and changes implemented in the UK, Australia and India was undertaken to gain an understanding of international thinking regarding the best way to combat BEPS. These proposals were then compared to the South African perspective in order to determine which of the proposals would be feasible to combat BEPS in South Africa.

Diese Dissertation analysiert drei unterschiedliche Märkte im Rahmen der digitalen Wirtschaft und bietet einen Einblick in die relevanten Wohlfahrtsimplikationen und politischen Vorschläge. Das erste Kapitel konzentriert sich auf den Crowdfunding-Markt und zeigt, dass asymmetrische Informationen zu einem höheren Preis bei Vorbestellung führen, was das Risiko von Moral Hazard verringert. Es weist auch auf den Konflikt zwischen dem Erfolg des Crowdfundings und dem Verhindern der Flucht des Entrepreneurs nach dem Erfolg hin. Das zweite Kapitel kombiniert theoretische Analysen mit einem Laborexperimente, um die Auswirkungen der Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) auf die Wahl von Verbrauchern bezüglich ihrer Privatsphäre zu untersuchen. Es zeigt, dass eine vorgeschriebene gemeinsame Nutzung von Daten zwischen Unternehmen dazu führt, dass Verbraucher vermehrt ihre Daten zur Verfügung stellen und dass Verbraucherwohl steigt. Dies ist eine gute Ergänzung für die Debatte der Europäischen Kommission über eine vorgeschriebene gemeinsame Nutzung von Daten in bestimmten Sektoren darstellt. Im letzten Kapitel wird die On-Demand-Plattform im Taximarkt erörtert, bei der der Preis flexibel ist und an die aggregierte Nachfrage und das Angebot angepasst wird. Gegen die eigene Intuition deutet das Ergebnis darauf hin, dass das Problem von zu wenig Angebot bei steigender Nachfrage möglicherweise nicht durch genügend neue Marktteilnehmer gelöst wird. Sozialplaner, On-Demand-Plattform und Dienstleister haben unterschiedliche Anreize für den Markteintritt.
This thesis analyzes three distinct markets under digital economy and offers insight on the relevant welfare implications and policy suggestions. The first chapter focuses on the crowdfunding market and demonstrates that asymmetric information leads to a higher pre-ordering price which lessens the risk of moral hazard. It also points out the trade-off between making the crowdfunding succeed and preventing the entrepreneur from running away after the success. The second chapter combines theoretical analysis with laboratory experiment to explore the effect of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on consumer's privacy choice. It shows that mandating data sharing among firms leads consumers to give up more privacy and increases consumer welfare, which acts as a good supplement for European Commission's debate on the mandated data sharing in specific sectors. The last chapter discusses the on-demand platform in taxi market where the price is flexible and adjusted by aggregate demand and supply. Contrary to common sense, the result suggests that enough new entrants may not solve the problem of undersupply when demand surges. Social planner, on-demand platform and service providers have different incentives regarding when to enter the market.

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, June, 2020
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
Gross domestic product (GDP) measures production and is not meant to measure well-being. While many people nonetheless use GDP as a proxy for well-being, consumer surplus is a better measure of consumer well-being. This is increasingly true in the digital economy where many digital goods have zero price and as a result, the welfare gains from these goods are not reflected in GDP or productivity statistics. Chapter 1 proposes a way of directly measuring consumer's economic well-being using massive online choice experiments. It finds that digital goods generate a large amount of consumer surplus that is currently not captured in GDP. For example, the median Facebook user needed a compensation of around $48 to give it up for a month. Building up on these results, Chapter 2 extends the GDP framework to include welfare gains from new and free goods and construct a new metric called GDP-B, where B stands for benefits. It finds that including the welfare gains from Facebook would have added between 0.05 and 0.11 percentage points to GDP-B growth per year in the US. Chapter 3 proposes a way of measuring network effects on multi-sided platforms using choice experiments. It also models digital platforms allowing for heterogeneity in demand elasticity and network effects across users of different types. It then calibrates the model using an empirical application to Facebook and simulates six different taxation and regulatory policies. Chapter 4 looks at the impact of social media on subjective well-being and academic performance through a randomized controlled trial of University students. Chapter 5 summarizes the research agenda moving forward and concludes with a framework for measuring different aspects of well-being in the digital economy.
by Avinash Collis.
Ph. D.
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

The green economy has emerged as an important concept for sustainable development in both developed and developing countries. It presents a seemingly attractive framework to deliver more resource efficient, lower carbon, less environmentally damaging, more inclusive societies. There are tensions between competing green economy discourses and different definitions exist, which all have shortcomings. Different underlying concepts of the 'weak', 'transformational' and 'strong' green economy also exist. This thesis identifies that several important definitions focus on the aspirational 'transformational green economy'. To track this 'transformation', economic and environmental measurement is essential. This thesis reviews various attempts to measure green economy progress, outlining their shortcomings and whether they may support effective decision-making. Data availability can influence policy goals set and the practical measures taken to achieve them. Economic measurement is a key example where current measurement is not adequate to support detailed decision-making. Measuring green economy transformations must be improved as part of broader frameworks for measuring economy-society-environment interactions. Through reviewing current policies and practices within the global green economy, this thesis provides a revised definition for measuring the green economy using transactional data. Transactional data provides economic measurement in fast-moving or emerging areas where national statistics do not always provide accurate and detailed measurement. The thesis explores whether the transactional data can help to explore how the green economy exists and changes across different scales and geographies, and of the kind of economic relationships upon which it is built. This includes exploring the global green economy, different national level trends, relationships with other datasets, green economy trade flows and the green economy in cities. Assessing this contributes to understanding the economic geography and political economy of the green economy. Understanding the effectiveness of transactional data in exploring green economy transformations also contributes to improving future measurement approaches.

There are two inter-related themes of this thesis: Economic development and global governance. We develop a perspective of &ndash
what we call &ndash
&lsquo
Institutional International Political Economy&rsquo
(IIPE) in order to: i) assess the likelihood of developmental success on the part of the Third World countries in the twenty-first century, and ii) analyze the developmental and world-systemic implications of the so-called &lsquo
global governance model&rsquo
, which we conceptualize as an ultra-liberal capitalist project on the part of the &lsquo
commanding heights&rsquo
of the contemporary &lsquo
world-economy&rsquo
. Our IIPE-perspective relies on an &lsquo
institutionalist&rsquo
synthesis of the classic works of Karl Polanyi, Joseph Schumpeter and Fernand Braudel. In the light of this perspective, &lsquo
state-led development&rsquo
seems to be inconceivable in the face of &lsquo
governance&rsquo
, which is an attempt to disintegrate the &lsquo
institutional substance&rsquo
of the state-as-we-know-it into &lsquo
market-like processes&rsquo
. Nevertheless, &lsquo
governance&rsquo
is bound to become the victim of its own success insofar as it destroys the indispensable political institutions upon which capitalism has survived as a historical world-system in the past.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2007.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As the world globalises there is need for economic integration. These integration processes can be both regional and global Africa as one of the world's continents is not immune to these integrations; regions within the continent have formed trade blocs which enhance economic development for individual member states of such blocs. Even though these countries are not equal in terms of economic development the ultimate goal is to have sustainable economic development and be able to compete in the global world. Botswana is one country with such aspirations and dreams. This paper addresses the role of Botswana in the global economy; highlighting its opportunities and challenges. Botswana has been a success story in Africa, with its GOP per capita increasing from less than US$2 000 in 1975 to around USSIO 000 in 2005, recording economic growth rates of over seven per cent. The country's economy has been heavily reliant on mining. tourism. manufacturing and agriculture. Diamonds are by far the most important source of income for Botswana, accounting for more than 70 per cent of total export earnings. The satisfactory performance of the financial sector impacts on overall development and the diversification of the economy. In its efforts to integrate and strengthen bilateral relations with bigger market economies, Botswana is a signatory to a number of trade agreements such as World Trade Organisation (WTO), Cotonou, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) and Southern African Customs Union (SA CU). As a member of the WTO, the inclusion of China into the organisation implies that Chinese products are now highly competitive when compared to Botswana products due to lower production costs enjoyed by Chinese finns. Chinese finns also enjoy competitive advantage in US markets where Botswana exports some of its textile products under AGOA. However, the country has enjoyed productive relationships with the European countries since its colonial period and through the Cotonou agreement, which was signed between the European Community and the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Botswana is also a signatory to regional blocs such as the SADC through which it has agreed on a number of economic issues such as trade, gender, water resources, peace and security, democracy and good governance. Through the SADe, member states such as Botswana are able to lobby for support or form partnerships with developed nations such as Sweden. By being a member of SACU, Botswana can export to a large market and complement its smaller domestic market. As players in the global economy, countries are exposed to many challenges and opportunities. There are opportunities for attracting more investment into the country due to its excellent economic performance. Investment can be attracted in financial and manufacturing sectors through encouraging private-public partnerships. This paper discusses some of the growth sectors in the economy and how they can be enhanced to contribute to sustainable development. It is also worth mentioning that Botswana faces challenges such as HIV/AIDS and unemployment. By being landlocked, the country is relatively expensive for investors to manufacture locally and export to foreign countries, which dampens the attraction of foreign direct investment. Some of these challenges and opportunities experienced by Botswana can serve as lessons for other African countries.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Soos die globaliseringsproses wereIdwyd vorder is daar ook 'n proses van toenemende ekonomiese integrasie, wereldwyd en op 'n streeksbasis. Afrika neem ook deel aan die proses. In die verskillende streke van die kontinent is handelsblokke besig om te ontplooi. AI is hierdie lande nog ver agter in die internasionale mededingingsproses strewe hulle daarna om op 'n volhoubare manier internasionaal mee te ding. Botswana het beslis die mikpunt. Hierdie studie spreek Botswana se rol in die wyer streeks- en internasionale ekonomie aan. Die land word algemeen beskou as 'n ontwikkelingsukses, met 'n BBP per capita toename van US$2 000 in 1975 tot US$I0 000 in 2005, en 'n gemiddelde jaarlikse groeikoers van meer as sewe persent. Die landsekonomie is sterk afhanklik van die mynbousektor, landbou, toerisme en fabriekswese, met diamante tot 70 persent van uitvoere. As deel van die proses om nouer in te skakel by die groter markte het Botswana by 'n reeks ooreenkomste aangesluit, naamlik die Wereld Handelsorganisasie, die Cotonou-ooreenkoms, die SADC, AGOA en SACU. Terwyl die aansluiting by hierdie ooreenkomste Botswana se uitvoermarkte uitgebrei het, het Sjina se aansluiting by die WTO vir Botswana se nywerhede groter mededinging veroorsaak. Aan die ander kant het die lidmaatskap van Botswana by die SADC en Sacu vir die land baie geleenthede geopen om meer effektief te pleit en te onderhandel vir ekonomiese, sosiale en ander ontwikkelingsvoordele, veral waar Botswana se eie bevolking en markte so klein is. Om 'n beeld te kry van die uitwerking van die stappe van Botswana word in die studie ook gekyk na ontwikkelingstendense in spesifieke sektore asook na pogings om buitelandse kapitaal na die land te trek. Terselfdertyd moet besef word dat Botswana vanwee sy hoe HIV/Vigs koers tans en in die toekoms te kampe het met 'n reeks heel spesiale struikelblokke wat die ontwikkelingsproses beinvloed.

Human trafficking is a growing illegal crime, both in terms of numbers and profits. Thus, important to consider, as it is a human rights, political, criminal justice, national security, and economic issue. Previous studies have these examined these human trafficking factors independently, yet none have really taken into account how they work simultaneously. This study examines why human trafficker continues to occur, particularly at the domestic and transnational level, and also why some countries are better able to effectively deal with this problem in terms of criminalizing human traffickers. It is argued that at the domestic level, traffickers first must take into account the operating costs, illegal risks, bribery, and profits of the business. After considering these basic elements, they then need to consider the world, including economic, political, geographic, and cultural factors that may help facilitate human trafficking. However, human trafficking can occur across large geographic distances, though rare. This is more likely to happen based on the type of human trafficking group, available expatriate or immigrant networks, the origin-transit-destination country connection, or strength of the bilateral economic relationship between origin and destination countries. Finally, looking at why some countries are better able to criminalize traffickers helps us to better understand how human trafficking can be discouraged. In short, conformity of a country’s domestic anti-human trafficking law, as well as the degree of enforcement, should increase the probability of criminalizing a human trafficker. These three theoretical arguments help to better understand the nature of the business, and more importantly, why human trafficking continues.

In their famous paper on the "Big Push", Murphy, Shleifer, and Vishny (1989) show how the combination of increasing returns to scale at the firm level and pecuniary externalities can give rise to a poverty trap, thereby formalising an old idea due to Rosenstein-Rodan (1943). We develop in this paper an oligopoly model of the Big Push that is very close in spirit to the Murphy-Shleifer-Vishny (MSV) model, but in contrast to the MSV model it is easily extended to the case of an economy that is open to international trade. Having a workable open-economy framework allows us to address the question whether globalisation makes it easier or harder for a country to escape from a poverty trap. Our model gives a definite answer to this question: Globalisation makes it harder to escape from a poverty trap since the adoption of the modern technology at the firm level is impeded by tougher competition in the open economy.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to represent the first empirical attempt to explore global-local consumer identities as drivers of global digital brand usage. Specifically, this study considers a unique category of digital products, social networking sites (SNS), and develops a set of hypotheses to assess the mechanism through which location-based identities influence the actual usage of global SNS (Facebook and Instagram). Moreover, cross-country variations are investigated under the lens of developed vs developing countries. Design/methodology/Approach: Cross-country surveys in a developed (Austria) and a developing country (Thailand) were conducted. Data collected from 425 young adults were analyzed using SEM techniques in order to test a set of hypotheses. Findings: Results show that in Thailand, users with a global identity enjoy participating in global SNS more than their counterparts in Austria. In addition, consumers with a local identity in Thailand demonstrate less pleasure when participating in global SNS than their counterparts in Austria, and consequently are less inclined to use global SNS. Practical implications: Findings provide digital marketers with useful insights into important strategic decisions regarding the selection and potential adaptation of global digital brands according to the country context. Originality/value: This research is the first to extend the location-based identity research in the context of global digital brands, explain how global-local identities predict SNS usage through an engagement mechanism and investigate cross-country variations of this mechanism.

Advances in information technology (IT) have enabled the design and development of innovations in software and computer-assisted business methods. Firms attempt to leverage these innovations to gain competitive advantages through cost reduction, or quality improvements, and often pass some benefits to consumers. However such competitive advantages are increasingly difficult to sustain because IT-enabled innovations are becoming easier to copy or imitate. Competitors can use reverse engineering or decryption techniques to discover how an innovation operates, modify the original and distribute the amended innovation as a new product. Unfortunately, the ability of competing firms to imitate quickly and cheaply may reduce the incentives for firms to incur the cost to innovate. Much literature discusses ways government may induce firms to innovate and thus increase current and future social welfare. One tool available to government to provide such incentives is patent protection, i.e. providing an exclusive right of the innovations to the innovator. One goal of patent policy is to maximize social welfare by providing incentives to innovate while simultaneously maintaining a competitive market. Policymakers disagree over how to balance these two often-conflicting goals. Much of the disagreement is based on what factors the government may control to provide protection for innovating firms and the socially optimal level of patent protection. Determining optimal protection policy is a non-trivial task. The complexity arises from stakeholders who may have contradictory objectives and a menu or mix of options. Of course it is difficult to reach the first-best solution because the social planner does not have full access to information about firms and consumers. This dissertation reviews economic theories of patent protection, address problems and issues related to the progress of ITs, and investigate how a specific set of patent policy affect the incentives for firm to develop technological innovations and the way developed innovations are adopted and diffused throughout the marketplace. This work builds on, and contributes to, literatures in the areas of information systems, economics, public policy and law and provides valuable insights for regulators responsible for designing and evaluating patent systems and for firms competing strategically under these systems.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide meaningful understanding of the current state of business activities, which generates the need for implementing new taxing measures, analyse the challenges arising from this need, as well as their cause. Furthermore, the aforementioned challenges will be explained in the context of existing traditional taxing systems and proposed measures will be analysed. After reading this thesis, the goal is for the reader to be able to understand current trends and to gain an idea of how states might try to harmonize their taxing systems in order to meet the requirements set out by the rapid digitalization of companies.

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente
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Against the backdrop of the increasing accessibility of media production technologies and the growth in the usage of Internet video websites, this thesis investigates the video work published on the activist media website Centro de Mídia Independente (CMI), in order to explore the uses being made of Internet video in a local context. The thesis looks at a number of new paradigms of the global in order to provide a theoretical context from which to consider the technology on which this use of video is based, the new social movements from which the videos are emerging, and how the videos are positioned in relation to the globalized networked environment of the Internet. The context for the textual analysis is provided by a discussion of narrative forms in journalistic texts, documentary and new media, and particularly, of documentary modes, tensions between journalism and documentary, the impact of digital media on documentary, and properties of digital and new media. The analysis takes the video production from Florianópolis posted to the CMI in 2005 as a case study, exploring the range of documentary modes suggested by the videos, additional styles and strategies that they make use of, and the integration of the videos with the hypertext environment in which they are posted. The thesis argues that a significant dimension of the videos is the diversity of styles and perspectives that they represent. It also argues that locality can be considered in the videos through the shared contexts of their subject matter and of the way in which they are posted to the CMI website. The thesis concludes that the multiplicity of forms of expression encountered in the videos and the multiplicity of perspectives that they provide on their subjects points to the democratic potential of websites such as the Centro de Mídia Independente. Tendo com pano de fundo o crescente acesso às tecnologias de produção de mídia e o crescimento no uso de websites relacionados ao uso de vídeo na Internet, esta dissertação investiga os trabalhos em vídeo publicados no website de mídia ativista, Centro de Mídia Independente (CMI), para explorar os usos de vídeo na Internet em um contexto local. A dissertação aborda novos paradigmas 'do global' para oferecer um contexto teórico onde são considerados a tecnologia usada por estes vídeos, os novos movimentos sociais de onde os vídeos estão surgindo e a forma como os vídeos são posicionados em relação ao ambiente globalizado e em rede da Internet. O contexto da análise textual é constituído por uma discussão do discurso jornalístico, do documentário e das novas mídias, e particularmente, de modos documentários, de tensões entre jornalismo e documentário, do impacto de mídia digital no documentário, e das propriedades de mídias novas e digitais. A análise traz como estudo de caso a produção de vídeos em Florianópolis de 2005, disponibilizada no website do CMI, e explora a variedade de modos documentários sugeridos pelos vídeos, estilos e estratégias utilizadas por estes e a integração dos vídeos com o ambiente onde estão disponibilizados. A dissertação argumenta que um aspecto significativo dos vídeos é a diversidade de estilos e perspectivas que eles representam. É argumentado ainda que a questão de localidade pode ser considerada nos vídeos a partir dos contextos compartilhados dos seus assuntos e da maneira que estes estão disponibilizados no website do CMI. Conclui-se que a multiplicidade das formas de expressão encontradas nos vídeos e a multiplicidade de perspectivas que oferecem em relação a seus sujeitos apontam o potencial democrático de websites como o Centro de Mídia Independente.

As technology continues to change the way society communicates, teachers need to prepare their students for digital literacy and competencies in their adulthood. Specific training is necessary for educators in the appropriate and effective methods for incorporating technologies such as smart phones and hand-held devices. Teachers, who work in international boarding schools, are more effective in their use of technology when they understand the classroom cultural differences and are able to clarify any misconceptions. To determine what experienced teachers find missing in their instruction and what should be included in a teachers' instructional guide, a guide was developed based upon the existing literature; the guide was tested and revised under three conditions. In the first phase, a panel of subject-matter experts reviewed the guide draft to identify the instructional goals and validate the survey instrument. In the second phase, a teacher's workshop was conducted and provided in-depth discussions on how they use technology in the classroom. Teachers shared examples of how culture affected students' use and misuse of technology. In the final phase, observations were conducted as teachers used the lessons and resources in their instruction. The final revision, presented in this document, includes closing comments made by participating teachers. The goal was to develop a digital citizenship guide for teachers in international boarding schools that reflected best practices from the literature and the input from experts and teachers. The results identified the specific skills and competencies that are required to teach students how to communicate in the digital world and become good digital citizens. The culturally diverse student population at the investigation site made it possible to generalize instructional sets that will be of value to teachers everywhere. The guide, developed through the dissertation initiative, provides educators with the knowledge, tools, and examples necessary to teach students how these technologies can be used in a multicultural learning environment. It can be used to address the fundamentals of digital citizenship and provide insight into the role culture plays in the use of technology in education.

Entrepreneurs add value to society above and beyond the creation of new products and services, through their engagement in philanthropy. Entrepreneurial philanthropy draws upon practices of entrepreneurship and venture capital, to pursue the creation of social wealth through the application of different types of capital - social, symbolic, cultural and economic - in philanthropic activities. The objective of the study is to bring clarity and understanding to the phenomenon of entrepreneurial philanthropy. Specifically it explores: the motivations of wealthy entrepreneurs to engage in philanthropy; the ideology of entrepreneurial philanthropy; the practices of entrepreneurial philanthropy; and the different forms of capital actively deployed by entrepreneurial philanthropists to the organisations and programmes that they support. A qualitative research methodology and a multi research case strategy have been used on account of the exploratory nature of this study. Five entrepreneurial philanthropists and their foundations are examined in this study. Additional interviews were undertaken with individuals active in the field of philanthropy including: wealth consultants, intermediary philanthropy service providers, leading global foundation executive and nascent entrepreneurial philanthropists. This approach supported an inductive analysis and interpretation of the data, within and across the case studies, whilst considering the external landscape of entrepreneurial philanthropy. The study identified a range of factors that contribute to, and motivate, wealthy entrepreneurs to become actively engaged in philanthropy. The study shows that the ideology of entrepreneurial philanthropy is rooted in capitalism and the reproduction of a culture of entrepreneurship, which are believed to contribute to a strong and productive civil society. The study confirms the transferability and adaptability of practices from entrepreneurship to philanthropy. Finally the study established the deployment and accumulation of different forms of capital as being fundamental to the capacity of entrepreneurial philanthropists to create social and economic change at both micro and macro levels.

Thesis (MA (Political Science. International Studies)()--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.
Many African countries present the observer with a paradox: though richly endowed with mineral wealth, these countries are among the least-developed in the world. Mineral resources have historically been an important source of revenue for the state and one finds great diversity in the strategies that states have employed to access this wealth. These strategies range from direct participation in mining activity by means of state-owned companies to more indirect methods such as taxes levied on mining activity, with approaches varying not only among states, but also over time as historically certain strategies with regard to state involvement in mining have come to predominate. This study develops a typology of public/private sector configurations in the mining sector. The typology consists of three models, a direct participation, market-led and sustainability model. This typology serves as an analytical tool to investigate the impact of mining codes on sustainable development. The study concludes that in many cases the investment-oriented mining code reform undertaken by African states in the 1980s and 1990s has had a negative impact through the social and environmental costs associated with mining. Increasing recognition of these costs has resulted in the emergence of a sustainability model.

This work is a critique of orthodox conceptions of social exclusion in the global political economy. Following Foucault’s methodology, our argument is that orthodox political-economic discourses, from 18th and 19th century classical political economy to late 20th century neoliberalism, provide only partial and limited accounts of social exclusion, and as such obscure its production and reproduction within the global political economy. We uncover this problem by first examining the contemporary period of globalization, which reveals a discrepancy between orthodox discourse taken at face value and the actuality of social exclusion. Marx’s critique of classical political economy exposes the fundamental basis of this discrepancy as the way in which the false assumptions of orthodox discourse make the market appear ‘natural’ to human social relations. Exclusion is thus conceived as the state of being on the outside of the market and associated structures and institutions. This obscures how both the historical construction and political governance of the market produce patterns of social exclusion. To move beyond this failing we employ Marx’s historical materialism as an alternative perspective which brings to light the production of exclusion within and as a product of social structures and institutions. We combine this with Foucault’s notion of power to establish a framework to investigate the production of social exclusion in terms of land, labour, capital, rights, gender and truth. Initially we develop this as a general mode of inquiry, leading to brief studies of feudal Europe, classical Islam and T’ang China. Then we apply this framework to the historical construction and political governance of the market within the capitalist global political economy, drawing upon the work of Marx along with Stephen Gill, Antonio Gramsci and David Harvey. We study three historical periods to show the production of social exclusion at work. First, agrarian capitalism and the Industrial Revolution in England and their impact upon world trade. Second, the post-1945 ‘Golden Age’ of capitalism. And third, the post-1970s era of globalization. This work makes a contribution to knowledge by being the first attempt to understand the global political economy as a whole in terms of inclusion / exclusion, and the first systematic application of the concept of social exclusion on a global scale.

Using gender lenses, this dissertation examines the emergence of celebrity diplomats as viable political actors, providing diplomatic services focused on negotiation and humanitarian aid, in current international politics and the global economy. More specifically, this dissertation uses feminist political economy literature to examine how neoliberal globalization has contributed to the growing role of celebrity diplomats in international politics. I argue that the increased presence and involvement of celebrity diplomats in the post-9/11 era is the result of neoliberal globalization and the neoliberal state's shift toward privatization of the public sector, increased militarization, and increased emphasis on commodification and consumption. In order to examine this phenomenon, this dissertation examines the diplomatic endeavors of two celebrity diplomats, Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. More specifically, this study provides an in-depth analysis of Jolie and Clooney's roles and involvement in international politics. Moreover, this dissertation examines the gender roles of celebrity diplomats. Therefore, this dissertation provides a gender analysis of Jolie and Clooney's diplomatic endeavors. I argue that Jolie's diplomacy reflects her role as mother, while Clooney takes a masculine approach to his diplomatic agenda. Finally, the dissertation concludes with an analysis of the ways in which celebrity diplomacy can further promote a neoliberal agenda.
Ph. D.

This thesis analyzes the implications of regulation on the transformation to a Digital Economy. A gap analysis shows that Czech Republic is significantly lagging behind in terms of connectivity, which is an essential precondition for a transformation to a digital age. The regulator promotes the entry of the new player as a solution for this situation. However, a simulation based on Herfindahl Hirschman Index does not support this view. This outcome is further supported by the results of correlation between market competitiveness and network advancement, which does not suggest any relationship. These findings are in line with empirical evidence from EU markets, which prove that a three-operator market is efficient and delivers attractive competitive services to the customers and society. The root cause of this situation lies in the current telecommunications regulation, which failed to create a sustainable digital ecosystem for the transition to a digital economy. This paper concludes, that regulatory framework needs to be redefined to address new challenges ahead. The regulatory priority should be shifted from service focus to encouraging long-term connectivity investments, differentiation, and competition.