Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Procurement of Goods and Services'

The present interview has as purpose to give comprehensive overview about the currentsituation of public procurement in our country, with emphasis on the goals achieved and the possible challenges of the matter; all of this in the frame on the reform of public procurement law.
La presente entrevista tiene como propósito dar un panorama del actual estado de la contratación pública en nuestro país, haciendo énfasis en los logros que se han ido alcanzados y los posibles retos de la misma; todo esto teniendo en cuenta la reciente reforma en la normativa de contratación pública.

Supply Chain Management is a well recognized managerial tool and government initiative, primarily aimed at improving all the aspects of the procurement activities in government organizations or any type of the sector. It focuses on meeting the needs of the service providers as well as of the customers. In 1994, South African Government came up with new initiatives to manage its budget and finance resources to meet the needs of the people. One of the new initiatives that the new Government introduced was the Supply Chain Management (SCM). The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No.108 of 1996, as amended regulates procurement through Section 217. The statutes states that “217(1) when an Organ of State in the national, provincial or local sphere of government, or any institution identified in national legislation, contracts for goods or services, it must do so in accordance with a system which is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective The procurement reform processes were supported by the introduction of a number of legislative measures, including the adoption of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) and the Preferential Procurement Policy Framework Act (PPPFA). Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) is a financial act that was developed in 1999 to reform the public financial management of South Africa. The Act promotes the objective of good financial management in order to maximise delivery through the efficient and effective use of limited resources. Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) emphasizes on efficiency, transparency and economic utilization of public funds. The Treasury Regulations 16.5.3 states that, ‘when procuring goods and services, the procurement procedures must be in accordance with a system that is fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective. Even though government departments have started implementing the Supply Chain Management strategies, there are still some challenges and deficiencies that hinder appropriate implementation. There are some deficiencies in tender award systems, ineffectiveness of SCM training materials, lack of communication between management and SCM or implementing staff as a result the implementing staff is not aware of the organization’s goals regarding supply chain management activities. Lack of monitoring, evaluation and reporting is also another challenge. Due to these challenges, the Head Office of the Eastern Cape Department of Health had incurred some expenses in trying to address these yet the Supply Chain Management has little impact in improving the service delivery. The key research objective of this study is to investigate and evaluate the implementation of Supply Chain Management in service delivery with specific focus in procurement processes of goods and services in Head Office of Eastern Cape Department of Health. The study intends to establish and highlight the challenges that the Head Office of the Eastern Cape Department of Health is presently faced with in regard to implementation of the Supply Chain Management and the impact it has in service delivery. Data gathering techniques which include interviews and questionnaires had been used. The objectives, methodology and results of the study are presented. The conclusions and recommendations had been made with the basis that they will assist the department in improving the implementation of the Supply Chain Management which will have a positive impact in the service delivery. Further steps needs to be taken by the Provincial Treasuries in assisting department to improve in the implementation of the Supply Chain Management. Further research conduct is recommended for all the institutions of the department of Health as this study was focusing on Head Office only.

This work approaches the restrictive factors that interfere in the optimization of the planning of the process of recruiting of goods and services between the sectorial demand and the service of the request for the Unit of Administration in two Federal Universities. The theme is discussed found in the authors' visions as Etzioni (1967), Barnard (1968), Tironi et al (1991), Tofler (2003), Mintzberg (2004), Senge (2005), Matus (2006), Marchi and Wittmann (2008), Motta (2010), Baily et al. (2010), Morin (2011), Tridapalli, Fernandes and Machado (2011), Morgan (2011), Juran (2011), Dias e Costa (2012), Drucker (2012), among others. The protected concepts for the authors allow to notice new possibilities for the administration of the process of recruiting of goods and services in our organizations in times of changes. The objective of the research consists of analyzing the restrictive factors that interfere in the optimization of the planning of the process of recruiting of goods and services between the sectorial demand and the service of this request for the Unit of Administration in the Federal Universities of Maranhão (MA) and Santa Maria (RS). This case study has character exploratory, descriptive, of qualitative nature. They were accomplished 12 (twelve) interviews that made possible the collection and the analysis of the data, the method of the analysis of the interviewees' speech was used to reveal problems associated to planning, the organizational structure, that interferes in the planning of the process of recruiting of goods and services. The results reveal that the researched organizations maintain inadequate organizational structures. The unit of central planning guides the dissociated expense of the reality of the administration of the sectorial units.
Este trabalho aborda os fatores restritivos que interferem na otimização do planejamento do processo de contratação de bens e serviços entre a demanda setorial e o atendimento da solicitação pela Unidade de Gestão em duas Universidades Federais. O tema é discutido alicerçado nas visões de autores como Etzioni (1967), Barnard (1968), Tironi et al. (1991), Tofler (2003), Mintzberg (2004), Senge (2005), Matus (2006), Marchi e Wittmann (2008), Motta (2010), Baily et al. (2010), Morin (2011), Tridapalli, Fernandes e Machado (2011), Morgan (2011), Juran (2011), Dias e Costa (2012), Drucker (2012), dentre outros. Os conceitos defendidos pelos autores permitem perceber novas possibilidades para a gestão do processo de contratação de bens e serviços nas organizações em tempos de mudanças. O objetivo da pesquisa consiste em analisar os fatores restritivos que interferem na otimização do planejamento do processo de contratação de bens e serviços entre a demanda setorial e o atendimento desta solicitação pela Unidade de Gestão, nas Universidades Federais do Maranhão (MA) e de Santa Maria (RS). Este estudo de caso tem caráter exploratório, descritivo, de natureza qualitativa. Foram realizadas 12 (doze) entrevistas que possibilitaram a coleta e a análise dos dados. Utilizou-se o método da análise do discurso dos entrevistados, para revelar problemas associados a planejamento, a estrutura organizacional, que interfere no planejamento do processo de contratação de bens e serviços. Os resultados revelam que as organizações pesquisadas mantêm estruturas organizacionais inadequadas. A unidade de planejamento central orienta a despesa dissociada da realidade da gestão das unidades setoriais.

O presente trabalho de projecto aborda a organização e implementação dos Serviços de Aprovisionamento no Instituto Politécnico de Beja. Este trabalho de projecto trata de questões de organização e explica o que se entende por Aprovisionamento, o que o mesmo representa para o Instituto Politécnico, a forma como se adquirem os bens e serviços, respeitando as normas legais de contratação. Assim, parte-se do conceito de Aprovisionamento, como um conjunto de acções que consistem em colocar à disposição da Organização, os meios materiais de que ela necessita para poder laborar, nas quantidades e qualidades necessárias, no momento preciso e ao menor custo possível. O trabalho divide-se em duas partes: A primeira parte refere-se ao quadro conceptual de referência do Aprovisionamento. A segunda resulta da aplicação ao Instituto Politécnico de Beja. Analisaram-se as componentes técnicas e organizacional, por recurso a uma metodologia descritiva e qualitativa. Depois, procedeu-se a uma análise da componente tecnológica, no âmbito da qual, se produziram manuais de procedimentos únicos e uniformes para todos os serviços que trabalhem directamente com o Sector/Serviços de Aprovisionamento. Foi ainda abordada a componente comportamental. - ABSTRACT: This project work addresses the Organization and implementation of services supply the Polytechnical Institute of Beja. This project deals with matters of organization and explains what is meant by supply, that it represents for the Polytechnic Institute, how buying goods and services, while respecting the legal standards. Supply, defined as a set of actions that are in place at the disposal of the Organization, the material resources that it needs to be able to operate in quantities and qualities necessary now and at the lowest possible cost. For work is divided into two parts: the first part refers to the conceptual framework supply reference. The second is the result of applying the Polytechnical Institute of Beja. Analyzed the organizational and technical components using a descriptive and qualitative component. Then, an analysis of the technological component, under which, if produced manuals unique and uniform procedures for all services that work directly with the sector/supply service, was also approached the behavioral component.

Фокусом научного исследования, проведенного в рамках настоящей магистерской диссертации, является механизм осуществления закупок товаров, работ, услуг для государственных нужд в условиях его реформирования. Цель исследования: анализ механизмов осуществления закупок товаров, работ, услуг для государственных нужд в субъекте Российской Федерации и формирование рекомендаций для совершенствования их работы. Основными методами проведения исследования стали качественный и количественный анализ, а именно экспертное интервью, контент-анализ. В процессе исследования были изучены теоретические основы контрактной системе в сфере закупок товаров, работ, услуг в Российской Федерации; рассмотрена нормативно-правовая база закупочной деятельности на международном, федеральном и региональном уровнях; предложено новое определение механизма закупочной деятельности; сформированы модели организации закупочной деятельности в регионах Российской Федерации; подготовлены практические материалы, которые могут быть использованы специалистами по закупкам в их профессиональной деятельности. Предложенные автором рекомендации по совершенствованию механизма государственных закупок региона Российской Федерации внесут уточнения в действующее законодательство, а также упростят и ускорят работу специалистов по закупкам.
The focus of the research conducted within the framework of this master's thesis is the mechanism of procurement of goods, works, and services for state needs in the context of its reform. The purpose of the study: to analyze the mechanisms of procurement of goods, works, and services for state needs in the subject of the Russian Federation and to form recommendations for improving their work. The main methods of conducting the research were qualitative and quantitative analysis, namely expert interviews, content analysis. In the course of the research, the theoretical foundations of the contract system in the field of procurement of goods, works, and services in the Russian Federation were studied; the regulatory and legal framework of procurement activities at the international, federal, and regional levels was considered; a new definition of the procurement mechanism was proposed; models of the organization of procurement activities in the regions of the Russian Federation were formed; practical materials were prepared that can be used by procurement specialists in their professional activities. The recommendations proposed by the author on improving the mechanism of public procurement in the region of the Russian Federation will clarify the current legislation, as well as simplify and speed up the work of procurement specialists.

Cette recherche est une étude de cas qui examine la relation et les attributs entre les différentes entités impliquées dans le processus d’appel d’offre publique au gouvernement du Québec. Il se concentre spécifiquement sur les services professionnels informatiques qui constituent une catégorie de dépenses élevées dans les marchés publics. En utilisant le résultat de plusieurs entretiens avec des société informatique, notre recherche nous a permis de proposer un modèle d'interaction entre les différentes entités de l'écosystème d’appel d'offres publique qui peut être utilisé pour avoir une vue holistique de l'environnement et également comme un tremplin pour des études plus approfondie de la discipline.
This paper is a case study that examines the relationship and attributes between the different entities involved in Québec’s Government public procurement process. It is focused specifically on the IT professional services which is a high spending category in public procurement. Using result from multiple interview with IT firm, our finding allowed us to propose an entity interaction model for the call for tender ecosystem that can be used to have an holistic view of the environment and also as a stepping stone for further study of the field.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in Conjunction with the Center for Real Estate , 2009.
This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
"September 2009." Cataloged from student submitted PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-65).
In 2009's fragile real estate market, many developers are looking for safe investments for their invested capital. Developers are looking to the federal government, specifically the General Services Administration, for growth and safety. The General Services Administration (GSA) is the contracting body of the U.S. federal government. It is the nation's largest public real estate organization. It leases space from private developers in over 7,100 facilities across the United States comprising office buildings, border patrol stations, courthouses, warehouses, clinics, post offices and many other uses. The GSA pays over $4.6 billion in rent to landlords annually on nearly 181 million square feet of space. GSA is authorized by law to acquire, manage, utilize, and dispose of real property for most federal agencies. The thesis is primarily based on interviews conducted with industry professionals: developers, financiers, brokers, and GSA contracting officials. It looks at the opportunities and challenges of working with the General Services Administration on new lease construction build-to-suits. It focuses on four areas; 1) the lease procurement process; 2) opportunities for new procurements in 2009's market; 3) developer financed new lease construction build-to-suit projects; and 4) opportunities and challenges of financing projects in 2009's credit crunch.
by Nathan R. Boyer.
S.M.

Nowadays, companies involved in the international trade and production of goods in order to retain customers and increase market share are forced to assure excellence in the performance at all stages of their supply chains. Transportation plays critical role and can be argued to be the most crucial link in the supply chain determining its success or failure. However, regardless of such high importance, this process is very often outsourced as companies do not possess sufficient expertise and resources to deploy this function in-house. Thus, companies have to develop effective strategies and plan their procurement activities accordingly and then manage the outcome. There is not a lot of studies that would take a narrow look at the development of procurement strategy for transportation services in particular. This work is aimed to get the insight and discuss strategic, planning level and post operational evaluation of the procurement of transportation services and explore practical implication on the example of AB InBev through in-depth interviews with company employees. As an outcome this work is aimed to provide an outline of the company performance, value added or negative aspects as a result of application of previously discussed strategies.

This research is focused on the management of services procurement particularly on the services procurement process. The Services industry has been perceived to be growing in importance in the emerging business market. However, from the literature review, research in this subject area is rather limited. This thesis focuses on gaining detailed insights about services including: 1) how services has been defined, 2) what are the characteristics of services, 3) how services are being managed, 4) what are the services procurement processes, 5) the challenges in managing the services and the anticipation of growth and future for the services industry. In order to gain more insight and detailed information, the “case study” has been selected as the research method in collecting the data. It is one of the research methods that allow greater insights and discussion on the selected subject area. Seven companies have been selected for interview sessions whereby each company represented a case study. Data that was collected was analysed through template analysis. The main aim of this research is to develop a best practice framework for services procurement. The research has developed a conceptual framework of a services procurement process based on the discussion in the literature review. From the literature reviews, it is inferred that different companies might have different procurement processes between raw materials/goods/products and services. However, from findings of the field research, almost all of the companies are maintaining the same procurement process for both raw materials/goods/products and services. This applies to all the case studies of Case Study A, B, C, D, E, F & G. Moreover, some of the companies interviewed in this research project argue that several types of services may be applied to a simpler procurement process when compared to a more complicated services type. This research will evaluate, compare and refine the services procurement process between the conceptual framework that has been developed from literature review and the services procurement process in the fieldwork. A refined and validated services procurement process has been proposed as a Best Practice Framework. The researcher recommends to extend the research in some other countries, locations or continents as future research, to further contribute to the wealth of knowledge in the research context relating to the procurement process. As an extension to this research, the researcher suggests to examine how supplier relationship management can assist in managing the services procurement processes.

Small communities or remote regions are usually ignored by airlines because they have insufficient passenger demand and the air services to and from these regions are unprofitable. Free market conditions would lead to the lack of air connectivity to and from remote regions, hence transportation authorities intervene by procuring air services to guarantee improved accessibility for these regions. The procurement of air services is done through subsidy schemes where the transportation authorities pay subsidies to airlines that provide these air services along the routes to and from remote regions. These routes are commonly referred to as subsidised routes.  The procurement of subsidised air services (subsidised routes) involves two major tasks—the selection of routes to subsidise and the selection of airlines to serve these routes. These are the focus of this thesis. The overall aim of this thesis is to design decision support models that can be used by transportation authorities to select the routes to subsidise and to select airlines to serve these routes.  First, we develop an optimisation model that selects the routes to be subsidised, by maximising the number of people that can reach a given destination under different accessibility criteria subject to a budget. The model is capable of handling multiple accessibility criteria. As input to this model, we develop a novel method for estimating the subsidies required for non-existing subsidised routes.  Second, we develop an auction framework to provide decision support to transportation authorities when designing auctions for the procurement of subsidised air services. The auction framework has three steps: auction definition by the transportation authority, bid preparation by the bidding airlines, and winner determination by the transportation authority. We develop two optimisation models as part of the auction framework, a winner-determination model for selecting the bids with the minimum subsidies, and a bid preparation model that replicates the airline’s behaviour when preparing bids for subsidised routes. The bid preparation model has an objective of minimising subsidies subject to a minimum profit threshold. We additionally propose models to estimate the appropriate demand and the route-operation cost for subsidised routes, which are needed as input to the bid preparation model.  We demonstrate the usefulness of the two decision support models using the Public Service Obligation (PSO) network of subsidised routes in Sweden. The results suggest that the optimisation model can be used to select a new network of subsidised routes with improved accessibility to given destinations (e.g., the capital and an international airport) at a lower subsidy cost than the current network of subsidised routes. Having a requirement on the maximum airfare but not the minimum number of flights provides a good trade-off between the current restrictive setup with requirements on both the minimum number of flights and the maximum airfare, and a setup of the tendering process with no restrictions.

The purpose of this thesis is to propose a standardization model for the purchase process of legal professional services leveraging e-Procurement and to validate the benefits brought by the implementation of both, an e-Procurement tool and a new procurement process. The hypotheses of this thesis are applicable to the procurement of legal professional services of large companies with a central legal department in charge of managing the relations with different legal firms (legal services suppliers). The information presented was gathered in a large global manufacturing company with strong presence in Europe. The procurement of legal professional services throughout the entire organization was analyzed and validated by central legal department based in the headquarters. An innovative model for the procurement of the legal services has been proposed based on different findings in the current literature. Also, a model developed by Ronchi et al. was leveraged to quantitatively measure the benefits brought by the implementation of e-Procurement. The model was implemented in the organization with the help of central purchasing and legal departments. The results showed it is possible to standardize the operative procurement of legal professional services for end-users to perceive the same process as the one used for direct purchases of office supplies. In order to accomplish this, some roles and an important transformation within the organization must be carried out. A general model to implement a comprehensive procurement process leveraging e-Procurement is presented in this study. The conclusions are that the specialized procurement literature focuses very little on service procurement standardization and even less in legal professional services or process standardization through e-Procurement, and thus this study and the model introduced might work as a starting point for professional practitioners or academic researchers alike. Further research topics are suggested at the end of this study to continue research on this topic.

This thesis makes a contribution to the algorithmic pricing literature by proposing and analyzing techniques for automatically pricing digital and information goods in order to maximize profit in different settings. We also consider the effect on social welfare when agents use these pricing algorithms. The digital goods considered in this thesis are electronic commodities that have zero marginal cost and unlimited supply e.g., iTunes apps. On the other hand, an information good is an entity that bridges the knowledge gap about a product between the consumer and the seller when the consumer cannot assess the utility of owning that product accurately e.g., Carfax provides vehicle history and can be used by a potential buyer of a vehicle to get information about the vehicle. With the emergence of e-commerce, the customers are increasingly price sensitive and search for the best opportunies anywhere. It is almost impossible to manually adjust the prices with rapidly changing demand and competition. Moreover, online shopping platforms also enable sellers to change prices easily and quickly as opposed to updating price labels in brick and mortar stores so they can also experiment with different prices to maximize their revenue. Therefore, e-marketplaces have created a need for designing sophisticated practical algorithms for pricing. This need has evoked interest in algorithmic pricing in the computer science, economics, and operations research communities. In this thesis, we seek solutions to the following two algorithmic pricing problems: (1) In the first problem, a seller launches a new digital good (this good has unlimited supply and zero marginal cost) but is unaware of its demand in a posted-price setting (i.e., the seller quotes a price to a buyer, and the buyer makes a decision depending on her willingness to pay); we look at the question --- how should the seller set the prices in order to maximize her infinite horizon discounted revenue? This is a classic problem of learning while earning. We propose a few algorithms for this problem and demonstrate their effectiveness using rigorous empirical tests on both synthetic datasets and real-world datasets from auctions at eBay and Yahoo!, and ratings on jokes from Jester, an online joke recommender system. We also show that under certain conditions the myopic Bayesian strategy is also Bayes-optimal. Moreover, this strategy has finite regret (independent of time) which means that it also learns very fast. (2) The second problem is based on search markets: a consumer is searching for a product sequentially (i.e., she examines possible options one by one and on observing them decides whether to buy or not). However, merely observing a good, although partially informative, does not typically provide the potential purchaser with the complete information set necessary to execute her buying decision. This lack of perfect information about the good creates a market for intermediaries (we refer to them as experts) who can conduct research on behalf of the buyer and sell her this information about the good. The consumer can pay these intermediaries to learn more about the good which can help her in making a better decision about whether to buy the good or not. In this case, we study various pricing schemes for these information intermediaries in a search-based environment (e.g., selling a package of $k$ reports instead of selling a single report or offering a subscription based service). We show how subsidies can be an effective tool for a market designer to increase the social welfare. We also model quality level in the experts and study competition dynamics by computing equilibrium strategies for the searcher and two experts with different qualities. Surprisingly, sometimes an improvement in the quality of the higher-quality expert (holding everything constant) can be pareto-improving: not only that expert's profit increase, so does the other expert's profit and the searcher's utility.
Ph. D.

This thesis comprises three essays on trade in services that explore the issues of tradability, trade and market access. The essays are also empirical case studies of the form that liberalization may take. The first essay examines the role of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in services trade using a gravity model. It adds to this literature by (i) distilling trade effects of RTAs into those emanating from services and "only goods" agreements thereby confirming complementarities between the two; (ii) studying the impact of goods trade on services trade more directly than done hitherto; (iii) studying relationships between RTAs and services trade disaggregated by the economic status of the partner countries and by the nature of the relationship; and (iv) treating the RTA explanatory variable as endogenous in estimating the trade effect. Finally, it uses its results to estimate the trade effect of an India-EU RTA.

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited
The purpose of this research is to define and discuss the 'best value' concept and how it relates to the procurement of engineering and technical services. The research was conducted by a review of regulations and policy guidance, interviews with Government and defense industry personnel, and visits to Navy Contracting Activities that procure engineering and technical services. The intent of the study was to analyze how the 'best value' concept is currently implemented, problems with implementation, and to offer recommendations to improve 'best value' source selection. This study also recommends areas for future study that may further improve the use of 'best value' in the procurement of professional services.

This dissertation contains three studies. Chapter 2 studies the effect of product quality on foreign entry using data on U.S. movie exports and direct and revealed measures of movie quality. In the model, fixed costs of entry mean only the more appealing movies will find it profitable to enter each country. Empirically, a one-standard-deviation increase in quality increases the probability of entry by 25-50%. Movies in culturally-laden genres are less likely to enter foreign markets and their probability of entry is more sensitive to quality. I exploit differences in the propensity to import different genre types to estimate a measure of cultural distance between countries. The cultural distance measure enters a gravity equation of merchandise trade significantly. Chapter 3 investigates the international diffusion of a new product. Products traditionally enter foreign markets sequentially. This paper proposes that part of the explanation is that firms want to learn about their products’ appeal before incurring the fixed costs of entry. Each successive release serves to update the firm’s expectations for future performance---and thus their decision to enter more markets. On a sample of U.S. movies, I find that a one-standard-deviation increase in the update, based on the previous round’s box-office "surprise", is associated with a 25% increase in the probability of entry to a typical potential destination in the current round. Chapter 4 investigates Canada's interprovincial and international trade in services. While modern technology has allowed for long-distance service provision, regulatory non-tariff barriers may constitute substantial hurdles for further trade liberalization. This chapter describes three exercises contributing to the analysis of Canadian service trade. Using a theoretically-motivated framework, I estimate provincial and national border effects, and track the effect over time that distance has had on international trade.

This project investigates the views of accountants in Hong Kong on the proposed Goods and Services Tax (“GST”). It also analyses the overall economy of Hong Kong in the past 60 years, focusing on the public finance system and the tax bases. The Hong Kong economy and its economic policies have been overviewed. The deficits after 1997 are found not to be structural. The tax base is also found not to be narrow as there are various types of taxes hidden in people’s daily life and consumptions. This explains the reasons that Hong Kong obtained a surplus for 48 years out of the past 60 years and accumulated a huge fiscal reserve. A survey was conducted and the result revealed that 62% of accountants were against the GST. Even though the response rate is low, the sample size lies in the range of 5% to 6% level of precision at 95% confidence. The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“HKICPA”) conducted another survey on the GST after the result of this project had been publicly released. The result was consistent with the findings of this project i.e. about 59% of accountants objected the GST. The result of the survey was widely publicised and reported by the media. It provided some references for the Government whether the GST was really needed and whether accountants supported the GST. To a large extent, it caused the Government to set aside the GST consultation in September 2006 and suspend the implementation of the GST.

This research explores the impact of both traditional and non-traditional procurement methods on the performance of the management of building services integration and coordination in Hong Kong and other countries. It examines those variables thought to be present in the building services co-ordination process (within the building process) which influence the performance of the building team and the outcome of the building project. Five propositions are addressed by the work which are: (1) coordination of services is influenced by the management of design; (2) coordination of building services is influenced by the management of construction; (3) coordination is not only a technical issue but an exercise in management—it is also influenced by the construction professional's working practices; (4) coordination of services is influenced by the chosen project procurement method; (5) project success is influenced by effective building services co-ordination and the use of an appropriate procurement method.

In the late 1990s, early 2000s, academic literature considered electronic marketplaces as a game changer in truck transportation services procurement. Early enthusiasm was followed by skepticism regarding e-marketplaces' usefulness and the popularity of e-marketplaces appeared to wane both in industry and in academic literature. However, recent sources argue that almost half of the freight currently transported by truck in the USA is subject to transactions conducted in e-marketplaces. This dissertation intends to fill a gap in the academic literature by showing that truck transportation e-marketplaces necessitate renewed dedicated research efforts, by exploring the strategies implemented by e-marketplaces in this specific industry and by linking these strategies to marketplaces' performance. First, transportation and non-transportation e-marketplaces are compared in chapter 2 with regard to their usage of mechanisms designed to generate trust among users. Results show that truck transportation e-marketplaces use these trust mechanisms differently than non-transportation e-marketplaces, which supports a call for research on e-marketplaces in the specific context of truck transportation services procurement. In chapter 3, a database inventorying the usage of 141 features by 208 e-marketplaces is then created to initiate the empirical exploration of these specific e-marketplaces. Thanks to that database, a new typology (a way of classifying objects based on several simultaneous classification criteria) is developed in chapter 4 that identifies three main truck transportation e-marketplace strategies (two with sub-divided into two sub-strategies). The typology provides a state of industry and puts in perspective the specificity of truck transportation e-marketplaces with regard to their structure along 11 dimensions known to the general e-marketplace literature. Finally, the link between e-marketplace strategies and performance is investigated in chapter 5. Performance is measured with three traffic metrics: number of unique visitors per day, number of page views per day, and website ranking. Results show that third-party-owned e-marketplaces that provide auction mechanisms with a fairly high level of user decision and transaction support are more successful than other e-marketplaces. This dissertation provides a picture of existing e-marketplaces for the procurement of truck transportation services, challenges components of existing theories and provides ground for further research.
Ph. D.

Thanks to the Internet, the consumers have access to a world of information and can easily compare the goods and services of one supplier to the other, and so be a part of the value creating process. Price is still key, but since producers are already pushing their costs to the limit, what Chris Anderson calls the “race to the bottom” they have to compete in other manners, meaning they have to dive deeper than lowest of prices. However these free goods and services must have a value even though they do not have a price tag attached. The respondents found two types of value, social/collective value and individual/emotional value and this also induces that value is relative. People are making choices to consume a good or service he or she has to prioritize these resources among the available time, money and even space, thus this prioritization is made even when the good is free. The price-quality relationship is prevailing, but not in the fields where distribution and replication is free.

In most business sectors environmental programs focus on direct, production-related environmental impacts. The design and development of products with reduced environmental impact is considered more difficult. The opposite applies in the environmental technology sector. The business model of environmental technology companies focuses on delivering solutions that contribute to improving the environmental performance of their customers. Products and services delivered by this sector have prominent environmental profiles. However, companies in this sector may not necessarily set and implement environmental goals for their own activities and manufacturing processes, and may not clearly distinguish between production and product related environmental aspects.

This thesis presents results of an online survey of environmental technology companies listed by the Swedish Environmental Technology Council (Swentec). The survey found that depending on the subsector, only between 21% and 45% of companies provide information about their environmental work on their website.

Environmental impacts of a company may be product and/or production related. The survey found that these dimensions are treated differently, and are not always clearly differentiated in environmental tools and guidelines, such as the ISO 14000 series, the Reporting Guidelines for UK Business, the GRI and The Swedish Annual Accounts (ÅRL). There are also differences in the ways that information about production and product related environmental impacts are considered within the environmental technology industry. Some companies clearly distinguish between product and activity related environmental issues, while others are unclear about the distinction between their products and their activities in environmental policies and management. While some companies in the sector limit the environmental information they disseminate to the environmental benefits of their products, others explicitly articulate that the predominantly product related environmental profiles in the sector drive them to additionally minimise environmental impacts of their own activities.

This thesis proposes environmental aspects of products and production as bases for corporate environmental profiles, corporate greening, and for defining ‘green’ and ‘green-green’ business, and concludes that companies within the environmental industry should be expected to be green-green business. This thesis concludes that companies within the environmental technology sector should increase their use of both production and product related environmental profile information in their presentations on their own websites and at platforms such as Swentec. Furthermore, the thesis shows that the use of the term ‘process’ within environmental technology sector to describe both the companies’ own operations and their products can create ambiguities in understanding. Companies that deliver ‘processes’ as products should avoid ambiguity by describing their own operations with terms such as ‘production processes’, ‘production’, ‘manufacturing process’, ‘operation’ or ‘activity’.

Ett företags miljöpåverkan kan vara kopplad till tillverkningsprocesser och till produkter. Miljöprogram inom de flesta industrisektorer är inriktade på direkta, produktionsrelaterade miljöaspekter. Däremot anses design och utveckling av produkter med minskad miljöpåverkan svårare. Inom miljötekniksektorn gäller det motsatta. Miljöteknikföretag erbjuder produkter och tjänster med framträdande miljöprofil och levererar lösningar som bidrar till förbättrad miljöprestanda hos deras kunder. Det betyder inte nödvändigtvis att dessa företag arbetar med miljömässiga mål för egna aktiviteter och tillverkningsprocesser, dvs. att dessa företag gör distinktion mellan tillverknings- och produktrelaterade miljöaspekter.

 

Det övergripande syftet med avhandlingen är att öka förståelse av och insikt i miljöengagemang och miljöprofil inom miljöteknikföretag. Studien innehåller en onlineundersökning av miljöarbetet inom företag som är listade av Sveriges miljöteknikråd, Swentec i dess nätverk för den svenska miljöteknik­ sektorn. Studien visar att, beroende på undersektor, mellan 21 % och 45 % av företagen i undersökta miljöteknikområden har lagt ut information om sitt miljöarbete på företagets hemsida. Information om produktions- och produktrelaterade miljöfrågor varierar. Det finns företag som tydligt skiljer mellan produktorienterade miljöfrågor och miljöfrågor som berör deras tillverkningsprocesser och aktiviteter. Andra företag gör ingen tydlig åtskillnad mellan dessa frågor i sina miljöpolicydokument och miljöprogram. Vissa företag i branschen begränsar sin miljöinformation till miljömässiga fördelar med deras produkter. Det finns dock företag som tydligt uttalar att sektorns produktrelaterade miljöprofil är en drivkraft för att minimera miljöpåverkan från sin egen verksamhet.

I studien framkommer också att produktions- och produktrelaterade miljöaspekter behandlas på olika sätt, och är inte alltid tydligt differentierade i olika miljöverktyg och riktlinjer, som i ISO 14000 serien, Rapporteringsriktlinjer för UK Business, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) och i den svenska årsredovisningslagen (ÅRL).

 

Produktions- och produktrelaterade miljöaspekter föreslås som dimensioner i ett företags miljöprofil och i beskrivning av företagets miljövänlighet. Det samma gäller som grund för definition av ’gröna’ och ’grön-gröna’ företag. En viktig ståndpunkt i denna avhandling är att företag inom miljötekniksektorn bör vara ’grön-gröna’ företag och att dessa företag bör öka användningen av informationen om produktions- och produktrelaterad miljöprofil, både på sina egna hemsidor och i sina presentationer inom nätverk som Swentec. Dessutom visar studien att användningen av begreppet "process" inom miljöteknikföretag för såväl den egna verksamheten som för sina produkter i vissa fall är otydlig. För att undvika denna oklarhet bör företag med ’processer’ som egna produkter, beskriva företagens egna verksamheter med begrepp som ’produktionsprocess’, ’produktion’, ’tillverkningsprocess’, ’aktiviteter’ eller liknande.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2012.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 71-74).
Today's online marketplaces for goods and services are imperfect. Participants make an initial post expressing their intention to buy or sell an object, but all offers on this post are private. These offers can be seen as expressions of other participants' intentions to buy or sell the same item. What if these offers were as public as the initial post? Would this decrease market friction and enable participants to close transactions more efficiently? What if every post and offer were tagged with a location enabling a real-time proximal picture of supply and demand? In this thesis, we explore a different kind of marketplace, a broadcast marketplace, where a combination of public post, proximal awareness and mobility decrease the friction of information flow and facilitate efficiency. This thesis explores the design, implementation and deployment of a system which enables users to efficiently view, understand and act upon this proximal picture of supply and demand. To test the viability of the broadcast marketplace we deployed Peddl, an implementation of the idea, in the MIT and Cambridge, MA community. Over the course of the trial we collected data on 5,839 unique visitors and 805 registered users, who made 726 posts totaling $234,913 in value. From this data we show that the additional transparency of supply and demand afforded by our design results in increased marketplace activity.
Matthew Blackshaw.
S.M.

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Seeking to raise up efficiency in government procurement procedures it has been mplemented an innovation in the law which constitutes for correct basis justifying on the procedures of purchase. For innovation itself it is employed electronic floor use or everse auction, compulsory since 10,520 law publication that regulates these procurement. At this purpose, every round negotiation, proponents reduce their rices and they seek to effect recruitment, spite of other competitors. This paper presents an economic kind that allows profiting with some competitors alone to do a etter assessment of its commercial organization especially during sale on electronic floor. Model was developed aiming at submitted the application in Brazilian overnment market purchases without specifying aspects from a specific segment to industry. Econometrics model proposed for general pplication implemented through overnment purchases through electronic stock.
Buscando melhorar a eficiÃncia nos processos de contrataÃÃo governamental foi implementada inovaÃÃo na legislaÃÃo que se constitui na base legal para fundamentar os procedimentos de compra. A inovaÃÃo constitui-se da utilizaÃÃo do PregÃo EletrÃnico ou LeilÃo Reverso, obrigatÃrio a partir da publicaÃÃo de Lei 10.520 que regulamentou a contrataÃÃo pÃblica. A cada rodada de negociaÃÃo, os proponentes reduzem seus preÃos, buscando a efetivaÃÃo da contrataÃÃo, em detrimento dos demais concorrentes. O presente trabalho apresenta uma ferramenta econÃmica que possibilita subsidiar um dos concorrentes isoladamente para melhor avaliaÃÃo comercial de sua organizaÃÃo durante o processo de venda pelo mÃtodo de pregÃo eletrÃnico. O modelo apresentado foi desenvolvido objetivando a aplicaÃÃo no mercado brasileiro de compras governamentais sem especificar as particularidades de um segmento industrial especÃfico. O modelo economÃtrico proposto apresenta aplicaÃÃo genÃrica para compras governamentais implementadas atravÃs de pregÃo eletrÃnico.

Through a case study methodology this research explores the decision-making process regarding financing services provided by the Canadian federal government to individual citizens. From a transparency and accountability perspective, for those services that benefit individuals versus society as whole, it is important to understand why some services are provided through general taxation while others are financed through user fees. The study utilizes public choice theory as developed in The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy which is the initial attempt to illustrate how the tools of economics may be applied to political institutions using a rational choice approach with an emphasis on rules about how choices are made. Rather than focusing on ‘what’ government spends funds on, the study focuses on ‘how’ government generates funds by examining three major actors: government, citizen-voters and pressure groups. This study furthers scientific knowledge as there has been prior research on distinguishing between public versus private goods, and deciding on how to publicly fund such goods, but there has been limited research undertaken on the actual decision-making process in financing public goods and services. From an academic perspective, this study is the first time that The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy model has been adapted and applied to the Canadian federal government. The study concludes that it depends on what elected officials decide to do to appeal to citizen-voters in order to win votes: appear fiscally prudent thus charge user fees; advance its political agenda with decisions to sometimes charge user fees or other times not; or limit costs to private sector organizations by deciding to not charge user fees. While elected officials make the decisions whether or not to charge user fees, it is the bureaucracy that implements these decisions.

A administração pública brasileira, em seu estágio atual, vive um intenso processo de aprimoramento do ordenamento jurídico e das práticas relacionadas às compras governamentais, tendo como base a Lei número 8.666 1993. Nesse contexto, são identificados instrumentos legais que viabilizam a prática da centralização de compras pelos órgãos públicos, com destaque para o Decreto número 8.250 2014, o qual atualizou o Sistema de Registro de Preços, bem como o Decreto número 8.189 2014, que prevê a criação da Central de Compras e Contratações no âmbito do Ministério do Planejamento, Orçamento e Gestão. Situada no âmbito da administração pública federal encontra-se a Marinha do Brasil (MB), subordinada ao Ministério da Defesa. Se por um lado a Força dispõe de uma estrutura de centralização de compras já consolidada, voltada para aquisição de materiais, identifica-se um interessante potencial a ser explorado no tocante às contratações de serviços. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo propor um modelo de contratações centralizadas de serviços comuns para a MB, no qual estarão definidos o padrão de centralização a ser adotado, o escopo geográfico da centralização e as responsabilidades institucionais das organizações envolvidas. Adicionalmente, será proposto um rol inicial de serviços comuns a serem incluídos no modelo, bem como estimadas as economias de processo, em termos financeiros e de tempo, e de escala esperadas a partir da sua implementação. Os resultados obtidos são instigantes, na medida em que as inferências realizadas apontaram para economias da ordem de milhões de reais.
The brazilian public administration, in its current stage, undergoes an intense process of improvement of the legal basis and practices related to the governamental procurement, which are based in the law Number 8.666 1993. In this context, legal instruments that enable the practice of purchasing centralization by public entities are identified, especially the Decret Number 8.250 2014, which updated the Registration Sistem Pricing, as well as the Decret Number 8.189 2014, which previse the creation of The Central of Procurement under the Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management. Situated within the pulic administration is the Brazilian Navy, under the Ministry of Defense. On the one hand, the Navy has an already consolidated structure of centralized purchasing of materials. On the other hand, we identify an interesting potential to be explored in relation to services’ purchasing. In this context, the present study aims to propose a model of cetralized purchasing of common services for the Brazilian Navy, in which will be defined the satandard of centralization to be adopted, the geographic scope of centralization and the institutional responsibilities of the organizations involved. Additionally, will be proposed an initial list of common services to be included in the model, as well as, will be estimated the economies of process, in terms of money and time, and scale expected from the implementation of the model. The results obtained are instigating, since the inferences made pointed to savings of millions of Reais.

The key objective of a procuring entity is to ensure that it procures services and goods with satisfactory quality at a reasonable cost, but how does the competitive environment effect the realization of these ambitions? The empirical analysis aimed to investigate the effect of qualifications criteria, interpreted as a mean to ensure high-quality services, on the number of submitted tenders as well as the effect of the number of tenders on the size of the bids of public procurement of internal cleaning services in Sweden during 2015-2017. The expectation is that qualification criterions imposes both entry costs and costs associated with fulfilling the contract. With increased prerequisite costs, firms could choose not to participate as the cost associated with becoming a qualified tender are considered too high. Further, increased competition is expected to reduce the size of the placed bid. The diminution of the size of the bid is expectedas a consequence of reduced mark-ups with increased level of competition. To test the hypotheses, an instrument variable 2SLS regression was considered. The main results of the empirical analysis concluded that there are costs associated with few tenders. The direction of effects of setting qualification criteria did not yield cohesive results, as some increased the number of tenders and other decreases them, while some had no significant effect.

This aim of this research is to explore two methods for procuring security services in South Africa. This research is a comparative case study between two correctional centers, which are the Mangaung Correctional Centre and the Kimberly Correctional Centre. The Mangaung Correctional Centre has been procured through Public-Private Partnership, where government procures services through a private party and the Kimberly Correctional Centre has been procured through the traditional public sector finance method. The main objectives of the study is to compare and contrast the costs of incarceration in these correctional centres; to evaluate the quality of security services provided in these two correctional centres as well as to examine the most economic, efficient and effective method of procuring security services. The research findings indicated that the incarceration costs for Mangaung Correctional Centre were far more than the costs for Kimberly Correctional Centre, which poses a threat of affordability for the Department of Correctional Services. The research study also found in terms of the quality of security services provided in Mangaung Correctional Centre, there have been no escapes or riots reported in the centre for a very long time, on the other hand, the research has found that there has been a compromise in the quality of security services provided in Kimberly Correctional Centre because the centre has experienced violent riots in the recent years and there has been security threats due to the loss of the master key. It emerged from the research findings that there is generally a lack of monitoring and evaluation especially when it comes to the issue of incarceration costs in Mangaung Correctional Centre because the costs have increased by more than 100 per cent since inception, this is far more than increase in average inflation for the period reviewed. The research concluded by providing recommendations for consideration of procuring security services in future. Some of the key recommendations made in this research are that before government enters into any major contract, unless the feasibility study confirms the affordability of the project, then the government should not pursue the project further. The research further recommended that the government negotiators represented in the negotiation processes and awarding contracts should be capacitated, more especially in the area of finance and law to ensure that they understand the complexities and technicalities involved during the processes.

Cette thèse porte sur l’approvisionnement des services de transport routier à charge pleine en utilisant le mécanisme d’enchères combinatoires. Traditionnellement, chaque expéditeur roule une enchère séparée pour satisfaire ses besoins internes de transport indépendamment des autres enchères roulées par d’autres expéditeurs. Étant donné que le processus de négociation pour l’établissement de contrats entre les expéditeurs et les transporteurs prend un à deux ans, les transporteurs sont amenés, dans certains cas, à soumettre des mises dans plus d’une enchère en même temps sans connaitre les résultats des autres enchères et savoir laquelle des offres qu’ils ont déjà soumises est effectivement gagnée. Pour contourner les inconvénients d’untel mécanisme, un nouveau mécanisme d’approvisionnement des services de transport basé sur des enchères est proposé. Il offre aux transporteurs la possibilité de soumettre simultanément sur les contrats requis par différents expéditeurs dans une seule enchère combinatoire où les demandes des expéditeurs sont centralisées. Il s’agit d’une vente aux enchères unique dans laquelle plusieurs expéditeurs présentent dans une seule enchère leurs services de transport qu’ils veulent sous-traiter et les transporteurs soumettent des mises combinatoires couvrant un ensemble de contrats appartenant à différents expéditeurs. Cette recherche examine l’impact d’un tel mécanisme centralisé sur les transporteurs ainsi que sur les expéditeurs en le comparant au mécanisme décentralisé traditionnel et en tenant en considération différents comportements à risque des transporteurs. La première partie de cette thèse présente une heuristique utilisée par les transporteurs pour construire des offres combinatoires dans les enchères dédiées à l’approvisionnement des services de transport routier à charge pleine. L’heuristique peut être utilisée par les transporteurs dans les enchères centralisées et décentralisées à la fois. On suppose que les transporteur sont déjà des engagements avec d’autres expéditeurs pour servir leurs contrats avant de participer à l’enchère et que les routes qui sont déjà définies pour les contrats existants doivent être conservées. L’heuristique proposée identifie d’abord les nouveaux contrats rentables et les intègre efficacement dans les routes existantes des transporteurs. Ensuite, elle construit de nouvelles routes pour les véhicules inutilisés avec les nouveaux contrats restants, quand cela est rentable. L’heuristique offre au transporteur la possibilité de soumettre des mises simples ou combinatoires avec un intervalle de prix de vente rentable pour chaque mise. L’heuristique se révèle rapide et efficace: elle exploite bien le réseau existant des transporteurs, génère des offres intéressantes permettant un profit additionnel considérable et couvre un pourcentage important de nouveaux contrats. Comparée à une méthode de solution exacte pour le problème de construction de mises, les résultats prouvent que l’heuristique identifie des solutions optimales ou quasi-optimales pour des instances de petite taille. Pour les grandes instances, la solution exacte soit elle identifie une solution pire que celle produite par notre heuristique ou échoue à identifier une solution réalisable. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous étudions les avantages/inconvénients du mécanisme d’enchère centralisée sur les transporteurs, en le comparant aux enchères décentralisées considérant différents comportements à risque des transporteurs. Lors de la construction des mises, les transporteurs peuvent miser en ayant un comportement trop risqué ou le contraire averse aux risques. Les résultats montrent que du point de vue du transporteur, les enchères centralisées offrent le meilleur compromis entre profit, efficacité du réseau et diversification du marché. Dans la troisième partie de la thèse, les avantages/inconvénients de l’enchère centralisée sur les expéditeurs sont étudiés en comparant les enchères centralisées aux décentralisées et en tenant compte des différents comportements à risque des transporteurs au moment de la construction des mises. Les résultats obtenus prouvent que du point de vue de l’expéditeur, les enchères centralisées amènent les expéditeurs à réaliser des économies de coûts considérables réalisées principalement grâce aux bas prix des mises proposées dans les enchères centralisées en les comparant avec les enchères décentralisées. La dernière partie de la thèse modélise et résout le problème de détermination des mises gagnantes (DMG) basé sur la réputation pour les enchères de transport combinatoires et centralisées. Dans ces enchères, le commissaire-priseur doit décider des mises gagnantes sachant qu’une même mise peut inclure des contrats de différents expéditeurs et que la réputation d’un transporteur peut différer d’un expéditeur à un autre. L’objectif est de trouver le meilleur compromis entre les prix offerts et le niveau de service des transporteurs. Le modèle DMG centralisé basé sur la réputation est résolu à l’optimalité et les résultats montrent que la prise en compte de la réputation dans un DMG centralisé peut entraîner des économies considérables sur les coûts totaux payés par tous les expéditeurs. De plus, les expéditeurs peuvent faire affaire avec des transporteurs moins privilégiés pour eux tout en réajustant leurs propres évaluations via cette collaboration. Cette thèse est organisée comme suit. Après un chapitre d’introduction générale, nous présentons une approche heuristique pour le problème de construction des mises d’enchères combinatoires. Après cela, nous présentons dans les chapitres 3 et 4 ce que nous appelons les enchères centralisées et nous les comparons aux enchères décentralisées du côté des transporteurs ainsi que des expéditeurs. Le cinquième chapitre résout le modèle de problème de détermination des mises gagnantes basé sur la réputation pour les enchères de transport combinatoire centralisé et la conclusion et les orientations pour les travaux futurs sont présentés dans le dernier chapitre.
This thesis addresses the procurement of truckload services through combinatorial auctions.Traditionally, each shipper runs a separate auction to satisfy its proper transportation needs independently from other shippers in decentralized auctions. Since the negotiation process for establishing contracts between shippers and carriers takes one to two years, carriers, in some cases, are led to bid in more than one auction at the same time before knowing which of the bids they submitted are effectively won. To circumvent the inconvenient of such mechanism, a novel auction-based procurement mechanism is proposed. It offers to carriers the opportunity to bid on the contracts required by different shippers simultaneously in a single combinatorial auction where shippers’ requests are centralized. That is a single auction where multiple shippers present their transportation requests simultaneously, and carriers submit package bids covering a set of contracts belonging to different shippers. The research study investigates the impact of such a centralized mechanism on carriers as well as on shippers by comparing it to the traditional decentralized mechanism under different carriers’ risk behaviours. The rest part of this thesis presents a heuristic approach used by carriers in centralized and decentralized auctions for constructing combinatorial bids in transportation auctions for the procurement of truckload transportation services. It assumes that carriers have already engaged on a set of transportation contracts before participating to the auction, and the routes already defined for the existing contracts must be kept. The proposed heuristic first identifies profitable new contracts and efficiently integrates them into a carrier’s existing routes. Then it builds new routes for unused vehicles with the remaining new contracts, when it is profitable. The heuristic offers the carrier the possibility to submit either a single bid or multiple bids with an interval of profitable ask prices for each bid. The heuristic is shown to be fast and efficient: It exploits well the carriers existing network, generates interesting bids enabling an additional potential profit and covers a large percentage of new contracts. Even when compared with an exact solution method, results prove that the heuristic identifies optimal or near-optimal solutions for small-sized instances. However, for larger instances, the exact method either identifies a solution that is worse than that output by our heuristic or fails in identifying a feasible one. In the second part of the thesis, we investigate the benefits/drawbacks of such a centralized auction on carriers by comparing it to decentralized auctions under different carriers risk behaviour attitudes. When bidding, two types of carriers are considered: too risky carriers andaverse-to-risk carriers. Results show that from the carriers perspective, centralized auctions offer the best compromise between profit, network efficiency and business diversification In the third part of the thesis, the benefits/drawbacks of centralized auctions on shippers are studied by comparing them to decentralized auctions and considering different carrier’s risk behaviour attitudes when bidding. Obtained results prove that from shippers perspectives,centralized auctions lead shippers to realize considerable cost savings achieved mainly due to attractive bids prices offered in centralized auctions. The last part of the thesis considers a reputation-based winner determination problem (WDP)model for centralized combinatorial transportation auctions in which the auctioneer should decide on the winning bids knowing that a same bid may include shipping contracts requested by different shippers and a carrier reputation may differ from one shipper to another. The objective is to find the best trade-off between bid prices and carriers level of service. The centralized reputation-based WDP model is solved to optimality and results show that considering reputation in a centralized WDP may lead to considerable savings in total costs paid by all shippers. Also, shippers may deal with less-preferred carriers while readjusting their own evaluations. This thesis is organized as follows. After a general introduction chapter, we present a heuristic approach for combinatorial bid construction problem. After that, we present in chapters 3and 4 what we call centralized auctions, and we compare them to decentralized auctions from the perspective of carriers and shippers. The fifth chapter solves the reputation-based winner determination problem model for centralized combinatorial transportation auctions and the conclusion and directions for future work are presented in the last chapter.

This thesis presents a study of the fragmented nature of activities involved in the specification and procurement of construction products. Existing Internet-based approaches have perpetuated fragmentation in this domain and this has resulted in a problem known as 'digital anarchy.' The thesis describes the design and development of an application based on the metaphor of software agents to address this problem. The thesis has validated the view that failures in the existing approaches have resulted in the 'digital anarchy' problem. Such approaches have failed to eradicate paper-based communication patterns and its related sequential work methods. The thesis has established the proof of concept of using agents for the management of distributed information in the selected domain. The work has also synthesised agent technology, XML and Web Services into a cohesive architecture, demonstrating that the ultimate solution to the 'digital anarchy' problem will emerge from a synergy of the various streams of research in Internet-related technologies. The work has established that there is significant scope for systematic improvement in the specification and procurement of construction products listed on the Internet based on the agent paradigm.

The disparity in remuneration between company CEOs and other employees is a topical and highly controversial issue globally. Theoretically, there are two explanations for this pay disparity - tournament theory and behavioural theory. Tournament theory says that employees are more motivated to compete with a larger pay gap, while the behavioural theories say that employees feel inadequate and thus demotivated in the presence of a larger pay gap, resulting in poorer performance. In response to growing concerns about the pay gap, new legislation in the USA has required companies to disclose their pay ratios1 in their financial statements, which is also likely to come to South Africa. As a means to explore CEO pay ratios in a South African context, a study of the determinants and performance effects of companies' CEO pay ratios was conducted in the Consumer Goods and Consumer Services subsectors on the JSE. Data was collected on companies for the period 2006 to 2014 and pay ratios were estimated for each company where the data allowed. Due to the complexity of CEO remuneration, three different pay ratios were calculated, which differed in how long-term incentive payments were treated in each case. Using the same method as Shin, Kang, Hyun, & Kim (2015) used in their South Korean study, three different analyses were conducted. Firstly, the factors determining pay ratios were analysed in a regression analysis, which found CEO tenure, companies' future investment opportunities and company size to be key determinants of pay ratios. Secondly, the deviations from companies' expected pay ratios were regressed against subsequent company performance to see whether CEOs being paid the, "wrong," amount relative to employees affects company performance. It was found that deviations from the expected pay ratio negatively affected company performance, and there was no difference in performance between under- and over-paying CEOs relative to employees. Finally, as a means to test whether tournament theory or behavioural theories better explain the CEO pay ratio in South Africa, subsequent company performance was regressed against the three different pay ratios calculated. It was found that there is little evidence of a relationship between subsequent company performance and the pay ratio, except in the case where performance is measured by return on assets, and the pay ratio is measured such that it excludes long-term incentives completely. The relationship in this case was found to be positive, indicating that tournament theory better explained the relationship between pay ratios and company performance. One of the limitations of this study was the limited availability of data, which gives rise to self-selection bias.

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a method by which economic value can be imputed from an economic activity to a non-market ecological function or service which contributes to that economic activity. The Knysna River in South Africa was chosen as the ecological function which supported three economic activities from which value was to be imputed; these were the Knysna Municipal Water Supply, Fish Production in the Knysna Estuary and Production of Indigenous Forest within the Knysna Catchment. Three underlying assumptions and two functional operations were required in order to implement the suggested method. The underlying assumptions were: - The ecological and economic activities considered are within a single catchment. - The allocation of value imputed for a specific economic activity to the ecological function or service under consideration (in this case the Knysna River) is proportional to the total contribution of ecological functions or services contributed to the economic activity. - The valuation of the economic activity for the purposes of obtaining a price-quantity point on a demand function is to be full cost pricing with no producer surplus. The two functional requirements were: - Diagram or map the linkages between an economic activity and the supporting ecological functions. - Determine the consumer surplus related to an incremental change in quantity under a demand function where the original price and quantity are known. A value from each of the economic activities was imputed to the Knysna River. However, the method was not tested. Nonetheless applying the equations and collecting the required data allowed several methodological needs to be clearly pointed out. The most acute deficiency was difficulty in obtaining secondary data from governmental agencies, commercial representatives and existing published academic research to ensure a robust price. Also, scientific information was not sufficiently available for allocating ecological contributions to the economic activities. Even with the shortage of credible data the method appears to allow non-market ecological functions to be valued in context of an existing economic system.

Thesis (M.S.C.E. ) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2005.
Thesis research directed by: Civil Engineering. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

The present thesis project considers the multidimensional evaluation of different aspects related to the cost efficiency of local governments in Spain, using non-parametric frontier analysis methods. In doing so, the economic crisis scenario that seriously affected Spanish local government revenues and finances in general is taken into account. The thesis contributes to the development of robust tools to evaluate and promote the improvement of the efficiency of local governments. The empirical results provide evidence for a better definition of public policies through the evaluation and identification of the benchmark local governments in order to set potential improvements and, therefore, minimize (cost) inefficiencies which might help to reduce public expenditures.
El presente proyecto de tesis plantea la evaluación multidimensional de distintos aspectos relacionados con la eficiencia en costes de los gobiernos locales en España, utilizando métodos de análisis frontera no paramétricos. Al hacer esto se tiene en cuenta el escenario de crisis económica vivido en España durante los últimos años y que ha tenido un gran impacto en los ingresos y finanzas locales en general. La tesis contribuye al desarrollo de herramientas robustas para evaluar y promover la mejora de la eficiencia de los gobiernos locales. Los resultados empíricos aportan evidencia para una mejor definición de políticas públicas mediante la evaluación e identificación de los gobiernos locales más eficientes como punto de referencia para establecer mejoras potenciales y, por lo tanto, poder eliminar ineficiencias (en costes) que ayuden a reducir el gasto público.

Within the realm of applications, a relatively new payment form has emerged: called Microtransactions. These small one-time payments (less than 10 Euros) offer an addendum to an existing app, service, or game. Microtransactions have generated a revenue stream largely due to the tech savvy segment of young adults aged 18 to 24, but there hasn’t been significant research from an academic perspective which sheds light on this trend. This issue prompted the research question: Which quantifiable elements of a Microtransaction contribute to a university student’s purchase decision? The phenomenon of Microtransactions has not previously been studied under traditional theories of consumer behavior, which is what the scope of this research provided. The consumer behavior theories selected include: Ego Depletion Theory, Extended Self, and Perceived Value Theory. The selected methodology was a quantitative survey and content analysis. The data collected partially supported Perceived Value Theory, but was unable to validate Ego Depletion and Extended Self as significant influences on purchasing behaviors of Microtransactions among university students. Although the theories were unable to support all our hypotheses, we still concluded with two major findings. First, pricing and functionality are the primary elements of a Microtransaction which university students will consider before purchasing. Second, the Perceived Value Theory’s consumption values of Emotion and Finance are, indeed, consumption values shared among university students.