Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Cooperation'

The aim of this research is to examine the current situation of university libraries in the GCC countries identifying the problems and difficulties being faced by them and suggest means and ways by which an effective library cooperation may solve these problems. A general description of library cooperation is given, including that in developing countries and in the Arab world. Apart from literature sources the material for this research was obtained by questionnaire, personal visits to university libraries and some related research institutions in the countries concerned and by some personal observations and experience. The development of library and information services in general in the CCC countries is examined, but particularly various features of university libraries, from administration to user services. University library resources, technical services, and existing cooperative activities are also discussed in detail. There are some major issues which are related to library cooperation such as financial resources, adequacy of library collections, collection development practices, uniform standards of technical processing of library materials, availability of bibliographical apparatus and experienced professional manpower. The analysis of these issues brought out factors which should motivate individual libraries to engage in a library cooperation and resource sharing network. There is no practical or well organised resource sharing programme among university libraries in the GCC countries, even the existing marginal activities are not satisfactory to all university libraries concerned. This is mainly due to the absence of a well organised central agency which should take the lead to implement a well developed cooperative model for library cooperation in the region. The various professional meetings which have been organised at a regional level emphasised the importance of establishing effective cooperative links among university libraries in the Gulf region, but little implementation of these proposals have resulted so far. With the current political situation in the Gulf region and with the limitation on financial resources, the need for effective library cooperation is emphasised now more than ever before. Therefore, this research makes some practical recommendations emphasising the need for a central agency responsible for library cooperation programmes and proposing a model for an effective resource sharing network among university libraries in the GCC countries in the hope of improving the existing situation.

In recent years, the call for business actors to be part of collaborations addressing sustainable development has become more common. There is a consensus that no single sector alone can solve the environmental problems and poverty conditions challenging humanity. However, it is not clear if these cross-sector collaborations thrive when disasters can strike any time and when some actors are richer than others. Through a series of experiments involving threshold public goods games with stochastic shocks, this dissertation contains three related papers exploring different facets of the persistence of cooperation. The experiments were conducted in Sweden, the Philippines and South Africa, countries with varying disaster risk exposures and income structures. Cooperation in the face of disaster explores the effects of different types of uncertainties on cooperation, particularly when there is a risk for repeated disasters (i.e. losses resulting from inadequate cooperation). The results show that cooperation persists when we do not know when disasters may strike (i.e. timing), as well as when there are uncertainties on what is required to avoid the disaster (i.e. threshold) and which losses will be incurred (i.e. impact). Conditional cooperation and disaster uncertainty explores the mechanism behind the persistence of cooperation, as it investigates if conditionality continues to prevail in the face of disaster. The findings show that conditionality and free-riding attenuates while unconditional cooperation accelerates. Cooperating in an unequal and uncertain world explores what happens when inequality enters the picture. The findings reveal that cooperation remains the same when there is inequality and increases in the presence of uncertainty. The effect of uncertainty is stronger than inequality, with high unconditional cooperation and low freeriding.

Diss. Stockholm :  Stockholm School of Economics, 2015

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on December 27, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-123). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Chapter 1: Evolution of reciprocator preferences when agents can pay for information. A benchmark result in the evolutionary games literature is that a preference for reciprocity will evolve if preferences are observable (at zero cost), since reciprocators can cooperate with each other rather than with materialists, thereby achieving a fitness advantage. I investigate how a preference for reciprocity evolves if individuals can observe an opponent's preferences only by bearing a fitness cost. My main result applies when observing an opponent's type is cheap, but cooperating only gives a modest fitness advantage or the preference for reciprocity is intense. In this case, a preference for reciprocity cannot evolve from a small starting share in the mix of preferences, even if discovering an opponent's preferences is arbitrarily cheap. This is in sharp contrast to the benchmark result. Chapter 2: A theory of conditional cooperation on networks (with Julien Gagnon) Chapter 2 is a study of reciprocity on social networks. We model a group of connected agents who play a one-shot public good game. Some players are materialists and others are reciprocators. We characterise the maximal Nash equilibrium (ME) of this game for any network and a broad class of reciprocal preferences. At the ME, a novel concept, the q-linked set, fully determines the set of players who contribute. We show that influential players are those connected to players who are sufficiently interconnected, but not too much. Finally, we study the decision of a planner faced with an uncertain type profile who designs the network to maximise expected contributions. The ex ante optimal network comprises isolated cliques of degree k*, with k* decreasing with the incidence of materialists. We discuss an important application of our results: the workplace. Chapter 3: Ideological games Chapter 3 is a theory of ideology. I define a preference type to be a set of first-order preferences over the outcomes of a `game of life', together with a set of (`meta-') preferences over all players' first-order preferences. Players can influence each other's preferences via costly investment: if player A invests and B does not, B's preferences becomes those of A. Players may invest for instrumental reasons (i.e. to achieve better outcomes in the game of life) or `ideological' reasons (i.e. they want their opponents to have the same preferences they do). I characterise `strongly ideological', `weakly ideological' and `pragmatic' types. Weakly ideological types wish to preserve their own type, as do strongly ideological types, who also seek to convert others. A pragmatic player, in contrast, is willing to have her type changed if her new type would prefer the resulting equilibrium of the game of life to the status quo. I show that if two players of different ideological types meet, there is an equilibrium investment profile with lower aggregate welfare than the no-invest profile. If at least one type is strongly ideological, there is a unique such equilibrium. Finally, a `perfectly ideological' type is a strongly ideological type which, if held by all players, results in the best outcome of the game of life as judged by that type. If a perfectly ideological player plays a pragmatic player, aggregate welfare is always greater than in the no-invest profile.

Abstract. This bachelor’s thesis familiarizes with multi-robot cooperation. The main interest is in two robot manipulators. This thesis is a literature review. The operation of the robot and the phenomena that act on them while in operation are investigated from kinematics and command architecture point of view. This thesis is based on manuals from two KUKA robots from University of Oulu, so in the future the use and understanding of their cooperation would be easier. The results gave good understanding of robot software calculations for trajectories and geometrics and what other has to consider when controlling a multi-robot system. This is a good base for deeper theoretical research for robot system software and practical testing.Usean robotin yhteiskäyttö. Tiivistelmä. Tässä opinnäytetyössä perehdytään usean robotin yhteiskäyttöön, jossa mielenkiinnon kohteena on kahden robottikäden yhteistoiminta. Työ on kirjallisuuskatsaus. Robottien toimintaa ja niihin vaikuttavia asioita tarkastellaan niin kinematiikan, kuin ohjelmisto- ja käskyarkkitehtuurin kautta. Työn pohjana käytettiin yliopistolla olevien KUKA robottikäsien oppaita, jotta jatkossa niiden yhteiskäyttö olisi helpommin ymmärrettävissä. Työn tulokset avasivat sitä, miten robottien ohjelmisto ohjaa ja laskee tarvittavat liikeradat ja geometriat ja mitä kaikkea usean robotin ohjauksessa pitää ottaa huomioon. Tämä on hyvä pohja syvemmälle teoreettiselle robottiohjelmistolle tai käytännön testaamiselle.

In recent times the importance and opportunities a globalized science can offer have become more and more clear and needed. In a world struggling with economic depression, pollution, global warming, over population and looking for a reliable and unlimited source of energy capable of supporting the current needs, science and scientific knowledge needs to be at the center of every state policies. In this thesis I will first give an overview of the first years of international scientific cooperation and what it means for nations to work together. I will describe one of the first international cooperation, the Manhattan Project, and then move on to more recent time and how globalization has changes the way of doing science. Another important point I will take into consideration is the role science can play in international diplomacy, as a tool for nations to find common grounds and build something that can bring them closer. I will then move on to describe modern international cooperation projects, especially the ISS, being the most expensive international project ever started, and ITER, probably the world´s best chance at finding a reliable and durable solution to the energy problem. On ITER I will then focus on the creation of the project, thus analyzing the path that led to the signing of the agreement and of the Domestic Agencies as well as analyzing the problems the project has and is encountering. I will try to provide possible solutions for most of these problems, for the ITER project itself as well as for all future international scientific cooperation projects.

The last half of twentieth century has witnessed a key shift in the production process of knowledge: the most important discoveries and innovations in science and technology are not anymore the result of the work of very talented individuals working alone, but the result of cooperation and teamwork. The remarkable increase in scale of cooperation in knowledge intensive production processes has renewed the interest in analyzing the mechanisms by which large scale cooperation emerges and thrives. The two main theoretical approaches to cooperation are, on the one hand, a micro approach that considers cooperation as an atomic process in which cooperation is produced between two individuals and, on the other hand, as a macro level phenomenon in which the center of analysis is the collectively or group. The aim of this research is to bridge the gap between macro level and micro level approaches to cooperation by focusing on meso level mechanisms, which until recently have received little attention in the theoretical debate. I argue that a meso level approach has to focus on the structural dimension of cooperation, that is, the patterns of relations between the individuals that participate in production processes, what I call cooperation networks. This perspective shows that between the dyadic interactions among individuals, and the shared goals and values that guide large organizations and groups, there are subgroups of individuals that play a key role in enabling the kind of large scale cooperation that we have witnessed during the last decades. This research focuses on the case study of two large, mature, and successful Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) projects ---the Debian operating system and the Python programming language--- in order to build a structural theoretical framework that helps explain and understand how large scale cooperation works. I present a network model, that I name Cohesive Small World, which is based on two well established network models: the Small World model and the Structural Cohesion model. I propose that these two models are not mutually exclusive. The family of networks that fit in the intersection of both models exhibit consistent structural patterns. These patterns, I argue, provide the scaffolding for the emergence of collaborative communities, such as FOSS projects, and enable and foster effective large scale cooperation. On the one hand, the generation of trust and congruent values among heterogeneous individuals are fostered by structurally cohesive groups in the connectivity hierarchy of cooperation networks because individuals embedded in these structures are able to compare independent perspectives on each other through a variety of paths that flow through distinct sets of intermediaries, which provides multiple independent sources of information about each other. Thus, the perception of an individual embedded in such structures of the other members of the group to whom she is not directly linked is filtered by the perception of a variety of others whom she trusts because is directly linked to them. This mediated perception of the group generates trust at a global scale. On the other hand, the existence of dense local clusters connected between them by relative short paths allows successful cooperation among heterogeneous individuals with common interests and, at the same time, fosters the flow of information between these clusters preventing the local clusters to be trapped in echo chambers of like minded collaborators. I developed heuristics to compute the k-components structure, along with the average node connectivity for each k-component. These heuristics allow to compute the approximate value of group cohesion for moderately large networks, along with all the hierarchical structure of connectivity levels, in a reasonable time frame. I show that these heuristics can be applied to networks at least one order of magnitude bigger than the ones manageable by the only algorithm available until now. I test empirically the new network model that I proposed to further our understanding how cooperation in collaborative communities works. I find that the model that I named “Cohesive Small World” is a good fit to describe the cooperation patterns of the two big and mature FOSS projects that I analyze in the empirical part of this thesis. To further the empirical analysis, I explore the dynamic dimension of the connectivity hierarchies that emerge on the cooperation networks of the Python and Debian projects. I defined cooperation networks as the patterns of relations among developers established while contributing to the project. The dynamic analysis that I present is not only a longitudinal account of the changes in the hierarchy through time, but also the analysis of the pace of renewal of individuals in the positions defined by the hierarchy. I show that the Cohesive Small World model is a solid theoretical framework to define cohesive groups in cooperation networks. The nested structure of k-components nicely captures the hierarchy in the patterns of relations that individual contributors establish when working together. This hierarchy, on the one hand, reflects the empirically well established fact that in FOSS projects only a small fraction of the developers account for most of the contributions. And, on the other hand, refutes the naive views of early academic accounts that characterized FOSS projects as a flat hierarchy of peers in which every individual does more or less the same. I also show that the position of individual developers in the connectivity hierarchy of the cooperation networks impacts significantly, on the one hand, on the volume of contributions that an individual does to the project. And, on the other hand, the median active life of developers in the project. I argue that the latter is a better way to analyze robustness of FOSS projects than the classical random and targeted attacks that has been used to assess robustness in other kinds of networks. I argue that the connectivity structure of collaborative communities' cooperation networks can be characterized as an open elite, where the top levels of this hierarchy are filled with new individuals at a high pace. This feature is key for understanding the mechanisms and dynamics that make FOSS communities able to develop long term projects, with high individual turnover, and yet achieve high impact and coherent results as a result of large scale cooperation. I conclude that cooperation in FOSS communities has a structural dimension because membership in cohesive groups that emerge from cooperation networks has an important and statistically significative impact on both the volume of individual contributions, and on the median active life of developers in the projects under analysis.
L'última meitat del segle XX ha estat testimoni d'un canvi fonamental en el procés de producció de coneixement: els descobriments més importants i les innovacions en ciència i tecnologia no són el resultat de la tasca de persones amb molt talent que treballen soles, sinó que són el resultat de processos de cooperació i de treball en equip. El notable augment de l'escala de la cooperació en els processos de producció intensius en coneixement ha renovat l'interès en l'anàlisi dels mecanismes pels quals emergeix i prospera la cooperació a gran escala. Els dos principals enfocaments teòrics sobre la cooperació són, d'una banda, un enfocament micro que considera que la cooperació com un procés atòmic en el qual l'interès es centra en com es produeix cooperació entre dues persones i, d'altra banda, com un fenomen a nivell macro en el qual el centre de l'anàlisi és el grup com a col·lectivitat. L'objectiu d'aquesta recerca és acostar posicions entre l'enfoc macro i el micro sobre la cooperació tot centrant-se en els mecanismes a nivell meso, que fins fa poc han rebut poca atenció en el debat teòric. El meu argument és que un enfocament de nivell meso ha de centrar-se en la dimensió estructural de la cooperació, és a dir, en els patrons de relacions entre les persones que participen directament en els processos de producció, el que jo anomeno xarxes de cooperació. Aquesta perspectiva mostra que entre les interaccions diàdiques entre els individus, i els grans objectius i valors compartits que guien les grans organitzacions i grups, hi ha subgrups d'individus que tenen un paper fonamental en generar i fomentar la cooperació a gran escala de la que hem estat testimonis en les últimes dècades. Aquesta recerca es centra en l'estudi de cas de dos projectes de programari lliure (FOSS en anglès) ---el sistema operatiu Debian i el llenguatge de programació Python--- per tal de construir un marc teòric estructural que ens ajudi a explicar i entendre com funciona la cooperació gran escala. En aquesta tesi presento un model de xarxa, que anomeno “Cohesive Small World”, que es basa en dos models teòrics ben establertes: el model “Small World” i el model de cohesió estructural. Proposo que aquests dos models no són mútuament excloents. La família de xarxes que s'ajusten a la intersecció de tots dos models mostren patrons estructurals consistents. Aquests patrons proporcionen els fonaments per al sorgiment de comunitats de col·laboració, com ara projectes de programari lliure, i tenen un paper clau en fomentar la cooperació a gran escala. D'una banda, els grups estructuralment cohesius en la jerarquia de connectivitat de les xarxes de cooperació generen confiança i valors compartits entre individus heterogenis perquè els individus inclosos en aquestes estructures poden comparar perspectives independents sobre cadascun dels altres membres de la col·lectivitat a través de múltiples intermediaris, la qual cosa els proporciona múltiples fonts d'informació independents. Per tant, les persones incloses en aquests grups cohesius, tenen una percepció dels altres membres de la xarxa de cooperació amb qui no estan directament connectats que està filtrada per altres membres d'aquests grups cohesius amb qui confien perquè hi estan directament connectades. Aquesta percepció mediada pels grup cohesius genera confiança i valors compartits a escala global. D'altra banda, l'existència de “clusters” locals ---grups de persones que treballen estretament entre elles--- connectats per distàncies relativament curtes amb altres “clusters” de la xarxa de cooperació, permet la cooperació entre individus heterogenis amb interessos comuns i, al mateix temps, fomenta el flux d'informació entre aquests “clusters” que impedeixen que aquests grups de persones que treballen estretament entre elles siguin atrapades en caixes de ressonància formades per col·laboradors afins amb les mateixes idees. En la part metodològica de la tesi, he desenvolupat heurístiques per a calcular l'estructura de k-components de les xarxes de cooperació. Aquestes heurístiques permeten calcular en un temps raonable el valor aproximat de la cohesió dels grups en xarxes de cooperació moderadament grans, juntament amb tota l'estructura jeràrquica dels diferents nivells de connectivitat. En la tesi demostro com aquestes heurístiques poden ser aplicades a xarxes almenys un ordre de magnitud més grans que les que podia assumir l'únic algoritme disponible fins ara. Amb l'ajuda d'aquestes heurístiques poso a prova empíricament el nou model que proposo per tal de millorar la nostra comprensió de com funciona la cooperació en les comunitats de col·laboració. L'anàlisi empírica demostra que el model estructural que proposo en la part teòrica s'ajusta als patrons de cooperació que observem en els projectes de programari lliure analitzats en la part empírica de la tesi. L'anàlisi empírica d'aquesta tesi explora la dimensió dinàmica de les jerarquies de connectivitat que sorgeixen en les xarxes de cooperació dels projectes de Python i Debian. Defineixo xarxes de cooperació com els patrons de relació entre les persones que participen en els processos productius dels projectes analitzats. L'anàlisi dinàmic que presento no és només una anàlisi longitudinal dels canvis en la jerarquia a través del temps, sinó també una anàlisi del ritme de renovació dels individus en les posicions definides per aquesta jerarquia. Demostro que el model estructural que proposo és un marc teòric sòlid per tal de definir grups cohesius en les xarxes de cooperació. L'estructura d'aquests grups cohesius defineix la jerarquia de connectivitat dels patrons de relacions que estableixen els individuals al treballar conjuntament. Aquesta jerarquia, d'una banda, reflecteix el fet empíricament ben establert que en projectes de programari lliure només una petita part dels participants contribueix la major part de la feina feta en cada projecte. I, d'altra banda, refuta les opinions ingènues dels primers relats acadèmics que caracteritzen els projectes de programari lliure com una jerarquia plana de persones en la qual cada individu fa més o menys el mateix. L'anàlisi empírica d'aquesta tesi també mostra que la posició dels desenvolupadors individuals en la jerarquia de connectivitat de les xarxes de cooperació impacta significativament, d'una banda, en el volum de les contribucions que cada persona fa al projecte. I, d'altra banda, en el temps de vida mitjana de les persones en el projecte, entesa com el temps que de mitjana una persona és participant activa en el projecte. Finalment, argumento que l'estructura de connectivitat de xarxes de cooperació de les comunitats de col·laboració pot caracteritzar-se com una elit oberta, on els nivells més alts d'aquesta jerarquia es renoven constantment amb la incorporació de noves persones. Aquesta característica és clau per entendre els mecanismes i dinàmiques que fan que les comunitats de programari lliure siguin capaces de desenvolupar projectes a llarg termini, amb un alt volum de renovació individual, i no obstant això, aconsegueixin uns resultats coherents com a resultat de la cooperació a gran escala. Finalment concloc que la cooperació en les comunitats de programari lliure té una dimensió estructural ja que la pertinença a grups cohesius que sorgeixen en les xarxes de cooperació té un impacte important i estadísticament significatiu tant en el volum de les contribucions individuals com en la vida activa mitjana de les persones que participen en els projectes analitzats en aquesta tesi.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-04T22:00:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 12
Nenhuma
O cooperativismo de crédito vem demonstrando um expressivo crescimento na última década no Rio Grande do Sul e neste sentido, o Sistema de Crédito Cooperativo – SICREDI RS tem contribuído significativamente para esse desenvolvimento. Constituído, atualmente, por 55 cooperativas e 447 Unidades de Atendimento, o SICREDI RS está presente atualmente em mais de 400 municípios e conta com mais de 700.000 associados. O vigoroso crescimento apresentado pelo SICREDI RS a partir de 1995 despertou o interesse pelo estudo das principais causas que estão contribuindo para tal. Desta forma, buscou-se verificar como os princípios cooperativos, em especial o da democracia e da intercooperação, estão sendo respeitados e qual a influência do Banco Central do Brasil na profissionalização da gestão das suas cooperativas. A pesquisa é considerada do tipo exploratório-descritiva, elaborada através de um estudo de caso. Para tanto, fez uso da análise de documentos e relatórios do SICREDI RS desde a sua fundação e, posteriormente, f
The credit cooperative has demonstrated an expressive growth in last decade in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, and, in this matter, the Sistema de Crédito Cooperativo – SICREDI RS has contributed for this development considerably. SICREDI RS, which is constituted by 55 cooperatives and 447 branches, is present in more than 400 cities and has more than 700.000 members. Since 1995, SICREDI RS strong growth has interested people in studying the main causes that have contributed for its development. In this context, this paper has the objective of verifying how the cooperative principles, specially the democracy and the inter-cooperation, are being respected and what is the influence of Banco Central do Brasil (Brazilian Central Bank) in the professionalism of cooperatives management. It is an exploratory descriptive research, elaborated through a case study. For that, it was analyzed documents and reports of SICREDI RS since its constitution e, after, the members, the managers, the board of directors and the sta

La hipòtesi que manté l’autora, basada en un disseny exploratori qualitatiu i la construcció de quatre casos d’estudi és, almenys, estem front una nova estratègia organitzacional; l’avantatge cooperatiu. Aquesta estratègia possibilita la creació de valor social i econòmic, és a dir, incrementar l’avantatge competitiu del món privat, aportar en la creació de riquesa, però alhora mitigar els efectes socials no desitjats que produeix aquesta mena de generació de valor, incorporant altres dimensions com la inclusió, la igualtat d’oportunitats, la justícia social, l’equitat organitzacional, la participació deliberant, la transparència i la meritocràcia, entre altres.
La hipótesis que sustenta la autora, basada en un diseño exploratorio cualitativo y la construcción de cuatro casos de estudio es, al menos, estamos frente a una nueva estrategia organizacional; la ventaja cooperativa. Esta estrategia permite la creación de valor social y económico, esto es, incrementar la ventaja competitiva del mundo privado, aportar en la creación de riqueza, pero al mismo tiempo mitigar los efectos sociales indeseados que produce este tipo de generación de valor, incorporando otras dimensiones como la inclusión, la igualdad de oportunidades, la justicia social, la equidad organizacional, la participación deliberante, la transparencia y la meritocracia, entre otros.
The hypothesis that supports the author, based on a qualitative exploratory design and the construction of four case studies is, at least, we are facing a new organizational strategy; The cooperative advantage. This strategy enables the creation of social and economic value, that is, increase the competitive advantage of the private world, contribute to wealth creation, but at the same time mitigate the unwanted social effects produced by this type of value generation, incorporating other dimensions Such as inclusion, equal opportunities, social justice, organizational equity, deliberative participation, transparency and meritocracy, among others.

There is a growing interest in the development of computer systems that are actively involved in the tasks of the users and serve to augment the users' creativity. Cooperative computing is a major contribution to this research field. A survey of current developments in knowledge based systems led to the conclusion that there has hitherto been an absence of a formal definition of the mechanisms of cooperative computer systems based on theories of cooperation. The work in this thesis seeks to provide a full definition of cooperation derived from the behaviours of living cooperative systems. Studies on human cooperation and cooperation in the animal kingdom, established that cooperation is a dynamic behaviour; in that the interaction processes between the cooperative partners serve to facilitate the achievement of a common goal, or a set of goals that are mutually desired by the partners. Partners in cooperation are interdependent: one member's actions are contingent on another. Therefore, the underlying processes which induce and maintain cooperation were identified. These are: communication between the partners; emergence of norms and roles governing the behaviour of the cooperating members; resolution of conflicts; distributed and coordinated activities. These factors were further elucidated within the context of small problem solving groups. A model of cooperationw hich encapsulatedth esef actors was produced. From the discussionso f the advantageso f cooperationw ithin different contexts, the potential for synergy was found to be the main benefit of cooperation. The potential for achieving this synergy between a human and a computer is the main motivation for the work undertaken in this research. From the theoretical analysis of cooperation, the underlying mechanisms of a cooperative computer were successfully defined. A conceptual model of human-computer cooperation was presented. It was established that the quality of cooperation is closely associated with the nature of the task. Therefore, it is not practicable to produce a general purpose cooperative system. A specific task must be used. Creative tasks of a problem identifying and solving nature, were found to be more suitable to cooperative behaviour than others. Typical of these, and the one selected, was computer screen design. Current screen design practice was analysed, and the functional requirements and knowledge base needs of the systems were established. The underlying mechanisms of cooperation were formalised and successfully implemented within a software exemplar, named COSY. COSY exhibits the behavioural characteristics of cooperation, and utilises the knowledge of screen design to support users in the task of formatting computer screens. COSY successfully demonstrated the synergistic relationship in its cooperation with the users. It is concluded that the approach undertaken in this thesis has lead to a successful definition and implementation of the formal mechanisms of cooperation in a computer system, one which potentially enhances the innovative and creative aspects of design work.

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2006.
Thesis Advisor(s): Anna Simons. "December 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-76). Also available in print.

This project is concerned with an investigation of simple communication between ANN-controlled mobile robots. Two robots are trained on a (seemingly) simple navigation task: to stay close to each other while avoiding collisions with each other and other obstacles.

A simple communication scheme is used: each of the robots receives some of the other robots’ outputs as inputs for an algorithm which produces extra inputs for the ANNs controlling the robots.

In the experiments documented here the desired cooperation was achieved. The different problems are analysed with experiments, and it is concluded that it is not easy to gain cooperation between autonomous mobile robots by using only output from one robot as input for the other in ANNs.

This thesis investigates the role of cooperation for pragmatic inferences. The notion of cooperation that is proposed as relevant for discussing the relationship between cooperation and communication is that of joint action. Different theories of communication are reviewed together with the different roles that they assign to cooperation in the context of communication. The study of communication in non-cooperative contexts is used as a way to inform the role of cooperation in communication. Different predictions are derived from Grice’s (1989) account and Sperber and Wilson’s accounts (Sperber & Wilson, 1986/1995; Sperber et al. 2010) regarding what happens to implicatures in non-cooperative contexts. A series of experimental studies investigates communication in non-cooperative contexts and tests the prediction derived from Grice’s account that hearers will not derive implicatures from the utterances of uncooperative speakers. Overall, the results of these studies are not in support of Grice’s prediction. They instead support the view that because of a dissociation between comprehension and epistemic acceptance of communicated content (Sperber et al., 2010; Mazzarella, 2015a) uncooperative contexts do not affect the inference of implicatures but only the acceptance of their content. Lastly, this thesis touches on the topic of the source of relevance for an utterance, which is treated as a theory neutral notion corresponding to what different theories formalise as the Question Under Discussion (Roberts, 1996/2012) or the shared purpose of interlocutors (Grice, 1989). The results of an experimental study on this topic suggest that the exhaustivity of an utterance as an answer to the possible QUDs in a context affects the choice of which QUDs the utterance will be taken to be addressing. Ultimately, this thesis provides initial experimental evidence on how cooperation (or lack thereof) affects pragmatic inferences and puts forward a novel experimental approach to this line of research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1994.
Cover title.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-227).
Supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Dept. of Defense under Office of Naval Research contracts. N00014-91-J-4038 N00014-85-K-0124 Supported by the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 959333 Supported in part by Matsushita Research.
Lynne E. Parker.
Ph.D.

This thesis systematically reviews empirical research on human cooperation in repeated reciprocal interactions, and reports 6 new studies that aim to verify, clarify and extend previous findings. As a research paradigm, Rosenthal’s (1981) Centipede game is chosen because it provides a formal model of alternating reciprocal cooperation between two individuals. Despite potentially large gains to both players through long-term cooperation in the game, a logical argument based on backward induction shows that instrumentally rational players will never cooperate in this way. However, previous research showed reliable deviations from this rational game-theoretic solution in human decision makers. All studies reported in this thesis confirm this robust finding. Study 1, drawing on a qualitative design, further evidences a large variety of other-regarding experiences underpinning decision making in the game including previously neglected, low-level motives such as activity bias. Study 2 addresses inconsistencies across research designs reported in the literature, and suggests large effects of even subtle changes to the games’ payoff functions. Studies 3 and 4 aim to increase the Centipede game’s applicability to real-life decision contexts by increasing game length and introducing varying termination rules. It is found that human decision makers cooperate more frequently during longer decision sequences. When additionally faced with the uncertainty of an unknown end or the risk of random game termination, however, defection may increase. Studies 5 and 6 examine cross-cultural differences in cooperation and find that Japanese participants cooperate more frequently than European/UK participants, which is attributed to different, culturally-dependent types of trust. Drawing on the research presented, explanations for cooperation in repeated interactions are discussed including the possible invalidity of backward induction reasoning, the cognitive burden of backward induction, a possible breakdown of common knowledge of rationality, virtual bargaining theory, fuzzy-trace theory, and other-regarding preferences. Ultimately, it is suggested that other-regarding preferences provide the most persuasive explanation for cooperation.

Spatial diversity, in the form of employing multiple antennas (i.e., MIMO), has proved to be very effective in increasing network capacity and reliability. However, equipping a wireless node with multiple antennas may not be practical, as the footprint of multiple antennas may not fit on a wireless node (particularly on handheld wireless devices). In order to achieve spatial diversity without requiring multiple antennas on the same node, the so-called cooperative communications (CC) has been introduced. Under CC, each node is equipped with only a single antenna and spatial diversity is achieved by exploiting the antennas on other nodes in the network through cooperative relaying. The goal of this dissertation is to maximize throughput at network level through CC at the physical layer. A number of problems are explored in this investigation. The main contributions of this dissertation can be summarized as follows. 1. Optimal Relay Assignment. We first consider a simple CC model where each source-destination pair may employ only a single relay. For this three-node model, the choice of a relay node (among a set of available relay nodes) for a given session is critical in the overall network performance. We study the relay node assignment problem in a cooperative ad hoc network environment, where multiple source-destination pairs compete for the same pool of relay nodes in the network. Our objective is to assign the available relay nodes to different source-destination pairs so as to maximize the minimum data rate among all pairs. We present an optimal polynomial time algorithm, called ORA, that solves this problem. A novel idea in this algorithm is a "linear marking" mechanism, which maintains linear complexity at each iteration. We offer a formal proof of optimality for ORA and use numerical results to demonstrate its capability. 2. Incorporating Network Coding. It has been shown that network coding (NC) can reduce the time-slot overhead when multiple session share the same relay node in CC. Such an approach is called network-coded CC (or NC-CC). Most of the existing works have mainly focused on the benefits of this approach. The potential adverse effect under NC-CC remains unknown. We explore this important problem by introducing the concept of network coding noise (NC noise). We show that due to NC noise, NC may not be always beneficial to CC. We substantiate this important finding in two important scenarios: analog network coding (ANC) in amplify-and-forward (AF) CC, and digital network coding (DNC) in decode-and-forward (DF) CC. We analyze the origin of NC noise via a careful study of signal aggregation at a relay node and signal extraction at a destination node. We derive a closed-form expression for NC noise at each destination node and show that the existence of NC noise could diminish the advantage of NC in CC. Our results shed new light on how to use NC in CC effectively. 3. Session Grouping and Relay Node Selection. When there are multiple sessions in the network, it may be necessary to combine sessions into different groups, and then have each group select the most beneficial relay node for NC-CC. We study this joint grouping and relay node selection problem for NC-CC. By studying matching problems in hypergraphs, we show that this problem is NP-hard. We then propose a distributed and online algorithm to solve this problem. The key idea in our algorithm is to have each neighboring relay node of a newly joined session determine and offer the best group for this session from the groups that it is currently serving; and then to have the source node of this newly joined session select the best group among all received offers. We show that our distributed algorithm has polynomial complexity. Using extensive numerical results, we show that our distributed algorithm is near-optimal and adapts well to online network dynamics. 4. Grouping and Matching for Multi-Relay Cooperation. Existing models of NC-CC consider only single relay node for each session group. We investigate how NC-CC behaves when multiple relay nodes are employed. For a given session, we develop closed form formulas for the mutual information and achievable rate under multi-relay NC-CC. In multi-relay NC-CC, the achievable rate of a session depends on the other sessions in its group as well as the set of relay nodes used for NC-CC. Therefore, we study NC-CC via joint optimization of grouping and matching of session and relay groups in an ad hoc network. Although we show that the joint problem is NP-hard, we develop an efficient polynomial time algorithm for grouping and matching (called G²M). G²M first builds beneficial relay groups for individual sessions. This is followed by multiple iterations during which sessions are combined with other sessions to form larger and better session groups (while corresponding relay groups are merged and updated accordingly). Using extensive numerical results, we show the efficiency and near optimality of our G²M algorithm.
Ph. D.

With the mounting pressures on institutions of higher education to do more with limited resources, the opportunity to collaborate with other colleges has emerged as a viable tool to create efficiencies and obtain valuable knowledge otherwise unattainable by an institution, even if that collaboration takes place with a competing institution. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are critical to managing student information and college operations, but can be challenging for colleges to implement. Consortia present a unique solution to colleges to address gaps in their expertise and skills needed to achieve a successful ERP implementation. This study explores the factors that are critical to successful ERP implementations in a community college setting and aims to develop a model that will assist colleges in targeting their efforts so as to make the best use of their resources. This paper shares a set of best practices to assist community colleges in accomplishing successful ERP implementations. In addition, this paper introduces a potential solution to community colleges of using a consortium relationship with like colleges to support the ERP implementation process and best practices with regard to these consortia to successfully support these efforts. Additionally, this best practices are discussed in this paper and are a compilation from insights gained through a review of the academic literature on ERP success factors and surveys of four community colleges that had completed ERP implementations. We hope that these insights will prove beneficial to colleges contemplating the implementation of a new ERP system. We believe that this paper can also assist colleges in determining if a consortium approach to their ERP implementation would be advantageous, generating greater bargaining power for the participating colleges, providing for the sharing of information between colleges, and helping to accommodate for any deficiency in expertise.

La coopération, qui est définie comme tout comportement qui bénéficie à autrui au détriment de l’auteur de l’acte (West, Griffin, & Gardner, 2007), se rencontre dans la plupart des groupes d’animaux. L’Homme exprime également des comportements coopératifs au sein du domaine familial. Cependant, contrairement aux autres espèces, les comportements coopératifs entre des individus non-apparentés sont fréquents. L’Homme participe également à l’élaboration de biens publics en donnant une partie de ses ressources comme par exemple du sang ou de l’argent (Ostrom, 1997). Des expériences en économie, réalisées en laboratoire avec des jeux spécifiquement conçus pour étudier la coopération, comme le jeu du dilemme du prisonnier ou le jeu de bien public, soutiennent l’étendue de la coopération en montrant que les agents font preuve de coopération, même en situation d’interaction stratégique non répétée avec des individus avec lesquels ils n’interagiront plus dans le futur (Rand & Nowak, 2013; Zaki & Mitchell, 2013). Des sociétés de chasseurs-cueilleurs - qui pratiquent des formes sophistiquées d’échanges, de partage et de conservations, - aux états-nations, la coopération au sein de larges groupes et entre individus non-apparentés, font de la coopération humaine une force puissante et unique dans le monde animal. Cette thèse a pour objet l’étude des conditions qui favorisent l’émergence et le maintien dans le temps des normes sociales de coopération. Notre hypothèse est que l’émergence et le maintien des normes sociales de coopération dépendent de la structure et de la composition des groupes. Le premier chapitre de la thèse est dédié à l’étude des différents mécanismes considérés en économie expérimentale pour former des groupes. Ces mécanismes sont exogènes (quand l’expérimentateur décide de la composition et de la structure des groupes) ou endogènes (quand les participants à l’expérience forment des groupes sur la base de leurs préférences). Le premier chapitre propose également, pour la première fois, une meta-analyse de tous les travaux publiés sur le sujet. Le deuxième chapitre de la thèse est consacré à l’étude de la structure des groupes sur la volonté des individus à partager une information bénéfique pour les membres de la communauté (i.e. l’information/connaissance est un bien commun). Une expérience de laboratoire est utilisée pour comparer l’effet de deux types de structure : (i) « partner matching », où les participants sont avec les mêmes membres du groupe tout au long de l’expérience, et (ii) « stranger matching », où les membres du groupe changent au cours de l’expérience. Nous manipulons également la taille du réseau. Le troisième chapitre est consacré l’étude des interactions entre normes sociales et institutions formelles. La littérature en économie montre que les institutions formelles peuvent avoir un impact de longue durée sur les normes sociales de coopération. Dans le cadre du dernier chapitre de thèse, nous nous intéressons aux différences en termes de coopération entre les habitants d’un même pays (Italie) qui sont (et ont été pendant très longtemps) exposés à des institutions de qualité différente (Nord versus Sud). Nous avons mesuré le niveau de confiance dans les deux régions, en utilisant la méthode expérimentale, et avons découvert que les normes se diffusent : les habitants du Sud ayant émigré au Nord ont des croyances plus pessimistes sur le niveau de coopération des autres habitants du Nord comparé aux croyances de ceux qui sont originaires du Nord
Cooperation, defined as any behaviour that increases the benefits of others, at one’s own cost (Nowak 2013), represents a fundamental element of our lives: from cells in our body, to our personal and professional relationships, resource sharing as well as global-level issues such as global warming or environmental conservation. While cooperation is common in many species populating our planet, both ancient and modern societies display unique cooperative attitudes. Human cooperation pervades interactions not only within related individuals, but it extends beyond the kin circle, becoming common even in large societies (Bowles and Gintis 2013).In modern societies, the provision of public goods is one of the most remarkable examples in which cooperation and selfish interest collide. Humans often engage in cooperative actions by contributing part of their resources to the common good. Examples range from charity or blood donations, to voting, and payment of taxes (Ostrom 1997). However, the study of human cooperation often entails situations in which the individual and the collective interests are misaligned. This tension is typical of cooperative dilemmas such as Prisoner’s Dilemmas and the Public Goods Game (Hardin 1963, Samuelson 1954, Olson 1965). Economists have approached to the study of public goods provision through experiments. Two typical behavioural patterns emerged from the extant experiments: i) cooperation emerges even in one-shot games (that is, in non-repeated interactions); ii) in repeated games, contributions decay over rounds as more and more players decide to free ride. The second aspect has drawn the attention of many experimentalists over the course of the past few years, paving the way for new research avenues on how to alleviate the free-rider problem. This thesis studies the conditions that favour and support over time the emergence of cooperative behaviour. In particular, our focus is addressed towards the role that social and economic structures regulating interactions among individuals, such as groups or networks, have on cooperation levels. In the first part of this work, we focus on the provision of public goods under the presence of either decentralized or centralized group formation mechanisms. In this chapter, we provide a survey and meta-analytic evidence of the extant experiments. In the second part, we contribute to the broad literature proposing social networks as a factor that sustain cooperation (Nowak and May 1992, Apicella et al. 2012). We recreate experimentally a strategic environment similar to that of typical public goods games. Interactions in such environment are superimposed on networks of social contacts among participants. Our aim is to shed light on the effect of an increase or decrease in the network social connectivity can affect individuals’ altruistic behaviour. The third and final part of this thesis posits a slightly, yet complementary, question. In the third chapter, we focus on the diffusion and adoption of cooperative social norms among natives of highly cooperative regions and migrants coming from geographic areas characterized by low levels of trust and social capital. The case examined is the historically-root trust divide in Italy’s north and south

This thesis studies the symbolic regimes of Southern and Northern development cooperation partners. Symbolic regime is understood as the jointly articulated discourse of the Southern and Northern development partners. South-North cooperation is a suitable topic for study due to its peculiarity. The power structure typically seen in development cooperation is inverted, with the Southern country being the primary architect of cooperation between the two countries, unlike in traditional development cooperation. The study is placed in the context of wider research on convergence between Southern and Northern countries. Symbolic regimes are studied by inductively generating theoretical categories using a grounded theory method on documents from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and comparing those categories with established North-South and South-South symbolic regimes, which are framed using gift theory. The results suggest that China and its Northern partners’ symbolic regime is similar to the symbolic regime from South-South cooperation, without the emotional claims of solidarity or empathy. Jointly articulated discourse was found primarily to detail intended consequences and facilitating conditions, while individually articulated material showed that there are realities which are obscured by the symbolic regimes.

Ridership in the New Orleans region is down, and transit agencies are challenged to increase transit performance. Transit professionals expect many benefits from cooperation between transit systems in the region including an increase in efficiency and effectiveness. The question is "do these cooperative initiatives between transit agencies improve transit performance?" To answer this question a survey has been held to collect data regarding regional initiatives implemented by transit agencies. In addition data were collected from the transit agencies websites. The analysis focused on the comparison between agencies that implemented regional initiatives versus agencies that did not implement any regional initiative. From the analysis it appears that although agencies have implemented cooperative initiatives they are not very convinced that it had a significant impact on transit performance. Further, results show that cooperation might have some positive impact on transit performance, but are not as convincing as literature and transit professionals expect

Large individual differences in cooperative contributions are common within animal societies such as cooperative breeders, where helpers care for offspring which are not their own. Understanding this variation has been a major focus in behavioural ecology and while evidence has shown that individuals are capable to adaptively adjust their cooperative behaviours, the physiological mechanisms underlying such adjustments remain poorly understood. Steroid hormones are prominent candidates to regulate cooperative behaviours due to their ability to integrate internal physiological state and environmental stimuli to produce an adaptive behavioural response. In this thesis, I investigate the effects of two steroid hormones, Cortisol (CORT) and Testosterone (T), in the regulation of cooperative behaviours in the Damaraland mole-rat (Fukomys damarensis). Because these hormones are susceptible to both modulate and be modulated by cooperative contributions, I experimentally tested both sides of this relationship. I show that, despite the absence of correlation between CORT and T and cooperative contributions, experimental increases of cooperative contributions elevate CORT levels, but not T (Chapter 3). Additionally, experimental increases of CORT levels in female helpers raised their cooperative contributions by more than one half demonstrating the regulatory effect of CORT on cooperative behaviours (Chapter 4). As breeding opportunities are likely to affect cooperative contributions and because T is a likely candidate to mediate a trade-off between future reproduction and current cooperation, I tested the effects of experimental increases of T levels in female helpers. I show that such elevations have no measurable effect of aggression, dispersal tendencies (both important to attain a breeding position) or cooperative contributions (Chapter 5). Taken together, the results of this thesis demonstrate that CORT can both respond to and regulate cooperative behaviours and suggest that this hormone may play a major role in the adaptive regulation of cooperative behaviour.

This research addressed two main issues that have become evident in studies of interstate cooperation. The first issue has to do with the relationship between cooperation and conflict. Can they be represented on a single, uni-dimensional continuum, or are they better represented by two theoretically and empirically separable dimensions? Granger causality tests were able to clarify the nature of cooperative events. The second issue is related to factors that might facilitate or discourage cooperation with other countries as a foreign policy tool. Factors used to explain cooperation and conflict include domestic variables, which have not been fully accounted for in previous empirical analyses. It is hypothesized that economic variables, such as inflation rates, GDP, and manufacturing production indices affect the likelihood of cooperative event occurrences. The effect of political dynamics, such as electoral cycles, support rates and national capability status, can also affect the possibility of cooperative foreign policies. The domestic factors in panel data was tested with Feasible Generalized Least Square (FGLS) in order to take care of heteroscedasticity and autocorrelations in residuals. The individual case analysis used linear time series analysis.

According to the latest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer the first six months of 2007 have

again shown an unexpected growth in the global tourism with the increase of 6 % in Europe

compared with the year before. Swedish politicians have started to see tourism as an

opportunity and in an investigation made 2006 showed that eighty percent of the Swedish

municipalities gave priority to tourism as an industry. This priority is rather logical since

investing in tourism development is profitable since each hundred-krona note an international

tourists spends in Sweden 45-48 SEK returns to the state in the form of taxes and fees. There

are many rather small tourism actors in Sweden who often cooperate in common activities

such as marketing because of equally small financial resources. “Market segmentation is one

of the most crucial long-term strategic marketing decisions a destination or organization

makes, therefore it is crucial that it is performed in a proper manner since it affects the total

planning and a destinations success. I wanted to understand the relationships between various

tourism actors in the County of Västerbotten when it came to efficient marketing management

and tourism development.

The overarching aim of this thesis is to study Coordination Associations (CAs) as a structure for interor-ganizational cooperation in rehabilitation, return-to-work and labour market reintegration. This has been done through empirical studies of two CAs in eastern Sweden. Central questions for the thesis are: How have representatives on different hierarchical levels in the participating organizations experi-enced cooperation within the structure of CAs? What influence do different organizational and/or professional preferences have on interorganiza-tional cooperation? The four studies in this thesis have had different approaches to studying interorganizational cooperation. Study I was concerned with a specific work form, namely interdisciplinary rehabilitation teams, where the analysis concerned how the different professionals in these teams perceived the common work, and how they interpreted the concept of work ability, which is a central concept for determining eligibility for sickness benefits. Study II focused on managers and board members of the CAs in order to determine their motives for and commitment to interorganizational cooperation. The analysis was concerned with the organizational identification and the self-interest of each actor, where the issue of trust between representatives from dif-ferent organizations was specifically targeted in the analysis. Study II focused on managers and board members of the CAs in order to determine their motives for and commitment to interorganizational cooperation. The analysis was concerned with the organizational identification and the self-interest of each actor, where the issue of trust between representatives from dif-ferent organizations was specifically targeted in the analysis. Study III aimed to elucidate the perspectives of officials in different organizations connected to the CAs regarding both the development of cooperation in the CAs, and how the recent changes in sickness insurance regulations will influence future cooperation. Study IV focused on different perspectives regarding the concept of work ability among representa-tives from all participating organizations, since changes in sickness insurance regulations have changed the assessment process and therefore also the demands for interorganizational cooperation. The general methodological approach to the studies in this thesis has been explorative; qualitative methods have been used, involving interviews, focus groups and problem-based group discussions. Inter-views and focus groups have had an open-ended structure, and the material has been analysed through qualitative content analysis. The aim of the Coordination Associations studied in this thesis has been to bridge the gaps between the participating organizations by promoting consensus through common work forms. However, the re-sults from the studies show that such ambitions are troublesome in highly specialized public organizations. Cooperation in the CAs has to a large extent been organized as collaborative work forms rather than as coordination of existing practices. The collaboration has been based on an idea of consensus, where all organizations were expected to participate on equal terms and find common work forms. Although it has been shown that officials from different organizations can work together, the managerial level’s priorities are more determined by their organizational goals and values, which makes them unwilling to finance collaborative work on a longer term. Another theme of the thesis is the lack of cooperation between the public rehabilitation system and the employers. The public actors lack knowledge of working conditions, and since the work principle guides the rehabilitation process, it is necessary to incorporate employers into the cooperation to facilitate sustainable return-to-work and labour market reintegration. A central conclusion of the thesis is that consensus is not a reasonable starting point when designing cooperation structures between public organizations. A sustainable cooperation structure needs to incorpo-rate and coordinate the different actors’ priorities into a long-term cooperation strategy, rather than base the cooperation on vulnerable collaboration projects.

In recent years, cooperation between the UN and the EU in the realm of international peacekeeping has gone through major changes, including the remarkable achievement of a ‘Joint Declaration on UN-EU Cooperation in Crisis Management’ through which both organisations promised their primary role and responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Although the EU has reiterated its commitment to play a decisive role as a reliable peacekeeping actor within the UN framework, the decision of the EU to not always engage in international peacekeeping operations alongside the UN is puzzling. The aim of this dissertation is to examine the major driving forces behind decision-making which may determine the likelihood of EU cooperation with the UN in international peacekeeping, by asking: ‘under what condition do EU Member States lead UN-related peacekeeping operations?’ Using a revised two-level game approach, this thesis identifies the most important chief negotiators involved in negotiations, and analyses the dynamics of decision-making between the UN and the EU on the issue of international peacekeeping at two different levels: international UN level and domestic EU level. Variables and conditions under which chief negotiator(s) are more likely to provide active leadership to drive the EU to decide to engage in a peacekeeping operation are investigated with insights from two prominent IR theories; realist and social constructivist theories. Hypotheses drawn from each theory and the roles of chief negotiators are examined in each of three cases selected: Operation Artemis (2003), EUFOR RD Congo (2006), and EUFOR Tchad/RCA (2007). With the key research outcomes from a comparative analysis of the three case studies, the thesis aims to contribute to comprehensive debates on the role of the EU as a promising partner of the UN in international peacekeeping.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Psicologia Educacional
A presente investigação, intitulada "Cooperação entre Professores: Realidade(s) e Desafios", tem como enfoque central o estudo dos factores que caracterizam o trabalho em equipa em contexto escolar. A abordagem ao estudo da cooperação entre professores obedeceu a duas temáticas. A primeira temática - "realidade(s) da cooperação" - visou: 1) o estudo do universo conceptual dos professores sobre cooperação; 2) descrever as práticas de cooperação existentes nas escolas, e; 3) identificar os factores que facilitam e inibem a cooperação entre professores. A segunda temática - "desafios da cooperação" - tem por objectivos: 1) analisar as percepções dos professores acerca dos impactos que a cooperação representa, e; 2) identificar as crenças dos professores sobre as exigências feitas pela cooperação. Este estudo envolveu 444 professores que exercem funções docentes em escolas dos 2o e 3o ciclos do continente português. O género feminino é o mais representativo, contribuindo para aproximadamente 75% do total de sujeitos inquiridos. O estudo da composição etária dos participantes mostra que no topo da distribuição figura o grupo etário que compreende o intervalo entre os 35 e 42 anos. A média de idades dos participantes é de cerca 40 anos. A análise da terceira variável usada para caracterizar os participantes - tempo de serviço docente - informa-nos que o intervalo situado entre os 7 e 25 anos de carreira é o mais representativo, contribuindo com mais de metade dos sujeitos (57%). A quarta e última variável ponderada é a área disciplinar, evidenciando-se o grupo disciplinar "humanidades" (41,4%) como o agrupamento de disciplinas com maior representação. As representações dos professores inquiridos sobre o conceito de cooperação ancoram em dois núcleos centrais - trabalho em equipa e partilha - que, por sua vez estão acopladas em 10 subcategorias. De acordo com cerca 60% dos professores inquiridos, cooperação significa trabalho em equipa, tendo-se ainda verificado que 93% desta categoria é explicada pela planificação, entreajuda, interdisciplinaridade e reflexão. Cooperar significa, igualmente, partilhar. Esta è a opinião expressa por 60% dos inquiridos, segundo a qual cooperação pressupõe, essencialmente, partilha de informação, experiências e objectivos. No que concerne às experiências de cooperação que ocorrem nas escolas, as opiniões dos professores foram arrumadas em duas categorias - «actividades científico-pedagógicas» e «actividades lúdico-pedagógicas». As actividades de carácter científico-pedagógico que decorrem nas escolas referem-se a experiências interdisciplinares, apoios educativos a alunos com necessidades educativas especiais, planificação em conjunto, cooperação com colegas na área de projecto, parcerias na área curricular não disciplinar de estudo acompanhado, construção de instrumentos de avaliação, organização curricular e participação na construção do projecto educativo da escola. As actividades de índole lúdicas com uma vertente pedagógica relatadas pelos professores abrangem as exposições, as visitas de estudo, os intercâmbios, as festividades que ocorrem nas escolas e as sessões em que são debatidos assuntos de variada ordem. É de ressaltar que a realização de debates, enquanto prática de cooperação, ocupa uma posição muito periférica no conjunto de exemplos de cooperação mencionados pelos professores. O estudo das variáveis que promovem a cooperação entre professores centrou-se nos seguintes factores: factores pessoais e profissionais, clima social dos grupos de trabalho, cultura organizacional das equipas, partilha e competências de comunicação, capacidade de gestão do stresse e flexibilidade. Os factores pessoais e profissionais que facilitam a cooperação envolvem a motivação, a receptividade ou abertura relativamente a opiniões diferentes, a capacidade organizativa, a flexibilidade, a afinidade profissional pessoal entre os elementos da equipa, o sentido de responsabilidade, a capacidade reflexiva sobre o trabalho, a capacidade para inovar, o sentido de humildade e o voluntariado. A atmosfera social nos grupos de trabalho é um factor que promove a cooperação entre professores e contempla a partilha de objectivos, o respeito mútuo entre os elementos da equipa, a capacidade para escutar as sugestões e opiniões dos outros, a qualidade do relacionamento entre os seus membros, a qualidade dos processos de comunicação que ocorrem dentro do grupo, a confiança depositada nos elementos que compõem a equipa e a existência de uma liderança que garanta a coesão do grupo. Cooperação entre Professores - Reaíidade(s) e Desafios vn Os factores organizacionais que facilitam a cooperação entre professores incluem a organização e gestão dos horários dos professores, a existência de recursos de suporte, a definição e distribuição de tarefas, o apoio dos órgãos directivos da escola e a existência de períodos avaliativos. Os professores consultados neste estudo conferem uma elevada importância à comunicação. As competências comunicacionais em que se regista uma importância mais moderada são a capacidade de partilha de informação no interior do grupo de trabalho e a utilização de estratégias para ajudar os colegas a exporem as suas opiniões, A maioria dos professores inquiridos admite que a posse de boas competências de gestão de stresse é favorável ao desenvolvimento de experiências de cooperação. A flexibilidade é o factor promotor da cooperação em que se registaram os valores médios mais baixos. Os obstáculos à cooperação estão agregados em três categorias - factores pessoais e profissionais, clima grupal e factores organizacionais. Os factores de ordem pessoal e profissional que actuam como obstáculos à cooperação entre professores são a desmotivação, a inflexibilidade, individualismo, intolerância face às opiniões de terceiros, a indisponibilidade para participar em experiências diferentes, incumprimento de tarefas estabelecidas, diferenças nos hábitos de trabalho, incompatibilidades pessoais, falta de segurança pessoal, o comodismo e a resistência à mudança. Os factores inibidores da cooperação relacionados com o clima relacional vivido nas equipas abrangem os conflitos interpessoais, a inexistência de objectivos, o desrespeito pelas ideias e opiniões, as variáveis que afectam a comunicação dentro do grupo de trabalho e o tipo de liderança. Os factores de natureza organizacional que emergem como factores inibidores à cooperação entre professores incluem a organização dos horários, a existência de recursos de apoio à Cooperação entre Professores - Realidade(s) e Desafios vm cooperação, a imposição ou obrigatoriedade da cooperação, a mobilidade dos professores, a eficácia das reuniões e a organização curricular. Os professores antecipam muitos impactos no ensino e na aprendizagem. A maior preocupação percepcionada pelos professores prende-se com o tempo que é exigido por esta modalidade de trabalho. A esmagadora maioria dos professores consultados afirma que a cooperação traz-lhes benefícios e que não representa custos acrescidos, assim como acarreta mais valias profissionais. A maioria dos professores também considera que serão respeitados os hábitos de trabalho, não receiam os desafios postos pela cooperação e admitem sentirem-se à-vontade e confiantes nas suas próprias capacidades para enfrentar os desafios inerentes à cooperação. A maioria dos professores está convicta que não surgirão constrangimentos que impeçam o desempenho e desenvolvimento profissional. Todavia, na perspectiva dos professores, a cooperação representa custos e recursos adicionais. A cooperação também produz efeitos negativos no orçamento das escolas e implica mudanças na gestão e organização dos horários dos docentes. Não obstante afirmarem que a cooperação interfere com a organização da escola, um elevado número de professores considera que as suas escolas dispõem de suficientes recursos para pôr em prática experiências de cooperação. Um número significativo de professores considera que o aumento de práticas de cooperação pode amplificar os problemas de comunicação. Para além de contribuir para o aumento de problemas de comunicação, na opinião dos professores o incremento da cooperação poderá afectar negativamente os relacionamentos entre professores, contribuindo para um clima relacional pouco favorável. Apesar de terem sido antecipados conflitos comunicacionais e dificuldades nos relacionamentos interprofissionais, cerca de dois terços dos professores considera que a cultura organizacional da escola a que pertencem se adapta facilmente aos desafios colocados pela cooperação.

Esta tesis contribuye tanto a la literatura teórica como a la literatura empírica sobre proyectos conjuntos de investigación.
En primer lugar analizo el problema que los proyectos conjuntos de investigación no garantizan siempre una cooperación beneficiosa porque las empresas que participan no actuan siempre como seria de esperar. También hay vezes que proyectos conjuntos de investigación que parecen beneficiosos no se realizan. Este fenomeno se puede explicar por la existencia de información asimetrica entre los participantes y el hecho que ellos no pueden firmar contratos sobre la transferencía de conocimiento. Este problema es especialmente importante quando las empresas compitenen el mercado de producto o en otras actividades de I+D y consecuentemente no tienen incentivos propios para transferir su conocimiento. En mi tesis propongo una solución para este problema: las empresas se pueden comprometer con su nivel de deuda para transferir su conocimiento. Demuestro que elnivel de deuda tiene influencia sobre la transferencia de información y que existen unas condiciones sobre la función de benefício que guarantizan que las empresas tengan deuda positiva en equilibrio. Gracias a la posibilidad de financiación por deuda el nivel de trancferencia de información en equilibrio es más alto que en caso de financiación interna. Es decir que la deuda funciona como instrumento de compromiso para compartir información. Por eso contratos sobre el nivel de la deuda sustituyen parcialmente los contratos sobre la transferencia de conocimiento y esta posibilidad aumenta el nivel de bienestar. Tambien presento una prueba empirica de mi modelo y concluyo que empresas con mas deuda participan en proyectos conjuntos de investigación con una probabilidad más alta.
En la segunda parte de mi disertación utilizo tecnicas de microeconometria para investigar la relación entre participación en proyectos conjuntos de investigación y productividad. Hay que tener mucho cuidado con la evaluación de beneficios en productividad de cooperación en I+D porque la cooperación también tiene un impacto sobre los gastos de investigación y la estructura de competencia en la industría. Teniendo en cuenta estos efectos utilizo un panel muy grande de empresas de los EEUU, Japón y la Unión Europea. Encuentro que los proyectos conjuntos de investigación aumentan la productividad de los participantes. También presento resultados que indican indirectamente que empresas en cooperación horizontal de I+D comparten los gastosde la investigación.
En la tercera parte de mi tesis analizo los incentivos para iniciar proyectos conjuntos de investigación. Ademas de investigar los incentivos generales de empresas presto atención a la cooperación horizontal de I+D. Encuentro que empresas en este tipo de cooperación comparten los gastos de de investigación. Este resultado confirma los resultados de la literatura teorica.
The work presented in this dissertation contributes both to the theoretical and the empirical literature on research joint ventures.
Firstly, I analyse the problem that in spite of the advantages mentioned above, research joint ventures do not always guarantee fruitful cooperation as partners may not deliver what is expected from them. Also, there are cases when firms do not start potentially very profitable RJVs. These failures can be due to the problem that firms cannot contract the transfer of the know-how and without the required amount of information disclosure the RJV is not profitable. This problem arises especially when firms are competitors either in the product market or in other R&D activities and therefore do not have the right incentives to share their knowledge. I propose a novel way to alleviate this problem. I show that firms can use their debt level as a commitment to disclose know-how. I find that there is a direct relationship between the debt of a firm and the incentives to disclose its know-how in a RJV. Moreover, I show conditions on the profit functions under which firms, in equilibrium, finance at least partially with debt. Due to the possibility of debt financing, the equilibrium level of disclosure is higher than in case of equity/internal financing. That is, the leverage acts as a commitment device to share knowledge. Hence, contracting on debt levels is sometimes a partial substitute of contracting on disclosure of know-how. Therefore, the possibility of debt financing is likely is improve welfare. I also present empirical evidence that firms with more leveraged financial structure are more likely to participate in horizontal research joint ventures.
In the second section of the thesis I provide a microeconometric analysis of the impact of RJV participation on productivity. Evaluating the overall benefits of cooperative research is very difficult because the cooperation may have an impact both on R&D spending and the competitive structure of the industry. Controling for this effects, I study the productivity implications of research joint venture participation using a large panel of European, Japanese and US companies. I find evidence that joint R&D increases productivity. I also find indirect evidence for cost sharing in horizontal research consortia.
Finally, I analyse the firms' incentives to engage in cooperative research. After conducting a simple investigation into general firm characteristics that are associated with RJV participation, the analysis mainly focuses on horizontal research joint ventures, i.e. when firms engage in cooperative research with their direct competitors. I find evidence for cost sharing in horizontal research joint ventures, which is consistent with the results of the theoretical literature.

Des logiciels Open Source à Wikipédia, la production par les pairs mobilise des centaines de milliers de contributeurs de par le monde. C’est une source importante de création de valeur dans les secteurs très compétitifs de l’information et de la technologie, ainsi qu’une source majeure d’innovation. Au-delà même de son importance économique, l’émergence de la production par les pairs représente une opportunité d’éclairer un certain nombre de questions anciennes et particulièrement ardues dans la littérature d’un jour nouveau. Compte-tenu de la nature souvent non conventionnelle des incitations au travail dans les environnements de production par les pairs, ceux-ci sont particulièrement adaptés à l’étude de l’impact des préférences économiques non standard sur la production de biens publics, à l’analyse de leur rôle en tant que motivations au travail, ainsi qu’à l’évaluation de leurs conséquences en termes d’économie organisationnelle.Ce travail de thèse s'appuie sur un outil d’expérimentation en ligne original (développé et évalué dans le chapitre 1) pour combiner expériences en ligne à large échelle et méthodes computationnelles (i.e. l’extraction systématique de données sur le comportement de terrain des sujets) afin de (i) mener le tout premier test de terrain exhaustif de la théorie de la production privée de biens publics, (ii) étudier l’importance des préférences sociales en tant que motivations au travail au sein d’organisations productives réelles et (iii) procéder aux premiers tests de terrain documentant des comportements endogènes d’appariement des agents économiques au sein d’équipes productives en fonction de leur type coopératif
From Open Source Software to Wikipedia, peer production involves hundreds of thousands of contributors worldwide. It is an important source of value creation in the most competitive sectors of information and technology, as well as a major source of innovation. Beyond its economic significance, the emergence of peer production also represents an opportunity to shed new lights on a number of longstanding but notably difficult questions in the literature. Given the unconventional nature of many of the work incentives at play in peer production environments, those are particularly well suited for researching the impact of non standard economic preferences on public goods provision, studying their role as work incentives, and assessing their consequences in terms of organizational economics.This Ph.D. work leverages a novel online experimentation tool (developed and assessed in Chapter 1) to combine large-scale online experiments and computational methods (i.e. the systematic extraction of data on subjects’ field behavior) to respectively (i) provide the first comprehensive field test of the theory of the private provision of public goods, (ii) study the importance of social preferences as work motives within real-world productive organizations and(iii) report the first field evidence of endogenous sorting behavior of economic agents within productive teams based on their cooperative types

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Civil-Military Relations))--Naval Postgraduate School, March 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): Karen Guttieri. "March 2007." Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-103). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Homeland Security and Defense))--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2007.
Thesis Advisor(s): Knopf, Jeffrey. "December 2007." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 18, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 95-102). Also available in print.