Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Film making performance'

This thesis investigates how Victor Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’ can be used to explore and analyse the experience of film. Drawing on performance theory, hermeneutics, phenomenology and Bakhtin’s dialogism, Sections One and Two develop this investigation through a theoretic discussion which relates and yet distinguishes between three levels of ‘performance’ in film: filmmaking performance, performances as text and cultural performances. The theory is grounded within four films which were researched for this thesis: Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994), Rats in the Ranks (Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson,1996), beDevil (Tracey Moffatt, 1993) and Link-Up Diary (David MacDougall, 1987). Section Three undertakes the close analyses of the latter two films. These analyses address specific cultural performances that are performed ‘across’ cultures and which are concerned particularly with Australian society’s relationship with indigenous Australians. ¶ Section One locates Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’ within his wider theory of ‘social drama’ and introduces the three-tiered mode of analysis which is developed throughout this thesis. His concept of ‘liminality’ is also investigated in order to consider specific relationships between performances which take place in film and theatre. Performances which take place in film are located in this Section within the theatrical understanding of performance as ‘for an audience’. I describe this relationship between performances in film and theatre through Kristeva’s interpretation of Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia as intertextuality, especially through her distinction of a ‘transformative’ intertextuality. Three specific concepts from theatre and performance theory are interrogated for their relevance to film theory: 1. Brecht’s theory of ‘gest’, 2. ‘direct address to the audience’ in relation to the ‘gaze’ in film and 3. Rebecca Schneider’s conceptualisation of ‘the performance artist’. ¶ Using these three tropes of performance, Section Two develops a theory of performance in film. Besides Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’, this theory draws on aspects of several other substantial bodies of work. These works include Richard Schechner’s performance theory, Michael Taussig’s understanding of ‘mimesis’, Vivian Sobchack’s phenomenology of film, Paul Ricoeur’s theory of text ‘as meaningful action’, Gadamer’s concept of ‘meaningful play’, Bakhtin’s conceptualisation of a ‘dialogic’ text and Catherine Bell’s theory of ‘ritualised behaviour’. The two analyses in Section Three do not rigidly follow the three-tiered process of analysis which is developed in the previous two Sections. They rather focus on the films as sites for particular cultural performances which are specific for each film and which need for their description, different aspects of the theory that is offered through this thesis. These analyses especially draw on my interpretation of David MacDougall’s ‘transcultural cinema’ and Jodi Brook’s conceptualisation of a ‘gestural practice’ in film, which she positions both in terms of Brecht’s theatrical concept of ‘gest’ and Walter Benjamin’s concept of the ‘shock’ of modernity. ¶ The film analyses are of one fiction film, beDevil, and one non-fiction film, Link-Up Diary. Both films use audiovisual images of Aboriginal Australians as content. According the terms of this thesis, these people must also be considered as filmmakers. Although this role may constitute varying degrees of authority and power, a film analysis which considers the filmmaking roles of people whose images are present in the filmic text also allows a particular consideration of the social relationships which exist between people who ‘film’ and people who ‘are filmed’. My focus on the cultural performances of these two films allowed an even closer description of this relationship for two reasons. Firstly, both Moffatt and MacDougall respectively present their own images in the films. Secondly, my analyses of these films as cultural performance draw out and describe the different ways in which the two films address the same ‘social drama’: the relationship between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. My analyses expose how a description of these differences in address can extend beyond the distinction between one film as ‘fiction’ and the other as ‘non-fiction’ towards a description of the different ways in which people relate to each other, at both the individual level and at the level of society, through the production and reception of a particular film. While locating these films as cultural performances within in particular sets of social relationships, my consideration of film in this thesis in terms of theatrical performance also enables a description of the experience of film which draws on the social experience of live theatre. The theory developed in this thesis and its application in the analyses of these two films suggest further areas of research which might look more closely at whether or not, or how much people draw from the social practices of live theatre as they live their lives with film – a signifying practice which has existed just over one hundred years.

It is now well-known that The King and I has little claim to truth. Recent research has exposed the inaccuracy of the “biographical” works on which the musical is based: Anna Leonowens invented many things about her personal background and experiences. Much of her life, then, is a contrived fantasy. Yet her life of fantasy has been resurrected in countless adaptations, including the 1951 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical and its 2015 revival production, that ceaselessly draw audiences. The fascination of American audiences with Anna’s tale lies their belief in the timeless American ideals that her fantasy employs: those of freedom and equality, which undergird such myths as American exceptionalism and American multiculturalism. The appeal of this cultural fantasy is illuminated by examining the history of the Cold War era in which The King and I was created, as well as the politics of President Trump that define recent years and influence the creation and reception of the revival show (and its 2016-2018 national tour). America today is occupied by the same conflicting desires for integration/internationalism and isolationism of bygone times; today, the idea of a superior America is still upheld by a fear of the Other. Examining how the visual elements, songs, and performances of the original and revival musicals both reinforce and undermine the fantasy of cultural superiority will reveal how Americans continue to fall under the spell of fantasy, and how a connection to the past sheds light on what it means to be an American today.

The research project 'This is my Face: Audio-visual practice as collaborative sense-making among men living with HIV in Chile' is an interdisciplinary project that explores 'collaborative mise en-scène' as a method to further understand the sense-making processes around the biographical disruption caused by HIV. It combines Anthropology and Arts methods as part of the PhD in Anthropology, Media and Performance, a practice-based program that fosters interdisciplinary approaches to the production of original knowledge, based on self-reflexive and critical research practices (The University of Manchester, 2018). Relying on the specific competences of photography and film and the co-creation of an ethnographic context based in hermeneutic reflexivity, the collaborators on the project created and explored representations of critical life events, in order to make sense of the disruption HIV brought to their lives. The collaborators were highly stigmatised individuals living with HIV, which hindered their possibilities for sharing narratives and for reflection, and as such, made it more difficult for them to come to terms with a diagnosis they described as a 'fracture' in their lives. This project analyses the creative process of 'collaborative mise-en-scène' as a way to provide further opportunities for reflexivity and sense making, a method that departs from their everyday face-to-face encounters as means of understanding what they are going through. Representations of life events emerged from our practice, as well as evocations, which provided a means by which to understand their experiences with HIV, and opened up ways to resignify their past experiences and projections of the future. Photography and film offered their specific expressive competences to the project, but also gave the possibility of making visible the collaborators' experiences in order to promote a dialogue with others, moving beyond our creative encounters. Therefore, their evocations became 'statements' of what it means to live with HIV in Chile, and at the same time, by taking part in its creation, it provided access to the particularities of the sense-making process in which those images were embedded. This collaborative creative process opened up ways to highlight the relevance for sense-making in face-to-face encounters, demonstrating that hermeneutic reflexivity as a practice-based form of mutual questioning can promote a critical engagement with life trajectories and with others beyond our practice.

A key element that enables a firm to achieve better performance, the strategy-making process is of great interest to both researchers and practitioners. However, the bulk of past research has focused on the process alone and has reached few consistent conclusions. Recently, researchers have started to investigate the impact of crucial contingencies on strategy-:making. It appears this contingency approach is more fruitful in deepening and broadening our understanding of this critical area. To continue the research in this direction, this study inquired into the linkage between the environment and the strategy-making process. A theoretical framework was developed after surveying the germane literature to guide the empirical analysis. Following this model, comprehensiveness, or the exhaustiveness and the inclusiveness in strategy-making, was selected as the key process attribute for this study. It was hypothesized that environmental complexity, or the number and heterogeneity of factors in the environment, and dynamism, or the degree of change, would impact the perceived uncertainty of the strategy maker, and further comprehensiveness in strategy-making. In addition, it was posited that the match between strategy-making comprehens1veness and environmental attributes would lead to better firm performance. The computer industry served as the setting for this study. Questionnaires were mailed to top executives of randomly selected computer firms to obtain data on environmental attributes and strategy-making comprehensiveness. Secondary sources were used to acquire financial performance data and other background information. Analysis results suggest that the proposed model is useful in understanding the environment and strategy-making interaction. Both environmental complexity and dynamism were found to influence strategy-making comprehensiveness. Moreover, the adaptation of strategy-making comprehensiveness to environmental attributes was found to lead to better firm performance. Findings from this study hold promise for effective strategic management and. contribute insight into the strategy-environment linkage.
Ph. D.

Using a large sample of about 1,900 M&A deals from 1993 to 2005, and data on more than 3,100 CEOs, I explore merger and acquisition activities from a psychological perspective, and provide another explanation for M&A motives and associated firm stock performance. Specifically, I empirically test if highly narcissistic CEOs are more likely to conduct mergers or acquisitions than lowly narcissistic CEOs. I also examine the impact of high level of CEO narcissism on the market reaction to firm M&A announcements, and also long run post-M&A stock returns. In addition, I empirically investigate the impact of the parallel CEO narcissistic tendency of target firm on acquiring firm M&A performance. Three proxies for CEO narcissism are used in this study: Holder67, a CEO option exercise-based measure, CEO media portrayal, and a third new measure based on the formal content analysis of actual CEO speech. I find empirical evidence that CEOs with high level of narcissism are more likely to conduct mergers and acquisitions than other CEOs. My results also suggest that a high level of acquiring firm CEO narcissism has a significantly negative impact on acquiring firm short run M&A performance. Post-acquisition, I find that deals conducted by highly narcissistic CEOs significantly underperform those by lowly narcissistic CEOs. Moreover, my results show that a high level of target firm CEO narcissism similarly negatively affects acquiring firm short run M&A performance. In an additional analysis, I find that the positive link between CEO narcissism and the likelihood of a CEO conducting an M&A deal is stronger and the impact of CEO narcissism on firm M&A performance is more negative in large firms than that in smaller firms. My results also show that the negative impact of CEO narcissism on firm short run M&A performance is strongest when both acquiring firm and target firm CEO narcissism coexist concurrently. However, I find that the level of CEO narcissism is negatively associated with the quality of corporate governance, and the positive link between CEO narcissism and the likelihood of a CEO conducting an M&A deal is weaker in firms with good corporate governance than that in firms with poorer corporate governance, which may suggest that effective corporate governance mechanisms might play positive roles in curbing CEO narcissistic tendencies and in helping to ameliorate, to some extent, the adverse impact of high level of CEO narcissism on firm M&A decision making.

Maintenance management is seen as a “necessary evil”, rather than a profit contributing resource that could intensify competitive advantage for the organisation. With the world facing the fourth industrial revolution, a radical increase in the reshaping of companies and competition within asset intensive industries is being observed. Organisations in these industries are being forced to rethink traditional ways of working and gearing the workforce with higher and more diversified competency profiles. This suggests that the traditional way of executing maintenance management, being predominantly reactive with the lack of data driven decision making, is certainly inadequate for a sustainable competitive advantage. An improved way of managing maintenance should be through developing and applying dynamic capabilities within the maintenance domain of the organisation. This research draws on theories of dynamic capabilities (DC), decision making performance (DMP), business process performance (BPP) and firm performance (Fper), in the context of data driven decision making in organisations heavily reliant on good maintenance management practices. The aim of this study was to explore and understand the relationships between these constructs, for insight into further improvement and development of a competitive advantage. The findings presented a statistically significant relationship between DC and Fper, DC and BPP, DC and DMP, but most importantly, a multiple full indirect mediation role was observed, which provides insights for both business and for further studies in academia.
Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2020.
pt2021
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted

Today, many Malaysian SMEs are facing problems that hinder the full implementation of computerised accounting information systems (CAIS). These problems are related to human resources incapable of using the systems and organisation’s inability to adopt the technology and align it with the companies’ strategic policy. The purpose of this study is to empirically test the impact of CAIS on information quality, focusing on the transparency aspects of corporate governance and strategic decision making (SDM). Accounting information systems (AIS) with a ‘good fit’ and ‘highly praised’ corporate governance (CG) practices have been shown to lead to good firm performance. While the literature has examined the effects of AIS fit on firm performance, few studies have looked at the link between CAIS, information quality and firm performance. Further, while the impact of strategic decision making and CG on firm performance has been widely studied, the role of AIS in this relationship is less clear. Since AIS forms the backbone of a firm’s business information infrastructure, both strategic decision-making process and corporate governance, particularly the transparency dimension, rely on information derived from the system. Using a resource-based view (RBV) framework, hypothesised relationships among variables of interest were examined based on data collected from 336 small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Results from partial least square (PLS) analysis suggest that effects of AIS on firm performance were partially mediated by information quality, while a full moderation effect was found for other variables on firm performance. The results thus demonstrate the importance of information quality, SDM and AIS to a greater height, prompting SMEs to revisit their policies on AIS, staff training and largely transparency to better improve firm performance. Outcomes of this study contribute to the body of knowledge on AIS, information quality and SMEs, while helping to trigger interest among SMEs on the importance of having reliable accounting software to produce quality reports.

Researched in this thesis is the financial impact of employee involvement and performance- related pay systems in UK manufacturing and retail settings. The test questions are introduced in Chapter 1 along with some micro- and macro-level factors which may make it efficient to involve employees in decision-making and to pay basis performance. Chapter 2 discusses theoretical issues associated with involving employees in decision-making and using group-based incentives. There is support from both the theoretical and empirical literature that employee involvement and performance-related pay are more efficient when used in combination. Chapter 3 evaluates methodological issues associated with the examination of these questions, including methods used to attribute for unobserved heterogeneity and endogeneity in the econometric analysis. In Chapter 4 case study evidence is gathered from the retail sector on the adoption of, and associated performance trends with the use of, an All Employee Stock Option Programme (AESOP) and extensive employee communication programmes. Sources at the company indicate that the use of these practices are thought to result in greater employee effort and efficient information sharing. Performance trends, since the adoption of these programmes, indicate improved performance within the company and relative to competitors which do not offer an AESOP. Econometric analysis is used in Chapter 5 to examine the financial impact of individual, team and group pay systems in UK manufacturing establishments where there is work task 'interdependence'. Evidence is found that in team production settings group payments systems are the most efficient pay system. Chapter 6 examines the impact of two forms of employee involvement, decentralized decision-making and two-way information sharing, on establishment performance. These practices are examined both including and excluding incentives. A statistically significant impact on establishment performance is found when performance-based incentives are included: this result disappears when the incentives are excluded. A second econometric analysis is conducted in Chapter 6, evaluating the independent and interactive effects of decentralized decision-making and group incentives in team production settings. Evidence is found that sub-optimal performance results in establishments which use only decentralized decision-making or only group incentives. Establishments that use the practices in combination have the best performance. Chapter 7 is the summary and conclusion.

This dissertation focused on an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in today’s global business environment—strategic alliance portfolio. Building on resource-based view, resource dependency theory and real options theory, this dissertation adopted a multi-dimensional perspective to examine the performance implications, strategic antecedents of alliance portfolio configuration, and its strategic effects on firms’ decision-making on their continuing foreign expansion. The dissertation consisted of three interrelated essays, each of which dealt with a specific research question. In the first essay I applied a two-dimensional construct that embraces both alliance relations’ and alliance partners’ attributes to illustrate alliance portfolio configuration. Based on this framework, a longitudinal study was conducted attempting to explore the performance properties of alliance portfolio configuration. The results revealed that alliance diversity and partner diversity have different relative contributions to firms’ economic performance. The relationship between alliance portfolio configuration and firm performance was shaped by degree of multinationality in a curvilinear pattern. The second essay attempted to identify the firm level driving forces of alliance portfolio configuration and how these forces interacting with firms’ internationalization influence firms’ strategic choices on alliance portfolio configuration. The empirical results indicated that past alliance experience, slack resource and firms’ brand images are three critical determinants shaping alliance portfolios, but those shaping relationships are conditioned by firms’ multinationality. The third essay primarily employed real options theory to build a conceptual framework, revealing how country-, alliance portfolio-, firm-, and industry level factors and their interactions influence firms’ strategic decision-making on post-entry continuing expansion in foreign markets. The two empirical studies were resided in global hospitality and travel industries and use panel data to test the relevant theoretical models. Overall, the dissertation advanced and enriched the theoretical domain of alliance portfolio. It particularly shed valuable insights on three fundamental questions in the domain of alliance portfolio research, namely “if and how alliance portfolios contribute to firms’ economic performance”; “what determines the appearance of alliance portfolios; and “how alliance portfolios affect firms’ strategic decision-making”. This dissertation also extended the international business and strategic management research on service multinationals’ foreign expansion and performance.

This thesis investigates how Victor Turner’s concept of ‘cultural performance’ can be used to explore and analyse the experience of film. Drawing on performance theory, hermeneutics, phenomenology and Bakhtin’s dialogism, Sections One and Two develop this investigation through a theoretic discussion which relates and yet distinguishes between three levels of ‘performance’ in film: filmmaking performance, performances as text and cultural performances. The theory is grounded within four films which were researched for this thesis: Once Were Warriors (Lee Tamahori, 1994), Rats in the Ranks (Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson,1996), beDevil (Tracey Moffatt, 1993) and Link-Up Diary (David MacDougall, 1987). Section Three undertakes the close analyses of the latter two films. These analyses address specific cultural performances that are performed ‘across’ cultures and which are concerned particularly with Australian society’s relationship with indigenous Australians. ...

碩士
國立中央大學
人力資源管理研究所
94
ABSTRACT Taiwanese firms have been growing rapidly in the past decade. Employee participation, which can attract and retain high quality employees, has been thought as one the key successful factors for contemporary enterprises. Most of Taiwanese firms, as well, catch the growing trend and adopt stock profit sharing plans and participative decision-making for the purpose of enhancing organization performance. In order to examine the effects of employee participation in Taiwanese firms, the study collected a data set containing financial data and survey data to examine the effects of employee participation plans on firm performance. After collection, there are totally 198 questionnaires replied, yielding a 14.22 percent response rate. Stock ownership programs have positive effects on organization productivity. However, participative decision-making plans didn’t affect organization performance. At the mean time, the effects of communication plans on organization performance. Finally, when firms adopt financial participation and participative decision-making at the same time, the firm’s productivity will be enhanced significantly. That is, the positive interaction effects between participative decision-making and financial participation exist.

Yes
This study examines the effect of big data powered artificial intelligence on customer knowledge creation, user knowledge creation and external market knowledge creation to better understand its impact on B2B marketing rational decision making to influence firm performance. The theoretical model is grounded in Knowledge Management Theory (KMT) and the primary data was collected from B2B companies functioning in the South African mining industry. Findings point out that big data powered artificial intelligence and the path customer knowledge creation is significant. Secondly, big data powered artificial intelligence and the path user knowledge creation is significant. Thirdly, big data powered artificial intelligence and the path external market knowledge creation is significant. It was observed that customer knowledge creation, user knowledge creation and external market knowledge creation have significant effect on the B2B marketing-rational decision making. Finally, the path B2B marketing rational decision making has a significant effect on firm performance.
The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 23 Dec 2022.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
財務金融學研究所
99
Overconfident managers have a characteristic of overestimating merge synergies. Therefore, the willingness to make merger and acquisition decisions increases. On the other hand, overconfident managers tend to believe the stock value of their own corporation is undervalued; they prefer internal capital to external capital market. This study examines the relation between managerial overconfidence and stock-payment merger and acquisition activities and the short-term and long-term post-M&A stock performances based on the companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and over-the-counter market from 1999 to 2007. It measures managerial overconfidence based on the changes in the managers'' shareholdings. According to Malmendier and Tate (2005a, 2008), managers with a greater overconfidence tend to increase their shareholdings in order to make profits. The empirical result shows that overconfident managers are less likely to undertake stock-payment merger and acquisition activities and the relation between overconfident managers and merger and acquisition decision is stronger when the firm has abundant internal capital. Also managerial overconfidence in acquiring firms generates higher short-term cumulative abnormal return insignificantly. In addition, the result shows the one-year long-term post M&A performance is significantly higher for overconfident managers than for rational managers on average. However, for the two–year stock return performance, the result is insignificant.

Corporate strategy has been a neglected topic in both theoretical and empirical discussions on superior firm performance. In addition to using competitive strategy to attain sustainable competitive advantage, firms should also focus on achieving a corporate level measure of performance, namely, persistent superior firm performance. The resource based theory paradigm suggests that factors which lead to superior firm performance are largely endogenous to the firm. Corporate strategy is one such factor. Empirical evidence has shown that corporate strategy matters. It has a small but significant influence on the variance of both business unit performance and firm performance. This research extends current knowledge by determining, firstly, if corporate strategy could be used to distinguish successful firms from nonsuccessful firms and, secondly, if so, how does corporate strategy actually influence firm performance. Fifteen Fortune 1000 US firms were categorised into three subpopulations based on persistent superior, average and inferior levels of performance. Eighteen indicators representing both excellence in corporate strategy and the incidence of corporate strategy were collected through the content analysis of Wall Street Journal articles from 1980 to 2004. Various inferential statistical techniques were conducted to provide a broad profile of findings. The frequency of resource governance decisions was found to distinguish the persistent superior firm performance category from both the persistent average and inferior firm performance categories. The corporate level decision making skill perspective provides an explanation for this empirical evidence. Superior performing firms, through the use of superior corporate level decision making skills, are able to simplify resource governance decision making (e.g., decision making rules). This simplification results in superior resource governance decisions being made, lowering the incidence of resource governance decisions. This research extends resource based theory by providing empirical evidence of the importance of resource governance decisions in achieving persistent superior firm performance. This research also integrates the concept of superior corporate level decision making skills into existing resource based theory. The research has implications also for both theoretical and practitioner literatures as it redefines corporate strategy. It shows that corporate strategy matters to firm performance, and importantly, it shows why corporate strategy matters.