Dissertations / Theses: 'Use value'

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Kalitaev, O. "Use and exchange value." Thesis, Видавництво СумДУ, 2006. http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/21775.

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Popesku, Mihajlo. "Clarifying value in use and value creation process." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2015. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28558/.

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Current marketing literature, regardless of its underlying paradigm/logic, lacks consensus on how to conceptualise value creation, how to define what it entails, along with by whom, how, where and when it is created (Voima et al., 2010). It is no surprise then that the value creation process is often described as a ‘black box’ (Grönroos, 2011b; Leroy et al., 2013). In this doctoral research the customer’s perspective on value creation has been advocated. Research was conducted using mixed methods in the context of digital camera usage. It was found that value creation process consists of inputs (resources, customer and other socio-economic actors), 5 value creation phases (this is actually the content of black box: usage episode initiation, resource selection, resource adjustment, resource integration and evaluation) and outputs (side effects and value-in-use as a mix of instrumental benefits, experiential benefits, symbolic benefits and sacrifices;). Simultaneously to value creation, each consumption episode provides an opportunity for customer’s episodic learning that can result in customer’s augmented or new knowledge, skills and experience. Research found value to be episodic phenomenon, while value creation consistent with Roggeveen et al. (2012), was found to be cyclical and non-linear, showing how unpredictable the unique value creation path of an individual customer can be. This indicates that a value creation episode can evolve in unique ways depending on the sequence of value creation phases, given that customers may revisit already visited value creation phases (unless resources are not destroyed). In this way, while the study acknowledges the idiosyncrasies of individual customers’ approaches, on the other hand, it provides a theoretically structured view of this inherently idiosyncratic process.

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Wan, Sabri W. M. "Forest recreation use patterns, user behaviour and recreational value in Malaysia." Thesis, Bangor University, 1987. https://research.bangor.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/forest-recreation-use-patterns-user-behaviour-and-recreational-value-in-malaysia(2695dbd3-a060-47e9-9ed6-714937abada7).html.

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The study is concerned with an examination of outdoor recreation at three forest recreation areas situated within and at the periphery of a large and major population region in Peninsular Malaysia. It was undertaken primarily to investigate the features that describe the use of these areas and to estimate the use-demand and quantification of consumers' surplus. Initially, a brief description of forest recreation in Peninsular Malaysia is presented. This is followed by a review of techniques for estimating consumers' surplus, after which it was concluded that an application of the travel cost method was appropriate for this study. An on-site questionnaire survey was used to gather a reasonable amount of user information. The questionnaire surveys carried out were found to be valuable; the information gathered facilitated the description and analysis of the areas' consumption, travel and use patterns and the behaviour of the users. Thus the surveys also provided information which was appropriate for the application of the travel cost technique. Subsequently, a detailed description of user behaviour is presented. Difficulties of the travel cost approach, were identified and addressed through the use of appropriate sample and extra-sample data. Particular attention was paid to the problems of multi-purpose trips, travel time bias and the influence of alternative sites on participation. Problems with functional forms and the weighting of points for the trip demand model were also given considerable attention. It is believed that the model selected in this study is an improvement on previously known models. The resulting estimates of consumers' surplus for the three areas are reasonably acceptable and conform to a priori expectations. Finally, the main conclusions of the thesis are highlighted and some aspects that have a bearing on planning and management issues are discussed along with brief recommendations for further and future research efforts.

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Said, Emanuel. "The value of market research information : how do clients of market research services construct value from their usage of market research information?" Thesis, Cranfield University, 2011. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/7096.

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A significant global industry, the provision of market research is a business to business service where market research organizations provide market research information to customers, who in turn, need to make informed decisions about marketing strategy alternatives. This study involves a systematic literature review of the influences impacting on the use of market research information. It expounds the conditions, factors and mechanisms that induce or hinder the process of use among client organization users. In so doing, this investigation provides a descriptive assessment of the body of knowledge from which this study draws. This study proposes a theoretical framework of the reported conditions, factors and mechanisms that enhance or hinder the process at different stages of usage of market research. Influences like (user) organization’s strategy, structure, market philosophy, stance in the market and access to market research suppliers have a direct effect on how user organizations seek and apply market research information. The process of usage features seven phases, contrasting against the four or five phases that are typically reported in literature. Application of market research information in marketing decisions may follow one of three possible types of application: instrumental, conceptual and symbolic. This study also explores the various limitations in our understanding of this phenomenon. Relying on a number of published positivist contributions, our understanding of this process is composed of narrow views of specific causalities, each investigated independently from the rest. These result in an incomplete, inconsistent picture about a phenomenon. For instance, influences impacting on transformation and dissemination steps remain largely unknown, as are the factors impacting on application of market research information like symbolic use. Equally, published positivist researchoften relies on a single informant approach that is assumed to represent the reality of an entire organization. The study concludes with considerations about future work that may form part of my PhD research, intended to address a selection of gaps in the existing body of knowledge about this phenomenon.

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Taylor, Calvin Francis. "The role of the value-form in the labour theory of value." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1991. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3503/.

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It is repeatedly claimed that the labour theory of value is fatally flawed. Whether as a result of this claim, or as is more likely a change in the intellectual atmosphere, there has in recent years been little debate of the merits and weaknesses of the labour theory of value. The principal objective of this thesis is to re-examine a number of the flaws more widely debated in an earlier period and to show that the claim that the labour theory of value is flawed is false. The thesis claims that the work of Marx represents thus far the single most important contribution to the development of the labour theory of value. This contribution is contrasted with that of the Classical political economists, most notably Adam Smith and David Ricardo. An examination is made of the works of Smith and Ricardo which demonstrates that the flaws within their labour theory of value are attributable to the shortcomings of their wider theoretical endeavours. In particular, they fail to identify the nature of value-creating labour; examine the role of the value-form and explain cogently the quantitative determination of value. Marx's work is then examined with each of these points as a pivot of reference. The thesis concludes by drawing the three strands of analysis together to demonstrate that, against a history of criticism, Marx's theory presents a structured coherent whole, largely immune to the criticisms made of it, both from without and within the Marxist tradition of political economy.

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Burlingame, Carol Elaine. "Assessing current agriculture use value in farmland preservation." Ohio : Ohio University, 2004. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1089818218.

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Simões, Paula Marisa Nunes. "The recreational use value of a national forest." Doctoral thesis, FEUC, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10316/23334.

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Tese de doutoramento em Economia, apresentada á Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra , sob a orientação de Luís Cruz e Eduardo Barata.
National forests and woodlands are some of the environmental public resources that provide a diversity of goods and services to society. Supporting, regulating, provisioning and cultural services are all known to contribute to human well-being. As these services are not traded in regular markets because of the public or semi-public characteristics of the resources involved, their values are largely unknown. However, a deeper knowledge of the related benefits’ value is expected to help to enhance management practices. The research described in this dissertation concentrates on the analysis of the benefits related to recreational activities enjoyed in national forests and in understanding the demand for these environmental services. The research was motivated by the perception that these values are largely unknown, particularly in Portugal. Bussaco National Forest was chosen as the case study area, but the conclusions are likely to be adapted and extended to other national forests. Two non-market valuation techniques, the travel cost method and the contingent behaviour method, are used to estimate the recreational use benefits. The travel cost method, which belongs to the group of revealed preferences techniques, is used to analyse the actual behaviour and enables us to estimate recreational use values in current conditions. The individual version of the method is identified as the most accurate in the present context as we analyse the recreational demand of a forest visited by people living at different distances from it. From the management perspective, it is also important to address how people would behave if new hypothetical conditions were to be observed. It is particularly important to predict the effects on demand resulting from changes in forest access costs and from the deterioration of current conservation conditions due to a forest fire. The contingent behaviour method, which belongs to the group of stated preferences techniques, is applied jointly with the travel cost method to assess the effects of these changes. Count data models corrected for endogenous stratification and ordered models are used in the analysis of the actual visit behaviour. Travel cost, substitute cost, income per capita, visit motivations, on-site time and visit distribution during the year were identified as the main explanatory variables of demand. Price and income elasticity of demand computed using count data models are low. This result is supported by the ordered models, as results show that the change in income/price must be quite significant to modify demand levels. Considering only the current users, the forest recreational use value estimated for the past three years is about €106 700. A count data model and a pseudo-panel specification is used to combine contingent and observed travel behaviour. The analysis reveals that visitors are sensitive to price and quality changes and that in the forest fire scenario the intended number of trips would be seriously reduced, thus imposing an important welfare loss. There are evidences of hypothetical bias in answers to future behaviour if current conditions do not change and signals of strategic bias when changes in management options are in view. There are no signals of these biases when the quality changes are exogenous.

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Burlingame, Carol E. "Assessing Current Agriculture Use Value in Farmland Preservation." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2004. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1089818218.

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Häggquist, Elisabeth. "The Economic Value and Use of Geological Information." Doctoral thesis, Luleå tekniska universitet, Samhällsvetenskap, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-65731.

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The overall purpose of this thesis is to investigate the economic value and use of geological information. Earthobservations of a geological nature, may have profound impacts on peoples everyday lives. Geological informationplays a key role in addressing the challenges of sustainable development, and contributes to improved decisionmakingprocesses related to, for instance, land degradation and water protection. Still, few have researched theeconomic values attached to such information. This thesis contains an introduction and five self-contained papers.Paper (I) provides a review of previous research addressing the economic value of geological information andother earth observations, as well as, related products, services and infrastructure. The paper also identifiesimportant lessons and topics that require increased attention in future research. The review of prior research showsthat significant economic benefits can be attached to the use of geological information. Still, it is often difficult tocompare results across studies since they differ in scope and make alternative assumptions concerning whichsectors to cover. Furthermore, previous research is not uniform in its treatment of potential (rather than onlyexisting) users, and it employs varying conceptions of avoided costs. The paper concludes that future researchshould devote more attention to the public and experience good characteristics of geological information and othertypes of earth observations, thus highlighting the preconditions for information adoption as well as addressing therole of potential users.Papers (II) and (III) investigate the determinants of adopting geological information in the public sector, with anemphasis on Swedish municipalities. Paper (II) contributes to the literature by providing theoretical explanationsand empirical findings on various individual and organizational factors influencing the adoption of geologicalinformation. The paper employs an information adoption model based on literature on diffusion of innovation. Itis estimated using data collected from 677 officials in all Swedish municipalities. The results indicate thatperceived usefulness and educational efforts have the largest influence on the adoption decision followed by agender effect. Furthermore, the results also show that organizational effects exist at the working unit level, butthere appear to be no spatial interactions across municipal boundaries.Paper (III) further investigates the adoption of geological information in the public sector by considering whetheranalyses of user patterns can be improved by considering an interrelated model estimation involving two types ofgeoinformation. The empirical tests focus on whether there are gender differences in how peer advice affects theuse of geoinformation. The information adoption model is estimated using probit and bivariate probits. Overall theresults indicate a more accurate prediction pattern when a secondary geoinformation decision was included, thussuggesting that different types of geoinformation should be analyzed jointly. The officials at Swedishmunicipalities tend to use both types of geoinformation, thus alluding to a demand for combined geoinformationproducts among the target population. Finally, there is evidence of women’s decisions to use geoinformation beingaffected by peer advice.Paper (IV) focuses on the economic value of hydrogeological information, namely water quality. The willingnessto pay (WTP) for reduced health risks following the exposure to emerging contaminants and microbial outbreaksin drinking water is assessed. Emerging contaminants, such as highly fluorinated substances (e..g., PFOA andPFOS), have been found in drinking water post treatment on a global level. The drinking water is the main sourceof exposure for humans. The WTP is assessed through a choice experiment approach, which also accounts fordifferences in perceptions between PFASs and microbial outbreaks due to parasites or bacteria. Knowledge aboutpublic preferences across different health threats is key to assessing support for policies aimed at reducing suchhealth risks. A majority of the respondents were found to have a higher WTP for reducing the risk of chemicalexposure to PFASs than reducing the corresponding risk of microbial outbreaks.In Paper (IV) it is evident that risk adverse individuals have a higher WTP for reducing health risks of drinkingwater, compared with individuals with other risk preferences. However, there is no consensus in the literature onhow to accurately capture risk preferences beyond financial decisions. Paper (V) therefore discusses thetheoretical assumptions used when measuring risk preferences and whether it is necessary to address domain riskspecific preferences. In order to test if a general risk preference is enough we present a hypothetical experimenton risk preferences for the health and financial domains, respectively. We also consider the design of theexperiment and compare the format with a reduced form to control for potential framing effects. The riskpreferences were elicited using switch multiple price list lotteries with hypothetical payments, and the questionswere adapted to the health domain by framing the lotteries as improvements in current health status using a visualanalogue scale as the reference point. The results show that individual risk preferences tend to be relativelyinconsistent across the two studied domains, and that the respondents appear to be more risk averse in the healthdomain than in the financial. The majority of the respondents tend to give too much weight to low-probabilityevents, which is consistent with cumulative prospect theory.

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Nebe, Stephan. "Value-based decision making and alcohol use disorder." Doctoral thesis, Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden, 2018. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-233855.

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Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a widespread mental disease denoted by chronic alcohol use despite significant negative consequences for a person’s life. It affected more than 14 million persons in Europe alone and accounted for more than 5% of deaths worldwide in 2011-2012. Understanding the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms driving the development and maintenance of pathological alcohol use is key to conceptualizing new programs for prevention and therapy of AUD. There has been a variety of etiological models trying to describe and relate these mechanisms. Lately, the view of AUD as a disorder of learning and decision making has received much support proposing dual systems to be at work in AUD – one system being deliberate, forward-planning, and goal-directed and the other one reflexive, automatic, and habitual. Both systems supposedly work in parallel in a framework of value-based decision making and their balance can be flexibly adjusted in healthy agents, while a progressive imbalance favoring habitual over goal-directed choice strategies is assumed in AUD. This imbalance has been theoretically associated to neural adaptations to chronic alcohol use in corticostriatal pathways involved in reward processing, especially in ventral striatum. However, these theoretical models are grounded strongly on animal research while empirical research in the human domain remains rather sparse and inconclusive. Furthermore, alterations in value-based decision-making processes and their neural implementation might not only result from prolonged alcohol misuse but may also represent premorbid interindividual differences posing a risk factor for the development of AUD. Therefore, I here present three studies investigating the relation of alcohol use with the balance between goal-directed and habitual decision systems and with parameters modulating option valuation processes of these systems, namely delay, risk, and valence of option outcomes. To separate the investigation of these decision processes as predisposing risk for or consequence of alcohol use, two samples were examined: one sample of 201 eighteen-year-old men being neither abstinent from nor dependent on alcohol as well as one sample of 114 AUD patients in detoxification treatment and 98 control participants matched for age, sex, educational background, and smoking status. Both samples had a baseline assessment of several behavioral tasks, questionnaires, and neuropsychological testing and were followed-up over one year to examine drinking trajectories in the sample of young men and relapse in detoxified patients. The behavioral tasks included a sequential choice task using model-free and model-based reinforcement learning as operationalization of habitual and goal-directed decision making, respectively, during functional magnetic resonance imaging and four tasks probing participants’ delay discounting, probability discounting for gains and losses, and loss aversion. Study 1 presents the cross-sectional analysis of the sequential choice task in relation to baseline drinking behavior of the young-adult sample. These analyses did not reveal an association between non-pathological alcohol use and habitual and goal-directed control on neither a behavioral nor neural level except for one exploratory finding of increased BOLD responses to model-free habitual learning signals in participants with earlier onset of drinking. Study 2 examined the same task in AUD patients compared to control participants showing no difference in behavioral control or neural correlates between those groups. However, prospectively relapsing AUD patients showed lower BOLD responses associated to model-based goal-directed control than abstaining patients and control participants. Additionally, the interaction of goal-directed control and positive expectancies of alcohol effects discriminated subsequently relapsing and abstaining patients revealing an increased risk of relapse for those patients who showed higher levels of goal-directed control and low alcohol expectancies or low levels of goal-directedness and high expectancies. Study 3 examined modulating features of goal-directed and habitual option valuation – delay, risk, and valence of options – in association to alcohol use in the young-adult sample and AUD status in the sample of patients and matched control participants on a cross-sectional as well as longitudinal level. This study revealed no relation of delay, risk, and loss aversion with current alcohol use and consumption one year later in the young men. In contrast, AUD patients showed systematically more impulsive choice behavior than control participants in all four tasks: a higher preference for immediate rewards, more risky choices when facing gains and less when facing losses, and lower loss aversion. Furthermore, a general tendency to overestimate the probability of uncertain losses could predict relapse risk over the following year in AUD patients. Taken together, these results do not support the hypothesis that mechanisms of value-based decision making might be predisposing risk factors for alcohol consumption. The findings for patients already suffering from AUD are mixed: while choice biases regarding delays, risks, and valence of option outcomes seem to be altered systematically in AUD, there was no indication of an imbalance of habitual and goal-directed control. These findings challenge the assumption of a generalized outcome-unspecific shift of behavioral control from goal-directed to habitual strategies during the development of AUD and point towards several possible future avenues of research to modify or extend the theoretical model.

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Vlček, Michal. "Practical differences in business valuation using the market value, value in use and the value for price negotiations." Master's thesis, Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze, 2010. http://www.nusl.cz/ntk/nusl-82035.

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This thesis aims to explain the basic characteristics of valuation method in practice use. The first chapter is about basic character of each method of valuation and factors which influence its applicability. The second chapter mentions estimation of market value/appraisal, includes affecting factors. Then, the third and fourth parts aim to comparing these appraisals (market. vs. price bargaining, subjective and objective, complex appraisal) and price formation for price bargaining in the Czech a EU market. Chain of model facets in appraisal is demonstrated by fair example in the fifth part. Mainly prefeasibility appraisal and bargaining based on the categories of value are followed. These entire complexes comparing of advantages and disadvantages of each category of value with a focus on valuation methods, in particular the consequences of their use are gone to conclusion of my thesis. At the very end of the thesis there are the main points of practical differences and their benefits to it and their contributions summarized.

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Antonopoulou, Katerina. "Digital innovations with inherent uncertainties : from the justification of value to the articulation of a value proposition." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/77677/.

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The establishment of business models for digital technology innovations of uncertain market potential is often seen as challenging because of the difficulties in conceptualizing the value of such ventures. There is, however, limited empirical material on how digital entrepreneurs and innovators assess the emerging value of a novel digital technology in practice in the early stages of its development. This thesis, therefore, seeks to investigate how the value of digital innovations with inherent uncertainties about the lack of clearly determined use and addressable markets is justified and how a value proposition is articulated in an emergent way during the design and development process of such innovations, and the implications this has for dealing with the challenges of establishing a business model in such a setting. In particular, I aim to answer: (a) how do the actors involved in the development of digital innovations justify the value of their innovation, (b) how is the value proposition of digital technology innovation with indeterminate use and addressable market arrived at in the development of such innovations, and (c) how does an emergent value proposition contribute to more generally on the theorization and development of business models when there is lack of clear idea of the use and an addressable market. This doctoral research explores these issues through an in-depth study of two ‘serious games’ development companies that seek to develop digital games for businesses. I argue that through mutual adjustment and reconciliation of different value elements, clarity and stability is brought to the articulation of value proposition, which is crucial to the eventual development and drawing-up of a formal business model. The contributions I make namely are: (a) providing insights into a socioeconomic justification of value for digital innovations (b) conceptualizing how a value proposition is articulated, (c) providing new insights into the relationship between value proposition and business model, and (d) introducing a new theoretical approach to the study of value proposition and business model development drawing from the pragmatics of justification.

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Kirk, Jacqueline Louise. "Perceptions of value intertwined : the perceived value of Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index : 'assemblages of worth' in evolution." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/53660/.

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In recent years there has been an increase in metrics and indices measuring corporate social responsibility (CSR) (SuatainAbility, 2010; IBE, 2013). In legitimating the premise of these metrics focus has centred on the effects of inclusion, either in regard to financial impact for the firm (Beurden and Gössling, 2008; Griffin and Mahon, 1997), validity in gaining and conveying legitimacy (Chatterji et al, 2007; Agle and Kelly, 2001; Font et al, 2012; Graafland et al, 2004), or social impact in promoting responsible business practices (Slager et al, 2010; Slager, 2012; Adam and Shavit, 2007; Scarlet and Kelly, 2009). Yet, arguably these tools are now institutionalised elements of CSR (Waddock, 2008), and thus focus is no longer centred on gaining legitimacy, but rather on retaining it, as they 'face the need to evolve ... in the context of the changing demands of constituents and environmental change' (Durand & McGuire, 2005, p.168). However, little is known about how these effects (financial, social and validity) impact the valuation dynamics associated with participation in these tools over time. This thesis aims to fill this gap by exploring processes of legitimation and critique of participation in Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index (BiTC's CRI). Through the lens of Boltanski and Thévenot's economies of worth (2006), the thesis examines the 'orders of worth' drawn upon in legitimating and critiquing participation in the CRI over time. Methodology is abductive, with data and extant theory explored simultaneously so as to establish contributions through a mutually-informed comprehension of what the data is a 'case of' (Tavory & Timmermans, 2014, p.5). Research-theorising applies Peircean semiotics (Peirce, 1909), by which, extant literature and theorising are applied, tested, and either set aside from/or built-upon, when set against the data of the empirical case. Data collection is qualitative, consisting of observations (4 formal and numerous informal), interviews (68) and documentary analysis. The research ultimately draws on Boltanski and Thévenot's Economies of Worth (2006), and the notion of 'composite assemblages', developed further by Mailhot & Langley (2017), Gond et al (2017) and Taupin (2012). The thesis supports Taupin's (2012) suggestion; that a rating's legitimacy is based on a collection of 'moral worths' (p.529), and conceptualises this through the 'composite assemblage' advanced by (Mailhot & Langley, 2017). Analysis contributes to scholarly understanding of processes of legitimation, by unpacking the relative 'robustness' of an assemblage, to internal and external 'tests' of worth. In unpacking these processes, the thesis brings together theory from EW, 'substantive and symbolic CSR', materiality, risk, and boundary objects; to uncover a complex 'web' of dynamic central, and peripheral value assemblages, which BiTC staff and participating CR practitioners draw upon, in legitimating and critiquing participation in the CRI.

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Wing, Kathryn Elizabeth. "Nonprofit-business partnership : the social construction of value." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2018. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/51001/.

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The recent burgeoning of academic and practitioner interest in nonprofit-business partnership and other forms of cross-sector social partnership (CSSP) reflects their perceived importance as mechanisms for creating value, by addressing intractable social, economic and environmental problems (Austin & Seitanidi, 2012a; Le Ber & Branzei, 2010a; Porter & Kramer, 2011; Selsky & Parker, 2005). The literature identifies an emerging trend over the past few decades towards strategic nonprofit-business dyadic partnerships, whose stated aim is, at least in part, the creation of social value, alongside organizational value for the participating organizations (Seitanidi & Crane, 2009; Vock, Van Dolen & Kolk, 2013; Waddock, 1988). This research reconceptualizes value as a socially constructed, discursively constituted concept. It tracks the evolution of a time-limited dyadic nonprofit-business partnership between a credit card company and a young people’s charity in the United Kingdom, in real time. The empirical work commenced at the very outset of the PhD, progressing in tandem with the exploration of relevant literatures. The initial research question was intentionally broad, with sub-questions emerging inductively from the data analysis. The overarching research question is: “How do partners involved in nonprofit-business partnership construct value through their discourse?”. This positions the thesis to investigate how partnership talk functions, which is identified as an under-researched aspect of nonprofit-business partnership and other forms of CSSP. The particular perspective on discourse theory adopted for this thesis draws on the work of discursive psychologists, such as Potter and Wetherall (1987), but is also sensitized by post-structuralist ideas. It therefore recognizes the multiplicity of possible interpretations and questions conceptions of value which treat it as an objective concept, existing outside of discourse. It combines ethnographic techniques with discourse analysis, taking full advantage of the high level of pre-negotiated access to this case. This enables the detailed analysis of partnership talk to be integrated with an ethnographic sensitivity to context. This research opens up the ‘black box’ of partnership talk to reveal the micro-level discursive practices through which the partners deploy their communicative skills to construct the value of the partnership. In this thesis, partnership talk is found to be characteristically both collaborative (as opposed to competitive) and asymmetrical (in terms of its structure). However, where the partners engage in joint planning activity and the funding relationship is not salient, the talk becomes more symmetrical, with both partners contributing to the dialogue on a more equal basis, thus more conducive to the co-creation of value. The findings capture discursive practices involved in aligning for value, building value and affirming value in collaborative partnership talk. Where the partnership talk becomes misaligned, for example, where tensions or sensitivities arise, the partners employ various discursive practices to defend and repair the value of the partnership and to avoid overt conflict. A key contribution of this research is a multi-level Value Construction Model, which is grounded in the close analysis of partnership talk. This is not a positivistic or prescriptive model, but rather a descriptive and explanatory model, based on patterns discovered inductively in partnership talk data and recognising the diversity of cases and research settings and the complexity of multi-party partnership talk.

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Poots, Alan. "Quantifying ecological and economic value of land use patterns." Thesis, University of Reading, 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.511672.

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This thesis is concerned with the study of land use pattern, and landscape value in terms of ecological and economic components, using Classification And Regression Tree analysis and a choice experiment to quantify the ecological and economic values of land use pattern respectively. The Chiltern Hills and the Red Kite (Milvus milvus) are chosen for study, as they are an important landscape and species within the UK, as recognised by various legislations, and are readily identifiable. A Classification Tree model of the Red Kite nest occurrence in the Chiltern Hills in the UK is determined and applied to future land use scenarios, derived from Reading University’s Land Use Allocation Model (LUAM). A Model Tree model of the Red Kite nest abundance is determined and applied to the same scenarios. The population is deemed to be stable in the face of divergent land use scenarios, and the reestablishment is thus opined to be successful, having created a sustainable population. A questionnaire survey of Chiltern Hills users is conducted to determine the characteristics of the users, and features of the landscape deemed important in making a day trip. The results are used to inform the creation of the variables and levels of those variables for use within a choice experiment. A choice experiment is conducted to determine the values of site features in terms of landscape, species, and available facilities for the recreational use of the countryside. The Red Kite, hilltops, and woodlands are valued by the public. Willingness to Travel estimates of the attributes are plotted to a map, which may be the first time this has occurred from choice experiment estimates. Willingness to Pay estimates are also derived, and used to suggest that the re-establishment has recouped its costs.

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Airaksinen, Tom, and Erik E. Byström. "User and Business Value : A Dual-Stakeholder Perspective on IT Systems." Thesis, Linköping University, Department of Computer and Information Science, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-8376.

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When discussing the value of an information technology (IT) system, the most common approach is to take on the perspective of either the organization introducing the IT system or the end users. The purpose of this thesis has been to study the values of both stakeholder groups in order to define what system characteristics are the most desirable from a dual-stakeholder point of view.

Through a series of contextual inquiries, interviews and questionnaires, the value perceptions of end users and IT managers at a large European rail operator were investigated. The results of the study point to a high degree of similarity in the value perceptions of end users and IT managers, although the former were generally focused on short-term value while the latter also were concerned about long-term, sustaining value.

The findings are applicable to practitioners wishing to take a dual perspective on IT value as well as academics looking to find touch points between usability and business strategy. In the context of end users and IT managers, the most important system characteristics that maximize value for both stakeholder groups were found to be Availability, Recoverability, Efficiency, Reliability and Future Proofness.

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Sheriff, Mohamed Abdul. "The value of information in organisations : a study of information use situations as contexts of value." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2000. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/1577/.

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The notion that the value of information is significantly dependent on the context of use is widely accepted in information systems research. Context is however often conceived as given and exogenous to the use activity and hence beyond the control of the user. This study takes a dynamic and holistic view of context in which the purposes, processes and effects of information use are seen as inextricable from the structural and environmental factors that mediate such use in organisations. The concept of Information Use Situation (lUS) is employed to represent this view of context. An lUS framework is developed and used as a guide to explore, describe, and interpret a number of information use situations in four organisations in the service sector. The study draws on several context studies in information systems, work motivation and self-interest theories in social psychology, and a number of philosophical propositions on the nature of information and value, in highlighting the key features of the situations studied. The findings suggest that, in general, information use situations affect the value-in-use of information in at least three ways, by acting as filters, as mediators of use behaviour and as frames of reference for evaluating informational activities. The main contribution of this thesis to information systems research is in proposing and exploring the concept of information use situation as a more holistic view of context when studying the value of information in organisation. The thesis concludes that organisations need to recognise the diversity of information use situations they feature and to appreciate that the value of information depends significantly on the nature of the situation in which it is used. This requires managers to pay as much attention to the processes by which employees experience and appropriate information as to the quality of the formal information used if they are to realise the optimum value of their information resources.

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Ahumada, Pablo Emiliano. "The Theoretical Relevance Of An Updated Marxian Theory Of Commodity In Economics." Master's thesis, Lincoln University. Commerce Division, 2007. http://theses.lincoln.ac.nz/public/adt-NZLIU20080319.150942/.

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How does material production become socially recognised in capitalism? This is a fundamental question to be addressed in capitalist production, since material production takes place privately and independently in a global and atomistic system. This thesis shows that the question is tackled by Marx in the first three chapters of Capital. The process of social recognition of material production is that of the realisation of work carried out privately and independently as part of the social labour. For Marx this occurs through the private and independent work becoming objective social labour as the substance of the value of commodities, and through the latter finding its necessary developed mercantile expression in the price form of commodities. Therefore, private and independent work becomes social labour through the recognition of its product as equivalent to a certain amount of money. The thesis argues that Marxs answer is powerfully insightful but flawed because it did not succeed in fully characterising the historical specificity of commodity. Commodity is not merely the differentiated unity of use value and value but of use value and mercantile use value, and of labour value and mercantile value. The former dialectic is immediate and distinguishes between the utility of commodity as a direct means of consumption or production and that as a means of exchange, fully determining the behaviour of the private and independent commodity producer. The latter dialectic is objective and distinguishes between commodity as the embodiment of the social labour necessary to reproduce it and as the embodiment of command over social labour, enabling the adjustment of the productive structure. Both dialectics are mediated by the mercantile form of value, which allows the indirect expression of labour value as the gravitational force of the system. The theory of commodity offered in this thesis, unlike that of Marx, consistently hinges on the atomistic private and independent commodity producer. The thesis shows that commodity production is the organisation of societys labour for its material reproduction, just as in any previous mode of production. The discovery of the generic aspect of commodity production breaks the false immediate link between production and supply, and that between the labour theory of value and both the supply-side-determined theory of price and the single-factor theory of production. The thesis also shows that the mercantile form of value is what allows societys labour to become an objective and autonomous materially abstract substance regulating the adjustment of the productive system under the form of material signals. This is the specific aspect of a global mode of production comprised of free and independent individuals. The mercantile form of value is thus Adam Smiths invisible hand. Finally, the thesis analyses some implications of the framework with regard to the analysis of monetary phenomena, capital accumulation and sustainable development, and reviews the most popular Marxian topic in Economics: the transformation of values into prices of production.

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Rozman, Darija. "The practical value of classification summaries in information management and integration." UDC Consortium, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/199893.

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The author discusses the value and importance of using short extracts from classification tables to support subject access management. While detailed classification is time consuming, complex and costly, the classification of documents into broader classes is a simpler and easier way of achieving meaningful and useful subject organization. The paper outlines the role of this type of classification use in bibliographic listings, in the organization and representation of physical documents, in the presentation of web resources, in statistical reports in collection development and use, and, last but not least, in information integration in a networked environment. This approach of subject classification is illustrated by the Slovenian union catalogue COBISS/OPAC in which a standardized set of UDC codes is used. The author emphasizes the importance of this outline for the homogeneity and continuity of the use of UDC in Slovenia and explains how this may be weakened by the changes in the top level of UDC.

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Baxter, James Stanley, and james baxter@rmit edu au. "Rural Land Use and Value In Northern Victoria 1880 - 1960." RMIT University. Property, Construction & Project Management, 2001. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20091008.135904.

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This thesis examines rural development processes, and in particular the impact over time of infrastructure investment on locational value in a farming community in northern Victoria, Australia. Correlation between infrastructure investment and land values was found to change over time, with the full cost of infrastructure provision not reflected in increased land values. Its impact depended on the type of infrastructure, and was linked to technological changes in agricultural production that led to different demands. The study also revealed the complexity of land ownership and use during the development of typical northern Victorian farmland, and the patterns of land value that emerged. As an historical study of land development it provides a deeper understanding of rural valuation methodology and sales analysis. It also contributes to the theory of land development, and in particular rural land-use and value.

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Telhaj, Shqiponje. "The construction and use of value-added indicators in education." Thesis, Staffordshire University, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.414804.

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Perry, Thomas. "The validity, interpretation and use of school value-added measures." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2016. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/6773/.

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This thesis examines the validity of school value-added measures and the validity of arguments for their interpretation and use. The opening chapters review the development of school value added measures, existing evidence on their properties and validity and their current use in research, policy and practice. The empirical results are based on four studies using English National Pupil Database data and a large, nationally-representative dataset of teacher-assessed attainment data for English pupils aged from 7 to 13. The findings all relate to the properties of school value-added measures and the seriousness of a number of threats to their validity. The four empirical studies examine the following issues: observable bias and error, inter-method reliability when compared to estimates from a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity design, stability of school value added scores and of specific cohorts over time, and consistency of school value-added scores within cohorts and between different school cohorts at a single point in time. The closing chapters discuss the validity of value-added measures in general and in relation to the areas of use identified. Individually and collectively, the results advance understanding of numerous threats to validity and have substantial implications for the use of value-added measures in research, policy and practice.

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Wolf, Maxim Viktor. "Value creation through strategic social media use in HR management." Thesis, Birkbeck (University of London), 2018. http://bbktheses.da.ulcc.ac.uk/358/.

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The aim of this research is to understand how social media use is impacting communication processes within organisations. This study focuses on the HR communication process: traditionally, a one-way broadcast from management to employees with limited feedback mechanisms and limited employees' participation in content creation. Social media, as a current IT phenomenon, penetrates personal, professional and political lives. One of the hallmarks of social media is its embedded democratisation: access, means, and ability to "speak" for everyone. Social media's democratic approach to communication challenges established top-down organisational communications. This research analyses social media use in organisations to identify under which conditions social media use becomes strategic and leads to the development of new capabilities. The source data for the qualitative comparative case study is collected in a series of one-to-one and group interviews and is then analysed within the framework of three major theoretical lenses. First, the view of HRM as a communication system is used as a setting for the data analysis. Second, rhetorical practices for internal communications were used for describing how social media is used within HRM. Finally, Resource Based View is used as an explanatory lens for the impact and value of social media use in the intra- and inter-organisational communication process. The research has theoretical and practical implications. The findings challenge the top-down approach to organisational communications and show that democratised social media use can lead to improved relationships within organisations. Contingent on the purpose and the level of embeddedness in the business processes, social media use can lead to the development of capabilities, and thus become strategic. The practical implications stem from the recognition of the potential of social media to (1) establish new and unexpected relationships between employees and (2) support the emergence of new capabilities to combine and deploy human and information resources.

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Wikner, Sarah. "Value co-creation as practice : On a supplier's capabilities in the value generation process." Doctoral thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, ESOL (Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Organization, Leadership), 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-14686.

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How can suppliers contribute to their customers’ value creating processes? Although this question is crucial for firms’ collaboration with customers and for their competitiveness, it is not clear how firms co-create value with their customers. Research on value co-creation has increased notably the last years. However few empirical studies have been conducted on how value is co-created in the day-to-day activities. Therefore this thesis addresses value co-creation with a strategy-as-practice perspective. The strategy-as-practice enables to link micro-level activities with the structures in which they are carried out as well as the strategic outcomes they lead to. In order to understand the process of value co-creation, a supplier and four customer companies are studied. The empirical context is a technical knowledge-intensive business service company providing its competence in product development and operating in a highly competitive environment. Focus is put on how the supplier’s processes fulfil customers’ requirements and expectations. The notion of value-in-use from the service logic forms a starting point in the analysis of customer’s requirements. Dynamic capabilities in the strategy field is used to analyse the supplier’s processes. Based on interviews, annual reports, observations and workshops, the empirical material indicates that the supplier’s processes play a crucial role for the customer. The findings in this thesis show that value-in-use is a contextual and compound concept that can take different forms as “values-in-use”, “postpone value” and “value-after-use". Understanding customers’ value-in-use requires an open dialogue between the customer and the supplier. In this sense, processes that help capture the more intangible and unconscious parts of a relationship, and the roles the parties take during the process are necessary. A finding in this thesis is that culture enhances certain processes at the expense of others. Another finding is that dynamic capabilities need to be more than well-performed processes in order for the customer to differentiate the firm from competitors. Dynamic capabilities necessitate the combination of smooth processes, understanding of customers’ value-in-use as well as managerial skills in order for the supplier to co-create value, and this in a competitive way.

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Tilley, Jason A. "The value of mixing uses: an empirical analysis of mixed-use developments in Boston, MA." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/106752.

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Thesis: S.M. in Real Estate Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Real Estate Development in conjunction with the Center for Real Estate, 2016.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 45-46).
Modem mixed-use development has gained significant popularity since its conceptual introduction in the 1960s. Numerous benefits and risks have been elaborated on throughout the literature, but even today little empirical evidence exists to support these suppositions. Additionally, major data providers to the real estate industry, such as NCREIF, NAREIT, RCA, and CoStar, do not currently provide comprehensive data that identifies mixed-use developments. As such, financial analysis associated with mixed-use developments often segregates the project into its constituent uses and evaluates each use's performance individually, without much consideration, if any, for potential synergies. This study creates a database that allows for evaluation of transaction prices against different use-mixes for Boston, Massachusetts. We analyze this data for a better understanding of how and where premiums exist in this market, and to confirm the overall validity of our approach so that the methodology can be expanded to other markets. With over 2,200 commercial property transactions from Boston, Massachusetts in the database, we conclude the following: First - location matters, and better amenitized neighborhoods (i.e. mixed-use neighborhoods) are well correlated with higher property values. Second - value in mixed-use buildings is likely derived from higher density and/or lease-up speed rather than operational premiums (e.g. higher NOI or lower perceived risk). Third - larger master-planned, mixed-use developments with 3 or more uses tend to be located in less amenitized (i.e. less desirable) locations, and benefits associated with the mix of uses provided is insufficient to completely overcome the negative externalities of the general location. As such, these developments typically under-perform against the general market.
by Jason A. Tilley.
S.M. in Real Estate Development

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26

Fantino, Davide. "Innovation activity, R&D incentives, competition and market value." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2010. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/166/.

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This thesis examines some characteristics of the interaction between innovation activity of firms, in particular R&D, and economic system. The first main chapter analyses a mechanism of interaction between R&D and market structure, in a horizontally differentiated market where firms invest to increase differentiation among varieties. R&D activity declines over time; prices, output and short-run profits of firms producing the differentiated product move towards the higher steadystate values, production of the non-differentiated good falls. The increasing specialization improves the overall utility of consumers. The comparison with the socially optimal solution shows that firms underinvest in R&D. The second main chapter evaluates the effectiveness of the incentives to development of innovations provided by the Italian Ministry for Economic Development through the Fund for Technological Innovation. We analyse the subsidies to firms supplied by the general and the special sections of this Fund, using a difference-in-differences framework and a regression discontinuity one. We find no hints of effect on investments, dimension, labour productivity, labour costs, financial structure and profitability. For the general section, the effect on assets is positive, suggesting that firms used the subsidy to finance current expenditures. The third main chapter examines the relationship between R&D and market value of firms. We find high heterogeneity in the coefficients of different US manufacturing sectors between 1975 and 1995; sometimes the effects of current R&D on market value are very small or negative. We develop a model with uncertain R&D, where we decompose market value in two components, due to the already concretized assets and to work-in-progress R&D. Risk aversion may cause different evaluations of these components: when investors are risk-averse and managers maximize the long-run firm value, the risk associated with work-in-progress R&D reduces the short-run firm value even if its expected long-run value grows.

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Mhaladi, Refilwe. "The therapeutic value of Aloe Ferox Mill." Thesis, Bloemfontein: Central University of Technology, Free State, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/11462/672.

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Thesis (M. Tech. (Biomedical Technology)) -- Central University of Technology, 2014
The rising costs of health care, the outbreak of drug resistant organisms, health depleting lifestyles and the risky side effects of currently used drugs are world-wide problems. This has led to the search for novel drugs and drug leads. Traditional healers and other individuals across the globe possess unlimited knowledge on the healing powers of different plants that has been passed on through generations. This knowledge together with scientific investigations can lead to the eradication of most of the diseases either by treatment or prevention. Aloe ferox Mill. is one of the plants that have gained a lot of interest from the pharmaceutical industry. The plant has over 80 documented medicinal uses. These include treatment of impotence and infertility, sexually transmitted infections, arthritis, hypertension, leukaemia, bacterial and fungal infections. It is also known as a blood purifier, widely used as a laxative and anti- inflammatory agent. More research is required to discover more about A. ferox and its benefits to health as well as to investigate its potential for the development of novel drugs. The current study was focused at investigating the anti- cancer, anti- microbial antidiabetic, cytotoxic activities and phytochemical composition of leaf extracts of A. ferox. Three cancer cell lines namely: breast (MCF7), colon (HCT116) and prostate (PC3) cancer cell lines were used to investigate the anticancer activity of the extracts using the Sulforhodamine B (SRB) method. To determine the anti- diabetic activity of the plant extracts the C2C12 and Chang cell in- vitro models of glucose uptake were used. The micro- dilution technique was IV used to evaluate the antibacterial and antifungal activity of the extract. The safety of these extracts against normal human foetal lung fibroblasts (W138), Chang and C2C12 cells was done by through the SRB and the MTT methods. To determine the phytochemical profile of A. ferox the DPPH radical scavenging and the Folin Ciocalteu methods were used to test the antioxidant activity and the total phenolic content of the different extracts respectively. Different methods were used to determine the presence of phytochemicals such as steroids, saponins, alkaloids, carbohydrates and flavonoids. LCMS was also done to detect the elemental composition of the plant extracts. According to the CSIR criteria A. ferox was inactive against the cancer cell lines used. It however exhibited antioxidant activity even at low concentrations, with an EC50 of 0.865 ± 0.783. The methanol extract showed more phenolic content than the dichloromethane and aqueous extracts at a concentration of 5mg/ml. It is believed that the antioxidant activity correlates with the phenolic content and quality of the phenols present in the plant and more assays have to be done to prove this hypothesis. Other phytochemicals found in the extract included saponins, steroids, alkaloids as well as flavonoids. Both the methanol and aqueous extracts of A. ferox caused a significant increase in glucose uptake by C2C12 cells but caused a slightly decreased uptake by the Chang cells. The plant extracts inhibited the growth of Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus pneumonia, Escherichia coli and Candida albicans at a concentration of 15mg/ml extract. Candida tropicalis and Escherichia faecalis were resistant to A. ferox extracts. Finally the extracts showed no toxic activity against the normal foetal lung fibroblasts, Chang and C2C12 cells validating the safety of this plant for human use. V The results in conjunction with literature findings show A. ferox to be a promising source of drugs and therapeutic agents. Due to the fact that traditional healers already rely on it as treatment for different ailments, it is important that the safety of the plant for use has been validated though other studies and clinical trial still need to be done to fully confirm this. All the information gathered also showed this plant to be of great benefit against major health problems, responsible for millions of deaths each year such as cancer, cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, and diabetes. There is however still a great need for more investigation to be done on this plant against a vast majority of organisms and diseases so as to fully benefit from it.

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Тараненко, Олександр Олексійович, and Віталій Олександрович Животенко. "Prospects for the use of value-oriented management in tourism enterprises." Thesis, ПУЕТ, 2019. http://dspace.puet.edu.ua/handle/123456789/7575.

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Lange, Sandra, Karsten Seibert, and Boÿs Jacques du. "The use of Target Costing and Value Engineering at ALSTOM Company." Thesis, Linnaeus University, Linnaeus School of Business and Economics, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-6498.

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Abstract

Title: The use of Target Costing and Value Engineering at ALSTOM Company

Due date: May 29, 2010

Course: 2FE08E, Bachelor Thesis, 15 Credits

Authors: Sandra Lange, Jacques du Boÿs, Karsten Seibert

Advisor: Paul Scarbrough

Examiner: Jan Alpenberg

Key terms: Value engineering; Target costing; Benchmarking;

Product development process; Stage-Gate System

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify the use of value engineering and target costing at ALSTOM and to compare it to the current theory.

Method: The thesis is built on the case study approach. The empirical data is gathered in semi-structured interviews of ALSTOM employees. To analyse the data, the qualitative method is chosen.

Conclusion: The conclusion of this thesis is that ALSTOM is using a lot of target costing and value engineering tools. The use of these tools differ from department to department, even they have a standardize Stage-Gate process for the product development.

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Wu, X. Y. "The relationship between derivatives' use, firm value and risk : UK evidence." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.544221.

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Financial derivative instruments can be considered as a value enhancing tool to the firms. The aim of our research is to provide a deep analysis of whether the use of derivatives increases firm value to UK non-financial corporations. It analyzes three main areas: (1) what are the determinants of the use of derivatives; (2) does the use of derivatives materially increase firm value; and (3) does the use of derivatives reduce the market risk exposures firms face. It is demonstrated that, in a world with no taxes, no transaction costs, and with fixed investment policies, hedging with derivatives is irrelevant to firm value. However, theory suggests that derivative instruments can increase firm value when the premises of a perfect market have been relaxed, since they can eliminate corporate tax liabilities, financial distress costs, dependence on costly external financing, and agency costs. These propositions are supported by empirical evidence from the UK context where it is shown that firms use derivatives in order to reduce their expected costs of financial distress and enhance their market values. Moreover, we introduced a mixed result on the relationship between the use of derivatives and firm values. We also achieved a degree of success in providing empirical evidence in support of the hypotheses that the use of foreign currency and interest rate derivatives reduces exchange rate and interest rate exposures

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Rhodes, Kevin Robert. "Strategies for Improved Earned Value Management Use by Defense Business Leaders." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/3958.

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Project cost and schedule forecasting accuracy in the defense industry has not significantly changed since the 1960s, making it difficult for defense business leaders to implement successful earned value management (EVM) strategies. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore EVM strategies that Washington, D.C. area defense contractor business leaders used to improve costs and schedule goal accomplishment. The conceptual framework for this study was the earned time theory. Data were collected from semistructured interviews from 5 defense contractor business leaders with demonstrated use of EVM strategy. The review of company documents focused on EVM use with reporting requirements, and archival EVM study analysis supplemented the data from the semistructured interviews. Data were triangulated and inductively analyzed for themes, and member checking was done to ensure credibility of the interpretations. Four themes emerged from the data: the use of EVM data to improve outcomes, the existence of essential strategies, the role of EVM as but a single tool, and the essential engagement of leadership. Findings may contribute to social change because defense business contractor leaders could help improve business performance and return resources for social improvement. Investment in social and environmental improvements can strengthen employee commitment and ultimately ties to the community at large, furthering social improvement.

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Lloyd, Tim. "Present value models of agricultural land prices in England and Wales." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 1992. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/11753/.

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This study employs recently developed techniques in time series econometrics to estimate linear models of equilibrium price determination in a competitive market for durable assets. Motivating this study is the unstructured approach employed in previous land price research, where the theoretical model of agent behaviour is invariably mis-specified or left undeveloped and the empirical model prone to the problems of spurious regression. The joint issues of theoretical and statistical congruence play important roles here. Specifically, a theoretical model is developed in which market participants are assumed to price land using present value methods. At the market level this yields a reduced form expression of equilibrium price determination which can be estimated empirically using aggregate data for England and Wales. The concepts of error correction and cointegration are then investigated and applied to the land price model. A unique long run relationship is identified between real agricultural land prices, inflation and real agricultural rents. Taking account of inflation-hedging as a motivation for acquiring farmland, land prices are shown to be principally determined by the returns to land, as embodied by market rents. The empirical model is also congruent with theoretical predictions regarding the unit elasticity between asset prices and returns. The error correction representation of the cointegrating set indicates that the short run response of land prices to rent and inflation is larger than the long run response. Consequently, land prices initially overshoot their equilibrium values following changes in rents or inflation. The period of adjustment to long run equilibrium lasts around three or fours years. The long run real rate of discount on agricultural land is estimated at 3.6% confirming the widely held belief that real rates of return on farmland are low. Present value models incorporating naive, adaptive and rational expectations are also estimated and the adaptive model is favoured by the data.

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Mühlhofer, Tobias. "Trading constraints and the investment value of real estate investment trusts : an empirical examination." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2005. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/328/.

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This study focuses on the property-derived cash flows that a REIT investor earns. We observe that, in the short run, REIT investors are only exposed to the income cash flows of a REIT's underlying portfolio and not to its property price fluctuations. Specifically, investors miss out on the component of appreciation returns not contained in income. Chapter 3 observes this phenomenon and argues, without proof, that this is due to the trading restrictions that REITs face in order to operate tax free, which impose minimum holding periods on properties in REITs' portfolios. Chapters 4 and 5 show that the trading-restrictions explanation is indeed the reason for this phenomenon. Specifically, chapter 4 tests how REITs with different firm characteristics are differently affected by the trading constraints. Firstly, we test for size effects and find that medium-sized and large firms offer investors better exposure to short-term fluctuations in property appreciation than small firms. This supports the trading restrictions hypothesis, as large firms are less affected by these. Secondly, we test for the effects of the degree of diversification in a REIT's portfolio and find that, while investing in a REIT which is diversified by property type gives an investor better exposure to appreciation cash flows, investing in one whose portfolio is merely geographically diversified does not. Finally, we test whether UPREITs give an investor better exposure to property appreciation cash flows and find strongly that this is so. Since the partnership that holds the property in an UPREIT is not subject to selling constraints, we find our hypothesis strongly supported. Chapter 5 analyzes holding periods and selling decisions. We firstly simulate a possible filter-based market timing strategy which significantly outperforms a simple buy-and-hold strategy, and demonstrate to what extent holding periods shorter than what is allowed are required. We then analyze actual holding periods of properties in REITs' portfolios and model the decision to hold a property beyond four years, finding strong evidence that there is an incentive to do so in a rising market. This gives strong support to the trading-restrictions explanation.

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Razmdoost, Kamran. "The effect of knowledge miscalibration on the dimensions of consumer value." Thesis, Cranfield University, 2015. http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/9273.

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Consumer value is an important determinant of consumers’ post-use behaviour, for example satisfaction, repeat purchase and word of mouth. The existing research mainly looks at the factors associated with the product and service providers to improve consumer value. Few studies on the role of the consumer in shaping consumer value have found consumer knowledge to be an important element in shaping consumer value. Adopting critical realism, this PhD expands this area of knowledge by investigating knowledge miscalibration (i.e., the inaccuracy in subjective knowledge) as a significant antecedent of consumer value. Most of the time, consumers’ perceptions of what they think they know (i.e., subjective knowledge) has been shown to be different from what they actually know (i.e., objective knowledge). Thus, subjective knowledge is usually inaccurate. This inaccuracy in subjective knowledge relative to objective knowledge is called knowledge miscalibration. Although the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumers’ purchasing decisions has been investigated in the consumer behaviour literature, its role in the use stage of consumption has received much less attention. The aim of this research is to examine the effect of knowledge miscalibration on product or service use, and more specifically on the value consumers derive from actually using products or services (i.e., value-in-use). In this research a critical realism paradigm is pursued, implying that reality exists in the three domains of the empirical, the actual and the real. The research starts with observing regularity in the empirical domain (i.e., consumer value) followed by imagining the causal power in the actual and the real domains (i.e., knowledge miscalibration), shaping the research question. A retroductive strategy is followed, firstly by proposing the effect of knowledge miscalibration on consumer value and secondly by conceptually and empirically testing this relationship. This research conceptualises that knowledge miscalibration influences consumer value dimensions, described as efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics. It is suggested that underconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is deflated) and overconfidence (i.e., knowledge miscalibration where subjective knowledge is inflated) influence consumer value dimensions differently as they generate different consequences in use. Therefore, a conceptual model is developed that describes the effect of knowledge miscalibration (i.e., overconfidence and underconfidence) on the dimensions of consumer value. The empirical part of the research is designed by conducting a covariance-based study and an experimental investigation in order to gain both internal and external validity. The covariance-based investigation is conducted in the context of amazon.com online shopping. Knowledge miscalibration and consumer value dimensions are measured in this study. This study supports the negative effect of underconfidence on efficiency, excellence, play and aesthetics and the negative effect of overconfidence on play. The experimental investigation is designed in the context of prezi.com, an online dynamic presentation creation website that enables its users to move between slides, words and images during their presentations. In this study, overconfidence and underconfidence are manipulated and their effects on the dimensions of consumer value are examined. The findings of this study show that underconfidence negatively influences efficiency, excellence and aesthetics, while overconfidence negatively impacts excellence, play and aesthetics. Overall, this PhD concludes that knowledge miscalibration negatively influences the dimensions of consumer value, with the exception of overconfidence impacting efficiency. The contradictory results of the covariance-based study observed in the experimental study can be explained through its inability to account for reciprocal relationships (i.e., where consumer value dimensions also impact knowledge miscalibration) and the existence of a third variable affecting both independent and dependent variables. Furthermore, the context of the experimental study (employing a new consumption task) is proposed to be the main reason for the lack of support for the effect of underconfidence on play.

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35

Ballas, Apostolos A. "The use of accounting information in the valuation of equity securities." Thesis, London Business School (University of London), 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.261684.

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36

Alzahrani, Abdulaziz. "The social value of urban design in mixed use developments in London." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2017. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41272/.

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This thesis investigates the United Kingdom (UK) government’s influence on the quality of urban design through the role of mixed-use developments. The Urban Task Force (UTF), the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) and others have influenced and shaped development decisions by setting up broad recognition of the value of urban design and quality regeneration of private and public sectors. The thesis is an in-depth analysis of two inner-city mixed-use housing developments with publicly accessible spaces that exemplify this trend in valuing spaces that are available to the public in response to the drive for regeneration and to counter social exclusion. Empire Square and Bermondsey Square illustrate an interesting model of public/private partnership to provide public spaces that might be applicable elsewhere. These developments also have an effect on issues of control and management which has an impact on the performance of these spaces in our cities. The thesis explored this model of creating urban public spaces through the perspective of the user’s perception and sought to identify its perceived value regarding use, identify, social coherence and others. The work followed a case study approach and employed mixed methods. An extensive review of the literature helped to establish the criteria of analysis of case studies, social value and place making; this was to understand both the patterns of spatial constructions of individuals’ actions and perceptions and the social life of publicly accessible spaces. In the two case studies combined, participants at the squares completed a total of a hundred surveys and thirty-three semi-structured interviews; additionally, many site observations were conducted at different times of the day to track human movement, activities, spatial qualities, social interactions and spatial interrelations. The research has shown that, from the user’s perspective, these parameters of social value are linked to vitality, the provision of events and activities, improving the supply of amenities, accessibility, control and the image. The findings demonstrated that, while both projects conform to the generic description of a good placemaking as defined by UTF, CABE, and others, non-tangible and programmatic performances override the perceived quality of aesthetic and form in the delivery of successful places. The outcomes showed how objectives and principles of urban design are abstract and must be articulated by more detailed guidelines in terms of intangible and non-physical benefits for them to be beneficial for public places and to have an impact on people’s lives. The balance between aesthetic aspects and activities and functions that enable and boost social value should occur in places that spread all over our cities. This research suggested that placemaking adds value by balancing the generation of space and behavioural settings to deliver social benefits to our communities.

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Chu, L.-M. "The value of pulverized refuse fines for plant growth and land reclamation." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.233803.

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McCarthy, Lauren. "Organising CSR for gender equality : institutional work in the cocoa value chain." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2015. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28428/.

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This thesis addresses the burgeoning practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes and policies that aim to promote gender equality in global value chains. It first presents a conceptual framework for studying gender change within CSR, conceptualising gender as an institution alongside the theory of institutional work. An embedded case study provides rich empirical data from 3 partnered organisations: a UK chocolate company, a UK NGO, and a Ghanaian cocoa supplier as well as 48 cocoa farmers. Drawing on data spanning 20 years, the study interrogates how gender is translated into ‘engendered’ CSR, and how understandings and experiences of gender may be altered by such practices. Actors across the three organisations engage in institutional work in an attempt to disrupt the institution of gender. Work includes ‘valorising’ the role of women in the value chain, and ‘legitimising’ this value through a business case. The case illustrates that whilst engendered CSR programmes are successful in securing some women positions of power, they do little to challenge pervasive inequality. Concurrently, actors engage in resistance to institutional work, effectively hindering change. Yet resistance is also productive through ‘questioning work’, leading into another cycle of change. These findings contribute to our knowledge on how organisational actors may disrupt or maintain institutions by describing the processes of institutional work, its unintended consequences and by highlighting the subjective nature of institutional success and failure. Furthermore, by drawing on Feminist Foucauldian notions of productive power, it is posited that the institutional work required for such ‘big-tent’ institutional change, such as gender, necessitates a closer look at the level of individuals’ sense of self, power and knowledge. Thus we are reminded that CSR, and the actors performing it, are bound up in much larger systems of power relations that are observable right down to individual thought.

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Osorio-Vega, Patricio. "Making sense of the middle ground : shared value in nascent social entrepreneurship." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/32985/.

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Whilst social entrepreneurship is widely accepted as an issue of critical and contemporary importance, why and how social and economic aspects of value coexist within the phenomenon remain elusive. Current attempts to address this complexity tend to insist on the presumption that social and economic imperatives are distinct concerns that need to be combined, trying to unveil strategies to manage tension in social enterprises (hybridity approach) or piecemeal factors that could satisfactorily explain social (and environmental) orientation in entrepreneurship (sustainability approach). Recent work has highlighted the need to address the possibility of mutually constitutive configurations, where the nexus between social and economic imperatives is not a trade-off but a symbiosis. However, this increasing attention remains largely theoretical. This thesis addresses this gap by empirically examining the construct of shared value creation (SVC) in social entrepreneurship. Through this lens, the nexus between social orientation and economic self-interest becomes a third aspect of value with its own underpinnings. This thesis focuses on nascent social ventures and responds to increasing calls in both entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship to pay more attention to underlying processes and early stage phenomena. Sensemaking theory is embraced for this task as it provides a recognised process-based guide, and also represents a novel approach to study the noise and hustle of nascency. The resultant SVC-Sensemaking conceptual framework presuppose that nascent social entrepreneurs concerned with SVC enact their value propositions through processes of sensemaking, potentially updating their sense of value every time they face confusing yet relevant circumstances, elaborating plausible responses that are anchored to relevant identities. As the UK is one of the most developed institutional settings for social entrepreneurship, a longitudinal study of four nascent British social ventures was undertaken. Data was collected through documentation, sporadic participant observation and audiotaped semi-structured interviews over a one-year period, aiming to explore the entrepreneurial process as it unfolds to avoid post hoc bias and to share the sensemaking process as an ongoing accomplishment. The research adopted an embedded multiple-case strategy, studying a series of change events (as sub-cases) in depth. The ongoing analysis generated a number of codes that were later clustered into the three SVC elements of economic self-interest, social orientation, and the mutually constitutive configuration between both. In order to allow for theoretical generalisation, these findings were then examined across cases. The findings are briefly outlined as follows. SVC’s Frame: founders secure a mutually constitutive stance from the onset by building upon a personal need that relates to a social issue of some sort. The social imperative becomes a means for competitive differentiation. SVC’s community interlocking: founders create social ties for resourcing from scratch, usually through arm’s-length exchanges (e.g., bartering). In addition, effective socialisation (exchanges) sustains their sense of altruism, enhancing social imperatives (e.g., aiming to trigger entrepreneurial behaviour in their communities). SVC’s centralised control: both creation of ties and the search for guidance/inspiration from them will always be filtered by the SVC’s frame, depicting a highly centralised process. SVC’s endurance: whilst the social-economic value configuration emerges mutually constitutive, it will only endure as such if the identity fuelling the mutually constitutive nexus is non-negotiable, such as fulfilling a mother’s duty. If this is not the case, the identity fuelling the social imperative and the identity fuelling the economic imperative can eventually antagonise each other if new circumstances deem one or the other implausible. The key theoretical contribution of this thesis focuses upon the emergence and endurance of nascent entrepreneurship phenomena with SVC configurations. By illustrating this from a novel lens which emphasises symbiosis in a largely overlooked setting (nascency), through a much needed process-based approach, this work empirically adds to the debates on the middle ground of social entrepreneurship, nascent entrepreneurship and SVC, as well as to sensemaking.

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Högström, Claes. "Fit in to stand out : An experience perspective on value creation." Doctoral thesis, Karlstads universitet, Centrum för tjänsteforskning, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-33398.

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In order to grow and survive, a firm must create value with consumers in ways that both fit in with consumer demands and stand out from competitors. Focusing on and understanding consumer and firm assessments of value and creation of value has become a central scope in the contemporary strategic management and marketing literature for understanding and explaining firm survival and success. Consequently, the overall aim of this thesis is to provide a conceptually and empirically grounded understanding of consumers’ and managers’ value assessments and behavior in value creation. This thesis draws on a consumer experience perspective and theories on social construction, organizational identity, self-congruence, and the theory of attractive quality, and combines multiple qualitative and quantitative studies. The findings in this thesis shed light on the interplay between consumers, firms, and contextual structures in value creation. Contextual structural, cultural, and political forces are shown to affect and be affected by the shared and individual cognitions of value creation that firms and consumers use in their assessment and creation value. The results of the study enhance the understanding of how firms can adopt various strategic schemas or organizing logics to optimize different types of use value creation when choosing between opposing and contradictive demands in their value creation. Furthermore, the thesis provides a deeper understanding of the hierarchical nature of consumer judgments of value that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of firm prioritizations and as a foundation for future value-creating strategies.

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Ali, Ahmed. "Use of pectinases to improve the nutritive value of lupins for poultry." University of Western Australia. School of Animal Biology, 2009. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2010.0094.

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[Truncated abstract] Australia produces 87% of the worlds lupins (Lupinus angustifolius) which have the potential to be an excellent source of protein and energy in animal diets. However, feed manufacturers and poultry producers cannot use more than about 5% lupins in broiler and 7% in layer diets. The main reason is because 34% of the lupin grain comprises complex cell-wall polysaccharides that are indigestible. The main component of cell walls in lupins is pectin (33%). Poultry cannot digest pectin because they don't secrete the appropriate enzymes so their ability to use lupins is limited. Undigested pectins increase the viscosity of digesta in the bird's digestive tract, which in turn reduces the digestibility of dry matter and efficiency of feed utilisation. Pectins also increase water-holding capacity, a characteristic directly related to water intake and wet droppings. In this thesis, I tested the general hypothesis that breakdown of cell walls and pectins will improve the nutritive value of lupins for broilers and layers and reduce wet droppings. This hypothesis was tested in six experiments by treating lupins with specific exogenous enzymes (pectinases) or mechanical-heat treatment (expansion) plus pectinase. In the first experiment, attempts to break down the cell walls and pectins using four doses of pectinase, specifically polygalacturonase (PG), succeeded in improving the nutritive value of whole and dehulled lupins for egg layers. The lowest dose, 0.6g/kg diet, was the most effective dose for reducing water intake, wet droppings, the viscosity of the digesta and the number of soiled eggs. ... Equivalent figures for layers were 14, 15, 5 and 8%, indicating that the pectinases were slightly more effective in layers than broilers. For diets containing 20% dehulled lupins, pectinases were also very effective at breaking down both pectin and cell walls to release nutrients and, concomitantly, reducing water intake and wet droppings, but the magnitude of the responses was slightly less than with the 10% dehulled lupin diets. For diets containing 30% dehulled lupins, although the pectinases again were effective at breaking down pectin and cell walls and reducing viscosity, they did not reduce water intake or wet droppings. This might be due to the large amounts of nonmethylated pectic polysaccharides, which make up two thirds of the cell walls, by increasing water-holding capacity particularly when dehulled lupins are included in the diet at high levels (up to 30%). These polysaccharides might be broken down by appropriate enzymes. This hypothesis is worth testing in the future. Overall, the results of my study supported the general hypothesis. These in vivo results are conclusive and consistent. They show that an optimum combination of PME and PG is capable of including dehulled lupins up to 20% in broiler and layer diets without any nutritional or hygienic problems. The strategies I developed have proven very useful for breaking down the cell walls and pectins, improving the nutritive value of lupins for broilers and layers, and reducing wet droppings. By using the optimum combination of two pectinases, it should be possible to make substantial improvements in the nutritive value of lupins for broilers and layers, most importantly by reducing excessive water intake and wet droppings associated with feeding dehulled lupins. Without pectinases, the amount of dehulled lupins used in poultry diets is fairly small (7%), but if pectinases are used, this upper limit can be lifted to 20%.

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Paardekooper, Roeland Pieterszoon. "The value of an archaeological open-air museum is in its use." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3618.

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There are about 300 archaeological open-air museums in Europe. Their history goes from Romanticism up to modern-day tourism. With the majority dating to the past 30 years, they do more than simply present (re)constructed outdoor sceneries based on archaeology. They have an important role as education facilities and many showcase archaeology in a variety of ways. Compared to other museum categories, archaeological open-air museums boast a wide variety of manifestations. This research assesses the value of archaeological open-air museums, their management and their visitors, and is the first to do so in such breadth and detail. After a literature study and general data collection among 199 of such museums in Europe, eight archaeological open-air museums from different countries were selected as case studies. They included museums in a very varied state with different balances between public versus private funding levels on the one hand, and on the other the proportion of private individuals to educational groups among their visitors. The issue of ‘quality’ was investigated from different perspectives. The quality as assessed by the museum management was recorded in a management survey; the quality as experienced by their visitors was also recorded using a survey. In addition on-site observations were recorded. Management and visitors have different perspectives leading to different priorities and appreciation levels. The studies conclude with recommendations, ideas and strategies which are applicable not just to the eight archaeological open-air museums under study, but to any such museum in general. The recommendations are divided into the six categories of management, staff, collections, marketing, interpretation and the visitors. They are designed to be informative statements of use to managers across the sector.

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Abimbola, Isaiah Gbenga. "Assessing Value Added in the Use of Electronic Medical Records in Nigeria." Thesis, Walden University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3702058.

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Electronic medical records (EMRs) or electronic health records have been in use for years in hospitals around the world as a time-saving system for patient record keeping. Despite its widespread use, some physicians disagree with the assertion that EMRs save time. The purpose of this study was to explore whether any time saved with the use of the EMR system was actually devoted by doctors to patient-care and thereby to improved patient-care efficiency. The conceptual support for this study was predicated employing the task-technology fit theory. Task-technology theorists argue that information technology is likely to have a positive impact in individual performance and production timeliness if its capabilities match the task that the user must perform. The research questions addressed the use of an EMR system as a time-saving device, its impact on the quality of patient-care, and how it has influenced patients? access to healthcare in Nigeria. In this research, a comparative qualitative case study was conducted involving 2 hospitals in Nigeria, one using EMRs and another using paper-based manual entry. A purposeful sample of 12 patients and 12 physicians from each hospital was interviewed. Data were compiled and organized using Nvivo 10 software for content analysis. Categories and recurring themes were identified from the data. The findings revealed that reduced patients? registration processing time gave EMR-using doctors more time with their patients, resulting in better patient care. These experiences were in stark contrast to the experiences of doctors who used paper-based manual entry. This study supports positive social change by informing decision makers that time saved by implementing EMR keeping may encourage doctors to spend more time with their patients, thus improving the general quality of healthcare in Nigeria.

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Soumphonphakdy, Vongphet. "The potential use and value of distance education by Wisconsin restauranteur(s)." Online version, 1999. http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/thesis/1999/1999soumphonphakdyv.pdf.

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LESSA, AUGUSTO MENDONCA. "VALUE IN USE ASSESMENT OF METALIC BURDEN TO THE BLAST FURNACE PROCESS." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2009. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=32704@1.

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A indústria de minério de ferro tem importante papel na melhoria das condições de vida da população mundial por ser o principal insumo à produção de aço que, por sua vez, é o material mais utilizado e com as mais variadas aplicações no mundo. Neste contexto, é de suma importância o desenvolvimento tecnológico das empresas de mineração no âmbito de produzir seus minérios com mais qualidade, em maior escala e com menores custos para o benefício de toda a cadeia. Foi desenvolvido neste trabalho um modelo de medição do Valor em Uso de cargas metálicas no processo de Alto-Forno, que é a rota mais importante e responsável por 94 por cento da produção mundial de ferro primário. Os resultados do modelo desenvolvido foram validados com dados reais de 23 Altos-Fornos de 7 países, os quais possuem práticas operacionais distintas. Este modelo apresentou um desvio médio de 4 por cento entre os resultados obtidos e os dados de operação. O estudo de caso para cálculo de Valor em Uso foi realizado focando um dos 23 Altos-Fornos, operando com uma distribuição de carga metálica composta de sínter, pelota e lump, similar à média mundial. A proporção de pelotas na carga metálica foi variada de 17 a 50 por cento. Em um dos cenários avaliados, a adição de valor no processo siderúrgico, advinda desta variação, foi de 4,6 por cento na margem de contribuição, e de 2,1 por cento na produtividade do Alto-Forno. Caso este ganho em valor fosse transferido ao preço do insumo pelota de minério de ferro, este poderia ser acrescido em 11 por cento. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam o quão importante é o desenvolvimento das ferramentas de análise de Valor em Uso para uma maior explicitação dos ganhos ou perdas proporcionados pelos diferentes tipos de minérios de ferro. Além disso, a análise de Valor em Uso demonstrou estar relacionada com as condições específicas do mercado e dos acordos comerciais estabelecidos e, sem dúvida, se constitui numa poderosa ferramenta para o desenvolvimento das indústrias de minério de ferro e aço.
As steel is the most utilized and applied material in the world the iron ore industry has a very important role to society on improving human beings life conditions. It is of single importance the technological development of iron ore companies on producing higher quality materials, in larger scales and at lower costs creating value to the whole. It was developed an iron ore burden Value In Use assessment model for the Blast Furnace process which is responsible for producing 94 percent of all iron in the World. The outputs from the model were cross checked with real operational data of 23 Blast Furnaces with distinct practices, from 7 countries. The model exhibited an average deviation achieved was of 4 percent between the calculated outputs and the operational data set. For the case study one out of the 23 Blast Furnaces was chosen due its world average equivalent burden distribution in terms of sinter pellets and lump to perform an iron ore Value In Use assessment. Scenarios were built with pellet participation in the metallic burden varying from 17 to 50 percent, achieving 4,6 percent gains in the contribution margin and 2,1 percent incremental BF productivity in one of the scenarios. If all this gain is reverted to the pellet price, it could be increased by 11 percent. The obtained results show how important the development of Value In Use analysis tools are as to revel true gains or losses from each iron ore type to the process. Further Value In Use analysis is an important tool to mining and steel industries and is always made against one reference case, relating it to a specific market and commercial conditions being applied to a single operation.

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Silver, Steven David. "Knowledge use and value constructs in dynamic systems for non-work activities." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.627474.

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Van, Den Berg Melandi. "Investigating the value of the community pharmacy medicines use review (MUR) service." Thesis, Kingston University, 2014. http://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/28911/.

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The Medicines Use Review (MUR) service was introduced in the UK in 2005 to improve patients' knowledge and use of medicines. The service, in essence, engages the patient and the pharmacist in a structured, private conversation about the patient's medicines. Pharmacies are permitted to deliver a limited number of annual MURs yet for a number of years service provision remained low. During the period of this investigation, the service attracted substantial controversy. In 2008 the UK Government called for improvements to be made to the 'quality' of service provision, with measurement of tangible patient outcomes a key concern. This thesis set out to investigate the potential value of the MUR service. First, using discourse analysis, this thesis considered the social construction of the MUR through written marketing material and its potential impact on uptake of the service, making suggestions for future situations. Next, based on a retrospective cross-sectional audit of MUR records, a practical tool for selecting patients who might benefit from an MUR consultation was developed and explained. Auditing MUR records was suggested by others as one way of tackling questions around service 'quality'. However, the cross-sectional audit suggested that such records were inadequate for assessing service quality and it is argued that quality measures should be based on the achievement of intended service outcomes. Finally, and relating to patient outcomes, this thesis includes a qualitative investigation of patients' MUR experiences, particularly patient satisfaction, as a measure of quality. In the absence of existing patient satisfaction questionnaires measuring the true dynamics of the MUR interaction, a novel conceptual framework for measuring patient satisfaction with this service was developed and is put forward. The results contained herein can contribute to the development of an intervention for measuring the benefits of the MUR versus usual care in terms of patient outcomes.

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Kim, Huong Trang. "Financial derivatives use and firm value in East Asian non-financial firms." Thesis, Middlesex University, 2016. http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/21375/.

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Derivatives have been using widely in the world over the last 30 years as an important risk management instrument. Although theoretical researchers suggest that derivatives usage can enhance value of a firm by alleviating costs arising from several market imperfections, the existing evidence is not quite consistent among empirical studies up to date. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, aims to examine determinants of derivatives use, a relationship between derivatives use, firm value, and exposures for a sample of 881 non-financial firms in eight East Asian countries in the 2003- 2013 period. The analysis is based on a novel and manually collected data. We find that firms in countries with lower corruption have more incentive to use financial derivatives and use derivatives with greater intensity than those firms located in highly corrupt countries. Better governance induces firms to use derivatives to hedge exposure and mitigate costs. Firms in countries with weak governance use derivatives for speculating and/or selective hedging or self-management purposes. Overall, our findings provide strong evidence of the role of countries’ governance quality in driving firms’ derivatives-related behaviors. This macro-based effect on derivatives use is independent from firm-specific factors, which are frequently invoked by hedging theories. Regarding relationship between firm value and derivatives use, using Tobin’s Q as a proxy of firm value, we find that low corruption level of home country (host country) induces the use of financial derivatives and rewards domestic firms and domestic MNCs (foreign affiliates) with higher value; this finding holds after controlling for endogeneity and self-selection bias. Hedging behavior of domestic MNCs outperforms domestic firms and foreign affiliates in terms of firm value. Derivative usage is value-enhancing activity for domestic firms and domestic MNCs, but it does not add value for foreign affiliates. During the crisis, the effect of low level of corruption on alleviating negative impacts of the crisis on derivatives usage is very modest. Yet, low corruption level of home country is positively associated with hedging premiums of domestic firms and domestic MNCs in the post-crisis period. Finally, we measure exposure to home (host) country risks, and provide novel evidence that financial derivatives use of domestic firms and domestic MNCs reduces exposure to home country risks by 11.4% and 13.4% per 1% increase in notional derivative holdings, respectively, while foreign affiliates fail to mitigate exposure to host country risks. The use of foreign currency and interest rate derivatives by domestic firms and domestic MNCs is effective in alleviating firms’ such exposures to varied degrees, but foreign affiliates using derivatives only can lower interest rate exposures. Domestic MNCs have the smallest exposures, and domestic MNCs with derivatives activities reduce exposures in the largest magnitude compared to other firms. The financial crisis weakens the effect of derivative usage on exposures, but it is stronger after the crisis than in pre-crisis period.

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Perry, Lyndi. "The Value of Farmland: Mapping Assessor Data to Understand Land Use Change." DigitalCommons@USU, 2019. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/7413.

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Ideas developed by regional economists have potential applications within the urban planning field. One potential application is toward conserving farmland, and within this thesis this topic is examined for the study area of Utah County, Utah. Using assessor data, a land value map is created and further used to develop a regional economic model and spatial models that were analyzed for patterns of land use change. Findings show that representing land value as continuous surface maps is a useful approach. The maps reveal that Utah County has densified as its population increased while farmland loss still occurred in agriculturally-important areas. Vulnerable areas were identified by examining the value of changed lands. Change mapping shows that macro-level variables affect local land values and subsequent development patterns. While limitations exist, the conclusion was drawn that this data is useful in connecting land value to location, examining change over time, and understanding how individuals’ priorities (as represented through property values) may conflict with (and potentially solve) collective goals.

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Pearsall, Nels A. "Use of Event Studies to Estimate Brand Value: A Comparison of Methodologies." Thesis, Virginia Tech, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/9855.

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Stock market event studies are often used to estimate the impact of an unanticipated event on stock returns of a company. Traditionally, these analyses focus on developing estimates of abnormal returns attributed to the event or some measure of post-event loss in shareholder value. In 1989 Mark Mitchell used an event study to estimate the impact of the 1982 Tylenol poisonings on Johnson & Johnson's share returns. Mark Mitchell was able to demonstrate that (1) Johnson & Johnson share returns were significantly impacted by the poisonings, and (2) such an impact translated, at least in part, to a depreciation of brand name capital. This study sets forth the basic framework of Mark Mitchell's 1989 analysis and wherever appropriate, provides possible alternatives to his methodologies. Using several alternative approaches including, but not necessarily limited to, consideration of the incremental values associated with the Tylenol brand name, cost to develop the brand, alternative market factors, and changes in income streams I compare changes in brand value to brand name capital depreciation estimated by Mitchell. In some instances the aforementioned approaches are used in conjunction with aspects of Mitchell's methodology. The results tend to provide more accurate estimates of the loss in brand value possibly associated with the 1982 poisonings.
Master of Arts

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Use value'

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