Thèses sur le sujet « Governance Institution »

Realizing the limitations of economic theories in explaining corporate governance practices, this thesis adopts an institutional approach in its attempt to understand how such issues are shaped by larger institutional contexts. Malaysia is used as a case study; and accordingly the influence of a dominant institution of Bumiputera (sons of the soil) on corporate governance practices is investigated. The thesis focuses on the emergence, institutionalization impact, and change of the Bumiputera institution; and how corporate governance practices are influenced in each stage. As a lens for analysis, this thesis integrates sociological and historical paradigms of the new institutionalisms, and extends Beckert’s (2010) framework to include the role of power as advanced by Steven Lukes (1974, 2005). This extended framework is useful in explaining how the reciprocal influence of the Bumiputera institution, social networks, cognition, and power affect the behaviour of corporate governance actors. The analysis shows that, following the commitment by the state towards Bumiputera, the Malays’ equity ownership has seen a progressive increase, although it failed to meet the specified target of 30%. Malays’ representation on corporate boards also increased. The commitment has also led to a strong state presence in the economy, through its involvement in the Government Linked Companies, established to pursue Bumiputera’s objectives. However, unintended consequences have arisen affecting both ownership and appointment. The analysis also shows that, while board appointment is largely based on social networks, the existence of the Bumiputera institution means that ethnicity matters. Appointment could be for political or legitimacy reasons. Heightened by liberalisation moves, both Bumiputera and corporate governance institutions are subject to change. However, this refers only to the regulative aspects of the institutions, which are more susceptible to change compared to their informal elements. The state’s commitment towards Bumiputera remains. This study contributes to corporate governance literature by providing evidence on how corporate governance institutions are influenced by the larger social-political and institutional context vis-à-vis the emerging economy. This study shows that: firstly, corporate governance practices are shaped by history and political contexts; hence, understanding history would enhance the understanding of corporate governance. Secondly, ownership structure and the board of directors are not just mechanisms of corporate governance; rather, they are also channels through which larger objectives, including social objectives, are being pursued. Finally, this institution of corporate governance is not driven by functional needs of capital providers, but is shaped by powerful actors. Corporate governance practices are not intended just for resolving a particular agency problem, but are a mode of response to a particular historical incident that developed in postcolonial Malaysia.

This thesis has aimed to study steering process and institutionalization in the context of educational policy work. This has been conducted by using empirical material from the political decision-making process that preceded the implementation of a new national program on how principals should be educated and certified. By using an aggregated theoretical point of view containing new institutionalism and traditional Swedish curriculum theory, the process was analyzed from different perspectives. The results depict a process that contained several actors who tried to shape the principal education program differently. From the theoretical perspectives, the decision-making process could be understood as an act of both self-interest as well as trust in their own beliefs and cultural values. The result also tells us how an institutional environment is created and what that implies for actors who are parts of that environment.

Ökning av bedrägerier i den finansiella rapporteringen anses ha skadat förtroendet för bolagsledningar och revisorer vilket i sin tur har lett till ett ökat krav på ansvarstagande för bolag. Svag bolagsstyrning anses vara en av de bakomliggande orsakerna till det förtroendeproblem som uppstått inom det svenska näringslivet. För att försöka återfå investerarnas förtroende har ett antal åtgärder vidtagits. Svensk Kod för bolagsstyrning uppkom delvis med syftet att stärka förtroendet för de svenska börsbolagen. Styrelsen är ansvarig för transparens och upprättandet av intern kontroll och i ett försök till att höja dess kvalitét skall styrelsen inrätta ett revisionsutskott.Som ett i led i att försöka stärka allmänhetens förtroende för bolagsledningar och revision skall revisionsutskotten säkerställa den interna och externa rapporteringen i bolagen. Detta har fört oss till vår forskningsfråga: Hur har de professionella investerarnas förtroende för de publika bolagen påverkats av införandet av revisionsutskott?För att försöka besvara vår frågeställning har vi genomfört intervjuer med professionella investerare och professionella aktörer, vilka på olika sätt har en relation till revisionsutskott. Vår empiri visar att revisionsutskotten inte har någon direkt påverkan på förtroendet eftersom revisionsutskotten inte har en direkt kommunikation ut till marknaden. Däremot kan vi genom empirin utläsa att revisionsutskotten har en positiv påverkan på den interna kontrollen inom bolagen. Således kan vi dra vår slutsats om att revisionsutskotten har en indirekt påverkan på investerarnas förtroende.
Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

Green Building Councils (GBCs) have been established in many different countries in recent years. This paper discusses the role such organizations can play in the respective construction and real estate industry and under what circumstances a GBC can contribute positively to the development of a "greener" or "more sustainable" stock of buildings. The paper investigates the main informational problem of the industry by looking at the relation between a developer and an investor from an economic point of view. We argue that the investor's uncertainty about the true quality of a building and the corresponding incentive for the developer to cheat may lock them into a prisoners' dilemma trap. The corresponding barriers for a transition toward a "greener" buildings market are analyzed. GBCs are described as institutions of economic governance that can assist the economy in overcoming these problems. They can act as third party institutions in transactions between developers and investors. By certifying the quality of a building, they can reduce the risk for the investor to be cheated by the developer and also increase the incentive to develop good quality buildings for the developer. This task, however, raises some severe management challenges for the GBCs. (author's abstract)
Series: SRE - Discussion Papers

In vielen Entwicklungsländern findet Wertschöpfungskettenansatz (WSK-Ansatz) verbreitete Anwendung zur Wirtschaftsförderung von Kleinst-, Klein-, und Mittelunternehmen sowie ländlichen Produzenten. Viele Studien belegten, dass WSK-Upgrading von der vorherrschenden WSK-Governance stark abhängt. Jedoch beschränkten sich Diskussionen über WSK-Governance bisher auf Themen wie Koordinierung, Regulierung, Technologie, und Macht. Soziokulturelle Aspekte, die auf das individuelles Verhalten starke Einflüsse ausüben, wurde en passant erwähnt bzw. vollständig ignoriert. Aus diesem Grunde erweitert diese Studie das Governancekonzept durch die Einbeziehung institutioneller Perspektive, die regulative, normative, und kulturell-kognitive Elemente beinhaltet. Diese Erweiterung wird in den Fallstudien von Milch-WSK in Indonesien angewendet. Dabei wird die WSK mit erfolgreichen und erfolglosen Upgradingsresultaten verglichen. Mit einer explorativen Vorgehensweise werden Daten durch Beobachtungen, Interviews sowie den eigenen praktischen Erfahrungen in einem WSK-Förderungsprojekt gesammelt. Die Kausalität zwischen WSK-Governance und –Upgrading wird anhand der qualitativen Herangehensweise des Makro-Mikro-Modells erklärt. Dabei werden die Role von WSK-Operatoren, ihre Wahrnemung, und ihr Entscheidungsverhalten in dem Upgradingsprozess akzentuiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen dass Regulierung und ihre effektive Durchsetzung von entscheidender Bedeutung sind. Paralel dazu haben aber gesellschaftliche Beziehungen, Werte, und Normen sowie Orientierung und Gewohnheit besonders starke Einflussnahme auf das individuelle Verhalten und somit die Interdependenz zwischen WSK-Operatoren. Deswegen sollen weitere Studien in ähnlichem Kontext, nämlich im ländlichen Raum wo soziokulturelle Aspekte von größerem Belang sind, das erweiterte Governancekonzept in die WSK-Analyse integrieren, um verbesserte Erklärung, Voraussage, und technische Empfehlung über die Förderung der Upgradingsprozesse zu generieren.
Value Chain (VC) approach has been widely applied in developing countries to promote economic growth particularly of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and rural producers. Many cases have shown that VC upgrading is strongly determined by the prevailing governance structure. However, hitherto the discussion on VC governance has been limited mainly on coordination, regulation, technology, and power; whereas socio-cultural aspects, albeit influential in determining individual behaviour, are mentioned en passant or totally neglected. Thus, this study calls for the extension of governance concept by introducing a wider institutional perspective incorporating regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements to portray a more realistic picture of the interaction between VC operators. Then, it applies the extended concept in case studies of dairy VCs in Indonesia, comparing the governance of successful and unsuccessful upgrading cases. Using an exploratory procedure, data were collected from observations, interviews, and author’s own experiences involved in a practical VC promotion project. The causalities between VC governance and upgrading are explained using the qualitative approach of Macro-Micro Model to accentuate the role of VC operators, their perception, and selected action in the upgrading processes. The results show that regulations and their effective enforcement are necessary; but also social relations, values, and norms, as well as orientation, common practices, and habit exert strong influences on determining the behaviour of and thus the interdependency between VC operators. Hence, further VC re-searches in similar context, i.e. rural areas where socio-cultural aspects are more influential, are to systematically integrate the extended concept of governance into the analysis in order to generate explanation, prediction, and technical recommendation on the facilitation of upgrading processes.

L'attuale periodo della storia umana può essere plausibilmente identificato come un'era globale e un'era urbana. Pertanto, questa tesi cerca di comprendere le dinamiche tra le politiche di transizione giovanile e le configurazioni istituzionali poiché l'organizzazione e le pratiche sociali stanno cambiando e le possibilità di vita e le transizioni dei giovani sono profondamente influenzate dalle condizioni macroeconomiche, dalle strutture istituzionali e dal contesto sociale. Il processo di urbanizzazione è considerato essenziale per spiegare i macro cambiamenti nelle società capitalistiche secondo l'approccio neo-Marxista. Inoltre, si vuole combinare questo approccio con il neo-Weberiano che considera la città come un'intera società locale e un importante attore politico. Questo approccio fa pensare che l'urbanizzazione accelerata del mondo accentui i processi di convergenza, alimenti la circolazione di modelli e allo stesso tempo stimoli la differenziazione su scale diverse. Per questo motivo la città è considerata una scala cruciale ed una entità istituzionale. Attraverso un'approfondita revisione della letteratura, l'attenzione si concentra sulla comprensione di come le pratiche organizzative, sociali e istituzionali sono influenzate dalla recessione economica, dal cambiamento delle aspettative sociali e dal cambiamento dell'ambiente socio-economico e politico. Altrettanto importante analizzare come stanno cambiando gli incentivi e i disincentivi nell'istruzione e nella formazione sulla base del concetto di attivazione e investimento sociale. L'analisi si basa su un approccio case-oriented che è considerato il più adatto ad abbracciare la complessità nell'esame di ogni caso come un insieme complesso di relazioni con esiti distintivi trattati come singolarità. Quindi abbiamo selezionato due città Milano e Vienna, attraverso molteplici lenti di analisi, e ne abbiamo evidenziato il contesto in stretto rapporto e interazione con l'architettura istituzionale. Questa interconnessione e interazione attraverso le politiche di transizione giovanile e le configurazioni istituzionali incorporate in un contesto particolare come quello di una città sono in primo luogo, un modo per andare oltre il nazionalismo metodologico e, in secondo luogo, per concentrarsi sui loro risultati che sono la riforma e la riprogettazione di vari accordi istituzionali. Dopo aver inserito queste politiche all'interno di un'architettura socio-economica e istituzionale, la tesi sottolinea alcune caratteristiche ed elementi che si concentrano su processi storici cruciali, adottando la struttura dell'istituzionalismo discorsivo per evidenziare come il contenuto sostanziale delle idee e il processo interattivo del discorso possono portarci oltre e spiegare le dinamiche di cambiamento nell'ambiente e nelle condizioni in cui le politiche per la transizione giovanile vengono implementate
The current period of human history can plausibly be identified as a global and urban era. Therefore, this thesis seeks to understand the dynamics between youth transition policies and institutional configurations since organization and social practices are changing, and young people's life chances and transitions are profoundly affected by macroeconomic conditions, institutional structures, and social background. The urbanization process is considered essential for explaining the macro changes in capitalistic societies under the neo-Marxist approach. Furthermore, we intend to combine this approach with the neo-Weberian, which considers the city as a whole local society and an important political actor. This approach makes it possible to think that the accelerated urbanization of the world emphasize the processes of convergence, provide for the circulation of models and at the same time stimulates differentiation on different scales. For this reason, the city is considered a crucial scale and institutional entity. Through an in-depth literature review, the focus is on understanding how organizational, social, and institutional practices are affected by the economic downturn, changing social expectations, and changing the socio-economic and political environment. Equally important analysing how the incentives and disincentives in education and training are changing based on the concept of activation and social investment. The analysis is based on a case-oriented approach which is considered the most suitable to embrace complexity in examining each case as a complex set of relationships with distinctive outcomes treated as singularities. Then we selected two cities Milan and Vienna, through multiple lenses of analysis, and highlight their context in strict relationship and interaction with the institutional architecture. This interlink and interaction through youth transition policies and institutional configurations embedded in a particular context such as that of a city are first, a way for moving beyond the ‘methodological nationalism’, and secondly, for focusing on their outcomes which are the reforming and redesigning of various institutional arrangements. After placing these policies within a socio-economic and institutional architecture, the thesis emphasizes some characteristics and elements that focus on crucial historical processes, adopting the discursive institutionalism framework for highlighting how the substantive content of ideas and the interactive process of discourse can take us beyond to explain dynamics of change in environment and in the conditions for the youth transition policies implementation.

Information Technology (IT) has emerged as an important issue for the public and private sectors. It has been initially identified as a vehicle in supporting business processes by speeding up the process of decision making and easy access of information as required for the competitive advantage of businesses. Organisations regarded IT as an enabler of their business processes. As IT has grown, its shape and definition have drastically changed from being an enabler of the business processes to become a central and strategic concern within the organisation that drives the business processes. The new IT landscape has made organisations completely dependant on IT for their decision making and effective functioning. The dependence on IT has created a need for unified and effective structures, standards and best practices that ensure the effective execution of business processes using IT. The establishment of IT Governance for institutions of higher learning has created the dual challenges of how IT Governance can work within the culture of inclusiveness and shared decision making while better aligning existing IT structures. These dual challenges vary from one university to another based on the culture of the specific university. This study therefore suggests possible ways that IT Governance can shape an institution of higher learning by strategically aligning the institution’s IT strategy with the overall university strategy through the development of an IT Governance Model. To come up with the said proposed model, qualitative research techniques such as document analysis, observations, interviews, a questionnaire and briefing sessions were used during the research process. The comparative analysis of the case studied was used to identify different IT Governance models adopted by other universities. Literature was reviewed to establish the emerging IT Governance practices established and implemented by different authors. The result from this study is that an IT Governance model specific to WSU has been developed. This model can be used as guiding tool in establishing new IT Governance structures and also modify and improve the existing IT Governance structure of different institutions of higher learning. This model can further be used to guide the development of the institution IT Governance implementation architecture framework.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2003.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-233).
Studies of international economic development often feature the competitive gains from inter-firm cooperation. By cooperating, firms within a region can draw on their collective resources and experience to test out new production processes and techniques; share the risks associated with system-wide upgrades and improvements; and identify and transition to more secure niche markets. What many development analysts and practitioners often forget, however, is that local economic actors do not always realize these benefits themselves, nor in unison. In recent times, sophisticated manufacturers have been known instead to employ less cooperative survival strategies, including disassociating themselves from their existing manufacturing base and especially from local colleagues with less training and experience. What then leads firms to work together and cooperate? This is the central question of this dissertation and case study of apparel manufacturing in Guadalajara, Mexico. Since the mid-1990s, a growing number of sophisticated, medium sized apparel makers in the region have been working with smaller sized, less experienced or barebones subcontractors and in the process, have established dynamic upgrading and learning alliances. Together these firms are having to "unlearn" an entrenched relational pattern based on strict production hierarchies and centralized forms of control; establish a new set of rules and routines that are more suitable for open learning and joint decision making; and finally, develop a shared "identity" around which to build out and legitimize their collective activities and experience.
(cont.) In contrast to existing studies of craft manufacturing, success here does not come from established cultural norms or individual initiative and self-interest. Rather, it is a case in which three actors-from the state government, industry association and university extension center-have come together in an unexpected alliance to create the institutional structure and governance framework needed to support, guide and motivate this particular form of social learning and collective exchange. In describing the coordinated efforts of these three institutional actors, this case study not only provides planning lessons for other regions not "born with the sprit to cooperate," but more importantly offers a set of policy guidelines for development practitioners wishing to keep skilled and well-connected manufacturers active and invested in their own communities.
by Nichola J. Lowe.
Ph.D.

Dans le cadre de la Nouvelle Economie Institutionnelle, Douglass C. North a développé une nouvelle approche théorique des institutions pour donner une nouvelle explication au développement économique. L’une des explications est celle du déterminant institutionnel des IDE. En prenant le Cambodge comme champ d’étude, cette thèse a pour objectif de participer à la vérification empirique de la relation entre institution et IDE, en montrant que l’environnement institutionnel relativement peu solide du Cambodge décourage les investisseurs. Actuellement, le Cambodge demeure une option pour les entreprises qui cherchent une localisation pour s’implanter, mais les risques associés à ces investissements liés à son encadrement légal et règlementaire perçus par les firmes étrangères restent parmi les inquiétudes. Les réformes institutionnelles n’ont alors pas seulement pour buts de rendre à la société un ordre public juste et des services publics appropriés et efficace, mais aussi de favoriser les investissements directs étrangers dont le rôle dans le développement est déjà confirmé
As part of the New Institutional Economics, Douglass C. North, has developed a theory of institutions as a new approach to the economic development study in which institutions play a key role. According to this theory, the presence of a strong institutional environment accelerates the development process; among the explanation, the determinant role of the institutional environment for FDI. Taking Cambodia as field of study, this dissertation tends to provide more evidence of this institution-FDI relation by showing that the relatively weak institutional environment in Cambodia discourage foreign investors. With its advantages, the kingdom is perceived by foreign firms as an attractive option for investment, but the investment risks resulting from the country’s legal and regulatory framework perceived by foreign firms, are among the concerns. Thus, the institutional reforms are not only used to give to society the public order, the adequate and effective public services with rule of law but also to promote foreign direct investments whose role in development has already confirmed

Au sein de l’Union Monétaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), une réglementation spécifique desactivités de microfinance existe mais bon nombre de ces institutions continuent d’exercer enmarge de la réglementation sans que les autorités de régulation ne soient en mesure d’y mettrefin. La réglementation a des avantages mais aussi des coûts pour les institutions demicrofinance (IMF) déclarées et l’anticipation des pertes ou des gains nets par ces institutionspeut accélérer ou ralentir leur mise en conformité avec la loi. Les travaux de cette thèse ontanalysé la réponse des institutions de microfinance à la mise en place de cette réglementation.De façon spécifique, elle a renseigné le lien entre réglementation et performance à partir desdonnées empiriques dans le but d’évaluer les incitations à la demande de réglementation. Ilest possible de substituer la régulation prudentielle à la discipline de marché dans la microintermédiationfinancière car l’effet bénéfique net pour les systèmes de financementdécentralisés est positif. Malgré leur vocation sociale, toutes les institutions de microfinancen’assurent pas pleinement leur double mission d’équilibre financier et de performance sociale.En effet, nombreuses sont celles qui ont une stratégie orientée vers la performance financière.Les résultats de nos travaux suggèrent également d’accroître l’effort de surveillance de lagouvernance des IMF jusqu’à un niveau minimum requis afin d’améliorer leur revenufinancier
In West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), microfinance institutions (MFIs)are regulated by specific laws but many of them operate outside the regulatory framework.Regulation has advantages but also costs for regulated institutions and the anticipation ofgains or costs may strengthen or limit their incentives for regulation. We analyze MFIsreactions to the implementation of that regulation. In other way, we investigate the linkbetween regulation and performance by using empirical data to estimate the incentives forregulation. We find, it is possible to substitute the prudential regulation for market disciplinein the microfinance intermediation because the net benefit is positive. In spite of their socialvocation, some MFIs prefer ensuring financial performance. Our findings also suggest thatincreasing governance's effort improves MFIs financial income

In India, the 1992 Reservation Law and the 2006 Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have formalised women as legitimate actors in rural development. These gender-inclusive policies do not necessarily conform to the traditional domestic role of women, which often precludes them from formally engaging in political processes and labour outside the home. In Northern India, these major policy shifts are illustrated in ancient irrigation management systems. With growing rural outmigration and climatic variability aggravating water resources and food security issues, irrigation management is increasingly dependent on the active participation of women. Yet irrigation management is still widely perceived as a male responsibility. This thesis investigates how women adapt and respond to new institutionally mandated responsibilities and expectations as female leaders and as water users. The research is presented in four complementary papers based on quantitative and qualitative data collected during fieldwork in Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. Three major findings emerged to contribute to theories and evidence of the role of public policies in shaping gendered outcomes for common pool resource management in irrigation system in India. First, gender norms affect women differently depending on their public role in the community. Unlike non-political women, female leaders, as public figures, must secure communal approbation to gain power, credibility, and socio-economic networks. As a result, female leaders shape their political behaviour and policy preferences around local notions of femininity, female morality, and labour-based ideas of expertise. Second, for female water users, gender inclusive policies that legitimise their role as participants in formal political processes and the labour force for irrigation management increase their likelihood to defy gender-based restrictions and engage in formal political processes around irrigation management. Third, providing that formal/legal structures legitimize their actions, women will readily breach gender norms if they are to economically benefit from it. The implication of this research are that policies aimed at providing legal support for women to engage in formal rural development, combined with formalised economic opportunities for women are effective eroding agents of gendered institutions and are catalysts in facilitating the engagement of women in all areas of rural development. Given worldwide concerns over rural development, this study encourages such governmental actions to enable the effective and full engagement of future generations of women in the formal management of common pool resources.

The research presented in this thesis explores the governance within Islamic thought in the case of the institution of hisbah as well as exploring the episteme that is the cause of the recognised and unrecognised incoherencies and inconsistencies in the theories, regulations, and laws associated to the institution of hisbah. The analysis is based on conducting an epistemological examination in moral philosophical dialect in relation to the historical regulative institution of hisbah. Institution of hisbah constitutes the focus of this research, because this institution was politically structured, theologically positioned and theoretically entrusted to maintain public law and order, with the objective of supervising the behaviour in society and market from an Islamic perspective by using Islamic legal theories within its own theoretical framework with the aim of subscribing good and forbidding evil. The analysis presented found that the institution of hisbah was subject to continuous institutional failures throughout its history. In advancing the analysis, the research deconstructs the theoretical framework upon which the institution of hisbah located its operations for the moral governance of the market and the society. The deconstruction of theoretical frameworks point to the use of Islamic legal theory and juristic subjectivity for judging the moral conduct of activities as the root cause of the problem. The study further deconstructed the Islamic legal theory along side exploring for the alternative episteme within the broader view of Islamic thought, given the diversity of philosophical standpoints on good and evil within Islamic discourse. However, the result of this exploration suggests that epistemological crisis embodies the whole of Islamic tradition, which pave the way to a rise in crisis in morality and crisis in legitimacy within the tradition, which resulted in institutional failures, such as the ones witnessed in the operations of institution of hisbah. The study further discovers that consequent to the crisis in the Islamic tradition, the key questions on good and evil, within the realm of governance can no longer be settled by using the historically established tradition’s epistemological sources, because within the current settings of tradition, there is insufficient or no method of enquiry, form of argumentation and episteme that can address the crises, or through which a solution for the crises can be derived. By using MacIntyre’s work as a conceptual structure, this research attempts to construct a new epistemological source that may address the crises by specifying a model justified through model-dependent realism with the objective of creating a new point of orientation through which reality and dichotomy of good and evil can be objectively understood, whilst safeguarding the life form of the fabric of belief that is central to the traditional Islamic thought. Such episteme can then be used as an ethical theory by the institution of hisbah for judging the moral conduct of activities in the market and society. The new episteme is constructed, while preserving the tradition’s consequential essence. The consequential essence is inferred down to morality based on objectiveness and universality, and away from public choice, along with the notion of survival as episteme for philosophical perspective and theological stance. The consequential essence of tradition is maintained by using objectivist ethics and environmental sustainability within the outlines of classic theories on sovereignty of internal and external realm, as a foundational framework to construct the proposed model of ‘objective subjectivism’ as a theory of normative ethics. This proposed episteme as an Islamic ethical theory asserts that standard of value is life and measure of value and purpose of life is sustainability, and through this notion good and evil can be objectively distinguished for each realm, and therefore institutionally subscribed or prohibited for that realm, thus providing a workable framework for the operations of hisbah. As a research methodology and model construction process, the research presented in this research utilises discursive reasoning to conduct an epistemological enquiry based on critical discourse analysis, which is ontologically justified by model-dependent realism and epistemologically framed under consequentialism.

The purpose of this paper was to study the relationship between democracy and economic development in Mongolia, Turkey and Vietnam during 1980-2017. The study’s questions are (1) How has the relationship between state and economic development been described and explained in selected research literature? (2) How has the relationship between state and economic development manifested in Mongolia, Turkey and Vietnam in 1980-2017? And (3) What can we learn of this study for future research? Based on data derived from political science institutions such as Variety of Democracy and Transformation Index BTI and statistical and economic organizations such as The World Bank and The Global Economy, case study method was applied to examine the relationship between these two concepts country by country. In line with other similar studies the result indicates that the relationship between democracy and economic development is complex and should be understood in relation to each country’s historical, institutional and geopolitical setting. In Mongolia, democratic transition was accompanied by economic progress. Turkey recently experienced some success in economic development despite enduring political instability and the weakening of democratic institutions and in civil society. In Vietnam, economic progress has not so far been accompanied by a parallel improvement of democratic institutions and practice. For future research, it is crucial to study the history of a developing country about political and economic institutions, civil society and its relations with other countries.

Regionalisation out of step - the varying growth of regional cooperation councils

Traditionally regionalisation is either seen as a bottom up movement or as state reform politics from above. From that perspective, Sweden contains both parts. The state enables regionalisation through legislation, promote it through policies and encourage it in rhetoric’s. But the formation of new regional institutions can only be done by the municipalities themselves. Without their belief in stronger and more self governed regions or their will to act and together build capacity in their region, the regionalisation is halted.

Sweden is a unitary state and there is no real tradition of strong and self governing regions. In that perspective the regional experiments during the second half of the 1990th can be seen as a rather big step. These experiments inspired other parts of Sweden and in the millennium shift, all counties was interested in forming some kind of selfgoverning regional body. In 2002, when legislation made it possible to build new political regional institutions, these new institutions were formed in seven counties. Since then, yet six counties have formed these new regional bodies. This variation raises several empirical questions. The main purpose of this study is to describe and explain the variation in growth of these new regional institutions.

The analysis follows three different perspectives. The first is a structural one and aims to investigate municipalities need for economic development as a driving force. The second is an institutional perspective where norms are supposed to promote cooperation. The third focus on promoting actors as a force behind the growth of new regional institutions. Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods this thesis shows that different kinds of social norms promoting collaboration are the most important factor in explaining the variation in growth of new regional institutions. The analysis also showed that political actors play an important, both in building and maintaining coopera-tive norms, and probably also in bridging the lack of them.

Mestrado em Desenvolvimento e Cooperação Internacional
O processo de desenvolvimento económico e institucional acarreta um conjunto de factores quantitativos mas também qualitativos. O Estado tem o seu papel neste processo, criando as regras. Essas regras funcionam como "balizas" ou fronteiras que delimitam as actividades e as relações sociais, interpessoais e comerciais. Estas regras nem sempre estão padronizadas ou formalmente constituídas, no entanto têm uma grande força no estabelecimento das "regras do jogo" na sociedade. A assunção destas regras demora um longo período e são necessárias bases sólidas para a sua consolidação. As instituições desempenham um papel fundamental na construção dessas regras, sendo certo que a qualidade da mesma, determina todo o processo de desenvolvimento. Procuramos, com este trabalho, analisar as instituições e o impacto que têm no processo de desenvolvimento em Cabo Verde. Para isso estudamos o percurso histórico das Instituições de Controlo das Contas Públicas, nomeadamente o Tribunal de Contas de Cabo Verde. Este percurso de criação de instituições de controlo das contas públicas começou na época colonial com a administração portuguesa no arquipélago, passando por uma nova fase com a independência de Cabo Verde a 05 de Julho de 1975. A consolidação desta instituição aconteceu com a abertura democrática em 1990. Criou-se o Tribunal de Contas independente e com assento constitucional. A partir daí todas as contas do Estado passaram a ser controladas pelo Tribunal de Contas. Concluímos que o patamar de democracia atingido e o nível elevado de controlo da corrupção e a boa governação alcançados hoje por Cabo Verde são graças à criação de instituições sólidas e democráticas. É nesta base que este pequeno país se apoiou para a prossecução da boa governação.
The process of economic and institutional development causes a set of quantitative but also qualitative factors. The State has its paper in this process, creating the rules. These rules function as "goals" or borders that delimit the social activities and interpersonal and commercial relations. These rules nor always are standardized or formal constituted, however they have a great force in the establishment of the "rules of the game" in the society. The installation of these rules delays a long period and is necessary solid bases for its consolidation. The institutions play a basic role in the construction of these rules, being certain that the quality of the same one, determines the development process all. We look for, with this work, to analyze the institutions and the impact that have in the process of development in Cape Verde. For this we study the historical passage of the Institutions of Public Control of Accounts, nominated the Court of Accounts of Cape Verde. This passage of creation of institutions of control of the public accounts started at the time colonial with the Portuguese administration in the archipelago, passing for a new phase with the independence of the Cape Verde on 05 of July of 1975. The consolidation of this institution happened with the democratic opening in 1990. The independent Court of Accounts was created and with constitutional seat. From all the accounts of the State had started there to be controlled for the Court of Accounts. We conclude that the reached platform of democracy and the high level of control of the reached corruption and the good governance today for Cape Verde are thanks to the creation of solid and democratic institutions. It is in this base that this small country has been supported for the prosecution of the good governance.

Cette thèse porte sur analyser la place de l'audit, plus particulièrement l'audit externe, dans l'évolution de gouvernance des organisations publiques à Djibouti qui a débuté depuis plus de quinze (15) ans. Il s'agit aussi d'apporter des éléments de réponse sur les formes d'audit qui sont associés à cette évolution de la gouvernance. Il s'agit ici d'une l'analyse des pratiques de contrôle externe relatives au secteur public djiboutien et plus particulièrement celles concernant les établissements publics, en s’appuyant sur un cadre théorique privilégiant les relations entre parties prenantes de la gouvernance de ces organisations.Pour ce faire, cette recherche se propose, après avoir proposer un cadre d'analyse de la gouvernance et des systèmes de contrôle externe dans lequel évoluent les établissements public djiboutien, de montrer la place essentiel de l’audit externe dans la gouvernance de ces établissements publics en tant que mécanisme de règlement des conflits d’intérêts entre les principaux acteurs de la vie publique
This thesis analyzes the place of the audit, more particularly the external audit, in the evolution of governance of the public organizations in Djibouti which began for more than fifteen years. This study is also bringing answers on the forms of audit which are associated to this evolution of the governance.To do it, this search proposes, having proposed a frame of analysis of the governance and the systems of external control in which evolve the Djiboutian public institutions, to show the essential place of the external audit in the governance of these public institutions as mechanism of regulation of conflicts between the main actors of the public administration

Introduction: Increased savings in funds has enforced the importance of the institutions. During the last 25 years they have augmented their ownership from 20 to 85 % of the Swedish stock exchange. Thereby the ownership becomes more and more financial, meaning that the return is the most crucial. In an article in Dagens Nyheter the president of the Swedish Shareholders Association and the president of Metall object to the institutional passivity which they consider being an important problem.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to put the institutional passivity in perspective. Method: The study was made in three parts. First we studied four companies, two with passive ownership and two with active, in two different lines of business. Then we studied the ownership structure in companies with a negative profittrend. Finally we contacted different trust funds to get their opinion on owner passivity.

Result: The first study showed no difference between the passively and the actively owned companies. Neither did our second study prove any link between performance and owner passivity. Concerning the trust funds they all said to be active why passivity was no problem since it did not exist.

Conclusion: We think that all trust funds say they are active because they have to say so and that they in practice are more or less passive. From the result of our studies we conclude that institutional passivity seems to be no problem. We think the conflict causing this discussion could be between different ownergroups rather than between management and owner

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This study examines an IT governance mechanism used by a financial organization, which aims to organize the way in which business divisions request technology solutions from the organization's IT division. A documentary analysis was conducted in the company, and a case study was performed that sought to capture the management's perceptions of the model implementation impact, using as a survey tool an electronically distributed questionnaire. Besides identifying the negotiating positions before and after the implementation of this type of relationship model between the organization divisions, the study also tried to identify the results of the model implementation in several aspects. The results of this model's impact analysis in the organization that was the subject of this study were able to confirm most of the assumptions made, highlighting the gains from deploying such a model. As a consequence of the model's adoption, and even though it was considered to be more complex than the previous negotiation system, the managers identified quality improvements in the developed IT solutions and started to notice greater IT governance and corporative governance levels in the organization. Additionally, the analysis carried out with unsupported assumptions may be used as inputs for future work aimed at improving this type of process.
O presente estudo busca analisar um mecanismo de governança de TI utilizado por uma organização financeira, que tem por objetivo organizar a forma pela qual as áreas de negócio da empresa demandam soluções de tecnologia para a área de TI da organização. Foram realizadas, para tanto, análises documentais na empresa e um estudo de caso que buscou capturar as percepções dos impactos da implantação desse modelo na opinião de funcionários da organização que ocupam cargos gerenciais, utilizando como instrumento de pesquisa um questionário distribuído em meio eletrônico. Além de identificar a situação da negociação de demandas antes e depois da implantação desse modelo de relacionamento entre as áreas da organização, buscou-se também identificar os resultados da implantação desse modelo sob vários aspectos. Os resultados das análises dos impactos desse modelo na organização objeto do estudo de caso permitiram confirmar a maioria das hipóteses levantadas, evidenciando os ganhos da implantação do referido modelo para a organização. Como conseqüência da implantação do modelo, apesar de considerarem esse modelo mais complexo do que a sistemática de negociação anterior, os gerentes identificaram melhorias na qualidade das soluções de TI desenvolvidas e passaram a perceber maiores níveis de governança corporativa de de governança de TI na organização. Adicionalmente, as análises realizadas com as hipóteses não confirmadas poderão ser utilizadas como insumos para trabalhos futuros que visem aprimorar esse tipo de processo.

Scholars have long observed that institutions and power relations are cyclically constitutive, as institutions shape a given polity’s power relations, and the latter influence the design of institutions. This dissertation unveils how indigenous agents interact with each other, and with the state’s bureaucrats and consultants to create divergent institutional trajectories in a new institutional environment: the construction of 11 pilot institutions of indigenous self-governance in Bolivia, as provided by the 2009 Constitution. The combinations of institutional forms have most significantly been shaped by local relations of power among differently identifying indigenous agents, and by the state-determined socio-territorial boundaries that are the site of institutional construction. Each new “indigenous autonomy” combines liberal and indigenous norms, constituting a hybrid model of indigenous autonomy. Within that model we can discern a bifurcation in which some institutions are more liberal and others are more communitarian. These observations contribute to our understanding of democracy and citizenship in contemporary Latin America as states respond to popular pressures for more rights and inclusion, in what many have called “left turns.” In terms of democracy, this study illustrates how electoral representation is complemented by communitarian democratic forms in ways that enhance Bolivia’s historically exclusionary democracy, yet how elaboration of communitarian democracy is also constrained by the party-based system of representation. Meanwhile, the Constitution’s expansion of rights has contributed to what some observers have called “post- liberal” citizenship. This investigation indicates that state-society relations in Bolivia are not well-characterized as populist, liberal or corporatist; rather, they are concomitantly plural, cyclical and reactive – which I conceive of as interest intermediation by “contentious bargaining.” The contradictions in the construction of these “indigenous autonomies” are a consequence the changing character of the ruling party. As the Movement toward Socialism and its leader, Evo Morales, have shifted from an oppositional force to elected government, they have contended with a complex correlation of social forces and pursued a development program of resource nationalism that responds to widespread calls for economic growth and poverty reduction. In Bolivia’s contentious context, the state’s disposition with regard to indigenous self- governance has been contradictory, simultaneously enabling and constraining indigenous rights.
Arts, Faculty of
Political Science, Department of
Graduate

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State capitalism, the statist planning in certain economic sectors, has generated several state-owned enterprises (SOEs) that represent a significant share of activity in the global market. Despite decades of liberalization and privatization in many countries, state ownership and state-led business activity remain widespread; yet new varieties of state capitalism have also emerged. Among these new varieties, state-controlled oil and natural gas entities, also known as nation oil companies (NOCs), represent a type of hybrid organization that specifically deserves scholars’ attention as they dominate the world’s oil & gas industry; yet many of the cases prove to be problematic. The emerging markets possess some of the most important NOC players, yet scant examination has been made to question their appropriateness. This paper presents a contextualized comparison between two NOCs that root in Brazil and China to illustrate how similar and different they are in terms of their ownership style, corporate governance characteristics, and the interactions they have with the host government. We analyzed the findings by matching them with the past theories that offer explanations on NOC performance variation. We concluded that first, regime type is not a dependable factor to indicate the actual state incentives to maintain NOCs, and the goals of state serve only as an equivocate factor in explaining the variation in NOC performances. Secondly, we speculated that due to the absence of a cohesive institutional logic and consistency, Brazil has a fragmented governance system that implies in inappropriateness of state capitalism. Thirdly, we discovered that the unique dynamics between informal and formal institutions in China may justify the better fitness of state capitalism when compared with Brazil. Certain limits to the research method and expectations on further inquiries are also developed.

Les activités physiques, et les jeux traditionnels font partis de la culture universelle, et appartiennent à l’humanité. Les peuples d’Afrique ont dû abandonner les leurs avec l’arrivée des sports modernes pendant la période de colonisation. Les activités physiques et jeux traditionnels du Gabon avaient dans la plus part des cas un but utilitaire allant de la préparation physique des jeunes au service de la communauté, aux activités de loisirs pour tous comme des danses lors des évènements commémoratifs ou des cérémonies rituelles et initiatiques. Ces activités ont disparu car la politique coloniale consistait à dévaloriser les pratiques autochtones, en valorisant la culture occidentale dont les sports.Nous avons présenté certains jeux traditionnels du Gabon sur la base d’une étude que nous avons commencée depuis quelques années, car nous avons peut-être à travers eux une des propositions que nous ferions, pour redynamiser et diversifier les Activités Physiques et Sportives en milieu scolaire au Gabon. En effet, contrairement aux sports occidentaux, les jeux traditionnels du Gabon ont une exigence matérielle très simple. De plus, les matériaux et les instruments nécessaires à leur pratique se trouvent dans la proximité de leur lieu de pratique. Et nous avons démontré que si les APS disparaissent des emplois du temps dans les programmes scolaires au Gabon, c’est entre autres raisons à cause du coût élevé du matériel didactique de sport, car les sports constituent aujourd’hui l’essentiel des contenus des programmes d’APS. Nous avons aussi présenté les jeux traditionnels du Gabon pour attirer l’attention des autorités gabonaises devant le risque de disparition de cette catégorie du patrimoine culturel national. Nous l’avons fait parce que nous pensons que dans un contexte de mondialisation où chaque entité valorise son identité culturelle et cherche à pérenniser ses traditions, le Gabon pourrait, grâce à ses activités physiques traditionnelles avoir sa propre identité, peut-être s’en référer pour entrevoir une partie de son histoire.Après avoir signalé l’existence des jeux traditionnels du Gabon, il nous a paru opportun d’évoquer le sport qui les a remplacés, sa signification, son expansion et son organisation internationale. Mais que faut-il entendre par le terme sport, au regard des nombreuses définitions qui sont proposées par différents auteurs ? Nous pouvons classer ses définitions selon des spécialités. Ce qui dénote de la complexité à situer le phénomène, tant les pratiques sportives et leurs corollaires se retrouvent dans la quasi totalité de la vie sociale de nos jours.Le Gabon comme beaucoup de pays africains anciennes colonies de la France va hériter des pratiques et des structures sportives du colonisateur. Cependant, le Gabon manque de cadres et de techniciens du sport, les équipements et infrastructures sont précaires et insuffisants. Il convient de mettre en place des politiques sportives réalistes et se projeter sur le long terme. Au contraire les autorités gabonaises vont semble-t-il faire le choix du sport de haut-niveau au détriment du sport scolaire et du sport de masse qui sont de notre point du vue de véritables bases de politiques sportives pouvant garantir des résultats constants et durables.Pour réaliser cette étude donc la problématique pose la question du fonctionnement et du rendement des institutions sportives mises en place par l’Etat pour apporter du prestige et le rayonnement du Gabon au niveau international. Il a fallu faire objectivement le constat d’une insuffisance de résultats d’une manière générale du sport gabonais. Pour cela des études au niveau des trois groupes d’institutions reconnus comme étant dépositaires du destin du sport et des politiques publiques, ont été réalisées. Elles nous ont entrainées dans l’administration centrale de l’Etat, et nous y avons étudié l’organisation et le fonctionnement du Ministère des Sports, de ces services extérieurs et organes sous tutelles. Nous avons par la suite étudié le deuxième acteur public de la gestion du sport au Gabon, qui sont les collectivités territoriales, et nous avons observé que leur rôle dans le contexte de l’inapplication de la loi sur la décentralisation reste tout à fait symbolique. Le troisième acteur ou groupe d’acteurs que nous avons étudié dans cette recherche est le mouvement olympique gabonais, dont l’organisation est recommandée par les institutions sportives internationales. Et nous avons rappelé cette hiérarchisation du sport mondial. Le Gabon qui accède à l’indépendance le 17 Août 1960 et expérimente la démocratie multipartite depuis 1990 est un pays potentiellement riche et politiquement stable, ces deux atouts auraient pu favoriser le développement du sport. Au contraire, certaines fédérations sportives n’existent que de nom, le sport scolaire et l’EPS tendent à disparaître des emplois du temps. Les équipements sportifs sont insuffisants. La formation et la recherche sont en friche. En compétitions officielles les performances des équipes gabonaises laissent à désirer.Certains spécialistes de sciences politiques affirment que si la société doit être transformée, cela ne peut commencer que par les institutions, instances de médiations entre les élites politiques et les citoyens. Si l’hypothèse est recevable, quel rôle peuvent tenir les institutions sportives dans cette perspective au Gabon ? Les institutions de sport au Gabon ne semblent pas avoir atteint leurs objectifs au vu des nombreux conflits internes, des irrégularités continuelles dans leur fonctionnement, et des insuffisances observées dans les performances sportives actuelles en compétitions officielles. Ces institutions sportives vivent-elles l’expérience démocratique engagée dans le but de restaurer l’autorité de l’Etat, libérer les énergies créatrices, protéger les droits des populations, et favoriser le développement global (l’émergence) du Gabon? Au regard des perspectives politiques récentes, un changement pourrait s’amorcer
Physical activities and games are part of universal culture, and mostly of humanity. African populations had to give up theirs with the creation of modern sports during the settlement era. Physical activities and traditional games in Gabon had mostly a practical aim, going from physical training for teenagers to community service, to leisure activities for all, just like dances during memorial events or initiatory and ritual ceremonies. These activities have disappeared because the colonial policy was to depreciate native practices, by promoting western culture that included sports.We have presented some traditional games in Gabon on the basis of a study we started a few years ago, because we may have found though this study a suggestion we would make, to revitalize and diversify Sport and Physical Activities (SPA) in the school area in Gabon. Indeed, contrary to western sports, traditional games in Gabon have a fewer equipment needs. Moreover, equipment and instruments needed for their practice are located around the area of practice. And we have demonstrated that if SPA disappear from schedules in Gabonese schools, this is mainly due to a high cost for sport didactic equipment as today, sport is the main part of the SPA schedules.We have also presented Gabon traditional games to draw Gabonese Authorities attention to the risk that this category of national cultural patrimony may disappear. We did it as we think that in a globalization context in which each entity promotes its cultural identity and aims at making durable its traditions, Gabon could have its own identity thanks to its traditional physical activities. And it could also use it as a reference for a part of its history.After we informed the existence of traditional games in Gabon, we found it appropriate to mention the sport that replaced them, its meaning, its expansion and its international organization.But what is sport exactly, if we refer to many definitions suggested by different authors? We can order these definitions through specialties. This shows how complicated it is to evaluate this phenomenon. Besides, nowadays we can find sport practices and their corollaries nearly everywhere in social life.Gabon, such as many African countries being former colonies from France, is going to inherit practices and sport structures from its colonizer. However, Gabon is short of sport executives and technicians, equipment and facilities are precarious and insufficient. Realistic sport policies have to be set up, and a long-term projection has to be considered. On the contrary, Gabonese authorities may choose high-level sport to the detriment of school and leisure sport, which are, according to us, real basis of sport policies to guarantee continuous and lasting results.The main issue of this study is about the functioning and productivity of sport institutions introduced by the State to bring prestige and Gabon influence at an international level. To realize this study, we had to notice insufficient results, generally speaking, in Gabonese sport. So, studies were made around the three groups of institutions dealing with public policies and sport destiny.They led us to the State central administration, and we studied the organization and functioning of the Sport Department, its external services and trust organs. Then we studied the second public actor in the sport management in Gabon, which are territory collectivities, and we noticed that their role remains really symbolic, in their failure to enforce the law on decentralization. The third actor or group of actors we studied in this research is the Gabonese Olympic movement, which organization is recommended by the international sport institutions. And we reminded this global sport hierarchy.Gabon that became independent on the 17th of August 1960, and that tries out multipartite democracy since 1990, is a politically stable and wealth country. These two assets could have helped to develop sport. On the contrary, some sport federations only exist thanks to their name; school sport and the SPE are to disappear from schedules. Sport equipment is insufficient. Training and research are wasted. During official events, Gabonese teams performances are quite below-average.Some political scientists claim that if society has to be transformed, it has to start with the institutions, authorities for negotiation between politic elites and citizens. If the possibility is acceptable, what is the role of sport institutions in this perspective in Gabon? Sport institutions in Gabon do not seem to have reached their targets if we look at the numerous internal frictions, constant irregularities in their functioning, and insufficiencies in their current sport performances in official events. These sport institutions live the democratic experience in order to reestablish State authority, to release creative energies, to protect populations’ rights, and to promote Gabon global development?With regard to the recent political views, a change could get under way

La présente thèse rentre dans le cadre de la gouvernance des entreprises familiales malgaches. Il s’agit d’identifier, dans le cadre malgache, les relations entre l’incertitude et le degré d’ouverture des entreprises familiales. Nous avons procédé à l’analyse des cartes cognitives idiosyncratiques de cinq dirigeants-propriétaires d’entreprises familiales.Les résultats révèlent que la prise en compte des différentes dimensions de l’incertitude en tant qu’attribut des transactions, apporte une meilleure compréhension du degré d’ouverture de ces firmes en tant que mode de gouvernance. Par ailleurs, des variables exogènes qui relèvent de l’Institution influencent le choix des modes de gouvernance. De plus, le profil de l’entrepreneur ainsi que les caractéristiques de l’entreprise ont montré leurs capacités explicatives dans la détermination des limites de la firme.En somme, le travail a débouché sur un modèle intégré de la gouvernance sur une base cognitive. Ce modèle prend en compte la perception des attributs des transactions, les institutions mises en place pour encadrer ces transactions, tout ceci dans un contexte bien déterminé
This thesis is part of the global issue of malagasy family business’ governance. Our goal is to identify, in the malagasy context, the relationship between uncertainty and the degree of openness of those companies. We proceed through the analysis of the idiosyncratic cognitive cards of five owner-directors of family owned companies.The results show that by taking into account the different dimensions of uncertainty as an attribute of the transactions, bring a better understanding of the degree of openness as a choice of governance. Moreover, exogenous variable, part of Institution, influence the governance model. In addition of that, the entrepreneurs’ profile or the characteristics of the companies have shown their explaining abilities while determining the firms’ limits.In summ, we arrive to an integrated model of governance in a cognitive basis. This model consider the attributes of transaction, the institution and the particular context of the study

Esta dissertação compreende um estudo acerca da estrutura de governança regulatória do Brasil, a partir da análise dos setores de telecomunicação e eletricidade. Tal estudo é feito à luz do modelo teórico desenvolvido por Pablo Spiller e Mariano Tommasi que define os meios pelos quais as instituições de um país afetam a habilidade dos atores políticos de sustentar políticas ao longo do tempo e, conseqüentemente, de garantir a credibilidade regulatória do país. Guiada pelo modelo teórico em questão, a análise das características mais marcantes da dotação político-institucional do país, bem como dos processos políticos que deram origem às estruturas regulatórias dos dois setores permite identificar, entre outros aspectos, que o papel de destaque ocupado pelo Executivo no sistema politico brasileiro se confirma também nas arenas das políticas regulatórias dos setores regulados. A análise do desenho das estruturas de governança regulatória desses setores evidencia que, apesar da preocupação em instituir uma regulação de caráter técnico e imune a pressões políticas, nem sempre o desenho escolhido se adapta eficientemente às peculiaridades e características da dotação institucional do País, coibindo o comportamento oportunista dos atores políticos nos setores estudados. A inferência descritiva realizada permite a avaliação do modelo teórico em questão e evidencia a importância de que ao mesmo sejam incorporadas outras variáveis, como as preferências dos atores e os atores com poder de veto. Feito isso, o modelo poderá explicar e avaliar com mais precisão os diversos desenhos de estruturas de governança regulatória.
This thesis consists of a study of Brazils regulatory governance structure, through an analysis of the telecommunications and electricity sectors. The analytical efforts are guided by the theoretical model - developed by Pablo Spiller and Mariano Tommasi that defines the means through which a countrys institutions can affect the ability of politicians to engage in intra-temporal exchanges and, as a consequence, determines the countrys regulatory credibility. Guided by this theoretical model, the analysis of Brazils institutional endowment and of the processes that led to the creation of the regulatory institutions in each sector allows the conclusion that the broad role played by the Executive in the Brazilian political system was also reflected in the specific arenas where the regulatory bodies were shaped. The analysis of the design of the regulatory governance structures demonstrates that, despite initial concerns about the implementation of technical and nonpolitical regulation, these structures are yet to be completely and effectively adapted to the peculiarities and characteristics of Brazils institutional endowment. In addition, the descriptive inference highlights the importance of including the preferences of actors, and the influence of veto players, within the models variables, in order to refine its explanatory power.

This study aims to explore the role of institutional investors in the improvement of corporate governance within the companies in which they invest (investee companies). This aim is accomplished by analysing evidence concerning the characteristics of numerous companies’ boards of directors, and of their key subcommittees, listed across the globe. These characteristics are related to board attributes (composition, activity, entrenchment and busyness) and board diversity (gender, age, nationality and education). Furthermore, this study also seeks to investigate the behaviour of institutional investors in improving corporate governance by considering different settings, including various economic conditions (pre-crisis, crisis and post-crisis periods), legal systems and ownership structures. Using a sample collected from 15 countries for the period of 2006 to 2012, this study finds that institutional investors promote more favourable corporate governance outcomes, with foreign institutional investors playing a lead role in the improvement and convergence of corporate governance practices around the world. This study provides evidence that institutional investors promote the enhanced composition of boards and of their audit and compensation committees, though not of nomination committees. Furthermore, institutional investors are positively associated with the activity of audit committees but not with the activity of boards nor of compensation and nomination committees. The results also demonstrate that institutional investors reduce board entrenchment though no evidence is found that institutional investors reduce board busyness. The findings also suggest that the role of institutional investors in corporate governance is determined by a company’s institutional environment including the prevalent economic condition, the legal system and the ownership structure of the country in which it operates. In particular, the findings show that institutional investors play a stronger role in the improvement of governance structures during crisis and post-crisis periods than they do during pre-crisis times. This result is also applicable to individual board attributes, such as the independence of audit committees. Additionally, institutional investors improve the independence of boards and of their key subcommittees (with the exception of nomination committees) in civil law countries and reduce board busyness in common law countries. However, there is no evidence that institutional investors reduce board entrenchment in either legal system. Furthermore, the results indicate that they improve governance outcomes in nonfamily-owned firms but not in family-owned firms. Moreover, this study presents no evidence that institutional investors promote board diversity; in fact, this study generally finds no association between institutional ownership and various board diversity attributes such as gender, age, nationality and education. However, the findings do show that institutional investors are positively associated with the education diversity of boards during times of crisis and are negatively associated with board age diversity during pre-crisis and post-crisis periods. Furthermore, while in common law countries institutional investors are found to be negatively associated with board age diversity, they have no influence over board diversity attributes (i.e., gender, age, nationality and education) in civil law countries. The results also suggest that the associations between institutional investors and board diversity are mixed and insignificant within different ownership structures, i.e. in family- and non-family-owned firms.

Business Administration
Ph.D.
The role of Institutional investors in alleviating the agent problem of management and its valuation effect has been studied extensively in corporate finance. We complement this stream of research by exploring management's control over institutional investors with misaligned objectives, particularly public pension fund, and the consequential valuation effect. We investigate the politic motive of public pension fund's shareholder activism and its impact on the target firms' operational performance, address the control of a strong management on public pension funds' self-serving agenda, and finally we compare the ownership adjustment pattern of public pension funds to other institutional investors to conclude public pension funds' ownership adjustment reflects their private pursuit. The first chapter explores the politic facet and performance effect of shareholder activism sponsored by public pension fund. In this study, we show that having a public pension fund as the leading sponsor of a shareholder proposal significantly improves the proposal's likelihood of being accepted by the target firm. The increased acceptance rate sources from the subset of proposals addressing a social responsibility issue, and targeting firms with weak insider control. An investigation of the public pension board reveals that the board's political profile is the primary determinant of public pension fund's propensity to lead a proposal, and the target firm's acceptance rate. We also assess the performance impact of shareholder proposals. For target firms with strong insider control, the performance impact of accepted social responsibility proposals is significantly positive; that of governance proposals is negligible. For target firms with weak insider control, the performance impact associated with public pension funds is either negative or negligible. These results suggest that the motive driving public pension funds' dominant presence in shareholder activism is not market based, but laden with purpose other than value creation. In the second chapter, we postulate that the widely documented negative valuation effect of ownership by public pension will be weak on firms with extra managerial control mechanism and/or whose managerial ownership of cash flow is high. For firms with high level managerial ownership of cash flow, management bears higher cost for a concession made with public pension fund's misaligned objective. An efficient market will expect this effect and value the managerial control over public pension fund to the extent that the management's benefit is aligned with outside shareholders. Consequently, the cross section valuation difference of firms held by public pension funds can be explained by the managerial ownership of cash flow, managerial control derived from extra mechanism such as dual class share, however, has no explanative power. The last chapter investigates the link between private benefits and institutional holding change. We assume the cross section equilibrium of block holding will break when market sentiment is high. Consequently, block holder tends to shed more shares loaded with less private benefits by taking advantage of opportunities available in a high sentiment market. The empirical results support this conjecture. When the market sentiment is high, Institutional block holders tend to shed more private benefits meager dual-class share than private benefits affluent non-dual class share. This pattern does not exist when the market sentiment is low. Most importantly, public pension fund is identified as the major driver of this effect.
Temple University--Theses

The institutional dynamics, policies and legislation that were prevalent during the apartheid era have left imprints that are difficult to ignore as they still dictate the interaction between different elements in the water sector to date. During the apartheid era, the formulation of policies was informed by racial segregation, resulting in a socio-economic pattern that dictated the distribution and access of resources for the people of different races in the country. Post-apartheid, the National Water Act has established the basis for management of water resources on a catchment basis (for equity, efficiency and sustainability), and the Water Services Act aims to ensure everybody has access to basic water supply and sanitation services. Regardless of the improvements in water supply to the rural sector made by the South African government, many of the current patterns of water use are still characterised by inequality, inefficiency, and inadequacy. The poor remain marginalised, and emerging farmers and poor rural communities have limited access to water resources while water continues to be used inefficiently by some farmers in the agricultural sector with few incentives to improve its water use efficiency. Despite the existence of the thriving citrus industry in the area, around 60% of people in the Sundays River Valley Municipality (SRVM) live below the poverty datum line. The inequality between the municipal populace and the commercial citrus industry is noticeable and the inequitable water redistribution is prevalent in the Lower Sundays River Valley (LSRV). The problem of disrupted water supply is prevalent in the catchment. However, there is also currently no physical shortage of water in the catchment. Therefore, the currently experienced problems with water supply in the LSRV are consequence of a lack of effective institutions and infrastructure, not of physical water scarcity. It is argued in this paper that there is a notable lack of understanding about the design of institutions for water management in developing countries. The vast majority of research on water management and access is premised on neoclassical economics ideas related to water markets and pricing among others. The neoclassical economics approach, however, does not adequately define the role of institutions in shaping the direction of water access and supply. This study uses new institutional economics (NIE) arguments to define the institutional arrangements and dynamics defining the water sector in South Africa, using the Lower Sunday River Water Users Association (LSR-WUA) as the case study. It aims at analysing the institutional governance and performance of the using equity, efficiency and effectiveness as key indicators. The various research methods employed in this study include; interpretive and post-positivist paradigms, quantitative and qualitative research, the case study research method and in-depth key informant interviews. It is concluded that that the current and future decisions made by the LSR-WUA are not entirely independent of those made in the past under Sundays River Irrigation Board (SRIB). The thesis argues that such factors as old effective networks, vested interests of commercial farmers, sunk costs towards the building of canals, among other factors, may have influenced the dependence of the LSR-WUA on the SRIB’s set path. It is further concluded that the absence of contractual agreement between the LRS-WUA which acts as the bulk water supplier, and the SRVM which acts as both the water services authority (WSA) and the water service provider (WSP) creates an institutional arrangement deficiency. Such an institutional arrangement vacuum can lead to a failure of the water institutions in the catchment to provide water resources effectively. The study further argues that because the post-apartheid National Water Policy of South Africa is largely influenced by neoclassical economics foundations, the desired results in the water sector, such as equitable distribution of water resources, have not yet been fulfilled completely.

During the last decade, about 95 per cent of democracies implemented one or more types of decentralisation reforms. Decentralisation encompasses administrative, fiscal, and political dimensions and depths of deconcentration, delegation, and devolution. The extant literature deals with origins, processes, and outcomes of decentralisation and demonstrates diverse outcomes such as subnational autonomy, accountability, economic growth, and the quality of public service delivery. This thesis investigated decentralisation empirically, methodologically, and theoretically. First, a measurement tool is developed to capture the degree of changes in subnational autonomy. Second, Falleti’s theory was applied to the first wave of decentralisation in Japan and Korea. As the results demonstrate the lack of generalisability, the author developed an historical ideological framework which explains causality from powerful actors’ ideological footholds to types of decentralisation. Finally, cross-country and cross-sector case studies confirm that powerful actors’ motivations, public consensus and institutional factors shape types of decentralisation which determine the degree of changes in subnational autonomy. As a whole, the thesis contributes to the knowledge by showing limitations of Falleti’s sequential theory of decentralisation. Empirically this thesis measures the degree of changes in subnational autonomy after the first and the second wave of decentralisation in Japan and Korea with a more nuanced and comprehensive measurement tool. Methodologically, the thesis shows limitations of theory-guided intensive process-tracing and potential advantages of extensive process-tracing. Theoretically, the thesis shows ideas combined institutional factors have causal power as strong as interests. Notwithstanding several contributions, the thesis contains some limitations and renders insights for future studies. Historical ideological causality based on decentralisation in Japan and Korea should be tested in another location to expand generalisability. The tool to measure subnational autonomy developed by the author should be improved by fine-tuning technical issues. For periodization of decentralisation, an economic perspective of post-developmental decentralisation as well as a social perspective of the expansion of Welfare State should be considered.

The study examines the association between institutional shareholdings in FTSE ALL Share firms and corporate governance from 2006 to 2010. Institutions are believed to invest in firms with better corporate governance, to help meet their fudiary duties. The evidence is consistent with this view, that institutional investors do tilt their portfolios' to firms with better governance. However, when examining ownership at various levels only block-ownership at ≤10% had a positive significant association to corporate governance. It was also found that institutional shareholder became more sensitive after the 2007-8 financial crisis. Finally, when exploring the association for different types of institution, it was found that investment advisors and hedge funds were the most sensitive to corporate governance. The study provides a contribution to knowledge on institutional ownership, as it provides the first evidence on the institutional investor preferences on corporate governance within the UK and which elements are the most important to institutions.

This dissertation develops and assesses hypotheses regarding the design and adaptation of institutions for maintaining the quality of a shared natural resource at regional scales. The analysis is centered on arrangements created by governmental actors for deciding how to jointly govern a resource producing high-quality drinking water. The cases studied are Boston (Massachusetts), New York City (New York), Portland (Oregon), and San Francisco (California). Drinking water in each of these cities is provided unfiltered, and it is sourced from lands located in other jurisdictions. To maintain water quality, both providers and landowners in the watersheds have reached agreements defining how to jointly govern the resource. This dissertation studies the design of these arrangements. Studying these dynamics, particularly in a federal regime, highlights the limits that governmental actors face in making decisions with other governments at different levels. The dissertation contains three empirical papers addressing aspects of design in these arrangements. The empirical chapters are structured as separate papers that follow a common theme. Throughout the dissertation, insights from various research traditions are brought in to complement the analysis of institutional design. The studies in this dissertation combine arguments from the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, Common-Pool Resource Theory, Transaction Cost Economics, social network analysis, Adaptive Governance, and theories of information processing stemming from the Punctuated Equilibrium literature in public policy.

Esta tese tem o objetivo de estudar a governança de institutos e fundações criados por empresas para realização de investimento social privado. A participação da iniciativa privada no financiamento ou na realização de investimentos sociais, culturais e ambientais cresceu, no Brasil, especialmente desde o início da década de 1990. Algumas empresas, em número crescente, instituíram fundações e institutos com o propósito específico de gerenciar e executar essa atividade. Essa modalidade de investimento se desenvolveu num país que não conseguiu ainda superar a má distribuição de renda e os problemas dela decorrentes, apesar de ter crescido economicamente, ser classificado como um dos países de levado IDH e ter conseguido estabelecer um regime político democrático estável desde o final dos anos 80. Acreditase que essas fundações empresariais têm grande potencial de contribuir para o desenvolvimento socioeconômico e ambiental do país. É, portanto, importante que se possa entender quais fatores contribuem para que sejam eficazes e que se aprofunde o estudo da sua governança. Governança é conceituada como um conjunto de mecanismos de incentivo e controle utilizados para superar ou minimizar os chamados conflitos de agência, originários da separação entre propriedade e gestão das empresas. Esse conceito tem sido também aplicado a organizações sem fins lucrativos, considerando-se os conflitos que podem ocorrer entre doadores de recursos e gestores. Neste trabalho, argumenta-se que as fundações e institutos empresariais são organizações sem fins lucrativos que apresentam características tanto do setor empresarial quanto das organizações da sociedade civil e que essa conjunção distingue as fundações empresariais das organizações desses dois setores. Dessa forma, o trabalho propõe avaliar se os mecanismos de governança utilizados em empresas ou em outras formas de organizações sem fins lucrativos podem ser aplicados a essas fundações. Um conjunto de mecanismos de governança, adaptados a partir daqueles identificados através uma revisão da literatura teórica e empírica sobre governança de empresas e de organizações sem fins lucrativos, foi selecionado para estudo. Sendo um campo de investigação pouco desenvolvido, optou-se por realizar um estudo de casos, descritivo e exploratório, de forma a ampliar o conhecimento sobre o tema, através da observação e da análise dos dados colhidos nas organizações participantes, e sugerir hipóteses para investigação futura. Foram colhidos dados sobre as oito organizações participantes através de publicações impressas e na internet e foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os principais executivos de cada uma. A análise dos dados indica ser adequado considerar as fundações empresariais como parte de um segmento organizacional distinto das empresas e de outras organizações sem fins lucrativos. Foi feita uma análise crítica de cada um dos mecanismos de governança selecionados, à luz das informações obtidas nos estudos de caso, e observou-se que são parcialmente aplicáveis, mas parecem não estar atuando com todo seu potencial. A partir dessa análise, ao final do trabalho são feitas observações que sugerem hipóteses e análises para estudos adicionais que possam ampliar e consolidar o conhecimento sobre governança de fundações empresariais.
This thesis objective is to study the governance of corporate foundations and institutes created to implement private social investment. Private sector participation in financing or implementing social, cultural and environmental investments grew, in Brazil, especially since the beginning of the 1990s. Some companies, in growing numbers, instituted foundations and institutes to manage and execute this activity. This kind of investment developed itself in a country which has not yet overcome bad income distribution and the problems thereof, although it has grown economically, is classified as one of the high IDH countries and managed to establish a stable democratic government since the late 80s. It is believed that corporate foundations have great potential to contribute to the countrys social, economic and environmental development. It is therefore important to understand which factors contribute to their effectiveness and to better study their governance aspects. Governance is conceptualized as a set of control and incentive mechanisms to overcome or minimize the so called agency conflicts, which originate from the separation of property and management in for profit organizations. This concept has been also applied to nonprofits, taking into account conflicts that may occur between resource donors and management. In this study, it is argued that corporate foundations and institutes are nonprofit organizations that have characteristics both from the private sector and from civil society organizations and that the conjunction of these characteristics distinguishes corporate foundations from both types of organizations. This study proposes, therefore, to evaluate whether governance mechanisms used in companies and in other types of nonprofit organizations may be used in these foundations. Adapted from those identified by a theoretical and empirical literature review of corporate and nonprofit governance, a set of governance mechanisms was selected for study. Because this is a little developed investigation field, it was decided to conduct an exploratory descriptive case study, in order to expand knowledge about the theme through observation and analysis of participant organizations and to suggest hypotheses for future research. Data about the eight participant organizations was collected through printed or internet publications and semi structured interviews were conducted with the CEOs of each of them. The data analysis indicates that it is adequate that corporate foundations be considered as part of an organizational group distinct from companies and other nonprofits. A critical analysis of each selected governance mechanism was carried out in light of the case studies information. It was observed that they are partially applicable but seem not to be acting in their full potential. From this analysis, final observations were made that suggest hypotheses and analyses for further studies that may increase and consolidate knowledge about corporate foundations governance.

Nous proposons dans cette thèse d’examiner les modes d’action de l’État en termes de cadrage et de contrôle de la sphère économique et financière. Cette étude nous mène à étudier le concept de régulation à travers une approche épistémologique, juridique, économique et philosophique. En ce sens, l’analyse des fonctions de gouvernement s’avère essentielle dans la mesure où nous assistons à l’évolution de la praxis régulatrice de l’État au regard des doctrines économiques et de l’architecture juridique et opérationnelle des institutions de régulation. Les fonctions de sécurisation de la sphère économique mettent en avant l’importance de l’espace complexe situé entre le régulateur et l’entité régulée. Dans ce cadre, l’étude des enjeux éthiques et l’importance du concept de contextualisation en termes de moralisation des marchés financiers impliquent la confrontation de la praxis régulatrice avec les concepts-clés de gouvernementalité, de catégorisation et de performativité. Tour à tour, gardien, régulateur et stratège, l’État est inséré, aujourd’hui à l’ère digitale, dans un monde fragmenté et global. A cet égard, la compréhension des phénomènes de «co-régulation» et «d’inter-régulation» nécessite, tout d’abord, de remettre en perspective la notion de responsabilité et d’indépendance des acteurs et des institutions. Dans cette réflexion, l’appréhension du risque par les pouvoirs publics montre certaines limites à la fois des modèles de risque et des modèles de régulation
We suggest in this thesis to examine the State’s modalities of action in terms of framing and control of the economic and financial sphere. This study leads us to study the concept of regulation through an epistemological, legal, economic and philosophical approach. De facto, the analysis of the functions of government proves to be essential insofar as we observe the evolution of the State’s regulatory praxis with regard to the economic doctrines and the legal and operational architecture of the institutions of regulation. The functions of securization of the economic sphere shed lights on the complex space between the regulator and the regulated entity. In this context, the study of ethical issues with the importance of the concept of contextualization in terms of the moralization of financial markets imply the confrontation of the regulatory praxis with key concepts as governmentality, categorization and performativity. Successively, guardian, regulator and strategist, the State is inserted, today in the digital age, in a fragmented and global world. Understanding the phenomenon of “co-regulation” and “inter-regulation” requires, first of all, putting into perspective the notion of responsibility and independence of actors and institutions. In this reflection, the apprehension of risk by public authorities underlines some limits both in risk models and in models of regulation

In 2007 the city of Hull in Yorkshire, England, experienced extremely high levels of rainfall. The city is very low lying, built predominantly on drained land which relies on a pumped drainage system; as a result, the city flooded. There were a number of other incidents of flooding across England in the summer of 2007, but Hull was unusual as such a large proportion of the city flooded – 91 of the 99 schools in the city were flooded – the city was faced with a crisis. The flooding 2007 was widespread and also affected some politically sensitive areas, consequently, after the flooding, there was a government inquiry which looked specifically at the lessons that could be learnt from the event and Hull’s local narrative was picked up by the panel in this inquiry as it was an exemplar of pluvial flooding, an issue that came to light nationally in 2007. The flooding in Hull in 2007 became part of a nationally important event which drove change in policy and resulted in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010. This thesis uses evidence from 31 in-depth interviews, participant observation and policy analysis to explore the theory that rapid policy change can occur in the windows of opportunity which open up as a result of a shock to the system. For example, changes made to flood governance and policy when a nationally important flood crisis occurs. Specifically, this thesis uses the 2007 flood event to re-examine the theory of policy windows in driving changes in flood governance in England and Wales. Furthermore, where previous studies have focussed on national level policy change and policy windows, this study explores the applicability of the theory to the local level, looking at the case study of the city of Hull between 1945 and 2010.

The growing internationalisation of governance in the modern era means that states are increasingly interconnected. In this process, democratic governance has often taken second place to the demands of a neoliberal system that emphasises market-based solutions to social organisation and deregulation of structures based in the democratic realm of states. This dissertation is an exploration of the role democracy plays in regional governance bodies, focusing specifically on the European Parliament and its role in the European Union as an example of this. The dissertation argues that there is a role for democracy in global governance, and that the European Parliament represents a positive step towards introducing the wishes of citizens into political structures above the level of the state. It uses a three-stage immanent criticism developed from the early work of Max Horkheimer to explore the parliament in its historical, present, and potential functions. Built on a critical philosophy that understands the social world as a product of historically materialist action, this dissertation seeks not just to describe the functions of the Parliament, but also to suggest ways in which they might develop past their current limitations. Following a methodological discussion on the application of immanent criticism, the dissertation engages in a theoretical analysis of the complex concepts of democracy and governance as a prelude to the exploration of the Parliament. The dissertation then utilises a range of interviews and documentary evidence to present a thesis that has two main claims. Firstly, it argues that the European Parliament represents a new form of democratic regional structure that represents both states and citizens, and introduces an element of democratic accountability to governance above the level of nation states. Secondly, the thesis contends that the Parliament, as part of the wider Union, possesses the potential for greater democratic function. In making this argument, the dissertation suggests a range of practical ways to improve democracy and governance in the Parliament, and by extension in other similar regional political bodies. These include the introduction of greater democratic influence on decision making, increased transparency, dedicated European political parties, and a stronger role for civil society bodies. The dissertation concludes that democratic governance has the potential to present an alternative to the dominant neoliberal structures that currently shape much of the international political, economic, and social environment.

This dissertation suggests that the greening of the corporate governance mechanisms—meaning efforts to tie executive compensation to environmental targets (incentive) and to enhance board responsibility over environmental performance (monitoring)—induces managers to comply with pressures to lower toxic emissions in the U.S. high polluting industries.

Although emphasis has been placed on the benefits of greater use of both incentive and monitoring mechanisms to improve corporate environmental performance, there is little consideration given to the potential costs associated with their implementation. I argue that mechanisms of incentive in the form of environmental compensation may serve as substitute of mechanisms of monitoring by the environmental board committee.

However, contrary to my expectations, results show that incentive and monitoring are positively associated. Nonetheless, I suggest that these mechanisms are most effective in improving environmental performance when adopted under specific circumstances of environmental risk. I found that the existence of environmental compensation is positively associated with firms' environmental risk. Furthermore, there is weak evidence showing that environmental board committees are more prevalent in firms that face conditions of moderate environmental risk.

This dissertation employs a panel regression model with random-effects. The sample consists of the S&P500 firms that are required to report toxic emissions to the Toxic Release Inventory, years 2006 to 2011. Data was collected from proxy statements, annual reports, and various other databases.

An evaluative research survey involving 694 faculty members with an academic appointment in Oregon's 4-year unionized institutions of higher education was undertaken to determine whether or not collective bargaining has supported faculty rights for participation in institutional governance. Four hypotheses were formulated to study the relationship between the independent variable of collective bargaining and the dependent variable of institutional governance, specific to: (1) professional interest, (2) economic interest, (3) educational policy, and (4) academic and personnel policy. Data received from 486 respondents' questionnaires were used for the Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance to test the four hypotheses. The four hypotheses of the study were rejected. However, findings of the study suggest that the collective bargaining process is perceived by the respondents in all three unionized institutions as having (1) facilitated their participation in the formal structure and process for institutional decision making and (2) provided for just cause in dismissal and grievance decisions.

The first essay analyzes mutual funds proxy voting records on shareholder proposals. The results indicate that mutual funds support shareholder proposals and vote against management for proposals that are likely to increase shareholders wealth and rights, in firms with weaker external monitoring mechanisms, in firms with entrenched management, and when funds have longer investment horizon. Mutual funds mostly take management sides on executive compensation related proposals, when they have higher ownership concentration, and when they belong to bigger fund families. The results further indicate that there is a positive reputational effect for the funds undertaking a monitoring role. Moreover, mutual funds reduce holdings when they disapprove of managements policy, but before doing so they take on an activist role by supporting shareholder proposals. The second essay investigates institutional investors trading behavior of acquiring firm stocks surrounding merger activities. We label investment companies and independent investment advisors as active institutions and banks, nonbank trusts and insurance companies as passive institutions. We find active institutions increase holdings of acquiring firm stocks for mergers with higher wealth implications. However, active institutions overreact to stock mergers at the announcement, which they appear to correct at the resolution quarter of the merger. The trading behavior of passive institutions suggests that these institutions disregard the market response of merger announcement in trading acquiring firm stocks at the announcement quarter. The passive institutions gradually update their beliefs and trade on the basis of merger wealth effect at the resolution quarter. The third essay examines relation between executive compensation structure with the existing level and changes of takeover defense mechanisms of firms. According to managerial entrenchment hypothesis, higher managerial power from adoption of takeover defense mechanisms would lead to generating higher rents for executives. Efficient contracting hypothesis argue that higher anti-takeover provisions would contribute in achieving efficient contracting by deferring compensation into the future due to the low possibility of hostile takeover. The results support managerial entrenchment hypothesis with regard to existing level of takeover defense mechanisms. With regard to changes in anti-takeover provisions, the existing level of managerial power influence the future pay structure.

Legal and institutional structures fundamentally shape opportunities for adaptive governance of environmental resources at multiple ecological and societal scales. Properties of adaptive governance are widely studied. However, these studies have not resulted in consolidated frameworks for legal and institutional design, limiting our ability to promote adaptation and social-ecological resilience. We develop an overarching framework that describes the current and potential role of law in enabling adaptation. We apply this framework to different social-ecological settings, centers of activity, and scales, illustrating the multidimensional and polycentric nature of water governance. Adaptation typically emerges organically among multiple centers of agency and authority in society as a relatively self-organized or autonomous process marked by innovation, social learning, and political deliberation. This self-directed and emergent process is difficult to create in an exogenous, top-down fashion. However, traditional centers of authority may establish enabling conditions for adaptation using a suite of legal, economic, and democratic tools to legitimize and facilitate self-organization, coordination, and collaboration across scales. The principles outlined here provide preliminary legal and institutional foundations for adaptive environmental governance, which may inform institutional design and guide future scholarship.

The thesis investigates the role of governance networks in advancing sustainable energy transitions in the cities of Europe. By doing so, it aims to provide insights about the practical applicability of the Transition Management framework in different urban settings. Exploring this issue is timely as well as important due to parallel processes of the rising profile of cities in transition governance; and the perceived need in city authorities to develop new governance mechanisms to support low-carbon transitions on the urban scale. The main contribution to knowledge is the empirical evidence provided for the context-dependency of the connections between technological change required for urban low-carbon energy transitions and organisational change in local governance arrangements. The findings' consequence for theory is that the implicit assumptions built into Transition Management about the functioning of collaborative governance networks limit its applicability in different cities. The evidence collected through the study also highlights problems with scaling down the Multi-Level Perspective to the urban scale. The findings are derived from a comparative study of three cities from across Europe with diverse characteristics in terms of historical sustainability agenda development, locally relevant rationales for transitions, and patterns of organisational fragmentation and power-distribution in local governance arrangements.

L’efficacité de l’aide au développement est aujourd’hui largement débattue au sein de la communauté des donateurs et dans la littérature académique (Rajan and Subramanian, 2008). Le contexte institutionnel des pays récipiendaires est au cœur de ce débat puisqu’il conditionnerait l’efficacité de l’aide en termes de croissance économique (Dalgaard and Hansen (2001), Collier and Dollar (2002) and Burnside and Dollar, 2004). L’aide serait efficace dans les pays pauvres et bien gouvernés. L’objet de ce travail de recherche est d’expliquer l’apparition de critères institutionnels dans l’allocation de l’aide au développement et de déterminer leurs effets en matière d’efficacité de l’aide. Il vise donc à appréhender le rôle joué par la gouvernance dans les pays receveurs (pays en développement) et dans les pays donateurs (pays de l’OCDE essentiellement) à la fois dans l’allocation et dans l’efficacité de l’aide au développement. Ce travail tente donc de répondre à plusieurs interrogations : (1) la reconnaissance de la nature institutionnelle de l’aide est-elle appropriée ? (2) l’aide est-elle- intrinsèquement politique ? (3) quelles sont les implications économiques de l’aide allouée selon des critères institutionnels ?
The recognition that political institutions matter is relatively recent and is the result of several interacting factors. The purpose of our research is to explain how foreign aid is related to governance issues both in recipient countries (developing countries) and in donor countries. Development aid is provided by: bilateral donors (29 DAC3 donors and 19 non-DAC donors), multilateral donors and private donors (e.g. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Foreign aid differs according to the intended purposes: reforming national policies (economic policies or other types) and political institutions, and providing humanitarian assistance. The focus of our dissertation is on the emergence of non-strictly economic criteria (mainly institutional criteria) within the donor community as well as their impact on aid allocation and effectiveness. Therefore, we will address several questions: (1) Is the recognition of the institutional nature of aid appropriate?(2) Is aid political? (3) What are the economic implications of political aid (or aid based on institutional performance) ?

This study asks the question: “How does the structure of cybersecurity policy relate to differences in structure of policy governance of universities and colleges?” The study has three objectives. First, the study seeks to add to the body of knowledge concerning the relationship between the structure of cybersecurity policy processes and the security policies developed by those processes. Second, the study seeks to demonstrate the usefulness of the Institutional Grammar Tool, Rules Configurations, and other methods employed to analyze institutional configurations. Third, the study seeks to provide pragmatic suggestions for cybersecurity practitioners to systematically identify deficiencies in policy structure that contribute to less than optimum outcomes. Research on this question is necessary as no integrative framework exists for describing or predicting how organizations adopt and implement cyber security policy. The study proposes such a framework by integrating an ideal model for cyber security governance with the principles of the Institutional Analysis and Design framework (IAD). Four research universities of the University System of Georgia are subjected to a cross-case comparison of information security policies. Interviews and policy documents provide a database of institutional statements that are analyzed using IAD methods and tools. Prior research suggests that elements of policy structure, such as how the policy fits the organization’s objectives and culture, are linked to policy effectiveness. Research also suggests that how those elements of policy structure reflect external threats and organizational factors are determined by how the cybersecurity policy development is integrated into the governance of university wide policy. In addition to demonstrating the utility of an integrated approach to studying the problem of creating effective policy, findings demonstrate how a well-integrated cybersecurity governance structure provides better fit, constructs policies of appropriate scope, and is more likely to include the components of governance necessary for policy effectiveness. Findings also suggest that policy form, the readability of policy, may be improved if the documents are analyzed using the institutional grammar tools suggested by the IAD and if collaboration with users and managers to construct policy is encouraged. The capability of the methods employed by the study to identify deficiencies in cyber security governance structure that are manifested in less effective policy outcomes may aid policy makers as they strive to develop policy solutions to an ever changing security threat