Abstract: Myanmar is currently emerging from decades of military dictatorship. Though the transformation is still in its infancy, the new quasi-civilian government has embarked on an impressive reform agenda to transform the country into a democratic nation with a market driven economy. This has resulted in an easing of US and EU sanctions, leaving western businesses impatient to tap into the opportunities this new emerging market has to offer. However, the country still suffers from the legacies of being brutally oppressed by the military rule that has left the country in an extremely poor state, with severe weak governance structures and on-going violent intra-state conflicts. Given Myanmar’s rich endowment in natural resources, there is a high risk that the country will remain entrapped in its ‘resource curse’ unless proper actions are undertaken. The literature on the role of business in conflict zones has primarily focused on corporations’ contributing role in causing and/or prolonging conflicts. However, this also presents a selection bias that doesn’t fully explain the possible positive role that corporations can have in conflict zones (Wolf et.al. 2007). Moreover, the literature on the political aspect of CSR tends to focus on corporate governance contributions in ‘low politic’ issues, while the issue of corporate contributions to peace and security still remains rather undiscovered (Deitelhoff & Wolf 2010). In response, the Corporate Security Responsibility (CSecR) research agenda recently developed, but needs further empirical investigation and testing of variables. The objective of this study is thus to provide a constructive addition to this literature, by investigating how corporations can positively contribute to peace and security as a public good in Myanmar. This will be achieved through an empirical analysis of Total E&P Myanmar and Unocal/Chevron’s engagement in the Yadana pipeline project, which will hopefully contribute to a ‘closing of the gap’ in the existing literature that has left the potential contribution of business to peace largely ‘untapped’ (Wenger & Möckli 2003; Deitelhoff & Wolf 2010).
Abstract: This master thesis was motivated by the ongoing debate relating to application of relative benchmarking. It brings light to the most commonly applied valuation tool; Peer Group Benchmarking (PGB). The thesis´ investigation moves from describing the preferences in the industry, found from questionnaires, through theoretical recommendations to a final empirical analysis, which evaluates and compare the two former. Initially, the thesis describes the valuation models applied on the Danish stock market, it pins down the input characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and finally their popularity among analysts. Subsequently, the thesis presents two cases of Peer Group models from an investment bank. It shows that the models constructed for PGB are heavily dependent on preferences of the analyst, company specifications and externalities to the company under speculation, referred to as the target company. Furthermore, the thesis provides an in debt analysis of the analysts preferences and interpretations of PGB. It is the impression that analysts on the Danish stock market apply PGB very other to forecast fundamentals or as a valuation model. The tendencies manifest that analysts choose peers solely from similarities in the industries in which they operate. The theoretical point of view is obtained from Sanjeev Bhojraj and Charles M. C. Lee in “Who is my peer”, which is considered the most relevant article to this thesis. The authors recommend the selection of peers based on similarities in the financial characteristics which drives a certain multiple or fundamental. This is in steep contrast to the findings from questionnaires, and thus the following two hypotheses regarding PGB is constructed to take out the empirical analysis. Hypothesis 1) “PGB is an inefficient tool in valuating Danish companies” and 2) “Choosing companies based solely on similarities in the industry in which the target company operates is an inefficient approach to forecasting fundamentals and valuating companies with PGB. The empirical investigation generally rejects hypothesis 1) which is against prior expectations. PGB show good visual similarities and correlation between Danish target companies and different constructed PG´s. General uncertainty is acknowledge as high due to the fact that data stems from the past 20 years and that peers and target companies´ developments in the financial statements can occur from one-off gains/losses and thus bias the results. Hypothesis 2) is accepted in two stages of the analysis, both when dealing with forecasting of fundamentals and valuating directly with PGB. Valuating Danish companies through PG´s that contain firms solely picked from similarities in industries is not expected to be accurate. The findings supported the statements of the theoretical recommendations as PG´s constructed with peers based on similarities in the fundamentals showed equally good results as the former. Overall, the thesis brings light to a niche within valuation tools and presents the trends of application on the Danish stock market. It analyses and explains various extends of PGB and compares theoretical recommendations with the actual applications found from questionnaires. Finally, it evaluates the concepts overall and extend to which it works most efficiently/least inefficiently.
Abstract: The purpose of this work is to explore brand consumption of Italian tween girls and how the interaction and the influences of their peers can have an impact on the final choice and use of their brands. The choice of the target is due to tweens’ high spending power and competence on brands. To study the symbolic meaning of brands in tweens’ lives, the work focused on fashion and technology brands and used purely qualitative methods, based on five focus groups. Tween girls, at middle school, use their brands to state their image and personality in the new social contest they live. In particular they are concerned in appearing cool with peers and especially with boys, and they deny their closeness to childhood refusing kids brands and affirming their independence from parents. Tweens often draw inferences on other people on the basis of their brands’ possession and they strictly interact with their friends to have confirmation of making the right choices and raise their self-confidence. Understanding the social impact of branding and the real needs moving tween girls is fundamental to better address this peculiar market segment. Therefore, this work ends with some suggestions for managers and retailers that could be taken into account to make their marketing strategies more effective.
A master thesis on the barriers that prevent potential consumers from engaging in peer to peer car sharing services in Denmark with special focus on the company MinbilDinbil