Regulating Complexity in Financial Markets

As the financial crisis has tragically illustrated, the complexities of modern financial markets and investment securities can trigger systemic market failures. Addressing these complexities, this Article maintains, is perhaps the greatest financial-market challenge of the future. The Article first examines and explains the nature of these complexities. It then analyzes the regulatory and other steps that should be considered to reduce the potential for failure. Because complex financial markets resemble complex engineering systems, and failures in those markets have characteristics of failures in those systems, the Article‟s analysis draws on chaos theory and other approaches used to analyze complex engineering systems

Regulating Complexity in Financial Markets

As the financial crisis has tragically illustrated, the complexities of modern financial markets and investment securities can trigger systemic market failures. Addressing these complexities, this Article maintains, is perhaps the greatest financial-market challenge of the future. The Article first examines and explains the nature of these complexities. It then analyzes the regulatory and other steps that should be considered to reduce the potential for failure. Because complex financial markets resemble complex engineering systems, and failures in those markets have characteristics of failures in those systems, the Article’s analysis draws on chaos theory and other approaches used to analyze complex engineering systems

Supporting interactive system testing with interaction sequences

Despite extensive research into the modelling and testing of interactive systems, existing strategies do not adequately cover all parts of an interactive system. These existing strategies model and test either the functional or interactive components of an interactive system separately, however, issues may arise where these components intersect. Therefore, further investigation into the modelling and testing of this intersection is required. Interaction sequences are a series of steps a user can take to complete a specific task or to arbitrarily explore an interactive system. In this research interaction sequences are used as an abstraction of the interactive system to inform a model-based testing approach using lightweight formal methods. Interaction sequences provide an abstract view of the point at which the functional and interactive components intersect, and as a result also provide a good starting point for investigation into the modelling and testing of this area. Interaction sequences are applicable to all types of interactive systems irrespective of the type of interaction, therefore modelling and testing approaches using this abstraction are also applicable to all types of interactive systems. In this thesis the findings of our investigation into modelling and testing using interaction sequences are presented. We describe formalisation of interaction sequences and modelling of these sequences using Finite State Automata (FSA). We introduce the self-containment property and show how this is used to control the size and state space of FSA. We demonstrate simulating interaction sequences and discuss how these models can be applied within both model checking and testing techniques. Lastly, we present a new approach for generating tests from interaction sequences and their associated models

ENVISIONING SOLAR PANEL CANOPY SYSTEMS AT WPI

This project assessed the feasibility of WPI’s parking areas for a solar canopy system, and developed a recommendation for the most effective option. Potential locations around campus were analyzed, with total area, sunlight exposure, and local topography taken into account. Regional climate patterns and solar incentives were also considered. Best practices were learned through interviews with solar installation companies and other schools with solar canopies. Ultimately, a comprehensive cost/benefit analysis was completed to estimate installation costs and payback periods

Society, ecology and design education: transformative learning for future sustainable and healthy environments [predavanje po pozivu]

To effectively tackle the complex socio-ecological challenges of our time, it is imperative to utilise design approaches that are both transformative and broadly applicable. Such design approaches must transcend traditional boundaries of fields, domains, and disciplines and foster cross-cutting collaboration and innovation. By adopting a holistic and inclusive perspective, we can work towards meaningful and sensitive solutions that address the multifaceted challenges facing our society and environment. Failure to do so could result in a lack of understanding of environmental values and problems, leading to a significant lack of progress and understanding in these critical areas of our lives. In line with that, design education can play a central role in creating more sustainable, equitable and healthy urban environments. Transformative learning can provide “a qualitative shift“ in our living spaces at all spatial scales. It calls for dialogue, reflection, and action, whereas it addresses multiple ecological, societal, and health crises. This presentation aims to share lessons learned from international cooperations and projects, offering examples to enrich design education and practice development

Corporate reputation in mergers and acquisitions

Master's thesis in Firm managementThe purpose of this master thesis is to uncover the role of corporate reputation as an intangible asset towards a sustainable competitive advantage in mergers and acquisitions. Identifying corporate reputation as an individual asset that generate future economic benefits, can provide as a basis of including corporate reputation in financial balance sheets and due diligence. If corporate reputation contributes with long-term financial and non-financial benefits, inquiring into corporate reputation as a vital source of a sustainable competitive advantage might be beneficial for both parties in a merger/acquisition. The thesis is conducted by a qualitative “multicase” study, where two merger/acquisition deals serves as illustrative examples of current merger/acquisition practice regarding transfer and management of intangibles and corporate reputation. The merger/acquisition between Hewlett-Packard and Opsware Inc. and the merger/acquisition between Dell Inc. and Perot Systems represent the two M&A deals. The chosen design reflect the contextual nature of this thesis, as well as it is possible to build upon existing theory. Two analytical sources were chosen in order to examine the role of reputation in current practice and theory in the two M&A deals. Respectively, required merger/acquisition documentation by the federal authorities, and the price paid for the acquired company. These variables provides behavior-related information of the companies, perspectives expressed by the companies as well as financial information concerning the company’s health, valuation of assets and pricing techniques. Theoretical background serves as a secondary source of information in this thesis, supplementing the empirical research, especially in the search of uncovering the role of corporate reputation, and the possibilities for measuring and valuing this asset. The analyses indicate that corporate reputation is overlooked as a valuable intangible resource in mergers and acquisitions. Although the chosen illustrative companies describe reputation as a critical source of financial revenue and increased competitive abilities, it is not included in any financial balance sheets or the companies merger/acquisition documentation regarding management. Furthermore, the intangible asset is not present in the price paid for the acquired company, nor is it represented in the annual report as a separate asset. My research of corporate reputation in mergers and acquisitions contributes to the field of strategy and business, more precisely mergers and acquisitions, in several ways. First, it suggests new theoretical perspectives. Secondly, the thesis provides a framework as to how to include reputation in mergers and acquisitions. Third, it uncovers the ambiguous relationship between what the company disclose as important, and what actions actually reflect. Fourth, it is suggested that attributing attention to corporate reputation will enhance future, and long-term financial revenue. Fifth, and last, it is suggested that the calculated price of target companies, will be more accurately when an assessment of corporate reputation is included, thus having an influence on the decision to merge or not, as well as the agreed upon price

Corporate reputation in mergers and acquisitions

Master's thesis in Firm managementThe purpose of this master thesis is to uncover the role of corporate reputation as an intangible asset towards a sustainable competitive advantage in mergers and acquisitions. Identifying corporate reputation as an individual asset that generate future economic benefits, can provide as a basis of including corporate reputation in financial balance sheets and due diligence. If corporate reputation contributes with long-term financial and non-financial benefits, inquiring into corporate reputation as a vital source of a sustainable competitive advantage might be beneficial for both parties in a merger/acquisition. The thesis is conducted by a qualitative “multicase” study, where two merger/acquisition deals serves as illustrative examples of current merger/acquisition practice regarding transfer and management of intangibles and corporate reputation. The merger/acquisition between Hewlett-Packard and Opsware Inc. and the merger/acquisition between Dell Inc. and Perot Systems represent the two M&A deals. The chosen design reflect the contextual nature of this thesis, as well as it is possible to build upon existing theory. Two analytical sources were chosen in order to examine the role of reputation in current practice and theory in the two M&A deals. Respectively, required merger/acquisition documentation by the federal authorities, and the price paid for the acquired company. These variables provides behavior-related information of the companies, perspectives expressed by the companies as well as financial information concerning the company’s health, valuation of assets and pricing techniques. Theoretical background serves as a secondary source of information in this thesis, supplementing the empirical research, especially in the search of uncovering the role of corporate reputation, and the possibilities for measuring and valuing this asset. The analyses indicate that corporate reputation is overlooked as a valuable intangible resource in mergers and acquisitions. Although the chosen illustrative companies describe reputation as a critical source of financial revenue and increased competitive abilities, it is not included in any financial balance sheets or the companies merger/acquisition documentation regarding management. Furthermore, the intangible asset is not present in the price paid for the acquired company, nor is it represented in the annual report as a separate asset. My research of corporate reputation in mergers and acquisitions contributes to the field of strategy and business, more precisely mergers and acquisitions, in several ways. First, it suggests new theoretical perspectives. Secondly, the thesis provides a framework as to how to include reputation in mergers and acquisitions. Third, it uncovers the ambiguous relationship between what the company disclose as important, and what actions actually reflect. Fourth, it is suggested that attributing attention to corporate reputation will enhance future, and long-term financial revenue. Fifth, and last, it is suggested that the calculated price of target companies, will be more accurately when an assessment of corporate reputation is included, thus having an influence on the decision to merge or not, as well as the agreed upon price

Corporate reputation in mergers and acquisitions

Master's thesis in Firm managementThe purpose of this master thesis is to uncover the role of corporate reputation as an intangible asset towards a sustainable competitive advantage in mergers and acquisitions. Identifying corporate reputation as an individual asset that generate future economic benefits, can provide as a basis of including corporate reputation in financial balance sheets and due diligence. If corporate reputation contributes with long-term financial and non-financial benefits, inquiring into corporate reputation as a vital source of a sustainable competitive advantage might be beneficial for both parties in a merger/acquisition. The thesis is conducted by a qualitative “multicase” study, where two merger/acquisition deals serves as illustrative examples of current merger/acquisition practice regarding transfer and management of intangibles and corporate reputation. The merger/acquisition between Hewlett-Packard and Opsware Inc. and the merger/acquisition between Dell Inc. and Perot Systems represent the two M&A deals. The chosen design reflect the contextual nature of this thesis, as well as it is possible to build upon existing theory. Two analytical sources were chosen in order to examine the role of reputation in current practice and theory in the two M&A deals. Respectively, required merger/acquisition documentation by the federal authorities, and the price paid for the acquired company. These variables provides behavior-related information of the companies, perspectives expressed by the companies as well as financial information concerning the company’s health, valuation of assets and pricing techniques. Theoretical background serves as a secondary source of information in this thesis, supplementing the empirical research, especially in the search of uncovering the role of corporate reputation, and the possibilities for measuring and valuing this asset. The analyses indicate that corporate reputation is overlooked as a valuable intangible resource in mergers and acquisitions. Although the chosen illustrative companies describe reputation as a critical source of financial revenue and increased competitive abilities, it is not included in any financial balance sheets or the companies merger/acquisition documentation regarding management. Furthermore, the intangible asset is not present in the price paid for the acquired company, nor is it represented in the annual report as a separate asset. My research of corporate reputation in mergers and acquisitions contributes to the field of strategy and business, more precisely mergers and acquisitions, in several ways. First, it suggests new theoretical perspectives. Secondly, the thesis provides a framework as to how to include reputation in mergers and acquisitions. Third, it uncovers the ambiguous relationship between what the company disclose as important, and what actions actually reflect. Fourth, it is suggested that attributing attention to corporate reputation will enhance future, and long-term financial revenue. Fifth, and last, it is suggested that the calculated price of target companies, will be more accurately when an assessment of corporate reputation is included, thus having an influence on the decision to merge or not, as well as the agreed upon price

Learning from failure in conservation: Individual, team, and organizational dynamics

Conservation aims to ensure the persistence of biodiversity despite myriad and mounting threats at the intersection of biological processes and socio-economic activity, and many efforts have struggled to achieve success. Failure is inevitable in the complex contexts in which conservation initiatives take place and yet is largely underexamined. Reasons for this shortcoming are multidimensional, encompassing behavioral and cognitive limitations at the individual, group, and organizational levels. Conservation is recognized as primarily about people and the choices they make, but there is a gap in what we know about how conservation professionals themselves as people operating within teams and organizations learn from and manage failure. My research investigates the current state of failure management in conservation, building upon existing literature in organizational learning and drawing insights from other disciplines to identify ways for conservation to more effectively learn from failure. To do this, I first conduct a literature review to investigate factors contributing to a lack of learning from failure and success in conservation. I find that failure reports are rare and largely unstandardized, and human factors such as stakeholder relationships were the most commonly cited cause of project failure. I then carry out a strategic review of organizational learning literature to provide an inter-disciplinary synthesis of thinking and practice of failure management. Armed with these broad insights, I delve into individual intentions to engage in learning from failure behaviors, finding that social norms, psychological safety, organizational support, and leader behavior play important roles in facilitating learning from failure. To place these individual motivations into a broader context, I then investigate barriers and enabling conditions for learning from failure through a multimethod qualitative study. Finally, I synthesize my findings and provide an operational model and actionable steps going forward. Providing the first empirical examination of failure in conservation, this thesis highlights both shortfalls in failure management in conservation and, more importantly, opportunities to create a learning transformation going forward.Open Acces

Technological advances, human performance, and the operation of nuclear facilities

2017 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Many unfortunate and unintended adverse industrial incidents occur across the United States each year, and the nuclear industry is no exception. Depending on their severity, these incidents can be problematic for people, the facilities, and surrounding environments. Human error is a contributing factor in many such incidents. This dissertation first explored the hypothesis that technological changes that affect how operators interact within the systems of the nuclear facilities exacerbate the cost of incidents caused by human error. I conducted a review of nuclear incidents in the United States from 1955 through 2010 that reached Level 3 (serious incident) or higher on the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES). The cost of each incident at facilities that had recently undergone technological changes affecting plant operators' jobs was compared to the cost of events at facilities that had not undergone changes. A t-test determined a statistically significant difference between the two groups, confirming the hypothesis. Next, I conducted a follow-on study to determine the impact of the incorporation of new technologies into nuclear facilities. The data indicated that spending more money on upgrades increased the facility's capacity as well as the number of incidents reported, but the incident severity was minor. Finally, I discuss the impact of human error on plant operations and the impact of evolving technology on the 21st-century operator, proposing a methodology to overcome these challenges by applying the systems engineering process