Tesis durant el mes de maig a la URL

Universitat Ramon LlullUlrich Franz Wassmeer, Joan Massons Rabassa i Eduard Vidal Escales han assolit el grau de doctor durant el mes de maig. Els tres alumnes de la Universitat Ramon Llull han llegit les seves respectives tesis amb la qualificació final de Excel·lent Cum Laude.

 

 

Ulrich Franz Wassmer (ESADE) Alliances portfolios and value creation: Theory and empirical evidence from the global airline industry ha estat dirigida per Pierre Dussauge i Marcel Planellas:

 

 

Do alliance portfolios matter? How do resources accessed from multiple simultaneous strategic alliances with different partners affect value creation and value appropriation? Do alliance portfolios explain heterogeneity across firms with respect to the value that they derive from entering into new strategic alliances? This dissertation builds on insights from the resource-based view of the firm and the strategic behaviour and competitive dynamics literature and advances a theoretical model that addresses value creation and appropriation in firms that access resources through multiple simultaneous inter-firm alliances with different partners.

 

The model illustrates that value creation on the alliance portfolio level is a function of the value created from synergistic resource combinations involving resources accessed from different partners as well the value destroyed by incompatibilities between a focal firm’s resource combinations and those deployed by its partners. Based on this theoretical model, empirically testable hypotheses are developed in a marginal setting, in which a multilaterally connected firm adds one new strategic alliance to its alliance portfolio. The hypotheses are tested using an event study method approach and data from the global airline industry on code share agreements formed between 1994 and 1998.

 

The results show that the market on one side rewards firms entering into strategic alliances with partners that possess complementary resources and that contribute resources that cannot only be combined with firms’ own but also existing relational resources and that are compatible with the firms’ alliance portfolios. On the other side, results show that the market penalizes firms entering into alliances that contribute resources that are alliance portfolio incompatible in the sense that they create a competitive conflict with some of the existing alliance partners. The findings of the empirical part of this dissertation support the view that alliance portfolios affect the performance of firms entering into strategic alliances. This study concludes that resources accessed through inter-firm alliances should not only be evaluated on their standalone and dyadic attributes but also in the context of alliance portfolios.

 

 

Joan Massons Rabassa (ESADE) La rendibilitat de les estacions catalanes d'esquí alpí ha estat dirigida per Robert Tornabell Carrió:

 

This thesis aims to demonstrate that there are two different models for dealing with the possibility of investing in Alpine ski resorts. The first of these two models falls short because it fails to respect the principle of “joint production” (Samuelson). The second model assumes that Alpine skiing is not an activity isolated from its surroundings and the sum of features/facilities that give it life. The thesis reaches the conclusion that the Alpine skiing sector in Catalonia is a clear example of the duality between social and private profitability.

 

In light of the conceptual statements and the numerical data that this thesis presents, and the data contributed by the models of Thiébout and Mirrlees, we are necessarily led to assessing the profitability of ski resorts through the social discount rate, obtaining in this way the conclusions of the second part of the thesis. In terms of private initiative, the running of ski resorts is not profitable as is also shown by the balance sheet and income statement ratios. These indicators, without the aid of other types of income, would give extremely low returns or losses.

 

This work could be a further contribution towards understanding the private investment possibilities in ski resorts and, in terms of governmental action, it reveals the enormous significance of the issue in terms of the social profitability that it implies.

 

 

Eduard Vidal Escales (IQS) Influència de l'activitat superficial dels diferents components d'una formulació de cautxú en la reacció de vulcanització ha estat dirigida per Salvador Borrós Gómez:

 

 

The study of the vulcanization in the presence of fillers shows the carbon black surface influence on the vulcanization reaction and specially its surface activity component. These studies have been opened to other parameters like the microstructure of the carbon black surface. Results show the activation effect of the vulcanization reaction at higher surface activity and specially at higher polar component.

 

To improve the following of vulcanization reaction it has been developed a new analytical HPLC methodology. The same process on the carbon black surface has been studied by ToF-SIMS, and it has been demonstrated to be a useful technique to follow the vulcanization reaction.

 

Taking in account the significance of surface activity, surface activity of some components like the accelerator and sulfur has been modified by cold plasma polymerization in order to study the effect on the vulcanization and the behavior in the mix. Concerning the accelerator, results show that it’s possible to modify the accelerator performance without modifying the properties of the rubber goods. Sulfur surface activity treatment results open a new field for surface activity treatments to minimize the blooming effect.

 

 

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