In recent years, a debate has ensued regarding the role of long-term power purchase agreements for securing investments in power generation capacity in organized wholesale markets. This thesis illuminates the issues surrounding the debate and provides a framework for understanding the nature and...

Entrepreneurship stimulates economic growth, creates jobs, and provides opportunities for independence and self-realization. Over the last 10 years, policy makers around the globe have been actively pursuing the elusive goal of an entrepreneurial economy. Often building on existing Small and...

During the late 1980s, globalization of the world's economies and technological development created the conditions for the expansion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in telecommunications. This tendency has been further boosted by different economic reforms that countries have implemented,...

Online service providers (OSPs) such as Google, Yahoo!, and Amazon provide customized features that do not behave as conventional experience goods. Absent familiar metaphors, unraveling the full. scope and implications of attendant privacy hazards requires technical knowledge, creating...

A defining feature of modern industry is operating in a context of nearly continuous technological change. Nevertheless, industrial decision-makers must select technologies and implement production strategies even in the face of known-to-be-incomplete information and environmental uncertainties....

Metal price volatility is undesirable for firms that use metals as raw materials, because price volatility can translate into volatility of material costs. Volatile material costs and can erode the profitability of the firm, and limit material selection decisions. The undesirability of...

In the absence of a federal policy to cap greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions many states are moving forward with their own initiatives, which currently range from announcements of commitments to reduce greenhouse gases to a regional multi-state cap-and-trade program slated to begin in 2009. As...

A cap-and-trade program, as is used in the European Trading Scheme, is currently the most widely discussed method in the US for reducing greenhouse gases. A basic cap-and-trade program operates by mandating a fixed level of emissions for a given period, issuing permits, and then allowing a...

In Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), private partners assume more responsibility for public projects than in traditional approaches. The larger responsibility of the private partner is expected to improve efficiencies of the project. However, it also increases potential challenges such as...

This thesis looks at the potential of labeling products with life cycle greenhouse gas emission information as a bottom-up, complementary alternative to carbon cap and trade systems. By improving the transparency of product carbon footprint information, a market for low carbon intensity products...