Your search

The purpose of this research is to analyse the nexus between foreign aid and poverty reduction. In this research, aid provided by traditional and (re)emerging donors, China and France, was compared to understand their strategies toward poverty reduction and the impact of their aid in improving the conditions of their beneficiaries. Guinea, a Least Developed Country, was used as unit of comparison and assessment. Qualitative research methodology was used to collect data about the two aid donors, China and France. Among other research tools used, there are documents’ analysis (official documents from donors and recipients, declarations, scholarly works, media articles, etc.), interviews with various stakeholders, site visits and observation. As for main findings, this research found similarities and differences between China and France’s aid strategies in general and in Guinea in particular. There are similarities in the ways they integrate poverty reduction into their aid policies, motives and partly in their geographical and sectoral allocation systems. In terms of differences, they use different instruments and conditions to deliver their aid for poverty reduction. Regarding the impact of their aid, both donors have to some extent contributed to improving the access of the poor population in Guinea to basic services such as education, health, water and sanitation, etc. Finally, contrary to those who have denied the importance of foreign aid as a financial tool to reduce poverty, this research posits that aid is still a relevant tool to address poverty. However, more work needs to be done at donor, recipient and direct beneficiaries’ levels to ensure its effectiveness. On the other hand, it posits that the divide between traditional and (re)-emerging donors is becoming blurred as their strategies to address poverty are becoming increasingly alike

This thesis articulates the development of a holistic approach to enhance learning and teaching in an object-oriented programming course. Starting with the premise that it is not possible to improve teaching without understanding how students learn programming, this thesis embodies the processes and reflections experienced while applying knowledge of how students learn programming, to design a learning environment that enhances learning outcomes. First, a theoretically based framework for the teaching of the course is developed. A holistic approach using a plurality of pedagogic theories, taxonomies, and instructional designs is employed to bridge the gaps between the bodies of knowledge relating to the ways that students approach programming and the application of this knowledge to design the course. Second, in two cycles of action research, the course is implemented and the analysis of its outcome is conducted using mixed methods data collection techniques. The evaluation is integrative and seeks multiple forms of evidence for student engagement and improved learning. The original contributions from this research in the form of new initiatives, perceptions, and understandings, as well as implications for theory and practice are described. A claim to knowledge is established by explaining the significance of the research to student learning, personal practice and beliefs, institutional influence, and potential for influence on computing education research. Quality criteria are applied to assess the validity and rigor of the action research project, and the research is appraised as a scholarly enquiry and a transformative process that led to innovative forms of thinking and acting

This thesis introduces, implements and evaluates an innovative concept for assessing driving behavior in public transportation through Mobile Crowd Sensing (MCS), under the field of Advanced Public Transportation System (APTS) - a sub-group of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). Aggressive driving behavior is known to be a cause of avoidable accidents and to increase fuel consumption. In public transportations, it is also a case for costumers’ dissatisfaction. Monitoring the quality of driving behavior is a key element to overcome this issue and to improve road safety and customer satisfaction. In this research project, a software application (app) for mobile devices was developed as an experimental tool / proof-of-concept, to monitor aggressive driving behavior in bus drivers, collecting data coming from mobile device’s accelerometer and passengers’ qualitative evaluation. The experimental procedure took place in public transportation in Macau (bus only) and consisted of data collection of drivers’ aggressive driving behavior using the developed application. The analysis of collected data suggests that MCS is a viable way to assess drivers’ behavior in public transportation, thus contributing to the improvement of the service and increase of road safety. Although the methodology has been tailor-made for Macau public transportation, it is believed that the same concept can be applied to other cities, leading them towards the goal of becoming smarter cities. Keywords: driving behavior; mobile crowd sensing; crowdsourcing; smart city; advanced public transportation system; intelligent transportation system; road safety; mobile device accelerometer

Kruger and Dunning (1992) found that unskilled people were typically unaware of their own performance and ability. In this context, unskilled performers were shown to overestimate their performance and ability, whereas skilled performers often accurately predicted their own performance and ability. Such miscalibration in self-assessment is usually attributed to a lack of so-called metacognitive skills necessary for performance evaluation. However, it remains unknown to what extent the miscalibration of performance judgment and optimistic bias is observed in the Chinese culture. This thesis examines patterns of miscalibration of performance judgment and specific optimistic bias. This thesis also builds on a range of previous studies of performance judgment and optimistic bias. In order to investigate the performance judgment and optimistic bias in this context, two studies were conducted as part of the research aspect of this thesis. In the first study, participants were given a reasoning task on which they had to predict their performance before completing the task and estimate their performance upon completion of the task. The second study followed similar methodology, with two additional tasks – Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT) module and the respective midterm examination. Results from both studies indicate that biases in performance judgment occur in the Chinese culture, and may yield negative consequences to those persons who exhibit such judgments. Although metacognitive ability provides some explanation for the miscalibration of performance judgment, the results of the current study indicate that task optimistic bias provides another, equally viable explanation for the miscalibration of performance judgment. The findings presented in this thesis suggest that inaccurate judgments of performance occur within various domains (general and specific iii performance contexts) and that there are a range of implications associated with these biases. Keywords: Miscalibration of performance judgment, optimistic bias, absolute optimistic bias, comparative optimistic bias, overestimation, overplacement, underestimation, underplacement

Two billion users make Facebook of academic interest. This thesis creates a Facebook Divide Index, the delineated categories of Facebook Native, Facebook Immigrant, and Facebook Isolate, and develops Facebook inequality concepts. Macau has a fast- growing number of Facebook Immigrants who benefit from using the online social network. Data from participation-observation and surveys demonstrate social capital gain by Facebook Immigrants, with older generation Facebook users relatively happier than their younger counterparts. The thesis concludes that society needs to equip and empower the older generation or Facebook Isolates, so that they can benefit from online social network usage

Macau is a dynamic city with a unique blend of Eastern and Western cultures, which has become a well-known travel destination. Macau is not only home to the casinos, but also a shopping paradise, where we can find international luxury brands and local designer brands. The local fashion industry has a strong follower base, taking a different route than that of the Textile and Garment Industry in the 1980s. Nowadays, the local Fashion Industry is not only focused on production, but more on the design and creativity. Macau is a city rooted in the casino industry, having shifted from an industrial economy into a service-based one. This study aims to assess the relations between Asia and Europe with regard to their impact on the creative process of local fashion designers, to understand how local designers balance between market, creativity and aesthetics. Also, it is important to understand how Macau government supports local brands such as: “Made in Macau”. In order to accomplish our goal, several academic areas will be addressed, such as fashion design and the cultural and creative industries in their broad sense, (aesthetics, history, creativity, identity, economy, ergonomics, cognition, and social value). A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods have been used, including questionnaires, open-ended interviews, case-study research, ethnographic methods, historical research and visual methodologies. In the following chapters, this studies will describe mainly the Macau fashion industry in a globalized era and the multiculturalism’s influence on the local fashion designer’s collections

Hong Kong and Macau were politically reunified with Mainland China in 1997 and 1999, respectively. These two cities culturally originated from Mainland China, but due to their own colonial experiences, the Chinese cultural identities within Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China became different. The nature of Chinese cultural identities within Hong Kong and Macau were hybridized, and they have formed their own Chinese cultural identities with their own peculiarities. The Internet is a popular communication medium and it facilitates cultural communication inside and outside of these three places. The high-speed development of modern technology leads to the variety of services that emerge in the Internet, such as discussion forum, Blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. These new and open spaces serve as a platform for ordinary people to express themselves in different ways. General observations in the Internet reveal that the discussion on Chinese cultural identity among Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China exists. The combination of self-identity and reconstruction of self-cultural identity are happening in these differently colonized places. Some local Chinese people in Macau, and Taiwanese in Taiwan, share this kind of experience as well. Meanings in different issues via different symbols are formed and they can be seen from the photos that circulate in the Internet using threads posted in Blogs or discussion forums. All these kinds of images or contexts become symbols of recognizable identities. Internet use, therefore, has facilitated the cultural communication between Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, and Taiwan. It has also intensified the enlightenment of Chinese cultural identity, showing and highlighting in effect the remnants of recognizable traits in these territories that were once colonized by different states. In essence, they may arguably have formed heterogeneous Chinese cultural identities. This study presents the uniqueness of the formation of Macau identity in comparison to Hong Kong, and how different it was from Hong Kong after the end of the colonial period. This ‘awakening process’, it is argued, provides a new perspective for understanding the attendant connotations and evaluations of cultural identities, and the different perspectives used to understand how the Internet is reshaping the social world. The reconstruction of cultural identity is a global issue and cultural hybridity is an essential element for reconstruction of self-cultural identity in the postcolonial period. This study employs postcolonial theory, along with observation, in-depth interview and online data collection and content analysis that were adapted during the course of the research, in order to discuss this phenomenon

This research intends to analyze how the social, political, economical and cultural transformations of the retrocession of Macao S.A.R. to China influenced the contemporary grassroots artistic production, namely their response to the issue of One Country, Two Systems policy. This transitional state of these places in-between creates a somehow ambivalent situation where some of the core values of identity and heritage are fading away due to the forces of the current development. In this sense, it urges to consider the ways in which artists in the post-retrocession era in their lived experiences, form their own sense of community and consciousness of place, time and belonging and, by doing so, can contribute to the preservation of some of the local and specific characteristics, enhancing the cultural vitality of the region. The growing interest by the artists in the issues of preservation and engagement with the locality, trough memory and history, manifested in ‘alternative’ modes of production, is providing a different model of ‘place making’ and a narrative that contrasts and complements some of the top-down cultural policies. Since the focus of development in these territories has been on the idea of creative industries, entertainment and tourism as possible realities for the pressing economical diversification, these grassroots models, functioning as the ‘second system’ open up complexity, providing different questions and answers to the future of artistic production. Finally, departing from these examples, we analyze the possibility of a new image for these kinds of artistic practices, through their incorporation into the possibility of relational aesthetics ‘with Chinese characteristics’, within the perspective of integration, and as emergent features in the field of contemporary art

Religion and migration are both phenomena that have endured perennially in the experience of humanity. However, studies on the relationship of these two subjects are not as prevalent compared to how widespread international migration has become especially among people coming from religious societies. This work contributes to the knowledge base on the significance of religion within the context of international migration by looking at how religious faith and practice evolve as a result of the experience of migration. Interviews about the migration narratives of Filipino Catholics working in Macau were conducted. These were supported by data collected through the use of survey questionnaires that look into changes in religious practices of respondents as well as their attitudes towards faith and belief. The study has found that there is constancy in the religious faith and practice of Filipino Catholics even amidst external changes to the physical and social environment brought about by moving to a predominantly secular society. Through recourse to anthropological analysis, this immutability of faith is attributable to the unique ethnographic feature of Filipinos’ high regard for the centrality and importance of interiority in their life. Keywords: migration, immigrant religion, faith, Filipino religiosity

This thesis aims to explore how learning accounting for non-accounting major students could be enhanced through a comprehensive framework connecting individual attributes and learning approaches. While accounting is considered an important and mandatory discipline for business students, it is also considered a difficult subject which deters students’ engagement in the subject. Although the issue has been widely recognized, there are relatively less discussions on possible remedies. Learning accounting is a dynamic process that go beyond the traditional one-to-many learning and teaching settings, all factors revolving the students’ learning environment and process, altogether determine and affect the learning efficiencies. A meta-analysis was first performed to understand the standings of accounting education and to identify gaps within existing literatures in the field of management, accounting, tourism and general education researches. A documentary review on the curricula of all Macau HEI programs involving compulsory accounting courses was also conducted to understand the role and significance of accounting courses for non-accounting college students in Macau. Based on the literature review, this study borrows constructs from theory of planned behavior (TPB) models in its research framework. It attempts to provide a comprehensive framework to understand how students learn accounting efficiently by delving into individual learning styles of the students and their perceived helpfulness and self-efficacy, in respective to different learning techniques. Due to its exploratory nature, a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative methodology is adopted, where both focus group discussions and in-depth interviews are performed with non-accounting students to elicit understandings on student’s difficulties in learning accounting and their preferences for different learning styles. Then, a full-scale quantitative survey is conducted in a Macau higher education institute to assess the learning efficiencies of accounting in different situations. A triangulation with feedback from faculties and administrators are also elicited to provide alternate dimensions on the issues. With no surprise, there is no one best 3 teaching style or method for all students, this thesis contributes to accounting education research by provide a comprehensive diagnosis on the all-round learning stimulus and hindrance in learning accounting. At the end, recommendations are provided for accounting educators to emphasize on the uniqueness of students and to encourage a more dynamic and open environment for learning. Limitations of the studies are also discussed

In the past three decades there have being an increase in the number of Bilateral Trade Agreements (BTAs) globally. These agreements involve huge human and financial movements and are essentially based on trade and investment. This phenomenon has brought new dimension to global business environment by changing the landscape in whichfirms from emerging markets operate in another emerging market. In the light of this, this dissertation is to examine how bilateral trade agreementsprovisions influence choice of foreign market entry mode of resource seeking Chinese Multinational Enterprises operating in Nigeria. This study adopts a qualitative design, collecting data using semi-structured interviews. The data are analyzed with content analysis and explanation building to identify themes through application of replication logic. The data obtained from the interviews regarding the research questions are presented and discussed as major findings and adoptedfor the creation of the new model for the study of resources seeking firm’s choice of market entry modes in emerging markets The model developed in this dissertation makes a contribution to theory for the study of market entry modes of MNEs from developing countries entering another developing country. In this case, Chinese resources seeking multinational firms entering Nigeria. Elements of Dunning’s OLI theory, Resources Dependency Theory, and Institution theory extended for the purpose for the theory development process. This investigation also provides important information to assist state policy actors in their development of bilateral trade agreements between China and Nigeria. Implications for firms and their involvement in developing countries and with framework where bilateral trade agreements exist are also provided

This research examines the relationship between banking competition and efficiency using relevant data of Macau banking industry from 1999 to 2016. The key finding of this research is to demonstrate a clear causality between competition and efficiency in Macau’s banking industry throughout the study period. The interaction between two vital factors of the banking industry provides a solid empirical evidence for the practitioners and policymakers to make sound decisions accordingly. The most recent data show that there is a wide variation of key operational indicators of different banks in 2016. However, this study finds no evidence that the size of operations in terms of total bank loans would impact banks’ efficiency. Economies of scale or market share doesn’t necessarily bring cost efficiency in Macau’s banking industry

This dissertation reports on a study which aims to add to the theoretical understanding of how social capital is transferred from one generation to the next in business families. Studies in the field of family business have emphasized the importance of succession for the survival of family businesses, but while the succession process and planning have been widely studied, the examination of social capital succession is scarce. As for the studies in family business’s social capital, the importance of social capital as a source of competitive advantage which already exists in business families have often been expressed, but there is a lack of research in the means of transferring this form of capital from the family business leaders to their successors. The study presented here addresses this gap in family business succession literature and social capital literature, explaining the means of transgenerational succession of social capital in family businesses. This is a qualitative research using the multiple case study method which aims to investigate the means of social capital transmission by comparing the cases of five different Chinese family businesses in Macau, which are in the succession process, with the successor currently managing the firm while the former generation business leaders are in the process of handing over the business and preparing for retirement. In doing so, this research offers a theoretical framework of explaining how social capital is transmitted from the incumbents to the successors throughout a five-stage succession process developed for this research. The forms of social capital that exists in family businesses are identified from previous literature, in order to clearly explain how these different forms of social capital are passed on from generation to generation based on the review on succession process introduced in published literature. A theoretical iii framework is formed from the two parent theories on family business succession and social capital, and is then verified empirically from five Chinese family businesses in Macau. The cases are developed through in-depth interviews with the incumbents and successors of the family businesses, informal interviews with stakeholders (including family members, business associates, non-family employees and customers), direct observation on the premises of the Chinese family businesses and secondary data, in order to study the process of intergenerational transmission of social capital in these Chinese family businesses

Several internationalization theories have been developed over the past few decades that have made great contributions in explaining enterprise internationalization and their mode of entry strategy. It has been suggested that the determinants of entry mode choice of enterprises from emerging and frontier markets differ from those of comparable enterprises from advanced economies. Literature review appears to indicate that there is a need to expand the framework for entry mode strategies to accommodate the expansion issues enterprises from emerging and frontier countries face in the global marketplace. Nevertheless, not much information and acceptable conclusion has been made on how MNEs from frontier markets internationalize and what factors influence their choice of entry into those markets. This study investigated the internationalization strategies of Lusophone Africa MNEs from Angola and Mozambique, more specifically their entry mode. Information was gathered through a survey of 29 MNE’s upper management respondents and subsequent face-to-face semi-structured interviews with 24 of them in their countries. The results of this study suggest that most MNEs opted for equity-based investment strategies, mainly joint venture and M&E as their preferred mode of entry when internationalizing. A significant group of them opted for e- commerce/e-business strategies, and direct and indirect exports. A smaller portion of the interviewees chose Greenfield investment as a mode of entry. Many of these MNEs could be classified as born global/INV. Finally, this study presents a conceptual framework for use in studying the entry mode choice of enterprises from Lusophone Africa frontier markets and presents research propositions for better understanding the determinants of entry mode strategies of enterprise from Angola and Mozambique. Keywords: Internationalization, Entry Mode, Emerging Markets, Frontier Markets, Lusophone African MNEs, Angola, Mozambique