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Scenario planning is management approach to deal with uncertainty in the business environment. The intention of the approach is to allow management of organisations to better understand and manage their environment. There are many examples of scenario planning in the practitioner literature that suggest that the approach works in practice. There is however little empirical evidence to support or explore the validity of such claims. The origin of this thesis was an exploratory study to understand the impact of interventions using scenario planning in the context of small and medium sized enterprises. In conducting empirical research, the researcher can reflect on what has become a 'learning journey', which identifies the cognitive processes managers employ to manage change arising from such interventions. The research identifies managerial recipes and transitional objects allowing volitional strategic change to occur. That is, the existing managerial understanding based on past experience and success acts as a bridge from the existing world to a new world, without which change cannot be rationalised and management would be incapacitated. I have called this the 'upframed recipe', expressing its elements of lasting validity, the transitional object.

To date there has been no identified academic research of Hoshin Kanri in the West and the purpose of this thesis is to clarify the Hoshin Kanri process within the context of Western practice highlighting issues and identifying potential areas for future research. A review of the literature suggests that Hoshin Kanri links an organisation's strategy with its operations on a day to day basis, the thesis therefore discusses Hoshin Kanri within the theory of strategic management contributing to knowledge and understanding not only of Hoshin Kanri but of strategic management. The methodology adopted was an in depth single case study design utilising a tracer approach thus extending knowledge of a research method upon which other researchers can draw. The case study of Nissan Yamato Engineering Ltd. explores the Hoshin Kanri process within a Japanese owned company operating within a Western context held to be an exemplar of practice. A conceptual model of Hoshin Kanri is proposed, and the research suggests that emphasis in the West upon issues of culture and empowerment has obscured the need for organisational arrangements which integrate strategic concerns with day to day management at an operational level.

This study explores the managerial perception regarding the influence of CSR on corporate branding in the Indian agribusiness context. This thesis relies on CSR theories and brand management models and follows a qualitative case methodology. The study contributes to existing knowledge by focusing on the motives of Indian agribusiness firms to get involved in CSR practices and the means through which such practices influences branding. The study focuses on three key elements of corporate branding of Indian agribusiness - corporate image and reputation, corporate culture and corporate communication. The research draws on thematic analysis of 28 responses from semi-structured interviews of practicing managers in branding, marketing and CSR domains of four large agribusiness firms in India. The results reveal that though CSR practices does not influence corporate branding strategy of agribusiness firms significantly, firms do have implicit motive of branding while pursuing CSR. Firms primarily do CSR for operational reasons such as for removing the operational and legal hurdles for smooth functioning of the manufacturing plant and business which is an explicit motive of CSR. The other explicit motives are ‘community development’ and ‘philanthropy’. The study indicates that agribusiness firms use CSR practices to gain support of the local community for smooth operation of their business or at the time of crisis. The results illustrate that, CSR positively influences corporate image and reputation and thereby objectively influences corporate branding of Indian agribusiness firms. Other aspects of the study divulge that CSR has limited influence on advertising and communication programs because advertising of CSR is not common in India due to cultural and cost issues. However, promotion and internal communication of CSR initiatives are adequately done within the organisations. Moreover, the study also elucidates that firms possessing a corporate culture which gives importance to environmental sustainabilityare more likely to adopt CSR in their future brand strategy than firms which possess a corporate culture that is largely driven by market forces and competition.

Agricultural finance is one indispensable means in assisting agricultural economic development. Appropriate agricultural policy plus healthy agricultural financial system will be able to support the development of agricultural economy effectively. Since resuming operation in Taiwan in 1967, The Farmers Bank of China has been the agriculture specialized bank under the belief of ¡§ Providing agricultural credit, Developing agriculture economy, promoting production and sales of agriculture¡¨, providing funds for agriculture, assisting the implementation of agricultural policy. The purpose of this research is to clarify the trade liberalization regulating of WTO on financial services industry, and find out the impact The Farmers Bank of China may meet after admission of Taiwan into WTO, as well as the foreseeable corresponding measures. In the conclusion of the study, pragmatic proposal will be presented. The scope of the research approach 1. Studying publications on the background, spirit and principle of the formation of GATT and WTO. 2. Searching theoretical basis for the strategic management in meeting competition 3. Collecting, researching and evaluating of data and information related to The Farmers Bank of China 4. Premises and corresponding measures 5. Suggestion on the responsive measures of The Farmers Bank of China after the admission of Taiwan into WTO The description of research approaches of this thesis 1. This thesis started with the publications research on the history of admission of Taiwan into WTO and static basic structure on management theory of strategic management. 2. Then it incorporates the organizational background, corporate culture, human resources, current operations for dynamic analysis of current business conditions and operation scale. 3. Thereafter it covers the responsive measures for facing competitive environment of The Farmers Bank of China through introduction of strategic planning implementing programs 4. Premises and responsive measures Since Taiwan has been admitted into WTO and the spirit and regulation of WTO in promoting fair and free trade will gradually form real influence on the agriculture and financial services following the commitment of Taiwan for the admission into WTO, the agriculture financial institutions will certainly confront direct or indirect impact under the liberalized environment , and these impacts are certainly better be adjusted and met as early as possible. Through premise analysis and an induction description drawing from the outcome of research, this thesis will provide conclusion and suggestions.

This thesis is about intervening in organisations to improve both operational and strategic computer-based information systems. It addresses a particular situation, in which human activity is seen to be a key factor in the success of the system. A stance is taken regarding current approaches to such development, supported by historical analysis of both the theory and practice of such approaches: in particular, the failure of traditional information systems development methodologies to address these situations is seen to question their validity. A review of existing theory and practice shows that computer-based information systems development appears to be dominated by functionalist, reductionist, engineering methods, marginally challenged by soft, interpretivist approaches. Analysis of the computer-based information systems development domain shows this to be an impoverished view, and indicates that an approach based on social systems is likely to be more representative of the problem situations faced. As a result, computer-based information systems development is taken beyond the 'hard-soft' debate, into a search for theoretical underpinning and practical approaches informed from social theory. However, whilst the theory is readily available, the application of that theory to computer-based information systems development is seen to be problematic. Potential improvement is achieved by the development of an interventionist framework which is based on a branch of social systems theory, that of critical social theory, and which draws heavily on work already undertaken in the domain of management science under the headings of critical systems thinking and total systems intervention. This framework is applied to two case studies and a major, longitudinal action research based investigation. The findings strongly support computer-based information systems development based on social, and especially critical social, theories. These findings are critiqued within the study, and from this emerge clear conclusions, and recommendations for future development.

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The importance of strategy to an organisation's competitiveness is widely acknowledged in the strategic management literature. However, although strategy research has become substantial in other areas, the same cannot be said with the shipping industry. Very littie is known about how shipowners choose competitive strategies or what strategies they pursue under certain environmental conditions. Of what is available, most focus on Northern Europe and Northem America, with scant regard for the Asia-Pacific, which has become a major shipping power in recent decades. This study was, therefore, conducted to address these gaps in the literature. It analysed the strategic choices made by Asia-Pacific shipowners at the corporate level, compared actual shipowners' behaviour with strategic management theory on strategy selection, and developed a strategy selection model that was applicable to Asia-Pacific shipowners and consistent with strategic management theory. An extensive review of the literature was initially undertaken to develop a generic strategic choice model, which then served as the basis upon which information from Asia-Pacific shipowners was collected. A multi-method approach, called triangulation, was used to guide data collection and analysis. Data was obtained from two sources (shipowners' representatives and shipping experts) and through several methods (mail survey, interviews, simulation, expert and document review), and the extent to which these various sets of data were congruent had to be established. Because of the exploratory nature of the study, data was analysed using a qualitative approach. There was a high degree of congruence in the data collected. Out of the analysis, two primary findings emerged: (1) there was strong support for the strategic choice model, which implied greater inter-industry applicability than originally expected; (2) however, modifications to the model were needed to reflect a general tendency among Asia-Pacific shipowners to use other strategies in combination with or as a substitute to those offered by the model.

There are a growing number of rich, qualitative studies investigating patterns in the development of strategic change. These reveal that it is not possible to understand the incremental and emergent nature of strategic change in organisations without recognising the impact of micro organisational political and social processes. However, few studies set out to explore in depth the implementation of a particular strategic change initiative to examine how these micro processes affect the way the implementation develops through time. This thesis uses a longitudinal real-time case study of a planned strategic change implementation to do this. It examines how facilitating and obstructing processes developed during the implementation, and how these interacting processes affected the way the implementation progressed, from the perspective of middle managers as change recipients. r The findings show that during intended change implementation, the planned interventions put in place by senior managers as they intentionally try to carry out change also lead to the development of emergent facilitating and obstructing processes. A sensemaking perspective is adopted to show how these emergent change elements arise from recipient interpretations of the planned change interventions. A theory of mediation is proposed to account for the findings. However, the contribution of the research is not to do with the identification of the centrality of sensemaking processes during change. It is an empirical study which draws on existing theories on sensemaking to show how recipient sensemaking contributes to both intended and unintended change outcomes, thereby providing fresh insights into how and why change implementation becomes an emergent and incremental process. The thesis has four main parts to it. The first part deals with the research background and methodology; the second part the research site context and, the ethnographic stories of change; the third part the findings and theory development; and the last chapter the theoretical and practical implications of the research findings.