Thesis (Master's)--Guo li zheng zhi da xue.

The Accidental Audience considers how media organizations construct and respond to audience members that are not part of the intended audience for a particular media product. Focusing on public service and commercial children’s television, this thesis explores how the increasing reliance on audience research and audience profiling, generating ideas of a constructed intended audience, can often oversimplify the unpredictable, messy and complex reality of television audiences. This thesis draws on critical work about industry conceptions of media audiences, notably the work of Philip Napoli, to develop a framework for conceptualizing the accidental audience. This focuses on the discrepancy between intended and actual audiences in the form of unexpected viewerships for (children’s) television programmes. Examining the television industry’s conceptualisation of audiences through the development of the TV ratings system, this thesis considers a series of case studies which introduce and utilise the model of the accidental audience. Specifically this thesis examines adult audiences of programming created for children, including the Brony audience (men aged 18-45) of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (2010- ), the student audience of Teletubbies (1997-2001), and the non-parent audience of Sesame Street (1969- ). In critical terms, this thesis explores how the television industry has responded in different ways to accidental audiences and examines the strategies used by the television industry to manage these audiences. My focus is on the dynamic relation between studios/networks and accidental audiences and how media industries navigate unexpected audience constituencies, and the overall aim of the project is to advance knowledge of the negotiations that take place between screen industries and audiences.

The decline in global oil prices is considered an impetus for Nigeria to diversify into non-oil export as an additional means of generating growth. Horticultural products’ export (HPE) has been suggested as a means through which Nigeria could increase its foreign exchange earnings along similar lines as other African economies, such as Kenya and Ethiopia. However, to achieve competitive advantage in HPE necessitates participation in global horticulture value chains. Meanwhile, there are preconditions to gainful participation such as compliance with stringent food safety and quality standards, importing countries’ regulations, buyers’ specifications and other international trade regulatory standards, in addition to employing practices that can enhance market penetration. The aim of this study is to explore the potential for increasing horticultural products’ export from Nigeria. The study has employed a single-case embedded design and multiple perspectives of five stakeholder groups were explored through interviews (a focus group, in-depth and telephone interviews) in addition to direct observations and archival records. These multiple sources of evidence have enabled this study to provide valid evidence of the barriers inhibiting HPE from Nigeria. The empirical findings show that there are multi-layered issues which require that a deliberate resolution must be made to position Nigeria’s horticulture sub-sector to participate in global horticulture value chains. The main barriers identified are the existing institutional framework, infrastructure and logistics issues, market penetration issues, stakeholders' inadequacy, food safety and quality concerns, high cost of finance, export operational challenges, neglect of agriculture and the current airline market structure. While recognising there are a number of hurdles to overcome while participating in global horticulture value chains, the thesis concludes by outlining a number of recommendations to strategically improve HPE, emphasising that the onus for improvement lies on the Nigerian government and its institutions, private organisations and stakeholders who are seeking to increase the export of horticultural products from Nigeria.

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This work aims to be part of the developing body of public law which seeks to combine empirical research with a theoretical framework. It uses the example of the privatisation of the rail network and the deregulation of the bus industry to this end. Each phenomenon is examined through both library research and direct interview. Throughout this reference is made to the overall framework of public law and the essential concept of accountability. The work concludes by drawing the two processes together and putting forward the thesis that in the sphere of public transport for public lawyers the question of public accountability cannot be separated from ownership. Chapter 1 is an examination of public law and the theoretical assumptions behind it. It explores how the subject has developed since Dicey and the competing frameworks which now exist amongst public law academics. Chapters 2 and 3 are general studies of nationalisation and privatisation in the twentieth century. They show how using different mechanisms the British State could claim to be enhancing accountability. Chapter 2 explores the public corporation in particular and how that phenomenon coincided with the general development of the state and a system of administrative law. Equally in the following chapter it is shown how privatisation coincided with a disenchantment as to the arrangements of the state especially on the right. The contradictory rationale behind each concept is also explored. Chapters 4 and 5 study bus deregulation. This includes a study of how bus transport was regulated, how deregulation came about and what the consequences of this were. It explores both the experience of public ownership and privatisation and how both were unsatisfactory in delivering accountability. Chapter 5 concludes with a case study of the Glasgow bus market which is seen as a microcosm for broader developments in the bus industry.

This thesis investigates the effects of simulation through the use of a distribution planning system (DPS) on distribution costs in the setting of unique make-to-order manufacturers (UMTO). In doing so, the German kitchen furniture industry (GKFI) serves as an example and supplier of primary data. On the basis of a detailed market analysis this thesis will demonstrate that this industry, which mostly works with its own vehicles for transport, is in urgent need of innovative logistics strategies. Within the scope of an investigation into the current practical and theoretical use of DPS, it will become apparent that most known DPS are based on the application of given or set delivery tour constraints. Those constraints are often not questioned in practice and in theory nor even attempted to be omitted, but are accepted in day-to-day operation. This paper applies a different approach. In the context of this research, a practically applied DPS is used supportively for the removal of time window constraints (TWC) in UMTO delivery. The same DPS is used in ceteris paribus condition for the re-routing of deliveries and hereby supports the findings regarding the costliness of TWC. From this experiment emerges an overall cost saving of 50.9% and a 43.5% reduction of kilometres travelled. The applied experimental research methodology and the significance of the resulting savings deliver the opportunity to analyse the removal of delivery time window restrictions as one of many constraints in distribution logistics. The economic results of this thesis may become the basis of discussion for further research based on the applied methodology. From a practical point of view, the contributions to new knowledge are the cost savings versus the change of demand for the setting of TWC between the receiver of goods and the UMTO supplier. On the side of theoretical knowledge, this thesis contributes to filling the gap on the production – distribution problem from a UMTO perspective. Further contributions to knowledge are delivered through the experimental methodology with the application of a DPS for research in logistics simulation.

The period between the two World Wars, 1919 to 1939, saw a major expansion in the use of motor vehicles on the roads of Britain and a consequent increase in road accidents and fatalities. Studies of road transport in this period have concentrated largely on the expanding urban areas. Little detailed work has been completed in rural areas. This study goes some way to fill this gap in our knowledge. It will examine the rural county of Herefordshire where the use of motor vehicles did increase greatly, although not to the extent of the country as a whole. This thesis will address the management of the safety of road traffic which was exercised by the County Council in the inter war years. The heart of the study is the evaluation of the size of the problem and the efforts of the County Surveyor to improve the safety of the county road network. Increasing use of the road network was encouraged by the decline in use of the rail network. The A40 trunk road in the south of the county saw traffic increases of approximately one and a half times over the two decades. However the secondary roads such as the B4214 north of Bromyard saw much greater increase. Cars increased by six and three quarter times whilst lorries by the even larger margin of nine times over the two decades. The improvements carried out to the county road network consisted of road widening, rather than major road realignments. The County Council members were strongly resistant to the loss of agricultural land. However significant new improvements to the road surface were effected throughout the county albeit in short lengths. Four different types of road surface were tried. In fact the county was at the forefront of road surface development in this period. The County Surveyor’s preferred choice was a bitumen/stone mix laid cold which became the accepted solution for the country as a whole in the 1930s. The attitude adopted by the police force, essentially reactive, in the management of road safety will be examined. Whilst traffic volumes increased in the inter-war years there was no corresponding increase in the 1930s in the recorded number of fatal road accidents. The thesis will conclude with an assessment of the degree of public satisfaction with the efforts of the County Surveyor and the Chief Constable in maintaining a safe county road network in the inter-war years. The public, through the medium of the press and the County Council minutes, indicated that they considered that the efforts of the Surveyor and Chief Constable were acceptable.

Purpose/objectives: The research deals with establishing a best practice model in SRM for manufacturing companies in the European transportation industry. The objective of the thesis is to identify schools of thought in SRM, to highlight the causal factors for supply disruptions and to outline how supply disruptions can be anticipated, managed and prevented. The identified best practices shall be categorized and utilized to establish a best practice model for the respective sector. The purpose is to show how supply chain resilience can be accomplished in global and complex supply chains by means of proactive SRM. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical part of the research has been conducted with a qualitative and multiple approach over a period of more than two years. The paper examines best practice elements through a systematic literature review combined with semi-structured interviews involving senior managers in SRM in the European transportation industry. Two case studies have been included for confirming or disconfirming the best practice elements. The empirical part has been divided into four phases: (1) verifying or falsifying the appropriateness of the research questions, (2) best practice identification and categorization, (3) confirmation or disconfirmation of best practices in SRM, and (4) refining best practice elements. Findings: The findings represent a significant contribution on how to deal with complex and global supply networks. They will help researchers and practitioners faced with the task of setting up supplier relationships. Furthermore, the findings can be applied when establishing an overall best practice framework and SRM model. Research limitations/implications: The research focuses on establishing a best practice SRM model for multinational manufacturing companies in the European transportation industry. The model has not yet been implemented. Therefore, implementation and application to other industries will have to be the subject of further research.

The thesis sets out the political, economic and social forces and the parallel institutional and technical factors that shaped the development of the ferry sector between 1948 and 1987. It provides as full an account as the available record permits of an important shipping industry sector that previously has received little serious historical consideration. Most of the ferry industry, dominated by its railway industry parent and ravaged by war losses, came into public ownership in 1948 as a consequence of railway nationalisation followed by a decade of under-investment. The period ended with a loss of supremacy for the railway-owned shipping sector, privatisation, increased competition, the 1987 Herald of Free Enterprise disaster – in no small part exacerbated by the drive through vehicle deck which had done so much to facilitate the ease of passenger car and freight movement - and the certainty of the Channel Tunnel, which spelt the end of sea transport primacy on its most important routes. The era saw ferries transformed in terms of design and capability from being largely tied to rail-connected passenger traffic, there came the innovation of roll-on, roll-off and the hovercraft, with ports undergoing change scarcely less extensive. The thesis examines the basic structural changes that affected the industry, specifically the process that resulted in the establishment of privately-owned firms in situ, the bureaucratic problems that beset British Railways and which hampered its formulation of a coherent response to the varied challenges it faced in the Fifties and Sixties. It shows how the growth in private motor car ownership proved a catalyst for change in a conservative industry and explores the way in which the introduction of newcomers and the hovercraft drove the development of competition, transforming the ferry business but ultimately leading to the government decision to construct a fixed link between the United Kingdom and France. The thesis concludes that the drive and entrepreneurial flair of three private ferry operators, Townsend, Bustard and Thoresen, was largely responsible for the transformation of the industry and argues that the new and growing market created by motor transport would not have been exploited at such a rate or with the same degree of forethought and innovation without their involvement.

This thesis concerns the history of the General Steam Navigation Company from 1850to 1913, immediately prior to the First World War. Established as a joint-stock company in 1824, this London-based shipowner operated a range of steamship liner services on coastal and near-Continent routes and, from the 1880s, to the Mediterranean. The focus of the study, essentially a business history, is on the management by the directors of the Company's considerable financial, shipping and property assets and their ability to meet commitments to shareholders in terms of dividends and share values. Measures of financial governance, Profit and Loss Accounts and Balance Sheets are detailed throughout. These, together with information on trades and cargoes, including live animal imports, in an increasingly competitive environment, are recorded in a series of chapters each covering a period of the Company's development. The operation of the fleet of usually around fifty vessels of from 500 to 2,500 tons is considered against the background of constantly changing ship design and technology: the paddle wheel was replaced by screw propulsion, ever more efficient engines were introduced and cargo capacities greatly increased. In order to retain its prime position the Company was obliged to be to the forefront of these developments. The uncertain economic climate of the period of the study greatly affected British industry, particularly the years from 1873 to 1896, usually referred to as the 'great depression'. The cycles of expansion and recession in that time posed problems for all ship owners and for General Steam in particular. The effects of these and of other trade influences are explored. Particular emphasis is placed on the roles of two key Board chairmen, J. Herbert Tritton, appointed in 1874, and Richard White, 1902, in influencing the Company's fortunes. It is argued that, whereas the Company was well managed and profitable up to 1870 under a Board which still included connections with the original directors, overinvestment following substantial capital increases in 1874 and 1877 presented problems in the more challenging business environment of the late nineteenth century, leading to shareholder unrest and the near collapse of the Company. Financial restructuring in 1902/3, disadvantageous to shareholders, and a revision of the Company's operating policy under Chairman White led to a slow recovery prior to the First World War, in still difficult trading conditions. Appendices include the first full list of the many vessels owned by General Steam, with, in most cases, details of entry and exit from the Company's service, Balance Sheets and information on capital structure.