Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Frankfurt (Main).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2003--Köln.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2004--Frankfurt (Main).

Thesis (M.S. in microbiology)--Washington State University, May 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-37).

No description available.

Scholarship has recognised the importance of entrepreneurship for economic development. Increasingly, policy makers promote entrepreneurship as one of the solutions for unemployment concerns. However, although many people formulate entrepreneurial intention they fail to convert their intention into action; this problem is called the intention-action gap. The problem of intention-action gap is particularly salient in Saudi Arabia. Although people have positive perceptions about entrepreneurship and high entrepreneurial intention, the country’s entrepreneurial activity is low. This presents a barrier in achieving the country’s national strategy to create more entrepreneurs through the promotion of entrepreneurship. Here, raising an intention to become an entrepreneur does not equate to becoming an entrepreneur. Scholars often predict entrepreneurship by entrepreneurial intention. Thus, they assume that entrepreneurial intention is the best predictor of action. They use dominant intention models to predict entrepreneurial behaviour. However, there is compelling evidence that entrepreneurial intention alone is an insufficient predictor of subsequent entrepreneurial behaviour. Thus, it is inadequate to prepare people to deal with difficulties of initiating action and striving towards goal attainment. Hence, there is a need for a more proximal predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour that can promote goal striving. Self-regulation (simplistically thought of as ‘will-power’) has been shown to be a better and more reliable predictor of intention in other fields. In fact, it was found that supporting intention with self-regulation can enhance the action prediction by up to 18%. In entrepreneurship, self-regulation has been suggested to differentiate people with entrepreneurial intention from active entrepreneurs. Against this background, this thesis investigates the processes underlying the forming of entrepreneurial intention to identify predictors of self-regulation. Hence, it extends existing intention models with self-regulation that facilitate action initiation. Consequently, this study focuses on the link between entrepreneurial intention and self-regulation. In addition, due to the salient influence of culture in Saudi Arabia’s context, the study explores the effect of cultural values on entrepreneurial intention. The conceptual framework is developed to explain the link between entrepreneurial intention and self-regulation and the effect of cultural values. This proposed two main levels, namely, goal setting and goal striving. The former reflects forming entrepreneurial intention and deliberative mind-set. The latter reflects forming implementation intention and implemental mind-set. This model is then tested through questionnaires among 405 non-entrepreneurs working in the private sector in Saudi Arabia. The data collected are analysed using the statistical tool, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). The study found that several factors and their interactions are important to explain the relationship between entrepreneurial intention and self-regulation. First, concrete goal intention can be formulated through desirability, feasibility, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. However, this firm goal intention does not lead to self-regulation. Second, after formulating concrete goal intention, people can increase their self-regulation through implementation intention and optimism. The effect of cultural values is important as they appear to reduce entrepreneurial self-efficacy and, hence, decrease self-regulation. The outcomes have theoretical implications and lead to policy recommendations that can support better self-regulation and bridge the entrepreneurial intention-action gap, making a valued contribution to the development of entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia.

The thesis examines competition and efficiency in the liberalised electricity industry of England and Wales after 1990. Literature review and economic analysis is undertaken for four activities: generation and trading arrangements; transmission pricing; comparative efficiency in distribution; and competition and access in supply. In trading arrangements and distribution, the analysis is supplemented by empirical work using both event study models and non-parametric efficiency analysis. Broad conclusions are that there is some evidence of generators behaving strategically in the pool, and productivity is variable among the distribution companies, with the increase attributable to the industry as a whole.

Intraperitoneal administration of 3,5-diethoxy-carbonyl-1,4-dihydrocollidine (DDC) to female C3H/He/01a and NIH/01a inbred mice produced a marked dose-dependent loss of hepatic ferrochelatase (FK) activity, induction of g-aminolaevulinic acid synthetase (ALA-S) and accumulation of protoporphyrin. There was no strain difference in the degree of FK inhibition. However, induction of ALA-S was greater in C3H/He/01a mice. The strain difference in ALA-S response was most marked when inhibition of FK (the "specific" effect of DDC) was maximal and this suggests that a genetic variation exists in the sensitivity of ALA-S to a second, "non-specific" action of DDC, possibly related to its property of lipid-solubility. A sex difference in griseofulvin (GF)-induced porphyria was found with a greater hepatic protoporphyrin accumulation in male mice of all three strains examined. Stimulation of ALA-S activity was slightly greater in males, but when porphyria was very marked, ALA-S levels were significantly lower in this sex. These, and other, results demonstrated a two-way relationship between ALA-S activity and porphyrin accumulation, with a repression of ALA-S activity occuring at high liver protoporphyrin concentrations. Using a new method to add drugs in solution to cultures of chick embryo hepatocytes, the porphyrogenic effects of various drugs was compared. DDC and ISO-griseofulvin markedly inhibited FK activity and caused accumulation of protoporphyrin. In this system, ISO-griseofulvin was a more potent inhibitor of FK activity than either GF or HET-griseofulvin and also produced a greater accumulation of protoporphyrin, as previously reported in rodents. The hepatic green pigment accumulating in DDC, GF and ISO-griseofulvin-treated mice has been isolated, purified and identified as N-MePP, a previously established inhibitor of FK. All four possible structural isomers were demonstrated and each drug produced primarily the same isomer. An additional hepatic green pigment has been isolated from GF-treated mice, and spectral characteristics suggest this pigment is also an N-mono-substituted porphyrin, but its identity has not yet been established.

No description available.