The two areas of theory upon which this research was based were 'strategy development process' (SDP) and 'complex adaptive systems' (CAS), as part of complexity theory, focused on human social organisations. The literature reviewed showed that there is a paucity of empirical work and theory in the overlap of the two areas, providing an opportunity for contributions to knowledge in each area of theory, and for practitioners. An inductive approach was adopted for this research, in an effort to discover new insights to the focus area of study. It was undertaken from within an interpretivist paradigm, and based on a novel conceptual framework. The organisationally intimate nature of the research topic, and the researcher's circumstances required a research design that was both in-depth and long term. The result was a single, exploratory, case study, which included use of data from 44 in-depth, semi-structured interviews, from 36 people, involving all the top management team members and significant other staff members; observations, rumour and grapevine (ORG) data; and archive data, over a 5½ year period (2005-2010). Findings confirm the validity of the conceptual framework, and that complex adaptive systems theory has potential to extend strategy development process theory. It has shown how and why the strategy process developed in the case study organisation by providing deeper insights to the behaviour of the people, their backgrounds, and interactions. Broad predictions of the 'latent strategy development' process and some elements of the strategy content are also possible. Based on this research, it is possible to extend the utility of the SDP model by including peoples' behavioural characteristics within the organisation, via complex adaptive systems theory. Further research is recommended to test limits of the application of the conceptual framework and improve its efficacy with more organisations across a variety of sectors.

Risk and knowledge are two concepts and components of business management which have so far been studied almost independently. This is especially true where risk management (RM) is conceived mainly in financial terms, as for example, in the financial institutions sector. Financial institutions are affected by internal and external changes with the consequent accommodation to new business models, new regulations and new global competition that includes new big players. These changes induce financial institutions to develop different methodologies for managing risk, such as the enterprise risk management (ERM) approach, in order to adopt a holistic view of risk management and, consequently, to deal with different types of risk, levels of risk appetite, and policies in risk management. However, the methodologies for analysing risk do not explicitly include knowledge management (KM). This research examines the potential relationships between KM and two RM concepts: perceived quality of risk control and perceived value of ERM. To fulfill the objective of identifying how KM concepts can have a positive influence on some RM concepts, a literature review of KM and its processes and RM and its processes was performed. From this literature review eight hypotheses were analysed using a classification into people, process and technology variables. The data for this research was gathered from a survey applied to risk management employees in financial institutions and 121 answers were analysed. The analysis of the data was based on multivariate techniques, more specifically stepwise regression analysis. The results showed that the perceived quality of risk control is significantly associated with the variables: perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing, perceived quality of communication among people, web channel functionality, and risk management information system functionality. However, the relationships of the KM variables to the perceived value of ERM are not identified because of the low performance of the models describing these relationships. The analysis reveals important insights into the potential KM support to RM such as: the better adoption of KM people and technology actions, the better the perceived quality of risk control. Equally, the results suggest that the quality of risk control and the benefits of ERM follow different patterns given that there is no correlation between both concepts and the distinct influence of the KM variables in each concept. The ERM scenario is different from that of risk control because ERM, as an answer to RM failures and adaptation to new regulation in financial institutions, has led organizations to adopt new processes, technologies, and governance models. Thus, the search for factors influencing the perceived value of ERM implementation needs additional analysis because what is improved in RM processes individually is not having the same effect on the perceived value of ERM. Based on these model results and the literature review the basis of the ERKMAS (Enterprise Risk Knowledge Management System) is presented.

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The thesis examines how morality is corporately appropriated in the context of new managerial discourses. The theoretical argument focuses on the relations between the fashion for business ethics in the academy and current attempts to reconstruct 'corporate culture' within companies. The argument begins with questioning the notion of "shared values" as a tenet of corporate culturism. This scepticism over values being shared arises from the epistemological difficulties of researchers, or anyone else, going beyond the position that <I>expressions </I>are shared. The argument suggests that if a sharing of expressions can be directed and narrowed, then this is a condition of possibility for the social manipulation of morality. The importance of this argument is that it allows for power effects to be asymmetrical and stabilised without recourse to assumptions of a totalitarian state. Indeed, in the present analysis, forms of resistance to "values" may become power effects, provided expressions are monitored and directed. The thesis argues that the shared expressions are appropriated for the imperatives of corporate strategy. Entrapped in the mixed messages of corporate strategy, managers become engaged in a complicity to mobilise and narrow the circulation of shared expressions. The thesis suggests that the managerial work to re-present the imperatives of corporate strategy is dominated by a corporate manipulation of expressions. The thesis concludes that a current status of most of business ethics discourse remains an 'apology' for a new managerialism. The moral prescriptions are peripherally directed at the "other", rather than centrally internalised into the moral subjects' subjectivity. The tenet of shared moral values is fractured as is implied in a very meaning of 'share': <I>unite and divide. </I>Managers, as employees, also partake in a complicity to exploit morality through the medium of shared expressions such that they become trapped in a vicious circle of moral cynicism and dependence.

The concept of synergy has been a mainstay of a management discourse for over forty years. Within the field of Knowledge Management (KM), it offers the possibility of addressing the conceptual barriers tormenting the field. In particular, it promises to form a possible conceptual core for KM that is both relevant and robust. Offsetting this promise are pitfalls inherent to the synergy concept: its inherent vagueness arising from its meaning having been taken for granted over the past forty years; its inherent imprecision arising from an inability to identify the extent of the gap between theory and practice; and its inherent inertia arising from the inattentiveness of synergy's proponents to criticism and disconfirming evidence. Hence, the purpose of this research is to address these pitfalls by identifying the underlying connotations implied by the current usage of synergy within KM theory, ascertaining the extent of the theory-practice gap, and revising the concept in order to close the gap. This is achieved by using a methodology comprising four methods that address each of the pitfalls in tum. The connotations are identified through an integrative literature review of the various definitions of synergy found in KM theory. The extent of the theory-practice gap is ascertained by both an exploratory case study that identifies what synergy refers to in KM practice and a process of analytic generalisation that compares those findings to the connotations drawn from KM theory to determine the extent of the gap between them. Revising synergy involves a process of analogical reasoning which draws analogies between two domains (the field of Complexity known as Synergetics and the sociological notion of Social Synergy) deemed most promising for closing the theory-practice gap. There are four main contributions made by this research: (1) providing a potential conceptual core that can integrate the field ofKM without being vague; (2) presenting an intellectually robust alternative to synergy as it has hitherto been used in KM; (3) presenting a challenge to synergy as it has been used in KM; and (4) providing a conceptualisation of synergy that is less harmful to KM practice.

Malaysia is a fast developing country in the Asian region which has undergone rapid growth since the 1970s. The construction industry is an important sector in socialeconomic development. It is generally understood that construction project delivery in Malaysia frequently experiences cost and time overruns, leading to many being completed at excessive cost and time overrun, or, in some situations, abandoned. The overall aim of the study, therefore, was to develop a framework to proactively minimise time overrun in Malaysian construction projects. This aim was fulfilled by achieving research objectives, including an investigation of the factors that contribute to time overruns, the relationship between the time and cost of construction projects, and to compare the factors related to time overrun in the 'best' and 'worst' Malaysian construction projects. A four-stage approach was adopted for the study. The quantitative data sets obtained were subjected to a rigorous statistical analysis. The main limitation of this research was due to a low response rate from the respondents. The personal contact with the respondents was used to'increase the response rate in all questionnaire surveys. The study concluded that there is a need to develop a framework for minimising time overrun in Malaysian construction projects. The results from the four stages were found suitable for further use in framework development. From the 84 time overrun factors investigated, 37 significant factors were determined, which were focused on for framework development. The research proceeded to develop a comprehensive framework to minimise time overrun, followed by several mitigation measures being suggested for each of the factors. The use of professionals and experts in the construction industry helped to identify the effectiveness and practicality of the mitigation measures for each factor. The framework came together with the risk management strategy for a construction project. It is anticipated that the framework will encourage the construction industry to understand the importance of minimising time overrun, as well as assisting and enabling the clients, consultants, contractors and others parties involved in construction projects. It is hoped that this will lead to future improvements in the Malaysian construction industry, through a continuous culture of improvement in the industry, and act as a vehicle for change within the industry, which is required to assist in improving current standard practices in delivering construction projects of better quality that fulfill client satisfaction and minimise time overrun.

The research focuses upon the development of a simulation conceptual modelling methodology for SCM applications (termed the ‘SCM2’). The originality of the SCM2 is that it combines a prescribed procedure for simulation conceptual modelling with supply chain domain-specific knowledge. This procedure is used to guide participants to create a non-software specific description of the simulation model to be developed, in the context of SCM applications. The SCM2 is presented as a series of seven phases, associated steps, who participates in each step, information needs and points of entry between steps. The SCM2 is entered when a client has a supply problem to be evaluated using a simulation approach. The supply problem is described in terms of the improvement(s) to be evaluated, for a given objective(s) within its supply setting. From this description, how each objective is to be measured and how each improvement is to be represented is determined. The interconnections between model components and the immediate supply setting are discriminated, model boundary formulated and level of detail designed. The output from the SCM2 is a documented and validated conceptual model. The need for a greater understanding of how to perform the conceptual modelling stage, as part of a simulation project, is shown to be of great significance and relevance. In particular the thesis argues that no methodologies exist that can guide participants in a simulation project through the process of creating a simulation conceptual model. A research methodological programme is designed to review existing modelling practice, form a specification for the methodology, develop an outline for the SCM2, detail the outline through refinement and application and a preliminary validation of the SCM2. The specification is formed to identify a set of requirements that the methodology should address. The methodology is developed to meet the specification by refining the outline design using two developmental cases of typical and complex supply chain problems. The outline design is founded on existing practice for conceptual modelling and identifies ten key concepts that have been synthesised by considering the design issues for each requirement identified in the specification. A major advance made by this thesis is a suggestion that the process of conceptual modelling could benefit from utilising domain knowledge provided by the Supply Chain Council SCOR model. It is demonstrated that using SCOR is a powerful way to enable a more focused and efficient procedure for conceptual modelling. The methodology incorporates the key concepts and aligns these with a general process for conceptual modelling. A preliminary validation with a different supply chain illustration demonstrates that the methodology is initially ‘feasible’ and has ‘utility’. Future testing is required in different industrial contexts with actual participants and an opportunity exists to extend the methodology into a web-based application tool.

Despite the largest forestry resources in the world, Russian forestry products sectors lag behind international competitors in product and process technology sectors, and Russia remains the largest exporter of raw timber and low added value timber products. The study develops an extended framework of enterprise and sector level learning within the context of the National System of Innovation (NSI) to examine technology improvements and innovation in less dynamic low technology sectors and applies it to forestry products sectors in Russia. In particular, the study addresses the question „Why do Russian forestry products sectors and firms lag behind their foreign competitors in technological improvements, innovation and higher value added production?? and seeks to explain why Russian forestry products industries, which appear to have the potential based on existence of the required natural resources, are unable to achieve international competitiveness in markets for higher value added products. Using company level data, the study utilised complementary quantitative and qualitative methodologies, which allowed the use of evidence from qualitative research findings to corroborate quantitative research findings. The results of the statistical analyses reveal that Russian companies perceive that the ability to innovate is positively associated with R&D commitment and amount of training. Case study evidence demonstrates very weak commitment to R&D in all but one companies and much of the technical training is confined to on-the-job training because of financial and personnel constraints. This combination of statistical and case study evidence goes some way towards explaining the lack of technological success. Lack of technological capability is found to be a less serious obstacle than limitations of social capital, investment, and external support mechanisms in both the statistical and case study evidence. The majority of learning effects observed in companies were related incremental improvement of existing skills and competences. The evidence from case studies indicates that companies have reached the „adaptation stage? of capability development i.e. they have the ability to use, adapt and stretch the technology and equipment. However, companies? ambitions to upgrade their technologies were limited by internal and external constraints. The internal constraints were that their human and financial resources were fully stretched. Companies survived by limiting their activities to what is feasible within their resources and capabilities and the markets they can serve. Companies appear to possess learning ability and necessary skills and competences to produce value added forestry products as they demonstrated first-order learning, which takes place within firms. We observed limited second- and third-order learning (learning between firms and at the level of the whole economy which are important elements of technological „catch up?). Existing mechanisms for leveraging more advanced technology at the national, enterprise and sector level were also very limited. An important finding of the study is that for survivors, working under serious constraints sharpens, rather than weakens, some technological competences, notably those for making good use of the available technology and equipment, and adapting and stretching the technology. Improved financial and human resources and better external linkages and business environment are needed to develop more advanced competences and higher value added products. Theoretical insights and propositions generated by the study need to be tested with evidence from other laggard sectors and enterprises who are progressing very slowly in catching up or do not see any prospects of catching up

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