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The papers here presented have a particular emphasis, within the totality of the accountability exercised by organisations towards the society in which they exist, upon the organisational legitimacy interpretation of the extant relationship. This conceptualisation relies upon the assumption of a principal:agent relationship existing between society and business and suggests the former requires on-going evidence from the latter that it is behaving 'responsibly' i.e. doing those things of which society approves. Such responsibility can be evidenced, as one method, by corporate social reporting and numerous suggestions are made as to how this might occur. However, envisaged in this way the business:society relationship must be perceived as essentially reactive in nature, and the thesis therefore also considers the alternative, and far more proactive stance, suggested by a political economy (of accounting) formulation. Suggestions as to how corporate executives might demonstrate their adherence to this alternative conceptualisation are hence also indicated. Since 'society' at the total level is considered to be a somewhat meaningless construct within a reporting framework, stakeholder analysis is employed to identify both the societal interest groups to whom an object organisation might be considered 'accountable', and the nature of (some at least of) the information regarding organisational activity that it might be deemed appropriate to then provide. In particular, amongst the stakeholders the thesis identifies and regarding which corporate reporting should occur, a cogent argument is mounted for the specific place of environmental reporting (meanwhile questioning the relevance of the 'sustainability' precept advocated elsewhere).

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This study explores the ASTOVL aircraft project design work undertaken by two groups, based at Kingston and Warton in the UK, during the period 1957-1988. ASTOVL aircraft are defined as supersonic V/STOL combat aircraft - essentially successors to the P.1127/Harrier series of 'jump jets'. Project design is taken to be the design activities preceding a full commitment to a project launch, including related government-based procurement and research activities. The relationship between project design and other stages in aircraft development in defence procurement is also looked at. A qualitative longitudinal study is the main methodological approach taken, with two periods, 1960-65 and 1980-85, the main focus of the study. The research is based on wide ranging interviews with key participants from industry and government, as well as extensive archive research. A review of the relevant literature is made, as well as being utilised as secondary source material. Two models, derived from the empirical work, are used as a basis for analysis. Contemporary and international relevance is provided by conclusions that link the work to the current JSF project, as well as linking to project design in other sectors and to activities such as systems engineering. The research is original in looking at the design activities inside a defence company at the start of the procurement process. The main contribution of the D.Phil is in showing that persistent differences between how two design teams work have implications for our understanding of how defence procurement functions.

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