The aim of the research was to explore the meaning of intangible resources in different European hospitals. Specific objectives were the identification of key intangible resources and the exploration of their management and utilisation. In this context, a further objective was to analyse the impact of various contextual factors, such as public sector regulations, on the management of intangible resources. The three objectives provided the structure for a theoretical model, which formed the framework of the research. It is based on a strategic perspective on intangible resources. Thus, despite the great variety of intangible resources in hospitals, the model limits its focus to certain intangible resources that have been identified as important in the literature and preliminary study. Since the literature revealed that the management of intangible resources is strongly related to operational management tools such as human resource management and knowledge management, the model comprises related activities. The validity of the theoretical model was tested through primary research, which was undertaken in two stages. The preliminary study was exploratory and aimed to investigate the extent to which important intangible resources are considered in the performance measurement systems of hospitals. This was realised through qualitative semi-structured interviews with senior and middle managers at various European hospitals. The second part of the research focused on the identification of specific intangible resources that were important for achieving high performance services. It investigated how the management of intangible resources was carried out and what kind of contextual factors were influential. For this, the theoretical model was tested by applying a single embedded case study approach. The case study was carried out in a German university hospital. Qualitative semi-structured interViews with top and middle managers and the employees of a single department provided insight into the awareness and utilisation of intangible resources. The findings of the research confirmed the importance of specific intangible resources for hospitals, such as knowledge, the attitude towards the organisation and the creation of partnerships with external service providers. In addition, intangible resources such as internal social relationships were identified as highly important. The research refers to them as social capital. Analysis ofthe efforts regarding the management of social capital, however, revealed that there was not enough awareness of its significance. It seemed that the lack of attention regarding the meaning of social capital hampered the utilisation of other intangible resources. In this context, the importance of communication and identification with the organisation was highlighted. Although the literature has not explicitly considered the impact of contextual factors on the management of intangible resources, the research found that public sector regulations, the profile of staff, and the style of leadership in particular influence the management and utilisation of intangible resources. The research enhances knowledge of the awareness and management of intangible resources in hospitals. It contributes to the related literature in that the importance of specific intangible resources was revealed or confirmed. Further, the research significantly extended knowledge of various factors that influence the management of intangible resources.

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The aim of this research study is to provide an understanding of university-industry collaboration in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland and to examine the role of government in this relationship from the perspective of the firm. Perspectives on the innovation process have changed over the last few decades from a traditional linear model supporting 'technology push' and 'demand pull' approaches to business innovation, towards more systemic or evolutionary models of innovation which are characterised by strong collaborations between firms and external organisations, including universities. University-industry collaboration has become a primary focus for innovation policy in many countries, with governments. recognising the important role universities have to play in economic development through their enhancement of industrial competitiveness. As a result, governments have developed and introduced initiatives to encourage firms to form collaborations, particularly with university partners. At the same time universities are under pressure to access new sources of revenue to fund their research activities and recognise that income from collaborations with firms can provide additional revenue. Employing a mixed-methods approach, including the use of secondary data, survey and interviews, this study examines the role of government in university-industry collaborations which are R&D focussed in Ireland, drawing on the resource based view of the firm. This research study makes important contributions to both the emerging literature in this area and for policymakers surrounding the role of government support in university-industry R&D collaboration, for which there has been limited previous research conducted. The study provides an understanding of the pattern and intensity of R&D collaboration by firms in Ireland and details the role of government policy in this. Key findings emerge surrounding the characteristics of firms collaborating with universities and how they differ from firms with supply-chain collaboration partners and also the role of government support in university-industry R&D collaboration in Ireland.

The aim of this research study is to provide an understanding of the success factors and barriers impacting university spin-out activity in Ireland. The role of universities has evolved over recent years to include a remit of entrepreneurial activities in addition to their traditional roles of teaching and research. Many governments recognise the important role their local universities can play in helping to build a knowledge economy by producing commercial outputs from educational investment, in the form of technology transfer and university spin-out activity. In addition, changes in government funding of universities over recent years has forced universities to seek new sources of revenue. Thus, commercialisation activities can potentially provide this additional revenue stream required by many universities. Despite this increased emphasis by government on universities to promote spin-out activity there have been limited research studies which examine this activity outside the United States and those studies which do exist predominantly employ quantitative methods. Thus, this research study, employing qualitative methods, explores university spin-out activity across four universities in Ireland. The study examines university spin-out activity from the unique perspective of the individual academic founder through a social constructionist approach, using semi-structured interviews. The findings from the case study analysis of the universities are grounded in literature relating to technology transfer and the 'triple-helix' model of university-industrygovernment relations. Supplied by The British Library - 'The world's knowledge' 1:1 'II The barriers and success factors impacting spin-out activity are analysed from the experiences and perceptions of the academic founders of these spin-out companies. This study makes important contributions to the emerging literature in the area of university spin-out activity and provides an understanding of the barriers to university spin-out activity, providing a foundation from which to reduce these barriers and aiding future policy development.

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Drawing upon the study of three Thai hotel chains, this research sets out to explore why these chains seek to deliver their products and services beyond the traditional boundaries of domestic markets and to investigate how factors in the environment of foreign countries and Thai hotel chains affect their decisions when they expand into new overseas markets. Once they had been identified, an attempt was made to determine if any relationship existed between these factors and choice of entry mode when the hotel chains in question attempted expansion into new international markets and chose one entry mode over others. This research has utilised the transaction cost approach (TCA) which insists, regarding hospitality organisations' modal choice, that organisations manage their assets -and' thus shape organisational structure - through a cost-benefit comparison of external market-based activity and internalising these activities within the organisations (Litteljohn et al., 2007). Moreover, the TCA has been widely used in studying international business and is particular useful in analysing and explaining various entry mode decisions in a more in-depth manner. Thus, the TCA helps to predict entry mode for hotel firms and identifies a number of determinants related to entry mode choices as the starting point for building the conceptual framework of this research. Additionally, this study adopted an exploratory study approach in investigating the internationalisation specifics of the three Thai hotel chains, and the semi-structured interview was the research method used. The findings suggest that there is a relationship between environmental elements and entry modes. In particular, the variables that emerged from the findings were found to be significant, such as support from local financial institutions, buying power of consumers, the role of the parent firm's owner. Therefore, this study attempts to develop and adjust Jones et aI's (2004) framework by adding some extra variables and entry modes that could not be captured in the existing literature but emerged into the framework from the findings. Also, this research provides new empirical evidence and extends the boundaries of existing knowledge in the developing-country internationalisation literature, especially as regards Thai multinationals and the internationalisation of Thai hotel chains.