Broadband has revolutionised the way the Internet is used and has become the critical enabling infrastructure of our modem and knowledge-based economy. Its widespread introduction has not only greatly enhanced the speed at which information online can be accessed, but also the range and sophistication of the content available. It is still penetrating the telecommunication market and is seen by some as the most significant evolutionary step since the emergence of the Internet. However in the rush to achieve market share, there is a risk that insufficient attention may be paid to quality issues, the central theme of this research. The research addresses the issues of broadband quality with a stated objective of assessing broadband quality by means of an integrated framework that encompasses factors beyond strict technical characteristics of broadband networks. Indeed, the concept of quality is a multi-facetted one, for which various perspectives can be distinguished. In this work, broadband quality as perceived by users, ISP and Government in the United Kingdom (UK) is looked at and a survey report is given and analysed. The aim of this doctoral research was to provide much needed empirical broadband quality framework that would guide the service provider as well as the UK government in the provision of quality broadband to its consumers. It will also stand as a benchmark to countries wanting to provide quality broadband to its citizens. A survey research approach was employed to achieve the overall aim and objective of this research. This was conducted using the response of 133 participants located in various boroughs in the UK. The results of the survey show that quality, though desired by many, has been short-changed by the desire to have access to the Internet via broadband at the lowest cost possible. However, this has not encouraged some consumers to switch to broadband from dial-up service despite continuous low prices being offered by service providers. Furthermore, the results also indicated that focusing on broadband quality will improve and promote investment in broadband capacity and decrease the uncertainty in consumer demand for applications such as multi-media content delivery, enhanced electronic commerce and telecommuting that exploit broadband access.

The thesis attempts to analyse both theoretically and empirically the relationship between firm performance and organizational structure. The chosen measure of performance is profit. To this end Chapter Two reviews the work of Williamson (103, 104, 109) and others on the classification of the structure of large firms. Hypotheses concerning superiority are considered. However, it may be that the structures considered in Chapter Two, are only appropriate to stable environments. Hence Chapter Three develops a simple model of optimal decentralization under differing environmental conditions and considers existing organizational structures that may be most appropriate to the highly unstable environment of research and development. Chapter Four reports empirical analysis involving the use of organizational structure as an independent (dummy) variable. The sample consists of 82 companies in five industries where the environment is considered stable. Hence the classification scheme of Williamson and Bhargava (109) seems to be appropriate. Equations are presented using both price-cost margins and a rate of return on capital as the measure of profitability. The organizational dummy is highly significant in all cases, seemingly indicating that organizational structure matters in determining performance. However little evidence is found of specification bias in previous studies which excluded the organizational dummy. Possible important omissions from the equations are reviewed. A comparison is made of the variations in the results between those equations using price-cost margins as the dependent variable and those using a rate of return. No conclusions are drawn about superiority. In order to exclude non-divisionalized enterprise which cause problems in Chapter Four, Chapter Five considers a sample of 36 conglomerates. However, although positive, the organizational dummy failed in general to reach statistical significance. Possible explanations are considered which, if correct, may require public policy to be essentially ad hoc in nature.

This thesis explores the experience of the historical and contemporary commercial manager, its rise and fall as an expert occupation and its rise again as potentially a new organisational profession in the project-led organisation. Despite their importance in such organisations, commercial managers often report not seeing their work as a site for innovation and being viewed as being impediments to the experience of other functions in cross-functional teams. Their main association, the IACCM, intends to improve the status of commercial managers through 'professionalisation'. However, historically, the commercial manager was of considerable status, in the firms of the late Industrial Revolution. They have been lost to the principal histories of British management, until now. How was the status of the occupation lost? This thesis considers the historical structuring of the occupation through analysis and interpretation of historical employment archives and the novel use of historical actor's own situations wanted advertising to reconstruct the experience of the historical commercial manager.The lived experience of contemporary commercial managers was investigated using Critical Incident Technique and phenomenological content analysis of first-person accounts of commercial managers successfully and unsuccessfully attempting to innovate within their routine work. The conflicts and scarcities of their position are key elements amongst the antecedents of insight that lead to commercial innovation. This thesis responds to Rickard's (2003) call for more realistic research into innovation and practical models of the actual practices of innovating people. Past and present are unified by an analysis of trait and ideological theories of professionalism. Through development of a framework for assessing progress in professional mobility projects, conditions for the fall of historical commercial managers are theorised and the status of modern commercial managers is analysed. Several key debates are also considered, such the rate of vertical integration in British firms.The limitation of the study in both its historical and contemporary parts is the availability of data and interpretive approach taken to it. Although the method by which data types were elicited and analysed is clear and repeatable, there is a limitation in the degree to which the data is representative, in terms of the degree of participation of commercial managers and the physical limits of the archive; interpretation can only be carried out on the data that actually survives. Further work is proposed and recommendations are made for supporting the professional mobility of modern commercial managers. Once again, commercial managers find themselves as a response to the concerns of capital and enterprise, yet will their putative institution be able to create the kind of collective mobility that was impossible for their historical forebears?

This thesis explores risk management practices in global manufacturing investment. It reflects the growing internationalisation of manufacturing and the increasing complexity and fragmentation of manufacturing systems. Issues of risk management have become increasingly important in financial and company governance contexts not least because of growing international concerns about the consequences of unregulated risk. However while significant progress has been made in the awareness and articulation of financial risk there appeared to be little evidence of systematic management of risks associated with the globalisation of manufacturing despite the fact that ill-advised internationalisation projects could risk companies' futures. Investment risk management practice has evolved as risk analysis in global manufacturing investment from theoretical and practice perspectives. The need to actively manage risk has tended to be lost by the adoption of complex financial risk analysis methods in industrial investment projects. The approach adopted in this research was to undertake detailed case investigations in a cross section of industrial businesses at different levels of maturity in order to observe current practices, identify common principles and to seek to synthesise systematic approaches to risk management where appropriate. These field studies were conducted against a background of a detailed review of the literature and practice in finance and consulting and a detailed review of literature and practice in manufacturing strategy and system design. The key findings are as follows: (i) Elements of global manufacturing risk are managed by a variety of implicit and explicit methods, typically embedded in strategic and financial evaluations. There are no widely recognised comprehensive and systematic approaches to the analysis and mitigation of risks associated with global manufacturing investments. (ii) A broad review and analysis of global manufacturing investment projects identified key categories of investment risks and key dimensions of investment risk management. (iii) A very preliminary classification of global manufacturers from an investment risk management practice perspective, which may be helpful to companies in assessing their own risk management capabilities and behaviours. (iv) A prototype investment risk management process architecture is proposed based upon the key research findings. It presents a structured approach to the key risk management tasks and demonstrates their generality across a range of industrial environment. This provides confidence though not conclusive evidence that these methods might be applicable across a broad spectrum of manufacturing industries. The research findings extend the current understanding of risk management into the domain of global manufacturing strategy and provide the basis for more comprehensive and systematic assessment of risk in global investment projects. Further research will be required to validate the proposed risk management process and to explore the particular risks associated with different sectors, technologies, and business contexts.

This study applies a configuration theoretic approach to understand the interplay between business strategy and relationship strategy. It is hypothesised that business relationships make their greatest contributions to both relationship performance and firm performance when the structure of a relationship is accurately aligned with the business strategy (i.e. configuration model 1) and the relationship strategy (i.e. configuration model 2) of a focal firm. The hypotheses are tested using four seemingly complementary approaches to fit consisting of profile deviation, moderation, mediation, and covariation. This study adopts both qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey to address the research questions. First, a total of 30 interviews with CEOs and other senior marketing managers in the UK and the USA were conducted to develop a new typology for relationship strategies (termed resource acquisition strategies). The five resource acquisition strategies consist of Money Bonds, New Market Bonds, Utilisation Bonds, Intellectual Bonds, and Credibility Bonds. A further quantitative pretest, with 311 full time MBA and international executive MBA students at Manchester Business School, supported the validity and reliability of this typology. To examine the two configuration models, a sample of 658 usable responses from the US service industries was collected through a web-based survey. In the first configuration model, the results of a profile deviation analysis confirmed the existence of an ideal relational configuration for each business strategy so that the degree of adherence to this ideal profile is significantly and positively related to performance variables. Several robustness tests gave further confidence to these findings. In addition, while the two neo-classical approaches to fit, profile deviation and covariation, were strongly supported, the results only loosely supported the operationalisation of fit from the two classical approaches, fit as moderation and mediation. In the second configuration model, the results of the profile deviation analyses indicated that strategic coalignment between the business relationship characteristics and the relationship strategy is a desirable property for performance enhancement. Several robustness tests supported this finding. Moreover, the results of examining the interplay between business strategy and relationship strategy, and linking it to performance, rejected the association between the two strategy types, implying that there are several alternative, equally effective, routes to success in building relationships. This study adds to the body of knowledge via providing sufficient evidence for the appropriateness of using configuration theory in the study of relationship marketing based phenomena, thus widening the scope of this theory. It also sheds new light on our understanding of relationship strategies which is further development of the resource-based view and Industrial Marketing and Purchasing approach. It contributes to the extant literature by investigating the degree and patterns of coalignment between relationship structure and both business strategy and relationship strategy. Moreover, juxtaposing alternative forms of fit added new insight into the fit methodology literature. From a managerial perspective, this study provides specific guidelines to help managers design their relationships in ways that are aligned with their strategic intent. It also suggests that marketing managers can usefully draw on configuration theory and profile deviation approach to optimise their benchmarking decisions.

Life science firms compete in rapidly changing environments that demand substantial resources and capabilities. Nevertheless, there are a growing number of small life science firms, and these firms are having a profound impact on innovation in the industry. However, little is known on how these firms overcome resource constraints to finance and develop R&D resources and capabilities. Consequently, the purpose of this thesis is to empirically explore how small life science firms develop R&D and financial resources and capabilities. A closely related area that this research is also fundamentally concerned with is how R&D and financial resources and capabilities affect firms‟ early growth. The central aim of this research is to unearth insights on the motivations, assets and processes that lead to the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities. To accomplish this, the research draws on the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities. The resources-based view is interested in the resources from which firms derive competitive advantages. Whilst dynamic capabilities focus on how firms in rapidly changing environments – especially high technology environments – configure and reconfigure their assets and capabilities to develop competitive advantages. Because this research is concerned with the development of key resources and capabilities of firms in rapidly changing environments, a resource-based view influenced dynamic capabilities framework is used to isolate the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities of life science firms. An in depth case study approach is used to examine the research questions. It draws on longitudinal data collected from six life science firms. Data has been collected from twenty interviews and over 3000 pages of secondary data. The interview data is abstracted using four techniques: 1) identifying repetitions, 2) looking for transitions, 3) identifying similarities and differences and 4) cutting and sorting notable quotes. Following Miles and Huberman (1994), the data is then analysed using a multiple step abstraction and condensing process. A unique triangulation technique is used at the end of the study where the key informants are surveyed on the results of the qualitative analysis. Results from the study indicate that a unique set of past decisions, future opportunities, assets, capabilities and routines leads to the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities. It is evident in all of the case firms in this study that scientific breakthroughs, partnership opportunities, the founders‟ experience and the firm‟s ability to integrate resources and learn from earlier paths are vital to the development of R&D and financial resources and capabilities. The study makes several contributions to the practice and scholarship of management. It provides insights on how small life science firms develop the R&D and financial resources to compete in a highly dynamic industry. From a scholarly perspective, it extends the dynamic capabilities framework and offers empirical support to several categories of dynamic capabilities. It also offers support to R&D and financial capabilities as categories of complementary assets. This thesis identifies details of the aforementioned aspects, discusses the importance of the findings in relation to the literature, and offers future research directions.

This thesis gives an overall view of measuring efficiencies in the Egyptian textile and apparel industry via stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). Differences between the SFA and the DEA can lead to different estimates for some, or all of the units in an analysis. Measuring efficiency through production process, (inputs and outputs), lacking factors affecting supply chain operations and other key factors, such as value-adding capabilities, exchange rates, time, inventory turnover, quality, logistics, etc. can lead to inaccurate measures. Thus, to ensure accurate efficiency measures, these factors have to be considered. Techniques used are; SFA time-varying and metafrontier. Constructing a single production frontier based on all data points would cause an unfitting benchmark due to differences in production technologies, location, ownership type, etc. Hence, metafrontier allows grouping firms with similar characteristics into a separate group frontier for each region with single metafrontier applied to all groups. Empirical results show clear variability in efficiencies between private and public firms and shows that efficiency scores vary, when assessed against the metafrontier. The evidence also shows the major role of the supply chain factors in improving efficiencies for public firms.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are widely recognized as an important part of the economy, particularly important in countries like Mexico, where SMEs make up almost 90% of the industry. However these SMEs do not consider their impact on the environment and surrounding communities to be a priority, and lack the proper information with regards to how to reduce it. The research presented in this thesis sets out to explore the implementation of Sustainable Design in Mexican SMEs, through the use of a guidebook in the form of a web based tool. This tool, tailored to the specific needs of the Mexican SMEs' aims to deliver·· clear and concise information, raise awareness and improve their environmental and social performance. Through a series of studies it was possible to identify that the socio-cultural and political context of the Mexican SMEs have an impact on the implementation of Sustainable Design. As well, these studies analyze if the proposed prototype tool is capable of working without external support. The findings from the studies were used to develop a theoretical framework for the future development of Sustainable Design information tools aimed at Mexican SMEs.

The objectives of the research was to identify how knowledge, learning and reflection is mediated in communities of practice. The overall aim was to base the evidence from the lived experiences of those who are part of the communities of practice under study. The research was undertaken through a qualitative inquiry using a social constructionist perspective. The research was pursued through participative action research in one case study organisation, and through participative observation, or observation in fifteen others. The key findings of this inquiry include six sociological elements which were common to all sixteen organisations. Further, four key knowledge flow processes were consistent across all cases. In total forty-one main findings were identified to the pursued research questions. Two conceptual models of learning and reflection were presented as ways to help understand how knowledge, learning and reflection are mediated in communities of practice. The models can be used at different levels of abstraction and conceptualisation. The study provides original insights into consulting activity within communities of practice, and highlights key themes based upon the lived experiences of the participants in the inquiry.

The importance of good relationship among parties in the construction industry has been accepted as one of the central issues of an organisation's success. The growing acceptance to the Relational Contracting approaches that representing partnering, supply chain alliances and other types of collaborative working relationships shows how construction organisations are moving forward from the traditional adversarial culture to a more harmonious working environment. However the application of the Relational Contracting Norms in the context of national culture has received relatively little attention in the literature. This study attempts to fill this void by investigating how good relationships develop within construction projects in Malaysia. It also investigates the adaptability of the relational contracting norms in different cultural setting and explores whether similar relational contracting norms emerge in different projects before developing a relationship development model that is applicable to the academic and practitioners. By using qualitative approach, the main data was collected from 36 semi-structured in-depth interviews across four case studies. The results were validated by 20 follow-up interviews with selected respondents, two stages of expert interviews and cross-case analysis. This study found that good relationships within construction projects in the Malaysian construction industry developed from the interplay of twelve structural and relational dimensions that went through three stages of relationship development process in project setting. It highlights the significant importance of the value and emotion-related dimensions in developing good relationships. A relationship development model was produced based on these twelve dimensions (special contract directive, power, performance, trust, commitment, loyalty, personal relationships, emotions, values, social interaction, work inter-dependency and political connection). The research contributes to construction management literature by supporting the Transaction Cost Economics Theory and extends the Relational Contracting Theory. It proposes seven new dimensions that are incorporated in the newly proposed relationship development model. Although the study was conducted in a specific national culture, it is argued that the model is applicable to other context on the basis that spiritual, emotional and human components of the work experience could be learned by other cultures.