In the early 1990's, I argued that the real issues, those at the crux of tourism impact problems, were not being addressed - pertinent questions ignored amidst the blossoming euphoria of green rhetoric. A process emerged in tourism development whereby ego-enhancing, politically correct sound bites drowned out the voice of reason, namely common sense. Wonderfully self-satisfying, this proved a smug and timely convenience as politicians, planners, 'travellers' and increasingly (even) many tourism academics appeared to see problems without answers as an anathema. There must either be 'answers' irrespective of their practical effectiveness or a process be enthusiastically embraced whereby difficult questions are eliminated, or dismissed to the realms of the nihilistic fringe. Enter eco/ego/sustainable tourism. Scoring heavily on both counts, dovetailing nicely into the milieu of deceit while simultaneously reinforcing the required veneer of respectable positivism, it enabled the mundane, but crucial (and I argue intractable) questions to be systematically and deliberately sidestepped. Fifteen years on, little has changed. The futility of sustainable tourism is around us for all to see - should we choose, or care, to look. But, even now, we cannot face up to seeing it for what it is. Or, actually, what it isn't. The canard continues. Focussing on eco/ego/sustainable tourism, the thesis presents selected published works reflecting the nexus of my thinking on - and contribution to - the body of learning. It is a subjective, emotive perspective, with the emphasis on 'the personal'. And the eclectic. Concomitantly, the author advocates the use of 'visual' imagery, much in evidence in the publications, to fire imagination. The works seek to illustrate the manner in which empirical observation, experience and theory are all interwoven. Consequently, it is not just a matter of content, but of process: the means of illuminating and conveying ideas, and of teaching, are also explored. The essence of the argument presented in the thesis is that the void, the chasm between theory and practice, between what (perhaps) 'should be' and what actually 'is', cannot be bridged. The sheer number of tourists travelling, the absolute volume involved, combined with widespread corruption and the increasing adoption (universally?) of a 'what's in it for me, now' mentality, together negate any 'sustainable' efforts of redemption. My cynical views of eco/ego/sustainable tourism have not mellowed over the years. On the contrary, they have hardened as, alarmed, I have become increasingly pessimistic in (the dismal) light of the burgeoning optimism of others as to the potential, always potential, of sustainability. Dream on. The counter plea here, then - in ever more stringent tones - is that of the necessity to contextualise eco/ego/sustainable tourism within reality - to exit fantasy land. I, too, can dream, can't I?

The thesis has three major themes. Firstly, it seeks to correct any lingering notion that the growth of the Gold Coast cocoa industry was primarily a response by indigenous producers to European leadership and initiatives. In this context, claims made by Cadbury that they fostered the early development of the industry are examined and dismissed, and it is argued that in reality the firm was forced to adapt itself to already existent marketing structures established by Gold Coast farmers and traders. Secondly, the thesis studies the interrelations between the expatriate buying firms and their contacts and conflicts with African producers; and it is suggested that increasing domination of the marketing structure by a relatively small group of buying firms nurtured a sense of grievance amongst producers which formed a backcloth to the momentous cocoa hold-up of 1937/38, when African resistance to the overbearing economic presence of the European cocoa firms undermined the political foundations of colonial rule. Thirdly, the two preceding themes are linked by the notion of Cadbury as a "Model Firm". Arriving on the Gold Coast in 1907, Cadbury were desirous of forming a constructive, non-exploitative relationship with the colonised people by aiding them in the development of their cocoa industry. Although the strategy which Cadbury adopted was ineffective in encouraging farmers to grow cocoa in the required "scientific" manner, it was successful in gaining the firm a favoured reputation with both the Colonial Administration and with producers themselves, and Cadbury were subsequently upheld as a model firm whose practices the other expatriate buyers would do well to follow. Yet in following years - between the two World Wars - this model status was eroded as Cadbury's orientation to cocoa buying became increasingly commercialised. Government and producers became increasingly alienated from the firm which both had formerly held in high esteem, and as Cadbury steadily strengthened their connections with other expatriate companies, producers correspondingly identified them as members of the European buying oligopoly or "pool" which they perceived as economically exploiting the farmer.

This report describes the theory of formula-based Line of Balance and the two extrer,e Line of Balance methods which can be used for scheduling housing projects. Of the two compromise methods which are then introduced, the decision rule method is the most im-l~ortant because it enables the schedule to be chosen on economic grounds. A computer llrogram called DARLOD is fully described, and is used to process data for a housing project. This project is used to illustrate the three most important Line of Balance scheduling methods. The unit house network has a great bearing on the fim:l cost of the housing project, on the scheduling method chosen, and on the final schedule. This report therefore shows how the design and construction decisions which determine the network shOUld be made so that a low cost, short duration schedule is obtained. Before scheduling a housing project it is necessary to detennine which scheduling method should be used. This report therefore relates JJine of Iialance to house building in Great Britain, and concludes that full Line of Balance scheduling by the methods described in this report is at present only economic for largc, non-speculative projects consisting of system or industrialized houses.

This thesis provides, for the first time, a history of Alex. Cowan & Sons Ltd., one of Scotland's most famous papermaking companies. The firm was family-run for most of the period 1779 until 1965, the year it was taken over by Reed Paper Group, which closed it in 1975. The thesis begins with an outline of the firm's history, after which its various management functions are analysed over time. It reveals that the family influence was crucial in sustaining the firm's performance over a period of almost 200 years, during which the paper industry and paper consumption continued to expand, but in conditions of increasing national and international competition. Family control enabled decision making in the business to take place informally and quickly. The need for capital for expansion after World War Two resulted in the flotation of the company's shares in 1951, but family influence was still considerable until the takeover of 1965. The thesis discloses the very strong effects on the business of the Presbyterian faith held by the Cowan family, especially apparent up until the First World War years. The family's faith also accounts for the firm's excellent treatment of workers and the good facilities provided for them. The firm's early financial systems are innovative, and are carefully developed and efficient at every stage of its history. The firm's 'Protestant Work Ethic' also ensured that capital was reinvested both in the latest technology and in expansion at home and overseas. Sales and marketing was developed early in the firm and highly efficient across its life. The thesis produces a qualitative model of the firm's strategic processes, and sets its takeover and eventual closure in the context of the gradual decline of the British and Scottish papermaking industries, but making it clear that it was, over its life, a highly successful family firm.

Since the late 1990s, the EU has become involved in the creation of a European Security and Defence Policy, intended to provide the Union with autonomous military capabilities. While academic interest on ESDP has been abundant, not much light has been shed on the development of its military-industrial aspects. This PhD thesis examines why and how an EU armaments policy came about as part of ESDP. The main argument put forward by the study is that the emergence of EU armaments policy should be viewed as a response to the consolidation and internationalisation of the European arms industry that culminated parallel to the birth of ESDP. The role of the internationalised European arms industry was pivotal in the formulation of the EU armaments policy, allowing for the conceptualisation of the industry as a powerful ESDP policy actor. The density of its interaction with EU institutions is analysed as an instance in the making of an EU politico-military-industrial complex. However, the effectiveness of arms-industrial actorness was mediated by persisting inter-state divergences and the contradictions between the political and the economic forms of the authority of capital.

With an increasing number of fashion retailers and textile manufacturers outsourcing products and extending their global supply base, risk management has gained significance in the textile and clothing supply chain in terms of: increasing flexibility and agility, achieving quick response and sustaining effective relationships with suppliers. However, there is limited research on risk management within this sector and even less empirical research conducted in this sector. This is quite surprising considering the volatile nature of this dynamic sector. Through the application of an in-depth single case study, this thesis explores the strategic role of risk and risk management in Marks and Spencer and examines key risk reducing strategies to sustain competitive advantage. The empirical findings from the case study provide some insightful results, particularly the inter-relationship between risk, design and supply network and their subsequent impact to a firm achieving competitive advantage.

The research presented in this thesis is centred on a study of room rate pricing in the Irish hotel industry which, since the late 1980s, has enjoyed a period of unparalleled expansion and has been an engine of growth for the economy. There has been little research on this aspect of the industry. Overall, the main research objective was to inquire into the way reality is perceived by hoteliers and to find out how they grapple with room pricing decisions. Ontologically, the research views pricing as a social and organisational practice embedded in the contextual setting of each hotel, rather than being a technical tool used to achieve economic rationality, as in more mainstream functionalist / positivist research. Therefore, the interpretivist research methodology and the research methods of qualitative interviewing and case studies were chosen. Two contrasting major case sites provided detailed insights into the practicalities of room pricing. The empirical findings clearly show that the manager is boundedly rational in the face of the inter-connectivity of room pricing with other customer-related and marketing decisions. Room pricing is also time-dependent and subject to uncertainty of market demand. Uncertainty can be reduced to an extent, by controlling price setting and proactive planning by the manager. This can be seen in the formal routines for setting guiding parameters (ceiling rack rate, mid-point budgeted yield and minimum floor price) in advance of the season, rules for discounting, routines to allocate blocks of rooms to bulk business etc., other informal routines and good marketing. However, a balance of uncertain demand remains, which tends to be handled reactively by intuition and luck, as the season unfolds. The findings suggest that room pricing is a function of context, cannot be subject to general rules and is path dependent on a spectrum between floor price and ceiling rack rate. Hoteliers wish to move the room rate along the continuum towards the rack rate, but face conflicting forces at macro and micro levels, yielding trade-offs and extensive complexity. The rational, optimising decision-maker of the Neo-Classical (NCE) model is rejected, due to its ahistorical nature and lack of congruence with empirical reality. A FIVE LEVEL institutional explanation, which connects micro and macro levels, is proposed, using Old Institutional Economic (OIE) and New Institutional Sociology (NIS) concepts. 10

The management of construction projects has been heavily criticised by government institutions, academics and practitioners for delays, cost overruns and suboptimum performance. Numerous studies have identified project planning as the main problem with both the management methodology and conventional project planning techniques deemed insufficient. It has been established that only fifty per cent of the planned work is completed as scheduled. This is consistent with the findings of this study, which again confirms the insufficiency of the techniques available to the general practitioner. This research explores operational problems associated with project planning and control, and develops an innovative and holistic planning and control system to deliver sustainable construction projects. A qualitative strategy was adopted for this study utilising interviews and multiple case study methods, which are complementary approaches. In total, four case studies were selected from the predominant UK construction industry and 81 interviews were conducted for this study. Given the criticisms of qualitative research as methodologically weak, this study develops a research process that addresses the specific objectives of the study. This research contributes to Project Management (PM) knowledge by developing and implementing an innovative Total Planning and Control (TPC) system to enhance the current practice and to deliver sustainable projects. The TPC system is a holistic, simple, effective and efficient approach for project planning and control in the ‘real world’ construction industry. It was developed through a practice informed theory approach, which make it more applicable to actual construction projects. The implication of the TPC system is to overcome the limitations of planning and managing construction projects, which also improves communication, workflow and sets foundation for related functions such as, logistic, cost, risk, collaborative and early warning planning. The TPC system comprises of the development of a 4Es (Economic, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Ethics) management and performance model, project and PM constraints, construction PM managerial process, as well as a sustainable model, 4Es and 4Poles (Technology, Economy, Society and Environment). This study is concerned with the enhancement of construction PM practice. It also enables a deeper understanding of project planning and control in contrast to the conventional planning system which focuses mainly on scheduling.

This thesis presents an analysis of the electronics in-bond industry in the Mexican Northern Border. It is argued that the location or subcontracting by foreign firms of the assembly phase of electronics production in Mexico constitutes a new pattern of industrial location different from that of the heavy industrial concentrations in the three biggest cities, Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. As this new pattern consolidates and spreads into the interior of the country, the labour processes upgrade, requiring a more skilled labour force with the consequent changes in the structure of the labour force. This process is linked to the general process of internationalisation of capital which has had as a result the integration of more countries into world trade thus changing the structure of world production capacity and the subsequent geographical redistribution of worldwide production. In this way, firms have located production facilities in the Newly Industrialising Countries (NICs) and, nowadays, the New-NICs. However, in opposition to the somewhat one-sided views developed hitherto of the phenomena, the research undertaken on the electronics industry at world level and the empirical data gathered on in-bond electronic firms in the Mexican Northern Border identifies several factors as interacting in the emergence of new patterns of location in countries integrated into international trade: a) the role of technological innovation; b) increasing capital-intensiveness of industry versus labour intensity in certain phases of the production processes; c) intense competition at world scale; d) the characteristics of labour force in the host countries and e) the role of the nation-states - both home and host countries - which through economic and social policies influence the relocation offshore (in the former case) and establish the conditions for the successful performance of the labour processes relocated in the latter.

Following the opening three chapters, which survey the literature related to knowledge, economic growth and firm behavior, I focus on the biotechnology industry to understand how firms translate basic scientific ideas into profitable ventures. I find that this industry is characterized by two unique stylized facts: first, firms publish the results of their scientific research openly in peer reviewed journals, and two, they collaborate with universities quite intensively. I explore the private-public nature of biotechnology innovation in three separate papers. In my first paper, I find that collaborative research with academics improves research quality for biotechnology firms. My results indicated that biotechnology firms seek alliances with high status academics with established research reputations so as to gain publication in highly ranked journals which is one measure of research quality. One of the major policy implications of my paper was that support for public science should be strengthened and collaboration across the private-public divide should also be encouraged. However, collaboration should not be conflated with co-option or appropriation of roles, i.e., the public sector should not be encouraged to emulate private sector functions. A strong independent public science nexus is crucial for private biotech firms, otherwise valuable signals of research quality may be compromised (as we shall see below). The results of my first paper elicited another important question - namely, why should firms publish the results of their research openly in the first place. I address this question in my second paper, by developing an open-science framework of innovation which argues that while R&D expenditures reveal the commitment of a firm's resources to innovation and patents record the completion of R&D activity, a firm's stock of scientific papers signals the quality of its innovative efforts. In biotechnology, quality of research is a valuable signal and publishing peer-reviewed articles allows firms to convince investors and potential collaborators of the worth of their ideas. This proposition is tested using unique data of U.K. biotechnology firms during the years 1988-2000. The findings indicate that research publications bring real financial gains to biotechnology firms and that, on average, publishing fourteen scientific papers in academic journals has approximately the same impact on a firm's market value as obtaining a single patent. Furthermore, papers which are highly cited, particularly by pharmaceutical firms, have a greater impact on market value. In a third theoretical paper. I show that biotechnology patents can be treated as credence goods - goods/services that require expert opinion to determine quality -- insofar as the market for biotechnology patents is characterized by an asymmetry of information between buyers and sellers. This informational asymmetry is a result of uncertainty associated with biotechnology patents. The chief causes of uncertainty are the legal substance of the patent document itself, the technological and commercial uncertainty associated with patent value and variable quality in screening new innovations at the patent office when granting patents. Despite these limitations, firms continue to patent in increasing numbers. Thus, the market has evolved mechanisms to more accurately ascertain "true" patent value. These mechanisms, that I label, credence verifiers, include publishing scientific papers in peer reviewed journals and the practice of clubbing patents in patent portfolios. Studying how the market ascertains the value of patents has implications for the theory and reality of patenting behavior; and by conceptualizing biotechnology patents as credence goods, this paper makes an interdisciplinary contribution (combining law and economics) to understanding the incentives that drive innovation.