Football is the main sport and one of the most important cultural symbols of Brazil, the winner of five FIFA World Cup titles and one of the most populous and richest countries in the world. Even so, however, Brazilian football clubs struggle to develop commercially, attract fans to stadiums and control their expenditure, continuously increasing debt levels and often delaying salary payments. This thesis focuses on understanding the reasons that lead football clubs from such a strong football nation to this situation and exploring the options to improve it. To do so, the research makes extensive use of literature combined with various interviews with key individuals from the Brazilian football industry to analyse the growth and the globalization of the European football industry, explore the Brazilian business environment and investigate the Brazilian football governance, finances and sources of revenue, as well as the strong involvement that football has with Brazilian society and politics. The study suggests that there are four main factors that hold back the commercial development of Brazilian football: a) the misuse of European football as a benchmark; b) the social and political role played by football in Brazilian society; c) the Brazilian business environment; and d) the management of clubs and governing bodies. In the current scenario, there is only limited space for growth, even though there are many positive characteristics of the local football industry that can contribute for some development in the near future, especially at match day level, which may be helped by the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

The problem area identified for this research is to define the cognitive factors and Customers’ Critical Information Requirements (CCIRs) that affect the customer decision making process when they book their hotel reservations online. The purpose of this study is to define the CCIRs and the (re)design specifications of the website which will be noticed by the users through to completing the booking, without losing them during the decision making process. A combination of various cognitive analysis and eyetracking techniques were applied in order to understand in real time the customer’s decision making process during their online hotel booking process. This includes methods that identify user’s online previous and present experiences, methods that assess and result in the specification of usability and (re)design guidelines. Techniques for eliciting CCIRs in real time are facilitated through the simultaneous usage of eye tracking technology, think aloud expression and video recording. Finally, a validation study was conducted in order to confirm the research findings. A key outcome of this research is a novel, robust and precision approach that (i) combines cognitive task analysis, eye tracking techniques, statistical and clustering methods in order to facilitate the precise identification of both explicit and tacit CCIRs; (ii) for the first time provides a time frame analysis of CCIRs across each stage of the customer’s decision making process and identifies the concomitant decision points where the customer is most likely to abandon the web site; (iii) elicits the mental model of the customer together with the CCIRs and uses this knowledge as the basis for generating the re-design specification for the website; and, (iv) evaluates whether there is a significant improvement in the usability and cognitive utility of the redesigned website that is of practical value to hotels. A further theoretical contribution is the “CCIRs informed decision making process model” for the (re)design of hotel websites as a result of applying our novel and innovative approach. Moreover, I have demonstrated for the first time how our approach can be applied to theory building of CCIRs-based cognitive task models that explicitly define the customer’s decision making process. The above mentioned methodology and theoretical outputs of this research are generally applicable to other industry sectors beyond the hotel industry. For example, financial trading decision support systems, air traffic control displays, mobile phone apps, i.e. to name a few from the myriad of possible applications.

Between 1982 and 2003, as part of an ambitious programme of market reforms, the total number of state-owned enterprises in Mexico was cut from 1,155 to 210. Despite this, the country’s energy sector, including the electricity industry, has largely remained in state hands. Presidents Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox presented their projects to privatise the Mexican electricity industry (MEI). However, they were unable to reach agreements with key political players to carry out this strategy. This thesis explores the underlying reasons for this “non-privatisation” by applying the most important behavioural theory of choice under risk, Prospect Theory (PT). The thesis hypotheses that privatisation of the Mexican electricity industry was not implemented because there were specific conditions that led decision-makers to behave in a risk-averse way. For instance, the privatisation of the MEI is more likely to occur in conditions of a severe crisis in that sector, and that these conditions have yet to occur. This hypothesis draws on psychological arguments derived from PT, which explore behaviour in terms of risk aversion in the domain of gains and risk-seeking in the domain of losses. According to PT, people tend to opt for risky choices when they are experiencing losses. On the other hand, people behave in a very cautious way when they see themselves in the domain of gains. The research offers evidence that the decision-makers involved in the debate of the electricity privatisation projects were in the domain of gains and therefore they did not implement the privatisation. In this way, the thesis offers a new perspective for understanding the political dynamics of the privatisation proposals. The thesis also makes important contribution to empirical knowledge, offering original insights that cannot be provided by other theoretical frameworks such as rational choice theories. Moreover, the thesis offers an interesting analysis of different economic, social and political factors. This provides key information that is used in a context that supports our PT application. For instance, we study the partial participation of the private sector in the MEI and reviewed historical events that strongly influenced the country’s economic and social development.

Although the measurement of offline and online marketing is extensively researched, the area of online performance measurement still presents a number of unaddressed gaps, such as fragmented research and predominance of practitioner-driven measurement approaches. With a focus on affiliate marketing in tourism and hospitality, this thesis addressed these gaps and evaluates the effectiveness of practitioner-led online performance assessment. More precisely, the study explores a potential shift in affiliate marketing measurement practices, and develops a theory of affiliate marketing performances measurement in tourism and hospitality. Relying on a grounded theory research strategy, the work undertakes qualitative analysis of 72 online forum discussions, 37 interviews and 40 questionnaires with the major affiliate marketing stakeholder groups from the tourism and hospitality industry - merchants, affiliates, affiliate networks and affiliate agencies. The findings of the thesis add value to both theory and practice. The theoretical contribution of the research is twofold. First, the work furthers the broader marketing theory and in particular the distribution and promotion literature by exploring an under-researched online marketing channel - affiliate marketing - that can be employed for both promotion and distribution purposes. The study provides a detailed description of an affiliate marketing ecosystem and defines the key affiliate marketing constructs. Second, the work contributes to the performance measurement research by developing a substantiative theory of affiliate marketing performance measurement in tourism and hospitality. From the practitioner perspective, the work brings value by proposing a change in existing performance measurement practices and offering a process-oriented model of performance measurement in affiliate marketing, which details the phases and steps that managers can undertake in assessing performance. To further the findings, future research can explore the applicability of the proposed model to other industry sectors and online channels, and can develop the proposed substantive theory to a formal theory by employing other research methods, for example case studies and action research.

The construction industry has in recent times undergone an unprecedented period of self-examination. Government and industry collaborations have attempted to bring about both political and structural change with the aim of rethinking the way it conducts business. Yet the implementation of management innovations (Ml) such as Supply Chain Management (SCM), common in other industries, has not materialised. This research proposes that the structural characteristics of the industry can be addressed through the management of Inter-organisational Relationships (lOR) and Project Based Learning (PBL). The aim of the thesis was to determine the significance of lORs and PBL in addressing the temporary and multi-organisational nature of project teams for the effective implementation of Ml for continuous improvement of construction projects. A mixed method approach was adopted for this research because it is flexible enough to incorporate different perspectives and allows different methods and practices to be used. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected using a web based questionnaire and case studies to examine lOR and PBL. The analyses involved a mixture of descriptive, mean response ranking and Pearson's chi-square (i) tests using the software packages SPSS and Minitab. Findings from the web based questionnaire analyses involving 74 Demonstration projects highlighted the significance of both lOR and PBL on the implementation of MI. Critical success factors such as partner selection, project relationships, learning promoters and inhibitors were established and ranked. One of the main findings is the role of psychological safety for learning. The review of projects and formalised learning were seen as key areas for learning improvement. The analyses of two case studies added an additional dimension and helped explore how practitioners had to expend more effort to make sense of new ways of working and adapting to unfamiliar roles. Although learning was prevalent in projects, it was associated with problems rather than a potential benefit that can be formalised and exploited collectively by the team. Until the perennial contextual issues of construction like poor integration of design and construction, low bidding and unrealistic timescales are addressed, the implementation of management innovations and the potential of lOR and PBL will not be fulfilled.

This thesis explores how a competitive marketplace is experienced by creative labour in the context of UK urban music by employing an experimental ethnographic research approach. Between 2010-2013, observations, interviews and textual analysis were conducted with two case-study ‘MCs’, alongside reflexive autoethnographic analysis of the author’s own career as an unsigned artist. The findings contribute to the study of competitiveness by highlighting how it is understood from the perspective of producers, as well as to a wider body of qualitative academic literature exploring the ways in which creative labour operates in advanced markets. It is proposed that in an increasingly competitive context, cultural intermediaries assume a crucial role in the lives of artists for their ability to act as both a distributor and a distinguisher, thereby addressing the work of cultural sociologists and creative labour scholars that debates the role of intermediaries in cultural markets. The methods of artistic collaboration which creative labour employ to capture the attention of these intermediaries, demonstrates that competitiveness can engender collaboration. However, this co-operation often takes place for self-interested reasons, challenging the oppositional dynamic between self-interest and cooperation. Furthermore, the ways in which creative labour acquires, maximises and converts forms of Bourdieu-defined capital today is illusory, as artists can acquire large amounts of institutionalised cultural capital and thus appear very successful, while struggling to monetise this success. The thesis thus highlights how technological changes in the marketplace have altered processes of capital transubstantiation. Finally, this research proposes that the behavioural responses to competitiveness by contemporary creative labour can be understood as an entrepreneurial orientation towards creativity. It contributes to debates about the impact of entrepreneurship on artists, by suggesting that whilst it can have damaging emotional implications evidenced in frustration and disillusionment, it largely helps creativity for the way in which it motivates artists.

The research presented in this thesis is rooted within the existing decision theory and oil industry literatures. It contributes to one of the current debates in these literatures by providing evidence that in the operators in the U.K. upstream oil and gas industry there is a link between the use of decision analysis in investment appraisal decisionmaking by organisations and good business performance. It is commonly acknowledged that decision analysis is not as widely used by organisations as was predicted at its conception (for example, Schuyler, 1997). One reason for this is that no study to date has shown that use of decision analysis techniques and concepts can actually help individuals or organisations to fulfil their objectives. Despite over four decades of research undertaken developing decision analysis tools, understanding the behavioural and psychological aspects of decisionmaking, and applying decision analysis in practice, no research has been able to show conclusively what works and what does not (Clemen, 1999). The current study begins to fill this gap by using qualitative methods to establish the following. Firstly, the research identifies which decision analysis techniques are applicable for investment decision-making in the oil industry, and thereby produces a description of current capability. Secondly, the study ascertains which decision analysis tools oil and gas companies actually choose to use for investment appraisal, and through this develops a model of current practice of capital investment decisionmaking. Lastly, using statistical analysis, it provides evidence that there is an association between the use of decision analysis in investment decision-making by companies and good organisational performance in the upstream oil and gas industry. Such research not only contributes to the current theoretical debate in the oil industry and decision theory literatures but also provides valuable insights to practitioners.

This thesis analyses the importance of supplementary material for art history and philosophy by addressing its shifting and problematic relationship to the ‘work of art’. Through the use of philosophical and critical theories, including Heidegger, Benjamin, Adorno, Deleuze and Derrida, the nature and status of artworks are explored through different uses of supplementarity that are identified and developed in order to re-evaluate the cultural significance of supplementarity itself. This theoretical analysis is complemented by a cultural history that demonstrates, through a discussion of changes in artistic practices, theoretical perceptions, markets and ‘cultures of display’, the ways in which conceptions of the work of art and supplementarity are historically contingent. The main body of the thesis is composed of four case studies. In the first, Heidegger’s distinction between art and equipment and his notion of causality is used to analyse Henry Moore’s maquettes, plasters, and bronze works, in order to distinguish preliminary and preparatory material from complete works of art. The second focuses on hierarchy and supplementarity, developing Deleuze’s concept of the simulacrum by showing how the drawings and sketches of Antonio Sant’Elia can be considered works of art, despite being traditionally identified as supporting material. Walter Benjamin’s theory of aura, and Theodor Adorno’s notion of enigmaticalness, are deployed in a third case study that analyses the significance of the relocation of Francis Bacon’s studio from London to Dublin, and the use of biographical material to foreground the creative process. The final case study deploys Jacques Derrida’s analysis of Antonin Artaud’s works on paper that problematises prevailing classifications of art, and Derrida’s interpretation of Artaud’s notion of the subjectile, in order to emphasise the often ambiguous status of ostensibly supplementary material. Overall, the thesis re-evaluates the cultural significance of supplementarity for aesthetics by analysing the ways in which supplementary material affects how works of art are experienced and understood.

Digital music piracy is a divisive contemporary issue which continues to dominate public debate on civil liberties, emphasising the far-reaching impact of the digital revolution on everyday music listening. To date, conventional approaches to curbing music piracy have largely failed. The collective knowledge produced by economists, criminologists, and lawyers, broadly depicts music pirates as immoral deviants who show no concern for the implications of their behaviours. Yet, there is little evidence to suggest that music piracy poses any major threats to the recorded music industry. This thesis explores the psychology of music piracy in order to gain a fuller understanding of why individuals engage in this activity, and what it means for the recorded music industry. Further to a comprehensive multidisciplinary Literature Review, eight empirical studies were conducted which adopted a suitably diverse mixedmethodological approach to match varied research questions. Findings from quantitative research find unique personality traits as predictors of pro-piracy attitudes. Results also suggest that individuals favouring music piracy are less fair than those who do not, with follow-up research failing to find that such individuals are immoral. Preference for digital music was also found to be a predictor of pro-piracy attitudes, with young males noted as principally engaged in music piracy. Findings from qualitative research centred on the justifications for engaging in music piracy, including rationalisations and neutralisations, as well as suggesting an imperfect understanding of commercial realities; such findings highlight that music piracy is easily justified in the absence of evidence to show that it poses real threats to the recorded music industry.

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