This exposition summarises research published in several academic articles, in order to meet the requirements of PhD by publication. The focus of the work is on the role of electronic procurement in management of the purchasing function. From the late 1990s a number of independent e-procurement mechanisms were launched which offered potential benefits such as increased order accuracy, transaction efficiency and greater integration between trading partners. At the outset of this programme of research, e-procurement was therefore an emerging phenomenon with little academic research and presented an opportunity to investigate a largely unexplored area. Edmondson and McManus (2007) suggest that for nascent, as opposed to mature areas of research, where few formal constructs or measures exist, an exploratory, qualitative approach is required. This research followed such an approach through the use of case studies, involving observation, participation and interviews with key organisational actors. Each paper makes use of several cases in order to compare and contrast results from different organisations and to draw conclusions from multi-case analysis. The published articles focus on the impact of core applications within e-procurement, including online reverse auctions, electronic marketplaces, online catalogue sites, and buying systems covering the ‘requisition to pay’ cycle. The findings from the papers address a number of core themes in purchasing management. In considering buyer-supplier relationships, it was observed that such dyads are driven by traditional buyer negotiation factors such as segmentation, power and price and that use of eprocurement applications tended to enforce such traditional behaviours. In relation to the potential for integration, the study found that integration between firms was barely affected, as the concept of integration was neither an objective nor a business case driver for e-procurement adoption. This situation reflects the finding that procurement managers pursue functional targets rather than supply chain-level objectives. However, other significant effects from e-procurement adoption were noted such as the tendency by buyers to reduce supplier numbers and a move to re-engineer the procurement function in buying firms, through automating transactional processes. The research finds that e-procurement does not have a deterministic impact on purchasing management, and that it acts as an enabler to more effective management of the function though the way its different mechanisms are deployed. The exposition establishes that e-procurement is used in relation to supply conditions which are characterised by both ‘markets’ and ‘hierarchies’, but that it is the predefined purchasing strategy of the firm, rather than available technology solutions, which determines when markets and hierarchies are used. Additionally, an original model is introduced, focusing on developing an e-procurement policy which can support strategic purchasing goals. This model extrapolates findings from stages in the research, and marries together elements from various papers and frameworks therein, to produce some guidelines for adoption of this technology.

During 2007-2010 significant dislocation occurred in the financial services sector with governments having to come to the aid of a large number of financial institutions. Throughout this crisis much political, media and practitioner interest was given to reward structures within the industry and, in particular, the proportion, or mix, of different rewards provided in overall compensation. This thesis examines influences on the determination of reward mix in the UK financial services sector. Three theoretical perspectives are examined – agency, institutional and resource dependency – as potential explanations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with reward executives from 30 financial services firms, alongside perspectives garnered from ten reward consultants. These interviews identify the strength of institutional pressures on firms to conform to an agreed reward mix norm, largely driven by historical reward patterns and reinforced by strong employee expectations that they will receive this norm. However, firms are still seen to exercise strategic choice, influenced by the extent to which they have the desire and capability to resist institutional pressures. The research also identifies which firms are likely to differentiate their reward mix from that established in the sector. The findings provide a contribution to an under-researched area in a key sector of the economy. They present both an important account of the pressures facing reward mix determination in the financial services sector at this time, and a theoretically informed approach to understanding those pressures through the presentation of a unified theory of reward mix determination.

The purpose of this research is to analyse the impact of defined benefit pension schemes on UK corporations. In doing so the analysis contributes to a number of existing literatures in Accounting and Finance. First the thesis contributes to the accounting literature by analysing the adoption of fair value pension accounting. Second, I contribute to the extant bterature on market efficiency and firm risk by analysing whether measures of systematic risk, financial risk and operational risk reflect the underlying risk of the pension scheme. Finally, the thesis contributes to the literature on internal capital markets and investment decisions through analysing the relationship between pension contributions, capital expenditures and firm profitability. In analysing how fair value accounting of pensions has been implemented I consider the extent to which managers exercise discretion under fair value accounting and the value relevance of these disclosures. My main findings can be summarised as follows. First, despite little variation in the underlying economic inputs, differences in stated assumptions across companies, auditors and actuaries are significant. Further, I find that the adoption of fair value pension accounting provides value relevant disclosure and so share prices reflect the value of the underlying pension scheme. However, managers display considerable variation in conservatism when implementing fair value accounting and this variation is related to scheme-specific characteristics, such as asset allocation and pension scheme solvency. Consequently, the chapter argues that the observed inconsistency in reporting across firms brings into question the efficacy of fair value accounting for assessing corporate risk. The second research area considers the relationship between measures of systematic risk, firm distress and pension risks. My results show that systematic, default, financial and operational risks reflect the underlying risk of the pension scheme. Further, pension scheme asset allocation is consistent with active pension risk management. Managers therefore choose to undertake risk management of pension risks as opposed to risk-shifting through asset substitution. The final research area investigates the impact of pension contributions on firm capital expenditure and profitability. Pension contributions are shown to be a function of the size of the pension scheme, pension asset allocation and scheme funding. My results also suggest that firms who pay the highest contributions have lower capital expenditure and higher profitability. Lastly, I find that contributions are unrelated to the level of dividends paid or to fixed asset disposals.

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