The primary aim of this research is to understand how the multiple levels within networks influence the organising dynamics in an intentionally formed network through the measurement of tie strength. This is a significant contribution because previous research is based on network studies in which only one level is considered, most of the research is conceptually undeveloped in the area. The research also addresses the measurement of the strength of relationships rather than just their existence or non-existence. Furthermore, this study examines intentionally created networks – an area where there is currently very little research. Thus the study is significant because the new data contributes to the marketing research environment and can be presented to examine findings in other research contexts, including the social policy and not-for-profit sectors. To address the aim and context of the study it was necessary to understand a national programme which had global objectives. The research involved a multi-method approach that utilised a single case-study strategy with multiple embedded cases consisting of three interdependent, intentionally formed networks, each with a central broker, in the elite and high-performance sport sector in New Zealand. The overall contributions of the research were: (1) The identification of a new network type, termed here as a structured network. (2) The finding that networks that are intentionally created and managed can be durable and effective, and this is dependent on the role of the central broker. This finding has obvious implications for practitioners involved in such networks and for governments that are interested in creating them. (3) The finding that cross-level pressures influence network effectiveness. (4) The finding that relationships developed at the pre-network formation stage contribute to network effectiveness. (5) And finally, the identification of a new stage of intentional network formation. This stage was taken by the New Zealand government issuing a tender in order to gauge the level of interest and the resources available to provide a network of services before establishing it.

Export barriers have inhibiting effects on export performance, especially for smaller and resource-poor firms. Classical internationalization theory suggests that the bigger, the older, the more resource rich and resourceful a firm is, the better the chances for success of their international or global operations. In practice, however, many small New Zealand firms have been able to overcome export barriers and achieve successful internationalization quickly in the complex, turbulent, global environment of today. Existing theories do not fully explain how and why this is possible. The apparent knowledge gap is closed by the present research with its indepth investigation into the management of export barriers and related internationalization practices using a holistic approach based on case studies. In this way the study contributes to knowledge by advancing the understanding of internationalization behaviour. In conclusion a new theoretical model is developed from the variables which this research has identified as to influence export performance and internationalization behaviour. The research is based on the cases of fifty export firms across the major business sectors from New Zealand' s Manawatu region. The study design involved a postal survey, background research, in-depth interviews and observations. The triangulated data was compiled into case studies and analysed using Eisenhardt' s grounded approach. Two main categories of export barriers were identified: ( 1 ) industry or product-specific barriers, and (2) common or shared barriers independent of industries and products. The research design enabled research into management patterns independent from sectors or industries. The findings suggest that export barriers determine strategies. In a situation of severe resource constraints, large geographic distance from international markets and small domestic market size, New Zealand' s exporters anticipate their export barriers in order not to let them impact on export performance. Successful firms reduce the influence of obstacles towards internationalization by building their strategies creatively around their core competencies in what is described as a "bricolage" approach.

This thesis investigates literacy in prison-based employment training provided by Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE), a Government Training Establishment, in New Zealand. The descriptive case study aims to provide an understanding of literacy in CIE. It does this by combining existing research with information gained from participant observation and staff and prisoner interviews at the Central Kitchen and the Print Shop at men’s prisons in Wellington. The thesis suggests that engagement with literacy in these CIE workplaces depends on whether it is safe or suitable to participate in workplace literacy activities; whether there is an opportunity to participate (including access to specialised support services like literacy programmes); and whether prisoners are interested in or see benefits from participating. For CIE to be more effective – both in providing a base for meaningful employment and lifelong learning – employment training needs to be offered in areas in which prisoners are interested, in tandem with embedded support services like literacy and numeracy training programmes.

In February 2001 the Minister of Health, in announcing the Primary Health Care Strategy (King, 2001), identified Primary Health Organisations as the vehicles for planning, funding and coordinating primary health care services throughout New Zealand. The requirement that communities be involved in their planning and development was integral to this strategy implementation. Investigation of the Horowhenua Primary Health Organisation establishment process from the inception of planning to the formation of a Primary Health Organisation provided an excellent opportunity to analyse the determinants of genuine community participation. This case study extended over a nine-month period. Data collected from multiple sources provided the basis for investigating the complex notion of community participation and the attributes which are essential for sustainable community engagement. The Horowhenua Primary Health Organisation Steering Committee comprised community representatives, iwi and local health professionals. This group along with the two external stakeholder groups - namely the District Health Board Funding Division and the District Health Board Primary Health Care Reference Group – were central to the analysis. The events recorded and observations made throughout the planning period formed the basis of identifying essential determinants of community participation. These included knowledge of the community and its unique “ways of doing”, the dynamic interdependencies both within the Horowhenua community and with stakeholders external to the Horowhenua, changing power relationships, managing material resourcing and accessibility to essential information. These all influenced how this rural community engaged in Primary Health Organisation planning. One common theme which emerges in the literature is the synergy between community participation and community development. A community development approach is a commonly agreed way of engaging communities in health service planning which is genuine, inclusive, self-reliant, and self-determining. This research demonstrated that the New Zealand context, where implementation of the primary health care strategy must be nationally consistent and comply with prescriptive, central government-determined criteria - as well as involving communities in a meaningful way - requires an alternative approach. The thesis presents a way of addressing power discrepancies, promoting interdependencies between stakeholders and achieving inclusiveness in all decision-making where “expert” stakeholders and community bring to the partnership a set of attributes and knowledge which collectively informs the entire planning process.

Drawing on perspectives from stakeholder, resource dependence, institutional and the resource based theories and using a multiple-case inductive study, this research reframes the drivers of corporate environmentalism in the context of developing and developed countries. Based on case analysis of 23 environmentally responsive organizations in India and New Zealand, corporate environmentalism in this research has been operationalized as a two level construct. Organizations were categorized as being at first order responsiveness when they were observed to recognize the importance of the natural environment and exhibited attempts to decrease their impact on the natural environment through the adoption of programmes aimed at pollution reduction and prevention, decreased resource consumption and recycling of wastes. Organizations at second order responsiveness were observed to exhibit a higher order commitment in integrating environmental issues into their strategic decision making. This involved strategies such as green product development and initiating projects aimed at industrial ecology. Detailed within and cross case analysis revealed fundamental differences in the drivers that propel business organizations in developing and developed countries to be environmentally responsive at each level. The findings of this study reveal that lax enforcement of environmental regulations in developing countries implied that domestic regulations were not a driving factor for corporate environmentalism. Neither was pressure from consumers or communities reported to be a driving factor. Instead first order environmental responsiveness in organizations in developing countries was observed to be driven by pressure arising out of internationalization. Thus pressure from multinational organizational customers in developed countries and the institutional pressures imposed by the liability of foreignness (that arises when these firms set up subsidiaries in developed countries) drives first order responsiveness in the organizations in developing countries. However higher order environmental responsiveness in organizations in developing countries was observed to be associated with deep rooted identities and capabilities based in social responsiveness. In the context of business organizations in developed countries, the necessity to comply with stringently enforced domestic environmental regulations emerged as the primary driver for first order responsiveness. Societal expectations to comply with environmental regulations reinforce the regulatory drivers. Internationalization drives first order responsiveness in organizations in developed countries to the extent that the requirements of the host country are additional to and exceed current regulatory requirements in the parent country. Higher order corporate environmentalism in organizations in developed countries was observed to be associated with environmentally high impact organizations. Such organizations are considered environmental liabilities and are forced by stakeholders (with access to resource needed for continuity of operations) to exhibit higher order responsiveness or face a cancellation of the license to operate. The major contribution of this research lies in extending and reframing the existing theory about the drivers of corporate environmentalism.

Organisations can create a competitive advantage through the way they design their human resource systems. High involvement work systems are considered to be a way to increase organisational performance and decrease employee turnover. However, the components involved are difficult and complex to define, and the synergy amongst the different components hard to evaluate. The literature suggests that the research is not uniform in its approach, and most research does not clearly define the variables involved or agree on the expected results of such systems. This research looks at high involvement work systems in the New Zealand organisational context, and relating these systems to employee turnover and organisational performance. The results of the study suggest that there does not appear to be a relationship between high involvement work systems, and employee turnover and organisational performance; but high involvement systems may contribute to increased labour productivity in New Zealand organisations.

In the last decade, the ever increasing pressure of competition faced by businesses has led to the development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In short, CRM is the practice of integrating all aspects of business functions for dealing with customers, with the assistance of technology, and with the intention of boosting company profitability. CRM has been widely promoted as a critical contributor to business survival. However, the high failure rate of CRM projects has also attracted research attention and many factors have been discussed as contributing to the success or failure of CRM implementation. This research argues that CRM is not simply a software package or a computer program. CRM, instead, should be perceived as a strategic issue in order to realize its potential. In addition, this study also argues that CRM implementation is affected by organizational, strategic and cultural factors. In particular, this study was conducted within the context of Chinese small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), with company size and culture as two major focuses in this study. SMEs were chosen as this segment has been overlooked in CRM study, yet it represents a great potential for growth in CRM adoption. Chinese culture was chosen as most of CRM studies have been conducted within a western cultural background. The Chinese culture has distinctive characteristics different from western culture, and this has strong influences on business operations. A quantitative method was adopted for this study and a mailed survey was used to collect data to examine the relevance of these factors within this context. Research participants were recruited using a systematic sampling technique through a comprehensive Chinese business directory. Results suggest that there are positive associations between a company's CRM implementation and its practice of organizational, strategic, and cultural issues. In particular, four organizational issues – organizational integration, executive commitment, system readiness, and resource availability; three strategic issues – vision, planning, and customer-centric culture; and one cultural issue – networking, have an impact on a company's CRM implementation.

The research aim was to gain a more detailed understanding of the operation of different key segments for fresh produce supply chains originating in the Highlands Provinces in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The research investigates a number of supply chain dimensions of effectiveness which include, value creation and integration of processes, logistics, quality, information, relationship/vertical integration and overall effectiveness. These were linked together in SC framework. Two potato chains were investigated, one formal, the other informal. The informal potato chain involves small holder farmers, input suppliers and local markets including kai bars and the urban market. The chain originates and ends within the Western Highlands Province. The formal potato chain has farmers, input suppliers, wholesaler/marker, transport companies (trucking and coastal shipping agents), supermarkets, hotels and kai bars. This chain originates in Mt Hagen, Western Highlands Province and ends in Port Moresby, National Capital District. The effectiveness of both the formal and informal chains was identified, and comparisons were made to see how each chain differed. The informal chain was found to have different problems to the formal chains. However, participants to both chains demonstrate a high entrepreneurial behavior. A key finding of the study was that the chains spread their risk by operating in multiple market segments and this can help to solve issues with variable quality. The marketers in each chain position themselves in these different market segments. It was clear from this work that focusing on functions and not the whole chain can lead to a distorted view of chain performance. For example, for the informal chain, a focus on logistics issues, particularly poor roads and problems with availability of seeds, can misrepresent the effectiveness of this chain. Therefore, it was concluded that it is important to look at the overall performance of each chain rather than looking specifically at particular chain functions in isolation.

The research for this thesis "Options for Developing a New Mid Micron Value Proposition for Consumers", is a part of a larger "New Mid Micron Products" project initiated by Mid Micron New Zealand Inc with the key goal of turning the Mid Micron Sector into a more vibrant and profitable one. The motivation for the project can be found in the dramatic fall in demand for New Zealand Mid Micron wool over the past decade. Two dominant causes for the fall in demand for Mid Micron wool were identified: the substandard skin comfort of final products made from Mid Micron wool, and a problem with the structure of the Mid Micron Sector. These problems are addressed in the "New Mid Micron Products" project that combines new product development and new marketing initiatives. Product development involved the use of new spinning technology to improve skin comfort quality and develop new products that are softer and prickle free. The aim is to extract more value for woolgrowers by having the wool converted into a higher value product. The new marketing initiatives, which were identified in this thesis research, Focusing On New Market Segments via E-Commerce and Reconfiguring The Value Chain, and concentrate on the operational issues of capturing the value from the newly developed Mid Micron products. Taking into account the nature of the overall Mid Micron Project and type of developed products, this research identified the Operational Excellence and Product Leadership models as alternative routes to develop a new Mid Micron Value Proposition for consumers. Operational Excellence, and the associated Cost Leadership strategy, is a low capital investment option, while Product Leadership and the associated Differentiation strategy is a high capital investment option. The models' principles and their elements, products, price and delivery to market, are evaluated in the context of the Mid Micron Business.

To date much of the literature on consumers' concerns about business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce has described findings from quantitative research. As a result, much of that literature has focused on specific previously-identified concerns (e.g., privacy of personal information, use of credit cards for on-line payment). Also, there has been little research into the concerns of New Zealand consumers, and all of it has been quantitative. In order to gain a broader understanding, this study took a qualitative approach. Three focus groups were conducted, in order to identify consumers' concerns. The concerns that were thus identified were combined with those that a review of the literature had previously identified, and were used to draw up a set of guidelines to be used in semi-structured interviews. Fifteen interviews were then conducted, in order to gain consumers' views about each concern. It seems that at a higher level, consumer's concerns have shifted. The literature suggests that in the past consumers' concerns about Internet shopping have focused on the fact that Internet shopping is conducted via the Internet – as a result of which consumers have, for example, been concerned about the privacy of their personal information ('if I give them my e-mail address, will I get spam?') This study suggests that now consumers' concerns focus on the fact that Internet shopping is a form of shopping – as a result of which they are now only prepared to use the Web sites of 'reputable companies', and they now require to be able to evaluate an item adequately before buying it. And it seems that another result of this is that consumers now expect that the 'reputable companies' whose Web sites they visit will – as a matter of course - address to their satisfaction issues such as the privacy of their personal information. While there are some types of products that consumers are prepared to buy on-line (e.g., air travel), there are many about which they are reluctant. Concerns were expressed about a wide range of potential purchases, and for a variety of reasons; also, some data was inconsistent (for example, some consumers were not prepared to buy clothes on-line, but others were). This appears to be an area in which consumer attitudes are still evolving. It is suggested that it may be helpful for further research on this matter to consider both demographic factors and the degree of consumer involvement in particular types of purchases.