This research is infonned by two areas of study, customer relationship management (CRM) and infonnation technology (IT) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It investigates the behavioural and psychosocial aspects of people within an SME's environment, and their perceptions of the IT and CRM adoption environment. The first major development in this study is a survey instrument, called the b~formatioll Technology and Customer Relationships Management Adoption Inventory (lTCRMAI). The instrument has five scales, which measure the factors of the IT /CRM adoption environment in SMEs. They are Information Technology Resources, Customer Relationships, Organisational, Networking and Barriers to Adoption. This instrument is now available for use in different settings. The other major development is a framework for IT/CRM adoption called the Information Technology/Customer Relationships Adoption Framework. It illustrates the overall adoption process with factors that could influence the outcome of an implementation in SMEs, in this case, is the Perceived Success. The major findings from the study suggest that, in SMEs, various factors influence the CRM/IT adoption environment and these factors are Customer Relationships, Organisational, Networking, Infonnation Technology Resources and Barriers to Adoption. Most of these factors are associated with each other except for Barriers to Adoption, which only associates with the Organisational and Customer Relationships factors. The Infonnation Technology Resources factor has direct contribution to the outcome called Perceived Success of the implementation, whereas other factors have significant associations with this outcome. A more detailed assessment of the Information Technology Resources component found that for SMEs to have a successful implementation, organisations should focus on strengthening their information tcchnology capabilities and abilities. Personal factors of age, gender, education and profession. business factors of size, position in industry and type of industry, and CRM-relatcd factors such as frequency of customer contact and the use of CRM also show signi ficance association with the adoption environment and thc perceived success. The results from this study suggest some guidelines for SMEs when it comes to IT and CRM adoption.

Destination brand image is a major determinant of the economic future of places, and it is a product of their actions. Branding involves the design and construction of a brand identity that attempts to influence the brand image. The brand identity for tourism purposes should be integrated into a holistic branding strategy. Potential tourists are influenced by word-of-mouth, and brand loyal destination employees (residents) and customers (residents and tourists) holding positive images can act as destination brand ambassadors, producing positive word-of-mouth. This thesis used a quantitative methodology to discover the brand image of the Kingdom of Bahrain as a tourist destination by investigating both satisfaction with its attributes and holistic perception. It then investigated the positioning of foreign expatriates by comparing their images of the host destination with those of local residents and event tourists. It also explored whether demographics, attribute satisfaction or holistic perception (brand image components) can contribute to prediction of brand loyalty to the destination's tourism product, defined as recommending that others visit the destination. Bahrain's strengths and weaknesses as a destination were discovered, to provide a basis and a direction for the design of a brand identity. Expatriate responses were found to differ from those of locals and tourists significantly enough to warrant being considered a separate segment. Using logistic regression, satisfaction was found to be the best aid to predicting expatriate brand loyalty, while holistic perception was the best aid to predicting the brand loyalty of locals and event tourists. The results can contribute towards filling the gaps of Bahrain's destination image, the positioning of expatriates and the prediction of brand loyalty.

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This thesis analyses how Mexican firms responded to the challenges and opportunities of globalisation generated by the NAFTA reforms during the 19908. Using a unique firmlevel dataset that covers 85 percent of Mexican industrial output, and relying on recent advances in trade theory modeling of heterogenous firms, we examine firm-level responses to these reforms from different perspectives. After having described this dataset, in the first essay, we study the relationship between trade reforms and productivity and, relying on an innovative methodology to capture the overall impact of NAFTA, we show that NAFTA affected firms differently depending on their different "integration status". Building on the previous findings, in the second essay we develop a Schumpeterian growth model predicting that the impact of liberalisation on economic performance is asymmetric. We then test its prediction and confirm that firms that are further away from the "productive technological frontier" are less positively affected by the liberalisation. As NAFTA not only increased domestic competitive pressures but also expanded export opportunities, in the final two essays we concentrate on the behaviour of exporters. Our main findings show that plants that will export a particular product variety in the future experience an increase in the domestic unit value obtained for this variety two years before exporting starts, and this is accompanied by an increase in investment activity. Further, our stylised facts confirm that exporting is a relatively rare activity and document a significant degree of churning at the product level that takes place in response to declining trade costs. We also find evidence suggesting that firms' decisions to expand and drop products are influenced by what appear to be their "core competencies". Finally, we uncover that new exporters tend to "start small", and start exporting by introducing into foreign markets those products that they are already selling at home.

While the gap between desired identity [how organisations present their identities to the public] and actual identity [how employees perceive organisations' corporate identities] has been explored to a great extent in the corporate identity literature, there is a lack of empirical evidence into how customers perceive companies' corporate identities [perceived identity]. In order to address this apparent gap, the aim of this thesis is to examine the role of corporate identity in the UK's fast fashion retail sector [H&M, Zara, Primark, Topshop / Topman] by exploring customers' perceptions of corporate identity and analysing the gap between desired identity and perceived identity. Building upon recent developments in the literature on corporate identity, a number of key constructs have been identified. To explore these empirically, case study research approach has been employed based on documentation analysis, interviews and survey questionnaire. Fashion retailers' desired identities were derived from case companies' secondary sources which are available from the public domain. Customers' perceived identities were generated from forty semi-structured interviews with fashion customers in the preliminary stage of the study. Survey was then used to further measure customers' perceptions of retailers' corporate identities. Research procedures were employed to ensure the reliability and validity of the questionnaire have been achieved. A response of 442 research sample was achieved. The results show that customers' interpretation of corporate identity can be attained, especially within the fast fashion retail sector where customers can identify all aspect of the retailers. Moreover, the main findings suggest that desired-perceived identity gap exists in all case companies with some cases were apparent than others. The outcomes of this study contribute to the literature of corporate identity and fast fashion retailing as it investigates the ways in which customers perceive retailers' corporate identities in the U.K. fast fashion retail sector. The thesis also provides fruitful insights for the fast fashion retailers in managing their corporate identities.

The importance of forecasting brand sales has grown as markets become increasingly competitive and the cost of failing increases. Approximately two-thirds of new consumer product goods are discontinued within two years of launching. An accurate forecast of brand sales based on a robust measurement of consumer preferences can help marketing managers avoid costly failures before they get to market. However, the current approaches that measure consumer preferences suffer from a variety of limitations. These include: 1) difficulty interpreting claimed purchase intent data unless it has been calibrated to actual purchase data, 2) choice based conjoint (CBC) approaches that are too complex and costly inhibiting widespread application, and 3) models of historical sales data (Le. marketing mix models) that are not always viable due to the lack of data availability in many markets, and have limited application regarding decisions on launching new products or new marketing vehicles. In this thesis we examine how choice models can help address the limitations of current approaches that measure consumer preferences. Choice models, based in ii this research on either constant sum or CBC, are used to estimate the share of preference for a brand under various marketing conditions. A variety of aspects affecting the utility of choice models for forecasting purposes are explored in this thesis. We look at how context effects can be used to minimise response bias at the data collection stage, how the Dirichlet model can help estimate new product trial at the analysis stage, and how marketing mix models can be enhanced with data from choice models. Through the examination of these applications of choice models, we demonstrate how many of the limitations of the current methods can be overcome, which can help improve the decisions made by marketing managers. An underlying theme of this thesis is the importance of model validation, with many of the current methods lacking in this regard. The importance of external validity is examined, and the external validity of choice models (based on CBC and constant sum) are reviewed for use in a variety of applications. Understanding model accuracy, as determined through a validation exercise, is instructive to marketing managers as it informs them on how much confidence they should place in the model when making a decision. Understanding model validity is also critical for researchers as they seek ways to improve their models.

This work takes a psychological perspective on HCI and the user-centred nature of the user interfaces and systems under investigation. The research presented here provides empirical evidence or the thesis that Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) represent a highly effective tool for human-computer interactions in future financial services applications, particularly when their product portrays match the pecuniary traits of the customer. ECAs can provide a personal and effective platform for everyday banking enquiries whilst utilising and realising an effective customer targeting tool. A practical metric is presented with which financial institutions can segment customers and predict which products certain groups would be likely to consider purchasing by assessing consumer’s pecuniary attitudes and behaviours. Companies can utilise data derived from such metrics to strengthen the customer-company relationship and to increase customer satisfaction, thereby improving the processes for recruiting, retaining and maintaining customers.

This thesis investigates the articulation of the incentives to perform Research and Development of profit seeking firms. Throughout the thesis, the dynamic evolution of the distribution of these incentives across firms is the engine of industry transformation and growth. Thus, in order to assess the impact of different industry characteristics on the market structure, we need a faithful picture of the context where firms make their R&D choices. Chapter one exposes more in detail the motivation to pursue the analysis developed in each chapter independently, and how they combine to build up the search for the understanding of the interactions between R&D, appropriability and market structure. Chapter two presents a dynamic model of the firm size distribution. Empirical studies of the firm size distribution often compare its moments to those of a log-normal distribution, as implied by Gibrat's Law, and note important deviations. Thus, the first and basic questions addressed in the first chapter are how well does the dynamic industry model reproduce Gibrat's Law and how well does it match the deviations uncovered in the literature. We show that the model reproduces these results when testing the simulated output using the techniques of the empirical literature. We then use the model to study how structural parameters affect the firm size distribution. We find that, among other things, fixed and sunk costs increase both the mean and variance of the firm size distribution while generally decreasing the skewness and kurtosis. The rate of growth in an industry also raises the mean and variance, but has non-monotonic effects on the higher moments. In the third chapter we explore the implications of different degrees of R&D appropriability on market structure and welfare. We propose a framework to pursue this analysis by extending the Markov-Perfect dynamic industry model proposed by Ericson and Pakes (E-P, henceforth) (1995) through the introduction of a non-proprietary productivity component to R&D as part of a dynamic, stochastic process. We first assume that spillovers are costlessly absorbed and exploited by firms in the industry, and find that, in this case, a free rider problem arises, thereby decreasing the incentives for investment. This leads to a lower amount of innovations being developed in the industry, which in turn, implies lower consumer welfare while leaving the degree of concentration in the industry fairly unchanged. We then model a settmg where it is assumed that in order to build its absorptive capacity the firm has to engage in some R&D of its own. In this case, we find that an increase in spillovers will enhance both consumer and producer welfare substantially, and increases the likelihood of neck-and-neck competition, therefore reducing the level of concentration in the industry. These results arise from the fact that having absorptive capacity being built as a by-product of R&D enhances the productivity of R&D investment, compensating for the free rider effect associated with the lack of appropriability. The frameworks used in the two first chapters suffer from the 'curse of dimensionality', such that the industries under analysis are limited in terms of the number of agents simultaneously active. In order to overcome this problem, in chapter four we move away from oligopolistic market structures and propose a model of monopolistic competition, where firms are sufficiently large to generate a firm size distribution with a certain degree of asymmetry, although each firm is too small to affect the industry's outcome. Furthermore, we account for industry growth by having the industry's output increasing over time as a result of knowledge externalities. The rich micro set-up of this model is analogous to that of E-P (1995), as it is composed by heterogeneous firms making their investment decisions in a world of uncertainty, but we abstract from entry and exit and instead of an oligopolistic market structure we model a monopolistic competition environment with many, heterogeneous firms. In this setting, firms are asymmetric in terms of the technology they use to produce a given commodity, and they are able to increase the likelihood of decreasing their marginal costs of production by investing in Cost Reducing R&D. In order to evaluate their future stream of profits and make their investment decisions, firms only care about the evolution of their efficiency and the long-run efficiency index in the industry. Cutting down the oligopolistic interactions present in the E-P framework, and having firms looking at the long-run average industry state, allows us to overcome the curse of dimensionality usually associated with dynamic models with agent heterogeneity. Therefore, we are able to simulate the model with a large number of firms competing in the industry and we show that, contrary to most existing endogenous growth models, this model is able to deliver a firm size distribution with a substantial degree of heterogeneity. Chapter 6 presents the final remarks to the investigation carried out in this thesis.

Traditional Bedouin rugs are considered to be one of the most valuable items of cultural heritage throughout the centuries in Oman. The methods for weaving these products and the motifs they employ are full of symbolism and explanations. In the last few decades, the modernization and imported rugs has forced weavers to abandon their craft, as it is not economically viable when forced to compete with the imported rug industry. Additionally, local people seem unable to find rugs, which meet their needs from amongst the locally hand-woven products, and this creates a demand for imports. A solution to this problem is sought in this investigation. The aim of this study is a revival of the original Omani handicrafts that are created by desert people, whose influence was uniquely exercised on the various artistic Islamic decorative motifs. In addition surveys of the local market‟s needs were undertaken to get a better understanding of this industry. The research concludes that an invigoration of the industry is possible; given certain training conditions and marketing effects. An experiment for possible future work was undertaken using computerized „Jacquard loom‟ production, with the aim of establishing soft furnishing textiles industry in Oman. These computerized looms, with their capability to produce different kinds of fabrics and patterns, can introduce traditional or Islamic motifs to soft furnishing fabrics into Oman which is what the local market requires.

The study of <I>export</I> information use is in its infancy stage since the export information literature has tended to focus on <I>acquisition</I> rather than <I>use </I>issues. The objectives were thus the development of reliable and valid measures of export information use, and the assessment or antecedents and impact on export performance. After reviewing the literature, an exploratory study of export decision-makers was undertaken. The results suggested the existence of two types of export information use: <I>instrumental/conceptual </I>and <I>symbolic</I>. A mail questionnaire was developed on the basis of both the literature review (Chapter Two) and the exploratory study (Chapter Three). The research instrument was pretested. For the main mail survey, a sample of 198 cases was achieved. Established measure development procedures were employed for producing scales of use of information acquired via different types of sources. In addition, measures of export information acquisition, intra-organisational use (reflecting <I>extent </I>of use) and export performance were developed to enhance the analysis. Finally, an overall model of export information use was tested via a series of multiple regression and moderated regression approaches. The antecedents to export information use examined in this study encompassed company size, export experience, export structure, export dependence, and export complexity, acquisition from different types of sources, awareness of export information sources, information intensity, over-acquisition, overload and environmental turbulence. Some of these variables were found to be directly related to export information use while others were linked to use through acquisition. Intra-organisational use of export information was found to have a positive link with export performance, as did instrumental/conceptual use of export market intelligence information. Instrumental/conceptual use of both export marketing research and export assistance information were found to be negatively related to export performance.