The study was designed to explore the social variables that exist in the development and maintenance of business relationships with Libyan companies. It involves an investigation of the stages in the development of business relationships, and the mechanisms required to ensure these relationships are sustained. The variables and stages associated with business relationship development are essential features to be considered by all international businesses. International Business Relationship Development (IBRD) has attracted wide investigation by researchers over the last three decades. In this study of the issue, the interview method is employed with 17 Libyan companies in relationships with foreign companies in the context of the tourism industry. The researcher initially collected demographic information and then proceeded to gain in-depth data through the use of open-ended questions. After analysing the data gathered from the 17 Libyan companies and bearing in mind the suggested stages and variables connected with IBRD provided by a number of authors in the Literature Review, the researcher proposes a list of four factors (stages) and four variables associated with business relationships that are considered significant in the development of cross-cultural business relationships with Libyan companies. These factors and variables are useful to international companies seeking to do business with Libyan companies, and hence, make a contribution to the literature in the field. The four stages are identified as being: (1) pre-searching stage, (2) first contact stage, (3) development stage, and (4) end/ extension stage; and the four variables are: (1) cultural empathy, (2) job experience and trust, (3) obligation and commitment, and (4) job quality and communication. The study finds that it is very difficult for one party to end a relationship with another party that actually does a good job for it. The secret of partnership loyalty is doing what may be considered inconsequential things, but which are nonetheless, actually seen as major support in the eyes of the partnership. Such behaviour goes beyond the partnership’s expectation and, as a result, makes a big impact. Businesses need to have the imagination to find a continual stream of new and different initiatives. *T

This study has researched the dynamics of upward communication within organisations through the rubric of ingratiation theory (Jones, 1964) and impression management (Goffman, 1955). Upward communication was explored via in-depth case studies, in a hundred and five semi-structured interviews across four organisations in Scotland. A qualitative, interpretive methodology was used. The interviews probed how upward communication was transmitted and investigated how ingratiation theory and impression management dynamics could impact on it by exploring the story telling (Gabriel, 200) and sense making approaches (Weick, 1995) employed by interviewees. The data was then tabulated on Excel sheets, using the Framework Analysis (Swallow et al., 2002), thus establishing an easily referenced, perfectly structured database. Finally, the data was sifted, perused, distilled and analysed interpretively. It was found that upward communication was shaped by processes such as downsizing, management and leadership styles, the power dynamics of the organisation, issues of publicness, and the perceived physical and psychological distance of the superior from the subordinate. Finally, the components of opinion conformity (a factor common to ingratiation theory and impression management), employee silence (Morrison and Milliken, 2000, Milliken, 2003), and cynicism (Fleming and Spicer, 2002; Naus, 2004, 2007) were identified as the most significant syndromes that impacted on the levels of upward communication within the four organisations. Hence, a Conformity/Silence/Cynicism model of upward communication (the CSC model) was devised as a means of illustrating the significance of the most important stimuli of upward communication that the study revealed. The issues raised in this study are fundamental to the theory and practice of management. Openness in the search for solutions to organisational problems is central to organisational learning. The creation of an organisational environment in which this is possible is therefore vital. This is the dominant context of this research.

The aim of this research was to understand the entrepreneurial networking process and the role played by virtual interactions. In particular, the objective was to establishing how, and if, virtual interactions enhanced collaborative incremental product innovation in supplier-customer networks within biotechnology SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises). Employing a phenomenological approach, two data collection techniques were used; participant observation within a small biotechnology firm provided a preliminary study and was followed by 16 in-depth interviews with bioscience entrepreneurs in SMEs in Scotland. The results indicated that entrepreneurial networking was important for the generation of collaborative incremental innovation; innovation opportunities were embedded in entrepreneurial networking process. In addition, the study found that the networking process was complex and dynamic but was punctuated by several relationship stages, whereby each stage constituted a relationship state. Each state could be characterized as dynamic and complex but an evolving relationship stage. The progress of collaboration was thus dependent on the evolution of the relationship. Moreover, the research identified trust to be the key determinant of the relationship process; the nature of trust invoked was found to be dynamic, progressive and multi-dimensional. The study explored and classified how the entrepreneurs used three “ideal types” of networking strategies to engage in the trust formation process. These were, namely, Technical, Combined and Social Approach, utilised in different relationship situations. Furthermore, the study showed how factors, such as inter-personal characteristics for bonding social capital, the use of virtual interaction, trust process, the level of knowledge tacitness and relationship processes, all impacted on the collaboration for incremental innovation. Importantly, the study indicated that an understanding of virtual interaction needed to be contextualised in the circumstances and conditions of the entrepreneurial networking process. Consequently this study contributes to knowledge in the areas of entrepreneurial networking process, virtual interaction, supplier-customer relationships, trust and product innovation generation.

With the economic shift of Kazakhstan in 1991 from a centrally planned economy to a democratically independent republic, the country has seen its volume of external trade increase on a global basis. Consequently, Kazakhstan is now engaged in international commercial activities with more than one hundred and seventy countries and has trading and economic agreements with more than fifty other countries under a “Most-Favoured Nations (MFN)” regime. Indeed, Kazakhstan has established a free trade area and continues to work on deepening the integration process within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community (which now comprises Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan). Consequently, the main aim of this research is to study the impact of foreign trade policy on economic growth in Kazakhstan since its independence in 1991 until 2008. The conceptual framework adopted for this study is underpinned by a review of extant research on the evolution of foreign trade policy for important developed and developing nations - including former soviet countries. Thereafter, policy practices identifying similarities and differences were examined as a basis for the understanding of the nature of foreign trade policy evolution for the Kazakhstan case. On this note, the study methodology adopted a cross-sectional analysis of twelve nations from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was supported by time-series analysis in order to demonstrate implications of key variables which impact economic growth. Hence, the primary approach towards analyzing the major sources of study data was a quantitative analysis to address study hypotheses with a focus on the Kazakhstan case. Results alluded towards:- 1. A better understanding of the evolution of the strategic development of the trade in Kazakhstan and other CIS countries since independence in 1991. 2. A strong correlation coefficient between export and GDP growth for most CIS countries during time series analysis. Consequently, exports were seen as the main source of growth throughout the period from 1992 – 2006 for CIS countries. 3. A number of key variables (such as: government consumption expenditure, private consumption expenditure, gross capital formation, export, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, service- shares in GDP) on both - end use and industrial origin - showed a negative impact on economic growth for some nations, while others showed a positive impact. 4. In the case of Kazakhstan, a positive impact of exports on economic growth resulting from regression results across the period. 5. Changing foreign trade policy from inward orientation (towards CIS States) to an outward oriented strategy (to the global marketplace) of these states (including Kazakhstan) throughout the period 1992 – 2008, increasing economic growth significantly.

In an attempt to correct economic shortfalls, authorities in Nigeria deployed consolidation as the main policy instrument in the 2004-2006 reform of the banking industry. The Central Bank of Nigeria drew lessons from similar challenges faced by Malaysian and Indonesian authorities. Nigerian banks were given an 18 month window, to achieve an increased minimum capital base of N25 billion. To survive, banks could either raise the new requirements on their own or engage in mergers or acquisitions. The process of consolidation resulted in the reduction of banks from 89 to 24 and the emergence of three categories of banks namely: Stand alone, Common ownership, and Common interest banks. Primarily, this study examines change management practices of senior bank managers directly involved in implementing consolidation in Nigeria, and the impact of consolidation on credit availability to the private sector. Aggregate secondary data on the Nigerian banking industry from 2001-2009 were analysed and used to inform in-depth semi-structured interviews with thirteen senior bank managers and a respected independent financial analyst. Mixed methods were used to conduct further analysis. A conceptual framework was developed through an extension of Pettigrew’s 1988 model, while a modified Berger et al. 1998 model was deployed to test credit availability. Findings indicate that most aspects of organisational change were successful, but a lot more needs to be done to improve cultural integration and employee motivation. The successes achieved by Nigerian banks, resulted in higher levels of credit being made available to the private sector. There is, however, scope for further improvement to be made. For example, senior bank managers should deploy a more holistic approach to planned change, and there should be an improved collaborative approach between the government and private sector which could help enhance alternative credit delivery channels such as micro finance firms, venture capitalists and business angels.

In rural Tanzania women play a crucially important role in social and economic production. However, the constraints of poverty, combined with poor infrastructure and minimal resources, limit entrepreneurial possibilities. Nonetheless, poor rural female entrepreneurs use enterprise to try to improve their lives. But this “survivalist” entrepreneurship appears radically different from western models of enterprise and we know very little about processes and practices. Literature suggests that there is a substantial gap of knowledge in terms of how much poor rural female entrepreneurs use entrepreneurship activities to cope in their livelihood, and this issue is the focus of this study. Like any other social and economic process, entrepreneurship is dependent on the social setting of an area, that is, the people and the environment in which they carry out their daily life activities. Thus, entrepreneurship development in Tanzania, like any developing country, reflects the social and cultural differences, hence the difference in entry, performance, and survival of enterprises. This study is also guided by the fact that significant differences exist in the general entrepreneurial behaviour and performance between men and women, as well as between women from the same region and from other localities. This study aims at increasing understanding on whether these differences are brought about by the cultural and social attributes, rather than physical and psychological differences. The purpose of this study is to explore on how socio cultural factors have impacted on the way poor rural female entrepreneurs undertake their entrepreneurial activities in rural village markets in Tanzania. The study was guided by the social constructionist theory. An ethnographic case study approach was used to collect data. Primary data were collected from thirty nine respondents from three village markets: Kongowe, Ruvu Darajani and Patandi. These markets portray the commercial side of social life and the social side of the commercial life. Observation, conversations, interviews and life stories were used to gather the required information. Secondary data were collected from various publications and reports from villages to central government level. For this study, the researcher looked into four assumptions, namely ontology, epistemology, assumptions on human nature and methodological implications. In undertaking this study, multiple approaches and data sources were used to triangulate the findings and deepen understanding of social and cultural parameters in three settings. The sustainable rural livelihood framework was used to analyse the impact of the entrepreneurial environment, availability and access to livelihood assets and the level of vulnerability on poor rural female entrepreneur’s lives. It was revealed that poor rural female entrepreneurs undertake entrepreneurial activities in order to survive and not because they want to be entrepreneurs. Enabling environment dictates the type, amount and quality of assets possessed by the rural female entrepreneurs. It was also shown that poor women with few assets are more vulnerable to much of the social and economic harassments. It is within this vulnerability context where rural poor female entrepreneurs choose the strategies in order to achieve their livelihood outcomes. Findings from this study show that some cultural beliefs have negative impact on entrepreneurship and consequently economic development of the country. Beliefs in witchcraft and ignorance towards education influence the way rural women start and run their businesses. Religious and customary laws discriminate poor rural female entrepreneurs and hinder their efforts in undertaking entrepreneurial activities. Unfavourable credit repayment conditions and misuse of loans have negative impact on the growth of most enterprises. Moreover, business support from government and non governmental agencies is limited. The study shows how the phenomenon of entrepreneurship is context specific and how it differs across cultures. This research has made three contributions: firstly, by bringing new evidence to bear; secondly, using already known information with new interpretation; and thirdly, by tackling an existing problem using ethnographic approach.

This thesis investigates the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance prompted by the Ghanaian Code introduced in 2003. Using a sample of the Ghanaian listed firms from 2000-2009 and the directors of these same firms, the thesis attempts to achieve four specific objectives. The first objective is to measure the degree of compliance with the Ghanaian Code provisions from the Ghanaian listed firms’ annual reports during the whole, pre 2003 and post 2003 introduction of the code. The second objective is to empirically investigate the relationship between the degree of compliance with the Ghanaian Code and firm performance. The third objective is to empirically evaluate the perceptions of the directors of the Ghanaian listed firms on the adoption of the Ghanaian Code and its benefit to their firm’s performance. The final objective is to critically examine whether the use of multiple governance data has the potential to affect the research on governance-performance relationship findings. Given the multiple governance data from the Ghanaian listed firms’ annual reports and the directors’ responses, the results based on the degree of compliance with the Ghanaian Code suggest a statistically significant improvement from pre 2003 period to post 2003 period. This evidence is supported by the directors’ responses who noted that the standard of corporate governance has improved in their firms after the introduction of the Ghanaian Code. Also, the regression results based on the annual report data suggest that there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between the Ghanaian corporate governance index (GCGI) and profitability across Ghanaian listed firms, evidence supported by the directors’ responses who noted that the full adoption of the Ghanaian Code is beneficial to their firm’s performance. By contrast, the regression results based on the CEO duality, board size, proportion of non-executive directors, audit and remuneration committees suggest either statistically significant or no relationship between each of the five mechanisms and firm performance. These results are not supported in most cases by the directors’ responses where they showed support for the adoption of these mechanisms except board size as beneficial to their firm’s performance. Overall, the empirical analysis suggests a consensus between the regression results and the directors’ opinions on the full adoption of the Ghanaian Code rather than the selective adoption of its specific provisions where there is disagreement. These results raise questions about the effectiveness of the selective adoption of a particular code provision to improve firm performance.

This doctoral thesis, entitled Understanding Leadership and Management Development in a Health Board of NHS Scotland, is completely written by Jireh Hooi Inn Seow for submission to meet the partial requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy. This doctoral research is in the field of leadership and management development. It explores and seeks to understand healthcare leadership and management development in a region (officially called a Health Board) of NHS Scotland. It employs a qualitative methodology, anchored within a broad approach of interpretivism, and the fieldwork data collection methods of interviewing and participant observation to inform the objective of this study, which is to investigate the prominent behavioural attributes, values, attitudes, traits, ways of thinking and feelings, or actions exhibited by the research subjects who are emergent Scottish healthcare leaders and managers. This research involves two stages of data collection where the second round of interviews takes place slightly more than a year after the first round. After reviewing the literature on seven popular leadership and management development practices or programme, and after the analyses of qualitative empirical data from the fieldwork, this research provides the discovery of how the healthcare professionals are developed as well as an understanding of a mechanism underlying their leadership and management development. The application of meme theory, the main theoretical lens of this research, reveals the workings of a memetic mechanism behind leadership and management development. Thus, this main contribution of this research is the addressing of the relative shortage of research publication on leadership and management development, particularly on the mechanisms underlying leadership and management development, by showing how healthcare professionals are developed into leaders and managers via the spread, replication, transmission, and acquisition of memes; this study then offers suggestions of how leadership and management development programme could be designed in light of such a memetic leadership and management development. The main contribution of this research also includes the discovery of leadership and management development memes which are then categorised into four memeplexes labelled as the Altruism Memeplex, the Motivation Memeplex, the Motivating Memeplex, and the People-developing Memeplex. In addition, a minor contribution of this study is a novel interview data collection method in the research design that incorporates 360-degree feedback.

This thesis reports on a study conducted to investigate the nature of the relationship between increased access and use of telephony, small business performance and regional development in a developing country context. This study presents detailed evidence drawn from a sample of 198 small businesses in Nigeria. The research conceptualises and empirically tests a research model which incorporates three theories in order to connect and explain how the use of telephony by small businesses enhances business performance and contributes to regional development. This is based on the existing literature of small business development; telecommunications (increased access and use of telephony) by small business; and regional development. The research data was gathered through a questionnaire of owner-managers of small businesses. This data was supplemented by the use of photographs. The data generated was analysed using Logistic Regression techniques with the aid of SPSS V.17 statistical package. In addition, the study used Visual Data Analysis and Interviews to corroborate the outcomes of the statistical analyses. The regression results suggest that there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between the ‘impact of using telephony in business processes’ and enhanced business performance. In particular, it was identified that ‘the extent of the influence of using telephony in the acquisition of new customers’; ‘the extent of the influence of using telephony to reduce the time it takes to make important business decisions’; and ‘the extent of the influence of using telephony in acquiring better market prices’ are critical determinants that explains enhanced competitive advantage of small businesses. In addition, ‘the extent of the influence of using telephony in the acquisition of new customers’, and ‘the extent of the influence of using telephony to reduce the time it takes to make important business decisions’ are critical determinants that explains enhanced profitability of small businesses. This evidence is corroborated by the analysis of the visual data and textual description of the owner-managers interviewed who noted that the influence of using telephony have enhanced their business performance. Furthermore, the regression results suggest there is a statistically significant and positive relationship between the ‘growth outcomes of increased access and use of telephony by small businesses’ and regional development of the business location. In particular, ‘the extent of influence of use of telephony by small businesses to create new jobs’, ‘the extent of influence of use of telephony by small businesses on improved business performance’, and ‘the extent of influence of use of telephony by small businesses on significant business growth’ are critical determinants that explains regional development of the small business location. Finally, given the important role small businesses play in developing countries, such as Nigeria, this study help provides a clearer explanation on the nature of the relationship between increased access and use of telephony, small business performance and regional development that could be used to improve the growth of entrepreneurial activities of small businesses which are precursors of economic growth as well as improve infrastructural services such as telecommunications that are essential for regional development.

This thesis uses the notion of specialised publics in order to analyse whether the participation of civil society organisations in the European Convention contributed to make European publics more aware of this debate. In particular it asks whether activism by European civil society organisations about participatory democracy has contributed to a stronger linkage between the EU and Spanish and French general publics. The thesis analyses the role of a group of 22 civil society organisations in the agenda setting process where the discourse of the EU about participatory democracy was built ahead the Convention. Furthermore the role of 25 Spanish and French organisations active in the Convention is considered as well. 51 in-depth interviews with members of the Convention, officials of European institutions, European, French and Spanish civil society organisations have been conducted in the frame of the thesis. These provide abundant information about the way in which these organisations were involved in the Convention and more in general about biases in action at EU level between European and national organisations. The analysis of the evolution of the organisations‘ demands and justifications demonstrates that these consultations were an important agenda-setting process where the demands of civil society for institutionalisation were framed as a way to introduce participatory democracy arrangements in the EU. It is found that during the Convention participation was a strong priority for these organisations which had a great impact on article 47 of the TCE on civil society participation. It appears that contrary to expectations the Convention was not a meeting point for European and national organisations and contributed little to the diffusion of this debate beyond European specialised actors. Furthermore it appears that Spanish and French organisations had no motivation to "download" the Convention debates in the context of the national referenda. European organisations did not need to mobilise their members to meet their objectives, Spanish organisations were stronger at the EU level than in the national debates and French organisations did not share most of the participatory frame elaborated the EU level. However it is found as well that national organisations did not ignore this topic. In this sense Spanish organisations shared it strongly although they had little effect on the national debate, whereas French organisations scepticism on the Convention's commitment to the question of civil society participation contributed to their involvement against the Treaty in the national campaign. In doing so they contributed to frame the French referendum as an occasion for citizens‘ participation in the EU, and thus circulated a version of the European frame. Albeit in an exceptional setting, the thesis finds that civil society organisations have a strong potential to contribute to Europeanising debates and to articulate participation in the EU. These results contribute to a better understanding of the dynamic connections between different publics in the European public sphere by pointing to the importance of considering the political opportunity structure and the institutional barriers to the Europeanisation general publics.