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This thesis aims to assess the extent to which an MBA helps women and to ascertain whether significant barriers persist, despite their qualification to their career development. It takes as its frame of reference the sex difference approach within liberal feminism, which argues that key differences between men and women explain their differential career progress, and the organisation- structure approach within radical feminism which emphasises the detrimental effects of structural features of the organisation and of power relations. To this effect a survey of 221 male and female MBA graduates was conducted. Results suggest that the extent to which an MBA helps women depends on the type of benefit in question. The MBA is beneficial to women in terms of intrinsic career factors such as credibility and confidence. The qualification also gives them higher personal status within the context of the formal organisation. However, men appear to benefit more than women in terms of extrinsic career factors such as pay and management level in that they progress further in their careers subsequent to the MBA. In terms of the sex difference approach, differences in individual characteristics between men and women were not found to be sufficiently strong to be able to explain their differential career progress. Instead women MBAs were found to experience hidden barriers relating to attitudes and culture and to be particularly disadvantaged within the informal organisational context. The thesis argues that the way these hidden barriers located within the informal context impact on women's progress within the formal organisation (the informal externality effect) explains their slower career progress subsequent to the MBA in relation to men. The level of disadvantage within the formal context created by these hidden barriers are likely to be greater if the organisation is male dominated, if the gender imbalance occurs at senior levels and if women occupy traditionally female and non powerful roles.

Since deregulation in the United States most jet operating new-entrant carriers have failed. Theories on competition had been put to the test and reality turned out to be different to the vision. The new-entrant airlines were to challenge the inefficient incumbent carriers and provide lower fares for the benefit of the public. To begin with they were successful, but were not able to create sustainable strategy to survive when the incumbents had adjusted to the new operating environment. The background to the failure predicament is examined in the thesis in considerable detail, in order to give a fairly good overview of the characteristics of new-entrants and the environment they existed in. Much attention is given to the new-entrants' strategy in order to explore past deficiencies and pave the way for successful alternatives. The European liberalisation is examined in order to contrast it with the US deregulation. The purpose of such contrast is to examine whether the lessons learned in the United States will apply to European new-entrants, both at the present and in the future. The literature on the causes of corporate failure is examined in detail in order to discover some underlying traits. Success is examined as well in order to identify whether success mirrors failure. In addition, the role of success in causing failure is highlighted. Statistical failure prediction models are explored in order to cast light on the present status of the failure prediction methodology. That overview explains the foundation for selecting the Logistic Regression statistical methodology for the thesis. Results of a questionnaire survey performed on new-entrant airlines, is introduced in terms of the dichotomous failure and distress variables. On the grounds of that qualitative survey and a new-entrant airline quantitative data-base, a number of failure prediction and distress models were developed. Finally, the best failure prediction models of these different sources are combined in order to examine whether such combination enhances prediction quality. The main conclusion of the thesis is that the combination of quantitative and qualitative data sources for failure and distress prediction of corporations, in this case new-entrant airlines, enhances predictability. Furthermore, the general conclusion is that no single prescription exists for success or avoidance of failure due to the dynamism of the corporations and the environment they operate in. However, few prerequisites of success and non-failure were found to be: (i) high relative quality; (ii) dominant market share on routes and airports; (iii) high relative aircraft utilisation; (iv) high relative employee utilisation; (v) controlled growth in terms of maintaining item (ii); low cost in terms of achieving items (iii) and (iv); and (vi) resourceful innovation without going into the extremities.

The growing literature on organisational change, organisational learning and the role of the top team prompted the question: what is the relationship between top teams and organisational learning? It seemed the role of the top team was important to attain successful change and ultimately learning. Yet how this was achieved seemed to be poorly understood in the literature. Thus, the thesis focused attention on the dynamics of the top team, its organisational context and the state of the external environment to gain a clearer understanding of these relationships. In order to deepen that understanding, the thesis took a systemic and psychoanalytical approach and a clinical research methodology, which provided a different perspective and seemed to be more suited to this type of inquiry on organisational dynamics. The 'findings' from the three, in-depth, public sector case studies suggested that while the dynamics of the top team could impact negatively on the group task, its impact on strategic organisational learning was less significant. The main conclusion drawn from the study was that strategic organisational learning was impaired not so much by the top team's dynamics, but by organisational and systemic defensive routines. The source of these recursive pattems was threefold: psychodynamic ego and social defenses among top team members, within the top team's group and within the dynamics of the Board A poor 'holding environment' so that these organisational dynamics were not sufficiently contained and thus each strategic subsystem was less 'task' focused an underbounded strategic apex that reinforced the dysfunctional dynamics already in play The implication from these public sector, case studies was that while the external environment and the dynamics of the top team were not insignificant, it was the poor quality and instability of the internal organisational context that inhibited learning. The role of the Board or elected officials was particularly significant in contributing to this outcome.

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Abstract Early stage project estimates are a key component in business decision making, and generally form the basis of the project's ultimate funding. Their strategic importance has been long recognised, leading to increased research and development in cost modelling. For example, research initiated at The University of Manchester resulted in the production of ProCost - early stage cost estimating software, which has the ability to forecast the total cost of a proposed building in the form of a single figure output. This research project commenced with a nationwide questionnaire survey of current cost modelling and elemental cost estimating practice. One of its major findings was that quantity surveyors are not satisfied with single figure output cost models. Based on this, an investigation into the feasibility of generating an elemental breakdown of the ProCost output was initiated. An investigation into an appropriate elemental output format resulted in the adoption of 17 elements based on the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Standard Form of Cost Analysis (SFCA). Models were created for each of these elements using both multiple linear regression and artificial neural network (ANNs) techniques. Initially, data from 120 office buildings were collected and modelled using multiple linear regression analysis. The accuracy of these models, as measured by the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), ranged from 9.2% to 319.6%. Recognising the deficiency of some of these models, the study proceeded by using ANNs as an alternative modelling method. Accepting the requirement of this method for increased data cases, a second data collection programme was initiated, extending the database to industrial and residential buildings and resulting in a total of 360 projects. ANN produced superior models for the majority of the elements, generating MAPEs from 9.7% to 43%. The final decision support tool presented is a hybrid of these two methods with 5 of the models based on multiple linear regression and 12 on ANN techniques. The mean MAPE of the 17 models is 22.1%. The model compares favourably against previous cost modelling attempts in terms of accuracy, generalisation, sample size, and application spectrum and flexibility. It is anticipated that its utilisation will improve current practice enabling quantity surveyors (cost estimators) to generate quick elemental estimates at an early design stage. Further its elemental character will introduce a crosschecking mechanism into the decision-making process, increasing user confidence in the model's application. 13

Performance measurement quantifies the efficiency and effectiveness of action that helps organisations translate their strategies into results and fixes accountability to improve performance. This research identifies two problem statements: First, can integrating strategy formulation with measurement initiatives safeguard the performance goals in manufacturing enterprises? And second, how can manufacturing enterprises derive an integrated approach that meet their requirements and needs for strategy formulation (SF) and performance measurement (PM) system implementation? This work proposes an integrated paradigm that aligns the strategy-related performance measures to attain performance improvement in manufacturing enterprises. A two-stage empirical study was conducted, with 232 Hong Kong firms and 85 Shanghai firms participating in the study. The first stage surveys identified the common success factors, problem areas and strategy choices, and examined the relationship amongst corporate, marketing, technology and operational strengths and the 'reactive/proactive' strategy choices. The subsequent personal interviews in Hong Kong complemented the survey findings by examining the impact of SF/PM efforts in manufacturing enterprises. There were two series of interviews. The first series acquired the managerial views on the decision criteria on the integration of strategy formulation and performance measures, with the aid of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology. The second interview series derived several design elements and process considerations for aligning strategy formulation with performance measures. The empirical study used in this research provided important inputs and served as a foundation for development of a SF/PM Integration (SPI) model. In an attempt to integrate strategy formulation and performance measurement, the SPI model adopts the guiding principles embodied with the Business Excellence Models and stresses the results-oriented assessments on five categories of SF/PM criteria, namely leadership and constancy of purpose, management by process, people development, continuous improvement, and results orientation. Unlike that of the MBNQA and EQA, the point values for criteria and sub-elements of SPI model were generated collectively from the perspectives of industry practitioners in the manufacturing sectors. These were determined using the normalised weights obtained from the AHP analysis of empirical interview findings. They are taken together to calculate the overall performance index for an organisation. The process framework comprises five stages starting from strategy formulation to implementation and evaluation of an integrated performance measurement system. It encapsulates the requirements, critical processes and activities of strategy formulation and performance measures into the way they are being managed in organisations. The SPI model helps manufacturing enterprises to build a self-assessment platform for amalgamating strategies, plans and actions which can enable performance improvement. It can supplement any Business Excellence Models, and serves three important purposes. Firstly, it is a working tool for integrating SF and PM initiatives and guiding the implementation of performance measurement system in manufacturing enterprises. Secondly, using the model can help improve the effectiveness of management practices in relation to performance measures and self-assessment; and thirdly, using the model can facilitate information sharing of best practices within an organisation and benchmark performance against competitors and other organisations. Results of a post-evaluation survey affirmed that the model and processes could encourage organisational learning and provide a practical means for manufacturing enterprises to devise effective self-assessment and performance improvement. The novel contributions of the research are to identify the key SF/PM attributes, develop the self-assessment scoring method and the process framework accompanying the SPI model. Manufacturing enterprises must evolve a holistic performance measurement system matching their corporate mission, objectives and strategies. The SPI model provides them with a systems approach for building and integrating the capabilities of SF and PM to attain performance improvement goals, irrespective of their business nature and sizes.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) contribution to innovation and economic growth is part of the economic system, and in the light of this, SMEs policies are reviewed by countries throughout the world. In the Arab countries, which are in transition such as in particular, Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen and Libya, the SME policy rationale is strikingly consistent in its coherence and consideration of other social and economic issues. SMEs provide employment opportunities for the elderly, youth and women; the creation of new lifestyles and support the development of new forms of work organisation; new working arrangements, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Business incubation facilitates the development and growth of start-up companies by providing entrepreneurs with resources and services. Incubator management usually develops these services which are offered by its wide network of contacts. Therefore, the aim of this research to contribute to general knowledge about the economic growth and development impacts of business incubators, thereby assisting governments and policymakers in establishing environments that would facilitate entrepreneurship and national development. To meet this aim, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. This exploratory research has used snowball sampling method, 91 responses were obtained out of the 400 questionnaires distributed to SMEs in Libya, leading to a response rate of 22.75%. In addition, 5 incubation units in Jordan and 4 in the United Arab Emirates were examined using questionnaires. Finally, interviews with 12 of Arab experts in this field were also conducted to understand how to establish and implement business incubation programmes. The results of this research show that businesses that have been through an incubator programme are far more likely to succeed in the long term. The research concluded by providing governments with guidelines for using incubators to foster technology transfer and commercialisation, which contributes to entrepreneurship and economic development in developing countries and other Arab countries, with particular consideration in Libya.