Recent research argues that sequential forms of Cross-Cultural Training (CCT), offered pre-departure CCT as well as post-arrival CCT are more advantageous than non-sequential CCT. This study examines the impact of sequential CCT upon the level of sociocultural and psychological adjustment of expatriate managers. This thesis also targets to fill the gap in the literature about the effectiveness of sequential CCT. A mixed methods methodology was adopted, more specifically an Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Design which included a quantitative survey followed by qualitative interviews of Greek expatriate managers assigned in overseas assignments. The quantitative data and their analysis gave a general understanding of the impact of sequential CCT upon the levels of sociocultural and psychological adjustment while the qualitative data, by exploring expatriates’ assessments, offered more depth to the research and explained the quantitative results. Unexpectedly but significantly, both quantitative and qualitative results showed that sequential CCT has no any significant impact upon the sociocultural and psychological adjustment of the expatriate managers. However, the qualitative findings indicated that CCT has helped the expatriate managers in their sociocultural and psychological adjustment, regardless of whether it was sequential or not. Furthermore, the findings underline the importance of the timing of CCT and not its sequentiality. Overall, the findings of the research suggest that the effectiveness of the CCT depends both on its content and on its delivery time. Propositions refer to the delivery time and the appropriate content of CCT in enhancing sociocultural and psychological adjustment of the expatriate managers.

The global phenomenon of the ageing population has made Healthcare a universal issue. As a result, Connected Health (CH) is proposed as a promising solution. However, there is a need to explore how CH can be sustainable from a business perspective and how to optimize it to meet the needs of those involved in the CH ecosystem. This research aims to explore and discover the core driving factors of sustaining innovation and in particular Business Model Innovation (BMJ) based on the Taiwanese Connected Health Ecosystem. The research methodology used to address the research aim and objectives was an exploratory theory building approach primarily using qualitative data from multi-stage semi-structured interviews (n=60 in total). First, pilot interviews (n=\6) were held with key influencing stakeholders in the CH ecosystem. Second, stage one interviews (n=22) were conducted with the major stakeholders involved in the CH ecosystem in Taiwan. These interviews probe CH problems stated in the literature. They covered the cost, infrastructure, technology, business sustainability, BMT and collaboration and communication-related issues. The second stage interviews (n=22) were held one year later and addressed the gaps identified from the stage I interviews to discover systematic problems in CH and to probe longitudinal changes since the stage \ interviews. The results of stage one interview reveal CI-J's feasibility and also indicate that leadership management is essential to achieve business sustainability. The stage two data analysis suggests that BMI issues are more important than solely that of technology capability. Efficiency will be increased if there are more integration and less bureaucracy. CH for people and cross-generation interaction may be able to motivate caregivers and receivers. The overall interview results imply that collaboration with technology and BMl is significant in engineering CH ecosystems in Taiwan by offering a holistic CH industry blueprint and vision.

This thesis aims to develop the supply chain collaboration in the management of fresh Nam Dok Mai mangoes for exports to Japan. To accomplish the research aim, three main objectives are addressed; 1) to provide an overview of existing supply chain of Nam Dok Mai mangoes in Thailand and to identify strengths and weakness in the supply chain; 2) to analyse supply chain collaboration between growers and exporters in the production of mangoes for export to Japan; and 3) to provide recommendations to the government and related agencies on sufficient supply chain management for fresh mango exports. Following a theoretical review, the study employs a conceptual framework for the study of collaborative supply chain that differs from the traditional concepts used in the manufacturing industries literature. The thesis framework presents concepts of supply chain collaboration used for an agro-food industry focusing on the perishable products.

Toward the end of the 1990s, a large number of people were drawn into work in the new economy. The use of information and communications technology (ICT) was said to promise a gender-neutral world of work. The Internet, transcending temporal and spatial divisions, is supposed to create new employment options. This thesis examines the ways in which both genders in Thailand use the Internet to make or further their career. It asks to what extent work on the Internet really opens up new career opportunities. It also explores the extent to which the Internet enables women and men to escape their gendered identity, allowing them different identities, in cyberspace and, at home, enabling the redefinition of gender arrangements in the domestic domain. In-depth interviews with 55 participants in Thailand reveal that work with ICTs has generated a new form of employment that is informal, flexible and more uncertain. In addition, Thai women can use the Internet to start their own online business, and this can enhance their economic independence and allow them to negotiate gendered relations from a stronger bargaining position. However, the findings also illustrate that women face a contradiction between economic independence and their roles as mothers and wives. Conforming to a hetero-normative ideology creates ambivalence about changing gender roles, and particular pressures for women combining paid and unpaid work. ICT has provided a new economic opportunity, accessible to both women and men, yet most women continue to prioritise care-giving responsibilities. This dilemma leads to greater conflicts, particularly for women, between careers and family.

This study contributes to the IS literature with a distinctive explanation of the process of institutionalisation of technology in organizations. The research analyses the role of micro level processes of interplay in embedding an intranet in the formal functioning of an organisation and in the habits and routines of its employees. Findings identify two types of processes of interplay underpinning this process of institutionalisation. The first operates at the level of constitutive expectations and refers to mutual changes to the governance, policy and control mechanisms which foster the perception that the intranet is part of the expected formal functioning of the organisation. The second operates at the level of background expectations and refers to mutual changes that make the intranet look more familiar, functional and easier to use, fostering its embedding in the routines and habits of the employees. The study unravels processes of mutual transformation to an intranet and its hosting organisation, a bank in the UK, by following their evolution over a period of five years. It uses the single longitudinal case study research strategy and is informed by Markus (1983) to support the longitudinal reconstruction of the intranet in the bank. Institutional-based trust theory (Zucker 1986) is used to inform the interpretation of data. This theory is enhanced by the work of Schutz (1962) in developing the concept of background expectations and Garfinkel (1967) in developing the concept of constitutive expectations. The study aims to motivate more research on institutionalisation as a micro level process of ongoing interplay and gradual development of institutionalised behaviour.

Scholars argue that knowledge is a fundamental source for retaining competitive advantage, as value creation depends fundamentally on the competence of a firm to create new knowledge (Nonaka and Toyama, 2002). Knowledge creation is based on conversion of two types of knowledge: tacit knowledge, which is constituent to the comprehensiveness of an individual’s consciousness, and explicit knowledge, which can be readily communicated. Based on the framework by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), one of the most significant and cited models, the motivation of this research is to expand knowledge creation model from intra- to inter-organizational relationships theoretically and explore supply chain knowledge creation process in practice to examine the sequences of this extension. Studying three firms in the fashion industry, this thesis contributes to research on knowledge creation by taking a socio-technological perspective through a qualitative study of supply chain management. The research findings provide support for the proposed theoretical model in which social relationships and technology interact in the knowledge creation process to diminish supply chain complexities. While many supply chain relationships I observed appear to be influential in creating knowledge, one similarity among the cases here is that the effectiveness of the knowledge creation process has been limited due to the lack of harmony in employing knowledge resources. Knowledge creation process may be superficial due to the fact that they require a large revolution in work routines regarding the use of technology. Even where there is some degree of socialization, the process is partial because of incongruities between individuals understanding and corporate supply chain strategies.

Feedback from patients has become increasingly important in the provision of health care and the management of health services in many countries in the last 30 years. Government policy in England and the published research literature from different countries have focused more on the collection than on the use of patient feedback. There are significant gaps in the research literature relating to the ways in which patient feedback is used in the management of health services. The purpose of this research is to examine how feedback from patients is (or is not) used in the management of hospitals in the National Health Service in England. This thesis contains the results of a qualitative study of the use of patient feedback in two purposively selected NHS foundation trusts in England. Data were collected through interviews with managers, from government and Trust documents and websites, and through the observation of meetings. The findings show that qualitative feedback about patients’ subjective experience of their illness and services is used by managers to engage with and motivate staff, but that the quantified results of surveys are used to establish criteria and standards for service improvement. Although compliments and commendations by patients are used to praise staff they are not used to help set explicit standards for service improvement. Boards of directors sometimes use feedback from patients to help set strategies for quality improvement, but appear not subsequently to use that feedback explicitly to monitor the implementation of these strategies or assure the quality of services. The thesis fills gaps in the published literature by demonstrating that, although patient feedback is used in a variety of ways in the management of staff and in the development of strategies to improve the quality of services, managers in general and boards of directors in particular do not always use that feedback systematically to assure and improve the standards of service for patients.

What is known as the psychological contract is the ‘promises and the nature of relationships that exists between employee and employer’ (Schein, 1978). While this concept has been researched at some depth with the study of organisational careers, a paucity of research exists in terms of its application to the university environment, with very few studies identifying what the factors of an “academic psychological contract” could be (Krivokapic-Skoko & O’Neill ,2008; Shen, 2010). This is surprising as Taylor’s Making Sense of Academic Life (1999) evaluates how career aspirations and identities of academics have been shaped by the transactional character of work in a higher education environment – where areas such as work skills and individual ability have been recognised as the determinants for career success. To address this paucity in work in this area, this study examines the existence of a psychological contract that is unique to the university environment, drawing upon a sample of 337 academic staff employed in three traditional and three new universities in the United Kingdom – utilising an self-administrated questionnaire that takes the perspective of the academic employee, incorporating items that measure an employee’s expectations from their employers. Consequently, a conceptual model has been developed which captures how relationships between a number of areas (that affect academic practice), define and influence career related behaviours in academia, and impact (research-based) performance and job satisfaction. The factors that characterise this model consist of: (i) institutional expectations; (ii) networking; (iii) commitment; (iv) the type of university an academic work’s in (i.e. a Pre 1992/Post 1992 institution); (v) academic responsibilities; (vi) emotions; (vii) (research-based) performance; (viii) competence; (ix) psychological contract breach; (x) future career expectations and (xi) job satisfaction. Thirteen hypotheses which have been formulated which are reflective of the character of relationships between these factors, and some interesting findings have been revealed, using multiple regression procedures. These include positive relationships between an academic’s expectations, networking behaviours, and academic responsibilities with (research-based) performance – while the type of university an academic employee works in has no impact on performance. Furthermore, this research also found that academic competencies have no relationship with job satisfaction and that psychological contract breach has a negative relationship to job satisfaction. By moving away from orthodox research in this area (which examines psychological contracts according to a transactional/relational continuum), this study builds upon an exploratory framework and is unique for examining the factorability of an academic psychological contract which characterises both the “pre-1992” and the “post-1992” sectors of the British higher education market.

This study uses a quantitative methodology to explore the impact of contingency factors on use of strategic management accounting techniques (SMA), and combined impact of SMA Usage and contingency factors on organisational performance in a less developed country (LDC) context. The exploratory framework included two main dependent variables, namely SMA Usage and organisational performance. For the former, this study gauged the impact of perceived environmental uncertainty (competitive intensity and market turbulence), business strategy (prospector /defender), organisational structure (formalisation and decentralisation), organisational size and organisational technology on SMA Usage. For the latter, this study explored two dimensions of organisational performance (financial and non-financial) and how the conceptualised dimension(s) of organisational structure, SMA Usage, perceived environmental uncertainty and organisational strategy impact on performance. Data were collected from Palestinian large companies (cross sectors); was used to test the conceptualised framework. The analysis was based on 175 responses, representing a response rate of 43.75%. The SPSS package was used to confirm the reliability and validity of factors and also statistically estimated the association coefficients of the conceptualised relationships in the framework. The findings from this study suggest that the usage of SMA techniques is influenced by a number of factors. These are perceived environmental uncertainty (Market Turbulence) and organisational technology. Also, larger organisations tend to use more SMA techniques than smaller.

Over the last two decades, developing countries have experienced a high volume of foreign direct investment (FDI). It is commonly accepted that many multinational enterprises (MNEs) are entering into multiple markets, in order to increase their profitability and to reduce the risk of relying upon one market. This study aims to provide insight into the internationalisation of MNEs from both developed and developing countries into developing markets. It seeks to test what, if anything, MNEs from developing countries do more effectively than MNEs from developed countries within these emerging markets. The central thesis of the study is that MNEs from developing countries will have certain advantages over MNEs from developed countries, and will therefore be more prevalent amongst the largest foreign firms within emerging markets. This thesis is based on the assumption that MNEs from developing countries have prior experience of operating within similar emerging markets, and so are better qualified to compete within these types of markets. MNEs from developing countries obtain certain capabilities from operations within their home countries, such as the ability to function in the context of authoritarian regimes, ineffective governments, poorly developed infrastructures, and poorly protected property rights, as well as the ability to provide services within markets which include consumers living in poverty. All of these may allow them more easily to overcome difficulties and setbacks within developing country markets. The theoretical foundation for this study has been constructed by reviewing the existing business literature. A particular aim of the literature review was to understand and explore the development of knowledge about the investment habits of multinational enterprises. In particular, their behaviour when operating within developing country markets was explored, along with the question of how they may be able to use their resources or capabilities to gain competitive advantage. This produced a set of hypotheses, which were then investigated using two types of data (both quantitative and qualitative). The results of the analysis show that developing-country MNEs outperform developed-country MNEs when investing in developing countries with poorly protected property rights and pervasive corruption. This is also the case when investing in countries with poorly developed infrastructure. In addition, partial support was found for the hypothesis that developing-country MNEs are likely to have an advantage over developed-country MNEs when investing in developing countries with authoritarian regimes. The study hopes to assist policy makers in recognising that an MNE’s previous experience impacts on its ability to succeed in developing countries. It also hopes to provide useful guidance for those MNE managers who are seeking to improve their effectiveness when investing in developing countries.