In recent years, particularly post 1990 and contrary to the expectation and predictions of many economists, there is ample evidence that the informal economy has expanded globally (Schneider et al., 2010). This, in addition to finding out the potential of the informal economy, has sparked renewed interest amongst researchers. Until now, however, most of the ‘empirical’ studies have concentrated on the Asian and Latin American countries (Debrah 2007), and most methodological approaches for studying the concept have remained debatable (Aryeetey, 2010). This thesis seeks to close a gap in the literature by developing two novel research frameworks: the Individual, Firm and State (IFS), and Four Circles (4Cs) to explain the link between theories and methods, as well as the impacts and benefits, of the informal economy. The study also utilises secondary and collected-primary data, modified-MIMIC and Currency approaches, to explore the determinants, characteristics, and regional prevalence of the Nigerian informal economy, as well as the relationships between the Nigerian informal economy and key macroeconomic variables/business enterprises. The results of the study demonstrate that the Nigerian informal economy has 65.4% participation rate, contributes an equivalent of 52-53% of official GDP, and provides cheap and easily accessible goods/services to members of the public, income generation for the government, and job, income and poverty reduction for informal participants. However, participants in the sector are confronted with many challenges: inadequate finances, inconsistent government policies, unfriendly business environment, and inadequate infrastructures. Similarly, the main determinants of the Nigerian informal economy are population growth, corruption, unemployment, and survival factors. Also, the study reports significant regional differences in participants’ income and education levels. Finally, the study finds the informal economy more prevalent in the north-west and south-west regions of Nigeria. Recommendations are proposed on the basis of the IFS; individuals and firms operating in the informal economy are encouraged to build up skills and become membership of relevant-trade unions. The government should implement policies which facilitate the creation of jobs, friendly business environment, entrepreneurial development, financial and training support for participants in the informal economy.

The landscape of the public sector has changed. Economic recession and the demand for greater efficiencies have created a need to measure and improve employee well-being, whilst attaining individual and organisational goals without additional financial reward. Drawing upon hope theory as defined by C.R. Snyder, particular attention is given to the predictive nature of trait hope over other state-like constructs of psychological capital, including hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism. In literature, hope is recognised for its state and trait-like qualities. It is defined as an active process through which goals can be attained through agentic thinking and pathways actions. Research (Bandler & Grinder, 1979; Woodbury, 1999; Green, 2001: Silbiger, 1999; Pullin, 2002) supports the view that individuals who attain individual goals are more likely to achieve organisational objectives. Furthermore, hope has been found to be an important predictor of psychological adjustment to stressful life events (Michael & Snyder, 2005; Valle et al. 2006) and an organisation which fosters hopeful thinking in employees, can counter the detrimental impact of change fatigue by encouraging employees to work towards a shared goal. Hope as a singular construct is compared to well-being as defined by four questions devised by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and employee engagement in a survey of 242 employees. To breach the gap in the availability of large or longitudinal data sets relating to hope in the workplace, benchmarking of the same employee engagement and well-being questions is conducted using staff survey data of a large civil service department over a five-year period. Findings are also benchmarked to the national UK findings of the ONS evaluation of well-being. A decline in engagement as defined specifically by four questions looking at role and purpose, contribution of individual work and perception of motivational support to achieve organisational objectives was found across the five-year period which correlated with the most significant periods of change. Employees who are high in hope report better engagement, are more satisfied with life and are happier at work using new national measures of well-being than those with hope scores below the mean. When taken together evidence suggests a holistic explanation of subjective well-being and future ability for goal attainment can be made through a simple combined application of hope and well-being scales in the workplace.

The purpose of the research was to assess the implementation and management of the Prolific and Priority Offender (PPO) programme, examining the barriers to and enabling factors for managing in partnership, whilst evaluating the settlement between three management models. The research provides evidence for a newer model of management, better suited to deliver on the shared outcomes government requires from its public programmes. Research has shown that although crime is multi-causal, a range of agencies separately intervene into service users’ lives. Collaborative Public Management joins up these interventions to improve crime reduction. The research was theory driven; it proposed that partnerships would require a particular model of management. The research then went looking for Collaborative Public Management (CPM) in mandated crime partnerships with the aim to ascertain the settlement with two other management models: New Public Management (NPM) and Public Administration (PA). Three cases studies have ensued, involving interviews with eighteen managers from a range of partnership agencies, observation of ten partnership management meetings and an analysis of documentary data. The search for CPM was successful, but there has not been a simple linear shift from one model to the next, features of PA and NPM remain but in weaker forms, revealing shiftingtensions, and the overlaying of management forms resulting in the old and new interacting, creating an institutional fusion. Managers were key to successful policy implementation with a focus on performance, building capacity through resource acquisition and networking and realizing structures and knowledge processes. But competent practitioners, a low crime rate, adequate resourcing and a history of partnership were other principal variables. The result is an original piece of research, where the methodology and findings add conceptually and empirically to the current body of knowledge on public policy implementation and which advances theorizing on CPM, whilst also offering an enhanced understanding to improve management practices under partnership conditions.

Prior to 1997 the research carried out on corporate governance around the world was minimal. However, after the crisis that swept the financial markets and economics of the major Asian countries in 1997, and the notorious collapse of Enron in 2001, the interest in corporate governance has increased. Therefore, corporate governance has attracted considerable attention in the area of academic research and on the agenda of public policy debates in both developed and less-developed countries. An improved corporate governance system is now viewed as an essential feature of companies, and it can serve as an incentive for investment and also strengthen the foundation of long-term economic performance. The principal aim of this study is to investigate and offer an initial understanding of corporate governance practice within a developing economy, the case of Libya. Therefore, studying with different stakeholders is more suitable to understand corporate governance patterns and relations within the Libyan context. The study also investigates how the various environmental factors affect corporate governance practice and inhibit the practice and development of corporate governance. Two main research methods were employed in this study, namely, interviews and questionnaires. Distributing 453 questionnaires to six groups of stakeholders, and ten semistructured interviews with policy-makers were chosen to achieve the objectives. The findings suggest that the corporate governance framework in Libya is less-developed, and Libya has lagged behind its neighbours. Also, the study revealed that the absence of principles of corporate governance has led to the weakness of accountability and responsibility processes. The influence of the opaque economic structure, out dated legal system, influences of culture and social norms, political interference, lack of accounting professionalism in the corporate governance framework were also evident. The weakness of the education system and the stakeholders' activism were other factors in the corporate governance framework. The participants also indicated that the stakeholder’s model of corporate governance is more acceptable in a Libyan context and the Board of Directors as main internal mechanism of corporate governance needs to be more responsible and needs to act on behalf of the stakeholders. In essence, the results demonstrate that a good corporate governance framework depends on effective internal and external factors such as a complete legal system, a developing economy, and effective board members, associated with supportive political and educational systems, and culture and social norms. Therefore, the vision of improving corporate governance can be fully realised only if all the related parties such as government, academia, external auditors, NGOs and universities work together to eliminate these obstacles to attain a good framework of corporate governance in the country. The research has contributed to the understanding of the concept of corporate governance in the context of a developing economy with particular economic and social attributes, whilst adding to the more general knowledge and understanding of corporate governance practices and empirical research.

Governments have realized the increasing importance of the role of universities play in creating and diffusing knowledge as part of the process of innovation. Similarly, universities are now recognised as the seed bed for business firm formation. This has led to the commercialisation of academic research within publicly funded research institutions such as universities receiving increasing recognition in studies of technology management and economic development. Numerous programmes and supporting facilities have been made available by governments to enable universities to share the ‘laboratory life’. Despite positive supports from government and universities, little research has been carried out into such activities in the context of developing economies. This study aims to fill the gap by studying the commercialisation activities of universities in Malaysia. The study investigates the role of government and universities by focusing on their initiatives to promote the commercialisation of academic research in universities. The main objective of the study is to understand the current trend of commercialisation activities in Malaysian Universities. A qualitative-interview is used as the main method of data gathering from the three universities. This study found out that the effect of entrepreneurial university is still very much limited in the three universities. The Government takes a moderate stand by giving a full autonomy to the universities on the implementation of academic commercialisation activity. The study also shows that the type of academic commercialisation i.e. spin offs formation, licensing, knowledge transfer and consultation is influence by the type of university i.e. Research University and Vocational University in the three universities. The third finding from this study is the failure to address the personal motivation of academic staff. The findings have important implications not only for Malaysia but all developing countries seeking to enhance their innovation capability.

Research interest in employee engagement (EE) has recently intensified. This thesis document (the study) adds to our understanding of EE by conceptually developing and empirically testing a partial mediation model of EE within a smaller knowledge-intensive setting. The study’s aim is to longitudinally examine whether, how and why there were changes in the level and nature of EE and in satisfaction with antecedents of engagement. Linkages between these constructs are explored. An HRM ‘black box’ is thus investigated. The case study organisation, site of the empirical work, is Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), a world leading high-tech company which supplies software and professional services to the architecture, engineering and construction sector to aid green building design and reduce energy consumption in new and existent buildings. The research methodology in this study adopts a realist stance. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered between 2008-2010 via three employee surveys, interviews, focus groups and company documents during a period of great market turbulence at IES. The results reveal that overall EE rose to a very high level, contrary to the general trends observed in the UK. Emotional engagement remained high and stable, while both cognitive and behavioural engagement levels significantly improved. Despite a volatile business background, it seems that the strategic company responses to survey feedback via targeted actions and HR interventions sustained (or improved) satisfaction with all antecedents of engagement, apart from that of rewards and recognition. This longitudinal study suggests that four antecedents can be described as fundamental drivers of high engagement within a knowledge-intensive firm during this difficult period: long-term strategic direction and alignment; a strong people-centric culture; job satisfaction and knowledge-sharing. There is a paucity of prior longitudinal academic study into EE, especially in a knowledge-intensive context and in a recession; this study contributes to these knowledge gaps. Further, the study offers conceptual insights into a contextualised partial linkage model of EE and an analysis of how an EE strategy can be implemented in practice. The study thereby advances the limited extant studies, directly contributing to gaps in knowledge, methodological approaches and our understanding of practice. Moreover, implications for professional practice and future research direction are explicated in the study’s conclusions.

The purpose of this research is to study knowledge management (KM) in Research and Development (R&D) organisations and the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Communities of Practice (CoP) play in facilitating access to knowledge via knowledge workers (R&D workers). The study aims to contribute to both theoretical and practical use of KM, HRM and CoP in Malaysia context at Muslim Dominated organisations. This study is first and foremost exploratory since it seeks to find out how people get along in the setting under review, what meanings they give to their actions and what issues concern them. The goal is to learn ‘what is going on here?’ and to investigate social phenomenon without explicit expectations. However, as far as it is able to reveal and describe people’s experience and views of KM, HR and CoP, it can also be regarded as descriptive. Formally phrased, the study strives to obtain new insight into phenomenon of organisational KM in Malaysian organisations and the supporting role of HR and CoP after taking into account the Islamic perspective. In this tradition of qualitative research, this study commences with a number of rather vague questions namely: ‘What’, ‘Who’, ‘When’, ‘Where’ and proceeds to suggest answers to the ‘Why’ question. The study explores and describes how a small number of people experience and perceive KM in everyday life within their respective organisations. The methodological approach included multiple case studies with in-depth interview and limited non-participant observations. Overall, 29 interviews with Knowledge Workers from two R&D organisations were conducted for the research. The Interviewees from each organisation came from various divisions, positions and service years and they were randomly selected based on a list given by the HR Department. Three chapters of analysis were presented in this thesis and each chapter has provided evidence that there are significant differences on how the two research settings manage their R&D workers, support knowledge creation, share and use as a process in communities of practice. These differences are caused by the two research settings facing with different external business operating environment. The findings from the two R&D organisations have provided evidence that the nature of work, leadership roles, organisational policies and routines within the organisations differentiated the outcomes of the process of both formal and informal knowledge sharing culture and behaviour. Analytical results from the two organisations also have demonstrated that employee perceptions of high-commitment HRM were significantly related to the creation of emotional capital such as trust, identity-construction, shared values and norms, satisfaction and many more; in which the mechanisms related to individual willingness to share knowledge. Most important, in this study the data findings suggest that in order to be an effective knowledge facilitator requires conceptualizing HRM as a vehicle for creating capabilities and capitalizing on the human factor to create a community of knowledge workers. In this study the empirical results indicate that religion i.e. Islam play an important role in knowledge sharing behaviour, in this case it can be concluded that religion can also contribute for an economic value to the organisation, which is deserves to be labelled as religious faith capital. Furthermore, this finding in this study would suggest that the transfer of tacit knowledge within the two research settings would not seem to be easily separable into four forms of knowledge conversion suggested by Nonaka and Takeuchi. Indeed, the findings also show that much knowledge is created through social construction such as direct interaction, joint activities in both formal and informal network settings. So in this study it suggests that a knowledge creation ‘construction process’ that work and worth discussion; and not a knowledge creation ‘conversion process’.

The management of engineering change occurs throughout product development projects. Currently, this process is well documented during the detailed design and production stages; however, little is known in terms of how the engineering change management process varies at different stages of the product lifecycle. In addition, it is not known how artefact knowledge is used and created during the enactment of the activities within the engineering change management process. Addressing this knowledge gap, this thesis presents the findings from a case study of three engineering projects and a survey of seventy nine engineering practitioners from the wider engineering community. To this end, the research reported in this thesis contributes to knowledge by offering evidence that the engineering change management process is fundamentally similar within the product lifecycle; however, eight characteristics have been found to vary. In addition, this thesis also contributes to knowledge by demonstrating the key relationship between artefact knowledge and the engineering change management process. Based on these findings, six recommendations for future engineering change management practice are offered.

The aim of this study was to critically analyse governance structures within supporter owned football clubs. Mutuality is a longstanding successful model of ownership within European professional football. There was little understanding of mutuality as a form of ownership in British football until it emerged during the past decade, albeit confined to lower leagues. This research utilised a multiple case study methodology to critically analyse the key issues relating to governance structures within supporter owned football clubs. Due to financial mismanagement under private ownership, there has been a recent rise of Supporters’ Trusts taking ownership of their football clubs in the U.K. The key objectives of this research were to identify what mutual business models exist in the organisation of football and examine which governance structures are the most appropriate for mutual football clubs to operate effectively. The study focused on five football clubs adopting varying mutual business models with differing fortunes. The sample encompassed clubs who had matured with the model, clubs who had adopted it out of financial necessity and newly formed clubs which had evolved using the mutual model. This research represented what Weber referred to as ‘ideal types’ by purposively selecting case studies by type, which brought to the surface issues and tensions that improved our understanding of mutual organisations in a specific temporal context (Weber, 1949). The main findings reveal that supporter ownership allowed a greater sense of ‘buy in’ and inclusion of a wider cross-section of stakeholders. However, evidence shows limitations to mutuality in identifying alternative revenue streams, overly bureaucratic decision-making, and ability to developing capabilities to compete. It is the first major study to identify detailed governance processes of supporter owned football clubs and more significantly, has provided an original qualitative critique in the academic field. This thesis makes a number of significant contributions to knowledge. The research has been conducted in a way that allowed an emergent approach to epistemology. It has afforded the researcher the opportunity to produce knowledge that is both practically useful and academically rigorous, and it represents an important contribution to the nonprofit governance literature as well as providing a deeper understanding of sports governance themes in a football context.

The existence of optimism as a personal psychological characteristic of managers is a necessity in contemporary economy and decision making, although the phenomenon of overoptimism may lead to unfavourable outcomes. The goal is to examine the optimism bias and its impact on the firms' future performance. Especially regarding the last years where Greece faces increased economic depression, high percentages of unemployment and lack of budgetary discipline, the goal of this study is therefore, to find whether managerial optimism has an impact on corporate investment of Greek firms. Since research on this specific field of finance is quite limited, this study tries to add to the existing knowledge on the Greek case. The investigation of managerial optimism as a personal, psychological and mental characteristic encloses the effort of Greek managers to come out of the economic crisis and consequently achieve greater outcomes for their firms.