This research examines the telecommunication industry and uses it as an example in order to present a general model of how ambidexterity is carried out in the context of open innovation. This emerging approach to ambidexterity has been particularly evident in the telecommunication industry where exploration and exploitation activities are established on information technology structures. Ambidexterity is the idea that successful firms simultaneously explore new ideas while exploiting existing ones in order to sustain profitability, especially in dynamic environments. Few studies have discussed ambidexterity that is carried out in contexts of open innovation. For this reason, this doctoral thesis addresses this gap in our understanding of ambidexterity, and contributes to it by examining the question: "How do ambidextrous organizations carry out exploration and exploitation in open innovation environments?" A new form of ambidexterity has been identified in this study; it is an open ambidextrous system. It exists in a particularly transparent form around organizations whose innovation activities are focused on information technology infrastructure, specifically networking technologies, as has been evident in the telecommunication industry. This presents important implications for the management information systems (MIS) literature. Open ambidextrous systems are established by organizations when they manage exploration and exploitation in open innovation environments. From that understanding ambidexterity has been identified as open. This offers important insight for the ambidexterity and open innovation literatures. As a result, organizations that adopt an open ambidextrous system are recognized as performing open exploration and open exploitation, where the two activities are perceived as two complementing systems identified as the open exploration system, and the open exploitation system. Therefore, this research combines insights from the ambidexterity, open innovation, and management information systems literatures, and contributes to them by offering a new and alternative view to ambidexterity that is based on the open innovation notion.

The correlation between stock and bond markets is of critical importance. Pension funds, mutual funds, institutions and individuals all face an asset allocation decision on the amount of wealth to invest across stock and bond markets. Indeed asset allocation decisions have been shown to account for in excess of 70% of the performance of portfolios (Brinson et al. [1991]). Since it is now widely accepted that the correlation between stocks and bonds is subject to fluctuations over time, with the implication that these changes impact portfolio risk and thus investors' diversification benefits, this thesis looks at three distinct but related topics to do with time variation in stock-bond correlation: contemporaneous changes, predictability and hedging unexpected changes. The first topic is an empirical examination of the economic mechanisms underlying the contemporaneous time variation in stock-bond correlation. Based on a theoretical framework motivated by the Campbell and Shiller [1988] decomposition to express unexpected stock and bond returns into news components related to macroeconomic fundamentals, time-varying co-movement among these innovations can reveal the macroeconomic drivers of the time-variation in realised second moments of stock and bond returns. Using a novel dataset of macroeconomic analysts' forecasts, uncertainty in cash flow (corporate pro ts) and the real short-term interest rate is able to explain a relatively substantial part of the variation in stock volatility. Bond return volatility can be attributed to the uncertainty in inflation and the real short-term interest rate, while the interaction between several of the macroeconomic news components account for a portion of the variation in the covariance between stock and bond returns. Most notably the interaction between cash ow news and real short-term interest rate news is a driver of negative stock-bond correlation. The second topic is on time-series predictability of realised stock-bond correlation. This is investigated in the context of improving investors' ex-ante allocation of wealth between stock and bond markets using macroeconomic analysts' forecasts. In-sample such forecasts display some predictability of the volatility and correlation. Out-of-sample however, analysts' forecasts are not able to improve investors' ex-ante allocation. Based on the framework of the global minimum-variance portfolio, net of transaction costs, analyst forecast data does not provide any benefits above historical returns in forming a minimum-variance portfolio. Whilst there are benefits to using such forecasts during the 2008 financial crisis, this is overshadowed by the effectiveness of simply using the realised correlation estimate to form the minimum-variance portfolio. The third topic investigates stock-bond correlation risk and the importance of unexpected changes in correlation for the asset-liability management mandate of a pension fund. Focusing solely on the role of interest rate risk, liabilities can be thought of as long duration bonds. Since pension funds are typically net long stocks and net short bonds, changes in the correlation between these two asset classes will affect the funding ratio. Empirically this is shown for a stylised pension fund with contributions invested 60/40 across stocks and long-term bonds: The funding ratio decreases when adverse changes to stock-bond correlation occur. A stock-bond correlation swap to hedge against such a risk is therefore naturally motivated. By structuring a stock-bond correlation swap contract, a utility indifference pricing model with stochastic correlation in an incomplete market is developed. The model incorporates the role of pension fund preferences in fairly pricing the swap and leads to several intuitive findings: model-implied quotes of the correlation-swap strike fall within the range of quotes obtained from actual stock-bond correlation swaps; the higher the risk aversion and/or the more important the liabilities are, the higher the correlation swap strike the pension fund would be willing to pay in order to hedge stock-bond correlation risk.

Over recent years, natural and man-made crises and disasters have raised an awareness of the need for organisational resilience. Many organisations are now part of complex supply networks, and developing good business relationships can be central to supply network resilience. The aim of the research is to gain a fuller understanding of how organisations can exploit their social capital for building resilience. Although previous research has shown social capital to influence the resilience of place based communities, bringing the constructs together in an organisational or business community context has received little attention. The research has three objectives: 1) Identify ways in which organisations exploit their social capital for resilience; 2) Explore how four emergent ‘enabling conditions’ (time and continuity, interaction, interdependence, and closure and brokerage) help organisations exploit social capital for building resilience; and 3) Develop a reflective framework to help organisations consider how they can exploit their social capital for building resilience. The focus group is a community of construction contractors working in partnership for the UK Highways Agency. Working within the so called Construction Management Framework, a concept very different from traditional ‘aggressive’ frameworks, the research explores how contractors have developed good working relationships, collective behaviours including resource sharing and information exchange underpinned by the community’s espoused values, equal status, and peer pressure. Observed, is the contractor community’s willingness and ability to collaborate in order to improve performance and achieve shared goals. The research identifies many examples of the contractor community maintaining positive adjustment under challenging conditions – resilience.

Environmental issue is becoming a serious global concern. Human activities associate with industrial activities and households produce a great amount of greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, and gives significant impact on the environment. The legislation on carbon emissions has become an important agenda in order to control the amount of carbon emissions that might affect the world for future generations. In conjunction to this issue, therefore, the research was conducted to investigate the impact of the carbon emission policies on reverse and forward logistics strategies and operations and propose optimisation models for the paper recycling and fresh produce industry with cases in the UK. The optimal network design approach for both cases under carbon emission control is formulated. The research concluded that exporting the waste paper to Asia is a better option when pollution from the recycling is not charged. However, when considering the carbon emission in both the UK and the Asian country, the best strategy would depend on the amount of recycling and the differences between the costs of the recycling locally and overseas. For fresh produce case, with no carbon policies, road is a better transportation option. However, if the industry has to pay for carbon emission, consideration of multimodal transportation has to be made in order to remain optimal. The analysis of business strategies and configuration of reverse and forward logistics networks are carried out with quantitative optimisation modelling. The analysis for paper recycling and the fresh produce industry consider contributions to the environment and costs in relation to carbon emission. Mixed integer linear programming models were developed for both cases to obtain the optimal choice in strategic and operational decision making. Transportation industry is a main contributor of greenhouse gases that give direct impact to the environment. Multimodal transportation planning is important because it can help to reduce impact on the environment, by using a combination of at least two modes of transportation in a single transport chain, without a change of container for the goods, with most of the route travelled by road, rail, inland waterway or ocean-going vessel and with the shortest possible initial and final journeys by road. Multimodal transportation planning is proposed in the fresh produce industry with another variable which is time. The analytical result derived from sensitivity analysis is discussed to draw academic and practical findings for carbon control policy making and logistics network configuration. The research outcome has a good generic contribution to eco-logistics management of other recycling materials and to generic logistics network configuration issues. The research is also significantly contributed to government policy making in carbon emission control.

This research started from an interest in how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industry within the geographical area of Chang Chiang Delta in China operate with respect to sustainability by developing green supply chain management (GSCM). Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate what the pressures are for SME manufacturers to implement GSCM practices, and to examine the relationship between those practices and corresponding performance at a regional level in the context of Chang Chiang Delta in China. To accomplish this task, a range of literature is evaluated, focusing on GSCM theories and adoptions. This review reveals a research gap regarding SMEs’ implementation of GSCM, to which this study responds. The research is underpinned by an interpretive epistemology and a multi-method design. It is an exploratory and empirical study with two rounds of primary data collection gathered from SME manufacturers in the Chang Chiang Delta region of China, which contains the triangular-shaped territory of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu Province and northern Zhejiang Province, including the urban cores of five cities – Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Ningbo. In addition, a qualitative case study is employed in this research to provide more detailed information of GSCM implementation in SMEs. The results derived from both the questionnaire survey and the case study provide strong evidence that Chinese manufacturing SMEs have been under pressures relating to regulatory, customer, supplier, public and internal aspects from different stakeholder parties in terms of GSCM. In response to these pressures, SMEs have tried some GSCM practices, including green purchasing, eco-design, investment recovery, cooperation with customers and internal environmental management, and these practices are specific to the industrial sector considered in this study. But these practices do contribute to improving performance economically, environmentally and operationally. From the literature review and the empirical findings, this research provides contributions to knowledge, as well as managerial implications. It contributes to knowledge by providing conceptual and empirical insights into how GSCM is viewed and developed among SME manufacturers, clarifying the conceptions relating to sustainability, and incorporating stakeholder theory and the theory of industrial ecology in examining GSCM development. This study also provides practical implications by providing suggestions and guidance to governments, the public, suppliers and customers across the chain, as well as the managers of SMEs, and proposing an optimised model for the selected case for improved GSCM performance.

Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are not usually prepared for an unexpected hit or crises, and thus, guidance is required frequently in order to maintain their businesses, particularly in sudden unpredictable periods. The concern is on how to embed the necessary knowledge and skills to secure that any resulting improvement is sustainable to SMEs. Viewing this deficiency, thus this study is aimed to explore the sustainability of the impact of an external intervention in SMEs by looking into the complexity of different journeys that companies experience through knowledge acquisition. It investigates how it results in achieving sustainable improvement in manufacturing based SMEs in the Northwest, UK. In doing so, this research considers three theoretical concepts identified as Absorptive Capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Zahra & George, 2002; Lane et al, 2006; Todorova and Durisin’s 2007), Tipping Point (Gladwell, 2000, 2002) and Knowing Doing Gap (Pfeffer and Sutton, 2000, 2013). The purpose is to discover the role each plays in developing and supporting an environment so that SMEs can accomplish a degree of sustainable improvement leads to growth. The focus was on in-depth intervention represented by the Knowledge Transfer partnership (KTP) scheme funded by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), assessed as a platform that embodied the practical and theoretical concepts presented in this work. The term intervention (Done et al, 2011; Ismail, 2011) is defined as an instrument specific to those types of external support that SME’s would seek in order to improve one or more aspects of their businesses. In this thesis, intervention involved three parties. The first of these saw provision of “knowledge experts” from academia – iii universities and institutes. The second concerned technical experts that had already been working within the company. Finally bringing everything together is the KTP that allows transfer of knowledge to take place over the short term (i.e. 1 to 3 years). The results of intervention are critical. Done et al, (2011) suggests that it will have a long term impact by introducing new practices of short term activities such as knowledge transfer. As a qualitative research project, the method used to obtain data was through interviews of selected companies as case studies. The investigation was conducted by revealing the interaction process within the implementation of intervention using an exploratory methodology. In the empirical stage, the framework by Bessant et al. (2005) and the Knowing-Doing Mapping tool were used in mapping the companies and the intervention projects they implemented. The input-process-output analysis produced evidence to support the results. Key criteria and influencing factors such as drivers and constraints were considered to evaluate the current companies’ position, and how they may practically progress from one level to the next. Building on this, those factors were compiled to develop a framework for achieving sustainability. The framework represents an interacting process mapping out the various stages of improvements resulting from the intervention plan created around knowledge. This study investigates the issues that the selected companies faced and their attempts to provide solutions through the use of knowledge transfer. The analysis developed a framework that allowed investigation of factors that impact on the sustainability of external intervention. The framework identifies the “enablers” and “barriers” facing SMEs in this process. Enablers were identified as drivers that motivate the company to move forward. Whilst barriers were identified as impediments that iv SMEs need to avoid for reducing risk in applying embedded knowledge. Therefore it is suggested that by applying this framework companies would become aware of the path or route through which they can find a better chance of success and avoid relapse. This thesis has identified a novel proposition to map and present the path that companies take through acquisition and adaptation of knowledge by engaging with an external party to undertake an intervention project. The results show that a successful journey to achieve a breakthrough can be substantially supported by the correct intervention plan implementation appropriate access of the SMEs to proper guidance. It is observed that successful intervention has geared companies to increase their flexibility and ability in continuous progress and development. In some cases, the company was totally transformed in this respect. This thesis is believed to offer a new approach and model to introducing and implementing interventions project in SMEs that will add value to SMEs, assist them to absorb their required knowledge, and sustain growth and innovation in the firm.

There are critical concerns regarding the current state of the adult social care system in England. A number of factors such as the steady increase in life expectancy, financial cutbacks, and growing inefficiencies within the current system highlight the need for major reform. The prevalence of our aging population is increasing, and the financial burden associated with care continues to rise. Both acute and long-term care are affected equally. These changes are placing significant strain on adult social care, prompting the need for management efficiencies and more transparent information flow to ensure the efficient and effective delivery of health and social care. A major focus on early intervention and prevention services, such as home care re-ablement, is important because of the cost implications associated with providing excellent care to older people whilst offering options where possible to improve quality of life and incorporate patient preference. To understand how improvements can be made to the current care system, evidence is drawn from case-study analysis of Wirral, Liverpool and Knowsley, along with an in-depth literature review. This thesis highlights a multitude of issues affecting adult social care. The most significant findings during data collection were the obvious similarities between supply chain theory and concepts within social care and home care re-ablement. Where applicable, supply chain principles can bridge the gap and facilitate more streamlined coordination spanning multiple care providers in the supply network and reduce redundancies in the operation design, planning and control processes. As supply chain theory is fundamental to many adjacent faculties, this thesis strongly supports its use and application to social care and re-ablement. Fundamental supply chain management principles are not new, yet application of them to adult social care is unconventional and innovative. Development of an appropriate supply chain management infrastructure is essential to dramatically re-shape the future of adult social care.

This thesis concerns corporate governance, a field that has attracted attention from a wide range of academic disciplines and evoking the often competing interests of corporations and investors. Interest in the field grew over the past three decades in response to recurrent corporate and market failures, through which it became a focal point of public policy debate as well. The complexity makes analysis both difficult and deeply rewarding. Scholars approach it from a wide variety of often conflicting theoretical perspectives, which ironically results in a field that can seem under-theorized. Studies of the field take a number of directions, presenting a challenge to all those who study it. This thesis addresses that challenge by adopting three different stances and then bringing them together under a framework based in institutional theory. An introductory chapter outlines the work, while the concluding chapter then articulates the links further and points towards an agenda for further research.

Demand for animal protein is growing with growing human population and urbanization. In developing countries where food security is still a challenge and access to animal protein is limited, village poultry could be a viable livelihood option for smallholder farmers and it could improve peoples’ access to animal protein. Research and development in village poultry is minimal and farmers keep poultry under unfavourable production environments. Lack of genetic improvement in poultry that are suitable to the prevailing production system and impact of infectious diseases are among major bottlenecks to village poultry. Farmers’ capacity and perception to use village poultry as a potential livelihood could also be influenced by a number of factors that need to be identified for village poultry development and to target interventions to promote poultry based livelihood. This research aims to evaluate the role of poultry in rural livelihoods and to assess farmers’ preference and willingness to pay for poultry breed and vaccine technology in Ethiopia. Survey data are used and a number of statistical and econometric tools are employed for data analysis. Findings of the study show that village poultry plays important economic and social roles, though the degree to which households utilize and benefit from poultry production varies between areas and across households’ wealth status. Poultry are used as a gift to relatives, which is more common among poorer households, and poultry are consumed during festive periods in areas where the socio-cultural role of poultry is significant. Infectious diseases also had an impact, leading to unutilized potential of benefit from village poultry. Contingent valuation method (CVM) and discrete choice experiment (DCE) surveys were used to elicit farmers’ preference and willingness to pay for poultry vaccine service and traits of chicken. The results from CVM study show that farmers recognise the benefits of the vaccine programmes and are largely willing to pay for it. The result from exponential probit reveals that farmers’ willingness to pay for village poultry vaccine service is influenced by age, education level and region of respondents. Our results suggest that younger and better-educated farmers and farmers from Horro are more likely to pay for village poultry vaccine services. The result from the CVM study was further substantiated by conducting DCE survey to understand farmers’ preferences for attributes of possible Newcastle disease (NCD) vaccine programme. Results from this study show that famers prefer a vaccine programme that has better capacity to reduce the severity of NCD, a vaccine service that would be delivered by an animal health development agent and that could be given with water. Results from DCE study in village poultry show that important traits of chicken to farmers are mothering ability, disease resistance and meat and egg taste. These findings question the appropriateness, at least, in the prevailing production system, of the Ethiopian national government’s effort to improve productivity in village poultry by targeting specialized egg layer improved chicken. The findings also suggest that poultry breeding programmes aiming to provide readily acceptable breed technology by farmers need to prioritize traits of adaptive and socio-cultural importance instead of focusing on egg productivity only. This suggests the unique qualities of the indigenous poultry breeds that are important to farmers need to be carefully considered, instead of resorting to those that proved to be successful in different production systems.

Mass customisation is displacing mass production, and a conspicuous trend is for businesses to extend the variety of their products in order to provide more tailored solutions and choice for customers. Flexibility-enhancing initiatives have been implemented in order to help businesses adopt customer-centric strategies to satisfy their high-variety ambitions. Such strategies can require major changes to the way businesses and key business functions are organised; yet it is imperative that these initiatives are implemented and high-variety solutions are profitably achieved without an overall deterioration of business function performance. In particular, most manufacturers have started to recognise that a trade-off exists between product variety and supply chain performance. In order to manage the impact of product variety, numerous variety-related strategies to improve supply chain performance have been suggested. However, different levels of customisation require different strategies and approaches and affect business function and supply chain performance differently. This research aimed to assess the potential impact of product variety on business function performance and test a model designed to manage that impact on supply chain performance qualified by the level of product customisation. Further investigation aimed to determine typical differences in focus on variety-related strategies and supply chain performance according to the level of customisation. Lastly, the research findings compared the UK and South Korea. By adopting a quantitative research method, a survey of 364 manufacturing sector companies from the UK and South Korea was conducted. The results provide theory developments that support and contradict exiting views on product variety-related issues. The key findings and contributions of this research are fourfold: First, the analysis examined the impact of product variety on the performance of five business functions including engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, logistics and marketing according to the type of customisation. The research also investigated the relationships between business function performance, degree of customisation and the level of product variety offered. An increase in product variety was found to influence business functions differently depending on the combination of customisation and variety offered to customers. The findings demonstrate that low customisation types typically had a more significant impact on business function performance than high customisation types with an increase in product variety. In addition, high variety with low customisation displayed the highest negative impact on business function performance due to a mismatch between the level of variety and customisation offered. The results support organisational decision-making by providing managers working in manufacturing environments with guidance on how to provide more supportive business function design for heterogeneous market requirements and responses. In particular, specific findings have important managerial implications for the adoption of different approaches to variety under different customisation profiles. Second, the research tested models designed to support the management of product variety increases on supply chain performance, that is, it examined the relationship between variety control strategies including modularity, cellular manufacturing and postponement and supply chain performance including supply chain flexibility, agility, cost efficiency and customer service. Adopting the agility concept as an external competence of supply chain performance, this research also attempted to develop a procedure to manage variety-related impacts according to the level of product customisation. In addition, the relationship between a variety control strategy and supply chain performance was explored further by considering the level of customisation. In this scenario, supply chain flexibility and agility resulting from a variety control strategy in the model had a positive effect on supply chain cost-efficiency and customer service. However, supply chain agility in a low customisation context played a relatively insignificant role compared to a high customisation context. These findings provide guidance for manufacturers by explaining the structural procedure to manage the trade-off between product variety and supply chain performance. Third, the research is dedicated to addressing differences in variety-related strategies and supply chain performance according to the level of customisation. The results revealed that a high customisation context is associated with a higher level of customer relationships, variety control strategy, differentiation, flexibility and agility than a low customisation context, while a low customisation context is associated with a higher level of cost leadership than a high customisation context. The findings prove the general theory related to characteristics for high and low customisation; however, partnership with suppliers revealed contradictory results and displayed a higher performance in the case of high customisation through joint product development and problem-solving. Finally, the research compares its findings for the UK and South Korea. As expected, the UK exhibits a higher level of product variety, customisation, customer relationships, customer service and differentiation than South Korea, while South Korea displays higher cost leadership and cost-efficiency than the UK. The comparison reveals the weaknesses and strengths of the two countries. For South Korea, higher manufacturing cost due to increased variety with a relatively low level of customisation is a major issue that needs to be overcome. On the other hand, the UK has relatively lower supply chain agility compared to its level of customisation. These findings can help international companies set up specific variety-related strategies in order to achieve global competitiveness. Generally, the results from the research support the proposition of variety management and its relationship to customisation in the supply chain. It also contributes to the current literature by arguing that the complex relationship between product variety and supply chain performance varies depending on the level of customisation. Finally, the research reveals that appropriate variety-related strategies for managing variety qualified by the manufacturer’s level of customisation are imperative for effective and efficient supply chain performance.