This thesis was written as an ethnography; it is a detailed description of a particular society, in this case Company Y. Its purpose is to make intelligible the conceptual world in which the people being studied live. Anthopology assumes that society is a highly complex phenomenon and this assumption is reflected in the requirement to stay in the field for one, preferably two years. (1) In the field the anthropologist concentrates on the social relationships which are relatively enduring features of the society as well as the ideas and values associated with them. (S)he pays special attention to the very complex relationship between people's conscious accounts of their behaviour and those more inexplicit ideas which often actually determine it. The anthropologist proceeds by asking what is meant by a particular word or action. By this means (s)he slowly builds an understanding of the context which determines meaning for the people being studied. Ethnographic research, is in other words, an interpretive activity.

Social marketing is a technique for behavioural change that has been around since the 1960s, when prominent academics argued that the tools and techniques of marketing could be used for social as well as commercial ends. More recently, the orthodox approach to social marketing - based on the marketing management paradigm - has been challenged and new approaches are emerging. One such development has been characterised loosely as ‘co creation’, which in a social marketing context is understood to mean behavioural change interventions that are developed collaboratively with the target audience, rather than by remote experts. I present here an autoethnographic study of an 18-month ‘co-created’ social marketing project that sought to reduce risky drinking in two deprived neighbourhoods. Locating myself epistemologically within the post structural approach articulated by critical sociologists (e.g. Laurel Richardson and Norman Denzin), I have written two analytical stories about the project based upon field notes, project documents, emails and recollections. One story is akin to a thick description, the second organised around four emergent themes: negative space, legitimacy, resistance and performativity. Drawing upon literature from participatory research, international development and activist scholarship, I present a contribution in three parts. First, a detailed ethical and epistemological critique of social marketing’s claims to legitimacy as a methodology of social change; second, the development and theoretical justification of autoethnographic writing as a method for analysing participatory and action research projects; and finally, an exploration of the relationship between identity (internally cultivated and externally imposed), social inequality and social activism via evocative writing as “the very possibility of change” (Cixous, 1976, p. 879).

Increasing societal problems in social welfare, governmental and state systems, and recent cuts in public spending, have raised interest in the role of social innovation as a means of providing potential solutions. Social innovation is defined as the innovative activities derived by organisations with a primary goal to address unmet social needs. The thesis examines how this distinct form of innovation can be fostered through a unique organisational form – the social enterprise. Adopting a dynamic capabilities perspective, the study investigates the role of external relationships in supporting social enterprises engaged in social innovation. The thesis commences with a review of the literature and finds that, in contrast to extensive research into technological innovation, few empirical studies of social innovation exist, highlighting a need for research into the process of social innovation, how it is undertaken by organisations. Drawing on the literature review, a conceptual model is presented that illustrates the social innovation process in two stages: “Seizing and Selection” and “Scaling and Implementation”, and depicts the external relationships engaged by social enterprises to harness the capabilities necessary for social innovation. Using data from a large-scale survey with respondents from 262 UK social enterprises combined with 31 semi-structured interviews in a mixed method design, the study supports the conceptual model and finds that the process of social innovation occurs in two distinct stages. Further, the research identifies a diverse range of external organisations that are key to accessing the capabilities necessary for social innovation, and maps these external relationships to each stage of the innovation process. The study goes on to identify the barriers social enterprises face during the pursuit of social innovation. The thesis concludes with policy and managerial recommendations on fostering social innovation in social enterprises.

There is an emerging “aging phenomenon” worldwide. It is likely that we will require the introduction of assistive technologies that can assist caregivers in the exercise of elderly care. Such technologies should be designed in ways that promote high levels of human dignity and quality of life through the aging process. Social Assistive Robots (SARs) demonstrate high potential for complementing elderly care when it comes to cognitive assistance, entertainment, communication and supervision. However such close Human Robotics Interactions (HRIs) encompass a rich set of ethical scenarios that need to be addressed before SARs are introduced into mass markets. To date the HRI benchmarks of “Imitation”, “Safety”, “Autonomy”, “Privacy”, “Scalability”, “Social success” and “Understanding of the domain” are the only guidelines to inform SARs developers when developing robotic prototypes for human assistance. However such HRI benchmarks are broad and lack of theoretical background to understand potential ethical issues in elderly care. Further, there is little guidance for either developers or those involved in the provision of care, regarding the appropriate introduction of SARs. In this research the current HRI benchmarks are reviewed alongside the core ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice, together with a social care ethos. Based on such interpretation, practical robotics workshops were conducted in five care and extra care institutions with the direct participation of elderly groups, caregivers and relatives. “In-situ” robotics demonstrations, informal interviews and observations were conducted, investigating human behaviours, attitudes, expectations, concerns, and levels of acceptance towards the introduction of SARs in elderly care settings. Following a thematic analysis of the findings, a roboethics framework is proposed to support the research and development of SARs. The developed framework highlights the importance of selection, categorization and completion of relevant HRI benchmarks, HRI templates, HRI supervision schemes and ethical specifications for SARs applications.

This thesis aims to examine the country of origin effects on service evaluation by investigating Chinese students’ evaluation of British higher education. How Chinese students evaluated Chinese higher education and other international higher education in general was also of interest to the study. The methodology deployed in this study was McCracken’s (1988) “The long interview”. In addition, the focus group interview suggested by McCracken (1988) was used as the triangulated methodology. This study can be classified into three parts. Part one of the study has identified the COO effects on the service evaluation. First of all, British COO image was generally perceived by Chinese students as positive. Secondly, whilst there was mixed positive and negative evidence, the study found that on balance Chinese COO image tended to be generally perceived as more negative than positive. Chinese students would like to use their COO image to infer the evaluation of British higher education services. Part two of the study aims to evaluate the internal influences that can affect the magnitude of COO effects on service evaluation. The internal influences include a-priori service knowledge and vertical individualism. Chinese students’ familiarity of British higher education is generally limited which will result in the strong COO effects in their evaluation of British higher education services. Additionally, Chinese students’ familiarity of Chinese higher education is generally substantial. This will result in weak COO effects in their evaluation of Chinese higher education services. Moreover, the higher the level of the vertical individualism the students have, the more likely they will have favourable evaluation of British higher education and decide to go to the U.K for higher education. Part three of the study has found that COO effects on service evaluation will be perceived as less important when other related service information cues are considered.

The space between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers now known as Zimbabwe is a diverse state endowed with diverse ethnicities. The vast majority of the people in this space were peasants and cultivators in pre-colonial times. These peasants had a strong attachment to land because of its psycho-spiritual significance as the abode of the ancestors and other natural resources. One of the ethnic groups in this space, the Shona, had a strong attachment to land for cattle which were very important in the Shona traditional religion. The inhabitants of the space Between the Zambezi and Limpopo also traded, specialized in crafts and did small-scale mining. Trade was practiced over a wide area during the Great Zimbabwe period (11th-15th century) with Zimbabwean gold found as far away as China, and Chinese and Syrian goods imported into the country. With the opening of the African continent to overseas trade the peasants took up the cultivation of export crops in exchange for imported goods. The advent of colonialism in the land now called Zimbabwe affected the peasants’ way of life in a big way. Indigenous people suffered extremely as a result of colonial land policy which characterised the transition to western-style capitalism in the country. The British South Africa Company (BSAC), representing international capitalism, carved out large areas of land for themselves thereby affecting the close relationship between land, cattle, traditional religion and the local inhabitants. Land ownership between the colonial administrators and indigenous people created conflict which ultimately stimulated black nationalism in the country. This work therefore examines the relationship between the peasantry and nationalism, and shows how conflict over resources can motivate stronger collective action which may lead the conflict to escalate into an armed national struggle as portrayed by the First (1896-7) and Second (1966-79) Chimurenga (War of liberation) in Zimbabwe.

Organisational ethical codes of conduct have come into prominence since the millennium. However, the literature has focused predominantly on these codes in the setting of large organisations. This thesis explores ethical codes of conduct in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in the UK. The aim of the research investigation was to explore and examine the way in which SMEs adopt ethical codes of conduct and how these are created, implemented and realised throughout the organisation. This research adopted a Grounded Theory approach in order to develop a conceptual framework whereby eleven themes were identified from the literature and previous research. These themes are the nucleous of a conceptual framework and include a number of associated factors leading to the formulation of five research questions. In order to investigate the research questions a mixed-methods approach was adopted thereby providing an explanatory sequential data collection and analysis. The data collection process involved eighty-four SME owner-managers taking part in a survey, which was of a quantitative nature, covering topics related to the prevalence and engagement of ethical codes of conduct. Vignette questions featured as part of the survey for the purpose of response validity and reliability. The analysis and interpretation of the survey findings led to the development of a series of semi-structured interview questions with the view that a qualitative approach would provide far richer information and scope to cover the eleven themes. Five SMEs agreed to participate in the interview investigation, which included individuals at Managing Director, Middle Management and employee levels. In total, fifteen interviews were undertaken, providing valuable data. The final analysis identified that the prevalence of codes of conduct in SMEs is far higher than indicated in the literature. However, areas of measurement, monitoring and effectiveness of codes of conduct were somewhat lacking. This enabled the researcher to develop and construct a framework, which SMEs can use to assess their level of engagement in ethical codes of conduct. A further contribution was the development and evaluation of twenty-two emerging outcomes based on the eleven themes.

The UK Employment Tribunal System (ETS) is broken and in need of reform according to the British Chamber of Commerce (BCC) (2011) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) (2011). Both organisations, that represent and lobby in the interests of employers, have carried out research which purports to show tribunals are too alacritous in accepting spurious claims and that the cost to defend a claim is higher than settling. In contrast the Trades Union Congress (TUC) (2011) and ETS commentators have consistently argued that the tribunal system favours employers through its judgments and ability to compensate, and needs to be reformed to address this lack of fairness, specifically the remedies awarded to claimants can be minimal in terms of potential career earnings, and the psychological impact of the tribunal process can be very damaging. Focusing on three areas of social justice identified by Rawls (2005) and Cropanzano, Stein and Nadisic (2011) this study argues that although the ETS is an important mechanism for adjudicating workplace disputes, there are major concerns regarding the inclination to defend cases and the willingness to follow a claim to a full tribunal hearing. Implications are drawn from these superficially similar viewpoints as to how the government can continually monitor, evaluate and reform the tribunal system. The study considers the proposition that tribunals should favour employees, as they have more to lose from the process, and it implies that if justice is both carried out and also perceived to be administered, the ETS has to be continually modernised to meet the expectations of those involved with the process. The law is stated as at October 2013.

In elite sport, the fundamental aim of training is to improve performance in competition. It should develop the abilities of the athletes to achieve the highest level of performance. The fundamental aim of monitoring in training is to determine whether training is appropriate for an athlete and whether training should be modified. Broadly, the purpose is to control the training program of an athlete to ensure that the maximum level of performance by the athlete is reached at a known competition at a known time in the future. In this thesis, we aim to model the training process in cycling in particular. Our purpose is to find a quantitative model that coaches and athletes should follow to optimise training in advance of a major competition. To avoid under and over-training, training should be balanced and should support athletes to develop their capabilities. We develop a statistical model to optimise training. This model is based on the relationship between performance and the accumulation of training. To do this, both training and performance must be measured. We establish a new measure of performance based on the relationship between power output and heart-rate, with the appropriate time lag. The measure of the accumulation of training we use is the Banister model proposed in 1975. Then, we relate our performance measure to the accumulation of training. The parameter values of the Banister model are estimated using the method of maximum likelihood. This analysis is done using R statistical packages. Finally, we suggest some points of interest for developing this work in order to optimise a training schedule for an athlete to reach peak performance at a known competition at a given time.

This study is a critical investigation of electronic patient records in the National Health Service in England. It explores whether EPRs benefit clinicians in the context of a technology that has been explicitly designed to fulfil multiple purposes, both clinical and non-clinical, and is critical in its motivation to challenge their apparent sense of inevitability. Against the backdrop of a government vision of a nationally networked EPR the research takes a meso level perspective using primary data from interviews with users across multiple NHS Trusts and healthcare settings. The study uses Actor-Network Theory from the outset as both a methodological and theoretical approach with the aim to be revelatory about the interests at work in sustaining this technology and to question whether clinicians bear the costs of network-building for the EPR. This has shaped the trajectory of the research, which is as a consequence highly reflexive and in which theoretical and methodological concerns are given equal weight to investigation of EPRs. Whilst EPRs undoubtedly benefit clinicians fundamentally through improved access to patient information, benefits are constrained by material and social interests that reproduce existing relations. In particular, non-clinical agendas are strongly inscribed within EPRs, reshaping clinical work practices by defining what may and must be recorded, and shifting attention within clinical care. A performative conception of EPRs acknowledges the messy and multiple realities and enables theorisation of the technology as complicit in a reshaping of reality towards informatized healthcare. EPRs mediate a quantification of clinical practice that implies additional work for clinicians, and new regimes of control based around recording in the EPR. The study paints a complex and subtle picture of the use of EPRs by mapping its actor-network through the experiences of users and conceptualising the EPR as emerging from a messy, heterogeneous network of socio-material relations.