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This study develops a theoretical tramework to investigate network change and its impact on industrial structure. We take an inter-disciplinary perspective which includes network contributions from economics, management, economic geography, as well as sociology.

This thesis re-examines the 'upgrading through linkages' thesis which argues that participation in global production networks is critical to the development of indigenous firms and industries in developing countries.We challenge the idea that 'quasi-hierarchy' or 'modular' production networks, a typology modelled largely on the evolution of the personal computer and associated electronics components, provides the greatest openness for participation and possibility for industrial upgrading for firms in developing countries.

Intra-firm technology transfer by MNCs is viewed as important for a FDI-led industrialising country like Thailand. Although Thailand has attracted to a high level of FDl, MNC technology transfer to Thailand is still at a very limited level. The aim of this thesis is to explore the muUial relationships between MNC intra-firm technology transfer and the host mtry's institutional factors in the context Thai HDD and IC sectors.

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Principally, joint stock companies are governed by the principle of majority rule, which means that while they are formed and continue to work through participation of every shareholder, only those who hold a majority of voting shares can make decisions in companies. The principle relies on contract and is often supported by company law. In the main, it is advantageous to companies, the Judiciary and the economy. It facilitates collective action, allows management to focus on the daily running of the company business and encourages corporate financing, which is decisively important for corporations. It also saves, by curbing minority actions, the courts’ time and the public budget. In one sense, however, it can also be dangerous to the rights and interests of minority shareholders. Using the majority rule, majority shareholders may fix for themselves private benefits or adopt policies which are poor and consequently harmful to companies. Such danger could discourage likely investors from investing their capital in companies and might undermine one of the main purposes of the corporation as an institution introduced by law and business practice to solve problems encountered in raising substantial amounts of capital. This research seeks to study in the light of English and Iranian company laws difficulties deriving from application of the majority rule for minority shareholders and possible ways and mechanisms which can be used to sensibly curb the occurrence of such difficulties. To this objective, it identifies four factors which can explain how and why the rule is liable to abuse by majority shareholders and examines the mechanisms provided by company laws of England and Iran which attempt to strike a balance between the rule of majority and interests of minority shareholders.

Due to increasing globalisation and intense international competition, companies have begun to realise that supplier-partner relationships are becoming a key force necessary in business-to-business (B2B) distribution channels to achieve significant monetary and non-monetary benefits. However, the tasks required of implementing a successful B2B distribution strategy for a supplier and its partners face greater challenges, and are more complex now than just a few years ago. One of the methods used to overcome the challenges inherent to the supplier-partner relationship is by creating and adopting new solutions, often referred to as Partner Relationship Management (PRM), in order to provide an entire suite of web-based software solutions that are specifically targeted toward building closer and more productive supplier-partner relationships (Mirani, Moore, and Weber, 2001). In fact, substantial capital is invested in web-based technologies to complement existing traditional approaches for achieving higher business performance and quality relationships. However, this phenomenon raises the following questions: Does the result of this investment alongside traditional approaches have significant impact on business performance? Do these two approaches have significant impact on high quality relationships? If so, what are their driving factors? Therefore, this research addresses these questions in the context of supplier-partner relationships within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. Based on a sample of 196 partner organisations, we carry out an empirical study and document the association between both driving factors and indicators of high quality relationships. We find support for the hypotheses posed, such as the impact of certification on relationship setting, marketing support, technical support, and relationship commitment. We also find support for the impact of relationship setting on marketing support, relationship management, technical support, non-economic satisfaction and relationship quality. Furthermore, the results of this research indicate that marketing support and relationship management have significant impact on economic satisfaction, and that relationship management has significant impact no economic satisfaction, while technical support has significant impact on customer satisfaction. Finally, we find support for significant relationships between economic satisfaction and relationship commitment, non-economic satisfaction and relationship quality, customer satisfaction and relationship commitment, as well as relationship quality and relationship commitment. Discussion of theoretical and managerial implications, research limitations and further investigation, as well as final conclusions, are also provided.

Business-to-business relationships within sustained monopolies, such as those within Defence Procurement, have received limited attention by Management Researchers. This is unusual because under these market circumstances typically there appear to be few incentives to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes despite their strategic policy importance. The purpose of this thesis is therefore, to determine the influential relationship factors between the UK Ministry of Defence and its Industrial partners within a predominantly monopolistic Defence Procurement business. The approach adopted for this research project is exploratory and inter-subject area. It uses quantitative and supportive qualitative data to examine the problem through an economic model using Supply Chain Management, Relationship Marketing and Transaction Cost Economics. A self-selected census of 54 business relationships is carried out from both the buyer and supplier perspectives through staff questionnaires and team leader semi-structured interviews. The findings from this research show, contrary to the expectation of the theoretical model, a positive relationship success situation with a spectrum of both positive and negative behavioural factors present. However, a significant adversarial influence is a suite of issues that are endemic to the business in question such as old products, obsolescence, staff and organisational upheavals, poor end-customer visibility and lack of investment in modern procedures and systems. Within the monopoly environment these accentuate managers’ frustrations due to lack of freedom of action. The primary contribution of this research is therefore, an increased understanding of the business-to-business relationship dynamics within long-term, closely coupled, collaborative, business-to-business arrangements as exemplified by UK Defence and the results are likely to be of interest to both academics and managers.

La littérature, s’est beaucoup intéressée à l’entrepreneur solitaire, notamment à ses origines, à son profil et à ses actions. Certains auteurs le considèrent comme un mythe et un héros capable de se dépasser dans les situations les plus complexes. L’émergence des entreprises de nouvelles technologies ont fait connaître une nouvelle forme d’entrepreneuriat de plus en plus fréquente, qui se présente sous forme d’équipe entrepreneuriale. Etant donné, la réserve des réflexions académiques concernant ce champ d’étude, il est utile d’apporter quelques éclairages à ce sujet. Cette recherche se veut donc une contribution théorique et pratique à la compréhension de la notion de l’équipe entrepreneuriale et ses spécificités.L’équipe entrepreneuriale étant une entité dynamique devant être traitée en sa globalité irréductible, une analyse analytique nous semble réductrice. Par conséquent, nous proposons un cadrage théorique au moyen de la théorie systémique. / Literature has been deeply interested in the solitary entrepreneur, mainly in his origins, profile and actions. Some authors consider him as a myth and a hero capable to exceed himself in the most complex situations. The emergence of new technology companies introduced a new form of entrepreneurship more and more frequent, which comes in the shape of entrepreneurial team. Since there is a reservation on the topic of academic thoughts in this field of study, it is useful to provide some insight on this. This research is intended for a theoretical and practical contribution to the understanding of the entrepreneurial team concept. Following a literary review on entrepreneurial teams, we propose a theoretical framework based on systemic approach. In fact, the entrepreneurial team is a dynamic entity; an analytical analysis seems to reduce the complexity in its elementary components whereas it should be treated in its irreducible globalism.