Η εξέλιξη των επιχειρήσεων και η ανάπτυξή τους έχει απασχολήσει από παλιά την ακαδημαϊκή κοινότητα (Gibrat 1931). Ένα εξιδεικευμένο τμήμα της βιβλιογραφίας αυτής ασχολείται με τον προσδιορισμό των παραγόντων επιβίωσης των επιχειρήσεων, που αποτελεί αντικείμενο της παρούσας διατριβής. Οι παράγοντες αυτοί μπορεί να αναφέρονται σε ίδια χαρακτηριστικά των επιχειρήσεων και του κλάδου στον οποίο ανήκουν ή και σε μακροοικονομικούς παράγοντες. Ο προαναφερθείς σκοπός επιτυγχάνεται μέσα από την ανάπτυξη των θεωρητικών υποθέσεων με βάση τις οποίες καταρτίζεται το οικονομετρικό υπόδειγμα. Το κύριο βάρος της εργασίας εστιάζεται στην ανάλυση των συνεχών υποδειγμάτων κινδύνου και το έλεγχο των υποθέσεων στα οποία βασίζονται. Ειδικότερα εξετάζεται η επίδραση της μορφής των δεδομένων και της χρονικής συνάθροισης στους εκτιμητές των εφαρμοζόμενων στην μέχρι σήμερα εμπειρική έρευνα υποδειγμάτων. Συγκρίνοντας διαφόρους τύπους διακριτών και συνεχών υποδειγμάτων κινδύνου οδηγούμεθα στο συμπέρασμα ότι τα μέχρι σήμερα εφαρμοζόμενα συνεχή υποδείγματα καταλήγουν σε μεροληπτικά αποτελέσματα. Η εφαρμογή διακριτών υποδειγμάτων κινδύνου PCE, που αποτελεί και την συνεισφορά μας στη βιβλιογραφία, περιορίζει σε σημαντικό βαθμό τα μειονεκτήματα των εφαρμοζόμενων στην εμπειρική έρευνα υποδειγμάτων. Η εφαρμογή της παραπάνω μεθοδολογίας προϋποθέτει δεδομένα τύπου longitudinal τα οποία δεν είναι συνήθως διαθέσιμα. Αυτό εξηγεί το γεγονός των περιορισμένων εμπειρικών εργασιών στο χώρο της επιβίωσης των επιχειρήσεων. Δεδομένης της δυσκολίας εξεύρεσης κατάλληλων δεδομένων η εμπειρική εφαρμογή στηρίχθηκε σε δεδομένα δημοσίων εγγραφών της ελληνικής κεφαλαιαγοράς για την περίοδο 1993-2002. Από όσο είμαστε σε θέση να γνωρίζουμε είναι η πρώτη φορά στη βιβλιογραφία που διεξάγεται παρόμοια έρευνα με ελληνικά δεδομένα δημοσίων εγγραφών. Τέλος, η διατριβή καταλήγει στην εξαγωγή των βασικών συμπερασμάτων και προτάσεων σχετικά με μελλοντική έρευνα. / Most economic phenomena are measured over long time intervals and this naturally leads us to see time as a discrete variable. More precisely, the underlying duration process occurs in continuous time, while the observed data comes in grouped form. In applied research, while firm life data are grouped into time intervals, continuous hazard models are used. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the sensitivity of regression coefficients and the coefficient duration dependence of the discrepancy between the statistical model and the data generating process.

This study demonstrates an original contribution to knowledge by providing a deeper understanding of management accounting practices in the context of service organisations. It explores a number of traditional and contemporary tools and their relationship to service organisations. The study focuses on the extent to which both traditional and contemporary tools are utilised in practice and also the underlying reasons why some tools become embedded in practice and the barriers and enablers of management accounting change in a service sector context. The study is explanatory in nature and uses a cross sectional survey to provide an understanding of what tools are used by service sector organisations and five in depth case studies to explore the nature of how the tools are used and the factors influencing the diffusion of new tools and the replication of existing tools. The analysis of the cases is done using Stones (2005) quadripartite framework which allows a sensitising of the data to provide insights into the external and internal structures which govern and are governed by the actions of the accountants. From the empirical research it was concluded that the management accounting practices of service sector organisations are similar to those of other organisational sectors and mainly rely upon the use of the traditional tools with limited use of the more contemporary tools. The exploration of the tools used in the case studies showed the internal structures in place which allowed the traditional tools to be embedded and replicated over time and also the external structures which when coupled with the internal structures resulted in barriers and enablers of change to the management accounting tools used. This thesis contributes to knowledge by providing a greater understanding of service sector management accounting and by the development of the strong structuration model to provide valuable insights into management accounting change and to demonstrate the continued theory practice gap in management accounting.

The study offers an insight into the dynamics of the relationship between political risk and multinational firms in the context of emerging markets. Political Risk Assessment (PRA) importance for multinational firms investing in emerging markets has increased significantly with the growing rate of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) globally. It is used for managing political risk, and decision-making processes during firms’ internationalisation, and has been identified as one of the key determinants of FDI into developing countries. However, only a few empirical studies on PRA have been undertaken in emerging markets. Previous studies have shown that political risk has been evolving and has resulted in a range of consequences that have influenced the type of strategies which firms adopt. It is in recognition of this that the need to identify a country’s specific political risk factors and their consequences for multinational firms that this study is undertaken in Nigeria. Despite the flux in the political environment of the country with its population divided along cultural, ethnic, language and religious lines within its different geographical regions, Nigeria has witnessed a continuous inflow of FDI. This research contributes to the assessment of political risk by critically analysing the determinants and indicators to examine how the consequences of political risk impact upon multinational firms, with a view to understanding the managerial practices associated with managing political risk in Nigeria. Six objectives were identified as follows: to investigate the determinants of political risk; to examine their impacts; to investigate the variables and indicators used to forecast political risk; to investigate the consequences of political risk; to explore practices of PRA in multinational firms and to identify strategies used to manage and mitigate political risk in Nigeria. Likewise, four hypotheses underpinning these objectives were formulated to understand the dynamics of the relationship between political risk and multinational firms. This study empirically used a sequential mixed method strategy to analyse statistically as well as using thematic and content analysis data collected through a multi-method approach from 74 multinational firms in Nigeria. The dataset of the International Country Risk Guide (ICRG) PRA annual rating for Nigeria within the period 2011 to 2015 was also analysed. The study identifies eight determinants that contribute to the emergence of political risk. It highlighted factors that influence the consequences of political risk on multinational firms which supports the conceptual premise for identifying reasons why firms manage and mitigate political risk in countries, and why some internationalise into specific countries. Empirically, it showed that the impact of political risk varies from one part of a country to another, as do the consequences of their impacts which inform why multinational firms are located more in some parts of the country, and how the consequences of political risk will differ between firms, depending on their location in a country. These findings have implications for practice and showed that firms could improve their conduct of PRA, influence the type of strategies they adopt and how to explore quantitative PRA methodologies when operating in similar emerging markets. This study also showed that some risk indicators used for forecasting political risk appeared major and did not retain the same value within the country. The case of Nigeria showed that the presence of high political risk does not deter firms if the financial and economic risk is low. It reveals also that the practice of PRA differs within firms and that the strategies used to mitigate political risk mostly involve the conduct of PRA and engagement in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Business angels are widely acknowledged as being a key source of risk finance for growth-oriented enterprises. Their importance has become even more significant since the onset of the financial crisis. Research on business angels goes back some 30 years, focusing primarily on two themes: (i) their characteristics and (ii) the investment process. It has become clear that business angels are not a homogeneous population. Various studies have sought to develop typologies of business angels based on their personal characteristics, competence, motivations, investment approach and types of investment made. However, this stream of research remains limited and has not progressed beyond establishing typologies. Moreover, the possibility that typologies are dynamic, with angels shifting between categories over time remains largely unexplored. Neither has it been considered how different types of business angels approach the process of making investment decisions or managing the post-investment relationship. The aim of this research is to further develop this line of research on angel typologies to explore differences between types of angel investors in terms of their approach to investment, looking in particular, at their decision-making criteria. This dissertation starts by questioning the methodologies used in research on business angel decision making. In particular, how comparable are results that arise from different methodologies. Using a sample of 51 business angels (21 gatekeepers and 30 individual investors), the findings indicate that the results are methodologically dependent. The next stage used data collected through an online survey with 472 investment decisions made by 238 angel investors. These data were used in the subsequent analysis. Firstly, a two-step cluster analysis procedure was conducted to cluster the investment decisions by the criteria weights. Three clusters were identified. The investment experience and the level of influence of others are both helpful in explaining the differences across groups. Secondly, the cluster membership was used to evaluate if angel investors change their investment criteria. A logistic model was developed. The results indicate that the likelihood of a business angel’s change the investment criteria depend on three key areas: investment specific area (ISA), angel specific area (ASA) and group specific area (GSA).

This thesis examines the implementation and effectiveness of Value Engineering in the United Arab Emirates and is restricted to major building construction projects. The aim of the reasurch is to investigate possible areas of improvement and could potentially enhance the effectiveness of the managent and control of the Value Engineering process, for building construction project in the Unietd Arab Emirates. The objectives of the research is to use the data collected to formulate a model for improvement of the Value Engineering process used in building construction projects in the United Arab Emirates. Before a model to be formulated, the following hypotheses need to be addressed. - Value Engineering is currently being effectively implemented - Value Engineering currently provides tangible and measurable benefits - Current practices in the application of Value Engineering can be improved A triangulation approach is employed, with data collected using questionnaires, semi structured interviews and case studies. The data collected was analysed and critically assessed to compare the Value Engineering process conducted in the United Arab Emirates with current best practice and to identify specific area for improvement. Based on the literature review, it became evident that the following seven (7) key factors raised by the researchers were identified for the potential to effect improvements. 1. Structure and Method of the Value Engineering process. 2. Timing and execution of the Value Engineering and workshop studies. 3. Composition of the Workshop team. 4. Understanding of the Value Engineering process. 5. Value Engineering during the Construction phase. 6. Performance measurement based on costs. 7. The effect of environment and culture on Value Engineering ii A model for improving the effectiveness of Value Engineering in the United Arab Emirates was then developed, validated and refined, based on the responses of seventy two (72) experienced clients, construction professionals, value engineers, project mangers and contractors. The responses from expatriates and Emirates nationals were also compared and the following recommendations were incorporated in the model. The identified improvement into the design consultant agreement is to:- - Include Value Engineering in the overall project programme. The identified improvement recommendations for the design stages are:- 1. Conduct Value Engineering workshop by the end of the preliminary design stage. 2. Establish involvement of end-user and who has experience in construction from project management consultant or client’s representative. 3. Specific consideration of the culture and environment in the United Arab Emirates. 4. Develop management awareness and commitment. 5. Implement the new regulations to achieve certification on sustainability (Estidama). The identified improvement recommendations for the construction stages are:- 1. Conducting Value Engineering review after the award of construction. 2. Monitoring and auditing Value Engineering cost benefits. 3. Controlling variations and change orders. 4. Verifying Value Engineering recommendations adopted are achieved. 5. Cultivate company culture and environment to maximise the benefits of Value Engineering. 6. Ensure the new regulations to achieve certification on sustainability (Estidama).

The ‘technology’ of risk structures social relationships within and outside of organisations, even though risk tends to be perceived externally as objective, neutral and apolitical. In adopting a poststructuralist perspective, this research investigates the impact of ‘calculating’ risk and how cultural, economic, social, psychological and political aspects influence the concept of risk and risk management practices. Hence, it provides a contextualized understanding of how risk and risk management are constructed intra-organisationally. This is a study of risk based on immersion. After six months of critical ethnographic fieldwork in a Brazilian development bank, called BrazBank, and applying the Discourse Theory of Laclau and Mouffe as well as the Logic of Critical Explanation of Glynos and Howarth, this research contextualises and challenges the universal logic of the discourse of ‘risk’, from a regulatory point of view. This research links macro- and micro-discourses of risk to reveal its ‘hidden power’ and to provide a glimpse into the fundamental contingencies in this discourse of control. It considers that the potential multiple interpretations of risk allows the construction of a hegemonic discourse, with boundaries that constitute and subvert certain claims in a rhetorical historic (re-)articulation of power. By doing so, it exposes how a technology that was supposed to simplify and enable, creates miscommunication in an organisation. ‘Risk’ became a battleground as controlling the understanding of risk, meant control of the organisation. Therefore, reflecting shifts in the international macro-context of risk regulation, the power of risk shifted between departments and their managers over political mandates and empowered and constructed experts and non-experts. This research illustrates different articulations of risk in the BrazBank context, how different individuals and groups developed competing interpellations of risk and, by examining the role of ideology, how and why certain conceptions of risk management practice were conserved, even as an illusion or secret, to maintain hierarchical positions and power imbalances.

The Full IFRS caters to the needs of shareholding corporations and their investors, which also led to incurring high cost especially for SMEs due to the requirements of financial reporting constructed for public companies as it is very complex and requires a high amount of disclosure (Fearnley and Hines, 2007, Haller and Eirle, 2008, Eierle and Haller, 2009). Hence, for the purpose of reducing essentially the reporting burdens facing SMEs, IASB in 2009 issued IFRS for SMEs. This study aims to investigate the relevance and suitability of IFRS for SMEs in Jordan. It will also analyse the current problems faced by Jordanian SMEs in the light of applying the current IFRSs, furthermore, the expected benefits from applying IFRS for SMEs, will be addressed. A total of 10 interviews with external auditors were conducted to test the ground and determine the relevant topics within IFRS for SMEs in Jordanian SMEs context. In addition to that, a total of 605 questionnaires were distributed to external auditors and financial managers of SMEs who prepare financial statements based on full IFRS. The overall outcomes reveal that managers; banks and creditors; public authorities; and analysts were the most frequent and important SMEs’ financial information users while both employees and shareholders were found as rare users of financial statements presented by SMEs. Furthermore, the current applied standards are substantially characterised to embrace many problems such as; the complexity of measurements and recognitions; high disclosures requirements; making inappropriate decisions and other issues pertaining to preparing financial reports. On the other hand, although the respondents especially the auditors group were evidently worried about several potential obstacles that may impede the effective application of IFRS for SMEs, both groups of users were obviously optimistic about the capability of IFRS for SMEs to mitigate the aforementioned problems and to enhance the accounting practice in terms of preparing and using the financial information. With respect to topics from full IFRS that have been omitted in IFRS for SMEs, all respondents agreed to exclude these topics from the IFRS for SMEs’ content due to the irrelevance of these topics to SMEs’ context. Likewise, the overall participants approved on the most proposals under IFRS for SMEs compared to those based on full IFRS except the suggestion associated with measuring some kind of assets, for instance; investment property; intangible; property; plant and equipment, which were rejected only by the group of managers while several proposals regarding expensing some kind of costs instead of capitalise them as well as lease matters were neither agreed nor disagreed by respondents. Finally the majority of responses show that both groups were willing to adopt IFRS for SMEs. The key contribution provided evidences as to whether the adoption of IFRS for SMEs would be a necessary undertaking. Thus, a recommendation were mainly made to the standard-setters on the basis of preparers’ perceptions of the importance of applying such financial standards.

Natural oil and gas has become one of mankind’s most fundamental resources. Hence, the performance of mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) under various conditions has received considerable attention. MODUs are designed, constructed, operated, and managed for harsh geographical environments, thus they are unavoidably exposed to a wide range of uncertain threats and hazards. Ensuring the operational safety of an MODU’s system is often a complex problem. The system faces hazards from many different sources which dynamically threaten its integrity and can cause catastrophic consequences at time of failure. The main purpose of this thesis is to propose a methodology to improve the current procedures used in the risk assessment of MODUs. The aim is to prevent a critical event from occurring during drilling rather than on measures that mitigate the consequences once the undesirable event has occurred. A conceptual framework has been developed in this thesis to identify a range of hazards associated with normal operational activities and rank them in order to reduce the risks of the MODU. The proposed methodology provides a rational and systematic approach to an MODU’s risk assessment; a comprehensive model is suggested to take into consideration different influences of each hazard group (HG) of an offshore system. The Fuzzy- analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to determine the weights of each HG. Fault tree analysis (FTA) is used to identify basic causes and their logical relationships leading to the undesired events and to calculate the probability of occurrence of each undesirable event in an MODU system. The BBN technique is used to express the causal relationships between variables in order to predict and update the occurrence probability of each undesirable event when any new evidence becomes available. Finally, an integrated Fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model based on the Fuzzy-AHP and a Fuzzy techniques for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) is developed to offer decision support that can help the Decision maker to set priorities for controlling the risk and improving the MODU’s safety level. All the developed models have been tested and demonstrated with case studies. An MODU’s drilling failure due to its operational scenario has been investigated and focus has been on the mud circulation system including the blowout preventer (BOP).

Exchange rate risk, interest rate risk and oil price fluctuations are the most demonstrated risks in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries (Arouri and Nguyen, 2010). Research, however, in this area is still underdeveloped. The importance of this study is to contribute to this research gap. This research aims to show how these three risks affect firms' market values by examining 473 listed firms in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates for the period January 2007 to June 2012. The research further examines the determinants of these risks. The study uses the AR (1) EGARCH-M model. The results indicate that stock returns in GCC countries are influenced by the exchange rate risk, interest rate risk and oil price risk. However, the exposure was highest for exchange rate risk and lowest for interest rate risk. While the effects of these risks were mixed, overall, exchange rate risk and oil price risk showed more positive significance as compared to the interest rate risk that showed more negatively significant effect on firm values. The level of the effect of these risk also differed from country to country. However, firms in United Arab Emirates revealed the highest exposure to all the three risks while those in Saudi Arabia showed the least exposed to the three risks. Oman firms also showed high exposure to exchange rate and interest rate risks. The segregated results overall showed lower exposure of financial firms as compared to non-financial firms. However, the non-financial firms in Bahrain were more exposed to the risks than the financial firms. In Saudi Arabia, the financial firms revealed the least exposure to the risk suggesting effective risk management practices. In addition, foreign operations and firm size had a significant influence on the extent of the firms’ exposure to all the three risks. Leverage also influenced the level of exposure to interest rate risk. Profitability, growth and liquidity did not reveal a significant influence on the level of exposure. Further, increasing the risk does not lead to increased returns in most of the GCC countries. The risk-return parameters were largely negative. However, positive news increases return volatility more than negative news in most countries. Also, the current volatility of most GCC firms’ returns are time varying, are a function or past innovation and past volatility. The volatility of stock returns, which is affected by changes in the risk factors, could demonstrate the non-prioritisation of risk management by firms.

The current thesis examined the relationships between personality and attitudes and behaviours related to insurance claims, insurance fraud, and credit use. The thesis incorporates a systematic literature review of Impulsivity-related personality traits. This review led to the identification and development of a six factor framework of Impulsivity-related traits (Impetuousness, Self-Regulation, Deferred-Gratification, Consideration of Future Consequences or CFC, Attention, and Sensation Seeking). The framework was subsequently used to classify existing “Impulsivity” measures so that coherent review of research linking “Impulsivity” to financial behaviour could be undertaken. The framework guided review revealed that four Impulsivity-related traits (Impetuousness, Self-Regulation, Deferred-Gratification, CFC) appeared to be influential across a number of financial behaviours and as a result could be considered somewhat ‘central’ to financial behaviour. Accordingly, these four traits were assessed in each of the three empirical studies. In addition, each study also included a number of outcome specific traits. These were traits likely to be of importance to the specific outcome variables in each study but were unlikely to be related to economic behaviour across multiple domains. In Study 1 (n = 377), the central Impulsivity-related traits and the outcome specific traits of Compulsivity, Oppositionality, Risk-Taking, and Sensation Seeking were assessed in relation to Attitudes Towards Insurance Claims and the number of previously submitted motor and home insurance claims. The results revealed that Deferred-Gratification, CFC and Self-Regulation accounted for 36% of the variance in Attitudes Towards Insurance Claims, whilst a combined demographic, attitude and personality model was able to correctly classify participants as previous claimants or non-claimants in 84% of cases for motor claims and 66% of cases for home claims. In Study 2 (n = 475), the central Impulsivity-related traits and the outcome specific traits of Callousness, Conduct Problems, Dishonest-Opportunism, Integrity, Machiavellianism, and Pessimism were assessed in relation to Attitudes Towards Insurance Fraud and previously submitted motor and home insurance claims. The results revealed that Dishonest-Opportunism, Consideration of Future Consequences, Pessimism, Age and Educational Attainment accounted for 58% of the variance in Attitudes Towards Insurance Claims, whilst a combined demographic, attitude and personality model was able to correctly classify participants as previous claimants or non-claimants in 78% of cases for motor claims but did not predict home claims. In Study 3 (n = 611), the central Impulsivity-related traits and the outcome specific traits of Anxiety, Compulsivity, Insecure Attachment and Narcissism, were shown to be differentially predictive of five self-report financial behaviour factors (Irresponsible Spending, Financial Planning, Emotional Spending, Impulsive Credit Use and Poor Credit Management; 30-50% variance explained), the number of credit cards and loans owned (≈22% variance explained), and debt (11-15% variance explained). Finally, the personality traits were seated within a meditational model of: Personality → Credit Acquisition and Financial Behaviour → Debt. This model was strongly supported and accounted for 26% of the variance in loan debt and 31% of the variance in credit card debt.