The importance of customer engagement to sustain and foster business growth in an interactive environment has been recognised in the practitioner literature. It has also been observed that engaged customers become empowered in a given marketing communication environment. Yet, there has been very little, if any, academic enquiry examining these concepts within the mobile commutations context. This is surprising given that we are live in an increasingly mobile technology dominated world. Thus, the aim of this research is to examine customer engagement behaviour and its relationship to customer empowerment in the context of mobile communication. A conceptual model is built on the foundations of the technology acceptance model (TAM). This model seeks to explain the level of engagement and empowerment of customers in mobile marketing campaigns with subjective norms, information seeking, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness as antecedents. The inquiry extends to examining the impact of moderating factors that influence customer engagement and empowerment along with behavioural intention as a consequence. Following Churchill (1979), a scale to measure engagement was developed. Given the positivist foundations of this study, an online questionnaire was used to collect data. Respondents were recruited from several popular electronic forums in Saudi Arabia. Following data collection, covariance based Structural Equation Modelling was employed in the analysis. The study makes a contribution both on a theoretical level and at a practical level. On a theoretical level, a new scale is developed to measure customer engagement. This will provide a basic understanding of customer behaviour in mobile marketing communication. The relationship between customer engagement and customer empowerment was significant. Subjective norms and information seeking were significant to customer empowerment, while only subjective norms were significant to customer engagement. Perceived usefulness was significant to customer engagement and customer empowerment, while perceived ease of use was insignificant to both of them. In addition, behavioural intention was significant to customer empowerment. On a practical level, the developed scale will help to improve customers’ relationships with businesses; as marketers are now able to enhance engagement by providing an outlet for social interaction, for example. Furthermore, a better understanding of customers’ behaviour will help marketing professionals to better segment and target the appropriate customers to enhance their loyalty.

This thesis presents three interrelated empirical chapters on the Bursa Malaysia index series revisions effects on market microstructure. In the first empirical chapter, “The Effect of Changes in the Composition of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Indices on Stock Price and Volume", the effect of re-constituents of the main indices (Big Cap, Mid Cap and Small Cap) on stock price and trade volume is investigated, using a data sample which comprises information dated from the time period between 2005 and 2012. An event-study methodology is employed to evaluate the effects of stock market reactions to extraneous event. I employ short term and long term event-window analysis for abnormal returns using cumulative abnormal return (CAR) and Buy and Hold Abnormal Return (BHAR). Harris and Gurel (1986) Volume Ratio (VR) methodology is used to test for abnormal trade volume. The results provide new empirical evidence supporting several hypotheses as previously studied in the literature. Empirical evidence supporting the Price Pressure Hypotheses (PPH) is found for both additions to and deletions from the Blue Chip Index, KLCI 30. There are positive abnormal returns for stocks added to the Mid Cap Index, KLCI 70 with a persistent increase in volume in the post event-window are observed, which supports the Information Cost Liquidity Hypotheses (ICLH) and results for the deletions support the Information Hypotheses (IH). The results support the Imperfect Substitute Hypotheses in the case of stocks added to the Small Cap index. The second empirical chapter studies “The Effect of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Series Changes on Stocks Liquidity”. In this chapter, the effect of index revision on stock liquidity is investigated. This investigation is important particularly with regard to stocks added to the Mid Cap Index in order to assert my previous results regarding the ICLH as some researchers consider trade volume as an unsuitable liquidity proxy due to the double counting. Instead, a variety of liquidity measures are employed to capture multi-dimensional liquidity aspects. Specifically the study focuses on trading cost and price impact ratio as two different liquidity dimensions. Liquidity changes adapting Hedge and McDermott’s (2003) methodology is used; a pooled time series cross-sectional multivariate analysis of bid-ask spreads and also price impact ratios. Bid-ask spread (quoted), bid-ask spread (effective), Amihud’s (2002) RtoV, Florackis et al.’s (2011) RtoTR and a new price impact ratio, the RtoTRF (free float adjusted) are employed. The study is extended by examining the investability weight change in order to identify the type of shareholders that contribute more to the liquidity improvement. Evidence that supports the ICLH for stocks added to the KLCI 70 is found which confirms the earlier investigation using trade volume. More importantly, the finding support Florackis et al.’s (2011) argument on the advantages of their price impact ratio over Amihud’s (2002) liquidity ratio in terms of market capitalisation bias. Furthermore, the new liquidity measure, RtoTRF, prove to have better “encapsulation power” (at least for the Malaysian stock market) when compare to the Amihud’s (2002) liquidity measure, RtoV. The third empirical chapter investigates the effect of liquidity improvements on investment opportunities, entitled: “Does Liquidity Increase Investment Opportunity? Evidence from the Bursa Malaysia KLCI 70”. In this chapter, the relationship between improved stock liquidity and investment opportunity is investigated in light of the firms added to the Mid Cap Index. The liquidity premium hypotheses (LPH) is examined by testing whether investment opportunities increase with stock liquidity. Tobin’s Q, capital expenditures, Return on Assets (ROA) and Price Earnings (PE) ratio are used for growth opportunities and find a statistical significant increase in those depended variables after the stocks being added to the index. Amihud’s (2002) RtoV, Florackis et al.’s (2011) RtoTR and the RtoTRF ratios are proxied as liquidity measures and find that the firms whose stocks were added to the KLCI 70 had a significant increase in capital expenditures and PE ratio. The findings are consistent with those of Becker-Blease and Paul (2006). Therefore, it shows that the stock liquidity improvements associated with additions to the KLCI 70 affects firm’s investment decisions. For the LPH, it shows that investors demand lower returns on more liquid stocks and, which reduces the cost of capital and enhances growth opportunities.

An increasingly turbulent and unpredictable consumer landscape is posing unprecedented challenges for the modern marketer. Faced with a highly fragmented and cynical consumer base, aggressive competitive strategies, a constantly evolving digital and cyber world, and economic volatility characterising the modern macro environment, marketers are under increasing pressure to align their strategic positioning with “consumer hearts and minds”. Compounding this rise in consumer complexity is the development and salience of dual and multiple consumer identities, largely as a result of the growth in online and social media communities. Against this backdrop the Marketing Science Institute (MSI), the global voice and agenda setting body for marketing research priorities, has proposed placing consumer engagement (CE) at the forefront of marketing strategy, identifying the need to understand how to engage through innovation and design. Whilst academics and practitioners alike have acknowledged the importance of consumer engagement, describing it as the ‘holy grail’ for unlocking consumer behaviour, there is still a lack of consensus as to its conceptualisation and therefore its relationship with other marketing constructs. The salience of the online and digital consumer further compounds the difficulty in formulating a CE framework that is integrative and cross contextual. For instance, the construct of interactivity has considerable overlap with CE when applied to the online and digital domain. This study therefore moves away from the predominantly adopted exploratory approach to CE investigation, to provide empirical research into consumer engagement’s conceptualisation online and clarify the nature of the relationship between CE and interactivity. A post-positivist critical realist ontology was used to guide the research process, with the initial qualitative stage conducting twenty-eight semi-structured interviews - nine with consumers, eight with academics and eleven with marketing and communications practitioners, possessing online and digital expertise. The subsequent main quantitative phase then surveyed 600 online UK consumers, yielding 496 usable responses. Interview data suggested the centricity of emotional, cognitive and behavioural dimensions in consumer engagement’s structure; highlighted the antecedent nature of interactivity in developing CE online; and identified potential moderators to the CE-interactivity relationship. The framework developed for quantitative validation was therefore based on these initial findings. The survey data was subject to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling, satisfaction of goodness of fit indices, reliability and validity testing, and rival model comparison. The most pertinent finding of this research is establishing the CE-interactivity link; with the interactivity constructs of customisation, communication, control and speed of response all being found to be antecedents of CE, in order of influence. The findings also confirm consumer engagement’s multi-dimensionality; highlighting the online CE facets to be emotional CE (emotion and experience) and cognitive & behavioural CE (learning & insight and co-creation). Gender, satisfaction & trust and tolerance are also identified as moderating factors in the CE-interactivity relationship. Contributions are made through investigation of consumer engagement in the e-retailing context; providing further insight into CE’s relationship within a nomological network of already established relationship marketing constructs; large scale quantitative validation of the proposed CE-interactivity framework; and through a multi-stakeholder approach to data collection, helping to bridge the academic-practitioner divide (Gambetti et al., 2012). The investigation concludes with an in-depth discussion about the managerial implications, as well as providing an overview of the studies key limitations, contributions and recommendations for future research.

This research investigates consumer acceptance of mobile payments. Mobile payments offer an alternative payment method for consumers, and allow consumers to make point-of-sales payments through mobile devices, such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). It aims to present a better understanding of mobile payments, developing a consumer acceptance model for mobile payments. Moreover, it offers a reference and a source of literature for the industry and academic researchers in this new information systems research domain. This thesis focuses on consumer acceptance of mobile payments, and explores and investigates the factors that influence consumer acceptance of mobile payments. The lack of literature and empirical research in the field of mobile payments encouraged the development of a research framework to elucidate the acceptance of mobile payments by consumers. The present research has been conducted in order to offer a more in-depth understanding of consumers’ perspectives on mobile payments. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) have been introduced into this research, offering a solid foundation for this research and the development of a research model. A mixed methods approach was adopted for the research in this thesis. The research started with a qualitative method, using a focus group to investigate potential mobile payment users concerning usage, issues and adoption via open-ended questions. This process was followed by an example of mobile payment being identified and explored to understand mobile payments: a closed-ended questionnaire was used in this part of the research study. Study two is a case study, the selected case being ZOOP mobile payments. At the time of this research, ZOOP was a successful commercial infraredbased mobile payments system. These two studies offer rich information regarding the attitude and behaviour of mobile payments users toward mobile payments, and the expectations and concerns of potential users. The data and results from study one and study two were important as background material and for reference, and they also offer a context for the interpretation of the data from study three. Therefore, through these processes, a solid foundation for this research has been established. The proposed research model has been used in study three to address the research question in conjunction with evaluating the research model. The relationships between the potential factors in the research model have also been identified. The conceptual framework presented in this research is based on two well-known theories, IDT and TAM. Study three obtained two sets of data. The first survey was for all mobile payments users around the globe, and the second survey focused on one particular mobile payments service in the UK. The second set of data is designed to confirm the result from the first set of data. This rigorous process provides a solid model of consumer acceptance of mobile payments. The data has been analysed through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via Linear Structural RELationships (LISREL) computer application software. The study has successfully evaluated the research model and obtained results. Moreover, the survey instruments used have also been validated in this study. This empirical research is used to improve the understanding of the phenomenon of mobile payments. Moreover, it offers insight into the attitudes and behaviour of consumers towards using mobile payments. In study one, focus group studies identified the reasons for adopting mobile payment systems, for example, a convenient service. Concerns about using the services, for instance, security, have also been identified. Furthermore, the second study surveyed ZOOP mobile payment users in South Korea: it also identified that convenience, ease of use, and a safe service would attract consumers to use the service. Both studies have provided valuable information for academics and the industry to understand why consumers would like to use mobile payments and also their concerns. The results of the study have confirmed the importance of the identified factors for consumer acceptance of mobile payments. Apart from TAM and IDT, respondents note that perceived costs, perceived trust, perceived system quality, and social influence are important to them. The results of this research study should be of interest to both academic and business communities. The research in this thesis expands the usage of the TAM model in Information Systems (IS) research, validates and extends the TAM model within the mobile payments domain, and develops a new model of mobile payment adoption. Moreover, the results are of value to the business communities interested in developing and implementing mobile payment systems. Potential service providers would benefit from an improved understanding of these aspects. The identification of important factors concerning mobile payments in this study will assist them to develop and implement their systems to ensure the full acceptance and continuous use of the systems. The research framework can also be used for future research related to mobile payments or mobile commerce.

Purpose – The purpose of this thesis is to propose a scale for measuring purchase intention of regional products (REGIOSCALE) to complement the currently used CETSCALE, which was developed to measure ethnocentrism, rather than region-specific purchase intention. Its findings provide insights into the motives of consumers who buy regional products and how such motives are related to individual factors. These include demographic variables as well as regional (within-country) cultural value differences. Design/methodology/approach – This thesis is divided in three parts, each of which will focus on one research question. Firstly, what motivates consumers to purchase regional products? This question is answered by analysing forty semi-structured interviews. Secondly, does the consumer region-centric scale (REGIOSCALE) derived from the interviews have more power to explain consumer motives than the original CETSCALE? This second question is answered by conducting a principal component analysis to start the scale development process of the REGIOSCALE, followed by regression analysis to evaluate which scale is the more significant predictor of consumer motives to purchase regional products based on 1027 surveys. Thirdly, is there a relationship between individual factors (regional cultural values and demographic variables) and the regio-centric scale (REGIOSCALE)? This third question is designed to evaluate what, if any, predictive power individual factors can have on consumer motives to purchase regional products. Answering this consisted of two steps: the first step was to evaluate regional cultural differences by applying the Kruskal-Vallis ChiSQ test based on secondary data, which showed that regional (within-country) cultural value differences exist. The second step was to use a regression analysis based on the 1027 surveys from the second research question to evaluate the relationship between individual factors and the REGIOSCALE. This second step demonstrated that the strongest predictor of consumer motives to purchase regional products in the majority of regions was provided by the cultural value of “Self-Transcendence”. Originality/value – This thesis’ originality and value is threefold. Firstly, it identifies and evaluates consumer motives to purchase regional products in Germany and England, which leads to the development of the new REGIOSCALE. Secondly, it provides empirical evidence that cultural value differences exist on a regional level within countries (not just on a national level). Thirdly, it shows that cultural values can have a significant impact on consumers’ motives to purchase regional products, while consumers’ demographic variables (like age, gender, education level and income) appear not to influence purchase intentions consistently. Findings – The findings are also threefold. Firstly, the REGIOSCALE has a more significant predictive power of consumers’ motives of regional products than the current CETSCALE. Secondly, regional within-country cultural differences exist within Germany and England. Thirdly, consumers’ demographic variables do not show the consistent relationships with consumer motives to purchase regional products that the regional (within-country) cultural value differences do.

Nowadays, there are two critical concerns in societies such as British: customer defection in the sport clubs and the reduction of well-being. Therefore, sport clubs need to deliver programmes that are helpful to retain existing customers as well as improve customer well-being. Participation in value co-creative behaviours can be supposed as a means of obtaining the mentioned aims. However, literature review revealed that although there are a number of studies regarding the effect of customer participation on loyalty, the findings are debateable. More importantly, the review also indicated a scant research regarding the relationship between value co-creation and well-being (e.g., sport life satisfaction and overall life satisfaction). Further, customers need different types of abilities to contribute to the service delivery process. Identifying and improving influential abilities can help to foster customer service participation. Another knowledge gap in the marketing literature is that determinants of customer value co-creation are not well-documented, especially in the sport service sector. Reviewing of the relevant literature indicated that self-efficacy as an individual factor and role clarity and trust as relational factors may influence participative behaviours. Given the mentioned arguments, a conceptual model was suggested to investigate antecedents and consequences of value co-creation in the sport sector through the lens of service-dominant logic perspective. Moreover, at first a questionnaire was designed by reviewing of the relevant literature to assess the research constructs. Next, as the pre-testing stage 20 informants reviewed and gave feedback about the questionnaire. Then, in the pilot-testing stage 60 fitness club members answered the questionnaire. Data analysis indicated that the designed questionnaire is appropriate for collecting data in the main study stage. As the target population for the main study, data was collected among 346 members of fitness centres through convenience sampling, but only 343 completed questionnaires were usable. Furthermore, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse data. The results of structural model by AMOS confirmed that all intended antecedents (self-efficacy, role clarity, trust) significantly and positively influence value co-creation dimensions (compliance, advocacy, helping other members), except for the effect of self-efficacy on compliance. Role clarity also significantly influenced customer trust. In addition, of the three dimensions of value co-creation only advocacy had significant effect on customer loyalty. As well, while compliance and advocacy had significant impacts on sport life satisfaction, the effect of helping other members on sport life satisfaction was insignificant. Finally, both customer loyalty and overall life satisfaction were significantly and positively influenced by sport life satisfaction. This study contributes to the limited body of empirical research on value co-creation, particularly within the sport service sector. Theoretical implication of the study is that it responds to the research calls to identify determinants and outcomes of customer value co-creation. Importantly, this study not only applies sport life satisfaction as a new concept in the sport marketing research but also reveals that this construct has a mediation effect in the relationship between the research constructs. Therefore, the sport club managers should have special attention to this factor. Another important application of this study for the managers is that customer participation in helping behaviours does not lead to positive outcomes in the context of this study. In sum, the current research investigates a set of factors that enhance customer loyalty and well-being, which nowadays their reduction is a concern in societies. The findings of this study help the fitness centre managers and policy makers to know how to improve customer value co-creation, which dimension of value co-creation is more important, and the mechanism in which customer loyalty and well-being increase.

The aim of this study was to examine how Country of Origin, Consumer Ethnocentrism and Consumer Xenocentrism impact upon risk and involvement in the malaria medication decision making processes in Tanzania. An exploratory research design was adopted which helped to discover ideas and insights underlying consumers’ decisions on malaria medication. The inductive research approach was adopted which helped to get a deep understanding of the underlying factors that influenced consumers in decision making when seeking malaria medication in Tanzania. Non-probability sampling specifically purposive sampling was used to select the participants in this study; clinical officers, laboratory technician, traditional medical practitioners, Tanzania Food and Drug Authority (TFDA) key informants and consumers. The findings from the study revealed that consumers have good knowledge on the causes and treatment of malaria disease. However, consumers were shown to differ in making the decision on malaria medication based on availability, affordability, performance and quality of the malaria medication. Risk in the consumption of the anti-malarial remedies influenced some consumers to be highly involved in making the decision, especially when purchasing anti-malarial remedies. The level of involvement was determined by opinion leaders, self-decision making and past experiences. Country of Origin, Consumer Ethnocentrism, Consumer Xenocentrism and product knowledge were found to be the strategies used by consumers to evaluate anti-malarial remedies in order to reduce risk. The findings of this study are expected to provide health professional bodies with knowledge about the decision making process consumers’ use while purchasing anti-malarial remedies. This will help them to boost the standard of the different domestic medical products and hence increase ethnocentric tendencies among Tanzanian consumers. Also the findings are expected to provide useful knowledge to policy makers such as TFDA and government in general which will help them to have a productive conversation with traditional medical practitioners about how the traditional medicines are produced. Hence more research could be undertaken to find out the efficacy and standards of the traditional medicines. In addition, these findings are expected to educate Tanzanian consumers on the consequences of applying self-medication in treating malaria.

This thesis examines, from the perspective of the professional buyer, value perceptions and approaches to relationship management. Research relating to the professional buying process is often hampered by issues relating to commercial confidentiality which impacts upon access to both the pre-sales interaction and also to details of the final terms of trade. Nevertheless, both researchers and practitioners continue to call for a better understanding of the purchaser/supplier interface. This thesis endeavours to penetrate the commercial sensitivity by adopting a qualitative research stance focusing on perceptions of transactional value and buyer behaviour. Support for such an approach is to be found across a range of literature and through this methodology the research aims to provide a more holistic understanding of the professional buying process and the related social interactions and relationships. The study centres on transactions in which the prevailing power balance dictates that there is significant interdependence between the parties. These transactions are characterised by buyers having the incentive to be proactive in their choice of sourcing behaviours, but also by their recognition that they do not possess the power advantage that would allow them to simply dictate the terms of trade. The transactions examined involve rebuys which are seen to include either an upgrade or are otherwise perceived as important by the buyer. In such situations not only are buyers most likely to be focussed on the presales interaction, but literature also shows that they have more flexibility in their choice of relationship management approach. Conducting an initial literature review suggested that buyer behaviour is likely to conform to broad perspectives whose objective is either to appropriate value through building cooperative relationships or to capture value by maximising transactional power. However, in order to better inform the research effort, an exploratory study was undertaken which showed that while the initially expected underpinning principles and practices are evident; they do not fully explain buyer behaviour throughout the transactional process. Through a further review of literature, including that from the emergent school of Service-Dominant Logic (S-DL), consideration of the professional buyer’s value perception appeared to offer a theoretical platform from which those wider aspects of buyer behaviour may be better understood. While S-DL is premised on the notion of value-in-use, and recognises Exchange Value, the exploratory study suggested that a further value perception may be present. Buyer Specific Perception of Value (BSPV), which is phenomenologically determined by the buyer’s wider psychological needs, may be a significant driver of buyer behaviour. In order pursue the research objectives, the adopted method of data collection involved engaging professional buyers in a contemporary interpretation of the ‘Diary - Diary Interview Method’ (after Zimmerman and Wieder, 1977). A web based diary was initially used to collect the thoughts of buyers as they progressed through the pre-sales and immediate post-sale interaction associated with an appropriate transaction. On completion of the diary, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the buyers to develop the themes raised. The interviews were transcribed and the resulting texts examined using Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA), which involved detailed examination of the textual data in an attempt to identify recurrent themes. These themes were then systematically grouped with the intention of developing a deeper and more complete understanding of the text. In order to present the QCA results in a manner that minimises the effects of decomposition and decontextulisation, a graphical format was developed to represent both the buyer’s adopted relationship management approach and also the buyer’s value perceptions. The term ‘Transaction X-Ray’ is used to describe the resulting graphic. The results are initially presented in the form of individual ‘Transaction X-Rays’ then, through the aggregation of individual results that share specific common characteristics, composite ‘X-Rays’ are formed. Analysis of these composite ‘X-Rays’ gives rise to the emergent themes from which the research contribution is derived. The dominant behaviour pattern to appear from the X-Ray analysis is that of the ‘T-Shaped’ Buyer, who characteristically adopts an Adversarial commercial approach to relationship management while simultaneously seeking, to a somewhat limited extent, the means for operational collaboration. Secondary behaviour patterns are also identified. ‘Transaction X-Rays’ also demonstrate that the dominant value perception held by buyers is that of Exchange Value, while also confirming the significance of Buyer Specific Perception of Value (BSPV). Recognising the limitations that are implicit in findings based on empirical evidence derived from a relatively small sample, it is nevertheless suggested that the dominance of the ‘T-shaped’ Buyer profile has a significance that resonates far beyond the confines study. For example, the findings appear counter to the philosophy advanced by those who suggest that by building a relationship, and openly sharing information, the buyer-seller dyad will develop in a manner that would not be possible via Arm’s Length approaches. A further significant contribution made by the thesis relates to the application of Service-Dominant Logic in respect of the Buyer Specific Perception of Value (BSPV) which is created for the buyer, during the pre-sales interaction. This point occurs much earlier in the value co-creation process than has previously been considered within the S-DL School, and identifies a source of value that has been largely ignored within S-DL. The thesis concludes with a discussion as to the significance of the wider findings of the study and suggests where further research may extend the contribution.

This thesis aims to broaden the spectrum of brand extension acceptance literature, largely defined by categorisation theory, and bring to light alternative and complementary criteria for predicting brand extension success. To achieve this, the theoretical framework of this study replicates the principal model in brand extension acceptance (Aaker and Keller 1990) and extends it by introducing the concepts of virtual brand tribal communities, consumer-brand relationships, and co-creation of value, which originate in relationship marketing and service-dominant (S-D) logic. The thesis considers brand extension acceptance criteria within the increasingly important paradigm of S-D logic (Vargo and Lusch 2004). The present study uses a mixed method research design in order to address the research objectives of this study, enhance the robustness of the study and improve the level of reliability of the research findings. The qualitative data from the study served to deepen understanding of the research concepts and to construct the research instrument. The quantitative data were analysed to test the research hypotheses, and provide measurable results that can be projected to a larger population; the data were collected through an online survey with European consumers in the entertainment goods sector (specifically, video games). The present study found that the factors introduced by relationship marketing and the S-D logic explain a high proportion of variance on extension acceptance of joint co-creation and high consumer-low company co-creation products. Major contributions of the study include the development of a more holistic framework of brand extension acceptance; along with the adoption of the S-D logic which establishes the existence of relational and co-creative parameters in the evaluation of brand extension products. In terms of theory, the thesis contributes to the conceptual development of the virtual brand tribal community and consumer-brand relationship concept; and provides empirical support for their dimensionality and impact on brand extension acceptance. Similarly, at a theoretical level the thesis brings together two dimensions of the co-creation of value concept which were previously found dispersed in the literature, and thus provides empirical support for the effects of the level of co-creation construct. Concluding remarks acknowledge the limitations of the thesis and propose avenues for future research.

Tax planning and compliance in transfer pricing are sensitive issues that potentially affect the level of world trade. Advance pricing agreements (APAs) are intended to prevent disputes between fiscal authorities and multinational enterprises (MNEs) but to date the benefits and costs of applying for an APA are under-specified. From a theoretical perspective, foreign direct investment FDI) theories tend to provide strong support for the view that MNEs utilize international transfer pricing (ITP) as a means of ensuring the exploitation of FDI market imperfections. MNEs, however, presently find it difficult to achieve this objective given the need for them to demonstrate compliance with the arm’s length principle (ALP) in their transfer pricing operations. The APA serves as one obvious avenue to overcome this tension. Normally, an APA is formally initiated by a taxpayer and requires negotiations between the taxpayer, one or more related-party entities, and the tax administration(s) of one or more nation states. Given the critical need for MNEs to manage their transfer pricing risk in modern times, the APA programme should have been popular with many MNE taxpayers. However, recent statistics showed that this is not the case,especially in the UK where Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) have operated the APA programme since 1999. Some researchers have attempted to examine the reasons for the non-popularity of the APA programme. This study, however, goes beyond the traditional mono-method approach usually adopted by such authors. This study adopts a mixed-method methodological choice to examine the APA process. A sample of MNEs based in the UK was investigated and also their reasons for applying or not applying for an APA, particularly with HMRC in the UK. Together with the uniqueness of the methodological approach adopted, the study provides a clearer lens through which the topic of APAs can be explored and understood better. The study uncovers the confusion faced by MNEs in understanding the role being played by fiscal authorities in relation to the APA process. MNEs also face uncertainties in distinguishing between the benefits of an APA when compared with the cost of undergoing a transfer pricing audit as typically conducted by HMRC. The study concludes that three key themes (i.e., Cost and Benefit of an APA, Clarification of APA Guidelines and Generic APA Process) are critical to the MNEs’ decision on whether or not to apply for APAs. There is a need to address these issues in order to improve the UK APA process in general.