Background and purpose: Work family literature demonstrates the great vitality and diversity of scholarship in the field and it is an omnipresent factor in the study of contemporary organizations and society. The majority of work family interference studies have been conducted in nations with individualist culture and the resultant prevalent conceptualisations and models mostly reflect such cultural contexts. Unfortunately, little work has been carried out in countries with collectivist culture and the research that has been done has applied the conceptualisations and models developed in individualist cultural contexts without question. This study therefore focused on Sri Lanka, a collectivist cultural nation. Its aims were to identify the prevalent forms of work family conflict (WFC) and to construct a model of WFC relevant to collectivist culture by identifying the main factors that are associated with variation in WFC. Method of investigation: The research was conducted in a higher status occupation, banking, which typically has higher levels of WFC. It was carried out in three stages: first, a small scale exploratory qualitative study amongst a range of bank employees showed that WFC was seen as an issue by all and the significance of time based, strain based and psychological based work family conflict was apparent. Second, on the basis of the exploratory study, a self report questionnaire was developed based on the most commonly used scale of Carlson, Kacmar and Williams but adding a psychological dimension, and piloted with 20 employees in 7 banking organisations. Finally, it was revised and sent to a sample of 843 employees in 12 banks, of which 569 usable questionnaires were returned (response rate 67%). Data analysis included descriptive statistics, factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation, stepwise regression, and structural equation modelling. Findings: Results confirmed the existence of time based and strain based both work to family conflict and family to work confliCt in the study sample. However, there was no evidence of behavioural based work family conflict found in the West. The existence of the proposed new dimension of psychological based work family conflict was confirmed and these findings are consistent with the differences between collectivist and individualistic cultures noted in the literature. Therefore, the original Carlson, Kacmar and Williams’ work family conflict model was revised by replacing the behavioural with the new psychological based dimension. It was found that: (1) Work to family conflict was determined by work demand, and that work demand was predicted by working hours, tenure, gender, income, formal work life policies and supervisory status. Work support was shown to act as a moderator between work demand and work to family conflict. Overall, these variables accounted for 85.4 % of variance in work to family conflict. (2) Family to work conflict was determined by family demand, and that family demand was predicted by hours spent on household chores, hours spent on childcare, hours spent on dependents, formal work life policies, informal work life policies, and gender. Family support was shown to act as a moderator between family demand and family to work conflict. Overall these variables accounted for 82.2 % of the variance in family to work conflict. (3) The results further revealed that gender role ideology moderated the relationship between family demand and family to work conflict: the relationship between family demand and family to work conflict was stronger for women who reported a high level of gender role ideology than for those who reported lower level of gender role ideology. Contributions: This study made theoretical, parametric, geographical and methodological contributions to the WFC literature.

In recent years, there has been significant interest in communication on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Tehemar, 2012; Bortree, 2014). Yet, it is impractical to assume a onesize- fits-all definition for CSR (Crane and Matten, 2007; Walter, 2014). Therefore, this becomes an important area for research as CSR communications play a vital role in any CSR strategy in the business world, more especially in Ghana. Consequently, a good CSR communication can address the increasing cynicism about CSR when it is done effectively (Du et al., 2010; Kim and Ferguson, 2014). While a body of research exists about CSR communication at a theoretical level (Brugger, 2010; Schmeltz, 2012), there is a lack of empirical research investigating the topic in a particular policy and cultural content (Emel et al., 2012). The aim of this study was to address the limited research on CSR communication in Ghana. It empirically investigated whether the CSR dimensions (Triple Bottom Line) and effective CSR message components are positively linked with CSR stakeholder’ approval. The effects of individual characteristics including education and gender were also tested on the relationships. The study integrates insights from stakeholder theory (Vaaland et al., 2008; Wang, 2008) supported by both legitimacy theory (Perk et al., 2013) and institutional theory (Suddaby, 2013) to explain the planned base for CSR communication. A cross-sectional survey with 817 responses was used. This consisted of government-local-authority officials, mining company employees and host community officials from multinational mining companies (AngloGold Ashanti Limited, Ghana Bauxite Company Limited and Ghana Manganese Company Limited) operating in areas of southern Ghana. A quantitative survey analysis was employed to test the relationships through multiple regression analysis. One of the contributions pertains to the introduction of constructs of social, environmental and economic bottom lines to form a new, easy-to-remember acronym, the ‘SEE’ element in the CSR message contents. The results also make a contribution to knowledge by indicating that CSR message dimensions positively affect the way stakeholders approve mining companies’ CSR communications. Additionally, there were clear education and gender differences amongst stakeholders in accepting and approving companies’ CSR messages in Ghana. Furthermore, divergent stakeholders prefer different CSR message channels, and that certain CSR message contents are important for a particular stakeholder group.

This study investigates financial management and small firms through considering some of the financial concepts that are used by owner-managers, their meanings and the relationships between them. At the same time, it examines the contexts through which these concepts are given meaning - how, for example, the business, the owner-manager and the environment have to be constituted for the concepts to have the meanings they are given. Particular attention is given to the rhetorical constructions that allow the emplacement of certain financial management procedures in small firms to the exclusion of others. In this it differs from existing research into small firms which the study depicts as being locked in to a paradigm of 'best practice' that has both unflatteringly compared procedures in small firms with an idealisation of practices in large firms and proceeded to quantify difference rather than attempt to explain it. The study used discourse analysis procedures to examine two key areas: pricing and cashflow management. From this a number of conclusions are offered as to owner-managers' organisation of their businesses. The principal findings are fourfold. Owner-managers are able to create and manage the interplay between formal accounting procedures with both informal knowledge about the business and wider moral and social conventions in ways that blur such distinctions and emphasise both personal authority and business legitimacy. Secondly, the study shows that as this informal knowledge is often grounded in the owner-manager, ownership and knowledge derived from ownership help define the owner-manager's authority in such a way that external advice is made of limited use or irrelevant. Third, value in the business is revealed as both movable and reflexive. Owner-managers use the prices that they set, for example, as a measure of their own worth and of wider status considerations. Finally, the flexibility in the use of formal and informal knowledge allows the owner-manager freedom to define some areas as calculable (and so subject to 'rational' decision-making) and others 'unknowable' (and thus subject to personal, subjective relationships). As the future is typically rendered 'unknowable' this both allows different treatments of suppliers and customers and helps explain issues such as why owner-managers apparently resist blandishments to increase their planning activities.

The focus of this dissertation is to examine the strategic responses of Indian room air-conditioner (RAC) manufacturers to changes in the business environment, specifically those brought about by economic liberalisation, market reform, and new foreign competition post 1991. Strategic management literature is replete with appeals for examining developing economy industries in a state of transition, yet very little data exist pertaining to the strategic responses of firms as they adjust to increasing competitive pressures, both domestic and foreign, within the Indian market. Using an emerging market- strategic factor - corporate strategy conceptual model developed by the researcher from strategic management literature, this research investigates how Indian RAC firms have been responding to the changes brought about by liberalisation and reform. Information was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews with respondents at three different levels within the domestic room air-conditioner industry. These included industry experts, RAC manufacturers, and dealers of RACs. In addition, secondary data was also collected in order to examine the strategic behaviour of RAC manufacturers over the past fifteen years, thereby providing a contextual/historical background to the primary data. The strategic analysis undertaken of the Indian RAC industry and the capture of rich data, obtained from the in-depth interviews in particular, make a major contribution to strategic management knowledge - specifically within an emerging market context such as India. The research findings show that liberalisation and reforms have increased foreign and domestic competition within the Indian RAC industry and substantially raised consumer demand levels. The results demonstrate that the institutional environment, and the RAC industry structure and market settings have had a significant impact on domestic organisations' strategy. Firm-specific resources and network/relationship capabilities, however, have exerted a smaller influence since the onset of economic reforms. Yet, the importance of the resource and relational perspectives can beseen in Indian RAC firms' responses to the changing environment. The research noted cost reductions, an expansion in RAC product ranges and marketing initiatives, and strategic alliances with industry participants as typical responses.

No description available.

The subject of this thesis is teleworking as one of the genus of flexible working options for new economy service organisations. The research took the form of a multi-dimensional case study at Lloyd's Policy Signing Office (LPSO) which is the largest profit centre division of the Corporation of Lloyd's. The Corporation is responsible for the international insurance market, Lloyd's of London. LPSO employs 400 people and provides professional support services to its customers being the Lloyd's syndicates, Insurance Brokers and Managing Agencies that make up the market. The study involves examination of the business case for teleworking from the perspective of all the principal constituencies involved. The findings of previous research in relation to costs and benefits, staff productivity, staff retention and absenteeism levels are critically examined. Similarly the employee perspective in relation to the demand for teleworking, their job satisfaction and perception of work-life balance are also investigated within the context of existing research. The theory paradigms used to provide the structure to the research are principally the theory of the flexible firm, use of Balanced Score Card and from the Operational Research arena, use of six sigma methodology. The financial case for teleworking is also examined in detail. The fact that LPSO teleworkers perform largely the same tasks as their office based colleagues, and both groups work within the same management and process structure is a feature unusual in existing studies. Also, the level of access to and degree of co-operation from within Lloyd's made it possible to examine the case to a degree not found in existing research into any comparable organisation. The investigation found higher levels of productivity for teleworkers, lower levels of unplanned absence, and some evidence of a propensity to stay with LPSO because of the availability of teleworking. Teleworkers reported levels of work and life satisfaction that were never lower than office based colleagues and higher in some key respects. This was despite the fact that teleworkers feared that they might be disadvantaged in terms of career development and access to training. The study found that the financial pay-back for introducing teleworking was near neutral. Further, it was found that for LPSO higher levels of productivity might not be attributable solely to teleworking per se. Improved productivity might also arise because of the way in which work was distributed and output measured for teleworkers. Adopting comparable distribution and measurement for office based staff was potentially a viable option for LPSO management. Therefore, despite the significant increase in the productivity of teleworkers compared to their office base colleagues the resources required to introduce teleworking might be better applied to other means of improving per capita efficiency with the effects on employees' work-life balance being only an incidental by-product.

Globalization has affected the economic activity of the countries across the world through liberalization of trade and exchange regimes. Moreover, the enhancements in information technology in turn have made it possible for firms to coordinate their activities in a more efficient way, in recent decades. In this setting it is easier for firms to outsource their activities to other countries through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in order to gain competitive advantage. FDI has been considered as one of the factors that significantly influence the economy of countries through affecting the balance of payments, increasing employment, transfer of technology and resources. Since FDI is generally considered as one of the factors that has a great potential to contribute to economic activity of the countries, particularly in case of developing and less developed countries, the disparity in the level of FDI flows observed in case of many developing countries has led to plethora of research on the subject relating the inequalities to macroeconomic factors, institutional factors, and economic geography. In spite of the fact that the literature on FDI, is well developed on a number of areas, the literature on the effect of institutional factors on FDI activity, and in particular the effect of civil and political liberties on FDI flows remains limited and subject to contrary results that renders it inconclusive. This research explores the effect of civil and political liberties on FDI flows. In doing so, we review the literature on determinants of FDI, and establish the firms’ motivations as factors that affect their FDI behaviour. Furthermore we introduce, and conceptually bridge the Varieties of Capitalism of Hall and Soskice (2001) into IB literature, in order to distinguish between the behaviour of firms from various market economies (i.e. LMEs, CMEs, and Nordic) based on the labour law policies of the firms’ home countries. Consequently the incorporation of VoC into IB literature allows us to build on the works of Due et al (1991) and Gold (1993) and Hall and Soskice (2001), and explore the effect of the differences that exist in the way firms in different market economies coordinate their activities, and afford us the possibility of explaining the firms coordination of their FDI activity in the light of their market structures, and underlying institutional differences that influence their behaviour with regard to FDI. We also review the literature on institutional determinants of FDI in order to enrich our understanding of the institutional factors that influence FDI activity. In reviewing the literature on institutional determinants of FDI, we specifically adopt meta analysis methods in order to examine whether there are systemic biases introduced to the literature through the common choices made in terms of scale and study properties (i.e. the choice of country level analysis, data range and decade influences; etc.).We find that firms’ motivations influence the type of relationships found between FDI and the existing level of civil and political liberties in countries. The use of composite measures such as democracy instead of their disaggregated individual constructing sub measures such as civil and political liberties generally leads to provision of distorted results. We also find that the choice of host country influences the relationship between FDI and democracy as well as political liberties. Similar to the arguments put forward by Busse (2004) we find that FDI activity has been subject to changes in different decades as a result of changes in the firms’ motivations and market structure. Moreover, we theoretically explore the effect of civil liberties and political rights on the initial cost of FDI and thereby FDI activity. The models provided build upon the works of Grout (1984); Hart and Moutos (1995) and Adam and Filippaios (2007). It is assumed that the decision of FDI is influenced by the initial cost of investment into the designated host country. Therefore, firms are considered to bargain with employee representatives (labour unions) in the host country before deciding upon their investment abroad, in order to obtain full information with regard to the initial costs of investment. Our theoretical model demonstrates that the effect of civil liberties channelled through union power in the bargaining processes over wages and employment, on aggregated FDI flows is negative, while the effect on sectoral FDI flows is non-linear where the non-linearity stems from the level of labour to capital share of production of specific sectors considered. Furthermore, our theoretical model shows that the effect of political rights channelled through taxes on income and profit tend to be positive on FDI flows irrespective of the level of aggregation. Our empirical investigation of the theoretical findings using the data on the FDI from 8 host countries into 140 developed, developing and less developed host countries for the period of 1990-2009, show that the effect of civil liberties on aggregated FDI flows is negative, while a positive effect is reported for the effect of political rights on aggregated FDI flows. In contrast, considering the effect of civil and political liberties on sectoral FDI (manufacturing and services sectors) we find a non-linear effect reported for both factors, indicating that the effect of civil and political liberties on sectoral FDI flows are non-linear across sectors. Our sensitivity analyses explores the effect of civil and political liberties on aggregated and disaggregated FDI flows into two main group of countries: countries with high and moderately high level of civil liberties; countries with moderately low level of civil liberties. The results provide further empirical evidence on the non-linear effect of civil and political liberties on sectoral FDI flows into host countries with various levels of civil liberties. However, the effect of civil liberties is shown to be linear and negative on aggregated FDI flows into all countries, irrespective of their level of civil liberties. In contrast a non-linear effect of political rights on aggregated FDI flows into host countries with various levels of civil liberties is observed. This research contributes to the literature in several ways: Firstly, it contributes to the theory by bridging the IB literature to the literature from political science on Varieties of Capitalism. Secondly, it provides a theoretical framework, and empirical analyses that explore the FDI activity in the sectoral level. Thirdly, it demonstrates that the use of aggregated data leads to findings linear relationships where the in reality the effects of civil liberties and political rights on FDI are not linear. Fourthly, it provides a number of recommendations for future research.

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, the thesis provides both empirical evidence and theoretical explanations to show the nature, behaviour, and roles of job satisfaction and personality on self-employed entrepreneurship survival. The thesis poses three research questions: Does self-employed job satisfaction adapt? Does job satisfaction predict the likelihood of survival of self-employed businesses after start-ups? Does personality play a role in the survival probability of men and women who manage self-employed enterprises? The first question hypothesises that the initial boost in job satisfaction associated with the transition into self-employment is transitory, dissipating rapidly during the early years of the self-employment venture. Findings suggest that men who become self-employed enjoy a more permanent boost in overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with pay and, to some extent, satisfaction with the nature of the work itself. Women experience a boost in satisfaction with the nature of the work itself and to, a lesser extent, a boost in satisfaction with pay. Both of these effects for women are short-lived, casting doubt on the importance of job satisfaction, work-schedule flexibility, and work-life balance as pull factors into self-employment. The second question re-examines the link between job satisfaction and self-employment survival and argues that the relationship is not necessarily a contemporaneous one. That is, job satisfaction at time t is not necessarily the best predictor of survival/exit at time t, but it is the whole self-employment experience that matters rather than the last reported satisfaction. The results show that job satisfaction does not predict the probability of survival. Rather, the maximum job satisfaction and the peak-end combinations during the self-employment episode are better predictors of survival. The last question draws on the robust measures of personality to forecast the survival chances of men and women-managed enterprises, paying attention to occupational differences. Findings show that, unlike previous studies, different personality traits predict men and women-managed ventures survival chances over time; and that the likelihood of survival overtime of both men and women-managed enterprises by occupational categories is dependent on the different personality traits complementing themselves in different scenarios. The thesis contributes to the existing literature by offering a novel behavioural research perspective into the analysis of self-employment dynamics.

Over the last decade, researchers have been increasingly interested in exploring the nature and potential benefits of an organisation's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. CSR refers to "actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law" (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, p.117). The majority of research to date has focused on an organisational perspective and demonstrated that engaging in CSR activities results in positive organisational outcomes such as a reduced firm risk (McWilliams and Siegel 2001), increased attractiveness for investors (Aguilera, Rupp, Williams and Ganapathi 2007) and prospective employees (Bhattacharya et al. 2008) and reduced employee turnover (Galbreath 2009). More recently, researchers have turned their attention towards exploring how and organisation's employees respond to CSR activities. Corporate volunteering (CV) is emerging as an important tool through which organisations demonstrate their CSR. A focus on CV answers the call for an employee-centered understanding of CSR. This thesis explores the drivers and consequences of CV for employees and the employing organisation. This study integrates research on functional motivation and organisational support with CV to demonstrate that emploees' integral and external motives offer a perspective towards the CV initiatives in their organisations. This research also contributes to CV literature by examining the consequences of CV for the employee as well as the organisation. As CV involves volunteers who are also regular employees, the researcher expects that participating in CV will have an impact on how employees behave during their regular employment and also for the employing organisation, who in this case are the facilitators of the CV programme. Drawing on social exchange theory and intrinsic motivation theory, the study focuses on organisational outcomes of organisational commitment and work engagement and employee outcomes of job satisfaction and employee health and well-being as a result of CV participation. This study also examined the process through which CV activities influence the above mentioned outcomes. Inconsistencies in findings on research in CV have elicited calls for mediation mechanisms to be identified that will clarify relationships between CV and its outcomes. By focusing on social identity theory, this study suggests that pride and organisational identification (OI) mediates the relationship between employees' attitudes to CV and the consequences. Electronic questionnaires were distributed to employees in organisations that had corporate volunteering initiatives from Malaysia and Singapore. The final sample size after deleting for missing data incomplete questionnaires was 160 respondents. On average, participants were 38 years old with a SD on 9.1 years. 58.2 percent were female and 41.8 percent were male. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyse the data. The findings suggest that employees participate in CV for a variety of motives, the most significant of which is a desire to experience new learning experiences and to have the opportunity to use these knowledge, skills and abilities that they might not use in their regular jobs. Participating to express altruism, improving relationships with others, protecting the ego from negative features and enhancing positive strivings of the ego proved to be less important. Another important finding is that employees are driven by the support shown by their employers in terms of paid leave and time off. In terms of consequences, the findings suggest that all the dependent variables have a positive relationship with employees' attitudes towards corporate volunteering when mediated by both pride and organisational identification. By conceptualising and examining the relationships in this model, this study makes the following contributions. First, this research integrates several underpinning theories to develop a new theoretical framework that explains the drivers, consequences and mediators of CV. Second, by adopting Clary et al.'s (1998) functional theory and organisational support, this study contributes towards a perspective to explain individuals' attitudes towards their organisations' CV initiatives. It also contributes towards healthy debate on similarities and differences between general volunteering and CV. Third, this study integrates social exchange theory and intrinsic-extrinsic motivation to contribute to the literature on the outcomes of CV by incorporating organisational commitment, work engagement, job satisfaction and health and well-being in one model. Fourth, this study integrates social identity theory and intrinsic-extrinsic motivation theory to examine how pride and organisational identification mediate the processes through which CV activities influence employee outcomes of job satisfaction and health and well-being as well as employer outcomes of organisational commitment and work engagement.

This doctoral research explored extracurricular university-based Business Plan Competition (BPC) participation as an entrepreneurial learning experience for the nascent entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial learning is vital to nascent entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial process. As a mode of entrepreneurship education, the BPC has been widely proffered as a mechanism for the supply of entrepreneurial learning, primarily on account of its affordance of experience and necessary knowledge, skill and mind-set development. An enduring presence of BPCs on university campuses globally reflects such an entrepreneurial learning rhetoric. However, despite the ready espousal of the BPC as a relevant and valuable learning experience it can be observed that there is a lack of evidence to substantiate such a view, particularly from the perspective of the nascent entrepreneur participants and their experiences of participation but also in light of sustained scepticism toward the business plan within entrepreneurship contexts. Underpinned by a constructivist paradigm, the study responded to the aforementioned research problem through a Longitudinal Qualitative Research design. In-depth interviews were carried out with the same sample of nascent entrepreneur participants at the start, end and six months after their participation in a UK-based extracurricular BPC. The narratives of participation generated were thematically analysed at the end of each wave of data collection and then longitudinally at the conclusion of the nine month data collection period. This enabled the identification of ‘know-why’, ‘know-what & how’ and ‘know-who’ as conceptual themes. These themes signified change identified in the participant with regards to whether BPC participation was viewed and realised as an entrepreneurial learning experience. The research found that entrepreneurial learning featured strongly within the participant’s initial rationale for competition participation. However, there was generally limited application of the competition experience and learning afforded within continued venture implementation. This was indicative of a narrowing relevance of the BPC as an entrepreneurial learning experience, and the knowledge, skills and attitudes afforded, as the nascent entrepreneur moved from a business plan-led to effectual approach to entrepreneurial new venturing. The implication is that the espoused role, scope and usefulness of the BPC as an entrepreneurial learning experience is undermined and therefore in need of a rethink. Through presenting a new understanding of the BPC as an entrepreneurial learning experience from the perspective of the nascent entrepreneur participant, this study makes a timely and original contribution to the theory and practice of BPC provision and methods for exploration of impact.