Due to the rapid growth of Internet technology, universities and higher educational institutions around the world are investing heavily in web-based learning systems to support their traditional teaching and to improve their students’ learning experience and performance. However, the success of an e-learning system depends on the understanding of certain antecedent factors that influence the students’ acceptance and usage of such e-learning systems. Previous research indicates that technology acceptance models and theories may not be applicable to all cultures as most of them have been developed in the context of developed countries and particularly in the U.S. So far little research has investigated the important role that social, cultural, organizational and individual factors may play in the use and adoption of the e-learning systems in the context of developing countries and more specifically there is almost absence of this type of research in Lebanon. This study aims to fill this gap by developing and testing an amalgamated conceptual framework based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and other models from social psychology, such as Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and TAM2 that captures the salient factors influencing the user adoption and acceptance of web-based learning systems. This framework has been applied to the study of higher educational institutions in the context of developing as well as developed countries (e.g. Lebanon and UK). Additionally, the framework investigates the moderating effect of Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions at the individual level and a set of individual differences on the key determinants that affect the behavioural intention to use e-learning. A total of 1197 questionnaires were received from students who were using web-based learning systems at higher educational institutions in Lebanon and the UK with opposite scores on cultural dimensions. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to perform reliability and validity checks, and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in conjunction with multi-group analysis method was used to test the hypothesized conceptual model. As hypothesized, the findings of this study revealed that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), subjective norms (SN), perceived quality of work Life (QWL), self-efficacy (SE) and facilitating conditions (FC) to be significant determinants of behavioural intentions and usage of e-learning system for the Lebanese and British students. QWL; the newly added variable; was found the most important factor in explaining the causal process in the model for both samples. Our findings proved that there are differences between Lebanese and British students in terms of PEOU, SE, SN, QWL, FC and AU; however no differences were detected in terms of PU and BI. The results of the MGA show that cultural dimensions as well as demographic factors had a partially moderated effect on user acceptance of e-learning. Overall, the proposed model achieves acceptable fit and explains for 68% of the British sample and 57% of the Lebanese sample of its variance which is higher than that of the original TAM. Our findings suggest that individual, social, cultural and organisational factors are important to consider in explaining students’ behavioural intention and usage of e-learning environments. The findings of this research contribute to the literature by validating and supporting the applicability of our extended TAM in the Lebanese and British contexts and provide several prominent implications to both theory and practice on the individual, organizational and societal levels.

The growth literature has put much emphasis on explaining the role of physical capital, human capital, innovation and institutions on economic growth. However, sociologists raise the importance of understanding the structures of social relationships because they help shape economic actions. It is not until recently that the concept of ‘’social capital’’ has been at the forefront of economic debates. While the vast majority of studies have shown that social capital is unconditionally good for economic growth, several studies argue that the impact of social capital depends on a country’s level of development. Therefore, an OLS regression is estimated using a panel data from 53 developed and developing countries to analyze the relationship between social capital, proxied by trust and GDP/capita growth. The results suggest that social capital is significant and positively related to GDP/capita growth in developed and developing countries. However, the relationship between social capital and GDP/capita growth is much stronger in developing countries. Policymakers can use this valuable insight while making growth-strategy decisions, especially in developing countries.

Recentemente, importantes questionamentos emergiram na literatura sobre repasse cambial. Mais especificamente, foi dada crescente atenção à hipótese de Taylor (2000) de que o pass-through se reduziu em diversos países como conseqüência do ambiente de inflação mais baixa. Esta dissertação investiga o tema através da aplicação de painéis dinâmicos para um conjunto de economias desenvolvidas. Deste modo, são estimados modelos de efeito fixo e Arellano-Bond em janelas fixas (rolling windows), que apontam para uma redução substancial na transmissão do câmbio para a inflação. A análise de potenciais determinantes macroeconômicos dessa queda indica que o ambiente inflacionário foi o principal elemento por trás do fato, sobretudo nos anos oitenta e noventa, em que o processo de desinflação foi mais intenso. Por outro lado, os anos dois mil apresentam um coeficiente de pass-through bastante baixo e estável, visto que o cenário de inflação baixa já estava consolidado para o conjunto de economias analisadas. / Recently, economists have become more interested in studying exchange rate pass-through. More specifically, increasing attention has been given to Taylors (2000) hypothesis that the passthrough has declined in several countries as a result of a lower inflation environment. This dissertation examines this issue through the application of dynamic panels for a number of developed economies. Panel data models are estimated here using fixed effects and Arellano- Bond estimators in rolling windows. The results point to a substantial reduction in the transmission of exchange rate to inflation. The analysis of potential macroeconomic determinants of this decline indicates that the inflationary environment was the main factor behind this fact, mainly in the eighties and nineties when the disinflation process was more intense worldwide. On the other hand, in the first decade of this century the pass-through coefficient was fairly low and stable, perhaps because the scenario of low inflation was already a longstanding reality to the economies analyzed in the present study.

Pesquisas sobre instituições sustentam que estas influenciam a natureza da atividade econômica. A argumentação é que um ambiente institucional favorável, com regras bem definidas, é benéfico ao empreendedorismo. Todavia, a literatura disponível é muito focada no que ocorre nos países desenvolvidos, e sabe-se que a atividade empreendedora também ocorre nos países não desenvolvidos, que costumam ser mais instáveis social e economicamente. A partir de tal dilema, a pergunta de pesquisa do trabalho como um todo foi: Qual a relação entre instituições e empreendedorismo de acordo com o nível de desenvolvimento do país? O objetivo geral foi esclarecer como as características institucionais formais e informais dos países afetam o ingresso e a sobrevivência de empreendedores em diferentes mercados. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas: (1) teórica, focando em conhecer a literatura que aborda instituições e empreendedorismo a partir de um estudo bibliométrico com o software CiteSpace e (2) empírica, com o intuito de confirmar que o empreendedorismo dos países desenvolvidos é diferente dos países não desenvolvidos e de apontar quais são algumas das diferenças a partir de dois estudos de caso. Nos estudo teórico encontrou-se que, em relação à rede de citações e cocitações formada, há duas correntes principais de pesquisa: (1) autores neo-institucionalistas com foco econômico, tendo North (1990) como um autor representativo, ligados aos schumpeterianos no empreendedorismo, e (2) autores neo-institucionalistas com foco sociológico, evidenciados principalmente pelo trabalho de DiMaggio e Powell (1983), mais próximos da corrente kirzneriana do empreendedorismo. No estudo empírico, a parte quantitativa confirmou, com base nos dados do Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), que existe diferença estatisticamente significativa entre o empreendedorismo, tanto o estabelecido como o nascente, dos países desenvolvidos e o dos não desenvolvidos. A parte qualitativa do estudo empírico, baseada em dois estudos de caso, mostrou que, para o início da atividade empreendedora, as instituições formais são mais relevantes nos países desenvolvidos, caso da Rede de Churrascarias Brasileira nos Estados Unidos, enquanto as instituições informais são mais valiosas nos países não desenvolvidos, caso do Grupo Pinesso no Sudão. A principal conclusão da dissertação é que, nos países não desenvolvidos \'o jogo não é para todos\', é necessário que o empreendedor esteja inserido no ambiente social e possua relações interpessoais pertinentes para que possa iniciar e prosperar em um negócio. Por outro lado, nos países desenvolvidos é mais importante que o empreendedor conheça e cumpra as regras formais para começar e continuar seu empreendimento. Vale ressaltar que os dois tipos de instituições atuam no processo empreendedor em ambos os grupos de países. / Researchs on institutions maintain that they influence the nature of the economic activity. The argument is that a favorable institutional environment, with well-defined rules, is beneficial to entrepreneurship. However, the literature available is focused on what happens at developed countries, and it is known that the entrepreneurial activity also occurs at undeveloped countries, which tend to be more socially and economically unstable. From this dilema, the research question of the thesis as a whole was: What is the relation between institutions and entrepreneurship according with the country\'s level of development? The general objective was to clarify how the institutional characteristics, formal and informal ones, of the countries affect the entry and the survival of entrepreneurs in different markets. The research was divided into two parts: (1) theoretical, focusing on knowing the literature that deals with institutions and entrepreneurship from a bibliometric study with CiteSpace software and (2) empirical, in order to confirm that entrepreneurship in developed countries is different from the not developed countries and pointing wich are some of the differences from two case studies. In the theoretical study it was found that, in relation to the citation and cocitation network constructed, there are two main streams of research: (1) neo-institutionalist authors with economic focus, with North (1990) as a representative author, linked to the Schumpeterians on entrepreneurship, and (2) neo-institutionalist authors with sociological focus, evidenced primarily by the paper of DiMaggio and Powell (1983), closer to the Kirzner way of think about entrepreneurship. In the empirical study, the quantitative part confirmed, based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data, that there is statiscally significant difference between entrepreneurship, both established and nascent, of developed and undeveloped countries. The qualitative part of the empirical study, based on two case studies, revealed that for the beginning of entrepreneurial activity, formal institutions are more relevant in developed countries, like Brazilian Steakhouses Chain case in the United States shows, while informal institutions are more valuable in undeveloped countries, like Pinesso Group case in Sudan. The main conclusion of the thesis is that, in undeveloped countries \'the game is not for everyone\', it is necessary that the entrepreneur is inserted in the social environment and have the relevant interpersonal relationships to be possible to start and prosper in a business. On the other hand, in the developed countries is more important that the entrepreneur know and comply with the formal rules in order to start and continue your business. It is noteworthy that the two types of institutions operate in the entrepreneurial process in both groups of countries.

This thesis aims to assess the usefulness of actor-network theory (Latour, 2005) in understanding the process of implementing mobile phone-based innovations within the broader government-led public sector in less developed countries. An examination of the literature on implementations of innovations involving mobile-phones suggests that previous studies have either focused on the social elements or the physical elements in isolation and have failed to consider how one influences the other. It is proposed that actor-network theory may be able to provide an alternative ontological perspective that bridges this social physical divide and allows the influence of the relationships between the human and the non-human elements to be taken into consideration. In order to assess this, the thesis utilises a single case study from its inception, through development, to its eventual end. The case in question, is the implementation of a mobile phone- based information system known as MADEX. This effort, is a nation-wide project made by the federal government of Nigeria to deploy this innovation within the government-led public health sector. MADEX was designed to support a nation-wide scheme known as the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS); a public sector initiative that was set up to address the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) relating to mother and child health. The main objective of MADEX in its initial stages was to enable the routine reporting of maternal health information from primary health facilities across the country up to the national level (NPHCDA) where this information is required by public health administrators for action - that is regular and timely monitoring of key maternal and child health indicators as well as strategic planning and the setting of priorities. The expectation was that, MADEX will bring about increased information accessibility for monitoring and planning, ensure global transparency and accountability in the area of maternal and child health statistics and promote m-health activities. An interpretive approach using qualitative methods was adopted in this research to obtain and analyse the data acquired through interviews. These interview, were conducted with a total of about 75 participant from across the various levels of the public health system. Whilst initially these events are narrated using a traditional chronological format, the use of such a format hides the complex nature of the relationships that enable the case under study. Actor-network theory therefore provides a means of exposing some of this complexity and as a result can be regarded as a useful methodology for understanding mobile phone innovations deployed in the public sector of LDCs. In addition, the thesis shows that the actor-network perspective allows the process of implementing mobile-phone innovations, to be considered in a manner that demonstrates the complex interdependent relationships between the physical and the social dimensions as well as the impact of non-humans in shaping this process.

Despite receiving large quantities of aid, many developing countries, especially the Least Developed Countries, have remained stagnant and became more aid-dependent. This grim reality provokes vigorous debate on the effectiveness of aid. This study re-examines the effectiveness of aid, focusing on the ongoing debate on the interactive effect of aid and policy conditionality on sustainable economic growth. A theoretical model of the aid-growth nexus was developed to explain why policy conditionality attached to aid may not always promote sustainable economic growth. Noticeable methodological weaknesses in the aid fungibility and aid-growth models have led to the construction of two macroeconometric models to tackle and reduce these weaknesses. The Lao People's Democratic Republic's economy for the 1978-2001 period has been used for a case study.It is argued that the quality of policy conditionality and the recipient country's ability to complete specified policy conditions are the main factors determining the effectiveness of aid. Completing the policy prescriptions contributes to a stable aid inflow. The aid-growth nexus model developed in this study shows that stable and moderate aid inflow boosts economic growth even when aid is fungible. However, failure to complete the policy conditionality owing to inadequate policy design and problems of policy mismanagement caused by lack of state and institutional capability in the recipient country triggers an unstable aid inflow. The model shows that unstable aid flows reduce capital accumulation and economic growth in the recipient country. These empirical findings reveal that policy conditionality propagated through the "adjustment programmes" has mitigated the side effects of aid fungibility and "Dutch disease" in the case of the Lao PDR. Preliminary success in implementing the policy conditions in the pre-1997 period led to a stable aid inflow and contributed to higher economic growth. This favourable circumstance, however, was impaired by unstable aid flow in the post-1997 period. The lack of state and institutional capacity in the Lao PDR and the inadequate policy design to deal with external shocks triggered the instability of aid inflow, which in turn exacerbated the negative effects of the Asian financial crisis on the Lao PDR's economy.

The focus of this study is to examine the factors that lead to growth in small firms in a Least Developed Country (LDC). The research is based on the manufacturing sector in Ghana. The main objectives of the research are to identify the key variables that lead to small firms' growth and to ascertain the critical barriers that impede growth. A research model which is developed out of an initial exploratory research and existing literature focuses on how the characteristics of the owner/manager, the characteristics of the firm and the business strategy variables interact to affect growth in employment. In addition factors that are perceived to have constrained the growth of the small firms during the study period are ascertained and discussed. To properly test the hypotheses developed a face to face interview survey involving 122 owner/managers of small manufacturing firms is conducted. This resulted in a range of variables that allowed for the construction of a comprehensive multivariate model of small firm growth. A resulting regression model provides about 68 percent of the explanation for the growth of the small firms sampled. It also indicates that the owner/manager characteristics variables offer the most powerful explanation to small firm growth. We find that the owner/manager's growth aspiration is the most influential factor in achieving growth. The other owner/manager characteristics variables that have positive influence on growth are level of education, prior industry experience and entrepreneurial family background. Owner/managers with local experience and/or with other business interests are less likely to achieve faster growth. Foreign owned/managed firms grow faster. Younger and smaller firms appear to grow faster. While firms with multiple ownerships tend to grow at a slower rate than firms owned and managed by one person. Business planning, marketing and export have positive and significant impacts on growth. Other business strategies such as innovations and staff training also have direct relationships with growth but not significant. Some of the main constraining factors to growth are cost of borrowing, lack of access to credit, high cost of inputs, lack of trust within the business community, high bureaucracy, late payments and lack of efficient support system. While the external environment plays important role in small firm growth and development, the behaviours, response and strategies pursued by individual owner/manager are significant factors that determine the rate at which a firm will grow. / Ghana Leasing Company Limited

Abstract Problem: The desire for development in less privileged countries like Uganda has created the need for the privileged countries like Sweden to embark on external knowledge transfer through different projects, as one of the objectives to achieve development. However, some factors tend to limit the success of this external knowledge transfer process. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to find out the factors that lead to the barriers and limitations of knowledge transfer in development projects. Since there are differences in objectives between nonprofit and profit making projects, the research is also aimed at highlighting the extent to which the affecting factors hinder the achievement of objectives and goals. Method: Qualitative methods were used in this research. Telephone interviews were conducted after sending questionnaires to four respondents from different organizations that were actively involved in the projects. In order to have balanced results, two respondents each from Uganda and Sweden were interviewed. Trustworthiness and ethical issues were put into consideration while conducting the interviews, in a bid to create a desirable atmosphere for conducting the study. Result: External knowledge transfer is affected by factors like culture, individual factors, and knowledge management factors. Apart from the mentioned factors, research found that instead of organizational factors that would affect profit making projects to a greater extent, factors like the political will, ownership and local needs are the ones that affect development projects. Conclusion: The factors that affect the external knowledge transfer process are to a greater extent human, and are controllable. In development projects, the recipient country should identify the needs that would initiate the external knowledge transfer process. Most of the affecting factors would be controlled through building of relationships and strong ties, local ownership, and political considerations. All this put into consideration, external knowledge transfer between developed and developing countries stand a high chance to succeed.

This thesis analyzes the National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPA) that aredeveloped for the least developed countries within the United Nations FrameworkConvention of Climate Change. The NAPAs are developed to help the least developedcountries to deal with the challenges that are likely to occur due to climate changeissues. Within the United Nations there is strong consensus that gender mainstreamingmust be a part of all of the strategies implemented within the UN.By analyzing the NAPAs concerning food security and energy using gender theory anddiscourse analysis it is clear that gender is often overlooked when creating solutionsfor future issues that are likely to be caused by climate change. The energy sector inparticular overlook the needs of women in rural areas and have a clear male bias. In theNAPAs concerning food security women’s participation is slightly more present, butthere is a clear lack of gender mainstreaming in the documents.

This dissertation explores how Internet use impacts four different measures of economic development using several econometric techniques on multi-country panel data. The economic development outcomes investigated are: per capita GDP, per capita export revenues, per capita market capitalization, and societal well-being as measured by the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Data from the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union, and the United Nations -covering 202 countries over the period 1996 to 2007- are combined to allow for empirical investigation using dynamic panel data and finite mixture model estimation techniques on the total sample and subsamples stratified by country income level. The results suggest that countries benefit differently from increasing Internet use and the magnitude of the effect depends on the income level of the country. In low income countries, additional Internet use has a significant positive effect on per capita GDP and overall welfare, as measured by the HDI. Increasing Internet use has a significant positive effect on all four measures of economic development in countries that have achieved middle income status. Since Internet use affects economic development outcomes differently depending on the income level of the country, the policy recommendations must also vary according to the country's income level.