This thesis analyses the determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in Vietnam from 1988-2009. It examines the nature, motivation and impact of FDI upon the Vietnam economy and its contribution to the subsequent leap forward in economic growth. The focus is on developing Dunning’s eclectic theory through case study analysis of Honda-Vietnam Motorbike Company and ANZ-Vietnam Bank. The prominent theories on FDI generally used in the thesis focus on Vernon’s Product Life Cycle (PLC) model, the Market Imperfection Theory (MIT), the Transaction Cost (TC) or internalisation approach and Dunning’s Eclectic Theory. Dunning is the clearest methodology for understanding the Vietnamese case as its method is to take account of a countries particular FDI characteristics and their impact on economic growth. The addition of an emphasis on the impact of culture upon the development of FDI in Vietnam provides this thesis with evidence of its originality and legitimacy to the claim of filling a gap in the literature on FDI in developing countries and the advancement of economic theory. The main focus in the case studies is demonstrating how foreign invested enterprises altered production, management, service and marketing processes to adapt their traditional, organisational and locational advantages to suit the local environment, and give them both foreign and domestic comparative advantages, ensuring the maximum possible capital return on their investments.

This thesis analyses the effects of marketisation and globalisation on individual working lives, using the case of employment in the maritime shipping industry in post-socialist Bulgaria (1989-2009). The emergence of new market mechanisms under the combined impacts of post-socialist political and economic change, EU-accession, and globalisation, is analysed using convention theory and the capability approach. A situated micro-sociological case study of maritime institutions and working lives was conducted in the course of nine months of fieldwork in the period 2008-2010. The concept of a 'new post-socialist spirit of capitalism' is developed, following Boltanski & Chiapello (2005[1999]), and substantiated by empirical evidence from 52 in-depth interviews, documents and media reports, and non-participant observation. This thesis contributes to several areas of enquiry: post-socialism; employment; maritime studies; and studies of the lifecourse and working lives. Using the example of maritime employment, it draws out connections between macroinstitutional transformations, labour market conventions, individual working lives, and subjective perceptions of change. The study reveals a number of problems: the increasingly precarious nature of the post-socialist maritime labour market; the insufficient accountability and legal control over the quality of maritime jobs offered by global shipowners; the segmentation of the maritime labour market into 'good' and 'bad' jobs, some lacking basic employment security, social or legal protection for maritime workers, and even workplace safety; the lack of alternative avenues for meaningful careers for former seafarers; the declining popularity of maritime professions; the deprofessionalisation and loss of dignity and meaning in maritime labour; increasingly fragmented career trajectories; and the dissolution of local maritime communities. These problems, not restricted to Bulgaria, indicate the need for concerted supra-national public (labour and social) policies targeting maritime workers at the level of the EU and other international organisations.

<p> Retailing in ancient Rome remains a neglected area of study on account of the traditional view among economic historians that the retail trades of pre-industrial societies were primitive and unsophisticated. In addition to addressing a lacuna in the scholarship of the ancient economy and challenging traditional models of retail history, this study offers a novel diachronic analysis of the development of the fixed-point retailing trade in the city of Rome between the late 3rd c BCE and the 2nd/3rd c CE. An interdisciplinary approach to the research is employed, combining the textual sources, epigraphic texts, archaeological data, art historical evidence, and comparative historical materials in order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of ancient Roman retailing. This study also introduces new approaches to the ancient evidence, adapting models from marketing and retailing such as retail change theory and retail atmospherics, as well as from social network analysis to advance our understanding of the Roman economy and urban culture. </p><p> Economic growth in the mid-Republic triggered a major shift in the structure of distribution at Rome as permanent shops surpassed temporary markets as the dominant form of urban retailing. The establishment of a shop economy at Rome improved the social and economic status of shopkeepers, who emerged in the late Republic as a socially defined, politically active group capable of affecting grassroots change in the political system. By linking shops to Augustan ideology, Augustan urban reforms improved the social position of shopkeepers and increased the visibility of their shops in the commercial landscape. Shopkeepers capitalized on this by focusing their marketing strategies on the shop design, which became the primary method of advertising. For the everyday Roman, the fashions and information advertised in the design of Roman shops would have been highly visible and extremely pervasive, as shops formed the backdrop to the lived experience of urban inhabitants. On account of the development of the fixed-point retailing trade, the Roman shop became not only an essential unit in the urban distributive system and an important locus for sociability, but also a physical reflection of a local urban identity, emblematic of the power and prosperity of the Roman empire more generally. Consequently, Roman shopkeepers were as active in shaping the urban character of Rome from below through shop architecture as the emperors and elite with their more monumental building projects.</p>

The thesis examines what Englishmen meant when they referred to a 'contract' in political discussions around the time of the 1688 Revolution. The study of the immense volume and considerable variety of writings referring to 'contract' reveals that our histories of late seventeenth century political thought, and of Contract Theory in particular, have misrepresented the meaning of the ideas. It appears that there was no single Contract Theory and that appeal to 'contract' was not the monopoly of one particular group, party or side in the political controversies of the period. If we concentrate on what the term 'contract' was used to denote in political writing, we are confronted by a near hopeless confusion. Ifs however, we look to the connotations of the term and the coherence of arguments invoking a 'contract', a very clear, distinctive and significant division of contractarian writing emerges. I have argued that there are in fact three different types of Contract Theory exhibited in the political literature of the periods 'Constitutional', 'Philosophical' and 'Integrated' Contract Theories. My study portrays the characteristics of each of these theories, considers their distinctiveness and interrolations, and attempts to present a more adequate understanding of what 'contract' meant to men In late seventeenth and early eighteenth century England than historians have no far given.

No description available.

The two centuries from 1818 to 2004 cover profound social and economic changes in what was, for much of the period, the most powerful country in the world. Britain led the way in moving capital and labour out of agriculture and into newer industries, such as coal-mining, textiles and transportation. The changes were accompanied by deep institutional changes, especially in the franchise. The rate of change is remarkable: within seventy years Britain was almost completely democratic, in contrast to the 'rotten boroughs' and virtual feudalism of the pre- 1832 unreformed Parliaments. The changes are mirrored in the role given to agriculture within society, and in particular the amount and type of economic rent transferred from the consumer and the taxpayer to the farmer. This thesis uses two centuries of data and 'survival analysis' statistical techniques to show that Olson's celebrated theory of collective action can be substantiated in a dynamic context. I show that as the share of farmers in the workforce diminishes, and their relative wealth shrinks, the probability of the Cabinet increasing protection grows. The reverse is also the case, showing that the Cabinet responds positively to pressures from a group whose utility was diminishing.

No description available.

No description available.

This empirical study primarily aimed to make some assessments on the issues of the marketing orientation of Islamic banks and their implementation of the marketing concept. To achieve this, a comparative study based on a survey of Islamic and Western (traditional interest based) banks was made. The survey questioned these banks concerning their attitudes toward the marketing concept, the organisation and structure of their marketing efforts, the marketing functions of which they perform and the perceived outcome of adoption of the marketing concept. It was anticipated that in these hour areas, the Islamic banks would be no less marketing orientated. It was found however, that though both types of banks had favorable attitudes toward the marketing concept, there were significant differences in emphasis and orientation.

The study is undertaken with an intent to understand the development of structured employment systems within Japanese retail companies overseas. A majority of existing studies on Japanese international management focus on national origins as a major source of the core-periphery distinction within Japanese companies overseas. In addition, the structured employment systems model incorporates skills, profession, hierarchy, employment status and gender as well. The four Japanese companies employ various employee groups by different human resource management practices — recruitment and selection, pay and benefit, and training and development - involving varying costs. These differences are reinforced by the fact that different employee groups are managed by different organisational practices —job assignment, communication and decision-making. Thus, employees are employed in different labour market systems. The Japanese companies possess four structured employment features - polarisation between Japanese and local employees, polarisation between local professional staff and local employees with low skills, casualisation of local employees with low skills, and under-utilisation of female staff When compared with the employment systems of the British company and existing literature, Japanese MNCs tend to polarise between Japanese and local employees, and under-utilise female staff because of the characteristics of Japanese culture. The polarisation between local professional and staff with low skills, and casualisation are mainly attributable to the sectoral/technological characteristics of the retail industry, and the contextual factors of the company. The ethnocentric management approach persists in all Japanese case companies. Although market pressures have induced certain changes in some Japanese companies to make fuller use of local professional staff, they have not introduced fundamental changes in the employment systems in providing equal employment opportunity for all local employees. It is suggested that this ethnocentrism could adversely affect the development of Japanese retail companies in a business environment requiring adaptability to local market and preferences.