The international wildlife trade supports livelihoods but can seriously threaten species if not controlled. The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) monitors and controls trade in over 35,000 at risk species, over 70% of which are orchids. Mitigating the negative effects of illegal wildlife trade is difficult as traders are motivated by the large potential profits (an estimated $7-10 billion per year in total) to frequently adopt new methods to avoid detection, such as the increasing use of the internet as a marketplace. In this thesis I use the international orchid horticultural trade as a case study in which to explore issues relating to the structure and function of online wildlife trade networks. I start by investigating consumer behaviour, one of the major gaps in knowledge relating to the function of wildlife trade networks. First I test the use of choice experiments to reveal information about consumer preferences, with a focus on identifying particular orchid attributes that may drive demand. I also identify specific groups of consumers who may be buying from the illegal market, with a particular focus on those buying online. I then extend this focus on behaviour to explore non-compliance with CITES rules amongst an international group of orchid growers. I test the use of a specialized questioning method known as the Unmatched Count Technique alongside direct questions to identify which types of growers are breaking the rules and why. I then move on to focus on the structure of trade networks currently operating online, beginning with a gap analysis of access and benefit sharing from the online orchid trade in Southeast Asia, to identify countries that are not selling their own species. The region is a centre of orchid diversity and export but the lower income countries are not currently benefitting from the widespread online trade in their own species. Following the study of formal online trade I switch to the informal trade operating within orchid themed groups on an international social media website. I use social network analysis to identify closely linked communities within the wider network and make recommendations for how best to communicate with these networks. I also assess the prevalence of both legal and illegal trade taking place via posts within these groups. The findings of this thesis have the potential for application to the conservation of species threatened by wildlife trade and the methods used provide new potential approaches to studying the structure and function of online trade networks in particular. My findings address key gaps in conservation knowledge relating to consumer behaviour, online trade networks and the efficacy of current regulations. For policy makers and practitioners it emphasises the importance of a coordinated and adaptive approach to tackling illegal online wildlife trade and strengthening the legal trade. It also highlights the current status of the orchid trade and emphasises the current lack of conservation attention being given to the trade in plants.

This thesis is concerned with two major areas: marketing communication via social media and small to medium size enterprise marketing for Kuwaiti SMEs. The researcher has been looking carefully at major social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others by opening accounts and being involved in daily interactions in them. They have been observing and witnessing the great potential of social media and that led to five questions concerning social media marketing and its usefulness to SMEs in Kuwait. (i) Can SMEs market their products and services better through using social media rather than traditional media? (ii) Can SMEs reach their target customers through social media more easily than through traditional media? (iii) What are the benefits of marketing communication in social media? (iv) Can marketing communication be more effective by using social media rather than using traditional media? (v) Can Kuwait benefit from SMEs’ empowerment to improve its economy by reducing dependency on oil production? It was from these questions, the topic of this thesis was born, which is investigating the effectiveness of marketing communication through social media for SMEs in Kuwait. Primary data were collected through depth interviews from the owners/managers of Kuwaiti SMEs. Grounded theory as Strauss and Corbin was used. Five models are developed and recommendations made to improve the effectiveness of social media marketing communications for SMEs in Kuwait.

In 2015, Peccadillo Pictures released the movie 'Chemsex', an 80-minute documentary about the experiences of gay, bisexual and queer male (GBQM) drug users in London-men whose lives have been impacted by chemsex, that is, the mixing of illicit drugs such as crystal methamphetamine, gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), gamma-butyrolactone (GBL) and mephedrone with 'risky' sex. The film has been described by the media as painting a bleak portrait of a 'subculture on the edge'-one that is fueled by both the heteronormative marginalization of GBQM and the popularity of online and mobile-based GBQM social networks. The release of 'Chemsex' was prompted by research that reveals increases in GBQM drug use-not only in London, but among GBQM in many gay ghettos throughout the world. Most of these studies emerge from disciplines outside criminology-for example, behavioral health, epidemiology and public health. These studies also describe GBQM drug users as existing within a subculture. Moreover, these studies also link GBQM drug use to external marginalization and or stigma related to sexual identity or HIV-seropositivity. Yet, rarely are the cultural dynamics of GBQM drug use fully explored. Neither do these studies address the fact that drug use-in most jurisdictions-is a crime. Cultural criminologists argue that crime, deviance and transgression are part of an ongoing process that is interwoven with the dynamics of culture and all of its attendant meanings. This thesis explores the cultural dynamics that may shape the meanings that underlie GBQM drug use-in particular, drug use that is facilitated and or expressed through cyberspace. This thesis conceptualizes the cultural dynamics of GBQM drug using three tenets that are central to cultural criminological inquiries: that crime and deviance and transgression are often related to marginalization and oppression; that these phenomena are often subcultural in nature; and, that subcultures cannot be studied apart from their mediated representations. Complementing this framework is a research design that employs virtual ethnography, instant ethnography, ethnographic content analysis and visual content analysis. Critical discourse analysis is also employed in an effort to analyze the underlying power differentials that are present in the mediated representations of GBQM drug use. Using these methods, I was able to participate in the activities and understandings of GBQM drug users who were situated in cyberspace. Using the theoretical framework that was constructed, I was then able to analyze and draw conclusions as to the cultural dynamics that underlie their activities, behaviors, language, norms, rituals and values. One of the key findings of this thesis was in the discovery of shared group drug injecting experiences that are constructed as temporary networks using Skype and other webcam conference call applications. Another finding concerns the sharing by GBQM of drug-themed photo content in mainstream and GBQM social networks. A third finding involves their sharing of drug-themed videos to Internet 'tube sites'.

Over the past decade, monetary policy has been in the spotlight as one of the key drivers of the real economy due to its aggressive response to the global financial crisis of 2007 - 2009. This has revived the debate of the late 1990s regarding the role of asset prices in policy decision making and has renewed interest in the impact of monetary policy on financial markets. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is the relationship between monetary policy conduct and financial market developments in the United States (US) over the period spanning the Great Moderation, the global financial crisis and its aftermath. Three empirical chapters analyse different aspects of monetary policy interaction with financial markets using alternative methodologies. The first empirical chapter provides a comprehensive study of conventional monetary policy in the US. It investigates the Federal Reserve’s response to financial market stress during the Great Moderation and the part of the global financial crisis by addressing two main questions. Firstly, does the Federal Reserve (Fed) react directly to the indicators of financial stress and, if so, is such reaction symmetric? Secondly, does the policy response to inflation and output gap change in light of financial turmoil? These questions are examined with respect to the four different dimensions of financial market stress: credit risk, stock market liquidity risk, stock market bear conditions and poor overall financial conditions. In addition, the analysis separately evaluates the impact of the latest crisis on US monetary policy. The results indicate the direct policy reaction to developments in the stock market price index, an interest rate spread, the measure of stock market liquidity and broad financial conditions that is found to be strongly dependent on the business cycle. Financial market developments have much more weight on the Fed’s decisions during economic recessions as compared to economic expansions. Furthermore, in times of elevated financial distress, the Fed’s reaction to inflation declines to some extent, while the output gap parameter becomes statistically insignificant. Nevertheless, the finding that financial stress implies a lower policy rate appears to be largely driven by monetary policy actions during the period 2007 - 2008. Thus, the financial crisis has had important implications for US monetary policy. Chapter 2 investigates what explains the variation in unexpected excess returns on the 2-, 5- and 10-year Treasury bonds and how returns respond to conventional and unconventional monetary policy in the period spanning the Great Moderation, the recent financial crisis and its aftermath. In addition, unexpected excess returns are decomposed into three components related to the revisions in rational market expectations (news) about future excess returns, inflation and real interest rates to identify the sources of the bond market response to monetary policy. The main findings imply that news about future inflation is the key factor in explaining the variability of unexpected excess Treasury bond returns across the maturities. Regarding the effect of conventional and unconventional monetary policy actions, monetary easing is generally associated with higher unexpected excess Treasury bond returns. Furthermore, the results highlight the importance of the inflation news component in explaining the reaction of the bond market to monetary policy. The positive effect of monetary easing on unexpected excess Treasury bond returns is largely explained by the corresponding negative effect on inflation expectations. Nevertheless, the bond market reaction to conventional policy shocks has grown weaker over the more recent period, perhaps reflecting changes in the implementation and communication of the Fed’s policy since the middle 1990s. Meanwhile, the results with respect to unconventional monetary policy are driven to a great extent by the peak of the financial crisis in autumn of 2008. Finally, Chapter 3 aims to revisit the role of conventional Fed’s policy in explaining the size and value stock return anomalies, while taking fully into account the bidirectional relationship between monetary policy and real stock prices. As interest rate-based policy is of main interest here, the sample period ends prior to the crisis in 2007. The results confirm a strong, negative and significant monetary policy tightening effect on real stock prices at both aggregate and disaggregate (portfolio) levels. Furthermore, there is the evidence of the “delayed size effect” of monetary policy actions. Following a contractionary monetary policy shock, an immediate decline in stock prices of large firms is more pronounced as compared to small firms. However, large stocks recover to a great extent in the second period after the shock, while small stocks drop sharply. Meanwhile, the findings overall are not very supportive of the differential impact of monetary policy on value versus growth stocks as predicted by the credit channel. Finally, the results do not indicate the strong Fed’s reaction to stock price developments.

The role of cultural diversity in various aspects of society has been theoretically and empirically investigated. Prevailing measures of cultural diversity mainly focus on diversity of ethnicity, religion and language. However, there has been little discussion about diversity in human values. We construct cultural diversity measures based on human values and seek to examine its role in economic development. This thesis demonstrates the significance our measure plays in estimating the impact of formal institutions (rule of law) and informal institutions (respect for others) on economic performance.

This dissertation is an attempt to map out the production process of graphic design within contemporary circuits of capitalist production. I will argue that understanding the production process of design today is assisted by Deleuze and Guattari’s understandings of capitalism as both a deterritorializing and reterritorializing force. I will argue that the generative power for graphic design is drawn from a level that Deleuze and Guattari describe as the body without organs, which is affective in composition. As affect, this raw material for design is a generative, non-conscious, non-representative, and unstructured milieu associated with what Deleuze and Guattari refer to as the virtual. On the other hand, I will argue that design labor also mobilizes a more structured and hierarchical level of discipline and control against these novel proliferations. This second level is associated with what Deleuze and Guattari call the plane of organization or actual plane of existence. I will ultimately locate this latter controlling side of capital within what Marx (1976) associated with the labor process of design labor. I will argue that the labor process of design is a technique that reterritorializes, manipulates, channels and ultimately de-radicalizes the creative affective energy that designers drawn from the body without organs. Once design work is understood in this way, I argue that we can then recognize the occupation as a strategic point through which capital both expropriates value from affective flows, while simultaneously serving as disciplinary mechanism to control the possibilities for subjective becomings.

Despite Carl Gustav Jung’s acknowledgement of Albert Einstein’s influence on his thinking, and despite the significant number of studies into Jung’s interest in physics – and his collaboration with the theoretical physicist Wolfgang Pauli – so far there has been no thorough investigation into the connection between Jung and Einstein. This thesis researches the historical context of the relationship between Jung and Einstein, and the extent of Einstein’s influence on Jung’s concepts and system of psychology, and thereby redresses the balance of the theoretical argument about the intellectual influences on Jung from the field of physics. First, it explores the dynamics and importance of the relationship between the two men, and reconstructs the narrative of this connection. It identifies other key figures who played a mediating role between Jung and Einstein and investigates their involvement in conveying Einstein’s special and general theories of relativity to Jung as well as their part in the formation and subsequent deterioration of the relationship between Jung and Einstein. Secondly, this thesis analyses Einstein’s influence on Jung's reconceptualization of libido as psychic energy, and Jung’s employment of the theory of relativity in his writings, which culminates in his conception of the ‘psychic relativity of space and time’, the idea that underpins his theory of synchronicity.

Review of animal and epidemiological studies suggest that exposure to nitrates in drinking water is associated with thyroid disorders, including mild - to - moderate iodine deficiency; hyperthyroidism; hypothyroidism; thyroid hypertrophy (goitre) and thyroid cancer. However, the weight of evidence following a meta – analysis is strongest for goitre; weak for subclinical hypothyroidism and weakest for clinical hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism (clinical and subclinical). The effect estimate for goitre is, OR = 3.13 (95%Cl: 2.35-4.16); I2 = 24.9%, p = 0.28. Although causality was not firmly established between nitrates in drinking water and goitre, the risk assessment framework was used to estimate lifetime excess risk of thyroid cancer in East Anglia given widespread nitrate contamination of drinking water sources in the region. Thyroid cancer was used as a proxy for goitre given that malignancy can result from goitre which is usually benign and there is no register for goitre and/or benign thyroid tumours in the UK. Risk estimates suggests that 20 cases or 13 per cent of the 154 thyroid cancer cases calculated in a population of 2,849,918 in East Anglia in 2014, can be attributable to nitrates in drinking water and this would have been eliminated from the population if there was no nitrates in drinking water. The lifetime excess risk of thyroid cancer at nitrate levels below and equal to the drinking water standard of 50mg/l, is 0.02 – 0.28. This is above the range (1x10-6 to 1x10-5) considered negligible and suggests that the current drinking water standard for nitrates, originally set to protect against infantile methaemoglobinemia is unlikely to protect against thyroid cancer and warrants a review. The review should include a consideration of lowering the drinking water standard; reduction of nitrates in drinking water sources and/-or introducing iodine prophylaxis in the UK given that the effect of nitrates on the thyroid gland is dependent on the amount of dietary iodine intake. Although there were a lot of uncertainties and assumptions in the risk assessment process, the recommendation is based on the precautionary principle.

Globalisation is a widely used but much contested concept. This contestation has a large variety of dimensions and on-going debates. One of the debates focuses on economic globalisation and a rebalancing of the relations between the private and public sector that is taking place during the last three decades. Neo-liberalism, dominant in the policy agenda of the leading world powers during this period of time, advocates the necessity of privatisation, including privatisation of public services. However, the international outcomes of privatisation policies associated with the promotion of market relations and private investments in the public sector have not been sufficiently examined in empirical research. Although globalisation debates refer to international regulation, competition and the concentration of capital, there is a paucity of detailed empirically focused study on patterns of ownership and what they mean to a changing international order, especially with respect to privatised utilities. The thesis opens up these themes in a focused way, analysing outcomes of water privatisation and electricity privatisation worldwide. It draws on a comprehensive database held by the Public Services International Research Unit (PSIRU) that enables an empirically based analysis of arguments about the outcomes of utilities' privatisation in the light of the globalisation debate. The main methodology used as a basis for a critical assessment of theories of globalisation is social network analysis. The thesis is mostly concerned with the international aspects of the privatisation of public utilities. It begins by arguing that the privatisation of public services worldwide should be located within debates on globalisation. The thesis then presents a reinterpretation of main globalisation trends, specifically the processes related to the internationalisation of public services, as an emerging modern form of economic colonialism. To develop this argument the thesis comprises a variety of dimensions. First, three sets of debates are reviewed, globalisation, the internationalisation of capital and colonialism. In the course of this analysis attention is drawn to the concentration of economic power and the international dominance of three economic blocs - the North America, Western Europe and Japan. The second dimension of the thesis is the presentation of an analytic framework to analyse the recent developments of privatisation worldwide. Drawing on the achievements of social network analysis a methodology for examining the outcomes of privatisation in relation to ownership and the patterns of concentration that have emerged is developed. This part of the thesis transforms the research questions that arise from the examination of debates about globalisation and privatisation and related developments. Here a set of hypotheses is developed to examine the process of privatisation worldwide, with reference to the electricity and water sector. With this methodology outlined, the third dimension is present. In this section of the thesis particular explanatory dimensions of the process of globalisation are examined, specifically geography, culture, economy, and politics. Using SNA techniques that build on the first phase of the quantitative analysis which examines ownership concentration and identifies the presence of the star-like pattern of ownership in all studied sectors of public utilities, a rich vein of evidence of the key features of privatisation worldwide is presented. The broad themes of this analysis are then drawn together in an assessment section. This assessment shows that economic globalisation reflects economic asymmetries and is related to political status, and that historical links make a considerable impact on the global ownership structures that have emerged in public services after privatisation. A key conclusion is that public services are being transformed as part of global capitalist system and that under the cover of globalisation a particular form of economic colonialism is emerging - the neo-colonialism that is centred on a few major western economies: The United States, France and the United Kingdom.

This thesis was undertaken to investigate a specific type of unethical behaviour in the workplace within the context of the United Kingdom (UK) public sector. The main research aim was to develop an understanding of how to detect false performers. Parnell and Singer (2001) proposed the construct of False Performance (FP) when developing the Organisational Charlatan Scale (OCS) to measure organisational charlatanism (OC). According to their definition, false performers are those individuals who seek to improve their perceived performance at the expense of their actual performance. This type of employee deliberately portrays themselves as being better able to perform in a job role than they know themselves to be capable of. In the current study, the phenomenon of FP was explored in two phases using a sequential, mixed methods approach. The present research sought to address the gaps in the literature by extending previous quantitative efforts and carrying out the first qualitative study in this area. In the first qualitative phase, eight focus groups (n=51) were conducted, and grounded theory was used to analyse the data and generate theory. Management and Non-Management were questioned about their perceptions and experiences of FP, especially relating to the job interview and the performance appraisal interview. The intention was not to identify false performers in the focus groups, but rather to extract themes and patterns of FP behaviour. Results identified five categories common to both Management and Non-Management: Perceptions of FP in the Workplace; FP in the Interview; Does Trust Really Matter to the False Performer?; The Effect of FP on Co-Worker Morale; and Tackling FP in the Workplace. In the second phase, the qualitative results were used to inform the quantitative study. The focus group data helped to generate items for the development of a new measure of FP i.e. the False Performance Questionnaire (FPQ). To achieve the objective of producing a reliable new instrument, the FPQ was systematically developed in six stages, concluding with two phases of questionnaire administration. Using an item analytic and factor analytic approach, the FPQ was distributed in two phases (stages 5 and 6) in order to refine the item set. In stage 5, a 53-item version of the FPQ was tested on a sample of 129 employees in three public sector organisations. In stage 6, the FPQ was further refined and a 21-item FPQ was administered to a sample of 219 employees in four public sector organisations. Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a final 16-item solution with two subscales was found to have good reliability (α=0.76). In contrast, the nine-item OCS was found to demonstrate relatively low reliability (α=0.55). These findings indicate that the current study has generated a more robust and reliable measure of FP, thus achieving the overall objective of developing a new measure of FP i.e. the 16-item FPQ. As regression analyses revealed a significant but negative beta for job performance as a predictor of FP (β=-.159, p<0.05), this indicates that the lower the job performance, the higher the score on the FPQ, thus suggesting that employees rating highly in FP are likely to be substituting FP for job performance. Whilst FP was negatively and significantly correlated with job performance, no significant correlation was found between the Impression Management (IM) scale and the job performance scale. This suggests that whilst an IM score reveals little about actual job performance, a score on the FPQ could help predict future job performance. The thesis concludes by considering the future applications and practical implications of this research, which include: a) An increased understanding of how to detect FP in the workplace; b) Better selection processes; c) Fairer performance evaluation processes; and d) A more ethical work environment characterised by improved trust among co-workers.