In the past decade the introduction of eLearning technologies has been associated with innovation in Higher Education (HE) as it brings significant change and has the potential to transform practice in many facets of university life. These learning technologies have been described as a 'disruptive‘ type of innovation as they can be a catalyst for transforming the strategic direction of HE and reach well beyond the traditional activities associated with classroom pedagogies. However, the levels of adoption of eLearning vary significantly between universities in the UK, ranging from simple online availability of course content to the extensive use of content management systems. Additionally, several studies report that a significant number of academic staff are making little use of these learning technologies and that the adoption of eLearning has failed to reach the predicted expectations. Previous approaches to the examination of the adoption and diffusion of eLearning have focused either on systemic change influenced by technology that transforms the entire organisation (macro-level studies) or on various parts of, or individuals within the institution that may benefit the most from adoption of the technology (micro-level studies). Recently, there has been recognition that these singular approaches have failed to fully appreciate the complexity of the adoption of eLearning within higher educational institutions. Furthermore, there is acknowledgement that the adoption of eLearning is influenced by both the potential adopter and the institutional properties. Thus, a number of commentators have proposed that future studies need to combine macro- and micro-level perspectives that regress from singular approaches and deploy more integrative perspectives that emphasise the interactions and interconnections between individual actions and institutional structure. This thesis is situated in the field of HE and innovation management and examines the adoption and diffusion of learning technologies through a series of case studies. Drawing on Giddens‘ 'Theory of Structuration‘ and the work of Rogers in the adoption and diffusion of innovations, these exploratory case studies examine the interaction between human agency and structure. The implications of this study for university executives, managers, and academic teaching staff are far reaching, and, to some degree, contradict accepted management practice and existing literature.

The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to carry out a comparative consumer study of firms’ CRM practices and Marketing Effectiveness (ME) in the Mobile Telecommunications (MT) sectors of Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The research contribution as explained by Corley and Gioa (2011) has guided this thesis as the underlying facets of theory are bound in a statement of concepts and interrelationships to explain how and why a phenomenon has occurred. The research contribution of the thesis is explained in detail in Chapter One, Section 1.0: Introduction and 1.1: Theoretical Background of the Study. The adoption of Consumer Utility Theory and Institutional Theory culminating in CRMBT informs and guides the research work in analysing consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, how firms behave and what influences arising from businesses have impact on consumers. Examples of business pressures are in the form of cultural rules, beliefs, symbols, rituals and power structures with survival dependent on loyalty to other institutional pressures (Scott, 1987; DiMaggio and Powell, 1991b). Studies discussed in the literature have shown that firms’ CRM practices are affected by institutional pressures, thus demonstrating the emergence of CRMBT and how it would help to mediate internal institutional forces (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991b; Ernest and Young, 2001; Chen and Popovich, 2003; ElGohary et al. 2013; Keramati and Shapulli, 2015). Consumer Utility Theory as described by Fishburn (1987) is adopted in this study because it helps in understanding the rationale behind consumer satisfaction and retention decisions. Ultimately, Consumer Utility Theory is linked with Institutional Theory as both internal and external institutional pressures shape consumer satisfaction and retention decisions positively or negatively. The thesis’s contribution uniquely linked all three to explain the phenomena under investigation. Within the last two decades the use of mobile phones and other mobile devices have risen dramatically as the phenomenally successful mobile phone has increased customers and profits for MT companies. The sample in the study included three face to face qualitative consumer focus groups in Port Harcourt Nigeria with 23 interviewees (8,7,8) and three face to face consumer focus groups in Huddersfield town UK of 22 interviewees (10,5,7). The justifications for comparing telecommunications service experiences of users in both towns are due to their shared similarities in terms of economic viability and adult population of telecommunications consumer. The data for the study were analysed using the thematic template technique and facilitated with Nvivo 10. From the Nigerian study it was found that mobile telecommunication firms’ CRM practices were weak for their consumers, which had negatively impacted on these firms’ marketing effectiveness over the years. Secondly, the study found that the factors underpinning the negative practices by Nigerian mobile telecoms operators were mainly externally motivated. This led to the emergence of six themes to include: service price; consumer privacy; complaints management; service courtesy; service quality and service personalisation. From the UK study it was found that MT firms’ CRM practices were fair towards their consumer and these practices had positive impact on consumer satisfaction and retention behaviours. This led to the emergence of seven themes which include: service quality, service upgrade, service price, service personalisation, service evaluation, complaints management and understanding customer expectations. The key theoretical contributions of this doctoral research are in Institutional Theory, Consumer Utility Theory and CRMBT respectively. The transformational CRM behaviour model is depicted on Figure 6.1 for theoretical and practical explorations. Drawing upon existing CRM literature this is the first doctoral study that has compared the CRM practices of MT firms concerning consumers in Nigeria and the UK using the qualitative focus group approach, which leads to developing a transformational CRM behaviour model. The recommendations of this thesis pertaining to the MT operators and the telecommunications regulatory agencies in Nigeria and the UK are provided. Individual themes from each of the study contexts are analysed and displayed in the Nvivo data.

This thesis reports an exploratory study of a residential unit in a special school for young people with complex learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. The study, which draws on ethnographic research methods, describes a relational approach to care based predominantly on ‘common sense’ explanations of behaviour rather than on a coherent knowledge base. Residential carers drew largely on informal models of care and the nature of the child care task was constructed predominantly from the prevailing staff culture of ‘how we do things here’. Staff made very little use of formal planning mechanisms, partly because documents were inaccessible to them, partly because documents were poorly completed and did not always match the observable skills of the young people. Such plans were often predicated on a much higher staff: student ratio than was actually available, and the way shifts were organised made their execution difficult to achieve. The construction of the child care task is illustrated in depth by a detailed examination of two micro-practices: providing meals and using bedrooms. In both cases, the research demonstrated that staff were working in a complex context of conflicting ideas, principles and instructions from a variety of competing sources. However committed to the principles of ordinary living, of choice and control, or to learning from everyday life, given the severity of impairment of some young people, the complexity of the context and the shortage of staff, residential workers had to improvise and often decide for themselves how tasks were to be undertaken, without reference to such plans and programmes as were available. The research suggests that the staff operate in this way because of the anomalous, even liminal, position of the residential special school in relation to mainstream child care practice and the challenges that this poses for staff, school managers and placing authorities.

There has been a large expansion of the higher education sector in the past two and a half decades. This has led to significant research interests about the implications of this growth in degree holders on the state of inequalities in the graduate labour market. However few have focussed on the extent to which inequalities by sex, socioeconomic background, and so forth varies across different fields of study. For instance, the earnings difference between similarly able graduates from different socioeconomic background may be larger for individual that studied ‘soft’ subjects, such as the arts, compared to ‘hard’ subjects, such as the sciences (Hansen 2001). This thesis investigates whether there is any evidence of variations in stratification across fields of study, and attempts to explain why these variations exist. The study tests a number of explanations ranging from competition in the labour market (Brown and Hesketh 2004) to the types of skills used across different occupations. This thesis uses information from two large scale graduate surveys, and a qualitative study of 21 recent graduates to address these issues. Two types of labour market outcomes are considered: earnings and the extent to which individuals make use of their skills in their work. Looking at individuals with a bachelor’s degree, there is evidence that stratification by sex and educational attainment varies across different fields of study. There is no evidence to support claims that stratification by socioeconomic background varies across field of study. In general some of these variations could be explained by the skills used in an occupation. However substantial amounts of the variations in stratification across different fields of study cannot be explained by the theories typically presented in the literature.

This thesis explores why a group of young people with level 3 qualifications, living within traditionally working-class communities, choose not to participate in HE. It discusses their expectations, motivations and aspirations and the social, cultural and personal factors that contribute to their decision making. The findings are drawn from a set of semi-structured interviews with 36 sixth form students. The research adapts a Bourdieuian framework and utilises a three-level methodology. Though the analysis considers the subjective points of view of the participants, with respect to their non-participation, it also pays attention to factors which appeared to have shaped and moulded decisions. Participants’ decisions appeared to be shaped by their place of study, their friends and family and, most importantly, by their parent(s) and this impacted on their aspirations and how motivated they were to participate in HE. The importance of academic-related support is evidenced throughout. It seemed to instil a sense of belonging and solidarity and was motivational. Without a guarantee of similar support, participants were not prepared to participate in HE. A particularly complex attitude to debt was also highlighted. Not incurring debt appeared to be a cultural rule, particularly when there was no guaranteed financial and employment related benefit to participation. This thesis argues that similar outlooks, backgrounds, interests, lifestyles and opportunities resulted in the adoption of shared practices, common patterns of reactions and accepted ways of doing things when it came to HE participation. This thesis helps us to understand why a particular group of young people has not been influenced in the same way as some others by the change in attitude towards HE. More specifically, it enhances our understanding of the complex, yet subtle influences that can lead young people to choose not to participate in HE.

This study investigated the social and psychological impact on girls of playing competitive football and explored whether football is associated with their mental wellbeing. Football was identified as an appropriate focus for exploring the link between sport and wellbeing because of its status as the UK’s national sport and its role in gender socialisation processes. The study also explored the barriers to girls’ participation in football and discusses these findings in relation to gender/structural inequalities. The study contributes new knowledge about girls’ agency, desires, resilience and strategies for overcoming adversity and ways in which girls challenge the universality of assumptions about feminine body image. METHOD Girls aged 10-16 from a Centre of Excellence and a local community football club (n=68) and their parents (n=66) completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. The questionnaires were analysed using SPSS. Smaller groups of girls were selected for focus group interviews, which were analysed using template analysis. Focus group questions were derived from three sources: consultations with parents, coaches and the representatives of the Football Association, the literature review and the SDQ results. FINDINGS This study was set within an interpretative paradigm with three theoretical strands being used to interpret results: gender, sport and agency; social context and structural inequalities; resilience, overcoming adversity and positive psychology. The study found a number of social barriers to girls playing football and demonstrated that they play football because they have agency and are self-motivated to do so. Although it is difficult to determine a causal relationship, girls who play football were found to have good self-efficacy and positive indicators for good mental health. The study sample seemed able to resist external social pressures to conform to gendered body image stereotypes that limit girls’ involvement in sport and which can contribute to low self-esteem. The primary incentive for girls who maintain their involvement in football centres on making and keeping friends. Girls who play football have in general positive explanatory styles and an optimistic nature. CONCLUSION There are benefits for girls who play football. Girls are motivated to play football but need the opportunities to participate. Access to physical activity such as football should therefore be promoted for girls. There is a pressing need to address the under-representation of women’s sport in the media and to challenge the status quo in school sport. A commitment to equal resources, equal time and space in the playground, and equal treatment by teachers and coaches is overdue. Furthermore, the study raises questions for social workers. An appreciation of the importance of resilience is embedded in Social Work professional competence requirements and the study suggests that supporting the development of resilience in girls, through access to physical activities that challenge gendered prescriptions and promote agency, can improve protection from adversity.

Port efficiency is a significant element that stimulates port competitiveness and enhances regional development. With increasing international maritime traffic and changing technology in the maritime transport sector, containerisation and enhanced logistic activities, infrastructure might be one of the main determining factors of port competition (Merk & Dang, 2012). Due to the increasing container traffic and the high quality of service required by the shipping lines, Mediterranean container ports are being compelled to enhance port efficiency to improve comparative advantages that will increase cargo traffic and satisfy the customers’ requirements. The Mediterranean Sea is a link point between Europe, Africa and Asia. This research aims to examine the impact of ports' technical efficiency on the improvement of Mediterranean container ports’ competitiveness. The research analyses the competitiveness and the relative efficiency of the top 22 container ports in the Mediterranean basin using a cross-section, panel data and window analysis application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for the period between 1998 and 2012. The selected 15 year period enables the analysis of Mediterranean container port market dynamics and the benchmarking of the technical efficiency of the selected ports for three consecutive market cycles. This research can be classified as quantitative analytical research. The research follows the concept of the Industrial Organization (IO) and the Structuralism (Harvard school) methodology that analyses the market Structures, Conduct and Performance (SCP) of market players. The study conducts a simultaneous three-stage procedure: in the first stage, the competitiveness of the main container ports in the Mediterranean is analysed through the study of market structure and conduct. Market structure is assessed through measuring and analysing market concentration by using four different methods. These methods are: the K-Firm concentration ratio (K-CR), Hirshman-Herfindahl Index (HHI), the Gini coefficient (GC) and the generalized entropy index. Boston Consultant Group (BCG) matrix is also used to visualize the dynamics between ports in the defined market and assess the ports' competitive position. Market conduct is analysed using shift-share analysis (SSA) to get a thorough understanding of the issue of port traffic development. In the second stage, market performance is analysed through the use of the non-parametric models of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which estimates the relative efficiency scores and ranking seaports according to their efficiency. Five DEA models are adopted for comparative purpose, the DEA- CCR, DEA-BCC, the Super-Efficiency (A&P, 1993), the sensitivity analysis and slack variable analysis models. In the third stage, to examine the impact of port efficiency on port competitiveness, a number of hypotheses are examined through the use of parametric correlation coefficients (Spearman’s rank order) and Simar and Wilson (2007) procedure to bootstrap the DEA scores with a truncated regression. Using this approach enables more reliable evidence compared to previous studies analysing the efficiency of seaports. The main findings demonstrate that the recent deconcentration tendency of the Mediterranean container port market is due to the increased number of market players which will in turn reshape the market structure, change the container port hierarchy and intensify the competition between ports as the market shifts from oligopoly to pure competition. The research findings also reveal the existence of inefficiency pertaining to the management of container ports in the region, since the total technical efficiency is found to be below 50% on average. This relatively limited technical efficiency of the Mediterranean container ports indicates the need for appropriate capital investments for ports’ infra/superstructure. In particular, those ports whose efficiency is not favoured by some factors such as size, geographical position and socio-economic conditions of the region in which they are located, must adopt suitable reform strategies to promptly improve their efficiency and competitive position. What differentiates this work from previous studies on the subject is that both cross-sectional and panel data have been collected and analysed at the level of individual container ports in the Mediterranean. The study is based on a wide range of methodologies, both parametric and non-parametric, that have ensured the validity of the empirical examination that has been undertaken and the results obtained. The research analysed the Mediterranean container ports competitiveness, benchmarked and ranked their efficiency by considering the Mediterranean in its totality, including South Europe, Middle East and North Africa. The study puts forward a way to assess container port efficiency based on simple, yet validated and meaningful physical efficiency measures.

Given the significance of financial liberalization and the key role of financial development in economic growth, according to the financial liberalization theory, liberalizing the financial sector is a route to increasing savings, investment and growth. However, the recent studies have shown that a number of developing countries do not demonstrate this kind of relationship and have, rather, recorded relatively low growth. The primary purpose of this research is to explore the potential economic impacts on the Libyan economy of economic liberalization in general, and liberalization of the financial services sector in particular, in the event of Libya‟s accession to full membership of the WTO. In order to ascertain and to quantify this impact, the study used a mixed methodology. The existing theoretical arguments have been critically reviewed in order to develop the research idea. In line with the research objectives, the methodology used include a quantitative and qualitative approach. First, the quantitative aspect is based on an empirical assessment of the impact of financial liberalization using time-series econometric techniques from 1978 to 2011 for secondary data analysis; and second, the qualitative approach, based on semistructured interviews directly related to the research aims and objectives. The empirical findings achieved the aim of the research. The results obtained show that despite the reforms and liberalization in the financial sector, there is a negative relationship between financial liberalization in Libya and economic growth during this period. This disproves the theory of financial liberalization that claims a positive co-relation between financial liberalization and economic growth. The research outcomes include a set of recommendations based on the findings of the study, which are potentially useful for policy makers and further research.

In today's highly competitive, volatile and increasingly global manufacturing environment, manufacturing companies are increasingly aware of the need for agility and effectiveness at the supply-chain level, rather than simply at company level. Business Process Re-engineering and the resulting emphasis on core competence has influenced a move towards de-centralisation, flatter organisation structures and increased use of "outsourcing". It has been said that it is now supply-chain versus supply-chain and that this poses both opportunity and threat for SMEs. While some work has been done in relation to developing the concept of integrated supply-chains, relatively little has been published with respect to the concept of "Extended Enterprise (EE)", the "highest' 'level of inter-enterprise integration. This thesis provides a thorough review of literature with respect to supply-chain integration and Extended Enterprise. Current practice is evaluated on the basis of the literature review and an analysis of a questionnaire and some Case Study companies. A detailed description of Extended Enterprise is provided and a conceptual reference model is developed, with the aim of providing a strategic planning tool, which will help organisations to identify the extent to which they operate as part of an EE. The model is intended also to help organisations in their evolution towards more effective operation within EE. One of the key characteristics/enablers of EE is stated as the existence of an organisational structure, which supports the effective identification, rationalisation and deployment of core competence within an EE. An approach based upon the concept of a "Process Breakdown Structure" is introduced and is evaluated in the context of a Case Study Company.

My research examines how middle aged women (35-54 years of age) who live in the UK experience the process of growing older, and it addresses in detail the question of whether, and if so, how, their sense of self changes during midlife. In recent years it has been argued that it is not possible to offer an adequate theory of women’s experience and self-understanding without addressing the bodily aspects of the constitution of identity in their social context. According to the ‘double standard of ageing’ hypothesis, women are not permitted to age in ways that men are; they are marginalised and ignored not only by popular culture but also by some sociologists and gerontologists. Thus, there is a need for rethinking current theory so as to ensure that middle aged women become more visible. The themes explored in my project include: body image in midlife, participants’ notions of middle age, methods women use in order to control or conceal the signs of ageing, female sexuality in midlife, life milestones, ageism, the double standard of ageing in British society. The thesis contributes to the current debates within social sciences by offering new data that corroborate the hypothesis of the embodied nature of female identity, and the view that ageing is experienced as a defining factor in the development of personal female identity. Paricipants acknowledge that ageing is a feminist issue and their disourse confirms that there is a double standard of ageing in British society. In addition, my project challenges the idea that getting older is something pathological. It stresses the importance of diversity among women of different ethnicity and cultural background for the psychological, and social impact of ageing in women’s life. Finally, this project suggests that social scientists need to re-consider their age cohort categorizations and the use of the term ‘middle-age’, which - given the currently popular and medical preconceptions - carries only negative connotations for participants.