In the context of the developing world the marginalised and poor have gained new significance and are a focus for marketers owing to C.K. Prahalad’s (2005) seminal work on the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) market. To lessen and improve the lives of the poor, pro-poor innovations are necessary for this market. However, when pro-poor innovations are developed for the BOP market, it is important to understand that the BOP exhibits different characteristics from the middle and high income consumer market because of different constraints faced by BOP consumers in their day to day life. Pro-poor innovations must, therefore, be developed that are tailored for this market and its unique surroundings (e.g., economic constraints, unreliable electricity etc.), to overcome these constraints. There are examples in the BOP market, where very useful pro-poor innovations (e.g., pure drinking water) with clear social benefits were unsuccessful in this market. Therefore, it is important to understand the complex array of antecedents to pro-poor innovation adoption in the BOP context so that practitioners and policy makers can maximise their chances of success in this large and socially important market. To understand the antecedents of innovation adoption, a range of theoretical models were developed (e.g., Value based Adoption Model, Consumer Acceptance of Technology model) but these have typically been validated within western, developed contexts. However, there is little research, which has investigated pro-poor innovation adoption in the BOP context. This research seeks to understand consumers’ pro-poor innovation adoption in the BOP context through: 1) empirically comparing seven innovation adoption models, 2) conceptually and empirically formulating an integrated pro-poor innovation adoption model, and 3) validating the newly developed model for the BOP. This research investigated these three objectives by conducting two studies. Study 1 was carried out to empirically compare the validity of seven consumer based innovation adoption models in the BOP. Following the procedure of Venkatesh et al. (2003), the empirical results of this comparison were coupled with theory in the area to conceptualise and develop a new model of innovation adoption for the BOP, coined here as the Integrated Theory of Pro-poor Innovation Adoption (ITPIA). Later, Study 2 was conducted to validate the newly developed ITPIA model in the BOP market. Consequently, this research contributes significantly to our understanding of the antecedents to consumer innovation adoption in this market through integrating elements of seven well-established consumer based innovation adoption models. The ITPIA model explains innovation adoption better than these existing seven models, which were mainly developed to explain innovation adoption by wealthier consumers in western contexts. This thesis also contributes by taking account of consumer heterogeneity such as urban and rural BOP area and different age groups. Although it may be common to assume that the BOP market want cheap products to suit their needs, the ITPIA model developed here shows that successful pro-poor innovations should address more than the lack of money of the BOP segment. It appears from this research that BOP consumers are not just rationally motivated. This research contributes by showing that BOP consumers don’t just look for functional, utilitarian benefits but are more likely to adopt a new product if it provides some degree of affective and hedonic gratifications. Interestingly, whereas consumer innovation adoption related research (Venkatesh et al., 2012) in developed country contexts suggests that intention is the strongest predictor of usage behaviour, this research contributes by providing the fact that supporting environment, which reduces external and internal constraints related to adoption of pro-poor innovations, is the strongest determinant of intention and usage behaviour of BOP consumers. Therefore, this research provides valuable theoretical and practical guidance about key antecedents, which influence the consumer adoption of pro-poor innovations in the BOP context, and this is of relevance to academics and policy makers with an interest in these markets.

Differences in agglomeration externalities and industrial regimes between locations generate performance differentials for their localized economic activities. For more than two decades, scholars have debated which externality is dominant for growth and under which regime. The present study aims to resolve this debate by analysing the influence of agglomeration economies on the growth of five-digit manufacturing sectors and firms in Indonesia between 2000 and 2009 discriminating cities and regencies. Specialization, competition, population density, human capital, and a set of varieties are employed. This is conducted shedding the light on policy implications of economic variety sectoral decomposition functional to revitalize Indonesian manufacturing growth after the Asian Financial Crisis, which substantially hits the Indonesian economy and manufacturing. Empirical evidence reveals that Indonesian policymakers should develop initiatives to support the competitiveness of key labour-intensive industries and manufacturing transformation towards knowledge-based productions. This can be achieved through promoting key specialised clusters characterized by large sectoral interconnectivity favouring inter and intra-industry knowledge spillovers, which allow underpinning the competitiveness of clusters and overcoming the two typical drawbacks of highly specialized locations (lock-in and lack of resilience). The formation of human capital, and the development of technologically advanced industries come to light as crucial drivers to construct a more conductive innovative environment and reduce manufacturing exposure to external industry-specific shocks. Population density and industrial diversity antithetically influence manufacturing growth in cities and regencies due to their economic heterogeneities.

This Thesis has two themes: (1) political economy of international trade and factor mobility policy; (2) the robustness of strategic trade and industrial policy. Chapter 1 is a non-technical introduction of my research. In Chapter 2, Double-edged incentive competition for FDI, we study the impact of special interest lobbying on competition between two countries for a multinational in a common agency framework. \Ve address the following questions. On the positive side, is special interest lobbying a determinant of competition for FDI? If so, how does it work? How does it affect the equilibrium price for attracting FDI? On the normative side, what are the welfare effects of FDI competition when special interest lobbying is present? Is allocative efficiency always achieved? We argue that special interest lobbying provides an extra political incentive for a government to attract FDI. We show that compared to the benchmark case when governments maximize national welfare, now (1) an economically disadvantageous country has a chance to win the competition; (2) the equilibrium price for attracting FDI is higher than in the benchmark case; (3) allocative efficiency cannot be always achieved. In Chapter 3, Advertising in a differentiated duopoly and its policy implications for an open economy, we develop a model of advertising in a differentiated duopoly in which firms first decide how much to invest in cooperative or predatory advertising and then engage in product market competition (Cournot or Bertrand). We then use this model, with the type of advertising endogenously determined, to explore the policy implications in the context of a Brander-Spencer third-country model of strategic trade. Among results derived from this model, most interestingly we show that for a range of parameter values we get robust trade policy in which governments always use a trade subsidy irrespective of the type of advertising or form of market competition. In Chapter 4, Is export subsidy a robust trade policy recommendation towards a unionized duopoly, we argue that although previous researches imply that the robust trade policy recommendation towards a unionized duopoly is an export subsidy, we cannot get such a result even in the linear case if the opportunity cost of public funds is sufficiently high. However, if we consider the case where the domestic firm and the trade union lobby the government to set their favorable trade policies by giving the government political contributions (modeled in a common agency setting), then the result of robustness will be restored if the government cares about the political contributions sufficiently relative to national welfare. See Chapter 5 for some technical proofs.

Social capital is a rich topic in the development literature. Despite this, there is an incomplete understanding of how social capital is formed when placed within the enabling or constraining structure of Global Value Chains. While governance of Global Value Chains is well understood as a powerful force that shapes the participation of farmers, the literature to date has not effectively explored the extent to which governance may shape participation among farmers. The aim of this thesis is to explore how, if at all, governance shapes the formation of two types of farmers' social capital: structural and cognitive. Within the context of Peru's Alternative Development Program, where there is a purposeful effort to develop the social capital of farmers, qualitative research was conducted on two case study Global Value Chains: cacao and palm oil. Interviews were conducted with stakeholders across the Global Value Chain, from farmers and collective organisations to exporters and importers. The case studies revealed that governance can be an enabler of structural social capital formation, but its role is shaped by the institutional context and existing attitudes towards social structure. Governance can be an enabler or barrier to cognitive social capital formation, depending on the nature of the governing relationship between buyer and supplier. To date, the literature on social capital formation has typically focused on factors internal to a collective group. The findings in the thesis shed light on the role of exogenous structures on the formation of social capital.

This study aims first at examining the value relevance of traditional accounting (EPS, ROI, and ROE) and value-based (SVA and EVA®) performance measures, in explaining stock returns’ variation in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). Pooled time-series, cross sectional data on 163 Greek companies listed in the ASE over the period 1991-2001 have been employed to examine this question. Relative information content tests revealed EPS, followed by EVA®, to be more closely associated with stock returns than ROI, ROE or SVA. However, the incremental information content tests suggested that EVA® adds more explanatory power to EPS than ROI, ROE and SVA. The significant role or ROI was also revealed. Since the performance measures under examination could not explain more than 13 percent of the variation in stock returns, the second aim of this study was to examine the perceptions and the investment strategies of market participants investing in the ASE. An empirical survey conducted from December 2003 to June 2004 asking from all user groups (official Members of the ASE, Mutual Funds Management Companies, Portfolio Investment Companies, Listed Companies, brokers, and Individual Investors) participating in the ASE to determine their investing practices. Data from 435 returned questionnaires revealed that although the professional investors follow the international practices (use fundamental analysis mostly), the individual investors and the brokers were more short-term focussed. Additionally, individual investors showed that they rely more on their instinct/experience and information from rumours and from the newspapers/media. However, this empirical research revealed the dynamic that EVA® conveys and the increasing interest of market participants in Greece. Overall, the contribution of his study comes from the fact that introduces the shareholder value added approach in the Greek capital market, and moreover, from its two unique samples, the methodology, and the revealed findings. Finally, it serves as a market paradigm both for the Greek context and for the emerging markets with the same market characteristics as Greece.

This thesis aims to explore how technology start-ups build dynamic capabilities in networking to enable their new venture internationalisation (NVI). Positioned within the theoretical context of international entrepreneurship research, this thesis draws on the strategic management, entrepreneurship, and international business literature. Specifically, this thesis draws on three theoretical perspectives: (1) dynamic capabilities, (2) networking and social capital, and (3) NVI theory. Together this study combines Helfat et al. (2007) asset orchestration framework along with Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s (1998) three dimensions of social capital as a theoretical lens to explore how various networking activities enable or inhibit NVI. Specifically, this thesis explores three overarching network processes, with respect to how international new ventures (INVs) (1) create, (2) extend, and (3) modify their social capital in high-technology markets. The empirical context is Scottish and Australian medical technology start-ups that compete in the global medical technology sector, a distinct sector of the wider life sciences industry. Methodologically, this an interpretivist study, which takes an abductive approach to building theory from longitudinal multiple case study research. The focal actor (i.e. level of analysis) is the INV, while the unit of analysis is the focal actor’s network relationships. Data collection and analysis took place over three iterative phases drawing on multiple primary and secondary data sources and processual analytical techniques. To collect these data, this thesis used semi-structured interviews drawing on the critical incident and narrative sequence techniques along with documents, and observation. This study began with a purposeful sample of eight medical technology start-ups, and as findings emerged, a theoretical sample of four cases, along with visual maps, conceptually ordered displays and case-ordered effects matrices helped focus and refine the cross-case analysis. From the emergent cross-case data analysis, three overarching aggregate categories were found to aggregate eleven second-order themes, which aggregate several first-order concepts. The overarching finding of this thesis is that networking capability development is an affect-based emergent process that enables NVI. Specifically, this thesis makes three contributions to knowledge. The primary contribution of this thesis takes a step towards a process theory of networking capability development. Therefore, this study identifies networking capability as one particular type of dynamic capability that enables NVI. Secondly, this thesis begins to unlock the black box of networking by identifying several networking activities that underpin the network-enhancing, network-delaying, and network-modifying process, which triggers, enables, and accelerates a virtuous cycle of networking capability development. Finally, this thesis argues that learning from delays and nurturing core ties helps shift technology start-ups’ reliance from impersonal relations towards future aspirations to internalise operations. A discussion of these findings then outlines the implications for theory, policy, and practice. This study closes with a discussion on research limitations and recommends new avenues for future research.

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays that focus on growth and investment in aggregate and at firm-level. The first essay focuses on the issue of aggregate economic growth. The purposes of this essay are to re-investigate the effectiveness of government size and quality of institutions to foster economic growth in developed and developing countries. This essay also examines a non-linear relation between government size and economic growth and finally to identify the specific channels of institutions quality that determine economic growth aggregately. The second essay identifies the response of firms’ investment to the market interest rate uncertainty and debt holding in Malaysia as one developing country. The sensitivity of firms’ investment to the interaction between aggregate uncertainty and debt holding isalso emphasized. This essay also examines the heterogeneity between high- and low-indebted firms groups. The final essay is conducted specifically at firm-level in Malaysia. The aims of this essay are to investigate the effect of financial factors on firms’ growth in Malaysia. It also examines the heterogeneity betweenfirms that have been divided into specific groups based on their size and sectors. The results for the first essay show that government size and institutions were ineffective to foster economic growth. It also revealed that government size has a non-linear effect on economic growth, while democracy and law and order play a positive role to foster economic growth. The second essay discovers that firms’ investment responds negatively to the aggregate uncertainty and debt holding. However, the effect of the interaction between aggregate uncertainty and debt holding on firms’ investment was not significant; these results were quite homogenous for high- and low-indebted firms in Malaysia. The results for the third essay indicate that financial factors, particularly internal funds, play an important role to foster firms’ growth in Malaysia. The results also indicate heterogeneity that is categorized by size and sector.

This thesis presents a comparative computational study of the performance of two different pricing mechanisms in a day-ahead wholesale electricity market, where performance is measured as the average level of payments made by the system operator to the generators. It focusses on two key pricing mechanisms: a uniform price based buy-back pricing model, defined as a short run approximation to the market design in Great Britain, and a nodal pricing model based on Locational Marginal Pricing rules. The research uses a game theory based approach for modelling themarket, allowing multiple rounds of the game to be played and statistically reliable results to be obtained. The research develops an agent based simulation of the day ahead markets for both of the pricing mechanisms, and is simulated on a constrained electricity grid. The agents developed for the simulation each represent a generator and are designed to be profit maximising with respect to a parent generation company. Agents employ an evolutionary algorithm in order to create optimised bids for the generation of electricity based on the current market state. Simulations of the market are performed using a styalised 29-Node transmission grid. A series of experiments are performed comparing the performance of the nodal and buy-back pricing mechanisms, under a series of different operating conditions. It is seen in all of the observed cases that the nodal market design averages a higher level of payments to its participants, and the indication is that the agents in a nodal market are able to explore the higher risk strategies more profitably than their buy-back counterparts. This work also highlights the value of creating evolutionary agents that are robust and flexible in analysing market designs. This research demonstrates that the greater the level of competition in a market the more efficiently market participants act. In addition to this the agents competing with a uniform based Buy Back pricing system appears far more restricted by higher levels of competition than their Nodal counterparts.

From this study, we find that the momentum premia are universally positive and statistically significant across 16 different momentum trading strategies in the Chinese Class A share market. By defining the time periods following UP and DOWN market states according to prior 12 or 24-month average Chinese Class A share market returns, we show that the momentum premia of different momentum strategies over time periods following UP market state eclipse those found over time periods following DOWN market state in the Chinese Class A share market for the whole sample period from January 1996 to December 2008. Furthermore, by employing 7 different factors—firm size, firm age, analysts’ coverage, return volatility, dispersion in analysts’ earnings forecast, trading volume, the quality/strength of corporate governance (free float ratio)—to gauge the degree of firm-level information uncertainty, we evidence that the information uncertainty has an amplifying effect over the momentum premium, and the amplifying effect is more pronounced over time periods following DOWN market state. The results from the sub-period analysis revolving the inception of two Chinese financial market regulatory reforms—1) July 1st, 1999 the implementation of the new P.R.C. security law; 2) July 3rd, 2003 the opening of the Chinese Class A share market to qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) dismiss the doubt that our findings could be sample time periodspecific. Compared with the tradition FF3F model, the Wang & Xu (2004)’s version of the FF3F model, with the value effect factor of the traditional FF3F model supplanted by residual free float ratio (proxy for the quality/strength of firm-specific corporate governance), exhibits more explanatory power over the momentum premia yet still fails to fully rationalize the momentum premia found in this study. This research fills the gap in the literature and expands the understanding of the momentum premium by offering empirical evidence of the dynamics of the momentum premia amid market swings, the impact of information uncertainty over momentum premia as well as the impact of information uncertainty over momentum premia amid market swings in the context of the Chinese stock market. The results from this study can potentially provide an important reference point for international and domestic investors in adjusting investment strategies and portfolio positions, or fishing for investment diversification opportunities in a financial market with volatile market condition such as the Chinese stock market.