My thesis contributes to the firms and trade literature, both theoretically and empirically, focusing on the export participation strategy by firms in one particular market, introducing products sequentially. I illustrate differences in export dynamics between firms according to their experience in that destination, and move further in my analysis by exploring how fast that experimentation is. I am particularly interested in the influence of trade liberalisation, as well as differences between products in terms of production effciency. Chapters 3 and 4 present a two-period analysis on firms' sequential exporting strategy to a single destination. Chapter 3 shows theoretically, inspired by Albornoz et al. (2012), that new exporters in a market tend to grow faster in that destination than expert exporters, both at the intensive and extensive margin, across products; but those newcomers are also more prone to exit that business, while trade liberalisation, as well as the focus on \core competence" products, helps new exporters to remain in the market and continue experimenting. With a rich dataset of Peruvian export transactions to the USA market, Chapter 4 backs most predictions from the theory empirically. In Chapter 5, I go deeper into the sequential exporting strategy with a theoretical framework, based on Nguyen (2012), to explain how quickly exporters in one market move from one product to another. I find, supported by empirical evidence, that trade liberalisation accelerates firms' experimentation in that destination.

This thesis examines the impact of CEO compensation, analysts' characteristics, earnings management and country governability on the accuracy of analysts' earnings forecasts. In summary, the thesis includes the following chapters: Firstly, Chapter 2 examines the interplay between CEO compensation and analysts' forecast errors over different forecasting horizons. A unique analyst-level sample for U.S. firms covering the period between 1992 and 2015 has been employed. Evidence obtained from this analysis suggests that CEO compensation, measured by various forms such as restricted stock holdings and stock ownership would correct for optimism in analysts' earnings forecasts, whereas CEO bonus and sensitivity to changes in firm's value would exacerbate analysts' optimism. Results also show that CEO compensation would augment the effect of earnings management on analysts' forecasts with CEO bonus being of importance. The findings of this chapter also indicate that analysts' characteristics and regulation can affect earnings forecasts. Next, Chapter 3 investigates the effect of governance on analysts' earnings forecasts. By employing a comprehensive dataset of 911 U.S. firms for the period 2000 – 2014, this chapter demonstrates a strong positive association between the government effectiveness and analysts' earnings forecasts. We extend this analysis employing corporate governance variables such as CEO equity incentives and CEO power, whilst a possible cross-term association between governability and the former has also been examined. This chapter explores further the effects of earnings management on analysts' forecasts accuracy documenting a negative impact of the former on the latter. Lastly, underlying causality strands and endogeneity issues are addressed opting for a flexible panel VAR model. Finally, Chapter 4 presents evidence of the effects of corruption on the accuracy of analysts' forecasts. Using a global sample, this chapter reveals that analysts face greater difficulty in forecasting earnings in advanced and emerging countries due to the detrimental effect of corruption. Interestingly, findings suggest that for firms located in developing countries, corruption enhances analysts' accuracy. This chapter also shows that the effect of earnings manipulation on the accuracy of forecasts is aggravated in the presence of corruption, whilst greater country freedom would enhance analysts' accuracy when corruption is present.

This thesis explores how Mexican fresh produce supply chains have responded to US bio-security regulations designed to prevent the intentional and accidental contamination of imported food. It explores the compliance processes, which are theorised using a framework drawn from the Resource-Based View (RBV) and the Supply Chain Governance (SCG) literatures. The constructs developed herein regarding capabilities and supply chain ‘governance structures' complement previous Regulation Studies (RS) explaining compliance behaviour. The thesis analysed 12 case studies, and tested causal conditions of compliance using a multi-value Qualitative Comparative Analysis (mvQCA) method. The main results show: 1) the pathways to meet the regulatory requirements; 2) the limited diversity of capabilities associated with higher levels of compliance; and 3) the importance of tight supply chain coordination to source and exchange knowledge for compliance, regardless of how or who governs the supply chain. The thesis contributes to various academic debates. It removes the RVB assumptions that resources and capabilities are intrinsically valuable and complementary, and therefore contributes towards making the theory less tautological. It shows how SCG benefits when the effects of supply chain integration and coordination are examined independently. It differentiates between firms lacking willingness and firms lacking capabilities to comply, making it possible to define suitable regulatory strategies for each type of firm. The thesis makes a methodological contribution as it is one of the first studies applying the mvQCA in Science, Technology and Innovations Studies (STIs). The new methodology is used here to test the causal conditions of compliance, but can also be applied to innovative performance more generally. The thesis concludes by showing how US regulations were effective in achieving their regulatory aims without significant negative consequences, and suggesting that STI regulatory policies can be used to increase business engagement to prevent the intentional and accidental contamination of the food chain.