This dissertation investigates the role which the acquisition of external resources plays in firm strategy. External Resource Acquisition (ERA) is a core strategic action for firm survival, especially when firms are faced with high munificence and uncertainty in regards to their resource environment. Primarily driven by the theoretical premises of the Resource Based View (RBV) of the firm (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984), scholars have conceptualized ERA as predominantly a resource-driven action. Under this view, firms engage in ERA to alleviate their resource constraints (Combs & Ketchen, 1999), access complementary resources (e.g., Rothaermel, 2001b), and further enhance their knowledge base (e.g., Ahuja & Katila, 2001). These contributions significantly advance understanding on various dimensions of ERA, but they treat the competitive environment of the firm as an exogenous factor. While there is a good theoretical rationale of the exclusion of the competitive environment in terms of the explanatory power of the RBV and its theoretical limits (Peteraf & Barney, 2003), the treatment of ERA as solely a resource-driven action, I argue, significantly fails to provide a holistic assessment on the strategic implications of ERA. I address this gap by a) developing a conceptual framework of ERA that takes into account both the firm’s idiosyncratic attributes and its competitive environment, and b) providing an extensive empirical analysis on the patterns of ERA activity among competing firms. Departing from this resource-driven view of ERA, I argue that ERA can be also seen as a competitor-driven action. I propose that firms engage in ERA to also respond to their competitive environment and more specifically to their competitors’ ERA-related actions. To build the competitive side of my argument, I draw upon the competitive dynamics literature and theories of interorganizational imitation. Taking these two views together, I argue that ERA can be seen as a strategic action that leads to a broader set of strategic choices. Drawing from an extensive sample of 4,729 ERA actions among the top 50 biopharmaceutical firms between 1987 and 2006, my empirical analysis provides overall support for both the resource- and competitor- driven views of ERA. This dissertation makes at least three contributions to the field of strategy. First, it illustrates that firm strategy, at least in the context of ERA, can be better explained when both firm- and competitor- specific explanations of firm action are taken into account. This particularly important for scholars who view firms from a RBV point of view, and tend to exclude the competitive environment of the firm from their conceptual development and analysis. Second, to better understand complex strategic actions, such as ERA, scholars must adopt a broader theoretical perspective of strategic choice. The empirical support of ERA as both resource- and competitor- driven, illustrates that firm strategy cannot be sufficiently explained by one theoretical view. Third, my empirical analysis provides support for the temporal dimension of strategy, when firms are faced with changing technological paradigms. In the case of the biotechnology paradigm, for example, the extent which firm- and competitor- specific factors explain patterns of ERA changes over time.

This study engages with the debates on industrial relations and economic performance at the micro-level. Primarily; this issue has been addressed through the production function approach which seeks to correlate a variable for unionisation with an economic performance measure. Criticisms are put forward which stress the technical limitations of existing studies, the limitations of statistical studies in examining social processes, and theoretical problems with the production function approach. The literature recognises the need for a detailed, processual case study. The thesis is such a case study, examining the Engineering Construction Industry, i. e. the building of large power stations and process plants, from 1960 to 1990. The principal research methods were archive work and interviewing. The industry was chosen because it constituted a 'crucial' case for the argument that labour militancy underlay the UK's poor economic performance in the 1960s and 1970s. The industry was characterised by widespread militancy and large project overruns, the assumption (tested within the thesis) being that the former caused the latter. The key finding is that the chronic project delays were at root due to the opportunistic practices of contractors who deliberately and covertly delayed construction in order to force the client into offering extra payments. A key profit focus of contractors lay in exploiting opportunities to generate additional payments. The widespread militancy of the 1960s and 1970s exacerbated overruns, but the key significance of militancy was that it was used as a tool by contractors in reproducing beneficial commercial relations with clients. The improvement in performance in the 1980s was at root due to the rise of managing contractors who curbed opportunism. Unconstrained by high levels of labour militancy, managing contractors adopted a low trust route to improve project performance, implying that the basis for longer term development has not been laid. A 'crucial' case study of the British worker argument has rejected the thesis that militancy underlay poor performance. The relationship between opportunism, militancy and poor performance uncovered within the study potentially has relevance for other important sectors of the UK economy.

On 30 November 2000, the Accounting Standards Board issued Financial Reporting Standard 17(‘Retirement Benefits’, FRS 17) to supersede Statement of Standard Accounting Practice (‘Accounting for Pension Costs’, SSAP 24). It removed managerial discretion over the main actuarial assumptions used to estimate employers’ pension obligations, and required the recognition of pension assets and liabilities on a consistent ‘fair value’ basis. However, FRS17 was only fully effective for reporting periods ending on or after 30 June 2005. This thesis examines empirically how the prolonged period associated with the debate, promotion and implementation of FRS17 interacted with various managerial pension choices. Evidence of these interactions can help discriminate among competing theoretical perspectives concerning employers’ long-term defined benefit pension obligations. This thesis draws upon these competing theoretical frameworks to develop and test hypotheses concerning the impact of pension accounting regulatory change on UK firms’ discretion over pension actuarial assumptions, termination and asset allocation during the period 1998 – 2002. The empirical results support three major hypotheses. Firstly, the magnitude of expected rate of return on pension assets assumption used for financial reporting purposes is driven primarily by the UK firms’ balance sheet leverage. Secondly, firms’ defined pension benefits termination decision is inter-related with their pension financial reporting choices. Thirdly, the allocation of pension assets has been managed in a way to reduce firms’ cash contribution risks that stem from measuring both pension assets and liabilities on a ‘fair value’ basis. These findings imply managerial discretionary behaviour related to these choices is consistent with the perspective that employer firms and their sponsored pension funds are an integrated economic entity, as is asserted by the new UK pension accounting rule (FRS 17).

In this research is provided a comparative analysis of workers’ mobilisation through a qualitative interpretation of processes, dynamics and effects of collective action in two care multinationals in Córdoba, Argentina, during 1996/1997. What drives workers to periodically contest their surrounding reality and how do they structure their protests? The thesis is based on the view that conflict is inevitable, mobilisation representing one possible form of it, due to the position workers have in the employment relation and for the constant existence of a gap between social needs and commodities produced within capitalist systems. Mobilisation is based on these theoretical objective conditions but subject do not immediately realise this and in the same terms, the process of collective protest implying in itself a deeper consciousness among workers of the meaning of their action. When subjects contest the inevitability of the social system surrounding them remains unpredictable, but the thesis has identified some factors whose absence or presence profoundly influences the chances for collective action to start and be maintained. At the same time the emphasis on the factors that are obstacles to mobilisation allows us to understand the concept of solidarity and its importance within the same process of mobilisation. Contrary to theoretical perspectives that intend collective action as based on individuals’ sense of injustice, this thesis emphasises the need for a reconceptualisation of solidarity within a theory of mobilisation. More generally the thesis calls for a re-evaluation of collective action as a process intrinsically collective whose nature disappears within a social context that constantly tends to individualise and divide. The case of Argentina and the historical perspective within which the mobilisations analysed are inserted, invite us to reconsider the role of traditional trade unions as organisers of protest and the relations between isolated workers’ struggles and more generalised social protests.

This thesis attempts to place a halt sign before the glib generalisations which so frequently are employed to describe what are termed "traditionally militant" workforces. It focuses on the mines and communities of the South Wales coalfield during the period 1937 to 1957 and examines the way in which issues at the coalface combined regularly with an inherited and often unique set of local circumstances to confound the directives and analyses of the central executives of the political parties and of the trade unions. It concerns itself primarily with the symbiotic relationship which existed between the politics of the pit and those of the miners' elected leaders. The work is divided into four chronological parts. The first sets out to construct an image of the coalmining industry in South Wales as it attempted to recover from the enormous setbacks which it suffered during the market depression of the early l930s. The second deals with the war years and their immediate aftermath; the third with the onset of nationalisation, and the fourth with the years of Conservative government from 1951 until the sharp downturn in the demand for coal in 1957/58. The records of the South Wales miners' lodges and those of the union's area and national executives provided my main sources of information. These were greatly supplemented by the detailed reports of the Ministry of Labour's Industrial Relations Officers as well as by the political and industrial columns of local and national newspapers and trade journals. Much valuable material was found amongst the mass of information published by the National Coal Board after l97 and, wherever possible, I have made extensive use of the large and growing collection of tape-recorded oral testimony housed at the South Wales Miners' Library in Swansea.

This thesis sets out to explore the much overlooked phenomenon of non-union employee representation (NERs). The work is concerned with both the utility of these structures from a workforce perspective and the managerial motivation underpinning the presence of these bodies. Further to the exploration of the above themes case study research was carried out in three organisations possessing relatively mature non-union representative structures. In terms of managerial goals it is suggested that that the extant literature affords a partial account; commentators characteristically depict a manifestly defensive intent, with goals evinced in terms of trade union exclusion. This study advances knowledge in this area by providing a more discriminating analysis exploring the contingent factors differentially shaping the managerial response to employee representation. Over and above union avoidance, evidence is presented of certain managerial actors pursuing a more proactive set of goals aimed at securing the cooperation of employees via the legitimacy imbued though the process of consultation. The necessity for such a response is tracked to factors relating to demands in and around the nature of the production regime/mode of service delivery. With regard to the theme of employee empowerment the thesis broadly supports the extant literature in demonstrating that the institutions under review represent largely unavailing vehicles for the furtherance of employee interests. A distinct feature, however, is that in contrast to these predominantly descriptive studies the theme of `voice' is ensconced within a theoretically informed analysis, allowing the study to move beyond this somewhat bland conclusion. The shortcomings are tracked to the key areas of power, autonomy and competence - ultimately manifest in a marked legitimacy gap. In the final analysis it is argued that there are inherent tensions unleashed by this mode of intervention precluding beneficial outcomes for both parties. Specifically, topics relating to the irreconcilability of the pursuit of both corporate and workforce goals through a managerially derived format are considered. Similarly, the rationality and coherence of a managerial agenda pursuant of `rival logics' of action, relating to both issues of workplace control and employee empowerment, is afforded critical scrutiny.

This thesis examines the evolution of antecedents, dimensions and initial screening models which discriminate between new product success and failure. It advances on previous empirical new product success/failure comparative studies by developing a discrete simulation procedure in which participating new product managers supply judgements retrospectively on new product strategies and orientations for two distinct time periods in the new product program: (1) the initial screening stage and (2) a period approximately 1 year after market entry. Unique linear regression functions are derived for each event and offer different, but complimentary, temporally appropriate sets of determining factors. Model predictive accuracy ascends over time and conditional process moderators alter success factors at both time periods. Whilst the work validates and synthesises much from the new product development literature, is exposes probable measurement timing error when single retrospective models assess success dimension rank at the initial screen. Six of seven hypotheses are accepted and demonstrate that: 1. Many antecedents of success and measures of objective attainment are perceived by NPD (new product development) managers to differ significantly over time. 2. Reactive strategy, NPD multigenerational history and a superior product are the most important dimensions of success through one year post launch. 3. Current linear screening models constructed using retrospective methods produce average prescriptive dimensions which exhibit measurement timing error when used at the initial screen. 4. Success dimensions evolve from somewhat deterministic to more stochastic over time with model forecasting accuracy rising as launch approaches based on better data availability. 5. Product market PiLC (the life expectancy of an introduction before modification is necessary calculated in years and months) and its order of entry and level of innovation alter aggregate success model accuracy and dimension rank. 6. Proper initial dimensional alignment and intra-process realignment based on changing environments is critical to a successful project through one year post launch. The work cautions practitioners not to wait for better models to be developed but immediately: (1) benchmark reasons for their current product market success, failure and kill historical "batting average"; (2) enhance and/or replace contributing/offending processes and systems based on these history lessons; (3) choose or reject aggregate or conditional success/failure models based on team forecasting ability; (4) concentrate on the selected model's time specific dimensions of success and (5) provide/reserve adequate resources to adapt strategically over time to both internal and external antecedent changes in the NPD environment. Finally, it recommends new research into temporal, conditional and strategic tradeoffs in internal and external antecedents/dimensions of success. Best results should come from using both linear and curvilinear methods to validate more complex yet statistically elegant NPD simulations.

The UK house-building industry is increasingly criticised for the quality of its products. Its business drivers are less focused on the needs of customers compared with much of the manufacturing sector. Recent surveys have revealed considerable dissatisfaction among buyers of newly built homes, particularly with the finished product and after-sales service quality. However, this cannot be viewed in isolation from the general business culture that prevails. In light of increasing calls for industry-wide changes, this research uses Westbury Homes as a typical example to examine existing practices in the industry that act as barriers to a change in culture. In determining a way forward, a review of extant change management models including Total Quality Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Balanced Scorecard and Hoshin Kanri provides new insight into the relative strengths of each and the role they can play in the formation of a holistic approach to successful customer-focused culture change. A four stage Strategy Deployment Maturity Journey for culture change is proffered that guides the deployment of policy through the introduction of i) a balanced set of headline performance measures, ii) operational performance indicators as drivers for change, iii) a participative programme for change, and iv) mechanisms for development, feedback and review of strategy. Early results indicate that implementation will lead to successful deployment of long-term objectives; specifically, a customer-focused culture that views service and product quality as contributing to future sales and profitability, instead of simply in terms of costs.

This thesis has adopted a qualitative approach to research into executive remuneration, to look inside the 'black box' of process. Executives, nonexecutives and others involved in the remuneration-setting process were interviewed in order to establish how executive remuneration is determined. In all, 40 interviews were conducted, covering 12 FTSE 350 companies plus other stakeholder bodies. The interviews yielded rich data illuminating the processes followed by the companies, and highlighting their similarities and differences. These data were considered in the light of existing economic, social-psychological and organisational theory approaches,n one of which proved sufficient, either alone or in combination, to explain what was happening. Companies determine the level of their executive pay based on their interpretation of 'the market', but the research shows that such a market is a construct that does not exist independently. They determine the structure of their executive pay based mainly on structures successfully adopted by other companies, and those considered acceptable to the investing institutions and regulators. Institutional theory explanations and the need for legitimacy are clearly seen in the data. A further finding of the research was that all of the companies had made changes to their remuneration schemes, some major. The various reasons for these changes included changes (actual or desired) to the corporate environment, changes to key personnel, and, notably, the need to increase pay packages that were 'below-market'. Incentive schemes that did not pay out were also changed. Finally, as regards process, it was clear that each of the case companies followed 'good governance' practices. It was also clear that each did this in a different way. For some, the process was managed by the non-executives; in others the executives had a leading role. The relationships between the protagonists had an important impact on the resultant governance processes.

My thesis aims to demystify the form of the Korean state by unveiling the theoretical shortcomings of developmental state theories and re-examining the historical development of the Korean state in the context of the formation and reproduction of capital relations in Korea. The first part develops a Marxist critique of theories of the developmental state. Through a close reading of Marxist theories of the state and Marx's own theory of value and commodity fetishism, I derive an understanding of the state as a differentiated moment of the reproduction of capital relations. Accordingly, I define the most serious theoretical shortcoming of the statist approach as its understanding of the state as a set of institutions and of capital as a set of businessmen. This approach enabled statist to define the state in East Asia as a state 'autonomous' from capital by deriving the form of the state from the nature of the seriously narrowed-down state-society relations as relations between state officials and a group of businessmen. On the basis of an understanding of capital as a social relation through which social labour is organised toward commodity production to make profits, and of the state as a social form through which unequal class relations are inverted into class-neutral relations between citizens, I argue that the developmental autonomy of the state, which underlies developmental state theory, results from a mystified form of the capitalist state and contributes to mystifying the state further. In the second half of this thesis, I present the Asian 'developmental state' as resulting from a particular mystification of the state in the historical development of the highly politicised formation and reproduction of capitalist social relations, in which the state's complementary role to capitalist development was maximised in suppressing labour, on the one hand, but also at the same time its differentiation from individual capitals in strictly regulating financial flows and selectively promoting industries developed to a great extent, on the other. An extensive investigation into the state's involvement in forming and reproducing capital relations in the 1960s and 1970s shows the real process of building-up the mystified state. Furthermore, I will show the demise of this mystified state through analysing crises of the politicised reproduction of capital relations, by a massive politicisation of domestic class conflicts, on the one hand, and the weakening of state control over individual capitals, particularly over the chaebol (Korean conglomerates) as capitalist development deepened in a growing involvement in the global economy from the 1980s, on the other. On the basis of this historical exposition, I also attempt to grasp the nature of the restructuring of capital relations in Korea in the aftermath of the Asian crisis in 1997, which is understood as an ultimate expression of the amalgamation of the crisis of the early configuration of capitalist social relations with the growing involvement of Korean capitals into the crisis-ridden development of global capitalism. Looking closely at the development of the increasing marketisation of the reproduction of capital relations, I argue that, although the form of the state has undergbne a significant transition, it is still subjected to the further development of new forms and subjectivity of class struggle, through which the unresolved contradiction of the newly created basis of capital accumulation manifested itself by putting the market-based reformulation of capital relations into an increasingly difficult condition.