China has been experiencing constraints to the sustainable development of its domestic economy in recent years due to a reliance on a low value-added oriented economy. The enhancement of innovation among local firms is, therefore, being encouraged by the Chinese government. The Chinese government regards the automotive industry as one of its strategic industries yet the local automotive firms in China still remain relatively under-developed due to a limited independent innovation capacity. Therefore, the enhancement of an indigenous innovation capacity in the automotive industry is badly needed. Favourable policies have been applied in the automotive sector in order to support the technological development of local automotive firms which includes the constraints on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the automotive sector. Automotive multinational corporations (MNCs) are strictly required to establish international joint ventures (IJVs) with local automotive firms and can own no more than a 50% share in an IJV. The logic behind this is to protect the local automotive firms and allow them access to the technological resources of the MNCs and the opportunity for organisational learning. This logic is supported by current literature as IJVs are, arguably, able to deliver innovation outputs through direct access to the resources of the parent companies and the interpartner learning effects. Despite this, real-life examples suggest a limited innovation performance in the automotive IJVs in China. The innovation achievements are largely limited to minor changes to established products and some new products based on existing technologies. Whilst there is little technological innovation apparent in the automotive IJVs in China, there is evidence of this emerging from local automotive firms without the assistance of an IJV partnership. This PhD thesis explores the underlying reasons for the gap between current academic theory and the reality in the automotive industry. Qualitative case studies of three Chinese automotive IJVs and one independent local automotive firm with a reputation for innovation were conducted to investigate the factors that limit innovation activities in automotive IJVs. The findings of this research suggest that the IJV partnership itself is a constraining factor in the context of the Chinese automotive industry. This is because the nature of automotive IJVs in China lead to a lack of strategic focus on innovation and the IJVs follow a closed innovation paradigm as they only benefit from the limited resources of their parent companies, with little or no access to other external resources. Furthermore, the mismatch of the technological capabilities causes ineffectiveness in the utilisation process of the transferred resources. This research contributes to knowledge by explaining the gap between current theories on IJV and the reality within the industry. Furthermore, a revised model of knowledge management is proposed in the context of IJVs. In light of the main research findings, recommendations are made regarding the policy and practice of using IJV partnerships for the enhancement of innovation capacity among Chinese firms.

In recent years there has been an increase in metrics and indices measuring corporate social responsibility (CSR) (SuatainAbility, 2010; IBE, 2013). In legitimating the premise of these metrics focus has centred on the effects of inclusion, either in regard to financial impact for the firm (Beurden and Gössling, 2008; Griffin and Mahon, 1997), validity in gaining and conveying legitimacy (Chatterji et al, 2007; Agle and Kelly, 2001; Font et al, 2012; Graafland et al, 2004), or social impact in promoting responsible business practices (Slager et al, 2010; Slager, 2012; Adam and Shavit, 2007; Scarlet and Kelly, 2009). Yet, arguably these tools are now institutionalised elements of CSR (Waddock, 2008), and thus focus is no longer centred on gaining legitimacy, but rather on retaining it, as they 'face the need to evolve ... in the context of the changing demands of constituents and environmental change' (Durand & McGuire, 2005, p.168). However, little is known about how these effects (financial, social and validity) impact the valuation dynamics associated with participation in these tools over time. This thesis aims to fill this gap by exploring processes of legitimation and critique of participation in Business in the Community's Corporate Responsibility Index (BiTC's CRI). Through the lens of Boltanski and Thévenot's economies of worth (2006), the thesis examines the 'orders of worth' drawn upon in legitimating and critiquing participation in the CRI over time. Methodology is abductive, with data and extant theory explored simultaneously so as to establish contributions through a mutually-informed comprehension of what the data is a 'case of' (Tavory & Timmermans, 2014, p.5). Research-theorising applies Peircean semiotics (Peirce, 1909), by which, extant literature and theorising are applied, tested, and either set aside from/or built-upon, when set against the data of the empirical case. Data collection is qualitative, consisting of observations (4 formal and numerous informal), interviews (68) and documentary analysis. The research ultimately draws on Boltanski and Thévenot's Economies of Worth (2006), and the notion of 'composite assemblages', developed further by Mailhot & Langley (2017), Gond et al (2017) and Taupin (2012). The thesis supports Taupin's (2012) suggestion; that a rating's legitimacy is based on a collection of 'moral worths' (p.529), and conceptualises this through the 'composite assemblage' advanced by (Mailhot & Langley, 2017). Analysis contributes to scholarly understanding of processes of legitimation, by unpacking the relative 'robustness' of an assemblage, to internal and external 'tests' of worth. In unpacking these processes, the thesis brings together theory from EW, 'substantive and symbolic CSR', materiality, risk, and boundary objects; to uncover a complex 'web' of dynamic central, and peripheral value assemblages, which BiTC staff and participating CR practitioners draw upon, in legitimating and critiquing participation in the CRI.

Knowledge Management (KM) in this research refers to a process that dives deep into an organization and analyzes operational metrics to understand and help the enterprise make use of knowledge both explicit and tacit, facilitate a state of knowledge awareness and sustain the knowledge managing and learning process. This novelty of the research is its first attempt to combine China's KM implementation issues statistics, literature review on KM model and KM CSFs, integrating with research objectives findings to develop a KM framework for China SME shipyards. This framework interlinks the knowledge cycle of knowledge acquisition, application and improvement continuously within organization by 3 KM domains of organization entity, people interaction and organization memory, formulated by 12 KM CSFs derived. The uniqueness of this framework is it emphasis on people. Organization entity involves people support of top management to motivate and drive organizational culture to embrace KM. Continuous organization knowledge improvement involve people interaction to facilitate knowledge processes through socialization programs, training and building of trustworthy team. People are the one who contribute to organization memory by retain and update organization knowledge for effective reprocessing and retrieval via information technology. The survey took the form of structured interview in five stages of field study with eight sets of survey questionnaires. AHP method is applied to quantify practices and translate it into measurable absolute numbers. Result showed that one third of China SME shipyards are NOT Ready for KM implementation. Among the deficiencies, knowledge structure is the first limitation, followed by the knowledge content and training. The value of this research is to highlight and illustrate to enterprises the opportunity of the application of KM Framework could continuously improve their organization knowledge from operating processes through systematic knowledge acquisition and application, to gain their competitiveness and sustainability in long term. In short term, this KM framework by application could answer to the question that all China SME shipyards unanimously asked "Do you think my shipyard is ready to implement Knowledge Management?"

This thesis consists of three self-contained studies on corporate tax avoidance of Chinese firms around the 2008 Corporate Tax Reform. In Chapter 1, we describe the background of this thesis, provide a general introduction of the Tax Reform and outline the motivation of this research. Chapter 2 studies how multinationals’ decisions of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China responded to the tax reform where exemption from the dividend withholding tax was repealed and investors from various jurisdictions faced different withholding tax rates due to their existing double tax agreements (DTA) with China, providing incentives to adopt an indirect strategy for foreign affiliates and thus to reduce host country taxation of foreign income. We find a significant rise in FDI flows sourced from low tax conduit jurisdictions with favorable DTA subsequent to the tax reform, while there is no similar increase in FDI flows sourced from other jurisdictions. In addition, our results suggest that the pattern of FDI changes is similar for jurisdictions adopting divergent double tax relief mechanisms. Overall, our findings are supportive of the existence of indirect investment structures in which investors use conduit strategies via chains of ownership in order to minimize their corporate tax burden. Chapter 3 investigates whether and how firms shift income across consecutive years in response to a known schedule of tax rate changes. Both accruals-based and real earnings management models are tested for firms with tax rate increase or decrease. We find that firms expecting tax rate increase are more likely to manage their earnings upward via accruals instead of real activities, while firms facing tax rate reduction do not exhibit significant downward earnings management behavior via accruals or real activities. Our tests also show that state or institutional ownership do not have significant impact on the extent of accruals-based or real earnings management in response to tax rate changes. Chapter 4 studies the changes in effective tax rates (ETR) and book-tax differences (BTDs) of firms in response to a rise or cut in statutory tax rate during a major tax reform in an emerging market, and offers insights into the interaction of financial accounting considerations with corporate tax avoidance. We find that firms located in special economic zones (SEZ) with a rising statutory tax rate after tax reform exhibit a rise in ETRs and permanent BTDs, but the temporary BTDs of SEZ firms dropped after CTR-08, suggesting a trade-off of time value benefits of deferring tax payment for the advantage of accelerating tax payment during a period of rising tax rate. DR firms, on the other hand, show a decrease in ETRs and permanent BTDs when they face a decrease in statutory tax rate. In Chapter 5, the main findings and implications of the thesis are summarized and future research directions are discussed.

Challenges faced today in the truck industry indicate a need for transformation in truck manufacturers’ business logic. First, current business models are based on the sales of new vehicles so truck manufacturers fail to capture substantial financial benefits from servicing the installed base. Second, the truck market is prone to regional market cycles, which necessitates truck manufacturers to find solutions to stabilize their revenues. Moreover, environmental legislation and social pressures encourage truck manufacturers to look for solutions to preserve natural resources and enhance social welfare. To address these challenges, this study examines a regenerative result-oriented product-service (RROPS) business model, which combines a result-oriented product-service system and a closed-loop supply chain. By adopting a RROPS business model, truck manufacturers can earn regular sources of revenues, because demand for services is counter-cyclical, while improving their environmental and social performance. Hence, the goal of this study is to establish how to generate sustainable value for truck manufacturers. The study follows a multiple methods research design and collects data from truck manufacturers and logistics firms. Based on relevant literature and findings from a case study of a truck manufacturer, this work operationalizes eight building blocks of a RROPS business model, using the Business Model Canvas as framework of reference. China, the world’s largest national truck market by volume, is chosen as context for the study because truck manufacturers in China face economic, social and environmental challenges (e.g low profitability, no value capture from used trucks) that a RROPS business model could help addressing. Referring to the resource-based view and the social exchange theory, two conceptual frameworks are developed to determine mechanisms of sustainable value generation. Research hypotheses are tested with a sample of 180 survey responses collected from 22 truck manufacturers. Qualitative and quantitative survey data from logistics firms are also collected to conduct a comparative analysis between truck manufacturers' and logistics firms' perspectives with respect to market-related building blocks of a RROPS business model. The resulting contributions to knowledge are threefold. First, this study adds to existing literature on sustainable business models by offering a comprehensive analysis of a RROPS business model from a triple bottom line perspective. Second, this work extends the resource-based view and the social exchange theory by identifying and testing how business model elements of a RROPS business model contribute to the generation of sustainable value for truck manufacturers. Finally, this study establishes individual and combined mediating effects of three business model elements and shows that RROPS key partners contribute the most to explain the variance in RROPS gains, followed by RROPS key resources and RROPS internal risk management. With respect to managerial implications, this research demonstrates the relevance of a business model approach and establishes key characteristics of building blocks in a RROPS business model as well as the interdependencies between these business model elements. Truck manufacturers should pay particular attention to grow relational exchanges with their business partners and develop firm's internal strategic assets such as information and communication technologies and internal risk management practices. Furthermore, outcomes of the comparative analysis highlight that truck manufacturers should make more efforts to comprehend truck owners’ business environments. In China, a RROPS business model appears as a suitable solution to comply with the triple bottom lines of sustainability in the truck sector, but changes in customer habits and Chinese legislations are required to promote this new business logic.

Food waste in recent years has become an international priority because of the large amounts of food wasted from farm to fork. In low-income countries like Nigeria, losses are significantly higher along the food chain from production to retail. There is a dearth of research that considers various crop value chains in different geographical regions and the prevailing conditions that influence these losses. Nigeria produces 3.9 million metric tonnes of citrus annually and it estimated that 30-70% is lost to postharvest losses. This study investigated the causes of losses from farm to fork along the citrus value chain in Nigeria. It adopted the ‘follow the thing’ framework to trace the journey of an orange from the farm to the consumers’ home. A multi-method methodological strategy was employed to capture the causes and impacts of losses from the perspective of core actors with the use of questionnaires, interviews and field observations. Empirical findings suggest that citrus postharvest losses are between 10-100%. Losses were found to result from an absence of processing facilities to provide a ready market for fruits. Other causes include improper postharvest handling in the form of poor harvesting techniques, inadequate storage, packaging and transportation facilities. These losses had negative impacts on the livelihood of the actors, as they directly reduced the income they obtained. The most important cause of losses identified was the lack of political willpower due to bad governance in the provision of processing facilities. This further provided a disabling environment for the citrus market to thrive. The thesis recommends ‘follow the thing’ as an adequate framework to study and understand postharvest losses.

The extent of youth unemployment in the UK in the years following the 2008 economic crisis, as well as the backdrop of longer-term concern regarding the rise of precarious work (Beck 2000, Standing 2011) prompted discussions of a 'lost generation' of young people set to feel the economic scars from embarking on their careers at a time of economic turmoil. The 2008-2009 recession was also (dubiously) labelled a 'mancession' and the first 'middle class recession'. Despite this, comparatively few sociology studies have adopted a quantitative approach to compare the class and gender dimensions of inequality in young people's employment trajectories prior to and following the 2008-2009 recession. This research makes an original contribution to the field by using longitudinal sequence analysis methods to contrast the employment trajectories of two cohorts of 16 to 24 year olds in the UK: a pre-recession and a recession cohort. In doing so, it establishes the extent to which the patterns of class and gender inequality amongst young people, not only in unemployment, but also in the movement in and out of 'precarious work', differed prior to and following the 2008-2009 recession. It finds that precarious employment was not as widespread as 'end of work' theorists suggested but that the recession brought an increased minority of young people who experienced employment difficulty. Furthermore, it argues that the recession did not advantage or disadvantage class or gender groups in a uniform way. Rather, changing trends in the recession highlighted a number of complex and shifting patterns of inequality amongst young people of different genders and from differing class backgrounds.

This thesis explores the idea of the ‘railway family’ in the British railwayindustry between 1900 and 1948. The ‘railway family’ was borne out of a desire tocreate an ‘imagined community’ of railway workers across the wide geographicalboundaries of individual railway companies and the local branches of national tradeunions. The thesis seeks to understand how railway companies and trade unionsmanaged and extended the idea, particularly through their magazines and newspapers,in order to cultivate loyalty and support amongst their employees or members andtheir families. Despite being a male-dominated industry, the idea of the ‘railway family’opened up avenues of participation for women within the railway industry, mostespecially through the women’s trade union auxiliaries. These auxiliaries were open tothe wives and daughters of railway trade unionists and created a space for theseindividuals to cultivate their own identity as part of the railway industry and as women,wives and mothers through fundraising for trade union causes, supporting the unionduring labour unrest and campaigning on political issues that affected the ‘railwayfamily’. The idea of the ‘railway family’ was not just a theoretical model but was livedin practice by railwaymen and their families within their local communities. Thecreation of occupational communities and the ways in which the ‘railway family’supported one another without the interference of railway companies and tradeunions will be explored through a case study of Gloucester. This thesis is the firstoccasion that the idea of the ‘railway family’ has been studied, both in theory and in practice, in order to understand how railway companies and trade unions interactedwith railway workers and their families and how these individuals utilised the idea tocreate a lasting support network for all those involved with the railway industry.

Greece, like many other countries, has experienced great changes in food supply, consumption patterns and health outcomes. Famous for its Mediterranean diet, it has actually undergone a modem nutrition transition, and now has high rates of overweight and obesity and increased incidence of non-communicable nutrition-related diseases. This study begins with that reality and the current failure of food policy and nutrition-related initiatives to tackle problems. The study explores whether and how social marketing could remedy this policy deficit and contribute to changing Greek food behaviour. The thesis describes a contextual review of the state of nutritional health, the food system and food policy in Greece and outlines social marketing theory and experience. Two studies were conducted to answer the research questions. The first was a case study conducted on a sample of undergraduate students through nine focus groups with fifty-nine Greek undergraduate students from eight Athenian education institutes to explore the influencers of eating behaviour, the impact of current initiatives and the potential of social marketing. A second study of thirty-two key stakeholders in significant positions in the Greek food system explored through semi-structured interviews the reactions of education institutes, civil society, government and food supply chain representatives to the Greek food situation and the potential of social marketing. The fieldwork studies found that social marketing was not likely to be a panacea but has potential for Greece. The first study found that eating decisions are complex, based on individual as well as environmental factors. Both studies highlighted policy failings in government, while the second study specified the problematic structure of the public sector and a reluctance to confront existing food culture. Both studies found potential for social marketing to help change Greek food culture but its utility depends on factors beyond the realm of food policy alone. Political will, suitably qualified people and changes in the food system are all necessary. The thesis concludes that social marketing would be enhanced by an integrated food policy framework and from a broader understanding of behaviour change in general and of the dynamics of eating behaviour in particular. A new model of this integrated approach is proposed. Greek food policy would be enriched by the citizen-centric approach of social marketing but only if the full 5 Ps that will include "Policy" are applied as the policy element is too easily marginalised. The thesis proposes that food policy be integrated around three dimensions of action: food safety and hygiene, nutrition and environment.

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