This thesis contains three studies that provide theoretical and empirical evidence on household decisions in housing and investment portfolios in China, using 2010-2014 data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS). The first study investigates regional disparities in homeownership and value of owner-occupied housing in Chinese cities by using panel data from 2010-2014 CFPS. The results show that demographic characteristics actively shape the housing outcomes of urban households in different regions. The results also reveal development trajectories of regional economies. The findings indicate that while urban households benefit from an emerging population and an enormous growth in the private sector in the Eastern and Central regions, in the Northeastern region households are hindered in homeownership by an ageing population and an economy dominated by oversized but inefficient state-owned enterprises (SoEs). The second study adopts a nested logit approach, applying three data sets from the 2010-2014 CFPS. This approach explores how household investment choice differs with personal and household characteristics (e.g., such as health, demographic features, and institutional factors) across the broad investment categories of financial assets, private businesses, and real estate. I also employ a sub-sample from the 2012 CFPS that is restricted to parental households to examine how parenthood alters household investment decisions by building a binomial logistic model. The empirical results show that migration and income have a positive effect on investment decisions in the nested logit models. The evidence from the subsample finds that there are significant differences in the impact of demographic composition between investment categories. Using the 2010-2014 CFPS panel data, the third study investigates how household investment holdings vary according to demographic composition and intra-household bargaining strength in urban China. In addition, to explore the allocation of household investment, a further examination is carried out in the fixed-effect model with the specification of the Working-Leser function and in a Tobit model with two limits. Empirical evidence supports the following hypotheses: (a) changes in demographic composition considerably alter household investment holdings; and (b) the existence of a higher proportion of female children is strongly associated with an increase in household investments in financial assets.

The goal of this thesis is to study and understand the informal employment in China. With the rapid growth of informal employment, this thesis challenged the conventional view of informal sector that it is a hub for the poor who need work but cannot find employment in the formal sector. It analysed informal sector employment in China. It focused on three aspects: (1) the pattern and determinants of what constitutes employees, casual workers and employers, (2) the reasons for employment change between the formal and informal sectors, and (3) remuneration differences between formal sector employees and informal sector self-employed workers/employers. This analysis used CHIPs data from 2008, 2009, and 2014. The findings suggest that informal employment is a hub for the more vulnerable who are less able to compete, such as women, less educated, not healthy and disabled. However, it not necessarily applied to self-employed and small business owners. They are competitive with longer working experience and financial capital to start up own businesses. Running one’s own business can provide benefits in terms of job flexibility to accommodate the need to take care of children or elderly relatives. The findings also suggested that labour force engaged in the informal sector are more likely to be induced by personal career pursuing, rather than enforced unemployment. Finally, we have find that changing jobs from formal employment to either self-employment or entrepreneurship can increase monthly disposable income. The results found in this study contribute to the existing literature on China’s labour markets. We comprehensively dissected employment status by recognizing casual workers who either have no contract or a temporary contract under one year in length, which was neglected by the authorities and researchers. It has contributed to a richer understanding of employment status, where informal sector self-employed workers and employers are better off compared to formal employees. Indeed, casual workers have the worst working conditions when considering the number of hours worked and social protections received. These findings contribute to the existing literature on the informal sector as well as provide a comprehensive understanding of China’s labour market that the government can use when considering the establishment of new policies.

Strong empirical evidence points towards an extremely skewed distribution of exporters, corresponding to a few “superstar” firms operating alongside a fringe of small competitors. Superstars are characterised by superior efficiency, increased access to financial capital and, unlike fringe firms, by the ability to internalise the impact of their behaviour on the market. We develop a model in order to examine how productivity differences result in different abilities to invest in cost-reducing innovation which, in turn, allows firms to expand to the extent that they can exploit their market power. We then introduce international trade into this model and calculate the impact of increasing trade openness on aggregate welfare. We show that incorporating productivity heterogeneity jointly with differences in strategic behaviour generates a composition effect that dampens the pro-competitive effect of trade liberalisation. This effect materialises through a market share reallocation from smaller towards larger rivals. We find that, although trade always increases welfare by reducing the average markup and markup heterogeneity, gains from trade are lower when market power distortions are more severe. Consequently, in the presence of such distortions, size-dependent policies could have a welfare-enhancing role to play. We then use an appropriately augmented version of our model to account for the role of credit constraints differences between superstars and smaller enterprises. We examine how an economy’s financial development affects the welfare gains from trade and explore the role of large firms. We show that trade benefits less financially developed countries more and that the oligopolistic inefficiency resulting from the presence of large firms crucially alters theoretical predictions of the gains from trade. We go on to investigate the effect of trade with a more financially developed partner and find that it could act as a substitute for financial development by diminishing the impact of domestic credit market and oligopolistic inefficiencies.

This thesis considers play in bargaining games subject to Endogenous Commitment and in contribution games with a sunk cost. In bargaining games, Endogenous Commitment (EC) describes a common feature in negotiation: once an offer is made, neither would the proposer offer nor would the respondent accept anything worse. Similarly, in contribution games, the notion of sunk cost implies an irrevocability similar to EC: it is impossible for either contributor to reduce his or her contribution, so far as the cost is sunk. Another similarity between the bargaining and contribution games in our thesis is that we assume (most of) them to be finite, meaning that there is a deadline effect: when approaching the deadline, the final negotiator/contributor has a stronger incentive to reach an agreement/complete the project. The deadline effect puts the final negotiator/contributor in a relatively weaker position. With these two similarities, the bargaining and contribution games in our thesis share some similar features. In the first chapter, we conduct a literature review. In the second chapter, we study two player alternating finite/infinite bargaining games with Endogenous Commitment. In both cases, the outcomes are affected by the assumption of EC. In the third chapter, we apply Endogenous Commitment in bargaining games with protocols involving uncertainty. The settlement timings then exhibit a U-shaped pattern: players reach an agreement at the first or the last stage of the game. In the fourth chapter, we turn to contribution games with sunk cost and heterogeneous valuations. We show that a minor difference in valuation could affect the total welfare significantly. In our thesis, we adopt several settings in all chapters. As all models include two players, we refer to player 1 as male and to player 2 as female for convenience. When no specific player is referred to, we use i and j to indicate the two players, assuming i to be male and j to be female. When player 1 makes an offer (in bargaining games) or makes a contribution (in contribution games) in stage t (t\in[1,2,...T], T is the length of the game), we denote it as x_{t}; and when player 2 does so, we denote it as y_{t}. Similarly, we denote player i's and player j's choice as m_{t} and n_{t}.

This thesis comprises three essays in corporate finance, with a focus on corporate risk management and debt diversity. The first chapter examines the impact of derivatives use on the cost of equity for German non-financial firms. Using hand-collected data on derivatives use for a sample of German non-financial firms, I find that user firms have a 306 basis point lower cost of equity than non-users. This reduction in the cost of equity of users is attributable to their lower market, size, and value risk factor exposures. The observed negative relation between derivatives use and the cost of equity remains robust to specifications that account for potential endogeneity arising from a firm's derivatives hedging and capital structure decisions. I find that the reduction in the cost of equity is largest for smaller firms and for firms making use of foreign currency and interest rate derivatives. Moreover, new derivatives users experience a significant reduction in the cost of equity capital in the first year of adoption. In the second chapter, I empirically examine the impact of derivatives use on firms' distress risk using hand-collected data from the annual reports of German non-financial firms. The time period of this empirical analysis spans from 1999 to 2010. I find that derivatives using firms have lower distress risk. I use Heckman's two-stage treatment effect model to account for the unobservable factors that could affect the decision of the firm to use derivatives. Even after accounting for the unobservable factor bias, the results confirm that hedging reduces financial distress risk significantly. Moreover, I find that firms using foreign currency and interest rate derivatives can benefit via the reduction in financial distress risk. Using a comprehensive data for 46 countries firm's choice of the debt instrument, I find that firms use debt from many sources. Firms those sources debt from only one source or more specifically from the Bank, significantly lower their investment during the financial crisis. However, the firms those source debt from public market shows insignificant negative impact during the financial crisis. Later, I find that during the financial crisis time firms with higher financial distress exhibit negative impact on the bank debt. Whereas, firms with higher financial distress during the financial crisis shows a positive association with public debt. Findings of this study suggest that during the crisis period firms with access to the bond market issue bonds to substitute bank debt. However, this substitution is not one-for-one, so the firms experience deleveraging and consequently underinvestment.

This doctoral thesis aims to explore the innovation adoption process in project-based organizations. In particular, I developed a theoretical framework that explains how intra- and inter- project learning influenced by different management practices. I further generated various hypotheses based on the conceptual framework by conducting qualitative interviews. Empirically, I used survey data to test those hypotheses. I collected data from 147-construction industry, most of the companies were contractors and real estate companies. The results strongly support our hypotheses and suggest that different management practices facilitate different types, i.e. tacit and explicit, knowledge transfer among projects and it further influences speed of innovation adoption and speed of innovation routinization. This dissertation contributes to management theory and practice by establishing a comprehensive framework which explains how different types of knowledge flows among different types of projects, i.e. innovative and routine projects, finally influence innovation adoption behavior of project-based organizations. Overall, this research has important implications for how project-based organizations can enhance innovation adoption and routinization to realize the economies of repetition.

This thesis contains three studies on the topic of labour market search. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the studies. Chapter 2 reports an experimental study which examines how social comparisons affect behavior in a sequential search task. In a control treatment subjects search in isolation, while in two other treatments subjects get feedback on the search decisions and outcomes of a partner subject. The average level and rate of decline of reservation wages are similar across treatments. Nevertheless, subjects who are able to make social comparisons search differently from those who search in isolation. Within a search task we observe a reference wage effect: when a partner exits, the subject chooses a new reservation wage which is increasing in partner income. We also observe a social learning effect: between search tasks, subjects who have been paired with a more patient and successful partner increase their reservation wages in the next task. Chapter 3 reports a study in which we provide the first microeconometric estimates of the hazards to matching on both sides of a labour market, decomposed into two constituent parts. Namely, (i) the rate at which job-seekers and vacancies contact each other (i.e. having interviews), and (ii) the probability that a contact results in a match. To do this, we use unique data which contains information on job-seekers, vacancies, interviews and interview outcomes. We use a specification which addresses the problems of the temporal aggregation bias and spatial spillovers highlighted by the two-sided estimates. Our estimates suggest that market tightness affects the matching rates mainly through affecting the meeting rates. In both the raw data and the estimates, we find the decline in the matching hazard is driven by the decline in the contact hazard, and not by a fall in the matching probability. And we also report the effects of various characteristics on matching decomposed into the effects on meeting and matching probability. Using the same data as Chapter 3, Chapter 4 provides further evidence on the mechanism by which job-seekers and vacancies decide whom to contact during their search. Since the data features an environment where both sides of the market have access to a database (or marketplace) of potential partners, a natural model of search is one of stock-flow matching, and we show that the predictions of this model outperform those of a simple random matching model. Our descriptive and econometric evidence shows that it is the inflow rate of new agents, rather than the total stock of agents, which determines the contact rates of existing agents, consistent with the predictions of the stock-flow model. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of this dissertation and concludes.

The recent burgeoning of academic and practitioner interest in nonprofit-business partnership and other forms of cross-sector social partnership (CSSP) reflects their perceived importance as mechanisms for creating value, by addressing intractable social, economic and environmental problems (Austin & Seitanidi, 2012a; Le Ber & Branzei, 2010a; Porter & Kramer, 2011; Selsky & Parker, 2005). The literature identifies an emerging trend over the past few decades towards strategic nonprofit-business dyadic partnerships, whose stated aim is, at least in part, the creation of social value, alongside organizational value for the participating organizations (Seitanidi & Crane, 2009; Vock, Van Dolen & Kolk, 2013; Waddock, 1988). This research reconceptualizes value as a socially constructed, discursively constituted concept. It tracks the evolution of a time-limited dyadic nonprofit-business partnership between a credit card company and a young people’s charity in the United Kingdom, in real time. The empirical work commenced at the very outset of the PhD, progressing in tandem with the exploration of relevant literatures. The initial research question was intentionally broad, with sub-questions emerging inductively from the data analysis. The overarching research question is: “How do partners involved in nonprofit-business partnership construct value through their discourse?”. This positions the thesis to investigate how partnership talk functions, which is identified as an under-researched aspect of nonprofit-business partnership and other forms of CSSP. The particular perspective on discourse theory adopted for this thesis draws on the work of discursive psychologists, such as Potter and Wetherall (1987), but is also sensitized by post-structuralist ideas. It therefore recognizes the multiplicity of possible interpretations and questions conceptions of value which treat it as an objective concept, existing outside of discourse. It combines ethnographic techniques with discourse analysis, taking full advantage of the high level of pre-negotiated access to this case. This enables the detailed analysis of partnership talk to be integrated with an ethnographic sensitivity to context. This research opens up the ‘black box’ of partnership talk to reveal the micro-level discursive practices through which the partners deploy their communicative skills to construct the value of the partnership. In this thesis, partnership talk is found to be characteristically both collaborative (as opposed to competitive) and asymmetrical (in terms of its structure). However, where the partners engage in joint planning activity and the funding relationship is not salient, the talk becomes more symmetrical, with both partners contributing to the dialogue on a more equal basis, thus more conducive to the co-creation of value. The findings capture discursive practices involved in aligning for value, building value and affirming value in collaborative partnership talk. Where the partnership talk becomes misaligned, for example, where tensions or sensitivities arise, the partners employ various discursive practices to defend and repair the value of the partnership and to avoid overt conflict. A key contribution of this research is a multi-level Value Construction Model, which is grounded in the close analysis of partnership talk. This is not a positivistic or prescriptive model, but rather a descriptive and explanatory model, based on patterns discovered inductively in partnership talk data and recognising the diversity of cases and research settings and the complexity of multi-party partnership talk.

This thesis is made of three self-contained essays on the agricultural sector of Tanzania, each of them focusing on an aspect of direct policy relevance. In the first essay, I study whether an inverse relationship exists between cultivated area and physical productivity (yield per acre) for a set of important annual crops. I define size as the area of a plot on which a crop is grown, thus introducing a more disaggregated level of analysis than the common plot or crop levels of analysis. I control for the existing hypotheses in the literature potentially explaining this inverse relationship and propose to control for two new hypotheses which are only testable at this level of analysis. In the second essay, I look at output marketing for a set of important crops. I stress the links between the market failure theoretical narrative and empirical applications, and argue this has resulted in less attention being paid to the reasons why farmers may enter -or not- the market for a particular crop. I estimate participation and supply equations for a set of important crops and show that the rationale for entry differs across crops. This calls for a more flexible conception of `the market'. The first two essays use the Tanzanian National Panel Surveys to conduct econometric analysis. The third essay is based on primary data collected in 2016 in order to carry analysis of the Bambara nut, an underutilised crop. Because underutilised crops hardly feature in national datasets, primary data is needed to understand their socio-economic dynamics. Focusing on the Mtwara region of Tanzania, I study the importance of Bambara for local livelihoods using a mixed-methods study based on both quantitative and qualitative data. This study contributes to the growing interest on underutilised crops and their importance in designing more sustainable agricultural strategies.

The purpose of this thesis is to understand the impact of brand experience and brand image on consumers’ perceptions of trust in the context of the UK financial services sector. Since the financial crisis in 2008, trust has been an issue for financial services brands with scandals surfacing continually such as the “Libor Scandal” in 2012 (BBC News, 2013); the manipulation of foreign exchange markets by proprietary traders in large banking institutions (Financial Times, 2014); a number of banks being fined a total of £2.7 bn (BBC News, 2013) and so on. In these kinds of scenarios of declining trust, it is of paramount importance that financial services brands not only focus on their brand identity but also consistently deliver a favourable brand experience and build a strong brand image to contribute in the restoration of trust in financial services. Therefore, this study makes a timely contribution by providing a nuanced understanding of how and to what extent brand experience and brand image impact consumers’ perception of trust in the context of financial services from an interdisciplinary perspective. The theoretical model incorporating brand experience, brand image and a number of important interdisciplinary trust constructs has been developed from the interdisciplinary literature on trust and brand (Mayer et al., 1995; Aaker, 1997; McKnight et al., 1998; McKnight and Chervany, 2001-2002; McKnight et al., 2002; Mayer et al., 2007; Ennew and Sekhon, 2007; Ennew et al., 2011; Brakus et al., 2009) through inductive top-down theorising (Shepherd and Sutcliffe, 2011). The model explains the relationship between a number of brand and trust constructs. It proposes that in the context of financial services sector, where the perceived risk is high, trusting belief positively impacts trusting intention (H1); the structural assurance dimension of institutional trust has a positive effect on trusting belief (H2) and on trusting intention (H3); the situational normality dimension of institutional trust has a positive effect on trusting belief (H4) and on trusting intention (H5); the faith in humanity dimension of dispositional trust has a positive effect on trusting belief (H6) and on structural assurance dimension of institutional trust (H7) – whereas the trusting stance dimension of dispositional trust has a positive impact on trusting intention (H8) and on structural assurance dimension of institutional trust (H9). The theoretical model also proposes that a positive brand experience has a positive impact on trusting belief (H10) and likewise a positive brand image has a positive impact on trusting belief (H11). As part of theory testing following an objectivism ontological and positivism epistemological position, a survey-based quantitative approach was employed to test the hypotheses. Under the auspices of a large MNC with offices in the major cities of UK and in many countries of the world, a sample was drawn from its UK based employees, which was reasonably representative of the UK population. As the respondents were asked to answer questions about their main bank, any male or female who lives in the UK and has a UK bank account would qualify as being suitable subjects for this research. A total of 420 paper based questionnaires were distributed to this sample through customer services operatives and managers. Of them 301 questionnaires returned, 300 were usable and one was incomplete, thus resulting in a response rate of 71.46%. The measurement scale for trusting belief was adopted from Ennew and Sekhon (2007) and Ennew et al. (2011) trust index; the measurement scales for brand experience and brand image were adapted from Brakus et al. (2009) brand experience scale and from Aaker (1997) brand personality scale respectively – both of them were further validated in the context of financial services sector. The measurement scales for trusting intention, institutional trust and dispositional trust were developed from interdisciplinary trust literature (Mayer et al., 1995; McKnight et al., 1998; McKnight and Chervany, 2001-2002; Ennew and Sekhon, 2007; Ennew et al., 2011) and further validated. To test the factor structure and to identify poorly-performing items and scale reliability, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) for checking uni-dimensionality and validity (Garbing and Hamilton, 1996; Cadogan et al., 2009) of the measurement scales using Lisrel 8.80. Finally, hypotheses were tested through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings validate the interdisciplinary brand-trust theories: out of eleven hypotheses tested, nine hypotheses were accepted and two hypotheses were partially accepted. The study sheds light on the role of institutional trust and dispositional trust on financial services consumers’ overall perception of trust through influencing their trusting belief and trusting intention; and underscores the importance of having a sound and strong financial structure to engender trust. Furthermore, it reveals that although consumers have noticed the efforts of financial services institutions and regulators in putting an overarching structure for financial systems in place, they are not fully convinced that the current situation is typical and normal. The study found strong links between consumers’ perception of a positive brand image and on their perception of trusting belief. In unveiling the relationship between brand experience and trusting belief, the study found that the affective dimension of brand experience has a significant influence in influencing consumers trusting belief, whereas the intellectual dimension of brand experience is not viewed favourably by the financial services consumers. This research contributes to convergent theories of trust and mutually inclusive theories of trust and brand through adopting an interdisciplinary approach. In particular, it contributes to theory application by operationalising an interdisciplinary brand-trust conceptual model. The findings bring valuable insights that contribute towards the integrated brand-trust literature and validate the interdisciplinary theory of trust that centres around the seminal work of Mayer et al. (1995), McKnight et al. (1998), McKnight and Chervany (2001-2002) and Tan and Sutherland (2004). The research shows the impact of brand experience, brand image, institutional trust, and dispositional trust on consumers’ overall perceptions of trust in the context of the financial services sector. In addition, the study makes a methodological contribution through developing measurement scales for trusting intention, institutional trust and dispositional trust, which are particularly suitable for the financial services sector; and also by validating brand experience and brand image scales for financial services. Due to the divergent interdisciplinary perspectives of trust, the literature on trust still remains divided especially in its conceptualisation of the constructs. Hence this study makes an attempt to bring harmony to an on-going debate around trust. It also incites a debate whether trust in the context of the financial services sector should be conceptualised and operationalised from a single disciplinary perspective or through employing an interdisciplinary approach; and whether the issues of trust and branding should be treated as integrated phenomena or not. The study is of relevance to managers and policy makers, for it will inform them of the importance of institutional trust, dispositional trust, brand image and brand experience on consumers’ overall perceptions of trust; and provide them with more sophisticated measures for brand experience and brand image for financial services, which in turn will create an opportunity for them to develop more effective branding strategy. The measures of trusting intention, institutional trust and dispositional trust that have been developed especially for the financial services sector as part of this study also offer significant implications for practice. In the light of this study, policy makers, commercial organisations and other interested stakeholders in the financial services sector can measure and track trust in a more comprehensive manner than previously. They will be able to monitor changes in perceptions of trust more accurately and in a more regular fashion, understanding the level of changes on each kind of trust and the reasons for these changes in the overall perceptions of trust. This will also help firms to develop a more effective strategy to restore or enhance consumers’ perceptions of trust as it provides policy makers and firms with guidance regarding where a particular focus on types of trust should be given.