This thesis explores the state of existing knowledge on expatriate work assignments and matters of adjustment and adaptation as they affect Western, non-Western and host workers in Arab countries, specifically Oman. The main purpose of the research is to provide an integrated analysis of expatriate adjustment from the perspectives of Western and, crucially, non-Western expatriates and their host national counterparts. It offers a critical appreciation of factors included in Black, Mendenhall, and Oddou's (1991) influential Framework for International Adjustment (FIA). The thesis identifies weaknesses in the Black et al approach, drawing insights from more recent literature to consider the dynamics of cross-cultural interaction and offer a deeper understanding of reciprocal influence, accommodating the neglected viewpoints of non-Western expatriates and focusing greater attention on host national attitudes and responses to dealing with Western workers. This sort of relational approach is rare in this area, as much of the literature talks only about the Western expatriate experience. A crucial point borne out by this research is that the way host nationals and expatriates cooperate and interact helps to explain: (i) why host nationals are often reluctant to integrate with Western expatriates in particular; and (ii) how host national reluctance can influence the adjustment experience of wider expatriate communities. These neglected factors were explored by developing an understanding of the extent to which host nationals interpret differences in culture and forms of behaviour within and across multinational work groups, and also by investigating host national attitudes towards unacceptable cultural behaviour on the part of expatriates. Quantitative and qualitative data on these issues was gathered through a detailed survey, supplemented by in-depth interviewing. Semi-structured face–to-face interviews were conducted with 18 expatriates and 22 Omani managers and employees drawn from petroleum and educational institutions. The results show important differences between Western and non-Western expatriates in terms of both their sense-making about adjustment and attitudes and orientations to working with host national Omanis. The research also highlights significant challenges for the cultural adjustment and workplace effectiveness of host nationals themselves. These centre on competing ideas about the significance of religion, customs, traditions, and gender segregation. Cultural novelty emerges as a significant phenomenon, showing positive links to cultural (social) and work adjustment. The analysis of these factors demonstrates that Western-centric accounts provide an inadequate basis for understanding and facilitating multinational work assignments in Oman.

When people engage in physical activity they often report that it alters the way they think and feel. These lay beliefs are generally supported by research on the cognitive benefits of physical activity. But despite the evidence on benefits of physical activity for cognition, little research has investigated whether physical activity has any effect on judgment and decision making, particularly in unrelated domains such as consumer decision making. This thesis presents seven empirical studies which demonstrate that both regular and single bouts of physical activity influence consumers’ product judgments and decision making. Specifically, the key results indicate that physical activity leads decision makers to weigh different product information more appropriately. The results were robust to the inclusion of various control variables. In the first part of this thesis, five studies investigate the effect of physical activity on decision makers’ ability to rely on relevant versus irrelevant information. Past research has shown that when faced with irrelevant product information, consumers often find it difficult to ignore the irrelevant information, and typically dilute their judgments (i.e. their judgments are less extreme). In contrast, the results of this research show that regular physical activity aids people’s ability to focus on relevant information and ignore irrelevant information in product judgments. In the second part of this thesis, three further studies indicate that physical activity influences attribute weighting in consumer decisions that require trade-offs between desirability and feasibility attributes. Decision makers tend to place a lot of emphasis on the desirability attributes, often at the expense of feasibility attributes. The findings of this research indicate that physical activity leads consumers to not overly focus on desirability, and consider feasibility attributes more in choices that require trade-offs between them. The findings have important implications for marketing and public policy since they extend the benefits of physical activity to a novel domain – information processing in consumer decision making.

The growth in mobile ownership and increase in Internet connectivity has led many developing countries to actively pursue the creation of application development sectors within their economies. Application development appears as a feasible option to even the less developed regions, as most of the technological resources needed in application development can be accessed with relative ease and low cost, no matter the location. What is more, in addition to economic benefits the applications can also have a role in solving societal challenges. Although technologically application development seems relatively straightforward, what remains less well understood is how contextual factors, such as norms and cultures, impact the application development process within these countries. This thesis approaches the research area through the concept of societal routines. Societal routines are seen as proxies to local context, and the aim of this research is to analyse how these routines affect application development throughout the application development process. The research takes the form of a case study and studies the topic from the perspective of application development that occurs in Kampala, Uganda. Although the local developers and start-ups are generally comfortable with the technological affordances provided by the technological resources, the local context poses certain conditions, which not only impact how applications are built, but also what kinds of application are developed. The results show how existing societal routines form the basis for the applications, and how technology that originates from outside carries meanings and structures that may or may not fit with local realities. Overall, the research proposes a framework for understanding context and its impact on application development. With this, it aims to contribute to our understanding on local technology production, technology implementation and digital divide in developing countries. Furthermore, it also questions the role often given to technology in addressing societal challenges.

If I take my umbrella, having seen that it’s raining outside, we might say that my reason for taking my umbrella was that it was raining. However, if I’d believed that it was raining when it wasn’t, we might say that my reason for taking my umbrella was that I believed that it was raining. In the first case, my reason for acting seems to be a feature of the world, whilst in the second it seems to be a feature of my psychology. According to most theories of reasons, we are mistaken about what my reason for acting was in one of these cases. However, I argue, these theories all entail several awkward claims. I argue that there is a theory of reasons that can reconcile these two accounts of what my reason for acting was without entailing such awkward claims. I argue that what the fact that it is raining and the fact that I believe that it is raining have in common is that, in their respective cases, they each explain why it was rational for me to take my umbrella and why I took it. More generally, I argue that there is at least a sense in which all practical reasons explain why it is, in some respect, rational for the agent to do the actions for which they are reasons. The major challenge for this account is the claim that only features of an agent’s psychology can explain why they act or why it is rational for them to act. I provide a formal construal of this challenge and argue that the fact that it is raining can explain why I take my umbrella and why it was rational for me to do so, by explaining the fact that I believed that it was raining.

This thesis investigates the importance of temporal rhythms in the study of information infrastructures (IIs), responding to the call to address an II’s “biography” by focusing on its evolution over time. It enriches understanding of how socially constructed rhythms, a temporal structure under-examined in the II literature, influence II cultivation. A strategic niche project to develop an e-mobility II in Berlin is used as the case study and reveals the influence of rhythm in disciplining (constraining) and modeling (motivating) II cultivation. It demonstrates how the intermediary may mediate these influences through the interventions of harmonising, riffing and composing. Based on these interventions, the study develops the concept of facilitated II cultivation, which adds to the emergent literature exploring the tension between planned and emergent infrastructure work. In doing so, the study presents a framework that helps combine short-term implementation concerns (strategic interventions by the intermediary) with long-term path dependency and evolutionary concerns (influences of past and future temporal rhythms) for IIs.

Knowledge management can play a central strategic role in organisational life, potentially initiating from strategy planning to performance achievement. The continuous adjustment of organisational strategy and performance can be powerful in knowledge intensive organisations such as think tanks. Think tanks are policy research organisations, usually of small to medium size, and non-profit in nature. The Pakistani think tank ‘industry’ is at an important tipping point in terms of establishing knowledge ‘impact’ for the state and the wider society. Think tank organisations are gaining dual attention for creating awareness in society and suggesting policies to the state. The central purpose of this research is to provide an explanation of why and how knowledge management plays a role within think tanks, especially with regards to organisations linking strategy and performance. It also seeks to provide evidence from Pakistani think tanks providing suggestions for organisational improvement that may be applicable to think tanks in other developing countries. A thorough literature review from the field of knowledge management includes knowledge, knowledge management, and the strategic relationship of knowledge management, organisational strategy and organisational performance. Specifically, the research seeks to analyse knowledge management in social sciences policy research think tanks based in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. The participation of eight think tanks provided access for field visits to conduct interviews, observations and document collection. From the findings, it is recommended that consciousness towards knowledge management can highlight the natural and independent process to keep organisational strategy and performance improving continuously in a cyclic manner. Knowledge resources with Pakistani think tanks demand proper recognition and valuation, as they are potentially being worth more compared to material resources. Amongst the knowledge resources, cultural values and norms, multilingual skills, ‘friendly’ internal environments and leadership are found to be important. The strength of Pakistani think tanks is in their Relational Capital, which they appear to be utilising. Informal-Tacit knowledge management practices are highlighted more in the context, though gaps do appear to exist for formal practices. It is suggested that think tanks could further enhance real visibility through their Relational Capital and making use of tacit informal practices leading to friendly, multilingual and effectively leadership cultures with positive values. Think tanks have the potential to help provide solutions during turbulent times, both leading and managing knowledge – effecting a positive impact upon both state and society.

Since the emergence of reshoring, it has received huge interest and become a hot topic in academia, industry and policy circles. Most extant research has focused on defining the reshoring concept, its synonyms, the trends and the drivers behind reshoring decisions. Recently, the research scope has expanded to the reshoring decision-making process, right-shoring and advanced manufacturing having affected reshoring. However, this line of research is still in its infancy. The reshoring phenomenon and the concept are still not thoroughly understood. The impact of reshoring has been rarely researched. In addition, cross discipline research into the association between reshoring and other fields, such as the role of reshoring or shoring decisions played in global manufacturing strategy and business performance (BP) have remained under-researched. Besides, the entire body of research lacks empirical quantitative data as a methodology to enrich people’s understanding of the practice of reshoring. This research attempts to address these gaps empirically, by mainly focusing on an exploration of the current UK manufacturing reshoring status and the relationship between shoring decisions, competitive priorities and BP. The research develops a framework for reshoring to synthesize the related factors which need to be considered during the decision-making process by following a 360-degree approach. The framework also guides an exploration of the realities of reshoring from the UK perspective. In addition, a theoretical moderation model has been devised from the literature, supported by contingency and congruence theory, to explore the correlation between shoring decisions, competitive priorities and BP, with ten hypotheses built up. This research conducted data collection through a survey and obtained 298 completed responses by UK manufacturers. The analysis is based on 261 reliable responses through descriptive analysis, and hierarchical regressions, by using Excel 2016, PPT 2016 and SPSS 24 tools. From the descriptive analysis results, the research has revealed a clear current status of UK manufacturing reshoring from multiple perspectives including: overview of shoring decisions, strategic realities, operational considerations focusing on competitive priorities and products, impacts on supply chains, and comparisons of BP. Based on the statistical analyses results, six out of the ten hypotheses have been supported, moderation relationships have been discovered to exist among the SC cost and BP, delivery and BP, and flexibility and BP. The results identified that SC cost and delivery are the key competitive priorities to improve BP for the companies who took no shoring decisions; delivery is the key competitive priority to improve BP for the companies who conduct both direct and indirect reshoring; delivery and SC cost are the key competitive priorities to improve BP for the companies who are indirectly reshored; and finally flexibility and SC cost are the key competitive priorities to improve BP for the companies who offshored overseas. With a better understanding of reshoring decisions and their current status in the UK, also a clear role of shoring decisions made among manufacturing strategy and BP, academics can use the results of this research as a foundation for future research, industry practitioners can use it to make more considered reshoring or shoring decisions and develop an appropriate operational capability emphasis aligned with the shoring decision, and policy makers can develop more and suitable polices to further support this trend and revitalize the manufacturing and economics areas of the UK.

This thesis asks to what extent should we be free to choose when it comes to our pension? Three perspectives were considered: that of the state; that of the employer; and that of the individual. The thesis starts by examining the issue from an institutional perspective. Using the example of three different countries’ pension policies, it argues that there is a trade-off between maintaining private incentives to save and cost. If pension saving is compulsory, then the state is free to target money at those most in need (which is more cost effective). If pension saving is voluntary, then the state needs to invest heavily in creating a structure that rewards private saving (through tax incentives and the reduction of means testing). The second part of the thesis is a qualitative study that looks at choice from the perspective of the employer. The UK government has restricted its role to poverty relief and occupational pension saving is expected to bridge the gap between needs and aspiration in retirement. However, employers are allowed considerable discretion over how much they contribute to their employees’ pensions. Fifteen private sector employers were interviewed to uncover the logic behind the design of their pension offer. It found that few profit-seeking employers saw any commercial advantage to paying in the form of a pension. Finally, the thesis looks at choice from the point of view of the individual. Using three experimental studies it asks, if given choice, do individuals go on to make ‘good’ choices. The first experiment recasts the issue of whether people are saving ‘enough’ for their retirement by looking at the job choice itself. The following two experiments look at the impact that financial communication has on pension engagement. In conclusion this thesis argues: (i) it is expensive to design a system that will incentivise voluntary saving; (ii) profit seeking employers see little commercial advantage to paying in the form of a pension; and (iii) many individuals fail to respond to the incentives to save because of almost insurmountable information problems. The current UK pension system is founded on an ideological commitment to free choice, and this carries an unduly heavy cost, not only for the individual, but also for the state.

Aid information management systems (AIMS) have been implemented in aidreceiving countries with the hope that they will enable donors and recipient governments to share aid information, enhance data governance and aid coordination among stakeholders. Despite the global popularity of data-driven development initiatives and heavy investment in AIMS, many systems have not fulfilled the expected outcomes. This research seeks to explain this failure from an information systems perspective. Building on a historical overview of AIMS implementation, I first develop an understanding of how such systems evolved and how the visions of aid effectiveness norms that AIMS inscribed have changed over time alongside the shifting global aid governance. This overview clearly shows that, in many cases, AIMS did not attain the result anticipated, and often failed to reach sustainability. I then investigate this sustainability failure, through an interpretive case study of Indonesian AIMS. I trace the change of international and domestic aid governance that shaped the unique context of AIMS in the emerging economy. Investigating the role of state actor, I argue that understanding the failure of AIMS requires a shift of attention from the process of aid management within a country to the global level. It needs to be seen as a result of macro-level events occurring in the global field of aid. In the dynamics of global power relations, the role of technology is multifaceted—a mixture of managerial and rationalizing, as well as symbolic and political roles.

Drawing on the resource-based view, dynamic capability perspective, and resource dependency theory, and utilizing a sample of 164 UK social enterprises, this dissertation investigates the effects of adoption of commercial business practices on social enterprise performance. The adoption of commercial business practices refers to the adoption of market orientation, learning orientation, market disruptiveness capability, new product development capability, and ‘trade vs. grant dependency’. The dissertation comprises three independent but interrelated empirical essays. The first essay (Chapter 2) analyzed individual and combined (interaction) effects of market orientation and market disruptiveness capability on social enterprise performance. The study shows that market orientation improves both the economic and social performance whereas market disruptiveness capability improves only the economic performance of social enterprises. However, interestingly, the study demonstrates that the interaction effect of market orientation and market disruptiveness capability is negative on economic performance but positive on social performance. Similarly, the second essay (Chapter 3) analyzed how learning orientation and new product development capability influences the economic and social performance of social enterprise. The essay shows that learning orientation improves new product development capability and, thereby, the economic and social performance of social enterprises. Likewise, the third essay (Chapter 4) investigated how ‘trade vs. grant dependency’ influences social enterprise performance. It was found that trade dependency is better than grant dependency for social enterprises to improve their social performance. However, contrastingly, it was found that the adoption of trade dependency over grant dependency has no significant effect on their economic performance. Nevertheless, the study shows that the adoption of trade dependency over grant dependency is better for social enterprises to improve their learning orientation and thereby both economic and social performance. In sum, this dissertation has made a strong case for why social enterprises should adopt commercial business practices.