The main motivation for this thesis comes from the lack of studies on issues related to central bank’s monetary sterilisation bonds (MSBs). The MSBs have been, in particular, issued in emerging economies to offset the impacts of sterilised FX market interventions. The objectives of this thesis are to examine the impacts of and motivation for sterilised FX interventions and to explore methodologies to assess the sustainability of MSB-dependent sterilisation policy. Chapter 2 overviews the main theoretical issues and statistical facts related to sterilisations, Chapter 3 and 4 investigate the impacts, profits and motives of sterilised FX interventions in selected countries, focusing on the asymmetric intervention preferences. Chapter 5 compares the degree of sterilisation and de facto capital mobility – focusing on emerging countries under inflation targeting – by estimating sterilisation and offset coefficient with panel data for 30 countries. Chapter 6 proposes several methodologies for assessing the sustainability of MSB-dependent sterilisation policy. We modify theories of fiscal sustainability and then derive central bank's intertemporal budget constraint, which is separated from the central governments. Several sustainability conditions are obtained, based on cointegration relation between total revenues and expenditures or on central bank’s monetary reaction function. Then, the sustainability tests are applied to empirical studies on the Bank of Korea’s sterilisation policy.

This research is an in-depth study of Korean GTCs (General Trading Companies) and Japanese Sogo Shoshas (the Japanese version of General Trading Companies), which are unique big business conglomerates but not well-known in Western countries. It investigates several of their features, such as their history, characteristics, major functions, strategic management, organisational structure, corporate culture, decision-making process, human resource management, and their impact on national economic development. The main purpose of this research into the above features is to examine the strategic management of the Korean GTCs and Japanese Sogo Shoshas by analysing the relationships between the business environment, competitive strategy, organisational structure, and performance. As a second purpose, this study examined the decision-making process within Korean GTCs and Japanese Sogo Shoshas, since a firm’s success in strategic management may depend highly on its decision-making.

The impact of consumer-generated brand-communications on attitudes and behaviour have been studied by academic and marking practitioners; technology and social media allow consumers to conduct traditional marketing functions, especially user-generated-advertising (UGA). From the receiver’s perspective, psycho-social characteristics like self-construal are also considered to affect attitudinal-behavioural responses to advertising. However there is little research examining the impact of UGA and self-construal on attitudes and behaviour; this thesis fills this gap contributing to the literature by evaluating these constructs and expand existing knowledge UGA. Literature in consumer psychology, advertising and social media was reviewed to frame UGA in the context of existing communication knowledge. The study included three stages. First, a content analysis of 230 UGA was conducted to determine their characteristics. Second, 25 videos were submitted to a panel of judges to validate their valence as positive, negative or neutral before specific UGA were selected as stimuli. Finally, an Internet questionnaire was sent to the Business School students, and 208 usable questionnaires were obtained. A mixed within-between-subjects ANOVA was used to test the results; the findings suggest that UGA especially negative has more attitudinal-behavioural impact compared to firm-generated-advertising, and that interdependent self-construal affect UGA. This study’s theoretical and practical implications may serve academics and practitioners in understanding UGA, its attitudinal-behavioural effects, and potential impact on brand equity; sustaining the managerial necessity to develop strategies to monitor and respond to UGA.

The rate of growth of investment in mutual funds has increased dramatically over the past decade. Many studies have developed models for performance evaluation and have examined whether fund managers provide value added for investors. Most of these studies, however, have focused on the developed markets and only a few examine whether the findings carry over to emerging markets as well. This thesis specifically investigates mutual funds in one of the emerging economies, Thailand, using a more extensive dataset than previous studies; it controls for investment policy and tax-purpose differences, as unique characteristics of mutual funds in Thailand. We scrutinize how fund managers perform and what strategy they use in managing their portfolios; and ask whether any fund characteristics can explain fund performance. We also explore the impact of liquidity on performance and performance measures. We find in this context that mutual fund managers, as a whole, do not have selectivity or timing ability and they do not give value added to investors. Most of the fund managers in Thailand invest heavily in small and growth stocks. Flexible fund managers are, in comparison, more active and adjust their portfolios dynamically according to economic information. There is persistence in performance in general mutual funds. This evidence is statistically and economically significant although it derives mainly from poorly performing funds which continue to perform badly. Size, age and fund family also have explanatory power in fund performance but it is specific to investment policy and the evidence is not economically significant. Net cash flows, in general, have no impact on fund performance. However, the significant amount of cash inflows can severely lower performance in mutual fund since the fund managers are unable to allocate their portfolio immediately and leave large amounts in their cash position. Liquidity also plays a major role in mutual fund performance. We find that funds which contain more illiquid assets in their portfolios perform better and this suggests that there is a liquidity premium in mutual funds. As a result, a liquidity-augmented model which includes one liquidity factor is proposed. Results from this proposed model show that our liquidity factor, as measured by stock turnover ratio, has explanatory power for fund performance, in particular in low liquidity portfolios. However, our liquidity factor is unable completely to explain the liquidity premium in mutual funds because the evidence of a liquidity premium is still present. Finally, the study reveals the policy implications of introducing the tax-benefit funds scheme in Thailand. We find that the tax-benefit funds perform significantly better than general funds and this is also true even when controlled for other fund characteristics. The tax-benefit fund managers are more passive than managers of general funds but they do not employ any different strategy from that used by managers of general funds. Tax-benefit funds are more sensitive to cash flows and contain slightly more illiquid stocks in their underlying assets. Thus, the superior performance in tax-benefit funds is not only attributable to the liquidity premium, but also to the fund managers’ superior ability, as well as to the long-term restrictions which help tax-benefit fund managers to reduce nondiscretionary trading cost in these funds.

This thesis aims to contribute to the corporate finance literature by focusing on the interdependence of corporate investment, financing and payout decisions of UK-listed companies, within the period 1999-2008. After the introductory chapter, Chapter 2 critically reviews the existing literature on corporate investment, financing and payout policies. Chapter 3 investigates the interactions among the three corporate decisions. One of the key findings is that the three corporate decisions are likely to be jointly determined in the presence of financial constraints. The results also suggest that the effect of uncertainty on corporate investment is significantly positive, but the effect on dividend payout is significantly negative. Chapter 4 explores the influence of managerial confidence and economic sentiment on the set of jointly determined corporate decisions. An important finding is that the state of confidence at aggregate levels has significantly positive effects on both real investment and debt financing decisions. Chapter 5 discriminates conceptually and evaluates empirically twenty alternative measures of corporate investment used in the existing literature. It is found that conclusions drawn from empirical analysis are likely to be sensitive to the choice of corporate investment measures. The key findings of the thesis are summarised in the conclusion chapter.

This thesis discusses some issues on unit root testing in panel data. It first examines the intra-China price convergence by employing panel unit root tests that take cross-sectional dependence into account. Contrast to the existing literature, where tests assuming independence are employed and PPP is found in the vast majority of goods/services prices, our study finds mixed evidence in favor of PPP. Mixed panels with both I(1) and I(0) units are then considered, a large scale simulation study is undertaken. Size/power of panel unit root tests are examined under a variety of DGPs. A battery of procedures designed for mixed panels are employed, and their performance are examined by simulation. An application on intra-China PPP shows that, on average, only a small proportion of stationary units can be found in relative price panels. We then consider fractionally integrated processes and propose two different types of panel fractional integration test, a Fisher-type test and a multiple testing procedure that controls the false discovery rate (FDR) and classify units into null and alternative. Simulation evidence is provided. Empirical application shows that, in our intra-China PPP study, strong evidence can be found against the unit root null.

There is increasing evidence of the positive role that the social capital plays in facilitating the internationalisation of SMEs. Network social capital serves as a key platform for SMEs to access resources and competencies they lack. Yet surprisingly little is known about how network social capital co-evolves with the international growth and survival of SMEs. Moreover, little is known about how SMEs from different institutional contexts rely on their network attachments to cope with the challenges presented by the external environment. This study aims to address these gaps through providing a comprehensive analysis of internationalisation patterns, network social capital development and how these two fields may co-evolve over time and compares well-established SMEs from two national contexts (UK and Egypt) which contrast in their cultures and levels of institutional development. This study relies on comparative multiple case studies and adopts a mixed methods approach to data analysis to investigate co-evolutionary patterns and inter-country differences respectively. The study contributes to the International Entrepreneurship literature through offering a comprehensive/dynamic understanding of internationalisation and by indicating key differences in the behaviour of SMEs from emerging and developed economies. It concludes that the co-evolutionary perspective usefully highlights the dynamic interaction between SMEs and their contexts. This study relies on comparative multiple case studies consisting of twenty UK and twenty Egyptian SMEs. These case studies investigate different internationalisation and networking patterns and identify co-evolutionary patterns of internationalisation and associated networking behaviour over time. A mixed methods approach to data analysis was used to investigate co-evolutionary patterns and inter-country differences respectively. The study contributes to the International Entrepreneurship [IE] literature through offering a comprehensive and dynamic understanding of internationalisation and by indicating key differences in the behaviour of SMEs from emerging and developed economies. It concludes that the co-evolutionary perspective usefully highlights the dynamic interaction between SMEs and their contexts. It shows that SMEs not only adapt to changes in their external environment but in some cases are able to influence the environment to their favour. The thesis closes with implications and recommendations for Egyptian and UK policy makers and managers.

Although the strategic importance of knowledge is widely recognised, there is no unified concept of the characteristics and role of knowledge within organisations, and the process of knowledge application remains theoretically underdeveloped. Organisations therefore often lack clear frameworks for integrating and applying their dispersed knowledge. Using a case study in international development non-government organisation, this study describes the nature of knowledge in an organisation and explores Knowledge Integration (KI) and application from multiple stages-multiple factors perspective. Data was gathered from 42 individual interviews, document analysis and participant observations and analysed using template analysis technique. The findings show that knowledge in an organisation is seen as continuously evolving holistic variable resource. KI and application is a complex process and influenced by multiple and interrelated individual knowledge sharing behaviours, organisational knowledge governance practices and informal social interactions characteristics. This study introduced new ‘multiple stages- multiple factors approach’ to KI and application process. From a practical perspective, this study provides managers with better understanding of the features of knowledge in organisations and clarifies how knowledge dispersed in an organisation can be effectively and efficiently integrated and applied to accomplish organisational tasks and enhance competitive advantage. Limitations of this study are noted together with proposed directions for future research.

The concept of consumer ethnocentrism has been in the centre of scholarly inquiry for more than twenty years. The original dimensionalisation and operationalisation of the construct has been introduced in the marketing literature back in 1987. Since then the relevant literature unquestionably applies the existing scale, namely the CETSCALE. This thesis seeks to explore consumer ethnocentrism facets under the light of increased globalisation and integration and consequently develop an enhanced measurement instrument. A mixed methods approach is pursued and as a result, several deviations from the original conceptualisation and operationalisation of consumer ethnocentrism are evidenced. Although some of the already established dimensions prevail to be equally relevant in these days, there are numerous other areas that the CETSCALE fails to capture. In particular, the new, extended scale (CEESCALE) encapsulates the novel notions of impure altruism and self enhancement, social demonstrability of benefits of consuming domestic products and finally, buying inertia. Following the development of the CEESCALE, construct validity is established. The superiority of the CEESCALE to the CETSCALE is attested by better predictive validity estimates.

The objective of this thesis is to investigate the relationships between performance change or increase and strategic management or strategy implementation, based on Learning Networks Groups of SMEs in Brazil. The research is based on a group of medium-sized South American companies that participate in the “Learning Network Programme” (or LNC, Learning Networks Companies). The LNC Programme encourages the exchange of experiences while discussing management models, putting management and strategic tools into practice, and training the participating companies’ employees in managerial instruments. A hypothetical Global Performance model based on Strategic Management Elements and also on Learning Network Elements was developed and, subsequently, tested through a field survey with 300 Brazilian SMEs, being 150 from companies that have experimented the LNC Programme and 150 organizations that have never gone through a similar project. In order to test the empirical validity of the model, structural equation modelling was used, with reference to both main and unfolded hypotheses, and analysed the variables of strategic management and learning networks and their possible impact on the companies’ global performance. The proposed model demonstrated to be able to predict 62% of the variance in the global performance construct considering the LNC Group and 5.6% considering the Non-LNC Group.