With emergence of knowledge economy and shift in power towards customers, the way of performing business and managing customer markets in organisations has changed significantly. Organisations which are typically reliant on internal knowledge have been setting their sight on customers as a valuable new source of external knowledge. This led to the wide acknowledgement of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) in both business and academic fields within the last decade. Extant CKM literature has highlighted the need for 360 degree view of customer but there is significant gap regarding how to achieve this in organisations. Thus, the main motivation for this research is to develop theory in terms of practise framework to enable organisations to achieve 360 degree view of customer while taking into consideration the challenges identified in practising CKM. This thesis attempts to address the complex research problem – 'how to manage customer knowledge to achieve 360 degree view of customer in organisations'. The research problem developed for the study led towards interpretivist paradigm to interpret and understand various relevant organisational phenomena and research is carried out using qualitative approach. The empirical data is collected using case study research method from five large organisations from India, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In-depth case studies were conducted in Biocon, Daimler, Genpact, Honeywell-ADI, and University of Bolton. The empirical data collected was analysed using techniques from grounded theory approach. This thesis presents findings of the study in the form of five core categories and twenty seven constituent factors influencing the customer knowledge management practice in large organisations. The empirical findings associated with each of these core categories and identified factors have been discussed in the light of current literature. Based on these core categories and constituent factors, a comprehensive CKM practice framework has been developed to achieve 360 degree view of customer, among organisations. This thesis has been concluded with evaluative discussions on theoretical and practical contributions to knowledge, validity of the findings, limitations of the study, and implications for further research.

The research is an inquiry into students’ learning experiences within a blended learning Accounting course in a sub-degree programme at a university in Hong Kong. In this course, the students were required to attend face-to-face classes and to participate in learning activities in the online platform. A case study research approach was adopted that involved 2 classes of 2 teachers and 80 students. Qualitative data were generated through classroom observations, online participation observations, student learning logs and reflections, student focus group interviews, student individual interviews, individual teacher interviews and an individual interview with the course leader. Thematic data analysis was used and a Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as a theoretical framework. The analysis showed that the students engaged in learning by integrating traditional and online learning activities and many of these were located within the social, cognitive and teaching presences within the CoI model. However, the students were found to be involved actively in non-prescribed activities that included the use of social network applications. The active learning exploration driven by students’ intrinsic motivation and the consequent collaborative learning among students using social media tools were not reflected in the CoI model. Hence, a new element of autonomy is proposed as an addition to the framework, to reveal the link of autonomous learning to the learning community. By extending the CoI framework, the contribution of this research is to provide a holistic model for the successful design and implementation of blended learning in higher education institutions.

In recent decades, through several rounds of trade negotiations, tariff rates have been substantially reduced. As a result, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have become increasingly important, as policy-makers jostle to find alternatives to the tariff reduction. This thesis aims to examine the effect of NTMs on international trade and to explore how import competition measured by overall protection (i.e. tariff and AVEs of NTMs) affects product quality upgrading. The thesis consists of three empirical studies to examine these issues. The first study analyze the evolution of the incidence and intensity of NTMs. Building on Kee, Nicita and Olarreaga (2009), we estimate the ad valorem equivalents (AVEs) of NTMs for 53 countries at product level for multiple years over the period 1997 to 2012. This study extends Kee et al. (2009) by adding a time dimension and applying the NTM from a newly available database. The study suggests that the incidence and the protection level of NTMs were both increasing during this period; hence, NTMs have become the major source of trade protection. By adding tariff to the AVEs of NTMs as the overall protection, this study also analyzes the evolution of overall protection. The results show that the overall protection level, for most countries and products, has not decreased as tariff has. This means the overall protection has stayed constant or been increasing, and in turn suggesting the expected trade liberalization from the trade negotiations in recent decades has been partly nullified. The second study investigates whether governments are applying NTMs to substitute for tariff, building on the theoretical model in Essaji (2010) and the empirical framework in Kee and Neagu (2011) and Ronen (2014). With the estimated AVEs of NTMs for every three years during the period of 1997 to 2012, the second study explores the relationship between tariffs and NTMs in both levels and changes. The study finds a generally substitutable relationship between tariffs and NTMs, both statically and dynamically, and the results are robust to various robustness checks. The third study investigates the non-monotonic relationship between import competition and quality upgrading, as an extension of Amiti and Khandelwal (2013). With import competition measured by overall protection instead of tariff rate, as in Amiti and Khandelwal, this study questions whether tariff is an adequate measure for import competition in light of recent tariff reduction and the substitution uncovered between tariff and NTMs. In their study, Amiti and Khandelwal find that after import competition increases, firms close to the world technology frontier would innovate more while firms distant from the technology frontier are less likely to innovate. However, in our analysis, the two effects are insignificant when import competition is measured by overall protection, and the results remain so even after various robustness checks. Hence, tariff is found to be an inadequate measure for import competition.

During the last two decades, the Fair Trade literature has constantly questioned the basic theoretical assumptions of dominant economic orthodoxies and the Fairtrade system has challenged mainstream businesses with its market successes. In the heart of this rapidly growing system is its general modus operandi stating, firstly, that all low-income, lower-middle-income and upper-middle-income economies (i.e. developing countries) are welcomed to join as countries where Fairtrade products are produced in primary production, traded and consumed. Secondly, that the high-income economies (i.e. developed countries) are the countries where Fairtrade products are traded (or processed in secondary production) and consumed. However, the Fairtrade system's practice is inconsistent with its internal normative and operational bases in the case of nine European upper-middle income economies, which are allowed to have Fairtrade traders (or processors in secondary production) and consumers, however, their poor and marginalised small-scale producers are forbidden from entering the Fairtrade system as primary producers. Therefore, they are under a direct threat of becoming double-losers, potentially excluded from both non-Fairtrade and Fairtrade economy. This inconsistency is important because the greater integration of all upper-middle-income economies may in practice be another step towards the creation of a more global Fairtrade system. In this envisioned state, firstly, the poor and marginalised small-scale producers and workers from nine excluded upper-middle-income economies will gain a new perspective to develop and thrive, by being included in the Fairtrade system. Secondly, more poor and marginalised small-scale producers and workers from other countries of the world will gain additional and stronger access to new markets in these nine upper-middle-income economies once they are fully included. One of these "producer-excluded" upper-middle-income economies - Serbia, and its full Fairtrade potentials, which have never been fully on the Fair Trade radar before, will be in the focus of my doctoral research.

International organisations (IOs) wield considerable influence in today’s world. Distinguishing them from other actors are the new ideas they produce and communicate that can reframe global debates. However, there is little research about how these organisations evaluate their communication activities. This thesis sets out to fill this gap by providing the first in-depth study of communication evaluation within IOs. The central question of this thesis is to assess the extent to which communication evaluation is possible within IOs with three specific questions: 1) the appropriateness and feasibility of communication evaluation methodology for IOs; 2) the influence of internal and external factors; and 3) the use of communication evaluation findings in IOs. These questions are addressed in three distinct but interlinked empirical studies framed by a conceptual framework. Article 1 provides a 15 year review of communication evaluation within IOs through analysing systematically evaluation reports. Article 2 provides an analysis and reflection on the evaluation by this author of two communication campaigns of IOs. Article 3 provides a comprehensive study on the use of evaluation findings of these two communication campaigns. This thesis found that a process of conceptualisation is needed to match the given communication activities to an appropriate evaluation methodology, implemented with a pragmatic, adaptive and participatory approach rather than imposing a standard set of methods. Evaluation was found only in a minority of IOs and there are challenges in matching evaluation methods to the range and complexity of their communication activities. Internal factors of organisational context and communication goals were found to be important and to equally impede and enable the evaluation process. Improving the efficiency of communication activities was the main use seen of evaluation findings, occurring in unexpected and often opportunistic ways, but nevertheless an indication of a specific contribution of evaluation for communication professionals.

This thesis deals with specific topics within industrial organisation and consumer choice. The first chapter “Price Comparison Websites” deals with a new and growing multi-billion dollar industry that has emerged and flourished over the last two decades. Price comparison websites (PCWs) or ‘web aggregators’ are poised to benefit consumers by increasing competitive pricing pressure on firms by acquainting shoppers with more prices. However, these sites also charge firms for sales which feeds back to raise prices. I find that the introduction of a PCW increases prices for all consumers. I then consider market outcomes with competing PCWs, fee-transparency, price discrimination and costly search. The findings suggest the industry may in fact not benefit any consumers, regardless of whether they actually use the sites, and that regulatory solutions are not as simple as they may seem. The second chapter “Multi-Attribute Decision by Sampling: An Account of the Attraction, Compromise and Similarity Effects” (MADS) proposes and tests a theory that offers an explanation of the three major puzzles, known as ‘context effects’, observed in multi-attribute choice: the attraction, compromise and similarity effects. Existing models within the judgement and decision-making (JDM) literature all propose complex choice architectures that cannot explain all three effects for the same reason and in most cases, the models are only computationally solvable. Our approach is based on a single mechanism, able to explain all three effects simultaneously and permits analytic expressions for choice probabilities. MADS combines and extends three independentlydeveloped ideas from psychology: (i) that individuals compare choice alternatives with comparison items; (ii) that comparisons are based on simple dominance relations; and (iii) that comparison items are systematically influenced by the choice set faced. In a novel experimental design involving 1,200 online participants and real-world data on hotel stays, we find support for our theory’s account. In fact, our treatment was strong enough to make the classic context effects appear and disappear. It is concluded that a single-mechanism model, Multi-Attribute Decision by Sampling, can account for the three classic context effects. In the third chapter “E-Cigarettes: The Extent and Impact of Complementary Dual-Use”, we offer one of the first studies of the electronic cigarette market from an economic perspective. We apply the classic economic notion of complements and substitutes to electronic and conventional cigarettes. The work examines the validity of the common assumption that smokers adopt e-cigarettes to reduce (i.e., substitute) their consumption of traditional cigarettes. We ran an online survey to assess the motivations of users of both products, referred to as dual-users. The results show 37% of dual-users regard e-cigarettes primarily as a complement to conventional cigarettes. Using our survey together results alongside publicly-available US data, we calibrate a cost-benefit analysis and show that complementary use could wipe out up to 57% of the financial benefits e-cigarettes offer to society.

To better connect supply and demand for various products, marketers needed novel ways to segment and target their customers with relevant adverts. Over the last decade, companies that collected a large amount of psychographic and behavioural data about their customers emerged as the pioneers of hyper-targeting. For example, Google can infer people’s interests based on their search queries, Facebook based on their thoughts, and Amazon by analysing their shopping cart history. In this context, the traditional channel used for advertising – the media market – saw its revenues plummeting as it failed to infer viewers’ interests based on the programmes they are watching, and target them with bespoke adverts. In order to propose a methodology for inferring viewers’ interests, this study adopted an interdisciplinary approach by analysing the problem from the viewpoint of three disciplines: Customer Segmentation, Media Market, and Large Knowledge Bases. Critically assessing and integrating the disciplinary insights was required for a deep understanding of: the reasons for which psychographic variables like interests and values are a better predictor for consumer behaviour as opposed to demographic variables; the various types of data collection and analysis methods used in the media industry; as well as the state of the art in terms of detecting concepts from text and linking them to various ontologies for inferring interests. Building on these insights, a methodology was proposed that can fully automate the process of inferring viewers interests by semantically analysing the description of the programmes they watch, and correlating it with data about their viewing history. While the methodology was deemed valid from a theoretical point of view, an extensive empirical validation was also undertaken for a better understanding of its applicability. Programme metadata for 320 programmes from a large broadcaster was analysed together with the viewing history of over 50,000 people during a three-year period. The findings from the validation were eventually used to further refine the methodology and show that is it possible not only to infer individual viewers interests based on the programmes watched, but also to cluster the audience based on their content consumption habits and track the performance of various topics in terms of attracting new viewers. Having an effective way to infer viewers’ interests has various applications for the media market, most notably in the areas of better segmenting and targeting audiences, developing content that matches viewers’ interests, or improving existing recommendation engines.

In China, research into SME growth has become more important and has drawn considerable attention from both government and scholars. However, there is no universally accepted way to define and measure an SME's growth prospects, and traditional approaches have been criticized for encouraging short-termism, being backward-looking and inward-looking. Therefore, based on a comprehensive and systematic literature review on different aspects of SME growth, and the consensus achieved through using the Delphi technique among eleven experts including policy-makers, scholars and entrepreneurs, the growth predictive system was built in this paper using a holistic approach which incorporates multiple measures (financial and non-financial, backward looking and forward looking, external and internal elements) to allow users to gain a better understanding of Chinese SMEs' growth potential. To validate the growth predictive system, the researcher collected data from 148 Chinese SMEs randomly selected, and did three tests for addressing three different questions: Whether the selected growth indicators can appropriately interpret each of the growth capabilities? Whether the calculated growth index (2012) of 148 Chinese SMEs has a positive correlation with the three years' actual profit growth rate (2012-2014)? Whether the growth rankings of local SMEs (Shenzhen) calculated by the predictive system has a good fit with the growth rankings provided by the local government? The answers to all these questions were "yes", so the growth predictive system developed in this paper has been validated. By using the growth predictive system, the government could become more effective in their policy-making oriented towards SMEs; investors and financiers could make decisions logically rather than emotionally; and SMEs could more easily formulate business strategies in today's dynamic environment to give themselves sustainable competitive advantages over their counterparts.

This study aims to propose and empirically test an integrated model of antecedents and consequences of online brand and anti-brand community participation. A common conceptual framework of online brand and anti-brand community participation is proposed. Multiple identifications (i.e., moral identification, brand identification and brand disidentification), brand emotion and motives are proposed as the antecedents of community participation. Community citizenship behavior is used to measure the consequences of community participation. A total of 260 responses from online brand communities and 200 responses from online anti-brand communities were collected via online survey. The sample was recruited by posting the research links across 409 online brand communities and 690 online anti-brand communities of 142 global brands. This was based on a consolidated list of top 100 global brands from BusinessWeek's 100 Best Global Brands and Millward Brown's BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands. The result models of online brand and online anti-brand community participation from structural equation modelling analysis indicate the asymmetric impacts of antecedents on motives and community citizenship behavior. Academically, the findings have extended the theory of social identity, emotion, organizational citizenship behavior, together with the newly developed motives of online community participation to explain the results and the differences between these two models from a multiple stakeholders' perspective. The results of the qualitative and quantitative research have revealed the existence of multiple stakeholders such as brand supporters, brand opponents, activists, and peer groups existing in the communities. Further research is suggested to seek to understand their behavior, dynamics and interaction among each other in a qualitative and longitudinal manner. Recommendations of online community setup, design and activities are proposed in this study to trigger different stakeholders’ participation in the online brand and anti-brand communities for motivating their voluntary community citizenship behavior to the sustainability of the communities. Proactive measures in online anti-brand community are proposed to deal with users’ dissatisfactions and identify product and service improvement to fulfil unmet needs.

The escalation/de-escalation of commitment to capital investment decisions is a complex phenomenon that is under-researched not least because of the fragmented nature of the extant literature, the absence of comprehensive studies of why managers escalate commitment particularly for projects that are perceived to be failing, and the overlooking of the capital investment project initiating process in the existing studies. These deficiencies in the existing literature seriously limit the understanding of this phenomenon and its impact on practice, hence the motivation for the present study. Drawing on an extensive review of the relevant literature that spans a period of five decades and includes a careful scrutiny of theoretical alternatives and more than 130 empirical works, this research develops an encapsulating approach-avoidance model that is applied in a large mixed-methods study of corporate managers in 274 Saudi companies. This model not only systematically groups and examines the direct effect of a large array of project-specific and non-project-specific variables, but it also captures the intervening role of project auditing in the escalation/de-escalation decisions. Primary data were mainly collected by means of a survey using a Likert-scale questionnaire that was specifically designed to take into account the purposes and data requirements of the present study as embodied in its theoretical model and hypotheses. Additional data were collected from conducting face-to-face interviews in three companies. To overcome one of the deficiencies of existing studies as mentioned above, sufficient data on the capital investment process were sought and obtained through the survey and interviews. Besides descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression and MODPROBE macro tests were applied to examine direct and indirect relationships and levels of data fit. An overall finding of this study is that the (de)-escalation phenomenon is not only present in the Saudi corporate environment but it is pervasive throughout the industrial spectrum, thus confirming the need for the comprehensive and insightful approach adopted by the present research to examine its determinants and their policy implications. The detailed statistical analysis provides sufficient evidence to support this approach. While it is found that contextual and project determinants have the most influence on how Saudi managers commit to a course of action, the (de)-escalation of commitment is, contrary to what is portrayed in most existing studies, influenced by a combination of rather than by isolated factors. Notwithstanding these results, of significant relevance to knowledge in this under researched area are the findings that: a) the commitment determinants are underlined by the type of capital investment process, and b) that project audit plays a major moderating role in how the determinants impact the (de)-escalation of commitment. Apart from the usual limitations associated with using a survey method, this study would have been able to offer more insights had it not been for the sensitivity of the topic and the socio-cultural inhibitors that prevented managers from taking part in more interviews. Nevertheless, the richness of the data collected and the findings from the elaborate analysis undertaken offer not only opportunities for future research but also practical guidelines to managers with respect to making capital project decisions.