The overall aim of the thesis was to address the issues involved in marketing strategy formulation, implementation and company performance by developing a framework for the marketing of insurance services in Jordan. In order to achieve this aim the research developed a comprehensive framework involving three parts; marketing strategy formulation components, marketing strategy implementation, and company performance. The research population included all the insurance companies that were operating in the Jordanian market. The research design was mainly quantitative with some qualitative data included to support and expand upon the research findings. The research methodology included designing a comprehensive self-completion questionnaire, as well as, conducting a number of in-depth interviews with managers in the insurance companies in Jordan. The most important finding to come out of the research was that marketing strategy formulation and implementation are not separate parts, but rather they should be incorporated in one process for a company to achieve success in the marketplace. The classic framework of marketing strategy, which is concerned with the traditional elements of the marketing mix framework, is inadequate for the marketing of insurance services. The marketing strategy components for the marketing of insurance services were eight, these are the seven Ps of the services marketing mix framework, and service quality. These elements were found to have a positive and significant effect on the insurance companies' performance measured by financial and non-financial (marketplace and customer) criteria. The effect of the marketing strategy components was found to have varied according to the insurance companies' performance criteria measured by financial and, non-financial (marketplace and customer based) criteria. The marketing strategy implementation variables were found to have affected the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies' performance measured by financial and non-financial (marketplace and customer based) criteria. Generally speaking, the effect of marketing strategy implementation variables on the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies performance measured by customer based measures was found to be greater than their effect on the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies performance measured by financial and marketplace performance criteria. Company marketing assets and capabilities, and company marketing experience were found to be the master variables of marketing strategy implementation that moderated the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies performance, measured by financial and non-financial (marketplace and customer based) criteria. This is evidenced when these two variables have systematically changed all the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies' performance. Marketing strategy consensus, marketing strategy resource commitment, marketing strategy cross-functional integration, marketing strategy communication activities quality were found to have a higher effect on the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies performance measured by customer based criteria, rather than the relationships between the marketing strategy components and the insurance companies performance measured by financial and marketplace performance criteria. The research found that the marketing strategy implementation variables hold strategic implications for the insurance companies' performance because they affect their performance especially those criteria that deal with the customers e. g., customer satisfaction. The rationale is that the marketing strategy implementation variables are concerned with activities that are dealing with the customer on a daily basis.

There is no moral pedestal for being a fair trade SME, when it comes to building value or competitiveness. The original concept of fair trade may not have changed, but today it has evolved beyond simply ‘black and white/in or out’. Indeed, the UK SME, just as their larger competitors, may not be Fairtrade© exclusive, whether that be in niche or mainstream markets. Furthermore, to trade using fair trade credentials alone will be insufficient, when their larger rivals can achieve economies of scale and through availability and convenience, target the ‘feel good’ consumer. Whilst Fairtrade© brings the poor farmer and shopper together and arguably ticks the box for large retailers, it is less clear ‘what is in it’ for the UK fair trade SME. The purpose of this thesis is to critically explore the tangible and intangible push-pull factors that enable them to grow and build resilience within a dynamic, but highly competitive ‘virtuous’ market. It will consider how SMEs balance their human, values based decisions with the pressure to remain viable and whether in reality, they simply make pragmatic mental trade-offs to secure their future. The research is exploratory, inductive and qualitative from the epistemological and ontological position of interpretivism and social constructivism; drawing upon grounded theory to support data coding and analysis. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 SMEs in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and London between December 2012 and June 2013. A coding framework was designed to classify those significant and interconnected factors and a typology of fair trade SMEs that reflects that one size ‘does not fit all’, within this growing and strategic market. Furthermore, through a values based orientation which extends across the supply chain, it will also show how ‘responsible business’ is a reality, through the creation of ‘shared value’.

This thesis intends to explore the process of foreign investment and entry mode choices of small firms from Pakistan. Pakistan being an epicure of global terrorism and ethnictension is an economy that is driven by small sector. The small sector is facing extreme difficulties to expand their international operations. This needs a comprehensive research to see beyond basic infrastructural impediments to small firms in Pakistan. What are the major behavioural and analytical impedimentsto their international expansion? Cognitive biases are the behavioural impediments and so far there is no research in Pakistan in general and in advanced countries in particular, to see how cognitive heuristics and biases affectthe foreign investment decision process? Entry mode is said to be the building block of internationalisation, and due to their small size, resource limitations and lack of international knowledge, small firms often try to obtain first-mover advantages through strategic alliances or joint venture operations abroad. Post entry speed is the international development of small firm, once the process of entry mode choice is completed. Entrepreneurial managers perceive cooperative modes and other equity investments as high-risk oriented strategies due to the legal and moral hazards associated with co-operative modes of entry. This creates a dilemma as to how to maintain a sustainable post-entry international speed? The absence of a unique set of enduring dispositional preferences is striking. There is no research that explores the role of entrepreneurial cognition/biases in small firm entry mode choices process. This applies particularly when small firms expand their international operations from emerging to developed economies. Based on the integration of cognitive capabilities and the Dunning eclectic framework, this study develops a rigorous model by introducing the new resource value generation taxonomies, and explores the impact of cognitive biasness in small firm entry mode choice process and cognitive dynamism in post-entry speed. A sub-modal for the enquiry of cognitive biases in foreign investment decision process is also introduced. This sub model by qualitative enquiry found the significant role or heuristics and biases in foreign investment decision process. The data was collected from a stratified sample of three major provinces of Pakistan through postal and drop-off survey/personal visits. Ten in-depth personal and telephonic interviewswere conducted to triangulate the entry mode choice process with speed model. Triangulation of positivist and interpretivist approach confirms the validity and reliability of the research findings. The dependent variable is dichotomous for post-entry speed. Logistic regression for post-entry speed is used to analyse the quantitative data set. Foreign investment and/or entry mode choice process are the simultaneous terms used in the entire thesis. The findings support the central role of biases in foreign investment decision process and ownership, location and cognitive advantages in the post-entry speed. The new value generation entry mode choice taxonomies (high and low value generation modes) and cognitive biases during the three stages of foreign investment decision process introduced in this research, contributes significantly to present literature. Complexities associates with IB research highlight the need for further empirical, cross-cultural and longitudinal studies. One of the most important challenges that the managers in small firm in developing economies face is to find new ways to enhance the probability of their exports‘ success through a suitable entry mode choice process (foreign investment decision process). This research through careful deliberation presents useful implications that will enhance the international activity of small firms from developing economies in general and advanced economies in particular. The findings are generalizable because the cognitive biases emerge as behavioural and analytical impediments in any event, process and/or in any system of relationships. The dispositional tendencies of managers identified in this thesis are the source of mitigating the negative effects of the biases. Thus this study is unique in its nature that contributes to both economic and behavioural theories.

Grounded in Self Determination Theory (Deci and Ryan 1985a; 2000), the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the unintentional and pernicious effects of sexual imagery in advertising on life aspirations, situational motivation for consumption, satisfaction with basic needs, state self-esteem and body image (dis)satisfaction while accounting for the mediating effects of the individual differences variables: contingent self-esteem, general causality orientations and sexual liberalism. Results from two laboratory experiments test the hypotheses. Data were collected via a series of quasi-experiments utilizing a 2 x 4 full factorial design; gender served as a 2-level quasi-experimental variable and nudity as a 3-level experimental variable (nude, semi-nude, clothed) with a product-only condition as the control condition. The experimental stimuli comprised 16 advertisements utilizing products relevant to sexual imagery (Vodka, Whiskey, Wrist watches, Jeans and Perfumes). Before exposure to the experimental stimuli, participants were asked to complete the individual differences questionnaires, and after exposure to the experimental stimuli, participants were asked to complete the questionnaire comprising the outcome variables and basic demographic information. The results provide counter-intuitive information about the function of sexual imagery across increasing levels of nudity and across genders. The original hypotheses about the directionality of effects hold only partially. Individuals exhibit mixed results regarding the effects in aspirations (study 1 and study 2), the situational motivation for consumption is not found to differ across conditions (study 1 and 2), state self-esteem and body image (dis)satisfaction show indications compensatory mechanisms but only for study 1. In study 2 sexual imagery impacts the satisfaction with basic needs. Females are more pre-occupied with image, meaningful relationships and health (study 1 and study 2) while men are more preoccupied with fame (study 1). Females also exhibit lower state self-esteem (study 1) and lower body satisfaction (study 1). Taken together the results indicate that the negative effects of sexual imagery can be offset by conscious image processing, autonomous self-determination and other defensive strategies. Finally, differences between advertising conditions of nudity may be susceptible to arousal and mating profile effects.

The role of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been increasingly important as a mean of transferring technology and innovation from developed countries to developing ones. It has made a significant contribution to development and economic growth in host countries by allocating resources from wealthy countries to be transferred to those experiencing scarcity, allowing host countries to invest in activities beyond their domestic saving capabilities. Understanding the relationships of foreign investment with domestic suppliers, and what determines investment location choices, can help dictate the consequences of implementing passive, as opposed to active, FDI policies by host country governments, as well as providing the tools for FDI agencies to formulate their strategies. The main focus of this research is to determine the factors that most encourage and discourage FDI in Libya, to identify the different requirements of each type of FDI by applying different characteristics, like nationality, industry type, and ownership, and to examine the relationship between the foreign companies and the domestic suppliers. To capture these relationships in sufficient depth, the host countries’ locational determinants were analysed, these influenced the choice of FDI. These locational determinants, such as economic and investment policy, market conditions, facility and utility, financial and legal and institutions were developed based on an extensive review of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. Primary data were collected by means of a survey questionnaire from 74 foreign-owned and joint venture companies and 20 face-to-face interviews with senior managers of these companies, and Libyan government senior officials, in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of their responses and to investigate the difficulties and challenges facing government bodies tasked to improve the Libyan business environment. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation was used for unidimensionality conditions. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), chi-square and cross-tabulation tools, then, were applied as statistic tools, while a thematic technique was employed to conduct an interpretative analysis of the interviews. The research found that in the sample, six out of eleven determinant factors were considered as encouraging incentives (economic situation, market conditions, natural resources, tax exemptions, skilled labour and semi-skilled labour), these are needed for FDI in Libya, in line with the literature. The remaining five factors (government regulation, domestic infrastructure, and research development as well as financial, legal and judiciary systems), were found to be discouraging factors. When applying moderators to the model, the result reported that factors encouraging/discouraging FDI were different in all groups. Results also showed that there are many challenges facing Libyan policy-makers aiming to reform the business environment in order to make it more attractive for FDI. In general, foreign companies have developed limited backward linkages with domestic suppliers which need to be improved and made more competitive in order to be of real benefit to local companies. The policy implication of this finding is that for Libya to be a more attractive market for future FDI, urgent and decisive reforms are needed in the issues which inhibited FDI inflows, and the incentives provided should be restricted to and designed for targeted specific FDI only, in order to gain desirable benefits and promote the spillover.

No description available.

Unlike tax accountants and advisors within direct tax, Customs law in many countries requires importers to employ licensed Customs agents. This study extends the tax literature by examining the role of Customs agents in import tax compliance. In Malaysia, as an example of a country where Customs are responsible for about one-third (MYR30 billion on average between 2005 to 2014) of total government revenue collections, the function of Customs agents is to: assist importers in meeting their import tax liabilities; prepare and submit all necessary import documentation to Customs; as well as collect and pay all revenue to the Customs administration. Customs agents are bound by the Customs Act 1967 and are required to pass a public exam before becoming formally qualified and licensed Customs agents. Exploratory interviews with senior Customs officers at The Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) suggest that a significant amount of tax revenue is lost because Customs agents do not pay the full amount of import duty and tax due. Most interviewed officers felt that tougher penalties and sanctions are required to improve compliance and root-out fraud; though some indicated that other measures may need to be developed in order to improve compliance practice. Drawing on the tax compliance literature within the direct tax domain, the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) has been identified as one of the most robust social cognitive theories to explain compliance decision making. A key output from this research is a compliance behaviour model (based on the theory of planned behaviour) that depicts various economic and non-economic variables to predict compliance behaviour. Building on the model, a large scale survey of Customs agents across Malaysia was conducted. Overall, the response rate was 42% (n=650), representing 12.8% of the total Customs agents population located at Malaysia’s primary ports of entry. The results indicate that psychological, sociological, structural / institutional factors, which consist of attitude, ethical beliefs, social norms, law, enforcement, complexity of procedure and quality of tax assessment service, are significant in explaining Customs agents’ behavioural intention to comply with import tax law. However, they also suggest inconsistencies in the relationship between behavioural intention and behaviour, and the need to incorporate other factors and moderating variables. In particular, the findings identified the influence of two referent groups (subjective norms): (i) the importers who influenced Customs agents’ import tax compliance directly through instructions, as well as indirectly by sharing their ethical beliefs; and (ii) other Customs agents (their peers) who influence Customs agents’ ethical beliefs. Overall this study highlights the importance of incorporating behavioural elements and facilitating elements (such as better quality of tax assessment service and less complex procedures) together with economic variables to achieve an optimum compliance level. The findings indicate that simply applying sanctions to improve Customs agents’ compliance, as is Royal Malaysian Customs current enforcement strategy does not optimise revenue yield. Appropriate reforms that go beyond sanctions and enforcement are recommended. It also identifies another essential but largely neglected strategy for improving compliance which is to work on improving the ethics of Customs agents, possibly by offering access to trade facilitation measures, or through coercion (e.g. public naming and shaming) and sanctions (e.g. withholding access to trade facilitation measures). Finally, this study also demonstrates the wide applicability of the TPB, including its application in tax compliance research and specifically in the context of import tax. The method (exploratory sequential mixed method) used in this study could also be used to replicate further studies to generate a more holistic compliance behaviour model.

In the late nineteen eighties, Hills proposed that marketing scholars should pay far more attention to entrepreneurship and the smaller enterprise. He founded an annual research symposium and associated proceedings published under the title of Research at the Marketing/Entrepreneurship Interface. The symposia and proceedings still flourish and both the Academy of Marketing in the UK and the American Marketing Association have special interest groups for this area. This thesis is concerned with the contribution that entrepreneurship can make to understanding this interface. Without a robust definition of entrepreneurship, the interface simply becomes a study of a very common and disparate organisational form - Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). There is no shame in this for they deserve our interest, support and help. Without an understanding of the entrepreneurship component of the interface that help and support might be less effective than we, and they, would desire. Small business is not a little large business, they operate in very different circumstances with very much fewer resources to hand, and, because of who they are may have very different motivations and skill sets. Not necessarily worse but different. So entrepreneurial marketing might offer different insights, and help, compared to a standard academic approach to small business. This is a PhD by published work and twenty-three submissions are organised into four themes and form a core for discussion. The first theme considers appropriate definitions of entrepreneurship and the role they play in conceptualising the interface. The second theme considers how adopting an entrepreneurial marketing approach could guide and inform the SME in two particular respects: addressing critical situations and developing and maintaining appropriate relationships. This theme is considering entrepreneurial marketing within the SME. The third theme considers firstly entrepreneurial marketing extended away from the SME to larger organisations in both public and private ownership and to a particular form of public art where participants can be small or large and in either public or private ownership. Secondly the experience of organisations within a cluster and SMEs within a conflict zone are considered. The distinguishing focus of this third theme is that it extends the interface away from the traditional focus on SMEs. Whilst it was natural for the interface to arise out of a desire to understand a neglected organisational form in marketing – it can be applied in other contexts. The final theme considers how the author’s conceptualisation of the interface has informed their teaching and the implications for practical business support. A fundamental argument that is made in respect of understanding the role of entrepreneurship within entrepreneurial marketing is that we should not treat entrepreneurship as an absolute attribute which would direct us into classifying people simply into entrepreneurs as opposed to non-entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs range from the exceptional ‘stellar’ entrepreneur to those who are imitative of current market offerings and we should work across this range appropriately. Having discussed both an appropriate definition and role for entrepreneurship within the marketingentrepreneurship interface the implications of such a view are illustrated through considering the different contexts discussed in themes two and three above and reflecting upon the delivery of teaching programmes based partly or wholly on the notion of the marketing-entrepreneurship interface. The work is a critique of the role of entrepreneurship within the interface. The contexts selected and discussed draw out practical lessons for a wide range of individuals from undergraduates through SMEs to larger organisations in either private or public ownership.

This doctoral thesis enlightens different channels through which liberalised trade policies can have differential impact on the organisation of production in different sectors that subsequently seep into the relatively larger share of the workforce, employed in the agricultural or non-agricultural informal sectors with wage earnings below or just above the poverty line. In the four core chapters, this thesis brings together salient features of a developing dual economy like India, such as the dualism observed in domestic factor markets and co-existence of internationally non-traded goods, within the realm of general equilibrium framework that captures structural features of trade and production patterns for a typical developing country (DC hereafter) like India. Chapter 3 explains why a DC like India may experience a jobless growth in the organised sectors during liberalised regime within the framework of a three-sector mobile capital version of Harris-Todaro (HT hereafter) type general equilibrium model describing rural-urban migration with agricultural dualism and a non-traded intermediate input. Main findings support the fact that as a consequence of different trade reform policies, organised sectors have experienced increased competition from foreign markets which has forced them to relax labour laws, with the freedom to switch towards relatively capital-intensive techniques of production, resulting in retrenchment of relatively less productive workers and ending up with jobless pattern of growth in these organised urban sectors during the liberalised regime. These results are particularly interesting for their contradiction to the predictions of the standard HT model. Chapter 4 explores a controversial policy debate in DCs including India, concerning acquisition of agricultural land to set up Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in order to promote industrialisation. This essay critically analyses the implications of this policy, using a three-sector HT type general equilibrium model with the SEZ sector characterised with increasing returns to scale (IRS) sector, having an imperfectly competitive market. It is found that following an inflow of foreign capital due to the government policy of easing the entry criteria for FDI, the industry expands through spillover effects and in turn, the agricultural sector may expand for a sufficiently higher degree of scale economies in the SEZ sector through the general equilibrium implication on resource reallocation. The magnitude of urban unemployment may fall, albeit the workers in general will be worse-off due to reduction in the wage income. National income of the economy may increase and export by the SEZ sector may rise simultaneously, given a negligible income-elasticity of demand for the SEZ-good. These results are particularly interesting for their stark contradiction with the standard general equilibrium models of production and trade developed yet in this context and their policy implications. Motivated by a set of stylised facts based on provincial data for India, Chapter 5, by utilising a four-sector general equilibrium framework with segmented labour and capital markets (domestic), proposes that factor-specific technological progress only in the capital-intensive segment of the urban formal sectors may affect the urban informal workers adversely, while a technological progress (trade-induced) in the vertically integrated skill-intensive formal sector benefits them. The quantitative analysis demonstrates that when both of the formal sectors undergo capital-using technological progress, urban informal wage may improve, provided the vertically integrated formal sector could save more on the capital cost of production compared to the relatively capital-intensive formal sector and capital flows to the informal sectors. This helps understand trends in urban poverty given the strong association between urban informal wage and the degree of urban poverty. Finally, Chapter 6 develops a multi-sector full-employment general equilibrium model with internationally non-traded goods and international fragmentation in skill-intensive production, to understand the mechanism how trade-induced productivity improvement in the skill-intensive sector gets channelized to the informal sector(s) (in terms of real wages and employment conditions) through the existence of finished non-tradable and the corresponding domestic demand-supply forces. The underlying developing economy is characterised by dual unskilled labour market with unionised formal and non-unionised informal sectors, consistent with the empirical literature on developing economies like India. Numerical analysis has also been performed to simulate how the changes in elasticities of factor substitution in production of different sectors account for the movement in informal wage and therefore the movement in skilled–unskilled wage gap. This essay challenges the view that the relative wage-inequality in a DC like India with rigid organised sector labour market has unequivocally been governed only by the increase in the skilled wages. An extension with involuntary unemployment of skilled labour using the ‘fair wage hypothesis’ has also been presented that effectively demonstrates the robustness of the results obtained under the full-employment model.

Entrepreneurship development is vitally important for the growth and development of all nations. Thus developing countries must put the necessary measures in place to ensure the growth and development of the small business sector. The overarching aim the study was to investigate the prospects and challenges of building the capacities of owner managers and/or entrepreneurs for growth and development. Purposive random sampling technique was used to collect data from forty-one owner managers and nineteen officials of enterprise support organisations. Data collection tools were interviews, documentary analysis and focus group. The main findings of the study were that enterprise support organisations have bespoke programmes aimed at supporting small businesses in Ghana. These programmes were mainly training and financial support. The key challenge they face is the poor attitude of owner managers to their programmes. It was also revealed that the some of the owner managers find it difficult accessing the programmes of the enterprise support organisations because of problems such as inadequate awareness creations, commercialization of training programmes, high cost of accessing finance among others. Apart from these challenges, it was realised that many other challenges such as poor national infrastructure, poor attitude of employees, high rent charges and stiff competition from foreign products. However, the study realised that the owner managers have put measures in place to deal with these challenges in order to survive. It was therefore commended among other things that there should be a central body responsible for the coordination of all activities which are geared towards the development of entrepreneurship. Thus the study contributes to knowledge by developed a framework for entrepreneurship development in Ghana and the developing world. Moreover, there is the application of institutional theory to the study of entrepreneurship development in Ghana, which is unprecedented.