Purpose- The main purpose of this research is to develop and validate the innovation resistance model across Middle Eastern countries. Design/ Methodology/ Approach- The solar panel is used as an example of a disruptive innovation in the Middle East. Data is collected by distributing questionnaires from 810 houshold decision makers from residential areas across three countries in the Middle East: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The main method of analysis is Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Findings- The results show that fatalism and traditionalism are key cultural indicators of innovation resistance in the Middle East. In addition, the prominent role of consumer innovators in reducing resistance to innovation is approved. Research Implications- None of the previous studies have developed an empirical model of innovation resistance using a wide range of forces, i.e. culture, consumer characteristics, attributes of innovation and socio-demographics. Practical Implications- Fast diffusion of innovations can be challenging within fatalistic and traditional societies. Marketers should position solar panels as a continuous innovation that fits well within the context of past experience. In addition consumer innovators as opinion leaders can influence and advise other members of a society to make a purchase decision and should be targeted by marketers.

The aim of this PhD research is to address the role of Technology Orientation (TO) and Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) in new firms within the energy service industry. It mainly focuses on how Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Market Orientation (MO) and TO (inclusive of digitally enhanced marketing activities) contribute towards young firms' EM performance. The Technology Entrepreneurship Marketing and Performance (TEMP) model is conceptualised and developed using extant theory and mixed qualitative methodologies including semi-structured interviews and observational web-based research. Findings identified several themes identified in earlier EM literature and five new emerging themes that offer insights into the potential relationship between EO, MO and traditional (administrative) marketing and digital marketing. From this, the research conceptualises technology driven marketing techniques as being a significant part of a firm's TO and this implicitly compliments the entrepreneur's ability to market the firm, products and services to customers. Implications include the implicit value of a combined EM approach which includes TO, and widening the research agenda to include new policy driven SMEs in 'green' technology industries.

This thesis examines how inter-firm relationships and routines influence the process and outcomes of new service development (NSD). The research questions addressed are: 1) How do inter-firm relationships and routines influence the speed of NSD? and 2) In what ways do the different types of service development affect inter-firm relationships and organisational routines associated with the speed of NSD? Prior research has emphasized the importance of cooperating with other organizations to exploit external sources of knowledge and capabilities, but relatively little is known about the specific mechanisms to achieve this and how these affect the outcomes of new service development. This research contributes to the literature on new service development and innovation networks. The research design consists of comparative case studies and draws on empirical evidence from the development of two contrasting e-commerce services in the four dominant Taiwanese convenience store chains. In total 52 interviews were conducted with members of staff of convenience store chains and suppliers. The interviews were analyzed using the thematic framework approach, which represents the patterns and relationships in the interview data. Cross-case synthesis was chosen as the analytical technique to summarize the findings from the individual cases. The present study found that trust and interdependence have positive influence on the speed of NSD. Intensity of inter-firm collaboration has a negative effect on the speed of NSD under some circumstances (e.g. task complexity and project newness). Moreover, the relationship between organizational routines for knowledge transfer and the speed of NSD may vary under different degrees of project newness. The thesis demonstrates the interaction of organizational and project level characteristics in new service development, and the multi-dimensional nature of service development compared to that of conventional product development.

This study highlights the role of cash flow forecasting process in capital budgeting decisions, where the forecasting process starts with identifying the procedures and methods used in forecasting, and ends by estimating future cash flow required by managers for decision-making. This study utilised questionnaire survey to collect data from 69 manufacturing and oil companies operating in Libya within contingency and new institutional sociology theories, which are commonly used in capital budgeting research. Further, this study seeks to ascertain the key variables associated with the forecasting process in capital budgeting decisions. In this regard, this study examined the contingent and institutional variables influencing the use of forecasting procedures and methods associated with the adoption of different capital budgeting processes. Consequently, the results of this study explored the forecasting procedures, methods and the capital budgeting techniques used in manufacturing and oil companies operating in Libya. The researcher found that most manufacturing and oil companies depend on personal and management's subjective estimates in forecasting their future cash flows. In terms of the extent of use of capital budgeting techniques, the findings indicate that most Libyan manufacturing and oil companies use the payback period (PB) and accounting rate of return (ARR) to evaluate and select the investment opportunities, as well as rely upon subjective assessments in evaluating the project risk inherent within capital budgeting decisions. In addition, this study applied the partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique to test the research hypotheses. Using the same sample of Libyan manufacturing and oil companies, the findings are as follows. First, the use of forecasting procedures/methods and components of cash flow are positively associated with the extent of use of capital budgeting techniques. Second, the forecasting horizon and the use of multiple data sources in forecasting are significantly associated with the use of forecasting procedures and methods. Third, the presence of qualified persons responsible for estimating future cash flow is positively associated with the use of forecasting procedures and methods. Fourth, the findings suggest that the influence of contingent variables differs from public to private companies. Fifth, the study findings also suggest that coercive, mimetic and normative pressures are significantly associated with the use of forecasting procedures and methods. Finally, the research findings revealed that there is a significant relationship between the procedures and methods used in forecasting (PMUF) and the firms’ financial performance (PERF), whilst the study does not find any evidence that the extent of use of capital budgeting techniques improves the firms’ financial performance. The findings of this study offer new important insights and contributions to the existing literature, as well as have useful implications for practitioners and researchers.

The study empirically examines three main issues. First, the study examines the relationship between corporate governance and risk-taking. Second, the study investigates the association between corporate governance and credit rating. Third, the study examines the link between corporate governance and cost of capital. Corporate governance was represented in this study by the mechanisms of corporate governance index, ownership structure and board structure, and firm performance was represented by risk-taking, credit rating and cost of capital. Using a sample of 200 companies from 10 OECD countries over the 2010 to 2014 period and relying on a multi-theoretical framework, the findings are as follows. First, the results suggest that firms with good corporate governance are shown to engage less risk-taking. Second, the findings indicate that firms with good corporate governance generally have higher credit ratings than firms with poor corporate governance. Third, the results suggest that firms with good corporate governance generally have lower cost of capital than firms with poor corporate governance. Ownership structure and board structure, as representatives of corporate governance, all demonstrated similar results. Differences among firms were seen in terms of legal and accounting traditions, as well as in terms of culture. Yet, the findings appeared to be relatively consistent across Anglo-American and Continental European traditions, despite the fact that there was different emphasis placed on some corporate governance mechanisms, and despite different cultural characteristics. The findings are robust to endogeneity problems, alternative measures and estimation techniques used such as two-stage least squares, lagged reports and fixed effects reports. Overall, the findings have major implications for regulators, academics and practitioners.

The main objective of this thesis is to identify the reasons why firms choose to issue unit IPOs instead of share-only IPOs. Evidence is found that unit firms are smaller, riskier, with higher level of agency costs and higher levels of information asymmetry than share-only firms and unit IPOs are underwritten by less reputable underwriters. The initial return results provide strong support to the Agency Cost hypothesis that unit IPOs is significantly more underpriced than share-only IPOs. Unit firms have lower survival rate than that of share-only IPO firms; however, unit firms that do survive are more likely to issue seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) for further funding. A clear pattern of price run-up is observed before SEO announcements by unit firms and a significant negative price adjustment is found when the SEOs are announced. In the long-term, this thesis provides evidence that unit IPOs present significantly worse underperformance comparing to both the matching share-only IPOs and various market indices. Such results contradict both the Agency Cost and the Signalling hypotheses and imply that unit firms cannot significantly improve performance by simply attaching warrants, regardless as whether they are used to reduce agency costs or to signal firm value.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are important corporate strategy actions that are vital for the companies in order to survive in this competitive global world. The popularity of those actions has increased over the years, especially in the international domain. In the UK, both the number and value of cross-border M&As has increased significantly over the years. Despite this increase, there haven’t been enough studies or clear evidence about whether venturing abroad to acquire foreign targets leads the companies to better performance compared to staying domestically. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate the M&A phenomenon deeply and compare between cross-border and domestic M&As made by UK public acquirer firms. More specifically, the thesis concentrates on three main issues which are: (1) the difference between the returns to shareholders of acquirer firms involved in cross-border and domestic M&As; (2) the difference between the operating performance of acquirer firms involved in cross-border and domestic M&As; and (3) the difference between the impacts of cross-border and domestic M&As on the operating performance of acquirer and target firms combined. Market-based and accounting-based approaches are used to investigate a sample of UK acquirer firms engaged in cross-border and domestic M&As both in the short-term and in the long-term periods. In general, the results reveal insignificant differences between the shareholders’ returns and operating performances of acquirer firms involved in cross-border and domestic M&As over the short- and long-term periods. On the other hand, the results for acquirer and target combined firms show that cross-border M&As have lower operating performances than domestic M&As. Recommendations are provided in order to help the decision and policy makers in the companies to decide whether cross-border M&As should be actively encouraged or discouraged in comparison with domestic M&As.

Over the last few decades, a sizable proportion of scholarly attention has focused on trading communities around the Atlantic littoral. While there has been much research conducted regarding these communities, such as the work of Cathy Matson, Bernard Bailyn and Graeme Milne, there is not one study that compares or investigates the connections between Liverpool and New York between 1750 and 1833. The only focused examinations of the Liverpool-New York trade concentrate on the successful cotton trade of the 1820s and 1830s. Yet as two leading ports in Atlantic trade from the mid-eighteenth century onwards, they make for excellent case studies as the trading community and trade grew throughout this period despite being affected by many events occurring within the Atlantic world. Therefore, examining the Liverpool-New York trading community after the end of the Seven Years' War until the Abolition of Slavery in the British West Indies provides an excellent perspective on the transition from colonial to post-colonial Anglo-American commercial activity in the Atlantic world. These two ports expanded at similar rates in the eighteenth century and became linked in a relationship of continual exchange from the middle of this century. The trade between Liverpool and New York was comprised of an array of commodities which demonstrated the extent of the merchants' links to the hinterland and expansive coastal trades. Through the use of newspaper import lists, custom service records, customs bills of entry and the records of the Tontine Coffee House in New York, a new database has been constructed which demonstrates the volume of a wide-range of commodities traded between each port. This data shows the extent to which the trade was transformed over this seventy year period and its increasing diversity and complexity. New York exports to Liverpool were first comprised of raw goods procured from the direct hinterland. However, by the nineteenth century New York merchants spread their connections much further afield. As such, commodities from the southern states such as North Carolina and Georgia, the West Indies, Central and South America became a crucial part of a coastal and re-export trade. The exports from Liverpool to New York also changed through this period as manufacturing expanded in Lancashire, Yorkshire and the Midlands and liverpool extended its connections further into this productive hinterland. Above all, what is most remarkable is the rate at which this trade grew between 1763 and 1833, and the extent to which the merchants involved in this trade were responsible for this growth. Between 1763 and 1833, the larger Liverpool-New York trade network encompassed many dynamic merchants who maintained relationships with trusted correspondents and who were dedicated to the expansion of this trade. These relationships were evident in the collections of personal and business correspondence, chamber of commerce meeting minutes and travel diaries which have been utilised in this study in order to evaluate the efficiency of this network and the success and failings of individual merchant firms. Throughout this period, the network of merchants was transformed as it contracted and expanded in response to changes in trading conditions. This change over time can be divided into three phases (1760s-1780s; 1790s-1815 and 1815-1833). During these phases, merchants relied on chains of commodity and information exchange in order to make informed decisions about their trade. While at times relationships between merchants in Liverpool and New York were problematic, by and large the trade and trading community expanded by virtue of the efforts of these merchants to promote and protect their trade. From the 1760s to the 1830s,this trade network changed from a small group of merchants trading in a few commodities procured from the direct hinterland, to a large community of well-established firms which possessed connections to many trades, industries and locations. This trading community, which started as a small but important part of the Atlantic economy, by the 1830s was at its centre. The central location of both ports meant they were often affected by events occurring in the Atlantic sphere. Firms which possessed numerous reliable contacts and a varied commodity portfolio typically fared well in situations of extreme fluctuation and uncertainty. Smaller firms with limited access to alternative sources for commodities and information were usually less fortunate. Despite the many wars, economic crises, political and environmental changes of this period, the larger Liverpool-New York trade network was resilient. Mapping these networks and how they were affected by events during this transitional period demonstrates the volatility of Atlantic commerce in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the ability of merchants in the Liverpool-New York trading community to cope with consistent uncertainty and flux. By illustrating the growth of this trade and the development of the trading community, this study has made an important contribution to the literature on transatlantic trading communities and the Atlantic economy in general.

This dissertation situates eighteenth-century botany within the contexts of contemporary commercial culture and international networks of knowledge formation. I assess the connections between scholars, merchants and consumers in London and Paris between c. 1760 and c. 1815. I ask how individuals who made a commercial profit from selling science understood and related to the notion of a community of scientific practitioners. My aim is to expose the diversity of socio-intellectual configurations that existed in the late eighteenth century. I focus on the histories of two plant nurseries, one based in London and the other in Paris. Their commercial successes rested on their proprietors’ abilities both to serve the growing consumer demand for plants and to actively participate in the international scientific community. The first three chapters address how each participated in scientific and commercial networks, examining which groups composed these networks, the types of social relationships they formed, and how knowledge circulated between them. I highlight the role played by ‘gardener-botanists’ who acted as intermediaries between each of these groups. The final two chapters focus on the people who purchased and exchanged plants. I assess who comprised the ‘public’ that collected specimens and studied botany, and I examine how gardens in London and Paris formed part of an expanding space for science. I emphasise in particular the significance of the culture of connoisseurship to the history of botany, and discuss the range of different publics who collected plants and studied their science. My research is concerned with the interplay between knowledge, commerce and culture. Drawing from the notion that scientific knowledge is always socially and culturally situated, I aim to connect the history of the plant trade to the development of the science of botany, and to place these within a wider cultural context.

The Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham has its base in small interdependent workshop craft production in a long-established location for which the concept of occupational community appeared an appropriate research tool. The ahistorical approach of studies of occupational communities is critically addressed and it is argued that the theory of occupational community can be deployed historically to investigate the particular conditions of the Jewellery Quarter and explain the construction of these over time. The origins of the industry in Birmingham are investigated in detail and the patterns of localisation together with the structure and organisation of the industry in the nineteenth century are analysed. The establishment of the local formal institutions which developed to support the industry is traced. An account is given of redevelopment, refurbishment, and recession in the post-war era. The current location of firms in the area is analysed, together with the organisation of work in the local industry. The occupational community of the Jewellery Quarter is described and analysed. The nature of interdependence, the daily interaction and the role of family are explained. The concept of work-in-leisure is discussed in relation to the Jewellery Quarter. The formal methods of recruitment to the local industry are reviewed against the needs of the local industry, and it is shown how the community itself acts as an informal channel of recruitment. The ambiguities surrounding women's employment in the industry are explored. While women are still concentrated in low-paid, low skilled work, it is argued that historically they have also been present as owners and craftswomen, and the factors which enable this are analysed. The methodology used in the study is detailed and the link between the methodology and concept of occupational community is discussed. In this study the broad use of the theory of occupational community has shown how the historical pattern continues to influence the community. Finally it is argued that the study contributes to the current debate on small firm survival and persistence.