This dissertation consists of a set of four sole-authored, reviewed and published papers which develop the theme that company accounting policies, particularly those relating to asset valuation, depreciation and dividend policy, developed in response to a change in the general perception of the nature of the property rights of the original owners. The original owners of commercial and industrial concerns in the early nineteenth century were the partners. After incorporation they and others became the shareholders of the company. The origin of commercial and industrial companies as partnerships influenced the British government and legal thinking for nearly a century from 1856 to 1945, the date of the Cohen Committee. It was the age of laissez-faire and has been much discussed: Parliament was less keen to intervene in connection with the generality of companies, where the view expressed in 1856 by Robert Lowe, then President of the Board of Trade, that `having given [companies] a pattern the State leaves then to manage their own affairs ... (quoted in Hein, 1978, p. 149) provided a rationalization of the widespread belief that it was no business of the state to interfere in what were seen as private contracts between shareholders (Sugarman and-Rubin, 1984, p. 12). Moreover, a laissez-faire approach on the part of the courts, where `formalist' views were at their height (Atiyah, 1979, pp. 388-97), seems also to have affected the attitude to accounts on the part of the courts. This may be observed in the series of `dividend' cases in the nineteenth century (French, 1977) where judges on the whole were loath to go beyond the companies' Articles of Association and the latter of the Companies' Acts (unless they could adduce fraudulent or improper behaviour on the part of directors) in assessing matters of valuation, income measurement and profit determination. (Napier and Noke, 1992, p. 38, emphasis added). These issues `matters of valuation, income measurement and profit determination' form the basis for much of this dissertation. There is one further paper extending the work of Jefferys (1938) and Cottrell (1980) on the format of share issues from 1914 (Pitts 2000).

The thesis explores applications of optimisation in investment management and risk measurement. In investment management the information issues are largely concerned with generating optimal forecasts. It is difficult to get inputs that have the properties they are supposed to have. Thus optimisation is prone to 'Garbage In, Garbage Out', that leads to substantial biases in portfolio selection, unless forecasts are adjusted suitably for estimation error. We consider three case studies where we investigate the impact of forecast error on portfolio performance and examine ways of adjusting for resulting bias. Treynor and Black (1973) first tried to make the best possible use of the information provided by security analysis based on Markovitz (1952) portfolio selection. They established a relationship between the correlation of forecasts, the number of independent securities available and the Sharpe ratio which can be obtained. Their analysis was based on the assumption that the correlation between the forecasts and outcomes is known precisely. In practice, given the low levels of correlation possible, an investor may believe himself to have a different degree of correlation from what he actually has. Using two different metrics we explore how the portfolio performance depends on both the anticipated and realised correlation when these differ. One measure, the Sharpe ratio, captures the efficiency loss, attributed to the change in reward for risk. The other measure, the Generalised Sharpe Ratio (GSR), introduced by Hodges (1997), quantifies the reduction in the welfare of a particular investor due to adopting an inappropriate risk profile. We show that these two metrics, the Sharpe ratio and GSR, complement each other and in combination provide a fair ranking of existing investment opportunities. Using Bayesian adjustment is a popular way of dealing with estimation error in portfolio selection. In a Bayesian implementation, we study how to use non-sample information to infer optimal scaling of unknown forecasts of asset returns in the presence of uncertainty about the quality of our information, and how the efficient use of information affects portfolio decision. Optimal portfolios, derived under full use of information, differ strikingly from those derived from the sample information only; the latter, unlike the former, are highly affected by estimation error and favour several (up to ten) times larger holdings. The impact of estimation error in a dynamic setting is particularly severe because of the complexity of the setting in which it is necessary to have time varying forecasts. We take Brennan, Schwartz and Lagnado's structure (1997) as a specific illustration of a generic problem and investigate the bias in long-term portfolio selection models that comes from optimisation with (unadjusted) parameters estimated from historical data. Using a Monte Carlo simulation analysis, we quantify the degree of bias in the optimisation approach of Brennan, Schwartz and Lagnado. We find that estimated parameters make an investor believe in investment opportunities five times larger than they actually are. Also a mild real time-variation in opportunities inflates wildly when measured with estimated parameters. In the latter part of the thesis we look at slightly less straightforward optimisation applications in risk measurement, which arise in reporting risk. We ask, what is the most efficient way of complying with the rules? In other words, we investigate how to report the smallest exposure within a rule. For this purpose we develop two optimal efficient algorithms that calculate the minimal amount of the position risk required, to cover a firm's open positions and obligations, as required by respective rules in the FSA (Financial Securities Association) Handbook. Both algorithms lead to interesting generalisations.

This thesis contributes to the developing field of the critical theory of organisation. It presents a critical inquiry into the ideological nature of (neo)Human Relations management theory and its strategies for the management of subjectivity and organisational culture. The introductory chapters discuss the meta-theoretical grounds and contexts for the development of the thesis. Chapter 1 responds to the epistemological challenges put forward by post- Modernism highlighting the basic trajectory and underlying values of the thesis. Chapter 2 discusses the development of critical organisation theory so far, with respect to the discussions of subjectivity and culture. This includes a discussion of aspects of the work of Foucault, (neo)Marxist Theory, Labour Process Theory and critical social psychology as they have been taken up by organisational studies of subjectivity and culture. Chapter 3 clarifies the use of the concept of ideology and outlines the research strategy for the concrete study of (neo)Human Relations management as ideological. This involves a 'depth hermeneutic' research strategy, made up of the 3 components of (1) A Social Analysis, (2) A Discourse Analysis, and (3) An Interpretation of Meaning. As the 'Social Analysis' component of this 'depth hermeneutic', chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 highlights the work of Herbert Marcuse, exploring his critical social psychology; his notion of 'new forms of control'; his discussions of the relationship between culture, language and power; and his discussions of the rationalisation process leading to the rationalisation of culture and power relations. This is followed by both the 'Discourse Analysis' and 'Interpretation of Meaning' components of the 'depth hermeneutic' method. Chapter 8 offers an account of the historical emergence of the management discourses around subjectivity and culture and identifies its leading authors. Chapter 9 offers a critical interpretation of meaning of this discourse in the light of Marcuse's social analysis which highlights the ideological nature of (neo)Human Relations management.

The U.K. capital market has observed a remarkable growth in the use of lease financing as a tool of financial management. It must be recognised, however, that its profitable use by Industry is dependent upon an easily applicable and theoretically acceptable method of evaluation within corporate capital budgeting procedures. Increasingly, analysts have come to acknowledge the need to integrate corporate investment and financing decisions insofar as concerns the acquisition of industrial plant and equipment. However, traditional methods of lease evaluation fail to examine its integrative nature, and in consequence, they neglect the critical interdependencies which encompass the simultaneous decision process. Extant lease evaluation models also fail to consider the consequences of the earnings generated by the "Residual Capital Balances". That is, the working capital freed when leasing is strategically used to relax what otherwise would be an unacceptable shortage of funds. Such earnings are a fundamental part of an integrated lease cash-flow profile under certain circumstances: namely, the use of leasing as part of a "Planned Financing Mix", as opposed to its use as an emergency or "spill-over" financing when no residual capital occurs. On the basis of extensive empirical study into the circumstances under which U.K. financial management had recourse to leasing, a hypothesis was developed to explain the role of leasing in corporate financial planning and debt management. The research proceeds to establish models for the evaluation of leasing under "spill-over" conditions (where all otherwise available sources of finance are, or appear to be, exhausted) and "Planned Financing" conditions (when the use of leasing in quantitative terns is formally envisaged as part of the corporate financing policy). In this way it is possible to determine the risks implicit in the haphazard use of leasing together with the benefits available to its planned use.

Although researchers have long recognised the significance of religious value systems in sociology and in psychology, the role of religion in consumer research has not yet been completely acknowledged. In the consumer behaviour literature, religion has been studied from two main perspectives namely, religious affiliation and religious commitment. Religious affiliation is the adherence of individuals to a particular religious group while religiosity is the degree to which beliefs in specific religious values and ideals are held and practised by an individual. This research investigated the influence of religious affiliation and religiosity on selected aspects of consumer behaviour: shopping behaviour, retail store preference and external information search among three religious groups, Hindus, Muslims and Catholics. A mail survey was conducted among a sample of heads of households in Mauritius and six hundred usable questionnaires were obtained. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques were employed to analyse the data. Significant differences were found in the purchasing behaviour of Hindus, Muslims and Catholics. Devout consumers, those for whom religion is a central focus in life, also differed significantly in their purchasing behaviour from casually religious consumers, those for whom religion is expedient across all three religious groups. Religiosity and religious affiliation were found to be predictors of consumer behaviour in the presence of demographic and lifestyle variables, implying that the influence of religion on the value systems of the society and the effect of these value systems on consumer behaviour cannot be underestimated. The managerial implications of the research findings were discussed arid suggestions for further research were proposed.

This thesis analyses interactions between firms and governments in climate change and international trade. First, a theory of international agreements on climate change is presented in which governments negotiate targets and firms bear the cost of emission reductions. It analyses the effect on negotiations of investment, on R&D for instance. The public good nature of the problem implies that investment improves the government’s bargaining position. Anticipating this effect on the Nash-bargained outcome will induce firms, surprisingly, to over-invest with respect to the second best. The second chapter explores a different area in which firms and governments interact: trade policy. This chapter analyses the incentives for trade protection in an electoral college setting by constructing a new multi jurisdictional political agency model. The introduction of a spatial factor shows how the distribution of swing voters across decisive, swing states affects trade policy incentives. The empirical analysis introduces a measure of how industries specialise geographically in swing and decisive states by augmenting a benchmark test of the "Protection for Sale" mechanism. The evidence provides support for the theory. A newly-available firm-level panel dataset for Belgium is described in the third chapter, in a bid to understand the patterns in the trade transaction data. The final chapter considers the determinants of firm exporting behaviour, in particular liquidity constraints. A heterogeneous �firms trade model shows how exporters in general, firms exporting to more destinations and to smaller markets, weighted by distance, are less likely to be credit-constrained. Finally, in the presence of liquidity constraints, the impact of exchange rates on trade flows is decomposed. These equilibrium relations hold in the Belgian data, measuring credit constraints with firm-year-level credit scores. This highlights the potential role of governments in determining, through their policies on credit constraints, the patterns of trade and hence productivity levels and overall welfare.

While there have been a number of studies of foreign exchange risk management in UK Multinational Companies (MNCs), the management of economic exposure has received very little attention. The aim of this study was to describe the management of economic exposure (and its relationship to transaction exposure) in UK MNCs. A random sample of twenty MNCs was selected, and archival data relevant to foreign exchange risk management were gathered. Finance personnel in both the HQ and the Irish subsidiaries of the twenty companies were interviewed. The results of the study with respect to transaction exposure were similar to previous studies. However, data collected at a subsidiary level revealed that the degree of centralisation may be underestimated by HQ treasurers, since divisional personnel may influence the practices in foreign subsidiaries. The degree of centralisation was explained by the presence of transaction costs in foreign exchange markets, and a relationship between centralisation and netting opportunities was detected. The in-house bank was highlighted as a mechanism for realising transaction cost savings without decreasing operating unit autonomy. An examination of the economic exposures of the sample companies revealed that economic exposure might be classified into four subsets: 1) Sticky Price Exposure (of which transaction exposure is a subset) 2) Traded Good Exposure (which arises from the tradeability of the MNC's products and factors of production) 3) Parallel Import Exposure 4) The Macroeconomic and Sectoral Consequences of Exchange Rate Changes The managerial response to economic exposure was also examined. The majority of corporate treasurers were only involved in transaction exposures and, with a few exceptions, the response to economic exposure was operational rather than financial. Political and promotional tactics were used extensively to manage economic exposure in the short-run. The creation of barriers to entry (and the resultant decrease in the tradeability of the firm's products) was a popular medium-run strategy. The author also found that only some of the sample MNCs had significant economic exposures. Finally, a decision support model was developed in order to operationalise the measurement of economic exposure, and the evaluation of exposure management alternatives.

In this study, I empirically examine the valuation and value relevance characteristics of specific consolidation and segment-disaggregated corporate financial information. On the consolidation level, I investigate the relationships (in terms of value relevance and pricing) between the UK firms’ equity market values and the firm-level contemporaneous equity book values, earnings and dividends. The objective here is identify and explore factors and contexts that impact on the value relevance and pricing of consolidated financial statement information reported by UK publicly traded firms over the period from 1987 to 2002. On the segmental level, the study capitalises on the insights gained from the consolidated level findings and investigates (i) whether financial information, on specific geographic and line-of-business segments’ operations of a cross-section of UK multi-segment firms, is associated with the equity market value of the entire firm (i.e., value relevant); (ii) whether such operations are being differentially priced (by the stock market) into the equity market value of the firm; and (iii) how the factors/contexts affecting value relevance and pricing of the firm-level accounting fundamentals impact on the value relevance and pricing of the segment-level results. Additionally, this study provides further empirical evidence on the adequacy of the UK segment reporting accounting standard SSAP 25, and the quality of segment disclosures in the UK. The employed valuation model represents a fusion of valuation frameworks developed in earlier studies [e.g., Edwards and Bell (1961), Peasnell (1981, 1982), Ohlson (1989, 1995), Rees (1997), Garrod and Rees (1998), Wysocki (1998)]. On the consolidated-level, the model expresses the size-deflated equity market value of the firm as a linear function of size-deflated equity book value, earnings for ordinary, dividends for ordinary shareholders and additional control/dummy variables. In the segment-level analysis, the earnings variable is further disaggregated into its segment-level elements. With regard to the firm-level analysis, the study uncovers a range of contexts and factors that affect the value relevance and pricing of specific accounting value drivers. Among these are: the sign of reported earnings and book values; whether the firm trades at a premium/discount to its book value; the economic periods; the dividend status of the firm; diversification profile of the firm; and the industrial affiliation of the firm. In addition, the firm-level analysis indicates that the industrially diversified firms have lower valuation than the focused firms, while the geographically diversified firms have higher valuation than the domestic firms.

This research advances an integrative approach to examining the complex interplays between various internal and external determinants to the firm, in order to provide a fuller understanding of the international performance of firms. Specifically, this research aims to enrich our understanding of the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in driving the international performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). For this purpose, the research integrates the resource-based view (RBV) with the institutional perspective to explicate the dynamic interactions among EO - a core firm-specific resource - and two institutional factors, i.e. cultural dimensions and government regulations in explaining the international performance of SMEs. The research conceptualises and examines four core sets of associations that relate to: i) EO and international performance of firms; ii) cultural dimensions and EO; iii) government regulations on the association between EO and international performance; and iv) government regulations on the association between cultural dimensions and EO. The study employed a quantitative research method and conducted a large-scale, self-administered questionnaire survey in Malaysia. The statistical analysis of data of 203 internationalised SMEs confirms the positive impact of EO on the firms’ international performance. Moreover, analyses provide evidence of the association of cultural dimensions of high individualism, high masculinity and low uncertainty avoidance with EO; and of the premise that government regulations positively moderate the individualism-EO and masculinity-EO relationships. The incorporation of the RBV and the institutional perspective offers a fuller explanation of the international performance of SMEs. Specifically, it advances understanding of the importance of EO - a critical resource for firms, whose manifestation and strength are influenced by institutional factors - in the internationalisation of firms. The research also contributes to the institutional perspective in two ways. First, the focus on the macro institutional factors based on a micro perspective reflected through the perception of the key decision-maker advances the understanding of the entrepreneurship phenomenon. It explains that how firms perceive and respond to the institutional context within which they are embedded will, in turn, prompt the responding entrepreneurial behaviours and subsequently affect international performance. Second, it explicates the interacting and reinforcing effect of cultural dimensions and government regulations, which are an informal and a formal component of institutions, on the genesis of EO. Significant practical implications are derived accordingly for business practitioners and policy makers to promote SMEs’ international business development and growth.

The evaluation and understanding of customers’ service quality perception has been a topic of major interest for academics and practitioners since the 1980s. Despite this intense research focus, there is a gap in understanding service quality in multichannel settings. This is surprising, since multichannel service systems have become increasingly important with the rise of E-commerce. The overall aim of this study, therefore, is to contribute to the interpretation of multichannel service quality by explaining it from the perspective of so-called ‘multichannel customers’. The study looks at interactions when purchasing a fashion product at a multichannel retailer with the aim of conceptualising service quality in a multichannel fashion retail context. Therefore, the study considers extant service quality research from traditional, electronic, and multichannel settings. The perspective of the current study is different from mainstream positivist service quality research, which sees service quality as static, objectively measurable and dualistic. This study, however, acknowledges service quality as a dynamic, subjective and pluralistic phenomenon. Following this line of argument, the study postulates the existence of multiple realities as consistent with social constructivism. Therefore, the current study investigates the service quality perceptions of experienced multichannel customers. Perceptions are considered to be the meaning that these customers give to their service experiences. The current study indicates that the customers’ perceptions of service quality in multichannel settings imply some fundamental uniqueness. This study proposes a holistic conceptualisation of multichannel customers’ service quality perception by considering (1) the heterogeneity of multichannel customers and (2) all moments of contact between customer and retailer. The proposed framework contributes to research about service quality with a theoretical interpretation of the phenomenon.