Over the last 250 years, insurance law has become insurer biased to the detriment of consumers and modern business. Codification of judicial precedents and business practices resulted in the Marine Insurance Act 1906. There have been two attempts since the late 1950s to recommend changes, with reviews made by the English Law Reform Committee and the Law Commission in 1980. In the late 1970s, the insurance industry bought itself out of the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. In 1981, non-legal changes came gradually with the introduction of the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau, which took account of the law but followed best practice. With each decade that has passed, changes in practice have deviated away from the strict legal position. The insurer no longer has an agent to arrange policies, collect premiums and complete claims forms. The late 1980s and early to mid-1990s saw the introduction of distance selling via the telephone. The late 1990s, and early into 2000, saw the massive boom in Internet sales, with search engines focused on finding the best competitively priced quotes from insurers; however, the reforms that were needed still did not occur. The Marine Insurance Act 1906 still applied and formed the basis of insurance law for many common law countries which copied the statue verbatim. As a result, these countries also had similar problems as those suffered by the insured in the UK; however, some have undergone bold reforms, as in the case of Australia, unlike the UK, which has lagged behind significantly. The Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission instigated a joint root-andbranch review of insurance law in 2006, as a result of a British Insurance Law Association paper (Insurance Contract Law Reform and Recommendations to the Law Commission (2002)) that highlighted the discrepancies in the law towards the insured. Unfortunately, however, the Commissions chose to focus on only certain areas. This thesis does not cover these aspects. It is concerned, however, with what could broadly be termed 'good faith', the corresponding duties vis-à-vis the insured and the insurer pre- and post-contract where the insured suffers disproportionately due to the way the law has developed pro-insurer biased. This body of work supporting the award of a PhD examines these corresponding duties where the articles form a basis of a contemporary, critical examination of these duties, and develops suggestions as to how the joint Law Commissions of England and Scotland should have approached changes.

The use of price promotions for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG’s) by supermarkets has increased substantially over the last decade, with significant implications for all stakeholders (suppliers, service providers & retailers) in terms of profitability and waste. The overall impact of price promotions depends on the complex interplay of demand and supply side factors, which has received limited attention in the academic literature. There is anecdotal evidence that in many cases, and particularly for products supplied by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), price promotions are implemented with limited understanding of these factors, resulting in missed opportunities for sales and the generation of avoidable promotional waste. This is particularly dangerous for SMEs who are often operating with tight margins and limited resources. A better understanding of consumer demand, through the use of disaggregated sales data (by shopper segment and store type) can facilitate more accurate forecasting of promotional uplifts and more effective allocation of stock, to maximise promotional sales and minimise promotional waste. However, there is little evidence that disaggregated data is widely or routinely used by supermarkets or their suppliers, particularly for those products supplied by SMEs. Moreover, the bulk of the published research regarding the impact of price promotions is either focussed on modelling consumer response, using claimed behaviour or highly aggregated scanner data or replenishment processes (frameworks and models) that bear little resemblance to the way in which the majority of food SMEs operate. This thesis explores the scope for improving the planning and execution of supermarket promotions, in the specific context of products supplied by SME, through the use of dis-aggregated sales data to forecast promotional sales and allocate promotional stock. An innovative case study methodology is used combining qualitative research to explore the promotional processes used by SMEs supplying the UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, and simulation modelling, using supermarket loyalty card data and store level sales data, to estimate short term promotional impacts under different scenarios and derive optimize stock allocations using mixed integer linear programming (MILP). ii The results suggest that promotions are often designed, planned and executed with little formalised analysis or use of dis-aggregated sales data and with limited consideration of the interplay between supply and demand. The simulation modelling and MILP demonstrate the benefits of using supermarket loyalty card data and store level sales data to forecast demand and allocate stocks, through higher promotional uplifts and reduced levels of promotional waste.

Credit cards have become an essential product for most consumers. Lenders have recognized the profit that can be achieved from the credit card market and thus they have introduced different credit cards to attract consumers. Thus, the credit card market has undergone keen competition in recent years. Lenders realize their operation decisions are crucial in determining how much pofit is achieved from a card. This thesis focuses on the most well-known operating policy: the management of credit limit. Lenders traditionally applied static decision models to manage the credit limit of credit card accounts. A growing number of lenders though want improved models so as to monitor the long-term risk and return of credit card borrowers. This study aims to use Markov Decision Process, which is a well-developed sequential decision model, to adjust the credit limit of current credit card accounts. The behavioural score, which is the way of assessing credit card holder's default risk in the next year, is used as the key parameter to monitor the risk of every individual account. The model formulation and the corresponding application techniques, such as state coarse-classication, choice of Markovity order, are discussed in this thesis. One major concern of using Markov Decision Process model is the small sample size in certain states. In general credit card lenders have lots of data. However, there may be no examples in the data of transitions from certain states to default, particularly for those high quality credit card accounts. If one simply uses zero to estimate these states' transition probabilities, this leads to apparent 'structural zeros' states which change the connectedness of the dynamics in the state space. A method is developed in this thesis to overcome such problems in real applications. The economy and retail credit risk are highly correlated and so one key focus of this study is to look at the interaction between credit card behavioural score migrations and the economy. This study uses dierent credit card datasets, one from Hong Kong and one from United Kingdom, to examine the impact of economy on the credit card borrowers' behaviour. The economies in these two areas were dierent during the sampling period. Based on these empirical ndings, this study has generalized the use of macroeconomic measurements in the credit limit models. This thesis also proposed segmenting the credit card accounts by the accounts' repayment patterns. The credit card population in general can be segmented into Transactors or Revolvers. Empirical ndings show the impact of economy are signicantly different for Transactors and Revolvers. This study provides a detailed picture of the application of Markov Decision Process models in adjusting the credit limit of credit card accounts.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine and to better inform industry practitioners to the most appropriate classification and regression techniques for modelling the three key credit risk components of the Basel II minimum capital requirement; probability of default (PD), loss given default (LGD), and exposure at default (EAD). The Basel II accord regulates risk and capital management requirements to ensure that a bank holds enough capital proportional to the exposed risk of its lending practices. Under the advanced internal ratings based (IRB) approach Basel II allows banks to develop their own empirical models based on historical data for each of PD, LGD and EAD. In this thesis, first the issue of imbalanced credit scoring data sets, a special case of PD modelling where the number of defaulting observations in a data set is much lower than the number of observations that do not default, is identified, and the suitability of various classification techniques are analysed and presented. As well as using traditional classification techniques this thesis also explores the suitability of gradient boosting, least square support vector machines and random forests as a form of classification. The second part of this thesis focuses on the prediction of LGD, which measures the economic loss, expressed as a percentage of the exposure, in case of default. In this thesis, various state-of-the-art regression techniques to model LGD are considered. In the final part of this thesis we investigate models for predicting the exposure at default (EAD). For off-balance-sheet items (for example credit cards) to calculate the EAD one requires the committed but unused loan amount times a credit conversion factor (CCF). Ordinary least squares (OLS), logistic and cumulative logistic regression models are analysed, as well as an OLS with Beta transformation model, with the main aim of finding the most robust and comprehensible model for the prediction of the CCF. Also a direct estimation of EAD, using an OLS model, will be analysed. All the models built and presented in this thesis have been applied to real-life data sets from major global banking institutions.

The three papers in this thesis comprise the development of three types of Basel models – a Probability of Default (PD), Loss Given Default (LGD) and Exposure at Default (EAD) model for consumer credit risk, using mixture model methods. Mixture models consider the underlying population as being composed of different sub-populations that are modelled separately. In the first paper (Chapter 2), mixture cure models are introduced to the area of PD/credit scoring. A large proportion of the dataset may not experience the event of interest during the loan term, i.e. default. A mixture cure model predicting (time to) default on a UK personal loan portfolio was developed and its performance compared to industry standard models. The mixture cure model's ability to distinguish between two subpopulations can offer additional insights by estimating the parameters that determine susceptibility to default in addition to parameters that influence time to default of a borrower. The second paper (Chapter 3) considers LGD modelling. One of the key problems in building regression models to estimate loan-level LGD in retail portfolios such as mortgage loans relates to the difficulty in modelling its distribution, which typically contains an extensive amount of zeroes. An alternative approach is proposed in which a mixed discrete-continuous model for the total loss amount incurred on a defaulted loan is developed. The model simultaneously accommodates the probability of zero loss and the loss amount given that loss occurs. This zero-adjusted gamma model is shown to present an alternative and competitive approach to LGD modelling. The third paper (Chapter 4) considers EAD models for revolving credit facilities with variable exposure. The credit conversion factor (CCF), the proportion of the current undrawn amount that will be drawn down at time of default, is used to calculate the EAD and poses modelling challenges with challenging bimodal distributions. We explore alternative EAD models which ignore the CCF formulation and target the EAD distribution directly. We propose a mixture model with the zero-adjusted gamma distribution and compare performance with CCF based models. We find the mixture model to be more accurate in calibration than the CCF models and that segmented approaches offer further performance improvements.

This thesis focuses on bank lending to SMEs with consideration of both the demand side and supply side. To this end, three distinctive lines of research are pursued in this thesis. We start with analyzing results from a regional survey of 20 banks and 180 SMEs conducted in 2012 in North Vietnam for new insights into the determinants of successful access to bank loans by SMEs. Secondly, we examine factors of the business environment that affect SME growth using original datasets obtained from surveys conducted in both Vietnam and the UK in 2012. Finally, we extend our research to the supply side with an important question about how banks in East Asia performed throughout the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Following this, we analyze the impact of liberalization on banking soundness based on a secondary dataset of 10 East Asian countries (1997-2012). Using different econometric approaches and different samples, we present robust evidence that factors from the business environment drive SMEs’ loan access and their growth. On the demand side, financing is still the foremost determinant for SME growth. Furthermore, the industrial sector where firms operate has an influence on access to finance as well as growth. From the supply side, various sizes and ownership forms differently impact SME lending. In addition, a rise in comparative size (systemic size) significantly reduces bank risk. However, a growth in absolute size (total assets) is associated with greater bank vulnerability due to increasing leverage ratios and costs. Banks tend to favour SMEs who have a close relationship or have collateral to pledge. Importantly, institutional setting has a significant impact on behaviours of SMEs and banks. While larger SMEs have better regulatory perceptions, banks of different sizes and ownership structures, have very different perceptions about legal uncertainties and therefore produce various lending requirements which directly affect the availability and affordability of SME lending. The empirical results give rise to policy implications for transition (and possibly other) countries. Firstly, the robustly positive nexuses between the numbers of relationships with banks and loan access suggest that stimulating competition in the banking sector can help firms mitigate stringent terms and conditions for credit approvals. However, greater absolute market power (market share) reduces soundness in the banking sector while greater comparative market power (HHI) fosters it. Secondly, the fact that legal uncertainties go hand in hand with a high ratio of collateralized loans with any bank size emphasises the need for improving regulations on collateral and creditor- rights. Thirdly, given that the adoption of Basel capital standards is viewed as creating advantages for larger banks over smaller banks, and my results show liberalisation to also favour larger banks, suggests a distortion in financial markets and may produce further instabilities. My results may provide insights for policy makers when considering which areas of banking and finance they should or should not deregulate with a motivation to stimulate competition and enhance stability. Finally, this thesis reveals insights into sectors facing barriers to finance and growth, and therefore provides valuable information for policymakers in setting incentives targeted at and tailored to specific groups of SMEs.

Capitalist logic, its impact on the practice of archaeology, and on the professional lives of those who participate within its political economy are the subject for this analysis. I have chosen as my unit of analysis commercial archaeology in Quebec, Canada. This context was chosen because of its progressive transformation from a semi, state-regulated archaeological system to one that is competitive and comparable to those found in the UK and the USA. Commercial archaeology, as governed by a neoliberal economic system, has fundamentally altered how archaeology‟s contributions are brought about, maintained and disseminated. But what about those who produce archaeology, has their relationship to the profession changed as a result of neoliberal economics? The objective of this thesis is to address and evaluate the argument against neoliberal economics and contribute to current critiques regarding capitalist economics by posing the following question: does the implementation of a neoliberal economy in archaeology sustain the accomplishment of a meaningful and valuable archaeological activity for archaeologists and the public? Within this dissertation, an ethnographic approach to data collection permits the exploration of the experience of socioeconomic changes upon the lives of archaeologists, experience which is articulated in their own discourses. I also employ qualitative demographic and economic data, and participant observation. The characteristics of the archaeological network in Quebec are further illustrated through a comparative analysis with the system of commercial archaeology in the UK. Research results demonstrate that the present market economy is harmful to the development of archaeological products, primarily because of the alienation of the product from the archaeologists and the public. Alternatives to the current economic system have been developed. However, these options suffer from under-funding. I propose that new models of practice for archaeology must be explored and given credence, if there is to be a perpetuation of the profession within the cultural landscape of western societies.

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) are moving away from being based on an historical cost model of accounting towards one based on fair values. Such changes have implications for the preparers, auditors and users of financial reports. While much attention has been focused on the technical aspects of the transition to fair value accounting, there has been almost no consideration of the impact of these changes on those who prepare, audit and use financial reports. International Accounting Standards and, subsequently, IFRSs have been incorporated into Maltese company law since 1995. More recently, as a Member State of the European Union, Malta has been required to incorporate IFRSs (as modified by the EU) into its national law. This thesis explores the impact of the transition towards fair value accounting on the preparers and auditors of the financial reports of Maltese listed companies. An exploratory, inductive approach is adopted which uses the grounded theory method (Glaser & Strauss 1967) to understand the effects on the patterns of behaviour of the preparers, auditors and users of financial reports arising from the transition to fair value accounting. Interviews were conducted with those responsible for the preparation of the financial reports of those companies listed on the Malta Stock Exchange that experienced such a transition as well as with the companies’ auditors. The main themes that emerge from the first analysis of the interview material relate to the perceived near absence of markets for assets in Malta, concerns about the understandability of fair value accounting for users of financial reports, and the perceived primacy of the income statement. These themes were identified after transcribing and analysing the interview data collected. However, themes as an output of analysis are insufficient, as grounded theory necessitates the conceptualisation of the data. Moreover, the research was driven by analysis that required further theoretical sampling and thus interviews were carried out with users; namely, stock-brokers and investors. Additionally the analysis required theoretical sampling from a country that has a similar set-up to Malta; thus, Trinidad & Tobago was selected for data comparison in this regard. This theory is developed through the iterative process of constant comparison and analysis of the interview material as well as online data and listed entities’ financial reports. The theory contended that there is a tension between the regulatory framework and the determination of the dividends being proposed by companies. Such a tension evolves from users’ lack of understandability of what fair value adjustments represent; for example, unrealised positive amounts being treated as available for distribution. The resolution of this tension is seen to be through a “meaning-making process”. This “meaning-making process” refers to the latent patterns of behaviour engaged into by preparers, auditors and stock-brokers throughout all six stages of the financial reporting process i.e. from the preparation and review of the financial statements right through to their approval by the shareholders gathered at the AGM. Thus, a process of funnelling, jargonising, pre-empting, briefing, elaborating, explaining and clarifying is engaged in. The research contributes to interpretive accounting research by developing explanations of the effect of fair value accounting on significant actors in an island economy.

The unprecedented spread of the use of English in business worldwide has been accompanied by an increasing number of studies looking at the use of English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) (Louhiala-Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2011) among non-native English speakers, mostly in Europe but also in Asia. Research thus far has focused mainly on analysis of texts and discourses produced by BELF users, whereas in-depth research investigating users’ sense making of their use of English has been limited. In order to fill this gap, this thesis places BELF users at the centre of the research by listening to their narratives, to explore their subjective views on their experiences of language use in global business contexts. The focus of the study is on Japanese business people who had relatively low exposure to English before they started using English at work, with the aim of illustrating the ways in which they perceive and make sense of their experiences as BELF users. The participants are 34 business people who were born and educated exclusively in Japan, and have accumulated a range of experiences using English in a global business context. Thematic analysis of their narratives reveals that participants share certain challenges such as attending and contributing in multinational meetings, dealing with lower productivity and avoiding mistakes in various communicative situations. Common approaches among the participants to negotiate such challenges include continuously developing the English skills needed to perform their business goals, as well as other means such as gaining power in communication through developing the quality of information and utilising stronger economic relations. Their stories also highlight that their use of English is characterised by the coexistence of English and Japanese, owing to the ‘monolinguistic’ nature of Japanese business communication. Finally, it is revealed that they change their perception towards using English as they progress through their career. Their perceptions are influenced by various factors such as their career paths, the organisations they belong to, and the interlocutors they have dealt with. To conclude, this thesis provides insight into the emic view of non-native English users when they are trying to achieve their professional goals in business contexts. By offering an alternative angle to existing BELF studies, the thesis contributes towards a more holistic and multi-dimensional understanding of this increasingly complex phenomenon.

The current thesis consists of three essays analysing recent corporate governance (CG) reforms in Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries. The three essays place emphasis on three closely related CG topics that quantitatively seek to investigate the extent to which MENA CG reforms have been effective in enhancing three main sets of corporate outcomes. The first essay investigates the level and determinants of voluntary CG compliance and disclosure in MENA countries during the period from 2009 to 2014. Specifically, this essay aims to empirically examine two main research questions: first, what is the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, CG provisions among listed firms in MENA countries?; and second, what factors can explain the variance in the level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, CG provisions among listed firms in MENA countries? Relying on insights from neo-institutional theory, the findings of this study reveal that in general MENA listed firms have a relatively lower level of voluntary compliance with, and disclosure of, CG practices compared to developed countries. However, the level of CG disclosure improved over period 2009 to 2014, indicating that MENA countries have responded positively to their CG codes of best practice and recommendations. The findings also suggest that firm-level factors (i.e., Islamic values, board characteristics and ownership structure mechanisms) and country-level factors (i.e., religion and the quality of national governance) have a significant impact on firm-level voluntary CG compliance and disclosure. Specifically, the findings suggest that Islamic values disclosure, board diversity on the basis of gender and ethnicity, board independence and separation of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO)/chairperson roles have a positive association with the level of CG compliance and disclosure, while board size and director ownership impact negatively on the level of CG compliance and disclosure. The findings also suggest insignificant relationship between government ownership and block ownership with the level of CG compliance and disclosure. With regard to country-level factors, the results indicate that corporations listed in countries complying with Islamic economic principles and having high-quality national governance are more likely to voluntarily comply and disclose more CG practices than those that do not. The second essay investigates the influence of board diversity (based on gender, ethnic minorities and nationality) on corporate outcomes. Thus, this essay seeks to empirically examine the extent to which board diversity influences firm market value, accounting returns, executives pay (EP) and the pay-for-performance sensitivity (PPS). The findings attempt to expand current understanding of the role that board diversity can play in enhancing market value, accounting returns, EP and the PPS among MENA countries’ listed firms. Specifically, the MENA region has distinctive social norms, legal framework and structure of the economy, which suggest that the effect of board diversity on corporate outcomes may be different from those observed in developed countries. Informed by critical insights from agency, resource dependence, cognitive development, social identity and stakeholder theories, the empirical evidence reveals that boards of directors of MENA listed firms are dominated by national Arab male directors. The empirical evidence also shows that board diversity is a significant determinant of corporate outcomes in MENA listed firms. Specifically, firms with boards more diversified by gender, ethnic minorities and nationality are more likely to have higher accounting returns and market value. Additionally, a high percentage of female directors on the board improves firm market value and accounting returns, while foreign directors significantly and positively influence accounting returns. Further, the empirical results show that a firm’s CG quality has no moderating effect on the relationship between board diversity and firm market value. However, a high percentage of ethnic and foreign directors positively and significantly impacts the accounting returns in firms with weak CG. With regard to the impact of board diversity on EP, the findings reveal that different measures of board diversity have no significant impact on EP, whereas the inclusion of female and minority ethnic directors on corporate boards appears to enhance the PPS. The third and final essay examines the extent to which CG practices can explain auditor choice and observable changes in audit fees among listed firms in MENA countries. The key objective of this essay is to investigate how effective the CG practices, including CG Index, board characteristics and ownership structure mechanisms, are in influencing the auditor choice and fees. The results of this study have the potential to deepen current understanding of the ability of different CG practices to impact auditor choice and fees among firms listed in MENA countries. Specifically, the audit profession and its quality in the MENA region are relatively poorly established compared to developed countries. This suggests that the impact of CG measures on auditor choice and fees decisions may be different from that observed in developed countries. Employing insights from agency theory, the study finds that CG Index, board diversity based on gender and ethnicity, board independence, separation of the CEO/chairperson roles and concentrated ownership impact significantly and positively on firm choice of Big 4 auditors. Board size impacts positively, but insignificantly, on Big 4 auditor choice decision, whereas government ownership and director ownership are insignificant and negatively related to Big 4 auditor choice decision. The third essay also shows that CG Index, board diversity based on gender and ethnicity and government ownership are significantly and negatively related to audit fees, whereas board size, board independence and director ownership have a significant, but positive effect on audit fees. Non-dual board leadership structure, and concentrated ownership have no significant impact on audit fees. The documented empirical results of the three essays are fairly robust across a raft of econometric models and estimations that take into account potential endogeneity problems and alternative variables. To summarise, empirical evidence for the extent of CG practices’ influence on these three sets of corporate outcomes among MENA countries’ listed firms is relatively rare. Accordingly, this study aims to contribute to the literature by providing new insights with specific focus on recent CG reforms that have been pursued in MENA countries. Particularly, this thesis contributes to the limited, but steadily growing body of literature on the effectiveness of CG mechanisms in influencing a number of crucial firm outcome, including voluntary CG compliance and disclosure, firm performance, EP, the PPS, and auditor choice and fees, among listed firms in MENA countries.