This thesis is a study formulated under the rubric of understanding ethically questionable behaviour in consumption. It is argued that ethics research in the market place has tended to focus with a perspective of business practice, leaving an understanding of the consumer perspective relatively under-researched. Developed here is a theoretical framework seeking an understanding of how and why consumers engage in ethically questionable behaviour. This is initially based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour, but extended from findings of three interrelated empirical studies conducted during the research period. Using a combined approach of qualitative and quantitative research methods, data is presented to describe the complexity of consumer ethical decision-making considered across a wide variety of situations. In the preliminary stage of the empirical investigation, conducted through interviews and focus groups, explores consumer motivations for engagement in particular kinds of behaviour, taken to be ethically questionable. Following this, findings of two subsequent survey questionnaires, conducted to first establish and then examine underlying components of the behaviour in question, suggest a significance, and casual relationships of the underlying components with judgement, intention and reported behaviour. On this information, recommendations are considered with regard to a developing theoretical framework for ethically questionable behaviour in consumption. The empirical investigation reveals that consumers appear to be equally aware of engaging in ethically questionable behaviour, as well as not always accepting such behaviour as simply 'unethical'. Emphasis then affords to ethicality of a wide spectrum, than merely as in the opposition ethical/unethical. The empirical findings also imply that the decision-making process in an ethical context is far too complex to be explained only in terms of ethical beliefs (i. e., rightness or wrongness of behaviour). Furthermore, it is shown that intention for engaging in the behaviour in question is very much dependent on the specifics of a situation, and represented here, in part, by the degree of estimated outcome, the willingness of social participation and the perception of unfairness of business. These implications and their wider importance are discussed, along with considerations for further research, seeking overall to contribute to a greater theoretical understanding of consumer ethics.

The aim of this thesis is to make a comprehensive assessment and comparison of the quantitative economic impacts at both the domestic and the international level of four alternative FTA options in East Asia - ASEAN-China, ASEAN-Japan, ASEAN-Korea and East Asia - by using a static multi-region, multi-sector CGE model as a tool. With two main extensions to the "standard" CGE model in this study - the introduction of unemployment and the incorporation of highly disaggregated household data (Thailand is a case study) - the analysis is enhanced on the issues of labour markets and poverty and the income distribution. The model results show that trade liberalisation could alleviate real wage inequality in countries abundant in unskilled labour, i.e. China and ASEAN. In contrast, real wage inequality worsens in Japan and Korea, where skilled labour is relatively abundant. The unemployment feature incorporated in the model gives quantitative predictions of both lower unemployment and higher real wages. In general, under a regional agreement - East Asia FTA - member countries would enjoy higher economic welfare gains than under any of the bilateral agreements - ASEAN-China FTA, ASEAN-Japan FTA or ASEAN-Korea FTA. When focusing on poverty and income distribution effects in Thailand, the model results at the national level suggest that all the trade liberalisation options will alleviate the poverty problem in Thailand, but that the degree of poverty reduction will vary depending upon the implemented policy. The poverty in the poorest community (villages), and in the poorest region (the Northeast) improves the most from the East Asia FTA. On the other hand, trade liberalisation, under all options,does not have a major impact on income disparity in Thailand. Sensitivity tests indicate that these results are robust. However, such an "ideal" regional agreement might be deterred by the different strategies of other East Asia nations and by the uneasy relationship between China and Japan, reflecting their economic and political differences.

The objective of this study is to examine a series of trade policy issues related to Barbados' participation in multilateral, hemispheric and regional trade agreements. The three trade policy issues examined are (1) WTO Agreements and the trade policy preferences of firms, (2) preferential trade agreements and the export performance of firms, and (3) the selection of sensitive sectors to be excluded from free trade under international trade agreements. The first essay investigates support of manufacturers in Barbados for WTO rules. Based on the results of a trade policy survey, the study revealed that in general, there is support for multilateral trade rules. OLS and ordered probit regression found that there is evidence that export performance, competitiveness perceptions, and to a lesser extent external association, influence firms to support liberalisation. Capacity under-utilisation, and surprisingly diversification, lower firm's support for liberalisation. The second study examines the importance of preferential trade agreements to the export performance of firms in Barbados. The trade policy survey found that 91% of exporting firms, and 80% of exports benefit from trade preferences. OLS and tobit regression show that factor endowments, economies of scale and technology are important in fashioning export performance. The analysis also show that while trade preferences and external association have a positive impact on export performance, wage costs and protection in both local and foreign markets have a negative impact. The third essay examines the factors influencing the sensitivity of sectors and their exclusion from free trade under the provisions of hemispheric trade agreements. OLS and probit regression analysis suggest that maintenance of the status quo, adjustment costs minimisation, and considerations about fair trade influenced the selection process. Overall, the findings of the studies support theoretical and empirical work in the respective areas, thereby indicating that similar models developed within the context of industrial economies, are applicable in large measure to developing and small developing economies. In terms of policy implications, the studies pointed to the need for government to focus more on international trade competitiveness strategies in order to fully benefit from the opportunities offered by international trade agreements.

The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the information requirements that need to be available on merchants' websites. This information is important to facilitate the establishment of initial trust from potential consumers towards the owners of electronic commerce (EC) websites. This study is important due to the nature of EC itself where EC is a non face-to-face business arrangement. EC is still yet to be widely accepted and trusted by consumers. This thesis is intended to develop an information framework for creating trust from consumers to merchants referred to as a Merchant Trust Information Framework. This framework can help both parties involved in establishing trust during EC transactions. Merchants can use this framework to decide what information needs to be present on their websites in order to help consumers establish trust while consumers can use this information framework to evaluate the trustworthiness of merchants before they decide to continue with their EC transactions. In addition, a prototype was created to test the proposed information framework in a real EC setting. The proposed information framework consists of information regarding existence, affiliation, policy and fulfillment. The result of the study confirmed the importance and need for this information in the information framework. However, the creation of merchant trust does not only depend on the information framework being suggested but it also depends on other factors such as the technology used in the websites, the design of the websites as well as other external factors and previous online transactions between consumers and merchants. To make this process more usable, a prototype system for information extraction and retrieval was developed to help customers find the related information for the merchant trust framework. This information is directly extracted from merchants' websites when available in textual format. Further refinement of the system should turn it into a personal shopping assistant to help consumers find important information about merchant trust creation in an online shopping environment.

Despite being more common than innovation, little is known about the strategies involved in imitative market entries and the capabilities enabling their executions. Drawing on the Resource-based View and Competitive Dynamics perspectives, the study examines the role of marketing capability, technological capability and absorptive capacity in aiding technological firms to engage in successful imitative market entries. The research also examines the relationship between strategic types and resources as well as the relationship between resources and capabilities. Finally, the research investigates the role of capabilities as determinants of entry timing, relative product advantage and relative price, which in turn influence product performance. The research provides important managerial and theoretical implications. First, the integration of the RBV and Competitive Dynamics perspectives provides a richer explanation of the heterogeneity in firms’ performance. Second, the findings show that firms’ strategic orientation determines the level of marketing and R&D resources. Third, the interaction between technological capability and marketing capability accelerates imitative market entry. Fourth, technological and marketing capabilities have a U-shaped relationship with market entry. Finally, the present study found marginal support for the prediction that entry timing, relative product advantage and relative price increase the likelihood of product survival. The U-shaped relationship observed between technological and marketing capabilities with market entry illustrate the double-edged sword nature of capabilities. Although strong technological and marketing capabilities facilitate firms’ swift entry into the market for some, for others they may cause them to be trapped in existing product, lock them in with existing customers and prevent them from being receptive to the new opportunities in the environment. Finally, because marketing and technological capability interaction is significantly related to earlier entry and earlier entry is associated with a higher product survival rate, managers considering an imitative market entry need to invest in the development of these two capabilities.

This dissertation focuses on partnership learning in the context of economic development policy implementation. In the field of business support services, local partnerships' ability to engage in inter-organisational learning can shape the effectiveness of their services, their impact on regional development and governance systems. Where partners are able to change their partnership'S tacit norms and values, strong synergies could be achieved, sustainable double-loop learning may occur. But when a partnership is unable to transcend each collaborating partner's agenda, organisational rivalry, conflict of interest and power struggles can inhibit collaborative learning. We need to understand the processes that underpin partnership learning and unveil how partnerships can overcome the crises and conflicts bound to occur during their existence. The empirical investigation of the issues outlined above is conducted in the context of the French government's Reseau de Diffusion Technologique initiative. The study is conducted using a case study format, following interpretive traditions in social sciences. Presence Rhone-Alpes (PRA) and Reseau Nord Pas de Calais Technologie (NPC) were selected as polar cases. The findings indicate that the broad notion of partnership learning can be analysed in terms of social learning and process learning. Specifically, process learning (linked with the implementation of operational goals) is strongly dependent on pre-requisite tacit knowledge developed through social learning. Indeed the comparative analysis demonstrated that although both partnerships had similar problems, only PRA was able to resolve the deep-rooted causes of crises it experienced through the progressive creation of a governing elite in the region. The presence of such an elite, with clear - albeit tacit- rules for decision making, facilitated partnership "process learning", which meant that negotiations over operational objectives, partnership strategy and even regional policy became opportunities to exert influence and collective power as opposed to instances where collaborating organisations fought to protect their individual turf.

The goal is to help the retail industry define customer-company relationships, and to manage the relationships in a more effective way in terms of the balance between retail service quality and product quality. This study proposes a two-step modelling approach to the development of an exploratory-based customer relationship management (CRM) simulation model, which consists of a static relationship (exploratory) module and a dynamic simulation module. To support and test the model development, Hunter Douglas, a world-class leader in the window fashions industry, was used as a case study for data collection. A customer survey and focus group discussions were therefore conducted with staff and customers. Hypothesis testing and other statistical methods including factor analysis, ANOVA, multiple regression, post-hoc analysis, sensitivity analysis, and policy analysis were adopted in this research to develop the exploratory module. System dynamics modelling and simulation were applied to develop the dynamic simulation module. The major dimensions regarding retail service quality, product quality and customer loyalty were defined in the exploratory module. Five dimensions regarding retail service quality (policy, physical aspects, reliability, problem solving, and personal interaction) and three dimensions regarding product quality (feature, aesthetics, and customer-perceived quality) were considered and their impacts on the two levels of customer loyalty - customer loyalty to the store and customer loyalty to employees - were investigated. These measures consist of forty variables in total. Through the exploratory module, it is found that reliability, physical aspects, and problem solving exert positive impacts on customer loyalty to the store while personal interaction significantly influences customer loyalty to employees. Furthermore, gender differences have significant impacts on customer loyalty to the store, particularly in terms of physical aspects, reliability, problem solving and aesthetics. Connecting with the exploratory module, the dynamic simulation module further takes account of employee satisfaction, spending on advertising and order completion efficiency. This module can make significant contribution to the field of CRM by providing the retail industry with a full picture of CRM for the scenario analysis and strategic planning. Based on the findings of the dynamic simulation module, appropriate CRM strategies had been adopted and various aspects of Hunter Douglas, including customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, numbers of repeat customers, sales volume, etc. have significantly improved. These fruitful results achieved by Hunter Douglas, a typical retailer, confirm the high value and the contribution of this research to the retail industry. The model developed could form a generalised CRM model for adoption in other retail sectors after further testing and evaluation in a wider range of retail environments.

Studies on corporate culture are mostly limited to samples drawn from management, and the integrative view of corporate culture as something unique within an organisation still dominates in the literature. Such a unitary stance bears the risk that cultural divergences in corporations remain undetected, thereby limiting the value of research on corporate culture. A further aspect found in the literature is the complexity and variety ascribed to corporate culture, which exacerbates practical implementation of the concept. The operationalisation of the cultural concept is still a prevalent problem not yet completely resolved. This research addresses these two concerns. The researcher conducted this research at Post CH Ltd. The study incorporated the design and implementation of a tailored survey, based on cultural dimensions from the literature, items from Swiss Post’s employee survey, and data from semi-structured qualitative interviews with members of top management. The survey involved employees of Post CH Ltd from all hierarchical levels, selected by proportionate stratified random sampling. The two thirds of the questionnaire recipients who responded could also comment on an optional open question. The researcher then analysed the qualitative and quantitative data in order to discover the degree of alignment on corporate culture. Finally, recommendations were elaborated on how to mitigate the explored divergences between management and employees. This research provides contributions in two distinct areas: first, it demonstrates that the perception of a unitary corporate culture is not always tenable. The researcher found distinctive and statistically significant divergences in corporate culture, as staff in line management positions are considerably more positive in their perception of corporate culture compared to employees without management responsibilities. Using content analysis, the researcher further discovered divergences in the perception of corporate culture between top management and employees. Second, it demonstrated the successful operationalisation of corporate culture research into practical application, by offering a thorough, concrete, specific, and tailored approach, contributing to a more practitioner friendly usage of the concept of corporate culture. The methods used here can be applied to other organisations in a similar way. Keywords: Corporate culture; organisational culture; cultural divergences; cultural fit; organisational change; organisational performance; Swiss Post; Post CH Ltd.

Foreign market entry strategies are considered critical for organisations looking to expand their operations to other countries abroad, as these require significant commitments, financial and other, which are more often than not, irreversible in the short and medium term. It is not surprising, therefore, that the area of foreign market entry is receiving considerable and growing academic attention over the last twenty years. In fact, the subject of international market entry is the third most researched area in international management, following the related fields of foreign market investments and internationalization. The overall aim of this thesis is to explore, analyse, and understand the foreign market entry and exit process that the business unit of BP Lubricants in Europe and Africa is following and identify strengths and weaknesses. A systematic literature review showed that there is a plethora of empirical evidence on foreign market research that provide useful insights into this important strategic process, however, the findings are often conflicting which makes it difficult to draw conclusions that can be generalized. The review identified the main theories and constructs for foreign market entry and highlighted certain gaps in the theory that the research evidence from this study has aimed to bridge. Using case study methodology and exploring in depth two contrasting cases (the Libyan entry and the Cyprus exit), the foreign market entry and exit processes within BP Lubricants in Europe and Africa have been established. Collection of evidence was achieved through three different methods, questionnaire, focused interviews, and documentation review. The detailed analysis of the foreign market entry process that BP Lubricants in Europe and Africa follows, has led to the development of a model that describes the process. This model depicts the complex nature of the process and recognises that a number of variables play an important role in the decision making process.

Business process improvement (BPI) methodologies play an important role in increasing a business’s performance and its competitiveness. Since World War II, a number of these methodologies have been developed. Each of these held to a different philosophy as to what drives process improvement. Therefore, each focused on a seemingly unique aspect or parameter of business processes. These leverage points included, amongst others, process cycle time, quality, process efficiency, on-time delivery and error rates. The methodologies were delineated from one another not only by these focal points but also the terminology, structure and emphasis used by their creators. The result was a spectrum of seemingly unique approaches. This spectrum was enlarged by practitioners (consultants and businesses) who tweaked the base methodology so as to make their product offerings stand out. This palette of business improvement approaches was further augmented by certain techniques, tools and methods being presented as complete methodologies. The result was that business managers are confronted with a seemingly confusing array of ostensibly unique options. The author, being a business process improvement consultant, felt that these options were not as unique as they might appear. He believed that beneath these individualistic exteriors lays a common set of factors that enable the methodologies to bring about sustainable improvements. Therein lays the theoretical framework of this thesis. The author further felt that identifying these common key factors and their respective importance to business process improvement would contribute significantly to both knowledge and practice. Upon completing the research, it became evident that the contribution was not just limited to the enlightenment regarding composition, commonality and efficacy. It also involved ways of delineating targets such as methodologies from a chaotic population. Most importantly, a significant contribution to knowledge was made by showing how to synthesize information out of a set of seemingly unique data points. This uniqueness having been created by the different terminologies structures and emphasises found in the evidence. In the thesis, four unique challenges were encountered. The first was to identify the current, core business process improvement methodologies out of the total field of offerings. The subsequent challenge was to analyse these methodologies for possible common constructs and components. The third challenge involved evaluating the efficacy of these common key factors. The final challenge was to characterize these key factors in the context of a theoretical, model-based methodology. The intended result was to create a holistic perspective of process improvement practices with justification at the constituent level. A lengthy literature review was required in order to identify the current methodologies. Surprisingly, the sources normally rich in research evidence such as journals and articles did not give a comprehensive overview of business process methodologies. The candidates had to then be further researched via books and other lengthy publications. The end result was that six unique and sustaining families of methodologies were identified during the systematic literature review. Each of these had been developed by a different business improvement innovator using a different orientation associated with the methodology’s core philosophical position. It appears that, for marketing reasons, each had strived to develop unique selling points and intellectual property that set their methodology apart from the others. As a result, the language, style and emphasis applied in each methodology were seemingly distinctive. These conditions made further analysis for commonality of key factors amongst the six methodologies difficult and time-consuming. Further research involved analysing the six BPI methodologies and synthesizing qualitative evidence in order to identify the key factors common amongst those methodologies. Again, journals and articles played only a minor role in this activity. For the most part, these sources focused more on application than on composition. In addition, those dealing with application of the methodologies tended to avoid justifying applicability in terms of critical composition factors. Other sources such as books provided a framework for the composition analysis but with significant voids and confusing entries. Therefore, in addition to the series of literature reviews, interviewing intellectual property owners and BPI practitioners from both business and consulting firms was necessary. Once the interviewing process had closed the gap and provided clarification of entries, a research method had to be found which could extract the common factors and make them apparent. The appropriateness of various research, analysis and synthesis approaches were reviewed and evaluated. As a result of this ancillary literature review, a form of reciprocal translations was viewed as the best means of dealing with the research evidence as well as the issues of languages, styles, cultures and subjectivity. The final results of the synthesis, after a follow-up round of literature reviews and interviewing, showed that 12 common key factors existed amongst the six BPI methodologies. Research into the efficacy of these 12 common key factors required yet another series of literature reviews and additional interviewing. Due to the nature of the topic, interview respondents outside of the business process improvement community also had to be included. Those respondents included individuals from human resource and industrial psychology disciplines. The result of this descriptive research enabled characterization of the key factors’ efficacies independently as well as holistically in the context of a theoretical, model-based methodology. These characterizations indicate that the 12 key factors appear to form the backbone of BPI methodologies in general. The research process and its findings have contributed to both knowledge and practice. It has provided insight into using a holistic approach in delineating targeted elements of a mixed population. It also contributed to the understanding of how to apply the reciprocal translation technique to qualitative evidence outside the field of ethnography. Additionally, it enables improved business practices by demystifying the various methodologies and furthering the understanding of their value adding components.