This study aims first at examining the value relevance of traditional accounting (EPS, ROI, and ROE) and value-based (SVA and EVA®) performance measures, in explaining stock returns’ variation in the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE). Pooled time-series, cross sectional data on 163 Greek companies listed in the ASE over the period 1991-2001 have been employed to examine this question. Relative information content tests revealed EPS, followed by EVA®, to be more closely associated with stock returns than ROI, ROE or SVA. However, the incremental information content tests suggested that EVA® adds more explanatory power to EPS than ROI, ROE and SVA. The significant role or ROI was also revealed. Since the performance measures under examination could not explain more than 13 percent of the variation in stock returns, the second aim of this study was to examine the perceptions and the investment strategies of market participants investing in the ASE. An empirical survey conducted from December 2003 to June 2004 asking from all user groups (official Members of the ASE, Mutual Funds Management Companies, Portfolio Investment Companies, Listed Companies, brokers, and Individual Investors) participating in the ASE to determine their investing practices. Data from 435 returned questionnaires revealed that although the professional investors follow the international practices (use fundamental analysis mostly), the individual investors and the brokers were more short-term focussed. Additionally, individual investors showed that they rely more on their instinct/experience and information from rumours and from the newspapers/media. However, this empirical research revealed the dynamic that EVA® conveys and the increasing interest of market participants in Greece. Overall, the contribution of his study comes from the fact that introduces the shareholder value added approach in the Greek capital market, and moreover, from its two unique samples, the methodology, and the revealed findings. Finally, it serves as a market paradigm both for the Greek context and for the emerging markets with the same market characteristics as Greece.

The main aim of this study is to identify and analyse, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the potential effects of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the Libyan Banking sector using DEA and Panel data regression methods. Libya has not gained its full membership of the WTO yet. However, Libya has gained observer status since 2004. Since Libya has not yet joined the WTO, it is not possible to know its impact by addressing the period pre and post joining the WTO. Therefore, to know the final expected impact of the WTO on the Libyan banking sector, two ways are selected. The first one is by assessing the rules of the WTO and review the existing literature regarding the impact of the WTO on banking sector to draw some conclusions on the Libyan banking sector. The other one is by using the efficiency of banks as a means to know the impact of the WTO on the Libyan banking sector. The efficiency was empirically measured using DEA method and two types of comparison: Common Efficient Frontier (CEF) and National Specific Frontier (NSF). The using of DEA method allows the comparison of efficiency of Libyan banks to those in existence in countries similar to Libya (Gulf countries) that have already gained membership of the WTO .Also, to check whether there have been any changes in the general trend of efficiency since these countries have joined the WTO. Finally, in order to find out how to improve the bank efficiency, the determinants of bank efficiency were investigated using panel data regression and the WTO was used as one of the determinants of bank efficiency. The main finding from a sample inclusive of GCCs banks with Iwithout Libyan banks under CEF comparison, reveal that the mean efficiency score of the Libyan banking industry is not dissimilar to the GCC country's mean. Since these results are different to those obtained in the existing literature and also to know the implication of WTO on GCC countries as more homogeneous countries, the analysis was repeated without Libya using the CEF comparison. However, the type of comparison (NSF) produced significantly different results, in particular the ranking of the countries. Overall, The results of DEA which were supported and complemented by using the Panel data regression method show that there is no clear evidence that the efficiency of Gulf countries has been improving since joining of the WTO. The reason behind this might be the decreasing level of efficiency in these countries relative to developed countries When the Gulf countries joined the WTO. Furthermore, the Gulf countries have not yet completely opened their banking sectors and still discriminate against foreign banks. Also, they still enjoy the exemption given to developing countries. Therefore, Libya's joining the WTO as a full member- at the present time -might affect the banking sector negatively. Regarding to the impact of banking reform on Libyan banks efficiency, although the results were ambiguous and depending on using CEF or NSF type, the results of NSF which is supported by previous literature showed that there was progress, therefore, efficiency was improved after the reform had started.

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This thesis investigates one of the crucial issues currently facing the European financial institutions, in particular, banks and insurance companies. Currently in Europe, the banks are engaging into insurance business, and, the insurance companies, to a lesser effect, are engaging into banking business. These cross-business activities have broken down the long tradition of separation of these two financial industries, and have raised many questions. But there is little evidence on this issue, theoretically as well as empirically. This thesis is a kind of interdisciplinary approach and it has two parts. In the first part, the thesis examines various interfaces that exist between the European banks and insurance companies from two perspectives: banks' perspective as well as insurance companies' perspective. (Chapter two and three respectively). Based on industrial economic theory, organisation theory, the strategy & international business theory, and the regulation theory, a historical analysis is employed for the examination of these various interfaces. The thesis also examines the traditional relationships and traditional distribution channels of banks as well as insurance companies and the development of their current changing patterns. Driving forces for these changing interfaces and the regulation concerning changes of interface are also considered in the thesis (Chapter four). The EC Directives on banking and insurance are also given their due weight for this examination. One of the major contributions in the first part is to make a theoretical development of this new area, and the creation of 'bancassurance' and 'assurancebank' data that is scarce and can be invaluable for further research and development on this issue. Some of these data are used in the second part of the thesis. In the second part of the thesis, two sets of empirical tests are conducted. The first test is the test of return and risk effects on European bank holding companies diversification into various insurance business, namely life assurance underwriting, general insurance underwriting, and insurance broking business. The second test is opposite to the first one, i.e. the test of return and risk effects on European insurance holding companies diversification into banking business (Chapter five and six respectively). Based on finance literature, econometric work is employed for these tests. The results of the first test shows that banks significantly increase their risk in underwriting of life as well as underwriting of general insurance business. Expansion in life underwriting significantly increases returns but the effect on return from expanding in general insurance underwriting is not significant. The most profitable expansion is into insurance broking business since our results indicate a significant positive effect on return with no adverse effects on risk. On the other hand, the results of the second test shows that the insurance companies bankruptcy risk although increases, two other risk measurements indicate significant risk reduction, and the return in this case does not have significant effect. This suggests that only the cross-business distribution activities should be permitted and the cross-business underwriting activities should be restricted in order to reduce the probability of bankruptcies.

In the light of the global financial crisis of 2007 which is considered to be the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s, it is evident that no bank is too big to fail. There have been a number of corporate failures in recent years, including instances in the United Kingdom. These events, therefore, motivated this study in terms of emphasising the need to apply financial distress prediction models to examine the performance of UK banks. This work aims at empirically examining and analysing the performance of UK retail banks amid the financial crisis, covering three periods: before, during and afterwards. In doing so, the accuracy of Altman‘s financial ratios of early warning statistical distress prediction models was examined. Both primary and secondary data were employed to find answers to the research questions. The first result indicated that Altman‘s ratios: leverage, solvency and turnover ratios significantly discriminated the three crisis periods. Yet, Altman‘s model had high misclassification error rate and less predictive power during the crisis than before and afterwards. With regards to the performance of banks, the result revealed that banks performed better in terms of profitability, liquidity and activity ratios for pre and post crisis than during the crisis. Additionally, researchers have become increasingly interested in linking marketing variables such as satisfaction, trust and loyalty to financial performance. While profitability ratio is commonly confirmed to be a significant predictor of performance, loyalty constructs are not generally assessed in this manner in the profit link framework. This implied that loyalty has not been shown to have a direct impact on financial performance. Hence, since both loyalty and profitability play vital roles to determine the success of banks, they should be fully considered before performance is established. In this thesis, an extension of past profit link research to include nonfinancial variables was considered. This research examined the link between satisfaction, trust and loyalty, and overall financial performance. The overall empirical findings provided evidence of a positive relationship of loyalty and levels of relative profitability. Nevertheless, satisfaction and trust were not statistically related to profitability in the UK retail banking sector.

The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to carry out a comparative consumer study of firms’ CRM practices and Marketing Effectiveness (ME) in the Mobile Telecommunications (MT) sectors of Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The research contribution as explained by Corley and Gioa (2011) has guided this thesis as the underlying facets of theory are bound in a statement of concepts and interrelationships to explain how and why a phenomenon has occurred. The research contribution of the thesis is explained in detail in Chapter One, Section 1.0: Introduction and 1.1: Theoretical Background of the Study. The adoption of Consumer Utility Theory and Institutional Theory culminating in CRMBT informs and guides the research work in analysing consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, how firms behave and what influences arising from businesses have impact on consumers. Examples of business pressures are in the form of cultural rules, beliefs, symbols, rituals and power structures with survival dependent on loyalty to other institutional pressures (Scott, 1987; DiMaggio and Powell, 1991b). Studies discussed in the literature have shown that firms’ CRM practices are affected by institutional pressures, thus demonstrating the emergence of CRMBT and how it would help to mediate internal institutional forces (DiMaggio and Powell, 1991b; Ernest and Young, 2001; Chen and Popovich, 2003; ElGohary et al. 2013; Keramati and Shapulli, 2015). Consumer Utility Theory as described by Fishburn (1987) is adopted in this study because it helps in understanding the rationale behind consumer satisfaction and retention decisions. Ultimately, Consumer Utility Theory is linked with Institutional Theory as both internal and external institutional pressures shape consumer satisfaction and retention decisions positively or negatively. The thesis’s contribution uniquely linked all three to explain the phenomena under investigation. Within the last two decades the use of mobile phones and other mobile devices have risen dramatically as the phenomenally successful mobile phone has increased customers and profits for MT companies. The sample in the study included three face to face qualitative consumer focus groups in Port Harcourt Nigeria with 23 interviewees (8,7,8) and three face to face consumer focus groups in Huddersfield town UK of 22 interviewees (10,5,7). The justifications for comparing telecommunications service experiences of users in both towns are due to their shared similarities in terms of economic viability and adult population of telecommunications consumer. The data for the study were analysed using the thematic template technique and facilitated with Nvivo 10. From the Nigerian study it was found that mobile telecommunication firms’ CRM practices were weak for their consumers, which had negatively impacted on these firms’ marketing effectiveness over the years. Secondly, the study found that the factors underpinning the negative practices by Nigerian mobile telecoms operators were mainly externally motivated. This led to the emergence of six themes to include: service price; consumer privacy; complaints management; service courtesy; service quality and service personalisation. From the UK study it was found that MT firms’ CRM practices were fair towards their consumer and these practices had positive impact on consumer satisfaction and retention behaviours. This led to the emergence of seven themes which include: service quality, service upgrade, service price, service personalisation, service evaluation, complaints management and understanding customer expectations. The key theoretical contributions of this doctoral research are in Institutional Theory, Consumer Utility Theory and CRMBT respectively. The transformational CRM behaviour model is depicted on Figure 6.1 for theoretical and practical explorations. Drawing upon existing CRM literature this is the first doctoral study that has compared the CRM practices of MT firms concerning consumers in Nigeria and the UK using the qualitative focus group approach, which leads to developing a transformational CRM behaviour model. The recommendations of this thesis pertaining to the MT operators and the telecommunications regulatory agencies in Nigeria and the UK are provided. Individual themes from each of the study contexts are analysed and displayed in the Nvivo data.

Given the significance of financial liberalization and the key role of financial development in economic growth, according to the financial liberalization theory, liberalizing the financial sector is a route to increasing savings, investment and growth. However, the recent studies have shown that a number of developing countries do not demonstrate this kind of relationship and have, rather, recorded relatively low growth. The primary purpose of this research is to explore the potential economic impacts on the Libyan economy of economic liberalization in general, and liberalization of the financial services sector in particular, in the event of Libya‟s accession to full membership of the WTO. In order to ascertain and to quantify this impact, the study used a mixed methodology. The existing theoretical arguments have been critically reviewed in order to develop the research idea. In line with the research objectives, the methodology used include a quantitative and qualitative approach. First, the quantitative aspect is based on an empirical assessment of the impact of financial liberalization using time-series econometric techniques from 1978 to 2011 for secondary data analysis; and second, the qualitative approach, based on semistructured interviews directly related to the research aims and objectives. The empirical findings achieved the aim of the research. The results obtained show that despite the reforms and liberalization in the financial sector, there is a negative relationship between financial liberalization in Libya and economic growth during this period. This disproves the theory of financial liberalization that claims a positive co-relation between financial liberalization and economic growth. The research outcomes include a set of recommendations based on the findings of the study, which are potentially useful for policy makers and further research.

This dissertation consists of three empirical essays that focus on growth and investment in aggregate and at firm-level. The first essay focuses on the issue of aggregate economic growth. The purposes of this essay are to re-investigate the effectiveness of government size and quality of institutions to foster economic growth in developed and developing countries. This essay also examines a non-linear relation between government size and economic growth and finally to identify the specific channels of institutions quality that determine economic growth aggregately. The second essay identifies the response of firms’ investment to the market interest rate uncertainty and debt holding in Malaysia as one developing country. The sensitivity of firms’ investment to the interaction between aggregate uncertainty and debt holding isalso emphasized. This essay also examines the heterogeneity between high- and low-indebted firms groups. The final essay is conducted specifically at firm-level in Malaysia. The aims of this essay are to investigate the effect of financial factors on firms’ growth in Malaysia. It also examines the heterogeneity betweenfirms that have been divided into specific groups based on their size and sectors. The results for the first essay show that government size and institutions were ineffective to foster economic growth. It also revealed that government size has a non-linear effect on economic growth, while democracy and law and order play a positive role to foster economic growth. The second essay discovers that firms’ investment responds negatively to the aggregate uncertainty and debt holding. However, the effect of the interaction between aggregate uncertainty and debt holding on firms’ investment was not significant; these results were quite homogenous for high- and low-indebted firms in Malaysia. The results for the third essay indicate that financial factors, particularly internal funds, play an important role to foster firms’ growth in Malaysia. The results also indicate heterogeneity that is categorized by size and sector.

This thesis analyses the use of trade credit in China, relying on balance sheet information for a large sample of unlisted companies over the period 2004-2007. We first investigate which factors drive the extension and the obtainment of trade credit. Private companies extend less trade credit the higher the amount of inventories they hold and the lower the share of capital owned by foreign agents. Consistent with the Triangle Debt Dilemma, state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises are more likely to obtain trade credit if they have previously extended it. We then examine the effect of net trade credit, measured as accounts payable minus accounts receivable, on the capital structure. We show that net trade credit is positively associated with total and short-term debt. This relationship holds in those provinces with high levels of marketization and it is valid for private and foreign firms only if located in the most developed provinces. Finally, we analyze how accounts payable and accounts receivable affect the extensive margin of exports. Accounts payable influence the probability of exporting through an inverted U-shaped relationship for all ownership types. However, the nonlinearity holds also for accounts receivable only for private companies.

This thesis presents three chapters on the macroeconomic effects of fiscal contractionary policies in emerging economies and UK in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis using dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models. The first chapter assesses the dynamic effects of fiscal contractionary adjustments on the exchange rate movements in emerging economies to establish which movements are associated with expansionary fiscal contractionary episodes. The results show that exchange rate depreciations are more likely to support fiscal consolidations in emerging economies. The second chapter draws on the Leeper, Plante and Traum (2010) framework to analyse the effects of austerity measures on public debt and the economy in the UK when households are heterogeneous. The findings show that austerity measures reduce government debt-to-GDP but initially contract the economy. Reduction in government consumption results in the largest government debt-to- GDP reduction while transfers shocks are better suited for expansionary fiscal contractionary episodes. The third chapter investigates the effects of the interactions between fiscal contractionary and unconventional monetary policies on the movement of long term interest rates in the UK. The findings show that, spending based fiscal contractionary and unconventional monetary policies reduce the long term interest rates and spur economic expansion.