A limited number of studies have been conducted to demonstrate the potential impact of managing supply chain (SC) day-to-day practices on improving a company's financial performance. Previous research in this area has often failed to develop a fully integrated performance measurement framework which captures the critical link between SC performance and overall business performance. The inability to describe the applied methodology in detail, to cover all business dimensions and to incorporate different levels of decision making were factors found to limit the impact of these frameworks on enhancing organisations performance. This research proposes a procedure to align SC operational strategy to a company's financial strategy in the manufacturing sector through developing a framework linking SC operations' performance to the company's strategic financial objectives. A SCOR FAHP technique is proposed combining the Supply Chain Operation Reference (SCOR) model and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP)technique to analyse, assess and improve the performance of SC operations. Based on the SCOR model, SC processes were mapped and their corresponding performance measures were identified. The relative weights (W) of SC performance measures were calculated using the FAHP technique, then a performance rate (R) was assigned for each measure with respect to a performance rating scale. Finally, the weighted rates (WR) of all measures were aggregated to calculate a supply chain index (SCI) which revealed the overall SC operations' performance. To align SC operations' performance with a company's strategic financial objectives, a performance measurement method is developed linking SC performance metrics (SCOR FAHP technique) to a company’s financial performance metrics. The Du Pont ratio was incorporated in the financial performance metrics. The analysis of this ratio illustrated the priorities of financial performance factors (revenue, cost and assets) through assessing the contribution of each factor to the improvement of the company’s profitability and operating efficiency. The Dempster Shafer/Analytical Hierarchy Processes(DS/AHP) model was employed to determine the relative importance weights of the five main SC performance measures with respect to the priorities of financial performance factors. The appropriate SC operational strategy was formulated with respect to the relative weights of SC performance measures and the priorities of financial performance factors. To evaluate the impact of SC operations’ performance on enhancing the overall financial performance, a supply chain financial link index (SCFLI) was introduced and calculated before and after implementing the formulated SC operational strategy. A scenario approach was undertaken to illustrate how the developed method can be applied according to various possible financial results. A software application system was designed based on Structured Query Language (SQL) database to enable the real application of the developed research procedure. To demonstrate the applicability of the research procedure, a case study of a manufacturing company was conducted. The research provides an original contribution to knowledge by creating a framework linking SC operations' performance to the company's strategic financial objectives for better alignment with the company’s financial strategy. This research is also a contribution in that it proposes two indexes (SCI and SCFLI) to evaluate, monitor and control SC operations’ performance. The analysis of these indexes provides continuous feedback on SC performance and allows tracing SC processes that need improvement resulting in more control over daily SC operations. Moreover, the developed research procedure helps companies to formulate the appropriate SC operational strategy by considering the targeted financial outcome and proposing the subsequent plans of action to enhance and control the performance of the relevant SC operations.

This thesis is about the role, nature and importance of marketing within small firms. The definition for small firms’ used here is organisations’ with up to 50 employees. This is the definition used by The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (2012). There are over four million of such commercial organisations in the UK and they account for over half of the UK’s GDP and over half of the UK’s employment (The Department for Business Innovation and Skills November 2011 /12). Most firms’ in the UK are small and yet the marketing for small firms’ seems to be a neglected area in the standard text books and in the mainstream business school curriculum. Why is this and what can be done to make the subject of marketing more relevant and more appropriate to the smaller enterprise? This doctorial submission is based on published work. There are 24 individual pieces of work making up the submission. All of the works submitted are related to the subject of marketing for small business. Throughout the works’ submitted the author addresses a fundamental question which has occupied his mind for many years. This question is highly pertinent to the developing subject of marketing within small firms’ (Gilmore and Coviello, 1999). The question is ‘is conventional marketing theory and practice from the ‘classical school’ applicable to all types of organisations no matter what their size’? The fundamental question this work addresses is do smaller firms need a different sort of marketing, more suited to their particular needs (Nyman, Berck, and Worsdorfer, 2006; Reynolds and Day, 2011; Hills and Hultman, 2011; Shaw, 2002; Gilmore, 2011; McAuley, 2011; Hills and LaForge, 1992)? The author can find no real evidence of any need for a totally new paradigm although some areas of the standard business school ‘model’ of marketing management might need some important adaptation to make it more suitable for the majority of smaller firms’. The key approach would seem to be standardisation as far as possible then necessary adaptation. The collection of papers and related materials making up this thesis submission conclude that in many cases the central core hub of marketing that has become known as the ‘classicist philosophy of strategic marketing management’ is appropriate in many areas (Drucker, 1954). It can often be employed to the smaller enterprise with beneficial commercial effects (see Reynolds, 2007; Brennan, Baines, and Garneau, 2003). The author has attempted to demonstrate that a body of work has developed and evolved over time in a purposeful manner and with a common theme. The material submitted here, placed into three separate but related categories, has been structured to have an overall thematic shape. The ‘grand theme’ interwoven into this account is marketing for small business. The author does not claim to have investigated every vestige of the subject but does feel that over the years he has made a contribution to the knowledge in this area. Each of the three sub - themes used in this work are related and can be integrated into a ‘grand narrative’ or ‘story line’. This ‘grand narrative’ is encapsulated in the title of this thesis which is; ‘Marketing for small business: The development of a practical and conceptual contribution towards a new paradigm 1986 to 2011’.

This thesis analyzes various issues of sovereign debt from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. The first chapter investigates how global and country-specific factors like US interest rates, global risk aversion and the country-specific macroeconomic climate drive the dynamics of sovereign spreads in emerging countries. I develop a theoretical framework that pinpoints the determination of the equilibrium debt level, probability of default and sovereign spread, and test empirical implications derived from the predictions of the model. The chapter then employs a Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) model to show empirically how the spread of sovereign debt is influenced over time by the factors given above. The empirical results show that most of the variations in sovereign spreads are caused by global shocks such as the term structure of US interest rates and the global risk aversion. The findings also indicate that shocks from the US have a direct effect on sovereign spread and an indirect effect via country-specific macroeconomic fundamentals. Finally, the evidence produced validates the presence of some response patterns of sovereign spread to the global shocks. The second chapter deals with debt restructuring strategy from private initiatives when multiple players are involved. I show that when the old creditor is unable to extend new loans due to liquidity crunch and austerity, and incentive issues of the borrowing country worsen sovereign debt repayment problems, a debt equity swap where an old creditor swaps a part of the debt for an equivalent amount of equity is Pareto improving and benefits all stakeholders. The exchange of old debt into equity makes the new debt automatically more senior as the extra equity (swapped) is by definition junior to all other debt. The enhanced priority of the new debt increases the pay-off of new lenders in the bad state and makes this debt relatively safer and allows lenders to charge lower interest rates. This fall in the face value of new loans (payments in the good state) leaves an increased surplus to the borrowing country, which is then incentivized to make an extra effort to make risky project successful, which further lowers the probability of second time default, making everyone’s gains ex ante. Thus, unlike previous work on debt equity swap models which show ambiguous increments in welfare, my work shows the opposite when such swaps are designed in the debt restructuring process. My model further discusses why such swaps are most effective in the current European debt crisis. Finally, my model shows that debt exchange, where the old creditor exchanges its existing debt into a new junior debt, is Pareto improving. The third chapter empirically analyses the effect of participating in an IMF program on sovereign debt rescheduling. By applying simultaneous equation estimation for 115 countries from 1970 to 2012, I found that participating in a non-concessional IMF program increases the probability of subsequent debt rescheduling, but the probability and the quantity of debt rescheduling are negatively correlated with the amount of non-concessional IMF disbursed loans in the short term. The participation effect of IMF programs on sovereign debt rescheduling is larger for countries with a lower income. Furthermore, compliance with IMF conditionality could increase the probability and quantity of subsequent debt rescheduling, especially for low income countries. The results may indicate that participation in a non-concessional IMF program could signal a country’s willingness to reform and that the recipient country is rewarded with subsequent debt rescheduling. The effectiveness of signaling is negatively linked to the country’s level of income and compliance with IMF conditionality could enhance such signaling effects.

The OTC derivatives market has captured the attention of regulators after the Global Financial Crisis due to the risk it poses to financial stability. Under the post-crisis regulatory reform the concentration of business, and risks, among a few major players is changed by the concentration of a large portion of transactions in the new market infrastructures, the Central Counterparties (CCPs). This work, for the first time, analyses the regulatory response of the United Kingdom, the largest centre of OTC derivatives transactions, and highlights its shortcomings or 'fractures'. The work uses a normative risk-based approach to regulation as a methodological lens to analyse the UK regime of CCPs in the OTC derivatives market (OTCDM). It is specifically focused on prudential supervision and conduct of business rules governing OTC derivatives transactions and the move towards enhancing the use of central clearing. The resulting analysis, from a normative risk based approach, suggests that the UK regime for CCPs does not fulfil what would be expected if a coherent risk based approach were taken. The main contribution of this work is to highlight the risk based 'fractures' affecting the regulation and supervision of CCPs in the OTCDM. The absence of a coherent conduct of business regime of CCPs, the insufficient legal framework underpinning CCPs' operations, the lack of a Special Resolution Regime for CCPs are some notable absences. However the failure to rule 'Innovation Risk' from a risk based approach raises material concerns. It is therefore argued that these fractures hinder the achievement of the regulatory objectives. The regulator's objective is to enhance the stability of the OTCDM by ensuring the safety and soundness of Central Counterparties CCPs.

The financial crisis of 2007-08 is recognised to be the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, liquidity risk and contagion perceived in the interbank market has gained increased attention. In this thesis, the LIBOR-OIS spread, the German-US bond spread, the Euro- dollar currency swap and the EONIA rate are studied to reveal causalities, interdependencies and regime changes in the short-term interbank market. Interbank markets are channels of contagion due to the overlapping claims banks have on one another. If liquidity dries up in the overnight market, as happened during the latest financial crisis, the domino effect transmits liquidity shocks to other markets. Through three distinct investigations, the main objective of this thesis is to investigate liquidity crashes and contagion in the short-term interbank market. The first analysis demonstrates that there is causality among the series and that they are also cointegrated, while structural breaks are detected in the identified long-run equilibrium relationships. To better identify the breaks, in the second analysis, a novel univariate two-state regime switching model is presented. The variability in the LIBOR-OIS spread along with thresholds of different levels reveal regime changes consistent with liquidity crashes. Thus, the model acts as an early-warning indicator of an imminent liquidity shortage striking the interbank market. Depending which state the system is in, the series is modelled either as a first-order autoregressive process, or as a Gaussian white noise process. Finally, a multivariate endogenous regime switching model describes how liquidity shocks drive the transition between crisis and non-crisis regimes. The investigation uncovers the self fulfilling nature of endogenous liquidity shocks and their propagation across markets before and during financial crises. Moreover, the results suggest that liquidity shocks originating from the LIBOR-OIS spread govern the dynamics of the system.

Despite increasing attention paid to intangibles research since the end of the 20th century, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the interactions among different intangible elements and their performance implications due to the lack of appropriate intangible measurements and the low level of intangible disclosure in the public domain. From a resource-based view (RBV), this thesis seeks to investigate the role of intangibles in the European banking sector using mixed methods. A quantitative approach is adopted to test the relationships among different intangible elements and between them and bank performance for a sample of 63 banks from 2005 to 2007. The empirical results show that top management human capital (HC) has a positive impact on either customer relationships or bank financial performance, and the combination of different intangible elements tends to better explain the variation in banks’ return on assets than they do individually. Meanwhile, a qualitative approach is employed to assess intangible measurement, disclosure, and modelling by conducting semi-structured interviews with 11 bank managers and 12 bank analysts. A grounded theory model of intangibles is developed, which reveals how intangibles and tangible/financial resources interact in the bank value creation process. In addition, it explores the communication gaps between bank managers and bank analysts regarding the concept of intangibles, intangible measurement and intangible disclosure. More importantly, the adoption of mixed methods research allows this thesis to achieve evidence triangulation and complementarity. Both approaches produce evidence in support of the resource integration of the RBV theory and the importance of top management HC. Besides, the qualitative study provides the means to explore the way of improving the specified models and intangible proxies used in the quantitative study. This thesis makes a contribution to the development of mixed methods research in the fields of finance, accounting and management by providing an example of how quantitative and qualitative approaches can be integrated to investigate a research question. It also contributes to the intangible literature and banking literature in terms of improving our understanding of the role of intangibles in the bank business model.

This thesis empirically analyses corporate governance reforms in Saudi Arabia using a mixed-methods research design. Saudi Arabia has recently pursued corporate governance reforms; the establishment of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) in 2003 and the publication of the Saudi Corporate Governance Code (SCGC) in 2006 constitute a central part of these reforms. This study attempts to provide new insights by exploring the corporate governance reforms pursued. In particular, by using an integrated research design framework, the study seeks to: (i) examine the level of compliance with, and disclosure of, the governance provisions contained in the SCGC by Saudi listed firms; (ii) ascertain whether the introduction of the SCGC has helped improve corporate governance standards in the Saudi corporate context; (iii) investigate the factors affecting voluntary corporate governance disclosure among Saudi listed firms; (iv) examine the association between a number of individual corporate governance mechanisms (i.e., equilibrium-variable model) and financial performance in Saudi listed firms; (v) analyse the relationship between voluntary compliance with the SCGC and firm financial performance by employing a broad composite corporate governance index (i.e., compliance-index model); and (vi) explore the level of awareness and appreciation of good corporate governance practices among key internal and external stakeholders in Saudi Arabia. The first five objectives outlined above are examined using a quantitative methodology, whereas the sixth objective is investigated by employing a qualitative research design. Efforts have been made to achieve integration between the two different research designs by applying the Explanatory Sequential Design (two sequential stages) proposed by Creswell and Clark (2011) within a multi-theoretical framework that incorporates insights from agency, managerial signalling, stakeholder, stewardship and resource dependence theories. The decision to employ a mixed-methods research design is motivated by the relative lack of, and recent calls for, mixed-methods approaches in corporate governance research. The mixed-methods approach seeks to provide a more complete understanding of the effects of corporate governance reforms on corporate disclosure and performance. In addition to the quantitative analysis, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five different groups of key stakeholders. The interview data offers further scope to: (ii) explore the corporate governance reforms; (ii) examine the impact of such reforms on actual governance practices; and (iii) provide a unique opportunity to further understand and explain the quantitative findings. Through the quantitative approach, the study examined balanced panel data of 80 Saudi listed firms from 2004 to 2010. This generated a total of 560 firm-year observations that were collected manually from the sampled firms’ annual reports. First, the constructed Saudi Corporate Governance Index (SCGI) showed that the introduction of the SCGC has helped improve voluntary corporate governance disclosure among Saudi listed firms. Second, this study found that board size, audit firm size, the presence of a corporate governance committee, government ownership, institutional ownership and director ownership have a positive influence on the level of compliance with the SCGC. In contrast, the analysis showed that the proportion of independent directors and block ownership are negatively correlated with the level of voluntary corporate governance disclosure. Third, the findings obtained from the compliance-index model suggest that good corporate governance practices, proxied by the SCGI, are positively related to return on assets (ROA), but have no significant relationship with firm value, as measured by Tobin’s Q (Q-ratio). Similarly, the results from the equilibrium-variable model are by and large mixed. Whereas CEO duality, proportion of independent directors, board sub-committees and director ownership are positively related to ROA, board size is negatively associated with ROA. On the other hand, the proportion of independent directors, board size, frequency of board meetings and director ownership are positively related to firm value, while CEO duality and the presence of board sub-committees have no significant relationship with firm value. The results from the quantitative analysis are robust to controlling for a number of potential endogeneity problems. Finally, the findings obtained from the interview data generally suggest that the regulatory authorities and the CMA in particular need to further strengthen efforts to enhance the level of awareness and appreciation of good corporate governance practices among key internal and external stakeholders of corporate governance in Saudi Arabia.

This thesis contributes to the ongoing discussion about the financial and statistical modelling of returns on financial stock markets. It develops the asset pricing model concept which has received continuous attention for almost 50 years in the area of finance, as a method by which to identify the stochastic behaviour of financial data when making investment decisions, such as portfolio choices, and determining market risk. The best known and most widely used asset pricing model detailed in the finance literature is the Two-Moment Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) (consistent with the Linear Market Model), which was developed by Sharpe-Lintner- Mossin in the 1960s to explore systematic risk in a mean-variance framework and is the benchmark model for this thesis. However, this model has now been criticised as misleading and insufficient as a tool for characterising returns in financial stock markets. This is partly a consequence of the presence of non-normally distributed returns and non-linear relationships between asset and market returns. The inadequacies of the Two-Moment CAPM are qualified in this thesis, and the extensions are proposed that improve on both model fit and forecasting abilities. To validate and extend the benchmark Linear Market Model, the empirical work presented in this thesis centres around three related extensions. The first extension compares the Linear Market Model’s modelling and forecasting abilities with those of the time-varying Linear Market Model (consistent with the conditional Two-Moment CAPM) for 19 Turkish industry sector portfolios. Two statistical modelling techniques are compared: a class of GARCH-type models, which allow for non-constant variance in stock market returns, and state space models, which allow for the systematic covariance risk to change linearly over time in the time-varying Linear Market Model. The state space modelling is shown to outperform the GARCH-type modelling. The second extension concentrates on comparing the performance of the Linear Market Model, with models for higher order moments, including polynomial extensions and a Generalised Additive Model (GAM). In addition, time-varying versions of the Linear Market Model and polynomial extensions, in the form of state space models, are considered. All these models are applied to 18 global markets during three different time periods: the entire period from July 2002 to July 2012, from July 2002 to just before the October 2008 financial crisis, and from after the October 2008 financial crisis to July 2012. Although the more complex unconditional models are shown to improve slightly on the Linear Market Model, the state space models again improve substantially on all the unconditional models. The final extension focuses on comparing the performance of four possible multivariate state space forms of the time-varying Linear Market Models, using data on the same 18 global markets, utilising correlations between markets. This approach is shown to improve further on the performance of the univariate state space models. The thesis concludes by drawing together three related themes: the inappropriateness of the Linear Market Model, the extent to which multivariate modelling improves the univariate market model and the state of the world’s stock markets.

This thesis consists of three topics whose over-arching theme is based on risk sensitive stochastic control. In the �first topic (chapter 2), we study a problem on benchmark out-performance. We model this as a zero-sum risk-sensitive stochastic game between an investor who as a player wants to maximize the risk-sensitive criterion while the other player ( a stochastic benchmark) tries to minimize this maximum risk-sensitive criterion. We obtain an explicit expression for the strategies for both these two players. In the second topic (chapter 3), we consider a finite horizon risk-sensitive asset management problem. We study it in the context of a zero-sum stochastic game between an investor and the second player called the "market world" which provides a probability measure. Via this game, we connect two (somewhat) disparate areas in stochastics; namely, stochastic stability and risk-sensitive stochastic control in mathematical finance. The connection is through the Follmer-Schweizer minimal martingale measure. We discuss the impact of this measure on the investor's optimal strategy. In the third topic (chapter 4), we study the sufficient stochastic maximum principle of semi-Markov modulated jump diffusion. We study its application in the context of a quadratic loss minimization problem. We also study the finite-horizon risk-sensitive optimization in relation to the underlying sufficient stochastic maximum principle of a semi-markov modulated diffusion.

Monte Carlo simulation is a widely used numerical method for valuing financial derivatives. It can be used to value high-dimensional options or complex path-dependent options. Part one of the thesis is concerned with the valuation of barrier options with complex time-varying barriers. In Part one, a novel simulation method, the contour bridge method, is proposed to value exotic time-varying barrier options. The new method is applied to value several exotic barrier options, including those with quadratic and trigonometric barriers. Part two of this thesis is concerned with the valuation of American options using the Monte Carlo simulation method. Since the Monte Carlo simulation can be computationally expensive, variance reduction methods must be used in order to implement Monte Carlo simulation efficiently. Chapter 5 proposes a new control variate method, based on the use of Bermudan put options, to value standard American options. It is shown that this new control variate method achieves significant gains over previous methods. Chapter 6 focuses on the extension and the generalisation of the standard regression method for valuing American options. The proposed method, the sequential contour Monte Carlo (SCMC) method, is based on hitting time simulation to a fixed set of contours. The SCMC method values American put options without bias and achieves marginal gains over the standard method. Lastly, in Part three, the SCMC method is combined with the contour bridge method to value American knock-in options with a linear barrier. The method can value American barrier options very well and efficiency gains are observed.