This thesis consists of three independent chapters on entry deterrence. The first two chapters consider the use of contracts as a barrier to entry, while the final chapter examines the possibility of firms expanding their product lines to deter entry in a vertical differentiation model. In Chapter 1, the role of exclusive dealing contracts in the liner shipping industry is investigated. It is shown that if the entrant is capacity-constrained, exclusive dealing contracts can be an effective entry barrier, even if the entrant has a lower cost. Chapter 2considers an industry with two stages of production. It is shown that an upstream incumbent is able to deter the entry of a more efficient producer by establishing long-term contractual relations with downstream firms, provided the downstream firms are in direct competition against each other. Chapter 3 considers the question of entry deterrence in a one-dimensional market where goods are differentiated by quality. It is shown that an incumbent firm may decide to produce several products solely for the purpose of deterring entry. Again, it is possible that a lower-cost entrant is deterred. In all three chapters, the welfare consequence is clear: social welfare is lower, since more efficient entrants are excluded from the market.

This dissertation examines the role of organized labour in governing relations in post- Fordist networked industrial districts within the context of three such sector-districts concentrated in the south-west corner of the Canadian province of British Columbia. It discusses the impact of this role on relational structures and behavioural patterns within these industries and on sector-district performance in the marketplace. It thereby builds upon the scholarly research which followed Piore and Sabel's (1984) popularization of the so-called neo- Marshallian Industrial Districts (MIDs) of the ‘Third Italy'. The study begins with a historical review of labour's influence on the evolution of production organization and institutional governance from the initial emergence of production for the market up to the current era. This review both demonstrates the significant influence of labour on the evolution of market oriented production regimes and provides a broader historical perspective for the analysis of the three cases. These case- studies use primary documentation and interview transcripts to expose the historical source and contemporary practice of labour's normative place in production organization and institutional governance in contemporary 'network systems of industrial governance' (Hollingsworth, Schmitter and Streeck 1994). Labour's roles in these three sector-districts are compared with each other and with an idealized network construct, both to further illuminate and explain the variable outcome and to illustrate possible avenues for institutional reform. The insight acquired into labour's role in the network model will contribute not just to a better understanding of the future of industrial relations in this emergent system. It will also contribute to the broader, related study of the nature of sociopolitical organization and institutional governance in the encompassing community.

This study investigates two strategic issues that small pioneering companies should always place emphasis on. Barriers to entry and first mover advantages carry such strategic significance that it should be a priority of any pioneering company, regardless of size. Contemporary studies have questioned the absolute ability of barriers to entry to thwart the entrance of new competitors in an industry, or the sustainability of first mover advantages. The implication being that barriers to entry and first mover advantages should not be high on a strategic agenda, as initiatives in this regard can be overcome by companies with superior resources, or due to the diverse strategies and objectives of companies. This study considers the case of a small pioneering company and analyses the competitive environment of the industry it intends to enter. The analysis utilises Porter's Five Forces Framework in a modified form. The framework was chosen as it considers the structural determinants of an industry, from which competitive pressure elements such as barriers to entry and first mover advantages can be identified and analysed. This modification is necessary as first mover advantages are typically separate considerations for pioneering companies in strategic formulation. This analysis considers the Five Forces of competitive pressure, but replaces first mover advantages with competitive rivalry, due to the particular circumstances encountered by pioneering companies. The relevant determinants of competitive pressure are then identified and ranked, in terms of priority, to give guidance to the strategic planning, formulation and implementation process. The analysis stops short of developing a full strategic plan but is sufficient to highlight the competitive issues that will need to be considered. The case study illustrates how barriers to entry and first mover advantages can still be fundamental to the strategic development process, regardless of the resources and strategy of potential entrants. The case study also proposes a model that spatially depicts the prioritisation of the ensuing strategic issues that are precipitated when analysing Porter's Five Forces Framework. / Thesis (MBA)-University of Natal, Durban, 2003.

The thesis investigates the factors determining the effort put forth by industrial workers in Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century and the first two decades of the twentieth. Why was so much energy and of such kinds put into work, and neither more nor less? What was the contribution of culture and institutions? And in which ways, if any, did the conduct of labour change over time? Labour effort contributes significantly to productivity differentials, between factories and across nations, and its study thus sheds light on that slackening of Britain's economic performance which historians have detected in the late Victorian period. Yet it is, additionally, a subject of interest in its own right. Work was the preponderating element in a man's daily experience, and much of the wide range of factory life found reflection in the matter of how hard he laboured and in what way. Indeed it is the contention of this thesis that an explanation of the level and forms of effort in the late nineteenth century must make reference to the workshop environment and its associated customs and social relationships. These arguments are illustrated by detailed studies of the shoe and flint-glass trades. Despite obvious contrasts between these industries, important similarities are found to exist in the issues surrounding labour effort. In both industries operatives limited output; shoe and glass employers alike contributed to the failure to fully realise the productive potential of their establishments; the social equilibrium of both industries was subject to mounting competition from overseas - a challenge compounded in the shoe trade by rapid technical change; and in each case these disruptive tendencies eventuated in industrial confrontations which, however apparently successful for employers, left the fundamental characteristics of industrial organisation unchanged. These themes were common, not merely to glass and shoe manufacture, but to a range of major industries. The culture of output limitation was, we conclude, widespread in industry in this period, and emerged from similar reasons out of similar contexts.

The aim of this research is to develop a thorough understanding of the change of ownership and property rights in the context of China in transition, with all the political and social implications that the process entails. This study aims both to understand and challenge the basic theoretical underpinnings of conventional property rights theory, to examine what the received wisdom of the private property rights perspective offers and to discover to what extent it is applicable in the Chinese transitional context. Through an extensive literature review, this research argues that the mainstream property-rights school fails to consider the institutional and organisational context of the societies in which economic institutions operate. This study evaluates the basic and most widely believed paradigm of institutional change - that of the Washington property rights school - and challenges it with empirical evidence. This study evaluates different models of institutional change and generates an original institutional approach to the change of property rights in the context of China-in-transition. Research for this PhD adopts an institutional methodological approach in an empirical study of the change of property rights and ownership of high-tech spin-off enterprises in China. This research is micro in approach providing a bird’s - eye view of the evolution of property rights and ownership of Chinese enterprises in the context of transition through multiple case studies of high-tech spin-offs. The research identifies the strong presence of the state associated with the evolution of high-tech spin-offs in transitional China, the process of which has also been characterised by fuzzy property rights and public entrepreneurship as two key stepping stones of development. The research findings indicate that the appropriate structure of property rights over productive assets is a dependent variable as opposed to an explanatory variable, as suggested by the property-rights school

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 154-162).

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet, 2002. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 331-337).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-95).