This research is based on empirical investigations into commercial industrial projects in a small developing economy (Bahrain). Commercial industrial projects are defined as those industrial projects which have commercial profitability as their main objective. The investigation covers how these projects were set up (i.e. appraisal techniques used), which elements have a strong impact on their performance, and which of these elements differentiate between successful and unsuccessful projects. It also examines which elements (controllable or environmental) have been perceived to have stronger impact on new product outcome, and which of these elements are perceived to differentiate between new product success and failure. The literature review showed that numerous attempts have been made, over the past few decades, to develop project appraisal techniques in developing countries where resources are identified as being scarce. Such techniques have been mainly undertaken in the field of economic development with objectives of a socioeconomic nature. Objectives of a commercial nature are not taken into consideration as a main criterion for deciding whether or not to go ahead with the project.

This thesis examines from an international political economy(IPE) perspective the determinants and the effectiveness of the EC's protective measures against Korean exports to the EC market. Both the determinants and the effectiveness of protective measures, in countries which adopt such restraints, have been very controversial issues in the academic world. Through broad and industry-specific case analyses, I found that approaches regarding determinants of protectionism in the IPE literature are not fully applicable as determinants of EC protectionism against Korea and I extracted several determinants which are more relevant to the issue of EC-Korea trade protectionism. These are primarily divided between economic and political determinants. The economic determinants include 1)a causal relationship between protectionism by the United States against Korea and protectionism by the EC against Korea, 2)Korea's neo-mercantilist policy approach and concentration of exports on a limited range of products, and 3)inter-industry trade structure between the EC and Korea, such as growing trade disputes in specific sectors. The political determinants, I found, are l)political expediency of the EC's protectionism against Korea, which can be seen in examples of EC's policy implementation procedures, such as low rate of actual imposition of the EC's import restraints, and the use of anti-dumping investigations as a preliminary gambit in order to obtain concessions, and 2)a form of " Japan Complex" effective against Korean exports to the EC. In addition to the above determinants, there are some specific determinants(or specific procedures and incidents) in connection with individual industries--the EC's inconsistent policy implementation and the clerical errors due to the growing workload of the EC Commission(textiles and clothing case), businesscycle(iron and steel case), the EC's retaliation against closed markets abroad, and the successful experience of Italy and France in restricting imports of Korean footwear through VER5 (footwear case), and EC's built-in protectionism and failure in demand forecast, and the deep-rooted distrust of Korean CTV exporters by the EC(CTV case). In order to analyse the effectiveness of protective measures, I began by examining approaches by David Yoffie and Patrick Messerlin. For the test of these approaches, I examined the effectiveness of EC's import restraints against Korean products by comparing how Korea's exports of those products changed, in terms of volume and value, following EC action. My findings are that the EC's protective measures were successful in all cases excepting one: the footwear products from Korea, the imports of which continued to increase during the 1987- 1991 period despite EC restraints. I found that the major determinant of effectiveness of EC's VERS was Korea's international competitiveness in terms of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) ratio of the subjected products. Specifically, Korea's strong competitiveness(and some weakening of EC's competitiveness) in footwear contributed to the continued increase in shipments of Korea's footwear to the EC market. In contrast, EC's VERs against iron and steel products, in which the EC has maintained international competitive strength, were very effective in reversing growth of imports from Korea. Additionally, EC's impositions of AD duties proved to be very effective as a means of protecting EC industries against foreign threat; all Korean products subject to EC's AD measures showed a declining trend in exports to the EC market during the 1987-1991 period, regardless of any weakness or strength in international competitiveness of subjected products. I concluded that the ineffectiveness of import restraints, suggested by David Yoffie for U.S.-NIE5 trade, does not apply to EC-Korea trade. Patrick Messerlin's approach, however, is applicable in the ECKorea trade. I also found that arguments which only link job losses in the EC with foreign imports are flawed. EC companies face job losses not only as a direct result of Korean imports, but also from the inability of EC industry to restructure, and the remedial action taken by them to counter Korean competition--such as reorganization and rationalization of EC companies, offshore processing activities in cheap labour cost countries for major labour-intensive processes, and automation of production facilities.

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At the first ever talks between leaders from developing countries and the G7 group of leading industrial nations in the year 2000, James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, said "it is important that when the G7 address the issue of debt they address a range of inter-related questions including investment in developing countries and technology transfers." To this end a call for partnership between the developed and the developing nations was made. This thesis evaluates the importance of foreign investment and trade promotion in the economic development of Ghana as a country within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The thesis specifically investigates the usefulness of development preconditions in attracting foreign investments into developing countries to boost the production and manufacture of semi-processed and manufactured goods to enhance exports, trade, economic growth and development with a view to reducing poverty margins. Little research has been carried out on how development preconditions and trade promotion activities can be effectively used in developing Africa to forge the investment partnership between the developed and developing countries such as Ghana and the ECOWAS countries. In the light of recent alarming rates of poverty in Africa - mainly due to poor economic development - there is the need for a systematic evaluation of how Ghana and other African countries could employ development preconditions such as infrastructure, low inflation rates, good literacy levels (education), stable political and social environment to engender an enabling investment climate that would attract foreign investors to invest in their countries. The use of consistent trade promotion activities would also positively impact on export and trade for economic growth and development. Lessons that Ghana as a country within ECOWAS could learn from the investment and trade success of the East Asian countries have been discussed in the study. A Ghana Investment and Trade Framework is developed. This incorporates the possibility that development preconditions and vigorous trade and investment promotion activities influence increased Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the production of manufactured goods for export. These have the potential of expanding trade for increased economic growth in a country like Ghana. The methodological framework for testing the two hypotheses of this study is based on two types of statistical techniques. In evaluating the proposition that development preconditions influence foreign direct investment attraction in Ghana, we rely on the use of econometric regression analysis using the MICROFIT statistical software. (i.e. the influence of the development preconditions of Infrastructure, Inflation, Education and Political Stability in the period 1966-1998 (30 years)) - in attracting foreign investment into Ghana. The second hypothesis, which links overseas trade promotion to FDI attraction was, however, tested using the discriminant analysis based on Statistical Programme for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. This technique was also used to test the robustness of the findings based on the regression analysis in the case of the first hypothesis. The thesis empirically assesses the impact of the selected development preconditions and trade promotion activities (Ghana's participation in overseas trade fairs) on the level of FDI attracted into Ghana during the specific time periods of between 1966 and 1997. The criteria used include the level of FDI levels attracted into Ghana for 30 years due to (a) the influence of existing development preconditions, and (b) the influence of trade promotion activities (Ghana's participation in overseas trade fairs). The latter was for 15 years (1985-1999) due to lack of data on the earlier years in Ghana. The impact of the development preconditions of Infrastructure, Inflation and existing FDI on levels of new FDI attracted into the country were shown to be positive in the Regression Model. These results show that the presence of development preconditions in developing countries positively influence the level of FDI attracted into these countries. There was, however, no conclusive evidence that Ghana's trade promotion activities (Ghana's participation in overseas trade fairs) for the period had any clear and significant influence on FDI attraction into the country. The findings of the thesis outline the importance and need for Ghana and other African countries to create significant development preconditions in their countries, in order to attract sufficient and significant foreign investments into their countries and help to boost the production of manufactured goods for trade and exports in order to enhance economic growth and development. The conclusion is, therefore, that Ghana as a country within ECOWAS can achieve economic development through efficient investment (FDI) attraction policies and strategies; and the existence of vital development preconditions, and vigorous and intensive trade and export promotion activities (consistent participation in overseas trade fairs) could prove highly catalytic in this achievement.

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This thesis investigates the relationship between industrial development and industrial policy in a developing country. The chosen industry - software - is of recent origin and of growing importance in many developing countries, for which it can present one of the best entry points into the information technology production complex. Yet this industry and, particularly, the role of state policy in its development have been relatively neglected within the literature. The key policy issue of recent years has been policy liberalisation, and the thesis takes as its central theme the role that policy liberalisation plays in software industry development. A specific case study is made of the Indian software industry and Indian software policy because these have been long-standing, and because they combine high growth with liberalisation. The conclusion reached is that certain policy liberalisations may have a role to play in software industry development but that liberalisation cannot be seen as a 'panacea' for such development. The impacts of some liberalisations run counter to some long-term development objectives while state intervention is seen to have played a positive and necessary role in assisting software industry growth. At the same time, certain liberalisations are found to be either politically or financially unfeasible. Software policy makers face a major decision on whether to orient their industry towards the domestic or export markets. It is argued that the Indian industry has shown an export bias which should be reduced by greater orientation to the domestic market. Other developing countries may need to focus even more on domestic-oriented production rather than exports. Policy is not the only determinant of software industry development because technology, market entry barriers, input supply constraints, and producer-consumer relations also play a part. Nevertheless, policy has a very important role to play and should be applied in a non-dogmatic way that is responsive to the specific and changing circumstances of individual nations and industries.

In recent years, scholarly attention on the complementary role of monetary integration to further economic integration in developing countries has tended to emphasise the direct and indirect benefits of 'limited monetary integration' while neglecting considerations of those benefits likely to accrue from adopting a common currency or fixed rates of exchange between their national currencies. However, the decision by the Heads of State and Government of the 16 members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in May 1983 requesting a study of proposals leading to the creation of a single ECOWAS monetary zone has given a new scope and dimension of interest in the economics of common currencies. The West African countries in their efforts to integrate and achieve higher growth and development are increasingly frustrated by a number of internal and external factors including their dependent, disintegrated and inefficient patterns of domestic production, trade and currency systems, in particular, the continuing weakness and increasing precariousness of their national currencies, and a succession of global monetary and financial crises. These constraints, together with the payments and adjustment problems they have occasioned, and the relative unsuccessful experiences in currency management, payments and exchange restrictions within the West African Clearing House (WACH) and the exclusively francophone West African Monetary Union (WAMU or UMOA), have created a need for extending and deepening the scope for monetary and economic cooperation in the region. The Study advocates principally an all-embracing monetary union by means of a common currency as a strategic catalyst and timely element of realism that would create an impulse for national development and regional economic integration. Using basic propositions concerning aspects of monetary integration, stressing in particular the foundations of optimum currency areas, the Study tries to present a comprehensive and analytic discussion of the feasibility, processes, beneficial effects and constraints involved in achieving currency unification in the broader setting of West Africa's disparate economic and socio-political developments.

The thesis deals with the opportunities and problems created for an oil economy by the price rise of 1973 with a special reference to Iran, and it is, as far as the author is aware, the first study to analyse the socio-economic performance of the Shah's regime in the subsequent period. We studied the Government's policies in the use of oil revenues, stressing the failure to pursue productive and social goals which would have been feasible. The data employed are based mainly on the Government budget, supplemented by figures on trade, national income, prices, employment, etc. The study includes two conceptual chapters, and the rest is empirical. The conceptual chapters argue that the opportunities provided by oil cannot last for ever; an oil economy should gradually diversify output and exports 'out of' this exhaustible resource, specialisation in which involves risks. We envisage diversification in a novel sense, as a dynamic concept interrelated with oil price and depletion policies, as a part of general development strategy. The economy may first go 'into' oil to raise revenues with the intention of diversifying 'out of' it in the long run. The revenues should be spent on accelerating the growth of non-oil GDP, paying due attention to basic needs. Development is the ultimate aim, diversification is the result; it is also the means through which development takes place. Developing the Kalecki approach to explain problems of acceleration of growth in an oil economy, we hypothesise that while the OPEC agreement raises the means to· diversification, its achievement is limited by i) various 'physical bottlenecks', and ii) institutional factors. Iran's experience shows that Kalecki over-stressed the role of imports in accelerating growth and combating inflation. Even where foreign exchange is ample, an increase in the rate of growth could nevertheless be limited by the physical capacity for imports, the shortage of skilled labour, the lack of infrastructure, and the ceiling on the rate of growth of 'supply determined' commodities, particularly non-tradeable inputs and agricultural goods. Moreover, a mixture of demand-pull and cost-push inflation may arise as a result of imbalances in both the commodity and labour markets. At the same time, given a strong exchange rate made possible by oil, inflation would reduce the competitiveness of non-oil exports in foreign markets. Outlining a socio-economic frameworkfor Iran, we showed also that both the pace of development and the pattern of distribution of its benefits were adversely affected by Government policies. Oil made the role of the Government in the Iranian economy more decisive than in many socialist countries; but the objectives of the Government diverged from the aspirations of the masses. Its various policies exacerbated shortages and inflation, and they were also responsible for the slow growth of agriculture. In particular, a large diversion of public expenditures to 'nonproductive' uses, together with a rapid expansion of private consumption and investment in housing, limited the supply of physical resources to productive sectors. Further, Government policies biased the distribution of social services and private consumption heavily in favour of a minority 'governmental class'; and 'despotism' was intensified through militarism. The bias against ·rural areas too was pronouncede The study indicates that the factorial distribution of income changed in favour of profit earners owing to the increase in the 'degree of monopoly', as hypothesised by Kalecki and Riach. The results of Government policies were fast depletion of oil, yet disappearance of the surplus in the balance of payments. Economic failure accompanied by social frustration led to the collapse of the regime, leaving the economy more than ever dependent on oil and imports of necessities. One conclusion is that the new regime would be well advised to aim at a strategy of slower economic growth associated with a slower rate of depletion; this allows more time to remove the structural bottlenecks.

This investigation attempts to improve understanding of the behaviour of internet consumers from an empirical basis. It reports on the results of studies into decision-making processes of consumers on the internet in the context of apparel retailing. Consumers consisting of a profile sample of working female consumers, aged between 18 and 45, in the ABC1 social group, are considered in terms of their decision making processes online. These observations are contrasted with the assumptions underlying a key reference model of traditional consumer behaviour, the Consumer Decision Process (CDP) model (Blackwell, Engel & Miniard, 2001). The research arrives at several key findings. A primary finding is that there are substantive differences between internet-based and traditional decision making purchases - especially when considering consumers’ behaviour in relation to so-called sensory products. A related finding is that many of the assumptions underlying the CDP model fail to explain many aspects of observed internet consumers’ behaviours in this respect. The observed incongruence is addressed by the thesis through fundamental revisions and extensions of the CDP model. Three key changes proposed include: the introduction of the concept of overlapping stages (where two decision-making stages can occur together); the notion of varying modalities of behaviour depending on a consumer's intentions, and the possibility of a shift in modality during the purchasing process. These notions are incorporated in a proposed model referred to as the Electronic Consumer Decision Process model (eCDP).

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