This PhD thesis aims to investigate innovation activities in developing and developed countries and it comprises three papers. More specifically, it compares innovation activities between manufacturing firms in Indonesia and in the UK. The first paper (Chapter 2) aims to identify and compare the variations in the knowledge sourcing strategies (KSS) employed, and innovation barriers faced, by manufacturing firms in high-income (HI) and middle-income (MI) countries by using global innovation data derived from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS). The paper shows that manufacturing firms in HI and MI income countries have different types and levels of KSS. Knowledge from internal R&D is sourced more frequently by manufacturing firms in HI countries than by their counterparts in MI countries. While external knowledge from government or public research institutes; conference, trade fairs and exhibitions; scientific journals and trade/technical publications are sourced more frequently by manufacturing firms in MI countries. This paper also reveals that manufacturing firms in MI countries face greater innovation barriers internally and externally than those in HI countries. Internally, manufacturing firms in MI countries face greater obstacles related to costs/funding and knowledge. Externally, firms in MI countries face greater constraints related to costs/funding, knowledge, the market and other reasons in regard to not innovating than their counterparts in HI countries. Lastly, innovation policy implications are drawn from this paper. The second paper (Chapter 3) investigates and models the innovation value chain (IVC) that encompasses knowledge sourcing, transformation, and exploitation activities among Indonesian manufacturing firms by using data from the Indonesia Innovation Survey (IIS) 2011. This paper is different from the previous IVC studies in a number of ways. First, in this study a range source of knowledge (i.e. R&D activities, informal interactions with various external actors, and formal cooperation with various external partners) is tested. Second, the relationship between a wide range of innovation barriers and the IVC, which to date has received little attention, is also investigated. Lastly, wider innovation (i.e. organisational and marketing innovation) is assessed. The study finds the existence of a synergistic relationship between internal and external sources of knowledge as well as among external sources of knowledge in the first link of the IVC. In terms of the second link of the IVC, internal R&D plays an important role that positively influences knowledge transformation into all types of innovation and innovation success. External knowledge that has a similar pattern in shaping innovation mainly comes from market/commercials (i.e. customers and competitors), open sources (i.e. events) and formal cooperation with suppliers. Scientific institutions tend to contribute to innovation in a negative manner, and few positive impacts on process innovation are observed from government R&D and non-profit R&D institutions. The study also finds that informal knowledge is more strongly associated with innovation and innovation success than formal knowledge. Both informal knowledge and formal cooperation are more likely to influence traditional innovation (i.e. product and process innovation) than wider-innovation (i.e. organisational and marketing innovation). In general, the hampering factors with regard to innovation are financial and knowledge factors. Striking findings in the last link of the IVC are innovation new to the market, innovation new to the firm, and innovation success do not lead to the firms’ performance. Lastly, relevant innovation policies are drawn from this paper. The third paper (Chapter 4) compares the IVC which consists of knowledge sourcing, transformation, and exploitation performed by Indonesian and UK manufacturing firms. This study is worthwhile for the following reasons. First, despite comparative studies on the IVC not being new to the literature, it is interesting to understand and compare the IVC between developing and developed economies as up to now, this has not been done. This study provides a new insight on a micro-level analysis of the IVC comparison between developing and developed countries by modelling which specific knowledge is sourced by firms, the impact of the sourced knowledge on innovation, and the impact of innovation on firms’ performance. Second, this study investigates a broader source of knowledge that is classified into R&D activities, informal knowledge and formal cooperation. Third, implementing traditional innovation in isolation has been criticised, and hence, in this study the impact of knowledge transformation on both traditional and wider innovation as well as the exploitation of both types innovation on firms’ performance is tested. In terms of the first link in the IVC, for both countries, synergistic relationships exist within and between each group source of knowledge (i.e. R&D, informal knowledge and formal cooperation). However, the nature of these complementarities tends to differ across the two countries. In regard to the second link in the IVC, in UK firms, both internal and external R&D appear to have a direct impact on innovation. While for Indonesia, the positive and significant impact of internal R&D on diverse types of innovation is stronger than that of external R&D; informal knowledge sourced from market/commercials makes a greater contribution to innovation and innovation success for Indonesian firms than UK firms. By contrast, formal cooperation provides a greater contribution to innovation for the UK than for Indonesia. However, such cooperation is more likely to be conducted with market/commercials network. In terms of the last link in the IVC, there is no single positive and significant contribution in terms of the link between product innovation (including new to the market and firm innovations) and firms’ performance, or between innovation success and firm performance in either country. In addition, for both countries, different types of innovation affect firms’ performance differently. For Indonesian firms, both traditional and wider innovation positively and significantly impact firms’ performance, while for UK firms only traditional innovation that has such effect.

Digital ventures, for example Uber and Airbnb, seek to scale their user base quickly and effectively across markets in order to lock out competitors and drive adoption through positive feedback loops. I view such rapid global scaling as an organising logic by which digital ventures replicate a generic solution to recurring challenges. This thesis intends to understand the process by which digital ventures scale across a multitude of varied regional markets. By arguing that this process is qualitatively different from our current conceptualisations of scaling I aim to encourage more researchers to pay heed to scaling as an integral part of digital innovation literature. To this end I present a qualitative study of a digital venture called BlaBlaCar, a ridesharing venture that rapidly scaled its user base into 22 markets. My findings are based on original data, collected over a course of two years in two stages. First, by collecting observational data for four months, and second, by collecting 58 interviews across 15 offices globally. In this thesis I distinguish and describe scaling as the process of generative pattern replication (GPR), where an existing scaling pattern is specialised to the specific circumstances of a new market, and applied there. I trace three mechanisms underpinning rapid scaling across regional boundaries: instantiation, venture meshing, and value frame. I explain these mechanisms and how they interact in the process of GPR. My research speaks to the digital innovation literature by making a unique contribution: a novel perspective on scaling of digital ventures including a process model and related mechanisms. In addition, my proposed research findings have the potential to offer valuable insights for digital ventures looking for novel scaling and digital innovation management tools.

This thesis is the first academic study of participants on the UK Youth Mobility Scheme (YMS), which replaced the earlier Working Holidaymaker Scheme in 2008. It foregrounds the sociologically informed framework of ‘lifestyle migration’ to understand YMS participants as migrants. In doing so, the thesis contends that binaries between tourism/migration, and tourism/work have oversimplified contemporary practices of youth mobility, and not addressed the ways in which they are increasingly regulated through state immigration regimes. Thus, the thesis begins by examining the policies regulating youth entry for ‘work and play’, tracing their historical context, silences and ‘dividing practices’. The thesis then draws on interviews with 29 men and women on YMS visas in 2014-2015, living and working in London, from seven of the eight countries eligible for the Scheme. Participant observation and social media analysis complement these interviews and policy analysis, comprising innovative multiple methods that address the ‘mobile field’. The retrospective motivations of young people participating in the scheme are analysed, together with their working lives and opportunities for leisure. The overall contention is that hierarchies of privilege shape the motivations, access, and experiences of YMS participants, constituted through gender, ‘race’/ethnicity, social class and nationality, with particularly marked fissures between those from Old Commonwealth countries and those from East Asian countries. In pursuit of this thesis four distinctive claims are made. First, the construction of ‘mobile subjects’ on YMS corresponds to ‘dividing practices’ and silences in the policy, funnelling ‘desirable’ and ‘non-risk’ participants to the UK and favouring those from the Old Commonwealth. Second, participants’ motivations to pursue YMS are influenced both by their national mobility imaginings, shaped alongside different historic-colonial links with Britain, and by personal reasons both practical and strategic. Third, participants’ experiences of labour market participation are both surprisingly diverse and polarised according to privileges stemming from nationality, gender, ‘race’, ethnicity, first language and historic mobilities to the UK. Finally, these differential sources of privilege contour the participants’ practices of ‘play’/leisure, resulting in largely ethnocentric and insular experiences that contradict the common scholarly association of youth mobility with cosmopolitanism.

In this thesis, I examine the socio-cognitive processes of sensemaking in entrepreneurial ventures, through observing the language and behaviour of board directors in such ventures. Entrepreneurial ventures often require venture capital as a source of finance and the venture capitalist often places a non-executive director, termed an investor director, on the board of the venture to primarily look after their interests. Although there are many minor deviations from the business plan over time, substantial adverse deviations from plan also occur, which if not addressed, have the potential to jeopardise the survival of the business. These more substantial deviations from plan may invoke the investor directors to consider changing the direction of the venture, which is an ideal setting in which to study sensemaking because there is a need for the venture’s stakeholders, whom the board of directors represent, to seek new understanding of the change. Processes such as sensemaking and sensegiving involve observing and interpreting individuals and groups of homogeneous actors, and in the context of entrepreneurial ventures, this has yet to be considered involving the constructions and accounts of such actors constituting the board of directors. My study calls for a qualitative method, like previous studies in this area, with the potential to compare situations across similar case studies of comparable organisations, and hence I obtained longitudinal data through semi-structured interviews and desk research over thirteen years from archival, historical and real-time field observations from board directors to observe how board processes unfold over time. In total, six sensemaking episodes were selected where the companies adversely deviated substantially from the warranted business plan. The decisions that followed each sensemaking episode were varied; two episodes were followed by consensual board decisions, two episodes were followed by forced board decisions whereby some board members disagreed or agreed reluctantly to support the board decision, and two were followed by protracted indecision, resulting in board paralysis and eventual company failure. From this empirical study, I present new processes with discrete phases for both encapsulated and open sensemaking; the two types of sensemaking observed from the empirical data. I argue that the use of economic capital and power dynamics used during encapsulated sensemaking may be antagonistic to consensual decision-making and these findings run counter to the traditionally held view that sensemaking assists in moving chaotic situations to a more ordered environment and one in which sensemaking unfolds in a manner which progressively increases the likelihood of venture failure, suggesting that not all sensemaking is positive. In understanding the various phases, I present relationships between actors’ social positions and their sensemaking in entrepreneurial ventures and consider the effects of sensemaking, power and the mediation skills of the Chair on the strategic decision-making outcomes of the sensemaking process.

A global shift of the responsibility for pension savings has taken place. Governments have largely transferred their responsibility to employers. Separately, multinational companies (MNCs) have implemented global pension policies and practices to reduce costs and risks, transferring the pension responsibility globally to employees. This thesis aims to understand the decision-making process of pension provision within multinational companies, in order to gain some understanding whether the global pension policies and practices impact local pension provision. It analyses how MNCs govern their pension policies and practices globally, transfer them to local entities, and how pensions are managed locally. Pension literature has extensively looked at the development of pension provision. Much human resource management (HRM) and international human resource management (IHRM) research has been done on the transfer of HRM policies and practices. To address the research problematic, literatures need to be combined. This thesis is the first study that provides a holistic pension and human resource (HR) analysis on the transfer of pension policies and practices within the context of pension privatisation. Conceptual boundaries have been set to provide deeper findings: MNCs, emerging markets and the global financial crisis (GFC). Through the use of a case study analysis, based on interviews and documentary analysis, this thesis provides in-depth insights. It focuses on Swedish MNCs and their Mexican entities. A new theoretical research framework, based on the HR literature and set within the pension context, has been designed. Two main arguments have been derived. Firstly, the transfer of workplace pension benefits to MNCs’ host countries depends on the underlying HRM model and the forces of influence (i.e. organisational, stakeholder and local). Secondly, workplace pension decisions are mostly taken locally. Key influences include: local business needs, local pension knowledge, and strength of local advocates. These findings imply that MNCs’ global pension policies and practices have some but limited influence on local pension decision-making.

Despite the historically undervalued and yet politically charged character of domestic labour its contemporary emergence as a female migrant occupation exposes the group of female migrant domestic workers to comparatively to the past more intense exploitation and abuse. Within security regimes, which act as the primary means of management for female migrants, the national and gender identities of female migrant domestic workers are constructed as a threat to the national politics of social reproduction. This research project examines the lived inequalities and vulnerabilities of female migrant domestic workers in Greece as outcomes of the politicization of migration as a threat to the national societal security. It does so by utilizing the Copenhagen School’s securitization theory as the basis for the development of this project’s analytical framework and conducting research at the three securitization stages: negotiation, acceptance and institutionalization. It argues that the identified as characteristics of the contemporary migration wave, racism and xenophobia, rise in crime and growth of the informal economy, that have defined the experiences of both nationals and aliens are outcomes of the conceptualization and development of migration policies as exclusionary measures. Utilizing Huysmans concept of desecuritization the research project concludes by claiming that the conscious reorientation of the ethical basis upon which migration policy is established in Greece will result in the alleviation of the burdens of migration for both nationals and migrants.

The aim of the thesis is to identify and explore the extent and characteristics of a shared professional identity of careers guidance practitioners in England. It addresses the perceived limitations of the existing literature concerning the careers guidance profession and its practitioners. This literature often portrays the sector as weakened and fragmented, and lacking in political and structural leverage, particularly in the wake of the introduction of the Connexions Service in 2001, and the aftermath of the Education Act (2011). Its practitioners are also represented as de-professionalised or de-motivated (e.g., Colley et al, 2010), with reduced connections to professional communities and associations, and with their sense of professionalism limited by the organisations in which they work. Further, the literature often reflects wider debates concerning the effects of neo-liberal managerialism on professionals in public service provision (e.g., Evetts, 2005). The latter overlooks individuals’ sense of agency in shaping their everyday work practices. In addressing this problematic, the research project explores a number of key areas and questions. These include: the existence of a shared professional identity; its features; the conditions and processes by which the identity is shaped and created; the ways in which practitioners connect with communities of practice (Wenger, 1998); and their engagement with, and influence on, the organisations in which they operate when expressing their agency. The adopted qualitative methodology is consistent with the nature of the enquiry into this lived experience; and uses grounded theory method, particularly the Strauss and Corbin (1990) approach, to interrogate the rich narratives offered by the research participants who were drawn from a variety of provider contexts. The key finding of the research is that, despite the on-gong challenges faced by the profession in England, not least the lack of a workforce development strategy, the participants’ accounts do attest to a common professional identity. The enquiry also identifies the conditions and processes by which such an identity is created, and reveals empowered and knowledgeable social actors (Giddens, 1984) who are not yoked to managerialism. The thesis’ contribution is to advance the debate concerning the professional identity of careers guidance practitioners, and provides fresh insights into the ways of which identity and agency are created and expressed. It also identifies further areas for research, and suggests that Stones’ strong structuration (2005) may offer a useful tool to promote specific and ontic-level enquiry into professionalism and professional identity.

This study is an account of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) variations in firm level practices between two countries, France and the UK. This comparison is theoretically located in the comparative capitalism framework where the sampled countries differ substantially. This study confirms the existence of differences in CSR practices between these two countries and qualifies the nature and extent of these variations. UK companies appear more socially responsible than French companies, but the genuine character of this involvement is questioned. Besides, this study demonstrates how these differences are the results of a combined (but complex) effect of varieties of capitalism and firm level characteristics. The study of CSR involvement and antecedents is worth pursuing because the question of CSR and the role of companies are still debated. Should companies be only interested in maximising their profits for the sake of their shareholders following Friedman’s (1970) admonition? Or should they be more involved in the community, taking a greater part in solving societal problems? How far should they go in fighting global warming? In practice, companies have been held responsible for issues traditionally handled by the state, but not all of them engage in CSR (Gjølberg, 2009b; Kinderman, 2009). There is an increasing amount of companies engaging in CSR reporting and relying on sustainability jargon: sustainable, ethical, ethically sourced, environmentally friendly to name only a few. And yet, the last decade, for instance, has witnessed a global financial crisis, repeated business scandals (banking, tax, labour conditions, pays), rising inequalities in developed and developing countries, and worsened human-made global warming. So how are companies and national states behaving? This study contributes to the existing literature at several levels. It is a unique cross-country analysis of CSR antecedents and CSR practices between France and the UK. It is based on a quantitative multi-level analysis of its antecedents combining the impact of national institutions, companies’ characteristics and HR managers’ perceptions. The comparative CSR literature tends to study CSR antecedents one level at a time. This study fills in this gap by providing a global picture of CSR antecedents, rooted in two main strands of literature: the comparative capitalism literature, and the comparative CSR literature. The study offers insights on the separate and combined impact of varieties of capitalism and company characteristics on the nature of CSR practices. France and the UK are particularly interesting cases for this study since they present significant differences in their type of capitalism. The UK is traditionally characterised as a Liberal Market Economy. France provides a comparison case as it is a country which is difficult to categorise, and does not easily fall into the traditional liberal or coordinated market categories. Using a self-administered questionnaire, this study collected data from 162 respondents (95 French and 67 UK). This study shows variations in CSR maturity between France and the UK, with UK companies showing a greater involvement in all aspect of CSR. Importantly, CSR should not be treated as a homogeneous concept rather it encompasses four components: compulsory CSR, customers, suppliers and philanthropy, and the environment. The study demonstrates that each component does not have the same antecedents. The variety of capitalism plays a role when it comes to the general level of CSR and its compulsory aspect, whereas the economic situation of the companies plays a crucial part in the other components. This study presents a novel finding regarding HR managers’ perception of CSR outcomes and rationale. While demonstrating the positive role of HR managers’ perceptions on CSR practices, French and UK managers exhibit a contradictory picture of CSR. The former believes in the benefits of CSR in terms of improving the bottom line. UK HR managers are not convinced that CSR is beneficial, but more importantly they trust their managers to engage in it for ethical reasons. Finally, this study advances theory explaining the differences in cross-country managers perceptions of CSR relying on the theory of relative deprivation.

This thesis shows how small-scale actions can accumulate into radical organisational transformations catalysed and enhanced through digital technology. Current literature on digital innovation and path creation offer powerful views on such transformations emphasising the vistas of opportunity opened by generative and flexible digital technology, and how new technology can be leveraged for organisational transformation. Digital transformations have predominantly been portrayed from the centralised perspective of a manager, entrepreneur or group of designers. However, emerging research on distributed digital innovation increasingly emphasises how radical transformations emerge from widely distributed networks as a result of contributions from multiple heterogeneous actors. The aim of this thesis is to inform emerging theory on distributed digital innovation by explaining the ways in which multiple digitally distributed actions can combine into radical organisational transformations. To this end, a two-year, multi-method case study of the distributed and radical digital transformation of frontline customer service at Barclays’ retail bank was conducted. The research design combines traditional qualitative research techniques with new computational methods in a ‘grounded computational analysis’ framework. This allows for a new empirical and conceptual perspective on the agency dynamics of distributed digital innovation. The findings suggest that organisational transformations can occur as a consequence of accumulation of multiple small-scale actions, contingent upon at least the following four factors: a) the sequence of previous transformations; b) the composition and structure of the innovation network; c) the co-occurrence of proposition, opposition and synthesis as micro-level interactions; d) the specific configurations of enacted agency dynamics. These findings are used to build a grounded process theory of ‘double-cumulative synthesis’ explaining the transformational power of specific configurations of digital agency dynamics. This contributes to the literature on distributed digital innovation by conceptualising the dynamics and structure of distributed agency dynamics that accumulate into radical organisational transformations.

The focus of this research is mediation in workplace disputes between individuals; and the research population, those ACAS staff mediating in such disputes. The research questions ask what constitutes success, and how mediators achieve it. The theoretical framework is that of systems, a workplace dispute being a sub-system of the organisational system. Success is often defined in the mediation literature as a written agreement. Measures other than agreements, written or otherwise, are also mentioned. The literature identifies many variables leading to success. These have been grouped into those contributed by mediators, and those of a situational nature. The researcher adopted an interpretivist research paradigm and, primarily, the case study methodology, ACAS mediators being the case. A model predicting success in workplace mediation is outlined. Various research methods were used, in particular, participant and non-participant observation, focus groups, individual interviews, and reviewing records. Most mediators interviewed defined success as getting an agreement. They also identified indicators of likely success and reinforcers of agreements. Another important finding was that a so-called dispute impact approach to success resonated with mediators. Under that approach, success depends on what mediators seek to achieve: either to limit the dispute, or to settle it, or to address its root causes. The primary mediator variable leading to success was found to be the mediator’s experience; and the primary situational variable, the tractability of the particular dispute. Although success can be measured objectively, for instance by a written agreement, a relative measure such as the dispute impact approach provides a more nuanced gauge. Also, this thesis concludes, a systems approach is useful, not only when looking at the dispute to be mediated but also when considering the mediator, if s/he is part of an organisational system supplying mediation services. This system, in turn part of a wider economic/political system, shapes the key approaches to be adopted by the mediator, including the style of mediation and the time normally allocated to a case. Moreover, in this case study, it was found that the organisation (ACAS) gave less importance to mediation than to its other dispute resolution services.