Theories of host country – TNC bargaining seek to explain dependency shifts based on positional assets and relative capabilities. This analysis of the efforts of México and Brazil to promote and direct the development of a national computer industry from 1977 to 1990 reveals a bargaining landscape that is more dynamic than the traditional bargaining model anticipates. This thesis explains the variable nature of bargaining gains and losses by analysing the on-going, complex interplay of political, industry and market forces. Despite industry characteristics that favoured foreign capital, both México and Brazil achieved bargaining gains in the computer industry. Brazilian state actors enticed national finance and industrial groups to invest in the industry, prompted the development of indigenous technological capacity, and limited the market influence of computer transnationals for more than a decade. With more limited policy ambition, support and duration, México had initial success prompting TNC minority joint ventures in microcomputers and extracting concessions from the TNCs for exports. In both cases, however, bargaining gains were not secure; shifts in dependency were not progressive and one-directional. In fact, the study exposes a reverse trend toward greater dependency on foreign capital in both countries. For this reason one may not employ either case to support the obsolescing bargain in high technology industries. This thesis highlights three factors neglected by the traditional bargaining construct: the dynamism of the global computer industry which opened and closed

A common feeling among the Industrial Relations community is that the field faces a crisis that challenges both its ability to address the phenomena it studies and its institutional structures. However, the literature is not clear on the reasons for this development. Some argue, predominantly in Britain, that the cause of this crisis is the penetration of Human Resource Management (HRM) or, as this trend is also known, of the New Industrial Relations (NIR) theory, in the intellectual and institutional edifice of the field. Others, however, especially from the US, believe that the reason for the inability of the field to deal with the external environment is its adherence to an oldfashioned paradigm that does not take into consideration the changing nature of industrial relations realities. For them, the solution is to incorporate the teachings of the NIR theory in the intellectual corpus of Industrial Relations. Thus, one is faced with two contradictory positions that have the same bases, namely that the field is in a critical condition and that, somehow, a theory is involved (or should be involved) in the picture. However, the discrepancy between the two theses poses important conceptual problems for the future of the field for it is not as yet clear who is to blame (if anyone) for its current situation. It is, therefore, the aim of this Thesis to clarify the above picture. To achieve this, both the above theses will be evaluated. To do so, it is imperative to study the epistemological implications of the NIR theory for the field of Industrial Relations, and then to examine the place the NIR theory occupies in the intellectual structures of the field in Britain. Once this is achieved, the issue of crisis will be tackled in more detail to determine whether British Industrial Relations actually face the crisis that the various voices in the literature ascribe it with. In the Introduction the general problem and the Research Questions of the Thesis will be discussed. Then, the First Chapter will set the theoretical context upon which the analysis will be based. Chapter Two will present the intellectual and institutional development of the field of Industrial Relations, while Chapter Three will be devoted to an analysis of the NIR theory. Chapter Four will examine the epistemic value of the theory for the field of Industrial Relations and Chapter Five will investigate the position that the NIR theory occupies in the British Industrial Relations fora of knowledge development. Chapter Six will complement the above discussion by examining the evolutionary dynamics of the NIR theory. In Chapter Seven the intellectual status of Industrial Relations will be examined to see whether the field faces an intellectual crisis. Then, Chapter Eight will analyse the dynamics of the field in Britain to evaluate the condition of the field’s institutions. Finally, in Chapter Nine, the institutional status of the field, together with some ideas about the field’s future will be further discussed, and some promising avenues for future research will be presented.

This PhD research started from an interest in how organisational and professional antecedents affect knowledge transfer in the professionalised context of the National Health Service. It was further motivated by findings from previous studies (Currie, Finn, & Martin, 2008a; Currie, Finn, & Martin, 2008b; Currie, Martin, & Finn, 2009; Currie & Suhomlinova, 2006a; Currie, Waring, & Finn, 2008c; Martin, Currie, & Finn, 2009; Martin, Finn, & Currie, 2007; Waring & Currie, 2009) which highlighted both the need for more contextual studies in the area of knowledge management and interesting issues around the role of professional boundaries in knowledge transfer. This research investigates and evaluates organisational and professional antecedents to knowledge transfer in the professionalised context of the UK National Health Service, to create empirical and useful results to researchers, practitioners and policy-makers. To achieve this goal, a range of literatures were evaluated, focusing primarily on knowledge management. The review of these literatures revealed a number of research gaps from within the Knowledge Management theory to which this study responds. The two most significant gaps for this are a) a need for empirically based studies on the influence of organisational antecedents on knowledge transfer in professionalised contexts at both organisational and individuals levels and b) a need for empirically based studies on the influence of professional antecedents on knowledge transfer in professionalised contexts at the level of the organisation and the individual. This research is underpinned by a subjectivist ontology, an interpretive epistemology and a multi-method research design. It is exploratory, evaluative, longitidunal, comparative and inductive research with two primary data sets gathered from nurses who participated in a knowledge transfer initiative in the NHS (19 semi-structured interviews) and from key informants of the nursing profession giving their opinion on the dissemination of knowledge in the nursing profession (10 semi-structured interviews). Each data set is used to better understand the impact of organisational and professional antecedents on knowledge transfer in a professionalised context. This research project also contributed to a larger research project led by Professor Graeme Currie from the University of Nottingham aimed at evaluating NHS genetics service investments on a national scale (Martin et al., 2007). This larger research project was based on a comparative analysis of organisational and professional antecedents affecting the implementation of genetic service investments. In total, 85 interviews, including that of the researcher, were conducted over a two-year period with key members of the projects such as General Practitioners, hospital consultants, scientists and nurses. The main finding of the current study is that knowledge transfer initiatives are difficult to implement into practice when taking into the impact of a professional hierarchy on organisational mechanisms of the National Health Service. As a result, the data provide empirical evidence to suggest that KM theories are not necessarily relevant enough to a professionalised context such as the NHS. Essentially, the study finds that existing power relationships between the medical profession and the nursing profession inhibit knowledge transfer and, as a result, poses problems for mainstreaming specialist knowledge such as genetics into generalist care settings of the NHS. In such context, knowledge transfer is influenced by professional institutions that regulate the transfer of knowledge in a profession. Therefore, the research contributes to organisation studies research by providing conceptual and empirical understanding into how organisational and professional antecedents become boundaries to knowledge transfer in a professionalised context. The study also contributes to the medical sociology literature by providing a refreshing look at the ubiquitous theme of medical dominance in healthcare systems (Armstrong, 2002; Dingwall, 1987; Dopson, 2005; Ferlie, Fitzgerald, Wood, & Hawkins, 2005; Larkin, 1978). The study finally contributes to management practice and government policy-making by providing an evaluation of knowledge management programmes in the NHS, and by making some strategic recommendations to respond to these issues.

This thesis examines aspects of estate improvement on the Egremont estates in Sussex, Yorkshire and Australia between 1770 and 1860. Using the Petworth House Archives and others, it documents large-scale improvement projects, including William Smith’s work in mineral prospecting in West Yorkshire, and Colonel Wyndham’s land speculation in South Australia. The third Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) himself has received some biographical attention, but this has concentrated to a great extent on his patronage of the arts. This thesis therefore documents a number of important matters for the first time, in particular the detailed work of the middle layer of personnel involved in estate management and improvement. Episodes of ‘failure’ in estate improvement are also revealing in this study. This thesis contributes to debates regarding the nature of ‘improvement’ in this period, and most particularly, to understandings of the developing rural professions and to scholarship regarding professionalisation; interpreting key episodes in the archive utilising a ‘landscape’ approach. It uses the concept of an ‘estate landscape’ to draw together the dispersed Egremont estates in order to better understand the management structures of these estates, and how they relate to the home estate at Petworth.The thesis examines the relationships between Lord Egremont and the various agents (in the widest sense) who acted on his behalf; the configuration of which agents was different for each of the different estates. It makes a particular contribution to ongoing debates about the formation of the professions in eighteenth and nineteenth-century England in suggesting that despite the contemporary stress on applied agricultural expertise, legal land agents remained more influential than has been supposed. The belated professionalisation of the Petworth agents and the significant differences in their roles when compared with a land agency firm such as Kent, Claridge and Pearce suggests that estate management was far more diverse than has been suggested. Egremont himself emerges from the archive as neither a hands-on agricultural improver nor as an uninterested and neglectful absentee. Instead, I suggest, he acted as co-ordinator and as an impresario amongst the men engaged to act on his behalf, the middle layer of developing rural professionals including agents, surveyors, and engineers. If the literature to date has concentrated on Egremont as patron of art, he emerges from this thesis as a patron of improvement.

Sustainability assurance is developing rapidly in the United Kingdom, despite a negative stance from management. Previous studies have examined the practice as represented in statements from 2001 to 2004, companies’ reasons for commissioning assurance services, and the views of assurance providers on stakeholder-centred practice. Despite the importance of stakeholder participation within sustainability assurance exercises, far too little attention has been paid to stakeholders and their views on the phenomenon of sustainability assurance. This research identifies the trends and emerging issues in the practice between 2001 and 2007, investigates corporate management’ views on those issues, and examines stakeholders’ perspectives on the potentialities and problems of assurance practice. The research follows a mixed-methods two phase explanatory model. A content analysis of assurance statements issued by a sample of FTSE100 companies was used to collect quantitative data on tendencies as to the choice of provider, standards used, level of assurance adopted, procedures employed, and methods of stakeholder inclusion used. Then, these issues were explored via a programme of semi-structured interviews conducted with ten representatives of FTSE100 companies, and eight representatives of different stakeholder groups, and the resulting data analyzed through the lens of key strands of Michael Power’s theory, and legitimacy and stakeholder theories. Emerging trends of hiring accountancy firms and using the AA1000AS in tandem with the ISAE3000 standard indicate change in the practice. Assurance exercises conducted with substantive test procedures, and of limited level, persist. The AA1000 is the most used standard, however, is not leading to direct participation of stakeholders. While there is some evidence of stakeholder interest, particularly on the part of nongovernmental organisations, the real driving force behind assurance is internal. Organisational constraints, particularly cost considerations, influence further development of the practice. Corporate management did express a desire to bring stakeholder involvement through stakeholder panels. Corporate management view sustainability assurance as creating value by delivering organisational legitimacy and enhancing reputation. In the current climate of voluntarism, there is a high risk of sustainability assurance being used as greenwashing. For management, sustainability assurance should serve the interest of the organisation and shareholders over other stakeholders. Through the assurance process, organisations manage and control key stakeholder groups. This view is supported by one influential stakeholder group, the investment community. Therefore, the role of stakeholder groups representing other civil society needs is fundamental to ensure that through sustainability assurance accountability is discharged to society at large.

Both organisations and individuals are using more collaborative work, across geographic, disciplinary and organisational boundaries, leading to increased demand for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to support a more effective and efficient distributed collaboration. This thesis presents an empirical study exploring various aspects related to collaborative distance in the context of innovation projects. It focuses on the investigation of issues related to distance factors that affect collaboration effectiveness and efficiency. A total of 14 focus group interviews, undertaken with 75 participants in a comparative study of 14 project cases, revealed sufficient evidence on distance factors in the context of mixed (face-to-face and online or virtual) collocation modes. The results confirmed the positive role of collaboration technology for compressing geographical and temporal types of distance; other distance types were also bridged, however, other distance types were created. This empirical study aims to enlarge the academic understanding of distance factors by disambiguating their description and deciphering their role in the collaboration process, and clarifying the reasons for the use and improvement of collaboration technology for overcoming collaborative distances. It also confirms that distance factors raise collaboration barriers, and reveals that they disturb the collaboration mechanics by hindering knowledge workers’ capacity to reach a mutual understanding. Such findings have deep implications for the future enhancement of collaboration technology to fill the current gaps in distributed collaboration, also called e-Collaboration.

Since the publication of the Brundtland Report, ‘sustainable development’ has become a popular yet contested concept among governments, international organisations and the private sector. To implement sustainable development, institutions attaining different objectives interpreted the definition in the Brundtland Report in various ways. These interpretations sometimes contradict each other. Brownfield land is the legacy of industrialisation and urbanisation. Brownfield regeneration has been considered a tool to rebuild sustainable communities. Similar to the concept of sustainable development, countries define the term brownfield land or ‘brownfields’ in different ways. Therefore, utilising brownfield regeneration to pursue sustainable development became an intricate matter. This study has developed a framework to define brownfield land to improve the quality of brownfield regeneration policymaking by analysing qualitative and quantitative evidence on the use of land and sustainability. The analyses of sustainability indexes revealed that the types of strategies applied by countries to achieve sustainability depend on their progress in development and on population density. At the same time, data also showed that the population density of a country influences the ways the term ‘brownfields’ is deinfed in the regenerating policies. Therefore, population density, as an indicator of development density, is a useful differentiator of brownfield definitions in the policies that may or may not lead to the successful regeneration. Furthermore, the concept of development densities may change based on the geographic scales of concern as well as the development of technologies that allow higher development densities without compromising the quality of life. Taiwan and England are both countries with high population densities. Preserving greenfield land and enhancing social capacities in the countries are important to maintain sustainability. However, the two countries perceive brownfield land at the opposite ends of the spectrum. England sees all previously developed land as brownfield land, while Taiwan considers ‘brownfields’ to be the result of industrial pollution. The textual analysis of parliamentary debate and news reports, in addition to the statistical analyses of land use, showed that neither definition has effectively tackled the issues of preserving greenfield land or improving social equality. In countries with higher development densities, to prevent further destruction of greenfields, and to increase the social capacities, the brownfield definition should help to focus regeneration efforts on the derelict urban land that requires interventions to bring back sustainable communities.

Regional inequality is one of the most challenging issues facing China in the coming decade. Whilst this matter can be approached from different angles; mainstream scholars have tended to examine this issue by way of monetary measurement (e.g. GDP or income per capita). This study draws attention to the non-monetary aspect in order to shed new light on regional inequality. Accordingly, this research focuses on the gaps and trends of human capital development, a key non-monetary index proxying for regional inequality in transitional China. Taking education and health status as two key indicators, in particular, this research aims to trace the trends in regional inequality over the last two decades, investigate to what extent those two dimensions can help to identify and integrate factors behind regional disparities, and to analyse some profound policies and implications. Based upon official educational and health status statistics at provincial level, this study develops a model to exam regional disparity between the three economic development zones from 1990 to 2005. Main findings are that different perspectives of regional inequality bring out different consequences; from the viewpoint of human capital development, regional inequality presents positive findings in uneven development. Secondly, causes of development are fairly diverse and different measurements may significantly vary outcomes. Thirdly, uneven development is a spontaneous phenomenon underlying development, which over varying lengths of time may have stimulated economic growth in a positive way. Finally, limitations are discussed associated with policy implications.

This study takes a spatial perspective to analyze traditional land-use and production systems in humid tropical environments, with emphasis on the agricultural dimension. The setting is the Pastaza River Basin in the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Achuar and Shiwiar indigenous groups are used to highlight the elements of these systems. This dissertation relies on land use/land cover change and agricultural change theories to analyze indigenous land use systems. The study uses empirical data to examine the linkages between decision making, the demand for land resources, and landscape change. Results suggest that the transition from nomadic-dispersed to permanent-nucleic villages leads to the implementation of a land-use zoning system that responds to changes in resource availability. This system can be represented by a concentric land-use-zones model that depicts an efficient distribution of land resources around service infrastructure such as landing strips, health centers, or schools. Overall, the demand for land resources varies with changes in household composition. At the beginning of the household’s life cycle, the demand for farmed land is relatively low because the family’s food requirements are minimal. As households grow, the demand increases and agriculture expands. As young adults leave the house for any reason, the demand for cultivated land decreases and the extent of agricultural land use contracts. In addition, the demand for land resources is associated with ecological conditions of the habitats in which production occurs and with distance to the community. Areas with good soils have smaller agricultural plots than areas with poor soils. People living in poor-soil environments manage larger fields but produce less food per unit of area than households with good soils. The probability of an area of becoming agriculture increases in sites farther away from existing cultivation fields, service infrastructure, and homes since areas closer to these features have already been used and are recuperating as fallows. Additionally, people are cultivating in areas that are relatively steeper than older agricultural fields. These findings suggest that indigenous people are expanding agriculture into areas with adverse pedologic and topographic conditions, which may be an indication of overall scarcity of land resources for food production. / text

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Landscape Architecture