The focus of this dissertation is to examine the strategic responses of Indian room air-conditioner (RAC) manufacturers to changes in the business environment, specifically those brought about by economic liberalisation, market reform, and new foreign competition post 1991. Strategic management literature is replete with appeals for examining developing economy industries in a state of transition, yet very little data exist pertaining to the strategic responses of firms as they adjust to increasing competitive pressures, both domestic and foreign, within the Indian market. Using an emerging market- strategic factor - corporate strategy conceptual model developed by the researcher from strategic management literature, this research investigates how Indian RAC firms have been responding to the changes brought about by liberalisation and reform. Information was gathered by means of semi-structured interviews with respondents at three different levels within the domestic room air-conditioner industry. These included industry experts, RAC manufacturers, and dealers of RACs. In addition, secondary data was also collected in order to examine the strategic behaviour of RAC manufacturers over the past fifteen years, thereby providing a contextual/historical background to the primary data. The strategic analysis undertaken of the Indian RAC industry and the capture of rich data, obtained from the in-depth interviews in particular, make a major contribution to strategic management knowledge - specifically within an emerging market context such as India. The research findings show that liberalisation and reforms have increased foreign and domestic competition within the Indian RAC industry and substantially raised consumer demand levels. The results demonstrate that the institutional environment, and the RAC industry structure and market settings have had a significant impact on domestic organisations' strategy. Firm-specific resources and network/relationship capabilities, however, have exerted a smaller influence since the onset of economic reforms. Yet, the importance of the resource and relational perspectives can beseen in Indian RAC firms' responses to the changing environment. The research noted cost reductions, an expansion in RAC product ranges and marketing initiatives, and strategic alliances with industry participants as typical responses.

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The subject of this thesis is teleworking as one of the genus of flexible working options for new economy service organisations. The research took the form of a multi-dimensional case study at Lloyd's Policy Signing Office (LPSO) which is the largest profit centre division of the Corporation of Lloyd's. The Corporation is responsible for the international insurance market, Lloyd's of London. LPSO employs 400 people and provides professional support services to its customers being the Lloyd's syndicates, Insurance Brokers and Managing Agencies that make up the market. The study involves examination of the business case for teleworking from the perspective of all the principal constituencies involved. The findings of previous research in relation to costs and benefits, staff productivity, staff retention and absenteeism levels are critically examined. Similarly the employee perspective in relation to the demand for teleworking, their job satisfaction and perception of work-life balance are also investigated within the context of existing research. The theory paradigms used to provide the structure to the research are principally the theory of the flexible firm, use of Balanced Score Card and from the Operational Research arena, use of six sigma methodology. The financial case for teleworking is also examined in detail. The fact that LPSO teleworkers perform largely the same tasks as their office based colleagues, and both groups work within the same management and process structure is a feature unusual in existing studies. Also, the level of access to and degree of co-operation from within Lloyd's made it possible to examine the case to a degree not found in existing research into any comparable organisation. The investigation found higher levels of productivity for teleworkers, lower levels of unplanned absence, and some evidence of a propensity to stay with LPSO because of the availability of teleworking. Teleworkers reported levels of work and life satisfaction that were never lower than office based colleagues and higher in some key respects. This was despite the fact that teleworkers feared that they might be disadvantaged in terms of career development and access to training. The study found that the financial pay-back for introducing teleworking was near neutral. Further, it was found that for LPSO higher levels of productivity might not be attributable solely to teleworking per se. Improved productivity might also arise because of the way in which work was distributed and output measured for teleworkers. Adopting comparable distribution and measurement for office based staff was potentially a viable option for LPSO management. Therefore, despite the significant increase in the productivity of teleworkers compared to their office base colleagues the resources required to introduce teleworking might be better applied to other means of improving per capita efficiency with the effects on employees' work-life balance being only an incidental by-product.

Globalization has affected the economic activity of the countries across the world through liberalization of trade and exchange regimes. Moreover, the enhancements in information technology in turn have made it possible for firms to coordinate their activities in a more efficient way, in recent decades. In this setting it is easier for firms to outsource their activities to other countries through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in order to gain competitive advantage. FDI has been considered as one of the factors that significantly influence the economy of countries through affecting the balance of payments, increasing employment, transfer of technology and resources. Since FDI is generally considered as one of the factors that has a great potential to contribute to economic activity of the countries, particularly in case of developing and less developed countries, the disparity in the level of FDI flows observed in case of many developing countries has led to plethora of research on the subject relating the inequalities to macroeconomic factors, institutional factors, and economic geography. In spite of the fact that the literature on FDI, is well developed on a number of areas, the literature on the effect of institutional factors on FDI activity, and in particular the effect of civil and political liberties on FDI flows remains limited and subject to contrary results that renders it inconclusive. This research explores the effect of civil and political liberties on FDI flows. In doing so, we review the literature on determinants of FDI, and establish the firms’ motivations as factors that affect their FDI behaviour. Furthermore we introduce, and conceptually bridge the Varieties of Capitalism of Hall and Soskice (2001) into IB literature, in order to distinguish between the behaviour of firms from various market economies (i.e. LMEs, CMEs, and Nordic) based on the labour law policies of the firms’ home countries. Consequently the incorporation of VoC into IB literature allows us to build on the works of Due et al (1991) and Gold (1993) and Hall and Soskice (2001), and explore the effect of the differences that exist in the way firms in different market economies coordinate their activities, and afford us the possibility of explaining the firms coordination of their FDI activity in the light of their market structures, and underlying institutional differences that influence their behaviour with regard to FDI. We also review the literature on institutional determinants of FDI in order to enrich our understanding of the institutional factors that influence FDI activity. In reviewing the literature on institutional determinants of FDI, we specifically adopt meta analysis methods in order to examine whether there are systemic biases introduced to the literature through the common choices made in terms of scale and study properties (i.e. the choice of country level analysis, data range and decade influences; etc.).We find that firms’ motivations influence the type of relationships found between FDI and the existing level of civil and political liberties in countries. The use of composite measures such as democracy instead of their disaggregated individual constructing sub measures such as civil and political liberties generally leads to provision of distorted results. We also find that the choice of host country influences the relationship between FDI and democracy as well as political liberties. Similar to the arguments put forward by Busse (2004) we find that FDI activity has been subject to changes in different decades as a result of changes in the firms’ motivations and market structure. Moreover, we theoretically explore the effect of civil liberties and political rights on the initial cost of FDI and thereby FDI activity. The models provided build upon the works of Grout (1984); Hart and Moutos (1995) and Adam and Filippaios (2007). It is assumed that the decision of FDI is influenced by the initial cost of investment into the designated host country. Therefore, firms are considered to bargain with employee representatives (labour unions) in the host country before deciding upon their investment abroad, in order to obtain full information with regard to the initial costs of investment. Our theoretical model demonstrates that the effect of civil liberties channelled through union power in the bargaining processes over wages and employment, on aggregated FDI flows is negative, while the effect on sectoral FDI flows is non-linear where the non-linearity stems from the level of labour to capital share of production of specific sectors considered. Furthermore, our theoretical model shows that the effect of political rights channelled through taxes on income and profit tend to be positive on FDI flows irrespective of the level of aggregation. Our empirical investigation of the theoretical findings using the data on the FDI from 8 host countries into 140 developed, developing and less developed host countries for the period of 1990-2009, show that the effect of civil liberties on aggregated FDI flows is negative, while a positive effect is reported for the effect of political rights on aggregated FDI flows. In contrast, considering the effect of civil and political liberties on sectoral FDI (manufacturing and services sectors) we find a non-linear effect reported for both factors, indicating that the effect of civil and political liberties on sectoral FDI flows are non-linear across sectors. Our sensitivity analyses explores the effect of civil and political liberties on aggregated and disaggregated FDI flows into two main group of countries: countries with high and moderately high level of civil liberties; countries with moderately low level of civil liberties. The results provide further empirical evidence on the non-linear effect of civil and political liberties on sectoral FDI flows into host countries with various levels of civil liberties. However, the effect of civil liberties is shown to be linear and negative on aggregated FDI flows into all countries, irrespective of their level of civil liberties. In contrast a non-linear effect of political rights on aggregated FDI flows into host countries with various levels of civil liberties is observed. This research contributes to the literature in several ways: Firstly, it contributes to the theory by bridging the IB literature to the literature from political science on Varieties of Capitalism. Secondly, it provides a theoretical framework, and empirical analyses that explore the FDI activity in the sectoral level. Thirdly, it demonstrates that the use of aggregated data leads to findings linear relationships where the in reality the effects of civil liberties and political rights on FDI are not linear. Fourthly, it provides a number of recommendations for future research.

Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, the thesis provides both empirical evidence and theoretical explanations to show the nature, behaviour, and roles of job satisfaction and personality on self-employed entrepreneurship survival. The thesis poses three research questions: Does self-employed job satisfaction adapt? Does job satisfaction predict the likelihood of survival of self-employed businesses after start-ups? Does personality play a role in the survival probability of men and women who manage self-employed enterprises? The first question hypothesises that the initial boost in job satisfaction associated with the transition into self-employment is transitory, dissipating rapidly during the early years of the self-employment venture. Findings suggest that men who become self-employed enjoy a more permanent boost in overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with pay and, to some extent, satisfaction with the nature of the work itself. Women experience a boost in satisfaction with the nature of the work itself and to, a lesser extent, a boost in satisfaction with pay. Both of these effects for women are short-lived, casting doubt on the importance of job satisfaction, work-schedule flexibility, and work-life balance as pull factors into self-employment. The second question re-examines the link between job satisfaction and self-employment survival and argues that the relationship is not necessarily a contemporaneous one. That is, job satisfaction at time t is not necessarily the best predictor of survival/exit at time t, but it is the whole self-employment experience that matters rather than the last reported satisfaction. The results show that job satisfaction does not predict the probability of survival. Rather, the maximum job satisfaction and the peak-end combinations during the self-employment episode are better predictors of survival. The last question draws on the robust measures of personality to forecast the survival chances of men and women-managed enterprises, paying attention to occupational differences. Findings show that, unlike previous studies, different personality traits predict men and women-managed ventures survival chances over time; and that the likelihood of survival overtime of both men and women-managed enterprises by occupational categories is dependent on the different personality traits complementing themselves in different scenarios. The thesis contributes to the existing literature by offering a novel behavioural research perspective into the analysis of self-employment dynamics.

Over the last decade, researchers have been increasingly interested in exploring the nature and potential benefits of an organisation's corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. CSR refers to "actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law" (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001, p.117). The majority of research to date has focused on an organisational perspective and demonstrated that engaging in CSR activities results in positive organisational outcomes such as a reduced firm risk (McWilliams and Siegel 2001), increased attractiveness for investors (Aguilera, Rupp, Williams and Ganapathi 2007) and prospective employees (Bhattacharya et al. 2008) and reduced employee turnover (Galbreath 2009). More recently, researchers have turned their attention towards exploring how and organisation's employees respond to CSR activities. Corporate volunteering (CV) is emerging as an important tool through which organisations demonstrate their CSR. A focus on CV answers the call for an employee-centered understanding of CSR. This thesis explores the drivers and consequences of CV for employees and the employing organisation. This study integrates research on functional motivation and organisational support with CV to demonstrate that emploees' integral and external motives offer a perspective towards the CV initiatives in their organisations. This research also contributes to CV literature by examining the consequences of CV for the employee as well as the organisation. As CV involves volunteers who are also regular employees, the researcher expects that participating in CV will have an impact on how employees behave during their regular employment and also for the employing organisation, who in this case are the facilitators of the CV programme. Drawing on social exchange theory and intrinsic motivation theory, the study focuses on organisational outcomes of organisational commitment and work engagement and employee outcomes of job satisfaction and employee health and well-being as a result of CV participation. This study also examined the process through which CV activities influence the above mentioned outcomes. Inconsistencies in findings on research in CV have elicited calls for mediation mechanisms to be identified that will clarify relationships between CV and its outcomes. By focusing on social identity theory, this study suggests that pride and organisational identification (OI) mediates the relationship between employees' attitudes to CV and the consequences. Electronic questionnaires were distributed to employees in organisations that had corporate volunteering initiatives from Malaysia and Singapore. The final sample size after deleting for missing data incomplete questionnaires was 160 respondents. On average, participants were 38 years old with a SD on 9.1 years. 58.2 percent were female and 41.8 percent were male. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to analyse the data. The findings suggest that employees participate in CV for a variety of motives, the most significant of which is a desire to experience new learning experiences and to have the opportunity to use these knowledge, skills and abilities that they might not use in their regular jobs. Participating to express altruism, improving relationships with others, protecting the ego from negative features and enhancing positive strivings of the ego proved to be less important. Another important finding is that employees are driven by the support shown by their employers in terms of paid leave and time off. In terms of consequences, the findings suggest that all the dependent variables have a positive relationship with employees' attitudes towards corporate volunteering when mediated by both pride and organisational identification. By conceptualising and examining the relationships in this model, this study makes the following contributions. First, this research integrates several underpinning theories to develop a new theoretical framework that explains the drivers, consequences and mediators of CV. Second, by adopting Clary et al.'s (1998) functional theory and organisational support, this study contributes towards a perspective to explain individuals' attitudes towards their organisations' CV initiatives. It also contributes towards healthy debate on similarities and differences between general volunteering and CV. Third, this study integrates social exchange theory and intrinsic-extrinsic motivation to contribute to the literature on the outcomes of CV by incorporating organisational commitment, work engagement, job satisfaction and health and well-being in one model. Fourth, this study integrates social identity theory and intrinsic-extrinsic motivation theory to examine how pride and organisational identification mediate the processes through which CV activities influence employee outcomes of job satisfaction and health and well-being as well as employer outcomes of organisational commitment and work engagement.

This study investigates the association between earnings management and executive compensation by examining evidence from firms in the FTSE350 Index. It questions whether CEOs manipulate earnings, particularly with regard to bonus entitlement and discusses the possible reasons for their actions. It explores whther earnings are manipulated in self-interest to reach pre-specified bonus levels and increase compensation. It also examines the extent of manipulation when bonuses are deffered or when long-term compensation is offered, The effect of non-financial measures in assessing performance is also examined, when they are used alongisde financial meaures and when giving equal or more weight. There are many studies concerning earnings management (hereafter, EM) and executive compensation, particularly in the US, but accruals management has mostly been used to determine the extent of manipulation and real activities management has received comparatively little attention. The present study uses both discretionary accruals (hereafter, DAC) and real activities management (hereafter, RAM) which gives wider understanding of the issue. The findings reveal that executives indulge in income-increasing earnings management through DAC and adjusting sales when company earnings approach their pre-specified minimum and target bonus levels. It is also found that executives employ income-decreasing earnings management by adjusting DAC and sales when earnings approach their pre-specified maximum bonus levels. When a deferred bonus is equal to or greater than the annual bonus, results reveal that firms engage in less income-increasing manipulation than those with less deffered bonus. In a situation where the proportion of long-term bonus is greater than short-term bonus, less income-increasing earnings management are exhibited in terms of both DAC and RAM. The use of non-financial performance measures in bonus contracts also can have a significant effect on constraining EM. The results of the present study reveal that when both financial and non-financial performance measures are used together, less income-increasing manipulation by DAC and expenses takes place. If equal or more weight is given to non-financial performance measure compared with financial measures, minimal EM takes place both in DAC and RAM. This study cotnrols for corporate governance variables particularly related to executive compensation to assess their influence on EM. Despit increasing regulation designed to restrict manipulation of company results, the results show that stronger corporate governance rules have a minimal effect in controlling earnings management. A major contribution of this study is that it concludes that although RAM is not widely used it has great importance in relation to executive compensation. DAC is relatively easily identified and executives may avoid detection by adopting RAM. This suggests that tests for RAM should be more extensively used. Another unique feature of this study is that the effectiveness of deferred bonus in controlling EM has not to the best of my knowledge been previously examined. Whilst other researchers have concentrated on the relationship between stock options and EM, this research additionally takes into account other forms of long-term incentive such as share incentive plan, company incentive plan etc. Another important consideration, largely unexplored by previous researchers, is the advantage of using non-financial performance measures as well as financial performance measures and the degree of weighting given to both when determining pay and bonuses. Shareholders and other stakeholders expect pay to be limked to performance by incentives relating reward to increased company earnings and the choice of performance measures is important to achieve this. The findings of this study will be of interest to shareholders and regulators because it will assis them in undertanding how compensation characteristics are related to EM.

Classical perspectives on problem solving are embedded in computational models of insight problem solving, such as the information-processing model (e.g., Newell & Simon, 1972). Problem-solving activity is viewed as a product of information-processing in which people see or hear problem information, think about the solution, then produce the solution: see or hear, think, then act. More recently, Ohlsson (2011) suggested people solve problems by mentally restructuring the problem information. Hence, insight comes about as a consequence of restructuring (Weisberg, 2014). As such, the origin of insight is commonly understood as a mental experience. However, the traditional frameworks explaining the insight experience commonly overlook the influence of reasoners' immediate environment. Systemic cognition frameworks such as the Extended Mind Thesis (Clark & Chalmers, 1998), Distributed Cognition (Hollan, Hutchins, & Kirsh, 2000) and the Systemic Thinking Model (Vallée-Tourangeau, Abadie, & Vallée-Tourangeau, 2015; Vallée-Tourangeau & Vallée-Tourangeau, 2017) assume information-processing is augmented when spread across mental and physical resources. When presented with a physical representation of a task, making changes to that physical representation, even arbitrary ones, may offer cues to new strategies, enabling better planning and efficiency in progressing towards a goal. Accordingly, the opportunity to interact and coordinate with the immediate environment enhances insight performance. This thesis sought to explore insight performance from a systemic cognition perspective. The research program investigated how the level of interactivity influenced solution rate in the Cheap Necklace Problem (de Bono, 1967; Silveira, 1971). Across four experiments, participants attempted to solve the problem either in a low interactivity condition, using only pen-and-paper and relying heavily on mental restructuring, or in a high interactivity condition, with a physical model of the problem with constituent elements they could manipulate while attempting to find a solution. The results across the experiments confirmed that increasing the level of interactivity resulted in enhanced insight performance. Incubation and transfer are often upheld as key determinants for insight performance. Thus, in addition to exploring the impact of interactivity, the experiments investigated how interactivity may interact with incubation and transfer to promote insight. To measure incubation effects, participants in the first two experiments reattempted the same problem after a two-week break. There was evidence of an incubation effect as performance substantially improved on the subsequent attempt. To explore transfer, a new Cheap Necklace Problem variant was introduced, which participants in the final two experiments attempted following the original version of the problem. Transfer was evident as participants were able to successfully transfer their solution to solve the new variant. Moreover, overall performance improved on the subsequent problem. Across the four experiments, the level of interactivity offered on the second problem attempt was important: When the problem presentation changed (low interactivity to high interactivity or high interactivity to low interactivity) performance only improved when working in a highly interactive task environment second. Thus, insight through interactivity fosters stronger performance on both the initial and subsequent task. This thesis further explored how interactivity prompts insight in a dynamic agent-environment by recording and analysing participants' actions. One important finding from these behavioural analyses was the fact that those who spent the largest proportion of their time reconfiguring the task environment, thus making the most of the malleability of the artefacts available, were also most likely to reach insight.

This study examines how disabled people become entrepreneurs, using the concept of ‘entrepreneurial identity’ as a theoretical lens for explaining the effects of disability on venture creation. The original theoretical contribution is a novel conceptualisation of entrepreneurial identity, one that applies to all entrepreneurs whilst including the experiences of disabled people and people with long-term impairments and health conditions. Drawing on a critical realist philosophy, and a stratified, emergent ontology, entrepreneurial identity is defined as a personal power to create a new venture that succeeds in the marketplace. Entrepreneurial identity, as a causal power, is a tendency that may be possessed unexercised, exercised unrealised and realised unperceived. Although most people have the potential to become an entrepreneur, not everyone can, or is motivated to, exercise that power because of other countervailing powers – personal, material and social. Theorising identity as a causal power can account for both stability and change in identity formation, in contrast to studies that define entrepreneurial identity in terms of fixed characteristics determining behaviour, or as a dynamic process encompassing narrative performances. The empirical material comprises entrepreneur and stakeholder interview data, online visual data and shadowing field notes. The analysis reveals that the emergence of entrepreneurial identity presupposes three lower-level personal powers that must be exercised simultaneously: (1) the power to conceive of a new venture idea; (2) the power to commit to venture creation; and (3) the power to acquire new venture legitimacy. Depending on circumstances, disability can both enable and constrain individual capacity to realise the three powers, with implications for venture creation. The findings highlight the role of human relations with nature and the material culture of artefacts as well as society in the emergence of entrepreneurial identity. This novel theoretical framework is more inclusive in terms of the multiplicity of mechanisms at different identity strata and levels of reality that it can examine whilst accommodating the alternative approaches.

Brand alliance, or co-branding, is a strategic brand management strategy involving short-term and or long-term cooperative marketing activities between two or more individual brands. Research on brand alliances demonstrates that co-branding creates an interdependent relationship that is beneficial to the individual brands in the partnership. Although brand alliances represent a viable business opportunity for both brands, it is an inherently risky strategy. In a brand partnership, a negative event involving one brand can potentially spill over to the partner brand, as well to the co-branded product. There are several illustrations of the above in the industry - Ford was boycotted following Firestone's tyre recall crisis. Lego received negative publicity amidst Shell's controversial plans to drill in the Artic, and more recently Visa was drawn into the corruption scandal involving FIFA. Even though such controversies are increasingly common and create undesirable media attention for the brands in an alliance, knowledge on the risks associated with co-branding is sparse. The lack of knowledge is due to the paucity of empirical research in the area. The literature overlooks crises facing corporate brands in an alliance. Moreover, existing knowledge does not go beyond investigating the impact on negative events on consumers' attitudes toward the partner brands in an alliance. In particular, the literature is silent on how one partner's transgression can impact consumers' evaluations of the co-branding initiative jointly created by two corporate brands. Little is also known about the factors that could diminish negative spill over effects in co-branding crises. Aiming to address the above gaps in the literature, the thesis examines the impact of brand crises on consumers' evaluations of corporate brands in alliances. Consistent with a positivism philosophical orientation, the thesis draws on well-established theories in order to develop a set of research hypotheses. The overarching theoretical underpinning of the thesis is provided by Balance theory, well-established in the domain of social psychology. The theory elucidates how consumers' motivations for consistency influence their post-crises responses. The research is also informed by other theories emanating from social psychology. For instance, Negativity Effect explains that negativity looms larger than positivity, thus, consumers are liely to attach significant weight to negative brand information when evaluating a brand following a crisis. In addition, Attribution theory suggests that consumers will make inferences about crisis responsibility by evaluating available information about the crisis, and Social Judgement theory elucidates the bias underlying the way consumers are likely to process such information following a crisis. The thesis employs a quantitative research design to test the research hypotheses. For generalisability purposes, a scenario-based experiment was conducted across three brand crisis types - Accidental, Preventable and Victim. In a preventable crisis, the inappropriate actions of the corporate brand result in a breach of law, whereas in an accidental crisis, the unintentional actions of the corporate brand create a crisis. In a victim crisis, however, the organisation itself is also perceived as a victim of the crisis. The data were collected via a self-administered online questionnaire embedding three real-life crisis scenarios, representing each crisis type. Respondents were recruited from a reputed online consumer panel representative of the UK population. The research hypotheses were tested employing Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Three phases of pre-testing (n=420) and a pilot study (n=83) established the ecological validity of the findings and the psychometric properties of the measures. In the main study, altogether 1,235 valid responses were obtained (Accidental context n=379; Preventable context n=422; Victim context n=414). The results show that brand crises in corporate brand alliances negatively impact consumers' attitudes toward the culpable brand which, in turn, spills over to the co-branded product. Attitudes toward the non-culpable brand, however, are not negatively affected by the crisis. The findings also suggest that spill over effects are contingent upon perceived attribution; that is, consumers who perceive the culpable brand as being responsible for the crisis (i.e. internal attribution) evaluate the culpable brand and the co-branding initiative more negatively that consumers who perceive the cause to be outside the brand's control (i.e. external attribution). The findings also suggest that consumers with a higher level of commitment to the culpable brand are less likely to make internal attributions. Finally, the thesis shows that consumers' post crisis attitudes toward the culpable brand and the co-branded product can be enhanced if they are exposed to recovery information that attempts to diminish the culpable brand's role in the crisis. The thesis offers a multi-domain understanding of consumer responses to corporate brand alliances in crisis. It extends knowledge in the domains of consumer behaviour, brand management, organisational crisis and social psychology. The thesis pushes the boundaries of knowledge by making three main theoretical contributions. First, it introduces a novel approach to understanding consumer motivations for processing information in brand alliances. Through the lens of Balance theory, the study shows that consumers' perceptions of alliances are contingent upon how the evaluation of each brand fits together. Second, drawing upon Attribution and Social Judgement theories, the study demonstrates the role of brand crisis attribution and brand commitment in explaining consumers' evaluations of crises in corporate bran alliances. Third, the thesis advances the understanding of negative spill over effects in brand alliances by providing empirical evidence that crises in corporate brand alliances lead to negative signals about the culpable partner brand which, in turn, spill over to the co-branded product. Further, the thesis informs managerial understanding of the risks associated with brand alliance strategies, and offers empirically-grounded recommendations for marketing practice. First, the thesis provides insights and useful benchmarks to marketers seeking to design effective brand communication strategies following a crisis. Second, it demonstrates that investing in brand commitment is crucial for mitigating the impact of a crisis. Third, it provides actionable guidelines to managers with regard to partner selection, and planning for occurrences of crises in corporate brand alliances. The thesis investigated consumer responses to corporate brand alliances, while accounting for the focal role of attribution. Several other variables that could influence the phenomenon under investigation are identified. For example, the severity of a crisis and the media's interest and coverage of a crisis might explain why perceptions and attitudes toward the alliance are altered following a crisis. Moreover, while the use of three crisis types enhance the generalisability of the thesis' findings, generalisations can be further enhanced by replicating the present research across different countries, products or service contexts. Further, the thesis employs cross-sectional data to investigate the impact of brand crises on consumers' perceptions of brand alliances. In the real world, however, brand crises can extend over a period. Future research could employ longitudinal data to investigate how consumers' post crisis perceptions of the culpable brand, the partner brand and the co-branded product, change over time. The above present fruitful avenues for further research.