Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Texas at Dallas, 2006. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves122 -132)

The objective of this thesis is to develop and test demand for money models by business firms. Becuase, it is argued, there are significant differences in the demand for money by industrial sectors, two sectors the retailing and distribution industry and the electrical engineering industry, were selected for empirical investigation. The firms in each sector were observed over the period from 1968 to 1971. Specifically this thesis attempts to shed some light on whether demand for many models based on the wealth adjustment theories are superior to those based on the transactions theories. The wealth/transactions hypothesisis also investigated. In addition the existence of economies of scale and the degree of substitution between money and other assets is investigated. Particular attention is paid to the limitations of the statistical techniques used by previous studies and different techniques are suggested on order to test the empirical validity of the theories in question. To this end an error components model and a two-stage least squares method is applied to combined cross-sectional and time-series data. The empirical results obtained seem to indicate that monetary models based on the wealth adjustment theories provide a better description of the demand for money by the two industrial sectors than the models based on the transaction theories. Some evidence was found for the existence of both a wealth and transactions demand for money. Economies of scale were evident for the electrical engineering sector but not for the retailing and distribution sector. There was no evidence of any important substitution between money and other assets.

This research explores how a firm in the electronics industry may achieve competitive advantage through the relationship created with a manufacturing partner when outsourcing manufacturing operations. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with senior decision makers with responsibility for outsourcing in a cross section of companies in the European electronics industry, and with senior executives in contract manufacturing companies based in South-East Asia, to investigate the decision making process and the amount of strategic choice available, and then to investigate what benefits were perceived to have been achieved by the outsourcing firm. The research questions what extent do decision makers consider competitive advantage when deciding to outsource, what competitive advantages, or partnership value, can be created by and can be attributed to the outsourcing partnership and to what degree competitive advantage has been achieved through outsourcing and how sustainable is it likely to be. The research found that the decision to outsource was normally made in order to save costs and/or to enable a firm to focus on core competencies. It was also found that expected cost savings were often not achieved and that some key capabilities were irretrievably lost. What some firms did find, however, was that they achieved some level of competitive advantage from working with their manufacturing partner that they did not expect when they made the decision to outsource, these advantages evolved over time and are grouped into three areas, classified as ‘values’: - Sourcing value - Technology value - Market value Collectively the researcher has termed these as ‘Partnership Value’. Partnership value is the competitive advantage a firm achieves in the marketplace through outsourcing manufacturing and working with its manufacturing partner. The research concludes with a framework that can assist decision makers considering to outsource manufacturing so that they may achieve greater value from the relationship with their chosen manufacturing partner by evaluating factors related to the external and competitive environment and achieving Partnership Value.

This study examines managerial activity configurations with a view to understand the influences on attention middle managers give to activities they carry out. The role of top management in orienting managerial work is a fundamental influence that mediates other aspects such as task environment characteristics and response to performance feedback. Enhancing managerial performance under varying task situations and iterative performance feedback calls for an evaluation of content, and of practice. This would entail looking within the remits of past experience with existing activity configuration to enhance effectiveness and/ or looking outside to explore novel approaches to improving activities and their mutual fit. The balance between exploitation and exploration while seeking to do well at both makes such calibration in activities being marked by what I call aspirations of ambidexterity. Reflecting on constructs like managerial work environment characteristics, performance feedback, risks and benefits of pursuing ambidexterity, nature of activities, and the interaction between top and middle management, is not new to research. However, what remain missing is an empirical examination of top management influence on ambidexterity in managerial practice, and also, a focussed examination of how managers’ scope and orient attention to activities that they do. From this perspective, the study situates the unit of analysis as activities carried out by individual managers, as in how the top management influences the ambidextrous orientation of subordinate managers. The study uses data collected through a semi structured survey instrument. This is complemented with data from meeting observation memos. The survey instrument has been rigorously pre-tested and modified prior to data collection from the study research site which is federated organisation with a rather flat structure hierarchically relative to others in the industry. Several findings from the study contribute to both research and practice, and include: evidence for top management encouraging selective ambidextrous practice by looking at managers who do well; the strategic and operational alignment perception in middle managers affecting their propensity to make changes to their activity portfolios; evidence for the need for demonstrative inclusion of feedback for greater buy in by middle management; the mediation by and variation in work environment characteristics being an influence, among others. A behavioural and cognitive interface with influencing antecedents and consequences for how managerial work is shaped and evolves along aspirations of ambidextrous capability underpins the discussion in this study. The study provides support to and extends the conceptualisations along trajectories in research, primarily those that concern themselves with managerial attention, managerial activity configurations and ambidextrous practice in evolving what managers do.

New organisational forms, including strategic partnerships and networks, are replacing simple market-based transactions and traditional, bureaucratic, hierarchical organisations (Webster, 1992). The shift in the way marketing is being organised is accompanied by both environmental and structural changes (Morgan and Hunt, 1994; Palmer, 2000; Investor Digest, 2001 ). This new emerging paradigm of thought argues that it is more important to focus on the development and management of relationships than on discrete transactions (Ford, 1980; IMP Group, 1982; Webster, 1992; Gronroos, 1994a, 1994b, 1995, 1997a, 1997b; Berry, 1995). These business-to-business buyer-seller trading interactions have been revealed to take place under a variety of governance structures (Bradach and Eccles, 1989; Heide, 1994 ), with each one undergoing different stages of development (Dwyer et al., 1987). Despite this overall agreement, existing relationship marketing literature appears silent regarding the deciding factors that determine whether or not a business relationship is continued. More specifically the literature appears to lack any information and normative guidelines as to the relative importance of criteria when assessing the performance of a business relationship (i.e., the relative importance of performance criteria within and between relationship development stages). Consequently, this study examined the bilateral governance structure, business relationship development stages and performance measures in relationship marketing. A conceptual matrix framework was developed with the most representative performance measures in the framework being operationalised. The framework was tested with the aid of self-completion questionnaires in the UK manufacturing sector, the study setting, which has been achieved through a positivist empirical situational study in the form of scenarios. The findings provided an original contribution to academia through an evaluation of the relative importance of performance measures as deciding factors in furthering the development of a business relationship within a bilateral governance structure. For example, there was differential importance of evaluation criteria within and between stages. Within all the stages trust was significant, whilst only commitment and transaction-specific asset investments were significant within the initiation stage; opportunistic behaviour was significant within the monitoring and termination stages; and distance within the initiation and monitoring stages. When moving from the initiation to monitoring stage, commitment and distance were significant. In addition, distance was also significant when moving from the monitoring to termination stages, and when moving from the initiation to termination stages, commitment and opportunistic behaviour were significant. In addition, a contribution has been made to business practice, through the development of normative managerial guidelines to aid decision-making when moving forward or not along the relational continuum under a bilateral governance structure. For example, trust was found to be a significant determinant for all stages of the business relationship and remains constant across all these stages. This implies that suppliers, whether potential or existing, should attempt to demonstrate high levels of trust at all stages of a business relationship. This can be achieved by different actions in different stages of the business relationship.

The influence of the West Midlands Economic Planning Council on government decisions since 1965 can be traced through the use of pressure-group and decision-making theories. Crucial to its influence is the nature of its interaction with other groups in the region. A pressure-group methodology is necessary because the Planning Council is only an advisory committee within the structure of government and does not reflect the creation of a regional governmental process. Conflict between local authorities and economic affluence have held back regional consciousness in the West Midlands, although the Planning Council1 s "Economic Appraisal” ( 1971) recorded the growing apprehensions about the state of the region's economy. The inability of the W.M.E.P.C. to influence decisions enough to promote a coherent regional strategy led to continuing intra­ regional conflict between local authorities. The Planning Council did, however, act as a catalyst for the formation of the Standing Conference and developed closer relations with L.A's via this medium. The difficulties for the W.M.E.P.C. in transcending intra- regional conflict were seen in North East Warwickshire, the latter pursuing its own lobby to deal with its employment problems, partly a consequence of the Planning Council's neglect of the area's needs. The W.M.E.P.C. assumed a central role in the attack on the Government's I.D.C. policy through the "Economic Appraisal". The Working Party that produced the Report included formal representatives of major economic groups. There was a favourable response to the Report in the West Midlands, followed subsequently by a modification of Government policy. The success of the National Exhibition Centre lobby, in turn, illustrates the disadvantages under which the W.M.E.P.C. has laboured. This lobby did not involve the Planning Council in the effort to secure the agreement of the Government to the project. For all the weaknesses of the regional administrative innovations of 1965, the repercussions have not been inconsiderable in the widest context.

Social Networking Sites (SNS) differ from other online media in a number of aspects including the quality of content published, reach and audience, interaction frequency, accessibility, usability and immediacy. In our analysis of social commerce, we have taken into account these unique attributes of SNS and argue that social commerce differ from classical e-business models. We further maintain that the said distinctions of SNS have led to the misuse of user-generated content and abuse of users trust resulting in information security and privacy violations. Recent unfortunate incidents of security and privacy breaches have shown the negative repercussions on online businesses. In this thesis, we argue that security and privacy issues on SNS are a major barrier hindering the success of the emerging social commerce applications and preventing businesses from gaining the full economic benefit of SNS. Hence, following a deductive strategy and taking a positivist stance, the current research explores the issues of information security, privacy, and related constructs in the context of social commerce (B2C interactions) with emphasis on how they affect purchase intention. Using a systematic review of prior literature, we have identified the key concepts and related constructs of information security and privacy and the relationships between the constructs. Based on this understanding, the current study proposes to test a number of hypotheses. Data was collected using a Web-based survey administered to a sample of SNS users. The hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM for a dataset of 514 respondents. Based on the findings of the current research, we can come to the following conclusions: (1) 'Perceived security', 'Trustworthiness', and 'Perception towards usage of information' have a direct impact on SNS users 'Purchase intention', (2) SNS users 'Perception towards privacy notices' positively affects 'Perceived privacy' and 'Perceived security', (3) 'Trustworthiness' negatively affects SNS users 'Risk perception' and 'Perceived privacy', and (4) 'Trustworthiness' of a SNS site is positively influenced by the 'perceived ability to control submitted information' and by 'Perceived privacy'. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on information security, privacy, and related constructs in a number of ways. For instance, the proposed research model which was empirically tested in the current research is the most valuable contribution. To test the proposed model, we have validated new and existing factors measuring information security constructs and purchase intention, thereby contributing to theory building. This provides a better understanding of privacy, security and related issues on SNS and explains some of the possible reasons for the slow adaptation of social commerce compared to 'classical' e-business models. From a practical and managerial point of view, this research help social media vendors to comprehend the fundamental features necessary to attract customers to their business such as building trust by enhancing security and privacy practices. Further, we suggest the use of ethical data gathering and transparent, easily accessible and readable security/privacy notices on social commerce shopping portals to help customers overcome their psychological barriers to purchase from SNS.

This thesis explores the impact of leadership, structure, process and systems investments on operational, financial and competitiveness performance in service organisations over time. In doing so, the research presented here aims to understand two questions. Firstly, how does investment impact business performance in different markets and, secondly, how does this relationship vary over time? These questions address a number of gaps within the service operations literature, as previous research has only looked at one type of investment and not understood how impact changes over time. Although some studies have looked at the relationship between investment and performance, none look at the impact on operational and financial performance. As a result, this research helps service organisations better understand how and where to make investments given their performance objectives and the nature of the market they serve. Schools were selected as examples of service organisations because they provide a similar service to each other and are measured using nationally regulated performance metrics, but operate in different ways (using different leaders, structures, processes and systems) in different markets (which vary in size and student type) with different access to resources (which vary in access to staff, students and money) and levels of competition (number, type and concentration of competitors). By studying the investments made in different schools over a five year period, this research was able to explore how different types of investment (leadership, structure, process and systems) affected impact business performance (operational, financial and competitiveness) in service organisations competing in different markets (size, customer type and competition).

Across the world, confirmed by academic and internal research evidence, Government and public sector organisations consistently display varying degrees of difficulty in generating, developing and implementing innovative ideas. Now, as budgets become tighter, the pressure to fundamentally transform the UK’s public sector by relying upon the exploration and adoption of sustainable innovation continues to grow as a policy necessity. Given this necessity, there is a definite, identified need to critically review the literature covering theory development and innovation practice as part of a cultural challenge within the UK public sector to identify the key deep rooted and persistent barriers to public sector innovation to assist in researching potential workable solutions. To facilitate this endeavour this Doctoral study deploys, as per Chapter 3, Ethnographic methods underpinning qualitative thematic template analysis to explore and identify existing innovation barriers from qualitative data collected from the management and staff of a major UK Civil Service Department. The primary objective of this research study is to contribute to the effective improvement in public sector Innovation delivery, via identification of the key barriers via ten literature defined and participant response analysis propositions to facilitate improved innovation generation. In Chapters 2 & 4, by critically showing the linkages between innovation literature and the practical observations and innovation process experiences of public servants, workable solutions as to how the UK’s Civil Service can overcome such persistent problems have been explored. This research aims to add value to the wider debate by identifying an environment that supports and encourages the practical generation of public sector innovative ideas and change behaviour. In Chapters 5 & 6, from analysis of the quantitative data, the study identified 18 barrier subject nodes covering a number of themes which appear to inhibit the successful embedding of such innovation practices and processes.

This thesis examines the nature of power and control in trade unions. Two theoretical themes are developed; the first concerns the concept of power and related variables such as authority and control, the second concerns the concept of trade union government in terms of democracy, oligarchy and polyarchy. It is suggested that trade union government may most appropriately be described by the term 'polyarchy' A model is proposed which aids the analysis of polyarchic trade union government. This model treats the acquisition and maintenance of power and control as competitive processes mediated by the structural and subjective conditions of the competitive arena. Two case studies are presented in which these processes are seen at work in the engineering section of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers. The first examines a conflict between the Manchester district committee and the Executive Council, the second examines a conflict between the Manchester district committee and a workshop organization in the district. The model and case studies together comprise a statement about power and control in the A.U.E.W. The framework of the thesis suggests several ways in which the theoretical and empirical analysis may be developed towards a comprehensive theory of trade union government.