Previous research indicates that social norms interventions provide a promising avenue to encourage behaviour change. This study examined the efficacy of a social norms intervention, with the inclusion of personalised individual feedback, to encourage pro-environmental behaviour change. A qualitative approach was used to gain an in-depth understanding of how people respond to social norms feedback and personalised individual feedback on environmental behaviours. Central to this research was an innovative Facebook app called iGreen, which was designed specifically by the author and a number of colleagues to provide a seven-week social norms intervention. This app comprised environmentally themed games, a quiz on aspects of everyday domestic behaviours that impact on the environment, and the ability to provide feedback on respondents’ previous quiz answers. Respondents were randomly allocated to either a no feedback group, a personalised individual feedback group, or a group in which feedback also included the average quiz answer of other iGreen users (social norms feedback group). A sample of fifty-one people who used iGreen completed all quizzes, forty-four of these respondents completed a post-intervention questionnaire, and thirty respondents were interviewed. Drawing on elements of a discourse analysis approach to analyse the interviews enabled an in-depth understanding of why a social norms intervention might, or might not encourage pro-environmental behaviour and how people respond to personalised individual feedback and social norms feedback. The major finding in this research is that the quiz encouraged behaviour change because the questions increased the salience of injunctive norms and personal norms. This supports the focus theory of normative conduct and norm activation theory, which both state that increasing the salience of norms influences behaviour. Another finding is that environmental behaviour change can be constrained due to people associating some behaviours with the stigmatisation of environmental activists. Lastly, respondents in all three intervention groups claimed to have changed some behaviour and there were no apparent differences between the groups. This suggests that increased salience (in this case induced by answering repeated quiz questions) encouraged behaviour change. This raises the question of whether increased salience, rather than feedback, may account for some of the behaviour change found in previous social norms research. This research identifies key elements of an intervention that can increase its potential to encourage pro-environmental behaviour which has potential practical application in the design of innovative social norms interventions. The main contribution of this research is the discovery that making people’s everyday behaviours more salient can encourage pro-environmental behaviour. A digital quiz is a simple, cost-effective and engaging method for increasing salience and encouraging behaviour change, and this should be explored in future research.

The engagement of employees has been a 'hot topic' among business and organizational behaviour researchers, consultants and human resource practitioners in recent years. Engagement is a motivational concept. In this study employee engagement (or job engagement) has been defined as an employee's full investment of oneself in one's work activities. The study nevertheless accepts that the field of engagement has been plagued with numerous terms, definitions, measures and theories. Although engagement research originated in the early 1990s, there is today a lack of consensus and consistency about important conceptual issues, such as definition and dimensionality. The current scholarly work sought to bring some clarity to the field by firstly recognising two broad streams for which the conceptualizing, theorising and operationalizing of engagement have differed markedly. The self-investment and anti-burnout engagement streams were named. Next, a domain for research focus was selected. The self-investment engagement stream, which offers the most unique, objective and encompassing meaning and theory of engagement, was identified. This stream recognises Kahn's 1990 work as the foundation of engagement study. The conceptualization of engagement as the full-investment of oneself, physically, cognitively and emotionally in one's work has been derived from this early contribution. The theory of engagement found within the self-investment stream, proposes that several antecedents influence three psychological conditions, which in turn predict engagement. in the current study, task-relevant job resources, socially relevant job resources and job demand characteristic were incorporated in the theoretical framework for evaluation. The job characteristic antecedents are task significance, skill variety, autonomy, feedback, internal interaction, work overload, friendship opportunity and managerial support. The psychological conditions of engagement are known as psychological meaningfulness, availability and safety. The study's results have supported the hypotheses that task significance and internal interaction are direct predictors of meaningfulness; autonomy, feedback, internal interaction and work overload are predictors of psychological availability; while, friendship opportunity and managerial support are significantly associated with psychological safety. The three psychological conditions were positively associated with engagement. It was found that psychological meaningfulness mediated the associations between the other two conditions and engagement. Then, skill variety showed a direct positive association with engagement, rather than an indirect association via one of the psychological conditions.

This study aims to expand the existing knowledge of the role of networking in innovation. It focuses on Russia, a country with a transition economy. On the governmental level, the lack of understanding of the networking mechanisms that Russian start-ups use to support their innovation creates a barrier to effective decision making related to the development of the national innovation system. On the start-up level, this lack of understanding hampers the ability to select effective networking strategies aimed at ensuring that companies can achieve their aims in each stage of their development. In order to determine the scope of opportunities for companies to establish external relationships and to set the context for the interpretation of the primary data, the author conducts a detailed analysis of the evolution of Russia's national innovation system. The investigation is based on secondary data, including official government documents, articles, and publications in the scientific literature and newspapers. To gain a deeper understanding of the interrelationship between networking and innovation, the study investigates the networking behaviour of Russian SMEs, represented by a sample of 59 companies that launched business activities in Moscow between 2009 and 2017. To collect primary data, in-depth interviews were carried out with the founders of these companies. To conduct a comparative analysis of networking behaviour of companies with different degrees of innovativeness, entrepreneurial ventures in the sample are grouped into four innovativeness categories: very low, low, medium and high. The findings confirm the key proposition that innovative start-ups are more actively engaged in networking and have wider networks. In addition, the study shows that more innovative start-ups build and govern their networks of business contacts differently than less innovative start-ups. Finally, the author discusses implications for the development of theory and practice, reflects on the limitations of the research, and makes suggestions for future research on innovative networking that might build upon this study. A key contribution of this DBA thesis to practice emerged in the sphere of the author’s teaching and administrative activities at the Lomonosov Moscow State University Business School. The results of this study were utilised in the construction and implementation of an educational project (February-April 2018) in which students worked closely with technological start-ups to help them establish vital contacts in their business and market environments. Therefore, the knowledge obtained from this study was taught to students and applied in practice in the implementation of a systematic approach to the search for and expansion of contact networks conducive to innovation. As such, it helped students develop networking skills and assisted start-ups in successfully solving tasks related to the commercialisation of innovative products and services.

From a theoretical perspective, Islamic banking and finance is different from conventional banking and finance because interest (riba) is prohibited in Islam. The unique feature of Islamic banking and finance is its profit-and-loss sharing (PLS) paradigm. As such, the equity stock market mechanism follows this unique PLS paradigm without the involvement of riba, gharar and maysir, allowing Shari’a sensitive investors’ access to the stock market. But the problem is to identify the Shari’a compliant equity stocks (that are both Shari’a compliant in the capital structure as well as the underlying business) within the equity stock market. In order to assist the Shari’a sensitive investors, the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index (DJIMI) for the first time in history issued the first Shari’a screening methodology in 1999 that facilitated access to the stock market. Subsequently, a number of other Shari’a screening methodologies have been developed by other index providers, banks and regulators; all of them are derivatives of the DJIMI. The rules used in the screening process have not originated from the Holy Quran or the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and accordingly are not considered absolute rules. These screening methodologies have been criticised in the literature for being imprecise, inconsistent, lacking credibility and on the use of Shari’a screening thresholds restricting the Shari’a non-compliant activities. The study is designed to address two main areas: 1) to examine the historical development of Shari’a screening methodologies to date, and 2) to investigate how the existing Shari’a screening methodologies can be enhanced for the benefit of the Islamic banking and finance (IBF) industry. A qualitative analysis is carried out in the first part of the study. A statistical technique of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is carried out in the second part of the study. The examination of the first part of the study shows that the fundamental variables underlying existing screening methodologies should be based on actual interest income and interest expense as it’s the actual interest received or paid that is Shari’a non-compliant instead of on the basis of source of funds (debt, receivables). This part of the study also finds that the Shari’a screening methodologies were introduced as a need of the time under Maslahah (public interest and rule of exception). It was expected that scholars and practitioners would review and revise the screening methodologies over time to ensure adherence to Shari’a. However, they have remained the same while the Islamic banking and finance industry has developed significantly. Further examination of current practices, suggested Shari’a screening thresholds to be dynamic and ones based on the growth and development in Islamic banking and finance. Based on findings of the first part, the study conducted an exploratory analysis in the second part using different portfolios and screened them based on interest income and interest expense and compared with existing practices. It is recommended that Shari'a screening methodologies incorporate these screening filters in addition to the existing filters to ensure that the portfolio remains Shari'a compliant. Further, the study in the second part developed an IBF index using exploratory factor analysis to quantify the development in IBF industry in 41 countries. These countries were placed in five groups (leaders, developed countries, developing countries, emerging markets and least developed countries) and it was concluded that Shari’a screening thresholds for countries based in groups “leaders” and “developed countries” can be lowered to 20% and 25% respectively as the IBF industry in the underlying countries have developed significantly and there are sufficient Shari’a compliant stocks to provide the investor a diversified portfolio, while for other countries the existing thresholds should continue as the IBF industry in the country is still in early growth period and Islamic financing availability in the country is not adequate. In this way, the Shari’a compliant equity investments can go forward in a more effective manner and thus a move towards more dynamic and progressive screening methodologies, rather than the existing static ones.

Contabilidade / Master in Accounting

Finanças / Master in Finance

Finanças / Master in Finance

Contabilidade / Master in Accounting

Finanças / Master in Finance

Finanças / Master in Finance