Relationship marketing (RM) is widely acknowledged as a useful tool in gaining customer loyalty in various sectors. However, to date, there had been no research on how RM impacts customer loyalty in the securities brokerage firm industry in The Stock Exchange of Thailand. This study employs an inductive research approach to explore RM in securities brokerage firms in Thailand’s financial services sector and gain an understanding of customers’ and other stakeholders’ views of RM activities and loyalty to brokerages in an emerging market. Multiple data collection methods were employed, including semi-structured interviews as the main collection method and participant observations in a supporting role. Qualitative content analysis and coding techniques were used for analysing the data. This pioneering research provides new theoretical and practice knowledge and delivers a far more subtle and nuanced analysis of the dynamics at play between customer loyalty, various RM strategies and different customer types – compared to the current literature. The study found that securities brokerage firms in Thailand implemented RM practice but with differences in relationship marketing strategies, depending on the types of customers being targeted. The study identified the main factors impacting on customer loyalty to both local and international securities brokerage firms. Finally, the research confirmed that RM had a demonstrable impact in gaining customer loyalty to securities brokerage firms in The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), but with intriguing characteristics, for example, RM’s positive impact on individual short-term investors’ loyalty, not to brokerages, but to particular staff.

This research investigates the role of sociocultural dimensions in increasing national innovative capacity. While literature focuses on other determinants of innovation output, such as the stock of knowledge and resources dedicated to R&D, dimensions of a cultural nature have yet to be adequately addressed. The investigation examines sociocultural factors in natural resource-rich countries where the urgency to survive is not the primary driver in achieving economic growth. Oil-rich GCC countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, have made significant investment in education and information and communications technology to develop their economies. The primary focus in developing the economies has shifted to increasing innovative capacity. This study attempts to determine other factors that need to be in place to achieve increased innovative capacity as measured by new-to-the world knowledge and innovation. Endogenous growth theory and national innovation systems provide the theoretical base for the investigation. A deductive approach will be used to produce hypotheses that will be tested quantitatively, using existing indicators for sociocultural dimensions. Five sociocultural dimensions were found to be significant in innovative capacity when tested in leading innovator countries (Germany, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, United States), emerging innovator countries (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Korea), and GCC countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates) as a whole. However, three of the dimensions, Openness to Outside Influences, and Adaptability were unexpectedly inversely proportional to innovative capacity. More precise measurements and further research are required.

This thesis is about developing a framework for monitoring and evaluating critical success factors (CSFs) in strategic change programme implementation (SCPI). Therefore, it: - identifies prerequisites enabling systematic monitoring and evaluation in SCPI, - identifies and provides new and better understanding of CSFs within SCPI, - assigns these CSFs to programme phases in which they should be monitored and evaluated, and - identifies and assigns methods and responsibilities to conduct monitoring and evaluation of these CSFs. The findings on prerequisites and the framework as the combination of WHAT (CSFs), WHEN (programme phase), HOW (methods), and WHO (responsibilities) to conduct monitoring and evaluation in SCPI demonstrate the distinctiveness of this thesis contributing to knowledge and professional practice. The findings go beyond the typical monitoring and evaluation scope of programme management. Consequently, this research offers new insights for both academics and practitioners involved in managing strategic change and monitoring and evaluating change implementation. The work is based on a case study of a global industrial company from the energy sector. It provides an assessment of its global SCPI within Europe, giving consideration to the global context of the programme and the company. The SCPI makes particular reference to changes in business models, business processes, organisation structures as well as Enterprise Resource Planning infrastructure. This research is characterised as interpretative and subjective, following a social constructionist approach. It undertakes an applied real world research project following a summative evaluation approach examining the programme after its implementation. In order to gather subjective accounts about the case, 25 semi-structured interviews have been conducted. These 25 interviewees performed more than 65 roles within the programme at global and local levels across several country implementations. Template analysis was chosen in order to analyse the textual data.

This study investigates male consumer behaviour in the spa consumption context. With increasing attention to physical appearance in the postmodern era, contemporary men are becoming an appropriate focus for the attention of the beauty and wellbeing industries. Nevertheless, men’s body aestheticization and wellbeing practices have rarely been the topic of academic discussion in the marketing field. Hence, this study unveils the rationale behind male customers’ decisions to consume various spa services, known as enhancers of physical appearance and wellbeing.

This research explores how Northumbrian Water Ltd. (NWL), a UK private sector organization providing water supply and sewerage services, selects nonprofit organization (NPO) partners who contribute to addressing its material sustainability issues. The aim of this research is to provide a framework of partner selection for NWL and other businesses in the water industry who seek to address material sustainability issues through cross-sector (NPO-business) partnerships. There is limited research on how businesses should select NPO partners from an impact or value creation perspective. Moreover, systematc models of materiality analysis are rarely found in the literature. THE GRI is providing guidance on materiality analysis through practice-based standards, but systematic research into organizational practices is limited. NWL engages in a variety of strategic key partnerships which make it a suitable choice of case study for investigating the partner selection process. The study particularly examines how partnerships can generate impact on material sustainability issues, and how this prospective impact can be evaluated. Template analysis is used to interpret transcripts of semi-structured interviews and a focus group involving key informants from NWL and its NPO partners. The contribution to knowledge is established around the need for having both flexible/reactive/project-based and systematic/proactive/strategic approaches to partner selection while ensuring shared value co-creation. The study further highlights how materiality with respect to sustainability issues can be assessed both reactively and proactively from NWL's perspective, and how this assessment can better inform the partner selection process. Future research avenues can involve investigating the applicability of the partner selection framework resulting from this study to other businesses in the water industry.

In an ever-shrinking world with advancing technology many organizations have expanded their operations internationally and experienced challenges of how to manage projects in areas with different cultural backgrounds. In a culturally unique country, like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the influence of national culture on project management has to be considered, and there is additional complexity in that most project teams are themselves diverse and multi-cultural. KSA has become one of the wealthiest countries in the world, however, many of its projects, especially in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, still fail dramatically for financial, managerial, political, social and cultural reasons. In KSA, culture is a crucial factor in business, and the management of projects is no exception. The aim of this research is to contribute to more successful delivery of ICT projects in KSA. The overall commonly-held belief is that there are elements of national culture in KSA that impact the implementation of project management processes on ICT projects. Using Hofstede’s cultural model as a basis, a conceptual framework has been created that explores and explains the impact of KSA national culture on ICT project management as characterised by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK)1 principles. A qualitative research approach was used to collect data from four private and public sector ICT projects, in their natural settings, using a multiple case study approach. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and examination of project documentation and a cross-case analysis was performed. The conceptual framework is a very useful planning tool for human resourcing purposes is best used for the ICT project management professionals in understanding how project management practices, procedures, tools and techniques are implemented and how they are impacted by cultural factors. The findings in this study have confirmed that the dimensions of Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV) and Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) have a significant impact on project management in KSA, but that Long–Term Orientation (LTO), Masculinity (MAS) and Indulgence (IND) have a lesser impact.

The case for this PhD by published work is based on reflection on eight years’ reflective practice research into the role of design in entrepreneurial leadership. Specifically, it explores a strategic design approach to socio – economic innovation. It is the culmination of a thirty-year longitudinal study at the interface of leadership, enterprise, innovation and development within the particular challenging environment of the Northern Ireland conflict. One important lesson from the author’s experience of societal crisis has been the pivotal role of innovation in socio - economic regeneration. External environmental pressures are forcing organisations to develop new approaches to cope with uncertainty. These circumstances call for leaders who can innovate whilst navigating complexity. Against this context the research considers entrepreneurial leadership and understands this to be more than the sum of entrepreneurship and leadership but a new phenomenon leveraged in response to the current climate. The focus is on entrepreneurial leadership, strategic design and open innovation as transformational drivers for socio-economic value creation. The study involves a design-led approach that maps transformational drivers against triple helix challenges, to provide a new perspective on the generative role of design. It synthesises organising frameworks that further highlight how entrepreneurial leaders build relationships for developmental innovation. These model the interplay between transfiguring and threshold concepts to yield guiding principles for entrepreneurial leadership practice. They represent antecedent factors for a prospective theory of Design Dynamics. The distinct contribution is an original contextual framework that provides insight into how entrepreneurial leaders employ design to realise innovation. Further, this builds on the extant body of knowledge through the hypothesis of a potential Design Dynamics theory as a support structure to explain and guide entrepreneurial leadership within complex environments. Future research will explore the nature of this structure so that it is applicable to new entrepreneurial contexts.

This study was carried out in the field of information behaviour, which includes information sharing behaviour. The study set out to answer the research question: what are the factors that influence proactive information sharing behaviour in organisations? The aim of the study was to explore in depth, factors that influence proactive information sharing behaviour, and understand the degree to which these factors influence proactive information sharing behaviour. The study provides a unique contribution to research by developing an understanding of factors which influence proactive information sharing behaviour in organisations; the understanding of how these factors are related in context; and the development of tools to identify proactive information sharing behaviour. The research approach was based on a constructivist philosophical perspective, grounded in information behaviour theories and models. A case study methodology was used to collect rich data specific to each context; three cases, and two organisations were used overall, and data collection was done using mixed methods, to give a holistic understanding. Research techniques were tailored based on a theoretical framework, which included four theories; autopoesis, social network theory, sense making, and appreciative inquiry. Data collected was analysed using the coding method used in grounded theory, going through the stages of open coding, axial coding, and some selective coding. The key findings were: role responsibility and involvement; reciprocity and trust; open office design, open conversations, and information overload; proactivity and personality; knowledge, experience, and length of time in the organisation; use of technology and resistance to change; organisational objectives, organisational policy, organisational structure, size of group, and lack of resources; enthusiasm, satisfaction / dissatisfaction, low morale, feeling of power, and expectation; difference in objectives between colleagues, personal agenda, and lack of authority. These factors influence the proactive information behaviour of individuals in organisations, and the influence of each factor is deeply rooted in the specific organisational context. A model of proactive information sharing behaviour was developed in this study, which illustrates and explains how the factors, intervening variables, and context, all combine to influence proactive information sharing behaviour in organisations.

The banking sector has been under public scrutiny since the credit crisis of 2007/8, and a range of diagnoses and cures have been offered, particularly in terms of regulatory and financial structures. In the public media, much comment has been made about ethics in the sector, but this has provoked surprisingly little response from academic researchers. This thesis explores the crisis in banking as a moral one, taking Alasdair MacIntyre’s account of virtue ethics as a framework for understanding the careers of Scottish banking leaders. The method used for the study is narrative, and depends both on MacIntyre’s philosophy of tradition-constituted enquiry, and on Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics. Conversations were held with ten leaders of Scottish banking whose careers typically span between 25 and 40 years, and the record of those conversations forms the primary data set for the research. The resulting narratives are frank, rich descriptions of deeply felt changes in a particular mode of working life. This was a way of life characterised up until the 1980s by a well-defined status within local communities, professional expertise and a well-ordered tradition. The deregulation of banking and subsequent structural and technological changes to retail banking services eroded that professional tradition, and replaced it with new modes of work dominated by institutional priorities of sales, profit and growth, rather than by an ethic of professional expertise and customer service. The thesis finds that there are structural barriers to the recovery of a professional ethic in banking. It offers new perspectives on the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, particularly in the application of his idea of traditions to mainstream economic activity. It also explores common ground between Gadamer and MacIntyre, proposing ways in which both philosophers can enhance our pursuit of qualitative empirical research.

This is a relationship marketing PhD which is examining, using Commitment Trust Theory, the customer decision to maintain subscribing to a massively multiplayer online game. This PhD is not an examination of initial purchase decision, but of the ongoing, post-purchase, customer retention. In keeping with the contextual nature of Commitment Trust Theory, this study examines the antecedents of the re-subscription decision and their effect on the key mediating variables of Commitment and Trust and modifies the framework to model the subscription based nature of the business situation and the context. The key contribution of this research to the literature is the application of the Commitment Trust framework to a customer’s ongoing relationship with a massively multiplayer online game entertainment product; a situation and context which has not been examined in the literature. An online questionnaire survey was used to collect a sample of data from 2226 massively multiplayer online game customers. This sample data was then analysed using Structural Equation Modelling to test the relationship hypotheses between the constructs proposed by Commitment Trust Theory. Furthermore, hypotheses examining the effect of relevant demographic and categorical variables upon the constructs of Commitment Trust Theory were also tested and analysed using appropriate statistical techniques. Evidence was found to support the Commitment Trust Theory framework in a massively multiplayer online game subscription situation, with the study’s model explaining 85.7% of the variance of the sample data, with evidence presented to support the key mediating variable approach to modelling the circumstances. The study, based on examining the effect size of the construct relationships using standardised regression weights then gives evidence that a more parsimonious model which reduces the number of constructs from 16 to six (a 70% reduction in complexity) would still produce a model explaining 85.3% of the variance of the sample data (a 0.4% loss in explanatory power). The study concludes that the key antecedent constructs in the sample for a customer’s renewal of an online gaming subscription are current satisfaction, past satisfaction, the amount of game capital they have within the game and the metagame benefits they derive from the game. The study supports a key mediating variable structure, but provides evidence that while Commitment and Trust are both relevant and statistically significant, a more efficient explanation examining the effect size of the relationships as well, would focus on the antecedents of Commitment rather than Trust, as Trust and its antecedents were not found to have a significant effect size on the overall decision to re-subscribe.