Tourism in Cornwall represents over 24% of Cornwall's annual GDP. It is "the county's largest single industry", providing work for one in five Cornish inhabitants, and is responsible for almost a quarter of the money the county makes each year (Objective One, 2001, p. 10). However, in its current form, this vibrant but carbon-intensive business sector does not contribute to low-carbon development in Cornwall. It remains un-sustainable in a number of environmental, social and economic ways (Cornwall Sustainable Tourism Project, 2011a; 2014b). Thus, there isa recognized need for "sustainable tourism" (Butler, 1999), also defined as "ethical and responsible tourism" (Goodwin et al, 2003), due to the global growth of tourism and its various damaging by-products. According to Moscardo (1996) and Pearce (2005), one of the most effective ways to achieve sustainability in tourism is by influencing the behaviour and attitudes of visitors and tourism operators. Therefore, distinguishing Tourism as a form of consumption, this research project studies tourists as consumers, and aims at encouraging sustainable consumption in order to promote sustainable tourism in Cornwall. Since human behaviour, not technology, lies at the heart of sustainable consumption, this project addresses the challenge of promoting sustainable tourism from a behavioural point of view, not a technical one; understanding and influencing the behaviour of tourists visiting Cornwall towards more environmentally and socially friendly patterns. More specifically, due to the fact that sustainable consumption requires sustainable behaviour not just at the 'point-of-sale' but most importantly during the 'use-phase' of a product/service/system's lifecycle (Pettersen and Boks, 2008, p.119), this project focuses on influencing C02-related Human-Artefact interactions within the context of Cornish accommodation-provision industry, the second largest sector of Tourism that contributes to C02 emissions and climate change (Cohen et al, 2014). In the contemporary framework of sustainable design, many authors argue for the importance of design as a powerful means of furthering behaviour change towards more sustainable practices (Lilley, 2009; Thackara, 2005; Walker, 2006; Bhamra et al. 2008). Thus, this research project addresses social and environmental issues as they pertain to Tourism and aims to demonstrate the importance of Sustainable Design as a medium to change touristic behaviour, lessen its impact and support sustainability in Tourism. As original design research, this thesis draws upon a multi-disciplinary literature review, including the emerging field of 'Design for Sustainable Behaviour' (DfSB), Behavioural Economics (Dolan et al's 'MINDSPACE model'), Environmental and Social Psychology, Social Science (Cialdini's 'Six Universal Laws of Influence'), and Community-based Social Marketing, bringing together their developed understandings on what it takes to communicate and influence human behaviour, along with illustrated examples, into a comprehensive chart called "Elements of Persuasion". In turn, "Elements of Persuasion" creates the basis upon which new knowledge is consolidated in the form of a webtool called "Triggers for Change"; a digital platform, developed and evaluated through an iterative Human-Centred Design process, that aims to become an online resource framework for the Cornish tourism industry, that improves the persuasiveness of their sustainability communications with tourists visiting Cornwall. This would therefore minimise the industry's contribution to C02 emissions and climate change and, thus, further Sustainable Tourism in Cornwall.

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Fieldwork methods are used to analyse the nature of franchise systems in the UK. These systems are viewed in terms of their contractual relationships following theoretical approaches suggested by the economics of organisation, including agency analysis. In particular, product, brand and specialised-input franchises are identified and fee schedules are placed in the context of the wider franchise contract. The fieldwork covers 19 case studies of UK franchising systems. The thesis contains a predictive theory of franchising. This identifies initial investments which franchisees undertake as hostages with screening and bonding properties for the franchisor. These hostages influence monitoring costs. The thesis makes an operational, use of modern transaction-cost ideas.

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Urban drainage models are examined in terms of model purpose, type and usage. Model usage for the prediction of flooding behaviour in the UK adopts the design storm approach, which assumes that flood frequency equals rainfall frequency. This equation is shown to be affected by antecedent moisture conditions and rainfall spatial variability. Data collected from three small urban catchments (0.3 ha, 0.7 ha and 3.2 ha) in Southampton are used to calibrate and verify three urban drainage models: namely WASSP-SIM, WALLRUS-SIM and USGS-DR3M. A probabilistic approach to model verification is used and demonstrates that accepted bounds to model accuracy associated with the use of these models are difficult to justify if consideration is given to the possible errors in rainfall and discharge measurement. Comparison of the results from storms collected during 1985 on these catchments shows that the DR3M performs better than either of the other models in terms of a number of standard indices of model accuracy. Soil moisture observations collected over a two year period using the neutron probe method are then used to calibrate and test a number of simple soil moisture models including the soil moisture algorithm incorporated in the MORECS procedure and that included in the DR3M. These models are found to predict catchment average soil moisture conditions to within 20 mm, using local rainfall information and standard evapotranspiration curves as inputs. Using the MORECS soil moisture model it is shown that antecedent soil moisture conditions do have an impact on observed percentage runoff values, but that the relationship is confused by seasonal factors. The soil moisture model is then used together with WASSP-SIM to derive discharge-frequency curves using a continuous simulation approach. Comparisons with the design storm approach confirm the assumptions of the approach, although they do not prove that either approach produces the correct answers.

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