This study examines the intellectual capital (IC) disclosure practices in the annual reports of 100 listed UK firms selected from sectors considered to be IC-intensive. It also investigates the possible determinants of such disclosure practices from the three perspectives of corporate governance structure, company characteristics and market factors. IC disclosures were captured using content analysis, and were measured by a disclosure index, supported by word count and percentage of word count metrics to assess the variety, volume and focus of IC disclosure respectively, at both overall and subcategory levels. The presentational formats and locations of IC disclosures were also recorded. The results indicate that the UK firms sampled provide considerable IC information in their annual reports, mainly in text form, with popular use of numerical information, while the use of graphs and pictures for many IC elements remains low. The distribution of IC disclosures, captured in three categories, varies by the three measures of disclosure applied. IC information was found in virtually all sections of the annual report and was most concentrated in the Operating and Financial Review section. IC terms typically used in the academic literature do not feature in the sampled annual reports. The results of the statistical analyses based on the three measures of IC disclosure indicate significant associations with a number of corporate governance factors (i.e. board composition, share concentration, audit committee size and frequency of meeting, board directors' shareholding, audit committee directors' shareholding, and board directors with cross-directorships), company characteristics (i.e. firm size, profitability, and listing age), and market factors (i.e. 'hidden value', share price volatility, share turnover, and multiple listing). These findings offer support for a number of theories, such as information asymmetry, agency and signalling theory. The influence of these explanatory factors on human, structural and relational capital disclosures, based on all three disclosure measure metrics, as well as on the format of IC disclosure, was also explored. The study also finds that its IC framework is more effective than a less detailed framework used in prior studies for the purpose of examining IC disclosure practice and its determinants. The study contributes to the further advancement of the state of knowledge in relation to IC disclosure both empirically and methodologically. It provides information users, preparers, regulatory bodies and academics with a state-of-the-art understanding of IC disclosure practices in the annual report. The transparent content analysis process enables future replication and comparison of results. The rigorous measurements of IC disclosure, the greater specificity of disclosure about the location and presentational format, and the more detailed IC research framework can be usefully applied by other studies. By examining the relationship between explanatory factors and IC disclosure, it helps shareholders and other groups of information users as well as the regulatory bodies to identify factors that may encourage IC disclosure in the annual report.

This thesis explores causal attribution statements on performance outcomes given in annual reports of UK listed rms. The objectives are three-fold. First, it analyses the nature and extent of attribution statements provided. Second, it explores corporate governance factors and rm-speci c characteristics that are related to the provision of attribution statements. Finally, it investigates the economic consequences of providing attribution statements by examining their association with the rm's cost of equity capital. Using data drawn from a sample of 142 UK rms listed on the London Stock Exchange, content analysis was used to measure the extent of attributions in the annual reports for the year 2006. The results show that the volume of attribution statement provision is generally low and variation across rms is low. Firms also show a strong tendency to explain performance with internal rather than with external reasons. The results from regression analysis show that the volume of attribution statements and the space given to internal and external attribution statements is associated with the proportion of non-executive directors, director share ownership, audit committee size, market value, gearing, pro tability and new share issues. With respect to the relationship between the attribution statements and the cost of capital, the PEG model was employed to estimate the cost of equity capital. The ndings indicate an association between attribution statement provision and the cost of equity capital, but only for rms with low analyst following. For these rms, more extensive performance explanations and more extensive internal explanations are associated with a higher cost of equity capital. However, attribution statements are unrelated to the cost of equity capital for rms with high analyst following. The thesis makes two contributions in the area of attribution determinants. First, it measures attribution provision with a measure that has not been previously applied in the literature to measure attribution statements. Second, it provides evidence on how rm-speci c characteristics and the rm's corporate governance mechanisms in uence the extent and the type of performance explanations provided by rms. The thesis makes four contributions regarding the e ect of attribution statements on the cost of capital. First, it uses a quantitative approach to directly estimate the cost of capital e ects of attribution statements. Second, it provides evidence that the association between attribution statements and the cost of equity capital is in uenced by an interaction between attribution statements and analyst following. Third, the thesis provides the rst evidence of the relationship between attribution statements and the cost of equity capital in a UK setting. Fourth, it provides evidence that the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital is complex and is in uenced by interactions between disclosure and information intermediaries.

Research investigating women-owned businesses has developed considerably over the past two decades. There are, however, few British studies that have specifically focussed on growth oriented women-owned businesses. The current study aims to fill this gap. Its purpose is to explore the effect of social capital and human capital on the growth of women-owned enterprises in the UK. The research contributes to the knowledge of women's entrepreneurship as the first to study the moderating role of human capital in building and using social capital in the UK. It develops the theoretical premise that women entrepreneurs with higher human capital gain credibility and centrality in networks, accumulating social capital based on their importance for other network members and their business stakeholders. This mixed method study involves both collecting and analysing quantitative and qualitative data. Statistical analysis using SPSS was applied to analyse quantitative data collected through 517 on-line completed questionnaires from three different regions. The qualitative data collected through face to face interviews with 42 women entrepreneurs were also analysed and interpreted. The findings suggest that the social capital possessed by women entrepreneurs plays an important role in the growth of enterprises. Women entrepreneurs use different sources to build and use their social capital at different stages of growth and in different industry sectors such as manufacturing or services. Women entrepreneurs with higher human capital are more likely to identify opportunities, generate ideas and show creative thinking in introducing novel products, services, location, processes or systems, which makes their growth path exponential. There are implications of this study for women entrepreneurs to build and use their social and human capital for the growth of their enterprises. And there are also implications for politicians and business organisations, who must devise policies to develop opportunities for existing or potential women entrepreneurs for building their human based capital.

Mediation has been regarded as one of the effective dispute resolving techniques. However, the issues pertaining to the development of mediation have been overlooked and are therefore less well known. There has been limited discussion about mediation and some of the theoretical explanations about its development in the construction industry were not well investigated or documented. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the development of mediation by focusing on investigating the barriers which impede the use of mediation in resolving construction industry disputes in the UK. Gaps in the literature were identified in the research but no hypothesis was generated. The interpretive research model was an ideal paradigm for this research as it assisted in structuring the whole process of the investigation. A grounded theory strategy was adopted as it helped to capture the overall mediation phenomenon in a construction environment. Semi-structured interviews, with sixteen leading mediators from around the UK, were used for this study. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The interview transcripts were analysed using grounded theory analysis, through manual coding techniques. From the findings, two categories of barriers were identified: barriers arising from the public (lack of social awareness, disputatious culture, process barrier, insufficient planning, security and the introduction of adjudication) and barriers caused by the disputants’ legal advisors (ignorance, personal agendas and the conventional method of resolution). The study also explores some information on the mediation system such as financial issue was the main dispute in construction industry; facilitative mediation is the most appropriate mediation process and in appointing the mediator, excellence in mediating skills is more important than his or her professional background; also it is inappropriate/ counterproductive to impose mandatory mediation on construction disputes. The limited amount of literature dealing with mediation in the UK construction industry is one of the limitations of the research, as it complicated the process of designing the interview questions. Some potential sources of bias for the research are identified through the areas of data presentation and data interpretation. This research has provided theoretical and practical contributions to mediation development within the context of the UK’s construction industry. Further research is suggested to validate the research findings and to evaluate the quality of the mediation process, based on the gender and professional background of the mediator.

Trade of South Africa with the rest of the world has changed substantially since the mid-1990s. The United States (US), which used to be the main trading partner of South Africa, is now only the third largest trading partner of the country. South African trade with Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (UK) are also lower. The key reason is the emergence of China in the world economy. South Africa did not trade with China before 1993, but from 2009 China became the main trading partner of the country. Globalisation and China’s emergence have influenced the trade linkages of many other countries in the world. To incorporate the changes in global trade linkages, the foreign variables of all the models in the study are compiled with trade-weighted three-year moving average data. The foremost objective of the thesis is to determine how the changes in trade linkages affect the transmission of economic shocks originating in the rest of the world on South Africa. The global vector autoregression (GVAR) approach is used since one of its advantages is the incorporation of global trade linkages, which facilitates the analysis of the transmission of shocks from one country to another. As a GVAR model combines many individual country models, the study first estimates such a country-specific model for South Africa to determine whether it displays the expected impact of domestic shocks on the economy. This type of model is known as a vector error correction model (VECM) with domestic variables and weakly exogenous (X) foreign (*) variables, denoted by VECX*. The results from the VECX* for South Africa are in line with expectations, showing the effective transmission of monetary policy. The study then examines the impact of international shocks on the South African economy with a GVAR model. The GVAR, which incorporates country-specific VECX* models for 33 countries, is solved for all 33 countries using global trade weight matrices at different dates. The results indicate that over time South Africa is much more vulnerable to GDP shocks to the Chinese economy, and less vulnerable to GDP shocks to the US economy. These trends are however not confined to South Africa, and as such highlights the increased risk to the South African economy and many other economies, should China experience slower GDP growth. Finally, the thesis determines whether the forecasting performance of GVAR models is superior to that of a country-specific VECX* model. The study compares the out-of-sample forecasts of two key South African variables (real GDP and inflation) for five types of models: a VECX*, a customised small GVAR for South Africa, the more general 33-country GVAR, simple autoregressive models and random walk models. Better forecasts of both the GVAR models compared to the VECX* model at forecast horizons of more than four quarters show that, despite the complicated nature of the GVAR model with the inclusion of many countries and global trade linkages, the additional information is useful for forecasting domestic variables / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Economics / unrestricted

This study examines the intellectual capital (IC) disclosure practices in the annual reports of 100 listed UK firms selected from sectors considered to be IC-intensive. It also investigates the possible determinants of such disclosure practices from the three perspectives of corporate governance structure, company characteristics and market factors. IC disclosures were captured using content analysis, and were measured by a disclosure index, supported by word count and percentage of word count metrics to assess the variety, volume and focus of IC disclosure respectively, at both overall and subcategory levels. The presentational formats and locations of IC disclosures were also recorded. The results indicate that the UK firms sampled provide considerable IC information in their annual reports, mainly in text form, with popular use of numerical information, while the use of graphs and pictures for many IC elements remains low. The distribution of IC disclosures, captured in three categories, varies by the three measures of disclosure applied. IC information was found in virtually all sections of the annual report and was most concentrated in the Operating and Financial Review section. IC terms typically used in the academic literature do not feature in the sampled annual reports. The results of the statistical analyses based on the three measures of IC disclosure indicate significant associations with a number of corporate governance factors (i.e. board composition, share concentration, audit committee size and frequency of meeting, board directors¿ shareholding, audit committee directors¿ shareholding, and board directors with cross-directorships), company characteristics (i.e. firm size, profitability, and listing age), and market factors (i.e. `hidden value¿, share price volatility, share turnover, and multiple listing). These findings offer support for a number of theories, such as information asymmetry, agency and signalling theory. The influence of these explanatory factors on human, structural and relational capital disclosures, based on all three disclosure measure metrics, as well as on the format of IC disclosure, was also explored. The study also finds that its IC framework is more effective than a less detailed framework used in prior studies for the purpose of examining IC disclosure practice and its determinants. The study contributes to the further advancement of the state of knowledge in relation to IC disclosure both empirically and methodologically. It provides information users, preparers, regulatory bodies and academics with a state-of-the-art understanding of IC disclosure practices in the annual report. The transparent content analysis process enables future replication and comparison of results. The rigorous measurements of IC disclosure, the greater specificity of disclosure about the location and presentational format, and the more detailed IC research framework can be usefully applied by other studies. By examining the relationship between explanatory factors and IC disclosure, it helps shareholders and other groups of information users as well as the regulatory bodies to identify factors that may encourage IC disclosure in the annual report.

This thesis explores causal attribution statements on performance outcomes given in annual reports of UK listed rms. The objectives are three-fold. First, it analyses the nature and extent of attribution statements provided. Second, it explores corporate governance factors and rm-speci c characteristics that are related to the provision of attribution statements. Finally, it investigates the economic consequences of providing attribution statements by examining their association with the rm's cost of equity capital. Using data drawn from a sample of 142 UK rms listed on the London Stock Exchange, content analysis was used to measure the extent of attributions in the annual reports for the year 2006. The results show that the volume of attribution statement provision is generally low and variation across rms is low. Firms also show a strong tendency to explain performance with internal rather than with external reasons. The results from regression analysis show that the volume of attribution statements and the space given to internal and external attribution statements is associated with the proportion of non-executive directors, director share ownership, audit committee size, market value, gearing, pro tability and new share issues. With respect to the relationship between the attribution statements and the cost of capital, the PEG model was employed to estimate the cost of equity capital. The ndings indicate an association between attribution statement provision and the cost of equity capital, but only for rms with low analyst following. For these rms, more extensive performance explanations and more extensive internal explanations are associated with a higher cost of equity capital. However, attribution statements are unrelated to the cost of equity capital for rms with high analyst following. The thesis makes two contributions in the area of attribution determinants. First, it measures attribution provision with a measure that has not been previously applied in the literature to measure attribution statements. Second, it provides evidence on how rm-speci c characteristics and the rm's corporate governance mechanisms in uence the extent and the type of performance explanations provided by rms. The thesis makes four contributions regarding the e ect of attribution statements on the cost of capital. First, it uses a quantitative approach to directly estimate the cost of capital e ects of attribution statements. Second, it provides evidence that the association between attribution statements and the cost of equity capital is in uenced by an interaction between attribution statements and analyst following. Third, the thesis provides the rst evidence of the relationship between attribution statements and the cost of equity capital in a UK setting. Fourth, it provides evidence that the relationship between disclosure and the cost of equity capital is complex and is in uenced by interactions between disclosure and information intermediaries.

Pharmaceutical supply chains are susceptible to disruptions which impact on the operational and financial performance of firms as well as patient safety. This study aimed to explore why the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC) in the UK is susceptible to the impact of dynamic disruptions and examine how resilience strategies have were employed to reduce the effects of these disruptions. The Complex Adaptive System (CAS) theory was used as a framework in an exploratory research design using mixed-methods. The qualitative data were gathered through 23 semi-structured interviews with key supply chain actors across the PSC in the UK to explore their experiences. The findings from these semi-structured interviews were used to develop a survey which was distributed to a broader spectrum of supply chain actors where the final sample from the survey was (n=106). The data were triangulated to discuss the research findings. The initial results revealed power, conflict and complexities as drivers of vulnerabilities in the PSC. Antecedents for building resilience strategies included visibility, flexibility and joint decision making as recovery strategies and resource sharing as the resistance strategy. CAS provided a systemic approach to understanding PSC resilience rather than in parts. In doing so, it took into consideration the various elements that make up the entire system. Thus, vulnerabilities and resilience strategies were outcomes of the interactions between supply chain actors. The findings demonstrated that CAS, as a theory, provided a framework that was beneficial in exploring and gaining insights into PSC resilience. Also, by combining the two datasets (interviews and survey), an original output was proposed -the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Resilience Framework (PSCRF)- which was used to recommend resilience strategies suitable for mitigating disruptions in the PSC.

No / Accounts of the Catholic Church's response to those disclosing sexual abuse by clergy to diocesan safeguarding commissions (formerly child protection commissions) in England and Wales are analysed and compared. The accounts given and the conclusions reached by the Church and those it employs or has commissioned are considered alongside the experiences reported by survivors. The contrasts between these narratives are discussed using techniques underpinned by critical discourse analysis and highlighting service user perspectives. Reports for the period to 2010 and published in 2011 by the National Catholic Safeguarding Commission and Minister and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors are discussed in detail, with the resulting analysis of the narratives emerging arguably reflecting a broader discourse. It is suggested that, despite attempts to present the situation differently, the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales continues to be hampered in its efforts to respond sensitively to the needs of those who have been abused, because, as an institution, it also continues to serve conflicting legitimacy communities, and that, as a result, it risks further alienating those victims and survivors who have been led to expect that their needs will be prioritised over the financial interests and reputation of the institution.

Yes / Over the last few decades the number of women becoming pregnant later on in life has markedly increased. Medical experts have raised concerns about the increase in the number of women having babies later, owing to evidence that suggests that advancing maternal age is associated with both a decline in fertility and an increase in health risks to both mother and baby. In recognition of these risks, experts have warned that women should aim to have their children between the ages of twenty and thirty-five. As a consequence, women giving birth past the age of thirty-five have typically been positioned as “older mothers.” In this paper we used a social constructionist thematic analysis in order to analyse how “older mothers” are represented in newspaper articles in the British press. We examined how the topics of “choice” and “risk” are handled in discussions of delayed motherhood, and found that the media position women as wholly responsible for choosing the timing of pregnancy and, as a consequence, as accountable for the associated risks. Moreover, we noted that newspapers also constructed a “right” time for women to become pregnant. As such, we discuss the implications for the ability of women to make real choices surrounding the timing of pregnancy.