Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / British involvement in Ethiopia after 1896 became necessary to stop French activities in the Nile Basin and to block Ethiopian expansion toward the White Nile. After wringing guarantees concerning the Ethiopian sources of the Nile from the Emperor Manilek, Great Britain worked to prevent any potentially dangerous European power from gaining overwhelming predominance at the Ethiopian Court. Thus, in pursing her own interests in Egypt and the Nile Valley, England stood at the same time as a guarantor of Ethiopia's sovereignty [TRUNCATED] / 2999-01-01

Politics today is facing a troubling trend towards the empowerment of nationalist movements. With strong historical traditions and a powerful Scottish National Party, Scotland would appear to be a prime candidate for such movements. However, this thesis argues that Scotland represents a nation with a unique civic culture. This thesis seeks to determine which elements of Scottish political and cultural history have led to its modern day civic culture, in the form of a civic nationalism, or patriotism. It asks: why is Scottish nationalism unique, and why does it matter? To answer, I have broken down the thesis into three main chapters that consider the theories of nationalism that are significant to the study of Scottish nationalism, the foundations of Scottish nationalism, and how Scottish nationalism manifests itself in civic contexts. The results reflect that Scottish civic culture deeply permeates the nation's politics. Even when given the opportunity for independence, Scotland chose to remain a part of the United Kingdom in order to maintain its interests with the European Union. And, while political cultures are subject to rapid change, the current state of Scottish culture reflects a civic manifestation. / Master of Arts / This thesis looks at how Scotland represents a political nation that resists instinctive, exclusive political decisions, despite its history as a strong and proud nation. This paper is organized in a way to give an overview of what national identity is, and what nationalism means, as well as what Scottish national identity means and how it influences Scottish politics. The question I asked was: How is Scottish nationalism unique, and why does it matter? I determined that in Scottish politics, both the Scottish people and the Scottish government act in a way that is very open to interconnected, international interactions, such as those found in the European Union. Scottish nationalism, or patriotism, embodies a love for their own nation, while keeping an open mind to other nations and countries. In addition, the Scottish nation is willing to put aside its drive for independence for the greater good of what they want to accomplish politically.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The aim of this dissertation is to explain how elective surgery patients choose between the public and private hospital sectors in the United Kingdom, and to analyze government policy changes which affect this choice. First the choice between the public and private sectors is modeled for the case where there is no private insurance available. The model takes into account the different rationing mechanisms used by National Health Service (NHS) and private hospitals to allocate surgery among patients. Private hospitals charge a price and ration on the basis of willingness to pay , while NHS hospitals , which face budget limits, ration on the basis of clinical need and require patients to wait for surgery. Consequently, a patient's choice of sector depends on her income and her level of clinical need. A simulation model is used to compare the efficiency and equity of two policy measures designed to raise the number of people receiving elective surgery : an increase in NHS funding and a subsidy to the price of private surgery. The subsidy is shown to be more efficient and the NHS funding increase more equitable. Within the same framework an expected utility model of the demand for private health insurance is developed. Two cases are analyzed: the case where individuals have no information about their future need for elective surgery and the case where they have partial information. In each case it is shown that for a given insurance premium there is a threshold level of income above which people buy insurance. It is also shown by simulation that in each case the insurance company can set a premium that allows it to break even. Finally the two models are combined. This enables the efficiency and equity of an increase in NHS funding, a subsidy to private care and a subsidy to private insurance to be compared in a situation where some private patients have insurance to cover the cost of their surgery. The NHS funding increase is shown to be most equitable , and depending on the definition of efficiency chosen, one of the two subsidies is most efficient. / 2999-01-01

Yes / Human Resource Directorate

No / The study of interest representation is well established in the context of the European Union1 (EU). For more than five decades, scholars have debated the role played by interest groups (particularly business interests) in comparison to other policy actors in the 'bottom-up' process of European integration. Recently, scholarship about the EU as a political system has shifted to focus on the 'top-down' impact of the EU on national and sub-national actors, a process referred to as Europeanization. This article addresses lacunae in that literature and brings fresh evidence to light by exploring the EU effect on UK and French business interest representation. Drawing on a combination of political and management studies concepts and tools, this article compares and contrasts UK and French firms located in two industrial sectors directly affected by the EU's single market programme, namely the telecommunications and energy sectors. The research, an extensive qualitative study based on more than 50 elite semi-structured interviews, elicits the firms' and other actors' perceptions, understandings and impressions of each other and the political processes at work. Some important similarities and differences between the UK and French firms emerge from the data. Most significantly, some narrowing in the dissimilarities is apparent, which may, in part, be attributed to the process of Europeanization itself.

No

No / Interest has grown in the significance of the country-of-origin impact on the Employment Relations (ER) approaches in the international subsidiaries of Multinational Companies (MNCs). In this article, a comparative cross-sectional analysis of German subsidiaries with indigenous UK firms will be provided. The central issues concern the extent to which German MNCs in deregulated Anglo-American industrial relations settings draw on the German ER model, adjust to the host-country context or adopt current ¿best practice¿ prescriptions frequently associated with leading US MNCs. Here, the key questions are: How and to what extent do different industry-specific forces interrelate with country-of-origin effects and pressures to adopt ¿best practice¿ approaches to shape subsidiary ER outcomes? / Hans Blocker Foundation

Yes / In this article we examine the industrial relations practices of three large European food retailers when they transfer the hypermarket format to other countries. We ask, first, how industrial relations in hypermarkets differ from those in other food retailing outlets. Second, we examine how far the approach characteristic of each company’s country-of-origin (Germany, France and the UK) shapes the practices adopted elsewhere. Third, we ask how they respond to the specific industrial relations systems of each host country (Turkey, Poland, Ireland and Spain).

Yes / Medicines management is only one part of NHS (UK) procurement and management, but essentially a very expensive part. In December 2012 the Department of Health issued an action plan to improve the use of medicines and reduce waste. There is an onus therefore on the NHS to ensure that they are as efficient in the medicines management as possible in all aspects of the supply chain in order to ensure sustainability (economically and operationally). To do this consideration must be given to medicines optimization, from procurement, through to storage, dispensing, compliance and finally waste prevention and reduction and waste retrieval. As part of the larger National Health Service (UK), hospital pharmacy places strong emphasis on contributing to the efficiency targets through reductions in waste and drug spending, and best practice. The purpose of this study is to examine medicines reverse logistics practice within the NHS hospital pharmacies, and the operational strategy which drives such practices. The overarching aim is to explore through qualitative analysis the variance and commonality in strategy and practice in what is a standard logistical activity. The outputs offer transparency of medicines RL as practiced by NHS professionals and contribute to ongoing discussions within the Department of Health (NHS UK) on best practice governing waste medicines recycling processes. A qualitative approach was adopted in undertaking this research study, utilizing a purposive study sample. The survey examined practice in 45 hospitals as individual cases across all stages in the medicines reverse logistics system. The findings indicated there is some commonality in the strategy employed in conducting medicines recycling, and all 3 drivers are prevalent in undertaking recycling and encouraging a more sustainable approach, i.e., economic, corporate citizenship, and legislation. However, the means by which the same objective was achieved differed, such as resource utilisation, training etc. / The full-text of this article was released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 3 Nov 2015.

No / The purpose of this study is to investigate the customer’s perception of service quality within the context of the pharmaceutical supply chain, and look specifically at the supplier/customer relationship. The research in question focuses on the trading relationship between a pharmaceutical wholesaler and its pharmacy customers. Existing literature shows that quality of the overall service is determined by the customer’s perceptions of that service; therefore it is important that the supplier measures the customer’s perception of service quality and understands what factors influence that perception and build this into their service delivery. The data were collected via a series of qualitative semi-structured interviews with hospital and retail pharmacies located in the North West of England. The findings show that pharmacy customers have a range of vitally important to less important criteria associated with good service quality and that pharmaceutical wholesalers as suppliers should aim to excel at the vital and important issues and meet those of lesser importance to satisfy customers expectations of service quality. This reinforces the importance of measuring customer expectations and incorporating outputs into service design to ensure a customer focus to the service provided. Further consideration should be given to adopting the SERVQUAL tool in conducting future research and analysis. Suppliers should be aware that there are vital activities that customers expect to have performed/delivered and that they need to know what these are and excel at these, whilst managing less important criteria effectively. This paper provides an insight into the customer-supplier relationship within the pharmaceutical supply chain in the NHS, which will be of benefit to practitioners and academics in this field.