by Wai-wah Ng. / Chinese title: / Bibliography: leaves 215-220 / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1982

作者羅榮健. / 複印本. / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學硏究院社會學部. / Fu yin ben. / Includes bibliographical references. / Zuo zhe Luo Rongjian. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue yan jiu yuan she hui xue bu. / Chapter 第一章 --- 導論 --- p.1-14 / Chapter 第二章 --- 研究分析架構 --- p.15-27 / Chapter 第三章 --- 研究方法與個案特徵 --- p.28-34 / Chapter 第四章 --- 中國合法移民來港的主要動機及期望 --- p.35-81 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 中國合法移民的主要來港動機 --- p.37-60 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 城鄉之差別 --- p.61-68 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 男女差別 --- p.69-75 / Chapter 〈四〉 --- 中國合法移民來港前對香港的印象與期望 --- p.76-81 / Chapter 第五章 --- 中國合法移民在港之適應問題 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 中國合法移民在港之生活情況 --- p.84-111 / Chapter 1 --- 就業情況 --- p.84-92 / Chapter 2 --- 交友情況 --- p.93-97 / Chapter 3 --- 社會團體組織之參與 --- p.98-103 / Chapter 4 --- 鄰居關係 --- p.104-106 / Chapter 5 --- 工餘閒暇活動 --- p.107-111 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 最能令中國合法移民感到快樂不快樂的事情 --- p.112-117 / Chapter 第六章 --- 影響中國合法移民在港之適應的因素 --- p.118-190 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 個人層面 --- p.119-136 / Chapter 1 --- 移民來港之自願性 --- p.119-124 / Chapter 2 --- 移民來港前對香港情況之了解 --- p.125-128 / Chapter 3 --- 居港時間之長短 --- p.129-132 / Chapter 4 --- 語言的問題 --- p.133-136 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 社會層面 / Chapter 1 --- 移民來港動機及期望之達成 --- p.137-141 / Chapter 2 --- 社會關係網路之重建 --- p.142-145 / Chapter 3 --- 就業及工作問題 --- p.146-154 / Chapter 4 --- 移民在港之家庭關係 --- p.155-159 / Chapter 5 --- 大眾傳播媒介的影響 --- p.160-165 / Chapter 6 --- 香港社會對移民之社會反應與接納 --- p.166-172 / Chapter 7 --- 香港社會文化環境與移民原地的相近性 --- p.173-178 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 城鄉之差別 --- p.179-184 / Chapter 〈四〉 --- 男女之差別 --- p.185-190 / Chapter 第七章 --- 中國合法移民在港之適應策略 --- p.191-207 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 降低其對在港生活的期望或把期望寄望將來 --- p.191-195 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 將期望寄望於下一代 --- p.196-198 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 勤奮工作、刻苦耐勞、以及努力學習 --- p.198-201 / Chapter 〈四〉 --- 接受香港人比自己優勝 --- p.201-204 / Chapter 第八章 --- 中國合法移民與非法移民之主要差別 --- p.208-228 / Chapter 〈一〉 --- 中國非法移民之人口特徵 --- p.212-215 / Chapter 〈二〉 --- 非法移民的動機及期望 --- p.216-220 / Chapter 〈三〉 --- 社會適應問題 --- p.221-227 / Chapter 第九章 --- 結論 --- p.229-239 / 注釋 / 參考書目 / Chapter 附錄 --- （一）　被訪合法移民個案簡述 / （二）　被訪非法移民個案簡述

Chu Wing-yin. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-158). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.ii-iii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.iv / Chapter PART I --- INTRODUCTION / Chapter Chapter 1 --- p.1 / Chapter PART II --- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK / Chapter Chapter 2 --- """Frame"" as the Key Concept" --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- "The Role of Communication in Constructing Photographic Setting and ""Frame""" --- p.29 / Chapter PART III --- METHODOLOGY / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Procedures of Data Collection and Analysis --- p.46 / Chapter PART IV --- DATA INTERPRETATION / Chapter Chapter 5 --- "Dividing One's Life Experiences Into ""Frame"" of Photographs" --- p.61 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- "How One's Life Story Can Be Told in Photographic ""Frame""? - Establishing Relationships in the Photographic World" --- p.76 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- "The Process of Constructing Camera's ""Frame"" - Interactions and Negotiations Between Actors" --- p.111 / Chapter PART V --- CONCLUSIONS / Chapter Chapter8 --- p.148 / REFERENCES --- p.156

Background: Patient safety in healthcare organisations received global attention following the Institute of Medicine’s release of its hallmark report “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System”, where it was estimated that 44,000–98,000 patients die annually in US hospitals as a result of errors in care. Similar rates of error and avoidable harm have been reported in different research studies in many modern health systems across the world. “Safety Culture” has been identified as a key element of healthcare organisations’ ability to learn from errors and reduce preventable harm to patients resulting from health care. The perceived importance of safety culture in improving patient safety and its impact on patient outcomes has led to a growing interest in the assessment of safety culture in healthcare organisations. The use of safety climate questionnaires is one of the most popular methods for assessing safety culture. These questionnaires are thought to help in measuring healthcare workers' perceptions of the prevailing safety culture or “safety climate” in their organisations. Since no surveys of safety climate have been conducted at public hospitals in the state of Kuwait, nor are valid or reliable survey instruments available, this thesis aimed to investigate patient safety climate in public hospitals in Kuwait. The main objectives of the study were: 1. To identify an existing safety climate tools to be employed in my PhD thesis. 2. To test the psychometric properties of the identified tool in a sample of Kuwaiti public hospitals. 3. To provide a measure of the prevailing safety climate in Kuwaiti public hospitals. 4. To explore with key stakeholders the main findings of the safety climate survey and identify the potential barriers and facilitators to safety improvement initiatives in Kuwaiti public hospitals. Based on the overall findings, a series of recommendations are made for clinical leaders, policy makers and others to consider and a conceptual model informing a systems’ based approach to safety culture theory and practice is proposed for future research. Methods: A multi-method, triangulated approach including both quantitative and qualitative methods was adopted for the study. There were four phases of the research: A systematic review of published literature on safety climate tools used in acute hospital settings was carried out using seven electronic databases, with manual searches of bibliographies of included papers and key journals. A suitable tool was identified. A cross-sectional survey of 1,511 healthcare staff in three public hospitals was conducted for two purposes: Firstly, to assess the psychometric properties of the identified tool and develop an optimum model for assessing safety climate in Kuwaiti hospitals. Secondly, to provide an assessment of the current state of safety climate in Kuwaiti hospitals. Finally, interviews with key personnel were conducted to extend the examination of the survey findings and provide a rounded picture of the current state of safety climate in Kuwaiti public hospitals. Results: The search strategy identified 3,576 potential papers. Of these, eighty-eight papers were reviewed, with five studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Three out of five studies, covering three tools, were rated as ‘good’ quality papers and reported more robust psychometric properties. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) was selected as the most appropriate for my PhD thesis (in terms of usability, applicability and psychometric properties), and was pilot tested with minor modifications. A modified version of the HSOPSC was used to conduct the survey using a sample of healthcare staff with an 87% (n=1,310) response rate. Results of psychometric evaluation, including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, reliability and correlation analysis, showed an optimal model of eight factors and 22 safety climate items. General evaluation of the prevailing safety climate amongst the workforce in acute hospital settings was conducted. The dimensions “Teamwork within units” (84%), “organisational learning-continuous improvement” (82%), “supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety” (77%) and “management support for patient safety” (74%) were identified as strongly positive areas for the three hospitals. The dimensions “Non-punitive response to error” (34%), “communication openness” (47%) and “frequency of event reporting” (50%) were identified as areas in need of improvement. Building on the survey findings, interviews with key stakeholders added rich insight into hospital employees' perceptions on safety and allowed exploration of emerging issues in more detail. The research findings of my PhD thesis, and of the literature informed the design of a preliminary framework that aims to extend the examination of the construct of safety climate beyond the domains and items that typically inform safety climate theory to include system wide factors which potentially influence the prevailing safety culture/climate. Conclusions: This is the first validation study of a Standardised safety climate measure in a Kuwaiti healthcare setting. The study assessed the psychometric properties of the HSOPSC questionnaire and constructed an optimal model for assessing patient safety climate in Kuwaiti hospitals. It highlighted important patient safety and staff wellbeing concerns to inform organisational and national learning, and provided a baseline for measuring patient safety climate in Kuwaiti hospitals. As such, my PhD thesis raises and emphasizes the critical importance of appropriate validation of safety climate questionnaires before extending their usage in different countries or healthcare contexts. It provided new knowledge about areas of strength and weakness in safety climate with the potential to drive local improvements in Kuwaiti public hospitals. It is recommended that future investigations of patient safety culture and climate combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches and adopt a system wide approach to inform safety climate theory and questionnaire development, leading to stronger frameworks guiding safety culture research and practice.

Background and aim: Accreditation is a process of evaluating an organisation. It comprises a self-assessment against a set of standards and an external evaluation followed by a report. The trend towards implementing healthcare accreditation has reached the Middle East, since the World Health Organisation reported, in 2003, a lack of accreditation programmes in this region. Many countries in the Middle East, including Kuwait, have been developing and implementing accreditation programmes since then. The aim of this research was to explore implementation of the accreditation programme in Kuwait general hospitals from the multiple perspectives of the healthcare professionals involved. Methods: The research employed a multiple methods approach with three inter-linked studies. The first study was a systematic review of the international literature that explored the implementation of accreditation programmes. Data analysis was guided by Normalisation Process Theory (NPT). The second study was a documentary analysis of the accreditation reports of six general Governmental hospitals. The third study involved interviews with twenty-five participants, from two general hospitals, who represented different professional backgrounds and were all self-assessment team members. The accreditation implementation process was explored in depth, focusing on the impact of the programme and the factors that influenced the process. Both the documentary analysis and the interviews were analysed by thematic analysis. The findings of the three studies were then synthesised, using Normalisation Process Theory. Results: The findings from the three studies identified four broad areas representing the process of accreditation implementation: understanding the accreditation process; engagement with the accreditation process; the work of accreditation; and monitoring the impact of accreditation. Within these themes, key factors were found to influence the successful implementation of the programme. These were: understanding the process; individuals’ engagement; communication and teamwork; leadership support; resources; infrastructure; adaptation of Standards; and education and training. The evidence for the impact of accreditation programmes on healthcare services in the systematic review was inconclusive. However, accreditation was perceived, in the interviews, to have a positive organisational impact. On the individual level, the findings identified the process of implementing accreditation to impact positively on the personal development; improve working relationships; and the morale of the teams. Conclusion: This thesis has contributed to the evidence for the implementation of accreditation in the hospital setting and its impact, from the perspective of accreditation self-assessment team members. Furthermore, it provides valuable insights for policy makers within the Kuwaiti healthcare context in future planning and monitoring of the National Accreditation Programme.

Parkinson’s is a common neurodegenerative disorder that can have a significant impact on an individual’s health, quality of life (QoL), and wellbeing, causing a substantial economic burden on patients, their caregivers, the health service, and broader social and community services. Whilst Parkinson’s wide range of QoL and financial impacts have been well documented relatively little research has explored to what extent such impacts have been appropriately incorporated into economic evaluations. Economic evaluation is used by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK to guide health-care resource allocation in the NHS. It uses preference-based outcome measures to measure and value the health outcomes of different interventions. These health utilities are combined with durations to estimate quality-adjusted life-years. The important role of the preference-based outcomes requires them to be accurately capturing the benefit of interventions, otherwise the estimation of cost-effectiveness of interventions will be not be reflecting true preference/choice between interventions. This may lead to mistakes in funding decisions and insufficient allocation of resources. Despite the importance of accurately capturing the benefit of interventions, the existing generic preference-based measures (e.g., the EQ-5D measure as recommended by NICE) are sometimes criticised for their ‘health-related’ nature as insufficient to capture all the QoL aspects that are affected by the disease or the intervention. This raises a question of “is the generic ‘prescribed’ measure appropriate for all disease areas and all interventions?” For diseases that have broad impact on people’s health and wellbeing such as Parkinson’s, a broadly scoped preference-based wellbeing instrument which could measure the impact of intervention beyond health may potentially fill the gap of the limited scope of the ‘health-related’ preference-based measures (if any). Meanwhile, there are concerns relating to their relevance and sensitivity to specific health aspects and their validity in general to be used in the healthcare context. Given this, the aim of this thesis is to examine the performance of the existing preference-based outcomes in people with Parkinson’s, and evaluate the potential of using a generic preference-based capability-wellbeing measure, ICECAP-O, in this population. This thesis conducted a systematic review of the existing preference-based measures to assess their construct validity and responsiveness in people with Parkinson’s. Two empirical studies explored these properties of the ICECAP-O measure in people with Parkinson’s. Construct validity and responsiveness are the two key psychometric properties relevant to preference-based measures for their use in economic evaluations. Data for both empirical analyses were obtained from the PD MED large-scale randomised controlled trial. This thesis has identified evidence of limited responsiveness of the existing preference-based measures in people with Parkinson’s and suggested that the current commonly used preference-based health-related QoL measures may underestimate the value placed on the mental and social wellbeing aspects that Parkinson’s populations are affected by. This limited ability of the utility values to differentiate health states may have an impact on resource allocation decisions. Especially as this relates to the cost-effectiveness of interventions that have the capacity to influence the mental and social wellbeing aspects of people’s lives. This highlights the need for consideration of a broadly scoped measure such as the ICECAP-O to incorporate such aspects in economic evaluations of diseases such as Parkinson’s. This thesis established the construct validity and responsiveness of the ICECAP-O instrument and demonstrated that there are valued capability wellbeing attributes in Parkinson’s beyond those quality of life attributes reflected by the EQ-5D instrument. It contributes to understanding the use of broadly scoped outcome measures for economic evaluations in Parkinson’s by showing that the ICECAP-O capability wellbeing instrument was able to provide a preference-based assessment of these under-represented aspects in the Parkinson’s population, without compromising its sensitivity to the clinical and specific physical QoL dimensions in this patient group. While further exploration of the role of ICECAP-O in economic evaluation and decision making through the work of assessing ‘sufficient capability’ is required, this thesis establishes initial foundations for the use of the ICECAP-O as a preference-based instrument to measure the impact of interventions in Parkinson’s populations.

Yu, Chi Shing. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-125). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

以往的研究發現在人際關係中存在兩種關係取向。共同取向與利他行爲以及不求回報地幫助他人相關。交換取向則與保持人際關係的平等和公平相關。兩種關係取向在人類社會中都很常見，並且從進化的角度來都有利於人類種族的生存。因此，我認爲共同取向和交換取向可以被看作兩種同時存在於人們腦中的關係圖式，每種關係圖式都與一些能在不同的環境中被動態激活的神經模塊相關，而某種動態關係取向的激活會進而影響人際關係中的動態互動情況。爲了驗證動態關係取向在人際關係中的重要作用，我完成了一個十四天的日記式實驗。參與實驗的是一百零三名處於戀愛關係中的大學生。他們需要連續十四天每天完成一份問卷。每天的問卷記錄了每位參與者當天感受到的壓力以及他們與母親和戀人互動的細節。針對每一種關係，我測量了當天動態關係取向的激活、關係滿意度、互相響應度、支持交換、負面交換、以及互動時間。在實驗前問卷中也記錄了參與者的自我構念和背景信息。研究結果支持了動態關係取向的看法。首先，動態關係取向中介了壓力對關係滿意度的影響。較高的壓力會引起共同取向的較低激活，繼而導致較低的關係滿意度。其次，壓力與動態關係取向的關係被人際關係的類型以及自我構念所調節。在子女與母親的關係中的動態關係取向對壓力的反應不如在戀愛關係中的動態關係取向靈敏。同樣的，互聯型自我構念強/獨立型自我構念弱的人的動態關係取向對壓力的反應不如互聯型自我構念弱/獨立型自我構念強的人的動態關係取向靈敏。最後，在戀愛關係中，動態關係取向對關係滿意度的作用被互相響應度、支持交換、以及負面交換中介；在子女與母親的關係中，動態關係取向對關係滿意度的作用只被互相響應度同負面交換中介。研究結果明動態關係取向是聯係人際關係、環境因素、以及個體特性的重要概念。這個概念可以成功地整合以往關於人際關係的理論同實證研究，也開啟了一個新的研究方向。 / Previous studies have identified that people have two relationship orientations in interpersonal relationships. Communal orientation is about being altruistic and helping others without expecting a reward. Exchange orientation is about keeping equity and fairness in interpersonal relationships. Both relationship orientations are prevalently observed in human societies and are evolutionarily adaptive for the survival of human species. Thus, I propose that communal orientation and exchange orientation can be viewed as two relationship modules that coexist in everyone’s mind. Each relationship module is associated with corresponding mental networks that can be dynamically activated across different situations. The activation of certain dynamic relationship orientation would then influence the dynamics within the relationship. To test the important role of dynamic relationship orientation in interpersonal relationships, a 14-day daily diary study was conducted. The participants were 103 college students who were involved in a serious romantic relationship. They were asked to fill out a daily questionnaire everyday for 14 consecutive days. Each daily questionnaire recorded participants’ perceived stress level and details about their relationship with mother and romantic partner. For each relationship, I measured the activation of dynamic relationship orientation, relationship satisfaction, mutual responsiveness, support exchanges, negative exchanges, and interaction duration on that day. Participants’ self-construal and background information were also measured in a pretest questionnaire. Results from the study supported the dynamic relationship orientation perspective. First, dynamic relationship orientation mediated the effect of perceived stress on relationship satisfaction. Higher perceived stress led to relatively less activation of the communal orientation and then resulted in lower relationship satisfaction. Second, the association between perceived stress and dynamic relationship orientation was moderated by relationship type and self-construal. The dynamic relationship orientation in child-mother relationship was less responsive to perceived stress compared with that in romantic relationship. Similarly, the dynamic relationship orientation of people with high interdependent/low independent self-construal was less responsive to perceived stress compared with that of people with low interdependent/high independent self-construal. Lastly, the effect of dynamic relationship orientation on relationship satisfaction in romantic relationship was mediated by mutual responsiveness, support exchanges, and negative exchanges, whereas the same effect in child-mother relationship was only mediated by mutual responsiveness and negative exchanges. The results suggest that dynamic relationship orientation is a key construct that connects relationship dynamics with situational factors and individual dispositions. The concept of dynamic relationship orientation can successfully integrate previous theories and empirical findings regarding interpersonal relationships and inspire a new research direction. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Li, Tianyuan / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 81-97). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Chapter Chapter I --- The Dynamic Relationship Orientation Perspective --- p.1 / Previous Research Related to Exchange Relationship Orientation --- p.2 / Previous Research Related to Communal Relationship Orientation --- p.5 / The Dynamic Relationship Orientation Perspective --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter II --- Dynamic Relationship Orientation as the Mediator between Perceived Stress and Relationship Satisfaction --- p.12 / From Perceived Stress to Dynamic Relationship Orientation --- p.15 / From Dynamic Relationship Orientation to Relationship Satisfaction --- p.21 / Summary --- p.24 / Chapter Chapter III --- The Current Study and the Hypotheses --- p.26 / Chapter Chapter IV --- The Pilot Study --- p.29 / Participants and Procedure --- p.29 / Measures --- p.30 / Results --- p.31 / Chapter Chapter V --- Method --- p.33 / Participants --- p.33 / Procedure --- p.33 / Measures --- p.34 / Chapter Chapter VI --- Results --- p.40 / Overview --- p.40 / Preliminary Analyses --- p.42 / The Mediating Role of Dynamic Relationship Orientation between Perceived Stress and Relationship Satisfaction --- p.47 / From Perceived Stress to Dynamic Relationship Orientation: The Moderators --- p.49 / From Dynamic Relationship Orientation to Relationship Satisfaction: The Mediators --- p.56 / Chapter Chapter VII --- Discussion --- p.60 / A New Conceptualization of Relationship Orientations --- p.60 / Activation of the Dynamic Relationship Orientation --- p.64 / Consequences of Dynamic Relationship Orientation --- p.69 / Significance of the Current Study --- p.71 / Limitations of the Current Study and Future Directions --- p.74 / Conclusion --- p.78 / References --- p.81

創業被廣泛認可為世界各地的經濟增長和社會發展的引擎，創業研究已被定義為核心的研究領域且具有獨特的定義問題，理論界定和合法性。本研究由三篇文章組成，我試圖从創業的不同階段为理論研究和實踐提供深入了解創業的知識和理论。在此過程中，我将結合戰略管理，創業研究和跨文化研究的理論。總結的論文的總體框架如圖1所示。 / 第一個研究首先提出的一個基本問題，是誰會成為企業家，並從文化價值的角度解釋。鑑於創業的不確定性和損失的可能性，不確定性規避文化價值可能影響個人的創業機會識別和探索。因此，本研究側重於探索不確定性規避文化價值對創業機會識別的直接和間接影響。受先前研究企業家精神和不確定性規避文化的啟發，我的理論解釋了不確定性規避文化會影響個人對創業行為的不確定性的接受程度，以及整個社會對創業行為的認可。不確定性規避文化價值也能作為調節變量影響個人的創業能力和對失敗的恐懼對機會識別的影響。 / 第二個研究側重於新生創業者的工作經驗和當前尋求企業合法化活動對初創期企業績效的影響。遵循以往的研究，我選取了人力資本中最重要的經驗的深度和經驗的廣度，並預測經驗的深度和企業績效的倒U型的關係，以及經驗的廣度和企業績效之間正相關關係。此外，我側重於新生創業者的企業合法化活動，創業組織活動和獲得外界幫助，並預測他們對經驗和企業績效之間關係的增強作用。在實證研究中，我分析了321中國新生創業者的創業活動及過程，發現數據支持預測的經驗對企業績效的作用。此外，創業者從事創業組織活動和獲得外界幫助，使得經驗的廣度對績效的作用的曲線在最佳水平前後變得更陡，這表明加強的互動作用。 / 第三個研究，基於製度基礎論，研究區域制度發展對新興市場企業創新戰略作用。這裡的區域指的是低於國家的行政區劃，作為企業作為最直接的環境，提供製度上的正当性和環境資源，為企業創新所必需的條件。通過過去很少有研究關注的企業家的主动地资源获取戰略。而企業家的政治资本和社会资本能幫助企業從地區環境中獲得更多的合法性和資源。在實證研究中，通過對中國民營企業的調查數據分析，證實了區域制度對企業創新的促進作用，並發現企業家樹立的政治资本和社会资本能幫助企業在創新過程中改變的區域制度的約束[附圖]。 / Entrepreneurship is widely recognized as the engine of economic growth and social development throughout the world, and entrepreneurship research has been defined and legitimated as a core research field with unique defining questions and theoretical boundaries. In this dissertation that consists of three essays, I strive to provide insights on the knowledge of entrepreneurship at various stages of the start-up process. By doing so, I combined and extend the theories in strategy, entrepreneurship, and cross-culture studies. The overall framework of the dissertation is summarized in Figure 1. / Essay 1 of this thesis starts by asking the question of who will be entrepreneurs and relate this question to the influence of culture. Given the uncertainty and possibility of loss of entrepreneurship, the cultural uncertainty avoidance might exert influence on individual's entrepreneurial opportunity identification and exploration. Therefore, Essay 1 focuses on the direct and indirect effects of cultural uncertainty avoidance on entrepreneurial opportunity identification and exploitation. Inspired by previous research on entrepreneurship and cross-culture studies, I theorize that the cultural uncertainty avoidance will influence individual's attitude towards uncertainty and the social acceptance of entrepreneurial behavior. Also cultural uncertainty avoidance might moderate the relationship between individual's entrepreneurial capability and fear of failure, and their opportunity identification. / Essay 2 focuses on the role of nascent entrepreneur's previous working experience and current legitimation activities on new venture's early stage performance. Following previous research, I divide human capital into experience depth and experience breadth, and predict a inverted-U shaped relationship between experience depth and performance, and a positive relationship between experience breadth and performance. In addition, I focused on two kinds of legitimation actions of nascent entrepreneur, organizing activities and getting external help, and predicted their enhancing role on the relationship between experience and performance. Empirically, I analyzed data of 321 Chinese nascent entrepreneur in their founding process and found support to the predicted role of experience on performance. Moreover, as entrepreneurs are engaging in more organizing activities and receiving more external help, the slops of experience depth to performance will be more abrupt both before and after the optimal level, indicating an enhancing interaction. / Essay 3 relies on institution-based view to examine the role of subnational market-supporting institution on the innovative strategy of emerging market firms. Subnational institution, as the most direct environment of private firms, provide institutional legitimacy and environmental resource, which are necessary for firm innovation. Rarely studied is entrepreneur's active resource-seeking strategy to gain more legitimacy and resource from subnational region. Using survey data on Chinese private firms, I confirmed the facilitation of subnational institution on firm innovation, and found that political capital and business capital can alter the constraints imposed by institution [with diagram]. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Ding, Zhujun. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.iv / [摘要] --- p.vii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.x / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.xii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.xiv / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xv / Chapter Chapter 1 --- A GENERAL REVIEW OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP RESEARCH --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- STUDY ONE --- p.21 / TITLE: Cultural Uncertainty Avoidance and Entrepreneurial Opportunity --- p.21 / ABSTRACT --- p.21 / INTRODUCTION --- p.22 / LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES --- p.24 / Culture and Entrepreneurship --- p.24 / Cultural Uncertainty Avoidance and Entrepreneurship --- p.28 / Entrepreneurial opportunity --- p.32 / Entrepreneurial opportunity discovery --- p.33 / Entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation --- p.37 / METHODOLOGY --- p.41 / Data and Measurements --- p.41 / RESULTS --- p.43 / DISCUSSION --- p.47 / REFERENCE --- p.52 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- STUDY TWO --- p.67 / TITLE: Entrepreneur's Working Experience and Legitimacy Seeking for New Venture --- p.67 / ABSTRACT --- p.67 / INTRODUCTION --- p.68 / LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES --- p.71 / Working experience on new venture performance --- p.75 / Working Experience Depth --- p.77 / Working Experience Breadth --- p.79 / Moderators on the relation between experience depth and performance --- p.81 / Moderators on the relation between experience breadth and performance --- p.84 / METHODOLOGY --- p.86 / Data and Sample --- p.86 / Variables and Measurements --- p.89 / RESULTS --- p.91 / DISCUSSION --- p.94 / CONTRIBUTION AND IMPLICATION --- p.97 / REFERENCE --- p.100 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- STUDY THREE --- p.116 / TITLE: Subnational Institution and Firm Capital: a Multilevel Model of Innovation Under Emerging Economies --- p.116 / ABSTRACT --- p.116 / INTRODUCTIONN --- p.117 / LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES --- p.122 / Subnational institution and firm innovation --- p.127 / Political capital --- p.129 / Social capital --- p.132 / Interactions --- p.134 / METHODOLOGY --- p.137 / The empirical design --- p.137 / Data --- p.139 / Measurement --- p.140 / Analytic method --- p.143 / RESULTS --- p.145 / DISCUSSION --- p.149 / CONTRIBUTION AND IMPLICATION --- p.151 / REFERENCE --- p.154 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- CONCLUSION --- p.174

With the increasing internationalisation of Higher Education, which saw the number of international students double in the first decade of the 21st century according to an OECD report (Rebolledo-Gomez & Ranchin, 2013), universities around the world have been trying to improve the learning experience and enhance student employability in order to maintain an international reputation. Multicultural groupwork, which has the power to "force" students of different cultural backgrounds to work together has been increasingly used in the name of developing students' intercultural skills and prepare them to become "Global Citizens" under this internationalisation of Higher Education agenda. However, it needs to be questioned whether simply mixing students of different backgrounds in a group necessarily leads to them working collaboratively with each other. Challenges and negative perceptions of the experience have been repeatedly reported in the literature (Summers & Volet, 2008; Turner, 2009). However, most studies in this area were conducted by academic staff who were researching their own students, which might affect how students report their experiences. Additionally, there is little research focusing on intercultural skills development within student groups. By taking a "from students, for students, and about students" stance, I will address this research gap, not only by looking at students' perceptions of their multicultural groupwork experience, but also by looking into the development of transferable skills. My research also addresses factors that influence students' attitudes in order to identify possible actions to foster a better intercultural learning environment. A mixed methods approach was adopted to answer my research inquiry, via two questionnaires involving 286 respondents and two rounds of interviews involving 19 participants, which were conducted at the early stage and end stage of a master's degree course. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected about postgraduate students' attitudes towards multicultural groupwork, their perceptions of the groupwork experience and how they coped with the difficulties they encountered in the process. While the quantitative findings indicated that overall postgraduate students showed no change of attitudes during their one-year course of study, they largely recognised the benefits and value of working in multicultural groups. The qualitative analysis allowed a deeper exploration of the quantitative findings, for example, elaboration on the difficulties they voiced and challenges they had to deal with. Participants in this study nonetheless confirmed that they did develop skills through working in groups, as well as many creative coping strategies to deal with difficulties that happened during the groupwork process, such as different levels of language proficiency and different working styles. The implications of the study are that further support by academic teaching staff and university administration is needed to promote intercultural awareness and provide intercultural skills training to help students understand culturally different communication and working styles before they undertake group projects. The findings also suggest that current assessment criteria, which largely focus on the end product of multicultural group work rather than the process, should be changed, as the true value of working in multicultural groups exists in the interaction of students studying collaboratively.