The financial liberalisation theorem postulates that liberalising the financial sector is a route to increasing savings and investment, and thus the promotion of growth. Endogenous growth models suggest that financial sector development increases savings mobilisation, transfers savings into investments, and increases the productivity of investment, with the consequence of economic growth and improved economic performance. However, in practice, experience has shown that a number of developing countries do not demonstrate this kind of relationship, and have rather, recorded relatively low growth despite achieving high savings rates. It is argued that the reason why few authors have found empirical evidence supporting the notion that saving causes growth in developing countries, and have found instead that growth causes savings, is these scholars' failure to consider the productivity of investment financed by savings, evidenced by the tendency to use aggregate measures of savings. This work proposes that the quality of saving is important, and instead of using gross saving, financial savings is used as a measure of savings. Despite the implementation of reforms and liberalisation in the financial sector, especially the banking industry, as the major elements of the economic reforms and structural adjustment programmes in Libya in the early 1990s, the resulting improved economic performance has not been followed by sustained economic growth and development, and investment rates are still insufficient to achieve this. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to identify the role of the financial sector, examining the impact of its development on saving, and on the growth of the Libyan economy. The methodology used in this research involved the quantitative approach. The quantitative aspect was based on an empirical assessment of the importance of financial sector development by using time-series econometric techniques including the unit root test, testing for cointegration and causality for the variables of the study. The results indicate that the impact of the real interest rate on financial saving and domestic investment is negative in the long run. The impact of real output on financial savings and domestic investment is positive in the long run. Credit as an indicator of financial sector development, has a very small impact on domestic saving in the long run and is highly insignificant in the long run. The causality test results indicate that causality runs from growth to financial savings, from growth or real output to credit. The study suggests that more attention should be paid to other aspects of financial liberalisation and financial reforms because liberalising the interest rate is not only the key aspect of financial sector reform.

This research investigates customer loyalty and relationship marketing theories into two different commercial sectors in the UK, namely grocery retailing and telecommunication. The study is divided into two major parts. The first part examines consumer perceptions of customer loyalty schemes and explores the nature and extent of relationship development in the UK retail grocery sector. Aspects of the Interaction Approach, historically developed and confined to organisational contexts, were used as a conceptual framework for assessing the level of these relationships.

The citizens of the Gulf Cooptation Cancel (G.C.C.) countries have been facing an increasing problem in recent years relating to the difficulties in obtaining public services. The time taken to receive a public service has been increasing, and the quos at public organizations have been increasing. Citizen is also having to shuttle between many public organizations in order to complete a service. The finding of the exploratory study conducted at the General Traffic Department (GTD) showed that citizens want services to be provided online instead of traditional means, which means implementing e-Government initiatives.

This research is intended to study how to attract Foreign Direct Investment to invest specifically in the housing sector in Libya. An exploratory methodology has been adopted in this research, and multi-methods (qualitative and quantitative) are used to analyse multi-sources of data that comprise observation, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, literature, and official documents. Triangulation analysis has been employed, which, is appropriate for multi-sources data.

The aims and objectives of the research presented in this thesis were to explore service user experience as a key element of the concept of service excellence in NHS Salford Primary Care Trust. . The link between health and social deprivation is well established. Thus, service users in worst economic and social problems in Europe. A phenomenological approach was adopted in order to get to the roots of the service user's own understanding of excellent healthcare. The study undertook a critical review of previous research into service concepts and instruments and their application in healthcare settings and identified current methods and techniques used in primary care. It has been shown that existing tools rely on previous work conducted in secondary care settings and do not have a basis in understanding of user experience.

Building procurement involves many different parties and resources. It is very common that requires project participants involved to work within budget, on time and according to quality prescribed as well as they must work safely. Sadly, safety aspects have been insufficient and lacking in many construction projects around the globe. However, as time progresses, safety is now becoming the fundamental measure of project performance. Hence, this research is an exploratory and explanatory investigation of how to enhance the implementation of construction safety practice throughout procurement process. As we speak, improvement of safety in construction is not only treated as technical aspects, but also as an organisational and managerial aspect as well. Firstly, the premise of this research is to show that client leadership and commitment as well as project team integration within the whole procurement process will influence safety practice in the construction industry. Secondly, the context of this research is drawn on the underlying theories of building procurement and construction safety. Therefore, thirdly, the primary objective of this research is to study how the procurement process acts as a potential tool to enhance safety practice in the construction industry. A framework developed for this research was based on procurement systems and accident causation theories as well as the process protocol. The current theories of accident causation suggest that improved safety in construction must start since in the beginning of project procurement process while integrating client and project participants toward synergy to mitigate any factors undermining safety in downstream production level. A case study strategy in two different countries, the UK and Malaysia, was selected as this provided justification of how procurement and people involved practising safety. The case study objects were undertaken by design and built and traditional procurement method. Different level of safety maturity is the justification of the countries selected. It was also intended to investigate lessons learned from the UK safety practice that can be used to improve the Malaysian construction industry. Multiple sources of information, data and evidence from 2 of the UK cases and 2 of the Malaysian cases were investigated through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. In this research, three propositions were explored. The first is that improved procurement process, the client leadership for better safety policy in the procurement process and team integration throughout project procurement process can enhance health and safety practice. The findings are presented as data comparisons and analytical generalisations, from both intra case and cross case analyses as well as questionnaires. The main results show that procurement process with better client leadership and commitment as well as stronger project team integration can enhance safety practice in the construction industry. This research suggests that improving safety in construction is not only in the hand of construction companies but also any other project participants right from beginning of project procurement throughout project implementation. It is also suggested that Malaysia may take more attempts to persuade clients and client's project team to deal with safety issues seriously long before construction project commencing on site.

This research explores new evidence on the profitability, consistency and potential explanations of the accruals anomaly. We extend prior research into the association between earnings and share price by discrirninating between firms on the basis of the abnormal accruals contained in the reported operating profits. We investigate the accounting abnormal accruals enigma using U.K company data for the period 1968- 2005 to see whether companies reporting incomes consisting of the highest [lowest] operating abnormal accruals as a proportion of total assets significantly earn lower [higher] returns than the generality of the companies. We define a firm's abnormal accrual as the difference between its actual and normal total accruals. Total accruals are calculated as the change in non-cash working capital before income taxes payable less total depreciation expense. The themes of this thesis are two-fold. First, the time-series version of the Modified Jones Model is employed to decompose total operating accruals as they appear on the sample companies' financial statements into normal and abnormal accruals. Second, an empirical examination of the profitability and consistency of the abnormal accruals anomaly is undertaken. Abnormal returns for abnormal accruals deciles are estimated using a range of tests: the market-, the size-, the book-to-market- and the size-and-book-to-market-adjusting tests. Our abnormal returns estimates for the abnormal accruals deciles show evidence that the abnormal accruals anomaly in the UK is driven particularly by the highest abnormal accruals firms with significant negative abnormal returns over three years of about 4-5% per annum. Potential risk explanations for the observed accruals anomaly based on variety of tests including the use of the Fama and French three factor model are provided. The findings indicate that the abnormal accruals anomaly is robust after controlling for the risk factors. Therefore, the implication of this study is to short sell those shares in the highest abnormal accruals decile or, alternatively, to avoid buying them.

In contrast to birds and mammals for example, amphibian population studies only rarely capture information based on genealogical relationships among individuals. As a consequence, we only have very limited knowledge about individual fitness measures such as lifetime reproductive success and the consequences of such variation on the linkage between generations of amphibians in the wild. The present thesis makes use of an existing long-term study on the common toad (Bufo bufo) in southern England (Dorset) to genetically identify parent-offspring relationships among approximately 850 individual toads, representing two successive generations (2004/2005/2006 and 2008/2009). The dataset enabled the comparison of measures of effective population size as well as effective breeding size, revealing ratios between 0.07 and 0.26. These data also showed an increasing trend with time and were (by some estimators) confirmed by the cross-generational parentage analysis which revealed a high reproductive skew among individuals. Forty-five percent of offspring could be assigned to a least one parent; in total, 6% of male parents and 30% of female parents were inferred. The pedigree information was also used to identify a possible hereditary basis for an observed decrease in female body condition and fecundity correlated to increased environmental temperatures. There was no indication for heritability of body size, body weight and body condition, suggesting that the documented decrease is based on phenotypic plasticity rather than evolutionary adaptation. However, kinship data that shows the population is less inbred with time coupled with the effective breeding number estimates showing an increasing trend with time suggest that despite the absence of evolutionary change, this population may still be able to circumvent the adverse effects associated with decreased body condition.

This study investigate the impact of using E-Learning Model with the principles of the constructivism learning theory to enhance the critical thinking skills of students at the university-level. The focus of this study is critical thinking pedagogy and the impact of the E-Learning environment on a class of students. The research effort empirically examines two coherent subjects: (a) the effectiveness of the E-Learning Model in enhancing students' critical thinking; and, (b) the students' perception toward the E-Learning Model after exposure to a course in an E-Learning environment.

Performance evaluations of facilities are widely practiced within facilities organisations and it is generally accepted by Facilities Management practitioners that failure to obtain feedback on the building performance can expose facilities to serious consequences. The success of the evaluation is largely dependent on the breadth of issues being covered. These include financial matters, the physical condition of the building or the environment. As performance evaluation is a continuous process in the facilities management cycle, the factors that contribute to its success need to be identified. Issues such as accuracy, standardisation of practice, skill and knowledge remain open to debate among practitioners and academia in facilities management. There is also a view that facility users and owners are still in doubt as to how the performance evaluation will benefit them. On the knowledge management side, previous studies in various fields have identified numbers of knowledge mapping tools and techniques that are widely used. Knowledge mapping tools and techniques assist with information and knowledge flow throughout an organisation. However, for a knowledge map to be useful it must serve the purpose for which it is intended. This imposes some constraints upon which map forms are suitable and for what purpose. In the same vein, facilities performance practices are developing and evolving with changes in technology, business needs and users’ expectation. The present research identifies and explores the potential knowledge mapping tools and techniques that might be of benefit to facilities management organisations. In addition, a conceptual framework for the exploitation of benefits of knowledge mapping at various stages of performance evaluation is presented and discussed. The research methodology of the study employed both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Twenty-one (21) facilities managers from different facilities management organisation were interviewed using semi structured interview techniques in order to obtain in-depth information on the implementation of knowledge mapping in the organisations. The data obtained was analysed using content analysis techniques. To obtain a broader perspective of the key issues investigated in the research, one hundred and eighty-eight (188) usable questionnaires were obtained from facilities managers in Malaysia via e-mail survey. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 16.0) was used to analyse the quantitative data and various statistical methods. The present research concludes that majority of facilities management organisations are of the view that knowledge mapping is important and some have initiated and implemented tools and techniques of knowledge mapping in evaluating facilities performance. The study also revealed that the main benefits of knowledge mapping in evaluating facilities performance are: improvements in the decision making process, problems identification and problem solving by providing quick access to critical information, identifying knowledge gaps and islands of expertise. The guidance produced will be beneficial to facilities management organisations in implementing knowledge mapping and exploit the benefits in facilities management organisation.