Research Purpose: The current study attempted to redress the ‘narrowness’ in the research on the causes of workforce emotional experiences by utilizing the cybernetic Viable System Model (VSM) framework, and developing a reference model to facilitate the integrated view of the related aspects of affective workplace environment. Methods: Based on VSM distinctions, an analytical tool (named as Holistic Emotions Measurement Model – HEMM) was developed for gauging the broad range of the causes of emotional experiences prevailing in the work environment. It facilitated the joined-up functional and the relational view of the entire working environment adequate for holistic diagnosis of the antecedents of emotions within the work settings. HEMM was tested empirically by conducting survey in Pakistan corporate sector. The development and test of the reference model was guided by the constructivism-positivism philosophy respectively. Results: The functional and relational view of the workplace environment captured by the reference model helped in comprehending the causes of emotional experiences holistically. The field testing results confirmed the potential utilization of the tool in diagnosing the antecedents of affective experiences of the employees while at work. Conclusion: The current study provided an empirical account on the effective utilization of organizational cybernetics principles in the field of organizational behaviour which has remained largely unexplored till date. VSM framework has been proposed as a tool for understanding work environment and diagnosing the causes of the workforce emotions generation, which has enhanced the state-of-art theories on emotions management. The application of the reference model on field provided evidence about the convenient use of VSM in conjunction to Affective Events Theory (AET) as emotions measurement tool.

Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) have drawn much attention among financial economists recently. However, gaps still exist and more empirical research is warranted, especially for immature stock markets, such as China. This research mainly concentrates on the aspects of “Credit rating effect on IPOs and SEOs’, ‘Complicated IPO allocation mechanisms’ and ‘Links between IPOs and SEOs, and SEOs motivations’ in the Chinese case using data from 1990 to 2011, which covers the entire history of the Chinese stock market development. First of all, this thesis confirms that the presence of credit rating is able to reduce information asymmetry and lower the IPO/SEO underpricing level no matter the rating is from the Chinese domestic rating agency or top three international rating agencies (S&P, Fitch and Moody’s), where the so-called ‘Non-creditable rating’ system does work in Chinese case. Further, this thesis proves additional evidence that multiple credit ratings' presence can lower the IPO/SEO underpricing level. What is more, this research confirms that what matters on IPO/SEO underpricing is not only the presence of credit rating, but also the level of credit rating. In order to analyse the credit-rating effect, this thesis has also divided sample into four sub-samples based on a pricing model in China and provides additional results that credit-rating presence is only able to reduce information asymmetry in time periods two and three for IPO, but the presence of credit rating can lower underpricing for SEO in all time periods. Secondly, we examine the determinants of the allocation mechanism choice and the how effective each allocation mechanism is in reducing the IPO underpricing for the Chinese market. Our results show that among the several IPO allocation mechanisms in China, the “bookbuilding” (BB) is most effective in reducing the underpricing level, and that the market conditions, firm’s risk level, information asymmetry and capital demand all play important roles in the choice of the IPO allocation mechanism. Our results also attest that firms with larger board size and or a higher proportion of legal persons sharing ownership are less likely to use the BB allocation mechanism. A higher proportion of tradable shares is negatively associated with the likelihood of using BB allocation mechanism, and the short-term and the long-term performance of IPOs vary significantly across the allocation mechanisms. Thirdly, regarding the link between IPOs and SEOs, the results provide new evidence that firms do underpricing IPOs as strategy and will compensate the loss from following SEOs with higher price and larger sizes. Additionally, this thesis also captures the link between the IPO and SEO effect in different time lengths (doing SEOs within 12 months, 24 months, 36 months and more than 36 months after IPOs). The thesis confirms corporate governance can influence SEO decisions as well. Incentives of SEOs in the Chinese case also be evaluated in this thesis. All our results in the thesis provide empirical evidence of difference areas about IPO and SEO in the Chinese case, and the results can be used as references directly in the real world.

Of particular importance to academics and practitioners in the marketing discipline is the ability to identify means of building deep, committed and enduring relationships with customers. Consumer-brand identification has been proposed as a useful construct in understanding the underlining mechanisms that explain relationships between consumers and brands. Despite the surge in interest in examining identification in the organisational settings, little attention has been paid to the investigation of the notion of identification in the branding context. Following a systematic review of relevant peer-reviewed articles in six major electronic databases, published between 1989 and 2013, three limitations were apparent (a) the lack of clear unequivocal definition of consumer identification, (b) doubts over discriminant validity between consumer identification and similar marketing constructs, and (c) limited evidence of reliability or validity for most available measures. Informed by these issues, a theoretically grounded conceptualisation and measurement of consumer-brand identification construct were developed. Specifically, three comprehensive phases were conducted to develop a reliable, valid and parsimonious consumer-brand identification scale. Following item generation from literature review and two expert surveys, these items in conjunction with related constructs and existing measures of identification were administered to two independent samples. Numerous exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed to purify the scale, determine the dimensionality of the construct, assess the internal consistency of the scale, and support its convergent, discriminant and predictive validity. These analyses found support for a second-order consumer-brand identification construct comprising of five first-order factors: cognitive identification, affective identification, public evaluation, private evaluation, and emotional responses. Using a third new sample, the newly developed scale was then incorporated into a full structural model to assess its nomological validity. This thesis contributes to the identification theory and practice by, first, offering a theoretically grounded conceptualisation of consumer-brand identification and delineating the construct of interest from similarly related constructs. Second, by developing a valid, reliable and parsimonious scale that reflects the multidimensional conceptualisation of the construct. Third, by utilising the new measure to study underexplored antecedents and consequences to the newly conceptualised consumer-brand identification construct. Finally, the findings would help researchers and managers gain a better understanding of the phenomenon of identification and factors under which identification is likely to occur that can derive advocacy or championing behaviour. In addition, consumer-brand identification scale might facilitate the measurement of identification in future empirical studies and could be a useful tool for managers to determine the level of identification of both current and potential consumers.

The Political Budget Cycle describes the repetitive change of fiscal policy by the office holder in order to improve their chances for re-election. This research investigates the connection between the size and type of the Political Budget Cycle and the institutional framework. The empirical analysis examines the influence of individual institutional variables as well as the resulting effect from the overall complexity of the institutional framework. Analysing the fiscal policy in a panel of 68 developed countries over a period from 1975 until 2009, it is shown that the size of the Political Budget Cycle measured by the budget balance is largely determined by the electoral competition and the concentration of political power. In the absence of a tangible threat of being voted out of office, there is no incentive for the office holder to employ fiscal policy for the purpose of their re-election. In turn, the incumbent’s opportunity to use fiscal policy for their advantage is heavily restricted that in case of dispersed political power. Results reveal further a correlation between the size of the Political Budget Cycle and the political accountability and the mean district magnitude. The significance of their effect, however, is conditional on the concentration of political power. Analysing the existence of electoral fiscal cycles within the budget composition, the research proves conclusively that the type of the Political Budget Cycle and the choice of fiscal instruments is effectively determined by the interaction between the concentration of institutional power and the average district magnitude. The former accounts for the size of the individual electoral cycle whereas the district magnitude determines which fiscal instruments are being utilised. Examining the Political Budget Cycle in a panel of 34 developing countries, the effect of the institutional framework proves to be mostly identical except for the electoral completion. Essentially, the concentration of political power exhibits large explanatory power in justifying for the difference between developed and developing countries. The restricting effect of dispersed political power proves robust when testing in interaction with the age of democracy and the access to free media.

This research entails an empirical examination of the determinants of trade openness in Africa and the determinants of bilateral trade flows between Africa and the BRIC and OECD member countries. Besides, the study examines the impacts of trade openness on the economic growth in Africa. Before all this is done, the study surveys the updated empirical data on the African economy and trade to give a state of the art on the economic development processes in the African continent. Recognising the role of international trade in the global economic growth and considering the marginalisation of Africa in the world trade, this study highlighting important factors that are relevant for policy makers in the African countries to consider in order to boost-up their trade levels. It is also an attempt to empirically examine and provide explanations on the relatively lower trade levels that these countries have been experiencing ever since their political independence. The study has been done with panel data analysis methods in order to capture the relationships between the variables of interest over an extended time periods and disentangle the time invariant country specific effects that are very relevant particularly in examining bilateral trade flows. Econometric estimations of the coefficients for the regressors were made through the application of either random effects or fixed effects models, a selection of which is based on Hausman test. Where necessary the study has made use of instrumental variable estimation techniques like the 2SLS, Hausman Taylor and System GMM. Among others, this research contributes to the existing literature by examining the importance of private sector and the role of the ever- increasing mobile phone subscriptions in the African countries, in enhancing intra African bilateral trade flows. The facilitation of the private sector through provision of credits can enhance intra and inter African trade as well as boosting up the efforts to diversify African exports composition and export market destinations.

Gold mining has the potential for doing great good, and also causing environmental, socio-cultural and economic harm. This has increasingly become the focus of CSR orientated research. When conducted in a developing country context, it is argued that multinational mining companies’ (MNMCs) CSR policies should take account of the views of a range of stakeholders, including the host communities affected by their operations. This thesis presents the findings of a study conducted in Ghana based on ethnographic case study interviews with communities and other stakeholders. The study examined the causes of conflict between host communities and the mining companies, and the role of dialogue in trying to achieve peaceful coexistence. The study found both historic and continuing conflicts related to compensation, employment, alternative livelihood, relocation/resettlement, infrastructure development and environmental management. The findings suggest that lack of government policy, power imbalance, the narrow scope of dialogue processes and lack of understanding of host community culture are among the factors that impede meaningful dialogue. Consequently, negative CSR experience limits current and future willingness of the host communities to engage in dialogue with the mining companies. This is significant in that dialogue is considered to be a means whereby meaningful CSR can be developed, and a vital aspect of stakeholder theory. This questions the relevance of imposing western centric CSR concepts, and instead calls for a community centric approach to be developed based on listening to the often unheard voices. In this the thesis adds to the growing call for the re-orientation of CSR from the firm centric perspective. Research to better understand how the existing landscape can be evolved to support the development of peaceful co-existence between host communities and mining companies, forms a logical extension to the current study.

As the interest in CSR has increased, the concept has been applied to different sectors and cultures. However, CSR has been founded on liberal, Western foundations and most CSR investigations have been based on Western values as they have considered CSR in European and North American cultures. Hence it is crucial to examine CSR in different religious and cultural contexts. This research has addressed this gap by investigating the concept of CSR from the perspective of Muslim consumers’ perspectives, within an Arab culture. Thus, this research sought to understand the perception of Muslim consumers in Saudi Arabia of the concept of CSR in order to conceptualise an Islamic-based perspective of CSR. Saudi Arabia has been used as the context because it is an exclusively Islamic country and its culture is deeply embedded with Islamic values. An interpretivist paradigm has been selected using an inductive approach; qualitative data has been collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The sample for the research is thirty-four young Saudis and includes males and females. According to the research findings, the majority of participants concurred with the components of Carroll’s (1991) CSR pyramid; however the results lead to minor modifications of the pyramid to better fit the Islamic context. Thus any organisation that practices CSR in Saudi Arabia should take into consideration Islamic Sharia and Islamic ethics as they are the fundamental building blocks. Furthermore, there are two perspectives of CSR in the literature: external social responsibility and internal social responsibility. However, based on the findings of the research, a new perspective, private social responsibility, has been added to the two current perspectives. This perspective is the fundamental and the basic component upon which organisations should base their CSR strategy from an Islamic perspective. The term “private” is used as there part of Islamic CSR is hidden while the other part is visible. To explain the hidden and visible parts, the researcher has developed an “Islamic CSR tree model” which conceptualises the concept of CSR in Islam. The findings of the research have indicated that, rather than continue with the overt CSR strategies used by Western marketing managers, organisations should use a more covert approach to CSR, one that is embedded in Islamic principles such as modesty. Thus if an organisation promotes their “good acts” this could be seen as Riya (showing-off) which is prohibited in Islam. Therefore, in the Saudi context it is necessary to embed Islamic values in the organisation’s CSR foundations allowing this internalisation to develop throughout the organisation and create its own flow of communications. This research makes a contribution to the academic literature by changing the emphasis of Carroll’s (1991) building blocks of CSR and proposing that Islamic-based CSR is fundamentally concerned with a need for covert forms of CSR.

Disruptions to supply chains, whether they are natural, accidental or intentional, are increasingly distorting supply chain performance. Given that such disruptions are unlikely to decrease in the short term, supply chain risk mitigating solutions will play an increasingly significant role in the management of supply chains. The research acknowledges the existence of a wide range of approaches to mitigate risks across supply chains, yet argues that most approaches are not sustainable or effective if they are not supported by the culture of an organisation. Whilst the areas of supply chain risk, risk mitigating strategies and organisational culture as topics, have been researched in great levels of depth, it has been identified that the relationship between all three areas and particularly the relationship between organisational culture and supply chain risk management has been largely ignored. The research argues that the culture of an organisation can be harnessed strategically to enhance the effectiveness of risk management along the supply chain. As part of such approach, businesses need to create an environment in which supply chain risk management is a core facet of business activities and thus the mitigation of risks is more likely to develop naturally. The thesis investigates the relationship between different organisational culture types and supply chain risk management, developing theoretical assertions, which outline how different organisational cultures can be harnessed to effectuate a change in supply chain risk management efficiency. In pursuit of meeting the requirements of the research questions, four leading international organisations with different organisational cultures were researched. Data was collected by way of conducting semi-structured interviews, researcher observation, as well as additional documentation in various forms was collected. Interviews were transcribed and evaluated in conjunction with additional data that was collected during site visits and triangulated by means of researcher observation. The thesis clearly identifies strong relationships between different organisational cultures and organisational approaches to risk management in the supply chain. Moreover, the research uncovers that some types of organisational cultures are more conducive to managing risks in the supply chain than others. Based on this, the study provides a detailed overview of how traits from different organisational cultures can be harnessed to effectuate a change in an organisation’s approach to risk and risk management in the supply chain.

This research employs system dynamics modelling to analyse the structural behaviour of the interactions between Disaster Preparedness, Environment Instability, and Resilience in maritime logistics chain as a response to policy change, or strategic risk management interventions, at ports on the Humber Estuary. Port authorities, logistics operators, agencies, transporters, and researchers have revealed that disasters lead to interruptions in free flow of supply chains, and has the potential to disrupt the overall performance of a logistics chain. There is strong evidence about the rise in frequency, magnitude, and disruption potentials of catastrophic events in recent times (e.g. 9/11 attack, the Japanese earthquake/Tsunami and the aftermath nuclear disaster, Hurricanes Katrina and Haiyan, Super Storm Sandy, and many more). However, it appears that risk managers are not able to anticipate the outcomes of risk management decisions, and how those strategic interventions can affect the future of the logistics chain. Management appears to misjudge (or miscalculate) risks, perhaps due to the assumed complexity, the unpredictability of associated disruptions, and sometimes due to individual managerial approach to risk management. The uncertainties and states assumed notwithstanding, investors and regulators have become increasingly intolerant for risk mismanagement. Shipowners and port authorities tend to managing cost instead of managing risk. Hence they appear to invest little time and fewer resources in managing disruptions in their logistics chains even though they seem to frequently conduct risk assessments. We suggest that disaster preparedness that leads to resilience in maritime logistics chain is the best alternative to preventing or reducing the impacts of disruptions from catastrophes. We aim at improving current level of understanding the sources of disruptions in port/maritime logistics system through analysing the interdependencies between key variables. The dynamic models from this research have revealed that there is strong influence relationships (interdependencies) between Disaster Preparedness, Environment Instability, and Resilience. We found that potential sources of disruptions along the spokes of maritime logistics system can be port physics related, however the subtle triggering factors appear to be port size related. We also found that policy interventions geared towards risk management have the potential to produce unintended consequences basically due to unacknowledged conditions. Thus the relevance of the research and the SD models was to provide strategic policy makers with real-time decision evaluation tool that can provide justification for acceptance or rejection of a risk management intervention prior to decision implementation.

Supply chain collaboration is an important strategic consideration for manufacturing firms, which need to effectively manage the globalization of the value chains of manufacturing firms. Like any other manufacturing firms, Korean manufacturing firms in China have to structure a whole new value creation network. Moreover, from the viewpoint of manufacturing firms, the analysis of the market and resources is the basis of formulating strategy. Consequently, this research investigates the impact of environmental uncertainty as an antecedent of supply chain collaboration based upon previous investigations. Because prior literature has indicated that supply chain collaboration could create value and superior performance in a supply chain and perhaps also in newly created supply networks, this research aims to find the reasons behind improved performance. In this regard, there are two aims of this research: 1) to confirm the relationship between supply chain collaboration and operational performance and 2) to verify the roles of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between supply chain collaboration and operational performance. The thesis refers to prior research and contingency theory, resource-based theory, strategic choice theory, relational view and information processing theory to explain the relationships between the above variables (environmental uncertainty, supply chain collaboration and operational performance). Conceptual and operational definitions of the variables are extracted from prior research and applied to this research. A questionnaire was sent to Korean manufacturing firms in China and 208 data collected by the survey are used in the analysis. To achieve the aims of this research, various analytical methods are used. First, reliability and validity of the questionnaire instrument are verified as follows. The characteristic of the responding firms is proved through descriptive statistics. Content validity is verified by extracting items, verification by experts and the average of items. Estimation and purification of data are carried out. These include data screening, evaluation of assumptions (linearity, homoscedasticity and normality), internal consistency and exploratory factor analysis. Construct validity is tested by convergent validity through confirmatory factor analysis, discriminant validity and multicollinearity analysis. Second, the hypotheses are tested by two analytical methods: an analysis of structural equation modelling and moderating effect analysis. In this research, contingency theory explains the relationship between environmental uncertainty and supply chain collaboration and resource-based theory, relational view; information processing theory and strategic choice theory explain the relationship between supply chain collaboration and operational performance. These theoretical relationships are verified by empirical tests. The results of the analyses can elucidate various theoretical implications. First, the relationship between supply chain collaboration and operational performance is significantly verified and this means that Korean manufacturing firms reduce costs and improve service through internal collaboration with departments and external collaboration with suppliers and customers. Second, the role of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between supply chain collaboration and operational performance is a moderator and this is explained by contingency theory and fit as moderation. The former is to start from the supposition; that is, there is no organisational structure which satisfies all conditions. From this viewpoint, firms need to find the fittest structure which is equal to the environment which they face and this is connected with high performance. The latter has two viewpoints such as a moderator and a mediator. In this research, environmental uncertainty is the role of a moderator on the relationship between supply chain collaboration and operational performance. When Korean manufacturing firms in China face environmental uncertainty, they acquire high performance through enhancing supply chain collaboration. The results provide managers with managerial implications as follows. First, managers should grasp their present level of supply chain collaboration and formulate supply chain strategy for performance improvement. Second, the analysis of environment is a precondition to perform supply chain strategy, followed by high performance. If managers perform supply chain collaboration on the basis of these implications, they can achieve high cost performance and high service performance.