This thesis attempts to prove how the flexible application of public procurement has the potential to realise a social model of integration in the European Union wherein the European citizen is the key actor in the integration process. The integration dynamics of the European Union have been promoted by recourse to neoliberal economic theories where market integration features as a crucial imperative. In this respect the regulation of public procurement plays a vital role in the programme of the Single European Market. Preferential procurement alongside state aid reflects on market intervention on the part of the public sector commensurate with neo-liberal principles and less on the distributive objectives of societal welfare. However, this thesis presents a fundamental departure from such logic for it argues on the basis of a social just alternative that takes into account the distributive objectives of societal welfare albeit in a limited manner in so far public procurement contracts are concerned. The question of poverty across the EU is put into context as its persistent levels are perceived as indicative system-failures of market regulation that are too heavily based on neo-liberal economics. On a plane of practical reasonableness the thesis argues for optimal use of public procurement as a dynamic policy instrument by institutionalising a balance both domestically and EU-wide. Such balance needs to be guided by a public interest function where the key umbrella concept that corresponds to embracing the fight against poverty namely, respect for human dignity, equality and freedom for participatory action is incorporated. As a powerful socio-economic lever public procurement should not be regarded as a barrier to EU economic growth but as a crucial safety valve at the disposal of Member States for the benefit of the EU citizen and not in the least EU integration aims.

This research examines how Western expatriate managers adapt, learn, acquire tacit knowledge, and develop when working in China. The research draws on literature associated with expatriate studies, experiential learning theory, and knowledge acquisition in order to develop an expatriate learning process model. Following on from this, the study then examines expatriate learning outcomes from four perspectives: learning style transition, adaptive flexibility, global mindsets, and managerial tacit knowledge. Moreover, our model positions learning style as a mediator that affects the likelihood that expatriate managers will actively engage in their international assignment experiential learning, which in turn leads to global manager development. In particular, the study adopts a pseudo longitudinal research method that examines Western expatriate managers with different lengths of assignment tenure to better understand how expatriates learn and develop over time. Finally, the study investigates how Western expatriate managers with substantial work experience in China differ from host Chinese managers in terms of learning styles and levels of accumulated managerial tacit knowledge to provide deeper insights into expatriate learning. Data were collected in Western MNCs’ subsidiaries in China. The survey includes self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The target populations comprise Western expatriate managers and host Chinese managers. The research seeks to understand more fully the kinds of learning strategies successful expatriates adopt in order to quickly adapt to intercultural business contexts. The study also contributes to understanding of expatriates’ learning outcomes from international assignments leading to recommendations for more effective expatriate training prior to international assignments. The study also draws comparisons between Western expatriate managers with differing levels of work experience in China (upto 1 year; 1 - 3 years; 3 - 5 years; > 5yrs) and host Chinese managers to better understand temporal aspects of expatriate adjustment and expatriate learning during their international assignments.

In 2005, Saudi Arabia implemented the Cooperative Health Insurance System (CHIS) for the purpose of shifting the financial burden of running health care services from the Ministry of Health (MOH) to the private sector. The aim of this study was to investigate, for the year 2007, beneficiaries' satisfaction with the CHIS in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, since no study had, as yet, been conducted. The current study uses a sequential explanatory design, a mixed methods approach, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative data analysis. The Canadian Common Measurement Tool (CMT) was used. In addition to service delivery, access and availability of facilities, communication and the cost dimensions, two new dimensions were added to the original instrument, namely, the employer role and the insurance company role. The results obtained showed the instrument was reliable and valid to be used to measure satisfaction with the CHIS. Using a five point Likert scale, 462 participants completed the questionnaires. Following analysis, 21 interviews contextualised by participant observation were conducted to assist in interpreting the findings of the primarily quantitative study. NVivo was employed for qualitative data analysis. Study findings revealed that 59% of respondents were moderately satisfied with the CHIS and that it has improved access to the health care system. However, beneficiaries were not satisfied with waiting times to receive the service under the CHIS. The comprehensiveness of covered health services was also a major concern. Beneficiaries were highly satisfied with their employer's role and moderately satisfied with the role of the insurance company in their coverage with health insurance. The most frequent problem reported by respondents was that some services were refused. The cost of health insurance and non-covered health care services was a common misconception. In addition, beneficiaries' awareness towards health insurance is still limited. The finding revealed that satisfaction with the insurance company role, service delivery, type of coverage and inclusion of family members were most important in explaining beneficiaries' satisfaction. Finally, the study provides insight into service improvement priorities which could inform future planning initiatives for health insurance development. The practical implications of the findings for health care providers, insurance companies and health care policymakers were highlighted, as were recommendations for improving the implementation of the CHIS in Riyadh city and suggestions for future research.

The purpose of the research is to explore the significance and role of the Bangladeshi public sector leadership (PSL) in the context of public sector reforms (PSR). I examine how the adoption of the reforms depends on the interaction between the PSL of the home government and the donor agencies, resulting in reform challenges on the part of the home government. To do this, the research explores how bureaucratic behaviour responds to and matches donor agenda vis-à-vis their dual role of protecting the traditional socio-economic system, cultural and political norms, values and developing the institutional basis when dealing with reforms. Thus, the research emphasises the need for exploring the elite actors’ beliefs about their governmental traditions as they shape PSR. Taking an interpretive approach, this thesis presents empirical insights in three important areas of public sector management, namely, perceptions and lived experiences of PSL; bureaucratic response to PSR; and traditions in governance and governance intervention by donors. Its contribution is to illuminate the key aspects of PSL roles/practice within the Bangladeshi PSR. Findings offer an understanding of how public sector leaders construe and respond to reform initiatives. Analysis of the PSL role shows that reform is fundamentally a political and contested process. The current study presents an empirical analysis of the elite actors’ webs of belief about the PSR in the context of normative roots of the Bangladeshi governance traditions and culture vis-à-vis the motives of the aid regimes. Part of the originality of this research is its attempt to conceptualise governance traditions as adaptable sets of beliefs that stresses the role of agency in PSR in the Bangladeshi context. I also claim my research to be worthwhile as I situate the Bangladeshi governance traditions within a context that goes beyond the typology of traditions advanced by Painter and Peters (2010). Moreover, this research argues for the performative accounts of the governance traditions. The key argument in this thesis is that public sector leaders’ response towards the public sector reforms is shaped by the wider web of beliefs embedded in a historically inherited tradition and that dilemmas arise when the public sector leaders face new situations uncommon and unfamiliar to them in terms of atypical reform agenda prescribed by international donors. Dilemmas also arise because of the incongruity between the traditional socio-economic, cultural values and donor-prescribed reform initiatives. This study suggests that dilemmas and conflicts – two important constructs illuminating cultures and traditions in public sector management – have an explanatory link to the bureaucratic response towards reforms. Thus, change is the outcome of the dilemma, if not the solution (Bevir & Rhodes, 2010). Looking from an interpretive lens, I contend that the Bangladeshi governance tradition is postcolonial, combining multiple features directly traceable to colonial institutions and ancient Samaj (village life/society) with post-independence adaptations and innovations based on administrative reform prescriptions by donor agencies, the latter essentially appearing as new ‘layers’ on the original bedrock. Therefore, it can be called a hybrid tradition.

Sustainability become a new challenge for various dimensions, not only in academic area, but also has managerial perspectives. Consequently, to achieve competitive advantage, leading to sustainable performance, organisations need to explore what are the causes of the sustainable performance of the firm and how to manage them. Currently, natural environmental impact is more likely to be a critical problem for any organisation. Based on natural resource-based view of the firm (Hart, 1995), natural environmental issues can make a firm obtain new potential specific resources that are difficult to imitate by other organisations. Such resources can be created by supply chain integration (SCI) and also green supply chain management (GSCM) practices. However, there is inconclusive about the impact of SCI and GSCM practices on sustainable performance, in terms of evidence environmental and economic perspective. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand the relationship between SCI, GSCM practices and sustainable performance, both direct and indirect effect of the relations. Base on survey method, this research used manufacturers in Thailand as a sample of the developing countries to collect data which come from multiple manufacturing industries. The research methodology used the Churchill (1979) framework for specifying and generating measured items. Exploratory factor analysis was employed to extract the main factors before using structural equation modeling (SEM) to test the hypotheses. Measurement model was firstly used to evaluate all measures and structural model was employed to test theoretical hypotheses. The empirical results of this research conclude that SCI has no direct positive impact on sustainable performance. Nevertheless, environmental and economic outcomes can be achieved by mediating effect of GSCM practices. Therefore, this research contributes to theoretical and practical view. In academic perspective, researchers can extend this finding to study on this issue further, while in managerial view, practitioners or managers can apply this result to their business strategies to improve their organisational performance.

Motivation has been thoroughly explored by researchers in many social science disciplines, including business studies in general and human resources management in particular. The primary purpose of the research reported here is to investigate how culture affects motivation within the context of Saudi Arabia and its Islamic banking sector, with reference to workers at branches of Al Rajhi Bank in Riyadh. This research adopts an epistemological interpretive perspective. Epistemology is primarily concerned with how we understand the world and our interpretation of what is happening. Thus this research is that of a practical epistemology as it looks at how workers at the bank interpret their lives through daily practice. Thus it has an ultimately practical aim: to make recommendations as to ways in which the Al Rajhi management could improve the motivation and thus the performance of its workforce. A qualitative approach is adopted, drawing on semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with managers, supervisors and employees of the bank. The study examines motivational theories in a practical context with particular reference to major cultural dimensions, especially religion, which is found to play a very important role in the Saudi context. It explores the complex relationship between Islam, culture and gender relations in the workplace. Among the many constraints on this project were that it was impossible for the male researcher to interview female employees face to face, as he did with male respondents. The notion of culture is difficult to integrate within the context of motivation, since they are two separate phenomena that are studied and researched by distinct groups of writers and scholars. The study is nonetheless able to conclude that culture appears to affect motivation at work quite differently in the present context from that to which Western motivational theories apply, largely because culture in Saudi Arabia is closely bound up with religion. Islam influences and defines Saudi culture much more strongly and directly than is accounted for in most Western motivational theories. Indeed, Saudi culture cannot be defined without reference to Islam. Management theories have been developed in the West through empirical studies that have shaped Western notions of motivation and which cannot therefore be straightforwardly applied in the Middle East. This thesis argues that such theories may nonetheless be partially and validly applicable to the Saudi context, in spite of the fact that its culture and society are dominated by Islamic values. This research contributes to existing work in the management field on motivation and culture. An extensive body of knowledge relating to these two topics has been identified and coordinated in the process. This, it is envisaged, will inform organisational policies in the Saudi banking system. It is anticipated that the study will help to achieve a degree of understanding of motivation at work that are applicable to the Saudi Islamic banking sector.

This thesis focuses on the topic of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the UK from 2000 to 2010. This thesis investigates and clarifies the determinants of takeover strategies employed by acquirers including, deal payment method, choice of target, influence exerted by institutional investors and the market reactions to the deal announcement. One of the most important factors documented in this thesis is the institutional ownership, the role it has in external monitoring and the reduction in information asymmetries and agency costs. Institutional investors’ control of the equity market has grown rapidly in the UK during the last decade, and they control approximately 50% of the UK equity market. This thesis finds that institutional ownership plays a significant role in the firms’ M&A strategies. The empirical evidence shows that the acquirer firms with high levels of institutional ownership have a higher probability of paying through cash while earn-outs are preferred when acquirer firms experiences financial crisis. Meanwhile, this research establishes that institutional investors are effective external monitors that should be involved in a firms’ real strategies decision process. Specifically, high levels of institutional ownership have a positive relationship with cross-border M&As’ full control and large transactions. Additionally, both institutional ownership concentration and foreign institutional ownership are significantly positively associated with cross-border deals. However, only the foreign institutional ownership positively associates with large size deals. Moreover, UK acquirers receive significant positive returns at the announcement time of the M&A deals. Both the high institutional ownership concentration and total institutional ownership are positively associated with post-M&A short-term abnormal returns.

<p> The purpose of this study was to determine if the experiences of directors, disclosed in company filings, correlated with the financial results of companies. Agency theory and resource dependence theory were the theoretical frameworks used in this examination of the correlations between the experiences that a board had and financial performance of selected companies listed in the S&amp;P 500. The results of this ex-post facto, correlational study are an addition to the collective knowledge on corporate governance regarding evidence of the relationship between director experiences and the financial performance of two types of businesses listed in the S&amp;P 500: regulated and nonregulated. There are three primary findings from the study. First, seven attributes of boards correlated with the financial performance of companies. Second, director experience had the greatest correlation with financial performance. Third, there was not a significant connection between boards diverse in experiences and the financial performance of the company. The conclusion is that there are experiences disclosed in company filings that correlate with financial performance. Regulators and boards could use the results of this study to make changes to regulations and board policies. </p>

<p> The current body of research suggests that the relative importance of business objectives and family objectives changes over time in family firms (Miller et al., 2011). As family firms age, company management tends to provide more resources for the immediate needs of family members rather than invest in projects capable of bringing new streams of revenue. However, there are exceptions from this trend: The decrease in competitiveness does not affect all family businesses. I am interested in how some family businesses are able to maintain a strong business and entrepreneurial focus over generations. I am also interested in the interaction between the family and non-family members that can potentially contribute to creating these conditions. The long history of the family business that was studied in this research project, as well as its strong position among the competitors made this company a suitable case study for the broad research question exploring the sources, the scope and the facets of entrepreneurial orientation present in the family business, as well as the ways in which organizational identity influenced company entrepreneurship and innovation. The results of the study indicate that the company strived to be entrepreneurial, but their efforts were inhibited by the basic organizational pressures and aspects of their organizational identity centered on their being a community retail store. Findings of the study are discussed in the light of the existing body of scholarship on entrepreneurship in family businesses. In addition to that, the study also presents theoretical propositions related to the questions on how and why a transgenerational family business with diminishing entrepreneurial focus may make an effort to foster entrepreneurship.</p>

<p> Release management is the process by which a firm decides how to construct, sequence, and time new releases of its products. Given that it takes time to develop new functionality, release managers must weigh the benefits of adding features to the product against the necessary increase in development time. A prolonged development cycle postpones the time at which the manager's firm begins to extract revenues from the new release, and magnifies the risk that rival firms will preempt the manager's release by issuing products of their own. In this work, we study the release management problem from an operational perspective that accounts for ambient market intensity. </p><p> After a brief introduction in Chapter 1, we present a mixed-integer non-linear program (MINLP) formulation of the release management problem developed in collaboration with managers at a large software firm (LSF) in Chapter 2. The MINLP model accounts for market intensity through a modified discount factor, and we focus on the specification, viability, and consequences of this approach to modeling market intensity in Chapter 3. We reformulate the release management problem as a semi-Markov decision process (SMDP), and provide conditions under which there exists a modified discount factor that accurately reflects the impact of market intensity. This modified discount factor depends only on the statistical properties of the market intensity process, and can emerge naturally in a multi-firm equilibrium. In Chapter 4, we examine the methodological foundations of our approach to modeling market intensity, showing that our results extend well-beyond the confines of release management. We summarize our results and comment on further research in Chapter 5. </p><p> To our knowledge, this work is the first to study the release management problem from a combinatorial perspective that accounts for market intensity. Our results extend to any setting in which managers must make operational decisions and simultaneously cope with the aggregate market intensity of the manager's industry.</p>