Manufacturing firms have vigorously pursued opportunities for profitability and growth through service-led growth strategies. A major part of the existing literature has focused on such strategies and has shown that this phenomenon is prevalent and growing in most developed economies. However, very little systematic evidence regarding the extent or consequences of servitization, based on comprehensive survey research, yet exists. Furthermore, the current body of research presents contradictory findings regarding the impact of servitization on firm performance. Drawing on the theoretical framework of the resource-based view, this research seeks to shed some light on this question by exploring the effect of servitization on firm performance. Through a survey of 185 U.S. and European manufacturing firms, along with the use of secondary financial data, this thesis provides empirical evidence that servitization has a direct, positive effect on firm performance. The study also finds that for the vast majority of manufacturers, the development of learning capabilities has served as a significant driver of servitization. Furthermore, the relationship between servitization and firm performance is moderated by industry dynamism. The original contribution of this research to the field of knowledge is twofold, including a theoretical contribution through the validation of the theoretical model and its implications for the literature, and a pragmatic contribution through the managerial implications of the findings. The findings have significant managerial implications because achieving superior bottom-line results is contingent upon the integration of those learning-and service-specific capabilities that transform the nature of an offering. Such integration enables the manufacturing firm and its customers to achieve radically improved operation within their ecosystems.

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Payment by Results (PbR) is increasingly popular. £15B-worth of schemes in the UK public sector had a PbR element (National Audit Office 2015) and Payment by Results is widely used in the United States and Australia (Webster 2015). Despite this, there is no framework for target achievement in PbR to guide principals, agents and other stakeholders. In my experience at a local level, this omission means that Payment by Results does not automatically lead to success. The research project explored how to develop a practical framework, rooted in business and management literature, for the effective implementation of PbR programmes in the public sector. The three research objectives of a better understanding of the National Troubled Families Initiative’s geographic and socioeconomic context and target cohort and how success can be achieved both in the programme and in Payment by Results provision contributed to this. The key Payment by Results literature was reviewed with the theoretical framework of Stakeholder Theory and Agency Theory. The case study methodology then reviewed the National Troubled Families Initiative – an eight-year Payment by Results programme launched in England as a response to the 2011 English disturbances - to identify the gaps in the PbR literature and successful provision from the UK and US was then presented as a benchmark of good practice. In order to provide empirical content and support to the framework, I used a pragmatic research philosophy, which was further along the continuum of interpretivism than positivism. Mixed methods mainly influenced by qualitative data analysis led to the ethical qualitative analysis of Phase One secondary quantitative data from the Department of Communities and Local Government – the ‘Troubled Families’ principal – and one agent from the North-East of England to identify key themes and relationships. These were then explored further by ethically gathering primary qualitative data from key stakeholders from another Northeast city, a Southeast county and a Northwest consortium of authorities. This data was then analysed using thematic narrative analysis and thematic analysis. 8 The research findings expanded upon the guidelines for principals considering commissioning Payment by Results provision (National Audit Office 2015) and the six elements of an effective outcome (Webster 2016). They provided a new, sevenstage practical framework for achieving targets in Payment by Results provision. This incorporated best practice guidelines for stakeholder analysis, principal identification, agent identification and the establishment of an Expert Body and incorporated a practical process for successful strategy and operations implementation, delivery, data collection and analysis, and findings and action. The framework can be applied to all types of PbR provision across the public sector. This is something, which renders the research project extremely commercially attractive. The PbR framework will better use scant resources, reduce wastage, generate efficiencies, create additional jobs, return work from the private to the public sector and provide the public sector with a model, which they can market and sell to other providers. It therefore creates a win-win situation for key stakeholders including the principal, the agent, the service users and the taxpayer. Recommendations were also provided to achieve the requisite performance in Phase Two of the National Troubled Families Initiative in Local Authority One and across England.

Since the booming of the internet and the “.com” (e-commerce) in the 1990’s, everything has changed. This improvement created different areas for researchers to investigate and examine, especially in the fields of human computer interaction and social media. This technological revolution has dramatically changed the way we interact with computers, buy, communicate and share information. This thesis investigates multimodal presentations of social media review and rating messages within an e-commerce interface. Multimodality refers to the communication pattern that goes beyond text to include images, audio and media. Multimodality provides a new way of communication, as images, for example, can deliver an additional information which might be difficult or impossible to communicate using text only. Social media can be defined as a two-way interaction using the internet as the communication medium. The overall hypothesis is that the use of multimodal metaphors (sound and avatars) to present social media product r views will improve the usability of the ecommerce interface and increase the user understanding, reduce the time needed to make a decision when compared to non-multimodal presentations. E-commerce usability refers to the presentation, accessibility and clarity of information. An experimental e-commerce platform was developed to investigate the particular interactive circumstances that multimodal metaphors may benefit the social media communication of reviews of products to users. The first experiment using three conditions (text with emoji’s, earcons and facially expressive avatars) measured the user comprehension, understanding information, user satisfaction with the way in which information was communicated and social media preference in e-commerce. The second experiment investigated the time taken by users to understand information, understanding information correctly, user satisfaction and user enjoyment using three conditions (emoji’s, facially expressive avatar and animation clips) in ecommerce platform. The results of the first set experiments of the showed that the text with emoji’s and the use of facially expressive avatar conditions had improved the users’ performance through understanding information effectively and making decisions quicker compared to the earcons condition. In the second experiment, the results showed that the users performed better (understanding information, understating information faster) using the emoji’s and the facially expressive avatar presentations compared to the use of the animation clip condition. A set of empirically derived guidelines to implement these metaphors to communicate social media product reviews in e-commerce interface have been presented.

The Nigerian banking industry plays a critical role in its economy because of a number of jobs generated, contributing to financial stability due to the financial services provided by the banks. As Nigeria becomes tirelessly active in its pursuit of global economic integration and recognition, the entry of international banks in the Nigerian banking industry will increase, therefore, competition will, too. As a result, recognising the importance of competencies and competency frameworks to the bank's performance becomes important in improving the bank’s core competencies and competitiveness. A critical review of the literature reveals that many researchers lay emphasis on the importance of competencies on performance. However, there is a lack of empirical study on competence in Nigerian banks. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of competencies on the performance of Nigerian banks. In order to achieve this aim, the researcher conducted a field survey of ten Nigerian banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with the use of qualitative semi-structured interviews. The researcher conducted thirty-one interviews with the staff of the ten selected banks and the CBN. Consequently, the interview data collected was analysed using Nvivo in order to achieve the aim of the research. The findings revealed that Nigerian banks do use competencies which are influencing the performance of the banks. Findings from this research support the findings of other international research on competencies; therefore, suggesting the theory of competency and performance applies to Nigerian banks. This research contributes to existing literature, which highlights the strategic and operational importance of competencies on performance by focusing on Nigerian banks. In conclusion, this research proposes a wider sample size covering all the banks in Nigeria and using both qualitative and quantitative research methods to provide a more accurate finding on the influence of competency in Nigerian banks.

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<p> A wave of sustainability initiatives is affecting many traditional corporate functions. While many companies focus on their own internal sustainability initiatives, there is a small but growing number of initiatives focused on promoting sustainability across the supply chain. The resulting sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) is faced with the challenge of justifying its contribution to the performance of the focal company. This study attempts to gain insights into the perception professionals have of the impact of SSCM on corporate environmental, social, and economic performance. The study looks into the moderating effects of company size, industry collaboration, and regulatory framework on the relationship between SSCM and corporate performance. Using a mixed methods approach, this research collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data from 242 respondents. Simple and multiple linear regressions in Minitab 17 were used to analyze the quantitative data; qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis. In the end, triangulation was used to integrate the quantitative and qualitative analyses to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions reported by survey respondents.</p><p> The results of this study show that SSCM is statistically significant to corporate environmental, social, and economic performance based on the independent variables analyzed. The results also show that the moderating effect of company size, industry collaboration, and regulatory framework on the relationship between SSCM and corporate performance made a difference for all three moderators based on factorial plot analysis. However, only the regulatory framework was found to be a statistically significant moderator based on regression analysis. Thematic analysis of the qualitative data showed that SSCM helps the focal company mitigate risks and improve, or preserve, its reputation. Another benefit of SSCM is its ability to help the focal company create a competitive edge with sustainability-conscious stakeholders. At the macro level, the benefits of SSCM are in the areas of long term availability of natural resources, respect for human rights, and better opportunities for persons from socially disadvantaged groups. The challenges of SSCM were reported to be in the areas of cost, difficult enforcement and implementation, and the lack of a common commitment to SSCM throughout the supply chain. These challenges could be overcome through leadership, collaboration, and consistent regulations at the corporate, industry, and country levels respectively. The triangulation (meta inference) showed alignment between the correlation between SSCM and economic performance, and the fact that solutions to most of the reported challenges to the implementation of SSCM in the thematic analysis had economic implications for the focal company. This study provides corporate leaders and governments with meaningful insights into how SSCM can be leveraged as an effective tool to enhance corporate performance and sustainability initiatives. </p>