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The purpose of this study is to address the knowledge gap regarding competitor study practices in small enterprises, to develop new theory, and to present 'best competitor study practices'. It uses a cross-sectional qualitative multi-case study methodology to study these practices of 7 small Dutch business-to-business enterprises. The study reveals that the SE's life cycle stage development is not related to the development of competitor study activities. The pace and intensity of these activities is dictated by the external environment's competitive intensity. SE owner-managers play leading roles and are fully involved in this competitor study. Other SE managers are only partially involved in operational study. SE owner-managers with Business Administration educations use more data sources than those without this discipline. The research uses strong, stable and weak relative competitive market positions to categorize the 7 SEs, and discovers relationships between SE competitor study activities and these positions. SEs with strong positions place a low importance on competitors, and they do not cooperate with them. These SEs study new technology, and they are neutral or negative about the usefulness of competitor study. Their subjects are strategic, and they use the highest number of sources, personal sources, external sources, and external direct data sources. SEs with weak positions place a high importance on competitors and cooperate with them. They focus on tactical competitor subjects, and they are positive about its usefulness. These SEs use the lowest number of sources, personal sources, external sources, and external direct data sources. They are also responsible for most of the discovered unethical and illegal data collection practices. SEs with strong or stable relative market positions improve their market positions with developed absorptive capacities, whereas SEs with weak relative market positions do not. The implication of these outcomes is that they establish the new theory regarding SE competitor study. The main limitations of this cross-sectional study are the use of only a selected, non-random small number of Dutch business-to-business small enterprises in a small geographical region and in various industry sectors. The study's implication for practice are 3 'best practice' competitor study recommendations sets relative to the 3 SE relative competitive market position categories. Finally, the study presents recommendations to the Dutch government how to it could improve the law against illegal data collection and how it could communicate this law to Dutch SMEs.

In Western social and economic thought, the spiritual and the secular are sharply divided. In Islam they are indivisible. Islam has become a source of Western anxiety as the Other, the Shadow. The two are often seen as opposing systems with no commonality. This thesis highlights their, mutually beneficial, co-evolutionary past. The increase in the practice of Islamic banking transformed Islamic economics from a sub-field of Islamic jurisprudence and comparative systems into one, which interacts positively with mainstream economic theory. The core of this research is to investigate the compatibility/incompatibility of Islamic Banking practice with Western conventional banking in the global hypercompetitive financial environment. The context chosen for analysis is finance, which is central to global capitalism and an area in which key differences of principle and practice exist between Islam and the West. If we can show compatibilities in that particular area which is fundamental to both systems then we might confidently point to a significant degree of compatibility between the two systems. This thesis argues that if reconcilability between Islam and the West exists in the field of finance and if the two systems can co-evolve in a mutually productive way then we can be optimistic about the ability of the two systems to co-exist. Clearly they involve different attitudes, but this thesis argues, on the basis of significant compatibility these issues, are resolvable under the tradition of toleration that has existed in Western and Islamic societies. What the literature review does is to provide a conceptual basis for examining the context of the thesis, which is the compatibility of the two systems. However, the impact of the conceptual basis is mediated through a group of stakeholders in Islamic banking process (interviewees). This provides the rationale for the second empirical part of the thesis, which is based on open-ended interviews, with key stakeholders in the process. The thesis is structured into two major sections: Section A. the reflective section and the literature review and Section B the empirical work, a projective section looking at the current and future situation.

Complex multi-sector relationships are created in long-term health private finance initiative (PFI) projects within and across the inter-organisational (IOR) boundary. Relationship engagement and cooperative behaviour are influenced by an individual's values orientation, which in turn affects attitude and influences the selection and operation of various cooperation mechanisms. The study considered the use of behavioural cooperation mechanisms by project leaders within role-sets created within a PFI environment from the theoretical positions of role-set theory (Katz and Kahn, 1966), behavioural mechanisms influencing cooperation (Chen et al. 1998), and values orientation (Schwartz, 1992). The research adopted the position that values act as general guiding principles in one's life (Schwartz, 1992), a stance that extends Rokeach's (1973) research of the universal nature of human values. A mixed methodology was used to obtain the values orientation profiles of twenty-nine respondents from six project environments using the Schwartz Values Survey Instrument (SVS) combined with repertory grid interviews to elicit the individuals' construct structures. Cluster and principal components analyses were subsequently carried out to enable values profiles to be assessed against construct categorisation. Two-dimensional values domains were obtained for all respondents where respondent propensity tended towards self-transcendent and openness-to-change domains (Schwartz, 1992). Values orientation was examined against elicited constructs after cluster and principal components analysis was carried out for each repertory grid interview response. Analysis enabled construct categorisation to be aligned with the categories identified in an amended model of cooperation. Cooperation mechanisms clustered into two groupings. These reflected the high importance to the sample of trust and accountability in relationships, and the lower importance of group membership, communication process and goals. However, the ranking of the second cluster of attributes was highly sensitive to a changing order. Consistently, the least important behavioural mechanism was reward structures.

Although there is considerable anecdotal suggestion that leadership style and organisational culture together influence organisational performance, Allen and Thatcher (1995) and Trice and Beyer (1993) claimed that there was little academic evidence to support this. A review of subsequent literature suggests that this situation has not changed. This view is supported by Block (2002, p.1) who suggests that 'despite numerous references to a relationship between these two constructs in the academic and populare literature, little systematic research has been conducted to examine the specific nature of the relationship'. Whilst there is considerable, research into the individual relationship between narrowly defined aspcts if organisational culture and leadership on organisational performance there is little research into their combined effects. A review of the literature shows none that addressed the variables as generic concepts. The gap in the research forms the aim of this study, which seeks to provide systematic research and empirical evidence into the relationship of different combinations of generically defined leadership style and organisational culture on organisational performance. Following a review of literature, the Blake and Mouton (1985) task versus relationship classification of style and the Deal and Kennedy (1982) risk versus speed of feedback classification of organisational culture were adopted as the most suitable generic feedback classifications of the variables. From a review of the literature, no explicit methodology was found for applying the selected classification method for organisational culture. Similarly, the selected methodology for classifyingleadership style was perceived as being too narrow to be used on its own. To address these issues a mixed methodology was devised and utilised. The mixed method approach employed questionaires, one to one interviews, focus groups and observation. A case study approach was adopted and sought a correlation between different combinations of variables and different levels of performance. The setting for the empirical phase of the study was the UK Building Services Industry and four of the leading organisations, with a range of levels of performance, participated. Analysis of the data collected indicated that; (i) there is an industry specific organisational culture in the selected sector, (ii) that the industry specific organisational culture acts as a constant and not a variable and (iii) that organisational performance is directly related to the leadership style sequence. The findings of the study indicate that the relationship between the leadership style sequence and organisational performance is a function of two imperatives. Firstly for the highest level of performance the leader needs ta have a preferred dominant style which has the maximum concern for task. Secondly the leader needs to maintain this maximum concern for task as he changes style when the dominant or preferred style fails to get the required result. This study contribute to extant literature in several ways. Firstly, by providing an explicit mixed method of applying generic organisational culture and leadership style classifications. Secondly, by confirming the existence of industry specific culture in some sectors and identifying that the industry specific culture in the UK Building Services Industry as the Deal and Kennedy (1982), Work Hard Play Hard Type. Thirdly by identifying that organisational performance is directly related to the leadership style sequence suggested by Blake and Mouton (1985). Finally the study suggests a specific management action plan to improve or maintain organisational performance.

There considerable debate amonst academics and practitioners that the delivery of value to customers represents a focal element through which competitive advantage can be generated. Extent research confirms the impact of value on the development of satisfaction and ultimately customer loyalty in both the business-to-consumer and business-to-business domains. However there paucity of research that focuses on the role and behaviour of value in the broad domain of technology and the specific area of e-services within the b2b domain. This study attempts to address the above identified shortcoming. In order to address the above aim a theoretically grounded model is propsed in which customer perceptions of value of e-banking is treated as a higher order construct of the related get (or benefits) and give (or sacrifices) components. Quality and risk associated witht he use of e-banking are determinants of customer perceptions of value while satisfaction and three forms of behavioural intention (i.e., word of mouth, switching and lock-in) are modelled as outcomes of value. Interrelationships between the antecedents and outcomes of value are also included in the model. Data, obtained from senior executives, from a random sample fo 167 UK based SME organisations operating across different industrial sectors were analysed using the Partial Least Square structural modelling technique. The results make the following a number of theoretical contributions to the subject matter. The conceptualisation of value as formative higher order construct, comprising the get and give components, is analytically supported. However, the differential behaviour of these two components implies that research should examine the nomological structures if get and give separately rather than as a composite, overall, construct. Following from above, it is suggested that related research should treat sacrifices as a component of rather than a determinant of value. Although some results are in line with extant literature there are a number of divergences that are attributed to the specificities of the research domain. This is attributed to and confirms the idisyncratic nature of value and results in the need for value research to account fot domain specific characteristics. Both components of value are significant determinants of satisfaction; however there is considerable different in their relative impact with the get component being dominant. The need for separation of loyalty into different forms of behaviour when examining the impact of value is demonstrated. Specifically, value as an effective mechanism for locking-in customers is demonstrated by the significant impact of both the get and give components. On the other hand neither of the value components are significant determinants of intention to switch and only the get component generates positive word-of-mouth. Finally, the importance of risk in the study of value in the b2b domain is confirmed. On the strength of the above managerial guidelines are proposed.

Over the last two decades, higher education in Europe has received considerable attention and has gone through many changes as a result of the implementation of the Bologna Declaration (1999) and the challenges expressed in the Lisbon Convention (2000). This study is an inquiry into the nature of higher education, and 'life' within it. The study results in a description of manifestations of the culture within higher education in England and the Netherlands. The essence of the study is to unravel culture, theoretically and empirically, which results in a description of manifestations of the culture. It does not focus on a causal relation between culture and performance, but portrays culture by interpreting performance indicators contextually. The concept of culture was derived from Schein. As his definition of culture fitted the philosophical stance to the study. Schein's vision on culture that every group develops its own identity, referred to as the shared patterns of thought, belief, feelings and values, which result from the shared experience and common learning within that group, reflects upon the behaviour of the working community. Schein further addresses the function of culture, which in this study is the analysis of culture in the context of performance. The study is qualitative in character and has adopted a cultural anthropological perspective, endeavouring an in-depth understanding ('verstehen') of the culture within higher education. The fieldwork is ethnographic in character in which the researcher took an emic (insiders) approach. The fieldwork uses multiple sources of data gathering such as document analysis, participant observations, in-depth interviews and focus groups. This all provided a rich amount of data which led, after clustering and analysis, to the following manifestations: Collegiality; Tight - loose control; Up and down stream trust; Diversity and Internal¬external focus. These five manifestations were brought into relation to the definition of Schein and were matched to the external environment affecting higher education. The performance indicators and Bologna principles appeared to be helpful in proving the understanding ('verstehen') of the culture. Ultimately, this enabled the researcher to debate higher education embarking in phase IT of the neo-liberal era and providing a contribution to the scholarly study and literature on higher education and managerial recommendations.

'If we went into stores only when we needed to buy something and if once there we bought only what we needed, the ecconomy would collapse' (Underhill, 1999). The focus of this thesis is point-of-purchase stimuli and their impact on mood. The research tests and extends the conceptual model of the role of mood states in consumer behaviour proposed by Gardner (1985). Five different store environments are used to provide empirical evidence. The data gathered for this study only partially support Gardner's conceptual model. Consistent with Gardner's model, point-of-purchase stimuli were found to influence mood states. However, only some elements of these mood states were found to impact on psychological processes. Furthermore, the goodness-of-fit of the model was weak when data was pooled. The model achieved a better fit when each store was analysed individually but these results still showed limited impact of store atmospherics via mood. Furthermore, the atmospheric features showed similar low levels of impact on consumer recall, evaluation and behaviour in a direct test. Extensions of Gardner's model are proposed to accommodate findings which add behaviour by showing that there are different needs for each shopper variables. Both shopping mission and shopping style were found to have a quasi-moderating influence on the relationship between store atmospherics and pleasure, arousal and dominance. This work extends our knowledge of the affective processes in consumer purchase. An understanding of these processes may assist practitioners to influence behaviour by supporting that there are different needs for each shopper type and shopping goal. More broadly, the research validates previous research that shows a high proportion of consumer purchase decisions are made in store, which indicates an opportunity for point-of-sale to influence consumer choice through external, interior, layout, interaction and point-of-purchase variables. In addition, behaviour was found to vary in the five store environments in respect to time and money spent and product purchased and this suggests that influence tactics may need to take account of the type of store.

This research attempts to contribute to the advancement of knowledge within the services marketing and consumer behaviour domain. Its main aim is to enhance our understanding of the relationship between attitude and behaviour within a financial services setting. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) by Fishbein and Ajzen (1967, 1973, 1975) was employed as the theoretical basis of the research. Following an extensive literature review, we identified five constructs and credit card specific items. used to develop a Credit card holder Attitude-Behaviour (CABM) model. All the constructs (with the exception of credit card holder behaviour) were measured using multiple items. The survey method was employed via a self-administered postal questionnaire. The data collection instrument was submitted to a sample of 2000 randomly selected UK credit card holders. Statistical properties of the constructs were analysed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis techniques. The proposed research model was tested with PLS in structural equation modeling technique. The results of the study provided limited support for the central hypothesis of a significant relationship between attitude and behaviour. Two unexpected findings included the significant relationship between card holder behaviour and experience outcome, and also substantial support for the relationship between attitude towards future real income and attitude towards credit cards. Credit card holders exhibit two typical behaviours and future research is needed to examine the attitude-behaviour relationship of convenience users (non-interest paying) and revolving (interest-paying) credit card holders separately. Also recommended, is the examination of the card holder behaviour under observable variables as well as latent variables.

The academic literature's emphasis, in the role of pension funds in socially responsible investment, remains focused on macro discussions such as the suitability of SRI for pension fund investment and normative discussions of how pension funds can be catalysts for change towards global sustainability. It is also noted by some commentators that via pension funds, the environmental, social and governance issues that underpin SRI are becoming a part of mainstream investment. These macro level claims provide very limited evidence of, or insights into, the actual functioning or close-to-reality experiences of pension funds in the context of SRI, which is vital in fully comprehending the role of pension funds in achieving sustainable business activities. This thesis investigates and analyzes the micro level developments and dynamics that hinder or facilitate integration of SRI into pension fund investment to address the above mentioned divide. Using a grounded theory approach, the thesis presents a theoretical model of institutionalization of SRI into pension fund investment. Taking a social constructionist perspective and the related concept of human agency, it proposes that cognitive factors, coupled with structural context, determine whether a pension fund integrates or discards SRI strategies in its investment processes. The model is based on in-depth case studies of three pension funds, each with certain distinguished and similar characteristics, to provide judicious explanations of what affects the institutionalization of SRI. The thesis explains how pension fund trustees and managers customize and internalize a position on SRI based on particular 'constructions' or 'interpretations' of the concept and of fiduciary responsibility. It also posits that the context of each pension fund presented in the thesis is different and that although all three have similar broader objective, i.e. to provide retirement income to its members, each has specific investment objectives, constraints and institutional environments that are unique. Thus, all pension funds or institutional investors do not have a common investment approach towards achieving their goals and cannot be categorized as principals of economic rationality in the capital market. The duality of context and agency in creating investment processes and changes within that is stressed in this thesis.