Over the past 20 years, governments in many countries around the world have sought to implement governance mechanisms to measure and assess the performance of public service organisations. As a consequence, public service organisations, especially those considered as poorly-performing organisations, have been subjected to unprecedented pressure to improve their performance and sustain performance improvement as a continuous process. However, efforts of public managers to improve the performance of their organisations have been undertaken without “comprehensive theories and rigorous evidence on this issue” (Boyne, 2006: 366). This thesis takes up the challenge of providing robust evidence on the factors associated with the performance improvement of public organisations. We propose that the notion of organisational capabilities offers a promising way to meet this challenge. From this standpoint, this research sought to identify the organisational capabilities whose development and use explain a public service organisation’s ability to improve its performance and sustain good performance in the long run. The empirical analysis was conducted in a population of hospital trusts in England. We firstly applied longitudinal and comparative case studies method into two acute hospitals trusts: one case of a successful performance improvement and one case of less-successful performance improvement. The purpose was to examine how the development (or lack of) a set of capabilities over time accounted for the differences in the performance outcome and trajectory of the two cases. Our findings identified the following capabilities as advantageous for achieving a sustained performance: collective leadership; action-oriented culture; effective clinical-managerial relationship; supportive external context; performance / finance control capability; coordination capability of the key delivery process; sensing capability and learning capability. We then employed quantitative method over the population of acute hospital trusts in England to explore the relationship between complementarities of capabilities and performance. The results demonstrated that only when in combination does the presence of the capabilities yield positive and significant association with performance. In other words, the presence of the whole system of the capabilities increases the trusts’ performance, while partial presence of a set of capabilities is either not significantly associated with, or even detrimental to, the trusts’ performance.

Organisational sustainability is associated with the concept of organisational development, which emanates from the resources and capabilities that the organisation has in place. Sustainable organisations possess a strategic system, which is reliant on sustainable resources, and good capabilities that lead to strategic success. This study sets out the extent to which the Egyptian National Olympic Committee (ENOC) and its members the National Federations (NFs) are able to create organisational sustainability. The purpose of this research is to empirically study organisational sustainability and to provide insight into its creation within NFs. It has used a mixed-methods strategy that involved two phases. The first, a thematic analysis, identified the characteristics of the sustainable National Federation. It was undertaken by carrying out semi-structured interviews with ENOC and NF board members, experts, and NF consultants to generate the benchmarks or the requirements needed for sustainable National Federations. The second phase used the Readiness Assessment Tool (RAT) (Robinson and Minikin, 2011) in investigating the organisational development pillars based on the resources and capabilities of the Egyptian NFs (organisations that are responsible for developing the overarching performance of the ENOC). The findings indicated that the NFs included in this study need to develop further in terms of resources and capabilities in order to improve their readiness for sustainability. At their current levels of development, they do not exhibit the necessary or sufficient characteristics to become sustainable sports organisations. In other words, the research reveals that the NFs under investigation are not sufficiently developed to establish organisational sustainability due to their limited resources and low levels of capabilities. The study contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a better understanding of organisational sustainability in NFs. In addition, it creates the characteristics, or the requirements needed for a sustainable NF. Furthermore, it offers the first evidence to suggest that Egyptian NFs need more improvements in terms of resources and capabilities to create a strong sports system leading to sustainable success.

The current scholarship on copyright predominantly considers this area of law from the standpoint of economics. Likewise, since the adoption of the TRIPs Agreement, contemporary copyright law-making and practice has mainly been constructed around the assumption that its job is to create incentives to make more expressive works in the form of copyright embedded in goods and investment. Copyright law has heavily skewed towards the protection of corporate copyright ownership rather than individual authorship. In this model, culture is seen as the marketplace for merchandising and producing the products of copyright industries and an economic space facilitating the process of creativity. Intellectual properties are said be essential assets in firms’ portfolios and an important component in the macro-economic development of a country. Thus, current copyright law has predominantly an economic-oriented model that shapes its cultural and development policies. This thesis offers an alternative framework for copyright law focusing not on economic development alone but on more broadly promoting human development and one of its predominant framework, namely the ‘capabilities approach’, to transform the ‘controlled culture’ that individuals live in to a ‘fair culture’. Thus, this study’s central research questions are: How could western (UK, EU, and US) copyright laws’ economic-oriented development and culture visions be reshaped through the capabilities approach and ‘participatory culture’ considerations in order to enhance participation in culture? And what legal resolutions and remedies could be drawn from the fundamental rights framework (specifically from the right to take part in cultural life and freedom of expression) to make such a shift in copyright laws? Freedom is a crucial value in the construction of a fair culture within copyright. Inspiration here is Amartya Sen’s concept of ‘development as freedom’ and Martha Nussbaum’s idea to rationalise these freedoms as touchstone values in constitutional entitlements. To promote ‘development as freedom’, in Amartya Sen’s words, copyright law cannot be detached from the considerations of fostering people’s capabilities to participate in cultural and political life. Therefore, the main contention of this thesis is that copyright law does more than encouraging the creation of more commodities and investment: it fundamentally affects human development and substantive freedoms, or capabilities, of all people to live a good life in a democratic culture and society. The challenge that this thesis posits is how to bring the politics of human dignity and the politics of welfare into a single framework within copyright law. To this end, the capability-oriented human rights assessment of copyright law is brought to open a fresh discussion over the conventional wisdom mentioned above. To replace the existing ‘culture and economic development model’ with the ‘culture and human development model’, this study identifies capabilities or substantive freedoms (cultural human rights and freedoms), as a way of evaluating copyright law’s goals in general and its impact on individuals’ capabilities to freely express themselves and participate in cultural and political life. As an alternative to traditional development measures, Sen and Nussbaum propose the concept of the advancement of ‘central capabilities’ in which capabilities represent ‘what people are actually able to do and to be’. This inquiry aims at creating a synergy between the ‘capabilities approach’and human rights framework through the identification of relevant capability-based cultural human rights and freedoms to set a normative base for the construction of a fair culture. Again from a capabilities perspective, this thesis further analyses some contemporary issues surrounding contemporary copyright enforcement measures - namely notice-and-4 takedown and graduated response procedures, file sharing, disclosure orders, filtering and website blocking orders, the extension of copyright terms, pre-established/statutory and additional damages, technological protection measures and the intermediary liability, the extension of criminal liability and notice-and-staydown - where the tension between copyright law and cultural human rights and freedoms are more acute. This helps to identify the important cultural netibilities (freedoms/capabilities on the Internet) in a networked world. In the final analysis, this thesis proposes two frameworks, one for legislators and one for courts, to engage with these cultural human rights and freedoms which are of importance for the advancement of human development. In the former framework, the copyright rules laid down by the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement are discussed as a case study to show more concretely how copyright law affects human development and to make proposals for future direction of treaty and law-making with respect to it. The second framework, by fundamentally relying on the legal test proposed by Abbe Brown in her book “Intellectual Property, Human Rights and Competition: Access to Essential Innovation and Technology,” aims to complete this thesis with the introduction of a legal test (deconstructive multiple proportionally test) for courts to engage with a conflict of norms between human rights and copyright, which will make them take cognisance of human development paradigm, when such a conflict is encountered.

Much progress has been made recently in developing the business model concept. However, one issue remains poorly understood, despite its importance for managers, policy makers, and academics alike, namely, how companies change and develop their business models to achieve sustained value creation. Companies which manage to create value over extended periods of time successfully shape, adapt and renew their business models to fuel such value creation. Drawing on findings from a research program on continuously growing firms, this paper identifies three critical capabilities, namely an orientation towards experimenting with and exploiting new business opportunities; a balanced use of resources; as well as achieving coherence between leadership, culture, and employee commitment, together shaping key strategizing actions. Moreover, we illustrate how each of these capabilities is supported by different sets of specific activities. Jointly, these three capabilities, their activities and the strategizing actions act as complementarities for value creation. We conclude the paper by suggesting implications for research and practitioners, providing a tool for managers which allows them to reflect on and identify critical issues relevant for changing and developing their business model to sustain value creation.

This dissertation has three goals. The first goal is to outline how twentieth century advocates qualify education as a human right. The second goal is to offer an integrative account which argues that, to defend a right to education both the provision of educational resources and the freedom to do something with those resources must be taken into account. This requires more than the rhetoric of a UN document like the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also requires more than the good intentions of duty-bound adults acting in the best interests of the child. To do this, it is necessary to consider how the institutional structure dedicated to education - in particular the structure dedicated to basic primary education to which the UN claims all children are entitled - integrates with the freedom each child has to do something with that basic primary education once he or she has obtained it. Finally, by identifying education as a human right within this integrative structure, this dissertation will demonstrate that, if policy documents related to education shift from a focus on the traditional relationship between an experienced adult and a dependent child to one based on the relationship between an individual and a capability set, the claim that education is a human right becomes a meaningful claim which can provide a justification for the social commitments required to recognize this claim.

This dissertation has three goals. The first goal is to outline how twentieth century advocates qualify education as a human right. The second goal is to offer an integrative account which argues that, to defend a right to education both the provision of educational resources and the freedom to do something with those resources must be taken into account. This requires more than the rhetoric of a UN document like the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also requires more than the good intentions of duty-bound adults acting in the best interests of the child. To do this, it is necessary to consider how the institutional structure dedicated to education - in particular the structure dedicated to basic primary education to which the UN claims all children are entitled - integrates with the freedom each child has to do something with that basic primary education once he or she has obtained it. Finally, by identifying education as a human right within this integrative structure, this dissertation will demonstrate that, if policy documents related to education shift from a focus on the traditional relationship between an experienced adult and a dependent child to one based on the relationship between an individual and a capability set, the claim that education is a human right becomes a meaningful claim which can provide a justification for the social commitments required to recognize this claim.

This research explores the growth strategy of Taiwan chemical SMEs in China market. In 2003, China has surpassed USA as the largest FDI receiving country while the trade across the Taiwan Strait for the same year , estimated by Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council, had climbed to USD 46.3 billion , around 24% growth vs. 2002. It will be valuable to explore how Taiwan chemical SMEs, the most active participants in the international business, shape their growth strategy with the constraint of resource scarcity. The resources-based view suggests that a firm¡¦s unique resources and capabilities provide the basis for a strategy. The research selects two case companies in Unsaturated Polyester Resin (UPR) industry to identify the resources relative to the shaping of the growth strategy. Furthermore, it also explores the relationship between the internal resources of the case company and its choice of growth strategy. We thus develop four prepositions to facilitate the discussion. We conducted in-depth interviews with the two case companies to reach the following conclusions. They are summarized as follows: - A SME with more manager controlled ownership structure tends to more aggressively pursue the growth. - A SME with pursuing more R&D investment will be more committed to growth. - Human Resources in SMEs are not a dominating role in pursuing a growth strategy. - Top managements¡¦ perception of the external environment reflects their personal experiences

ABSTRACT Thesis: Relationships among logistics capabilities, competitive strategy and firm performance. The purpose of this research is to find the relationships among logistics capabilities, competitive strategy and firm performance. This study tries to explore on the proposition that corporate strategy is most effective when pursued with resources/capabilities that ¡§fit¡¨. To test this proposition survey data form the Taiwan¡¦s logistics business and steel make industry are analyzed via SPSS & LISREL. The results indicate that: 1. The logistics capabilities include ¡§process capabilities¡¨, ¡¨value-added service capabilities¡¨, ¡§flexibility capabilities¡¨ and ¡§supply capabilities¡¨. Competitive strategies are based on M. E. Porter¡¦s generic business strategies include ¡§total cost leadership strategy¡¨, ¡§differentiation strategy¡¨. 2. The difference is statistically significant in those servicing business is more emphasized the important of flexibility capabilities than manufacturing industry and firms which middle annual turnover is more emphasized the important of value-added service capabilities than firms which lower annual turnover. 3. Process capabilities, value-added service capabilities, flexibility capabilities and supply capabilities are statistically significantly positively linked to differentiation strategy. Only process capabilities, value-added service capabilities, flexibility capabilities are statistically significantly positively linked to total cost leadership strategy. 4.Process capabilities, value-added service capabilities, flexibility capabilities are statistically significantly positively linked to firm performance. Both total cost leadership strategy and differentiation strategy are statistically significantly positively linked to firm performance. Only differentiation strategy is statistically significantly positively affected to firm performance. 5.The path, which most ¡§fit¡¨ model of firm performance, is process capabilities & supply capabilities linked to total cost leadership strategy and value-added service capabilities & flexibility capabilities linked to differentiation strategy. Keyword: logistics capabilities,competitive strategy,firm performance

Background: The deregulation of the airline and airport sectors has introduced airport managers to free market competition. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to identify dynamic capabilities in a regional airport, examine which of the predominant views they correlate to and whether dynamic capabilities concern different levels of strategy. Method: This study uses a qualitative method. Data are collected through a documentary review and interview. The documentary review concerns the features of and trends in the airport sector. The interviews were conducted with three managers of Jönköping Airport, experienced at managing regional airports in Sweden and Europe. Conclusion: The study identified several dynamic capabilities correlating in various degrees to the different predominant views. Some of dynamic capabilities found were of the kind that might be expected at most firms, such as strategic decision-making and product development. Others were more specific for the sector, such as the ability to build a highly adaptable work force. However, none were irrelevant across businesses. This is thought to be a result of the focus on higher management. The study also found that different dynamic capabilities concern different levels of strategy. Strategic decision-making concern corporate-level strategy, while product development is concerned with business-level strategizing. We suggest this is one way of approaching the proposition made by Winter (2003) that there are different levels of dynamic capabilities ad infinitum.

Outsourcing refers to contracting out the functions to a third party instead of conducting them in-house. The main contribution of this dissertation is to develop and test a model of successful outsourcing in the accomplishment of headquarters selling task. Specifically, it intends to (a) provide a theoretical framework for outsourcing partnership performance, (b) explore the potential complementarities construct in the context of a dyadic outsourcing relationship, (c) examine the role of learning dynamic capabilities in turning potential complementarities into outsourcing success, and (d) explicate the role of structural social capital as an antecedent to learning dynamic capability construct . The conceptual framework of the model is based on the resource-advantage theory which posits that resources, potential complementarities and dynamic capabilities are explicated as sub-constructs. The pool of respondents who are the practicing managers of outsourcing in the consumer packaged goods industry was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The findings showed that the learning dynamic capabilities construct is the most important factor affecting in the outsourcing partnership performance in the context of headquarters selling task. The task-related resources of the outsourcer had a significant positive effect on potential complementarities. However, the positive effect of the outsourcee’s task-related resources on potential complementarities was not significant. Likewise, the positive effect of the potential complementarities on the outsourcing partnership performance did not emerge as significant. The effect of structural social capital of the outsourcer had a significant but negative influence on learning dynamic capabilities. The positive effect of structural social capital of the outsourcee on learning dynamic capabilities and the moderating role of learning dynamic capabilities were found to be insignificant.