The extant literature has been very effective in identifying different types of identity projects, running the gamut from assimilative, integrationist, to rejectionist; where the individual migrants either accept, combine or reject the ‘home’ and ‘host’ national cultures. However, the literature has ignored the heterogeneity within these cultures and the factors that shape these formations. The role in acculturation of subcultures within the host country and the distinctions in the culture of origin are under-theorized. In this dissertation I aim to address this gap in the literature by looking at the various ‘home’ and ‘host’ cultures, and I seek to provide some explanation of the reasons for the choice of assimilative or rejectionist identity projects. To that end, I conducted an 18 month ethnographic case study of second generation Pakistani men in a medium-sized town in England. My work is in the tradition of consumer culture theory, an area of inquiry that is concerned with exploring the intersection of consumption and larger socio-cultural dimensions. As opposed to the “individualistic” consumer identity projects described in the literature, I find that consumer acculturation is subcultural among these youths. I find two distinct subcultures, which I name as ‘popular-boy’ subculture and ‘gangsta boy’ subculture. And these subcultures of acculturation are developed as a synthesis of the two contradictory forces that these youths encounter. These two contradictory forces are the parents’ demands on the youths, which are shaped by the parents’ immigration ideologies and the demands of the mainstream white society that they are living in.

The first chapter introduces the thesis and reviews the literature on loss aversion, the endowment effect and the willingness to pay/willingness to accept gap, and the effects of experience. The second chapter reports an extended version of Knetsch's exchange of goods experiment to explore how different types of experience influence the endowment effect. The experiment has four treatments, which compare the behaviour of subjects with experience of consuming, owning, and choosing goods to a control group. The results are consistent with earlier studies in that an endowment effect is observed; however, the strength of the effect is less than in earlier studies and differs between treatments. In particular, there is a significantly stronger endowment effect in the treatments in which the endowment is acquired in two steps rather than one step. The third chapter reports a repeated market experiment in which subjects buy and sell lotteries under symmetric and asymmetric information. Buying and selling bids and prices are compared. A gap between buying and selling prices decays under symmetric information but persists under asymmetric information. Furthermore, there are spillover effects. When the regime switches between symmetric and asymmetric information, subjects do not immediately adjust their behaviour. The results are interpreted as evidence that behaviour is driven by heuristics. The fourth chapter reports another repeated market experiment in which subjects buy and sell lotteries. How the lotteries’ odds are presented and whether the lottery gets resolved after each trial vary between treatments. Among the findings is that the gap between buying and selling bids decays when lotteries are not resolved each trial but persists when they are. The final chapter summarises the findings of the three experiments and identifies common patterns. Directions for future experimental and theoretical research are suggested. Finally, implications for policy are discussed.

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This thesis seeks to examine the deregulation of airline employment within Europe, by relating that change to the US experience. A historical/political economy approach is adopted which locates the process of deregulation with a context of changing product market conditions, bargaining power and regulatory influence. The regulated regime where labour conditions were protected is contrasted with one in which labour has come under pressure to concede premium terms and conditions. Analysis of labour costs and productivity assume that these terms and conditions will simply evaporate under the pressure of competition and privatisation. The thesis provides evidence that this may not be the case. It is argued that failure to examine employee concerns and perceptions underestimates employee responses, and overestimates the power of airline management, given the considerable bargaining power of key labour groups. Airline workers, especially those in large and successful, formerly state owned carriers, have expectations of wages and conditions based upon the regulated era. This regulatory overhang is examined in a detailed questionnaire of British Airways as a major European carrier, previously state owned, but not privatised. A number of models of labour market deregulation and case studies are introduced to analyse the nature and extent of these deep seated changes and their implications for labour, management and the state.

The aim of this thesis is to explore and study various dimensions of the interaction between one of the most important institutional quality aspects, namely property rights, and one important aspect of integration into the world economy: foreign direct investment (FDI), and links them to economic growth. In particular, this thesis explores whether the interaction between institutions and FDI has any implication for economic growth and whether there is any complementarity between the role of institutions and the role of FDI in fostering economic growth. To achieve this aim, the thesis was designed to include four empirical chapters in addition to two chapters: one for the introduction and the other for the conclusion. The first two empirical chapters studied the interrelationship between FDI and institutions. And the other two empirical chapters studied the implication of the interrelationship and the complementarity between FDI and institutions for economic growth. Chapter one motivated the thesis and set its aim and structure. The second chapter studies the role of institutions in determining FDI inflows and shows that institutional quality is one of the most important determinants of FDI. Based on this result, chapter three introduces a hypothesis that foreign investors will create a demand for better institutions in host countries, and that governments competing to attract more FDI will be induced to provide such institutions, leading to improvements in institutional quality in host countries. The empirical evidence reported in this chapter supports this hypothesis and shows that FDI inflows have a positive impact on property rights in host countries. Chapter four explores whether institutions play a role in determining the contribution of FDI to economic growth. The results presented in this chapter show that a host country needs to achieve a minimum level of institutional quality in order to be able to benefit from the positive externalities offered by FDI. Based on the results of chapter three, chapter five investigates whether the positive impact of FDI in institutional quality on host countries can be considered as a new growth-enhancing role for FDI. The results reported in chapter five show that the impact of FDI on economic growth that works via institutions, is a significant one, and is generally greater and more robust than the direct impact. Over all, the major contribution of this thesis is that it shows that a better understanding of the contribution of FDI to economic growth requires taking into account the interrelationship and the complementarity between FDI and institutions.

The study demonstrates that Bumiputera entrepreneurs have a huge social resource which can provide them with a variety of help and support in business. A model for networking management has been developed in order to understand the relationship between entrepreneurs and their personal networks. This model includes four stages of development of the relationship i.e. the planning, establishment, development and maintenance stages. The research also suggests that people in the entrepreneurs' personal network can be categorised into three groups, based on the nature of the relationship. Primary networks consisted of family and old friends; Secondary networks included new friends, government staff (of agriculture and its related areas) and people in agriculture, trade and commerce, and other associations; and tertiary networks comprised of suppliers, customers, bankers and government staff (directly involved in the development of Bumiputera entrepreneurs). Since the Bumiputera culture certain relationships with people of personal networks have existed for some time, it was found that some of the management stages were missing. The qualitative discussion suggests that the stages, especially those of development and maintenance, have a crucial impact on the development of entrepreneurial businesses. It was also found that male entrepreneurs were active in networking while women were more selective in their networking due to cultural and economic limitations. In addition, women included men in their networks while men tended not to include women. Men therefore found it easier to create a stronger tertiary network than women. Government policy also plays an important role in structuring the personal networks of Bumiputera entrepreneurs. Bumiputera entrepreneurs include staff of government agencies as a part of their personal networks. This enables them to seek help and support for their business development.

This thesis brings together notions from the distinctive fields of international business and entrepreneurship in order to examine the under-investigated theme of Opportunity Identification (OI) within an entirely new context, that of the multinational subsidiary. Despite its centrality in entrepreneurship research, the notion of OI still lies at an embryonic stage of investigation, particularly as an organisation-wide phenomenon. Especially with respect to the multinational subsidiary, the concept of OI has not been examined per se, regardless of studies proving that entrepreneurial subsidiaries of MNCs can also be actively involved in the identification and pursuit of innovative ideas. In addressing the above key gaps, the present thesis develops a resource-based framework that examines both antecedents and outcomes of OI at the individual subsidiary level. This framework essentially integrates theoretical perspectives on subsidiary entrepreneurship and OI under a Resource-Based View (RBV) of the multinational subsidiary. This constitutes an innovative approach both in the subsidiary-related and entrepreneurship literature. This study adopts a mixed methods approach in combining qualitative theory building and quantitative theory testing within a two-staged research methodology. The first stage involved conducting exploratory case studies in 6 Scottish “entrepreneurial” subsidiaries, given the scarcity of relevant empirical work. The second stage involved carrying out a large-scale mail survey on U.S., European, and Japanese subsidiaries operating in the UK. An overall response rate of 16% was achieved. Quantitative data analysis entailed hypotheses testing through both Multiple Regression and Structural Equation (SEM) models. This study conceptualises subsidiary entrepreneurship as a notion broader than subsidiary initiative, comprising not only radical change and innovation, but also less fundamental but still significant improvements that continuously take place at the subsidiary level. The findings prove that subsidiary entrepreneurship is essentially driven by opportunities identified at the subsidiary level. For the identification of these opportunities, particular subsidiary-specific “entrepreneurial capabilities”, such as the subsidiary’s innovation propensity, risk attitude and external networking with non-direct value-chain members, are critical. Also, factors determining the parent-subsidiary relationship, such as the subsidiary’s autonomy levels and the flows of “strategic” knowledge and skills between the subsidiary and the parent, provide access to unique and valuable resources that can expand the subsidiary’s opportunity set. However, the external environment, both local and international, was not found to pose a significant direct effect on subsidiary OI. This study concludes with establishing a positive link between subsidiary entrepreneurship and performance. Implications for theory, practice and policy making are discussed. Major contributions of this study to theory include the development of a more holistic conceptualisation and measurement of subsidiary entrepreneurship, along with the adoption of a Resource-Based View (RBV) of the multinational subsidiary, which establishes the existence of specific “entrepreneurial” capabilities at the subsidiary level.

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