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As developed markets become more saturated, managers increasingly recognize the value of emerging markets as venues for growth opportunities. Yet, launching products into these markets is extremely risky due to weak institutional environments (e.g., lack of physical infrastructure), making success more uncertain. To alleviate this challenge, theory points to using emerging market footholds that yield market-specific knowledge. However, it is unclear whether knowledge is realized and, if so, what facets of harvested knowledge are effective in driving performance. Accordingly, we used data collected from a survey of business professionals to examine emerging market footholds and market-specific knowledge (i.e., customer, competitor, and logistics knowledge). Our results show that the extent of market presence held by an emerging market foothold is positively associated with all types of knowledge, yet only competitor and logistics knowledge—not customer knowledge—is positively associated with product launch performance. A supplemental sample of new product launches in developed markets revealed the opposite results wherein customer knowledge was the only significant predictor. Viewed collectively, the results suggest a market maturity threshold wherein logistics and competitive knowledge becomes less influential in driving performance, and customer knowledge becomes more influential.

Products and technologies provide us with significant lifestyle benefits but they can also evolve into hazards and bring about concern for human health. A history of poor regulatory performances has resulted in a public displeased with and skeptical of the actors responsible for protecting the public against the unintended effects of progress. It is within this historical and social context that the study explores the following objectives: to understand people's responses to emerging health issues, of which there is considerable knowledge uncertainty and little public awareness; to identify the information needs regarding these issues, and to explore the role of government disclosure for personal decision-making around these issues. Seven focus groups were conducted in Hamilton, Ontario with community members from a range of backgrounds: youth, faith, allophone immigrants, environmental, health, recreational, and mixed. Two scenarios about potential hazards, i.e. a persistent pollutant and extreme heatwaves from climate change, were used to generate discussion about people's experiences with risk and knowledge. Results indicate that emerging health issues are framed by lay individuals as a chronic societal phenomenon. Their concerns about health and well-being, resiliency, and issue comprehension point to an overarching preoccupation about social vulnerability, irrespective of the presence of confirmed hazards. The analysis further revealed several roles for disclosure which would allow for more capacity in personal decision-making; more transparent and accountable regulatory processes, and which could lead to more trustworthy relations between citizens and government. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

Master of Science / Department of Marriage and Family Therapy / Amber Vennum / The majority of scholarship on romantic relationship development in emerging adulthood is with Western populations using theories grounded in a Western cultural context. This study had two goals. The first goal was to explore the experience of non-arranged romantic relationships for young people in urban India through in-depth interviews with four men and four women. The second was to examine the relevance of Western notions of emerging adulthood, romantic relationship development, and theoretical constructs related to relationship development (e.g., terms such as ‘dating’, ‘commitment’ and ‘satisfaction’) for this population. Findings indicated one potential pathway to relationship formation that begins in friendship and gradually evolves into a romantic relationship. Other findings shed light on young adults’ culturally bound negotiation with their families around the issue of romantic relationships and the similarities in definitions of relationship terms with Western literature. This study makes important contributions to the growing field of romantic relationships in emerging adulthood by suggesting that, first, while Indian youth display several characteristics of emerging adulthood and define commitment similarly as in the West, there are important differences too. Second it has implications for future quantitative measurement of romantic relationships among Indian young adults.

This paper investigates the impact of diversification and the financial crisis on firm performance in India.The dataset of this paper is focused on Indian publicly listed firms between 2006 and 2012. By analyzingaccounting-based and market-based measures of firm performance, this study tries to explain the factorsthat influences the costs and benefits of diversified firms compared to non-diversified firms. This studyfound that diversified firms have on average a higher firm performance than non-diversified firms.During the global financial crisis, the performance of both diversified and non-diversified firms in Indiadeteriorated caused by a meltdown of global economic activities. This study does not find evidence thatdiversified firms perform relatively better than non-diversified firms during crisis times. Diversification isexpected to be more beneficial in the absence of well-developed and integrated capital markets due theeffects of “more money” and “smarter money”, arising from an increased efficiency of the internalcapital market. The analysis gives an impression that the total number of diversified firms increased afterthe crisis.

The 2008 financial crisis that led to the collapse of companies and economic recession in most countries has also increased the concern for transparency, accountability and regulatory oversight and once more put corporate governance and board effectiveness on the front burner of big business issues all over the world. The board is seen as a key player in governance of companies and there is need for a better understanding of how this body works. Majority of the research work in these areas has been in developed economies and not much work has been done in the area of board effectiveness in the emerging markets of Africa. This thesis examines the relationship between key board characteristics and board effectiveness. It also explored the impact of certain mediators on this relationship. Unlike most studies on board which focus on firm performance and mostly in developed markets, this study was conducted in an emerging market and the focus was on board effectiveness. Based on the work done by other researchers in developed economies the researcher developed a theoretical framework and a set of hypotheses to examine the relationship between board characteristics and board effectiveness and the impact of certain mediators on this relationship. Board characteristics considered in this research include board size, CEO duality, board independence, and board diversity. In addition, the impact of board human capital on board effectiveness was also considered. Additionally, the researcher examined if the relationships between board characteristics and board effectiveness will be affected by organization type, ownership, age and size. The empirical examination of the hypotheses developed from the theoretical framework presented in this study show that board characteristics, apart from professional human capital, do not have any significant impact on board effectiveness. Board professional human capital was found to have a positive relationship with board operations and board cohesiveness and also with board effectiveness. The results show that in Nigeria, board diversity and human capital are the most important board structural factors that impact board effectiveness. They also show that board processes of operations, cohesiveness and decision making have significant impact on board effectiveness. Finally the results show that board process factors are more important than board structural factors in determining board effectiveness. The study shows that these relationships were not significantly affected by organization type, ownership, age or size. The study contributes to understanding of board effectiveness in an emerging market where board roles and processes are still developing; by examining both traditional variables such as board size, CEO duality, board independence and other organizational attributes such as board job related diversity and board professional human capital variables. In addition, this is the first study to examine board effectiveness in publicly quoted companies in Nigeria. The study will also contribute to better governance practices in Nigeria, where lack of good governance has been blamed for the slow economic development and growth. The theoretical framework and the findings of this thesis are expected to stimulate scholars for further research into identifying the characteristics that boards must possess if they are to be active and effective. They should also stimulate practitioners and scholars of strategy, organizational behaviour and corporate governance to examine boards and their activities from many perspectives, particularly from the process side.

Family Matters – Essays of Families, Firms and Funding in the Philippines 1850–2014 is a study of family business groups in the Philippines. It consists of an introductory essay and four separate papers. The introductory essay frames the thesis in the vast literature on family firms and family business groups in emerging economies, discusses sources and methodology, and provides an overview of Philippine economic history to give the overarching economic context to the separate papers. The first paper deals with the role of institutions in understanding the dominance and prevalence of family business groups in the Philippines. The literature posits that weak institutions can help explain the predominance of family business groups in emerging economies. This paper takes a historical perspective to examine whether that explanation holds over time, examining the development of core property rights and core economic institutions over time and how family firms have responded. The second paper studies funding options in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and whether the rapidly growing financial system was driven from above or below. The paper examines the impact it had on the explicit goal of stimulating investment and growth in the early twentieth century and what that meant for family firms. The third paper studies capital market developments since the Asian crisis and in particular the growth of the corporate bond market in the Philippines; how this development and how it affected family business groups. The fourth paper deals with governance and management capabilities and examines professionalization of family firms over time to seek to answer the question of longevity. Management literature provides studies and models for family firms but these are fairly recent whereas the family firms that have been in business for several generations have found ways to manage for the long term. The paper analyses what three select groups have done in terms of professionalization and management.

ABSTRACT Small and Medium Size Enterprise (SMEs) have long been recognised as the major drivers of economic activities due to their entrepreneurial traits of being innovative which lead to job creation, sustaining economic growth, export expansion, and efficient allocation of resources in line with their competitive goals and their respective country’s objectives. In their pursuit as major economic drivers in their respective economies, SMEs are barely exposed to hostile environments triggering fierce competition from Multinational Corporations. This has entailed that SMEs need to enhance their capabilities in such environments to sustain their competitive advantage by reconfiguring their internal and external competences and resources in response to changing environments. Surprisingly, literature on how SMEs develop dynamic capabilities in such markets is limited and inconsistent. Therefore, this thesis explores how SMEs develop dynamic capabilities in emerging markets specifically in African markets.   The central purpose of the study is to explore how SMEs in emerging markets such as Africa develop dynamic capabilities to compete alongside MNCs. Building on prior researches which conceptually suggested that market orientation, learning orientation, and entrepreneurial orientation in separate cases, enables SMEs to build dynamic capabilities in dynamic environments, this study explored this viewpoint through a qualitative case study data. Comparative multiple case studies are developed in order to have a holistic understanding of how SMEs across sectors develop dynamic capabilities. The study employs empirical data collected through the use of semi-structured interviews in which samples are purposively selected from 10 firms from separate industries in Africa, in which five were drawn from Cameroon and other five drawn from Zambia. The study follows a qualitative-deductive approach.   Findings indicate that SMEs develop dynamic capabilities in emerging market principally through the lenses of market orientation and learning orientation. While entrepreneurial orientation is found lacking the potential to enable SMEs build-up the required dynamic capabilities due to the fact that it places huge demand on SMEs who are short of adequate financial resources to meet up with the contingencies of being fully entrepreneurial. That is to say, market orientation and learning orientation other than entrepreneurial orientation are the enablers of dynamic capabilities in emerging market. The findings contribute to existing literature by building an empirically-grounded synthesis of the constructs of market orientation, learning orientation and entrepreneurial orientation involved in the development of dynamic capabilities which validates earlier claims on the development of dynamic capabilities in dynamic environment. Second, the results contribute to theory by advancing an original model which brings together all standalone models in the field of dynamic capabilities development into one, thereby harmonising the polarisation of facts. Furthermore, the findings bear potential for researchers and entrepreneurs intending to invest in emerging markets such as Africa.   To improve on this study, we suggest undertaking a related cross-comparative case study on similar grounds which takes into account homogeneity and age parameters at industry level from two or more countries. We believe this might provide an additional explanation on how SMEs in emerging markets develop dynamic capability and may also shed more light on whether age of a firm has an effect on the build-up of dynamic capabilities.

The aim of this thesis is to understand the phenomena of the high growth and rapid internationalisation of firms from emerging markets. It explores the applicability of international entrepreneurship theory to the context of the emerging market enterprises in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. It integrates the literature of strategic entrepreneurship and that of portfolio entrepreneurship with the literature of international entrepreneurship to provide a closer fit of applicability in that context. The main research questions of this thesis focus on: why, where, and how do some emerging market enterprises grow fast and internationalise early and rapidly? Particular attention is paid to entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial teams and the entrepreneurial process in the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of new business opportunities. Despite the strength of the international entrepreneurship theory in identifying the sources of rapid internationalisation for small and medium enterprises from developed markets, it has been criticized for failing to address the same phenomena for firms from emerging markets. This thesis explores why, where, and how the MENA region emerging market firms have attained their spectacular performance over the last few years up to 2008, and contributes to filling the theoretical gap in the literature. This exploratory study suggests that the entrepreneurial and management processes of international business opportunities play an important role in achieving the high growth and rapid internationalisation of firms from emerging markets. A multiple case study strategy was adopted, and qualitative data was collected through interviews with entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial team members in the research site of the emerging markets of the MENA region. Other interviews with financial experts, staff of international financial institutions, and international analysts in specialized publications were conducted in order to achieve triangulation and bias minimization. Guided by a newly formulated conceptual theoretical framework, data was explored and thematically analysed by coding into different categories to enhance the understanding of the processes that underlined the entrepreneurial strategies associated with the rapid internationalisation and high growth of the theoretically sampled case companies. Resource orchestration, innovativeness, entrepreneurial leadership and international diversification were found to be crucial elements employed by lead entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial team members through utilising human and social capital of networks and knowledge throughout the internationalisation process. The findings revealed that integrating the concepts of strategic entrepreneurship and portfolio entrepreneurship with international entrepreneurship produced a coherent approach to the application of those theories to understanding the behaviour of multinational enterprises from the MENA region. However, other valuable themes emerged from the findings. Chief among those are: strategically targeting hostile markets with inefficient institutional competencies and insufficient infrastructure, thus benefiting from a no competition status. Networking internally with entrepreneurial team members and international churning were other key elements revealed by the findings that explained the interactions and processes which enhanced the companies’ rapid internal growth, A recommendation for management practice is made for firms to encourage internal networking with entrepreneurial teams’ members thus enhancing trust and supporting intrapreneurs’ initiatives in identifying and exploiting new international opportunities. A mainstream policy recommendation for emerging markets is to strengthen the private sector performance with government incentives of a financial (tax reductions, banking facilities) and non-financial (political reform, education and health services) nature to encourage such entrepreneurial activities. In addition to its contribution to the theoretical understanding of high growth and rapid internationalisation from emerging markets, the findings of this thesis accentuate the impact of the pattern of internationalisation into antagonistic environments with scarce infrastructure as a strategic entrepreneurship process of deployment of dynamic capabilities to craft unique competitive advantages thus achieving and sustaining high growth and performance in new international markets. This thesis is also unique in compiling the first dataset for MENA region enterprises with similar attributes of high growth and rapid internationalisation.

Doctor of Philosophy / Family Studies and Human Services / Jared R. Anderson / Cyclical romantic relationships—those characterized by breaking up and getting back together or having on/off periods—are a frequent phenomenon in the emerging adult population. These dating relationships maintain some distinctions from other more stable relationships, including the ways that partners strive to sustain relationship health. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative inquiry was to increase in-depth understanding of how emerging adult dating partners’ relationship effort affects relationship transitions within cyclical dating relationships. Ten heterosexual emerging adult couples (10 men, 10 women) currently in cyclical dating relationships were interviewed about their experiences with relationship effort and maintenance. Participant interviews were analyzed according to the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method. Specific themes emerged from the data, focusing on how perceived individual effort in the relationship, perceived partner effort in the relationship, and specific maintenance behaviors couples used to sustain relational health affected couple decisions about relationship transitioning. Implications regarding relationship education and clinical intervention among cyclical emerging adult couples are discussed. Future research could focus on continued expansion of understanding when in relationship history cyclical patterns begin, and how partners navigate transitions when both perceive reduced relationship effort.