Only a few middlemen linking chemical intermediate product supply to world tyre productions have managed to survive new direct business models. In fact, the only region, where the practice of using a middleman in the supply chain of tyre production, for a certain primary manufacturer, is in South Africa. Tyre producers in other world regions, similar in market complexity to South Africa, have experienced the elimination of the middleman. Hence the question of this research, why is the middleman in the supply chain of tyre production in South Africa still a better option than that of direct business models? To begin with, the thesis stated that the middleman in the supply chain of South African tyre producers delivers better value than that of the direct business model. To prove/disprove this thesis, the principle that value is a trade-off between what you get for what you give was the basis of this research (Zeithaml, 1998). Further, a model was developed, from secondary literature, to conceptualise this trade-off to provide evidence to prove/disprove that the middleman provides greater value than value from the direct business model. From this point, the research approach was to collect data through interviews to find out the most important aspect of value created by the middleman. Data collected were analysed, using the structure of the model as a guide, to find evidence of the trade-off. This analysis provided evidence that the relationship between the middleman and the tyre producers in South Africa and between the middleman and primary product supplier is the value that the direct business model cannot replace.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This dissertation argues that the Edison Institute (presently known as The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan) survived internal and external challenges through the evolution of the Ford family’s leadership and the organization’s funding strategy. Following Henry Ford’s death, the museum complex relied upon the Ford Foundation and the Ford Motor Company Fund as its sole means of philanthropic support. These foundations granted the Edison Institute a significant endowment, which it used to sustain its facilities in conjunction with its inaugural fundraising program. Navigating a changing legal, corporate, and philanthropic landscape in Detroit and around the world, the Ford family perpetuated Henry Ford’s legacy at the Edison Institute with the valuable guidance of executives and staff of their corporation, foundation, and philanthropies. Together they transitioned the Edison Institute into a sustainable and public nonprofit organization by overcoming threats related to the deaths of two generations of the Ford family, changes in the Edison Institute’s administration and organizational structure, the reorganization of the Ford Foundation, the effects of the Tax Reform Act of 1969, and legal complications due to overlap between the Fords’ corporate and philanthropic interests. The Ford family provided integral leadership for the development and evolution of the Edison Institute’s funding strategy and its relationship to their other corporate and philanthropic enterprises. The Institute’s management and funding can be best understood within the context of philanthropic developments of the Ford family during this period, including the formation of the Ford Foundation’s funding and concurrent activity.   This dissertation focuses on the research question of how the Edison Institute survived the Ford family’s evolving philanthropic strategy to seek a sustainable funding and management structure. The work examines its central research question over multiple chapters organized around the Ford family’s changing leadership at the Edison Institute, the increase of professionalized managers, and the Ford’s use of their corporation and philanthropies to provide integral support to the Edison Institute. In order to sustain the Edison Institute throughout the twentieth century, it adapted its operations to accommodate Henry Ford’s founding legacy, its legal environment, and the evolving practice of philanthropy in the United States.