Poverty has long been a developmental challenge in the Global South in general and in sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Consequently, over recent decades different strategies and programmes such as the Millennium Development Goals have been employed to reduce poverty and to improve the quality of people’s lives. This is very much the case in Ghana, where major strides have towards reducing poverty. Nevertheless, the three northern regions (Northern, Upper East and Upper West) of the country have actually experienced a deteriorating situation with the proportion of people living in poverty increasing. In short, poverty remains an obstacle to development in rural northern Ghana. Significantly, entrepreneurship has been proposed by some as an alternative route to rural poverty alleviation. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to examine critically the extent to which communities in rural northern Ghana can become entrepreneurial as a basis for facilitating poverty reduction in the regions. Having contextualised the study within a review of development, poverty and, in particular, entrepreneurship, the thesis explores the entrepreneurial ‘environment’ of rural northern Ghana and the entrepreneurial potential of rural communities in the regions as well as assessing the entrepreneurial human and social capitals possessed by those communities. Overall, this provides a holistic and critical assessment of the opportunities for and barriers to rural entrepreneurship in rural northern Ghana. The study adopts a process of qualitative enquiry, using a multiple-case approach to investigate the problem within broader and distinctive rural locations. Within each case, data were gathered at both district and community levels, employing both focus groups and individual semi-structured interviews. The data collection involved translations and a Translation moderation and mediation process – termed the TMM model – was developed to ensure the quality and rigour of the interview transcripts. The findings from the research conclude that poverty is endemic within the study communities. Nevertheless, it was identified that these communities possess potential human, social, cultural and natural capitals that provide a basis for developing entrepreneurship, as well as opportunities for specific entrepreneurial activities which may contribute to reducing poverty in the communities. However, the research found that limited infrastructure may hinder the entrepreneurial process and, as such, rural entrepreneurship in the communities will be a challenging task. Therefore, for successful rural entrepreneurship in rural northern, infrastructure is a critical issue.

The Namibian community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) programme has been hailed as the leading wildlife conservation initiative on the African continent. Based on the dual objective of achieving both rural development and nature conservation on communal land, CBNRM has become the principal model for large-scale Western donor-funding for biodiversity conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. Forming local community-based organisations (CBOs) is the essential precondition for rural residents to receive rights over their natural resources. Since the late 1990s, an extensive network of international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) has successfully secured substantial funding to support local CBOs in the endeavour to protect and benefit from wildlife. Namibia’s national CBNRM policy explicitly recognises NGOs as key support organisations tasked to help create and strengthen CBOs, build their management capacity and link them to funding sources. Furthermore, they are the principal facilitators of joint-venture tourism partnerships between CBOs and private investors. Tourism, the Holy Grail of Namibian CBNRM, generates approximately 70% of CBO income and as such constitutes a principal livelihood strategy for communal area residents. This thesis explores the implications of substantial, ongoing NGO support to CBO development. Grounded in a critical realist research paradigm, empirical data collection has been driven by the quest to uncover and explain the underlying mechanisms that enable and/or constrain the establishment of independent CBOs. This research was motivated by the desire to unpack the Namibian CBNRM success story. It is argued that the often prescribed dichotomy of powerful outsider vs. compliant development receiver, fails to recognise that at local level development intervention more closely resembles ongoing development interaction. A more refined understanding of how NGO support is consumed and negotiated by CBOs is important to further scrutinise the effectiveness of exogenous development. Adopting an overall inductive approach, a case study methodology was chosen to investigate the CBO-NGO exchange relationship. Located in regional tourism hotspots in Kunene and Zambezi Region, two CBOs that have received massive—yet differently structured—NGO support since their inception were purposefully chosen. During two three-month fieldwork periods in 2013 and 2014, multiple sources of qualitative data were collected. The findings indicate that NGO support is highly unequal; systematic inclusion and exclusion of CBOs is mostly determined by their economic potential originating from the occurrence of wildlife. The key exchange modality between CBOs and NGOs is the continuous provision of training, where the latter impart essential knowledge on the former. While NGOs have effectively monopolised the CBNRM service provision, CBOs have simultaneously II devised individual strategies to secure maximum future support. By conceptualising their on-going interaction as a client-provider relationship, the reciprocity of CBO-NGO dependency becomes evident. The heavy promotion of joint-venture tourism partnerships in particular, shows that NGOs rely on success stories to promote the Namibian CBNRM programme, and thus continue to shield “their” CBOs from the associated risks. A key implication of the research findings is that, paradoxically, continued service provision has enabled the development of financially self-sufficient CBOs, while at the same time it has likely encouraged prolonged self-insufficiency by CBOs which have matured into demanding, experienced consumers of rural development projects.

Context: Despite a long history of reforms, Pakistan‘s public sector (PS) is still considered cumbersome, corrupt, and inefficient by its citizens, government and international development community. Recent reforms were operationalised in 2001 under a new economic policy called the Poverty Reduction Programme (PRP) designed to facilitate the New Public Management (NPM) influenced transformation. The overarching objectives of these reforms were to strengthen the market and public sector simultaneously and so that they complemented each other. The PS reform actions taken under this strategy were mainly based on the World Bank‘s (WB) experience of developing countries which identified the state‘s weak institutional capacity as bottleneck to this transformation. Therefore, with the view to removing these impediments, actions to train the public servants, improve their salaries, and enhanced the use of information technology (IT) were included. However, many recent reports and indicators confirm the situation in Pakistan has remained unchanged. Various generic explanations of these compromised results have been provided; however, the concrete reasons in a Pakistani setting are still unknown. Research Questions: This study aims to investigate the reasons why Pakistan‘s PS organisations appear to be resistant to reform and why the repeated attempts at reform appear to have had so little impact. It addresses the following questions: What effects, if any, have NPM-inspired reform attempts had on the way that public sector organisations function? What have been the intended and unintended consequences of reform attempts? Research approach: This case study aims to bridge this gap through analysing the effects of administrative reforms in the federal tax agency where these actions have been revived as a part of the comprehensive reform programme. This study is qualitative and adopts a social constructionist approach. This case study is ethnographically oriented and works within pragmatist criteria of truth and validity; the case study organisation has been conceptualised as negotiated order (Strauss, 1978); and the initiatives of training, salaries and information technology are understood as managerial attempts to reshape organisational structures, processes, and the employment relationship with employees in line with the requirements of NPM. This research mainly depends on the interpretation and analysis of data gathered through 22 semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary sources of information including public and classified reports from donors and government repositories as well as published scholarly articles. The data were analysed in two stages: 1. abstract analysis took place during data collection, arranging, cleaning, and extraction of themes and patterns; and 2. firm analysis happened through an iterative process of comparing these themes, patterns, and field notes to make the sense of data. Findings: The findings suggest that the desired results of efficiency, transparency, fairness, and controlling corruption could not be achieved due to the takeover of prevalent contextual corrupt practices of nepotism, favouritism and recommendation at the time of its implementation. Moreover, this content-focused approach has also ignored the context and processes that led to compromised results. I have supported these findings through the identification of these contextual problems at the organisational and national levels. Contribution: This research contributed to a greater understanding of the initiation and implementation processes of the NPM-inspired PSR in Pakistan through the identification of factors limiting its results at organisational and national levels. In turn, it helped to highlight the problems behind reformer‘s taken for granted assumptions of quick-fixing the institutions through rapid dosage of reform. The results will also be valuable to reformers as they will not only help reformers to understand the reasons affecting its intended results but also help them to include these in the list of safeguard.

The starting point for this research study is the application of astrological consulting in the area of business consultancy. In many Western civilisations there is considerable prejudice regarding astrological consulting especially when it is active in the area of business consultancy. In contrast to this, astrological business consulting is encountered much more commonly in Asia and the USA, where it is not unusual that enterprises enquire for astrological consulting service. The research aims to investigate the applicability of astrological consulting in the domain of business counselling within a context of economic sociology. Management consulting has been used as a reference concept of business consultancy. The realm of systems thinking is considered to be suitable as the theoretical framework for this research. The systems methodology of the Networked Thinking approach of the interpretive tradition has been used to determine the systems of astrological business consulting as well as that of management consulting. This research proposes that, from a system-theoretical view or, let us say, from a technical-oriented perspective on management, astrological business consulting as compared with management consulting is not an applicable and justifiable consultancy concept in the area of business consulting. The research methodology used aims to set up a direct confrontation between the system of astrological business consulting and that of management consulting. For this purpose the thesis has been broken down into five stages. In the first stage each of the two consulting concepts was theoretically developed as a hypothesis on the basis of a comprehensive review of the literature with the aim of determining its systems structure. In this stage of theory-building, an exploratory as well as a descriptive type of research was employed. By applying an exploratory research type, the author’s intention is to look for ideas and patterns in order to construct the systems of reference as hypotheses. This research type has been supported to an even greater extent by a descriptive type to identify and classify the structure of each of the systems. Hence an inductive and a basic research approach are embedded in this first stage of the research process. The secondary data collection involves a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The knowledge acquired from this secondary data collection comes from multi-disciplinary but scientific sources. In the second stage of the research process the structure of each of the two systems derived from literature was statistically verified and modified where necessary. In the third stage, subsequent to the statistical verification, the two hypotheses were tested in practice. The primary data collection represents a deductive and a quantitative research approach mixed with qualitative components by using survey research as a suitable research method. The Delphi technique is regarded as appropriate to be employed as a data collection tool. Astrological and management consulting experts were contacted by a questionnaire procedure to achieve consensus with regard to the structure of each of these two consulting systems. Prior to this survey procedure, the questionnaires were subject to a pilot testing. The analysis of the findings from the primary data collection required modifications in each of the two consulting systems with regard to their systems structure. In stage four the two system models theoretically derived from the literature were compared with the empirical data. Subsequent to this comparison, in stage five, the two consulting systems empirically validated were confronted with each other by comparing their determinants.

Despite high investments and low success rates for Joint Ventures of Western companies in China, there has been no systematic investigation into the problems which cause these alliances to not achieve their goals. For this reason, this work aims to provide academically researched insights while also addressing a business need. The objective of this research was to develop a classification of Sino-Western JV problem attributes according to their similarities in a hierarchical cluster structure. The classification enabled the generation of a better understanding of typical problem areas based on problem attributes. Further analysis and interpretation of the identified problem areas and problem patterns allowed for the identification of resolution measures and the examination of their potential effectiveness. This work classified a large number of multi-layered JV problems, varying widely in nature. For this purpose, problems derived from empirical case studies documented in the literature were arranged according to their subject-related similarities and a hierarchical structure consisting of problem attribute clusters was developed. The result is the establishment of a polythetic classification of approximately 700 Sino-Western Joint Venture problem attributes. Through the process of problem statement selection, problem attribute extraction and their clustering, the attributes were grouped and condensed. This reduced the initial complexity of the wide range of problems and enabled specific problem domains with related problem attribute clusters to be identified. The structuring of the problem elements showed how problem clusters are interrelated and helped to differentiate between complex and more easily resolved problems. The overall classification of attributes illustrates the domains in which problems occur. Eight problem domains are revealed and refer to: differences in the Western and Chinese cultures, business practices, business operations, JV expectations, Chinese history, Chinese government involvement, disparities between Western expatriated managers and local Chinese managers, and opposing fundamental concepts. Further, communication and culture challenges were identified as recurring themes among the problem attribute clusters. Based on an improved understanding of key problem areas, it is suggested to focus on strengthening communication capabilities and cultural awareness with the aim of increasing the success rate of Sino-Western Joint Ventures. It is recommended that Western companies concentrate on problem attribute clusters which are considered to be potentially solvable or reducible rather than those related to intrinsic differences in order to have the greatest effectiveness. This work exemplifies the important role which classifications play in social sciences research and demonstrates the problem solving capability of classifications. Consequently, a classification approach which is suitable to make new kinds of investigations in social phenomena has been suggested. An improved understanding has been achieved which enabled these phenomena to be reviewed and addressed from new angles. Further, the work both confirmed existing research results related to Sino-Western JV problems and gathered new insights by analysing these problems in a consolidated, structured form through the development of a classification.

This research explores cultural aspects of Thai Small and Medium-sized Hotels (SMHs) as they navigate their way through environmental management problems. In addition to the context of business motivation, which sets the groundwork for the cultural attitudes findings, the study also examines how government officials’ actions on environmental policy in relation to SMHs are affected by their cultural attitude. An interpretive paradigm employing qualitative method (semi-structured interviews and observation) was conducted. Key informants are from 27 SMHs and seven related government officials from six districts in Nong Khai city. This study was piloted during June and July 2013 and the second main study during February and May 2014. Additional revisits and interviewing were conducted during May 2015. This study reveals that relationships dominate SMH owners’ motivation, and that they are motivated by family lifestyle, social position and business opportunity. Environmental implementation in SMHs is also mainly influenced by culture. A complex socio-cultural system, e.g. seniority and hierarchical, power-based notions and patron–client relationship, has led to the Thai style of enforcing legislative action in the government sector.

The study investigates corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory to contribute to knowledge about CSR within the setting of a developing economy. In this thesis, the specific opportunities and challenges of financial institutions pursuing CSR are examined in depth. This study presents a portrayal of CSR, addressing its role and insight into how CSR is understood and practised. The study draws on an interpretive approach and investigates within a multiple case study context. The choice of cases is based on theoretical sampling, to advance knowledge in the phenomenon by looking at it in non-Western settings. The three cases are selected purposefully within the context of a developing economy: Ghana. The data collection and analysis use multiple data sources from semi-structured interviews of key management informants and archival documents which are analysed according to qualitative data protocols. The data is interpreted via thematic analysis within and across the cases to generate rich insights into the nature of CSR and its practices within their setting. The study recognises the emergent divergent and convergent issues of CSR across the cases with relation to enfolding the literature which involves inquiring with different literature the similarities and contradictions with the research findings. This process helps to link the study with the existing body of knowledge, as well as advance knowledge in CSR. Based on the analysis, this study suggests that there is a strong orientation towards philanthropy on what is classified as CSR. It reveals that the context in which CSR is practised is complex and situationally dependent, with particular influencing factors such as social welfare issues and culture driving societal expectations and business decisions on CSR. This study offers a revised model of CSR, suggesting a non-linear relationship with the integrated and porous dynamics between the various CSR components which thus provides insight into the nature of CSR in the banking sector in Ghana. The findings of the research can provide both academics and managers with valuable information on CSR practice in a developing country context.

This study aims to investigate factors affecting the adoption of e-procurement in Saudi Arabian SMEs. The study adopted the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model as a theoretical framework and foundation for the research to investigate current status and readiness, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, perceived critical success factors and perceived future organisational performance. Through an extensive literature review and detailed data analysis, the study extended the model to incorporate perceived cultural and external factors that were found to be necessary for the adoption of e-procurement in Saudi Arabian SMEs. Through case studies and AHP analysis, the proposed model elements were validated and prioritised in the Saudi Arabian context. Three different methods were adopted for data collection. First, an exploratory study was conducted to understand the current status of e-procurement and provide an overview of the factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement using the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model. Second, a detailed survey was conducted to find the relative importance of various factors related to each of the five elements of the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model. Third, detailed interviews were conducted across four selected SMEs to gain an insight into the factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement. The results of the exploratory study were helpful in identifying perceived factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement. Detailed survey analysis using AHP validated the theoretical framework and the relevance of the factors of the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model. However, some of the factors were found to be more important than in the Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model, while others were less important. Results of the qualitative study (interviews) found additional factors that were relevant to each of the five elements of the GN model. They further suggested that “Current e-procurement activities” was an additional factor in the “current status and readiness” element and “Increased transparency” was an additional factor in the “perceived benefits” element. Similarly, the analysis of the qualitative results found two additional factors in the “perceived barriers” element (i.e. absence of e-procurement specific laws and regulations and lack of trust in the electronic transfer of funds), three additional critical success factors (i.e. cost-benefit analysis of the solution, technical maturity of the marketplace and user-friendliness of the solution) and two additional factors in perceived future organisational performance (i.e. strategic alliance and networking and knowledge management and data warehousing). Further, analysis of the qualitative findings revealed two additional elements (i.e. perceived external and perceived cultural factors). The study thus suggests that organisational culture, cultural inertia and business culture of the country are three important cultural factors that are perceived to affect the adoption of e-procurement, while government support, having one’s own postal addresses and delivery services, providing secure and trustworthy online payment options, low cost and high speed internet connection, suppliers’ willingness and readiness, pressure from competitors, policy and regulations are the seven important perceived external factors that affect the adoption of e-procurement in Saudi Arabian SMEs. The results of the qualitative data analysis led to the development of an extended Gunasekaran and Ngai (2009) model to incorporate perceived culture and perceived external factors. The study has significant implications in terms of further e-procurement research for SMEs in Saudi Arabia and also its adoption in the developing world in general.

Foreign direct investment (“FDI”) is one of the significant sources of social and economic change in developing countries. It can be used in terms of transferring capital, technology and administrative skills to the host country. The Board of Investment of Pakistan (“BOI”) emphasizes that due to Pakistan’s cheap manpower and low production cost coupled with many other reasons, it is a perfect market and location for FDI. This study has examined several aspects of FDI in Pakistan’s context, such as the role it has played in the growth of Pakistan’s economy and may well play in the future. The factors which play motivational and decisive role in foreign investors’ decisions to invest or withdraw their capital such as economic attractions, deterring factors and legal protections afforded to FDI in Pakistan. Existence of deterring factors requires the host State to adopt special measures and offer added protection to foreign investors such as protection through bilateral investment treaties (“BITs”), investment agreements and domestic laws. Therefore, the main concern of this study is the legal protection afforded to FDI in Pakistan. The study has investigated three fundamental factors, directly related to protection of FDI in Pakistan their role and aftermaths; the BITs, the role of higher judiciary and legal protection under domestic statutes. To investigate the first factor, a number of BITs executed by Pakistan have been selected and examined in the light of old and new treaty arbitration cases against Pakistan. It has been revealed that successive Pakistani governments have used BITs as political publicity vehicle and executed this instrument in a haphazard manner, without meaningful negotiations and without understanding the full legal implications. An absolute lack of competency, skills and know-how to negotiate and draft BITs on the part of the Government of Pakistan (“GOP”) has been revealed. The investigation on the role of judiciary, has found a powerful judiciary the Supreme Court of Pakistan (“SCP”) which has emerged as an assertive organ of the State. In last about one decade the SCP has expended the scope of public interest litigation (“PIL”) for enforcement of fundamental rights under unique ‘suo moto’ jurisdiction and endlessly interfered directly in commercial and FDI matters. The current study differentiates judicial activism and judicial interference and argues that, there is a very thin line between these two, and that encroaching on the sphere of other State organs may possibly convert judicial activism into judicial interference. The study has also examined several domestic statutes related to FDI and has found weak legal protection afforded to FDI under domestic laws of Pakistan. It has revealed that all three factors have exposed Pakistan to costly international arbitration initiated by foreign investors, shattered their confidence which in turn affected inward flow of FDI. To enable GOP to attract the required FDI in the desired sectors this thesis recommends reforms to address these deterring factors and also adopting a pragmatic balanced approach insuring respect of sovereignty of Pakistan and protection of assets of foreign investors.

The issue of corporate governance (CG) has taken central position in debates after the major financial crisis in almost all parts of the world. Numerous endeavours have been made to improve CG in Pakistan. However, these efforts did not produce the required results. Moreover, the existing literature fails to establish the impact of these efforts and CG norms on the performance of listed companies in Pakistan. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the CG framework of Pakistan, identify its weaknesses and explore opportunities for its improvement. For this purpose, the four variables of CG amongst others have been selected which include: the investigation of Code of Corporate Governance (CCG) of Pakistan (law in books), enforcement mechanisms in relation to the implementation of CG standards (law in action), the role of board of directors (BODs) and the role of institutional investors (IIs) in enhancing the companies’ performance and improving the CG practices. This study is conducted by employing a socio-legal research methodology due to its mixed nature of being legal and corporate. A qualitative research method is utilised by employing an inductive approach, interpretative research philosophy and exploratory strategy. The results of this study declare important for regulators to update CCG regularly by assessing its impact on companies’ performance and evaluating the attitude of companies towards the full and partial adoption of CCG. This practice will increase compliance with CCG. Moreover, this thesis develops a ‘Board Effectiveness Model’ in order to make BODs diverse and independent. Furthermore, this thesis explores strategies to enhance the part of IIs in the CG of their investee companies. The researcher believes that the recommendations proposed by this thesis, if implemented, could make considerable improvement in the corporate sector of Pakistan which will enhance investor confidence and will also attract foreign investment.