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This dissertation analyzes the influence of colonialism on the current transportation system in Nigeria, its impact on development and the stringent difficulties experienced in the restructuring of the system for efficient development in the Nigerian economic milieu. These have been accomplished by an analysis of the colonial intentions of the foreign influence under whose auspices the transportation system in Nigeria was initiated and constructed. Also, the post-colonial difficulties in the efforts to restructure the system were critically analyzed. A major assumption made in this dissertation has been that colonialism was the main reason the system was structured the way it stands currently, especially since the system reached its greatest development and expansion during colonialism in Nigeria. All evidences in this study point to the fact that unless the system is completely restructured to better address the developmental needs in Nigeria, development will still be far-fetched and thus negate the importance of transportation as a major vehicle to national development.

Strategy tools have mainly been conceptualised through a functional perspective, which views tools as passive instruments that aid managerial decision-making. Studies within strategy-as-practice provide an alternative view to this, by arguing that in practice, strategy tools are devices that enable actors to achieve a variety of purposes that transcend the instrumental purposes that dominate mainstream strategy studies. In this thesis, I argue that both views still portray tools as being used instrumentally. In both cases actors are seen to use tools as a conduit through which they may achieve either analytical purposes or more socially related purposes. The common factor across both views is the focus on the intentionality of the managers in using the tools to achieve a certain purpose. Rather than focus on what strategy tools are used for, this thesis explores the other side of the coin by focusing on what strategy tools do. I do so by exploring how the materiality of strategy tools may impact on the strategizing practices of managers during the strategy development process. The aim of the study is to explore the possible performative roles that strategy tools may play during the strategy process and the implications of these roles for the work of strategizing. In this study, tools are viewed as non-human actors – that is, they are not simply conduits that are utilised instrumentally for achieving a variety of purposes in organisations, rather they actively influence the actions and interactions of managers and therefore contribute to the formation of strategy. This inquiry is based on a longitudinal study (2012 – 2015) of the process of strategy making within a large UK financial institution. Focusing on what the members of the Strategy department do during the development and use of a strategy tool referred to as the Horizon scan and tracing the developmental trajectory of the tool throughout the process. The thesis draws on theoretical insights situated at the intersection of economic sociology, the sociology of financial markets and the sociology of technology, more specifically: the notions of performativity and affordances. The methodological approach is qualitative and is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews, direct observations of meetings and workshops and documentary data. The analysis reveals that the strategy tool performed four main interconnected roles which include: enlist participants, reorient temporally, consolidate and persuade. Through performing these roles, the tool shaped the strategizing practices of the strategists in a patterned way, such that the actions and interactions of the strategists reflected the underlying theory within the tool. The findings also reveals that the four roles performed by the tool were underpinned by two main affordances – modular and temporal affordances. Based on the findings, the thesis introduces the concept of an Activation device which refers to strategy tools that instigate or trigger certain actions that result in a co-evolution of the strategy theory within the tool and strategizing practices, where the ‘doing’ of strategy comes to resemble the theory within the tool. The study concludes by presenting a theoretical model of how strategy tools as activation devices shape how strategy is practiced. It therefore contributes to the recent materiality turn in strategy and the nascent literature on performativity in strategy, by reconceptualising the roles of strategy tools and demonstrating empirically, how strategy tools influence strategizing practices through the performative effects they generate.

This thesis explores the process by which Chinese universities carry out strategy formation. It aims to provide an insight into the lives of the managers of Chinese universities in the period 2002-2003 which was a time of transition from the regime of President Jiang Zemin to that of President Hu Jintao. Chinese refer to this period as the transition from the third to the fourth generation of leaders. Strategy was defined as a course of action aimed at achieving an organization's purpose and strategy formation was defined as including strategy development and implementation. Answers were sought to the following questions based on data from a small number of universities using stakeholder theory to inform the data collection process: · What is the process by which strategy development and implementation takes place in Chinese universities? · How is the process applied in different universities? · How can an understanding of strategy formation in Chinese universities assist in the development of joint ventures in China by foreign educational institutions? The method of data collection involved interviewing three levels of management in six different universities drawn from three major cities in China. In order to guarantee confidentiality, the identities of the instutions and the individuals involved has been concealed. Background information collected included the history of Chinese universities to 2002 and important features of Chinese culture, society and politics. Stakeholder theory was found to provide a useful framework for analysing the process of strategy formation. It was found that assumptions based on the operations of Australian universities did not apply in China, particularly in the areas of work relationships, reporting and performance management and in the conduct of research. Findings included: · Three approaches to strategy emerged, including the President making unilateral decisions, a consultative approach including stakeholders, and an approach involving consultation with staff. · The process varies between universities depending on factors such as the guanxi relationships of the President. · The learnings from this project can be applied to other joint ventures in education in China.

The proposed research aspires to provide new insight on issues of applied Roadmapping and advance the state of the art in Roadmapping and its practice. It provides a conceptual model and an integrated process framework for the development of a Third Generation, Meso-level, Co-innovation Dynamic Roadmapping (from now on called ‘Dynamic Roadmapping’), which integrates policy, research, industry, and organisational roadmapping methodologies, in order to manage the development and adoption of systemic innovations in complex domains. It has been developed to meet the needs of increasingly complex systemic innovations where multiple organisations are involved as co-innovators and many other intermediaries and decision makers need to be included in the innovation adoption process. These types of innovations are usually driven by the interplay of multi-dimensional and cross-impacting factors derived from changes in social, market, economic, political and technology systems. Thus, the ‘Dynamic Roadmapping’ does not presuppose a single desired future for complex domains, but several futures, based on the complementary strategic perspectives of inter-dependent stakeholders, which need to be contextualised and negotiated at various sectoral, national and regional levels in order to be adopted. The ‘Dynamic Roadmapping’ approach supports the achievement of the realisation of the desired futures through two main components: a ‘co-innovation group’ and an ‘observatory function’. The co-innovation group is formed from all the necessary co-innovators, adopters, decision makers and users that are needed in order for the innovations to be developed and adopted. Their function is predominately ‘normative’ describing “what they want to happen” and “how” it will happen. The observatory function provides foresight and sense making methodologies to the co-innovation group, in order to constantly review and adapt their roadmaps in light of the emerging changes that can impact the roadmaps’ realisation and adoption. A conceptual model and its theoretical grounding have been built in order to bridge support for roadmapping activities among different innovative communities (e.g. in policy, research, industry and practice) and foster their collaboration via stakeholders’ innovation networks. The proposed conceptual model and its process framework have been evaluated in a case study in order to establish its validity in the European context and provide implications to theory and practice. A pilot of this framework is first implemented for the area of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). The impact of this research is: - Managing uncertainty in Future planning - Managing and implementing emergent Roadmaps for systemic innovations - Monitoring and adapt the produced Roadmaps according to change factors in emerging reality - Ensure their adoption in complex domain This research work has been funded by an EU Marie-Curry Fellowship grant via the DYRECT project no. 255182. The proposed integrated framework has been adopted by the EU TEL-Map project (in education sector) and EU CRe-AM project (in creative industry sector). It has been documented in many European project deliverables as well as in international conference papers, and in journal papers.

Introduction: In the rapidly growing and evolving healthcare systems, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has become essential for nurses to update their knowledge and skills, achieve and maintain their competencies, and elevate their clinical functioning with the aim of providing a high standard quality of healthcare to the public as the ultimate goal. Moreover, CPD has been mandated as a licensure renewal requirement for nurses in the UAE. However, despite its importance, there is a lack of empirical studies about the effectiveness of CPD programmes in the UAE. Aim: This study explores and investigates the perspective of registered nurses (RNs), regarding the effectiveness of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) in the UAE in order to develop CPD strategies. Research design: Advanced Multiphase Mixed Method. Methods: The study constitutes three phases: • Phase one is qualitative; data was collected through four exploratory focus group interviews with RNs from all geographical areas in Abu Dhabi. They were selected through expert purposive sampling strategy from the same selected facilities as per the sampling of phase two. Data was analysed by “Thematic Analysis Style” using QSR NVivo software. • Phase two is quantitative descriptive; a modified questionnaire Q-PDN (Questionnaire-Professional Development for Nurses) was used to collect data from RNs. The sample was selected from a population of 18,910 RNs through probability stratified sampling, utilising the probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling due to the unequal size of the units. The sample size was 400 with a 655 response rate. Data was analysed by using the SPSS software yielding descriptive and inferential statistics. • Phase three is qualitative Appreciative Inquiry where meeting(s) were conducted with nursing “key players” in the Abu Dhabi, adopting the 5-D Cycle. The nursing ‘key players” represent the role of the nursing leaders in Abu Dhabi. Data was analysed using simultaneous targeted participatory thematic analysis. Results and conclusion: The CPD strategic recommendations were developed based on the RNs’ needs and perceptions and aligned with the benchmarked international CPD practices. The main consideration was the evidence of an existing relationship between the perceived influencing factors and the RNs’ participation in CPD. The study has numerous implications towards developing CPD strategies and policies, contribution to body of knowledge, and benefiting the nurses. Keywords: Continuing Professional Development, Strategy Development, Nursing / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Nursing Science / PhD (Nursing) / Unrestricted

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Current deployments of mobile commerce focus mostly on digital content. However, mobile commerce will grow rapidly with the increased use of portable devices such as cellular phones and personal digital assistants (PDA), increased network bandwidth, and the availability of a wider range of mobile commerce services and transactions. As the revenue generated from mobile commerce is expected to skyrocket in the coming years, strategists are turning their attention to untapped emerging markets in the developing countries. Understanding how mobile commerce will develop in countries like China, where huge market potential exists, is of paramount importance in order to develop effective strategies that will positively affect its course. Modelling the diffusion of mobile commerce in a country is a difficult task due to the non-linear, complex and uncertain nature of its operating environment. A System Dynamics approach is more appropriate to model such a complex system. The main objective of this study is to illustrate the process of developing System Dynamics models for simulating mobile commerce diffusion in China by using a subset of the factors involved. In order to achieve this objective, the Chinese mobile commerce was modelled as the interaction of three subsystems, namely: population evolution in China; mobile commerce diffusion; and the influence from the provision of mobile commerce terminals (MCT) on mobile commerce diffusion. Each subsystem was modelled by identifying the factors influencing its development as well as the interactions between the factors. The subsystems were calibrated using historical and forecasted data whenever they were available. The validation of the subsystems was also performed through extensive sensitivity analysis. The complete model was used for experimenting with some typical Chinese mobile commerce scenarios for the purpose of analysing mobile commerce trends and designing strategies to exert positive influences on those trends. The simulation of the submodels provided useful insights into their respective areas for controlling their development. Simulation of the population development submodel showed that, in addition to family planning policies, urbanisation rates and life quality were important factors that significantly influenced population dynamics in China. Simulation of the mobile commerce diffusion submodel showed that the time when mobile commerce is implemented will significantly influence its market expansion speed i.e. the later mobile commerce is implemented, the quicker the market will expand. The existence of floating populations in China will be a big advantage in starting up the rural market. However, if mobile commerce is implemented too late, the penetration in rural areas will be negligible. Simulation of the MCT provision submodel showed the importance of opening the Chinese market to foreign suppliers and the coordination of strategies regarding the design and supply of MCTs with strategies for the growth of mobile commerce in China. This study is a first attempt to simulate the diffusion of mobile commerce in China using System Dynamics. The results obtained showed that the models developed were useful for understanding and controlling the future diffusion of mobile commerce in China.

I denna uppsats jämförs och diskuteras gynnsamma faktorer för elevers läs- och skrivutveckling. Jag lyfter fram tre olika forskares syn på vad som kan ha en positiv inverkan för elevers utveckling på området och sätter det i relation till gynnsamma faktorer för lärande i stort. Frågeställningarna berör likheter i forskarnas metoder, lärarrollen samt lärande utifrån individ- och grupperspektiv.   Som jag skrev ovan så fokuseras arbetets kring tre huvudtexter. Dessa texter är Judith Langers Effective Literacy Instruction (2002), Palincsar och Browns Reciprocal Teaching (1984) och Graham, Harris och Santangelos Self-Regulated Strategy Development (2008). Dessa tre texter ger tillsammans en bild av faktorer som kan vara av betydelse för både läs- och skrivutveckling.   I resultaten av studien kommer bland annat vikten av att eleverna lär sig strategier fram. En lustfylld och trygg miljö är något som visat sig vara ytterst viktigt för både lärare och elev. Av resultatet går också att konstatera att både individanpassat lärande och lärande i grupp har sina fördelar.