In recent times large numbers of end-of-use/end-of-life returns have been the result of the increasing pressure from environmental legislations, particularly the directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in the European Union. These returns incur acquisition costs and take-back operation costs regarded as a sunk cost by many industries. Thus, returned/recovered product valuation and marketing issues become crucial factors for survival and profitability of many firms in various sectors in today's competitive world . • The research undertaken is relevant as pricing and revenue management for recovered products. Indeed, this theme is considered as a niche research and the fifth phase (prices and markets) of the evolution of closed loop supply chain research. Hence, it has been noted as one of the most critical research areas in quantitative modelling for reverse logistics and closed loop supply chain management studies. The research area is in its early stage because it can be seen that only a handful of articles have been published in peer- reviewed international journals, exploring a pricing and marketing decision of recovered products. Hence, there are significant opportunities to conduct pricing and revenue management research in reverse logistics, particularly with regard to multiple recovery options. The primary objective of this research work is to formulate three pricing models by using a non-linear programming approach to determine optimal profit-maximising acquisition prices and selling prices, together with UK-based case studies in the mobile phone and computer recycling businesses. Moreover, this research aims to formulate two simulation models based on these case companies by investigating the impact of the uncertainty element in terms of return quantity and reprocessing time on firm's profit. The triangulation approach is employed, specifically the multi level model comprising case studies, questionnaire survey, and empirical quantitative models in order to address the principal research questions i.e. "What are optimal acquisition prices of received mobile phones and optimal selling prices of reprocessed handsets?", "What are optimal selling prices of • reprocessed computers?", and based on the total profit, "What if the model's parameters change?" The contribution of this research covers the generation of pricing and simulation models that are suitable for the recycled mobile phone and computer sector. The literature review discovers that the research on this subject lacks considerations of multiple recovery options, return rate and demand rate as exponential functions, recovery capacity limitation, product substitution policy, the element of uncertainty in terms of return quantity and reprocessing time, and multiple time periods. Hence, this research fulfils six main research gaps in academic literature as follows. First, this study takes multiple recovery options into account. Second, return and demand rate are modelled as an exponential function. Third, pricing and simulation models cope with a limit to recovery capacity. Fourth, models with product substitution policy are investigated. Fifth, the element of uncertainty in terms of return quantity and reprocessing time is added into proposed models. Finally, this study proposes models with multiple time periods. The results from this research work support current pricing and revenue management research and most importantly, the results generated from these proposed models can enhance managers' decision making in recovery operations and reverse logistics.

In destination development and planning literature much emphasis has been placed upon structural and geographical interpretations of how destinations can be viewed. There is a lack of attention to agency and stakeholder perspectives in destination development and planning. This research has sought to address this gap by focusing upon stakeholder power and engagement with tourism policy development in an English seaside context. Not only is the English seaside context important conceptually, practical connotations are also evident, particularly following the disbanding of the Regional Development Agencies in the summer of 2010 and the impact this has had on tourism organisation in Britain. The research objectives of this study focus upon compiling a conceptual framework which draws upon how power can be used in an enabling and not constraining fashion as an empowerment of people, by focusing on key concepts in stakeholder theory literature. The aim is to provide an alternative to a purely structural and geographical interpretation of the organisation of tourism policy, by focusing on agency and structure, as well as utilising the theory of planned behaviour in determining stakeholder engagement with tourism policy development. This research contributes to the stakeholder theory literature, particularly in defining the power of a stakeholder and how this can help address stakeholder engagement in tourism policy development. In addition contributions are made to the literature on English seaside tourism in utilising insights from the literature on power, structure and agency and stakeholder theory. From a methodological perspective a mixed method research approach has been adopted to add to the emerging qualitative research in the tourism literature in gaining rich contextual insights to the research problem.

This study examines how the self-identities of workers in Sri Lankan up-country tea plantations are produced, reproduced and modified in their day-to-day interactions. According to the social constructionist assumptions underpinning the research, I suggest that individual self-identity is how individuals experience and shape their social reality as an outward-inward process which takes place as they interact in public and private spaces. Accordingly, the first research objective is to analyse the interplay of historical, sociocultural, and political macro discourses in the formation of worker self-identities. The second objective is to analyse how micro discourses and processes affect the multiple identities of workers in the Sri Lankan up-country tea plantations. The research methodology incorporates a combination of ethnography and discourse analysis into a single analysis to examine how plantation workers incorporate macro discourses and micro discourses/processes in constructing, reconstructing and changing their self-identity as an ongoing process. By adapting discourse analysis as the method of data analysis, this study threads gender, caste, ethnicity and class differences as multiple dimensions of understanding self-identity and collective identity to show how self-identities in this context are simultaneously traditional and new, ongoing and fragile. This research can be considered as a theoretical contribution to identity scholarship and discusses subjectivity associated with self-identity. Through data, by interweaving of macro discourses and micro interactions, convincing grounds are provided to understand self-identity construction as an ongoing process of compliance and contestation. It is suggested that historical, social-cultural and political realities that workers encounter as objective structures are socially constructed by workers through their daily practices and conversation. Within this context, how workers articulate the fundamentally ambiguous and contradictory nature of their self-identity as singular and collective is discussed. It is stable and emergent, and contested as it becomes intertwined with public and private experiences. The research also makes a contribution to our understanding of cultural identities, because it is the first study of self-identity carried out in a Sri-Lankan tea plantation context, which incorporates both public and private spaces, gender, ethnicity and caste into a single analysis.

This study investigates BOR WORN-HTS Organisation as a learning organisation which is the way to provide knowledge, education and learning to the community and also transfer Thai local knowledge and culture to the next generations to achieve the goals for learning and strengthening the community with knowledge and morality. This study is a qualitative research in cultural anthropology. An ethnographic research method with unstructured interviewing and participant observation were used to gather qualitative data from four communities in rural areas across Thailand where HTS organisation has been operating and is still alive. The gathered information is presented in four main themes (BOR WORN-HTS Organisation, OL/LO, LIC, and TLK&CT. The community of practice was the research concept used to analyse data, together with qualitative document analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the HTS Organisation has been in Thailand for many years. It is an ideal organisation that represents the collaboration between people from three main institutions in the community; home, temple and school. HTS Organisation occurs automatically in the social context when the members of the community come to take part in the activities created by three mains institutions (H-T-S). The people participate in community activities for two reasons: because they respect their religion so try to sustain and carry its values on to the future generation and because they trust and believe in an individual person such as a monk or community leader. HTS Organisation is a learning organisation (LO). The learning process, both individual and social learning, as well as global knowledge and local knowledge (OL), happens when members of an organisation join together in community activity. Theory of learning and social practice in communities of practice is the fundamental process of HTS. Thus, HTS Organisation acts as a community of practice in a unique combination of three fundamental elements: the domain, the community and the practice. HTS Organisation encourages people of all ages to communicate, participate and create learning processes within the social context and apply the concept of communities of practice as a management tool to explore and help people to achieve the expected outcomes of the community, that is, learning and strengthening community and maintain the national heritage in Thai society and transmitting it to the further generations. As a result, application of the concept of HTS Organisation brings many benefits while needing little investment. The advantages of the HTS Organisation are not only the benefit for the community (knowledge based society, well-being, strengthening, sufficiency economy and sustainable community) but it is also good for people, especially the country’s children and youths, who have great potential in the future to be skilled, talented, proficient people and be filled with knowledge and morality or Kwam Roo Koo Kun-Na-Tham.

This research examines strategic management practices in local government in Malaysia. It offers an understanding of how actors construe and enact principles of strategic management in their organisations. Taking a qualitative and interpretive approach, and as part of the ‘micro-turn’ in the study of strategy, this thesis presents empirical insights into three important areas in the field of strategic management, namely, strategic positioning; approaches to strategy development; and the nature of organisational strategy in the Local Authorities (LAs) in Malaysia. Its contribution is to illuminate key aspects of local practice within this important part of the Malaysian public sector.An interpretive approach is employed in an attempt to uncover the dynamics of strategy processes in the LAs, by engaging with the discourses of senior managers to grasp the beliefs, intuitions, assumptions and preferences which shape their approaches to strategic management in their organisations and their wider contexts.This research takes LAs in Malaysia as the setting. Effective strategic management in local government organisations is vital, not least given their significant roles in dealing directly with the public at the frontline. Efforts to strengthen the LAs have been placed centre stage by the Malaysian government, manifested by recurring calls to revisit and reexamine various aspects of their management to meet their objectives and fulfil stakeholders’ needs. However, to date, little research has been undertaken on how important elements of strategic management unfold and develop within these institutions. This research seeks to bridge this gap.Part of the originality of this research has been its attempt to conduct enquiry at the intersection of political science and organisation studies, and thus, to advance the interpretive framework in the field of strategic management. This is done by reflecting on and analysing a mélange of complex and diverse actor narratives that give insights into how people understand their organisations, based on their webs of beliefs, signified through their expressions and discourses. This study’s critical engagement with structure-agency debates means that it includes analytical attention to the importance of the wider context in which state organisations are situated.The key argument of the thesis is that strategy making in the LAs in Malaysia is fundamentally a political and contested process. This research provides empirical insights into the practices of public sector strategy, which move away from ‘mechanistic’ and ‘rationalist’ models of strategy making, which dominate much of the literature on strategic management. This study suggests that dilemmas and conflicts – two important constructs illuminating cultures and traditions in the LAs – have a strong link to the contested and political nature of the strategy making process.Looking from an interpretive lens, this research contends that LAs in Malaysia possess different characters; exist in different contexts; deal with different internal and external environments; are made up of different structures, skills and resources; and are run by different styles of leadership. As such, each of the LAs examined is imbued with different traditions; has inherited different legacies; is bestowed with different capacities; and embraces different sets of values and cultures. This research argues that it is from such a complex, intricate and dynamic context that strategic management emerges in these institutions.

This study examines agile supply chain capabilities in oil and gas clusters, in the light of cluster and industrial district theory. The aim is to provide evidence of their potential impact on competitiveness and business performance within the UK upstream oil and gas cluster. Agility is the ability of organisations to operate and prosper in market conditions characterised by dynamism and constantly changing customer tastes. Clusters and industrial districts refer to the geographic concentration of firms in an industry that enables the firms to benefit from competition and cooperation as well as enhanced productivity within the cluster. A review of past theoretical and empirical studies on supply chain management, agility and clusters identifies four dimensions of agility: customer enrichment, cooperating to compete, mastering change and uncertainty, and leveraging the impact of people and information. The cluster theory points to the competitive advantage of being in geographic proximity to the members of a supply chain, including enhanced productivity, easy access to enriched and high quality factors of production, reduction of transaction and transportation costs as well as increased innovativeness. These all contribute to improving the competitive capability of a firm as well as having impact on the business performance of organisations. A survey of 880 firms in the UK upstream oil and gas cluster was conducted to determine the specific impact of cluster location attributes on the agility of supply chains. Six case studies involving the three tiers of the supply chain and supporting organisation were carried out. Structural equation modelling revealed strong impact of clusters on competitive objectives but weak impact on business performance. Results from the survey show that cluster agility has strong impact on both competitive objectives and business performance. The case study revealed that agility is a strategic tool adopted by the smaller organisations within the supply chain to mitigate the scale of large organisations. Equally, SMEs consider that being in UK oil and gas cluster enhances their responsiveness.

There seems to be a recognition within the domains of strategic policy processes that joint-working and joined-up thinking is desirable, useful and necessary to enable successful policy implementation. Despite this it appears that there are problems and issues in the operationalisation of these intentions, or even a lack of knowledge and guidance on how to bring them about. It was the aim of this research to explore the possible structural issues that could be impacting upon this problem, and to further the understanding of policy implementation with regard to structure, fragmentation, collaboration, control and communication.To further this aim, objectives were set to develop a methodological framework, to explore the application of a Complex Systems approach to policy implementation and the complementary use of the VSM and Social Network Analysis, plus to gain further insights into the processes of cultural tourism implementation.A methodological framework was successfully developed using a Complex Systems approach and in particular the complementary use of the VSM and Social Network Analysis that did allow for a deeper understanding of policy implementation in terms of the dynamic links and power structures between the actors, system identity and communication and control mechanisms. Insights into the processes of cultural tourism implementation were also gained particularly with regard to organisational and network identity and purpose.Original contributions to the body of knowledge were also made concerning the literature on policy implementation and collaborative governance, including the application of a Complex Systems approach, the complementary use of the VSM and Social Network Analysis, plus insights into cultural tourism implementationprocesses.

This thesis identifies the role of trust in the supply chain relationship on supply chain performance and organisation performance. An extensive review of literature identified a lack of empirical research to fill a gap in supply chain and operations management knowledge and this gap is mainly related to identification of the role that trust has on performance. This thesis considers this gap with other relevant issues identified through the literature. It presents a research framework formulated to tackle the research problem and reports an attempt to fill the existing gap through empirical research. The thesis contains analyses of three case studies related to three different territories, namely; Oman, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and State of Qatar. The case studies encompass large and medium size organisations from three different industrial settings. In Oman, the case study is related to oilfield services and the oil production industry while in UAE the case study is related to real estate and the property development industry, and the case study in Qatar is related to the chemical industry. In addition to identifying the influence of trust in supply chain relationships on organisation performance and supply chain performance, the research considers the influence of the duration of the supply chain relationship on trust development in the relationship. Additionally, it explores the impact of trust on the avoidance of the bullwhip effect in the supply chain and shows through empirical evidence the role of trust in minimising supply chain risk. Consideration is given to the impact of different territory and different industrial settings on the trust/performance relationship. Triangulation of research approaches and methods is utilised in this research to enrich the research findings by exploiting the advantages of each approach and method advantages while reducing the disadvantages through complementarities between them. The results of this thesis indicate that the supply chain parties should adopt trust in their relationship whenever considering supply chain performance improvement, organisation performance improvement, and overcoming risk.

This study aims to enhance the understanding of destination management system (DMS) effectiveness and its evaluation. Upon review of the literature, it was established that DMS effectiveness and its evaluation has not yet been researched adequately. Informed by an interpretive approach, this study contributes to research particularly by investigating what constitutes effectiveness and explores the aspects (factors and relationships) that need to be considered in a holistic DMS effectiveness evaluation. Based on a qualitative case study strategy, this study adopts a comprehensive approach that considers multiple stakeholder groups� perspectives. The research evidence is collected through a case-study of the Egyptian DMS experience (the Touregypt project). The Touregypt project gives insights to the understanding of three DMS cases that have not been researched before in DMS literature: first, an actual DMS application in a developing country; second, a public and private sector partnership experience; and third, a failed DMS experience (the system has failed in the course of this research).Prompted by the interpretive approach, this study tried to explore DMS effectiveness based on the perspectives, attitudes and experiences of the multiple stakeholder groups (Hesse-Biber and Leavy 2010). Accordingly, the empirical data was collected through a multi-method approach that includes interviews, observation, archival document analysis (including Touregypt forum analysis), and website analysis. Data has been analyzed guided by discourse analysis, complemented with the general inductive approach of Miles and Huberman (1994). Following an interpretive theory-building strategy, the analyzed data has been further interpreted in the light of prior theories of DMS and information systems research, particularly the Delone and MacLean IS effectiveness theory (1992, 2003, and 2004).The main contribution of this study to knowledge is a theory based model that enhances the understanding of DMS effectiveness evaluation. The suggested model identifies the aspects (factors and relationships) that need to be considered when evaluating the effectiveness of DMS. Also, the results of this study give insights to the understanding of DMS effectiveness by shedding light on what constitutes effectiveness and the possible relationship between such constructs.

This thesis explores the management of in-store replenishment systems in retail companies. Making products available is at the core of the retail business. When a product is out-of-stock, consumers respond in different ways, eventually resulting in a potential loss for retailer and manufacturer. The awareness of potentially lost sales due to out-of-stocks led to industry and academic research about the occurrence and root causes of stockouts. As a consequence, the retail supply chain became highly optimised. Nevertheless, research focussed on product availability up to the retailer’s distribution centre; the last part of the retail supply chain –from arrival at the store to the shelf– was largely ignored. Notwithstanding, research into the root causes of out-of-stocks shows that availability drops during these last 50 metres and many stockouts are caused within the store. Despite its significant impact towards on-shelf availability, logistics processes at store level have so far received little attention. With store replenishment mainly conducted manually and store management being a main contributor to store performance, this thesis considers the question about how humans and replenishment systems interact in the last 50 metres of the retail supply chain. To answer this question, six grocery and non-grocery retailers from the UK, Germany and Austria were sampled. At each case, semi-structured interviews with store managers, shop floor employees and headquarter managers were conducted at their workplace. The transcribed interviews were analysed using a reconstructive method based on a social constructionist approach. The thesis identifies four types of replenishment interaction, which can be categorised in regards to the amount of interaction between employees and replenishment system, and the impact that store employees can have onto the system. Retail store replenishment interaction can be typed as store-based, customer care focus, operations focus, or outlet.