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China's automotive sector has been undergoing rapid growth over the past two decades with significant increase of volume, technology upgrade and complexity of market environment. As a result, tier one suppliers have found themselves operating in an environment of fierce competition, compressed product development and launch lead time, and sophisticated supply chain vulnerable to disruptions, which is especially true for the companies which have deployed lean manufacturing practices. The researcher has worked with several foreign invested automotive tier ones in China over the past two decades and has witnessed many supply chain risks and disruptions while personally leading multiple risk mitigation campaigns. It has been brought to attention that the occurrence of supply chain disruption has registered an increase in the course of recent years. The purpose of this research is to explore perceptions of practitioners in this field and develop a set of guidelines for the mitigation of supply chain risks. The research has been undertaken by applying social constructionist ontology, interpretivist epistemology, using inductive qualitative research methodology, to draw an understanding of key issues perceived by ten practitioners within a single study organisation. Thematic analysis was utilised to explore the research data drawn upon the semi structured interviews. The research has identified three main themes that are perceived by participants to be antecedents of perceived risks and risk mitigation enablers, namely: perceived risks mainly arise from mis-alignment; resilience plays a vital role in supply chain risk mitigation; and transformational leadership style and organisation development are necessary for supply chain risk mitigation. Analysis has further suggested that both resilience and leadership styles can be synergised, and their aggregated synergy will support supply chain in risk mitigation. A framework is developed to outline these relations. Consequently, a set of guidelines is developed to assist practitioners in building their own risk mitigation strategies in their specific business circumstances. In light of this research and the findings thereof, contributions are made to knowledge and practice, which is also deemed as novel in risk management of supply chain.

This thesis explores the lived experiences of public servants in the Canadian federal public service during organisational change to contribute to the organisational change literature by exploring and evaluating the factors to enhance readiness for change and by providing recommendations to further enhance readiness for change in the Canadian public service. The study is qualitative in design and uses a mixture of focus groups and interviews (n= 36 for main study and n = 5 for pilot study). It uses Interpretative Phenomenology Analysis (IPA) for data immersion and data engagement and thematic analysis with a critical realism philosophical approach to identify and analyse the findings and mechanisms within the change phenomenon. The study adopted an original bottom-up approach to gather the "voice" of employees who are recipients of organisational changes, at three levels (managers, directors and non-managerial employees), as opposed to collecting the data from the change leaders who drive change initiatives in a hierarchical way in the public service. The study provides a contribution to methodology through its process of identifying the probable critical realism mechanisms for readiness for change. The study also provides a new conceptualised framework using the employee lens based upon the research findings and the probable mechanisms for readiness for change in the public service. This new conceptualised framework reflects the probable causes, motives and choices affecting readiness for change in the public service from the perspectives of the change recipients. The advantage of this new conceptualised framework is that it illustrates the cognitive, affective and behavioural aspects of change from the employees' perspective. In addition, the study makes various contributions through its findings including the existence of ambivalence of emotions (hope and fear) simultaneously, readiness for change not being dichotomous, powerlessness and helplessness of public servants causing them to hate their jobs, failures of organisational changes being partly due to lack of leadership which should be better defined and assessed, curiosity to be encouraged in organisations going through continuous organisational changes and the importance of peer support for the younger generation. Thus, the study provides the definition of a new term, perceived peer support. Finally, the study provides a comprehensive framework to help senior management and practitioners to understand the lived experiences of change recipients and to inform them of the factors to avoid and the factors to enhance to help change recipients better support organisational changes in the public service.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the impact of transformational leadership and ethical leadership on innovation. Drawing on social learning and social information processing theory, this research focusses on team level processes. This study considers direct effects as well as indirect and moderated indirect effects through team engagement and team developmental climate. Design: This study follows a positivist research paradigm and a survey method, using questionnaires containing items on all variables of interest. The sample consists of 325 employees of an Irish energy company. Data were analysed in SPSS23 and AMOS25, using a range of statistical tests, whereby hierarchical linear regression is used to test the hypothesised relationships. Findings: The results show that both leadership concepts are directly and indirectly related to team innovation through team engagement and through team developmental climate. Team developmental climate further moderates the relationship between both leadership constructs and innovation through team engagement. Similarly, team engagement moderates the relationship between both leadership concepts and innovation through team developmental climate. When controlling for the respective other leadership variable however, the effect of ethical leadership became statistically non-significant and therefore redundant in the presence of transformational leadership. Originality: This study extends the literature in several ways. First, it explores the relationship between ethical leadership and innovation as an outcome which is neglected in the literature. Second, it expands the knowledge on the relationship between transformational and ethical leadership and innovation by investigating the role of team developmental climate and team engagement, and looks at the team processes involved by conceptualising the relationship at the team level. Finally, in investigating two leadership constructs, this study contributes to current debates around the need for diverging positive forms of leadership. Implications: This study has clear practical implications for leaders and HR professionals. It points towards the importance of transformational and ethical leadership for innovation, and discusses how HR and leaders can create an environment that strengthens the impact of these forms of leadership on innovation.

Finance transformation is a process aiming at finance efficiency and thus supports solving critical issues in the finance function, focusing on strategy, process, talent, and technology solutions. For enterprises, it is essential to perform a finance transformation to be competitive in a high-pressure business environment. Enterprises must transform the way the finance function operates in terms of the integrated information technology (IT) landscape towards effective process ownership and governance. The literature review identified a lack of systematic descriptions regarding how to construct a framework and investigations on key factors and drivers. The researcher has developed a concept for finance transformation through strategy, design, and implementation. A stakeholder analysis was performed to identify the different stakeholders involved in the transformation process and their needs. A survey investigated the characteristics and requirements of a finance transformation and the key challenges. The target respondents were people who have specific knowledge and background in finance, IT, or professional roles associated with finance to collect a variety of personal experiences of people. Furthermore, the process of designing a finance transformation was assessed, and a finance transformation framework was constructed based on both the information gathered in the survey and the existing literature. All respondents highlighted the need for finance transformation. The findings confirmed that finance transformation is perceived to have slowly transformed from a process of compliance to a strategic innovator to become a source of value creation and competitive advantage. Closing the finance transformation gap requires a significant investment in technology and a substantial change in finance skills and culture. The existing finance function is primarily transaction driven and supported by non-standardised processes across regions and business units. The result of a successful transformation would be a more important role in an organisation's success. The study contributes to a better understanding of the role and importance of finance transformation. A survey of experienced people in finance has been performed to measure the activities that are important to determine a well-designed finance function and allow drawing meaningful and statistically sound conclusions. The main contribution to the knowledge of this research is the development of a finance transformation framework and practical recommendations for its effective implementation.

Food safety is a critical issue that must be implemented and monitored in all aspects of food delivery to the public. Consumers at fast food restaurants are at risk if the proper food safety measures are not applied. Understanding why safe food practices are not followed can help management identify risks and delegate resources accordingly. In the study, the researcher adopted the constructivism view, as it is believed that there is no single reality or truth and that reality is created by individuals and groups. It is also considered that people gain knowledge and understanding through the combination of their own experiences and ideas. Fast food restaurant managers/owners are responsible for making sure employees follow safe food handling practices so as to ensure compliance with government regulations and reduce the risk of customers becoming ill from consuming unsafe food. Therefore, this study aims to investigate regulatory compliance in the fast food industry in Jamaica by focusing on the management of food safety risk as a strategy that may be used to improve compliance with national food safety regulations. It seeks to ascertain managers'/owners' perspectives on the factors contributing to noncompliance. Exploratory interviews with fifteen fast food managers/owners were conducted. Manual analysis of interview transcripts was done (Appendix 7.5). Major thematic codes identified in this study included Operational Challenges; Staff Training; Roles of the Manager; Food Safety Inspector related Challenges. The data was visually mapped and relationships between different themes and theoretical ideas were represented. Based on the four major themes identified, thirteen related subthemes were identified. The results indicated that Food Safety Inspectors must be clear and consistent with their actions to ensure that fast food restaurants are in compliance with national regulations. To do otherwise may result in Food Safety Inspectors being seen as barriers to compliance. The study discovered a significant lapse in the number of inspections of fast food restaurants taking place around the city, as 60% of the interviewees indicated that they have yet to be inspected. This has implications for the Fast Food Industry as to how food safety is ensured and that contaminated food may be passed on to the consumers. Future research is needed to determine the rationale behind this lapse as the safety of the public is at risk. This study also discovered communication challenges between Food Safety Inspectors (FSIs) and managers/owners. It was clear that there is a need for FSIs to focus on the development of soft skills as poor interpersonal skills impacted compliance.

The emerging platform economy is transforming industries, and thus also the freight logistics industry. In particular, industry platforms based on blockchain technology that process business-to-business (B2B) transactions offer enormous potential for enhancing efficiency in the maritime supply chain network. This results in completely new requirements for service and software-oriented technology companies with regard to the development and the operation of these industry platforms. But to what extent are the existing business model frameworks suitable to support platform providers in their business model transformation and what are the essential success factors?This thesis is concerned with developing a framework based on the principles of platform business modelling for enhancing the efficiency of freight logistics in the maritime supply chain. Following a research design based on the criteria of a case study, 15 interviews were conducted with experts from a global information technology company and the maritime industry - four of them in a validation phase. In a multi-layered approach, generative causal factors underpinning the platform business model transformation were identified and presented with their interdependencies in an explanatory model. Although several mechanisms were active, the findings of the data analysis emphasise explicitly the causal capacity of the cross-sector partnership mechanism and the governance mechanism. As a result, a new platform business model framework - the "4/9 Platform Business Model Canvas" (4/9 PBM-C) - has been developed, which represents an evolution of the established business model frameworks for the emerging industry platform business. The usefulness and applicability were tested by deriving an action plan that could enable executives to develop a platform business model - with the aim of increasing efficiency in maritime freight logistics. The results of this study have broader practical implications, as the "4/9 Platform Business Model Canvas" and the recommendations for action can also be adapted to the industry-specific platform requirements of other industries.

The aim of this research was to explore the leadership practices implemented in Scotland's contact centre industry in order to identify the leadership theories adopted in the customer-focused, highly controlled, and standardised environment of contact centres. The study involved a non-probability purposive sample of forty participants, including managers and agents working at operational level in six contact centres. Following an Interpretivist/Constructivist paradigm, the participants' perceptions and lived experiences were analysed and interpreted in order to gain an understanding of leadership in their working environment and thus build an overall view of the reality explored (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Schwandt, 2000). Considering the exploratory nature of the study and the aim of achieving an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation, this research followed a qualitative methodology and used semi-structured interviews (with managers) and focus groups (with agents) complemented with non-participant observation as data collection methods (Kerwin-Boudreau & Butler-Kisber, 2016; Saldaña, 2011). The data were examined by means of an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). The outcome of the study supported the view that managers tended to implement Transformational Leadership (Bass, 1985; Burns, 1978) since its characteristics were more closely aligned to the agents' perceptions of a leader, especially with regards to nurturing relationships based on support, trust, and respect, thus also evoking the Leader-Member Exchange theory (Dansereau, Graen, & Haga, 1975; Graen & Scandura 1987). In addition, most individual leadership practice (i.e., sole leaders) co-existed with Distributed Leadership (Gronn, 2000, 2002b), which was implemented to differing degrees as a collective leadership practice. The combination of both leadership practices in contact centres, which was mainly intended to promote staff development, provided evidence of Hybrid Leadership configurations (Gronn, 2008, 2009b) found in a context different from education and healthcare. As a main theoretical contribution, this study has extended the overall notion of leadership by Northouse's (2015) adopted in this research and has identified the main leadership theories implemented in Scotland's contact centres. As a practical contribution, this study has expanded the purposes of Hybrid Leadership (Gronn, 2008, 2009b) in a contact centre environment, increasing likewise the knowledge on the practical application of that particular theory.

The given dissertation focuses on the area of mobile business interactions and strives for a better understanding of related human cognitive characteristics. One motivation is to find out the individual triggers for someone reaching for a mobile device and how this can be used to establish a relation between optimised drivers of cognition and the employee's performance in mobile workforces. In this way, mobile technology is already a fundamental part of consultancy andfield-working industries, however, the identification of individual benefits and mobile-enhanced strategies lags behind. A proper understanding of relevant drivers for supportive mobile interactions stumbles behind the fast pace of technological trends and especially misses specific chances and opportunities in mobile business. The research takes this into account and builds up a comprehensive route from today's analogies from a non-digital world, via psychological and human-resource definitions and theories, towards a practice-oriented model of individual mobile business interactions called Mobile Moments. The qualitative approach used resides in a theoretical foundation of historical and contemporary literature in combination with reflective and aggregating input from a practice-focused main study. As a result, this research outlines the underpinning facilitators and drivers of mobile business interactions including their relations and dependencies. With practical insights and iterations, a conceptual model of Mobile Moments derives from various areas of technology, business and psychology and provides guidance on its application in practice. The results of the qualitative study with subject matter experts (>10) is justified as part of an exemplary application into an established mobile consultancy approach. The research provides a detailed view on related human cognitive characteristics, impacts on workforce performance as well as technological viewpoints in current mobile enablements. The summarised outcome of the research is a fundamental extension to existing user-oriented tools and practices by the means of Mobile Moments. It enhances the common awareness and, even more, it provides a structured model to extend the focus from existing to-be-mobilised problems to the currently unknown, but promising, mobile-only opportunities.

Lean is a popular approach for improving operational efficiencies in an organisation through the reduction of wasteful activities. Entities of every size and description today are implementing Lean techniques to maximise customer value, operational effectiveness and organisational profits. Organisations enter into the Lean world with high hopes of reducing costs and product and/or service lead time and increasing on time delivery and quality. Unfortunately, success stories in Lean are infrequent. Taiichi Ohno, an architect of the Toyota Production System, upon which Lean was founded, stressed the importance of Respect for People as a requirement for successfully implementing Lean methodologies. While a great deal of the academic literature has focused on the positive benefits that Lean techniques and methodologies provide for the organisation, little research can be found on the notion of Respect for People. It would appear that many practitioners and researchers do not subscribe to Taiichi Ohno's theory that the operational benefits of Lean cannot be realised without a supporting organisational culture of Respect for People. Instead, there is evidence in the literature that Lean methodologies negatively impact employees tasked with implementing and sustaining Lean, suggesting that, from the employee perspective, Lean can be mean. Employing an interpretive phenomenological approach and using a semi-structured interview method within a single case company, Respect for People was found to be much more than a tautology. It was instead a complex notion implicitly linked in the minds of employees to their understanding of what Lean is. A framework of core concepts and associated dimensions were identified for the phenomena of Lean and Respect for People. From the employee perspective, Lean did not have to be mean. By developing a deeper understanding of the employee experience of both Lean and Respect for People, organisations could better position themselves to enhance Lean implementations with a shared cultural understanding of what Lean and Respect for People means for its employees.

In this thesis, I seek to analyse the reproduction of elite mobilities through participation in Study Internship Programmes (SIP) in Washington D.C. SIPs are programmes for both American as well as international students that come to Washington and participate in a programme that combines an academic track on specific topics with an internship. These programmes can be seen as exemplars of a specialised form of neoliberal education in which middle-class students attempt to acquire mobility capital in the hope of accelerating their future careers. With the help of in-depth interviews and ethnographic methods, I have gathered data about the SIPs which were analysed via textual analysis. I conducted interviews with SIP-alumni, with current SIP-students as well as stakeholders in these programmes. As a theoretical framework, I have utilised a mobilities perspective, along with ideas on individualisation and cosmopolitan capital to develop a framework for study-internship research. I argue that students go to Washington to acquire mobility and cosmopolitan capital, as this might offer a competitive edge. I explore how SIPs affect and transform its participants, their career paths and mobilities, as well as the city of Washington D.C itself as a place. My research showcases the layered identities of the participants through their mobilities, and how their mobilities are connected to the city of Washington D.C., and the key institutions involved. The research also demonstrates that SIPs are indicative of broader career patterns and mobility decision-making among young people in the West. Furthermore, my research indicates how integral the images of Washington D.C. and career-narratives are to the reproduction of elites and to Washington D.C.'s image of power for the SIP-participants to represent their success and aspirations.

Tacit knowledge sharing has featured strongly in knowledge management literature in the last two decades. Knowledge management is an essential component attributed to underpinning organisational success and tacit knowledge sharing contributes directly to enhancing knowledge creation and to obtaining a competitive advantage in the business environment. Over the same period Communities of Practice (CoP) have risen in prominence as vehicles for tacit knowledge sharing and are seen as hotbeds of informal learning processes. There is, however, limited research into what may influence tacit knowledge sharing in CoPs. Additionally, although recognised as knowledge intensive organisations there has been limited research into knowledge sharing within and across educational institutions. The higher education (HE) sector in general has undergone significant change from a complex evolving landscape of political upheaval, funding divergence and an increasingly competitive worldwide market. Knowledge creation, combining and leveraging to improve an institution's performance, should therefore be considered of critical importance. Information Technology (IT) and Digital leadership have a key role in transforming Universities to meet the challenges in a global knowledge economy. The IT community within HE has a Sector Professional Organisation (SPO) that supports a number of voluntary CoPs which have operated over the last twenty years. The aim of the research was to explore the dimensions of tacit knowledge sharing in Communities of Practice working within the Higher Education Information Technology Sector. The study was undertaken from an interpretivist stance and used a phenomenological design with semi-structured interviews with participants who had experience of membership spanning several CoPs as the key data collection technique. The analysis was thematic in nature and brought to light expected and unexpected themes from the experiences of the participants. The key contribution is centered on the study findings that link the nature and movement of tacit knowledge from the core to the periphery of the CoP with its membership and leadership behaviors that are impacting on its success. From this a conceptual model that informs future HE IT CoP design and key leadership characteristics necessary for success, whilst supporting transferability, due to the findings' close association with tacit knowledge sharing was developed and is presented.

This dissertation scrutinizes the application of various standards, guidelines and methods in construction project management, and examines the use of such methods, tools and applications. Even though the availability of literature in the context of PM is extensive there has not been an adequate focus on applied project management with a specific interest in the constructing project management. This study describes the experiences gathered by the interviewees who are experienced construction executives and also discusses how they have managed their projects. The reason for the selection of a subjective, descriptive and phenomenal research approach is described and the advantages for this philosophical stance are also mentioned in the thesis. The question that emerges is in regards with how the construction managers accomplish any given project and how they ‘live' their PM. Hence, this study investigated the relevance of PM for managers working on construction projects. Various techniques, methods and procedures which were not included in the literature were highlight by the participants. There are studies available, mainly empirical, in the context of applied PM methods and the results of these studies do not correspond with the findings of this research. Another finding is that, in general, from the responses received, it is clear that PM certification programmes provide limited value to an experienced construction manager. Further results were summarized in the findings and result chapter of this work.

As project management (PM) and information technology (IT) evolved over the last decades, an increasing number of project management software products have emerged. Project managers in IT consulting can improve the success of projects through the utilization of such software. However, the diversity of software available cannot sensibly be grasped by a single individual. Based on this context, the study aims to examine the key considerations in the selectionof project management software in IT consulting from the project managers' perspective. A literature review identifies key aspects of IT consulting projects that may be relevant to the software selection. No evidence was found that provided a view on the process of the selection of PM software in IT consulting itself. The review also unveils the lack of common terminology in regard to PM software. The study addresses these gaps by utilizing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to understand the experiences made by project managers. To gather data, 17 semistructured interviews were conducted with experienced project managers. Thematic analysis was used to develop an understanding of the process employed by project managers in the software selection and the considerations they make along the way. The findings were synthesized to create a process guide, supported by a checklist and the working definition of key terminology. This study adds a broader perspective to the field of PM software through the application of qualitative methodology in an otherwise quantitatively dominated field of research. It addresses the lack of existing knowledge on the perspective of the project manager in the selection process through the generation of a 6-staged process guide. The detailed considerations of project managers were compiled into a checklist of selection criteria. These two also contribute to practice by providing a structured approach to PM selection for practitioners. The third output is a working definition of project management software as used in practice, which simplifies an exchange of knowledge between theory and practice.

Increased concerns have been raised regarding the lack of coherence between interior design education and its industry in China. Although this phenomenon persists, there have been limited research studies addressing the issue. The underlying causes of the lack of coherence remains, and the industry's expectations remain unclear. Therefore, the overall aim of this study is to explore the interactive dynamics in client-designer relationships during the design process, in order to define the industry's expectations on essential designer skills that will enable the closure of the gap between education and practice. In-depth interviews were conducted as the data collection method in this study. Twelve participants comprising six clients and six designers were selected under a purposive sampling procedure. Data collection, analysis and limitations of the study were explored. The current industry context was identified from the literature. Five broad themes were identified from the findings: progression in design perceptions; interactive dynamics; power relations; client-designer relationship; and features in design process. The inter-relations between the current industry context and themes were examined and a framework for interior designer training and ‘model' skills for interior designers are proposed, and the industry's expectations and situated influences were identified that addressed the long standing knowledge gap between education and practice. The framework comprises three aspects of client-designer relationships that reflect different designer's roles in the current industry context. The ‘model' skills may serve as sets of criteria to support or examine the conditions. The framework and its ‘model' skills could be adapted into strategic plans and developed into practical client-management techniques; this may help designers or organizations operating proactively, to be prepared to encounter either familiar or challenging situations.

Grounded in a constructivist paradigm, this thesis contributes to an emerging body of scholarship on the consumer engagement concept. In this research, the author conceptualises consumer engagement on social networking sites as a one-dimensional behavioural notion expressed by visible manifestations such as likes, comments and shares - referred to by scholars as consumer engagement behaviours. Although studies on consumer engagement in thecontext of social networking sites have increased over the past few years, current research often fails to provide frameworks that would adequately reflect the interactive nature of those behaviours. In particular, little knowledge exists about why consumers decide to engage with brands or branded content on these online platforms. This thesis addresses this gap by exploring key factors that influence digital natives' brand-related consumer engagement behaviours in the context of Facebook. Findings of this research are based on 25 event-based diaries that were completed by a sample of digital natives who recorded their brand-related engagement behaviours over a period of 11 weeks and from 25 follow-up semi-structured interviews. The data captured by the above-mentioned diary interview method allowed the author to gain rich insights into brand-related consumer engagement behaviours. Furthermore, the diary and interview method is used in this context for the first time which provides a unique methodological contribution. This thesis offers an original contribution to current scholarship on consumer engagement behaviours by introducing three new frameworks, namely: Categories of Effective Creative Content Practices on Facebook, an Integrated Framework of Factors Influencing Positive Brand-Related Engagement Behaviours on Facebook, and an Integrative Framework of Factors influencing Negative Brand-Related Consumer Engagement Behaviours on Facebook. Collectively, as well as individually, these frameworks enhance current theoretical knowledge on the concept by offering a more comprehensive overview of reasons behind brand-related consumer engagement behaviours on Facebook, which can also contribute to practice by assisting social media brand managers in improving current engagement strategies.

IT innovations have reshaped banking and will continue to do so. They are a manifestation of indispensable progress, yet risks emerge from IT innovations. Historic data and accounts of emerging risk experiences are rather scarce. Hence, they present a special challenge to risk management as they are hard to identify. Moreover, traditional risk management practices, relying on historic data, may not be fully adequate. What solutions can be offered by risk management to manage these risks? When is an uncertainty understood as an emerging risk? Who needs to be involved in the risk management process?The research asks the seemingly obvious question, yet this important topic has been regularly neglected in academics as well as in practice. Both literature and theoretical basis have only recently developed so as of yet there is little availability of varying viewpoints and reliable theories. 70% of the banks interviewed do notactively consider emerging risks in their risk management process. The banks take a reluctant position in general, waiting to see how things develop. Only three banks have a proactive approach and manage emerging risks from IT innovation in using an enterprise-wide approach such as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM).Therefore, this work develops a conceptual framework which aims to fill the research gap between ERM as an approach to holistic portfolio risk management and the lack of academic and practical work on emerging risks. The conceptual framework explores how banks can apply ERM to manage emerging risks in the future. Researching this topical phenomenon, extending today's common application and understanding of emerging risks and ERM in practice and academia is one of the most challenging tasks confronting future risk management (Bromiley et al., 2015).To the author's knowledge, this project is one of the first to take this challenge.

The concept of coopetition was introduced by Brandenburger and Nalebu in 1996 and is defined as a combination of cooperation and competition between multiple organisations. Since then, the number of articles on coopetition has constantly increased. As part of this process, the literature introduced the paradigm of forced coopetition. This recently developed paradigm describes a situation in which a client organisation forces multiple external suppliers to cooperate, even though the suppliers are competitors on an inter-organisational level. Hence, forced coopetition is an integral part of IT multi-sourcing projects with multiple IT supplier organisations. This research project focuses on an evaluation of factors that influence the success of forced coopetition relations in IT multi-sourcing projects. Due to the simultaneous coexistence of cooperation and competition, the client organisation experiencestensions, which may cause the multi-sourcing project to fail. As a result, the awareness of factors that are critical for the success of such relationships is crucial for a client organisation. This is particularly important because supplier organisationsplay an increasing role in the success of the client organisation. Despite the increased importance of coopetition management, only a limited body of research has examined which factors and control mechanisms have an impact on successful forced coopetition relations. This research project is first attempt to bridge this research gap. The study applied an explanatory sequential mixed method design, with priority placed on quantitative methods. First, the study conducts a quantitative survey to identify the critical success factors of a forced coopetition relation in IT a multi-sourcing project. Finally, explanatory semi-structured interviews are conducted within the study to discuss the quantitative findings in more detail while integrating the literature. Ultimately the study identified a set of factors which are considered as critical for forced coopetition relations. The study makes two main contributions. First, the study provides a framework of critical success factors in forced coopetition relations. Second, it offers guidance to managers of IT multi-sourcing projects as to which factors needs to be taken into account in order to successfully manage IT multi-sourcing projects with competingsuppliers.

There is still limited knowledge available on how SME and midcap firms perform financing decisions and on what such a decision is based on. The literature revealed that capital structure theories can only partly explain parameters that determine financing decisions, particularly in a bank dominated lending environment like in Germany. Academic research tried to expand towards a broader and more strategic approach regarding a financing strategy and towards behavioural bias of a company's management. Furthermore, existing research tried to identify an interaction between business strategy and financing strategy but failed to identify a causal direction so far. The present research provides a unique research approach to bridge this gap as it introduces a new aspect into the discussion on the decision for a financing instrument and whether a formulated financing strategy is followed. Based on a case study approach that combines manager interviews, document analysis and calculation of key financial ratios, the research explores the management's decision in a specific situation, the refinancing of standard mezzanine. Firms that used standard mezzanine had to perform a decent refinancing decision between the years 2011 and 2014 as there was no exact substitute instrument available in financing markets anymore. The results showed that a financing strategy exists in the cases explored, but elements and form varied across cases. In addition, the cases indicated that behavioural bias on management level might exist, based on identified inefficiencies and delays. However, these inefficiencies cannot be primarily assigned to owner-managers as done by previous research. Furthermore, a causal direction between business strategy and financing strategy could be indicated in the cases investigated. The results led to the development of a financing strategy typology, based on existing types of business strategies that might help to explain financing decisions. A template for a holistic financing strategy has been designed based on the investigations that allows midcap firms to establish and implement their own financing strategy (or adjust their existing strategy). The holistic framework provides core elements and financing principles as well as a prototype financing process that help to avoid the identified inefficiencies in their financing processes.

When the Labour Government won the election in 1997, one of the biggest challenges they faced was restructuring the public sector. This forced the new Government to move the public sector away from managerialism to become a more collaborative organisation, with greater employee engagement (Senior, 2008). This was when the work of developing new ways of partnership working was started in the NHS (Munro, 2002; Farnham et al., 2003).In order to assist the restructuring of the public sector, the Government introduced change in response to human capital needs, this included the implementation of the Agenda for Change Programme which was the biggest alteration to the pay structure of NHS staff in 50 years. Agenda for Change covered over one million NHS employed staff (with the exception of doctors, dentists and some senior management positions), and aimed to offer fairer pay based on new job evaluation, and to move towards harmonised conditions of service for NHS staff, to build links between career and pay progressions (DoH, 2004a). A partnership approach was seen as being a critical success factor in implementing this change. This thesis focuses on partnership working through the implementation of Agenda for Change in the NHS. It aimed to explore the perceptions of different levels of participants of Agenda for Change Implementation Teams in relation to organisational change and partnership working. Four research questions were considered to address the above aim: 1). What were the perceptions of the Organisational Change which occurred within the NHS? 2). What key aspects of Partnership Working were employed in the NHS to address Organisational Change prior to the implementation of Agenda for Change? 3). What were the key constituents of Partnership Working that facilitated Agenda for Change and how were they developed by its implementation? 4). What were the incentives and challenges in implementing Agenda for Change? As a phenomenological study, this research intended to interpret people's perceptions and experience of partnership working and Agenda for Change. Some 18 individual interviews were conducted with selected members of the implementation teams across three Health Boards in Scotland. Particular attention was given to the organisational change context, Agenda for Change, and partnership working in the Scottish context. This research confirms the perceived view that there has been a period of continuous planned change within the NHS and these changes have transformed the culture of the organisation to become more business focused. Agenda for Change, was perceived, in the main, through the whole organisation, as a positive one offering an easier and fairer pay system allowing workforce flexibility. However there were indications that partnership working does not go on at all levels and where it is present it places a great strain on staff and resources which in the main, is in decline. The Agenda for Change structure has distinguished characteristics of organisational development. Unions and employees had much influence through the change process since partnership working existed at three levels: strategic, functioning, and workplace. However, findings suggest that despite the well maintain partnership at the strategic and functioning level, a partnership arrangement cannot be fully supported at workplace level. Workplace manager's faced pressure from the Government's targets and deadlines, as well as financial budget cuts; which were some of the challenges of encouraging partnership working at workplace level.

This research explores perceptions of the context, contribution, challenges and critical success factors in the adoption of sustainability footprint strategy amongst Scottish SMEs. Critics of sustainability footprint measurement insist that by nature it records historical impact and does not incorporate the views of future generations and are a luxury for most firms except those achieving near monopolistic profits. Recent UK greenhouse gas policy initiatives are specifically targeted at large organisations and do not provide the institutional support required to assist SME's in greenhouse gas emissions reporting. Despite overwhelming evidence as to the benefits of sustainability footprint tools such as carbon footprints very few companies set emissions targets. Surprisingly still there is limited research conducted as to the benefits of sustainability footprint tools to SMEs and their perceptions as to its contribution to business success. Interviewees highlight that case study Scottish SMEs are driven to implement sustainability footprints to pre-empt future GHG legislation, process improvement, cost reduction, senior management commitment, emissions reduction, CSR and waste reduction. However the emphasis on GHG emissions has contributed to “carbon myopia” an exclusive focus on carbon footprint measurement. This research supports the view of senior management commitment as critical to the success of sustainability footprint measurement initiatives but policymakers also have an enabling role by ensuring fair competition, access to grants, mandatory guidelines for SMEs, tax incentives, fines, legislation, emissions league table and carbon reporting as a pre-qualification criteria for government tenders. Scottish SME interviewees adopt a sustainability negative perceptual orientation suggesting barriers to placing sustainability on the agenda such as implementation cost, lack of knowledge, sustainability competing with other issues on the agenda, time constraints, the transience of sustainability, inability to recoup carbon footprint costs, failure to recognise benefits, generational issues and communication Scottish SME case studies however reveal an ambivalent “love hate” relationship amongst interviewees with sustainability which varies depending on the proximity of the individual to the economic, social or environmental issue. Thereby underlining the importance of management's ability to influence stakeholders to remain sustainability positive in orientation through training, instruction and supervision that promotes sustainable behaviour. The Sustainable Strategic Growth Framework is proposed as a solution to the Sustainability/CSR Dilemma and to align employee behaviour with sustainability objectives.

Recent research findings have reinforced the importance of soft skills for managerialsuccess. Consequently, there is an ongoing practical need for and research interest ineffective soft skill training. In order to improve the soft skills of their employees,companies have begun to turn to performing artists in the hope of achieving a hightraining effect. While this phenomenon has created excitement, it has hardly been thesubject of serious investigation guided by research questions and executed researchmethodologies. In particular, hardly any insights exist into the exercises artists use whenproviding soft skill training and coaching for a business audience. In order to exploresuch activities in a systematic way, this thesis turns the attention to the performing artshigher education curriculum for identifying relevant exercise categories and for linkingthem to soft skills. This is accomplished through in-depth interviews conducted withclassical singing and drama teachers in Germany. In order to achieve a transfer to thebusiness world, HR representatives from German-based management consulting firmsare also questioned through in-depth interviews in order to explore relevant soft skillsaddressable by performing arts interventions. The results show transfer links betweeneight performing arts curriculum items and seven soft skill categories. Apart fromexploring the relationship between arts-based exercises and managerial soft skills, theresearch results confirm the benefit rationale for arts-based training and highlightsuccess factors. The outcomes are visualised in a suggestive model aimed at providing asystematic orientation for arts-based trainers and for organisations considering soft skilltraining based on the performing arts. However, the research has also limitations,especially a too conservative number of connections between performing arts curricularitems and soft skill categories. Other limitations include a regional and cultural focus onGermany, as well as the reduction of arts-based training activities to the boundaries offormal performing arts education. These shortcomings are used for motivating futureresearch.

This dissertation reports the results of case studies on innovation and new product development in eight Scottish food companies and a subsequent triangulation survey of 85 innovative Scottish companies. The case studies are carried out using qualitative research methods and a realistic inductive research strategy. It is found that the case study companies use an informal and cross-functional innovation process, which is independent of the age of enterprise. It is also discovered that these companies develop new products, often luxuriant variants of their existing products, which are mainly indulgences rather than healthy foods and are sold mostly to large retailers. Use of production methods that are amenable to quick changes in final products and networking with customers, suppliers, other food companies and Scottish Enterprise is also observed. Creative people with high innovative proclivity, who often travel to new locations in search of product ideas, drive the process. The case study companies are high-variety-low-volume businesses, possess good understanding of customer needs and circumstances and are able to achieve a good fit between needs of the market and their own resources. Not facing financial constraints, these companies are able to attract and retain talent, needed to develop new products. Continuously learning from their NPD endeavours, they sell their products without any major advertising or marketing effort. The subsequent triangulation survey of 85 innovative Scottish companies, from food as well as non-food sectors, confirms most of the above-mentioned findings. Contrary to the case study results however, the survey discovers that innovative Scottish companies face financial constraints while developing new products, do not sell most of their new products to large retailers or undertake travel to new locations in search of product ideas. The main contributions to knowledge by this research include crystallisation of the new product development practices in Scotland, highlighting difference in product innovation between various sub-groups of enterprises, a new conceptual construct within which all notions and definitions of innovation can be accommodated and identification of a basic flaw in the present innovation policy in Scotland.