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The thesis is driven by the strategic importance of crude oil, and aims to contribute to the knowledge on crude oil pricing and markets by conducting three investigative undertakings. The first examines the ability of crude petroleum to act as a safe haven asset for investors in equity markets around the start of international violent conflicts and wars. The second investigates the price differentials between US domestic benchmark crudes and the global marker Brent around the start of upstream production disruptions. The third empirical examination explores the presence of abnormal behaviour in the vicinity of the start dates of US sanctions on net exporting and importing nations, and builds on these findings to estimate gains accrued to, and losses inflicted on, the US economy. The thesis reports a number of findings. First, it shows that crude oil prices register a significant abnormal rise around the start of violent conflicts and wars. The significant portion of this abnormal increase accumulates well before the outbreak of crises. The thesis also reports a significant abnormal decline in the valuations of US and international equities around the start of these events. Secondly, the thesis builds on these findings, and demonstrates that crude oil possesses the ability to act as a safe haven from stock markets around the start of these events. Third, the thesis reports significant tightening in the price spreads around the start of unscheduled production outages. These findings are shown to be robust even after accounting for extreme weather conditions, changes in petroleum stocks, and costs of logistics. Fourth, the thesis reports significant abnormal changes in the valuations of crude oil around the start of US sanctions. The direction and magnitude of these changes depend on whether the targeted nation is a net exporter or importer. Fifth, the thesis builds on these findings, and reports gains and losses to the US economy due to the imposition of sanctions. These findings contribute to the academic literature, and highlight a number of implications for equity investors, insurance companies, oil traders, and policy makers in the US and other net importing and exporting nations. These implications concern the energy security of the US and other nations, the use of oil in hedging and diversification, the role of benchmarks in pricing, and the economic consequences of the US foreign policy.

Global business executives and researchers recently highlight the importance of understanding the dynamics of supply chain process integration in a global context. The literature still lacks studies that provide a comprehensive understanding of the major antecedents and consequences of supply chain process integration from a global perspective. This dissertation builds on several theoretical foundations such as the resource based view (RBV), the relational view (RV) of the firm and transaction cost analysis (TCA) to develop a framework that explains the drivers and outcomes of global supply chain process integration. This global study responds to these challenges through exploring the antecedents and consequences of global supply chain process integration for 320 supply chain and purchasing managers that source from over 33 countries. A theoretical framework is proposed that builds on research in strategic management, supply chain management, and international business and tests 8 proposed hypotheses. One new construct – global supply chain process integration – is developed and tested. Another construct, logistics performance, is modified from its existing form in the current literature. Significant results and good fit indices tested with structural equation modeling generate a number of interesting implications for global supply chain managers and researchers. For executives and strategists who are concerned about better managing their supply chains, this study provides insights for how manufacturing firms can develop a competitive edge through a higher level of flexibility by integrating its supply chain processes with its global suppliers. The study also provides empirical evidence on how supplier flexibility in a global environment can lead to improvements in process and firm performance.