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The purpose of this research was to investigate if the auditees respond effectively to modified audit opinions. The study is important to judge the in-time response to audit opinion for financial transparency, audit policy formation and remedial measures. The population consisted of all listed textile manufacturing companies of Pakistan. The textile sector is the largest indigenous sector with a large number of audit objections. To judge the effectiveness of the audit opinion on audit response, various performance indicators of the auditee are used. Three subsequent years after the audit opinion are considered to judge the audit responses. Other influencing variables like size and age of the company, cotton prices, yarn production, exchange rates and the export value of textiles were taken as control variables. Additionally, any difference in audit responses between the two textile policy regimes (2009-2013 & 2014-2017) in Pakistan was investigated. Data was manually collected for the period 2009-2017 from the archival records of all relevant stakeholders. Giving rise to a data set with more than one thousand observations, audit responses were classified into three ordinal categories of good, negligible and bad responses. A positivist research paradigm was followed to explore the research question. Multinomial logistic regression in SPSS was applied to model the associations statistically between the audit opinions and audit responses. The main outcomes of this study were (1) time is needed to allow good responses effectively (2) severity of audit opinions is associated with better audit response and (3) mixed results for two textile policies in terms of audit responses. The research has several limitations, most notably that financial performance measures lack precision and that no account has been made of the variation in the performance of individual audit firms. Nevertheless, the research is a substantial contribution to knowledge and applied practices. The outcome of this study supports the value of the audit and the need for appropriate managerial interventions to address the issues raised. The research has demonstrated that how effective response to audit opinion can positively impact performance. The insights are useful for regulators to improve decision-making for the credibility of the audit process. Textile companies may enhance their financial transparency and sustainability through effective and in-time audit responses.

The research reported in this thesis explored the factors that influence the development of innovative work behaviour (i.e. recognition of the need to innovate, idea creation, idea championing and, idea implementation). The study is underpinned by Social Cognitive Theory to encapsulate the multiple relationships that exist between cognitive factors, environmental factors and behavioural factors that enhance innovative work behaviour. A multi methods case study approach was used to gather data and highlight contextual differences that emerged from qualitative and quantitative data collection. This included the use of interviews, focus groups and a questionnaire across three case studies: a Scottish University, a Finnish University and, an English National Health Service Trust. The findings show that there are three main types of factors that influence innovative work behaviour: (1) information and knowledge related factors (e.g. information literacy, information behaviours, knowledge management and Communities of Practice); (2) contextual factors such as organisational strategy, culture, leadership, training and, access to resources and; (3) the skills and abilities of employees. Information literacy is an initiator of innovative work behaviour and is used to help employees to set context to help them recognise the need to innovate. Information behaviours are specific to each stage and the need to use information. Knowledge sharing enhances innovative work behaviour but requires skills and abilities from employees in terms of social interactions skills to facilitate the knowledge sharing. Organisational culture and leadership interact to help employees at all stages of innovative work behaviour. A key contribution of this work is that it provides a framework to explain the factors that influence the stages of innovative work behaviour development, which has not been done in prior studies. In addition, it extends the application of the whole of Social Cognitive Theory to information science research on workplace learning and innovative work behaviour. The practical contributions of this work are the recommendations to practitioners. These recommendations include the need to recognise the importance of information literacy in a digital age, the use of interactive information sources, the need to stimulate communication in the workplace and to assess available resources.

This work is concerned with the role of the public library in England and Scotland in the twenty-first century. The findings derive from the analysis of empirical data collected in 24 focus groups over a period of four years between 2014 and 2018. The main contribution of the thesis is that it extends understandings of the significant part that the public library plays as a 'public sphere', achieved through the fulfilment of three fundamental roles: (1) epistemic; (2) community; and (3) political. This is manifest in the provision of secure, neutral spaces where social, human and transactional capital is exchanged. The contribution is significant because previous research in Information Society Studies has presented public libraries merely as peripheral players in the public sphere. In this prior work the focus has fallen on the epistemic function of public libraries in furnishing access to information: there is little acknowledgement of the generation of social, human and transactional capital amongst active public library users. Similarly, in the Library and Information Studies (LIS) literature, the role of the library as a public sphere is under-played at the expense of attention paid to value, impact and performance measurement - currently in respect of societal outcomes and, in the past, by usage. A further contribution of the thesis is to methodologies in LIS research. The empirical study demonstrates the value of the implementation of a flexible, multi-locational, longitudinal, focus group method to explore perceptions of public libraries held by active users. This approach may be transferable to other library sectors.

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.

The video games industry is one of the most attractive and lucrative segments in the entertainment and digital media, with big business of more than $150 billion worldwide. A popular approach in this industry is the online freemium model, wherein the game is downloadable free of cost, while advanced and bonus content have optional charges. Monetisation is through micro payments by customers and the focus is on maintaining average revenue per user and lifetime value of players. The overall aim of this research is to develop suitable data-driven methods to gain insight about customer behaviour in online freemium games, with a view to providing recommendations for successful business in this industry. Three important aspects of user behaviour are modelled in this research - engagement, time until defection, and number of micro transactions made. A multiple logistic regression using penalised likelihood approach is found to be most suitable for modelling and demonstrates good fit and accuracy for assigning observations to engaged and non-engaged categories. Cox's proportional hazards model is adopted to analyse time to defection, and a negative binomial zero-inflated model results in the best fit to the data on micro payments. Cluster analysis techniques are used to classify the wide variety of customers based on their gameplay styles, and social network models are developed to identify prominent 'actors' based on social interactions. Some of the significant predictors of engagement and monetisation are amount of premium in-game currency, success in missions and competency in virtual fights, and quantity of virtual resources used in the game. This research offers extensive insight into what drives the reputation, virality and commercial viability of freemium games. In particular it helps to fill a gap in understanding the behaviour of online game players by demonstrating the effectiveness of applying a data analytic approach. It gives more insight into the determinants of player behaviour than relying on observational studies or those based on survey research. Additionally, it refines statistical models and demonstrates their implementation in R to new and complex data types representing online customer behaviours.

In this thesis the application of autonomous control concepts to logistics networks is studied by means of a simulation model. This simulation model is based on an actual outbound bulk product supply network of a commodity company. Logistics planning and operation is facing growing challenges, such as increasing complexity and distribution, driven by Megatrends such as globalisation and integration. Decentralisation through autonomous control seems to offer to a promising approach to address these challenges. The idea for the supply network at hand is therefore, to enable individual transportation units to autonomously take operational decisions, thus shifting control of the supply network from a central to a local perspective. In surveying the literature and the academic discussion on autonomous control in logistics, software agents are identified as a suitable and well-studied approach to implement such a concept. Therefore, a multi-agent-based simulation model of the supply network is constructed to execute and test the solution. The model is built using data based on empirical observations and offers a full-scale simulation of the actual supply network. In the model, software agents represent the individual transportation units, allowing them to communicate and interact autonomously, effectively decentralising operational control. A comparative simulation experiment is designed and carried out, contrasting several different control scenarios. The simulation results obtained show, that autonomous control can positively impact the performance of this supply network. Autonomous control scenarios require a lower number of trucks to achieve full order delivery and help to increase robustness of the supply network regarding the impact of environmental factors. Additionally, the more efficient use of transportation capacity may lead to a reduction in cost for transportation. The findings are verified with an industry subject matter expert and potential barriers onthe path towards implementation are described.

This research reported in this thesis explores job search networking amongst 16-24 year olds living in Scotland, and the role of social media platforms (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) during this process. Networking is treated as an information behaviour; reflecting this, the study is underpinned by a prominent model from the domain of information science. A sequential, mixed methods approach was applied to gather data. This included the use of interviews, focus groups, and a survey questionnaire. The interviews incorporated ego-centric network methods to develop a relational perspective of job search networking. The findings show that young people accrue different types of information from network contacts which can be useful for all job search tasks. Indeed, frequent networking offline and on social media is associated with positive job search outcomes. This is especially true of engaging with family members and acquaintances, and frequent use of Facebook for job search purposes. However, demographic and other contextual factors have a substantial impact on the nature of networking behaviours, and the extent to which they can influence outcomes. Additionally, young jobseekers face a range of barriers to networking, do not always utilise their networks thoroughly, and are more likely to use social media platforms as supplementary tools for job search. A key contribution of this work is that it provides a detailed insight into the process of networking that has been neglected in previous studies. Its focus on social media also reveals a new dimension to the concept which has received little attention in the job search literature. Given its focus on young jobseekers living in Scotland, the findings have also been used to create a detailed list of recommendations for practitioners.

Design continuously re-defines its meaning. Over the last years, the way designers interpret information, solve problems as well as prototype and express ideas has received increased attention from domains outside of traditional design, especially from the business world. However, much of the design thinking discourse outside of traditional design centres around a few widely-read practitioner books and only builds on a rudimentary understanding of its principles. Likewise, the academic literature only offers a few rigorous investigations of the application of design thinking in the management and innovation domain, especially when it comes to thedevelopment of novice multidisciplinary teams. Therefore, this thesis provides an evaluation of the influence of the following five key themes discussed in the design thinking literature: Team diversity, iteration, learning styles, creative confidence, and team communication. These themes were explored during a quantitative quasi-experimental research study, which was built on a novel research framework. Data wascollected from 42 German research participants over a period of 10 month. The longitudinal perspective enabled the researcher to illustrate how novices develop design thinking competencies in projects over time. While investigating team diversity, multidisciplinary teams were found to produce significantly better project outcomes than single-discipline teams. On the other hand, diversity of personality traits was not found to have a significant effect on the final performance of teams. The exploration of iteration behaviour revealed that multidisciplinary teams did not iterate significantly more than single-discipline teams. In addition, more experienced participants approached design thinking projects slightly less iteratively thannovices. Overall, the degree of iteration was not found to have a significant effect on the final team performance. Regarding the use of different learning styles, it was discovered that, teams with a balance of learning styles achieved significantly better project outcomes than less-balanced teams. In terms of learning styles, participants approached design thinking tasks mainly through rational conceptualisation rather than concrete experience. Theanalysis of individual and team confidence showed that creative confidence developed slowly and linearly over the course of a project, but only partly carried over to new project and team settings. Furthermore, no evidence was found that higher levels of creative confidence directly influenced the quality of the project outcomes. The investigation of team communication revealed that the importance of individuals in design thinking teams significantlychanged over the course of a project. Contrary to previous assumptions, high degrees of internal team cohesion were found to have a significant negative effect on project outcomes. While several of these findings clarify and reiterate existing design thinking theory, others call for an adjustment of theory and highlight the need for more rigorous research. Several recommendations are offered for practitioners, educators, and researchers on how to incorporate the presented findings into practice and future research.

Literature on performance management (PM) indicates that the concept has gained momentum in its use by organisations, with the ultimate goal of improving business performance. It is argued that PM makes significant contributions to individual employees and organisational performance by enabling expectations to be defined and agreed in terms of the role, responsibilities and accountabilities, and providing opportunities for individuals to identify their own goals and to develop their skills and competencies. However, there has been much debate as to whether PM optimises or leads to improved overall business performance as other factors other than human resources policies, such as personality, job role experiences, and structural factors, may have a detrimental influence on job performance. Moreover, several studies have shown that PM, and performance management systems (PMS) has resulted in unintended impacts, both positive and negative, in addition to those sought by organisations. This research is an investigation into the perception of managers and care assistants in private care of the elderly in care homes in Scotland on the impact of performance management systems. Use is made of both PM literature and empirical research to understand the perceived impact of the PMS with the ultimate aim of developing an enhanced PMS framework. In addition to documents review, twenty-four in-depth interviews were conducted, comprising of eight managers and sixteen care assistants drawn from eight different private care homes. The interviews focused on eight key PM elements, the PM concept, goal-setting, performance reviews, performance measurement, supporting performance, rewards system, training and development, and managing underperformance. The interview results from managers and care assistants were compared with the normative/ideal PM practice from the PM literature to determine how PMS is being implemented in the private care homes. The research findings reveal an overall positive perception towards PMS implementation by managers. However, the care assistants raised many of concerns which influenced a negative perception towards the PMS implementation. This was used as the basis for developing recommendations for an enhanced PMS framework. Therecommendations are centred around the identified two main problem areas: management/leadership style and the communication process. In addition to staff involvement in performance planning, and a fair underperformance management process, three other theories: power distance, vertical and horizontal trust, and the principal-agent problem were recommended to private care homes. This would help change the negative perception towards PMS implementation by care assistants.

This PhD analyses the factors that affect the existence or absence of coordination in the field of labour market policy for the long-term unemployed in three cities in Great Britain (Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Newcastle). The interest in coordination in public service provision has become more relevant since the state's previously dominant role in services provision gave way to a decentralised and multi-actor landscape. The complexity of social issues also fostered the involvement of multiple organisations. Furthermore, the recent move toward activation in labour market policy has renewed the interest in localised and personalised services, which require coordination. The implications for individuals of the shift toward activation is the main driver for this thesis. Activation has changed the relationship between the state and its citizens, has redefined social exclusion, has individualised responsibility for unemployment, and has increased individuals' obligations to become employed and employable. Also, a greater number of individuals—often with multiple, complex, and overlapping problems—are now required to take part in paid employment. If activation is to effectively support unemployed individuals, its governance would have to facilitate coordination. Even though networks and partnership-working have been buzz-terms in relation to public service planning and delivery for some years, empirically, there is still a question over whether this discourse has resulted in coordination on the ground. Studies of coordination in the field of labour market policies have often focused on the link between social assistance and labour market policy. This research examines instead the coordination between labour market and other related policy areas, as well as the coordination between administrative levels and various service providers. Drawing upon document analysis and semi-structure interviews, this thesis shows that coordination is still elusive in practice and develops a framework of governance that might help to better achieve coordination in service provision.

With the emergence of the lean enterprise and increased global competition, companies should learn to be more proactive in the way they manage costs from a strategic perspective. The literature has shown that cost management has shifted away from a focus on the clerkship role, product costing and financial reporting. The new focus is on a strategic supporting role to facilitate the management of the firm and the achievement of its strategic goals. By focusing on reducing costs as in lean philosophy much can be done to reduce costs from a strategic point of view. The new emphasis considers strategic issues called strategic cost management and promotes the management of costs in a strategic way. Extending the idea of strategic cost management, the focus of interest is in high level organisation strategy and the attempt to categorise costs into two blocks from a strategic perspective—strategic costs and non-strategic costs, and further to develop a conceptual framework to release hidden profit through by a strategic view of non- strategic costs. The few articles and studies that have been published in the last couple of years have used a strategic approach to managing overhead resources and costs, and no studies have focused on the management of non-strategic costs. The subject is investigated by taking a positive approach to surveying and interviewing (to achieve triangulation) business stakeholders and entrepreneurs, mainly based in Taiwan. From this, the framework ‘Extended Strategic Cost Management (ESCM)' as the research contribution to the professional practice is developed which as a case study was implemented in a hospital in Taiwan. This framework exposed issues, such as the need for management commitment, the implementation of the need to categorise costs into two blocks of strategic and non-strategic costs and focus on non-strategic costs. The idea of focusing on non-strategic costs originated from practitioners. It is argued in the research that companies can attain a competitive position by managing non-strategic costs. In addition, the importance of the study is to provide academic support for defining the terms of strategic and non-strategic costs, recognise the profit contribution and the value of administrative personnel, and fill the gap in the literature of strategic cost management.

This research attempts to measure the degree of trust and its impact and to understand the role of Management Accounting in creating and maintaining trust. According to Zucker (1986) trust consists of three different forms; organisational, process and personal trust. In this thesis it will be shown that trust is a multidimensional construct based on the working definition of Zucker's formulation and further expanded in this research. Several publications on different types of business organisations and other value-adding partnerships consider trust as a pillar for successful operations in an increasingly global competitive environment. Some authors go further and argue that “in the economy trust is nowadays more important than natural resources” and that “trust is the prerequisite for existence and successful control of organisations”. As facilitators of trust, Management Accounting has an impact on and is impacted by the level of trust within a business organisation. The Management Accounting (controlling) function is often associated with the conscience felt in many types of business organisations as it can be seen as a key for the management to make crucial decisions. However, the interaction between trust and Management Accounting has not yet been explored in detail. Therefore, the goal of this research is to identify or construct models, test several hypothesis, find a measurement of trust and to investigate the impact of trust on organisational performance and sustainability. Additionally, this research aims to develop and test new statistical methods to conduct intraorganisational research. To measure trust a questionnaire was developed and piloted. Part of this questionnaire was sociometric to allow the collection of data for social network methods to be applied. This meant that via the flow of communication the role and functioning of management accountants can be identified. This instrument was used in a private and in a public institution. From the analysis it was concluded that a dimension based measure of trust was developed as was a methodology for measurement. This allowed demonstration that as trust increases so does organisational performance. The method also exposed the key role of management accountants in facilitating the flow of trust between CEOs and line managers.

The concept of interactivity continuously enhances our day-to-day living, allowing us to experience a more convenient and enjoyable life style. Existing analogue technologies such as the internet, mobile phone and satellite have now entered their digital phase, making it possible to increase their capacity for interactivity. The technologies which provide this increased interactivity, namely the internet, mobile and television, are classed as interactive technologies. Television has been successful at marketing, having launched an interactivity interface known as iTV which initially offered superior commercial prospects. However, after a decade, the iTV industry is still quite young and has not reached its full potential. This thesis adopts a range of research methodology with which to forecast the future of interactive technologies, especially interactive TV (iTV). The uptake of new interactive technologies depends on many factors, notably the existing infrastructure in the country of adoption, cultural attitudes to new technology, the radicalism of the technology, social influences and interactions and ease of use, quality and cost. Beyond these, many other significant factors influence the acceptance of interactive technologies, the focus of this thesis is to ascertain the importance of those factors mentioned on technology adoption. This study has adopted technological and judgemental forecasting techniques to predict the future of interactive technologies, following which Cross- Cultural and Technology Acceptance studies were carried out to investigate interactive technology adoption. In the Cross-Cultural study, survey data were collected from the UK, Hong Kong and Pakistan so as to examine cultural factors pertaining to the likelihood of adoption, while Growth Curves were used to model and forecast future levels of adoption. Then technology trends in different countries were collected from the global marketing database Euromonitor. The Growth Curves, applied to a selection of interactive technologies, were evaluated and compared to identify the most useful model with which to forecast the future of interactive technologies. The findings identified the Bass Model, Simple Logistic Model and Gompertz Model as the most suitable models for the purpose, with different models identified as best for different cultures. The Judgemental study established that WWW will be the dominant service provider for financial services such as banking or financial products, while iTV will be the dominant service provider for entertainment. WWW will in fact be the dominant provider for most of the services, followed by iTV and then WAP. It is most likely that WWW, WAP and iTV will exhibit technology convergence in 20 years' time and in all probability will converge into WWW. Further to this the Cross-Cultural study confirmed that there are significant differences between cultures regarding the acceptance of interactive technologies, as it is affected by demographic and social interactions and influences. In addition, the study showed that each interactive technology has its own significant elements which influence its acceptance. Overall, the key elements identified as influencing acceptance of interactive technologies were Knowledge and Confidence, followed by the number of hours the individual spends with his or her family. The Technology Acceptance study identified a technology acceptance model for each interactive technology: WWW, WAP and iTV, which established the factors expected to influence the future growth of the technology. Managing these significant elements will assist further in promoting the growth of interactive technologies

There are a variety of guidelines and methods available to measure and assess survey quality. Most of these are based on qualitative descriptions. In practice, they are not easy to implement and it is very difficult to make comparisons between surveys. Hence there is a theoretical and pragmatic demand to develop a mainly quantitative based survey assessment tool. This research aimed to meet this need and make contributions to the evaluation and improvement of survey quality. Acknowledging the critical importance of measurement issues in survey research, this thesis starts with a comprehensive introduction to measurement theory and identifies the types of measurement errors associated with measurement procedures through three experiments. Then it moves on to describe concepts, guidelines and methods available for measuring and assessing survey quality. Combining these with measurement principles leads to the development of a quantitative based statistical holistic tool to measure and assess survey quality. The criteria, weights and subweights for the assessment tool are determined using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) and a survey questionnaire based on the Delphi method. Finally the model is applied to a database of surveys which was constructed to develop methods of classification, assessment and improvement of survey quality. The model developed in this thesis enables survey researchers and/or commissioners to make a holistic assessment of the value of the particular survey(s). This model is an Excel based audit which takes a holistic approach, following all stages of the survey from inception, to design, construction, execution, analysis and dissemination. At each stage a set of criteria are applied to assess quality. Scores attained against these assessments are weighted by the importance of the criteria and summed to give an overall assessment of the stage. The total score for a survey can be obtained by a combination of the scores for every stage weighted again by the importance of each stage. The advantage of this is to construct a means of survey assessment which can be used in a diagnostic manner to assess and improve survey quality.

The primary goal of this thesis is to investigate the effectiveness of police enforcement on Road Traffic Accidents; specifically, ‘Does police enforcement activity have any real effect on levels of Killed and Seriously Injured road traffic accidents?' Data relating to forty one Police Force Areas in England and Wales was analysed by means of Zero Truncated Poisson regression, Cluster Analysis and Multilevel Modelling. Enforcement measures available to the police, for which data is available in this report, range from Prosecutions and Fixed Penalty Notices to Written Warnings and Vehicle Defect Rectification Notices. Results from the Zero Truncated Poisson regression models have significant effects (P < .05), in relation to both contemporary and lagged Annual data and contemporary Quarterly data, for all proxy variables except Prosecutions. Significant effects (P < .05) are also found for Fixed Penalty Notices lagged by two quarters, Vehicle Defect Rectification Notices and speeding related Fixed Penalty Notices lagged by one quarter. Results from Cluster Analysis verify the trend linking increased police enforcement with decreasing KSI rates. Clusters derived from population based KSI rates are more clearly defined than those using Vehicle kilometres travelled based KSI rates. Multilevel modelling found significant fixed effects (P < .05) for Fixed Penalty Notices and speeding related Fixed Penalty Notices in relation to both derived and regional clusters, linking an increase in enforcement to a decrease in the overall KSI rate. There would seem to be little doubt, based on the findings of this report, that higher levels of police enforcement, as measured here, lead to decreasing numbers of KSI accidents.

The subject of this thesis is the management of foreign operations and the switching of modes for international business. Contrary to research on the market entry, the focus here lies on the further development of the initially selected market entry strategy and the question of identifying the right timing and optimal approach for changing strategies (strategy change). Based on a comprehensive review of literature on internationalisation and mode switching, a theoretical concept for decision-making behaviour during a switch is formulated. The hypotheses derived from this are empirically assessed through interviews with top managers and alarge-scale survey of 192 companies (51 % switchers; 49% nonswitchers). Here, the companies surveyed can be classified into five characteristic groups based on the preferred mode, corporate characteristics, timing of the mode decision and mode-switching probability. The results show that the mode switch is an important option for improving performance in foreign markets. Satisfaction with current performance of foreign operation is the main driver for or against the mode switch. When a firm makes the decision to switch modes, it is shown that, through the mode switch, success in the foreign market is significantly improved. Yet the switch is not in itself a prerequisite for success. The study shows that both switchers and non-switchers can be successful. The results also reinforce the assumed relationship between management style and the probability of a mode switch. Clear causal relationships are identified between systematic internationalisation planning and success. In addition, the dwelling time after market entry is shown to be critical; for example, it is established that the mode of "importers" is usually tied to a longer stay in a market than as with other mode strategies. This indicates apath-dependency with certain modes. This study shows that, over the duration of foreign business activity, companies pursue characteristic internationalisation pathways through their choice of mode. With regard to timing in the decision-making process, the conclusion is reached that there should be sufficient time and space for the development, negotiation and evaluation in the sense of using a co-evolutionary perspective. Timing is viewed as a result emerging from co-evolution of internationalisation activities, corporate characteristics, mode strategy, management style and industry influences. Areas for further research are identified and recommendations on how to improve decision making in the management of foreign operation are provided. The study concludes with an explanatory theory on mode switching, based on the theory of pathway dependency.

Tourism makes a major contribution to most economies particularly developing economies. In developing countries, tourism is important as a means of earning hard currencies and creating employment. Therefore the means of stimulating tourism and promoting potential destinations is worthy of investigation. In this thesis the focus is on investigating the use of images of nations' culture and heritage to promote those destinations in the developing world to affluent western tourists. An extensive literature review is undertaken in the thesis to demonstrate and understand the relationship between place and its portrayal to give expectations in the minds of tourists. There are many means of portraying the images, notably television, the Internet and paper based brochures which are the subject of this thesis. This review led to the construction of the hypothesis that if images are realistic depictions of place then expectations will be closer to experience. If this gap is small then it is further hypothesised that satisfaction will result. To explore and test this hypothesis a positivist research approach is pursued. The research method used is principally that of case studies in which three countries (Egypt, India and Turkey) are taken as representative of developing/emerging nations. First, the use of images to promote travel to these countries is tested by conducting a content analysis of "quality broadsheet" newspapers. Then a questionnaire based survey is undertaken to understand how people from affluent backgrounds perceive samples of images emphasising culture and heritage and how they identify the images with place. Next, samples of first time tourists to Egypt, India and Turkey are surveyed before experiencing the destination and again after visiting the destination. Then to add depth, samples of the tourists surveyed were interviewed and invited to discuss their experiences. The findings of the content analysis resulted in evidence to support the premise that images of culture and heritage are used to promote destinations to affluent potential tourists. From the first survey, results showed that on the whole potential tourists correctly associated images with the destination. Further, it was found that images judged to be realistic, raised expectations in the minds of potential tourists. Then from the pre and post visit survey, factor analysis was used to create measures of expectations of place and measures of experience of place. The gap between the measures of experience and expectation was then computed and found to be negatively correlated with satisfaction. The in depth interviews gave similar findings to the quantitative analysis and by triangulation helped to validate the research. Thus the hypothesis that accurate representation of place based on culture and heritage imagery leads to expectations which are close to experience is accepted. Further, it was found that if the expectation/experience gap is small then satisfaction is likely to result. These findings give valuable tools, whether company based or in national development agencies, to ensure that the accuracy of portrayal of cultural images to promote destinations to affluent consumers and thus ensuring satisfaction is more likely, which in turn results in an increase in the potential for return visits.

The developed economies are now considered to be entering the growth phase of knowledge-based economic activity. The universities are increasingly seen as a critical vehicle for knowledge creation and knowledge transfer in order to produce educated citizens that will facilitate economic growth. The secondary data on the pressures facing universities suggest that the universities need to be more competitive, flexible and efficient. Empirical data was collected from a series of student expectations and satisfactions surveys at one of the Scottish universities. Analysis of these suggests that generally students seem to demand for a wider option of delivery from the university. The students broadly do not seem to be content with massification of higher education that includes distance learning delivery. This raises a potential conflict with regard to culture in that the culture that best facilitates the students' acceptance of massification of higher education will include distance learning delivery. Therefore, this research has been conducted to explore and determine the current, future and desired culture of three Scottish universities. This research also determined how culture in these three Scottish universities may be structured to best meet the future requirements of knowledge-based economies. The Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) developed by Cameron and Quinn was used to measure the current, future and desired culture in Scottish universities. From the OCAI, it would appear that the staff in these three universities consider the current culture to be a Hierarchy culture and that a Market culture will be emphasised in future in universities. The Delphi study also indicates that if a market driven culture can be developed then universities can exploit new knowledge in the economy in which they reside and this will enhance their international competitiveness. Thus, in the future, a Market culture will develop in universities that place emphasis on customer requirements and winning in the market place. However, the focus on a Market culture will be achieved by emphasising broadly on the large numbers of standardised procedures, rules and policies governing what people do, and which are strongly associated with "resistance to change", which is often confused with critical questioning of strategy. However, the desired culture is the collegiate culture (Clan culture) with a focus on ongoing commitment to excellence, increased flexibility, staff empowerment and cross-functional teamwork. This raises a potential conflict in higher education environments. The Delphi study indicates that other stakeholders in higher education want universities to stimulate greater success in knowledge creation and knowledge transfer activities. The universities are expected to increase their economic contribution through collaboration. Scottish higher education should build upon its strength by addressing it weaknesses in order to realise its opportunities and avoid threats. Effective leadership and management are essential in universities. This intensifies the need for a desired culture that can best facilitate the development of universities in the future. Therefore, to address the two conflicts in the higher education environment and to best facilitate the development of universities in the future, it is proposed that there is a need for universities to devise flexible strategies to engage stakeholders to identify issues, propose solutions, and become partners in implementing the changes needed. The universities should cultivate a Clan culture to better facilitate knowledge creation and knowledge transfer activities, and consequently become more customer focused with regard to the likely future expectations from students in terms of programme provision, teaching methods and the whole experience as a student. To facilitate this, it is proposed that tools such as European Foundation Quality Management (EFQM) model could be used to focus activities.

The total fertility rate in Bangladesh declined from 6.3 children per women in 1975 to 3.3 in 1997-1999. This decline of 48 per cent over a 25-year period occurred without a substantial improvement in socio-economic status, health conditions and other factors thought to be essential for fertility decline. In this thesis it is postulated that current fertility behaviour is a manifestation of ideational change, which has occurred through mass media and interpersonal communication channels. To investigate the influence of communication on fertility behaviour and to control for demographic and socioeconomic and cultural variables, 724 married women of reptoductive age were interviewed from six rural villages of the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh. Another village was surveyed to compare the influence of religion. Data were collected in a full network basis in that one currently married woman with at least one child from each household of the entire village was interviewed. Sociometric data along with socio-economic-cultural and family planning practice data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The data have been analysed using statistical methods to construct models of factors, which influence the total number of children a woman has and those that determine the likelihood that a woman practices family planning. The main influencing variables to explain the total number of children were found to be wife's age, age at first child bom, number of family members, demand for male children, demand for female children, death of male children, place of giving birth, housing score, religion, equipment score, land property, FWA and information score. Whereas the influencing variables to explain the family planning practice were demand for male children, death of male children and variables connected with communication such as degree of interpersonal communication, mass media exposure, husband, Family Welfare Assistants (FWAs) and frequency of discussion with FWAs. Communication variables, especially interpersonal communication, were found to be most important in explaining family planning practice. More particularly, the dominant source of general information is relatives and friends. FWAs followed by friends and relatives are the main source of family planning information that along with husband influence fertility decisions. Hence, there was a need to ftu-ther understand the web of interactions among individuals, peer groups and opinion leaders using social network analysis. The web of communication links in which an individual exists and takes fertility decision was then modeled with the collected sociometric data. To do this, three matrices were constructed to reflect any communication link, the strength of these links and approval of family planning. Various centrality measures (in-degree, out-degree, betweenness and power), clique patterns and actors positions in the network were produced and analysed using Ucinet-6. This revealed that the actors who were not strongly connected or exist in the periphery of this web tended not to practice family planning. Also it was found that actors who overlap more than one clique are more likely to practice family planning. Variables created from the centrality measures were then added to the regression models for the total number of children and the use of family planning. In both the cases sociometric variables were found significant which ftirther enhanced the explanation of fertility behaviour of the women in rural Bangladesh. Using Structural Equation Models the direct and indirect effects of these variables were determined. Demographic, socio-economic-cultural variables were more directly associated in explaining total number of children while communication variables were directly associated in explaining family planning use, and family planning practice has a direct influence on the number of children born. Thus, as communication directly influences family planning practice it has an indirect influence on the Total Fertility Rate. From this work it is recommended that the service that was provided by the FWAs be reestablished and strengthened, husbands should be targeted in family planning motivation programmes and male contraceptive methods should be promoted. Also more motivational programmes should be incorporated in family planning programmes to create a positive image of female children and the extent of the social interaction among village women should be increased.

An investigation was conducted to identify factors associated with traffic accident involvement and traffic casualty involvement of road users in Scotland. This was done to determine to what extent accident and casualty involvement are related, and so assist policy-makers in the allocation of scarce resources. Traffic accident involvement was identified for Scottish-resident vehicle drivers. Traffic casualty involvement was identified for vulnerable road users, particularly child pedestrians. Traffic accident rates were determined from information provided by approximately one thousand Scottish-resident drivers who completed an extensive questionnaire on driving behaviours. Their personal characteristics, socio-demographic data, and information on attitudes to road safety issues, were also provided. This broad investigation revealed that traffic accident involvement was found to be associated with personal characteristics, driving behaviour, and attitudes to road safety issues. There is no evidence of any area effect on accident involvement of Scottish drivers, in terms of the administrative area in which they live, the relative level of affluence/deprivation of the area, or the population density of the area. A detailed statistical analysis of STATS19 traffic accident data was conducted to determine casualty rates for different groups of road user in Lothian, Scotland, for the years 1991-97. This involved the development of a unique index of multiple deprivation suitable for both urban and rural areas. Traffic casualty rates were found to be positively associated with the level of deprivation and the population density at postcode sector level. Analysis of injury-accident data identified that personal characteristics are also associated with casualty involvement for children aged 0-15 years old. As with accident involvement, the influence of behavioural and attitudinal factors on casualty involvement needs to be examined. A significant finding from this study is that traffic accident risk and traffic casualty risk are not associated with the same factors. Place of residence is significant in determining casualty risk, but has no significant effect on accident risk. Implications from this research are discussed and suitable recommendations are made.

This thesis is concerned with predicting the costs of maintaining a computer program prior to the software being developed. The ubiquitous nature of software means that software maintenance is an important activity, and evidence exists to support the contention that it is the largest and most costly area of endeavour within the software domain. Given the levels of expenditure associated with software maintenance, an ability to quantify future costs and address the determinants of these costs can assist in the planning and allocation of resources. Despite the importance of this field only a limited understanding of the factors that determine future maintenance costs exists, and maintenance estimation is more frequently applied to existing software. A hypothesis has been postulated that suggests the inherent maintainability of the software, the scale of the activity and the degree of change that pertains will determine future software maintenance costs. The variables that contribute to the maintainability of the software have been explored through a survey of past projects, which was undertaken using a questionnaire. This was designed with assistance from three separate teams of professional software engineers. The questionnaire requires 69 numerical or ordinal responses to a series of questions pertaining to characteristics including program structure, computer architecture, software development methodology, project management processes and maintenance outcomes. Factor analysis methods were applied and five of the most powerful predictors are identified. A linear model capable of predicting maintainability has been developed. Validation was undertaken through a series of follow-up interviews with several survey respondents, and by further statistical analysis utilising hold-out samples and structural equation modelling. The model was subsequently used to develop predictive tools intended to provide management support by both providing a categorical assessment of future maintainability, and a quantitative estimate of probable maintenance costs. The distinction between essential corrective maintenance, and other elective forms of maintenance is considered. Conclusions are drawn regarding the efficacy and limitations of tools that can be developedt o supportm anagemendt ecisionm aking. Subjectt o further work with a largers ampleo f projects,p referablyf rom within a singleo rganisationi,t is concluded i that useful tools could be developed to make both categorical ('acceptable' versus 'not acceptable') and static (initial) quantitative predictions. The latter is dependent on the availability of a software development estimate. Some useful predictive methods have also been applied to dynamic (continuing) quantitative prediction in circumstances where a trend develops in successive forecasts. Recommendationfosr furtherw ork arep rovided.T hesei nclude: U Factor analysis and linear regression has been applied to a sample of past software projects from a variety of application areas to identify important input variables for use in a maintainability prediction model. Maintainability is regarded as an important determinant of maintenance resource requirements. The performance of these variables within a single organisation should be confirmed by undertaking a further factor analysis and linear regression on projects from within the target organisation. u The robustness of model design within this target organisation should be considered by applying a sensitivity analysis to the input variables. u This single organisation maintainability predictor model design should be validated by confirmatory interviews with specialists and users from within the target organisation. u Aggregate scale has been identified as another predictor of overall maintenance resource requirements, and the relationship between development and maintenance effort explored for the general case. It is desirable that development and corrective maintenance scale relationships should be explored within a single organisation. Within this environment the association between standardised effort and maintainability should be confirmed, and the value of the logistic model as a descriptor of the relationship verified. u The approacht o quantifying non-correctivem aintenanceth at has been outlined requiresf iirther developmentT. he relationshipb etweena nnualc hanget raffic and maintenancec ostss houldb e modelled,a ssuminga prior knowledgeo f the scale and maintainability determinants. uA sensitivity analysis should be applied to the predictive system that has been developed, recognising the potential for error in the values of the input variables that may pertain. uA goal of this further research should be the development of a suite of soft tools, designed to enable the user to develop a software maintenance estimation system.

As home ownership in the UK housing market has become mature, economic and econometric analyses of urban and regional owner-occupier housing markets have become a long-standing concern of housing economists. This thesis defines a nestedl ocal housing submarkets tructureT. he dynamic stock flow model with trade friction is revised and applied to analysing the local owner occupier housing submarket operational process. The short run and long run equilibrium and discquilibrium nature of a local owner occupier housing submarkct system are divulged. This model explores the submarket house price determinants and the role of housing submarket trade friction in submarket house price formation. The computer simulation reveals the relationship between the housing submarket structure and the system stability. The role of household housing choice behaviour in directing the system has been carefully demonstrated. On the premise of the utility maximisation approach, a behavioural model of regional household housing choice per housing submarket is set up. It is argued that the structure of the regional labour market determines household dwelling location choice. The influence of housing submarket marketability (defined as an inverse of the submarket trade friction) on household housing choice behaviour is considered. The family life cycle pattern of housing choice behaviour and the influence of household financial constraints on housing choice are also developed in the model. The empirical analysis is based on both Stated and Revealed preference information in order to overcome the dwelling supply constraint. The data is derived from the Lothian Region owner occupier housing market. The empirical results are compared with those of the existing housing choice models. The policy implications which follow from this thesis are then discussed in the light of the findings

With the increasing tempo of business, order picking efficiency becomes of increasing importance. The aim of this research is to find ways of increasing order picking efficiency by decreasing travel time of the picking cycle. Finding the optimal (shortest) order picking tour can be equated to the task of finding a solution to the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP). This is notoriously difficult to solve in reasonable time when conventional computers are used. A number of heuristic algorithms have been developed for solving the TSP, some of these have been specially adapted for multiple command order picking. In this previous work the stacker crane's shuttle was assumed to travel with constant velocities in the horizontal and vertical directions. In this research it is shown that this assumption leads to creating suboptimal tours. The contribution of the error is analytically derived and its magnitude estimated by a simulation experiment. In previous work it has been shown that the shape of the zones in class based storage affects the travel time for single and dual command order picking. In this research, for the first time, the interaction between class based storage and multiple command order picking is investigated. Three types of zone configurations are modelled and then investigated using simulation in a factorial experiment. The results from the experiment indicate that the zone shape does affect the optimal solution. The new zone configurations are tested in a case study against existing configurations in a distribution warehouse of Volkswagen - Audi (VAG-UK). This showed that overall improvement in travel time of the new configurations was significant. Computer simulation was used to estimate the individual contribution from zoning and tour construction.