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For an increasing number of older individuals over 50, entrepreneurship is becoming a means of finding new opportunities, fulfilling long held ambitions or, of augmenting retirement income. Yet, despite its potential benefits to individuals and the economy, understanding of later-life entrepreneurship is often only limited to describing this phenomenon as unnuanced and uniform, while ignoring substantial gendered heterogeneity in decisions about later-life entrepreneurship. This doctoral thesis extends the current view of later-life entrepreneurship to a nuanced, interconnected process. A qualitative research methodology is selected, underpinned by interpretative philosophy. To improve understanding of the gendered aspects of why and how later-life entrepreneurship is ignited, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 individuals over the age of 50 living in the United Kingdom. The analysed data informed an emergent, dynamic model that conceptualises the gendered aspects of acquiring age capital for venture creation in later life. The model captures the triggers, conflicting drivers, enablers, and barriers associated with this phenomenon. It illuminates laterlife entrepreneurship not as a simple action, but as a dynamic, complex process and explains the gendered complexities of motivational triggers, the conflicting drivers of the normative environment and the process of accumulating different forms of capital for venture creation. A key contribution of this research is extending the use of three theoretical lenses (one lead theory and two supporting theories), which highlights the limitations of being guided by only one theory, and the explanatory power offered by applying aspects of several theoretical frameworks. With regard the contribution to knowledge of the empirical findings, a nuanced, gendered perspective identified from the findings, contributes towards creating distinctive challenges for policy makers and other stakeholders designing business support.

This thesis aims to develop a framework for the UAE to activate its national innovation ecosystem. The present study was guided by the following research questions: What is the current nature of the national innovation ecosystem that exists in the UAE? What are the main drivers that influence or hinder a sustainable (educational) innovation-based national ecosystem? How can the UAE Government best promote and activate a successful national innovation ecosystem? These questions were answered using qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data about innovation in the UAE. A total of 24 semi-structured interviews were conducted and thematically analysed, representing the qualitative aspect of the study. Then, 207 descriptively analysed surveys were conducted, providing quantitative data. These were used to validate the qualitative findings. An initial draft of the national innovation framework was developed, which was validated through further semi-structured interviews with six influential policymakers from the UAE national ecosystem of innovation. Their input was considered carefully and used to refine the final version of the framework.

This thesis develops the understanding of the relationship between place, policy and entrepreneurial intentions among Welsh HE students. Recent decades have seen a growth in interest in entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship policy among governments and academia, as a means of encouraging economic development. A key aspect of this policy aim has been to increase rates of entrepreneurialism among individuals in a given society through the development of a 'culture of enterprise'. This research focuses on Wales, a country within the United Kingdom which has seen recent political and institutional change through the process of devolution, and saw rapid economic change in the latter decades of the twentieth century through the process of rapid deindustrialisation. The research employs the social constructivist approach to research and utilizes qualitative methods. To develop an understanding of policy in the twenty years since the establishment of the Welsh Government, data was collected in the form of documentary analysis of key political and economic strategy documents, and this was supplemented by interviews with key political figures during the period. To understand entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions, data was collected from 25 semi-structured interviews with Welsh HE students from universities both in and outside of Wales, who had varying degrees of interest in entrepreneurship. This research contributes to the theoretical understanding of how place and policy interact to inform the development of attitudes and intentions towards entrepreneurial behaviour, with implications for policy and practice for Wales and elsewhere.

International entrepreneurship research has recently been directed towards returnee entrepreneurship, a phenomenon in which individuals who acquire knowledge in overseas developed markets return to start businesses in their home emerging markets. Returnee entrepreneurs serve as knowledge brokers in their home country. However, research has yet to explain how they transform their overseas knowledge, which is contextually bound, into entrepreneurial outcomes - a process termed overseas knowledge recontextualisation. The thesis positions itself at the intersection of returnee entrepreneurship, international knowledge transfer, and entrepreneurial learning, and explores the phenomenon from both a learning and a socio-cognitive perspective. It approaches the recontextualisation process at an individual entrepreneurial level to answer three research questions: (1) What constitutes the knowledge brought back by returnee entrepreneurs?; (2) What is the process by which returnee entrepreneurs recontextualise their overseas knowledge?; and (3) How do returnee entrepreneurs learn to facilitate the process of overseas knowledge recontexualisation? A qualitative exploratory approach was employed comprising 14 in-depth cases of returnee entrepreneurs in three cities in Vietnam - an emerging economy in South East Asia where returnee entrepreneurship has become increasingly prevalent. To ensure the rigour and validity of the research, multiple data sources were used for triangulation. Given the dynamics of the recontextualisation process and the aim to build a data driven theory, the analysis was underpinned by process thinking and grounded theory principles. The thesis contributes to three distinctive strands of literature. First, it extends the returnee entrepreneurship literature by unpacking the holistic process model of knowledge recontextualisation which involves sensemaking, experimenting, and integrating knowledge, each of which is facilitated by the respective learning mechanisms and intertwined with entrepreneurial outcomes. Second, it adds new understanding at an individual entrepreneurial level to international knowledge transfer literature by highlighting the idiosyncratic role of returnees as simultaneous transferors and receivers of knowledge. Specifically, it elucidates mixed-embedded knowledge structures of returnees and identifies key recontextualisation practices pertaining to returnee entrepreneurship. Third, it adds on entrepreneurial learning literature by unpacking the complex learning mechanisms that facilitate the process of recontextualisation. Finally, it proposes that, throughout the recontextualisation process, returnees not only enact the overseas knowledge per se, they also transform themselves and influence the home country through cognitive, social, psychological and behavioural processes which denote the micro-foundations of the entrepreneurial dynamic capability displayed by returnees.

This PhD thesis investigates the circular economy and how it impacts UK manufacturing. The research explores the Automotive, IT firms and Government agencies - how they understand, construct, and operationalise a circular economy for achieving competitive advantage. It also assesses if the RBV's VRIN framework is suitable for a firm participating in the circular economy. This research employs a critical realist qualitative comparative case study method. Primary data collection included semi-structured interviews with thirty-four interviewees drawn from thirty firms across the UK automotive, IT firms and government agencies. The study used secondary data collected from firms' sustainability reports and waste management policy documents to triangulate interviewees responses. The key finding is that an augmented waste hierarchy is the most realistic description of a circular economy. There is a convergence between the automotive and IT industries with SMEs driving change. It also revealed theory- practice contradictions, giving rise to two types of a circular economy- a Standard Circular Economy and an Advanced Circular Economy. It draws a list of characteristics for finding each type for helping managers make informed decisions. The theory-practice contradictions resulted in an Intention-Practise-Outcome Model. It is about synchronising a firm's organisational resources with circular economy strategic intent and practise. In turn, it helps firms deliver economic, environmental, and societal benefits-an avenue for future circular economy research. This PhD thesis also contributes theoretically to the RBV theory by finding that VRIN characteristics of resources are not yet proven suitable for a circular economy business. Identifying a circular economy as a dynamic capability identifies a new competitive advantage, which provides new directions in strategic management research. This research informs urban mining, natural capital policymaking, highlighting a need for connecting waste-hierarchy, Industry 4.0, and innovation policy. This research study contributes to the new developing circular economy scholarship and enhances business sustainability and strategic management knowledge domains.

The idea that entrepreneurship can solve unemployment has undergone in-depth discussion in both the academic and business worlds. However, whether entrepreneurship can achieve the same result across different environments is a pertinent question. Studies suggest several factors responsible for an individual's intention to start a business to be self-employed. These factors could be social, environmental, economic or political. This study employed a phenomenological design and considered the vehicle of entrepreneurship as a means of addressing Nigeria's high rates of unemployment by investigating the entrepreneurial intention of individuals to start a business. The study interviewed 16 practising Nigerian entrepreneurs across Retail, Education, Health, Hospitality, Agriculture and Oil Exploration. The intention was to understand participants' entrepreneurship journey and experience to comprehend the critical drivers for entrepreneurship. Results identify ten categories- with sub-themes- that emerged from the interviews conducted. These are grouped under the following headings: being your boss, market opportunity, the process of becoming an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship education, government policy, funding a business, challenges of entrepreneurship in Nigeria, taxation, participant entrepreneurship journey and is entrepreneurship the way forward. The results suggest several factors are responsible for the success of entrepreneurship in a given environment. These factors include relevant business policies, systems, and processes, particularly the level of infrastructural development in the background and government involvement. The findings of this study reveal that entrepreneurs are dynamic, while entrepreneurship can provide individuals with social and economic freedom. However, entrepreneurship requires relevant systems, processes and support, such as government involvement or policies, entrepreneurship education and relevant infrastructural provision. The implications of the findings of this study suggest entrepreneurship is a global concept with a local or contextual application. The study advocates this position because environmental factors or conditions determine whether the vehicle of entrepreneurship could resolve unemployment issues or not. Countries have different circumstances, and, as such, how Business is practised in a country is a function of those factors present in that country, and such factors affect the way companies are created. Therefore, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on entrepreneurial intention concerning how businesses are created, especially in developing countries where factor conditions seem challenging. In addition, it makes a methodological contribution establishing the need for entrepreneurship to be researched from a qualitative position as opposed to quantitative work.

This research investigates how women's activism and organisation influenced strategy and policymaking in the arena of business support over twenty-three years in a region of the UK. The research focuses specifically on the West Midlands region of England, between the periods of 1988 and 2011. The study explores the process of originating an idea and the evolution of that idea into a regional policy debate, implementation and practice. The study explores an area of contemporary theory. Public policy analysis and female entrepreneurship are relatively recent disciplines from the latter part of the twentieth century (Brush et al., 2003; Lasswell, 2018). Women's enterprise policy research develops and applies theoretical concepts across both disciplines, to address the specific concerns of policy practice for supporting female entrepreneurship across the world. The research adopts a qualitative longitudinal analysis approach to public policy study. Feminist and critical realist frames are applied to documentary data, gathered over the study period in order to develop three case studies. The chronological cases detail the activities of women's groups advocating for regional strategic interventions in support of women's enterprise. The Advocacy Coalition Framework approach (Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993) is then applied to the case studies in order to provide analysis of the policy process. This is supplemented with critical realist analysis to provide further perspectives on the research data. The research provides a comprehensive assessment of the policy process over time and illustrates how women organised in order to create policy change, as a form of entrepreneurial feminism (Orser and Elliot, 2015). It contains detailed insight into advocacy coalitions and their operations in the creation and implementation of female entrepreneurship policy and practice in the UK; highlighting the importance of political will and strong coalitions in successful policy practice.

Entrepreneurship within companies, known as corporate entrepreneurship (CE), has increasingly gained attention due to its ability to increase organisation competitiveness, growth, performance, profitability and learning. As interest in CE increases, researchers note that some aspects of the CE process require further exploration. One aspect of the CE process that continues to garner attention is the resourcing of CE initiatives. While the process of CE has been shown to revolve around the combination of resources, research on the resourcing of CE initiatives has often been fragmented and concentrated on resource availability whereas resourcing entails more than the acquisition of resources - it also includes the identification and configuration of resources. Consequently, this thesis qualitatively examines how resourcing occurs during the development of CE initiatives by drawing on ten companies in the manufacturing (FMCG) and services (financial) sectors in Ghana. The thesis presents three process models - two on the resourcing process; and one on resourcing and the speed of developing CE initiatives. Furthermore, the thesis presents a categorisation of CE based on resourcing and delineates stages of the CE process where different dimensions of resourcing are heightened. Again, the thesis highlights the external dimension in the development and resourcing of CE initiatives. Notably, the thesis argues that networks may matter more for reputation enhancing initiatives that have social impetus than for those with purely commercial or business interests. The thesis further suggests that, with regard to the speed of developing CE initiatives, different strategies may be appropriate for different stages of the CE process - less formalised CE processes may be appropriate at the initiation stage whereas more formalised CE processes may be useful post-initiation stage to facilitate integration, resourcing and speedy development of CE initiatives.

Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs), understood as a type of organisational environment conducive to fostering high-growth and technology oriented startups, are currently deemed important for economic and employment growth. However, while the flagship case of Silicon Valley is widely researched and invoked, our knowledge of variation in how EEs develop is limited, and insufficiently theorised. In response, this thesis adopts an institutional perspective, conceptualising EEs as organisational fields, and addressing how the interplay between agency and structure result in different developmental trajectories of location-based EEs. The thesis consists of three empirical papers that examine several cases of EEs in Japan and India focused on Information and Communication Technology. The in-depth inductive studies are anchored in interview and participant observation data generated during multiple fieldwork visits. The findings illuminate key novel concepts: 1) a field development mechanism of intra-field cross-generational support (uncovered in an emerging field of Tokyo EE examined in relation to domestic large corporations); 2) a comparative framework of Varieties of Entrepreneurial Ecosystems (derived from an analysis of Tokyo and Bangalore - the biggest EEs in their respective countries); 3) an institutional infrastructure-related element of place cohesion (identified from a comparison of Osaka-Kyoto and Fukuoka - smaller EEs developing within one institutional context where the dominant EE is already present). Together, the papers show that differences in EE developmental trajectories stem from the interplay of EE stakeholders' agency to develop a desired EE institutional infrastructure (which is similarly conceptualised across locations), and the underlying elements for such infrastructure (which can be very time- and location-specific). Particular agency-related mechanisms that are crucial to EE development, depend on the EE relations to other fields. Overall, the thesis contributes to the scholarship on EEs and organisational fields, enhancing more contextualised understanding of EEs, and suggesting how to better study fields in a comparative and interconnected perspective.

The inspiration for this research came from anecdotal evidence of the important relationships between design, entrepreneurship and innovation. In particular how designers could transfer their skills into the entrepreneurial settings. In earlier studies, the connection between the designer's logic and the entrepreneur's logic have been established. In general, both profiles present a tendency to work experimentally, focusing on the effects of their actions rather than over-analysing the information available. In the early stages of product development and new venture creation, creativity represents a significant component of business success, yet, there is the need to change from striving for the ideal to realizing and implementing what is practicable. The implementation stage enticed the researcher to understand why there were very few testimonies of designers setting up consumer product companies. Anecdotal accounts available in the literature tend to tell 'the success story' of the journey without attempting to understand the underlying thinking patterns of the central characters. The researcher decided to come to Northumbria University, drawing upon its ranking of graduate business start-ups and the reputation and experience in both its Design and Business Schools. This study explores the experiences and capabilities of Designer Entrepreneurs i.e. designers who have taken a founding role in a start-up organisation. It focuses on entrepreneurs bringing new consumer-products to market where they must manage the tensions between authoring the best possible new product, with the urgency and pragmatics of getting to market at the right moment. The entrepreneurial process refers to the set of steps and decisions designers took to make their ideas reach the market. During this exploration, a significant finding on the entrepreneurial process emerged from the data: The intertwined influences of: new product development and new venture creation along with the designer´s transition (integrated by the designer´s mindset evolution and the sense of authorship). The sense of authorship contributes to the coherence between personal believes and desires and the final execution of the product/company. On the other hand, the designer´s mindset refers to the evolution of the mentality experienced by designers when move their expert area outwards. There are no studies concentrated on the transition experienced by designers when they set out on the entrepreneurial journey which is key to understand the entrepreneurial process. This study contributes a greater understanding of the relationships and sometimes tensions between new product development, new venture creation and the designer´s transition during the entrepreneurial journey. Also, this research synthetized a Design Entrepreneurship for Consumer Product Innovation Typology to help understand design entrepreneurship using a set of principles and tools taken from other theories from relevant Design and Business disciplines. The study also describes the entrepreneurial ecosystem to prepare the ground for the research. The entrepreneurial ecosystem refers to companies, technologies, and platforms that interact with the entrepreneurs and have an impact on the product/start-up. The study considered the testimony of more than 50 individuals, active within the design entrepreneurial ecosystem, including the Designer Entrepreneurs themselves. The research was carried out following a constructivist grounded theory approach, utilising a series of creative tasks and interview questions developed for this study. Each interaction with members of the ecosystem honed the researcher´s understanding of the research problem. The key audiences for this research are design academics and designers at the outset of the entrepreneurial journey. From the academic side, academics can stimulate the entrepreneurial activity of design schools by understanding how successful Designer Entrepreneurs have taken a concept and convert it into a viable business. For the design and business incubators audience, this study helps to identify the benefits designers bring to the table, and how their intrinsic authorship, mentality, and practice-based approach facilitate the creation of meaningful products, as well as the start-up adaptation to uncertain environments.

Historically, green cleaning products have performed poorly in comparison with conventional alternatives. Other green product categories are rising in popularity while green cleaning products remain unfavourable. Consumers may view green cleaning products negatively because they believe that green products cannot be as strong as conventional products. This has only been tested in hypothetical products. Consumers also view green cleaning products as safer than conventional cleaning products. This thesis explores these perceptions by answering the following research questions: 1. Are there differences in the composition of green and conventional cleaning products? If so, do these differences have implications for health and the environment? 2. Does a product’s environmental status influence how the product is perceived by consumers in terms of its effectiveness? 3. Does a product’s environmental status influence how the product is perceived by consumers in terms of its safety? 4. Does a product’s environmental status influence the way in which its ingredients are perceived by consumers? Firstly, a comparison of ingredients was made using publicly available information. Secondly, a novel experimental study was used to compare perceptions of product efficacy. Finally, an online survey was utilised to explore perceptions of product and ingredient safety. There are no differences between green and conventional cleaning products in their potential harm to human health. Negative quality perceptions of green household cleaning products are not present for existing green cleaning products. Consumers struggle to identify green cleaning products, but those who correctly identify green cleaning products perceive them as safer for health than conventional products. There were no perceived differences in ingredient safety between green and conventional products. This research contributes an original methodology by exploring perceptions in real over hypothetical products, and outlines principles that future research must follow.

This thesis answers three research questions in the field of firm-level productivity, drawing on recent empirical frameworks that allow me to use detailed production datasets to simultaneously estimate firm heterogeneities in productivity, consumer demand and price-cost markups. Trade Reform Redux: Prices, Markups and Product Quality revisits the widely-studied Indian tariff liberalization that began in 1991 to show that rising product price-cost markups, documented in the recent literature are linked to quality upgrading responses to lower tariffs on imported intermediates. In On The Productivity Advantage of Cities, a co-authored paper, we shed new light on the nature of agglomeration externalities for which most theory focuses on differences in technical ability of firms across space, but for which most evidence relies on productivity measures that may be biased by differences in prices across space. We provide new evidence from France that shows little heterogeneity in the technical efficiency -– the ability to turn a basket of inputs into physical outputs, or what we call quantity TFP -– displayed by firms in dense and less-dense areas, but some heterogeneity in the prices firms are able to charge, as well as a positive correlation between efficient allocation of resources within regions and the density of regions. And in The UK's Great Demand Recession, a co-authored paper, we estimate changes in revenue total factor productivity, i.e., TFP estimated using deflated sales data; quantity TFP; consumer demand and other measures for UK firms before, during and after the Great Recession. Our results show weakness in quantity TFP and demand pushed down productivity in manufacturing and services. This thesis contributes to the existing literature in its use of these datasets and methods to provide new understanding of firms' responses to a range of economic forces, with implications for both theory and policy in all three settings.

There is a growing interest in entrepreneurialism as a way to develop and diversify economies around the world. Entrepreneurship Education (EE) is believed by some governments to have the potential to develop entrepreneurial skills and knowledge and change students’ mindsets and attitudes regarding SME start-ups, as one way to create a more entrepreneurial economy. This thesis investigated the potential of a higher education entrepreneurship education programme to expand the number of entrepreneurs in Oman, as one element of the government’s skill formation strategy, and thereby contribute to economic diversification. A mixed method approach was adopted, comprising a small-scale survey and semi-structured interviews, to generate data on stakeholder understandings of entrepreneurialism and their perceptions of the programme. The thesis reveals that understandings of entrepreneurialism and the development of entrepreneurial attitudes are influenced by a wide range of political, economic, social, and cultural factors, which in Oman’s rentier state context have particular implications for the way the Entrepreneurship Education Programme (EEP) is implemented and then received by its users. Ultimately, the programme, in its current form, appears to influence the way in which the students in this study understand entrepreneurship, but seems unlikely to deliver the entrepreneurial skills and mindset changes needed to grow the number of students intending to engage in entrepreneurial activity following graduation. The findings draw attention to the limitations of education and skill policies based on Human Capital Theory (HCT) and guided by ‘supply side’ imperatives. Instead, the thesis emphasises the importance of considering contextual specificities when designing and implementing national educational policies. It encourages, moreover, further research to improve policy and practice with regard to the implementation of entrepreneurship education programmes. The current policy focus needs to be extended to consider the wider economic and societal context for diversifying the economy.

My PhD thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter revisits the results in Bernard and Jones (1996) that argue that a group of 14 OECD countries does not converge in the manufacturing sector. For an updated dataset I show that the non-catch-up in the manufacturing sector result still prevails for the standard estimators, but when I allow for parametrical heterogeneity it is overturned. I conclude that the estimators allowing for parametrical heterogeneity, for example MG and CDMG, can deal with the cross-country level measurement issues inherent for the manufacturing sector and reverse the pathological results about the convergence. The second chapter focuses on the role of the services sector for aggregate productivity growth and cross-country productivity differences. I show that, because of the substitutability between high- and low-productivity growth services sectors (progressive and stagnant services sectors), structural change would not take down aggregate productivity growth further in the future for developed countries. My results also reveal that this substitutability within the services sector contributes to productivity differences between the US and other developed countries. In the third chapter of my PhD thesis I want to understand the deeper causes behind the substitutability between progressive and stagnant services sectors. My results reveal that the substitutability of the progressive services with other sectors in the economy remains robust to the changes in input/output table and structural change within the investment value added. I note that the positive correlation between the nominal and real value added shares reflects the presence of progressive services. Modelling the progressive services separately can alone account for 30% of the income effects.

This dissertation explores how the rise of intangible inputs - such as software and information technology - affects the growth rate of total factor productivity.

This research uses the threshold concept framework as a lens to define entrepreneurship as an academic subject and suggest approaches to entrepreneurship education in higher education informed by how students understand it. A staged stakeholder curriculum inquiry has been conducted, interrogating the perspective of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship educators and students of entrepreneurship education. By researching the distinctive way entrepreneurs think and practise, candidate threshold concepts (CTCs) in entrepreneurship have been identified. Approaches to educating students in entrepreneurship within a framework of engagement are suggested, together with a means of assessing students’ experiences of learning entrepreneurship. A conceptual framework to inform entrepreneurship education is presented, responding to calls for such an approach (Blenker, Elmholdt, Frederiksen, Korsgaard, & Wagner, 2014; Fayolle, 2013; Nabi, Liñán, Fayolle, Krueger, & Walmsley, 2017; Neck & Corbett, 2018). Applying the threshold concept framework serves as a counter discourse to the commodification of learning, to which entrepreneurship is particularly vulnerable. This research assumes that there are distinctive ways entrepreneurs think and practise and builds on research that argues entrepreneurs are distinguishable according to their cognitive tendencies (Shaver & Scott, 1992). It also assumes that these ways of thinking and practising can be developed in higher education and that students can be educated to think and practise like entrepreneurs (Palich & Bagby, 1995). Taking an interpretivist and social constructivist approach, entrepreneurship has been treated as a socially constructed phenomena and a qualitative research approach has been adopted. A staged stakeholder curriculum inquiry involving semi-structured interviews, a Delphi survey and concept mapping workshops has been conducted with ten entrepreneurs, eighteen entrepreneurship educators and forty-eight students. By identifying CTCs in entrepreneurship and gathering perspectives on effective ways to educate students in them; the bounded and integrative characteristics of threshold concepts enable a definition of entrepreneurship and inform the development of entrepreneurship curricula.

Social enterprises are organizations that employ business-like tactics to achieve primarily social goals, with the distinguishing qualities of having social objectives, using social capital, and creating social value. While there is a body of literature that demonstrates the potential of social entrepreneurship to address various issues in the Middle East, this research instead analyses social enterprises’ actual ability to achieve their goals as independent, community-responsive actors. The work is situated in the wider debates about democratization in the region by assessing the impact that regime surveillance tactics have on the development of social capital. This thesis evaluates social entrepreneurship in its political and legal context and is based on fieldwork in Jordan using semi-structured interviews with social entrepreneurs, members of their support networks, and government officials. By supporting social entrepreneurship, the international community implicitly supports development initiatives that rely on social capital, because social capital is intrinsic to social enterprises. This is problematic because the value of social capital in development is disputed; it can have positive or negative, exclusionary effects. This means that international actors may be supporting a strategy that has been shown to promote only ‘accepted’ kinds of association and perpetuate the status quo. The issue that therefore arises is what the role of social capital is in Jordan, an authoritarian regime where government surveillance is prevalent. This thesis finds that the Jordanian regime uses surveillance and bureaucratic mechanisms to direct and restrict the work of social enterprises by imposing structural restrictions on the development of social capital. Confusing bureaucratic policies, the ministries’ pervasive oversight, restrictions in the legal code, a foreign funding control mechanism, and royal NGOs’ co-optation of social entrepreneurship are all indicators of persisting semi-authoritarian governance approaches. Therefore, Jordan’s social enterprises fail to contribute to the growth of an independent civil society and are not effective development agents due to the many regulatory restrictions that govern them. Through an examination of the impact of the regime’s surveillance on the political liberalization process and the development of social capital, the thesis argues that state support or involvement with social enterprises and social capital can build hierarchical associational relationships instead of social networks that lead to political empowerment. Such social networks have been theorized to lead to mutually beneficial collective action that results in steps towards democratization. In Jordan, however, state surveillance interrupts the pathway from social capital development to democratization. Through the case of social enterprises, the thesis demonstrates that the regime’s interference with social capital negates any theoretical potential it may have to be the ‘building block’ of civil society because it renders social capital the dependent variable. Thus, the state’s influence extends to the very foundations of any democratization processes in Jordan.

This doctoral research studies the deeper drivers of innovation, productivity and growth as well as the interlinkages between these three aspects. The thesis is organized as follows: Chapter 1 places the motivation of this research within the context of the wider body of research in the fields of economics of innovation, productivity and growth. It sets out the main aspirations of this research, followed by a brief outline of the research. Chapter 2 explores a wider set of innovation drivers driving firm growth, combining analysis of formal R&D processes promoted by growth theories alongside informal R&D linkages emphasized by national systems of innovation (NSI). The main goal is to distinguish primary drivers from secondary drivers, by examining the differences in key forces driving firm revenue levels versus those driving firm revenue growth. This hypothesis is tested through a dataset of 27 European economies over the period of 1996-2010, controlling also for globalization and industrial organizational drivers. Findings reveal that informal R&D linkages appear to be the primary drivers needed to establish firm revenue levels, while formal R&D investment is needed as a secondary driver to spur firm revenue growth. Chapter 3 delves into the structural drivers of productivity. Using an adaptation of the economic development framework, the Lewis model, this study proposes that country level labour productivity may be driven structurally by the movement of resources from smaller firm to larger firm-size structures. To enable this analysis, a new database is built up at sector level for the 32 European economies between 2000-2012. The contribution of firm-sizes to country productivity is measured through isolating classifications of small, medium and large firms, alongside control variables capturing growth theory drivers, globalization, credit conditions and monetary lending policies. Large firms are indeed found to be the most significant firm structure shaping country labour productivity. Chapter 4 examines whether firm independence, previously not considered critical for firm growth, may indeed be an important criterion to enable scale up of innovative firms into successful frontier large firms. To shed light on the role of independence, the study examines the drivers of firm growth and the policy tools used to support firm growth – with innovative independent firms separately assessed from overall innovative firms. Using firm level dataset for all UK sectors between 2006-2016, policy tax and financing tools supporting start-up, growth and merger activity are examined alongside growth theory drivers, globalization and monetary lending policy. The empirical analysis reveals that independent firms reap much higher growth, with age of independence delivering a bonus growth dividend. Finally, Chapter 5 summarizes the findings of this thesis, listing the limitations of the analysis alongside future potential areas of research.

Understanding how entrepreneurial processes unfold within firms is crucial to understand the heterogeneities in entrepreneurial outcomes and how firms should conduct the entrepreneurial process so as to benefit the most from it. There is no process model to depict entrepreneurship within firms in existence as yet. This study therefore investigates how entrepreneurial processes unfold within firms and what implications of how these processes are conducted will have for long term firm growth. This study draws on the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) literature and the Penrose's theory of firm growth process to map the underlying mechanism behind the firm growth process. To capture the complexities and interactions among these subprocesses, this research employs the System Dynamics modelling method, which is most instrumental in investigating the behaviour of complex systems involving multiple interacting feedback processes. The modelling process shows that entrepreneurial opportunity identification and entrepreneurial opportunity exploitation processes are two interlinked reinforcing processes. The simulation results further show that different EO conditions could lead to qualitatively different growth trajectories. The three EO dimensions are found to exert different influences on firm growth. An interesting and surprising finding is that marginal changes in the level of the three EO dimensions could mean big differences in the firms' long term growth trajectory. This finding on the existence of tipping point behavior for the effect of EO calls into question the tradition of understanding EO's growth contribution in a linear way. Furthermore, an extensive number of simulation runs with different dimensional configurations of EO are performed. The simulation results show that different dimensional configurations of EO could produce different growth results and that there exist interaction effects among the three dimensions of EO on firm growth. A deep analysis of the simulation results and model structure reveals how the three dimensions interact with each other in influencing firm growth. This finding indicates that firms not only need to consider an overall level of EO, but also need to consider the specific dimensional configurations of EO.

Entrepreneurial learning researchers have argued that experimentation is a useful learning technique for entrepreneurs to better understand customer needs (Nicholls-Nixon et al., 2000; Politis, 2005). However, a detailed analysis of extant entrepreneurial learning literature suggests that the experimentation concept is underdeveloped in explaining various aspects of experimentation. In this respect, little is known about: what an experiment is; how experiments are undertaken; how they are evaluated for success or failure; how they are developed and evaluated within the entrepreneur's social network; and how entrepreneurs learn from these experiments. To advance understanding, a theoretical framework of the entrepreneurial experimentation learning process is constructed and using this, the learning processes of three novice digital technology entrepreneurs, each developing a new venture opportunity, are investigated and analysed. The research takes an interpretive, qualitative case study approach comprising multiple in-depth longitudinal interviews with the entrepreneurs and key members of their social network. The results offer five key contributions to theory. First, these entrepreneurs started the experimentation process with attempts to exploit the opportunity through their experiments, rather than seeing their first experiments as part of the exploration process. Second, experimentation involves multiple different types of explorative and exploitative experiments and levels of investments. Third, rather than learning from small failures, these entrepreneurs, with their predisposition towards success, tend to over-optimistically evaluate small successes in their experiment outcomes as evidence to support continued exploitation. In doing so, these entrepreneurs repeatedly ignore the build-up of evidence pointing towards failure. Fourth, in all cases, the entrepreneurs exhibited low-level learning from exploitation activities, and in most cases, this only changed with a critical incident and full recognition of a small failure. Fifth, and finally, once involved, social actors' advice supported high-level learning, with critical reflection, new market ideas, and guided pre-experiment design and measurement. This was a key area missing when entrepreneurs experimented in isolation. That said, the evidence suggests that social learning was most effective when the entrepreneurs received regular, consistent support and advice from a single actor before, during, and after experiments. Contributions to practice include: first, entrepreneurs should be encouraged to objectively verify and validate experiment results; second, individuals and organisations supporting entrepreneurs need to avoid the descriptive term small failures and refer to setbacks; and third, entrepreneurs should be made aware of support available prior to these setbacks and encouraged seek out social actor engagement before encountering setbacks. This study is subject to inherent limitations of the qualitative approach taken, which restrict the generalisability of these findings. The concluding section, therefore, outlines these limitations and proposes ways in which future research can address them.

Although female entrepreneurs are viewed as the rising stars of the economy (Vossenberg,2013) and the way forward, (World Economic Forum, 2012), the discourse on underperformance in female entrepreneurship still holds (Marlow and McAdam, 2013). Entrepreneurial outcomes have been studied in terms of financial performance, wealth creation, firm survival, (Baumoletal.,2007\McMullen and Warnick,2016), and promotion of economic growth in developed and developing economies and across industries(Audretschetal.,2006;Baumol,1986). While evaluating entrepreneurial activity in financial terms is important, it often results in a one dimensional analysis of female entrepreneurial outcomes, (Zahraetal., 2009). Resultantly, female entrepreneurs are stereotyped as underperforming, owing to the standard yardstick against which their performance is evaluated in entrepreneurship. Accordingly, this research evaluates entrepreneurial outcomes from a holistic and non-monetary lens, one that extends beyond profit, growth, wealth creation or employment generation. In particular, this research studies the multiple value outcomes accruing through female entrepreneurial activity and the contextual embeddedness of such value using the entrepreneurial ecosystem framework. To develop a holistic understanding of value in female entrepreneurship, and the contextual influences affecting this value, in-depth interviews with 85 female entrepreneurs in Vehari, a district in Southern Punjab, Pakistan, were conducted. These entrepreneurs were randomly selected from a list of working women entrepreneurs trained under the dairy farming project of United States Agency of International Development(USAID). The key findings suggest that despite constraints in entrepreneurial ecosystem, women create value at multiple levels; towards themselves (individual value), towards the businesses (business value), towards the households (household value), and towards the community (community value). Highlighting value at four unique fronts, this research alters the lens through which performance and success is viewed in female entrepreneurship. In doing so, it highlights the subjective measures of performance in entrepreneurship, ones that are not recognized nor appreciated, but which are equally worthy. Accordingly, it challenges the underperformance image of female entrepreneurs, suggesting that women do not underperform but that the lens through performance is viewed is superficial.

Nigeria introduced entrepreneurship education programme in the undergraduate curriculum as a compulsory module in all its universities, with the objective of nurturing entrepreneurial intentions in the university graduates. This study evaluated the programme by investigating its effectiveness in nurturing entrepreneurial intentions in university graduates. The primary objective was to determine the effect of the entrepreneurship education programme on the entrepreneurial intentions of the graduates. The research was a sequential explanatory design, a mixed method of quantitative study followed by a qualitative study. The quantitative study was implemented through cross-sectional survey and quasi-experimental designs with two samples of 409 graduates who constituted the experimental group and 402 undergraduates who formed the control group while the qualitative study was implemented through in-depth interviews with six entrepreneurship education programme lecturers. All the samples were drawn from six universities in Nigeria. Furthermore, the theoretical framework was the theory of planned behaviour. Using the structural equation modelling (SEM) - AMOS, the quantitative study modelled the effects of entrepreneurship education programme proxied by traditional teaching methods and innovative teaching methods, and cultural values on the entrepreneurial intentions of university graduates with personal attitude and subjective norm as mediating variables. Findings revealed that teaching methods have only partial effect on entrepreneurial intentions. Cultural values affect entrepreneurial intentions indirectly through personal attitude and subjective norm. In addition, personal attitude and subjective norm were found to be significant in predicting entrepreneurial intentions. Fundamentally, the entrepreneurship education programme resulted in the decline of the entrepreneurial intentions of the graduates and as such has an adverse effect. The programme had no effect on the personal attitudes of the graduates. The qualitative study confirmed the quantitative finding that the lecturers employ mostly traditional teaching methods with lecture method as the most common. It also found that the lecturers have no qualifications in entrepreneurship education and are not given the relevant training. It can be concluded that the entrepreneurship education programme is ineffective in nurturing entrepreneurial intentions and is disadvantageous as a measure to curb graduate unemployment in Nigeria. The research has several implications for policy including: the possibility to provide a framework for policy reforms in entrepreneurship education programme undergraduate curriculum and policy reforms regarding evaluation and monitoring of the programme.

By spotlighting the creative fashion industry in an Indonesian city, Bandung, this study explores the underdeveloped institutional environment faced by the fashion industry actors, strategies taken by the fashion industry actors to deal with the underdeveloped institutional environment, the actors who play the roles of institutional entrepreneurs, and the nature of institutional work carried out by these institutional entrepreneurs. This exploratory research relies on a multiple case study approach by conducting in-depth interviews and documentary analysis. It is demonstrated in this study that Bandung’s fashion industry originated from communities’ creativity in showing their own identities through fashion. Fashion products based on the spirit of independence became a trend over time, along with the process of fashion brand creation by micro and small-scale enterprises, which acted as an inspiration for many youth communities to undergo a similar process. Some of these fashion brand creators also established an informal association that helped the fashion industry actors to deal with problematic institutional conditions. Furthermore, to make a greater impact on the city level, a forum that consisted of 50 communities initiated a creative economy development. It is argued in this study that this initiative spanned an institutional void related to creative economy development in Bandung. This study offers a contextualized understanding of how the fashion industry actors in Bandung, Indonesia, coped with the underdeveloped institutional environment. They were conducting practices that spanned institutional voids and resulted in new arrangements. This study develops an explanatory framework of institutional entrepreneurship in the fashion industry in an emerging market economy, hence it advances the study of institutional entrepreneurship and institutional work in the context of emerging markets.

Differences in cross-country economic performance have been attributed to differences in the quantity and quality of capital and labour stocks over time and space and cross- country differences in the productivity of these factors. Furthermore, institutional infrastructures have been considered deep determinants of the allocation and productivity of the factors of production. Despite the persistently low economic performance of middle- and low-income economies, there is a paucity of research into the dynamics of the relationship between institutions, productivity and economic performance in middle- and low-income economies. There is much research on these relationships among advanced and OECD economies, but no clear perspective of the dynamics of these relationships in middle- and low-income economies. This thesis extends the discussion of the relationship between institutions as deep determinants, productivity and the factors of production and their influence on long-run economic performance in middle- and low-income economies. This thesis takes a positivist-deductivist approach. A representative sample of 17 developing economies for which relevant data is publicly available is used to test for the fixed and random effect of institutions and productivity on long-run economic performance. Using growth-accounting, this thesis decomposes aggregate output to calculate national levels of productivity, measured as TFP . Then using factor analysis, publicly available data is used to calculate an aggregate institutional index and four institutional factors. Using fixed and random effects models, this thesis tests for the influence of the aggregate institutional index and four institutional factors on levels of TFP capital and labour stock. There is evidence that in the long run, levels of TFP drive how efficiently and intensely the factors of input are converted in the production process in the sample of 17 developing economies. The results suggest that cross-country differences in economic performance amongst these developing economies may be due to differences in TFP. Further that in the long run, institutions indirectly affect economic performance in these 17 developing economies through their direct influence on levels of TFP. Levels of TFP are directly influenced by the quality of national institutions, thereby impacting the efficiency and intensity of converting labour and capital stocks in the production process.

This study focuses on necessity-driven entrepreneurs, seated within the entrepreneurial ecology where culture and individuals intersect. It is responding to the poor understanding of necessity-driven entrepreneurs in extant literature. Specifically, there is not a comprehensive, theoretically informed understanding of necessity-driven entrepreneurs and how entering entrepreneurship from a position of social disadvantage impacts aspirations and behaviors. As such, the study is concerned with how culture impacts entrepreneurial aspirations and resulting entrepreneurial behavior, framed by theories of entrepreneurship, culture, possible future selves, and the entrepreneurial ecology. The study was guided by a general research question that probed the impact of culture on the possible future selves of necessity-driven entrepreneurs. It was supported by specific research questions focused on necessity-driven entrepreneurs' needs, dreams, fears, and the impact of culture. A systematic, yet flexible, qualitative research process was used, informed by interpretivism and constructivism. Thematic analysis was used to facilitate discovery of propositions that can apply to other similar, necessity-driven entrepreneurs in similar contexts. It was found that the needs necessity-driven entrepreneurs are trying to meet are likely to be non-financial and their entrepreneurial dreams and fears are distinctly social. Their belief that they can achieve their needs through entrepreneurship and their possible future entrepreneur selves are sensitive to signals from culture. It was also found that necessity driven entrepreneurs are likely to interpret signals from culture that are encouraging, discouraging, mixed, and sometimes insulting and derogatory. Discouraging signals negatively impact possible future entrepreneur selves and result in risk averse behavior. Finally, it was found that necessity-driven entrepreneurs' social disadvantage may prompt them to act on long-standing entrepreneurial aspirations. To better understand necessity-driven entrepreneurship, we need to broaden our lens beyond assumptions that it is necessarily a profit-motivated, individual-centric activity and simultaneously consider the role that culture plays, within the context of the entire entrepreneurial ecology.

Risk-tolerance is critical to economic activity, affecting numerous socioeconomic outcomes such as occupational choice and educational attainment. Individuals vary in their risk-tolerance. Neoclassical economics struggles to explain the irrational risk-taking of certain individuals, as it does not concern itself with the cause of risk-preferences. This has resulted in poor analytical tractability for economic activities, such as entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is a key occupational choice for economic growth. From an expected utility hypothesis perspective, entrepreneurship is irrational. Using ADHD-like behaviours, this thesis argues for the integration of biology into economics to demonstrate that irrational behaviours are rational and beneficial from an evolutionary perspective. Risk-tolerance has an evolutionary basis and evolutionary evidence indicates that ADHD-like behaviours provided greater risk-tolerance; assisting humans in exiting the single point of origin, migrating to new lands and relaying this information to the risk-averse population. Thus, what appears to be irrational risk-taking in the modern concept is rational behaviour through the lens of evolutionary biology. As such, one is able to see that excess risk-tolerance maximises the individuals’ utility through high risk activities and benefits society, if risk-tolerance is beneficial in the economic climate. In the modern economy, ADHD is a disorder and the evolutionary basis is overlooked in the discipline of economics. This thesis contributes to the understanding of risk-preferences in economics by adapting the unified growth theory, to show that ADHD behaviours increase risk-tolerance and these behaviours have positive and negative effects. Empirical evidence in the thesis shows the behaviours increase selection into entrepreneurship, providing greater analytical tractability for an economic activity that has previously eluded it. At the same time, the thesis shows that mitigating the negative effects of ADHD are contingent upon its interaction with the environment, for instance, ADHD symptoms interact with socioeconomic background to reduce educational attainment in certain groups in society. The results lead to policy recommendations that may increase economic activity and GDP.

This study explores the relationship between institutional entrepreneurship and legitimacy. It looks at how an institutional entrepreneur is able to acquire legitimacy for a novel innovation. The empirical setting is in an emerging economy, because institutions are typically less rigid in emerging economies, and so the likelihood of institutional entrepreneurship occurring is greater, providing more opportunities for experimental observation. While institutional theorists have devoted considerable attention to institutional entrepreneurship in recent years, there has been little focus on exploring the difference between the institutional entrepreneur's actual creative act and the subsequent need for the entrepreneur to acquire legitimacy for her/his innovation. This study is the first to separate these two components of institutional entrepreneurship. By doing so, the study is then able to investigate three related questions: (1) Is it possible to shed new light on resolving the paradox of embedded agency?, (2) What are the mechanisms of legitimacy acquisition that an institutional entrepreneur uses to get her/his novel idea accepted and approved by the internal and external stakeholders?, and (3) What kind of institutional or ideological preconditions might be necessary for institutional entrepreneurial action to benefit or harm a society in an emerging economy? The study uses a qualitative case study design research based on systematic combining approach for data collection and analysis. The critical case study is the establishment of the first free trade zone in Dubai, UAE, the Jebel Ali Free Zone (JAFZA). Data was collected from 18 semi-structured interviews and several secondary resources detailing the establishment of JAFZA; and analyzed using thematic analysis to explain how the institutional innovation of JAFZA was received and accepted in a society. JAFZA has subsequently gone on to become the core business of the hugely successful DP World group.

International trade has become increasingly complex with the emergence of Global Value Chains (GVCs) and production networks; trade in GVCs accounts for almost 80% of global trade. Participating in GVCs can create important opportunities for developing country firms to undertake economic upgrading. However, gains from linking into GVCs are neither automatic nor uniform. For a more holistic understanding of upgrading, the study builds an integrated framework in which upgrading opportunities for a supplier firm depend on both its GVC integration and internal technological capability (TC). Drawing on this framework, the study empirically examines whether GVC integration has boosted product and process upgrading in Indian manufacturing firms, using firm-level data from Prowess for the period 2001-2015. Three aspects of GVC integration are examined; a) the impact of GVC status, b) the impact of GVC embeddedness and c) the impact of GVC governance. GVC firms are identified as two-way traders that are simultaneously importing intermediates and exporting intermediate or final products, and GVC embeddedness is estimated using firm-level measures of vertical specialisation. To capture GVC governance, the study uses firm-level data on skilled labour and ICT. Product upgrading is estimated by measuring firm-level product sophistication, weighted by share of product in total sales of the firm. Process upgrading is captured by estimating firm-level total factor productivity using the Levinsohn-Petrin methodology. Information on R&D, royalty and technical know-how fee is used to construct estimates of Innovative and Operational TC. To address econometric issues of endogeneity and self- selection, a range of methodologies are employed in the study, including OLS, Fixed-effects, System GMM and Propensity Score Matching. A number of robustness checks are also carried out. Empirical results show that linking into, and increasing participation within, GVCs boosts firm-level product-sophistication, with innovative TC playing a complementary role. However, firms in Captive chains (highly power asymmetrical governance structures) produce significantly less sophisticated goods than firms in Relational chains, which exhibit a balance in power between buyers and suppliers. Similarly, linking into GVCs and GVC embeddedness boosts firm-level TFP, with firms in Relational chains experiencing higher productivity growth. Policy suggestions for gainfully linking into GVCs include boosting trade facilitation, improving the business environment, infrastructure development, setting up targeted innovation policies, and moving into Relational GVCs through skills and ICT-development.