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This thesis explores in depth the factors influencing growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from a supply chain perspective and examines how entrepreneurship affects them in Omani SMEs. The study is undertaken in order to complement the scarce literature on SMEs related to supply chains and improve the understanding of what factors are crucial in determining growth in them. The research is focused on the role of entrepreneurial qualities and behaviours for the growth of SMEs in developing countries, as their economies are more dependent on smaller companies. The context of this research is within Oman, which represents a typical developing economy containing a large number of active SMEs. The main factors for SMEs growth are identified through a literature review of past and contemporary research studies on supply chain networks, SMEs, growth and entrepreneurship. The factors are divided into areas related to the positions of the company (market position of the firm, negotiating power, Supply chain relationships and firm's image), and to SMEs' value-adding capabilities (cost optimisation, and innovations). The review also reveals that the critical entrepreneurial traits are: managers' culture and motivations, strategic thinking, sense for opportunities, risk-taking, continuous learning, their leadership abilities and networking skills. Based on the literature review findings a conceptual framework is proposed. This research is exploratory and explanatory in nature and relies on a qualitative approach to find out how entrepreneurship relates to growth in SMEs. Primary data is collected from in-depth semi-structured interviews with managers in 25 Omani SMEs from various industrial and service sectors 10 representing different supply chain positions. The data is processed through content analysis using the factors identified from the literature review as initial themes. The findings affirm the importance of SMEs' supply chain positions and their value adding capabilities for growth. Furthermore, all elements of entrepreneurship are found to affect growth factors. Results show positive attitude and growth aspirations lead to more proactive market behaviour, while strategic thinking helps managers choose more sustainable market positions. Results indicate leadership improves company costs by increasing employees' motivation and productivity and also facilitates the implementation of innovations. Learning orientation is stated to be crucial for exploring new ideas for innovations, while a good sense for opportunity helps managers evaluate them and choose the right ones. Finally, risk-taking propensity emerges as instrumental in the actual undertaking of innovation projects as it is needed for initiating them.

The importance of enhancing internal communication and its content during organisational change appears to be neglected by many organisations. Although change management literature agrees generally about the role that communication plays in facilitating change, there is still a dearth of empirical studies that focus on improving internal communication during organisational change phases. The evolution of communication technology has provided some new tools that can enhance internal communication within an organisation. This study explores the role of using of one of these new communication technologies in communicating organisational change through the development of a novel conceptual model. The developed model covers the communication needs in each phase of a planned change, and combines the benefits of communicating organisational change with the benefits of using Enterprise Social Networks (ESN), as found in the literature. The aim is to investigate empirically how ESN as a new internal communication technology can be employed to communicate organisational change effectively in order to facilitate that change. To do so, the researcher in this study has applied a qualitative approach through a case study strategy in order to validate the conceptual model being proposed. The researcher conducted 32 interviews and analysed all of them qualitatively using Nvivo software. The findings of the conducted study revealed that using ESN had many positive impacts on employees, such as increasing their awareness, engagement and participation, which helped to facilitate the overall change projects. Moreover, the study proved the suitability of the validated novel model to contribute in facilitating organisational change through ESN, which can guide leaders, managers, change agents and academics on how ESN can be used to communicate planned change effectively in order to facilitate it.

Past studies have talked about the impact of leadership or impact of culture on implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Implementation of CRM is considered as a change process and most authors agree that leadership and culture play an important role in change projects. However, past research does not look at the combined impact of leadership and culture on implementation of CRM and also, how leadership and culture affect each other. Leaders are argued to be the architects as well as the products of organisational culture and hence understanding of their relationship is critical to develop leadership approaches for the implementation of CRM in different contexts. This study aims to explore how CRM implementation is impacted by the organisational culture and leadership in Saudi Arabian organisations. Three companies, Company (A), Company (B) and Company (C) were used as case studies. Data as collected using semi structured interviews. This thesis finds that leadership plays a very critical role in implementation of CRM in Saudi Arabia especially because leadership has the capability to influence culture as well, especially in high power distance societies like Saudi Arabia. Findings from case study organisations indicate that leaders adopted transactional and autocratic leadership styles in implementation of CRM. These leadership styles have resulted in a number of problems in coordination, communication and implementation of CRM as well as low levels of interaction between top management and the employees working at the front end. This study finds that an autocratic leadership style negatively influences customers’ experience in customer-oriented industries. Moreover, organisational culture plays an important role in implementation of CRM system. It shapes how employees interact with each other and how they interact with their superiors and subordinates and guides employees about what to do and what not to do, including practices, values, and assumptions about their work. This study also found that organisational culture plays an important role in planning implementation and effectiveness of CRM systems in organisations. If there is a mismatch between organisational culture and an information system, it can lead to a number of problems such as delays in offering services to customers.

The Higher Education (HE) sector of a country is a key area indicating the progress of cultural, political and social growth and development. Public and social demands as well as technological developments add new challenges for this sector. Consequently, higher education institutions have changed and a more flexible IT infrastructure is required to enable them to adapt efficiently to competitive business challenges. Enterprise application integration (EAI) is a technology that effectively integrates intra- and inter-organizational systems. Firstly a systematic review of the EAI literature was conducted. From this review, it was apparent that there are no theoretical models for EAI adoption and evaluation for higher education. Hence, this research contributes a conceptual model that includes influential factors derived from the literature and combines them with the proposed classification of influential factors for HE to produce an EAI conceptual model for the HE domain. To validate this proposed model empirical research was conducted. Then, the model was tested using a qualitative case study approach by means of three case studies that were conducted at different universities. Exploratory, explanatory and interpretive data analysis phases were implemented to find what is the current EAI process of HE and how these institutions currently work. In addition, these phases were employed to identify the EAI adoption factors in HE. As a result of this analysis the conceptual model was modified because of complementary factors that emerged. Therefore, the main contribution of this research is a comprehensive and novel model for EAI adoption in higher education area. The adoption EAI factors were identified by extracting a number of parameters from the empirical data. Several important factors that influence and assist the adoption of EAI in HE were identified. Hence, an additional contribution is the classification of factors in EAI adoption into technical and social factors which provides a better understanding of these factors. A further contribution is the derivation of a new classification of the EAI external and internal pressure factors. The development of a consistent model for the adoption and evaluation of EAI in HE is based on these factors.

This thesis is on competent individuals the essential organisational resource, particularly for knowledge work. Managers need to attend to the development of incompetent individuals. What constitutes individuals’ competency (IC), how can it be developed through better human resource management (HRM), and how is it implemented for knowledge management (KM) all needs theoretical explanation. There is disagreement in the research literature on the effect of factors such as education, training, personal characteristic, and environment on IC. The aim of this research is to explore these factors in the context of KM as facilitated by HRM. An exploratory sequential mixed methods and triangulation approach is used. The first phase qualitative research explores IC from employees’ perspective. The findings of this phase are used in the second quantitative phase to develop quantifiable variables. That needs to be further explored. The findings of both phases are triangulated; data consistency between the two phases indicates that the measuring instruments are accurate, which strengthened the thesis argument. The research data is collected from Kuwait, which like any other country suffers from incompetent employees. Forty one interviews were conducted for the qualitative phase and 763 survey questionnaires were collected for the quantitative phase. Knowledge of IC as revealed in the literature suggests four contentious factors that affect it: education, training, personal characteristics and environment, each of which has a prior and on-job occurrence. This thesis postulates: (a) that rather than individual factors, these four factors affect IC holistically; (b) that these four factors apply to each of the four modes of the knowledge creation model (KCM); and (c) that HRM has a significant role in developing IC for KM. Empirical results of the hypothesis show a statistically significant positive effect for each of the four factors on IC and that the effect is holistic. This finding supports the developed model of IC. Therefore, the research hypotheses are accepted and the IC model is proven to be fit. Also, when statistically operationalizing the four factors on the KCM, it was found that not all four factors are absorbed by each of the four modes of the KCM, thus revealing its limitation in practice. Finally, HRM is proven to affect IC and the KCM positively. Nevertheless, this relies on HRM being empowered by the organisation. This thesis makes several contributions. It contributes empirical evidence of the positive and holistic effect of education, training, personal characteristics and environment on IC. This leads to the second contribution that these four factors of IC, as new knowledge, cannot all be processed within a particular mode of the KCM; rather it selectively absorbs particular factors better than others. Thus, the theoretical knowledge creation argument differs from the actual empirical findings. These findings lead to significant contribution to HRM practice. For instance, in hiring or promoting individuals, managers should consider the four theoretically derived and empirically confirmed IC factors, education, training, personal characteristics (PC) and environment.

In today's increasingly competitive business environment, the use of knowledge to gain a competitive advantage has become a serious concern for all organisations. However, some industries have been affected more acutely than others in the transition to a knowledge-based economy. Despite the increasing number of studies relating to Knowledge Management (KM), few have explored this concept within the Airline Industry (AI). As all the studies and model of this research have built on the relationship between KM and organisational performance (OP), the AI is the context of the study within the area of Gulf Cooperative Countries (GCC). This area has been chosen as it provides a good airlines-based industry which is mature. A comprehensive and critical assessment of different KM models was made through a review of the available studies in order to evaluate KM and to identify the processes that affect OP. This research proposes a conceptual model that represents KM processes and OP measurements. This research adopts a qualitative research approach through a case study strategy to identify and test a conceptual model proposed from the literature review. Four international airlines companies were investigated through extensive face-to-face semi-structure interviews, followed by observations, and documentation with managers, senior managers, general managers (GMs) and vice presidents (VPs) to produce accurate results. Data findings were then reported and analysed. The main finding revealed that most studies relating to knowledge management processes and their effect on organisational performance took place in different sectors other than the AI. Also, KM processes and their effect on OP appear to be neglected, leading to conflicts in KM adoption. However, KM processes are applicable in the AI and these processes are not only used and implemented, but are also perceived as important in influencing positive OP. The only KM processes that generally received less support from the participants in terms of perceived effectiveness in affecting positive OP were knowledge translation/repurposing and knowledge disposal. The main contribution of this research is a novel model for KM processes and OP. This model serves as a guideline for the stakeholder and decision maker to be adopted in organisations to lead to more effective implementation and adoption of KM disciplines. It also provides a practical guideline for future KM research which at present seems fragmented within the AI. The suggestion for future research is to further validate and improve the generalisability of the KM processes model to the entire AI in the world and across other industries. Moreover, due to the time constraints and lack of funding, there were no attempts made in this research to assemble a sample that is representative of all the airlines in the world. In order to increase the generalisability of the results of this study, the sample size needs to be expanded and quantitative research might be considered.

Governments around the globe were actively implementing e-government initiatives in the past two decades. However, the majority of e-government initiatives fail in achieving their objectives before, during or after implementation. This study is addressing the problem, e-government initiatives are still more failure than success. Literature indicates differing models that analyse various stages, stakeholders and factors influencing e-government implementation in the public sector. Yet, these models do not explore in particular the important roles and responsibilities of internal stakeholders and influencing factors during different phases of the implementation cycle of the e-government initiative. There is a need for a framework that guides the e-government initiative implementation internally. To achieve the aim of this research, this study should empirically investigate "managing e-government initiative implementation." Consequently, this thesis results in research that contributes towards successful e-government initiative implementation based on empirical data derived from three case studies. The practical parts of the research are three case studies on e-government initiative implementation, which are analysed using an interpretive and qualitative research approach. Besides document analysis and observation, interview was the main method to collect empirical data for this study. For an accurate result, only managers and above level are selected and interviewed. The study examines the proposed framework in three government organizations in the State of Kuwait by using a qualitative, interpretive, multiple case study research strategy. As a result, this thesis is proposing a framework that can be used to enhance the implementation process of e-government initiative throughout the different phases of the implementation cycle, and contributes to the body of knowledge by extending the literature. The stakeholders, factors and implementation phases are mapped together to ease understanding the implementation process of e-government initiative implementation across the public organizations. The study concludes by identifying internal stakeholders, factors, and providing a holistic framework for e-government initiative implementation. The findings of this research are useful for internal stakeholders in the field, as it enables them to gain a better understanding of their own roles and responsibilities. Moreover, researchers in similar fields may find this work useful as a way to approach the study of e-government initiative implementation.

This thesis documents a study of the factors affecting the sustainable growth and performance of the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs). Despite the increased interest of governments, analysts, central bankers, academics and SWF managers and the unprecedented growth in the last two decades, SWFs research is still in its infancy. Two main problems are: current debate between sponsoring and investee countries about governance and transparency of major SWFs including Oman SWF; and how these SWFs can manage their sustainable growth, performance and success rate. These two issues are addressed in this thesis. . An extensive review of the industry and academic literature was done in order to find the relevant facts about the domain of SWFs. The case study research strategy was adopted and primary data were collected by questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews from employees and other stakeholders of Oman SWF. Norway SWF was analysed for the purposes of data triangulation, comparison and validation. The theoretical framework comprising factors affecting growth, performance and success rate was proposed and tested using multiple evidences from secondary data, interviews and statistical analyses of the questionnaire responses. The literature reveals that existing theories of trade, finance, economics and management are able to resolve conflicting issues within SWFs and between sponsoring and investee countries. Results reveal that qualitative factors such as governance, policy and planning and quantitative factors such as structure, investment strategy and decision making ultimately affect the long term growth and success rate of global SWFs. It is also found that external or investee country laws do not affect the SWFs as much as issues within the SWFs. Findings suggest that Oman SWF has issues of concern in many aspects such as governance, transparency, accountability, investment strategy, organisational structure, asset allocation, updating laws and policy mechanisms; thus requiring overall restructuring and transformation of Oman SWF into a professional organisation. This thesis makes a significant contribution by linking theories to SWFs, an extensive literature review, a theoretical proposition comprising factors affecting the growth of SWFs, methodological combination and creating further research streams in the SWF domain.

This empirical research focuses on exploring the role of strategic leadership in the shift from Electronic Government (eGovernment) to Transformational Government (tGovernment). Despite the fact that many countries have implemented eGovernment, the literature reports a number of themhave failed to reach the promised seamless transformation. Moreover, there is a dearth of research into the domain of tGovernment; the research which exists is limited in extent thus leaving scope for timely and novel research contributions. This thesis reveals that a valuable contribution to knowledge could be derived from exploring the domain of transformational government. The leadership motivationand incentives to conduct a radical government organisational change have become an area of great importance. There is limited research on the strategic role of leadership in achieving transformational government domain; hence, the implications of seamless integration for transformational government have yet to be explored. This research discusses transformational government by using a qualitative, multiple case study research strategy. Data is triangulated and analysed according to its explanatory properties and underlying structural context. This researchextends established norms in literature for tGovernment implementation by incorporating established theories in organisational change from other related disciplines. This is to explain the significance of the underlying philosophical nature of the emerging themes, thus enabling government leaders to create robust strategic proposals for tGovernment. This empirical research is conducted in a Middle Eastern cultural context based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The research arrives at several key findings and themesthat contribute to the body of knowledge. A primary finding is the need for a radical change and an innovative managerial approach in using ICT to enable radical change in government organisations. A related finding of this research is that many assumptions underlying the various tGovernment models for transformation fall short to empirically explain the transformational government domain. The government visionary leadership has been proven to be a powerful driver for change in terms of initiating and leading the process for transformational government.

Changes in population, medical interventions and new technology opportunities, as well as public and political expectations, are all contributing factors to the pressure facing the healthcare system to change. Healthcare in the UK is beginning to move away from its traditional boundaries, for example hospitals and towards patient empowerment and collaboration. Consequently the target users for medical devices have also changed, with new users and user groups emerging. Further to this user involvement is emphatically becoming a part of healthcare delivery in the UK, recognised for bringing improvement in the quality, acceptance and in turn success of a medical device. The changing target market has given rise to the need to understand the newly created user groups and finding new ways to elicit their requirements has become vital for the success of medical devices. This research intends to draw upon and capture the importance of user requirements research, by investigating the early stages of Medical Device Development (MDD) giving particular attention to the conceptualisation of the user within this process. The research shall assess the possible links between user requirement elements, to benefit the healthcare system and investigate how user requirements methodologies that have been proven in other fields can be successfully deployed in the medical device development lifecycle. User requirements methodologies identified within the disciplines of information technology, ergonomics, psychology and design theories relating to medical device design, will be collectively assessed for their capacity to collaborate. The research methodology began with undertaking a systematic review of the literature, which facilitated the construction of a single theoretical conceptual framework of user involvement in medical device development, representative of a superior model of user requirements capture. To validate this framework empirical research followed. This was divided into exploratory, explanatory and interpretive data collection phases, with a view to extract; what the current process of MDD is in industry, why and how users are currently deployed in MDD, and the users perceived experience of involvement. The exploratory study showed that manufacturers were aware of their users and extracting the user requirements effectively was seen as the main competitive differentiator. However, manufacturers were not always aware of the best methods to capture user needs, especially with business objectives and obligatory requirements repeatedly taking precedence over optional user involvement methods. The explanatory study showed that not every department has an equal role to play in terms of user involvement in terms of methods to elicit requirements. However there was consensus across the departments to acknowledge their customers and their feedback to ensure they feel valued. Further to this communicating information to potential new devices users was carried out well in advance of the product coming to market. The customer focus was something not only addressed in the design of the device, but the service that followed. The interpretive study emphasised the importance of understanding the user’s needs and to understand that these needs do change over time. Educating users on disease and self-management was considered important, but realisation by patient user of their responsibility was vital in the successful use of a medical device. The original contributions of this study include its endeavour in taking a multidisciplinary approach to account for users and user involvement methods, and apply to specifically the early stages of the medical device development process. The research developed naturally to transcend and collaborate between these theories, as well as represent various voices within the research to really emphasise the multidisciplinary and multi-user approach it took. This research made a further innovative contribution by developing a framework to the problem of inadequate user involvement in the medical device development process. This could prove very beneficial for medical device manufacturers considering user involvement may become a regulatory requirement, meaning all medical device manufacturers would need to incorporate and document user involvement by law.

In the modern clinical and healthcare setting, the electronic collection and analysis of patient related vital signs and parameters are a fundamental part of the relevant treatment plan and positive patient response. Modern analytical techniques combined with readily available computer software today allow for the near real time analysis of digitally acquired measurements. In the clinical context, this can directly relate to patient survival rates and treatment success. The processing of clinical parameters, especially the Electrocardiogram (ECG) in the critical care setting has changed little in recent years and the analytical processes have mostly been managed by highly trained and experienced cardiac specialists. Warning, detection and measurement techniques are focused on the post processing of events relying heavily on averaging and analogue filtering to accurately capture waveform morphologies and deviations. This Ph. D. research investigates an alternative and the possibility to analyse, in the digital domain, bio signals with a focus on the ECG to determine if the feasibility of bit by bit or near real time analysis is indeed possible but more so if the data captured has any significance in the analysis and presentation of the wave patterns in a patient monitoring environment. The research and experiments have shown the potential for the development of logical models that address both the detection and short term predication of possible follow-on events with a focus on Myocardial Ischemic (MI) and Infraction based deviations. The research has shown that real time waveform processing compared to traditional graph based analysis, is both accurate and has the potential to be of benefit to the clinician by detecting deviations and morphologies in a real time domain. This is a significant step forward and has the potential to embed years of clinical experience into the measurement processes of clinical devices, in real terms. Also, providing expert analytical and identification input electronically at the patient bedside. The global human population is testing the healthcare systems and care capabilities with the shortage of clinical and healthcare providers in ever decreasing coverage of treatment that can be provided. The research is a moderate step in further realizing this and aiding the caregiver by providing true and relevant information and data, which assists in the clinical decision process and ultimately improving the required standard of patient care.

This thesis draws on electronic government (e-govemment) policy formulation, implementation and execution. IT has been enthused by the perceived lack of a model for e-government in Saudi Arabia public sectors. A model for e-government implementation is developed for Saudi Arabia. It examines critical factors that have impacts on e-government implementation in Saudi public sectors by collecting and analysing data in both quantitative and qualitative approaches, and further presenting an extensive review on literature. This exercise is significant, to avoid the pitfalls of imposing universal approaches to research and policy practices. The conclusions and recommendations of this research are significant for both practitioners, in providing guidelines for e-government implementation, and scholars, in suggesting further research in the new area of e-government.

The last two decades have seen rapid evolution of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities in the public sector which facilitate the adoption of several IT innovations. E-government is one of these strategic innovations that many government organisations have considered adopting to deliver government information and services to citizens and to support the modernisation of their business processes. This work therefore investigates this issue through a study of the impact of e-government on government organisations and their capabilities towards the e-government adoption. This has led to developing a framework for e-government adoption that outlines the implementation process, determines critical factors influencing adoption, and identifies barriers that could keep government organisations behind the advanced stages of the implementation process. The research also proposes a novel architecture framework for e-government that offers a clear picture of ICT requirements, along with a business process model needed for the implementation for e-government. This framework also supports the researcher in terms of validating the proposed conceptual framework in case organisations. The researcher, by adopting a qualitative case study strategy, examines the proposed framework in three government organisations in the Kingdom of Bahrain.. The analysis of empirical data comes up with a novel comprehensive framework for e-government adoption in the public sector that can be a benefit in multiple ways. The major benefit of this framework is to reduce the confusion surrounding e-government adoption in the public sector by understanding the implementation process, identifying the requirements of ICT tools, and highlighting the importance of organisational readiness and the impact of the environment. The framework can also help decision makers in government to provide a clear strategic action plan for e-government. Finally, the proposed framework can be used by IT experts to estimate the progress level of their e-government projects.