http://hdl.handle.net/1842/867 Mon, 20 May 2013 08:21:17 GMT 2013-05-20T08:21:17Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6564 Title: Creating shared value through strategic CSR in tourism Authors: Camilleri, Mark Anthony Abstract: Literature review about corporate social responsibility (CSR) suggests that there are organisational benefits to be gained from unintentional discretionary expenditure in laudable behaviour. With this in mind, the methodology integrates insights from the ‘stakeholder theory’ and the ‘resource-based view theory of the firm’ to sharpen the strategic base for CSR investment. Quantitative and qualitative research techniques have been used to discover how business organisations are creating shared value for themselves and for society. The main study was carried out amongst hotel enterprises in Malta. The quantitative analysis tested the relationship between Strategic CSR (in terms of the organisational benefits) against the firms’ commitment, behaviour and resources devoted to CSR. Secondly the qualitative phase of this study involved an analysis of interviews with owner-managers across the Maltese hospitality industry and with experts who are responsible for setting policies in the tourism regulatory context. The results have indicated that responsible behaviour led to the firms’ financial performance and market standing, effective human resources management and operational efficiencies. Following the empirical findings a model representing the ‘creation of shared value’ for business and society has been put forward. Tue, 27 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6564 2012-11-27T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6505 Title: Integrating transaction cost and institutional theories in an emerging market context: the case of the Tiger Leaping Gorge, Southwest China Authors: Rawlence, Sacha Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to explore the applicability of transaction cost theory to an emerging market context, and to complement it with institutional theory to achieve a closer fit. The research questions are: (1) Which causes of high transaction costs are perceived by firms in the research site? (2) How do they respond to these costs? The responses could range from internalisation, through cooperation, to the new concept of trading isolation, which is the first of two observed gaps in the literature. (3) Could an institutional perspective help to explain firms’ responses, if they differ from what is expected by theory? The consideration of informal institutions with regard to transaction costs in China addresses the second observed gap in the literature, which focuses mostly on formal institutions. Despite the strengths of transaction cost theory in identifying sources of friction in exchange and proposing resolutions, it has been criticised for making assumptions concerning behaviour and the strength of formal institutions that reduce the degree to which it applies in non-Western, emerging market research contexts. This thesis explores these limitations in the context of the inbound tourism sector in the Tiger Leaping Gorge, in rural Yunnan Province, Southwest China. The author’s exploratory study had suggested that some of these firms attempted to reduce transaction costs by decreasing the number of transactions conducted, resulting in their relative isolation from – rather than integration into – a trading network. This hinders the firms’ ability to develop and specialise, limiting their contribution to local economic growth in this relatively undeveloped region of China. In the principal field study, qualitative data were collected through interviews conducted with the proprietors of the population of tourism firms in the research site. The interviews sought to understand the transaction costs the proprietors perceived, their views of institutional strength or weakness (in areas including local government, legal system, financing, development of trust, kinship, guanxi and networks), and the ways they organised their firms. The data were explored first with a thematic analysis, then by coding into fuzzy sets for analysis with the Qualitative Comparative Approach to help identify causal associations between transaction costs, institutions, and responses of isolation from or integration into the market. The main causes of transaction costs were found to be opportunism, uncertainty and bounded rationality. High transaction costs were generally associated with a response of isolation, but they were not the sole causal factor: every isolated firm reported weak informal institutions combined with a variety of transaction cost and formal institutional conditions. The difficulty of establishing new trust relationships increased the isolation of the worst-affected firms, in an environment where weak formal protection from transaction risks confined many firms to personal exchange. A recommendation for local practice is made for firms to attempt to broaden the networks within which they develop trust, to reduce the constraint of personal exchange and consequent isolation. Two policy recommendations are made that could apply here and in emerging markets more generally: a mainstream recommendation to strengthen the enforcement of formal institutions, aiming to facilitate rule-based, impersonal exchange based on generalised trust, and an alternative approach deriving recommendations from the local context and including the consideration of informal institutions. This thesis contributes to theory by highlighting the critical influence of informal social structures on the cost and extent of exchange, and adapting transaction cost theory to better apply to this institutional context. It also constitutes a novel application of the Qualitative Comparative Approach to interview data. Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6505 2010-07-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6415 Title: Refuse or reuse: managing the quality of returns in product recovery systems Authors: Marshall, Sarah Elizabeth Abstract: Increasing legislative and societal pressures are forcing manufacturers to become environmentally-conscious and take responsibility for the fate of their goods after they have been used by consumers. As a result, some manufacturers operate hybrid systems which produce new goods and recover used goods. Product recovery describes the process by which used products are returned to their manufacturers or sent to a specialised facility for recovery, before being sold on the original or a secondary market. The quality of the returned goods is a significant issue in product recovery systems as it can affect both the type of recovery and costs associated with it. Quality in product recovery systems has not been adequately studied, with many authors either ignoring the possibility of receiving lower quality returns, or assuming they are disposed of rather than recovered. However, such assumptions ignore the possibility that the firm might be able to salvage value from lower quality returns by using them for parts or materials. This thesis presents four models that investigate the importance of considering the quality of returns in the management of inventory in a product recovery system, by examining the cost-effectiveness of recovering both high quality and low quality returns. The first model is a deterministic lot-sizing model of a product recovery system. It was found that performing both high and low quality recovery reduced the sensitivity of the optimal cost to operational restrictions on the choice of decision variables. The second model is a discrete-time, periodic-review model formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP) and introduces uncertainty in demand, returns, and the quality of the returns. It was found that performing both types of recovery can lead to cost savings and better customer service for firms through an increased fill rate. The third model addresses those industries where produced and recovered goods cannot be sold on the same market due to customers’ perceptions and environmental legalisation. Using an MDP formulation, the model examines a product recovery system in which produced and recovered goods are sold on separate markets. The profitability of offering two-way substitution between these markets was investigated. It was found that offering substitution can allow firms to increase both their profits and fill rates. The fourth model examines the issue of separate markets and substitution in the continuous time domain using a semi-Markov decision process. The continuous nature of the model allows more detailed examination of the substitution decision. It was found that offering substitution can allow firms to increase their profit and in some cases also increase their fill rate. In some cases, production is performed less frequently when downward substitution can be offered, and recovery is performed less often when upward substitution can be offered. The findings of this thesis could be used to help a firm that is currently recovering high quality returns assess the cost-effectiveness of also recovering lower quality returns. Recovering low-quality items, rather than disposing of them, may allow a firm to increase the amount it recycles. The findings highlight the importance of considering the quality of returns when managing a product recovery system as they show that economic gains can be achieved by reusing rather than refusing low quality returns. Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6415 2012-06-26T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6412 Title: Essays on oil price shocks and financial markets Authors: Wang, Jiayue Abstract: This thesis is composed of three chapters, which can be read independently. The first chapter investigates how oil price volatility affects the investment decisions for a panel of Japanese firms. The model is estimated using a system generalized method of moments technique for panel data. The results are presented to show that there is a U-shaped relationship between oil price volatility and Japanese firm investment. The results from subsamples of these data indicate that this U-shaped relationship is more significant for oil-intensive firms and small firms. The second chapter aims to examine the underlying causes of changes in real oil price and their transmission mechanisms in the Japanese stock market. I decompose real oil price changes into three components; namely, oil supply shock, aggregate demand shock and oil-specific demand shock, and then estimate the dynamic effects of each component on stock returns using a structural vector autoregressive (SVAR) model. I find that the responses of aggregate Japanese real stock returns differ substantially with different underlying causes of oil price changes. In the long run, oil shocks account for 43% of the variation in the Japanese real stock returns. The response of Japanese real stock returns to oil price shocks can be attributed in its entirety to the cash flow variations. The third chapter tests the robustness of SVAR and investigates the impact of oil price shocks on the different U.S. stock indices. I find that the responses of real stock returns of alternate stock indices differ substantially depending on the underlying causes of the oil price increase. However, the magnitude and length of the effect depends on the firm size. The response of U.S. stock returns to oil price shocks can be attributed to the variations of expected discount rates and expected cash flows. Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6412 2012-06-26T00:00:00Z