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According to an estimate, in the year 1820, the difference in per capita income between the richest and the poorest country was no more than 3:1. However, with the industrial revolution, some countries experienced a significant shift in their economic growth and the gap in per capita income between the countries started to widen up. This process resulted in increasing global inequality as some countries progressed rapidly, while others remained behind and could not catch-up with the developed world. Nevertheless, with the increase in productivity given the rapid advances in technology, the developing countries have started to catch-up and most of them are growing faster than their developed counterparts. The process of catching up by the individual countries implies a reduction in the gap in productivity and per capita income with the developed world and collectively if all the countries start to catch-up it is referred to as convergence. The phenomenon of convergence has received much attention in the literature on economic development and the potential causes of convergence have intrigued several debates. The neoclassical growth theory provides the theoretical construct to explain this process of convergence and the role of capital, labour and technology is argued to be fundamental. In this regard, the basic premise of this research is that although technology is an important determinant for economic convergence, it cannot be implemented without the entrepreneurs in the economy. The role of entrepreneurial activity is considered to be significant in economic growth, but it has not been explored in the models of economic convergence. Utilising the GEM data on total entrepreneurial activity this PhD thesis addresses this gap and building on the economic development and entrepreneurial literature it explores the role of entrepreneurial activity in economic convergence under varying business contexts. More importantly, it tries to ascertain what type of entrepreneurial activity assists the catching up countries to progress and reduce their gap in productivity and income with the developed world. As the first step in this research, a systematic review of the literature was conducted resulting in a theoretical framework which uncovered the gaps in the existing knowledge. This informed the respective research questions and provided the design for the empirical research that followed. The first empirical paper showed that the impact of entrepreneurial activity in catching up economies, is only significant in the presence of a feedback loop, i.e. as improved entrepreneurial activity from one year feeds into another, helping the catching up countries to grow faster and reduce the gap in productivity and income with the higher incumbent economies. The second empirical paper showed that in the presence of a feedback loop it is only the opportunity entrepreneurial activity that has a significant impact in reducing the GDP gap, while necessity entrepreneurial activity is insignificant. In a world which is characterised by resource constraints, the biggest public policy issue is effective utilisation of resources. To this end, this research has great insights for public policymakers who are interested in formulating policies for impactful entrepreneurship which can expedite the process of economic development. It shows the importance of entrepreneurial activity in economic catch-up, provides insights into entrepreneurial motivation and at the same time emphasise the value of a feedback loop.

The aim of this research is to develop an understanding of the rapid diffusion of IFRS as a set of global accounting standards by studying in detail the process by which a selected number of countries formally chose to adopt or converge to IFRS over US GAAP. This study examines the IFRS adoption or convergence decision-making processes in six countries, namely Philippine, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Japan and the US. The research explores how the sampled countries made their decision to adopt or converge with IFRS by analysing the events, the work of key actors and the arguments that precipitated and bolstered such decision making. In considering countries where the option was arguably to choose between one of two 'quality' sets of accounting standards, the paper provides a valuable opportunity to consider the extent to which the case for quality (so often made in support of the value and rise of IFRS) was influential in the adoption process and the extent to which other factors played a significant role. This study argues that it is the idea of 'one global accounting standard' which has been diffused and not only just IFRS. Countries opposing IFRS adoption face the risk of being alienated by the IFRS international community, thus several have purported to support the idea of 'one global accounting standard', although that may not necessarily indicate IFRS adoption. This study finds that technical accounting issues, comparing the quality of both standards, did not dominate the debate during the decision making process, but other factors such as maintaining (or advancing) their international influence have been dominant reasons for choosing IFRS in most sample countries. This thesis develops a new analytical framework by depicting the adoption process of IFRS as an ongoing engagement of interested actors who exert different types of institutional work during the four stages of adoption: harmonisation, decision, transition and implementation. The framework, serves to develop existing institutional work theory (Lawrence and Suddaby, 2006), shows that distruptive, creating, and maintaining institutional work are not wielded autonomously but rather are interconnected with each other and they are capable of evolving over time. Focusing on the work itself and not the institutional outcome, the framework reveals a less deterministic causal relationship between one particular institutional work and its intended outcome. This study is hoped to encourage the development of such theory in accounting standard-setting contexts. Empirically, a developing global isomorphism of national standard-setters forms is identified by this study as an evident implication of IFRS adoption. Upon adoption of IFRS, national standard-setters are becoming more similar in their governance and due process, mimicking the IASB model. The need to survive upon surrendering most of their authorities to the IASB, is also arguably encouraging the emergence of regional groups of national standard-setters, which in turn may evolve to become a new regulatory field operating within and between the international and national regulatory fields. Such developments have a number of important implications in respect of the development of future research and regulatory policy in the area of international standard settings.