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Alternating timed automata are a powerful extension of classical Alur-Dill timed automata that are closed under all Boolean operations. They have played a key role, among others, in providing verification algorithms for prominent specification formalisms such as Metric Temporal Logic. Unfortunately, when interpreted over an infinite dense time domain (such as the reals), alternating timed automata have an undecidable language emptiness problem. In this thesis we consider restrictions on this model that restore the decidability of the language emptiness problem. We consider the restricted class of safety alternating timed automata, which can encode a corresponding Safety fragment of Metric Temporal Logic. This thesis connects these two formalisms with insertion channel machines, a model of faulty communication, and demonstrates that the three formalisms are interreducible. We thus prove a non-elementary lower bound for the language emptiness problem for 1-clock safety alternating timed automata and further obtain a new proof of decidability for this problem. Complementing the restriction to safety properties, we consider interpreting the automata over bounded dense time domains. We prove that the time-bounded language emptiness problem is decidable but non-elementary for unrestricted alternating timed automata. The language emptiness problem for alternating timed automata is a special case of a much more general and abstract logical problem: Church's synthesis problem. Given a logical specification S(I,O), Church's problem is to determine whether there exists an operator F that implements the specification in the sense that S(I,F(I)) holds for all inputs I. It is a classical result that the synthesis problem is decidable in the case that the specification and implementation are given in monadic second-order logic over the naturals. We prove that this decidability extends to MSO over the reals with order and furthermore to MSO over every fixed bounded interval of the reals with order and the +1 relation.

This study concerns the issue of small business growth. It has been widely established that small business growth is important to a region, both economically and socially, most notably through the generation of employment. However, a number of studies have revealed that only a small proportion of small businesses generate this growth. There is a lack of understanding concerning the reasons why some small businesses grow and others do not. This study considers the subjective strategies of small business owner-managers as a basis for drawing comparisons between growers and non-growers. A causal mapping methodology is used to represent subjective strategy. These causal maps provide a representation of how individual owner-managers see the development of their business. A series of propositions, developed from the existing literature, provide an indication of the characteristics which may discriminate between growth and non-growth oriented owner-managers. These propositions allow for the comparison of the causal maps which are elicited from thirty owner-managers of independent retail businesses. The thirty respondents are grouped into comparative categories based on growth and non-growth intentions and behaviours. The evaluation of these propositions indicates that the owner- managers of growing businesses hold subjective strategies that are more coherent, and include a greater proportion of performance measures than their non-growth oriented counter parts. The maps of non-growth oriented owner-managers show a greater proportion of concepts relating to control and the individual's personal needs and values.

A novel technique has been developed that incorporates an adhesion layer into a hydrogen sensor that is based on a MOS structure. Previous structures containing no adhesion layer exhibited long-term drift and device failure due to delamination of the gate. While devices that did incorporate a normal adhesion layer lost all of their sensitivity. This is the first demonstration of combining virtues of an adhesion layer for a noble metal on insulator while retaining hydrogen sensitivity in a field effect sensor. The design issues related to utilizing Pd films for hydrogen sensors are presented. The recipes for fabricating the sensors are described. The method for monitoring MOS sensors are discussed and the circuitry used for data acquisition is described. The mathematics necessary to understand the device physics of the MOS structures and the relation to hydrogen sensing is presented. The electrical characterization of these devices and responses to hydrogen are compared to other MOS structures. One fabrication method yielded devices with fast response and long-term stability; however, short term phenomena resulted in hysteresis. A second fabrication method yielded devices that were slow responding and drifted on long-term scale; however, showed stable short-term responses and less hysteresis. Both structures show similar hydrogen sensitivity to previous devices without an adhesion layer; however, the gate regions are more strongly bonded to the nitride layer.

A fundamental research question in regional economic development, is why some regions are able to diversify into new products and industries, while others continue to face challenges in diversification? This doctorate research explores the different pathways to diversification. It follows the three-stage modular structure of DBA for Cranfield School of Management. This thesis consists of a systematic literature review, a single qualitative case study on UAE, and a research synthesis of published cases on Singapore, Norway and UAE. The linking document provides a summary of the three projects and consolidates findings and contributions into a path creation model that provides new understanding on the pathways to regional diversifications. This research integrates existing theoretical foundations of evolutionary economic geography, institutional economic geography, path dependence, industry relatedness, economic complexity, and path creation into a unified conceptual path creation model. It generates propositions, builds a framework and develops a matrix for path creation that integrate context, actors, factors, mechanisms and outcomes shaping regional diversification. It finds that in the context of path dependence and existing conditions of a region, economic actors undertake strategic measures to influence the institutional capabilities to accumulate knowledge and trigger indigenous creation, anchoring, branching, and clustering diversification mechanisms to create complex varieties of related and unrelated diversification outcomes. The institutional collaboration capabilities are found to be instrumental in accumulating knowledge and determining the relatedness and complexity of diversification outcomes. This research further provides a set of integrated platform strategies to guide policy-makers on setting up the pathways to regional diversification.

This is a study of what managers do in relation to the formulation of competitive actions. The study started with Project 1 (P1), a literature review that looked at managers’ cognitions in respect of competitive positioning and competitive strategy. A gap was found in how individual competitive actions are formulated and executed. A gap was also found concerning what managers do in response to interpretations of their competitive environments. Following the literature review, a series of semi-structured interviews were undertaken with managers and 26 individual competitive actions were recorded and analysed in Project 2 (P2). A structure to the formulation of competitive actions was discerned and developed into a processual model that is triggered by a stimulus, followed by the manager envisaging desired outcome and setting objectives, then deciding which levers to use, developing the action and refining it. Its application to practice was developed in Project 3 (P3) through an aide memoir tool to assist managers. The study makes a contribution to theory by providing a framework that captures the way in which managers construe and formulate competitive actions. In P2 it was found that managers tend to follow a largely homogenous process and that the tools and techniques offered in the extant literature are seldom used. The managers interviewed in mature industries were far more aware of who their competitors were in more when compared to nascent industries. This had a bearing on the formulation of competitive actions insofar as companies operating in mature industries formulated competitive actions to fend off or compete with their competitors more effectively while companies operating in nascent industries tended to formulate competitive actions with the aim of exploiting gaps in the market. It was found in P2 that managers’ backgrounds, including their functional and educational, as well as their nationalistic and cultural backgrounds, had a bearing on how they construed their competitors and the competitive actions they formulated. It was also found that competitive actions were formulated and executed on an iterative process, whereby managers would refine their actions applying the learnings from previous actions. Managers, particularly those with more experience, relied heavily on intuition and tacit knowledge, as well as input from colleagues and customers, when formulating competitive actions. Contrary to the assertions many in much of the extant literature about companies not deviating from industry norms when formulating competitive actions, the study found that managers would often do so in search of abnormal profits. The study makes a contribution to practice by providing a guide to assist in formulating competitive actions. The guide is based on the processual model developed in P2 and was summarised in five key steps, comprising Stimulus, Objectives, Levers, Actions and Refinement, and abbreviated ‘SOLAR’.

Objective: Public projects are used to deliver policy objectives. From a financial perspective, the Major Projects Authority (MPA) estimated a whole life investment of £488 billion for 199 major projects in 2014, only a small subset of the total number of public projects. Given the financial exposure, the impact of endemic public project failures could put the economic health of the nation at risk. This thesis studies the challenges facing public projects. It applies an organisational capabilities lens to investigate projectification, when organisations shift away from functional-based organising (FBO) toward project-based organising (PBO). Research Design: This study adopts an interpretivist research paradigm, with a constructionist epistemology and an idealist ontology, and employs an abductive research strategy. Structurally, it follows the Cranfield Executive Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) methodology, with a linking document that summarises three complementary research projects: a systematic literature review (SLR) followed by two empirical studies that investigate the Department of Health (DoH) during the early phases of the Next Stage Review Implementation Programme (NSRIP). The findings are derived from over 250 academic literature sources, 100 government publications and 41 semi-structured interviews.

The notion of Mode 2, as a shift from Mode 1 science-as-we-know-it, depicts science as practically relevant, socially distributed and democratic. Debates remain over the empirical substantiation of Mode 2. In particular, our understanding has been impeded by the mutually exclusive framing of Mode 1/Mode 2. Looking at how academic science is justified to diverse institutional interests – a situation associated with Mode 2 – it is asked, “What happens to Mode 1 where Mode 2 is in demand?” This study comprises two sequential phases. It combines interviews with 18 university spinout founders as micro-level Mode 2 exemplars, and macro-level policy narratives from 72 expert witnesses examined by select committees. An interpretive scheme (Greenwood and Hinings, 1988) is applied to capture the internal means-ends structure of each mode, where the end is to satisfy demand constituents, both in academia (Mode 1) and beyond (Mode 2). Results indicate Mode 1’s enduring influence even where non-academic demands are concerned, thus refuting that means and ends necessarily operate together as a stable mode. The causal ambiguity inherent in scientific advances necessitates (i) Mode 1 peer review as the only quality control regime systematically applicable ex ante, and (ii) Mode 1 means of knowledge production as essential for the health and diversity of the science base. Modifications to performance criteria are proposed to create a synergy between modes and justify public investment, especially in the absence of immediate outcomes. The study presents a framework of Mode1/Mode 2 coexistence that eases the problem with the either/or perception and renders Mode 2 more amenable to empirical research. It is crucial to note, though, that this is contingent on given vested interests. In this study, Mode 1’s fate is seen through academic scientists whose imperative is unique from those of other constituents, thereby potentially entailing further struggles and negotiation.

The emphasis in cluster theory has been in explaining how and why clustering might contribute to competitive advantage for co-located firms, and hence for the economy. While firms may be encouraged to co-locate to gain from transactional, institutional and knowledge benefits, threats to economic sustainability have been associated with a deterioration of advantages and a failure to adapt, resulting in a decline of competitiveness. This thesis reconsiders industry clusters as organisational populations, suggesting a mechanism through which the population and the resource environment can adapt and survive Cluster sustainability is described as a evolutionary process in which the population and resources of the cluster adapt through the creation of new member firms. Based on an embedded case study of eight firm formation events taking place in the UK motorsport industry, the research examines how an industry cluster regenerates and reproduces itself. The concentration, complexity, and diversity of supply and demand comprising the cluster’s organisational population generate a resource environment which generates creation of new members compatible with the cluster’s knowledge architecture. New member entry depends on the absorptive capacity of the cluster, while contributing to the ability to identify, diffuse and exploit new knowledge. Sustainability of industry clusters is associated with the characteristics that support new member creation.

Interest in the subject of clusters has been steadily increasing over the last few decades. One reason for this is that organisations in the cluster often out perform organisations from the same industry located outside of the cluster. One of the predominant explanations for the clusters ability to achieve this is through innovation. The cluster literature shows that clusters are a important source of innovation, and that innovation plays a key role in maintaining the competitiveness and existence of the cluster. However, although innovation is discussed in the literature, it can be thought of as a black box or fuzzy concept (Markusen, l999b). This is because although the drivers to innovation are stated, and innovation is known to be a positive outcome for the cluster, innovation is not studied as a concept, and statements concerning innovation are often made without evidence or justification. Therefore relatively little is known about the process or nature of innovation as it occurs in clusters. The research question was devised from this position, and aimed to investigate what was actually meant and understood by innovation in clusters. To this end the research question was: What is the process and nature of innovation in clusters?â I this thesis I report on empirical studies undertaken in two clusters, in which I used semi- Structured interviews. Aer a analytical review of the interview findings I discuss the results from a cross case comparison; this is complemented with data from the extant literature. The results from the comparison are used to generate a empirically derived model of the process of innovation, and a definition of the nature of innovation in clusters. The model explains that the process of innovation progresses through five steps: Ignite; Gather; Spark off; Create and Diffuse. The definition of the nature of innovation is understood via five essential characteristics; that innovation is major, undertaken continuously, is time compressed, problem solving, and survival driven. I combination the model and definition leads to a analytically generalisable view of the process and nature of innovation, which can be applied to clusters as a whole.

This research explores the determinants of risk behaviour when an organisation operates outside its normal operational domain. Organisations are being forced outside their normal operational domains with ever-increasing frequency. Through studying a banking acquisition, an area which has not been studied before, the research identifies the risks faced by the organisation, the apparent irrational management of the risks, and the reasons for this behaviour. The research applies multiple research methods, which include the review of company documentation, interviews with key managers and external experts, a modified Delphi technique, case studies and statistical analysis. Through these methods, the risks faced by the organisation are identified and evaluated in terms of probability, impact, and degree of mitigation. Four risks are investigated in detail, and based on these, six propositions are put forward, four of which are support by statistical tests. The research shows that where the organisation had a successful outcome history in managing a given risk, or could manage the risk using normal management controls, the risk tended to be managed disproportionately well compared to its significance. Where those conditions do not apply the management of the risk tends to be proportionately lacking. There is also evidence to suggest that the existence of industry-specific regulation in relation to a risk results in the risk being better mitigated. Organisations wishing to improve their risk response in unfamiliar operational domains should therefore consider day-to-day controls as one route to improvement. Also, where possible, they should try to create a history of successful outcomes in dealing with the risk types they are likely to face in unfamiliar problem domains. Regulatory bodies need to consider the impact that their regulations will have in order to help organisations exhibit better behaviours in unfamiliar problem domains.

This thesis presents the findings and conclusions of research that was undertaken with the purpose of exploring the issues (or factors) that typically influence the successful, or unsuccessful, implementation of public policy initiatives in Malta. The research, which followed an inductive enquiry and a case study approach, was undertaken in three sequential and progressive steps (or ‘projects’). The objective of Projects 1 and 2 was to elicit the factors that are typically considered to influence failure and success in the implementation of policy initiatives in Malta. While Project 1 focused on a case study of failure, Project 2 considered a case study of successful policy implementation1. Both studies were based upon data collected through documentary research (172 records)2 and in-depth interviews (17)3 that were held with the key persons involved in the implementation of the policies under review. Twenty-six (26) factors of failure and twenty-one (21) factors of success were identified through the application of cognitive (causal) mapping techniques (Eden, Ackermann et al., 1992) and the general principles of data codification proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1998). Using a survey of 136 persons4, Project 3 then established which of the factors elicited from the first two projects were generally considered to be critical for policy implementation in Malta. Focusing on these results, a number of propositions were then drawn with the objective of recommending measures that would improve the likelihood of successful policy implementation. The research concludes that the decisive factors influencing the successful or unsuccessful outcome of policy implementation in Malta are a function of the type and degree of commitment and leadership that are shown to a policy initiative. The research further suggests that success can be improved if the approach to the management of policies is based on the application of the principles of project management. The research makes a number of contributions to both theory and practice. Most notably, it proposes two conceptual models for framing and representing success and failure in policy implementation; it ascribes meaning to a number of clichéd concepts, particularly that of ‘(policy) commitment’; it identifies eight dimensions or requisites for effective (public sector) leadership; and it suggests a tool for guiding the selection of policy implementation leaders.

The predominant assumption in the management literature is that corporate values are internalised into organisational members' personal value systems. Corporate values, viewed in this way, perform a controlling role in organisations, consistent with the characteristics of a deliberate strategy perspective. Theories concerning the nature of personal values challenge this assumption of corporate value internalisation. However, there is a lack of empirical research in the management field investigating the relationship between personal and corporate value systems. In this interpretive research study, I explore managers' interpretation of their organisation's corporate values, and relate these to their personal value priorities. Senior managers from three commercial companies took part in the study: one with no published corporate values statement; one with a recently introduced statement; and the third with a well established corporate values statement. I explore how managers interpret their organisation's corporate values through the description and meaning they give to value terms, and elicit their personal values by using an adaptation of the laddering technique, and by inferring values revealed in managers' narrative of their career histories. The findings show that managers feel they share their corporate values but interpret them in differing ways, both through those they identify as representing the corporate values, and through the meaning they give to value terms. The variation in interpretation is consistent with differences in their own personal value priorities, suggesting that managers adapt corporate values so that they more closely reflect their own. These findings challenge the notion that corporate values provide an effective means of normative control, and instead suggest they legitimise the worldview of individual managers, thus enabling differences to be accommodated within a broad framework of shared values. A model of value relationships is proposed, suggesting a way that corporate values may assist in bringing together deliberate and emergent strategy perspectives.