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The aim of this research is to examine the extent to which the offshoring and outsourcing practices in Multinational Corporations, when the headquarters are registered and located in either the UK or Germany; are embedded in the institutional contexts of their respective home countries. There are six research questions relating to differences in approach and choice of location, ownership and coordination, employment practice, cultural proximity, trade union influence and finally the extent of re-shoring. These are primarily assessed through the 'varieties of capitalism' perspective. A comparative case study approach has been adopted with a focus on two sectors; airlines and engineering; in each case a major UK and German organisation are compared. Fourteen in-depth, semi-structured interviews took place in both the home countries and overseas locations in Europe, India and Asia. The sample size is small, however, each was with a senior executive and the transcripts revealed 'rich data' for compiling the case studies and answering the research questions. The contribution to original thinking is a conceptual framework posited by proposing a taxonomy to analyse the relationship between coordinated and liberal market economies and the components of the offshoring and / or outsourcing process. Reference is made to theory drawn from the resource based view, global production networks, dynamic capabilities, embeddedness as well as varieties of capitalism to focus on competences, spatial dimensions and power. It is this collective approach that is considered to be novel. Qualitative analysis is deployed to re-construct the actual framework for each industry sector. Constructs (Reichertz, 2004) combining abduction, deduction and induction are used to develop propositions that lead to conclusions. The similarities between the two UK companies and the two German companies confirms the usefulness of the taxonomy and allows for its extension to other firms and sectors. Key findings and conclusions from the two case studies are that German organizations are less inclined to outsource (in both sectors) preferring to reduce costs and retain control through captive offshoring. The UK businesses were less risk adverse and more flexible and agile in their sourcing policies. There was evidence that the UK companies regarded outsourcing and offshoring as options for closer co-operation that may lead to strategic alliances and mergers or acquisition. The relationships with trade unions/works council was also found to be very different, with a reluctance by management in Germany to progress radical initiatives. Other differences in terms of autonomy and division of labour were found. From an institutional perspective the German CME's cases were less able to deploy outsourcing and offshoring strategies with the degrees of freedom that the UK LMEs typically enjoyed. CMEs are constrained by their policies, interconnectedness and style of working. A number of ambiguities are highlighted. The thesis argues that the outsourcing and offshoring practices are embedded to a high degree in the institutional practices of the home countries. Finally, the empirical novelty lies in the 'rich data' generated by valuable insights from the senior executive interviewees to which the researcher was privileged to have access.

This study attempted to observe if there was a statistical significant relationship between perceptions of educational change and student achievement. The independent variables that represented perceptions of educational change included: community pressure for change, faculty anxiety to change, faculty openness to change, principal anxiety to change, and principal openness to change. The dependent variables that represented student achievement included: eleventh grade math TAKS score, cohort completion rates, and math college readiness scores. The student achievement scores were collected by the Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) reports provided by the Texas Education Agency web site. This study sample consisted of thirty-eight high schools. The TCT survey was administered to certified teachers at the participating high schools. A total of 3,556 teachers completed the surveys. Descriptive statistics were prepared for both the educational change and student achievement data. After analysis of the descriptive statistics, a correlation was employed to indicate any statistically significant relationships. Finally, a multiple regression was utilized to determine the best predictor of student achievement. The correlation indicated that community pressure for change and faculty anxiety had a statistically significant relationship with all variables of student achievement. In addition, the multiple regression indicated that community pressure for change was the best predictor of student achievement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

A low technology fermentation system for biodegradation of cellulose based waste material is described. Using a substrate of thermally bonded paper plastic laminate in a defined mineral salts medium the cellulolytic nicrofungus Trichoderma viride XXI 2% 458 was shown to effect the separation of the laminate into its components by enzymic degradation of the paper. This aerobically induced separation occurred within 14 days compared to upto 90 days by purely physical means. Growth of the fungus within the fermentation system was found to provide conditions that control the growth of contaminating microorganisms. Carbonolytic enzyme activity of Trichoderma viride was investigated by measurenent of substrate weight loss and by reduction in the viscosity of soluble substrate analogues when acted upon by filtrate front-the fermentation systais. An investigation of the effect of changes in carbon to nitrogen ratios during fermentation indicated that maximum carbonolytic enzyme activity occurred at a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 0.6:1 within this system. An examination of three other cellulolytic fungi in order to assess their potential as biodegradative organisms within the fermentation system showed that under microthermophilic conditions only Acrenonium stricturn approached the biodegradative activity of Trichoderma viride at mesophilic temperatures. The products of fermentation by Trichoderma viride were examined; protein levels in the residual cellulolytic substrate following biodegradation of paper plastic laminate were determined and found to reach levels of up to 9% following 35 days fermentation. The amino acid composition of protein produced by Trichoderma viride when grown on a range of substrates was determined and found to contain a wide range of essential and non essential amino acids. An investigation of mycotoxins both in the culture medium and residual paper component was undertaken. Comparisons with eleven common mycotoxin standards revealed no positive identifications under the conditions investigated.