MONTO MÁXIMO Y GARANTÍAS

This thesis is organised and presented in eight chapters, described as follows:

Chapter One: Introduction to the Thesis

The chapter presents a general description of the study, introduces the study’s background, the research gaps and contributions, the research aim and objectives and last the significance and structure of the thesis.

Chapter Two: Literature Review

The chapter begins by highlighting the importance of product and process innovation. This would provide a clear support for why this research is taking place. Next, it illustrates the theoretical foundations upon which this present study is built on. The RBV and KBV are defined and its application justified. This review is relevant to the present study as it allows the researcher to understand the determinants of innovation. Thereafter, the chapter thoroughly reviews the empirical literature investigating social capital and knowledge sharing as the resource factors affecting the innovation, including product and process innovation. Also, the chapter reviews the relevant literature and empirical evidence on organisational context. It investigates the empirical evidence on the impact of organisational context on social capital, knowledge sharing and innovation, product and process. Finally, the chapter highlights the limitations of the innovation literature and identify the research gap and select areas needing further research.

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Chapter Three: The Conceptual Framework

The chapter presents the research model and states the hypotheses to be tested in this study. It begins by highlighting the theoretical foundations upon which this present study is built on. The RBV and KBV theories with a link to this study are defined and justified its application. This chapter reviews the empirical evidence supporting the direct and indirect relationship between organisational context and innovation. Then, the summary of hypotheses statement is presented.

Chapter Four: Research Context

This provides the background to the Libyan environment, by presenting a P.E.S.T. analysis and investigates how contextual factors which influence on an organisational behaviour and managerial practice within Libyan context. Whereas a more detailed discussion of Libyan context dimensions is beyond the scope of this study, some key literature will be covered in order to build clear an understanding of the influence of Libyan context on organisational behaviour and in particular social capital, knowledge sharing and innovation within organization.

Chapter Five:Research Methodology

The chapter defines the methodological perspectives of this thesis. It discusses and defends the philosophical assumptions, the paradigm of enquiry, the research approach and the research methodology chosen for this investigation. Third, it identifies the research methods used to collect the data and test the hypotheses. It also covers the research ethics, the variables’ operationalisation and the statistical technique employed to analyse the data (the multivariate data analysis approach). The research methods are also justified and supported by key previous studies in the field.

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Chapter Six: Data Analysis and Findings

The chapter presents the results obtained from both surveys. It starts with descriptive statistics to describe the samples and check the statistical assumptions, then move to assessing the measurement models to check the reliability and validity of the measures used in the survey. Thereafter, the structural models are evaluated and the hypotheses tested. Lastly, the chapter conducts a multi-groups analysis to identify differences emerging between public and private oil sectors.

Chapter Seven: Discussion

This chapter is a discussion chapter. To begin with, this chapter recalls the main findings of this research, then explains these findings and links them back to the literature. Here, the research questions proposed in the thesis are fully addressed and areas where the current study’s results contradict previous works are systematically justified. Similarly, differences between public and private sectors are also explained and justified.

Chapter Eight: Conclusion

This Chapter summarises the results and conclusions of the thesis. Here, the research aim, objectives and questions are all linked to the findings obtained in this study, discusses the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings, the limitations acknowledged and areas for future research identified.

This chapter introduced the research background, the research gap and contribution research aim and objectives, and the significance of research, the context of the research and structure of the whole thesis. The next chapter is the first chapter of the literature review. It explores product and process innovation and the role of innovation on organisations’ outcomes.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

The overall aim of this chapter is to review the literature on innovation and is divided into four sections. Section (2.1), reviews the literature on innovation and the importance of product and process innovation to organisations. This would provide a clear support for why this research is taking place. Section (2.2), illustrates the theoretical foundations upon which this present study is built on. The RBV and KBV are defined and its application justified. This review is relevant to the present study as it allows the researcher to understand the determinants of innovation. Thereafter, the section thoroughly reviews the empirical literature investigating social capital and knowledge sharing as the resource factors affecting the innovation, including product and process innovation. Section (2.3), reviews the relevant literature and empirical evidence on organisational context. It investigates the empirical evidence on the impact of organisational context on social capital, knowledge sharing and innovation, product and process. Furthermore, the section highlights the limitations of the innovation literature and identify the research gap and select areas needing further research. Finally, a summary of the whole chapter is given in section (2.4).