Doctoral Theses
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The Doctoral Theses collection contains digital copies of AUT doctoral theses deposited with the Library since 2004 and made available open access. All theses for doctorates awarded from 2007 onwards are required to be deposited in Tuwhera Open Theses unless subject to an embargo.
For theses submitted prior to 2007, open access was not mandatory, so only those theses for which the author has given consent are available in Tuwhera Open Theses. Where consent for open access has not been provided, the thesis is usually recorded in the AUT Library catalogue where the full text, if available, may be accessed with an AUT password. Other people should request an Interlibrary Loan through their library.
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- ItemBrand Externalities and Brand Systems: A Macromarketing Systems Perspective(Auckland University of Technology, ) Padela, ShoaibBrands are omnipresent in contemporary society. They are complex multidimensional constructs embedded within almost every aspect of our personal and social life. Branding is central to the organisational strategies for differentiation, competitiveness, and survival, and it is also at the core of consumers’ identity work, defining their respective personal and social ideologies. Research has extensively identified brands as significant economically and socially, but lately, brands and branding have been criticised for being ambivalent. Branding can simultaneously induce mechanisms like value creation and value destruction and cause severe social consequences for different brand actors over time. These branding dynamics underpin consumer resistance and anti-branding in contemporary society. Scholars have often raised concerns such as branding ethics, morality, social and environmental sustainability, consumer vulnerability and social well-being and provided frameworks around these issues; but the social consequences and impact of brand-related behaviours of different brand actors are neither conceptualised nor is an integrated framework provided to address these issues holistically. This gap gives rise to the three research questions in this thesis which are addressed across three papers, structured as Chapters 2, 3 and 4, respectively. The first paper conceptualises the social consequences of branding as Brand Externalities. It provides a taxonomy that gives evidence of the non-linear nature of brand exchange by connecting brand actors beyond the brand exchange sphere and establishes branding as a macro-system phenomenon. The second paper explores the causal structure and aggregation mechanism of brand externalities and proposes a causal theory, respectively. The causal theory of brand externalities is developed using Systematic Theory Mapping, which combines the conventions of systematic narrative review and system dynamics modelling. The findings from systematic theory mapping are carried forward to the third paper, which proposes an integrated Brand System framework based on the marketing systems theory. The brand system framework accounts for brand externalities as a potential system configuration in addition to the other configurations essential in holistically analysing and managing the brand system. The three papers collectively advance systems thinking in branding research with implications for theory, practice, and research. This thesis accounts for the reciprocal brand-society relationship and pertinent realities of contemporary society and lays a foundation for more robust and socially sustainable brand management.
- ItemDesigning Ecosystem Business Models for Data-Driven Organisations Using Open Government Data(Auckland University of Technology, ) Mokobombang, Novy Nur Rahmillah AyuOpen Government Data (OGD) is government information accessible to the public for viewing, reuse, and redistribution. OGD can facilitate a variety of business innovations for those that publish, utilise, and build OGD-related services. OGD efforts shift the focus of government policy from inside to outward. Good OGD benefits the economy and the community. Most nations have developed OGD initiatives from the top down, limiting information flow between the public and government. Moreover, the government possesses vast quantities of high-quality operational data, making it difficult to assess or conceptualise the benefits of publicising this data. The study examined how government agencies develop, deliver, and capture the value of OGD over time to data users, such as Data-driven organisations (DDOs). DDOs use OGD as a cost-effective source to build a foundational layer of intrinsic value. Because the current study focuses less on business models, no thorough research on DDO business models across industries using OGD exists. This study designed ecosystem business models for a subset of DDOs that use OGD to improve their services. Ecosystem business models are developed for DDOs that use OGD to improve their services. This study developed four research questions. First, define the value-creating roles that different participants in Open Government Data and data-driven organisations use to collaborate in the OGD initiative. Second, finding government agencies and data-driven organisations’ motivations for publishing and utilising Open Government Data. Third, addressing how to design new ecosystem business models for an ecosystem that is not mature yet. Fourth, investigate how one designs ecosystem business models for Data-driven organisations using Open Government Data and unlock open data potential benefits for all actors. To answer the research questions, this study included in-depth interviews, website searches, and documentation studies to acquire information on OGD Initiatives in New Zealand and DDO's ecosystem business models. This qualitative study used purposive sampling to locate participants with relevant expertise and background. I used semi-structured interviews to get participants' in-depth opinions of New Zealand's OGD programme and ecosystem to get a representative sample from government agencies, DDOs, and other relevant actors. Data were collected in two stages in New Zealand between July 2019 and January 2021 to understand the phenomenon and offer reliable findings. The first stage involved interviewing ten people from six government agencies, two DDOs, and one IT company. Second, secondary data from government and private sources were synthesised. This study adopts a multiple case study Constructivism paradigm. The four-cycle multiple case studies provide various perspectives on individuals, actions, policies, documents, and circumstances in order to find and comprehend divergent perspectives. Three case studies are deductively and inductively coded in the first two cycles. Then, a two-cycle cross-case analysis validated the coding maps of the three case studies. In the final cycle, case study findings were triangulated with secondary data to generate several themes. Multiple case study methodologies utilise thematic analysis to generate coding clusters and maps to uncover and explain content themes or patterns. It assists me in linking thoughts and comparing redundant facts. The analysis of both primary and secondary data was conducted using QSR NVivo Version 12. A comprehensive analysis of the multiple case study findings and the thematic maps of the three case studies relate these findings to RQ1 and RQ2 and provides the fundamental concept for creating ecosystem business models to address RQ3 and RQ4. Case studies show that government agencies and IT companies play key roles in the OGD ecosystem along the path to data availability. The OGD ecosystem encourages collaboration among all actors, especially value-creation and value-capture actors. OGD value is created through a data value chain. Thematic analysis found that government agencies and DDOs use OGD for diverse motivations. Access to large amounts of OGD has helped build new capabilities. The findings emphasise the economic value that was tapped by building services on top of open data. Implementing OGD improves transparency by providing access to government-held information. It will improve the public's understanding of government actions and government decision-making. Furthermore, the findings suggest that publishing government data is the greatest approach to boosting OGD use. Hence the New Zealand OGD initiative proactively published data as 2022 has four times as many datasets as 2018. To match supply-demand data, data.govt.nz allows the public to request government datasets. By integrating their data with OGD, data-driven companies can produce product/service innovations due to essential sources such as experienced humans, an online database system, and significant datasets. A data-driven organisation tried to unlock OGD's value based on its motives, objectives, and expected outcomes. Thus, data-driven organisations coupled OGD with their data to create goods or services with extra value. I construct an enhanced logic model based on the model used to summarise the New Zealand Open Government Data initiative's ecosystem. The model allows the government to analyse if its data gathering and opening operations match OGD's goals to establish commercial models for an immature ecosystem. The logic model develops hypotheses on ecosystem-driven business model development. It helps detect gaps, organises new portions of each component, and communicates the strategy to actors and other stakeholders. Furthermore, I designed an Ecosystem Business Model Canvas (EBMC) as an extended version of the BMC template by Osterwalder, with three extra elements: networks and relationships, customer motivation, and customer requests and feedback. The EBMC helps New Zealand OGD actors examine their ecosystems, growth potential, and customer/client impact. Based on the EBMC, four types of DDOs' ecosystem business models and value-stream diagrams were developed to enable sustainable collaboration and partnership in the OGD initiative ecosystem.
- ItemThe Impact of the Contemporary Open Banking Movement on the Social Construction of the Banking Industry(Auckland University of Technology, ) Alasad, HishamThe banking industry comprises of licensed institutions that offer financial services. Traditionally the banking industry has retained tight control of all information, but the structure and practices have radically changed through Open banking adoption. The Open banking phenomena is a strategy enforced by regulators to re-define the conduct and behaviour of the traditional banking industry with the objectives of enhancing competition and enticing innovation. The principles for change are implemented by restructuring systems, standardising software services (e.g., Application Programming Interfaces APIs), forcing data sharing, and enabling a new banking context. The changes have rebalanced the power relationship between the banking industry and the customers so that customers now have greater access to information and the ability to autonomously transact their own information. The technology driver enables social technologies and innovation for facilitating the use of digital products that influence a change in the nature and capabilities of social and behavioural interactions. Open banking innovation influences a change in the roles of customers and banks and constructs new realties between them. The focus of this research is to examine the change in the social construction and relationships between customers and banks to determine its degree of influence on the success or failure of the Open banking adoption. This research is a theoretical socio-technical study within the banking industry under the overarching umbrella of the Information System field. It applies qualitative research methods against secondary datasets. Therefore, it addresses, examines, and theorises the impact of the newly emerged Open banking environment on the banking industry structure, the social construct of a customer’s adaptation behaviour, and the social mechanism of the emergent relationship between customers and banks. The methodology construct comprises of integrating Case study method and Grounded theory method (Straussian Approach) in one framework. The Case study is used to collect and compile secondary datasets in accordance with a rigorous inclusion and exclusion criteria; and then the Grounded theory facilitates the data analysis. The results show that Open banking drives changes across the banking industry by demanding new relationships between the industry and the customer. From a structural perspective, it creates an environment of opportunity for the social creation of new relationships. It also contributes to the development of the functional aspects of the banking industry by allowing greater freedoms for technologies and the personalisation of banking services. Open Banking adoption intensifies the level of competition with fewer constraints to service and ease of service communication. For example, by rapid service product innovation, and by lowering the industry entry barriers. The new environment attracts new entrants including Financial Technology (FinTech) providers, third party developers, and outsourcing arrangements for information processing. The nature of competition changes from being closed, monopolistic, weak, and limited, to becoming open, competitive, intense, and widely sourced. The research finds a relationship between the emerging customer’s privacy and security concerns, and the degree of competition motivation. From a social perspective, the social attitude of customers changes and their subsequent adaptation or rejection behaviours for new banking products and services, is less predictable. The research shows that innovation drives the personalisation of new products and services, and an inverse relationship between age segment and positive adaptation behaviour. It finds a direct relationship between customers’ technological literacy and their adaptation or rejection behaviour. It discovers a relationship between the degree of a customer’s awareness and understating of Open banking function and rejection behaviour. From a relationship perspective, Open banking tips the power and control of the traditional relationship between customers and banks towards the customers’ benefit. It removes the sense of loyalty towards original banks. It gives customers a transpired sense of freedom in product selection which changes the boundaries of existing relationships from One è One to become One è Many. The social construct changes from being transactional to a social banking experience. The research finds that the cultivation of social relationships improves customer retention and accelerates the transformation of banks towards becoming social and financial platforms. This research develops an Open banking adoption model for managers which serves as a high-level planning, guidance, and reference tool for industry practitioners and banks in their Open banking adoption journeys (6.2.5). It puts forward a list of practical suggestions and mechanisms in managing the Open banking adoption. It contributes to the body of knowledge by joining the continuing discussions of demystifying the multifaceted impacts of Open banking adoption and providing starting points for further research. It contributes to the body of IS knowledge by constructing and validating twenty-one generated hypotheses (H1-H21) and discovering twelve direct and inverse relationships (RE01-RE12). The theory generation actions remedy theoretical gaps and the identified issues and problems in the existing literature. The key areas for further research are the emerging privacy and security concerns, the pace of adoption, and determinants for the customers’ adaptation and rejection behaviours.
- ItemEmbodied in Life: The Lived Experience of a Yoga Practice in Relation to Pro-health Habits(Auckland University of Technology, ) Reynolds, Wendy LouiseThe objective of this doctoral study was to explore the influence of yoga on practitioners’ lives ‘off the mat’, and the idea that yoga can be an effective tool to enable a person to self-regulate in the direction of pro-health habits (diet and exercise). A ‘real world’ approach focused on the lived experience of a yoga practice in a purposive sample of self-identified New Zealand yoga practitioners (n=38; 89.5% female; aged 18 to 65-years, with 60.5% aged 36 to 55-years). The research protocol captured data from yoga practitioners in the context of their own lives and practice, in order to access the subjective experiential narrative of yoga practitioners. A primarily qualitative mixed-methodology was applied, using a Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenological perspective in order to explicitly include the researcher’s own experience, or shared meaning, of the research topic. The qualitative methods included in-depth semi-structured interviews (a subset of n=8) and an open-ended online survey. Quantitative methods included online outcome measures (health habits, self-efficacy, interoceptive awareness, and physical activity) in addition to practice component data (tenure, dose, yoga styles, yoga teacher status, meditation frequency) and socio-demographic data. Four categories emerged from the participant narrative: impact (experiential downstream or flow-on effects of a yoga practice); health behaviour (interrelationship between yoga and pro-health habits); practice (the experience ‘on the mat’); and internal landscape (an inner experience). Thirteen themes provided access to the concepts of self-regulation and mindfulness as an experience, including descriptions that captured both the external and internal experiences of practice such as embodied breath, a sense of grounding, and the ability to pause. The majority of participants felt that their yoga practice facilitated pro-health habits (63% for diet; 92% for other exercise). Additional reported benefits of yoga included stress management, connection to community, and as a lens or filter through which to engage with life. The yoga practice was a self-sustaining positive feedback loop, experienced as self-regulation guided by an embodied awareness. Attunement to embodiment through movement, is the key narrative to emerge from this study. Through embodiment, movement can potentially elicit self-regulatory pathways that support health.
- ItemThe Frankenstein Myth: Echoes of Frankenstein, Technological Anxieties, and the Monstrous Posthuman in Twenty-First Century Science Fiction Film(Auckland University of Technology, ) McCormack-Clark, JackMary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) has been the subject of resurgence through multiple forms of media and has become a prominent phenomenon in popular culture. The name Frankenstein is often referenced regarding amoral or questionably ethical scientific and technological development. Outside of literal interpretations of the original text, I have noticed reoccurring trends and echoes within contemporary science fiction films that adhere to the thematic elements of the Frankensteinian narrative. These trends suggest that a Frankensteinian mythos is present within our Western cultural consciousness. However, previous scholarship has not interrogated this mythos beyond simply acknowledging its presence. Nor has a model or method been devised to observe, analyse, or track how this mythos adapts. Through my extensive analysis, my thesis establishes a working model for the Frankenstein Myth that adheres to the conventions of the hypertext. This model presents a clear and logical method as to how the Frankensteinian themes transmute into and communicate with other texts connected within a franchise through contemporary anxieties related to scientific and technological development. It also shows how they thread through unrelated texts to show this transmission beyond a linear narrative. My thesis focuses on the reoccurrence and resurrection of key elements of the Frankensteinian narrative as a mythos that filters through and evolves with the Western-American cultural psyche. Using a thematic analysis, this thesis observes this trend specifically within three late twentieth and early twenty-first century continuing science fiction franchises which contend with the notion of scientific and technological creation: Terminator (1984-present), and Jurassic Park (1993-present) and Alien (1979-present). This is done using a meta intertextual framework to analyse the contemporary anxieties that continue to resurge and communicate through these franchises. This allows me to analyse these films against scientific theories and developments that appear within the franchises. Analysis of the myth and the creation of this model reveals how these themes transmute through the Western socio-historical cultural consciousness and the ever-evolving legacy of Mary Shelley’s nightmare.