In the last decades, Hegel's mature political philosophy has come to be associated with some form of social or welfare liberalism. Challenging this line of interpretation, this study aims to show that his work harbours a more ambitious philosophical programme, grounded in a different vision of the modern state. However, this programme is only partly spelled out in the Philosophy of Right. While the conceptual logic that guides Hegel's dialectical progression points beyond the modern liberal standpoint, some of his concrete political choices are more conservative, and some are even opposed to the change of perspective I claim to be at stake in his work. In response to this tension, I undertake a systematic reconstruction of his social and political views, divided into two main parts. First, I highlight the critical dimension I take to be explicitly present in the Philosophy of Right but neglected or misrepresented in the secondary literature. I argue that the different stages of Hegel's progression are not merely added to one another, but qualitatively transformed, and hence that his account of the state should not be read as a mere complement to the stage of civil society, but as a direct challenge to its underlying logic. Second, I draw the political and economic conclusions implicit in this line of approach. Shifting the focus from Hegel's interpreters to Hegel himself, I show that the conscious pursuit of the common good he regards as essential to a rational state is not compatible with a capitalist production system nor with the constitutional monarchy he proposes. A true dialectical synthesis of the particular interests of individuals and the general interests of society entails nothing less than a comprehensive democratization of the economic and the political spheres. And the need for this transformation holds the key to Hegel's enduring political relevance.

To predict the power production of offshore wind turbines accurately, computationally intensive numerical models based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are often employed, requiring simulations for each configuration and wind direction. A descriptor-based surrogate model predicting reference wind speeds would allow a significant speed-up of the calculation of the power output of a wind farm.

To construct such a model, a set of three descriptors is defined to encode the upwind turbine location of each turbine, accounting for proximity and angular dependencies, after studying the wake geometry of a turbine. These descriptor functions have a total of six parameters that require optimization for optimal representation.

Next, Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) surrogate models are trained on CFD data from two and three turbine simulations to predict reference wind speeds based on the three descriptors. The descriptor parameters are optimised to minimise the maximal absolute error. Alternatively, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) using a set of 55 descriptors with a range of parameters is trained, allowing the ANN to assign significance. Both models effectively predict reference wind speeds.

An initial GPR model for simulations at 10 m/s hub height wind speed (HHWS) achieved a maximum absolute error of 0.3 m/s, matching CFD accuracy. Over a broader range of hub height wind speeds, the error increased slightly to 0.4 m/s for the GPR model and 0.7 m/s for the ANN model. In a case study for an 80-turbine wind farm at 8 m/s HHWS, ANN and GPR models yielded maximum absolute errors of 0.37 m/s and 0.36 m/s, respectively.

This shows that descriptor-based surrogate models can provide rapid, reliable reference wind speed predictions for offshore wind farms at a fraction of the computational cost after initial training, potentially eliminating repeated CFD calculations, for example in wind farm layout optimisation.

This research focuses on the creation and evolution of performance measurement process in the context of growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This research is multidisciplinary in nature, grounded in the performance measurement, management control, and entrepreneurship literatures. Moreover, it involves investigation of performance measurement by investigating the formal and informal mechanisms of performance measurement process can be investigated. C

SMEs have long been recognised as one of the most important parts of national economies, due to their contributions to employment and economic growth (Peck & Koreen, 2023; The World Bank, 2014). However, the review of the extant literature reveals that a large number of SMEs fail in the first few years of their existence and scholars have related this to a lack of comprehensive management systems, such as performance measurement systems (Nobel, 2014). Thus, particularly over the last two decades, academics and practitioners have increasingly focused on investigating factors that could enable SMEs to survive and grow (Smith and Smith, 2007). In this research, the creation and evolution of performance measurement process in growing SMEs is investigated.

From an empirical point of view, this research is qualitative and aims to advance performance measurement theory through theory-building and practical implications. A case study approach is utilised, and six growing manufacturing SMEs are investigated. Data is collected through triangulation (semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis). The collected data is analysed, and a number of themes are identified as a result of continuous comparison of theory and themes emerging from data.

The findings of this research suggest that growing SMEs will reach a point in their life cycle where informal processes are not enough, and they will seek more formal processes (such as performance measurement) through which alignment, clarity, accountability, etc. can be achieved. Moreover, these organisations will find more success in the gradual formalisation of their existing processes, rather than implementation of formal and comprehensive performance measurement systems. That is, these organisations will gradually formalise their existing PM process through different phases, where each phase formalises an aspect of the PM process such as obtaining information, analysing information, and reporting information.

From a theoretical point of view, through the investigation of formal and informal performance measurement processes in growing SMEs, theoretical and practical contributions are made to the performance measurement literature and SMEs that are an important component of national economies. This research contributes to the theory of performance measurement by investigating the creation and evolution of performance measurement process and presenting a more holistic view of how performance measurement is utilised in these organisations. From a practical point of view, this research proposes that SMEs can benefit from the effects of performance measurement, by simultaneously utilising formal and informal mechanisms of performance measurement process rather than implementation of a formal and comprehensive system, such as performance measurement system.