Digital Commons Network^™

Consumer Responses To Imported Products: The Product Adoption Process, Antecedents, And Consequences, Miguel Angel Sahagun

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

When consumers adopt imported products, they may rely on a different adoption process than they do when adopting domestic products, primarily because imported products are developed under different positioning strategies in foreign markets that have different levels of development. Little is known about how the process of adopting imported products differs from that involved in adopting domestic products and to what extent the process influences consumer purchase intention. Several factors influence the adoption process of imported products. The main goals of this research are 1) explaining consumers' purchase intention for imported products, 2) examining the process consumers engage in when …

Religious Consumption: Inside The Minds Of Apple And Catholic Devotees, Yi-Chia Wu

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Cult-like phenomena have been researched widely in the fields of marketing, religion, sociology, and---more recently---in the field of neuroscience, where the exploration between individuals and brands through these lenses begins to offer glimpses into the relationship between brands and their devotees. Religion, a multidimensional influence on human behavior and decision-making, has been under-researched in the marketing discipline due to the sensitivity of religious topics and difficulties in measuring the impact of so potentially broad a field as "religion". This research narrows the topic and begins filling in the gap in the religion-brand relationship and explores what constitutes a cult-like allegiance …

An Empirical Assessment Of Patient Healthcare Quality: A Lean Hospital Supply Chain Perspective, Subhajit Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Improving the quality of healthcare services available to patients and increasing the efficiency of treatment processes are two pressing needs of the U.S. healthcare system. Aside from extensive research on medicine and disease-specific cures, extant literature does not offer a comprehensive framework that considers all determinants of patient care quality. The objective of this research is to offer an empirically tested framework that may be used by full-service U.S. hospitals to improve the quality of care available to their admitted patients. This framework draws in variables from both external as well as internal hospital supply chains, as recommended by many …

The Impact Of Information Quality Awareness On Users' Behaviors Toward Information Quality Practices, Javier Flores

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Healthcare organization rely more on electronic information to optimize most of their processes. Additional information sources and more diverse information increase the relevance and importance of information quality (IQ). The quality of information needs to be improved to support a more efficient and reliable utilization of information systems (IS). This improvement can only be achieved through the implementation of initiatives followed by most users across the organization. The purpose of this study is to develop a model related to how awareness of IS users about IQ issues would affect their actual practices toward IQ initiatives. It is posited that users’ …

The Effects Of Math Anxiety On Consumer Price Perception And Purchase Decision, Peter Andersen

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Mathematics anxiety is an emotional state resulting in a negative reaction to numerical information and math problems. Therefore, it has been studied by education research to explain its effects on academic performance. However, the marketing literature has failed to notice the role of math anxiety in consumer behavior. As retailers offer various price promotions to increase product sales, buyers need to compare prices and calculate the final price after sales. The success of promotions depends on the way that the sellers frame the promotions, as consumers may react to promotions that offer gains differently than those that reduce their loss. …

The Relationships Between Managerial Metacognition, Total Quality Management, And A Firm's Sustainable Competitive Advantages: An Empirical Investigation Based On Structural Equation Modeling Analysis, Young Sik Cho

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to explore how managerial metacognition has an influence on the effective implementation of total quality management (TQM) and the creation of a firm’s sustainable competitive advantages (P) by using the lens of Resource-Based View (RBV). In particular, this study conceptualized the existing TQM framework by two sub-constructs, technical quality management (TQ) and behavioral quality management (BQ) practices, and newly proposed the sequential relationship of 'TQ→BQ→P' based on the premise of the RBV. In addition, through post-hoc analysis, this study tested the mediation effect of a firm's TQ practices on the relationship between managerial metacognition …

Determining The Dynamic Co-Diffusion Of Four E-Services Using Country-Level Panel Data, Samer Takieddine

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Motivated by the slow diffusion of e-services in many countries in the world, and Rogers’ call for researching related innovation as a cluster, this study investigates the co-diffusion among e-services. To our knowledge this study is the first to examine the co-diffusion effects among e-services. It extends prior studies from the e-services diffusion literature, and the technology co-diffusion literature by examining co-diffusion among four e-services; e-banking, e-shopping, e-government, and e-learning. It also examined the co-diffusion mediation effects, moderation effects, and country-level factors’ effects. Using panel data of 28 European countries, and applying dynamic GMM econometric technique, this study’s findings were …

Ethanol Energy Futures: Identifying Hedge Ratios, Cointegration Equations And Price Bubbles, Sergio Garcia

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Ethanol has been the subject of intense debate following the adoption of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) which established that the gasoline supply in the United States (U.S.) must contain 10% ethanol. The subsequent increase in the production of ethanol since 2005 has had an effect on the prices of corn, ethanol, and gasoline. This work seeks to identify hedging ratios using dynamic multivariate GARCH to best identify hedging opportunities in a newly developed futures market. In addition, Cointegration and Vector Error Models are used to identify relationships in price movements between ethanol futures, spot prices and related …

Essays On Insider Trading, Xu Sun

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Insider trading has always been an area with high priority for the regulation and enforcement of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) programs, as insiders are supposed to possess material, non-public corporate information. The main goal of this dissertation is to examine the insider trading behaviors.

In the first essay, I test whether insiders trade on investor optimism and superior firm performance information in a special context – stock splits. Using insider trading data from Thomson Financial Insider Filing Data Files and stock split announcements from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), this essay shows that, starting as early …

Three Essays On Bailout Banks During 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, Daphne Shu Nu Wang

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the wake of this financial crisis 2007-2009, the government injected approximately $604 billion into financial sector to increase liquidity and improve capital base for the bailout banks, which in order to restore market confidence and to prevent bank runs and possible contagion effects.

The main purpose of this dissertation is to assess the appropriateness and effects of the bailout program between 2008 and 2009. Chapter 1 introduces the causes and the effects of the recent financial crisis. Chapter 2 explains the bailout program-Capital Purchase Program (CPP) in details and discusses the sample section method used in this dissertation. There …

Mispricing, Speculation And Real Activities Manipulation, Cristhian R. Mellado-Cid

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Real activities manipulation involves changes made by firm’s managers to the normal business operations of the firm and consequently should affect the firm cash flows. Real activities manipulation can reduce firm value because actions taken in the current period to increase earnings can have a negative effect on cash flows in future periods. As such, real activities manipulation should deserve more attention from researchers. First, I attempt to explore the causality relationship between real activities manipulation and firm equity mispricing. Results show that firms with high real activities manipulation have lower level of equity mispricing while firms with high levels …

An Examination Of G10 Carry Trade During Non-Crisis And Crisis Period (2007-2009), Charles Kwame Armah Danso

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Carry trading is a form of currency trading in which an investor buys assets in a higher interest yielding currency by borrowing in a low interest yielding currency without hedging for exchange risk. I seek to compare and contrast the performance of carry trade strategy before and after the financial crisis (2007-2009). I also compare and contrast how the carry trade strategy and covered interest rate arbitrage fare in different periods. Carry traders do not hedge their position using forward rates whereas covered interest rate arbitrageurs do hedge their position using forward rates. A comparison of the two trading strategies …

The Relationship Between Institutional Ownership And Firm Performance, Javeria Farooqi

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

In the past three decades, the presence of institutional investors has increased 33% in the equity market. The main goal of this dissertation is to study the relationship between institutional ownership and firm performance. I examine how the level institutional investors' involvement in composing their own portfolio, as oppose to replicating their portfolio, impacts their level of monitoring and disciplining their portfolio firms. Specifically, I investigate the relationship between institutional ownership and firms' operating efficiency, earnings management and cost of debt.

In Chapter II, I explore the relationship between institutional ownership and firms' operating efficiency. I use the data envelopment …

Underpricing And Buy And Hold Abnormal Returns In Venture Capitals' Portfolio Firm Ipos, Abdelhamid Riani

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

I seek to explore in detail the relationship between Venture Capitals (VC) characteristics and the underpricing and long-run performance of their portfolio firms overtime using a sample of 2,052 IPO firm-year observations, corresponding to 669 unique U.S.VCs from 1985-2013. Gompers (1996) and Lee and Wahal (2004) focus on individual portfolio firms and relate the performance of these firms in IPOs to the VCs that back these firms, I focus on the VCs themselves as individual entities and examine how their whole portfolio of IPOs fares. I find that the more experienced the VC is, the larger the underpricing and the …

Can I Smile With Spirit? Towards A Process Model Associating Workplace Spirituality And Emotional Labor, Ashwini Gangadharan

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Workplace spirituality (WS) is a framework of organizational values embedded in the culture of the organization that promotes employees to experience a sense of meaningfulness at work, sense of connection with coworkers, congruence of organizational values with theirs' and experience transcendence through their work. This dissertation presents workplace spirituality as an organizational intervention to manage the problem of emotional labor and its dysfunctional consequences among the service employees.

The main thesis of the dissertation is that workplace spirituality will enable service employees to appraise emotional labor as a positive stressor (challenge stressor) rather than a negative stressor (hindrance stressor). The …

Does Optimism Pass On To The Employees? The Impact Of Supervisor Optimism On Employees In Small And Medium Sized Businesses, Roger S. Brown

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The focus of this dissertation primarily examines the optimism contagion from the supervisor to his/her employees. Though the literature has discussed different types of optimism such as dispositional optimism (Scheier & Carver, 2006; Chang, 1998; Segerstrom, 2006) and unrealistic optimism (Weinstein, 1980; McKenna, 1993; Radcliffe & Klein, 2002), this paper will focus on trait and state optimism. State optimism (which relates to particular situation) is theorized as being easily transferrable when compared to trait optimism. The level of the transfer will depend on the emotional expressivity of the supervisor. The facets of emotional expressivity are impulse strength, positive expressivity and …

Consumer Evaluation Of Corporate Social Responsibility: New Insights From The Expectancy Confirmation/Disconfirmation Paradigm, Roberto Saldivar

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Consumer-centric corporate social responsibility studies have focused on consumer evaluation of CSR perceptions (Stanaland, Lwin, and Murphy 2011) without addressing the consumer’s CSR expectations (e.g. Russell and Russell 2010, Schuhwerk and Lefkoff-Hagius 1995, Sen and Bhattacharya 2001). This discovery motivates this study that utilizes the expectancy confirmation/disconfirmation paradigm (Erevelles and Leavitt 1992; Oliver 1985; Tse and Wilton 1988) to offer novel insights of consumers’ evaluations of CSR information and subsequent consequences in terms of customer satisfaction, referral, purchase intention and willingness to pay premium. Two studies, each with a unique design and sample, were developed to test 13 hypotheses. In …

The Impact Of Securitization, Bank Liquidity Shocks, And Government Intervention On Lending And Banks' Asset Composition: Evidence From The U.S. 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, Peter V. Egly

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The 2007- 2009 financial crisis creates a new wave of research opportunities in part due to the transformation of the banking system that led to the development of securitized banking that is supported by short term funding sources provided through the money and capital markets. The near collapse of the financial system ultimately led to the ensuing government intervention by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury department to revive the frail U.S. economy. This dissertation has two basic research objectives: 1) investigate the impact of securitization and the subprime mortgage collapse on bank lending during the crisis and 2) …

The Effect Of Investor Sentiment On Futures Market Returns And Volatility, Kenneth Steven Lovell

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

For over thirty years research has been done on investor sentiment and their effects on market returns and volatility. The theory of De Long et al., (1990) has been used to explain the effect of uninformed investor sentiment (also known as noise trader sentiment) on market returns and volatility. Studies of Wang (2003) and Sanders et al. (2003, 2009) in the futures market have found that uninformed investor sentiment does not affect future market returns, which is contrary to De Long et al. (1990). Also previous studies of investor sentiment in the futures market do not seem to investigate the …

Top Management Team Behavioral Integration, Organizational Ambidexterity, And Small Firms' Performance: The Moderating Effect Of Entrepreneurial Orientation, Huy Quang Tran

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation research examines organizational ambidexterity (OA)–a concept first introduced in organizational learning literature and conceptualized as an interaction between exploration and exploitation–and its relationships with a managerial antecedent and an organizational outcome in the context of small businesses. Drawing on strategic choice and upper echelons theory, the present study suggests that top management team (TMT) behavioral integration plays a critical role in managing the interaction between exploration and exploitation. Specifically, this research proposes a positive association between TMT behavioral integration and OA. Furthermore, it suggests that small firms manage the interaction between exploration and exploitation differently depending on their …

Toward Understanding The Subcultural Mosaic: Fragmentation Of The Culture And The Symbiotic Interplay Of The Market And Subcultures, Emre Ulusoy

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study brought to light the need for a more nuanced analysis and approach for understanding the observed tendency toward eclectic, fragmented, and paradoxical subcultures in contemporary society. It was critical to explore the impact of market hegemony and the response of subcultures to this hegemony leading to the development of contemporary subcultural sensibilities. The central purpose of this research was to develop a theory of subculture that accounted for the fragmentation observed in contemporary culture, and how this fragmentation influences subcultures leading to fragmentation within subcultures. To this end, using in-depth interviewing, netnography, and participant observation, I investigated the …

Perceived Creative Partnership: A Consequence Of Music's Social Use, Paul Gennaro Barretta

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

As contemporary consumers interact with one another and the market in a more symbolic manner, the ways music and other products are used are changing. Scholarly research has investigated the use of music in a social manner, mostly in terms of self-identity, and practitioners have explored the sharing of music, particularly with regard to the use of technology. The present research takes a closer look at the social use of music and proposes a consequence that is termed Perceived Creative Partnership; people use music in a social manner in order to achieve a state of being where they feel as …

Essays On The Relationship Between Investor Sentiment And Real Estate Investment Trusts, Daniel Huerta

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are federal tax-exempt firms originated in 1960 to allow investors participation in professionally managed real estate to attain greater portfolio diversification. Although REITs are often considered transparent and informationally efficient, extant literature suggests that investor behavioral biases impact their prices and returns. This dissertation examines the relationship between investor sentiment and REITs, contributing to the literature in the following distinct ways. First, I examine the contemporaneous and intertemporal impact of changes in sentiment on REIT returns making a distinction between sentiment derived from large institutional investors and small individual investors. Results suggest that sentiment from …

Innovation-Ict-Cybersecurity: The Triad Relationship And Its Impact On Growth Competitiveness, Manal M. Yunis

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examines the global growth competitiveness of countries using the dynamics of growth, ICT, and innovation. It also introduces a new dynamic, cybersecurity, and argues that within a growth competitiveness framework, ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity mechanisms allow some countries to achieve higher ranks on the competitiveness ladder than others. Based on a theoretical framework that encompasses the economic growth model, the complementarity theory, and the international law theory, a model that integrates ICT, innovation, and cybersecurity, depicts the relationships amongst them and with growth competitiveness, and incorporates complementary factors with possible moderating effect is presented. The model proposed relationships …

Investor Return In Reits: Evidence Of Market Timing And Capacity Constraints, Ekaterina Petrova Damianova

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation studies the returns earned in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) from the point of view of the average investor. Traditional buy-and-hold returns while appropriate as a measure of return for financial asset may not adequately reflect the returns of the average individual investor because they do not take into account the capital flows in and out of an asset. Just as their name suggests, these are the returns one would earn if one buys a financial asset or portfolio at the beginning of a period and holds the investment until the end without making changes to the amount …

Essays On Ceo Networks And Banking, Fang Fang

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation includes three essays on CEO networks and banking. I built a social networks matrix among the U.S. bank CEOs based on their biographical information. I investigate how social networks of CEOs impact bank risk-taking, bank performance, and bank acquisitions during financial crisis. Essay one, "CEO networks and bank risk taking", investigates the relevance of bank CEO networks to bank risk during the credit crisis of 2008. If social networks provide a CEO an enhanced flow of information, a better understanding of risk embedded in industry innovation, and more accurate marketing timing and forecast, then the expectation is that …

Assessing The Impact Of Conflict-Type On Decision-Effectiveness In Top Management Teams: The Moderating Effect Of Attributions, Emotions, Conflict-Handling Behavior, And The Environment, Kevin J. Hurt

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Conflict is considered a multi-dimensional concept conveying both constructive and destructive overtones. Within a strategic decision-making team, conflict can have positive and negative effects, which collectively are considered `paradoxical' because they can simultaneously lead to improved group decisions along with decreased member commitment. Decision quality and commitment to the decision are a requisite of high performance; yet, some suggest that these cannot co-exist because of conflict's paradoxical effects in the decision-making process. The early consensus on conflict research suggests that one form of conflict, i.e. cognitive, yields positive effects, whereas another form of conflict, i.e. affective, yields negative results. Not …

Three Essays On Hedge Fund Flows, Regulation, And Economic Geography, Weifang Yang

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Chapter I studies the effect of tax policies (Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAS)) on hedge fund flows and indirectly on hedge fund manager and investor behavior in six tax haven countries. I find that structural changes in both hedge fund dollar flows and net flows occurred in the tax haven countries as a result of TIEAS. I also find that both hedge fund dollar flows and net flows of the countries that signed TIEAS and the countries that did not sign TIEAS increased after their structural break points. Chapter II investigates whether a causal relationship exists between hedge fund flows …

Essays On Time-Varying Risk And Investor Sentiment: Evidence From The U.S. And G-7 Countries Using Multivariate Garch Modeling, David William Johnk

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation investigates the effects of investor sentiment on asset prices in both the U.S. equity market (chapter III) and international market (chapter IV). It employs a conditional version of the CAPM using a parsimonious generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) model in which the risk premia, betas, and correlations are time-varying. Investor sentiment is presented from two direct measures (surveys) and one indirect measure as conditional information variables; whereas, previous studies used macroeconomic fundamentals. Furthermore, investor sentiment is not assumed to be fully irrational. It is decomposed into its rational and irrational components. Both rational and irrational components are tested …

Essays On Hedge Fund Performance, Sang Heon Shin

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This dissertation consists of two essays on hedge fund performance. The first essay models exposure of hedge fund to risk factors and examines time-varying performance of hedge funds. From existing models such as ABS-factor model, SAC-factor model, and four-factor model, we extract the best six factors for each hedge fund portfolio by investment strategy. Then, we find combinations of risk factors that most explain variance in performance of each hedge fund portfolio by investment strategy. The results show instability of coefficients in the performance attribution regression. Incorporating time-varying factor exposure feature would be the best way to appropriately measure hedge …