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 …