Business Commons^™

Two Essays On Momentum, Seung-Chan Park

Doctoral Dissertations

One of the most controversial topics in recent investment literature has been stock return momentum. If an investor buys past winners and sells past losers, he will earn positive profits in the intermediate-term horizon (3 to 12 months). While behavioral theories seem to dominate as an explanation for the momentum phenomenon since momentum has been regarded as direct counter evidence for the efficient market hypothesis, Chordia and Shivakumar (2002) find that momentum can be explained by a set of macroeconomic variables. Chordia and Shivakumar argue that momentum is caused by time-varying expected returns that can be predicted by a set …

Designs For Stated Preference Experiments, Jennifer Lynn Golek

Doctoral Dissertations

We explore the use of different strategies for the construction of optimal choice experiments and their impact on the overall efficiency of the resulting design. We then evaluate how these choice designs meet the desired characteristics of optimal choice designs (orthogonality, level balance, utility balance and minimum level overlap). We further explore the feasibility of using entropy as a secondary measure of design optimality. We find that current algorithms afford little flexibility for using this secondary measure. We further study the impact of misspecification of the assumed parameter values used in creation of optimal choice designs. We find that the …

Differences Between Women And Minority Businesses And Nonminority Businesses: A Culture-Based Explanation, Eva Dodd-Walker

Management Dissertations

As the American workforce is buffeted by industries that are downsizing, requesting pay concessions and relocating production to foreign countries with lower factor costs, politicians and union representatives wave the flag of protectionism and explain the state of affairs in terms of a lack of national competitiveness. Porter (1990) links national competitiveness to the competitiveness of the nation's companies, asserting that this competitiveness is achieved through acts of innovation. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), small business has become the dominant economic force in the United States again (U.S. SBA, 2000), producing 47 percent of all American sales, 51 …

The Impact Of Property Flipping On Single Family Detached Home Prices, Wesley H. English

Business Administration Theses

In 2003 HUD ruled that flipped properties, which are defined as recently acquired properties that have been resold, often within days, and for a substantial profit, are ineligible for FHA insured mortgage financing. This research uses the HUD ruling as the basis for this study. Their ruling was based on the perception that property flipping had a negative effect on home prices among other things. The study uses hedonic modeling to empirically determine if houses that have previously flipped have any influence on value when compared to the non-flipped properties in the same market. Through a regression analysis, it is …

The Comparative Ordered Influence Of Brand Equity’S Experiential And Functional Antecedents And Dimensions, And Its Consequences On U.S. And Mainland Chinese Consumers, Samuel Allen Broyles

Doctoral Dissertations

Drawing from various social science literatures, this dissertation put forth and examined a theoretical model addressing the question of whether brand equity’s functional and experiential elements (antecedents, dimensions, consequences) have differential influence on Americans and Chinese. The significance of this study is reflected in the fact that variousU.S.firms have attempted, often unsuccessfully, to market their brands inChinaand other countries. This effort at internationalization reflects mounting pressure from ever-increasing competition, and thus the need to find new markets for their brands. A number of researchers have suggested this lack of success is the result ofU.S.firms not understanding the cultural differences that …

Supplier Contracts With Profit Sharing, Open-Book Costing And Associated Audit Rights, Hui Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

Due to the growing trends in outsourcing and supply chain initiatives, inter-organizational control has become an increasingly important issue in today’s business world. Many businesses set up the so-called "partnering" relationship with their key suppliers. The biggest challenge for this relationship is to find the best mechanisms that align the supplier’s incentive with that of the buyer’s and still maximize each individual firm’s payoff. The purpose of this paper is to present a stylized profit-sharing contract, which is a type of contract commonly adopted to mitigate buyer-supplier incentive problems, and contrast several different types of supplier audit associated with it. …

Design, Analysis, And Applications Of Failure Amplification Experiments, Oksoun Yee

Doctoral Dissertations

The main focus of this study is related to the Failure Amplification Method (FAMe) proposed by Joseph and Wu (2004). They suggested the use of an “amplification factor” to increase the information from experiments with a binary response variable. In addition to the amplification factor having a known effect, Joseph and Wu recommended that, for convenience of experimentation, this factor be taken as an easy to change, split unit factor. In such cases, the analysis ought to take into account the possibility of both whole unit and split unit error variation. I present such an analysis here, where the Bayesian …

Multinational Strategies As Options Creation And Exercise: An Analysis Of Country, Industry, And Firm Specific Characteristics, Nattharika Rittippant

Management Dissertations

This study investigates international expansion strategies using a real options framework. Decisions to enter foreign markets and their subsequent decision to increase, delay or abandon their commitments are both predicted and evaluated from an options perspective. More specifically, this study attempts to answer the following two questions: (i) How do macro-environmental, industry and firm specific factors impact the real option process of a multinational enterprise (MNE)? (ii) How does the market react to the different option choices? The real options process from the creation of an option to its subsequent exercise was examined along with market reactions following the announcements …

Technology-Based Self-Service: From Customer Productivity Toward Customer Value, İsmet Anıtsal

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the
concept of customer productivity in a technology-based
self-service context (e.g., self-checkouts in grocery
stores) to understand how customer productivity and
customer value are related to each other. A preliminary
qualitative study initially explored the meaning of
customer productivity and the labor provided by customers
in self-service shopping and TBSS environments. Based on
these exploratory insights and the extant literature, a
conceptual framework was developed to identify the
relationships between customer inputs into a TBSS option
and customer outputs from that option influenced by
customer perceptions of self-service technology (SST) and
contact …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Impact Of New Technology Implementation On Organizational Structure And Corporate Decision-Making, Michelle L. Mccleese

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science & Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Industrial Technology by Michelle L. McCleese in the Spring of 2005.

The Role Of Interfunctional Market Orientation In New Product Program Success: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis, George Grady Gresham

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

A central tenet of the market orientation construct is the need for virtually all departments, not just the marketing department, to participate in gathering, disseminating and responding to market intelligence. Previous academic research provides empirical support for a positive relationship between market orientation and superior business performance. Superior business performance, for many firms, depends upon a continuous stream of new products emerging from their product development programs, yet few studies have demonstrated the link between market orientation and new product development program success. This dissertation conceptualizes market orientation below the strategic business level as interfunctional market orientation (IFMO) for cross-functional …

The Role Of Inferential Accuracy In Performance Rating Accuracy: A Field Study Of Teacher Performance Appraisal, Cynthia L. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Management

This study first assessed the accuracy of performance appraisal ratings of high school teachers in comparison to the achievement of their students as measured by Virginia's Standard of Learning (SOL) tests. The overall performance rating scores of 145 teachers were compared to the pass rates of their students on SOL end-of-course tests. The rating sub-scores in each of four domains of performance were also compared to the SOL pass rates.

The study then tested the influence of Inferential Accuracy, a model proposed by Jackson (1972), on rating accuracy overall and of individual raters in the study. Inferential Accuracy is comprised …

The Influence Of Training Evaluations On The Training Transfer: An Experience In A Multinational Venezuelan - American Corporation, Nerza Rey De Polanco

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Literature in the area recognizes that one of the best ways to reach training effectiveness is by increasing the rate of training transfer. However, people often are not able to successfully apply what they learn in training back to their work. This study proposes that to achieve a positive training transfer rate it is necessary to develop and implement a formal evaluation training system, which is able to track all factors individual and organizational- affecting transfer effectiveness before and after training occurs. In order to empirically demonstrate the influence of the pre and post- training evaluations on the transfer rate, …

Informal Influences In The Process Of Idiq Contractor Selection For Task Award, Jason E. Blevins

Theses and Dissertations

The selection of a contractor for task award using the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract often involves dynamics and relationships that are difficult to understand. There are unanswered questions that relate to how government agents define "best value" to the government. The selection decisions often differ between government agents. The government streamlined the acquisition process by creating the multiple award IDIQ contract. Government agents are relied upon to make sound business judgments in determining which contractor represents the best value to the government. Informal influences can impact the determination of the final selection of a contractor. This thesis attempts …

Assessing The Usefulness Of The Decision Framework For Identifying And Selecting Knowledge Management Projects, Kevin G. Budai

Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge management (KM) is becoming recognized as a valuable tool for the Department of Defense (DoD) in its effort to maintain a competitive, strategic advantage against its enemies in a new threat environment. Decision superiority is the ultimate end result and is only possible through the effective and efficient use of its chief key resource--knowledge. As the Air Force seeks to transform the way it does business the concept of knowledge management has made its way to the forefront of both the Air Force's Information Strategy and Information Resource Flight Plan. This research assesses the usefulness of a knowledge management …

A Fuzzy Programming Approach For Portfolio Management In Banks, Noha El Sayed Ahmed Ibrahim

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Three Quality Management Systems In Relation To The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, Jeremiah Worthington

Theses Digitization Project

This paper explores different quality management systems (QMS) and correlates their value in achieving success as measured by the Malcolm Baldrige Award. The three major quality management systems were reviewed, International Organization of Standards (ISO), Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma. Quality management systems are the single most powerful tool that a company can establish to create a sucessful organization.

Acquiring An Existing Business, Teodocio Ramirez

Theses Digitization Project

The goal of this project is to review the literature on how to buy an existing business and to synthesize the material into a written instructional manual that a regular individual or aspiring entrepreneur can use in understanding the process necessary to buy an existing small business.

Family Friendly / Work Life Balance Policies: Perspectives Of Irish Employers And Employees, Caroline Williams

Theses

This study assesses the emergence of family friendly / work life balance arrangements within Irish organisations in view of changing conditions on the labour market, particularly with the increased participation of women. It incorporates the experiences, opinions and commentaries of both Human Resource representatives responsible for the implementation of such practices, and employees availing of them in a broad spectrum of public and private sector organisations.

This research addresses the perceived explicit and implicit barriers, such as organisational size, location and culture which challenge employers and employees in terms of alternative working arrangements. It illustrates the significance of introducing and …

Employee Retention And Customer Relationships In Services Industry, Aileen O'Connell

Theses

The business environment of the 1990s has seen a shift in firms’ emphasis away from recruiting new customers, towards nurturing and retaining those that they currently have (Palmer, 1996). The marketing emphasis has moved from customer acquisition to customer retention. Reicheld, (1996a) has identified a link between customer and employee retention, but this link has not been extrapolated by many researchers. For the purpose of this study, the researcher proposes to examine this link.

A large number of people who work for organisations are no longer what would be termed “traditional” employees of those organisations, i.e. employees for life. These …

Effects Of Goal Interdependence And Social Identity On Departments And Their Relationships In China, Liyan Wang

Theses & Dissertations

Synergy among departments is increasingly considered vital for organizations to use their full resources to deal with threats and explore opportunities in the rapidly changing marketplace. Although valuable, developing synergy among departments is a difficult management challenge.

Departments within organizations often have their own business goals, yet the coordination of these goals is a precondition for overall organizational effectiveness. The need for goal coordination makes departments interdependent (Thompson, 1967), but this interdependence may become particularly problematic when the different departmental goals are incompatible (St. John & Hall, 1991).

Because of the value of cooperative goals for coordination, managers want to …

An Exploratory Study Of The Factors That Impact On The Application Of Online Learning At The Department Of Planning And Infrastructure Of Western Australia, Alex C. Scholz

Theses : Honours

There is a growing necessity in today's globalised and dynamic business environments for learning systems to be capable of generating the continuous learning needs of the workforces within them. In adapting to their changing environments learning workers are not only required to continuously gather new information but also to transform it into understanding within their local contexts. Much praise has been placed on the capability of new learning technologies such as online learning in supporting organisations learning processes. However, relative limited research has been undertaken on how these new learning technologies support workers in learning processes, how these new learning …

A Guide To The Management & Operation Of A Chinese Restaurant In The United States, Wen-Chiung Huang

Theses

Before writing this thesis, the reason I choose for the issue of management and operation of Chinese restaurant is not because so much mass communication was related. It is the idea of the restaurant business how it to be created by using media or people's words of mouth. It is difficult to start a new business in the foreign country. Restaurant business does the same. In the early a late age of immigration, people realized only work hard can made a better life for themselves and their next generation. They started have their own business, created job opportunity even contributed …

Goal Interdependence And Leader-Member Relationship For Cross-Cultural Leadership In Foreign Ventures In China, Yi Feng, Nancy Chen

Theses & Dissertations

This study empirically examines the impact of goal interdependence and leader-member relationship on cross-cultural leadership in joint ventures in China. Its two research questions are how to facilitate leader-member relationships between foreign managers and Chinese employees in joint ventures in China, and how foreign managers and Chinese employees can develop cooperative goals in Chinese contexts.

Four hypotheses were generated. Hypothesis 1 examined the effects of leader-member relationship between foreign managers and Chinese employees on cross-cultural leadership. Hypothesis 2 studied the impacts of different goal interdependence on the leader-member relationship between foreign managers and Chinese employees. Hypothesis 3 and 4 investigated …

An Examination Of Facilitators And Inhibitors To Knowledge Sharing In A Policing Environment : Lessons From Intelligence-Led Crime Management Units Of The Western Australia Police Service, Vince Hughes

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The objective of this research project was to gain an understanding of the inhibitors and facilitators to knowledge sharing within a policing environment. Although it did not begin with the intention of applying interverntions of any kind, in the course of the thesis it became clear that a form of action research was being employed. Initially, I presented my research proposal as a hermeneutic examination of the facilitators and inhibitors to knowledge sharing in the Western Australia Police. However, somewhere along my research journey I realised that rather than me simply collecting and analysing data from and about my colleagues, …

The Relationship Between Corporate Social Performance And Financial Asset Characteristics, Ingebjørg Kristoffersen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis explores the theoretical and empirical evidence for a relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and financial characteristics. An empirical analysis is performed to examine the Australian evidence for such a relationship, from a financial asset perspective. CSP data provided by Corporate Monitor Pty. Ltd. are used in the analysis. Specifically, available measures of environmental, social and governance performance of 237 Australian companies are compared with selected financial asset characteristics, including firm size, book-to-market value, financial performance and risk, covering the period between July 1997 and August 2003. Evidence of relationships is sought using bivariate correlations, group comparisons and …

Multi-National Project Team Communications And Cultural Influences, Morgan E. Henrie

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This exploratory case study dissertation examined multinational project teams' communication satisfaction as influenced by the project team's cultural attribute of power distance. Utilizing a exploratory case study, semi-guided interview research approach, ordinal scale data and open-ended contextual based question responses was obtained. This data was gathered from United States---Russia and Canada---Angola multi-national, complex, high technology oil transportation project teams. Triangulation data gathering techniques were utilized to obtain empirical data from multiple sources of data and multiple data types. Subsequent data analyses combined descriptive statistical analysis, graphical analysis, cluster analysis, and content analysis techniques to derive a theoretical construct of multi-national …