Business Commons^™

Integrated Internet Marketing Communications For The Global Market: An Empirical Examination, Philip Jean Boutin Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

Strategy formulation, strategy implementation, and performance of Internet (online) marketing communications (IOMC) by companies when they attempt to target, reach, and communicate with the global market (i.e., both domestic and foreign markets) in order to promote and sell products to the members of that market was the broad phenomenon examined. The specific focus was on the use of a globally integrated marketing communications (GIMC) approach with IOMC and the creation of the global Internet integrated marketing communications (GI-IMC) concept.

Relevant theories and theoretical models were identified and leveraged to serve as the theoretical foundation for the general theoretical framework, the …

Subordinate Humor And Leader-Member Exchange Relationships: Laugh And The Boss Laughs With You?, Nancy Marietta Scott

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation used a political lens to investigate humor in a leader-member exchange (LMX) framework to explore how subordinates can use humor to manage relationships with their superiors and the subsequent outcomes associated with the quality of these relationships. This dissertation linked humor to outcomes that had not previously been studied, such as political skill and employee guarding tactics. This dissertation uniquely contributes to the current body of research by 1) empirically investigating subordinate humor in an LMX framework, 2) exploring how political skill affects the relationship between humor and LMX relationship quality, and 3) examining an unexplored outcome of …

Rogue And Deviants: A Game-Theoretic Perspective On Opportunism In Strategic Alliance Relationships, Anton Pavol Fenik

Doctoral Dissertations

Opportunistic behavior is often studied in interfirm relationships, yet we don’t know the different types of behavior that are hidden behind the general opportunism label. Therefore, using game theory as guidance, this dissertation examines the roots of and influences on two types of opportunistic behaviors in strategic alliances. Specifically, the author suggests that the strategic alliances literature would benefit from recognizing that opportunistic behaviors don’t always originate from the firm (rogue-firm opportunism), but instead often originate from individual alliance employees (deviant-personal opportunism). Moreover, this dissertation examines how relational factors between two alliance partners impact these two types of opportunistic behaviors. …

Joint Optimization Of Allocation And Release Policy Decisions For Surgical Block Time Under Uncertainty, Mina Loghavi

Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation contributes to the growing literature on applications of operations research methodology to healthcare problems through the development and analysis of mathematical models and simulation techniques to find practical solutions to fundamental problems facing nearly all hospitals.

In practice, surgical block schedule allocation is usually determined regardless of the stochastic nature of case demand and duration. Once allocated, associated block time release policies, if utilized, are often simple rules that may be far from optimal. Although previous research has examined these decisions individually, our model considers them jointly. A multi-objective model that characterizes financial, temporal, …

The Design And Evaluation Of An Anonymous, Two-Way, Ethics Management Reporting System, Jacob A. Young

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite a recognized need for whistleblowing systems in academic research, little to no attention has been given to the necessary requirements for and specific design of effective whistleblowing systems. In order to increase the rate of reporting, it is critical for reporting systems to be designed with the intent to reduce employee fears and inhibitions by reducing the potential for retaliation. Therefore, the goal of this three-essay dissertation was to enhance a firm's ability to solicit and investigate concerns by proposing and evaluating a system aimed at fostering anonymous, two-way communication between employees and investigators of wrongdoing.

In essay one, …

Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Advertising And Consumer Responses In The Lodging Industry: Functions Of Green Marketing Motive And Appeal Type, Donghwan Yoon

Doctoral Dissertations

Hotel chains are increasingly engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) marketing to fulfill their social responsibilities. This study primarily aimed to contribute to the hospitality marketing literature and derive findings from the applied theoretical frameworks that would provide practical information for hotel CSR marketers. The study introduced three theoretical concepts: the information-processing model to provide a comprehensive framework of the attitude formation process, the attribution theory to explain the different effects of CSR motives, and the hierarchy-of-effects model to explain the relational effects of affect, cognition, and conation on consumer responses. In this sense, the study was conducted to test …

Managing The Co-Creation Of Innovation: The Influence Of Team Regulatory Style And Reflexivity On Customer Idea Selection And Innovation Outcomes, Matthew Brady Shaner

Doctoral Dissertations

The cocreation of new products with customers has been shown to be associated with higher new product quality, the development of products that more closely match customers' unmet needs, lower development costs, and faster speed-to-market (Hoyer, Chandy, Dorotic, Krafft, & Singh, 2010; O'Hern & Rindfleisch, 2010). However, little is known about the evaluation and selection process in the cocreation of innovation (Bayus, 2013). To be successful, product development teams must identify customer ideas that have the potential to both fulfill unmet market needs and be profitable for the firm. This dissertation looks at two cognitive factors related to team decision-making, …

Competition And Cooperation: An Assessment And Integration Of Seemingly Paradoxical Actions, Kyle Dean Turner

Doctoral Dissertations

Competition and cooperation represent two foundational elements within the strategic management research domain. While substantial research examining competition or cooperation exists, research assessing these two paradoxical actions simultaneously has been limited. This study leverages the attention based view of the firm and insights from literature examining organizational ambidexterity to further understand if, and how, these two seemingly contradictory actions are managed and leveraged by firms. First, this research identifies and assesses the extent to which attention within the firm shapes competitive and cooperative action. Further, this research conceptually defines and empirically tests curvilinear relationships between competitive and cooperative action and …

A Contingent Systems View Of Urban Logistics, William John Rose

Doctoral Dissertations

As urban areas around the world continue to grow, many companies have set their sights on entering these increasingly important markets with dense and diverse customer populations. Unfortunately, the urban environment presents many unique challenges not encountered in traditional city-to-city logistics. As firms adapt to these unique challenges, differences between cities add further complexity. Applying the systems contingency theory perspective (Venkatraman, 1989), this research examines the differences between U.S. urban areas and the logistics strategies that best fit specific combinations of urban environmental characteristics. Following a multi-disciplinary literature review, case studies conducted in eight U.S. cities confirmed certain environmental characteristics …

Cultural Context's Influence On The Relationships Between Leadership Personality And Subordinate Perceptions, Victoria J. Smoak

Doctoral Dissertations

Fascination with leadership and the pursuit of its understanding have been common across disciplines throughout history (Bass & Stogdill, 1990). Studying leadership in an organization provides value in understanding its relation to outcomes such as employee attitudes (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, & Bommer, 1996), individual performance (Tierney, Farmer, & Graen, 1999) and organizational performance (Day & Lord, 1988; Sully de Luque, Washburn, Waldman, & House, 2008). Leadership is suggested to be the underlying human factor key to organizational effectiveness (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005). In spite of the vast body of literature, much remains to be understood, especially understanding context (McCall & Hollenbeck, …

Bright Or Dark, Or Virtues And Vices? A Reexamination Of The Big Five And Job Performance, Christopher M. Castille

Doctoral Dissertations

Personality research in industrial/organizational psychology has been dominated by the description of personality traits and outcomes as either bright or dark. Unfortunately, research has shown that bright traits have dark outcomes and vice versa, suggesting that a paradox is plaguing the literature. To resolve this paradox, I propose that a different heuristic stemming from positive psychology be utilized: virtues and vices. Virtues refer to exercises of human excellence while vices refer to actions of human failure. Drawing on the virtue ethics concept of the Aristotelian mean, dark traits are viewed as extreme or elevated levels of bright personality traits, allowing …

An Empirical Examination Of Gender, Political Affiliation, And Family Composition Issues Affecting Reasonable Compensation In Closely Held Corporations, Dowis W. Brian

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examines the effect of gender, political affiliation, and family composition issues on reasonable compensation in closely held corporations. It is broken down into two parts: an archival and behavioral (survey) portion. The archival part analyzes decisions made in the U.S. Tax Court spanning 1983-2014 through the use of simple regression, multiple regression/ordinary least squares, and logistic regression. Four variables were found to be significant: judge gender, tenure, number of tax years decided, and taxpayer gender. The behavioral portion investigates the current perceptions of tax practitioners through surveying Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). Analysis of variance is used in this …

Arbitrage Risk, Investor Sentiment And Maximum Daily Returns, Kenneth A. Tah

Doctoral Dissertations

We test the cross-sectional relation between daily maximum return (MAX) and return in the following month for stocks with high and low idiosyncratic volatility. We use portfolio level analysis and firm-level cross-sectional regression to find that the negative and significant relation between MAX and expected stock return (known as the "MAX effect") is a non-January phenomenon observed predominantly on a sample of stocks with high idiosyncratic volatility. We find that the effect of investor sentiment on the MAX effect depends on arbitrage risk. Our findings suggest that arbitrageurs find it difficult to correct the mispricing of stocks with extreme positive …

Individual Adaptability As A Predictor Of Job Performance, Stephanie L. Murphy

Doctoral Dissertations

In the new global economy, organizations frequently have to adjust to meet challenging demands of customers, competitors, or regulatory agencies. These adjustments at the organizational level often cascade down to employees, and they may face changes in their job responsibilities and how work is performed. I-ADAPT theory suggests that individual adaptability (IA) is an individual difference variable that includes both personality and cognitive aspects and has both trait- and state-like properties. As a result, IA may be an acceptable alternative for traditional, stable selection tests for operating within unstable environments. The present paper examined the relationship of individual adaptability, cognitive …

An Empirical Investigation Of Technology Usage, Virtual Status, Organizational Justice, Need For Affiliation, Organizational Identification And Their Influence On Work Success, Julia Crider Graham

Doctoral Dissertations

Advancements in information communication technology have led to a growth in the telecommuting work force and increased interest in telecommuting research. Antecedents of work success are re-examined. This study attempts to disclose the relationships among communication technology usage, need for affiliation, organizational justice, employee's virtual status and organizational identification and how these factors affect work success.

Four main questions drove this research: "Do organizational justice and employee's virtual status moderate the relationship between communication technology usage and organizational identification?" ; Do organizational justice and employee's virtual status moderate the relationship between need for affiliation and organizational identification?"; Do organizational identification, …

Why Do U.S. Consumers Purchase Ethnically Disparate Products?, Jong Han Hyun

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate why U.S. consumers approach products that are ethnically disparate. The study purpose is addressed by developing a framework which investigates the consumption values consumers seek in ethnically disparate products. In addition, factors that antecede the different consumption values are proposed based on theories and literature that are believed to be relevant to the context. The findings suggest that the intention to purchase ethnically disparate products is influenced by multiple consumption values (social value, emotional value, epistemic value). Furthermore, attitude towards the ethnic culture, cultural value discrepancy, and diversity seeking are suggested to …

Accounting Information Risk And Credit Ratings, Douglas Ray Ayres

Doctoral Dissertations

Using a sample of U.S. firms, this study explores whether accounting information risk has an impact upon corporate credit ratings, a long term measure of the cost of debt. Theory suggests that accounting information risk could impact shorter term measures of the cost of debt, but is unclear as to whether it will have measurable effects upon the long term cost of debt. This study employs SFAS 157 level three fair value disclosures as a proxy for accounting information risk. The findings suggest higher levels of accounting information risk negatively impact credit ratings. This is supported by both levels and …

Sport Tourism, Destination Image And College Football Games: The Recreational Vehicle Tailgater, Cheryl Rebecca Rode

Doctoral Dissertations

Attending sporting events is a popular leisure and recreation activity and more individuals are willing and able to travel greater distances to attend these events. In particular, college football athletics has seen tremendous growth in coverage with conference realignment, television deals, national exposure and other endorsement deals. Students, fans and alumni are spending the weekends in the fall to travel to and participate in college football game day activities including tailgating, socializing and attending the game (Drenton, Peters, Leigh & Hollenbeck, 2009). A subculture within the culture of college football fans are people who travel to games in recreational vehicles …

Are Auditor And Audit Committee Report Changes Useful To Investors? Evidence From The United Kingdom, Lauren Carse Reid

Doctoral Dissertations

Recently, U.S. and international regulators have proposed significant changes to auditor and audit committee reporting with the stated intention of delivering more useful information to stakeholders. Whether new disclosure requirements achieve this intended benefit, however, is unknown. Exploiting the exogenous shock of the recent changes to auditor and audit committee reports in the United Kingdom, I find that information asymmetry significantly decreased following the implementation of the new disclosure regime. Furthermore, I find that reductions in information asymmetry are greater for firms with weaker information environments, suggesting that the new disclosure requirements particularly benefit investors in these firms. Additionally, I …

A Theoretical And Experimental Investigation Of Efficiency, Equity, And Uncertainty In Tournaments, Nicholas Busko

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three essays centered around labor incentives that arise in relative compensation contracts. Chapter 1 poses the question: if devotion to a core competence were truly optimal, why would firms do otherwise? We argue that the behavior of drifting from the core may be motivated by the competitive incentives faced by managers who seek to rise within a firm. We find competition creates an incentive for a manager to look for less correlated opportunities that pull the firm in a new direction. In a symmetric equilibrium all managers behave this way, leading to lower expected output for …

Two Essays On The Effects Of External Pressure On Executive Compensation: Evidenced Through Political Sensitivity And Pay For Performance Disclosure, Brandy Elaine Hadley

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the impact of two external forces on executive compensation behavior. In the first chapter, the impact of political sensitivity is investigated as an external force on government contractor executive compensation. Compensation for top executives has come into the political spotlight, especially over the last decade, with many politicians publicly supporting limits on compensation. However, the impact of political scrutiny to limit compensation is debatable. This study analyzes the effect of political scrutiny on CEO compensation using a sample of Federal contractors, which represents a group of firms where politicians yield the most power. Results suggest that Federal …

The Performance Of Institutional Investor Trades Across The Supply Chain, Dallin Max Alldredge

Doctoral Dissertations

In this paper I investigate institutional ownership and trading across the supply chain. I find that institutions are more likely to own stock in a supplier firm, if they own stock in an economically linked customer firm. Institutions with stock in a pair of customer-supplier linked firms (i.e. joint owners) experience abnormal trading profits in supplier stocks. The magnitude of trading profits increases when institutions own a larger stake in the customer and when the supplier relies upon a concentrated customer base for sales revenue. Furthermore, I document that joint owner trading predicts unexpected earnings news, consistent with these institutional …

Theory And Experiments Exploring Behavioral, Financial, And Public Economics, Matthew John Mcmahon

Doctoral Dissertations

I study three questions which relate to one another only in that each explores facets of economics. First, I theoretically examine the conditions under which introducing an impure public good decreases total public provision. I introduce a central planner who can tax the private good to correct this and identify the market characteristics that typify this scenario. Second, I test the two standard competing dividend puzzle hypotheses using a laboratory experiment. Evidence from the lab, including variables unobservable in the field, reinforces empirical work supporting the outcome model over the substitute. Last, I obscure from dictators information regarding recipients' income …

Monte Carlo Methods In Finance, Je Guk Kim

Doctoral Dissertations

Monte Carlo method has received significant consideration from the context of quantitative finance mainly due to its ease of implementation for complex problems in the field. Among topics of its application to finance, we address two topics: (1) optimal importance sampling for the Laplace transform of exponential Brownian functionals and (2) analysis on the convergence of quasi-regression method for pricing American option. In the first part of this dissertation, we present an asymptotically optimal importance sampling method for Monte Carlo simulation of the Laplace transform of exponential Brownian functionals via Large deviations principle and calculus of variations the closed form …

Job Analysis: Measuring Accuracy And Capturing Multiple Perspectives, Deann H. Arnold

Doctoral Dissertations

Organizations rely on job analysis to provide information about the work performed and requirements needed for a position. The use of inaccurate information may have negative outcomes, such as the misallocation of human resources or inefficient training programs. Many job analysis techniques rely on averaging responses, which may oversimplify the results. Preserving idiosyncratic variance, which reflects differences in the ways in which respondents experience and evaluate the job, may increase job analysis accuracy. To assess overall accuracy, the job analysis data in the present study was examined utilizing a practical model of accuracy (Prien, Prien, & Wooten, 2003). To detect …

Anchoring Bias, Idiosyncratic Volatility And The Cross-Section Of Stock Returns, Cedric Tresor Luma Mbanga

Doctoral Dissertations

Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang (2006) document an anomaly in the cross-section of stock returns. They show that high idiosyncratic volatility (IVOL) firms earn lower returns in the following month. Specifically, they find after sorting stocks in quintile portfolios based on the previous month's IVOL that a zero-investment portfolio long the most volatile quintile of stocks and short the least yields about -1% during the subsequent month. The evidence reported in Ang, Hodrick, Xing and Zhang (2006) is primarily puzzling because traditional asset pricing theories suggest that (i) only systematic risk should be priced, (ii) to the extent that markets …

A Case Study Of E-Leadership Constructs: An Assessment Of Leadership In A Healthcare Organization, Kevin James Lovelace

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to identify the components of e-leadership theory and how it can be used to teach healthcare leaders to develop virtual teams in a healthcare organization. This study will define a way in which leaders can use e-leadership components to increase the efficacy of virtual teams. In particular, this study will examine the perceptions executive leaders have of e-leadership constructs.

This study used a mixed method concurrent triangulation design to examine perceptions of e-leadership theory which may be used to improve the efficacy of virtual teams. The e-leadership theory as a construct was first measured …

How Women’S College Student Involvement Contributes To Their Career Aspirations And Navigation For Success In Technology Startup Organizations, Heather Doshay

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between women’s (co)curricular student involvement in college and their career outcomes in technology startups. This study focused on the ways in which past student involvement shaped women’s future career aspirations and helped them navigate their present career situations to achieve success. The study extended Astin’s Student Involvement Theory by considering how student involvement impacted career outcomes.

The qualitative methodology incorporated nine semi-structured interviews with recent college graduates turned professional women in startups working in the San Francisco Bay Area. The interviews were transcribed and coded for themes and analyzed using …