Business Commons^™

A Proposed Approach To Iso Compliance And Validation For Metrology Laboratories, J. Lyle Bagley

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

International competition among metrology laboratories, as well as their customers, has intensified the incentive to seek either accreditation to ISO Guide 25 or ISO 9000 quality system registration for the laboratory. The debate continues as to which is more beneficial to the laboratory and its customers once the decision is made to pursue one or the other. This study addresses the advantages and limitations of each, and how best to prepare for complying with ISO standards. The literature was reviewed and ISO certification experts were questioned about these issues. The results were combined with new applications of existing operations research …

Minimizing Post-Production Weight Growth In Tanks Using A Decision Analysis Model, Michael F. Cochrane

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Post-production weight growth of tanks is an historic problem for the military. Tanks are difficult to transport because of their weight, and post-production modifications tend to cause this weight to increase over the lifecycle of the tank. In this thesis, a computer model is constructed which uses influence diagrams to model tank weight growth as a probabilistic process. Historical weight data for the MI Abrams tank program is used to derive probabilities for the model. The model is used to predict tank weight growth over both the short and long term with the goal of understanding more about how and …

The Impact Of Director Interlocks On Interorganizational Imitation In Germany, Elke Reuning-Elliot

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

In the 1980s, Germany saw a significant increase in the number of corporate acquisitions. This study deals with the role that director interlocks play in gathering and disseminating information about corporate acquisitions. Specifically, it explores the possibility that acquisitions may result from interorganizational imitation. Hypotheses that relate a German firm's acquisition activity with its own acquisitions and the acquisition history of interlocking firms are tested on 1982-1989 acquisition data for a sample of 193 German firms. The results from the negative binomial and logistic regression analyses indicate that there is no significant evidence for interorganizational imitation. Instead, the number of …

Towards Understanding Why Assessment Centers Work: An Evaluation Of The Subtle Criterion Contamination Hypothesis, Christopher T. Rotolo

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The success of the assessment center method in predicting job performance has been one of the most researched efforts in personnel psychology (Thornton, 1992). However, there is little reported evidence showing that assessment center procedures produce scores that serve as valid representations of separate constructs (Klimoski & Brickner, 1987). It is perhaps ironic, then, that despite the success stories, we still do not understand why assessment centers "work," (i.e., predict performance).

This study examined the subtle criterion contamination hypothesis as an explanation to assessment center validity. The subtle criterion contamination hypothesis states that assessment centers predict managerial performance because assessors …

The Pricing Behaviors Of Stock Index Futures: Some Preliminary Evidence In The Korean Market, Jaehoon Min

Theses and Dissertations in Business Administration

This research examines the pricing behaviors of futures contract in the Korean market in its early inception period. This research is mainly organized into three parts. The first chapter investigates the mispricing of futures contract relative to its theoretical value. Consistent with earlier studies regarding futures markets in other countries, futures have been persistently underpriced in the Korean market. Even after accounting for 10 minute execution lag in the arbitrage trading, arbitrage opportunities have been largely unexploited. Market inertia caused by institutional investors' unfamiliarity is presumed to be largely responsible for underpricing of futures. Unfavorable spot market condition also hinders …

Reverse Lbo Underpricing: Information Asymmetry Or Price Support, Gregory Noronha, Kenneth Yung

Finance Faculty Publications

Most studies attribute the underpricing of initial public offerings of equity securities to the ex ante uncertainty resulting from the information differential between the firm going public and the market. Ruud (1991, 1993), however, proposes that underpricing could result from underwriter price support in the early after-market. A paper examines firms that were once public, went private via leveraged buyout, and then went public again. It is reasonable to expect that since these reverse LBOs (RLBO) were once publicly traded, they should have less of an information differential with the market than firms going public for the 1st time. Tests …

A Survey Of Health Care Personnel's Perceptions Toward Diversity In The Workplace, Jacqueline Elaine Sharpe

Health Services Research Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the diversity climate in a large teaching military hospital by assessing the perceptions of employees regarding the organizational climate, including aspects of the climate related to ethnicity, gender, age, physical ability, sexual orientation, and job level. All 3,176 eligible employees based in the medical center were invited to participate, 1,252 did so (RR = 40%). Participants were 37% minority, 57% females, 25% officer, 30% enlisted, and 45% civilian. Twenty-four percent were at the managerial level. Perceptions of the diversity climate were measured using the Diversity Survey Instrument (the reliability and validity of …