Business Commons^™

Learning During The Transition Period: How Identifying Executives As Designate Ceos Affects Their Learning, Rida Mitri Elias

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

CEO succession is an important event in organizations. Around 80% of succession events are relay successions, where a CEO successor is identified a few years before the actual succession event takes place. The success of relay succession compared to horse race and outside successions has been credited to the learning that an heir apparent acquires during the transition period. However, to my knowledge, none of the CEO succession research examines the learning process of heirs apparent.

This study attempts to fill this gap through empirical qualitative research. Using a combination of learning and sensemaking perspectives, this study builds premises proposing …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Influence Of Preparation And Implementation Capabilities On Lean Management Competence, David Barrett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research offers several noteworthy contributions to advancing a more comprehensive scholarly theorization and managerial understanding of the prerequisites for deploying a “strategically ready” approach to lean management (LM). The first contribution is the conceptualization of a productive LM deployment model as a three phased value generation approach: (1) value design, (2) value delivery, and (3) value capture. This conceptualization is theoretically framed by Resource Advantage Theory and resource orchestration. Supporting this value generation conceptualization is a LM Competence comprised of two operational capabilities: (1) LM Preparation and (2) LM Implementation. In concert, these two capabilities generate a resource comparative …

Essays On The Relationship Between Host Market Corruption And Multinational Enterprise Strategy, Michael A. Sartor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is guided by three research questions. First, how does host market corruption impact the equity-based market entry strategies implemented by multinational enterprises (MNEs) with respect to their foreign subsidiary investments? Second, does host market corruption increase the likelihood of market exit? Third, can MNEs implement strategies which reduce the likelihood of market exit under conditions of more pervasive host market corruption?

In the first essay, I synthesize insights from institutional theory and integrative social contracts theory to dis-aggregate the concept of government corruption into two dimensions (grand and petty). My theory pertaining to informal …

Multinational Enterprise Parent-Foreign Subsidiary Governance, Bassam Elias Farah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates how a multinational enterprise’s (MNE) corporate headquarters governs its foreign subsidiaries. It draws on agency theory, prospect theory, and corporate governance literatures to develop a framework that describes select MNE parent-foreign subsidiary governance mechanisms expected to predict foreign subsidiary performance, measured as foreign subsidiary survival and profitability.

To test this framework, I first conducted a pilot Canadian study. It was followed by the main multi-country study. The Canadian study used mixed methods. It analyzed quantitative data, compiled from different sources, and qualitative data, collected through personal interviews with subsidiary managers. The main multi-country study used survival analysis …

Frontstage Dramaturgy, Backstage Drama: An Ethnographic Study Of The Provision Of Hotel Accommodation, Maziar Raz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The provision of service is a growing focus of scholars in the fields of management and organization studies. Yet research in this area continues to reflect the tenets of Weberian bureaucracy with the predominant conceptualization of the provision of service as a “production system” in which customers and the organization’s resources are inputs, and services are the outputs of the organization. Accordingly, the organizing work of managers is conceived as activities that protect the “production system” from input uncertainties and external influences. What is overlooked in this perspective, however, is the dynamic tension between the organizing work of managers and …

Small Businesses Encounters With Information Technology, Liliana Lopez Jimenez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation advances the concept of IT encountering, defined as the process whereby individuals pay attention, interpret and respond to cues suggesting changes to IT, in ways that appear sensible to them, and it studies IT encountering in the context of small businesses.

I review the literatures on organizational IT adoption and IT selection, and conclude that these literatures have relied on assumptions which leave unattended important aspects of the process leading to choice: the adoption literature presupposes the saliency and significance of a focal technology to a decision maker, and the IT selection literature generally assumes that suitable IT …

International Student-Athletes In Canadian Interuniversity Sport (Cis): Motivations And Experiences, Daniel L. Grbac

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to investigate the landscape of international student-athletes participating in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) with respect to number, sport, and gender breakdown, and to determine the motivations of these athletes for migrating to a Canadian academic institution as well as their experiences. Of the over 10,000 CIS student-athletes, approximately 5% are international student-athletes. In addition, the sports with the highest number of international student-athletes were soccer and basketball for males, and basketball and soccer for females. Semi-structured interviews with 16 international student-athletes from the four regional associations determined that the majority of participants were motivated …

A Cognitive Role Theoretic Approach To The Consumer Role, Jodie Whelan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a role theoretic approach to the empirical study of the consumer role. To do this, I adopt a cognitive role theory perspective and propose that the consumer role is best conceptualized as a network of associations subject to the cognitive rules of availability and accessibility. When a consumer role prime (i.e., a tangible, external stimulus associated with being a consumer) is encountered, the network of associations should be activated and cognition, perception, and behavior should be shaped accordingly. This proposition is at the heart of my dissertation and is tested with six …

Employee Voice And Recipients' Appraisals/Reactions: The Effects Of Speech Style, Voice Type, And Voicer Status, Yongsuhk Jung

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this research was to investigate the consequences of employee voice (i.e., the expression of information, ideas, or concerns for organizational development), primarily focusing on voice assertiveness (i.e., the extent of voicing individuals’ assertive expressions) and its influences on perceptual appraisals and reactions of voice recipients. Based on a literature review, I proposed a process model that described the influential mechanisms of voice assertiveness. I also defined moderating conditions that may guide the nature of the influence processes, such as voice type (promotive voice vs. prohibitive voice), voicer status (subordinate vs. peer), and recipient core self-evaluations. From two …

Entrepreneurial Culture: Developing A Theoretical Construct And Its Measurement, Matthew A. Wong

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The concept of “entrepreneurial culture” has existed for decades, described as an organizational culture embodying and championing entrepreneurial characteristics and attributes. These have included risk-taking, innovation, and creativity; the elements one would expect to see among entrepreneurs as individuals. The literature suggests that entrepreneurial culture is related to a number of positive organizational outcomes, such as generating new business and improving firm performance.

Despite years of entrepreneurial culture discussion, however, it remains a relatively ambiguous theoretical construct. Numerous perspectives have emerged describing the phenomenon and the concept, yet it remains unfocused and equivocal. Different definitions and sets of characteristics and …

Modeling Pharmaceutical Risk-Sharing Agreements, Reza Mahjoub

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many new and expensive drugs have been introduced in the past 10 years. However, at the time of introduction, the effectiveness of these drugs outside of clinical trials is often unknown. This creates a risk to third-party payers, as the outcome of these drugs in real-world practice is uncertain at the time of introduction. A pay-for-performance risk-sharing agreement is a type of contract that shares part of this risk with the manufacturer by linking the performance of a drug to the manufacturer’s revenue. This dissertation consists of three essays to examine the performance of two types of pharmaceutical pay-for-performance risk-sharing …

Transnational Corporate Regulation Through Sustainability Reporting: A Case Study Of The Canadian Extractive Sector, Navraj S. Pannu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the benefits transnational corporations (TNCs) offer, they remain largely unregulated entities, enabling environmental, social, and human rights violations to be overlooked. Canadian extractive sector TNCs operating internationally are frequently cited as major perpetrators of such violations. Literature on new governance and self-regulation as well as global corporate social responsibility (CSR) increasingly offers disclosure and reporting as a solution for TNC regulation. This study examines disclosure in international CSR frameworks, and the reflexive law and new governance theories explaining the role of such disclosure and reporting. Mirroring international CSR initiatives, Canadian jurisdictions are increasingly recommending disclosure for its extractive sector …

Music And Auditory Transportation: An Investigation Of The Music Experience, Gail Leizerovici

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

To date, music has been primarily investigated as an atmospheric component of retail environments, or as a manipulable variable to assess consumer behaviour responses. However, across disciplines, listening to music has been shown to foster group membership, decrease anxiety, improve mood, and induce strong physical reactions such as thrills and chills. My dissertation research looks at closing this gap by investigating how music can offer more to its consumer than is currently understood. Using a mixed-method approach, I first explore the phenomenon of experiencing a favourite song. Following that, I experimentally investigate: 1) how and whether different modes of music …