Business Commons^™

Debris Of Progress: A Political Ethnography Of Critical Infrastructure, Ethan Tupelo

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I advance a political ethnography of critical infrastructure to better understand terminal capitalism, in which the waste products of commodification and resource depletion are destroying the ecological systems that support life. My object of study is the massive disjuncture between individual knowledge and intention, and these catastrophic collective planetary outcomes. Theoretically, I develop critical infrastructure theory to diagnose these destructive structures. By “infrastructure,” I mean systems of material and discursive flows fundamental to sedentary human organization, connecting local actions with global systems. Such infrastructure is “critical” in three senses: A) denoting the most important forms of infrastructure …

The Effects Of Gender-Aware Leadership-Development Training On The Leadership- Behavioral Competencies Of Women Software Engineers In California’S Silicon Valley, Leann Pereira

Doctoral Dissertations

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of a leadership-development training workshop on leadership behaviors among women software engineers in a California Silicon Valley engineering community with a two-phase, mixed-methods research design. The training workshop was developed using a framework for developing leadership-behavioral competencies among women (LBCW), which was congruent with theoretical principles for women’s leadership development.

LBCW was comprised of four competencies: self-advocacy, social networking, psychological capital, and goal orientation. A pretest–posttest comparison-group design was used to assess the effects of the training on LCBW among 70 participants with four instruments: the Leadership Development and Activities Instrument, the …

The Influence Of Consumer Freeloading Behavior On An Observer's And Perpetrator's Affective Commitment, Mohamad A. Darrat

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation explores the relationship between customer affective commitment and freeloading behavior. Consumer freeloading results when a consumer takes advantage of a system or market procedures in a way that allows him or her to obtain benefits from a value proposition with no or reduced monetary costs. Thus, the freeloading consumer works the value equation in his/her favor at the expense of the marketer and/or other consumers. In addition to examining the point of view of the consumer performing the unethical behavior, the dissertation also examines the impact of such behavior on a third party observer. How do loyal consumers …

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 …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

To Know, Love, And Serve God: The Characteristics Of A Holy Cross School, Walter E. Jenkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Religious congregations have contributed notably to the shaping of the American Catholic experience through their schools. Many of these congregations, founded in Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, brought to the United States their values, traditions and expertise to sustain and complement the growing American Catholic community. However, in the later part of the 20th century, a dramatic decline in the number of religious in these communities posed a challenge to the American Church and its schools. In spite of the dramatically decreasing membership, the Congregation of Holy Cross continues to sponsor 13 secondary schools in the United States. …

In Sickness And In Health: Analyzing The Ethical Limits Of The Marriage Between Health Care And The Market In The United States, Thomas D Harter

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation aims to determine what should be the appropriate base ethical limits of health care markets in the United States. I argue that because we do not value health care goods and services as commodities, treating them as commodities available for market sale can only be ethical when health care markets accord with at least the principles of honesty, respect for autonomy, and increased access to essential health care goods and services.

I begin by establishing the theoretical foundation of my argument by expositing three theories of commodification and ethical markets that critically examine the relationship of goods to …

When Corporate Policies And Consumer Values Collide: Examining The Relationship Between Religion And Controversial Business Decisions, Krist R. G. Swimberghe

Doctoral Dissertations

Religion appears to play a very important role in people's lives in the United States. Some companies, however, continue to make business decisions which appear to be contrary to the value systems of a majority of consumers in the United States. Although past descriptive research has confirmed that religiousness influences consumers' and marketing managers' ethical judgments of their own behavior, this research has not explored the influence of religion in the buyer-seller dyad. To fill this gap in the consumer behavior literature, this study uses the Hunt-Vitell theory of ethics to help explain how consumers' religiosity influences their ethical judgments …

The Moderating Roles Of National Culture And The Country Institutional Profiles On The Effect Of Market Orientation And Entrepreneurial Orientation On The Performance Of Banks In Jordan: An Empirical Investigation, Musa A. Dwairi

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of the study was to extend Jaworski and Kohli's (1993) market orientation (MO) model in the banking industry of Jordan. Specifically, the study (1) added entrepreneurial orientation (EO) as a second mediating variable with market orientation, (2) incorporated national culture and country institutional profile as moderators on the performance effects of MO and EO, and (3) replicated other relationships in the market orientation model of Jaworski and Kohli in the banking industry of Jordan. These moderating variables explained some of the discrepancies in the direct performance effects of MO and EO observed in international contexts.

To accomplish …

Religious Involvement And Dispositional Characteristics As Predictors Of Work Attitudes And Behaviors, Tami Leigh Knotts

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically examine the effects of (1) religious involvement on job attitudes, (2) dispositions on job attitudes, and (3) religious involvement on workplace behaviors. This study also assessed whether job attitudes mediated the effect of religious involvement an workplace behaviors or the interaction effect of religious involvement and dispositional characteristics on workplace behaviors.

Higher levels of religious involvement were hypothesized to lead to more positive work attitudes and behaviors. Conservative and self-transcendent values along with positive well-being were expected to lead to positive attitudes at work. The effect of religious involvement on work behaviors …