Business Commons^™

A Study Of Interorganizational Negotiation Of Transportation Service Contracts Using Shippers And Motor Carriers, Lloyd M. Rinehart

Doctoral Dissertations

Since deregulation of the motor carrier industry in 1980, shipper and motor carrier practitioners have gained greater interest in understanding the negotiation process necessary to achieve contacts for motor carrier service. In addition, the marketing discipline has recently show interest in studying the applications of negotiation activities in exchange environments. This study looks at the elements of the negotiation process used by motor carriers and shippers to reach contractual agreements for transportation service. This study assesses the application of the process in different situations. Data was collected in two phases using personal interviews to collect data from case study participants, …

Decision Making Of Chief Executives In Relation To Strategic Issues: An Empirical Study Of The Impact Of Industry Stability And Industry Complexity Upon The Complexity Of Decision Making Behavior Of Chief Executives Of Manufacturing Firms In The Southeastern United States, Charles Steven Arendall

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent studies on the organizational level of strategy have concluded that environmental factors have a significant impact on the strategic decision processes of organizations, and that the contingent nature of this relationship has implications for the performance of firms operating under various industry conditions. In addition, studies on individual decision making have shown that characteristics of the decision task affect the type of decision making behavior utilized by the individual. This study integrates these two bodies of literature in examining the decision making behavior of chief executives in relation to the strategic issues which face their organizations.

The sample used …

The Firm's Decision To Issue Debt Privately: Motivations And Costs, David William Blackwell

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the issue cost of public utility debt sold publicly and privately from June 1979 to December 1983 and determines: (1) whether private and public debt have the same issue cost for firms who substitute between private placements and public sales (switch hitters), ceteris paribus; (2) whether issue cost differences between public issues and private placements by switch hitters vary with the degree of market uncertainty; (3) whether firms who do not substitute between private placements and public sales (non-switch hitters) choose to issue debt privately because the agency costs of debt can be resolved less expensively in …

Essays On Investment And Financing Decisions, George P. Tsetsekos

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation contains three essays in the area of Business Finance which are related to the literature of asymmetric information and agency. Our purpose is to demonstrate that the presence of asymmetric information creates possible costly effects that adversely influence the performance and profitability of the firm.

The first essay deals with the value of slack (excess liquidity) and the investment decision under asymmetric information. It is shown that when managers and shareholders hold different information sets with respect to the quality of an investment opportunity, an optimum amount of slack can partially resolve an underinvestment problem. The employed framework …