Business Commons^™

Investigating The Use Of Voluntary Furloughs To Reduce Labour Costs: The Effect On Employee Effort, Kelsey Matthews

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

To quickly reduce costs in response to external shocks, firms often implement voluntary furloughs. In a voluntary furlough, employees decide whether to accept a reduction in their pay with a corresponding reduction in work hours. Despite the prevalence of voluntary furloughs in practice, it remains an empirical question how employees will respond to this cost reduction practice. The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate how the implementation of a voluntary furlough affects the subsequent effort of employees who volunteer and those who do not volunteer for a furlough.

I address my research question using two experiments where I manipulate …

Three Essays On Corporate Debt Contracting And Innovation, Olaleye Morohunfolu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation comprises three essays investigating topics in Corporate Debt Contracting and Innovation. The first essay examines the relation between Passive Institutional Ownership (IO) and debt covenants. Using Russell 1000/2000 annual index reconstitution as a source of exogenous variation in passive IO, I find that passive IO leads to reduced covenants in the bond market. Specifically, I find that passive IO leads to reduced (a) Investment, (b) Dividend restriction, and (c) Subsequent financing restriction. However, I observe weaker results for loan covenants, implying that loans, usually collateralized, are less sensitive to changes in passive ownership. The overall effect of passive …

Nomological Network Retrieval: The Development Of A Methodological Process For The Review Of Knowledge Structures In Academia And Its Application To Marketing Scholarship, Mohammad Ali Simjour

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The increasing supply of peer-reviewed marketing publications indicates that the scholarly community’s understanding of marketing phenomena has increased significantly. However, this significant increase also prevents individual scholars from gaining insight into marketing phenomena simply because the sheer number of publications make a manual review of the literature impossible. This is an important limitation mainly because the validity of knowledge development processes in marketing partially depend on the scholars’ comprehensive understanding of extant knowledge. In this dissertation, I develop a methodological process to address this limitation and enable scholars to gain insight into large samples of peer-reviewed publications. I then apply …

Employees’ Reactions To Their Supervisors’ (Lack Of) Discretionary Adjustments In Performance Evaluations, Joanna Andrejkow

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate how employees react to their supervisors’ decisions not to use ex-post discretionary adjustments to mitigate the effects that negative unexpected events have on their bonuses. To address this objective, I pose the following research question: Will the level of interdependence inherent within the compensation of multiple employees (i.e., compensation interdependence) and the likelihood the event will reoccur (i.e., future event likelihood) affect employees’ reactions (future effort and workplace deviance) when they don’t receive ex-post discretionary adjustments to mitigate the effects of negative events?

I address my research question using an experiment where …

Three Essays On Splits, Insiders, And Retail Traders, Paul Van Nes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The first essay tests the split signaling hypothesis by examining the reaction of sophisticated investors to stock split announcements. Return-based tests of signaling used in earlier studies produce conflicting results and have been criticized as unreliable. I bypass this criticism by focusing on long-term post-split behavior of short sellers who are generally recognized as sophisticated investors. Upon controlling for alternative hypotheses and conventional short selling determinants, I show that short interest permanently declines in reaction to split announcements. Furthermore, consistent with signaling, the degree of the decline is positively related to signal strength and to the splitter’s level of information …

Three Essays On Corporate Finance And Applied Econometrics, Pan Jiang

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation comprises three essays that investigate topics in corporate finance and applied Econometrics.

The first essay examines how digital credit, a Fintech technology, improves micro-business owners' performance by comparing an economically important but often financially disadvantaged group, migrants, with their comparable natives. Using the data on micro-business owners registered with the largest Fintech firm in China, we find that with the access to microloans, migrants achieve greater business revenues compared to their native counterparts. The differential impact of Fintech on migrants versus natives is more pronounced in the businesses with more financial constraints, in more economically developed areas, for …

The Relationship Between Perceived Fairness In Executive Compensation And Managerial Behavior, Kainan Xiong

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the relationship between the perceived fairness in executive compensation and the level of earnings management on the one hand and the propensity for voluntary turnover on the other. Executive compensation has attracted significant academic attention for more than two decades. The ratcheting-up of executive pay raises questions about its determinants and whether the pay-setting process effectively promotes managerial behavior that aligns with the interests of shareholders. Alternatively, executives may simply extract rents at the expense of shareholders because of the informational advantage that they have and their influence over the board of directors, particularly the compensation committee …

Three Essays On The Impacts Of Tax Planning And Earnings Management On The Informativeness Of Taxable Income, Book Income, And Cash Flows From Operations, Yong Qiang Chen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation comprises three independent but highly related essays that investigate the effects of tax planning and/or earnings management. The first essay investigates how high tax planning and/or aggressive earnings management affect the relative and incremental value-relevant information of taxable income, book income, and cash flows from operations (CFO). Regarding the effects of tax planning, first, I postulate and show that high tax planning reduces the relative and incremental information of taxable income to CFO. Second, high tax planning increases the relative and incremental information of CFO to the combined information set of taxable income and book income. Third, high …

Three Essays On Improving Patient Access To Specialized Services, Amin Mahmoudian Dehkordi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation studies how patient access to specialized services in referral networks can be improved. The first study focused on optimizing and coordinating referral and scheduling decisions in a centralized referral network. I proposed a bi-level optimization model which enables the referrer to make optimal decisions for different scenarios based on available capacity in the network and operational competency levels of surgeons. First, I derived optimal scheduling policies for each surgeon in the network. Next, optimal referral decisions for the central referrer were derived for each capacity scenario. Finally, I studied how incorporating fairness in referral decisions can impact patient …

Subjective Evaluation Of Professional Employees: Work-Day Duration As A Heuristic To Evaluate Output, Sara Wick

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my dissertation is to investigate how information that should not signal output quality influences managers’ evaluations. To address this objective, I pose the following research question: In a setting where professional employees generate output that cannot be evaluated objectively, will managers use work-day duration to subjectively evaluate the quality of their output?

I address my research question using two experiments where I vary employees’ work-day duration relative to their peers (short versus equal) and the purpose of the evaluation (bonus versus promotion) while observing how supervisors make subjective quality evaluations about their output. I find that when …

ُThree Essays On Addressing Risks Under The Servicizing Business Model, Tina Arabian

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In view of the recent trend to prioritize access to a product over ownership, manufacturers may consider switching from selling their product to servicizing. The benefits of the servicizing business model, under which a firm sells the use or functionality of a product rather than the product itself, extend beyond providing firms with new economic opportunities. It is also recognized as a sustainable business model because it encourages firms and customers to be more conscious of product design and consumption patterns, respectively. Although this business model offers opportunities to the environment and the economy, it entails the risks of product …

Three Essays On Financial Economics, Zhe Peng

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Essay 1 deals with a topic in market microstructure. It examines a type of trading mechanism called a speed bump. The speed bump was introduced to slow down incoming orders to reduce the informational advantage of certain high-speed traders who could exploit their information to take advantage of slower traders. In 2016, the Investors Exchange (IEX) became the first securities exchange in the US to introduce a speed bump. In our first essay, we use trading data from IEX to study this issue. IEX's speed bump includes two layers of delays: a fixed delay on displayed orders and a contingent …

Decipher The Effect Of Gamification In Harnessing Boredom And Improving Performance, Zhuoyi Zhao

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

My thesis investigates the effectiveness of gamification in harnessing boredom and improving performance in a repetitive work process. In video games, “loot” rewards are unpredictable, intermittent gains used to motivate players to repeat boring actions. In a 2 X 2 experiment, I examine how loot rewards in point form may impact 1) disengagement, which is an immediate outcome of boredom, and 2) performance in settings where the points have and do not have cash value, respectively. More specifically, I manipulate the level of point reward unpredictability (fixed versus loot) and whether point rewards have cash value (absent versus present).

In …

Three Essays On The Interface Of Sales And Operations Management, Sara Babaee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation investigates three profit maximization models for coordinating Sales and Operations (S\&OP) management.

The first problem considers implementing a customer education strategy for the digital channel users of a multi-channel service provider. Using a customer network flow model, I investigate the effect of customer education in the digital channel on the number of users of digital and in-person channels. Further, I define a customer value metric that characterizes the optimal level of education effort. Finally, I determine conditions under which the effect of positive word-of-mouth regarding the quality of education dominates the lifetime value of customers.

The second problem …

Three Essays On Firm And Managerial Performance, Laszlo Z. Nagy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The three essays of this dissertation examine managerial actions and strategies in response to firm-specific situations, and the resulting firm and managerial performance.

Essay 1 disentangles managerial ability and firm efficiency and examines managerial ability conditional on firm efficiency. Prior research on managerial ability overlook under- lying firm efficiency. Observing that the two measures of quality are highly correlated, I disentangle managerial ability from firm efficiency and create new measures for innate (pure) managerial ability and relative managerial ability (conditional on firm efficiency). I categorize managers as underrated (high managerial ability, low firm efficiency), typical (managerial ability and firm efficiency …

Let The Punishment Fit The Crime: How Retributive Fairness Perceptions Influence Observers’ Tax Compliance Intentions, Tisha King

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of my research is to investigate how perceptions of retributive justice influence tax compliance. I address this objective by proposing two research questions: (1) How do taxpayers perceive the propriety of punishment for tax evasion? (2) How and when are observers’ compliance intentions influenced by perceptions of fairness disclosures about a specific retributive outcome, and the presence of a fairness-relevant disclosure?

To address the first research question, I conduct a survey of 331 adult Canadian taxpayers to ascertain the extent to which taxpayers perceive punishments for tax evasion as fair or unfair. I find that an appropriate punishment …

Let Me Tell You About A Time: Exploring How Storytelling And Memory Affect Behavioural Interview Performance Ratings, Sara A. Murphy

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Behavioural interviews continue to be a popular selection tool used in industry today. Although the literature finds that behavioural interviews are reliable and valid selection tools, two fundamental elements of behavioural interviewing have been overlooked. Specifically, behavioural interview ratings are based on how much detail candidates retrieve about their experiences as well as their ability to effectively convey those details to interviewers. I hypothesize that autobiographical memory predicts interview performance ratings and that storytelling mediates this relationship. In addition, I expect that the presence of probing questions will moderate the mediated relationship. Study 1 tests these hypotheses using a laboratory …

Essays On Risk Management Of Insurance Companies, Olga Kanj

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the risk management of insurance companies. It consists of three essays, which study the risk management of property and casualty (P/C) insurance companies. The first essay examines the impact of board diversity on firms’ risk-taking strategies using Canadian P/C insurance companies. The findings show that board ethnic diversity significantly decreases company risk as measured by reinsurance, asset risk, and leverage risk. Ethnic background values of the board members could be the reason behind this effect, board members with ethnic backgrounds from countries with high (low) Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) decrease (increase) the risk. Results also show that …

Environmental Goal Misalignment Between Logistics Service Providers And Shippers, S.M. Mehdi Jourabchi

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The ongoing debate about who, ultimately, should pay for greening the transportation industry has exposed a gap (i.e. misalignment) between logistics companies and their clients (shippers). This thesis examines this gap in detail.

Study 1 utilizes conceptual theory building to discuss the conditions under which closer environmental collaboration between logistics service provider (LSP) and shipper can be realized within the supply chain. Our theoretical framework discusses the misalignment of LSPs’ and shippers’ incentives regarding green initiatives. Our conceptual framework aims to address the general dependency of LSPs on shippers and to assess whether and when it can be converted …

Clarifying Job Search Clarity: Investigating Job Search As A Self-Regulatory Process, Lisa Kuron

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The central role of goals in facilitating self-regulation throughout the multiple stages of job search has been recognized by scholars and models of the job search process. I argue that despite numerous calls for more research on job search goals, critical questions remain unanswered and that an explicit focus on job search goals can advance the job search literature by enhancing our understanding of job search behaviours and outcomes, while also providing actionable advice for managing the emotional and exhausting process of looking for a job. In this dissertation, I contribute to job search research by identifying gaps in the …

On Effectuation And Networks: Three Essays On Their Mutuality, Jon Kerr

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The notion of co-creating opportunities positions effectuation as both a network-driving and network-dependent phenomenon. On one hand, networks are products of relational interactions and, therefore, artefactual outcomes of effectual processes. On the other hand, it would seem that understanding networks and network processes is essential to understanding effectuation. Although past research acknowledges this mutuality, recent discourse highlights that our understanding of the relationship between effectuation and networks is far from complete. In this dissertation, I address this knowledge gap through three essays positioned at the interface of effectuation and network theory.

In the first essay, my systematic literature review synthesizes …

The Gender Gap In Start-Up Funding: The Role Of Investors' Benevolent Sexism, Nhu Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Past research has consistently shown that female-led ventures tend to receive less funding than male-led ventures, but the reasons for this gap are unclear. Drawing on the ambivalent sexism theory, this study examines how investors’ benevolent sexism influences funding allocations to male- and female-led ventures. In particular, I propose that individuals who endorse benevolent sexism are less likely to perceive female-led ventures as viable because they may believe that entrepreneurship is too challenging for women due to their dual roles as home-makers and entrepreneurs. As a consequence, they may want to protect women from failure by giving women less funding …

Spatial Big Data Analytics: The New Boundaries Of Retail Location Decision-Making, Joseph M. Aversa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the current state and evolution of retail location decision-making (RLDM) in Canada. The major objectives are: (i) To explore the type and scale of location decisions that retail firms are currently undertaking; (ii) To identify the availability and use of technology and Spatial Big Data (SBD) within the decision-making process; (iii) To identify the awareness, availability, use, adoption and development of SBD; and, (iv) To assess the implications of SBD in RLDM. These objectives were investigated by using a three stage multi-method research process. First, an online survey of retail location decision makers across a range of …

The Effect Of Taking A Paternity Leave On Men’S Career Outcomes: The Role Of Communality Perceptions, Anja Krstic

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Paternity leave policies, important tools for promoting gender equality that give men an opportunity to care for their newborn children, are becoming increasingly popular and legislated worldwide. However, there has been little research on how paternity leaves impact men’s careers and the research that exists has been inconclusive. This is problematic because, while men are increasingly being encouraged to take paternity leaves, they fear that such leaves may undermine their careers. Counter to these fears, by integrating the literature on changing norms regarding effective leadership with expectancy violation theory, I suggest that taking a paternity leave can enhance others’ perceptions …

Recovering From Workplace Offenses: Understanding The Roles Of Resilience And Forgiveness, Francisca Saldanha

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Workplace transgressions have been shown to have pervasive and detrimental consequences for employees and organizations. Given these negative consequences, past research has examined how managers and organizations can prevent transgressions from occurring in the first place (i.e., preventive approaches) and how transgressions can be fixed when they do eventually occur (i.e., remedial approaches). However, it is unlikely that transgressions can ever be fully eradicated from organizations and it is doubtful that providing remedies can fully redress the harm that was caused. Accordingly, it is important to complement the preventive and remedial approaches with a deeper understanding of how employees can …

Three Essays On Risk Factor Disclosures, Abiodun Isiaka

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Beginning in 2005, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed changes to the disclosure of risk information in the annual 10-K reports. Based on these changes, large firms in the US are required to disclose risk factors in Item 1A of their 10-K. This study contains three essays that review the current literature on Risk Factor Disclosures (RFDs) and employ empirical methods to test the usefulness of this disclosure.

The first essay reviews the existing literature on RFDs and provides direction for future research. This review discusses the strengths and limitations of current research in the field and suggests …

Fifty Shades Of Day - The Varied And Incomplete Meanings Of Marketing Capabilities, Gregory J. Tanguay

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Capabilities theories have been the subject of robust research efforts since being bridged into the Marketing domain from the organizational strategy literature approximately 25 years ago. While much empirical work has been performed to establish and clarify the relationships between marketing capabilities and firm performance, little work has been done in the ensuing period to describe and clarify the construct itself in the period ensuing its introduction to the marketing domain.

This has led to a large yet unchanging body of research founded upon a relatively vague construct. Marketing capabilities theory offers the domain an interesting means to explain marketing’s …

Understanding Emotions In The Workplace: A Critical Examination Of The Role Of Emotions In Justice And Negotiation, Annika Hillebrandt

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The central role of emotions in organizations, once underrecognized and underappreciated by organizational scholars, has attracted a great amount of research interest in recent years. Despite this important development, I argue that a number of critical questions have remained unaddressed, which limits our ability to predict the outcomes of emotions for individuals and organizations as well as describe employees’ subjective experiences at work. In this dissertation, I contribute to the understanding of the role of emotions in the workplace by identifying critical gaps in the emotions literature, integrating theories from different literatures to address these gaps, empirically comparing the interpersonal …

Three Essays On Contagion Risk In Supply Chain, Alireza Azimian

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Firms often benefit when an unfavourable event befalls a rival, usually through a shift in demand. But sometimes negative events can adversely affect other firms in the industry, a phenomena referred to as contagion. While contagion can harm the supply chain by disrupting supply or demand, or increasing operating costs, it has not yet been studied in the area of supply chain risk management. Aiming to fill this gap, in the first essay I use real cases to conceptualize the process of contagion and apply related theories and literature to theorize the key factors contributing to contagion risk. The …

Three Essays On Corporate Governance And Politically Connected Firms, Justin Mindzak

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this dissertation three essays on corporate governance and politically connected firms are presented. The first essay “Interlocked Boards of Directors, Corporate Governance and Earnings Quality” studies the effects of interlocked boards of directors on voluntary governance disclosures, governance practices and earnings quality. The Canadian environment, where director interlocks are prevalent, is examined. A checklist of twenty voluntary disclosure measures from proxy statements is developed and a direct measure of interlocking directorships is employed. It is found that interlocked boards of directors are negatively associated with voluntary governance disclosures and positively associated with earnings quality. From an accounting perspective, greater …