Business Commons^™

The Fundamental And Non-Fundamental Components Of Stock Prices: The Role Of Time-Varying Expected Inflation, Maosen Zhong

Doctoral Dissertations

I derive testable implications of fundamental and non-fundamental components of stock prices. In order to control for the role of time-varying expected inflation and to be able to perform reasonable empirical tests, I use a nominal (rather than a real) interpretation of the present-value model (PVM), whereby nominal interest rates approximate expected inflation. I conjecture that the fundamental and non-fundamental components represent the permanent and temporary components of stock prices, respectively. A series of cointegration analysis over the annual period 1871–1997 confirms my conjecture for the model with time-varying expected inflation. Various fundamental and non-fundamental exclusion tests indicate that both …

An Empirical Examination Of Individual, Issue-Related, And Organizational Determinants Of Ethical Judgments, Sean Robert Valentine

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically examine an ethical decision-making model that contained individual, issue-related, and organizational factors. At the individual level, the relationship between two job attitudes, job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and ethical judgments was assessed. At the issue-related level, the association between moral intensity and ethical judgments was examined. At the organizational level, the relationship between ethical context and ethical judgments was examined. The hypothesized moderating effect of ethical context on the relationship between job attitudes and ethical judgments was also tested.

A national sample of 3,000 sales professionals was used to test the hypotheses. …

Observable Outcomes And Performance Effects Of The Application Of Theory Of Constraints To Organizational Management, Martha Lair Sale

Doctoral Dissertations

The objectives of the study were to empirically examine the relationships among the three elements of the Theory of Constraints (TOC), a number of observable outcomes expected to be associated with application of TOC, and business unit performance. Measures were developed for each of the elements of TOC and a number of observable outcomes (OUTCOMES) expected to be associated with practice of TOC. TOC is defined as consisting of scheduling logistics (LOGISTICS), the Thinking Process (THINKING), and non-traditional performance measures (MEASURES). A previously developed and widely used measure of business unit performance (PERFORMANCE) was employed.

The sampling frame for this …

Moderating Effects Of Vertical Exchange Relationship On The Relationship Between Firm Market Orientation And Selected Salesperson Role Variables, Patrick Dwain Fountain

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the moderating effects of identified dimensions of vertical exchange relationship (VER) between firm market orientation and the salesperson role variables of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role ambiguity and role conflict. The sample utilized in this dissertation is the salesforce of a major United States publishing company. Moderated regression analysis is used to determine moderating effects. Three dimensions of vertical exchange relationship are identified using factor analysis and are labeled work, loyalty and congruence. The results indicate that the work dimension is a moderator of the relationship between market orientation and job satisfaction. …

Consequences Of Contingent Compensation, James Herschel Turner

Doctoral Dissertations

The principal objective of this study is the explication of the impact of incentives on measures of performance. The effects of contingent compensation (commissions and bonuses) on role stress, job attitudes, and performance outcomes were studied in a multi-industry sample of 255 employees.

It was hypothesized that as compensation contingency increases, role conflict and financial anxiety also increase and the increase in stress would be negatively related to in-role performance, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. Finally, it was hypothesized that as organizational commitment and job satisfaction are reduced, intent-to-leave will be increased and extra-role performance will be reduced. The sum …

The Effects Of Ethnicity, Ethnic Salience And Ethnic Identification On Consumers' Sources Of Information And Purchase Behavior, Patricia Wooten Humphrey

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any significant differences in the search and purchase behavior between white and black consumers due to ethnicity, ethnic identification, ethnic salience and ethnic situation.

The sample was chosen from two universities, one predominately white, the other predominately black. Of the 360 questionnaires administered, 345 were usable. The sample was representative of the student population of each university with respect to age, gender, and ethnicity. Statistical techniques used were ANOVAs, t-tests and paired comparisons.

The findings indicate that ethnicity plays an important role in an individual's sources of information used …

Optimum Advertising Pulsation Strategies: A Dynamic Programming Approach, Hongkai Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

This study, using the dynamic programming approach, has addressed the problem of optimally allocating a fixed advertising budget of a monopolistic firm over a planning horizon comprised of n equal periods to maximize two popular measures of advertising performance: (1) profits related to the advertising effort (discount factor r = 0), and (2) present value of profits related to the advertising effort (discount factor r > 0).

Two dynamic programming models that use the modified Vidale-Wolfe model to represent sales response to advertising are formulated with respect to whether the time value of money is considered. For a planning horizon comprised …

Ethical Work Climate, Covenantal Relations, And Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Elizabeth C. Schubert

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary focus of this study was to provide an empirical evaluation of the relationship between perceptions of ethical work climate and organizational citizenship behavior. The study also investigated covenantal relations as a mediator of that relationship.

The sample for this research was comprised of subordinates and supervisors representing two locations of a national retail sales organization. Data were collected using both subordinate and supervisor responses. Subordinates reported on their perceptions of ethical work climate, covenantal relations between themselves and the organization, and their organizational citizenship behavior. Supervisors reported their perceptions of the subordinates' organizational citizenship behavior. Scales used to …

Spatial Variation In Diffusion Of Technological Innovations At The State, Regional, And Cross-National Levels, Maxwell Kuohsuan Hsu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to investigate and explain the differences in the adoption rates of several technological innovations at three levels of aggregation: (1) U.S. state level, (2) U.S. Bureau of Census regional level, and (3) cross-national level. A unique feature of this dissertation is that it focuses not only on the temporal (time-related) but also on the spatial (space-related) dimensions of the process of diffusion of innovations. The Mansfield-Blackman diffusion model (1974) is used to estimate the adoption rates of three technological innovations over the period 1960-90 across the 50 states of the U.S. The model is also used to …

Organizational Dynamics: Issues And Implications From The Complexity Sciences, Kenneth Michael Mathews

Doctoral Dissertations

Organizational change, both developmental and transformational, is an issue of central and enduring concern in the organizational sciences. However, the processes, mechanisms and sequencing of events that describe how and why social systems change have not been satisfactorily explicated at a theoretical level and constitutes one of the major challenges facing the social sciences. This research examines issues and implications from an emerging perspective—the complexity sciences—developed to explain the mechanisms and processes of change in physical and natural systems. The purpose is to develop a theoretical approach to the study of change in social organization that integrates these implications, while …