Business Commons^™

Multivariate Nonnormal Regression Models, Information Complexity, And Genetic Algorithms: A Three Way Hybrid For Intelligent Data Mining, Minhui Liu

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation develops a novel computationally feasible intelligent data mining and knowledge discovery technique to select the best subset of predictors in multivariate re- gression (MR) models under the assumption that the random error terms of the model follow a general nonnormal family of distributions. Our approach builds an easy-to-use three way hybrid approach by integrating clever statistical modeling procedures based on the information-theoretic measure of complexity (ICOMP) criterion with genetic algorithm (GA) and multivariate nonnormal regression models with Power Exponential (PE) and fam- ily of elliptically contoured (EC) error distributions. This dissertation is composed of four major parts.

First, …

Stochastic Optimization Models For Contingency Allocation In Project Management, Barbara Maria Thibadeau

Doctoral Dissertations

In many cases, risks that threaten successful project completion can be mitigated (or eliminated) with a proper contingency allocation strategy and exacerbated by an improper one. Yet, despite this importance, there is a dearth of research on the cost contingency allocation problem in academic literature. This thesis looks at the cost contingency allocation problem from two different perspectives and two distinct solutions are introduced: a stochastic linear programming model that addresses a short term strategy and convex-concave utility model that provides a long-term planning solution.

The project manager’s ability to approve random requests for contingency is dependent on several constraints, …

Gender Differences In The Preferred Methods Of Training, Needs And Interests, And Hindrances And Motivators For Sexual Harassment Training, Heather Monique Whaley

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive study was to assess employees’ preferences regarding sexual harassment prevention training (SHPT), compared by gender. A convenience sample of city/county governmental employees from a mid-size metropolitan city in the southeast representing multiple occupational groups consisted of 1387 employees. A response rate of 12% represented 169 respondents.

A modified Sexual Experiences Questionnaire - Department of Defense (SEQ- DoD) and the SHPT Preferences Climate Survey were completed. Frequency counts, descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, factor analysis, MANOVA tests, ANOVA tests, and a Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) test allowed for hypotheses testing.

No statistical differences between genders exist in SHPT …

Essays On Ipo-Firm Earnings Management, Scott N. Bronson

Doctoral Dissertations

PART 1

This paper provides evidence on the timing of earnings management behavior for initial public offering (IPO) firms in the annual periods surrounding the offering. It also examines whether this behavior is related to CEO and CFO trading after the offering. Using discretionary accruals as my proxy for earnings management, I find that, for firms that file a new 10-K before the trading restrictions provided in underwriter lockup agreements end, average IPO-firm discretionary accruals are significantly positive in the first 10-K filed after the offering, and that these discretionary accruals are significantly larger than those in the offering prospectus. …

The Role Of Logistics Service Quality In Creating Customer Loyalty, Elizabeth Ruth Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the loyalty phenomenon and to understand the role of logistics service in creating customer loyalty. The main objective is to help companies assess the impact of logistics service in creating loyalty. Logistics service quality is purported to consist of two separate constructs – relational LSQ and operational LSQ. These elements of LSQ drive satisfaction. This research also explores the loyalty phenomenon, which is conceptualized as a causal relationship between affective commitment and purchasing behavior. The strength of this relationship is proposed to be moderated by calculative commitment, which involves the calculation of …

The Role Of Logistics In The Market Orientation Process, Brian Scott Fugate

Doctoral Dissertations

The ability of an organization to provide customer value and generate profit depends on how well it understands and meets the true needs of its markets. The theory of market orientation captures the essence of discovering and responding to market needs. This dissertation reconceptualizes market orientation as a process, includes a more comprehensive set of behaviors of market orientation, and examines market orientation within the logistics function. Logisticians are particularly relevant to market orientation because of their increasing role in the organization as managers of supply chain relationships and as internal and external boundary spanners. The model was developed based …

Impact Of Inter-Organizational Influence Communication Strategies On Target Firm Relationship Satisfaction: An Empirical Study Of The Food And Chemical Industry In Thailand, Thaweephan Leingpibul

Doctoral Dissertations

Influence is the way people utilize power. Inter-organizational influence occurs when businesses want to get their way with their partners. As the business environment becomes more complex, organizations within a supply chain realize that in many instances they walk a fine line between exercising their power and yet maintaining good long-term relationships. However, researchers in this area have not provided a clear picture of how to produce those results. Since different types of influence strategies exist, businesses need to recognize the consequences of each of the strategies toward the relationship. This entails recognizing the need for understanding how the target …

An Investigation Into The Nature Of The Relationship Of Corporate Culture To Logistics Outsourcing Decisions, John Edmund Mello

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationships between corporate culture and logistics outsourcing. Using primarily depth interviews, data was collected from twenty-eight participants from three companies. Grounded theory methodology was utilized to interpret the data. Models were developed that provide frameworks for understanding the role cultural orientations take in influencing the “perform versus buy” decision in logistics outsourcing in the participating companies, and in the approaches those firms take regarding the relationships they develop with logistics suppliers.

The findings of the research indicate that, for the participating companies, cultural orientations concerning control and transactional/relational exchange influence the …

Essays On Quantitative Analysis Of Supply Chain Structures, Contracts And Coordination, Xinjie Shi

Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis consists of three separate, but related, essays that deal with the topic of how supply chain structure as well as the use of contracts impact performance of a supply chain. The main focus is the analysis of behavior of indirect-sale supply chains in terms of relative bargaining power and decision rights of the participants. Modeling as Stackelberg games, this thesis explores the existence of Nash equilibriums and the issues surrounding supply chain coordination.

In Essay one, “The Role of Decision Structure in Supply Chain Coordination with Stochastic Demand”, the analysis focuses on how different supply chain structures affect …

The Determinants Of Executive Compensation In The Commercial Banking Industry, David A. Romer

Doctoral Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the viability of two basic theories of compensation to explain executive compensation in the banking industry. The two executive compensation motivation theories are sales/sales growth maximization and profit/shareholder wealth maximization. Overall, strong support is found for both theories. This research also seeks to significantly expand, compared to previous research, the number of banks investigated. This study succeeds, with over a four-fold increase in the number of banks analyzed, including over 330 banks not previously used in the literature. This investigation is further motivated by the paucity of banking studies on compensation …

Internet Financial Reporting: The Effects Of Hyperlinks And Irrelevant Information On Investor Judgments, Andrea Seaton Kelton

Doctoral Dissertations

The flexibility provided by hyperlinks may have detrimental cognitive effects on investors, including cognitive overload. Users must perform multiple tasks simultaneously when browsing with hyperlinks, including navigating through the system, reading, understanding, and analyzing the information, and recalling information previously viewed. Simultaneous performance of these tasks places a high cognitive load on the information system user. This study investigates the effects of presentation format and the type of information on nonprofessional investors’ judgments. Specifically, I examine whether viewing a company’s web-based financial disclosures with hyperlinks (as compared to paper-based disclosures) causes an increase in cognitive load, resulting in nonprofessional investors’ …

Two Essays On Corporate Reorganization Under Chapter 11, Fei Leng

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation studies Chapter 11 reorganization from two different angles. It consists of two essays. The first essay investigates how different parties bargain during reorganization to settle the claims against the debtor. Specifically, I study bankrupt firms' performance during reorganization to investigate whether management engages in moral hazard activities to pressure creditors to forgive more debt. I find that bankrupt firms perform worse during reorganization than non-bankrupt firms with similar characteristics. I also find that increased alignment of interests between shareholders and management contributes to longer reorganization periods, higher reorganization expenses, and worse firm performance during reorganization. These findings suggest …

Relational Value Exchange: A Grounded Theory Study Of Buyers' And Sellers' Approaches To Building, Maintaining, And/Or Dissolving Interorganizational Relationships, Geoffrey Todd Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate why buying and selling organizations build, maintain, and/or dissolve interorganizational relationships. To address the buyers’ and the sellers’ perspective, the author analyzed a previously collected data set from the buyers’ perspective, and collected and analyzed primary data from the sellers’ perspective. Grounded theory methodology was implemented as a means for building theory which captures the variation within the buyer-seller relationships.

The findings indicate that variation within business relationships can be explained by the approaches buyers (Study 1) and sellers (Study 2) take when interacting with partners. In particular, buyers’ utilized an approach …

Three Essays On Banking And Corporate Finance, Fang Zhao

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays on banking and corporate finance. The first essay studies the relationship between interest-rate derivative usage and bank lending. Using recent data that cover a full business cycle, this paper documents a direct relationship between interest-rate derivative usage by U.S. banks and growth in their commercial and industrial (C&I) loan portfolios. This positive association holds for interest-rate options contracts, forward contracts, and futures contracts. This result is consistent with the implication of Diamond's model (1984) that predicts that a bank's use of derivatives permits better management of systematic risk exposure, thereby lowering the cost …

Modeling And Simulation Of Value -At -Risk In The Financial Market Area, Xiangyin Zheng

Doctoral Dissertations

Value-at-Risk (VaR) is a statistical approach to measure market risk. It is widely used by banks, securities firms, commodity and energy merchants, and other trading organizations. The main focus of this research is measuring and analyzing market risk by modeling and simulation of Value-at-Risk for portfolios in the financial market area. The objectives are (1) predicting possible future loss for a financial portfolio from VaR measurement, and (2) identifying how the distributions of the risk factors affect the distribution of the portfolio. Results from (1) and (2) provide valuable information for portfolio optimization and risk management.

The model systems chosen …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of The Pace Of Change In Post -Ipo Corporate Governance On Firm Performance, Son A. Le

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study, I examine the impact of changes in post-IPO corporate governance on firm performance. Changes in corporate governance affect firm performance in various ways. Some theories such as agency and resource dependence theories predict that fast-paced change in post-IPO corporate governance will enhance firm performance. Other theories such as the resource-based view offer the opposite prediction that slowpaced change is more beneficial for firm performance. I, therefore, develop competing hypotheses regarding the impact of change in post-IPO corporate governance on firm performance.

IPO firms have unique characteristics. They are often small, young firms. As a matter of fact, …

The Sales Managers' Implicit Personality Theory And Leadership Variables, Gordon Gunn Mosley

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of sales managers' implicit personality theory and various leadership variables provided to salespeople by their sales managers. Several bodies of literature were reviewed for this study from the educational psychology, management, leadership, and marketing/sales disciplines. More specifically, this study addressed the following research questions: (1) What effect does sales managers' implicit personality theory have on the nature of the feedback they provide to their salespeople? (2) What effect does sales managers' implicit personality theory have of the transformational leadership they provide to their salespeople? (3) What effect does sales managers' …

An Exploratory Study Of The Influence Of Life Management Strategies On Job Satisfaction And Job Performance In A Personal Selling Context, Dheeraj Sharma

Doctoral Dissertations

Extant literature on goal oriented behaviors suggests that individual goal orientation is an important determinant of a salesperson's job satisfaction and job performance. However, the present conceptualization of goal orientation suffers from flawed paradigmatic structure. There are two major disparate paradigms of goal orientation in the extant literature. The first paradigm views goal orientation as a stable personality trait and the second paradigm views it as contextually driven phenomenon. The present study proffers a new approach of conceptualizing individual goal orientation, by introducing the meta-model of Life Management Strategies (Baltes and Baltes, 1998; Freund and Baltes, 1998) in the personal …

Factors Influencing Faculty Computer Literacy And Use In Jordan: A Multivariate Analysis, Iman Akour

Doctoral Dissertations

This study broadens the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) proposed by Davis (1989) by incorporating multiple dimensions of cultural attributes into the model. The study also specifies and expands on the factors that may influence faculty members' computer literacy and computer usage in a developing country, namely Jordan.

To operationalize the constructs of the introduced conceptual model, eight instruments were used. They are Igbaria, Zinatelli, Cragg, and Cavaye's (1997) scales of organizational support; Hofsted's (1988) scale of cultural attributes; Igbaria and Parasuraman's (1989) scale of attitudes toward computers; Thatcher and Perrewe's (2002) scale of computer anxiety; Compeau and Higgins's (1995) scale …